MTV VMAs 2008: A Sign Of The Times

With media coverage of major stock market decline and financial institutions aside, it is difficult for American teens and young adults to gauge the extent of the United States' current economic temperature. Teens all over the country have grown to interpret the disintegrating economy merely as irritable parents and not being able to go out this weekend because of fluctuating gas prices. Adolescents and adults alike trust the mass media for information whether it concerns the war in Iraq or Angelina Jolie's twin babies because, unlike many other major establishments today, the media seems permanent and unaffected by "the times". Young people subconsciously believe that the media controls culture and is not influenced by it. However, what happens when the media becomes a direct reflection of it and the all-inclusive condition of the nation it belongs to? Frankly, the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards.
There has been no other televised event that inexplicably conveys every aspect of pop culture in one night other than the MTV Video Music Award Show. Since Madonna's groundbreaking performance of "Like A Virgin" foreshadowed her career in 1984 at the first VMAs (IMDb), millions of people of all age groups anticipate this annual award show each year. Up until the 2006 awards show the presentation's format was persistent, delivering progressive themes, culture, and a tad of controversy, but above all, music. However in 2007, the VMAs turned from being a glorified celebration of sound to a melodramatic observance of life.
Hosted at the Paramount Studios in Hollywood, California, the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards could not rightfully be dubbed a celebration, let alone a 25th anniversary. The location, which was the smallest venue in VMA history, and production style seemed to more rightfully fit the description of a massive tea party¾in a middle school gymnasium. This year's direction team was lead by Joe DeMaio (Mtv's Total Request Live, Unplugged) and Nicholas Rich (Knocked Up, Mama Mia!), who both were inexperienced in award show production previous to the VMAs. The set included no prominent theme similar to 2007's Palms Casino Royale theme or 2006's Vintage 70's theme. Problem ridden recording artist Britney Spears was cast as the this years main source of promotion, marketing it as her "comeback"(Malkin). A cleverly redundant marketing scheme (the same that was used in 2007, ironically), granted MTV a nineteen percent improvement in ratings (with 8.4 million viewers this year). Likewise, the presentation was cut short and many award categories were dropped to make the VMAs more "budget friendly" or "pocket conscious" for MTV this year.
Contrary to pre-show speculation, Britney Spears was without a doubt the highlight of the night. "I'm here to celebrate a very important birthday," said a silver laced Spears at the shows opening. "This is the 25th anniversity of the VMAs," she smiled, clenching her tongue between her teeth youthfully and exiting stage right.
No one cared if she stumbled over her lines and celebrated MTV's anniversity instead of its anniversary. Britney Spears looked absolutely stunning on stage and above all, appeared sane and equipped with a full head of hair. Viewers were somehow satisfied by this rather nondescript opening of the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards. The two minute entrance was by far the most interesting inclusion the entire night.
Pop princess Rihanna was the first to perform with a thriller-esque display of her smash hit "Disturbia". The dancers and props w ere dead-on as she was ushered onto the smaller-than-usual center stage wearing what appeared to be a massive bee-hive skirt. She sang off-key, losing breath and skipping words during parts of the act, but still managed to deliver the nights best performance. Other recording artists that performed were Pink, Lil Wayne, an all new techno infused lip-syncing Christina Aguilera, the Jonas Brothers, and a softer sweeter, more auto-tuned Kanye West. Another result of budget cuts was the return of the 'side performances' that were introduced last year. Many major artists and bands like Katy Perry, Paramore, and LL Cool J were caught performing awkwardly in small sections during commercial breaks.
Russell Brand, a relatively unknown British comedian in the states, was MTV's choice host for the event. Not only did he act aloof and blissfully quirky the entire night, he also made several failed attempts at common American award show hosting practices. It has become standard for VMA hosts to involve celebrities in their jokes; however, instead of throwing a common Amy Winehouse or Paris Hilton comment he attacked the Jonas Brothers, a Christian teen band. He made comments on their 'purity rings' of which they wore vowing not to have pre-marital sex, telling the crowd "there is nothing wrong with a little sex every now and then". Moreover, and unfortunately for Brand, no one told him not to make fun of America, in America. The remainder of the night was decorated with Anti-Bush comments like, "In England, George Bush wouldn't be trusted with a pair of scissors," and even going as far as calling President George Bush a "retarded cowboy." Brand also had a hand in on Republican Vice President nominee Sarah Palin, calling her a VILF, short for "Vice President I'd like to fondle" according to Brand (Foster). Ultimately, it was mission accomplished for the now sequestered ex-VMA show host. Many viewers question MTV's decision of importing an unknown host, most opinions leaning towards the choice being one more route to saving production costs (IMDb).
The 2008 MTV Video Music Awards was, as VMAs are always, a culmination of a year in pop culture. The show was clearly not about the awards nor music, being that Britney Spears won all three major bids for Best Female Video, Best Pop Video, and the elusive Video Of The Year. Aside from MTV's controversial award show host choice and substandard production of the event, the 2008 VMA's will probably not be remembered by many. For most, it was mind-boggling to see even a major culture icon succumbing to America's economic status with numerous budget cuts. Hopefully, MTV will return to the standard award show format as seen last in 2006 and make it once again a classy, prestigious, and television worthy event. Though the world remains undecided on whether it likes MTV's new cost conscious award show system, one thing is for sure, the 2008 Video Music Awards were simply a 'sign of the times'.

¾ Michael A. Martin


Mtv's First Annual Video Music Awards. IMDb. Retrieved October 03, 2008, from
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0337666/

Foster, P. (September 9th, 2008). American's Not Sold On Russell Brand's brand of Humour . TIMES ONLINE, . Retrieved October 2, 2008, from http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article4710449.ece

Malkin, M. (August 8th, 2008 Britney Spears Makes a Return to MTV's Big Night. eOnline Retrieved October 2nd, 2008, from http://www.eonline.com/uberblog/detail.jsp?contentId=22771

How do they REALLY Sound

Well, I always wanted to know if:

a.) they really sang when they were lipsyncing.

b.) if the mic is real.

c.) and if it is real, is it on?

d.) and if it is on, are they recording what they were singing?

Well, thanks to some random HBO employee, I got to hear how one of them really sounded live. This one in particular had already established her inability to croon, though the video gave me something to laugh at. Note at how seriously she tries to sing the tunes even though she knows it's all playback:

The New Dollar Bill

Well I am sure this old news to all of you, but the United States has issued the design for the new dollar bill. It's a sign of the times, but I like it! Seems more secure. If you hold it up to the light, you will be able to see George Washington's tear drops! Very clever, this one.

Raw eating never taste so good...

well, today was a good day.

I didn't go to class because I slept to late, and I was up till 5 30am writing papers.

I woke up and went to the Cafe' where I indulged in wonderful salad in a spinach wrap. It was so great! I have so much more respect and appreciation for greens now than I have ever did before!!!

and I didn't get that heavy sleepy feeling that I get after eating meat!

Every 2 or three hours I would eat an apple or something, to keep me going.

I crapped, and my crap, was green!!! How fun!!!!! Party Colors!!

So im feeling good, i got all my nutrients and vitamins, and im just ready to do some repairs to my metabolism while changing the way I view food and life....

Today will be a short post, so enjoy.

The Departure: Master Cleanse.

Alright. Its done.

Im not doing it the 10 days, so I cut it short after 8.

Why? Because I think I did some damage to my metabolism. I will do the cleanse again, but I decided to take my soul mom's, Linda Land - The Blogadvice after doing alot of research.....

I will be doing the master cleanse later on, and I've lost 12 lbs. off of this one, but I think that I need to rev up my metabolism. Plus, my step mom cooked the BEST dinner tonight and she forced me to eat it, I could only eat a VERY small portion of it. I felt like I had gastric bypass, or a lap band or something. Wasting all that food. Felt good to eat though..

So now I will start eating very small portions,200-300 calories and eating every three hours to some granola, and the rest of the day everything else will be raw. Man I wanna go to walmart (yeah I know, the nearest all natural retailer is Wild Oats South Beach, or Whole Foods Biscayne, either way, they are both 30 minutes away.) So Im gonna need help designing my diet, to get a good balance of proteins, fibers (most of which i'll get from cereal), thought I want to mainly eat greens. I started this master cleanse at 222, I am 208 lbs. now. Which brings my total weight lost to 55 lbs. since the beginning of the year. Im on a ball. I have only 8 lbs. to lose before I turn 19 to meet my goal. Thanks for your guidance mom, and everyone else.

Master Clease Day 7.

Master Cleanse Day 4 Night.

The Master Cleanse Day 3

Master Cleanse Diary Entry Day 3


Master Cleanse Ingredients

Skeeter Brown

So i got this cool idea, me and Kimani at work.

..... we are gonna shoot a movie!

I want it to be like one of those dry comedy inexpensive independent movies, like Napolean Dynamite, Juno, and SuperBad, but with an urban african american twist.


So far its gonna revolve around this 17 year old kid named Skeeter Brown. He's a junior in high school and is a total retard geek, that thinks he's cooler than he really is, he believes that his whole life is gonna change and his problems with girls and his looks will disappear when he turns 18 in a couple of months. He has two best friends, a girl named Mahogany Maple Brown, a cute, sensitive poet, who is always crying when someone hurts her feelings, and is in and out of love, and Belly Davis, a 'partial' high school drop out that is always smoking weed. Though he wants to go to school, he never does because his boss at a local Pet Store always schedules him during school hours. (Yeah its illegal)

Now Belly's half sister, Girlene, is a super popular party planner/promoter, and they are pretty wealthy too. One day when skeeter comes over to Belly's house in the rain to hang out his sister answers the door , and tells him he's at work, but he'll be back in like 10 minutes, so she lets him in and he waits for Belly. He over hears an argument between Girlene and her boyfriend, who then storms out of the house. Girlene comes down stairs crying and so on, and Skeeter then begins to talk to her, and console her while she constantly drinks and crys.

Long story short, they start kissing and she seduces him and eventually they begin to have inter course. Abrubtly, she gets off of him, and tells him that he better not tell anyone about it or she'll cut off his balls not even her brother. and he says that he's gonna tell everybody at school unless she helps throw him a birthday party... she agrees.

So, the next day,mahogany asks skeeter why he's so happy, and he then tells her he had lost his virginity and asks her to promise not to tell any one. Belly finds out because he left his macbook in the family room (where girlene and skeeter had sex) and it recorded everything... though he is nonchalant about it.

Mahogany meets this guy named Vladmir on myspace, and they go to the movies. Vladmir is also a big glasses wearing dude, reallly shy and skinny,. Mahogany decides to go on a date with him, but asks Belly and Skeeter to follow them just in case he's a total weirdo. This is when a random guy walks up to mahogany and asks can he feel her hair, and she says yeah, he gets really obsessive and intimate with it. Vladmir does nothing, while Skeeter and Belly laugh. The guy says, thanks, and just walks off.

The next day Mahogany is walking to a store when she sees Girlene and her three friends, Letasha and Jaquisha, and Zipporah. They make some sort of smart ass remark to her, and she hesitates, and replies back to girlene saying something about the incident between her and Skeeter. Girlene and her three friends, all start to fight mahogany.

So Mohagany, all beat up and stuff, calls skeeter and belly and tells him what happened. That is when they find out that belly knew that he had sex with his sister all along. Skeeter is mad at mahogany because now he has no help with getting people to come to his party, and stops talking to Belly and her.

So in a couple of days, mahogany and belly decides to plan skeeters party. And goes out of their way trying to get supplies and so on.

In the end, no one comes to his party, and it is just the three of them at their hangout with party hats, but this satisfies Skeeter. And thats the end.

Yeah yeah yeah I know its very sporadic, in fact, I just made all this stuff up off of my head while writing this blog. I will fill it up and works, and since I have this new Macbook Pro, I already have Final Cut Pro, which is the top of the line video editing software from apple. Now all I really need is two cameras. Im looking at buying two of the Canon HV20's when I get the money, because for the price the video;'s are amazing and it is all HD. Check it out... I attached a video recorded with this camera.


HV20 - Rainy Day Cinematography from Solomon Chase on Vimeo.

FedEx Sux.

Look, my life was just getting better until last week.

I didn't get the job I was trying to get for the past year, but that was okay, I have a job.

I lost twenty odd pounds, cool.

I hung out with a 'guy' friend at a cool spot, Starbucks hear music, "thanks ma".

And I even saved up enough money to to buy my macbook pro.

One of
and to add icing to that cake, my check was miraculously $768.00 , and I didn't even know I worked that much. SO i Definately ordered my macbook....

thanks to fed ex, and their bad tracking.... I order thursday of the week before, and it didn't come till the next friday. Mind you, I paid for 2 days shipping.

Bitches. Im happy now, it is here!!!!!!

Beyonce, Damn. You're so fine

Today, was really weird.

I had one class today, Western Civilization: Honors, and that was all. I was up today watching the recaps from the Grammy's and stuff on youtube, and I was Blown away by Beyonce's perform with Tina Turner, and Kanye's also.

Beyonce, Damn. You're so fine, why can't you make a little version of yourself, and let her be mine.






Im gonna lose some weight, and try to make a pass at her. Ciao.

"Yo You been here a long time?"

Today was okay.

I did nothing but worked today. Mike, the store graphics artist for FTL left today, it was.... kinda sad.

Im gonna miss mike riding down the street smiling half naked on a bicycle. And bumrushing me on the way to the men's restroom.


Damn mike. This sucks man.

---> moving on.


Today at work really sucked, I spent another day bustin my ass baggin groceries and gettin carts. Buck wasn't there so I can't comment on his evil eye... so Idk.

However, Kiimonster was thurr, thank god,I don't know how I would have survived. Kimani *kiimonster* is the freaking best for those who don't know her man, she's funny, she's cute, and she's smart.... gosh why cant all girls be born like that? But whatever, I can't dwell on it.


I met the coolest white boy from Statin Island, New York on my way home. I was waiting at the bus stop, when this guy just walked up to me and said "Yo, You been here a long time?" and his brashness almost made me say, "No bitch, have you been here a long time?" but I couldnt' his smile was too homey. This dude looked like a real Dolce & Gabbana model, and he coulda passed for one if only he wasn't getting on the city bus. But anyways, we started talking about real estate, whole foods, his yacht waxing job, his old ass grandma who asks him for money, and our futures, man he was so damn cool, and good looking too. He said that he would come back up to Whole Foods and fill out an application, he was so eager to work "in the air condition". He made me really feel like that was a luxury.

However, I hope me and white boy can be friends, we clicked so well. All I know is that he's twenty, I didn't even get his name. fuck.... I coulda looked him up on myspace.