Online Silent Auction

Usually while I'm aimlessly walking around the university, I look at the bulletin boards and see what bands are playing, what faculty is having a party the upcoming weekend, and who's trying to sell whatever kind of piece of crap they don't want anymore to some poor shmuk, and just keep walking and not think about them ever again. However today was different. Today I saw a sign. A sign that I think has changed my life. It opened up my eyes (I saw the sign). This amazing, life changing sign said....."Online Silent Auction".

After looking at it for a few seconds I started imagining myself kicking the maker of that sign in the ass. Of course it's going to be silent. IT'S ONLINE!!!...stupid...I guess that there could be some people out there that yell at eBay, but my friends, those people...need lives. I honestly thought that was one of the most foolish things I had ever seen. Online silent auction...what the hell does that even mean...is it in a chat room and you're not supposed to talk to other people or tell people what you're bidding on...or has some genius created a virtual world where you walk around from table to table looking at items and bidding on what you want...ya that guys awesome, he's like the next Bill 'fucking' Gates....ok that was uncalled for...I apologize...I never should have said Bill Gates...I realize that it make a lot of you shudder just looking at that name nevermind actually saying it......BILL GATES!! heh heh heh

Were was I oh yeah...Online silent auction....uh what a dummy...uh yeah...huh...what's that...(footsteps running away)..................

Youngblood

Youngblood at the Movies

So this weekend I went to see the new, non-Pixar, Disney Animated film, Chicken Little. This particular movie has gotten some pretty bad press lately, and I don’t know why. The critics looked at it from a film standpoint. They said that it wasn’t a “good” movie. So critically it was torn to shit. Honestly though, it did really lack in the story department. Not a whole lot there. Also, instead of Disney making musicals that had Oscar worthy songs performed in it, Chicken Little just had a bunch of montages using popular songs. So it did have its negative points as far as the making of the film goes.

However, what’s best about Chicken Little doesn’t lie in its technical aspects. The film does the job that it sets out to do: it entertains the audience that it’s geared towards. In this case little kids, and hell even I was entertained by it. It was a fun movie. A perfect piece of proof comes from what I witnessed in the theater while watching it. There was a little girl sitting in the row in front of us, probably 4 or 5 years old, and she was having a blast watching it. I don’t remember the last time I heard a kid laugh that much. Also, at one point in the movie Chicken Little's dad is disapointed in him, followed by the obligatory, sad walking away scene. At this point in the whoel theater was silent (all 10 of us), and the little girl in front of us looked up at her mom and said, in the cutest voice ever, "Mommy. I love you". I think the whole theater got a little chocked up when the heard that. Thus, once again proving that it doesn’t matter what Ebert and Roeper or some other numb nuts thinks, what matters is what the audience takes away from the experience and how the film affects them. Just because some critic doesn’t like a movie doesn’t mean that it has to be shit to everyone else.

So I’m giving Chicken Little 3 ¾ * out of 5.

Youngblood

Why all the hostility?

OK, here's what I don't get: Why all the hostility towards Aquaman?

He's played just an important role in the DC Universe as anyone has. Hell, he was one of the first members of the Justice League! Ya he never was the crimesolver that Batman is, or never had all the powers of Superman, but I'd like to see either of them hold a conversation with a great white shark. Not gonna happen. Everyone's got this mean hate for Aquaman that I don't understand. He's always getting shit on for not having good powers, but like I said before: conversation witha shark. Plus I'd like to see any of the other Justice League swim as fast as him. At least he has some special power. Half the characters in comics are just guys in tights. Like, who the fuck is Booster Gold and why the fuck should I care about him? I'll tell you who he is: he's dude that gets his powers from a suit, and when that suit is wrecked he's finished. Not even good enough to give him his own title.

Personally I prefer Aquaman over Namor, the Sub-Mariner. Namor's just some dude in his gotch with anger issues. At least Aquaman has the decency to put on a pair of pants. And Namor can't even talk to the fish and other aquatic life. And when Aquaman grew his hair out, he was bad ass. Then he got his hand bit off by the shark and got that harpoon put on his arm, and he was even more bad ass. He looked threatening. Just imagine some angry Metal Head, with a big fucking harpoon shooting out of his arm. Now that's alot more threatening than some dude in his fuckin gotch who's kinda pissed off cause he hasn't been in the water for awhile. NAMOR SUCKS!! Just like most of Marvel Comics these days.

Marvels Characters have just become really uninteresting as far as I see it. And House of M was supposed to be this big event in Marvel, just to be overshadowed by Infinete Crisis of at DC. HA!! MARVEL YOU SUCK!!!!

...where was I?...of ya...Aquaman...Now I realize that alot of people think that Aquaman is useless, but what if there's an emergency under the water. Does Batman have a submarine too, that he's going to pull out of his ass at the last minute? No. The Flash might be able to run really fast but does that mean he can breath under water? No. Can Wonder Woman have a conference call with a shark and a school of fish? Don't think so. So Aquaman pulls his weight just as much as everyone else does. So to everyone who's still hating on Aquaman after this, you can all bugger off. Hell even Superman's died once; there's been two Flashes, and ther's a back up just in case this one bites the bullet; and two of the four Robins have been killed(one might be back from the dead some how but never the less). Aquaman hasen't died ever...so I guess that means that it'll happen soon enough...knowing how comics work...damn it!

Yougnblood

Music, music, and more music

Every week on the Regina Community Radio Station, there is a show called Line of Flight aired. The show, hosted By Charity Marsh (my MU 320 professor) is a collaborative project between the U of R Department of Fine Arts and 91.3 FM. Each week she brings in students from her Arts and Everyday Life or Popular Music classes. During the October 27 show, the topic of ethnicity and race was discussed. In the discussion, one of the aspects of race that was brought up was the idea of cover songs, specifically between black artists who wrote them and white artist who covered them during the early days of rock ‘n roll.

First lets get one thing out of the way. When I refer to “black” artists, I am simply referring to certain styles of music that have been placed with said label over the years. There are certain characteristics to “black” music as well as “white” music. For example: black artists usually display more improvisation within their music. Hip-hop is an excellent example. On the other hand, white artists usually display more polished and, for lack of a better word, clean music. A perfect example is Big Mama Thornton’s version of Hound Dog and Elvis Presley’s version of the song. Listen to them and compare. You’ll know what I’m talking about. Eminem, although a Caucasian person, is considered a black artist. It has nothing to do with actual ethnicity, but more about style. Just thought I’d get that out of the way.

Now, on to what I actually want to talk about:

It is fact that many white artists in the early days of rock ‘n roll did take black artists music, covered it, and made did not give any royalties to the original writers of the songs, all the while making their own profit from them. Many of these white artists had been widely criticized for these actions. But there are still many people who think Elvis was a great songwriter because of Hound Dog (not to reuse examples or anything, it was just easier).

However, since the advent of sampling, black artists had been taking white artists music and turning them into their own, using pieces of songs. The fact that this technique has been so widely praised is quite ironic, considering that they are doing basically the same thing that white artists did years ago, just on a smaller scale. However, now they are not being chastised for stealing music, but praised for creating a new technique for making music. One could almost say that history is repeating itself, but what is also interesting is that copyright laws are coming down on many of these artists who are doing the sampling. White artists who don’t want their music sampled are taking the black artist to court over copyright infringement. White artists are doing what black artists should have done originally, but couldn’t.

While it may sound like I am supporting sampling whole-heartedly, I don’t actually. Granted, I do like a lot of songs that use samples from other popular songs, I just don’t like the fact that many of these rappers are taking songs that I love and sampling them, turning them into something I dislike. Not that I'm saying they're all bad, but some really can kill a song for me ( as I 'm sure it was back in the day when all those white artists were taking songs from the black artists ) I really don’t like the song where the guy (I think it was Lil John) used Ozzy’s Crazy Train on his song. I realize that Ozzy probably would have had to give him permission for it, but I still don’t like it. Maybe I should be blaming Ozzy, but I won’t do that. I’m just that ignorant.

So through music we see history…well…almost repeating itself, for if it weren’t not for all the greedy white people, or artists if you will. Bunch of fuckin’ greedy crackers.

Youngblood