Monthly Archives: February 2019

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So much to watch and nothing on

I watched Jaws for the first time in years, possibly decades, because I wanted something different from the rest of the catalog on Netflix. I wanted to watch something good. I have been diving back into the classics these days, the types of films that influenced directors and changed movies for years to come. A few weeks ago, I watched Close Encounters of the Third Kind. A few days later it was Raiders of the Lost Ark.
I heard a story today about the director for Roma going on stage at the Oscars and making an acceptance speech. Jaws was the first movie he had seen that made him want to become a film maker. The audience laughed and he looked around wondering what part of his statement was a joke. People do not understand what great films are anymore. This is how we ended up with Michael Bay, J. J. Abrams, and a long list of wannabe film makers who try to fix everything with CGI and don’t have an original bone in their bodies.
I watched Overlord the other day. I should have known better picking up a J. J. Abrams movie well known for lens flares and bad acting. His movies lack direction and like his hit TV show Lost they are poorly written and leave more plot twist left unexplained than the entire series of Unsolved Mysteries. What I had read about Overlord was that it took place on D-Day and followed a group of soldiers sent to destroy a tower with a radar system. It was the typical WWII movie. Only a few minutes into the film I noticed that it was a lot like Band of Brothers, except for all the good stuff you enjoyed in Band of Brothers. The characters were horrible, the acting lacking, the plot thin, and the usual twist that are no longer twist and leave nothing to the imagination. This is what I hate about todays movies. Everything is CGI to the point where nobody is creative with shots or how to make things look real for the camera. No need for blood splatter these days we can use a computer to add it in? why use makeup when you can digitally create the look you want? Hollywood has become lazy. Was that a damn lens flare in the middle of the night inside a burning plane? If I see one more damn lens flare I’m throwing my television in the trash.

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Why the Media Sucks so Bad

Over the years I have seen the shift from real news media to the joke we have today. I grew up with the big three networks who, for half an hour every night, informed the public about the world without the interruption of commercials. Looking back, I know what happened and I’m sad to say I don’t know how to fix it. There is a mental illness that leads one to believe that everything can be better if it is privatized and modeled for profit. That model is killing the first amendment.
There was a time when cable channels cost extra and it was the gateway to profanity an seeing breasts at night. One man had an idea for a 24-hour news network and it all went downhill. Instead of covering “cat stuck in tree” rumors of news filled the airwaves dropping the ethics of reporting to that of a high school rumor tree. Things have become worse since then. Channel carry a banner, a flag to show what side they are on. They have to adhere to ideology instead of stating facts. The qualification for a hews host to be on tv isn’t from their education or how they do their job but instead what percentage of the public would fuck them if given the chance. There is little difference between the news channels today and the playboy network.
I came up with a list of things that made me scratch my head, things that might help steer the boat back into the right direction. For starters, Tweets are not news. I don’t know who made this policy but they should be fired and exported to Antarctica. Going viral is not news, by the time you are reporting it the people who would care already saw it.
Breaking the news first isn’t great for ratings but it does make sure that you’re called an asshole when all of the facts are wrong. Try waiting, looking through all the information before you blast Breaking News across the screen because something might have happened. When your coworkers spend a year on a story try spending more than a day going through the information instead of acting like a child with ADD.
Celebrities are not news, unless they kill somebody. Kim Kardashian’s ass is not news. Somebody being pregnant is not news. A divorce is not news. Rap battles are not news. This is tabloid crap that is meant to be read in a check out lane in the local supermarket, so let’s keep it there.
Fact checking is part of your job. Let’s keep this in mind for a long long time shall we. Had the media done its job back in 2003 we never would have gone to war in Iraq. The government is not an expert source when the story is the government. Its like repeating the question to answer the question, you are not going to get far.
If you are deciding the stories to cover by the possible ratings you will receive then you are not doing your job. This is why the internet is beating you. The majority of the stories spreading online is stupid shit that feeds the masses a load of junk food, what you should be concerned about is offering high quality food for the lowest possible cost. Instead what we get is Taco Bell.
I don’t know if any of this will help. I don’t know how many reporters know how to read anymore. The more news I watch the more I realize that Anchorman 2 was a documentary instead of a comedy. If you don’t want to be called the enemy of the people than please start doing your jobs. You created the monster that you still feed. Television is your own Little Shop of Horrors and a monster is yelling “Feed me!”

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Not Interested

In the last five days I have made an effort to stop listening to the news. I don’t know what that word means anymore. Crime is down and has been going down consistently my entire life. Most of the boogiemen that I grew up with are either dead or have been caught including the Unabomber, Bin Laden, and Charles Manson. I have a good job, especially for living in Michigan. Medicine has improved. Devices I remember seeing on Star Trek now exist in the real world. So, what happened?
Any time, every time I watched the news it was always the same scary crap that made you think the world was coming to an end. Trump is president, the Russians hacked our election, a caravan of desperate people are bringing smallpox and terrorist across the border, school shooting, heroin is cool again, what is the internet doing to our kids, and what people turn to on a slow day, millennials suck. I’m sure I missed a few and I don’t really care, should you? There was a time when the news gave the public information about what was happening in their world so that they could be informed, make informed choices and hopefully live in a better world because of it. Instead the news has become a commodity that is traded and owned by people with an agenda. I could watch the BBC but one thing I noticed is that a lot of their news is pointing out how messed up ours is. Our news is the news.
I asked myself a question, what would happen if is just stopped watching? I would wake up in the morning and watch a five to ten-minute show on YouTube telling me the events of the last day or so. I was strung out and paranoid the rest of the day. It was difficult not to be. The market was crashing or about to crash or was secretly crashing depending on who you asked. We were going to war at any moment. Trump was playing with a big red button on his desk. The number of people on antianxiety medications in this country are at a record high and I understand why. If you want to understand why states are legalizing weed, watch the news. People need a time out from reality, a toke break. If I was a betting man, I would invest in companies that supply munchy food because more people will be buying them in the years to come.
The last couple of days I have selected Not Interested when I see a news story pop up on my YouTube feed. This includes everything from Steve Colbert to CNN. I don’t care who was arrested recently. I already know the world is going to shit because of global warming, I don’t need a constant reminder that people suck. I knew ten years ago that doctors were prescribing narcotics when they didn’t need and now people care. At this point I would be happy with a large stack of books, some hunting and fishing gear, some classical records, and a good pair of boots. Set me up in a cabin in the middle of nowhere and let the world be miserable by itself. I’m exhausted of the constant droning of how bad things are and why we should be concerned. I don’t care anymore. Maybe that could be the theme song for my cabin. Throw some Genesis on that pile of records because I think Phil Collins was on to something.

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Logging Off

Over the past two years there has been a string of events, day by day, that has had my nerves shot, my blood pressure high, and causing me to lose sleep like I have never experienced before. This is all after by daughter was born and she came home from the NICU, however she is not the cause of these things.

The news, the media is a constant attack of shitty news and horrible events that is being shoved in our faces to make us think the world is a dangerous and threatening place. if one looks at the statistics we are safer now than we have ever been, so what gives? Ratings, money, advertising. I’m tired of all of it. I need a break. It is no wonder anti depressants are sold at record numbers these days.

So what do I do? what should all of us do? I left FaceBook two years ago after some dickhead made threats against my micro-preemie daughter, nothing like re-enforcing how shitty people can be, and I haven’t missed it since. I’m still on Instagram and have YouTube channel but I have started to weed out the news channels from my feed and stopped following several channels for the same reason. These days I just don’t want to know.

as the primary caregiver for my daughter during the day I find myself juggling several things at the same time. the last thing I need to have taking up my time is some breaking news that in the end doesn’t effect me. Should I really care what new member of the Trump administration is going to spend the rest of their life in prison? guess what guys, hang out with shitty people and you usually end up in jail. Today it took an Instagram post to tell me we were in a national emergency, whatever the hell that means. my day continued on exactly how it would have any other day.

I don’t want the news, I don’t need the news anymore. what I need is a vacation, one that takes me to a far away land of “I don’t give a f*ck” and I can spend my time care free and not feeling like the world is falling apart when I know damn well it isn’t. is that too much to ask? stop treating me like i’m a f*cking commodity.

So today was a good day. My daughter and I have some laughs. I read her some sesame street books and she didn’t want me to go to work, something she does when a do a good job. I want more of those days. I want to sleep better at night. I don’t want to picture Roger Stone in a prison shower with his Reagan tattoo. I just want my life back. so starting tomorrow i’m shutting off the news. the Washington post made it clear today that I only had one free article left anyway before I had to start paying, which is weird with all the damn adds I have to flip through anyway.

so to close this, the media sucks, the government sucks, people suck, and I just want to be left alone. if all you have to butch about is what pronoun somebody used than you have a great life and shut the f*ck up. when trump presses the nuclear button give me a call. my tax return is the same as it has always been, I have no idea what anybody is talking about anymore. so long CNN and FOX news, you are the opposite sides of the same coin sitting at the bottom of a urinal. I’m still waiting for you to be flushed away.

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