10.27ish.2010

Ever since Woodstock, music festivals have been most popular with the collegiate generation. People set up tents and campers to prepare for a few straight days of the complete musical experience. Hundreds of bands line up to play all hours of the day and night. 


Next weekend is the last weekend for festivals this year and  Voodoo Fest in New Orleans was the closest one to Ruston. It will feature around 450 artists over Halloween weekend. The uniqueness of this event was the variety of artists, instead of just college aged kids it attracted an audience that was young and old. Since 1999 this festival has taken place and is growing in size of performers and fans over its 10 year course, taking one year off for hurricane Katrina. After Katrina it was the first full scale entertainment event set up in New Orleans. The fans this year will dress up in Halloween costumes as advised by the festival committee in different press releases. 


This  year Ozzy Osbourne will make his first appearance since 2001, brining in Ozzy fans from all generations. There are also a lot of Louisiania musicians including The Original Meters and Dr. John. Local musicians increase the local fan base as well. Fans far and wide are excited for the upcoming weekend to roll around and if you have time, you should stop by and experience one of Louisiana's best festivals of the year.

10.20ish.2010

The social networking topic of the last five years has been without a doubt, Facebook. This interactive website has become more and more like a friend to some of the 500 million(USATODAY) users. Features and items are constantly being updated and improved to make Facebook a better experience overall. Now Facebook is catering to people's feelings as well, in the Photo Memories section at the top right of your home screen, all pictures of your ex (recent or from a long time ago) will not be shown. In my opinion, this is ridiculous. If you do not want to see a picture of your ex boyfriend or girlfriend, then delete them as a friend. Hey Facebook, you don't know my life! Maybe I am still good friends with my ex and I want to have a photo memory with them in my corner. What if I had a fake relationship? Now that friend is excluded as well? Pretty soon Facebook is going to take over your life and  use your profile to post endless drunk pictures and create bitchy comments about your ex best friend. The human qualities that this website already holds is terrifying, it suggests friends and events for us to go to as well as alerts us what people are doing. Now it allows us to update and tell everyone where we are when we are doing that activity. One of my greatest fears is that computers are going to become too powerful in our world today, even more than they have now. Soon enough we will be obeying computers and computers will subconsciously run our lives. Have you ever taken a picture and thought to yourself, "Facebook needs to see that?" SEE!!!!! You are thinking about your friend, Facebook, and what you want to share with him. That is the problem with the world today, our dependence on technology is so great that we leave no room for our brains. If a computer approves it, it must be true. I am guilty of this as well, especially as a journalist it is hard to avoid. I know all of this seems a little far fetched, but is it really? I know I catch myself thinking "you know what computer or Facebook, you are right." Some of the things Facebook suggests actually broadens my horizons. It displays events that I would have never thought to go experience, which is good but also very terrifying. How does Facebook know so much about me that not even some of my closest friends would guess? What I am trying to get at is, do not let Face-book control your emotions and the way you think about your life. Sure, use it as an informational tool or fun network, but not as an advisor or pal. I believe adding Facebook as a friend on your real life list of friends might take it too far.

10.13ish.2010

I think HELL has frozen over, Justin Bieber has his own nail polish line coming out in January. Yes you heard me correctly, this teenage boy has six different colors that will soon be on the fingernails of girls throughout Canada and the US. The selling point of this polish is; they are named after each one of his songs. But wait, it gets better. The name of the nail polish is Nicole. Girlfriend? Mother? Sister? Grandma? Nope, none are named Nicole, he just chose a random girly name with no significance or meaning to him whatsoever. I guess the guy, I mean little boy, is trying to make some extra cash on the side of his millions he has now. (Reminding me of Travie McCoy, the millionaire singing about wanting to be a billionaire "So Freakin Bad"Click here if you have no idea what I'm talking about.) Normally I would support someone just trying to make an extra buck, but Bieber has taken it too far. Bieber Fever is out of control, it has to stop. Maybe when he hits puberty all the 12-year-olds will stop screaming "Baby Baby Baby."

Now I know a bunch of people think that Ashton Kutcher's Twitter is a big waste of time and a terrible excuse for you to tell everyone that you have to go to the bathroom or shave your legs. It is actually a website that you can use to your advantage. Besides the usual news or friend site, you can subscribe to any pop culture figurine or celebrity you can find. I found out about Bieber's polish from a tweet by E!Online. Something else I read on Twitter was about our favorite brother band, the Jonas Brothers.

Did you know that the Jonas Brother's show got cancelled because of Mexican drug violence? Apparently they are on their Mexico tour and the show in Monterrey was skipped because more than 400 drug related killings have taken place this year alone in the state of Nuevo Leon, where Monterrey is located. That is a massive amount of killings, and frankly I applaud the JoBros for even setting foot into Mexico. Although I wonder, do people in Mexico like them enough for the brothers to hold life threatening concerts for their fans in this country? Maybe Disney should think twice before sending their singers to different countries and putting them in potential danger.

10.6ish.2010

www.Gap.com

Fall has arrived and the weather is beginning to feel just right. Maybe its even time to whip out those perfect curve hugging Gap jeans from last year. As you begin to slide them on, your face goes from excitement to determination as you try to shove the zipper up and barely fasten the button. If this happens to you, you are actually IN luck because you are qualified to get a brand new pair of Gap jeans for 30 percent off by trading in your old, slightly smaller pair. Want to score an extra 10 percent off? Add Gap as your friend on Facebook, after such a deal why wouldn't you want to be Gap's friend? So with colder weather ahead, take full advantage of this great deal for some of the best fitting jeans on the market. 

hollywoodreporter.com

Speaking of jeans, there is a new show in the making on ABC called "Awkward Family Photos." The picture to the left is just a little taste of what you might find on this show. How the producers are planning on making a show out of cheesy pictures like this is beyond me. I do not understand how you could do anything besides a slideshow type setup with an America's Funniest Home Videos type host. If they do set up something like that, then I guarantee it will not run longer than one season. What a boring show to watch, the web was created for a reason, an hour of TV would not pass up 30 minutes of channel space for a bunch of weird pictures of people you don't know.


Family can be awkward, but it can also be loving. Love is one of the key ingredients in order for the family to stay connected. Parents give advice because they love you, not to torment you. Moms really do have the best advice and sometimes when you are sitting in your apartment or dorm in college you feel an ounce of homesickness. This homesickness has a cure, staying busy. Keep yourself busy with school work and extracurriculars, this way you don't have as much time to dwell on the fact that your parents aren't there to cook you breakfast in the morning or wake you up for school. 


So next time you go shopping check out Gap, then think about awkward family photos and if you start missing your family, stay busy with your school work or extra curricular...its a simple cycle!