Apocalyse, Yo!

Here comes the End...of this project for COMM 322. Hope that you like it.


Presentation Here

Tom Hanks: Toddlers and Tiaras

This is seriously hilarious. Check out Tom Hank's spoof of Toddlers and Tiaras here!

Planking adventures

An adventure in the world of youtube based pop and counter culture. This is an attempt to explain what counter culture will do to our generation if we let out continue in the direction its going.

The 5 Ps of Reality TV

The 5 Ps of Reality TV Prezi

Mother/Daughter Reality TV

Alcohol Portrayed in Media

Occupy Movement

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLm3Yna30ms

Occupy something....or not.

Occupy Wall Street (OWS) is a huge deal! Alternatively, is it? It seems like the first few days the mainstream media always had a segment devoted to OWS and what the latest news from the protest happened to be. However, as the protest continued and more people showed up, the protest wasn’t able to stay on message. At this point it seems like almost everyone is mad, but they’re all mad about something different. This was born from the fact OWS was built on the idea of collective leadership. They hoped they could promote their message as a group and not have one person speaking for everyone. While a noble idea, it seems to have failed. Media coverage of Occupy Wall Street these days is not so much about the message, but about if they smell, are they violent, and when are they going to go home? It’s no longer about the ideas and changes they want to see, but more about should they be allowed to sleep in tents or not? While I understand what they are protesting and agree with a few things, I do not agree with how they chose to portray the message. Comparing it to the civil rights movement and at times being violent isn’t the way to make a calm Midwestern boy like me jump on board, and I think it all comes back to the lack of leadership. With something on this scale with high minded ideas such as these, you need one person or a small group of people to direct the foot soldiers. Cohesion and adherence to message go a long way when trying to create change.

I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take it anymore

I’m tired of being advertised to. Every step I take, show I watch, or web page I visit wants to sell me something, and I’m mad as hell and not going to take it anymore. Well, I just realized that if I want to stop all this advertisement I am going to have to move to Wyoming and go off the grid. In our society, it is impossible to dodge an ad for some particular product every day. When I log onto Facebook the ads on the sidebar are not only there but geared towards me. When I watch a movie or a TV show even if I fast-forward the commercials, (I do because I have DVR ) I get nailed with product placement on the show if I notice it or not. You hear people discuss big oil, or big tobacco, or big insert large company here, but I don’t think I’ve ever heard someone talk about big advertising. Government has rarely regulated advertisements, and when they do it’s something we all can agree on. I think we are all on the same page as saying cartoons shouldn’t be selling cigarettes to children, but are we all on the same page saying cartoons shouldn’t be selling sugary beverages to children? Aren’t those sugary beverages almost as harmful as smoking in the long run in the child continues to have the unhealthy diet, but you generally don’t hear the same out roar over Kool-aid bombarding a child with ads as you did when Joe Camel was being awesome (but an adverse side effect of this awesomeness was children wanted to smoke too). I think as a society we should also be aware and regulate, to an extent, what ads can say, where they can be, and how often they can be there.

Pretty Pretty Princesss

Let me start by saying, being a princess isn’t as awesome as you think it is girls. In some countries it will limit who you can marry. In England if you are the eldest child of the monarch, your younger brother will be king long before your queen just because he’s a boy, and in all monarchies being a princess really puts a damper on what you can say and do in public. Disney has told little girls that being a princess is the bee’s knees. You get to marry the best-looking guy. You get to live in a castle, and everything you could ever want always comes true. They always seem to gloss over how horrible these girls tend to have it. Sleeping Beauty missed a large chunk of her life waiting for a man to come rescue her from her slumber. Jasmine is being forced into an arranged marriage. Cinderella has to scrub floors and clean clothes because her step-mom is wicked cruel. Ariel has to turn her back on her father just to meet the man she wants to marry, and as an added bonus can’t speak because she sacrificed her voice for legs. So girls, being a princess isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. You have to know the whole story beyond the happily ever after before you sign up for the job. However, for some little girls they are so indoctrinated to think they are princesses it is hard for them to break from the mold. Given everything they have ever wanted they develop a sense of entitlement. Parents must be careful to not let these habits develop because in my experience it sticks with the girl her whole life.

Like a Boss

When I was a boy, I always dreamed that one day I would wake up and I would have superpowers. When I would hang out with the kids who lived on my street, I would obsess over what powers I would have in an attempt to make myself more powerful. Then one day, I woke up and realized I was never going to be a superhero. Taking into consideration, when I was younger social media and the internet weren’t household things yet, it seems that the “superhero culture” is even more invasive today than it was when I was little. Boys are given toys that create an almost false perception of what they should grow up to be. Sure, you could work out every day, take supplements and possible juice with steroids and have muscles as large as your action figure, but what you aren’t told is most people will think you look hideous. You could go roll around in some radioactive materials and hope that you get super powers, but more than likely, you’re going to end up in the hospital. On the other hand, you could build a kick ass suit out of armor, fly around, and put the bad guys out of business, but you’d be a vigilante and the government would probably take your suit and put you in jail. I’m not saying that kids idolizing super heroes or wanting to be them when they grow up is a bad thing. I’m simply saying that make sure the child wakes up, like me, one day and knows it’s not going to happen.

Video games and children

Video games were always present in my house growing up with many siblings. Perhaps because I was the youngest and most definitely did not get seniority over the remote I grew to despise video games in general. I would see how they would suck the life out of my siblings and I found myself preferring to run around outside and play with friends. My sister had always somehow managed to sneak a remote, whether it was after all of the boys had passed out or through her stubborn negotiation skills. Reflecting back on our personalities I am aware that my sister and I have had and always will have vastly different personalities. I have always been more social and active, she has always been more quiet and reserved. She would stay up all night playing games and reading and I would wake up super early and go out and play until I passed out at night. I wonder, though, if the fact that she grew up with video games had an influence on what her reality was as a child. Had she not gotten the chance to play would she have spent more time out making friends and being active? I remember at one point my Dad started to play some sort of video game. He was curious what all the hype was and decided to give it a shot. It was not long before he became addicted! My dad, who has always been a self motivated and disciplined person was addicted to these life suckers! It was a few weeks where he would come home from work and play these games. My mom and I were baffled and disgusted over his desire to play so often. Thankfully, it was not long before my dad came to the realization how much time he had dedicated to this false reality and he was able to pull himself out. However, he was a grown man with a lot of experience. He did not grow up playing these games. He had stepped in at mature point in his life where he was able to be self-reflective. I do not think children that grow up playing these games have an opportunity to do so...they do not know what it is like without them. That to me is a very scary picture.

Fame: Response

I have to agree that fame no longer equals talent. I think one of the first "famous" people to become well known around the globe for doing absolutely nothing would have to be Paris Hilton. Other than being filthy rich and having a great agent she really did nothing significant to gather so much attention. It was this image that she was able to portray that caught the media by firestorm. Youtube is another perfect example of the modern average person being capable of achieving fame if they put in enough effort and gather enough attention from a large audience. Kim Kardashian is arguably one of the most famous current women in social media hollywood. Her claim to fame originated with a sex video and a combination of good publicity and gathering enough attention to spin off into an entire brand. Her family now is making millions because they were able to take advantage of a situation that otherwise should/could have been a disgrace and flip it on its head. Reality shows are another example of how anyone can take a concept or idea that they know will gather attention and run with it. Some individuals are better at captivating an audience for a longer period of time. As a society we must remember those people who are getting famous based off of talentless claims to fame are achieving it based off of viewers such as ourselves! Social media has brought out new avenues for people to attain fame, is there any way to reclaim what should or does constitute someone worthy of fame?

Childish Gambino and South Park (Not related)

So lately I have been getting into this rapper called Childish Gambino. Even if rap isnt your thing, read on. Rap really isnt usually my thing either. Childish Gambino's real name is Donald Glover. You might know him better as Troy from Community on NBC, or one of the members of the comedy troupe Derrick Comedy. He raps under the name Childish Gambino because he wants to keep his rapping and acting careers completely independent of each other. I like him so much because he is so clever. Also he uses a ton of pop culture reference. Some of my favorites are:

Honesty, I’m rappin’ ’bout everything I go through, Everything I’m sayin’, I’m super sayin’ like Goku

This is a Dragon Ball Z reference for all of you who are not sure. Its a bit far fetched to think a rapper that references things like this, but it happens.

I also like this one:

Gotta gift this bitch, like Christmas, bitch I’mma rap and act, Will Smith this bitch

He's just so clever. He stays current as well. I really like when things are current because it shows you that someone still has talent, they can apply it to many things.

Switching gears, this is also why I really like South Park. They are always current. Week after week, they comment on things that happen. They really have a feel for their audience. For example, the whole Penn State scandal. They talked about it like the week after it happened. Although Im not condoning anything that went on at Penn State, or trying to take gravity away from the situation, but if you are a fan of South Park, you understand that they offend everyone equally, so its kind of accepted. Also, they had a whole episode about Steve Jobs dying the week after it happened. Thats bold. Thoughts?

Fame

What is fame? How do we measure fame? I think that these questions are difficult, if not impossible to answer. When I think of fame, I think that people know you. However, how many people? What people? The other day, I was having a conversation with some friends about the definition of fame. The conclusion that I came to throughout this conversation was that fame is changed from what it used to be. In the early days of television and radio, you had to have talent to get famous. There were not that many radio stations or tv stations during this time, and consequently these stations only played the best and most popular. Now people are famous for doing nothing. YouTube sensations are a great example of this. Im sure you've all see the David after dentist video. This kid is famous because he was lit off of some pain killers and laughing gas and said some funny things. Just to clarify, I am not arguing the humor in this. I love that video. It cracks my shit up every time. But, he is not talented. I dont necessarily thing that this is anyone's fault. I think this is a vicious cycle. Technologies allow us to market things to everyone on the planet. Statistically speaking, one in every nine people on the planet is connected through social media, and more often than not, that social media is Facebook. We can get almost any content to almost anyone, almost anywhere, almost anytime, for free, at least to the consumer. I supposed the argument could be made that you have to pay for a device to access the internet, and then you have to pay for internet access, but Im not going to go there. This has made it so people dont have to do as much to be famous. Anyone can be famous at least to some degree, fairly easily. It doesnt take real talent to get fame anymore and I am sad about that. I think it robs worth from stars of the past. Thoughts?

Pop Culture Addictions

I just saw that someone did a pop culture addiction blog post and since I waited until the last minute to do these posts, I am going to do one as well. I have a few different pop culture addictions. One of my pop culture addictions that has been afflicting me the longest is the game show Jeopardy, hosted by Alex Trebek. I love Jeopardy so much because I really enjoy learning useless knowledge that will really never ultimately help me. I love Jeopardy so much that I even have certain strategies that I stick to while playing. I always risk it all on the Daily Double if it is in the first round. Im not that ballsy in Double Jeopardy however. I dont Daily Double hunt either, its tacky. I am so vested in this show that I actually give the contestants of the show hell when they dont use my strategy. Is this irrational? Yes. But whatever. Another one of my pop culture addictions is Swamp People on the History Channel. This is one of the five most entertaining things that you will ever see. Basically, This show chronicles the life and times of alligator hunters in the Southern swamps of the United States. The main characters of the show dont know each other, and all work independently, in groups of two. My favorite group is a man named Troy Landry and his son Jacob Landry. They work well together, not fighting much, and catching their fill of gators every episode. The best part about this pair is their accents. They are real Cajun. In every episode at some point, Troy says "Choot em Jacob! Choot em!" I also like watching this guy named Bruce. He always wears an American flag bandanna, overalls, and no shirt. He hunts alone, except for his dog, Tyler. Tyler and Bruce make a good team. Tyler is loyal and Bruce does whatever it takes to get the job done. Anyway, if you have not seen either of these shows, check them out.

Creative Outlets

I know its kind of a pain, but to understand this blog post, first go to this link and read the article.

http://mashable.com/2011/11/17/paypal-facebook-send-money/

If you dont want to read this, Ill just summarize it for you. Because Im a nice guy like that. Ok, so pretty much, Facebook is pairing with PayPal to launch an app with which you can send money to your friends. You will be able to choose whether you want to send them a gift card, straight money, or an Amazon card. I believe that this is a step in the direction of complete removal of one's self from social interaction. With the internet, you can be totally anonymous. Not only can you be totally anonymous, you can be what ever you want to be or even whoever you want to be. Although this looks totally negative, I believe there is some positive here as well. I am a firm believer that people need a creative outlet. Whether it be music, writing, cooking, charity, or, although its not ideal, lying. While I dont mean to promote lying, I think that the benefits of a creative outlet, in most cases, outweigh duping strangers into believing that you are some millionaire from California or some member of the government that is spewing secrets for the fun of it. Having a creative outlet may serve as a huge stress reliever. Studies have shows that having a stress reliever is incredibly beneficial to your health. While researching this, I even found a site that facilitates creative outlets. It is called meetup.com. They let people put up on message boards when they will me doing things such as painting in the park, playing music somewhere, or cooking something and they invite whoever wants to come to join them and express their creativity.

Pop Culture Addiction

Going back to the first part of this class, pop culture addictions, I have a lot. Music being the most dominate. I know that's a default but, I don't know what I'd do without it. It has gotten me through a lot in my life and it has formed bonds between me and the people I am closest to. It wasn't until my freshman year of college that I really started "appreciating" it. I branched out from all classic rock to pretty much everything. It has a way of bringing people together and different cultures within society somewhat identify themselves with the different genres.
Another big addiction I have is food. Can that be a pop culture addiction? You can't really tell but, I love food. In particular, Chinese. Don't ever ask me to suggest something for dinner unless you want Chinese. Maybe it's the water chestnuts and the sesame chicken or maybe it's the fortune cookie. Whatever it is, it always keeps me coming back for more.

Crazy Cat Culture?

Okay, what is it with cat videos? I mean really, they're everywhere. And it's not just videos, it's cute little pictures of cats with monocles. Why are people so crazy about cats? Are we becoming a culture where it's necessary to put up a video of our cat trying to find its way out of a box because it's "just so darn cute?" My roommates and I have a cat...Leopold Winston McSwaggerton...and we are entertained enough by just watching him in person. I agree that cats are cute, well most of them but, it's annoying being bombarded with kitten footage.

Messing with Princess Culture

So I do not know if it was princess and superhero culture that did it, but gender norms in general were affecting me when I was little. If I ever play a get to know you game and have to share an interesting fact about myself, one of my go-to facts is "I lied about my favorite color till I was in high school." Everyone's favorite color in elementary school was blue or pink. I did not like pink so I told people my favorite was blue. My favorite color was orange. Then I did it so frequently that I just forgot that it was not true. Until I caught myself in art class in high school, I totally forgot I was lying. So this got me thinking about gender norms and princess culture and how to mess with it to keep kids from lying about their favorite color. I am also a twin, which got me wondering about twin onesies. While I do want my daughter to think she is a princess, I do not want her to think it is because she has some redeeming quality that gets her out of trouble and that she deserves everything. I am a Christian, I want any daughter of mine to know that she is a princess and she is and heiress but I only because Christ redeemed her, not by her own qualities. Needless to say she will not be watching a ton of Disney when she is little. I want her to be the odd princess out. How do I do this? I'll start with custom onesies. Actually in class I was thinking, I definately am making one that says "I mess with the script." But what are the other options? I know that being a parent will be hard but I did not want to think that I will have to protect my kid from thinking he or she has to act the way all the other kids are or the way TV is telling him or her to act.
Anybody got other good ideas?

Everybody Hands to Themselves

I'm sure by now that everyone has heard at least one detail about the situation that has unfolded this past week at Penn State University. For a short recap: a former defensive coordinator is being accused of molesting 9 young boys over a span of 15 years on the campus of Penn State through a charity he had set up for underprivileged children. It's sick, it's disgusting, it's horrible, all of those. Everything I keep hearing is that Penn State football has produced an almost cult-like atmosphere by only hiring in house and bringing coaches up through their own system. I have my own suspicions about why this was brought to light right after Joe Paterno broke the record for most Division I wins by a head coach. Now, to make matters even worse, more allegations have surfaced but at a different institution. A Syracuse University associate head basketball coach has now been accused of molesting two of the teams former ball boys in the late 1970s through the early 1990s. Unlike the Penn State situation, this coach is still with the University at this time. These accusations just surfaced last night so I suspect there are more speculations that actual facts known at this point. However, this information puts a dark mark on the Syracuse program that had high hopes for the young season at hand. Both of these instances make me question what has happened to college sports? In these universities with elite sports programs, the coaches are treated with such respect and awe that we don't keep them honest about what goes on when the game is over. Obviously the first are foremost victims are those boys being violated, but I also feel disappointment for the student athletes at Syracuse and Penn State. They had no part in the scandal at their respective schools, yet their seasons are now tainted and they must find a way to continue to play at the highest level with all of the uncertainty surrounding them. No matter how popular sports can become at a university, the coach and their staff must remain accountable and for the protection of everyone, should not be allowed to operate in the dark.

Flash Mobs Cool No More

I won’t lie, I have always wanted to be a part of a flash mob; one that requires a ton of complex choreography, even though I have no formal dance training. I have never wanted it to be a date…

**Cough** Bachelorette

Because I see nothing romantic about it at all. I just want to be in one.

I feel like flash mobs had potential to be highly influencial if they wanted to be. But, the key word in that sentence was “had” the potential. I feel like people are somewhat tired with the major media sources taking over the phenomenon, only to lather rinse repeate it so much that America’s scalp is burning. AT&T and T-mobile took the flash mobs by the horns and even made commercials with them. At first, I thought the AT&T commercial was funny. Now, it is just annoying.

I used to think it was cool if a TV show featured a flash mob. But now, that is just annoying too.

It saddens me that the recent overexposure has been flash mobs, because it makes them less cool and more of a neusance. It gives them less power to influence society, because society won’t want to see another flash mob in a few years. I think that overexposure not only annoys those surrounded by it, it decreases the overall sway and importance the overexposed item could have reached or had by pushing and pushing until people scream “STOP!”

I stil want to be in a flash mob, but I don’t want to do it as much anymore because the masses have taken it over.

Wait…

Is this a hipster mentality?