Posts tagged politics
Election memes, performative politics, Barack Obama and me.
Nov 10th
Screenshot via Fabiola Carletti (@FierceFab)
Friend: “Hey Lauren, where’s the party tonight?”
Me: “The Republicans or the Democrats?”‘
Friend: “What?”
Me: “Which party?”
Friend: “I don’t know… anything going on downtown?”
Me: “Oh. Oh I don’t care. I’m working.”
Friend: “STILL?”
Me: “Yeah… I’m interviewing TOM FREAKING ROSENSTIEL about memes and the presidential candidates tonight.”
Friend: “When did you start caring about American politics?”
Me: “Politics have changed man. I’ve changed… ”
Friend: “When are you going to be normal again?”
Me: “Saturday, probably. I need to sleep.”
From Boulet's 7 deadly animated sins
It’s been a really good, really busy week for me on the work front.
Between a marathon Live Chat Tuesday night, weeks of presidential campaign stories and the “Meme Election” episode of Live Online last night (plus all of the writing, prep, and research in between) I am an exhausted zombie, but one who’s feeling pretty knowledgable in her own keenerly bookish geek-beat way.
Come at me with a current events question, bro, I’ll TALK YOUR FLIPPIN’ EAR OFF before I eat your brains, braiiiiins…
click to embiggen
Here are a few of the best things I did over the past week, for posterity’s sake and in case any of you are into new media, journalim, or the intersection of memes and American politics from a (nerdy millennial) Canadian perspective.
Obama and Romney’s most controversial celebrity endorsements
Tweeters respond to DMs from Obama
Five record-breaking election day moments on Twitter
Top memes of the 2012 presidential election
And of course, LIVE ONLINE: The Meme Election, featuring Tom Rosenstiel, Brad Kim, Tim Hwang, Veronica De Souza and Michelle Forelle.
You can watch the full video replay here.
Not at all related to election, I also featured this little guy as our photo contest pick for today. Fezzik the goat is famous and adorable and I love him. Don’t you?
ADDITIONAL READING:
Here are some of the studies I touched upon or articles I gleaned knowledge / facts / statistics from to provide more in-depth social media commentary than “Binders, Big Bird, Bayonets, wee!” over the past couple of weeks.
- Clicktivism, The Buzzfeed Effect And Corporate Meme-Jacking, by Whitney Phillips and Kate Miltner. A must-read.
- Speaking in Memes, By Nathan Jurgenson (great read.)
- Computer Scientist Warns of Social Media Manipulation in U.S. Election: Twitter bombs, microtargeting, and astroturfed journalists.
- 2012: The First Digital Election, Forbes.
- How Generation Internet will clean up our politics
- Mark 2012 as history’s last ‘social media’ election
- Obama Winning Social Media, If #Hashtagwars Really Matter
- 5 social media questions 2012 will answer, Politico
- Where America’s Racist Tweets Come From
Bed time for this cat. For so many hours…
Presidential hair swap and every infomercial ever: &GIFs&GIFs&GIFs
Oct 5th
This post will probably crash your browser if you’ve got a computer that is weak and puny in the heart, so upgrade your RAM and tell that browseyatch to take her GIFs like a CHAMP.
It’s time to BINGE GIF! To do a GIF-STAND! To say “Blogtender, Line me up a row of GIFS!” and then look at them all until you PUKE!!!
Don’t look at animated gifs and drive.
So, this was me last night after writing fervently for… more hours than I care to tabulate:
Brain: Dude, you voluntarily stayed late at work to finish a post about how animated gifs are impacting the U.S. election coverage and then skipped dance, an H&M x Anna Dello Russo pre-shop, and two open-bar parties to go home and WATCH THE PRESIDENTIAL DEBATES?
Me: Yeah, but it’s not like I just watched it or something. I made fun of on the internet too.
For you, Internet: Condescending Romney -> yfrog.com/mmnhnrdj #2012debate #debate #romney
— Lauren O’Nizzle (@laurenonizzle) October 4, 2012
Brain: Why?
Me: FOR THE LULZ, OKAY? Gahd.
Brain: Who are you?
Me: I dunno, Who are YOU?
Brain: I’m you.
Me: No, I’m me. I’m so much more me than you are.
Brain: What?
Me: SHUP.
Thanks, internet, for all of the hyper-engaging and irrevent real-time humour that accidentally turned me into someone who kind of knows what’s going on in American politics right now… ish.
Last weekend, I told a group of aspiring bloggers how important it is to be innovative and entertaining but still consistent with your tone and theme — To give readers something they can expect and that they’ll want to come back for.
It’s hard to do that when you write a blog about your life though, because people are constantly evolving. Especially in their 20s, jeesh.
I don’t know if I’ll ever find a focus for this blog. Hey, I’m not very focused. I do promise you this though, dear readers;
1. I won’t ever stop posting pictures of my own face on my blog because, like many women my age, my self worth is based upon my appearance and I really like attention (here’s a picture of Brock and I taken by Becca at Dudebox‘s party on Friday.)
2. I will never, ever stop loving things that are hilarious.
Jeff Wysaski’s “every infomercial ever” video hit the web last week inaboutsandaround the same time that this wicked stream of awkward infomercial GIFs on imgur got picked up by the blogs.
I don’t know if the video spawned the gifs, if the gifs spawned the video, or if one just brought searches for the other to light.
It’s like the age-old quandry “which came first; the chicken or the egg?” It’s a problem that I don’t really give a frick about solving because there’s no way of knowing, chickens are cute, eggs are delicious and that’s all that really matters.
Here are some of my favourite infomercial gifs of life. I hope you enjoy my narrative:
Good night, moons of my life, suns in my sky, Tom Hardy pictures of my desktop background…
RIP Jack Layton: Video Professor, Stache Master, Coolest Politician in Canada
Aug 23rd
Kagan McLeod for National Post
In the rally against solitary moustaches, I have long maintained that only two men on earth can successfully rock the lone caterpillar look: Ned Flanders and Jack Layton (nice try though, Lindsay)
Sadly, this morning the beloved Canadian politician succumbed to his battle with Cancer, leaving one fictional Springfieldian to carry the bur-diddly-urden of bringing back the stache.
I’m Sorry for making light of death. That’s what I do when I’m sad or uncomfortable… and I really am sad about this. I know it’s sadness because Layton’s final letter to Canadians made me feel like I should cry. I will, once it sets in that he is actually gone.
The first time I saw Jack Layton in the flesh was at Toronto’s Pride Parade in 2007. He was wearing orange and dancing his heart out, waving to all of us sidewalk gawkers with a huge smile on his face.
Me: “Hey Look! Video Professor is gay! I had no idea!”
Friend: “Dude, that’s Jack Layton…”
Me: “JACK LAYTON IS THE VIDEO PROFESSOR! How have I never noticed this before? Sweet…”
Jack Layton was not the video professor and while it is unclear to me at this time WHO bit WHO’s style, I like to think that Layton is the OG. Homeboy has multiple Facebook groups dedicated to his moustache alone – and he was quite the nerdboy hottie way back when:
I could go on and on about why Jack Layton was the coolest party leader my generation has ever seen – how he actually had the foresight and the passion to engage his younger constituents, unlike many other politicians – but people with far more time and talent than I have already done that in spades.
Instead, I shall share with you the link to this massive Toronto Star Jack Layton photo gallery and another link to the Canadian Cancer Society‘s website. Learn about cancer, fight against cancer, help make the future a better place.
Uh… Vote. Vote for Voting. Vote Votetty Vote Vote.
May 2nd
Hi.
I’m a blogger and I’m Canadian.
I don’t blog about politics, the government, or Canadian public policy. Heck, I don’t even blog about cruel tuition hikes anymore, now that I’m finished with school.
Yet, I feel the need to blog about how you should vote today because… well, I’m a blogger and this totally gives me the authority to be preachy and moralizing, right?
Vote, Vote, RAH RAH RAH! I’m on Dewey’s side of the debate today! Participatory democracy for the win!
Why let informed intellectual elites make decisions for those of us who don’t have the time to dig through hours worth of attack ads in search of what the heck we’re voting on? (Because things like this happen. That’s why.)
I’m going to piece together what I can of the issues and submit my ticket like a good girl. Based on what I know so far, the decision on who to vote for is clear:
Lil Wayne wearing Jack Layton’s magical moustache, of course.
Jaaaaykayyyy. I can’t vote for Weezy, silly! He’s not even Canadian.
You know who is though? Sam, the night watchman from Today’s special:
He hasn’t launched any mean ads against other candidates and we already KNOW he plays a bomb game of Tic-Tac-Toe against his trusty old computidor…
I don’t care who you vote for, but if you choose to vote you can find your local “voting placermagingy” by entering your postal code here. Hipster Ariel and I wish you luck.
In other news, The Amurricans killed that Bin Ladden fella, and I’m not going to touch that story with a 40-foot-USB cord just yet. (You can look at my Tweets from last night if you’re interested in some by-the-minute reactions).
I will, however, say this to Donald Trump (Who I’m pretty certain reads this blog religiously): YOU GOT PWNED HARD, SON.
If you haven’t seen Obama’s White House Correspondent Dinner address yet, get on that. At the very least, check out the part where he roasts Douchewagon McKnobBucket:
LIKE A BOSS.
#GripeTO – Get over it, Toronto!
Oct 26th
Twitter Hates Rob Ford. This much is apparent.
Following the #VoteTO hashtag last night after Ford was announced the mayor of Toronto was like diving headfirst into a French dormitory during a Sarkozy speech. But with less cheese, more gravy and no fancy book-learnings.
The stream was filled with chatter about “leaving this city!” in light of the impeding “Fordpocalypse“. People from the burbs heckling Toronto for electing “Mayor McFatass”, vowing not to step foot in this city for the next four years. Hipsters lamenting the bike lanes they’re sure will never be built now that Tommy Boy is in office.
It actually broke my heart.
Did I vote for Rob Ford? Haaaayul No. And I’m not exactly thrilled that the face of our city for the next four years will belong to a man who, let’s face it, is more than a little bit preoccupied with gravy.
That said, I don’t think that Rob Ford winning the mayoral race is the end of the world, or even that it’ll affect the vibrant city I know and love all that much. A mayor does not a city make, my homies!
Mayor Miller didn’t introduce us to our friends, our jobs or our favourite places to hang out… and Mayor Ford can’t take those things away.
My heart was breaking last night as I watched the negative Tweets roll in. I know that only a very small, very vocal portion of the city was using that hashtag but still… What chance do we have as a united Toronto if at the first sign of discontent we all start running for the hills?
Imagine, if you will, that you have a son (Toronto). He’s just bombed the SATs (Mayoral Election) and now he’s stuck going to a crappy college for the next four years (Please excuse the Americanized example I’m using. It fits.).
Do you give up on the kid? Assume he’ll never amount to anything because he doesn’t have the marks for Harvard? Of course not! It was one test. You love your kid and you have faith in him. You know that wherever where he ends up, he’ll make the best of things.
Maybe he blew the SATS on purpose because none of the Ivy league schools appealed to him. Maybe he threw caution to the wind, didn’t study (VOTE), and figured that everything will turn out as it should. Who knows – he could develop a sitcom based on his years at clown college that launches him into stardom (and subsequent WEALTH). Or he could work at Taco Bell for the rest of his life.
The point is, Rob Ford is not Toronto. George Smitherman and Joe Pantalone are not Toronto either.
You and I are Toronto – let’s act like it, okay? A positive attitude can go a long way. You might not like Ford’s political stance, but surely you can appreciate him for all the LOL fodder.
By Liz Ridolfo - from torontoist.ca
Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments… but if you be trollin’, you best believe imma put a block on you motha sucka!
<3L
