Give up Reddit for Lent or Discover Chavez is Dead?

So I guess I gave up reddit for lent. It wasn't like a conscious effort or anything I just stopped going on it the day after Pancake Tuesday and haven't been on since today... Much to my surprise I discovered Venezuelan "long-term" President, Hugo Chavez has died at the age of 58 today.

Rest In Peace Big Guy

I also tried giving up coffee this week. I cracked at 6:30 and had a cup of Nescafe Rich Hazelnut Instant Coffee. That's like the equivalent of a smoker giving up cigarettes and finding some left over pipe tobacco in their father's sock drawer and just shoving it up their nose and lighting up. Gross...

Seriously, Gross

But seriously I love coffee, I'm not afraid to admit I'm addicted to it either. The taste, the smell, the mouthfeel, the buzz, the brewing ritual, it's all mine to love and adore.


Anyway, this blog is supposed to be about the media I consume so here we go!

I discovered today via the OSAP website that I am too late to apply for the 770 dollar college certificate rebate. That sucks, but at least I know when the government is crying for money in 15 years it won't be because I took that student rebate from them. This gives me full right to complain about all the taxes I have to pay, right?

I have been reading about random stuff in Hollywood on Cracked.com. Including this one.

And of course I've been working my way through The Dictator starring Sacha Baron Cohen as a witless dictator of an ambiguous Middle Eastern country.




So what else has been going on in media land with me? Well, I made a demo reel, but mine sucks so here's a better one. 

Cabot McNenly DP Demo Reel (Updated January 2012) from Cabot McNenly on Vimeo.

LANCE CHEATED?

Read an article had to do something to it to make it funnier and 400 words. Here's the original http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cycling/21066354. 

Here's mine. 

Hold onto your cycling caps and drop-bars ladies and gents, Mr. I'm-Tired-Of-Fighting-Allegations has finally come clean. In an interview with Oprah, Lance Armstrong has announced that yes, he did do drugs during the Tour de France. So what was his reason for telling the truth finally? Well it seems it was mainly due to Oprah demanding answers not unlike a headmistress asking a schoolboy about who was firing spitballs in class. Who's a naughty boy? Lance Armstrong, that's who. 

Oprah opened with three questions demanding yes or no answers:

1. "Did you ever take banned substances to enhance cycling performance?

"Yes."

2. "Was one of those substances EPO?"

"Yes."

3. "Did you use any other banned substances?"

"Yes"

So yes, everyone Lance Armstrong has done all sorts of nasty things to gain the upper hand in a culture where doping was simply creating a level playing field. Which goes to prove to his mom (who's not mad just disappointed) that he would probably jump off a bridge too if everyone else was doing it. 

Who's to blame in this whole mess other than Armstrong himself? Well, pretty much everyone else involved in the sport. According to Lance [he]"…didn't have access to anything that anybody else didn't." You could also blame former doctor Michele Ferrari who, according to Lance, was not the mastermind in the whole doping scandal. If blaming people isn't your cup of tea, you could even blame the hundreds of drug tests that Lance and his Discovery Team totally passed, but really it wasn't the tests that caught him rather it was the testimony of several teammates. Several teammates including George Hincapie who had to sell himself out to the UCI to aid in the condemning of Armstrong. 

What does this mean to people like Emily O'Reilly masseuse for the United States Postal Service team who turned into a whistleblower who was later called a prostitute by Armstrong? Armstrong says "She is one of these people that I have to apologize to. She's one of these people who got run over, got bullied". Yes, Lance calling a masseuse a prostitute does warrant some sort of apology but it's okay after all you did raise millions in cancer research and you did manage to increase interest in a sport in America that was on the same level as F1 racing to a level roughly the same as cricket. 

Shane Smith - VICE

I wrote a paper on Shane Smith for my careers class....the assignment was about a media personality so here it is. NB there's swear words and some of the article titles and subject matter are pretty extreme (and not in a "radical dude!" extreme way). I didn't bother hyperlinking anything although there are sources at the bottom for stuff about him. 

Shane Smith (age 42) is co-founder of Vice Magazine and CEO of Vice Media Inc. He founded Vice Magazine in 1994 with Suroosh Alvi and Gavin McInnes. It was originally a government funded paper for Haitian Immigrants called Voice of Montreal. Eventually Shane, Suroosh, and Gavin took over, dropped the 'O' and called it Vice Magazine. In 2006 Shane starred in a television series entitled Vice Guide to Travel and in 2007 started the online video site VBS.tv.

Smith went to Carleton University where he majored in political economics and eventually travelled across Europe and traded money on the black market. He travelled back to Montreal where he met Suroosh Alvi at a family get together and they began working at Voice of Montreal together along with Gavin McInnes. In interviews Smith rarely mentions McInnes, possibly due to opinions that many would consider racist (An article entitled “I'm Not a Racist, Sexist, or Homophobe You Nigger Slut Faggot” may have something to do with that opinion).

Smith's has described his dream job similar to MTV's CEO Tom Freston. Smith says “[Freston] flies around everywhere, gets to make movies, gets to start TV shows, hang out with cool people and do whatever he wants.” Smith's job is pretty similar. He mostly stars in video series, writes miscellaneous articles, rubs shoulders with generals and spends time with Mitt Romney's cousins in Mexico.

Vice Media has largely been about shocking topics like “Vice Guide to Guide to Getting Laid”, “Vice Guide to Travel in...” series, and “The Westminster Dog Show on Acid!” as well as starting their own record label. Originally started as a magazine about fashion, music and sex Smith has steered the company to covering major world issues with a gonzo-style journalistic intent. Smith is found these days travelling the world and covering stories on everything from international arms dealing to the newest show airing on MTV entitled, Vice Guide to EVERYTHING. CNN has also picked up Vice coverage for many international news stories.

Since it's inception Vice's videos now employ half of their staff and has increasingly become well-known for the international issues presented by the many journalists. Smith realized how large his audience was (1.2 million magazine subscribers) and believes that it is his duty to inform these readers and viewers about the issues facing the world today. He says that he covers these issues primarily because he has been getting so frustrated by the countless untold stories of exploitation that people face from governments, businesses, and other people.

According to Smith he also advocates that no one should expect journalistic integrity from his company or the international news stories that he covers, however CNN believes that many of their reports “reflect a very transparent approach to journalism, where viewers are taken along on every step of the reporting process. We believe this unique reporting approach is worthy of sharing with our CNN.com readers [and viewers].”

Wired Magazine also is unsure of the integrity of Smith and claims that he originally started working with Voice of Montreal and falsified the intent of the magazine with Gavin McInnes to gain welfare status from the government. Also the article states that there wasn't actually a Montreal businessman that gave Vice a million dollars, contrary to Smith's claims that he did. While it is hard to distinguish what is truth and what is fiction Smith has certainly captured many as a bold and rising media personality.

Sources:

Sofex - The Business of War: http://www.vice.com/en_ca/vice-news/sofex-the-business-of-war-part-1

The Snarky Vice Squad is Ready to be Taken Seriously. Seriously.: http://www.wired.com/entertainment/theweb/magazine/15-11/ff_vice?currentPage=all

CNN Specials: Vice: http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/vice/index.html

Shane Smith: http://www.vice.com/spike-spends-saturday-with/shane-smith-part-1

A Wild Man Grows Up (Just Enough): http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/19/fashion/19upclose.htmladxnnl=1&pagewanted=all&adxnnlx=1352783584-SNlurKjySzMuSftjhDTZyw

I'm Not a Racist, Sexist or a Homophobe, You Nigger Slut Faggot:

http://takimag.com/article/im_not_a_racist_sexist_or_a_homophobe_you_nigger_slut_faggot/print#axzz2C4q0kwFG

There is nothing here. I was working on a project today. I watched a little bit of Arrested Development while I was procrastinating.

Lesson of the day. Don't procrastinate. Then you can do things better.

Youtube... Beatuiful Losers Cont.

To start I'd like you all to listen to some guitar that was featured in Breaking Bad.


I finished Beautiful Losers today. I wasn't as inspired by the ending as I was by the beginning. I must have turned it off right around the end of the climax thus leaving my previous viewing uninspired.

The artists discussed exactly what became of their art and friendship and passion. They went over the commercial aspect of the industry. It wasn't anything different from where they came from really... Most of them started with making magazines or skateboard decks or signs...

My father was a chef. He taught me incredible things. Most importantly he taught me to take pride me in my work not just as a cook but as an artist. When you serve someone food you are not just serving them the food but also the presentation. It is why ketchup is red and not purple and why margarine was originally sent with a dye pack that you broke so it became yellow like butter. It is why they add pink dye to beef in the grocery store. Because we are driven by beauty and by what looks good.

I watched two shorts out of a three part movie entitled The Fourth Dimension (how three directors interact with the task of make a short about the fourth dimension). Harmony Korine of the Spring Breakers fame directed the first part and it stars Val Kilmer. Aleksei Fedorchenko directs the second short and is shot in Russian.


How do we interact with space and time? Albert Einstein said, "Take a point, stretch it into a line, curl it into a circle, twist it into a sphere, and punch through the sphere." What does this mean? Hawking described it as the universe operating in and of itself completely self-contained essentially not doing anything other than being. This idea that the past, present, and future don't exist. We exist on a non-linear plane. Time is an invention. 

I describe things not nearly as well as someone else can. 

I put it into the idea that the fourth dimension is where God exists.

Okay, moving on...

Inspiration is coming and going. Waxing and waning. I am becoming more content with where I am. This is my ninth post. I am becoming comfortable with this.

Here's Comfortably Numb by Pink Floyd to finish the post off.

Beaitful Losers and living one life in Multiple Realities

It's funny how I can get more views on one youtube video yet I'm so much more impressed watching my blog views increase as I post another entry.

I'm watching Beautiful Losers. I'm halfway through and couldn't take it anymore. The themes explored via these relatively unknown artists (but aren't most artists unknown?) really is connecting with me.

My entire life I've felt the push and pull of my faith culture (church, family, religion) and my lifestyle culture (friends, school, education, family, emotions). In high school I'd hang out with kids on all kinds of drugs getting up to no good doing crazy things, skateboarding, vandalizing, breaking things, lighting stuff on fire. Then I'd go to youth group on Friday nights sometimes with the same guys and we'd talk about faith and God.

I always remember hearing the made-up devotional stories about the kid who noticed the other kid in church being two-faced. Y'know he'd see him in church being told how nice he is by all the old ladies and singing in the choir then on Monday he'd see the kid in the smokers pit telling dirty jokes with the other smokers... At the end of the story the question was always. Are you a two-faced Christian? I always felt so convicted by that... That idea of being two-faced. With my friends at school I certainly acted and talked different but people always new my faith side of life. They knew I did church stuff and that I didn't smoke dope because it was "against my religion" and I respected my parents and stuff but they respected it in a way that has been rarely felt since.

They saw who I was. I was never two-faced but to an outsider church kid who only saw me one way I was consider a hypocrite and a lying bastard (true story actually). After the animosity was felt and they talked to me the walls came down, apologies were made, and friendship was formed.

I grew up in many worlds but emerged as one person. Funny how that works. I learned how to work hard, I learned how to be peaceful, and I learned how to survive through tough times, and I learned how to keep my faith through all of it.

The kids I met in high school will forever keep me changed.

I rarely hung out with church kids at high school... Why? No one let anything through. When I spent time with my friends that weren't "good" I'd share in life with them. We'd talk about the stuff we went through the night before and it wasn't about how annoying homework is... It was about our parents... Our parents sucked... Yeah, I know typical teenager lameness... It wasn't until I had a friend tell me about her mother smoking crack and running around the house screaming. Sobering stuff.... I identified with that. My dad was going through a percocett addiction after heart surgery... He was screaming at night too...

So I'm stuck at this point... I'm stuck in this point where my life is one but is in multiple worlds again. My career is in the middle of church and film. I'm being told to marry them together...

I want too but the rational brain of mine tells me I can't... I can't make a career out of it. Yeah, there may be a few guys out there doing it but what do I have to offer?

This kid... inspired by Harmony Korine, Ed Templeton, Rob Bell, Francis Chan, Peter Rollins, Slavoj Zizek, Quentin Tarantino, Shephard Fairey, Stanley Kubrick... So many opposing personalities come together in my brain and don't come out with anything fantastic. Just a confused mess.

The thing is I'm slowly working on it. Are you? I know you are... take it from me, it just takes time.

So... in conclusion watch Beautiful Losers... You won't be sorry. It's on youtube as well as netflix (you have no excuse)

I'm tired... But It Must be Told. Greedy Businessman, Absconding Atheism, The Raven

With all the media (read: books, music,  internet, movies, tv) that I find my consuming on a daily basis I have decided to start keeping record of how my mind is interacting with all of these inputs. So now you the reader will be subjected to my run-on sentences and mindless mumblings in completely rough form.

Essentially I am now going to attempt to create a sorts of Input/Output documentation through this blog and let the public eye examine, destruct, construct, and consume my thoughts.

I'm tired and I don't want to do this, but I'm sticking to it because I said I would... Oh and the first story I saw this morning hit me in a strange way... I'm talking about the Windsor to Detroit bridge that I found out about today in the national post (story)... It straight up reads like a story about Scrooge McDuck. The guy (a self-made billionaire) owns the Ambassador bridge (the only bridge into Michigan) and makes millions of dollars a year in tolls because he holds a monopoly. This guy doesn't want another bridge connecting Canada to Detroit (FYI Canada is paying for most of the costs sans US Border Crossing building). So since the guy doesn't want it to happen what has he done? Helped draft up a public vote for cross-border bridge building for the entire state of Michigan! Pretty diabolical huh? Want some more ammo? The guy is misconstruing the facts about this bridge building project with a tv ad series airing right across the state. 

Mr. America is trying to tell people the money is better off spent on schools and roads in Michigan. It's a shame the money is coming from Canada...i.e. not Michigan's money to spend.

I also read about atheists today... In an article from salon.com this guy is against atheists with superiority complexes and consider them to be just as terrible as the evangelicals that he escaped from.

Essentially he calls for people to move beyond their faith and belief systems and embrace people as people with the ability to do great things when they rally around causes with that their faith supports.

Of course nothing is better than the comments section of opinion based websites so I spend as much time reading the comments as I do the article. Here's a selection of comments...

Geowalk07:There are, what? TWO or THREE well known antagonistic atheists and this threatens to divide people? Virtually every other atheist is quite mum on the subject until/unless cornered by antagonistic religious zealotry or driven to be vocal about it by the threat of religion-based policy that threatens to curb our rights.

Reply from goeswithness: He wasn't limiting his remarks to the famous people. What everyone does and how everyone views others - even if they keep their mouths shut - influences the atmosphere of the world we live in. Hatefulness is toxic to the hater.

And let's not even talk about the toxic atheism in Salon comments.

reply from Geowalk07: There are no atheists standing on street corners screaming at believers; there are no atheists knocking on my door on Sunday mornings or holidays, asking to come into my home to preach; there are no atheists sending missionaries out to the hinterlands to convert "heathens" to their point of view. Atheists are completely unrepresented in local and federal governments; they have no political power (yet), but their mere existence is viewed as a threat by believers, and, "heaven" forbid, should someone mention that they do not believe any gods they are viewed as being antagonistic.

Are you saying that even when silent, atheists are being antagonistic simply because they hold a minority view and live, act and vote according to that view? Is merely being atheist an antagonistic act?

If someone asks, I will tell them that I do not believe in their god. If, in a public setting, someone is pushing for religiously based policy changes that threaten to impinge on my rights, I will speak up. Why should atheism, of all philosophical views, remain hidden? Are the beliefs of the religious so tenuous, so fragile, that they cannot withstand any sort of push-back?

The conversation continues over on the website.... Seriously read internet comments! They're great!

I watched Daybreakers,  starring Ethan Hawke as vampire with morals, Willem Defoe as hick cured vampire who creeps me out, and Sam Neill as big bad corporate businessman. Ethan Hawke is a scientist trying to find a blood substitute as there is a blood supply crisis (hint: oil) and meets a group of surviving humans and Willem Defoe who cures himself from vampirism by quickly exposing himself from sunlight and submerging himself in water to put the flames out. I don't think it's worth a watch.

I also watched The Raven starring Vicent Price as the protagonist magician, Boris Karloff as the antagonist magician, and Peter Lorre (Igor) as comic relief magician and young (and attractive) Jack Nicholson as Peter Lorre's son. The chemistry between these three actors is freakin awesome and I am ashamed to say I fell asleep in the middle of the movie because classical music really soothes me. 

The best they could do for Special Effects.... At leas they tried.