I Am Not A Role Model

    The year was 1905 and a baseball player from the Pittsburgh Pirates, named Honus Wagner became the first athlete to endorse a product for money.  He had a contract with the Louisville Slugger that would allow the baseball bat company to sell bats with his signature engraved on the barrel.  That deal started a love affair between celebrity athletes and their consumers/fans that would grow to unimaginable heights.  Today, Athletes like Tiger Woods and David Beckham have net worths of 500 million and 260 million dollars respectively.  Most of that money is from endorsements and both of these men are known worldwide.  Companies capitalize on the success and name branding of these men and sell everything from cars to watches to shoes because fans will pay through the nose for a pair of cleats that David Beckham uses.  Their faces (or bodies) are on billboards, commercials, buses, magazines, TV, and video games.
 
    This exposure is what the corporations want, to flood the market with a hot commodity, i.e. a successful athlete, and as long as they stay winning they will ride the wave of popularity.  What happens when the athlete makes a public mistake?  That depends on how that mistake it is perceived and dealt with.  Tiger Woods had a very public "mistake" and his cost him and the companies he endorsed millions of dollars.  No longer would people want to buy a Buick because Tiger has one but would rather buy something else so no one associates them with the adulterer.  His PR team dealt with that scandal terribly and unfortunately, he never recovered fully.  On the other hand, David Beckham has been reported to have had affairs with numerous women and most recently, this past August.  The thing is, most of us didn't hear of this.  Why?  His PR team is quick to react and squash rumors and issue statements on behalf of their client.  After a reported cheating rumor, you see pictures of him and his wife, Victoria (Posh Spice), all over town appearing to be madly in love.  We don't know what really happened, but people wouldn't stop buying Adidas soccer cleats because of a rumor.

     Athletes are people with everyday problems like the rest of us, except they have lots of money and the fact that every move they make of the court or field is documented by everyone.  I like the ad from the 90's with Charles Barkley (the most honest man in sports in my opinion) where the entire campaign was about athletes not being role models.  Parents should be role models.  I will never forget those commercials because they are so true.

Who Remembers Dial MTV?

     I will never forget coming home from General John Stricker Middle School as a 7th grader and turning on Dial MTV at 3pm everyday.  For those who aren't familiar, Dial MTV would tally call-in votes and determine the top ten songs/videos of the day.  The countdown would begin as I pushed my homework aside and sat in front of the massive 27' TV to see the countdown.  Did I mention I was also sitting at my drum kit, anxiously spinning my drumsticks like Tommy Lee.  Then a song I knew would come on and I could play along.  I learned to play drums that way and to this day, I could probably pound out any Motley Crue, Guns & Roses or The Outfield song (search "I Don't Want To Lose Your Love Tonight" to see the best video EVER!!!  I particularly love the tom-toms part from 2:03-2:27 and could play it in my sleep)  With real video's and music on TV essentially dead, where can we hear or see new artists?

     I hate to say, but it is difficult.  Established artists promote themselves with commercials, appearances, merchandise and sometimes scandal.  What can the up and coming band or singer do?  They have to try to succeed on one of the many reality competition shows to even get facetime on TV.  They can't sell merchandise because no one knows them and scandal is only good AFTER you are successful.  That leaves new artists with a long, arduous and well travelled road to follow.  Playing shows and building a following is the only way that a new artist can truly make it.  Long nights humping your equipment from one crap hole to another, making barely enough money for food and gas, much less suitable shelter.  Then there is a side of playing gigs that people who never played music don't realize, at some point you decide (as a band) to stop doing originals and do covers.  Once that happens, your dreams of making it big die, but the steady money making music beats doing a 9-5 job.
      The bands who stick with their dream, use social media to promote themselves and it actually is a great, inexpensive tool.  I still have friends trying to make it and they are all over Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and Instagram to get their name out there.  At the grassroots level, you are just trying to sell enough CD's and Merchandise at the shows to get you to the next one.  Even the big artists still get their bread and butter from shows.  The tickets, CD and merchandise sales at these performances are crucial and if you don't believe me, I challenge you to go to any show and not find merch. tables.  You can't.  The record companies have been stealing from artists since the recording industry started.  Now the consumer is stealing from the record companies and they take it from the artists' cut anyway.  Either way, the artist is surviving because they figure out ways to be creative and brand themselves.

Unfair & Leaning

  WOW, it's amazing what our TV news has become.  It's no surprise that I prefer to get my news from my BBC and WBAL app on my phone instead of TV.  I prefer to read the news and not be bombarded with 24 hours of graphics, sounds and crap so I have time to process the information.  I can't handle all of the bells and whistles or left/right wing propaganda either.  As I forced myself to sit and watch two of these so-called news anchors, Bill O'Reilly and Wolf Blitzer, I actually can see the spin that they put on stories.  The sad thing is, the general public idolizes and follows these personalities like the disciples followed Jesus.

  Let's start with Wolf Blitzer.  He would be considered a Moderate that leans slightly to the conservative side, as well as the network his show is on, CNN.  His show is one of the most popular news programs in TV and regularly features a pretty good balance of conservative and liberal guests.  Wolf is more confident in himself and his beliefs, so he isn't rattled as easy as other hosts.  As with all news anchors, the line is blurred between personal beliefs and actual news.  I will, however, say one thing about Wolf Blitzer that I liked, he didn't interrupt his guest when the topic got uncomfortable. 

 
  Now there is Bill O'Reilly and guests on his show have but mere seconds to get their point across before he interrupts.  Not only will Bill rudely interrupt, but he will yell out personal attacks as well.  Intimidation is his game and it has been mastered.  The following that he has is tremendous and he knows it.  He doesn't care what the critics think about him because FOX News backs him 100% because he is a lunatic that spreads their message to a massive audience.  The anger he has only shows how insecure he really is with himself and his skewed beliefs.  

  I admit that I don't watch TV and being encouraged to actually analyze this garbage makes me appreciate that I was actually given a brain that allows me to make up my own mind.  It's amazing how much opinion is thrown spewed out from hosts and we, as a whole, believe it as truth.  Wake up people!!!

Find Out What Happens...

...when people stop being polite, and start getting real.

 As a teenager, I remember the buzz in the hallway over Kevin's racism rants on Real World Season 1, New York.   I laughed at Dominic's drunken tirades on Season 2, LA and cried at Pedro's battle with Aids in Season 3, San Francisco.  During my senior year, I was glued to Season 4 in London and the antics of punk rocker Neil and his tongue getting bitten off.  The following seasons were just as interesting but the innocence of reality TV went out the door quickly.  Season 5 in Miami had a supposed threesome in the shower, Boston had Syrus dating someone's mother, Seattle had David hooking up with a producer and then it hit the fan in Hawaii.  No one wore clothes on that season at all and the sex, drugs and alcohol were prevalent.  That year was 1999 and TV changed that year.  You could see how the people were being picked for this show and their blowups and failures were anticipated.  Get the most extreme ends of the spectrum and put them in a house together.  Seeing the resulting fireworks was entertainment but the public started to feel they could act the same way.
    Teens and children would watch these shows back then and think that the Real World was in fact "real" and normal.  A kid could pattern their life after one of these idiots, get behind their beliefs, and we would have two idiots running around our society.  How many people tried to imitate Puck.  His hygiene was poor at best, he would eat anything disgusting, dress like a bum, pick his nose and have utter disregard for anyone else's property.  That same description could be said for the guys from Jackass, Surreal Life or Dr. Drew's Celebrity Rehab.
     MTV tried to present the issues facing young adults and showcase them in a way to bring awareness.  Having people come from diverse backgrounds with different beliefs, could force them to deal with the issues plaguing society, like racism, sexism, sexual orientation, alcohol and drug abuse.  If they could figure out a solution on TV, maybe the rest of the world could learn from them.  In the beginning, this was definitely the intention, but a few seasons later, the other crap that drives viewership and advertising superseded the good intentions of the show.  Now the airwaves are littered with one spoiled brat after another, exploiting themselves and selling out their beliefs for money and fame.  America is not like these shows, but for some reason, we watch them.  I haven't watched the Real World since 2000 and don't watch much Reality TV now, with the exception of Survivorman, The First 48 and Hoarders.  Outside of that, I prefer to live my Reality Life!!

Mystery Beauty?

     Ahh, the Dundalk Eagle.  In my opinion, the most entertaining read out there.  I no longer have a subscription myself but I have been known to take my parents copy from time to time, after they read it cover to cover.  Ok, every week.  I can't help it.  To open up a piece of my beloved hometown and find out not only which of my high school classmates have gotten married but also which have been arrested. It's the who's who of the Dirty D.  You open the pages and see the 4th Grade class of Grange Elementary raised $12 for needy families and your heart melts.  Or maybe there is a feature about some rare baseball card that was purchased from the North Point Flea Market aka The Dirt Mall.  Those are the feel good stories that make me think of my childhood.  Seriously, the 4th of July edition with the pictures of the parade and Heritage Fair are truly entertaining.  It's a small town feel in the shadow of the big city.  Some people show pride in Dundalk, some secretly do and others don't even have pride in themselves.  I fall in that second category.  I grew up in West Inverness and graduated from Patapsco High School.  I couldn't wait to get out of Dundalk and the way people from other areas made me feel about my Dundalkness, accelerated that urge to leave.  I didn't get far.  As I currently live neither in Dundalk nor Canton/Highlandtown, what is my neighborhood?  You see, I live near that awful restaurant, Jimmy's Seafood (LOL) so I technically live in the city, but my Dundalk is my hometown.

      That sums up the average native Dundalkian and their relationship to the Eagle.  It's complicated!  We read it because we love it.  The articles are written to the audience's level, not intelligence, but experience.  There isn't a bunch of stock market news or the latest iPhone review.  What you will find is a feel good story about a local barber celebrating 40 years in business or recent graduate earning military honors overseas.  Will this paper survive?  Absolutely!!  It's written by Dundalk, for Dundalk and it provides its readers with a weekly friend to catch up with.  It's an intimate relationship that many wouldn't give up for the world.  Also, for only $0.50 per issue, the price is still right.  All kidding aside, this paper provides a service that no other media can, a local view of a town that most of Maryland could care less about.  Let me tell you, the many subscribers that look forward to Thursdays care.
      PS.  Guess who has two thumbs and who's Mom was a Mystery Beauty back in the day...this guy!

We Are Bombarded By This Daily...

  It's early on a Saturday morning and I arrive at my local supermarket with one of my daughters (Daddy's Helper).  We walk in with our shopping list and grab a cart.  I always try to go early so the old people don't clog up the isles with scooters.  Grocery shopping for me is an organized, well planned attack with many moving parts.  I send my daughter down an isle to pick up one thing while I am getting another.  We have a game plan and go over it several times during the drive there.  The list is even written in order of the store layout and it's beautifully efficient when it all goes to plan.  My shopping motto is "if it ain't on the list, it doesn't exist." 
  Then we get to the checkout line and unload our cart.  Side note, why during busy shopping times are there only 3 cashiers at Safeway Canton?  As I am loading the conveyer belt I see my daughter staring at a tabloid with a half dressed woman and inappropriate phrases all over it.  Or there is the latest police photo of a celebrity she used to watch on Disney Channel.  I am like, Whoa, eyes front young lady.  I would say look on the other side but that is where they keep all the candy.  It's a lose, lose situation.  One or two magazines is one thing, but to have shelves and shelves of magazines that have the same junk inside is another.  Does anyone watch out for what our young children are exposed to on a daily basis?  The grocery store isn't even safe.  Our young people influenced by the people on the covers of these magazines and therefore, are exposed to over-sexualized behavior, drugs and alcohol abuse and violence.  The sad thing is, most people don't even notice.  I wasn't exposed to that stuff as a kid.  I remember my mom ripping out the underwear pages from the Sears catalog when I was compiling my Christmas list or turning off the news when a story that wasn't age appropriate was on.  Our Parents generation were more careful and conscious of what their children were exposed to.  We wonder why our society has come to this.  Also, the covergirls and guys are not accurate representations of human beings and make people feel less than great about themselves.  The images are not only offensive, but they give Americans a false sense of what's acceptable in society.
  The media obviously influences how we act, what we do and what we look like, but the way they make social problems acceptable is sickening.  I do my best to not look at any of them and actually engage my children in conversation so that they don't either.  Most parents prefer the hands-off approach to raising children but thats another blog for another time.  Look to the poop—that’s the guiding principle of the supermarket tabloid. (Vanity Fair, 2002)  
  Ultimately, they make us care about Prince Harry partying naked.  Why do I care?  I haven't or will ever buy one of these pieces of trash that line the checkout of any supermarket.  Personally, I believe it's a waste of paper.  The news conglomerates pander to the uneducated and simple minds of America.  What a sad state of affairs we are in.