The Daily Iowan: useful after all!

It's an undeniable fact that the University of Iowa student-run paper The Daily Iowan is one of the more boring publications we students have access to here in Iowa City. That being said, my friend Doug and I have managed to find a use for them...

Big thanks to Doug for helping with the prank, Alan for getting us in the room, and Mark for having such a great sense of humor about it all.

much respect,

josh

Yes.

It's official. Tarantino is back.

Officially official.

I cannot wait.

\loves Tarantino

much respect,

josh

Creepy...

I'm currently sitting in the lobby of the journalism building at my college. Sitting about 5 feet to my left is a lady, probably in her late 50s or early 60s. 

She is humming incessantly and completely without melody. So it just sounds like she's babbling with her mouth closed. 

She is scaring the living hell out of me and I have no idea why.

much respect

josh

Sick people.

If you aren't already in college, know this: you will get sick when you get here.

A lot.

Like all the time. 

I'm now on my third illness/disorder (this time it's persistent sputtering cough) in about 8 weeks.

Wash your hands, kids. And don't go outside. Or talk to people. Or touch ANYTHING.

.          .          .          .          .

On a brighter note, I'm a fan of getting the vote out and encouraging us "younglings" to have a voice in the upcoming presidential election, but this has to be the best PSA I've seen in ages. There's another one here, as well.

And in case you don't remember, here's the original Terry Tate short from the 2003 Superbowl.

much respect,

josh

OH MY GOD HOW DID WE MISS THIS

YESTERDAY WAS INTERNATIONAL CAPS LOCK DAY AND WE FORGOT TO CELEBRATE IT!! dammit!!!!!

THEY EVEN HAVE A WEBSITE FOR THE HOLIDAY.

YOU KNOW ITS LEGIT, BECAUSE THEY HAVE A PICTURE OF BLACK SANTA.

NO I CAIN'T STOP YELLING, 'CAUSE THATS HOW I TALK.

MUCH RESPECT,

JOSH

A few of my favorite things...

I'm an avid reader of the XKCD web-comic, as well as a casual fan and occasional reader of the New Yorker (their political cartoons are the best anywhere). 

With this in mind, it's easy to imagine my joy when I stumbled upon this little nugget of gold.

It's a cartoon-off between XKCD creator Randall Munroe and New Yorker cartoonist Farley Katz. Who is the winner? You decide.

much respect,

josh

God Awful.

If you want a good laugh, by all means, watch "The Happening." M. Night Shamalan fans beware... after seeing it, you won't be able to take him seriously as an actor ever again.

As a matter of fact, save your self the other 88 minutes, and just watch this video.

My favorite part of the video is around the two-minute mark, when Mark Wahlberg is trying to convince the old lady that he is not going to kill her. Keep in mind that his character is honestly trying to calm the old fart down, and is not trying to sound sarcastic.

much respect

josh

Is it wrong of me?

Is it silly or at all wrong of me to not want to vote early? I have no issue with those who do, but I have been confronted, three times in the past week, with perfect opportunities to cast my vote for President. All three of those times, I purposely chose to walk on by. 

It's not that I'm undecided (John McCain and Sarah Palin did a damn good job of convincing me NOT to vote for them) but I actually want to wait until election day. The signs outside the early voting stations proudly proclaim "get your vote counted FIRST on election day!!"

I've three qualms with this. 

One: We aren't stupid. All the votes are the same. It doesn't matter exactly when our vote is counted, just that it is counted. 

Two: Voting early seems too damn easy. I want to wait in line on election day. I want it to rain. I want it to be a moderate pain in the ass. Perhaps I'm romanticizing it, but I want to feel epic when I cast my vote for Barack.

Three: What if they lose the ballots? I know they won't, but by God, suppose I were to cast my vote early, the ballots would be incinerated in a freak accident later that day (my luck is poor). Irrational fear? Yes. Good enough to keep me from voting early? Yes.

much respect

josh 

I'm Gary f**king Barta.

So not more than 45 minutes ago, I happened to pass current UI Athletic Director Gary Barta on my way back to my dorm. 

It was strange, really. As I got close to him, my eyes lit up the way most people's do when they recognize someone but can't place quite how or why they know them. Without hesitation, Barta gave me a little smirk and a nod that came off as so smug, I had to fight myself not to mock him. He just had this "damn right, I'm Gary Barta, the Athletic Director who's wasting your tuition on Coach Ferentz" look on his face. 

What struck me as particularly funny is that he must flash this look 20 times a day. He's not exactly just another face on campus, especially after the recent ups and downs of Hawkeye athletics. He's probably used to random college kids walking by with that same "hey, I know you," look in their eyes.

Also, I couldn't help but think of this video when Barta hit me up with his smug fumes.

much respect,

josh

Oh, mid-terms, let me count the ways I hate thee

Sorry for the lack of posting goodness this week. I've been dealing with mid-terms and other college-related things this week and next week doesn't look that great either. I've got two mid-terms on Tuesday, but I'm not too worried.

I've been missing animals a lot lately. No one around here has pets (they aren't allowed in the dorms), which is really bizarre after always having a pet around at home. It's just something that you get so used to after a while. I think I really started to notice it this week after the stock market continued to tank. I've always admired the blissful ignorance of dogs and cats. They don't really care about the stock market. They just want their damn ball/cat-nip/food/attention/couch. 

These videos brightened my week...

Impatient Kitty

Hungry Cat

Burrito Dog

Evil Chihuahua

much respect,

josh

The Failure of the Fourth Estate

One of my favorite college courses so far is "Cultural History and Foundations of Journalism." It's a long complicated name for a class that basically focuses upon the American history of journalism, but that's neither here nor there. 

The class itself is based around the theory that American journalism acts as a so-called "fourth estate" to our government. While we've all been taught the three branches (legislative, executive, and judicial), journalism acts as a fourth branch in that it (when properly practiced) provides a source of oversight for the general public.

Yesterday our professor, Frank Durham, introduced us to another theory. It focused on how our press is, especially in times of crisis, manipulated and censored through "cycles of fear." The cycle has five points and all are scarily true. They were true when journalism was in it's infancy, they are true today, and chances are they'll be true twenty years from now. With no liberal or conservative bias in my statements today, this is what will kill the "free" mass media in the United States.

Point I of the cycle is the elimination/bowdlerization of the watchdog press by the unified action of a government. This doesn't apply to the absence of partisan differences (that will never go away), rather a universal action taken by the government. A prime example is the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus, which the US has done several times during international conflicts, most recently with the Iraq war. The government gives a reason for their action that will sound so convincing and justifiable that any news source who dare criticize it can't help but sound daft for doing so.

Point II notes that the retraction of other civil liberties, once put in place, begin to affect our first amendment rights. While this isn't true in an extreme sense (after all we are discussing this issue right here and now), it does have some merit. If our mass media doesn't execute its role as a watchdog of the government, the vast majority of the public is therefore deprived of information and therefore unable to properly execute their ability to make a judgement of the situation. Long story short, when we suffer from a lack of information, we can't help but be deprived of our first amendment rights to an extent.

Point III reiterates Point II in that this loss of first amendment rights affects the Fourth Estate (journalism in our mass media). If there isn't any demand from the (now under-informed) public to know why the government suspended habeas corpus, the Fourth Estate won't provide it. In essence, a vicious circle is created. The more the public is deprived of information, the less they know to demand from the Fourth Estate.

Point IV further impairs the ability of the Fourth Estate by making the objective journalism harder to accomplish, via the construction of mythical others. This is the big one. In the 30s it was "communists," in the 40s it was "Nazi," these days its "terrorist." Side against the government, and you are a contributing member of one of these so-called "others," or at least a supporter of their cause.

Point V brings it full circle. It maintains that the watchdog function of the press is made far less likely, if not impaired, by making the practice itself "unpatriotic." Some good this whole "if you're not with us, you're against us" mentality has done us.

Now it is not hard to see that this "circle of fear" is in place today. You'd be blind if you thought it wasn't. This situation is different, however. The Iraq War is less comparable to the Red Scare than we might like to think. While comparisons exist, the media is exponentially stronger today than it was in the 1930s. While our media (our Fourth Estate) has failed us in many ways with their coverage of the Iraq War (and more recently the bailout initiative), we've failed them for not demanding more.

Why are we not mad as hell that our media is distorting the news? Every station is guilty of it. Fox News would make even W.R. Hearst sick to his stomach. CNN is not much better, and MSNBC has slipped recently as well. While the "circle of fear" is affecting our media today, we are affected even more. 

Today, I want you to turn off the TV if you aren't satisfied with the extent to which an event is being reported. I want you to not tolerate a mediocre news piece. I want you to get angry. I want you to go to your window, open it, and scream "I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take it anymore!"

whoo. i need a lozenge.

much respect,

josh

--------------

a big thanks to Prof. Frank Durham for the "Circle of Fear" theory/lecture and "Network" for the movie quote. :)

Oh internet, how I love thee...

Yesterday was bizarre in oh so many ways... Not only did the markets tank AFTER the bailout was passed, but there is still more partisan mud-slinging and mounting evidence that Sarah Palin has the functional capacity of a fifth-grader.

To top it all off, I woke up last night at 2am with the feeling that a bomb had gone off in my left ear. As I sat in my bed writhing around like a snake and moaning like a diseased cat, I contemplated the best course of action. I could call home, but that probably wouldn't have been the best course of action given the time of night. So, I got on google and searched "severe earache."

Sure enough, the first hit got me exactly what I needed. Utilizing some q-tips and a bit of mouthwash, the ear pain went away almost immediately. I was astonished for two reasons. One: Someone had figured out that mouthwash apparently relieves earaches. Two: The internet just saved me hours of pain.

Let me repeat that so you can take the trip with me: The INTERNET saved me from hours of pain. I came to the realization late last night that we entirely take the internet for granted anymore.

Think about the last time you were bored. What did you do to relieve said boredom? I'd be willing to bet at least 70% of the people reading this did something internet related (after all, how did you end up here?).

Our reliance on the internet in this day and age is simply incomprehensible. As I drifted off to sleep, I started thinking about how important the internet is to me on a daily basis. All of my classes have their syllabi posted online, I communicate with my friends and family back home almost exclusively through email/facebook, I pay my bills online, I even read all of my news online.

Television is no longer the ruler of our nation. The internet is here in all of it's intangible (think about it: where is the internet?) goodness. So give some thanks today, people. Think about the internet and all the neat things it does for you. Reach out and say hi to someone you haven't talked to in a while. Look something up on wikipedia. Learn something you didn't know at the beginning of the day. Whatever you do, don't take this excellent invention for granted, if only for today.

much respect

josh

Don't vote.

Seriously. Don't vote. Why should you?

Click the link.

Watch the video.

Tell five friends (immediately).

much respect

josh

"Way to Normal" is anything but...

Greetings, Mr. Folds. It's finally good to hear your story. Not that your fictional pieces aren't exceptional, but it's nice to hear another side of things.

Ben Folds' fifth solo album is distinct from his previous work, both as a solo artist and with Ben Folds Five. Gone are the fairy tale-esque ballads to imaginary characters (a la "Zak and Sara," "Annie Waits," "Fred Jones"), replaced with songs that seem to come from a much more personal place in Folds' heart.

I guess the key thing that is to be noted with this album is that Folds doesn't seem to even attempt to empathize with his listeners, in a good way. If one were to defamiliarize themselves with his work for a moment, his motivations for doing so are not that hard to understand. Folds has spent most of his career, especially with his work as a solo artist, singing the songs that his audience can't write themselves. It's only reasonable that Folds takes a moment to tell his stories.

This isn't to say that Ben has lost any of his edginess or his irreverent sense of humor. The album opens with "Hiroshima (b b b benny hit his head)," a chant-able anthem that Folds still has it, and then some. The true story of Ben's inadvertent stage dive at the opening of a show in Japan is almost as hilarious as Folds' rambling presentation of it.

Folds also opens himself up a bit more than usual with "You Don't Know Me," a chronicle of a falling out between significant others, which features Regina Spektor on backing vocals. I don't know what it is about this song that makes it so damn enticing. Perhaps it's the video, the sing-song nature of the track, Spektor's innocent tone, or the expression of blatant bitterness that we all feel after a break up. Whatever it is, it works, and it's no wonder that this is the first single released from the album.

On the same note, "Bitch Went Nuts," is one of those songs that every guy (and girl) who's been through a break-up can't help but smile every time they hear it. Although Folds tends to focus on slightly more melancholy subjects, he does so with the unbridled exuberance of Elton John, with a dab of Elvis Costello, in a way that is nothing short of captivating.

Ironically, the most poignant song of the album is the only song that tells a fictional story. Even the staunchest critics of Folds would have a hard time arguing against the placement of "Kylie from Connecticut" as the closing track on the album. The story of memories of a by-gone affair is so mesmerizing, you can't help but turn off your stereo after hearing it, simply to ruminate over it.

Pros:

-Same old Ben Folds, with a new twist

-Not only matches but exceeds some of his greatest efforts with "Way to Normal"

Cons:

-A tad too short. One or two more songs would have been nice.

-"Dr. Yang" should have been a B-side. It's a decent song, but it sticks out in comparison to the rest of the album.

Final Verdict: 4 out of 5

-Folds still has it. "Way to Normal" is a must for even the most casual of Folds' fans. If you don't feel like shelling out the $12 to download it from iTunes, you at least owe it to yourself to download "You Don't Know Me," "Effington," "Bitch Went Nuts," and "Kylie from Connecticut."

much respect

josh

Loooong day

Wow, what a day. Seems like I haven't stopped moving at all. I just finished some voice work on a few episodes for Wormhole Wastrels (our next new show is on the 22nd), I wrote one paper (I've got one more to write), and I'm having a meeting with my RA here any minute. It's been a crazy day, but I actually feel like stuff happened to me today (in a good way).

I've also had a chance to listen to the new Ben Folds album, "Way to Normal." I've been very impressed with the album as a whole so far, although it is a tad short. I'll probably post a full review in the next day or two.

much respect

josh