Apocalyse, Yo!

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


Presentation Here

"Music is my Life." "Then what else is there?"

Recently, I've noticed that a significant number of my new freshman friends and even some of my old friends will use the phrase...

"Music is my Life."

And I think, "Then what else is there? As in, what the hell else do you while living?" A lot of these people you can tell who they are...

When they walk to class...got headphones in, blastin music.

When they are waiting for things...got headphones in, blastin music.

When they are bored while doing something...got headphones in, blastin music.

When they are studying in the room...gotta have some sort of music playing.

When there is nothing going on in the room...gotta have some sort of music playing.

One of my best friends is one of these people...and I asked him. "Why?"

He said, "Because I like to add a soundtrack to my life."

And I think...Life, nature, the very Ball State environment is a huge cacophony of sound that we tune into every day.

Whether it is Happy Friday Day Guy greeting you with a "Happy Friday," or a strange jeans company shouting through a megaphone to coax people into following them on Twitter...Ball State has a soundtrack.

If Music is organized sound and Ball State & its inhabitants assemble and make unconscious noise through being involved at Ball State...then music is all around you.

However, if you don't take off your headphones, you won't hear or notice the music that could lead to "free jeans" or a "free hug."

Stop Telling Me What I Should Be Interested In

Last...uhh....April...or May, I think, I came out on Facebook. One of the most liberating things that I have ever done. However, the Headquarters of Facebook, Inc. got the message when I merely clicked "Interested in Men." At that moment, Facebook HQ recognized me as a queer, who looks gay clubs, trashy hookup websites, HIV+ counseling, and LGBT right support.

The latter of this list is what I most support...BUTT how did I get labeled as "HIV Positive" simply for stating that I am "Interested in Men." My relationship status has never change from single...SO...how can I be "HIV Positive" if I've never been in a relationship?

I didn't know that such an open door to user-generating material...would open another door to stereotyping commercial targeting...

Thank Jesus that Facebook does not ask for your ethnicity or race. The last thing that I need is Facebook telling me to go out and watch BET, eat KFC, and own Tyler Perry movies.

What Final Destination says about Youth and Mortality

As some of you know, my popular addiction is often viewed as either a guilty pleasure and shame-of-a-horror movie: The "Final Destination" series







I don't think that there is maybe single student in our age group (19-24) who has NOT HEARD OF or SEEN AT LEAST one of these films.

Everyone, especially those going to Ball State University, one of the best schools in the MidWest for Telecommunications, has some sort of "addiction" or "enhanced fondness" for an aspect of media. It's everywhere.

Unless you choose to hide from it or view with the highest form of scrutiny and cynicism, media affects YOUR LIFE. Our choices and dislikes in media add flavor to our lives.

So, why I am talking about the "Final Destination" series?

Because I usually joke with my friends that my future boyfriend will have to like the "Final Destination" series before we even start talking.

(No, not really...)

Because I think that this horror/thriller series is greatly overlooked as simply "the dead teenager movie" like Sorority Row, The Roommate, or My Soul to Take.

However, something that one of my friends said at dinner has me thinking. You see...he called the "Final Destination" movie series

"psychological thrillers"

I said: "Hmmm...how so?"


His response: "The movies keep you guessing as to what the order of death is, how can these people take control back from death, and most eerie, how are they going to die."

The formula for "Final Destination" movies is recycled, but never the same. Each one plays on a new aspect:

1 --> Save a life, death moves on to the next one.

2 --> Create a life, death's plan becomes null and void

3 --> Examine your future death, then evade it.

4 --> (You're screwed, unless the protagonist who gets the visions saves you)

5 --> (It's not a spoiler alert, if they say it in the trailer) Kill someone, and you get their life (thus you are spared)

What fascinates me the most about "Final Destination"...yes, the eerie, stupid death sequences and the initial accident that seals their fate...but truly...TO ME...

I think these movies do a half-way-decent job of showing people all the ways that they can die...next to that show on Spike TV..."100 ways to die"...

Basically, what I get out of it, teens and 20-somethings typically live like we are invincible and we do all sorts of really stupid and dangerous stuff.

When I watch these movies, teens and 20-somethings die horribly gruesome deaths and are put in precarious positions where they must choose life or death. Usually they choose life, but their wish is almost never granted.

In other words, we want life so badly, but we endanger ourselves all the time. So, how do we live fulfilling lives, while prolonging our life?

DON'T TAKE LIFE FOR GRANTED!!

(Last note: Usually we hear about all sorts of horrible stuff happening at parties and stuff, but in these movies, the teens and 20-somethings almost always die do something pretty innocuous [like shaving, getting a hair cut, reheat Chinese food, going to the dentist, riding the elevator, and stuff like that.] Funny, right?)

http://www.salon.com/entertainment/movies/feature/2011/08/10/safety_lessons_from_the_final_destination_films