We've moved!

If anyone happens to stumble upon this very dead space, I've moved by blogging elsewhere: sgperrault.tumblr.com. I prefer the format over there. It's more of a multimedia blogging site and I don't necessarily have to write anything/very much at all, though I will on occasion. This will just be easier to keep up.

Two Typecast Actors

There are two actors in Hollywood today that I believe to be very versatile individuals who seem to keep accepting roles in only one genre of film. One of them garners more general respect than the other.

The former would be Johnny Depp. Depp has been nominated for three Oscars over the course of his career, even if his fan base is mainly creepy 40-year-old women. In 2008, Johnny Depp signed on to perform in Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland. Though I do not doubt his ability to capture the essence of The Mad Hatter, it seems like ages since Depp has starred in a film not directed by Tim Burton or involving pirates. We get it, Johnny. You can create intriguing and bizarre characters and act them flawlessly. Yet, I still long for the Johnny Depp of old. His subtler (yet still slightly weird) work in Benny & Joon and What's Eating Gilbert Grape? was just as excellent. I'm not asking for him to cut off his dear friends Tim Burton and Helena Bonham Carter off entirely, but simply requesting a little bit of variety.

The actor that is generally considered less talented that I would like to mention is Shia Labeouf. As the bizarre Disney Channel nerd that I am, I grew up watching Shia's performance on Even Stevens. Unlike many of his peers on the mouse channel, Shia seemed to exhibit true acting chops and uncanny comedic timing for someone of his age. I only really began to believe in LaBeouf as an actor after his role in the Disney Channel movie Tru Confessions in which he flawlessly played a mentally handicapped teenager, a heavy role for a 15-year-old. Soon thereafter, Shia faded out of the spotlight and essentially acted in a series of B-movies. Until, he came back onto the Hollywood scene with Transformers. His biggest roles have been in films such as Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Disturbia, and Eagle Eye-- all dry action hero roles. This confused me coming from an actor who had thrived at both comedy and drama only a few years before. So please, someone take note of this young talent and grab hold of it.

And that is my plea.

Heartbeats by the Knife

I'm breaking radio silence here to dedicate this post to my current favorite song.



I feel like this song has changed my life, but I'm not far enough away from that point yet to tell you how.

P.S.
Sorry for the cruddy youtube quality.

Dead Blog

This blog needs an angle, man. Music? Film? Culture? All of the above? We shall see, but for now, if you happen upon this blog, don't expect anything new here for awhile.

Hats Off to Gatorade

When I think about the "sports" beverage Gatorade, those old commercials of Mia Hamm and Michael Jordan sweating colored beads of perspiration are what immediately come to mind. They probably have a lot to do with the success of the drink. But how has a beverage specifically marketed to one group of people remained successful so long? Because Gatorade has fooled people with one of the most simple marketing schemes I have ever seen.

Gatorade releases a new line of drinks as often as a fashion designer. Of course we have our standard line of traditional Gatorade flavors (Cherry, Orange, Lemon-Lime, etc.) that don't taste very different from one another to begin with, but somehow Gatorade has convinced the masses that they should try out the vastly different lines of Gatorade Ice, Gatorade Frost, Gatorade Tiger, Gatorade Rain, Gatorade Fierce, Gatorade AM, and G2. Their current line of beverages (www.gatorade.com) seems to be an attempt to challenge the recent popularity of Vitamin Water. Likewise, Gatorade released Propel when flavored water became a fad.

How Gatorade convinced millions of buyers that there can somehow be hundreds of truly different varieties of sugar water is beyond me, but congratulations on your use of capitalism, guys.

5 Things That Rock About the Holidays

While in my previous post I decided to slam the Christmas holiday season, I have now decided to add things that do not totally suck about Winter.

1. Fires/Heaters- There is no single better feeling than coming in from freezing (or preferably snowy) weather into a heated home. While a fire seems to make the feeling all the more magical, a heater also does the job quite nicely. Coming in from the cold into an unheated house is quite unenjoyable. It is never awesome to have one's toes, ears, or other extremities go numb while indoors.

2. Christmas Trees- While I find most holiday decorations to be entirely tacky, I have a soft spot for Christmas trees. Every year we pick out a short and squat Frasier Fir to occupy the space by our front window. The cats like to sleep under it and it smells good. With just a simple strand or two of plain white lights, a Christmas tree can look quite tasteful.

3. Mexican Food- While most families are eating ham or whatever it is that suits the holiday, (I honestly have no idea what traditional Christmas food is,) my family will be deep frying taco shells. For as long as I can remember my family has had Mexican food on Christmas day, and it is one of two traditions I actually enjoy, (the other being our annual Thanksgiving beach house rental.)

4. School/Work Break- This is pretty self-explanatory. Not working = fantastic.

5. Excess of Desserts- My mother just decided to bake a crapload of shortbread cookies and they taste amazing. I have no doubt that my aunt will cook up a load of chocolate and peppermint fudge by the time Christmas rolls around, and it is delicious. I don't know if egg nog and wassail count as desserts, but the only time I get to have those is around the holidays and they are exquisite.

5 Things That Turn Me Off of Christmas

Hello, and welcome to my new blog. I have an online journal, but those are pretty lame so I figured I would take my opinions on the world, entertainment, life, etc. to a more public venue. And here we are.

So, it's that time of year again. Everyone is getting into the spirit of things and the Christmas (or holiday of your choice) season. This year, I'm just not feeling it. Maybe it's because I'm X miles away from home in a dorm room that subtly whispers "institution," or that finals are just around the bend, but I could not be less excited about the coming holidays. There are a few things in particular that are keeping me from feeling so jolly.

1. Gingerbread Houses- These are probably the least of my troubles, but I've never really understood the purpose of gingerbread houses. When someone frantically tries to procure a list of activities for over the holidays, a gingerbread house is bound to end up on the list. I just don't understand how this is any fun. You are taking perfectly good sweets and making them crusty, disgusting, and inedible. Then, after you put all of your hard work into one they either a) sit around the house and look tacky or b) get eaten slowly when there is nothing else around to snack on. And nobody likes eating one of those godforsaken things. I promise.

2. Christmas Music- If pop music wasn't bad enough these days, Christmas pop music came along and totally defeated it. It doesn't help that these songs never seem to go away. There is generally maybe one new Christmas song per year that gets radio play. And just about every single one has jingle bells in the background, because guys, that is a very original and clever idea. As far as my personal least favorite Christmas song goes, it's a tie between Mariah Carey's "All I Want For Christmas (Is You)" and "Last Christmas" by Wham!. These are guaranteed to play in every store you enter while Christmas shopping. The saving grace of Christmas music is definitely Vince Guaraldi's "A Charlie Brown Christmas", a classic jazz album.

3. Rankin/Bass Stop Motion Movies- This one is more of a matter of personal prejudice. I officially hate this company for putting out movies such as Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Santa Claus is Coming to Town, and The Little Drummer Boy. The movies terrified me as a child. The character of the Abominable Snowman haunted my dreams for years. Probably the scariest thing to me was when the characters' eyes would roll around in their heads as if they were possessed. I hate these movies with a passion and they are crappy, creepy, outdated, and irrelevant.

4. Fake Christmas Trees With Fake Snow- As far as tacky Christmas decorations go, these come in at my number one spot. Net lights are a close second.

5. Shopping/Materialism- This is by far my number one complaint about the Christmas season. Everyone feels obligated to buy everyone gifts, regardless of their financial situation. Most of these gifts don't address the needs of the recipient, but are merely some dumb trinket that will be thrown away within the year. I've never understood the reasoning behind giving gifts for Christmas or birthdays, because no one did anything to earn such a reward. Material items are merely being dumped on us for living another 365 days. Not a lot of thought goes into them generally, either, and they are rarely homemade. I am all for stumbling across something in the store that is perfect for person X and giving it to them, but at Christmas time there is a sudden pressure of having to find them a gift on a deadline. It's really a children's holiday, and adults should be wise enough to be able to control their wants. In the mean time, children are taught to be greedy and expectant of anything they want. I knew some kids who went so far as to select the gift each relative/friend should be giving them. This year in particular, budgets are tight, but many parents aren't letting up on the gift giving at all. Has anyone ever noticed how the dilapidated houses on the block are always the ones with a beat-up pink Barbie jeep lying upside down in the front yard? Those things are expensive! I just don't understand it.