A Kind Of, Sort Of, Maybe Love Letter To John Green

Its hard to measure how depressing it is that I didn't read John Green books when I was an actual, honest to goodness teenager. Part of this is totally not my fault; he didn't publish his first book until I was nineteen, so really, there was very window there.

But it took me a while to warm up to John Green. I distinctly remember going into the library in late 2008, seeing his books, and only thinking, "Hmm." Not, "I WANT TO READ THAT BECAUSE IT LOOKS AWESOME," but, "Hmmm." Mild interest. But not enough to even pick it up in the library! The shame.

Yeah, I'm embarrassed. But I was out of the habit of picking up new things to read. In 2009, I decided that I wasn't going to reread any books ALL YEAR LONG, so I was going to have to find new things to read. This was sort of like a rebirth in my reading style. Pretty much my entire life up until that point, I had reread almost every book I had read before at least once. I didn't venture out much away from my collection much before this. (The reasons: I didn't live within a library district, and books are expensive.)

So even though I was a huge reader, I hadn't read all that much until 2009. I remember interestedly googling John Green, because I had seen his books so often in the Young Adult section in the library (and yes, as an actual adult, I still venture in there). It was definitely in February, and I was definitely out of things to do at a receptionist temp jobs. I spent the rest of the day combing through a website that cataloged famous last words. The website he had linked to has now disappeared.

I was even more intrigued, and read The Abundance of Katherines, even though I thought that the premise was kind of silly. (I mean, how many Katherines do I even KNOW?) And I loved it.

I could spend all day linking to different videos John Green has done that I loved. I really, really could. One of my favorites is this one:



[If you enjoyed that video, his video about the penny is also pretty awesome.]

I wish that I had read these books when I was in the eleventh grade. But they didn't exist when I was in the eleventh grade.

I also have a copy of Will Grayson, Will Grayson that I just finished and loved to my right, and I could spend the next few hours combing it for awesomely hilarious things to quote here.

 This is pretty much it. I appreciate the John Green and everything he's been doing, and it only took two years for this to happen. And since I sort of kind of maybe should be writing in NaNoWriMo, I'm going to end it there.


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Excerpts of the Media's Failings [According to World War Z]

Okay, so I get that World War Z is not real, but there are some pretty good points about the way the media works (especially in a crisis). I get it. Part of the problem in World War Z was that the United States didn't really have any cases of the dead coming back to life during the beginning of the outbreak. So it really, really seemed like someone else's problem. You know. Like certain earthquakes, floods, or genocides that are occurring right now.

Or even when certain things are occurring on our shores:

Yeah. Five months ago would have put that..... right around June. Great.

In World War Z,  fictional previous chief of staff defends the administration for not acting more decisively against the outbreak, saying (pg 59):

"Can you imagine what America would have been like if the federal government slammed on the brakes every time some paranoid crackpot cried 'wolf' or 'global warming' or 'living dead'? Please. What we did, what every president since Washington has done, was provide a measured, appropriate response, in direct relation to a realistic threat assessment."

 And really, don't expect the media to do...much of anything (pg 62):

"The 'media'? You mean those networks that are owned by some of the largest corporations in the world, corporations that would have taken a nosedive if another panic hit the stock market? That media?.....

[on alternative news sources] Oh sure, and you know who listens to them? Pansy, overeducated know-it-alls, and you know who listens to them? Nobody! Who's going to care about some PBS-NPR fringe minority that's out of touch with the mainstream? The more those elitist eggheads shouted, 'The Dead Are Walking,' the more most real Americans tuned them out."

This definitely would have been the attitude of the Bush administration. 

Later, a woman recounts what it was like when the outbreak reached America and the Panic started (pg 122):

"You couldn't find a channel with anything but zombie news, either live images or recorded footage from Yonkers. Looking back, I still can't believe how unprofessional the news media was. So much spin, so few hard facts. All those digestible sound bites from an army of 'experts' all contradicting one another, all trying to seem more 'shocking' and 'in depth' than the lats one. It was all so confusing, nobody seemed to know what to do."

  Does that sound like any news media you know? Maybe the one leading up to the Iraq War, maybe the one on September 11, 2001? Or maybe Hurricane Katrina in 2005?

Honestly, if there's one thing that unites all Americans, it that we all think that the news media sucks. We just disagree on why it sucks.

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Frak It Friday: Sunset Rubdown - "Idiot Heart"

A song about having to "move around" and wander no matter what the cost, even though it makes no sense:

If I found you in this city called Paradise,

I'd say, "I love you, but I hate this city, and I'm no prize."

Even after finding the paradise, he's got to move on. He acknowledges that his heart is being an idiot ("You know your heart, but its an idiot heart"), but he's got to keep "moving around," until an embittered female singer sings:

I hope that you died in a decent pair of shoes,

You've got a lot of long walking to do,

Where you going to?

So even when he dies, he still can't be at rest. And he still doesn't know where he's going!

I had been saving Sunset Rubdown for a rainy day, and apparently "rainy day" means "eight hour stretch of time when I'm procrastinating on my NaNoWriMo Novel." 

And I'd spent even more time, procrastinating on said novel, planning out this post. Yeah, this song got under my skin. 

Old 97's Live On Leno - Champaign, Illinois

I might be burying the lede a little here, but did the members of the Old 97's JUST SHAKE HANDS WITH CHRISTINE O'DONNELL?

Nice to see Champaign, IL getting some cred. After all, it wasn't really named-checked on Sufjan Steven's Illinois.


[Lyrics and explanation to the song, Champaign, Illinois]

Unsettling thoughts on your Sunday Morning....[Daisy, In The Sun]

"They don't even know what memory is. They think maybe it isn't even in the brain cells. That its in the atoms somewhere, and even if we're blown apart, that memory stays. What if we do get burned by the sun and we still remember? What if we go on burning and burning and remembering and remembering forever?"

From Connie Willis' short story collection Fire Watch, the story "Daisy, in the Sun," page 200.

"Daisy, in the Sun" is probably one of the most enjoyable short stories I have ever read, combining an impending Armageddon with a coming of age story. 

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Rally to Restore Sanity/Fear

It took me three hours to get away from downtown yesterday, partially because there was no good strategy to leave.  But totally worth it.

Old 97's - "Champaign, Illinois"

I mean, what did you expect from a band who had written a song called "Bloomington"? Apparently (according to the guy who ran the record store in downtown Champaign) their record label used to be based in the area and the used to Champaign concerts all the time. You know, before I went to college there and they stopped doing that.

This song is a sped up, rewritten version of Bob Dylan's song, "Desolation Row". Not so desolate. There's gotta be a place between heaven and hell for the people who really weren't bad, but weren't all that great either. I've gotta say the best line is, "There is an argument that there must be some heaven meant for hearts that are half true."

As a person who spent a time in this lesser heaven (purgatory without release to heaven?), Champaign, IL, I'm not sure its all that bad.

Below are lyrics:

The bottom line's been snorted
the bottom card's been dealt
No one knows like you know right now
How truly bad it felt

All your life you wasted, oh
Dreamin' about the day
When worker bees kill off their queen
and carry all her eggs away

Oh, and if you die fearin' God
And painfully employed
No, you will not go to heaven
You'll go to Champaign, Illinois

Up north is Chicago
Where booze makes no one blush
Memory comes back to you
In a double bourbon rush

The memories aren't all bad
and neither, my friend, are you
There is an argument that there must be some heaven meant
For hearts that are half true

And if you spend your whole life
rollin' horses into Troy
You will not go to heaven
You'll go to Champaign, Illinois
No, you will not go to heaven
You'll go to Champaign, Illinois

Roll on blacktop highway
Circles toward the sun
Springfield's in the distance
And that's the last big one

After that comes judgement
And judgement will be swift
You will be eliminated
But here's a parting gift

If you die fearing God
And painfully employed
You will not go to heaven
You'll go to Champaign, Illinois
No, you will not go to heaven,
You'll go to Champaign, Illinois

[Video note: while the video above is the most clear, there's another one that features Rhett Miller shaking his hips around like Elvis. As a person who's been five feature from Rhett Miller doing that in person, I totally recommend it. He really gets into it around the 1:50 mark. Or this one starting at the 0:42 mark. Really, all the videos on Youtube of this video are awesome. They sound great live.]