Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Experience it. Enjoy it. Just don't fall for it.

I had never seen the movie "Almost Famous", but would definitely watch it again if I had the chance. The movie most definitely held my attention the whole two or so hours. It was a story of a young boy trying to make his dreams of becoming a rock-n-roll journalist come true, but he ends up falling in love and making friends with the "enemy". I really liked how such an innocent 15 year old boy was the main character, and how he really won everyone over with how genuine he was.

At the beginning I thought William's mother was very biased on how she really didn't agree with anything his sister was into, like rock music. Then she completely changed when William said something about going to a rock-n-roll concert and let him do whatever he wanted. She really does show favoritism toward him, and I really do feel sorry for his sister. In the end the family does come back together and you get the happy ending you do in most movies.

Kate Hudson was an outstanding actress in this film. She was such an unusual character, but was very kind to everyone. I did think it was unfortunate that she was the love interest of Russel and William. William really saw her true potential and in the end showed her she had been living in a fairy tail world. Russel was my favorite band member, beside the gay drummer ha. He came off to me as a honest man who really did just love the music, and not in it for only the fame. I hate how he let Kate's character get away from him, and he realized his true feelings for her when it was too late.

When the band's airplane was about to crash I think it was great how they all started confessing their deepest darkest secrets, and in the end I think it was for the best because they weren't all living lies anymore. Overall the movie was really great and in the end everyone ends up doing the right things.

Pirate Nation.

Balance is the word that sticks in my mind after reading the article "FREE CULTURE", but is that even possible? Is it possible to make everyone happy all the time? The answer is NO, that's impossible especially with a topic like piracy. The creators of the music, books, and movies will never understand how giving their products away for free will someday benefit them. They want justice and they aren't going to stop till they get it. The truth is they most likely will never see the money they have lost from p2p, but I doubt they have ever noticed the money they have gained from being advertised on these so called satin programs.
Well starting with the facts piracy can "rob the authors of their profit", but it can help as well. If authors could take a step back and look at how they could use this to their advantage they may be making more profit than they were before. Authors could use the type C file sharing and give out free samples, which could lead to their sales increasing because individuals might really enjoy what they hear or see.

I'm not going to lie I was apart of the huge proportion of Americans that have tasted file-sharing technology. It's kind of hard to not use it when its at your fingertips. I mean whats better than free music at the press of a button, but then I started thinking about the people's work I was stealing and how I would feel if it was mine. It made me see how piracy is stealing and why it would cause such a big controversy in America. The programs also put viruses on my computer and making it run slow. I decided I would quit taking things through file sharing a while back. I know I might just be one person, but just me choosing to stop could influence so many others.

Monday, June 29, 2009

Music in My Prime...

Songs have always had a pretty big effect on my feelings through out my life. I can find that a song makes me happy, or it could put me into a very low place leaving me depressed. I have grown up in a family that loves making music. My Grandfather was in a country music band when I was little and he would always play his guitar and sing to me. My favorite song he would sing was called "Amanda" ha, what a surprise. It was a old country song that I highly doubt was ever very popular, but it is something special I remember when I think about the times we have spent together.

There was also the pop hit Christina Aguilera, who made me believe I was destine to become a pop singer when I grew up. I used to carry around my little microphone and turn "I'm a Genie in a Bottle" up on my stereo, and sing it over and over. Thank goodness I came to my senses.