Reasons Why I Don't Understand Politics #728 - Ames, Iowa

This picture has nothing to do with this post, but I find the ridiculousness of it to be hilarious.

Every political post comes with a discliamer: I don't really understand everything there is about politics. It's grown into too big of a system that it can't work itself out right. The best thing I've heard about politics is what Barry said this week: "There is nothing wrong with our country. There is something wrong with our politics." Makes the most sense in the world. But how do we fix this? Too damn late.

Anyways, this anti-politics commentary revolves around how candidates are determined to run for the elections (which is only 15 months away). From what I understand, the Republicans have a primary/caucus in Ames, Iowa that helps weed out some of the potentials from the idiots (Viva Ron Paul!).

How, how, HOW, can our potential next president be partially determined by a small town, population 60,000? What does that really show us? How does that determine what the rest of the country thinks? Now believe me, I don't want us to have national primary after national primary after primary to help figure out who's real and who's not.

There's no reasonable way for this to be done. The system has become so large and convoluted that it doesn't make sense. Ames, Iowa determines the future of our country, as far as which Republican will move to the next phase of the election - which leads to more caucuses and primaries and bogus run arounds.

Meanwhile, can we figure out how to fix the economy and unemployment rate? It'd be helpful!

Watch The Throne

Monday marked the release of one of the most anticipated albums of the year - the collaborative effort between Kanye West and Jay-Z titled "Watch the Throne." As something that Kanye had been talking about for almost 10 months, it has been on almost everyone's radar for quite some time.

The end result? I'm not entirely sold. It feels like Kanye just wanted to make some wild beats and was begging Jay to lay it down with him. The tracks all sound like something you've never heard before, which is refreshing, but that doesn't necessarily make them good.

It's been a long year for Kanye, who has been putting out free tracks every Friday for the second half of 2010. Some of the tracks were awful. Some were amazing - some of my favorite songs he's ever made. It feels like Kanye just went overboard a bit and carried those overboard tracks onto WTT.

There isn't that one song where I go "damn that's awesome" and listen to it repeatedly for the next 24-108 hours. There are songs that sound good. Not great. For example though, when I listened to "All of the Lights" I think I told everyone how good it was back in November - before it was released in January. And I couldn't stop listening to it. I still can't. I can't stand that the radio version got rid of the bridge - why do radio stations always do that? Are they afraid of the 15 second lull that might have listeners change stations?

The problem is that the expectations were just too high. Both were coming off great albums - Kanye's best, another great one for Jay - and people expect more the same when the biggest guys come together.

Part of what made their last albums great were the guest spots. Kanye's had someone on almost every song. The album just had a flow and this feeling of epic greatness to it. Like we were listening to an experience. WTT didn't do that. It was just Kanye and Jay talking about how much money/success/fame they have. There are a lot of racial overtones, anti-white/government establishments. Typical, but it feels like the suggestions are getting worse with every album. As if Kanye really doesn't understand. Or maybe I'm just offended as the people he's picking on.

Overall, fun album. Not my favorite. I'd rather listen to My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy than WTT. But that also speaks to how good MBDTF was. This is also coming from a guy who doesn't like much hip hop/rap, just the mainstream stuff that everyone likes. Keep that in mind when taking me seriously (or not). Otherwise, I want music with guitars and rock n roll.

Insider a Blogger's Mind

I read an interesting piece in the New York Times over the weekend titled "An Ex Blogs. Is It Okay to Watch?" I found it to be quite interesting. Not so much for the ex-relationship cyber stalking aspect, but thinking about it from myself as a blogger.

I write a lot. Not as much as I wish I did or as I used to, but I share a lot on here. And the thing that I found interesting was thinking that anyone can read my blog at anytime. Anything I've written since I've started. Most of the things I write about are benign commentary about TV or whatever is popular at the time. But it still is a look into my crazy little head. How I think, operate, rationalize, etc.

Over my 18 some months blogging I've heard from people I hadn't heard from in a while talking about how they love my blog or a certain post or whatever. It's intriguing that literally anyone can read this at any point. Old friends. New people. Random people. Potential employers.

When you have a real conversation with someone, you may not always get all your points in. Or you may not talk about certain topics. When you run into someone you haven't seen there is usually the BS "how are you? good!" conversation that doesn't dig deep at all. Yet you can go online and read about whatever has been on their mind.

I don't really know where I'm going with this post, but it's just something I thought I would share with you (the random people who are stalking my life). Carry on.

What is wrong with AMC?

I know very little about the television business behind the scenes. I don't know what it really takes to make a show/movie/etc. The money, the organization, shooting, I know it's a large effort. A 30 minute episode usually takes at least a week to shoot. That's all I know.

So anyway, AMC has been producing quality programming since 2007 with Mad Men. Between Mad Men, Breaking Bad, and Walking Dead, they've got three of the best shows right now in television on their network. Usually that's something only HBO could ever claim. But this small (lame) cable channel which usually only plays old movies 8 times a day pulled it off. The shows are winning multiple Emmy's for Best Drama, Acting, and so on. This isn't happening by accident.

These shows cost significant money to make. Again, I don't know the financial scheme that goes into making these shows. What I do know is that AMC is trying to cut costs to make these shows. They did it a few months ago to Mad Men, trying to cut characters, lowering costs of production, etc. Then they cut production costs to Walking Dead by about $200k an episode (which speculated why show creator Frank Darabont left the show). Now they're taking on Breaking Bad - opting to cut $250k an episode or making the show's fifth (and presumed last) season to 6-8 episodes.

I know everyone wants to save money to make more money of spending less money. BUT -- when you are making an established, quality product, it will eventually cost more to maintain the level of quality. Cutting the costs of a show can consequently cut the quality, which cuts the fans faithfulness to the show.

AMC doesn't really have any leverage here. They have 3 top of the line shows that cost money. It's not like this is a terrible show on CW that is barely staying alive. The shows have all the power because of their critical acclaim, so AMC just looks selfish instead of honoring the shows that made the channel actually worth watching. It's definitely brought in more business and helped boost revenue for the station, so why can't they respect that? What does that say about AMC when future shows consider having their show made by AMC? Might steer them away towards a HBO or something else.

I don't know, it's annoying that shows that so many people enjoy/adore cannot be seen the way it was intended. Shows cost money. Making shows that are critically acclaimed usually cost more money. To keep making critically acclaimed shows costs more money than that. That is business. And AMC is showing their lack of knowledge over business. All this arguing over a few million dollars? You're going to tell me AMC doesn't have it? Their parent company doesn't have it? Can't they charge more for advertising? Seems to make too much sense.

iPhone Switch

Last month I made the plunge and continued my to brainwash myself with Apple products by buying an iPhone. It had been a long time coming. I was hoping to wait until the next iPhone, but the Blackberry was failing me. They battery couldn't last 8 hours. It kept restarting (which took at least 45 minutes, and draining battery at the same time) for some unknown reason. I never really used it for internet because it drained the battery. Everything about it sucked.

So I switched to the iPhone 4. It didn't change my life. Not yet, but it's so helpful. Apps that are relevant. A battery that lasts 24 hours. Everything is just simpler.

My biggest complaint? The keyboard. I've got big fingers. Fat fingers. Whatever you want to call it. Consequently, I miss some of the keys when I hit it. When trying to type for speed, it's not going to win any battles. Between mistyping and auto-correcting (something that messes me up almost every message). I hate the idea of sites like DamnYouAutoCorrect.com but it's so true. Autocorrect makes sense, but it's just not helpful yet. Supposedly it learns the words you say more often, so I've got some work to do.

I'm really looking forward to iOS 5 to see the new developments, because what Apple demonstrated a few months ago looks great. I'm really happy with the device.

Random tangent - I think it's weird to play games on your phone all the time. I've downloaded some of them and screwed around a little bit but I just don't have fun with it. Maybe I'm too much of a hardcore video gamer, but it doesn't do anything. I'd like to think our ADHD doesn't require us to play crappy games to keep us occupied while we're waiting/traveling/etc. I'd rather check Twitter or read an article. Yet you go on the subway and see everyone playing some kind of game. Pathetic.