Eveybody Fly Tipsy!

To hell with on the job safety! These guys are pros! I mean.. if you can let people launch into space drunk -- doctors should be doing that too! Would be one hell of a surgery, don't ya think?

Too Young, Too Famous, Too Soon

I used to be O.K. with Lindsay Lohan. I enjoyed her movie Mean Girls. I felt she had a lot more honesty in her acting than a lot of other young actresses at the time. Or I guess she was just a lot more likeable than most recent batch of the teen-scream market. I lip-synced to Britney Spears with the rest of America when her first single “Hit Me Baby One More Time” came out. I showed a vague enough interest in Paris Hilton to click on whatever news headline she made during the course of her daily bloopers. I have had my share of this pop cultural addiction. I have taken these girls into my life. I accepted them, even when they did really stupid things. I was humored by their displays of public indecency. But now I just feel sorry for these girls. I can’t ever read the newspaper, or do anything really, without hearing about Paris Hilton and her social life and her jail time, Lindsay Lohan going to rehab, Britney Spear’s breakdown at the OK! Magazine photo shoot. Not surprisingly, people are pretty freaked out on the impression these young women have on their very large, very young fan base. Which is understandable, celebrities do have a scary influence on today’s society. The whole thing is just crazy. These girls are only in their twenties and they have been arrested, gone to jail, rehab and had their lives played out on every tabloid cover from here to Never-Never Land. Over exposure probably has a double-sided effect too. If the general population is influenced by what these young ladies do, imagine how their own actions are affecting them – mentally. This Friday, OK! Magazine’s story on Britney Spear’s very strange photo shoot hits stands. Her most recent ‘socialite scandal’ has shaken the concerned adult commentary machine from its long slumber. In this case, the concerned adults are part of the religious league conscious population who are worried that these starlets acting out creates a negative example for young people. They feel parents need to know and understand how to prevent their children from mirroring these same habits. That goal is totally understandable. I don’t think many adults like the idea of their kids running around, getting DUI’s, going into rehab and doing a wide range of other things parents get jittery over. I can’t imagine living like that. I can’t imagine surviving a life like that. I’m Lindsey Lohan’s age and I still feel like I’m an emotion-crazed teenager – I can only imagine what’s going on in her head. To be a mass marketing icon must take a little bit of your soul along for the ride, not to mention cause some possible irreversible damage to your career. As much as I hate the hype that these girls get for all their strange behavior I do feel really sorry for them. Everyone goes through rough patches in their lives, celebrity or otherwise. That’s the price you pay for celeb-status. Sad, but true. -- Eming Piansay

Too Young, Too Famous, Too Soon

I used to be O.K. with Lindsay Lohan. I enjoyed her movie Mean Girls. I felt she had a lot more honesty in her acting than a lot of other young actresses at the time. Or I guess she was just a lot more likeable than most recent batch of the teen-scream market. I lip-synced to Britney Spears with the rest of America when her first single “Hit Me Baby One More Time” came out. I showed a vague enough interest in Paris Hilton to click on whatever news headline she made during the course of her daily bloopers. I have had my share of this pop cultural addiction. I have taken these girls into my life. I accepted them, even when they did really stupid things. I was humored by their displays of public indecency. But now I just feel sorry for these girls. I can’t ever read the newspaper, or do anything really, without hearing about Paris Hilton and her social life and her jail time, Lindsay Lohan going to rehab, Britney Spear’s breakdown at the OK! Magazine photo shoot. Not surprisingly, people are pretty freaked out on the impression these young women have on their very large, very young fan base. Which is understandable, celebrities do have a scary influence on today’s society. The whole thing is just crazy. These girls are only in their twenties and they have been arrested, gone to jail, rehab and had their lives played out on every tabloid cover from here to Never-Never Land. Over exposure probably has a double-sided effect too. If the general population is influenced by what these young ladies do, imagine how their own actions are affecting them – mentally. This Friday, OK! Magazine’s story on Britney Spear’s very strange photo shoot hits stands. Her most recent ‘socialite scandal’ has shaken the concerned adult commentary machine from its long slumber. In this case, the concerned adults are part of the religious league conscious population who are worried that these starlets acting out creates a negative example for young people. They feel parents need to know and understand how to prevent their children from mirroring these same habits. That goal is totally understandable. I don’t think many adults like the idea of their kids running around, getting DUI’s, going into rehab and doing a wide range of other things parents get jittery over. I can’t imagine living like that. I can’t imagine surviving a life like that. I’m Lindsey Lohan’s age and I still feel like I’m an emotion-crazed teenager – I can only imagine what’s going on in her head. To be a mass marketing icon must take a little bit of your soul along for the ride, not to mention cause some possible irreversible damage to your career. As much as I hate the hype that these girls get for all their strange behavior I do feel really sorry for them. Everyone goes through rough patches in their lives, celebrity or otherwise. That’s the price you pay for celeb-status. Sad, but true. -- Eming Piansay

From the Ethnic Side of the Blog

I wrote this story for New America Media. Pretty proud of it.
(got 871 hits in a day! woo hoo!)

Enjoy

Frontrunners Fumble Youtube Debate

The Kitty of Death

I wonder if anyone freaks out when this cat comes into their room. Though.. at the edge of death... I doubt you would be complaining much.

Young Voters Strike Back -- Via Internet

Monday night the presidential Democratic line up came face to face with the young American voters through the Internet, courtesy of CNN and Youtube. The questions posed by the Internet audience ring true to the current state of a society where the younger generation have had it up to here with the hypocrisy of their government. As the time approaches for the younger generation of voters to “inherit the future”-- this election could be one of those few moments in time where the youth are the ones calling it like it is and seeing through the pretense. This Presidential election could easily be titled “Cut the Crap 2008”. With questions like :

"Can you as politicians ... actually answer questions rather than beat around the bush?"

It is good to see that the youth generation of voters are not as naïve as we are sometimes stereotyped of being. Especially when it comes to hammering it out with the Presidential candidates. Young people, most of the time, say exactly what they think. Which is why debates like these are very necessary in today’s political arena. The youth voice isn’t necessarily something that gets a lot of air play in the everyday world, but the fact that politicians are actually answering their questions – brings out that little cheesy warm feeling in the pit of your stomach. -- Eming Piansay

For the Sci-Fi Freak in You

I was able to catch Sunshine in theatres today, and I must say was probably one of the best sci fi movies i've seen in theatres in awhile. Beautifully done. It is really something that should be seen on the big screen. What I really loved about this movie was the nice mesh of different races. Okay... it wasn't COMPLETELY mixed but it was a different than what I usually expected out of a white dominated acting industry.

I'm Sorry Miss... But You Do Suck...

Being a struggling artist myself I can feel for those who are also artists in their own right. I understand that they put a lot of thought into what they do and that they are trying so very hard to reach an audience on a grand scale. But let me just say this, if you are a comedian at a stand up comedy showcase at an iddy, bitty resturant do NOT whisper "vagina" in my ear, or ask if I'm a lesbian. If you were any good stand up comedian I wouldn't mind. I might even find it humorous. But, if you -- to put it nicely -- SUCK-- chances are you shouldn't be acting like ego-inflated fuck head. And I say that with love.

If someone has yet to tell you, that you do in fact suck, you have really kind friends who love you too much to say, "Hon, maybe you need to find another hobby."

If you suck now chances are you may never stop. You may continue to suck and make a literal fool out of yourself. So please, all you non-funny people out there in the world. Quit while you ahead -- I did, you should too.

Devil With A Conscience (sort of)

This blog may be longer than most because there is just too much ‘WTF’ in the story to simplify it all. The consumer market industry is crazy. Literally. I have never seen a pack of hungry investors crammed into a room before, and I hope to never experience it again. I went to the Ypulse Mashup 2007 conference this week and got a taste of exactly what goes into exploiting the teen market. The first day was pretty much a warm-up for the full day session. Two rooms were in use one for a discussion on music and the other on the psychological workings of the teen brain, I think… I wanted to check that one out but ended up going to the music conference instead. I tried to make a tally in my notes of the ratio between adults and who I thought were teenagers. Almost no teens and almost no diversity – it was the whitest gold room in the world. On the second day when I walked into the giant conference room and saw the seats filled with older women and guys in suits while a Justin Timberlake song being blasted from one side of the room to the other. I figured that the plan for the whole conference was to put all these business driven marketers for teens in a room and blast every popular song off the 40 top pop charts in the past year with the hope that maybe, just maybe being amerced in the teen scene would make them understand their teen consumers any better. Later, four teens on the “cutting edge” of the Internet teen industry were rallied on stage to tell the industry bobble heads what they do to get other teens interested in their online companies. One pod casting teen, who hasn’t had any trouble getting sponsorship from companies made me sink further into my seat, “I talk about global warming and stuff…” she said under the giant photo of her that looks more like a display picture on MySpace. A few of the speakers and people running the shindig were people who were originally journalists, who finally realized marketing towards teens is a biggest cash cow of them all. Truth seekers turned marketers… hip hip hooray. I figured I was bound to learn something during the lunch roundtables. I had signed up for the teen blogging topic. The whole thing turned out to be an ad for the blogging website LiveJournal. The entire conference was basically a two day ad for all these companies who have been successful in the teen market, who were not only trotting out their name but at the same time were saying, “You can get teens to love you too if you follow this formula.” At the end, after lunch, when a small amount of the audience went home was when the companies did their whole very convincing display of, “Even though we are trying to make money off poor broke teenagers, we still have hearts and we use those very small hearts to do very small displays of charity.” Little acts of charity verses full blown extortion. I guess even the devil has a little, itty, bitty conscience. -- Eming Piansay

Blogger's Guilt

So sorry for the ZERO amount of posts lately... summer has been crazy. I promise to get more stuff up this week. Until then here's a video I found very amusing for those who love old cartoons shows.

-eming piansay

The Potter Plague

If there was a book that got kids and adults alike piling into bookstores on the first day of release and makea mad dash for the bookshelves it probably wasn’t as successful as the Harry Potter series. Every once in awhile books get acclaim from various sides of the literary world but none have really had such a large fan base that descends age groups like Harry Potter. It is always refreshing to see a 40-year-old carrying around the Order of the Phoenix on the BART train. But with the new release of what appears to be the final addition to the series, I’m finding myself clinging to denial for dear life. Many non-Potter fans roll their eyes at the devotion that the book brings out of the fans. I don’t necessarily blame them. It is just a book – right? After the release date of final installment came out reality hit me. This was probably the last new book out of the series I was ever going to read. What am I going to look forward to reading after this? I know it sounds nerdy, and a wee-bit obsessive but it is the big finish! The last explosion of fireworks! The reason why some kids actually read. This book got my cousin to read, and she rarely reads anything ever. The fact she actually started reading a 400-page book – I almost fell out of my chair. Once the Potter craze goes away, I’m sure there will be a year or so of withdrawal. For most, watching the final few movies will take off the edge. Some will resort to re-reading all seven books. A friend of mine, who is a more a Potter fan than I am but is a little more optimistic than most said, “Y’know, it is kind of cool that we get the chance to show our kids these books and have them read it for the first time. So they can love is just as much as we did.” And the Potter Plague lives on…

Things That Make You Go : Ugh! Volume 6

There is one thing I don't understand about the way society works. You can get arrested and thrown into jail, and get your rights taken away from you for either having or lighting up a joint but you can get cigarettes over the counter like over priced candy. Even though marijuana has been used to treat medical patients with a wide range of illnesses, it is still illegal -- even though you can probably think of at least five people off the top of your head that have easy access to it. Maybe this is just an old debate that just won't die. Rationally speaking, cigarette smokers, who are doing nearly as much damage to the health of others with second hand smoke and get held accountable for shortening the lifespans of others and as much grief marijuana users. Fair is fair. Right? But profit has always been able to speak louder than fairness these days.