300

I have not seen this movie yet…it seems like it’s just going to be crappy characters with cool visuals and effects.

Washington Post's critic Stephen Hunter considers the film "too cartoonish to be taken seriously". He criticized the action as being "all showy and stylized, never quite realistic."

Robby Eksiel said moviegoers would be dazzled by the "digital action" but irritated by the "pompous interpretations and one-dimensional characters.”

Critics seem to be slamming the actual plot and characters of the movie and those seem like essential elements to the quality of any movie (even an action epic). However, the mass public is spending record amounts of money on seeing it anyway—maybe because of its heavy advertising on MySpace!?!

300 is getting a lot of the same critical complaints that David Lean’s epics got in the early 60’s. Now, I happen to really like David Lean epics: Lawrence of Arabia (1962) and Dr. Zhivago (1965). Some critics called them visual spectacles with no depth, or “Oscar Packaged” movies.

At least David Lean epics compelled other critics to say they were intelligent, literate, and more believable than most epic film scripts. This is very unlike 300 because I haven’t found one review without a “but” in it.

Maybe I’m being too hard on 300…maybe it’s just critically misunderstood like Lawrence of Arabia (which is now designated as one of the American Film Institute’s top 5 American movies of ALL TIME)…but I doubt it.

myspace is wasting my time

Ok, so i thought it as time to stop being shy and post a blog. I spend about three hours of my day online. Usually researching something for school when i'm here. But, there is a darker side. That side of my wasted internet experience is MYSPACE. IF you dont have a myspace im sure you know what its about. Posting blogs, sending messages to friend and etc. I have recently noticed that a good hour of my day is spent deleting random spam send to me on myspace. That means im wasting about a days worth of time on myspace every week. Is this time i want to waste. NO! But i keep my myspace to try and do the same thing all these other spammers are doing. I want to sell music. Seems easy enough. Put music online, create page, sell music. It's a tough call. Do i accept the enemy and learn to deal with the wasted time for the positive aspects of selling my band?? Or, do i freak out and complain to the class blog. Hopefully none of you have wasted as much time as i have deleting myspace spam. If you have i salute you!

Here's an example of my daily 100 messages

COCAiTLiN™'s Comment:

"Ok I know this is hard to believe but you remember seeing that message and bulliten a little while ago about the peniz pills to make it bigger? Well.... Just like you I am sure, thought it was funny and a joke, but today I find out that my own brother Aaron has been taking the pills since he heard about them on myspace and yes, they actually did work on him, he hooked me up with some and its been 2 weeks now already see a big difference and I ordered nine more bottles from YMBOB.COM
Yes My brother is living proof that they do work, he never used to get girls, now since a few months he is all popular with the girls in his class and work too. They made his saussage grow a full 3 inches in hardly any time, they really work fast on any guy.
If you order some now from YMBOB.com you will even get a full money back guarentee, so don't worry about them not working on you as well as they did on my bro and starting to on me as well.Tell them I sent you as a friend if they ask Just copy and paste this address into your browser and hook yourself up today YMBOB.COM
G88486158"



thanks for listening,
mike

I Suppose Nothing Lasts Forever

Though I'm not an American Idol fan, I found this article interesting.

Maybe the big shots behind AI will come up with a twist to renew the show's fanbase?

Oh, Fox, I can only wonder...

Guilty Pleasure

Ok, so by writing this blog, I’m about to admit to the world my guilty pleasure. Please try not to judge me. In fact, there is a good chance you yourself have dabbled in this same guilty pleasure. So, the other day I went down to Chicago to see a concert. It was a Justin Timberlake concert to be exact. There…I said it. It was awesome. Anyways, there was about a twenty minute intermission when Timberland, a famous music producer/artist, came out and performed. His “performance”, however, involved him spinning/mixing records while, at the same time, a series of videos and images were being shown on the big screen. It reminded me a lot of some of the videos we’ve watched in class. (For example, the “No Scrubs” remix we watched) He mixed together a lot of the artist’s songs, which he produced, to make one long music video. It was really a lot of fun to watch, and very entertaining. This is clearly an example of the remix culture we seem to be immersed in today. A culture where it has become accepted to take forms of media and improve, change, basically “remix” it. So, now the world knows that I heart Justin Timberlake, but can you really blame me? He’s dreamy. (Yes, I did just use the word dreamy). Could this entry get any more embarrassing?

CARTOON MOVIES

I read Andy’s entry for the movie “300” and I couldn’t help but also comment on this movie. I’m familiar with Frank Miller’s work (Sin City), and based on Andy’s comments—and trailers I’ve seen for the movie—I can predict with confidence exactly the type of movie it is.

It disturbs me, because with the advent of CGI (computer-generated image) effects, the movie industry is moving very close to eliminating real sets in their movies. There seem to be more and more movies per year that are, for all intents and purposes, cartoons with human actors. This, for me, ruins all believability in the storyline—even the movie itself.

Has anyone seen “A Scanner Darkly.” If so you know it’s a sci-fi movie that was filmed with real sets and real actors and then changed to a cartoon after-the-fact. That one blew my mind. I was asking myself after I watched it why would any film-maker want to ruin a perfectly good movie by doing this? It took away all the emotion and realism of an otherwise intriguing story and seemingly good acting.

Anyway, I won’t be rushing off to the theater to watch “300”—the cartoon-film with human actors. Maybe Hollywood will grow a brain and realize no one wants to see this crap and that’s why tickets sales dropped off in the past five years. Amazingly, I think it was the top movie for it's opening weekend (which says nothing for a film's longevity), which means people are going to see it, which means as long as people keep going to see these crap movies, Hollywood will keep making them. It's a consumer-perpetuated cycle. I, for one, won't contribute.

HOLLYWOOD: No one wants to see cartoons with human actors. Stop gypping us theater-goers and make real movies, with real sets, real effects—and real actors. Oh yeah, you haven’t eliminated actors yet. Well, before you do, let it be known that we want you to keep those, too.

300

I went to see the movie 300 at the Union Theater, which is about the 300 Spartans that faced thousands of Persians for three days, and inspired the rest of Greece to unite and drive them back. First off, whatever else you might say about it, the movie is visually amazing. Everything was done if front of a screen, and there's not a hair out of place in the entire movie I swear. I mean that pretty much everything besides the actors is done by computer: the background, the locations, animals, arrows, etc. That in itself is incredible. Plus there's plenty of eye candy for everyone. The movie doesn't shoot for realism, and it glorifies a war without moral ambiguity. So you can expect to her a lot about the ideas of how freedom isn't free, and the very warlike culture and mentality of the Spartans. After we walked out, my boyfriend joked that he expected there to be a military recruiter outside the door. So if you want a visually perfect, over the top movie with great fight scenes, sex scenes, and no moral qualms about war, go see it.

WiFi Internet

Wi Fi internet is evil and pointless. There is no need for it except to waste your time. The internet connection is sooooo slow that it wastes your time. The whole point of using the internet is because it is faster then going to the library, or at least it is supposed to be. There are aslo time limits, usually an hour or two on the air cards, but you need at least two hours to look at two pages! I'm not saying that it is not convient to have in bars or resturants for business people or students to finish papers or play on networking sites, but even then, they are basically wasting there time. For example, this is the second time i am writing this because i am at work, and the first time my card expired and i lost everything i had written. This is a very anoying recurrance, but here i am trying again. All in all, unless wi fi internet speed is uped, it is a pointless thing to use. Unless, of course, you are need to finish homework due at midnight.

Online Job Postings Services

Does anyone ever wonder what people did before online job posing services? I mean there are millions of job posting services…just to name a few off the top of my head-Monster, MilwaukeeJobs, Career Builder…and I know there is soooo many more.

Being in the stage of my life where a full time job is in the near future, services like this seem to be the best thing ever. I mean you can find a job anywhere in the world with just a click of a mouse. Before these services the only way people found jobs was through newspaper and even then these jobs were only local jobs. So, how did people find out about other jobs? Or did they? When I look at the employment section of newspapers today, there is barely anything there. Has it always been this way or is this just because of the online services?

To prove my point about how important these online services are to finding a job, I talked to my cousin who is in human resources and she said that they do all of their employee hunting and recruiting through an online service. This means that most of their jobs are never even posted in papers or anywhere else.

To me these online job services seem very helpful in the job searching…does anyone have any reason to disagree?

NBA live advertising

Earlier today I attended the Bucks game at the Bradley Center. They played the Bulls and lost in overtime unfortunately, but I noticed that there is so much more than just the game to watch when you're there. I mean they have cheerleaders, a band, competitions, interviews and fan cams on the jumbo-tron, but I really noticed the advertising. Sponsoring sporting events is a great from of advertising for companies. There is a huge continuous screen just above the luxious boxes, and when the ads changed they distracted me so much that I missed key plays in the game. Also, the backs of all the players chairs were covered with gadorade printed seat covers. McDonalds for sure sponsored the event tremendously because I came home with a french fry that was given to me during half-time that I waved in front of the Bulls' players while they tried to shoot free throws. The most entertaining advertisements of the day came from the mascots. Today was a mascot contest and there were characters all over the court from different businesses competing with one another to be the best mascot of the day. The ice cream cone from Culvers, the UPS guy, Ronald McDonald, an apple from Big Apple Bagels, and a can of Mountain Dew were just a few mascots that attended. Being an afternoon game, lots of parents brought their kids to the game and the kids picked their favorite mascots to root for. It was a really funny way to advertise products to those families. After the game, I walked down onto the court where all the children were able to meet the mascots of their favorite products. The advertising was very clever for today's game. Too bad the team lost.

BAD MOVIE REVIEWS

I rarely go to see movies in the theater because in my estimation not many are worth the $15 for ticket and candy, soda, etc. But I went to see “Zodiac” this weekend for two reasons: 1) It chronicles some very interesting and pertinent subject matter in America’s history; and 2) It features a slew of good actors (Jake Gyllenhaal, Robert Downey, Jr., Mark Ruffalo, Elias Coteas, and Brian Cox). It documents, in dramatic form, the debacle of the Zodiac killings of the late 60s and 70s. He killed people at random and sent many letters and coded ciphers to Police personnel and newspapers.

But the real purpose of this post is to express my concern for the advertisement of movies in modern America and the inaccurate reviews of movies by incompetent movie critics. Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of good critics out there, but, with the boom of the internet over the past ten years there has been a exponential increase in people who review movies who think that movies like “Freaky Friday” or “Big Mama’s House” are the “best friggin’ movies of all time, dude!”

Often I take what is the popular opinion on a movie and take the opposite stance. For the most part, it doesn’t let me down. Of course there are movies that are terrible in almost anyone’s opinion. These are the exception.

But the hubbub with “Zodiac” was that it isn’t Hollywood enough, it’s too real, it doesn’t have a happy ending, etc. . . Hello, retard critics, this movie is about true events! This isn’t “Die Hard.” The fact of the matter is the Zodiac killer terrorized California for nearly ten years and, in the end, not a single person was arrested or charged with a crime in connection with the Zodiac killings [this makes it interesting and pertinent and not the unrealistic Hollywood movie with the typical I-love-you-kill-the-bad-guy-happily-ever-after ending].

But of course when people from the “Now” (I just made that up) generation see the trailer, they expect a “Silence of the Lambs”-type movie. They want that type of movie. They want an hour and a half of video entertainment; they don’t want realism, or creativeness, or god forbid — art! Sadly, movies started as a business, then were artful for a period from about 1950 to 1980, then turned back into a business. Yes, occasionally a good movie slips through, but not often enough. Foreign movie-makers refuse to conform much more than the American market. Just watch a French, Italian, or Japanese movie and you’ll see what I’m talking about.

But a lot of people who think they know movies only know the swill that the 90s and 00s have thrown at them. They know nothing else and don’t want to know anything else. I doubt you could get them to sit down and watch a movie like “Barry Lyndon” or “Strangers on a Train” in their entirety. “Dude, this is black and white, man?” they’d say.

But enough bitterness. Just ignore these idiots. Would you go to a doctor who’s hasn’t been to medical school? No. Then why read the movie criticism of a amateur movie fan? A wise man once said, “Unsupported answers have no validity.” That’s a pretty hard statement to refute.

Well, Why Don't You Google It?

I remember feeling really disturbed that bling bling was in the dictionary as a real, official word.

I also remember a few years back feeling confused about the term 'Google' as a verb. Come on, what's up with our language lately? We're just making up phrases now?

Oh, well, why don't you Google it?

Wait, what? Google can be a verb? Yes, it's quite common now. I find myself telling my friends to Google things all of the time. Usually, it's when we have a disagreement about music or a specific celebrity or information about school assignments.

Dude, just Google it. I know I'm right.

I have become increasingly accustomed to the verb. Because of my assimilation, I have also become increasingly annoyed with people who are not aware of or refuse to recognize Google's power.

Specifically, last week in a lecture of mine, students were asking the teacher questions about a project that is due. We could have saved half an hour by repeatedly saying: GOOGLE over and over.

Questions like:
-How do I find out how many calories are in an apple?
-How do I convert pounds to kilograms?
-What is a macronutrient?

Google Google Google. Honestly, it's not that difficult of a concept. I'm not trying to appear condescending, but we've all been exposed to Google. Just type in a question and have faith.

If you don't believe me, why don't you Google it?

Tony Romo & Media Coverage

I am from Burlington, which is now more well know across the United States because of Dallas Cowboys football player Tony Romo. To me it is interesting to see how much someone’s life changes after they become a celebrity. Tony grew up in the same town as I did, he went to the same high school, and is even good friends with my cousins. He lived a normal life that any person living in a town of about 11,000 people does.

Then, Tony made the Dallas Cowboys team as a 3rd string player. He wasn’t famous in everyone’s eyes but was getting local fame around Burlington.

However, now that Tony is the first string quarterback it seems like his life has completely changed. He is constantly being covered by the media not just about his football career, but who is dating, what is he doing, etc. Just recently Tony returned home with his girl friend Carey Underwood to Burlington (or so I hear from the family gossip) and he could not even go out to eat during normal restaurant hours. Instead a local restaurant opened early just for him and his family to have dinner.

I think this is crazy. I mean five years ago most people didn’t even know who Tony Romo was and now the media are covering him so much he can even go out in public without worrying about being covered by the media.

I guess what I am getting at is how much should the media really cover these “celebrities” lives? I know everyone likes to watch shows the E! but do we really need to know about every meal they eat and everything they do?

advertising

I got to thinking about advertising when we were discussing it in my other journalism class, and when I was watching an episode of futurama. In the article I was reading, Gloria Steinem related how Ms. Magazine was having trouble because advertisers wouldn't place car ads and electronic ads because they believed that women weren't interested in such things, even when they had data showing it would be profitable. Clairol actually pulled all their ads when Ms. investigated whether or not hair dye was damaging to your skin, even though they didn't mention Clairol. Also, Revlon pulled their ads because they featured Soviet women on the cover without makeup. It makes me wonder how much good stories get pulled because they interfere with an advertising agenda, and it also makes me wonder if our free press really is that free. A lighter critique was in the episode of Futurama I watched, the main character has a dream that turns into an ad, because it turns out that 1,000 years in the future, advertisers can broadcast their ads into your dreams, which is kind of a funny yet scary thought.

You think your smarter than a 5th Grader

After watching my favorite secret pleasure American Idol a new show called You think your smarter than a 5th grader aired. Jeff Foxworthy was the host and because I did not want to get off the couch yet for the remote I continued to watch the show. I believe the grand prize is 1 million dollars while you can win smaller prizes along the way. The concept is that an adult is asked questions from a 5th grade text book while the audience and host laugh at you. In the few minutes I watched the contestent was asked how many letter E's were in Pledge of Allegiance. The man continued to think out loud yelling, PLEDGE OF THE ALLIEGENCE." As the audience continued to laugh the man was counting outloud putting the word "the" in the phrase when it does not actaually occur in it.

This got me questioning why our culture is obssessed with seeing other people make fools of themselves or have troubles. You can see this throughout history as well in many hit shows today. In many late night talk shows a segment is dedicated to asking simple questions to people on the streets who have no ideas of the answers. Why do we love to see other people fail? Does it make us feel better about our own lives? Reality TV shows have taken it a step farther and we now find it entertaining on the Real World to watch people with eating disorders, or on the Hills watching Lauren cry when fighting with her best friend. We find joy in other peoples pain. We find humor in others failurs. I am afraid of where the media may turn next. Are we coming to a point of The Truman Show when we will watch someones every minute to understand their intermost personal thoughts and feelings.

So maybe its okay if you put yourself out there to find humor and entertainment in other peoples lives, yet maybe our media should find something a little more creative to show us. Maybe we continue to tune in every week because thats all their is, or maybe this is all their is because we do tune in every week.

Mooninite’s lose a finger

I received this link from our Post reflector earlier in the week. I thought it related well to what we have talked about in previous classes and the strange appearance of the mooninites. Well, now the mooninites are losing something; the staple of the ad of Aqua Teen Hunger Force guerilla marketing technique. I guess the photoshop version is what many media outlets are now/have been distributing across the news.

Interesting stuff: http://www.fantent.com/2007/01/31/aqua-teen-hunger-force-media-alters-photos/

elements in motion

In line with our discussion with style of sound in film/on screen ... I don't know if anyone caught this on the Oscars but I thought it was amazing. A chorus group produced the sound effects for the movies being shown the screen behind them. They did an excellent job, if you just look at the screen you'd think that whatever object was making the noise was really that, not people. I really enjoyed this.

Anna Nicole Reaches out to Britney

A few months ago, a pregnant Anna Nicole Smith, filmed a video that was intended to be sent to Britney Spears. In the video Anna stated that she wanted to hang out with Britney sometime. With all the recent publicity swarming Anna Nicole and Britney Spears,(I don't want to sound like some sort of a conspiracy theorist), but something is just not right about all of this. Anna dies suddenly, Britney is bald and in rehab, and the media is eating all of this up. What a strange order of events. Why would Anna Nicole film a video? Why wouldn't Anna find Britney's number and call her. A phone call most likely wouldn't be recorded for anyone else to hear. Any video that a celebrity films these days gets leaked to the media. Anna obviously wanted other people to see this. But why? Why do these celebrities claim that they don't want to be the center of the media's attention, yet they are basically throwing themselves at it? Britney was definitely trying to get attention by shaving her head, but why did she want that attention when she claims that the media attention is ruining her life? I don’t think the media would have ever given her good attention for an act like that.

Back to my media conspiracy theory; why does no one know the cause of Anna's death yet; why does no one know who the father is? How is it taking so long to investigate and come up with a conclusion? Why are people so interested in the first place? I feel like the investigation is being prolonged, due to the fact that the longer questions go unanswered, the longer people will ask. The more people ask the more publicity is generated. I have found myself in front of the TV almost everyday just waiting to hear the latest news about Anna. It saddens me that a celebrity that I cared nothing about has had an impact on my day, because I want to hear the latest drama. It is so shocking how the media can just reach through the TV set and grabs a viewer, and makes them care about something that has no impact on their life. The same goes for Britney Spears; the media has thrived off of her problems, most likely being the source of her problems, and now she is in rehab, as an escape from the media. Now that there has been a link between Britney and Anna, through the video, the media has jumped right on board with this story.

It seems twisted that the celebrities have so many problems with media exposure, yet they throw themselves at it. It is also twisted that the media can make a stupid meaningless issue into an important issue. There is no escape from the media in our lives, maybe we all need to be like Britney and go to rehab.

REALITY SHOW HOSTS

So I have to admit I just finished watching the season finale of VH1’s Ego Trip’s The (White) Rapper Show. Yes, yes, besides movies and Packers games, I watch the occasional reality show. I know they’re stupid. But at least the producers know their shows are stupid and don’t make any attempt to fool the audience into thinking these shows are emotionally satisfying or socially redeeming. Almost all shows on TV are simply delivery devices for commercials. Reality shows are no different.

But I find myself on a tangent.

I made the mistake of catching the first episode. Then, at the halfway mark of the season, I hadn’t missed a show because it’s on at a convenient time, and as we all know, they bombard the TV schedule with reruns all week long. So at this point I couldn’t stop until I knew who would be dubbed the best white rapper and take home the $100K reward and recording contract. I know now who won, but for those of you who don’t know, I won’t ruin it.

One thing I noticed as the season drew to a conclusion is that the host, MC Serch, formerly of Third Bass fame, was a good TV personality. ‘Cause let’s face it, most of the participants on reality shows are bumbling spazzes. A good host lends cohesion and an honest voice to an otherwise soap opera on crank.

And so it seems reality shows are more and more headed in this direction. That is, combining the unpredictability and craziness of reality characters with the rules and saneness of a competent host and show formula (a competition). The more I think of it, a lot of the prominent reality shows on TV follow this formula. And thank God, because in reality TV’s infant stages they came dangerously close to being too real. People were drunk on camera, having sex, running around screaming, backstabbing, and doing who-knows-what other ludicrous things.

So even though I not a big fan of white rappers, I got hooked into the show because of MC Serch and the show’s setup—in that it concentrated the most on the competition at hand and not the drama between the characters, although this played in to an extent.

Does anyone else have a favorite reality show host? How ‘bout Robin Leach for the current season of The Surreal Life? Just when you thought that show couldn’t get any more surreal they add Robin Leach to the mix. . . .

I've got some very bad news...

Kodak Winds of Change Video

I heard about this Kodak Winds of Change video through my mom. And yes... that is weird that my mom knows just as much about YouTube as I do (which is not much trust me).

Kodak Winds of Change

Anyways, I found this to be very interesting because the video started out as a commercial produced for internal use at Kodak only. Then, like we talked in class the other day, people that worked at Kodak started emailing it to their friends and family and they emailed it to their friends and family and it just kept spreading. And now is actually turning into a great advertising piece for Kodak.

Being in advertising this is interesting to me. I think that a lot of times the things that are said in this video want to be said in television commercials however companies are to scared to say things like this. It is also funny to be that Kodak spends million of dollars on outside advertisements and what turn out to have the most effect is an advertisement that was not designed to be an ad. Its a perfect example how traditional advertising is not always the most effective form.

I found a video on youtube.com the other day. It’s actually a guy, Luke Johnson, doing an experiment using youtube.com. He put his actual cell phone number on the internet and asked people to call him, all hours of the day or night. He asked whoever saw this to pass it on to their friends or put it on their websites. This is a great example of an average person becoming famous from simply putting a video on the internet. After he put this up on youtube.com his phone started ringing off the hook, from all over the world. It got around so quickly that it wasn’t long before everyone had heard of it. He’s been featured on local news channels and even CNN got a piece of the action.

I first saw this about two weeks ago, and yes, I tried calling. And I tried calling. And I tried calling. It was always busy. I figured it would be, but I had to try. I was too curious not to. I even tried again today, figuring the commotion may have died down a bit, but I still didn’t get to talk to “the Luke Johnson”. I was sad, but I will get over it somehow. :)

I think it’s pretty cool what he did, but would I ever do it? No, absolutely not. But, it definitely shows how easy it is for an “average Joe” now days to get their faces out there and to get people all over the world to call you if that’s what you’re interested in.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkXH7hBbDI0

I STILL can't get the video to post so you guys can click on the link above to see it....if you want.

Beverly Hills 90210

For Christmas, my older brother bought me the first season of Beverly Hills 90210. I had been a huge fan of the show since its beginnings, although I don't remember much of the first two seasons because I was young and they were so long ago.

So, I've been watching the first season of 90210 whenever I have free time to do so. And I've noticed a great difference between the first season and the last few seasons.

The first season is less of a serial drama, which is a basically a show that is continued week to week following a story line. Instead, the first season jumps from show to show teaching viewers a new life lesson in each episode. For example, one character, Brenda, faces the difficulties of being a new student in Beverly Hills and is tempted to steal expensive clothing so she'll fit in. In other episodes, the students deal with sex, alcohol, and abuse. The later 90210 followed a few main stories week to week like a typical soap opera.

While the first season is a bit dramatic and humorous, I actually like the episode to episode format of a sitcom just as much as I enjoyed the serial format for Beverly Hills 90210. I think it's interesting how the show can jump from one format to the other and still remain successful for nine years.

I can't think of any other shows that have pulled that off except for Friends. Anyone think of any others??

Grey's Anatomy + Damien Rice

Well, I, like most everyone else who is addicted to Grey's Anatomy, was glued to my television tonight at 8 pm for the ending to the 3 part chaos. It was not what I was expecting. Why would they kill off the main character to teach her a lesson and them have her come back to life at the end of the show? You knew that they couldn't kill her off. The show is called Grey's Anatomy. Without Meredith it would just be 's Anatomy. I get the that now she feels some self worth and I am guessing she wont be a gosh darn emo kid anymore. In the end though, I was disappointed. I wanted mid season drama to take me on more an adventure. I was like eh, look they are still doctors who are in love with each other and they save lives. I am getting bored. Nothing is happening! Even a ferry boat accident can't get me excited anymore. Hmmm. . .The one thing that did catch my eye, or should I say ear, (ha!) tonight was the music. When they left Meredith to either live or die (vary dramatic and the climax of the show) they played a song by Damien Rice called Sleep Don't Weep. I was so excited to hear this song! I bought this song, along with the rest of the "9" album back in November. The thing that surprised me was not that I knew the song, or that damien Rice was being featured on prime time television. It was the fact that a couple of episodes ago, they played another song by Damien Rice, called Grey Room. Only that time there was no little infomercial about the album at the end of the show and there was this evening. I want to know how much iTunes paid to get these songs featured in these episodes or did the producers have to play for the rights to play the Damien Rice songs? Why would they use two songs from the same album? I have never seen/heard that before.

kari.

This is something we were talking about the other day: journalism compromised by a conflict of interest with public relations. Ha ha.

And in case you missed it, here's my list of good databases that you will find at the library's website. Happy research to you all.

• Business Full Text
• Communication and Mass Media Complete
  
• LexisNexis
• ProQuest New York Times
• ProQuest Newspapers
• Readers' Guide

And remember: keep your eyes out for those trade press sources, the ones like Variety and Broadcasting & Cable. Let me know if you have questions.

Ronco Showtime Rotisserie & BBQ Oven

It's not as good as Ron makes it out to be. Plus the graphic they use of the "flavor injector" doing its thing is pretty nasty.

FOX 6 ran a story last night about an incident in which a man, after having gone out drinking, decided to watch a "movie." During the time when the man was, in his own words, "taking care of business," he heard a loud knock on his door. Before he could answer, his downstairs neighbor had kicked the door down and entered weilding a 3 foot long sword. You can see the rest here:

Takin' Care of Business (not the BTO song)

I realize that unusual stories have definite news value, but with the plethora of serious events ocurring lately, I find it odd that the first story was about some guy listening to porn too loud.

Broadcast news has gotten so incredibly poor. I'm simply talking about the general news shows that air during the day on cable news networks, not the more substantial programs like the fantastic "Countdown with Keith Olbermann." It's either crap about Anna Nicole Smith and anything about HRC and Obama. Yesterday, for example, MSNBC's Alex Witt led a ten minute long discussion detailing the amount of merchandise the candidates sold at a recent convention.

"Are these sales totals indicative of a broader, national sentiment?"
"Does the fact that Hillary gave away her merchandise for free mean anything?"
"What about the fact that Barack Obama charged for his and still moved more merchandise than her?"

Did anyone see FOX News's attempt at "The Daily Show" with their own "Half Hour News Hour?" I'm not even going to link to it. To give you a taste, they joked that Barack Obama has a magazine similar to Oprah's O. But his is called BO!!! Simply genius.

I watched The Departed and The Insider. Both were great.

Last night my girlfriend was giving me crap because I had to wake up really early and she didn't have to. So I opened the following page and turned it up before I left our place.

Holy Smokes, Dinosaurs! It has profanity.

boys of baraka

Today I saw the movie called the Boys of Baraka at noon in the Union Theater for free, and it was definitely worth my time. It was about a group of 12 to 13-year-old at risk boys from inner city Baltimore, Maryland who got to go to a school in Baraka, Kenya. It showed the urban setting and how the kids were basically all still hoping to get out of it. It was saddening to see how that environment could break you down into a state of hopelessness. Of course everyone knows that there are neighborhoods like that, but it's quite another thing to see it in action and see what it does to people, and especially children. At the school, a lot of the boys struggled at first because the school was pretty strict and structured compared to the schools they were used to, but by the end of their first year their skills improved so much that they placed nationally. Unfortunately, after the fitst year the boys' parents found out that the school was closed just before they were set to go for their second year, which greatly upset everyone. The film showed some of the boys nine months later, and while some of them were doing quite well and getting good grades, a few of them had clearly given up hope, which was depressing to see. It was also depressing to see what some of them had to deal with on the home front, such as some of their parents being in jail or on drugs. At the end of the film there was a minister and former public officer who was starting a boarding school for inner city school kids. It felt good to see someone doing something about the problem instead of just talking about it, because I feel that what a lot of people do is say, "That's terrible," and then continue on with their day, and just forget about it. Here's a clip:

Drop a packet

Last week, actually last wednesday night the entire architecture lab's online and data connections went down. It made me remember out discussion in class that wednesday. Within minutes, I was bombarded with questions on whether the online server would be back up. I was doing homework at the time, and needed online access to complete it. That roughtly 40-50 minute period was very odd as business halted to a complete stop, computers were seldom in use, and I couldn't work...at work. The dependency on the internet for purposes such as architecture printing is amazing I found out wednesday night. I was never aware of how the entire building was wired (or wireless) in such a way. In reference to class and kind of as a self inside joke which made me seem more weird that night, I uttered in the silence that someone must have dropped a big packet of information which caused this all to happen. Bad, yes I know. But it was all I could think of as the computer's main function now with the internet gone leaned toward microsoft word and playing with the calculator function.

The Real Housewives of Orange County

Has anyone ever seen this show? I watched my first whole episode last week Tuesday. It is a realty television show with the same style of Laguna Beach but the stars of the reality show are older women. The women on these shows portray a life of luxury. They don’t work; they spend hundreds of dollars on clothes, make-up, plastic surgery, etc. It also focuses on them finding or keeping boyfriends and husbands who have money in order for them to keep living a life of luxury.

Honestly, when I was watching this show it was entertaining and I would watch it again just like I watch Laguna Beach or The Hill’s. But the more I think about it I wonder why shows like these are so successful. Do we as a society think it is entertaining, are we watching it to dream that we have that life, or is it that we think that these people’s lives are so ridiculous and that they don’t really have any idea of what “real life” is for people? I don’t know what the answer is but it’s interesting to think about.

Also, it is interesting to that all of these reality shows are successful even though they have the same basic storyline. It is like what we talked about in class once one type of show is successful everyone what’s to copy it because they know it will be successful.

Aqua Teen Hunger Force Crash Course

Okay, so there has been a lot of talk about Aqua Teen Hunger Force in the media lately. I think it's important that people are familiarized with the show in order to better understand the tactics used for the show's promotion.

I've selected two episodes. Be warned, although it may appear to be a cartoon show, it's an adult comedy. If are you unsure as to whether or not you will be offended, well, just try a bit of the show. If you don't like what you see and hear, feel free to turn it off. That's the beauty of this show, though, it's skewed, offensive, and hilarious. There's a very amusing episode by the name of Handbanana, though I fear it may be far too extreme for individuals who have not yet become accustomed to the crude humor of ATHF.

Enjoy.

Revenge of the Mooninites:

Dumber Dolls:

iPods

Last year, I read an article in the UWM Post written by Diego Costa. Based off of a conversation he overheard in the union, he wrote a story criticizing a girl for only wanting the iPod headphones in order to be “fashionable.” Honestly, I think he made up this “overheard conversation” just to make some random point about conformity, but regardless, I remember that random, stupid article to this day.

I never really noticed people wearing headphones around campus, until I got my iPod last weekend. Yes, I finally joined the trend. Now it seems that wherever I walk at school I notice the white cords dangling from people’s earlobes. If I see black cords or blue cords I feel a sense of superiority because of the fact that mine are white…mine are the “real thing”!?

Maybe this stems from Apple’s emphasis on the almighty white cord against the black silhouette in all of it’s advertising, or the fact that so much of their company is based off of image creation in general….or maybe I just want to feel that I’m better than everyone else (hopefully, it’s not the latter)!?!?!

Totally off subject... I came across these videos of a crazy cooking show... I don't know if it is wildly inappropriate/offensive or not, but it's pretty funny.

valentine's day

Ah, Valentine's Day has come and gone. It's one of my favorite holidays, mostly because I am expected to spend less money...ha!!! Anyhow, you look around and it's kind of amazing how much it's promoted. I almost feel sorry for the guys, cause I read that they spend more on Valentine's Day than every other holiday combined. Like I said, it's just interesting seeing how everyone goes so crazy that day, and naturally there's generally some romantic movie that'll open close to that day, and there'll also be a bunch of romantic movies on TV that will feature a nauseous happy ending. I have to admit it's better when I'm not single on Valentine's Day and someone takes you out. So I guess the final tagline for Valentine's is: Couples rejoice, singles beware. On a less romantic note, I'm going to try to embed an episode of pure pwnage:

Argggh...Pirates!

Vanity Fair had a piece in their latest issue, “Pirates of the Multiplex.” It detailed the raids against Pirate Bay headquarters in Sweden and talked about “piracy” in general.

It quoted a statistic by the MPAA (don’t even get me started on them) about how much money the entertainment industry has lost. According to the MPAA, the movie industry lost $18.2 billion to movie piracy in 2005, and $7.1 billion of that in file sharing. Those statistics are troubling….not because they are staggering numbers…but because they are inaccurate.

Just because $18.2 billion dollars of media has been downloaded or copied does not mean that $18.2 billion dollars of media would have been bought in stores or on websites. I download and buy media (but mostly download). The television shows or albums I download….I would NOT buy in stores (especially from companies like Wal-Mart or Blockbuster…which I think hurt creativity and artists in favor of the “industry”). If a band is great, or there is a show I love, I’ll buy the CD or the DVD box set….but if I miss an episode of South Park…I’m probably just going to download it.

While these companies are playing the pity card, executives and “Stars” are still making way more money than they know what to do with. Warner Bros. lays off hundreds of workers, but Ben Affleck got $12.5 million for Gigli.

NPR: Not Just News Talk Anymore.

As most college students, I spend my evenings during the week doing homework, well most of the time. During this time I spend my time listening to the radio and studying and learning things that I need to know. Anyway, recently I became tired of listening to the commerical top 40 stations and even the independent radio station in Milwaukee. I was tired of hearing the same music and most of all the advertisements. I just found it all to be a big distraction, so I decided to see what was on the local NPR station and to my amazement I heard The Shins coming out of my radio. This had to be a mistake, a contempary band on public radio? Well then I continued to listen, and then they started playing non-mainstream Snow Patrol. This was just to much, I was hooked. Good (in my opinion) contempary music without the commercials, what could be better?
This intregment lead to me doing a little research. I decided to look up the schedule of programming for WUWM. As it turns out the radio station has this programming everynight! This program has played some of my favorite bands and also opened my eyes to some new music. For example, I first heard Willie Porter, who was recently in the Gasthouse, on the Cafe Tonight show.
If you are a student who is sick of listening to main-stream music and all the commercials that you hear, you should definately check out the Cafe Tonight and World Cafe programming on WUWM and NPR.

Firefox Split Broswer etc.

So to follow up on some things I mentioned in class:

-If you want to try an alternative to Internet Explorer (or if you use a Mac, Safari), download Firefox. It's free and easy. One of the best things about it is that it can be customized using add-ons like the split browser I was telling you about. Here is a screenshot I took of my own computer with the split browser a couple of weeks ago:



I can read an article on the left while sort of paying attention to a video on the right. Download it and see what you think.

-I mentioned the other day that I save bookmarked links using a web application called del.icio.us, so here is a link to my del.icio.us bookmarks. The videos we watched this week in class are here in case you missed them, wanted to watch them again, or whatever.

Net Neutrality

To continue the conversation from todays class...
On MySpace, 'Save the Internet's' profile posted a bulletin about net neutrality ... they provided a link to send the FCCs chairman Kevin Martin a Valentine ... if you are interested you can go to this link: http://www.freepress.net/valentine/.
This is what the 'valentine' says:

Dear Chairman Martin,

Will you be our Valentine?

We're sending you this Valentine's Day card with the hope that you will put the public's interests before those of Big Media and their lawyers and lobbyists.

In 2007 please stand with us to:

1) Stop media conglomerates from swallowing up even more local outlets.
2) Prevent phone companies from destroying Net Neutrality.
3) Help foster more diverse voices and points of view.

With best wishes for this Valentine's Day,

Signed by:
[Your name]
[Your address]

Star Wars.

I just finished watching Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith. Anakin Skywalker has just become Darth Vader. Awesome, I know. Ok, so I should mention that I am a new Star Wars watcher. I was one of the rare few who had not watched any of the first three put out in the late 70s and early 80s. When the prequels started coming out, I could have cared less. However, there was something about the movies that made me feel like I should see them. I have a list of things to do before I die, and watching all the Star Wars movies made the list. That has to say something. I mean, what is it about these movies that make people feel that it is necessary to see them? Then, last semester, I took a JMC class that spent a majority of the time talking about Star Wars and the impact the movies has on the movie industry and on globalization. I wonder if when George Lucas was making these movies he thought that one day it would be part of college curriculum. It’s pretty impressive. So, now I’m a fan. Ugh. Netflix should get here tomorrow with the last three. Or, the first there, it’s all very confusing.

Dirt

The new show that Courtney Cox produces and stars in identifies our cultures obsession with celebrities. I will admit my dirty secret of standing in line at the grocery store reading as much as possible about Britney's latest mistake and Lindsey Lohan entering rehab as before I reach the cashier, as well as watching E New Live and Entertainment Tonight. The craze is spinning out of control and with so much money coming in from our love of it, I see no end insight.

In the episode that I watched of Dirt an A list movie star who prides himself on his good family image is caught cheating on his wife with another man. The photographer broke into his house and after being caught by his body guards, swallowed the film to save the picture he took of the two men being intimate together. The film was then surgically removed and Lucy Spiller (Courtney Cox) was thrilled with the extent her coworker went though to save the pictures. This got me thinking about the paparozzi and our consumerism of celebrity based news. There are more magazines on the grocery store stand selling celebrity's news more than any other genre. CNN now has headlines that read "Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaugn Broken Up". Paparazzi are growing in extreme numbers and are more and more stalking out celebrities every move. If you are a celebrity and have put yourself out in public, you most expect some exposure but the extent our culture has taken it seems too extreme. Why do we care when Nicole Richie is seen eating a cheeseburger or Paris Hilton has gone out to the club again. We want to know every detail about their life so we can build them up and then tear them down.

Dirt shows the inside of the industry and the dirty work that goes on in exposing the celebrities. Our obssesion may seem innocent when we can't get enough of hearing detail of the latest hookup or break up, but what is is doing to the celebrities and our news culture? More and more today our young celebrities who grace our front pages are entering rehab and acting out. Though we all usually shrug it off as they are crazy or out of control, our need for private information may be destroying them and our news. Entertainment news has now become important news that needs to be reported on high profile news shows. Yet even after I contemplate it I'll still turn to E and the tabloids because they are entertaining perpetuating the very cycle that I feel is taking over our culture in a negative way.

Hannibal Rising

I went to see Hannibal Rising this weekend. This movie was definatly not "The best Hannibal movie since Silence of the Lambs!". In my opinion, this was the worst Hannibal movie. I went to the movie expecting to see a horror/drama movie about everyone's favorite cannibal and was left with a feeling of disappointment. Because of all the lastest standards (thanks Quenton) of horror movies being overly grotesk, I also expected this. There were some gorey parts but it was nothing compaired to Hostel or the Saw trilogy. Throughout the movie, I kept feeling that the action was about to start any minute. I guess what I am trying to say is that there was way too much story and not enough gorey. The concept on the story was gross but it just wouldn't stop and get on with the good stuff! Then I heard on the radio this morning that Hannibal Rising was #2 in sales for the weekend. I think that this was because of the fame of the first movies, they did a good job of promoting this movie, and maybe because of the Jeffrey Dahmer news story. I'm not trying to be insensitive about the Dahmer/Adam Walsh story but sometimes you have to think "Is this too convenient?" I mean what better plublicity for a cannibal movie? It could very well be a big coincidence, but as an advertising major I think that I realize just how far people will go to promote something (especially when the product SUCKS!!!)

For this week: copyright

I have added a Glossary of Terms: Copyright to the class website (also available as a PDF).

As I mentioned on the first day of class I would let everyone know the website that allows you to watch full episodes of shows (specifically for me, "The Office") ... www.dailymotion.com.
I find it fascinating that websites like this are able to let people watch TV and/or film episodes and clips without any charge. It is definitely awesome and a convenience for viewers to have the ability to do this. You just wonder how many people are taking advantage of TV on the Internet and the outcome of it for TV stations ... The Internet really has become a popular media medium and I believe a definite amount of viewers are now on the Internet watching shows and movies rather than on the TV itself. It will be interesting to see where television and the Internet stand in ten years... is it possible for TV to be absolutely absolute???

...Here's a clip from "The Office"

The Office - Fake Diseases
Uploaded by merugo

MP3 Players & Technology in general

So, last April I bought my boyfriend a MP3 player for his birthday. One month later it broke and after hours on the phone dealing with customer service…I had to send it back to them. They then serviced it and sent it back to me months later. Since then he has had problems with it at least one a month and we have both been on the phone with the customer service people off and on. Now, the MP3 play is completely broken again and won’t even play any music at all. To me this is so frustrating. I mean a $300 dollar MP3 player should actually work and not be broken every month…shouldn't it?

This leads me to think about technology in general. It seems like in today’s society technology is designed to last very short term and then it breaks. This just does not make any sense to me. If I spend hundreds of dollars on something I want to be able to use it more then a few months or at tops a few years. Has anyone else had problems like this or is it just me with the bad technology luck?

I saw an example of MTV encouraging people to visit their website when 
I watched one of their new shows called Underage and Engaged.  At the 
end of the show the new groom's mother asked if they wanted to come 
over for breakfast and they basically said, "If you want to know what he
said, go to our website."  I actually laughed.  Love em or hate em, you gotta admire MTV for knowing where the trends are. 
Also, I recently realized that I now get most of my news from the web.  
I know what's going on with news and entertainment because when I sign 
in b to google or  yahoo or whatever, I see the most recent news bulletin or 
ad or whatever.  So now when I think about it, the way I get and receive 
information has changed 
a lot.  I knew about Anna Nicole that way, and about that astronaut love triangle, 
as well as the new aqua teen hunger force movie...that should be very interesting, 
can't wait for that!!!

Prince + silhouette = Media Critics

I must say I saw it coming. As soon as the shadowy figure of prince appeared in a figure most people would at least smile at, I knew the media would jump on it. Yahoo's front page today questions the superbowl performance as the "shadow of scandal." I must admit though, that indeed when I saw this I was a little surprised. I found it funny to read farther that critics of the media commented that we are lucky to only have experienced such superbowl controversy of a shadow versus other incidents such as Janet Jackson three years ago. I suppose I do agree with them, and this will probably be the only time. But what can't be considered sexual? This is where I think the media should just leave this topic alone, because you take any item today and someone will probably find a way to make a sexual term or action from it. My question is, would anyone really notice or care in the future, if the media did not exploit these facts? That, is probably the hardest question for me to think about.

Aqua Teen

To be honest I have never seen Aqua Teen and really do not know much about it. However, after talking about it the past two classes, I found that the controversy caused by the electronic devices placed in Boston was very interesting. Then, I found an article about it on MSNCB.com which stated that Aqua Teens ratings barely increased after this guerrilla advertising stunt. This is kind of funny to me. I mean the guys that did this are facing possible jail time, Turner Broadcasting and their advertising agency are paying $2 million to compensate for the controversy and it did not even help the show or the Turner at all. It leaves me thinking are the risks of guerrilla advertising worth it? Does guerrilla advertising really work? OR... Is it that this form of guerrilla advertising was just too risky and because of that people got so upset that it actually turned them away from the show? I don't know what the right answer to this is and I am not sure that anyone could know but its interesting to me as an advertising major to think about. Does anyone else have any feelings on these questions? Who knows maybe the shows ratings will increase next week.

Holly

P.S. I'm not sure if the MSNCB.com link worked so here it is just in case....
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17049321/

Anna Nicole

My friends and I love to talk about pop culture. It's our hobby! While others might be ranting about Sunday night football or arguing politics, we are on the subject of Kevin Federline. But in this case, Anna Nicole. I found out from my sister and best friend through text that Anna Nicole Smith was pronounced dead hours ago. The news stations are going crazy with live interviews from friends, buisness aquaintences and I have no doubt by the end of the evening Larry Birkhead. He is this blonde fame-hungry photographer who used to "date" Anna. He has persistently claimed that he is indeed the father of her 6 month old baby. He has been on News show after news show accusing her of drug and alchohol abuse while pregnant. There has been a US court order for her to submit her new daughter to a paternity test. She has rebuttled by moving to Bahamas with her new husband, lawyer (and self-proclaimed father to disputed baby) Howard Stern. He has no relation to Radio Talk show host. In Bahamas the law states that if a woman is married legally than her husband can be considered the father of any children that she has. Quite an effective retaliation. But there's even more to this saga! Her 20 year old son died three days after Anna gave birth to her daughter. Drugs including Methadone were found in his system. Anna was extremely close with him and often said, "He is all I have."

Birkhead didn't even wait for her son to be buried before he began bashing her to the media. Making violent claims and threatening to take away the one thing that could possibly help her get through this time.

Anna's speech is constantly slurred. Reports of friends witnessing her drug use continue to surface. I would be unbelievebly suprised to find that she is ever sober.Obviously, I do not condone a mother to have custody of a child while on drugs.
Her cause of death has been listed as cardiac arrest. Many can and have safely assumed that drugs will be found in her system.

Birkhead was on E News last night, again. He had taped a number of phone calls with Anna that made her look less than "motherly". They were all heard on E. He had found a very close girl friend of Anna's and convinced her to come forward with negative accusations.
I'm left wondering what correlation Birkhead's last attack on her in the media had with her choice (that's my guess so far) to put her body in such danger. Would she even had known his plans and intentions this far if it weren't being spewed from the 6:00 news (hey it's what I consider "news".
While I watch her body being roughly rolled in to the coroner under a large red blanket (thanks to the MSNBC's helicopter footage), I can only wonder one thing. Someday her daughter Dannilyn will get old enough to want to know more about her mother. Among all of the thousands of photographs, Guess jeans advertisements, and even Anna's reality show, will this be the last image of her mother that forever stays in her mind?

Are the media to blame?

It is commonly accepted in our society that politicians are liars, cheats, or master manipulators. During election times, candidates receive so much negative attention or too often become the butt of society’s jokes that many people feel as if they are picking between the lesser of two evils, or between two idiots. The way candidates are portrayed by the media turn the entire political process into a game. Which candidate is ahead? What sort of trickery did the candidate use to take the lead? If a candidate is behind, what are they doing wrong? How is their character flawed? These types of questions are ultimately irrelevant when choosing political leaders, but yet they receive the most attention during political campaigns. In Out of Order, Thomas Patterson stated, “If Vietnam and Watergate marked a time when the press turned against the politicians, then now represents when the press has turned on them,” (21). If the press has turned on politicians, and turned campaigns into a game, then how can citizens trust anything said by politicians, make informed decisions, or prevent themselves from being alienated from the political process?

People seem to dislike politicians most when they cite a general dissatisfaction with politics, but few people consider journalists to be a source of the political problem. When politicians make campaign promises, journalists assume they are empty attempts at getting votes and often report them to be as such. Later when politicians actually do keep, or attempt to keep, their campaign promises, it barely makes the news. Furthermore, if any promises are not kept, for logistical reasons or disagreements with congress, politicians are simply painted as liars. So any promises that are made on the campaign trail are given little weight by the public mostly because the press downplays held promises and exaggerates broken ones election after election.

The game schema only allows the public to hear four stories: who’s leading, who’s trailing, who’s gaining ground, and who’s losing ground. Voters never seem to get the information they need to make informed decisions. Too much emphasis is placed on drama and character, and far too little emphasis is placed on policy issues. An adversarial press has spawned an adversarial public that has little to no faith in the political process or government.

I know that I have often been lured by the game process and my voting decisions have been influenced by superfluousness...and I am learning how to STUDY the media...imagine how the average person must feel?

Can the inadequacies of present day media be the fault of increased commercialism?

Tyra Banks Speaks Out

While I can't honestly say that I support Tyra Banks on each and every one of her crusades, I can support her sentiments regarding the lastest 'controversy'-- and yes, I use the word controversy lightly. The media has recently taken a liking to Ms. Banks, resulting in a large amount of exposure.

While I'm tempted to give into a rant about the body image created by today's society, I figure I should let Tyra do the talking for me.

(Just a heads-up, Tyra does swear in this clip)

I sympathasize with her, and although she can become a tad irritating, I think she is pushing for a healthier and more relaxed body image in today's society. (Though, on a side note, I find it ironic that she produces/endorses/created a reality show featuring young women boasting BMI's lower than 18.5)

Tyra is using the attention granted to her by the masses (Pun!) in an efficient manner. She's both diverting and converting the negative attention she's receiving into a message about body image.

Good for you, Tyra.

super bowl commercials

So I was online checking my MySpace account ... and I saw a bulletin posting with a link to a website with all the super bowl commercials [ http://www.myspace.com/superspots ]. I thought the commercials were alright this year; it seemed a lot of them were animated. Overall I thought the Bud Light and the Doritos ads were the best. The Bud Light ads of 'Rock, Paper, Bud Light,' 'Bud Light Immigrants,' and 'Bud Light Slap' were all pretty creative and what [I think] are probably going to be the most liked ads [most popular] of the super bowl. I thought the Coke commercials appeared as if they were trying to hard to make an ad that was different. The animated commercials threw me off ... I am curious to know why so many animated ads were produced? Video games and Pixar films are definitely 'in' at the moment ... perhaps staying within the trend was enough of an answer to choose to have that type of an ad - "nothing succeeds like success."

PS. and K-Fed was in an investment commercial...? Oh, ok.

Anyone ever feel victimized like this?

I've always been a fan of 'Trigger Happy TV'-- and this segment struck a chord with me.

Anyone ever feel like this in the library?




I appreciate the wit of this show. The pranks are smart, well thought out, and fairly harmless. I much prefer this type of show over Jackass, though I suppose there are times when mindless, slapstick humor can be embraced.

The Office: Recut

There are a bunch of these made now, but this one was pretty funny.

It is all magic

I found magic berry about a year ago, and due to the super bowl hype I wanted to bring him back to the blog for a reason. This morning, I was browsing online news clips about tv spots and ads being produced just for online use in the superbowl and I thought it was amazing. I think I enjoyed magic berry so much because it pokes fun at what should be poked fun at, the numerous amount of people actually making careers out of the information age. I think it is good for both sides and it shows that the internet is all magic. There is an abundant amount of slight of hand information flying around, which we see about 10% of in the final product, and it is used for entertainment uses, but also to spark curiosity in the unknown. Some of this slight of hand information we do not see, has been deemed detrimental to us, but for the most part, the notion of a person making an entire career online is now starting to become a reality.

[adult swim] v. boston

Let's just start by I am a huge fan of the [adult swim]. I understand in every way what was meant by the guerrilla marketing campagin that will be discussed below. I apologize on behalf of the people who do not have the privilege of knowing what a moonite really is. I do not have the privilege of paying a cable bill, so I do not get to watch the late night television programming as much as I would like to. Anyway, I was watching Nightline on Thursday night and there was a picture of a character from Aqau Teen Hunger Force. Not really paying attention in the first place I became intreged. As it turns out, a creature called a mooninte has become the lastest
threat to American safety. Apparently, light displays, as shown on the right, triggered multiple calls to the Boston Police Department about bomb scares. These threats were taking very seriously. Highways, bridges, and the entire down town of a major American city were shut down by a middle-finger raising moon creature, pictureed on the right. It shows the times that we live in, media can even be the evil that is out to get the country. Our advertising tactics have become so agressive that we do not even know how to interpret them as media and nothing more. Even though this gurrellia marketing campagin has two men facing felony counts and possible jail time, they took a step further into getting the message about their show. In my opinion, this also an example of a of what once was a subculture now coming to the stand of popular culture. What is your opinion on this issue? How should we hand this independent advertising group doing this marketing campagin that got out of control? Should they be punished? They didn't call in a bomb threat or even tell people the light displays were bombs. I thought the media was protected under that thing that we call the First Amendment. Well, I will state my final opinion on this. People will go to great lenghts to get an idea to stick. We will remember the name of Turner Broadcasting System and the entity of [adult swim] that they hold. Would you go to this great of length to get your name out into the general public?

kari-

P.S. I apologize to anyone who may have been offened by the images or context of this blog.

media

I have gotten so out of touch, cause I don't watch any of these shows really!!! The only shows I really watch on a regular basis are Adult Swim on Cartoon Network and House. (Best show ever!!!) Although when I see the third season of Entourage on DVD, I'm definitely there!!!Also, I recently saw the movie Pan's Labyrinth and met one of the stars-Doug Jones-at the Oriental. Yeah, I believe that paying to see a movie to get into that theater is worth it!!! The movie was really cool and creative, although if you don't like subtitles, you'd better not see it. The Oriental has its own unique look (an asset that is steadily disappearing) shows movies that you don't usually see in the mainstream theaters, ones that are more experimental and different. Some of those films are pretentious crap, but there are some good ones. Also, I was introduced to the show pure pwnage by my boyfriend, and even though it's about gamers in Canada, it's surprisingly good!!! I'll try and post one of my favorite episodes, it's very easily seen on the web, you just go to google video and type in the name of the show.
I admit that one of the reasons I don't watch the shows like Laguna Beach and the other reality shows is that they're addictive!!! Generally I find myself being sucked in, even if I don't want to be. There just a fascination with watching some of these people going through struggles that are usually anything but realistic, or watching some people live a fantasy life that you'd love to have. Definitely an addictive concept.

Hella

Hella is one of my favorite bands. Their new album, There's No 666 In Outerspace, is coming out soon. It's not everyone's taste, but it's interesting to see how amazing Zach Hill is at drums.

The Game

I recently re-watched David Fincher's The Game the other night. It is still very surprising that some people have never heard of this movie, especially considering the popularity of Fincher's later films. Most notably: Fight Club. Well, and Panic Room but I'm honestly the only person I know that likes that movie.

Lately, I've been digging The Comedians of Comedy documentary. Especially Zach Galifianakis, whose act has grown absurdly more hilarious every year. I'm betraying my Mr. Show fandom, but I can do without Brian Posehn. His stand-up is very hit-or-miss, and I don't find Star Wars jokes that appealing. If they would have had David Cross in place of Posehn, I would have...laughed more.

Zach: I wish they made a morning-after pill for Denny's "Moons Over My Hammy"

Fun in Class

I got rid of the goofy stuff I did today in class and embedded OK Go's treadmill video for "Here it Goes Again," viewed more than 10 million times on YouTube and still just as incredible as the first time you saw it:



Seen any good videos online? Embed them here!

Virtual MTV

After watching "Showstopper" yesterday I was talking about how MTV is trying to drive traffic from its television channel to its website. Here's a great example of what they're doing there: Virtual Laguna Beach, a 3-D animated virtual world where you create an avatar and interact with other virtual characters in an immersive environment.

Just like television and movies, the virtual world of MTV.com will be commercialized through product placement/advertising. As this article in Wired describes:

[L]ike YouTube and MySpace, MTV still needs to find a way to make the virtual world pay. User participation and brand building aren’t enough. Jeff Yapp, an MTV executive vice president...thinks that VLB has the potential to generate bigger bank per person than the TV show from which it sprang.

“If you look at our monetization on a viewer basis for Laguna Beach, we’re making pennies a person,” Yapp says. But, he says, visitors to Virtual Laguna Beach might buy a DVD of the show, a branded T-shirt, or a virtual T-shirt for their avatar (in-world currency can be purchased with a credit card at an exchange rate of 180 MTV bucks to the US dollar). And hardcore fans will be able to get virtual crash pads and flirt via VoIP when MTV launches a $6-per-month premium service.

MTV may never match revenue from TV commercials by becoming a virtual landlord. But the opportunity for advertisers is another story. In VLB, products can be integrated into the virtual experience. Instant-messaging windows can be skinned as Cingular cell phones, virtual Pepsi cans are a surprisingly popular accoutrement, and Secret deodorant recently ran a contest in which VLB members confess a secret—the best secrets got turned into video clips that were screened for virtual audiences at the Laguna Cinema and other locales in VLB.

Advertisers can’t help but love an online space in which the hard-to-reach demographic of teenage girls makes up around 55 percent of members (which explains why a guy who signs into VLB is usually mobbed with potential admirers). About 40 percent of all members are under 17. On average, users visit six times a month for 35 minutes a session. (The typical Web site devoted to a television show receives just five six-minute visits per user per month.) And sign-ups have continued to rise since the end of the Laguna Beach season in November. Yapp talks about the network’s ability to push a “fire hose” of viewers toward the service.

Basically, MTV wants to create a social networking site, something like Facebook or MySpace, but using a 3-D animated environment that is saturated with consumerism. I haven't played around with VLB (in part because you can't do it using a Mac, which is what I have at home). If any of you has given it a whirl I'd love to know about your experience.

American Idol

I know we talked about this a little bit on the first day of class but I wanted to express my opinion....

After the first several shows of this seasons American Idol, many people thought that the judges were being more cruel then ever. There was talk that the judges were not just criticizing the participants sing (which the show should focus on) but were also criticizing other factors such as appearance, intelligence level, etc. This caused many people to stand up and express there opinions about this. I saw this publicly addressed on the show, The View. Rosie O'Donald state that she felt that the show allowed people that might not be in a correct mental state to but themselves in a situation and that they do not realize how this could harm them in the future. And many other people had similar view points.

However, I feel that these concerns are very interesting. American Idol has been on for many seasons now and each season the same thing happens. Plus, the judges are just as mean as they were since season one. So, why are these people all so concerned now. I mean if anything, people that sign up to participate in the show know better now more then ever what they are getting themselves into (They most likely have seen all the past seasons or at least heard about the show). In addition to this, I think if you sign up to participate in any reality TV show you know that anything you do can be aired and you sign a contract that says this is okay. I mean every reality TV show airs things that make people in them look stupid or shows them doing something embarrassing.

Plus, American Idol is part of the media business and their main goal is to make money. If the show only aired the great singers and the people that seemed "normal" most likely not very many of us would want to watch. It just wouldn't be as fun or entertaining. And if we didn't watch the show would lose advertisers and this would result in the show going off the air. The show is all about being successful and no one can blame them for that.

Personal Media

I have recently found myself in the compromising position of having my purse stolen. No, it's not what you think. I wasn't mugged or attacked, but more or less had it taken from me when I wasn't paying attention. A lot of it was my own fault, and I guess I'm starting to come to terms with it. Alright, so the purse if gone; what is the next step? I have to try to figure out what was in it, what I lost, and what needs to happen for me to replace those items. In doing so, I realized how much it sucks to loose cash, because that's all just gone, how much of a pain it is to replace credit cards, and how time consuming replacing my driver's license can be. Despite all of problems, I am truly grateful that my cell phone was not in the purse at the time it was stolen. My cell phone is a huge part of my life and I know I would be lost without it. Occasionally, I'll leave it behind when I go to class for an hour or two, and I'm left feeling empty or naked without a form of communication with me, whether I need to use it or not. It has my daily schedules in it, set alarms for wake-ups and reminders, and every phone number I need to know. I've never bothered to learn my work number, my boyfriend's number, or even my parent's numbers for the mere reason that my cell phone has them all. I'm lucky I still have my phone, because I don't know how I would have dealt with the situation without it. Most people living away from home for college don't have a house phone, leaving my cell phone as the only way I could cancel my credit cards, call my parents, and report my stolen purse. Now, I wait for a new credit card to arrive in the mail, order a new check card from the bank, and try to make time to sit at the DMV to get a new driver's license. Had I lost my phone, replacing it would have come first. It's my personal media that I simply can't live without.

"Maui Fever" & "Laguna Beach"

After our class discussion and our viewing of Laguna Beach, I began to think about how reality television portrays people and if this portrayal accurately represents the "real" people in the area the show is based on? This led me to think about a new show I had recently watched on MTV called Maui Fever. The first episode of Maui Fever aired last week Wednesday and has caused a great deal of controversy. Maui Fever at least after viewing the first episode...which was so stupid to me that I found it hard to watch...seems to be all about a group of "locals" who live a party life with the main goal of hooking up with tourists.

The characters and lifestyle they live in this reality show has cause controversy with many people that are Maui natives. They feel that the show portrays Maui badly and that the people in the show are not even Maui natives, like the show claims they are. This controversy made me think, do people that watch Maui Fever and other reality shows like it believe that this is what the natives of Maui are like? Or back to Laguna Beach....do people think that the people of Laguna Beach represent how people act in this area of CA?

As I thought about these questions I realized that if people have never been to CA or Maui that they only have the option to believe things that they seen in the media....so they might think this is how life truly is in these areas. At this point I realized why the actual natives of Maui were up set with the show Maui Fever and how much it truly harms the perception people have of the areas and people that live in the areas. After all, I do not think that everyone that lives in Maui lives a life of partying and hooking up and that everyone in CA has tons of money and is only concerned with shopping, looks, and relationships.

These lead me to some questions that I don't think have any clear answer but are something I was left thinking about....1)How much do reality TV shows affect our perceptions or true reality?; 2) Do they hurt our society?

Laguna Beach vs. The Hills

Although the blonde bombshell Kristen was the star of the show "Laguna Beach," the equally gorgeous blonde, Lauren takes over the role of the OC's hottest star in her new show "The Hills," on MTV. Both Kristen and Lauren apperared in our television sets a few years ago, when MTV made a reality show about rich high school students in the OC. Any viewer of the show can clearly see that the cast of kids on the show lead very unordinary lives. In class today one topic that was brought up about "Laguna Beach," was that cast of the show had unlimited money, unlimited freedom, and unlimited drama. The show never shows the highschool students in school, they very rarely have jobs, and they never have any responsiblilities. They fill their time with shopping, partying, surfing, eating out for every meal, driving around in their brand new BMW's, "hooking up" with half the school, and getting hair extensions for every school dance. What a life! No wonder why people of all ages are tuning into the lives of these teenagers. Their lives are so far from the ordinary, these kids live in fantasy land.

I have personally seen every episode of Laguna Beach, although it is lame to admit, I am intrugued with their superficial lives. Tonight I watched the new episode of "The Hills," the newest edition to the Laguna Beach craze. Lauren, a former Laguna Beach star, moves to L.A. to attend fashion school. She also lands the internship of a lifetime at Teen Vogue Magazine. Along the way she makes new friends and parties at all the hottest L.A. night clubs. Although her life still is a walk in the park, compared to the rest fo the population, she actually goes to school and has a job. Granted she got the job because of her fame on Laguna Beach, never the less, she has a job. She also has responsibility and maturity, something she lacked while on Laguna Beach.

Both shows are popular due to their fantasy appeal, but "The Hills," is just a little more grown up than "Laguna Beach," but I really do mean "just a little."

For next Wednesday...

This is to give you an idea of what to do with your proposal. It should identify a specific media text, describe it briefly, and offer two or three questions you might ask about it in your paper. (Note: titles of films, television programs, video games, music albums, and publications such as books and magazines go in italics.)

Sample Topic Proposals (JMC Spring 2007)

+Sample topic proposal: Pirates of the Caribbean

For my assignment I would like to write about the film Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest. Dead Man’s Chest was an incredibly successful release in the summer of 2006. How does Hollywood create blockbuster films like this one to appeal to viewers of all ages, but especially to children? How was the film made to generate income through “tie-ins” such as toys and games, soundtrack recordings, and other forms of merchandising? By considering questions like these, I want to understand how Hollywood makes successful blockbuster films.

+Sample topic proposal: ESPN The Magazine

For my assignment I would like to write about the bi-weekly sports magazine ESPN. ESPN is a large-format glossy magazine about American sports that tries to project a cool, young attitude. How does ESPN try to appeal to men and especially young men? How does it try to extend the “brand” created by the cable television channel ESPN? Answering these questions will help me understand what makes this magazine appeal to readers.

+Sample topic proposal: Laguna Beach

For my assignment I would like to write about MTV’s “docu-soap” program Laguna Beach, which recently finished its third season. Laguna Beach is a reality program that follows the lives of a group of beautiful high school students in a very rich community on the ocean in California. I am interested in how Laguna uses contemporary popular music to help tell its stories and also in looking at how MTV uses programming rather than music videos to promote songs and bands. I am also interested in how MTV combines TV and the internet. By looking at these issues, I hope to understand more about how cable television shows try to make programming that young viewers will want to watch.

Ms. Lohan and Escapism

I was watching television the other night, and I believe it was VH1's hilarious 'Best Week Ever' program. One of the comedians brought up Lindsay Lohan's admittance to rehab. He then went on to point out US Weekly's angle on the story-- not the issue of rehab itself but rather- What was Lindsay wearing?! Yes, this apparently serves as breaking news in today's society.

Personally, I don't believe this issue is ever important enough to devote an article to, especially when it overshadows a more important topic, you know, as in entering rehab for drug/alcohol abuse [especially at such a young age]. As if discussing Lindsay's apparel of choice wasn't embarrassing enough for US Weekly, the article went on to criticize Lindsay's outfit.

I guess I can't speak from experience, but I suppose if I was making my way into rehab, concern for whether my Versace handbag matched my D&G sunglasses would be a source of minimal distress.

Once again, this prompts me to question society today and what its values are. Though I can't really blame US Weekly for its angle. The magazine is only devoting time to topics it believes the population will eat up, and yes, this is a proven formula. Superficial topics sell. I think this is a form of escapism for many individuals. Rather than face issues that are complicated or frightening, people give into topics that have little to no impact on their lives. They live through celebrities-- the excitement, the fame, the riches, and inevitably-- the drama.

Kicking it off

Well I am sitting here at work in the architecture building constantly emailing a number of people and it brought me back to a thought (sort of about the media of facebook) that we had a discussion on today. This seemed like the right time to kick things off with the blog. I was just thinking about the idea of being "too old" for facebook that came up in class. Whether Michael is too old, who is too old, and what information actually impacts what I can do with it (facebook and yahoo mail/other email) in the media. Will our generation, college students now, ever be too old for it? and what are the impacts of this on my sanity for instance since I am addicted; it is true. This, personally, scares the crap out of me and for the most part, I think it should. I feel that if I could have went back to the introductions in class... I should have said facebook and yahoo mail. This has its advantages though, for business communications in journalism but it is kind of exhausting at the same time. For instance, I got my first workstudy job simply by emailing the uwm buildings asking, no meetings required. Also, I communicate constantly with the UWM post over email. Maybe it is just me, and the lifestyle right now.. If we are hooked now... what the heck are we going to be like in 10-15 years and since we are the first introduced to facebook... can we mature to outgrow it? I can't wait to see a spam blocker and virus protection for facebook users in the future.

Homophobic slur on the set of Grey's Anatomy

After our discussion in class it is very clear that Grey's Anatomy is a very popular show and the ratings also show that as well. Recently the show has become a topic of discussion for a different reason and I am questing whether this will improve ratings or if it will begin a downfall in the hit shows ratings.

In late October it was rumored that there was a fight on set between the actors Isaiah Washington and Patrick Dempsey over the fact that Isaiah may have used a derogatory term calling T. R Knight a faggot. Over the past few weeks the controversy has increased when Isaiah claimed he never said it at the Golden Globes award during a press conference. Recently he has admitted to using the homophobic slur and has apologized for it as well. This continues to play out on Hollywood news shows including E News and Access Hollywood. With all the negative attention will the show be in danger of losing viewers or with all the controversy will more people tune in? They say there is no such thing as bad publicity but when a comment made on set makes the cast angry and enrages viewers it could be damaging.

The media brings so much attention to negative incidents that happen in Hollywood that they become so much larger then the original problem in the first place. I think that with all the drama and attention the show will only continue to be a success. It’s easy to see the more publicity even negative attention makes people want to see and hear more.