Ikura's New Writeups

Under the Blacklight (review)

2007-09-25T20:41:58Z

Under the Blacklight is Rilo Kiley's fourth full-length album. Released in August of 2007, it is the band's first record to enjoy major label support going into the studio (2004's More Adventurous being self-produced and then picked up by Warner and released as vanity imprint Brute/Beaute).

Tracklist

Silver Lining
Close Call
The Moneymaker
Breakin' Up
Under the Blacklight
Dreamworld
Dejalo
15
Smoke Detector
The Angels Hung Around
Give a Little Love

The album is generally considered to represent Rilo Kiley's most significant change in sound to date, and as is typical for these things, has drawn some hostility from the band's established fanbase.

I considered myself part of said established fanbase, and on release the album did indeed draw hostility from me. I've come around to appreciate it, though, and to explain…

August 28, 2005 (place)

2005-08-28T09:39:21Z

Now that I'm adrift in this great big city knowing next to no one, I've got a lot of spare personal time plus a deficit of interpersonal contact, which is a perfect environment for some heavy daylogging.

So, since last time, I got a job. An internship, at least. It's in a small (two person) management/production company, in the Taft Building, on the corner of Hollywood & Vine. We apparently manage the acting careers of a bunch of Tiger Beat-type "musicians", plus a lot of other assorted folks. I'm working the phones, stapling headshots, handling mail. I was only in one day and it was hectic, even though two other people were working with me and they said it was a relatively slow day. I already have two scripts to read over the weekend. Apparently as soon as two weeks from now I'll be the senior employee in the office, so they're trying to get me up to speed quick. The principal in the office Friday was cool, but I'm told the one who comes back Monday is…

August 21, 2005 (place)

2005-08-21T03:55:56Z

So here I am, finally, in Los Angeles. Los Feliz, to be specific, about a twenty second walk away from Hollywood Boulevard. It's a nice part of town, everyone I talked to recommended it. East of Hollywood, south of Griffith Park, west of hipper-than-thou Silverlake, the flats are a mix of hipsters, college students, and young professionals. There's a sizeable middle-class Armenian population too, but with the area getting as hip as it is, who now remembers the Armenians? The hills are a mix of normal wealth and celebrity wealth. I hear tell that SuicideGirls is based out of somewhere around here, and I've overheard local waitstaff trading Lindsay Lohan complaints on multiple occasions.

I like it here, and since I got over the fact that it wasn't New York, and wasn't even making the barest effort to be, the rest of the city's been growing on me too, despite the fact that it has so far lived up to every stereotype I've ever encountered. Some of…

Nymphet (person)

2005-06-28T23:47:14Z

Most of us would easily recognize the word "lolita" as a term for a young girl, not yet of full sexual maturity, but possessed of a recognizable, sometimes even overpoweringly sexual nature appealing to older men. The term comes by way of reference to Vladimir Nabokov's famous novel Lolita, and its eponymous character Dolores "Lolita" Haze, a twelve-year-old girl with whom the protagonist Humbert Humbert is infatuated.

Of course, the majority of people who use the word have not actually read the book, but rather picked it up from second- or third-hand references from the broader culture, where the term is applied liberally wherever there is a need to invoke the raw and radiant power of youthful sexuality, be it in the realms of the arts, of cultural commentary, psychology, or pornography.

Mostly pornography.

Those who have read the book, however, know that Nabokov, a talented trilingual with a finely tuned ear for neologism, specifically created another word for this…

Joss Whedon (person)

2005-05-15T03:06:21Z

Joss Hill Whedon
June 23, 1964 -
imdb:http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0923736/

Joss Whedon is a popular American writer best known for his work in television, particularly the critically beloved Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Whedon's hallmarks include ensemble casts of outsiders, witty, culturally-aware dialogue, strong, empowered female characters, a tendency to toy with audience expectations, and significant long-term character development.

After attending high school at all-male boarding school Winchester College in England, which he recalls as a very positive formative experience, Whedon attended Wesleyan, which has one of the best film programs outside of LA or NYC, majoring in film and minoring in gender studies.

Television writing ran in Whedon's family - his father, Tom Whedon, wrote…

May 12, 2005 (person)

2005-05-11T22:03:23Z

So, I'm finally graduating this august institution, walking out with a BA in American Studies. Well, I'm not technically done, I have a paper and three finals left, but the paper's mostly done, one of the finals is on a subject I've been studying from all different angles for the past two and a half years, and the other two are in silly senior year gut courses. Anyway, the only thing that could actually keep me from graduating would be to get an F on the paper, and call it grade inflation or what have you, but I think I'm guaranteed at least a C as long as it's made up of intact English sentences.

So now, what? Well, I get my diploma at the end of May, move back home for a few weeks, and then I drive out to LA with my best friend from high school to become a television screenwriter.

This feels absolutely absurd, and I'm not really sure why.

I mean, I guess there's always going to be an element of ridiculousness when…