Oscar Watch

So what does $13.00 and 24 hours get you? Lots of things I imagine. Even more, if you live in the "developing world." However, for me, it was the opportunity to watch the unseen films nominated for Oscars this year. This would have been easier but, the Academy decided that they would bestow this honor on 10 films once again. Don't they understand, a young man can only deceive his friends and family into seeing so many of these films. To be honest, its because the movies have a restricted rating (Its hard being moral-less amongst the moral-ful).
The only film on the best picture list I haven't seen is 127 hours. I had the chance to see this film but chose to watch Blue Valentine instead. This experience was capped off by the fact that I was the only viewer in a theater for 200. It is however, the perfect way to view that film. Walking out from Blue Valentine I felt so bad for you married and committed people. Single life is the way to go because I sure as hell don't want to end up wearing those hideous glasses committed people like Ryan Gossling had to in that movie.
I don't really know how people decide what the best film of a year is. I would think it difficult because each film is intended to affect its viewer in a different way. So I have decided to make a list of least to greatest affect a film nominated this year had on me. Here is my list:

The Kids are Alright
The Fighter
True Grit
The King's Speech
Black Swan
Toy Story 3
Inception
The Social Network
Winter's Bone

127 hours-N/A

Now I am able to admit that this list is arbitrary. The movie I think should win best picture is the Kids are Alright. I found all the acting performances to be moving. Annette Benning as always truly shined. I realize that the King's Speech will most likely win and it was a great movie too. I probably ranked it a little lower because I felt like it didn't treat the final speech with the full weight it deserved. For heaven sakes Colin Firth is declaring war and everyone is declaring the King a success rather than treating the moment with the somberness it probably deserves. Social Network was good but it felt sanitized of emotion. The rest were all pretty good just didn't have the kind of catharsis the Kids are Alright had for me.
In the other categories I think best director should go to either Daren Aronofsky or The Coen Brothers. Both films had great vision. Best Actress I think its obvious I would want Annette Benning to win however all actresses in this category are great (I haven't seen Rabbit Hole so sorry Nichole). Natalie Portman will most likely win so it is a moot point. Best Actor is tough because I felt like Colin Firth should have won last year and Jeff Bridges should have won this year. What Jeff Bridges did was take an already iconic character and showed what it was like done well (sorry to those that like John Wayne). Colin Firth was good in The King's Speech but so much more understated, and moving in A Single Man. So Colin will win but in my mind it will be for A Single Man and vice-versa for Jeff Bridges. In supporting actress I have no preference. I liked Amy Adams a lot but also found Helena Bonham Carter to be quite good. Have yet to see the Animal Kingdom so I can't speak for Jacki Weaver but my heart belongs to Hallie Steinfeld. For a jewish girl to play precocious, tomboy, southerner so well I have to hope she wins it even if her big scene is with obviously CGI-ed snakes. Lastly, I really hope that John Hawkes, Christian Bale, or Geoffrey Rush win best supporting actor. It's a toss up. Yet, I have to wonder why Geoffrey Rush is in this category. His part seemed to be a co-leading role but I can understand the politics of it, not wanting to compete against Colin Firth. I like most people want not to reward Christian Bale seeing as how he is a complete Douche. However, what he did in the Fighter was fantastic, suddenly, and haltingly moving. And I found John Hawkes to be so compelling in Winter Bone. I would watch him endlessly. Welp, these are my thoughts, take them for what they are, the musings of an amateur film enthusiast. Here's hoping the Oscars don't suck.

Movies FYE won't buy II

2 Days in Paris
About a Boy
Away From Her
Cabaret
Factotum
Fur
Heckler
l'enfant
Little Miss Sunshine
Michel Gondry Music Video Collection
Milk
Munich
Music and Lyrics
My Kid Could Paint That
Notes on a Scandal
Quinceanera
Rocket Science
Secret Agent Club
Smart People
Snakes on a Plane
Syriana
The 11th Hour
The Edukators
The Evil Dead
The Little Shop of horrors
The Lives of Others
The Station Agent
There Will Be Blood
Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story
Water
What Just Happened
Year of the Dog

Movies FYE won't buy

A Mighty Wind
A Prairie Home Companion
A River Runs Through It
Art School Confidential Battle in Seattle
Born into Brothels
Bottle Rocket
Breakfast on Pluto
Bubble Chisolm ‘72
Easy Virtue
For Your Consideration
Good Night, and Good Luck
Hollywood Land
Home for the Holidays
Joshua
Lions for Lambs
Lovely and Amazing
Me and You and Everyone We Know
Murderball
Pieces of April
Pretty Persuasion
Punch-Drunk Love
RedBelt
Saturday Night Live the Best of 06/07
Savages
Spellbound
Strangers with Candy
Talk to Me
The Boys of Baraka
The Devil Wears Prada
The Dying Gaul
The Jolly Boys Last Stand
The Painted Veil
The TV Set
Tracey Ullman Live and Exposed
TransAmerica
Vera Drake
W.
Welcome to Collinwood
What the Bleep do We Know

MEme

Hey everyone out there who still finds it to this digital neck of the woods. It is dark, scary, but often worth the fear inducing trips. I haven't blogged regularly for sometime. This is due to a cyclical brain pattern that basically revolved around the theme of hatred for self-centered rhetoric. I began to think that so many people are interested in only producing there are little people left to consume. I guess this super-saturation of digital voyeurism is an economic principle. And as more people put out printed ego-massage less people will have time to view them so make yours good so others will want to read. That is all.

Baby pedals

This is a story I wrote for my storytelling class and I thought it might be fun to share with those who care.

Baby Pedals
by
Jeff Denison

This story begins like many stories, with a dare. This dare came from a certain Kenneth C. Denison, AKA destroyer of my universe, AKA hater of everything good, AKA my brother. Typical of brothers, we had a Whitney/Bobby thing going on. That is to say he was my enabler. In the summer of (Radio Edit) I had just turned six and for my birthday I received a brand new, dark blue, without training wheels bike. I loved that bike, it was like a transformative rite, moving me from babyhood to boyhood. I spent weeks with my mom and dad at my side trying to ride carefully, and not fall. Also trying to avoid the dreaded slime pond of Swazey Circle. This pond was lined with a mold previously unknown to man, I was sure. Because no matter what the temperature was, there was always a pond with that mold on Swazey Cirlce. Mold so powerful it was capable of making even grown men fall to their now drenched knees and then openly weep.
The dare previously alluded to was one that took me from my six-year old, six-block world to the great big world. It was to "ride your bike to Truman Elementary." Truman Elementary, TRUMAN ELEMENTARY, this was huge. Truman Elementary was my grade school and it was a mile away. To my six-year old brain, this was like going to Las Vegas, or California, it was practically in a foreign country. "Should I pack?" I thought,"No, I'm not going." But then that awful feeling came. I knew that if I didn't go, it meant that my brother was going to call me a baby until I was twenty-five. Unless I could just ride to my friend Chris' house and hang out there , then come back in ten or so hours. NO, he would want details. He would ask,"did you get past the pit bull O.K.?" I would freeze and then answer,"yes." Then laugh to diffuse the tension of the situation, like Michelangelo always did in TNMT. But he'd counter,"there is no scary dog, you never went, YOU'RE A BABY." My life would be over.
Resigned to my "Trail of Tears," I strapped on my new, white with confetti design bike helmet. I made my way to the big road. Cautiously, Slowly, shakily I rode my bike. I was doing it, I was going to make it to the grade school. I was a boy, no I was a big, brave boy, maybe even a man. Suddenly I looked with horror on a BIGGER street but, wasn't on the big street. How can there be a street bigger than the big street. I looked, I looked again. In my childhood wisdom, I decided, not only could I do this but that it would be safer to cross in the middle of this bigger street than the crosswalk. I could do this. I was basically a man minus the body hair.
So I followed Ronald's counsel as best I could. I planted my feet and looked both ways. Though wasn't really sure if I should look both ways for each of the seven lanes or just once. I decided I was riding my bike, Ronald gave no rules for that, so I'll make my own. I was going fast enough, so once should be sufficient. I looked, and looked, and I was off. Peddling, shakily I made it past one lane, two lanes and thre...I kept moving but now it was not just forward, but sideways and forward. Then my bike separated from my body, and I was flying and I thought, I'm not a man, minus the body hair, I'm superman and I'm flying and I'm pretty sure I can feel follicles growing in my armpits. I was alive, I was flying, I was falling. I was on the ground, my chin was on fire, my new, white with confetti design bike helmet was cracked.
"Are you O.K.?" asks a twenty-something, dark haired man asks as he exits the car that just hit me. Stunned, I'm not sure what I answered.
Sirens, that is what I remember next. A police officer queried, "Do you know your mother's name or your telephone number. Suddenly a familiar tune entered my mind. It was the safety kids. "I know my number, my telephone number 9-6-7-3-2-9-7" Funny, the safety kids don't really have a song warning you against riding across a busy road to prove your manhood. Even then I knew that was ironic.
"Hello," said my mother over the telephone.
"Yes, Mrs. Denison. I'm sorry to inform you but you're daughter has been hit by a car," replied the emergency dispatcher assigned to tell my mom about the incident.
"Really?"
This was perplexing to my mother because my three-old sister was taking a nap upstairs. After checking on my sister, my mother clarified,"Are you sure it's not my son?"
"Oh yeah, that's probably it. It's your son."
This was terrible. Not only was I not superman or a man minus the body hair. Now I was a girl.
I had been big and brave, sitting with the police and ambulance on the side of the road, refusing to cry. I wasn't hurt. I wasn't scared. That was until my mom showed up and then I can only equate my action to that of the tragic Teton Dam failure of the late seventies. My eyes rained enough to sustain a small Irish peat farm for at least two years.
I was taken by my mom to the hospital (I was too scared to ride in the ambulance) for stitches and then brought home. I was terrified, I hadn't made it to Truman Elementary, my brother was going to make fun of me. My Dad was going to kill me. But something strange happened. My Dad didn't yell at me and I wasn't a baby. I was cool because I had stitches and probably a scar. But you know, if it meant that I had to be hit by a car to prove I was a man. I was O.K. with being a boy.

Swine Flu? I just hope it's kosher.

Just musing to myself about how the swine flu is raising the pandemic level roof and I am sitting here not even worried about it because I have finals to prepare for. It's funny how goals have a way of shutting the rest of the world out. I just hope the swine flu doesn't interrupt my study schedule. Oh and PS this is not the first time the world has seen a swine pandemic. I refer you to cheesy PSAs on the matter as evidence.



http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601124&sid=a0NYYjUy._xo&refer=home

My fantasy on a grander scale

While in high school I would frequent a dining establishment. While eating there some friends and I become really excited about the prospect of choreographing a spontaneous song and dance number. We were going to do this by acquiring a blue print and setting up a replica to practice it in. Alas, this is about as far as we got into the planning process. I now offer a video which shows someone with the initiative to get their dreams accomplished. I find it so magical and would love to have been an unsuspecting audience member. Ok I love everything about it until it hits the techno and then I was like, "NOOOOO!You Blew it up! Damn you! Damn you all to hell!"



P.S. Did you hear about John (John and Kate +8) with the unidentified woman? How Scandalous. Maybe he wanted to be with a woman that didn't treat him like he was one of the eight? Gotta love it. http://hollywoodinsider.ew.com/2009/04/jon-gosselin-on.html

P.P.S. CHeck out the trailer for "Where the wild things are. It looks so good!

Perpetuating American Stereotypes to our English Cousins or Sockdology Redux

This week the theater department at Utah State invited a company of actors to perform and give workshops about Shakespeare. The play they performed was, Much Ado about Nothing. This is the second production I have seen of it. The first being in London by the RSC back in 2002. The RSC production transplanted the setting to 1940s Tuscany. It was a beautiful production that was well acted and envisioned. I am always hesitant to see a play twice, especially when I have seen a good production of it. But, I figured there are so many ways one can interpret the bard so I would give it a chance.






The Actors of the London Stage, is exactly what it sounds like, a company of actors from "London" (One of the actors admitted he was from Birmingham). Yet, the begins of the company strangely originate in Indiana, Notre Dame to be precise.Intriguingly there were only five actors to perform the entire play. Now it sounds less natural then the actual presentation was but the five actors were able to, for the most part, effortlessly transition into playing multiple characters on a bare stage with relatively little props.




The five actors were decent with the exception of one woman. The actor who played Beatrice, Don John, Balthazar, and Dogberry's assistant was so enthralling I found myself developing a bit of an obsession with her. Now, that sounds unhealthy but, I think every now and again its OK to be intrigued by a highly talented individual. At least that's my justification and I'm sticking with it. I think the quality of her voice is what caused me to be most enamored with her acting. I can only describe it was honey for the ears. Her range was a deep alto. I am convinced that she could have made a script reading of the classic, bearable if not enjoyable. I guess she played Tash on Holby City for three years. Is that a big deal?
As is the case with heroes, idols, crushes, I needed to meet her but was to embarrassed to admit my infatuation to her. I didn't want her to think I was a stalker. So, after the show, I went down to the hallway where the dressing rooms that the actors would be exiting from were located. And then pretended to be looking for something. Then trying to act nonchalant I struck up conversations with other members of the theater department I saw in the hallway. I think there was a tone of desperation in my desire to talk because I could see it reflected in my co-conversationist's face.
"Oh let me introduce myself. I'm Jeff I'm in the department."
Then the various actors introduced themselves. The problem was I hadn't really thought out what to do next and it got quiet, real quiet. "Where are you from in England?" I ask. "We're from London," answers Jo one of the actors who plays Hero and Leonato.
"You Idiot!! They're the actors from the LONDON Stage. Then in an attempt to save everything I blurt out,"I went to England last summer, Northampton." This feeling sinks in, I've become that guy. The guy that makes everything about them and thinks they no everything about a place because they spent a month there last summer. I am surprised I didn't ask if they knew Amry and Dave. You know the type of people that find out you're from America and ask if you know someone in Ohio. The conversation slowly fizzled out and I left dejected. I didn't even get to talk to my crush. She just sat silent and aloof.
The next day I went to do taxes at the library. After finishing I started to walk to my car. It was a lovely evening and the sky was a burnt orange and to my right walking with a cigarette rested between two lips was the siren herself. As we approached the crossroads. I felt as if fate had created this moment. She didn't notice me or ignored me so I cupped my hand around my mouth and said "break a leg." She looked surprised at first and then smiled in a genuine and appreciative way. She said, "Thank you very much." Then we walked on to our separate destinies. And that was it. I felt good about our interaction and hoped she knew how much her performance had moved me.

I'm going to do it...I'm......going..........to.........BLOG!!!

Have you ever left a CD after overlistening to the songs? Now, havce you ever came back to a CD you put to the side and been reminded just how much you loved it and wondered how you could have ever gotten sick of it in the first place? Well, confession, I just had that experience.
Back in the fall I had just returned from my religious sabatical in COnnecticut. With much time on my hands and little music to fill it I went to a most unusual place to search for music...Target. I know right, who buys music from the same place you can buy toilet paper. Or is that saying that is commonly associated with jewelry anyway. I was browsing through the CDs when I saw one with this cover.



"Hmmm, I thought, who is this man Rilo Kiley and why is he making a visual allusion to Hilary Rodham Clinton's comic masterpiece, It Takes A Village." When I saw it was on sale for $9.99(the highest price I am willing to pay for a CD). I was sold and this crazy mans image. I got to the old teal toyota truck I was given as a present upon returning home and popped the CD into my tape deck. And by popping it into the tape deck I mean that I had to wait until I arrived at a friends house. I remember putting in the CD at Willey's and Crams' apartment and thinking that this Rilo Kiley had an unusually high voice, perhaps he was a castrato. Then I fell in love. I fell in love with the passion of, does he love you? Loving the clever wit of such lines as"we could be daytime drunks if we want to," and then wondering if Rilo was a lesbian, transexual, homosexual, or creep in, A man/me/ and jim, a complex narrative taking on the POV of three seperate people. In short I dodn't know who this Rilo was but I loved his music and was glad I had taken his impllicit challenge of being "more adventorous."

Yesterday, years after my first experience with the band Rilo Kiley. I know now that they are a band fronted by Jenny Lewis, Vixen of indie folk. Leaving the apartment I decided to grab a CDs I hadin't listened to in a while. Condensation exiting my body in the form of once global warming gases I got into my car, turned over the ignition, and put the much neglected "more adventerous," in my CD player. I was immediatley pooled in seretonin and felt euphoric. Its moments like those that make life a little more enjoyable.

Blog...

If someone blogs in the middle of the internet and no one reads, does (s)he really blog?

One Step Closer to finding out if Fifty Amandas could defeat a Gorilla

Fox Reality Channel is officially the most frivilous channel on TV. With such hits as My Bare Lady, an attempt to find the next bug porn star, and Solitary 3.0, the show locking people in rooms to see who is the last to go crazy. Once again, one of those seeing a 700 pound person naked. It hurts to watch but you know it will hurt worse to know you had the chance to see that and didn't take it. Anyway, my focus is on Fox's newest show, Man vs. Beast. This show has dedicated itself to being on the cutting edge of interspecies competition. On the first episode(and only episode, I might add) there was an eating competition, a tug-a-war, a sprinting race, an obstacle course, and finally pulling race. The eating contest was between Takeru Kobayashi, hot dog eating champion, and yes, an alaskan brown bear. Next, the tug-a-war event, pitting a sumo wrestler against a large, female orangutan. The 100 yard dash included olympic sprinter, Shawn Crawford, a zebra, and a giraffe. The Obstacle course was a dignified competition between a navy seal and a chimpanzee.

Lastly and what I am most interested in was the pulling event, otherwise known as the duel in the deseret, between, get ready for it, forty-four little people and the competitor to their left, an asian elephant. The competitors were gathered together to pull a DC-10. The party which pulled the aircraft over the finish line first was the winner. My first thought when I saw all the little people harnessed behind the airplane was of a debate my friend Amanda came up with. I believe it was that 50 Amandas could defeat an African Lowland Gorilla in hand to hand combat. Now, I should first clarify that Amanda is small, but by no means a little person. Watching this competition opened up what I had thought was a closed book. Right before the race began the announcer declared his bias for the elephant. I thought that to be a bit controversial. As the intense competition began it was a tough start for the little people but momentum was on their side. They needed determination to win and anyone could see it in their eyes. "Look at these little people pull," announces the host and that is about when I lost it. When I say, "lost it," I mean the feeling that I was in a sane world and not caught up in the delusions of a fever-dream. Though I did "lose it" when the host actually said, "forty-four little people are going toe-to-toe with an asian elephant." The results, beast wins. I'm sorry little people you lost the race, oh and forty years of work to earn respect for little people everywhere.

My question is, does this mean Amanda would lose to a gorilla?
What I am certain of is that I will never look at the olympics or sporting competition the same. Oh you earned eight gold medals in swimming. Try outswimming this dolphin. What you won grecco-roman wrestling? Try some hand to hand with this polar bear. I am actually getting an idea for a new Man vs. Beast event. It is imspired by this poster.


A dead hang between man and kitten. I think I know who would win this one.















P.S. I found a list of possible techniques for forty two midgets fighting a lion which I find pretty applicable to an amanda vs. gorilla fight.

1. The “Dogpile” Technique


Whenever you’re coordinating a horde of fighters, the Dogpile is a quick, easy, go-to technique. It doesn’t take a lot of preparation or coordination, and it’s a great way to utilize your strength in numbers and at least buy some time to formulate a newer, better plan than “get inside of his mouth and attack from the inside”.
However, if you’re fighting one of the toughest land predators on earth, and that predator happens to be a cat, the dogpile is only a temporary solution. You’re going to have to utilize another technique.




2. The “Play-Dead-To-Human-Net-Trap” Technique


Han Solo and Chewbacca were caught in an Ewok net trap. Arnold Schwarzenegger almost caught Predator in a net trap. Also, playing “dead” got me out of P.E. class at least a dozen times as a kid. It seems logical that combining the two techniques would prove effective against the King of the Beasts. 42 midget wrestlers lying “dead” on the floor would just confuse the big cat. Then when he gets into position, the army springs on him from below! It’s perfect! Look at the exclamation point over the lion’s head in the illustration above. That means he’s surprised!





3. The “Single-File” Technique



I understand your doubt about this one. It seems like the only thing these midgets should be fighting is their way to the back of the line. There’s more to this technique than meets the eye, though. Because the lion is fighting one easy opponent at a time, his adrenaline won’t be able to take over. And adrenaline, as we all know, is a lion’s greatest weapon (behind huge teeth, vicious claws, and incredible strength). When fighting, each midget in the line should be aiming directly for teeth and claws with the one or two hits that he’s going to get in before the lion tears him to bits. Sure, the lion will work his way through the first thirty fighters pretty easily, but maybe by fighter 31, his teeth will start to hurt a little bit…just maybe.



4. The “Bungee” Technique



Bungee cords are great. They’re everything that we love about rope and everything that we love about elastic rolled into one. It seems only natural to use bungee cords as a secret weapon in a lion fight. It increases mobility and distracts and confuses the opponent. Lions aren’t used to fighting enemies from above, and if I remember correctly, cats hate things that are dangling on strings, right?







5. The “Vultron” Technique


Sure, and African Lion can work it’s way through 42 midgets in 12 minutes. But what if those midgets formed themselves into one super-sized fighter? The most promising technique for 42 midgets fighting a vicious African Lion stems from the bowels of history. It’s written on our money, it’s etched in our hearts, and we remember it from Vultron, too: E Pluribus Unum: “From Many, One”. Obviously whenever a number of small things combine into one large thing to fight, lightning is conjured (see image above), and that can be used a weapon in a crunch, too. Plus, even if the lion still wins, you’ll be able to say (without lying this time) that you saw a gang of midgets form into a giant and fight a lion. How cool is that?




Thanks to the Bushleague.tv blog for that last section about lion wrestling. I know I enjoyed it.

Important Discoveries of 2008

The inevitable capping of years approaches with the impending date Jan. 1, 2009. As I look through the slipstream of memories I have decided that I want to draw baseless conclusions. I have learned that I am the type of person that makes definitive statements concerning issues and then alter them down the line. I have discovered that I can be condencending and rude. I have found that it is hard for me to let go of disappointment, resentment, and food. I really like animal collective in a live show and will go out of my way to see them live.



The Worst concert I saw this year was by a new band I love called the Fleet Foxes. They were just really boring. They play beautiful music but were boring nonetheless.



My favorite new artist is a last minute find called Son Lux.

Though Bon Iver did come close in being the best discovery of 2008.

My Favorite movie I saw was a cartoon about a post-apocalyptic Jerry Herman loving robot.

The Best Play a saw was a tie between a Tryptich piece of theater about three souls stuck in a terminus and a remake of a Noel Coward movie called "Brief Encounters."




I found that traveling as I get older is getting to be a little more inconvenient. I am more grumpy than I want to be and less willing to admit it to myself I can't change that. I can't read. Enough said. Well I can't seem to stop from involunteraliy falling asleep or focus my mind in one cognative direction. Reading to me is like hurding the mental kittens of synapses I have in my face.
Next Year I plan on taking a more direct approach to the discovery of art, music, and literature. I want to focus on one playwright or an anthology of a well established musician, maybe look up an influential underground artist, or try "reading" books in the form on sound waves eminating from my eye-pod. If anyone has any ideas or good suggestions let me know. Otherwise I hope all had a Happy Holidays(I'm not afraid to say Christmas or Chanukah) and wish you a wonderful New Years.

Two of the most important events to happen to me this semester

A While back I was introduced to what I can only assume is elementary school sack lunch as packed by a heavenly mother. This dissension of ambrosia came in the form of a chocolate brownie sliced in two with peanut butter spread between the two slices. Well I came home to Alpine for thanksgiving break and was taken to a hot new bakery in American Fork. It was called Flour Girls and Dough Boys. Anyway I went in skeptical and what did I find? A Deseret sandwich I could never refuse. What did Flour Girls and Dough Boys find? A customer for Life.
Secondly, I was given the oppurtunity to film a commercial in November. It was suppose to be released a couple of weeks ago but thanks to drunken frat initiation and girls getting hit by Utah State buses it was held back from being released so when people were asked, "Why not apply for Utah State?" There immediate answer wouldn't be, "Because I don't feel like being hit by a bus or dying of alcohol poisoning." So my "commercial" is now finally released via youtube. My question, Is this my fifteen minutes of fame? Because I felt like that happened when I was in the opening ceremonies and the olympic slide music video. Well enjoy, I am in three portions of the commercial. Funny thing is I'm not so sure I'm a fan of... Well never you mind.

thanks 1

I am loving this website. Each day they put out a strip of Garfield without Garfield. John is musing to himself and it is either an existential exercise in learning to live with yourself or an example of insanity.

http://garfieldminusgarfield.net

Three Reasons I hate to say I love...

So I have been recently trying out my new iphone's you tube application. I have found something new about me. I have to say I love Beyonce. I know I like a song if I find myself injecting lyrics into conversations in a snarky, sarcastic way. The three Reasons I hate to say I love Beyonce (beside the incredible rhyme scheme I just came up with) are presented here in You Tube form:



If not for the infectious beat and electronic trill, I simply love the dance. I don't know why but I can't stop thinking about it.



Ok, this is like watching Paris Hilton's my new BFF. You want to look away because it's just so bewildering but something keeps you looking into the jaws of the beast.



Lastly, this is a video the original choreography was based on and is remarkably similar to what Beyonce works with. I just love the afros, Bob Fosse, and the thought of Beyonce as a plumper white lady.

BONUS FEATURE!!!

For all those still watching this is a great video music mash. For some reason it makes me think of Whitney.

A Cooking Renaissance?

Hi Everyone!! I am loving cooking these days. Today I made trail mix. It has dried apricots, dried cranberries, almonds, pecans, oats, and honey. I coated the nuts and oats with honey and then cooked it for about 15 minutes. Then I let them cool. After cooling I mixed another table spoon of honey and mixed in the fruit. It's all in my effort to be a skinnier J-heff.

Attempts at Tasty Thursday-Pumpkin Edition

I decided to try my hand at cooking, something I hadn't made before, pumpkin Ravioli. Here are the pictures. Yeah, I said bam a lot just to make the food seem more fancy.

My Little Feelings on Prop 8

It was interesting to listen to both poles of the issue concerning Proposition 8. In the end though I was disappointed in the decision to simplify vilification of one section, the Mormons, of the group that supported yes on eight. There were multiple religious groups that spoke out politically. When will attention be called to their bigotry? It concerns me that no mention of this showing a bias in editing of information concerning other groups that supported Proposition 8. And makes me wonder if the Gay Community hasn't fallen into the same attitude that you so vehemently protest. Would the protesting of the LDS church be received in the same way if the dissenters of Prop 8 protested the African American, Hispanic, or Elderly community that mostly voted for the ban on same sex marriage. I think within that context it would not be as widely accepted.
When I first heard that the ban on gay marriage I was surprised and disappointed. I was disgusted that people would go so far as to fast that the state amendment would pass. I hated that some people were told to pay their tithing to the vote yes on Prop 8 campaign. I was disappointed that people spent time in call centers trying to "educate" voters on this issue. It didn't seem congruous to a church which once practiced plural marriage. How could it be so vocal about the holiness of a union of just one man and one woman when it abdicated the sanctity of having multiple wives? Yet when put in a certain context I can understand the protesting and politicizing of the Mormon church on this issue.
This is obviously a moral issue and I don't mean to discount that but I am viewing this from a legal angle understanding the morals believed by the LDS Church and not questioning it to eliminate controversy. I think that churches, including the LDS church are concerned that the acceptance of gay marriage would create a law which would force their religious institutions to preform same-sex marriages. In this way I find it appropriate for a religion to become involved in government. If an amendment can potentially alter the way a religion is practice then by all means fight to protect what you believe in. This is what our country was founded for (Well, that, and to harvest ridiculous amounts of natural resources). I believe that everyone should have the choice to practice as they wish. This is the complication in these types of decisions. What we should focus on is discussing how we can extend this constitutional right and still respect peoples right to practice religion according to their own dictates. If other churches choose to marry gay couples then great, but an amendment should be more explicit in this regard stating explicitly that all churched needn't honor same sex marriage within their own religion but that Gay couples can have the civil freedom of same sex couples marrying.
Last Week was a big step towards a dialog between the gay community in SLC and the church. They are right that there does need to be a separation of church and state and that is on both sides. The state can not force religions to alter its practices and churches should not seek to legislate its moral agenda.

15 minutes of fame once a year

it's that time of year again were my greasy head causes a severe glare on the few that tune into kued for the annual veterans day concert. Which I am told is a banking holiday. Can my favorite economist confirm or deny this rumor? Anyway, if you feel so include you can tune in on channel 7 and view my ugly mug. It is between 7 pm and 8 pm.

Election results

With the election predicted I am glad to say it is over but know the day after an election is the beginning of the next election. John McCain was gracious in his speech and Barack Obama was surprisingly somber in his acceptance. And alas, my hip hop activist is without a room in the white house and believe it or not she is with child. Jesse Jackson's none the less. Why do you think he was weeping at the acceptance speech of Obama, because his baby mama ain't going to get benefits now! He is going to have to get his broke self some money to pay for that baby. With this moment in history I chose to post my smatterings on campaign theater I wrote for a comm class. If you want Whitney, you can stop reading here.

Stretching Definitions and Branding Minds

Every four years the United States completes its ritual of electing the nation’s leader. However within those four years we are always looking forward to the next election predicting what the future will bring in the form of the “most powerful person in the world.” It all seems to be part of being American. We are always searching for something better. It is within this frame that I hope to look at language within the “campaign theatre.” More specifically I would like to look at the role of language in branding a candidate and also identify abstraction as lies.
I had a dream. It was about the ubiquitous Sarah Palin. Now, I will be sparse in my detailing of this account but the basic premise of the dream was that Sarah Palin was trapped in a cabin with John McCain’s campaign team. She could do nothing but read prepared statements in front of a camera and the rest of the time she could do nothing. Now, this dream may not be reality, let me stress may. After, I began to think of John McCain’s campaign in the context of brand management. A key concept behind brand management is to increase the product's intrinsic value to the customer. From a pure strategy position McCain chose Palin as a way of solidifying his brand as a maverick. By choosing Palin, a women, he was seen as a person who made non-traditional choices.
It is with the principles of brand management that political campaigns go to the news looking for what matters most to gain "momentum." Candidate’s base their campaigns on words that increase their value in the eyes of voters such as: “hero,” “maverick,” “change,” or “hope.” While candidates seek to improve their value they will also brand their opponent with words that devalue them in the minds of voters, such as “Muslim,” “liberal,” “old,” or “status quo.” It is an interesting game because it takes the news away from why voters chose a candidate to who is voting for whom. This then informs how others should vote based on the popularity of a canidate or brand.
In this way politicians and media have become kissing cousins. News is deemed important only if it politicized. I interpret that to mean the news tells us what is important by making it political. So people in the media are looking less to the public for opinion and are rather defining opinion for the public and hoping we adapt to their message. Presently we have seen stories that deal with popularity polls. So candidates rather than focusing on solidifying their policies are focused on how they can get their popularity higher. Causing them to make vague promises and exuberant speeches were they say what they think the public wants to hear. You know, the equivalent of a high school student government election, where students are promised pizza in the cafeteria and a longer lunch period. Welcome to our National Student Body Presidential Election.
It is on this note I introduce the use of abstraction as a political tool. Abstractions are terms that are generic enough that they can be perceived to mean many different things. For example, the words, “agent of change,” was thrown around quite often during this election season. Agent of change in the crudest sense can mean a person who is going to change things. But what does change mean. To me it may mean alteration of health policy while to another it may mean someone who will give me change so I can buy a coke from the vending machine. My point, politicians use abstraction to get voters on the band wagon. Yet, it seems to me that it these promises are deliberately misleading. Politicians lie in a way that would have you believe they intend their words to mean one thing when their intentions are not what they portrayed. They overextend the meaning of their words to catch as many votes as possible but somehow after they are voted into office they alter their message, it becomes more defined, and invariably doesn’t mean what the voter took it to mean. For example, we simplify issues of controversy like abortion. A candidate will say I am against abortion. This is not clear though as to what the candidate defines as abortion. Is it all right to get an abortion in rare cases or does s/he desire abortion to be banned in all cases. Because of abstraction we miss out on those intricate details that may lead us to vote another way. This misleading is rampant in campaigning.
The Use of language to manipulate has been a long standing tradition in politics. I hope I have made some appropriate connections with the specifics I have chosen. However, I believe that eliminating some of these tactics in the long run would benefit the process of campaigning. Abstraction and branding are only two in a vast array of techniques used to mislead voters. Hopefully with this knowledge we can get down to what is important in a candidate.