"Eyes From The Nineties" podcast - episode 1: Selfish

This is the first episode of my "Eyes From The Nineties" podcast. In episode one. I explain my five favorite TV shows of all-time: "The Wire," "Chappelle's Show," "Seinfeld," "The Sopranos," "Game Of Thrones"/"Mad Men". I also discuss ESPN's huge mistake of firing one of my biggest inspirations; Bill Simmons.


Give it a listen:

The evolution of music consumption in my lifetime

I am more than likely the oldest student in Professor Macek's Spring 2015 Introduction to New Media class, at 24 years old I remember a world before internet and even compact discs. I remember going to music stores -- yes, there were once stores for buying music, and music alone -- and buying OutKast's "Aquemini" on cassette at the age of eight. That was the first album I bought with  my own money -- well, I probably didn't actually earn the money since I was just eight years old, but you get the point.

As I look back on those years, I don't really remember the transition from cassette to CDs but when it happened it was clearly no looking back. I had my CD walkman all through my junior high days with a big CD binder in my bookbag along with a 12-pack of batteries. Thankfully Apple came along with an iPod, so I could stop lugging around this bookbag full of CDs and batteries. In 2003, I got my first iPod -- I keep it until 2009. It was an 160 gigabyte iPod classic. Even with my iPod though, I still went and bought CDs -- at least until 2008.

In 2008, I graduated high school and in my first year in college I learned about the many ways to "illegally download" music. From sites like Megaupload, where people around the world would upload full-length albums for everyone to download to torrents (which I still use to this day). Ever since this new discovery, I only buy albums for artists I especially support but when I do buy an album I do so on iTunes.

Despite me moving away from using CDs, I thought they were still getting use, I was mistaken. So, I got my new laptop in the summer of 2014 and I asked the salesperson, "where's the CD drive?" He simply replied, "you don't need it." For some reason, I didn't second-guess him. I bought the computer and in almost a year's time have found no reason to use a CD drive -- not even for software installation.

Between age 11 to age 18 I had a collection over 200 CDs and now at the age of 24, I cannot tell you where 90-percent of those CDs are. I have converted them all to mp3s and they are stored on my external hard drive but I cannot for the life of me find the hard copies.

Even though I have this huge library of music on my external hard drive, I almost never listen to it. When I got my new laptop I tried to import the music onto it but it was estimated to take more than a day, so I picked a couple thousand songs to import and just subscribed to Spotify.

Now I'm a year removed from CDs and completely in love with Spotify, I am very excited to see what music evolves into next.

Social Activism: #BlackLivesMatter

Freddie Gray, Walter Scott, Eric Gardner, Tamir Rice, Ezell Ford, Michael Brown, Oscar Grant and several other unarmed black males slain by police in the last 5 years alone. The names I mentioned are the ones that received the most media attention. Trayvon Martin probably received the most attention but he was slain by a racist self-appointed neighborhood-watchman (George Zimmerman). The tragic death of these black males sparked protests across the country and thanks to social media the injustice these black males and their families suffered will never be forgotten. The movement #BlackLivesMatter began through Twitter after George Zimmerman was acquitted.

#BlackLivesMatters is far more than a hashtag now. When Walter Scott was slain by a white South Carolina cop for running away after being pulled over for a broken tail-light, a bystander caught the shooting on video and released the footage to the #BlackLivesMatters activists.

My fathers generation had Dr. King, Malcolm X, the Black Panthers, and so on. My generation does not want to hear our parent's generation tell us what to do. I love Cornel West, Tavis Smiley, and Michael Eric Dyson but they are not exactly Martin or Malcolm. Social Media-based movements like the Black Youth Project and #BlackLivesMatter are more attractive (for lack of a better word) to millenials because we want to feel involved and these movements are our generation and they understand the value of social media and the impact it can have on society.

What made Kony 2012 such a big movement (although it disappeared into thin air thanks to a certain panic attack) was that it made the people (millenials in particular) feel as if they could impact change. Through social media, these people are able to connect and mobilize (as we saw through the protests after the deaths of Eric Gardner, Tamir Rice, and Michael Brown). This is a good thing because millenials are given the bad reputation of being lazy or not having any causes. We have causes but like the previous generations, we want to support our causes in our own ways.

#HandsUpDontShoot

"I know a whole lot more about what freedom isn't than about what it is because I've never been free." 

- Assata Shakur

ELITE SPORTS DEBATERS -- Online Ethnography

       

           I have always had an active opinion on Facebook – especially about sports – and my older cousins (about 9-10 years older than) know that I stay up-to-date with most professional sports. So, about three years ago (give or take) my cousins invited to this private sports group – “Elite Sports Debaters” – created by their old high school friend.

          The group at its core is built around Proviso West High School graduates in their early-30s and grew as some original members of the group added some of their other friends and/or family to the group to just debate sports. It quickly became more than just a sports debating website into a place where opinions on all subjects are welcomed. To an outsider, it can be seen as a pretty disgusting place – I cannot lie. I see it as “barbershop talk,” there’s no filters, all content is uncut and sometime X-rated.

          All members are men and mostly black but that isn’t intentional. Subjects are talked about and images are shown that have made people – especially women – uncomfortable. Is the fact that it’s a private group an excuse? I don’t believe so but it what it is. Outside of sports-talk, members of the group talk about their attractions towards celebrities, models, and all kinds of beautiful women. I have never witnessed anything disrespectful said about these women but they are often objectified and I can see that making women uncomfortable.

          With all of that said Elite Sports Debaters – or ESD – is just a community of guys participating in healthy banter. Every once-in-awhile someone is invited to the group and their style of debate is insulting and threatening, in this case the administrator has made the not-so-tough decision of removing that person from the group. The group consists of 144 members but only a third of those members are regularly active. Many of us have developed friendships, even the out-of-state members. We are all live pretty close together, the majority of those regularly active members are from the westside of Chicago or the near western suburbs.

          All of the content on ESD is from various websites or Facebook pages ESD members follow and find interesting enough to share and discuss with other group members. As someone pursuing a career in media, I find it important to stay connected and informed with the “trending topics” and current events in our society, and ESD has helped me to stay connected and gain different perspectives on these topics and events.

          Many sites are shared in the group, sports sites like: Black Sports Online, Bleacher Report, SB Nation, NBA.com, NFL.com, ESPN, and plenty more. While we touch on many subjects, the most popular subject is sports (particularly basketball and football) those have the best debates. Matter of fact, hip-hop might be the most popular (well most entertaining) subject debated. Our longest thread consisted of close to one-thousand comments and the subject was me simply making the statement: “Biggie is the greatest rapper of all-time.”

          There are few people who share opinions in ESD. There are Chicago Bears fans, Dallas Cowboys fans, New England Patriots fans, fans of just specific athletes, and sports betters. With such diversity in sports allegiance, opinions vary even more because I have been in Facebook groups about the same sports team and people have had heated debates on the different approaches they believe the team should take. ESD has the same situation but add in people being fans of your team’s rival and imagine the banter that comes with that.

          Many of us have become friends outside of the group, whenever out-of-state members are in town we try to schedule a poker game. I work at a local nightclub, many members have swung by to visit. We all share very similar general interests although we debate, argue, and fight over them. We are all sports fans and hip-hop fans but few of us agree upon who we listen to or root for (as I have stated earlier).

          Our most controversial discussions occur whenever race is brought up. Most members are black but we have a handful of Hispanic members and a few white members. I remember the most controversial thread being about Ferguson and a white member called the people vandalizing property “thugs,” a bunch of asked about if sports fans who vandalize property after a team’s win or loss are “thugs.” The debate made a quick turn when the white member called a black member “racist” and I jumped in saying “blacks cannot be racists.” No disrespect ever emerged, just healthy banter.

          All of the misogyny aside, ESD is just a place where healthy banter is welcomed but the occasional sight of pictures of beautiful women and men commenting (sometimes rating them) makes you uneasy, you probably will not enjoy the ESD community. I look at ESD as a place for men to be completely uncut, it’s unapologetically an online mancave.

          Virtual communities like ESD are important in today’s society because people spend so much time on their technology. It is hard to be active in today’s society without being “plugged in.” Like I said early, what I like most about ESD is that it gives me different perspectives from different people on different subjects. Social media, in general, has become a place where people share news articles and viral videos. Social media has made “water-cooler talk” all the more interesting. Communities like ESD allow me to expand my consumption of news that I am already interested in and something like that is very beneficial when it comes to wanted to be well-informed and current.

Proud Google Addict -- JVP

Google definitely has too much power. But what's the alternative? Bing? I'll pass! I'll happily pass.

Google may save everything I search and use it to try to manipulate the ads I see or whatever but I see that as quality customer service. Some of it could change but I don't see most of it as a big deal. What can change, you ask? When I'm doing a research paper it is harder to find credible searches because Google tries to tailor the search results to my recent search history -- which is tough when I am doing a paper on religion and because of my ideology, I get secular links all over the first few pages.

Google has done a phenomenal job marketing itself, that's for damn sure. I am literally on Chrome all day and YouTube is one of my five most viewed sites. Does this mean I am addicted to Google? Maybe but "addicted" is kind of a strong term. I'd say I am committed to Google. Like what really makes Google great? It's just convenient and simple, people like that.
Like Apple.
Android devices try to compete with Apple but Apple has a fan base -- as odd as that sounds. I have always steered away from Apple because I find the price range unreasonable but I just got my first iPhone -- iPhone 5s, to be exact, and I love it. No knock on Android, but this phone is simple, gives me the apps I need and is pretty simple.

I do not buy that Google endangers our privacy, it could easily do so but I don't think it currently does. Unless we elect a crazy president who tries to become a dictator, I don't see Google turning over information to the NSA. If that does happen, you can find me on the first thing smoking to South Africa.

Derrick Rose set to return tonight in Orlando

The return after the return after "The Return" is tonight! Bulls fans everywhere rejoice!

I know I am doing some rejoicing. Since Tom Thibodeau has been head coach the Bulls have been in the "contender" conversation. In Thibs' first season (2010-11), Derrick Rose won MVP, the Bulls had the best record in the entire NBA, and they made all the way to the Eastern Conference Finals.

Despite losing four games to one against the -- at the time -- new super team, Miami Heat, there was a sense of hope in the air of the Windy City that this Bulls team could be poised to do something special in the near future.

The following season (2011-12), Derrick Rose battled several nagging injuries leading up to the fatal blow of him tearing his ACL in his left knee during the first game of the playoffs against the miserable Philadelphia 76ers. Later in that series Joakim Noah got injured and the Bulls (with the best record in the Eastern Conference) lost to the 76ers (with the worst record among all playoff teams that season).

Derrick Rose went on to sit out for the entire next season (2012-13) despite all of the hype by his sponsor, Adidas, and the public relations disaster made by him, his camp, and the Bulls organization by teasing the fans and the media with a possible return in the 2012-13 season. They all even teased fans with a Derrick Rose return in the playoffs.

But no need for a Rose return in those 2012-13 playoffs, the Bulls beat the Nets in the first round in a thrilling 7 game series led by Nate Robinson and Joakim Noah. Even though they lost to the Heat again four games to one, there was some rejoice around this Bulls team again for when Rose does eventually return.

All of that rejoice was long gone after just over 10 games in the 2013-14 season, Derrick Rose tore his meniscus in his right knee. The Bulls admittedly said Rose was done for the season to prevent anymore public relation mishaps.

All rejoice has since been stripped from Bulls fans, they are left skeptical and bitter. They (we) will always roots for Derrick Rose but trusting him to stay healthy would be delusional. But this team the Bulls have put around him (Pau Gasol, an improved Jimmy Butler, and Nikola Mirotic) sparked a little hope back into the hearts of Bulls fans. And soon as the hope began to really grow, Derrick Rose re-injured his right knee with another meniscus tear. This time the doctor removed the meniscus rather than repairing, meaning a speedier recovery time of 4-6 weeks instead of several months.

All signs point to tonight being the night of Derrick Rose's return. Tom Thibodeau, Bulls players and members of the Bulls organization seem optimistic. The Bulls probably have the best chance out of any Eastern Conference team of beating LeBron James' new superteam -- his home-state's Cleveland Cavaliers. And while this supporting cast around Derrick Rose is better than any he has player with probably in his life, this team needs him most of all to dethrone the king.

Speaking as a Bulls fan: I am skeptical.