TRL - It's Over!

I did not grow up watching cable TV, but when my mother finally caved and got us cable when we moved, I was elated. This meant that I could finally watch "Total Request Live" that show on MTV one my best friends in elementary school was always raving about. Granted I was in the 5th grade, I had no idea what she was talking about but apparently TRL was the show to watch on cable. (Said friend even promised that she would take me their for whatever year birthday I was turning in 5th grade. Even though one had to be 16 in order to go, she said she knew someone. Long story short, she never took me.) This was at the height of the late-90s pop craze.
Yes, that's right. That's when Britney Spears, NSYNC, the Backstreet Boys and all those other groups that made us swoon to the point where one would stand outside for hours on end opposite the MTV studios in Times Square just to catch a literally a 15-second glimpse of one's pop star hero of the day. So to celebrate its demise, a huge finale extravaganza in the TRL finale show was made. Even JC Chasez noted the huge difference between his height with NSYNC and now:

• “Remember this feeling?” Mr. Daly asked as the three looked out the second-floor studio windows at thousands of ecstatic young fans behind police blockades in Times Square. “We’re old now. This is the last time we’re going to do this.”

  “We’re grown folks, man,” Mr. Chasez added in disbelief.

TRL was an institution for a decade and in a way it defined my generation. Yes in a way it was the "American Bandstand" of my generation, but let's face it. New technologies always seem to win. The TRL audience pretty much had gone to the wayside by the time I finally got to high school. That means when I was in 5th grade up until 9th grade, just in 5 years something I thought that was invincible no longer was. That's my generation - in vogue today, gone tomorrow.

Of course Diddy made an appearance. I always felt he was was just a show filler. His office was across the street, so it's like in his mind "Hey, why don't I just drop it like it's hot over there at TRL?" Back when TRL was in its prime and shut down Times Square it used to mean something for artists. But now, they no longer have that platform. Lou Robinson, a video promotion executive at the RCA Music Group:

• “To spend all that money to have an artist to come in and do two segments and show 20 seconds of the video, it’s not money well spent,” he said.

A quote from 50 Cent at the finale:

• “It’s a big loss to all of us not to have this platform to promote ourselves,” he said. “But we’ll have to figure out a new way to do it.”

They will make do. That's what youtube is for. The success of youtube is it's on demand, and it's short. People of my generation these days just don't have the time and or patience to sit there and watch a show that is pre-recorded. I did go to TRL finally in February of this year.
If you watched the actual recording of that day, I was standing next to Lyndsey and Damien for the intro. How do I know? I later went over to a friend's house later in the week and watched myself on TV. I think pre-recorded TV isn't as much fun. There is something organic when it's live. And it's faster when it's live; but of course after nipple-gate that's why there is a 5 second delay for most major live broadcasts.

It was fun actually going to the TRL studio after years and years of yearning to finally go. But it's no longer the cool thing to do. The cache of TRL is kind of gone. Plus my friends went once when I was a sophomore in high school and they got free Nintendos. Apparently I went on the wrong day. But I don't regret it. But the only reason how I even got tickets wasn't through the old fashion way of emailing TRL. No I got it through a facebook application called "iLike" in which it alerted me that Sara Bareilles was "performing" at TRL as a part of "Spankin' New Ladies Week", so I just had to send in an email and name drop. It was a great day though; that's when I discovered Estelle. Who by the way, is beautiful in person and people please listen to her other stuff. She's a credible artist who has successfully "crossed the pond". "Wait a Minute" and "Dancing" are some of my personal favorites.

Perfect Symmetry - Keane plays guitar??

Now that I've had enough time to listen to "Perfect Symmetry" on repeat, I can finally form an opinion on it. This ain't your "Somewhere Only We Know" Keane; this Keane is a departure from "Hopes and Fears". Actually, I was turned off to Keane initially by "Hopes and Fears", they seemed kind of emo and too pansy for me. Even "uneventful". But now the game has changed. It started with "Is It Any Wonder?" on their previous album before "Perfect Symmetry", "Under the Iron Sea". No more piano-pop and ridicule for not using any guitars. It's all about taking "Under the Iron Sea" to a new level. "Perfect Symmetry" is so, "80s", heavy on the synthesizes, musical saw, saxophone and string arrangements.I personally love it. I think Entertainment Weekly gave it a B or something around that range. I'm happy their sound has progressed. You can actually get down to some of their songs. I feel like it was about time that they made that departure from their debut album and continue their sound in the way their last album was pushing through. To me, the epitome of good music is great lyrics. Good content in their lyrics? Check. Decent arrangements? Check. Those are two checks that make me approve of any of the music that I listen to and it holds true in "Perfect Symmetry".

A critique by the Guardian kind of sums it all up:

• "Of course, the disparity between the music and the lyrics is presumably the point of Perfect Symmetry. It's hard not be impressed by Keane's determination to change their sound - especially given their peers' reluctance to do anything that might upset the commercial applecart - but equally it's hard not to feel that the combination of preachy lyrics and glossy 80s production may not be quite as anomalous and unprecedented as Keane think. Often during Perfect Symmetry, listeners of a certain age might find themselves recalling Simple Minds or Tears for Fears. Whether that thought fills you with delight or revulsion rather determines the album's appeal."

Harsh, but I really enjoy this album. "Spiralling" is a good song to start one's day. I know I listen to it on my walks to campus. "Better Than This" gets me in the mood to do a little happy dance and "You Haven't Told Me Anything Yet" is another catchy dance tune. I've found it to be very appropriate for walks back home, when I'm ready to de-stress and have an eventful evening. "Pretend You're Alone" has a great beat and smart lyrics, it usually cheers me up when I hear it.

Nothing But The Truth

One of the advantages of going to a university like USC, are of course "the perks". Yes we have the no. 1 film school, a top ten architecture program, great schools like the Marshall, Viterbi, and Annenberg, yada yada. Bottom line: it pretty much pays to go to a private school. Yes they could use our tuition money towards NOT ripping up the flowers periodically every couple of weeks, but of course with said tuition money comes great professors. (In April of 06, as an admited student when I flew out to USC a nice buisnessman said that USC used to be the "nickel-and-dime-school". But according to him, that has changed; over the past couple of decades since he knew of USC, they have made great strides in getting better professors than they had in the past).
Either way, in my "Intro to Journalism" class taught by the former dean of Annenberg, Professor Cowan secured us a screening of the movie "Nothing But The Truth". In the past couple weeks of the course, we've been learning a lot about shield laws in journalism. Here's a blurb from Professor Cowan's blog on shield laws:

• During a week when America is engaging in an historic election while mired in an economic recession, it may seem a bit trivial to discuss a lawsuit dealing with Donald Trump’s net worth. But the lawsuit offers a current prism through which to view the very serious issue of shield laws for reporters.

  Students who have visited New York City may have noticed that some of the most spectacular buildings carry names such as Trump Towers and Trump Park Avenue. His name is on casinos in Atlantic City, New Jersey, and on buildings in major cities around the country. He has authored best-selling books and hosted “The Apprentice” in prime time television, gaining addition fame for the phrase “you’re fired.” Trump does not lack ego. His success, as he sees it, depends, in part, on his own image as a billionaire – since the image of wealth, and not just wealth itself, can have certain benefits and, specifically, can help him borrow money from lenders who want to be sure that borrowers are credit worthy.

  So it came as a jolt to Trump’s business interests as well as to his ego when New York Times reporter Timothy O’Brien wrote a book called TrumpNation, a biography published by Warner Books in 2005. To Trump’s great dismay, the book quoted “three sources with direct knowledge of Donald’s finances," who said that Trump is not a billionaire at all – but, rather, is (or was) worth between $150 million and $250 million dollars. While there is no way of knowing for sure, it seems likely that the sources are people who work or worked for Trump. Claiming that the book damaged his reputation and his business, Trump filed a $5 billion libel case against O’Brien and Warner Books. As soon as he filed his suit, Trump’s lawyers asked the court to force O’Brien to reveal the names of the three sources so that they could ask the sources questions under oath. In fact, Trump suggested that he doubted that there were any such sources.

  O’Brien and Warner brothers tried to invoke New York State’s shield law to prevent the sources from testifying. In New York, the shield law says that the press does not have to name its sources if the sources have been promised confidentiality or anonymity. The trial court said that the shield law did not apply to the three sources because 1) the book was a form of entertainment, not news; and 2) the writer had not treated his sources as confidential. The appeals court overturned that ruling last week, declaring that while it may be entertaining, the book is a form of journalism that should be covered by the shield law, and that the sources had been promised anonymity.

  Without a shield law, Trump would have been able to compel the sources to testify – and, perhaps, found a way to retaliate against them.

  Every state has some form of shield law, but the laws differ in major ways. Some state laws cover only daily newspapers. Some cover mainstream press but not bloggers. Some cover print but not broadcast. Moreover, as in the Trump case, the laws make it important to determine who is a journalist, a subject that is especially important in today’s changing journalist environment.

  There is no federal shield law. During our class on November 13, we will watch a preview of a fact-based movie that asks whether there should be such a law. It is based on the case of a New York Times reporter named Judith Miller who went to jail when she refused to name her sources in a fascinating case that dominated the headlines two years ago.
  

Said movie was "Nothing But The Truth"; the writer/director Rod Lurie was supposed to come in for the screening but couldn't make it. However he did poke fun and say that "Kate Beckinsale is better looking than your professor"; he will be there next Thursday when the class meets and hopefully I might get to learn a bit more about how and why he decided to write this drama.
It was a great movie; only truly made sense to me because after taking this journalism class do I understand now the greater complexities facing journalists today. A field that I admire, but could never see myself being a part of. (I am thankful I'm a history major; but that does not mean that my role as a historian should be overlooked - something I'm starting to learn as I advance in my undergraduate major.) Beckinsale plays Rachel Armstrong, who is a journalist that publishes an article that outs a CIA agent in link to the assination plot on the president. The story of course gets published, and then the CIA has a field day. Throw in some lawyers and some other head honchos, and Rachel is headed for kind of a disaster. She gets thrown into jail, and actually winds up staying there almost close to a year before her lawyer, who even goes all the way to the supreme court, (ah, journalists are no longer that "white knight) and well, she goes to prison in the end? But she does get set free until stupid lawyer Dubios, played by Matt Dillion gets her back into prison.

Either way, this was a great movie. I never knew Kate Beckinsale had it in her. She's usually playing those "sexy" roles, so it was great to see her in a drama.

Locksley - 5 Degrees of Separation

I apologize profusely for not even mentioning how amazing Locksley was at the Troubadour. (Here is said blog entry that is a month overdue.)

So I of course went to the Troubadour to catch Locksley on October 20th, as a part of their Choose or Lose Tour with MTV. It was a free concert, but all under 21s had to pay a couple of bucks. Of course it was an incredible evening, and introduced me to the band 2AM Club, but better yet, it was the company. Of course the first time I finally saw Locksley perform was with Rooney this past summer in August. This time around, it was Locksley's time to shine. It was a solid show, with a couple of covers and new songs (I of course have a signed set list, a drum stick, and one of Jordan's picks.). Only downside: the sound quality was a bit off; the set didn't seem as strong as it could've been and I think a lot of it had to do with the sound.

I was standing as close as possible, and even with them singing literally a foot away from me, I still couldn't really hear them all too well. I doubt it really mattered, I was having a blast with some new found Locksley fans, and even chatted up Kai and Jordan before the show. I of course handed off Jordan a picture of my best friend, tugging on his suspenders from the time when we saw them in August. Jordan of course signed it, and per request taunted my friend insisting that she come to the show in November 1st in New York rather than study for midterms. (I find it hard for maybe Jordan to sympathsize, he did just graduate from high school after all; my best friend is pre-med and lives within an hours distance driving from the city while she's at university) Though this goes against my own personal attempts to combat any actual personal photos of myself, I feel this blog entry shall validate my reasoning for posting this photo.

Now even to the bigger deal: apparently I kind of know Kai. How one might ask?
My very good friend from the summer that I spent at UPenn in 2004, is currently dating a "genius". Said genius is best friends with a someone who just married a girl. Said girl, is actually he sister of Kai. Now how cool is that?

Jesse, with a bit of teasing on my part even posed with me, reading my "After the Fact: The Art of Historical Detection" textbook. Reading which of course, I did do throughout the set ups in between sets. (I was reading a fascninating chapter on the tenements, and Jacob Riis) I had to remind Jesse of the time when I chatted him up after the Rooney Show at the Filmore: how Locksley, they're just like us! It's kind of a spin off from those tabloid rags of how celebrities are normal people after all. So Jesse, since he's just like us, does homework! (Or at least feigns it for a photograph's sake).

Best part of the evening was at the end of course: The Hymns, Locksley, and even Ned, the drummer from Rooney all came on stage and had a great jam session.