"Your only as good as your last game" ~ Jon Ross

Your only as good as your last game

 A wise man told me something that his football coach would to tell him after a bad play, he said, you’re only as good as your last game.  This radiated through my brain and I realized he was right.  Whatever you do in life, people will look at your actions and you could have been the most loved athlete in the world, but make one mistake and that’s what you’ll be known for.  Golf star, Tiger Woods is one example of this powerful statement.  Tiger Woods was one of the best golfers of all-time, had parents who supported him, fans loved him, and created and contributed to charitable organizations around the world.  Sounds like a great guy and has accomplished amazing feats within the realm of golf, but with one bad decision or should I say several bad decisions; it was all over for Tiger.  His multiple sexual escapades were brought out into the media spotlight.  Talk of multiple affairs with the likes of porn stars, strippers, and escorts; spread like wild fire. 

     Our picture perfect Tiger, was no longer picture perfect.  It came down to this; he was only as good as his last game.  Every one of his endorsers were pulling away from him and for good reason, no one wants to be associated with an adulterer.  To top it all off, he gave the most insincere apology in the world with his mother there looking in disgust of him.  I tend to think that Tiger was ripped apart in the manner he was because of the value we hold into today’s society over marriage and Tiger just perpetuated by not having just one affair, but several affairs.

Mainstream Marketing

 Musicians in today's economy market themselves through a variety of media sources.  Musicians can utilize social media and the Internet to promote their music.  Social media sites like Facebook and MySpace are popular sites for musicians to market their music and brand.  One of the biggest sites that musicians can find fame is through YouTube. Justin Bieber was discovered on YouTube by the famous musician, Usher.  Artists like Usher, Christine Aguilera, Cee Lo Green and others are seeking out no name musical artists through shows like the Voice and American Idol.  These artists are getting instant popularity and free marketing.  According to Billboard, in its first ten years, "Idol has spawned 345 Billboard chart-toppers and a platoon of pop idols, including Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood, Daughtry, Fantasia, Ruben Studdard, Jennifer Hudson, Clay Aiken, Adam Lambert and Jordin Sparks.

     Other ways of getting your name out or keeping your name out there is by teaming up with other musical artists.  For example in the 1990s bands like Aerosmith and the Beastie Boys collaborated with Run DMC to create a new brand of music and started to erase cultural and racial divides by bringing Rock and Rap together.  This opened doors for future musical artists to follow suit and created the development of songs featuring a top selling artist with another well-known or a not so well known band.  To remain popular and get popular a musical artist needs to be out there in the spotlight, shining above and beyond the rest of the crowd.  It’s also coming down to technology and whoever can use it the best has the upper hand in the industry.  There are thousands of great bands, artists, and songs out there; the key is getting it to the ears of the people.  Competition is fierce and chances of being discovered become smaller and smaller as thousands of artists everyday compete on Web 2.0 for that once in a lifetime chance.

 

"Some would say...Bill O'Reilly is an A**HOLE"

     I’m at loss for words over this man; I guess I should feel more sorry for him than anything.  He gives republicans and conservatives a bad name.  I apologize for the foul language in the title of the blog, but after seeing and hearing the way this so called journalist speaks to his guests and others; I would rather punch his teeth in.  Now, I don’t condone violence and I think we should all say a prayer for Bill to be at peace with himself and the rest of the world.  His outbursts and rants are just part of the show or he might actually have a mental disorder, but it’s all for ratings and it comes down to making money for FOX news.  We all have to remember that these media outlets are profit centered businesses.  Bill is contreversial which makes people love him or hate him.  When Howard Stern was on the radio, people that loved him listened to him and people that hated him, listened to him even more. Fair and Balanced?  I don’t think so.  Anyone who thinks otherwise, needs our prayers too.        

   How about that Nancy Grace, my other favorite cable news commentator.  Actually, she’s another one that makes my skin crawl when I hear her.  Nancy Grace is, by far, the rudest female personality on television. She uses her time on television to act superior to every single person that she comes in contact with.  Grace uses her loud, obnoxious voice to speak over her guests. Her even more grating dialect rises above everyone that she interviews. Most of the time, she will not even listen to other points of view. Grace is too busy formulating what she is going to say after someone stops talking that she did not listen to a single word they said. There is no point trying to express a viewpoint other than her own, because she is always prepared to push her point of view. She does not even take the time to act diplomatically and attempt to negate opposing viewpoints; she just insults people who hold them.

16 and Pregnant. Really?

"16 and Pregnant" Really?

 



 

 

 

 

   16 and pregnant, sounds more like an oxymoron than a title to a reality show for teen moms.  The world or should I say society has definitely changed since I was 16.  I can remember when MTV was nothing more than music videos, good videos and music, now it’s a bunch of crap.  Reality shows like the Jersey Shore, the Real World, and the Hills have taken over primetime MTV and also taken over the covers of popular magazines.  When I was a teenager, the words sixteen and pregnant were never put into the same sentence, it was just unheard of.  Of course, I went to Catholic school where we were taught not to have sex before marriage and if you did you were going to burn in the fires of hell.  My own belief is that if people followed that teaching of no sex before marriage then we wouldn’t have reality shows about single teenage moms, but who am I, just another hypocrite.

 

 

     We want to see the hype, the weird, the strange, the unconscionable, the Jersey boy’s fist pump, and the young unwed mothers from the bible belt of the U.S.A. We don’t want normal…we want abnormal and that’s what sells.  MTV would have us believe this human spectacle is a public service program, a “cautionary tale” for young girls not to get pregnant akin to the “after school specials” of the past.  When “Teen Moms” jockey for space with J-Lo and Jolie on the covers of People and Us Magazine, it’s hard to say the shows aren’t glamorizing teen motherhood.  “Our problem is that children are inundated by ‘screens’ from birth.  The content of the screen becomes more and more important in their lives as they get older. This is taking away from other, real experiences and shaping their perceptions of reality,” says Susan Linn, a fierce critic of commercial culture and author of Consuming Kids: the Hostile Takeover of Childhood.  Soon they aspire to be like the people on the TV and extreme behavior becomes normal.  Melissa Henson from the conservative Parents Television Council, says, “Television is the “sexual super peer”.  I think the consensus is in, the data speaks for itself, kids are being influenced by a box with a screen on it and reality shows are one of the biggest perpetrators.  HERE IS A SIMPLE SOLUTION…..TURN OFF THE TV, UNPLUG IT, AND THROW IT OUT THE WINDOW.  We don’t need TV to live; kids should be learning about life through their parents, church, community, and school.  Take a book out and read to your children, stop sticking them in front of the TV for entertainment.



Remembering the newspaper......

Remembering the Newspaper......

     The Intelligencer Newspaper was one of my main staples for the day along with my regular routine, like eating breakfast, taking the dog for a walk and chatting with friends.  It was your neighborhood, town, and county newspaper. I have a lot of love for The Intelligencer because they gave me my first job at 11 years old; I was a paper delivery boy for the local neighborhood. I can remember waking up before the crack of dawn every morning to deliver the news to the people whether rain, snow, hail, or ice.  It seems a little archaic now that I think of it, of all the crap I had to go through to get my customers their daily news, no wonder newspapers are going online.  I think the best part was being able to see the news first before everyone else did as I was reading the articles while wrapping and bagging newspapers.  I looked forward to the police blogs because I wanted to know who was the guy or gal getting arrested the other night and for what.  It was a great newspaper and I still love to read it when I go home.  I feel connected when I read my local paper because I share a common bond with my neighbors, my town, my county.  It’s something you don’t get when you read the national newspapers like USA Today, The Washington Post or the New York Times.

     The newspaper started in 1804 as the Pennsylvania Correspondent and Farmers’ Advertiser, a weekly newspaper in Doylestown, PA.  In 1886, the newspaper became a daily, which called itself The Doylestown Daily Intelligencer.  Today The Intelligencer, which publishes six days a week, covers Central Bucks County, Upper Bucks County, and Eastern Montgomery County Pennsylvania.  Its pages feature stories, photographs and editorials about everything from municipal and community news and crime and court reports to politics, business, human interest, sports and community news and entertainment pieces.  In addition to its daily newspaper publication, The Intelligencer also post news online at www.phillyburbs.com. I think this newspaper will survive, it is always more enjoyable to be able to sit down in your favorite recliner, sipping a cup tea while you read about the local band playing at your favorite pub in town or you can organize your list of yard sales for Saturday morning.  I think people like the community newspaper more because they have the ability to influence the newspaper whether it be the news itself, advertisements, or high school sports.

Sexiness Sells

Sexiness Sells

    

  I take for granted that I'm an educated individual with years of wisdom and can see through the scandalous images on the covers of these magazines and see the marketing scheme to get the customer to buy.  The celebrities we see on TV are the ones we want to see on the covers. Reality TV show celebs like Snooki and the girls from MTV's 16 and pregnant are a mainstay on the racks of the checkout line.  We also can't forget about our favorite royal family, Prince William and Kate, not that we care so much about Prince William as we do Kate, Oh by the way its official she is pregnant.  Who is the audience here? Teenage and 20 something females? Probably, but I think we all get drawn into it one way or another whether it be consciously or unconsciously, you can't help to look at the images. Yes, magazines are geared to us guys out there, just look at the above cover of Maxim.  Doesn't Avril look so appealing showing her stomach with eye catching words around her like Sex, Balls, SEXIEST BAD GIRL, and SUPER CARS?

     So what is the message we are sending out to our young people? Dress half naked, showing as much as you can without being charged with indecent exposure.  Some sociologists argue that teens are more inclined to become sexually active because of the overwhelming number of sexual images in the media. Aside from school sex-education programs, the media is teenagers' leading source of information about sex. The American Academy of Pediatrics suggests that exposure to sexually explicit media images may lead to early sexual activity. One study revealed that a typical American teenager will view 14,000 references to sex in television and movies each year. Fewer than 200 of these references will involve topics such as abstinence, birth control, or STDs.  Whoever controls the media--the images--controls the culture. ------Allen Ginsberg