Blog Entry 3

     "Millionaires fighting Billionaires" tends to be a hard battle to really feel too sympathetic for either side when it comes to a labour war focused on money. In the case of the NHL there can be a lot said against either side. While I support the players, it is not difficult to argue for either side in terms of who is wrong in this battle. There is pretty well just apathy for both sides as the fans, and local businesses related to the NHL suffer.

     The easiest argument to be made against supporting the players is that they are just outright overpaid. Making an average of over 2 million a year it is hard to find many industries that provide that kind of salary as an average. It is especially difficult to fathom when you consider that it is for playing a sport that most people actually have to pay to do. With a group making so much money, it is plausible to see the reasoning that they deserve to take a pay cut.

     Another argument that can be made for the owners is that they bear the responsibility of managing and running all of the rinks in which they play. This comes with the obvious associated upkeep costs as well as liability for everything which occurs. Not to mention the difficulty of actually building stadiums in the first place. The players don't incur any of these costs or liability, they just play hockey.

     It could also be argued that there are legitimately teams in the NHL which lose money annually. These teams should be able to be made profitable by reducing player salaries. I think this is a weaker argument though, due to the nature of the salary floor and the massive profit of the top end teams.

Blog Entry 2

      Marvel Comics recently came out with its latest in the line of superhero movies with "The Avengers"(2012). This managed to remain true to the idea of a good superhero movie, but while also being funny and all around enjoyable. Due to the manner in which Marvel had a series of other movies to establish the universe for The Avengers they did not have to waste much time in introducing characters. The movie grabs your attention from the opening scene and keeps you entertained all the way through.

      The Avengers keeps up Marvels recent history of great action scenes, good animation and great style. From the opening chase and ensuing explosion it maintains a great balance of good action scenes with witty dialogue. There is a variety of different settings used throughout the movie, and the set design for them is great. They play well into the action scenes for each. The fight scenes between the superheroes are coordinated extremely well and are very clever based around the environments that each are in. Each sequence plays well into the grandeur of the plot for the movie. It all feels big and impressive. The individual heroes in each environment are not only done so well due to their costume design and animation, but the actual dialogue and chemistry of the characters.

      One of the biggest strengths of The Avengers is how well written, witty and true to form the characters are. Joss Whedon(director and writer, Firefly) does a fantastic job of playing to the strengths of the actors and the characters themselves. With a myriad of quirky one liners and great dialogue the characters really shine through in entertainment value. With Tony Stark(Robert Downey Jr.) and The Hulk(Mark Ruffalo) as great comic relief, Captain America(Chris Evans) and Thor(Chris Hemsworth) being cheesy, and a great support cast in Black Widow, Hawkeye, Nick Fury and Phil Coulson bring a human element to the superhero movie it gives a real great balance to the cast. The actors deliver their parts quite well, and make an unbelievable superhero premise feel believable.

      Overall, while The Avengers may not be the grittiest or most dramatic movie to come out this year, it is clever, witty and fun to watch. It was personally one of my favorite movies of the year due to just being entertaining and true to form in terms of the comics.

Blog Entry 1

I have been racking my brain on trying to find a topic to research for our required paper. Despite putting great deals of thought into it, I kept coming up blank. In looking for a topic of some controversy I've decided to take a stance on the present NHL Lockout and argue one side.

The side I have chosen to defend in this nightmare of a work stoppage is the Players. While it can be argued that both sides are just rich greedy millionaires and billionaires fighting over sums of money that the common man can barely comprehend, there is still an argument to be made for who is the greater evil here.