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For this weeks reading I did it on pitchfork and how they have created a new area of the music industry.  This reading was possibly one of my favorite readings I have done this year, partially because I love music, and especially love ways of finding unheard of music, and the second reason is because it made me understand more about the music industry.  First of all, I think what pitchfork is doing is amazing.  People don’t want editorial type information from journalists.  What people are interested in these days is simply what people equally as passionate about the music think.  They want people who have a general appreciation for that band to give them information.  This is why magazines like the rolling stones are starting to suffer because they are more intersted in the movie stars and easy story getters and instead pay less attention to the actual music.  The same problem is occuring with MTV and much music because they are focusing on reality tv shows instead of focusing on new music and stuff, therefore, they are starting to loose alot of viewers.  These viewers need somewhere to turn and why not turn to a web site.  Most people are always on the computer and therefore, their information is all in one place.  Although pitchfork gets criticised for alot of things, I think what they are doing is great, I think they really keep the music alive.

So, I just read chapter 13 and I must say, it is kind of a no duh chapter.  The first thing that was brought to my attention was when it started to talk about popular culture.  Now as much as it would be nice that everything could be so thought provoking and so on, but realistically, what do people use things like the television for?  We use it (or at least i think we use it) to relax.  We have thought long and hard about our tasks durring the day and sometimes people use it to unwind.  Therefore, it is not necessary that there by no high culture programs on the air.

The other issue I have with this is that something as widely used as television wants to cater to a large amount of people.  Therefore, high culture audiences are not the norm.  There are far few people that go to see an opera than go to see beevis and butthead at the movie theatre.  Therefore, in order to make a large amount of profit from television, it only makes sense to cater to the mass rather then the specific.

However, I do admit that I was unaware of the problems now being displayed in our children.  I find it alarming that children are no longer grasping the lesson, but instead, paying attention to details.  However, when I was a child (and I was not a book reader) I could always grasp the concept of the lesson.

One argument that they bring up as well is that things like books are far better for people to stimulate the mind then television.  However, I disagree with this.  What about comic books, they have no thought provoking messages to portray, it is pretty straight forward.  Also, there are many movies out there that have effected me more than any books (I do read books now) that I have read.  These movies consist of movies such as pay it forward or crash.  These movies are designed to promote a strong message tailered again to the masses.

I’d also like to point out how watching Noam Chompsky’s interviews in class last Wednesday also helped show the way the news chooses what is deemed ‘important’ news and what is not.  However, I also must admit that it was incredibly boring, and dry, which is why I think it was cut short.

I decided to go see the standard chick flick movie last Friday night.  The movie was called “because I said so” and yes it was one of those incredibly predictable movies that all men hate to go see, but my man had to come, due to his promise on Valentines day.

I choose this movie because I felt that it was one of the worst movies out that I coud see.  I did this because I tried to see the movie experience the same way that Russell Smith has chose to see it.

It was a very busy Friday night, I think because “Ghost Rider” just came out.  The lines were packed full of young adolescent boys, excited to see their comic book superhero up on the big screen.  Now, even I would have thought that this probably would have bothered me, but it didn’t.  I found their conversations actually quite interesting and to some extent a bit amusing.  I mean that is why you go to movies is to feel good correct?

After purchasing the tickets, everyone gets excited about popcorn. There is just something wonderful about the smell of salted popcorn with layered butter. This is something Russell continuesly complains about, but no one ever comes to the movies because it is healthy, it’s pure entertainment. Therefore, snacks are perfectly acceptable. My boyfriend and I then stand in line and watch as the people pour popcorn into the bags and quickly squirt butter (or margrine if you don’t feel like paying .50 cents) onto the popcorn. We watch Chad squirt butter on our popcorn and get a bit on the bag. He apoligizes but we shrug it off claiming it is going to get all over our hands anyways. After all we aren’t here for the good eats, we are here for the total experience. If we were in a fancy restraunt it may be a different situation, but were not, we all are here for the entertainment.

After getting your food you of course move into the ticket ripping line. This line is actually my favorite line. This is the line that the “hard core” movie goers get super pumped in. In this case it was the “Ghost rider” people who were talking about who the vilian is, and how cool it is when Ghostrider is on fire. I turn to my boyfriend and we quietly snicker, both knowing that we were once that excited about something so simple.

Once we get through the ticket ripping and into our theatre we settle down and everyone begins to munch. This was something that really irritated Russell Smith so I tried really hard to pay attention to it. He said it was noisy and loud, and people were eating like animals. I looked at the couple sitting in front of us and they were eating piece by piece with napkins, being careful not to spill. Then there was a family of four to the left of me, with the little boys taking as big of handfulls as their dad, and trying to stuff the whole thing in their mouth just like their dad. Therefore, I don’t see these people as wild packs of wolves or lions as Smith would describe them as. I see it as a quiet way of bonding, a way to share something. It is not disgusting or loud, and if it is then maybe a movie theatre is not the place for you. For example, Smith also talks about the mess in the aisles and how disgusting this is. Well, I didn’t know we were going to a fancy party. Oh right, cause were not. We are going to a relaxing movie, to put us at ease. So an easy solution: don’t wear your formal shoes. There Smith you’ve been for warned. And even so I found barely any remenents of popcorn.

After settling down in the theatre, I watched as it piled up. Everyone is munching on their popcorn and nachos. Since this movie is a romance, there is mostly couples in the theatre. I notice one particular couple. You can tell they were on their first date because he was trying to impress her with those beginning ads. And ironically so was my boyfriend, but in our case, it was more to just annoy me. Infact, the more I looked around the more I noticed how true it is that everyone plays those games. And what a good idea, how else are we suppose to keep entertained before the movie. We did come here for entertainment after all right?

After the lights dim the trailers come out. Smith goes into lengthy detail as to why this is annoying. So I wonder if he has ever been to a concert? They always start with opening bands to get the audience excited about the real entertainers. Same holds true about the trailers. The last trailer before the main movie was “wild hogz”. A comedy right before a romantic comedy. I watched everyone throught the ads, everyone captivated by the sounds and images being shown on the big screen. No one is talking, everyone is almost in a meditative state, focusing on only one object ( the screen) unaware of other distractions. To me this is the purpose for going to a movie. It is an escape from reality, a way to just relax. Therefore, the movie industry works hard to find ways to make sure your experience provides these things.

As everyone files out of the movie, I hear everyone talking about the oh so predictable questions: “Did you like it? What about that one part? Did you think the acting was good?” These are the questions that everyone asks, and is curious to know. Why? who knows. Must just be “movie talk”.

Movie going are for those who want to escape reality. Those who do not, have no place there (yes, that means you Russell Smith). Our movie no matter how terrible it was ( and it was) will not stop us from going to others. It is for fun and not boredom as Smith claims. I feel like people like Smith are just so stuck on being so proper that he has no real concept of waht relax means. As for the rest of us, we all I think really appreciate such wonderful entertainment!

So it has always been pretty obvious to me that the news was just a big media stunt, where it only talked about things that our society was interested in hearing.  However, I never knew the extent to which it did this.  I think we think so much about news skewing stories because of society and think less of the other things such as the book says when it talks about people begging for their friends or families names not to be put in the article or the people who send things over to companies hopping for more coverage.  These are things that should not be overlooked and we should think critically when reading the news. 

 I have a friend who just recently got his life back on track, and I sat down with him for lunch and we talked.  Apparently he had joined a group in lethbridge centered around trying to prevent racism from happening.  They follow three criteria, and one is to always ask why.  I think this is very important not only for battling racism but also for questioning things that many assume as true.  Many people listen to the news because they feel it is unbiased, when in fact it is biased.  Asking why allows one to think critically about what one reads, hears, and sees and prevents them from taking things at face value, which I feel is important.

 I found the article also very interesting because of its discussion of 9/11 and how many other news worthy things were going on but the media was aware that no one really wanted to here of these things more than that of 9/11 and therefore, they were not played.  I find this at times sad.  I mean think about the poor guy who was killed when Princess Dianna died in her horrific car accident.  I mean did anyone even know that he died as well?  I find it scary to know that I was unaware he was in the vehicle as well, and even more alarming that I don’t even know his name.  But, since Princess Dianna was the main topic, she was what was covered.  People didn’t want to see or find out the condition he was in, because he is not famous(which is terribly sad), but Princess Dianna we hold in such high regards, and therefore, it was a big breaking news story.

I found this chapter very interesting and I look forward to the lecture about it!

I’ve always been somewhat aware of the effects that tv has on society, but I’ve always been against thinking that television is the soul cause of things like school shootings, however, it seems too that I may have forgotten exactly what are society has become. Now, I’m still taking my original position that it isn’t a soul cause but TV plays a bigger importance then what we give it credit for, and here are some reasons:  We no longer use babysitters, instead we use TV.  I have seen so many parents using television as a bribe as well.  They tell their kids if they behave they will let them watch TV and sure enough it works.  Why?  Well according to these readings (and I also agree with this) that is the whole reason they are constantly making new TV’s from the standard TV to the HD TV which has clearer picture and better color only to attract that viewer even more.  Another thing they do is increase the amount of channels.  I gurantee if anyone has satalite TV that you can’t say that every hour there isn’t something that you would watch on the TV, so thats how they keep you glued to the TV.

 I actually found it kind of funny though that in the book they make canadian shows into such a big deal, and that Canadians are proud of these stations and that many canadians watch these shows (at least this is the impression I got) and I definatlly don’t find this to be the case.  I mean there are people like us who obviously do watch this stuff, because these are things we are interested in, we wouldn’t be taking the course if we weren’t at least remotely interested in it.  But others, and I think I definatlly fit in this category would much rather watch american TV shows.  The book made it sound like people were starting to get turned away from “Hollywoods” way of doing things, and were starting to appreciate Canadas “simpler” way.  But I’m not so sure this is the case, because if it were then why do we still have all the american stations in Canada, and why don’t we have more Canadian stations.  If there were a high demand then there would be more.

 On a more positive note, I think that alot of people focus on the bad things associated with Television, but we ignore that while yes there is bad propoganda and indoctrination, there are also good forms too.  There are shows like Sesame street which teach our children manners, and counting, colors, etc…  Since we use television as our babysitters now, I think broadcasters realize this, and thus trying to put some positive things on the television as well, that teach all, and for those reasons television should not be totally criticised for indoctrinating our youth.