Tuesday, April 26, 2011

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It seems like every celebrity- pro -athlete has some kind of endorsement deal now days.  From the Manning brothers to Tiger Woods, it is such a big part of professional sports, that if you asked a young sports enthusiast what they're greatest dream would be,  they would probably reply "I want to play professional basketball and have my own shoes like Micheal Jordan or Lebron James".  But who am I to criticize someone for starting a clothing line, if I was in their shoes I would do the same thing, no pun intended. Let's be honest though besides the clothing and shoes, watching you're favorite athlete on the field playing his heart out is nice to see, but it doesn't allow the fan to get sense of who their watching actually is.  I think a lot of the T.V commercial help show a different side of the athlete. For example take Payton Manning, probably one of the best quarter backs of all time and if you saw him on the field you would probably call him a huge duecher even though he probably has the funniest commercials out "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSuHQZjzJYY".  I think a lot of these commercials help create a sense of down to earthiness for the athlete as well.  I know commercials have scripts but it does say something about a person with what their willing to do and how they carry them selves through it.
With all of this being said, all the work put into creating a new clothing line or shoe line for an athlete or putting their face on every piece of advertisement, this all can be crushed by one scandal "http://newsone.com/nation/best-of-decade/news-one-staff/top-10-sex-scandals-of-the-decade/".  Look through that link, see anything that rings a bell?  I hope something does or else I would have to see you live a god damn cave!  On a serious note one wrong move can change an athletes image forever,  sadly no matter what they have shaped it into they can only bury it for a time being.  As of now Kobe Bryant is known as a warrior on the basketball court and honestly for all the work he has put into his game you can hardly call him just another scumbag accused of rape.  I think scandal or not if people look past an athletes mistakes and see the work and dedication that they put into bettering them selves on and off the field, they should always be praised as role models.  Besides the fame and the fortune they stand for something greater, they stand for determination, hard work, dedication, and most of all they stand for believing.  It shows kids the path in order to achieve their dreams.  As for the athletes like Ricky Williams (Dolphins Running back), who have shown they are great at the game they play but choose to leave the dream they have chased for so long for  parties and drugs.  Those athletes should be kicked out of the league.  It's one thing to go out and have a good time and it is another to devote a years worth of time to smoke weed with a rock star, COUGH Lenny Kravits.....

Thursday, April 14, 2011

In today's music industry most of their top artist seem to be over paid sell outs.  Who can blame them though with all their is on the internet a simple garage band can send their music across the world for free.  So why not play a song that's catchy and sounds like everything else on the radio?  I mean I would like to say old time rocker's and roller's from my fathers youth were the true musicians (which I do believe) but they never had the internet.  The music industry has changed drastically and has created this mainstream money train that people seemed to by guaranteed success for backing a product or putting off the right image.  My friend Dave Emanuel play's in a band called "Black Day Seven", they play mainstream music and have actually had a couple meeting with big record company's, these guys are very familiar with the industry.  I asked Dave one day, "what does it take to make it in the industry now days?",  he replied with "Kyle it's not about the music anymore, I mean sure they said our music was what they were looking for but they didn't like our image our our attitudes and pretty much told us that they were looking for our sound with boy band faces in tight leather jackets and gelled up hair".  Music is slowly deteriorating from this industry,  I'm sorry not music what I meant to say in place of music was TALENT! On top of this look at all the advertisement going on in music videos, I mean there was product placement back in the day but not nearly as much as now.  Almost every single mainstream band is backed by at least 10 sponsors.  For example look a Brittany Spears new video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Edv8Onsrgg, now tell me their is not at the at the least 10 different close ups on products that are unneeded in that video.  It is now longer a video to play along with the artists piece of music, it has been turned into a giant advertisement/money making short film.

A lot of the new technology out helps a lot of bands and groups become known.   Look at Rebecca Black (Currently 102,110,054 views on you tube), I honestly have no idea how or why that video was made, was it like a sweet 16 birthday present?  Daddy giving his little princes what ever she wants on her special day.  Cause honestly if this was made by a record company who signed this untalented waste of space, I can only guess that their hopes of creating a celebrity hate star and taking advantage of the negative media created by that video to advertise and sell products, if that was their true intentions...was success full.  With out you tube this type of attention probably would be impossible to achieve.   So on and so forth with my space and twitter, like I said before a garage band can send their music across the globe for free; which isn't a bad thing sometimes.  Since bands upload their music to the websites, they have created company's like I tunes and allowed users to purchase music right on bands web page.  Doesn't matter if the bands are major or independent the money making option is open to everyone now days.  Take Pandora.com for example, this is an internet radio site that allows users to create their own radio stations by entering a favorite song or band.  The site than analyzes the music and finds other songs/artist that are similar for the user and allows users to "Like or Dislike" the song, if liked the site will find more music similar to this song and it will become recurring on your radio station.  Users have the option to purchase each song that is played on radio station from a little link tab at the top of each song. Beside from artist making money from people buying these songs from Pandora they also get royalties each and every time their song is played from Pandora "http://blog.pandora.com/faq/contents/351.html".

Led Zeppelin gettin down.
With all of this being said, I cannot blame the music industry for changing so drastically.  They have been affected by technology the most. I mean how many people download music rather than buy a CD?  I will admit I have certain bands that I love and will buy their CD every single time cause I'm a loyal fan... to them lol.  We the down loaders and leachers and the seeders have brought this upon the our selves by taking a lot of  the music industry's profits by illegally downloading.  We have pushed them to alternative means in my eyes to make up for the decrease in CD sales.  I  really don't care though they are payed to much anyways lol,  Thank god for websites like Pandora for not only keeping the artist from bitching, but for giving me access to all of this great  music that I would have never found in a million years.  God bless Amer... screw this place.

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Reality Poop Shoot

 Sorry but you're argument is invalid.
Since the beginning of this reality TV craze, I can honestly say I have never cared for any bit of it.  Watching someone else s life on camera made me feel like I was wasting my life; which in return, this gave me a bit of a morale boost to get off the couch and do something.  Some reality shows I believe are harmless and a bit informing for example "Teen Mom" I've watch very little of this show, seems boring to me but  this does give insight to what it actually is like to be a teen and a mother as well.  Made is another show that I just find to be helpful.  I believe this show is inspiring to kids that may share the same goals as the girl/boy on the show or at least a little moving to them and other viewers. The Hills and the Jersey Shore, these shows make me want to punch my self repeatedly in the balls until I am no longer able to have kids.  I say that because the messages these shows  are sending out are absolutely idiotic, kids eat that stuff up like a cheap hooker at motel 5 if you know what I mean! Who the hell would want to have a kid growing up in a generation of stuck up and highly materialistic people that are taught to judge by a persons looks?  On the Jersey Shore all the characters take care of themselves very well but they behave like typical Hollywood knock off/American pie douche bags, going around getting women and starting drama all around the house.  Isn't it funny that each episode is packed with drama and/or a new problem/dilemma?  When young kids watch these shows are they to believe this is real?  And that each day of their lives will be just as problematic as these shows?  I'll admit when I was younger I was a Ninja Turtles freak, I had everything from pajamas, toys, bed spreads, clothing, and even games.  I loved the ninja turtles so much I would use the back scratcher as a staff and pretend I was a ninja turtle.  I think I fell out of this phase when I dropped kicked my neighbor off of his trampoline and he started crying, ha you know cause in the ninja turtles people get hurt but hop right back up with a terrible come back line. Not in this case I had just witnessed the reality of what I believed to be normal.  So now, why wouldn't a kid grow up thinking he/she needs to have a perfect body or a rich lifestyle in order to be normal, I mean I thought crime fighting was normal right? What will happen to the kids that do not succeed at this?  Do they become the losers or as the Jersey Shore cast likes to call them "Grenades"?  Further more, I don't see anything real about these shows, maybe the women they have sex with but that might not even be true.  What happened to old shows where values were taught and practiced and the actors didn't suck!  Who am I though, defiantly not someone in position to make a change, besides some of the things on the Jersey Shore are ridiculous but funny. So I guess I am situational on this matter (more to one side) but I know that in our society there is no such thing as situational beliefs.

Monday, February 28, 2011

The Baltimore Sun


The Baltimore Sun is Maryland's largest daily news paper. The Sun covers events, issues, people, industry, and most of all the local and regional news. The Baltimore Sun's audience are residents of the state of Maryland and for a small fee of $3.71 a week ($192.92 yearly) The Sun can be delivered to your door step each and every morning. I have heard that they are biased towards liberals I have no evidence though but I do know for a fact that they have won 15 Pulitzer Prizes; which I'm not going to lie, it's kind of a big deal.

In reality, the cold hearten truth is that, no matter how good a news paper actually is or made out to be, over time technology will continue to become more, more, and more accessible to news and information. I actually believe that the news paper is a wonderful, traditional, old American source of information but to me I see the news paper industry being completely diminished after our older generations are gone and we are the old timers for a much younger generation. Of course not all of our generation will like to agree with me, I too do not want to agree with myself, I do like sitting down, holding, and enjoying the paper occasional. Inevitably, down the road when apple just releases the "I phone 9000" or HTC makes the "Droid super duper extremely incredible" with "32 g" speeds, people will have the news at their finger tips so fast that eventually those normal neighbor hood scenes in movies where the two neighbors wake up at the crack of dawn, both of them go out side in their robes and underwear for their morning paper and one neighbors paper is right at his door step and the others is on top of his roof. Yeah those scenes, they will be no more.

Monday, February 21, 2011

Mass Com Blog 1



So I'm sitting in the checkout line at walmart, I notice the three people in front of me have a gazillion things in their carts, immediately I get the urge to scream. Trying to contain this ball of rage that is being agro'd by these some what molasses moving senior citizens in front of me, I see the magazine rack and it quickly redirects my attention. The first image I see is a girl, with probably the sexiest body I have ever seen, I mean the last time I saw a set of jugs like that two hill billy's were blowing on them. Her picture followed by a dude that was jacked up, this guy had veins popping out of his finger nails; kind of sick but still made me look at my giant gut and wonder where it all went wrong. On top of these pictures was a caption that said "Get ripped and ready for the summer season" followed by page numbers for attention grabbing named workouts. I stood there and thought for a second; than I actually began to count the months till summerand I began to ponder what I could do to get ready myself. Than I had another thought, honestly are these pictures real? How many times have you casually walked down the street or through the mall and saw one of these so called healthy in shape people? NEVER! I am not saying they don't exist, I am simply saying that you will never look like that. I used to work out alot, I was a complete nut about working out in high school; which in return to excessive workouts I became very knowledgeable about the time and hours needed to look like these models. What people do not realize is that the mongoloids and the smoking hot girls with the bangin' bodies are paid to do that, looking extremely fit is there job. And that those thirty minute workouts they draw you in with do not work and they really strive to sell you bs products from fake spokes people that claimed this program has worked for them just to try and suck you in more, when the product really never helps or works. When you open the pages to these things all you see is gorgeous body, gorgeous body, advertisement, heartwarming fat kid story, gorgeous body, gorgeous body, advertisement, work out program, work out program... when are people going to realize that these headlines are not helpful but harmful and fearful.

In no way shape or form could I bring myself to buy a magazine of that magnitude. To me it seems a bit evil how the advertisements draw people in with promisses of a cheap work out and products to make you look like their poster child. Though some people actually enjoy reading these little packets of brainwashing hell, who are not unfit or self conscience about their bodies.

Although, this magazine did do it's job on me. I did look down at my big ol' belly and think of ways to get rid of it. The self conscience people will forever be the media's sheep.