Meaty Media
We have all seen those cheery commercials, cartons and wrappers. The perfect example would be milk and cheese products. The eye-catching design on the package depicts a yellow sun, a cozy-looking farm, and a farm animal who appears overjoyed to have the opportunity to share it’s product with you. That’s what they want you to think. The factory farming businesses will put out quite the pretty penny to ensure that they will continue to rake in the billions of dollars annually.
It is ironic how the media uses animal characters to promote their product, steering people away from the horrific death behind factory farming. For example, you may have seen the commercial about the two Claymation chickens striving to become the coveted Foster Farm chickens. There is also the California Cheese commercials that features “happy cows” hanging out, eating, and talking about how their product is more superior than others. And of course, there are the commercials about the proud bovine who are lucky enough to be considered elite Angus beef. When faced with the harsh reality, our two chicken friends are actually lucky to be denied the Foster Farm name. The commercial chicken farms contain the most tortured animals on the planet. Birds are crammed into cages with no room to walk, their beaks cut off, and hens are forced to lay much more eggs then they are naturally meant to. Many of the adorable, fuzzy male chicks are ground alive.
And “happy dairy cows”? Far from it! Most people would love to think that milk and cheese comes from Good Ol’ Betsy from the little ranch on the outskirts of town. Betsy is free to graze and roam where she pleases within the confines of the farm. Betsy doesn’t mind if you take a bit of milk here and there. However, the dairy you purchase from stores come from cows at factory farms. Those unfortunate cows spend most of their lives pregnant and producing milk. This creates severe physical pain in addition to the emotional pain from having their calves taken from them and being in overcrowded quarters.
As for factory beef farming, the cattle are placed on grazing land and left there until they have matured. They are not protected from extreme weather and some of them become ill or injured.
Once they mature, they will be fattened up and prepared for slaughter. At the slaughterhouse, they endure torture until they eventually bleed to death. We were driving on Interstate 5 earlier this summer and passed by a large slaughterhouse. The long stretch of land was crowded with hundreds of cows. There was a putrid stench of manure and death. We have heard many people say, “Well those animals were born and bred to feed us.” Kind of like how you were born and bred to ask me, “Would you like fries with that?”
Factory farms do breed those animals to feed us, and those animals suffer while the billion dollar industry keeps telling us to eat them. Never mind the cholesterol and health related issues. “Just keep eating more meat.” They will provide the candy-coated commercials and neatly packaged products, and hide the gore and suffering that happens away from the public eye.
If you want to see the truth behind factory farming, here is a website which contains information and graphic videos:
Until next time, take care, and VEG OUT!
September 2007
FALL PREVIEW: The video-game industry’s holiday season traditionally begins in mid-August, when EA Sports welcomes kids back from their summer vacations with the latest edition of “Madden NFL.” And in the last few weeks, we’ve already seen two contenders for Game of the Year: 2K Games’ “BioShock” (for the Xbox 360) and Nintendo’s “Metroid Prime 3: Corruption.” There’s much more to come, with hundreds of titles being released between now and the end of the year. For each console, I’ve picked out the one game I’m most looking forward to, along with an assortment of runners-up that just about any player would be happy to find under the Christmas tree.
XBOX 360: Microsoft’s killer app is the longawaited “Halo 3,” but I’m more psyched about “Mass Effect,” the galaxy-spanning role-playing game from “Knights of the Old Republic” developer BioWare. Runners-up: Namco Bandai’s “Eternal Sonata,” a musical RPG starring Frederic Chopin (!); “Project Gotham Racing 4″; and the trivia game “Scene It? Lights, Camera, Action.” WII: The one game every Nintendo fan is waiting for is “Super Mario Galaxy.” Runners-up: “Rayman Raving Rabbids 2,” the sequel to last year’s loopy party game; “Super Smash Bros. Brawl,” starring the entire Nintendo roster; and Capcom’s original adventure “Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros’ Treasure.”
PLAYSTATION 3: Our favorite interstellar explorers make their PS3 debut with “Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction.” Runners-up: “The Eye of Judgment,” a trading-card game, of all things; “Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune,” an adventure from “Jak & Daxter” developer Naughty Dog; and Ubisoft’s futuristic shoot-em-up “Haze.”
RETURN OF THE KONG: Seth Gordon’s documentary “The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters” is the perfect epilogue to a summer in which geeks ruled the box office. (See “Knocked Up,” “Spider-Man 3.”) As an unrepentant geek myself, I’ll try to say this in the nicest possible way: The misfits and weirdoes in this film make the “Superbad” boys look like George Clooney and Brad Pitt. “Kong” tells the story of two men who are battling to claim the world’s highest score in a game of “Donkey Kong.” Billy Mitchell, a cocky, mullet-wearing hot-sauce magnate, had held the record for more than two decades; selfeffacing challenger Steve Wiebe just started playing in earnest after he got fired from his job at Boeing a few years ago. As he follows Wiebe to retro-gaming tournaments, the filmmaker reveals chinks in Mitchell’s armor and discovers an apparent conspiracy to prevent the challenger from receiving the credit he is due. It’s an oddly absorbing, suspenseful and funny movie, but what makes “Kong” poignant is that these men are stressing themselves out over a completely insignificant accomplishment. But even if you have zero interest in “Donkey Kong” and other old-school games, you’re bound to get caught up in the war between Mitchell and Wiebe. “King of Kong” is slowly rolling across the country, so catch it when it comes to your town.
Vohnegut: Vohnegut
This album has an apparent Mars Volta-esque vibe.
Either with a similar sounding voice from the vocalist Jason or the ethereal, moody sound of the entire disc. The band’s sound is very instrumentally driven. At times the music overbears the vocals, and the production sounds tinny, maybe deliberately. The fifth track Transient starts out with beautifully plucked acoustic guitars, with eerie effect laden sounds layered in the background.
The strongest song on the album is the eighth track Particle. It reminds me of a band I loved called HUM. With dreary guitars and lengthy melodies.
I feel if this album was better produced and mixed it would be undeniably powerful, but is lacking something I just can’t put my finger on.
Will Haven: Hierophant
The bands longawaited six year follow up to Carpe Diem is finally here with a brand new twist; vocalist Jeff Jaworski. The Hierophant after a short instrumental intro ‘Grey Sky At Night’ the track ‘King’s Cross’ punches you in the face. Guttural growls prove Jaworski stands his own on this album. The tribal-esque drums are a clear progression, along with the deep grooving and droning guitars.
The Hierophant is the first album Will Haven took to a new producer, Revolution Smile’s Shaun Lopez (also produced Deftones’ Saturday Night Wrist) along with some co-producing Chino of Deftones. A definitive difference is the clear and intelligible vocals.
The third track Helena is a gem starting right off with strong screams followed by a driving breakdown. Droning guitars that have a deep melodic overtone.
Another amazing gem is Sammy Davis Juniors One Good Eye, not only is it a mouthful of a song title, but the splatter beat death-like beginning leads off into the patented Will Haven groove leaving every listener’s head bobbing along. This song was written along with original vocalist Grady Avenell.
This album is a strong effort from these guys which is getting accolades all around! No word yet on Bob-Kabobs though.
Good City Lie Still: Good City Lie Still
Beautiful piano and haunting melodic vocals open this album. This five piece group hailing from Santa Rosa did a great job with production and mixing on this disc. Soft, yet aggressively emotional lyrics and airy atmospheric layers of guitars, drums and bass guitar. I believe they fall into the Indie/Progressive Rock genre, but Good City Lie Still shouldn’t really be labeled or blanketed. Songs like ‘Unruly Man’ and ‘Make The Sun Go Down’ are rock oriented with catchy alternative guitars. The strongest track on the record is the closer’ Sonar.’ The vocals and guitars are strong and melodic, and singer Ross hits some pretty high note.
You can check them out at: myspace.com/goodcityliestill
5 Bands To Know… According To Fringe: September 2007
