Versace's Adventure

For my children's story, I was inspired by my roommate's cat Verace's daily attempts to escape from our apartment on to the balcony. It is told form his point of view. 

Oh what a beautiful spring day it is.

How I wish that I could get out from the confines of this stuffy apartment.

If only there were a way that I could escape.

What's this? I can slide the screen door open with my paw!

I'm free!! How I've been awaiting this moment!

But alas, I always get caught in the end..

Will I ever be able to frolic in the sweet spring air?

Maybe next time.. Tomorrow is another day.

Personal Essay

            As a Media Arts & Studies student, one of my main focuses throughout my education has always been on radio. I know that in reality, radio seems to be a dying field. Although it is still going strong today, it has a very difficult time competing with television and the Internet. Overall, I would like to try and find a way that radio can get back on its feet again. Not necessarily to become the leading media, but to give it a push in the right direction. Something that I think radio has lost over its lifespan is its dedication to education and news. Now saying this, I don’t believe that it should be used solely for these purposes. I think that it is possible for this media to be used not only for music and advertisement, but for education and news as well. This fall away from news and education began in 1927 with the formation of the Federal Radio Commission (FRC). The FRC believed that the radio should be used solely for “public interest, convenience, and necessity.” Evidently, education was not something that they saw fit in to one of these categories. By 1928, the FRC separated radio stations in to three different classes, differing in content and broadcast power. The second class was given low broadcasting power and limited hours. This was where the educational stations fit in. As early as a year later around one hundred of these stations collapsed, leaving only a few left. However at the same time, Britain, Australia, and Canada were all capable of running stations that broadcasted commercial and educational content. So what was the problem with us? This is something that I would like to acknowledge with my Media education. I would like to somehow find a way that this content can not only co-exist on a radio station, but also do it successfully. On top of that, I would also like to bring the community feeling back to radio stations. In the 1930’s and 40’s, radio was used as a way to update people about what was going on with the war and other crises around them. It was a way of bringing people together in times of fear and need. Now, although I am an advocate for involving radio with the news again, I don’t think that this is the only way that we can bring the feeling of community back. One thing that I would like to do with radio stations is to help them start giving back to their own communities. I would like to help stations create organizations that help with things like the homeless, victims of abuse, or even simpler ideas like keeping their city clean. I know that some stations are already on-board for ideas like this, but it’s something that should be very important to everyone and radio is a great way to broadcast different ways to help.

Creative Work - Producer Podcast

Producer Podcast

            The assignment that I have chosen as my creative piece is my Producer Podcast that I did in my Audio Production class. With this piece I wanted to create a podcast that not only gave a background on Danger Mouse’s career and works, but to display his talents through the variety of different genres and styles of music that he collaborates with. In this project I used Pro Tools and recorded using a Shure dynamic microphone.

Strengths and Weaknesses

3. Flawless

            In this suggestion, Rendall points out that your weaknesses aren’t just weaknesses, but a lot more. He states that each characteristic that we consider a weakness is paired with a counterpart, a strength. An example would be the strength of dedication being paired with the weakness of stubbornness. An example of this that I have definitely seen in myself is the pairing between enthusiasm and being obnoxious. Being a very enthusiastic person can be a good thing, but sometimes I do get a little over-excited. This is helpful to my creative life because it shows that even my characteristics that I view negatively have a positive side to them. Just because I am not particularly good at something, doesn’t mean that I have to let it bring me down. Each weakness that we have is just another hint to a strength we may have not yet discovered. 

5. Foundation

        I think that this is a very helpful piece of advice. When looking at weaknesses, I would say that most people’s initial thought is that they are something that needs to be changed. This point tells us to do the opposite. Instead of focusing on our weaknesses, we need to focus on our strengths. Our strengths are what we are naturally good at in life. They are the things about us that we do without trying, and we enjoy them. The reason that I think this is an important point is because people really focus on their weaknesses too often. I know that I do. Stressing on our weaknesses only brings us down, focusing and building on our strengths enables us to better ourselves by doing something that we enjoy.

            When looking at myself, I feel like there are a lot of weaknesses that I could think of. I’m a procrastinator, easily distracted, unorganized, and indecisive. All four of these things are very difficult characteristics to have when it comes to the creative process. It is at its worse when I am stuck with writer’s block. After reading the article however, I really am starting to stop beating myself up over them so much. I know that even though I am a procrastinator, I work really well under pressure; even though I am easily distracted, I can really bust ideas out once I’m on a roll; although I’m unorganized, I have a lot of things going on inside my brain; and my indecisiveness helps a lot when it comes to dealing with other people who can’t make up their minds. I know that each of my weaknesses has its own complimentary strength that goes along with it. Although I do see where Rendall is coming from in saying that we shouldn’t try and fix our weaknesses, I do think that I could improve on mine a little. It wouldn’t be difficult at all to try and keep my papers more in order or to start projects a little earlier. In the end though I guess he is right, all of these factors are what make me the creative individual that I am. 

Ya'll Got Mozzarella Cheese Sticks?

            The creative piece that I have decided to critique is a scene from one of my favorite documentaries, “The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia.” In this clip, a couple of the Whites are trying to place an order at a Taco Bell. This scene connects to my favorite chapter that we went over in Media Analysis and Criticism, the chapter about Realism. Here’s the clip:

The first thing that I noticed about this clip is that this documentary uses the style known as Neorealism. Neorealism is a style that originated in the 1950’s and is characterized by an imperfect and unorganized set. What this means is that not everything in the scene was purposely put there. In the drive-thru you can see other cars driving by and there are random people walking around inside of the restaurant. Outside of the actions and conversations that we are watching, regular life is still going on. This helps add to the feeling of the film being realistic to us. Adding to this feeling of realism is the use of loosely framed compositions throughout the entire scene. You can see how the camera is moving around freely, especially while Sue Bob is having the conversation with the drive-thru machine. It also swings over to a reaction shot from the person in the passenger seat, Kirk, which gives us a little subjective access into how she feels about the difficulty of placing the order.

            Another big factor that plays into the realism of this scene is the idea of apparent spontaneity. This concept acknowledges the fact that generally people see reality as unplanned. The first thing I noticed in this scene is that Sue Bob obviously has no idea what she is going to order, the conversation moves slowly, and the drive-thru worker doesn’t seem to know how to handle the situation. There are many pauses as each person in the conversation has to think of a response and Sue Bob stumbles on a lot of the words that have to be said, like saying “fiestas” instead of “fajitas.” Another instance of apparent spontaneity is when she sees her friend Renee eating dinner with her family inside of the restaurant. It seems unplanned that Renee happened to be eating there and adds a lot to the realism of the situation. Along with that, you can tell that the only form of lighting that was used was the lighting that was available at the time. To look further in to the concept of apparent spontaneity, I would like to acknowledge the use of narrative spontaneity in this scene. Narrative spontaneity is when something that is irrelevant to the story line is included anyways. Now, obviously going to place an order at a Taco Bell drive-thru isn’t detrimental to the main plot of this movie. However, its presence places us in the life of these people and not only makes it feel real to us but almost as if we are there ourselves. 

Finding My Howl

            The part of Finding Your Howl that stuck the most out to me is the story about Mumon the wolf. This story is one about determination, perseverance, and hope. It takes a while for all of us to discover our talents in life, and even when we do they require a lot of work and dedication. I know from my own experience that finding your true talents is difficult. I have a lot of different things that I am interested in, but I never seem to be as good at them as I want to be. This story is meant to inspire and show that we can overcome any challenge that may be presented to us. Building off of these ideas, I have chosen a quote from the lead singer of the band “Villages.”

“. . . it was always about exploring the farthest reaches of my imagination. There’s no point in making an album unless you’re growing and changing and learning. If it’s going to alienate narrow-minded people, that’s sad. But maybe it will open their eyes as well.”

-       Conor J. O’Brien

This quote really speaks to me for a number of reasons. Firstly, my aspiration in life has always been guided by music. I have always wanted to be involved in the musical process in some way whether it was by creating music, broadcasting over the radio, or helping record. To me, this quote really embodies the outlook that one should have when pursuing dreams like these. It’s all about finding the creativity inside of you, pushing yourself to come up with things that you have never heard or thought of before. On top of that, it’s important to keep in mind to not let other people bring you down. Just because one of your creations may not appeal to a certain person, doesn’t mean that it’s not intriguing, new, or beautiful.