Wednesday, October 26, 2005

Set Sail...

This is for all of my ranting and raving on subjects that... I want to rant and rave about.

"Deep Thoughts"? Kinda. Sorta. Sometimes. Maybe.

A theme? Hmmm, maybe, inequality. But if I stray, so be it.

That's it. Nothing witty, incisive, curmudgeonly, smarmy, post-post-modern... yet. Instead, I'll take a note from my sista Van in Can, and for now give you a capsulized "What JP's about"in the form of a Top 10 off the top of my head...

1. I love to laugh and run the gamut - self-deprecating, political, toilet/animal house, cerebral thinking person's (I guess Carlin and Bruce), to the classics - Foxx, Carlin - and the neo-classics - Rock, Lawrence, Tucker, Chappelle. Huge Stern fan, altho I know he's problematic at times, he is consistently entertaining - from a male gaze pov certainly - and delivers the most incredible interviews beyond anything out there. Just listen to his interview with Jose Canseco regarding his book, "Juiced," if you don't believe me.

2. Movies. I was born in Hollywood, right on Sunset Blvd. So in a away I am a true child of "The Business," but don't believe the hype. Surf to my blog on filmmaking at: http://sibmovies.blogspot.com/ to see what I mean.

3. I like entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurs distinguish themselves from business people. Can you think of how they do this?

4. I'm really against the corporatization of the world. EVERYTHING is SPAM SPAM SPAM, SPAM THIS, SPAM THAT. Geezus, I feel like I live in Hawaii. What next, a brand for homeless people? What about: "Disenfran: For the unlucky in all of us..."

5. Sports - Hoops, football, boxing, UFC, tennis. Greatest athletes: Ali, Magic, Jordan, Isiah Thomas, Jack Tatum, Ilie Nastase, John McEnroe. Special mention: Royce Gracie getting an opponent to tap out while turned upside down. (He did it with an arm bar) Most under-rated: Larry Holmes.

6. Politics - I should keep up more, but I like it. But I don't like what's going on these days...

7. Reading - Avid reader. Don't read fiction anymore, although my fave novel is "Invisible Man." Fave entrepreneurial story: J.B. Strasser's and Laurie Becklund's, "Swoosh: The Unauthorized Story of Nike and the Men who Played There." If you want to get really pissed, check out David Cay Johnston's, "Perfectly Legal: The Covert Campaign to Rig Our Tax System to Benefit the Super Rich - and Cheat Everybody Else." And the "liberal media" tag? Doesn't apply - Johnston's a registered Republican. Gotcha!

8. Related to #4, mass media - more accurately, the relationship between mega-corporations, mass media and consumers, and how that defines free flow of info on a mass scale.
Seven mega-corporations now control the vast majority of mass media worldwide: Film, music, television, radio, Internet, newspapers, books, and magazines. They are: AOL-Time Warner, Viacom, Walt Disney, NBC/Universal, Sony, News Corp, and Bertelsmann. Of note, the wireless industry is considered by many to be the next media pipeline, and is now exhibiting the same pattern of consolidation with the recent acquisition (as of February, 2004) of AT&T Wireless by Cingular Wireless, creating the largest wireless entity yet. Later, Sprint and Nextel merged as a result of the market pressures. Also noteworthy is the fact that as of midyear, 2004, Vivendi Universal became NBC/Universal and in reality a General Electric company. Thus, a mega-corporation was assimilated by another, larger entity. Readers are urged to seek out a copy of the PBS produced segment of “Frontline,” entitled, “The Merchants of Cool,” one of the best documentaries on marketing in the modern age that explains the relationship between mega-corporations, mass-media and consumers. For more, see:
www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/cool

9. I like the gals at www.snarkywood.com - cruel and chicken-haided as they come, more often than not funny.

10. I tried to avoid this because it's trite. Oh well. Some of my fave flicks: Il Conformista (perennial top 3 feature film), The Eye of the Storm (PBS), Thirst (PBS), Lone Wolf and Cub (series), Zatoichi (series), That Obscure Object of Desire, A Place in the Sun, Giant, The Wild Bunch, Junior Bonner, Vertigo (the Hollywood studio system's most intensely personal film) The Godfather, Network, Chameleon Street, Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (financed by Quaker Oats Co.!), The Seven Faces of Dr. Lao (Yes, Tony Randall's in yellow face), Chinatown, Brian DePalma's Scarface, Stranger Than Paradise, Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai, Nightmare on Elm Street, Taxi Driver, New York New York,The King of Comedy, Raging Bull,

Bonus item - #11. - My dad was born in Hawaii, and I have relatives there. I love tikis.

Ok, I gotta post this or else it'll never get "borned"...