“Draw me like one of your French girls.”
"
Let me tell you a story. The day after Columbine, I was interviewed for the Tom Brokaw news program. The reporter had been assigned a theory and was seeking soundbites to support it. “Wouldn’t you say,” she asked, ‘that killings like this are influenced by violent movies?” No, I said, I wouldn’t say that. “But what about ‘The Basketball Diaries’?” she asked. “Doesn’t that have a scene of a boy walking into a school with a machinegun?”
The obscure 1995 Leonardo DiCaprio movie did indeed have a brief fantasy scene of that nature, I said, but the movie failed at the box office and it’s unlikely the Columbine killers saw it.
The reporter looked disappointed, so I offered her my theory. “Events like this,” I said, “if they are influenced by anything, are influenced by news programs like your own. When an unbalanced kid walks into a school and starts shooting, it becomes a major media event. Cable news drops ordinary programming and goes around the clock with it. The story is assigned a logo and a theme song; these two kids were packaged as the Trench Coat Mafia. The message is clear to other disturbed kids: If I shoot up my school, I can be famous. The TV will talk about nothing else but me. Experts will try to figure out what I was thinking. Kids and teachers at school will see they shouldn’t have messed with me. I’ll go out in a blaze of glory.”
In short, I said, events like Columbine are influenced far less by violent movies than by CNN, “The NBC Nightly News” and other news media, who glorify the killers in the guise of “explaining” them.
The reporter thanked me and turned off the camera. Of course the interview was never used. They found plenty of talking heads to condemn violent movies, and everybody was happy.
"— Roger Ebert (via albinwonderland)
(Source: yeezytaughtme, via yelyahwilliams)
The last few days have been busy ones! We were up till around 4ish last night writing a new song… Got up to rehearse for our show(April 17th) at noon… And now I’m chillen at the studio watching Through The Roots, @almostmattbuehner, @keitaishibashi, @kylecastellani, and @devinbronson do their thang! It’s fun being around so many creative people. :3
I picked up the Pikachu 3DS XL yesterday! I was in a good mood so… I ended up making a video out of it! :D
Everyone I’ve been talking too have said they’re sold out everywhere now, so if you want one, you may be out of luck :(
I Just Wanna Sing…
If you’ve been checking up on the Battle of the Bands competition, you’ll see that we’re in second place of the fan voting!! :D
The fan vote isn’t everything to winning this competition, but it sure does help.
I’ve actually never gotten to tour before and it’s kind of a dream of mine. I’d love nothing more than to share the music we’ve been creating with people in person across the country.
If you haven’t already, I would appreciate it so much if you took a few second to vote for us. If you have voted already, you can vote again! And as many times as you want! It also helps to post comments and play our songs on the Battle of the Bands page. Any little bit of help means the world to us! http://www.battleofthebands.com/u/runningtherisk
In other news, our recording session went great yesterday!! Expect a preview of the new song very SOON! I’m super excited to share it with you guys. This song means a ton to me and the band. ^_^
