Champlain in 60 Seconds...CHECK IT OUT CUZ ITS HAWT!

Sooooo heres part one of my media final, I think it came out pretty awesome.

See You on the Darkside

So after a long hard day of running around, going to classes, and doing lots of work, I figured it was time to kick back and listen to some music. Being in the ultimate chill mode I decided to put my Skullcandy headphones on and listen to Pink Floyd's epic album Dark Side of the Moon.

www.myguitarsolo.com

In case you were unaware Pink Floyd were the go-to guys for crazy, mind expanding music. They formed in the mid sixties and have always been at the forefront of progressive music.

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In my humble opinion, Dark Side is their best work. Without being too pretentious and artsy, it works as one coherent thought. Songs fade out and blend into each other; making it seem like one long strange trip. The album starts out with a simple heart beat, and then builds. It adds sounds upon sounds until it finally crescendos to the opening anthem "Breathe". This song sets the mood for the rest of the album; ambient, kinda spacey, and grooving on interesting chord progressions. From that point on the album flows seamlessly together. Floyd demonstrates an impressive amount of studio knowledge. The album is full of manipulated sounds and crazy sound tracks. Heres a bit of the first section of the album so you can see what I mean.

One of the most interesting things about listening to Pink Floyd is that I'm hearing it in a way no one else ever has before. When the album was initially released it was a vinyl recording. Since then the album has passed through the technological shift and been converted to a digital CD format. I then load that cd onto my itunes and convert it to an MP3 format for my Ipod. Now i can expand my mind with some Pink Floyd pretty much everywhere I go. Isn't technology great?

Aint nothin' but a Rolling Stone

For this blog post, I decided to analyze the October issue of Rolling Stone magazine.

Image courtesy of heroturko.org

Thesis: Rolling Stone magazine is about "All the news that fits". It provides interesting articles about pop-culture, politics and world events to inform and interest the reader.

5 facts-Only 5% of Americans exercise on a given day

In a recent survey Atheists scored highest on knowledge of religion.

U.S. revealed that it secretly tested STD's on Guatemalans.

Arnold Schwarzenegger recently signed a law to treat pot possession like a parking violation.

"Like a G6" is currently the top itunes song

Triune Brain-Magazine focuses a lot on the neocortex. The reader is provided with many text heavy articles. In earlier sections of the magazine there are more pictures, appealing to the limbic.

With RollingStone.com the magazine enters the age of convergence. Here you can find articles from current issues as well as old archives. There are also endless videos, links and advertisements. Many of the cover shoots can be found online as well, with links to the full sets of photos.

Many of the advertisements use the beautiful people technique, showing glamorous folks in an attempt to sell the product. Also, one Skyy vodka ad seems to be particularly focused on the reptilian brain. It uses bright attention grabbing colors and somewhat suggestive imagery to grab at the reader's primal side.

Blog Post #3:Things that go bump in the night

So being that it was Halloween, I figured I needed to watch at least one sort of scary movie. Gathering my roommates together, we all sat down, cued up Netflix and quickly scrambled to the Horror section. It's rather amusing how amazingly convenient this whole convergence thing is. We didn't even have to run out to the video store only to be disappointed by the slim pickings. We simply cued it up on the Xbox and started searching

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Netflix...bringin' down every video store in your town before you even know it.

Anywho, since it was the internet amped freak-fest of 2009 we settled in on Paranormal Activity. The film follows a young couple who has just recently moved into a new house and is experiencing some intense disturbances. The main female lead suspects it is a ghost or demon of some kind so in order to solve this problem they set up and begin recording their lives to see if anything strange is truly going on. And yes indeed...things are going bump in the night.

http://www.horrorphile.net

Production Technique is a huge part of this film. We view the events from the point of view of the home video camera. It's very handheld, shaky and appears extremely amateur. This is done on purpose and gives the film a very realistic edge that makes it all the more tense.

With most horror films, Paranormal Activity does a good job of appealing to the reptilian brain. The tension builds over the course of the film making the audience more and more nervous as time goes along. Things creak and jump out at you, eliciting a visceral "FLIGHT FLIGHT!" type of response.

See? It gets pretty freaky at times. Paranormal Activity is an interesting example of filmmaking because it utilizes the digital medium to its advantage. Instead of being dragged down by the video format, it embraces it to help tell its story.

Also, the ad campaign is something worth noting. Being a rather independent film, the production team behind the film used social media as a way to get the word out. The online campaign reached millions across America, and in effect created a cult following for the film even before it was released. Audiences were asked to 'demand' the film be shown in theaters near them, and it worked. This shows a true mastery of the cultural shift on behalf of the films' producers.

The Sexiest Midterm You Could Ever Find

1.After studying 20th century media for eight weeks I have learned about the developing forms of media, how they are being used in society, and the benefits or disadvantages of their influence. In my reading I've gained knowledge on the history and development of media, and in class I've become skilled with utilizing and recognizing the different tools used to manipulate the audience.

2.The most important thing I have learned as a critical thinker is how to identify and therefore fight back against the tools used by media to manipulate an audience. By understanding strategy I can see past it.

3.If I had to do one thing over the first half of the semester it would have to be concerning the weekly blogs. I was a bit lazy on a few of them, and totally just should have done all of them

4.One thing I would like Rob Williams to do differently this first half of the semester is to explain this whole blogging thing a bit more. I'm rather new to the blog scene and I would like to become more familiar with how it works before just diving right into it.

5.The power tools are an efficient and useful way to break down a medium, analyzing it for what it is and how it works. The course blogs gives me a good chance to stay on top of my reading and actually have a task to go with it. The personal blog I was a bit apprehensive about at first but I found it to be an amazingly fun assignment. The quizzes are amazingly helpful because they really drive the info into my brain. I feel as though the films and books offer interesting texts to study. Being media themselves, they allow me to learn and be immersed in what I'm studying.

Wasn't that pretty sexy?

Blog Post#2An evening on Planet Terror

Late into the evening my roommates and I decided to watch Robert Rodriguez's Planet Terror. Released as the first half of Grindhouse the film is an ode to 70's exploitation features, which is a genre I have to say I'm a fan of. While they may not be the best movies out there, I believe they have an unbelievable amount of spirit. Also they tend to be on the side of completely crazy. Because of this, such films have garnered quite a cult following.

I don't believe I can describe how balls to the wall awesome this movie is. If you're looking for a good time, this is where it's at. It's a literal roller-coaster ride of gore, babes, and is just in general awesome.

Needless to say this film is a workout for the Reptilian brain. Providing an overload of violence, it unashamedly takes you on an old-school romp of mindlessness. It's the perfect film to watch with a bunch of friends when you want to turn your thinking brains off and enjoy some craziness.

Being a throwback to older horror films, Planet Terror is heavy on production technique. The lighting is extremely dramatic; creating a spooky feel for the mood. Most noticeably, the film is edited to look old and worn out. Shots are grainy, and simulated sound pops make you feel like your actually watching some old beat up drive-in movie. Even the advertising campaign went along with the throwback vibe.

Filled with ridiculous, hyperbolic exaggeration, the over-the top vibe is really brought through. The schlocky nature of the film keeps it fun to watch, simply because it's so damn crazy.

Blog Post#1Brain-melting fun with Animal Collective.

So, recently I discovered that Animal Collective has released what they describe as a "Visual Album" called OddSac.

Animal collective is a psychedelic based art rock band that loves to push the limits of sound to new dimensions. As a band in general, they make some pretty crazy stuff.

The film itself is basically one extended music video. Clocking in at just under an hour it visually acts as a long extensive accompaniment to the music. It contains very little dialogue and loads of crazy cool stuff to look at.

Oddsac appeals almost one hundred percent to the Limbic brain. The music flows constantly throughout the film and many times there aren't even true images on the screen, simply flashing and morphing colors. This makes it a bizarre workout for your emotional brain for sure.

While concentrating mostly on the limbic, the editing often seems to assault you on a Reptillian level. While the brain can only process eight frames per second, this film takes full advantage of its 24 frames per second. Images and colors are flashed at your face at lightening speed before you even really have time to comprehend it.

See what I mean? Also, in some odd way the bright colors seem in correspondence with the music seem to elicit an instinctual response.

Interestingly, I find the idea of a double album to be an interesting selling point. In the age of digital convergence, this is just another direction for artists to explore. Either way, Oddsac was certainly a mindtrip, and not for the faint of heart.