Michael S. Pascua » body

The Ugly Truth Part 2

Michael — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 16:05:38 +0000

Recently, I’ve seen several friends on Facebook announce messages like “Going to get a headshot,” “Does anyone know any good photographers?,” or “Pick my headshot.” I look at photos and think: Jeez, these people are ugly.

Now I know that there is a stereotype to writers. I’ve addressed that before. But shouldn’t there be a stereotype to actors? Like maybe….they are good looking? Yes I know that talent does come first and play a big part, but when you’re ugly, you’re only going to get typecast roles for “Ugly Best Friend” or “Generic Mall Cop.” You’re not going to be a leading lady. (Click Continue Reading to Continue Reading!)

I always wonder whatever happened to friends who finished in Theater. There’s a part of me that clearly commends them for doing something that they loved to do, but what happened in the real world when they found out that they were a big fish in New Paltz, but now they are a little fish who is a little too short or a little too fat for roles? Do they try to lose the weight? Do they cave under the pressure and get a masters in Liberal Arts to get a decent job? Do they resort to becoming prostitutes? Actually, they wouldn’t make good prostitutes because they are short and fat.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m pretty sure that several theater kids are making more money than this humble (hah!) blogger. But what happened to the ugly ones or the ones with delusion thinking that they are *gasp* good looking? To make it worse, I know a few theater kids who are decent looking and can’t take a good picture for shit. Photoshop can only do so much, honey.

I firmly believe that if one keeps dreaming, things will happen. I guess the ugly ones will just have to dream harder.

The Ugly Truth

Michael — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 18:17:23 +0000

I have this underlying fear that people think writers are ugly. Probably less ugly than radio people, but still ugly. Why is that? Well, it’s because unlike television writers and radio people have a medium to fall behind, become a mask and display their work first before ever even seeing a face. I’m sure people read TV Squad and don’t even think about the person who wrote it.

Personally, I’ve seen the images of writers, radio people, and podcasters and was taken aback. Maybe it’s true. Maybe a lot of these people are the bastard ugly children of successful television and film stars. Even the people on YouTube have good looks and usually only the good looking (or just insanely funny) YouTube videos become the most popular.

…

I’ve seen pictures of several writers on the back of their book (while wandering through Barnes & Noble, mind you) and thought: maybe the ugly ones write. I mean look at Stephen King: great writer, kinda ugly. Then again, one of my favorite writers, Augusten Burroughs, is good looking. Well, was… I’m not that into 40-somethings. I’ve wandered his website and saw pictures of him in the 90s with his drug sheik.

I’ve mused before about a year ago about being self conscious about my neck, but I don’t consider myself ugly. With my low self esteem, let me at least think that I’m good looking. I often think in defeatist mentality, but that doesn’t make me ugly either. Sometimes, I practice taking that stereotypical black and white author photo. I laugh thinking that a) I would end up writing a how to book or b) I wouldn’t write a book. Granted, I still need a new headshot-esque picture. I have to go call Eric and hire him as my photographer. Maybe I could pay him in Applebees and Hot Wings.

Does that mean I picked the wrong outlet? Granted maybe I’m looking at extremes. I mean look at Ryan Seacrest. If someone that weird looking can succeed, I guess anyone can.

iStrain

Michael — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 15:09:18 +0000

I have finally gotten around to rate most of my music on my iTunes. It was done before, but when I transferred all my music to my other external hard drive (which I hear is a no-no) only 3/4ths of the album covers and none of the ratings transferred over. I spent the past six months rating all the music. Now there are only 3 subjects to rate: Patsy Cline, Fleetwood Mac, and the new Franz Ferdinand album. The first two are obvious, the latter is because I haven’t had a chance to sit down and listen to it.

Getting to the point of the post: I could never stay on iTunes too long because after a while my eyes would start to kill me. Small black text on white background? For shame. Funny, because I am typing this on Word and have no problem, but when the text is like six point font it just hurts. That and the fact that I have more than 7000 songs (my iPod claims 8,221, but my iTunes says that there are about 7,700. I’m not sure what the disconnect is). I would have to rate about 100 songs a day and then die a little on the inside for the sake of organization.

I don’t understand why Apple has to be so stingy with their color choices. I’m sure there are people out there that can’t see or read iTunes and prefer something like Winamp with the option of skins. I just want a dark version of iTunes that comes with it. I don’t want to download some third party skin mask thing. Why isn’t there a tab for changing the colors or something?

Now that the ratings are done, it’s time to add album covers, album titles, track numbers, and year of release. I’m taking my time on those.