War is show-business

I had never seen the movie Wag the Dog until this semester, the film was entertaining and I liked it. However there were several things that stood out to me; first, it highlighted how easily people are manipulated. The entire United States knew nothing about the war until it was upon them, and even then they didn’t question it they just became engrossed with “the old shoe”. Entire war they were fighting was fabricated; nothing resembled the truth at all! The ‘president’s people’ seemed to have absolutely no morals. It very much appeared to me like they wanted to band aid the election to make their guy win even though they knew that it was not the best thing for the American population, nor do they have any regard for the American citizens because they are putting them through an emotional roller coaster.

This also showed a very real view of how things really are today, such as tabloids and things we see on the internet. The realization that we remember taglines and images and not the actual war shows how much of a visual country we are. We are very easily persuaded into believing all kinds of lies if there is a picture to pin it to, even if it was “man made” or altered. How very easily we are persuaded into thinking all kinds of things. This movie makes me think very critically of the media we are exposed to now, is it that way? Do they make false images like the ones depicted in the film? Perhaps we will never know for sure, but it does make your brain tick.

The 8th Wonder of the World

Southfork ranch was made popular by the 1978 television series "DALLAS", Lorimar Productions began filming this show and it became wildly popular all over the world. Dallas aired in over 96 different countries and the Southfork Ranch still has over 100,000 visitors annually for tours and parties.

The show was the first of it's kind, meaning the story line carried over from one episode to another, unlike the shows that were popular in the past, (I Love Lucy, Leave it to Beaver, M*A*S*H, Carol Burnett Show, and Laugh in) just to name a few. This might be a foreign concept for young people today, only because they never experienced television before Dallas. The most watched episode of Dallas was "who shot J.R?" and still today there has never been a cliffhanger close to that magnitude.

The Southfork Ranch has attracted people from all countries of the world on a daily basis. Most recently there has been an influx of younger generation Europeans. One young man from Europe actually changed his name legally to "J.R Ewing" after the main character on the show and has J.R's picture tattooed on his arm. In Romania there are 3 houses that are replicas of the "Dallas house" knows as Southfork, due to the popularity of the show in that country.

Big name stars like Johnny Cash, Alan Jackson, Martina McBride, Travis Tritt, Brooks and Dunn, and many more have visited the ranch for various parties and events. Annually there are over 1400 events such as weddings, family reunions, anniversary parties, and most famously the Cattle Barons Ball which raises funds for cancer research.

The notion that the Southfork Ranch gained it's popularity in the early 80's and is still popular with events and especially tours, shows me the impact the show Dallas had on the world. No one involved in the making of the series could have imagined the impact that a fictions story about an oil family from Dallas would have had on the world.

Blog # 7

Music is something most everyone can relate to, and I want to take a look on how the media has effected some particular singing sensations' lives. Some have thrived, some have fallen, and others have been indifferent to the media attention they receive from their stardom.

Elvis Presley, Taylor Swift, Dolly Parton, Miley Cyrus, Merle Haggard and Britney Spears are all music success stories, and some still being written; each one different. We need to take a bigger and longer look on how their popularity can actually be a bad thing, maybe we don't need to know every single little thing about them, maybe they are just regular folks just like ourselves; after all, at the end of the day the king and the pawn go into the same box. It's just the same for celebrities and us.

There are people who make a living writing stories, getting pictures, and following stars around just to get the ‘inside scoop’, I for one could care less if so-and-so does something crazy. Why not spend the time, money and energy on something more useful, such as trying to figure out how to fuel a car on urine, having polls on different government policy that have actually random people not ones paid by politicians, or heck become a street performer. I just believe as Americans, we care way too much about what other people are doing, what they have, and who they are; if we focused more on ourselves instead of what new crazy thing Britney is up to, we would probably be much happier people.

Stereotypes

Studying in the school library is a very amusing place, because you can see all kinds of stereotypes come to life. I don’t know if it was because I was looking for it or not, but as I was attempting to study for my Holocaust final I looked around me and began to observe. Most of the diligent hard working students were Asian, the ones who seemed to be there more for the social aspect were the Islamic and Muslim people, there were only about 3 white people myself included, and a handful of blacks. As we can see in mostly television there are definite stereotypes that are portrayed, in life but especially in the school setting. There are the jocks, the preps, the geeks, the smart Asians, the possible gang members, and the people who just are either normal or really weird.

The Asians were talking very fast and about very complicated things having to do with math and science. They would look up every so often and smile, then go right on working. The Muslims kept talking loudly no matter that others were studying, and every once and a while they would look down and read for a few minutes. The black people were much like the Muslims but much quieter, and the 3 white people just kind of kept to themselves. In a lot of ways the Asian ‘smart’ stereotype is the most spot on for this observance, and also the white people, or lack thereof. In television shows you hardly ever see white people being extremely studious, it’s always more you do what you need to get by and hope it’s good enough. When I was done observing the people around me, I just had to giggle and think, on the outside our society has come so far, with equal rights, and the abolishment of slavery, but on the inside I fully believe we are still somewhat the same.

Christmas Is Coming Early This Year!

In the stores there have been Christmas decorations, the radio station 103.7 lite FM has been playing Christmas music for a while now, and people have started putting up their lights; but it’s not even thanksgiving! There could be a lot of reasons why everyone is getting ready for the 'big man in red' so much earlier this year. One reason is because of the state of our economy; people are tired of hearing about all the bad on the news, people need something good to think about! And Christmas is a time where cheer is in no short supply.

With so many people out of the job, struggling with bills, and any number of other ailments we are all facing; people need a bit more cheer than normal. The Christmas or Holiday season has always brightened our moods, but it’s becoming an even bigger deal in recent years and now even more so with the economic decline.

Ebay the online auction business started its Christmas countdown more than a month ago, different types of stores and restaurants began advertising what their holiday hours would be, and people have already been shopping for Christmas gifts. The Willow Bend mall in West Plano started decorating for Christmas before Halloween even! I personally believe in one season and holiday at a time but I too needed a little something extra to be excited about this season.

As a side note on 103.7 lite FM recently there was a segment about “where you should look at Christmas lights” and there is a subdivision in New York that does a ‘hot chocolate for dreams’ fundraiser for children in need. And last year they donated over $4000 dollars, this makes you just get in the spirit just listening to it!

The Disguise of Empowerment

At first when I was looking at the December 2010 Allure magazine, I thought "heavens to Betsy! Everything is geared to women for pleasing men!" So I decided I needed to take a closer look to see if that's what was really going on; I was surprised with my findings. The editors make it appear to empower men actually but if you look deeper than the surface it's a double edge sword; they give all kinds of advice for women to feel better, look younger, dress cuter, be a good party host, and much more. It does make the average reader think that it is all for other people, but I read it as if I were to do these things I would feel better, look better, and what woman doesn't want that?

In the article 8 beauty blunders to avoid during the holidays, it gave simple advise to women when throwing or attending a holiday get together, (or really all year round) and it focuses all about the woman, much like Oprah, and the effects on how it makes HER feel. The empowerment of women is a very important notion in this day and age, because women have fought so hard to have equal rights, Cosmopolitan magazine still has a ways to go, but In the Allure magazine they are making it more for the woman to empower herself with how SHE feels about herself, not how other people perceive her. I also compared it to an old Oprah magazine my grandmother had, and Allure is like the young woman’s Oprah; at least that’s what I think.

Virtual Society

While watching the ‘ol boob tube, you have literally hundreds of options for what you want to watch. There are really shows for every taste; right wing, left wing, west wing! Shows for the homosexuals (not that there’s anything wrong with that, Seinfeld) and for the homophobic. For the old fashioned the fashion obsessed, a show called obsessed and shows about the obese. In this day and age we have more access to anything media related than ever before, and it’s still growing. I have only watched movies in the last few weeks; I don’t even have the ‘regular’ channels, why? Other than I’m a poor college student, I just don’t have the time or want.

At work the other day, the conversation over lunch went from television show to television show without missing a beat! When finally the conversation lagged a little I changed the subject to tell them about something I had done over the weekend; after I was done, one of the men asked, ‘wait, what show was that again?’ I had to laugh out loud because he hadn’t realized we had gone from the virtual world to the real world. This is just one example of how virtual our society has become, people forget they can actually go out and do things, not just live vicariously through the television set. If we were to only limit ourselves to that, well, we would begin to be one big confused mess of different shows trying to exist in a real society fighting with other shows for the ‘most popular girl’ award.