There is a white family with two parents and two children standing on a beach with white sand.

Four middle aged white people are standing on a beach with white sand.

A white beautiful lady smiling pleasingly who wear black dress with white coat

Blonde, white woman in a black and white tank top stands in front of a black background.

The Dagley Bush When I was just 14 years old and a freshman in high school I had a friend named Ben Dagley He was two years older than me and thus a junior at the time I played football in high school and consequently was introduced our local version of Fellow Christian Athletes called Student Venture This was a pretty common thing to be exposed to in the Texas high school football system Ben was the student leader of our group While I m the furthest thing from being religious today we had a great group of guys There were about twenty of us in total Ben and I became very close friends albeit this would eventually dissolve by the time I graduated from high school and moved on to my life in college Ben had a dear friend named Brian Williams Brian was similar to Ben in many ways but he and I always had a great time together namely as he enjoyed my general attitude of pranking people hijinks and various shenanigans Incidentally Brian was working on becoming a fire fighter a field that would soon become very important to me In the State of Texas at least in 1994 it was only legal for fireworks to be sold within 2 weeks of New Year s Eve and 2 weeks within the 4th of July It was the summer time school was out the 4th of July was upon us and fireworks were being readily sold Ben s family lived on pretty typical suburban cul de sac The back of his house however was part of a unique system of alley ways Unlike more traditional alley ways there were three of them all next to one another with a large dirt field in between them This made for a large open area that we could play in drive our trucks in and use for parking at his house among other things His was the last house on the alley way before it made a sharp turn So in essence and even though his family didn t own the land they had an enormous side yard Immediately adjacent to this side yard was a detached garage and between the detached garage and their main house but still on the alley itself was a giant bush This bush had probably been growing for a few decades It was an ornamental style bush Perhaps shrub is a better word for it It was truly massive and it was a nice feature to this otherwise unusual part of their house on the alley way Ben Brian another friend of ours named Daniel and I had all just come back from eating Neither Daniel nor I could drive yet and so Ben and Brian drove us around Upon arriving back at the Dagley house we parked in the alley way something that we commonly did Again there was ample parking back there Ben went inside of his house to speak with his parents Brian walked over to his truck to work on something or another which left Daniel and I in the dirt area of the alley way together We had purchased a variety of fireworks and were setting off some of the BlackCats M60s and other similar munitions that don t fire into the air but rather make a large boom upon exploding We had a number of smoke bombs too For whatever reason I thought it would look cool to see thick colored smoke emanating from the Dagley Bush I lit the smoke bomb and to the best of my ability tossed it right into the center of the bush I will remind you it was a good thing that Brian was eager to become a fireman At first the bush smoked as I had hoped it would As bright purple smoke filled the entirety of the bush and leaked out around all of the pointed foliage the core of the smoke bomb was emitting a white hot flame a flame that had no business being in the center of a bush in the middle of a Texas summer Within seconds the bush was fully ablaze Flames shot out from the bush several feet high Neither Daniel nor I could do anything Brian saw the commotion and came running around the corner shouting orders at the two of us Go and grab that shovel Warn the others Turn on the hose while I reel it out were among the phrases he shouted at us By now the flames were high enough that everyone inside of the house could see them and came running out too The bush sat along the Dagley s wooden fence It took caught fire almost as quickly as the bush did We all did our parts to stop the blaze with Brian spraying it down with the hose It felt like hours but was probably only seconds the fire was put out In the end the bush was almost entirely destroyed What remained of it were just some burnt out innards They were probably gasping for their last bit of carbon dioxide as they choked on the less desirable carbon monoxide and simultaneously saw their brethren burned alive The fence was far better but certainly had a number of boards burned to a crisp Mr Dagley Ben s father was less than thrilled But as Ben was our religious leader I can only imagine that he was in a pretty difficult position with me He did have a stern talk with me and made sure I was aware of just how stupid my actions were He noted how quickly the fire spread and how if Brian hadn t been there to help put it out it very well may have burned down their house He was right The truth is that I just didn t know a giant flame would shoot out of the smoke bomb When I d seen them in the past it just seemed like they got hot on the inside and released smoke Since I d run through that smoke before I knew it wasn t especially hot or anything Certainly not to the point that it would catch fire Unfortunately I was just a bit ignorant of how smoke bombs started their initial process with a giant white flame shooting out of them I helped replace the fence and apologized to the entire family for burning down their bush They were extremely forgiving and felt that I had learned a fairly important lesson that day I did It didn t stop me from playing with fireworks but to this day I always know where the hose is first

Consequences of Neighborhood Governance photo 190695 740 0 right I found this parody slogan on the web and thought it was perfectly appropriate to my message photo It has long been my belief that the City of Austin places an undue burden on its citizens when it comes to developing commercial land The costs are outrageous and many of the city s policies ignore basic individual property rights one of the fundamental tenants of our entire democracy What most people don t seem to understand is that these developmental burdens don t necessarily prevent commercial growth they just ensure such growth is dominated by corporate interests Firstly let me state that I am NOT opposed to local regulations at all I think they are protective generally well intended and necessary for society to function But there is a line of reason that the City of Austin crossed long ago and is increasingly aiming to further surpass Anyone who has spent any time trying to develop in the City of Austin knows that developers are notoriously at the mercy of city staff and neighborhood groups No matter how many concessions are made there always seems to be something else holding up development This becomes a huge financial burden The problem stems from a mentality of collectivism gone awry For whatever reason Austin communities regularly feel entitled to dictate the specifics of new projects They are willing to spare no expense when it comes to the already cumbersome design process meanwhile enjoying the convenience of not having to pay the bills required to accomplish this And the city allows it to happen There often appears to be an engrained mentality that if the development exceeds a single family bungalow the developer s must be in cahoots with local officials and be extremely deep pocketed But in my development experience this is rarely the case This would be a more understanding perhaps even forgivable point of view if Austin took a more lenient attitude to zoning and development But the unbelievably complicated set of a href http www amlegal com austin_nxt gateway dll Texas austin title25landdevelopment fn altmain nf htm f templates 3 0 City Ordinances in Chapter 25 a better known as the a href http www amlegal com austin_nxt gateway dll Texas austin title25landdevelopment fn altmain nf htm f templates 3 0 Land Development Code a make it virtually impossible to negatively impact neighboring properties An application for a small commercial project will be reviewed by literally dozens of city staff and will likely take a minimum of a year to get city approval assuming the application gets approved at all In my personal opinion commercial development projects and residential projects for that matter should be governed on a case by case basis where common sense is applied to a common community goal It s not hard to comprehend why we might want to prevent people from building a chemical supply store in the middle of a neighborhood or a strip club next to an elementary school but Austin s approach is to design a black and white playbook for any scenario and this just doesn t work Moreover it creates a hugely disproportionate fee to valuation ratio This essentially means that a one hundred thousand dollar project is subjected to the same level of scrutiny and consequently cost that a one million dollar project would be This makes smaller projects very costly I strongly believe that this mentality will be the undoing of Austin within the next ten to fifteen years I won t go into all of the details in this post but the Keep Austin Weird mentality is a fading notion of the past it is a marketing tool for the city and increasingly just a hoax Unless one is backed by huge corporate coffers it is virtually impossible to surmount the sea of local development bureaucracy and that makes it damn hard for weird people to develop their visions The irony is that the very people in Austin who likely reject corporatism are the ones on the front line demanding more costly and impassible bureaucratic regulations Which brings me to my most recent experience on the subject strong 2200 Tillery Street strong I ve sat on the East MLK Combined Neighborhood Planning Contact Team since 2007 It was a group I helped to reboot after it sat defunct for almost six years Like all other planning contact teams the contact team is responsible for creating a long term vision of a planning area It also oversees future land use cases one half of Austin s zoning maze and helps dictate Capital Improvement Projects CIPs The group has absolutely no legal authority and its rulings are never binding But curiously it is codified by the City a href http www amlegal com nxt gateway dll Texas austin title25landdevelopment chapter25 1generalrequirementsandprocedu f templates fn altmain nf htm q 5Brank 3A 5Bsum 3A 5Bstem 3Acontact 5D 5Bstem 3Ateam 5D 5D 5D x server 3 0 sect 25 1 805 a and developers seeking to change future land use tables are still required to seek approval from the team For the past five or so months our team has heard and debated arguments over a commercial piece of property located at a href http maps google com maps q 2200 tillery austin tx hl en ll 30 285382 97 702596 spn 0 003197 0 004823 sll 37 0625 95 677068 sspn 33 984987 79 013672 hnear 2200 Tillery St Austin Texas 78721 t h z 18 layer c cbll 30 286033 97 702389 panoid dA6I98n4 bWD1UZ3RwBWiw cbp 12 218 42 0 2 2200 Tillery St a We have met with Richard Crank the property s representative at least two times since October of 2011 We have also met with representatives of the JJ Seabrook Neighborhood Association on several different occasions At our January meeting we heard again from the president of the JJ Seabrook Neighborhood Association And once again the contact team was asked to support a measure that would postpone the planning commission hearing for another month This would be the third consecutive postponement of the hearing and would bring the property owner s to the seventh month they have had their property tied up with City of Austin business The property is currently zoned commercially and has a future land designation of mixed use The previous property owner defaulted and the mortgage company now owns the property the mortgage company wishes to sell the property The property is not particularly viable in its current configuration not because it s a useless building but because the city s parking space calculator inhibits the type of use most suited for the structure As an aside street parking is not factored into these calculations despite it being overwhelmingly abundant in the area The owner feels it would be difficult to sell the property for its current use but a number of city ordinances prevent the owner from using the building for what it was originally intended I have asked on several occasions since October what the JJ Seabrook neighborhood association would ultimately like to see happen to the property Unfortunately the only consistent response I receive is with respect to mixed use and or residential development I even received an email from someone in the neighborhood association on September 28th 2011 that stated I think that the bank mortgage holder should demolish the building and devide sic the land into 4 lots at least 10 000 sq ft quarter acre to build single family detached homes Sufficed to say I quickly wrote back the many reasons why this would not occur Unfortunately the amount of money that would be required especially within the city s complicated guidelines would be financially devastating to the owner and thus not reasonable Although my position on the matter has been consistent since October I once again presented an economic case at our January hearing According to TCAD a href http www traviscad org travisdetail php theKey 204474 the property is valued at 834 857 a At a 2 3 tax rate this means the property owner pays over 19 000 a year in taxes alone In the seven months that the property has been tied up in the Austin bureaucracy they ve paid over 11 000 in taxes for a property they can t currently do anything with This figure does not even factor the few thousand dollars of filing fees they ve had to pay the City of Austin nor whatever fees their engineers and lawyers are collecting for handling the case possibly tens of thousands of dollars But it does not stop there Richard Crank has been completely transparent about the owner s intentions has met with multiple neighborhood bodies numerous times and has been willing to restrict a dozen uses from the property with a conditional zoning overlay He has even been willing to enter into a private contract with the neighborhood outlining specifically desired improvements and limitations My argument is that unless the neighborhood association has a specific compromise that they re willing to consider it is not fair for them to continue delaying the process while the property owner is left to front the bill Thus far the immediate neighborhood has rejected my position It was even suggested to me by a JJ Seabrook representative after I presented my economic argument that I should not be defending or sympathizing with the mortgage company I abhor banking and mortgage companies I speak and write against them regularly However this should not and legally does not change the fact that they have just as many rights to fair case management and expediency as everybody else In fact I am often left surprised that the City of Austin has not been hit with a class action suit for allowing this type of negligent behavior to hold up property cases I will be very curious to see what happens but even more curious to try and learn what the total cost of doing business with the City of Austin works out to be for this developer My guess is that they lose over 50 000 to the Austin bureaucracy or more than 6 of their current valuation So my problem with the entire system is simple There is far too much power granted to neighborhood associations and similar groups to raise problems that may not even exist while private entities are left to front the bill In some cases the neighborhood groups do not even represent the true intentions of a community Rather they represent the desires of a fractional segment of that community Incidentally the segment that is very vocal and interested in regulating everything not belonging to them I know for a fact that our contact team in no way represents the greater community We are essentially a group of twelve relatively young white people debating cases for a community of more than 17 000 people most whom are minorities But my intent is not to condemn neighborhood associations nor our own contact team I participate in many and believe they serve a very good purpose Rather my intent is to condemn a city that grants neighborhood groups the power to stop development while simultaneously forcing the developer to conform to thousands of regulations all of which have already been designated by the community in the first place and all while paying a premium to do so One of these systems has to give and until it does I don t see how the problem is going to get any better My personal preference is a simple five fold approach ul li Work to ensure that neighborhood associations are strong and well represented li li Get rid of the one size fits all development regulations codes and fees every development is different and has unique challenges and obstacles li li Have a single individual case worker for each commercial development and require them to serve a the liaison between the active parties li li Have a legal appellate process set in place for cases that cannot be resolved li li Require that all development projects have a fixed time in which business is resolved li ul So then coming full circle why would I tie this into corporatism Because as the problems that I ve described continue to worsen and they are definitely worsening the ability of small businesses to develop anything on their own trends towards being impossible The average business cannot simply float tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars over the course of a year while attempting to stay financially afloat and be expected to meet the minute demands of community activists A community might see a few light poles as nice to have but the developer of a 200 000 project is required to see them as 10 of his or her budget It is simply not possible to fulfill these demands especially with the regulatory oversight costs read C Y A required by the city This essentially means that as Austin continues to mature more and more corporate interests will be served as they re the only ones with the time and money required to overcome these hurdles If the residents of Austin desire to see corporate interests take over the skyline that s fine by me though I personally don t support it I only ask that the city stop toting itself as weird because in my opinion there s nothing worse than turning a way of life into marketing ploy for corporate America

Wall Street vs Hollywood photo 258001 740 0 right photo A few weeks ago my father and I were discussing the influence that American corporations have on politics It s a pretty important topic these days given the rather bleak state of the economy and the seemingly endless corruption being uncovered Between the Tea Party the Occupy Movement and everyone in between nobody really seems happy with the way the government is conducting its business And in my opinion rightfully so But as we continued chatting we discussed the fact that for whatever reason voters instinctively tie Wall Street CEOs to the Republican Party and Hollywood celebrities to the Democratic Party It s one of those things that most of the voting populous just seems to accept Obviously there are notable exceptions to this rule but I think most people would assume that if you work on Wall Street you re voting Republican and if you work in Hollywood for a Democrat While there are undoubtedly some social issues that could be addressed the biggest problem in 2012 is hands down the economy Liberal friends of mine often bring up the huge disparity of wealth that exists within Wall Street corporations how that gap is widening and how it is being used to control Washington The data seems to corroborate this and I definitely believe it s a problem we should be intelligently discussing as a nation But my father was quick to add to our discussion that this same disproportion of wealth is rampant throughout Hollywood as well The difference is that nobody really seems to notice much less care Curiously we even go so far as to celebrate this disparity with the affectionate term celebrity This raises a pretty interesting philosophical question If two groups are ultimately responsible for the same fiscal gluttony why is one celebrated and the other castigated Since the crux of our discussion was riding on the back of conjectures and assumptions I thought it would be interesting to actually do some research on the matter That is how do the top dogs of Wall Street and Hollywood actually stack up against one another Is there a difference between them and if so what is that difference After a bit of online research I constructed this table of the top twenty Wall Street and Hollywood salaries of 2010 it was difficult to find consistent data for 2011 The results are pretty interesting table class BLOGData tr th colspan 4 class top middle Wall Street th th colspan 3 class top Hollywood th tr tr th CEO th th Company th th class right Employees th th class middle right Millions th th Celebrity th th Title th th class right Millions th tr tr td Philippe P Dauman td td Viacom td td class right 10 900 td td class middle right 84 5 td td James Cameron td td Writer Director Producer td td class right 257 0 td tr tr td Ray R Irani td td Occidental Petroleum td td class right 11 000 td td class middle right 76 1 td td Johnny Depp td td Actor td td class right 100 0 td tr tr td Lawrence J Ellison td td Oracle td td class right 111 297 td td class middle right 70 1 td td Steven Spielberg td td Director Producer td td class right 80 0 td tr tr td Michael D White td td DirecTV td td class right 25 700 td td class middle right 32 9 td td Christopher Nolan td td Writer Director Producer td td class right 71 5 td tr tr td John F Lundgren td td Stanley Black amp Decker td td class right 36 700 td td class middle right 32 6 td td Leonardo DiCaprio td td Actor td td class right 62 0 td tr tr td Brian L Roberts td td Comcast td td class right 126 000 td td class middle right 28 2 td td Tim Burton td td Director td td class right 53 0 td tr tr td Robert A Iger td td Walt Disney td td class right 156 000 td td class middle right 28 0 td td Adam Sandler td td Actor Producer Writer td td class right 50 0 td tr tr td Alan Mulally td td Ford Motor Co td td class right 164 000 td td class middle right 26 5 td td Todd Phillips td td Writer Director Producer td td class right 34 0 td tr tr td Samuel J Palmisano td td IBM td td class right 426 751 td td class middle right 25 2 td td Taylor Lautner td td Actor td td class right 33 5 td tr tr td David N Farr td td Emerson Electric td td class right 133 200 td td class middle right 22 9 td td Robert Downey Jr td td Actor td td class right 31 5 td tr tr td Howard Schultz td td Starbucks td td class right 149 000 td td class middle right 21 7 td td Will Smith td td Actor Producer td td class right 29 0 td tr tr td William C Weldon td td Johnson and Johnson td td class right 114 000 td td class middle right 21 6 td td Joe Roth td td Producer td td class right 28 5 td tr tr td Louis C Camilleri td td Phillip Morris International td td class right 78 300 td td class middle right 20 6 td td Kristen Stewart td td Actress td td class right 28 5 td tr tr td Randall L Stephenson td td AT amp T td td class right 256 420 td td class middle right 20 2 td td Jerry Bruckheimer td td Producer td td class right 27 5 td tr tr td Miles D White td td Abbot Laboratories td td class right 90 000 td td class middle right 20 0 td td Robert Pattinson td td Actor td td class right 27 5 td tr tr td George W Buckley td td 3M td td class right 80 000 td td class middle right 19 7 td td Jason Blum td td Producer Writer Director Producer td td class right 26 5 td tr tr td Louis Chenevert td td United Technologies td td class right 199 900 td td class middle right 19 5 td td Tyler Perry td td Writer Director Producer td td class right 25 0 td tr tr td Robert P Kelly td td Bank of New York Mellon td td class right 48 700 td td class middle right 19 4 td td Jennifer Aniston td td Actress td td class right 24 5 td tr tr td Muhtar Kent td td Coca Cola td td class right 139 600 td td class middle right 19 2 td td Jon Favreau td td Director Producer td td class right 24 0 td tr tr td Robert J Stevens td td Lockheed Martin td td class right 126 000 td td class middle right 19 1 td td Nicolas Cage td td Actor td td class right 23 5 td tr tr td td td td td td td class middle nbsp td td td td td td td tr tr td td td class total strong Total strong td td class right strong 2 483 468 strong td td class middle right strong 628 0 strong td td td td class total strong Total strong td td class right strong 1 037 0 strong td tr tr td td td class total strong Average strong td td class right strong 124 173 strong td td class middle right strong 31 4 strong td td td td class total strong Average strong td td class right strong 51 9 strong td tr tr td td td class total strong Source strong td td colspan 2 class middle right span class source a href http money cnn com galleries 2011 news 1104 gallery top_ceo_pay index html money cnn com a span td td td td class total strong Source strong td td class right span class source a href http www therichest org entertainment vanityfairtop 40 highest paid stars in hollywood therichest org a span td tr table I was actually pretty shocked by the side by side comparison Certainly we re all aware of the amount of money that celebrities make but I was a little surprised to discover that the Hollywood list was significantly better than the Wall Street list Even more surprising is that the Wall Street figures include base salaries bonuses yearly stock grants and options and even estimated company perks The Hollywood figures only include estimated earnings from movies and specifically exclude special appearances television works and perks photo 258006 740 0 center A side by side graph of the top 20 Hollywood vs Wall Street salaries in 2010 br ordered from highest salary to lowest br a href http www kevinludlow com photos download 2658eb28c55fcebd5baf5baf7ac1a199 Download High Res a photo br style clear both Of course there are plenty of other factors that can be considered too For example Wall Street corporations are frequently condemned for allowing huge disparities of wealth between their employees In other words while the CEO might be making tens of millions of dollars annually those working just as hard at the bottom may be struggling just to feed their families I would not disagree that this is a major concern of our long term economy However having been an extra on a movie set before I know for a fact that I was only paid minimum wage for my work and suspect this is pretty consistent across the board Moreover and having lived in Hollywood I m positive that your average actor is flat broke Therefore it would seem to suggest that the same income gaps probably exist in Hollywood as they do on Wall Street So why is one fundamentally better than the other Another common point of critique is that corporate leaders are consistently sending American jobs overseas This is definitely a political point of contention and another serious issue we should be trying to intelligently address But again I m not so sure Hollywood operates on a much different principle Many of the 2010 and 2011 blockbusters I researched were filmed in exotic overseas locations In those particular cases the national and local economies of foreign nations were the beneficiaries not the United States I would also suspect that foreign film crews are predominantly used in overseas shoots as well albeit have no specific evidence to support this claim But again couldn t Hollywood just fly entire film crews and cast members even the extras abroad Naturally the answer is yes but much like Wall Street s argument their margins would significantly suffer But why is this an acceptable practice in one realm and not the other We might also consider the topic of actual employment numbers em included in the table for reference em While I unfortunately was unable to locate data on specific movies various online searches suggested a modern summer blockbuster might require between a few hundred and a few thousand cast and crew members But for sake of argument let s assume a big Hollywood blockbuster is going to require 10 000 people and that the top billed actor is willing to settle for just 20 million these figures should be greatly skewed in favor of Hollywood Sam Palmisano the CEO of IBM gets paid 25 2 million annually a tremendous sum of money no doubt But we might also consider that he essentially presides over more than 426 000 employees not to mention shareholders The per employee financial difference here is so great that it can actually be measured in orders of magnitude and that s making very generous assumptions in the case of Hollywood So again I am in no way attempting to justify Wall Street but this same Hollywood disparity is phenomenal especially if we consider a per employment sort of scenario We could even delve into the topic of corporate subsidies if we wanted to but once more Hollywood gets tremendous incentives and tax breaks to do what they do Not only that but they have the convenience of regulating their own industry whereas Wall Street at least has to contend with the SEC and a few other governmental bodies The bottom line is that I love Leonardo DiCaprio as much as the next guy but I sincerely doubt he is going to give up the earnings of his next 50 million movie deal so that his set gaffers can get paid better No more than the average CEO is going to give up his 50 million dollar salary so that the company electricians can get paid better The fact is that both Wall Street and Hollywood have a lengthy list of economic pros and cons In some cases those pros and cons overlap and in other cases they re unique to the industry The point is that neither is better than the other when it comes to addressing the dramatic income gaps that appear to be widening in the United States And yet for some reason it seems that the country remains deeply divided on which side is good and which side is bad which side is celebrated and which side is condemned As with most of my writings my point here is not to make a case in favor of one side or the other Rather my contention is simply that as a nation we are so incredibly susceptible to marketing and hyperbole driven agendas that we ve become deaf and blind to the realities of our own frustrations We completely ignore the fact that both sides are willing participants of nearly identical agendas I believe our greatest societal flaw is that we try to rationalize why one side is somehow better than the other one completely ignoring the possibility that perhaps there are some pretty singular agendas floating between the two of them Personally I commend anybody who is able to play the system for what it is and come out millions of dollars ahead of everyone else I only wish I were clever enough to do the same But having succumbed to a life far from that reality I just wish my fellow countrymen and women would consider the fact even if for just a moment that perhaps their political team of choice isn t really all they ve convinced themselves it is I think that would truly be worth something we could all benefit from

RTF 316 The Lucky Seven Kevin Ludlow Paper I The Lucky Seven RTF 316 History of Radio and Television Amanda Lotz October 13 1998 After viewing the NBC television history movie I reminded myself of the media s What s Hot What s Not routine NBC being a large news source is able to manipulate the idea of agenda setting even when they are only reminiscing They have also shown the world a variety of changes in media technology by displaying the show in a variety of television formats black and white vs color and program formats as well entertainment vs news Having been the first real network in mass media NBC shows a great deal of character by showing off a small portion of more popular shows that have been aired since the birth of television They did not only show NBC run shows but also those of cable stations and the other major networks ABC CBS and even FOX As they began their clip NBC chose a U2 sounding drum and bass beat without words to introduce the viewer to the beginning of television similar to Where the Streets Have No Names Perhaps because at this point in time the television shows had no names simply meaning that the viewers could not associate with them in the same fashion that we can today Similarly as the years progressed so did the vocal content crying out that television shows finally had concrete names in people s lives The idea that we have advanced so quickly in mass media is an excellent parallel to the rapid speed of the program changes Not only were the shows mixed quickly they were also intermingled with news clips of the relevant time period as well NBC did a very good job of displaying the decade to the viewer and allowing us to see what the programming quality of that time period was like It was also very clear to see a push from black and white programming to color between the 1950 s and 1960 s decades It is simply impossible for NBC to have displayed every precious moment in television history in seven minutes The simple fact is that it would take about four hundred and twenty hours times the number of television stations basically every running hour of television to show off every great moment which again put delicately is impossible to recap Since the birth of the printing presses hundreds of years ago creators of media have done the same thing over and over again agenda setting Although very exciting and entertaining the entire seven minutes of this film exaggerate that idea to an extreme If we accept the idea that it is impossible to cram hours and hours of programming into a mere few minutes then who is to say what gets shown and what does not As always of course the media I imagine that many people alive in the 70 s got entirely sick of seeing Nixon s mishaps broadcast on television just as we today get sick of O J s affairs or even Clinton s The media has become so good at pounding information like that into the public s heads that we get sick of it However NBC pushes it upon us a bit more by showing all three examples in a history of television On the same note NBC showed us a clip of Kennedy s assassination followed by the Beatles Five incredibly popular men that most of the world would like to have seen more of in the same program with three men that most of the world love to see no more of The idea that the media can not give us certain beliefs is factual but it is quite obvious that they try their hardest to by choosing what we can and can not view I think it is safe to say that the world has listened to more sob stories from Monica Lewinsky on television then John Lennon ever had the time to even write The way in which NBC presented their clip was not only entertaining but clearly planned out carefully as well Their color and sound changes were shown in a very timely fashion according to the time period at hand The amount of symbolism used specifically with the sound and a selective few joint clips made the viewer think about exactly what television has meant to him or her over the years However although NBC did a relatively good job putting together an appropriate reel of clips for entertaining an audience they were unable to show an unbiased selection Perhaps someday NBC will be able to create a television history not of what they view it as but rather for what it is in its exactness I only hope that the unwanted show s producers can forgive history for not including them in the lucky seven minutes

NYU SNL Script 1 Comedy Writing Workshop D B Gilles INT HOSPITAL LOOKING ROOM DAY A man named JIM dressed in a nice looking sweater is sitting with his legs crossed on the hospital bed His hair is neatly combed as he sits there a moment waiting for his cue There is no one else around He looks up Soft classical music is playing in the background JIM Phil Hartman like voice Today s world can be rough on children With so many bad things that they can get into discipline these days is a must Of course with so many new child abuse laws around these days maybe it s time to lay off of the belts and call your friends at BEAT Don t let the acronym fool you it doesn t mean a damn thing at all whispers in fact it s just so that we can be recognized as an official agency You can simply refer to us as the company that Beat s the hell out of your kids for you The man stands up and walks in front of the bed still facing us DR JACK KEVORKIAN comes into the room and shakes hands with Jim He faces us and begins to speak JACK KEVORKIAN Hi my name is Jack Kevorkian You may have heard my name used in conjunction with oh I don t know Charles Manson or perhaps even Satan but that s not really important is it We work for a side of the government that was actually outlawed 35 years ago but I ll be damned if we re going to listen to what the courts say Hey Jim let s say we take a brief look at what our customers can expect out of our three step program JIM I thought you d never ask The classical music fades out INT MUSKY PRISON LOOKING ROOM The two of them open a large steel door and walk into another room that is dark and dingy with water dripping from the ceiling There are leather whips chains and paddles all around A table carved from stone is in the middle of the room with restraints on every corner Jim grabs the doctor s ass JACK KEVORKIAN whispers Wrong program Jim JIM Of course it is Now where were we JACK KEVORKIAN As you can see right from the start the child is petrified simply by the sight of this hideous room It s so frightening in fact that every now and then the child will pass out before the therapy can begin JIM But not to worry doctor we have the finest line of smelling salts to ensure a quality visit The door to the room flings open two large men are carrying in a small boy BILLIE that is kicking and squirming to break free from their grip JIM Oh isn t this a treat We ve got a patient this very moment How about that JACK KEVORKIAN Very nice my friend JIM Step one is to grab the little ones chart to see just what he s in for JACK KEVORKIAN You got it Jim Jack takes the slate from one of the guards who is busy tying down the boy to the table He turns back to speak with Jim JACK KEVORKIAN Well this is very interesting BILLIE in a loud and shaky voice I m going to sue the hell out of you someday Billie begins to cry Jim walks over to Billie and gently pets his head JIM laughing a bit Silly Billy Government agencies get sued all of the time We just use the taxpayers money down to the last penny to defend ourselves But you can think about that while your being cured The guards finish strapping Billie down to the table on his stomach Jim gestures to the guard to shut Billy up The guard reaches into his pocket and pulls out a gag ball He precedes to place it in Billie s mouth JIM We got a little ahead of ourselves on this one but the gag ball is just part of step two You can also choose to have nature sounds playing for your child at this time We find that the sounds of the whales work the best Their calls tend to sound just like any screaming that may occur JACK KEVORKIAN Like I was saying it says right here that Billie is a fatherless child who is hard of hearing blind in the left eye and occasionally experiences muscle related spasms in his legs The guards exit the room and the door slams Billie is still crying JIM Wow it looks like we ve got a winner here You poor little bastard pauses And I really mean that Lets find out why he s in here shall we Jack JACK KEVORKIAN Sure thing Jim Jack Kevorkian flips the page over on the chart and periodically nods his head JACK KEVORKIAN Well it appears that Little Billie has refused to sit still when his reading tutor comes over on to the house JIM Oh now Billie JACK KEVORKIAN His mother has also left us a note saying that she finds it more beneficial for her to spend money on his tutor then surgically correcting Billie s vision JIM What a mom JACK KEVORIKAN She adds I want him to learn how important it is to read but teachers do not want to teach a child that is always jumping out of his seat JIM Very understandable indeed Most teachers don t even want to teach Well Billie it looks like your about to get the My ass is gonna be sore as hell treatment Billie starts squirming in his restraints with failed attempts to scream through the gag Jim walks back over to Billie and places a hand on his shoulder JIM Don t worry about a thing Billie your with a professional doctor now he begins to laugh a bit In fact with any luck your tailbone will probably crack in three different places before round two even begins You ll be slowly just fine Jack Kevorkian pulls some surgical gloves out of his pocket and snaps them onto his hands He walks over to the wall and grabs a large wooden paddle off of its hanger Billy begins to attempt screaming some more JIM Happy thoughts Billie happy thoughts Jim walks out of the cell room and back into the white hospital looking room He slams the steel door behind him and locks it He walks over to the white bed in the center of the room and leans against it INT HOSPITAL LOOKING ROOM DAY JIM Unfortunately due to our friends over at the FCC child therapy of this nature is not allowed to be aired on national television sorry You might try searching the web for similar video clips from out office in Pakistan but I didn t tell you that We can hear a smack followed by a muffled scream every so often Jim puts a smile on his face JIM Oh my It sounds like step three just began As you can probably tell our program is not only effective it s therapeutic I guarantee that once your child is admitted to our clinic he ll never come back in fact he might not ever go home again Either way you come out a winner Jim stops talking and a large smile appears on his face END 7 1 1999

The James Turrell Skyspace Today I had the pleasure of being invited to one of the most amazing visual art installments I have ever seen anywhere in the world The piece was created by a href http jamesturrell com James Turrell a and sits atop the Student Activity Center on the University of Texas at Austin campus I most certainly cannot do the piece justice in words but I will try to describe it objectively Atop the student building is an oval shaped concrete dome There is a single entrance on the east side Inside are polished concrete seats wrapping the edges save for the entrance The seats are angled so that the viewer can more comfortably gaze up at the ceiling All of the walls and ceiling are painted white the seats are a darker gray In the middle of the white ceiling is an oval shaped hole The viewer sits on the seat and stares into the sky through this hole of course only able to see a small bit of the sky at any given time Less than an hour from sundown and sunrise the light show begins As the lights very slowly rotate through a series of vivid colors the viewer gets entirely lost in the color shifting effects in the sky As the surrounding light changes it contrasts the sky so vividly that the juxtaposed images appear to shift the color of the sky Of course that is not actually the case at all and instead our eyes simply perceive this to be happening The color differential also creates an illusion that the opening in the ceiling is a floating egg or similar physical entity It s incredibly surreal peaceful and amazing photo 315866 315900 0 center A view of the dusky sky surrounded by yellow lighting This was my favorite color sequence When I would let the scene take over my eyes I thought the scene looked like a giant sunflower photo photo 315867 315900 0 center Another photo just to show how significant the color difference makes to the sky photo br style clear both Although I wasn t previously familiar with Turrell by name I actually had the pleasure of seeing one of his private light installments on a daily basis for over a year I worked as a contractor for Dimensional Fund Advisors in their Austin office near Bee Caves If you re not familiar with them DFA is an incredibly successful mutual fund company that was started by David Booth in Santa Monica California They moved their headquarters to Austin about five years ago and built one of the most amazing buildings I have ever seen As it happens David s wife Suzanna Booth is a huge proponent of the arts The entire building is essentially a private art museum and the Turrell piece is just one of many amazing elements within it So although I already really enjoyed the artist this was the first time I had the pleasure of actually learning about him I would highly recommend it to anyone especially those interested in the visual arts