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.

Media Log 2: a week of vacation

Over vacation I thought that I would get ahead of the game. Read for all my classes, do some art, and clean. Unfortunately when I'm home I feel like I'm in a time trap and nothing gets done. This week I watched TV or movies every night with my parents for four hours(my brain is turning into mush). My excuse for turning tv is that I don't have the internet at home. I admit I am an internet addict, and I find watching tv to be tiring.

I did read a lot for my Author Studies class. I hope that balances out with my tv watching. I was reading The Lord of the Rings and the Silmarillion. They are pretty interesting books to have for homework. I think I spent about two hours reading each chapter. Even though the book looks small don't let it mislead you: there are 42 lines on each page single spaced 10 point font. Those books make me feel like I'm not making any progress.

Media Log= Normal School Week

During the school week, when I'm not in class, I am online. I do most everything online. I read manga or look at art on Deviantart or check my email. I spend about 60% of my online time on Deviantart commenting on artwork or advertising for Snow Palette. I spend 20% reading manga. 10% to researching random things like publishing, jewlry making, and Japanese. The rest of the time I'm checking on all of the communities I'm attatched to. I would say it was a waste of time if I didn't think that most of the things I did online didn't have a purpose... ok so reading manga is not productive, but it is entertaining. I don't watch TV shows or movies or play video games (even though I have several games I've been meaning to play). Outside of that I read for classes about 1-2 hours a day.

Alltel The Series

I love the latest Alltel commercial. You know the one where the angry trucker takes the four dorks hostage and Chad comes to the rescue offering a better cell phone plan. These commercials are amusing because they are like episodes in a mini TV drama or a comic strip in the Sunday paper. The audience recognizes the characters and is more in tune with their comical story than with the fact that it is a commercial selling a product. The company does a good job of incorporating their latest offer of phone bill freedom along with the comedy. There are four other commercial series that follow the same format. Verizon who used to be a competitor of Alltel, but is now owned by Alltel made commercials spoofing horror movies. Geico has commercials with the gecko and the caveman that don't have to 'sell' their product because what they sell has been established through previous commercials with their characters and only need to restate their tag line "so easy a caveman could do it" or flash their logo.

2012 The End?

2012 is the date slated for the Mayan Calendar to end. It was thought of as the most accurate calender ever created. Now people are in a frenzy because of this and other sign that 2012 marks the end of an age which people are interpreting is the end of the world. Earth will appear to line up to the center of the universe because it wobbles on its axis. This is like a repeat of the Y2K scare, in which the year 2000 was a date not programmed into computers and would have caused computers to go off line, and other errors. This scare is social not technological. This is just one of the many doomsday scares used to sell tabloids and other products. There always people proclaiming the end of the world because of signs like the Hale Bop Comet and presently global warming and the financial crisis. Maybe these people just want the world to end so they don't have to deal with it anymore. Other people use these signs to cause mass hording of goods. 1999 was a good year for the battery companies and bottled water.

Feminine Curve

You know the abdomen? The area of a woman's stomach that orbits the belly button. I think of it as 'the pouch' (if we were marsupials it would be a pouch). In art it is glorified as the essence of womanhood. Its the small protrusion of the stomach that houses the womb. In media today the feminine curve has been obliterated by washboard man like abs. Many fashion models sport flat stomachs because it has become the ideal for women who want to be thin. I think that the women who are trying to be fit and thin see the feminine curve as a remnant of fat. They don't realize that it is natural and beautiful. On the other hand a lot of modern artists paint the feminine curve into their art. Compare Mcey from Next Top Model to Art Germ's character Pepper.

Favorie Text

Howl's Moving Castle by Diane Wynn Jones is one of my favorite fairytale books. It fits into the fantasy genre as it is all about wizards, kings, and magic spells. This book also has an element of comedy because it begins as a spoof on the laws of fairytales. One of the laws of fairy tales is that the eldest of three siblings will never find her fortune because it is always the youngest that will have a successful and charmed life. However this story fights against the nature of fairytales. It balances between convention and invention, by having predictable things like witches, wizards, castles, and demons, but also is inventive by having castles that walk, a wizard who plays computer games, and a girl who has cursed herself to be an old woman. It is a surprising sort of book, but nothing that wouldn't be acceptable in the fantasy genre.

The next big thing

I realized that publishers like to do the same thing that the merchants of cool do. When Twilight became popular it seemed like all the publishers were trying to pop out vampire books. They wanted to get on the gravy train. None of them got as much notice as Twilight did, because they didn't market those books as well as Twilight was marketed. Because of Twilight a lot of people became interested in Vampire books, so I suppose the publishers new what they were doing, but none of those books had as strong an affect on readers as Twilight did.

Dutch Courage by the Spill Canvas

In a previous post I quoted a line from the song "Dutch Courage".

" Paranoia is haunting you,
and all these dirty looks well they are right on cue.
Your full up to the brim with that he said, she said trash
You exist behind your keyboard and then your gone in a flash.

.

refrain:

Ten bucks says you don't have it in you
To conquer fear and quit believing what they tell you to
You are careening shamelessly into oblivion
Where you will live alone with your chemicals and gin.

.

I am utterly disgusted with the path you trek

As inebriated as you can get off your latest pay check

I am at a loss for words here

I hate to break this to you but being a coward is not a legitimate career

.

+refrain+

.

We were born and raised the same way so what gives you the right to say

At least I'm not a liar, At least I'm not a cheat

At least I don't care what these damn mindless people think of me"

-Spill Canvas

I really like the refrain of the song. It is a bet that the person its directed (lets call him Fred) at won't be able to face what he fears. It is also a challenge to Fred to straighten up. I think the speaker (lets call him Joe) is concerned for Fred. It seems like they used to be friends but Fred was discouraged by the harshness of the world, and has turned to drugs to drown out the pain. Joe is disgusted by Fred's method of coping and is blunt with him. I also get the impression that the Joe does cares about Fred though he is very critical of Fred's lifestyle. Though all of these words belong to Joe, I think that the line "We were born and raised the same way, so what gives you a right to say" belongs to Fred. This line is a protest to what Joe has been telling Fred. Fred is being defensive of his dependence on drugs and alcohol. I want to attatch the last two lines to Fred as well, but the last line wouldn't make sense with Joes oppinion that Fred needs to " quit believing what they tell [him] to"

Sula

Sula written by Toni Morrison illustrates the myth of returning to the olden golden days. The inhabitants of the Bottom are not very caring of one another. I thought they were cruel to each other. People die and they get no sympathy and affairs are common. Sula is a character who feels not guilt for anything she does because she doesn't have a sense of good or bad. The town hates Sula, not because she has been sleeping around with their husbands, but because she has been with white men, which is really low. They call her the devil woman. The women of the town decides they need to restore their own good, so they ban together in their common hatred of Sula and try to be better neighbors, wives, and mothers.
It is not a happy book, but it does revolve around the idea that their society has degraded and they want to fix it. I think it seems like a foil to the 'pull yourself up by your bootstraps' myth also, because the town raises itself by targeting one individual and pushing away from them. Do you think that could be possible?

The Cute Japanese Girl Ideal

*Warning: Watch commercial first or the joke will be spoiled*

The commercial for Ajinamoto Stadium

The guy in this commercial is moving to a new town filled with beautiful girls. They are baby faced manicured and trimmed. They wear stylish clothes, carry cute handbags, and sport childish cellphone charms. The word for the ideal girl is "kawaii" (which is used for all things cute). This cuteness extends to the high pitch of their voices. The boy is quite surprised by how deep the girls' voices are. Its creepy to hear a man voice coming out of the body of a petite schoolgirl. When he knocks down a girl who squeals in a normal girls voice the camera cuts to scene of the two in bed and you find out that he formed a relationship with the girl because her voice was girly, even though she is not stylish or cute like the other girls. We find out that all of those girls are avid fans of the university sports team and have mens voices due to all their cheering. And then we see the words 'shout all you like'. This commercial has the mixed standards of cuteness and school spirit. Support and fandom is also important in Japan. This commercial encourages the youth to be supportive of sports without worrying about looking silly.

Visuals Signs: Book Covers

Book covers are just as important to attracting a reader, as the summary on the back. The first thing that attracts a reader is the cover. I pick up a lot of books because I like the cover. Covers hint at what the book is about. They are also pretty clear about what genre the book belongs to. The covers usually warn me away from genres I don't like. For example romance novels have a man in a woman, usually in a ridiculous pose, with wind blowing in their faces and bronzed skin, revealed by their lack of clothing. Its usually the men who get their shirts taken off on these covers. Eye candy for the middleaged woman, whose love life isn't quite that exciting.

Generic Fantasy books have covers with combinations of mythical beasts, medieval clothing, swords and sparkly magic items. Not every book falls into the solid idea of the genre and their covers usually reflect that.

Mystery books tend to have vague images of streetlights, doors, keys, and other random objects that show up in the mystery. It easy to tell if the mystery revolves around murder because the publishers can't help but add a splash of blood to the cover.

The covers that make me laugh are the older sci-fi space books. All of the technology is really jaggedy like the insides of a computer; and everyone wearse spandexy uniforms in vibrant colors. Recently we portray technolgy as clean cut, like the style of the ipod. Its like Eva vs. Wallee.

I guess what I'm trying to say is the publishers make it easy for us to see what we're looking for. They have mad marketing skills. (or they could just have a thing for cheesy cover art)

Conspiracy Theory

"Paranoia is haunting you, and all these dirty looks, well they are right on cue"- Spill Canvas

Truth
Yes the government is out to get you. They are using the television to manipulate your mind. Your cell phone is a tracking device and your credit cards help the market target your spending habits. Not to mention blogging communities are a playground for stalkers. I do have some good news: the government is only out to get you if your a terrorist. Unfortunately I also have some bad news: everything else applies to you.

Untruth (is that a word?)
The government is not embedding secret messages in the radio. (Subliminal messages do exist, but they were outlawed as a marketing tool)
The red cross is not stealing your blood to generate a deadly virus targeted to your unique genetic thumbprint.
Unfortunately foil hats cannot shield your mind from mind readers. Its probably a good thing nobody can read minds.... yet. (Mwahaha) Sorry if you really are paranoid about that sort of thing.
If you are paranoid please seek help. (although your shrink may be government spy)

Matchboxes: an odd semiotic domain

For my sculpting class I was googling how to sculpt hair. Obviously because the bust I am molding is bald. Unfortunately I couldn't find anything remotely helpful, which is fine because I decided that I should leave my old man bald, but I did find this picture, which led me on a wonderful hunt to learn more about making matchboxes.

Crabby matchbox made by Miss Pickle

So I looked up matchbox art and found out that most of the matchboxes were made to swap on a site called swap-bot.com. Anyway I got really excited because I wanted to decorate a matchbox, but I didn't know where to buy matchboxes, and I thought it would be a waste to buy matches just for the boxes anyway. Fortunately I found a template online for making matchboxes. Last night I tried it out. I designed a matchbox cover in photoshop, using the dimensions from the template. Then after finally finding a color printer that worked I cut it out and put it together. It was really fun and easy to do. The one thing that I would change is that I didn't print on sturdy paper, so the box was kind of weak. I joined swap-bot. I couldn't resist. So now I shall make lots of tiny matchboxes filled with tiny things and swap them with lots of people who make them too. I suppose I am trying to say that I am joining an affinity group (matchbox makers) by attatching myself to the semiotic domain of (matchboxes) and ultimately joing a larger group of swappers. Its wierd how that works.

Anyway, I thought I would add my matchbox design for anyone who wants to try and make a matchbox.

How to Link to Other Blogs

I hope this short tutorial will help

There is a nifty gadget you can use to link to other blogs, and keep track of new posts on your blog.

1. Go to the Layout tab

2. click on Add Gadget on the side bar

3. select Blog List (it will be the first gadget on the window that pops up)
the Configure Blog List window will pop up

4. click Add a blog to your list (its in the white box, highlighted in blue)

The window below will pop up.

5. Enter the url of the blog you want to add.

6. Click Add

7. Don't forget to click SAVE (this is very important)

Media Grafitti

Plastered across billboards, on telphone poles, in store windows, on tv, in newspapers, on the internet, everywhere you look there are ads. We are so used to them, we barely take notice of them anymore. Without them we wouldn't "know" what we want to buy. I mean really, if we didn't have that little comercial advertising the ipod, we wouldn't have a snobbish preference for them. The ipod shuffle is a piece of crap by the way. If you want a cheap player with better features, Sansa is a sturdy little player. (ads: you can't escape them). Seriously though, without ads some people wouldn't know that they are supposed to compare car insurence before they buy it. What are you going to pick? allstate? safe auto? GEICO? I admit the GEICO gecko is pretty darn cute. I actually enjoy watching their commercials on tv. The people who are good at designing know how to make advertisments asthetically pleasing. It seems though that there are more badly designed advertisments than good ones. We are drowning in ad pollution. Yes, ad pollution. We have noise pollution, so why can't we have ad pollution. Someday they will tell us that ad pollution is the leading cause of cancer among young adults. It causes you to go cross-eyed and foam at the mouth.

Deviant Art

Out of any web community, DA is my favorite. Deviant Art is an online artist community that is focused on sharing art between members of the community. As a member you have your own page with a gallery, a journal and the ability to track your favorite artists. I've been a member since 2005 and have found it really helpful when learning different art techniques. There are several helpful art tutorials on DA. I also really enjoy displaying my own art and commenting on the art of others. I recently started an online art magazine called Snow Palette. I promoted it on DA and several artists submitted some of their work to be in the magazine. Even though I'm a beginner at the whole magazine thing, those people on DA really support me.

Illeander on DA

Snow Palette Magazine