Commercials

So we just did our family commercial assignment in class, and everyone did really well. Though I don't recall it being mentioned in lecture, I noticed the use of music in a lot of the commercials, usually in the background, which always helps draw the viewer in and keep up the pace of the video.

Another element used by a lot of people were babies/children, which brought in the cute factor and really helped the overall success of the commercial. I know that casting my 18 month old nephew in our video helped boost our ratings significantly. :)

The last aspect of commercials I wanted to mention is humor/curiosity. I know they're different things, but I'm going to talk about them together. They're what keep me watching a lot of commercials (speaking outside our class' commercials, now), even when I know there's no way I'm going to buy their product. Honestly, some of the best commercials are about beer, but it's not like I'm watching it so I can compare beers and be an informed consumer. I'm there solely for the humor. Then, if it's a product I'm interested in, it's even better!

Video Games

I never had a lot of video games growing up. Everyone else got the newest games and systems as they came out, and we...didn't. I never found cause to complain about it; it just wasn't a big part of life. We had other things to do, and didn't think much of the lack of video games in our home.

Eventually, my parents bought a Nintendo 64, and that, together with some computer games, was our full measure of games. They were enough for us, and we played through them all happily. We never spent too much time on them, I don't think, though I don't remember if that was due to personal choice or parental management.

What I do remember is the time I developed my current view of video games. I'd found a new game and I was working hard on building up my avatar and crushing my opponents when, after a few hours' work, I died and had to start over from scratch.

I suddenly realized how much time I'd spent on something that had paid no dividends...if I started playing again, five hours down the road I could be eliminated and put right back to where I was now, and that would be my day gone. That's when I decided to put the controls down and find something else to do, and it's been that way ever since. Are video games fun, challenging, and entertaining? Of course they are! Some of them are very tempting, but for me, personally, I'd rather find my entertainment elsewhere. No offense.

1830

So I am super excited. I got an 1830 edition of the Book of Mormon today, and I can't wait to read it. Does that make sense? I mean, it's the same book as the one in my Quad, right? Yes and no. It has the same content (excepting a preface by the Prophet Joseph Smith in the 1830 edition we don't have today), but what makes the difference here is the format.

You see, the 1830 version has no footnotes, index, chapter headings, or verse numbers. Even the chapters are split up differently, so that 1 Nephi has 7 chapters instead of 22 and Alma has 30 instead of 63. That means each chapter is more of a complete story (1 Nephi 1 covers the whole leaving into the wilderness and going back for the plates story. Chapter 2 starts with them going back for Ishmael's family, etc). The double column thing doesn't exist either, and paragraphs are longer. Even without all the current stuff added in, the 1830 edition is about 50 pages longer, even though the font and page size is about the same.

In the end, what the 1830 edition is is less of a canonized study aid and more of a hardback novel. You open it up and that's that format. For me at least, it really increases readability, and though I'm going to defer to my current version with footnotes and index when I'm looking for some hardcore scripture research, I'm really excited about reading the Book of Mormon as a novel, reading it for the sake of enjoying it.

An ordinary book you can breeze through chapter after chapter, no problem. The scriptures, however, seem to have this something that makes you feel like you've read soooo much, tiring your poor, spiritual little self out after, what, three pages? The 1830 edition, however, I feel like I'll be able to read as other books, for the content, story, and principles, getting things out of it in a new way. Call me crazy, but the format of the book really changes it up for me. The difference makes it easier for me to read it as a leisure book, not just a study aid.

I can't wait to start. This is going to be good.

Expectations

So I don't really like my last post...at all. It was supposed to be this grand and glorious post showing stats for Coldplay's music from 1998 to today, drawing incredible insights and....nope. Instead I got a short little post about media misrepresentation. I felt good starting the post, but then I saw how late it was getting and how tired I was becoming, and it all fell apart. I expected more out of myself...and that leads us to my point here.

No, it's not so I can have a pity party; it's to ask how we react when someone's performance doesn't hold up to our expectations. As an example, let's take J.K. Rowling. Bless her soul, she brought us Harry Potter. I shouldn't have to say any more than that, and I actually don't dare. If I did, the rest of this post would be about Hallows and Horcruxes, thestrals and Crumple-Horned Snorkacks, curses and wand lore, and possibly even a eulogy for Fred Weasley. Instead, let's just leave it at calling Harry Potter a literary masterpiece.

Then, let's take a look at The Casual Vacancy. I tried to read it, I really did. I was there in the store before they were allowed to sell it, waiting anxiously so I could have the new J.K. Rowling book the second it was available. Obviously, I was looking for something comparable to Harry Potter. I mean, this was the same author, right? Instead, I found tons of vulgarity, detailed immorality, and a lack of...anything tasteful. After skimming through it to be sure, I gave up on it and walked away disappointed. Rowling let me down big time with that one. I wondered if it could possibly be the same author, what with the two works being such complete opposites.

So tell me, how do reputations influence our media usage? I'll admit to wanting to watch a movie just because of who directed it or who starred in it. What if you go to a movie because you trust that actor or director, and then they let you down? How many times can they let you down before you stop endorsing them?

If it happens enough, I think we just decide they've lost their touch and move on. We don't get as excited when their new stuff comes out; instead of camping out in front of the theater we wait to see the reviews or wait for it to hit DVD, if we watch it at all. In other words, we move on, forget them, find someone new to be a fan of. I know that makes it sound super dramatic, and I apologize, but it gets the point across.

So now it's your turn: when have you been let down, and what was your reaction to it?

The Whole Story

Can you lie about media portrayals? Oh, very easily. Let's take a look...using Coldplay. So I decided to run frequency counts on Coldplay's lyrics...and I found some fascinating things.

In 1998, the Top 25 list of most frequent words used has many concerning speed and travel (rush, faster, drive, car, change, go, anywhere), as well as change and improvement (bigger, change, stronger, better) that indicate a theme of dissatisfaction and desire for a different kind of life.

However, when you look at the full lyrics, you only see that theme in "Bigger Stronger." In fact, looking at it in context, the word "rush," which topped the list with 31 uses, is actually saying we should stop rushing. Hmm...context is important, no?

Now how about we pick and choose from 1999's list? Let's see, the top words used by Coldplay in their songs in 1999 include hope, confidence, love, live, beautiful, and trust. How positively prosocial of them! But what if we'd chosen to report other parts of their lyrics instead, such as:

Bones sinking like stones
All that we've fought for
Homes, places we've grown
All of us are done for.


I sleep but I will not move,
Too scared to leave my room.

Can anybody stop this thing
Before my head explodes
Or my head starts to ring? 

Not quite as positive any more, huh? Both reports are true, so whatever slant you pick, you have the material you need to put them in whatever light you wish.

This goes on and on, with whatever year you want, and really whatever artist or genre you want. When you practice selective listening/reporting/whatever, you're not going to get the whole picture. That's why we need to be informed media consumers.

One time I remember, everyone was outraged at the material found in a certain book. I had read the book without a problem, so I went to read the details of what had offended them...and quickly came to the conclusion that they had never read a single page of the book themselves. They accused the book of containing material anyone who had read it could tell you didn't exist.

Moral of the story? Be smart. Know for yourself how to judge media so you don't have to depend on the biased views of others. That's all. 

Human or Time Lord?

So here I am watching "Human Nature" and "The Family of Blood," a two-parter in Doctor Who. The Doctor turns himself human to avoid detection by pursuers, losing his memory in the process. Instead, he believes himself to be John Smith, a schoolteacher who falls in love with the school nurse, Joan. 

Eventually it gets around to him needing to change back into the Doctor to save the day, but John Smith doesn't want to. What he hears of the Doctor is that he is lonely and fearsome:

"Falling in love--that didn't even occur to him? Then what sort of man is that?"

"He's like fire and ice and rage. He's like the night and the storm in the heart of the sun. He's ancient and forever. He burns at the center of time, and he can see the turn of the universe. And...he's wonderful."

He doesn't want any of it, though, saying, "That's all I want to be: John Smith, with his life, and his job, and his love. Why can't I be John Smith? Isn't he a good man?" He sees, together with Joan, what their future could be, catching glimpses of their wedding, their children, themselves grown old together. But, Joan says it can't be. He has to go stop the aliens from destroying everything, and so he makes the change back into the Doctor.

As the Doctor, he easily defeats their enemies, but now he's back to his adventurous, Time Lord self. His love for Joan is gone, replaced by the offhanded "If you want you could be my companion." She says no to his offer and he walks away unperturbed. He's the navigator of the universe, bane of evil everywhere, free from all bonds and restrictions, the enforcer of his own laws.

He could go back to being John Smith, but he chooses not to. Instead he's the Doctor, free to do as he will, powerful as all get-out, but bringing in his wake, wherever he goes, death and calamity. His care-free attitude? The alternative would be to face all the horrors of his life, so it's hard to blame him.

On one side, solidarity and a sense of belonging, but less excitement and distraction. On the other side, constant changes of scene and sensation, high danger with low threat, but nothing that's lasting. The choice, then? As a human, he wanted to remain a human. As a Time Lord, he wanted to remain a Time Lord.

For us, we don't have a choice, but I believe we still get the better end of the deal. What good is essentially living forever if it means leaving behind those you love? All the adventures, all the things you get to see, those are all fine and well, but there comes a price, and it is one we would do well to think twice about....you know, in the off chance you get the offer to become a Time Lord.

Seriously, though, our choice is to decide between two styles of life. Will we take the faster lifestyle that promises excitement but not permanence, or commitment without the chance to visit galaxies and fight Daleks? For me, I'd love to travel the universe for a while, but at the end of the day I would have to vote for settling down and living the quiet life of a normal human being. Nothing against the Doctor, of course.

A Quick Start on Music

This isn't the only time I'll talk about it, but let's discuss music for a moment. What can be said? Let's have us a list, shall we?

1. Of media forms, it is the most pervasive. There is hardly a single thing we can do that requires us to shut it off. We can work with it on, drive with it on, even sleep with it on if we want to. Anything that requires watching a screen is more distracting and has to go. Music, however, can be ever present.

2. It works wonderfully with sensory memory. Just as a certain smell can trigger feelings of nostalgia for a certain time, person, or event, a few chords or the right note can instantly transport you back in time. This leads to the next one...

3. Music is an incredibly emotional form of media. While a movie might take two hours to wrench your heart strings, a song takes care of it within minutes. Given the right song, it might just take the first note or two. In fact, what do movies use to manipulate your emotions? Well, ever watch a movie without a soundtrack? The music in a movie is key to how you feel about it. Without it, the sad moments are less emotionally traumatizing, the happy ones less jubilant, etc.

4. Music does what words can't. The English language is incredibly vocabularius, a word which here means it has lots of words for lots of things, and as I just showed, if a word doesn't exist you can just make one up. Even with that, it is so common to experience something words can't describe. Usually this is concerning the emotional depth, breadth, or intensity of an experience, and where words fail us, we revert to music. "I'm not just sad...I'm drop-two-octaves-into-a-serious-minor-key sad."

5. It inspires us. Almost nothing gets right to the heart of us like that one song. You know the one. Or the two, three, or four of them. Music motivates us, inspires us, gets our blood pumping. It makes us feel more creative, more energetic, more powerful.

6. Music puts us or keeps us in whatever mood it was written for. Upbeat songs help us be happy; depressing ones just the opposite. It's amazing how influential music can be in this sense. It changes our perceptions so much that there is a branch of counseling known as music therapy, using music therapeutically to help patients overcome their difficulties.

7. Music is a way of communicating who we are and what we stand for. The messages contained in music declare what is important to us, and the way it's presented shows our personal identity, whether reflected in rock, country, rap, or whatever other style captures your essence.

That's just a few quick points. We'll do some exploring into music in weeks to come. Music theory (how music makes us feel the way it does), lyrics, bands, listening behavior, we'll do it all. I'm sure each of us could talk about music alone from now until the end of the semester, easily, so I don't think we'll quickly run out of topics with this one.