The Official Adam Pascal Love Thread, part seven- Page 182

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 3/5/06 at 3:23pm

Oh, no, I totally meant that to be funny, Lexi.

Updated On: 3/5/06 at 03:23 PM

[xM3L24x]

Posted: 3/5/06 at 3:24pm

Em, that's funny

Uy, there's this girl in my grade who said "I know all the words to LVB, I'm such a renthead" I was like huh?!

[Katt]

Posted: 3/5/06 at 3:24pm

It makes me cringe too Lexi. I got very irritated when I saw the lyrics to Seasons of Love (and it's always Seasons of Love) in someone from my grade's profile right after the movie.

[xM3L24x]

Posted: 3/5/06 at 3:27pm

EVERYONE had quotes in their profile after the movie. It killed all the quotes for me, so I barely ever have quotes from RENT on my profile/away message. Updated On: 3/5/06 at 03:27 PM

Posted: 3/5/06 at 3:28pm

Uy, there's this girl in my grade who said "I know all the words to LVB, I'm such a renthead" I was like huh?!

Yeah, THAT kind of stuff really irks me. I definitely wasn't trying to implicitly tell certain people here whether they had my permission to call themselves Rentheads. From what I've gathered, there are definitely people in this thread that certainly have license to call themselves Rentheads (at least in my book). I just can't stand to see the girls at my high school saying that they are huge Rentheads because they can sing Out Tonight and La Vie Boheme. That kind of dilutes the term.

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 3/5/06 at 3:29pm

I have some casual friends from high school who VERY much trivialize Rent. Like, they saw it and just wanted to be able to "get" friends of theirs (myself and my best friend from home included) who really love the show and have strong connections to it. So like, one of my friends (I love her, but she's SUCH a ditz) says that one of her favorite activities is "dancing to Rent," and stuff like that. I mean, she likes the music, but the show means very little to her -- she can barely verbalize why it "changed her life," and I really don't think it did in the slightest, but she's just using it to project some kind of image. I don't really respect that.

And yeah, Mel, I mean, I couldn't get mad at him for it. He was just playing.

[orangeskittles]

Posted: 3/5/06 at 3:30pm

I feel weird calling myself a Renthead for that same reasons y'all have said. I can't even tell you how much it pissed me off to see all these people on IMDB or LJ or whatever talking about how they just got the movie soundtrack and now they're a Renthead. NO. You DON'T get it. You can like the music and even call yourself a Rent fan, but DON'T start calling yourself a "Renthead". There's a hell of a lot more to it than just that. Someone posted something on LJ today about a review of their first time seeing Rent onstage and it's one of the best posts I've seen in weeks:

"So I got to go see Rent for the first time ever on Broadway yesterday…wow. Before I post a review, let me just say that I get it now. I get why some people who have loved this show for years and years don't really like the movie. I get why some get super irritated by people who join and think they know everything just because they saw the movie. Because if I had been lucky enough to have seen Rent before the movie came out, I would have been just as protective of it. I mean, I've seen plays before. But the second the lights blasted on for 'Rent', I just…went somewhere else completely. I think I remembered to breathe again around Finale B. I've heard the recordings, the soundtracks, but this was just so…I don't even know how to describe it. I know we all know it, but seeing the play just reinforced how incredibly wonderful its message is, and made me a thousand times more grateful to Jonathan Larson."

I was just so glad that someone is finally recognizing that we're not trying to be elitist- it's just that the show does mean something to us, so we don't want it to be treated like a flavor of the month and are cautious of the influx of new fans. I mean, I WISH everyone that saw the movie could see the show and experience what it's like to watch the cast line up during ICY:R and see the empty space where Angel stood. There are so many aspects of the show that can *never* be recreated for the movie, so it just bothers me that people are treating the movie like it's a replacement for the show. Despite the OBC members or the stronger music or whatever, it will never mean as much to me as seeing it onstage.

[Katt]

Posted: 3/5/06 at 3:31pm

I think if you are a fan of the movie, you can't start saying things like that. You are a fan of the Rent MOVIE, not the stage show. You really have to see the stage show. I understand that not everyone can get to it, but still. I had to wait three years to see it on stage, but by that time I had read the entire script (yes I'm a loser, sue me :P) and listened to the recording more times than I can count, in addition to looking up things about it. You should attempt to find out more about it rather than watching the movie once and saying you know everything. You don't.
Updated On: 3/5/06 at 03:31 PM

[Allie]

Posted: 3/5/06 at 3:31pm

But it's a completely subjective term, isn't it? And I don't blame those kind of fans for calling themselves Rentheads. If they only got into Rent because they followed the movie, they've probably seen the blogs. The term "Renthead" was used ad nauseum there to apply to all of the viewers/readers/fans.

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 3/5/06 at 3:33pm

Well, yeah. It's not written anywhere that Rentheads are ONLY the original fans, or even only fans of the stage show, and that's why people take it and run with it. Those are only its origins. I don't really know where to say I stand on what's a Renthead and what's not other than the points that are probably obvious... maybe that's because the term has become kind of negative, in some ways.

[Katt]

Posted: 3/5/06 at 3:35pm

I know everyone says that the original Rentheads are so elitist about everything, but they probably feel the same way that we feel about the movie fans. They waited outside in the freezing cold for days to get tickets, and now people just walk up and put their name in for lottery and leave. They saw the original cast so many times, and we saw videos of them. And then a person sees it once, or sees the movie and says that they are a Renthead, which is a term they coined, and it probably just irritates them.

That post probably came across as rude, and seeing it once doesn't mean that you are less of a fan, considering that I just saw it for the second time last week. I'm just saying that's probably why many of them act like that.


Updated On: 3/5/06 at 03:35 PM

[xM3L24x]

Posted: 3/5/06 at 3:37pm

I understand that completely, but then theres another side of where people can argue that they were too young to see it. Whose to say that you or me wouldn't have waited on the same line if RENT had just came out a few years later?

[Allie]

Posted: 3/5/06 at 3:37pm

But then again, are WE being a tad elitist for going on about some of the annoying movie fans?

[Katt]

Posted: 3/5/06 at 3:39pm

That's true, I mean, it's not anyone's fault for what year they were born in, but that isn't going to stop people from feeling that way.

And that's kind of what I was saying Allie. We are acting towards the movie fans the way many of the original fans act towards us. It's human nature to feel that way. Updated On: 3/5/06 at 03:39 PM

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 3/5/06 at 3:39pm

Exactly. In big terms, anyway. I mean, a lot of them are JUST ANNOYING.

Updated On: 3/5/06 at 03:39 PM

[xM3L24x]

Posted: 3/5/06 at 3:39pm

I don't think so.. it's a different situation.

Posted: 3/5/06 at 3:39pm

But it's a completely subjective term, isn't it? And I don't blame those kind of fans for calling themselves Rentheads. If they only got into Rent because they followed the movie, they've probably seen the blogs. The term "Renthead" was used ad nauseum there to apply to all of the viewers/readers/fans.

Yes, it is, and I completely concede that this is just a personal belief of mine as opposed to some sort of universal truth or law as to who qualifes as a Renthead. Perhaps others here would beg to differ and feel that they're opinion is some sort of definitive truth, but I'm just speaking for what personally bothers me. Also, I don't necessarily blame them per se, I just don't like reading it. Like I said, I'd never come out and correct someone saying that they're not a TROO RENTHEAD or whatnot.

I've said this various times before and I'm not sure if people quietly don't respect me as much for it, but I'll be the first to say that Rent really DIDN'T change my life (other than forming friendships on here, which really is more incidental and not directly pertaining to the show itself). I liked musical theatre before I saw Rent, I had no problem with homosexuality before seeing Rent, and while it has a very good message, I don't find myself living each day as my last anymore so than before I saw the show. I enjoy its positive message for what it's worth and I love the music. However, if Rent really did have an impact on your life -- and I'm sure there are many who can say it did -- more power to you. I personally can't say that it really did other than giving me some wonderful music to listen to and some thoughts about its message.

Updated On: 3/5/06 at 03:39 PM

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 3/5/06 at 3:41pm

I agree, Lexi. I don't know that the way I live my life has changed since I saw the show, but rather.... maybe the way I *think about* things in my life. More often than I'm literally changed by things, I'm affected and impacted by them -- Rent is just something that... to be cheesy, got to my heart, and gave me beautiful music.... and many beautiful memories, too!

[xM3L24x]

Posted: 3/5/06 at 3:43pm

I agree. RENT didn't really "change" my life. It just impacted my life. I find that lines from the show like "forget regret" and "my only goal is just to be", etc.. are things I think about when I'm upset and have problems.

[Katt]

Posted: 3/5/06 at 3:43pm

Rent did change my life in a way I suppose, by making me more open minded, and it was one of the things that got me more interested in theatre. I had been interested before, but Rent only strengthened that.
I live in a conversative city where I get made fun of for liking it, but that's okay. But it doesn't make me live my life differently.
Updated On: 3/5/06 at 03:43 PM

[orangeskittles]

Posted: 3/5/06 at 3:43pm

Allie, I don't think so, because even as I slowly got into Rent, I didn't start proclaiming to the world that I was the biggest Renthead EVA! like some of these people do. I accepted that I was a new fan and didn't know as much about it and was still learning to love it. If you question these people, or mention that they're still a new fan or suggest that they learn more about the show, they automatically become defensive and start ranting about how you "don't get the TRUE message of RENT!" instead of admitting to themselves and everyone else that they don't know everything about it. I just hold these people to the same standards I would myself, but apparently, that's too high.

[xM3L24x]

Posted: 3/5/06 at 3:44pm

RENT did make me have more compassion. I've donated a lot of my money to AIDS research in the past year.

[Chloe]

Posted: 3/5/06 at 3:45pm

Interesting discussion today - I also think it would be a mistake to believe that some of those original Rentheads weren't there to be part of a certain crowd, or because their best friend started going, or because they had a crush on one of the cast members. There's nothing sacred about being a fanatical fan, especially if you turn into a bitchy one, as some of them seemed to have.
Updated On: 3/5/06 at 03:45 PM

[Katt]

Posted: 3/5/06 at 3:46pm

That's true Amy, and that's what really gets me. I can't stand it when fans of the movie try to tell me things about Rent that I already knew, or act superior and tell me Jonathan Larson died of aids or something. Or insist that Seasons of Love is the best song ever.

I also have high standards for people. I tried to find out things about Rent on my own, but I'm also very appreciative to the people that tell me things that I didn't know. Updated On: 3/5/06 at 03:46 PM

[Amber_C2003]

Posted: 3/5/06 at 3:47pm

Perhaps affected is a better word than changed?

My life didn't change because of Rent, but it was deeply affected (in how I think about things, what I think about things, etc etc etc).