The short answer: yes.

Wii Fit Plus effectively makes the original obsolete. It takes almost everything from the original and adds more: streamlined weighing, six new exercises, 15 new games, calorie measures for exercises and the ability to create workout setlists.

My one principal complaint is that you can’t add jogging to the exercise setlist.

If you’re a fan of the original and have a balance board, the $20 upgrade price is well worth it. If you’ve never tried Wii Fit before, now may be the time to start sweating it.

Read my original Wii Fit article.

I’ve yet to see a real review of Ikan’s Playstation 3 Real Arcade Fighting Stick, so I thought I’d write one up. For some reason, Buy.com hasn’t posted the review I wrote for the site.

If you need a cheap PS3 fighting stick to get in some rounds of Marvel vs. Capcom 2 or Street Fighter IV, you may want to consider the Ikan Real Arcade Fighting Stick. It’s a very attractive offering at the price point of $16.99, and for me, it does what it needs to.

The stick plugs into your PS3 via a six-foot-long USB cable. The controller even has a PS button for easy syncing. Just press and play.

The light controller features an easy button layout, with a four by four pattern that includes the shoulder buttons, which makes for easy assists in Marvel vs. Capcom 2. The stick, while small, is fairly accurate and clicks with each motion.

Obviously, if you’re in the market for a real arcade stick, this controller is ironically not for you. It doesn’t have a lot of weight, and therefore will not offer the real arcade feel fighting fanatics demand. If you fall into that category, you’ll have to spend about three times the price of the Ikan stick for something higher quality.

For those who play an occasional fighter (or even those who play a few rounds everyday, as in my case with MvC2), the Ikan stick is a great, cheap alternative.

Reynaldo Ulloa has already become a guitar hero, the next logical step for him is to learn to play guitar.

“I do want to learn how to play my favorite Guitar Hero songs on the guitar,” said the 18-year-old Hempstead resident, who has placed high in two tournaments for the game. “It would be better than tapping them on my plastic Les Paul.”

Guitar industry insiders are beginning to see the potential in the immensely popular video games Guitar Hero and Rock Band, which they believe will bring in new guitarists like Ulloa, and therefore, new customers to a market that has been experiencing a national slump during the past two years.

Guitar Hero 3 on XBox 360.

“We’re beginning to think that there is a small undercurrent of the Guitar Hero and Rock Band customer that might be coming over to the dark side, for a lack of a better way of putting it, and actually buying guitars,” said Sammy Ash, Chief Operating Officer and an owner of Sam Ash, a national chain of musical instruments stores founded in Brooklyn. “We think that the kids are really getting into this whole concept: ‘Wow, you know what? Look what I can be with a toy, it can’t be that much harder to play guitar.’”

After nearly a decade of increasing sales, the American guitar industry hit a pinnacle in 2005, when nearly 3.5 million guitars were sold, according to statistics from the National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM), which tracks sales through manufacturers.

The next year, however, the amount of guitars sold dropped by nearly 10 percent. The worst hit market were the below $400 guitars, which are usually bought by people new to the instrument. Those numbers didn’t fare much better in 2007, with NAMM contributing the decline to a possible over-saturation of guitars in the marketplace.

“Sales were pretty flat from 2006 to 2007,” said Scott Robertson, Director of Marketing & Communications for NAMM.

Since their releases last year in October and November, respectively, Guitar Hero and Rock Band have sold in record numbers, which industry insiders believe will propel guitar sales in 2008.

Activision, which distributes Guitar Hero, has sold about nine million copies in America of its latest iteration, Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, as of early August, according to the NPD Group, a leading global provider of consumer and retail market research information for a wide range of industries. MTV Games’ Rock Band, which requires a more expensive purchase of a full band setup, has sold about three million copies nationally.

“These music simulation titles are definitely hot right now and are showing no signs of slowing down,” said David Riley, Director of Public Relations for Entertainment, Software and Toys at the NPD. “In its relatively short life at retail, Guitar Hero has already become one of the top 10 video games franchises in terms of dollar sales.”

While it is tough to pin down the exact impact that Guitar Hero has had on the guitar market, many retailers and industry insiders have thoughts on the matter.

“My own personal theory is very simple, we’re reaching close to 20 million Guitar Hero purchases,” Ash said. “If one percent, and that’s it, it’s just one percent of the people who own Guitar Hero decide that, ‘you know what? Let me go out and buy a guitar.’ That’s 200,000 guitars coming into a market that didn’t exist before. It’s one of the very first times a crossover is going on.”

Guitar Hero 3 PS2 bundle

Kai Huang, President of RedOctane, which develops Guitar Hero, said that his company’s game, where players match colored buttons on a plastic guitar to different tracks on the screen, would attract people to the real thing.

“Anecdotally, we’ve heard from music teachers and store owners that business has increased two to three times since Guitar Hero was released,” he said. “Since Guitar Hero allows players to feel the rock star experience, it’s natural that those who play the game would want to pick up and play a real guitar.”

The impact is already being felt locally. Brooklyn resident Danny Polinsky, 30, comes from a family full of guitar players, but it was not until he started playing Guitar Hero that he felt inclined to purchase one for himself.

“Once I did that, I started seriously considering buying a real one, and when I had a little extra money, and a desire to really start learning, I bought a Takamine GS430S NEX Acoustic Guitar,” Polinsky said. “It’s pretty nice.”

John Oliva, a manager at the Music Zoo in Little Neck, was a little more cautious, saying the games polarize people. “I do think that the video games have sparked interest to play guitar, but it hasn’t been long enough,” he said. “It might have taken some people who were interested minimally [in playing guitar] and taken them to the video games because it’s easier.”

Robertson said that members of NAMM have also been split on the game’s impact on the industry, but the organization believes it is clearly having a major affect. “Is it creating more music makers, more guitar players? We see a lot of evidence that it is,” he said. “We heard some statistics before the third version of the game came out from RedOctane and Activision. They said that basically 10 percent of the people who play the game go on to show an interest to moving to the real thing and playing real guitar also.”

NAMM is so convinced of this impact that the group is paying for scientific research, according to Robertson.
“We’re real excited to fund a brand new study with Drexel University that’s coming up that really puts some science to ‘do the skills that you acquire in virtual music making translate to the benefits of playing a musical instrument and is that path, from virtual to real world, viable?’” The grant, of which Robertson could not give an amount, was given to the Philadelphia school after they made a proposal to NAMM.

“I believe it’s the first real scientific study on Guitar Hero that’s been done as it relates to music making,” Robertson said. “We’re excited to see the findings and believe it will be very interesting and help us understand this connection at a greater level.”

Players of the game embrace the “rock star experience” and feel like they could be musicians, Robertson said. “Guitar Hero, and the whole genre, has really resonated with people,” he said. “They’re giving people positive experiences where they could feel what it’s like to be musical for the first time in their lives, and we think those experiences will lead to those desires to pursue a real life experience.”

Players are still flocking to the store to pick up the games, whose sequels are due out by the holidays of this year. Guitar Hero IV and Rock Band 2 boast even more features and songs and will sell just as well, if not better than their predecessors, Riley said.

Rock Band 2 bundle

“Given the fact that 50 percent of the total year’s sales occur during the last three months of the calendar year, and looking at current sales, there’s no reason to believe these titles won’t be flying off the shelves.”

Who knows? With so many copies sold, maybe the next generation of rock legends will have had their start with video games, suggests Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry.

“Fans want to get and experience music in new formats – and there are going to be some of them who will play the game, then pick up the guitar for real and start bands,” Perry said in a press release for Guitar Hero: Aerosmith. “It’s what’s happening now, and it’s only going to build more momentum in the future. It’s going to give guitar and music a boost. It may turn a lot of musicians into gamers and gamers into musicians.”

While the games are fun, it won’t make you look cool, Polinsky said. “It’s not like you see groupies lining up at Guitar Hero concerts.”

Published in Aspire Magazine/Queens Courier

Things have never been so clear.

It’s been about six months since I underwent LASIK surgery, and the results show: my eyeglasses have been filed away and a year’s supply of unopened contact lenses has been returned to Costco.

Although there are small problems, like seeing starbursts and occasional dry eye (the latter is common for the first few months), simple things like being able to see the numbers on my alarm clock and watching TV from my bed make the surgery worth the price.  My doctor also said the benefits of the surgery in its current form will last until my 40s, when most people need reading glasses.  The price of a year’s supply of contact lenses and solutions for the same amount of time would be similar in cost to LASIK.

LASIK is a vision correcting procedure that uses a laser to change the eye’s focusing power by reshaping the cornea. Some believe the procedure is dangerous, or not worth the cost or inconvenience. However, as long as you have the money, and you and your surgeon are qualified for the procedure, the benefits far outweigh the potential drawbacks.

The most frightening thing for potential LASIK patients is the creation of the corneal flap, as doctors call it.  Before the surgery, patients are given a few drops to numb each eye.

Preparing for surgery...

There are two ways to create the flap.  The first is with a device like a carpenter plane that actually slices a thin layer or the cornea. The safer, second option, called bladeless LASIK, uses the laser to make a stitch like pattern on the eye to create the flap. I went with number two.  Although the creation of the flap doesn’t hurt, the suction before it is created does.

If you are able to stomach this part of the procedure, which is a small price to pay for a grand benefit, then the next step is to undergo a few hours worth of tests.

Not every person is right for LASIK surgery. If you have thin corneal tissue, dry eyes or any other condition, it can be dangerous to go under the laser.

Contact lens wearers, as I was, are instructed not to wear contacts for at least five days before the examination. Contact lenses actually warp the shape of the cornea, which could lead to inaccurate test results.

After the initial set of tests at Huntington’s Precision Eye Care, my doctor, Richard Davis, delivered good news. “You’re a perfect candidate,” he said.

There were still more tests however, and this time my eyes had to be dilated for better measurements. The drops took a half hour to kick in. Because of the dilation, patients are instructed to have someone drive them home.

There are risks to LASIK surgery, Dr. Davis told me. One in 10,000 patients suffer eye infections, which can cause corneal scarring, which could, in some extreme cases, lead to blindness.

“You can get hit by a car,” Dr. Davis said, “but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t cross the street.”

Another risk is flap complications. Sometimes after the procedure, the flap, which is supposed to set after two minutes, doesn’t sit right, might have wrinkles or gets debris under it. When this happens, the surgeon has to reposition it, which Dr. Davis said he has done only once.

A few days before the surgery, patients have to go for a pre-op, which involves another vision test and an orb scan, which photographs the eyes.  The latter test was frustrating. In order to get a good picture, the eyes must stay focused and there can no blinking, which I had trouble with.

LASIK patients are told not to wear deodorant, perfume or makeup a day before their surgery, as it can interfere with the laser.

My date with the laser finally came (to give you a hint, a governor announced his resignation that day). After some time in the waiting room, I put on a shower cap and lay down on the surgical table. Dr. Davis gave me two stress balls; I wasn’t sure why.

The doctor applied the numbing drops, but it did not help with the next part. To make the flap, suction must be applied to the eye socket. I finally figured out what the stress balls were for. The pain the suction causes can be compared to someone pressing a knee down on your eye socket. Thankfully, this lasts for less than a minute.

After the laser created the flap, Dr. Davis used a tiny rod to fold it over. I blurrily stared into a light, and the laser started working what Dr. Davis calls “Disney Magic.” As the laser hit my eye, I smelled something like singed skin. The flap was folded back over, and I lay still for two minutes. Then, the whole process repeated for the second eye.

The entire procedure took about 15 minutes. Dr. Davis gave me two sets of eye drops and put plastic shields over my eyes to protect them from the world and myself.

Wearing plastic shields.

Patients should be driven home after the surgery.

For the next seven hours after the surgery, I took a nap. I felt discomfort in my eyes, like I put my contact lenses in backward. For those who don’t wear contacts, imagine any foreign object beneath your eyelids. After my nap, the discomfort was gone.

During the next few days, my vision drastically improved. At my one-month appointment, the “Disney Magic” really proved true. My vision improved in both eyes, Dr. Davis said.

Before the surgery, 20 feet away looked like 200. Now it looks like 20.

I had a great realization when driving from the Long Island Expressway to the Cross Island Parkway.  There’s a great view of a block of houses in between two layers of trees.  Before the surgery, this view never really stuck out.  Now every time I look out and see how clear it is, I realize how great it was to get LASIK.

In response to my article: Tag! Hooligans graffiti Ozone Park (Queens)

Many people would call the scribbling and drawings on the walls and doors of buildings graffiti – an act of vandalism that causes urban decay. But to the “writers” themselves and supporters of the practice, the writings on the walls are works of art.

The historical account of how graffiti as a practice began is debated within the community. It was first documented in the 1970s, when a 17-year-old named Demetrius would write “Taki 183” on New York City subway cars, walls and sidewalks all over the tri-state area, the New York Times reported in 1971.

Demetrius was following in the footsteps of JULIO 204, who was apparently one of the first to tag his name and street all over the city. After Taki 183 started writing his name, the practice of graffiti became widespread.

Many insiders of the graffiti subculture say “writers” tag to get attention. When word spread among participants of others’ efforts, it created a sort of competition to tag more and more locations and come up with more elaborate designs.

Despite measures set by the city to remove and prevent graffiti, many people still “write.” New York City is still one of the most attractive hubs as it is graffiti’s birthplace. People from all over the country and even Europe come to New York City to tag.

Not all graffiti is illegal. Property owners can commission artists to paint their walls. In Queens, artists have 5 Pointz, a large factory where “writers” must apply to paint.

Nintendo wants to get gamers off their couches — again.

When it introduced Wii Sports in November 2006, hardcore gamers and casual folk grabbed a Wiimote (the Wii’s remote control) to play tennis, baseball and boxing in front of their TVs. These games left many gasping for breath, and some players even shed a few pounds.

Now the Big N is taking the physical video game further with Wii Fit, which is due out in the U.S. on May 19th. The game hit Japan in December, where 1.79 million units were sold as of March 29th, according to vgchartz.com, a website that tracks video game sales. The game is packed with a device called a Wii Balance Board, a scale-like platform that acts as a controller.

Players step on the board, then engage in activities such as moving their Miis (the Wii version of the player) to block soccer balls or swivel their hips in hula-hoops. Pushing a fitness angle, players can also perform Yoga moves like “tree” or place their hands on the board to do push-ups. Wii Fit users can then track changes in their body mass index.

Whether Wii Fit will burn enough calories to actually loosen the pants around some sweaty gamers’ bodies is yet to be seen. To Kevin Tambornino, who blogs under the name Vinnk, the game has proven to be an effective exercise machine.

“For 7 weeks I made a daily commitment to Wii Fit, and in my opinion it paid off,” the 28-year-old blogger wrote on 4colorrebellion.com, in a special section called “The Great Experiment.” Tambornino, who has lived in Japan for three years, “was able to both lose weight and gain muscle,” he wrote. “Along the way I also gained self-confidence in my body, and self esteem in general.”

Tambornino’s experiment started when he purchased Wii Fit and decided to see how much weight he could lose in the seven weeks leading up to his wedding on March 29th, he said. He ended up losing 11 pounds without consciously changing his diet by using Wii Fit on an average of 30 to 60 minutes a day.

However, fitness and health specialists who were asked to watch the Wii Fit ad online had mixed feelings about the device.

“Truthfully I think it will be great and the possibilities are endless,” said Cathy McGuire, a professor of Health, Physical Education, and Dance at Queensborough Community College. “But I’d have to try it myself. As an activity ‘game’ it looks like it would be fun and has the potential to be instructional as far as practicing Yoga asanas (positions).”

But Marion Nestle, a professor of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health at New York University and author of What to Eat, was skeptical. “It will only work if people do it,” she said. “I’m not a TV watcher. I can’t believe that people will do this and stick with it long enough to do any good.”

However, earlier video games like Dance Dance Revolution and Wii Sports have proven to be addictive even to non-gamers. This may help trick players into exercising.

“The same effects could be achieved by doing push-ups and sit-ups for 45 minutes every day,” Tambornino said in an email message. “However, I know that I for one would never have the motivation to do that. I do have the motivation to use Wii Fit though.”

Whether other gamers will stick with Wii Fit will be seen come the game’s launch.

Update: The new version of the game, Wii Fit Plus, is out. Check out my impressions of it.

Each community board in New York City exerts a different amount of control and power over its jurisdiction, so the board, in the right hands, could prove to be a powerful device.  But this power equation hinges on a few factors.

“It depends a little bit on which board it is and who their allies are,” said Michael Krasner, an associate professor of political science at Queens College.

For example, the community boards of the West Side and Lower Manhattan recently wielded their influence and stopped development — or at least slowed it down.  The termination of the West Side highway project can be attributed to the protest of the community through its board. The board of Greenwich Village also saw a small victory in the recent NYU planning proposals, which outlined a promise to cooperate with the community for the school’s expansion.

But community boards have also failed when it came time to step up to developers.  The boards of West Harlem failed to stop Columbia’s expansion into the neighborhood.  And when a Bronx board rejected plans for the new Yankee stadium, the council went ahead and approved it anyway.  Construction has already begun.

In all these cases, the community boards stared into the eyes of developers and their large projects, and told them ‘no.’ But when the smoke cleared, different parties claimed victories in different areas.  There is still more to the equation.

Queens community board 9 oversees Richmond Hill, Kew Gardens, Woodhaven and a sliver of Ozone Park, all relatively quiet neighborhoods.  At a recent board meeting, members were denying or accepting liquor license and taxi base station requests and discussing building permits to an audience of residents, business owners and politicians’ aides.  But even members had to be reminded that the board has a limited role.

“In everything we do, we’re advisory,” Andrea Crawford, chairwoman of the board, said to an older board member.  “Whether they take it or not.”

Ivan Mrakovcic, 1st Vice Chair of the board, expressed a similar notion.  “In a nutshell, our input is advisory,” he said during a phone interview. “But it’s not binding, with some exceptions.”

These exceptions lie in the board’s main function, advising the State Liquor Association and Taxi Limousine Commission on whether to grant permits in the community.  If these departments don’t comply with the board, there could be backlash from angry board members and residents.  After all, no one knows a community better than its residents.

Other items on the agenda dealt with the moving of a group home and the installation of a speed hump.  For the group home, approval from the city was needed, and a letter of support from the board would certainly help their case.  This is another example of the board’s small power possibly yielding large results.

Letter writing can prove instrumental in the approval or disapproval of a project. The board pulled together late last year and wrote a letter arguing their case against rezoning proposals.  “Be it resolved that Queens Community Board No. 9 opposes in totality the Citywide Text Amendments Proposed by the New York Chapter of the American Institute of Architects,” the letter read.  Other boards soon followed.

At the meeting, Crawford declared victory over what the board saw as the defeat of these proposals by the AIA.  If approved, these proposals would have rezoned certain parts of the city, which would have been a disaster to community board 9, where historical districts are especially important.

That’s not how the Department of City Planning saw it, however.  “The Department of City Planning did not reject the application, nor did the City Planning Commission hold a public hearing on the application,” said Jennifer Torres, a communications director of the DCP, in an email message.  “In light of concerns raised during the review process, we advised the AIA that it might withdraw its application and that some of the measures needed further examination and consultation with affected communities.”

Much like NYU’s step back, the floodgates are now opened for the AIA to discuss their plans with the boards.  Not so much a defeat, but an obvious middle ground.

Basically, a board is only as strong as its members and its residents, who may start grassroots campaigns and lobbying efforts.  A boards’ true power rests in its ability to start the cycle, which allows the board to transcend into something more powerful.

“If the board could become a vessel or a public forum, then it would work as a rallying point,” Krasner said.  “Whoever serves on it, they become a resource and an arena.  So that works.”

But that function is limited because it requires people to be involved.  “The system only works to the extent that you work in it,” said Crawford.

There are ways around the system however.  If an agency sidesteps the board for a project, it could render it powerless.  Recently, the city planted a new family justice center in Kew Gardens — which probably wouldn’t have been denied anyway — without even mentioning it to the community board.

“A lot of city agencies, they’ll come to us and let us know, but they won’t ask us unless they need our opinion,” Mrakovcic said.

In turn, community boards are a city financed advocacy group, a check to the balance of powers that be.  But sometimes that’s not enough.  So what do boards want?

“Bite,” said Crawford, a lawyer.  “Real teeth,” the power to go after those who go against the board’s advice.

But then the community board might be in over its head.

Recently, banks have dramatically increased their efforts to reach out to immigrant groups for an additional market, financial experts said.  But In Richmond Hill, where more than half of the population was born outside the United States, many immigrants did not want to speak about whether or not they have credit cards.  One person who did comment raised the concern that many immigrants distrust the concept of credit cards.

“The government is 100 percent behind them,” said Augusto Cerrone, a 56-year-old immigrant from Italy. “By the end of the year, the IRS says you spent this much, when you only earned this much.  It’s to get the cash out of the people.  It’s to keep tabs on how much you spend.”  Cerrone, who came here thirty years ago, works as a shoemaker in Richmond Hill.  He said when he uses his credit cards he quickly pays the bills.

Cerrone’s attitude towards credit companies reflects a general mistrust held by those who may not have knowledge of how credit works.  There are an unknown amount of immigrants living in the United States, and credit card usage data for this demographic does not exist, said Doug Massey, a professor at the Office of Population Research at Princeton University.

“Immigrants tend to be hard to interview,” Massey said.  “There’s an unprecedented anti-immigrant hysteria that has terrified the immigrant population.”  Whether this is true for Richmond Hill and Woodhaven specifically remains unseen. About a dozen immigrants on Jamaica Ave. refused comment for this article.

Some immigrants don’t want credit cards.  “Many new immigrants are just uncomfortable to take debt,” said Brian Jurski, acting director of the Small Business Development Center at LaGuardia Community College.  “If you had to take financing, there’s something wrong with you,” he said is an attitude some immigrants’ hold.

Many immigrants, particularly new arrivals, live in a cash-based culture.  “I would say 50 percent of the workforce works with cash,” said Cerrone.  “They don’t get paid by credit.”

There are also numerous factors that deter immigrants from applying for credit cards.  “Some of the challenges or barriers of immigrants not using credit is a lack of knowledge and identification,” said Deyanira Del Río, associate director of Neighborhood Economic Development Advocacy Project, a community resource and advocacy group.

“A lack of credit is the biggest thing,” said Laura Kozien, the communications project manager at Accion, a non-profit loan company.  Credit is usually a necessity for credit card applications, which Kozien added, “Many immigrants have not been given that opportunity.”

These difficulties may be why banks have stepped up their efforts. “Credit cards are a way to reach out to the immigrant populations,” Jurski said.

Some of those who responded to questions in front of a Chase bank in Richmond Hill said they acquired their credit cards from Chase.

Trihme Harrchame, 49, from Guyana, said he was initially rejected because he did not have work.  Chase eventually granted him a credit card after he started working construction jobs.  Harry Persaud, 55, also a Guyanese immigrant, said a Chase card is one of his many credit cards.

Attitudes toward credit are changing with generations.  “I would say that the new immigrant youth are a very active consumer base,” Jurski said.  “They have different views on consumption than their parents.”

Danny Ruidiaz, 23, the son of immigrant parents, uses his credit card about every day, mostly to buy food, he said.  “I work in an airport, so I don’t like carrying cash with me.”

In Richard Graziano’s dream, an unidentified man prepared extensively for an audition. The man woke up early the next day and arrived on stage, but before he got his first note out, the music stopped and the producers said “next.”

Graziano, the host of Queens Public Television’s “The Filthy Rich Show,” told this dream to a small crowd in the station’s break room an hour before his lewd public access variety show. About 10 people made up of producers and guests ate pizza in the room, a small space with an aged microwave and an old style coffeemaker, while Graziano cracked perverted jokes and used a white paper bag and black plastic bag he found in the room as a hat and beard.

After eight years of “The Filthy Rich Show,” Graziano still believes in his imminent rise to fame. But media has changed, and it has rendered public access television nearly obsolete. Graziano, a self-described attention seeker, musician, poet and artist, admitted to a limited knowledge of the Internet. Yet he attempted to have his first live stream with an October evening episode.

The night had started with disappointment. A majority of Graziano’s guests and all of the show’s standard bikini-clad dancers had called and cancelled their appearances.

“I’m getting my ass kicked,” said the 42-year-old, who lives with his mother in Woodhaven. “Everything that could go wrong today did.” While Graziano looked nervous, he remained optimistic.

Matilde Diaz, host of QPTV show Psychic Awakening, led Graziano through the warehouse-like hallways of the building to a dead end. She dipped her fingers into a plastic cup of water and splashed the walls, floors and Graziano. “You’re going to get what you want,” she said, as she patted various parts of his body.

The cleansing ritual left Graziano in a relaxed state. “I’m going to go get funny,” he said. “Get filthy. I’m Filthy Rich.”

Public access television exists neither in the glorified world of network television nor the exhibitionist netherworld of YouTube. Graziano remains trapped in this purgatory.

Unlike network television and YouTube, there are no ratings for public access. Graziano said that 100,000 people tune in to “The Filthy Rich Show.” Given the nature of public access however, this number appears unlikely, as only 450,000 to 500,000 people subscribe to Time Warner cable in Queens.

But public access television does not need viewers to stay afloat. Even in the age of Internet entertainment, cable companies must continue to provide public access television in accordance with agreements they struck with the city.

Thomas D. Gilovich, a professor and chairperson of the psychology department at Cornell University, said that a theory called “the spotlight effect” could explain Graziano’s perception of reality. “It is the belief that something is more noted than it is,” he said. “In this case, he’s in a broadcast medium that he thinks more people see.”

Graziano also appears overconfident, Gilovich said. He gave the example of a new business owner who believes his enterprise will succeed, when in fact, statistics show most businesses fail. Graziano has been on public access for almost a decade, and believes more people watch his show than other public access programs.

Public access once served a purpose, said John Haney, a professor emeritus of Queens College and a member of the board of directors of QPTV, but things have changed. “They’re behind the times,” he said about QPTV.

Most people who do shows for QPTV are either part of an organization or immigrants who want to send a message to their group. Others do it for another reason.

“People produce programs for vanity,” Haney said. They like to see themselves on television. “People on public access are lucky if their friends tune in.”

Inside the QPTV studios, a room a quarter the size of a high school gym, a giant hand in a jerking motion and images of naked women and money appeared on a TV screen. They were followed by the words “You can’t stop this,” the name of the night’s “The Filthy Rich Show” episode.

Bright lights and a high-pitched beep signaled a five-minute countdown to the start of the show. Two men and a woman prepared their cameras as Graziano made last minute decisions with a producer.

At 8 p.m., “The Filthy Rich Show” went live. Graziano got a second wind and danced around the studio to hip-hop from the DJ in the corner. Throughout the show, he occasionally dug through a big black garbage bag and emerged with a random prop, such as a hot dog hat or a big pink feather boa. Later, he pulled his pants down to reveal tighty-whities, a show staple.

“The Filthy Rich Show” looked and felt like a rejected version of “Yo! MTV Raps” or “Wayne’s World.” Graziano improvised everything. The action was chaotic; people talked over each other and had no concern for where they stood in regards to the cameras. The guests, who included rappers and their producers, used the show to promote their own ambitions and all his callers were friends of friends. “The Filthy Rich Show” fulfilled every stereotype of a public access show.

Graziano still believes “The Filthy Rich Show” will find a large audience on network television. “Where I’d like to see it going,” he said, “is the bank.” He believes his way onto TV may be through streaming the show.

This particular night did not provide that path. After many failures, Graziano faced the biggest disappointment of the night: his latest show did not stream; the camera crew didn’t even show up.

But it did not dampen his urge for fame. Graziano held tight to the desire he had expressed earlier in the evening, when he said, “It’s going to be tube socks and underwear worldwide.”

Reporters at the New York Times have questioned whether a higher word count allows more freedom to stray from journalistic objectivity.  Some worried about the ethical principles of the publication, and looked towards the standards of the magazine, which some believed to be too lax.

Article length plays a significant role in print news.  Daily reports require the recitation of facts while longer pieces rely on analysis.  Reporters have been pressured to state just the facts in shorter pieces, but longer articles allow them to include more information and additional angles on the focus of the story.

Articles in magazines are considerably longer than newspaper pieces.  Gerald Marzorati, the editor of the New York Times magazine, said longer pieces allow narratives to unfold, which may present history, personal profiles or a story of a specific thing.  “A cover story we published a couple of years ago on Social Security reform took thousands of words to explain the origins of S.S. and the changes to the program over the years — something a newspaper piece would never have the space to do,” he said in an e-mail.

A 2005 report to the executive editor of the Times entitled Preserving Our Reader’s Trust (available at http://www.nytco.com/press/) documented staffers’ anxieties about the magazine.  “Our magazine’s journalism stirs some strong feelings inside the newsroom,” the report read.  “Some who work for the daily paper contend that the magazine’s standards are looser and too tolerant of opinion and, further, that the difference tarnishes the entire paper.”

There is another distinction between the two mediums besides length. Matt Bai, a writer at the New York Times Magazine, pointed out that the purpose of the interview is different in magazine and newspaper reporting.  “My interviews are to help me understand the issue so I can write with some authority,” he said.  “I think the one big difference in a newspaper is getting quotes.  At a magazine you’re more concerned about taking in an issue so you can talk about it in your own voice.”

The medium of the magazine is accepted to be analytical, Bai said during a phone interview from his home in Washington D.C.  “You go on the assumption that the reader expects your opinion and your interpretation of events more readily than the newspaper.”

Magazine writers usually include their own look at the issue, which raises the question of whether the writer is editorializing.  Both writers and editors suggest that it is the medium of the magazine that encourages and requires certain freedoms.

In Bai’s article, “America’s Mayor Goes to America,” he detailed what he believes to be Rudy Giuliani’s faults and assets in the 2008 presidential election. “Giuliani doesn’t exactly run from this image; it is, at bottom, part of the notion he is selling of a leader who won’t back down or settle for mediocrity, who has the sheer force of will to ‘do the impossible,’” Bai wrote in the article.

Bai also described the trouble he went through to score an interview with the Republican candidate.  “After several weeks of requesting a 90-minute interview with Giuliani to discuss some of these vexing policy questions, I was finally informed that I could have 45 minutes with him after his town-hall meeting at a high school in Bettendorf, Iowa, in early August,” the article read.

The struggle Bai encountered with Giuliani became part of the story, because, “Part of understanding his campaign is his transparency,” he said.  “The fact that he’s so callous to the media is an important point to be made in the piece.”  He added, “If somebody is difficult to question I think it’s wrong not to include it.”

This kind of biographical and “authority” reporting would be unacceptable in a daily or weekly news article. “In newspaper journalism there could be some voice but it’s less of an overt point of view,” said Michael Powell, who works at the political desk of the New York Times.

Ideally, both newspaper and magazine articles are supposed to be objective.  Magazine articles do not present opinions, rather, analysis based on what the writer learned.  Marzorati explained, “Narratives have to have a point of view, which is different from an opinion.  Point of view means, most simply, the place you are standing and telling the story from, with authority.”

Powell agreed with this notion, and he said a lot of the responsibility falls on readers.  “It’s a mature view of the New York Times,” he said.  “There’s many different kinds of writing.  A good reader will realize there’s leeway in terms of style and point of view in the magazine.”