Media as a social expectation....

General Conference weekend is a funny time in Provo. First off, the streets are almost completely empty during sessions, and suddenly everybody comes to life in the two hours between (don't try and get lunch... seriously). But I think the funniest thing is on Saturday evening when suddenly every man and boy in Provo is in a suit, and every girl is walking around in shorts and T-shirts with a big group of friends and an ice-cream cone. The sad thing is that because conference is a social expectation in Provo, we are all judging those guys who aren't in suits during the Priesthood session. Just a thought...

Happy Hunger Games Day

So far, everybody I've asked is going to The Hunger Games movies- if not for the midnight showing, at least on the day after. I mean, even the professor I asked (who will remain nameless) is picking up his daughter at 2:30. Why all the hype people?! After all, it's just a movie. A movie that we will all probably disapprove of because it's not like our interpretation of the book. And a movie to which that all the people in the theater will attach their own commentary while you are trying to watch in peace. Is this really worth all of us falling asleep in the mock trial tomorrow?
Yes. One hundred percent absolutely no doubt in my mind yes. As much as I cannot understand it, I am in no way exempt from this. Over the past couple of weeks my husband and I will often turn to each other in the middle of a conversation and just sigh and say "I can't wait for The Hunger Games." My husband woke me up this morning by saying "Happy Hunger Games Day!" and grinning like it was Christmas. And not only that, we've one-upped everyone by getting into an early showing at 8pm tonight so that we don't have to wait even a few hours longer. I had a terrible night of sleep last night because I had nightmares (yes, they were traumatizing enough to count as nightmares!) about somehow missing out on getting to watch the film. First, I arrived at the Theater and just as the movie was starting I realized I'd forgotten to pick up my sister like I promised. So I went back to get her, but she wasn't quite ready and then we got stuck in traffic and ended up having to help all these people on the way. When we got back to the Theater, we realized we has missed the entire movie! Heartbroken, I went to try and get a ticket for a midnight showing, but they were sold out. After trying every theater, I finally managed to get some from some random person selling them on the side of the road. By the time I made it back to the theater, I was 45 minuets late, but that's when I had my first stroke of luck! They had just spent the first 43 minutes watching interviews with the actors and I had actually only missed the first 2 minutes of movie. Happy at last, I settled down to enjoy the film. After it was finished , my husband asked me how I enjoyed it, and I realized with horror that I only remembered only the first 5 minutes, and I had slept through the rest. When my husband woke me up with his Happy Hunger Games this orning, I gripped his arm and whispered "we can't be late. Don't be late.... we can't miss it....we must not be late..." over and over til he reassured me that everything was going to be fine.

All I can say is: This had better be good, or we're all going to be pretty bummed out at 3 in the morning tonight.

Oh when the Saints....

If all of today's music videos were like this, I think we would have a better society :)

While watching ESPN....

Coming from the homeland of the advert-free BBC, I struggled to warm to the idea of my program being interrupted seemingly every 10 seconds to try and sell me something I was never going to buy. But the longer I've lived here, the more I've realized that commercials are actually often more interesting than the shows. And I'm not just talking about Superbowl adverts - adverts in general are just pretty awesome now. Yeah, you still get the occasional lame-sauce annoying one, but in general they are funny, sweet, and at the very least, brightly colored and short. That's more than I can say for TV in general :)

Couples in Advertisements

After the video last week, I decided to be more aware of portrayals of women in the media. In being aware, I noticed something else interesting - advertisements only show same-race couples. I have yet to notice any couples that transcend racial boundaries - black men are married to black women, white women have white boyfriends, etc etc. Is this just a reflection of our society? Or of what the media CEOs think our society should be like?
Is this okay?

Over-Empowerment

It's Caucus time and thus I've been watching TV again. I have this one question that I hope won't offend anybody, but why are American Advertisements so weird? Maybe it's just me, but does anybody else think it's odd that you're supposed to watch an advertisement about a drug or medicine (that, by the way, you can't even just go to the store and buy!) and love it so much that you go and pester your doctor into prescribing it for you? Media, and especially the internet, puts information in the hands of the masses - information that was previously only in the hands of the experts. This, of course, can be extremely valuable because it empowers the ordinary people. No longer do we just have to accept what we hear on the news, or rely on expensive estate agents to sell our homes. But I think it's gone a little far when we can tell our doctors the right medicines to prescribe for us (especially when our information is based on what the people who will make money off the product tell you), and at that point we might as well not have doctors at all. And besides, when the majority of the advertisement is made up of someone speaking really fast about all the horrible things that might happen to you if you use the product.... I'm just not sold in any case.   

Content or Medium?

I watched TV for 4 hours on Tuesday! 4 whole hours of my life! I turned on the TV to watch the Republican Presidential Primary in Michigan, and I was kind of sucked in. Not only was it incredibly close as the votes came in, but there were plenty of speeches and panels to watch. So... here's where I come to the question. When we talked about books, we talked about how the content is more important than the medium (i.e. we shouldn't be okay with inappropriate books just because they are books). For me, I felt that the content of the Primary was valuable; I was getting involved in the elections (personally I feel like that is part of my civic duty) and learning about some of the most important issues. So is the fact that I was watching TV for that long bad? Would it have been different if I had been reading about the elections? Or is this just a question of excesses?