Nostalgia

As I began cleaning my room this week for my inevitable move out of Cline dormitory back to Baton Rouge, Louisiana I could not help but feel a little nostalgic. My freshman year of college is over. I am 19 years old. I met the people who would, three weeks into the school year, become my brothers and my groomsmen for my wedding. This year has flown by and has seen it's shares of ups and downs. The thing about it is, as much as I want Summer to be here and as much as I want to go home, I want to stay just as much. I have had some of the best times of my life here, I have done some of the best things (or worst depending on how you look at it) of my life here, I have become a part of something here that will never die. This being said I cannot help but feel a little bit nostalgic for the times that have passed and things that have been done here at Centenary College of Louisiana. I know for a fact that by the end of Summer break I will be itching to get back here with my brothers and my friends and (yes I'm gonna say it) even the classes, which two weeks into I will be cursing to the fiery pits of hell. But nostalgia comes and goes I'm going to have a hell of a Summer so that is what I am looking forward to.

New Music

What pisses me off about today's music society is the word "sell-out." Every time a lesser known band releases an album that gives them the recognition and respect that they deserve all of their "fans" scream "Sell-out!!" No ignorant people. It is not "selling-out" it is the respect and recognition that they have worked so hard for coming to them. I will use an example:  The band known as The Kings of Leon have been a favorite of mine since early Freshman year of high school and they have releases 4 full length albums and one E.P. They got major label recognition from their E.P. called Holy Roller Novocaine. They got signed to an imprint of Sony Music known as R.C.A. records. They released their first full length album called Youth & Young Manhood in 2003. This album received little notice but the band started touring extensively opening up for acts like Pearl Jam and Bob Dylan. In 2004 they released what I consider to be their best record entitled Aha Shake Heartbreak. This album was met with great reviews in America and the U.K. but still they had nothing more than a small following in America and a huge following in England. In 2006 they released Because of the Times a tongue-in-cheek name that had to do with their less than stellar record sales in America. Lead singer Nathan Followill explained the title as "If the record flops it's because of the times, if it is amazing it's because of the times." Because of the Times received even better reviews than Aha Shake Heartbreak but still did not give the band an American following. This phenomenon was expressed in the song "Fans" off of Because of the Times. the lyrics of one part are: "All of London sing cause England swings the extra love for the tales I bring." In late 2008 their fourth album was released entitled Only by the Night. The first single released off this album was entitled "Sex on Fire" and propelled this band to super stardom finally. They were featured on this month's Rolling Stone cover with the caption touting them as "America's Biggest Band." Only by the Night has achieved platinum status but their older fans cry "sell-out." Why? They have done nothing to their sound they stayed loyal to their roots. They haven't switched record labels or anything like that. Why are they a sell-out? I will tell you why. These people thought they were hip and independent for listening to a band nobody in America had heard of and now that they are popular they feel wrongfully betrayed. 

SUMMER

The end of a school year starts the three wondrous months of Summer. Ending a school year feels like what I imagine the first breath of life feels like to a newborn infant. For the first time since late August/early September you have essentially no responsibilities and the only thing you have to do is have as much fun as you can possibly squeeze into 3 months. The summer is open for vacations to the Caribbean, impromptu road trips to New Orleans, Atlanta, and Houston, and very heavy amounts of crawfish and beer. These are the reasons I love Summer and why Winter break takes a backseat. In Winter there are no gorgeous women in bikinis and no scuba diving (unless you enjoy hypothermia). The Summer break is great, it seems as if there are no people in bad temper and almost no possible way to get into trouble. With Summer also comes healing. The intense breakdown and beating that your brain endures for 9 months heals. These are the reasons that I love Summer and why it is God's gift to the student body of the United States of America. 

Why I'm Disappointed with New Movies

Today's movies are mediocre to the last degree. The reason I say this is because it seems the lines have been used time and time again and they are just being recycled. Whatever happened to the Godfather, Raging Bull, and even Goodfellas, which was released in 1990. It seems for about the past decade and a half there have been no just absolutely amazing films released. Comedy nowadays seems to me to be stale. I'll give you an example; when Juno was released a bunch of other Juno-esque movies were released. These movies include Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist and they follow the same pseudo-independent vein as Juno. Today's movies just don't seem to have that special something as older movies. Obviously some movies that have been released recently are pretty decent, for example look at No Country For Old Men, or Slumdog Millionaire. These movies are perfect examples of great movies. Today's movies follow what is popular, when so-called "independent" movies end up being successful such as Slumdog Millionaire, and The Wrestler the entire cinematic community goes apeshit. They talk of an independent movie revolution. What independent movies? Slumdog Millionaire was directed by Danny Boyle who did 28 Days Later and the highest grossing U.K. film of all time (Trainspotting). and The Wrestler was directed by Daron Aronofsky who did Requiem for a Dream and Pi. I don't mean to pick on modern cinema but at the same time let movies be movies and if they are successful give them the congratulations that are due to them and that is it. 

Accepting Film Criticism

In film class my peers and I when we screen our films have to accept praise, damnation (sometimes), and criticism from our peers and Dr. Glaros. When you receive praise there is really nothing that feels better but when you receive a remark that insults your film it is crushing. When you work on something for that long and then receive damnation on it it is very painful. The remarks are not meant to be personal but sometimes you cannot help but take them personally. Even though you know that these remarks get you ready for the film panel for your final some of them still hurt on a personal level. The entire process is bot painful and rewarding, but once the final review is done for the final project there is no better feeling. The final criticism for Introduction to Film Production is a huge weight lifted off your shoulders. You realize you have an entire summer before you have to edit an film again. Even though I love doing the films and other film related things it gets old after you do it non-stop for nearly 18 weeks. 

Southern Convocation

I was asked to go to a Southern Life Convocation for my sociology class with Dr. Demerath and ended up leaving the convocation more insulted than I have ever been in my entire life. What I took away from the convocation was that these 3 African-American people were essentially saying that the white Southern population needed to make a formal apology for slavery. Now most people will mark me as a typical southern white-boy; I am conservative to the brim and God-fearing, but on the list is not stupid. Why should we apologize for something that ended before our great-great grandparents were even born. Will it make everything better? Will the African-American community quit committing the majority of crimes in America? Will it make them get a job instead of waiting for their welfare check? The majority of educated African-Americans agree with that statement by the way, that welfare is not helping the minority community, it just makes them lazy. Will they stop pulling the race card every time something doesn't go their way? No, there is an African-American in the White House and they still say things are unequal. The biggest shock in the convocation was besides my friends and I everyone else was agreeing. Why? I am so completely baffled by this, I mean yes slavery was a terrible thing but it's over. It'd be like Israel demanding that Germany apologize for the Holocaust, it won't happen. After leaving the convocation I felt like complete shit. What had I just subjected myself to? Well this might be viewed as racist but rest assured I am not racist, many of my friends are black but everything I have typed above this I believe with my whole heart. This is the end of that subject for me, this convocation ended what little faith I had in the liberal community of America, I had, perhaps somewhat foolishly, hoped that the liberal community around Centenary would pipe down now that they won, but that was optimistic to the point of foolishness. 

Experimental Film

In my film class the last project we had to do was an individual experimental film on a subject that we randomly drew out of a hat. My subject ended up being trust and then the hard part began. I had to sit and think and think and sit until I finally began coming up with some useable ideas. My first idea was tobacco, like the warnings on the side of cigarette packages and maybe running of shot of that parallel to a shot of a Truth anti-tobacco commercial (the one with the little fake babies crawling around, we've all seen it) and creating a picture in picture effect. I also thought of politicians, past and present, who i deemed as trustworthy and untrustworthy. I put a shot of George W. Bush (trustworthy) and Adolf Hitler (untrustworthy) running parallel to each other. After thinking for a long while I thought of one of the most base reactions of every American's day: driving. Every day millions of Americans climb into their cars and give little thought to the fact that they are literally putting their life in a complete stranger's hands. To show this I put a shot of cars driving down Kings Highway paralleled to a shot of car's parked down on Greek Row. Another thing I thought of was the church. I thought of how at one point in history the only thing that people could trust was the church and now people are increasingly cynical about the church. To show this I did a picture in picture shot of an open Bible and a crucifix inside of a church. I ended up getting a B on the project which was not as good as I expected but still pretty good and I was happy with the grade.