Final Obama Obervations, Realizations, and Revelations

Image courtesy of Google Image Search, 2010

Going back to the 2008 election, the image of Barack Obama presented by the soon-to-be Obama administration was something so radically different from anything we as a people (under a democratic electoral system) had experienced before. We were in awe of it and surrendered our wills to it. Whether it was Obama’s physical appearance, his “marketing” strategies, or his political platform that eventually won over the voters living in America’s major cities, Obama had something that we craved.

Obama’s calm tone, polished figure, and excellent vocabulary, all factored into making him America’s next president. These were not the only key factors, his unique campaigning/advertising/marketing strategies also played an integral role in Obama’s success over Clinton and McCain in 2008. Now this is beginning to sound like our president is more of a celebrity than a political figure, this is not an unheard of ejaculation. Obama faces constant criticism asking whether he is actually planning on “stepping up to the plate” and taking action, or simply allowing his staff members to take the wheel while he fulfills a more social role.

1. The “Obama Brand”

Obama was elected in part, because he was exactly what American’s wanted, or at least thought they wanted. We had had our fill of the chimpanzee known as G.W. Bush parading around the White House and the people were looking for someone more suited to the position, someone different. With inspiring posters like,

Images courtesy of Google Image Search, 2010

American's were in love with Obama and all that he promised for America's future.

Barack Obama was young, he was composed, he was new, he was different, he "promise[d] to restore "hope" with a practical "get things done" approach to policy and a therapeutic sense of "unity" binding Americans in a "common destiny and dream (Street, Barack Obama)." America may "be ready" for a Black president, but McCain, old and decrepit, and Hill-dog (Hillary R. Clinton), a woman were no match for him.

2. Baby, There's No Other Superstar, Obama As a Presidential Celebrity

Image courtesy of Google Image Search, 2010

A renowned writer/editor for Newsweek and The Washington Post named Robert Samuelson wrote in his article titled, The Obama Infatuation,

“The Obama infatuation is a great unreported story of our time. Has any recent president basked in so much favorable media coverage? Well, maybe John Kennedy for a moment; but no president since.”

He then goes on to say, “On the whole, this is not healthy for America.”

As a student in academia during this time in America’s history I have been provided with a number of invaluable experiences and opportunities to witness and in some cases take part in the electoral process. This said, in the grand scope of America’s history, the election process has changed drastically from the time of Theodore Roosevelt traveling cross-country via train to promote his campaign, to today where Barack Obama has his own Twitter feed that you can follow (I know I do)*.

What does this say about where we get our information, let alone such important information as pertains to electing our next president, the commander-in-chief. Where once, reading the daily newspaper (sometimes there would be a “late edition”) or listening to the radio would be a person’s only outlet for news media, now we have simultaneous live news broadcasts, and Twitter feeds, and things like Foursquare. When we want to know something we consult the “all-knowing” power that is the Internet. Censored 2011 made the observation, "daily newspaper reading in the US has declined from 58 percent in 1993 to 34 percent in 2008 (356)."

*Here's Senator Bernie Sanders, and Vice-President Joe Biden, too!

3. Disregard Females, Acquire Currency

Image courtesy of Friggenrandom.com

While still in the process of running for the office of President in 2008, Obama made a point of making it clear that he wanted to achieve victory over his opponents without any funding or assistance from the Political Action Comittees (PACs). Obama is quoted as saying, "'Washington lobbyists haven’t funded my campaign, they won’t run my White House, and they will not drown out the voices of working Americans when I am President (13, Street).'" However, as word leaked that Obama had actually accepted a large sum of money (allowing him to declare millionaire-status before he was elected) from heads of large corporations and companies, he bought a 1.6 million-dollar home, and his approval ratings dropped.

Image courtesy of Youtube.com

Or has it, Barack Obama is still a hot commodity, I mean all these attractive women subscribe to his Youtube channel, that's gotta be a good sign, right?

4. B-Obama v. Hill-Dog, FIGHT!

Where the battle between Senator McCain and Obama was what really held people's attention (as far as election coverage goes) later in the "election game," the opposition of Obama to Hillary Clinton also proved an interesting choice for the American people to make. Both of these qualified candidates has experience, they were both considered to be underdogs (due to gender and race), and they both had past relevant political history. The difference was in how they were presented to the people, where Hilary sought to portray a stronger female role and create an image in kind, they came up with something like,

Images courtesy of Google Images, 2010

Just looking at these two faces, Hillary is tense, shoulders forced back, an uncomfortable smile, harsh focus and lighting. Whereas the adjacent picture of Obama is like a completely different president in a completely different setting, his skin is clear of wrinkles or shadows, his smile is almost natural but relaxed, and there is nice depth of field to show how close he is to you the viewer.

"His [Barack Obama] real positions on Iraq, empire (more broadly), health care, energy, and trade might actually be centrist and even in some cases quite conservative, but his rhetoric and image have been carefully crafted to tell progressively inclined primary voters that he is one of them (Street 167)."

5. Obama as Entertainment

Image Courtesy of Vibe Magazine, 2010

In the 2008 Halloween edition of the Huffington Post, David Bauder, in an article called "Study: Media Coverage Has Favored Obama Campaign," is quoted as saying, ""For whatever reason, the media are portraying Barack Obama as a better choice for president than John McCain, If you watch the evening news, you'd think you should vote for Obama." Where the majority of people still find their principle news source in the mainstream news-media and it is this dependence on mainstream news that, as Paul Street says in Barack Obama and the Future of American Politics, "Among the leading media outlets that gave Obama fawning cover-page publicity during his time in the U.S. Senate and on the presidential campaign trail over the past three years were Time, Newsweek, GQ, Men's Vogue, Marie Claire, Washington Life, and Vibe (Street XIX)." The fact that most Americans get their news media and do not question a thing they hear because it is on the news, makes us all the more susceptible to their tricks.

6. Obama like You and Me

Obama used his beautiful speeches, calming demeanor, and lack of political history to inspire and gather a following of people. Obama had achieved "Plain Folk Appeal," in that he had gotten the approval of the "John Everyman" and was using it to ensure his election into office. Obama used this approval to make himself seem more appealing and ultimately better suited to the position of President than McCain or Clinton was at the time. Obama's goal as far as gaining endorsement was, "…for a political leader to get things done, he or she should ideally be ahead of the curve, but not too far ahead (165, Street)." Though it certainly doesn't hurt when only a 16% margin of all media coverage on you is negative.

7. Questioning the "Blackness"
The President has come under a lot of flak during his time running/in office as the result of his heritage. Where Obama spent so much time trying to make us think he was one of us (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBXyB7niEc0), his skin tone told us one thing, while his policies and actions told us something entirely different. The color of Obama's skin distracted many black and white voters from key issue and blinded them with the issue of racism. Not only on the side of the supporters but also from Obama himself. Where Obama normally is in full-support of the African-American in America today, he is also tough on the issues of welfare and justice in the community which irks some.

8. Calm, Cool, Collected Obama



Whether it's his beautiful(ly composed) speeches, his finely tuned image, or simply the fact that maybe he is doing something good and right for America, Obama is unlike any President in history. As Paul Street notes in his book, Barack Obama and the Future of American Politics, studies showed that Obama only had a 17% disapproval rating from media outlets, while John Edwards got 36% and Hillary Clinton with 38%. Not only was his approval rating the highest of all participating in the 2008 election, but McCain's attempts at "negative coverage" only made Obama look better and brought more people to his side.

9. Obama Isn't As Funny as the Last Guy...

Or is he (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSuWu86oeRw)?

Where for eight long years our country suffered under the Presidency of George W. Bush and all the incompetence that came with it. In order to deal with such a fantastic level of stupidity and bullshit, American's developed a craving for a new form of entertainment. Our network news was becoming too polarized and all the issues tended to have a specific party or group alignment, making it all the more unpleasant to even watch the news in the first place. So, we created something different, or at least John Stewart and Stephen Colbert did. These two performers/news anchors have changed the way most people get their news to allow for a couple of laughs along the way. Paul Street is quoted in his book as saying, "Once he (Obama) attained dominant media favor, this coverage became perhaps the critical driving force behind the Obama phenomenon (178, Street)."

10. Final Revelations and Conclusions

Image courtesy of Google Image Search, 2010

Obama's election to President of the United States of America has done more to facilitate an overall change in the way that we as American's live our lives than any President before him. Obama has made it "cool" to be interested/involved in politics, in such a way as it completely alters the whole process from being something that people hear about on T.V. to something that they can take part in on the Internet or elsewhere.
“The Obama experience has encouraged and extraordinary amount of new popular engagement in the political process, sparking millions of Americans to overcome their endemic disgust with politics and their sense of powerlessness with the U.S. sociopolitical order. One chant frequently heard at Obama rallies- “Yes, We Can”- is not to be taken lightly (204, Street)."
Then it's not just Barack, it's his whole family. Whether it is any number of magazines that examine what Obama is up to or if they are focusing more on Michelle or the kids and their dog, the whole Obama family unit is now always in the spotlight.

The Revival of Classic Hip-Hop and Beat Culture in Contemporary Society

Speaking from my experience in coming from a little town in central Massachusetts called Westborough, I kinda grew up having a strong distaste for Rap and Hip-Hop. When I thought of those words, songs like Nelly's "Country Grammar"...

2000 Universal Motown Records, a division of UMG Recordings, Inc.

and Ja Rule's "Put It On Me"

Murder Inc/Def Jam Records 2000

Were not exactly at the top of my "most listened to" list on iTunes. Where 4 years ago this time I was listening to things like, The Blood Brothers (disbanded)

"Live at the Apocalypse Cabaret"

V2 Records, 2004

and Against Me!'s "Disco Before the Breakdown"


For whatever reason the style of music just didn't resonate with me, that is until recently. Through assorted experiences and influences I have been able to find and learn to appreciate a whole aspect of the hip-hop culture that I never before knew existed. Then, to top it all off, it seems like a lot of other people are having a similar experience right now. The more I listen to "new" hip-hop, the more I see how much of it is composed of bits and pieces of other songs (hip-hop or otherwise) but put to new and different uses to create a new sound.

There is a web-site that I have begun to familiarize myself with called, WhoSampled.com. This site is comped of a constantly updating and expanding library of information pertaining to, as it's name suggests, who sampled? For example, take the song by A Tribe Called Quest, "Can I Kick It?"

Jive, 1991

Recognize that bass-line? Well, head on over to WhoSampled.com and under the Tribe's profile page, you scroll to the appropriate track to see a short list of the songs sampled. Taking the next step brings you to a page with two youtube video's side-by-side and information above each telling you where each respective sample can be found within the master track. Spending a considerable amount of time on this site is not a challenge in the least. I personally find it incredibly interesting how much music is out there that I just wasn't aware of, these guys found it on vinyl, and somehow composed these new, unique, and enjoyable beats for a whole new generation.

Lastly, with the help of 8tracks.com I have composed a little playlist for y'all of some tracks and the songs they sampled (or vice-versa), enjoy!

We aren't so different, you and I: The U.S.'s secret love affair with the Taliban

So, for those who haven't seen it yet, that was the conclusion to last weeks episode of South Park (aired 10/13/10). The episode itself dealt with vilifying everything that is or is represented by the state of New Jersey, specifically the "reality" television show on MTV called "Jersey Shore." It get's down to the wire when Randy and the gang have been turned down by all their allies in the fight against New Jersey when they have the brilliant idea to turn to their enemies for help.


(South Park Studios, 2010)

That's right, the boys turned to Osama bin Laden and the forces of Al Queda to come to the rescue of the United States. Suffice it to say the end result involves a fleet of airliners (747's or the like) crashing into swarms of Jersey "guidos," (offensive imagery much?). The American view of the Arab, let alone a member of the Taliban or Al Queda is twisted to a great extent by the mass media which influences our perspectives more than we are able to control or comprehend in some cases.

What we don't realize is that we are the ones who ultimately put these people into power and we are fighting to keep them in control as far as their separate microcosm is concerned because it allows us to keep a "stronger" hand on the wheel and control the conflict to work to our advantage. Whether it is something on the smaller scale like U.S. former-C.I.A. agents paying off insurgents for protection, or Afgani figure-heads assisting American troops in the transport of valuable materials, etc, behind the scenes the United States and the Afghani people are all working for the same goal, to make money.

Even still, people are just starting to notice that something is not right with this whole image. as the source article points out,
"Both the New York Times and the Washington Post have covered part of the story on their front pages. Both mentioned President Hamid Karzai’s cousin, and both acknowledged that in all likelihood money is making its way to the Taliban. Neither paper mentioned the US connection..."
So as much as we are willing to open our eyes to the concept that our government might be acting inappropriately, and our media is lying to us about it, we are really still hesitant as a society to see the whole truth behind the situation and more importantly accept it.

Midterm Reflections...already?

October 2010, personified

With the mid-point of this (my second-to-last) semester here at Camp Champ I am sure I am not the only one with this pumpkin's expression on my own visage. I can honestly say however, that through the teachings of Doc Williams and the overall atmosphere in the classroom, I have been able to thoroughly enjoy myself whilst in the cozy confines of the Ireland building each Monday and Thursday.

Through the seemingly relentless repetition of particularly important material, the introduction and application of new tools, certain arguments pertaining to Postman/Carr/Cascio, etc, have made the issues we are confronted with (media being omnipotent) as something more real and even tangible. We are provided with such a variety of readings, blog postings, and pop-culture references at our disposal we have been able to see how the aforementioned arguments are not only pertinent, but how they are applied. To me, that is what really makes the material stick. The fact that what we are being taught isn't just spoken at us, but utilized in the classroom environment in new and entertaining ways that stick out in our memories.

I can honestly say that there aren't many things that I would change about this class if I could. I sincerely enjoy the discussions that we have and the way we all interact with one another. If I were to change one thing though, more group work, the way that's been working so far has been spot on (This sorta addresses 4 & 5).

In looking back at this first half of the semester (it is tough to not look as far back as freshman year, 3 years ago...), I find that I am able to look at a lot of media presented to me on a day-to-day basis and see it in new and different ways. Through various assignments we have been asked to not only look at what media says, but what it doesn't say, and how that causes us to react. Whether looking simply at what part of your brain is affected by your favorite scene in a movie or favorite song is one thing, but to look that much deeper into everything that comes as a result of those things. The marketing for selling the product, planting the image/sound in your brain, and subconsciously(?) making you crave whatever it is that is being sold to you.

Lastly but not leastly, as far as the books/power tools are concerned, The only book that I really didn't care for was Feed. The use of the modified language, the hyperbole of the whole story made it really difficult for me to enjoy. To me it seems more like a book aimed at a lower age demographic. Aside from that, very pleased, the information is relevant, applicable, and enjoyable. Can't wait for the rest of the semester.

-G

P.s. In honor of the Ghostface Killah Concert tonight (10/18/10), please enjoy

(From the Pretty Toney Album, 2004)

Camp Champ Radio Spot: GETCHO FEED ON DUG!

Hey, do you like being left out, being meg boring? Do you like lugging your laptops, cell phones, and mp3 players around all the time?

You don't have to anymore, you've worked hard now let Feed work for you. It does everything so you don't have to.

Just think, you're dying to hear that new Justin Bieber song but you don't have it on your mp3 player, and it's just not on the radio. Just request the song on your Feed, and just like that it plays!

Quendy and Titus love their Feeds...

All my friends have the Feed, I love my Feed, it's so meg brag.

Don't be weasel-faced, get a Feed. A Feed will make all your dreams come true.

And now with this limited time offer, when you buy your first Feed, you get your second Feed half off. Hook up your entire family, today. Feed your family, Feed yourself, Feed, when everyone has it, no one goes hungry.

*Side-effects may include: headache, dizziness, chest-pain, loss of appetite, hair loss, and memory loss. In rare cases, the Feed could malfunction fatally, it could improve your social life and make you illiterate. User experience may vary.

Personal Blog Posting #2: Family Guy: A Lens into Pop Culture

Alright guys, I am gonna try and open the discussion on something that has been on the tips of everybody's tongues for a long time now, Seth McFarlane has managed to turn his ever-popular television series Family Guy into a means of expressing his appreciation for well, things he likes. Even after it was canceled it was brought back to television by popular demand and has since taken over as one of the most watched shows on the air.

Whether it's his love for musicals and Broadway...


A recent popular film...


Or another equally classic television series...


There has never really been an animated series like it before. Family Guy and it's creators have done more to cause a major epistemological shift in television in comprising the bulk of their show with cutaways, flash-backs, and scenes completely unrelated to the story (if any) present during each episode. You would think that this would cause an outcry amongst viewers, but quite to the contrary it's ratings continue to sky-rocket and the show's popularity increase.

First Personal Blog Posting: Facebook...a nation?

So as part of a discussion had in class with Rob Williams at some point in the earlier weeks of this semester, it came up that Facebook is the largest "nation" in the world. Utilizing the ever popular tools of StumbleUpon and Digg in my regular internet adventures, I found this map which really helped to drive the point home. Then, it has been flodding the television and internet lately, but I remember seeing the trailer at some point last month for David Fincher's (Se7en) newest work The Social Network which claims to tell the story of Mark Zuckerberg, the "creator," his time at Harvard, and how he created this mammoth of a website and made it one of the most visited websites on the Web 2.0. In looking at Fincher's recent work we see that this film is anticipated to be in the visual style of one of Fincher's other works Fight Club (based on the Palahniuk novel by the same title) and is highly anticipated. I know I was planning on seeing it at some point. Whether I see it in theaters or wait till it comes out on dvd, we'll just have to see.

I was able to find a particular version of the numerous trailers circulating on the web and youtube and found this one in particular to be one of my favorites. The music is a cover of Radiohead's song "Creep" performed by Scala & Kolacny Brothers I've provided the link to the track here, but I think that it was very adequately purposed in the trailer for the upcoming film.



what did you think?

Hello Apollo, where shall I begin?

Good evening...or morning, or afternoon for that matter.

Hi there, for those who don't know, my name is Geoff Klane and it is a pleasure to have you here with me. I am a twenty-one year-old senior at Champlain College in Burlington, VT (Vermont) studying Digital Film Making. I have had the pleasure of living in this beautiful city for the past three years and to be honest, I have no intentions of leaving anytime soon. Pleasantries aside, I enjoy watching movies, listening to pretty much anything (aside from Country, Western, or Country/Western), I love biking, snowboarding, kayaking, rock-climbing, and last but not least, cooking.

My whole experience in living here, going to school here, working here, and most important, forming relationships here, have provided me with a singularly unique opportunity which I am ultimately thankful for. My goal in the creation of this blog is to provide you, the reader, with a look into exactly that which the title states, Klane's brain train. Not only that, but it will give us all, myself included, the chance to converse and build new and meaningful relationships that might have otherwise fallen by the wayside.

I look forward to anything and everything that this blog will come to offer you and me in the coming weeks, months, maybe even years. Man your jackhammer, man your battle stations, and let's do this thing!

-Geoff