Occupy Movement

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

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.

Ask Me Anything

Recently, there has been an influx of people doing AMA's on Reddit. For those of you who do not know, Reddit is a vast social networking site. I say vast because there are literally thousands upon thousands of different feeds on Reddit, knows as sub Reddits. AMA stands for Ask Me Anything. The concept of AMA's is that famous people, notable people, or just interesting people with interesting jobs log on to Reddit and random people ask them questions about their lives. One famous person that has recently done an AMA is comedian Aziz Ansari from such hit shows as Parks and Recreation, Reno 911, Scrubs, and Flight of the Concords. Another celebrity that was recently been introduced to the world of Reddit is Matt Jones, who plays Brandon "Badger" Mahew on AMC's Breaking Bad. This is interesting to me because it challenges the definition of a parasocial relationship. The people asking the celebrities questions dont really know the celebrity, however, they are engaging in an active conversation with this person? Does this give them some unwritten right to call this person their friend? No. I dont think so. However, I do think that it would be kind of cool to have someone famous answer a question directly to me. Would I tell everyone? Absolutely. I also find it interesting that there are many different kinds of people doing AMA's. Not just famous people are interesting? What? Some cool AMA's that I've seen are male porn star, big tobacco employee, band member marching in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, and lucid dreamer.