All Nighter

It’s 4:11 AM, do you know where your children are?

Well, I don’t have children, so I don’t care. All I know is that I’m in Rm. B43 at Mitchell Hall, and I’m pullin’ another all-nighter.

All is quiet. All is calm. I’m listening to Spoon. They rock.

Ok, back to work, my video is done being captured, finally.

In LOVE With My ‘Submarine’

I had mentioned earlier this sememser to my fellow classmates that I had unearthed a wonderful mash-up type CD entitled “Cello Submarine”.  This is the 12 Cellists of the Berlin Philharmonic playing new arrangements of Beatles songs.  Given the fact that I highly admire the cello and the Beatles, this album has it all, it is a tasty treat for  the ears.  My favorite tracks would have to include: Let It Be, Something, Michelle, and Norwegian Wood.  Have a listen for yourself and see what you think.  Let me know if you agree that this CD is awesome.  

And speaking of the Beatles, many of you may (or may not) be aware that there’s a new Beatles album out: Love.   Stemming from the days when George Harrison was still with us, comes the next evolution of the collaboration of The Beatles (with the approval of remaining alums Paul and Ringo, and of George’s widow and also Yoko Ono) and Cirque de Soleil.  I highly recommend this CD!!  It’s georgeous in it’s design.  Favorite tracks include: Something, While My Guitar Gently Weeps, Lady Madonna.

Noun Project Wrap Up:

**NEWS FLASH**  Technical difficulties?  Nope, just user difficulities… I logged into my Blog this morning and noticed this post hadn’t posted.  Why do you think that happened?  I’ll tell you why – because instead of publishing it, I accidentally saved it instead.  So I guess it keeps with the trend of the rest of this project, as it too can officially be labelled as ‘late’.  Oh well, sometimes technology fails me, and sometimes I fail technology.  Live and learn, c’est la vie.  So without further ado, here is my wrap up discussion of my noun project.

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Well, as you may have noticed, I got a little delayed with my project. At any rate, I’m just glad it got done! Although there was some setbacks I am really proud of the work I produced. As this is the first videos I have ever created, I think this is a promising and encouraging start. It makes me think I’m on the right path. Yet, with any path there are obstacles, and this project had a few. First off, I’ve been sick for like a month. Mono really kicks your butt, know what I mean? So I had to sleep more than film or edit. And even though everything turned out great with all the people that helped me, I realize that working around other people’s schedules can be a struggle. Actually, for these projects it was more that my schedule didn’t mesh well with their availability.

As for my ideas and how they changed or evolved throughout the production process, they really were quite fluid in the way I shaped the ideas into a visual output. Since I haven’t been working with Final Cut Pro very long (to which there were computer kinks that were otherwise overcome with some sage guidance), so I didn’t have a clear idea of how to edit my work. Basically, it came through trial and error, just seeing what felt right. I think finding music (which through much searching is completely usable as they hold Creative Commons Licenses of Attribution only from Archive.org) was the key for editting, as it allowed for a framework to be established that I could construct my video around. Overall, this project has been a great learningexerience from which despite it’s rocky start has finished well indeed.

Person: On The Mark

My person video focuses on my sister’s boyfriend Mark Hubing. I really enjoy talking to Mark and learning about his many complexities. He’s always been an intruiging character, mainly because of his wit and sense of humor, but I also have learned as he became a part of our family about the other layers of his personality. This video examinies a little of these depths.

Films That Make You Go Hmmm

I believe I had heard of this filmmaker prior to this; but only his name, Zbigniew Rybczynski, was familiar, the work I knew othing about. His film Tango is a masterpiece, that I probably would not have been aware of without the internet. Speaking about the film Rybczynski states: “Thirty-six characters from different stages of life – representations of different times – interact in one room, moving in loops, observed by a static camera. I had to draw and paint about 16.000 cell-mattes, and make several hundred thousand exposures on an optical printer. It took a full seven months, sixteen hours per day, to make the piece. The miracle is that the negative got through the process with only minor damage, and I made less than one hundred mathematical mistakes out of several hundred thousand possibilities. In the final result, there are plenty of flaws, black lines are visible around humans, jitters caused by the instability of film material resulting from film perforation and elasticity of celluloid, changes of colour caused by the fluctuation in colour temperature of the projector bulb and, inevitably, dirt, grain and scratches.” The result of all his efforts is amazing to watch.

**Dislclaimer** This film contains brief nudity and a simulated sex scene.

On the total other end of the spectrum is a documentary called Mindplasma! that I saw last year at a screening of local work. The film follows the life and work of Milwaukee performance artist TJ Richter. You can watch the entire video or just sections of it on the official website. It is so strange and trippy I felt the need to share it with others. It is very cool to watch this documentary by Andrew Rosas because of the local connection also.

**Disclaimer** This video contians graphic language and adult themes.

Steel Cage Match-Up: Realism VS. Falsism

Alright folks, I know we will be discussing the “lonelygirl15″ (see my previous post for more info) phenomenon a little more in class later, but this is another thought I had when searching for two other Vlogs to post for this assignment. Do Blogs need, or should they require disclaimers, when they are fictitious in nature? Or should the “buyer beware” when investing time into watching anyone’s Vlog?

One Vlog I found that, although it didn’t have a disclaimer, was obviously a fiction. I didn’t have to be told that ManicalMasquerade was a created character. Here is one of his Vlogs to see for yourself.

On the other end of the spectrum is someone who (appears at least) to be sincere and very “real”. I found this Vlog randomly and liked the fact that I got to see a slice of life from elsewhere in the world. I also liked the fact that he had recorded other events in his life and then edited them into his Vlog. That was really cool, like being transported to England and hanging out and seeing the average day/week of some other culture (albeit the English culture isn’t extremely foreign, so it wasn’t like a culture shock, but it was still very interesting to watch).

Here’s also another Vlog by yonnermark that I found highly amusing. This one focuses more on a single event, rather than many events like the other one, but I still think you’d like to watch this episode also. I mean, how often do you get to see a three wheeled car on fire?!

To Understand A Little Better…

Well, I didn’t get around to updating this post as soon as I wanted, however, I’m doing so now! ANYWHO….

My basic style for writing can flucuate from laidback and informal to somewhere near professional sounding. It just depends and what I’m writing about and who I’m writing for. But being that this is a Blog, the opportunity to include other things to help elaborate myself is highly available.

The technology of the internet affords me to include “easter eggs”, or the little links I embed into my posts to give out further info to you folks that may read this little diatribe. I like to elaborate in this way because it seems avoid bogging down the rest of the writing with over doing it. Easter eggs are nice because you can look at them on your own schedule. Even though they may be relevant to what my topic is on any particular post, they don’t necessarily need to be written about.

I guess that’s all I wanted to let you know about, so when you read my blog, just know that when a word or phrase is set-up as a link, it means I took the time to do so for your benefit.  Sometimes I even like to include a picture or two to give the page a little color, something to brighten up the place, ya know?  And if you have the time you should follow the rabbit down the bunny hole, you might just find something interesting.

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More to come for this post, but I wanted it first up. Here I will describe my style (which may or may not deviate from this initial idea) so any readers of this blog will understand the workings of my brain as I dissect and analyze the various subjects laid before us in Digital Distribution.

I am still constructing the verbage to relay this message, but it will come to me very soon. I already have an idea I want to work from dealing with the pagan symbols of fertility. To find out what I mean by this in relation to my blog writing style, check back again for the update! Hopefully, this statement will be intruiging for some.