Reality in Media

I love all forms of entertainment. Music, film, TV. If one were to ask why I enjoyed them so much, one of my main answers would be, because its an escape from reality. But is it really an escape from reality if you're bringing pieces of it back into your life. I'm sure every one of us has made a decision in our lives that has been at least slightly, if not completely influenced by a particular song, movie, or TV show. Sometimes we can become so involved in these fake realities, that we begin to mesh them with the actually reality. We sometimes start to compare ourselves to certain characters. Wishing to be them, or wishing for others to be more like them. There is no doubt that our entertainment channels have helped shape our society.

Although, looking from the other side, these characters and ideas in entertainment are not just fabricated out of thin air. They are shaped by influences from..society.

So where does that leave us? What is influenced by what? There is definitely a sort of exchange program going on. I think it's clear that our media definitely impacted our culture both negatively and positively. I guess I am just trying to understand how much of my perception has been compromised by the fake realities of our media.

In Love

I'm finding it really hard to use this blog for what I feel are the right intentions of having a blog. Maybe my life isn't exciting enough? Or maybe I just don't know how to properly channel it all into words.

Anyways, I'm bored and I'm feeling a slight commitment to making a new post on here. I've actually been having such a great year so far. I owe a lot of it to one person..

I have a new friend. A girl. She's beautiful. We kiss a lot. We love each other. Her name is Stephanie. She's already helped me create a lot of great memories. I'll stop bragging for now.

Anyways, I'm experiencing love in another way as well. That is through hockey. I've recently been playing 5 days a week, and I'm having a blast. It's definitely a passion that I will have with me forever.

I'm still not happy with my job at Best Buy. However, it looks like I might have to sit tight there for a while considering that NOBODY is hiring right now. I hate America sometimes. I have a feeling that the hatred is going to grow as I get older as well. We're all greedy and it seems impossible to shy away from that. I would like to work at a more relaxed place like a library. It would also be great to work at a record store as well. I would also like to get paid more than I do now. Not in a greedy way, but because I want to start adapting to paying for more of my expenses. If you don't know this already, I'm incredibly spoiled. But I feel as if I'm trapped in it's web now. I embraced it for so long, and therefore have yet to really prepare myself to be more responsible. I would like to start paying for things such as rent and car insurance at sometime relatively soon.

There has been so much great music and film that I've experienced lately. I'll just share some recent stuff.

Albums: Andrew Bird- Noble Beast
The Submarines- Honeysuckle Weeks
Animal Collective- Merriweather Post Pavillion

Films: Man on Wire

I'm also obsessively excited for the film, 500 Days of Summer to be released. I think that won't be till July. I really don't want to over-hype it for myself or anybody but, I think I can already assume that it's going to be one of my all-time favs.



I've been basically addicted to Scrabble lately. I have to challenge Steph to a game of Facebook Scrabble almost daily.

Anyways, I love being in love.

Best of 2008 (Tentative)

So here it is, my list of the best albums and films of 2008. This list is tentative for now until the end of the year in case I come across a great album/film in the coming days. I feel like I have missed out on a lot of good stuff this year so forgive me if I snub what you me believe as "un-snubable." So here we go..

Best Albums of 2008:
10. Kings of Leon: "Only by the Night"

9. The Dodos: "Visitor"

8. She and Him: "Volume One"

7. Noah and the Whale: "Peaceful, the World Lays Me Down"

6. MGMT: "Oracular Spectacular"

5. The Walkmen: "You & Me"

4. Vampire Weekend: "Vampire Weekend"

3. Conor Oberst: "Conor Oberst"

2. Bon Iver: "For Emma, Forever Ago"

1. Fleet Foxes: "Fleet Foxes"
Honorable Mention:
New Frontiers: "Mending"
Wolf Parade: "At Mount Zoomer"
Lydia: "Illuminate"
Little Joy: "Little Joy"
The Cool Kids: "The Bake Sale"

Best Films of 2008:
10. The Bands Visit

9. Happy Go Lucky

8. The Dark Knight

7. So Long I've Loved You

6. Flame & Citron

5. Son of Ranbow

4. Milk

3. Synecdoche, New York

2. Rachel Getting Married

1. Slumdog Millionaire

Myspace circa 2004

So being superbly bored and a little buzzed, decided to go back and read some old Myspace messages that I had sent/received. I realized that I have over 140 pages of these since I have been on Myspace. Through reading some of these, I have realized that Myspace used to be WAY cooler back in the day when there was only like 10 of us from our High School that we're on it. There was no spam at all. Tila Tequilla and forbidden were just starting to get noticed. Complete random people could just send messages to eachother about music or whatever it it would be totally okay. It still felt like an exclusive club. I really wish it didn't blow up like it did. Good things never last.

Anyways, I decided that for your laughter and my humiliation, I am going to post one old message each time I'm on here. Some of these are funny, some are happy, some are pathetic, there's just a full array of these.

So here's the first one...

This is the first ever dialogue between myself and another person on Myspace. I will of course keep this person anonymous.

Nov 21, 2004

Anonymous girl #1- "So you definetly go to Chaparral right? I think I have seen you like..everyday and wondered who you were."

Me- "Yeah, how come I never see you? I am Nick Fletcher. I'm a Junior. I'm the craziest person you will ever meet. Anyways, say hey to me if you see me so I can say "hey it's you". Oh and this is kind of important...Who are you??? Your name is -------- but that's all I got.

Anonymous girl #1- "----------- --------------. I'm a sophmore...I got your whole myspace thing from -------'s thing...I'm totally friends with like him..and -------- ------!"

I'm Back

So it's been a long time since I've posted on here.  I feel as if I owe the blog some kind of epic post for my return.  But every time I have attempted one, it has always failed my expectations and I just end up writing nothing. 

So I'm just going to say for now, that I'm so very excited right now because, I just finished my last final and I have no more classes until Jan. 20th!

I could say that I'm going to accomplish a lot over break like I say every year but I'll be honest with myself this time, I probably going to be pretty lazy over break.  But I don't consider that too be a bad thing at all.  

I will actually be working a lot along with trying to find a new, better job.  I'm going to try to see bunch of films.  I will also be in California Dec. 26th through Jan. 4th so I am beyond excited for that.

Maybe in the near future, I may post this epic piece that I've been talking about, revisiting all of the ups and downs of this semester, including Obama getting elected!  But for now, this is all.

Nick

Review: Telluride Film Festival

For labor day weekend I attended the Telluride Film Festival.  Telluride is such a gorgeuous town with some of the nicest people you'll meet.  The main form of public transportation is by gondola which is a fun ride by itself.  the weather was perfect movie watching weather.  It was cold and rainy all day. Throughout the weekend I saw eight different films.

The first film we saw on Friday was "Happy-Go-Lucky" directed by Mike Leigh.  This was a light and very funny movie set in London.  The star of the film, Sally Hawkins, was adorable.  The film was about her charachter "Poppy's" random and hilarious life.  Highly recommended if you like movies such at Notting Hill, About a Boy, etc.  7/10

We stuck around for the late show that night which happened to be the Irish film, "Kisses."  The story was about two twelve year old kids escaping from their nightmares at home and adventuring through downtown Dublin.  They discover the greatest parts of the city as well as the worst.  The part I did not like about this film was the suggestion that the two fall in love while experiencing these trials and tribulations together.  While some of the festival goers found this to be "cute," I found it to be a tad immature of the young filmmaker who was probably around my age.  3/10

We started our Saturday by seeing a film from Denmark, "Flame&Citron."  This was definitely one of my favorites of the festival.  It's about two essential "hitmen" for the Nazi resistance group in World War II.  Their primary job was to go around hunting down Nazi informers.  As this film is making it's way to Toronto this weekend, it is sure to pick up some more steem through this fall festival season.  The director said in his Q&A which followed the film, that this was ten years in the making.  He talked about how there was so little published history on these resistance fighters that they had to complete very rigeurous research and even go as far as contacting the CIA.  Great acting, great story, great direction.  8/10

For the late show on Saturday, we saw the Korean film, "The Good, the Bad, and the Weird."  This was somewhat of an hommage to the old american western classics with John Wayne and Clint Eastwood.  There were many scenes that had almost identical resemblance to Butch Cassidy and Stage Coach.  Non-stop action with the occasional silly humor.  This was probably the most entertaining film of the weekend for me.  7/10

Sunday morning began early with the film, Hunger.  This film had gotten picked up by IFC after Cannes so there had been a bit of hype around this one.  However, it did not live up to my expectations.  It was about the torture/abuse that Northern Ireland prisoners would endure during their conflict with Britain.  This was such a gross, raw, and brutal film.  There was a penis in the shot every five minutes, the prisoners cells were smeared with their own feces, and the scenes showing the torture were almost unbearable.  There were also too many "unnecessary" scenes and shooting angles that just made the film seem much longer than it actually was.  I was actually getting anxious for the film to end after the first hour.  The plot was good, but the story could have been so much better.  With a different, more expereinced director this could have been a really great film.  4/10

The next film we saw on the rainy Sunday was Adam resreccted starring Jeff Goldblum and William Dafoe.  This was probably my least favorite film of the festival.  It all was so bizarre and jumbled.  The film was about a holocaust survivor having trouble dealing with the horrors of his past in Germany.  The acting from veteran actors such as Goldblum and Dafoe was actually quite bad in my opinion.  It looked effortless, in a bad way.  I don't want to be disrespectful but, I actually found myself dosing off through the last half of the film.  2/10

Sunday night was my top highlight of the weekend.  We were very lucky to be able to get into a sneak showing of Danny Boyle's brand new film, Slumdog Millionaire.  It only required waiting in line for two and a half hours. Ha.  However it turned out to be worth the wait.  This film went on to prove that Danny Boyle is one of the great diverse directors of our time.  He can do any genre.  In the Q&A following the film he mentioned his thoughts of perhaps having his next film be animated.  Some critics are already speculating Slumdog Millionaire to be this years Juno or Little Miss Sunshine.  Especially since Fox Searchlight picked it up just days before Telluride.  This film was shot with an all indian cast and crew.  This is ultimately a story of love and the things people will go through to achieve it. 9/10

Monday was my last day in Telluride.  We finished the trip by seeing I've Loved You So Long with Kristin Scott Thomas.  This was actually a really good French film.  Kristin Scott is already getting some buzz for a best actress nomination.  This could also get a nomination for best original screenplay.  8/10

Telluride was a blast and I definitely see myself there again next labor day weekend.

OBAMA

So I meant to post this a week ago right after Obama's acceptance speech, but I became to busy.

I just want to share my enthusiasm for Barack Obama. I was so inspired and motivated after hearing his acceptance speech. sure, it's not like everything he said is going to happen, but it still gives me a little hope. This election is SO critical for my generation. In a couple years I will most likely be looking to start my career. Depending on who our next president elect is, the job search could be a difficult task. I do not believe that Barack is going to change the country as we know it. However, I believe that he can help lead us in the right direction for the next democrat to take office 8 years later.

There were more than a few times in Obama's speech where I began to tear up. Call it silly but I find politics to be a very serious deal. They might not affect myself or my friends directly right now, but in a few years they definitely will.

I do not want persuade anyone to vote for Obama. I just urge you to research our two candidates and figure out which one speaks to you more. This will be one of, if not the most important election in our country's history. In the United States, revolutions have began from the citizens. As Barack himself said, "Change doesn't come from Washington, it comes to Washington."

Research, realize, and vote.

DNC preview

So as most should know, the democratic National Convention is being held in Denver next week. At first, I was not all too excited for this but as I've been checking out the list of events, I'm starting to become a little excited. There are so many artists and celebrities that will be here next week. Just when you think you've grasped just how big this thing is, it's even bigger. Most of the events require credentials or VIP status but there are still some things open to the public. I will hopefully be checking out shows from Public Enemy, Rage Against the Machine, Nada Surf, Cold War Kids, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, and Silversun Pickups. There are some other amazing performances going down next week such as Kanye West, Zooey Deschanel, Fall Out Boy, Jacob Dylan, Death Cab, and Jenny Lewis. but these are all unfortunately closed off to the general public. I might just kill some people in order to see Zooey!

There are some other cool stuff going on like Discobama, an all-week dance party at the Shag Lounge with local DJ's and bands.

Moby and Jazzy Jeff will be Guest dj's at the Church on certain nights.

La Rumba is having a "gala" on thursday night with Ted Leo and the Pharmacists.

I might just walk around Denver next week with any free time that I have to just check things out. It should be a fun and interesting week with the country's eye on my city.

I'll let you know how things unfold.

Gong Show

This is my little brother in an inline hockey recreation league game.  He loves to hit people.

California Dreaming

I'm still feeling what I would call, an "aftershock" from my time in California a week ago.  Everyday since, I have found myself missing all my friends terribly and wishing more than anything else that I've ever wished for that I was in California.  I already can't wait to be back in October.  I hate not being able to have regular coffee/conversation with Rob and Josh.

Nothing is for sure yet, but Josh and I are considering a cross-country trip next summer that would just consist of stopping in mostly small towns and hanging out with the town folk.  This sounds perfect to me.

Album Review:

Coldplay:  "Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends" -  I finally got around to listening to this after my lovely Sarah bought this for me.  I have to say, it did not disappoint.  This is probably their most instrumental album yet.  I guess I was hesitant to listen to it immediately because of all the hype, accusations, and my stubbornness.  However, I definitely recommend this for anyone who is already a fan.  My favorite tracks are Violet Hill and Strawberry Swing.

P.S.  myspace.com/fun