ZOMG! Where's Vivian?

Hey guys, sorry I didn't quite finish up the Sunday Special on a Stick features, it's been a pretty busy week...and I'll probably be busy for the next couple of weeks. So this brings me to the shocking news...I am going on hiatus. Just until after school is over, then I'll be back, better than before. The reason behind my decision is that I've realized I need to get my priorities straight and ironically enough, writing a blog won't bring up my English grade. So till I'm back, you'll only be hearing from Cathleen. I have entrusted her with all the responsibilities of running Thelma and Louise by herself. I know, scary right? Can she do it without Vivian the amazing blogger? Well I'll be back in no time so I doubt in that short period that Thelma and Louise will be left in shambles at the hands of Cathleen. I may be posting a top 20 indie artists list with Cathleen as my last post but that is tentative for now. So this may be the last time you hear from me for a couple weeks. I shall now exit in a kickass manner like they do in those movies where you turn around, your back is facing the audience, you sling your uber cool leather jacket over your shoulder, old school guitar in the other hand, you slowly start walking away and the most ridiculously amazing music starts playing, then roll credits. Here's my parting song:

This isn't goodbye, but see ya later!

-Vivian

The Real Life Popularity Contest

This post was actually done on the 20th, but due to Vivian not finishing her portion of the post, it's pretty late. But I'm posting it anyway.

Class elections are in the air. Let's take a look at the ballot now, shall we? Popular girl. Popular girl. Popular girl. Popular girl. Popular...GUY (oh hey a change for once). Popular girl. Popular guy. You should get the pattern by now, all these popular people. As you can see by now, this whole fiasco is just one giant popularity contest. I mean I guess what they say about those high schools is true, that popular people do exist and they top at somewhat important stuff. Now I'm not bashing all of them, there are some pretty decent people on the ballot list, but DAMN there is not a SINGLE person on there that isn't up there in their little social circle; or one person IMO that would actually make a worthy change in our school. Honestly, this thing is a total piece of shit. Where were those speeches they were supposed to make about why people should vote for them? They just expect us to vote for their asses because they have that little bit of fame around school, and sadly everyone is under their influence and complies. Plus there's also the fact that they're the only ones on the ballot. I guess the importance of a high school election isn't all that high, but damn this is just one giant analogy for the real world. Obviously the popular ones in the real world wouldn't be up there because of their clothes or something stupid like that, but it just works that way. Although, in a way, this would eventually disappear and people do start caring less for materialistic things as they age, except for the fact that people still grade popularity among different things.

But an example of this grading criteria for popularity would be the real life 2008 presidential election. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, the two social minorities of the election. Maybe that's why they're getting all their fame, because of their gender and skin color. This is so powerful that it just blows all of the other candidates out of the water, even if in fact they are better than those two. I'm not saying they're not good, but they do have that little advantage. Although, many would disagree and say that their status is a disadvantage instead. It depends on the person whether or not they believe this to be true. You still have to admit that this factor is one that puts these candidates into the forefront and makes them more "noticeable". It can be a good or bad thing.

Anyway, back to the class election. So I don't think anybody would succeed if they didn't have at least one bit of popularity. Even the petition for candidates is a really stupid process. Anybody could run if they get enough signatures. They run upon intimidation. Everyone's just dumb not to question what these people will do to help our school. I'll admit it, I was one of them. But I won't make that mistake again.

Now onto the posters. Our only bit of voting criteria is the posters. We will vote according to how pretty each candidate's poster is. All these bright colors omg! Let's go vote for the one with the pink and spray painted letters. Oh wait, they all have spray painted letters. I mean wtf, you can't even be original in the way that everybody used fucking spray paint to make their posters. Vivian will cover later on how she noticed a little detail on a poster that pissed her off.

I really don't think I'm going to vote. Let everyone else be a swarm of followers, I'll just watch. Doesn't anybody see how sad this whole thing is? I would vote if there was a reason to, or if they told us what they could provide for our campus. But none of them did, leaving the image of them all as carbon copies of each other. You know what, someone else should just run. Someone out of their social circle. I mean seriously, that's the only reason why nobody else is up there. But a lot of other people don't have the time to sacrifice a period for leadership. Maybe this isn't such a giant issue, but it's still injustice! As small as it is, it can grow and turn into something big. People can learn a lesson from this, a lesson reflecting the real world. We need to take charge to get what we want, and we can't have leaders that will not actually help us in any way. Question everything.

-Cathleen

Cathleen covered most of it so I'll focus most of my post on how these elections are a pathetic mockery of democracy and the posters.

I guess I'll just come out and say it...THOSE POSTERS ARE WACK!!! I'm sure many of you have noticed the posters of two particular candidates, I won't name names, but basically the only thing on their posters is their names and a bunch of Air Jordan logos. So what am I supposed to take away from this? Do I vote for you because you wear Jordans? Do I vote for you because you're too lazy to do your own poster and just mooched off the other person? (I think you know who mooched off of who) A truly legitamate election is where people vote for the person that they feel has the best leadership skills, is responsible and mature, etc. Where in the world did these people get the idea that we should vote based on how expensive the shit they wear on their feet is? It's not just the fault of the teens who campaign with this mechanism and those who vote for it, I think it is the fault of the school administration, or more specifically the leadership teacher (not naming names but that one's a no brainer). What the hell are you teaching them? That being a leader is about flashy posters and who has more friends on MySpace? While it is true that they gave speeches during lunch on Tuesday, those speeches were less than a few minutes and only about 20% of the students spend their lunch in Colt Court, and even less are outside listening to those speeches. Now this brings me to my next point, why don't teenagers care? It's not just these elections where we see teens making grossly uninformed decisions, it's with real elections too. Why is it that teens are more concerned with who will win American Idol than who will be the leader of the free world for the next four years? And here's where ask I don't know about the rest of you but I really don't give a shit if you wear some ridiculously expensive shoes that were originally intended for basketball but now anyone wears them thinking they look cool.

- Vivian

Sunday Special on a Stick: Reviews of Season Finales, Part 1 Continued Again: Grey's Anatomy

Warning: Contains Spoilers

Grey's Anatomy
The Grey's Anatomy season finale was just. Wow, amazing. It was kinda bad due to the hiatus of the writers strike and all the mini hiatuses in between new episodes, I forgot a lot of this season's major story lines. But this episode was really good. So to sum it up, two major medical cases are featured in this episode (3 if you count the tumor patients separately): the ones I mentioned before, the tumor teens, and the guy who was stuck in cement. And remember how George failed his exam? Well he demanded a retake this time, and got what he wanted. There were two teens who had brain tumors and were from the same support group. It seems that they were lovers as well, but the girl's parents did not approve since they knew that he might die soon. There was one scene that was both heartwarming and amusing at the same time. So Beth, the brain tumor girl, wanted to see Jeremy, her lover, but was unable to walk to him. She ended up trying to anyway and Meredith and Derek saw her struggling and listened to her about wanting to have sex with him. Meredith rolls her into a room and beautifies her and she and Derek guard the door while Jeremy and Beth share this beautiful thing before his surgery. But it was horrible because Jeremy ended up dying. That scene where Beth found out about his death was just so emotional.

Then there is cement boy, Andrew. Four "friends" had dared him to jump into a pool of cement. The dumbasses took about an hour to call after he had been stuck, and it took 3 hours for them to cut the portion of cement around him to deliver him to the hospital. So damn, that guy was in the cement for like 4 hours before he got help. Those fuckin asshole friends of his were laughing too when he was in pain. There was Lola too, the girl he liked, who IMO might have had a little bit of feelings for him in return but was too scared of her friends' reactions if they were to find out. These guys probably didn't give a shit about the fact that Andrew was fighting for his life in that hospital bed. Ugh I just hated them. But Andrew ended up surviving.

Ava's little realization last episode that she was not pregnant really hit her hard. Underlying borderline personality disorder was something she developed after her accident. She ended up cutting herself and Alex had to bring her to the hospital. It is revealed that Alex had done this before; he had to take care of his mother the same way.

Now the very last ten minutes of the finale were the hookups. You got MerDer, Callie and Erica, Adele and Richard, and the really odd one between Izzie and Alex. Now we are lead on to believe that Lexie likes George after her whole little "weak-in-the-knees" thing when George kissed her and thanked her for motivating him to talk to the chief. The Callie and Erica thing was expected, and we got a new couple on the show! Whoo! MerDer doing their on and off thing again. Oh that little speech that Meredith had about trust was BOOM interrupted by one of those "I'm going to kiss you and you can't stop me" type deals. So they're back together and Derek has to break it off with Rose. But this one, oh my the Izzie and Alex "hookup" if you can even call it that was really out of the blue. We now see the not so crappy side of Alex, a more human side of him where he actually stops being an ass. He cries. Yes, the machoman cries. I genuinely felt bad for Alex and I can see how Ava brought back those horrible memories of his mother. So he cries and I guess tries to have sex with Izzie to somewhat make himself feel less crappy. But of course he just ends up sobbing away.

This episode was really good in general. I felt it was satisfying and the medical cases were pretty interesting. Christina is BACK! She got her groove back and totally kicked Erica's ass in the operating room. It's good to see her back on track and out of her little emo state. There wasn't much of a cliffhanger though except for the hookups. I guess I am a bit curious about Alex's situation and Lexie; but those aren't major. So this was a 3.5/5 star episode because of the lack of cliffhanger. The whole season was not as memorable as the past seasons.

- Cathleen

Sunday Special on a Stick: Reviews of Season Finales, Part 1 Continued Again: One Tree Hill

Due to Vivian's crappy grammar/no caps, I've decided to edit it so people can read it without dying.

- Cathleen

So I'll just start with what pissed me off because I'm pretty heated right now.

Warning: Anger may cause excessive typos...screw it, i'm typing w/o caps, and crappy grammar; spoilers too (don't worry if you've already seen it)

WTF!!!!!! (only caps, lol) you know what, I take back what I said about the Brothers and Sisters thing not having cliffhangers. Cliffhangers suck ass! Those bitches left the show like that?! Like wtf! Gosh damn it Lucas, choose a girl but don't fucking ask her to marry you out of the blue. I just wanna like go over to Mark Schwann's house and replace all his milk with like sour milk that expired two years ago and then stuff his fridge full of stinky ass brie cheese and hope it's so bad that he'll become lactose intolerant from the smell alone. In case you guys don't know already, I am a major Brucas shipper. Peyton is an ugly, emo-ass-freaky-Lucas-I'll-cut-myself-if-you-don't-love-me psychotic blonde bitch. Get the fuck over it. You said no to his proposal, that shit was a gagillion years ago and that ship has come and passed. You said it yourself, it's just a dream and it will never be a reality. It should stay in the depth of your imagination and eventually out of sight so you can move the fuck on. I hope you guys also noticed how in episode 15 I think, Haley asked Peyton if she was actually in love with Lucas or just the idea of him. And she said a little bit of both. Well guess what bitches, that's not true love. You're in love with idealized version of who Lucas was or who you thought he was and what you thought you guys could be but clearly none of those idealized notions of panned out. So do you know what you do when things don't turn out the way you imagine them? You have to move on and imagine a different future for yourself. Don't get caught up on shit that never was because it will tear you apart, actually it already has. So here's a spoiler, Lindsey couldn't have gotten the phone call because the season finale was her last episode. Now I'm kinda scared because chances are, Peyton got the call since Brooke was expecting a call about Angie whereas Peyton wasn't expecting one from anyone. But you know what Lucas? You'd be a dumbass to marry Peyton instead of Brooke. She has more facets to her than just being an emo ass punk.

Whoo! Got that outta my system, can't say there won't be aftershocks though. So on to the stuff that did please me, not very much but here it is (also the stuff that I didn't like but didn't piss me off to the extent that the cliffhanger did). So jamie, omg, cutest kid ever. I've said this to Cathleen and I'll say it again, I've seen better acting coming out of that little kid in less than one season than I've seen from James Lafferty this entire show. Although I do think he's been doing kinda better, but the dad role is just so easy to pull off. I mean look who you have to compare him to; Homer, Peter Griffin, sperm bank dudes, not much to live up to if ya know what I mean. Speaking of Nathan, what was that shit when he dunked the ball. Him and Quentin and Jamie were all like wtf what did you just do. That was totally like that scene in spiderman where Peter realizes he has all these powers and he's like wow, cool and starts climbing walls. Dude, you dunked a ball, you didn't end world hunger, get the fuck over yourself. The pool scene was cute but Nathan was throwing that kid like a boomerang or some shit. I was totally rooting for mouth. Go on with your bad self! But if he's moving to Omaha, does that mean no more Mouth for One Tree Hill? =( And omg, Dan! First time I've ever felt sorry for him and felt that maybe he was a good guy. Pity that it had to come at the cost of a life, oh wait two lives because he only got half way there after Keith. But he seemed like he really was trying to make amends. And then the car! Dude, who the fuck teaches people how to drive these days?! Tweety bird or some shit! Oh wait, another spoiler. Apparently the driver of the car as one of the main characters, so attemped homicide by chance? Or was it successful?! Oh no! You may not agree with me but it was just heartbreaking to see him laying there with the beeper going off. Oh, and that beeper! That was the shit. Forget Sidekicks and Razrs and all these other fancy but unecessary phones. That beeper is what's up. With the arrows and the flashing lights (what up Kanye) and it was like vibrating almost dancing. I have to tell you though, I'm getting tired of the annual car accident. One Tree Hill needs to reinvent that shit or abandon the death possibility all together. Back to Peyton real quick, this should probably go up in the pissed off section but not that majorly piss offy. Dude, stop with your balloons! Grow the fuck up! Do you know how grown ups deal with their shit? Exactly how Luke did, you head straight for the bottle. actually, what the hell am I saying? At least balloons will keep you outta the AA meetings, point is, water balloons are just so overrated. Back to Jamie, loved the faux hawk. I was kinda liking Lucas' mohawk but got tired of it easily. Good move shaving it off Haley. Guess I'm done with my rant, please comment with your reacton about the episode because know i'm not alone. Oh yea, uh...1.5 stars. Very interesting episode, kept me on my toes but that cliffhanger just killed it for me. Oh yea, the music was spectacular. If you think this show is complete garbage, check it out just for the music because it not only captures the mood of the scene but gives indie artists a chance to strut their stuff. You can probably find it online, type in music heard on One Tree Hill.

-Vivian

Happy Birthday Ashley! (We keep our promises)

Sunday Special on a Stick: Reviews of Season Finales, Part 1 Continued: Gossip Girl

Warning: Contains Spoilers

Gossip Girl
As you all may have known, the season finale of Gossip Girl was on tonight. This was the episode wrapping up all those loose ends with the whole Georgina situation...and then some. If you haven't been watching the last few episodes, then you might need to because this wouldn't make sense to you if you didn't watch it. I'll give you a little bit of what's been happening. Georgina was blackmailing Serena with this little tape of her heavily making out with some guy, but in the very end was this bit where the guy dies from a drug overdose. Serena carried that little secret with her for such a long time, and now it has come back to haunt her. She really believed that she had killed him because she was dragged out of the room and was unable to call the ambulance in time. But really it was just Georgina's doing and she was the one who pulled Serena out. Why was she blackmailing her? Well she was just a weird, little, obsessive girl who couldn't handle the fact that old Serena (aka crazy, drunk, party girl Serena) was gone, and she wanted her back so they could all get boozed up and end up in a stranger's bed the next morning - because well, that I guess is her idea of fun. Like talk about crazy, Georgina's ex-Buffy's sister face should be in the dictionary next to the word. So the Georgina situation was solved within the first 20 minutes of the episode. Can you believe it? This little multi-episode plotline was resolved within the first 20 minutes of the episode. I mean you just screwed yourself over by giving the audience what it wanted in the first half of the show. It doesn't matter afterwards because nobody even gives a shit anymore. But I have to admit, that little Georgina confrontation was pretty amusing. It was too damn short though!

The middle bit of the episode was a really big letdown because it was just so bad. It was boring. That was it. I can barely remember what even happened. What was the significance of Lily and Rufus sleeping together if she wasn't going to leave Bart?

And the last half of the finale, my god that was horrible. All that build up from the previous episodes was wasted on this boring and UNNECESSARY breakup. Dan was an ass. I mean I seriously thought that Dan would have been the one asking for Serena's forgiveness instead of the other way around for being such an ignorant dick. The only reason she lied to you was because she wanted to protect you from being an accessory or hurting you even more. So gosh, she's the bigger person. You don't get to say things like "Oh I might as well should have slept with Georgina." What are you trying to pull here? Man, she was going through a hard time and you're just going to crush her. You're just confused. You know what, actually I can't even tell because this finale was so unclear. Chuck was an ass. All the men on that show were asses, well except for Nate. And the ending! Talk about not giving the audience what they want or fulfilling them in any way. I mean are you serious, you fucked up with Dan and Serena and now you're going to go for Chuck and Blair? I really thought Chuck wasn't that much of a whore anymore. But noOoOo, you just had to go on and screw up a relationship that probably would have been good for you. You really can't love anyone on the show anymore.

I hated the whole pairing of people during the last parts of the episode. Nate and Serena, Dan and Vanessa, Blair and that new guy. I mean that whole Nate and Vanessa storyline went NOWHERE. I really wanted something to happen. Gosh! You could have dragged it on for a little while longer. But you just let it die with no explanation whatsoever. Everybody just moved on so quickly, like nothing even happened. This season is a waste because of the season finale. And there is no cliffhanger! Nothing. At. All. There isn't anything to pull us in for the next season. This damn episode was one giant WTF. My disappointment just cannot be expressed because of how underwhelming it was. Ugh, 1 star out of 5.

- Cathleen

Sunday Special on a Stick: Reviews of Season Finales, Part 1 (Part 2 will be this Sunday): Brothers and Sisters

Warning: Contains spoilers, and kind of crappy review because I saw like two weeks ago

Brothers and Sisters
For those of you unfamiliar with the show (probably most of you, not all that popular among teens) the premise of the show revolves around the Walker family. They're all grown up so none of that 7th Heaven crap. Definitely not Emmy material but still decent and enough to soften the blows of the shocking happenings of the Desperate Houeswives episode right before it.

So for a quick prologue before I dive into the finale (skip this if you've been keeping up with the show); the main character Kitty (Calista Flockhart, dating Harrison Ford, shocking I know) is married to this politician dude (Rob Lowe) who lost the nomination for the Republican presidentail candidate. She's been wanting to have a kid having difficult time; she's not sterile but I don't know, not very clear about that. Well she's been taking hormone supplements, she uses and ovulation stick, etc. Kevin, the gay brother, is dating this Scotty guy who is from a much different social circle than him and is having medical troubles because he doesn't have health insurance (see what you do, you bitch ass Republicans against universal health care!) Sarah is the oldest sibling and former president of her deceased father's fruit or something company, Ojai. Ojai recently went under because of a bad deal that Sal, the maternal uncle, made so a merger is under way between Ojai and the father's other company, Walker Landing. Justin, the youngest sibling, is struggling with the romantic feelings he harbors for Rebecca, his father's illegit daughter (not incest persay because they met so late in life).

So diving in now! Like I said, not Emmy material so no exciting, wtf cliffhanger moments. But still some omg, I waited a whole season for that to happen moments. Kevin proposed to Scotty, for the second time! First time was influenced by the insurance thing (damn you Republicans!) and the second time, he told Scotty that he was his soulmate. I was like awww. Very cute. So they had a little commitment ceremony at Kevin's mom's house (would've been a wedding had this episode taken place just a few weeks later). Scotty's parents didn't make it out to the ceremony though. This was the confusing part for me. At first I thought it was because the parents didn't agree with their son's lifestyle but then later they were like we love our son, we've accepted his "choice" but we won't come to this sham of a wedding. So are you guys anti-gay or anti-the fact that gays can't marry?

You guys can breathe now, because Rebecca is not a Walker, she was fathered by some random director dude. So her and Justin end up making out at the end, still pretty gross though. Kitty and Robert have been trying the old fashioned way but to no avail. Then Kitty has a revelation at the commitment ceremony, things aren't always the way you imagine it, but it doesn't mean it isn't just as good. She always had this idea of her being pregnant and raising her biological child. But she realizes she'd be just as happy adopting. Just hope she doesn't pull and Angelina and adopt a whole Asian country thinking she's saved the world.

And omg Sal! Bout damn time you came out of the closet. You were in there so long I'm surprised it didn't turn into Narnia. Actually, I think this happened the episode before the finale, but whatever. So overall, I give this season finale 2.5 stars, due to the lack of cliffhangers, the oddity of the fact that Kevin and Scotty's life kinda suck because of Republicans yet Kitty and the rest of the family are Republicans and the almost incest thing, just can't get over it. I did like the cute gay couple factor though and I am so glad we finally see somewhat of a happy ending for gay folks.

A new Thelma and Louise feature coming to a blog near you!

Me and Cathleen have developed a new feature for our blog. It was actually more me but I'm feeling generous so I shall share the credit. The feature will be known as Sunday Special on a Stick. As the name indicates, it will be posted every Sunday morning. Don't take this as some legally binding contract because we are busy people...at least I am. Think like the Sunday edition of the newspaper. It's thicker, more comics, better crossword, etc. The Sunday Special on a Stick will include reviews. These reviews can be a critique of anything from movies, tv, books and even food. It may vary from a couple reviews to maybe even 5. A featured song(s) of the week will also come with the Sunday specials and will show up on our playlist and will be replaced by a different song every week. There will also be a YouTube video(s) of the week. To cap it all off, a quote of the week, a deep and profound one most likely (funny quotes get old after an hour or so). Seems like it should be called weekly specials huh? Well since all of those things will be posted on Sunday and as you may know, I love alliteration so it's Sunday Special on a Stick, take it or leave it. Suggestions are welcome for all categories or you can even suggest a new category. Most likely we won't listen to any suggestion about having a music video for the featured YouTube video unless it's like cinematic gold. We will be starting it today. I know, it's Monday but I can't wait until Sunday!

-Vivian...and Cathleen

P.S.- We will provide commentary explaining why each item is being featured.