Archive for January 2014
I stumbled across this video today and I think it's fantastic! The Hungarian singer Boggie produced this music video in which she is sitting still singing her song "Parfüm." As the video progresses, we see the process of her video editor retouching, tweaking, and adjusting the appearance of the video in everything from the color of her eyes, her makeup, and her hair, to the clothes she's wearing and the lighting of the room.
It's amazing to watch and the difference between the beginning and end are incredible. Huge props to this artist for putting something out like this! We're all perfectly aware of how much people in magazines or promotional photoshoots are altered so that they look more conventionally attractive, but I think we often assume the the way people look in video format is the way these people actually look. This video demonstrates just how much even people in music videos are digitally altered.
Take a look! (The music's in Hungarian, but the words aren't the point anyway.) One thing that struck me in particular while watching was how much whiter they made her skin during the process- it was an almost literal instance of "whitewashing."
As mentioned two posts ago, I listen to a lot of music. It's very important to me. I also am very particular about rating my songs on iTunes, because I have several smart playlists set up that function on certain parameters, such as only playing songs rated five stars, or only playing songs rated four or five stars added to my music library within the last six months, and so on.
But two days ago, disaster struck.
I got a notification from iTunes saying that an update was available so I went ahead and clicked the update button and let it go on its merry way. But something went weird during the process and, long and frustrating story short, I can no longer get iTunes to work on my laptop.
So I've been playing my music on Spotify for the past few days, and let me tell you, my friends: it is just not the same. Sure, Spotify does have some great features- mainly the fact that you can listen to music that's not yours through its search functions and share songs and playlists with your friends. But for someone as persnickety about their music organization as I am, this is a huge annoyance. And it got me thinking about how I have become so accustomed to the methods I use for my media intake that whenever something happens to alter them it slightly rocks the foundations of my universe. That isn't to say I can't go without them for a while- there will be days or even weeks when I am on vacation, or my laptop isn't working, or I'm just too busy, and I don't listen to iTunes at all. But the difference is that I know that it will still be there when I come back. In this case, I can't access it even though I want to, and that is driving me crazy.
Plus, I have absolutely no idea what caused the problem or how to fix it, so there's a little bit of my control issues at play here, too.
I just want to be able to listen to my good songs without having "Bacon" by Harry and the Potters pop up when I'm least expecting it. Is that so much to ask?
Everyone loves soul patches. And everyone loves delicious food. Now you can have them combined! Check out this awesome example of perfect advertising methods. I have never seen such a perfectly built website in my life. And this is coming from a person who has abnormally strong opinions on typefaces.
Just do it. You won't regret it.
Nothing conditions me quite so effectively as music does. I'm sure I'm not alone in this, but I was reminded today just how strongly I can be affected by music. My roommate and I have been re-watching the TV show Chuck every so often over the past few months, ever since it was put up on Netflix.
So we don't actually have to start posting for class until next week, but I've been thinking about this a bit and I'm feeling a little too enthusiastic to wait, so I figure this is a good way to intro into this blog. Especially since technically this isn't about any specific media that I've been exposed to this week.
In class yesterday, one of the things we talked about was how there's always a new "media panic." There is always some new aspect of media that society, or at least part of it, is panicking over.
Texting is going to make us incapable of face-to-face conversation.
Television ruins kids' attention spans.
Kids can't write by hand anymore because they're so used to typing.
The language of the internet and texting is ruining the English language.
Facebook makes people more likely to cheat on their significant others.
I'm sure you're familiar with the theme. Some are more valid than others, and some lose their validity over time as we get used to things as a society or certain trends lose popularity or become obsolete (remember the panic over chatrooms? Now they're practically nonexistent).
Now get a load of this, gang:
As a math-teacher-in-training, I appreciate this a lot, especially because I've seen the value of certain technologies in the classroom when used appropriately and by someone who knows what they're doing. This also brings to mind the speech given by Dolores Umbridge in the beginning of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, when Umbridge says that "progress for progress's sake must be prohibited," when really what she meant was, "Those of us in power don't like changes that weaken our power, especially when we don't understand them fully."
Now, I'm not saying that every change in our media and technology is good and desirable. However, I certainly enjoy the wider perspective on things that the above quote provides.
