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.
Thursday, February 26, 2009
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.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
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.
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.
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.
Monday, February 16, 2009
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.
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.
Friday, February 13, 2009
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.
Thursday, February 5, 2009
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.
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.
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