Higher than Most

Today’s topic brings us to the craze we all know as Guitar Hero.   I’ll be talking about Guitar Hero gameplay as a form of rock music performance and how a new culture is being born.

                             Ben is the “poster boy” for the Guitar Hero culture.

The guitarist here is Ben Eberle, an almost average 8 year old kid who is known as the prodigy of guitar hero.  It’s pretty clear that Guitar Hero gameplay is a form of performance; whether it’s for the virtual crowd in the game (which cheers when you do well and boos when you don’t) or for live audiences in your living room, at a local bar, or at a formal competition. A basic question that seems to leave me in an indecisive state is whether these performances are considered to be musical and if so, what is it doing to our youth’s ideals?  Since the release of Guitar Hero, I have been trying to fully understand how players and their audiences determine the musicality of this game.  The Guitar Hero generation seems to be left undetermined as to the “realness” of the musical technique and creativity used in the game; obviously the guitar is “fake”, but is guitar hero itself a “measuring stick” of someone’s musical talents?  Critics say it would be a “real” instrument if you could make “real” music with it but it seems that Guitar Hero players might think that they can.  Below is a video of a song created by a Guitar Hero player.

Yes, I think we all know that this song isn’t anything original.  It’s a famous solo written and played originally by Eddie Van Halen; the king of heavy metal.  It turns out that the song being played in the video was made by a GUITAR HERO PLAYER!  It seems that if you buy the guitar hero designed for xbox play, you can create the button progressions for any song you want!  I would have to say that for someone to spend that much time on somthing so precise, must have a gift; but is it a musical gift?  If the player who created the song thinks it is, then what is that doing to our music culture?  This puts me in an even more unstable state than before………is it actually music?!?!?

The essay by Randall Kennedy was very straight forward in expressing that african americans are racially profiled just because of their skin color.

This has alot to do with pop culture, as much as it happens in real life, it is expressed on TV shows and other programs.  Sometimes it is used as comic relief or shown on a dateline news special.  But ultimately it puts racial profiling out there and sometimes our younger audiences get the wrong ideas from it.

Abortion – Should political figures be allowed to use abortion as a campaigning technique?

I already know that this has been a very controversial issue. In many political campaigns abortion has been a very persuasive issue.

What I don’t know is how much of an impact does abortion have on a political campaign. What percentage of americans are pro-life?

I think my favorite halloween costume will be this years costume I can’t/don’t really want to explain it so just check it out and tell me what you think.

http://www.abcunderwear.com/beer-schlong.html

The one topic that just straight up pisses me off has to be the topic of abortion. I don’t know what it is with me and that topic, it just instantly pisses me off. Why should this topic even be a topic; political groups just exploit it to appeal to certain audiences while others judge others because of it. Abortion should be treated like an STD, you only talk about it with the people that are involved, in no way, shape, or form should someone throw out their opinion when it has never happened to them. On top of all that, how is it anybodys business to begin with. If someone decides to have an they should be able to without having to deal with political issues or be harrassed because of it. This is just one of those topics that I think should never be brought up in public and anyone who brings it up around me will get more than just an earfull!

If I could go back in time and tell my highschool self something about college I think I would tell him nothing.  There really hasn’t been anything too surprising.  The only thing I would tell him is to appreciate where your at, home is home.

My favorite toy as a child was definitely my toy truck.  It was, now that I look back on it, a plastic SUV/JEEP thing that was orange, red, and blue.  At the time i really didnt care about what it looked like, it was just how fast i could push it through my house on the carpet.  I remember racing my brother around the house almost everyday, I basically always won because he had the stupid plastic tractor and I had the sweet plastic Jeep.

It was a daily thing for me to grab my truck and go racing around the house until i basically passed out, my parents probably weren’t thrilled with my obsession, which is why I think I can’t remember what ever happend to my jeep.  But thats the one toy that stood out in my mind as always being my favorite.

How might gender tv help construct our gender ideologies?

In the article Men’s Men and Women’s Women, Steve Craig discusses how TV influences us by forming gender ideologies.  It becomes apparent that men and women have different ideals when it comes to gender.  TV trys to persuade men into viewing themselves as big, strong, desirable, and always holding a beer; while TV also trys to persuade men into viewing women as sexy, fit, submissive, and always ready to give a beer. 

This is, in my opinion, why TV is such an unreliable source for anything.  Society believes anything thats on TV; but I guess thats what we should expect with our population being mostly ignorant towards most everything.

I woke up like any other day; the girls were still sleeping. We had a huge party last night. George Lucas was there, Pamela Anderson was there, Fred Durst was there, it was just a great time. Kendra got a little too drunk, but that’s understandable ahaha. I just ordered the girls breakfast, they have a big day today; 2 photoshoots!! Holly’s damn dog pissed on the carpet again.

Hmm, my first concert ever.  I can remember it quite clearly almost as if I have somewhat of a permanent hangover! Ha

But from a more serious point this was my first concert and I had no idea what to expect.  The concert I was going to “come alive” at is known as moe.down; it’s a music festival that has been going on every year for the past 9 years.  For an entire weekend you can be who you want to be; experience things that would otherwise get you an instant reputation.

Bands from all over the world come to this isolated corner in upstate New York.  Most have no idea it even exists and I think that’s one of the reasons moe.down is such an amazing thing. It’s a modern day woodstock.

This is Moe.Down’s Mascot: Rainbow Young =)

JEESCHRIST!! Well I didn’t think it was going to end like this, but go figure, most things in life are fucked up.  All I wanna say is that I’ve had some good times down here on this “dirt clod.”  But from a more serious stand point I can’t wait to see whats in store for me.  Throughout life I’ve always saved questions that I would like to ask you.

Like, was the JFK assasination a big conspiracy or was it actually legit, mostly stuff like that.  But I would just like to say I’ve been a good person, even though I’ve screwed up couple time, so take it easy on the kid! LOL

I can’t wait. Peace Earth.

I would have to say I like being a man; not because I’m homophobic or secretly a woman.  I just simply enjoy doing man-type things.

I think men take life a little less seriously, woman are always working towards something better, but what’s so bad about being happy with where your at.  I know that sounds a little isolated and anti-social, but I’m just saying on a day to day basis men are a little bit more humble.

It’s really hard to describe the specifics because there isn’t one man like another.  Obviously there are alot of stereotypes but for the most part I think the secret lies in the biological part; hormones.

This video was basically about making a tomboy look more feminine.  The designer liked to use words like “sophisticated” and “figure”.  You can take this video two different ways; it seems that the designer is trying to make life a little easier as a tomboy by changing some minor details to make them look more feminine.

But, isn’t this just taking a tomboy and making them look feminine?  After her outfit change she really didn’t look too tomboyish; she looked like a girl.  So I think its ironic that they entitled the video ”how to dress like a tomboy,” the show just shows how to make yourself look more feminine.

I think my favorite corndog movie would have to be The Waterboy.  I remember when this movie came out when I was around 10 years old and this movie was the funniest thing I had ever seen on TV.

I think some of the reasons I liked it so much was because the characters weren’t very complex, it was very funny, and I’ve heard almost every line in that movie used by someone at one point or another.  I could watch this movie everyday and never get bored of it.