Showing posts with label Pop Culture. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pop Culture. Show all posts

Sunday, September 22, 2013

The Work, err, Perks Never End


A long, vomity cover story appeared within Time’s September 16, 2013, issue. It suggested that we take the most spoiled and privileged athletes on any collegiate campus, who almost never have to pay for a dollar of their education, and pay them on top of tuition, books, and room and board, to the tune of about $225,000 a year.

The author (Sean Gregory) writes that an “uncomfortable question has surfaced.” The problem, as he sees it, is that there is this game called football and it’s very, very popular. So popular, in fact, that people pay to watch it, even when it’s only a couple of college teams playing. So popular, that the crowds are large enough to support businesses that rely on the crowd’s support and addiction to this game. The university prizes the football players and they are rewarded for it in the form of full-ride scholarships, which, in turn, give them a great college education for free. For free, that’s worth writing one more time. The average college student graduates with $26,600 in financial debt. The problem here is not the debt of the vast majority of college students, but that college teams aren’t paying their football players a salary of $225,000 a year.

The notion throughout the article is that these football and basketball players are 21st century slaves and since they perform for a mass audience they should be rewarded. High school football players in Texas perform for mass audiences, some much bigger than collegiate football crowds. Should we pay them too? Gregory never answers that question, but of course we shouldn’t pay them. They are volunteering to play sports. And, in college, they are volunteering again, although this time they get the perk of having a free education worth more than $100,000 these days.

Gregory quotes several professors in his article. One of them being Roger Noll, “a noted sports economist from Stanford University.” Noll is quoted as saying, “The rising dollar value of the exploitation of athletes…is obscene, is out of control.” Even if I believed this was an accurate statement, I wouldn’t think paying the student in addition to their scholarship would be the solution. How about dialing back the football madness? As the popularity of the NFL has grown, the importance of collegiate football has also risen, putting a bigger and brighter spotlight on major collegiate teams and their star players. If we are looking to exploit them further, then, by all means, pay them a salary. Let the endorsement battles begin. I am sure this will only emphasize the importance of the college education they are already getting for free.

What especially kills me about all of this talk is that the players complaining to Time that their likeness is being used by the NCAA to sell jerseys, video games, etc. are often the players who are going to sign professional contracts after graduating. Meaning, they’ll soon be making millions in a year or over the span of their career. These are not needy people; they are some of the most-spoiled people on collegiate campuses who devalue their education to the extent that they feel they have seen zero dollars in compensation.

One of the biggest, erroneous claims in this article is that these players spend forty hours a week on their sports. This just is not true. In fact, it is illegal for players to formally spend this much time on their sports. Countable hours cannot exceed 20 a week. True, athletes are free to go home and study football plays and video, if that is all they want to do. One player complained in the article that he was spending more time on sports than academics. Well, that’s really his choice, but has anyone done some on-campus research or some Googling? If they had, they would realize that the vast majority of college students playing NCAA D-I football would prefer to spend more time on sports than on academics. Paying them will make this equation even more lopsided.

Look, these players aren’t victims, like this article suggests. They are cogs in a very profitable machine and they are being paid as such. Full-ride scholarship? Check. Books? Oh those are free. Your portion of the rent check? Don’t worry, the living stipend is in the mail. Line at the bar long? Let me usher you to the front. Drinks are sort of pricey tonight? This round’s on the house. Get a good sack in today’s game? Oh, here’s $300. (Read Sports Illustrated’s article about playing football at Oklahoma State University.) You have an 8am class? Coach will be up to usher you there in the morning. You have to go to study tables (where student-athletes are required to study on the clock, that is, if they are dumb and can’t sustain above a 3.0) but you really want to stay at the apartment and play Grand Theft Auto V. Don’t worry, when you walk in and sign in I’ll look away so I don’t see you walk out and then later I’ll sign you out so you get the hours. (This happens everywhere.) Shoes are looking worn? Come on in, I’ll hook you up with a new pair.

Here’s a favorite passage from the article:
And don’t imagine for a moment that universities harvest their athletes’ celebrity for only four years. After a truly memorable championship season, veterans are brought back to campus on a regular basis for reunions and tributes, sometimes for decades. The work never ends.
The work never ends? What the hell? I didn’t know voluntarily coming back to campus, having travel costs covered, wining and dining with the AD and the president of the university, and getting a standing ovation at halftime was work. Shit. Sign me up. 

Thursday, September 19, 2013

A Feature, Not a Bug


I am an avid watcher of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. While I truly enjoyed John Oliver’s stint as the host of TDS this summer, I am thankful to have Jon Stewart back as host. He can, at times, deliver the most powerful critiques of our media, especially of the 24-hour cable news networks, and the critique he delivered on his Tuesday, September 17th show, was one of the best I have seen. Below is a money quote and the aforementioned portion of the show.

“So my final, not initial, conclusion is: This is deliberate. The chaos, the vomit onto the screen, the very thing we thought news organizations were created to clarify, is a feature, not a bug.”

Friday, August 16, 2013

Mastermind? What a joke.

I used to spend my college summers listening to 93.3 and painting houses with a guy I called Dirty Dean. Now I never paint houses and I rarely listen to 93.3, but I tuned in during a short drive today and I heard a song by Lazyboy called Underwear Goes Inside the Pants. I had never heard it, but I identified with a lot of the spoken lyrics in the song even though I don't smoke marijuana, I am not obese, and I don't go to strip clubs. The spoken lyrics are apparently from a comedian, Greg Giraldo, who is piercingly honest in his critique of American culture. I especially enjoyed his witty remarks on marijuana, the absurd labeling of a terrorist as a "mastermind", and the obesity epidemic as a foolishly named consequence of the spoiled American lifestyle. I found the video on YouTube. It's NSFW (that's not-safe-for-work for the uninitiated). 

Full song and video below...

Thursday, July 11, 2013

Review - A Good Day to Die Hard

I think A Good Day to Die Hard accomplished what The Expendables 2 (and 1, and the forthcoming 3) sought to do, but failed miserably. Light on the plot. Immediate, heavy action. And some character development to actually get the viewer to care about the fate of the actors on screen. 

It's a testament to Bruce Willis' badassness that he single handedly made a better action flick than Sly, Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Chuch Norris, JCVD, Bruce Willis, Arnold, Crews, Couture, and Hemsworth did combined. 

The latest Die Hard installment is certainly not flawless. Willis' lines are repetitive and cheesy. He says, "I'm on vacation" several times throughout the movie as he is in a car chase through Moscow, mowing people down with a SAW, or driving a large SUV out of a helicopter, but it does seem to work as long as your tolerance for the impossible is amped up, as it should be heading into any action flick.

Friday, March 08, 2013

No. Freaking. Way.

Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill, and Carrie Fisher have key roles in Star Wars - Episode VII. Where do I buy advance tickets?

Friday, January 25, 2013

Parenthood

Kate and I have been watching NBC's Parenthood pretty much from the start (it just finished its fourth season) and it is easily one of the best written shows on basic cable. 

Turn on the TV at any moment of the day and it is particularly hard to find a decent man or woman on television. Typically, they are cheating, lying bastards who can't remain faithful to their family and, if they do, they are secretly brewing meth and killing lots of people on the side...see Breaking Bad. No doubt, those shows are entertaining to an extent, but Parenthood deals with a side of life that only the most patient and talented writer can tease out, reality. 

The writers of Parenthood haven't forgotten that we all have our weaknesses and flaws but they have wisely avoided the temptation to magnify those flaws by giving every character an egregious downfall. Too many writers fall victim to this temptation and they do so because they think, ironically so, that they are being creative. But let's face it, most people don't decide to cook meth when they face a financial emergency. Most people get two jobs or make a crazy, but legal, decision to invest in a recording studio with their younger brother, to take an example from a real Parenthood episode. This thinking is at the heart of Parenthood and it is what has produced, at least for me, a reserve of genuine characters and conflicts that give me feelings of hope, despair, joy, anger, laughter, and, most importantly, what I see as a pretty accurate cross-section of life for a mixed middle-class, upper middle-class family experiencing the growing pains of life. 

Wednesday, December 05, 2012

Making Fun of Instagrammers

CollegeHumor made a music video making fun of Instagrammers and their pretty horrible pictures. Disclaimer, I use Instagram and I've definitely shared a shot of a sunset or two, but for the most part, I think CollegeHumor gets it right with this video. Most of Instagram shots are crap or depressingly narcissistic. Follow the link below and watch the video.

Making fun of Instagrammers.

Tuesday, December 04, 2012

The Royal Crush

I was watching the NBC Nightly News last night and the time NBC devoted to each of its stories in the first thirteen minutes of the broadcast caught my attention. First of all, all the news that is worth reporting is typically included in the first 10-12 minutes of a nightly news broadcast. The latter half of the broadcast is typically saved for feel-good stories, the weekend box-office report, minor weather-related disasters, etc. The shows are naturally front-loaded and one can typically tune out after the first or second commercial break. 

After watching six minutes of last night's broadcast, NBC had covered the impending flu season, Syria, and the approaching fiscal cliff. The fourth story of the night was about William and Kate expecting a baby. NBC devoted 4 minutes to this story. They even had an expert on to talk about the symptoms Kate would be dealing with in this case of acute morning sickness (inability to keep down any food/fluids, throwing up, etc.)

Let's just break down last night's newscast:

Story 1: The flu season is going to be bad. This story airs every year. Spare us next year, will you? - 2 minutes

Story 2: There are human rights atrocities constantly taking place in Syria right now. To be honest, it's genocide. Bashar Assad continues to oversee the destruction of huge swaths of the country and people he is responsible for. Thousands of children have died. There is no distinction made between combatant and non-combatant. When Assad's forces are on the hunt all are in the crosshairs - 1 minute

Story 3: Politicians on both sides of the aisle continue to be stubborn and selfish as the fiscal cliff nears. But let's just say it, the Republicans need to do a little pride-swallowing. The majority of the country clearly favors increasing tax revenue by raising tax rates on the top 2% income earners. In this sense, Obama's reelection did give him a mandate to do just that, raise the rate on the super-rich. The negotiations, or lack thereof, continue with little or no progress. - 3 minutes

Story 4: Duchess Kate is pregnant. She went to hospital, where she remains to this day. She has acute morning sickness, the same exact acute morning sickness thousands of women get every day, just in this country. So, what's the story here? - 4 MINUTES

Story 5: Dangerous carbon monoxide levels at a school threatens hundreds of children and staff. - 1 minute

Story 6: More proof that America's favorite sport is increasingly more dangerous and harmful to the body, particularly the brain, of football players, leading to very early diagnoses of degenerative brain diseases. - 3 minutes

Boiled down even more:

Flu season - 2 minutes

Genocide - 1 minute

We are all screwed if this fiscal cliff thing isn't resolved - 3 minutes

Girl who was born and married rich dude who was also born gets a bad case of morning sickness - 4 minutes

Potentially lethal carbon monoxide levels at school. - 1 minute

Nation's pastime making football players die early. - 3 minutes

Bad case of morning sickness trumps flu season, genocide, fiscal cliff, carbon monoxide levels, and pretty conclusive research on degenerative brain diseases. Excuse me, I'm going to go throw up.


Thursday, October 04, 2012

MSNBC, The Lumineers, and Mr. Potato...head?

Here are a few DU Debate Fest pictures from yesterday.


I'm not enforcing stereotypes here, but she was wearing an NRA hat.


Next door to the Romney table.


Mr. Potato Head....wait a minute.


Readying for Obama's arrival.


Secret Service and security taking some pictures before the Debate Fest gates open.


Martin Bashir broadcasting from DU, right in front of the Mary Reed Building.


Chris Matthews


More talking to cameras. I can't be the only one that always thinks of Bashir's interview with Michael Jackson when I see him. It's a classic. Here's the interview.


Let's play hardball!





The Lumineers put on an excellent show. 


A bass drum like the sun.


Mark Koebrich of 9News recording a segment during the Lumineers' concert.


America!

Friday, August 03, 2012

The Power of Propaganda


I was recently visiting with a friend who is smart, wise, successful, and much older than me. We were just starting our day together and as a topic of discussion I shared my class lineup at the University of Denver this fall (I’m an MA candidate at the Josef Korbel School). One of the classes I am taking there this fall is called modern Islamic political thought.

Thinking my friend was about to further the discussion of Islamic political thought I listened intently to the words that came out of my friend’s mouth. “Egypt’s looking for a new Islamic leader. I say let’s give him ours.”

I might have looked like a deer caught in the headlights for a second while I took these words in, realizing my friend truly wasn’t joking. And then I held a private funeral in my head for the intelligent conversation that was clearly not going to happen.

I played dumb. “I don’t get it,” I said. “What do you mean?”

“Well, that’s a political thought,” my friend said.

I was thinking that to call it a political thought is to give it more merit than it’s due. “What’s a political thought?” I asked.

“That we should give Egypt our Muslim leader,” my friend responded.

“Obama is not a Muslim.” I tried to say this as calmly as possible.

“Oh, he’s not?” My friend responded.

“No, he’s not. And for you to call that idea a political thought isn’t right. It’s absolutely garbage.”

My friend looked taken aback. My stare was intense and I could feel my pulse rise as I waited for a response, but there was none. That was the end of our political discussion for the day. But for the rest of the afternoon I thought about our conversation and I was embarrassed over and over again for my friend. That my friend could believe such a lie, such propaganda, was sickening.

It was my first personal experience with someone who has truly been fed a political lie enough times that in their head the lie has found a permanent home as a supposed truth. This particular lie is often presented as a legitimate concern by right-wing media outlets. On Fox News someone might joke about it, but no one is reprimanded for it, no one speaks up and says, “We are better than that.”

Yesterday’s conversation exhibited the power of this propaganda machine. The lie starts with one person and is then adopted by a cabal, whose only interest is their own, whether it be the political downfall of a certain politician or a desire to stay rich, powerful, and barely taxed, or a combination of these. These people are powerful enough to own TV stations, radio networks, whole news organizations, and they use these assets as hugely powerful tools to present myths and rumors as fact while simultaneously hiding the truth from our eyes. (See Roger Ailes and Donald Trump.) Gradually, the lie spreads across the audience, who might have even dismissed it as ridiculous the first time they heard it or read it (I hope my friend did at least that). But the saturation and the never-ceasing tide of money coming from the wealthiest Americans has proved itself strong enough to hold hostage the intellectual and independent-thinking abilities of many Americans. (See the continuing belief by some that Obama isn’t American or that Obama is a Muslim.)

One of the more popular lies among the Right (although, to clarify, it’s not a lie for them) is to compare the Obama administration to that of the Third Reich. Yes, the same propaganda machine that convinced my friend that Obama is a Muslim, would also have you believe Obama harbors a secret agenda of spreading national socialism across America.

Nothing about Obama’s policies has ever evoked, for me, a whisper of Nazi Germany. In fact, it was the conversation with my friend that had me contemplating many a table conversation in 1930s Germany, when it might have been shared by a friend or family member that they had joined the Nazi party to the absolute dismay of anyone at the table who had a brain. I am not calling anyone a Nazi here. If you want to see that, watch a week of Fox News and you’ll see someone hint, at least once, that an Obama policy is strikingly familiar to one of Hitler’s policies. No, I am referencing the power of propaganda. The Nazis certainly mastered it and both the Right and the Left have adopted some of their strategies. But now, at this point in America’s history, I think it’s clear that the Right’s propaganda machine is churning out a lot of lies and doing whatever it takes to shift the mantle of power back to their side by spreading fear and angst that we have a president who is not American, but also a president who is a secretive Muslim who is colluding with Islamic nations across the world in order to favor that religion’s interests.

I am in awe of the propaganda machine and its ability to convince smart people that they most adopt such vacuous ideas. Next time, don’t consume the lies. Instead, try to do the thinking yourself. 

Monday, July 09, 2012

Friday, June 22, 2012

Streep v. Davis

After watching The Help I felt like Viola Davis was snubbed at the Oscars when Meryl Streep won for her portrayal of Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady. For me, Davis was captivating and won me over immediately with the strength of her performance as a Mississippi maid (Aibileen) in the 1960s. Davis perfectly evoked the stoicism necessary of generations of black women and men to have in order to get through those especially horrible times for our country. You rooted for her all the way and, in the end, when Aibileen's huge risk paid off, it was easy to celebrate. Going into it, I was worried The Help was going to be a sappy chick flick, but it was not. It was honest, funny, and Davis, among others, was captivating and awe-inspiring. She deserved the Oscar. There wasn't a better performance. There couldn't have been. 


Well, that was before I watched The Iron Lady a few nights ago. From the first scene Streep appeared in, portraying an old, frail Thatcher suffering from dementia, it was clear I was going to see something very special. The ease with which Streep portrayed Thatcher, from the voice to her mannerisms, belied the staggering amount of work that Streep must have taken on to trick the viewer into thinking they were watching a real-life documentary on the Iron Lady. I didn't even find it necessary to compare Streep's Thatcher to the real thing. Streep just was Thatcher in all those huge moments of her life, when she declared to Denis Thatcher, her husband (played by Jim Broadbent), that she would be running for leader of the party, or when she led during the Falklands War, or when she took her last stroll out the front door of 10 Downing Street. In The Help, there was a strong supporting cast and the story itself had a much more complete arc to it than The Iron Lady, which was carried aloft by Streep. I am not sure that The Iron Lady would have been a movie if they hadn't signed Streep, but I do know that it wouldn't have been the same movie without her. Streep, remarkably and without a doubt, deserved the Oscar this year. 

Friday, May 25, 2012

TPM - David Carr Interview

David Carr, journalist at the New York Times, was interviewed by TPM this week. I think Carr's take on journalism is a refreshing voice in the cacophony of talking heads on TV and the bad habit of news organizations to merely link to and summarize articles written by some other news organization. I'm looking at you, HuffPo. 


Good interview. Worth the read. Click it.

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Bond, James Bond

You can tell it is the last two weeks of the quarter and I have three papers looming over me. My words are going elsewhere and I have quite a string of video posts going. Here is another one, the teaser trailer for the new James Bond movie, Skyfall.


Friday, March 30, 2012

Monday, July 25, 2011

Wednesday, May 18, 2011