Media Appetite

The ABC's of ideas and themes in 2008

2008-12-22T15:12:00.001-08:00

The following list covers my ABC's of the notable ideas, themes and happenings of 2008:

A: Apatow Effect: After the success Judd Apatow has enjoyed with raunchy R-rated comedies, movies like "Role Models" and "Zack and Miri Make a Porno" were released this year and it was assumed that they came from him. They did not. They weren't horrible, but I would have been concerned if I were him, for associations clearly could have been made. A big thing that he also paved way for is Red-band trailers, which can be seen online and could persuade many more people to go to theaters.

B: Batman: "The Dark Knight" smashed box office records left and right and its viral marketing campaign was pretty awesome. The late Heath Ledger may win an Oscar for his role as The Joker. It was hands-down the biggest film of the year, but I'm more excited about how upcoming films may be marketed because of it.

C: Change: The word of the year. The word that President-elect Barack Obama chose to brand himself around. The word resonated with so many people during this year's hardships.

D: Digg: The site allows users to share content and news links and it basically shows how people get news now, in a nutshell. It's never been more evident how newspapers are really yesterday's news. The ability to vote on what's newsworthy and all the comments that users can leave make it a much more interactive way of getting news. It also landed Microsoft as an advertiser, as it seemed desperate for fresh marketing opportunities this year.

E: EA Sports: The Tiger Woods viral spot was my favorite marketing of the year. It showed how listening to what consumers are saying about your brand is important, how to do it, and how to effectively respond to what they are saying. Great job by EA Sports.

F: Fey, Tina: Her portrayal of Sarah Palin on SNL was the viral sensation of the year. Viewers turned the channel right after her skits were through, but the buzz around the clips was huge. Sorry, Facebook, you were clearly worthy.

G: Goodbye, "The Wire:" I thought after "The Sopranos" that I would never love again, but when "The Wire" left me one year later I almost cancelled HBO because I was afraid to get hurt again. I was very emotionally vulnerable. "John of Cincinnati" almost wooed me but then came back to my senses. The last season of "The Wire" showed a glimpse in to the struggling newspaper business and provided those hard-to-swallow moments and commentary of how depleted the streets of Baltimore are.

H: HARO: Help a Reporter Out: The site was big in 2008. It's for reporters who are searching for story material or for sources. The site's founder, Peter Shankman, created a database of thousands of PR professionals who can find source material and contact other reporters. It should continue to get bigger for journalists and marketers in 2009.

I: iPhone: Maybe the most obvious choice here. With the 3G released this year, everyone else is merely scrambling and trying to keep up. What can't you do with this device? It's the trendsetter for the change that is occurring in the way people get news, listen to music, watch TV and movies, receive marketing and communicate.

J: Josh Childress: The former Atlanta Hawks player could become a trendsetter himself because of his unprecedented leap abroad. The lucrative tax-free contract, villa, car and chef provided by his team was too much to pass up. If NBA Commish David Stern says he isn't concerned, just ask him again next summer after a star follows in Childress' footsteps.

K: Kanye West: His "808's & Heartbreaks" might have been the boldest music idea of the year. All auto-tune singing? It was a risk, but as usual, the ever-confident artist decided that he was going to do it how he saw it and it would be greater than anything else ever released. Great it was not, but I was fascinated by the idea and change more so than the music itself. He says he wants to "be Elvis."

L: Lil' Wayne: The self-proclaimed "martian" had the most successful year in music. He sold a million units in one week, which today is like seeing an increase in your 401K, it just isn't happening. He appeared at the County Music Awards, bravely embraced this rock-star image and rolled with it. Like Kanye, his 2008 album, in this case "Da Carter III," was not close to the best material he's released, but it just might have been the most stunning.

M: "Mad Men:" The show might have been the last motivational factor I needed to join Twitter, as many of the show's characters started using Twitter. So, I thank them for that. The show had a stellar second season, and as a young marketer, the constant of thought-provoking ideas from Draper was much appreciated.

N: Networking: This was probably my most important idea of 2008. Everyone is networking in new ways, with sites like Linked In available. You have to remain confident that even the smallest of relationships that you make can lead to something more meaningful and fruitful, an important lesson I learned this year.

O: Olympics: Beijing proved to be a worthy host, as the 2008 games drew 20% more viewers than Athens in 2004. Micheal Phelps, Dara Torres and Usain Bolt, among many more, provided great excitement and proved that the TV can still rule, despite the millions of viewers that tuned in online. There was nothing else like watching Phelps going for gold every night and seeing his primal scream in 2008.

P: Pandora: In my opinion, the best music site out there. The site allows you to create radio stations based on songs that sound like your favorite artists or songs and it's pretty amazing how on-point they are. Among the sites that are completely changing the way people listen to music.

Q: "Quantum of Solace:" The new Bond film was as anticipated for the film itself as the "Star Trek" preview that was premiering prior to the film. Daniel Craig looked pretty svelte and the film took in $70M its first week. Bond still lives.

R: Recession: The most dreaded word of the year. Unemployment, bailouts, gas prices.. Let's move on and know that the letter 'R' will stand for 'Redemption' in 2009.

S: "Synedoche, New York:" The Kanye West of films in 2008. Also, the most ambitious film for the year. Most ambitious is very different from best, but I sometimes am more intrigued by ambition and great ideas than actual results because I wonder why the great idea couldn't pan out. Charlie Kaufman had me thinking for days after this one and it was maddening.

T: Twitter: duh. nuf' said.

U: UFC: Founder Dana White claims that "boxing is dead." His comments outraged a lot of fans, but his company, UFC, has been flourishing. The barbaric Kimbo Slice and Brock Lesnar made it a huge year for the 'Octagon' as ticket prices and PPV sales were steadily growing. I remain a Boxing fan and feel UFC will fade out soon, but White may continue to prove me wrong.

V: Vampires: "True Blood" and "Twilight" made me wonder what on earth was going on. Did fans of "Lost Boys" become producers and finally reach the point in their careers where they grew up and got nostalgic? Either way, the HBO show was critically acclaimed and the movie amazingly appealed to an enormous young audience and has made a boat-load of money off a small budget. Marketers, take notice.

W: Wordle: The very fun site that allows you to produce "word clouds" from the text on your blog or Web site. It's artistic and shows the prominent words that appear on your site, which potential readers can look at to see if it's worthwhile to take a peek. Take a look at this blog's "word cloud".

X: "X-Files: I Want to Believe:" Maybe the idiotic idea of the year. Not the film, but the release date. Who the hell was going to see this one week after "The Dark Knight" was released? The flick subsequently bombed at the box office and the marketing team at the studio is to blame, but on the other hand, "Californication" was a pleasant surprise this year.

Y: You Tube: This site was huge last year, I know, but in 2008 it became larger, more social and it introduced the suggestions function, similar to Pandora, Netflix or iTunes' Genius. It is surprising what videos are recommended to you at times, give it a try with your account. This was the year that the Baby Boomer generation really grasped You Tube and started to understand social media. The iPhone application certainly didn't hurt.

Z: Zune: The digital music player was the one gadget that many people were surprised that President-elect Barack Obama was found to use. He's a Mac guy, and uses a Blackberry, but a Zune? That's right. You would have assumed he was an iPod guy, right? RECOUNT! Z is a tough letter, you know.

Cheers to a prosperous 2009 for everyone!

The Point of No Return: Becoming a Made Man on Twitter

2008-12-13T08:41:00.000-08:00

If I should be logged off before I wake, please Re-Tweet this post to all,

"Once you enter this family (Twitter), there's no getting out..." - Tony Soprano (Guy Kawasaki, Chris Brogan?)

I apologize ahead of time for the inevitable "Sopranos" metaphors that are on the way, but two months ago I was like Christopher Moltisanti when he was dabbling in screenwriting, while still participating in typical mafioso stuff. Now, I'm like Chris when he was getting "made" and he saw that crow outside of the basement window. I've officially become a "Made Man" on Twitter.

No one pricked my finger for blood, or burned ashes over my keyboard or anything, but I've reached the point where I know that there's no looking back, whereas two months ago I was still a petty soldier, logging in just once a week. I've been lured in by the mass amounts of money and pride that comes with being a "Made Man." Or, the mass amounts of knowledge and links and the pride you feel when you know about stuff before CNN does. I see the road that is ahead of me. If I make sure my envelopes are full every week and I don't step on any one's toes, I could become a Capo (Twitter Elite) one day.

Two months ago I didn't really grasp the Twitter lifestyle, as I logged in but didn't really know what to do, but as I started following more and more users, I gravitated towards it more each day. I began seeing all the fancy cars, pinstripe suits, gumars, great links, job leads, blogging tips, breaking news alerts, etc. It became evident that I would never be content living the life of just another Jo-Schmo who doesn't even know what bluetooth is. Now, as a "Made Man" I'm making connections, branding myself, learning a lot about the direction marketing is heading, all while walking with a pep in my step.

But, let me warn you. Living the life of a "Made Man" is not all fun and games, it comes with its fair share of costs, as well. I always have to be looking over my shoulder and have to be strapped at all times, a life of constant paranoia. For if I miss two days on Twitter or don't kick up to the skipper on time, I'm in for it. I can never seem like yesterday's news, as I have to constantly provide insightful tweets and make sure those envelopes aren't getting light. You can end up in the can more easily than you can imagine. I also have to watch what I say and who I say it to. If I drink too much vino one night and get out of line with a "made" guy in another crew, I've got to be prepared to face the consequences. I can't re-tweet my own blog links too frequently or criticize the wrong blog, for I could end up at the bottom of the E. River with Luca Brazzi, Sal "Big Pus" Bonpensiero and all the other ex-users of Pownce. And don't even get me started with the sleepless nights wondering what's happening on those mean streets of Twitter. I sleep with my pistol (laptop) on my bed stand every night, grabbing for it countless times upon hearing every little creak from my door.

Who knows where this life will lead me. I could end up with a great job because of it, end up running my own crew, but if I'm not careful, all this could be for nothing. I could have become that screenwriter I envisioned myself as years ago, but I know living this life is a risk worth taking, at least I hope it is. Now we all know how Chris got whacked, we'll just have to hope I make some wiser moves along my route..

Such is the life of a "Made Man" on Twitter.

-George Fiddler
aka Media Appetite
aka Pop Cult PR George
aka Georgie Two Times

Shoe-in Sports Marketing: Nike and Adidas

2008-12-05T12:08:00.000-08:00

On a day of great college football and possibly the biggest and richest fight of all time, I want to discuss some sports marketing. There have been a couple of advertisements in circulation that have gotten a lot of people raving. For good reason? That's to be debated, but the spots being discussed are the Lebron James/chalk ad from Nike and the "Celebrate Originality" ad from Adidas.

The Nike ad is based on a pre-game ritual that James goes through every game, clapping chalk above his head at the scorer's table. The chalk is used to make it easier for players to get a good grip on the basketball. I remember Kevin Garnett doing this at the Target Center when Lebron couldn't grow facial hair yet, but Nike chose to use Lebron's "chalk-clap" as a way to show how iconic he has become and to connect with the playground and hip-hop communities. Frankly, it was a great angle. A cameo by Lil' Wayne certainly doesn't hurt. Lebron has long talked about how he intends on becoming a global icon, and the commercial shows how something so small about him still has the effect of resonating with many "witnesses," if you will. Nike could have done a spot based on his headband, one of his tattoos, his goatee, etc. Focusing on the minuscule things in his life that still are witnessed by large audiences was a good direction for the ad and the "chalk clap" was a perfect choice. Only huge figures like Lebron can be subjects of ads adhering to such seemingly unimportant things. I don't think we would care so much to see how Lebron's teammate, Anderson Varejao, picks his hairdo, for instance.

I did notice something peculiar, however. It is no secret that Lil' Wayne raps about the drug culture, in fact he has released a mixtape album titled "I Can't Feel my Face", a reference to the film Blow. Chalk resembles certain drugs. Blogger Ian Schafer made the same observation in a recent blog post. He wrote how Nike could be intending on showing that it understands the rise from having nothing to super stardom that Lil' Wayne has experienced. I just don't think Nike wants to be seen as supportive of a drug culture even in the very unlikeliest of ways, which this ad could arguably be on the borderline of doing. Schafer also pointed out the music used in the ad, a rap song titled "Candyman," also a reference to drugs. I loved the "chalk clap" angle, as well as Nike's attempt to show that it understands and connects with the playground and hip-hop culture, but I think Lil' Wayne's cameo makes the ad a little problematic. That's my take from a marketing analyst, but from a music, Nike and sports fan, I loved it on every level.

Cool new ads are always fun to see but social media is clearly more effective in interacting with consumers and Nike has succeeded in that regard as well. Nike allows fans and consumers to chat with one another and even Lebron himself on Nike Talk, which I think was a smarter move than even the ad itself. Nike has also created Nike 6.0, where the brand connects consumers in social online communities based on the consumer's sport and it is also very cool and interactive. Here's the link to its soccer community, its running community and its extreme sports community. It will be exciting to see how much Nike relies on integrating big ads with its social media endeavors as marketing heads in that direction.

As for the other ad, you can ultimately break it down to this angle: Who wouldn't want to be at this party: Patrons include Russell Simmons, DMC, David Beckham, Kevin Garnett, Young Jeezy, Katy Perry, Estelle, the Ting Tings, Missy Elliott, Method Man and Redman, among others. I am jealous every time I see the ad. Again, from the music and sports fan, I love this ad on every level. It's also amazing from a production standpoint. From the marketing analyst perspective, the "Celebrate Originality" message is clearer to get than what Nike was trying to do and Adidas also succeeded. You take a look at all the big-name guests at the party and they all can be seen as innovators and unique, "original" artists in their respective field, in one way or another. That's what I love about the ad. I know Tim Duncan is an Adidas guy, but I just don't think his personality is one that would mesh with that party scene. Kevin Garnett? His enthusiasm makes him the life of the party.

Now, after tooting the ad's horn pretty loud, I don't want to seem like the party-pooper, but I have to bring this up. I couldn't help but, again, sense a subliminal drug message. The blog, AdRants also asked if the fun at the party may have been "drug-induced?" The eclectic, psychedelic aesthetics of the ad could make a viewer wonder if the lens was influenced by say, Hunter S. Thompson? This type of approach may just have been smart, for there is not one mention or shot of any alcohol or drug-related prop in the ad. Also, the party, like I said, is one that everyone wants to be invited to. Are there parties that are thrown that appear to be similar to the one in the ad? Do people possibly use intoxicating or hallucinogenic substances at these parties? Perhaps, but have you ever seen a party like this one before? I just think Adidas needs to be very careful in its ensuing ads in the campaign that it in no way suggests that the viewer "celebrate originality" by using anything resembling a drug. The next ad could very well erase this possible interpretation.

Adidas targeted social media sites You Tube and Facebook with this campaign originally and months later the campaign is a smash on both sites. The online forum for the campaign is also quite interactive. I am very impressed with the efforts that both Nike and Adidas have gone to in implementing social media in their respective campaigns and I am thirsty for more from both. Stay tuned..

Milking the Oscar Race

2008-11-29T10:58:00.000-08:00

Before I saw "Milk" last night, I was wondering what film would win Best Picture if it had to be announced right now. I thought and thought some more and I came up with "Wall-E," "The Dark Knight" and possibly "The Changeling." Those are the front-runners? It would certainly make for a strange ceremony. Well, the academy has got to be relieved with "Milk," because having a big blockbuster like "The Dark Knight" up for a lot of big awards is not something it typically does and I don't think it wants to start a new trend. We could see a Seth Rogen Best Actor nomination if the Batman movie can get all this Oscar attention. The academy doesn't want the prestigious awards show to turn into the Nickelodeon awards. Anyways, in "Milk" Sean Penn put on, arguably, the performance of his career. OK, second best performance, I forgot about Jeff Spicolli. We do have a few more films that are likely to get attention in "Revolutionary Road" and "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," but besides that it does look awfully thin.

When I was watching "Milk" last night and witnessed everyone cheering on Sean Penn, Emile Hirsch, James Franco and the 1970's Gay-Rights movement on the screen, I had a thought. Previously in the day I was on Twitter, tweeting about how I was excited to see the film and I was amazed at all the interactive debates going on about a plethora of topics. I was thinking that with social media and interactive marketing being as big and influential as it is right now, why doesn't a studio produce a fan-created film? It could reach out to many popular actors, directors and screenwriters to see if they would agree to be on the ballot and have the fans vote for who they want online as a part of a large social media community. They could pick an "it" actor like Hirsch, a veteran director like Van Sant and a hot theme like civil rights and political hope to create a film like "Milk." Imagine the site, with 10 options for leading actor, 10 options for director, 10 options for screenwriter, plot, location, supporting actors, etc. How would this film not be the biggest box office smash and interactive phenomena Hollywood has ever seen? The downside is that it could be likely that the younger generation who is familiar with social media would participate more than a crowd that might create a film like "Milk," and we could end up with another "High School Musical." To prepare for that happening, multiple different genres or age groups could be directed towards specific sites so a drama with Gus Van Sant wouldn't be infiltrated with Zac Efron. Also, this would show the older generation that is resisting social media just how effective the online interactive forum can be.

Social Media and My Life

2008-11-23T16:03:00.000-08:00

Friends... The picture you see above is my head.

I intentionally addressed you all as "friends" because, after this week, I feel just about as exhausted as Sen. John McCain has to feel and we all know how fond he is of the "friends.." greeting. Maybe his head feels like it's going to explode due to all the podcasts, blogs, tweets, vlogs and Google search results that he has been exposed to, I don't know, but I know that I sure feel that way. A substantial reason why the Senator lost so handily was due to his inability to implement a solid social media plan in his campaign. This is totally old news, but you can read about Obama's digital victory and McCain's failures here or a zillion other places, but the point is that I feel like I messed up with my first attempt at using social media to promote myself and want a mulligan. That, I know, is a wish that the Senator and I could chat about over an early bird special.

So, is every one and their mothers telling you that social media is NOW and that you need to drop everything that you're doing like it's hot and hop on the social media bandwagon? Social media aficionado Chris Brogan wrote an excellent blog post that you should read regardless if you just realized Facebook is not actually a physical book, if you tweet occasionally or if you yourself are a social media honcho. Nice plug, Chris? It's not like he needs it, but it is a good post. I joined Facebook originally to socialize w/ college friends in regards to topics like binge drinking and rap music. I've watched anything and everything on You Tube. I later started this blog to vent, mostly, but also to brand myself. I later joined Linked-In to connect with potential employers and to feel a wee bit pretentious. I joined Twitter a couple of months ago, but did nothing with it, until this week.

All of sudden, "BOOM!" The Ari Gold coined term does justice, both to the enlightenment that using Twitter can do for one, and in regards to how my head feels after following tweets to about 3,000 blog posts this week on how to effectively use social media. I'm curious about everything and don't see a tweet that I don't want to be a part of. Such is the impact that social media can have. Twitter is really an unbelievable resource, and the marketing tool of searching twitter is an even better way to know what's being said about topics. My social media awakening has lit a fire underneath me and inspired me to practice the tool more avidly. I don't know much right now due to knowing too much (?!?), but I do know that social media is inevitably going to a big part of my life, whether I like it or not.

Marketing Through the Recession and in the Cyber Universe: Sports Edition

2008-11-15T15:28:00.000-08:00

So I recently thought about buying some tickets to a Timberwolves game to check out the new look squad in person. I then subsequently took an unfortunate stroll down memory lane to last year and realized that if I went to another game, I would inevitably leave it feeling the same way I did after attending a game last season. That feeling can be described no more perfectly than exactly like it is to leave the casino, downtrodden after taking a horrible beat in poker. I went to the Target Center last year for a game and in hindsight, it was easily the worst way that I could have spent $50. Horrible product on the floor, a half-full arena full of people wondering why they bothered to come and absolutely no other compelling aspect that could be justified as a reason to attend a bad game to witness. I was wondering just as much about why Kevin McHale traded Brandon Roy for Randy Foye as I was about how the team's marketing department have jobs. After this reminiscing, I couldn't find a reason to go this year, but I have been very curious about what the team's marketing crew came up with to draw fans to games this year, especially given that fans have less disposable income, arguably, since the team joined the NBA 20 years ago.

Now forward to this week when I read a story about a promotion that another awful team, the New Jersey Nets, is currently offering to fans. The best the T'wolves could come up with was designing new jerseys and a new court, but the Nets drew national attention for the idea of giving away free tickets to unemployed fans. The franchise gives fans an opportunity to send them resumes to be passed along to the team's sponsors and in exchange, the fans are awarded free tickets. It's a great marketing idea because the team's staff knows they aren't going to sell out games, so they figured that they might as well do a noble, socially responsible thing and get positive national PR out of it as well. Only if my team could come up with such an idea.

After the success of You Tube, social media and the phenomenal online marketing by President-elect and "Marketer of the Year" Barack Obama's campaign team, it's about time ESPN decided to create a web-only show. "Mayne Street" is the new Internet show starring Sportscenter anchor and sarcastic funnyman Kenny Mayne. The site for his show has a chat room, a blog, a group for followers of the show and an interactive link to write to Kenny. The online format is much more cost effective than a television show, it allows a quirky group of fans to unite and chat and there are still advertising opportunities for the network. The show features content that the network itself would never run on television, as it pokes fun at the show's premise and its corporate headquarters. Just as I expect similar marketing from sports franchises to the campaign that the Nets are running, I expect more online shows and wow, even presidential web-speeches in the near future.

Guitar Hero & Film History: Hmmmm

2008-10-28T15:31:00.000-07:00

The new ad for the latest version of the hugely popular Guitar Hero video game has got me thinking about how other iconic movie scenes could be used to help sell products. The Guitar Hero "World Tour" advertisement has four of the world's most recognizable and successful athletes dancing and singing in their underwear like Tom Cruise in Risky Business and it has caused quite a bit of buzz, especially in the sports blogosphere and on ESPN. Besides from wondering why Kobe didn't go all out and rock the tighty-whiteys and how much coin Red Octane, Guitar Hero's publisher, had to offer to lure megastars Kobe Bryant, Alex Rodriguez, Michael Phelps and Tony Hawk, I'm curious as to what brands would make sense matched with movie scenes for advertising. Here are a few ideas:

1. Here's an easy one: Rocky Balboa's famous, jubilant and celebratory jumping on the top of those steps in Philly for Old Spice. Have even the biggest of guys, like Shaq or to be more modern, Greg Oden, make that run up the steps and be elated and dancing when he realizes that he still doesn't stink after such a rigorous workout.

2. A little more abstract: How about Kilgore in the great Apocalypse Now with his famous line, "Do you smell that? Nothing else in the world smells like that. I love the smell of napalm in the morning?" It could be used with Martha Stewart for Febreze. She could scold Robert Duvall's character, telling him that if he just used the pleasant smelling spray Febreze, he wouldn't have to settle for the disgusting smell of Napalm. Never would happen, but funny to imagine.

3. The ending to The Graduate could be used for seemingly anything, but nowadays, could it be more pathetically perfect than it being used for an online dating site? It makes me want to vomit, but it's so obvious, with two high profile actors running off on a bus despite having a church full of family members and friends present to see two people wed. The catchphrase would be something corny like "Matchmaker dot com, where only relationships matter."

4. After that last one, I desperately need my Godfather fix to restore order. How about the line from Part III, "Right when I thought I was out... They pull me back in" line for a guy who discovers the dollar menu at KFC. Or the line from Part II, "I knew it was you Fredo... You broke my heart" for two squabbling brothers, one using a Mac and one using a PC. Now that would trump all the ads that those two brands have been retaliating and counter-retaliating at each other with. Or while we're on the topic of Mac vs. PC, how about a Mac-user playing Sonny Corleone at the tollbooth and the killers being played by all PC-users. It would be classic. The PC's shoot Sonny (Mac) about two hundred times and then say, "Carlo told me Sonny would be here... and I'm a PC." That about wraps this discussion up, I'd say.

Draper vs. Soprano & Mad Men Twittering

2008-09-29T18:47:00.000-07:00

The more and more I watch AMC's Mad Men, the more and more I have been realizing how it is no coincidence that David Chase, creator of The Sopranos, happened to create the show as well. Tony Soprano was the gloomiest, most complex alpha male that TV has arguably ever seen, that is until we were introduced to Don Draper, star of Mad Men, played by Jon Hamm. There was a recent USA Today story that noticed the comparison as well. Infidelity, a suffering wife, a powerful job and being secretive are a few of the parallels identified. After getting hooked on Mad Men, which recently won the Emmy for Most Outstanding Drama for the second consecutive year, I still can't figure out why HBO turned down the program for its network. After what Chase gave HBO with The Sopranos, the network shouldn't have the right to reject an idea from him for a series about a guy watching paint dry in a warehouse, let alone a thrilling show about the ruthless world of advertising in the 1960's. I'll take any excuse to blog about Tony Soprano and to take a stroll down memory lane, but the similarities between the characters are stunning and it is no surprise that both programs have been successful. Given the success that both shows have enjoyed, I wouldn't be surprised that when competing networks start going back to the drawing board to brainstorm new ideas for fresh programming, the reoccurring central plot theme that keeps getting brought up is a show with a mysterious guy, a type often seen in film noirs, or like Draper and Soprano.

Also interesting on the Mad Men front that is worth bringing to people's attention is the marketing that the show has created with the social networking and micro-blogging site, Twitter. Many of the show's characters have been appearing on the site, leaving comments that are in line both with how the world functioned and spoke in the 1960's and with the personalities of the characters. The complete story can be found at Business Week. More and more brands are taking a stab at marketing with social media and with Twitter in particular and it is starting to pay off, as I, for one, was intrigued by the idea and spent some time visiting the site and seeing what the central characters in the show were up to. According to the previous story link, AMC denied both instructing its actors to blog on the site in character and hiring an agency that came up with the idea, but either way, they should be thrilled, as the idea of interacting with your favorite TV character is an idea that I think many people would find compelling and it is great marketing.

Declare Yourself: I Think I'm Scared to Vote Now..

2008-09-23T11:21:00.000-07:00

I thought Saw V came out in October. After catching glimpse of the inserted advertisement and watching this video, I could hardly tell the campaign apart from the gruesome horror franchise. The campaign is Declare Yourself, a national nonpartisan campaign that's objective is to get the young generation to vote and to have its voice heard. That simple phrase, "have your voice heard," is apparently the term that gave life to the odd, creepy ads. The tag line for the campaign is "Only you can silence yourself." I think the idea is compelling and definitely provocative, but I also think that it may be going a bit far. Forming alliances with social media sites, like they have with Friendster and Twitter, getting celebrities like Jessica Alba involved and being in association with companies that appeal to the youth, like Urban Outfitters and US Weekly are all great ways to connect with its intended audience, but the shock value of the messages could be toned down. We will have to wait and see how many young voters turn out for this ground-breaking election, but their impact can't be overstated. That is why it is so important to find creative ways to persuade them to vote, and the tag line that the campaign has come up with is good, but the execution of the ads could be altered to not cause confusion or consternation with the crowd.

Microsoft Ads: Building Buzz With Seinfeld-esque Nothingness

2008-09-15T19:29:00.000-07:00

If there was anyone who was a bit critical of the first Microsoft advertisement from super tandem Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates, it was me. I actually had a post idea last week where I was going to compare the failure of the Gates and Seinfeld duo in the Microsoft ad to the presumed failure of Righteous Kill with over-the-hill superstars Robert Deniro and Al Pacino. I wrote something up, but I then had second thoughts, as I succumbed to my gut instinct telling me that I would be kicking myself a couple of weeks down the road after a brilliant follow-up ad was released. The first ad hardly worked with its stab at silliness in the discount shoe store and it seemingly failed even more in revealing the message that it was attempting at sending. Bloggers were bashing the initial ad left and right, but I expected more from the campaign that Microsoft reportedly sunk $300 million into. The overwhelmingly negative reviews of the first ad created more anticipation for the second installment, which was obviously on the way. Why give away the whole story in the first act? The second I saw the first ad, I was confused, but I simultaneously had thoughts of a climatic conclusion to the series of ads aired during the Super Bowl, given the personnel in the ad and the price tag. Now, things have become more clear, as the second ad premiered this week and has enjoyed more favorable reviews. The premise has become more obvious, with Seinfeld and Gates moving into a very middle-class, "average" family's home.

This campaign is clearly an answer to the Apple ads that have succeeded in not only building a near-Monopoly-type of brand with its ads that have branded white space and have proven that less is sometimes more, but also in making Microsoft and Vista seem slow and very old and uncool. As a result, Microsoft needs this campaign to work. As this LA Times article points out, Seinfeld and Gates also are in need of some revamping. After two ads, it seems clear that the two, ultra rich guys, are trying to connect with the everyday man and poke fun at their wealthy and in-a-funk perception. The best part is that they are taking a page out of the Seinfeld playbook, using the plot about "nothing" that the NBC show was famous for implementing. I am looking forward to the next installment and the campaign now has some momentum on its side. If the ads will culminate in turning Apple users, like myself, back into PC users is to be seen, as is my prediction of a campaign-concluding ad in the Super Bowl that will possibly be bigger than the game itself.

David Duchovny & Californication: Blurring the Line Between PR and Reality

2008-09-10T22:02:00.000-07:00

The first season of Californication, Showtime's hit drama, was full of crazy and kinky sexual shenanigans and I admittedly became a pretty big fan of the show as the season progressed, for a myriad of reasons. The wild antics are accommodated by a sentimentality and lightness that makes the show very entertaining and touching (no pun intended). So, it goes without saying that I am looking forward to the Season Two premiere quite a bit, but what is worth noting is the related news surrounding the show. Coincidentally enough, the show's star, David Duchovny, checked himself into rehab for sex addiction. The news story adheres to the actor's struggle, but also mentions the show. Free media impressions, right? Anyone who watches the show, or read any of the reports about the rehab admittance, is aware that Duchovny's character on the show, Hank Moody, gets around just about as much as Wilt Chamberlin. It seemed like quite the coincidence, the relation between the character and the actor, especially considering that the show's new season begins September 28. Right after I thought about how odd the coincidence was I jumped to my next thought: Could this just be a courageously risky PR stunt?

I did some research and it turns out I am not the only one who thought about the peculiarity about the report given the timing and Duchovny's role on the program. The blog Limelife calls "B.S" and the blog Adfreak seems to wonder, as I did, "what are the chances?" It has certainly got folks talking about the show, considering that just about every piece written on the matter uses the Californication link in its lead. If it is true, there would surely be controversy, given that the stunt could be seen as abusing the public's trust. The validity of all news reports would then have to be questioned, as the public would wonder if they were just being fooled by cleverly placed or timed media relations. I can imagine there would potentially even be lawsuits. So, the more I think and write about it, the more unlikely it seems and the more foolish I feel for bringing it up, but wouldn't it be something; a world where the press is infiltrated with fake stories for the purpose of public relations and marketing campaigns? It sounds like a world on its way to the type of planet that exists in Mike Judge's Idiocracy.

Facebook: Social Media Coming Soon to the Big Screen

2008-09-06T15:12:00.000-07:00

What would you think would be the next logical step for a website that has over 100 million active users and is the 4th most-trafficked website in the world? Well, they don't seem to be letting up anytime soon, but I certainly didn't see this coming. According to the LA Times, "West Wing" Screenwriter Aaron Sorkin is in the process of scribing a script for a film based on Facebook, the largest social media site in the world. Sorkin created his own Facebook group last week that announced the idea for the film, but considering the amount of fake profiles that are created, the news hardly had any credibility, but it did generate a ton of hearsay. So much that, according to the LA Times story, a Sony Pictures spokesperson confirmed that a film is in the works but did not offer to elaborate any further. I'm certainly intrigued, but just as I assume everyone else wants to know, what will the movie be like?

For all we know, it could be biographical and follow the life of Mark Zuckerberg, the official founder of Facebook. It could also maybe show a story of college freshmen who are sad that they are unable to stay in touch with all their high school buddies, and low and behold, they discover Facebook and reconnect with everyone. I can just imagine that mega-hit; "Starring the Jonas Brothers and Zac Efron... Comes the Story of FACEBOOK!!" Oh man, that's a scary thought. My favorite idea though, and the best idea from a marketing standpoint, would be a narrative like Babel or Crash where the story follows multiple people in disparate settings. The college student storyline could be incorporated, as each of the characters being followed could eventually find Facebook and reconnect with long lost loves, high school buddies, a sibling they didn't even know that they had, a soldier in Iraq, their biological mother, etc. It could be really sentimental if it wanted to be. I think the biographical angle would be more interesting, coming from the perspective of a film nut who already uses Facebook and dislikes Crash, but if I was in charge of Facebook's marketing, I would take that approach in a heartbeat. That would be the wise decision in terms of branding for longevity, as the sentimental, yet practical usage of Facebook would be introduced to audiences who might not have been previously aware of Facebook and it would inevitably cause like half the world to join the site. Advertising costs would be astronomical. It will be important not to market it towards the adolescent crowd that already is so familiar with the site, as that strategy would hardly attract more users. I'm compelled, that's for sure. Actually, I wish they would hire me to write and market the thing.

Just for fun here, considering the Hollywood topic, I'm pondering this: Who would play Facebook, if the site itself were a character? The ability to associate an actor with a site can show how effective the site is in terms of differentiating itself from competitors, showing its distinct characteristic, which is crucial to good branding. Let's take a look at a couple of social media sites and the actors that would play the site:

MySpace: Sorry, MySpace, but the invasive and kind of creepy vibe that I connote with this site forces me to cast the Baldwin brothers for the role of MySpace.

Twitter: For the not as widely used, but highly raved about site that highlights micro-blogging, I search for an actor that isn't as well-known as a Brad Pitt, but is always picking clever, sink-your-teeth-into roles and that should be on his way to bigger stardom. I nominate Ryan Gosling to play Twitter. I also thought James McAvoy or Gael García Bernal would be great fits.

Linked In: For the business only, successful social networking site, I would choose Daniel Day-Lewis because he only comes out for serious roles.

Friendster: Given its international popularity, but low interest in the US, I am forced to pick Gerard Depardieu. He is underappreciated here, but big overseas.

Facebook: I've got to pick a teens-choice friendly pick here, considering the huge tweener and adolescent appeal, but considering its the biggest social media site, I've got to think big and global. I'm thinking Jake Gyllenhaal or Johnny Depp.

Any Other Ideas?

Chad Ocho Cinco: What's in a Name?

2008-09-06T14:26:00.000-07:00

So I guess the NFL is going to go along with the name change by the receiver formerly known as Chad Johnson, according to the AP. Johnson, the enigmatic receiver whose previous stunts have included sporting a gold Mohawk for an entire season, racing a horse to prove his crazy speed, introducing the media to a checklist that monitored the defensive backs that he burned every week, numerous touchdown celebrations that have become routine and, most recently, saying he could beat Michael Phelps in a swimming race, has now legally changed his surname to "Ocho Cinco." I find this funny considering that the name is a reference to his jersey number, 85, and the translation of his name is "eight five," but I have learned to not expect any less from the Cincinnati Bengal.

Despite the distraction that his haughty attitude may cause in his team's locker room, you have to applaud the guy for his ability to entertain, have fun and brand himself. He keeps fans excited and as much as the NFL is a sport; it is sports entertainment. He has provided enough wild antics that display his personality to have built the Chad Johnson/Ocho Cinco brand. It is key when it comes to marketing to know how to use a spokesperson's character, and I think his fun, larger-than-life persona could be perfect for particular brands that want to incorporate elements of silliness, sarcasm or irreverence. Off the top of my head, the Neal Patrick Harris Old Spice ads come to mind. I can totally see Chad in a campaign like that. Whether or not I would want to be Marvin Lewis, the Bengals coach who has referred to the wideout as "Ocho Psycho" is a whole other matter.

Tropic Thunder: Meta-Marketing and a Migraine Headache

2008-09-04T12:20:00.000-07:00

If Tropic Thunder didn't confuse enough people by marketing itself as a movie that makes fun of movies and is about a movie that becomes another movie within itself, then Rain of Madness should succeed in confusing everyone. I'm going to give this tongue twister a shot - It's a documentary about the filming of a movie that was filmed within another movie that was a topic of an actual satirical action flick based on movies that is also a parody of melodramatic documentaries about the filming of a movie like the one that is being spoofed. Wow, I just exploited all my energy and brain cells to complete that sentence. Anyways, the mockumentary is available for free on iTunes according to Wired.com.

I know plenty of people who disliked the film (Tropic Thunder) and felt that it was boring and made no sense, but I feel that those cynics either have no appreciation for satire and marketing or they are just plain unaware and oblivious. Either way, I thought the film's premise was hilarious, poking fun at Hollywood, agents, uber-melodramatic actors, hip-hop, money-hungry executives and Tom Cruise's place in Hollywood. What I like even more than the premise of the film and Cruise's finest role since Jerry Maguire are the marketing ideas that seem to keep on coming even after the film is released. Meta marketing is viral, consumer- driven marketing that makes the event or experience become the product, if that makes any sense.

The Dark Knight, as we all know, made quite the splash with viral/meta marketing and now Tropic Thunder is following suit. First they made a viral campaign about a viral campaign that makes fun of viral campaigns that was introduced at the MTV Movie Awards. That video can be seen here. Now its the mockumentary released three weeks into the film's release and apparently, a director's version of the mockumentary or a behind-the-scenes take is on the way that promises to bring the absurdity of the parody's new dimensions to another level. Sustainability in the box office has been the short-term result, as the film was first in the box office again last week. I say, keep on coming with the Meta, as confusing as it may be once its all said and done.

Republican National Convention: Graciously and Sarcastically Welcomed

2008-08-27T20:06:00.000-07:00

So, did I appreciate Hillary's shout-out to the Twin Cities last night? Sure I did, as her sardonic line about "how it is fitting that George Bush and John McCain will be together for the convention in the Twin Cities, because they're the same person" caused me to chuckle a yuk-yuk-yuk type of laugh momentarily. What I appreciate more is Minneapolis agency Campbell Mithun for its efforts in creating this Web site. The site encourages all Minneapolis and St. Paul residents to "make an effort" in making all the Republicans feel welcome next week for the convention in St. Paul.

The Unconvention site says that its primary concern in its mission statement is "to umbrella the myriad artistic and educational activities that will take place in the Twin Cities during the lead-up and staging of the 2008 Republican National Convention," but the site's content is just drenched in subtle humor. There are videos and posters, like the one above, that make it evident that the "welcome" is at least a bit of a parody and I love it all. It wouldn't be nearly as well executed if the tone had been obvious and straightforward. The understated type of humor can be the best, just ask Jon Stewart. My favorite video on the site is a blatant poke at a subject often associated with Republican disregard. This poster is pretty clever too, as is this video about the spoon and cherry landmark at the Sculpture Garden. I entirely encourage Republicans and Democrats alike to check it out.

Tiger Woods & Holy Marketing

2008-08-27T17:41:00.000-07:00

You know the PGA Tour is in bad shape when Tiger Woods is injured and is sitting at home on his sofa and he is still making more news than the actual competing golfers. Padraig Harrington has won two majors since Tiger's announcement that he was going to undergo season-ending knee surgery after his miraculous US Open victory and I still think that the latest Tiger-related news is more compelling than Harrington's accomplishments. Sorry, Paddy, but Tiger is a god, just ask EA Sports.

The video clip that has got me all hot and bothered is an EA Sports viral ad that is a response to a user's complaint of a glitch and the clip has built up quite a bit of buzz in the past week or so. The original amateur video was posted to show how there was a glitch in a copy of Tiger Woods PGA Golf 2008 where players could walk on ponds to hit balls that should've been ruled out of bounds. The response, by EA Sports, where they showed the XBOX nerd up, proves that there was no glitch in the game, Tiger really can walk on water. The ad has been viewed over a million times in the week since it was first seen and is a Web-only ad. It plays right into his larger-than-life superhuman persona and has created a lot of excitement about the game.

In the CNN story about the clip, there is text telling that there would possibly be skeptics of the ad, offended that Tiger would be likened to Jesus, but there has been no backlash yet and I don't expect any. One thing I do expect is that we will continue to see viral marketing campaigns in the forefront of our screens, as people are only starting to really embrace social media and new technologies and it is inevitable that consumers will continue to make the shift. I was pondering over the decision to make this ad a Web-only ad and I have definitively landed on the answer that I believe it to be the right decision. If put in the traditional TV advertising circulation, more people might have been originally exposed to the ad, but the invaluable element of buzzworthiness would've been rendered worthless, and that point can't be overstated. The point of viral marketing is for it to spread, like a virus, and if it is passed amongst consumers enough, the ad can get coverage on traditional media and the ad will have received infinite media impressions, without having to pay for the cost of the advertising spots. Consumers also get to choose what they search and pay attention to, which is huge in an era where consumers are really beginning to trust advertisers less and less. This is also a great example of how a company can keep its ears to the rails for critique of its brand and to spin the negative into a positive.

All this golf talk has got me reminiscing about my glory days of taking irregularly long lunch breaks to whip my buddies in Tiger Woods 2003. I've seen the current TV spots for the game as well in the past five years, but it is only now that I really have the itch to pick up my XBOX habit. Thanks EA Sports, you have caused a consumer relapse due to your viral venture.

Dexter & True Blood: Bloody-good Marketing

2008-08-19T21:01:00.000-07:00

(Note to reader: the following links may sound horrible, but trust me, they are not as gruesome as they sound.) Imagine your standard walk to the office in the morning. Now imagine walking by, casually sipping your Starbucks as you pass a faux dead body with a knife in its back. Naturally, you would probably be a bit confused and possibly traumatized for life. Depending on your city, you might assume its just some bad joke or a guy sleeping off the previous night's drinking binge, but would you ever expect it was a part of a marketing campaign for a TV show? Well, check out this pic to see guerrilla marketing like you may have never imagined. Showtime's successful series, "Dexter," which is about a serial killer with morals and a quirky attitude who kills other serial killers, was being marketed by the stunt in Lisbon, Portugal this summer, according to jossip.com. The body was surrounded by business cards about "Dexter" and a website for the show. Guerrilla marketing is a type of marketing meant to be used to stretch a buck, is known for its unconventional methods and is usually reserved for smaller companies and budgets. I worked on a guerrilla marketing campaign for an internship in the past and we stuck to sidewalk art and fliers, a far cry from placing a bloody body on the street.

Other guerrilla marketing stunts for the show included placing a human hand in a deli, which can be seen here and Dexter Saran wrapping paper that had details about the show on the wrap, with blood, of course, placed all over towns and sent to bloggers and other media figures. My favorite stunt for the marketing of the show was last year when it was being promoted in the US. The marketers were literally staging blood-soaked events at prominent and famous places in cities. One had blood erupting from the famous fountain in Philadelphia and another had even more blood at the huge fountain outside the Paris Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. The scenes were made to look like crime scenes with the yellow police tape closing off the areas, only instead of saying "POLICE- DO NOT ENTER" they said "Dexter." Man, I would love to know how they managed to orchestrate those events.

The ingenious marketing for "Dexter" may or may have not contributed to the creative process for HBO's new series, "True Blood." The poster that can be seen above is part of the viral marketing for the show, which is all about vampires. I know, go figure. The poster is obviously not for a malt liquor, and it encourages consumers to visit the website written on the poster, trubeverage.com. The site has a type cast about the "synthetic blood beverage nourishment" which is hilarious and has info about when to catch the show on HBO at the bottom of the page. The following commercial is for the beverage and it runs on HBO as well as at the previously mentioned website. I was bewildered when I saw the commercial while I was waiting for "Generation Kill" and the imaginative campaign has proven the effectiveness of viral marketing, when it's done well, as it has got a guy talking about vampires who sure as bloody hell wouldn't be talking about them otherwise, and that guy might even check out the show.

Rick Ross & Matters of Reputation

2008-08-18T15:57:00.000-07:00

In reputation management, a couple of common pieces of advice are to be accountable for your actions and to always be honest, for you never know when a white lie will come back to potentially haunt you. Public figures, in the limelight, have a hard enough of a time as it is dealing with false rumors and lies reported about them through tabloids, they surely don't need the added weight of their own deceit. Well, Miami-based rapper Rick Ross sure could've benefited from seeking counsel prior to denying reports that he was formerly employed as a correctional officer last month. The website The Smoking Gun reported that the artist did indeed work as a C.O. for 18 months and earned an annual salary of roughly $22,000 in this report which included a picture of Ross in his uniform, which can be seen here. Funny, when I saw him on MTV's "Cribs" I recall him saying one of his cars cost $400,000, which is over 18 years at that salary, huh.

I know that people can tend to get a little frazzled when put on the spot, but Ross should've known that he was putting his foot in his mouth and that more dirt was sure to come when he claimed that the picture was "photoshopped." Sure enough, within the next day or two, forms clarifying that he was employed as an officer in Florida, with payroll slips, pictures and applications popped up on the web. In seemingly the majority of commercial rap music, police are depicted as antagonists and more often as villains and oppressors accused of brutality and racism than knights in blue. For a rapper that claims to have become rich from selling drugs and being anti-police, like Ross, as made evident in this Rolling Stone story, it is clear how he was afraid over the hit his reputation would take if the truth was revealed. If I were his personal public relations/crisis management point-man in this situation, I would've advised him to come clean. A recurring staple of hip-hop culture is the "do what you have to do to get by" motto, and I would've suggested that I thought fans would respond positively to that and would understand, but for him to lie because of his shame; I would've said that would only lead to heaps of trouble for his reputation. If he would have just said that he had to do whatever it took to put food on his family's plate, and that the C.O. gig was one that fell in his lap, fans would've felt forced to show empathy. He could have even been embraced and turned this negative into a positive, but instead he chose the path of denial. I think it's best to assume that all your skeletons will come out of the closet, so might as well let them out before they escape.

In the swirl of negative press that Ross (real name William Roberts) has had to deal with over this matter, it is a good opportunity to note that other public figures are dealing with the consequences of their lies as well. Roger Clemens? I would've advised him to come clean, just look at how tainted his career is looking right about now. In contrast, his former teammate, Andy Pettite, who admitted using steroids, is pitching rather well for the Yankees and I haven't heard nearly as many negative things said about him this season as Clemens. Hillary Clinton? The whole "I misspoke" fiasco regarding her visit to Bosnia with snipers certainly didn't play out that well. John Edwards? His mistress scandal also clearly adheres to the objectivity of this argument. Only time will tell how Ross' career will turn out, but I would guess it's more likely to plummet than fly. After all, as made evident by the T-shirt above, as much as the truth may hurt sometimes; lies kill.

Be Kanye: Absolut-ly Viral

2008-08-16T14:57:00.000-07:00

That "Be Kanye" viral marketing campaign that Absolut Vodka has launched is rated pretty high on my peculiarity scale and I'm kind of at odds over it. When I first caught glimpse of the ad on Facebook and the video in a movie theater, I was rightfully confused over what was even being advertised. Such is the intention of viral marketing. It's just that most campaigns aren't as elaborate and dumbfounding as this one. Marketers want to confuse consumers, for it creates word-of-mouth and mass web-browsing, which can ultimately lead to more media impressions and coveted buzz than a standard TV spot. The fake-ad campaign is pretty innovative and the word seems to have just started spreading.

There are ads on subways, like the one featured above, videos and an interactive website that all invite consumers to "be kanye." The ads are mock infomercials for a tablet that promises to make consumers famous, ego-maniacal like Kanye and good with the ladies. I'm admittedly a pretty big fan of the, at times, eccentric and iconic musician, but the fact that the campaign is for a vodka is problematic. The ads don't directly say that Absolut vodka will make you funner to be around or that one can reap all the benefits that the aforementioned fake tablet promises if you drink Absolut, but it doesn't take a genius to read between the lines here. I've definitely witnessed Absolut, Grey Goose or any other vodka turn peers into someone else, but that person usually more closely resembles The Incredible Hulk than suave Mr. West. It is also inevitable that underage fans of Kanye will visit the site that redirects you to the Absolut site. It does ask you to enter your date of birth prior to entering, but there will surely be underage liars giving the site hits. Overall, I'm a big fan of the creativity, but I think I could more confidently give my full approval if the ad was for a non-alcoholic product. Such is the problem when assessing alcohol marketing, a negative can always be found. Nonetheless, I still tend to feel that the pros outweigh the cons for this campaign, because what marketing is ultimately all about is differentiating a brand from its competitors and creating exceptionally distinctive interest and this message surely succeeds in those regards.

Phelps, Olympiad and Hip-Hop

2008-08-15T07:41:00.000-07:00

The unprecedented, historic Olympic games that Michael Phelps is currently enjoying in Beijing has caused me to raise my eyebrows in intrigue, and not only for what he has accomplished in the pool. He won his sixth gold medal of the games in world record shattering fashion last night and it was his eleventh overall gold medal, an all-time record. With two more golds he will eclipse Mark Spitz's single games record of seven gold medals. All this is astonishing and the dude looks like a fish in the pool, but what caught my attention even more than his dolphin-like technique in the water was hearing where he is from and the facts that I subsequently stumbled upon.

So the guy is from the town that I have become as fixated on as any other city in the world due to HBO's dearly missed series "The Wire." I was curious upon hearing this for two reasons. I wondered how his hometown was following him and how the hip-hop world feels about him. So Baltimore is the 24th largest television market in the US and according to the previous link, only three cities are tuning in for the Olympics at a higher rate than B-More.

What was the number one city? Minneapolis, my hometown? This is a whole other story in and of itself and is amazing, but it is really neither here nor there for the purpose of this post.

Back to what's important here- It was great to see that Baltimore has embraced Phelps, and it is showing that race matters less and less in today's society when cheering for sports figures. Now I know Carmelo Anthony, who is on the US Basketball squad nicknamed the "Redeem Team" is also from Baltimore and the viewership statistic doesn't track what event is being tuned in for, but Baltimore has even nicknamed Phelps "the Baltimore Bullet" and there are many stories citing the city's support for Phelps like this one. Baltimore has the sixth highest African-American population in the country and the city is following swimming, a sport usually mentioned many pegs behind basketball, football and many other sports in terms of popularity within the inner city and in the African-American community. In fact, Phelps is even being hailed as a Hip-Hop hero. He listens to hip-hop on his I-Pod prior to every race and he has that great turn-nothing-into-something story that is certainly inspirational. This element of the Michael Phelps story, how he is helping to eliminate negative racial stereotypes, to me, is as important, if not exponentially more important, than winning eight gold medals in one games.

Paris vs. "That wrinkly white-haired guy": What's hot and what's not

2008-08-11T21:22:00.000-07:00

Paris Hilton, the heiress who is most famous for, arguably, sex tapes and a brief jail stint, played her cards just right last week in a response to John McCain's ad that included her and Britney Spears. The ad's message was that Barack Obama has become a celebrity and that the country might not want a celebrity that can be likened to starlets like Hilton and Spears in charge of the free world. Her brilliant response ad where she admits she is famous because "I'm just hot" can be seen at funnyordie.com. The video was written and produced by Adam McCay, who wrote and/or directed Talledega Nights, Anchorman and Step Brothers, and frankly the premise and script might be better than all of those films.

McCay clearly knows how America perceives Hilton, so he wrote accordingly. If the script portrayed her being something that she was not, like dressed in anything but a bikini, it wouldn't have struck the head of the nails, I mean nail, so precisely. The playful bit that took her image and put it on display front and center proved how important it is for producers of ads to be fully aware of what consumers will buy, what they will reject and to know that if they are going to incorporate pop culture fixtures, to incorporate them only after careful deliberation. McCain's campaign team sure would like a mulligan on this one, as the age issue only became magnified, and his stale ad really made him seem "old, like super old." He could have possibly used his "Obama as a celebrity" ad idea and spun it differently, but it was clear that his team didn't know that consumers would scoff at this and that they didn't do their homework. Even if Hilton hadn't responded, the ad still would have drawn skeptical attention.

Oh, and by the way, Congress is like totally considering the energy plan proposed in the video by none other than Paris herself. In an unexpected and smart-as-a-whip turn in the video, she proposed to use a hybrid of both candidate's plans, using limited offshore drilling, with environmental safeguards, while Detroit produces new hybrid vehicles. As reported in the Boston Herald, Peter Beutel, an energy analyst at Connecticut’s Cameron Hanover even said "I never thought I’d say this, but Paris Hilton’s plan is sound." What the hell, it's only August, and I want to vote for a candidate who really knows who he or she is, and who knows who they are better than Paris? After all, she was pretty inspiring when she said, "I'm like totally ready to lead."

Apatow & Auteurship

2008-08-05T20:37:00.000-07:00

On the eve of the release of the latest film from the Judd Apatow machine, the stoner action-comedy Pineapple Express, I am wondering how many more of these films are going to be introduced as a film "brought to you by the guys who made Superbad." Has Apatow reached the status where anything he makes, regardless of quality, will be seen by at least enough people for the movie to be profitable? When you start off your filmmaking career by producing, writing or directing Talledega Nights, 40-Year Old Virgin, Knocked Up and Superbad, your street cred deservingly should be pretty legit. Those movies were all hailed by audiences for their levels of hilarity, but then again, he has also been a part of the braintrust responsible for Walk Hard: the Dewey Cox Story, Drillbit Taylor, Fun with Dick & Jane and most recently, the dreadfully reviewed Step Brothers. Past success is the best indicator of future success, simple enough, but how many passes should people receive before they lose their "auteur" distinction?

Auteur refers to an artist whose style is distinctly their own, and it is built after a sizable amount of work. Apatow has brought a new brand of comedy to Hollywood that incorporates moments of vulgarity and redeeming moments of charm that can be still be delivered in the not so sappy, still-funny way. They also include a lot of pop culture references (see- "Do you know how I know you're gay? jokes from 40-Year old Virgin). It could be argued that Adam Sandler's comedy team do much of the same, but the "look" that has to be apparent for an artist to be an auteur is more evident in Apatow films. Most auteurs carry an amount of confidence that lead them to not feel the need for introductions, and this is where the whole "from the guys who brought you..." introductory line becomes needless. I know that the Hollywood suits figure that they can sell a few more tickets if they can remind people that Knocked Up was great and that another movie should be just as funny because the same minds are behind it, but with that comes a certain uneasiness that is kind of a turn-off. It's kind of like saying, "yeah, we know a few of the recent films this guy made kinda sucked, but c'mon he made Ricky Bobby!" That is not exactly a sign of confidence. If they eliminate this line in future projects it will indicate that studios are more confident that this guy will be a lasting figure in Hollywood and that he is no flash in the pan. Do all Michelangelo pieces have an asterisk in the corner reminding you that he was the guy who brought Romans "the Sistine Chapel?" No, of course not, they just know.

A lot of athletes have one huge year and subsequently get huge paydays and a lot of films are successful and the lucky director and cast get signed on for a bundle of films, but how many blunders does it take to see that those deals may have been signed based off an aberration? The same can go for public relations firms and advertising agencies. They may have built one great campaign for a client or even a series of successful campaigns, but if the next account project fails to meet objectives, how will future prospective clients respond? It is important to rely on your ability, to treat each project as though it were your first, to not rely heavily on past performance and to let your track record speak for itself. It is great to offer case studies as examples of success, but shoving your track record down throats may make those clients feel anxious or even apprehensive and will only tarnish your chances of reaching the elite category of Auteurship.

The Dark Knight: Why so Successful with "Why So Serious?"

2008-07-29T20:55:00.000-07:00

The latest estimates at boxofficemojo state that "The Dark Knight" has now grossed $324 million in 11 days. Eleven. It raked in nearly $19 million in its first hour in theaters last week, while Eddie Murphy's "Meet Dave" has barely pulled in half that amount in three weeks. OK, so it's pretty much the biggest movie ever. But why?

I remember when I initially heard the title for this installment of the Batman franchise and I thought it was a mistake not to include the name of the superhero in the title, it just made no sense. What the marketing team of Warner Bros. and 42 Entertainment did to make sure that moviegoers would have no problem identifying the film as a Batman flick sans the name in the title is really amazing. Are people running to theaters to see this movie because it is a justifiably great piece of work? That certainly is a fair argument, as the film has received mass critical acclaim. Is it because there are great actors and equally great special effects due to a large budget? Yes, the former is a huge reason, which we will clearly get to, and the latter is as well, but this movie cost $180 million to make and the flop that is the latest Narnia film cost $200 million, so maybe it isn't so much about the big budget money. The formula that equals box office success is a tough one to solve, at times. Quality+Big Name Allure+Big Budget=Success? Many times this equation has proven true, but one large component is missing and the variable works mysteriously, and "The Dark Knight" has proven how pivotal it is, and that component is buzz.

I obviously was frustrated when I first saw the initial trailer for the film, as there was no real footage, just voices dubbed over the Batman logo. This stirred up a ton of anticipation, but it also proved the value of word-of-mouth. The trailer, along with the "Cloverfield" campaign, have proven that the saying "You want what you can't have" is very applicable in the film marketing business. The Cloverfield trailer, for those who don't remember, simply revealed a date at first, not even a title, after a brief moment of nauseating hand-held camera footage resulting in the head of the Statue of Liberty rolling on a street. People thought that it was Godzilla, hell, people didn't know what to think, and that surely contributed to the film's buzz and eventual success. After "The Dark Knight" trailer, people had to know more, they needed it.

So what did the needy do? Naturally, they searched the web for footage unseen by any other human being. Warner Bros. and 42 Entertainment knew this, and they created multiple websites, one called IbelieveinHarveyDent.com, one called Rorysdeathkiss.com and another called Whysoserious.com. On these websites, visitors were invited to participate in very bizarre interactive games and challenges. At the first site, visitors were instructed to submit email addresses, and as each address was submitted, one pixel would be removed from a large photo of Harvey Dent, played by Aaron Eckhart. The idea was that, eventually, if enough email addresses had been submitted, a picture would be revealed behind the photo of Dent. So it promoted rapid word-of-mouth and recruited advocate after advocate, infinitely. The picture ended up being a glimpse of The Joker, but was replaced after less than one day with the words "ha-ha" written all over the page. Another took viral marketing to a whole new level, just see for yourself. Talk about interactive and participatory! These were just a couple of the fun 'n' games, but others brought fans to new images, clues and advance screening passes through means of very odd requests, just like The Joker would like. The entire timeline can be read at film rejects.

Finally, to argue that Heath Ledger dying was another intangible that improved sales or that what he put himself through may have contributed to his death is puzzling, yet morbid. His performance spoke for itself. I have never seen versatility quite the way I saw from his performance in "Brokeback Mountain" and then in this film. It's remarkable, and I think that the marketing team handled the situation with class, as made evident by the previous link. The film would've been a smash nonetheless. Ledger's Performance vs. the Marketing Campaign would be like a Micheal Jordan vs. Muhammad Ali argument, for in both cases, they were innovative and brow-raising and to definitively arrive at either wouldn't be right. I do fully expect to see a substantial increase and possible phenomena of viral marketing in consumer marketing, and not just in film, due to the success of this campaign.

My Redemption Story: Buy or Sell?

2008-07-17T10:15:00.001-07:00

Seeing Josh Hamilton mash 28 home runs in the first round of the Home Run Derby the other night was pretty extraordinary, and it brought his story of redemption to an apex and to the non-baseball fanatic's attention. His tumultuous story of battling drug and alcohol addiction has been well documented, as he even graced the cover of Sports Illustrated about a month back. The man was out of baseball for three years, was left by his family, hit rock bottom and somehow managed to come all the way back to having Yankee Stadium chanting "Ham-il-ton!" There is really no way to dismiss this, it really is incredible. I can't think of another athlete that could not only refrain from working out for three years, let alone while in the midst of a nasty heroin addiction and still be able to retain his freakish athletic prowess. I love the story as much as the next guy, but what has me scratching me head is why our society chooses to accept this guy's story while it simultaneously decides to deny others who have attempted comebacks from lesser depths of despair than Hamilton.

95 RBI's before the All-Star break is a pretty convincing plea, but nonetheless, how does a guy who did the things that Hamilton did become an embraced hero while Barry Bonds can't even find a job for the league minimum? The guy is 44, yeah, but he hit 28 home runs last year and had the highest on-base-percentage in the league! It is strange how society is more accepting of heroin than HGH, I would've thought the former was the worse of the two. How is Michael Vick going to be perceived once he is released from prison? He, unlike Bonds, will still be in the prime of his career. Adam (formerly Pacman) Jones? If he snags 8 interceptions this year, will it be enough for people to forget the 'Make it Rain' incident in Las Vegas? I know the last three mentioned are African-Americans and Hamilton is White and it certainly is debatable if race plays a part in public acceptance. When Jason freaking Giambi, despite his hellishly hideous new mustache and similar steroids allegations, even admittance, is still playing for $23 Million this season and Bonds isn't, the race factor is even stronger. Naysayers need look no further than Kobe Bryant. Has he been entirely forgiven for the rape allegations? He won NBA MVP last year and his jersey is back among the league leaders in sales, but I'm not sure that all of blue-collar America looks at him the same. Robert Downey Jr? Was Ironman big enough to make people forget his checkered past? It remains to be seen, but things are looking awfully bright for Tony Stark.

While nothing makes a stronger case than strong on-field performance, I ponder sometimes if that is ultimately enough. Can public relations save careers? The stories of Hamilton going city to city, school to school to tell his story to youngsters and of him turning his life over to God are pretty inspiring, that's for sure. It certainly is too bad that the guy who did the equivalent of the wrongdoing of any of the aforementioned without the same athleticism will forever be remembered for their indiscretions, genuine overhaul or not.

"See honey, the rumors are true, just look at this magazine!"

2008-07-14T20:21:00.000-07:00

Such remarks hopefully haven't been made since the release of the the latest issue of the New Yorker magazine that brings up debates over the use of satire, intended demographics and the thin line between good taste and tasteless.

The New Yorker magazine has long been known for its sophisticated, arguably bourgeois content that has included, along with suitable wine & cheese party conversation starters, cartoons serving as satirical commentary on events and themes in culture and politics. It is not to be commonly confused with, oh let's say, OK! magazine and its intended demographic because frankly, that readership may be left confused with the New Yorker and the lack of Bradgelina baby pics (On a side note, that magazine reportedly paid the power couple $4 Million for photos of the newborns, to talk about offensive and unfathomable). The point with the comparison is that a lot of fuss is being made over the latest edition of the New Yorker due to the cover featuring democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama in a Muslim garb, bumping fists with his wife, Michelle, who is donning a sizable Afro along with an AK-47. To add fuel to the flame, they are set in the Oval Office and an American flag can be seen burning in the fireplace, which just so happens to be below a portrait of Osama Bin Laden. Wow, that sure is a lot to type in, but it seems that most of the fuss is being stirred up by media figures who don't subscribe to the New Yorker. If they did, I think they would appreciate it for the satirical, yet powerful imagery that the cover provokes.

Mike Allen of Politico.com stated that a New Yorker staff member told him "the cover is a satirical lampoon of the caricature Sen. Obama's right-wing critics have tried to create." The magazine clearly knows its demographic after 83 years of doing what it does and I firmly believe that the magazine's brain trust knew that its loyal readership would not only understand the cover, but also not be upset by its "tasteless and offensive" nature, as the McCain camp claim. As a matter of fact, they must've assumed that its audience would actually appreciate it for its audacity.

Should magazines, or any media vehicle for that matter, be more concerned about what its own audience is going to take away from a message or the perception of an audience that are outsiders to its product? Clearly, It is essential to connect with your audience and deliver material that meets expectations, or at times even, as in this case, exceed them. Things just tend to get a wee bit dicey when in the midst of a groundbreaking election that has larger concerns.

The magazine has its bashers who see it as "liberal rag," but this is America and with the 1st amendment comes satire, the New Yorker's preferred form of freedom of speech. So, I can envision a conference room full of New Yorker editors ultimately deciding that their chief priority was meeting demographic demand and finally putting their feet down and answered the question of "Can we actually, really run this?" Their answer then, as we know, ended up being, "Yes We Can! (no pun intended)"

So, what happens when you mix politics with satire and like a kajillion bloggers? Some dangerously potent stuff, that's what. But I guess some people like their drinks stiff, some bland, depending on preference, or in this case, interpretation.

Hancock and the Recession

2008-07-01T14:33:00.000-07:00

Happen to catch the Hancock review in today's Star Tribune? I know I awoke this morning and thought it was likely that I would see as many stars given to Hancock by Strib film critic Colin Covert as dollars/gallon at the nearest BP (around four), but instead I found myself surprised, and not by the price of gas. According to Variety newspaper, studio estimates are already projecting that the new Will Smith blockbuster will exceed $100 million in its first week in the box office. With Covert handing the movie a paltry two stars, I immediately wondered if all the reviews around the country were comparable to Covert's and if negative press with headlines like "Superzero," like in the Strib, would lead this expensive popcorn flick to disaster.

If you look back as recently as May's Speed Racer, you will see a cautionary tale of a film that was supposed to be one of the summer's biggest hits, yet an array of negative reviews contributed to the film bombing worse than Kobe in the finals. It seems unlikely that Hancock will suffer where Speed Racer did. For one, Hollywood seems to be benefiting from the economic recession. It's actually funny that we are apparently in a horrible recession, yet our country is still managing to cough up ten bucks a movie more readily than ever before. Variety reports that last year was the most profitable year in the history of the box office, and somehow this year receipts are already 4% ahead of last year's clip. I guess one explanation would be with more and more unemployed people at home without jobs, they figure "why not enjoy some pure escapist fun like Hancock to forget about all this economic turmoil, and what the hell, I wasn't really doing anything else anyways, you know, being unemployed and all. " History will remind us that the Great Depression was an incredibly prosperous time for the cinema, not to imply that we are in the process of meeting the Great Depression II or anything.

But back to Hancock, shortly after reading the review this morning, I turned on the radio and heard a local DJ (97.1 FM) dismissing Covert's review, saying that he liked exactly what Covert disliked about the film, and sure enough, reviews in the LA Times, NY Times, Miami Herald, amongst many other papers and blogs, were all over the map. As a result, I tend to doubt that Covert's review will impact the success of the film too mightily and I even think such a disagreement in reviews will lead more people to the theater to see what all the fuss is about, me included. I happen to love the fact that there is finally a big budget movie that isn't afraid to neglect disclosing the entire narrative in its trailer. The viral marketing, social networking-aided boost, mystery of what the film is even about and subsequent PR bonanza that is inevitable over the up-and-down reviews should be enough to make Will Smith King of 4th of July weekend once again.

With all the PR discussion, it has to be noted that the film, from what we do know, is about a superhero (Smith) who has fallen out of interest with the public and has taken up a nasty drinking habit, become disgruntled and doesn't seem to care for his hygiene either. He ends up saving the life of a public relations executive (Bateman), in the picture above, which spurns the guy to help the superhero with his image. He gives him a costume, puts him in alliance with the police, signs him up for rehab and gets him positive media coverage that helps transform his public perception. Now that would be a fun client, I must say. So it turns out that what could end up being the summer's biggest hit, is about a massive PR campaign, much to my delight, being it that I am an aspiring PR professional myself.

Which brings me to a blog I read today, Minneapolis-based PR agency Risdall McKinney's, mentioned that amidst the recession, PR services are still in demand and have been increasingly sought after for the sixth straight year. I guess Hollywood is taking notice. PR has seemingly taken a backseat to advertising in terms of increasing brand awareness for sometime, but with the way that emphasis has transferred to the web and with social media, it has become more relevant. Two encouraging media-related occurrences in one day, wow. Even after reading 20 something reviews for a gigantic movie budgeted at $150 million, I still haven't the slightest clue how it ends and I, just as fellow PR professional Jason Bateman found out, have reason to be optimistic despite grim realities (him being stuck in railroad tracks, me being a part of this generation of "millennials" stuck in the now redundant recession).

The Year That was...

2007-12-23T05:27:00.000-08:00

Top 10 lists really do seem to be contrived and plainly the same across the board from all critics, and I generally am opposed to them based on the fact that I can guarantee that not one of the critics didn't look at other critics' lists before finishing their own. No one wants to be that guy that listed "American Gangster" as the epic-of all epics or calls "Superbad" "stupid." People are all aware of what other people consider good and that certainly plays a role in lists, and I would be lying if I were to say that it didn't influence mine. I must also note that there are many films that I would probably add to my lists had I seen them and they may be missing only for the fact that I missed a few gems and clunkers as well. I know I'm going to like "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead" when I see it and hate "Licence to Wed" if I am ever forced to see it, so take my lists with a grain of salt.

Top 10 Films

1. No Country for Old Men - The Coen. Brothers' masterpiece that deserves to be ranked even above the brilliant "Blood Simple" and "The Big Lebowski"
2. Grindhouse - I'm still mad more people didn't see this, it was the most awesome boom of blood-soaked craziness that one can imagine
3. Superbad - Apatow cemented his legacy even after three films
4. Darjeeling Limited - Anderson comes back with a bang in this melancholy of a light-soul-searching film, even though it can be seen as a parody of Wes Anderson films
5. Knocked Up - Hilarious, one of many pregnant themed films in 2007
6. Eastern Promises - Cronenberg and Viggo are meant for each other
7. Juno - Sweet and quirky
8. Into the Wild - Sean Penn succeeds when I didn't think he would..
9. I'm Not There - Amazingly choppy, confusing, creative and innovative
10. Bourne Ultimatum - Mad dash of a thinking man's thriller trilogy-capper

Worst 10 movies
1. Catch & Release - possibly worst of all-time, like the entire crew took acid, like the neo-Grindhouse, and scrambled all their scenes so the movie doesn't make sense
2. Norbit- So much for a Eddie Murphy "comeback" - "Dreamgirls" sucked too
3. The Number 23 - I actually saw this with Norbit on the same day, and I would give anything to have those four horrendous hours back
4. Because I Said So - Wish It I would've said "no" and taken a nap instead on that flight, or watched the racist "You've Got Mail" B.S. again
5. Epic Movie - Would've been funnier left unsaid
6. Black Snake Moan - sad that same guy that brought us "Hustle & Flow" made this trash-fest
7. The Brothers Soloman - can be added to other SNL- cast member garbage like Corky Romano
8. The Heartbreak Kid - How in the hell did the Farrelley Bros. make "Dumb & Dumber" and "There's Something about Mary?" I'm starting to think they stole those from other actually funny people
9. Turistas - When are people going to stop being fascinated by these stupid-as-all-hell gore-fests?
10. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End - I'm sorry, but I just can't stand this Blockbuster crap sometimes, especially when it clearly was made as quickly as possible before everyone figured out that the movies kind of suck

Other 2007 awards:

Best use of Umbrella:
Rihanna (Song) vs. Britney (For a car attack)
Winner: Rihanna wins in a close one with her collaboration with Jay-Z over Britney's crazy, hilarious attack.

Most devastating TV death:
Christopher (The Sopranos) vs. Bodie (The Wire)
Winner: Christopher, by a hair, as your mouth was gaping open with either of these deaths if you had invested any time into either of the spectacular HBO shows.

Best Hip-Hop Album:
Kanye (Graduation) vs. Jay-Z (American Gangster) vs. Common (Finding Forever) vs. Brother Ali (Undisputed Truth) vs. Lupe (The Cool)
Winner:
Kanye, for his well-rounded album that looked at himself in the mirror as a celeb and triumphed, yet "Drunk and Hot Girls" could have been replaced with his collab with John Mayer "Bittersweet Poetry."

Best- Worst athletic achievement:
Roger Clemens staying out of the limelight until the Mitchell Report vs. Micheal Vick boneheaded idea to participate in dogfighting
Winner: Both careers are tainted forever, but Vick may have done the stupider thing, considering how he bet 10K/fight when that among was such a small percentage of his NFL salary. Was it really worth it? Obviously not, and his indecision to stay connected with the 'hood earns him the title.

"I'm Not There" audiences: be prepared for a bit of ambiguity

2007-12-05T11:28:00.000-08:00

One piece of advice I have for Michael Bay fans and his narrative-challenged heart that are planning on seeing the Todd Haynes' Bob Dylan pseudo-biopic “I’m Not There” is to be prepared to be a little more confused than you were when you walked out of "Transformers." (Although I was amazingly confused as to how the actors couldn't give more of an apprehensive reaction when they were approached by giant robots. I will give them some slack, considering it is maybe harder than I think to react to things that aren't actually there, but seriously, they made it seem like the robots were their grandmothers coming in for smooches.. which is really here nor there for the topic of this post, for which I apologize.) The point here is that you must wear your thinking caps to this film and that if you are a typical film-goer that has grown accustomed to having films spoon fed to you, you should probably bring your bib as well.

I have been asked this question a number of times in the past few weeks concerning the Dylan film: Do you have to be a huge fan of Dylan to enjoy the film? The answer is muddled, as there are many various things to consider, but it all stems down to how much of a film nut you are. A big film nut with no Dylan knowledge will be content whereas a small film nut with no Dylan knowledge might be better suited seeing "Hitman," or some other commercially viable film. The narration does now flow in a linear manner, and that can tend to drive people crazy. Haynes' attempt at such a creative concept, with six actors portraying one man, each being a sort of alter-ego, although none of them bear Dylan's namesake or resemble Dylan, besides Blanchett and Bale, is admirable. It takes a lot of guts to attempt such an eclectic creation. Does he execute his attempt? He certainly gave one hell of an attempt and the big film nut who is also a huge Dylan historian surely thought he executed is with precision. The references and metaphors are aplenty, so prepare to analyze this more than Billy Crystal and Robert Deniro. But a neatly narrated, straight-forward, rags- to-riches story amidst typical roadblocks ala "Ray" and "Walk the Line" this is not. The Ray Charles and Johnny Cash biopics, respectively, were made in a fashion that enables the viewer to have no previous knowledge and to be pretty much an oblivious incompetent and still “get” the film. They give you the played-to-death “this happened, and then this happened, and then finally, after this crazy thing happened, this great thing happened” scheme that mainstream audiences love, so when compared to those movies, “I’m Not There” is quite the refreshment.
The buzz surrounding Cate Blanchett's performance has to be noted, for it is nothing short of deserved, as her mannerisms and body language are basically dead-on from what I know of Dylan's tendencies. It is completely reasonable to want to go see this film because of her performance alone, even with no previous knowledge of the film's subject matter, for it is more compelling to watch than Hilary Swank in “Boys Don’t Cry,” another chick-plays-a guy film. If you are the viewer that will go only to see Blanchett, then you will be very anxious for her to steal the scenes again while you have to wait impatiently during the other actor’s turns. Heath Ledger, who played Dylan during his Hollywood, big-timer role, gives more or less a yawner of a performance and was the least gripping of the six roles.
Whether it is great or not ultimately boils down to the extent of the viewer's knowledge of Dylan coupled with how big a film nut the viewer is, and it is certain that a vast diversity of conclusions will be based upon those factors alone, but if you're not prepared to wear your thinking cap expect to be completely blowin' in the wind.

BCS really is a bunch of BS

2007-12-03T15:19:00.000-08:00

Just when things seemed like they couldn't get any more chaotic.. a big heap of crap stinkier than Britney Spears' career falls into college football's lap. In the only proper way to cap an extremely unpredictable college football season that has had more upsets than Ben Affleck's fanbase, #1 Missouri fell to Oklahoma 38-17 and #2 West Virginia lost at home to struggling rival Pitt 13-9 Saturday. Now what? Well, a playoff system would've been nice for this tumultuous implosion of a season, but then again, who would even be in the playoff, with so many qualified, or maybe un-qualified teams for that matter and so much ambiguity? Expert analyst Kirk Herbstreit didn't even have any insightful conclusion. "The BCS is going to implode," he said. As many as ten teams can probably make their justified case for being in the Championship game, but it is going to boil down to those damned computers, bless their reasonable hearts. Ivan Meisel, of ESPN said it likely looks like LSU and Ohio St. will get bids, on their website, but then again, maybe all of college football should just boycott the BCS bowl games this season in hopes of being rewarded with a playoff system that could be maybe offer some stability. But with this frenetic season, even being stabilized would've still left the scene open for a confusing, unprecedented debate forum. i swear I'll write longer next time...

"Gangster, Gangster; it's already evident"

2007-11-11T09:35:00.000-08:00

I remember the first time I saw the American Gangster trailer in theaters, as it basically made me forget about the film I was actually present at the theater to see, Ocean's 13 or something. I got so excited just reminiscing about other gangster films and imagining everything that this could be. Well, it turns out that my expectations may have been a little high. Ridley Scott's film clearly wants to be in the category of Scarface so desperately and cater to the needs of gangster lovers like myself that it gets in the way of the creative process that is filmmaking. It is a complete recycle of everything that we have learned from other gangster pictures that it makes no progress for the genre, in fact it may have made the genre digress. Let's compare one element of the film to other gangster films and see if it stacks up: The role of women:
1. The Godfather: Diane Keaton's "Are you blind?" speech to Michael about having an abortion instead of a miscarriage, like he thought, added an element to the film that made the role of women relevant. This is just one role, there were many other that were delved into, especially Sofia Coppolla's role in III.
2. Scarface: Tony kills his best friend because he gets together with his sister, Gina. Tony's obsession with his sister clouds his judgment and leads to his demise, a huge factor in the film.
3. Goodfellas: Jennifer Melfi, I mean Lorraine Bracco, waits for Henry to wake up, "Wake up Henry." Henry's infidelity makes her go crazy, and her role is very complex, from her family's background to her narration of other mobsters' wives is all great work from Scorsese.
4. Casino: Sharon Stone, need I say more?

Now American Gangster: nada. Which is pretty much the extent of the dialogue that Lucas' wife had. She was the most pointless, bland character in the history of mobster wives. She provided no insight, never got through to Lucas and made the film worse. Lucas' mother then slaps him near the end of the film for inflicting pain upon his family, but what it was was more of slap to the face of the viewer, like "since when did she have an opinion?" By the time she tries to make a difference the audience is already led to believe she doesn't care about how Lucas makes his money or destroys lives, and it comes off as contrived and phony.
Now this is only comparing one element of the film to other gangster flicks. If the film hadn't been amped up to be the next great gangster pic than it would have passed off as pretty good, but when a patron orders Filet mignon because it's what the menu states, then they aren't going to be happy with burnt char.

The album, on the other hand, by Jay-Z, which I almost didn't buy because of the film, is worthy of praise. The smart concept album in which Jay portrays a young thug destined to glorify the dope game, rise to the top of it, and then ultimately realize its plight of despair, deserves to be placed in the category of other great albums. Jay manages to fit in smart commentary on the Imus situation, Jena 6 and Al Sharpton all while staying in form. If it’s one or the other, don't let the gangster that is Hollywood force you into picking the film.

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels

2007-07-29T04:54:00.000-07:00

I must begin by apologizing to my faithful readers for the long hiatus, if you are no longer faithful to me I will win you back with interesting concepts to ponder in the very near future, I swear. I have officially watched The Sopranos finale 782 times since it first premiered and my obsession/depression residing with the show has been the reason for my time off, we will just call it a sabbatical. Or think of it like when The Sopranos take like 16 months off in between seasons, and come back with a bang, no egotism though. David Chase must have men watching me to make sure he doesn't end up missing due to his frustrating, ambiguous antics, and by the way Tony did not die, period.

In amidst of the most boring sports month of the entire year, where our highlights thus far have consisted of a man having to eat his regurgitated food in order for his vomit to count as a hot dog in an eating competition and trade speculation, there has been some awfully troubling matters in each of the three biggest sports. The steroids issue in baseball is not becoming any less magnified as Barry Bonds is itching closer and closer to the hallowed home run record, Michael Vick has further deteriorated the NFL's badboy image with his ugly dogfighting allegations and David Stern is facing possibly the most serious of scandals with the referee betting fiasco. Could players be involved? Did Donaghy make the difference in that Suns-Spurs playoff game that resulted in the suspensions of Amare and Boris? Henry Hill seems to think it goes much deeper, and anytime the guy from Goodfellas thinks something fishy is going on and there is money to be made it might not be good for your league.

These scandals are plaguing sports and are affecting the way children are going to perceive sports. The foundation to root for their idols is diminishing and those idols look more and more like greedy Michael Caine/Steve Martin replicas. We should have plenty of controversy to discuss in the upcoming posts.

Don Imus, Virginia Tech and Modern Stereotyping in the Media

2007-04-22T15:47:00.000-07:00

In the wake of a national tragedy we, as a country, have been faced with the problematic issues of freedom of speech and racial tension that have escalated due to events in the last month. I am in no way attempting to undermine the severity and sadness of the Virginia Tech shooting by linking it with Don Imus's big mouth, but both events have opened up a canister of racial animosity that can more directly be considered when thought of together. In the first amendment we were granted with the freedom of speech and with the second amendment we were granted with the right to bear arms. Those two amendments have now taken serious blows to their validity.
Don Imus, who was once named one of the 25 most influential people in America by TIME Magazine, said a very insensitive thing, and I don't condone the type of language he used, but what is worse, a world where there is repressed racial tension that isn't dealt with due to people keeping it contained, or a world where there is racial tension that is revealed on a grand stage and forces the public to learn how to cope with and fix that tension? I am saying that the latter is a world where I would rather live in, for how is racism ever going to be dealt with and fixed if people just keep it bundled up until all hell breaks loose? The aftermath of the Imus statement has seen the Women's Rutgers Basketball team show the world of the intellectual and vastly educated side that they have that proves that they are anything but a bunch of "nappy headed hoes," as Imus referred to them as. That image of the very bright, and diligent team, who has mostly African American athletes is the type of image that will help negative stereotyping towards African Americans from taking place. It was Imus's right to say what he wanted, and as wrong as it was, I don't think he should have been fired. If he had retained his job, the show would have reached new heights in listeners and all the callers to the radio show would surely induce an arena of conversation regarding racism and stereotyping that would help us learn how to diminish it by talking about it on such a large stage. That seems as though it wouldn't be the worst scenario in the world, if Imus would have served his suspension, gone to some sort of therapy session and signed a new contract with new guidelines and less money, but I understand the pressure NBC felt once advertisers started bailing and the controversy heated up. Hip Hop music surely hasn't helped any of this stereotyping from going away, despite there being plenty of rappers who try to promote African American pride and shy away from terms like, "bitch," "ho," or "chickenhead," that clearly helped statements like Imus's from being said. The Minneapolis based rapper Brother Ali is the type of rapper that will help certain racism from existing when he nobly refused to reveal his actual ethnicity (Ali is an albino and it is hard to tell if he is black or white) and says that a man should be judged by their merits, not by their ethnicity, which they very well should be. Rappers aren't being fired after rappers like The Game, say choruses like, "I got a gang of hoes in the back of my ride," despite being a smash single and being on the airwaves towards an audience that is much larger than Imus's show. I do realize that Imus's statement was towards a single group of people, not towards a broad group, like in the rap song, and that referring to an actual, small group led to the specific group of people retaliating, and that Imus is white, so the comparison is a little different. What I have a hard time understanding is how the type of limitations where it is completely frowned upon when a certain race of people say something towards another particular race but where it is simply discouraged when it is from two completely different races are leading us in the right direction. These types of limitations will get us no further away from racism than blaming it solely on Imus.
Now on another very unfortunate issue in Hokie nation. The mass shooting that led to 33 deaths and infinite heartaches now has the potential to create a similar stigma towards the Asian race that Middle Easterners still deal with due to 9/11. This is a horrible reality to consider, but many parents of college students of oriental descent have removed their children from Universities @ Virginia Tech, Virginia and Virginia Commonwealth due to their fear of retaliation towards S. Koreans or Asians in general. Obviously, the horror that Cho Seung-hui committed was an isolated incident and to think that a whole race feels responsible is very wrong. I have read a chat room where many S. Koreans apologized for the actions rather than just showing sympathy and I felt awful that they felt obligated to apologize. White teens weren't necessarily ridiculed after Columbine, and White teens weren't feeling the need to apologize, but trench-coat, hard rockers certainly suffered some stereotyping due to the shooting of two delusional teens. It is here where I must question whether or not it was justified that NBC revealed the footage that Seung-chi sent them to the public. He even mentioned "Eric and Dylan," or showing his awareness of the two Columbine teens, and while they may have not inspired him to do what he did, the media exposure of Columbine certainly didn't prevent him from doing it. Now that NBC has aired that footage he sent, copycat crimes are much more likely to occur than they would have had they not aired it. If other troubled people see so much of this on TV they may get ideas and realize they too will be famous if they do something crazy like this. The Media is giving Seung-chi what he wanted and why would we ever eant to satisfy someone who values life so little? Despite the argument for the public's right to know, and the Media's obligation to inform, I feel as though they should have just had it confiscated to the FBI and it would have been held as evidence. That way, less fear would be provoked, and those in grief, which are many, would be able to heal and mourn in a much more functional and sensitive environment. My school has already felt the aftermath, as we have received a bomb threat a mere two days after the Virginia Tech shooting. This caused 8 hours of classes in 8 prominent classroom building to be cancelled, but more significantly, provided a day of fear that will stay with students and make it ever the more likely that they will feel unsafe on campus.
Race, safety and stereotyping are all serious things that our Nation is plagued with, but gun control may be the most pressing of all the issues. While I have no solution due to it being such a large issue to tackle, it must be agreed upon that before we can make any changes that gun availability and murder rates are in a direct correlation. People may say that we should have stricter screening processes so gunmen like Seung-hui can't buy automatic weapons, but who's to say how that process would work? What would the guidelines be like? Will we deny someone if they own The Matrix trilogy or got suspended in the 3rd grade for fighting because it is considered violent behavior? What defines violent behavior? I can only imagine how S. Koreans and trench coat wearing guys with tattoos will be considered in that screening process. The whole issue is so hard that I really don't see anything happening soon, maybe until the largest mass killing spree that the Nation has ever seen is obliterated with a 100 deaths, 200 deaths. How many people have to die until major changes are made? This is very unfortunate. Maybe the Constitution really did mean the right to bear arms as the Family Guy depicted them as doing, because how else has it been a successful law? Here is that picture:

In conclusion, I try to see a better future for all these issues and the only way I see less stereotypes being made towards S.Koreans because of Virginia Tech and the assumption that Asians love violence like in Hidden Tiger Crouching Dragon, and African Americans because of Don Imus and Rap music is to start the slow progression by questioning the media. They are hugely a reason for these stereotypes and terrible incidents that have occurred lately, but if people have an open mind, learn how others feel about certain perceptions and don't keep it secretive, maybe lessons can be learned. We love the Media, and it makes our world go round, but no one said that it is universally correct. RIP to those @ Virgina Tech and may Stereotyping RIP as well and controversy be alive.

Placing your bets with The Sopranos

2007-04-14T09:12:00.000-07:00

This column is to adhere to the most exciting, nostalgically strategic bet in America: While it will be exciting to see what team gets the right to pick Greg Oden on May 22, the conclusion to the best series on television is in the near future and we still have many possible outcomes. So go to the ATM and withdraw some cash for the following odds will surely entice any serious Sopranos fan to make a friendly wager.

- 12/1 odds- Tony ends up in jail. These odds may seem a bit high, especially after last week's season 6 part 2 premiere episode when Tony states to Baccala, "80% of the time high up guys end up like Johnny Sack." This is also after Tony is arrested for gun charges that don't seem to be done with considering his lawyer informed him that the feds decided to pursue the case and that they have been building a re co case against him for 5 years. Any Mob film follower knows that it's is only a matter of time once you have reached your pinnacle that you start your own demise. Only Frank Costello and Vito/Micheal Corleone come to mind in terms of being long term bosses without ending up in the can, and Costello was a FBI informant in The Departed, making him a scapegoat. The Corleones are of another breed and should be exemplified from any current mob discussion. It has to be noted that David Chase, the creator of the show has long said that he knew the outcome right as the show debuted and he hasn't changed his mind on how its going to conclude. Considering that, Chase seems to have some mystical, astonishing exit planned, and I just don't see it concluding with Tony in jail, because that is a typical scenario for mob stories, and any avid viewer of The Sopranos knows that is anything but typical and ordinary.

- 10/1 - Tony ends up in the Witness Protection Program. This may seem more unlikely than the case in which Tony ends up incarcerated, but for the amount of Psychiatry that Tony has undergone, and number of close associates that he really has,(zero) he may opt out and become a snitch. True, he is the boss that lives by the ode to silence, that said "May your Mother die from Cancer of the eyes if you ever betray your friends," and that "This thing of ours, it comes before everything, your family, your kids.." and also went out of his way on a college visit with Meadow to strangle a rat in the program that was for principle if anything, but his life is changing. He said on last week's episode, "I'm 47 years old, and have experienced a trauma that I probably will never recover from, my life is different," and it seems that he is more caught up in his own personal insecurities of whether or not he will end up in jail, or ever be able to beat up another associate again than anything else. His bond with Christopher has gone down the drain, as made evident when he hung up on him during last week's episode, and Christopher's fling with the lady from ER that Tony didn't get last year. In Tony's messed up morals, he would forfeit his friendship with Chris more over the fact that he got a girl that Tony couldn't get than for the fact that he has persistently lied to him about his drug use. Paulie and Tony seemed close last year as Paulie shared his secrets about his prostate cancer and the real identity of his Mother, but Paulie is like a child and becoming less useful to Tony, so Tony is also losing touch with him. Tony and Silvio have never had the Corleone/Tom Hagen Boss/Consigliere relationship going for them, and there seems to be nothing holding their relationship together but their desks in Bada Bing. Carlo, Benny, Patsy and the others only can emerge as meaningful people in Tony's life if they provide huge envelopes each and every week, and even then Tony seems to be in such a state of oppressed, morbid self-sufficiency that he would eventually find a reason to forget about them as well, despite the big kick-ups. We all know how Tony feels about Phil Leotardo, as he requested shots from the bartender after he heard of his heart attack last season, and would give him up without any hesitation if it came down to it. We will get to his relationship with Bobby, which has become all the more significant later, as well as his family. Every relationship Tony has has been deteriorated in one way or another, and the ways in which Melfi has constantly told him and persuaded him to leave the life might actually make Tony suffice. I can foresee Tony getting caught up for his gun charge and buying into leaving it all, for the reason that he is evolving into more and more of a vindictive man, despite what Carmela says, and it would be a huge surprise, seeing Tony walking down the driveway of a new house, in his bathrobe, in a new location and picking up his paper, reading "Soprano slain." I close my eyes and see him happier playing with new ducks in a new home than he could ever be in Jersey, and the last scene zooming away from him staring into a trance of ambivalence in a pool chair and seeing the ducks leaving him once again, it would be very poetic, but still unlikely.

- 5/2 - Tony meets his eminent death - The way I see it there are five possible gunmen that will finally put Tony in the ground, and each have different odds in their favor. I can only imagine how excited the cast was to read the script last season, for each and every cast member could potentially be the one that hits Tony. Being a cast member for this show and reading the last episode is like losing your virginity; a moment that you know is beyond significant and the anticipation just eats at you until you lose it. This is assuming that Chase didn't reveal his master plan to his actors a long time ago, and it seems as though he didn't, for it would be a weird and dangerous thing to have on your conscience for 7 years. Just imagine being Micheal Imperioli, for example, who plays Christopher, and knowing that your character is the one that kills Tony. The constant interrogation from people would be too hard to with hold, and for this reason I assume Chase didn't reveal the ending to his actors until this year.

New York - 15/1
Yes, this is Tony's main rival and things are not very cozy between Tony and Phil Leotardo, but the beef seems to have been minimized and this season looks like it is going to focus more on the actual Soprano family. It was only two episodes back that Phil's consigliere said, "Now it's time to blow him off the planet," after Tony retaliated for Vito's vicious murder by torching one of Phil's businesses and after Big Don went missing, so it seems plausible that there still is bad blood, but it almost seems liked forced bad blood. Last season's beef between Jersey and New York didn't seem nearly as real as in Season 5 when Tony Blundetto whacked Phil's Brother, and that beef kind of just carried over to Season 6. That tension was the least viable and most contrived of all the incidents that have occurred in the series. The hard feelings were basically squashed until little Carmine brought up the previous year's actions and got Phil hot again, it was almost as if Chase just thought, "well, the end of the series is in the foreseeable future, and this beef is the only one we can really maintain," or the writers just ran out of ideas and just fell back of the brilliance of season's past. I did think that it was contrived a bit, but I like it overall because it let the show focus more on Tony's inner demons and his real family's issues and it will remain that way until the end of the series. There is a chance that in the last 7 episodes a new incident will occur that will get Phil so pissed off that he takes Tony out, but the chat that Tony had with Phil in the hospital seemed to hit home at least a little and I believe complacency is the residing course of action for those two.
(I am an honest man, and have just proceeded writing this column after seeing the newest episode (#2 in Season 6, Part 2) and could seriously alter the odds due to Phil's speech about no longer being hesitant to stand up for his honor.)

Someone in his own crew - 25/1 - When I write this I pretty much am singleing out Bobby Bacala and Christopher. No other relationship is as unstable as those two, and there are more issues with those two than any other. Bacala's chances skyrocketed with last week's beating of Tony, and Christopher's chances took a similar leap in this week's episode. Bobby could feel threatened that Tony may feel bitter about their altercation, and in a rematch may take Tony down. We know Bobby has popped his cherry in that department now, although he was obviously clumsy about it and we will probably hear about it again before the season's over, or this column. Christopher's film, and Carmela's theory, that basically says that Tony was portrayed by Alec Baldwin's Brother (Johnny Drama resemblance) and that the mistress in the film was supposed to be Adriana, bring new levels to Tony' relationship with Christopher. Baldwin did end up with a cleaver in his head at the end of the film, but regardless of how Christopher feels towards that situation, and how obviously not as close the two men are, I would bet that Christopher ends up dead from an overdose or New York before he kills Tony.

Someone in his real family -8/1 - When I write of the possible suitors in his family that pretty much means Janice, Carmela or AJ, in that order. Before I dive into these three scenarios the whole dependent variable for the show must be noted. Livia, Tony's Mother, who played a prominent role on the show's first 1 1/2 seasons before unexpectedly dying, in my theory, was meant to have still been around at this time in the show, but the actual actress died during filming of the second season and the show knew that replacing her with a different actress, like they did with Christopher's Mom between season 2 and 3, would be a dumb move so they ultimately had to accommodate with her death. A lot of people don't know this. (Christopher's Mom didn't play as pivotal of a role, so switching actresses in that case was a different move entirely.) When Chase says that he had a master plan from the beginning, that would imply that he had no idea about the actress's death, and completely switched the show around. This has to be seriously considered, for his Mother once played a role in attempting to have Tony whacked and to say that she wasn't planned to have him actually killed or doing it herself another time would be showing ignorance, because they clearly had a dysfunctional realtionship. Therefor,I feel as though Chase had to pick someone else in the family to kill Tony, for he has wanted more emphasis on the actual family as of late.
Besides his Mother, his sister Janice is the one relationship that is as tumultuous as the one he had with Livia. They have repeatedly gone at it during the duration of the series, and now that Bobby, her new husband, could potentially be caught for the hit on the Canadian, she will have more resentment towards Tony because she will know Tony had him do it and was aware he was clumsy enough to mess it up. Add that with all the repressed anger she has, and the fact that we know that she is capable of killing someone close to her (Boyfriend Richie Aprile in Season 2, and pushing Ralph down the stairs in Season 4) and it makes her the most likely shooter, in my mind. Carmela and Tony have been like one lately, being very close on that trip and even engaging in a sexual scene that made me very uncomfortable to watch, but one screw up and the top could be blown off the lid again. Things happen rapidly on this show, an example being Johnny Sack dying last episode with no mention of him being sick in prior episodes, so things could seem lovey dovey and immediately explode. That is the one way Carmela could be the shooter. Tony could be caught in an act of infidelity again and they could get in a domestically physical dispute like the one they got into at the end of season 4 and Carmela could potentially just lose it, not being able to deal with Tony's ways any longer.
The last scenario in the family is AJ, and is also the most unlikely but not entirely impossible scenario. That picture frame with Tony and AJ fishing seems like ages ago, as they clearly aren't as close as they once were. Things looked rough between AJ and his girlfriend on the latest episode and I could see them breaking up partly due to Tony's level of acceptance of her being Latina and AJ could flip out on Tony. I always assumed AJ would eventually get involved in the family business, and he could eventually get so agitated that Tony doesn't deem him as suitable that he proves it by killing him. AJ has always been unstable, insecure and unpredictable, so this is a possibility. Meadow is out of this picture, but the above three are the most usually prominent suspects for the finale. Last note: My bets are on that line Tony uttered in the season premiere where he was talking about his pharmacist's child drowning in a pool coming into play. It was pure foreshadowing that the average eye tends to miss in the show. The scene shuts just as he says "I can't get that story out of my head, for some reason," and I see Tony ending up drowning in his pool while playing with some new ducks, whoever the killer may be. I guarantee ducks will be a factor, that is for sure.

5-1 - Nothing happens. By nothing I mean we just see Tony sitting by his pool in his pool chair and his bathrobe in a seriously depressed state. This would be possible for the reason that Chase has always made this show more about the family and Tony's inner struggles, and he could maybe end it by just showing how hard it is to be Anthony Soprano. Chris or someone else close to him could die, and he could become as depressed as he was when Big Pussy had to go. It would be an unclosed finale, just closing to credits, but it would do justice for how complex the show is.

3/1 - I weep when the credits role on the last episode. Like Shakespeare said, "Families are always rising and falling in America," but this is one family that I will certainly be sad to see fall.
Make your wagers Sopranos fans.

GRINDHOUSE and Female Empowerment

2007-04-08T05:56:00.000-07:00

I must note that, before I dive into this eclectic column, that I am currently on a 36-hour span of sleep deprivation due to my mind tossing and turning over the amount of incidents that I kept remembering from the marathon, Grindhouse, and that some of the following content could be considered spoiler material for readers who haven't seen the film. In other words, go and see this film. It is a double feature with Robert Rodriguez's Planet Terror first, and super geek Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof proceeding it. I pretty much told myself to steer clear of movie review-type posts, but this thing is simply too demanding to be restricted to be held hostage by a super geek like myself. This was the film version of that Braves-Astros 17-inning playoff game from two postseasons ago, that eliminated The Braves from the playoffs, with a walk-off home run by Jason Lane, in the sense that it was extremely long, but the entirety of the game was attention grabbing and the fans would've stayed for 30 innings. I really scold myself sometimes for knowing these things and being a neurotic geek about films and games like these, its kind of like how the albino scolds himself in The Da Vinci code (Sorry for coming off like Bridget Jones at times). I have been anticipating this film event more so than perverts anticipated Debby Does Dallas on DVD. You have to be ready for this film, and do your stretching before you come in, you'll thank yourself later.
The background information for the film is important to know. I felt like 90% of the theater was entertained by the content that was presented in front of them, which is fine, but didn't necessarily understand how much intertextuality was going on in referencing to other films, messages and eras. The Grindhouse term is derived from how double features were typically shown in little anti-AMC or Crown theaters in the 70's and 80's. I guarantee Tarantino was the one who came up with the project, for he is a huge geek of a historian. The films screened in those trashy little theaters were typically exploitation films that used sex and African Americans as there victims. They exploited sex/women by casting actresses completely based on how large there bust and rear end was and had the camera focused on those features rather than their dialogue and they exploited African Americans by using them as villains who often were degraded and made fun of. Tarantino/Rodriguez referenced these points consistently by zooming in on the features of the actresses and having a fake trailer called, "White Chicks on a Black Market," which looked incredibly awesome and sleazy, as all the fake trailers did. About the trailers, between films in Grindhouse they run fake trailers pertaining to that exploitation era, but they are not actually making all of them, if any more than "Machete," which is actually being filmed by Rodriguez, the film that's motto was "He really is one CRAZY Mexican," in the racially exploitative manner. So Tarantino pays homage to that era throughout the film, but the casual moviegoer almost certainly thought the camera was just zooming in on the chests of women because Tarantino is perverted, not because it is referential.
It must be known how arrogant, yet awesome, Tarantino is. There is a scene in his film that is obviously referencing Reservoir Dogs that is of long dialogic nature, a Tarantino trademark. The group of girls chatting it up about god know's what are observed by the camera in a circulating fashion that made Reservoir Dogs famous, and Tarantino uses the same tactic again in this film, almost rubbing it in your face like, "Don't you see what I'm doing??!!" I was whispering this occurrence to my girlfriend and I saw a super geek-looking guy over hear me and immediately turn his head towards me like "He's thinking exactly what I was, but no one else seems to get it!!" I could tell we both wanted to ditch our dates and sit next to each other and discuss the other observations and exchange e-mails. In fact, I wanted to jump out of my seat and holler at the rest of the audience about what they were seeing, because I bet I was one of only a handful that even picked up on the arrogant Reservoir Dogs reference. Side note: If you haven't seen Reservoir Dogs but have seen Swingers, the scene where they are talking about stealing other guy's work is actually stealing from Reservoir Dogs as they talk about him. It's brilliant and ironic and it is the reason why I like Favreau over Voight in Jon contest (no h).
So Tarantino gives shout outs to himself, and other films, like Vanishing Point, but also casts himself as cameos to shout out Hitchcock, who made an appearance in all of his films. This is not to say that it's way over the top, because his screenwriting and directing are superb, but the most sub-par performances in both films are from none other than himself, and I think his films would be more effective if he stayed out of them. It is good to take all of these things into consideration prior to seeing the film, for it allows you to appreciate that much more.
While it is important to consider some of the above comments the theme that is obvious, but needs you to put on your thinking cap is that of female empowerment. The phallic images are frequently flashed, almost slipping by you, and saying "If you are a true film nut you will catch these and we commend you." The obvious one is the gun on the leg of Rose Mcgowan in Rodriguez's film, who has made me forget her link to Maralyn Manson and that amazingly obscene fish net outfit she wore to the MTV awards, due to her acting in this film. She is the hero in that film, after enduring more guts, gore, blood, bloody breasts and popped blood vesicles on tongues than any hero has ever endured, awesomely, in film history. That triumph alone was worth price of admission. Couple her heroism and the crew's similar triumphant turn in Tarantino's film and the whole message of female empowerment is very evident. Not only is evident, but the message it is making towards the exploitation era in the 70's is phenomenal. In those films, white men were all the sleazeballs who were victorious after exploiting women and minorities during the whole film, so in Grindhouse, Rodriguez and Tarantion use the same camera techniques and themes as the 70's films did but have the women, over half of them of non Caucasian ethnicity, be hailed the victors. This twist is very smart and they are intentionally installing these messages to show how society and film have progressed to an age where these messages are accepted, and allows future filmmakers to pay homage to them as movie geniuses.
Now if that background doesn't matter to the viewer, while it should, the film is still demanding enough to see just for the utter jaw dropping and incredible explosion of obscene things that are shown. Now I have the need to take a nap and further dream in my relentless slumber about film and, to some, relative and irrelevant knowledge.

The Life and Times of MC Rove and Today's World in Hip Hop

2007-04-04T17:29:00.000-07:00

I never thought in a million years I would compile a montage consisting of the above photographs, but events and trends that recently have taken place have compelled me to make the compilation.
Attention, Dr. Dre, we may have found the newest underground sensation for your Interscope/Aftermath rap empire:
Before I started this blog I promised myself that I wouldn't get too carried away on the number of topics that I wrote about, and surely thought politics wouldn't get much ink, but Karl Rove's latest antics have got me fuming. At a recent Republican convention of some sort, Mr. Rove and his "crew" somehow thought it would be a good idea to put on a rap display for the audience. What resulted is got to be the most off-color and disturbing footage seen or heard since Eddie Murphy's Norbit or when Tim Hardaway last opened his mouth. After spending time discussing issues more important that the progression of their lyrical abilites, (what else?) they proceeded to turn on a corny beat and rap about Karl Rove's participation in modern politics. Such is an example of what was rapped, or the words of mass deception, going with the pic: "He is a Washington resident, and he's also a sidekick to the President, Now what is your name.... MC Rove!!!" I first am all shocked that they managed to rhyme resident with president, for its a better rhyme scheme than Atlanta rapper Young Jeezy might be able to come up with, but the hoarse voice that came out of Rove's mouth was not only daunting, for it sounded, like I expected it to, Darth Vader, but very grimly, a sound that seems fitting for the black hand that puppeteered a very controversial election/presidency. Also worth mentioning was the dancing that took place; it not only validates the stereotype that white people shouldn't dance, but was so hard on the eyes that only Elaine from Seinfeld could really appreciate it.
(Just writing about the pic in which Rove is handcuffed; he was not actually arrested for this proposterous show, but the imagery of the photo, when imagining the cops as P.R. guys, does wonders for the humors and morales of people who are against his actions.)
But all jokes aside, I don't remotely see how rapping and dancing can be even near the vicinity of appropriate as we have troops dying on a daily basis in Iraq, and until that issue is resolved, I just don't see how any sense of humor should be applied to anything involving the government or the administration linked to it. It is ludicrous that they can squeeze in time for this inapt performance when there are clearly issues that need resolving. This is not neccesarily saying that the public shouldn't ever see a personalized side of political figures, or that they can't ever have fun, but that they need to carry themselves in a professional manner when they do so. Can you imagine our troops seeing this image via satellite? Using a sports metaphor, it's like Yankees fans seeing Johnny Damon playing for the Red Sox, it just doesn't sit well with them, but clearly we are speaking of situations that are in completely different spheres of severity. It does have to be noted that Bill Clinton did do his best Kenny G rendition at one point, on National television, with his saxophone, but that moment was completely blown out of the water by what Rove and his henchmen displayed last week.
I recently have heard about the preperatory classes that incoming NBA rookies are required to participate in after they get drafted, about the social responsibility they have to act classy and represent the league in a good manner at all times. Apparently, politicians don't have a similar mandatory course intact for their league of gentlemen. What's really worse, Tennessee Titan's badboy, Adam "Pacman" Jones "making it rain" with 81,000 dollars on Las Vegas strippers that ignites a rumble, or Karl "Assman" Rove "making us pained" when he ignites a routine that completely undermines our Nation's integrity? I don't think we need Simon, Paula and Randy to determine that for us.
Is it that our nation's current state and perception of mainstream hip hop is so laughable and pop that incidents like this can occur or is it just that Rove and his buddies are tasteless enough to recite such an un-called for performance, at a political Correspondent's dinner of all places? I think its a little bit of both, because rappers are so easy to mock today that people don't really worry about any matters of disrespect when adhering to the musical content because it can't be diminished more so by critique than it already did by it's own undoing when it was released, to show how ignorant some of the stuff is. 12 years ago, when 2pac and the Notorious B.I.G, amongst many other superior skilled rappers, ruled the mainstream, it wasn't nearly as commercialized and self-sufficient as today's rap is. This is not to say that Karl Rove, Dick "duck!!!" Cheaney, or any other Republican, or Democrat, are neccesarily aware of the latest trends in hip hop, but to see Rove snap the way he did has to have Grandmaster Flash frowning from the rap heavens. If there were more political rappers dominating the airwaves instead of rappers like MIMS, who has a smash hit single titled "This is why I'm hot," maybe our society wouldn't be so succeptible to shameful events. This in no way, shape or form correlates Karl Rove's decisions with the decisions guys like MIMS are making, but rap nor politics were established to be linked together in this manner.
Getting back to MIMS, which stands for Music Is My Savior, (More like Mainstream Is Manipulating Society) the depths our entertained public has stooped to have reached new lows when the lead single is "This is why I'm hot." This is what the chorus consists of:
This is why I'm hot
This is why I'm hot
This is why (this is why)
This is why I'm hot
I'm hot cuz i'm fly,
You ain't cuz you not,
This is why (this is why)
This is why I'm hot
I'm hot cuz i'm fly,
You hate cuz you not (M.I.M.S.!)
This is why (this is why)
This is why I'm hot.

I really don't understand why he's hot at all.
I hate to seem like a party crasher, especially when I surely would have listened to this on repeat a short 2 years ago and probably actually have this on my iPod right now, (Hypocrite Alert!!!) but if he's trying to proclaim superior skills (Hotness) just based on the fact that he is talented (flyness) and because he doesn't think others can match his skills set, then, so be it. This is the mainstream, and it needs some tweaking, but if it doesn't, I'm either stuck to reverting back to the underground hip hop scene, or becoming an Oasis fan. I am not totally agreeing with Nas' proclamation, on his latest album, that "Hip Hop is dead," because there are still many bright spots in the genre, but Rove's actions/words and the ignorance currently displayed by rappers like MIMS have got me listening more closely to what Nas is trying to get at. I will say something positive for MIMS before I get out of here, just like I commended Jo from the Real Housewives and Spencer from The Hills, I will now commend MIMS for taking advantage of a dumbed-down market that is blind from their naivete and getting some cash in his bank account from it. But don't get mad when I say "I told you so.." when the next big single is "This is why we're depleted and braindead" by MIMS featuring MC Rove.

New Year's Eve

2007-03-27T12:00:00.000-07:00

By the time of year Dick Clark rolls around and the egg nog is replaced with champagne, you have surely forgotten about St. Nick and all that Christmas spirit that you were all amped up about just a short week earlier and the thought of Xmas almost irritates you when you know its getting time to toss out that stale tree rotting in the living room. It is likely to be either bummed out about Xmas because it didn't come through on the promises of hope you were wishing for the whole week before Xmas morning, or because you are still too focused on Xmas that it is interfering with your New Years plans. Although it is not even close to Xmas season when looking at the calendar, Sunday surely felt like New Year's eve in my household, as a new horizon of excitement was on the brink of occurring, yet the man of the house was still focused on his inadequate Xmas and wasn't able to fully enjoy Sunday due to his lackluster gift turnout from the week earlier. No, I am not a 7 year old child, but seeing the Final Four unfold with magnificent games wasn't as sweet as it could have been had I received that monster truck rally track, or had I managed to pick more than ONE game right for the Final Four. I don't mean to sound like a broken record, using this blog as a therapeutic outreach, but Helen Keller could have created a better bracket than I was capable of creating this year. I'm still breathing slowly, reminding myself, "It's ok, you got the Nintendo with the gun and Duck Hunt last year," or "It's ok, you have to remind yourself you picked the Arizona Wildcats in 1997 when no on else did." Exhale.
Historically speaking, this year's tournament has been relatively uneventful, in terms of upsets from lower seeded teams, and we were awfully close to having the first all -#1 seeded final four until UNC couldn't hit a shot to save their life over the last 7 minutes in their game versus Georgetown and Kansas had no answer for UCLA's stifling defense over a similar span in the Elite 8. Although there were no Cinderella stories this year to answer 11th seeded George Mason's run to the Final Four last year, this year has provided superb games following the first couple of drowsy days of the tournament. It is nice to see underdogs prevail under the spotlight, but it is not as if the tourney has lacked drama in any way just because our littler friends didn't arrive as usual. This year's Final Four provides classic matchups that I guarantee that will make people forget about the rather bland, hard-on-the-eyes basketball displayed last April.
Georgetown (my savior, for I could have picked all 16 seeds to advance and have scored as many points in my pools had Jonathan Wallace not hit that huge 3 to even things up at 81 with Carolina on Sunday and advance) will meet Ohio State, in a game that matches up the primadona, Greg Oden with Roy Hibbert, who could escalate his NBA draft status with a huge game. It is very rare that such talented big men, who may appear as limber and clumsy to the unknowledgeable fan, but when compared to other collegiate 7 footers seem finesse, will meet at this grand of a stage, for Olajuwon and Ewing Sr. are the names that will first pop up in people's heads when thinking of great collegiate centers in the same era without thinking too hard, and those guys were from 23 years ago. While the big men dominate the headlines, (In actuality it is probable that these guys will get into a foul trouble contest early due to trying to prove who is more imposing and limit each other's minutes severely in the game) a couple of their teammates have made their names known to those who didn't already know them during the course of this tournament. Mike Conley Jr. has made a case for himself as one of the premier point guards in the country, and will probably be Preseason All-America if he chooses to return to school in favor of bolting to the NBA with Oden, and Jeff Green, who I have been gloating and boasting about for awhile, has certainly escalated, if not traveled his game to new heights (that non-traveling violation versus Vanderbilt is certainly disputable). I guaranteed in my earlier column that OSU would not win the title, so what kind of man would I be if I started reversing my guarantees right when my integrity is on the line? A very little, feeble one.
In a New Year's toast to Georgetown, who saved me from hibernating through all the fun of the night, I say:
Georgetown 74 Ohio State 71

I must now state like a reasonable person that, I am now capable of looking in hindsight and seeing that not picking Florida to advance, or asking for a Porsche for Xmas, was as unreasonable as watching Van Wilder: The Rise of Taj as the film critic that I am. I would have loved to have been able to recite my famous, "I told you so" routine to the entire community about Oregon advancing, but, using Jay-Z for support, "The number one rule for your writing/blogging/basketball charades: you got to learn to live with regrets." I hate the word "would" when used in the reminiscing sense and because of the Gators I am removing it from my vocabulary and replacing it with Damn You. I cannot state that Florida is going to win because I have to stick with my claim of no repeat, but they are gonna repeat.... dammit It slipped out. They got 3 for sure top 15 picks in next year's stacked NBA draft, a Trajan Langdon, Bryce Drew-type sharpshooter in Lee Humphrey and a point guard who is not only consistent, but should be amongst the top 30 picks as well, especially with a superb final, in Taurean Green. This team is as stacked as the 2006 UConn Huskies, 2005 UNC Tar Heels, 2004 Dukies or 1999 Dukies, all of which had multiple NBA players.
Just for kicks (bear with me) I would like to site the pros on those squads off the top of my head:
2006 Huskies
1. Josh Boone
2. Hilton Armstrong
3. Marcus Williams
4. Rudy Gay
2005 Tar Heels
1. Marvin Williams
2. Sean May
3. Raymond Felton
4. Rashad McCants
5. David Noel
2004 Dukies
1. JJ Redick
2. Shavlik Randolph
3. Sheldon Williams
4. Chris Duhon
5. Daniel Ewing
6. Luol Deng
1999 Dukies
1. Shane Battier
2. Trajan Langdon
3. Corey Maggette
4. William Avery
5. Elton Brand

I just wanted to list these teams briefly, and I am sure I have forgotten a couple names, just to be able to compare a few teams that have been great in recent years with the one Florida has produced this year. I feel good about saying Florida could produce better overall pros, when its all said and done, than any of these squads listed above. I may be feeling only this great because the ball is getting close to dropping for this New Years (Final Four) and I have had a bit to drink (basketball watched too much recently) but it goes to show how good they are compared to these undoubtedly great teams, and they are probably going to do what none of them did, repeat as national champs. On Xmas, I might have been a little overzealous when picking the Ducks in favor of the Gators, but I never doubted their talent.
UCLA is the odd man out, and although I love Arron Afflalo, and Ben Howland's grimy game plan in the prettiest part of the country, I refuse to speak to them due to the fact they ruined my Xmas season (Beat my pick, Kansas).
In a redux of last year's final, I predict not as much of a "OK, they got it in the bag, let's play poker-type-of-game" as last year's game, but somewhat close to it:
Florida 72 UCLA 64

This brings us to the Final in which I will have Georgetown facing Florida. (Just for the record this will probably not happen due to my theory that the more Basketball you know, the more you are terrible at filling out brackets, and in this case and this year's bracket, my basketball IQ must be skyrocketing that of Digger Phelps + Dick Vitale + Jay Bilas)
I can't decide if I should bite my lip, give it hell and let my left hand type in Florida, or be the man that I know myself to be with pride, credibility and integrity and stick with Georgetown. Gary Cooper and all the strong, silent types must be turning in their graves:
Florida over Georgetown 75-72
(I guess I technically didn't pick the Hoyas to win the final, so it may be able to cut me some slack, but only so much to where I can tie my hands together after the above pick turns out to be faulty, for I should not be authorized to discuss/write sports any longer and will subsequently have to stick to guessing who will win in reality TV competitions. Sorry in advance, Sanjaya)

Just because I am an enthusiastic man and look forward to everything, I wanted to get Xmas started REALLY early this year, and because of David Stern's have-to-go-to-college rule, I would like to predict next year's Xmas to be great, really different than this year's (none of the same gifts) and leave something up for the sake of argument:

OJ Mayo and USC 76 over Eric Gordon and Indiana 75

Cheers

Reality of Guilty Pleasures

2007-03-27T11:41:00.000-07:00

The following list sums up the inordinate amount of trash that has been viewed lately by people nationwide that wouldn't normally neccesarily have tuned in, but with the frequency that the shows are aired and repeated, have had them shoved in their faces:
1. The Hills
2. The Real Housewives of Orange County
3. The Real World: Denver
4. I Love New York
5. Maui Fever
6. Countless others I don't currently have time to see because of the embarrassment I already inhibit due to watching the five programs listed above.

I must start by noting that I never before have felt the need to repeatedly look over my shoulder while watching a program at the rate that I do now, but that I am also eagerly awaiting the new season of Laguna Beach. This is the Scorsese buff talking. I now feel the need to analyze why these programs that are based on the terrible manners and ethics of the people in front of the cameras are so successful and to also to examine why I have gained the Duke attitude towards the following people ( In the sense that I hate them but always make sure to stay on top of what they're up to):

1. Spencer from The Hills
2. Jo and Slade from the Real Housewives
3. Brooke from the Real World: Denver
4. Many others, but the three people listed above have already forced me to smash my TV into bits and forget anyone else that I hate because I hate them so much and no longer own a TV

The spoiled more than 4 month old eggs egos and snottier than a 6 year old with a contagious, 2 week lasting cold attitudes that the above characters have revealed on their respective shows have led me to write such vulgar analogies only for the reason that they are the only type of analogies that would do justice towards the abstrosities of personalities that they live with. That can say a lot about the personality of the viewer, for why would anyone in their twisted mind want to watch people they despise and consider so unethical and impolite? That question sticks it to the author right where it hurts, and I must say, "bravo" to the TV producers, because they have proven to have the inane ability to draw street savvy folk like myself into their little worlds. Spencer has the face of a hyena that could rival Joakim Noah in a hyena-off, and has the surfer attitude of disregarding everything and everyone for no apparent reason, only he's not a surfer. I am also jealous over his ability to live such a lavish lifestyle with no hint of a job or a hustle, and his pick up lines also make me want to break my coffee table. Jo and Slade of the Housewives crack me up due to their inability to communicate on any level adults should be capable of doing so on. Jo also seems to be as ungrateful for gifts as NBA badboy Ron Artest is when he is given second chances, and is on the same echelon as Artest in regards to making good music as well: they both think it's the best stuff ever but in all certainty, really sucks. Brooke from the Real World flips out at people with convulsions and rampages that I apologize for getting a kick out of if she really has a mental issue. The way it is portrayed on MTV is her asking her roommate, "Did you just ask me to clean a dish in the sink?" and her immediately screaming "How dare you talk about me in this manner without not raising your voice just a tee bit and not looking directly at me in the eyeballs while saying so and not wearing attire appropriate for that of the prom when you neglectfully talk that way because that is what you should be dressed in when you are in my presence you dumb B#%$%," and this is before even hearing a response as to why she was asked to clean a single dish.
I Love New York is a VH1 program that is a spin-off of the successful dating program, The Flavor of Love. New York is the host, who once was a contestant for Flava Flav's heart on his program, and gained popularity points for her outlandish and bitchy ways along the ride. So she got her own program now and is surrounded by Narcissitic idiots comparable to that of Vanilla Ice. They all belong on my most hated list.
I must now go into applauding the producers of these networks for causing me to miss valuable Sportscenter episodes, or other things that I should probably be doing besides tuning in to this trash. I guess they figure that people enjoy seeing events alien to their own lives and criticizing people that are not able to backfire at them. It doesn't hurt that they make the people SO easy to criticize, but maybe that's the point. I really wish the producers would allow the reality participants to discuss their political beliefs and thoughts on pop culture, because it would only make things more exciting, and more revealing. The scrutiny and stigmas that these reality stars have to live with rival that of the drunken boys on the RV in Borat, for I haven't seen as obnoxious behavior since that film. I also simulteneously congratulate them for having the cojones for acting like such idiots for the expense of the viewer.
I haven chosen to cut this column short due to the pain and embarrassment that it causes me to actually waste time writing about people that are so clearly, not only ignorant of the outside world, but possibly smart, for they have possibly found a way to put on an act, make themselves famous, get some money in their pocket and completely brainwash viewers like me. Bravo.

The Era of "Cheaters"

2007-03-16T03:39:00.000-07:00

Throughout this era, in which seemingly everyone from Mark Mcgwire to Mark Aguirre, due to suspiciously inflated stats as a fat man, is linked to steroids and/or illegitimacy, I have been a naysayer more so than a critic; I say cheat away, for I enjoyed the Home run chase of 1997 very much so and didn't care whether silicon was applied to these playboy-esque centerfolds-of baseball stars. Mcgwire and Sammy Sosa single-handily revitalized baseball when it was in desperate need of a revitalization, may it be with assistance of performance enhancing drugs or not. The league was fresh out of the disastrous strike-plagued year of 1995 and MLB needed the type of season that occurred in 1997 for them to be able to maintain the tag of America's ultimate pastime. We all knew that Big Mac and Sosa's muscles, amongst tons of other guys, were kind of bafoonishly large that season, but everyone kind of just turned their cheek to it, as the duo provided the most exciting summer that the league, arguably, has ever seen. It was kind of like the WWF pro wrestling phenomenon, everyone knew it was staged, but it was an unspoken law, of sorts, to not mention that acknowledgment due to the amounts of fun that was at stake. Big Mac crushed 70 home runs, created the corniest bear hug in history, Sosa swatted 66 home runs, and the rest is history. Now, the history of that season is in jeopardy, as the same critics/fans that indulged in that season are criticizing athletes like Mcgwire and Sosa for creating false stats that took advantage of the fans' trust for the game and want to have that season expunged from the record books in Cooperstown. Wasn't that season a blessing from the baseball gods and aren't big power numbers the most appealing for a fan to watch? After all, chicks do indeed dig the long ball, not a pitchers' duel. Commissioner Bud Selig shouldn't be such a hypocrite and say that these guys put a black cloud over the game when there might have not even been a cloud for rain to come from if not for those guys. Writers say that they don't vote for Mcgwire for the Hall of Fame because it jeopardizes the morals in which they have taught their children, but that seems a bit harsh and juxtaposing, as the kids, if baseball fans, surely loved Big Mac, and its not like Big Mac was doing Len Bias-types of drugs that actually might corrupt kids.
As I contemplate the issue of steroids in sports, I can't help but notice how it brings up comparisons to another issue of possible deceit from within the world of mainstream hip hop music, that resonates to the pessimism spiraling around sports with doubters of authenticity. Lil' Wayne, a rapper from New Orleans, that I have been following ever since my days as an ignorant, braggadocccio-through-the-rafters young'n, has recently gotten so much better on his recent albums that it has forced cynics to question his decorum and bona fide originality, examining if he indeed has used a ghost writer, the rap music equivalent to steroids. Ghost writing is where a rapper will use the lyrics written by someone else, and pretend that it is their actual work despite it being written by someone else. Ghost writers usually don't have the audacious tenacity that pumps up a crowd or charisma to recite the lyrics themselves, that is a prerequisite of sorts to be a successful rapper, so they sell their lyrics to a rapper that has the appropriate amount of swagger. Gillie da Kid is the man claiming he has written a majority of Lil' Wayne's (aka Weezy aka Weezy f. baby) recent hits, breaking the hearts of thousands of hip hop heads who wanted to believe that Weezy simply matured from album to album as a blossoming artist. Gillie has now become the match to Greg Anderson in the baseball community, where he was the supplier of the performance-enhancing drugs that athletes like Barry Bonds, Jason Giambi and Marion Jones may or may have not used, but claimed to have used by Anderson.
This despondency that has been created is bad for optimists like myself, as this culture has forced us to question every thing that we consider sincere. Weezy is now 24 and has released 10 albums to date already, which is an extremely large body of work, showing his workmanlike ethic, for most rappers would be lucky to release 5 their entire career. Of his 10 albums, the past three have been hands-down better from a creative standpoint than his first seven, which has created the pessimism towards Weezy. I look at this and site that he did a majority of his albums in his teenage years, so the enhanced quality of his music is only parallel with his age, after all, there is no way that I, at age 16, was capable of writing the way I am now. Progression happens with maturation, they go hand-in-hand. His increased use of relevant and thoughtful metaphors and influx of styles of flows has evolved from when he was 16, when he rapped basically like your prototype of any young rapper from the trap. He now may rap about similar subject matters, but the content has certainly gotten better with time. His latest albums, Da Carter II and his disk with Birdman, who was clearly his inferior, are the latest bodies of enhanced work. I say good for him, salud, but there are haters out there who will consistently be out there that look at the leap from his 2001 release, 400 degreez, and his 2003 release, Da Carter I, and compare it to the leap that the sleak, agile, base-stealing Barry Bonds with the Pittsburgh Pirates made, to his current, inflated meathead-like-state that he is now in with the San Francisco Giants. They will say that there was some false play involved, for anyone that is on top of his game will be antagonized by someone. Critics will say, Bonds took steroids when he saw the attention Sosa and Mcgwire were getting and was annoyed due to his belief that he was naturally a better player, probably true, and that Weezy found a ghost writer when he saw all the attention that other rappers, like Jay-Z and Nas, were getting due to their acclaim of lyrical prowess.
Bonds, Mcgwire, and Sosa, amongst many other baseball players, probably did take steroids to benefit their production, but it must be noted that none of the big three have been convicted, although Sosa somehow forgetting the English language in front of a grand jury, Mcgwire's disappearing act the last 5 years, and Bonds' link to Greg Anderson and Steroid/supplement provider, Victor Conti, certainly doesn't help their cases. Weezy, whose real name is Dewayne Carter, might have hired a ghost writer, although it is not nearly as likely as the athletes' fraudulent participation.
The overall point here is that the critics that judge these superstars in their respective fields have done nothing but negatively affect the culture that these guys live in. The nonstop pessimism towards anything that is considered impressive hurts the hip hop and baseball communities, for it hinders the fans' liking towards their passion, and how does it really, ultimately affect the critics if they accuse superstars of being so faulty anyways? How is it their responsibility to put another man's work into such frequent doubt? Granted, Lil' Wayne and these baseball players make millions of dollars and the doubters come with the territory, but for all the scrutiny they take, the money is well earned.
Being released very soon is Da Carter III, Lil' Wayne's latest album, which was listed as the most anticipated hip hop album of 2007 by XXL magazine, a highly sought after claim in the hip hop world, and I can only imagine how badgered Weezy is going to be if this installment is even more impressive than his first two albums in Da Carter trilogy. A man in a high position simply isn't allowed to excel anymore, not without admitting that he "cheated." I am avidly looking forward to this album, and will only listen to the songs, not the criticism that may be sung over how unreal it may be, for I only care about good music, even if it is with the assistance of a ghost writer, while not saying I think he hired one. Likewise, Sosa is entering yet another season in the big leagues, after a year hiatus, with the Texas Rangers, to prove that he can perform valiantly while being tested for steroid use. Sosa is much further along in his career than Weezy, so the expectations aren't nearly as high for him, so the connection isn't that close, but nonetheless, let's imagine that Slammin' Sammy somehow belts even 30 home runs, I can already for see the conspiracy theories flying around in the baseball community that would accuse him of using the Whizzanator, like Onterrio Smith, to pass his steroid tests. The critics will absolutely not be able to even consider the mere possibility that the man may have worked out like a madman for the whole last year while away from baseball before jumping to conclusions.
I, in conclusion, have to question the morale of the critics/naysayers in our society, for they don't seem to place themselves in the shoes of these vastly popular figures in the sports and music fields. Because, if I was offered the opportunity like Neo in The Matrix, to either take a red pill that would leave me in my current state as an unheralded, unknown blogger, or to take a blue pill that would catapult me into a level where my writing content would be that of Ernest Hemingway, and my sales would rival that of Da Vince Code author, Dan Brown's, I would be popping blue pills like a delirious man on Valium. This is what the opportunity is like for athletes and rappers, for if they take steroids they are likely to play 10X better and get paid 10X better, or rappers will get 10X better and sell 10x as many albums if they hire a ghost writer. This is not to say that Weezy nor the large group of baseball players currently under close observation are guilty, but even if they are, didn't their taking of steroids and usage of ghost writers create an arena where the fans are ultimately happier than when they were when their idols weren't using assistance, and isn't that ultimately the most important factor, the fans' pleasure and satisfaction?

Christmas Morning

2007-03-12T00:35:00.000-07:00

Non-Basketball fans BEWARE:
When I think back on my days of childhood I enjoy remembering those moments that brought out the exuberance, giddiness and jovial side of myself that what being a kid was all about, the times that you hold onto forever but can't recreate because, well, frankly, you don't want to look like a kid. Christmas morning is the one day that every adult can mutually agree on when thinking of the one day that epitomized your young youth more than any other. Those 6:00 awakenings, being so eager to wake up and tear through the living room that you think you're going to die if you don't get up right then and there, and Christmas eve nights, which were always the hardest to get to sleep on, as you might have not been dreaming of sugar plums, but rather of nintendos or power rangers, sleepless nonetheless, were the most antsy 12 hours of childhood life. One significant ritual I had every Xmas after the presents were all opened and the Belgian waffle breakfast was scarfed down was watching Home Alone. This happened for at least a decade straight, and I still pretty much have the dialogue embedded in my memory like the back of my hand.
I always eagerly awaited the scenes where Culkin had them (the burglar duo of a wackier Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern, whom Mark Cuban has surely used as a reference towards NBA Commissioner, David Stern) cornered, and would taunt them with lines such as, "Are you guys still alive?" as well my personal favorite scenes in which Culkin would get into it with his older Stepbrother, Buzz, and Culkin will ask Buzz, "Can I sleep in your room? I don't want to sleep on the hide-a bed with Fuller. If he has something to drink, he'll wet the bed," and Buzz responds with lines like, "I wouldn't let you sleep in my room if you were growing on my ass." But aside from my personal sense of humor as an 8-18-year old, the lines that most people remember from this Xmas classic, that belongs right up there with the ranks of It's a Wonderful Life, are the ones that involve the shrieking voices of Culkin after he applies after-shave to his cheeks and when his Mother finally figures out that she left her son at home and subsequently belts out, "KEVIN !!!!!" This line accurately applies to my life today, not for the fact that I am already eager for Xmas season, or that my Mother has forgotten about me and has gone on to worry about other siblings, but because I yelled the same shriek that Culkin's Mother let out in that film today. I was watching the Kansas - Texas Big 12 Championship, and, being dumb, thought I had enough time to go to Subway and return without missing any action, but sure enough, some guy decided to order like 8 foot longs ahead of me because it was 2 -for- $8.99 on foot longs and forced me to miss some of the most exciting basketball game since the Bulls- Jazz series in 1999. So I returned to my apartment from Subway, about 15 minutes later to see the Texas basketball game on, and there was Texas stud Kevin Durant, sitting on the bench with 22 points, and there was still 8 minutes left in the half, and found myself exulting in the same manner as Culkin's Mom did, "KEVIN !!!!"
This has not been the only time in the past couple of months that I have found myself shrieking like Catherine O'Hara, for Durant deserves attention very much to the equal of a situation where a son or daughter gets left behind on a trip and is followed by thugs, he is just simply that demanding.
This leads me to describe how memories of Home Alone have been occurring with me all day today: The film reminds me of my excited state as a gleeful child, and the only day that embarks upon that same anticipation that day brings about is that of selection Sunday. I seriously didn't know whether or not to drive to my Parents' house and jump in their bed and shake all the presents in their living room to get a clue as to what might be in the boxes when I awoke this morning. I can already smell the scent of lies in the corporate air, for there is going to be a lot of explaining to do across the country as to why people missed work in the upcoming weeks and I think I already have a few paper cuts, due to the amount of brackets that have already been printed and then immediately crumbled due to my displeasure with the page's picks. As much as I love this day, It is like riding a chairlift up the black diamond, because you keep scolding yourself with, "What the f*&% am I doing?" ponders as you keep going higher and higher and inscribing more and more upsets. As much as you want to be conservative and stay at the bunny hill, picking no seed higher 6 to get to the sweet sixteen, you know you'll regret it if you don't go down the black diamond, because you always do, just as upsets always occur. I am going to be simultaneously losing sleep because I am distressed about my picks and losing sleep because I am so anxious to wake up and take part in the March madness for the next 30 days or so.
This season, arguably, was the hardest to pick the field for, as more teams had seemingly deserving resumes to make the field, but there were a few surprises and things worth pointing out before I announce my Final Four picks. First, how the hell does Syracuse not make the tournament? They should have certainly been in before Stanford, who had more losses, fewer key wins, as the Orange beat Georgetown, who I am tempted to pick to win it all after dismantling an overrated Pitt squad, who I pick to get upset every year, in the Big East tournament. Second, how can anyone not see that the Big 12 is the most competitive conference in the country? People say the ACC is the best conference top to bottom, but I think Kansas, Texas, Texas A&M in the first line, Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, Kansas State in the second line, and Nebraska, Baylor, and Oklahoma in the third line is better than the ACC's comparable lines, and the PAC-10's might be better as well. I don't know how the Big 12 conference is not hands down exhausted right now, as they played some of the most nerve wracking basketball during conference play that I have ever seen. Durant, aka Macaulay, has made me root for the T'wolves to lose every game for the rest of the season in hopes of drafting him in the lottery, despite the extreme long chances of this occurring. If this happens I will email Bill Simmons aka The Sports Guy from ESPN's web page every day until he sends me a reply with a piece of his soul on the page, (He's just a sick nut of a Durant fanatic, even more than me) for he wishes the same bad fortune upon his team, Boston, for the same reasons I stated. Durant somehow went for a "quiet" 37 points against Kansas, and he has been doing it all year, during which he had more than his fair share of scary- close games in the Big 12 that induced the Home Alone theatrics coming from my mouth. This guy is a Kevin Garnett/Tracy McGrady/Chris Bosh/Dirk Nowitzki/and a way, way better Marvin Williams mold in one; only his potential seems to be higher than any of those players at any point in their careers. I am seriously scared not to pick Texas to win the whole thing, as a redux of what Carmelo Anthony did in 2003 with Syracuse is very possible, and I am pulling hair out of my head due to the fact that Texas has UNC and Georgetown to get through in their bracket to make it to the Final Four, a tougher road than they should've been dealt. I could write a column about this that would seem to last longer than an all-Big-10 Final Four.
So now, with no further a due, because of all the endless Durant rants that have been written as of late, here are my Final Four Picks, my childhood Xmas list of sorts, with gifts I KNOW I'll get because they aren't that outlandish, and my stretches, where I know I might get them, but might not due to the fact they would cost an arm and a leg out of the giver's pockets:

We'll start with my hometown region, the Midwest: I am very, very distressed over the fact that I am not picking Florida, that's right: I regret to inform you that I am NOT picking Florida, unlike any other Basketball nut in the country. They could seriously win it, but I just cannot fathom a repeat Champ in this era, where there are so many quality teams. Duke was the last team to repeat, so many years ago, in the Laettner/Hill/Hurley era, and I just don't see it happening despite their undeniable talent. Arizona causes me issues as well, because I planned to pick them to upset at least one team this year, but their second round match up had to be Florida. I have been an Arizona fan forever, because I am admittedly a frustrated point guard at heart, and they have produced fine guards such as Steve Kerr, Damon Stoudamire, Mike Bibby, Miles Simon, Jason Terry and Gilbert Arenas, amongst many others for me to try to duplicate growing up. WATCH this game, it will be great and fast, but Florida will deny my Arizona bias. I did pick Winthrop like any other nut looking for as many upsets as possible, and did deny Wisconsin due to the fact I HATE watching Big 10 basketball despite being currently enrolled at a Big 10 school. I have seen too many 22-18 halves of basketball this year and need for the Badgers not to advance past UNLV. This might be a little of the MN - WI rivalry talking as well. This leaves Oregon, a team that has convinced me by beating up on my Arizona Wildcats team enough this year, and also is hot as any team in the country, and we all know the hottest teams are more dangerous than the cool ones. I look for the back court of Aaron Brooks, quietly one of the best players in the country, and Tajuan Porter, my Earl Boykins X2 in the college game, to lead this team that lives by the three and die by the three, to live by it all the way to the Final Four. Just don't expect me to write for a while if Florida proves me wrong.

The West: The Jayhawks are clearly still in Kansas because the NCAA tournament committee paved them a golden brick road to the Final Four, which they deserve by winning the Big 12 tournament titles. Julian Wright reminds me of the Boris Diaw who scored 39 points versus the Lakers in last year's playoffs, in the sense they both play like that beautiful hybrid guard/forward, and that when they aren't playing at that insane level are still very useful. Wright will be key to the Jayhawks' fortunes, which have the deepest team in the land. Along with Wright for the ride are Brandon Rush (Key/Glue/Star), Mario Chalmers (Mr. Clutch), Collins, and Robinson (More great, supporting-cast guard play) and Arthur and Kahn, (Muscle) to create the team equivalent to Macaulay (Mr. Durant aka Mr. I can do a little of everything). They only have UCLA in their way, which could seriously give them a problem, but won't because I break it down to conferences: Kansas is in the Big 12; UCLA is in the Pac- 10. Both are the best in their respective conferences, so I give the nod to the stronger conference, (I Know, I Know, I might as well be a booster for them, but they truly are that good of as conference) meaning Kansas is the Pick. The rest of this bracket basically read the following way for me: every or any game could be an upset because they all fall into a good-enough-to-make- the -tournament league, but nothing more than that. I hate picking 1 vs. 2 elite eight matchups, but this is the only way. Just for kicks though, I picked VCU getting to the Sweet Sixteen, which doesn't matter if I'm wrong, since my Elite Eight game is basically penciled in.

The East aka The Beast region:
As I explained before, UNC, Texas and Georgetown have created quite the dilemma for me, making a situation where I want, but at the same, don’t want to pick them all. KEVIN!!! is creating one hell of a hemorrhoid for me to deal with, and I am picking him, I mean Texas, to beat UNC, as good as they may be, just for the fact I would have picked Macaulay aka Kevin Durant and Texas to win versus the Larry Bird-led Indiana State team, and the Magic Johnson-led Michigan State team in 1979, just for the fact that this young man has to beat at least one Goliath opponent in his one-and-done collegiate career. I used Bird and Magic as comparisons just to give a sense of where this young man falls into the history books and to show how often a guy of his stature comes along. So UNC it is, and Macaulay and Texas will play David to their Goliath. I will not miss this game if my advisor calls me and says, "If you just come to my office for 10 minutes, right now, you will be guaranteed a 4.0 GPA when you graduate and you can Tivo the silly Basketball game." In fact, I would drop out of school just for the fact she called the game silly. So there is Macaulay’s one shining moment, because as much as it breaks my heart and my pencil several times, they are not going to beat UNC and then have enough emotional capacity to conquer Georgetown. Roy Hibbert is going to rival Greg Oden for years in the league, and Jeff Green gets on my All-America Ballot, despite statistics. Jonathan Wallace, Ewing Jr., Sapp and Summers complement the two stars and are just better head to toe than Texas, even though Durant covers Hibbert and Green. I would've possibly rather picked Texas to beat Georgetown in the Sweet 16 and lose to UNC in the Elite 8, but this is the hand we've been dealt, and Macaulay aka Durant HAS to have that Sweet 16 win. But other than that, I think Georgetown has that "feel," that Syracuse feel from a few years back. This is the hardest region I have had to fill out ever, in any bracket. Just for more kicks, I would like to guarantee that either George Washington or Oral Roberts win in their mini-bracket just for the fact I really hate Vanderbilt, who is playing George Washington and I have extreme bias for any school with the name George in it's title due to my arrogance, and because I saw the game earlier in the year in which Oral Roberts beat Kansas, and was impressed.

The South:
As much as a jock-rider I may seem like, Macaulay aka Durant has already dictated what I am going to do with this bracket, one that his team isn't even competing in, and we'll get to that in a moment, but let's discuss his "nemesis," Greg Oden and the "#1" team in the country, Ohio State. They will not win the title, I guarantee it. Oden may come out of his shell, that his cast has created during the regular season and emerge as a dominant threat in the tourney, but it goes back to the conference strength, and I just think the Big 10 is not there. Fundamentalists will say they play the best type of basketball, the slug-it-out, get-back-on-defense, grind-it-out type of basketball that makes winners and I am an ignorant fool, but I say they lose to the Dallas Mavericks of the NBA by 50, but think about 10 other college teams would only lose by 30 to them. I know bringing in the pro game isn't relevant, but it goes to show that they just are too grimy; they fall into the Alfred Hitchcock Club, but in a bad way. Even Stevie Wonder could sing wildly about Macaulay aka Durant before Oden, and if it weren't for the huge absence of big men in the NBA, Durant would be chosen first in the draft, without a second's hesitation. This also further shows that much of Ohio State's hype has been because of Oden's hype, and his hype is only this huge because of the disparity of big men in the NBA, so maybe bringing the NBA into consideration isn't so irrelevant. This brings me back to Macaulay's affect on this bracket: Texas' game versus Texas A&M a few weeks back in which Texas prevailed 98-96 in double OT sealed the deal for me with Texas A&M and Acie Law. I was going to pick them to upset someone without a doubt, and hopefully it got to be one of the Big 10 "monsters," so this is the committee's way of making up for Texas' bracket road for me. Acie Law's clutchness is seriously almost further through the roof than Macaulay aka Durant's potential. The shots he hit that game versus Texas still have my jaw dropped permanently at the floor. They, as a team, are very disciplined with Gillepsie at coach, have a good supporting cast, with Kirk, Kavaliaukas (hope I spelled it right), Carter, and Jones, who can answer Oden's hysteria in the post. The rest of the bracket is rendered useless due to Acie Law's game versus Macaulay, but I do have Nevada over a only-have-beat-Junior High-teams Memphis Tigers, and with my stupidest/smartest pick in the whole field have Albany going to the Sweet Sixteen, just because they got, in my mind, a weak mini-bracket, and because I still have Albany's star player's image in my head from their conference championship game, in which he was jersey-popping to the fullest extent, full of emotion, which is what this month is about to be.

Final Four:
Kansas over Oregon
Georgetown over Texas A&M

Title game:
Kansas over Georgetown for reasons stated above.

(I'm still sick over Macaulay, and I have to mention that I usually watch the Home Alone sequel on Xmas as well, which is more entertaining than the first, causing me to want to erase this whole entire column because it just causes too much Christmas-like commotion and uncontrollable childlike emotions).

The Year of the Breakthroughs

2007-03-03T15:39:00.000-08:00

The year of 2007 is still very young, as the spring leaves haven't yet fallen, but two things have finally fallen into place for two iconic figures that have long eluded them: Peyton Manning with the prestigious Lombardi trophy and Martin Scorsese with that overdue Oscar. These guys have long been the poster boys for their respective fields, achieving milestone after milestone, receiving praise from their colleagues and racking up the stats, but for some odd reason have been unable to attain the cherry that sits atop the heap of ice cream, that ideally makes the sundae. I would like to compare the illustrious careers of these two heavyweights and see why 2007 was finally the year they reached the promised land.
In 1973 Marty burst on to the scene with Mean Streets, one of the grimiest, edgiest and great films I have seen in my young life as an aspiring Mafioso. It didn't hurt that he had the help of a savvy young crew consisting of Harvey Keitel and a pre- young Vito Corleone Bobby Deniro, but this film was a sign of instant fame to come.
Peyton was kind of assigned to greatness once he left the womb, as he was born into wealth, with Archie, his father, already having had success as a NFL quarterback, and two competitive brothers in Eli and Cooper, who, for those who aren't aware, was supposed to be the heir apparent, with the most talent at a young age, not Peyton. So Peyton had the inevitable Michael Corleone syndrome, destined to fall into his Father's footsteps no matter what, and did just that. Peyton did go on to snag the Heisman in college, which is sort of like winning at Sundance for a filmmaker, you got a nice little trophy that people will remember you for, but you want bigger, more significant trophies, plus you still have squadoosh in the bank. Peyton, like Marty, had a nice entourage to roll with him during his early years, with Marshall Faulk and Marvin Harrison, (Peyton's match to Marty's relationship with Deniro) but that didn't instantly mean success towards a super bowl victory. Both these guys had a ton expected from them at a young point in their careers and had to endure some crossroads to win this year, simply put, there was hype, a lot of it and it was too much-too soon.
Marty stuck with his young crew for awhile, as Keitel and Deniro both starred in Marty's real breakthrough, Taxi Driver. The line that Travis Bickle (Deniro) recites in that film while looking at the mirror should have been enough to snatch the oscar, the "You talkin' to me? You talkin' to me? You talkin' to me? Then who the hell else are you talking... you talking to me? Well I'm the only one here. Who the fuck do you think you're talking to? Oh yeah? OK" line. He said a lot of other stuff like that about morbid self-attention that is transparent in all of Marty's films, as the "You talking to me?" reminds me of the Joe Pesci-rampage of a dialogue in Goodfellas that went, "What makes me so fucking funny? Am i a clown, am i here to fucking amuse you? No,no, Henry, what makes me so funny." These lines are classic and Taxi Driver would have won the brass if it weren't for Sly Stallone and his "Adrian" bullshit of a weeper-dialogue. This is half-joking, because Rocky was a great film, but I admittedly have a severe Scorsese bias, as I thought Cape Fear, Kundun or Gangs of New York should have got him an oscar, and those were clearly three of his sub-par performances. This was his first major snub on his way to the Susan Lucci-esque waiting game that he had played until earlier this month.
Peyton took his mediocre teams in the late 90's and early 2000's to higher heights, until it became clear in 2002 that he should have a super bowl ring on his index finger. His equivalent to Marty's Taxi Driver, as in terms of early expectations and different outcomes, was in 2002, where he put up a big 41-doughnut loss versus the Jets of all teams, the Chad Pennington-led Jets, who can't throw a football further than my next door neighbor. That game freaking brings back memories of the Vikes 41-doughnut loss that year to the Giants, but critics forgave him as they labeled it an early playoff slip and I refused to forgive the Vikes as they crushed my inflated hopes once again (another story, another day). This is when Peyton met his arch-nemesis in Tom Brady, who is Scorsese's version of Francis Ford Coppola or George Lucas, that probably cost Peyton a few Alissa Milano-hot dates for a few years. Peyton going into New England is like going into a job interview with your flip flops on, you're probably not landing the gig, but you still got a slim chance if you are as talented as Peyton. Peyton came oh so close, and with a few less Ty Law interceptions, Tom Brady comebacks and a Nancy Kerrigan-like incident to occur with place kicker Adam Vinateri, he might have just been able to hum the Super Bowl shuffle song a little sooner.
Here comes the major letdowns, the OMG are you f***ing kidding me? moments in these guys' bouts:
1980 and 1990: (Note to to reader- I could possibly obtain a major migraine headache due to the anger that this paragraph may induce, so if the column stops mid-sentence, I'll get back at you later after a few broken doors) Marty creates two masterpieces that should have had him punishing the academy for not rewarding him with the likes of his friend Joe Pesci, who should have put their heads in a vice a la Casino, or stabbed them with a ball point pen a la Goodfellas, and not have been arrested, plus-who's gonna arrest Pesci? Maybe someone after Gone Fishin with Danny Glover was made, but probably not, still due to the memories of those Scorsese scenes. Anyways, Raging Bull, in which Deniro pulled a Kirstie Allie to gain weight for, and Goodfellas, which I have a poster of above my bed that I slap everyday in the way that the Fighting Irish slap their "leave it all on the field" sign for inspiration before big games, were made and then robbed. Ordinary People, the sappy suicide flick made by Robert Redford and Dancing with Wolves, made by the same guy who made Waterworld, and is probably on this week's TBS made-for-TV-movie of the week, Kevin Costner, won the awards and the academy lost some of it's credibility. (Not really, but c'mon, Marty had those in the bag) As a consolation, Deniro and Pesci won acting awards for the respective roles in the films, rightfully so, but is Peyton completely fulfilled by seeing Dwight Freeney getting voted to the Pro bowl? I mean I'm sure he's happy for him, but he's not thanking the lord for it.
After those snubs Marty should have been enshrined into the stylistic, TC for the oscars group for guys who make fantastic films but don't get compensated with the hardware, with the likes of Stanley Kubrick, Quentin Tarantino and Alfred Hitchcock, amongst others. I call this the Hitchcock company, where Michael Vick is a member, for similar reasons I promised to explain in an earlier column: His style is extremely elusive and breathtaking, but it is not the style that wins championships.
Peyton's so-close-I-can-taste-it moment came in 2006, where after 3 years of playing E from the Entourage to Brady's Vince, he shattered records left and right on the way to 49 touchdowns passes, and basically was penciled in for a super finish. Then came Nick Harper's mis-step, or should I say mis-juke, where the Colts would have won the game versus the eventual champs, the Steelers, had Harper not idiotically cut to midfield where Ben Rothlisberger was able to tackle him after the Jerome Bettis fumble, that lost the game. Granted, the Colts should have lost because the Bettis fumble was at the goal line, and would have iced the game, but the fumble seemed to happen almost as a godsend, where Vince Lombardi was watching from the football heavens and said, "you know what, these Colts are too damn good to lose this game, and I'd rather see them in the Super Bowl anyways, so I'm gonna make Bettis fumble this one." This was Peyton's answering to the years of 1980 and 1990 for Scorsese.
So many opportunities, so many robberies, and so many shoulda, woulda, coulda's and it finally took a little bit of other people's works and these guys finally emerged as victors this year. Peyton had to have the Colts toughen up their finesse-style of football, like other Super Bowl winners had in years past to win, and Scorsese had to do a rendition of a Hong Kong original film, Internal Affairs, to win this year with The Departed, which has me forever making the "on-the-rag" joke with cranberry juice, and in awe. In awe for how damn good it was, but also over how damn long it took Marty to win with this film, which I would be in lines for on opening day again if it were redone, but it clearly wasn't up to Raging Bull, Goodfellas or maybe even Taxi Driver's standards. Peyton, likewise, clearly had superior teams in 2002-2006, but the win was overdue, and he deserved it based on his performances this year and in years past. It's not as if these guys had inadequate colleagues, as Leo Dicaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson, Marky Mark, William Monahan, Brad Pitt, Tony Dungy, Bill Polian, Reggie Wayne, Joseph Addai, amongst tons of others, all played major roles in helping these guys get that gigantic monkey, or in Scosese's case, rat, of their back, but they all knew that they were working for a legend. Now that they have succeeded in obtaining perhaps their most coveted prize, Peyton for sure, Scorsese maybe not, it is to be seen if they will pull a Patriots type of run and win a flurry of these things in the very near future, or if they pull a recent Pistons type of run, where people assumed dynasty and got denied. For what it's worth, the NFL and Academy atleast allowed Marty and Peyton to be in the presence of Ellen Degeneres and Miami, respectively, for their coming out parties, and they are both still relatively young for their respective careers (yeah, I know, Marty is old, but he's still got a ton up his sleeve). They may not be as youthful as they feel, but they are both far away from performing their swan songs of their careers and would surely agree that there sure is no sweeter taste than that of the breakthrough.

Planes, Trains and Automobiles

2007-03-02T12:33:00.000-08:00

I awoke this morning, anxious to get to class, bite my lip and fill in yet another bubble sheet for a Midterm for a class that causes me as much grief as being subjected to the Wild Hogs trailer another time, when I logged on to my laptop to a feeling of ambivalence. After checking the previous night's NBA scores on ESPN, much to my dismay, as the T'wolves only managed to score about as much as Gilbert "Hibachi," "Agent Zero," or as he announced at his B-day bash, quoting Vince Vaughn in Wedding Crashers, "get drunk and make bad decisions" Arenas scores on a good night, versus the Mavs, I checked my University's homepage. It had been called a snow day, usually a day in which children, adolescents and college students collectively celebrate as though their football team had just won the BCS (Bowl of Cheating and Sourness) title game. I should have joined the fracas that was taking place outside, but much to my surprise I felt like a nostalgic sad clown, I felt like Steve Martin.
My day was supposed to be one of those, "I can't wait until it's over so I can go out and drink about 2 dozen Heinekens and exhale" days, where i had an exhausting day at school and at work, but the snow alert posted on the homepage relieved me of all my duties. I'm still not sure why I didn't just go straight to the Heinekens, only drink them in an awesome type of celebratory binge, as opposed to the exhaling sort of relief binge I was presuming earlier in the day, when I had shit to do. Although it did look like the blizzard from "The Day after Tommorow" outside my window, and the snow warning was appropriate, I kind of wanted to accomplish what I had planned to do, for I was actually prepared for my exam and for my duties at work, and felt like Martin in Planes, Trains and Automobiles, where I have shit to do but the damn weather is preventing me from accomplishing it. So I went on to participate in the only thing that felt remotely correct to do at that moment, because I was still too weirded out that I wanted to go to class and to work, and needed to remind myself that I usually despise those two things, I began an all-out, no holds -barred Xbox Madden and Sopranos marathon. My lone companion was my girlfriend, playing the role of John Candy opposite to my Martin on this day.
Of course, she was nagging and bothering me to watch The Tyra show while I was in the middle of one of those midseason- rivalry -interdivision-need to position myself for the playoff type of games because I'm playing on All-Madden mode. (I was playing a fantasy league with the Cowboys, and was facing the Redskins, a game in which I rushed for 224 yards with Michael Vick, for Madden players, is known to be outstanding. While in parantheses I have to mention that I would go 4-12 every season if i didn't restart the Xbox everytime another team selected Vick ahead of me. I will later mention how Vick is in my Alfred Hitchcock league and why). This is why she played the role of John Candy to my Martin, because Martin continuously tried to get away from Candy, as he only talked about shower curtain rings, the equivalent of The Tyra show to me. For the record, John Candy was a good man and is somewhere schooling Chris Farley, John Belushi, and Ken Caminiti on the ins and outs of life in eternity. She kept antagonizing me about how we should leave and be productive, but this was after reminding her a handful of times that the traffic was atrocious and that my car wouldn't budge from it's spot, the reason why I choose to indulge in this Madden- Sopranos marathon instead of working on becoming the next Acie Law IV (more on this clutch young man later) at the University rec center.
It is important to remember how neurotic and uptight Martin was in this John Hughes' film, and I was admittedly acting in the same manner, as I was irritated due to wanting to act responsible, and not being allowed to. I acted childishly (I'll edit this adjective later) by refusing to submit to anything but Madden and Sopranos. For the note, I look at watching Sopranos in multiple succesion the same way as i look at taking Jag-bombs in rapid succesion; you act like someone a little different than you are normally, a little to the admiration of your sober state for being so ballsy, but mostly to your embarassment. I will after all, after 7 episodes of Sopranos think it's ok to convince a meter maid that i will take a crowbar to their kneecap if they dare give me ticket, or act nonchalant towards anything, kind of like Christopher Moltisanti, and similar to how I would act after 7 jag-bombs, give -or-take. You've been warned. But back to the story, I was in this dopey mood, as John Candy, or my girlfriend tried to recommend that, "if we are going to stay in.. we might as well watch Sex and the City, or play a game both of us can play." (I am still laughing idiotically at this moment of reminiscing) This is like daring the Zodiac killer or making fun of Ralph Fiennes in Hannibal for peeing in his pants when he was young, it will upset the maniac. But John Candy was a great sport in this film, relentlessly optimistic despite all the negativity that Martin sent his way. He knew that Martin needed cheering up. So subsequently John Candy asks what would happen if he undresses and stood in front of the TV (Remember-this is a role my girlfriend is playing!!!) to cheer up Steve Martin (Myself). This was the scene in the film where Martin got to a crossroads and had to decide if he was going to go back for Candy after leaving him at the train station to invite him to his family's Thanksgiving dinner. This was a moment of true crisis, where men have to be men and become serious decision makers.

Of course, Martin goes back for Candy and the Xbox got turned off at midseason, without saving, WITHOUT SAVING!! and Martin had to wait another day to go back to being the hardnosed bastard that he was, with the Sopranos somehow being paused to see Big Pussy whacked for a 14th viewing (not that much, really). But what Martin realized is that he would have gone back for Candy even if he hadn't gone back that day at Thanksgiving, and didn't have to be such a hardnosed guy anymore, because Candy got the best of him, and I found solace in knowing that turning the Xbox off was alright, even if it weren't for the proposition, and that I can live to be responsible and become the next Acie Lax IV another day (to be continued).....