“1,2,3 not only you and me…”

I was watching House one night, it was early around 8:30ish, when the commercial break came on. My roommate and I were chatting and not really focusing on the commercials when something drew my eye to the t.v.- a threesome being displayed before my eyes. I forgot what station I was watching and immediately thought I  accidently hit the remote and turned on some softcore porn, when I realized this was a commercial…

It starts off harmless, a couple trying to get it on and headed upstairs (assuming from a holiday party) in a huge house. They are all over each other not even able to make it to the bedroom yet. The guys hand slides all around the girl, the girl (with a simple watch on her wrist) slides her hands all over him. When a guy comes out of the shadows, he grabs her hand (with a watch on his own wrist) and pulls her into a room, the other gentleman follows. Slowly and swirling around clothes come off, they are on a couch,a hand with a watch shows up in a shot, things are getting HOT!!! When all of a sudden mother walks in and goes to scream when a hand with a gold watch flies over her mouth and the commercial ends, D&G Time flashes on screen, and the viewer realizes what the commercial is for- watches.

My roommate and I sat there stunned for a quick second, did that really just pop up on t.v., before 10? I thought it was crazy that we now have commercials featuring threesomes to get sales for watches going. Yeah maybe threesomes are the hot “in thing” right now; Britney Spears’ new single 3, describes how “she’s game for threesomes but are you?” and on the hit  CW show, Gossip Girl and threeway went down. But has our advertisers really thrown all morals out the window to sort of sell a watch, to sell a show, to sell a song?  I mean the thing was the commercial went down during prime time hour when kids are still up, still flipping through channels, still watching commercials. The question that this brings up for me is how desensitized our our children going to be if their catching glimpses of threesomes now, pretty soon I feel like advertisers are just going to have to give us the full monty. I guess it’s a ‘to each his own’ situation, people can see this ad and not have a problem with it and let their children watch it and not care either, and people are going to freak about this commercial hitting airwaves, it’s basically how are you reacting to it.

D&G got me thinking about this commercial all week so I guess their advertisers did their job, however I would never buy the hideous watches featured. It’s just sad that I feel like our world has lost it’s moral value and everything is cheap. But like I said, it is what you do with it.

On a side note if you’re interested in seeing this commercial (if you already have not) its the link at the top

5-Year-Old Body Builder…What A Scam

 

 

 

The story behind this picture is a father of this 5 year old child has been taking him to the gym since the age of 2. They live in Romania and are very popular because this child is very “fit”. This child recently stood on his hands with a medicine ball between his legs and “walked” for 33 feet to obtain a Guinness World Record. (The link to this crazy article is at the bottom of the blog)

However many people feel that this child’s father is exploiting him and is very much similar to our case(s) of child exploitation here in America; examples: ever popular Balloon Boy, and the lovely family on TLC Jon and Kate Plus 8. All these cases of child being used for money, for me, is just wrong. To me it seems like people are basically “pimping” their children out for the next quick dollar. Does anyone realize the impact this is having on our future generations and how good values and morals seem to have been thrown out the window. What ever happened to working hard and making something of yourself. With our society wrapped up in all these “reality shows” and people watching how these average people (with writers writing interesting story lines) go from average to stardom. I heard this morning that reality star, Khloe Kardashian (Lamar Odom’s new bride) is a bigger star than actress Jennifer Aniston, because how much publicity she gets. In what crazy world is someone famous for doing NOTHING AT ALL, clearly ours!

The new cases of children being exploited in reality shows, and on the news should really open up people’s eyes and help them realize our world is headed in a bad direction. Sadly with people watching these crazy “reality” shows, new and weird cases with continue to pop up. I wish people would realize that these “reality” are all made up and if they were “reality” nobody would be filming them, because sadly with out writers people’s lives can be very mundane. My question is when are people going to stop be interested in tv land “reality” and start to be real?

5-Year-Old Body Builder: Kid Sensation Or Child Abuse? | The Frisky.

 

Advertising For Our Toes

Walking around downtown L.A is usually an event. If it’s not a crazy homeless person screaming profanities than it may be a very pushy sales person trying to give you flyers you do not want, and I think without all those distractions the citizens of Los Angeles may realize how very dirty downtown really is (if you haven’t already noticed than I suggest you stroll downtown with your eyes open). During your stroll you may look down at the dirt and grime filled sidewalks and not just find the rest place of old gum but now pressure-washed ads.

That’s right, recently found under the feet of many Los Angeles citizens have been General Motors advertisements as well as Audi. This new type of advertising raises a few questions and comments, the first being is this legal? From what I found out is that the City of L.A is not happy at all. The department of Public Affairs have been dealing with this issue since it started because they have said, “While the ads are a clear violation of the city’s code, they don’t exactly cross the line when it comes to the state’s criminal code”. It falls under a very “if-y” situation because it can not be considered vandalism just yet because a person has to deface public property, but this is not considered vandalism (even the the city would like to call it that) because the people doing this are technically cleaning the sidewalks (even if it just a little bit). To me thats such a slap in the city’s face because the Public Affairs official also commented on how “these people-if caught, would have faced misdemeanor charges” but  could those people really have faced any charges because they were really just cleaning up the really dirty city (and this is REALLY the city’s job). However the LAPD Detective commented on although they cannot really charge the “vandals” they can be charged for advertising on public property.

To me although MORE advertising is kind of a pain in the neck, but I have to give it to these people’s creative way of getting around the law. I mean the cops and the city cannot find the people that washed these ads into the sidewalk (even after contacting Audi and GM) and if they did what are the charges they are going to face, because they weren’t doing anything but cleaning. What is a better way to try and clean the extremely grimy city and promote your company, it gets their promotion to the public and the city technically cannot do anything because ‘hey they were just doing your job and cleaning the city’. As LA Weekly commented, it is basically “reverse graffiti”. I’d like to see what is going to happen with this “clean” situation, will more ads get washed into the sidewalks or is the city going to get to work and start doing their job?

Scrabble… The Movie!

I recently found out that Universal is producing a new movie based on the classic board game, Battleship. Following the “game(toy/ride) into movie trend” are former games, Candyland,Ouija, and Monopoly. Studios are also optioning the View-Master movie, along with a Lego movie and a Barbie movie. Is it just me or are studios starting to look desperate for ideas, and it brings me to ask the question have all the good screenwriters run out of good ideas?

Now I’m sure that plenty of us (if not all) have played one of the board games mentioned above and as I’m sure you know none of these games have a story line. So I guess some creativity goes into creating the story for these movies, but these creative screenwriters cannot think of using any other inspiration to get a story?  I know that much of media has to do with “following the money”, so this leads me to the question of are the studios putting these movies on because they know that not only will there be people out there who will interested in the movie but there are going to be generous heaps of money flowing in when these people purchase the merchandise that go with these movies? My first example of a movie coming out of “a ride turned movie” is with the ever famous Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. The inspiration from this movie came from the beloved Disneyland ride with the same name. Granted the ride has a slight theme of pirates taking over a town and singing joyfully as they do so but who ever thought the “pirate pandemonium” would be as crazy as it was (and still is?) And crazy that they even changed the ride to include the movie plot, and characters into it? Some people may believe that it is nuts, and that the fact is Disney was just trying to capitalize off of the success of the movie(s). Another example of companies making crazy money off of “games/toys” is the somewhat new Transformers franchise. Transformers started off as a toy line, and produced a back story  so kids in the 80′s would buy these transformable characters. From the toy it moved to a t.v show that featured the back story that the toy company created for it, and then began its own comic book series as well. And then because Hollywood can not let things die peacefully without squeezing every last dime out of it, Paramount created the now very popular Transformers and Transformers 2.

The LA Times says, “Books, plays, short stories, comic books and video games have been adapted in large part because they offer a rich story and set of characters. The difference with many of the toys and games being turned into movies today is that they come with neither of those characteristics.” I mean how far has Hollywood gone when the turn the popular set of binoculars from childhood into “View-Master the Movie”. And the truth I have to keep telling myself  (and what you should be saying to yourself) is it only matters if large amounts of money follows.What bothers me the most is that lately it seems movie have lost their luster and with the knowledge that “game/ride/toy” movies are in the works, it does not excite me in the least bit. I see many movies and I feel like the summer movie season have all been sadly disappointing ( Inglorious Basterds is not included in this list, along with one or two more). When will this “Hollywood Gold Rush” be enough (as quoted from the LA Times)? If we realize that these movies have no real story and characters, then why are we buying into what the studios are giving us. We, the consumer, deserve better and should be given more! When is someone going to stand up and stop paying into all the propaganda of “game/ride/toy” movies, maybe I have to be the first. The question now is will you follow me?

a link to where I found this story is here: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-ct-brands28-2009sep28,0,1264698.story

“You Lie” You Racist!

I understand the whole “YOU LIE, Joe Wilson incident” is kind of old news but I recently heard some interesting ( well to me at least) updates on the “shout-out incident”… It all begins Tuesday (Sept. 15) when ex-President Jimmy Carter told NBC News, that “I think an overwhelming portion of the intensely demonstrated animosity toward … Obama is based on the fact that he is a black man” translation of what Jimmy Carter said, “Joe Wilson, you are RACIST!”

I want to focus on this for a quick second because as an American I too am fed with our whole health-care situation, and I do not feel that it is very fair that here I am a student with not one but two jobs and that I have to take taxes out of my paychecks because well hey thats what my country does. But illegal immigrants can walk into a hospital and get whatever they need fixed and feel better, and well they get billed and if they don’t pay that bill, guess who pays for it…ME, YOU, and ALL of us LEGAL AMERICANS. Yeah it grinds my gears and yeah I don’t think it’s fair that if I go to the hospital and the hospital gets me back on to my feet I have to pay for it, while here I am doing the right thing by getting taxes taken out of my hard earned money.

Back to the topic on hand so Jimmy Carter thinks Joe Wilson is racist because he was kind of sticking up for us Americans who don’t want our hard earned taxes to pay for someone else’s bill. Maybe Wilson went around conveying his emotions the wrong way but why is Carter calling him racist? Because Wilson spoke out of turn, or was just rude? Well I was also listening to KFI 640am and they were discussing the whole “Wilson’s racist” when a caller came on and asked then if Carter’s comment is because Wilson just interrupted and shouted-out and was rude and that makes him racist, well then is Kanye West racist against white people because he interrupted Taylor Swift? YEAH lets talk about the double-edged sword that was just pulled out… Kanye West can apologize over and over because “he’s still grieving from losing his mom, and he was drunk and  ”blah blah blah” but Joe Wilson can apologize and now everyone is looking to kick him out of congress and basically crucify him.

I feel like both these crazy situations have gotten way out of hand and hey guess what Wilson and West were both wrong, both rude, get over it! In every one of my classes this week I heard about the West/Swift debocal, and that Joe Wilson is racist, I’m so sick of it. Let’s refocus our attentions to what is going on to our country and the fact that today the democrats opposed tax on the health bill, the fact that the Bush administration’s plans for a long-range missile defense system was “shot down” today, and maybe something that can affect us California citizens was that also today Schwarzenegger had to hand in his proposal to reduce prison overcrowding. I feel that these news stories are getting pushed to the side, while our country is still raging about how we are still racist.My last question tonight is ‘why can’t we be friends’?

Websites with related news articles:

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

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2009/09/17/2009-09-17_jimmy_carter_gets_flak_for_racism_charge__even_from_white_house.html

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/comments_blog/2009/09/kanye-west-taylor-swift-serena-williams-rep-joe-wilson-has-civility-declined.html

Zune-ing OUT

Apple V. Microsoft (round 863)

Microsoft released it’s, I-pod touch competing, Zune HD to the world September 15 to very minor applause.

Let’s first take a step back to August 11, 2009 when word first leaked about the Zune HD. Here was this amazing piece of technology that was supposed to make EVERYONE switch from our cute, possibly multicolored, possibly touch-screen i-pods to this NEW dazzling portable media player…or so Microsoft thought. The Zune promised HD Radio Technology (do i-pods do that), HD Compatible Video (that was rumored to have amazing quality), it has a multi-touch screen, web browser, and games (well the i-pod touch already has touched on that).It was promising, very promising…let’s jump to September 15.

The critics grabbed their new Zune’s and were extremely disappointed. When they first got their Zune’s, they realized their new media players were useless without downloading the software, but you’re probably saying “So what downloading softwares not terrible” … um yes it is with the Zune. The critics said it took “more than a couple hours” to get the Zune up and running and the software was definitely not user-friendly. The critics also looked hopefully to the instructions that came along with the player, but come to find out the instructions did nothing at all and probably shouldn’t have been called instructions at all because they were useless. At one point one of the Zune’s died, and was really resting in piece. The critic said there was nothing reviving this NEW portable media player, until they called Microsoft and was walked through a re-starting method (what fun is that, considering it was brand new and not even a day old).

Many users know that the i-tunes website is extremely easy to use and I know my 6 year old cousin can easily navigate the page. When it comes to the Microsoft music website it was very complicated, the critics were very disgruntle about how the page was set-up. There is this service subscription to listen to music for $14.99 (thats basically like a radio) but when you sign up for it you get 10 free downloads. There is also a Smart DJ (that looked promising) and resembled i-tunes Genius, that is supposed to give you sample of related music to sample. But the service is sloooooooow and extremely difficult to use.

Sadly the Zune HD seems not to only be competing with the i-pod Touch, but the new i-pod nano that is now available in many different colors and can take video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctlcuhcLyM8) . The ZuneHD was promising but sadly does not compete with the Apple line of portable media players. But what I have to say to that is BIG SURPRISE! I was a Mircosoft user and for me it took hours to do anything on a PC, and don’t even get me started on trying to download a program to the computer because it would take half the day, can you tell I’m a happy Apple user? Apple creates products that are simple, and friendly to everyone. It looked like Zune was bringing something to table but sadly was not as good as it sounded.

Link to the Zune Review: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-zune16-2009sep16,0,2183213.story

From an East Coaster on the West Coast

It’s been eight years. Eight years that our nation endured a change that none of us were expecting. Eight years that the gift of life, maybe, looked at from a different point of view, one of gratefulness. Eight years that our idea of flying has changed. Eight years that an attack many people will never forget, an attack on our own soil, an attack on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and that lone field in Pennsylvania.

Let me give you a little back story to my story…

I come from the East Coast, Connecticut, to be specific. I grew up going back and forth from Connecticut to New York, New York is a big part of me, I love New York. When these terrible events unfolded I was in school in Connecticut, and I was pulled out of class and my principal told me what had happened. At the time I was school president and the principal told me that she thought it would be appropriate if I told the student body what happened. Here I was this young kid ready to address the school about one of the biggest moments in the history of America.

As September 11, approached this year, I wondered how it was going to be eight years after the tragedy.  I have always respected what happened on 9/11. I always will. On the east coast it was something that shook us to our core. If you didn’t know someone directly in the tragedy, you knew someone who knew someone, your heart still went out.

I’ve been on the west coast two years now and sadly I feel like what happened that morning on September 11, is just not remembered as it is on the east coast, here on the west coast. To me I feel like I got more news about what celebrity’s movies were coming out today, rather than the memorials that were taking place or the stories from ground zero. I know that everyone would like to move on from these sad events, but as sad as they are they happened and they affect all of our lives. Coverage would be spilling from everywhere if I were back on the east coast, that’s just how it is. And don’t get me wrong I saw coverage from KTLA this morning showing some of the memorials and talking about what happened that horrible day, but then they immediately switched to an interview with some star from the Hills. How sad is that that here on the west coast people care more about what’s happening on the Hills than what happened historically and what is happening at the site today. Is 9/11 more meaningful to us east coasters who saw that tragedy was so close to us?

What I am trying to say is I feel media coverage is definitely different on both coasts. What’s important to the east coast maybe just isn’t as important here on the west coast. But I feel that something as big as 9/11 should be important to us all, because we are all American, and many peoples lives were lost fighting for our freedom.