BIG MONEY

These days it seems like all the internet celebrity gossip blogs (Defamer anyone?) are talking about where the Hollywood bigwigs are throwing their money for the upcoming presidential election. Will it be Hillary or Obama...or maybe even a Republican candidate hiding in there somewhere? I checked out opensecrets.org to see where the big bucks in the entertainment industry have been going lately.

Producer and Imagine Entertainment co-founder Brian Grazer has been a staunch supporter of the Democratic Party, pouring money into the campaigns of John Kerry, John Edwards, Barbara Boxer and the Democratic National Committee Services Corp. Another interesting thing to note is the presence of donations to Republican Senator John McCain, although there is a chance that this is a different Brian Grazer since the address corresponding to these donations is one in Beverly Hills (as opposed to the Encino address used for most of the other donations). So either Grazer decided to give a Republican a shot at one point in time or there's another Brian Grazer who makes his living as a (Republican-leaning) producer living in Beverly Hills.

Steven Spielberg and his wife, actress Kate Capshaw, both made significant contributions the Democratic Party and Democratic candidates. Mr. Spielberg has dumped hundreds of thousands of dollars into a Democratic National Committee non-federal individual account while his wife has put money forth for candidates like Tom Daschle, Hillary Clinton and Walter Mondale.

Disney CEO Bob Iger has made some interesting contributions in his time. Following the trend of his fellow Tinseltown bigwigs, he donated $5,000 to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in 2005. He's also put money towards California Senator Dianne Feinstein and Senator Hillary Clinton. Iger must love his own company (or has some ulterior motives here) because there are several instances of him donating money to the Walt Disney Company. Debts to pay off? Trying to win someone over? Who knows...when you're throwing bundles of $5,000 like that around you have to wonder a little bit.

It's still too early to tell whether Obama or Hillary is going going to win over the entertainment industry. Even so, taking a look at where Hollywood has donated to in the past might give us a better idea of who's going to get the backing of Tinseltown in 2008.

PROS VS. JOES

I'm not going to deny the fact that, as a broadcast journalism major, I might be slightly biased when it comes to comparing a professional news broadcast to any video you might find on the internet. But that isn't to say that I don't have an appreciation for the kind of video work people like you and I are able to produce from the comfort of their own homes.

The other day I stumbled across an intriguing short documentary piece on youtube.com about the history and use of a particular drum beat that has been featured and sampled in everything from commercials to jungle club songs. I'd venture to say that anyone who has done so much as watched TV or listened to the radio for more than a day has heard this particular beat but never really given much thought to where it actually came from. The 18 minute mini-documentary is chock-full of well researched facts and audio samples of the drum beat in its many different forms. What it lacks, however, is the visual appeal that can be found in most professionally made documentaries. Most shots revolve around a close up of a record on a turntable and the narrator (whose face is unseen during the whole piece) walking around a sparsely decorated room. I suppose it does have its artistic value but for me it didn't have the kind of visually grabbing appeal I like to see in a piece like this.

I still have to remind myself that visual appeal isn't everything when it comes to making a good video. Another film I happened to come across on youtube was a person's recording of their blues home performance on a slide guitar. There was no dialogue in the piece and the camera stayed stationary the whole time, fixed on the neck of the guitar looking down towards the fingers of the player. But the music in the video and the almost hypnotic motions of the player's fingers sliding along the guitar strings were enough to keep me watching/listening the whole way through. The video exists only on the most basic levels technically. However, in my eyes this is perfectly acceptable, mainly because without videos like this one, many talented individuals would never never be able to share their fascinating abilities with the rest of the world.

Of course, I had to compare my analysis of internet videos with those of a professional news broadcast and for that I turned to my favorite network, NBC, to watch their nightly news program. While some people might say TV news can get impersonal and stuffy I have to disagree with them. When done right, the TV news story can be one of the most emotionally appealing and informative things you'll ever see on television. Two of NBC's stories caught my attention because of the way they exemplified the versatility of broadcast news. Reporter Mike Taibbi covered the difficult subject of more troops heading to Iraq by tracking the story of three soldiers heading to Iraq. Taibbi provides insightful and interesting narration, the NBC camera crews do a great job of showing the viewer the ins and outs of these soldiers' lives through creative shots and camera angles, and direct SOT quotes from the soldiers themselves provide the viewer with the kind of emotional pull a story like this needs. It is easy for me as a viewer to stay interested in the stories of these soldiers' lives. This piece is the first part of a series and although the second installment has yet to come out, I will be sure to try and watch it when it does.

Another story I happened to catch on NBC was a feature about a whiskey distillery George Washington opened at his home in Mt. Vernon after he retired from politics. The fact that I didn't realize that Washington had ever done this was enough to make me want to watch the piece but even still, NBC did a good job of keeping me interested. They shot the story at the distillery itself (which has been recreated by representatives from the liquor industry) and were able to talk to many master distillers about the impact Washington's business actually continues to have on the liquor industry today. NBC's ability to find stories such as this one and do an excellent job of reporting on them is enough to keep me watching the network day after day.

My final conclusion about internet and television news videos is what can be expected...I like the TV ones better, simple as that. A lot has to do with their professional look and reporting and also the fact that a major network like NBC has incredible resources to make their stories look that way on a consistent basis. But that isn't to discount all internet videos. As we have seen in the past, sometimes a video that originates in the most obscure corner of the internet can generate enough buzz to land it a spot in the evening broadcasts of all the major networks. That just goes to show that when you get down to it we're all going after the same thing: telling stories that people will understand, enjoy, and take to heart. It's just up to you to decide how you want to do it.

A LOOK AROUND

Thanks to the Super Bowl I'm back home in San Juan Capistrano this weekend visiting friends, family, and testing my body's intake limits for nachos, bean dip, and er, various beverages. Tonight I decided to hang around my backyard and snap some shots of a stunning sunset over Dana Point harbor. Well, as you can see I got a little carried away and decided to give the entirety of my back yard some photo shoot action. The results can be seen right here...enjoy!

ANACHRONISM

For anyone who's ever spent any significant amount of time in L.A. it doesn't take long to realize that roads, cars, and gridlock traffic are a fact of life in this city. Long gone are the days when you could hop a Red Car and get from Pasadena to Long Beach without so much as getting on a freeway. But that isn't to say that the days of the railroad aren't still alive and thriving here in L.A.

This past Friday afternoon I decided head to the east side of downtown and spend some time in good ol' Union Station. It's not just the hub of L.A.'s bus and rail lines but also a fantastically preserved shrine to America's Golden Age of Travel. There's no mistaking this when you're actually inside the station. The only thing reminding me that I hadn't been suddenly warped back to the 1930s in an episode of The Twilight Zone were the clothes of the people strolling through the Art Deco architecture of the vintage building. Oh...there was a stand selling DVDs in one corner of the waiting room but its retro stylings hardly made it look out of the ordinary. In other words, it didn't interrupt my little time traveling excursion.

The kinds of people making their way through the station were just about what you would expect...everyone from your typical stressed-out-looking businessman to the family of tourists in Mickey Mouse sweatshirts, antsy kids in tow. Also shuffling through were some haggard looking backpackers, a couple of young men in short sleeved dress shirts and ties (who I assumed to be Mormon missionaries) and those that fall in the catch-all category, the regular people. As weird as it sounds I've always found that last group to be the most fascinating. Yeah, they might just be everyday people in a train station but I always find myself wondering "why are they here?", "where are they going?", or even "why take the train?" Sure, it probably isn't any of my business and yes, you might even call it creepy that I even read into these people that much but hey, that's why I'm a journalist, isn't it? I did my best not to get security called on me when I tried to listen in on some of their conversations. Most of what I heard was typical travel talk: "Wait, what time does the train leave again?" "Which platform for Simi Valley?" "Should I call Aunt Denise and tell her when to pick us up?".

The only meaningful talk I really heard was when a man approached me and proceeded to explain how he needed money to catch a bus down to Long Beach. Apparently he had an emergency and was in a rush to meet his pregnant wife there. Being a nice guy I gave him a dollar and wished him well, even though I'd met the same man and heard that same story at least twice before. This past summer when I commuted every week from south Orange County to Universal City via Union Station I happened to run into this gentleman several times while walking through the waiting room. I guess it's the thought that counts.

I finally decided to head back to SC when the announcer over the intercom reminded me that the 4:05 PM Pacific Surfliner to San Juan Capistrano, my hometown, was leaving the platform. Naturally, I drove my car to and from the station and I found myself caught in traffic as I made my way home on the 110 freeway...a nice dose of L.A. transportation, 2007 style. But hey, if for any reason I ever want to sit down and soak in some nostalgia instead of sitting down and soaking in some gridlock, I know just the place to go.

"HAVING THE INSIDE SCOOP"

In this line of work it's all to easy for the one-on-one interview to lose its charm. Same old questions, same old answers...everyone just going through the motions. Well, I was lucky enough to catch a breath of fresh air this week in my interview of the ever-charming Carley Dryden. Where some people seem to lack the conviction to even tell me what they ate for breakfast, Carley was more than willing to divulge about her past, her future, and what it is that gives her the unrelenting willpower to accomplish her goals.

KC: Alright so what are the basics? Where are you from? Why did you come to SC?

CD: I'm from St. Charles, Missouri, it's a suburb of St. Louis, it's nice because it's very safe, a lot of older people, nice neighborhoods, etc. I came to SC because I was interested in journalism and Annenberg was such a well-known school. Also, when I came and visited SC I immediately fell in love. Everyone at Annenberg and USC seemed so well put together and so organized and everyone was really nice. I just immediately felt at home on the SC campus.

KC: So it sounds like you've had journalism on the mind for a while. What makes you want to pursue it? Where do you want to go with it?

CD: I have always loved writing and in high school I fell in love with journalism while working at the school paper. I love meeting new people, hearing their stories and also I love being the first one to know about something. Being a journalist is like having the inside scoop. You are always in the know. Since I've been in college I realized that my passion is feature writing so I see myself working for a magazine or freelancing for multiple fashion,entertainment and lifestyle magazines. I like to travel also so I would eventually love to do long-term projects for magazines, have them send me on assignments in various countries. In the distant future, I would like to start my own lifestyle/entertainment magazine.

KC: Looks like you're heading in the right direction. Even so, journalism can't be the only thing driving you right now. What else has influenced your life?

CD: I think I have been the most influenced through riding horses. My mom and grandma have ridden their whole lives, so it was inevitable that I would develop a passion for riding horses. Because I was away at horse shows every weekend, it was easy to stay out of trouble in high school. Also, as corny as it sounds, riding horses teaches you a lot of values- hard work, strong independence and extreme determination. I feel that riding horses made me who I am.

KC: Are there any specific ideas or words that you live your life by?

CD: There is no certain concept I live by, but I have just learned to not care what others think or to rely on others' judgment and to just live my life how I want (within reason) and go for the dreams and goals I have laid out for myself and not let others make me think I can not attain those goals.

KC: Alright, well I have a tradition of wrapping up one-on-ones with this simple request: explain to me why you are the way you are.

CD: This is a difficult one. I think I, like everyone, became who I am through outside influences- family, friends, activities. Those that are close to you help mold you into the person you are. Riding horses, a sport in which you can rely only on yourself, helped me gain my strong independence. My family instilled strong values and principles in me from childhood. The closer I got with my friends, the more comfortable I was in my personality and was able to open up and become very outgoing and talkative. So I think there are a lot of influences that form your identity.

KC: And what a distinct and memorable identity that is. Thanks a lot Carley!

THE FAVORITES

In the explosion of information that is the Internet there are a few websites that I find myself constantly visiting.

First off, there's the Drudge Report. If visiting the Drudge Report was my job, I'd already by the president of the company. Over the past few years I've become a hardcore news junkie and I've found no better site for getting the basic rundown on the top news stories of the day. All it takes is a simple click in my web browser and I have one of Drudge's screaming headlines telling me everything I need to know. Matt Drudge has perfected the simple, user-friendly news aggregate and I can't thank him more for it.

In a similar yet distinctly different vein than Drudge exists Fark.com, another aggregate that links to stories and discussion boards about them. The kicker about Fark is the fact that the stories linked vary from the weird and bizarre to the hardest of news. It's the only place I can go and see links to stories about nude skiing and U.S. airstrikes in Somalia right next to each other. As the title of the site says, "It's not news, it's Fark.com"

Finally there's the guilty pleasure: Defamer.com. As much as I really can't stand celebrity culture, being a resident of L.A. makes me feel immersed in it and I catch myself at this website more often than I should be. Maybe it's the sarcastic jabs the blog takes at high profile celebrities or links to the Internet's hottest viral videos that makes it so hard to resist. Whatever the case, I just can't keep away from L.A.'s self proclaimed internet "gossip rag".