Boulders are Beautiful

So I've been making a movie about a local climbing area. I'm really excited about it. With that being said, I have also been getting destroyed both physically and mentally by climbing these boulders and it has been a little hard to stay motivated. I was just shown this particular boulder problem the other day though and my motivation came back a little. It's incredible. It's called the tsunami boulder.

Climb of the Century

This is "Climb of the Century in Eldorado Canyon. It's located on the Rincon Wall which hosts a lot of single pitch classics. This particular climb is a very serious endevor due to the poor gear on the route. It's a killer line though. Very aesthetic. It took me two trips to Boulder to finally send this route. I believe the route was first climbed by Alec Sharp, the expatriate brit that lived in Boulder. Maybe thats why it has a serious nature about it.

Phun Photoshop

So this was a fun little project for Media Literacy Class. I really enjoyed using photoshop. I wish that I had the money to buy the program! I chose my subject out of convenience. I don't really dislike myspace and I personally enjoy myspace music. My subject was just conducive for the manipulation. It was also a response to the film that we watched in Media Literacy class about the dangers of the internet with teens. I believe that myspace has been subject to ridicule as well as facebook. Myspace provides the same ability of a hidden identity as facebook and that leaves the doors open to creeps.

1000 Journals

One thousand Journals seemed to continue past the realm of being entertaining. Although I really enjoyed the concept, I became bored with the film after a while. The still photography taken from the actual pages of journals were beautiful but the interviews with the characters became too much.

The concept of this documentary was extremely cool. Let some guy or rather Someguy design one thousand beautiful journals and then send them out into the world. I liked the parallels made with parenthood and the whole concept of letting go. Very Zen. What I didn’t like was that the documentary seemed to stray from this concept. The purity was completely lost. Someguy built a website and had people sign up for the journals. This is not random but controlled. It also creates a problem with characters. The people did not seem to represent anonymity but crazed journal seekers. They really freaked me out. The people that got the journals did not seem to believe in the true concept of the journals. If that is true however, then neither did the creator.

The documentary seemed contrived. All documentaries will show the filmmaker’s perspective and this requires critical thinking, but this documentary seemed to destroy the concept that it promoted. I could be wrong but I thought that the concept was designed around the idea that the journals would gain random perspectives from around the globe. As I mentioned before, the random selection did not seem so random. The documentary itself also seemed to get in the way of the original concept. The filmmaker was tracking the path of the journals and that is fine but the actual paths that the journals took were distorted. The people who received the journals played a large role in this, but the filmmaker did as well. This is unacceptable to me. I remember that the documentary showed a scene in which a journal was handed back from one person to the other to see what the other had written. That is not right. The concept is destroyed because of that. The anonymity from one person to the next is lost. From that point whole artistic statement behind the project seems false.

The characters depicted in the film also irritated me. I am not sure why those particular people were chosen but I can guess. It seemed a little less random and a little more obvious with the introduction of each new journal writer that it was not so random. They were the people that the project wanted to show. That ruined it for me. It seemed so false. I couldn’t believe it.

I think the documentary was bad but the idea was good. Maybe the idea was in the wrong place at the wrong time. I believe that the journals would have been better off in a less digitalized world. People don’t communicate the same way anymore and I think that was a point that the documentary was trying to make. I think the documentary took a wrong turn when it tried to depict the lives of the journal writers. The journals should have been more important. Like I mentioned before, the still photographs taken from the journals were beautiful.

The Closet

Well that was unexpected. I thought that the documentary was very well done. The point was made and exemplified with films time and again. I can't believe the way that hollywood was able to slip by so many restrictions. The restrictions were a little much and I think that they reflected a time when mainstream was more conservative. I can't believe that Ben Hur had homosexual undertones! That's hilarious! I think that the audience described in the documentary would have been really happy with 1000 Journals. I specifically remember that documentary showing a clip of a "boy goddess." The doors of the closet were definitely open with 1000 Journals.

DIFF

What a cool idea. A company that gives away ice cream! I really enjoyed the documentary made about this guy. He has a seven year plan to give away a certain amount of ice cream. What is so unique is his unwillingness to conform to modern society and use money as currency. He instead gives his ice cream away and will not except money whatsoever. He does however have a ton of sponsors that support his business. The documentary was only eleven minutes long but I thought it should have been longer and replaced the too long for its own good 1000 Journals. 1000 Journals was the feature documentary at the abbey theater on thursday. I felt that the idea was cool but the lens was distorted. I don't know if that makes sense but I feel that the director made a concious choice on how to present this documentary to the world and I just didn't like his viewpoint that he chose to use. Thats all.

Ray Jardine Style

Style makes the man. This is Ray Jardine in the seventies. He is the inventor of the camming device used for traditional climbing. He was also the first person in the country to climb 5.12 and 5.13. He quit climbing and became a guru for lightweight high risk backpacking. After he revolutionized that then he went on to sea kayaking, skiing the south pole, and skydiving. Oh yeah he is also a freaking genius with a degree in aerospace engineering. Thats Style with a capital S.

Catapult

Maybe people will turn this into an internet meme. Or maybe it already is. This is crazy though. How in the world could you get more extreme?

Harry and mean Meme Charlie

So I guess I've been in the dark about charlie and his brother harry. I just got introduced to this video this week in media lit. class and it makes me laugh out loud or should I say LOL. Memes are weird to me. Especially lol. LOL! Why shouldn't I just type ha ha Ha! Or maybe just actually laugh out loud and not tell anybody.

Samurai Duel

This is an inspiration for our samurai flick. This scene is based on a famous duel between Musashi and Kojiro that really took place in 1612. The reason I liked it was because the way they moved together reminded me of a choreographed dance. It's also worth noting that Musashi is using a wooden sword because he chose to. It reminded me of our own wooden staff concept.

The Corporation

“The Corporation” scared me. It struck me as a very realistic portrayal of our current economic system. I am not sure that I wanted to know everything disclosed in this film because it makes me feel terrible. What are we doing to our planet? How long can this continue? The movie stated that every species known to man is now in decline. Is that true?

I know that the film is biased. I also know that practicing critical thinking will in fact help me with my feeling of despair after watching this film, but I truly do not obtain the knowledge to argue with some of the claims made in this film. It reminds me of Al Gore’s movie “An Inconvenient Truth.” What can I say? Corporations contribute a large part to the destruction of Earth. Some may argue that everybody contributes significantly to this so-called destruction but the film explained that corporations speed up the process on a large scale. What are we going to do about it?

I enjoyed the history given in this film. The film mentioned that European Medieval life was a truly sustainable way of living. This struck me as odd because I have always thought of Medieval Life as “the dark ages” where people were not correctly constructing a decent society. My thoughts were changed by this movie and now I see how they were living in a constructed society that still worked for the Earth and not against it. That’s cool to me. It reminds me of the society of Native Americans. The medieval society, however seems to be a little closer to what we currently call society.

There was a reoccurring character in the film that I was impressed with as well. I cannot remember his name but I do recall that he had a southern accent and that he was the CEO of a company that made carpets. I thought that he was a great addition to the movie because he openly talked about his past views and how they contrast greatly to the way he tries to think now. He apparently never cared about the Earth or what his company did to destroy it until he read a book that discussed the topic. I remember him saying that as he read he felt that a spear had been driven into his chest. This confession and conversion was powerful to me. It also scares me to think about the fact that someone who knows what really goes on in the way of corporations could be converted into someone who believes we cannot survive if we continue to progress in the same direction. I enjoy life and I don’t want to see it end.

The last section about IBM computers was very interesting to me. It frightens me to think that corporations still managed to see dollar signs while a monster was trying to annihilate an entire group of human beings. That’s sick! I could never be apart of something like that regardless of how much money was available.

Merchants of Not So Cool

“Merchants of Cool” brought me to the belief that I was never cool. I understand that this film was made in two thousand and one but I cannot ever recall sharing the beliefs and feelings portrayed in the film. If that is what “cool” is then I am the antichrist of cool.

The location of the film presents a problem of relativity for me. It was obvious from the start that the film captured the thoughts and representations gathered from a very urban environment. If I had to guess, the central location for the film was New York City, New York. Having been reared in a small town in Mississippi, I did not experience the same things as the teenagers in this film. I was so far detached from the “real” world that I guess I didn’t have the same conceptions of what cool was. For me “cool” was playing guitar, books, tennis, and friends. I listened to music that I liked. Not what MTV liked!

My main disappointment with the film is that the teenagers were pictured as a herd that follows the leader. I never lacked an opinion of my own and I don’t think that an ad or marketing scheme could make me like music that I simply didn’t care for. I think there is something deeper within the soul of a human being that has a taste of its own. I remember hearing Jimi Hendrix for the first time and being deeply moved. The song was “little wing” and it was on a mixed cassette my father had. I had no false pretenses about who Hendrix was. I didn’t even know if he was alive or not. What I did know was that his song struck a chord within me. I didn’t like his music because it was cool to like his music. I would even say that I didn’t choose to like his music. I just liked it. Not everybody likes Jimi Hendrix and that’s ok. The fact that not one of my friends liked Hendrix did not stop me from developing my own opinion.

My opinion about MTV was reinforced with this film. I do not care for MTV to say the least. I think that they represent the complete opposite of what I stand for. The film gave an insiders view of how terrible they actually are. Why are they spending hard earned dollars going to kids homes in New Jersey to look at what they wear? Who F$#%&*G cares? Does that matter? I guess that I have a strong opinion about MTV but that’s because I was around when MTV was actually a great channel of music videos. Memories flood back to me when I think of what MTV was before. MTV was a brilliant channel that gave a visual component to the audio of the times. I am lucky to catch an actual music video on MTV these days. Reality shows and the TRL that “Merchants of Cool” portrayed plagues the screen like a bad virus. So much has changed. I feel old when I think about the early nineties as the good old days of MTV but it’s true. They no longer picture music but rather a sad and deformed version of reality.

Consumption Log

Consumption Log

 

Sunday  February 15, 2009

 

9:00 a.m. – Wake up.  Cell phone is missing so I turn on computer immediately to see what time it is.  Confronted with a picture of sunset on desktop.  Around the room I see two paintings done by my father.  One print is done by my girlfriend.  Books are on the bookshelf and a stack of old climbing magazines that I received as a gift the day before.  I wake girlfriend up with verbal communication.  We decide on breakfast.

 

9:30 a.m. – Get in car and hear stereo.  Music is by the Rolling Stones.  The album is “Exile on Main Street.”  While driving and listening to music I see traffic signs and traffic lights.  I see a sign that says Brickhouse café and I turn in.  At the door I see a stack of magazines entitled Mountain Gazette.  I pick one up.  While waiting to be seated I read and look at photos in the publication.  We are seated and the waitress hands me a menu.  The menu has writing that describes the food available there.  I read.  I pick something out and then wait on the waitress.  I order by telling my waitress what I want.  I then wait on my food and read the Mountain Gazette.  Food comes and I eat.  Then I am confronted with a piece of paper with math on it.  It is the check.  I reach in wallet and find an appropriate amount of money and leave it on the table and then we leave. 

 

10:30 a.m.- I get back in my car and listen to the Rolling Stones some more as I drive.  While driving I look at traffic signs and then I arrive at my girlfriends house.  My cell phone is there and I pick it up.  No Missed calls!  Yes!  I look at the most recent issue of climbing magazine that I had left at this house.  Photos of climbers and text pertaining to climbing stimulate my brain.  My girlfriend then shows me the artwork that she is drawing.  I look at them.  Then she shows me the photos that the drawings are from.

 

11:30 a.m.- I get back in my car.  More Stones and traffic signs as I drive to my house.  I get back in bed.  First I pick out an old issue of Climbing Magazine from the stack on the floor.  I lie in bed and read about the climbers and climbing of Llanberis Wales.

 

12:30 p.m.- I use my cell phone to call a friend.  She answers and we discuss a meeting place for a video shoot.  I get back in my car.  I listen to more music by the rolling stones and see more traffic signs.  I arrive at a coffee shop.  Inside I buy a cup of coffee.  The cup has a drawing of a hoarse on it. 

 

1:00 p.m.- I get back in my car and drive while listening to the same Stones cd and more traffic signs lead me to the location of the aforementioned video shoot.  I get out of my car and greet my friends with hellos and then we get out the equipment from the trunk of my car.  A camera, a microphone, batteries, boom poles, and reflectors are produced from the trunk of my car.

1:30 p.m.  For the next four hours we work as a team with the equipment and verbal communication to film a video.  There is so much media being used.  The camera, production book, microphones, and verbal communication all counts as media consumption.

 

5:30 p.m.  We are finally done with the video shoot and we pack all of the equipment away.  I get back in the car to hear more stones and follow more traffic signs.  While driving I call my girlfriend on my cell phone.  We discuss dinner.  She offers to order a pizza.  I get home and get back in bed with more climbing magazines.  I also use my laptop to access the Internet.  I refer to the article about a Llanberis climber and then I Google his name.  There is not much information but I search and search.  I find very little information about him. 

 

6:30 p.m.- My girlfriend arrives with a pizza.  The pizza is from Homeslice and they just recently got new pizza boxes and I check out the design.  It reminds me of an Italian villa.  We eat pizza and drink cokes out of the can.  Then I remember that I have band practice.

 

7:00 p.m.-  I set up a guitar amp and my guitar.  My other band mates arrive and they set up their equipment.  We begin to play.  Music is a form of communication.  We communicate between songs and sometimes we play the same song three times to get it right.  We do this for three hours.  After this we have a quick discussion and disband. 

 

10:30 p.m.- I lie in bed with my laptop and read an article online about simulation and it is really hard for me to understand.  After I read the article I open Microsoft word on my computer and start to type.

 

12:30 p.m.-  I now have typed at least five hundred words on the subject of the article I have just read and I save my document and then I turn off my computer. 

 

1:00 a.m.- I have brushed my teeth and now I am ready for bed.  I turn off the lights and go to sleep. 

The media is inescapable.  I am now immersed in media as I am writing.  What I have found recently is that the media is very healthy for me.  It provides influences and inspiration.  It creates outlets that in turn allow me to create.

         I am aware of my media intake more often now than ever.  I believe that this is possible because I shut myself off from the many forms of media I often use now.  After I turned twenty-one, I dropped out of college and moved to Ouray Colorado.  It was a big change.  I went from a student at the University of Mississippi to a drifter sleeping on a couch at a friend’s house in Colorado.  I remember feeling free.  I lived there for the following three years of my life and I was really shut off from the world.  I did not have Internet or a television.  My most common form of media that I regularly consumed was climbing magazines.  Someone had given me a box of back issues and I absorbed everything I could about the sport.  I also occasionally visited the library for books and a quick Google search but that was it.  Other than that I just climbed and worked and it felt good. 

            It felt good only for about a year.  After a year my inspiration as an artist was gone.  I was so bored that I could hardly stand it.  The next two years were hard but conducive for saving money.  I was definitely craving more media influence in my life though.  After three years of that simple life style I moved to Durango.

            When I moved to Durango I thought I was in a city.  Compared to Ouray there was so much going on that I was overwhelmed.  I started a band.  I bought records.  I spent hours in the coffee shops surfing the net and getting reacquainted with the world.  It felt so good.  I even started college again and now I feel like my life is so much more complete.

            The media causes my life to be stimulating.  I admire a simple lifestyle as well but for me personally there has to be stimulation through the media.  New music, new books, new topics of thought, and everything else that comes from the media are extremely healthy for me.  I do have a Thoreau side but I have been there and done that and I ultimately found it extremely boring.  It was therapeutic but overall it was extremely boring.

            My life is not so boring now.  I get frustrated about how busy I am occasionally but when I look back in hindsight I feel better than the way I used to feel.  I am driven and inspired and I attribute a lot of that to the media.  This exercise made me actually look at the media I was absorbing and I was super impressed.  I was doing things that three years ago seemed improbable.  I was happy that I was creating as much media as I was absorbing.  This is not always the case of course but for this particular day I put as much effort into the creation of media as I did the consumption of media. 

  

  

Simulations and Disneyland Stimulations

Simulations have never seemed so complicated. I feel that this essay entitled “Simulacra and Simulations” needs a precursor. I need a basic understanding to understand. I liked thinking about the idea that a simulation is a miniature of the whole. What I would like to know is how this concept applies to media literacy.  A little relevancy to the subject would be nice.
I enjoyed the examples given by the author referring to someone feigning an illness and someone actually simulating an illness. I didn’t know that someone could actually reproduce symptoms of an illness without actually being ill. That concept reminds me of placeboes. A simulation occurs when the power of suggestion alleviates pain. I’m not entirely sure how this connects to this article but I guess there is a similarity in the way that actual medicine in simulated. But is a placebo a miniature or condensed piece of the real thing? Maybe a placebo is not a simulation but rather a representation.
Representations seem to have reliability on truth. How does God transcend the simulacra? What is God simulated after? Has anyone actually seen God? This whole system seems to push theology out of the door for me. For something to be real the sign has to have an actual entity. It seems that the only thing that is real with organized religion is the actual organization that preaches. It doesn’t seem that there is a reflection of reality in the Old Testament.
Disneyland is only a perfect model of entangled simulation if you have actually been there. I never went to Disneyland. I have a younger sister who got to go. I admit I was a little jealous. My parents were young, poor artists when I was little but now they are successful and my sister reaps the benefits. Freud would probably have a lot to say about this. I don’t understand what the author is trying to convey with this example. People do go inside Disneyland to escape a world that is real and enter a fairy tale land. I think though that this transformation occurs more often in children than in the adults. With that being said, the automobile is not that prevalent to the children who don’t drive. There is just in and out. I don’t get what he is suggesting. I don’t think that the automobile would represent a gadget to a younger child. I do understand the contrast between the parking lot and the inside of Disneyland but do parking lots inflict pain? Is the parking lot outside of every Disneyland lacking an exit inducing captivity like a concentration camp? I wouldn’t know because I’ve never been in one but my parents and little sister went and they got out just fine. Maybe the Disneyland in Florida does not have a parking lot similar to a concentration camp. Wait a minute. Did they go to Disneyland or Disneyworld? Maybe they just went to Disneyworld and the parking lots in front of those are safe. Regardless, I don’t see Disneyland or Disneyworld as such a great entity to compare the parking lot outside to a concentration camp. I do however understand the simulation of reality or imaginary reality rather and its relation to semiotics.

Ryan Adams is a web master

So this is a song performed by one of my favorite songwriters. The reason I put it on my blog is because this particular song did not air on David Letterman. At the first of the video you notice that Letterman addresses the crowd as webbers. That's because this song was performed right after another but was only available on Letterman's website. Genius. Ryan Adams has also been a huge innovator in using the internet as well. He also posts his own blogs regularly but they are so dorky that I refuse to watch them.

Delta Sunset

Someone told me once that the Mississippi Delta sunsets are so gorgeous due to the dust in the atmosphere. It is true that most of that area is filled with cotton fields so maybe there is more dust in the air from plowing and tilling soil. I still would argue though, that Colorado is more dusty but I'm not sure. What I am sure of is that my hometown sunsets rival any in the world for beauty. I took this photo on my trip home for Christmas and it reminds me of a previous life or something.

Sharma sending La Rambla

After decades, Chris Sharma is still the man. This is him making the third ascent of La Rambla which is one of the worlds only 5.15's. The film is cool and I like seeing how its done in a couple of shots as well. I really enjoyed the part when the music was playing but you were also able to here the swallows singing in the limestone cave.

Money For Nothing

CLICK HERE TO VIEW MONEY FOR NOTHING
This is a link to the Dire Straits music video for their hit single Money for Nothing. The saying "they don't make em like they used to" comes to mind.

Here is a picture of my band playing at the summit on New Years Eve. I have trouble remembering the show but the pictures from it spark certain memories. Photos are like the bread crumbs left by hansel and gretel. They can help you find your way back into the past.

Supercrack

Indian Creek is a well know place for most climbers that live in the Durango area. Splitter cracks are found for miles and miles in this sandstone climbing mecca but for all it's glory, not much has been said about the founders of the area. This film trailer seems to be portraying the history of Indian Creek. The first ascent of Luxury Liner now known as Supercrack was the first climb done in Indian Creek. The year was 1976 and the climber was Earl Wiggins. Wiggins was a colorado boy who eventually went into the film business rigging for movies such as cliffhanger. His untimely death ended an era that he helped to usher in. This trailer depicts original footage as well as the other members of the first ascent party reliving their teenage adventure in the canyonlands of 1976.

Ad deconstruction

Gore-Tex is a company that sells waterproof clothing. This particular ad is featured on a full page of Rock and Ice magazine. This magazine is a climbing publication and it is convenient that Gore-Tex provides protection against the elements that the sport often faces.
The Gore-Tex ad is striving to sell their new fabric that the company compares to a shark’s outer layer. The target audience for this ad is outdoor enthusiasts and more specifically climbers. The ad draws the attention of readers with the illustration. The design of the head of a shark combined with the body of a male pulls readers into the ad. The point of the ad is to make the reader believe that the new Gore-Tex fabric will keep anyone protected. Gore-Tex provides one paragraph of text based on the strength of a shark’s outer skin and then compares this to the strength of their new product.
The actual product that the advertisement is about is unclear. They mention that as a company they have developed a solution to extreme conditions of nature called Gore-Tex Pro Shells. What are these shells? Are they similar to a turtle’s? The question of what the product looks like and what it actually is remains unanswered.
The advertisement is definitely designed to appeal to climbers. It could also be argued that the ad caters to males due to the fact that the head of the shark shares a body with a naked male. It seems that Gore-Tex targeted males under the assumption that the majority of climbers are male. The male body in the advertisement is also quite muscular. This could be viewed as a technique that appeals to males who desire a muscular physique or males who value being in shape. This in turn could speak to male climbers who might be reading the magazine.
The advertisement claims that the Gore-Tex solution provides “protection under the toughest conditions.” The ad also states that a shark’s solution is quite similar because they also have “an extremely tough exterior of scales [to] protect the body.” The weakness of the language only lies with the content. This is because more attention is given to describing the shark’s tough skin than actually describing the product they are selling. The ad does state, “To find out more about the Gore-Tex Product solutions visit gore-tex.com.” It seems they should have used their two paragraphs of text more wisely and included the information in the actual advertisement instead of leading potential customers on a wild goose chase to find out what in the world they were actually trying to sell.
The composition of the advertisement is very interesting. As I mentioned before, the head of a shark is combined with a male’s body and this creates a striking image that draws the attention of readers because of the obvious juxtaposition. It seems that the location of the ad is underwater but it is unclear. This is just insinuated by the combination of the content and the colors of blue used throughout the ad. The shark is an underwater creature and the majority of colors in the ad are blue.
There is a key phrase within the advertisement that grabs the reader’s attention as well. The bottom center of the ad hosts the Gore-Tex logo. The logo includes the slogan of the company, which is “Guaranteed to Keep You Dry.” The slogan within the context of the advertisement seems ironic. What does a shark living its whole life submerged in water know about “staying dry.” If a shark were to stay dry it would die. This seems a bit contradictory to the advertisement if the company wants to appeal to the safety obtained through wearing their “pro shells.” This is certainly an unintended effect I got from the advertisement.

Eggleston Photo

This is a photograph taken by William Eggleston. Eggleston is the godfather of color photography and is from the Mississippi delta which is where I was born and raised. He now lives in Memphis, Tennessee and is still active in the photography world. I relate to his photographs. They are the type of photographs that when once viewed plague your everyday visions. You seem to ask yourself or tell yourself rather that everything you see should be photographed. "I should take a picture of that" you seem to say to yourself. I guess his photos also remind me of home and excite a kind of nostalgia within me. Eggleston once commented on the fact that everything around him was so ugly to which his friend responded "Well take photos of the ugly stuff then." Well what he seemed to do was not just take photos of ugly stuff but transform the ugly stuff into beauty. The ordinary is gorgeous.

Dave Birkett Climbing in the Lake District

So this is a short clip of the movie "Set in Stone" by Alastar Lee. He is a british climbing film director and his films are far better than most other climbing movies in my opinion. There is a beauty in his cinematography that is unmatched for me. The angles are incredible and it seems like he moves on a track or something. I don't really know how it's done but I love it. There is a point that is reached in his films that makes the viewer super aware of the beautiful area in which his subjects are in. Dave Birkett is also an incredible muse and his climbing is well matched with Lee's directing.