The Underground – Issue #8
Everything you need to know about in this weekly series: How websites lure you in, grade school crap that made you stupid, a TV show you should marathon, Avengers 2, and the Golden Globe blunders.
At Social Underground we go beyond the mainstream stuff and see what’s underneath the surface. What should we get into, listen to, read, eat or watch? If there is something in our culture that needs attention, dammit, we will bring it to your attention. With The Underground, we mean to do exactly that: Show you the underground things that you need to know about: Books, music, television, movies, comedians, art, and whatever else we can find to get you into something you never knew about.
Don’t you remember the time you heard that first song from your favorite band? You made the decision to jump head first into that first album and then delve deeper into them. Now, you don’t remember a time where you haven’t listened to that band. If you play guitar, you don’t remember the time where you didn’t know how to play. We want to bring you new stuff that you didn’t know you need in your life to the point where you can’t remember not knowing about it. That’s The Underground.
1. The most used words and phrases used for click-bait posts. Let’s face it: The internet needs click-bait. If you have a great story and give most of the information in the headline, then it gives the reader less of a motivation to click on it. The title has to tease you about what’s inside and even use hyperbole.
Buzzfeed, the king of click-bait, has become the trendsetter for creating the instruction manual for how to write click-bait. Think about when you sign on Facebook or Twitter. Do you see these phrases that get you to click?
So, say if I have a video of a puppy cuddling up with a baby, I could have some throwaway title like: “Stop What You Doing And Watch This Puppy And Baby Become Best Friends.” or “The Cutest Video You’ll See All Day.”
One of the most obnoxious click-bait posts are usually the “What Character Are You From ____________?” That is the most used phrase on Buzzfeed and many other sites. Let’s be honest, no one cares what character you are from Frozen. No one.
2. Here are a few things that you may have been taught in school that are total bullshit. The best thing I learned in grade school was the ability to read and write, learn basic math, and be sociable. That’s about it. After graduating, I went on the internet and just read and read. I still do this everyday. What I learned was that a lot of what I learned or wasn’t even taught was complete garbage. Most of the teachers didn’t care and just read about the school sanctioned lessons.
One example of miseducation is that Thomas Edison invented the light bulb. I was taught that. Now, after looking around on the internet, in books, anywhere, I come to learn more about Nikola Tesla. He had a lot more to do with all things lightbulbs than Edison. In fact, I have never heard of Tesla until I graduated. Edison was more of a poor man’s Steve Jobs: He was a CEO that told people what to do, and they invented it. Then he’d come out and take credit for it. Do you see all the engineers walk in behind Steve Jobs when he holds up that iPhone? Never.
Here are some other things you may have been lied to about when you were in grade school:
3. Brooklyn Nine-Nine is the show that you should be dedicating your Sunday nights to. It’s hard to open yourself up to a new comedy because there are so many bad ones (Everything on CBS), and only a few good ones. But Brooklyn Nine-Nine is probably the funniest show on television right now.
It premiered after the Super Bowl, but honestly, no one is really watching anything after the game. The TV’s are just left on the station as whatever plays is on. I called for the show being cancelled after its first season because it just looked like one that should be shown the door immediately…then I gave it a chance. I was wrong, it’s brilliant. It’s so good that in the first season it won Golden Globes in 2014 for Best Television Series – Comedy or Musical and Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series – Comedy or Musical
Andy Samberg. That blew me away, because it meant that it has to get a second season, which it did.
Ratings are not huge, however. As with well-written shows without canned laughter telling the view when to laugh, it instead relies on good jokes, good acting, and clever plotted episodes. As with Arrested Development, it takes time to build an audience.
Check out some of the best moments from the show so far and watch it on Sundays at 8:30 P.M. ET.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEL6NdUim80
4. The new Avengers: Age of Ultron trailer only furthers our need to watch it. In our What To Look Out For Cinema In 2015 post, we mentioned this movie as being one worth going to the theaters for. If it’s in 3D, just ignore that. There are other things you can do than start at a blurry 3D image and get a headache. Just head out to an IMAX theater or a local theater and watch it how it was meant to be watched.
What seems to be happening in the trailer is that the Avengers aren’t getting along and that Tony Stark may have set the world on a path of major destruction. The important thing about this trailer is that THIS SHOULD COME OUT NOW! God forbid we have to deal with crap like Taken 3 in January. I mean, a second sequel? Doesn’t this just mean he’s a shitty Dad/Husband?
Check out the new trailer for Avengers: Age of Ultron trailer below:
5. A look at who won Golden Globes and who should’ve won them. I’m recovering from the Flu, so with nothing being on TV besides football, I had to watch something else since my Lions decided to do what they’ve done every single time in the Playoffs.
Best Motion Picture – Drama:
WINNER
Boyhood (2014/I)
Other Nominees:
- Selma (2014)
- The Imitation Game (2014)
- Foxcatcher (2014)
- The Theory of Everything (2014)
Okay, Boyhood was a great movie, but what it really had going for it was that it was filmed for 12 years. Selma was nominated because it’s a civil rights movie and people had to give it good ratings. Sorry, it’s kind of the truth. 12 Years A Slave cleaned up even when voters admitted they never saw it, but voted for it because they felt they had to.
The Theory of Everything has great performances, but it was really a movie about nothing. It just showed portions of Hawking’s life with no coherent plot.
The Imitation Game was a wonderful movie that showed how Alan Turing was the unsung savior of WW2, but that stupid law was his downfall. Benedict Cumberbatch knocked it out of the park as usual.
Foxcatcher was boring and I still don’t understand how it has made it so far on any list.
I knew Boyhood would win because of the extend of its creation, but if they just used different child actors, it would’ve been just another movie.
MOST DESERVING BEST DRAMA: Interstellar. No movie had the ambition and scope combined with the script and direction that Interstellar did.
Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy:
WINNER
The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)
Other Nominees:
- Birdman (2014)
- St. Vincent (2014)
- Into the Woods (2014)
- Pride (2014/I)
Birdman was brilliant. The Grand Budapest Hotel had been just another one of Wes Anderson’s weird comedies that is overlong and feels like every other one of his movies.
Into the Woods is only on the list because of Meryl Streep. Everything else just felt like movies written to win awards.
MOST DESERVING BEST COMEDY: Birdman
Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama:
WINNER
Eddie Redmayne for The Theory of Everything (2014)
Other Nominees:
- Steve Carell for Foxcatcher (2014)
- Benedict Cumberbatch for The Imitation Game (2014)
- Jake Gyllenhaal for Nightcrawler (2014)
- David Oyelowo for Selma (2014)
Redmayne disappeared into his role as Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything. But, after a while it just seemed like he was doing an impersonation (a good one), but it got old after so long.
Cumberbatch deserved every nomination and well and Gyllenhaal did. But, Matthew McConaughey got the shaft in this category. There multiple scenes in Interstellar that blew my mind in how impressive an actor can be. Especially that he’s looking at a family he may never see again and the screen suddenly goes dark. You could watch his entire heart being ripped from his chest by the expression on his face.
MOST DESERVING BEST ACTOR: Matthew McConaughey/Jake Gyllenhaal
Best Original Score – Motion Picture
WINNER
Jóhann Jóhannsson for The Theory of Everything (2014)
Other Nominees:
- Alexandre Desplat for The Imitation Game (2014)
- Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross for Gone Girl (2014)
- Antonio Sanchez for Birdman (2014)
- Hans Zimmer for Interstellar (2014)
No real commentary here: Hans Zimmer got robbed.
MOST DESERVING BEST ORIGINAL SCORE: Hans Zimmer
Now that we’ve gone through a few things that were voted on badly, lets take a look back at Amy Poehler and Tina Fey’s opening monologue:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aw-wODbjmZI
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Jeff Sorensen is an author, writer and occasional comedian living in Detroit, Michigan. You can look for more of his work on The Huffington Post, UPROXX, BGR and by just looking up his name.