i got a feeling

that this is like an anti-party anthem.



party jams by definition are cheesy, infectious and rousing. in recent memory, has there been a song that tried harder to party yet failed so resoundingly? everything about this song is so forced--the excessive autotune, a video teeming with party cliches (red plastic cup, hot girls kissing, overflowing alcohol, couch jumping) that manages to be incredibly dull, and these near-desperate party lyrics, which they neither sing nor rap, but semi-shout:

Tonight’s the night night
Let’s live it up
I got my money
Let’s spend it up

Go out and smash it
like Oh My God
Jump off that sofa
Let’s get get OFF

Fill up my cup
Mazal tov
Look at her dancing
just take it off

it's just too literal.

oracle

a couple of weeks ago this american life tried to tell 20 stories in 60 minutes. most were light, some affecting, but one left a strong impression. david rakoff recounted how he decided to quit his job at a japanese company developing a computer portal through which people can log on to virtually chat with each other and share information because he felt the technology would be a failure. of course, this was a preliminary version of the interwebs. then he went on to tell how he's completely missed the boat on other breakthroughs, like the time he went to see madonna in the 80s at danceteria and declared that she wasn't going anywhere. or how when he was an editor at a major publisher he passed on "men are from mars, women are from venus." i think he deemed this his negative ability to identify trends.

in turn, i started thinking about my own shortsightedness. it's more just laziness, really. after college (fall of 2001) i ran into a friend of mine in the east village. he mentioned that he and his band will be performing at a small cafe 3 blocks away from my apartment that weekend and that he could add my name to the list. i really meant it at the time when i told him that i would come by and watch. of course, saturday rolled around and i was feeling "tired." and besides, whose band actually gets anywhere? i never really heard from him again.

oh yeah, my friend's band? the scissor sisters. le sigh.

i'm not sure whether that's better or worse than my friend who decided to leave her internship at us magazine in advance of its proposed change from a monthly publication to a weekly, since "that's not gonna go anywhere."

or any of these.