What Summer Music Festivals Are You Going to Catch This Summer?

Summer is sneaking up on us and tickets for summer music festivals are selling out like djembes at a drum circle.  So don’t know what festival to attend?  Too many options?  Don’t even know who is playing?  Well check this out:

Lollapalooza:
When: August 5-7, 2011
Where: Grant Park, Chicago, Illinois
What: The first Lollapalooza was in 1997 and has taken a few hiatuses since it’s original introduction.  This festival usually consists of 7 stages with music from several different genres.  There is anything from pop, electronica, indie to jam band music.  Some of the past headliners were: Lady Gaga, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Pearl Jam, Nine Inch Nails, Primus, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and many more.
Who: The lineup for the 2011 season will be released in Spring.
Why to attend: It’s in the middle of town town Chicago.  It’s insane to see so many bands in such a bizarre setting.  The lights and noise bounce off of the skyscrapers and when the crowds are released as the concert ends, Chicago is temporarily shut down.  it’s a site.  Chicago is in the middle of the United States.  If you’re planning to meet up with friends, then it is centrally located.  You’re also probably going to know a majority of the artists that will be playing at Lollapalooza, so the music festival will be fun.  There are also seven stages with all different kinds of acts and the stages are located close to one another.
Why not to attend: You can’t camp-out.  This means you have to pay for an expensive hotel in downtown Chicago (Book hotels early, they will sell out in a matter of days from the release of the lineup).  The show ends at midnight.  The City of Chicago will pull chord if the music is not off (Thank you Bassnectar 2009 for demonstrating this to us).

 

 

Bonaroo:
When: June 9-12, 2011
Where: Great Stage Park in Manchester, Tennessee
What: A four day music festival that started in 2002 that features a diverse array of musical style from jazz to indie rock and everything between.
Who: Past artists that have headlined are: Neil Young, Tool, Radiohead, Jay-Z, Tom Petty, The Flaming Lips, The White Stripes and My Morning Jacket.
Why to attend: There’s always some huge surprise or great act scheduled!  Conan hosted a comedy tent in 2010.  The Flaming Lips covered Dark Side of the Moon in 2010.  Kanye West through a diva fit in 2009.  You never know what will happen, but no doubt, it will happen.
Why not to attend: Sometimes security is not enforced.  Make wise choices about your personal safety.

Coachella:
When: April 15th-17th, 2011
Where: Indio, California
What: Coachella Biography
Who: Lineup
Why to attend: The art.  Live sculptures. The longest flying kites.  There is nothing comparable to the art and the sunset that you will see at this festival.
Why not to attend: Too hot.  We all know that music festivals are hot, but with temperatures sweltering far above 100 degrees, it is hard to beat the heat.

Sasquatch:
When: May 27th-30th
Where: Gorge Amphitheatre in George, Washington
What: A four day music festival in the most beautiful place you could imagine.
Who: Lineup
Why to attend: Most beautiful view you will ever see.
Why not to attend: It’s beautiful and the lineup is amazing.

Rothbury:
When:?
Where:?
What: Jam band heaven!
Who:?
Why to attend: You can camp, you can grill, you can listen to music all day and night long
Why not to attend: We aren’t sure if Rothbury will happen in 2011, so if you’re holding out for tickets for this music festival, you might end up very sad.

Burning Man:
When: August 29th- September 5th
Where:  Black Rock City
What: This is an experience.  I can’t really describe it to you.  It is best described from the words and description of Molly Steenson.
Who: You and whoever comes to build “the community”
Why to attend: It’s a life experience that will change you, scare you, open up your eyes and show you things that you will never see again.
Why not to attend: If you’ve never been to a festival before then don’t go to this one.  It’s located in a desert.  There is no running water, food vendors or security.  If you are staying for all four days, then you need to have enough water, food and other goods to survive.  My best advice is to bring your friend who was a boy scout and over prepare.

So no matter what music festival you decide to go to, go to it because you want to!  You have to pick a festival that is something that you want to go to because you’re the one who is looking to see your favorite bands!  Choose a festival that is you!  Then you will have fun!  And always be safe because music festivals are fun, but they are also very dangerous.

Are You Fair and Balanced About Your News Sources?

In a world where you can access news everywhere, form many different sources, how do you decide what is fair and balanced?  Are you fair and balanced about your news sources? Do you strive to look for different political stances and evaluate your news sources under different  “lenses”?  A lot of news corporations and sources like to claim that they are the most and balanced.  However, if every news source is saying this, then there is obviously a problem.  Not every news source can be the most fair and the most balanced.  Are there even any news sources that are fair and balanced? In my personal opinion, no.  There are no news sources that are fair and balanced.  They all have some type of “lean” towards one political affiliation or the other.  It is often a challenge for those who are looking to find news that is fair and balanced.  In order to find news sources that are fair and balanced, you often have to read and evaluate multiple sources.  Here are a few easy steps to make sure that you are fair and balanced about your news:

1)  Acknowledge that every news source that you will read does have a political angle.  The angle will usually be liberal or conservative.  It is up to you to use your common sense to decide what view it is presenting.
2)  Start to visit different types of news sites while checking news on the Internet or television.
3)  Check CNN.com.  CNN is usually fair in coverage and reports different angles, however it does lean slightly left.
4)  Check FOX News.  Fox is a conservative viewpoint.
5)  Visit drudgereport.com or other “different” media sources.  Often sites like this will have stories or viewopoints that are controversial.  It’s always good to read viewpoints like this because they are something that is “outside” of the box.
6) Visit the economist.com.  This site supports free markets and globalization and leans towards social progress.   They will often have statistics that you can trust and are known to be fair in articles.  They support nominees that have ideas similar to their own.  With saying this you know that they will vote for a Republican or a Democrat and have done so in the past.
7)  Go to news sites that don’t have an American perspective.  Checkout The Guardian, RT, China Daily and other sites that have differing viewpoints from the United States.  Some of these viewpoints will be very interesting.  But in order to be fair and balanced you have to be able to read and understand other viewpoints.
8)  Check social media sites.  You can check Twitter, Facebook, Reddit or other social media news outlets for different articles and news sources.
9)  After reading many sources, you need to be able to create your own point of view.  After reading so many sources, you should be able to do this.

So in order to make sure that your news is fair and balanced, it is you that must be fair and balanced about your news sources.  Checkout multiple sources in order to form an opinion and point of view.

Social Media: Life or Death?

Does social media create life or kill it?  Does social media isolate people from reality, or does it connect them in ways that we could have never imagined less than a decade ago?  I am very torn on this subject.  I see both sides on a daily basis.  I honestly believe that it depends on the individual.

After reading an article from the Guardian I lean more towards the side that believes Social Networking is not destroying social skills or isolating anyone from reality.  People have always been able to isolate themselves from reality if they wanted to do so.  The birth of social media has made it easier for people to do this, but there are always other ways to become a hermit locked in some fantasy world that does not exist.  I have some friends that I haven’t seen since World of War Craft was released in America.  I guess some people could argue that W.O.W is a form of social media, but I do not believe that it is.  It is a game just like Dungeons and Dragons.  I believe that social media is used to connect people together for positive reasons.  Some of my best friends live in different countries and if it were not for Facebook or Twitter I would not be able to talk to them because I wouldn’t be able to afford the outrageous price of a phone call.  I love Skype, Twitter and Facebook for this reason.  They are programs that are free and can connect me to family, friends, news, videos and world events.

A lot of people do not know what social media is.  Wikipedia has a great definition for what social media is.

I think it is amazing that less than four years ago I didn’t even have a cellphone that was capable to texting.  I actually just got a phone that could text last year and since then I have upgraded to  a smart phone.  I don’t know how I lived before this phone.  I can check my Twitter, Facebook and anything else on the Internet in a heartbeat.  I know that my mom and dad have no idea why I decided to buy this phone, but I feel like there is a whole generation that has no idea what social media is and how to use it.  I believe that it is this group of people that thinks social media is disconnecting their children and other people from reality.  Social media is reality, they just need to get with the times.

I believe that you always need to adapt and change.  Things are always going to keep advancing and it is up to you to know how and why.  Less than a century ago there were no cars.  The people who didn’t want to trade in their horse and carriage for a car probably fell behind the times too.  Not only that, but it took them longer to get places and learn about what was going on everywhere.  I believe this is how social media is and will be.  People need to learn what social media is and what it has the possibility to do before they just say that they hate it.

I’ve recently been working with my parents and their company to try and expand their “social media adventure”.  My parents own a construction company and they believe that business cards are the only way to go.  Recently I have been showing them how to use Twitter and also how Twitter and other social media tools could expand their company.  They don’t believe a word I say because they still don’t know what social media is and have no interest in it.  They think that social media is evil, thanks to my brother who is constantly glued to some type of screen.  They are going to fall behind the times if the do not learn how to change and adapt to current technology.

So overall, I believe that social media is connecting people together.  I can Tweet to my friend in Columbia about the situation in Egypt while watching a video that Anderson Cooper uploaded onto his blog.  Social media is making the world smaller and more accessible.  It isn’t making people become socially inept.  You actually have to be social in order to use social media correctly.  I do believe that there is proper etiquette to use while participating in social media and that is what my next blog post will be about.  I believe that social media is a tool that has more benefits than adverse consequences.  I believe that people need to learn about social media to a greater depth in order to fully understand what it is and how it can positively change the world.

I believe that social media is creating life and connecting people like people have never been connected.  Think about this: back in the 90’s people would have their CD player in hand and earphones snug tightly into their ears while sitting on the bus. They wouldn’t talk to anyone and would stay quietly in their seat.  Today we have our smart phones in our hands and the whole world at our finger tips.  In both situations I would not be talking to anyone.  Social media is not changing everything.  In both situations I would be by myself and trying to avoid human communication because I don’t like talking to most strangers.  However, nowadays I can surf the Internet while riding the bus instead of just listening to one CD.  The world is changing. It’s all up to you if you want to move with it.  I say hop on that surfboard and hit those Internet waves!

If I Were a Sentence…

The world is an interesting place.  It is full of people, places and ideas.  Everywhere we go, be it analog or digital, we are constantly encountering new experiences.  There are always new people, ideas, concepts and places that are materializing out of thin-air.  I’m graduating this May and I realize that I have no idea what I am going to do.  Do I immediately continue my educational conquest?  Should I move to New York City and get lost in the sky-scrapping jungle that so many others get lost in as well?  Or should I pack-up all of my belongings and buy a one-way ticket to Europe with no intention of ever coming back? Who knows?  I sure don’t.  I don’t know what I want to do.  I don’t know who I want to be.  I honestly have no idea, and I am perfectly fine with this notion.  I’m ready to have new experiences.  I don’t think anyone ever knows exactly what they want in life or who they are.  Sure, we all might have ideas.  I have a vague idea of what I want to do, just as I have a vague idea of what I’m going to do tomorrow.  However, things happen.  Tomorrow some mysterious volcano may erupt in the middle of downtown Omaha and that just might mess up my plans.  I don’t think people should ever have plans set in stone.  Things happen.  This leads me to the question: What is my sentence? In my social media class we watched a video by Daniel Pink.  It was a video about what your sentence would be.  It’s a tough question to answer, but aren’t all questions that pertain to oneself difficult to answer?  Well my sentence is long: I’m a blanket of impossible thoughts rolled up into plausible ideas, birthing supernovas and escaping black holes; my mind is constantly expanding at the same rate as the universe and I am an idea, a mere figment of your imagination and so are you.  I believe this is my sentence because it encapsulates everything that I believe I am.  I’m a huge fan of space, learning and using my imagination.  I guess my sentence is hard to explain, but that’s why it is my sentence.  I’m not easy to understand and I have no firm idea of what I am or who I want to be.  It’s the life experiences that make us who we are and who we want to be.  I’m just ready to make the best of all my life experiences.

2 Blogs on Photo-J, 2 Very Different Ways

The first blog that I am going to examine is PHOTOJOURNALISMLINKS. I really enjoy this blog because the blog host, Mikko, writes with a very friendly tone and creates a very personal atmosphere within his posts.  Mikko discusses photojournalism.  He does this by sharing stories of where he has been and what he is doing.  Mikko also links photos, interviews and stories from other blogs and news services.  I think it is really great that he includes so many different types of media.  I thoroughly enjoy being able to read stories about similar topics and compare them by news source.  The approach that Mikko takes to his writing is very personal.  In the first post that I read, he was wishing everyone a fantastic 2011.  Mikko also talks about he travels a lot and works in the photojournalism field. I think this blog was labeled as one to follow because it clearly has a lot of followers and a firm fan base.  It also has a beautiful pictures and many links to stories that are interesting.  One story that I read was about how individuals are willing to spend money for news.  It is very interesting to watch the progress of the news field.  In an age where people can get news from the Internet, how does the industry still make profit?  The article really caught my attention and pulled me in.  I really like the topics because I am always interested in news and love when a story has an image or interview linked with it.  I personally enjoy news videos.  I really like being able to listen and watch something at the same time.  Based on my learning style, I know that this is how I learn best.  I really appreciate this blog because it intertwines those two learning styles.  Mikko also includes articles about Facebook, population control and water issues in the Middle East.  I really like how there are multiple areas of interest.  He also includes a blog post that is dedicated to the year 2010.  It is nice to have an entire post dedicated to the year because sometimes people forget about events that had happened previously.
Burn Magazine is an online magazine blog that is dedicated to releasing new photojournalists’ work.  It was voted best photography magazine of the year for 2010 and can only be found online.  I can easily see how this was named best online magazine blog.  This blog is amazing!  As someone who enjoys journalism and history, this blog blew my mind!  Each blog post starts off with an image bank that you can click-through.  Located under each image bank is a historical article that relates to the images and explains the stories with reference to the past history of the cultures, religions or ideas.  The photography is amazing, the writing is professional and informative and there is even a bio about each writer.  I love this blog!  This is what a professional blog should look like.  The aesthetic is clean, clean and understandable.  The writing is flawless, moving and accompanied with images that are often heart wrenching.
Overall, both blogs are very nice and flow very well.  However, the Burn Magazine blog is far superior in aspects of design.  Both blogs incorporate writing and have excellent links.  I highly advise to checkout Burn magazine and to read the articles.  They are amazing.