Broadway

I miss Broadway. I miss Showtunes. (Since it's impossible to add every single song from each musical, I'll just place my favorites. And I really did listen to all of this in one sitting. Word.)

1.) Don't Rain On My Parade - Funny Girl
2.) Big Ass Rock - The Full Monty
3.) Adelaide's Lament - Guys and Dolls
4.) It's The Hard Knock Life - Annie
5.) Springtime For Hitler - The Producers
6.) You Can't Stop The Beat - Hairspray
7.) Red and Black - Les Miserables
8.) On My Own - Les Miserables
9.) The Acid Queen - Tommy
10.) Pinball Wizard - Tommy

11.) Anything You Can Do - Annie Get Your Gun
12.) You Can't Get A Man With A Gun - Annie Get Your Gun
13.) Diva's Lament (Whatever Happened To My Part?) - Spamalot
14.) His Name Is Lancelot - Spamalot
15.) Cell Block Tango - Chicago
16.) All That Jazz - Chicago
17.) Mr. Cellophane - Chicago
18.) Don't Tell Mama - Cabaret
19.) Cabaret - Cabaret
20.) Maybe This Time - Cabaret

21.) Anonymous Sex - Tales From The Bad Years
22.) Twenty Sometimes - Tales From The Bad Years
23.) Not A Love Story - Tales From The Bad Years
24.) I Feel Pretty - West Side Story
25.) America - West Side Story
26.) Tonight (Ensemble) - West Side Story
27.) I Am The One - Next To Normal
28.) I'm Alive - Next To Normal
29.) Super Boy and the Invisible Girl - Next To Normal
30.) For Good - Wicked

31.) Defying Gravity - Wicked
32.) As Long As You're Mine - Wicked
33.) Popular - Wicked
34.) No One Mourns The Wicked (Reprise) - Wicked
35.) American Idiot - American Idiot
36.) Boulevard Of Broken Dreams - American Idiot
37.) Whatsername - American Idiot
38.) Holiday - American Idiot
39.) 21 Guns - American Idiot
40.) My Junk - Spring Awakening

41.) And Then There Were None - Spring Awakening
42.) The Dark I Know Well - Spring Awakening
43.) Touch Me - Spring Awakening
44.) Bitch Of Living - Spring Awakening
45.) Totally Fucked - Spring Awakening
46.) Thank You For The Music - Mamma Mia!
47.) Mamma Mia! - Mamma Mia!
48.) Honey, Honey - Mamma Mia!
49.) I Have A Dream - Mamma Mia!
50.) Dancing Queen - Mamma Mia!

51.) Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight) - Mamma Mia!
52.) Lay All Your Love On Me - Mamma Mia!
53.) Our Last Summer - Mamma Mia!
54.) Happy New Year A - RENT
55.) Seasons Of Love - RENT
56.) La Vie Boheme A - RENT
57.) Rent - RENT
58.) You'll See - RENT
59.) Tango Maureen - RENT
60.) I'll Cover You - RENT

61.) Will I? - RENT
62.) Life Support - RENT
63.) Out Tonight - RENT
64.) Take Me Or Leave Me - RENT
65.) Another Day - RENT


Photo Source.

Test

Diagnosis:

"Thoughtful to the extreme, you are often obsessed with perfection and the rules governing your own personal interests. Your world is black and white. You love to work within a logical system, such as language, computer programming, or mathematics. Manipulating a system that can be completely understood is a distinct pleasure to you, because of your confidence in the underlying veracity of your belief system. Because of your appreciation for logic and order, those who speak or think in a sloppy manner are apt to generate more than their share of wrath. Although very amiable, you are not drawn to friendships out of a sense of personal need. You are just as happy by yourself with a good book or puzzle. Because you are so involved with thought, you will on occasion have difficulty dealing with the day-to-day problems of a normal life. Taking out the trash, doing the dishes, these are often left until the last possible moment, if at all."

Test yourself.

Huh.

Sex. Power. Murder. Amen.

Current obsession.

The Underdog

"Here's the thing that makes life so interesting.

The theory of evolution claims that only the strong shall survive. Maybe so, maybe so.

But, the theory of competition says just because they're the strong doesn't mean they can't get their asses kicked. With every long shot come from behind the underdog will tell you this: the other guy may in fact be the favorite, the odds may be stacked against you, fair enough. But what the odds don't know is this is not a math test. This is a completely different kind of test--one where PASSION has a funny way of trumping logic.

So before you step up in the starting line, and the clock starts ticking, just remember out here, the RESULTS DON'T ALWAYS ADD UP!

No matter what the stats may say, and the experts may think, and the commentators may have predicted, when the race is on, ALL BETS ARE OFF!

Don't be surprised if somebody decides to flip the script and take a pass on yelling uncle - and then suddenly, as the old saying goes... WE GOT OURSELVES A GAME!"

Another inspiration commercial here and here.

Smokescreens

What is it about smoking that rubs at people? A friend once told me that smoking suits a particular person. Sometimes, you look at a girl and she's all dark hair and alabaster skin, alluring and intriguing. You see her standing alone, minding her own business, cigarette in hand as she slowly blows smoke off her slightly parted lips and it enhances the drama of the moment. You're hooked. You think femme fatale. You think Greta Garbo. A flight of scenarios enter your head and you're immediately transported to a different place, different time.

She's sitting alone in a coffee shop, wait -- no, a pub -- cigarette in between two nimble fingers, nails lacquered red, staring blindly out of the window with her face resting on her palm, brooding, thinking, giving off a sigh of such affectation that pulls you to her, but wait, that would ruin the image, wouldn't it? "Who is this woman? What are her thoughts? What does she do? How does she feel? What happened to her?"

You shake your head and the image disappears. The illusion stands. She's appealing. And then you spot a girl, trashy in the entire I'm-not-really-trashy-but-I-like-how-it-looks sort of way. She's taking a drag off a stick hanging in between her red-smeared lips, a dazed expression in her eyes, her clothes branded but ratty looking in manner of street style. Urban chic.

You imagine her partying it up at 3 am in some ratty apartment, chugging a bottle of tequila as she lies down in a tub, abusing different substances with people just as messed up as she is. Youth and excess in all its glory. Just another person defeated by life.

You shy away from the thought. It's sad and scary and she seems like a train-wreck waiting to happen. It's not as sexy as the previous vision. You shudder. Spotting a sweet demeanored, girl next door type smoking is, on the other hand, perplexing. Something is off and the cigarette looks lost in her hand. It's boggling in the fact that your brain can't quite process it.

She's got a good life, doesn't she? Carefree laugh lines etched in the corners of her eyes and mouth, the cigarette looks out of place. She's got a healthy relationship with her family, her boyfriend adores her, she's a good seed -- why is she smoking?

There's a taboo carried by smoking that isn't as obvious in a vice like drinking. Smokers give off a "I'm not satisfied with life" vibe that screams "DANGER!". Why is that? I personally don't get it. Maybe because I'm a smoker myself, but shouldn't the opposite hold true? Shouldn't I be in on why smokers should be justified? I'm happy. I'm perfectly content. I'm a smoker. So... what?

Truth is, smoking is not so different from drinking. When I forced myself to pick between the two, I gave up insobriety and picked smoking. To me, it was no choice at all. I never saw the appeal of getting pissed drunk and lowering your inhibitions. When the drinks pour in, the rest of your sound judgment comes off. You make decisions you normally wouldn't make. You do things you'd never have thought to do. You're in a vulnerable state.

The double standard is that you can find a girl, any sort of girl, drinking and it would be a perfectly normal, understandable thing. She's just unwinding. You see a smoker, you think there's something wrong. There isn't. Smokers, we're all one and the same. We smoke because we want to. That doesn't make us bad or naughty or dissatisfied, it just makes us smokers. Try to wrap your tiny little brain on that concept.

And if, by the time you finish reading this, you still preach to me about the "error of my ways", I blow smoke to your face.

I'm a good girl. I don't drink. I don't have a boyfriend. I don't do drugs. I read. I watch films. I don't party it up and meet sketchy strangers in bars and clubs, looking to get laid or to tease. I don't sleaze up my outfits. I do my job and I do it well. I don't have any complains about life or love or other such factors that are a problem to me and only me. I don't have drama in my life. I don't curse or cuss or use profanities. I have no one to hate on. Can you say the same?

Love,
Essa.

How To Succeed In Business

How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying...


Dead. Daniel Radcliffe is a Broadway badass and flawless man. Love him.

Thought Catalog

This is why Thought Catalog is bomb.

"I Miss The Boys"
By RYAN O'CONNELL
Mar. 25, 2011

I miss the boys I met in the sandbox or on the monkey bars. I miss the boys who would punch someone in the face and inevitably cry afterwards. It’s because their genitalia didn’t outweigh their emotions yet. Their tear ducts hadn’t been frozen, hadn’t been exchanged for a larger penis.

I miss the boys who thought masculinity meant the color blue. I miss the boys who wanted to touch a phallic gun instead of a pair of supple breasts. They would take their little boy bodies and go adventuring into trees, into ravines, into the pages of a comic book. They would speak in small voices and still wrap their arm around their best guy friend. They loved for the sake of loving, didn’t know the rules yet, didn’t know that wasn’t proper male behavior.

I don’t miss the boys who grew older and dumber. With every inch they gained, a spec of maturity was lost. This was when boys became boys, punched other boys in the face and no longer cried afterwards. They began the process of selling their emotions to the Dick Devil. “Just one more inch and I promise not to feel anything anymore.” I miss the few boys who would still surprise you, who would show moments of kindness underneath their machismo.

[...]


"On Fight Club, Dogs, and Love"
BySEAN LI
Mar. 25, 2011

Sometimes, a man can fall in love. It happens. It’s a wonderful thing, sometimes. But something about love in this day and age fills people with more anxiety than hope. We have to watch out for ourselves, earn enough money, be attractive enough, be socially adjusted, be interesting, and have the courage to date. And fail. And to try again. All this must be done in the face of statistics pointing to the fact that more and more marriages and families are failing than ever before.

[...]

Both awesome articles released on the same day. Brilliant.