Don't forget to tune in for next year's Christmas

Its now just after midnight on Christmas, 2004 and I’m sitting here at my computer in front of the television watching my mother clean up for tomorrow. And I’m thinking…

I got into a long conversation with a young man at the MIT holiday party, I told him that Christmas usually pisses me off because I can’t stand to have holiday cheer rammed down my throat 24 hours a day for 2 months a year. He then started asking me what about Christmas I didn’t like. The truth is that Christmas is fine with me, I have no problem with the theory, or the celebration, I’m just sick of the sales and the disgusting commercialization of Christmas, I know it will never change, but there is no reason for me to deal with it.

Then I stopped to think, this year I have been fairly removed from the Christmas spectacle. I have not really turned on my television and usually mute it during the commercials, by removing myself from the inundation of Christmas, I find that i really enjoy the little bits of Christmas that I am exposed to. I had to watch the Nick and Jessica Family Christmas special, it reminded me what of Christmas I don’t really like, the racial isolationism, the crass commercialization all disguised has family cheer. This couple has taken their family cheer and commodified it in order to sell advertising spots. but nonetheless, Jessica's performance of "oh night divine" made me tear up.

But there is one commercial running at the moment, for Verizon wireless celebrating “chrismahanakwanzakah.” I really like the approach that they piece takes, doing their absolute best to merge all faiths and ethnicities, it starts off with a well dressed elderly black man, cuts to a couple of Hassidic Jews at a piano then to an Indian Santa Claus (with turban). It also features a Buddhist monk and a poor child right out of Oliver Twist. The only white woman in the commercial is essentially naked with a giant cell phone covering her business. I’m not sure exactly what that means or how it can be interpreted, thoughts?

I’d also like to note, that in their desperate attempt to include all ethnicities, races and beliefs, Christmas is still the first religion represented in the merged title.

weekend update

holy shit.

its tina fey and amy poehler anchoring weekend update. i think this is the first time that two women have anchorched the show. i don't know about the acting, but its nice to see something new. and they've got a really nice dynamic, i daresay, i can't decide whether i like the difference, but i don't necessarily miss jimmy fallon.

507 Project

i would like to rename all of the movie moments that i've ever experienced or thought about as '507 Projects'.

507 is the introductory production class that everyone in the school of cinema/tv is required to take. our days are filled with finding potential short film subjects to produce.

the apprentice

so i'm taking a break from work (bad charisse) and watching nbc's 'the apprentice,' when it started i rationalized that these were some of the smartest people on television and its a show that's not about sex... rather its about money, and real business decisions.

today's task was to make and sell m&m's M-Azing bars. there were 2 girls on one team, and 2 boys and a girl on the other team, the three person team made 323 bars and sold them all for a profit of $500, the other two girls made 290 and sold them for a profit of over $1000. they dressed up in cute red tops and denim skirts and sold the bars for $5 a piece. the other team sold them for a dollar a piece, so the chick on 3 person team decided to start selling them for $20 and dropped her skirt.

dropped her skirt...

no i understand the need to win by any means necessary but there is no way that kind of behavior is going to swing. and i was just thinking about how these folks were the smartest people on television. does she actually believe that trump is going to want his ceo dropping trou' in public for some extra money? i guess we'll find out soon...

Green Day - American Idiot

Don't wanna be an American idiot.
Don't want a nation under the new mania.
And can you hear the sound of hysteria?
The subliminal mind fuck America.

Welcome to a new kind of tension.
All across the alienation.
Everything isn't meant to be okay.
Television dreams of tomorrow.
We're not the ones who're meant to follow.
For that's enough to argue.

Well maybe I'm the faggot America.
I'm not a part of a redneck agenda.
Now everybody do the propaganda.
And sing along in the age of paranoia.

Welcome to a new kind of tension.
All across the alienation.
Everything isn't meant to be okay.
Television dreams of tomorrow.
We're not the ones who're meant to follow.
For that's enough to argue.

the movie of my life.

i look at my life like a movie. i know it's stupid and exactly what the film industry wants me to do, but i can't help it. every interaction i have, every unresolved situation, every potential outcome is replayed over and over in my head. although i may never meet mos def, i know exactly what i'm going to say to him...

how you doing
yo i'm fine.
my name is mos.
i'm charisse...

[smile] but that's not the point of this posting. the point is that by viewing ones life as a movie, one expects a movie ending, or movie emotions or movie moments. kissing no longer is just kissing, its a movie moment, with soft music, overhead camera angles and close-ups. while writing a paper on sexual behavior and youth television consumption, there were many extended quotes from young women watching soap operas talking about how the experience of sex on television was so perfect and beautiful, they expected their sexual experiences to be the same.

i guess i know now that life is not a movie, there are no movie endings, but everything still works out as takes, scenes and acts. people guest star or cameo here and there, sometimes there are regulars and sometimes there are box office celebrities. but i have to remember that there will be no last minute cliffhangers and there will be no prince charming on a white horse. or any horse for that matter. I'll be lucky if there is a rapper in a hummer, coming to take me away from the belligerent homeless.

the american black man.

i know i know i know, the image of the american black man is always under speculation, and of course its just going to be the same discussion you've heard a million times already. but to be honest, it really is quite coincidental that all of these things are coming together at oine time...

Kobe... oh kobe, you were going to be the next michael jordan, remember? you had so much home and admieration and respect. according to detweiler and taylor, you were going to be the next savior in the religion that is american basketball. now i'm not blaming you and i'm not saying you slept with a crazy chick and it cam back to bite you in the ass (or the wallet ass the case my be) but... well what a start.

Detroit Game: you know. maybe they shoudl just bring back the globetrotters... when do those guys plan on going on tour again, we need your lighthearted, comical, but ever so talented appraoch to kicking the washington general's butts. unfortunately, all the money is in the NBA. what if vince mann combined the wwe with basketball, much like the short lived XFL. meh, i'm sure he's already thought of it.

Desperate Housewives/NFL: oh come on. this is just sad. although now there is all this stupid attention being given to the sexual content of sports, which i think is silly. the whole point of these games is to find out what your body can do. including those little morsels of cheerleaders [smile]. i went to a lakers game the week after the detroit game and this business, and i have to admit, those cheerleaders were doing their best to be as appropriate as possible. they didn't even pull they ever popular, rip the shirt off in the middle of the routine. [sigh] michael powell as everyone running scared.

new political discourse

i'm watching wolf blitzer discussing 9/11 intelligence reform. there are two women featured, susan rice from brookings institution and danielle pletka from the american enterprise institute. pletka was on cnn way too often during the election spitting republican spin. i had already decided i hate her. but i'm sitting here listening to her now discuss non-election topics, and i don't mind. admittedly i still disagree with a lot of what she has to say, but at least now she's not being a cold, bitter angry bitchy republican... we don't need more than one ann coulter.

although i believe that cnn has not drastically improved its format, although i may now be more willing to watch crossfire, there might be sensible, civilized disucssion. course, maybe they'll just find something else to bitch and bicker about.