I Wish He Was My Boyfrieeendd

So I have recently taken to wearing my earphones and listening to music ALL the time while walking around the campus. It scares me a little because it’s actually really common, a LOT of people are wearing their headphones and stuff. It’s like, not natural or something. I wonder if people do what I do: imagine that I’m in a movie and I’m listening to my own soundtrack, creating a narrative to my life.

Case in point: I have a crush on every boy. So when I play this song, and walk around the school, I’m all “I wish he was my boooyfrieeeennd!” to every boy I see. There’s a lot of unrequited love, I can sense, here at Berkeley. Ugh. I especially love the lines: “The other girl is nooot me, she’s prettier and skinnier, she has a coooollege degree, I dropped out when I was seventeeeeen”. It’s a mix of Dolly Parton’s “Jolene” and Camera Obscura’s “Hey Lloyd”. I also love the way she emphasizes and drags the most unusual words. It’s so very.

mp3: Best Coast, “Boyfriend“

“Hello Daddy, Hello MAWM” …Cherry Bomb

Listen to Dakota Fanning–and Kristen Stewart, who has got her angst-act DOWN to the point of parody–do the Runaway’s “Cherry Bomb”. It’s for their new movie, also starring Alia Shawkat.

As I’ve been saying for a little while now, just not on here: I think Dakota Fanning is shaping up to be a sort of gay icon. She still has a little more work to do, but I am predicting it right now!! YOU HEARD IT HERE FIRST!! She’s had her precious/precocious past, and is an actual respected actor last time I checked–and it’s been a WHILE since the last time I checked. I’ve always considered her to be like a fierce poodle/pitbull mix. You can see it in her teeth. And I loved her 5-seconds appearance in “New Moon”. Don’t want to use the word “fierce”, but I think I just did.

I love that Dakota Fanning is making the transition from child star to… a… teenage star. More sexualized, and a little more audacious. I love it when actors take the risks! Like when I heard Heath Ledger was going to play the Joker, I was like.. oh helllll no. But I remember seeing him in “Lords of Dogtown” and it was really good! And then he won that Oscar. And then he died! But not in that order. So I’m hoping “Runaways” is Dakota Fanning’s Lords of Dogtown moment. Because when I first heard she was taking on this role, I was like, oh nooooo.

Anyway, I think it was GENIUS move for her to be in the Twilight franchise, so I’m pretty excited for this career change. OH WHY do I even care about the career developments of these beautifully manufactured stars??? It just comes so natural to me!! To quote my one of my friends, “I am unabashed!”

Volverrrrr–Pedro Almodovar

When this song came on–Penelope Cruz’s single-tear dropping performance–in the middle of Volver by Pedro Almodovar, I knew I loved it. This is the moment where Penelope Cruz earned her Oscar nomination. I stopped reading the subtitles, stopped trying to figure out the words, and I just listened to it. I think the Spanish language is a lot like music, I don’t have to pay attention to the words to get to the message. I’ve grown up listening to Spanish in my household, and while I understood most of it, I did not necessarily engage or even speak much of it. I’ve gotten by with the bare minimum of communicating in Spanish to my family members. It’s something I regret, because the language barrier in my family is really severe. My assimilated generation has been…betrayed a bit, but then again, it’s ME that didn’t make the effort.

The result of my lack of Spanish speaking ability has left me with a detached admiration and almost cultural reverence for Spanish. And when I do pick up on something, it feels like a secret, and I feel like ancient muscles are being remembered–like phantom limbs that have long been excised are suddenly being tickled again. And damn! Penelope Cruz singing with Estrella Morente’s voice is confronting you: “why did you leave???” and “come back!!”, and I’m like the mother, and all I can do is stay away, hiding and crying. GO watch the movie!!!

mp3: Estrella Morente “Volver“