WIRED next fest

Art of Play by Erik Natzke caught my eye as a still picture, I can only imagine how amazing the rolling videos must be. It reminds me of an elaborate version of the 90's computer screen savers with the swirling lines slowly revolving around six colors. WHY isnt the biofuel filling every semi in our nation? Alternate fuel sources is something i would love to learn more about but i feel the facts are hard to find. I love seeing the technology in prosthetics as a dear friend in highschool lost a leg in a car accident. The thought of her hiking, playing softball or walking to class makes me so happy :) NASA doesnt have a team of trained professionals crafting a time warping machine, but they do have an educated staff depicting realistic look at our world in the years to come. Disinagrating coastlines and dramatic temperature changes are just a few things to look forward to. SIMPLIFY OR DIE!

Visions of future in film

Futuristic flicks have never been my favorite type of film. Although when I have two different teachers play Blade Runner and stress the importance of movies like Minority Report and Matrix I cant help but be interested. Videodrome was the one I had never heard of but found most intriguing. Blondies creepy suduction scene was far more scary then any blonde bimbo running from a walking killer like todays horror films. On a realistic level it questions what is reality? With todays couch potatoes feeding on shows like real world, celeb reality and simple life I think its fair to say that the line is vauger than ever. Barbarella, the staple Barbie, was one of the first futuristic sex icons. As much as I love a women superhero do her nipples really havee to show all the time? Overall this class gave me more appreaciation for futuristic movies, my next trip to blockbuster might bring me to the sci fri isle.

On the flipside, I loved seeing my beers books! Victors was great!!! its amazing what a little technology can do. With the digital flipbook not a single stick figure step or blood drop is overlooked. Not to mention adding music, the icing on the cake. It made me realize that drawing it wouldnt have been as stressful as i made it. I also really liked Ryan's. His mushroom story was fitting for the assignment.

continued....

In the progression of movies and technology realism has always been the primary goal. From time photos to film projection to black and white then color and now HD the evolution is far from over. Our obsession with the next best thing has led to rapid changes in technology and culture. Futuristic flicks such as Space Odyssey and Clockwork Orange serve as prime examples. Utilizing our future infactuation Stanely Cubrict created a skewed idea of the year 2001. Although we have yet to take trips to jupitor and get waited on by a flight attendent wearing grip shoes we do rely on credit cards, coffee shops and computures similiar to the HAL9000. Clockwork Orange combined classical music with a sythesizer twist to aid its sycadelic willy wonka feel. The strange sci-fi murder flick is a visual treat. With artists naming themselves after the acid milk bar and Alex, the main droog, being synonomous for halloween pieces of these movies remain in our culture today.

Evolution of film

Evolving with the new technology, film took forefront to "yesterdays" camera. With the capability to create short films entertainment turned from a luxury to neccesity. Prior to this the only real time entertainment was the opera or musicals which tended to be a bit pricey for most. With the invention of movies the same show could be repeated for multiple audiences and at a fraction of the cost. Iorning out the kinks in the new technology Melies, Eisentstein and Griffith produced cutting edge works that remain classics today. 1902 brought George Melies's Trip to the Moon. Through a combination of animation, magic and film he created a movie experience unlike any of the time. In the coming years the first animated movie premiered along with timeless tail "The great train robbery." Still lacking sound and acting ability movies slowly began to stress realism. Joan of Arc, one of the best silent movies, stressed simplicity and natural acting. From the few clips we watched in class it was the only silent movie to really evoke emotion. The crisp close ups and simple sets really allowed you to focus on the acting which was suprisingly good. I was also reallly suprised how similiar that joan looks compared to the actress staring in the most recent rendition.

Broadway-The American Musical

As Julie Andrews guided us through the history of Broadyway I was amazed to see the rapid change and cultural impact it had. To my surpise the liberation of women started by a glamorous Broadway producer Florence Ziegfeld. Thanks to his glorification of the American women we have birth control and hooters. Also during this time, whites continued their racial debauchery with minstrel skits painting their faces black and acting with an exagerated southern twang. As women skirts got shorter, African Americans entered the theater and Jazz struck gold. George Grishmen bridged the black and white musical community creating what he called "artistic unitity." Broadway's evolution to fragmented stories can also be credited to Grishmen. Its boggling to think these are the few people that set the bar for entertainment, influenced the growth of New York and united the melting pot of cultures in America.

my misconception

Breaking glass, busty women and wealth was the unfortunate misconception i had of opera till today. To my suprise, I can add castrated men, technology and the beggining of entertainment to the list. As we viewed the progression of Opera from Farinelli's era with few accesories or story lines to the elaborate sets and plots of the 1900 the eventual transformation to broadway and television is obvious. When compared to the entertainment of today, Opera feels authentic boasting raw talent, dramatic stories and far from the hollywood ending. Although they often lack a picture perfect ending the conflicts suffice. The often eery or depressing content seems to reinforce to drab life of the time. For the first time I gave opera a chance and I must say Im pleasantly suprised, and am glad to have a little more cocktail convos under my belt.