The Pop Culture of Gus Lequerica

AMERICA’S GOT TALENT A SEQUEL TO BRITAIN’S GOT TALENT?

By: Gustavo Lequerica Calvo

Lately there are been several speculations about who could win AGT, the tabloids are giving a party by some out of places of comments and similarities to Britain’s Got talent, those similarities had been seen in this season with the arrival of two performers Neil E. Boyd and four years old Kathleen Maher, probably if you already saw BGT you could compare Neal E. Boyd to Paul Potts both insurance salesman and four years old Kathleen with one of Britain’s breakthrough Connie Talbot which both at the moment of their competitions were the youngest ones in the entire group and they have perfect pitch.

If we keep analyzing we are going to find several archetypes that are found on others Simon Cowell produced shows, such as the bad, the good and the ugly judges, there is going to be one judge who will praise, the other will critic the competitors and there is going to be one of them who never says anything real but he will act as the comic relief, i.e. Hasselhof; but to stop with the comparisons one of the show, one information published by one tabloid said that the price is less than one million dollars and is paid similar as a lottery with an annuity over the years stipulated, and with the taxes and inflation the prize is worth less than the original amount promised, other newspaper The Globe in is August edition said that contest is fixed and they are looking to repeat the same success with Paul in American soil, but we can follow the same pattern even if we don’t read sensationalist media.

But I know if Neal E. Boyd wins and if the 4 years old ends as runner up, I know the competition is fixed because there are other people with a more profitable talent.  

Latest with all this political contends on television, I keep thinking that these challenges between Obama and McCain look like a Mortal Combat fight; yes, I know is an odd comparison but Barack Obama keeps reminding me to the Mortal Combat character Baraka and John McCain reminds me to Johnny Cage mixed with Bo’ Rai Cho, to tell the truth why I say these comparisons are because Obama’s smile reminds me of Barak’s smile a lot, almost an uncanny resemblance and John McCain he is like the superstar Johnny Cage was in the games but with the heavy body of Bo’ Rai Cho.

But, the truth, who will this tournament competition?. I don’t know, not even with a cheat code I could predict the winner since both characters are relative strong and their moves as there fatalities are really powerful, but let’s analyze who could be the possible winner, on a first glance we look the triumphant image of Barack Obama but, if we studied Obama’s career we see a relative young path, with lack of experience but sometimes experience can be the last thing to see if the candidate do a good job, but in a other hand we can’t rely if someone promise to do a good job if he don’t have a clear path about what is going to do, and if he studied Barack’s public image we see that he is only a novelty, I know is hard to say that word, but we have to face a reality Barack is a brilliant Marketing Strategist rather than a politician, he has appealed to discomforted masses who have a negative view on the Republicans because of the doubtful actions made by the W. Bush Administration just to attack McCain, Barak is taking advantage of an a priori judgment to say that all Republicans aren’t worthy to do politics because of the mistakes of W. Bush.

Probably by now you are thinking that I am a hardcore Republican but I am a Democrat, so do not think anything else before I expose my point of view; due the reason I am giving my side to McCain. As I said previously, Barak it’s just a novelty, a new man with great oratory abilities but relative a novelty as he is the first African American to go this far away in the political competition, so think it, when you see Obama you are seeing the marketing image that is behind the man, remember that in every political rally every candidate project themselves as winners just to appeal to the masses, but people think careful and study the political life of the candidates before making a choice and don’t believe in the paraphrasing of the campaigns because they never say the true and we don’t want to have W. Bush at the power.

John McCain in the other hand he speaks with more coherence and analyzing the facts we can see that he knows what he is speaking and hasn’t said any comments in adavance like saying to withdraw the troops from Irak since the Prime Minister said the American troops need to withdraw by 2011, and he is speaking with a dose of reality that Obama hasn’t and even McCain hasn’t change his strategies and his speech toward the general media, and his political trajectory is more complex and notable than Obama but the paradox with Obama is that Obama appeals to the blue collar worker as a man who stood advertisy and achieved his goals with a lot of sacrifice , we can say even that Obama is the personification of the American Dream and that is a image, a premise a deal that the general media won’t resist.

So who is going to be the win this Mortal combat tournament? I don’t know, if I predict I winner it could be John McCain, as it could be Barack Obama since both contestant are really strong, one have approval of public image but the other have a more steady and realizable government plan, but I can bet whichever of the two win, the winner will give the other a fatality.

Something is happening in Colombia; new spaces are being open for new proposals in the scope of music. New bands and singers are being born with only one excuse in mind: to delight thousands of people who day to day are becoming more demanding when it comes to the music industry.

I guess when someone thinks of Colombian rock, they will think of Cabas, Juanes, Shakira, something mixed with Colombian rhythms and songs predominantly in Spanish, but there is a new band who foresaw on the international market and decided to skip the step of singing in Spanish and went to sing in English, and those experience produced a great sound and a great band called The Hall Effect, yes, they are 100% Colombian but they sing in English, so don’t be fooled by the that.

The sound of The Hall Effect is simple and amazing, so smooth and soulful, hearing them in their cd is one thing but hearing them live is something that blows out due the quality of the sound, to describe them is like seeing a classical rock band The Cure, and the songs have great messages about the urban life and personal experience, the songs messages are really easy to relate and catchy too. If you want to know more about them you can visit their myspace and hear their amazing songs.

Everyone lately with the Olympiads we have seen some of the best and worse of sport, but one of those interesting moments were to see Michael Phelps breaking records, but what is appealing of Michael Phelps? Well, so many answers came to my head, he is one of the top sportsmen, many people love him and he has money, but still what is Michael appeal?, well, probably the most easy answer I could find was that Michael has the typical boy next door and many people can feel relate to him because he will evoke the image of everyone next door neighbor.

Also I was thinking beside Michael looks, his many achievements and hard looks are a living proof that the American Dream can be achievement if you believe it, probably Michael is the living proof that if you believe it you can achieve it and that iconography appeal to many people and make Michael’s public image commercially to a general audience, but even is public image is impeccable and people fantasies with his image, most of the time they forget he is not a god but a regular and average kid from Maryland, who suffers ADHD, who was arrested by DUI and he was later regretting because he let down his family, he is just a man who carries not only his triumphs and defeats but the weight of been an Olympian, and he is only 23 years, at his 23 years of living he carries more pressure than any other twenty something, but still he embodies what many people want to achieve.

At the end, he is just a 23 years old guy who has achieve more than many people in a lifetime, but still he is just a kid who likes to have fun and even if the Baltimore Sun describes him as “A Solitary Man”, he is just a guy who wants his privacy to be respected and enjoy his anonymity as a regular person.