Mind Pockets

Is it really true?

2008-05-04T16:32:00.000-07:00

With the recent release of Grand theft Auto and me being an advent gamer, I decided on an editorial called Life Is a Game. The author Gary Hoppenstand does a great job in detailing what many felt had evil influences on our moral standards. This includes items from our past up to our present. He starts off with the amusement he gets from “watchdog” groups that criticize video games for their violent content. I for one am in agreement with him but more on that later.
“What is amusing is not the fact of the existence of violence in games. Many of them are quite violent. Instead, it is funny that our gatekeeprs of culture have such a short memory (or no memory at all)”. Hoppenstand, G. (2006) Violence has always been around in movies and in print media of the past. Hoppenstand described the middle ages, where elite religious groups disagreed with seasonal festivals because they were believed to encourage excessive amounts of celebration.
Now that was just the middle ages; during the industrial revolution when the start of the dime novels and penny dreadfuls , many individuals such as pastors and teachers preached to the high heavens about the evils of the current media. Silent films were also suspect because they attracted the interest of immigrants in New York. Silent films oh come on there were no sounds so the influence could not have been that bad could it?
Hoppenstand states that “Some half-century later, Newton Minow, in a speech to the National Association of Broadcasters on May 9, 1961, told us that television was a “vast wasteland” .” I can sort of agree with that as I believe today that this does hold true with the programming we have available to us on some networks. Speaking of networks, The Beatles and even the ever so popular Elvis Presley were all part of the downfall of our moral standards, as the music they provided for our youths sent the wrong message.
From movies to music and even comic books; all have had there fair share of attacks from “watchdog” groups of the past. Now we are here in the present day and what is next in line for the onslaught of “watchdog” attacks… yep you guessed it video games. Video games are a multi-billion dollar business. They are slowly but surly taken over the top spots once held by big blockbuster movies in terms of money earned.
The problem with videogames besides the obvious (violence to some people) is the public still feels games are for children. As Hoppenstand writes “Video games corrupt the minds and morals of our young people; the argument goes.” He like I, feel that we are adults and should be able to make sound decisions without the help of certain groups. But wait aren’t video games for kids?
On one hand yes but it depends on what market the producer of the console chooses aim for. Take Nintendo for example, they have a family oriented demographic so the games you find on their console would solely be aimed at the family. Then you have Microsoft with their Xbox 360 and Sony with their Playstation 3 consoles, whose market is the 18-35 year old male. Yes I would say that at the price point of the current Nintendo console ($249.99 US) and their aimed market; children’s toy comes to mind. With a price tag of $449.99 (Xbox 360 Elite) and ($599.99) PS3, I really do not think I would like to purchase either one for my 10 year old.
Another issue to point out is the rating system that was implemented a few years back for video games. This rating system was put in place because many felt that games with violent content were getting in the hands of children. The ratings range from E for everyone up to M for Mature. I do not see how hard is it not to figure out that if you have a child not old enough to get into a rated R movie by him/herself then why are you buying said M rated game. This is an issue that will live on for ever and it will move on to the next big thing in the future. In my opinion if we had more parents taken time out of their so called busy schedule to have a talk with their children maybe the government wouldn’t have too.

What's that Sound?

2008-05-04T16:28:00.000-07:00

URL: http://entertainment.msn.com/news/article.aspx?news=311904
So this week I went with an article that detail’s the every so popular helicopter arrivals that are making too much noise in Tony NY summer hotspot. Stars like Brad and Angelina are doing it, Jimmy Buffett and Wall Street powers brokers are do it as well. What is it you ask… taking helicopter rides to the Hamptons that what it is. Although it is expensive many find it to by speedy and convenient.
What may be a convenience for some is the worst nightmare for others. Many people in the area say that the sound on a Friday afternoon sounds like a war scene from a movie. To add insult to this injury, the outbound traffic on Sunday builds up so much that it can go into the early morning of Monday. Is this sound affecting the quality of life that many say the area has?
Wadsworth a local had this to say “He first became annoyed by the staccato thump-thump-thump of the helicopter blades while sitting in his hot tub years ago. It’s like having a rash. You know once you start to scratch the itch; it just gets worse and worse.” Now let’s take a step back for a moment. He just said while sitting in his “Hot tub”. Some people in the US have not even seen a hot tub let alone sit in one.
I guess money is no object to the people that use the service because a gentleman had this to say. “I’m a high-powered executive and my wife and kids are out here for the summer. If I can,t get here till 1 o’clock in the morning because I’m working on a hedge fund deal or something, I’m coming at 1 o’clock in the morning and I don’t care how much it costs.” He does not care how much it cost to get from one part of NY to the other as long as he gets there. Well at least some of us have money to throw around like that.
If this type of noise keeps up, Rep. Timothy Bishop states that he will consider “legislation mandating the FAA take action.” Although I do feel that people have a right to get from one location to another by any means possible, I do not think helicopters should be allowed to land in residential districts. No matter how much money you make, what ever type of high-profile position you hold in the work place, you still have to respect the wishes of others.

Strike!

2008-04-27T16:26:00.000-07:00

Oh no it’s strike time again in the movie industry and no I don’t mean the writers but the actors now. The Screen Actors Guild contract ends on June 30th and many studios are trying their best to get projects wrapped up before that date as it looms near. Chief economist Jack Kyser said “A film shoot interrupted by a strike would be very expensive proposition”.
The same issue the writers had with the movie studios is the same issues actors are dealing with now. Digital distribution is the wave of the future and many actors are not happy with the pay they are receiving, which is little to none. It is stated in the article that “by 2010, the top 100 media companies will collect an estimated $20.7 billion a year in Internet revenue, with advertisers spending $2.9 billion annually on online video ads”.
To me, that is a lot of money to be made by the actors but one must think about what was in the contract they signed. I can understand going forward; this is something they want to be included in future contracts. With all the extra perks they get while on location don’t you think its fair a studio makes some of that back? Whatever the guild decides to do it is going to affect the movie industry as well as the viewers that look forward to new blockbusters.
I read quite a bit of entertainment news, especially when it comes to movie news. The articles I like the most are the ones about the cost of the movie and how much the actors make. Our economy is not in the best of shape and movie studios have to do everything they can make money on their investment. Is that wrong of them to try and recoup some of their losses?
Movies are not cheap to make and when you link a “Big Star” to the movie the cost goes up even more. Take an $80 million dollar movie for example; it is released at the box office and makes only $20 million. That is a $40 million dollar lost for the studio so what do they do release the movie on DVD, and through different internet venues. What I’m getting at is stars make their money right off the top. If the contract says $20 million, they get that but for a studio there is no guaranty that you will see a profit.
URL: http://entertainment.msn.com/movies/article.aspx?news=311308

Copyright This!

2008-04-20T11:13:00.001-07:00

Copyright laws are put in place to help the creator protect their work. I could not agree more with that aspect. Well the article I selected this week was about a Harry Potter superfan site. Many may not know what superfan sites are but I’ll fill you in. Superfan sites are internet sites that are created by a so called superfan who loves any and everything about the work the site is based on. Now this definition is just my opinion and they may be a true meaning out there but to me this is the jest of it.
Some may find that some of the sites may be down right creepy. How could someone like something so much that they have to go to every event, movie, and any other activity that is available. To me that’s just insane. I know there are a few things I like or even love a lot but I do not take it that far. Again that is just my opinion. Ok back to the article; Vander Ark is the creator of the Harry Potter superfan site. He has appeared on NBC’s “Today” show and was even included on the special feature portion of “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” DVD.
The issue that Vander is up against is the release of his book called “The Lexicon”. “The Lexicon” if I am not mistaking is an encyclopedia of “Harry Potter” facts, terms, and information. All the information included in this book is the same that could be found on his site. J.K. Rowling even said that she visited the site and even used the encyclopedia as a reference. What is the big issue you may ask? Well the problem is when the information was listed on his site it was free but now since he wants to make it into a book he will make a profit.
As a writer I can understand where J.K. Rowling is coming from with this lawsuit. She states that there is nothing wrong with this book it just includes too much of her material to make it his own. On a side note Rowling’s lawyers stated that the release of this book would interfere with the future release of Rowling’s “Harry Potter” encyclopedia. Now I do not know if she had plan to release a book like this or not but it just drives me up the wall when I see comments like that being made by lawyers.
There was another case like this a while ago that had the comic book creator Marvel sue the creators of the game “City of Hero’s”. Marvel’s whole argument was they were going to create the same type of game and the sad part is Marvel did not get upset until they saw this game was a success. So this is how it works I think of something and then a big corporation sees my item make money then they sue me because they were going to do it first. We live in a sad country if a judge would allow this to happen and in most cases it does.

Article URL: http://entertainment.msn.com/movies/article.aspx?news=310249

1900-1920's Photos

2008-04-13T11:06:00.000-07:00

Winston Churchill
The Chrysler Building
Flapper Girl cartoon by John Held Jr
Photo of Pancho Villa

All photos provided by Live Search.

1900-1920's

2008-04-13T10:48:00.000-07:00

The best antidote is to not try to understand the past through a single perspective and a single story, but a combination of many, using different starting points.

Bjørn Stærk, March 2008

Historical events in the U.S.

U.S. government agents make raids in 33 cities beginning January 2, rounding up thousands of persons suspected of "subversive" activities. Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer claims that there is a Bolshevik "conspiracy" to overthrow the government. The Bolshevik conspiracy was an event that took place in Russia when a group revolutionist tried to over throw the government.
South American Trade Myth: Manufacturers felt that they could not gain success in strange markets.
The Myth of Pancho Villa: It is said that Pancho Villa attacked Columbus, New Mexico in 1916 but in fact some believed it was the Germans that started this war to keep the U.S out of Europe.

Literature in the U.S.

Winston Churchill wrote his first and only full-length work of fiction, Savrola: A Tale of the Revolution in Laurania Published in 1900. This story had a political focus while telling a romance tale.
Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle was an American dream novel that told the tale of the experiences of immigrant workers in the middle of Chicago.
Mark Twain started work on a group of stories that were never finished by him titled Mysterious Stranger, A Romance. The Three writings were titled The Chronicle of Young Satan, Schoolhouse Hill (involves Huckleberry Finn, Tom Sawyer and their adventures with Satan), and No. 44, The Mysterious Stranger. The stories could be put into the Religious, Good/Evil myth style.

Music & Art

1900-1920’s were known as the Jazz Age with this age, came a certain culture & style. That style was known as the Flapper Culture. The flapper was shown in many cartoons by an artist named John Held Jr. A flapper could be described as a female with short hair, a short skirt, turned-down hoes and powdered knees. To most this female was a little fast or brazen, but instead she broke the myth that all females needed to be covered and have long hair.
Art deco was the style of art that was most popular in this era. The Chrysler building located in New York was an example of this as well as the American dream(First tallest building title). Some saw this as a work of “Jazz Age poetry in steel”. William Van Alen was the architect.

To bring this to an end I have included a link to a site that is filled with useful American History. It is a brief look at the different types of popular culture as well as the American dream of getting rich quick. Music and sound included on the site as well.

Link: http://www.paulsann.org/thelawlessdecade/index-2.htm

References:

Berlin, A. (2004). Discovering America’s cultural history – process. Retrieved April 11, 2008 from http://www.mrberlin.com/Webquest/Cultural_History/process.htm

Evans, M. W. (n.d.). Was Pancho Villa framed? – The legacy of the Mexican Revolution. Culture Change web site. Retrieved April 8, 2008, from http://www.culturechange.org/cms/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=102&Itemid=33

Gladysz, T. (2001). The jazz age. Flapper culture & style. Retrieved April 8, 2008, from http://www.geocities.com/flapper_culture/

Jazz age culture: part I. (2007). Pittsburgh State University web site. Retrieved April 10, 2008, from http://faculty.pittstate.edu/~knichols/jazzage.html

Ross, R., Athey, S. and Nichols, C. (2005). Transportation through the lens of literature. 1900’s. Retrieved April 9, 2008, from http://english.cla.umn.edu/faculty/ROSS/Transport/1900.htm

South American trade myths. (1915). New York Times online. Retrieved April 11, 2008, from http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9406E3D81038E633A2575AC1A9619C946496D6CF

Stærk, B. (2008). Historical mythologies. Retrieved April 11, 2008, from http://blog.bearstrong.net/2008/historical_mythologies.html

The mysterious stranger. (2008). Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved April 9, 2008, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doangivadam

World chronology: 1920. (2008). Answers.com web site. Retrieved April 12, 2008, from http://www.answers.com/topic/1920

Zacharek, S. (2002). The Chrysler Building. Retrieved April 12, 2008, from http://p196.ezboard.com/fcafeurbanitefrm7.showMessage?topicID=45.topic

Quick Hide, It's the Paparazzi

2008-04-12T15:53:00.000-07:00

Are the paparazzi getting too close? Well that is the title of the article I selected to analyze for this weeks assignment. It starts off by telling us about one of LA’s most notorious paparazzi, Galo Ramirez. Who is he you might ask, well I said the same thing myself. He is the photographer that was involved in auto accident back in May of 2006 with a celebrity. That celebrity is our very own Lindsay Lohan.
That car crash alone caused a big stir which lead to the creation of a new state law that would penalize reckless photographers. Ramirez who is now 27 was dropped from his agency because he was facing charges of assault with a deadly weapon. Now I don’t know about you but was that photo really worth all that hassle? Well the tables were soon turned on Ramirez as he was now the subject of his own peers.
The article goes on to state that they waited outside his home to get photos of him. Who is he, the man who supposedly attacked Lohan that’s who. As stated by Ramirez, “I was getting doorstepped for a month; they flipped the lens on me.” Soon after Ramirez found a job doing office work for the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center the LA times posted an article stating that no charges were going to be filed against him. That was not a good thing because that made his former job know to his new employer which in turn got him fired.
While reading this article I wonder if the paparazzi have a right to snap photos anytime they want. I mean if you are a pop icon or a superstar, don’t you have the right to privacy. I’m really on the fence when it comes to this subject because on one hand if you are famous what do you expect to happen. But on the other hand, anyone other then the icon should not be photographed without permission. That would include friends, parents and the most important of all children. Although someone may be famous they have a right to spend time with their family and friends peacefully. Throughout this whole ordeal Ramirez landed a job with JFK direct and they now post a Lindsay crash memento in his honor.

Article URL:
http://entertainment.msn.com/news/article.aspx?news=308016

Icon Images Provided by Windows Live Search

2008-04-09T18:37:00.000-07:00

Icons

2008-04-09T18:29:00.000-07:00

The three contemporary icons I decided to select are Michael Jordan, Microsoft, and Cedar Fair Amusement Parks. Michael Jordan could best be described as the greatest basketball player of all time but that could also just be my own opinion. Microsoft was selected for the simple fact that every time we start our PC guess what program starts up…Windows. Cedar Fair may not be known to some but they are the owners of Cedar Point, Kings Island and many other amusements located throughout the U.S.
It took me a while to think of two other icons because for me Michael Jordan was a no brainer. Microsoft came to mind not only because of their Windows program but also because of the Xbox 360. The Xbox 360 is Microsoft’s latest video game system or entertainment hub as they like to call it. Now it may seem odd that I selected an amusement park owner as an icon but you may be surprised at how many people love, cherish, and attend their parks every summer. All the icons selected are all popular in their own right and although the list may seem strange there are lots of people that love each item or person that I have listed.
Everything has some form of meaning to each and every one of us. The icons I selected also have a great deal of meaning to me as well. Michael Jordan is not only a great basketball play he also as a great shoe and clothing line. I would say that a big part of my shoe collection consist of Michael Jordan shoes. They are pretty much the only shoe I love besides All stars. When it comes to Microsoft it’s all about the Xbox 360. I can not tell you how many countless hours I have spent playing online with friends and others alike. What more can I say I love my video games but I am also a serious person when needed. Cedar Fair is an odd icon but boy do they have the best rollercoaster’s in their parks. I love rollercoaster’s so much I once waited five hours to ride one. I have been to many press events for new rides and I always try to make it to the surrounding Ohio amusement parks at least once a summer.

Madonna picked on in school...Oh No!

2008-04-06T11:01:00.000-07:00

The article I selected was titled ‘Madonna: I was tortured for being a weirdo’. Now let’s take a step back for a minute, Madonna being picked on…No way! To me growing up see came across as out going and one wild and crazy person. I would think that people would be highly attracted to her because of the way she was but I guess I was wrong.
In the article that is located in this months Vanity Fair she goes on to state that she did not fit in with the popular crowds nor was she a stoner or a hippy. She was into classical ballet and music. As quoted by Madonna “Instead of being a doormat, I decided to emphasize my differences. I didn’t shave my legs. I had hair growing under my arms. I refused to wear makeup, or fit the ideal of what a conventionally pretty girl would look like.” Hairy legs and under arms are not high on my “to have” list for females, but to each his own.
The more she was tortured as well as bullied added to her superiority and day to day survival. It helped her want to leave the town she lived in even more. Today Madonna feels everything is good and bad things are there to make us stronger. She is happily married to Guy Ritchie and has two beautiful children. Madonna studies Kabbalah and believes that we are the architect of our own destiny. Taken responsibility for our own actions, words and behavior should be apart of our lives.
In my opinion we all have or have had some type of issue with a person or a group at one point in our lives. Celebrities are no different, they are people too and before they became who they are today they were just like you and I. Is this article trying to tug on our heart strings, I’m not too sure but I can only imagine how well she sleeps at night. To know that you made it this far and left the rest behind must be a great feeling. Like they always say what does not kill us only makes us stronger. My question is what was trying to kill us?

Popular Culture

2008-04-06T10:55:00.001-07:00

I was giving the task to answer a few questions about popular culture in my Popular Culture course. What is popular culture, and what does it mean to me? Why is an understanding of popular culture relevant to me in a business environment and in my present and future career? What would you consider to be an example of a pop culture artifact? And why would I choose it? Those are the questions that I had to answer. We are all involved in popular culture everyday, even if we do not know it. I decided to Google the term popular culture and little did I know there were millions of sites that had meanings for the term. I do believe that the media, movie stars, and certain products make up a big part of what popular culture is today. We as humans always have to be in the know of what is cool and hip and no one wants to be left behind. I know that is just my opinion but I do find it true. The Apple iPod is one example I used as a popular culture artifact. No matter how many mp3 players are available to the public, if you do not have an iPod well I guess you are not in the “in crowed”. Taking popular culture to the business world could be shown with the TV show “The Apprentice”. Donald Trump took what some may find boring and turned it into a reality show that millions of Americans watch today. Do I find that show interesting, a little but I do not go out of my way to watch it. This is only the beginning of my course and my first blog, so I hope in time things will improve.