Danny ChaiIf you read Henry, Dave, and my entries, you’ll find we get angry a lot. Part of it is we’re just judgmental. But I mean, we’ve got passion. We’ve got energy. Booyah.
Anyway, Henry’s right – consistency is very key. I don’t know if he meant by consistency following through, but I think so. At any rate, there are certain people who pathologically inconsistent – they never follow through with stuff they start. For some random reason I hear about it sometimes, and the more I hear, the more I realize this type of behavior, regardless of intention, leaves a wide swath of destruction in its wake. I really don’t think destruction is too strong a word. It’s bad.
Am I consistent? I really don’t know. I’m trying to be consistent to everything I’ve committed to. I know I’m terrible with people, but I’m trying to work on that also. Rebuke me if I’m lacking. I mean that.
I had this conversation with Eli last year that really revolutionized my thinking. He was saying how he gets frustrated with Asian Americans because they’re just lame. But in particular, he mentioned how they get overly tense about social situations. Especially being in a social situation with strangers or near strangers. They just get all tense and analytical about that.
And the reason he thinks it’s lame is that in the white world, no one’s like that. An example is like, you know, you work with someone, and you suggest a double date with both of your significant others. The Asian American response is, ooh, the other two don’t know each other; they’ll be strangers; how tense. But like, the white reponse is no uncomfort at all. At least that was his experience.
Anyway, this really influenced my thinking. Because, really, I was like that – overly analytical and hypersensitive to possible sources of tension. But, I mean, I realized that’s just lame. In the real America, stuff like this happens all the time, so it’s unavoidable, and even if it weren’t, there’s no reason to get tense about it.
So since then, I haven’t been all tense about being in situations where I don’t know all the people there or where people don’t know each other. It happens, and you just roll with it comfortably. That’s the way it is in America.
So I reject any objections to the jack.html dinner on grounds that it would be uncomfortable because people don’t all know each other. That happens in real life, so deal. And besides, one motivation for the dinner is for people to get to know each other. I have heard on multiple occasions people wanting to know who someone else on jack.html was. It’s going to happen.
But it also annoys me when people are ludicrous about it. Scheduling around David Tay’s brief visit? Flying people out for it? Not only is that absurd, it’s lame. It’s a freaking web page and BBS, people. It’s not a church, it’s definitely not a community, it’s not even totally a group of friends. It’s just a web page and BBS. I don’t know, that weirdo talk was making it sound like it’s a reunion or some community we need to unify and bring together. Hardly. I don’t know, just maintain perspective.
So over break I got hardcore into ‘N Sync. I’m serious. I know their names, their songs, their history, and far too much about them. Anyway, you know, before I just dismissed all boy bands and dissed them, even as Dave extolled their virtues. But now I’m much more educated and knowledgeable about boy bands, and much more qualified to dismiss them.
But I’m glad I learned about them and that whole little culture and everything. It’s actually fascinating to me. I mentioned this before, but my sister bought the classic New Kids On the Block CD (Hangin’ Tough?) over break and we listened to it and it was pure crap. I mean, it was so bad it sounded like bad Christian music, as I mentioned before.
The thing is, I still remember when they were big. They broke out summer after my 7th grade year. During that summer, and for only that summer, for some inexplicable reason I hung with the cool crowd. And I remember the music the cool kids listened to then was New Kids On The Block. It was cool.
And I remember this girl, with whom I went to elementary school, doing a report on a New Kids On The Block concert at Great America for 8th grade English, and it was a typical teeny-bopper perspective, just nearly dying that they were actually there, dancing and lip-synching live. It was just weird.
Anyway, what I’m saying is that it’s just funny to me how we all recognize how lame the atmosphere around boy bands are, but when I was that age, it was what all the cool kids were into, at least for a while. So you know, I saw the Good Morning America clip with ‘N Sync and all the girls going crazy, and you know, I rolled my eyes at all those little loser girls, but I mean, they’re probably all the cool girls at their schools, you know? If it’s anything like it was when I was younger. But I could be all wrong about this.
The other interesting thing about the GMA appearance was how racially mixed the girl audience was. Meaning, there were a large number of black and Hispanic girls there. Maybe I shouldn’t have been surprised, but I was. Because ‘N Sync is about as white as it gets.
Anyway, do you realize how crazy their new album is selling? For a while, the record for first week album sales belonged to Pearl Jam. I forgot which album. Maybe Yield. But it sold almost a million copies its first week. As you may or may not know, Garth Brooks is super into numbers, and he wanted to break the record, so he did all these tricks to beat it with Double Live. For example, multiple covers, so hard core fans would buy multiple copies, in store concerts over TV, stuff like that. And he did beat it, though not without some controversy (he beat it, but the counting system changed between his album and Pearl Jam’s, so that more stores were being counted, so the reported number of albums sold were higher. The number of albums sold was such that it was unclear whether he really sold more than Pearl Jam did it’s first week, or whether it was just more albums were actually reported. Don’t ask me how I know all this, I just do.).
The point is, it took a lot of work for him to beat that first week sales record but he arguably did. Anyway, when Backstreet Boys’ Millenium came out, it sold 1.13 million copies it’s first week with relatively (compared to Brooks) little promotion, handily beating his record. It shocked a lot of people at the time, simply because there had not been promotion a la Brooks in an attempt to break the record. It just kind of happened, and attested to the popularity of boy bands.
Anyway, ‘N Sync’s new album sold 1.1 million copies it’s first day. It sold just about that many the second day. It is possible that it might sell 4.2 million copies it’s first week out. This is just absolutely insane.
The point is, it’s just crazy how popular boy bands are right now. Admire them or dismiss them, but they are incomprehensibly huge.
Anyway, I now know the differences between ‘N Sync and the Backstreet Boys, and it’s interesting to me. In my opinion, the Backstreet Boys have better music. It’s just catchier. Of course, they have nearly nothing to do with that, so they deserve nearly no credit for it. ‘N Sync, again in my opinion, are more talented. Better dancers, and they are somewhat involved in their music, though still minimally. I will give them credit for being more talented than I expected, however. They sing this one song a capella and it’s surprisingly decent.
The other crazy thing is that everyone involved was a gunner since very young. Meaning, even though it’s not their musical talent that got them their success, they’re been working hard for it since they were wee lads. I mean, very very hard. I don’t know, that’s just a little scary to me.
And a little boring. I’m sorry, but I’m into music, not being a “performer.” That’s what they do, is perform. I wouldn’t call them singers, or dancers, just performers. Not that that’s bad, but I’m not into that, and that would just bore me.
OK, last thing. Sorry for being so boring. But 2 or 3 of the members of ‘N Sync are Christian, and based on the liner notes, dedicated ones at that (although it’s dubious if you look at their behavior on talk shows and such). The reason I find this interesting is because so many musicians are Christian, or at the very least, thank God often.
I just don’t understand this. You know who I’m talking about: Boyz II Men, All 4 One, most country artists, you know, they all thank God in their liner notes or on awards shows. Like watch the Grammies – tons of them thank God. And you know, this might be meaningless talk, but they do it. Is there something about being a musician that makes you more prone to be spiritual? It’s just weird. Even like hard-core rappers thank God at times. It’s just strange to me.
And the reason this sticks out in my mind is because, watching the Oscars last night, not a single Oscar winner thanked God in their acceptance speech. The differences between the Oscar and Grammy speeches in terms of mentioning God were amazing to me.
And I just don’t understand it. Is there something about Hollywood or the movies that makes you unspiritual? Or something particular about music? I don’t know, I’m not saying that mentioning God makes you a Christian, or even spiritual, but it was just interesting to me how so many people at the Grammies and in the liner notes to albums mention God, while no one at the Oscars do.