I Don't Condone That at All

Okay so I'm on Facebook chat and I get a message from one of my many awesome friends and he refers me to this article and I’m like why not I’ll have a looksy. Take time now to read this article. It is not long at all:

http://www.detnews.com/article/20090616/METRO/906160367/1409/METRO

And so I read this article, and I’m like WHAT THE HELL. If this isn't by far one of the dumbest decisions that the city of Detroit has ever made then I don't know what is. I mean really? No liquor at a strip club? No lap dances? DO THEY NOT REALIZE HOW MUCH MONEY THESE FRANCHISES MAKE???

I mean they say "Dancers would have to be 6 feet from patrons and on a stage at all times. A stage must be at least 18 inches off the floor in a room of at least 600 feet." you know what that means???

*NO MORE OF THAT MISTER!*

You'd have a better chance getting a lap dance at home like this guy:

(Getting it in no beasty.)

And furthermore, strippers have to wear pasties???? So they want guys to go to the club to sit 6ft away from these "performers" after paying a nice amount of money to even enter the establishment on their hour long lunch break from work just to watch a woman parade around in fake nipples...AND they can't even have a drink????

I don't condone that shit at all.

I mean pasties could be nice to look at, but you can get your girl to do that at home for free! You paid for nipple!

But that's just my little rant of the night. Everyone is entitled to their opinion on the matter, but I think it's utterly ridiculous. All it's going to do is raise the unemployment rate even higher because people will stop going to the clubs. not only that, but establishments will go out of business, leaving more vacant buildings for the local school kids to get kidnapped to and raped. That’s just a wonderful idea, isn't it?

Or how about all the young women that have no other choice but to strip in order to pay for college? Despite what these politicians may think, financial aid is not available to everyone, college is nowhere near cheap, and all this is going to do is increase the dropout rate among young women in college because it is a fact that many woman do strip in order to pay for college.

And really you are going to listen to a pastor people, really? Nine times out of ten, the pastor you are listening to doesn’t even live in Detroit! He probably lives in one of those white picket fenced suburban communities!!! Pastors got time to be concerned about strip clubs but don't have time to get rid of the crack houses next door to their churches. Oh wait, since they don’t live in that area, it doesn’t really matter, now does it?

Also, strip clubs do NOT lower property values, vacant buildings that have been standing empty for nearly four years lower property values (Showgirls, for example). And as it relates to violence, strip clubs do not bring in nearly as much violence as these regular night clubs that young folks like to go to like Club Bleu and those other places (that I do not know of because I’m not a club person). Men generally bond at strip clubs over a few beers and a woman dancing on their laps. You are more likely to get shot leaving out of your front door going to your car than you are to get shot at a strip club. They have security for a reason, you know.

Detroit’s problem is drugs. It has always been drugs. It has never been strip clubs. If you’re going to decide to charge after anybody for a “lascivious behavior” charge after these drug dealers driving around in their large Cadillac vehicles and wearing their Cartier glasses and posing in photos on the internet advertising their new AK-47 for the entire world to see. Honestly? You’re just going to sit there and act like you’ve never seen those pictures before? They are all over Facebook and Myspace. How about going after those guys.

And what about the Detroit Police Department? Where are they at on any given day? It’s not hard to go downtown on any given day and see a drug exchange take place as a police car is just sitting (with an officer in it mind you). And how are you going to have 75% of your vice squad suspended in suspicion of corruption, and you’re seriously more concerned with taking liquor out of strip clubs. Get your priorities right, city council.

I guess the point I’m trying to make is pass judgment where it’s due. Strip clubs are not lowering property value, they are not bringing violence into the city, and most of the people that work in the city also go to these strip clubs. Not to mention the fact that these people with liquor licenses have to pay TAX on their alcohol. Do you know what tax does? It stimulates the economy.

Okay I’m done. And always remember people,
peace, love, and art! ^_^

Lawry's Bitches (or how to kill a mongoose) pt. I

Okay now I’ve been annoyed over the past week or so, and I’ve been thinking over a few things and I just decided to write a note because I’m bored, but it does incorporate a few of the things that have been really annoying me. I know that people will get offended, but honestly, I don’t give a shit. I’m serious. If you are offended that just means that you’re guilty of committing one of these offenses.

Despite how long this note may look, it will go by fast because of the truth of what i am saying and the fact that i know that everyone can relate to being annoyed by at least two of the things on this list.

1) I HATE when people are in a relationship with each other and as soon as one party is even a little mad at the other they fight and break up only to get back together two days later. How do you think you will last in the real world of relationships if every time you get mad at your significant other you can’t work through a problem? Nine times out of ten it probably isn’t even a problem and your either a) mad because they’re styling on you or b) mad because they missed something or couldn’t do something. Really? Is your boy/girl friend missing your birthday a reason to dump them? Honestly, do you really think that getting in an argument over them being too arrogant, prissy, et cetera is a reason to dump them? Nine times out of ten what you two are arguing about is most likely the thing that attracted you to the person in the first place. Grow the fuck UP people!

2) I HATE when people get all pissy about something you may or may not do and decide to tell EVERYONE EXCEPT you...that is utterly annoying. Honestly, if you have a problem with me, ADDRESS ME. And by address, I mean either in person or over the phone. Even a text will do. Say “Miah, I’m not quite fond of **insert insult that I may have said here**. Come on now people, what’s the worst that I can say, huh? “Oh you mad???” That’s the worst that I can say. That isn’t even that bad, people.

3) Speaking thus, I'm disgusted with people who decide they are mad at you and take the initiative to delete you from every social website that they are friends with you on. You’re doing too much. I mean if it's really THAT serious, just insult me in public. That will hurt worse.

4) I CAN’T STAND WHEN PEOPLE TYPE IN CAPSLOCK LIKE IT’S THE RIGHT THING TO DO. And I don’t mean for emphasis in conversation. I mean like this:

Miah: hey what’s up

Person: NOTHIN MUCH IM GOOD HOW YOU DOING

Miah: I’m doing swell. Did you go to class???

Person: NAW I DIDN’T BUT I MAY BE THERE NEXT WEEK BECAUSE I KNOW WE GOT A FINAL.

Likewise, h0w ab0ut wh3n th3ii tiip3 liik3 thiis and 3xp3ct n0 0n3 t0 tak3 iissu3 wiith that SHIT? What is the purpose of going to school and learning how to type if you’re not going to use it? And also, why do that shit when you KNOW it takes longer to type like a DICK than it does to type correctly?

5) While on the topic of grammar, I know a lot of people that use shorthand on the internet, for instance: ‘u’ instead of ‘you’, ‘ur’ instead of ‘your’, ‘k’ instead of ‘ok,’ et cetera. People also use abbreviations such as LOL, LMAO, CKMAO, ROFL, SMH, FML, FTW, IKR, et cetera (etc, I just think it looks better typed out). But it is UNACCEPTABLE when you make up your own little weird looking abbreviations. For example:

Miah: hey how you doin

Person: im gud. jus wrkn on sum hmwrk.

Miah: . . . ok . . .

WHAT THE FUCK IS HMWRK??????? Last time I checked, homework already had an abbreviation. Taking the vowels out of a word does NOT make it an abbreviation. It is just taking the vowels out of a word. If you’re going to speak internet, people, speak internet correctly. Stop trying to invent shit.

6) Another thing that really annoys me is when you are in a relationship, and people don’t understand you are in a relationship. We’ve all heard me say something to someone along the lines of “Go away. Yo ass ain’t Jon at all.” I know for a fact, Courtney, Kyle, Arielle, Keysha, and Kris all have lol. I am SERIOUS when I say this statement. When I say “Yo ass ain’t Jon at all,” that does NOT mean try harder to get my attention. Because the next step is me castrating you in front of your friends, which will not be in the best interest of your manhood. We all know that I am very gifted in the art of castration (which is probably the reason that I get deleted so much? Lol). Speaking thus, if you’re not Jon at all, stop trying, please.

7) I hate when people have an unnecessary amount of talent, yet they just sit there and let it waste away. I’m not going to act like I’m the most determined and ambition fueled person in the world because I know I’m not, but at least I’ve determined that I’m colder than most other aspiring artists (at least in charcoal and conte crayon anyways), and I at least strive to be better than everyone in any studio class that I have. If I know I’m good at something I will be better than the best person in my class. Oh wait, that would be me, oops. BUT ANYWAYS, I hate when I have friends that don’t ever do anything with their talents. That pushes me to go into mom mode and Miah does not like to go into mom mode because going into mom mode will lead to me eventually taking off my belt and beating the shit out of you with it, and I don’t mean in that kinky S&M kind of way. I mean in that child abuse go to jail because you accidently took the skin off kind of way. I guess I should just say that lack of ambition is NOT a good look, especially when you have obvious talent. It’s not even a good look when you have NO obvious talent. When you have no obvious talent you should be trying even harder!

8) EMO STATUSES. Dear God. O..M…G. STOP complaining about your sad, sorry, pathetic lives on facebook. Those statuses don’t even make people feel your pain. Nine times out of ten, it makes them say “Damn, this guy/broad is pathetic as hell!” I am so serious for example:
“Muffy Anne Hugh-Jcock wishes that these tears would stop pouring from her eyes like the rain falls from the sky in late May so that she can remember the days of when he actually loved her and **insert excess emo-ness here because I’m not emo so I have no ideas to put**…”
Yeah that shit. FIRST, stop putting your business out there on the internet. Do you know that the internet is about as secure as a wet paper bag? Second, do you know if people see how publicly weak and pathetic you are, they are more likely to try and take advantage of you, leading to more emo ass statuses which will then repeat the cycle of you looking like a dick? Ok I’m done on this topic for now.

This concludes my note on things that really aggravate my life. I will pick up where I left off in part two of this note, which will include numbers 9-14. Leave comments at your leisure, and as always, peace, love, and art.

My Life As An Artist

When I began drawing as a child, it was my most favorite pass time, and I spent more hours a day drawing than I spent studying, playing outside, and watching television combined. I would sit at my little PLAYSKOOL™ desk and draw to my heart’s content – and I had no care in the world. I loved every single thing I drew, and so did my parents. My teachers thought I was such an advanced child artist that they let me be the leader of every single art project in grade school. In middle school I divided the time I spent on art with playing a tenor saxophone in the school band. I did not really have any classes or projects that would advance my studies with art, but that did not hinder my growth and love of art.

When I got to high school, I was ready to tackle art head on. My high school was a college preparatory school that had different programs for students much like colleges have majors, which were called curriculums. I chose the art curriculum and loved art in ninth and tenth grade, but my junior and senior year made me hate art more than I have ever hated anything in my entire life. The highest grade I could get in my classes was a C-, which was very discouraging for someone who was told how good her art was her entire life, and the one semester when my artwork was featured in a city-wide showcase, I got a D in my fashion class. I was really ready to quit until I had a nice long talk with one of my favorite teachers. I wonder how he’s doing. But after having the teachers I had for art my junior and senior year I was so thoroughly prepared to not become an art major.

So I get to college, and I’m in my second year – as an art major – and I enjoy every bit of it. My animosity towards my teacher from high school vanished after my first semester of college art. I went to college thinking I was not good enough to major in art, and every assignment I got back from my ADR 1050 (drawing I) professor was either an A or an A-. I actually don’t recall getting any grade lower than an A-. It continued over into ADR 1060 (drawing II), until I slacked off on my sketchbook assignments and got an F on my first half of the semester sketchbook review. I bust my butt but I got all of my assignments in, ON TIME, in order to show my professor I was really serious about doing art. She was so impressed with that. I thought I’d end up getting a B- out of her class and I got an A-. I was elated with that grade. In drawing II, I slacked off on my sketchbook and homework, but I did all of my in class assignments and had them in on time. It was not really a good look, and I felt obligated to reverse that because I did not want to end up with a C in art again.


And now, here I am. I am not taking any classes at the moment, but I am trying to expand my portfolio independently of school. I can’t have everything in there being a school assignment. I do like some of my assignments from school, but my favorite works are those which were done in my own spare time. I know that I am better at still life drawing than I am at drawing people. I also know that I am better at drawing people than I am at drawing landscapes and buildings in perspective. There are certain things that I know I need to work on, because I know that the more diverse my portfolio is the better off I will be in the long run. So, that's what I'm pretty much working on right now.

Essay: "Metal Made Me Do It" , by Miah J. Davis -29 February 2008

Many researchers have examined the effects of how music provokes violent behavior. The effects of music on the behavior of people become an important issue because of how much time the average person spends listening to music. Be it on the radio, while watching a music video on television, or while shuffling through one’s personal MP3 player or IPOD. Given that many researchers make it their goal to show the link between violent music and violent behavior. What, exactly, is the nature of violent music? What makes it so violent? Is it the hard music? Or is it the lyrics themselves?

Two of the most popular genres of music as it pertains to invoking violence are Rap and Hard Rock. These two genres have been taken criticism for almost every kind of act of violence in the modern world from gang violence, to sexual assault, and have even been linked to massacres such as the shootings in Columbine and Virginia Tech. What the world must come to understand is that music cannot make a person do anything. Music is solely capable of putting thoughts in one’s head, or perhaps altering his mood, but music can not make someone execute an action.

One of the most despondent of events in American history occurred on April 20, 1999 at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. Armed with semiautomatic weapons, seniors Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold went on a shooting rampage killing 13 people and wounding 24 others before finally committing suicide. Being that many of their peers classified the seniors as part of the “Goth” subculture, parents and the media immediately looked to their preferred genre of music to blame, and particularly targeted one artist: Marilyn Manson. Well known for his eerily hellish appearance, Manson was harshly ridiculed for his “satanic” music, and fearing for his own life and career, contributed commanding columns to various magazines, of these being Rolling Stone, where he “denies any culpability in the killings or ties to the assailants,” (Geist 93). As a result of the massacre at Columbine, people have been particularly paying attention to the music industry and its effects on people’s thinking patterns.

There have been many studies done to show the effects of violent music on behavior and aggression. Of these was one done by Eliana Tropeano, an undergraduate psychology student at Western Connecticut State University. In her study, she examined 33 students, each in groups of eleven, a group was showed violent music videos, another showed calm videos, and the other being the control, was showed nothing. The purpose of her research was to show if watching violent music videos would make the subjects answer questions with violent, aggressive responses. In her conclusion, Tropeano did notice that the subjects that had watched the violent music videos did in fact respond to the questions posed more aggressively. “When the angry, violent, aggressive, vulgar videos were shown, participants portrayed a massive amount of hostility; their moods were changing as the video continued, as did their behavior. They also answered the scenario questions with the most violent answers,” (Tropeano 3).

The problem with Eliana Tropeano’s undergraduate study is this: answering a question has nothing to do with one’s actions. A man can say he will kill his wife. That does not mean that he will do it. Yes, her research proved that in certain situations where there is violent music present it can invoke violent and aggressive THOUGHT process, thus giving her violent and aggressive answers to her questions. There is no post study showing that after the subjects finished her survey that they went home and inflicted damage or pain upon something. There were no long term effects of this video she showed. Her results are based on a temporary session between 33 college students that does not exceed the surveillance.

The mainstream media has control over the music industry. Too many people blame the musicians for their music, but they have to put out what sells. In most cases, it is not the music that gets in people’s mind, but rather, the images they see to go along with their favorite song. Roger Bourland says, "Music has to be SEEN nowadays, and not just heard. People more readily click on YouTube video clips than mp3 examples. I find myself discouraged by our increasingly visual culture,” (Sound vs. Sight). Many people in the modern culture do not really listen to the words to a song as much as they take in the images placed before them on a 32 inch high definition screen. Thus, if there is a song with a breathtaking guitar riff, just listening to it will not make the average person think anything violently. But if they make that guitar solo into a shootout scene in an arbitrary bar the entire meaning of that part of the song changes for people.

Now back to the question at hand. What, exactly, is the nature of violent music? Well, “violent” music has many elements. It is defined by its lyrics. It is also defined by the music placed in the company of the lyrics. The main definer of violent music is the image that is instilled in peoples’ minds as a result of the music or a music video. And even though violent music videos can bring forth violent thoughts and aggressive reactions to things, it is not responsible for the actions of people. People control themselves. Music is just something used to make time go by faster.

Work Cited

• “Metal Made Me Do It,” by Brandon Geist. Revolver Magazine, Issue September 2007; Article
• “Does Rap or Rock Music Provoke Violent Behavior?” study by Eliana Tropeano; Journal of Undergraduate Psychological Studies, Vol. 1, 2006. Western Connecticut University
• “Musically Miscellaneous Mayhem: Sound vs. Sight” by http://miscellaneousmayhem.blogspot.com/2007/08/sound-vs-sight.html