Week 9

                Admittedly, I listen to some pretty indecent music at times. A few years ago, my mom and younger sister visited and I had to skip every other song because she was only 12 years old. I didn’t want to subject her to the vulgarity of my music for obvious reasons. I felt a little weird about it but I changed the song immediately so there wasn’t any awkwardness.

       

                 Led Zeppelin, Alice in Chains, Krayzie Bone (from Bone Thugs n Harmony), Old Crow Medicine Show,  and Bob Marley are my five favorite bands, however, I don’t normally look at things like “top five” because I like a lot more music than just that. I have a very diverse music collection from Dixie Chicks to Tech N9ne or Rosemary Clooney to System of a Down, I like a lot of genres. My favorite genre is probably reggae because most of it pushes a very positive message.

               

                Starting a campus radio show is totally feasible, but I think a web show or a podcast is a little more valuable to students today, for most of us would rather see images with the audio. However, if more people wish to start a radio station, I think we should support them.

                

                The first program I would try to build is the “Vegan Network” or the “The Vanity of Veganity” which would focus on getting the vegans up to date news on restaurants, events, or even a new vegetable that’s coming out. I’m not vegan, but many Oregonians are, so I think that it may be a niche worth pursuing.

               

                The other program I would try is a program that focuses on all other college sports, excluding Beavers and Ducks. Beavers and Ducks are everywhere, but I hear almost nothing about the other college’s teams. I know most people like the Ducks or the Beavers, but as an outsider, it would be nice to hear how WOU’s basketball team is doing or LBCC’s baseball team for that matter.

                

               For “The Vegan Network,” students could have a farmers market or events like that to help raise money for their cause. They may also be able to visit other farmers markets in hope to have a booth and raise money there too. The program that focuses on non-Beaver or Ducks sports could raise money by fund raising at the local sports events. There are many sporting and non-sporting activities that both ideas could raise funds awareness at, for all colleges have numerous different events going on like plays, sports, or parties.

Week 8 Topic 1 & 2 Books

                Unfortunately, I’m not a reader. Don’t get me wrong, I can read, but I don’t enjoy doing it. I haven’t read any of the books on the list but I have seen a few of the movies that were made from some of the books listed on ALA. “Fifty Shades of Grey” I have only heard about, but what I have heard was pretty explicit. One cannot blame a parent, teacher, or a student for finding some of the topics too sexual. The other book I’ve seen the movie to was “The Hunger Games.” Honestly, the first time I heard about it, I thought it was an eating competition or something. After seeing the movie, I was shocked. I listen to vulgar music, watch vulgar movies, and play some rather vulgar video games, but there was something in “The Hunger Games” that really got to me. To put young kids, as young as eight or nine years old in a deathmatch against 18 year olds is really messed up to me. The explanation of why the world of Panem sacrifices 23 children every year is sad and reminiscent of today’s society. Americans seem to like movies that have children kill each other, yet when a tragedy like UCC happens, it devastates the nation. The books should be banned from schools! In college or public libraries no regulation should be initiated, but I definitely think we need to regulate what our children read. I do not own any books that most would. I have a lot of books on mythology and religion that have no authors because I like ancient history. I also have a lot of manuals, maps, farming, cookbooks, and medical books which obviously shows that I read for function, not pleasure. I like to have knowledge on certain things and my books reflect that about me.

                One of the things I found was that I like the thought of students picking their teachers. I had many teachers in middle and high school that I didn’t mesh with. If I had options, maybe my high schooling would have went smoother. I also liked the thought that school should be an incubator, teaching us what we need for life, not just school. High school needs to change and become more like college, allowing students freedom in classes and teachers.

                One way I would change college is, its cost. It needs to be free and as soon as possible. I shouldn’t have had to sign my life to the military in order to get a good life for myself. If we truly want America to be the better place we all think it is, we need to educate everyone! Another way I would change college is by reforming the text book monopolists. For too long, our education has been controlled by a few powerful companies. Creating new editions to books has long been the way to screw the average college student and it needs to stop. Adding a few words does not justify charging someone 200 dollars for a textbook. Pearson and many others need to be shut down, for they’ve made enough money. Both of these changes would save students money, which is obviously very important these days.

Week 6 Topic 1 & 2

           

After watching this week’s videos and reading “WWGD,” I believe that one of the changes I would recommend newspapers should make is to stop selling the newspaper, for today’s news is free and I think that’s an idea they need to give in to. With the ease of finding news on the internet via computer or phone, most people do not pay for the news outside of paying their phone or internet bill. If they take an internet-style approach towards ads, they wouldn’t need to charge people for papers that are going to end up at the bottom of some bird cage anyway. They would save a fortune and still have their name all over the place because people would rather not pay for the paper. If the newspaper was free, then more people would take advantage of it and if more people are reading it, the advertisements would then be more ideal for the companies who have left due to lack of readers.Another way newspapers may evolve to better suit the readers of today is taking the Utko approach. Design is
everything and newspapers have long been as boring as can be. A little color, better quality pictures, and a strategic layout would make the world of difference, for if it pleases the eye, more people will see it, read it, and even share it. This is why Coke and Pepsi change the look of their cans every year or two, to appeal to new consumers.

                

           One example of the news or media not living up to my expectations is the ignorance that surrounds Middle Eastern people and how the media has long painted them as “terrorists.” After 911, the world changed, but it changed for some, way more than others. After serving in the military for about 4 years, I soon realized that the people I was trained to fight, were not the people I thought they were. Contrary to the way our media portrays Muslim people, they are not all terrorists. Most Muslims are very good people and wouldn’t hurt a fly. Yes, there are a few bad apples, but that doesn’t mean we should throw away the whole batch. There is plenty of violence in Chicago, Memphis, New Orleans and Detroit for the news to cover, yet we dwell on other countries problems.  Other than RT News, I’ve only seen negative press on Middle Easterners and Fox News definitely paints the worst picture of the Middle East, for it is known as a “republican” network and very much supported the two recent wars. As we speak, there are thousands of Muslim refugees in Europe, who came from Syria, that the news has made a circus out of. They use Muslim people and problems to boost their ratings when they got nothing that’s “news-worthy.” It is the "ultimate bullshit that's going on behind us." Being from the military, one may think I hate Muslims like our media seems to, but after knowing them on a personal level, I see that they are not who I once thought they were. 

Media Blog Project 2: "Jurassic World"

             For my second media blog project, I chose to do option #4, a media product review on the newest movie in the Jurassic Park films, “Jurassic World.” I decided on Jurassic World because its new and I liked the movie. I had high hopes for the film and thankfully, it did not disappoint. Here is a small clip of some of the beautiful CG work the film crew did and the official trailer.
      The first "Jurassic Park" was made in 1993 and was directed by the very famous Steven Spielberg, who was also an executive producer on the latest movie, "Jurassic World" as well. The 1993 film was groundbreaking for many reasons. It was by far the most advanced movie, in terms of special effects or props, of its day. Not only did it have great action scenes, but it also broke almost every record the box office had, including first day/night sales. The original movie featured Sam Neill and Laura Dern as the main characters, as well as two young kids. All of "Jurassic Park's" records have long been broken, but the movie makers are probably very happy to see the newest installment in the series, "Jurassic World" shattered almost every record once again. I believe the success of this film had a lot to do with the original, and that many remakes of older movies have done very well at the box office as of late.

                The film was directed by Colin Trevorrow, who has also been announced as the director of Star Wars: Episode IX. Yes, I said Episode IX. He has very little on his resume, but I think Jurassic World spoke for itself. One the movies main actors is Chris Pratt, who was on Parks and Recreation and Guardians of the Galaxy. He does a good job of bringing some comedy to the movie, for without him, the only comical part was the young boy’s haircut.

                The movie starts with a "stereotypical suburb" family, whose kids are sent off to visit their aunt, who works at the Jurassic Theme Park. The kids arrive to find an aunt (Bryce DallasHoward) who doesn’t have the time to kick it, so she sends them on their own. After dealing with the boys, the aunt visits with the dinosaur behavior expert (Chris Pratt) near the new indominus rex pen. They notice that the dinosaur is missing so Chris Pratt’s character, Owen, heads inside to take a look. The dinosaur wasn’t missing, for it used one of its hybrid-dino powers to make himself undetectable. It breaks out of the poorly secured pen and begins his rampage. Bryce Dallas Howard’s character, Claire, realizes she is responsible for her nephews, so she asks Owen to help her get them.

                According to businessinsider.com, Jurassic World is the only movie to make $500 million in its first weekend. It did pretty well at the box office and I’m sure Netflix will make another large fortune off of it. It was released on Blu-ray and DVD on October 22. Variety.com claims they sold almost  three million units in the first week alone. 

                This movie was similar to the other “Jurassic” movies, but it also had its differences, for in this movie people are everywhere. In the first movie it was a handful of people, but not in Jurassic World, so there is a bit more chaos and action. Although this movie was really good, it did have inconsistencies from the original story line. It seemed like they picked and chose what they wanted to keep and didn’t want to keep. There was no park that ever opened up in the past movies, so for them to start twenty years down the road like they had the park up the whole time, didn’t fit in my opinion. Some of the stereotypes that one may notice is the role Chris Pratt plays, which is the tough-cool guy role. The children in the movie definitely reflect the styles of the youth today. The teenage kid, played by Nick Robinson, is the stereotypical teen, who has way better things to do with his time than go to some theme park. 

                This movie is important for us to see what dinosaurs may have been like. It does reflect that our movie industry lacks good ideas, for we are remaking buttloads of old movies. This movie had a large target audience. From middle aged people, who loved the original, to young kids, who get to experience what I did back in 1994, they will enjoy this movie. Although I'm sure it doesn’t do very well among 50+. However, it's main audience was most likely people of my age group, 26-40 because they would have seen the original, probably liked it and would've likely wanted to take their kids to it. Parents want their kids to like the same stuff they did as a kid, and this movie is a great way for that to happen. 

                The movie’s strengths are the CG work and story line. The CG was flawless, in my opinion, for it had bright colors and daytime footage, unlike its predecessor. I loved that they added more dinosaurs like the huge aquatic one, but it did have fails also. The "t-rex-headed" flying dinosaur was poorly designed, in my opinion. Its biggest weakness is the casting for the youngest kid. This is a good movie and I think it comes close to the original, but I still like the original a little better. I think the movie is very memorable and it has already announced sequels, so I think it will stick around for years to come. Many critics disagree with my review though like Wall Street Journal’s Joe Morgenstern, who blurts “Mr. Pratt’s charm is no match for the crude filmmaking or the stupid plot that keeps him running around in a constant state of artificial animation.” There will always be those who don’t enjoy movies like this. Here is his actual review. Ann Hornaday of the Washington Post states "The set pieces, admittedly, are impressive, especially when the benighted Indominus stomps her way to freedom, crushing, impaling and of course eating 

everything in her path."Her review is a little kinder, but overall, the critics were pretty harsh on this 

record breaking film that also did great in DVD and Blu-ray sales.

            
                Here is a link to some tweets about "Jurassic World." The movie did a great job of bringing their brand to life. Instead of making just a boring Facebook page, they made what looked to be the page of an actual Jurassic Theme Park. It is very interactive and is very original. It has maps, schedules, and even "fresh baked churro's" advertised on the site, which gives a very real feel to it. I think we'll see more movies use these unorthodox methods because of its success. Although I don’t use social media ever, I did get the opinions of others on the movie, young and old. Honestly, nobody I know disliked it. My mother, 51, and my sister, 13, both loved it, and my mom hates everything. Yeah, there may have been some parts of the story that could have done better, but that doesn’t make it a terrible movie. I own the movie and would pay another eight bucks at the movie theater to see its sequel.

                Overall, I would recommend this movie to anyone, for it is a good waste of a couple hours. I did learn that the Jurassic Park series dropped the ball on the velociraptor though. Not so fun fact: velociraptors were the size of chickens, but boy does there name sound scary. The Utahraptor is the really scuurrrry one.