Website

To get the bad out of the way, this first screenshot is HVCHSMTPA.org.  This is the digital home of the Hopewell Valley Central High School Music and Theater Parents Association.  Quite the mouthful.  This is a poor website firstly, because the information doesn’t fit between the curtains that are the background.  Then if you were to scroll down, you might never get to the end.  Rather than linking material and putting it all up front, you have to scroll all the way down and search through the different colors and fonts to find what you need.

This screenshot is of the General Motors website, GM.com.  It took me a long time to find the website, because I was looking for a truly “perfect” website.  This website gets everything you need in front of you immediately; no scrolling is necessary.  It has a very modern, “metal” feel due to all of the straight edges, the plain font, and the photo of buildings as the background.  As far as functionality goes, the drop-down menus are far from cumbersome and there is a news feed right in the front preaching the gospel of GM.

"Faster, Cheaper, Better"

It’s a jet flying into the perfect blue sky with turbo propulsion.  That is, it’s a 100 dollar bill folded paper airplane, well shadowed as if it was flying up into the beautifully shining sun, folded so that the 100’s are very clear.  It may be seen as a jet propelling through the air toward a vacation destination, an F22 going into battle for financial success, or maybe just your money flying away!  But next to the words in big, bold, yellow capital letters are the words:  “Faster, Better, Cheaper.”  Inside this edition of Money, the cover story pulls the verbiage from the cover:  “Faster, Cheaper, Better” and relates it to budgeting, setting up a portfolio, selling your house, trading stocks, investing, planning a vacation.  It is a collection of smaller pieces about each of those areas organized by the theme of “Faster, Cheaper, Better”.   The authors introduce that they are attempting to appeal to different types of people.  Those “crave{s{ extra time, even if you have to spend a little more money to get it” will look at the advice under the “Faster” headings (52).    “Cheaper” tips are for frugal people who are “willing to do more legwork or cut some nonessential corners to maximize savings” (52).   And those looking at the “better” tips are the perfectionists, though there’s little definition of what a perfectionist might look like.    There are many graphics throughout the article including a bar and line graph.  However, I found the best images to be of a revved-up piggy bank.  It’s souped up with extra horsepower (pun intended), with mag wheels and a turbo exhaust system.  This image is repeated in some of the sections, first as it crashes through a fire ring with the title “Set Up a Moderate-Risk Portfolio” (55).  Then it’s in the driveway of a house in the “Sell Your House” section (56), and on an island wearing a sombrero with various needed beach articles surrounding it (63).  I find it interesting that the image inside the article was not the same image used on the cover.  Though the cover image did catch my eye easily, the piggy bank worked quietly effectively, as well. 

Rosato, Donna, Penelope Wang, and Susie Poppick. "Faster, Better, Cheaper." Money July 2011: 52-63. Print.

My Books

Greco, Albert N. The Media and Entertainment Industries:           

 Readings in Mass Communications. Boston: Allyn and Bacon,

2000. Print.

Gorman, Lyn, and David McLean. Media and Society into the 21st

Century: a Historical Introduction. Chichester, UK: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009. Print.

I think the first book will be a good help because it gives a very good general overview of the  industry aspect of entertainment.  The second book will be good because it focuses more on the socio-economic aspect.  While I don't believe either is exactly what I'm looking for, I hope to get valuable information from each book.  An added benefit of these two books together is the difference of almost a decade.  They can offer a look at the change in entertainment.

Free Write

The entertainment industry.  So much to talk about.  So many visuals that come to my mind.  So many issues.  Are they overpaid, are they not?  What about relative to the average worker -- teacher or policemen or small business owner or professional athlete.  (Then again, these are celebrities.)   So I need to think about what I mean by the entertainment industry.  Thinking about musicians, specifically, there are a lot of issues with good versus poor musicians and which are recognized and how they make their money.  The images presented on their cd covers is pretty interesting, as well.  There is always the conversation about how "sex sells" and this could be studied with these images.   What about the confidence relative to the skill/ability.  But isn't that just interpretation by the listener/viewer?  I think of somebody like Lady Gaga who is an excellent musician, but presents herself to sell herself and market herself.  In a different time, would she have a more traditional look?  Time's up.

Bubbles

It Pretty Much Sucks

The elephant sucks, yes.  I mean, why would you make your logo an elephant?  Something more badass like a tiger would probably be better.

I’m not answering this one.  I couldn’t possibly answer something I couldn’t support.

If we are talking about the Harry Potter fifth movie I would have to say I’m on the sucking side.  After Chris Columbus was no longer the director, the movies became horrible.  However, I think the story of Harry Potter is one of the best – it’s not that often you hear of a fictional story so many people really want to get into.

I’m going to say Apple sucks.  Despite the fact that I use a Mac and an iPod, Apple sucks because they literally suck.  They suck you dry of your money.  You want to hook your computer up to your tv? Okay, just buy this fifty dollar mini-port adapter.  Oh, now you need another type of connection? Buy this other one, too.  Also they limit their products capabilities at each launch, so should they run out of new things, they can easily upgrade what they have.

Star Wars is awesome.  George Lucas wrote Star Wars based on classic, loved mythology and tales, so for anyone to say they don’t like Star Wars they have either not seen them, or are lying.

Facebook sucks.  I constantly want to know what is going on, so I check facebook way too much.  It has literally replaced human interaction.  And I need to stop.

McDonald’s doesn’t suck.  I, personally, am not the biggest fast food eater, but the idea of McDonald’s is phenomenal.  Obviously – look at how many customers they serve.

Clemson doesn’t suck.

Lady Gaga sucks.  She’s really talented, but her music sucks.  Plus she kind of detracts from it with her showmanship.  She should put more time into her music.

Justin Bieber sucks.  Nobody actually likes him.  Do they?

Sudoku doesn’t suck; I suck at it.  But it is a good time killer.

Avatar sucks.  It’s absolutely horrible.  The acting sucks, the story, while also a classic like Star Wars, was horrible and not well executed.  Everyone says how awesome it looks.  It’s fake.  Hawai’i looks awesome, go there.

XBOX sucks.  I literally spent my entire day playing NCAA 12 yesterday and not only do I have nothing in the real world to show for it, but I’m still just as bad as when I started.

American Idol didn’t suck…but now it does.  It is an awesome idea and there were some talented singers on it.  Adam Lambert is filthy.  But now, I mean Steven Tyler is a horrible judge.  They should have stopped while they were ahead.

Glee doesn’t suck.  It’s a unique idea, which I like.  It’s surprising that it took off, but it’s really talented people who actually go out and put on shows when the TV show isn’t on.  That’s pretty cool.

Cigarettes suck.  People took a natural herb, I guess it’s an herb, and put it in a package that kills people.  You can’t really say that doesn’t suck.

Guns don’t suck.  I’d rather be in a war zone with people shooting at me than trying to hack away with swords.  In a civilian setting they suck though.  People use guns for the wrong reason.

I’m pro choice.  Pick whatever you want, and leave me out of it.  I’m just going to try really hard to not get anybody pregnant.

Not sure what this one is, but I’d say it sucks.  Why would you dress your dog like that?

Extra Credit

“For your protection, this bottle has an imprinted seal around the neck.”