These days I like to pick up snippets of conversations that have to do with media and technology in our lives… Here’s one I just got:

“My phone’s broken. It’s so frustrating.”

“Ah yeah that is annoying.”

“Yeah. I mean, it’s like, 20% enjoyable, 80% annoying.”

We all seem to realize that it’s kind of nice to be a little less connected all the time, but when it’s not by our own choice to become disconnected, we worry that our world will flip upside down or that we’re constantly missing out on something.

I have only seen a couple south park episodes in my life. So watching this episode, I found myself actually laughing because of how on target all the mockery was. I’m trying to decide if I thought it was so good because it is a funny show standing alone, or if it’s because I’m now so attuned to how media rules our life, because of what we talk about in class. Chatting with my friend online, I told her what I had to just watch for class, and she responded in excitement, because she watches every episode. When she typed, “HAHAHHA I LOVE that one! One of my favorites,” I thought to myself, well it must just be a funny show in general. I’m thinking of myself as being more analytical than I really am. Bummer. But then she continued to crack jokes quoting lines like “You can’t be the dwarf! I’m the dwarf!” which makes me think maybe she (and other people) isn’t picking up all the underlying messages from the episode about media.  Another friend I’m talking to (yay multi-tasking on the internet) told me she’s seen it. She’s a big gamer, so I suggested she watch it. She decided to put it on again because she has nothing else to do right now, and I said how I thought it was so funn because of how relevant it is to my class. And she typed, “like what? HAHAHHAHHA! HILARIOUS about Hitler.” …not related to the messages I’m picking up. She did also just say “seriously people LOVE this shit. Everyone makes fun but this is exactly what…90% of guys our age do on halo and call of duty. Its just modern warfare instead of like legendary. Aka not different hahah.”

I guess the messages aren’t too deeply hidden under the surface, it’s all pretty in your face. But I think its because of these messages that the episode is successful in its humor, whether we all realize it while we’re watching it or not. The big points made are about how people “socialize” digitally through their avatars, gamer stereotypes, gender stereotypes, and how media over all has become like a second life to many of us.

I’m blabbing and realizing as I go… I guess my point isn’t really just whether or not other people are watching the episode in the same way as I am… but whether or not I would have had interest in the show without being in the critical media state of mind. I think if my brother had been watching it and I walked into the room, I would have seen 30 seconds of it, watched video game images on the television, and walked away uninterested.

The show dramatizes all these worries about gaming to the fullest extent, as if the end of a game really is the end of the world. The creators worry, “could this be the end of the world… of warcraft?” Always with that pause before “of warcraft” to emphasize the importance of this virtual reality for some people. Anyone who becomes good at the game is stereotyped in the show as having no life, fat, pimply, sitting at a computer with leftover processed food everywhere. When the world (of warcraft) is ending due to a killer on the loose, Cartman says to his peers, “you can stand around in the sun all day tossing a ball around, or you can sit at a computer and do something that really matters.” The killer is a great example of what Taylor talks about in his article, “pushing the borders.” Each game has a set of rules and how players should conduct themselves in the virtual space, but “absorbing the game experience proves itself to be, player culture has never existed in a completely rarified space: We can see all kinds of players pushing back at and tweaking the structures of play they encounter.”

The boys gang up at their computers in the basement and battle until they too become fat ugly gamers, needing assistance to go to the bathroom. Meanwhile, the managers of the game system don’t even have accounts to the game, because they “have a life.”

I loved how the show ramped up with excitement and suspense while we waited for the flash stick to be delivered, and then watching the Dad’s character run up to his son’s character to give him the sword of 1000 truths…. But then he doesn’t know how to hand it off. “Inventory! Apple i!!” Of course the father is the one to be helping out, because mom’s are portrayed as having absolutely no interest in the game, and thinking it’s dumb.

I also loved how in the earlier battle, Butter said he didn’t play warcraft, only the virtual world of Hello Kitty. The boys tell him to get the game before they murder him, and then when he appears, his avatar is the same as Cartman’s avatar. This mocks how we can enter into these virtual worlds as someone else, whoever we want to be. And two people, completely unique in real life, can appear identical in the alternate world.

“We killed him. I can’t believe it’s all over… What do we do now?”

“What do you mean? Now we can play the game.”

Very funny. Well done, South Park.

My uncle’s film, Howl, which premiered at Sundance this winter, officially has a distributor and will be released in september!

James Franco as Allen Ginsberg

http://www.movieweb.com/news/NEoCFqtpJkM4rw

one reason why our remix culture is so successful….. the genetics of mashups.

Pretty self explanatory beyond that… take a look.

[youtube 5pidokakU4I&feature]

this is just super cool.

check out this animation –

http://wimp.com/brilliantshort/

Okay, honestly I didn’t LOVE the film. I thought it was an interesting concept, and overall entertaining, but I felt there were some loopholes in the plot, and I found some of the camerawork to be distracting. In the Q & A session the director did say they wanted to leave you with a sense of ambiguity, and not a clear understand, to leave you more in fear at the end of the film. This didn’t entirely work for me, but this also isn’t my favorite genre of film, so who am I to judge?

I think the biggest point I want to make about this film, really, is how exciting it was to see a final product produced by a middlebury team of past and current students and faculty. I loved what they were saying about doing an independent film – having an idea, and taking the initiative to put together a (relatively) small team and actually DO it themselves from start to finish, and have a product as they wanted it.

I also thought it was interesting when Professor Mittell asked how we could start to “advertise” for the film, being a select bunch who has actually seen it. The immediate answer (after an unsure pause) was “join the Facebook group?” Leave it to technology and the web, to spread the word. It certainly can’t be a bad place to start.

Next week I have a mandatory orientation meeting for my semester abroad program. The e-mail about the orientation stressed the fact that the meeting is mandatory, but also said, “special accommodations will be made only for those students not in the New York area.” That’s me. I thought Skype might be an option, but I also thought maybe they would just set up a time to talk on the phone and give me the details. But sure enough, I e-mailed about being in vermont, and they e-mailed back saying they could “Skype me in” to the meeting if I was available at the time. I’m wondering if they will have a computer on the table at my spot where I would be sitting… like a floating head… an avatar attending the meeting for me. While I watch and listen from my computer screen.

Just like I said about being able to do my initial interview over Skype, it is nice that our technology allows us to do these things that would otherwise make these opportunities virtually (ha) impossible. I’m a little skeptical though about being Skyped into the orientation. I’m worried that something could go wrong with my internet connection and I would be cut out, or that I won’t feel comfortable asking questions…. Do I still raise my hand if I want to ask something? Hmm…

here are a few “snapshots” from my first explorations on Second Life. As of now, I’m not so into it. My disinterest may be a result of my not really knowing how to do much in the virtual world… or it may have to do with the discussion as to whether or not this is a GAME. I think if I lean towards the reasons why it’s not seen as a game – that it does not have a set path, specific end goal, time frame, etc – I realize these are the reasons why I’m not engaged. We’ll see how it goes as I continue to explore. I do, however, really enjoy having the option to FLY everywhere. My favorite place I found so far was the planetarium at the space museum. I was pleasantly surprised when I could go in it and actually see the constellations on the ceiling. And to make it just that much better, “Adiemus” played as I walked through the doors into the dark dome for a little outer space ambience….

Five days later, I am still baffled by the amounts of equipment we saw on our tour of the Middlebury servers. We take for granted every day, that we can sit down with the simple equipment of a lap top, and be “connected” to the internet, and almost anything we want, with the click of a button and no wires or extra hardware. Walking into the server rooms and seeing how much we are ACTUALLY “connected” to, made me rethink how we use our computers and other technologies. I realize how ignorant and uneducated most of us are about the technologies we use on a regular basis. How the heck does the internet actually work? I don’t get it. We’re connected to the servers, which are in a room connected to a bazillion wires that go into the ceiling and under the floors… and apparently some fiber runs underground connecting us to the internet connection in Albany… and that is connected to something else? Where is the central THING that makes the internet? And what is floating around in the air that allows us to have a “wireless” connection?

While our laptop fits nicely in a drawer and in our backpack, and we “store” things online in some seemingly infinite electronic folder, someone else somewhere is watching towers of machinery, changing tapes and hard drives that are holding all that information in a tangible way.

It’s just crazy. I’d like to see what the server rooms look like for programs like “Second Life…”