Blog Assignment #2

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

Insanity and excess run rampant in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, a film based on Dr. Hunter S. Thompson's book of the same title. I watched the movie with audio commentary from HST himself and he explained at one point that he enjoyed the visuals the most, that they gave life and imagery to his work. Personally after reading the book and seeing the movie both numerous times I think it propelled this story into one that may have been narrated from the dark side of the moon. We get to see a dramatic representation of the ridiculous things HST and Oscar Acosta may have seen in Las Vegas with heads full of acid and bloodstreams and nervous systems pumped full of plenty of other intoxicants. Hunter Thompson found an opportunity to take a weekend vacation in Las Vegas with all expenses paid (courtesy of Rolling Stone magazine) which turned into a sort of eulogy on the counterculture of the 60's. Rolling Stone published book in two parts in two different issues, they didn't expect such a long story back. He was only dispatched to Las Vegas so he could cover a motorcycle race held annually called the Mint 400. In the movie and book the race is actually only partially covered, otherwise to most people it may just seem like a film directed to a 'druggie' demographic, really though it's so much more. In my opinion it's an enticing look at how a suitcase full of drugs and the mass media was used on a sarcastic search for the American Dream.

Blog Assignment #2

Network

1945 finds our United States in upheaval. People are fed up with recession, the government, even themselves. Underground revolutionary groups are portrayed by Big Brother as terrorist factions, and network corporations are trying to keep society's attention. In the midst of all this "UBS Evening News" anchor Howard Beale gets fired because of low rations. On air he claims the following evening that he will put a bullet through his head. Ratings explode so they allow him to apologize and say fare well, instead he arrives a mad man raving about how our mediocre picture perfect lives are comprised of pure 'bullshit'. Beale doesn't kill himself but instead is given his won show being called the 'Mad Prophet of the Airwaves', relaying the truth to millions of viewers about the 'hypocrisies of our time'. The irony is that his new show was created for ratings, and being from a network, it puts down network corporations, government, our current way of life, and all with a cynical humor. The people who created the show knew that counterculture was becoming a part o the cultural norm and exploited that, and of course it worked.

02/12/09

So this morning I was able to wake up to a blaring Skip James video my brother was watching on YouTube. I guess there is no use in complaining considering Skip James is better than a lot of things to wake up to. I hear an inspiring song on the radio a little later and decide I need to make some music, so I hop on the bus to West @ I-10 where some friends live. I keep my synth and an amp there and they have a drum set and some guitars and an alright PA so we threw a jam and then just sat around for a while looking at random books. I stumbles upon an old textbook on Marxism and became intrigued and flip through it. Towards the end of the book is an excerpt from Guevara's Guerilla Warfare. Communism I think is just another system of systems but, there are a few things, like most forms of government that stand out and represent exceptional ideas. So I hop on the bus and hightail it to school in time to type up this half ass attempt at one last blog before this assignment is due. All in all I think our interactions with media and what we allow ourselves to view and hear and accept as our social way of doing things, is one of the major factors in identifying where and why we need to shape up as a people.

02/10/09

Writing these blogs made me realize that we can't always blame others for our own mind degradation. We will unknowingly submit ourselves to an endless cycle of the same bull crap and thus goes our sick societal cycle that is crashing in on itself. Okay, to dumb that down I'm saying that bitching about the same old commercials on TV and the same damn songs on the radio does nothing because society convinces itself of what it wants to see, hear, smell, feel, and taste. To dumb that down a little more, we just need to be more expressive as a people of what we like and dislike. We can't just be vacuums for Big Brother to throw whatever they want on the damn floor, because the majority of us are ignorant and take whatever is out there and adapts it to their lifestyle.
...KSYM accompanied me to sleep Monday night thus Tuesday morning I woke up to the sounds of Los Number 3 Dinners, a great local band you should check out if you've never listened. You just can't beat a good college radio station. I've been listening to college radio since I was in fucking middle school and it has done me a lot of good I think. People, if you have kids, don't subject them to so so much of the commercialized world. It's a fake thing and the "underground" is actually the real culture, not just counterculture. So I take in my usual fix of this college radio and waltz over to my next door neighbor's house where my brother and his girlfriend just happen to live. Now, I don't know if this ever happens to anyone else but his poor girlfriend just loves to turn the TV on and unwittingly leave it on the Preview Channel. It's not until twenty minutes later that anyone notices we've been watching the same damn cycle of previews!! A good example of an ignorant vacuum. ; ] Haha. So I bus it to my girlfriends and turn on her tube to that flick 21 about a genius medical student who learns to count cards in black jack. Quite a good movie for those people who love to put a mask on. Otherwise, still a pretty good one to watch. At the same time I'm fiendishly looking at motorcycles for sale on Craigslist. I can't wait to be able to cruise the streets of our fine city on a fine looking bike. So I make to my Tuesday night class 15 minutes late thanks to our reliable public transportation system and was able to leave an hour early because we had a test, which I most likely failed miserably. Pinche SAC math teachers blow!! I bus it home and like usual I'm hypnotized by the ads that line the bus, VIA job opportunities, Vanpool crap, bus fare shit, same crap as always but I can't help but read them all anyway. I get home but immediately have to leave because last Friday I had to go the Texas Medclinic for a laceration to my thumb I received at work. Worker's Comp!! Lets just hope I piss clean, hahaha. So this is a follow up to last Friday's stupidity and I find myself watching some reporter grill this lady about having 14 kids on NBC in the clinic lobby. I guess one would have to actually meet the lady for one's self considering the circumstances to get a good perception of her motives. So I make it home, go back to my bro's and catch the last hour of Pink Floyd's The Wall, last time I saw that movie I was about 17 and had eaten a few grams of shrooms and thoroughly enjoyed it so there was some good reminiscing before I came home and crashed to the sweet sounds of the radio.

02/08/09

Last class we watched a video on the exploitation of the female through horrible media schemes. As a participant in this "generation Y" one can definately see how many girls grow up to be empty vessels covered in make-up and purfume, with no thoughts of there own, or seriously damaged due to issues of inadequacy. Although the creator of the film did take it slightly to the next level, one cannot deny that the people in charge of choosing what we see on TV and in magazines have a strange perception of what we should be striving to look and dress like. I believe this strange perception has never had a beginning nor will it have an end, I think it's just a part of the human mind trying to perfect itself in a very cynical world. As for this lovely Sunday it turned out to be a lazy one for me personally. Beer pong and a lot of ridiculous 98.5 The Beat music accompanied me as I waltzed about a random party Saturday night through early Sunday morning. Personally I love older hip hop, Dead Prez, Public Enemy, The Pharcyde, KRS-One, so to have to be subjected to such mind numbing crap is almost too much, but you have to put up with it in such an environment. Finally someone turned the station to some classic Conjunto which is easier on the ear, and just all around great beer drinking music I think. So I found myself in a taxi heading home around 5 and then suddenly in my room passing out to some KZEP. A good end to the evening/morning. : ] I woke up somewhere around the afternoon and went immediatly to my couch to watch TV for hours on end. A classic lazy Sunday. A lot of House episodes, one of those spiff movies you love to hate, Not Another Teen Movie, a cartoon here or there. Occasionally I got up to surf the net, I stayed on Youtube for quite a while because I stumbled upon some math tutoring videos that really did help me out with some confusing shit. Then I taught myself some crap on the piano because I found a huge array of 'how to play' videos. To top it off I watched some vids that showed how to properly work the clutch and gears on a motorcycle because I'm slowly convincing myself to buy one. To end this disgusting soak in media sauna I watched an episode of Family Guy and then Robot Chicken, and of course some Pandora in the background as I type this. I love my Fugazi station.

01/29/2008

I always wake up and turn on the radio. Straight to KSYM just because I'd rather not deal with too too much commercialism in the morning. So this wonderful afternoon I'm listening to some random local country/pseudo-blues local band, I love the diversity in our city. I roll over on my bed and remember I passed out halfway through a paragraph in the book I've been reading the past few weeks, Scar Tissue by Anthony Keidis of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. So, I finish the page and then another and put it away for later. After about an hour I find I'm flipping between an episode of Law and Order and No Reservations. Getting my usual fix of drama from "The Channel for Drama" TNT and my fix of travel and exotic food from the Travel Channel. Anthony Bourdain is a mad man! The guy will try any food once, not a bad way to live if you enjoy cooking like I do I guess. Of course all this accompanied by the endless hypnotizing commercials that seep into our sub-conscious' and spread. I grow tired of being a couch potatoe and migrate over to my PC. I scan the CNN website and read a few articles which I don't usually do. I find that most major news sources are too bought over and stale and stagnant. I take my journalism well done. None of that medium-well shite. Hahahaha. I cruise over to Myspace and quickly check any and all messages and what not, blah blah blah. Everyday I grow tired of using the internet as a social networking tool but it has inevitably become the greatest and most useful form of mass communication. We as 'The People' should use all means necessary to keep this as Our tool and not Big Brother's tool. Anywho, I'm watching RHCP music videos on Youtube more than likely because  I was reading that darn book last night and also looking at random clips of a documentary called Stuff that was filmed by Johnny Depp about John Frusciante's (current RHCP guitarist) years of drug use that almost killed him. After a few hours we're in class looking at one of our professor's very informative powerpoint presentations. I caught the bus home and was of course hypnotized by the many ads lining the insides of the bus. Random pictures of some chicano hoodlum in cuffs inspiring me not to harm the bus operator ; ] haha, one has me convinced I should just get a Student Semester Bus Pass, another is telling me I should call Via every morning to vanpool to work. I get home and watch a little bit of a documentary called The Agronamist which is about a Haitian radio journalist who was assassinated by the government. A sad story to hear and see when a man cannot empower his people through radio. Something we have all grown up with. As I type this damn thing out I am listening to an Augustus Pablo station I made on Pandora and watching the Spurs game, the middle of the fourth quarter and we're winning (knock on wood). Some reggae and some spurs. Once again I love the diversity of our fine city.