Speaking of fandom...

I was surprised that even though at first I wanted to laugh at the Trekkies I took into consideration my on fan worthy interests, like anime and art and I realized I would be like them if I had the opportunity. To clarify, I would gladly go to an anime convention and I would be likely to dress up for it too. My roommate and I have decided that if we go to a convention together, we should dress as Shino and Haseo from a video game/anime/manga called .hack//GU+. Yes I really would dress up. Not only that, but I would be likely to try to open up an art booth at a convention. One thing you will never catch me do though is bid hundreds of dollars in an auction for a collectors item. I only collect art, and I'm too cheap to spend outrageous amounts of cash on anything. I am just as much a geek as any of those trekkies, but at least I will admit it, unlike some people who believe that renaissance fairs aren't just big conventions that allow you to dress up, goof off, and buy weaponry and whatnot. The same applies to sports fans even though it is a widely acceptable arena for fandom. Just accept the fact that you are all under the influence of fandom!!! mwaha ha hah

Malone Filter

There has been a discussion going on in my sculpting class about Malone's policy on nudity in art. One of my classmates made several sculpted reliefs of the female figure to display in her Senior art show, but she has been told by the president and the provost that she is not allowed to show them, because it goes against the policy. Many of the students including myself disagree with their decision, because the pieces of art though they allude to a nude figure they are not detailed nor are they offensive in any way. In class we were having trouble understanding why her artwork is unable to be shown, because it is perfectly acceptable for the students to see nude paintings and sculptures in art history, and apparently though the figure drawing class is unable to use a nude model they are allowed to use nude figures drawn by the 'masters'. I understand that Malone is a Christian school from a Quaker heritage and they filter out certain things to keep Malone a clean controlled environment, but I do not believe that this student's artwork violates that. Some speculation has been going around that they are afraid of losing money if one of Malone's backers is offended by the artwork and decides to withdraw their money. I doubt that all of the administrations' reasons are as mercenary as that, but I think that they should be able to explain to the artist exactly why her art has been rejected so she can accept their ruling.
I think that Malone should take a more creative approach to the fear of nudity, because it seems like they are equating nudity with sexual perversion. This is really a reflection on our culture, that we are embarassed by the bodies of the opposite sex. Malone should teach its students to behave maturely toward the human body.

Digital Media Story

The media story was scary for me to do because I am inept at using movie programs. Thankfully I had friends who knew how to use them and they were very helpful. If it weren't for them my media story would have turned into a slide show with subtitles. The media story I made was about Nierste and his love for an anime called One Piece. He's gotten a lot of his friends to watch it with him, and now that I've been working on this story that list includes me. Its an anime that is able to balance lighthearted humor with seriousness and action. My favorite part of making the story was when Nierste, Joel and I were crowded around the computer picking out clips from One Piece that reflected what Nierste was talking about in the interview. My favorite clip was when Okamawe, the cross dressing villain with the ability to change his appearance to that of anyone he touches, turns into Nami and Sanji goes crazy in love everytime he sees her face. I'm kind of hoping that Nierste's interview will make other people want to watch anime, or at least One Piece.

Art Nouveau

It looks like art Nouveau is making a comeback. It was really popular in the 1890's in architecture and advertising and jewelry. I think its really beautiful because it has heavy outlines and and rich colors. I think this style developed from the people who made stained glass windows. It is easy for me to imagine these pictures of colored glass set in lead outlines. It is one of my favorite styles of art because it draws from 1890's and the 600's. It recreates some of the paintings and tapestries in the middle ages, so you can see how it draws from that as well. Art Nouveau is really a conglomeration of many things.

Medieval painting

Art Nouveau Architecture
Stained Glass

Art Nouveau Jewelry

Media Debate and Politics

The debate that we had on Thursday was exciting. Batting ideas back and forth stimulated my brain. I had some trouble with speaking my thoughts, but I always have trouble speaking so thats nothing new. We got so into particular arguments that we got sidetracked from what we were really arguing. Debates are interesting because you have to have a clear focus on the topic or else get lost along the way. I probably shouldn't bring this up, since we're not debating the topic anymore but I just can't resist. The final arguments were completly screwed up. The negative team (my team) just kept repeating the same arguments over again like a broken record. And, while the affirmative gave some pretty interesting resolutions to the argument they were no longer arguing their position.

One resolution was something along the lines of : If we are ignorant of what is happening around the world it is our own fault (which is probably true) we can always look up the information on the internet. I thought that this was disheartening. The media obviously isn't doing its job of informing people if we have to search for it. The internet is a public domain and only a small percentage of website fall under the power of media conglomerates. Most information online is provided by individuals. If important news is not presented by a media conglomerate isn't that a form of censorship. They decide just to edit it out. News organizations are not supposed to pick and choose what they are willing to show us. Someone else stated that media conglomerates are not political. I can only imagine she was thinking that the conglomerates are not running for election, nor do they have seats in the senate. But media conglomerates are political. Conglomerates have platforms by the fact that they support certain beliefs and values. In itself a conglomerate is a political organization. Control of the media is the basis behind controlling the populous, it is a giant political machine and there are many historical examples to support this like book burnings in Nazi Germany, the good old USA and also in Qing China.

Hollywood Simulation

I read Deanna's response to the Hollywood simulation and I can't help but respond. I was pretending to be Vin Petrol's fabulous agent. So what am I supposed to do but promote my client, get him a role that will boost his career and a fat paycheck. Needless to say I failed, well at least at getting money. We approached Deanna to hire him on as an actor which was simple because the other actors and agents were elsewhere. We were confused at first because the writers were trying to get actors for their script, but didn't have a company backing them. So I went for the money..... well I asked the studio to pay my client the amount of money that the paper said he usually gets paid I didn't fight for more. As I was saying I am a sucky agent. My client could do better without me, he just whined for more money and Deanna gave in just to shut him up. (I would have too). He ended up with an outrageous sum of money... and I forgot to negotiate my fee hence I am a starving agent. When the Deanna was picking a script I kept pestering her saying "Deanna pick this one, pick the sci-fi one its cool." Maybe I should have worked for the writers. I felt really bad for the writers who weren't able to get their scripts chosen to be produced. Its not like they didn't have good ideas, there just wasn't enough money to go around. I never want to be involved in the Hollywood race, its scary. And to tell the truth I'm not that competative.

Hybrid TV Pitch: City Under the Sea

I was trying to think of a two genres I could put together, but every thing I came up with already had a tv show to go with it. mystery/sci-fi= eleventh hour, mystery/drama= CSI, mystery/reality=mole..... well maybe there is one- reality/sci-fi.... 30 people from a variety of occupations live in an underwater city cutoff from the outside world. They are given the tools to cultivate and catch their own food and combat bordom. How will they survive in this hi-tech city: creaty their own utopia or drive eachother insane. It would be a combination of Captain Nemo's Nautilus, the Biodome, and a Marxist social experiment (courtesy of Thomas More's Utopia). I think it would be interesting because the people involved would have to be committed to the project. They would need farmers, scientists, doctors, electricians, and the like to keep it running. This is no Survivor, vote them off the island deal, each person selected would be needed in the community.