NBA all star voting results projection of voters habits?

I know the NBA all star ballot includes a wider demographic than other electoral votes (such as for Mayors or other public figures), but with the current voting statistics for the 2009 NBA All Star line ups, bias in many ways triumphs over dependability, productivity and pure statistical evidence.

the link below shows the latest installment of tallying of votes with a week left until voting officially closes. (scroll down until you see the tables)

http://www.nba.com/2009/news/01/08/010809allstarreturns/index.html

now if you were to go the NBA's official statistics page you will be able to compare the top vote getters to the top ranked players in various categories.

http://www.nba.com/statistics/player/Fantasy.jsp

A couple of top vote getters jump out at me: Yi, Iverson, Gilbert Arenas the famed blogger himself, Dalembert...just to name a few...but hell its all over the map.

I think cultural bias has alot to do with it on many different levels. It has to do with it in a patriotic way (e.g. Yi probably getting alot of votes from his vast, although concentrated, population of fans). However Yi Jianlian ranks nowhere near some of those who recieved far less votes on NBA.coms "Fantasy Ranked" group of Eastern conference forwards. Yi ranked 30th on the list compared to lower vote getters such as Danny Granger and Rashard Lewis. Or a marketed and iconist leaders (Iverson and Gilbert sounds about right). Iverson and Gilbert may be acredited top vote getters for Eastern Conference guards because of past success and heavy marketability they both have. Iverson had Reebok and his status as NBA's ferocious thug pug. While Gilbert has given us a couple fantasic seasons in Washington and some fantastic blogging, coining- phrases. and beyond. Oh and by the way in case you didn't know Gilbert hasn't done shit this season and has proposed taking extra time off to give his team a better draft position.

I can go on and on. I know that larger cities will generally pay more hommage to their hometown heroes, but why must the voting always be skewed like this. Wouldn't people want to see an All-Star game played by the games actual All-Stars? What is an All-Star to you. To me an All-Star should get it based on their productive abilities. NBA.coms stats page provides a great way of comparing guards, forwards, and centres between the league and conferences. The stats provide quick and easy projections for who should be the top all star canidates.

When voting is made this easy how do we continue to misrepresent a simple NBA All-Star game. Does harder voting such as for mayors and other heads get away from any of this sort of blind bias? Probably not.

The American Presidential Election

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Obama did not only become the President of the United States, he also became a pop culture icon. Obama SHOULD be a helluva lot more than just a pop culture icon to Americans, however for some that is all he will ever be. I hope Obama’s iconism doesn’t pan out like Che Guevara’s has. I see so many people wearing Che shirts and buying the Rage Against the Machine mechanise with Che plastered on the front who don’t even know the difference between a gorilla and a Guerilla. People support Che blindly because he is an icon for a rebel, and that’s cool. Obama will not solve America’s problems. Obama’s is only a vessel of hope and change; the American citizens need move past believing in hope and change, and making hope and change.

For the rest of the world, including Canada, Obama will largely remain a pop culture icon, nothing more. But that doesn’t take away from the importance that his iconism holds. The American Dream wasn’t just dreamt about by Americans, the American dream was a global dream at one point. However, since Bush was in power, the dream became a nightmare. Now that Obama is power, people from all over the world can build off the Obama icon that stands for change and hope, and strive for a better world.

We Are At War – what smells better?

Now that the Bush Regime is over and the smell of cash and oil dissipates (along with the war on errorism, oops I forgot the T), Obama’s signature cologne’s Hope and Change is tingling more than just noses in the United States. The “war on terror” I feel was largely a Bush administration creation that manifested with the help of the seeded idea in many Americans that the “American way of life” is the best way of life.

Now “the American Dream” that so many people strived for turned out to be, well… a nightmare. Americans now are left only to follow their nose to Hope and Change. I think America is definitely participating in war, I mean they are using War tactics but that doesn’t mean it’s a justifiable war. Now that Bush is packing his backs and Obama is arriving dosed in Hope and Change cologne people are starting to question their Nations state of affairs and really thing about what needs to change. The NY Times hoax prank is a creative example of the changes that Americans need to voice (check this link out to read up on it http://www.reuters.com/article/industryNews/idUSTRE4AC0GV20081113). One of the writers of the hoax newspaper said they planned the prank to “make sure Obama and all the democrats do what we elected them to do (Nichols par 5).” This person who is seeing what Obama and his scent gives us and acting on it.


Sources

Nichols, Michelle. “Hoax NY Times newspaper declares end of Iraq war.” 12 Nov 2008. Reuters. 23 Nov 2008. <>

Net Neutrality, No Longer a Reality

Net neutrality was an issue I had no idea was happening until this fall. I wish I had known about this before my roommate went internet/phone/satellite utility shopping. Now I am stuck with Bell who noticeably throttles my internet speeds, and gives me shitty satellite saturated with duplicate shows and PPV channels. I actually was forced to upgrade my internet connection in order to make room for bandwidth usage. It is ridiculous how much we pay for the internet to experience slow speeds, and also charge me for bandwidth usage. It seems they are double charging.

After reading a lot of the articles about bell, and postings on saveournet.ca and michaeilgeist.ca I still don’t fully understand the net neutrality debate. It needs to be clear what consumers pay for when they pay for the internet from their ISPs, what justifies these extra costs AND throttling.

Bell argues that video streaming and downloading from sites such as YouTube is responsible for massive bandwidth allocation, and I am wondering if Google pays for the internet like I do. I love my internet NOW, but I had to spend more money, and I think that’s exactly what Bell wants. Why doesn’t Google pay for this? I mean they are making millions of a search engine, its ridiculous when you think about it. Type a word in and” wahlah,” you are connected to a section of the web.

If this situation gets worse I will place my faith in the internet’s replacement. If the internet isn’t working, technology will progress. Check my link out for “the grid,” internet’s proposed replacement.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article3689881.ece

Will technology solve net neutrality debate? I think so

Media Hegemonies – can SLAM stay underground?

I’ve been a reader of SLAM before I even read magazines. When I was six years old back in ’95 SLAM was exclusively a picture book that satisfied my love for the game of basketball. I feel some sort of homage towards SLAM since I’ve been a loyal reader of theirs basically since their beginning (in 1994). When I grew out of Goosebumps, I found SLAM and have been religiously following ever since. I make a temple with the 200+ scriptures of SLAM that I own.

After doing some mapping, I found out SLAM was once published by PRIMEDIA Inc., a former magazine publisher. They are also publishers of many other guides and magazines, ranging from apartment guides to home magazines (Wikipedia: PRIMEDIA 2008). The company also has many websites corresponding to the magazines and guides.

Suddenly my underground SLAM seems…above ground, tainted by the light. If SLAM is owned by a company that also owns literature that I would consider wiping my ass with if there was no toilet paper. SLAM owned by a company that also owns magazines such Soap Opera Weekly and Practical Horseman? It hardly makes sense to me, and definitely makes me wonder why SLAM was purchased by a media company that is interested in things that have nothing thing do with hoop culture. It gets worse.

In 2007 PRIMEDIA PRIMEDIA Inc. sold their massive “Enthusiast Media “group of magazines to Source Interlink Companies (Wikipedia: PRIMEDIA 2008). Source Interlink is a self-proclaimed “dynamic organization” with divisions of content, distribution, and merchandising (Source Interlink Companies: Our Divisions 2008). Those three divisions spell out three words to me…CROSS MEDIA OWNERSHIP. And the sentence “with this solid foundation for growth, Source will simultaneously harvest operating synergies as it continues to capitalize on market opportunities,” tops it off, blatantly showing me a media monster. Now it’s got me thinking could SLAM part the same rot that Cosmo is a part of?

SLAM magazine would be part of the “content” division of the company, Source Interlink Media. Under this division there are “more than 75 publications, 90 Web sites, 400 branded products, 65+ events, and TV and radio programs [making it] the largest provider of content to enthusiast communities interested in automotive, action sports, marine, and other niche activities (Source Interlink Media 2008).” The division’s strategy focuses on these targeted communities and exploits for their marketability by supporting “market-leading brands through a multiplatform media approach (Source Interlink Media 2008).”

This however does not turn me away from SLAM; I feel that I do not buy SLAM just for the pictures any more (although they still have some of the best). I continue to follow SLAM like a cult because of TRASH TALK (a section where writers to SLAM can get their own ink by saying what they like/don’t like about SLAM), NOYZ (an inside joke/underground news blurb)…because of Scoop Jackson, Khalid Salaam, and Lang Whitaker (writers of SLAM). It’s the writers that make SLAM for me, I dig their style.

My SLAM is safe from Foxes and Cosmos.

Sources

"Our Divisions". Source Interlink Companies. 2008. 15 Nov 2008

"PRIMEDIA." Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. 1 Nov 2008. 15 Nov 2008.

"Source Interlink Media". Source Interlink Companies. 2008. 15 Nov 2008

Buy Nothing Day: Staying True to My Cheap College Creed

Maybe I can learn from my tight on money lifestyle. Maybe I will keep these habits for the rest of my life even if my pockets grow. I did not realize realized how much consumption pressure is put on us every day of our lives. When money is tight, and you don’t own a credit card (maybe it’s a good thing!) it’s a lot easier to say “well no…I don’t really need that.” The principles I have adopted aren’t just used when I am thinking about making a purchase, the creed is applied to several daily activities. When money is tight I force myself to reuse and I force myself to reduce. I recently read a book by Bill McKibben about genetic engineering, robotics, and nanotechnology that surprisingly connected to my creed. I found many parallels with consumer driven capitalist nation and the idea about technological progress in this quote…

Since the mid 1950’s pollsters have annually asked Americans if they are happy with their lives. The numbers who say yes have declined slowly but steadily for four decades, even as technology has dropped more and more conveniences from the sky. The researchers have found that people expect material progress to increase and also expect “inner happiness” or “piece of mind” to decrease. The results of such surveys indicate that in fact a substantial majority of people believe there is a negative correlation between progress and happiness (McKibben 121-122).

We are constantly being told what we need to buy not only so we become happy and cool but so we can survive in society. Cell phones for example are now considered a must have and if you don’t have on you can’t participate in society. Well I don’t own a cell phone; does that make me a Luddite? Not everyone owned a cell phone 10years ago and everything seemed to work out back then. I just hate how we have become conditioned to believe that we need something. I can have fun and be happy without spending; spending more money does not increase my happiness or my piece of mind. I have realized that, although corny, it is correct; the things most important in life money can’t buy. This statement is so common but yet humans still seem to be focusing on material power. “Must we forever grow in reach and power? Or can we, should we, every say, “Enough”? (McKibben xiii)” Being tight on cash has forced me to have many Buy Nothing days…and be totally ok with it because…I will survive!

I hope genetics has a lot more to do with this than I originally thought. My 88 year old grandfather is a role model for spending his money wisely and limited. My grandpa saves and reuses everything and would never ever throw something broken out before fixing it. I hope to keep my college creed and learn from my grandfather and have many “Buy Nothing Days” for the rest of my life.

Sources

McKibben, Bill. Enough:Staying Human in an Engineered Age. New York: Henry Holt and Company, LLC, 2003.

Media Education Week: KoBama!

I once again chose to look at my bathroom literature, SLAM. The artist used Obama’s hope poster as inspiration for this December’s cover. There are 5 collectable covers each with a different player on the front and each released to a different region in America. Even SLAM, a largely politics-free zone has taken advantage of the cultural significance of the American presidential election and it’s only fitting. The winner of the election captivates to both young people AND basketball fan (I bet you can also guess who are the majority subscribers to SLAM too). The art directors of SLAM used Obama and his pop-culture iconicism to connect to their own specialty, hoop culture. SLAM editor in chief, Ben Osborne, explains the cover in the opening section saying,

Much like the candidates keep talking about all they’re going to do that’s going to be better than before, everyone in the League is promising to be better in shape, be a better teammate, call better plays, sign better players and on and on. In other words, everyone is giving reason to hope. (Osborne 18)

Just like many other companies, SLAM was compelled to the aura of Obama and the effect he has on the targeted readers (youth part of hoop and hip-hop culture). Heck Obama even still plays the odd pickup game. Using the fuel from the thrilling hype of the American election, SLAM hopes to hype up the upcoming NBA season by driving Kobe ahead as a presidential candidate for the Lakers in the Pacific division. This is the perfect cover choice for SLAM, Obama is loved by NBA players, and they even support them when they play by writing messages about hope in black marker on their shoes.

Sources
Osborne, Ben. "The 6th Man". SLAM December 2008: 18

Nike Ad Edited quickly by me

i guess this is a culture jam thing isn't it.

quicky about another similar nike ad

An ad just like this the other one (big text black background, over the top dunk), also from Nike was recently scrapped because it was generating homophobic criticism (Hunsberger 2008). The image also incorporates the stereotypical white guy to make it even edgier. I don't think that race should has anything to do with this, but it is an easy target that can generate easy negative criticism.

This image shows direct crotch to face contact along with the text posted in capitals "THAT AIN'T RIGHT" that caused enough controversy for Nike to cancel the ads that where even shown on billboards in Oregon. The previous posts ad image seems to have kept the discriminating dunk image, but went for a more conservative, less stirring approach.


HunsBerger, Brent. "Is Nike's Hyperdunk ad homophobic?". Playbooks and Profits blog. 2008. Oregon Live.com. September 30th, 2008.

Ad Analysis: Crotch In Your Face Disgrace

These were full page ads in SLAM, a basketball magazine. They are sequential ads that carry a very short message. They also appear on separate pages, so you'd have to flip the page in order to see the next one. It is a Nike ad, displaying their product the Nike Hyperdunk. Nike is as we all know the corporate monster of sports shoe of our lifetime that is also largely associated with sweat shop standards. I targeted Nike in my previous ad because it caught my attention, and again this ad, part of my personal "The Porcelain Tuba" Daily newspaper. Nike's surrounds me, so why not analyze it further.
I think the ad is trying to portray the shoe as hyper-inducing, athletic ability you will get by wearing these shoes that will allow you to discriminate your opponent. The image is very similar to the dunk Vince Carter had of the US had OVER (literally over) Frederic Weis of France in the 2000 Olympic match-up. Did I mention Monsieur Weis is 7'2"?! This is an iconic dunk that is known throughout hoops culture. So many bloggers, video posters, journalists, writers, and even those who comment on videos have touched on the discriminating power this dunk has on the defender. It has been called "le dunk le mort," meaning the dunk of death. When I say discriminating I mean, embarrassing. However there are all kinds of racial stereotypes that occur in sports. Frederic Weis is labelled as the stereotypical white 7 footer that plays basketball, slow, unathletic and uncoordinated. Nike avoids all the negative racial stereotypical comments that occurred after the Vince Carter dunk. F Nike avoids all this by using the same skin colour in the ad.
The text in the ad plays of the embarrassment of the dunk. The trashing talking text, "at least your mama still loves you... your girlfriend, your dad, your cousin , not so much," provides a comical attraction for their desired audience (all hoop heads). The page flipping to show the next scene and carry on the text also engages the reader, making the ad all the more memorable.
Other than that it is a relatively simple ad with a black background, putting focus on the dunk and dunk, leaving it up to you to imagine the location which would occur if were to wear the Hyperdunks!
I honestly like the look of the product (Nike Hyperdunks), I don't think I attribute that to the ad. As proof from this and last, post I am a sneaker head. The ad gives me a laugh, forces me to recall the Vince Carter dunk, and lets me envision myself in the situation. I think Nike did its job at getting me to remember its ad, push it into my head so Hyperdunk will ring in my head as I pass Footlocker or Champs.

My Media Log - October 6th, 2008

11:00am - I wake up, turn off my alarm clock, and then turn on my computer. While waiting for the computer to start up I turn on the TV and watched "How Its Made" on the discovery channel and briefly saw how they make recycled plastic.

My computer loads and I go through my daily routine (in order)...

- I browse through news articles related to the NBA. I am on this site almost every day, I crave the gossip and news of the NBA. The interactive capabilities, easy viewing stats presentation, and a large choice of daily articles about the NBA and related basketball news keeps me constantly satisfied and entertained...CHECK

Hotmail - read emails (mostly consisting of dirty humour that my uncle forwards to me and his friends), then I delete junk (consisting mostly of male enhancement advertisements) ...CHECK

Blackboard...check to see if there's any new announcements or grades...CHECK

UoG mail...read emails...CHECK


2:30pm - After I get back from class I listen to music while I get started on my homework. I think it is fair to consider music a very obvious form of media. The type of music being played, the lyrics that stand out, the images I get from the music and the appearance of the artists that are portrayed in my head that are playing all influence me in different ways. They can influence my mood, influence my opinions, influence my train of thought, and possibly subliminally affect me in various ways. This could have an influence on what I believe in or even what I wear.

4:30pm - My reading starts in the bathroom. My gospel, SLAM, a basketball magazine puts in a Zen state to do my business. It is a supplement to NBA.com. More opinionated, more in depth and more creative writing and also more advertisements. Unlike web pages where my attention seems to focus on the written articles, full page advertisements force my attentions as I flip the page. There are no pop-up blockers in this damn magazine. Ads consist of companies trying to sell you products that either make you a better basketball player or make you more popular socially. Advertisements that attract my attention are ones that contain a combine basketball with a motivational or comical quote or image. Could this be a source of attraction for products and brands that I purchase?

10:00pm - I read Understanding Comics before I go to bed.

As I reflect on my daily expose to media I notice that my media life large centers around my computer, here when I have free time I choose to entertain myself with information and videos that humour me and inform me with daily information that matters enough to me that I will spend almost 1/4 of my day wasting on. I feel like music has a large influence on the social portrayal of me. Reading and learning (in books or on the web) is a daily phenomenon that directs my education in a particular direction for a course. In my Ecology course we are directed to research about commercial fish farming. I feel like this class is directing my attention in a broader aspect, it has to since media because effect us in so many ways. Although I feel like I don't pay attention to advertisements much, I realize that the media I do participate in still has a similar influence on my social and self appearance.

Culture Jamming

Here is an example of culture jamming by Jonah Peretti. Jonah wanted to create a shoe from the Nike iD site. Nike iD is a site that lets you personalize a Nike shoe with the colours of your choice and "iD" the shoe with a small personal message. Usually people will choose their nickname, team name, or something of meaning. Jonah decided to ID his shoe with the word "sweatshop."

Although Jonah did not break any of the iD'ing rules...

1) Your Personal iD contains another party's trademark or other intellectual property.
2) Your Personal iD contains the name of an athlete or team we do not have the legal right to use.
3) Your Personal iD was left blank. Did you not want any personalization?
4) Your Personal iD contains profanity or inappropriate slang, and besides, your mother would slap us.

...his order was denied by Nike because he used "inappropriate slang."


I don't think anyone in the world except Nike would consider the word sweatshop inappropriate slang. However, Nike has the right to refuse any iD that is tagged on their shoe, especially one that would tarnish their own product.

Nike gives their consumers the ability to personalize their shoe to give them a shoe that provides a sense of uniqueness. They want to give us a shoe that we can say defines us. They want their consumers to be able to say this shoe IS ME, and DEFINES ME AS A PERSON. Jonah attacks Nike's sweatshop partnership through its own creative intentions by incorporating his own sense of creative and satirical ideas.

I, myself am a basketball player and have previously ordered my own pair of personalized Nike iD basketball shoes and am even at this moment wearing a pair of Nike sandals. Will I continue to buy Nike shoes? Yes. Do I support Nike in its labour practices? No. So what do I do? I think about this every time I buy a new pair of shoes. What is more important the shoes that I think define me or the people who make my shoes that are over worked and underpaid?

Jonah and every other Nike critic makes me wonder why the fuck do I buy Nike? I feel like I buy the shoes I do because I like the look and feel in them. They look and perform the best on the court. But how the hell does this give me the right to support Nike and its sweatshop labour. It doesn't. As I type this I am honestly considering what I should do. This is what culture jamming is for. It wants me to question what I am consuming.

One Web Day

The internet has opened my eyes to anything I could ever imagine. As an extension of my mind through my fingers the internet leads me through a labyrinth of thoughts and ideas. The internet has changed my life to the point that it is my life. I am able to navigate through my brain, exploring and learning about anything that comes to mind. The internet has left its webbing over almost every aspect of my life. The internet has been a friend to me, allowing me to say whatever I want to say (or type whatever I want to type), and it will listen to me and provide me with answers (good or bad). If I want to know what the price of Nike Hyperdunks are at Finish Line, my friend will give me an answer. If I want to know if Jennifer Aniston has had cosmetic surgery, my friend will give me an answer. This friend is awesome, and hardly ever complains! It doesn't get jealous, it doesn't cry, it barely asks anything of me, it just wants me to give it some attention, that's all.

The internet also provides a communication grounds for any kind of topic, for anyone. I am not the only one caught in the web, millions of others are able search and post their own thoughts for others to find. No longer do I have to meet a person to hear (rather see) what they have to say. No longer do I have to wait for their thoughts to be articulated and organized enough to be published. In an instant I can convey to others my feelings, and vice versa. In only about three decades the internet has complied the works of anything imaginable in an easily accessible form.

Although this ICT acts sort've like a friend it is largely responsible for desensitizing the feelings of real life. It does not care for us at all, and cannot replace the real feelings you get from engaging your senses in something REAL.

The Ecology of Media: we are not the divine

The Telescope.

Galileo, deemed the Father of Telescopes, is given most of the credit towards the invention of the telescope (although ideas and more primitive inventions were created by many others. With the telescope Galileo was able to see past the naked eye, past the clouds, past the blue sky, past the philosopher's writings, and past the heavens. Literally, the telescope changed the way we look at the world.

The order of the cosmos is wrong; the Earth is not the center of the universe. The telescope opened our eyes up to a universe that made us humans not so divine. The telescope has reduced Earth to a mere planet among thousands of other planets part of a galaxy, which is only one of thousands of other galaxies that make up the universe. I don't mean to take away from anything extraordinary about the existence of Earth and its inhabitants, Earth is still unique and so far we have not met a match to our life forms. However, as the telescope was originally satisfy our natural hunger for knowledge, to turn the unknown into the known. We wanted to know what was out there. What is our place in the universe? Still to this day we are building up answers to the questions to ultimately explain life. The newest multi-million dollar project, the James Webb Space Telescope, explain "the Big Bang" and its connection with the creation of our galaxy (the Milk Way).

The telescope allows us to understand the surrounding universe, which we stand as a speck of a speck of a speck of a speck of a speck. The closer we get to answering this seemingly unanswerable question, the closer we will get to finding out that the meaning of life is raw and unique to every individual. We will be able to strip away all the fake beliefs that control our lives and the decisions we make.

participatory journalism right here.

I find myself crossing my previous personal boundaries, clicking, typing, and entering my emotions, feelings and thoughts into cyberspace. Although I have both Facebook and MSN accounts that already unveil a lot of my character. I have found it difficult to broadcast my thoughts and life over the internet for unknown eyes to glare at. I have changed my Facebook privacy settings so that I am not a victim of a "creeping." Originally with blogging I picture a website where people leave posts with pictures, links, videos, and notes from their daily lives, giving billions of people a single click away from entering view of my life. Creating a blog is remarkably easy. After looking at many other blogs, and even participating in some basketball discussions during my daily surf, blogging has started to grow on me. I find it interesting reading personal journals, and see a participatory aspect to report news and commenting on it. And from what I have seen news can be anything, from the pungent odour coming in line at the bank to a personally biased recount of the filming done here at Guelph. When surfing the web and looking at various blogs I find the title of the book we are to be reading, "Amusing Ourselves to Death", echoing in my head. Instead of contributing in the sometimes deafening echo, I hope to use this blog as to understand more about myself, to force myself to criticize (or sometimes just ramble) about what is going on in my life.