Another Interesting Ad

Here is another ad about magazines that I found. They seem to be trying really hard to prove that print media is not entirely dead. I don't know about everyone else, but I liked the first one better.

Hush

The other day I watched an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer in which everyone lost the ability to speak. The entire episode centered on what it would be like to be unable to talk to one another. In the show, life came a complete halt. People were wandering around aimlessly. It was like a scene out of any random apocalypse movie. The whole time I was watching the show, I was wondering what it would be like today if we suddenly lost the ability to speak aloud.
Losing the ability to speak would be awful. But I do not think it would present as big a problem nowadays as it would have been fifteen years ago. We communicate so differently now than we used to. Not being able to talk on the phone is not a huge issue. We have texting. We have the almighty Internet. Who needs vocal cords when we have a key board?

Spoken vs. Written

There are certainly a great number people who are quite talented when it comes to the art of speaking. I am not when of these people.
When it comes to communicating with the world, generally, I hate talking but I love writing. I am much more witty when I write. When speaking to someone, I never seem to be able to find the words in the moment. Later, after I've had time think, I can usually come up a perfect response. Therein lies the problem. The written word is something I can perfect, speaking is not. I often fumble over words and repeat myself over and over until the point I was trying make becomes so muddled that I don't even know what I'm say. There is no backspace or delete button when talking. There is no eraser to fix the mistakes one makes when speaking.
And that is really all I have to say today, though this post has little to do with new media.

False Reverends and Fifty Cent Books

I am, at this very moment, sitting in a library. Shocking it might seem to some, but these places do still exist. Today was an especially lucky day since this particular library is selling its outdated books to the general public for fifty cents a piece. As a confirmed bibliophile, this is a gift from the literary gods. I bought seven. I love books. I believe I've said that before, and I'll probably say it many times more.
As much as I love new media and all its advantages, it will never replace the feeling of an actual book. I realize the irony of typing this on a computer to be read on the Internet. But this is the world we live in. Old is mixing with the new. Some things are changing and other things will never change.
As to the false reverends mentioned in the title of this entry, well that is a funny story. I was looking at those specimens of ancient library practices: the due date cards. Back in the day, these were signed by the patrons that checked the book out. My friend who works at the library and I were examining the names and dates. We were confused as to why someone would sign with only the word 'reverend.' Seemed a little pretentious. But according the dates, it had been the sixties. Perhaps there had only been one reverend. How were we to know? And this reverend seemed to check out the most random books. "Thomas More and his Utopia" "Applied philosophy" "Confucius and the Chinese way" After closer examination, we realized that 'reverend' was actually 'renewed.' (in our defense, it was written in cursive and the two words look remarkably similar when written that way) Subsequently, we felt both duped and daft. But we had a good laugh and thus another adventurous day at the library.

A Short Story

A perfect demonstration of how the internet has affected my life:

Now whenever I have a question about anything, I run to one place. Google. 

Magnificent Movie Memories

As anyone who has grown up in the in the last century, movies have played significant part in my life.  To put it quite simply, I adore them. I love getting wrapped up the story that plays out on the screen. For two hours those character are real to me. Well, most of the time that is the case. There is always the danger when starting a movie that it will turn out to be terrible (The Simpsons Movie = two hours of my life that I’ll never get back). But the rewards are well worth the risk. When one finds a movie that captivates and enthralls, reality melts away and life is good.

Like most children of the nineties, movies by the Disney Company took up a substantial amount of my time as a child. Many of them still rank high in my list of favorite movies. The Lion King, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Little Mermaid, and Pocahontas are among my chief favorites. I remember spending hours watching them over and over. Then many more hours pretending to be the characters I saw on the screen.

There are just some movies that become so ingrained in one’s psyche that they become almost mythical. A legend. You cease thinking of it as just a movie. The film takes on new proportions and it seems wrong to put it in the same category as lesser examples. It is difficult to see the actors play any other character because in your mind they are that character. Any flaws it might have are overlooked. Nothing negative can be said about them.

When I think of movies that have reached legendary status I think of Star Wars, The Wizard of Oz, The Sound of Music, Indiana Jones and hundreds of others. The American Film Institute just loves making lists of them.

There thousands of lists out there naming the best movies in cinematic history. Each one is slightly different. Because there is no scientific formula to what makes a movie great.  What makes a movie brilliant to one person might be completely different from the reasons another person loves it. Because what makes a movie great is the personal experience you have with it. 

Poetry and Yogurt

Plain was the same as it ever was the same.

Plainly plain…

Samely same…

But then…someone lit the flame.

Plain rode away on lion’s mane.

Where plain met fruits with strangely names.

Such wonderful things they did contain.

A shot of life to a hungry vein.

The captive beast who broke the chain.

And there upon that fruited plane,

is where plain became what plain became.

So much more than more than plain. 

Plain will never be the same.

It’s a beautiful poem. And it’s about yogurt! The first time I saw this commercial I was captivated by it. The poem was beautiful and the images that went along with it were as well. It is by far the best commercial I have seen in a long time. Who would have guessed that advertisers could be so creative?

Ad after ad on TV seems to scream at people, telling them to by their product. This commercial for Fage Yogurt offers a different approach. Is it any better? I haven’t the slightest idea. I do know that it took me three times of seeing it on TV for me to actually catch what it was selling. I was too distracted by how striking it was to pay attention to the advertisement part of it. However, I am now very intrigued by this brand of yogurt, and I never would have guess that one could ever be intrigued by yogurt. So did the advertisers win?

Do I now want to try this yogurt? Perhaps a bit. Am I any more likely to actually buy this brand of yogurt? Probably not. I’m a Yoplait person.

Global Connections

At this very moment I am looking at a giant poster of the world. All the countries are outlined and labeled accordingly. I think about the recent drama going on in other parts of the world, the troubles in Egypt and Libya, the disaster in Japan. All of these reported on and the stories updated instantly. 
The world has never been more connected. Forget the Silk Road, we have the information superhighway. Major global events are known throughout the world almost as soon as they happen. We don't have to wait years or months or even hours for updates. 
Last year I was in a class on social problems. At the beginning of the semester the professor asked us if we had a positive or negative outlook on the world. After I thought about it for a minute, I decided that my outlook is positive because the world is so connected. We have never been more aware of each other.
Being aware of the world outside our doors can only be looked at as a good thing. Being aware is the first step in helping. The more people who are aware of a situation, the more people will want to do something about it. Having these instant updates on world occurrences lets  people know more, react faster, and have a bigger impact. 
In this way, the Internet is a huge blessing to world. How many lives have been saved because of it? Seems ridiculous to think of the Internet as saving anyone. For most of people it seems to suck the life right out of them. But that is only one end of the spectrum. On the other end are those who use their up-to-date knowledge of world events to create a positive change. At the moment I do not belong in this category. I can only hope that as time passes I too can find a way to use my connection to the World Wide Web for the greater good. 

Book Sculptures

I am torn on this one. And so are these books.

On the one hand, the bibliophile in me is sad to see a perfectly good book desecrated and made impossible to read again.

On the other hand, these are clearly works of art.

I love the idea of using old media to create something new and beautiful. Just because something has become outdated and seemingly useless doesn’t mean it has to stay that way. It just takes a little ingenuity to put new life into something old.

These sculptures are amazing. They are by an artist named Brian Dettmer. He takes these out of date encyclopedias, medical journals, illustration books, or dictionaries and bends, folds, stacks and manipulates them to make new works of art. Nothing is transferred or rearranged, only removed. He carefully and painstakingly cuts away at book to form his unique sculptures.

Brian Dettmer isn’t the only person to use this old media to create something new. Alex Queral uses old phone books to carve portraits of people. Old media made new!

And then there is Isaac Salazar and book origami. No cutting or pasting for this guy. All he does is carefully fold the pages of books to create something remarkable.

I could not love these more even if I wanted to. Check out these artists respective websites for more outstanding works of art.