A conversation until 4:00 am with a girl I could formerly not look in the eyes taught me a lot about myself.
You see, the last interaction I had with her I was slapping her new boyfriend square across the face.
She dated the guy that I shared everything short of a last name with.
But, not for long after that.
What I learned from her after that night has changed my life forever.
This story is not a story of love and love lost, rather a story of empowerment.
After our late night conversation I was on a high for the rest of the week.
Could the girl I formerly hated suddenly be one of my best friends?
Is she really that nice?
She had every reason in the world to hate me, but I got only forgiveness and love from her since the start of our budding relationship.
Inevitably, our conversation happened long after she broke up with this boy and was full of lots of tears, honesty and healing.
It seems as though we should have or could have bonded over the common pain that we had endured, but this did not end up being the case.
We ended up filing the friendship void for one another that we realized that we both had.
Both of my best friends had just moved away, and she was going through the beginning of her transitional post- grad life.
We began going out together, watching movies together, and she began to be the girl that I knew would ALWAYS come around when I needed her.
But how did we get to this point?
Honestly, our relationship is still a bit of a miracle in terms of the typical social hierarchy. Our interactions should have involved hair pulling and yelling, right?
Wrong.
I think that what makes our relationship so special is the fact that we realized that strong friendships can overcome anything, start any way and are one of the most important relationships that you will make in college.
No boy or social norm can determine who we can be friends with.
True friendship boils down to the heart- unconditional love, fierce faithfulness and no judgement.
Never forget that.
RISE NEWS is a grassroots journalism news organization that is working to change the way young people become informed and engaged in the world. You can write for us.
Cover Photo Credit: Vanni Bassetti/ Flickr (CC By 2.0)
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A Music Industry Vet Explains How It All Went Downhill And Where He Thinks Its Going
By L.E. Kalikow
To cope with Internet overload, we allow algorithms to sift through and feed us bits and pieces to match our tastes while cosmetically enhanced anchormen (and anchorwomen) spoon up headlines to the tune of tone-deaf sponsors. All this through a multi-tasking world, where a generation pays half attention to work while constantly checking their Facebook pages and tweeting when they go to the bathroom. How does this affect the arts- and more specifically music?
Let’s go back a bit
As a struggling recording artist in the 60’s and 70’s, my ultimate goal was to release an album. Not just a collection of songs, but a unified creation with a theme and purpose. In those years I’d turn out the lights, turn up the amplifier, and sit in the dark for hours, listening to full albums by The Beatles, The Stones, Billy Joel, Elton John, Led Zeppelin, and Jethro Tull (to name only a few). Each with a distinctive voice and sound, cuts carefully sequenced to take me on a journey, from beginning to end.
We needed radio to sell albums, so often edited down to three minutes, the ‘lead single’ had to have a ‘hook;’ a repeated melodic line or lyric to entice the teenage album buyer.
As technology moved vinyl to tape to CD, the ‘album’ remained, but underwent significant changes.
The Disco explosion of the 70’s replaced lyrics and melodies with beats and production, as artists became interchangeable tools of celebrity producers and DJs. To capitalize on this trend, major record companies began to hire multiple ‘name’ producers to work on a single album, and the ‘concept album’ gave way to a collection of often disjointed productions, lacking continuity or artistic integrity.
Analog vs Digital
There was also a subliminal change taking place. When listening to a vinyl album or taped music, you’re actually listening to ‘analog’ sound waves being produced. With a CD, the sound waves are ‘digitized’ or broken up into pieces that your brain then puts together, much like looking at a bunch of colored dots up close, then standing back until you discover they make a picture.
Friends like producer/engineer Rob Fraboni (Dylan, The Band, The Stones, Clapton, etc.) also contend that digital music has an adverse effect on the human body as opposed to analog. Like the difference you feel under the warmth of an incandescent light bulb, as opposed to a flickering fluorescent. Perhaps this explains why I can’t sit and listen to a CD like I once did a vinyl album.
Napster, the beginning of the end
When record companies began suing their own customers for peer-to-peer downloading, the graffiti was on the wall. Like the industrial revolution before, the digital age wiped out the multi-billion dollar record business we once thought recession proof and timeless. But the music didn’t die, it simply morphed into another dimension as the infrastructure built to filter, foster, package, market and sell it disappeared.
Now music exists in an unfiltered internet ocean requiring navigational tools like Spotify and Pandora. And the vestiges of past record companies, co-opted into entertainment conglomerates, now create brands instead of artists, with commercials, soundtracks, and albums produced, not for the music, but to sell the brand.
Reaction vs emotion
And ‘lead singles’ are also still being created. However, no longer 3 minute radio songs , but often just a string of repeating ‘hooks’ designed to catch the attention of the multi-tasking millennial, epitomized by Pharrell’s “Happy.”
As the art of songwriting becomes less important, so do the songs. This is not to say that some ‘brand artists’ like Adelle, Ed Sheeran or Taylor Swift, aren’t fine songwriters. It’s just that, based on the current system, the odds are probably against developing such equally talented songwriter/artists in the future.
So, what’s next?
In the ‘80s, with the bestseller “Megatrends,” later reprieved in the 90’s with “High Tech/High Touch,” author John Naisbitt theorized that in a world of high tech, people would begin to long for personal, human contact.
And at a recent music business convention, I couldn’t help but notice everyone so intent on their mobile phones, no one made eye contact. (No wonder “The Walking Dead” is so popular on TV). Could there be a reaction to this high tech alienation? A few trends indicate maybe so.
First, the amazing increase in vinyl record sales. And it’s not just to Baby Boomers… Last year Millennials pushed vinyl sales to a 26 year high.
Perhaps, along with the novelty factor, some of these kids might actually start to hear (and feel) the difference.
And secondly, sales figures for acoustic guitars last year increased for the 5th consecutive year, topping 1.2 million units sold.
This is not to suggest mobile devices will be discarded by new generation of hippies. But we may well see a push-back against corporate branding to more organically grown artists, perhaps even producing analog music in favor of digital downloads.
And don’t be surprised at a proliferation of small local venues where musicians gather to perform and where the audience actually turns off their phones.
And if one pops up in my neighborhood, you can bet I’ll be sitting in the front row.
or maybe up there playing my Martin D28.
For over 35 years, L.E. Kalikow served as President of Music Business Reference, Inc., as well as a singer/songwriter under production agreements with Chess Records in Chicago and both Capitol and Columbia Records in New York, and as a staff writer for Beechwood Music at 1650 Broadway. He performed as the opening act for artists such as Richie Havens, Eric Anderson, Van Morrison and Jefferson Airplane, among others.
Sex, No Drugs & Rock ’N’ Roll (Memoirs of a Music Junkie) is available for purchase on Amazon and other online retailers on February 10, 2016. The companion Soundtrack Album is also available on iTunes.
Cover Photo Credit: Xavier Badosa/ Flickr (CC By 2.0)
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Working On The Sidelines Of The Porn Industry Is Probably Different Than You Think It Is
By Nate Nkumbu
For many people when they think of the porn industry, they think of actors and actress getting paid to be naked and have sex on camera.
But there is a lot more to it then just that. And for the folks that make one of the largest content industries move, the sex isn’t even important.
Since the rise of the internet, the industry has seen a large amount of public knowledge and even a form of increased social acceptance.
Actors and Actress are well known on the internet and they are part of a massive $97 billion global industry that is expected to continue to grow.
But what about the people working in the industry off camera?
Do they have different views about how the public sees and think of their work?
We set out to find out.
JD Obenberger is Lawyer based in Chicago that works with clients within the porn industry. A veteran of four years in the U.S Army during the height of the Cold War, Obenberger said that he finds his current job to be a dream and interesting.
Photo Credit: stallio/ Flickr (CC By 2.0)
“I’ve always been a person that fought for the underdogs and for people that were less fortunate, so this job has been very enjoyable to me,” Obenberger said in an interview with RISE NEWS.
Obenberger said that despite the popularity, many people still are not comfortable with viewing porn as a legitimate career choice.
This is especially tough for family members of people who get involved in the industry.
“It’s very difficult for a person to come out to their parents and say, ‘Hey mom, I’m going to California to become a porn star’, than say, ‘I’m gay,'” Obenberger said. “You would never admit to your parents that you watch porn, there’s a sense of shame that comes with saying that.”
One such issue is the repression of brick and mortar strip clubs around the country, which Obenberger said is especially common in the city of Chicago.
Obenberger said that it’s often impossible for joints to get licences to sell booze if they have nude performers.
While the internet has fundamentally changed the way most people access and interact with porn, Obenberger said that the technology has not been all good.
“The golden age of online porn was actually from 2001 to 2008,” Obenberger said. “There were multiple website that catered and produce videos to the many fetishes that people had, unfortunately for them, internet piracy was a major thing and often those sites would see their revenue go down as many of their videos would be pirated and uploaded to Tube sites.”
The legal battles over tube sites are still ongoing and could lead to lasting damage in the industry.
Another person that works in the porn industry off camera is Michael Stabile, the Media Representative for Kink, an adult production company that caters to folks interested in BDSM. (Think Fifty Shades of Grey type stuff.)
A former journalist who wrote about the porn industry for 10 years, Stabile said that he finds his job to very relaxing and creative.
“This is the type of work in which you meet a lot of people from various walks of life sexually, professionally, so you’re getting mixed bag of people that you’re working with,” Stabile said.
One of the benefits of working at Kink Stabile said was that outside of his job being really fun and adventurous is the learning experience that comes with it.
“At Kink, we shoot 15-20 times a week,often we’ll have people who’ll be sick, can’t come to work so other’s who’ll fill in,” Stabile said. “In my case, the company needed somebody to do webcasts, so I learned and they even pay for me to get training in video editing.”
Interestingly enough, Stabile said that he most recent experiences with the industry is more of like a film school.
“It’s the type of industry that if you like to help, they are more than happy to give you work and help gain skills that can be applied outside the work site,” Stabile said.
Stabile said that they aren’t that many issues when he talks about his work with friends or fellow journalists.
Often he says, they are just curious about his work.
“They are some conflict that can occur, like me working for Disney and Kink would not fly for example, but because i’ve been working for 10 years in the industry as a journalist then media rep, it was easy for me not to hide what I do.”
RISE NEWS is a grassroots journalism news organization that is working to change the way young people become informed and engaged in public affairs. You can write for us.
Cover Photo Credit: fnogues/ Flickr (CC By 2.0)
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CNN Is Such Shit Now
I don’t pretend to be an expert in journalism. But I know that the 24/7 televised news media in America is a disgrace, with few exceptions. It’s abysmal.
I am a news junkie. My small experience in working for the news department at my university’s radio station has increased my appreciation for good reporting, which is one of the most important things in the world.
In the film “Spotlight”, we see the power of good journalism and the incredibly moral influence it can have. Pursuing the truth at all costs is as noble as it gets. And it’s hard.
Journalists put themselves in danger for the truth. They travel across the world to war zones and third world countries. They hold the powerful accountable. They ask the hard questions. They filter through the noise.
But the days of Walter Cronkite, Edward R. Murrow, Tom Brokaw, Peter Jennings, and Dan Rather (despite how you may feel about the events around his resignation) are over.
The trust between the people and their television journalists is practically gone. And for good reason.
There are obviously still sources of television journalism that have integrity, like 60 Minutes and PBS. But these are no longer the core of the tv news world; it’s now the 24/7 major news channels like CNN, FOX News, and MSNBC.
The problem is, they aren’t really news.
FOX News and MSNBC are partisan and foolish in their own ways. They cater to their base that is politically swayed right and left.But CNN, which I believe tries to be down the middle politically, is the worst of the three.
It’s a shame, because CNN could be the best, but they continuously sell themselves out.
The 2016 election exemplifies this.
Donald Trump is a creation of Tea Party zealots and the media, plain and simple. Channels like CNN have people arguing and scratching their heads, asking how Trump became the presumptive Republican nominee.
They can’t recognize that they have spearheaded the drama that has stuck to Trump like glue and made people attracted to him. For the past year, CNN has become the Trump channel.
CNN will back out of a televised interview with the President of the United States, talking about his Supreme Court nominee at the university where he taught Constitutional law, in order to have more talking heads arguing about Trump for ratings.
Channels like CNN are entertainment channels with a few moments of journalism.
Documentaries on CNN can be informative and interesting. But everything else is straight drama. It’s either Trump, the 2016 rat race drama, or war. Drama, fear, and more drama. Whatever it takes to get ratings.
President Obama, at the White House Correspondents Dinner, said that “Spotlight” was “the best fantasy film since “Star Wars”. He also said “Jake Tapper left journalism for CNN”. There is truth in the humor, and everyone in that room probably knew it.
CSPAN is also the butt of a lot of jokes, but it’s actually closer to what political news should be.
It’s incredibly objective, allows for the voices of the general public, and lets speeches/interviews play out for however long they need to.
Photo Credit: llee_wu/ Flickr (CC By 2.0)
Watching a recent congressional hearing on CSPAN about what to do with Guantanamo Bay was more exciting and informative than anything I’ve seen on CNN all year.
Watching 30 minutes of Charlie Rose discuss politics is more educational than weeks of CNN.
And listening to the populace is more interesting than any campaign spokesman CNN has had on their programs repetitively. Is CNN really hoping for interesting and nuanced answers from spokespeople that are on the campaign’s payroll?
There are times where 24/7 news can be valuable, like for broadcasting primary and election results, and when there is breaking news.
However, CNN ruins this too, because they seem to be in a perpetual state of breaking news.
The clip from a debate the night before is not breaking news.
Breaking news should be saved for rare moments when something is currently unfolding and has profound implications. That’s Journalism 101, Day 1, and it’s also common sense.
The candidates and politicians watch the media. It influences their own behavior in ways that I believe are not always apparent.
For example, I am convinced that the tone and conduct of the Republican debates was largely created by the dramas and tensions of the media. Of course, Trump also had a great deal to do with this, but he is himself little more than a cable personality.
The candidates, above all, are responsible, but the news media should be above the fray instead basking in it. Covering Trump’s tweets for an entire day does not serve anyone- it is lazy and boring.
I am not above fault. In fact, I watch the 24/7 political media because it can be entertaining, and I feel guilty about it.
The Trump phenomenon is fascinating, and CNN knows that.
But there needs to be more integrity, accountability, and responsibility from the 24/7 news networks.
They are more powerful than they’d like to admit.
RISE NEWS is a grassroots journalism news organization that is working to change the way young people become informed and engaged in public affairs. You can write for us.
Cover Photo Credit: llee_wu/ Flickr (CC By 2.0)
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