In an effort to culture my littlest sister’s interests, I recently burned her the CD Riot! by Paramore. Hoping that I can steer her away from the garbage that is the Disney music group and cater her to something slightly more credible. She really likes girl singers, so I thought Paramore would be a good start. So far she’s only thanked me for the CD, but she had a smile on her face thus giving me good vibrations.
Once again we’ll see how this pans out,
Joel Samson Berntsen (Unbroken-Stranglers)
Friday, March 20, 2009
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
The Dynamic Duo
Quick Musing: While catching up on this season of 30 rock on Hulu, I discovered the fantastic duo of Jack McBrayer and Maria Thayer were re-united in the St.Valentine’s Day episode. Remember the awkward newlyweds in Forgetting Sarah Marshall? Yep, they’re back in action, except now Thayer plays a blind woman that Kenneth the Page (McBrayer) falls in love with. It's funny, maybe not as funny as their sex scene in FSM, but still really good.
Check it out: http://www.hulu.com/watch/57668/30-rock-st-valentines-day
Joel Samson Berntsen (Surprisingly listening to the radio. It's not even NPR.)
Check it out: http://www.hulu.com/watch/57668/30-rock-st-valentines-day
Joel Samson Berntsen (Surprisingly listening to the radio. It's not even NPR.)
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Breaking Bank
I don’t have to tell anyone that our economy is slowly coming to a collapse. However, do individuals, like myself, even understand what lead to our current economic depression? I mean, just watch the news, they aren’t trying to explain the problem. They’re arguing over on the various plans and packages that could save us.
Fortunately, there are people that are trying to help that our trying to help others like myself understand what exactly lead to our country’s economy turning into this particular nightmare. Alex Blumberg and Adam Davidson have been recently been added to my personal collection of heroes. They’ve been featured on This American Life and the Planet Money podcasts explaining the multiple problems of our current economy. They recently tackled the current problems most of today’s banks are facing. If you have the time, I highly recommend you check out the podcasts. The following is just an echoing of what they’ve been saying about banking, just in my own words.
The basic rule of every bank is you need two kinds of customers: Someone to invest in your bank and someone to borrow from your bank. For example, the bank will charge the borrower a 6% yearly interest on their loan and give the investor 3% yearly interest for investing in their bank. Banks make their money, or capital, from the 3% difference between the investors and the borrowers and, in theory; everything balances out on the grand balance sheet.
The bank’s got greedy though and started giving loans to whacked out individuals that didn’t or couldn’t pay their mortgages. The balance sheet still has to be even, resulting in evictions of homes and reposing of property and with the recent housing slump the banks are stuck with a house that is of less value than before the transaction. This is called a toxic asset because there was a loss of money on the borrower’s side. The banks have developed a twisted ideology through believing that if they keep the toxic assets until the ailing market recover, they can then turn around and sell it, resulting in a profit and capital.
The wrinkle in this idea is that the two biggest banks in America, Bank of America and Citi, are insolvent meaning that they owe more money than they have. The problem is if they declare bankruptcy it would almost certainly lead to the complete and utter destruction of our economy, which is where the government steps in.
The government is siding with the banks. Mainly due to the fact that if the two biggest banks collapse, so will the economies of the world. Which is why our government buys these toxic assets from banks like Citi, they hope that as the market recovers they’ll be able to.
Too be continued… hopefully
Joel Samson Berntsen (This American Life-Bad Bank)
Fortunately, there are people that are trying to help that our trying to help others like myself understand what exactly lead to our country’s economy turning into this particular nightmare. Alex Blumberg and Adam Davidson have been recently been added to my personal collection of heroes. They’ve been featured on This American Life and the Planet Money podcasts explaining the multiple problems of our current economy. They recently tackled the current problems most of today’s banks are facing. If you have the time, I highly recommend you check out the podcasts. The following is just an echoing of what they’ve been saying about banking, just in my own words.
The basic rule of every bank is you need two kinds of customers: Someone to invest in your bank and someone to borrow from your bank. For example, the bank will charge the borrower a 6% yearly interest on their loan and give the investor 3% yearly interest for investing in their bank. Banks make their money, or capital, from the 3% difference between the investors and the borrowers and, in theory; everything balances out on the grand balance sheet.
The bank’s got greedy though and started giving loans to whacked out individuals that didn’t or couldn’t pay their mortgages. The balance sheet still has to be even, resulting in evictions of homes and reposing of property and with the recent housing slump the banks are stuck with a house that is of less value than before the transaction. This is called a toxic asset because there was a loss of money on the borrower’s side. The banks have developed a twisted ideology through believing that if they keep the toxic assets until the ailing market recover, they can then turn around and sell it, resulting in a profit and capital.
The wrinkle in this idea is that the two biggest banks in America, Bank of America and Citi, are insolvent meaning that they owe more money than they have. The problem is if they declare bankruptcy it would almost certainly lead to the complete and utter destruction of our economy, which is where the government steps in.
The government is siding with the banks. Mainly due to the fact that if the two biggest banks collapse, so will the economies of the world. Which is why our government buys these toxic assets from banks like Citi, they hope that as the market recovers they’ll be able to.
Too be continued… hopefully
Joel Samson Berntsen (This American Life-Bad Bank)
Cramer vs. Cramer
Just some brief thoughts on the John Stewart vs. Jim Cramer episode.
5 degrees of Kevin Bacon and Ellie Wiesel was hilarious.
Cramer: Seemed very pathetic at first. How did he even become famous? Shrunk into a little boy and started to do anything to appease Stewart. He screwed over the public people and his constant stream of apologies and regrets appear some-what insincere.
“We’re not in bed with them.” - The quote has me very concerned.
Best/Worst Quote: “No! Not 2-12!” (Look of panic on face)
Stewart: He was very smart, backed his points, and did his best to expose short selling. Stewart’s on a mission to expose the bullshit of CNBC and cable news. Clips actually showed the true person Cramer is.
“This song ain’t about you.”
“It’s not a fucking game.” – Queue cheering and applause.
Bottom Line: You can’t trust a man who trusts corporations.
Joel Samson Berntsen (Elvis on Velvet-Stray Cats)
5 degrees of Kevin Bacon and Ellie Wiesel was hilarious.
Cramer: Seemed very pathetic at first. How did he even become famous? Shrunk into a little boy and started to do anything to appease Stewart. He screwed over the public people and his constant stream of apologies and regrets appear some-what insincere.
“We’re not in bed with them.” - The quote has me very concerned.
Best/Worst Quote: “No! Not 2-12!” (Look of panic on face)
Stewart: He was very smart, backed his points, and did his best to expose short selling. Stewart’s on a mission to expose the bullshit of CNBC and cable news. Clips actually showed the true person Cramer is.
“This song ain’t about you.”
“It’s not a fucking game.” – Queue cheering and applause.
Bottom Line: You can’t trust a man who trusts corporations.
Joel Samson Berntsen (Elvis on Velvet-Stray Cats)
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Watchman Part 1
It’s hard to write about a movie when you’ve read the book, especially when it’s greatest graphic novel of all time. Furthermore, when there are two categories of people who are going to see Watchman: people who’ve read the book and those who haven’t.
Those who haven’t read the book will, in short, be blown away. At least, that’s what I think. The downside of having the audience’s mind getting blown to smithereens is they might have trouble following the story and understanding what the movie is actually about, particularly with the subtleties that occur throughout the movie. We’ll see how audiences react by next week…
Those who have the read the book will most likely be either content or ecstatic. I just read the book last week so every single difference in the movie was blatantly apparent to me, which, upon reflection, was a bad idea. The graphic novel is a highly detailed story board for the entire movie with almost every shot, angle, or lighting replicated.
There is no way a movie could cover every detail of book and it’s the small details that grab and pull readers into a literary work such as watchman. With many of its parallel and narrative elements and metaphors dispensed to make room for other more important things like characterization and explanation of plot, Watchman is lacking, to an extent.
The cinematography was fantastic, done by the wonderful Larry Fong (He did the first few episodes of lost). Jackie Earle Haley's Rorschach was incredible as he embodied the very essence of Rorschach. Billy Crudup was fantasic and Jeffrey Dean Morgan was a damn fine Comedian.
Hopefully, I’ll write more later. This is just my initial impressions of the movie.
Joel Samson Berntsen (Kodo-Yoshida Brothers)
Saturday, February 28, 2009
‘So… like… that’s pretty cool…'
Several variations of the saying above were spoken in twentieth century as people described various items about their family tree. The lack of public speaking skills in a honors class at the high school level is surprisingly high. Multiple individuals’ hands shook violently as they read from their note cards. A good number of the speakers did not engage their audience resulting with myself along with a quantity of my classmates falling asleep.
Public speaking is the number one fear in America. I’d like to ask; why? What is it about talking in front of a group of people that makes it different from talking with your friends or family?
An experience like that combined with doing a load of research on speech and debate for a news article, I’ve come to the conclusion that speech and debate needs to become a required credit to graduate. Speech and debate not only helps people become familiar with talking in public, but also helps you become more aquatinted with yourself as a speaker.
Thanks for reading,
Joel Samson Berntsen (Kings of Leon-Revelry)
Public speaking is the number one fear in America. I’d like to ask; why? What is it about talking in front of a group of people that makes it different from talking with your friends or family?
An experience like that combined with doing a load of research on speech and debate for a news article, I’ve come to the conclusion that speech and debate needs to become a required credit to graduate. Speech and debate not only helps people become familiar with talking in public, but also helps you become more aquatinted with yourself as a speaker.
Thanks for reading,
Joel Samson Berntsen (Kings of Leon-Revelry)
Monday, February 23, 2009
VW: And I don't want a Jetta
After a single of Vampire Weekend was recommended to me (Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa), I couldn’t resist purchasing the whole album. Vampire Weekend formed at Columbia University, they all graduated, got full-time jobs, and produced their debut album in their spare time. They’re considered alternative/afro-pop/new wave. The following is just me outlining the each track, nothing too special just my opinion.1. Mansard Roof- Lyrically, the song shakes my brain, even if they’re a tad repetitive, the violin adds to the song along with familiarizing the sound of VW into your head. The keyboards are also fantastic, as they are in every song.
2. Oxford Comma- “All your diction dripping with Disdain” is my new favorite lyric. Ezra Koenig vocals narrate a wonderful
3. A-Punk- The pinnacle song of Vampire Weekend. Buy now.
……………………………………
……………………………………
So… I got tired of doing track analysis with less than two and ½ songs in. I apologize.
Vampire Weekend isn’t the newest or freshest band out there, but they display sharp, witty lyrics that actually forces intellectual thinking from the audience. As for the keyboards, bass, guitar, singing, and all the additional sounds throughout the album; Fan-Fucking-Tastic. A melodious tour of college life inter-mixed with stories of escapading women and mystic seaports.
Also, search for their music video’s if you have time. They’re rather astounding, especially oxford comma. T he whole video is one amazingly long tracking shot. It makes my heart of film flutter.
One last reflection, Walcott’s lyrics beside the wonderful violin almost certainly make it the crest song of the self-titled debut album.
Joel Samson Berntsen (Surprise! More Vampire Weekend)
Friday, February 20, 2009
Anticipation
I cannot wait for two movies. Mark that two. Granted there are plenty of films I’d really love to see right now such as Watchman and Star Trek. However, Edger Wright’s adaptation of the Scott Pilgrim series, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, has me wetting my pants in anticipation. Not only is Scott Pilgrim played by Michael Cera, but the film has the best casting I’ve ever seen. Ever. Check it out yourself. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0446029/ .Scott Pilgrim might be my favorite illustrated series of writing I’ve read. I really need to write about it. Moving on to the next film…Last year, while on the holocaust unit in my continuing education, I wondered why no one has ever told a story of Jews fighting and Killing Nazis. I apparently sent a telepathic link to several people in Hollywood because with Defiance recently released it seems that it’s the new thing. With Quentin Tarantino’s Inglorious Bastards being filmed, I am filled with extreme giddiness. One of my favorite Directors, plus Brad Pitt, add violence, and mix in key figures of the Nazi party and you’ve got my attention. I disparately wish it was August.
Joel Samson Berntsen(E18-Deterktivbryan)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)