U2: Philanthrapist or Hypocrite?

Being a fan of Bono and his philanthropy, I enjoy their music and have read Bono's book, On The Move, about poverty in Africa. I enjoyed the film in the aspect that it showed the side of U2 that makes them real people. A lot of times, people have this idea that rock stars live such a glamorous lifestyle of fortune and fame. And while that is true, U2 proves that they still thrive on being normal. My favorite part of the film is when they travel to Harlem to sing with the gospel choir that did a spin off their song "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For". And even after that, they stand outside and listen to the elder man singing and playing his guitar. It shows that they aren't the self-righteous type as most people become when seeking fame. A lot of people criticize U2 for their acts and words of philantropy but in my opinion, why criticize artist who attempt to raise awareness for peace? True, Bono still spends money on out-landish things but most of us would if we could. The real people that critics should scorn are those who only spend money on themselves rather than putting forth their effort and profit to help others. Bono has devoted much of his time in Africa helping with AIDS awareness. And although it is claimed that he's spent 40 million dollars on advertisement for his Insi[red] campaign to raise money for AIDS awarness, it is still more than the average person does to help. So to those of you who say you'll support his efforts after he shuts up, get over your self-righteousness and support the effort of helping the thousands dying everyday.

Almost Famous

I had never seen this movie before but after watching it I found it to be inspiring is some aspects. I found it to be interesting that a kid only 15 years old, William Miller, was courageous enough to lie to Rolling Stone Magazine and go on tour with a band cross country. Along the trip, the kid sees things and views the real world of rock and roll that he didn't know existed. Being a fan of this band, Miller strives to find the best things he can about the band to write about and he befriends the lead guitarist, Russell Hammond who's talent seems to be on a higher level than the band. Again, the kid proves to be quite daring when he writes the things he actually sees. He planned to give a sugar coated review to Rolling Stone to glorify the band, but instead he writes what he truly sees and the issues within the band. I think that the director does a phenomenal job of portraying the feelings brought out in the characters and the realization of the problems the band faces. The actors in the film make you believe that what you're seeing is the real deal. The members of the band seem to truly be at war with Hammond and his self-righteousness all while Miller is the reporter along for the ride who falls in love with one of the groupies. As an aspiring English Writing Major wanting to write for a car magazine, I found the movie to be inspiring myself due to the fact that the kid was willing to risk everything to fulfill his dream.

Piracy

I personally do not find the "piracy" of music to be such an offensive act. After reading this article, I found even more reason as to why I believe that it is not a bad thing. For example, most CDs are sold around $15 each. It's states in the chapter that the Chinese get access to the same CDs for only 50 cents each. So, with the record industry claiming to lose 4.6 billion dollars a year due to piracy, it seems to me that Americans are getting screwed as well. If they can sale copies for 50 cents, yet charge us $15 then they seem to be the one's that should be accused of piracy. And if they sold them cheaper, maybe then piracy wouldn't be such a problem.

Another thing stated in the chapter is the example of Microsoft allowing the Chinese to have bootleg copies of their software so that, in the long run, more Chinese will see the software and start to buy it. This just proves that companies are happy to break the law as long as they get to profit from it. Which makes them no better than the ones stealing from them.

It is also stated in the chapter that the law aims to rid the use of piracy that robs the author of his profit. But, on average, a Musician really only sees 50 cents for each CD sold. Most of their money comes from concerts. And as the chapter states, the difference in downloading music and stealing a CD is that the CD stolen is one less CD for sale. But downloading an album does not take a CD of the shelf. So a scenario probably not researched is that the millions of claimed people that download music probably attend concerts of the bands they are interested in. Therefore, increasing the money that artists make.

There are roughly 300 million people living in the United States. Of these 300 million, 100 million are members of Kazaa, the most popular p2p sharing network. So with a 3rd of the country being apart of it, along with millions of others that apart of other networks such as Limewire, the chances of officers and other officials who are suppose to rid this "piracy" are more than likely involved with it themselves.

Again, as I stated before, the companies are more than happy to be apart of this piracy as long as they benefit from it. This is recognized again later in the chapter when he describes the four parts of piracy. Type B is defined as someone downloading a song and if he/she likes it, the hope is that he/she will go buy the CD or refer a friend to buy it. Again, the companies would do nothing about piracy if this were the only way it worked.

In 2002 it was reported that CD sales fell 8.9 percent and it was blamed directly on piracy. But What was failed to be reported was that the number of CDs released were dropped 20 percent. So their were 20 percent less CDs for sale. so if you do the math, if the CD sales falling 8.9 were directly due to piracy, then sales would be down 28.9 percent.

It also shows that the law decided by Congress is that the copyright holder does not get all the value that his copyright created and has never accorded the copyright owner complete control over all possible uses of his work. Therefore, a loop-hole is created in the copyright and the artist is not entitled to all that the copyright states.

So in my opinion, downloading music from the internet is not robbing the artist at all. Not only might it be helping the artist by increasing attendance at concerts, but it is shown that lawfully the artist is not due all that his copyright states. Besides, programs like iTunes who sale songs individually for .99 each are seeing more money off these albums than the artist himself.

First Music Experience

Growing up, my sister, six years older than I, obviously had an influence on me as someone I looked up to. I always wanted to do the things she did. Therefore, the music she listened to was the music I wanted to listen to and was what I thought was "cool." Luckily for me, in my opinion still, she had good taste in music. I grew up listening to bands like Bush, Incubus and Fuel. Also along with her influence on me was my Dad's taste in music. He enjoyed bands such as Kiss, Queen and The Beatles. So my taste of music ranges far in age but along the lines of the same Genre. When I was twelve, my sister burned a cd for me with bands from her and my dad's collection. I felt a sense of "maturity" by having this cd because I felt as if I was par with them now. To this day I still have that cd, though it struggles to play as many times that it's been used.

Citizen Ship Credit

The Vagina Monoluges

I attended the play here on campus called The Vagina Monoluges. This play was very..interesting and unique for sure. I knew already that the play delt with women speaking out and telling of "womanhood" and such but I had no clue that the actresses would actually be up there and talking about their..parts. It was kind of an awkward situation for me when I was attending too because I got stuck sitting between two women I didn't know and they apparently found everything to be funny. But the play was informative, that's for sure. I learned a lot about women that I did not want to know.

Motorcycle Wreck

Last weekend a friend of mine got back from basic training for the army. He came back to my old hometown and so I left campus and went back on Friday night to see him. A few of my other friends came in to town also for his coming back party and it turned out to be one unexpected unforgetable weekend. We were all just hanging out in town that night and decided to head over to the park and one of my friends that was with us was on his Suzuki GSX-R 1000. And if you don't know what that is it was, at one time, the fastest production motorcycle. We got to the park and he pulled in just as I was getting out of my car. As he entered the parking lot he decided he would show off by doing a wheelie. Well I guess he didn't expect to get it as fast as he did and he was heading straight for a building on one wheel. At about 65 mph he laid the bike down on the pavement and slid until the bike hit the step of the building and sumersaulted through the air. Folling the bike, he hit the step and bounced into the air hitting the wall at about 20mph. We ran over expecting the worse but surprisingly he got up on his on will and was fine other than some road rash on his knees (he was wearing a jacket, gloves and helmet). We took the bike back to his house that night and we're planning on putting it back together as soon as the parts come in.

Assassins

Last sememster I attended the musical here on campus called Assassins. I thought that it was one of the best performance that i've ever seen live. The play was about all of the attempted and successful assassinations on the presidents throughout history. It started with John Wilkes Booth and his assassination on President Lincoln. From there on it would show the other assassins before they killed the presidents and Booth would follow around them inspiring them to do it. As each progressed, more and more of them would follow around inspiring the next assassin to go through with it. The musical was very well played out, I thought, and I would certainly attend it again.

Cookie Master

I thought this story was somewhat interesting but a story on a guy making fortune cookie sayings can only be so interesting. It was cool how he got inspiration for his sayings though. Reading through magazines or riding on a subway and just jotting things down as they came to him. Eleven years is a long time to be in the buisness of writing fortunes. Regardless of whether he has to use some that he's already written, I doubt the odds of someone getting the same fortune and remembering it will happen.

Johnny Depp

This story was very interesting and informative as well. Johnny Depp is a very unique character needless to say and I never knew he was born in the U.S. With his accent I just always assumed he was from over in England. I also thought it was interesting how it talked about him never taking out the gold teeth in pirates of the caribbean because it was too painful and time consuming to take them in and out.

Dawson's Creek

I think this was the story we were suppose to read? Anyway, I have an older sister and I remember her watching this show all the time. This story kinda talks about the controversy of teenage issues that Dawson's creek covered in the show and whether or not they should expose these issues in the show. I can kinda see both sides of this arguement. On one hand, teens do need to be exposed to these issues instead of feeling like their alone with something they might be dealing with but on the other hand, relating them to these issues through a teenage soap opra might not be the best way.

Flatbread food

I didn't quite understand the purpose of this story myself. Other than she was describing how good the pizza was, the story was rather pointless. She basically just described how everything they used to make the pizza was made from scratch, even the sausage. Which I don't quite understand how you make sausage from scratch? Do they go out and kill the pig and everything? Anyway, the story made me hungry, that's for sure. But other than that, I found it to be a rather pointless story.

Harry Potter

Personally, I was never into the whole Harry Potter thing. I tried reading one of the books and it just didn't interest me. I've seen part of one of the movies too and it still just didn't do it for me. Therefore, I wasn't too interested in this story either. This story basically just summed up Harry Potter and the basic story line. But pretty much it was a boring read for me.