History of the Internet - Don't bother reading

I find this website incredibly boring. I would much rather have watched another documentary in class about the history of the internet than to have to navigate through this. And some of the stuff is in another language that I don't understand, so that really doesn't help me. I don't find history particularly interesting, I'm much more interested in what is happening right NOW. And although I probably should care, as long as my email works now I don't give two shits how it came to be.

What also sucks is that when I read things that don't interest me, such as the information on this website, i write boring and uninteresting blogs. So I appologize to anyone who happens to read this, even though I warned you in advance that it wouldnt be worth it.

MZTV - Stradivarius

I would like to explore this website more when I have more time. I think that it's really cool that this man came up with the idea of collecting things from television as art. It makes perfect sense, I just would have never in a million years thought of it in that way. But he doesn't collect just any pieces. He collects "milestones in technology or design." Good for him. Boo yah.

This is such a great website to use to compare the differences in television from decade to decade. It really elaborates on how television grew and evolved in the past to turn into what it has become today. I also came away from the website knowing this little fun fact: There are fewer prewar TV's left in the world than Stradivarius violins. Which led me to google what the heck Stradivarius violins are...

"A Stradivarius is a violin or other stringed instrument built by a memeber of the Stradivari family, particularly Antonio Stradivari. According to their reputation, the quality of their sound has defied attempts to explain or reproduce, though this belief is controversial. The name "Stradivarius" has also become a superlative applied to designate excellence. To be called "the Stradivari" of any field is to be deemed the finest there is." - Wikipedia.com

Sure, it's not the most reliable source, but it works for me!

OTR.com

So Santiago told us to look around otr.com and blog about it, and I did and I was AMAZED. I had no idea that so many radio shows actually existed. And I like how the website breaks them up into different genres. I have a much better understanding now of what radio meant to people before television was invented. Looking through this website reminds me of looking through a movie theater's website to see what is playing.





I was particularly intrigued by Captain Midnight. When looking through the History of Captain Midnight, this particular description caught my attention:


"In the beginning, 'Captain Midnight' was just an undercover name for Jim 'Red' Albright, who regularly piloted cargo and passengers. As an undercover agent, Albright was trying to gather information on a gang of criminals. However, by the end of the first run, ending in a summer hiatus, the Captain Midnight persona was beginnin to stick and many new him only by that name. Captain Midnight was constantly trying to stop the plans of the evil Ivan Shark and his daughter Fury. Shark remained as Midnight's evil nemesis throughout the length of the radio run."

I think that I like the idea of radio better than the idea of television. Not 10 minutes ago my roommates were ranting about how our television isn't working, and then one of them mentioned that she wished she had grown up in a time without television so that she didn't know what she was missing. I wouldn't mind listening to radio shows instead of watching television, because you can divide your attention between the show and whatever else you are doing because there is nothing to watch. I like the idea of letting your imagination do the work.

Flipbook

Videdrome

The hip hop in Debrah Harry's music video that we watched in class reminded me of the theme song to "Fresh Prince of Bel Air." It didn't seem right that she was rapping because she sounded really weird doing it...i guess it's just because i'm used to hearing rap with a side of ebonics. But i guess she was cool back in the day, even though she was a blonde haired girl who was rapping. Santiago said something about this being the first instance i think...so i guess in order for the world to accept it, Debrah Harry had to be the first one to do it. Luckily, Will Smith picked up the slack once Fresh Prince got started.

I also noticed the mixture of cultures in the video. Not only that, but there were so many random elements in the video. Santiago DID say that everything was there for a reason, and I guess shock value IS a reason. Or Debrah just wanted to confuse future audiences. Some examples of the random people that I noticed were a ballerina, a pristess, and a man walking a goat. I did appreciate the diversity of the cast though, because there were black people and white people. And everyone was wearing cool costumes. And one guy was doing graffiti on the wall, which also reminded me of the beginning of the Fresh Prince music video. But I really couldn't take the rapping seriously, sorry Deb.

Singing in the Rain/Clockwork Orange

I loved the irony in the difference between the original "singing in the rain" and the scene in Clockwork Orange where the boys sing the same song.

The original song is sung joyously, because of the love that the character is feeling. He is outside, and while the rain is pouring down on him he sings and dances in the streets. However, in Clockwork Orange, the boys are feeling joyous for an entirely different reason. They are hopped up on drugs and thoroughly enjoying beating the crap out of a man while they rape and kill his wife. It was really creepy how happy they sound while doing this, especially since we had recently watched the original song in class under a different context. I think this was good though, because we were at least formiliar with the song and could understand the strangeness of hearing it sung under these completely different circumstances.

Either way, the song was stuck in my head after both classes. After we watched the original sing, it was just kind of stuck as background music in my head as I walked back to my dorm. But after our most recent class it was also stuck in my head, except that I had a strange, sick feeling in my gut because of what we had just watched. I'm not sure if I'll ever be able to watch the original Singing in the Rain scene again without picturing the Clockwork Orange scene in my head.

But on a side note, I'm not sure who would willingly watch Clockwork Orange unless they were sick in the head. No offense to Santiago, of course. But I felt a little bit uncomfortable watching it.

Nervous

I'm really nervous about doing the flip book project. I hope that I can come up with enough ideas to make a good one without it being too difficult. I already know it is going to be time consuming and I am not looking forward to that...but the video clips that we watched in class of some of the first movies were only a few frames long, and they still made a huge impact and a lasting impression.

I never know what to write in these things. In class the material always seems so interesting, but then when I go to recap it's hard to come up with interesting things to say that Santiago hasn't already mentioned. I like learning the neat little fun facts about the history of technology, though. Such as how each of the movie frames used to be individually hand colored. I thought that was cool.

CATS

I'm glad to finally know that there is a reason why I always found the show CATS to be a little baffling...because it really DOESN'T have a set storyline. I also thought it was interesting that the show is based off of a book of poems. I think that turning a book of poems into an aesthetically pleasing musical is a brilliant idea. I admire the actors and actresses who feel confident enough to prance around stage in all spandex while singing and dancing - that takes a certain kind of talent that not many people possess.