The Official Adam Pascal Love Thread, part eleven- Page 42

[CanadianSnowbird]

Posted: 9/24/06 at 9:47am

I think a spork should be incorporated somewhere as well.

[Ariella]

Posted: 9/24/06 at 9:58am

I can't wait to see some of the names that will be suggested on the myspace comments. The Adam & Larry Spectacular definitely has my vote. Oh well - at least he's asking for help, so maybe this time we'll get something a little more imaginative than Adam Pascal Band.

I'm surprised he keeps reading his myspace with quotes like this:
oooooo adam-we're watching RENT!!!!! and we allllllll lovvvvvve you and want ur babies...

I guess the blog could have been worse. At least he used a word like "insurmountable."
Updated On: 9/24/06 at 09:58 AM

[Chloe]

Posted: 9/24/06 at 5:09pm

The suggestion I've liked best so far is "Insurmountable Joy." It's probably not a very good name, really, but the way Adam used it is funny.

Regarding the spelling issue, Lexi, it's not a matter of age but of mindset and brain wiring. There are a fair number of people who don't know the difference between "your" and "you're," and Adam is one of them. (Men are more prone to it, maybe for the same reason they're more prone to dyslexia.) That's not going to change, and I don't consider it any kind of real indication of intelligence or character. Would it be more prudent not to advertise the fact? Absolutely. It's just handing certain people something to whack him with, though those people are going to find something no matter what.

Despite that, I'm not sorry to be allowed a glimpse of the real person rather than a cleaned up version. If the day comes when a perfectly spelled, correctly punctuated, uniformly capitalized and grammatically impeccable blog turns up on his myspace, I would assume his publicist wrote it.

[Ariella]

Posted: 9/24/06 at 8:14pm

I bet next week's Rent secrets will contain a plethora of anti-Adam as a result.

Posted: 9/24/06 at 9:59pm

Orangeskittles and I bought 25-cent playbills from the "This Is Your Song" benefit. That - along our Chess benefit posters! - is my Adam lovin' for the day.

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 9/24/06 at 10:06pm

I'm sorry, but while I think it's nice that Adam gives a glimpse into his reality and whatever, there's just nothing excusable about being okay with lookling like an idiot. He's in an industry that's about image, and looking blatantly stupid is much worse than looking like you have no fashion sense and not caring what people think of the way you dress. His industry is about presentation and I think he SHOULD be posting cleaned-up communication. I can't see that as being a bad thing at all. I mean, this isn't even cute, it's a bit ridiculous. I love him, but I think he's making a really poor decision in being haphazard. He sounds like he's high, for God's sake. To me, there's a difference between projecting the image of being carefree and easygoing (which you can show via tone) and looking like you don't know English. The former is favorable and mindset based. The latter is kind of pathetic.

Updated On: 9/24/06 at 10:06 PM

[Chloe]

Posted: 9/24/06 at 10:44pm

It's not that I'm disagreeing with that, Emcee - I did say that it would be absolutely more prudent for him to clean things up, because people *will* think he's an idiot. I just don't believe they would be right. Writing proper English is really important in the academic environment most of you are in right now, not to mention journalism, public relations, law, the corporate world, and so forth. My experience has been that it doesn't have quite the absolute value that you seem to be assigning to it though. (And my apologies if I'm misreading you.) There are plenty of quite intelligent, interesting people who don't have the aptitude or interest to learn it.

AP Online has those pictures from the MS Dinner of Champions in HQ and MQ formats now, and also an interesting picture of Adam, Daphne and the Larsons I don't think I've seen before.

[Alix7272]

Posted: 9/24/06 at 10:51pm

I would suggest the spectacular name (It is fabulous!) for fun to see what kind of reaction, if any, it gets. Can just the name be all I write in the post, or does there have to be a message surrounding it?

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 9/24/06 at 11:05pm

I did say that it would be absolutely more prudent for him to clean things up, because people *will* think he's an idiot. I just don't believe they would be right.

Exactly. I don't think he IS stupid, or at least not as stupid as he looks. But the issue is that the hidden reality isn't what matters, it's the way you seem on simple glance and based on what you put out there. And if he's putting out idiocy, people are going to think he's an idiot. It's what people think of you that matters, as far as his career. He's responsible for shaping what people think of him. My feeling on the value of it is that if this is part of that responsibility and it's the material he's using to shape what people think of him, there should be a lot more value placed upon looking one way or another. I think that when it's not that HARD to spellcheck, there is simply no excuse for projecting an image of careless idiocy. It's just not cute anymore.

I don't think I'm making sense. I'm falling asleep.

Updated On: 9/24/06 at 11:05 PM

[Chloe]

Posted: 9/24/06 at 11:25pm

I agree with everything you're saying, except about the spellcheck. There are no misspelled words, just misused ones. Maybe he *did* spellcheck this tiime. I have no idea whether people in a position to affect his career will be looking at his myspace or not. Casting isn't something I know much about.

Alix, you might as well go for it, unless Mandi would rather post it. I don't know if she's on myspace or not.

[Mandi Moo]

Posted: 9/24/06 at 11:29pm

I don't have a myspace, which is why I offered a cookie to someone if they would post it. :-P

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 9/24/06 at 11:40pm

Spellcheck catches those kinds of errors too, though.

[Chloe]

Posted: 9/24/06 at 11:46pm

Not mine - I actually tried it, and all it did was want to change "myspace" to "misplace." I only have Appleworks WP, though. Maybe something like Word is more advanced. i would think syntactical errors are complicated to catch.

Sorry I missed that Mandi! It's funny how many people seem to think Adam and Larry would want a name associated with Rent or Aida.
Updated On: 9/24/06 at 11:46 PM

[Alix7272]

Posted: 9/24/06 at 11:46pm

here i go...

[Chloe]

Posted: 9/24/06 at 11:54pm

Be careful out there in myspace land!

[Alix7272]

Posted: 9/24/06 at 11:57pm

ok, i just changed my myspace pic (to the same one i have here) and so i'm about to do it. i know this isn't a big deal at all, but just to get it right, since we (or i) are doing it: The Adam and Larry Spectacular, right? And I'll put it on the main page as a comment or as a response to the blog? I was thinking the main page because more people will see it there, but as a comment, it will stay up presumably forever, whereas as a comment, it will be pushed down and out, which might be a good thing. I'm thinking about this way too much.

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 9/25/06 at 12:04am

Microsoft Word can catch those kinds of things, but it's finicky. Even still, I just think he should know the difference between you're and your. I think everybody should. :-P

[Alix7272]

Posted: 9/25/06 at 12:10am

I don't think it will matter much, but all done. (It's a response to the blog.)

Goodnight.

[Chloe]

Posted: 9/25/06 at 12:27am

Goodnight, Alix!

Emcee, I can tell you believe everyone should know the difference, which is maybe why I've been going on and on about this. To get a little personal, there have been two men in my life, one an architect and the other a film editor, both vibrant, creative guys. However neither of them are very strong on the your/you're thing, or English in general. I guess I haven't been talking about Adam so much as the possibility that some of you very literate, educated girls will automatically reject someone for that reason. It would be a mistake, I think.

I mentioned that they're quite creative, which I'm not, and there may be a correlation there. In order for those great ideas to flow out of our subconscious minds, we would need to shut down the kind of nitpicky self-censorship and judgment that we uncreative types normally operate under. Perhaps true, rare geniuses can do both at once, but the merely talented, which is where I would put Adam, just don't have the time or patience to deal with things like your/you're, or whatever it is that they don't have any particular affinity for.

I was thinking about music. I have a little bit of musical ability, but am not really a musician. For me the notes are kind of amorphous. I'm never quite sure where I am with them. Words are quite different. Nouns and verbs, subjects and objects, transitive and intransitive - these all have a solid reality for me that make it relatively easy to grasp what the rules are. I wonder if less verbal, articulate people find themselves in the same relationship to words as I do to music, and those concepts swim ungraspably around in their heads.

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 9/25/06 at 12:39am

I'm not saying he IS stupid or that he's not creative. It's really just as simple as that I believe he's intelligent enough to know that it would be a good idea for him to present himself in the most impressive light possible, and to well, know basic grammar. And I even know that it just doesn't matter in the grand scheme as much as it should -- people don't give a dam about grammar; I don't agree with that, either. It's not a sign of complete stupidity and empty-headedness, but I simply see no good in excusing it based on what could be there that's not showing. Of course there are people who will put thought into this and know that he's actually not THAT dumb, but what about the people who don't? What if that was the first thing you saw from him, communicatively? I think it's bad that he does things that will allow people to think he's careless and stupid. There's a difference to me between careless and carefree. It's not about making excuses for the kind of person he is, or even just about your and you're, but in general, I think it's really ridiculous that that's not something he or his management see fit to pay attention to. I honestly think that brushing it off in the name of the fact that he's still a creative individual and that it's a matter of personal affinities doesn't say much, because the bottom line for me is that being able to write intelligibly is so basic. He doesn't have to use big words and write a dissertation, but getting the basic things right just isn't hard. He could certainly still be an artist and have his artistic mindset and write decently. And if his grammar were to hinder his self-expression, which I doubt, have someone else fix it. I would't "reject" someone for having a mindset that doesn't jive with that notion, or whatever, but for me it's just not about comparing mindsets and things. It's that these are easy things, and they're things an adult can handle. He should be able to grasp them and display them, especially when this is material widely read, not just Joe Down the Block's online diary. I mean, I'm just like "really, how HARD is it to get right?" That's the bottom line. How hard is it? I'm sorry, but I can't regard everything he does as perfectly permissible on the ground of a possible excuse. I criticize with tenacity those I love most.

[Chloe]

Posted: 9/25/06 at 12:57am

Again, I don't at all disagree that he should put himself in the best possible light, and I'm not trying to excuse carelessness. Certainly it would be quite simple to have someone proofread for him. What I don't agree with is that he could easily write better, that it wouldn't be that hard for him. That's what I was trying to express earlier. When I talk about not having the patience to deal with it, I mean literally, some people are incapable of focusing on those kinds of ideas. They feel about it the same way some of us might feel about, say, putting hundreds of tiny dots on a canvas. It drives them up the wall. It seems simple to you because it's an area where you're comfortable, but not everyone is.

[Fantabulous428]

Posted: 9/25/06 at 1:00am

Perhaps true, rare geniuses can do both at once, but the merely talented, which is where I would put Adam, just don't have the time or patience to deal with things like your/you're, or whatever it is that they don't have any particular affinity for.

Since when have simple grammatical differences like your vs. you're become something that people have to "deal with"? I don't really understand that, and I also don't understand why it would be hard for someone in any capacity to "deal" with them. Is this a matter of Adam being lazy, not caring, not knowing.....? I just don't get why this seems so difficult.

Updated On: 9/25/06 at 01:00 AM

[sweetestsiren]

Posted: 9/25/06 at 1:01am

Not that this is a defense at all, because I agree that it's rather annoying to read, but the typos and lack of punctuation/capitalization in the blog might just be a result of apathy, just in terms of the fact that people get the impression that because grammar conventions are relaxed in email/chat stuff, it's okay to completely disregard them. He probably wants to sound, like... with the times and colloquial, and doesn't think of it exactly as an official representation of himself. He could very well know the difference between "your" and "you're," but doesn't think the distinction is going to matter in online speak. Maybe someone should kindly inform him otherwise.

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 9/25/06 at 1:08am

I don't think this is as deep as you're making it, and nor do I think it's really even ABOUT personal comfort zones.

To me, the bottom line is this: people are going to read that and think "wow, what a f*cking moron." I don't want people thinking that about him. He can very easily deter that. His wife is a Juilliard trained writer, for God's sake. She can help him if it's really that big of a deal, which I doubt it is. He graduated high school AND he went to college. Come on.

And really, it boils down to the fact that we're not dealing with an industry that produces art for art's sake. That's just not the way it is anymore. And to me, it's his job to promote a GOOD image (i.e. look presentable, projecting a certain personality, and yes, act intelligent) just as much as it's his job to write good music and put on good performances.

I definitely buy that he might know and just not give a damn. I very much buy that. I think it would do him good to care, but that's beating a dead horse. There's a difference between the carefree "cool" internet lingo and things that are truly wrong, even though I don't condone either. One makes him look like he's trying to be cool. The other makes him look careless and stupid. It's just that we're talking about something SO BASIC, and not something that he should have to spend time toiling over and "dealing with," even if he's not great at it. This isn't like, scholarly writing, it's everyday English. It's not about affinity and he's not SO DUMB that he has to pay excrutiatingly difficult amounts of attention to it; I'm not asking him to write a novel.

Updated On: 9/25/06 at 01:08 AM

Posted: 9/25/06 at 9:06am

I'm obviously coming into this a bit late, but I just wanted to point out that when someone makes a post on a board such as this one with lazy grammar and spelling, most of us immediately jump to the conclusion that person is either very young or unintelligent. Most people don't stop to consider that such posters simply cannot focus on the smaller details of the English language. In fact, quite a few people generally post to request that he or she use proper grammar and/or mock the person. I'm not saying that it's necessarily the correct mentality, but the fact is that people judge others based upon their writing. While we can come up with all sorts of excuses as to why he should be exempted from using proper grammar, most people reading what he writes aren't going to have the same mindset.