Stimulus Package........I don't get it

Obama's first stimulus package was recently signed into law. Oh how exciting!! Wait...what does that mean? I mean I hear everyday on the news that it is some kind of big deal right and that it is going to help us get out of a downward-spiraling economy. The thing is, I have read so many articles on the multi-billion dollar stimulus, you would think that I would get some sort of clue on who and how it is going to help. The truth is, I don't. It just doesn't look like it does anything for pretty much anyone. How can that be? To be honest, the heck if I know....

Personally, I was looking at only one thing with the new package. Help a brotha get a house. I see people that make a third of my salary failing to pay on houses that I couldn't even afford. So help a brotha out. I looked and looked and well.....there was no help. All of that money and it is going to help people get less screwed by their loans....really. That's really not going to help at all.
So what I should have done was purchased a small mansion in grad school and get hounded by banks and threatened by foreclosure and i'd be sitting pretty right now.

It seems to me, like many of the recent political/financial decisions our country has made lately, that we are in the habit of bailing out the corrupt. Which equates to giving rewards to those that make dumb decisions. I'm sure there is some guy out there that has gone bankrupt multiple times by now that has a small fortune and is winking at someone after hearing about this package.

The thing that gets me is that nobody is saying anything.....crickets....chirp chirp. It's like we were just robbed of billions of our dollars and we are all sitting around with drool falling out of our mouths while we try to figure out how to switch over our HD cable hook-up for the new mysterious television conversion.

Another thing that I have noticed is that Obama is still being praised about the whole thing by a lot of Americans. This is tremendously counter-intuitive. I'm the kid at the school yard with the lemonade stand(that is struggling due to the increased price of lemons and sugar) and Obama is the guy that the kids playing dodge ball over in the corner elected who comes over and takes half of my lemonade profit and hands it to the bully beating up my kid brother. All the entire while, the kids keep playing dodge ball not realizing that my lemonade fund was really one of the only sources for funding replacement dodge balls.......see what I just did there. :) Hint: It's got nothing to do with lemonade or dodge balls much like the stimulus package has anything to do with helping you out.

Maybe i'm speaking too soon but I feel sick to my stomach about our countries current financial situation and decision making. I sit here actually paying after doing my taxes for the first time ever and I can't help but wonder. What is it that the U.S. people don't get about the fact that when it comes to an economy, the more negative values you throw at it, the worse it gets(not better).

It's okay, Rome used to throw out food in the main Colosseum when times were tough. We send out a couple of hundred bucks called a stimulus check to look the other way as our politicians rape and plunder our land. Actually now that I think about it, we compare pretty heavily to the Romans in their falling times. Now we just need a few barbaric tribes(check) and mix in a little greed(check) and backstabbing(check) ......hmmm yes.. I think we might just have the making of a great civilization collapse.

Okay okay, so i've gotten off course a bit and i'm exaggerating tremendously but i'm probably not too far off and although i'm not surprised that the media is still(and always will be) in it's pro-obama, pro-stimulus stance, I wonder where the local grumblings of the average joe are? I figured I would have heard some by now. Maybe people are scared to admit that they just don't get it either. It's okay, we have all learned to admit that we voted for an idiot in the past and don't understand why, maybe we should consider another(earlier) therapy session on the same topic.

The DPAC

I went to the Durham Performing Arts Center last night with my girlfriend to see a branch off of Cirque de Soleil. It was the Jungle Dreams spin-off that won very positive comments from some of the harshest reviewers in the nation. I want to break down my experience by before, during, and after thoughts.

Before:
We purchased the tickets a few months back doing my normal choose the closest in the center routine. I like to be as close as possible for any performance. The DPAC offered only a few price variations(30-55 bucks). I picked the 55 dollar back of the orchestra as that was all that was remaining of the lower level high price tickets. I figure it would suck to be on the third balcony staring at ants on stage. In addition to the tickets I bought parking tickets from ticketmaster so we wouldn't have to worry about downtown Durham.

During:
I have to say that I had never been to the Durham Performing Arts Center before. I actually don't head to Durham often for events besides the occasional bulls game or a trip to a few of the newer bars/shops. I heard that the DPAC was right next to the stadium and was in a newly developed and growing area so I was pretty excited to go there.

I first threw the directions into the GPS for the parking deck. It took us to a FREE parking lot a block away from the DPAC. I was not happy about being taken for the price of the parking ticket when all of the lots around the DPAC are free parking lots. A lesson to learn I suppose.

From there we walked the block down the poorly lit streets to the new DPAC. It was definitely an amazing view. A modern MASSIVE building in the heart of downtown Durham. It was really cool looking with a modern design and floors for entry and then for each level(3 levels). Lots of glass and lighting showing you all of the people flowing up and down the stairs even a block away.

We went in about 10 minutes prior to performance time. There were long lines for the concessions(which served mostly cheap wine, cookies, water, and soda products). Not unusual for a performance I don't think. It was immediately obvious the bizarre mix of people attending the event. You had your professionals dressed up and your "unprofessionals" with people wearing anything from jeans and a tee to sweats etc. Not surprising in Downtown Durham but I had hoped a dress code could be implemented for the bare minimum standard. I mean even bars won't let people with sneakers and sweats in them.

In any case, we went to our seats which I payed extra for the comfort and view. We were not only in the back of the orchestra but were pushed under the balcony. NO description said that the cheaper seats in the balcony would be CLOSER to the stage. I couldn't believe it. We were really far from the stage and I was feeling really ripped off. I imagine the DPAC will need to explore price adjustments for the crappy orchestra seats in the back. They truly are worse than the balcony seats. The performance began and all of the lights were still on not to mention people were still getting to their seats everywhere. It was awkward to try and hear the show when people were flooding in. It was pretty much mass chaos and people were talking about and doing whatever they wanted. One thing was immediately obvious and very disappointing to me, the seats were not set on the normal bowl shape. Any modern day theater has a heavy bowl shape with a steep incline so you couldn't see the person's head in front of you unless they were 7 foot tall and then that would just be unfortunate. I had a short guy and his shorter girlfriend in front of me and they blocked more than 50% of my vision. Then to make matters even worse, the guy two rows in front of me blocked another 10% for no real reason other than he happened to be there. So I could see about 40% of the stage. This is nothing more than a design flaw of the theater. This is unacceptable for any modern theater. No way should you pay 50+ dollars and have your view blocked for no good reason other than design. I was super annoyed because it wasn't just me. I heard everyone talking about the layout and feeling ripped off.

Once my annoyance at the theater settled, I was able to watch the right side of the stage and really enjoy what part I could see. The performers were incredible. People in my row constantly ran to get drinks like it was a movie theater but otherwise the show was pretty good. There were a few mistakes by the performers that I would say were NOT trivial and very noticeable but they only perform one night as with most if not all of the shows at the DPAC so there isn't room for any mess-ups. It didn't really take away from it too much though probably just a scheduling flaw with the DPAC. Leaving was actually the easiest part since traffic wasn't really bad and there is so much FREE parking.

After Thoughts:
I think that the DPAC is in need for some serious improvement in their policies. Blocked views of expensive seats is unacceptable. Ripping people off when there is so much free parking is unacceptable. Honestly, only allowing performances to be shown once and opening up room for serious flaws is unacceptable. Not to mention the dress code thing.

The Cirque group was incredible! I recommend anyone who gets the chance to see them, go see them! Just not in Durham! The DPAC clearly has more than kinks to work out. They have to worry about the larger fact that all of the professionals paying the higher prices may just stick to Raleigh Memorial and leave the DPAC all together. I probably will give them one more shot and aim for the very front or the front of the balcony and if that is just as bad, will never be back again.

The DPAC was a symbol of hope for the city of Durham. They have a reputation of being thugs and gang based. It was a beacon of light that would attract youth and professionals but quite frankly I saw more catering to the city people. I know that an opinion can't be established from just one visit but my concern is that if the DPAC should fail to attract people on a large level like Raleigh more than the first two years, this "Arts Center" could turn into a symbol of a failing symbol. They need to put in a real effort, much more than I saw last night.

Digital Conversion

Currently in the news, there is a ton of hype around preparing your television for the big digital conversion. Unlike the hype around Y2K or some doomsday prophecy, the digital conversion is the real deal. People will lose the ability to go by the old fashioned rabbit ear method to pick up non-digital signals. This means a few things for the average citizen. Either A) you need to have cable/satellite(a.k.a. pay for your television) or B) you need to have a set of new cooler rabbit ears that pick up the digital signal and a television that is HD compliant. The news said that over 12% over people in new mexico are not ready for the switch. Holy crap, that's a lot of people without television.

What I am curious about and frankly quite surprised not to hear about up to this point is what's really going on here? Do they really need the old signals for emergency use only? I'm not often lured in by conspiracy theories but I have to say. These forced conversions come at an unusually convenient time given the horrible down-swing with the economy. Shouldn't we all be thinking this very well could be an attempt to get tons of citizens to go out and purchase HD televisions and cable or satellite service. I get the feeling this conversions is just a way to get citizens to throw money into the local pot without asking for it first. It's as if the government told us we need a special filter on all of our faucets to filter out some new chemical or with some lame reasoning behind it. Oh the filter is only a few dollars and everyone is entitled to 1 free filter for their home just as long as you apply within a certain couple of months. Well......I guess we wouldn't have a choice but to go out and spend would we? That's pretty much my view of television. The government is preying on our dependency on television and forcing us to throw in a few extra bucks towards keeping the luxury. My personal experience is that time warner cable has removed almost all of their "free" HD channels and either left them dead or replaced them with foreign speaking channels. It makes me curious as to whether the intention is to get people like myself with basic cable to switch to the digital cable package which costs significantly more given you don't get many more channels. In general, it's not much of a gamble really for the government and they get a pre-planned bump in spending. Let's just not be surprised when we see this as intentional on the history channel 10-20 years from now.

City on a Hill Project

I don't often throw religion on my blog. I share my thoughts about life and religion with those close to me and I tend to believe that throwing my beliefs out there often open them up for unwanted critique. Critique that frankly, I don't need or want. The exact kind of behavior many churches and religious groups do not want from their followers but really that's my point I think.

In any case, this blog isn't about me. I wanted to bring light to a local movement that I may or may not agree with(I don't really know, it's all new to me as well). All I know is that I know the person behind the movement and there is no ill will in this man's heart. He is truly out to do good and share love in the way he knows best. For that quality I want to mention the City on A Hill Project taking place in Chapel Hill. There is no doubt that this is a Christian movement lead by a good old friend of mine Matthew Leroy. Matt is inspired and brilliant in his innovation and his devotion to sharing.

You can check out the movement on lovechapelhill.com.

He has created a brilliant video to get the ball rolling. I wanted to post it for anyone crossing my blog to see.



If you are interested in getting involved in what is sure to become a life changing event (no matter who you are), check these guys out in the second floor of McCalister's Deli on Tuesday nights at 7:00 p.m.

Super Bowl "New" Oldies

I was taking a trip down memory lane regarding past superbowl games and halftime shows today. On the EW website, there was a compilation of the 10 greatest halftime shows ever. I had my own thoughts about the greatest halftime shows and more specifically the worst shows. As I looked through the pictures, I realized that more times than not, the artists selected from the EW top ten were in my bottom ten. That made me chuckle a bit. I thought well I am sort of an oddball at times, I better read the comments and see whether people agreed. To my satisfaction, almost all of the comments agreed with me. They must have lost their mind. I mean how can the b. spears, n' sync, aerosmith, nelly combo be in the top 10. That halftime show had a ton of potential and ended up smearing together to become a huge pile of mess.

Worse than that show though have been all of the halftime shows since "the incident". You know, the boob incident that we all saw and thought it was lame and not that big of a deal until the networks freaked out and it changed live television from that broadcast on. Well anyways, since the nipple slip, we have been forced to watch old band after old band. I'm not the youngest person on the planet so if i'm calling them old then the young kids are completely clueless. I started wondering if the superbowl selection committee are just a bunch of middle age guys sitting around saying "You know who would be great", without realizing who they should be catoring to(younger generations that are still curious if a superbowl is worth the watch). I mean really lets see who we have seen since the incident. We saw the rolling stones, a shriveled up ex-rockband that looked like they might die on the spot as they pranced around the stage singing songs none of us younger people knew(This was in the EW top 10). We saw Tom Petty and the heartbreakers mimic zombies, and just stand still singing older hits as we wondered if the stoners were capable of putting on any kind of show that would require people to look at more than one segment of the stage(in the EW top 10). Then we saw Prince who surprisingly showed us he still had it and put on a rockin performance IN THE FREAKING RAIN. Still how many younger kids were like who? Prince of what? Not us haha. This year it is Bruce Springsteen. Really? Anyone noticing a trend? I know they want to be safe but maybe put a pulse into the crowd and mix it up a bit. If I hear Born in the freakin' USA, i'm probably going to laugh at the irony of the song and the current crowd diversity and flip the channel to the puppy superbowl or some mess. Really guys, it doesn't always have to be a singer and they don't have to be old. Or maybe they do and I didn't read the rule book? Maybe you need to be so non-exciting that you leave no doubt in the networks mind that you won't show your nipples or rip off the blouse of the person next to you. Maybe next year they can book kenny G to solo the halftime show. Seriously......I wish things would go back to high energy and youthful even if it means I have to listen to generations below mines favorite musicians.