Monday, December 11, 2006

Shake it!


I do find it very interesting that the average person uses a line from Shakespeare at least once a day and I have to say I believe that is true. Thinking back to the middle of the semester I remember that I had to write a review on the play "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," for my Arts Reviewing class. If I can recall correctly, the first sentence of that review started out with: "To be or not be. Insane?" Now, I know it is not the exact line from Shakespeare, but obviously I borrowed some of the words. Since I have just finished Hamelt for that same class, my mind is on that play and others written by Shakespeare. In Shakespeare's time Hamlet was called a revenge-tragedy. We have seen these same stories throughout the entire time we have consumed media and it's always the same thing. Stop me when it sounds familiar. It's a cold night, and it is dark and dreary. There is a ghost that has been haunting the town and it has finally come in contact with someone. That someone wants to seek revenge on the person that has killed it. So, naturally we want revenge too. We want this person to kill whoever he can, because we think that will solve everything.However, when he does kill someone; it is usually an innocent person. Then we say, why did you do that? In the end there is nothing but bloodshed. The person who was seeking revenge is dead and he has killed everyone in his path. So, the message of that story: Revenge=Bad.It is stories like this that will never get old. And, it was here in plays like Hamlet and Macbeth that these types of stories originated. It just amazes me that he could write these plays so long ago, and still people practically worship his work, today. I think it is important that we ask ourselves what we really consider our standard to be for art. By my defenition, and I believe others would agree with me, most of what we consume from the media is in fact art. So, how do we decide whether it is good or bad? What makes "Gone With the Wind" any different from "Napoleon Dynamite?"

Saturday, December 09, 2006

Media Consumer..Hey That's Me!






At the beginning of this class i would consider myself to have been a media drone. What do I mean by media drone you ask? Well, it's simple. I was one of those people that was so used to consuming media that I did not think about the meaning of the media. I can honestly say that I have become more critical since I have been in this class. Sometimes I catch myself nit-picking at little things in the media. Things like advertisments, movies, and even books. In another class, we talked about a canon that was created. The canon included all the pieces of media that were most important- it could be considered the foundation that other media references to from time to time.Also, it was a list of books and things that well-educated people should be familiar with. For instance, last night I was watching some late-night T.V. Ok, so i was watching the movie "Clueless." There's nothing wrong with that. First, I will give a brief explanation of the movie for those who have not seen it. It is a teeny-bopper movie that was created to make fun of all the rich teenagers in L.A. Cher, the main character, falls in love with her step brother, and they live happily ever after. It is a funny movie, but again there is refereces to other media that has been created. Although there is not a very strong plot, I found it very interesting that there was references to Shakespeare. Specifically, the actors make remarks about Hamlet. This i something that I did not pick up on when I was younger, because i did not have the left brain critical media side in me. I've thought about te commercials that are on during certain times. During the day there mostly one group of people that stay home: Retired people. So at this time there are commercials about scooters that help you be more mobile. When school gets out around 3 or 4 in the afternoon the commercials consist of iPODS, and mostly electronic things. At night, aroud 7 or so, there are commercials about food, and cell phones. There is not one commercial about scooters. And, late at night there are commercials about sexy girls that you can call for a good time. Also, Christmas seems to be getting earlier and earlier every year. The very beginning of November set off the Christmas advertisements. Usually, it would be hard to even see that right before Thanksgiving. Saturday and Sunday morning it would be easy to see commercials about barbie and RC cars.

Monday, December 04, 2006

Since When Did I Get Rolling Stone?

Today, I was taking in the mail, and noticed something extraordinary. Well, maybe its not that extraordinary, but I noticed that we get Rolling Stone at my house. On the cover of the December issue is Snoop Dogg. For all the people who know about Snoop, they can probably guess what he is holding. It is a blunt that is shaped like a candy cane. I think it is weird that Snoop is on the cover holding a blunt, but yet the article inside the magazine talks about how he is the head coach of a child's football team. Not only is he on te cover with the candy cane shaped blunt, but the article begins with Snoop in his porsche rolling a blunt with his hands while driving with his knees. Does he send the message to young children that it is ok to do drugs? It seems like it to me. The article says that he is really involved with the boys. He truely cares about each individual child and the boys feel the same way. In fact, Snoop cares about the boys so much he is willing to put his career on hold. I'm quoting Rolling Stone here: "Snoop says,'I don't wanna do no records, I don't wanna do no movies, I don't wanna do shit but football. Until I win the Super Bowl the buck stops here.'" Hmmm, it seems like he really cares about the kids when he says that he is going to win the Super Bowl, not the kids. Snoop probably paid the magazine to put this article in there for him.