Commercials!!

Some of my favorite ads are first aired, of course, during the Super Bowl. Since in grade school when i didn't give a flip about football (I still don't), I always watched the Super Bowl (at least portions of it) primarily for the commercials. The Advertisements during this time are funnier, well put together and are just great. The best commercials in my opinion are the FUNNY ones. Some of my favorite commercials from this past Super Bowl in February are as followed:

1. The Chocolate M&M commercial "Just My Shell"
2. Even though they aren't my favorite, I have to say it surprises me to no end how the GO Daddy.com commercials time and time again bank on the fact that sex sells.
3. Best Buy "Innovators"
4. The Coca Cola Polar Bears (their so cute!)
5. The eTrade Baby Commercials (he's cute too!)
6. The Pepsi "Kings Court" commercial with Elton John
7. The Audi Vampire commercial
8. The Doritos's "Man's Best Friend"

Actually one of my favorite commercials ever is a Doritos Commercial... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bptmb0Ygmus

The Link to see any of the other commercials can be seen at this website as well: http://www.nfl.com/superbowl/46/commercials#video=09000d5d826a052a

Big Ideas on the Advertising Industry (Ch. 13)

1. Controversy
2. Controversy
3. And MORE Controversy

For the the chapter of Advertising, I wanted to focus on the issues pertaining to this industry. Since its beginning, advertising has had its down sides. In the late 1800s the advertising industry was truly out of control, filled with a lot of puffery, or exaggeration in advertising claims. Most of this came from patent drugs at the time that claimed to cure gout, tuberculosis, cancer, heart disease, and pretty much anything (but they didn't). Many of these drugs actually contained mostly alcohol and addictive drugs such a cocaine, which is illegal today, and morphine. In response to all of this craziness, a number of things happened. The Pure Food and Drug Act was passed in 1906; the Federal Trade Commission was established as an advertisement watchdog; The U.S Postal Service took the responsibility to overlook the ads sent out in the mail; The FDA oversaw as about food, drugs, cosmetics, and health products. However, wanting to strengthen their credibility, the Industry formed The American Association of Advertising Agencies, with the pledge made in 1924 to follow a published code of ethics in advertising, which is still in affect today.

Other concerns of the work of Advertisers is the amount, or lack, of truth put into ads, and the direction of certain ads to children and teens. The use of cartoon characters or young actors in commercials are obviously targeted toward young people, but unfortunately some of these tactics are used in Alcohol and cigarette ads.

In Conclusion, even though some of the strategies used by the Advertising Industry are questionable, I feel as though these professional are doing their jobs. There is no way of stopping them from getting people from buying their products because THAT IS THEIR BUSINESS. And besides lobbying against certain ads and strategies, I don't feel as though advertisers will ever stop trying to trick or manipulate people into buying their products. Sorry.

Big Ideas On Public Relations (Ch. 12)

1. Ivy Ledbetter Lee/ Edward and Doris Bernays
2. Strategies used by Public Relations Professionals
3. Controversies

Starting in the early 20th century, Ivy Lee was blazing the trail for modern PR professionals. He is widely recognized as being the "Father of the modern public relations industry". Lee was responsible for changing the way public relations was published: Instead of lying to the public or ignoring the publics concerns, Lee believed that businesses should go out of their way to be on the same page as the public and their interests, not the other way around. He also believed that corporations should fit a certain image that PR professionals build for them, in order to appeal to the general public. This tactic has proved effective and works in today's society because most Big corporations rely on their PR representatives to give an image to the public...an image that helps the publics forget about the old white RICH very rich men that are probably the CEO of the corporation who don't really care about anything but getting money, kind of like the Vanderbilts and Rockefellers of our time.

Likewise, Edward and Doris Bernays made strides in the PR Industry because they opened the communication between their clients and the public. They were the one's to coin the term "public relations counsel" and start the first PR course at NYU in 1923.

The strategies used by PR professionals include: News Management, Community Relations, Crisis Management, and Lobbying. These strategies are in connection with the controversies and criticism of their work. One of the controversy is centered on the practice of "spinning" a story. The definition varies between public relation professionals, who say its telling a story by putting the best possible face to the facts, and critics, who say that its a form of lying.

So as conclusion, after reading this chapter I found that I had no questions about the PR profession and its future in society. People will ALWAYS need public relations because businesses, corporations, individuals always want to be liked by the public. The only difference is how that message is projected, and as technology improves so will PR.

Ten of My Favorite Movies!

A list of my favorite movies...ever

1. "Pride and Prejudice"- (2005)
2. "Avatar"- (2009)
3. "Sex and the City"-(2008)
4. "Iron Man" movies- (2008)
5. "X-Men" movies- (2000- )
6. "Tangled"- (2010)
7. "Little Miss Sunshine"- (2006)
8. "Meet Joe Black"- (1998)
9. "The Notebook"- (2004)
10. "Diary of a Mad Black Women" (all Madea Movies)- (2005- )
11. "The Parent Trap"- (1998)
12. "Step Up" movies (only the first three)- (2006- )
13. "Slumdog Billionaire"- (2008)
14. "Inception"- (2010)
15. "Pirate of the Caribbean" movies- (2003- )

Obviously I have more than ten movies on this list...I can list even more movies but I'll stop here

Big Ideas of The Television Industry (ch. 9)

1. The Golden Age of Television (Not so Golden)
2. The establishment of Cable TV
3. Video Recording

From 1948-1958 television experienced a Golden Age of TV programming and good quality shows. However this period brought about the beginnings of a ongoing problem in television: Stereotyping and Non Diversity. Television shows like the widely popular I Love Lucy and Father Knows Best portrayed women as incompetent housewives and incapable of succeeding outside of the household. Most shows at this time didn't have any colored actors in the cast as primary characters; they were only presented as secondary characters such as cook, maids, and chauffeurs. This problem has escalated over the years and programming on TV is still a matter of controversy as more violence, sexual activity, suggestive dialogue, and foul language is shown on TV. In recent years minority groups such as The National Organization for Women (NOW) and the NAACP, The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, have pushed for better representation on television. Also, the parental advisory rating have been implemented to programs as a guide of the content.

Cable TV was established in the 1950's as a way to receive clearer reception of TV (network television). However the branching of of pay cable channels has opened a plethora of TV program selection for consumers. As discussed in the textbook, cable providers have a selection of hundreds of channels, but on average the consumers are only watching 15 of the channels: I myself can attest to this fact, i have my primary favorite channels and occasionally will find something good to watch on any other channel, but even then I have Hundreds of channels that i have never watched in my life. SO this leads to my question: Will cable providers eventually bend to the demands of people and offer their channels in a "a la carte" pricing (meaning consumers ail handpick the channels they wants and only pay for those channels)?

Lastly, the entrance of video recording in 1975 in the homes of Americans has started a major problem with television network execs: More than ever people are "time shifting", the term used when individuals tape the programs they want to watch on video recorder in order to watch it later. First the VCR, and not TiVo and DVRs have caused issues in the television industry. This is mainly because people have the ability to fast forward through commercials, which defeats the reason for them because advertisers spend good people for people to see their ads. Now if people aren't watching commercials then advertisers will see no need to spend thousands of dollars to the stations of networks, which is bad because they need that money to produce their programs. So...How will the Tv industry deal with possible decreases in advertisers? Will Advertisers eventually start pulling out or demanding reduced ad space costs?

Shows/TV moments of the 2000's!

If I were to make a video montage of all of the most popular shows of the 2000's, I would include the following:

1. Bush/Gore Election results
2. The attack on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2002
3. American Idol
4. Survivor
5. The Amazing Race
6. Malcolm in the Middle
7. Who wants to be a Millionaire
8. Family Guy
9. Spongebob Squarepants
10. Avatar: The Last Airbender
11. Hannah Montana
12. High School Musical
13. CSI
14. NCIS
15. The Bachelor
16. Project Runway
17. How I Met Your Mother
18. The Big Bang Theory
19. Two and a Half Men
20. Grey's Anatomy
21. Ugly Betty
22. Glee
23. 24
24. Coverage of Hurricane Katrina
25. Curb your Enthusiasm
26. Breaking Bad
27. Modern Family
28. Desperate Housewives
29. Top Chef
30. Real Housewives Franchise
31. Jersey Shore
32. The Hills
33. Flavor Of Love
34. The Apprentice
35. America's Next Top Model
36. House
37. President Barack Obama's Inauguration
38. The Office
39. 30 Rock
40. Lost
41. Coverage of The Earthquake in Japan
42. The Soprano's
43. Mad Men
44. True Blood
45. The Death of Osama Bin Laden
46. Honey Boo Boo
47. Dancing With the Stars
48. Prince William and Kate Middleton's Wedding
49. Death of Micheal Jackson
50. Death of Whitney Houston

P.S I did not intend to include ALL of these shows/events but once I got started all the idea just came to me.

Big Ideas for the Movie Industry (Ch. 6)

1. The Motion Picture Patents Company (aka the Trust)
2. Distribution: Domestic vs. International
3. Stereotypes in Movies

The Motion Picture Patents Company was the idea of Thomas Edison in 1908 to control the technology of the film industry. Film producers had to pay a patent use fee in order to make movies, a fee they were unwilling to pay. Although the Trust had the money and power to improve the quality of motion pictures, the lack of competition in the film industry at that time made it too expensive for independent groups to produce movies. So at the time, the industry's center was in New York City, but in order to escape the Trust, filmmakers moved to California to make movies. And thus Hollywood was born. I don't know if the film industry would have made the move to California if the trust didn't come into existence BUT I found this fact interesting because movie from that point on continued to evolve and California became the ideal place for movies to be made down to this day.

The Next point that I found interesting was the international distribution of movies. Up until the 1970s, domestic theatrical accounted for most of a feature film's revenue, but since then international revenue for a movie has become more important. In some instances movie studios make more in revenue from international theatres. Of course, being about two years old, the chart in the textbook concerning the top grossing movies of all time is a little inaccurate, but when I looked online for the most current list I found that all of the movies listed in each list had one common thread: THE WERE ALL ACTION MOVIES! when I did a little more research i found that all of them mad more money in international sales then in domestic. For example, Avatar, the top gossing movie coming in at.....2, 700,000,000 bucks made the bulk of its revenue, the 2 billion, in international sales. So with this much money I can't help but wonder...will the international sales influence the type of movies made? has it already? (question of the day)

Lastly, stereotyping in movie has been a matter of controversy for many years. Critics say that the portrayal of certain minority and majority groups in movies can be very offensive. Movie producers respond by saying that stereotypes are an ingredient in story telling; shortcuts to making characters. After much thought, I came to the decision that I was on the side of the movie producers.  In literature, there are archetypes which are universally understood symbol, term, statement, or pattern of behavior, a prototype upon which others are copied, patterned, or emulated (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archetype). I think that in movies there are archetypal characters or situation, but movies are stories brought to film, so people can't get mad if they see something they don't like. There is a fine line between archetype and offensiveness, and as a member or two groups often stereotyped: being African American and a women, I feel as though movies are art, and art imitates life. Movies need characters and sometimes the inspiration for these characters are drawn from certain aspects of life that people don't find so pretty, but life isn't always pretty. So should movie writers and producers be penalized for imitating life in their films? What kind of movies can be drawn from that?

Big Ideas of the Radio Industry (ch 8)

1. Radio Act of 1927: Th effects of it Today
2. The Audience of Radio
3. Program Format of Radio

The Radio Act of 1927 established the Federal Radio Commission (FRC) with powers to enforce the law and limit the number of broadcasters. In this way the federal government became the "traffic police" of the airwaves. The act required radio broadcasters to operate in the "public interest, convenience and necessity" of the community. So in essence, radio stations had to broadcast material that was good for the community and for society in general.

So how does this affect today? Well the original purpose of this act was to regulate the interference caused by too many broadcasters operating on close frequencies. What has ensued from this is major controversy with censorship of radio. In the constitution, the freedom of speech is ensured to all citizens. Radio is an outlet for many to not only play music but to speak their opinions. Opinions are different among different communities of people and what is acceptable in one group may not be appropriate in another. That being said i had the question: why is it the govermnent's responsibility to oversee what is said on the radio? That same kind of censoship is not seen in the print industry (thethe extent as in radio/TV). Then I continued to think and censorship is an important thing; people can't say EVERYTHING they want to...I mean come on the War of the Worlds fandago in 1938 is evidence that the radio has influence over people even today. That being said the line in which radio is censored should be regulated by unbiased organization like television is (ch. 11). The government and big companies giving advertisement money to radio station need to be regulated themselves becuase these factors influence the censorship of radio and limit the voices that need to be heard.

The audience of radio has changed the way radio is presented throughout the histor of the industry. The textbook broughout that most people don't want to listen to radio; they just want it as a complemnent to their everyday activites. From my own experence I have seen the truth of this statement and with new expansions into satelite radio and internet radio, my question is how will the original format of radio, from a station, maintain itself. In an age where people are picking and chosing what they liste to, will radio as we know it completely change in a few years?

Lastly, program formatting in radio and homogenized programming has led to the decline in radio listeners (in my opinion). If a format works, other station will copy that format, which leads to predictablity and boring radio. I myself have turned off the radio in the car many times because hearing the same song and material gets really old very quickly and many could account to that as well. So will stations see that and start changing their material? Stay tuned.

Big Ideas of the Recording Industry (ch. 7)

1. The Winners and Losers
2. Copyright Battles
3. The Big Three: Sony, Universal, Warner vs. Indie Labels

Throughout the start of the recording industry with the invention of the phonographic by Thomas Edison, the industry was a constant competition for the best format for recordings. The "format wars" were decided based on cost, quality of sound, and customer convenience (but mainly on cost). Today there is an ongoing battle between CD's and digital downloads. So the question is which format will win out? The interesting thing is that as of now (well when the textbook was published) the industry's bulk of revenue still comes from full length CDs (77.8%).  Is this because a lot of people are still buying  CDs (because I haven't bought one in years) or is it because people are illegally downloading music online, so CDs are the top revenue by default? And I can't help but wonder, what happens when one of these formats are crowned as victor of this battle; what will come next???

The history of recording, along with the format wars, has been filled with the battles over copyright privileges. This big winners in all of these seem to be the big companies; they don't want to lose ANY money. There challenge is to adapt to new formats of music and recording and ways to protect their rights over the songs. The idea that I found interesting in this are was the Close-up box on Radiohead. They released their album In Rainbows exclusively on their website and offered the song at any retail price of the customers choice. They had no help from the record label so they received no profit.  I found this as a slap in the face to the big companies and i laughed a little. I also thought it was brave of the group to do this and also very sweet that their loyal fans paid reasonable amounts for the album. The group also made most of their money through touring, which is the case of most artist, so the question is, why don't more artist try this approach to selling music? Maybe it'll be a surprise and people will buy the album for 4 dollars online instead of free on some illegal site and the artist would receive most, f not all, of that 4 dollars. Something to think about.

Lastly, The recording music industry is controlled by three major companies right now. In essence they control 80 percent of what people listen to and decide what is "Hot" and what people will like. This kinda seems like a inconvenient thing because the companies stay strictly with what is "marketable", but what if the next big game changer is constantly rejected because a company doesn't see the sound as profitable. The companies hate losing money and will almost never take a chance on something new, fresh and different. So thats where the independent labels come in and discover the brilliant talent. But almost always these successful labels are bought by the big companies. So will indie labels ever stand up for themselves and remain indie? Or will this system stay because it seems to be working?

Music and Recordings!!

I asked my mom if she has a particular favorite song when she was my age, but she said no. Much like me, because as hard as I have been thinking about it for the past few days, I can't think of one particular song or artist that I love more that others. Back to my mom, she did say that she did have an all time favorite artist: Whitney Houston. I can see why she picked Whitney, I mean come on she had hands down the voice of an angel and her music is among the handful of records from the eighties and nineties that I actually love too.

Even though I don't have a particular favorite song or artist of all time, my favorite song right NOW is hands down Girl on Fire by Alicia Keys ft. Nicki Minaj.   Link to the song:  http://soundcloud.com/aliciakeys/girl-on-fire-inferno-version

I love this song because it's classic Alicia Keys: up beat, AMAZING vocals, a strong message that makes sense. I feel as though Alicia and her music does have "staying" power because her voice, the message of her music is timeless. Think about it, how many people are still singing songs like "Fallin'" and "If I Ain't Got You" from her 2001 and 2003 albums? A lot of people are singing them I can tell you that AND I even hear them on the radio still. People young and old like her music and that's what makes her universal.

P.S A close second as my favorite song right now is Pound the Alarm by Nicki Minaj :)

Big Ideas In the News Industry (ch.11)

1. The changing definition of news: The Audience
2. Controversy: Conservatives vs. Liberals
3. Controversy: News as Entertainment

• The changing definition of News in recent years is attributed to the audience's definition of the news values: what is timely, important and interesting. Unfortunately the audiences have made it clear through ratings and the internet that what they think was important and interesting was the lives of celebrities or news exclusively expresses views that they already believe in. This is causing major problems in the News industry because reporters are losing credibility for reporting on miscellaneous topics in order to get more ratings. Also the way in which the audience selects the news that they chose to view is dangerous due to the narrow perspective they are implementing on themselves. This kind of narrow minded behavior can easily increase intolerance and bigotry in people.

• The fight between conservatives and liberals strongly control what reports report on. Because each side want there viewpoints reported on, strong guidelines are put on news outlets on how they can report news. The Media Research Center in particular monitors newscast for any unpatriotic reports. This causes some unrest with news executives because some critics feel that the news should be political watchdogs not cheerleaders.

• News as entertainment has been a pressing issue in recent history because stations want ratings, but the ways that they have been going about getting them have seemed unprofessional. The sensational promotional announcements for news reports that turn out to be hardly news is among this entertainment slant in news. Using air time on news broadcasts to promote other programs shown on the same station has also become common place; a way to advertise and get more ratings.

Magazines I CANNOT live without

So, to be totally honest, I don't really buy magazines anymore; I kinda pasted that phase in life where I had to get the latest [insert teen magazine name] magazine issue to read up on the "Five things the Jonas Brothers can't live without or "Zac Efron's new movie" or whatever. I used to buy every month issue of seventeen magazine and to this day I still have a stack of them in my room unread for the past 4 years. However, I still catch up on my does of celebrity gossip when i go to the super market and pick up a copy of OK! or Cosmo or People, or Us Weekly. I read as much as i can as me and mom go shopping and place it back on the rack as we walk out. A lot of the time i can read the same articles online, or watch E! News and find out whats going on there. So in conclusion, I still find out about how "Lady Gaga shaved the back of her heard" or "Christina Aguilera is leaving The Voice", but not necessarily from a print magazine.

Big Ideas for the Magazine Print Industry

1. Decline of general interest and Rise of special interest magazines
2. The Staff: Editorial, Advertising, and Circulation
3. Controversy

• In the late 1960s to early 1970s, the General Interest magazines were in decline due to fewer advertisers, who were turning to television to place their ads. The demand for the magazines was still successful, but the high prices to produce the magazines led to the cutting of subscription, and then stopping production all together. In the latter part of the 20th century, the attention was put on special interest magazines, creating  target marketing, a milestone in mass media. Specialized magazines offered their reader specific information they couldn't find anywhere else, and these are the magazines that generate the most revue today, particularly consumer magazines.
• The players in the magazine industry are the Editorial staff, the advertising staff, and circulation staff. The Editor in Chief is the head of the editorial  staff and decides what goes in the magazine. Other supporting editors supervise specific sections/topics in the magazines to oversee and write about. The Advertising staff is in charge of creating a relationship with advitisors; this department either makes or breaks a magazine. Advertisers are needed to money to produce the magazine and for content (particularly for consumer magazines). The last is circulation staff, who is in charge of finding and keeping subscribers, etc.
• Of course, there has to be some controversy, this time its particularly about the "message" magazines portray, particularly about the image of women. For example, fashion magazines portray women as to thin, "men entertainment" magazines send the message that they can treat men any which way, and so on. Other controversy included writing information that is more fiction that fact (National Enquirer) and so on and so on.

Big Question:

The age old question: How will magazines compete with new technology, and the convenience of the internet? Obviously the magazine business is fairing pretty well compare to the newspaper, because of their specific topics for specific consumers. But how long will this last? Will advertisers find new venues to place their ads? Stay tuned.

Big Ideas for the Newspaper Print Industry

1. Associated Press: Changes the way Journalism is written
2. Economics: How will the newspaper survivie?
3. Controversy

• In 1848, the Associated Press was formed, which was the first wire service used by newspapers. The objective behind this was for newspapers to be able to share correspondents and news to save money. In order for the news to be appropriate for all newspapers, journalist had to write the news in an unbiased way, separating opinion from fact (objectivity). This connects with modern day journalism because over the past years, certain newspapers have shown a biased point of view on certain issues. My question is: Does this hurt the success and purpose of the AP, or have editors adapted to the situation???
• Within the past few years, newspapers have gone through tough economic times. Advertisers are choosing to "sell" their products to the public via venues on the Internet rather than print. This is contributed in part by low circulation. So the question is: how will the newspaper save its self??
• Controversy revolving around the free press is an on going issue, particularly with the issue of diversity. Not all of America is made up of heterosexual, protestant  Anglos. There is obviously other ethnic, religious, sexual orientation groups ergo other point of views. This means that the Major news outlets, including the newspaper, should reflect that in their papers. One obvious solution is the Alternative Press, where the low-stream ideas could be heard. But wait, I thought that mainstream news, particularly newspapers, was supposed to be unbiased? If they were we wouldn't have this problem in the first place...right! So Equal Opportunity is a very important issue that all news outlets should be mindful of, BUT good journalism should not be compromised over the issue of "oh, we need more minority people in the office". Television news is entitled to their biased and so forth, but newspapers should concentrate on unbiased news.

Three Big Ideas of the Print Media

1. The Print Revolution
2. Censorship of printed material and the controversy surrounding that
3. Types of books

The big printing revolution started when Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press with movable type. Prior to this people were dependent on "Oral culture", which was when people had to depend on local experts to interpret books and teach about it. However, this all changed with the printing of books; people were able to read writings from all over the world and were able to think and interpret on their own. This sparked the minds of many people and they no longer had to rely on what they were told.

With the overflow of so many different ideas and opinions, controversy erupted over the influence of books. Many books that are thought of as classics today were under attack when it was first written because of the subject matter and themes of the novels/publication. The argument of the first amendment has been brought up in many of these challenges in order to protect an authors rights, but the issue is still one of debate.

In the print industry there are different types of books. Trade books are sold to the general public and are fiction or non fiction. educational books are generally textbooks used in elementary, middle, and high school, and in college. Reference books are, of course, used as a references for studying and learning. Professional books are used in specific trades/occupations.

Big Question: With the advances in electronic reading, how will book publishers compete for sales of printed books? How will they adapt in order to continue in the printing business?

ATTENTION!!!!!

I want to just add to my recent post on a serious topic that i totally forgot about: e-readers and all that stuff. If the whole world switched to e-readers and kindles and nooks i would probably be one of the only people still buying actual books. Newspapers, magazines and other stuff I would gladly read on those devices, BUT actual books, stories and novels I like to actually HOLD in my hands and FEEL and SMELL the pages! I sound a little insane, but something about actually holding a book and reading the words from the pages, not the screen, is something I will always love. Yes, yes, e-readers do have their benefits, their smaller, less bulky yada, yada, yada, but I don't know...for now i would like to read the old fashioned way.

What do I read?

I consider myself a pretty avid reader; a characteristic literally drilled into me by my mother. From an early age my mom would oh so cruelly force me to read, read, read, and eventually I actually started to like to read, so much so that I had to be reading a book at any given time; when I finished reading a book, I picked another one and proceeded to read it during my free time and so on. I love to read because I feel as though its an escape from life into another world, a way to truly relax and unwind from the annoying little issues of the day. For me watching television or going online could never quiet give me the joy I get from reading.


So, the question is what do I read, How do I read it and where? Aside from the novels and books that I read, I usually read magazines, and news from online. I haven't read an actual newspaper in YEARS but I do read articles online about current events. The magazines I read are fashion (Vogue, Elle, Nylon, Seventeen In Style) and tabloid magazines (People, Star, US weekly, OK, In Touch weekly etc.) I hate when I have a bunch of old magazines around my room (my room's messy enough...I do NOT need more clutter) so I usually read the magazines when I go to the market (don't judge!) and if I missed anything, I usually look online at home for articles.


And that's pretty much what I read. (I'm not even going to go into the annoying, I mean useful and education :) textbooks I have to read for school; but in all honestly I do love my Mass Communication book and class because duh that's my major. I chose it for a reason because that's what I'm really interested in.)

First Blog Post, Ever...

I've never had a blog before, never cared to have one for that matter BUT yesterday I started my first day at St. John's University and I have a particular class, Into to Mass Communication, and my Professor asked us all to start a blog. So here I am :) Our first assignment was to list 10 of our favorites in Film, music, TV and Books. So here are my faves.

Favorite Films: 

1. "Pride and Prejudice"- 2005
2. "Avatar"-2009
3. "Sex and the City"-2008

Favorite Books:

1. "The Sky Is Everywhere"- by Jandy Nelson 2010
2. "The Hunger Game"- by Suzanne Collins 2008 (for the record I became a fan of Suzanne Collin's writing WAYY before Hunger Games became the "new cool thing".
3. Percy Jackson and the Olympian series- by Rick Riordan (Ok, yea I'm a nerd...whatever)
4. Song of the Sparrow- by Lisa Ann Sandell 2007

Favorite Television:

1. Keeping Up With The Kardashians- E network (this is one of my guiltiest pleasures, which i am NOT proud of but something about those women make me tune back in every week...don't judge)
2. The Real Housewives Series- Bravo network
3. Talent Shows, such as The Voice, America's Got Talent, ABDC (every season I pick on show to watch, for what reason i don't know but they're all very intruiging to me, all but American Idol, I've been over Idol for years now).
4. Pretty much any other reality show on Oxygen, MTV, VHI (I pretty much watch reality shows)
5. Pretty Little Liars- ABC Family (i read the books that the show is based on in middle school and have been hooked on it ever since the pilot show, pretty much the only drama television i watch these days.

Favorite Artists:

1. Nicki Minaj (she's just wild and crazy, but i love it)
2. Lady Gaga (more than anything I love her style, that she's from New York, and she doesn't give a damn about what people thinks of her, she's like a real chick)
3. I like any pop/rock/dance music that on the billboard charts that month, i don't really have that much favorite songs or specific artist because it varies all the time, on minute i'll like someone and then i might hate there next few singles. Pretty much anything playing on 92.3 NOW i like, because thats the radio station i listen too.

So here are all my favorites (that i can remember at the moment). I couldn't keep it to ten so i gave the best 15. Hope you enjoy!