Auto bailout

If the government is going to be giving money to the auto industry, the American auto industry should have to shape up a little bit in my opinion. I am more supportive of giving money to automakers than all the banks we bailed out. At least the auto industry produces a real product. Those bankers were speculating on futures and not even dealing with any real product it seems like. The American auto industry is a huge part of or country. It helps feed the economy, when it is working, it gives jobs to lots of people, and in a way it is symbolic. My dad has been driving Ford cars for years. It is hard to imagine an America with out people driving Ford cars. So, I think in the end they should help out the American auto industry, but there should be terms that force them to become competitive again.

Purg

Man it is nice to hear that both our local ski areas, Wolf Creek and Purgatory, are both open! I am a complete skiing junkie and have had it on the brain for some time now. All we need is a little more snow. With any luck there really is snow in the forecast next week. A little powder skiing would be a nice way to unwind after a long semester.

Edward Abbey Project

I just completed a presentation yesterday in my Southwest Literature class on Edward Abbey. One of the great American writers of the southwest. I you have never had a chance to read any of his stuff, I would highly recommend Desert Solitaire and The Monkey Wrench Gang to anyone. In total I think he wrote around 22 books, but those are his most famous publications. If you've ever spent any time in the Southwest, the imagery in Desert Solitaire is excellent. I have spent a good amount of time in various parts of Utah and every time I pick up this book and just flip to a page, it brings me right back there. Describing how incredibly hot it is, how dry it is, how quickly you get incredibly thirsty, and almost seeing the heat waves coming off the rock in the middle of the day. The sun so high you cannot find shade anywhere during the day. Pretty cool place if you ever get a chance to check it out. This is a video I included in my presentation.

Cool Picture

On the topic of Edward Abbey, I though I'd put up a copy of a cool picture my friend Andrew took while we were camping in Utah two years ago. It was the perfect book to read while we were camping not too far south of where the book takes place. I'd highly recomend it.

Future of the newspaper

It is hard to deny that the newpaper industry is going through a transitional period right now. This was brought on by both the rapid advancement in technology and the change in readership. No to mention many publicatins are taking a hit right now in the midst of our economic turmoil. For instance, long standing newspaper the Rocky Mountain News is currently up for sale. If nobody purchases it it will just cease to exist. That's strange to me as I always remember my dad reading the Rocky Mountain News when I was growing up. It is a changing world that we are forced to adapt with, or perish. The media industry is no different. The market for online media is becoming stronger everyday. Our old friend the newspaper is beginning to follow suit. Many daily news readers, especially the younger generation, are turning to the net for their news these days. It has it's advantages. You can read news that it updated throughout the day, you can get what news you want when you want it, and it is free (for the most part) and easy. This new availability of choices allows you to skip what you don't care about and move on to what you're interested in. Is this really a good thing though? The newspaper has been good to our culture. It created a common base of knowledge in our culture because everyone was reading the same stuff. The availability of choices now seems like it is fragmenting the consumers into smaller groups who are interested it the same things. The possibilities are many for the online media. However, is it going to fill the shoes being left by the slow demise of the newspaper? My generation is going to be the ones to find out.

Voting Day

I has always been an interesting experience going to vote ever since I have been of age. I don't know about anyone else but I had followed the campaign pretty much from begining to end. It is always sort of a relief when you drop that ballot into the box. I was thinking " wow another presidential election is finally over." This was a long and intracite election. A beauty of a campaign by the Obama camp if you ask me. I voted using the standard paper ballot because I still don't trust those computerized voting machines. I've got hard evidence to show who I want elected to office. Once Obama is innaugerated he is going to have to get busy right from the start. Best of luck to him.

Halloween Zombie March

The "Zombie March" last night down Main St. Durango was quite the spectacle. Quite the dispaly of power in numbers. Except for the various unlucky few the we witnessed being arrested. I suppose it is only to be expected that there's going to be some turmoil at an event such as that. There was an impressive showing of people that found out about the event by word of mouth mostly. Though there was an article in the Durango Herald. For the most part I was impressed with how smooth everything went considering how rowdy the present crowd seemed to be. All things considered it was a pretty cool thing to witness and be a part of. Not every Halloween is quite that exciting.

Internet

I remember when my teachers would tell me when I was way younger about how the Internet was going to completely change the world as we know it. I didn't think much of it at the time, but now I see what they were trying to tell me. There is this massive global communication network that exists like a living breathing thing these days. You practically don't even have to leave your house anymore. The net is a rapidly evolving tool that has already changed the way we learn, do business and talk to each other. Social networking sites make it simple to communicate, for free, with many many people with almost no effort. Music is cheap and easy to obtain via downloads. If you understand how to use it, anyone can start a business or any type of organization with little effort. The net is a powerful organizing tool. I can only dream about five years from now.

Video Games

Videogames can be fun, but they are even worse than television as far as being able to waste countless hours doing it without actually accomplishing nothing. I remember playing "NBA Jams" on my Super Nintendo. I remember when the original Playstation came out. Look how far games have come today. XBOX 360, Playstation 3, and the Nintendo Wii. It's a whole new world compared to the good old days. I can barely keep up with the industry anymore. I haven't been a regular gamer for some time now, but the Nintendo Wii is pretty cool in my opinion. Something totally different that's for sure. I am pretty amazed with the broad demographic that video games appeal to these days. I never would have imagined that video games would come to the level that they are at today.

Group Presentaion

Doing research on Rolling Stone magazine was interesting. It was most interesting to see how much the magazine has changed over the years. It began as a rock and roll magazine and became a symbol of the counterculture. It has stuck to the same tried and true cover design for years. When you see a Rolling Stone today it is unmistakable. A pretty durable design. I don't read the magazine as much these days because it has gotten increasingly trendy but I used to love reading it when I was a kid. I still pick one up now and then because sometimes there is still a really good article in there from time to time. Sometimes I just see a cover that is great and I still can't resist. The "Rolling Stone Interview" is also a trademark of the magazine. Though it is primarily for entertainment, the magazine offers really good insight into the lives of some very interesting people. One perk of the project was that we did it during a presidential election cycle. The magazine also seems to have established itself as an important tool for reaching the younger generation. There were several covers that included one of the candidates or both. More Obama than McCain admittedly. Whatever it's shortcommings today, the magazine has established itself as one of our cultural institutions. That alone makes it something worth studying a little.

Television

The mass comm chapter about television was interesting because of how the medium evolved. Radio built the model that television was originally built on. Even so, I like how each medium has adapted and both exist these days. Television is crazy these days. I see stuff on t.v. that I never would see when I was a kid. I wonder what someone from the 1050's would think. They would probably faint. As much as I hate to admit it I really like watching t.v. sometimes. It's pretty entertaining and serves a very real purpose. It's great for lazy Saturday afternoons when you just want to relax. However, sometimes it can really get in the way. Sometimes you sit down to watch one show and three hour later your thinking "where did the day go?" I like t.v. but have to be careful that it doesn't get in the way of other things you want to do.

Radio

The chapter on Radio in the mass comm textbook was interesting. It seem to me that the radio listeners in my generation are few. Conventional radio I mean, not including Sirius or XM, though those are radio. I still like listening to the radio. I am a big fan of classic rock and in Durango there is a great radio station on 96.9 FM. It's great to listen to when you're driving. Plus they broadcast the syndicated show "Alice Cooper Nights" from 7 p.m. till midnight on weekdays. It's a great show if you like classic rock, not to mention that Alice Cooper is a pretty funny guy in my opinion. On the topic of Sirius and the like, it is good to see that radio is still popular. It is nice to listen to music you like and not know what's going to play next. It's great when a song you really like, or a good song that you've never heard before for that matter, comes on and you can't help but turn the radio up at lest a few notches. I hope radio lives long and prospers. That's all I can say about such a cool medium.

Film

The coolest part of the mass comm chapter on film was seeing how far film has come since its inception. From Muybridge's running horse to Transformers. These days it seems like you don't even need a camera to make a movie. All you need for a movie these days is a powerful computer and special effects. Film is one of my favorite mediums of all. There are some incredibly great films out there. It doesn't matter what type of movies you like, movies are really entertaining. So much better than watching television. There is something really special about the craft to me. Not exactly sure what it is. I haven't seen a ton a great movies come out lately, but when one does there is nothing like it. Nothing like seeing a good movie for the first time.

Books

The chapter on books in our mass comm textbook was interesting. With all the new technology these days who reads books? Well I do for one. To me books are the ultimate form of entertainment and good exercise for your imagination. It is up to you to fill in the gaps in the story and imagine how the story looks for yourself. Every book is open to interpretation by the reader. Like when you go to see a movie based on a book and your mental picture of the characters is completely different than the movie. These days people are becoming increasingly harder to entertain. Movies have intense special effects that cost millions of dollars just to keep the crowds attention. What ever happened to the plot and characters determining if a story was good? Books are also a window to the past according to the textbook. I completely agree. When I read As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner, it had a total picture in my mind of the South so many years ago. Or Kerouac's On the Road, this is what America looked like in the late 1950's. I wonder what those authors would think about where the culture toady? Books are also supremely entertaining in my opinion. When you read any book by Vonnegut, you can't help but laugh. At least if you're anything like me. So pick up a book once in a while! It's good for you, and you just might like it.

Conglomeration and Concentration

There has been a trend in recent memory of the ownership of media outlets being held in fewer and fewer hands. The concentration of this powerful force in the world is no small thing. There is a ethical responsibility of journalists to tell the facts completely and accurately to the public. When only a few people are in command of all this media, there is a danger of these ethics being compromised. Who do these people have to answer to if they own everything. Conglomeration is even more dangerous in my opinion, which could be wrong, to the process. This is when non-media companies begin to own media outlets. What interest do they have in the facts being broadcast accurately and completely. They came to acquire the media outlets for the simple task of increasing their already bulging bank accounts. These people owning our media creates a conflict between the journalistic responsibilities and their own personal agenda. Who do these conglomerates have to answer to, their stockholders. Media ownership is a business, there is no doubting that. However, the business shouldn't compromise the duty of the journalistic community to be important social agents. These are things we need to watch out for.

Storytellers

The first chapter of our mass comm textbook was interesting. It is true that every culture has storytellers. To quote the book: "A culture's values and beliefs reside in the stories it tells." The mass media is, for a large part, the storytellers of our culture. They have a unique ability to change and mold culture. This is kind of scary when you look at the mass media sometimes. It reiterates the importance of being media literate. As an individual consumers of media in this culture it seems like you are just bombarded with information on a constant basis. It is becoming more and more important to be able to step back and analyze all this information on your own schedule and not the on the media sets. When you just believe everything you hear, you are bestowing upon the media a credibility that is more or less not deserved. Be careful to make your own decisions and be aware of the impact of those decisions. There is a lot of insight into our culture if you take the time to digest the stories that are being told in our culture.