Divp-Proj.org

If you’ve ever had occasion to visit a gym, you’ve no doubt heard people talking about “feeling the burn” and “pumping up.” But did you ever wonder what people were really saying? Here are some common terms and phrases that will help you to learn what is really going on in the gym.

1. In The Zone - Tired and incoherent during a workout. Commonly described out of the gym as “spaced out.”

2. Extended Warm-Up - 20 minutes at low tension on the stationary bike then 20 minutes of casual stretching then a shower.

3. “Just One More Rep” - Said to a spotter during a set. Really means: “Lift the weight for me.”

4. Forced Reps - For the reluctant exerciser, every single rep of a workout is a forced rep. This is especially true when they have a mean trainer.

5. Hack Squat - The position a cat gets into when he’s coughing up a hairball, commonly mistaken as a leg exercise.

6. “Can I work in with you?” - Translation: “Can I remove all your weights and sweat all over your bench?”

7. Drop Sets - What sometimes happens after doing a hard set of dumbell bench presses. A triple drop set occurs when you drop two dumbells and yourself to the floor.

8. Bulking Up - Name for the phase during which an otherwise healthy trainer will try to get bigger and fatter on purpose.

9. “I’m maxing out” - Translation: “I was going for 6 reps but I put too much weight on the bar and only got 1.”

10. Cool-down - Sit on a bench and drink from a water bottle while talking about how much more you’ll lift next time.

11. Olympic Bar - Athlete’s nightclub.

12. E-Z Bar - “How dare you! I’m not that type of bar.”

13. Squat rack - The lonliest piece of equipment in the gym.

14. “It’s all you!” - Said by spotter during the last few reps of a set. Translatation: “It’s mostly me.”

15. Pro-hormones - Hormones that have lost their amateur status.

16. Meal Replacement Supplement - Cold pizza and warm beer.

17. Clean and Press - Surprisingly enough, it’s a shoulder exercise, not laundry instructions. A variation of it is even known as the Hang Clean and Press.

18. High Intensity Interval Training - Occurs when there are two or more flights of stairs leading up to the gym.

19. Skullcrushers - An exercise where you make like you’re going to bash your own head in with a barbell, a.k.a. lying tricep extensions.

20. “Hold the contraction at the top and squeeze for 10 seconds” - Said by a personal trainer when he or she wants to punish the client for missing a session.

Now that you’ve got an idea of what is being said at the gym, you’ll be able to converse comfortably with the natives. You will be completely understood in any gym in the world when you walk in and say “I just did two sets of high intensity intervals and now I’m ready for some forced reps” or “I’m taking a lot of meal replacement supplements because I’m bulking up.”

Nick Nilsson is Vice President of BetterU, Inc., an online exercise, fitness, and personal training company. Check out his latest eBook “The Best Exercises You’ve Never Heard Of” at http://www.thebestexercises.com or visit http://www.fitstep.com. You can contact him at betteru@fitstep.com or subscribe to BetterU News, his fitness newsletter at betterunews@fitstep.com.

When you are just starting out playing cricket it’s not always easy to tell what you need to buy. If you go into a sports equipment high street retail shop & ask them what you require, you will probably finish up getting a considerable amount of kit that you don’t need. So, it’s sensible to fathom what you may want previous to you going shopping. That way you are a great deal more likely to get hold of what you demand, as opposed to what the shop manager suggests you need. Check out the latest cricket equipment sales online at Sportswear-Equipment.com.

Below, is essentially an exhaustive cricket equipment inventory, you don’t require to get all the kit on this list, as several organisations will lend you kit especially at junior level:

Cricket whites, cricket bats, balls, helmets, gloves, batting (wicket keeping) inner gloves, wicket keeping gloves, batting pads, wicket keeping pads, box, chest pad, arm guard, inner thigh pad, cricket boots (bowling boots; batting boots), box (groin guard), stumps and bails.

For the majority of games you will ever partake in you will require your own set of whites. Cricket whites include white cricket trousers & cricket shirt. It is therefore important to make sure that you get a high-quality set of cricket trousers as well as a nice white cricket shirt & jumper as it can easily turn cold if you are standing out on the pitch for a substantial long time especially if you intend to play in England (the start and end of the cricket season are the coldest).

If you can not borrow gear from your club the other most critical items of equipment are a cricket bat & box. A well built cricket bat is crucial if you wish to score countless of runs and is a very special piece of equipment, so spend some time choosing your bat, ideally you ought to go to a store & try one out before you buy so you know how it feels to play with. As soon as you know what you want you can often buy bats on the World Wide Web much cheaper). You need a good box to guard your groin from the ball, as getting hit down below’ is extremely painful, so investing in a good box before you start is a must - you can’t bat without one.

I have been on the Internet for 3 years and have been asked this
question numerous times. I also did not know what an ezine was
when I first came aboard. I will attempt with this article to
explain what an ezine is and why it is so important for your
online business.

First of all, an ezine is an electronic newsletter sent out by
email at intervals of your choice to a list of subscribers. The
ezine can deal with many subjects depending on what your
business deals with. There are ezines on how to publish an
ezine, how to run an online business, how to build websites,
decorating your home and so on.

Ezines can and should contain lots of helpful information and
resources for your subscribers. You also want to reserve room
for a few paid ads, but to no overdo with the ads. I would say
from three to five ads is plenty. There are also solo mailing
ads which are mailed out as a separate mailing. Usually one or
two of these a week is sufficient. These are the most popular of
ads amongst advertisers.

Ezines are very important to your business because they allow
you to keep in contact with your potential customers and
advertisers. Providing a good ezine with effective content can
also build your credibility and also your reputation. Along with
good content you can also promote your products and services. In
essence, the ezine is the lifeline between your prospects and
your business.

Publishing an ezine is not as hard as you might think. The first
thing you might want to do is design the template. Take a look
at this example:
http://www.websuccesscentral.com/ezinesuccess/part1.html

Always keep a template saved on disk and on your computer for
easy use. Each issue of your ezine can then be fitted into the
template saving you LOTS of time. Keep all general information
such as subscribe information, title and publisher, privacy
policy and so on in the template at all times to save more time.

When you first start your ezine you can choose to manage the
list yourself, use a free list manager such as Yahoogroups or
Topica, purchase list manager software or use a paid list
management service. I personally recommend starting out with a
free service such as Yahoogroups. I started with them when it
was still Onelist a few years ago and have never had any serious
problems. They inform you when a person subscribes or
unsubscribes, distribute your ezine to your entire list, send
out a welcome and goodbye message of your choice and more. If
you would like to have a look visit http://www.yahoogroups.com

Finding a list manager and designing your template are just the
beginning steps. In Part 2, I will explain ways of promoting
your ezine and how to get subscribers for FREE. I know when I
first started Web Success, I was on a zero budget and through
experience learned how to build my business for free. That is
one of the wonders of the Internet. You can start, build and run
your own business for very little capital.

What it does take is commitment, time, work and passion for what
you are doing. Although the road may be long, the journey is an
experience I would not want to miss!

Join me next week in Part 2 for promoting your ezine and
building your subscriber base.

Terri Seymour owns and operates MyOwnEzine.com
MyOwnEzine.com is a website, ezine and service which
provides the resources, tools, guidance and more to help
you start, publish and promote your own ezine. You can
contact Terri at mailto:ter02@newnorth.net Subscribe
at mailto:subscribe@myownezine.com or visit
http://www.myownezine.com for lots more info.

Roulette system secret by ecobika

Best friend is the ZERO, or how hunting FOR ZERO on SINGLE ZERO table? The secret - which nobody tells you free - is yours, for free.

This is simple system, not too much stake is necessary in a single spin, and the whole idea is, that you win with zero, but without risking too much. Remember, if you play on black or red, you biggest enemy is the ZERO!

Best Online Casino
Ecobika tells you how becoming your best friend from your biggest enemy, the zero.

Let’s see:

1 unit to the ZERO.

2 units on 2nd dozen (13-24)

2 units on 3rd dozen (25-36)

1 unit on the 1-6 numbers. Alltogether: 6 units staked.

You win 30 units, when the ZERO spinned for you (do not forget, play only on single zero roulette table!)

You win 1 unit, if 1-6 spinned. Money back, if a number from the 2nd, or the 3rd dozens spinned, and 6 losses, if a number from 7-12 spinned. That is all. Simple. Zero tolerance!

You have to stick to your moneymanagement, your risk tolerance and singlezero table!

About the Author

Who is ecobika? The Specialist. Former insurance broker, stock- bond- broker, financial adviser, journalist, globetrotter. Now professional gambler and investor. Father and husband. Why this site? To have fun. If you want to join the club of the specialists, the door is open, ENTRY the club and the FORUM
http://www.angelfire.com/journal2/ecobika/

Movies on DVD and VHS are often available in two screen formats: full screen and wide screen. The full screen is where a movie is modified to fit a television screen. If you have watched a video release, you have probably seen the message: “This film has been modified from its original version.”

The wide screen version maintains the same size and shape of the original theatrical version. The reason for the different versions is aspect ratio. Motion picture screens have a different aspect ratio then a television screen.

The aspect ratio (a ratio of width to height) of a television screen is 1.33:1. This means the screen is 1.33 times wide as it is tall. The most common aspect ratio for movie screens is 1.85:1 to 2.35:1. While a television screen is almost square a movie screen is rectangle.

Therefore, a video release must fit the rectangle movie screen onto the square television screen. The wide screen version displays an image with black bars at the top and bottom of the screen. Some people find this disturbing. Movie buffs and die hard artists prefer the wide screen because it captures the essence of the filmmakers’ vision.

The full screen actually removes the far left and right side of the movie image in order to fit the movie within the television screen aspect ratio. So the full screen, although appearing to be the whole movie, is actually missing information.

Knowing the difference can help you choose the format you prefer. Remember that the wide screen version contains the aspect ratio of the original theatrical release and that the full screen version is where only the middle part of the original theatrical is used to fill the television screen.

About the Author

Lawrence Roth
Webmaster
http://www.rothline.com
Rothline Entertainment: Games, Movies and Software for people of all ages.

I write a lot of articles about copywriting and marketing on the Internet. I have always believed you’re best at what you love to do, if you spend your time doing what you love. Here are what many may believe are obvious rules, but these are the 7 rules I have most often seen broken. Since I’m far.. very, very far from perfect, many of these rules I have repeatedly broken myself as well.

Knowing the rules does not necessarily mean following the rules. Read, Recite, Retain and Recycle. 4 words a previous professor used 1000 times. He constantly stressed the point, and I quote, “Just because you’ve read it in the book young blood, doesn’t prove you’ve learned a thing.

1. Know your Audience.

The first rule of advertising is to know your Audience or better put, “Target Audience”. Know where and how to find them. I know this seems to be a simple and quite obvious rule, but never a day goes by that I don’t see it broken. I read and scan approximately 10-20 newsletters each day, and each day I see those ads, thinking to myself, “what are they doing here”?

OK, maybe you will find someone reading a B2B newsletter that is interested in Antique Crystal, but don’t you think your efforts and advertising budget would be better served finding a newsletter on Antiques? You may even gain exposure to a businessperson who likes old crystal, but more than likely they don’t have that on their mind at the time. Now, I may be a little on the dramatic side, but you get the point. Know where your advertising will best suit the readers and their present state of mind.

2. How do I really know they have that many subscribers?

Well friend, I may be cutting my own throat here just a little (as I use an email publishing program of my own design), but the one sure way to know, is to advertise with newsletters who use a neutral service such as eGroups or Topica . There are many
services free and paid. Some editors also use a bonded service that tracks and guarantees an honest count of a subscriber base. Being what I consider a small fish yet, I do not yet worry that much about the advertising quite that much. I don’t yet use a service of any kind. At the present I’m more interested in gaining a loyal readership, than selling advertising. That’s not to say I don’t sell advertising, I just don’t push it that hard….yet. But what it comes down to is that if the newsletter doesn’t use an independent service that keeps and displays the subscriber count, then you have to rely on trust. Trust, my friend, can sometimes be a hard thing to come by these days.

3. Avoid Nuisance Publications.

This could be anything from an opt-in ad list, to solo-ads, to a monthly service mailing. Although many of these have large, sometimes very large subscriber bases, they get a great deal of no-show readers. These are publications that quite often get deleted by a large portion of the people receiving them. I get them all the time. How many other opt in advertisers do you think really read those endless emails of advertising garbage.

Solo ads do get read, but think about it, how many do you read? I may read 1 out of 50. As soon as I see a Solo Ad or any of those other names they’re given I delete on contact! What about you? You do get premium space and exposure, if enough people read them, but after talking to other webmasters, I found that a great deal of them usually delete them without ever being read. So consider what you have to pay for that premium space, and that probably only 10% of the people see it.

Suppose you sign up for a free service and one of the stipulations is that you agree to receive their “occasional” mailings. You know; those are the ones you receive every month, week or even daily that you tolerate only because you enjoy the privilege of their service. If you are deleting these, how many other subscribers do you feel may be doing the same?

This is not to say that you won’t get a response, but too many of these mailings demand higher rates for their advertising space. You must decide just how much exposure you will really get and whether the price is worth the service.

4. Bad Contact Information Sucks.

Another obvious but often abused rule. This is as common sense, as common sense can get. Make it easy to respond. I don’t know about you, but it really irks me to read and respond to an ad, only to find that there is no such web address or I’ve emailed an unknown address. Oh well, their loss. I’ve encountered everything from the misspelling their email or web address to having none at all. I’ve even seen one Einstein who published his social security number in place of a fax number. Hey, I guess (most of) it happens to the best of us, but it still sucks!

5. How Are Your Headlines, Sunshine?

The main purpose of the headline is to gain attention! People scan newsletter advertising the same was they flip through the pages of a newspaper. They most often are trying to avoid reading your advertising. The key to the headline is to catch their eye before they get by you, to make them stop and read what you have to say. How do you stop those quick, averting eyes? Well, everyone has his or her own ideas about this.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION FOLLOWS FOR MEN AND WOMEN OVER 50

This headline promises important news, and if I were over 50, I would have to stop and look. I recently wrote an ad for a friend, with a headline similar to this. The first thing she asked me, was “what about my other clients”? She asked me this even though she knew her product served a certain demographic niche. She herself told me that 75% of her business served men and women over 50. Sounds like great odds to me. After doing some brief research of her business and a few questions, I concluded that her target audience are men and women over 50. I advised her to target this age group. If you get others outside of this demographic category, great! But let’s stay focused on where the majority of the business comes from. The rest is icing on the cake!

6. Headlines Won’t Help, if they’re not seen.

Before buying that ad space, know where that ad will be placed. Unlike the traditional newspaper, digital newsletters vary quite a bit in pricing and placement quality. I would much rather buy a $20.00 ad at the top of a good newsletter, than spend $10.00 for two at the bottom of one of the same quality. Ask your editor or webmaster if they can tell you where they will place your paid ad.

Get accustomed to only advertising in newsletters you know or have at least viewed. Do you read the advertising? How many ads will accompany yours? Would you easily find your ad here? Watch and count the amount of ads that surface in newsletters you are considering. You don’t want your ad lost in a maze of headlines, probably never to be heard from again. If your prospect’s advertising quantities fluctuate, again, ask the editor. Many will be courteous enough to offer approximations.

7. Follow Basic Copywriting Rules.

If you’re like me, you write your own copy and advertising. There was a time…long, long ago, I had a formal education in business and marketing, so I know (or have hidden away in the cob webs I call a mind) all the old rules and have met many new ones along the way in these last 4 years of being on the Internet. Here are some quick rules on copywriting as it pertains to print and newsletter advertising.

- Appeal to the reader’s emotions and instincts. - Must convince even the most hardened skeptics. - Overcome any objections the buyer may have. - Use power words that literally force people to act. - Capture and keep the reader’s interest. - Appeal to the reader’s ego and self-interest. - Show the facts and proof of your claims. - Help the reader justify the purchase. - Write copy that coincides with current attitudes in your target group. - Motivate you reader to buy NOW. - Use “special” benefits to make your product more attractive. - Make your reader believe in you. - Ad copy must relate and communicate like average people. - Know what your target market really wants. - Be able to easily lead into your back-end offers - Emulate other successful (but not over used) ad copy structures. - Make your product so attractive that your reader has no choice but to buy. - Write, re-write and re-write and re-write and re-write……..

This article is not meant to cover all the many trials of finding the right newsletters to advertise in, but to help point you in the right direction!

Thanks for reading!

Wild Bill Montgomery
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For me, the piano is the symbol of what is stiff, proper and elegant. It doesn’t have faults, it is perfect. Pianists are the most perfectionist people in the world. They should not and can not make mistakes especially when performing. That is how I viewed the piano and the pianists. But then, I just found out I was wrong. A few researches and I have once again proven that appearances can be deceiving.

The pianists we see play appear to be the most formal and respectable stars on the stage. They hold the power and the breath of the audiences. They could look intimidating in their formal suits not to mention the authority and the air of arrogance they exude while on stage. They can be captivating.

But before we forget, these pianists are also human. And humans do make mistakes. Most of these mistakes can be frustrating and depressing. But then, there are also mistakes that are amusing and could also be totally hilarious. It shows how fun could be inserted even in the most seemingly stuffy and proper event.

Here are some examples:

When asked for their definition of a piano, some famous musicians and musical enthusiasts have some famous replies:

•For David W. Barber (The Musician’s Dictionary), a piano is a cumbersome piece of furniture found in many homes, where playing it ensures the early departure of unwanted guests.

•Piano (n.) is a parlor utensil for subduing the impertinent visitor. It is operated by depressing the keys of the machine and the spirits of the audience, according to Ambrose Bierce, an American journalist (The Devil’s Dictionary).
•A piano tuner is a person employed to come into the home, rearrange the furniture, and annoy the cat. The tuner’s chief purpose is to ascertain the breaking point of the piano’s strings.
Though these definitions may sound humorous, you can never miss the ironies in it. Coming from people who live and breathe the piano, these definitions seem odd.
Here’s more - when asked about their secrets in playing, you would certainly be surprised at how simple their secrets can be, and definitely applicable.
•Australian pianist Artur Schnabel said, “I always make sure that the lid over the keyboard is open before I start to play”.
•”Nothing soothes me more after a long and maddening course of pianoforte recitals than to sit and have my teeth drilled”, said George Bernard Shaw, a writer and a music critic.
I definitely agree with Artur Schnabel’s top secret! I wonder why George found it relaxing to have his teeth drilled after hearing the pianoforte recitals. Check out more of the piano’s funny side:
•Bob Hope, an American comedian commented on fellow comedian Phyllis Diller on her playing the piano: “When she started to play, Steinway himself came down personally and rubbed his name off the piano.”
•A band teacher recalled the title of the song “Claire de Lune” played by a student as “Claire de Loonie”.
•The audiences at a piano recital were appalled when a telephone rang just off stage. Without missing a note, the soloist glanced toward the wings and called, “If that’s my agent, tell him I’m working!”
Now, let’s check out some famous questions and answers in the funny world of piano:
•What do you get when you drop a piano down a mine shaft? A flat minor
•What do you get when you drop a piano on an army base? A flat major
•Why is an 11-foot concert grand better than a studio upright? Because is makes a much bigger kaboom when dropped over a cliff.
•Why was the piano invented? So that the musician would have a place to put his beer.
•Why did they say that the pianist had fingers like lightning? They never struck the same place twice.
•What did they find when they dug up Beethoven’s grave? He was decomposing.
•Why did Mozart kill his chicken? Because they always ran around going, “Bach! Bach! Bach!”
•Imagine a singer, a piano player, a bass player and a drummer sitting around the table. Now if you drop a hundred-dollar bill right in the middle and tell them they’re free to take it, who’s getting it? The piano player. Because the bass player is too slow, for the winger it’s too little money and the drummer didn’t get the assignment.
Now that we’ve seen the humor under they keyboards, the piano and the pianists are not as elusive as they seem to be. It is just like discovering a new type of music. The piano and the pianist can take not just the breath out of the audiences but also the laughter as they present not only fine music but terrific humor as well. Having fun is what life is all about.

About the Author

The writer Ismael D. Tabije runs the website http://pianos.e-mart4all.com that markets a wide choice of high-quality digital pianos and accessories at the lowest prices in the online market. Brands sold include Casio, Yamaha, Korg, Kurzweil and Roland. The website also features interesting piano articles about piano humor, trivia, myths and facts and even piano lessons and instructions.

Opt-in email safelists are one of the best Internet marketing strategies for getting your product or service immediately in front of many thousands of people. In this article, I will show you how you can successfully work with them.

Benefits of Opt-in Safelists 1. Email to thousands - this can be done with free safe lists or paid safe lists. Even if you only get a 1% response from thousands, you interact with those that will respond.

2. It’s immediate - you can instantly send your ad and receive an immediate response from those interested. With ezine ads, you often have to wait for days or weeks before your ad is displayed.

3. Test your product or service - safelists are a good place to begin testing your ad, before you spend a lot of money on other advertising methods.

4. Track your ads - track those ads that pull the best. (Some safelists incorporate tracking in their subscriptions). You can then use these same ads repeatedly in other forms of advertising. The key is to have a great headline, because users will be scanning them for what catches their eye.

5. Low cost way of email marketing - this is a much faster, less expensive way to market than offline marketing. You can reach many more people in a shorter space of time.

6. No fear of spamming or being penalized for spamming - this is because all subscribers are strictly opt-in.

Types of Opt-in Safe Lists Free Safelists - Pros
It’s free to email to the whole list - you can mail to all free and paid subscribers.
Email to thousands immediately Pays commissions on referrals

Cons
Fills your email box with thousands of offers from other subscribers.
No tracking of ads provided Email once a week only

Paid Safelists - Pros
Email the list (free and paid) every day or every 2 days. Doesn’t require you to receive other e-mail ads from subscribers. Membership fees are low
Tracking of your ads
Pays higher commissions
Personalize your messages

Cons
Most customers will not see your ad at all. People on these lists are more concerned about others seeing their own ad, than seeing yours.
Lose money if you paid to subscribe, but didn’t get any sales.

This is just a general list of safelist features, however each safelist has its own unique features and benefits.

How to Use Safelists Effectively Choose a targeted list - if you are targeting Internet Marketers, then don’t subscribe to lists that are contain home owners. The more focused the list, the better your chances of success.

Use a benefit-laden headline in your ad - if you don’t capture the attention of users in the brief second they see your headline, they will pass you by.

Use a follow-up strategy - direct customers from your ad to your web site or your sequential autoresponder. It often takes up to 7 times for users to see your ad before they respond to your offer. Instead of losing them after the first message, allow them to see another sample of your offer by following up on them every few days. This will increase your chances of making the sale.

Tracking and Testing - track the responses to your ads to know exactly which one works and which does not. You can then test which headline pulls the best. After a one-month subscription, you will have some idea if the safelist is worth staying with. If it isn’t, unsubscribe!

If you are getting a good response from the free lists, then pay the monthly subscription fee, so you can send your ad more often. You will also benefit from all the features they provide.

Use several safe lists - subscribe as a free member to several paid lists. Test which safelist pulls the best response. Paid safe lists are of higher quality than the ones that are free (no paid subscriptions). As a free member you can often send your ad once a week to all members. If the response is great, pay your subscription and send your ad more often.

Utilizing Opt-in safelists is one strategy in your marketing arsenal that will quickly determine if your ad will be successful. Now explode your sales by implementing an email marketing campaign.

Herman Drost is a Certified Internet Webmaster (CIW) owner and author of iSiteBuild.com (www.isitebuild.com/safelists) Get a FREE Web Site Designed, when combined with our Low Cost Hosting Plan (www.isitebuild.com/freedesign). Subscribe to the “Marketing Tips” newsletter for more original articles. mailto: subscribe@isitebuild.com

ABC wants no more to do with the Miss America Pageant. So, they’ve
dropped the broadcast.

The reason? Declining ratings.

What a changed world it is that this announcement is not startling news.
This is the first time in half-a-century that the pageant does not have a
television commitment! Once upon a time, the idea of becoming Miss America
was every school girl’s dream. And a sneaked glimpse of Miss America in
her bathing suit was every teen-aged boy’s fantasy. Er…not to mention a
lot of older fella’s as well. So the decline of the pageant into television
mediocrity is a recent phenomenon. In the decade of the 90’s the pageant’s
ratings were decent. Certainly not the equal of what they were in the glory
years of the 50s and 60s when the pageant was a broadcast that viewers
of all ages did not want to miss. But more than acceptable in a divided
television world of endless cable channels.

Perhaps the pageant has survived as long as it has on reputation, and the
viewing habits of an audience that has been aging each year. The shocking
Vanessa Williams scandal of 1984 did not destroy the pageant. Neither did
Bert Park’s replacement as master of ceremonies a couple of years earlier.
Could any man ever equal his rendition of “There She Is Miss America?”

Park’s signature song in the event.

Vanessa Williams, notwithstanding, what has apparently done in Miss
America is SEX. The easy accessibility of tawdry entertainment not only
on broadcast television, but via cable, vcr tapes, cds, and downloadable
product from the internet. The once risque Miss America pageant has been
rendered into irrelevancy. Adult beauty pageants are no longer particulary
cool or hip, and as they remain on the broadcast channels are now an easy
target for ever zealous right-wingers who dislike women parading around
half-naked on television. Zealots who knew they were overmatched during
the pageant’s popular heyday.

The Miss America Pageant is out-of-touch with the America of the 2000’s.
Just as the variety show format is long-dead, these type of pageants have
been on struggling for years. They are like something that belonged to
an old aunt. Too precious to throw away. But not really worth the trouble
to bring down from the attic for a new appraisal.

Network television today is reality show mad. Actresses willingly appear
on the repugnant “Fear Factor” to perform repugnant feats. Would Miss
American do that!

Probably not.

Reality television is full of racy reparte between nubile singles. The focus
of the shows are frequently about what couple will pair off. Certainly not
on camera. — But that is about as far from Miss America as you can get.

The emphasis in reality television is for spontaneity. Even if some events
are staged, the contestants reactions to them are not. People cry. People
fight. People plot against one another. People reveal their innermost emotions.
In comparison, the Miss America beauty “contest” seems from another
century.

And speaking of Vanessa Williams. Her “artful” photographs did not
prevent her from becoming a successful recording artist. But her reputation
remained tarnished for years. Unlike Vanessa, scandal has actually helped
reality star Paris Hilton of internet sex-tape fame. { was that whole deal
a publicity stunt? } Paris and her equally bubble-brained co-star, Nichole
Richie, give the viewer everything that the haughty Miss America pageant
cannot.

That is, strikingly beautiful young babes just being themselves, and not
afraid to be seen as less than perfect { or anywhere near… } in front of the
entire nation. Racy photographs and sex tapes on the internet are just part
of the new landscape. Such intimacies in the public domain might discourage
certain potential viewers from tuning in. But they won’t stop the show,
so to speak. This is a wholesale change in culture. Just as slap-stick comedy
passed into television history with Lucille Ball. Quaint beauty pageants
just don’t connect with the modern audience, as they once did.

Does anybody care any more about elegant, well-spoken young women
in bathing suits? Have we lost regard for their commendable aspirations
to become the next generation of doctors, lawyers, school teachers,
industrialists, and other contributing members of society?

The rating numbers do not lie.

Miss America may not be dead. But she’s certainly on life support.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Vance Cureton is the Managing Editor of ReadingPost.Com.
A topical website featuring politics, news, and social
commentary from a liberal point-of-view.

How Do You Write Songs?

There was an interesting post today on a message board that I go to. It was about a guy that just started a new band and he wanted to know if anyone could give him some songwriting tips.

First off, there isn’t a wrong way to write songs. But after you’ve done it for a while, you’ll find out that some ways to go about it are easier than others.

This is how I do it.

1. Music and Melody Come First

I never fit a melody to pre-existing lyrics. It’s forced and it doesn’t sound good to me. When you write the words before the melody, you’re trying to force the melody to fit your lyrics. The result is it doesn’t sound natural.

A lot of songwriters start with an idea. It’s just easier for me to know what angle I’m coming from. Usually how it happens with me is the music comes first and the melody comes right after that.

Why do I write the melody first before my lyrics?

If I don’t know how many notes are in the melody, how do I know how many syllables need to be in my lines? I don’t.

If there’s 8 notes in the first part of the melody and 6 notes in the second part , you’ll have to have 8 syllables in the first line and 6 in the second.

Let’s say you want to put 4 lines in each of your verses, You’ll have 8 syllables in the first and third lines and six in the second and fourth.

Here’s an example:

In the song “I want you to want me” the lead singer for Cheap Trick wrote a four line melody that had six notes in the first three lines and seven in the last line. He knew that there had to be six syllables in the first three lines and seven syllables in the fourth.

I Want You To Want Me

I want you to want me =six syllables

I need you to need me =six syllables

I’d love you to love me =six syllables

I’m begging’ you to beg me =seven syllables

2. Figure Out An Idea To Work From

Ideas are everywhere. You can write about what a friend of yours is going through. You can write about what you’re going through.

I keep a journal just for this and make daily installments. I write down everything that I can think of that happened that day. And after a few months of that, I’ll go through the journal harvest my ideas.

I treat my journal like the garden it is. Most every song I write comes directly from my journals.

3. Put the idea into one to two sentences

The best way to show you this is to give you an example. Keeping with “I Want You To Want Me”, here’s the basic idea:

“I want you to want me as bad as I want you.”

You only want one idea for each song. If you have any more, your song is going to last too long. And you’re listeners won’t be able to keep up.

Believe me, nobody but you will understand them. I know from very bad experience.

4. Write The Lyrics To Fit The Melody

Once you have the idea, you start to explain the idea in the verses with the number of syllables you have in the melody. The chorus is just the overall idea in a summed up fashion.

That’s how I write songs. Music and melody come first. The idea comes after that. Write the idea in a statement form. And then, write the lyrics to fit the melody.

About the author:

Larry Ford runs a weblog giving beginner guitarist’s quick and easy tips to help them build their skills. His weblog can be found at http://www.larrysjournal.com