Joseph - aka Robert Smith

Thursday, July 17th - 2008

Ok, there are a couple of things you should know about Joseph.  The first is that he has always liked to dress up in costumes and put on plays, act things out, or just be in character for a while.  He's been doing this probably since he was 2.  I have countless pictures of him in different costumes.  Some have been halloween costumes, some he's come up with on his own.   He's done all of the super hero's - spiderman, batman, wolverine, superman - you name it, he's done it.  My favorite stage was when he was 4 or 5.  That was when he was Clark Kent for a good long time.  He had to wear his superman jammie shirt everywhere we went.  Of course he had a zip up jacket over it to hide the superman logo until he was ready to reveal it.  He also had the fake Clark Kent glasses, which he also wore everywhere.  He actually reminded me a little of Rivers Cuomo from Weezer, in his short hair, glasses wearing phase.  He also went through a star wars phase (of course).  He also did various Disney characters (usually the bad guys).  He did the evil octopus from the Little Mermaid and King Triton, also from the little mermaid.   He has also been Clayton from Tarzan.  My favorite Disney character was when he was Jafar from Aladdin.  I spent over an hour making him a hat out of construction paper that looked like Jafar's.  Over the years he has come up with his own characters and costumes.  I love it that he is so creative.  

The second thing you should know is that he also has a BIT of an obsessive personality.  When he finds something he is interested in, then that is all he can focus on.  When he was little, if he liked a movie, we would literally watch it over and over again.  I think I've seen The Iron Giant over 50 times.  I'm not kidding.  He goes through phases.  He'll like something, be obsessed with it for a while, and then move on to something else.  Sometimes he'll go back to it later on.  We've re-visited "The Nightmare Before Christmas" phase quite a few times.  The Green Goblin phase lasted a long time.  He just got out of the Indiana Jones phase.  I know some of you have seen him wearing his hat around.  This brings me to one of his newest obsessions and to our picture of the day:

Recently Joseph asked me:  "Mom, can you guess what my favorite band is?"  Well, he goes through music in phases too.  His first favorite band was Oingo Boing.  He went through a Coldplay phase and more recently it's been Death Cab for Cutie and Linkin Park.  So I guessed "Deathcab"?  "Nope," he said:  "It's  The Cure".  Well, let me say, I was pretty surprised by that (but pleasantly so).  The Cure is one of my all time favorite bands ever.  At least top 5 on my list, probably #1 if I think about it.  Now, Joseph has heard The Cure a lot over the years.  He's liked it, but it's never been one of his OBSESSIONS.  That all changed when he went on my blog and heard the song "Lovecats".  I don't think that's one I've ever played for him before, but once he heard it, he was hooked.  He now goes on YouTube every day to watch videos.  His favorites are:  Lovecats, Just Like Heaven, Lovesong, Friday I'm in Love and, Lullaby.  He even did a Cure post on his blog with some videos if you want to check it out.

Of course, with obsessive phases, comes the dressing up.  Here he is with his Robert Smith hair and black eyes.  Thankfully, he passed on the red lipstick.
This is a picture of Robert Smith from the video "Lovecats" - the catalyst for his new obsession.

I can't really blame him.  I went through a VERY long Cure phase in high school.  I had a giant picture of Robert Smith over my bed, several cure posters on my walls, I wore the color black almost every day, and I listened to the albumn "Disintegration" every night when I went to sleep.  I guess I have an Obsessive personality too.