Pop Culture Journalism Class Blog

By: Anthony Jamison

As an avid gamer, I have played almost every sports franchise ever created. There have been few games that have captured the spirit of their respective sport, but none have done so diligently as MLB: The Show franchise. Without a shadow of doubt, MLB: The Show is the only baseball franchise to year after year hit a home run with each installment. And MLB 12: The Show raised the bar even higher.

If you wanted to reenact Brad Pitt’s “Moneyball” role as Oakland A’s General Manager, Billie Bean, without all the stress of actually being a real life MLB General Manager, here is your opportunity. You have total control of everything — from trading superstars, hiring coaches, to changing the price of hot dogs.

In addition to concession-control, you can also have the ability to give a Michael Bay visual style presentation, minus all of the explosions.  For instance, if you play at Yankees Stadium in New York, each game there starts off with a camera shot of Monument Park (open-air museum in Yankees Stadium, honoring Yankee greats). Every time a Yankee pitcher strikes out someone in the game, you hear the Yankee’s signature strike out music.

Little features like that make MLB 12: The Show unbelievable. There have been plenty of times where people have walked into my living room thinking I was watching an actual baseball game on TV.

If you want to experience the trinity of being the owner, coach, and player then I suggest you go out and snatch this game up right away.

By: Rebecca Offenkrantz

The name, Jordan Baird, probably doesn’t sound very familiar to you. The junior, majoring in Vocal Performance, transferred to Mason in the Fall of 2011.

Baird was one of three walk-ons for our men’s basketball team, but, while he’s not been on the court much yet — he has spent a lot of time on stage singing.

Baird tried out for American Idol in 2009 at the Orlando auditions. He made it to the top 40 singers at that specific audition but was never on camera; he subsequently got cut in the next round.

But he didn’t give up. When Simon Cowell started his new show X-Factor, Baird auditioned and made it to the top 80 participants at the Seattle tryouts before getting cut.

Baird was asked to sing the National Anthem at the George Mason University’s Homecoming game versus Old Dominion University on Saturday, February 4th. Facebook and Twitter exploded following his performance, Washington Post reporter Steven Goff tweeted:

Flawless national anthem sung by GMU junior guard @jordan_baird #masonmbb

— Steven Goff (@GMUWashPost) February 4, 2012

Goff goes as far as to call Baird’s performance ‘flawless’ in the above tweet. ‘This video shows Jordan performing at the Homecoming game.

When asked if he had any plans to compete on any other show, Baird replied, “I think I might be finished with Idol, but I might do X-Factor again. The one I am really looking into is The Voice… after basketball is over, whenever that may be.”

 

Mason Alumnus Shines at NFL

By Rachel Newdorf

The NFL Honors–the NFL’s first award show–will air this Saturday at 9 p.m., with a George Mason University alumnus tied to the project.

Khoi Phan, the designer of the awards show, worked along with art director Mollie Wilkie, project manager Andrew Conde and creative director Shandon Melvin to make this project become a reality.

Speaking about the project, Khoi describes what a “blessing” it was to work with “such a wonderful team.” He’s “proud” to see the project come together as well as having an “amazing advantage” being associated with such a prestigious organization such as the NFL.

Khoi,  26, has worked with the NFL on numerous other projects, such as Madonna’s Super Bowl Halftime ads, as well as Super Bowl XLVI programs and the NFL Military Appreciation Week 2011 program.

Khoi’s national debut this Saturday didn’t come easy. After graduating from George Mason in 2009 with a BFA in Graphic Design, Khoi and a friend, after a two year sabbatical, moved to New York City with “zero years of professional experience” and “just a few internships” which eventually led to designing for Macy’s and other “small jobs designing websites for musicians, photographers and art galleries.”

When Khoi’s “bank account hit $50,” he decided to move home to Fairfax, where he grew up.

” I was extremely disappointed and frustrated,” he says.

But he didn’t give up. Working for his family’s professional soccer academy, HP Elite & Beyond, Khoi rebranded the company resulting in an increase in client base just over a few months.

With his success with his family’s business, Khoi set his sights on creating “Vintage Futbol,” a lifestyle-clothing brand marketed to “soccer specific organizations” and that provided kids with “an identity away from the traditional Nike/Adidas” brands. One investor and three months later, Khoi landed a job at an advertising agency in Rockville, Md. While in Maryland, Khoi worked with various high profile clients, such as Brooks Brothers, VW, the Washington Redskins as well as the Washington Capitals, just to name a few.

Finally, after four months working on Vintage Futbol, on July 7, 2011 Khoi successfully launched the brand and immediately had more than 7,000 visitors to his website, 900 plus Facebook fans and more than 300 followers on Twitter.

Just days after launching Vintage Futbol, Khoi got a call from a representative in the NFL asking if he was interested in working for them up in New York City. As Khoi described his new job, he said that he found himself “relocating to New York City working for one of the largest sports organizations in the world. The NFL, the big time.”

Working on such a big project hasn’t hit the up-and-coming designer yet. Khoi has been with the NFL for almost seven months, and while working on multiple projects simultaneously, the fact that the NFL Honors will be broadcast worldwide still hasn’t registered with him yet. While he is excited, Khoi is still getting everything ready for the big premier and will be happy with the result when the project is done.

With the NFL Honors premiering this Saturday, Khoi has a lot to be thankful for. He attributes a huge part of his inspiration to his friend, Allie Coates who has been there for him through his journey. He does however, not contribute any of his success to luck. “Nothing in life is about chance or luck,” Khoi says. “Every opportunity is created, and with a positive resilient attitude, you can achieve anything you want.”

For more information about Khoi Phan or if you want to check out his blog, go to http://www.khoiphan.com/.