U Of Louisville Basketball: GMA

Showing posts with label GMA. Show all posts

Friday, March 1, 2013

Is Ignorance Bliss When It Comes to "Breaking News"?

Yesterday my friend, Becky, drove up from Louisville to visit me. She doesn't have a TV and doesn't listen to the news very often. My new apartment is the first place I've had any TV since high school. I've become used to watching the news multiple times a day and keeping up with everything that's going on in the world.

When Becky got here I was watching the live footage of Pope Benedict XVI's last moments in the Vatican. She asked, "Why is this important? We're not Catholic." At first I was incredulous! I couldn't understand why she didn't know that the leader of 1.2 billion people giving up essentially unlimited power was a really big deal. I explained it to her and she seemed nonplussed.

Later on, we got out some food for lunch and she asked why I had so much meat in my fridge (she's vegetarian and it was only a pound of ground turkey and a few pork chops). I told her that if the sequester happened the price of meat was going to go up so I had bought more than normal because it had been on sale. She said, "Yeah, I've heard a little bit about that...what is it?" Again, I was shocked! This is a giant thing that's really going to have an impact on us and she knew nothing about it.

After Becky left, though, I got to thinking about our conversations about current events. I didn't have a TV in our house until I was 16 years old. When we lived in Montana, we listened to the Canadian news radio station for our news in the mornings and that was it. When we lived in Vanuatu, we listened to BBC Australia for our news (when we could get it). When we moved to Louisville, we had a TV, but we weren't interested in 24 hour news networks and didn't even watch the evening news, really. In college, I paid attention to politics, but didn't have a TV, so I got my news from the Internet when I felt like looking for it.

Now, I watch the Morning Joe, Good Morning Tri-State (our local morning news show), Good Morning America, Hardball with Chris Matthews, and ABC World News Tonight every day, as well as The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. I also sometimes watch AC360 and Piers Morgan Tonight or The Rachel Maddow Show, depending on what they're talking about. And when I'm in the car, I listen to NPR. Oh, and on weekends, it's Up with Chris Hayes. That's a lot of news!

So, why is this even a topic of conversation?

I am concerned about the state of our country on a daily basis. Becky is not. I'm very worried that my fiancé will lose his job and we won't be able to afford our current lifestyle because of the sequester cuts. Becky is not. I'm fascinated and nervous about the next pope (will he address contraception, gay marriage, etc?). Becky is not.

Is ignorance bliss? In all honesty, I remember being in Vanuatu in my early teen years when the Columbia space shuttle didn't make it back safely. We heard about it on the same day--kind of a big deal in and of itself--and it was sad. That's all we heard for a few days and we had time to reflect on it. When we were there, I didn't hear anything that wasn't massive news.

Now, I hear so many "Breaking News" stories that I can't remember what the "breaking news" was yesterday! How do you separate fluff from substance? How is it possible that I watch around six hours of news a day and can't tell you what the headlines from yesterday were, yet my anxiety about the state of the world is at an all-time high?!

So, could the 24-hour news networks, the morning shows, and the evening shows (not to mention the 24-hour connectedness on our mobile devices) be contributing to our country's insane anxiety rate?! I think so.

What do you think?

"Be the change you wish to see in the world." --Gandhi

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

GMA's Robin Roberts Returns!

Good Morning America/Ida Astute

This morning we welcomed anchor Robin Roberts back to Good Morning America! She contracted myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) as a result of her chemotherapy for breast cancer a few years ago. Here is an explanation from her doctors of the procedure that would fix the MDS: a bone marrow transplant.

Robin has been off the job for 174 days! She has recovered remarkably well, starting dry runs of GMA in January and coming back for her first show today. Her doctors said today that she will be taking it one day at a time because some days she won't feel well enough to come in to work.

Fibromyalgia is not nearly as crazy as MDS or cancer or anything, but I feel like all of us who have something we are trying to get through can take inspiration from Robin's story. When her doctors mentioned that she would taking it day by day, I smiled because I know exactly what that's like. I never know when I'm going to wake up feeling good and ready to go, or in so much pain I can barely move.

Robin's photo should be in the lexicon next to the phrase "the power of positive thinking." I know that she always knew in her heart that she would get better and come back to work. There were days that were struggles, but she never gave up. And now she's back, sooner than any of us ever imagined she would be!

Even though I know my fibromyalgia might never go away, I believe in the power of positive thinking and I need to practice it more. We are only truly victims of our conditions when we refuse to see the light. Robin saw the light and still does. The rest of us would do well to follow her amazing example. :-)

Robin, I've never met you, but you have helped and will continue to help inspire and motivate me every day. Thank you.

#WelcomeBackRobin

"Be the change you wish to see in the world." --Gandhi

Thursday, January 10, 2013

The Oscars: Live-Tweets and Snubs

This morning I decided to try my hand at "live-tweeting" an event: the Oscar nominations! I'm not sure why I can't get these tweets to line up with the oldest first, but c'est la vie. So scroll down to the bottom of this group of tweets and read up from there, please.

Start here and read up. Then come back to finish reading this post!

You're back! I wasn't exactly the best when it came to the live-tweeting, but it was fun because I knew that I was getting the nominations out there within five seconds of them being announced! Twitter, however, was apparently less than amused:

21m ‏@ChickOpinion

Interesting...my account got suspended for "abusing the trend with unrelated things" what?!? How do you live-tweet without the hashtag??

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How do you live-tweet without "abusing the trend?" How can you have a "trend" if you're not allowed to go nuts with it and live-tweet? Things to learn in the technological world of Twitter...

So let's get back to the nominations: the three categories I am the most excited about are Best Supporting Actress, Best Actor, Best Picture.

Best Supporting Actress
Anne Hathaway is absolutely incredible in "Les Miserables." Phenomenal. Her song "I Dreamed a Dream" left me (and every other person in the theater) in tears; she's just so moving! I think it's so fantastic that her breakout role as Princess Mia and "The Princess Diaries" hasn't made her a type-cast. She was great in that movie, but she's just incredible at everything: comedy (SNL), fun roles ("The Princess Diaries" and "The Devil Wears Prada"), and singing and intense roles ("Les Miserables"). She is brilliant, and I am so glad she's getting recognized for this! All that, and every time she does an interview, her mannerisms remind me of my older sister and I love that!

Sally Field is also absolutely incredible in "Lincoln." Just brilliant. I have loved her in everything she's done and this was no exception. This is definitely one of the better roles she's had, even though it's "just" a supporting role. She was great!

Best Actor
Hugh Jackman. Ah. May. Zing. Jackman as Jean Valjean is insanely good. He has a voice that I never expected from him. Ever. I mean, the first thing I saw him in was "X-Men" as Wolverine. Love. I absolutely adored "X-Men Origins: Wolverine." He's incredible! So then when I realized it was he who had been cast in "Les Miserables" I was very skeptical. But, he was great. I so hope he wins!

I also hope Daniel Day Lewis wins (why can't there be a tie?!). Lincoln was a brilliant, brilliant film and Lewis brought the best possible Lincoln there could ever be. He was just so good! Love him.

Denzel Washington is wonderful and he definitely is going to be in the running for the win!

Seems like my favorite in this category is kind of obvious...hmm.

Best Picture
"Les Miserables" is the best film I have seen in a very long time. Maybe ever. I have never been more emotionally exhausted when leaving a theater than I was after this movie. We were supposed to go to dinner and all I wanted to do was go take a nap and keep crying! The direction of it, the music, the screenplay, the acting, the way they filmed it, the singing, the costumes...there was no part of that movie that left me wishing for more or something else. It was brilliant. I know that some critics are wishing the singing had been more polished--no. It was raw, it was real, and it was really good. There is nothing I would have changed. I really want this to win "Best Picture" because it was just fantastic.

"Agro" was another emotionally charged movie that was very good. I was so incredibly impressed with Ben Affleck! Fantastic job! Wonderful story. Great piece of history with a wonderful movie to tell it. I will be happy if this wins, but not as happy as I will be if "Les Mis" wins.

"Lincoln" was great! These historical films were just wonderful this year! Again, worthy of an Oscar, but not the same year as "Les Mis."

I think the category that may garner the most attention is the "snubbed" category:
Tom Hooper, Director of "Les Miserables"--are you kidding me?! How can it be up for "Best Picture" and the director not be included? That film has amazing actors, incredible music, brilliant filming...but the director is the one who pulls it all together. The Academy missed the boat on that one.
Russell Crowe, Javert in "Les Miserables"--really??! Best Supporting Actor should be his. That was a wonderful role portrayed by a wonderful actor! I guess he and Hooper can have an alternative Oscar party...what a shame.
Ben Affleck, Director of and Lead Actor in "Argo"--Academy, seriously?!! This is one of the most different, best roles he has ever done and the directing was amazing! How does he get completely left out of the nominations? Definitely not cool.
Leonardo DiCaprio, in "Django Unchained"--full disclosure: I haven't seen this movie yet. Reason I'm upset about it: literally everyone loved him in it. Everyone. I can't wait to see this movie. Academy, you do not snub DiCaprio.
Kathryn Bigelow, Director of "Zero Dark Thirty"--full disclosure: I haven't seen this yet either, because I will not be able to handle the level of violence in this movie on the big screen. Waiting for the DVD. But, from what I've hear about it, it's a brilliant movie and from what the media is saying, she had to go through a bunch of crap to get cooperation from the government on this. Between Bigelow and Affleck, is the Acedemy snubbing directors of American political situations? Who knows...

So that's my take on all the nominees! Can't wait until February 24!

"Be the change you wish to see in the world." --Gandhi