Stuff My Generation Likes: Entourage

A new blog, the Boston Sports Oracle, recently posted a story relating the Boston Red Sox to the hit HBO series, Entourage. Perhaps a die hard Boston fan can work the Sox into anything, but this post reminded just how popular and widespread the Entourage phenomenon is.

With the fifth season premiering on September 28, one way to appease my anticipation is to reflect on why everyone loves Entourage so much. I’ve come up with three reasons.

First, Entourage is saturated in pop-culture references to almost a ridiculous degree. It almost creates a new genre—half reality, half drama, half comedy. Whether Vince is dating Mandy Moore or E is managing Anna Farris or they are smoking with Bob Saget, the show is unusually current and modern. It seems like it is happening in real-time. Perhaps my generation is obsessed with Entourage because Entourage is obsessed with my generation. The new trends, music, and slang somehow always make the episodes more than just episodes.

Second, the rags-to-riches story is distinctly American. Vince and his entourage (Eric, Johnny Drama, and Turtle) are a moving illustration of the American dream. From middle class families in Queens, New York, they were all, fortunately, catapulted into the Hollywood high life thanks to Vince’s acting career. America has always been known for those success stories, and every capitalism-educated American knows the possibility of rising that important(?) social ladder. Because of their history, they have the down-to-earth, laid-back upbringing, supplemented by lots of cash and connections.

The monetary success allows them to represent another uniquely American ideal—the pursuit of happiness. This is my last reason why we love Entourage, and the most appealing part to me, personally. Protected alongside our rights to life and liberty, the pursuit of happiness is a notion that is underappreciated yet beneficial. The Entourage understands our rights as Americans and pursues happiness to the extreme. Living in mansions, partying with celebrities, chasing girls, getting girls, buying whatever one desires, smoking, and drinking are among some of the ways they pursue their happiness. And look at what an awesome lifestyle they have by constantly going after their happiness. That is something we all envy, perhaps, a major draw why we keep watching it. We all have those dreams of wealth, luxury, and leisure. They, in contrast, are living that dream.

I almost forgot, one special reason why we love Entourage, especially for the Boston Sports Oracle and his fellow Bostonians. The premise is loosely based on Mark Wahlberg’s experience in Hollywood and who can’t like Marky Mark and his Dorchester to The Departed career?

Rothbury Video: Lotus

We got a name for this.

Bassnectar at Camp Bisco VII (2)

Camp Bisco VII: Photos (2)

A Banana Getting Shpongled

LA Riots: Where Were You In 92?

Everything's Shaking on Shakedown Street

Camp Bisco VII: Photos (1)

Pnuma Trio and That Drummer

Stage, Campground, Scenery, All in One

The First of Many Late Night Tent Crowds

Bassnectar at Camp Bisco VII (1)

Book Review: The Great Great Gatsby

“Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s not matter–to-morrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther…And one fine morning—

So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”

I re-read F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, after I heard Hunter S. Thompson remember how he re-wrote the book to get a sense of good style. I didn’t have the patience to write the whole book over, but reading it over made me realize why this truly is an American literary classic.

With so many plot lines, so many themes, ideas, characters, symbols, Fitzgerald effortlessly pieces it all together, weaves so much together, and makes it all come full circle. His story about the upscale culture of the early twenties is about so much more.

It is about the peculiar experience of being American. That strange notion we call the American Dream. The purely American trait of gazing into the future, while holding onto the past, while climbing up the social ladder, simultaneously falling down the morality ladder. The excessiveness amidst success is distinctly an American duality.

Not only is it a compelling story, but it is unbelievably well-written. Everybody can write, but not everybody can use words as an art form. Fitzgerald does just that. His words appear well-chosen, with a well-crafted style which flows how a piece of literature should. Not too simple, not too complex, just the perfect balance.

I suggest everyone reads, or re-reads it, you will find at least something noteworthy.

I’ll end with one of my favorite lines, “I was within and without, simultaneously enchanted and repelled by the inexhaustible variety of life.”

Lotus at Camp Bisco VII

2020 Soundsystem at Camp Bisco VII

CrowdFire Launch

John Battelle and some other trendy music/technology lovers are catapulting the music festival industry into the 21st century.

They have created CrowdFire, described on its site as, “an online and onsite destination where music, culture and technology enthusiasts participate in a massive, crowdsourced act of digital media creation.”

Battelle acknowledges the transformation taking place in the supposedly dying music industry as it adapts to the digital age. He points out that musicians are not likely to make a decent living by subscribing to outdated business models of record labels, and the top 50. Instead, musicians should use the fruits of our generation–technology–to their favor. This includes using the online community to easily reach one’s audience. Also, the 21st century’s new mode of music consumption includes music festivals.

As technology, and personal media (which is uploaded onto the CrowdFire database) become more popular, they will inevitably be used in the music scene. All for the better, believes Battelle and I.

On his experience at Bonnaroo last year, he writes, “I came to realize I was watching something far larger than a music festival. In short, I was watching a new culture emerge, a culture fueled in equal parts by the timeless connection between musician and audience, on the one hand, and the breakdown of the traditional music business thanks to new technologies of personal media, on the other.”

That unspeakable experience of live music is a constant, through all generations. Our generation, however, adds certain technology to the mix, which only heightens the overall experience, if used appropriately.

Other examples include YouTube, which has provided a dumping ground for the grainiest and grandest videos of live shows. Plus, the message boards incites a group conversation about whatever show, artist, or song is being remembered. That community spirit of a festival goes virtual.

Battelle and Crowdfire surely know that. Everything gets digital.

Read the blog post here: http://www.crowdfire.net/blog