Let The Games Begin.

Welcome Tributes.

Whether you have read all of the books or just went along with the obsession and saw the movie, survey says, The Hunger Games (THG) are the $h*t!! You know you’re obsessed when you hear a bird and think of a Mockingjay or your too scared to finish the third book because how will you live once your finished reading the series? These are all things that I have experienced.

I loved reading these books. Even more so, I loved talking about these books with all of the other THG fanatics.   And by all the others I mean the people who have kept it on the New York Times Best Seller List for 100 consecutive weeks and the people who grossed a total of $155,000,000 its opening weekend. 

These are the 3 symbols on the cover of the novels to the series. 

What’s the premise of the book you ask? Death, destruction, corruption of government and of course love; all the beautiful things we as Americans are drawn towards.  This societal pattern seems a little dark but I guess it’s nice to read about problems bigger than your own real one’s or leave reality for a few hours at a time.  Plus, there is a huge reality television connection here, the District’s “live stream” the Games, which includes all the love affairs and the murdering!

I don’t want to forget that Suzanne Collins released this as a series of young adult novels.  Some say it’s a little violent to be released to this audience but I think it is mixed with a balancing portion of science fiction to keep it from seeming inappropriate.

Something to think of, the books are FILLED with symbolic tokens; small objects  (pins, birds, little white parachutes) that could literally spark a post-apocalyptic revolution. 

The Mockingjay pin, the new symbol of the revolution. 

Houston, We Have A Problem.

How did you find out about the death of Whitney Houston? I know Clive Davis didn’t call and tell you. You probably got a text, read a Tweet or checked your Facebook.  The influx of “Whitney” Google searches shot through the roof and Twitter had a new trending topic. These are the new obituaries.

The death created an instant craze on all platforms of media. Blogs, social media sites, and online news reports were just a glance at what was taking over the Internet.  What I found interesting were the commentaries on Houston’s death and a connection to racism. That prominently  “white media” was attacking the death full steam ahead. I can agree that I think it is insane what the media does over one’s death but I am not so sure about the connection to “white media” placing a target.  This is what the media does to all pop-culture figures, especially one so iconic as Whitney Houston.  

This picture showed up multiple times on my newsfeed.  People mocking death and addiction? #notgood

What is even more discouraging to me is societies inability to engage in productive discourse about drugs. Why are we so surprised every time we think drugs are related to death? This has been happening since the dawn of celebrity stardom. 

The Kony Cure

We know that “information” is one the most essential commodities to our culture, but what happens when information is presented through disturbingly powerful visuals? Well, 50 million viewers in four days are what transpired. “Kony 2012”, a viral-video documenting the creator Jason Russell exposing the “truth” of the Lord’s Resistance Army, or the LRA, led by Joseph Kony in Uganda. Kony abducts children to become his soldiers in his LRA. The LRA is encouraged to rape, burn, mutilate and torture Ugandan civilians.

An Ugandan boy, age 16. Rebels from the LRA abducted him and cut off his fingers,  ears and top lip. 

Russell’s plan is to project Kony into “celebrity” status and make him as famous as possible in order to gain support in the arrest of Kony.  The 30-minute video, in my opinion, was pretty incredible. Beautifully edited and visually powerful, the delivery of the message was touching. A Ugandan boy, Jacob (a friend of Russell)is one of the main characters in this mission. Directly involved in the cause, Jacob escaped the path of Kony, but not without losing his family first.   He says “It is better that you kill us, because we don’t want to stay on earth”. 

The Internet is the facilitator for this mission. Thousands of images have been posted of and about Kony and the LRA. Millions of Tweets and Facebook statuses have been created and discussed. Over 50 million people have now viewed the “Kony 2012” video.

The poster that will make Kony a visual enemy. 

Of course there is always the counterattack community that are calling this a scam of democratic brainwashing, but nonetheless, all of these comments (over 500,000 of them) have been spreading through the highways of the Internet at warp speed. Another characteristic of this day, immediacy, this is our culture. An Internet society that shows strength and support by “likes” and #hashtags.