Unless you have been living in another solar system, you might have heard about the latest popular TV series sweeping the world by storm. Already the show has won the 2010 Golden Globe Award for Musical or Comedy, People’s Choice Award for New TV Comedy in 2010 and I am guessing an Emmy won’t be too far behind.
I coined the show as a dram-usic-edy.(musical comedy drama) So here is a brief sum up gist of what the show is all about -Basically it’s about the ragtag students in high school glee club (something like the school choir) and their teacher journey to participate in the regional singing contest. Through their journey, we see them deal with typical issues of being alienated, crushes, bills, deception, teen pregnancy, friendship, gayhood, love, rejection etc.. basically all things life and growing up ….and they do it busting into song covers ever so randomly.
So it’s a comedy and a musical serial which by my definition is a genre of TV show so wrong on many counts that it shouldn’t even remotely perk my interest radar at all. Think High School Musical topped with an overdose of American Idol which equate to me reaching for the barf bag faster than you can clear your throat…. that was my initial sentiments of Glee. Boy was I ever far wrong! I watched the first 2 episode during inflight on my way from Shanghai and since then I just can’t get enough of the show.
There’s a lot of things good about Glee, but from the inside looking out, it’s hard to explain the magical appeal that has everyone spellbound to the show. I sure it might have to do with the formula of Glee’s broad appeal - 1/4 comedy bit, 1/4 music & dance, 1/4 everyday drama and lastly 1/4 life lessons. By creative sheer genius, the creators of the show managed to combine all the above bits and made the sum of all parts work brilliantly as a TV show unlike no other. Sure the show isn’t prefect but it’s fresh, it’s original, inspirational that is quite like nothing you have ever seen on TV, making Glee so utterly ‘sheer fun’ to watch.
Glee can sometimes be describe as 100% cheese, but it’s still pure escapism at it’s best! And I am unbashfully proud to admit that I am a BIG fan of the series and utterly hook onto it. For those in Singapore who haven’t jump onto the Glee bandwagon yet, Channel 5 has started showing the series on Wed night at 10pm. I say give the show a chance – the series will blast past any skeptical defenses you might initially have and utterly Glee-win you over.
For me, I can’t wait for the next season to start! Meanwhile I am seriously considering taking up music and singing lessons so that I can at least prep myself for that moment I’ll break into song duet in the elevator with that hot leggy babe from the 5th floor when we lock eyes with each other.
You people should be all too familiar with the symptoms; the quickening pace of the heartrate, the joyous and euphoric feeling that comes pouring into the head when you are in close proximity of her, the over excessive need to say or do things to impress her so that she will notice you back. Yupe, you my friend have been ‘lovestruck’.
Before you jump up whopping in the air and break into a Jason Maraz’s love tune. Let me bring you from cloud 9 down to earth by saying being lovestruck is NO BIG DEAL at all. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, being lovestruck doesn’t mean you are in love . Not by a long short…you just think you are in love. Basically in short, being lovestruck is just ‘feel good’ chemicals being discharge in your brain. I just like to call it your molecules in love!
In my opinion, I humbling classified being lovestruck into a 3 tier affair, let’s break it down to 3 colored alert of yellow, amber and red.
YELLOW ALERT
You been spying her across the room a few times. She could be a co-worker or maybe a fellow train rider you been noticing for a week or maybe she is that hot gal at the local salsa club. At this point, you are attracted to her physical looks more than anything else. Contact with her is minimum at best, she might not know of your existence at all, let alone your interest in her.
Course of action:
Work up that courage, go up to her and say hi already. DUH..!
AMBER ALERT
You had your first interaction with her and by a stroke of chance, both of you hit it off! She is funny, brainy and everything more than you can ever hope for. By now, you really think ‘hey, she totally cool and I am beginning to fancy her big time’. Well…Time to roll up the sleeves and make your intention clear. Turn up whatever charm you have and get the good vibes rolling. You don’t have to go in guns and horns blazing, which might just spook her off. Just be nice and gentlemanly, with a healthy dose of flirting when you make small talks with her. Don’t worry, gals have better radar than us guys, they can pretty much tell if a guy is into them or not. If she hasn’t blown you off yet, you still have a good chance ahead.
Course of action:
Get that all important first date, pick somewhere with nice and quiet ambience plus good food. Don’t forget the after meal drinks. Nothing like some booze to loosen up the mood.
( If you need more dating tips, go get a ‘Dating for Dummies’ book already. Sheesh!)
RED ALERT
Red alert in my opinion should happen after one or two successful dates. Now, you should be head over heels over her big time. Day and night, you can’t concentrate with everyday stuffs and your mind keep cooking up ways or excuses just for you to get close to her. This, my friend is a thin fine line which need care to to cross. You need to show you are interested but stop short of being crazy stalker obsessive over her. Gals in general will play hard to get, the popular attractive ones will usually have more dating options. You can’t do much there but just keep trying to create chances for you to interact with her and let her know you are very much interested in her. If she really likes you, not to worry, she will give you ample chances to get closer to her.
Course of action:
If you are serious about this gal. DO something about it and keep the interest level up and going. What the worst that can happen? Either you get her or you don’t. If you do get her, it might be a start of something beautiful . If you don’t, well yah… you tried and you lucked out, sure you gonna feel real sucky for a while but you will bounce back and life goes on.
Ever since we human beings were born, its always does seem that we are always waiting for one thing or another. Waiting to be fed, waiting for our turn in the line, waiting for the bus to arrive, waiting to be knock off… etc. The funny thing about waiting is that everyone believes that at some point, your turn will always come. That’s the funny thing with ‘hope’ i think, we humans are such sucker for this particular notion. Hope can be quite a mind fuck especially in the case of love.. a self deluding medication to that numb pretty much all common senses.
I am sure you most likely heard these passing comments one too many from your single friends, “Oh lets leave it to fate…” or “…I am sure there will be someone out there waiting just to walk into my life.” – Is this just being optimistic hopeful of just plain fooling of oneself? What we have here is a classic taichi-ing the whole love process out of your hand – Hey it’s not my problem… some divine power to be in the sky will drop the right one onto my lap sooner or later, all I need is be patient and hopeful.
It is one thing to use these divine excuses to stall overzealous relatives and friends, hell..I admit it myself, I flaunt these excuses so shameless just to get out of conversation about my zero non-existence love life. Maybe it’s just the cynic in me, but I don’t think i can ever buy into ‘this divine love crap’, not even for a moment. However, you will be very surprised just how many people do buy into the whole ‘waiting for love’ craziness. The evidences is so out there that I don’t even want to talk about it, it will just take forever.
Wake up and smell the truth! Waiting for love to come crashing down onto your outstretch hands is just pure myth and a lame excuse for not getting your feet wet by passing the responsibility to some divine intervention. You just buying into a hope that the answer is already out there waiting , you just have to be patient and wait your turn. Yah.. like that will ever happen! Too much Hollywood people! You can’t just wish yourself to be the leading man and lady in a whirlwind romance movie, you have to make it happen.
So get off your ass and do something about it – that means opening yourself up and putting yourself at risk to be hurt in the process. Being hurt and disappointed at love sucks, most of us know how that feels at least one time. Such experiences often do give us pause and make us cynics in the world of love. After all who wants a repeat of an painful experience, and falling into a new love might not mean it will turn out to be a happy ever after. But at least at the end of day, you can at least say that you are a true practitioner of love, at least you try to find love and try to make it work rather than sitting on your ass, sucking on your thumb and seeking for a direction in the sky.
I had this dream a couple of nights ago – which is a direct lift off the ending scene of the movie ‘Clash of the Titans’. I can’t remember all the vivid details – all I could see was the Kraken bust forth the waves with a howling cry echoing though the sky, its giant scaly body shook the sea rocks as it reached out its massive claw to grab….(DREAM PAUSE BUTTON)
Ok, this is where I am changing the dream to suit today’s blog topic. In actual fact in my dream.. the Kraken hand was gunning for me but how interesting is a blog topic where I just became fish food? Let’s keep to the original myth ending whereby the Kraken is here is to collect its virgin sacrifice.
(DREAM PLAY BUTTON) … a hot, sexy woman in white who was standing defiance among the sea rocks.
“Oh yah?! You want a piece of this of hot ass, you turd?!” The hot woman shouted back. “So does everyone else! What makes you think you can own me?!”
The Kraken stopped, it’s nostril fuming with fire (oops I didn’t draw any nostril) as it bellowed back; ” I’m the Kraken, whatever I want I take. I ‘m big and strong and owns the seven sea… women fall to their feet by the numbers to be devoured by me!”
The not-so-impressed hot woman gave the Kraken a casual once over look and answered flatly; “Thats it? Do you think I am just this naive woman easily impressed is it? I am a WOMAN! I need to be wooed, to be pampered, to be connected on an emotional level.” Her temper rising, she shouted back; “All you Krakens are just the same! Instant devour…poof, gone in seconds! Where is the romance!! Do you know what a REAL WOMAN wants? DO YOU?
Disappointed, the hot woman then pulled out a hefty rocket launcher from her white dress and took aim at the Kraken. “Your Game sucked!” she said as she pulled the trigger. The rocket’s exploded skyward and impacted itself between the eyes of the Kraken. It was raining Kraken’s head for the next hour.
The End
Yes, the whole dreamscape is one big boys vs girls cliche! Yes, I was trying to make a lame point with my illustration, but hey its my blog after all. Most women do think we men are like ancient Kraken, out of touch with time and can’t connect with them on the emo level. In any case, I am not gonna even start on the whole “what women wants” or ” men are from mars and women are from venus” connotations throughout the story i just cock up. There are literally more than enough books out there for everyone. Go pick one of those books if you really wanna know more.
Personally I think all these self- help ‘relationship’ books and hollywood chick flicks did a excellent job of totally mind fuck the rest of the world. Everything is so darn complicated and not to mention cliche today. A case of too much information, protocols, rules, do and don’t, advises, T&Cs etc. And guess what… Its still not HELPING the 2 opposite sex understand each other better.
My solution is that some holy power-to-be(s) in the galaxy should condense all these mind fuck everything into something like the 10 commandments – short, simple and concise laws of the final ’10 do and don’t’ and imbued these commandments with god like power as penalty. Break one of the commandments and your ass is cooked (literally).
I think its a pretty workable idea but hey that’s just me.
