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This blog post is to devote my love for the entertainment Howard Stern provides. 

Though this Jackson Heights, NY native is a very openly-honest, raw spirited, and slightly inappropriate individual, I ironically enjoy all the media content he blesses the world with. Whether it’s his snarky, “Simon Cowell” criticism on America’s Got Talent, or his inappropriately explicit Sirius XM radio show, Howard 100 (and Howard 101), I can, no doubt, always be thoroughly entertained by his rude but hilarious commentary. I’m sure by now our MCA class knows that I ham a fan of listening to Podcasts, because of the group presentation my group did on this said subject, so I listen to Howard 100 in a similar light and reason as I would while listening to Podcasts. When a radio program like Howard’s can consistently make me laugh that heartily as I prepare myself for another soul-corroding day in NYC, listening is more than a pleasure; it’s an absolute necessity. I’m always surprised by the reaction I get when people find this out about me, especially from my fellow gays. While most of them have never even heard the show, they insist that Howard is anti-gay. Though, as the vibe from Howard can come across as homophobic, he really isn’t and is truly supportive of every being (that may or may not be because he is such an affluent character in Hollywood and doesn’t want to lose his job, who knows). Howard has been outspoken about his support for marriage equality and is a staunch proponent of equal rights for LGBT people. Howard countlessly voices his opinion on his stance toward the LGBT community and I no doubt appreciates his support on that matter. I know Howard Stern can be lewd, provocative, and insensitive. I don’t agree with everything he says, and there are times when I cringe while listening to his show. Overall, however, I find his honesty and brilliance to be refreshingly entertaining. And, let’s face it: the gay community needs all the passionate allies we can get, especially the ones whose words have the ability to impact millions of people. Thank you, Howard Stern 

and eyy, Baba Booey

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lol I love that you decided to do a review on headphones as your blog post hahah! That kind of blows my mind how they were just 25 cents when you bought it! You make a really good point about the iPhone 7 and all the newer Apple products that leave out the 3.5mm headphone jack and that was such a score for you to snag this deal and be able to use it on those products since other quality Bluetooth headphones are not cheap! Over the summer, I bought a pair of Beats over the ear headphones that were Bluetooth (and they kinda suck, though they were like $300 kms) but now that it is winter I want to wear a winter hat and I can’t just wear the headphone over a winter hat because, ya know, sound doesn’t really work well through a hat....? and I cant wear the winter hat over the headphones so idrk what to do lol. I got my self a $300 pair of seasonal headphones woooo go me

So honestly i was skeptical about these headphones. My brother is a dj so he was able to get some sort of sponsorship from this company EvoTech and had a promotional code that literally made these head phones 25 cents. SERIOUSLY! I paid 25 cents for these headphones. Sadly It was a one time only deal but these headphones aren’t even too pricey to begin with so I would say go for It. They are the best headphones I have ever had I kid you not. For one thing they are Bluetooth so you don’t have to deal with the annoying headphone jack and for you iPhone 7 users it’s perfect since you have no headphone jack. They also have a really good battery life so if you leave them charging over night you’ll definitely have a good days worth of music ahead of you. One thing i would say that could be changed is when your battery is dying there’s an annoying voice in your ear telling you your battery is low every 5 seconds until they finally die. Like i wish they would just say It once and just die instead that way you can enjoy your last few seconds of music rather than being interrupted the whole time. Other than that i would say these are great and if you’re interested you should definitely try them out!

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This new app, HQ, by the creators of the late app, VINE,  is only available on iOS devices (Apple supported) and is similar to the idea of Jeopardy. Every day at 3PM and 9PM this game goes live, yes, LIVE, like a real game show! There’s a host, often the man in the above image, who asks a series of twelve questions ranging from easy to hard and there is a grand prize of $1,000 and $8,500 on Sunday nights. My first question when I first downloaded and played the app I wondered where this money came from because the app is free and there's just a grand prize if you get all hr questions correct. From these two time slots, over 200 thousand people participate by answering questions within the 10-second countdown per question. I often play this game daily and it's a great game to play with other people, especially if all your friends have iPhones as well so they can play along! Media has responded to this app with a bit of conspiracy. Strangely, some people think that the app asks a very specific question to see what the general American audience knows. For instance, they may ask a question about an unknown secret about the Chinese government to see if people know something that they shouldn’t or if people just know anything about it in the first place. Nonetheless, this game does seem a bit strange on how its run and why, but I do find it very entertaining and will probably continue playing it daily!

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I’m a very critical and particular when I choose and watch my movies. Recently, I read an article about a French thriller movie about a vegetarian who attends vet school and soon becomes a cannibal. Yes, human eating human. I love kind of messed up/ avant-garde movies and this movie, being nominated for an Toronto International Film Festival “People’s Choice” reassured my intuition to watch it since many others have watched it as well. 

After scrolling through Netflix and seeing an icon with big red letters reading RAW, I was very excited and quickly grabbed my friend because of this critically acclaimed movie. And so we watched it, at least most of it because, well, it was so boring. Yes, the protagonist *SPOILER* takes a bite from her sisters severed thumb while shes passed out in the corner of the room, gets caught by her roommate snacking on raw chicken in her fridge, only later to end up dating this roommate, having sex with him, and blacking out mid-sex and ate half of his torso... yikes. 

This movie is spoken in French with English Subtitles so nonetheless the director, who also was nominated for/won many smaller awards for this film, may have a different vision for thriller movies? I’m not quite sure, JNSP. I remember turning to my friend while watching the movie, “the French really are direct with their storylines and don’t have any character development” because, as mentioned before, the protag meets her roommate, shares some dialogue with the roommate, then within a day (in the movie) they become “a thing” and it was just very confusing to watch. There were many other examples of very direct story points but you should figure them out on your own if you decide to watch the best worst foreign film ever. Solid 1/5/10. I didn’t even watch the last 10 minutes because nothing much happened at the end and the movie should’ve ended where I stopped watching. wooo 

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Hey everyone!

Please take this survey about recordings in the modern day! Me, Tricina, and Jake figured it would be interesting if we had the class and others participate in a survey and briefly discuss the results during our presentation in class (next Thursday). It will honestly take no more than 2 minutes. Thank you in advance!

(click the banner above or any of the text in this post)

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The white frame of a Polaroid photograph is embedded within our cultural consciousness. Like Instagram for the modern photographer; while for those old enough to remember the original Polaroid camera, it remains an iconic symbol of the democratization of photography.

The Polaroid-style image was very popular when it was introduced to the world in the late 70′s. Though, as technology became more widespread, Polaroid cameras soon became to be obsolete toward society, no longer posing with a purpose anymore. With steady ‘low’ for Polaroid came between the years of 2001 and 2009 where the company actually filed for bankruptcy twice and was sold to other entrepreneurs three times. After 2009, the company no longer sold brand cameras or film, due to the inflection of digital cameras. For many years, Polaroid was nearly non-existent until another owner came and rebranded the company giving Polaroid its second life. 

Now, I own several types of modern Polaroid cameras (along with many other hipsters) and I love taking awesome in-the-moment shots that print instantly! 

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CONSIDER THIS AN EXPERIMENT...

Generally, I listen to a lot of music. different genres, different styles, different languages, & different meanings. I truly listen to an extremely diverse array of music, & yes NYC people…even country music. Though I tend to listen to a lot of alternative/indie, hip-hop, modern R&B & Dance/EDM, I often add a lot of jazz, pop, rap, Reggae, Caribbean I don’t know really anything. Even songs in French & Spanish. Though the importance of this blog isn’t about the different genre, otherwise the different music streaming platforms featured across media (though many streaming platforms play more specific genres for such platform).

The 4 streaming platforms that will be discussed are

Spotify, Apple Music, Pandora & Tidal. Over the past year, I’ve purchased subscriptions to all of these streaming services & thus I am here to tell you my favorite.

Let’s start with Spotify, shall we?

Spotify is available to download for free online & with the app but it uses a lot of ads & a specific number of skip privileges.  Spotify fees are $10 per month, though you can bump that down to $5 by signing up with a student email. paying up allows you some real advantages, including being able to choose songs on-demand via mobile devices — an important feature for most users that the ad-based service doesn’t offer.

Spotify has a huge brand & generally has an enormous music library with many genres. It is actually a fact that Spotify is the most popular service. this is true for a number of reasons. Spotify has a very user-friendly navigation screen. My favorite, the Spotify app can be hooked up to your Google Home or Amazon Alexa & can activate your music playlists by simply asking “Alexa, play Sam Smith’s new album”. Spotify has a lot of premade playlists created by Spotify staff with also many podcasts & radios for every occasion.

Those looking to find their next favorite band will also love Spotify for its updated playlists like Monday’s Discover Weekly and New Music Friday, all of which follow your listening habits to recommend surprisingly fitting new artists to match up with your listening tastes.

Spotify also links up to your Facebook account to allow you to follow each other & see what your friends are currently listening to. I definitely recommend streaming newcomers to get on the Spotify train.

Next up is Apple Music.

Apple Music is similarly expensive, $10 per month, $5 for students, or $99 per year, though it is cheaper if you are a student. There is unfortunately not free way to use Apple Music by using ads.

Just to start, Apple Music’s interface makes me uncomfortable. The face is very plain & white & doesn’t look very appealing. Though I feel Spotify is more attractive, Apple Music toys with Spotify’s adaptability & usability with compelling reasons persuading me to want to go with Apple Music in some cases.

First, Apple Music is exclusive to Apple devises, obviously, which allows you to ask Siri to play your music which is not possible with Spotify. Also, before music streaming was a thing, buying music on iTunes was very popular, where a lot of your old music will still be saved to your music library, where your phone can save up to 100,000 songs oppose to the 10,000 songs Spotify can hold. (Both of these things are very meager & really don’t mean much to me). Soon, Apple has a Home Assistant like Google & Amazon, so that will be giving Apple Music more usage. iTunes is one of classic & original music services, so their platform features tons & tons of songs & genres. Also, Apple works hard to be the first to showcase songs from some of the world’s biggest pop artists, including Drake, Taylor Swift, and Frank Ocean. If you’re a fan of the biggest names in pop, love radio-style listening, and own an iPhone or other Apple device, Apple Music could be your service of choice.  

Continuing to Tidal…

Also, if you like being a stubborn audiophile bitch about the music you listen to you’re just a hardcore Jay-Z then Tidal may just be that service.

First off, Tidal is unnecessarily expensive. It doesn’t offer a free alternative & it's $10 to listen to low-quality music or $20 for the highest/ studio quality audio, which is quite expensive.

Yes, Tidal is owned by Jay-Z & several other music artists have shared int he business, generally other rap/hip-hop artists.

It is the first artist-owned streaming service in the world with the idea of an artist-owned streaming platform striving to restore the value to music by launching a service owned by artists. I’m not sure why Tidal remains so exclusive, but it is fact that it has a significantly smaller music library with poor music discovery features & actually a very glitchy interface that often ends up glitching & spending a majority of the time buffering your extremely high-quality song, rather than playing it at a normal streaming quality. Tidal’s audio quality makes the service something of a dichotomy, as Tidal seems to be aimed towards the mass market, but it’s really best for those with high-quality gear who care more about the fidelity of their audio source than interface usability or library size. Until Spotify upgrades their quality options, Tidal may merely stick around, for now. If you have expensive stereo systems which can handle Tidal’s 1411kbps audio, then yeah waste your money, but if you want to be reasonable, skip Tidal & save some money.

Lastly, Pandora.

If you’re generally older aged or just simply want to listen to music, Pandora may be just for you. Pandora is best for its radio capability which for some, like restaurants, is perfect for. The restaurant I work at on Long Island uses Pandora Radio & all you need to do is type in n artist or genre & Pandora finds songs you may be interested in.

Pandora is one of those services that are free to download & listen to with ads, but you can pay $5 a month for ad-free radio & $10 for ad-free music streaming. Pandora has a lot of songs, but not as much as Spotify & Apple Music. I haven’t stuck with Pandora very long, aside from my times in Jr High when it was very popular, but I’ve heard Pandora features a lot of slower relaxing type genres & coincidently a lot of EDM & dance music hits. With such an abundance of data about each song, Pandora is able to offer the best curated, radio-style streaming online, all based on simple thumbs up or thumbs down ratings. While the on-demand service is a nice addition, Pandora is best for people who like to simply sit back and let the tunes roll on.

Personally, the winner is Spotify because of its huge selection of music, cheap price, download capability, Home assistant capability, & friend connections.

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My god…

Sam Smith has always been one of my favorite music artists & recently he had released his new album, 

“The Thrill of It All”.

I’m not entirely sure where Sam Smith got his start exactly, but I️ first recognized his graciously talented soul when he was featured in Disclosures song “Latch” which still deems to be one of my favorite songs, today. This song was so successful that many other artists have remixed the track, & eventually recorded an acoustic cover, ya’ll should give it a listen cause it's beautiful.

Back to “The Thrill of It All”, Sam Smith features a lot of emotional tracks dealing with relationships amongst him family & ex-boyfriends. In addition to the pre-released album singles including “Pray”, & “Too Good At Goodbyes”, other tracks that you should watch out for include songs: HIM, Scars, One Day At A Time, & Burning.

“The Thrill of It All” is a mournful retro-soul album that relies on Smith’s otherworldly voice to carry the load. Sam Smith has always had a such “RnB” rhythm to his music, but he especially incorporates soul into this album by including a gospel choir in many songs. Almost every song is sad, but that voice was built for sadness. Heartbreak is where Sam Smith lives. He’s in love not with love itself but with its endless opportunities for self-abasement and misery. He is love’s most ardent seeker, its most bereft mourner. He will bludgeon you with it (“Burning,” with its beautifully over-the-top gospel choir), suffocate you with its earnestness ( like in “Midnight Train,”).

I love love love Sam Smith & he definitely deserves the spot as one of my most admirable & influential music artists in my life.

Also, you should check out the “Carpool Karaoke” Sam Smith did with James Cordon because it is soo funny and you’ll definitely start to adore Sam Smith for his gracious talent and effortless outgoing personality. (via the gif)

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 My LOVE for French Onion Soup

I don’t know if this is really considered what we’re looking for out of the blog assignment but the images I posted above are a form of media sooo....

It’s actually quite exaggerated how often I eat French onion soup. I tend to eat it pretty weekly.  I don’t know what I love about; it’s just so comforting and warm and cheesy and salty and it checks all the boxes for me. I had many delicious FOS (French onion soup; we’re gonna need an abbreviation for the amount of times its referenced) over the course of my life and recently, the FOS pictured is the one I consumed most recent. Wow. what a gorgeous shot that is, huh. The cheese oozing down the side of the crock, with a little herb garnish atop of the melted gruyere cheese. Inside is a not too salty, but very tasteful broth with leeks, tomato, white, red and yellow onions and of course the toasted crostini hiding beneath the cheese. And suddenly this media blog turned into a food blog.

This restaurant, First and South located in Greenport, NY is in my hometown back on Long Island and is where I grew up and went to high school. I’ve passed it many times driving through town and now I finally have gone there to enjoy their overpriced food. Living and growing up on Long Island and being someone who doesn’t eat seafood are not two things that mix well. Thus, many restaurants on Long Island feature a seafood fare, including the restaurant I even served at (and currently do during the summers), at A Lure Restaurant in Southold, NY. Long Island, especially the East End or the North Fork (the NOFO, as locals like to call it) features a lot of wineries, breweries, relaxing beaches, and delicious restaurants that have reached the eye of the public as a vacation spot and are bombarded with tourists every summer and autumn (we also have A LOT of pumpkin fields, corn fields, and other agriculture). The East End is nonetheless an amazing place to hang out, or even live for some people, and you should totally come out and visit!

If you like French onion soup stay tuned... I’m going to Le Rivage tonight to get the most delicious French onion soup burger 😉

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“GIRLS, DON’T BECOME BOY SCOUTS”

Quite appropriately, on October 11th  — as Facebook reminded us — designated as the International Day of the Girl, The Boy Scouts of America announced that it would allow girls to participate in Cub Scouts and to eventually earn Eagle Scout rank.

I am all for equality, no doubt; gay rights, women rights, minorities’ rights, fewer fortunate’ rights, & I would do (have done) anything to support that in any way… but… the fact that The Boy Scouts of America have opened their doors to ‘welcome’ female scouts into the troop is somewhat ridiculous to me — but before you say anything please hear me out.

I’m not sure what the effect of Boy Scouts is in the city, but scouting was/is very popular in my very rural town of Southold on the East End of Long Island. Since there’s not much to do in the middle of potato fields, vineyards, & livestock, many young children would join the boy scouts or the girl scouts. There’s this division because not all young boys want to do the same things as girls & vice versa. These two organizations are no longer affiliated with each other with many aspects dividing them. In fact, the GSA ( The Girl Scouts of America) are not even thrilled themselves about this topic.

Back in 1907, Robert Been-Powell wrote a guidebook for scouting titled “Scouting for Boys” where girls but mostly boys have read. Since he noticed there was a large audience interested in this topic he created the BSA in 1910, followed by a similar girl version (not GSA) the next year, which his sister was the head of. There was much speculation for the groups ever merging, though they felt very strongly to keep the groups separated by sex since both groups experience their development differently.

The GSA took to Twitter to voice their opinion the day it was announced.

@ girl scouts “We're the BEST leadership organization in the world for girls and no one can do what we do. Diversity is our strength.” Followed by three arm flexing emojis which are of different skin colors. "We believe strongly in the importance of the all-girl, girl-led, and girl-friendly environment that Girl Scouts provides, which creates a free space for girls to learn and thrive," they added in the following post. It continued, "The benefit of the single-gender environment has been well-documented by educators, scholars, other girls- and youth-serving organizations, and Girl Scouts and their families. Girl Scouts offers a one-of-a-kind experience for girls with a program tailored specifically to their unique developmental needs."

A major reason why the BSA has allowed this is because they are simply losing membership. not just BSA has lost members, but many other clubs, in general. If you’re interested in more about this topic, follow through on this website, which features a nicely laid out interview with Tammy Proctor, the head of the history department at Utah State University and author of the book Scouting for Girls: A Century of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts. 

Looking back at my childhood as a Cub Scout (elementary-aged Boy Scout) & a Boy Scout I honestly don’t feel like I would be comfortable with a girl, or many, included in the group. Not because they were a girl, but just because they have their own developmental stages, (generally) an intended gender & sexuality, & simply just their behavioral & interpersonal skills, & please I mean this in the most non-biased & respectful way. I had many female friends growing up, maybe even because I connected with them more in some cases than other boys, but that doesn’t change the reason why I’d join Boy Scouts knowing that its focused on self-sustainability, outdoors and camping, & other stuff like that. I am gay, which that is honestly a topic for another time since the BSA has gotten A LOT of backlash on pedophilic & rape remarks,  but this doesn’t change the focus on since the BSA now currently allows openly gay males (or male-identifying individuals), that it should include females.  

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“OKAY GOOGLE, stop spying on me!”

Honestly, when I attempt to find some sort of dramatic media-related news I tend to reach toward Twitter… Though Facebook is definitely another drama-infested platform. On my recent search for drama, I strolled onto of the topic technology. I’m a fiend for anything technology related & I’m impressed on how advanced it’s been getting every day.

From iPod & iPhones to 3D capable Nintendo DS’ and virtual/augmented reality gaming devices, technical devices are seeming to become more & more useful in everyday life. A recent trend, voice-activated home assistants such as Amazon Echo or Google Home seem to be taking the recent technology world by storm. From personal experience, I have an Amazon Alexa & I am totally in love with it. having the capability to ask Alexa to “turn off the lights” or “Play Demi Lovato on Spotify” seems very surreal & admirable for all to have. Though, these assistants aren’t loved by all. Many are totally against these machines because they constantly are powered ‘on’ & listening to your environment, listening to her to trigger word “Alexa” or “OK Google”. This has been linked to the belief that the government is constantly streaming your assistant & is able to tap into this microphone for any governmental use while constantly listening to your conversations. The rise of the smart home assistant has certain consumers spooked that the internet giants are monitoring their conversations, but the truth is far more boring. The real answer is no. You are even able to turn off this feature and can be deleted from your history.

Google says clearly on their FAQ’s page online that their Home does not record any ambient conversations around its environment. "No. Google Home listens in short (a few seconds) snippets for the hotword. Those snippets are deleted if the hotword is not detected, and none of that information leaves your device until the hotword is heard” It states.

Amazon Echo is similar in this effect in it FAQ page saying their system does not record conversations, as well. "Amazon Echo and Echo Dot use on-device keyword spotting to detect the wake word. When these devices detect the wake word, they stream audio to the Cloud, including a fraction of a second of audio before the wake word” they state on their page.

Facebook has even been blamed in a similar effect being accused of the app listening to our conversations to suggest ads or news feed stories, to which they declined.

The important thing to note here for skeptics is that Google and Amazon stand to lose way more in terms of consumer confidence and potential fines than it does to gain in monitoring all of your conversations and tweaking its advertising algorithms.

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Why are WE hated?

I metaphorically ask this question to myself routinely. Why do older people hate millennials so much?

Are we annoying? Are we actually apart of a “snowflake” generation? Do we ruin everything? This is literally a scientific fact (possibly not literally, possibly not scientific, possibly not a fact).

Hadley Freeman, a writer for the Guardian Magazine backs up this analysis with a statistic:

“According to the scientific folks over at, er, PornHub, 18- to 24-year-olds are 19% less likely to Google “show me hot boooobz” than their elders. Especially, it turns out, their elders in the 55- to 64-year-old bracket who are 17% more likely to be looking at breasts online than doing pretty much anything else, as far as I can tell.”

As humorous as this fact may be, Ms. Hadley isn’t wrong. So what’s wrong with us? were too busy drinking overpriced cold brews from Starbucks (aka day old iced coffee) & spreading perfectly ripened avocado on artisanal toast (another article to discuss for another day if you’re intrigued about avocado toast).  

Aside from attending (& boozing) at Sunday afternoon brunches, taking selfies, & watching conspiracy theory videos on Jay-Z & Beyoncé, millennials have tended to blast the social media market spending many hours on platforms like Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, & yes, Tumblr. Forbes recently tweeted on Twitter: “Millennials: ready to enter the real world? Here are a few tips to help:“…followed the video in the tagline above. One Manhattan-based Youtube daily vlogger (video blogger) with nearly 8 million subscribers, Casey Neistat replied to the tweet exclaiming:

@CaseyNeistat “this is fuckin stupid.  one of your ‘tips’ for people entering the real world is ‘enjoy life’?”

Watch the video for yourself, how does this video make you feel? Did Forbes Magazine humiliate you as much as it did to me? Because I sure feel humiliated. I mean, who needs to make a decent salary when you can “create an energizing morning routine” instead, or “enjoy life to the fullest”. Oh, that’s right, I guess Forbes does.

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Chance the Rapper's Radical Humility

Celebrities have a huge influence to those of a millennial age group. Their rise of success, evidence of affluent lifestyles, and maybe even their philanthropy aspires many of a younger audience. Social media is a great way for these celebrities to engage with the audience on a daily basis but every now & then we may have a chance to participate in a more interpersonal connection.

One celebrity Chancelor Johnathan Bennett, also known as Chance the Rapper, is someone who definitely donates his time, money and reputation to charitable causes. I, along with many other people, would also donate all I can if I easily had as much money as he did, but Chance is definitely one celebrity who puts in countless hours of effort daily to get to where he currently is while caring about his fans & making attempts to engage with them.

Last night I had the complete honor to attend one of his concerts at Forest Hills Stadium in Queens & it was life-changing, to say the least. Many heartfelt speeches and tracks were performed leaving his audience in tears & chanting for more. Chance is one of the few rappers who will take risks in releasing 'risky' music, as he performed a new song after asking the audience "Do you mind if I do something new?" In his song newly titled “First World Problems”. It’s extremely impressive if the tune’s bracing poetry and melody were indeed just tossed-off. In this song. He addressed many people's "first world problems" & asking if they're real problems that are crucially important and into his main metaphor: Material success doesn’t get you closer to God. Following, he sings how Adam and Eve’s struggle with temptation is rendered as the brisk Chicago cold; “I walked past apple trees and didn’t take it. Thought about stone mattresses, thin blankets, really long winter spent in a windbreaker”. Money, he observes, can’t replace the work needed to be a good father. “You just can’t tour a toddler. She turning two, she don’t need diapers, she just need her papa.” We’re constantly living the “American Dream” though we can’t stop to complain continuously.

Chance even connects those who are not religious or atheists to his fulfilled-meaning music with lyrics like "Jesus is all I got" & titles like "Blessings". Chance has been known as "Chance the Christian rapper" & makes it hard for some fans to follow with some fans saying from this article, "It's tough to be a Chance fan when you're not Christian"... but I don't think that's the problem! He's not forcing anyone to rekindle or reincarnate into a new religion. Even Chance's messages, story, and philanthropy seems to me as a religion that one can follow far more than Christianity.

He truly does not take any of his success for granted & is very blessed for where he got to now. He even stated between songs that He's very grateful for what he is doing now & is very fortunate that all the fans who attended that concert to go to future Chance concerts, even if within a few years the venue is smaller or maybe hopefully larger; wherever his career stands.

But so long as you watch & listen to his performance, the song’s spell of radical humility and the insistence that he’s superior to one of God’s other creatures—remains unbroken throughout. His gestures, his expressions, and his cadence all give the portrait of someone trying to explain something, someone trying to connect, someone who might be called a star but doesn’t ever forget where his feet stay planted.

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Whatever ‘Floats’ Your ‘Boat’

... is actually the total opposite of the premise of this new film adaption of the Stephen King Novel, “IT”. 

In 1990, ABC brought Stephen King’s novel “IT” to the small screen for the first time in a two part series. Tim Curry, who played Pennywise The Dancing Clown was basically the main reason why “IT” worked well on television. He scared neglected children as they watched him on TV behinds their parents’ back. He was far more ‘clown-like’ in a matter of appearance & mannerisms which is where we get into the new film adaption of the novel and miniseries. 

Curry & Bill Skarsgård, the actor who played Pennywise in the 2017 film, both play these parts far differently as the lighting & camera work is far more dramatic & advanced in the more recent version. All that’s known is that he feeds on fear & kills hundreds of children within the past century. This cannibalistic-murderer clown comes around Darry, Maine every 27 years and terrorizes the children of the town. What’s scary is that both these film adaptations were realized 27 years apart from 1990 to now. Was that on purpose or coincidental?

If you’re unfamiliar with the “IT” backstory, here’s a little bit that would help you out. The movie follows a group of friends self-deprecating as “The Loser’s Club” coming together to battle a common demon, known as Pennywise. There are two halves of the story, first taking place in 1958 when “The Loser’s Club” faces off with Pennywise & the second half taking place in present-day when the losers return to fight Pennywise once again.

The main difference between the two is the miniseries cancels out all harshness since it was adapted for a national audience. Between the miniseries, the book & the new film, the intimate scenes of racism, anti-Semitism, misogyny, homophobic slurs, gore, blood & explicit terror were a couple of the themes that were involved in King’s novel that was left out of both adaptations. Just to paint you a picture of the beautiful images King has described for us in the novel, illustrates bully, Henry Bowers who is manipulated into sexual acts by fellow bully Patrick Hockstetter. Patrick becomes sexually aroused when he murders his baby brother, and gives a handjob to Henry, telling him, ''You liked it.'' Not a mainstream book at all, isn’t it?

Though these scenes were not included in the 1990 “IT” miniseries or the 2017 adaptation, it is quite disappointing that many of these homoerotic elements were omitted for both films because, simply, Patrick and Henry are true psychopaths and are great characters.

According to an article from Forbes Magazine Online, The 2017 Stephen King adaptation “IT”, broke many box office records when it pulled in $123 million. The biggest ever September opening for a film for any genre. Though the 2017 film only illustrated the first half of the book, fans now have to patiently wait for the second half of the film, planned to start film production next spring 2018.

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No Home Button, No Problem

And So It’s here. It’s what we’ve been waiting for — most of us, that is. The anticipation of the specs, the screen size, the processing capability, the camera, wireless charging, NO HOME BUTTON?! The strategy of “it's a new season, a new phone” was previously incorrect.

“Say hello to the future” Which is what Apple says as they introduced the new iPhone X, the 10th year anniversary edition of the Apple iPhone series. 

WELCOME 

For many, September 12th, 2017 10am PST was marked off on their calendars and was eagerly crossed off. On this day, Apple CEO, Tim Cook welcomed nearly a thousand techies to the new Steve Jobs Theater in Cupertino, California & millions who live-streamed at home- the new iPhone X…(& the new iPhone 8 & 8 plus, Apple Watch Series 3, & the Apple TV 4K, lets be honest we’re all focused on this new $999 iPhone).

IT’S HOW MUCH

Oops, did I say $999? I did, before tax that is, as well. That’s only if you’d like the 64 GB of internal storage capacity, too, which in this day of high-speed apps, mobile video editing capability, live photos, HD music & video downloading & streaming, many would more or less, if I need to say, NEED a larger, more storage capable phone. Thus, your only other option is the next tier up with the 256 GB iPhone for $1,149. I don’t know what is more obscene, the fact that the iPhone is over a grand or that they only offer a 64 GB & then the 256 GB iPhone with no in between when other iPhone models featured a 32 GB, 64 GB, 128 GB, & then the 256 GB.

BIGGER IS BETTER

None the less, or

most

for this matter, this new iPhone doesn’t just have a larger screen size, but the physical phone itself is smaller than the previous. What? How can that be? One of the biggest rumors, which is no rumor any longer, was said that the iPhone would feature a higher screen-to-phone ratio. Furthermore, the screen proceeds with more ‘touchable’ & interactive surfaces & less unusable material. SO, with a screen that is stretched all the way to the outside of the actual phone, it makes a prettier & more beautiful piece of tech with a Super Retina HD OLED HDR Display, which is  ‘techie —geek’ terminology for a beautifully, lit screen. With all of this beauty, the iPhone X is actually the lightest model, compared to similar Apple phones of its size, the iPhone 6 Plus, 7 Plus, & 8 Plus.

WHAT ELSE IS NEW

Along with the bigger screen, the iPhone X has many other upgrades & features. Aside from the former casualty of the loss of the 3.5 mm headphone jack which left many people with a junk-drawer full of headphones and forcing us to purchase Bluetooth capable headphones, the iPhone X also lost the very accessible, multi-functional home button. The loss of the home button means goodbye fingerprint sensor, which may not be a huge problem at all. Instead, to unlock your phone, you use your face with a brand new technology known as Face ID. The front-facing camera & sensors come together to create a map of your face to determine who the owner of the phone is. In the dark, it uses a front-facing flood lamp which illuminates your face. Apple says this feature is more secure than fingerprint recognition with a one & 50,000 chance of a random person unlocking your phone oppose to the one & a million chance with facial detection.

The iPhone X (& the iPhone 8) features wireless charging capability where wireless Qi charging pads will be available at coffee shops (e.g.. Starbucks), airports, stores & other public places around the world; able to get power where ever they go. This charging pad will obviously charge your iPhone, but it can also charge other Apple devises like your AirPods, & Apple Watch.

I NEED THE NEW THING

You may be asking yourself, “This all sounds great, but do I really need it?” or like me, “I have or just bought the iPhone 7 Plus, & I want the X but I don’t like the price… should I still buy it, though I'll be in debt?”

The nitty-gritty details are a slight upgrade from the previous iPhone which makes your experience just that much better. the screen features a more responsive touch system, which means the gestures to be more fluid. The all-glass design is super durable & allows the wireless charging to connect more smoothly. The camera, which I mentioned earlier, features a sensor that can detect facial recognition. The rear-facing true-depth camera enables experiences like making emojis come to life by mapping human facial muscles & aligning your facial expressions with ones of emojis in real time. The front & rear facing camera now both have portrait mode with professional-like stage lighting, making photo taking on the iPhone X a greater experience.

Therefore, if you’re looking to purchase a new phone because your old phone is at the end of its time, then I’d say to buy the iPhone X. I feel that there may not be a new iPhone for over a year (Apple usually would release an updated version of a basic model, eg. iPhone 6 to a slightly more elaborate iPhone 6s with minor improvements and adjustments). Thus, they also launched an iPhone 8 & 8 Plus, so currently there are many models of iPhone that are on the market. Apple is also soon to be due for an updated MacBook Air so Apple developers are probably working on a thinner, lighter, & more powerful MacBook Air as we speak.

It is 2017 & Apple has just helped take our world deeper into the future with iPhones. What will be next? What else can be improved? Within 5 years from today, the Apple Watch was released & made over $3 billion dollars in revenue from just this recent quarter amounting to 80 percent of the total smartwatch market for this quarter. That being said, what is the next successful gadget?

The video at the top was posted to “Apple” Youtube channel is the introduction video for the iPhone X that Apple released to introduce the main features & components of their new product.

[loganpfister]

Taylor Swift is among one of the many pop celebrities who are countlessly attacked & criticized for acts relevant to her own life. Taylor Swift’s video for her newly released single, “Look What You Made Me Do” focuses on many of her recent accusations of the lack of her reputation. Since she is regularly victimized for her relationships, celebrity backlash, reality drama, & legal contributions, Swift often uses her songwriting capabilities to respond to the narrative in a very compelling & mesmerizing fashion.

Throughout the video, fans have noticed many innuendos that are alleged to ‘throw shade’ toward other celebrities of which Swift has had ‘Bad Blood’ (coincidentally, a recent single of hers) with in the past. Many of the comments dropped by Swift are very literal & painfully obvious to be thrown at said celebrities. Check out this article posted to Cosmopolitan focused on the those “15 Hidden Messages” throughout the video, then watch the video after reading and see if you’ve noticed any. If you’re familiar with pop media or Swift’s life, you may find this article very interesting, as I did.

As well as a public message from Taylor Swift, the music video became a record-breaking hit being the fastest female to go #1 on US iTunes, Best global Spotify debut (7.9 M streams in 24 hrs, most viewed lyric video in 24 hrs, and the most viewed music video in 24 hrs. The album, which will be Swifts sixth studio album, is said to feature songs from “a new Taylor Swift”, which is evident from when the new Taylor Swift in the music video say’s “the old Taylor can’t come to the phone... because she’s dead”, and be focused all about retribution and, as the album’s title advocates, reputation.