Will Apple start another revolution?

Last week Apple came out with its newest innovation, the ipad. As many of the Apple creations before it, Steve Jobs came out on stage to reveal its name and design to the waiting public. While much of the ipad just looked like a large ipod touch, it did have several features that the ipod touch does not. One of the most hailed feature on the ipad is the creation of ibooks. Steve Jobs wanted to show how simple and easy this was so he sat back in a chair and showed the specs of the new ibooks. One of the features was that the ipad displayed a digital book shelf with all your titles displayed on it. This book shelf is connected directly to the istore so you could buy and read any book instantly.

This new Apple gadget got many different reactions because of their new ibook feature. Companies like Amazon and Barnes & Nobles are worried about this new innovation because it is cutting in on a market that they had pioneered. With Amazon's electronic reader called the Kindle and Barnes&Nobles Nook the ipad are trying to challenge these in this new found market. The publishers, on the other hand, are excited about this new gadget. They know that Apple has a cult like following and millions will buy the ipad with the ibooks feature. So will this new toy improve book sales? Christine Kearney in this article http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE60R0GS20100128?type=technologyNews argues that the new ipad will not significantly add to book sales. She says that the Apple following and the new ascetically pleasing layout is not enough to start a book revolution. One reason is that the ipad is still back lit and will be hard on your eyes after reading for a long time. While the publishers hope the ipad will transform books like the ipod transformed music Christine Kearney is doubtful this will happen

I completely agree with Christine Kearney on this. Not only is the ipad not designed to be a reader because of the bad back lighting but we are in a culture that does not read any more. Most of you will not even read this sentence because you got distracted by facebook. People would rather watch a minute long youtube video than read a book. Even with the new Apple ibook the sales of books will not jump as much as the publishers think they will.

Cyber-Bullying

Bullying used to be a larger child stealing a helpless, smaller child’s lunch money. Today the subject is a bit more complicated. Cyber-bullying is becoming more and more of a problem for early teens, and many cases come from the popular social networking site Facebook. The department of children , schools and families revealed an eye opening study that states, “47% of 14-year-olds in the survey reported bullying. Its impact continues as kids get older: 41% of 15-year-olds and 29% of 16-year-olds report facing the problem.” Facebook offers helpful tips to keep children safe while online, including making sure your information is private, and reporting trouble to Facebook immediately.
This article is a brief and heavy dose of reality. I thought cyber-bullying was much rarer than what these new studies are showing. Today’s media allows perverts to: sit at home, hop online, and belittle their peers or whoever they please. This is simply a lazier version of bullies who hurt others physically. Cyber-bullying is an easier, more efficient way to bully for those who feel they must put down others.
I think Cyber-bullying isn’t going anywhere in the near future. It is too easy and too convenient. But one must also view a victim of cyber-bullying as someone who is either being oblivious, not careful enough, or just downright stupid about sharing their information online. Everyone, especially young teens need to be aware of the dangers of cyber-bullying and take caution when setting up a Facebook or Myspace page.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/pda/2009/nov/16/bullying-facebook-bebo-national-anti-bullying-week

All hail the balls of Harmony Korine's Trash Humpers

It seems that during every generation there is a kind of normal way in which to present the media, especially movies. Most times when you go to the movies with an important other or your family, you invest in a movie that has a big budget to incorporate cool and advanced special effects, to hire big name actors and actresses that already have their names out, and lastly to promote the movie extensively. High definition TVs, blue ray players, IMAX theaters- they all are the new, heady ways in which we watch (should watch) film. This being said, there are film makers out there who want to be as distant and distinct from that perfect, pretty, Hollywood order of making films. They want to highlight something more subtle, something more profound, and something lying in the arid frontiers of the shadows. Harmony Korine is one of those film directors who has attached a nuclear bomb to the conventional order of making films and in the wake of the chemical destruction, he hits record. Korine has come out with a new movie, Trash Humpers. You should be dismayed because its protagonists literally have fetishes with humping trash. I learned about this distinct movie from a positive article on indiewire.com (http://www.indiewire.com/article/trash_humpers_review/).
The journalist of this particular article, Eric Kohn, describes the movie cautiously all the while hinting at the poetry of destruction. The movie is shot in VHS and it follows a “psychotic family with shriveled mugs resembling Freddy Kruger live(ing) together in an undisclosed suburban setting, mulling about their deranged existence while engaging in eerie behaviors and the occasional murder.” Kohn tells us that the movie is shot quickly from scene to scene with an almost random feel. Korine will shoot one aspect of their lives and cut the movie to another. The flow of the movie does not seem to be in a linear fashion like most of the movies you see every day. For instance, in its trailer it shows a scene of two older type men with prosthetic faces humping trash cans, with great force, in an ally way with a single street lamp illuminating their thrusts. All the while they are humping, a young women sits on the side by a fence and looks off to the distance in boredom. Then after that scene, the camera brings us to a backyard where these men ride bicycles around in cycle, with plastic babies dragging behind the bikes on string. Writing the sequence of this movie is a very hard task and if you have the eyes to sit through the movie, then do so. But, the movie has not been distributed to your local mall movie theaters and such. Non-conventional movie theaters like the IFC in NYC are more likely to be open to such a bold movie.
I think the release of the movie is very interesting and great. I have a natural biased to liking Korine’s movies because they strike me with such a bold energy every moment I watch because it is unlike any other movie watching experience I have ever been accustomed to. Like the plot line is so skewed but it is interesting because the movie comes together like a scrap book of profound images. The boldness, the absurd, makes Trash Humpers a distinct movie. But I think there is even more to this movie that makes it socially compelling. For one, he shoots the film in VHS. In a generation that is anal about the high quality of the movie medium, Korine is more concerned with the effect that the viewer will take away from the film. That is a true auteur ambition. Korine is not a slave to the conventional order of making movies, much like how African Americans had to be obedient in their TV roles in the 50s and 60s. Korine will make a movie that deals in the shadows of Americaa with prevision that deals with the vulgar realties of the absurd. He should be praised for being ambitious in a time where movies are dominated by big budgets, and big actors with big white teeth.

Gran Torino: Racism

Ever since American History X, no other movie besides Gran Torino has captured the true racism among a “melting pot” society. Bobby Rice explained with his article, Gran Torino goes from a “haunting” movie to a sad, “heartfelt American tale.” He talks about how Walt Kowalski, (Eastwood) can be prejudice towards minorities, and then accept a group of innocent Hmong people. Walt seems to be prejudice towards anyone who is not white, but really, he only dislikes arrogant, asshole gang members. Rice explains how Walt’s racism is almost justified because the Asian gang in the movie terrorizes the Hmong group living next-store to Walt.

After watching Gran Torino and Color Adjustment, it seems as though there is a modern day war going on in America with racism. Color Adjustment is a documentary about television’s first shows and how blacks are subservient to whites. It is about their struggle to be on the air and create successful shows that the general public enjoyed. In Gran Torino, Walt fought in the Korean War and now, years later, he had to fight for the Hmong family. He literally died for them so they would not have to be harassed and attacked anymore by Asian gangs. In Color Adjustment, the blacks were fighting for equality on television during the civil rights movement. In both movies, minorities are struggling to be an equal part of society among whites.

Gran Torino expresses an issue that has been one of conflict in our society today; racism. Walt’s attitude towards minorities seems very prejudice and close-minded, however, how is he supposed to react when gang members attack his close friends? The gang justifies how Walt feels through their actions. Minorities who act like the gang members in the movie, do not help the cause against racism. If they want to be accepted by people like Walt, they should act like respectable, all around nice people. The Hmong group did, and they proved that if they come to America to embrace it and not to exploit it, racism will no longer exist.

http://media.www.mcquadrangle.org/media/storage/paper663/news/2009/01/14/ArtsEntertainment/gran-Torino.Eastwoods.Answer.To.American.Racism-3601765.shtml

Introduction Statement

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