I love technology

I can watch Netflix movies streaming on my Mac! The advent of this is a happy day. Children of the future will have so many new ways of experiencing media and innovative ways of its distribution. However, it is important to educate them on the differences between them and what you are gaining as well as losing by your choice of the form in which you consume it.

Just this past weekend my girlfriend and I went to see "Australia." We had made the choice to see it at the Provo Town Center theater because it is the only place where we could see an actual 35 mm print of the film. Since every other theater is digital, we figured that eventually we would be able to see a digital high definition copy of the film in our own home in the next year. The film experience is something that we can only experience in the theater so we opted for that.

There are also times where we decide to wait to see a film in the dollar theater because we don't think that it necessarily merits the $8.75 and the most sophisticated viewing experience. There's also some to catch on DVD and some that look like good ones to miss. No matter what it is that we are viewing, the way we view it makes a difference. It can be likened to going to a concert where everybody loves the band or where everybody does not. Seeing a film with an audience can affect your feelings towards it. When they laugh, you laugh and when they cry, you cry. That is something that can't be experienced with an iPod and earbuds. There is a season for all forms of viewing media.

Stress

I have been under a lot of stress lately with school and all. This a video for the French electronic duo, Justice. The song is entitled "Stress" and has stirred up a lot of controversy.
Justice - Stress from Freedom Record on Vimeo.

While watching this the first thing I noticed was the cross on the backs of all the children. The icon seems to be misappropriated because there is a stark contrast between a good Christian life,which is generally accepted as the meaning of the cross, and the horrific acts of unmotivated violence being committed. Today's youth can so easily get involved in a group that engages in this type of behavior, whether it's under the guise of religion or not. I think this video is a great social commentary on the current state of the world. We would probably have no problem believing the acts of the children if they were dressed in, say, turbines and robes. That is because media has painted a picture in the heads of the people that it is only Eastern religions that become overzealous to the point of danger. We often forget and overlook that the Ku Klux Klan is a very Christian, not Christlike, organization. This video shows us that we are all humans and that some do terrible things, whether black or white, Christian or Muslim, male or female and that we cannot take everything at face value. The fact that the group is French made me think of Francois Truffaut's "The 400 Blows," which chronicles the misadventures of a French youth who falls into delinquent behavior, and how tame the rebellion of the child was in comparison with Justice's "Stress." The world continues to change and with advancements in technology and media, we have a heightened danger in society.

holiday

It's Thanksgiving. And there's no school.

object width="425" height="344">

Sleepytime

Watch more Tim and Eric Awesome Show Great Job! videos on AOL Video

Late at night, I watch movies and things not for enjoyment but because I know that I'll fall asleep. In a sense, I use media instead of sleeping pills

or chamomile tea to help me relax and unwind and whatnot. I know that that was not the intended purpose of "Xanadu" but it's just so

easy to sleep to it.

I'd like to make a list of numerous forms of media and the different ways we use it that are not the original intent. Here's a short list.

1. Newspapers for wrapping paper.

2. 8-bit video game samples for music.

3. Blogs and Facebook substituting human interaction.

4. Phones that send letters.

The list could go on and on. I'm sure that kids can inform us of other new innovative things.

I really do like "Xanadu."

Twilight

Cedric Diggery back from the dead!!!!!! Years after murder by Voldemort, Diggery, 17, returns as vampire.

I saw "Twilight" today.  It was entertaining, but I didn't think it was a good film.  Truth be told, I would have never seen it if my girlfriend hadn't made me go.  I think that the film definitely appeals to a certain audience and, as Media Literacy says, should not be a substitute for reading the book.  

I think the film suffered a bit because I feel that they sacrificed story for style in its making.  Watching it made me feel like I was watching the music video to the Paramore song which appears on the soundtrack, which also clues me in that I am definitely not the target audience of the film.  Looking back on the experience, it's almost as though we were watching an exploitative science fiction B-movie from the 60's or 70's targeted at young women, as the film is the screen version of a book containing the bizarre sexual fantasies of a woman with a vampire.  Weird, I know.  But I think that a lesson can be learned about the appeal of media that is structured like other media, such as a film made in the style of a music video, in order to win over an audience.  

Empire

I watched “The Empire Strikes Back” today. It’s such a good film and by far my favorite of the Star Wars saga.  Star Wars films are such great examples of translation of media.  I remember that in 1997 I had a “The Empire Strikes Back” calendar.  It’s really neat that 17 years after the release of the film there were calendars still being made featuring the characters and events depicted in this film.  In addition to the calendar, video games have featured elements of the film, most notably the Battle of Hoth which is shown at the beginning. 

 Scenes from this film have been used to advertise products such as Energizer batteries and Pepsi and have produced some of the most memorable lines in film history (i.e. “No Luke, I am your father.”).  

In recent memory, The Lord of the Rings trilogy and Harry Potter series have enjoyed some of the same treatment.  The difference is that these stories originated as books then were turned into films, merchandising, etc.  Students could make a list of all the forms that these stories take and learn how media translation is a huge part of their world.  

So Divine

In our Divine Comedy headliner, Nickelcade Royale, many of the jokes in the sketch are the titles of Bond films worked into the dialogue. For example:

Mary: I don’t want you to kill anybody, I just want you to observe.

Scott: I see, a View to a Kill.

A View to a Kill is the title of a Bond film featuring Timothy Dalton as James Bond. That’s funny to me. However, nobody laughed. It is because they are not as literate in the Bond franchise to find the humor in it.  Chances are some of them have even been 80’s dancing and have heard Duran Duran’s wonderful song of the same title which served as the theme song of the film.  Sometimes we are experiencing media that connected specifically to another piece of media and we are unaware of it.

When I was a child I loved the television show “Dinosaurs.”  I remember particularly an episode where Earl sold his soul to the devil for a ceramic mug in the shape of the head of a popular television character.  He had the traditional angel and devil struggle to sway him for the right or wrong until he finally made his decision.  I absolutely loved this episode. 

When I was 22 I read “Dr. Faustus.”  While I read it I kept on feeling that it seemed very familiar.  Then it dawned on me that it was just like that episode of “Dinosaurs.”  A comedy series in the mid-90’s adapted a classic play to create an episode that was understandable for a child.  There was even an episode of “Animaniacs” which paid homage to “32 Short Films About Glenn Gould.”  I think that students could learn to appreciate classical literature and other forms of art if they were presented with media that was targeted towards them then shown where that media was adapted from.  

Funnys

Last night, we had our Divine Comedy tech show.  I made a short video about college.  Everybody hated it.  It was funny to me that there was no laughter.  

After a bit, I thought about what had happened.  Possibly the reason why it didn't go over so well was that it was very unexpected.  I wasn't really parodying anything that is overtly obvious to the audience.  I also mixed a different form of media in with a stage performance.  But I think the main thing was that the video was made to be funny to a different type of person than the traditional BYU Cougar that loves Divine Comedy.  We have a reputation for a certain type of humor that alienates some people from ever coming to a performance.  When I tried a different type of humor that could be enjoyed by that demographic we don't reach, it did not go over well with the traditional fan.  

Target audience is a very important thing to consider when analyzing media.  You wouldn't hold a Little Critter book up to the same standards as a Chuck Klosterman book.  They are for a different audience and they have different things that make them good.  It would be effective to teach this by going over different genres of film and saying what it is that makes them that particular type of film and what is good about them.  This makes students think about difference and how things should be judged accordingly.

Lateness

What if these pandas were interviewing each other?  If I was interviewed Saturday, this is how it would have gone. 

 

Rolling Stone: How was work?

Jeremy Warner: All I did was drink water and go to the bathroom all day long.

But if the interview took place on July 23 it would have gone something like this.

• Spin: How was work?
• Jeremy Warner: Crazy
• Spin: What happened?
• JW: Well it all started when this bald guy came in and was all 'Are you the manager?' and then I was like 'No.' then he was like 'Well can I talk to the manager?' and I was all 'Uhhh, yeah, go talk to her' because I had food in my hands.
• Spin: What did he want?
• JW: I walked over and asked one of the cooks if they were La Migra because they had all gotten very quiet and didn't say anything. Then the bald guy was like 'Is there a Carlos that has worked here?' and I was like 'Probably at some point in the existence of this place. That's a very common name.' Then he said 'This is very serious, we have reason to believe that he is here.' Then I said 'Who said he was here?' and he was like 'His family.'
• Spin: His family?
• JW: Yeah, his family. Like his family is a great source in an immigration case.
• Spin: Yeah, that is unlikely/
• JW: That Carlos's family must really hate him, you know? But anyways, Captain Immigration went looking through the back as if we were hiding him in a box or a closet like Elian Gonzalez.  He found nothing.  

Interviews are very common in media.  It would be a fun activity to do with students to have them each interview somebody in the classroom to learn about an activity or some other interesting thing that they have done in their life.  If I was going to be interviewed tomorrow this is probably how it would go.

Daily Universe: How was work?

Jeremy Warner: All I did was drink water and go to the bathroom all day long.

Gangsta

Tonight I played a show at Velour with the Rotten Musicians, Prince Early, and The Kid-You-Nauts.  It was a hip hopping night.  My band is not really hip hop, but we did make an attempt to translate "With Arms Wide Open" by Creed into a rap song with a little bit of Kelly Clarkson sneaking in.  I also had the chance to play the synth for The Kid-You-Nauts cover of "Forgot About Dre."  Four white boys playing a tribute to Dr. Dre was pretty amazing to me.  None of them grew up in the LBC or are straight off the streets of the CPT, but still somehow they knew this music.  Many suburban middle class white kids love gangsta rap, which is pretty neat, because it gives them a glimpse into a culture that is foreign to them.  However, their fascination can go too far when they begin to mimic the lifestyle that is portrayed through rap music because it is unnecessary for them to live life that way when they have so many opportunities that are not offered to those who grew up on the street and in poverty.  I bet that many gangsta rappers would trade their life in a heartbeat if they could start all over again with a family that loved them in a nice neighborhood with a good education system and endless opportunities.  

To become too obsessed with any form of media, be it uplifting or downtrodding, is a bad thing.  This is an example of when children need to learn and know their limits.  If the consumption of media is turning them into something that is not good, then they should not be consuming it.  This is why we have parental advisories and the rating systems,  to keep people who are not well established with who they are away from things that could prove detrimental to their development.  A mature consumer of media will have the ability to step back and observe something and see that it is what it is and then move on with their normal life.  It is up to us to teach students these things so that they can view and use media responsibly.  

Office

This morning, I was trying to enter in grades when my program of OpenOffice.org wouldn't work.  That's what happens when you get your program for free off the internet.  But then I got to think about the Office, the hit television series.  This program is wildly popular and also free on the internet.  

The availability of high definition content on the internet is further increasing.  This is an exciting time for an aspiring filmmaker.  A big challenge with making films is how you go about getting an audience and the internet makes that easier.  

The same thing with music. Sites such as myspace, facebook, purevolume and Amie St.  all offer people the latest cutting edge music.  Many artists, suc

h as Vampire Weekend and Black Kids, owe much of their success to blogs.  

hypem.com is a site that compiles blog posts, and is where I find a lot of music.  My band has even been blogged. 

It would be a fun and informative activity to give a brief history of forms of distribution and compare and contrast with today.  For example, we can talk about theatrical exhibition as opposed to watching on an iPod or recording a mixtape from the radio versus downloading a podcast.

Vampire Weekend:

Black Kids:

Halloween

is so fun. So many costumes are influenced by the media.  Many kids are exercising the activity of translation of media as they take something that they know, a character from a film or book, and change its form by adapting it to fit them, and they don't even know it!  How cool is that? I was told that somebody even went as me.

Weather

Tonight I am going to see Girl Talk, an electronic musician who is well known for his mash-ups, which is a song composed of elements from different existing songs in order to create a new one.  He has been called a "lawsuit waiting to happen" because of his use of snippets of copyrighted songs without permission.  I think that he understands where his accusers are coming from, his record label that he is signed to is called Illegal Art.  

But the question is is this kind of creation music?  I think so.  What separates Girl Talk from a regular DJ is that he mixes the elements of songs on the fly, giving each performance its own personality, kind of like an electronic form of jazz, as opposed to just making a playlist and fading in and out of songs like so many college kids do and call it DJing.  Girl Talk is very media literate when it comes to music.  He does what a twelve year old does when they recut a film trailer only in a different medium and to a higher degree.  

Students could learn a little more about what Girl Talk does and how he does it by listening to two songs that are of different genres pointing out similarities and thinking about how they could blend together.  Then if they are feeling ambitious, they could try their hand at mashing them up with garage band.  

10101001011001

I filled out an ORCA grant to get funding for a 419 project that we are pitching this next week.  The research that we stated we wanted to do was on high-definition Blu-ray discs because we want to export the final film to this new technology.  I got to thinking about how rapidly technology is advancing.  VHS tapes were popular for a good 15 years.  DVD has enjoyed mass popularity during the 2000's.  Now we have high definition Blu-ray.  The question is, when will Blu-ray become superseded by the next big thing?  Will video formats become like computers, changing every 6 months?

I think that media genealogy would be a very interesting thing to study and discuss.  I've seen people wearing Nintendo shirts that say "Know your roots" on them.  Soon, children will not know about VHS tapes.  I think that this it is important to know what came before in order to more fully appreciate what we have now.  We could discuss the alternatives that were available to the formats, such as HDDVD or Blu-ray and VHS or Beta.  We could also discuss different forms of media falling into obsolescence, such as polaroid film and Super8 film.  Technology even affects film stocks as some stocks are no longer produced in order to make way for better stocks, which is why a film from the 70's looks different from one made today with the same exact camera and lenses.  Media genealogy would be a very fun and informative activity to do.  

Can't you just see the fun filled pedigree chart of a Blu-ray disc?

Here's a video for the band VHS or Beta, a group who knows their lineage.

Just a little thing

Tonight I went to the ballet of Romeo and Juliet at the Covey Center.  I had never been to a ballet before, but since I was familiar with the story of Romeo and Juliet I was able to follow along.  This could be a fun exercise to do with students, to compare and contrast the same story being told through different media.  

There's the ballet 

The stage play

The 1968 film

And the 1996 film

All of these different productions tell the same story, but they tell it in a different way.  The films have more visual elements to them, and there are differences between the both of them.  The ballet has a more poetic beauty to it and the stage play was how Shakespeare originally wrote the story.  This activity could help students think of other familiar stories to them that are told and retold through different types of media.  

Little Thoughts.

With the election coming up I feel like I'm being bombarded with opposing views from both sides everywhere I go.  The media is playing a huge role in the campaigning process and it is working to Barack Obama's advantage, just as television aided in the election of John F. Kennedy.  My fear is that too many people, my age especially, are choosing to vote for Obama simply because it is a "hip" thing to do.  I see many college kids who are urban outfitted donning Obama pins and wearing fine t-shirts like this

which can be found, at (surprise) Urban Outfitters.  Many concerts I went to during the summer featured musicians speaking out about the election and being pro-Obama.  However, I agree with Noel Gallagher from the band Oasis in the sense that I don't go to a concert to hear someone "sing the news." 

I feel that I must make this statement: I am not a supporter of Barack Obama.  Just because I have a different haircut, a mustache, and skinny jeans does not mean that I am easily swayed to follow one side or the other.  The image I project in the eyes of society would lead many to believe that I subscribe to the same ideals of others who dress like me, but I'm so nonconformist to the nonconformists that I've become a conformist.  I'm not going to vote for a candidate just because they are cool.  To be perfectly honest, I am not well informed on many of the issues and I acknowledge that, but the presidency of the United States should not be determined like the Sophomore Class President of Omaha Senior High School.  There are real issues involved in it, issues that effect millions of people.  

It is hard to find an unbiased source of information in the media.  It seems that it's only possible to see the extremes of both sides.  I think that this is an issue where people need to be media literate and the children of today will need to be even more so in the future.  Propaganda runs rampant in the media and those people who are not anchored in beliefs or properly educated can get swept away in the media whirlwind.  This doesn't just apply to the election.  Take the Katy Perry song "I Kissed a Girl."  The catchiness of the song gets in your head and the message its sending is, simply put, she kissed a girl and she liked it.  Now, if an eleven year old girl who wasn't taught either way about homosexuality hears this song and happens to enjoy it, she is introduced to this new idea that she never thought of before, and ideas can be dangerous things.  The popularity of the song can lead her to think that it is normal and the cool thing to do.  So it is with an election.  If people are uninformed on what the candidates are standing for then they are left with what is popular and what sounds good.  We all need to come to the point where we can think for ourselves and understand the media that is thrown at us.

Changes

The other night my girlfriend watched Ghostbusters with her parents.

This has always been one of my favorite films.  Her mother was talking about it when I arrived for Sunday dinner.  She made the statement that it was rated PG but

had it been made today.  

Setting her rating statement aside, I remembered how, as a child, I loved Ghostbusters so much and that I thought that it was an action adventure film.  It wasn't until I was fifteen that I realized it was funny.  The film hadn't changed, but my perspective had.  As a child I watched it with innocence, missing many of the jokes because they were over my head and of a subject matter that children should not know about.  But when I had become a teenager, corrupted by the halls of public school, I began to understand the worldly humor of it.  

This could be used as a teaching activity where students could identify something from their youth that has not changed but their perspective on it has.  Green Eggs and Ham would be a good example.
 Most people can recall as a child reading it or having it read to them.  When we are children we are fascinated by the illustrations, the clever words and the absurdity of green eggs and ham and the persistence of Sam I Am.  As adults living in our current situation in the world today, I think that we could draw a conclusion that Green Eggs and Ham has a strong message of being open minded, something that is happening more and more everyday, whether for the good or the bad.  But the point is, media doesn't change.  It is our perspective, formed by life experiences, that we use to draw a message out of the media.  

City of Ember

Saturday night my friends and I all went to see "City of Ember."  Bill Murray plays a corrupt politician in a post-apocalyptic underground city where two children realize that he's up to no good and that there's been a secret hidden from the people.  As the children start to stumble on clues and learn more and more the leaders of the city try to quell their rebellion.

The film teaches us to do what is right no matter what.  Parallels can be drawn between the crisis in the film's world and our world.  Ember is in the midst of an energy crisis in which the generator that lights their city is on the fritz and their vegetation and food supply is quickly running out.  In our world today, young people face the challenge of growing up in a world where there are valid concerns for a shortage of energy and, with the threat of global warming, problems with vegetation and our food supply.  Possible application of lessons from the film could be done in a classroom setting where students would identify a problem in the world similar to the problems the children in the film faced and brainstorm to find a solution to the problem.  This would help students to respond to a media stimulus by thinking about the message it sends and how to apply it in their lives. 

Dogumentary

For my photo documentary, I chose to document the Sego Music and Arts Festival.  This year was the third year of the festival and it was well attended.  I wanted to capture the essence of Sego, which I believe to be one of counterculture and creativity.  Everyone involved in Sego is a volunteer, many of whom put money from their own pockets into making this happen, and I participated in it as well.

If I were to tell the story of Sego through photos, I would have needed to begin this years ago, so, as I said in the beginning, I tried to capture the counterculture and the creativity of the festival.  I came to this decision because the festival is something that goes against the norm of Provo.  Many people dismiss Provo, or Utah for that matter, for being a place of any worth in regards to art because of the heavy stereotypes, such as we are all carbon copies of each other that can’t have fun, that plague the community.  The Sego festival is a showcase for the creativity of the counterculture that exists here.

I chose to keep my pictures in color because the festival was a very visually oriented occasion and to mute the colors would be like muting the music that was played.  Another reason why I left the photos how they were is a personal one because it is a pet peeve of mine for people to take pictures and then doctor them up in photoshop and think that they’re a photographer.  It’s kind of an elitist attitude, but I feel that it is in keeping with the spirit of the festival.  

The photograph of the paint bottles has the caption “Condiments of Creativity.”  I like this photo because it shows depth with the red bottle in the foreground and then the black and orange bottles and then the action occurring in the background.  Also the three main bottles are close to evenly spaced on the table, not quite filling the three thirds, but the middle third and the insides of the other two.  

Another photo I like is the last one with the car and the sign.  While the sign is in the right third of the frame, the caution tape creates lines leading off frame and creating an honor barricade for festival goers.  I also like the small areas of overexposure on the exclamation points and the plastic in the left middle third.  These spots, as well as the white sign are contrasting with the dark foliage filled background and blue car.  

The condiments of creativity can be analyzed as a metaphor for taking action.  The paints are there waiting for someone to gab them and use them. It is the person who determines whether the paint meets its canvas and becomes something of beauty or dries up to never reach its potential.  The photo of the sign at the end of the slideshow shares the caption “own provo” with the theme of the festival.  I felt that this was an allusion to how those who are creative have control.  The people pay five dollars to create art, they are paying five dollars to own Provo as the festival promises.  

Worlds Apart

The other day I started watching Journey videos because we were talking about them in class. I noticed that in two of their videos, members of the band have mustaches, and I think they were legitimate mustaches and people of the period accepted them without thinking twice. Later that night, I heard some kids talking about me and my mustache while I was cleaning a table. One of them said, "He's just doing it to be funny." I wanted to respond with, "You wear Abercrombie to be cool. And for your information, I don't have this mustache to be funny. I was funny way before I had a mustache." But I held my tongue. I think the difference in media choices between me and my awesome customers has caused us to be worlds apart.
This made me think about how the meaning of media can change in our culture. Those Journey videos were made to be cutting edge and innovative, now it is difficult to watch it without chuckling. Reefer Madness was an educational film but is now a cult comedy classic. It would be interesting to have the class make a list of the qualities of good media so that the film, show, etc. would still send the intended message long into the future and not be dismissed by the children of the "Chuck Norris joking, Abercrombie wearing bro" generation.
I wish I could post the videos here but embedding was disabled upon request, so here's a picture instead.

http://www.americanmustacheinstitute.org/

Conference

This weekend I viewed conference on the television as well as listened to it on the radio.  As I did this, I thought of how different it was from the usual things I view and listen to via the media.  I generally try not to mix religion with entertainment.  But conference wasn't entertaining.  It was uplifting.  It really is a blessing to have such technological advancements in order to have a wonderful thing like conference broadcast into your own home. Or car. 

I forget to do this sometimes So I better start stepping it up

Sometimes I Make Media References and Nobody Gets it and I Think it's Funny.

Today at work some people were done eating and when I was clearing their table one of them grabbed their chopsticks.  The other person  said, "Why do you still have your chopsticks?"  I said to them, "Chopsticks are pretty cool, especially Chopin's."  They just looked at me.  It reminded of one night last summer, that went a little like this:

My friend had a birthday and her roommate invited a boy over. He was okay until he started talking about how hardcore he is and saying that a bunch of stuff was gay. He named off a bunch of hardcore bands he liked so I started a discussion with him that went like this.
"Do you like Atreyu?" I asked.

He replied, "Yeah, they're way good."
"What about Falkor??"

"Yeah they're pretty good."

"Oh. Do you like Bastian then?"

"I haven't really listened to them but I've heard some of their stuff."
Then I said, "What about the snail guy?"

He never caught on.

Media is fun.  People are funny.

Me and my friends are Jem girls. Jem. Jem is my name.

My girlfriend has a Netflix account.  On Friday, we got Jem: Season 3, Disc 1.  I had never seen Jem before but I was a little familiar with the concept.  It is a wonderful example of the culture of the day. A time when people looked like this:

This is Kajagoogoo, a band from the eighties that produced hits such as "Too Shy."  That guy in the middle is Limahl and he sang the theme song to the Neverending Story.  

Anyways, Jem and the Holograms were an all girl version of this picture except with pink and blue hair.  Placed throughout each episode is a music video that actually has the title and artist text in the bottom left corner.  This reflects the rising popularity of music videos in the modern world after the advent of MTV(which never plays music videos.  If it weren't for new media I would never see a music video).  

Bottom line: I love Jem.  Maybe it's because my girlfriend loved it so much.  Maybe it's because the DVD player started screwing up and the audio didn't play for an entire episode.  But I think it's because of the music. Just listen to those lyrics.  

I've played all my cards

I really love ABBA. This morning I was feeling a little blue so I started to listen to them. And then I started to watch their videos. I haven't watched a lot of them since I was ten. But earlier this year I saw Persepolis in the theaters and there's a scene with a boy named Fernando, and they were all sitting around a campfire, and I got so excited and giggled to myself because I remembered how it was exactly like the Fernando video by ABBA. I thought it was so good how subtle they referenced old media in a new film.

This is not Fernando. But it is a hit.