themediamademecrazy.com

i am currently transitioning to charisselpree.com. although content will be mirrored on this site for a period of time, this site will eventually become my dissertation site. blog postings can be found at:

http://www.charisselpree.com/Home/deepthoughts/

RSS feed at:

http://feed43.com/charisselpree.xml

from MTV: one world, one image, one channel

The dam broke with Michael Jackson in 1983. Jackson was a major pop superstar by this point and had just released the album Thriller featuring the song “Billie Jean.” Jackson was a CBS recording artist and CBS executives wanted the video on MTV in order to promote the album. It is rumored that when MTV refused to air the video(claiming that it did not fit their rock format), CBS threatened to pull all of their other artists’ videos off of MTV’s rotation (Kaplan 74). CBS recording artists composed approximately 25% of the videos shown on the network including Pink Floyd and Journey. The tiny network had no option but to air the video, which turned out to be one of the greatest things that ever happened for MTV. This forced breakdown of MTV’s initial narrow structure resulted in the explosion of MTV and Michael Jackson’s solo career. The video propelled Jackson into the homes of millions of Americans and his resulting popularity solidified MTV as a musical force. Since then, MTV has embraced artists of all colors and genres.

from MTV: one world, one image, one channel

The dam broke with Michael Jackson in 1983. Jackson was a major pop superstar by this point and had just released the album Thriller featuring the song “Billie Jean.” Jackson was a CBS recording artist and CBS executives wanted the video on MTV in order to promote the album. It is rumored that when MTV refused to air the video (claiming that it did not fit their rock format), CBS threatened to pull all of their other artists’ videos off of MTV’s rotation (Kaplan 74). CBS recording artists composed approximately 25% of the videos shown on the network including Pink Floyd and Journey. The tiny network had no other option but to air the video, which turned out to be one of the greatest things that ever happened for MTV. This forced breakdown of MTV’s initial narrow structure resulted in the explosion of MTV and Michael Jackson’s solo career. The video propelled Jackson into the homes of millions of Americans and his resulting popularity solidified MTV as a musical force. Since then, MTV has embraced artists of all colors and genres. The first music video to feature and interracial coulple, Duran Duran’s video “Hungry Like the Wolf,” aired in 1984 and was celebrated by audiences nationwide.

I’m at home watching the LA Lakers Parade going on now from Staples Center in Downtown LA. Currently leaving to head to the LA Memorial Coliseum adjacent to USC. I opted to skip going to campus for work today. It feels good. I’m not a general active lakers fan, but I will finally admit to being a LA girl. For years I defined myself as “a NY girl living in LA.” But today, after traveling this route daily and sharing the experience with my neighbors, students, and every other LA resident, I think I’m an LA girl.

Mayor Villaragosa is with Kobe!

i’m trying to collate my thought into one place. does anyone know how to download all of my posts that i’ve created through wordpress. i can only seem to find the database of the items i’ve uploaded, but not content created through wordpress.

henry jenkins, my undergraduate media studies advisor and long time friend, recently posted on his blog…

5 Things You Don’t Know About Me

its a chain blog; someone posts a blog “5 things you don’t know about me,” in response to someone else, then demands the same from 5 of their friends. although i think chain mail is pretty lame, this might be awesome. i was not included in henry’s original five, but i felt inspired to respond to it anyway. since it should be written as a response to the sender, these are specifically five things that henry does not know about me. but as a blog chain, i post it for all my readers.

i must mention that i met prof jenkins when i was 16, as a freshman at mit. he is the housemaster at senior house, my habitat and habit from 1998-2003 and in the past nine years, he has been a part of my academic and personal life. there are very few things about me that he does not know, like how i cry when i’m frustrated, that i bleached my hair blonde for four days in 2000, and that the most important man in my life is a 22lb italian furball from long island. so after much thought, here we go…

1. in christmas 1988, my cousins got a nintendo entertainment system (you know the kind that came with mario brothers and duck hunt on the same cartridge?). it was the first time i actually played a video game. when my cousin killed her last man, i kicked my foot out and a toothpick left over from dinner went straight up my heel. i passed out screaming and crying. my relationship with video games has never been quite right.

2. during my freshman year at mit, a friend of mine and i used to get drunk and sneak into kresge ice rink to go skating at midnight. there isn’t much else to the story, just keep trying until you find the right door. the space is empty, the echo is deep, and the late night lighting is as smooth and serene as the ice.

3. i’m really good at doing my own nails. at one point in my childhood, i wanted to be a manicurist. it seemed like such a simple, yet fun job, bringing pleasure to other people. and i was good at it. i suppose this is related to my periodic thoughts about being an exotic dancer and a porno director… but henry has probably figured that out by now.

4. my old man crush is steve martin. some women like sean connery or patrick stewart. jeremy irons is a good one too. but for me, i like steve martin. i always have. there is something about a man that can make me laugh just by walking into a room. some of my first memories are reruns of steve on saturday night live. senior year of high school, i had a bit part in his play “Picasso at the Lapin Agile;” it was awesome and i keep meaning to read more of his written work. even after “bringing down the house,” steve martin could have me any day of the week.

mmm… i did really love ed bradley though…

5. in high school, a friend of mine decided that “charisse” required too much effort, and in 9th grade, i got dubbed with the nickname “CC” (sometimes spelt “CiCi” or “CeCe”). at first i loved it; i grew up hating my name and believing that a nickname meant that you were accepted into a group. i answered to it for about 2 years, but one night at ebersole ice rink, i snapped. i thought that “CC” sounded too much like a barbie doll name and, like every other 15 year old girl, i was never going to be a barbie, therefore i hated everything about her. i cussed out my friends and adamantly refused to answer to “CC”. since then, i’ve come to appreciate my name, its novelty, and my attachment to it. i haven’t had a nick name since, just aliases…

now for one thing that i didn’t know about me…

i’m the second in henry’s top 16 friends on myspace!

http://www.myspace.com/henryjenkins

to continue my blog, i’m going to request a response from 5 people with blogs, but please note that i’m eager to hear anyone and everyone’s responses!

teresa fazio, ian kreisberg, dan mcanulty, becca maglathlin, rene ruiz