Jottit it down. . .

Ok. Here it is. The long-awaited "Real Talk" hyperfiction piece. Find it at

http://jottit.com/h8wr3/

Interactive

http://userwww.sfsu.edu/~gmeisner/storyfolder/realtalkintro.html

I think this is right, although I still can't get it to work, and I've done it over a few times, and I feel like I'm taking the right steps.

Project Ideas

Wow, these project ideas are coming so strong and quickly that it's hard to organize them all in my head. Can I do a final project on sarcasm? I'd probably do pretty well with that one, since it's about all I've got right now. Really, I've thought of many ideas that seem like they would fall short of what I want them to do, but I guess something will come to me. I thought about creating an interactive screensaver site, where people can come and design their own screensavers, or a site where people can design those animated graphics that move to music that they can upload. They would probably be able to create accounts and save their stuff there too. I'm also thinking about kind of a "yelp for TV" site. Kind of the people's online TV guide. Might work. Or maybe some site where recipes are compiled and written in humorous ways so that guys who don't usually cook, can get ideas for simple and tasty meals. I can't seem to decide on anything and last week's class just seemed to confuse me more, after I learned just how much I'm missing out on on the internet and how much is really out there. So, these are the ideas that have been floating around in my head, maybe I'll get some more, maybe I'll use one of these. . .

I spot a crappy website...

So, I'm writing this post with venomous fingers, coiled in attack mode. At home, by myself, I am silent. But behind a keyboard, on the interweb, I'm driving like Britney Spears on her way to a child custody hearing (wait, so that means really slowly, and with dead eyes?). If it was physically possible to strangle eyespot.com, I would. I'm working on some html to make that a reality. I don't care about jail time or what any of you Britney-haters think. Right now all I can do is click-clack on my keyboard.

Look, what I set out to do was make a nice music video. It was going to be beautiful. Lush. Serene. It would have left you breathless. I know this because I'm breathless right now. Eyespot is horrendously slow. It timed out on me three times trying to "mix" my video. Right now, it has no memory of the new audio clip that I uploaded an hour ago (3 times). It is a stubborn son of a bitch.

So, my idea was to take various nature clips (caves in Indiana with various critters and such), "trim" them down into nice little segments, and mix them with an incredible Boards Of Canada song called "Constants Are Changing", thus creating a wonderful music video that would have knocked us all flat on our asses. But it is for naught. Nay, for very naught. What? (not sure)

At this point, I think I am going to include my nature video as is (sans music). Consider it a work in progress. Or a work in regress. My plan B is to embed the video, and right under it, embed an imeem clip of the song. So, you can press play on the video, and then really quickly press play on the song clip. C'mon, it'll be fun, like back in high school when you used to smoke weed with your friend Derek and watch The Wizard of Oz with Dark Side Of The Moon. Remember? No?

Let's give it a try. So, the deal with Boards Of Canada is the following: they are two brothers from Scotland who grew up watching nature films from the National Film Board of Canada (hence...). They started creating ambient, electronic, beat-heavy music that was inspired by the original soundtracks of the NFBOC films they were watching. I decided, since they've only released one official video in over 15 years of releasing music, that I would release the second. It didn't happen, but that was my intent. So, until I get this to work on eyespot, here is my makeshift video. Thanks for the support. Remember => Play simultaneously with the embeded song!
Sorry.

"In The Anna Caves"




Now that wasn't so bad, was it? Was it?!? Oh god...

P.S. If you clicked on the link to the Dayvan Cowboy video, I guess the shots of the skydiver were all actual footage taken of Joseph Kittinger, who jumped from a hot air balloon at 74,600 feet. That is insane. It was all part of a navy project. He lost consciousness halfway down. Apparently, he later said that he started hallucinating and thought he was plummeting into hell. Man...Boards Of Canada are my favorite...ever. And Joseph Kittinger was kind of a bad-ass. Cheers.

In the middle of a putting green...

I've decided that as long as I can think of enough topics, and if I can afford it, this blog will begin to focus on music in film and television (advertising, too). I'm interested in the placement of music in a visual medium to create a mood, or in some cases, tell a story. I really think that there is an art to finding the perfect song for the perfect moment, and I think I'm gonna write about that. So from now on (and until I think of a better name) PURE SOLID GOLD is dedicated to soundtracks, scores, and anything else related to the marriage of sight and sound. Tonight I'm just going to intro with some of the first scenes that came to my head when I thought about this topic.

The first is the use of "Sweet Emotion" by Aerosmith during the opening credits of Dazed and Confused. Of course, the song fits the '70s timeline and is one among many such songs in a classic film soundtrack. The opening guitar line slinks in slowly just as the film fades in, and is instantly recognizable. The rest of the band drops in right when Pickford's orange muscle car slowly circles the high school parking lot. What transpires in the next 2:17 is basically a montage that, along with Sweet Emotion, sets the tone and theme for the rest of the film. A defenite mood and feeling is achieved, and ends perfectly as the dreamy opening sequence ends with the jarring reality of the school bell.

Dazed and Confused (1993) Directed by Richard Linklater


Next up is a scene in which the song really steals the show. In Spike Lee's 25th Hour, Philip Seymour Hoffman plays Jacob Elinksy, a nervous high school teacher who is infatuated with one of his students (Anna Paquin). While this isn't really the focus of the plot, it does provide for one of the better scenes in the film. Jacob runs into Mary (Paquin) at a bar. As she enters the room, the scene takes on a dreamlike feel, and the viewer is interpellated into Hoffman's head, and basically sees through his eyes. Jacob and Mary kiss, and the room almost appears to free fall as Jacob panics when he realizes he just made a huge mistake, both morally and professionally. "Bra" by Cymande plays throughout the scene, and it is a huge presence as there is no dialogue. The lyrics "...but it's alright/You can still come home" take on an almost panicked and desperate feel, as the viewer knows that Hoffman is a total basket-case at this moment. The combination of this song with the delusion of Hoffman's character makes for an intense but enjoyable scene.

25th Hour (2002) Directed by Spike Lee

**This is the only online clip of this scene I could find, and it came from an Anna Paquin "admirer". So, I'll embed the full song clip at the end of the post. It really is a great song, and if you aren't familiar with Cymande, check them out. "Bra" is off of their self-titled release.



These songs really help define these scenes and become characters in and of themselves. Although they are in the background, they really pop, and are brought front and center to the viewer's attention. So, alright...man. I'll get this subject more current soon, but until then, get ready to revisit your favorite music moments in film and TV.

Dust. Wind. Dude.

Let's enlighten ourselves, shall we? While studying the theories of one Theodor W. Adorno, the German musician and philosopher, certain issues relating to music and popular culture are raised. Adorno claims that pop-music is "predigested", that the message behind the music gets lost behind our habit of concentrating on certain "trademarks" of the song, such as the chorus. Could this be? Is popular music just a standardized product that we consume in a sort-of assembly line process - just taking what comes to us? Now, in Adorno's time he was critiquing artists like Billie Holiday, who is now seen as a tragic beauty in music history. I wonder what he'd think about the current state of popular music.

We are faced with so much mindless dribble on television, radio, the internet, and other forms of media that sometimes it all seems to fuse together into one big puddle of drool. Adorno might say that popular culture and music act as a "social cement" holding us tired peasants together after a long day of intense physical labor (I did mention Adorno was a Marxist thinker, right?) Now, I listen to a lot of music that I would consider far from mediocre and very far from mindless dribble, as well as I'm sure all my readers (all 4 of you, since this is required reading) do too. My musical tastes are at the very least "social asphalt". I'm not sure that the more popular music gets the poorer the quality becomes, but it is fair to say that the more popular music gets, the more it begins to resemble everything else at the top of the Hot 100. Take for example three of the top five songs on the Billboard Top 100: Soulja Boy's "Crank Dat", Kanye West's "Stronger", and T-Pain's "Bartender". Aside from obvious budget issues while filming the music videos for these songs, it seems that Adorno would not be able to differentiate much between the three (let's forget that he is from a different era and this music might actually make his head explode), and would classify them as standardized. Let's take a look for ourselves...

Soulja Boy - Crank Dat


Kanye West - Stronger


T-Pain feat. Akon - Bartender


Hmmm... At least two of these songs are using the vocoder pretty well. What really sets these songs apart from each other? Before I go on, I should say that one could take any three songs that are "popular" right now, and Adorno would dismiss them as standard and pre-packaged, so I'm not just picking on T-Pain and 'Ye, I just took three of the five "most" popular. I actually see these songs as being very different from each other even though they can be lumped into the same genre, but if I start thinking like Adorno, then basically anything I've ever listened to is meaningless, and I am a brain-dead, capitalist, consumer slug. I'm interested to know what my loyal reader, ahem...readers think of this idea. Is all popular music just a pre-digested product intended to make money, or is it more than that? Beethoven was pretty popular in his time, what would Adorno have thought of him, one of the great musical masters of all time? Total crap? What would happen if Beethoven was playing at your local mall right now? Would you go? I would. I also heard Ghengis Khan just totally ravaged Oshman's Sporting Goods.

I'm very far from being an authority on Adorno and his pop-culture theories, in fact, I really don't know what I'm talking about at all; I just heard of the guy for the first time today (so hopefully some of this makes sense), but I dug his ideas, and I think they are still relevant today. OK, this deadline is cutting close, I'm looking forward to your thoughts. Word.

Just for fun, here's Kanye's inspiration (one of mine as well)...

THIS JUST IN! (Through The Out Door)

Led Zeppelin will be performing together for the first time in almost 20 years. Sans John Bonham, of course, who is in drummer heaven. John's son Jason will step in for him and take the stage with Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones, and Robert Plant. They have one show planned for November 26 in London. I am really stoked about this, as I've been a Zeppelin fan por vida. I'm happy that JPJ was included this time since he really got the shaft with the Page/Plant reunion. Ok, I've got my music geek fix for the night. Sweet dreams.

Over The Hills And Far Away


Whole Lotta Love (Live at The Royal Albert Music Hall 1970)

Larry Craig wishes Americans could "Just loosen up."

Larry Craig, (pictured right, not being gay) is singing his way straight into the hearts of Americans everywhere, particularly in bathroom stalls, but hey, everyone has to get their start somewhere , right? Although the guy seems to have the personality of a Swedish fish , he is clearly a music lover, and that means he can't be all bad. Although no one knows whether the accusations of homosexuality (which Craig so eloquently refutes ) are true, it has long been known on Capitol Hill that Craig likes to "party" .

While some may think he uses illegal drugs and minors to unwind after a long day of filibusting, that simply is only half true. What does Dr. Craig prescribe for relaxation? Swedish psychedelic rock. "Of course", you say. "Who doesn't?" Well, not that many people know about the burgeoning psychedelic rock scene in Sweden these days. The band that seems to be leading the movement is Dungen (pronounced Dune-Yen). Dungen has managed to make music that sounds like it was dug out of a time capsule from 1968, but without sounding like they are imitating. Their sound is authentic. If you can handle lyrics in Swedish, and you're a fan of good old fashioned rock 'n roll, give these guys a listen. I'm including the video for "Panda" and "Stadsvandringar" in this post, mostly for your visual experience and somewhat for Larry Craig's aural pleasure.

Even in their music videos, Dungen seems able to really capture certain moods and atmosphere. The video for "Stadsvandringar" seems to be shot in Super 8 or something which makes it look like it actually came from a different era, but it also captures the innocence of lazy summers spent hanging out with friends and skateboarding in Sweden (which we have all experienced, especially the Sweden part). Notice the similarities between San Francisco and Sweden, where in both places one needs to wear a scarf in the summer. The "Panda" video just looks like something from one of the Acid Tests, or something. Enjoy.

Dungen - Stadsvandringar


Dungen - Panda