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Western

Word on the Street

The following is inspired by a Microsoft commercial (see post below) and recaps some lessons learned in MIT.

Hey there, you may know me as Prince. I loved this past New Years Eve because who doesn’t like partying like it’s 20Ten and playing with meaning? That’s what Derrida promoted back in his day and I can see why. It’s exactly why I released some songs through a newspaper this past summer, as I like to do things differently.

People in this world need to be courageous and creative. Being a follower won’t get you anywhere but being called a copycat and I don’t want a CC of anyone else’s ideas. I prefer to spread my own ideas and I love how Web 2.0 lets me do just that.

That’s why I turn to the blogosphere to rant about whatever I feel like. Democratic communication is a beautiful thing and I think more people should recognize how they can use it for progressive social change. So many opportunities, yet so little time, but we got to stop procrastinating already and put an end to all this marginalization. There are simply way too many stereotypes circulating the WWW and it’s time that somebody does something about it!

It’s great that Kylie has the tools to capture, edit and share her photos, but let’s not forget that her distant relatives aren’t all as lucky. There’s some major social injustice in this world; someone’s got to fix that digital divide. When there are journalists who think a university campus could be ‘too Asian’, it seems impossible for everyone to be like one happy family in a global village. Kylie seems optimistic though. Hopefully her online habits won’t make her become the sad caricature of the computer enthusiast (you’re the man, Vincent Mosco).

The keyboard is like a sword sometimes; Kylie should be careful what she does with those little fingers. As Alan Turing says, communication is war continued by other means. So whether it’s for employment purposes, personal branding, or just an attempt to get a date on Saturday night, people should be careful what they say.

By creating a whole campaign based on binaries, Apple makes it seem like every day is national suit up day in uptight Seattle. You know what Microsoft should really do? Develop an app or add a feature to MS Word that helps people develop their craft in spoken word. It’s such a cool art form, yet many people don’t recognize that. It must be because they’re spending too much time fooling around with their shiny iTouch screens.

I’m thinking about booking a trip to Mexico so I can strengthen my muscles in one of Madonna’s new gyms. What a material girl, trying to put her name on everything. She’s always touring the world to reinvent herself. Well, wish me luck on my upcoming globe-trotting adventures (and come see the show if you can).

That white kid Bieber thinks he can take my place? He can try, but he can’t replace me or the king of pop, may he RIP. Michael was a fabulous performer. Plus, he practically named his son after me. Everything’s so pre-digested these days. We need more originality. Come on, you indie musicians, let’s hear it. Put your cultural capital to good use. You’ve got your freedom and I don’t see anyone handing you death threats, so get to it! I’m curious to see what bricolage budding musicians will mash-up next.

Here’s to making great cultural texts,

Cheers!

January 4, 2011 by

The Kids Are All Right

In his first few scenes of The Kids Are All Right, I thought Paul (Mark Ruffalo) was a strange, hippy guy. Driving a motorcycle may be dangerous, but Ruffalo makes it look très cool. As the movie progresses, Paul comes across as someone who would make for a cool uncle, which is convenient for a sperm donor who spontaneously enters his biological kids’ lives. Ruffalo has been in a number of cheesy chick flicks – Just Like Heaven, case in point – but this performance and his role in Canadian indie My Life Without Me prove why he is in the biz.

When Nic (Annette Benning) remarks how each kid is so similar to their respective biological mother, I suddenly realized how the film presented the characters precisely in this way. It wasn’t necessary for the movie to deliberately depict the ‘like mother, like child’ cliché, but this is precisely what writer and director Lisa Cholodenko did.

Considering that soap opera characters inspired the possible alternatives for my own name, I found it mildly funny that Joni (Mia Wasikowska) was named after Joni Mitchell. Let’s just hope that teen moms don’t think it’s cool to name their newborns after Ke$ha, or some other one hit wonder.

The hair department really should have done something different with Joni’s hair, instead of letting it look so plain and straggly. Just because she is more anxious about starting college and moving out than choosing which shade of lipstick to wear, doesn’t mean she can’t sport a ponytail every so often.

Without any spirited sophs carrying mini fridges in their jumpsuits, Joni’s campus is oddly quiet on move-in day when her unconventional family says their goodbyes. This would’ve been a good time to hire some college-aged extras looking to brag that they were on the same set as Julianne Moore.

Cholodenko tells an interesting story with minimal product placement courtesy of Volvo. She doesn’t conclude with a fairytale ending per se, as she leaves some questions unanswered (like Joni’s When Harry Met Sally situation), but reassures viewers everything will be all right, regardless of how dysfunctional a family is.

November 21, 2010 by

UWO Stereotypes

Hilarious Satire of UWO Stereotypes – Ke$ha’s ‘We R Who We R’ (Created by Sean Kelly)

November 16, 2010 by

Quoted: Two and a Half Men

Charlie Harper from Two and a Half Men would make some highly entertaining contributions to MIT tutorials!

Alan: Check it out! Rose’s engagement announcement is in the paper.

Charlie: Nah, I still don’t buy it.

Alan: What do you mean? It’s right here in the paper. *points to online edition on his laptop*

Charlie: Oh, grow up. Do you know how many times I’ve had that paper print my obituary?

— Episode 8.07

November 3, 2010 by

Dear Greyhound, you have some explaining to do.

In this season’s Cougar Town, Laurie suggests Bobby start a blog. He is unemployed, with plenty of time to goof around, so why not? She tells him how a lot of people just use their blog as a forum to complain about bad service at restaurants. Well my experience with Greyhound last night certainly calls for a rant of my own.

I joined the line of Western students ten minutes prior to the scheduled 8 pm departure. It was busy, but it was Thanksgiving Monday, so that was to be expected. Then fifteen, twenty, thirty minutes went by, without a sign of a bus. There was supposed to be another one arriving to pick us up at 9 pm, but that never came either. If you were Brampton-bound, you could take your pick of GO buses, but us Mustangs had to wait.

Yorkdale’s bus terminal became quite the scene, as irate parents grew concerned about how their kids would safely return to campus. One father gave up, asked for a refund, and felt he had no alternative other than to drive his daughter to school himself. Meanwhile, another father retrieved an armful of forms to distribute to the antsy, frustrated students. “There’s no way they can ignore 30 complaints”, he said.

Inside the terminal, a mother demanded that the Greyhound sales reps contact head office, but still no explanation was offered. She even asked them to call the west coast office, hoping that the time difference would make them easier to reach, but no luck.

Instead of taking any chances on the buses leaving early Tuesday morning, I stuck around and took a 3 hour bus with stops in Guelph and Waterloo. We didn’t make it to London until 1 am.

It’s a shame that Greyhound rarely offers guarantees.

October 12, 2010 by