Flag on the Play, Jackass Interference!

So here's the deal. YOu feel strongly about some issue? you have a stance on something? Save it for after the whistle blows.
In the 2003 NFL season, right wing agitator Rush Limbaugh was a commentator for ESPN's sunday night football broadcast. The subject on the table was Philadelphia Eagles Quarterback Donovan McNabb. Here's what Rush had to say

Completely lame and uncalled for. Nothing can convince me that this wasn't a calculated attempt to create controversy; another form of racial arson, which I've talked about before. Rush has zealots to feed meat to and he decided gameday was suppertime. I can just imagine him in the moments before the "on air" light came on: "Wait'll they get a load of what I say NOW. My Dittoheads are gonna love this one. Ramifications for my fellow broadcasters? Who Cares? Fallout for the Network that hired me to talk about football, not to advance my political opinion? To hell with them! All that matters is the further advancement of my own cult of personality."
To the credit of the Disney Company(ESPN's parent company), Limbaugh was dismissed soon thereafter. They let him save face by giving him an opportunity to resign as opposed to being fired, but everybody knew what was up. Later that season, Donovan McNabb took the Eagles to the Superbowl.

This past November, comedian/political commentator Bill Maher, In the New Rules segment of his show "Real Time", decided Quarterback Tim Tebow who had recently been named the team's starter, would make a great metaphor for the the Republican Presidential field. Here's how it went down.

Bill Maher has made no bones about his disdain for organized religion. Furthermore, this wasn't the first time he's found unkind things to say about Tebow. With that said, As of this writing, Since replacing Kyle Orton as Denver's Starting QB, Denver's record stands at 5-1. I guess it'd be a bridge too far for Maher to maybe look at that and think twice about his anti-religious predilections, but I wonder if he would at least be man enough to consider that he may have let his opinion taint his perception of reality. The truth is in this case, Bill Maher did the same thing he calls out the evangelicals for. He let his religious beliefs(or lack thereof) color his opinion in defiance of all of the stats, facts, and evidence. I'm no Tebow expert, but one look at his history as a player suggests that "in over his head" and "throws like a girl" seem at best ridiculously innaccurate and at worst like the words of someone more interested in their agenda than in an actual dialogue about sports.

Generally speaking, I dig Bill Maher. Rush Limbaugh not so much, but in this case they're both guilty of the same sin.
You know what the cool thing about sports is? Agendas and plans and opinions don't mean a thing. Sports is (with some exceptions)about whether or not you can get it done. that being the case, your feelings on Affirmative Action or Religion mean NOTHING. You embarrass yourself an annoy all of us by introducing those things into this conversation. I suppose neither of these situations should be a suprise to anyone; both of these fellas have a habit of making their hubris more important that what they're talking about.
So I guess the lesson to take from this is that not everything is Peanut Butter Cups. Before you get ready to introduce your personal hangups into our sports converstation, Think twice. As a matter of fact, no don't think about it even once. Just shut up, have some nachos and watch the game.

Nothing's Gonna Stop Her Noooooowwww!!!

I have figured out Kim Kardashian. The last week has seen the kind of ridiculousness seldom seen outside of stupid romantic comedies. The climactic anticlimaxing culmination of a long national nightmare of being celebrated for the kind of avarice, arrogance, and vapid ignorance that in previous centuries inspired political cartoons featuring pigs as people. Unfortunately, even in the wake of this new fiasco it probably won't end.
She's built a grossly lucrative empire on more or less being present. By just being there. She's proven herself very adept at things like showing up, standing, posing, smiling, collecting a check...and of course getting peed on late at night.
She shows up at parties and clubs(which she gets paid for), on twitter(where she gets paid several thousand dollars to tweet about products), they put her name and face on products(more money). And then there's the Kardashian franchise of TV shows, I've posted about her before, and my opinions are no secret. I'll save most of the venom; that's been there, done that material. I'll just share what I figured out. Let's go to the tape

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKunZnUSl_s&feature=related

Prince's Welcome to America tour earlier this year. Madison Square Garden, NYC. Prince invites her onstage. Like an idiot, she just stands there. And that's pretty much a microcosm of the entire Kardashian experience.

On Dancing With the Stars, she was cut in week three. Not really a run to be proud of when you supposedly have that many fans to theoretically vote for you.

She records the song "Jam", which is permeated by lyrical Gems as "turn me up turn me up yeah yeah yeah" and "Maybach in the front/I pick out any boy that I want". As good as my vocabulary is, It is woefully inadequate at describing the level of suck intrinsic to this recording. How often does autotune not help?

And finally, the Humphries/Kardashian wedding. Several fortunes worth of dollars spent. People fly in from all over the world toting along $200,000 worth of gifts. Kim's there. Doing all the things she's good at. Showing up, standing, posing, smiling, collecting a check. And of course getting peed on probably later that night. In the subsequent months however, having to actually be married proved too much for her. Even with every possible advantage. None of the financial concerns most married couples have, not to mention the goodwill and support of literally millions of fans that most married couples never get. With every possible advantage a newlywed couple could ever need, she couldn't handle it.

Looking at the evidence, my extrapolation is that Kim Kardashian is great. She's awesome....as long as she doesn't have to actually DO anything. Onstage with Prince, frozen stiff. Dancing with the stars, one of the first gone. Records a song, makes most want to poke out their eardrums. A wedding with all the bells and whistles. Can't handle the marriage for more than 72 days. All she can do is be present. She can be there no problem, but don't ask her to contribute, because that's asking too much.

Kim Kardashian is the worlds first fully functional multi media mannequin. She's like a screwed up version of Kim Catrall's character in the movie Mannequin. In that movie the girl was alive until people actually looked at her, in which case she froze. She could be in the room, be draped in finery and put in a window that had been decorated with elegant and exotic backdrops. However, When people actually paid attention to her; actually got a good look at her, she became frozen and hollow. A fake person in a fake scenario used to make people pony up cash for the clothes, the jewelry, and the shiny happy life. A frozen fake smiling plastic statue.

What I Hate About You: Drive

I'm having trouble figuring out how to start this review. Let's do this. Pretend you're in your car. Now slow down..stop...get out and walk...slower....sloooowwwer. This is the pace of this Ryan Gosling vehicle(sorry) that tells the tale of a man known only as Driver, a sometime stunt performer, sometime criminal wheelman. The cast is rounded out by Brian Cranston as Shannon the owner of the garage where Driver works. He wants to steer(sorry) Driver into a NASCAR career. Albert Brooks and Ron Perlman play a couple of low level LA crime bosses from whom Shannon borrows seed money for a race car. Driver becomes involved with a comely neighbor, Irene (played very neatly by Carey Mulligan), And attempts to use his skills to get her family out of a bind. A pretty promising setup, right? Yeah, about that.
Drive is not a bad movie per se. But if you're going to name a movie Drive, If the shot above is the poster, especially in the MTV, Quick Cut, fast and furious climate that is today's pop culture environment, it's imperative that your movie has some...well...DRIVE, frankly. If your main character is named DRIVER, then perhaps he shouldn't spend 1/3 of the movie silently sullenly sitting at a table. That's not an exaggeration. The main character spends more time at tables or staring out windows than committing any other act.
It's frustrating; I believe I know what director Nicholas Winding Refn was going for. Drive wants to be a moody, Michael Mann-esque "Underbelly of L.A." sort of story; something akin to Training Day or Havoc. Unfortunately, that requires a tricky balancing act that Refn just doesn't pull off. It's a challenge, pacing it just so you maintain that mood without downshifting(sorry) to an absolute crawl.
Ryan Gosling is a good actor. You can tell he's working hard to give viewers a vested interest in Driver. He is partially successful in that he made me feel a sense of pity for him. With zero exposition however, that pity is short lived. I ended up saying "Why?" How does someone become that damned disenchanted and disconnected? It takes a very good actor to maintain a character's charisma without a back story. Ryan will most likely accomplish this at some point but did not here. This might also be due to some strange directorial/cinematographic choices. All of the (relatively few) action sequences in the film have some strange mitigating factor that once again leave the viewer with a question he shouldn't have to ask. The aftermath of one such scene features Driver, having just dispatched a couple of assassins, receding out of a doorway and out of frame, almost in slow motion, for no reason, crazed bloody face retreating out of the shot. Next, the screen goes black. Why? Another scene features perhaps the most ridiculously over the top stomp out of a bad guy I've ever seen in any film. It's as if the director tried to concentrate all of the action meant to be spread throughout the film into twenty seconds. Strangely enough, this twenty seconds is preceded by the tenderest of kisses between Driver and Irene.
Stepping away from all of this, the supporting cast was the saving grace for this movie. When It comes to playing an old, weathered bad-ass, Ron Perlman is right up there with Kris Kristofferson and Michael Ironside. Albert Brooks is compelling and believeable as Bernie, a small time old school hood obsessed with protecting his tiny empire because it's all he has. In some places he garners more sympathy for his plight than Driver does. Brian Cranston is next level. His portrayal of the chronically down-on-his-luck Shannon with dreams of making it to the other side of the hill is Drives realest, rawest performance. The bitter coctail of hope laced with desperation informs his every word and motion,*SPOILER AHEAD* and the scene where Bernie puts Shannon out of his misery is shocking in that it manages to be simultaneously that sublime and that brutal and cold. This scene is the unfortunate exception to the rule of questionable Overall pacing though.
When I'm not hating on things, I play bass. One of the things you learn playing that instrument is that the notes you don't play, the SILENCE space is sometimes more important than the ones you do play. This movie is an example of that concept gone wrong. It doesn't groove because in too many places there is too much space between the notes.

Perhaps the problem wasn't with the Movie, but with the marketing of Drive. Admittledly, it did very well on the festival circuit, even earning the best director award at Cannes. The issue is this movie was pushed as something for the gearheads and actionophiles, as if it were a cross between The Transporter and Heat. Looked at through to prism of a melancholy thriller, The film serves as a passable showcase for Ryan Gosling and is a decent enough study in tone and mood. Even from this perspective though, it suffers from very strange pacing. The best comparison is Michael Mann's Collateral. It followed a similar formula and trajectory as drive, but the transitions in Collateral are handled much better, from longing silent glances to thoughtful dialogue to poetic shots of L.A. nightscape that slowly but consistently ramp up to the action sequences. The balance of the chemicals in the formula is much better. Watching Ryan Goslings syrupy tone-poem had me wanting to scream SHUT UP AND DRIVE, ALREADY!!!

2nd Commercial Break

Okay...Here's what I've watched.

An old Kirk Douglas struggle through the Best Supporting Actress and award it to Melissa Leo from The Fighter who took forever for her speech, but yet they cut off the great Aaron Sorkin. WTF!

Toy Story 3 won Best Animated Feature Film which is cool but I was really hoping it went to How to Train Your Dragon because that movie was better in my mind. In other words I cried more during How to Train Your Dragon.

I was really hoping Inception would win Best Original Screenplay cause its Christopher Nolan but The King's Speech got it so Im still happy.

Cinematography

Ohh this is a good one....

Inception!

Hells Yeah!

Okay First Award here we go Tom Hanks...

Art Direction....

Alice in Wonderland!

Yeah Tim Burton!!!

My Predictions

with 15 minutes before the start of the Oscars Im gonna give my predictions for what I think will win. Get ready for the onslaught!

Lead Actor - Colin Firth: The Kings Speech

Supporting Actor - Geoffrey Rush: The King's Speech

Lead Actress - Natalie Portman: Black Swan

Supporting Actress - Hailee Steinfeld: True Grit

Animated Feature Film - How to Train Your Dragon

Art Direction - Inception

Cinematography - Black Swan

Costume Design - Alice in Wonderland

Best Director - Coen Brothers: True Grit

Feature Documentary - Exit Through the Gift Shop

Film Editing - The Social Network

Foreign Language Film - Biutiful

Music (original score) - Inception

Music (original song) - Tangled

Short Film (Animated) - Day & Night: Pixar

Short Film (Live Action) - The Confession

Sound Editing - Inception

Sound Mixing - Inception

Visual Effects - Inception

Writing (Adapted Screenplay) - The Social Network

Writing (Original Screenplay) - Inception

and Finally......

Best Picture - The Social Network

Okay...5 minutes left and those are my picks. Its gonna be a great show, I cant wait.

The Oscars

Ill do my best to try and keep this up to date with what im watching on the Oscars. There might be spoiler alerts for those on the west coast cause I don't know if the Oscars is live. I guess we will find out.

Enjoy the Oscars!

Actor in a Leading Role. Now the big question is how do they decipher what a leading role is.A leading role in my mind is someone who has the most face time on screen and in this case it would be which man has the most face time. As mentioned earlier I was looking at the five candidates for Actor in a Leading Role for the 2011 Academy Awards.I will show pictures so you can continue to look at these gentlemen's lovely faces while I spurt on about their performance in my eyes.

Javier Bardem - Biutiful

Javier Bardem plays Uxbal a conflicted man who struggles to reconcile fatherhood, love, spirituality, crime,

guilt and mortality amidst the dangerous underworld of modern Barcelona. I just watched the movie for what it was, so I turned the subtitles off so I didn't have to constantly read what was being said (no espanol here).

Javier Bardem's performance was very gritty and down to earth. He really got into the nature of being a bad guy but wanting to change his ways because he doesn't want the image of himself tarnished by those that love him dearly. You can see it in a scene with his son and daughter at the beginning of the movie (at least I thought it was his son and daughter, remember no subtitles). In the scene, he has just returned from a funeral of a small child, and the funerals in his part of Spain are very secluded, and he gets berated by possibly the grandmother

of the small child for his lack of compassion. He doesn't yell back at the old woman he just walks on by. He returns to his house and cooks a lovely meal for his two kids and is talking about their day.

He sits down with them and the son begins to chomp wildly on his food disturbing Uxbal. Uxbal annoyed slams his fists on the table and sends his son to his room. Then there is bitter silence for the next few minutes while his daughter looks at him scared and amazed. I could see the guilt that ran through him from the previous encounter and how he handled his son were some of the struggles that he was about to go into.

Javier Bardem is an amazing actor, he lives and breathes a role to its fullest extent. I think this role though gave him extra credibility with showing a variety of emotions on camera. There are not many actors that can pull that off very well but excellent job Mr. Bardem.

Jeff Bridges - True Grit

I just have to say Jeff Bridges is my favorite actor of all time. I haven't seen him play a bad role yet. Coming off his excellent win last year for Crazy Heart (also, a very good movie) he is back as Rooster Cogburn in True Grit. This is a remake done by the Coen Brothers (also my favorite directors). For those of you who don't know about True Grit here is the synopsis. A tough U.S. Marshal helps a stubborn young woman track down her father's murderer. Short and simple. The great John Wayne was the original Cogburn, and he set a pretty high

standard for Bridges to reach.

Bridges in fact took that standard and made it better in my eyes. He gave the character more depth, or backstory that I didn't see in the John Wayne version. I believed that Cogburn was a lazy, drunk U.S. Marshall that wanted to do what he wanted to do.

He was paid to kill the man that killed the girl's father, he didn't want tagging along and it showed, but as he realized the seriousness, or stubbornness of the girl he felt accustomed to her face. She grew on him and he started seeing a lot of errors that he did in the past and in the present.

I hope and pray that Jeff Bridges wins the Best Actor award every year he is nominated except this year. I think this was a "safe" role. He performed the shit out of it but the part has already been done. He also kind of had that Crazy Heart role in this role and I don't think the Academy will notice that the two are different.

Jesse Eisenberg - Social Network

The Social Network was an amazingly made film. One of the best of the years. Jesse Eisenberg's performance...ehhh. You might be saying, "What?!?, it was the best that I've seen portraying someone." and I say "I've seen better." The Social Network is about Facebook. Everyone uses Facebook, or they will eventually. There are three different stories intermixed into one. Eisenberg plays Mark Zuckerburg, the founder of Facebook.

You see, Eisenberg played the role exceptionally well. His best yet, but his previous films aren't all that great. Adventureland? Zombieland? Ok, Zombieland was an amazing movie granted, but Eisenberg didn't play a stand out part and he was the lead actor in it! They should have named this movie The Social Networkland and then he could have kept the theme going. I don't really like Jesse Eisenberg if you couldn't tell where I was going with that last rant. I think he was just written an excellent part and he performed it like any paid actor would do. The movie is better than the actor.

Colin Firth - The King's Speech

Colin Firth played the hell out of this part! I think he really wants an Oscar. I couldnt tell though. The King's Speech is about how Bertie (Colin Firth) battles his speech impediment to make one of the most historically famous speeches of Great Britain as King George VI.

Colin Firth is a well accomplished British actor. I've seen him in a lot of British TV shows and older British movies. He is well traversed in the period film. This period film also gave a challenge to him. He not only had to act as a Duke, he had to talk with a stammer and not fumble around to much. There is a part where his daughters ask him to read a bedtime story to them, and you just feel so heartbroken for him while he fumbles through line after line looking to his wife for guidance every once in awhile. I have never seen an actor stammer and still keep the composure to continue to stammer while performing on screen. Yet to this day. He brought the part of King George VI to life to me. I've heard about him but Colin Firth's performance really brought what Bertie went through on a day-to-day basis. Truly Remarkable.

James Franco - 127 Hours

James Franco did an about face with his career with this movie. It's now heading in a good direction. I guess I never saw the potential until now. 127 hours is the story of Aron Ralston and how he made it five days with his hand stuck between a rock and wall of a cavern. The story shows what he went through during those 127 hours. I just finished this movie and I am blown away still. What Aron Ralston went through is escrutiating. I would died in that situation.

James Franco, played this part to the T. I've read Between a Rock and a Hard Place and it gets pretty vivid on what Aron Ralston went through. It's a change from James Franco's last endeavor Date Night, or rather Pineapple Express, or even better Spiderman. I respect James Franco now. It is hard for anyone to be on camera and the only thing on camera and to act the shit out of it. I don't like watching things when its focused on one person for more than 5 minutes but this, I could watch another 120 minutes of James Franco giving a monologue. Its sad but thats how much he kicked ass.

So there are my thoughts on the Actor in a Leading Role candidates. My prediction is now a toss up between James Franco and Colin Firth. If you would have asked me a week ago I would have definitely told you Colin Firth but after seeing James Franco marvel in 127 hours (I think I just made a funny with James Franco, if you catch it, let me know) I believe James Franco has a chance. I don't think Jesse Eisenberg should be in this bunch, maybe they should have put Mark Wahlberg from The Fighter in here instead. Jeff Bridges played a "safe" role, and I just couldnt understand Javier Bardem.

Until We Meet Again

"You'll Never Walk Again..." -Milt Anderson

Bad Girls and Plastic Princesses(part I)

I have long felt that in the wasteland that is the current state of American popular culture, the demographic that gets it the worst is little girls. Early teen girlsare constantly bombarded with not just wrong messages, but with Mixed messages, which can be even worse. These messages are unavoidable for little girls, beamed directly into their heads via music, television, commercials, and their peers. Mixed messages about what is expected of them as they head into their teen years, what their values should be, what should be respected, how to be considered respectable. These girls grow up and become a part of the problem, passing along these mixed messages to their younger sisters and eventually their daughters.

There are many perpetrators of these messages. Currently the one that irks me the most is porn star Kim Kardashian. I'm going to call her that whenever I make reference to her. I refuse to buy into the illusion that she is noteworthy for any other reason. She is on television, she is in magazines, she has fans because she videoed herself having sex with a dude, saw it released, and made a bunch of money off of it. Now she's famous because of it. Reports put her family's 2010 earnings at $65 million, between branding(putting their name on random crap like perfume), tv shows, public appearances and twitter advertising. That's right, companies pay Porn Star Kim Kardashian to talk about their products on her twitter feed. According to the Huffington post, she has 6 million twitter followers. Many of these followers are little girls like the ones I made reference to earlier. So what are they learning from the Kardashian family?

So porn star Kim Kardashian gets famous for having sex with a b-list r&b singer. She parlays that into a playboy spread. Lord knows how but, she parlays THAT into a show for not just her, but her entire family, and now there are actually several shows featuring these people. Shows that are basically her and her equally vapid, shallow and pointless family whining about various and sundry false dramas. After thorougly denouncing her pornstar history, she appeared completely naked in V magazine.

Several months ago, the Kardashians lent their name to a pre-paid credit card. The "Kardashian card" was marketed to young people "so they could learn about how to manage their money". Eventually it was revealed that the card saddled users with some decidedly predatory financial burdens including:

- A $99 up front annual fee for using the card

-monthly fee of $7.95 that kicks in after the initial purchase period.

-A $9.95 replacement fee for a lost card

-a $25 express fee to rush a card to you if there's an emergency.

there's more, but I'll spare you. The point is, they were marketing this to KIDS! The Kardashians ended up disassociating themselves with the card, releasing a statement that said in part: “The Kardashians have worked extremely long and hard to create a positive public persona that appeals to everyone, particularly young adults. Unfortunately, the negative spotlight turned on the Kardashians as a result of the Attorney General’s comments and actions threatens everything for which they have worked.”

Some of the hijinks engaged in on this show have included the two youngest Kardashian sisters(9 and 11 at the time) trying their skills on a stripper pole. There was an episode detailing Kim's (supposed) conflict about whether or not to pose for playboy, and an episode in which Kardashian brother Robert experiences a bout of priaprism after he drinks a beverage meant for his stepfather, Bruce Jenner. The Drink had been spiked by the family's matriarch, Kris Jenner, who oversees this tawdry den of materialism and questionable values. So let me get this straight: This is the work they've done to cultivate a positive public persona of themselves for young people? Somebody get me a striped shirt and a yellow flag to throw, because I'm calling bullshit.
Notice the wording. The statement basically says they removed themselves from this card NOT because the card was bad, but because it was bad for their image. I believe that it's only because the predatory nature of the Kardashian card was found out and publicized that they moved away from it. I don't believe for a moment they cared about the possiblity of some consumer getting hosed, because I can't believe that they didn't know about this going in. Quiet as it's kept, these chicks are business owners. That's the one non hate-able thing about them. they've got a relatively successful chain of boutiques. "Business owner" translates into "knows how to read small print". They knew everything about that card before they signed on and they signed on anyway, until it became an inconvenience to their q rating. Translation: They don't care about you. They don't care about your kids. They do care about your money. they care about helping to convince you that being like them means being happy, because the more people who believe that, the richer they get.
It would seem to me that the over arching message of the Kardashian "Phenomenon" is that the best way to have a life worth living is to be born rich, spend your father's hard earned money, whore yourself out at any opportunity to anyone. And in doing so, they help to corrupt our kids.

Intro to The Academy Awards

In the coming weeks I will be going through the different categories of the Oscars and sharing my thoughts on the different nominees. First Category is Actor in a Leading Role and the nominees are as follows

Javier Bardem - Biutiful

Jeff Bridges - True Grit

Jesse Eisenberg - The Social Network

Colin Firth - the King's Speech

James Franco - 127 Hours

I will go through all of the categories and tell you who I like (not necessarily who will win). Then I will follow with the rest of the nominated categories culminating in the Best Picture category.

I hope you enjoy!

Greetings from Shea

Welcome, Welcome, Welcome to my addition of this blog here at the Hate Locker. My name is Derek but I will go by Shea from now on. Let me just let you know about me and why I will be writing on this blog.

I currently live in Utah in the wonderful city of Salt Lake. It is a beautiful city and has many things to offer. Not as many things as my previous town Long Beach, California but I think I've managed for the past five years. Utah is the site for many things musical (the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, Punk), and it has grown to be a place to film movies. That's where I come in.

I'm a movie lover and I am currently attending school for Film. Although, I am not an accomplished Film Critic, and I haven't made award winning films, I like to critique films with the best interest in mind. I enjoy Film and that is all aspects of Film. I'll focus mainly on the Sound aspects of Film because that is where my experience lies. But as an entirety I will bring my opinion on the films I have seen. It'll be a fun look at whats out there and if you want to take my opinions you will be my best friend, but if you don't then thats your own prerogative.

I hope you enjoy what I have to write and feel free to leave any comments on what I say. I always appreciate good discussions. Ill leave you with a quote that has helped me when I start to write something

Over a period of time it's been driven home to me that I'm not going to be the most popular writer in the world, so I'm always happy when anything in any way is accepted. - Stephen Sondheim

10:40pm through 11:09pm

All right Mick!


is that raphael saddiq on guitar?


check it out it's Whistler! Too bad Blade's in Jail!

Damn Barbra, that was great!

Why does em look so pissed sitting there?

I'm still less than impressed by drake...

regarding rihanna....I can't believe i'm saing this but....she's no Beyonce...

The last half hour or So

How the hell is esperanza spalding nominated for best new artist when she has albums out dating back the last 3 years? HOLY CRAP SHE WON!!!! FUCK YEAH, SHE'S A BASS PLAYER!!! BASS PLAYERS RULE!!!!


Just for a second as I was looking at dre and eminem, I thought I was looking at Usher and Justin Bieber....


Lol, Rihanna just sang "maybe I'm a masochist"....watching this, I'm wondering the same thing about myself...

For my thoughts on Seth Rogen, See my review of The Green Hornet from several posts ago.


They're from Augusta? my Dad is from Augusta


‎"The Song otherwise known as Forget You"? you might as well call it an unpronounceable symbol!
Mayer, Jones and Urban....Dolly would be proud...


So I've decided I don't HATE Katy Perry....I just hate the way she's packaged and sold...

but she does need to step up her cardio game so she can support better

Katy Perry

So I've decided I don't HATE Katy Perry....I just hate the way she's packaged and sold...

didn't expect that from Lady pre civil war..a pendergrass tribute....hmmmm


Jamie Foxx is such a Douche....


Awww...come on, Cee Lo....

Not bad Gwyneth....I can tell you were nervous but you soldiered on....

Mumford and Sons

rockin out!!! or that is....Folkin' out! Seriously though, not bad!

Fame monster wins best pop vocal...

once again... the triumph of the mediocre.

say what you want about usher; he always bring his a game

this is very timberlake in my opinion

bruno mars

this is so much cooler than the actual song.

wrong ryan, music always needs GOOD voices

muse just finished

I have a friend with a single out that sounds just like the song muse just did....i wonder what made them do it?

miranda lambert> taylor swift

hm m m ....ponytaill, dance troupe, Express yourself sounding track....somebody is showing their blonde ambition ...

is liveblogging the grammy's

first of all..those of you stuck on Stefenie Germanotta(gaga's) Jock...do you really think she could be on that stage with those chicks and be anything else but out of her depth? Of course not. Now shut the hell up about Aguilera allegedly trying to be like her. That's bullshit

Changing my mind about "The Moment"

I heard a Nicki Minaj song today the hook on which made some reference to "the greatest moment in my life", or "the moment I've been waiting for" or something like that. I didn't like it, but it made me think. In the Aerosmith song "Amazing" the chorus goes "It's amazing/in the blink of an eye you finally see the light/yeah, it's amazing/when the moment arrives that you know you'll be alright."

Many of us hold a special fascination for "The Moment". The best example I can think of comes from the film The Pursuit of Happyness, a biopic about entrepreneur/ philanthropist Chris Gardner. In the movie's climactic scene, after months of the kind of adversity that would make most of us crumble, Chris sits at his desk, toiling away for the brokerage firm. His trainer calls him into the conference room. All of the bigwigs of his office are assembled. They inform him that he is the one trainee out of 30 that will be offered a permanent job with the company. He will now be able to provide for himself and his son. He'll no longer be homeless. In the next scene, Chris exits the building in slow motion, walking down the street, tears of joy flowing, clapping his hands, reveling in his changing fortune, his giant leap into his destiny. The violin strings swell, the heart strings tug. This is "The Moment".

It's easy to be enamored with the concept of "The Moment". It ties in with everything we're taught about the American dream and and how we're all entitled to a mansion and a yacht. A very big deal is often made when someone wins a huge lottery jackpot. They cover it on the news with a big press conference with a giant check. The winners all grin, answering questions about their plans. Often the plan involves quitting their job, buying a huge house, and.....well....not much else. We the viewers vascillate between envy and vicarious thrill; "They're gonna be sitting pretty from now on!"

Recently our culture has more and more embraced ideals of avarice and comfort. "The Moment" helps sell these false ideals, and so it has become a lot more prominent in our entertainment. American Idol is the most popular program on television. Because it sells "The Moment". A hometown boy or girl rises up from nothing. We watch them, we vote on them. After months of competition and drama (not to mention increasingly egregious contestant-pimping), Fox successfully sells "The Moment" and we line up to buy. A new American Idol is crowned amid fireworks, confetti and the adulation of hundreds of millions of fans in an unprecendented ratings bonanza.

Months later, the Idol's album comes out, and things change. The last few years have borne out that TV success, that moment that is made such a big deal out of, does not necessarily translate into permanent success. Idol has had it's success stories of course, but at this point there are several more Lee Dewyze's than there are Carrie Underwoods. Some of you may be saying right now, "Lee Who?" My point exactly.

Many of those aforementioned lottery winners will attest to the same change in the weather. There are a great many stories about these winners ending up right back where they started financially not very long after their lottery win, if not in worse circumstances than before. But this isn't really about the lottery or pop stars. It's about us.

I have realized that it's not(or shouldn't be)about "The Moment". Moments end. Too many of us dream and think and pine for the moment that will come along and give us what we want, make us who we are supposed to be, or set the world right. But "The Moment", when it becomes the focus, becomes a brick wall. It may be gilded, adorned with a beautifully painted mural, with all the colors of your greatest fantasies. But a brick wall still represents an ending. How long can we stand there and look at it while the sun streaks across the sky and the grass grows around our feet. It may take awhile, but eventually the mural becomes boring and unremarkable, while we sit and revel in a moment that came and went.

After Chris Gardner's Moment, he went on to found Gardner Rich LLC. He is a motivational speaker and a philanthropist who among other things helps support the Cecil Williams Glide Community House in San Francisco, and has funded programs to provide housing for low income families. It wasn't just about "The Moment" for him. He considered life after the moment. He thought about what's next. There needs to be more of that.

We don't need to wait for the moment that changes everything. EVERY moment changes everything, or at least it can. It's important to use the small moments for big things; to learn, to pray, to plan, to share. Those lottery winner horror stories we've all heard show us that if we are unprepared for life after "The Moment", then we can soon end up just as badly off. It's important to think about our goals as gateways to more goals. Appreciate and celebrate achievement, but remember: You are not done. There is always more to learn, more strength to gain, more people to help. Make sure that your moment or moments aren't brick walls, but springboards. I know how important this is from personal experience. Looking at my own life I realized I often found myself relaxing after some small victory; some gig that I got or some good news that came through. It took me a long time to realize that resting on my laurels for too long after the moment dishonors the blessing that came in that moment. The Moment isn't meant for the mantel. The Moment is meant for motion.

Jazmine Sullivan Quits, Kim Kardashian is Shit

These two stories appeared on hip-hop wired within the last week:

http://hiphopwired.com/2011/01/03/jazmine-sullivan-announces-retirement-from-music/

http://hiphopwired.com/2011/01/02/kim-kardashian-debuts-braids-new-track-with-the-dream-in-vegas-video/

Seriously, what the hell kinda world are we living in when a bonafide deserving talent like Jazmine Sullivan feels like the music world doesn't have a place for her, but Fame-whoring wannabes like Porn Star Kim Kardashian feels are made to feel right at home? This is total bullshit; would people actually prefer to listen to autotuned club crap that anyone could've sang than listen to someone with an actual musical identity?
Ok I figured out a long time ago that people look for different things in their entertainment choices than they used to. The way I figure, back in the day, you looked at a Frank Sinatra, you looked at a Lena Horne, you WANTED to look up (figuratively, not literally). You wanted to see something iconic, that made you think about important ideas, and dream about bigger things. this was true of most all kinds of entertainment, Music greats like Nat King Cole and Billie Holiday sang about love and life and made you think about why the things they sang and wrote about were important, Comedians like Lenny Bruce and Richard Pryor spoke real truth to power and inspired their fans to be aware and enlightened...but they didn't to it in a smarmy, self-important "irreverent just because" way, like Seth McFarlane. And they certainly didn't just do a bunch of random sputtering like Dane Cook.

These days, when people look at entertainers and make the entertainment choices they make, I'm inclined to believe that their attitude is more...."What most reminds me of ME?" What entertainer can I find that makes me feel the most like I'm ok exactly where I am. What can I find that will make me bob my head, or giggle, but won't shake me out of my complacency? Oh, look, Jersey Shore's on! Those Douchebags like to party just like I do! Awesome!"

Not so awesome. Not much more than an indictment of the fact that se're actually responding to the spoon-feeding. It makes me wonder, could a Marvin Gaye or a Bob Marley even get a record deal? I don't think they could....not vapid enough.