John McCain and Usher vs. Barack Obama and Jay-Z

Who are our Presidential Candidates? Obviously, we have been learning more and more about where they stand on the issues but what about how they their spare time? What do their movie choices reveal about them as a person? Do we forget that our candidates are more than issue-bearing robots? While I have stated in previous blogs that I wish pop culture didn’t play such a big role in the decision for our Presidential Candidate, it is interesting to see Obama and McCain’s personality come out in a recent article. Entertainment Weekly Online wrote about the candidates and their favorite movies, superheroes, and music.
Both candidates cam of as men who know how to have fun! His pick for favorite superhero, Spiderman. However, it was John McCain who I agreed with when he picked the mesmerizing Batman as his choice for beloved superhero. McCain also choose to show his love for music groups such as ABBA and Roy Orbison. This is when I realized that McCain is really really old. I did like the fact that he revealed one of his favorite singers is Usher Raymond. Who wouldn’t love such a fine portrayal of a young man though? Obama shared that a more eclectic group made up his picks while throwing out names such as Sheryl Crow, Frank Sinatra, and the best rapper alive Jay-Z. When it came to preferred television programs, I was surprised neither man picked anything up-to-date. Senator Obama cited the classic program M*A*S*H as a choice while Senator McCain went with “Dexter”. The candidates went on to talk about most recent movie viewed and their favorite portrayal of President. What was not cute was that as a 71-year-old, McCain admitted to crying during the movie Bambie. But then again, I could just be insensitive.
I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the article. However, as more and more pieces like this are published, I hope citizens remember to look at the issues and not base their decisions on personality based information. The race for President of the United States is not a high school popularity contest.

PoP Culture in our 2008 Election

How does pop culture influence an election? Or the political process? Is it something we should let influence our vote? These questions have been on my mind a lot lately. During the 2004 Presidential Election we saw an increase in star participation in the election. Channels such as MTV and BET increased their coverage of the election and the issues that are affecting young voters. During this time, even though I was not able to vote, I found inspiration through these channels, famous musicians and entertainers. They inspired me to become better informed. I admired their activism.

The 2008 election has been a bit different. Instead of being inspired, I’ve felt as though the tactics used have been somewhat ridiculous. I have also been questioning if some of the candidates have taken their efforts to reach out too far. What are the candidates doing that are resourceful and beneficial. I’ve done a little research and this is what I’ve found…

Senator Barack Obama has been lauded for his work to incorporate a good means of technology into his campaign. He has implemented a text messaging program to keep supporters updated on what is going on inside of his campaign. Whether it is a reminder to donate to the Red Cross for Hurricane Victims or giving a listing of Presidential Debate Watch Parties in your area, the text message aspect of Obama’s campaign is ingenious. Not only can you get text messages, you can get Obama ringtones, wallpapers, and speeches sent directly to your phone. So in the aspect of capitalizing on a generation that is technologically savvy, Obama wins. However, I am still questioning what I think about our presidential candidates knowledge of music and television. Is it really appropriate for our future president to “brush his shoulder’s off” in the spirit of Jay-Z’s famous song? I will let you ponder this question as I move on.

Senator John McCain has seemed to tap into the use of pop culture in a different way. While he doesn’t have an educational use for today’s younger generation implemented into his campaign, he has seen if fit to appear in the movie Wedding Crashers. This is a movie that has been criticized for its heavy nudity and language. Senator McCain also felt that it was appropriate to show his knowledge for the famous MTV show The Hills. While I am in love with this show, I don’t think I want its characters endorsing my next president.

I am sure I am going to regret this later, but where is P. Diddy when you need him? I miss the Vote or Die movement and I hope that our generation makes a concerted effort to educate themselves fully on the issues versus letting pop culture sway us.

Flat screen TVs really really bad for the environment

...not to mention our brains...

If you came and you found a strange man... teaching your kids to punch each other, or trying to sell them all kinds of products, you'd kick him right out of the house, but here you are; you come in and the TV is on, and you don't think twice about it. ~Jerome Singer

The rising demand for flat-screen televisions could have a greater impact on global warming than the world's largest coal-fired power stations, a leading environmental scientist warned yesterday.

Manufacturers use a greenhouse gas called nitrogen trifluoride to make the televisions, and as the sets have become more popular, annual production of the gas has risen to about 4,000 tonnes.<Guardian>

The television, that insidious beast, that Medusa which freezes a billion people to stone every night, staring fixedly, that Siren which called and sang and promised so much and gave, after all, so little. ~Ray Bradbury, The Golden Apples of the Sun

The gas, nitrogen trifluoride, is 17,000 times more powerful as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.
...
If all this year's production was released into the atmosphere it would have a warming effect equivalent to 67 million tonnes of carbon dioxide - roughly equivalent to the annual CO2 emissions of Austria. <TPA>

Television! Teacher, mother, secret lover. ~Homer Simpson, The Simpsons

TV makes us fat, stupid, selfish, unhappy, asocial, mindless consumers... and destroys our climate (not to mention fuels the class war)... but, well, there's just so many darn good shows on.

Via Grist

The tragedy of having more money than you can spend

People, the suffering has gone on too long. No more should our celebrities have to deal with the horror of having far too much money.

They have run out of ways to spend it. Tons of time, energy, initiative, Swarovski crystals and other valuable resources are being used up trying to come up with the latest ridiculous, meaningless bling to ensure that our sad, pitiable celebrities don't have to face overloading their bank accounts. It's heartbreaking, these tumour-like bank accounts, infinitely growing.

They have to live all isolated in gated communities and private islands and have really ugly pets, just to try to decrease their out of control bank accounts. I mean, how can you look into their big vacuous puppy dog eyes without wanting to rescue them from the plight of having far more money than they can ever hope to spend. Won't somebody pleeeez think of the celebrities?

I weep for them

Guess Who's Running for US President?

Hint: last week, before he announced his candidacy, he said:

I am not ready to announce yet — even though it's clear that the voters are desperate for a white, male, middle-aged, Jesus-trumpeting alternative.

It's true. Stephen Colbert is running for '08.

He'll be almost as good as this guy.

In other breaking news (via PoliticsPlus) Bullshit Is Most Important Issue For 2008 Voters.

Nothing Like Commemorating a Revolutionary Leader by Slapping his Face on a Bikini

Photo from BBC

... 40 years after his death, Che - born Ernesto Guevara de la Serna - is as much a marketing tool as an international revolutionary icon. Which raises the question of what exactly does the sheer proliferation of his image - the distant gaze, the scraggly beard and the beret adorned with a star - mean in a decidedly capitalist world? <Common Dreams>

Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People

Playing this weekend at The Brunswick Theatre in Toronto, Reel Bad Arabs shows the persistence of negative stereotypes of Arabs in film and the effect it has had in dehumanizing Arabs and Arab culture.



Also a shorter trailer here. Also check out the trailer for Class Dismissed: How TV Frames the Working Class

Creepy Love Songs

So, this post at The Vanity Press has been lurking in the back of my head. Then this morning, I was listening to this song, and the refrain began to creep me out:
"My salvation lies in your love"*


That got me thinking to another song that is really creepy:

I'm sorry that I hurt you
It's something I must live with everyday
And all the pain I put you through
I wish that I could take it all away
And be the one who catches all your tears
Thats why i need you to hear

I've found a reason for me
To change who I used to be
A reason to start over new
and the reason is You

Gag me with a spoon.

This CD was sent to me by a creepy** ex, who was stalking me. Interestingly, I was involved in an online support group and I wasn't the only one who'd had this exact same song sent to me. It's THE abusers' anthem.

Other notable mentions: Every breath you take; Escape ("You can run you can hide but you can't escape my love"); Never gonna give you up ("A full commitment's what I'm thinking of /You wouldn't get this from any other guy"); Figured you out, Savin' Me, and others by Nickelback; How am I supposed to live without you; Broken Wings ("you're half of the flesh and blood that makes me whole"); You're Havin my baby ("Havin' my baby/What a lovely way of sayin' what you're thinkin' of me")

It's so hard to like love songs when they are about unhealthy attachment and codependent love. Some even make excellent stalker songs. Don't some of them just make you feel like you're being smothered (Don't Want To Miss A Thing)? If this is what we hear on the radio, no wonder relationship "issues" are the new black.

As TVP says:

A lot of men are looking for their anima -- the term Jung gave to the feminine side of a man's personality. But what a lot of men in a patriarchal culture do not understand is that the anima is part of them, and is not to be found in another person. This is because men in a patriarchal culture are taught precisely that they don't have an anima: that there is nothing feminine about them, or if there is, that it is a bad thing and must be suppressed... I wasn't reacting to women as if they were real people. Instead, I was reacting to them as if they were the missing part of myself.

A lot of these so called love songs are of the "you complete me" variety, or "I can't live without you". Some are all about possession.

So, what creepy love songs come to mind for you?

* Turns out on reading the rest of the lyrics, Murdoch is talking about his brother and sister. Phew. It's a good song, and I was afraid I'd hate it after this.

** Sorry to use this word so much, but sometimes a better word can't be found. Definition: 1. Of or producing a sensation of uneasiness or fear, as of things crawling on one's skin. 2. Annoyingly unpleasant; repulsive.

V-Day Link Roundup

On a normal day, my blogging is enhanced with coffee, that low-grade cocaine substitute that makes me irritable and therefore prolific. (I think it could be scientifically proven that the number of words written is in direct proportion to the degree of ill temper.) Today, however, my chocolate-induced dopamine overload is leaving me rather uninspired.

So, here's a roundup of Valentine links you'll love.

• Darwin Dating helps attractive people find other attractive people with whom they can breed. Try the quiz if you're not sure about your evolutionary status (Via The Skwib)
  
• Code Pink's message to open our hearts and Make Love, Stop War. They say "On this day of love, let's work to stop war. What could be a more loving act?" Also, see Socialism is love
  
• How to be green today - For one thing, send an ecard to your favourite climate change skeptic
  
• Your brain uses copious amounts of glucose, so candy should make you smarter right? Exercise that noggin with the Candy Hearts match-up from Mental Floss
  

And finally, watch ZeFrank's hilarious Valentine's Message

Ok, one more: Monogamy, Polyamory, and Beyond by Jorge N. Ferrer on sympathetic joy, love, jealousy, and infidelity. This essay speculates for example that we may be socially monogamous, but that is really a mask for biological tendency to polyamory. Interesting read.

My List of End of Year Lists

Round-up of those ubiquitous end of year stories:

• Most Outrageous Right Wing Comments of 2006 - Check out the Fox News captions at the bottom. Perfect demonstration of how they think a question mark absolves them of responsibility for accuracy. For example: "All-Out Civil War in Iraq: Could It Be a Good Thing?"
  
• Media Follies 2006! The Year's Most Overhyped and Underreported Stories. One of the most overhyped: "the killing of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi" and underreported: "Massive Grass Roots Win on Net Neutrality".
  
• The Power to Change the World: Top 10 Movies of 2006 - it was indeed a particularly good year for progressive-type movies
  
• Top Ten Victories for Women in 2006. Notable: the FDA approval of the HPV vaccine, and Nancy Pelosi as the first female Speaker of the House
  
• NPR's List of Lists, with a twist includes the most dangerous toys, the best book covers of '06, the weirdest keyboards, the top 10 sex stories, and many more.
  
• New Species Discovered in 2006 included "a shark that 'walks' on its fins". Cool.
  
• A year of invention - "A round-up of the most interesting, surprising and sometimes alarming patent applications"... mostly they are weird
  
• Despite our relatively decent and hardworking Toronto city council, Now Magazine's list of City Hall’s Worst Gaffes 2006 is pretty much spot on
  
• Webster's Words of the Year include "Truthiness", "Decider", and "Quagmire"
  
• CBC's Photos of the Year: Your Choice and Editor's Choice, plus lots more on their Year in Review page
  
• The top 10 green stories of the year, the most important of which is clearly the growing awareness of global warming
  
• Challenges 2006-2007: the Year Past, the Year Ahead - Inter Press Service's end-of-year stories
  
• NewsTrust's Top Rated Stories of 2006 - which sources and which stories do their readers trust most?

"Hello, Men!"

September 1970. Comic balloon printed on stickum paper. Designed to be cut out and pasted onto ad posters of the sort where a beautiful woman is juxtaposed with a masculine-oriented product.

From Bureau of Public Secrets