Sing Off Links

YouTube Links to the best performances of the finalists.
Nota’s performance of “Down,” probably their best performance in the show, but it is debatable.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MG0PiVtqLxM
Beelzebub’s knocked their judge’s pick “Sweet Caroline” out of the park.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gewU78c5jo
Voices of Lee
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dXObqGELbg

Disclaimers

I hereby declare that this blog has no pretensions whatsoever to objectivity.  I express my opinions wholeheartedly and while I hope that I use logic and information in forming them, I know they will be influenced by my experiences and political leanings.  However, I always encourage respectful conversation and debate and welcome posts with alternate viewpoints on any matter discussed, no matter how insignificant they may seem, from the appropriate colors to wear in winter to the appropriate approach to the war in Afghanistan. 

Conflicted...

Yes I am conflicted.  I flit between adoring consumption and clothes and beautiful things to abhorring the consumerism that controls our everyday life.  I’m not really disturbed by this because I feel it is probably normal considering we are humans with materials needs and desires and that we are constantly bombarded with fabricated material needs from the day we are born.  My goal is to ween myself off consumption as much as possible and turn towards more fulfilling searches.  Perhaps a New Year’s resolution can be to read 20 excellent and diverse books this year, or actually commit to a yoga routine for once...  or keep my running schedule up for once.  All of these things can help fill in the gaps in time which end up getting filled up with online shopping or promenade walks through touristy shops.  At the same time, walking through stores and feeling all the fabrics of different clothing items is one of my great pleasures in life.  Sigh...

"The Sing-Off" and the future of media

For the most part, NBC produced a piece of schmaltzy nonsense, but the highlight of this mini-series was the number of extremely talented young (and older) people that were thrust upon the national consciousness.  A cleverly laid out mini-series, “The Sing-Off” chose a shorter format that would minimize DVR usage, thus maximizing eyeballs on ads, while maintaining the public interest in A capella music throughout the duration of the series.  With one hour shows on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday during the third week of December, followed by a live two-hour finale the following Monday, it was just enough exposure to whip up interest in the Idol-style competition show, without losing people over a long season, which an A capella only competition show probably could not support.  With anticipation running high about the live finale, fewer people would pre-record it, because the whole point was to find out who would win the $100,000 grand prize and Sony recording contract.  Would it be Voices of Lee, the Christian college co-eds, led by future R&B star Candace?  Or the Beelzebubs, the wildly entertaining and charismatic group of jokers from Tufts University?  Or would it be Nota, the soulful group with Peurto Rican flair?

In the end Nota prevails and probably rightfully so, considering the ultimate prize was a recording contract, not a tour.  While the Beezelbubs were entertaining, Nota was the only group that could possible get me to buy a cd.

NBC, for some reason, which doesn’t really make sense to me, decided to pull down its Sing-Off Channel from YouTube today, leaving fans completely dependent on other YouTube channels for the songs.  I guess they want to redirect traffic back to their site to watch their pieces of shows with all the commercials.  Very clever, but really irritating because when the judges talk, you mostly want to shoot yourself in the head.  The only interesting part is the singing.  They should pretty much just cut out the other stuff and keep the songs, bookended with commercials if that’s how it needs to be.

This brings back the question that is constantly on my mind, as someone who hopes to create media content one day: what is the format of the future and who is going to pay for it?  Typically it’s been advertisers who pay for most content.  They consumer pays for some things: theatrical movies, dvds, cds, and some for cable, but most of this is all underwritten by advertisers.  This is basically the case for most of the media we consume, even though we pay a nominal fee for it, we rarely really pay for the whole cost of its production, be it newspapers, magazines, or televisions shows.  The consumer has become used to voraciously consuming media often without paying a dime.  Particularly my generation, weened on Napster and graduating to Limewire and BitTorrent, we thought nothing of downloading any song, television, or movie on a whim.  Our motto was search and ye shall find.  Inconvenient PR laws slowed us down, but we are creatures of innovation and most young computer savvy people can still find most mainstream media if they look hard enough.  Besides that, there is now a wealth of legally free entertainment to be had on the web, much of it hosted on sites that are now also using an advertising based model to turn a profit (i.e. YouTube).  If the true cost of producing media were passed on to the consumer, in many cases they would rebel. 

That said, certain formats do make a lot of money, particularly films, merely from selling to consumers.  Let’s take “Avatar” for instance.  While IMDB claims they had a budget of $230 million, it’s widely rumored to have cost over $300 million to produce.  After one weekend, it has already grossed $238.5 million worldwide, well on track to turn a huge profit for Twentieth Century-Fox and James Cameron, king of the box-office mega movie.  Besides the massive amount of money they will make in ticket and dvd sales, Avatar will capitalize on toy sales, video games, and various other types of merchandise.  To maximize marketing dollars they have even teamed up with McDonalds to advertise the Big Mac and the movie at the same time.

While that’s all well and good for films like “Avatar” the rest of us are typically scrambling for funding and most likely not making even close to a profit in the end with just consumer contributions.  Most films lose money...  With a society obsessed with consumption, advertising underwrites everything from sports teams to charity events to media production.  But at what cost?  The biggest concern for me with media underwriting is in the category of news.  This is the area that one feels should be free of outside influence and possible sources of inappropriate restraint, but how can that truly be possible?  It’s difficult enough for news sources today to be unbiased when there are so many choices the consumer can chose whatever newspaper or network or blog that echoes their own opinion.  The temptation to fall into a political niche and preserve a core audience is strong, but that’s another can of worms entirely.  No logic in the world can convince me that news sources underwritten by sponsors can ever truly be objective.

Working in NC, SC, and VA

Our guy on the long lens at the beach.  Commercial for the Marines, crazy schedule, awesome stuff.

The road to AZ

The Power of the Mind or what "The Men Who Stare at Goats" (Jon Ronson), and "Eat, Pray, Love" (Elizabeth Gilbert), "Bright-sided" (Barbara Ehrenreich) all have in common.

I think it’s okay write a book review on three books, one of which I have read in its entirety, the other I am currently reading, and the last of which I will probably never read.  Mostly I’m just interested in the intersections of these three books which have happened to thrust themselves upon me this week.  While I have been slogging my way through Eat, Pray, Love for a while now, neglecting it when something more interesting comes along, I flew though the 270ish page Jon Ronson expose of paranormal American intelligence techniques the past two days.  A few days ago I heard Barbara Ehrenreich discussing her new book critiquing “positive thinking” in American culture, blaming on it everything from the recent financial crisis to hypnotizing the American workforce into submission.  What struck me is that all of these books seem to have to do with the power of the mind in one way or another.

Currently in my reading of Elizabeth Gilbert, she is recounting her encounters with the divine through meditation and she describes a feeling of the divine inside of her.  In The Men Who Stare at Goats, Ronson’s contact Guy Savelli describes the same experience when he stares at hamsters and goats.  The evidence presented by Guy to Jon of his ability to fell goats and hamsters with his mind seemed pretty slim.  Jon was clearly not convinced of Guy’s ability and neither am I.  However, Guy was experiencing a feeling described by Elizabeth, which according to her is described by many people meditating, praying, or having a “divine” experience.  It seems like the mind is capable of transforming something, and if not the body it inhabits, what else?

This is where Bright-sided comes in.  As painful as it may be I really may have to read Barbara Ehrenreich’s book, so I can fully comment on it, but her critique of the use of “positive thinking” for healing purposes rubbed me the wrong way.  Her negativity and bitterness is so pervasive in all her work that I already really dislike her and anything she has to say, so I'm already prejudiced against her.  Granted, she is a cancer survivor, so maybe she has safely lodged herself in the impregnable fortress of self-righteousness on this one, but there is lots of evidence that positive thinking can affect the body.  I'm not saying it can cure cancer, but nothing she says will ever persuade me that it's as dangerous as she would have us believe.

Anyway, back to the rambling point.  Can the mind affect the outside world or the body?  Thoughts...?

P.S. Here's Barbara's rant so you can judge for yourself: 'Bright-Sided': When Happiness Doesn't Help

Film Review: Where the Wild Things Are

After so many people I’ve talked to have panned Spike Jonze’s “Where the Wild Things Are,” I feel the need to voice my own opinion.  Take it for what you will, but I thought Jonze made all the right choices.  The film follows the imagination of young Max (Max Records), a boy wrestling with feelings of anger, loneliness, sadness, and fear as he deals with his parents’ divorce and the fragmentation of his nuclear family.  After a fight with his mother, he runs away, and sails to an island inhabited by Wild Things.  Here his emotions and his family relationships are played out in the society of the Wild Things. 

Overall the film is beautiful and stunning, and the even smallest details have been artfully thought out, from the unfinished “fort” the Wild Things begin to construct and the amazing world constructed by Carrol to the chocolate cake peace offering in the final reunion with Max’s worried mother (Catherine Keener).  There are two major complaints that I’d like to address.  The first is that the film is not meant for children. The film’s narrative simplicity coupled with it’s emotional depth might make it a bit difficult to understand for today’s children, which is a pity.  While some parents may find it too scary for their young children, I should hope that parents are never afraid to allow their children to contemplate strong emotions which can be scary and confusing in the real world as well as on screen.  I think the film is an excellent learning and talking point for parents and their kids, without being condescending or diminishing of the feelings that Max has so much difficulty expressing.

The second complaint I’ve encountered from mostly young adults is that the film had no plot and was boring.  Here is where I would like to most strenuously disagree.  While I would agree that there is not a conventional plot, and that little is really resolved at the end of the film, it so plausibly follows the path of a child’s imagination that it is delightfully entertaining and emotionally satisfying to watch.  I found myself laughing out loud one minute at absurdities and crying over them the next. 

My main fear about this film is that people will find it too complicated or too difficult to engage in because they have to think to understand it.

Here goes...

Can I really do this?

So many people write so much stuff all the time.  Who is going to care what I have to say?

I’m not really sure.  I guess I’ll just start posting stuff and see what happens....