Cutting Crew

Nah, this post isn’t about the ‘80s pop-rock band; it’s just about things that involve cutting. First up is Pink’s video for “F***in’ Perfect.” Very few music videos are as powerful or relevant. No hyperbole. If you know how depression feels, or have suffered from poor self-image growing up, the video will make you cry. Tina Majorino’s in it, playing a self-loathing teen who cuts herself (and later, her hair), and eventually, a successful artist who finally finds and experiences true happiness.

Look it up on YouTube. The uncensored version can only be seen via Pink’s Vevo channel, I think. There’s a shorter, cleaned-up version of the video, but just watch the explicit one.

Next up, something lighter. It still involves cuts, but the accidental, less painful kind. I finished reading Pam Pastor’s book “Paper Cuts,” which collects several of her blog entries from the last decade. I like her concise, witty posts, and I especially like how she ends them with equally witty near-punchlines, reflective of how she’s able to find humor in even the strangest situations. I’ve read some of the chosen entries before, but it’s cool to read them again in print form, compiled with other insightful entries that I haven’t read from her old Blogger and Multiply journals.

I don’t hang out often with Pam, but the few times I did were fun; I do remember getting really, embarrassingly drunk during one of her band’s gigs about three years ago. She’s one of the paper’s editors I’ve been submitting stuff to for years now. There are people there, employees and contributors alike, whose writing abilities and analytical faculties I respect--Pam, Gibbs Cadiz, Vives Anunciacion, Noelani Torre, Poch Concepcion, Jordan De Leon, and Amy Mosura, to name a few--and it’s interesting that you get to see other sides to most of them in blogs, micro-blogs, or social networking sites. Similarly, “Paper Cuts” gets to detail stuff that don’t get mentioned in Pam’s articles, experiences that are certainly unique, and stories told in her own inimitably witty way.

It’s not a tell-all autobiography, so don’t expect bad breakup stories, dirty laundry or potentially controversial subjects (hmm, maybe a future book devoted to that, Pam?). “Paper Cuts,” however, compiles some of her real-life adventures and misadventures (even her proneness to paper cuts and other wounds), made involving by her distinct and very readable thoughts.