Good article from the “L.A. Times,” touching on how the Internet has forever altered television viewing habits and what this means for the business end of it:

Television production studio executives long have been wary of Hulu and other forms of Internet distribution, fearing they would lead to increased piracy and destroy lucrative secondary markets, including syndication and DVD sales. But video streaming services offered by Netflix, Hulu and Amazon.com are becoming an unexpected boon to the TV syndication market. By writing checks to license library content from networks, the Internet services are injecting new revenue into the TV business and breathing new life into middling shows.

“The introduction of the subscription video-on-demand platform has broadened the opportunities for exploitation of product in a very positive way for consumers and studios,” said Ken Werner, president of Warner Bros. domestic television distribution. “You do not need to accumulate 100 episodes of a series because 40 hours of programming is a lot, so many of these shows work perfectly well on these new services.”

Something the article does miss, though, is how television marathons and DVD have also altered our viewing habits. We like to gorge now, watch more than just a single episode at a time and lose ourselves in that world for hours. This is one reason serialized dramas such as “Mad Men,” “24,” “Breaking Bad,” and the like are such favorites. These shows are addictive — in the best way.

Yesterday, the wife and I watched 5 episodes in a row of “Sons of Anarchy,” and when a new DVD arrives via Blockbuster of “The Closer,” we usually knock out all four episodes in just a sitting or two.

The Internet is also going to be a new boon for older shows; I’m talking “Wagon Train” and “Father Knows Best”  — the kinds of shows studios probably don’t think are worth the investment of printing up on DVD. But today these older shows can be monetized via a streaming provider with almost no cost involved in making them accessible that way.

The real winner, of course, is the customer. The very narrow distribution filter controlled by a very few (most of them out-of-touch Hollywoodists) is going the way of the buggy whip. The choices we enjoy now will only multiply over time and the ability we now have to program and schedule our own “Must-See TV” is a splendid opportunity to wrestle away control of the culture from the left.

Now that parents enjoy almost unlimited choices, hopefully they will take advantage of that and introduce their children to the kind of television that fits their values instead of some network programmer desperate to brainwash through a personal agenda. Hopefully people will start to discover and rediscover just how good so many of these older shows were.

One of the greatest lies told both about old movies and television shows is that they’re “simple” and “antiquated” in their presentation of good and evil, when the truth is usually just the opposite.

Contrary to what the the left-wing guardians of the entertainment tell you, “black and white” doesn’t mean “dumb” or “simple.”

This isn’t even a partisan thing. If you want your children to grow up advocating for same-sex marriage, program “Friends” into your viewing habits. If you want your children to learn about chivalry, masculinity, and nobility, program “Gunsmoke.”

Right now, very few control the television culture our kids grow up on because very few own all the broadcast and cable networks, and for decades now, that’s all there has been to watch. A casualty of this is what it does to the attention span. After the pop-pop-pop of MTV and “The Simpsons,” it’s awfully difficult to sit the kid down to teach them the real pleasures of a “Rifleman” or the treasure chest of Turner Classic Movies.

In other words, the left not only controls our popular culture but their programming also rewires the brain in a way that ensures the kind of television that does fit our values feels slow and boring to our kids.

The Internet has changed all that. Now you can control the vertical and the horizontal, you can cancel your cable, you can wrest control away from today’s cultural guardians.

It’s a beautiful thing.

One year ago my good friend & songmate, BigDawg, and I decided to launch BigDawg Music Mafia to showcase the many creative ways our fellow patriots are getting engaged in the pop culture revolution, speaking truth to power through their God-given talents (songs, art, blogs, books, photography, poems, radio shows, film, humor, acting, etc).

Today, with 565 members/artists attracting over half a million site hits from around the world in our first year, we have plenty to say and an increasing number of visitors dropping in every day to “hear” us out.  With such a diverse group of artists with a wide range of talent, it is only natural that some of us would find ourselves joining forces on some cool collaborations/projects.

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Our latest project, Get Off the Stage, written by one of our members who goes by the name “Mick”, is described in an electronic press kit he recently released and distributed.  Here are some excerpts:

There is a new wave of protest music sweeping the country, but it’s not coming from the left — it’s coming from the right side of the political spectrum.  A band of New Patriot musicians have collaborated to release a new song entitled Get Off the Stage and it has a potent message for President Obama and other leaders:

“We’re not following your act on Twitter, We’re not fans of your Facebook Page, Your 15 minutes are up, Get Off the Stage.”

 

This song  is a collaboration by artists who believe in liberty and are not satisfied with country’s direction.  All of the artists on the song are stars in their own right who have come together to record a song that sends a clear message to our country’s leaders that real change is needed.  These artists have watched the country’s leaders expand the size of government, rack up huge debt, and ignore its citizens.

The song features Nashville lead vocalist Jana Seantelle whose rich vocals capture the ire that is rising in this country for real change.

Seantelle is joined by artists from a broad range of musical styles ranging from Jonathan Paddington’s searing rock guitar to Lisa Mei Norton’s insightful backing vocals.  The cast and crew of The Big Dawg Patriots is filled out by 99.3FM and 1400AM KQMS Talk Radio Host Alana Burke, Nashville’s Jon Statham, Mick, and the original BigDawg (Andrew) on keyboards.  The song was digitally mastered at Studio Paridiso by Shawn Biggs.

The BigDawg Music Mafia website is ground zero for the New Patriot Sound that is spreading across the country.

Hollywood and the Left no longer have a monopoly on the music industry.  While cool conservative music may come as a surprise to some, the New Patriot Sound is living proof that conservative music is cool.

The Artists

Jana Seantelle – The idea of a female vocalist, a country one at that, came after both Jon and Mick had tried out the song and did not find it fitting their voices.  Jana was one of six female vocalists that responded to the Craigslist and BigDawg postings.

“…I consider myself to be a Jesus lovin’, heat packin’, flag wavin’ AMERICAN!!!  Here is a link to MySpace.  You can hear my voice and get in touch with me if you think I’ll be a fit.  -Jana”

Get off the Stage puts forth common sense and is a great rallying vehicle.  And we really need to rally right now.  I’ve changed from apprehension about getting involved, to action.  It’s like ‘My name is Jon Statham and this is what I believe.’  The time for just being a spectator is over for most people.  There is too much at stake.  One cannot sit on the sidelines anymore — it’s your future that is being decided right now!

I thank the Good Lord every day for giving this movement a true leader.  Drew often says “For me it’s all about the music and the arts, helping others, making them believe in themselves, and encouraging them to get involved.”

Social networks allow me to keep my finger on the pulse of America and it is the voices of the often silent majority that I want to engage.  People from every state are tuning in and most importantly, sharing their voices on the air, in chat, and on Facebook.  It’s true that professional pundits are powerful people, but each and every one of us has the same weight when it comes to voting.

 

As the pendulum swings, its a new day coming, grassroots underground Patriots are moving into the light, one by one, to rescue the land…….,help is on the way! ~ Niner

Why? It’s the culture, smarty-pants.

By “culture,” I don’t mean Washington, DC culture. I mean pop culture.

While the brightest and most talented conservatives pour into DC and pump out one study after another, endlessly debating arcane policy with a handful of other pinheaded intellectuals, the left has been busy consolidating their iron grip on the real reins of power — movies, TV, music, art.

If half the conservatives who pine to work at Heritage or Cato would only turn their ambitions to moviemaking and showrunning, conservatism might have a fighting chance.

As it is, you can move the musical chairs in DC around all you want, but if you don’t recapture the culture — or even a healthy slice of it — you may win a political battle or two now and then, but you’re destined to always play catch-up in the war long-term.

Read the full piece at Big Government.

Louis and his son Hoogie.

When Big Hollywood profiled my music back in November of last year, I got an email from Louis (I thought he was using a stage name). He asked if he could play a song of mine on his radio show “Damaged Hearing”, a 2-hour weekly program on a community radio station in Fort Collins, CO. I hadn’t seen a dime of music sales yet, so purely in the interest of my own vanity, I agreed and sent him an mp3. I tuned in to the station’s live stream while at work, and for the next two hours, I found myself confused, caught off guard. Where was the amateurism? Where was my embarrassment? Why did he know so much about pop culture? He had told me he was a conservative! This wasn’t all an elaborate ruse by an Obama plant, was it?

It was the day of the midterm election; he went through a playlist of politically-themed rock without any obvious, overplayed choices (except me, of course) and plenty of deep cuts, and he launched into a monologue sardonically tweaking Obama and his supporters. He joked about Obama’s birth certificate, not for the easy joke of mocking birthers, but to mock bubble-dwelling progressives who believe that every Republican is and always has been a birther. This wasn’t just conservative comedy– this was conservative comedy that was as funny as anything I was going to hear on late-night talk shows; it was brash, subversive, and unpredictable.  I broke out laughing at my desk and ended up posting a few comments on the Facebook thread he creates for every show.  I didn’t quite understand exactly what I had just experienced, but I knew I’d be back for more.

Since then, I’ve gone from a narcissistic looky loo to a die-hard fan; I changed my schedule and eventually quit my job so I would be available from 1-3 PM mountain time every Tuesday. Waddling to my computer through a minefield of plastic cheese puff bags and off-brand soda cans, I begin the station’s live stream and eagerly await that moment where the gaudy, local indie folk music dies down and Louis’s disclaimer plays. Yes– a disclaimer for a music show.

That’s because Louis is the sole conservative at the station. It’s not an NPR station (it’s totally listener supported), but it’s a non-commercial, community radio station, and for some reason over the years, that type of independent radio has become stereotypically run by the far left. According to Louis, “Community radio is a typically extreme-left medium; just take a look at your NPRs and your Pacificas and all that stuff. I’m pretty much the lone wolf here, and that’s how they’ll describe me if anything ever goes wrong, I bet.”

He stumbled into this position almost by accident in 2001, moving from Oklahoma as a poor Mexican young man who had worked odd jobs to publish his own pop culture magazine called Damaged. “All the zines at the time were personal zines,” he says, “they were diaries of girls with issues and punk guys talking about how much they hate Ronald Reagan and how much they hate cops, and that just wasn’t what I was about, so I wanted to do a magazine that made fun of movies and pop culture and stuff.” When he arrived in the white guilt-infested neighborhoods of Fort Collins, he found he could submit a demo to the local station KRFC, which quickly turned into a (volunteer) gig. Louis adapted the Damaged zine to the radio format and quickly gained a high profile, winning awards, finding a national Internet audience, and raising respectable funds for the station. Yet, some of his co-workers still loathe his very presence on air.

“I spent a lot of time when I was first here just constantly getting my feelings hurt,” he recalls. “Once a person finds out you’re not a liberal or a Democrat or an anarchist, they start talking to you as if you’re not even in the room, and they do things to get you off the air.”  Over time, though he had a natural gift for creating playlists for the DJ portion of his show, he started to deflect the hatred of his coworkers into the content of his show. “I’ll take notes throughout the week, and whatever pisses me off the most I’ll just rant on. I allow my rants to ramp up; I start small, but then I’ll just keep working and working and working and see how far I can go. That’s either A) I get a phone call from the general manager or B) I start laughing at the ridiculousness of how far I’m going.”

And he’s gone quite far, relentlessly mocking the left-leaning denizens of Fort Collins for their hypocritical self-segregation from minorities, provoking death threats from peacenik bicyclists– whatever topic he tackles on a given week, you know it’ll be crude, absurd, and absolutely true. Beyond that, he doesn’t hog the mic. His slew of guests and crazy characters add color and variety to the show; from time to time, he’ll get his dog Hoogie on air, he’ll hear from Barack Obama on the golf course, or his signal will get hijacked by Richard LoCoco, a perfect send-up of conspiracy nut Alex Jones.

Viva la RevoLouis-cion.

There’s much more to say about Louis and his show (in fact, I’ve blogged the entire interview I did with him, cuz it’s hilarious), but really, the best way to learn more about Damaged Hearing is to listen live. If you’re on the east coast, it’s from 3-5 PM today. If you’re in central time, it’s 2-4 PM. If you’re on mountain time, it’s 1-3 PM. If you’re on the west coast, it’s 12-2 PM.

EVERYBODY GOT THAT?

More importantly, his station’s fund drive begins today, and if you donate money (lots and lots of money) during his show, the donation is chalked up to him. As he has to fight for the very existence of his show every week, you can send a message to his Obama-loving overlords, that conservatives do support those who are willing to stick their necks out in the entertainment world and engage our culture by besting the left in entertainment and comedy. So during the show hours only, go to krfcfm.org and click “Donate,” or call 970-221-5075 or 1-866-221-5065.   I’m calling this mission “Operation Chaos: Community Radio Edition.”  Why that title? Just read on:

NPR’s just awful. They’re just awful. And any time we have a meeting, you always get those people who show up at the meetings, saying, “We should become an NPR station! Have you heard Click and Clack? Those guys are just hilarious!” I mean, Ira Glass? He’s like sandpaper. “This American Life,” all those shows? I don’t know how people can listen to NPR– actually sit down and base their whole afternoon around Terry Gross. It’s just the most maudlin, monotonous, boring radio possible. Don’t you want something that’s exciting or really thought-provoking or will piss you off, something that makes you feel life? That’s what I try to do, take everything that’s just horrible about NPR and flip it around and have my way with it, you know?

Have your way with it, indeed, Louis. With that said, vaya con Dios, and may Damaged Hearing live long and prosper.

Like many other teenage girls, Olivia regards the fight for female equality as over. “In the Western world, we’re pretty equal,” she says. 

She has every reason to think so. Going to university is a given. So is having a career—perhaps in business or maybe medicine. She’s surrounded by smart, independent women, including her mother, who holds a Ph.D. in education and is the director of LINCWell, a student enrichment support centre at St. Clement’s girls’ school in Toronto.

Yet Leanne Foster, whose position puts her in the daily orbit of the age-old divide between teenage girls and their mothers, is not as sanguine as her daughter about female equality. She sees a unique generation gap emerging: on one side, mothers who came of age during the women’s movement of the 1970s fighting for equal opportunities, “empowerment” through financial independence and rejecting female “objectification”; on the other, their daughters, raised in a hyper-sexualized culture replete with Bratz dolls, porn-inspired American Apparel ads, and the message telegraphed by Kim Kardashian and her tabloid-cover cohorts that a leaked sex tape is the quickest route to female success.

For these girls, Snoop Dogg’s misogynist Bitches Ain’t S–t is not an affront but a ring tone, and “slut” and “bitch” are not put-downs but affectionate greetings between female friends. Snooki, the 22-year-old star of the reality show Jersey Shore, whose ambitions consist of getting drunk, vomiting on camera, and spending days in a tanning salon, is the star of the hour. “I love Snooki,” says one 20-year-old. Olivia agrees. “It’s so ridiculous, it’s funny,” she says of the show. “I don’t relate that to my life at all. I wonder, ‘Why would you do that?’ But it’s enjoyable to watch.”

Meanwhile, their mothers, who walked in Take Back the Night marches to raise awareness of violence against women, are horrified, particularly by the sight of Snooki getting punched in the face by a man—footage used by MTV to promote the show.

Some of them see a clock ticking backward. “It’s worse than the 1950s,” says the mother of a 24-year-old, referring to the ubiquity of Photoshop and cosmetic surgery creating beauty standards more unattainable than ever.

Read the full article here. Over at The Daily Caller, Caroline May recently touched on the subject, as well.

Starting next week, Big Hollywood will run a series on this very topic and further explore how popular culture, with the help of misguided feminists, has turned feminism into something perverse. Let’s face it, this idea of empowerment through female sexualization is a dream come true for every male eager to treat women like a pieces of meat.

Original Source: 2006 Mug Shot

Original Source: 1971 Mugshot

Oriignal Source: 1975 Mugshot

Original Source: 1976 Mugshot Photo

Original Source: 2003 Mugshot Photo, Artwork Size: 19″x 29″, Medium: Mixed Media.