New Years News

Another year has started and already some new developments have materialized. To start off with I have gotten another blog gig at the The Millennial Star to write blog posts hopefully on a regular basis. My first one Another Voice in the Choir is a simple introduction to me and my interest in Mormonism. How it will effect Straight and Narrow I don't know. Most likely I will post at least once a month some original content here, and then reprint with the appropriate links some of the material I do for them. I like writing and so we will see. Since I am not getting any money, it is readers' response that is payment to keep going. If you like what I do then share your thoughts sometimes to keep me motivated. If you really like me send money for my writing support a la Eric D. Snider like. Better yet, if you have a magazine or newspaper then lets skip the handouts and just offer me a job. I'm not begging. Really I'm not. Just feeling out my options ;) because we all need to pay the bills.

Moving on, Brigham Young University won the big Psych Campus Wars competition. From the Facebook (love it and hate it) announcement:

A HUGE fist bump goes out to Brigham Young University for winning PSYCH's first ever Campus Wars! They'll be getting their school mentioned in an upcoming episode of PSYCH!

I had talked about it on a previous post and am thrilled the school won. Now we will see if its just a simple mention or an extended inclusion. With Psych you really can't say. Sometimes they make a side joke and at other times a running gag. Excited no matter what because it is me and my wife's favorite show.

I also want to mention an article about pop culture and New Years Eve in the "Irish Examiner" that is of interest. The whole article is worth reading and I can agree completely with what the author says. For example:

Somewhere in the city [of New York], possibly the Waldorf or the Roosevelt Hotel, [New Years Eve] celebrants were enjoying ballroom dancing, champagne toasts and a big band orchestra playing Auld Lang Syne like Lombardo did but it's unlikely we'll ever catch this type of programming on the networks' holiday presentations. Why not? Because today's viewers are more likely to demand reality starlets wearing skanky clothing, foul-mouthed comediennes and hip hop, tone deaf musical acts

Back in the sixties, a new phrase came into vogue- generation gap. It meant that my generation was so far removed from the previous one of our parents that there remained only a large fissure in our cultural styles. What it has actually come to mean is that my generation has a deficit of elegance and class and we've spawned a generation with lowbrow tastes . . .

. . . One day I asked my daughter Danielle why she liked [old TCM movies] and she said, "They're clean. No bad language and no nudity."

It helps that the author said they watched Psych along with the older movies during the time others were watching "the ball" drop. Isn't that an apt description of today's culture? We seem to be dropping the ball more each year. My suggestion is to write Alicia Colon at aliciav.colon@gmail.com as a show of support.