Connecting with Celebrities

I guess the "celebrity" I feel most connected with would have to be Kevin Smith. Some criticise his work as being something that only the "geek" culture can relate to. To this I say "That might be true, but no other writer/director understands his or her target audience like Kevin Smith." This is because Kevin Smith is very much a "geek" himself; a character trait that gives him a perceived personal connection with his fans. This makes him very approachable during interview/conventions etc, often telling personal stories and cracking jokes about his experience with the industry. I am both a movie goer and a comic book fan. That being being said I have been exposed to his work in both mediums and because he is actively involved in two of my favorite forms of media its almost like Kevin Smith is unintentionally catering to my interest. I know he isn't but his work is so enjoyable it almost seems that way.

Keeping In Touch

As strange as it might sound, I find that more I focus on school the less "in touch" I am with world at large. Some might find that college helps you to be more in tune to the world around you but I find it to be the exact opposite. The more I focus on school work the less I focus "the news." I attribute this to the fact that I'm really not a "new buff" current world events are things that I check up on only if I have some leisure time and I usually use that kind of time for other activities. However I'm always on the Internet for both school and lesiure so most my "keeping in touch" comes from the web. Rather than subscribe to a newspaper I prefer to visit a website were I can see it for free. Email also plays an important part in "keeping in touch," comeing mostly from my mother when I don't call her for weeks on end ect. ect. Although I watch very little televison (nowadays) most of what I watch is usually C-Span coverage or other media corespondents.

Discovering Politics

My first with politics was with the 1996 presidential election. My parents liked Clinton so I liked Clinton. For a while that was extent of it, but naturaly has I got older I began to understand how polotics work and what borh parties usually suport etc, etc. However I don't think I've made an firm decsion on polotics until the most recent presidential election (this was the first one I was actually able to vote in so go figure). Up until just recently my poltical ideals were very flipfloped, I supported the war on terror but I didn't like a repulican controled Senate, ect, ect. It is only in my college years that I began to take notice on just how much poltics affect me.

Interpreting Technologies

The Personal Computer, it was said sometime in the 1980s that eventually every home in America would have at least one. Whoever made this claim turned out to be correct for the most part. What began as a cult following in 1973 in now a worldwide phenomenon. The PC represents the quintessence of what technology can achieve in terms of mainstream use and acceptance. It has gotten to the point where it is hard to imagine life without the conveniences the PC can provide. Imagine attending college without the use of the Internet, imagine libraries without computers. Its not has if the planet would seize to function but people have become so conditioned to these conveniences that it would become near impossibel to go back to the way things used to be.

Identifying With Music

My personal taste in music comes not really from my generation but rather from my parents generation. When all the kids were rockin out to the flavor of the week I was listening to folk music form the 1960s. I enjoyed people like Bob Dylan, Simon & Garfunkel, and Don McLean as opposed more recent artists. This is not say I listened only to old music but if I had to pick a favorite song "American Pie" or "The Times are a Changin" would always rank higher than songs like "Buddy Holly" or "Smells Like Teen Spirit." So what did I gain from my love of 60s-70s folk rock? I think a gained an aperciation for the era. I became interested in the history behind the music and what the artists were really trying to say about the government, and the lifestyle was percieved to be the "American Dream." As I grew older I learned about the events surronding the music, and the poltical divide that devined the era. In a way the music not only gave me a healthy interest in history but in part also helped to shape my poltical views. As such I feel that by continuing to enjoy those artists I am helping to preserve a part of America's history.

Feeling Hyped

I think my most negative experience with the media happened when I was watching the 11:00 news with my girlfriend and her family. At the time, Florida was about to vote for a new governor, the Scot Peterson trial was coming to a close, there had been a local protest for the war in Iraqi, many exciting things were happening in our community. So..... what was the big story?(drum roll) Shit. No literally Shit. The top story that evening was that in the downtown area, a homeless man had defecated in a flower bed outside of a respectable restaurant. To make this story even more ridiculous, a reporter was called in live at the "scene of the crime" and during the broadcast a man in a black hooded jacket was behind the reporter giving the camera the finger and making pelvic thrusting motions at the man giving the story. The restaurant owner was baffled as to why any one would commit this heinous act of villainy. I thought the story was pretty stupid but my girlfriend was outraged. She lamented at how there were so many important events happening in the world a all we get is "a guy shits on the street." Her father, looked up from his book and laughed "its all the same thing if you ask me." Needless to say it was a slow news day.

Forming a Style

It is said that a you can tell a lot about a person bey the way they dress. We use clothing not only as means of keeping warm ( among other things) but also as a means of expressing our own unique sense of individuality. We would normally call this own sense of style, but is our style really all that unique or is it something we are told will make us unique if we wear it. Do woman wear high heel shoes because they are comfortable, or because they wish to "dress to impress" or appear more attractive to the opposite sex? Will any pair of sunglasses be okay, or would the $400 Ray Bans be a better choice? The point is... these designer clothing companies are multi billion dollar corporations. In order to continue to be successful their goal is to make sure their product is sold to as many people as possible. What we call "unique" or "individual" is actually worn by millions of people all over the country. What is considered "in" and what is considered "out" in the fashion industry is all a campaign to sell the newest idea. Old "style" falls out of fashion to make room for the new. It could be argued that our entire sense of what is considered to be our "individual style" is dictated by the fashion industry.

Seeing Gender

I remember being in middle school at about the age of 12 or 13. One of the biggest movies that year was Gladiator directed by Ridley Scott, and staring Russel Crow. Piratically every boy in my 6th grade class was talking about it, and practically every mother that attended my church was repelled by intense level of violence in the movie. In short, it was one of those "ultra violent" master pieces of my childhood that was supposed to "define cool." While at my local Blockbuster, I had the chance to rent the movie. In school I was studying Roman Mythology at the time, and I was never one to "mix work with pleasure." Seeing that I was unsure if I would enjoy the film, my mother offered an alternative. She suggested her all time favorite movie Gone With The Wind. While skeptical at first, I found the film to be highly enjoyable and it remains one of my favorite films to this day, though I am still sometimes embarrassed to admit it. Why? Because of the way media influences gender identity. There was no written rule that said which of the two movies should appeal to either sex, it was just that Gladiator seemed to be the more masculine choice. The main character was a man, the villain was a man, the leading actress in some part played the "damsel in distress" etc. Gone with the Wind, by comparison seemed to be much more feminine. Half of the main cast was female, most of the scenes centered around female interaction and response, the story focused on a love triangle as opposed to an "epic struggle."
This does not mean that only men can appreciate Gladiator or viceversa, but base on the culteral norms of the time, I felt somewhat silly for admitting which of the two films I enjoyed the most.

Escaping

We often use the media as means of escaping and forgetting our problems of everyday life. How is this possible and why do we do it? What is the appeal? The answer will vary from person to person, but the simple answer is that every form of media be it movies, TV, video games, Broadway productions, comic books, novels, etc posses the abilities to capture our imaginations and bring them into another world. But what is it about this other world that makes it so interesting? Often these worlds can be larger than life with characters that embark on epic quests or take part in desperate struggles. Other times they can be grounded in realism with characters that have believable but unique abilities. Some times they can be very similar to our own world with characters that are average and unremarkable, but humanistic and relateable. What the media does is give us a situation or set of circumstances that we know are not real but imagine could be real. It then presents a limited, but physical manifestation that allows us to further suspend our disbelief. I know there is no such thing as Superman, I know a man cannot fly, but I can imagine what would be like if there was such a person. Seeing someone portary Superman on screen finishes the work my imagination started.

A Day in the Life

The media is all around us. Even now as I'm writing, music is playing from my radio, I have a YouTube video of Barack Obama's inauguration, and I'm running AIM. To many distractions at one time? Perhaps, but how many can say that this is not the norm for a typical study session? For so many people the media as becoming more easily accessible and it is becoming more integrated into our everyday lives. Information whether in print or electronic is presented to the public in a variety of methods. For me, most of my media consumption is absorbed through the Internet. I use it for just about everything school related and I use for it for entertainment purposes more often than I watch TV. Newspapers are becoming a bigger part of my media consumption as well. Last year I was required to have a subscription to the New York Times for one of my classes and I have the same deal going for my principles of electronic media class. I'm still not in the habit of picking up the paper every day but I am getting better. My biggest form of media consumption probably comes from movies, I am a huge moviegoer especially during the summer. Although once a movie is out of theaters I find that I don't have a strong a desire to watch it even if I rushed to buy the DVD.