Recent political contests and the start of the New Year brought Massey’s theory to mind as 25 years ago, in 1983, I was smack dab in the middle of high school. So I took a look back at the significant events that shaped my views and those of my peers who came of age during the much maligned, but surprisingly progressive 1980s.

Pop Culture — In 1983, Madonna burst “Like a Virgin” onto the scene. Today this seems an almost tame way to introduce one’s self compared to the Spears sisters’ rallying cry of “Oops, I did it again and again and, yep, make that once again.” Of course, back then Paris was just a city; ankle bracelets were just jewelry; and the only Ritchie we knew was crooning, “Once, Twice, Three Times a Lady.”

Twenty-five years ago before satellite radio and iTunes, Sting was a Police-man watching every breath we took and John Mellencamp was still a Cougar. At the box office, Tom Cruise had his first taste of “Risky Business,” Matthew Broderick played “War Games” and Jennifer Beals had us ripping our sweatshirts and dancing like maniacs — a “Flashdance” trend most of us would like to forget. Earlier in 1983, the Academy honored “Ghandi” leading a nation; Richard Gere carrying Debra Winger “up where we belong”; Dustin Hoffman dressing in drag; and an alien phoning home.

On the small screen, long before “American Idol” churned out pop stars and women bonded over “Sex and the City,” we watched “Fame” and followed female pals “Kate & Allie” and “Cagney & Lacey.” Yet, not all female television characters were friends, as 1983 was the year that Joan Collins and Linda Evans took their famous tumble into the lily pond on “Dynasty.” (I’m still awaiting a modern-day rematch with Rosie O’Donnell and Elisabeth Hasselbeck. Now that would be one “Survivor” episode worth viewing.)

A quarter of a century ago, OJ was still running for rental cars, not from rent-a-cops. We held Michael Jackson in awe, instead of “ew . . . ” Ozzy was the only Osbourne. Rod Stewart and Woody Allen had relationships with women old enough to know better, and we still believed Princess Diana had married Prince Charming.

In retrospect, life was pretty innocent back then. Yet, there was an inkling of things to come as 1983 marked the year that Karen Carpenter’s death introduced anorexia and a French scientist discovered HIV.

Technology — Today I watch TV on my computer, take pictures with my camera, surf the Web from my phone and download music from the Internet. But it wasn’t until 1983 that Microsoft Word was first distributed, compact discs were released and Motorola introduced mobile phones to the public. Back then, a blackberry was just a fruit; a blue tooth would mean a call to the dentist; and the most sought after holiday present was not a video game, but a Cabbage Patch Kid that didn’t even have a second life as an avatar in an online community.

That was all soon to change as 1983 was the year that ARPANET began using the Internet Protocol, helping create the Internet.

Politics/Legal — In 1983, the Reagan administration was focused on the Soviets, “Star Wars” and “just saying no.” Congress came together to create Martin Luther King Day and Jesse Jackson announced his intention to run for president. Universal and Sony were duking it out in the Supreme Court over the videotaping of television broadcasts. (If they only knew what that little known Internet thingy would have in store for them.)

Women’s rights were at a high point in 1983. Sally Ride ventured into space and just two years after appointing the first female justice, the Supreme Court limited the power of state and local governments to restrict access to legal abortions and ruled that employers must treat male and females equally in providing health benefits. It’s no surprise that only a year later presidential candidate Walter Mondale selected Geraldine Ferraro as a running mate.

1983 was also a year where we actually witnessed wars coming to a close as the US withdrew from Grenada and 125 million of us tuned in for the final episode of “M*A*S*H.”

Retrospective wrap-up — Looking back, I was fortunate to grow up in an era of relative innocence, innovation, opportunity and optimism. Although I must confess that it might have made me a bit naive. You see, in 1983, I was living in Maryland and rooting for the Washington Redskins as they won the Super Bowl and the Baltimore Orioles who later that year won the World Series. I thought hometown-winning streaks went on forever.

Looking forward, I hope that my son learns as I did that even when the winning streaks come to an end and society seems to be moving in the wrong direction, it can be just as rewarding to root for underdogs, long-shots, explorers and dreamers who upset the status quo and shake up the world as we know it.

Author: Diane Danielson
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Duty on LCD/Plasma TV

Harry Potter is a orphan, forced to stay with his cruel aunt and uncle. Soon he realizes he has some extraordinary powers and he is taken to the wizard school of Hogwarts by Hagrid. He learns that his parents were killed by a dark wizard named Voldermont. From there on in all the books, Harry Potter tries to kill Voldermont, not only to avenge his parents death, but also save the Wizard world.

The books under this series are

1. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone
2. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
3. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
4. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
5. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
6. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
7. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

A Short Introduction To Inheritance Series

This story comes from a village where, a poor farm boy named Eragon finds a dragon egg. He does not realize that the dragons egg belongs to the evil King Galbatorix.The dragon egg hatches due to Eragon’s touch So soon Eragon is hunted down by King Galbatorix and his army. The king’s enemies realize Eragon is a chosen one to get the egg, The kings opponents , that is the Vardens and elves try to protect Eragon as they believe Eragon is the chosen one to be the Dragon Rider and can help them to fight the King. The story thus continues. Inheritance has two books currently, Eragon and Eldest. The next book called Brisingr, is due release on September 2008.

Well, I know I did not give a very exciting, entertaining introduction to both the book, but I just wanted to keep it short. Both the book are very exciting and a compulsory page turner. Both have so many exciting twists that you will find yourself forcing yourself to read the books in one shot.

So this is the differences I find between Harry Potter and Inheritance Series.

Harry Potter is a very light read series. It has so many exciting, unthinkable and out of the world creations, that you simply cannot stop admiring the creativity of J.K. Rowling. For example, the dungbomb, chocolate frog, Hogwarts, the invisiblity cloak, platform 91/4 just to name a few.

But Harry Potter however has some very illogical twists and turns which is later made logical by the explanations of Albus Dumbledore (the headmaster in Hogwarts) in the book. For example in the first book, when Lord Voldermont confronts Harry Potter, he touches Harry Potter and suddenly his hands start becoming life less and begin to crumbling, thus killing himself. And thus Harry Potter kills Lord Voldermont just by touching him. Harry (and obviously the readers) remains puzzled about why is that Voldermont start crumbling like dry mud when touched and asks Dumbledore about it. Dumbledore gives a clean and clear explanation about a protection of love, cast by her mother, when she died trying to save Harry. Througout the whole series of the books, there are lots of similar illogical which are later made logical by some explanations by Dumbledore and other peers. Whereas the Inheritance series is a complete opposite of this, there are countless edge nail biting twists, but none of them are illogical. Everything follows a clean order, and everything remains in logical order all the time.

Harry Potter has some real good comic characters like Ron, Peeves the poltergeist. There are good laughable comic sequences involving even serious characters like Harry, the Durselys and even Dumbledore and Snape occasionally. Where as in Inheritance series, there are absolutely no laughs. The humor quotient in Inheritance is zero, non-existent. Inheritance is a very serious novelwith very very serious plots. Christopher Paolini claims Angela, the witch, is the comic character in his book. But I barely found her cracking some jokes or playing any pranks. So coming to humor harry Potter rocks. However, unlike the rest in its series, the last book in Harry Potter series,i.e Harry Potter and Deathly Hallows very grave and serious.

Eragon and Eldest is written much in a Lord Of The Rings style. Those who have read LOTR, know that the book is many times painfully high on details. The fine details given on “out of the context” things in LOTR can really get boring at times. The Inheritance trilogy written in LOTR style is also full of details, but details are only about things that matter and about things and factors which affect the story. On the other hand, Harry Potter is very low on details. That’s why I called Harry Potter books for light reading initially.

I rate both Harry Potter and Inheritance series almost equally. Both are good in their own aspects

If you wish to check out some really cool Harry Potter, Eragon and Inheritance (Inheritance series) books, audio books, movies, posters, T-shirts, collectibles and other exciting stuff. Check here

My resource is the books of course. Is you wish to get them home delivered to you for the best prices or alternatively if you would like to download it , check out the site http://fantasy-books-movies-etc.blogspot.com/

Author: Adrian Scott
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Digital TV, HDTV

Adam Lambert is singing Whole lotta Love by Led Zeppelin.  Whether Robert Plant would be pleased with the song he would definitely applaud the Guyliner.  Ricky Minor and the band certainly rock out this week and when they stop they let Adam strut his stuff.  Randy Jackson says this proves he is rock star, Kara Diogaurdi one ups it with Rock God status.  Paula and Simon love it.

Allison Iraheta is about to rock out with Janis Joplin and I am questioning whether this is a good idea.  Janis is most certainly not rolling over in her grave.  Slash says Allison has the Rock and Roll Swagga. What will the judges say?  Randy Jackson didn’t love it.  Kara says Janis is the right singer, but the song wasn’t the best.  Paula Abdul says she she could play Janis.  Simon Cowell has criticisms and Allison gives him a big understated, ‘Fuck You!’

Our first duet of the evening gives Kris and Danny.  Singing Renegade by Styx they start out really well.  Almost immediately Kris Allen flubs followed by a Danny Gokey failure.  This is rock and roll not rock and sing the chorus well. Randy Jackson says they harmonize well, which means they sucked well together.  Danny is trying to work the bling.

Kris Allen is attempting Come Together by The Beatles.  I give him props for asking Slash to play during the rehersal. He flubs several times right up.  This isn’t worth commenting on so i will just go get a beer.  Back with a beer and have to say he most certainly didn’t live up to Carly Smithson’s performance last year.

Danny Gokey is going to try Dream On and frankly there is no way he will be as good as Michael Johns was last year.  WTF is this coming out of his mouth.  Bring back Michael, or at the very least someone bust his jaw so he will quit shouting.  Someone needs to remove his wedgie.  No one liked it.  Kara says Rock Roll is about being bold and grabbing the chance.  Tell that to Gary Glitter…

With the Duet I have been waiting for since i heard about the change we have Allison and Adam bringing Foghat’s Slow Ride.  For the record I will be seeing Foghat with Steppinwolf later this summer, in fact I will be doing it a week after seeing Billy Squier and
Blue Oyster Cult.  I am a great big name dropper now aren’t I?

It is time for them to stop it.  Since they obviously haven’t got the message let me relay it again, no one cares.  Not even using some special all natural soap from Best Bath Store can they scrub the stink of personal failure off of them.  It isn’t the failure that we mind, it is the thinking we care about it and the hypocrisy that goes along with it.  If the politicians had been honest about what they had done, only people in the other party would have cared.  Had Michael Phelps said, “I believe the laws against marijuana are wrong and should be changed,” we would have applauded.  Had he said the pictures were taken somewhere that pot was legal he would have cheered.  Instead he apologized and begged our forgiveness now that he has seen the light of how wrong he was.  That shows lower moral fiber than actually breaking the law, since no one except his mother really believes he is sorry about smoking pot.  As for Chris Brown and Rhianna, let me tell the both of you we don’t care.  You had a heated argument, and probably not your first which shows neither of you are mature enough to be in a relationship.  To make a big deal about it by playing up how victimized you were is an affront to all affect by domestic violence.

In the end these public apologies mean absolutely nothing and I believe it is necessary for any celebrity making one to follow it up by making a second one appologizing for wasting our time on meaningless words.

the 1980s classic Fame is being remade with Kelsey Grammar, Megan Mullally and Debbie Allen. Production begins Wednesday on the flick, which will follow the same premise as the first film — chronicling a slew of dancers, singers, actors and artists over four years from auditions to graduation. Allen, who appeared in the original Fame as dance teacher Lydia Grant, will return to the school’s halls as principal.
Grammer will play the orchestra conductor; Mullally, a voice teacher; Neuwirth, a dance instructor; and Dutton, an acting teacher.
Fame will “live forever” again Sept. 25, 2009.

Heroes shocked everyone last night by inferring that Sylar killed Elle. But Kristen from E! entertainment says that all may not be lost for our fair villianess. There may be some kind of coverup and Elle will rise from the dead. Thanks to HRG’s revelation that he may not be a Petrelli after all, Sylar is going on a hunt for his past. Nathan Petrelli is at a turning point. He’s ready to harness his power, only he’s still not sure in whose service he ought to employ that power. What does he decide? Well, let’s just say that in 2009 Claire-Bear might have another morally ambiguous dad to disapprove of.