You're the Man

I decided to post this song in the spirit of the Winnipeg civic election tonight.

Cause if you got a master plan, gonna have'ta vote for you. You're the Man.

The Social Network Movie

Right now, I’m going to do a little bit of speed blogging for you. This one is an assignment for PR class. I’ve got a time limit and everything. It’s like blog time trials. Okay here I go.

Today’s post is about the new movie The Social Network. I’m pretty sure everyone has heard of it, and if not, everyone has for sure heard of Facebook.com. That’s exactly what The Social Network is about: it is a dramatization of Mark Zuckerberg’s life during the period in which he created the immensely popular social networking website.

From what I’ve heard from talking to other people I have been given the impression that most people seem to think that this movie was a great achievement. I’ve heard so many people say that they thought it was such a good movie, an Oscar contender even. I think I even remember hearing someone say that they thought that this movie defined our generation. Well, everyone is entitled to their opinion, and here’s mine.

I didn’t really like this movie very much. I don’t think it was the worst movie ever, but it’s not great. It’s not even good; on the other hand, it’s not awful,or terrible. The Social Network is averagely bad like the Kings of Leon. You know, sort of boring, sometimes mildly entertaining, but over all unremarkable.

I’m not going to do a total breakdown of the movie. There might be a spoiler coming though, so if you haven’t watched it yet, you might want to put off reading any further. Now just to get things moving I’m going to do a quick overview of what happens I’m not planning on going into much detail. Basically, the movie opens with Mr. Zuckerberg getting dumped. His girl friend feels that he’s being an arrogant asshole. She has enough and kicks him to the curb. From that part on he’s in a bad mood, and ends up screwing over pretty much everyone. He does all these shady dealings where he kind of steals intellectual property or right out screws over his best friend. A big part of the movie is made up of litigation scenes where he is getting sued, and they’re just having meetings with lawyers going over the cases. That part takes place after the main story in the time line, but those scenes are intermingled with the scenes of the process of the creation of Facebook throughout the movie.

The movie really makes Zuckerberg look like a jerk. He starts off arrogant and then switches to a more devious persona where he’s kind lying to people and doing things behind their backs. Then he kind of turns back arrogant, with an I’m rich so I’m more important than you and I can do whatever I want kind of attitude. He’s really not shown in the best light. However, in some ways he’s still a likeable character. It doesn’t ever seem like he’s evil or inhuman. I would describe him more as a character that sort of loses himself and makes the wrong decisions. I’m pretty sure everyone has made a wrong decision before. So people can still relate to him.

I think that Zuckerberg’s response to the movie makes sense. It’s just a movie. I don’t think that all of a sudden he is going to find himself vilified by all the users of Facebook just because of this movie. In some ways I think that audiences will be able to relate more to Zuckerberg after watching The Social Network. He came off like a twenty-something college kid, who hadn’t fully grown up yet. Isn’t that the same demographic that most Facebook users find themselves in? I think that when he said that his life really wasn’t that dramatic, it was a very good response to the film, because it’s probably pretty likely that his life wasn’t that dramatic. It is a movie after all. I don’t really think that the establishment of his charity foundation and the donation of 100 million dollars was really a big deal. Yeah the timing was a little sketchy, but I figure that if he waits a bit, and then donates another hundred mil, and then does it a few more times after that, so that it just becomes something he does; people are going to forget that the first time he did it was when The Social Network came out. They’ll just think, “Man that Zuckerberg, he sure gives away a lot of money. Good for him.”

I don’t think the movie will affect Facebook in anyway: people are going to keep using it. What it might do, referring back to what I said earlier, is give people in our generation a reason to say, this our movie it’s about something that happened when we were the target consumer demographic. Other than that, as far as I can tell, and I’m no expert, Facebook is an unsinkable ship.

Now, I just want to leave with two more thoughts:

The thing that really bugged me about the movie was, like I said, it was slow moving and I waited two hours and ten minutes to find out that he decided to settle his lawsuits out of court. I mean, really. It actually happens like this: the one lawyer is like, Okay, you’re probably going to lose in court. You should settle. And then, “I don’t think you’re an asshole. You’re just trying really hard to be one.” If that quote isn’t exact, sorry. Oh, and then he pines over the girl that dumped him in the beginning for a bit more. And then, let’s wrap it all up in a nice bow by explaining what happens to everyone with their own text paragraph. You can’t see it, but I’m making an unimpressed face.

And the second and last thing I want to say is that the best part of the whole movie. And I mean best part by far, was when the credits rolled and Baby, You’re a Rich Man started playing. Seriously, that nearly made the whole movie worthwhile.

If I Ventured In The Slipstream...

I’ve been meaning to do this blog post for a while. It’s kind of funny, it was actually originally intended to be my second blog post, but somehow as more and more posts came up it kept getting postponed. I had actually got to the point where I started to worry if I’d ever get around to doing it. It appears, however, that not getting around to it will no longer be a problem, since I’m posting it right now.

Anyway this post is about the Van Morrison album Astral Weeks. It’s easily one of my favorite albums of all time. I’m pretty sure it even makes my top five list. I’m not going to do a top five albums right now, just because I don’t really want to go and start thinking about it. I’ll leave that for another blog entry. Okay, so getting back on track, Astral Weeks is a perfect album. That is, of course, based on my opinion. There are other albums I think are perfect, Astral Weeks just happens to meet that same criteria.

It’s difficult to explain exactly what Astral Weeks is like to anyone who hasn’t listened to it. It’s sad, and beautiful, and happy, and epic all at the same time. In the end it is just an immensely powerful and emotional album.

Now I kind of feel like I have to back up a bit, because to most people when they think Van Morrison, they think Brown Eyed Girl. So just to be clear, Astral Weeks is nothing like that. Not even close. Don’t get me wrong Astral Weeks is in some ways pop-like, but it’s really a whole different animal. It’s not nearly as accessible to a main stream audience.

For arguments sake, lets take Van Morrison’s album Moondance which was released in 1970, two years after Astral Weeks. Moondance is a fantastic album. It’s the album that got me into Van Morrison. It’s much more poppy and probably a little bit closer to what people who only know Brown Eyed Girl would expect. Moondance is still a very powerful album. All the songs are great. It’s just, in my opinion, more of a song oriented album. Each song stands on its own and the listener feels a distinct division between songs, and can listen to any one song on the album by itself without listening to the rest.

After getting into Moondance, which happened immediately after I bought it. I was actually shocked by how much I liked Van Morrison. I was sort of upset with myself for not getting into him sooner. It was an eye opener. Anyway, probably a few weeks after that, I went out and bought Astral Weeks. The first time I put it on I couldn’t even make it though the whole thing. It wasn’t anything like Moondance and that really threw me off. It ended up taking me quite sometime to get into it. I guess one thing that helped was when I borrowed my copy of Moondance to a friend of mine and she decided she was never going to return it. In fact she is still in possession of that copy, and I have since replaced it.

Getting back on track, once I did get into Astral Weeks I discovered that I liked it a great deal more then Moondance. (Again I’m not trying to down play how good Moondance is. That album is killer, and I recommend it to anyone who wants to get into Van Morrison and isn’t sure what to get first. Get Moondance first, trust me.) I found that Astral Weeks worked as an album, all the songs are great, but what really makes them great is the way they are sequenced. The album just unfolds. It’s a masterpiece. When I listen to it, it feels like it’s a musical summary of a life or a relationship. It’s just extremely powerful. I kind of wanted to do a break down of each track, but after kind of trying I decided that there was no way I could really do them justice. So if you want to hear what they’re like you’re just going to have to go out and find yourself a copy. I will say this though; keep in mind it can take a little while to get into. The album is very heavy, not in today’s sense of what heavy is, but in the sense that the arrangement is very thick. There’s so much going on at first that it can be hard to take it all in. Once you do however, you’ll get lost in the melody and find yourself picking new thing out of the mix even after over 100 listenings. Each time you find something new you’ll find something new to love about it.

There’s also a bunch of other stuff Van Morrison has put out that’s great too, Wild Night for example. And of course there's Gloria, Which has to be one of the ten best rock and roll songs of all time.

Beware

Who ya gonna call? Phonebusters! Okay, maybe I should give that some context.
Over the last few weeks my Ad class was working on a project called Buyer Beware. It’s a project that consists of picking a topic, conducting research, forming a conclusion, then presenting the findings in an oral presentation and in a 5 to 10 page report. The idea is to look at the topic with the best interest of the consumer in mind. In other words, to point out anything that’s a bit shady and might be trying to rip the customer off.
My group, group number 3, chose to do our Buyer Beware on the ever-increasing trend of false real estate listings on online classified websites.
While looking for an apartment, one of my group members had come across several listings for apartments that all seemed too good to be true. Each was spacious, furnished, allowed pets, and was listed at a price much below the normal for an equivalent apartment. They would normally have photographs of the interior that showed hardwood floors in good condition and wood furniture.
Some potential tenants looking for an apartment who come across these ads might find themselves jumping up and knocking their wheelie-office chair over, while at the same time throwing their hands in the air and shouting, “What a Bargain!”
However, before these hardworking, apartment needing salt of the earth types get too excited I feel obligated to caution them. “Consider this my friend,” I would say. Then I would ask them a few questions about the apartment listing.
Is the listing written in all caps?
Does the listing have an over abundance of awkward phrasing and spelling and grammatical errors?
Is the person who posted the listing very much in love with their apartment, by which, I mean has this been overstated to the extreme?
Is the apartment much cheaper than it should be?
Have the persons who posted the listing recently left town for some glanderous reason? Ex. they are doctors who have gone to Africa to aid in Aids relief or some other philanthropic trip overseas.
Are you unable to view the apartment?
Does the person who has listed the apartment need you to send them the money before they will mail you the key?
If the hypothetical tenants answered yes to any of these questions, I’d have to suggest that the listing is probably a scam, and I would recommend that they do not send any money to the person who posted the listing.
I will even recommend that any persons who have come across listings like this call Phonebusters, which is a Canadian government website that is affiliated with RCMP, Ontario Provincial Police, and Competition Bureau of Canada.
Currently Phonebusters doesn’t have any information on their site about this type of scam. This could be for several reasons: this kind of scam could be so new that they site just hasn’t been updated yet, there may not have been enough cases to warrant them updating it, or they may just haven’t had enough people call them to report this type of scam. So if you come across one, consider calling them.

Happy Birthday

For anyone who hasn’t already heard, I think it’s pretty safe to assume that by now everyone has been to YouTube today and found out, today is John Lennon’s 70^th birthday. I decided that I’d write a blog post related to it.

I really dig the Beatles – I don’t think I could really stress that enough – and I really did John Lennon. By the way there is this sweet Lennon boxed set that just came out. When I saw that I was like, “cool.” anyway, the Beatles are totally my favorite band, and I guess this is kind of weird, but I kind of think of the Beatles as my best friends. You know, even though I’ve never met them. That’s just how I imagine it in my head. Now before you start worrying that I’m crazy. It’s not as if I’m so deluded that, if one day I saw Paul or Ringo walking down the street I’d run up to him and be like, “hey buddy, let’s head down to the mall and get some fish and chips.” I just like to think of them as my buds.

I guess I should focus more on John; it is his birthday after all. As much as I love the Beatles, I also really like John’s solo stuff. Some of his best stuff is on his solo albums. For example, I love Plastic Ono Band. That album is kind of like a roller coaster, it takes you all over the place. It takes you up, and then down, and then it takes you up again, and then it flips you over, and then it takes you back down again, and then you’re all like, “Whoa, let’s go again.”

Anyway, this is my favorite song off of Plastic Ono Band, it’s called Remember.

Mayoral Forum at RRC

I attended the mayoral forum that was held at RRC on Wednesday. That was the 6^th for anyone who is curious. It was the first time I’d ever attended one. I have to say, it was pretty fun. The candidates, Sam Katz and Judy Wasylycia-Leis, had a pretty heated debate. It was highly entertaining. Despite the fact that they were, at times, practically at each other’s throats, both of them seemed to be having a pretty good time too. I think that if I got the chance I would go to another one. There was one part where Katz brought up rock and roll and concerts. I thought I’d mention that just so it sticks with the theme of my blog. In the end I think Katz came out on top in the forum, but it was really close. I still don’t any idea whom I’m going to vote for.

I ended up being asked a question by the forum moderator, Richard Cloutier, so I got to be broadcasted over the airwaves on CJOB. That was kind of cool. I sort of felt like a jerk though, because I was caught off guard, and I think I worded my answer poorly. After that, I was interviewed by CBC, and they even used my quote in the story that aired later, so I made it on the news. I think that was the first time all year that I was news worthy. Heh, that’s a little bit of journalism humor. Yeah I know it’s not funny. Okay, so here’s the link to the CBC story. I look really bad in it. After I watched it I decided I need a hair cut.

The Who versus The Stones: Rock and Roll Death Match

All right, as per Kenton’s request, here is my opinion on the Who versus the Stones. (I do agree the Beatles are the best.)

Well, I think this would be a tough match. I really love both bands and find it tough to declare an outright winner. I think it could go either way depending on what evidence is put forward.

For example if you choose to look at the DVD “The Rolling Stones’ Rock and Roll Circus,” you’d probably give the nod to the Who right off the hop. The Who’s performance of “A Quick One While He’s Away” is astounding. It demolished any of the performances the Stones did on that DVD. I don’t know if this is true but I have heard that it’s the reason why the tour was canceled. It was like the Who turned into a locomotive traveling at top speed, jumping a ravine, doing a back flip in the air and then landing on the tracks on the other side before sliding into the station right on time. It’s insane. That band was tight!

One thing you do have to consider though was that the Stones were going through a pretty tough time. Rock and Roll Circus was filmed shortly before Brian Jones died. I don’t know how shortly and I’m not going to look it up right now. (If anyone wants me to I can, and I’ll post it later.)Anyway, the Stones were pretty close to breaking up. It took them a lot of takes to get the tracks down and they were running out of time. I think their deadline was like the next morning and they were filming all night doing take after take, and they just couldn’t get it right. I think they even gave up by the end and kind of did a cop out version of “Salt of the Earth” where Keith and Mick are sitting in the audience singing the song. Anyway, that’s not important. I mean it still turned out okay. I mean I love that DVD, before I move on I’m going to mention the Dirty Mac and Taj Mahal, look them up or just buy the DVD, it’s like 20 bucks and well worth it.

Okay, back to the debate. The Stones do have some wicked live stuff. There is Ladies and Gentlemen for example. I’m not going to talk too much about it because it already has its own post. To sum it up, it’s a feature length concert back to front, and it’s really, really good. So I think that makes up for the Who showing up the Stones on their own circus-concert-variety-show-thinger. So I’d say that puts us at about even.

I figure I might as well touch on live albums, I don’t know for sure but I think the Stones have more. I kind of mentioned it above, and I’ll make it more clear here. The research on this post is a little loose. I’m just going by my prior knowledge. I could look this stuff up, but I’m tired and it’s late. Like I said before if anyone wants me to check this stuff and do follow up later just leave a comment in the comment section below. (That sounds familiar.) Anyway, I’m sure you can find plenty of live bootlegs by both the Stones and the Who. There is the one bootleg of the Stones, “Live in Brussels,” that I have to mention though. It is insane. Then the Who have “Live at Leeds,” which was actually released. And the Stones have “Get Yer Ya-Ya’s out!” Both of those are really good.

So I feel that we’re still neck-and-neck. So lets look at there studio recordings. Now I’m not going to go into serious detail, mainly because this is already pretty long and I want to go to bed, but I also want to post this tonight. So I’m going to try and wrap it up quickly. (Again I can do a more in depth follow up if you want.)Both bands have great catalogues, two of the best in rock and roll history. Personally I think the Stones’ is a little bit better, but not by much.

After all that I still don’t really feel, like there is a clear winner. I personally like the Stones a tiny bit better, but that’s really for my own reasons, and it’s such a close call that I can hardly choose. It really comes down to when I watch A Quick One, then I’m all okay the Who has it, but when I listen to Sticky Fingers, its’ hard not so give the nod to the Stones. So here I am nearly 800 words later and I didn’t give you a clear answer. I’m sorry.