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amirjalex · 2 years

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Lil Miquela (Speech)

This is Lil Miquela. She’s a singer, a Tuarus like myself, and at just 19 years old, she has over three million followers on Instagram She’s partnered with Samsung, Prada, and many other big name brands. In 2018, Times listed her as one of the Most Influential People on the Internet. People.

If you haven’t noticed, there is something kind of fake about Miquela. No, I don’t mean she’s shallow, or that she’s had work done. I mean she’s actually not a real person. Lil Miquela isn’t the first digital influencer but she certainly is one of the most well known. Last year, according to OnBuy, Lil Miquela was projected to have made over 11 million dollars on Instagram alone. Combined with her Tik Tok, Twitter, and song royalties, Lil Miquela has a net worth higher than most people I know in real life.

Today I will explain how digital creators are going viral, how well known brands are using this trend to save their companies, and why it is that humans are so fascinated with these uncanny sub-human creatures.

So, why are digital influencers becoming so popular? Consider you are a brand, looking for someone to represent your company. Would you rather choose the squeaky clean personality, who’s incapable of scandals, lateness, and catching colds— or would you prefer the person who’s had a couple slip ups in their time, and could possibly have a scandal exposed at any given second? It’s simple to me, humans are error, ai 19 year olds are not.

Another reason Miquela works is because she is just human enough to seem relatable to her audience. Many of her tiktok videos show her living her everyday life, including the vulnerable moments, singing and dancing videos, and stories. Although she’s not exactly human, she behaves just as any other girl her age would. Miquela was created by Brud Records , a company that specializes in digital content creators. However, even big named companies are trying a new approach when it comes to marketing. Now, consider Ms. Barbara Roberts. In the past, Barbie has been known for being an unrealistic standard for beauty and career goals. However, recently, Mattel has begun to release content that showcases Barbie in a completely different light.

Check this video out. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92hQ3unyjvo

Does something seem strange here? Barbie is moving and interacting with her environment as though she were an actual person with real ticks and mannerisms. In a VICE news segment for HBO, it was revealed that the source of this hyperrealism was motion capturing. According to the companion article, it was also reported that these vlogs raised sales that had been declining for twenty years by up to 24%. Her videos also cover a broad range of topics that are targeted at a wider audience. Some videos include Barbie and Nikki Discuss Racism, Feeling Blue? You’re not alone, and Spreading Positivity.

So, what is it about this phenomenon that works? Why do humans see things like ai influencers that are uncannily creepy and find them fascinating? In an Article for Right On Rain, Author Mckenna Pricing did a deep dive into an equally horrific and equally popular internet culture, true crime. She found that while humans typically avoid things that may creep them out in real life, that from the comfort of their couches— humans find it sort of therapeutic to confront their fears in a controlled environment.

There’s something in all of us that finds such characters like Miquela intriguing. She’s different enough to grab our attention, but human enough to blend into the crowd, and it’s a very unsettling thing to think about. Lil Miquela isn’t a new tactic. We’ve often found ourselves immersed in the thought of the unordinary living among us. The most popular and most awarded Disney Channel show was about a family of Wizards living above a New York City sandwich shop. Karyn Kusama’s most sucessful film was about a queer coded succubus cheerleader that fed on high school boys. And a certain popular children’s story featured a grandmother who was secretly a blood thirsty wolf.

So no, Miquela isn’t new. She’s just the upgraded software. Thank you.

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amirjalex · 2 years

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Why I Love Selena Gomez (Speech) :

Now, I’d always liked her. On Barney and Friends and in Wizards of Waverly Place. I mean, she made great content throughout the entirety of my childhood. But, it wasn’t until a particular moment that I crossed over the point of no return, I’d like to share that moment with all of you now.

Is it partially because she looks absolutely phenomenal? Yes, but she was also surrounded by the world's top billed models during this performance and remained the center of attention so… beauty isn’t the only reason I like Selena Gomez. I have many reasons honestly, but that laundry list would take hours to go down. For now, I’ll limit myself to my top three reasons. I admire Selena Gomez because of her humble origins and continued humanity throughout her rise to fame. I love her dedication to charity, and finally her business savviness.

Selena was born to two young parents in Grand Prairie Texas. Her single mother worked tirelessly to provide for the two of them, taking Selena along with her to odd jobs and performances. It wasn’t long before Selena took center stage, at 13 she was cast as the main character in a show which would later become the first Emmy-Winning Disney Channel Show.

She went from sharing a mattress on a floor with her mother to mansions and stadiums full of adoring fans. Selena cites her parents as being her grounding force, admitting in an interview for Vogue that her mom would regularly punish and ground her despite her overnight success.

In 2016, Selena was in the middle of her Revival tour and dealing with the pressure of being the most followed person in the world. When she was diagnosed with Lupus, an incurable autoimmune disease wherein the body goes into warfare with itself. It cost her a kidney and almost her life with it. There’s times where Selena doesn’t even have the muscle to open a water bottle. Selena also speaks often about her mental health, revealing that she suffers with anxiety, depression, and bipolar disorder. It's her constant ability to push forward in spite of all of the challenges she faces which inspires me the most.

The second reason I love Selena Gomez is her dedication to charity. In 2020, Selena Gomez launched her own beauty line called Rare Beauty. Along with this launch came the Rare Impact Fund which promises to raise 100m to provide mental health services to underserved communities. Rare Beauty also donates a percentage of all of their annual sales toward these charities as well. According to Billboard, “After reaching its goal, the Rare Impact Fund will become one of the largest known funds supporting mental health from a corporate entity.”

To boot, Rare Beauty was also created with disabled makeup wearers in mind, designed to be functional for people with limited hand mobility like Selena who personally struggle with arthritis. The brand was created in hope of releasing the stigma of perfection and allowing the everyday person the ability to feel more confident and beautiful by their own terms.

Selena also uses her platform to raise awareness for many important issues. She started her own production company, July Moon, and has produced shows like 13 Reasons Why which followed an American teenage girl through her difficult high school experience and eventual suicide. She also released a 2018 documentary titled Living Undocumented, which followed several undocumented immagrants experiences with living in America.

Moreover, Selena also produces and stars in her own cooking series on HBO Max, Selena + Chef. Each episode features a guest chef who walks Selena through a cooking lesson and speaks about a charity they support. Selena donates 10 thousand dollars to each charity, totalling in over 300 thousand dollars so far. She is constantly pouring back, and urges her fans to give back where they can.

Finally, Selena makes so many smart business moves I just have to give her credit. In 2020, Selena collaborated with the Kpop group Blackpink in a song titled Ice Cream. It just so happens that the ice cream all of the members of the group consume throughout the video was a flavor Selena developed with her favorite childhood ice cream brand, Serendipity. The music video practically served as one big commercial, amassing in over 650 million views and counting. What Selena didn’t announce was that not only had she collaborated with Serendipity… According to Forbes She’d also brought the company and is now a part owner and has reign over their iconic New York City shop.

Oh and the makeup they’re wearing in Ice Cream? Any guesses what brand it may be? She also executive produces all of her current shows. A new series called Only Murders in The Building features Steve Martin and Martin Short alongside Gomez as they attempt to solve a murder in their New York apartment complex. All of the makeup featured was once again supplied by Rare Beauty.

When she began to roll out her last album Rare, she partnered with Apple to shoot her first two music videos for her. This ensured Gomez got free promotion from one of the biggest tech companies in the world while also showcasing her new makeup and rolling out an entire album.

She’s created a network of businesses which all promote one another, making it nearly impossible for one to succeed without bringing up the others as well. I strongly feel she is one of the smartest pop stars in the world.

Selena Gomez is the epoch of how far faith, grit, and love can get you and I will always respect her for the kindness and passion she puts into everything she does. I want to close this speech with a quote from Selena herself, and I’ll allow her to take it from here:

And people love her. I hope you can understand why now. Thank You.

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amirjalex · 2 years

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If you pop by Gallery Espresso in downtown Savannah Georgia you might find one of my poems posted in the bathroom there!

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amirjalex · 2 years

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A Lamb Off to Slaughter (poem)

A Lamb Off to Slaughter.

It’s like one of those cheesy kids tv shows. One friend is on a date and the other is wearing a plastic mustache and hiding behind a magazine with eye holes cut out of Paris Hilton’s smiling face. Of course you are too oblivious to notice the girl who’s been staring at us the entire time. Or maybe I’m that interesting. Maybe you can’t even bring yourself to make note of the time we’ve spent laughing in the secluded corner of this crowded tea shop. Maybe for you we’re in our own world where no one else exists.

I eye my friend as you and I step out into the cold night, your jacket on my shoulders. She doesn’t know I am on my way to my death bed. When I get home, she’ll ask me for every last detail, as if she weren’t there for most of the time— listening to every word we spoke. And I don’t know what I’ve done yet. I don’t know that I’ve just signed off on my blood being spilled, so I’m excited to fill her in on every detail. “Yeah, I took pictures of him,” I tell her. “But since it was my camera I guess he didn’t want to ask if he could take some of me. I only have so much film.”

When she asks about whether or not you walked me home? Gave me a hug goodbye? Pecked me reassuringly before fading off into the night? I have nothing to say, really. Is that what’s supposed to happen on first dates? “It’s not that kind of conventional thing, I mean, we took a picture of a kid severed in half.”

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amirjalex · 2 years

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Virtue Signaling is Ruining TV

Over the summer of 2021, I decided to give Freeform’s ‘Grown-Ish’ one final chance. As a college student, I gravitate toward shows that portray college life. The protagonist of ‘Grown-ish,’ Zoey Johnson, is a lot like me. We’re the same age, her friend group is just as diverse as my own social circle, and she’s attending a predominantly white institution in a world that is waking up to racial injustices and heightened social awareness.

The fourth season of ‘Grown-ish’ touched on several hot topics, including the BLM movement, troubles with dating while queer, young motherhood, and finding internships mid-pandemic. Well, barely. The show only dove into each of these issues enough to woo the audience.

Herein lies the issue with ‘Grown-ish' and the rapid influx of shows like it— these shows pander to an audience without fully understanding or even living through the experiences depicted. This is called virtue signalling, and more instances of it appear every day.

Virtue signalling is when a person with no personal experience of a social issue advocates for said issue for validation or monetary gain. For them, wokeness and activism are ways to flaunt how in-tune they are with society. Their understanding is minimal and their hunger for attention is unmatched.

It is not hard to find a virtue signaller in the real world. Just ask my ex who once told me listening to R&B music made him feel closer to me. Or you could speak with the barista who would throw his fist up in solidarity everytime I came in for a matcha latte.

Around virtue signalers I feel more like a prop than an actual person.

‘Grown-ish’ has been heavily marketed as being conscious and a tribute to black culture. At a glance it is full of HBCU tributes and nostalgic imagery. In reality, these scenes last seconds in the actual show. Just enough content for the promotional commercials.

In terms of social commentary, it is like a game of diversity duck, duck, goose. If something does get discussed, it is typically reduced to b-plots or just a few lines scattered across the season. Very touch-n-go. A student who is busted for dealing drugs at the end of one season is seen on vacation the very next episode.

The characters in this show feel very one-note because the only time they are given plots is when their identity lends itself to a ‘trending’ plight in America. As a viewer, I keep coming back because I am thrilled to have characters who look like me. I am habitually disappointed because the stories being told are anomalous imaginings of real life. These characters only exist to meet a diversity quota.

There is hope on the horizon for shows like these to be obliterated. ‘Selah and The Spades’ on Amazon Prime showcases a group of students who pull all the strings at their lofty boarding school. Divided off into factions, a drug-dealing gang called The Spades run the school. The main trio all happen to be black, and several other students attending the school come from diverse sexual and ethnic backgrounds.

The world of the Spades seems so lived-in. The characters like old friends of mine. There are nods to black culture and my own experience throughout. Although the subject of the film orbits around drug-dealers and high-school gangs, it is portrayed in a novel way that doesn’t feel forced. It is simply a story being told with care and authentic perspective.

I proudly showed my now ex, who waved the film away. He told me, “I’m glad you like it, but I think it doesn’t address enough.”

Shows like ‘Grown-ish’ succeed because other virtue signalers feel the only way modern youth is allowed to be depicted is through a narrow, all-encompassing lens. In the world of a virtue signaller, an accurate depiction of a minority character is solely identity-based. A collection of stereotypes that make up an idealized version of people who do not exist. The experiences of minority groups can not be summed up by a single Twitter thread. Sometimes, the issues at hand involve recreational drugs and the responsibility of an entire school.

Virtue signalers should learn to stop talking on behalf of everyone, and make room for other voices to be heard.

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amirjalex · 2 years

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Only Murders In The Building Review

A dark comedy about murder, mystery, and tie-dyed sexy bassonists. ‘Only Murders in the Building’ holds the record of being the biggest Hulu premier ever.

The first season follows the alleged murder of Tim Kono, a resident of a wealthy New York City apartment complex: The Arconia. Brought together by their love of true crime podcasts and a craving for camaraderie, Charles Haden-Savage, Oliver Putnam, and Mabel Mora decide to open their own investigation on their suspicious neighbors.

Gomez's performance is one of the best in the series, acting as an anchor to the hilarious duo of Martin and Short. Mabel Mora is a 20-something-year-old single woman with a notable violent fantasy of taking someone down to the bone with her knitting needle. Her constant jabs and bone-dry reactions to everything bring nuance to the series. There is very awkward and relatable chemistry between the three, reminiscent of a young niece having to watch over her elder uncles.

The trio begins a podcast together during their investigation. Although a good idea, in theory, it doesn't seem realistic that three people trying to solve a murder would release their findings weekly for all of their neighbors and the general public to hear. In one episode, the three even openly accuse Sting (which seems rational when 'Every Breath You Take' is brought into question.) This podcast does eventually get the group into trouble as it begins to gain attention, but it isn’t until the later episodes.

A notable episode portrayed the residents of The Arconia from the perspective of a sardonic death man, Theo. The only dialogue is performed ASL, the rest of the time relies on clever writing and phenomenal acting from the cast. There's a scene where Mabel and Oliver are visiting a funeral home and discover a grave-robbing scheme which turns into one of the funniest moments in the entire series.

The world created in OMITB is gritty, vulgar, and full of charisma. The show captures that classic New York City charm. Most of the residents are incredibly rude to one another, but very clearly lonely and in need of more companions. Tim Kono is the most hated person in the building. His death is treated as a victory to some neighbors who look at it as an opportunity to benefit themselves. The bonding of the three main characters feels that much more precious for this reason.

Only Murders in The Building comes down to a thrilling boiling point and an even shocking conclusion. Without any major spoilers: blood is drawn and tye-dye hoodies and knitting needles are involved. The series has already been confirmed for a second season which will begin filming later on this year. The next mystery which was set up in the final minutes of the last episode left viewers on the edge of their seats. If the first season is anything to go off of: it is bound to be hilarious, awful, and beautiful all at the same time.

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