Hello there! I am still not dead. I have just had my entire life derailed by a couple of weeks with the combined efforts of a chest cold/sinus infection/minor flu, a bunch of missed days of class, and the endless fury of the gods in punishment for my many shortcomings.
On April 21,
Brian Graden gave a presentation at Mt. SAC. I wrote an article for class that
didn't make it into the print edition on account of missed deadlines (see repulsive paragraph of self-pity above), so here it is. More to come.
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“Contrary to some authority figures, I actually think you can learn everything you need to know about life from watching television,” joked the man who currently heads the empire that is MTV, VH1 and Logo networks April 21 at Mt. SAC’s music recital hall.
The crowd, consisting of those young adults mostly within the MTV target demographic, heard Brian Graden, the networks’ president, as he spoke about his journey of self-discovery and his rise to the helm of popular culture within the context of the lessons he learned on the way.
Fresh from judging at the
Miss USA competition the previous night, Graden interspersed his speech with video clips that made the audience alternately laugh out loud and become soberingly silent.
Graden was tongue-in-cheek about his networks’ role in pop culture, showing among clips from past, current and upcoming shows with a parody clip from YouTube that mocked the pregnant music-filled pauses and drama in “The Hills” as an example of the consequences of his position. Another clip, from “College Library,” depicted a challenge in which a machine slapped a red-faced man repeatedly while a group restrained and shushed him.
“That goes on for half an hour,” Graden said drily.
But the quips were really about Graden’s story of success, which hinged, he said, on finding happiness and remaining true to himself.
Graden described his early life as one of conformity. He attended Harvard University as a youth, was engaged to a woman at a young age and had a career lined up in accounting. But, biologically gay and hating his field of study, he was miserable.
“I was hiding myself from myself,” Graden said.
Eventually Graden followed his happiness and broke into the world of television, convincing people to sign releases on the then-brand-new show, “COPS.”
“It didn’t matter that I was making $200 dollars a week and working 100-hour weeks and getting shot at,” Graden said. “For the first time ever, I was really, truly happy.”
Contrary to popular belief, Graden said, success does not lead to happiness. Rather, the opposite is true.
Part of that process included championing the cause of the animation,
which depicted a Santa Claus-Jesus Christ showdown and foul-mouthed children, that later
became “South Park,” which, Graden said, lost him a position as a FOX executive when his video Christmas card for personal friends spread beyond control. He stayed with the creators of “South Park” and, after many rejections and a financial and psychological struggle, finally achieved a single pilot at a small network. That network was Comedy Central.
“Do what you love,” Graden continued. “If you are happy, and you make yourself truly happy in this moment, then you’ll end up becoming successful beyond your wildest dreams.”
Graden encouraged the audience not second-guess themselves because of others with a clip from “College Life,” in which a University of Wisconsin in Madison student who was failing math because he partied too much. In reality, Graden said, the student harbored an idea from others that he did not deserve to succeed, even though he was smart enough to pass all his classes.
“If there’s any negative belief that you have about yourself that’s holding you back in any way, let it go,” Graden said. “It’s untrue, and the truth is that everybody in this room deserves all success and all the happiness in this life. It really doesn’t matter where you are at this very moment. It doesn’t matter where you come from, I am certain that it isn’t that. You can transform your life always.”
To illustrate, he showed a clip of Britney Spears stumbling at performance at the Video Music Awards from two years ago, followed by an image of Spears with an armful of VMA trophies.
“I think there’s an illusion out there, thanks to reality TV shows, that inside of 12 weeks you can become a top chef, a famous singer or a survivor just by backstabbing others and not getting eliminated,” Graden said. “The truth is, you’re going to have to work your ass off. But the difference is if you’re doing what you love, it’s really, really fun to do the work.”
After the speech, Graden fielded questions from a smaller group of students and presented, alongside Leisel Reinhart, two scholarships to Mt. SAC students W. Derod Taylor and Heather Rains. The scholarships were funded in lieu of Graden’s speaker fee.
Actually I like that I can post it here with a couple contextual links. I was one of the few students at the question fielding, and will try and get a transcript of the Q-and-A up tomorrow. I was pretty excited to have a chance to ask smart questions about things about pop culture I had seen from
Merchants of Cool years ago in combination with what I have seen in the media. Instead, I kind of sat there like the useless
INTP I am and squeaked out something about education, which was answered pretty admirably. Siiiiigh.
