"Well done, Young Jedi"

Oh, Jon Stewart. What a gem!

Mr. Stewart did something recently that totally blew my mind. He actually made fun of President Obama. Wait a minute. I thought that was Colbert's job.

Actually, Stewart did a fabulous job of lampooning our new president, inspiring giggles and admiration from me for being an equal opportunity jokester.

First, I really enjoyed how he made fun of everyone for still being excessively enamored with Obama despite his recent nomination missteps and the crappy state of the country. Stewart shows a clip of Obama saying that the country is still in turmoil. Afterward, Stewart stares lovingly at the screen and utters a phrase so funny that you must watch it yourself. (Follow the link below.)

Later, Stewart discusses some of the questions that were asked during the conference. Stewart, like most people, was surprised to see a reporter from the Huffington Post at the conference. What was even more surprising to Stewart was the thoughtful question that the Post's reporter asked. If only another Post reporter (the one from the Washington Post) would have followed suit and asked a thoughtful -- or relevant -- question. (Watch the clip around the 5:40 mark to witness a What-the-Heck moment.)

At other points during his show, Stewart makes fun of the long, drawn out pauses in Obama's answers, and he also does a montage of the reactions of Bill O'Reilly and Chris Matthews to Obama's press conference. It's comedic, and slightly ridiculous, how different O'Reilly and Matthews' reactions were.

All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed this segment. I recommend it to everyone, which is why I am posting the link here. (The segment I discussed begins at the 2:20 mark.)

Internet Law

First before I say anything else, I want to do the blogging equivalent to shouting from the rooftops. I'M DONE WITH MY FIRST LIBEL REPORT FOR MEDIA LAW! Wow, I feel so much better!

Wait, before you run away and commit me to an insane asylum, there is a point to my little rant. While compiling my report for Media Law, I did discover something that pertains to blogging and Internet communication.

In the California Supreme Court case Barrett v. Rosenthal, the justices ruled that on the Internet, people or service providers cannot be held accountable for the republication or posting of defamatory information created by someone else. (The following commentary will probably make more sense if you read the ruling or stories about this case with the links below. To find the ruling, Google Barrett v. Rosenthal and then go to this site: http://www.eff.org/files/filenode/Barrett_v_Rosenthal/ruling.pdf. Sorry, my link was not working!)

In one way, I find that case to be very encouraging. It would really suck if I unknowingly linked some defamatory article to my blog and then got sued for libel. On the other hand, if I did know that I was publishing libelous material, shouldn't I be accountable in some way for spreading the defaming material even if I'm not the original author?

Overall, I think the California Supreme Court handled this case well. They followed federal law (Communications Decency Act 1996), and I believe one of the justices made the note that you probably shouldn't spread libelous information about people over the Internet even after the court's ruling. Basically right now, there seems to be a hole in the federal legislation that allows individuals who know information is defaming to republish that information on the Internet anyway. I think as an individual you should look out for others. For example, I will strive to not post libelous content on this blog, no matter if I am the author or not.

As for internet providers, though, I think they should not be held accountable for what people post on their sites or what people say through comments. These providers probably get hundred of posts or comments a day, so to ask them to go through all the content to make sure it's not objectionable is unreasonable. Plus, they might just erase questionable comments before making sure the information is actually libelous. That practice would just chill online speech and silence honest discussion.

Well, I've just brushed the surface of this case. If you are interested in learning more, I encourage you to visit these sites: Citizen Media Project, ACLU of Northern California or just Google Barrett v. Rosenthal.

Paul Blart: Mall Cop Review

While I’m on a movie kick, I want to take this opportunity to warn the masses about Paul Bart: Mall Cop. I was not a fan of this comedy, and I’m not sure why others are.

Apparently, this movie is doing really well at the box office. It was the top money grossing film two weeks in a row, and it only slipped to second place in its third week. In total, this movie has grossed $83.2 million even though it only cost $26 million to produce.

I am confused by the movie’s success. The first half an hour of the movie just makes fun of Paul Blart (played by Kevin James) for being overweight, hypoglycemic and lonely. Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t find it funny that someone has to stop every 20 minutes to take a shot of sugar. That’s no way to live if you ask me.

Then there’s an extremely awkward bar scene. I think this part was supposed to incite hysterical laughter, but all I did was cringe. Since I am an awkward person at times, it was not fun to watch one of my greatest fears being played out on the big screen.

After the sadness and awkwardness, there is some comedy in this movie. I did laugh a few times towards the end, but the last half of the movie wasn’t good enough to save the first.

Before attending this movie, I advise you to read some reviews. Then, save some money and rent this movie. I can’t say my experience was worth the $8 I had to shell out.

Dudes in Drag

Jude Law 'looks like a lady!'

In his upcoming movie Rage, Law dons dresses and eyeliner to play a transgender supermodel. When I first saw the news, I was shocked. Jude Law is a very good looking man, why would he want or need to dress up like a lady for a role? I think it has something to do with expanding his horizons as an actor.

"Jude, whose beauty has sometimes been held against him as an actor, made the courageous decision to accept the role and took on a kind of hyper-beauty for this persona, a 'female' beauty which gradually unravels as the story unfolds," said Rage director Sally Potter in a Press Association article.

"Strangely, the more he became a 'she', coiffed and made-up - the more naked was his performance. There was great strength in his willingness to make himself vulnerable. It was an extraordinarily intense part of the shoot."

After my Jude Law discovery, I begin to wonder how many other celebs have donned drag for a role. Apparently, playing a different sex is in vogue. Here are some famous drag roles:

1. Robin Williams, Mrs. Doubtfire
2. John Travolta, Hairspray
3. Felicity Huffman, Transamerica
4. Cate Blanchett, I'm Not There
5. Patrick Swayzee, Wesley Snipes: To Wong Foo
6. Eddie Murphy, Norbit and the Nutty Professor movies
7. Martin Lawrence, Big Momma's House
8. Johnny Depp, Before Night Falls
9. Guy Pearce, Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert
10. Tyler Perry, Tyler Perry's Madea's Family Reunion
11. Dustin Hoffmann, Tootsie
12. Nathan Lane, The Birdcage
13. Jack Lemmon, Some Like it Hot
14. And many more!
    

If you are interested in testing your knowledge about drag roles, check out the Men in Drag Movies Quiz. Or check out these photos of famous faces in drag.

Monologue assignment

For this assignment, we composed a monologue about something we are passionate about. Catey and I chose Valentine's Day/ Single's Awareness Day because we both detest Feb. 14.

I learned a lot in this assignment. I had never placed a text slide within a video in Final Cut, so that was an experience, as was placing text in the lower third. I felt really professional when I put text in the lower third because that's what newcasts do to identify people.

I also learned how to transition between clips, which will be very useful when working on future projects. Videos always look cheesy when they don't have good transitions, so I'm glad I'll be able to produce more professional-looking videos.

I really liked this assignment and thought it was very helpful in learning new skills in Final Cut. It also helped me to become more comfortable with the Flip Camera, the process of taking files from the camera and putting them onto the computer, the Final Cut program and the exportation of videos to my blog. Like they say, practice makes perfect.

Slim invests in Times

I found some more information today pertaining to my Jan. 28 post. Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim Helu has given the New York Times a $250 billion loan. A Times article said that the paper needed the loan "amid flagging advertising sales and approaching deadlines." The Times Company needs to pay back a $400 million credit line by May and must pay back a total of $1.1 billion in debt in the next few years.

Slim appears to be the Times' savior after he loaned the Times Company $250 million on Jan. 19. Still, Slim's six-year loan notes carry a 14 percent interest rate. Maybe I'm just overly critical, but that seems to be a high interest rate since Slim owns 6.9 percent of the company. If he really cared about the company's well-being as a stockholder, wouldn't he want to give the Times a lower rate? Wouldn't a lower rate help the company's finances and in turn help his own finances as a stockholder?

Although I'm not an economist and can't tell you the exact answers to the above questions, I do know that Slim has received stiff criticism from no one other than the "Gray Lady" in distress. On Aug. 27, 2007, Eduardo Porter wrote an editorial about Slim in which he called the Mexican billionaire a "robber baron" who has committed the "sin of the monopolist." Porter also criticized Slim for a lack of charity. Even though Slim was the richest man in the world in 2007 according to Fortune, as cited in the Times article, Slim gives $20 billion less to charity.

And this is the Times' savior? I know that when you are in financial trouble you will grab onto any life preserver thrown to you. But this is the Times, one of the most highly regarded papers in the country. I had hoped that a winner of almost 100 Pulitzers would have had held themselves to higher standards.

Super Advertising

Like millions of Americans yesterday, I watched the Super Bowl and loved every minute, including the advertisements. Unlike most days when I usually walk to the refrigerator or grab something from my room during commercial breaks, I was glued to the screen, enjoying ridiculously expensive but extremely exciting ads.

This year, it cost $3 million for a 30-second spot during the big game, according to Msnbc.com. With that kind of money out on the table, companies should make sure they have amazing ads. Unfortunately, that is not always the case.

According to FOXSports.com editors Zack Faigen, Jim McCurdie, Jenny Cohen, Al Tays and Zack Pierce, the big losers in the ad department this year were: Toyota- Venza; Castrol- Monkeys; Cars.com- Nervous car buyer; Gatorade- What G means; Bud Light- Skier; Hyundai- Global Domination; Nextel- Roadies; Coca-Cola- Strangers; Heineken- Vanguard; and Bud Light Lime- Summer State of Mind.

I was glad to see Bud Light's Skier ad on this list because anyone who has ever had a major ski injury (which would be me) got to relive one of their worst moments through that ad. I can't say that I really laughed when the guy tumbled down the mountain because last Christmas that was me.

I was surprised that the Cheetos ad didn't make the worst list. It was really good (an obnoxious rich girl gets attacked by a pack of pigeons on the "ugly" side of town) until the ending. Then the pigeon with the weird face mask just freaked me out. Cheetos should have stopped with that commercial while it was still ahead. (Check out the video on YouTube.)

As for the best, I wasn't really too surprised with the winners, as decided by FOXSports.com: Bud Light- Office Meeting; Doritos- Office Ball; Bridgestone- Potato Heads; Budweiser: Clydesdale plays fetch; E-Trade- Babies; Monster.com- Moose; Careerbuilder.com- It's time; Coke Zero- Polamalu; Cash4Gold.com; Hulu- Alec Baldwin.

Almost all of these commercials were awesome, though I have to say that the Monster.com- Moose ad was one of my favorites. I think it really made people appreciate their situations. Even if their job sucks, at least they aren't looking at a moose's rear end all day!