Friday, January 29, 2010

Sundance Shorts 2010 (posted on youtube)



Written and directed by T.G. Herrington.

An intimate look at one of New Orleans' most colorful characters: the charismatic vegetable salesman 'Mr. Okra,' who provides a glimpse into the soul of an American city.

For director T.G. Herrington (http://www.nomdeguerre.tv/), who has heard Mr. Okra hawking his goods in and around New Orleans since he was a small child, this sharply rendered character piece is the beginning of a love song, the first chapter in what will soon become a six-part feature-length study in the city's local color. The completed documentary, Other Side of Rampart, will act as a way to archive and preserve a part of New Orleans that is disappearing before our very eyes. The most challenging aspect of completing this short involved simply trying to understand Mr. Okra himself. He speaks in a difficult vernacular known regionally as "5th Ward patois". Herrington remarks that a friend once proclaimed "I finally knew I was a local when I could understand what Okra was saying!" The filmmaker has kindly provided subtitles for your viewing pleasure.

http://www.youtube.com/ytscreeningroom

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

My Phone causes (over)Consumption

I asked my students in TCF 444: Media Stories in the Digital Age, to log their "media diet" from Tuesday to Sunday. They were asked to share their intake (or an excerpt of it --- there is often shame associated with what we watch and listen to in private), and give a short reflection of what they learned about themselves, about media, and about ways we most often access mediatized stories.

I tried to log time, place, technology, what I did, and some bit of commentary.

Here's mine:

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

8:30 – 9 am in Phifer office: 2 computers. Laptop typing. Desktop: emails, cnn, facebook, elearning, youtube…

9:30am – 10:45am in130 Phifer: Computer projection: e-learning, my blog, student’s blog, youtube, vopod (444 class on web 2.0)

12:30 – 1:45 in 130 Phifer: Computer projection: e-learning, my blog, student’s blogs (312 assignments)

2 – 4:30pm in Phifer office: desktop computer. Gmail – student’s internships, book project, job search stuff, dropbox sharing files with Dr. Butler, facebook: birthday wishes to friends, message from student who need letter of rec, artist’s website:

http://www.quintanwikswo.com/

watching her short films: http://www.quintanwikswo.com/#mi=1&pt=0&pi=13&p=-1&a=0&at=0

6pm – living room standard def TV: Dinner with the kids in front of the TV. TT and I watch Drake and Josh on Nick and then Daddy’s Girl’s on Centric.

7pm –8 pm In my bedroom. TV as background noise, showing BIO of Steve Martin, not watching. On laptop: email: student re: media diet (this) assignment), facebook: reading status updates of rap lyrics, personal thoughts, Haiti, gossip blogs, cnn, feministing (daily news round-up links led me to:

http://jezebel.com/5051901/

checking for new video on my favorite vlog:

http://pouringdown.tv/

no new video… why don’t I sign up to be notified… dunno

was thinking about gun violence because of Dwight’s documentary. Decided to google gun laws in Alabama: http://crime.about.com/od/gunlawsbystate/p/gunlaws_al.htm

Permit to purchase handgun? No

Registration of handguns? No

Licensing of owners of handguns? No

Permit to carry handguns? Yes

Scary! The crazy guy in the car next to me might (and probably does) have a gun in his truck…

How did people know what laws were before google? I didn’t. I rely o the internet for human connection, work, teaching, learning, research, directions, movie times, watching films (Netflix streaming)… Is there a day where I don’t use the Internet?

Working on book project --- emails, downloading pdf of drafts, gchat. Collab work online.

Chatting with old friend from hs on fb. Link to recall from Asia:

http://www.mcneilproductrecall.com/page.jhtml?id=/include/prd_all.inc

Tylenol. Funny they paid her a lot for sponsorship.

More gmail. Gmail on my laptop. Gmail on my desktop. Gmail on my G1 phone. Google is the foundation of my everyday media encounters.

8 – 9pm watching A&E – various paranormal shows about kid psychics and haunted homes.

9 – 10pm. In bed. Reading for class prep for Thursday. Pavlik. Rhettberg. Grammar of the Shot.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

2am - gchat bling on my phone (which always stays connected. Message: Are you up? (No! I just rolled over)

6:15 – 6:40 – in bedroom. Laptop. Checking email. Mostly students wanting cameras for Friday..

7:30 – 45 in living room. Bubba watching Backyardigans, recorded on DVR. “I want cowboy boots and a cowboy hat too!” I am on facebook, reading morning statuses, cnn, and gmail on laptop… emailing Dean asking for support and to set up production funds for student films.

7:30 – 8:15 – in the car. Radio. Flipping. Always flipping. Stupid and boring talk radio (racist, sexist, offensive) and NO MUSIC. Ugggh.

8:30 – in office. Turn on internet radio. Last fm. Search by “r&b” plays lots of good songs, songs I haven’t heard of and LOVE the ability to immediately switch to the next song if there is something that I don’t like. INTERACTIVE, active user radio… FINALLY!!!!

8:30 – 11:50am. In office. Desktop and laptop. Both are online. Writing on laptop. Radio and Internet going on the desktop. Facebook activity. Gmail. Perez and Feministing. Chat with friend.

2pm – 4pm. Back in the office. Desktop. Watching youtube videos… thinking about Wesch’s ideas. Juhasz’s class on Youtube. Youtube as archive. Instant access to old videos. Back in the day, had to have a vhs copy from Yo MTV Raps! To see an old video again.

7pm – 9pm. Living room. DVR. Watching Copyright Criminals on DVR. Watched it twice. 2ndtime recorded on DVD burner. Will show in 444 this term.

9:30 pm – in bed. On laptop. Student emails. Facebook – liking things… let’s my friends know that I am around and thinking about them.

Thursday, January 21, 2010

6am – in bed. Phone tells me I’ve got FB messages, text messages, gchat.

7am – Kitchen. TV. Bubba watches Kai-Lan, recorded on the DVR.

7:30 am – car. Radio. Flipping stations. Morning talks shows are offensive and annoying. Flipping… will anyone just play a song? Why don’t I have a CD?

8am – Walking from parking lot to Phifer. Cell phone. FB message about meeting for next week.

8:45am – Office. Computer – e-learning site. Putting more links to radio/audio stories for 444 class. Examples of audio storytelling. Just learnd that Thembi, from radiodiaries passed away in June. Listened to NPR story about her passing.

10:00 – 10:30. In 130. Discussing ways audio is used to tell stories. We watched trailer for RadioDiaries.org. (I didn’t tell the student I had been crying upon learning about Thembi’s death. First tears shed in my TCF office --- her story was so intimate. I could hear all of the details of her life, the texture of the sounds of her place, the tone of her voice, the depth of her commitment to living… now she’s gone but her story lives on through her story.)

2pm – 4pm. Office in Phifer. Gmail. Facebook. Cnn – what’s happening in the world? Haiti.

6pm – Bubba’s room. DVDs borrowed from public library. Power Rangers. I would never buy it on DVD. Library DVDs are good (when they aren’t too scratched to work).

8 – 9pm. In bed. Watching I.D. and bio. Investigation shows. Paula Zahn.

Friday, January 22, 2010

7:15- 7:45 am. Living room. DVR. Kai Lan for Bubba.

8am – 8:30. Stupid commercial radio. I really need to make a CD or charge my ipod and bring connectors to play music in the car.

8:45am 2pm – office in Phifer. Last fm radio. Again R&B. blasting. No one is here! LOVE the control. This is the ONLY way I’ll listen to radio. Commercial radio is so antiquated and ridiculous. Gchat. Gmail. Facebook. Netflix cue. Web searches for EX3 matte box --- $1800 ouch. Not right now. Email all production faculty about eq use and edit room. Email about book. Email, email, email.

Throughout the evening, fb messages and emails through my G1 phone.

9:40 – 11pm. In bed. Reading. Novel from the library. Good book but book physically stinks. Ugh. I also hate when the pages get rumpled. I like clean, fresh, new books but books are so expensive. I read once or twice then put on the shelf. Before moving here I sold 75 books at Half Price Books that cost a ton of $ but made enough (after using my credit to get one used book) to buy at Java Chip at Starbucks. Sigh.

Saturday, January 23, 2010

8am. Living room. Laptop. Watching trailers of films at Sundance. Reading feministing, perezhilton, cnn (do this every day --- why did I not note this? Was I embarrassed that I read gossip blogs. At least I don’t read bossip and some of the other really horrible ones). Writing blog posts. Reading student blogs. Just read on FB that TCF student’s mom called Haiti telethon and Steven Spielberg answered. Ha!

9am. Living room. TV. Was trying to clean up the DVR (Bubba no longer wants Blue’s Clues, Bakugan and some other shows. ACCIDENTALLY, I delete ALL PROGRAMS… doing too much, multi-tasking. Tiana is gonna be really upset at me when she gets up. So much of what we watch is all recorded. We rarely watch things when they are broadcast. All of Bubba’s shows. All of her TV shows. My PBS documentaries. OUCH. SORRY! I suck.

9:41 am. Man…. I think it’s time to unplug. Well, sort of. I’m going to steam clean the carpets and figure how to tell TT all her shows are gone. = ( but first a quick cnn and facebook checkin.

Email on my phone throughout the day (about 20 times)

9pm – 10:30pm in bed. TV. 48 Hours hard Evidence on i.D. on flipping through channels.

Sunday, January 24, 2010

6am – in bed. Gmail on phone. Got fb message. Laptop. Facebook – return messages. Birthday wishes (so many bdays today).

7- 8am. In bed. TV. Flipping channels, nothing too interesting on. Watch cnn, i.d., bio, and others. Nothing caught my interest.

8:45 am. At desk. Listening to music. Wanted to listen to online radio but internet isn’t working… oh AT&T. = (

so, I’m on itunes with random music. And writing. Phone is letting me know that I have FB messages. Too slow of a connection (“3G sucks inside my house… only works down the street). Makes me frustrated that I can’t do things quickly, easily (and instantly) when I have a message.

So, my reflections.... the "big thoughts" on my overconsumption:

Teaching with technology. I do it. ALOT. I stand behind the pedagogical reasons... I think that using websites and web-based media allows students to see what other folks are doing right now. They can see things that inspire them, model form or aesthetics, and means of distribution. I use blogs so that reflections, assignments (such as this one), and conversations are not one or two-way channels, just between the student and me, but become multi-directional and multi-dimensional when the students read each other's posts and comment. When students post their own creative projects online they can view and comment, share with their subjects, family, friends... and easily link and re-post to places like facebook. Still, I am conscientious that I have to change up the types of assignments - blog post one week, reading (from books) next, then media making, then reflective writing online... this, I find, is the best way to build media praxis where folks are thinking, doing, and reflecting in a way that is productive and informing; what you think, what you do, and what you come to know are all interconnected.

In terms of my own media consumption, I've realized how much I love to read and have to balance “work reads” for pleasure reading. I read mostly online --- news and blogs. I watch TV only for an hour (at most) before bed. I’m addicted to Gmail and FB. I only watch movies on DVR, online through Netflix, Netflix by mail or Redbox $1 rentals. I need more times to watch movies.

I love music but I HATE radio. I only listen to radio in the car. I like online radio that allows you CONTROL! I do so much in a day but I want to do more!!! I think they should just rebuild the entire commercial radio model... I need something new there. Plus, now that I'm a Mom and older, I don't buy CDs (plus there are very few artists who make entire disks of good music)... I will only buy tracks that I like online and listen from my computer, phone or ipod.

So, my phone. How smart is it? Or rather, how smart am I that I am tethered to the rest of the world. You can call me, text me, bling me 24/7 on gchat, message me on myspace, facebook, twitter.... do you really need that much access to me? Should I, could I , would I ever just turn it all off?

I'm still digesting... thinking about when I wrote specifics and when I just said things in general here. Why is there so much stigma around "stupid" TV shows or other "dumb" things that I actually enjoy consuming... like reality TV. I didn't watch much this week (although I usually watch shows all the time)... I didn't want to put it in my media log. Hmmmmm.....

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Some of my (audio) favorites...

I asked my students to listen to audio stories online, and to link us to two of their favorites.

My favorite audio stories are distributed online and through independent CD distribution.

Live from Detroit City, the L.A.M.P. Project's "rising up from the ashes: chronicles of a dropout" is sold primarily as a CD. You can listen to previews of the tracks online HERE.

For this project, youth from Detroit (led by MC INVINCIBLE) interviewed people on issues important to their community, such as high school drop-out rates, gentrification, and youth activism. They taught the students creative writing, brainstorming techniques, and technical skills like recording interviews, producing beats, and mixing in the studio. What results, is a CD that mixes interviews with beats, raps, and sounds of the streets; this is a powerful portrait of people and place.

My second choice is Thembi's diary on radiodiaries.org. I listened to her story when I first encountered the site over a year ago. When I went back to link student's to the site, I discovered that she has passed away. I cried. I closed my office door and cried. For this project, she was given an audio recorder to record a year in her life - interviews, stream-of-consciousness, and sounds from her everyday life. Her story was edited by a producer a NPR --- I would have loved to see how she would have edited the (audio) story of her own life.

More favorite stories to be posted... time to teach class.


Saturday, January 23, 2010

Reading Blogs

I am requiring my students to keep a log of the media they consume, their "media diet." I am trying to do all of the assigned tasks I give to my students, so I've been logging my media intake, and noticed something I do consistently every single day (about twice a day really), I "read" (more like browse) both feministing and perez hilton. Yes, feminism and celebrity gossip. One somehow helps me balance out what I "learn" from the other.

On perezhilton I see how folks like to put themselves out there, expose their body and their selves to intense media and societal scrutiny. Maybe the money is good but you couldn't pay me to show my worst days archived online for the world to see. I don't want my life so exposed.

Today on feministing I read this post, which also got me thinking about exposure. The author, an academic, a graduate student at the end of her studies, but also was a sex worker on the mean streets of New York. She talks about rage and her body. I have never been a sex worker but there are a lot of ways that I connected and and am affected by what she writes.

"Sexual assault causes the body to be an unfriendly environment leading the survivor to at times feel dirty and ashamed. These feelings cause the individual to disconnect from their body entirely ... The words "the scene of the crime" speak volumes in criminal investigations and movies. In the case of sexual assault, despite where the event occurred, the scene of the crime is the body itself. The body then becomes less of a vessel for the spirit, and more of an enemy always reminding them of what they long to forget. Resolution of the sexual assault requires the body to be empowered. Forming a loving relationship between survivors and their bodies will enhance their ability to care for themselves as well as live with less anger and fear ... However, rarely are survivors able to articulate that they feel their body is an enemy."
It takes a tremendous amount of courage to tell such painful, personal and private stories. I want to write a memoir but have not yet granted myself the permission, the patience and the power to share my own pain. She interweaves shame and strength across sentences, and her words are weighing heavy on my emotions. She is very courageous.

She speaks of the disease that has penetrated in her body, causing a "large mass" to attach to her ovary, "white with tangles running through it." How many of us carry heavy, cancerous masses (still unformed) inside of us? How many of us hold our pain and carry for so many years that it materializes into the very real thing that just might kill you. I believe that my Mom lived and died like this.

This piece of her story makes me think of my Mom and the pain she carried throughout her life. I want to tell her story, but I don't want to stir up the mess of old memories. I want to lighten the burden that I carry because so many of my own mistakes and struggles connect to the past and her pain.

I think about this woman's mass, and its tangles attaching and embedding themselves in her body. Is that what happened to my Mom? Her battle with cancer was fought hard and lost over a decade ago, but the pain still resonates. There are some things that never dull or go away.

I carried a manila envelope with the slides of her cancerous cells, for years. I made a short video about it a few years ago, inspired by my friend (and mentor's) memoir, ghostbox. I want to write my own memoir, but I don't (yet) have the courage to confront all of my ghosts.

Monday, January 18, 2010

Compelling (Documentary) Portraits of People and Places

For videography, I've asked students to post images that they find visually compelling. In my other course, I've asked them to post a self-portrait. So, in an effort to post things that might be interesting to students in both classes, I've decided to do my "compelling images" entry on portraits.

My favorite photographer is D-Nice. Yes, he is the rapper:



But now he makes beautiful videos and takes photographs like these:


What I really like about these images is the way that you can connect with the subject's eyes. I really believe that if you want the audience to connect with a person or character, you really need to allow them the opportunity to look the person in the eyes.

D-Nice has a strong sense of composition and angles. He always knows where to frame the subject in relationship to the background. He often uses long lenses and sets the subject apart from the background using shallow depth of field, where only the subject is in focus, as in the image of the left (from Obama's inauguration).

I also love the work of Martha Cooper:



This photo is a portrait of NY in the 80s. 2 cops ride the train, circa 1981 from the book Subway Art.

Martha's work provides critical visible evidence of people, places, and events. She was there, with camera in hand, to capture some of New York's early graf writers. She has documented the work of legendary artist Lady Pink for decades.

My favorite book, and not just because the photo of me (from this blog's bottom banner - me with a camera at B-Girl Be, an event I co-founded in Minneapolis in 2005) is featured in the book, but because she shows the strength of women. To be a b-girl, a woman who dances to the breakbeat of a record, you must be physically strong; a b-girl has to be able to lift her entire body weight and hold it in a freeze, gracefully, such as these ladies:


I also love beautiful portraits of women:



Sha Cage is a poet, writer, actor and performer in Minneapolis. She shows off the beauty of her pregnant belly in this photo by BFresh photography.



I am also one who loves a classic: LL Cool J, by Janette Beckman


My other favorite photographers are Bplus for portraits, events and capturing a moment or a movment and Mathew Rolston, for more commercial and celebrity images.

Yes, I love images and stories of people that exist in the real world. I haven't directed a narrative in some years, although I write narrative stories. This summer I'll be writing a feature script based on a friend's memoir and he wants me to direct... we'll see.

Saturday, January 16, 2010

It's a new term.

(It's a new term, only my second as Assistant Professor. I have decided to dedicate more time and energy to blogging, like I once did to my personal blog at my last institution. I use blogs as a space for personal reflection, class discussion, distribution for media that I make, and as a repository for links, videos, news items, or things that I want to revisit or show others.

This term I am teaching two courses: Advanced Videography and Media Stories in the Digital Age. I am asking my students to keep their own blogs as part of those courses. For teaching and learning, I use blogs, either one large blog with all the students posting to one site, or as individual blogs that are linked as a community through the "follow" option on this site. This term I am having students keep their own blogs. They have some assigned posts where they share reading reflections, responses to videos they watch, a space to post links to media that they like, and as a space to share the projects that they make for class.

For "Videography," students use their blogs as visual journals, as discussed in their first reading (chapter 4) in on of their text book's Cinematography for Directors. For their first assignment, I have them gather images that are visually compelling - things that speak to them. In class we talked a little bit about aesthetics, style and film form. They are looking for light, framing, composition, color, etc... that's coming in their next reading in their other text, Grammar of the Shot.

For "Media Stories," students have to do a self-portrait or some visual or auditory representation of themselves. I've linked them (on our private course e-learning site), to lots of examples of self-portraits by artists like Vivian Wen Li, long portraits on YouTube and Vimeo, self portraits on Vimeo, and a few other examples. This assignment is due Tuesday but one student posted his already!

I hope that I can (once again) be an active blogger because using my old blog became a way for me to really connect with folks with similar interests. I think that I stopped blogging because of the dissertation writing process (it's extremely stressful and isolating), and when I returned to "the world" I was "connected" to so many people through facebook. But, there is only so much that I really want to know about people I went to high school with (and what they've cooked for dinner). So, I'm less on FB and back on the blog tip --- fingers crossed!

My goal is to post (most) assignments, along with my students... so here's my (first) long portrait:



Dr. R's long portrait, January 18, 2010, 7:12 am

According to this vimeo member, a long portrait is,
"A long portrait is exactly like it sounds, a portrait that is long. It's like a photo of someone, but stretched out in video form to show the person's small expressions, mannerisms and gestures."
I woke up this morning, took a shower, got dressed, sat down at my home office desk, turned on a single lamp that was slightly pointed toward my laptop and opened photo booth. I decided to try a "long portrait" because it's something I'd never done. I'd never tried to just sit and stare while the computer's camera recorded me. I've used the webcam before but always with a purpose - chatting with a friend, recording a clip for a video, taking snapshots of my kids and I being silly for facebook. It was a strange experience, I had trouble sitting still (even for just a thirty second clip). I also wanted to keep my eyes fixed but I didn't. Before I clicked record I told myself to just look down. But I didn't. My eyes sort of dart around. I also felt like I had to do something, so I put on my glasses. Most people never see me without them. I guess overall, even just for the half a minute recording this clip, I felt exposed. And now, I decide to post it on this blog to share this discomfort over and over again. Identity is strange in (web)space.