Dominant Corporate Media

It is no secret that the corporate media has messages hidden within its various forms of media. This is most evident in movies, music, advertising, and television.

"Lip Gloss" by Lil' Mama is a prime example of this. In it, Lil' Mama is saying that physical possessions, such as lip gloss, make you popular and happy. Therefore it implies that having expensive or nice possession will make you happy, more popular, and that it will make your life "good". This is a very common message, because it helps to fuel the economy and get people to buy into the mentality that will help sell their music.

Another song, "Good Life" by Kanye West, lets you know from the start that it will be his ideas on a good life. To him, this is a life with money and the things that come with it. These end up including having nice things like a sexy woman by your side and expensive cars. This is another very common message that the corporate media shows us, appearing just as often as the message in "Lip Gloss".

"Superbad" staring Jonah Hill and Michael Cera is a prime example of the media contradicting itself. The message the movie promotes throughout is that doing sex is good and will make you happy and popular. This comes primarily from the character Seth (Hill). Michael Cera provides the other dominant corporate message, that romance and falling in love is important (Although the girl he likes is still rather attractive). Both of these messages are promoted very frequently but to see them together in such a format as that which "Superbad" provides was interesting.

In advertisements for the video games "Saints Row 2" and "Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe", conclusions can be drawn on what messages they want to promote, however it is approached. Both advertisements feature attractive women, showing that looks are important. However, in both cases they are strong women, showing that women should be able to stand up for themselves.

My Christmas

Every kid loves nothing more than waking up to a bunch of boxes on Christmas morning and tearing through them to find the goodies within. I have always had a strong connection to Christmas because it reminds me of what it was like as a kid. Seeing presents wrapped with my name on it is always nice. I don't even care so much about the presents as much as what they symbolize in my family, and that is that somebody was thinking of you and wants you to be happy.

My mom has never been big on gifts, both in asking for them and giving them. I never minded because as a result she would get me things I needed and it was all the more thoughtful. I spend every Christmas with my mom and we have a small little Christmas with a couple of presents (Never more than 10 between the two of us, and always small gifts). This year was no different and we took it easy. The main thing this year was that my mom cooked a great Christmas Eve dinner and we were together.

Since my parents are divorced I have two Christmas'. People think I'm lucky but it doesn't really matter because they are still the same presents, just spread out. I went to my dad's house in the afternoon and we celebrated and had a nice present opening session that everybody enjoyed, especially my 14 month old sister who got her first Lego-esque set. We too had a loving dinner, but I felt like the one I had with my mom was more loving..

The three Christmas' are the corporate (Hallmark) Christmas, the family-centered Christmas, and the religious Christmas. This is the first time that I didn't have a religious Christmas. This year has been tough on my mom and she doesn't feel like she can turn to anybody and doesn't feel as religious as she used to. I feel like I missed out on one of the better aspects of Christmas because it helps to show me that people can still come together and be happy together. This year also had me seeing the least of my family, because as a result of my mom's year she isn't talking to our family. Prior to this we would go to my Aunt's on Christmas Eve and have a small family gathering. We didn't go this year and I missed it. Normally my Grandma (Dad's mom) comes to visit, but she didn't come this year because of equal parts her boyfriend (Who doesn't care much for my dad) and the economy. She is instead visiting in a few weeks. I feel like missing out on the family and the religious Christmas' was alright, but I miss them. I felt fine on Christmas doing things the Hallmark way but at the same time I will always like the Christmas' of my youth, with family and religion abound, the best.

Ramblings on just about everything

I just felt the need to vent. I don't expect anybody to read this, because to be honest, nobody I know would take the time to just see what I was thinking or try to get a better understanding of my mind. I hate that but I love that, because now I see that this can be a platform for me to just vent.

First off: People suck.

Okay, glad to get that off of my shoulders. I say that not because my life sucks, but rather because people are so fucking ignorant of others and their cultures and who they are. I am not exempt from this. I do try to understand why people say and act as they do. For instance, I know that there are at least a few girls at my school that hate me. At first I didn't know why. Now I think I know, and I think it's because I am a "know it all" to them. I don't like to look at it that way. I like to think that if I overhear a question that I know the answer to, or a problem I can help with, that maybe I can be of service and be useful. Apparently not.

Secondly: Media Overload

I just spent the last 8 hours almost entirely watching movies. This is something I love to do and I haven't had a chance to do this since the summer. Now though, I am a different person. I thought back on my "Life Doesn't Have to Be Meaningless" class. I thought about what these things were telling me. Here is what i watched, and I will roughly state what I got from it.

Home Alone: I have seen this movie many times, but now looking back on it after not having seen it in a while, I see it in a different light. The movie is basically all about self-suficientcy. It is about learning how to take care of yourself. It actually reminds me of the many cultures that would have a boy enter the woods and fend for himself with no resources at his disposal. Basically, that is what Kevin (The protagonist) has to do. He learns how to make things continue as they would, all on his own.

Seven Pounds: I wanted to see this mainly because of Will Smith. I won't lie. He is one of my favorite actors and I think that he is much better than many people realize. I think that his character was interesting because he just wasn't what you would expect. I saw the whole "got his wife killed and was guilt-ridden by this horrific event and had to help others" shpeel, because honestly, I have seen it all over. But what was interesting was that he wasn't an honest man. He lied to people constantly and even insulted people. He did it to test them, to make sure that they were good people. While this is interesting, the ending had me wonder whether or not he was a good person in the eyes of say God. He blatently defied the commandments in order to help others. This was just not something I expected. It was weird to see such a mainstream star take on a role in which the moral is to help others, even if it takes a toll on your own life. Kinda fucked up. I think this is a good marginal message, borderline prohibited.

Punisher, War Zone: I just wanted to see this because I am a comic book fan. This didn't get great reviews, but ended up being a great example of a lot of things. The Punisher's whole gimmick is that his family was killed in front of him and it was his fault, so he takes it out on the bad and tries to make things better, similar to the "got his wife killed and was guilt-ridden by this horrific event and had to help others" shpeel. He has a seen in a church and a lot of religious undertones are present in the film, making it very apparent that you are supposed to question whether he is good or not. At the end he is called a good man my the family of somebody he killed, which is too "Hallmark". To be honest, he is going to Hell. He will rot in there with the killed, no matter what the reason. The Bible says not to kill, and he does so. A lot. A LOT. A good 4 years of it to be exact. I think that this is just Hollywood looking for money, and the message is to just kill the bad people, even though that makes you no better than them. I don't even want to get to the deeper analysis of this, but it has a lot more layers than people would notice, or so I think.

Religulous: I heard so many good things about this that I had to see it. I enjoy a good documentary now and them, so long as it has relevance and is modern. I think that Bill Maher did a fantastic job here and pointed out just how ignorant people are. I actually lost a lot of faith in people from this alone. I however have not questioned my religion as a result. I was raised Catholic. I don't remember half the stuff they taught me and I don't know if I truly believe it all. But in recent days I have felt more and more like there is a God. My whole life has been littered with little coincidences when I ask God for something. And a lot of times there was nothing. Lately I have had some troubles though and I think I have been seeing many signs that are leading to me recovering. This movie was good, and I could probably get a lot from it if I wasn't tired at 2:00 am and listening to my music. I definetely want to go back to this and go deeper into this, because I think it is a great example of how the world is changing and how people try to profit off of religion.

Lastly: The night is darkest just before the dawn.

Okay, if you are reading this and thinking "What a loser, he just quoted fucking Dark Knight" then why are you reading this? I mean really, leave. But for me, this quote has a lot of relevance, because I just have felt so shitty lately and people have not helped me at all and I have done things I am not proud of. But things look dramatically better now, and tomorrow (technically today) could be the greatest day of the year for me. I just think that the world can really congest you at times and you need to take a step back and just have people time. The events of this year didn't do anything to change me as a person. Rather, what has affected me is people around me. I just hate the world but love people right now, and hate what the world is doing to people.

Wal-Mart Trampling

“Black Friday” is a day that every year kicks off the holiday spending season. That same day is also “Buy Nothing Day”, but it is sadly becoming more and more clear to me that this day will most likely never even be acknowledged by the mainstream media. Every year it seems like there is at least one story that proves how product-happy America is. I remember a couple of years ago when the PS3 and Wii came out, a man was shot for a PS3 outside a Wal-Mart. Continuing their lovely tradition, a man was trampled to death by Long Islanders while standing with fellow employees to barricade a door at 5:00 am. Four other people were trampled with him, but there injuries were not fatal, however a woman who was 8-months pregnant was trampled and lost her baby as a result.

This is a sad commentary on Americans and shows the state that we are in. Now while no one party is to blame for this death, it led me to think of “Black Friday” and the effect that sales have on people in general. The shoppers were described as “savages” by Kimberly Cribbs, a witness to the event. However, I doubt that these people are constantly this savage and inhumane. Sales do this to people. The corporations trick you into buying more than you need. Now, I am not going to say I’m better than this. I have wants and there are things I like too and would buy if they were on sale. I do think though that when a store sells a product at an extremely low price when it is still new, that they are being irresponsible. Their doing this makes them partial to blame, because they know they are selling something dumb and scamming people. This goes back to how the corporations trick people into buying stuff. They brainwash us. We don’t notice it all the time, but they do. I don’t need anything other than food, water, a home, and air. Material possessions are pointless and trivial. If people took time to think about this, they would realize I’m not being stingy, but realistic. In fact, for Christmas I don’t want anything expensive. I am happy and making any change I need to in order to make myself happy. If more people had a mentality like that, people wouldn’t be killed for a T.V. Their trampling him is the opposite of what Christmas is supposed to represent. America really sucks sometimes.