Sticks and Stones

The Spiral of Silence is the theory that people with a minority views will tend to feel socially isolated by those views. I absolutely believe this is true. There was a survey done very recently in which people were asked why they would de-friend someone on Facebook. Unpopular political views ranked near the top of reasons why people de-friend someone from their friends list on Facebook.

It’s all fine and good if your friends believe the way you do politically and it’s mostly preaching to the choir, but the issue becomes much more difficult, when you’re dealing with people with competing views. I’ll be the first to admit that when I see someone wants to friend me on FB, and if I see that their political affiliation is Republican, I most likely won’t add them as a friend.

Perhaps this is the wrong way to do it, I should friend them, and let them see a differing opinion from what they may be force fed by FAUX News, and little by little, change their views on some issues. And perhaps, at the same time, I may learn something from them as well.

Just the other night on FB, a friend of mine I know from the Denver Gay Men’s Chorus who was raised as Mormon in Utah, and sang backup for the Osmond Family at one time, and has a very conservative family, expressed his frustration over the Senate Republicans blocking the vote to end DADT. He prefaced his posting on FB with an apology to his “Utah friends and family”. Well the family and friends responded that “We have better things to talk about than this crap”.

Obviously to people who are not gay, they will probably not feel the same way about the issue as someone who is, and it’s quite easy for them to dismiss others’ feelings when it’s an issue which doesn’t affect them. I just had to post and say basically that I see no reason why we, we being gay or straight liberals, should have to apologize to anyone before they can post something they care deeply about lest they feel the wrath of “friends” or family.

I’d like to know the last time one of them apologized for the murder of Matthew Shepard, but instead, you have an elected United States Representative from North Carolina saying it wasn’t a hate crime at all, and he wasn’t killed for being gay, but it was rather “a robbery gone bad”. How is that supposed to make Matthew’s family feel any better? Oh, it was a robbery gone bad, that makes it more tolerable that my son is dead.

That didn’t stop the crowd from Westboro Baptist Church (if you can call them that), from picketing poor Matthew’s funeral. Do you suppose they wouldn’t have picketed anyway, even though it was just a robbery gone bad and Matthew’s sexual orientation had nothing to do with his death? They still showed up to picket Matthew’s funeral with their obligatory “God Hates Fags” signs.

When there are people of this ilk out and about proudly showing off their bigoted views and yet somehow, we feel the need to spare their feelings lest we sully their “delicate minds” with the ugly truth, I see no reason to afford them the courtesy of apologizing beforehand.

They need to see sometimes that yes, I am wrong. These people against the repeal of DADT would probably have been the same people against integration of schools, overturning the bans on interracial marriage laws, and a myriad of other examples where they’ve been on the wrong side of history, and it will be exactly the same way once DADT is finally overturned.

I honestly have gotten to the point that I don’t care how other people respond to my opinions, but my reactions are markedly different when I’m face to face with people. It’s much more difficult to remain true to my ideals than it is to some nameless or faceless person on the internet, but sometimes, people should be ashamed of their views, and if they feel socially isolated because of it? Good, it’s about damn time.

Unfortunately, this goes both ways, and thankfully we have freedom of speech in this country. We don’t have to like what they say, but at least they can say it, and the same is true for the other side too. They may hate what I say, but at least I have that freedom. I may not have as many “friends”, but at least they know how I feel, and if I’m socially isolated because of it; they weren’t very good friends to begin with.

So if this leads to negative effects in society to where people are feeling socially isolated because of their views, then it’s true. But does it need to change? I don’t think so. If you don’t like what’s on the channel, change it or turn the TV off.

The kids are not alright

Disney. For many people, the name evokes images of cuddly, animal driven characters, stories adapted from fairy tales, or history according to Disney, where they insert actual, historical people into an animated movie. On the other hand, people see just another corporation preying upon the wishes of children for the latest Disney offering, and the endless tie ins which come with any major Disney release.

Are all of these movies simply mindless fun? An animated/electronic babysitter for infants and children to be sat in front of for hours on end? Used to give mom or dad a few moments to wash the dishes, or just have a moment alone? Perhaps there’s something more sinister going on, whether by disgruntled employees, or on purpose. Disney knowingly or unknowingly reinforces gender roles all throughout a child’s life, and years later, this near constant exposure to what is or isn’t supposed to be, are manifested by ideas of what the perfect woman, or man are supposed to act like, and look like.

For discussion purposes here, The Lion King, will be discussed, simply because that’s one Disney movie I actually still own.

From the outset, we see an idyllic scene where all the animals are friends, although later the main characters do allude to eating the antelope, but it’s explained that this is required in order for the “circle of life” to continue, but again, it’s difficult to believe these types of interactions actually occur between animal species, but if they showed the reality, children wouldn’t be allowed to see it. I propose that Disney movies are not “children’s” movies at all due to the often quick humor, difficult subject matter and often child inappropriate dialogue the characters engage in.

When I watched some of these movies the first time as a child, I did not actually realize what I was watching, and it’s only now, that I’m able to see deeper into the movie for blatant, and hidden in plain sight messages. We soon find out who the bad guys are, and who the good guys are, simply based on the way the characters are drawn, and we’re conditioned to immediately root for one over the other.

After the main hero has been killed by his evil brother, and the son of the hero has been tricked into believing everything is his fault and sent into exile, the ecosystem collapses due to the evil brother’s inability to lead effectively. During one particular scene, the hyenas are complaining to the leader that there isn’t any food, and he says, “Go talk to the lionesses, they’re the ones who hunt the food.” This not so subtle directive that it’s the females who are responsible for the providing of the food for the pride, and don’t dare ask the “king”, as that would fall outside of his defined gender role.

Later in the movie, in order to create a diversion one of the characters says, “What should I do, dress in drag and do the hula?”. The character proceeds to do that very thing, and while just silly to a child, there are some people who would believe that this is trying to influence children to dress in drag.

I don’t believe this to be the case, but it’s obvious that children do not understand the dialogue, and perhaps only when they’re older, they might ask their parent, “What does dress in drag and do the hula mean?”. The parent will probably be curious as to where their child would come up with such a random, crazy question. When the child says it was in the Lion King, then the parents may react negatively, and accuse Disney of being pro-drag.

Another scene in which it’s implied that it’s somehow not normal for the lionesses to engage in hunting, when that is exactly the way it is in the wild, but when Disneyfied, the lionesses become inept since there isn’t a responsible male king figure to watch over them and make sure they do the right thing.

From this study of Disney in it’s many forms, it’s apparent to me, that these movies shouldn’t be used to babysit children, but rather enjoyed together as a family, and if the child expresses confusion, there’s a real person there to explain the way things really are to them, and not the Disney vision of reality.

To see our groups further insight into Disney, please visit their blogs at http://ursulajournalismblog.wordpress.com/ and http://sp1012.wordpress.com

Patty Hearst was framed!!

This assignment was certainly a challenge, as I normally do not read the newspaper on a regular basis, and it took a certain amount of self-discipline to actually make an effort to read a newspaper for thirty minutes a day. Some days, the news was interesting, and pertinent, but other days, it was take it or leave it. While not everyday can be a “big news day”, there was usually something that spoke to me, and I suppose this is the same as with any other news medium, whether it be radio, television, or newspaper.

I split my reading between the online and print version of the Denver Post, a free daily, the Denver Daily News, Westword, and Out Front Colorado.

It became apparent with this assignment, that no newspaper fits the one paper to all people format anymore, and to be more roundly informed, it requires a variety of papers which cater to a more select segment of the community in order to get a full grasp of what’s going on in the world. Perhaps the newspaper has never been a truly one paper fits all format, as different people are affected by different news. Something that may be of no consequence to one group, is at the foremost thoughts of another. This is certainly the way it is today. Of course, there are the stories that speak to all of us, especially in times of regional or national tragedy, but again, it’s very ethnocentric in how we are affected by news.

Right now, the pending election seems to be all of the talk that dominates most of the different news sources. That is understandable, as with any political race, the positions of politicians affect all of us for years at a time. It’s frustrating at the same time, especially in the US, that the rest of the world seems to cease to exist whenever there is an election. Perhaps this is the same of other countries as well. I haven’t had much exposure to foreign newspapers, and like it or not, the news all seems to be tailored to how it’ll affect the immediate residents regardless of which country it happens to be.

I typically start at the front, and work my way to the end, regardless of whichever news source it happens to be. I’ll skip the parts that I’m not really interested in learning about, especially the sports section. I personally see no value in this, in that the only reason I might read this, is to have something to chit chat about, but none of my immediate circle of friends are interested in sports, so it generally serves no purpose.

Most of the articles I read tended to stay objective, trying to show both sides of any particular issue, but the reading public is so cynical anymore that even when they read a “fact checker” portion of newspapers, they still take whatever is said with a grain of salt, and because they do not believe that the newspapers are objective, but partisan. I don’t believe that this is a fair assessment, unless you’re reading the “guest commentary” section of the opinion pages, or sprinkled throughout other sections of newspapers.

Most notable for this is the Denver Daily News. The reason it’s more noticeable for me in this paper, is it’s the one I’m most likely to grab on the way to school, and read on the bus and lightrail. The commentaries that are in this paper nearly weekly, are either from the Colorado Republican leader, Dick Wadhams, or from the Democratic side, Pat Waak.

Since I align myself politically with Democrats, I typically find less to be offended by in the commentaries from Pat Waak, but am usually outraged by something said on the other side of the aisle. I also notice more so in the DDD a disclaimer from the paper which reads “The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of the editor or this paper”. This seems to be standard operating procedure for many newspapers, whether it be the DDD, Out Front Colorado, or Westword. I suppose this is to protect the paper itself from any legal liability which may arise by something said by someone in the pages of the various papers.

With the decline in the major dailies, other papers have stepped in to fill the void where other papers have had to cut back. Human interest, and investigative journalism seems to be the area where papers like Westword and Out Front Colorado have become especially proficient at bringing stories to the readers which likely would never see the light of day in the daily newspapers.

Syndicated columns seemed to be absent as well, aside from the usual standbys like Dear Abby, Dear Amy, and Dan Savage in the Westword. It may be that those are the last or most popular syndicated columns left.

All in all, this assignment was one of the most challenging, but doing so, made me appreciate the paper again, and may even subscribe to it.

You’re the devil in disguise

“What I want to know, who’s the gimp?” In a movie full of great, quotable lines which have made their way into the American pop culture lexicon, “The Usual Suspects”, stands out today as one of the most popular independent films even though it’s nearly twenty years old. It’s main villain, Keyser Sose, is in the top 100 villains of all time according to IMDB.com.

What starts out as a roundup of likely or unlikely culprits in a robbery of a truck hauling gun parts, it’s all a setup. This hodgepodge lineup of criminals are actually being used as a test group for an ultimate revenge hit on a police informant under the guise of profiting from the supposed drug money that’s on the ship that the lineup of characters are attacking. At the same time, the characters are also righting a wrong that each of them have committedagainst Keyser Sose. Little do we know that Keyser Sose is very much in the open and they are with him the whole time.

We never see Keyser Sose’s face until the end of the movie except the classic villain pose.  The fedora hat pulled low, and shadow hidden face is all we see of him, but we see the aftermath of his work, and how the usual suspects are unwittingly helping him kill the one person who can identify him to police.

The movie takes place in a series of flashbacks between Kevin Spacey’s character, Verbal Kent, and his interrogation after the bloodbath that takes place at the local harbor. We see the story take place through his eyes, as he relates it to the customs investigator.

After the police lineup and subsequent questioning, one member of the group played by Stephen Baldwin, uses this as an opportunity to hatch a plot in which they’ll attempt to get the Gabriel Byrne character to leave the new life he’s established, and return to criminal activities, so they can all profit from this debacle of having all been in a useless police lineup.

Little do we know during his interrogation, Verbal Kent, is concocting this whole story from the crowded bulletin board in the police department where he’s being interrogated, and not until the end of the movie do we find out that he’s actually the person the police have been looking for all along, and who assembled the usual suspects to carry out the mission to wipe out “the rat”.

From the time “The Usual Suspects” first came out in 1995, many movies have copied the major plot twist, in which all we’ve been led to believe is wrong, and in the last fifteen minutes of the movie, we’re shown how things actually are. In the movies that have premiered since this one, in which the major plot twists have been copied, led Roger Ebert to refer to these plot twists in movies as the “Keyser Sose” effect.

That is a common trait among all movies, whether produced by the major studios, or an independent release such as “The Usual Suspects”. Take a winning strategy, and reproduce it for as long as it’s profitable to do so, and although it was among the first to take this radical plot twist direction, it hasn’t been the last.

A lot has changed since 1995 when this movie first came out. Namely, the product placement that is so prevalent in the movies of today, and have become little more than a two hour commercial that revolves around products placed throughout the entire movie.   In many independent movies, the product placement isn’t as prevalent as in the typical Hollywood blockbuster. This is primarily due to the usually limited number of screens that many independent movies are afforded, and product placement is a disincentive to the corporations to pay any amount for the rights to have products placed within a movie, since the movie will reach a limited number of viewers at best.

Often, the independent movies aren’t the ones that make millions and become a household name, but “The Usual Suspects”, has managed to remain a popular staple to many video collections, and over the years, made hundreds of millions of dollars worldwide, and was nominated for and won many awards in it’s day.

That’s the beauty of independent movies, if they go on to make hundreds of millions of dollars is irrelevant. It’s nice when it happens, but with independent movies, just seeing their vision on film is their greatest award. While probably not going on to monetary success, many independent movies will garner multitudes of awards, and critical praise, and maybe just maybe, people will be viewing them for years after last year’s Hollywood blockbuster is all but forgotten.

Soylent Green is made of people!!

The Colony tells the story in which there’s a catastrophic event, in this case a viral outbreak, and humanity has been pushed to the brink of extinction as a result. Some “survivors”, which are actually people chosen by the Discovery Channel that are brought together to “rebuild” after the catastrophic event,  are presented with situations while they try to survive in this new world.

Filmed on location in the area surrounding New Orleans, ironic, given that much of the area remains uninhabitable after a real catastrophic event took place there. Due to this real life, and cruel fact, the producers of the show are afforded the luxury of a ten city block , formerly inhabited area in which to conduct their experiments.

The location used is void of any kind of ads, even the cans of food that the colonists consume are void of any kind of label to indicate a brand or even what the contents may be. Whether this was due to not being able to secure product placement rights, or maybe just to confuse the colonists, is unclear. It did illustrate effectively that a paper label on a tin can is very temporary, and if the label gets wet, it’s very likely to fall off, and any survivors would have no idea to tell what they might be consuming, at this point, brands don’t matter, it’s food.

There is also no perceptible product placement, as most of the items the colonists gather seems like it could simply be real life leftovers that might have been left behind from the hurricane that decimated the area, but the colonists use these items without thought to brand or quality.

A junk car sitting, which I believe was a Chevy, but the fact that it was a Chevy didn’t seem to make any difference. The only difference it made to the colonists, was what they could use off of the car to better their circumstances, and rebuild their world.

Some items seem conveniently placed, such as the tractor trailer full of rotting pit carcasses, and a few other dry goods such as bags of rice, and dried salami. With this series though, what appears to be conveniently placed, it becomes entirely conceivable that a tractor trailer with some food would be left behind after a catastrophe. Although it seemed conveniently placed, not all people would know what to do with rotting pig carcasses, and without the right group of people, the pigs would have continued to rot.

One of the oldest members remembered his grandfather making bio-fuel from the fat of animals, and the other colonists began the process of boiling the pigs to use the resulting bio-fuel to be used to power a diesel tractor. The mating of a tractor, an alternator taken from a Chevy, and used to recharge the car batteries that the colonists found are then used to power their tools and lights.  One of the first steps to re-establishing a semi-livable world.

The show seems to fly in the face of all the conventional formulas used in hit tv shows. The inspiration may have been  from another major network’s creation of Survivor. The Colony takes it to the next level, and when people are injured, they’re really injured, blood and all is seen.  A disclaimer at the beginning says there are medical personnel standing by to make sure no one is at risk of infection from any wounds they might receive. Another aspect that’s strikingly real, is the weight loss that the colonists endure from not having enough to eat.

This quest for realism, seems to be a rather new phenomenon, as opposed to the old ways in which tv shows were presented, an example of that being I Love Lucy. When her baby was born, it was apparent that it was a plastic baby, but we were expected to pretend that the baby was real. That’s a stark difference between the television programs of fifty years ago, and today. People expect the realism factor, and with shows such as The Colony, it really makes you think while watching it, and if you take your eyes away for a moment, you could miss something crucial.

I don’t know if this format would work , and be as popular in other countries as it is in the United States. As I see this show appealing very much to the American, especially male, psyche. The “rugged individualism”, is resorted to yet again. Many past television series, especially westerns, have appealed to this segment of the viewing, or listening public, given that these tales of survival were popular even before television.

Since this was the season finale, I expected that there would be some kind of resolution, as even a show of this caliber isn’t immune from the expectation to have some kind of resolution before the season ends. It’s also unclear if there will be a second season, as the first season of this series was one season.

It didn’t end in the expected way though, with the expectation being that everything would work out for the best, but the new place they were going to relocate to which would have offered more access to food, and safety, has already been taken over by a rival group of colonists, so they’re forced to continue on.

I think people are fascinated with doomsday scenario movies, and this is just the next step in the evolution of these types of series, and it appeals to people’s voyeuristic tendency to see how these people live, and the thought that “I could do this, I want to do this.” Who at some point hasn’t pictured themselves being in a movie of this sort?

It’s odd that the commercials aired during The Colony, have nothing to do with survival. It would be a great opportunity to have commercials for survivalist schools, or camping equipment, but the usual fodder is offered: cars, cleaning products, Iphones, and video games.

While this show is a step above other television programs, in that it appeals to people’s ingenuity and intelligence, it’s still a vehicle to sell ad time, and products to the consuming public. There’s no escaping that.

When does the “the little guy” become “the man”?

In researching Koch Entertainment, I have to be honest, I wasn’t familiar with Koch Entertainment, but after looking at their website, I’m quite aware of their stable of artists, but rarely do I look at the name of the record company on either the cds I look at and rarely purchase, or the dvds for sale, what can I say, I’m cheap.

This company is a juggernaut of the independent recording artist, and most recently, independent art house film distributors in North America and Canada with their innovative system of distribution, and according to their website, describe themselves as “the leading, and fastest growing independent music company in the United States”, which based on their website and the myriad other ventures they’re involved in, something I’m highly convinced of. With six regional sales offices sprinkled across the country, and over 60 sales and marketing professionals, they are well equipped to extend their reach further into the independent artist market than most other independent music producers/distributors.

I was surprised by the many different genres of music covered by Koch Entertainment, everything from Rap, R&B, Christian and Gospel, to Children’s music is on offer. Some of the artists that are part of the Koch family, range from well known, to obscure, a small sampling includes: at times controversial Sinead O’Connor, music legend Ringo Starr, to the annoyingly cute children’s group, The Wiggles.

Koch Entertainment, is the “every type of music to every man” kind of label, and tries to reach as many different fan bases as possible with the wide genres of music they offer, and one could say they are deliberately eclectic to appeal to the widest segment of the music consuming public as possible, which makes complete sense from a business standpoint, if one segment of the music business is down (which it is), business may stay stable, or increase exponentially in other parts.

A great example of this is The Wiggles. What parent, even in a downturn of the economy, is going to say no to their child if the child wants this cd? I believe this is one area where Koch Entertainment has a huge advantage over niche based labels, or fiercely stick with one type of music. If peoples’ tastes change in music, and your genre no longer fits that, you’re dead, so it’s better to have as many types of music covered as possible. It’s quite conceivable with their wide offering, that a parent could have a cd by Ringo Starr, and in the same house,their child could have a cd of The Wiggles.

According to Wikipedia, Koch Entertainment and Epic records signed a deal to work on many joint ventures in efforts to save money, and increase the promotions of the artists of both labels, and by so doing, have combined the Artists and Repertoire (A&R) departments, label promoters, and sign, cross fund, and cross promote each companies releases. There is even a large presence in Europe through a distribution deal with Universal Europe.

From what I’ve seen thus far, at least with Koch Entertainment, there doesn’t appear to be many, if any obstacles to them reaching the markets they wish to. Over the years, they’ve bought other labels with good, popular, and profitable stables of artists, and have absorbed them into their own label, or long established artists who no longer fit the major labels mold, and have instead signed with Koch; Ringo Starr being preeminent among them.

It’s not the goal of Koch records to sell to a major label, as it seems the opposite is happening, major artists are coming to Koch from the major labels, and is quite profitable in it’s ventures, having been sold to a Canadian company in 2005 for $80 million dollars, with Michael Koch remaining CEO of Koch Entertainment.

The value of “small independent labels”, which Koch can hardly be described as small, is incalculable, much as small business in general composes some 98 percent of the American business landscape, and just as with the local mom and pop store that may stock items to cater to a single neighborhood, small independent labels are able to cater to smaller segments of the listening public, and the internet has aided in this more ways than can be explained here.

I looked at Radio 1190’s website, and even while billing themselves as the “home of independent radio artists”, there is an alphabetical list of the artists that you’re able to request at any given point. I don’t know if this list changes from time to time, but the artist I wished to have played is not one of the artists currently available, but at the same time, I was surprised at the artists that are available, and some of them could hardly be described as independent, but more likely obscure songs by established artists which rarely, if ever, get played on mainstream radio stations.  To learn more about the Koch Entertainment, and the artists they represent, visit http://www.kochent.com

A philosopher once said, “I think therefore I am.” Now it seems that in order to be, we have to be online in order to exist. But in what capacity? As my 39 year old self, or the twenty something successful, extremely handsome, rich online persona that has become for all intents and purposes my real life.

I go to work each day, in my humdrum of a life, and while I was in school, I envisioned myself doing something extremely exciting with my education, and moving to far off locales and living the dream so to speak. How reality changes our perceptions of what and who we can actually be. I’m 39, just went to my 20 year high school reunion the year before in 2014, it’s now 2015, where have the last almost 40 years of my life gone? I’m not working in the job I want to, I don’t look the way I want to, I don’t drive the car I want, my apartment is a mess.

I was on my lunch break from work, and everywhere you go now, there seems to be a television on the wall or in an open air area where we’re constantly inundated with information, some of it good, most of it is shit. Watching a TV show, but trying to do two or three things at once. Watch the show, and read the news crawler that’s on the bottom of the television now, 24 hours a day, since Fox News took over every other network in America by force. They’d amassed such a fortune that they basically bought their own military, took over the country, and all of it’s media outlets by force. There was resistance for a while, but soon, we became apathetic again, just as we did whenever there were previous crises, and we were placated from facing reality by the latest incarnation of whichever new reality, or competition show was on. Advertisements for this product, or that product, but a commercial I saw caught my eye. For a low monthly payment, you can have a dual life, where it’s like life, but so much better. Better looking, better job, better car, better… well you get the idea.

Nobody talks anymore, it was bad in the first decade of the 21^st century, but it’s gotten even worse now. It used to always bug me when I’d go out to eat with friends, and no matter where you went, from a greasy spoon to one of the high end restaurants, there was always a television nearly on every wall, and there wasn’t 10 minutes out of one day that we don’t watch something on TV. Now we don’t really have to have real life friends anymore, because as you see, before I went into discussing how life had changed since 2010, I was on my lunch break and saw a commercial for a great new product. Only 89.99 a month, and you can have a second life. Better looking, better job, basically anything you want, as long as it doesn’t break the law, there’s the dream police now, which comes to your house in the middle of the night, and arrests you for having a dream which is illegal now.

For so many years we were being conditioned to become such a selfish me society, the powers that be succeeded beyond their wildest expectations, and soon we were choosing these virtual lives over our real lives, where we could look how we want, not how we are. Oh sure, there are some laws now that didn’t used to be. Since people are inside their homes now nearly 24 hours a day 7 days a week, there’s no physical human interaction anymore, which includes no sex. There still isn’t sex, unless you are chosen to by the government, and you meet the qualifications. For the rest of us, it’s all virtual. So when I’m finished working (from inside my apartment of course), I am then allowed to log into my virtual world. It’s amazing what they’ve come up with. Much like that movie the Matrix that was so popular years ago, but now it’s reality. Instead of eating a real steak, we eat a computer simulated one, and it’s so weird but they’ve approximated it so well that it’s just like the real thing.

In my virtual world, everything is virtual. Virtual food, virtual news, when I read the news, it’s in a virtual format. I’m watching myself read a virtual newspaper on a computer screen, and that’s how we get our information now, of course after it’s passed through the Fox News Total Information Awareness filter.

I decide I’ll take a drive in my virtual car, and as I’m driving, my real mind in my real apartment comes back to me, and I remember how much enjoyment I used to derive from my actual automobiles, and relish the thought of banging up my knuckles working on something on them. About that time, the thought police are banging on my door to take me away to a re-education camp.

Response 2

Brian Ellis

Robert Popovich Age 72 Friend

In Bob’s world, entertainment was seen as a luxury, which was largely crafted by his parents, who were the epitome of a middle class, blue collar family. Entertainment as we see it today, as something that is a given, but in Bob’s world, it was something that only the rich could afford to any extent.

In the area of sound recording, Bob’s family did not have a record player, record players were seen as a luxury by his very frugal family, and it wasn’t until Bob was older and got his first job as a paperboy and began making his own money that he then purchased a record player on his own, and mainly classical records which he preferred over other kinds of music at the time.

Although his parents were frugal, and didn’t have a record player, they didn’t attempt to restrict the kinds of music Bob listened to at home, and although he preferred listening to records of classical music, he would hear the popular singers of the day while riding in cars that had radios. He described his parents as simple folks, but very “broad minded”, and although his mother only completed the 8^th grade, and his father the 11^th, they were voracious readers, a trait that seems to have permeated Bob’s, and his siblings’ lives.

It wasn’t until Bob completed high school at the age of 16, and soon after going to college, and completing chiropractic school by the time he was 20, and being drafted into the military in 1961 that he was really exposed to other kinds of music. Being influenced by the people around him, and having the world revealed to him more and more, that he then gained an appreciation of jazz, and even country which he became more familiar with during his military service, as that’s what the other soldiers listened to a lot. But today, it’s classical first, jazz second, and country third as his musical choices.

The records that Bob purchased mainly in the St. Louis area at the time, and buying them “wherever there was a sale”. He recalls that a 45 record may have been 75 cents or so, 78 records coming in at a 1.50, and the technology cusp of it’s day, the 33 1/3^rd LP coming in at a princely sum of 2.00.

When it came to the topic of radio, Bob said that was the first medium of entertainment, music, and news that his family was able to afford, and recalls some of the radio dramas that were popular at the time, radio shows like The Shadow, Fibber McGee and Molly, Jack Benny, Green Hornet, The FBI Files, and In Law and Order.

Growing up, he listened to what his parents listened to on the radio, which included the popular music of the 40’s. Big bands, Bing Crosby, and Frank Sinatra, were usually the most oft listened to performers of the era, and even today, Bob says that when he hears those particular songs, it takes him back to his childhood, and gives him a sense of comfort and security. But mostly, the radio was used for entertainment purposes, and news as well, and Bob feels that the medium of radio, particularly the entertainment shows, really enhanced his ability to use his imagination and picture in his mind the scenes that he was hearing on the radio.

These programs also provided an escape from everyday life, and were a much looked forward to happening of each day, these momentary escapes from reality. The entertainment shows of the time, with Bob describing the people as being more simplistic, less sophisticated and that the expectations were lower, so there wasn’t a great demand on the popular radio shows of the time to appeal to the segments who wished to have more mentally stimulating or challenging radio programing.

Bob doesn’t recall that there was any real controversy with the commercials at the time, and even if there were, people didn’t raise a fuss over it, because they were so relieved that World War II was over, that people wished to avoid conflict and let some issues go to avoid raising objections to certain things they didn’t like.

As Bob got into his teenage years and began riding more with friends who had radios in their cars, he was exposed to more popular music of the time like Chubby Checker, Buddy Holly, Bobby Darin, Johnny Mathis, and many other artists, and although hearing these singers, he never considered himself an aficionado of these singers, and as some people memorize sports figures and stats, he never memorized which songs the singers sang, or the lyrics.

When it came to the topic on how things changed with FM (frequency modulation) radio, Bob saw changes in the programming in that it became more sophisticated but also more corporate and geared towards ratings.

Television was first described to Bob by his father in terms that he could understand, “like a radio only with a picture glass where the speaker is”, and it wasn’t until several years later that his family paid something like 200 dollars for a 10 inch tv. I found it interesting that years before that things that were once considered a luxury, were now something to be acquired, which frequently happens as children age and are almost ready to move out, that the parents view items that were luxuries at one point, as now something to have.

Bob feels that television changed family dynamics considerably, and whereas a family used to sit around the table and converse with each other about their day, the focus became the television, and dinners shifted from the dining room to the living room, and communication between family members suffered as a result, and people became consumers of entertainment instead of producers of entertainment. Families used to gather and create entertainment by family dinners, picnics, card games, and other various forms of entertainment they created, and which now with television they simply consumed.

He recalls the typical shows of the early television period as consisting again of comedy, entertainment type shows, and dramas, but recalling in particular the Milton Berle Texaco Hour, The Jackie Gleason Show, and many of the shows were corporate sponsored, and many many shows being sponsored by cigarette companies.

When asked about the quiz show scandals, Bob vaguely remembered hearing about the quiz show scandals, but being very studious, he paid little attention to the scandals of the time, and didn’t begin to watch television at any great length until ironically, he entered the seminary in 1965.

He feels much the same about the early television shows as he felt about the radio shows in that people were more simplistic, and had less overall expectations of the television programs at the time, and the studios catered to that, and while he still enjoys seeing some of the old reruns, his expectations are higher, and he’s less easily entertained as he once was, which he feels is true of society as a whole. Notable exceptions to shows of the time were events such as the moon landing, and Edward R. Murrow’s criticism of the McCarthy trials.

Programming of the time was much more limited, and there was no such thing as a 24 hour let alone a 12 hour broadcast day with programming beginning around 9 or 10 in the morning, and ending at 8 or 9 at night, and I myself remember being up late enough to hear the National Anthem, and whichever channel it was wishing us a good night until the next day and then just the whine of the “off the air” indicator, and a strange background that looked like some kind of target or the ubiquitious veritcal multicolored lines.

Movies were a true experience that were rare in Bob’s childhood, perhaps once a month to every six weeks, and while his father wished to see westerns, or war movies, ironic since he disliked talking about the war he’d just years before witnessed firsthand, Bob’s favorite movies mirrored those of his mother, musicals. My Fair Lady being one of his absolute favorites, although he also enjoyed Ben Hur, Ten Commandments, On the Waterfront, and all of the “gladiator” type movies.

Al Jolson, and the talkies were 10 years or more before his time, and didn’t have any experience in this area as was the hoopla around the premiere of Gone With the Wind, as Bob was born right around the time it first came out, and missed out on the near fanaticism in which people attended this movie. He also doesn’t recall his parents forbidding him him to see any particular movie since he always went to the movies with his parents, and he was in college before he ever attended a movie theater by himself.

It was fascinating to hear Bob’s opinions on how media and culture have changed in the 70 plus years since he was a child, and his feelings that human beings have been affected by the changes in the way we consume the media, and the expectations we have of what we watch, and hear, and what we are entertained by. His thought that we’ve become consumers of entertainment as opposed to creators of entertainment have taken some things away from our culture and family dynamics, and our engagement in communication has been lessened rather than increased.

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