The Enron Scandal

The documentary Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room is guaranteed to make you angry. It tells the story of just how it is that the company was able to make huge amounts of profits through swindling their employees. The film goes through how the company got started on its way to climbing to the seventh largest company in America and followed through to the company and its owners downfall.

It's hard to watch at parts knowing just what happens in the end for the company, but even harder to comprehend is that the dubious money laundering schemes started almost from the beginning. Kenneth Lay is horribly and rightfully depicted as a man hell bent on making money at any cost. In the end hoarding the retirement funds of employees to make profit off a dying company.

The most disturbing scenes in the film for me however weren't ones that covered the retirement fund scandal but rather those depicting fact that Enron knowingly fabricated the California energy crisis. When in fact there wasn't ever a shortage of power in California. Through various forms of media the film shows how the Enron traders shut down 30 percent and 50 percent of California's energy industry. Not only do they steel but they destroy.

After watching this film it's easy for me to say that Enron deserved what it got. I'm still a little surprised there isn't still talk about it and the possibility of something like it happening again.

Netflix Economics

Even with the availability of free movies via internet, Netflix has continued to steadily increase its revenue from 2005 to 2009. In 2005 the company reported a net income of $41,889 which rose to $48,839 in 2006. However, the profit jumped in 2007 with the growth of subscribers rising by 25.6% in 2008 with 9,390 subscribers. The growth in the number of subscribers is certainly the cause for the increase in net income. Now in 2009 the company has a net income of $115,860 and another 30.6% raise in customers.

For Netflix's CEO Reed Hastings the raise in the companies income has not changed drastically. In 2007 the reports show that he generated a total compensation of $2,418,577 which rose to $2,760,854 a fairly large increase. This seems to be due to his salary increase from $850,000 in 2007 to $994,231 in 2008. What's interesting to note is that even with another salary increase in 2009 to $1,000,000 his total compensation actually dropped down to less than he made in 2008. The change is not drastic but doesn't seem to fit with the other executives continual growth in total compensation.

All in all Netflix and Hastings seem to be doing well and still ever growing despite the Internets attempts to make DVD renting a thing of the past.

Tattoos

I never really thought about tattoos. I didn’t want one, couldn’t think of one I’d want to have. I got one just before my 18th birthday. My first tattoo was my sister’s name. It was the signature from the mirror on her bedroom wall. She signed her name in a delicate font right below “have a good day sweetie.” She had written the words on the mirror with black permanent marker and they’re still there. My brother, father and I all got inked together. All in the same place (our wrists) but all with a different signature she had made. My father’s her license signature. My brother’s the last card she had written to him. Each tattoo was our first and for my brother and father their last. The tattoos we got together got us through a very rough time and they continue to do so. I only have two tattoos and I don’t think I’ll get another.

Getting tattoos is certainly becoming more popular. You see many people with visible tattoos in the work place as well as many even with full sleeve tattoos. People are getting them for various reasons and different ways. I began to look into the new types of tattoos out there and was amazed at the variety.

The first I looked at were black light tattoos. These tattoos are almost invisible in daylight but once under a black light become just as if they were done in black. The problem many reports said with black light tattoos was that they didn’t last as long. These don’t seem to be growing in popularity but they do look pretty interesting.

The second and more interesting tattooing was not a type of tattoo but a method. It’s called Samoan tattooing. This is a method in which the artist takes a bamboo or wooden “rake” dips it in the ink and then strikes the rake pushing the ink under the skin. This method allows for more vibrant colors and designs. However these tattoo are known to hurt a little more then the common western tattoo (machine). These more traditional tattoos are becoming more popular in mainstream tattooing and because of the pain staking time it takes to do them cost more.

The last tattooing I want to share was on the top of the head. In the United Kingdom a company that uses tattoos to mask balding. The procedure called “hair follicle replication” involves tattoo the top of the head where the balding occurs and matches the color with the natural coloring. In order to do this however those with the tattoos must continually shave their heads, better then being bald I suppose. If I do get another tattoo I think I’ll probably stay away from these different tattoos but maybe finding an interesting means by which to get the tattoo would cool. Tattoos are evolving in both popularity and how they’re produced. I hope they don’t become just another fad.

Maine to New York

You can’t escape the city, and to tell you the truth I really wouldn’t want to if I could. No more dirt roads, no more trees, and I couldn’t be happier without them. I lived in Maine, in the same house, in the same town until I was 18. I feel like what Lang has done for me is remove me from the redundancy of a small town life. I’ve left and I enjoy living in the city, and I know I can always come back rather than never leave. Going home for break brought this realization that if I had stayed in Maine I would have been trapped. I see beautiful and brilliant people chained to my small town, to the drugs, to the booze that allows them to be content with living forever in a town of nothing. I cannot leave myself out in saying I was one of those people who had little hope that I would live out of Maine. I live in New York fucking City! I found a way out and I couldn’t be happier where I landed.

If I were to say what Lang has done most for me I’d say it just opened me up. It opened me up to different ideas, different environments, and to the limitless possibilities of New York City. I thought at first Lang was a good fit because they didn’t require math and that’s my kind of school. The more time I spent here I realized that I did fit here. I could’ve stayed in Maine and gone to the state university and survived. However had that been the case it wouldn’t live up to the standards I have now. I can speak my mind, I can smoke my cigarettes, I can say that I like classical music, I can question religion, I can, I can, I can. That’s it; I can do what ever the hell I want with my life and not be looked down on for wanting something more than a winning Red Sox season, not that that wouldn’t be nice. I guess what’s special to me about my experience so far at Lang is that I’ve found intellectual freedom, that is shared between genuinely interesting people.

Reading through this I felt like I’ve betrayed Maine. In all honesty it is a great place to grow up. I climbed tree’s, biked through the woods, and I’d do it the same if I had the choice. Once climbing trees isn’t cool, once you drive instead of biking it changes. You can’t stay a child forever and once you develop liberal or unorthodox ideas get the fuck out. Vacationland is simply that for me. A place to refuel and rest and remember how beautiful it is when I come back, but I have to know that I’ll only stay for so long.

Giving Change

Before New York I’d only seen relatively few homeless people. I’d visited Boston a few times and seen a few. I always gave up the change I had. New York was different. I’d see the same sad face of a woman begging every day walking to school. I’d hear the rants of another as I ventured back from my class, another in Union Square would stop me. They seemed to be everywhere and all equally miserable. I still can’t get over seeing a person so hopeless, so far away from luck that they had no one and nothing. What ached me the most was that I changed, and no longer gave change, as I stayed longer in the city I changed.

When I first came to New York I would give up the few cents that I had jingling in my pocket. I would always give up the cigarette I didn’t actually need. I was more sympathetic and much more generous. As the weeks and months went by however I became just another person who ignored their signs, passed by them without looking at them. I was continually told that, “you don’t have to give every one of them something, they’ll just spend it on booze.” So I stopped reaching into my pocket and forced my eyes to stare straight ahead. I regret this.

On the last day that I was in the city, after cleaning my dorm room and moving out I walked the streets. My roommates and I had always kept a jar that we filled with spare changed that we never spent. All year it sat on my desk collect silver that would never be used. I think it was our ego’s that never cashed the change in. We thought it was embarrassing to bring in change to a store. I never used the change and probably never would. I decided almost selfishly to make up for my recent inability to give. I filled my pockets with the silver and started to walk.

I walked first down 6^th Avenue where I knew the woman I passed everyday would be sitting with her tattered sign. I gave her the most. I reached in my front pocket and took out the handful of quarters I had collected. As I poured them into her open hands her face lit up. I can’t describe this to do justice to her expression. The change none of gave a shit about, that we were embarrassed to use, made this woman ecstatic. I continued on and did the same for another five people. Each had the same response. They couldn’t believe being given just five dollars in quarters, just change. Maybe they spent the five dollars of beer or cigarettes. To tell you the truth I don’t really care what it was spent on. I hope that maybe they felt a little something akin to happiness. I still could’ve given more, I regret that.

I just can’t help but think that these people on the street must have lost so much. I would have to lose my entire family, all my friends, and probably even more to be put in that situation. They’ve lost much more than I could ever imagine so giving them something back seems minimal in comparison. I left New York with a good feeling. It felt shitty that I got some joy from giving so little and feeling good about my self for one good deed, but I’m still glad I experienced a homeless mans smile.

A Trip To Coney Island

We step outside to wind that whips through the avenue pushing us towards the subways entrance. Once underground it’s a race through the turnstiles to the already waiting L train. Just barely we make the first train and head towards Union Square just a stop away. The train feels hot compared to the outside world above and is most likely the reason for the constant smell of trash and sweat. I sit down on the nearest open seat after leaving the Union Square station, having transferred and now rattling on the Q train. I pull out E.B White’s “Here Is New York” and begin to read. I’m not very good at reading on trains. Any movement or cough too easily distracts me. However, today the train is almost empty. As I read I realize the truth of his words describing each neighborhood, each street as a city of its own. For a while I stop and envision my small city, my block that feels like a home. How little of the city I really know as well as 13^th street.. I have hardly left 13^th street since I’ve returned from schools winter break. I’ve seen almost nothing outside my comfort zone. Everything I need to stay content is right on my block. On the subway I’m glad to have left my cocoon.

We arrive at the Brighton beach stop and exit through the maze of unfamiliar staircases and exits, and onto a strange street. I’ve never seen any above ground train tracks from below, only in pictures of Chicago. The tracks seem to continue above the street and as my eyes tell me into the ocean before us. We decide to take the first street to left with hopes that it will lead us to the boardwalk. Our guess is right, walking up a large flight of stairs and onto a boardwalk filled with people. Before us lays a sprawling ocean that disappears into the clear blue sky, uninterrupted by any buildings. I realize I no longer have to crane my head upwards to see the sky and it reminds me of home. I wonder if here the stars are visible at night.

The wooden planks that make up the boardwalk are covered in sand. I kick at it like a child. As we continue to walk it seems that everyone we pass isn’t speaking English. There’s a constant chatter of Russian and I feel as if I’ve traveled further than a forty-minute train ride. There didn’t seem to be a mixture of languages, just an overwhelmingly disproportionate amount of Russian being spoken. I vaguely remember seeing a sign with some Cyrillic letters. Maybe this was the Russian city.

It’s a strange mix of natural beauty and concrete separated by only a wooden walkway. Here the ocean is meet by cement, and the ocean is not destroyed. I am used to beaches without any buildings around, that you have to walk through paths to get to. The people do seem to move at a slower pace. No one seems to stop to admire the skyscrapers of Manhattan, or people are simply too busy to take time to pause and take in the city. But here off the grid, off the pavement, natural beauty slows us down. I can feel myself slipping out of routine and slowing my pace.

In the distance I can see the skeleton of the motionless Ferris wheel, not even swaying in the wind. We walk towards it but stop once we see benches that sit in the sand. We sit for a while and write, and I forget that there are people around. All I can hear is the chatter of seagulls and the shrieking wind. I awake from my daze to the sound of a runner’s foot on wood, the creaks of the boards mimicking his stride. He breathes heavily in rhythm with an empty look in his eyes. It must feel free running here without the interruption of traffic lights and the constant dodging of people on the streets. I light up a cigarette and watch the man run out of sight.

We get back onto the Q train and I almost immediately fall asleep. I wake to the shove of my friend sitting next to me and sleepily walk with him back to our street. I have to look up to see the sky. I begin to wish I stayed longer at the beach, trying to think about the next time I’ll see the ocean that clearly. The boardwalk is a different world away from cabs, people, and city noise. I promise myself I’ll return to Coney Island, just to see the sky.

Student Aid

Most students attending college for the first time share the common worries of paying off loans. Such is the case with Jackson Whalan, a 18 year old freshman attending the New School in New York City. With the universities cost floating around the $50,000 range, loans are a necessary evil. Jackson remarked that "schools expensive for my family, we give up a lot to keep me here and loans are what gets us by." This dependency on loans to attend school requires students to leave after school with debt to pay off and a job to look for. The recently passed student loan bill is an effort to alleviate some of the load students face regarding debt.

The bill itself consists primarily of amendments to the preexisting Higher education act which sought to increase and improve the resources the United States government shelled out for students wishing to move past secondary schooling. The act also helped enhance already existing libraries and resources in colleges and universities. This move towards increasing the governments involvement was carried out in 1965 and since then has gone through many reauthorizations to continue educational growth in the U.S.

What's important to note is the push towards federal funding's involvement in schools. After the devastation of losing the race to put the first satellite into orbit. The United States recognized an increasing need for higher education, primarily in the scientific sphere. It had a profound effect on the necessity for the government to be more proactive in school funding as a means of generating progress for the nation. This rather dormant idea has again been pushed to the political foreground with the new amendments and the passing of the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act.

Decades ago however the process of more affordable and reliable student funding was started with the GSL program (Guaranteed Student Loans). This sought to make it possible for students take out loans without any credit check to hold them back. It cut the rates that banks could charge for interest on loans and required that all banks offer the same rates for students loans.

With all banks using the same interest rates, "When students picked the lender from which they wanted to borrow they would decide based on their or their parent’s prior banking history, the location of the bank branch or which bank offered them a free Frisbee." Said Bill Mack of Financial Aid Experts, Inc. What this enabled the government to do was "provide students with a loan program without needing to raise the capital needed to fund the loans," as well as allowing more freedom for students in choosing a bank to invest with.

What we see enacted in the new bill is to further increase the funding the government will put towards federal grant programs as well as lowering the cap on monthly federal loan payments from 15% down to 10. In other words the bill will help to provide more federal loans as opposed to private loans offered previously only by banks. It will also attempt to lower how much those people with loans have to pay back each month, cutting down on the total cost of going to school. These amendments shift the bulk of the costs required to attend post secondary schools more in the hands of federal funding. This will make loans more affordable but also support an even better guarantee regarding loans than the GSL program.

On a final note by putting the cap for student loans down 5% the educational committee hopes to push students to pay off their loans. If students keep up with the payments, after 20 years their debt is forgiven. If enlisted in the military or a public service field the debt is forgiven in just 10. These changes will not only help to lower costs for the students and guardians taking out the loans but also for the tax payer as well. According to Nancy Pelosi speaker in the U.S House of Representatives, "this act will save taxpayers $61 billion over the next 10 years and will reduce the deficit by a minimum of $10 billion over the same period of time."

The student loan program is a small step for the United States towards a progressive educational funding system, but a large step forward for students looking towards college. More support may be necessary but this bill may prove to be effective in making college a possibility for more students.

Kill the T.V

People functioned for thousands of years without television, the internet, or any electronic screen for that matter. Now it seems we can hardly peel our eyes from them. In the United States it's been shown that 99% of households own at least one television. Not only do almost all of us own televisions but we spend on average almost 7 hours a day with the damn thing on. We are quickly becoming even more controlled by television as Alana Semuels of the Los Angles Times reported that the average hours of television viewing in America has risen by 3.6% from just last year. Now the real problem I find in this rising epidemic of t.v brain washing is the children.

Studies now show that violent behavior isn't the only affect of early television view. It has been concluded that television exposure in children ages 1 to 3 is associated with attention problems by the age of 7. A child's brain at these ages is susceptible to many outside influences that alter the brains development and television has proven to be a harmful one. Now again there are different views on why this is, however, the studies to prove that cognitive problems such as ADHD did not depend on what was being watched but simply watching its self.

The stats of adult's watching television are overwhelming. However, those pertaining to children are even more troubling. The kids health website reported that two-thirds of infants and toddlers watch an average of 2 hours a day. Now many would say there's nothing wrong with watching a little t.v as a child. But how does what a child sees on the screen affect them? Well the first and most alarming fact is that by the age of 18 a child will have seen more than 200,000 acts of violence. As a child before being able to put these acts into context, they might simply establish the idea that violence is simply entertaining. With these images of violence so prevalent on television it almost goes without saying that violence has become as acceptable as saying shit on t.v. For a young child they may not be able to know that this is wrong. If they can watch it, it must be fine.

Violence is very prevalent on television but even more so are commercials. There is the constant debate of whether or not we are becoming increasingly materialistic due to t.v. The average child watches around 20,000 commercials a year, and many of these are directed right at children. The American child is bombarded everyday with images and sounds to buy products, and as a result I feel we have become materialistic monsters. Children are quickly being sucked up by businesses to be molded into perfect consumers. To quote the documentary Super Size Me's opening scene, "Take care of the customer, and the business will take care of its self." Ray Kroc, McDonalds founder. This has proven to be a successful word of advice. The commercials children watch are catered for them, and as a result business has boomed.

The clear answer in my mind is that parents should kill the television. They can revive it once the children grow up, but until then no t.v seems to be the right answer.

The Age of Facebook

Teenagers no longer seem to be the only ones using the web for social networking. Facebook which started out as a way of connecting new college students from Harvard University became a public space in which anyone can log on and share. Facebook and myspace appeared originally to be a space only for the young, with adults in most cases practically shunned from using such sites by their children. But recent polls however show that the trend of online networking has panned over into the adult sphere. With the average age of myspace users now at 27 years old it seems the trend might be changing its age group. These sights still don't attract as many people past 40 however the 18-34 year old makes up 46% of users. And the 25-34 year old group is now the fastest growing age demographic. What started as sites for teens to share gossip and connect with friends is now an adult network even used in business.

Facebook in particular has changed the dynamic of online networking making it possible to easily connect with business members and international groups. Facebook allows for easy access for workers to keep up to date with events, e-mail messages, and to coordinate meetings. Facebook in fact has created applications specifically for business users. This may in fact be the reason why the age demographic is shifting. With more people generating profiles in the workplace it follows to say that the middle aged demographic will continue to grow. With the site moving towards a much more business oriented stance the use of the site in the workplace has become a problem.

What has started to arise is the relatively new phenomenon of cyber-slacking. A problem that has been estimated to cost employers $1 billion a year in computer resources. With Facebook the potential for abuse in the work place became very apparent when employers started noticing a decline in work productivity. Workers are so easily able to surf the net during work that many companies have had to establish new ways of protecting against slacking. Almost 40% of companies have started to ban social networking sites in order to keep productivity higher. However, still workers seem to be able to break down this wall. Now polls show that nearly half of the profiles made by users, are done so in the workplace. Online surfing has become the primary distraction at work for many and continues to generate problems. Facebook it seems may not be the way forward for businesses. Much more likely is that soon to come Facebook and other sites of this nature will have another age shift as more and more employers shut down the site in the workplace.

Into the Wild

Walking over the Williamsburg bridge from Brooklyn into the city I'm presented with postcard images of an alive and vibrant city. One that never sleeps but in turn never wakes even with the sun. I see the lights shining and cannot help but stare in awe at its beauty. On the bridge I walk towards the steel forest that so many people have cultivated into a perfect row of trees. I find only when I am out of the forest do I see the city. Inside the steel I cannot see any intrinsic beauty. Inside the city I am swallowed up and oblivious to its venom. The venom of late nights and alcohol, of not stopping to offer a homeless man change because I'm in a rush. This is a city that envelopes its dwellers into an coma of precision and neglect for others outside of themselves. However, once woken from the coma of city life. On the bridge and out of the steel honeycomb. I can see its beauty. This is the magic of the city that I urge everyone to find and uncover. Here exists both the venom that poisons us and the antidote that will resurrect us.

My initial thought of New York City was that this place was as far from nature as you could get. There's little nature to speak of: no trees, no water (other than the heavily polluted rivers), and almost no wildlife. However, with a keen eye it's possible to see that the city in fact resembles nature. We live like bees in our colonies, constantly rushing to get our work done. We move from flower to flower, from east to west. The parallels between city and forest are uncanny. We literally live in a giant steel forest. What has to happen is the recognition that these images of nature exist in the city. The cities nature is man made, and because of this has its problems. But steel can be beautiful and natural. It may not initially appear this way, but on closer inspection I can see it. The buildings are now the trees I miss from Maine. The streets of people flowing down towards Union Square my rivers. What I have to keep doing is keep reminding myself that just because there's steel instead of wood, I can still find peace here.

The city although infectious and in many case venomous to nature. Constantly eating up the remaining trees with new buildings, but keep in mind that industrial doesn't mean bad. Taking refuge away from the city from time to time to notice how similar the city is to even a place like Maine. When you come to the city for the first time without knowledge of the fast paced lifestyle, you will fall victim to it and quite literally be eaten up by it. However, the same can be said for Maine. The vast wilderness, the almost vacant towns, are simply the opposite but have similar qualities. Living in Maine for 18 years allowed me to see that had I not moved out I would have been perpetually entrenched in small town life. Not ever seeing more of the world. The city is the same. I couldn't live here forever because the same would happen. I would become so content with city living that I wouldn't search out anything beyond it. I would stop seeing its brilliance.

As a dweller in the city now I have to remove myself from its confines periodically, otherwise I forget why it is I came in the first place. The city is the place that it is most apparent that many of us aren't knowledgeable of what a place can lull us into. We become satisfied by late nights and steel structures, rather than by trees and rivers. However what I have failed to realize until now is that both can give us sustenance. And in fact that we need both. The city may not have as many trees, and there are too many people in such a relatively small area. However, the city provides me contrast from the small town I grew up in. The city makes me appreciate both worlds.

Asking For Directions

New York isn’t known for its hospitality. You could probably go as far to say that there’s almost none to note on. The city doesn’t lend its self to want to ask for directions from a passerby, or to even stop for too long, staring up at the skyscrapers, for fear of proving that you’re a tourist. Everyone’s appears to be in a rush and too busy to answer questions, mostly. However, you can find those people, but usually, they too, are not “from” the city.

I really began to realize what this inhospitable nature meant for how people visiting feel towards New Yorker’s. I recently went to Holland, Amsterdam in particular, and almost everyone there was the exact opposite of New York. If you had a question of where to go, or how close you were to such and such, they’d not only answer but most of the time would go out of their way to help. This really did make the city that much nicer. When speaking with one of my cousin’s friends, a Dutch student living in Den Haag, a city just outside of Amsterdam, he commented about New Yorkers by simply telling me “they look a lot nicer than they really are.” He continued by telling horror stories of his first trip to New York, when he didn’t speak English as well as he does now and how hard it was to ask and receive directions. His picture of the city was definitely tainted by these experiences and didn’t enjoy New York as much because of its inhospitable nature.

The way people view a new place is weighed very heavily by not only how the city looks; buildings, museums, etc. But also by the people they see living there. Holland seemed to have it right. Not only was the city it’s self-beautiful, but also the people matched with their friendliness towards foreigners. People genuine liked to help you and were proud to show of their English or knowledge of their city. New York could certainly benefit from learning a few things from the Dutch. It takes almost no effort to simply point someone in the right direction, or to serve him or her with a smile at the cash register, but for some reason you don’t see a lot of effort ever being put in to make visitors welcomed.

Living in the city now I can feel the city hardening me slowly. I no longer stop to answer questions as much as I did the first few months. I push past people to get to the front of the line. I even ignore some people asking for directions without thinking about what it was like when I first got here and had to do the same. After visiting Holland I’m going to try to reverse the effects the city has had on me. I’d really like to change, even if only in a small way, how people see this beautiful city. New York is a beautiful place, people just need to take time to continue to make it that way for not just those living here, but also those just visiting.

The Child's Way Out

I recently discovered, while stumbling, a man by the name of Stephen Wiltshire. Stephen is an artist who draws by memory, his specialty being aerial views of cities. What’s most amazing about these drawings is that they are drawn completely by memory, without the aid of pictures or previous sketches. Now as if that wasn’t hard enough he also remembers these aerial views from only an hour helicopter ride in which he views the city below, taking a mental snapshot of each building, each street, down to every window of each building.

What struck me was his childhood however. Stephen is autistic, and growing up was a mute child, unable to relate to people, and until the age of 5 was incommunicable to the world. He found his voice through art. I take a drug cultures class at the New School and this stemmed a thought of whether children are possibly missing their true calling, being prescribed a medicine that makes them socially able, but removes an intrinsic part of them in the process. Are we too quick to prescribe drugs to children when they have a problem, without taking other paths of action, like in Stephen's case of going to the right school. We seem to be taking the easy way out by prescribing children.

This quick fix is explored in blogs such as Kevinmd and the issue of children and prescription drugs is rising, with parents and doctors preferring to use pharmaceutical means as opposed to psychotherapy. Are we taking away what makes kids, kids? Or are we taking away the part of people that might be their nature or their gift? These questions have to be asked and the epidemic of over medicating children is spreading.

Our World Becoming 3D

I recently went to the movies to see the new Alice in Wonderland, a Tim Burton film, and wasn’t pleasantly surprised. However what I was impressed by was the amount of commercials. I arrived in Boston yesterday and thought that a movie would be a nice relaxation after a long bus ride, however, I spent close to the same amount of time watching commercials as the real movie, only a slight exaggeration. What this brought to mind is the seemingly recent influx of commercials in almost every type of media. I expect the commercials from movie theaters, however even YouTube it seems has commercials. Our media forms are taking a turn towards an even distribution of commercial time and actual media. Possibly this is the new tend to follow.

Now not to move away from commercials the real issue that is pressing from my movie outing is the new 3D craze. Alice in Wonderland was in 3D, which I hadn’t experienced yet and thought was cool. You get a very different movie experience in three dimensions, however I felt that the movie lost something being in 3D. No longer do movies have to depend on a flawless plot, or cinematography that blows you away, all you need is cool landscapes with the occasional bug to fly virtually into your face. This new trend of movies is blowing out of proportion. Since Avatar it seems every new movie will be in 3D, and I can’t help but think this is a turn for the worse for movies. People want the instant gratification of seeing bad ass scene without any “traditional” art of cinematography. All of the scene in Alice that caught my eye were simply because they quite literally popped out at me. There wasn’t a shot in the movie that I thought, “wow this is a beautiful shot,” I rather thought “wow that’s cool animation, but not a real image.” We are moving towards a movie generation that nothings real, everything’s either enhanced or animated, and this disturbs me.

Just like commercials are becoming now movies need to do the same, and that is an even distribution of “real” movies and 3D. It’s nice to have a variety but this is not the case. We need to keep movies in some way about art and to me the traditional is art.

Driving In The City

In Maine getting your license is a right of passage among teenagers. Without a license you are limited to the confines of your house, or even worse left to have your parents drive you to meet friends. However with public transportation in New York City the problem of driving is eliminated. It is in fact more of an issue if you have a car in the city. You have to find a parking space, you have to deal with the crazed taxi drivers whipping through tiny streets, and worst of all the streets themselves are too complicated to actually know which one goes which way. Most people I know that have lived in the city before, or are natives to the city don't have licenses and have almost no clue how to drive. To be quite honest a big part of the reason I came to live in the city was the fact that I would never have to drive. I'm scared shitless of driving, as well as being a relatively poor driver. Here I never have to worry about it.

A year ago my sister died in car crash and from that point on setting foot in a car is almost unbearable. Each time the driver accelerates or makes a turn I envision myself crashing and the impact that would have on my family. Driving was no longer an enjoyment but a hassle. In New York however, even when I'm riding in a taxi I feel safe. The drivers almost always seem to be quite competent, and the distance I travel in the taxi is never very far. I can't help but wonder if the city because many people don't drive, is it safer? Of course there's also the drunk driving aspect. In Maine it was a common occurrence that people would drive home after consuming alcohol. Driving drunk in the city seems much less prevalent with people able to take public transportation and taxi's and the peace of mind of knowing your friends haven't crashed on the way home is calming.

I specifically remember driving home from a party that I had gone to in the city and was in a taxi and phoned my father. He asked what I had been doing and I truthfully told him that I was drinking. He responded by saying that moving to the city was one of the best things for me and him, that knowing I was able to get home without being in a car with someone drunk gave him peace of mind. However what I can't help but wonder is whether people who have never left the city have any desire to drive or if public transportation is good enough that people couldn't care less whether they got from A to B in a car or a train. I try to think that people like that they don't have to drive. Public transportation is much less dangerous than being in a car, and from what I've experienced so far, much less of a hassle. The experience of getting your license may be lost in the city, but at least people don't have to worry that their car will break down, or that their son or daughter might not make it home.

Coffee House Cabaret

New York- The first spring Coffee House Cabaret for the New School community was held Thursday February 18th, and was a collage of preforming arts by New School students.

The Cabaret is a monthly display of the variety of New School talents present at the school, and was open to any student who wished to showcase their art. This months Cabaret featuring: an original dance performance, a poetry reading, a guitar trio, as well as singer songwriters. The show was held at Wollman Hall at the New Schools 12th street building. The relatively small preforming area, with seating close to the performers themselves, allowed for an intimate viewing experience for those present. "It was easy to hear everyone one performing which was nice." said Andrew Lenec 19, a freshman at Eugene Lang. The show itself was well put together and ran smoothly without interruptions from the crowd.

Previously the Cabaret was not as well responded to, and many students left before the show ran its entirety. This resulted in long pauses before the show could continue after acts, without having people moving around while the performers were on stage. The casualness of the previous Cabaret, taking place in the fall of 2009, was not followed through in this springs show. Performer's were well rehearsed, with transitions moving faster, and very few people didn't stay for the entire show.

As well as the viewers positive response to the changes from the previous show, the performers themselves were likewise pleased with how the show went. "This was my first time playing at one of these," Joel Kruzie said, a 19 year old freshman studying music at the New School, "it's a no pressure performance, with a lot of different acts... and we got a good applause from the crowd which was nice." With a good response from the crowd Joel and his trio of guitarist, all freshman studying at the New School, plan to play at another Cabaret when they get a chance. With this months, and first of the spring Cabaret shows, more viewers also plan on coming back. "I hadn't been to one yet, and I was glad I came... It was nice to see other students from my school preforming," said Lenec who plans on going to next months. With no cost for admission the Cabaret provided New School students with an affordable night out filled with talent.

High Heels in Winter

Wintertime in New York City doesn’t seem to stop young women from wearing nothing but leggings and a skirt through the slushy winter mess, no matter what the cost. Well the cost for looking good in the winter is the inability to feel ones legs, an expense I don't think of in Maine. Coming from a very small town in Maine I’m almost to used to seeing everyone, including the “fashionable” people wearing layers of clothing under their jeans, and always a heavy winter coat. This being my first winter in New York I was surprised to see that the way people dressed, primarily woman, did not change significantly even when the streets were cluttered with snow. I know it's expected living in the city that you "look good" but the almost gas like prices for beauty is most certainly raising.

I’ve never really walked in high heels, but I’m willing to bet that walking in the snow with even just a three inch heel can’t be easy, and is most likely fairly dangerous. Still I see girls who are presumably going out to a club or even just walking around in heels and skirts. Too many times have I heard complaints at the end of the night, "I was so cold tonight!" well my answer is simply no shit. The higher standard of fashion is outweighing the need to be warm or to walk comfortably. It's more appropriate to not blame the weather, but rather the city we live in. It is unacceptable it seems to go out side ones home without looking your best. This may not be the case with everyone in the city but certainly a vast majority of people living here follow the rule that you just don’t wear sweatpants outside. People have this idea that you have to dress a little better if you live in the city, and frankly I don’t object to this idea. The cities population as a whole really does look better, but at some point comfort needs to play a part as well.

I’m not what you would call a fashionable person. I try to follow the dress code of wearing what’s comfortable, without being a complete slob. This is probably the result of growing up in a small town in Maine where Carhartt is considered a designer brand. The city however forces me to dress a little better. I came back to Maine during winter break wearing what would have been a normal day’s outfit in the city and met a frenzy of laughs saying, “the cities changed you man, you look like your going out on the town.” You simply don’t wear tighter jeans and a nice shirt to ride around in a truck. However at home I felt the sense again that you could wear whatever you wanted and it didn’t really matter. The city however has rules.

I remember one night that I had gone “out on the town” and had been persuaded to go to a salsa club of some sort. Upon coming to the entrance of the club the bouncer looked down at my shoes, seeing that I was wearing sneakers, said that I wouldn’t be allowed in without dress shoes. I was in shock that the shoes I wore were what were preventing me from entering. I had on a nice shirt, decent pants, and even a damn scarf. The club from the outside didn’t even appear to be all that nice, but still they strongly enforced a no sneakers rule. I was embarrassed by this refusal of entry and left the club with the other two unlucky guys who wore sneakers. This unofficial law would seem to be a contributing factor to why woman even in winter wear heels. If they, heaven forbid, wore something that they could walk through snow in, they surely wouldn’t be able to go anywhere.

The War on Prisons

The war on drugs is one of this nations biggest follies. Since its start it has been overwhelmingly unsuccessful, with not much being done to change drug laws or to limit the amount of incarcerated people the war on drugs has given this county. With the war on drugs continuing as it has been, and the drug laws remaining the same, prisons are overflowing. As Senator Jim Webb says "either we have the most evil people on earth living in the United States; or we are doing something dramatically wrong in terms of how we approach the issue of criminal justice." It would seem that no longer is it just a war against drugs but a war against the criminal justice system.

We are moving slowly towards the issue of drug legalization, but we are no where near it seems close to alleviating the over population of prisons in the United States. Government officials seem to give much less attention and money towards what prison does to the inmates of this drug war. The approach to stopping violence is by incarcerating drug offenders. However this isn't the right approach. Rather than providing drug offenders with comprehensive drug treatment they are rather thrown in jail. On the website Drug War Facts it states that the "department of corrections data show that about a fourth of those initially imprisoned for nonviolent crimes are sentenced for a second time for committing a violent offense. Whatever else it reflects, this pattern highlights the possibility that prison serves to transmit violent habits and values rather than to reduce them." The war on drugs isn't solely about getting rid of drugs but rather limiting crime, reducing addiction, and hopefully soon about decreasing the population of prisons.

We can no longer be oblivious to the facts of the drug war. The current drug policies don't work to stop addiction, the rate of drug related crimes is not decreasing, and we are in a financial recession. We need to realize that not all drugs should be considered the same and that by perpetuating the law enforcements idea that anyone who does drugs is a criminal and should be punished rather than helped only worsens our nations drug issue.

Stumbling

I find myself more and more often stumbling while on the internet. Stumbling is a recent website that allows you simply click a button (after downloading the tool bar) that will bring you to a random website. As you use stumble more the website starts to recognize what you're interested in. You can either like or dislike the website it's brought you to, by again simply pressing a button. If you choose to like a site Stumble Upon saves it in your favorites, and categorizes your internet interests. What stumbling's best feature seems to be is that it doesn't bring up sites everyone knows about, but rather bizarre almost unknown websites. It has certainly broadened my scope of what's on the internet, and the possibilities of what it can become. It seems that the internet is now evolving into a completely customizable resource in which search engines are no longer a generic display of what might fit the search, but more so what will fit ourselves and our own personal interests.

Stumble Upon isn't the online website that allows for this personal connection with the internet. Pandora and Last fm two website radio stations that work very much like stumbling. Again the viewer is able to either like or dislike the music that is being played through a customized station and reacts accordingly. With this new type of internet browsing I'm becoming more absorbed by the vast amounts of information on the internet that before I was completely unaware of. I can't help but wonder how this is reconstructing my idea of what the internet can do. No longer do I have to search for interesting links by word of mouth, or even know the exact website I want. These websites do the work for me. Am I becoming even lazier, to the point in which looking something up requires me to only touch a button? This new type of browsing also seems to be wasting more and more of my time, because it's so easy, and most certainly because it really does find exactly what I like. These websites feed my addiction for easy access to information, and of wasting time. What bothers me most is that the sites really do know what I'll like and not like, and I can't help but think that we are coming into an of technology in which the internet knows more about ourselves than we do.

New School Hip-Hop

New York- New School student Jackson T. Whalan, also known as “The Apsosoul”, is currently writing and producing a new concept album that provides a message of peace through the genre of conscious hip-hop and seeks support through donations to complete the album by March 31st.
The project has received $1000 of the $8,700 that Jackson will need in order for the album to be completed. Whalan has been using multiple forms of media to promote his album, posting updates on current donations and donators, new songs, as well as video’s explaining the albums concepts of peace. “The donations keep coming and I’m excited to see the finished results,” say Baier. With the deadline for the album nearing, Whalan has chosen not to focus on playing at venues but rather on recording the songs themselves. However he has recently preformed at “The Cypher” taking place at Club 7 in Berkshire Massachusetts. Otherwise he has limited his performances.
Whalan has been working on this musical venture since 2010 with the help from Robby Baier. Baier is a producer at Soultube Music located in Housatonic Massachusetts, and helps with the production of songs and also the marketing of the album. The album named “Now” “hope[s] to raise awareness of peace lying in the moment, spreading the message that hip-hop can be a means of spreading awareness of the positive and a way for people to come together,” says Whalan.
Whalan has been producing and performing music since the age of 14, growing up in Berkshire Massachusetts. He is currently living in New York City and studying at the New School. He plans to incorporate the new knowledge he has gained through his studies into his music. The city has also been a large contributing factor in providing vast opportunities to have his music heard, as well as providing him with inspiration and motivation. He has previously played at venues such as the Nuyorican Café on the Lower East Side, the United Nations National Day of Peace conference, and at open mics at the New School. Whalan plans to keep performing at venues around the city and spreading words of peace once the album is finished.