South Park and The Fifth Estate

Well, I guess this is it. The moment we’ve all been waiting for. The final blog assignment of the semester! Wow, it really has been 13 weeks already? I guess you can say time flies when you watch awesome shows like The Daily Show with Jon Stewart or one of my absolute favorites, South Park. But what is it about these shows that make them so great? Is it all the fart jokes and toilet humor in South Park? Is it Jon Stewart’s yelling at the television camera? While these may be a reason people tune in to watch these shows, the reality of it is that satirical shows like these pretty much show Americans how ridiculous our society can get.

In the book, Satire’s Brew: Mass Media and Coffee Beans, by Brian Dunphy, the main character gives a lecture on how South Park is important to the “fifth estate”. What is the fifth estate? Well first we need to know what the fourth estate is in order to understand why the fifth estate became the more trusted estate by citizens like us. According to Dunphy, “The fourth estate or the media was designed as the unofficial fourth branch of government envisioned by Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson…the fourth estate is supposed to be a balance representing the people” (136). Unfortunately, due to deregulation of the media industry, we Americans are left with not many options when it comes to getting mainstream information. Also, there have been numerous times where the media has failed us and led us to search for other sources to get trustworthy and truthful information. An example is the recent controversy involving Brian Williams, a well knows newscaster from NBC. Information leaked out about Williams lying about some coverage he did during the Iraq War. He apparently lied to the public about being in a helicopter when all of a sudden they were attacked by a RPG launched by enemy forces. This turned out to be not true and when the public found out about this, NBC immediately suspended Williams costing him his job. The reason why this is considered a failure on the fourth estate’s end is that we were supposed to trust the fourth estate members in keeping check on those in power and not to be manipulated and be misinformed about what is really going on. In the example with Brian Williams and the whole controversy of him lying about his helicopter experience, the Iraq War was already an unpopular war. As a member of the fourth estate, Williams failed the people by reporting false information thus making him less credible and trustworthy.

This is where the fifth estate comes in. The fifth estate is where “satirists, bloggers, comedians, and We the People have found a new home reacting to the disappointing fourth estate” (Dunphy 136). The fifth estate is very important in today’s society. I believe so because it is like having an authentic watchdog watching over and keeping a check on those in power. According to Dunphy, “this new balance is more representative of the people and there’s a connection between consumer and fifth estate member” (136-7). A great example of a fifth estate member, or members I should say are Matt Stone and Trey Parker. Together they created what the main character in Satire’s Brew calls “the most financially successful of the fifth estate”, South Park (137).

South Park is one of my personal favorite TV shows of all time. I absolutely love how the creators, Matt Stone and Trey Parker just aren’t afraid to poke fun at any controversial issue ranging from racism to religious tolerance to even video game console wars. South Park is essentially a mirror of American culture and the current events going on at the time of each airing. What makes South Park a staple in the fifth estate is that it connects with the people and shows us a different perspective on how to look at certain issues. One of the episodes my TA sent me to watch for this assignment was “Black Friday” It was aired during their 17^th season. In this episode, Randy Marsh, Stan’s dad gets a job at the South Park mall as a security guard in order to earn holiday cash but in actuality he gets the job to get an advantage over everyone when the mall opens for black Friday. When the guards are being briefed, the captain announces that the first 30 people in the mall are to get 80% off any item and warns of the potential violence that will occur. This is a direct stab at all of those reports by the media we hear every year of the crazy unnecessary violence that happens every black Friday. (Which is why I NEVER shop on Black Friday by the way.) Stone and Parker are making fun of American consumer culture by making the general public look like greedy zombie savages in order to save a few dollars on retail items. This is an important reflection because I believe as I think Stone and Parker believe also that the world sees Americans as crazy and stupid for lining up for hours outside a mall or store to then beat each other up over things that don’t really matter. Here’s the next part of the satire, after hearing about the ‘huge’ deal going on, the kids gather up in a Game of Thrones parody style and create separate ‘armies’. One represents Xbox One and the other represents PS4. Since I don’t really watch TV shows nor play video games often, I couldn’t really connect to this part on a personal level. I do know many people that watch Game of Thrones religiously and video game nerds that probably would have been rolling on the floor watching these kids prepare to fight over video game console preference Game of Thrones style. It even sounds hilarious reading back on it. But in my opinion, what got me dying was Butters’ concern of the exposure of flaccid penises on the show. Now I don’t know how the latter can relate to the fifth estate but we can see that the show never fails to educate us on how unintelligent we look but at the same time keep us laughing hysterically at these parodies.

The other episode that my TA assigned me to watch was titled, “Let Go, Let Gov”. This was the first episode of the 17^th season. As usual, this episode was hilarious! We all know it’s because any episode involving Butters as a main character or secondary main character is awesome. Anyways, in this episode, Cartman sets a plan to infiltrate the NSA and expose them in whistleblower fashion. (He literally blew a whistle during the episode.) The episode starts off at the bus stop where Kyle looks annoyed and complains about how people talk on their cell phones with the speaker function on. Then, comes in Cartman indiscreetly talking on the phone while having everyone hear the entire conversation. Kyle complains to Cartman but as usual Cartman just retaliates and accuses Kyle of invading his privacy. Cartman then goes on a mini rant on how the government is listening to everything and monitoring activity on the internet. What is so funny about this is that despite Cartman complaining how the government records everything, he still talks all day with his speakerphone on, organizes anti-government rallies out loud, and even sends his thoughts to the internet by way of social media. He is doing nothing that is discreet and would not be recorded by the government. On the other side, we have Butters learning that the government is “watching” everything you do. Butters then starts praying to the government as if it is God. He even makes the DMV his sanctuary and goes to the DMV to confess his sins. This episode was aired during the time when the news broke out about Edward Snowden and the NSA. We can see that Stone and Parker are clearly reflecting on the current events and satirizing on the public’s reaction to the whole Snowden/NSA exposure. Here we see two sides of the coin, we see the side which criticizes and is against the government and we also see the side that sympathizes with the government. Cartman believes the government is out to get everyone and Butters believes the government is looking out for everyone. From this, we can see that the creators are once again taking shots at the mainstream media by showing the different sides of their biased perspectives. They also bring forth the discussion of what being patriotic actually means. Is exposing the government of its wrongdoings anti-patriotic? Is agreeing and complying with everything the government says or does patriotic? I would say the answers to those questions lie somewhere in the middle.

Thanks to South Park, we are able to see the influence and power the fifth estate can have with the American culture and society. It also reminds us of our rights and freedom to express how we feel on the many issues and conflicts that are presented to us every day. That is why the fifth estate is so important to us. It allows us to see ourselves as a society and how we think. And through this fifth estate, we are able to question anything and express ourselves however we want. It also brings us together and makes us see eye to eye. It makes us realize that we are all humans capable of our own minds. That is truly what freedom is all about.

Sources:

Satire’s Brew: Mass Media & Coffee Beans by Brian Dunphy

“Let go, Let Gov”

http://vimeo.com/98566035

“Black Friday”

http://vimeo.com/98577767

Satire and SNL

Satire is probably one of my favorite styles of comedy. It helps us see our problems and opens our eyes to some of the problems we have as a country, society, civilization, etc. Brian Dunphy wrote in the last chapter of Satire’s Brew: Mass Media and Coffee Beans, “Powerful satire reveals humanity and alters our perceptions of what we once believed. Effective satire holds up the mirror to society and makes us laugh at what we are as a culture and society” (211). We can see many examples of how this statement made by Dunphy is true. For example, we can look at shows like South Park and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and clearly see that the shows capture the audience’s attention mainly by satire. A very powerful TV show that utilizes satire is Saturday Night Live. According to Dunphy, it is “one of the longest running American shows in TV history” and from the very start “the show immediately began satirizing the presidency, politicians, and American culture” (211). Personally, I have never really watched the show that much but I did see two pretty funny clips where SNL makes fun of President Obama and the way the government works.

The first SNL clip we had to watch was titled, Watch How a Bill Becomes a Law. In this short clip, SNL makes a parody of the skit, I’m Just a Bill in the show Schoolhouse Rock. Pretty much, the clip tries to explain to a little boy how a bill becomes a law and how the government works. Ironically (but not surprisingly), President Obama (Jay Pharoah) bullies the bill (played by Kenan Thompson, AHH Kenan & Kel. Those were the days…), pushes him off the stairs and introduces his friend, the Executive Order (Bobby Moynihan) who explains to the kid how the government really works. I found this clip to be really funny. The satire behind this skit is pretty straightforward in the sense that SNL is basically telling the nation that the President could do as he/she pleases without reaching out to congress first. Unfortunately, due to stubborn partisanship and crazy old men and women, the executive order is a very controversial issue and that’s why shows like SNL, South Park, and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart go and make fun of our government and society so that we can see the truth behind everything.

The second clip we had to watch titled, How He’s Doing, poked fun at the President (SURPRISE!) and whether or not people would change their vote according to certain circumstances. In this clip we have Kenan Thompson playing a talk show host while having Chris Rock, Jay Pharoah, Leslie Jones, and Sasheer Zamata act as panelists who are asked about their opinions on the President. The funniest part of the clip was when Kenan Thompson asked the panelists if they would have changed their vote if President Obama had done nothing to discipline his daughters for talking back at him. The panelists each tried giving justifications and explanations for the President’s actions but then end up criticizing him for not doing anything to his daughters. But at the end, when Kenan Thompson asked if they still would change the vote, they said no. I found this funny because I feel many people just support who they voted for regardless of what happens.

Mistaken for Strangers from a PR Perspective

When a band gets big enough to create a regular buzz in their music scene, it usually has a lot to do with their Public Relations (PR) approach or strategies. We can see this through watching the rock documentary, Mistaken for Strangers, which is a documentary about the nationally acclaimed band from Brooklyn, The National. The movie was an idea of the brother of lead singer, Matt Berninger. Tom Berninger, Matt’s brother had been invited to tour with his older brother’s band during their High Violet tour. The film mainly focused on Tom and his relationship with the band and particularly his relationship with his brother. Watching this film, I didn’t really change my perception of The National’s music. Although, I always think it is so cool to see what a band does while on tour. I was expecting a lot more partying and hilarious interactions with each other. The band seemed to drink lots of wine though. I don’t know if this is to attract more hipsters to listen to them or show the world that they are ‘mature’ and ‘responsible’, which they seem to be according to the film. The only person who showed the most traits of irresponsibility was Tom actually. In my opinion, I think this is what made the movie that much more entertaining. I personally found the movie to be a bit boring for my tastes. However, I can say that I learned a lot about The National and that they are just as human as anyone else.

Was the film a success from a PR perspective? Well if the movie gained an opening spot at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2013, I definitely think it was. The film was incredible advertising and publicity for the band not only for the fans but anybody who is a fan of indie rock music. According to George Rodman, “public relations is defined as the art or science of establishing and promoting a favorable relationship with the public”. Though this can apply it anything that casts a public image, it definitely makes sense in the idea the band had for releasing this film. Would I say Tom Berninger is a good fit for the PR industry? Probably not. Did his contributions of the film help elevate the band’s image and publicity? ABSOLUTELY. I think having a good PR team is essential to your band, business, brand, political campaign, etc. Oscar Wilde once said, “There is only one thing in life worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.” This is probably the mantra that the PR industry goes by. I feel that The National’s PR team wants people to see the band in a more human way than an idolizing, worshiping way that many other bands seem to have. They did a good job in getting the film out to the public. Unfortunately for me, it didn’t change my opinion much on their music but I do have a great amount of respect for the band and the musicians that make the group.

Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

Mass Media in a Changing World by George Rodman

Before Midnight

http://static.rogerebert.com/uploads/movie/movie_poster/before-midnight-2013/large_9mc3ylGVYEswBZpQvZLOKTAvTES.jpg

“Before Midnight”, this is the last chapter in this romantic trilogy. Where a young couple who met on a train in beautiful, romantic, sexy Europe, walk around the historic city of Vienna, fall in love and live happily ever after for 18 years and three movies. Isn’t that so sweet and adorable? Just kidding, there’s of course way more to that story and a lot of good screenplay.

The movie takes place nine years after “Before Sunset”. Remember that one? The part where Jessie and Celine meet once again in the beautiful city of Paris after another further nine years that they had that awesome time in Vienna. This time, the couple spent a summer in Greece, where everything seemed so cool and ancient to look at. I may not love the romance thing so much at this point in my life, but the setting that these stories take place in are incredible. The best part about it is that they make it seem like you’re actually there. I’m also a geography nerd and have a huge itch for traveling. That is probably only reason I would watch romantic movies for. Ok maybe not the only reason. But a huge reason though, that’s for sure. Out of all three movies, I liked this the most when it comes to visuals. The Greek Peloponnese are freaking gorgeous! I think after this assignment, I’ll see how much tickets are running for. (Yeah, before I cry after looking at my bank account.) I like this trilogy for the cool European travel ideas I got each time I was watching these movies. I kind of wish they had a “Before” series in each continent. They would be pretty cool. Long, uninterrupted takes of two people walking around a nice backdrop just talking about all kinds of stuff. Well it doesn’t necessarily have to be romantic; it can be just a movie with a super enlightening message that represents the power of human face-to-face communication. But I’ll leave that for another review or assignment I write up.

Back to “Before Midnight”:

*Oh yeah, spoiler alert*

We get to find out that after the last scene of “Before Sunset”, Jesse and Celine end up having the raunchiest sex Paris has witnessed since Moulin Rouge. They say that it was so crazy that Celine ended pregnant with two twin girls. That forced Jessie to stay and he had pay a crapload of money to child support after French child services kept getting complaints due to CAFSIS (Crazy American-French Sexual Infatuation Syndrome)…Ok I just made about 90% of this up. I’m sorry. But the whole ‘Celine getting pregnant and Jessie and Celine end up being parents of two twin girls’ part is true.

**Umm, where’s my “live studio audience” ‘awwww’ sound? **

I can see how the generation right before me are such huge fans of the “Before” trilogy. I appreciate how Richard Linklater and the crew planned the movies to be released nine years apart in order to demonstrate the theme of love and romance throughout one’s lifetime and how the meaning changes as you mature through life. It’s like how probably feel about all the Toy Story movies growing up. I never realized that films could have so much impact on how we take life sometimes. Now the big question is, how many couples who went out to see this movie actually got to see all three movies with each other? If there are, that’s pretty cool I guess. I’d say that’s way better than a couple watching the “Twilight” movies together or that “Fifty Shades of How to Be Abused” movie that came out last month. Even for a guy who isn’t much into romance like that, I will even say that the “Before” trilogy is incredible example of a great romantic story. The films can really get you thinking about what about intimate romantic relationships make such a huge emotional impact on our lives. Another thing I’d like to point out is that I googled ‘top romantic movies of all time’ and found on RottenTomatoes.com that all three “Before” movies are considered in the top 100 romance movies. (“Before Sunrise”, #23, “Before Sunset, #44, and “Before Midnight”, #14). That means that they are in the top 50! I’m not one to disagree. I think that Hawke, Delpy, and Linklater wrote an amazing story for all the romantic and non-romantic fans. Let’s see if in 2022, there will be another “Before” movie called “Before 9PM” since they’ll be pretty old to be staying out late.

Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/top/bestofrt/top_100_romance_movies/?category=18

Before Sunset

https://thespotlightreview.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/before-sunset-wallpaper-7-11395.jpg

So I finally get to have most of my weekend off for the first time in like months! Saturday night + broke college student = MOVIE TIME! Yeah…not too fast. I’m watching a sequel to a romance movie that apparently was the ‘best’ ever. Ok, it wasn’t too bad but still not my cup of tea. After an exhausting opening shift and some hanging out with buddies after work, I lay down on my couch, open my laptop, set it on the table next to it and pull up the “Before Sunset” movie.

*Now to be honest, I don’t know if it was just I being extremely tired but I ended up knocking the heck out after the first twenty minutes or so. Not that the movie was bad or anything; it was probably those long takes that feel like forever that made me fall asleep. Makes me wonder what new attention disorders they are going to come up with in the future. My generation can’t even have a normal conversation without looking at their phones and checking how many likes they got on their picture of a sandwich that looks semi-edible with the hashtag and the word ‘gourmet’ next to it. (I think I’m the only one in my generation that still associates the ‘#’ symbol as pound, not hashtag. Please tell me I’m not the only one.) *

OH YEAH, “Before Sunset”.

So we find out nine years have passed since Jessie (Ethan Hawke) and Celine (Julie Delpy) had that awesome night together strolling in the beautiful, historic city of Vienna. We first learn that Jessie has become somewhat of a famous writer after writing a book about the day he met Celine. Is that a bit creepy or romantic? That a guy has the “best night of his life” with some chick, writes a bestseller book about it, and then manages to have a book signing in the city where this woman is supposed to live in. Hmm… I’d say hopeless romantic is a better fit for Jessie. Hey I can’t hate, I would have probably done the same even though that chance of seeing that person would be so slim. (Maybe not in this age of social media craziness but for 2004, yes) Since this is a romantic movie trilogy, OF COURSE the woman of his wet dreams shows up by surprise at his book signing. What a lucky son of a gun, right? Well we can call him lucky until we find out he’s married with a son back in the United States. Bummer right? I promise it gets more interesting as the movie goes in further.

What I enjoyed in this movie just like the one before it was the dialogue. This time Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy were the ones writing the script and you can see that they genuinely put their personality and personal life into the script. For example, Ethan Hawke moving to New York from Texas or Julie Delpy moving to New York to study at New York University. In the movie, Jessie and Celine discuss how their lives have unfolded throughout the past nine years. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention they actually never met up in Vienna those six months after meeting. Which is what I predicted in the first place. How boring and predictable would the sequel have been if it took place six months after that night they met? Anyways, just like the last movie, this movie had outstanding dialogue (even though I had fallen asleep). I liked how the director just let the actors keep talking without taking any brakes as if they were really having a real life conversation. It makes the movie seem more realistic in that sense. Also, the fact that the movie was actually running on real time was pretty impressive. Most movies like to shove months, or even years into an hour and half of screen time.

Overall, the movie as a sequel is pretty good. Like I said if you like that sort of thing. One thing I want to criticize about the filming, was when they were filming around Paris you didn’t see any minorities. I think there was only one black guy in the movie. We all know Paris is a very diverse cosmopolitan city. It would have been nice to see an actual representation of the demographics of Paris judging by how real the director wanted this movie to feel. Other than that, I didn’t dislike the movie nor do I absolutely love it. Although after watching these two movies so far, I’d like to say that I’ve grown an appreciation for this genre of film. Maybe I’ll understand it better when I’ve grown older and had my heart torn in 9 million pieces in 37 different ways by 10 different women.

Blast from the Past – Tuning in to Radio Broadcast Shows

circa 1930s

I’ve never actually sat down and had to listen to a story being narrated to me for my own entertainment before until I had to listen to “The War of the Worlds” and the first episode of the SERIAL podcast. Wait…I’m lying. This wasn’t for my entertainment, I just realized mid-thought that this was homework. So ok, it was like my 5th time has to listen to a story being narrated and then having to write a piece on what I heard. Thanks for taking me back to the standardized testing days Professor Dunphy (I’m kidding, of course.) But yeah about these two broadcasts set about almost a century apart.

Man, what a way of scaring the hell out of an entire nation right before Halloween in the year 1938. Can you imagine what is like for a naïve 8-year-old child living in in the middle of Manhattan frantically trying to see if his/her city was actually being invaded by extraterrestrials while listening to the Mercury Theatre on the Air’s “The War of the Worlds”? A bunch of real-sounding news bulletins about an alien invasion attacking Earth. Gees, I know that probably would have scared me a bit (or A LOT!!) if I were that age listening to the radio broadcast. My ultimate question is for the adults who actually believed this was happening was ‘Would you really think only one radio station would be reporting of such an event like an alien invasion?’ That’s like broadcasting a news clip from a science fiction movie on one of the local stations during primetime. All you need to do is flip to other stations or channels that give news and you can easily figure out it’s fake. But hey I’ll admit, it did kind of sound like a real news broadcast from the early 20^th century. That’s probably what made this radio broadcast such a hit during that time. What I liked about listening to this radio drama was that it led the audience to use their own imagination and create their own version of what it might have looked like in real life. Orson Welles did a great job with the whole production. And to think that he was around my age and already the one of the biggest names known in entertainment is pretty cool. I don’t think anybody in my generation that is in my age group has done that.

The other radio broadcast I listened to was the first episode of this podcast called “SERIAL” hosted by Sarah Koenig. This show was about a real life investigation in the conviction of Adnan Syed, who was convicted for murdering his ex-girlfriend, Hae Min Lee during high school. This broadcast was different than “The War of the Worlds” in the sense that this was actually a non-fiction as opposed to the dramatized news bulletins I listened to before in “The War of the Worlds”. This broadcast didn’t seem as confusing as the last one. It was not too hard to differentiate between what the other characters were saying and what the host was saying. I feel like I was listening to an episode of a show that would have been shown on a channel like Investigation Discovery; you know, the kind where you see all these dramatizations of actual events that happened mixed with actual footage of court sessions and news clips. For some reason, I found this type of show more interesting than “The War of the Worlds”. I guess it’s because it tells the story and eyewitness accounts of an actual event that took place so it leaves you wanting to know more about what happened further in the story. Also, I have always liked investigative journalism pieces. It is great to see that there are journalists out there that really want to know the truth and aren’t afraid to question the authorities and things like our justice system.

Now I can’t really judge on whether I prefer fiction or non-fiction entertainment broadcasts based on these two radio recordings but I can say this; listening to audio broadcasts and using your own imagination to create images of the details being dictated feels pretty nice every once in a while. It’s like a step up from reading a book but not quite like watching a film or a TV show. Pretty much it’s a movie or TV show without the visual aids. Makes me wonder if people’s attention spans were greater back in the day compared to this generation. Nowadays, society relies so much on visual aids and the fast transfer of information due to mediums like film, TV, and especially the Internet.

“The Daily Mail” by Radiohead

So my first thought before even listening to this song for the first time, “OH BOY! Radiohead…this is going to be fun.” Radiohead is awesome. They are one of my favorite alternative rock bands. To be around for over 30 years is very hard to do in this ever-changing music industry full of shady people. Which is also industry rule #4080. (If you don’t know where that came from, I suggest you listen to some A Tribe Called Quest.)

So where was I again? Sorry, my millennial “attention disorder” kicked in again. Oh yeah, Radiohead. So in this blog, I’m going to talk about the song “The Daily Mail”, released as part of an EP by Radiohead in 2011. As usual, it took me a couple of listens to actually immerse myself in this song. The piano intro in the beginning is really calm and has a sort of melancholy feeling to it. But then all of a sudden the piano gets a little darker and the drums start kicking in about 8 bars after. By this time, I’m loving the heck out of this song and it was only the first time listening! The song had this Beatles feeling at the beginning and then went Rolling Stones towards the end. Around the second or third time listening to this song, I tried to understand what Thom Yorke was singing about. For some reason, I had a hard time understanding what exactly Yorke was referring to. The Government? Wall Street? Big Business? Maybe society as a whole? Apparently, ‘the lunatics are taking over the asylum’. Who are these lunatics? My guess that it’s the super elite group of people that are in power in this world. The song is also called “The Daily Mail”, which is also a super conservative British tabloid newspaper. Maybe this was Yorke’s expression of his political views. But who knows? Music is supposed to be open to anyone’s interpretation, right?

Amazing song. If you haven’t heard it already, you need to right now! Stop reading this if you haven’t listened. I’m serious just listen to the song, or any other Radiohead song for the most part.

The National – High Violet

Ahhhh….The National. The band where if you ask a hipster barista at a third wave coffee shop if they have ever heard of it, they’ll laugh in your face and say “You’ve never heard of The National?!?! How can anybody NOT know about The National??”

Yes this actually happened to me at my coffee shop job. Gees, I guess I’m not cool for not having heard of The National. But then again, I’m probably the only New York native who is a barista and doesn’t have a snobby crappy indie rock music taste.

Don’t get me wrong. I like all kinds of music or at least appreciate most of it. (Maybe except that whole EDM robot vomit sound everyone is obsessed with.) But enough about my music taste for now.

So having heard High Violet about three or four times in different situations (and including during writing this review), I will say that the musical content is pretty good. The lyrical content is OK, or maybe perhaps I didn’t understand the lyrics enough. All in all, it’s a pretty good album to say the least. Not my absolute taste but great for solitary walks or on rainy Saturday afternoons.

TERRIBLE LOVE- At first, I’ll admit I didn’t really like this song at all especially as an intro to an album. After a few listens, I started to understand the depth and the emotion the band is trying to express. As a listener, I found the song to be about the anxiety of being in a relationship or perhaps the feeling of entering a new chapter in life such as starting a new family or career. The lyrics, “And I can’t fall asleep without a little help. It takes a while to settle down. My shivered bones. Until the panic sets” indicates the singer’s anxiety and how it takes control of his life. All over the Internet, it seems everyone is obsessed with the line “it takes an ocean not to break”. After a couple of listens, I still can’t figure out exactly what it means but I do know that line made an effect on many listeners. Ultimately, this is a very deep song intended for listeners to listen to the song for its lyrics and not just the melodies and rhythms in the background.

Anyone’s Ghost- If I absolutely had to pick a favorite song in this album, it would be “Anyone’s Ghost”. I liked how this song was more upbeat than the rest of the songs on this album. The lyrics were easy to interpret making it easier to relate to. For me, the song is about a distancing relationship that seems to be losing its connection. It is the type of song you listen to when you get into that big argument with your significant other and don’t speak to each other for a week. That is probably what my concept would be if I were to make a music video of this song. The lyrics aren’t as deep as the other tracks on the album but the message is pretty clear. The music sounds pretty good in this track. Kind of reminds me of Interpol in a way.

Overall, this album isn’t bad at all. Would I have this album on repeat? Probably not until the next time my heart gets torn into a million pieces. What I respect about The National is that they put everything into their music, which makes me appreciate them more. Good music, great deep lyrics. I give this album 4/5. I think any indie rock fan would love this.

Before Sunrise

Right after our first exam, Professor Dunphy has us sit in class for a mandatory screening. Since it is Intro To Mass Media, I was assuming it would be a film pertaining to mass media such as the satirical classic Network or something more recent with the times such as The Social Network. No. The film shown had nothing to do with media besides a few lines about how “media is the new form of fascism”.

The film that was shown is called Before Sunrise; directed by Richard Linklater. The movie was released in 1995. It is a romantic movie starring Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy. Now let me be quite honest, romantic films are never my cup of tea or coffee. They always either end tragically or they ‘live happily ever after’ showing viewers how love and relationship ‘ought’ to be. In the case of Before Sunrise, it’s pretty much a traveller’s romantic European fantasy of meeting the love of your love on the train on the way to a beautiful historical city such as Vienna. This time though, you only have a few hours to spend time together before coming back into the horrible cruel world called reality. Nevertheless, the whole crew behind this film did an amazing job.

The opening scene of the movie takes place on a train bound to Vienna, Austria. We are first introduced to Celine, who is played by Julie Delpy, sitting across this annoying German-speaking couple that is in the middle of an argument. Frustrated, Celine then changes her seat a few rows back to avoid the couple. (Though I can’t see how this would make a difference since the couple is screaming at each other. But hey, this is a movie after all.) Celine ends up sitting across this young American guy named Jessie who apparently has been traveling around Europe for a couple of weeks and is bound to Vienna to catch a flight back home to the States. After Jessie and Celine have a pleasant conversation about their backgrounds and sharing stories of their pasts, Jessie persuades Celine to get off the train and explore Vienna together for one night. The entire film after this is literally following the couple and their deep conversations while going around the beautiful city of Vienna. My first thought after Jessie convincing Celine to get off the train with him was “Yeah that would NEVER work in New York City.” Here in New York City, we tend to think of people, as psychos first then figuring out they are normal. But again, this is Europe.

What struck me about this movie was the amazing dialogue exchanged between the two characters. The writers of this movie did a great job with the script and really showed the audience that words are powerful weapons for our understanding of the world. One particular conversation that was interesting was when Jessie and Celine are on the public trolley car…

*Now don’t worry, this isn’t going to spoil the plot.

So on this trolley, Jessie suggests that they take turns exchanging answers to questions they bring up such as first sexual experience, things you hate, and so on. When asked on what does she hate, Celine gave some cool answers that would have made us good friends. She mentions that she hates that there is a war going on 300 kilometers away and that people aren’t doing anything about it or don’t know what to do about it. I completely agree with Celine’s thoughts since most casualties in war are innocent people having nothing to do directly with the particular conflict. The next thing Celine says that she hates is how “the media tries to control our minds” and that “media is the new form of fascism”. For the most part, I actually agree with Celine. A lot of our opinions and perspectives of the world are shaped by the media. No entity, besides the corporate media, really has the power to convince a whole nation to go to war or to live in fear all the time. If you really think about, the news that is reported tends to lean towards the negative and not the positive. So in a way, Celine is right by saying the media tries to control our minds.

Like I mentioned before, what really made this movie really great was the dialogue. As far as the story goes, it’s your typical romantic movie feel. However, I would still recommend this movie to anybody who’s an avid romantic movie fan. I would probably put this under the “must-see” category. On another note, I would recommend this movie to anybody who wants to get some travel inspiration or ideas on their next trip. You see a lot of great outtakes of Vienna in this film including the old architecture and friendly people. I don’t know if I would watch this again on my own, but I can’t say this wasn’t a good movie.

Thomas Nast and Fox News

I remember first learning about Thomas Nast in my eighth grade U.S. History class. We were shown how his cartoons helped expose government corruption during the ‘Tweed Era’ in New York during the 19th century. My first thoughts upon seeing this man’s cartoons were “man, was boss Tweed really that fat?” Of course, the information didn’t stick so well during a time when puberty starts to take course so I kind of forgot about Nast for a while. Now that I am a bit older and more concerned with our history, I enjoyed reading about Thomas Nast again in Satire’s Brew. Who knew one man and his drawings would defeat an evil political machine like Tammany Hall?
In the chapter titled, Origins: Shadows of Forthcoming Events, we see that the main character compares Nast to Fox News. On page 108, the character states, “Nast’s meteoric rise can mirror that of Fox News” (Dunphy 108). As I’m first reading this, I can’t help but to start disagreeing and express my distrust in a news corporation such as News Corp. However, a few lines later, he mentions that both Nast and Fox News “ dealt with national tragedies 9/11, the Civil War, Lincoln’s assassination, and gained support for their causes” (Dunphy 108). Once the character puts it this way, I agree with the comparison he made. Both Nast and Fox News used the public emotional response to national tragedies in order to shift support for their causes. Nast and Fox News did a very good job at dividing the country and shifting public opinion in order for people to agree with them.
The character used the term “emotional collateral” when describing Nast’s strategy on getting people to be on his side. The character states, “Emotional collateral allows for a cartoonist to affect a nation’s feelings towards a political party or politician” (109). In the case of Fox News, we see this happening all the time. This reminds me of the last assignment where we had to watch three episodes of The Daily Show with John Stewart. In one of the episodes, Stewart plays numerous clips from Fox News criticizing and putting blame on President Obama over the country’s actions handling the ISIS situation. We can see from the news clips that Fox News likes to distort or exaggerate certain information in order to shift the country’s opinion on politics. You can also say that Nast has done the same by depicting William Tweed as this overwhelmingly huge fat guy who gets away with anything he wants. However, the character mentions the difference of how Nast and Fox News used their emotional collateral. On page 122, he states “Thomas Nast utilized his emotional collateral gained during the Civil War and President Lincoln’s assassination in a positive manner to destroy Tammany Hall and Boss Tweed; Fox News, and others, employed their brand of emotional collateral obtained over the span from the 2000 election to 9/11 to divide the country and lead us to war with Iraq”. I completely agree with this comparison because unlike what major media outlets do nowadays, Nast was successful at pointing out the problem in our system and made sure the public would no longer allow for any more corruption to continue.

Works Cited

Dunphy, Brian. “Origins: Shadows of Forthcoming Events.” Satire’s Brew: Mass Media & Coffee Beans. San Diego, CA: Cognella Academic Pub., 2014. N. pag. Print.