Our Thoughts on James Franco

So, the internets have announced that James Franco is going to guest star on General Hospital, possibly for a months-long arc. Let me repeat, James Franco- star of huge movies like Spiderman and Milk, an actor who has major box office draw, is taking time out of his schedule to work on a soap opera. For those of you who aren’t familiar with what it’s like to film a soap opera, it’s grueling. Like 15 hour days, no time to do anything else, and the number of people who tune in are in the thousands. Traceface and I react to this news after the jump.

Will Jacey Actually Do This?

I’m like 60% sold on actually writing a paper for this.

Get to the Point:

Issues at Stake in Buffy the Vampire Slayer

November 7, 2009
Hosted by the State University of New York, College at Oneonta
Sponsored by CME, the English Department, and Women’s and Gender Studies

This local symposium will focus on the Buffy the Vampire Slayer phenomenon from multidisciplinary perspectives, including, but not limited to communications, literature and language, history, philosophy, psychology, sociology, and women’s and gender studies. The symposium committee invites proposals for individual papers from both established and emerging scholars. Themes may include but are not limited to:

Gender, Sexuality, and Queer Studies
Science and Technology
Parenting, Family, and Relationships
Education and/or Pedagogy
Language and Narrative
Medieval and/or Romantic Elements
Religion, Mythology, and Folklore
Philosophy and Ethics
Imagery and/or Symbolism
Use of Space
Race, Class, and/or Ethnicity
Art Forms, Food, Music, and/or Aesthetica
Weaponry, Battle Strategies, and/or Use of Violence

Essays may also compare the literary connections between BtVS and the
original movie, the Whedonverse in general, or other films and stories
that focus on the vampire myth.

Participants are encouraged to supplement their presentations with
video clips or video montages from relevant episodes of BtVS. For help
creating video supplements, see Dave Geasey, Director of Creative
Media Services, in IRC 104. Please call him at 607-436-3314.

Papers should be 15-20 minutes in length, including video sections.

Please send an abstract, no more than 500 words, via e-mail attachment
in either Microsoft Word or Rich Text Format to Bambi Lobdell or Amie
Doughty at the addresses below. Questions about the symposium may also
be directed to them.

Amie Doughty, doughtaa@oneonta.edu, 322 Netzer, 436-2493
Bambi Lobdell, lobdelbl@oneonta.edu, 322 Netzer, 436 – 3093

Deadline for proposals: September 1, 2009.

This Actually Sounds Pretty Great

The NYTimes reveals today that Green Day’s album “American Idiot” is going to premiere as a musical in Berkeley, CA this September.

Two Worlds Collide

Charles Isherwood, the NYtimes secondmost theater critic has a cameo on Gossip Girl coming up. He wrote about it today. Talk about a collision of high and low culture.

Does this mean the girls at Constance are going to be performing/writing/directing some sort of theatrical masterpiece? We can only hope..

Read about it here

How a Gossip Site Made Tina Fey Slightly Less Cool

Another ournamesrhyme favorite? Tina Fey. And not just because Tracy is her doppleganger. There’s that whole “incredibly talented” and “actually funny” and “a good female role model” thing too. We found a clip a week or so back, where Tina discusses her Oscar experience on the Jimmy Fallon Show.

I don’t know what to do with this…

To start, I don’t like superbands. I don’t know why, but when former members of good bands join up to create another, for some reason I just never dig it.

But even I didn’t know what to feel about this…A supergroup involving

-TAYLOR HANSON

-JAMES IHA (from the Smashing Pumpkins)

-BUN E. CARLOS (drummer from Cheap Trick)

-AND A DUDE FROM FOUNTAINS OF WAYNE.

They call themselves Tinted Windows, which I guess is a better name than Audioslave, at least. You can check out their song “Kind of a Girl” here. My thoughts? If I were a happy-go-lucky high school junior who liked to hang out with my friends on the beach, I think this would really be my jam. But since I am not any of those things (but I do love beaches), I’m just strangely weirded out that I don’t mind it.