rom commmmm

what is it about a good chick flick that just makes you feel better. i am an absolute sucker for a good romance and for some reason they are the perfect pick-me-up. even really bad romantic comedies have the redeeming value of being so bad it's comical. one of my best friends and i are constantly on the look out for really bad rom coms and i'm currently the champion for finding the worst one. i think these types of movies appeal to me so much because i love the happy ending. happy endings are often hard to find in real life, but in a good romance the couple ends up together with rainbows coming out of their eyes and woodland creatures building them a house (okay, maybe the rainbow thing is an exaggeration). that's not to say that i don't like movies that don't end perfectly happily, because i do like them, but they don't really make you feel good. there is just something comforting about sitting down with your favorite movie which for me is Sabrina (the new one) and knowing that in the end there will be love in Paris instead of heartbreak in the Valley.

jog-a-thon

I am physically incapable of running without my iPod. I am not a person who enjoys exercise, but by listening to music while I run I trick myself into thinking that I'm having fun. Instead of thinking about the cramp in my calf of the burning sensation in my throat, it think about the lyrical stylings of Elliot Smith, Wolf Mother, Kravinsky & Lovefoxxx, LCD Soundsystems, and Jay-Z. I motivate myself by saying that after the next song I can take a break or throw up. In just one more song I'll be home. Measuring my runs, it would be more accurate to call them jogs or even wogs(walking and jogging), is much less discouraging than miles or minutes. So thank you Apple for helping to keep my love handles in check.

Americans

I've spent the last 6 weeks in Europe and in all of the 5 countries I went to I could not escape American media. Movies, TV, music, commercials. We have a global media culture that in some way I think homogenizes us as people. My media experience is similar to that of someone is Spain, England, or Switzerland. It also gives people a skewed idea of what Americans are really like. They think that we're all like what they see in the movies. We're desperate housewives who have three cars and a swimming pool. We're violent and swear like sailors. We all cheat on each other and all we eat is McDonald's. It's sad really, but a societies values are revealed by their entertainment and sometimes I don't blame them for thinking what they do about us.

Spotify

I am a lazy music listener. I really like to experience new music and find new things that I like, but I don't really go out and actively look for new bands and artists. I rely on friends and word of mouth to hear about what's new and different. For this reason I love Spotify. I can just look up what my friends are listening to and subscribe to their playlists and see what they are listening to. It is music discovery made easy for the lazy like myself.

adverts in Latvia

I recently spent some time in Latvia and was struck by home much of their media comes from US. Almost every movie playing in the theater is from the US, with maybe one French movie thrown in. Their TV programs are translations of American shows, they listen to American music. Since Latvia is such a small country, it is cheaper fro them to just translate American media than to produce their own. I was watching TV and a terribly annoying Latvian commercial came on and I was sitting talking with a Latvian about how the American advertisements are always so much better and more creative. I think what it really comes down to is money and experience.

murder

i heard a report yesterday of a 14 year old boy who tortured and then murdered his mother. The boy was recreating something he had seen in a movie. I have thought about this boy alot and then about what responsibility the media industry should have, if any. The boy was likely troubled to begin with, but then watching violent media inspired him to act in a way that he may not have on his own. Movies and even TV shows frequently depict gruesome violence, torture and murder as entertainment. And it's not just weirdos who watch this stuff, look at the popularity of the Saw movies. Obviously not everyone who watches these films goes on to commit murder, but I don't think you can say that witnessing acts of extreme brutality has no effect on your thoughts, and thoughts lead to actions.

mr. roboto

I am a human being. Why does Blogger keep making me reaffirm this fact? I want to stop spam just as much as the next person, but are the insanely long and sometimes indecipherable security codes absolutely necessary? It makes me want to give up and not post comments which is sort a self defeating outcome, right? Stop accusing me of being a robot, it's getting insulting.