Media and Me: A Day in the Life

Last weekend I went with my girlfriend Elizabeth to visit my dad, his significant other, and my sister in New York City. My parents are divorced, and it was my father’s turn this year to host my sister and I for the Thanksgiving holiday. His girlfriend Lauren lives near Greenwich in lower east Manhattan. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday night, my dad gave me some money, his metro card, and a map of the city, telling Elizabeth and me to go out and have a good time doing whatever we want. If you want anything in this world, my first suggestion to you would be the big apple.

I’m going to take a step back to Friday morning. I woke up at seven to pick Elizabeth up from her house and get both of us to the train station. On the way I turned the radio on to my favorite station, 94.1. I really like that station because it plays a lot of grunge music. I think it captures the 80’s and 90’s grunge scene really well, “As the first national electronic mass medium, radio’s influence in the formation of American culture cannot be overestimated” (Media and Culture 139). Also on weekends after eleven they play nothing but Pink Floyd. The station was playing one of my favorite bands, the Stone Temple Pilots.

One thing I love about STP is how unbelievably weird their music videos are

We had to take the train to 30^th street station in Philadelphia so that we could catch a Bolt Bus to New York. There was a window of about an hour where we had to just wait around in the train station for the bus to come. I bought a copy of the Philadelphia Inquirer because I like to read the about the Flyers in the sports section. The Flyers had blown out the Minnesota Wild two days ago and there was an article talking about the their scoring depth. The newspaper industry has declined immensely in recent years, “The Web site ‘Newspaper Death Watch’ lists newspapers that gave folded since the site went up in 2007 . . . not since the recording industry during the 1930’s or radio during the 1950’s have we seen a mass medium in such a crisis” (Media and Culture 247). With the emergence of television and the Internet fewer and fewer people read the paper anymore. I’m guilty of this too; the only reason I didn’t read about it on philadelphiaflyers.com was because the Internet in the train station was really slow.

The Flyers won 6-1, Image from the bleacherreport.com

There was better Internet on the bus though, we finally got onto the bus and there was better Internet there. I spent most of the two hour trip watching hockey highlights and related videos on nhl.com and reading up on the new Halo: Reach map pack scheduled to release on the 29^th. Hockey has been a major part of my life for as long as I can remember, and it has been the only thing that has stuck with me this long. With all of the things a person can do on the Internet now, I think it’s fascinating that it started from “an attack-proof military communications network in the 1960’s” (Media and Culture 45). I love that I can now find hockey scores and highlights so quickly at the click of a button now.

Friday night after Elizabeth and I spent some time on 34^th street and 42^nd street, we went back to the apartment and decided to watch a movie. We had looked at show times in the local theaters, but didn’t find anything we wanted to see so we watched The Nightmare on Elm Street streaming on Netflix. The Nightmare on Elm Street has always been one of the most iconic horror movies for me growing up as a kid. I think the movie is a great example of a consensus narrative, which is “a term that describes cultural products that become popular and provide shared cultural experiences” (Media and Culture 242). Movies are a massive part of American culture and while I haven’t thought of it this way before, I think they are a major part of our history now. Practically everyone on the face of this planet knows who Darth Vader and Indiana Jones are.

image from experimentaltheology.blogspot.com

Elizabeth had to leave around six on Sunday night, so I had the evening to myself in the big city. My dad, Lauren, and my sister Zoe went to a party earlier and I had the apartment to myself. I decided to walk to a video store on Broadway and I picked up a copy of The Matrix. That’s another brilliant and iconic movie by the way. When I got back, I was in a mood for hockey again. I put The Matrix in my laptop, and played with the sound on while I muted TV and watched the New York Rangers play the Nashville Predators. The Rangers ended up winning in a shootout. While multitasking like a pro, I chuckled to myself a bit. “In 1948, only 1% of America’s households had a television set” and here I was using it as an added activity while doing something else (Media and Culture 146).

Image from dc-mrg.english.ucsb.edu

I had to wake up early Sunday morning to catch a bus to get back to Burlington. I was not looking forward to being on a bus for ten hours, and I was really glad I had taken with me the latest issue of USA Hockey magazine. It isn’t Sports Illustrated or anything, whose “circulation rose to 3.1 million in 2009” but I like it because it focuses completely on hockey and hockey related subjects (Media and Culture 298). The latest issue featured a story about Paul Stastny and his family. His father fled communist Czechoslovakia to play in Canada, and eventually he managed to get the rest of his family to North America. Paul Stastny now plays for the Colorado Avalanche and played on the US Olympic team in Vancouver last year.

Image from salmonhockey.org

I had to transfer buses in Boston because there wasn’t a bus that went straight to Burlington from New York. When I got on the second bus, I took out my copy of The Rhetorical Reader and tried to pick a story to write about in my Rhetoric class. I was really tired at that point, and wish that I could have closed my eyes and listened to it on tape. “The number of audio books borrowed from libraries soared in the 1990’s and early 2000’s” and I wished I didn’t have to actually read it. This was for a final paper, and I eventually decided to go with The Things they Carried by Tim O’Brien.

Image from moronefreshmen.wikispaces.com

I know what everyone is expecting for the sound recording paragraph, but I’m going to take it in a different direction. I could talk about one of my favorite bands, Radiohead, and how they “decided to sell their 2007 album In Rainbows on the internet for whatever price fans wished to pay,” but I figure everyone is going to talk about the music they listen to. So, I’m going to talk instead about some sound recording I’ve done myself. I’m taking the audio production class at Champlain College this semester, and recently we were given a silent clip from Iron Man where we had to create all of the sound effects ourselves. It took me more than a few hours to do, and I used a mix of effects found in the Soundtrack Pro databanks and effects I made with a microphone and a field recorder. I was afraid of the project before starting, but I found that I actually had a lot of fun doing it.

I was going to show the video here, but the Internet doesn't want me to for some reason. If you'd like to check it out, you can find it here: Iron Man Clip

So there was a weekend in my life in the media world. Even now I’m writing this blog post while watching the Flyers play the New York Islanders with live streaming. We should be blowing this team out 6-0, but its only 3-2 Flyers with two minutes left in the third. Its funny the sense of awareness of media this class has made me. As college students we are exposed to media almost twenty-four hours a day. I would have thought nothing of it if it weren’t for this class.

Champlain College in 60 Seconds

My biggest contribution to the group video was the acting I did for it. Our group decided the places where we shot as a group, and I contributed to the location scouting by helping to pick some of the scenes. Other than that I helped simply by trying to make the process as fun as possible while we were shooting.

While I feel that I contributed a fair amount to the shooting process, I didn’t do any of the editing. I’m happy with the B+ or A- our group got, and I would have probably given myself about the same in terms of effort.

The hardest part of making the video I thought was finding time in the week where all of us were free to work on it. I have class at weird times, some had one or two jobs, and some had other work that needed to be done as well. I think we did a good job of splitting up the work to people that had similar free periods though.

For me, the most rewarding aspect of making our video was getting a few laughs both in between shots and while I was actually acting. Even though we’ve all been at Champlain for almost a semester now, I don’t know too many people outside of the dorm I live in. It felt good to joke around with new people.

Media Meditation #4, Half Life 2, We don't go to Ravenholm anymore

This game has been out for quite some time, but I have unfortunately only just been exposed to it. Half Life 2 is one of the best and most well made games I have ever played. You take the role of a man named Gordon Freeman, a scientist with a degree in theoretical physics.

This is your character, Gordon Freeman. Image from pwned.com

I’m sorry to say I haven’t played the first game in the series, but there isn’t an edition of it released for Xbox 360. From what I gathered, Freeman created a portal to another world. The inhabitants of that other world did not take kindly to it, and took over earth. Freeman went to that other world and was imprisoned. Half Life 2 starts with Freeman being released and brought back to earth. You then play as Freeman, trying to take back the planet in an underground resistance movement.

One of the best aspects of this game is the way it’s played. For the most part, it is a first person shooter. Every once in a while though, the game changes pace throws puzzles at you to get to the next level. There has not been a puzzle that has not impressed me yet. For example, there’s a mission where you have to get to another resistance base by way of boat. There’s one instance where you need to make a ramp to get over an obstacle by putting weight on a piece connected to a ramp to make it high enough.

Half Life 2 incorporates a number of production techniques into the story and game play. Because you play as Gordon Freeman, you are a symbol. Everyone knows you in the game as the one who started this whole ordeal, and as the person who can put a stop to it. Fear is another big aspect of the game. After an attack breaks up a meeting with your allies, you have to escape through a zombie-infested area called Ravenholm. Videogames have been a significant part of my life since middle school, and this game was one of the first games to actually instill fear in me. Group dynamics also play a role in this game. After defeating a massive alien (called an antlion) leader, you get to control the smaller peons.

This is one of the antlions you get to control. Image from giantbomb.com

Media Meditation #3, The Simpsons, Most Iconic Show on Earth

Can you identify this family?

Image from toucharcade.com

If you said no, then get out from under your rock, find a television, and witness the phenomenon that is The Simpsons.

Created by Matt Groening, The Simpsons have been one of America’s favorite families. Along with them are a consistent range of characters that can also be found in just about every episode. The show started out as a sketch on the Tracey Ullman show, and was soon re-formatted into a half-hour program aired on the fox network.

Image from unrealitymag.com

The Simpsons live in a town called Springfield, but Groening and the producers have kept the state a mystery. In and effort for a personal shift, The Simpsons challenged the United States to persuade them which Springfield they were actually from, and Springfield Vermont won! All celebrations aside, I don’t agree with them. Since coming to Vermont myself, I just don’t see it. In most of the episodes, the characters are in t-shirts and shorts. The weather is just too cold here.

The Simpsons hook their audience mainly with humor and timing. Most episodes poke fun of familiar real life situations in a hyperbolic exaggerated way.

One of my favorite aspects of The Simpsons is the level of comedy they project. Unlike shows like Family Guy, the viewer actually has to be somewhat educated to get all of the jokes. Some of my favorite episodes are the ones where they poke fun at religion. Watching them the viewer can tell that the writers really know what they’re talking about.

Oral Presentation: The Champlain Current

THESIS: The Champlain Current gives the latest news and updates on campus life, keeping students informed.

FIVE FACTS

• · The Current covers news stories, feature articles, profiles, reviews, columns, and commentaries.
• · There are currently 28 staff members consisting of reporters, writers, and photographers.
• · Seven issues are published: one every month excluding January.
• · There is a circulation of 1,100 copies.

· The Current is always looking for more employees.

TRIUNE BRIAN: The Current forces a lot of NEOCORTICAL thought. For the most part you need to read the articles to get any substance. The last three pages are made up completely of pictures celebrating spirit week, appealing to the LYMBIC part of the brain.

7 PRINCIPLES: There’s an article in The Current for everyone, giving it INDIVIDUAL MEANING. There are a number of articles written with the intent of helping students along with their college experience, giving them certain VALUE MESSAGES such as eating right and actually paying attention to the core classes.

8 TRENDS: The Current calls for more to PARTICIPATE and contribute to it. There are tons of PERSONAL stories from the staff, as well as letters to the editor from students, faculty, and staff.

29 PERSUASIVE TECHNIQUES: There are a number of persuasive techniques present in The Current. It uses HUMOR in the form of cartoons, STRENGTH, and a combination of GROUP DYNAMICS and PLAIN FOLKS. The Current tries to unite the student body by giving it stories and news to read in a way it can relate to.

Midterm Reflections: Oh crap, those were this week?

The biggest and most important thing I’ve learned in this class is how to blog. I’ve never messed around with blogs before, or even read them for that matter. This class is showing me that they’re really not that bad, and if anything, they can be pretty fun.

I’ve learned it helps a lot to blog about what I’m reading in the textbook. The class blog really helps me remember what I’ve read. I’ve also learned that my thinking and writing voices are different. When I try to write a personal blog post, I feel like what I actually write down is slightly different from what I was thinking in my head.

I would spend much more time studying the power tools if I were to take this class again. I joined the class late and the importance of the power tools didn’t set into my mind until I had failed a couple of quizzes. I would have loved a stronger start than I experienced.

At first I was going to talk about how obnoxious the quizzes are every class, but they really made me study the power tools more. I know I wouldn’t have studied them as much if we weren’t tested on them regularly. Honestly I don’t think there’s anything I would change about this class.

Power Tools – The power tools really help me keep an analytical eye on the media. Most of the power tools are just common sense, like using humor as a production technique, but it really helps to have those ideas on paper in front of me.

Course Blog – The course blog helps me remember what I read out of the textbook. If we didn’t have to blog about it, I would probably skim each chapter and not really get anything out of it. The course blog also helps because it gives an example of what a good blog should look like when I write my own blog posts.

Personal Blog – I groaned internally when I heard we were going to have to write our own blogs. I’ve never been much of a blogger, but I’ve found its actually pretty fun. I’m still not very good at it, but I guess practice makes perfect.

In-Class Quizzes – The in-class quizzes keep me on my toes. I thought I hated them at first, but they keep me honest when I’m doing my homework.

Films – I’ve really enjoyed the films we’ve watched in class. I particularly liked the one about the WDEV community radio station. The films teach us something about media today, and they help reinforce the power tools.

Book – This textbook is one of my favorite textbooks ever. When I think of textbooks I think of thick history books filled with dates I don’t really care about. This textbook deals with contemporary topics I can relate to.

Medi Meditation #2, Do People Still Remember Robot Chicken?

For those of you who don't know, there is an excellent show on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim section called Robot Chicken. The show is compiled different sketches animated with action figures that make fun of pop culture, the most famous probably being the half-hour long Star Wars parodies.

Image from scenicreflections.com

Seth Green and Matt Senreich, the creators of Robot Chicken use humor and a really quick pace to keep their viewers hooked on the show. They have an odd sense of humor, Most of the sketches take one of two forms. Some sketches take a really familiar situation, like playing the game Space Invaders, and they put it in a different perspective like this:

Most other scketches are completely out of left field, making the viewer wonder how these guys think of this stuff:

Robot Chicken - Giraffe in Quicksand

Small disclaimer, there is a tiny bout of swearing in this video. Its bleeped out, but you have been warned.

Ok, I said earlier that the Star Wars sketches are the most famous, so here's a longer video containing a collection of them. They do a good job of mixing up the longer and shorter sketches to keep the viewer interested. I think these are hilarious because I was and still am a huge Star Wars fan. This collection also does a good job of mixing up both the kinds of sketches I mentioned earlier. Another disclaimer, there is swearing in this video.

Star Wars Tribute Part 1

So that's about it, hope you either love or have grown to love this show like did. There's a new Robot Chicken season coming out in December for those who are interested.