Response: Do I Define the Labels, or Do the Labels Define Me?

I completely agree with Leah on this topic. Personally, I don't really have a brand loyalty for small things such as toilet paper or body wash; however, I do have a preference, where if my preferred item is at the same price as a competitor, I will choose to buy the brand I prefer (if anyone wants to know, for body wash, it's ADIDAS). I think this is what is happening with Macs and Blackberrys. With so many similar choices at approximately the same price, people will the brand they prefer. I hope one day, Windows will suddenly drop their prices drastically, then we will see how many true Apple followers there are (FYI Windows is better). Personally, I'm not a Apple person, but I do have an Ipod, only because it's better than its closest competitor, ZUNE. I thought this was a really funny commercial about the "Apple Religion"

Grenades and Self-Sacrifice

In the mandatory reading summary we had to write for class on hockey violence last week, I noticed a very interesting section on heroism and self-sacrifice. Trothen writes that the idea of the glorification of self-sacrifice in sports is parallel to some Christian atonement theories. Another way we can think of self-sacrifice is the idea of "taking one for the team". In hockey terms, it means sacrificing the well-being of your body to block a shot so that the team has a better chance of winning. There are many examples of this in other sports as well. For example, cycling requires a cycler to give up his chance of winning the race so that he can lead the pack for his team-mate so that the team-mate has a better shot of winning. But can we transfer this idea to our everyday lives? I think so.



"I'll go in and extract the grenade". Is this self-sacrifice? Possibly. Mike "the situation" is sacrificing himself for the benefit of the "team" which in this case in Vinny and Pauly D. I think it's comparable to blocking a shot in hockey. Nobody likes blocking shots, just as nobody likes to "take on the grenade". So the next time you're out at a bar and someone asks you to "wing" for them, just take one for the team, cause it's the Christian thing to do ;)

Benny

Billy Joel and Hell

Hey everyone,

Sorry for the late post. But school has been hell for me so far. Speaking of hell, I was on Youtube the other day and as I was going through my extensive list of songs saved on my playlist, I stumbled across a music video by Billy Joel called "River of Dreams"




Before this class, I would have never noticed all the Christian symbolism in the video, but now, I realize that this video is a essentially a journey from hell to heaven through rebirth. First, the video is shot in a reddish hue with a visual effect similar to a heat wave, bring to mind an environment similar to hell, which in popular culture, is always portrayed as a hot and fiery place. There is also the constant image of the lone boatman on a river, which brings up images of Charon ferrying souls across the river Styx. However, as the video progresses, water become less of a metaphor for the underworld, rather, it becomes an image of rebirth, or rejuvenation. This idea of water as rebirth is epitomized at 3:32 in the video when a pastor baptizes a person in the river. The metaphorical journey from hell to heaven is complete as a choir sings in front of a church during the last scenes of the video. But all imagery and metaphors aside, it is a very catchy song.

Benny