The Movie Rating System

Have you ever wondered why a guts and gore movie is sometimes rated lower than a sex scene in a love story movie? I most definitely have thought about this, and it makes no sense to me. 

Going to the movies can be an exciting evening out. Being seated in a dark theater and hearing the surround sound while watching the enormous screen in front of you is a ton of fun. I remember how excited I would get when my parents would take me to the movies when I was younger. Watching the previews was always one of my favorite parts of going, and it still is. Watching the previews gave me a reason to ask my parents to come back to the movie theater to see new movies. My parents always used the movie rating system to judge whether or not it would be appropriate for them to take my brother and I to see certain movies.

Now a days thinking back to the way my mom and dad judged movies, I wonder how a sex scene in a movie can be rated higher than a violence movie. I don't agree with the current movie rating system. I don't agree with it because many PG-13 movies have a tremendous amount of violence, guts, and gore in them. How do you expect a 13 year old to handle a movie like that? Movies, like Saw for example, should be at least rated NC-17 or even R. I believe that 13 year old's are still learning about the world around them are just beginning to develop who they are. How can their minds be well informed and educated about the world around them if they are allowed to see people being blown up and cut open? The answer is to this is simple: they aren't. They aren't being well educated with being allowed to see movies such as these and I personally don't believe that many 13 year old's can distinguish reality from fiction.

On the other hand, movies with love scenes in them are a bit more realistic and should not be rated higher than violent movies. Love scenes in movies are a part of life. I don't have any factual evidence of this, but don't most all people fall in love? And won't most all people have a similar situation as a love scene in a movie happen in their life? I believe so. What I don't believe is that people in their everyday life will see someone's body being torn to shreds or blown up. The movie rating system should most definitely be reevaluated.

Better Late Than Never (Bock Blog Post #6)

In Wayne Friedman's article "Hoop Dreams: NCAA Viewers Up 11%"  he talks about how the current March Madness television viewing has gone up. In recent years depending on where you lived determined what games you could be able to watch. CBS, the on-again, off-again conglomerate with Viacom, is the main network to air the tournament.This is the first year that the tournament could broadcast all of the games at the same time. Compared to only CBS that aired the games on their time schedule, the tournament now aired every single game on the following cable networks: CBS, TBS, TNT, and truTV. 


However, because of the games aired on CBS right before prime-time hours, people viewed CBS prime-time shows more than they would normally.

Political Confusion, Part 2

I will never, EVER, understand politics…period.

Back in November during the election, I watched The View almost everyday. And what is the number one topic that is talked about on that show? Yup, you guessed it. Politics. Back in November, the show couldn’t go a day without talking about it. I can’t help thinking back to that month and the election. More specifically, how Pennsylvania elected Tom Corbett the Governor. 

With Governor Corbett putting a 32 percent raise on college tuition and all the other lovely budget cuts he’s proposing, I can’t HELP but be confused!  These budget cuts will be affecting not only the students attending Pennsylvania state universities, but the faculty and staff who make these campuses come to life. 

Didn’t the wonderful people of Pennsylvania elect Corbett the Governor because they thought he would help us?  How is that helping us?  I believe Corbett also said something to the effect that his budget would help the unemployed find jobs.  Riddle me this, how will the unemployed find jobs if Corbett is taking away jobs from the great people who work at our universities?  Seems fishy to me, Governor.

As a fulltime college student, how am I supposed to find the time to read the 1,184 page budget? A budget that could, if passed, affect me and my education in a big way. Governor Corbett was quoted saying, “This budget sorts the must-haves from the nice-to-haves.” What exactly would you consider a must-have, Governor? An education? And what would you consider to be a nice-to-have? A new iPad or a car? Well congratulations Governor, you just brought back my confusion!

Could I be missing something here? Am I at fault for my own political confusion? Is it wrong of me to want politics in simpler terms and want easy answers? I just want to know WHY. WHY is it necessary for Corbett to put a 32 percent raise on college tuition? WHY is Corbett’s budget making my professors worry about their jobs? WHY is this causing chaos throughout my campus? WHY are you putting us through this Governor Corbett?

My political confusion is almost as bad now as it was back in November when former mayor of New York, Rudolph Giuliani, said on The View that Sarah Palin is just as qualified to be president as President Obama is.

Um, confusion? I thought that people took Palin as a joke. Someone who is unqualified. Usually when Saturday Night Live does more than five sketches on you, you know you’re a joke. 

I don’t think I will ever be able to understand politics, whether it be understanding politics in my own state of Pennsylvania or elsewhere. The only conclusion I have come up with about politics is this: there will always be people who DON’T agree with the current governor or president in office and there will always be people who DO agree with the current governor or president in office. There will always be people who DON’T agree with ridiculous budget cuts, and there will always be people who DO agree with them. It is a vicious cycle that will keep spinning forever and always.

So just when I think I have politics all figured out, what happens? Political confusion.

OMG, The Oxford English Dictionary has Entered the 21st Century

OMG! Here’s an FYI so you can LOL! The Oxford English Dictionary has officially added these three acronyms (OMG, FYI, & LOL) to their dictionary. Shocking, I know! The 21st century “lingo” has officially entered the same book as words such as astonishment, explanatory, and humorous.

These times, they are a changin!

Orson Welles' War of the Worlds

Recently in my Mass Communications class we listened to Orson Welles' War of the Worlds radio show. Now I've heard of the movie with Tom Cruise in it and knew it was based on some old radio show way back when, but I didn't know anything more than that. I didn't know of the effect it had on some people; I didn't know of the misinterpretation. It's incredible to hear about how people mistook the radio show for a real live broadcast.

In our Mass Communication book for class, sociologist W.I. Thomas is quoted about his beliefs on symbolic interactionism. Thomas says, "If men define situations as real, they are real in their consequences." In other words, if people misinterpret something and convince themselves that the occurrence is real, then consequences will come to them. We can look back and see how this happened during Orson Welles' 1938 radio show. Even though there was an announcement before the broadcast started, stating that this was a show and not a real broadcast, people still took it as something that was actually happening.

Besides listening to Abbott and Costello's Who's on First? skit with my family, I had never actually listened to an old radio broadcast from that time period. So as I was listening to War of the Worlds I had to constantly remind myself that this was cutting edge entertainment back then. This type of entertainment is what families would gather around their living room radio for every night. To me, the hardest part about connecting with the people who must have felt that this was real was remembering that I grew up in the 21st century. That I have constantly been around loud explosions in movies all my life, and dramatic plots of how a main character betrayed another character. People back then didn't have this type of "high quality" entertainment.

When we were told that people took this radio show for an actual event taking place, I didn't know what to think. People killing themselves and taking cover because they thought martians were invading earth? No way! But then I started to think back to what W.I. Thomas said; about how people can convince themselves of something completely made up, and believe it to be real. When you see a breaking news story on television, what is it that most reporters say as it is taking place? "Again folks, this just happened; This is taking place as we speak; We are doing the best we can to get you all the info as this event is taking place right in front of our very eyes." Stuff like that right? During the War of the Worlds broadcast, reporters were in the storyline, reporting exactly like this. I think it would have been hard to completely break away from the show and say "Once again folks, this is NOT REAL; This is a radio show; Now back to War of the Worlds." But on the other hand, maybe they could have?

What Baseball Means To Me

I was born into a baseball family. My dad says that when I was two weeks old, he sat me on his lap, and that is when I watched my very first Philadelphia Phillies game. Then came the learning of how to catch and throw a ball. And shortly after that, learning how to swing a bat and hit the ball. When my brother was born, my family taught him just like they had taught me. I guess you could say that baseball is a generational tradition that is passed down in my family. My grandfather taught my mom and uncle about the game when they were younger and they then passed their knowledge down to us kids. My mom was born on June 21st, 1964, the day that Phillies pitcher Jim Bunning threw a perfect game. My mom says that that’s one of the reasons why she loves baseball so much. Every year, my grandfather would tell her the story of how Jim Bunning made baseball history on that day; on Father’s day; on the exact day my mom was born.

I never knew the reason behind why my family was so passionate about the game of baseball, until I began to ask them simple questions like, “What is your earliest baseball memory?” and “Who is your favorite baseball player of all time?” It was funny, and rewarding, to hear all of their different answers because everyone’s answers seemed to be based upon generation. For example, my grandfather said his favorite baseball player was Whitey Ashburn and my brother and cousin both said their favorite player is Jimmy Rollins. When I asked my brother why he had chosen “J-roll” as his favorite baseball player he told me that Jimmy had been a part of the Phillies organization for as long as he could remember. I hadn’t realized that Jimmy had been a part of the Phillies ever since my brother first began to understand the game of baseball. My mom, dad, and uncle chose players such as Tug McGraw, Dave Cash, and Mike Schmitt as their favorites because they are Phillies legends. My grandmother and I on the other hand, chose the players Darren Dalton and John Kruk. We didn’t really choose them because of their skills on the field, but rather, well, let’s just say other reasons. My grandmother had the biggest crush on Darren Dalton and I just loved running around the house screaming “John KRUK, John KRUK!”

When I began to ask all of them what the best memory baseball has given them is or was, they all seemed to say they same thing. Seeing the Phillies win the 2008 World Series. When I asked each of them why that particular moment was so special to them, they all said it was because it was something that we got to experience together as a family. All of us might not have been together physically during that exact moment, but in spirit, and in multiple phone calls, it was something that none of us will ever forget. The men in my family, and me, went to the parade a couple of days after the big win. My grandmother says that this is her favorite memory of baseball; seeing us go down to the city together, all dressed in Phillies red. “Enjoying the game as a family, and seeing how much my family loves the game,” she says. “That’s my best memory of baseball, seeing our love for the game being passed down generation to generation.”

I don’t know why, or how for that matter, my family became as superstitious as we are today. Whether it be the socks we wear to a sports game, or the positions of our seating arrangements for a game we are watching. The fact of the matter is that my family is highly superstitious. During the beginning of the 2008 World Series, my family and I all sat down in our family room, Phillies gear on, drinks by our side, and chips and salsa out on the tray tables in front of us. My mom and our dog sat comfortably on the love seat; my brother and I on the couch. My dad sat at the desk chair. For some reason I could not sit still that night. I’m not sure if it was because I was just anxious to watch the game, or just because I had to sit next to my brother. So I decided to sit on the floor. From that moment on, the Phillies began to take the lead, and ended up winning the game. The next night, my dad made us all sit in our same exact seats and my mom made us all wear the same exact outfits we had worn the previous night. In my family, there are no taking chances of losing while being superstitious. Needless to say, I sat on the floor for the entirety of the 2008 World Series.

I will never forget that exact moment when the Phillies won the World Series. When Brad Lidge pitched the final strike and then threw his glove up high in the air. As that glove was tossed up, my family and I jumped up with it. As the glove came down, it landed on top of the players piling on top of one another; hugging and high fiving. My family and I did the same. My dad and my brother were running around the room as my mom and I were crying in happiness (tears of joy of course, which would be another generational trait passed on in our family. Thanks a lot Pop!). Our team had just won the championship and for the first time in our lives, my brother and I got to experience the feeling of victory. We got to share that victory with not only our immediate family, but our family within the city of Philadelphia. For me, it was a great moment, and beginning to the year to come. It was the fall of my senior year in high school; the final chapter of my high school career. What better way for the hometown baseball team to finish out the season then to win it all by taking the title of World Series Champions.

Phillies baseball isn’t the only type of baseball my family knows. Even the movies I grew up to were baseball related. I can’t tell you the number of times my brother and I asked for our parents to put on “Angels in the Outfield.” As we got older, we were introduced to “The Sandlot” and “A League of Their Own.” And don’t forget “Major League!” There was something special about watching these movies that made us feel an even greater connection to the game we loved. In “The Sandlot,” there is a picture shown at the beginning and end of the movie. The picture is of the boys during the summer in which they beat their town’s snotty little league team. The boys are aligned shoulder to shoulder, gloves in hand, and all wearing their favorite baseball outfits. All of them have bright beaming smiles on their faces. Just like “The Sandlot,” my family has a similar picture. My grandmother took it of us right before we drove down to the city for the parade. All of us are standing together, shoulder to shoulder, wearing our favorite Phillies gear, celebrating our city’s victory and sharing our love for the game of baseball together. So when you ask us whether or not we think our Phillies will win the World Series again, we will always smile and say, “It could happen.”