Are you saying OMG or WTF?? Why the duck???

Well, I gotcha didn't I. Nope, there's no rhyme or reason for the Google image photo or the title of this week's Cugine Corner. I admit it... But you clicked... And you're reading. That's the idea. What follows started as a facebook status update and just kept growing into what may come off as fitting for the “Rant and Raves” section of craigslist. But I don't have an editor so off I go... and I'm not including any other pictures in this to distract you.

I'm sorry. I usually don't do those “ducky” kinds of things. I promise this blog will get serious and maybe frightening and shocking after all. Nah, I'll keep it at my usual tone although I do have some things to get off my chest. And in the spirit of the Lenten season I am gonna throw in some religious views here although I rarely if ever talk about that subject... or politics... or anything divisive. Can't alienate anyone. That's what my agent told me anyway. Just kidding... of course I don't have an agent, I'm a self-promoter all the way baby. First I will ask a question here though... I'll begin with a statement: SEX SELLS. Indeed it does. But it's not just hanky-panky it's anything out there or wacky. Now the question... when does one cross the line in selling themselves and selling out?

A week ago I began filming what will be my second cable series appearance after my hiatus from VH1's “My Big Friggin' Wedding.” Man do I love the lights, the cameras and the action. Just being around crews is so exhilarating to me. I love the feeling when I am getting mic'd up. (Don't think dirty thoughts here, that's not what I mean.) I so enjoy doing interviews and already knowing you have to rephrase the interviewer's question in your answer because they nor what they say appears on screen. That you learn from experience. It never gets old and of course I can reveal some more inside info like how producers “coach” you and sometimes try to steer you to say or do something... I will leave the details to the imagination but anyone who watches anyone who is appearing in front of a camera has to know that every bit of screen time with anyone in any setting is at least slightly “produced.” Aflac and Geiko commercials are works of art and some of the best ads in history if you ask me. But I digress.

Where am I going with all this you may be wondering? Well, I am attempting to explain how shows of any kind and written articles and food and entertainment (among other things – but let's stick to those) are all connected in the era we live in. Professional cooks and fanatical foodies sometimes get annoyed with food-related programming in that it “dumbs down” the viewer. (I'll delve more in depth on how WE as the viewer are the ones who ultimately create the content landscape and dictate what we read and see a little bit later.) See food is a “prop” like anything else – a means to entertain – celebrity chefs are celebrities first, the “food education” factor is secondary. Knowledge on any subject can be ascertained in any scenario, it's up to us to selectively compartmentalize our brains to decipher what's meant as valuable and what's meant as pure, mindless indulgence.

Just to reference a recent viral video... a “fake chef” did rounds on a local morning show recycling stuff he got from KFC, fooling the hosts into thinking he had written a book about leftovers. He was an actor, a comedian, yet managed to dupe everyone. Or did he? Did the “news” fully know the deal here and decide to air this dude anyway for ratings? With the wealth of resources we have now how one cannot do some quick fact-checking is beyond me. Or maybe due to the technology we have in 2014 it's so easy to fake a website or create something on yourself that's “searchable” that there really is no way to be a detective.

The expression: “don't bite the hand that feeds you” and “don't poop where you eat” are important here because even though I work tirelessly (without any representation) to get press, I can't be mad at the media... or this fake chef. I don't really get mad at anyone to be honest – not even my anonymous stalkers and haters who flood the comment section with nonsense.

Which segues into those words of faith I mentioned in the opening paragraphs... Wednesday started Lent, which is not something I take lightly. It's actually the time of year I feel closest to my faith even more than Christmas time, which, although I love is a neverending battle with commercialism. In Church, the words of Ash Wednesday were: don't be a phony with your faith. Don't do good deeds to be “seen,” do them because you want to. This time of year more people try to do that and I like that. Although I am not a fan of the whole “politically correct” movement, as I said, I don't really get into divisive subjects and I try to be a good person in general as best I can. The reason I am bringing this up is because I don't decide who the sinners and saints are or judge others or take pleasure in others' misfortunes. As far as I'm concerned, that is really the best way to live if you don't like hostility.

But a pet peeve of mine is all the crazy things that go viral and all the “trending” headlines, metadata, tweets and hashtags... It's a jungle out there and things are all magnified and shared endlessly and most of the time it's just TMZ style news. Even in real serious things like murder trials. News is stylized, writing is done by anyone with a keyboard and people just seem more gullible than ever. I'm talking about the “mainstream” here not even referring to tabloids, the endless “satire” websites out there where folks seem to be having a very hard time getting the joke. Let's not even touch the hoaxes and scams and chain-letters and fear-based reports today on the perils of baby carrots or whatever is hot this week. We can save all that for future discussion. To me the “purest” and most honest is investigative stories pertaining to missing persons cases – genuine people helping people.

As someone who has always loved writing, I never understood the idea of headlines or titles on a particular story being written by someone other than the author of the piece. Ok I do understand the concept behind it – the idea it seems is having a “marketing expert” create the catchiest catchphrase to entice the reader – a lot of it is “bait and switch.” In recent days, it’s gotten so much worse…now we have false facts not only in the headlines but in the articles at an alarming rate. And in this interactive, extremist, instant gratification, link-sharing social networking society, it’s magnified even more. Journalism as a whole is now pretty much total sensationalism and extremism. The “traditional” reporting media of trained reporters is overtaken by social media commentary of our peer community. Any reporting has always been left to personal interpretation but we all now comment publicly on chatboards and on facebook and everywhere else and the responses now overtake the report and skew the content, thus making for a viral game of telephone across the world wide web.

I utilize traditional media and social media for 90 percent of my own marketing, whether it’s online or on TV. Whether it’s one’s personal youtube channel or a national cable network, the audience “reach” is really starting to be one in the same. A newspaper and a blog or a facebook note all parallel each other in multiple ways. In the near future, ALL of our information and entertainment will be obtained over the internet or “on demand” as we see fit. I just finished all 16 episodes of “Lilyhammer” on NETFLIX in a week at my own pace. Holla! NETFLIX is just the beginning, watch what happens in 5-10 years, mark my words. How will the information and entertainment be distinguished? Fact and fiction is already blurred so that will only get worse. With the exception of a few outlets, we are at a point where most of our information is delivered as entertainment where any little blurb on any topic contains additions of scripted sidebars which previously didn’t exist… opinions… exaggerations… distortions and outright lies. Of course throw in the special effex and pictures and dramatic music.

I’ll repeat, 90 percent of how I operate Johnny Meatballs is via media. I said how sex and sensationalism sell and how a lot of people sell out... I won't because my faith and my family keeps me grounded. If I wanted to fast track myself to bigger fame and fortune I would just go to Times Square with my meatballs and act like The Naked Cowboy. Who incidentally is NOT actually “naked.” He must have a headline writer? Anyway, the production companies I’ve dealt with and will deal with are allies to me. Everyone has a job to do and jobs transition and evolve through time just as we do. We as the audience dictate where trends go in all aspects of pop culture. I’m not trying to scare anyone but here’s a fact: life as we know it is indeed the “Truman Show.” It’s a reality show world – anyone at any time can become instantly filmed, edited and presented to the public and thus become public figures. Whether we want it or not and whether we are aware of it or not. That’s just the way it is unless you live under a rock. What’s the point of all this? I’m actually not quite sure. Just making observations and really trying to understand exactly when everything changed.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion but keep in mind what I said about the blurriness of opinions and facts and a “created reality” vs. a real reality. Bottom line is, adults need to do their own research before making knee-jerk reactions now more than ever. I've rambled a lot today. I hope I did not frighten you too much, mainly I hope I kept your interest. Main idea here really is due to all the choices we have, this creates competition and confusion... We're spectators but also participants unlike any other time in history where there were previously very clear lines in play. We got so many choices these days, you can't watch a ballgame without simultaneously tweeting play by play. Another topic for a different day!

I wish I had a clear cut reason as to why I wrote all this mumbo-jumbo... I'm “old school” in a lot of ways but I do know how to cope with change and I always find negatives and positives with everything but focus on the positive. Sure books may be completely extinct by the time my great-grandkids are born but there will always be The Bible. Perhaps I am just paranoid or maybe a little stressed from all these new common core math equations I've been dealing with lately. Well this has been a public service announcement from Johnny Meatballs, The Meatball King of New Jersey. I will now unplug with some vino.

This concludes the broadcast day.

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JOHNNY MEATBALLS HAS BEEN ROLLING MEATBALLS FOR OVER 5 YEARS AND USING HIS LOVE OF PERFORMING TO SHOWCASE AND SELL HIMSELF AND HIS BALLS IN A DINNER-THEATRE FASHION AT STREET FAIRS ACROSS NEW JERSEY. USING MEDIA AND SOCIAL MEDIA AS MARKETING TOOLS, THE SELF-PROCLAIMED “MEATBALL KING OF NEW JERSEY” IS BEST CHARACTERIZED AS A COOK-ENTERTAINER, INCORPORATING COMEDY AND MUSIC WITH THE THEME OF “STYLIZED ITALIAN-AMERICANA.” THE NEW DOC-U-MEAT-ARY, “THE JOHNNY MEATBALLS EXPERIENCE” WILL BE COMING SOON ! ! !