A quick demonstration on Fox News of how easily hacked the Diebold voting machines are:
Here ends democracy
Monday, September 18, 2006
Saturday, September 16, 2006
Internet Killed the Rock'n'Roll Star
So this is an idea I’ve been playing with, help me out Chippies.
Derek and I had a discussion several months ago about the decline or death of rock and roll and the new dominance of what’s come to be known as hip hop. He had some excellent theories to back him up and I found myself in concurrence. A month or so after adding this idea to the torrent of ‘new media theory’ I’ve been looking at, I was conversing with a friend who was talking about what he wants to do next with his life. He ended his collected thoughts and vague possibilities with a half serious jest that ‘becoming a Rock Star would solve all of his problems’. I say half serious because he is pursuing traditional acoustic song writing on the side, set up a myspace account, plays out occasionally and so on.
This seemed to conflict with Derek’s idea and I’m trying to determine if the Rock Star has/will die with Rock. Perhaps the Rap Star is the new Rock Star, but something about the diffusion of culture right now doesn’t give them as much iconic authority as what I’d see as a traditional Rock Star I guess Pop Star can’t be excluded either… but who is the last modern music ‘star’ anyone can remember? (well I just remembered Eminem so he kind of puts a hole in this and since I’m writing this off the cuff, please suggest others I’m missing if you want to refute all this) I’m sure some can be clearly sited as prominent figures in the industry, but anyone that has near the communication power of Lennon? Dylan? Kobain? Springsteen? Even more corporately propelled stars like Madonna don’t speak with any significance to their audience anymore being drowned in a broader bandwith of cultural musical output. It can also be stated that I’m out of touch with the popular music scene and have been since the late 90’s, but that’s not relevant to this inquiry (ithink). Basically Rock, and the Rock Star, no longer exist as they used to. That culturally powerful authority position- the purveyor of cool, fun and/or bad ass, is vacant.
When ‘Rock’ first gained weight as a genre and more so as a medium, it offered the opportunity for individuals or a group of individuals to craft potent, fun, occasionally message laden expression. As the story goes, the output created defined an era- rock music and all of it’s progeny so much permeate the social landscape that it’s not even looked at as a form of expression among other forms of expression, but the foundation for musical expression in today’s culture itself. My original cultural and socialized understanding of American music history got a little fuzzy before Elvis, before Rock. Many saw it/see it as the only true expression of the spirit which no other medium could touch or outdo. How loud the chord was struck, how right it felt can be summed up in the naïve assumption that, ‘Rock and Roll will Never Die’ (Young).
The important part of this all is the low start-up cost of becoming a rock star. Despite how the music industry operates today, music is still a medium of the people. People see and hope that all you really need is a guitar, some talent and some luck, and anyone can be a rock star and big time purveyor of cultural content. While a similar medium gaining prominence around the 1950’s, television, has perhaps further reaching modes of expression, the tools and costs for individuals or groups to create anything for that medium were not realistic. This of course leads us to the Internet, where we all know how the affordability of media editing tools and distribution possibilities of our (our=*cough. Net neutrality. Cough*) world wide web are changing this notion. So this is where the wondering begins. With the growing impotence of Rock and the huge diversity of music available, it may not be possible for music stars to exist like they used to, unless they morph into the Internet Star. We talk a lot about the Internet dethroning television, but I think it may also be dethroning the role popular music plays as we’ve come to know it.
In the end, if media ecologists like Marshal Macluhan and Neil Postman are to be believed, every new medium offers it’s own unique world of discourse and is never an extension of previous mediums. Television is not an extension of Radio, Internet is not and extension of Television. And while these mediums affect each other, they’re totally different in what type of output they’re prone to making. But again, I’m talking about the position and function these mediums occupy in modern culture, not which ones are better at what.
Now for us sci-fi futurists who attempt to foresee the evolution of internet/interactive media, to show what the Internet Star could become, I look at the work of Will Wright. His name has been attached to such milestones in interactive media like Sim City 2000 and The Sims franchise- he’s currently working on a new project which is bound to be another revolution in the gaming industry called ‘Spore’. Basically a simulation of ‘evolution’, you start as a one-celled organism trying to survive in a 2-D environment. After surviving as the fittest, you have the opportunity to evolve and evolve you do, the user designing every facet of there creature along the way, moving to an aquatic environment, then crawling onto land, and ultimately starting a civilization. The game gets even more macro but the content is not what’s important here, it’s the tools.
Spore is the first mass market experiment with what’s becoming known as ‘Procedural Content Generation’ (PCG). An indirect result of the Demoscene, PCG can best be explained by comparing a game like this to more traditional ones. Previous games like this required armies of programmers and animators to design all of the content for the various roads you can take your creature/society down, but with PCG it is instead designed with algorithms which create the animations and basically everything else in that virtual world, on the fly. It’s like animated clay and legos, and it allows for tremendous versatility in design in 3-D space.
Maybe I’m trying too hard, but I want to compare something like this to a newish form of rock star, the DJ. DJ’s reside in a specific sub-culture, but they take the outputs of generations of sound makers and will create there own sounds, ‘on the fly’. What interests me in the evolution of Internet media, and the Internet Star, is as new forms of content generation spread, what kind of work could be created? And I suspect with the growing sophistication of technology and audiences, even the Internet Star could give way to something even more media encompassing. Let’s DJ reality?
Derek and I had a discussion several months ago about the decline or death of rock and roll and the new dominance of what’s come to be known as hip hop. He had some excellent theories to back him up and I found myself in concurrence. A month or so after adding this idea to the torrent of ‘new media theory’ I’ve been looking at, I was conversing with a friend who was talking about what he wants to do next with his life. He ended his collected thoughts and vague possibilities with a half serious jest that ‘becoming a Rock Star would solve all of his problems’. I say half serious because he is pursuing traditional acoustic song writing on the side, set up a myspace account, plays out occasionally and so on.
This seemed to conflict with Derek’s idea and I’m trying to determine if the Rock Star has/will die with Rock. Perhaps the Rap Star is the new Rock Star, but something about the diffusion of culture right now doesn’t give them as much iconic authority as what I’d see as a traditional Rock Star I guess Pop Star can’t be excluded either… but who is the last modern music ‘star’ anyone can remember? (well I just remembered Eminem so he kind of puts a hole in this and since I’m writing this off the cuff, please suggest others I’m missing if you want to refute all this) I’m sure some can be clearly sited as prominent figures in the industry, but anyone that has near the communication power of Lennon? Dylan? Kobain? Springsteen? Even more corporately propelled stars like Madonna don’t speak with any significance to their audience anymore being drowned in a broader bandwith of cultural musical output. It can also be stated that I’m out of touch with the popular music scene and have been since the late 90’s, but that’s not relevant to this inquiry (ithink). Basically Rock, and the Rock Star, no longer exist as they used to. That culturally powerful authority position- the purveyor of cool, fun and/or bad ass, is vacant.
When ‘Rock’ first gained weight as a genre and more so as a medium, it offered the opportunity for individuals or a group of individuals to craft potent, fun, occasionally message laden expression. As the story goes, the output created defined an era- rock music and all of it’s progeny so much permeate the social landscape that it’s not even looked at as a form of expression among other forms of expression, but the foundation for musical expression in today’s culture itself. My original cultural and socialized understanding of American music history got a little fuzzy before Elvis, before Rock. Many saw it/see it as the only true expression of the spirit which no other medium could touch or outdo. How loud the chord was struck, how right it felt can be summed up in the naïve assumption that, ‘Rock and Roll will Never Die’ (Young).
The important part of this all is the low start-up cost of becoming a rock star. Despite how the music industry operates today, music is still a medium of the people. People see and hope that all you really need is a guitar, some talent and some luck, and anyone can be a rock star and big time purveyor of cultural content. While a similar medium gaining prominence around the 1950’s, television, has perhaps further reaching modes of expression, the tools and costs for individuals or groups to create anything for that medium were not realistic. This of course leads us to the Internet, where we all know how the affordability of media editing tools and distribution possibilities of our (our=*cough. Net neutrality. Cough*) world wide web are changing this notion. So this is where the wondering begins. With the growing impotence of Rock and the huge diversity of music available, it may not be possible for music stars to exist like they used to, unless they morph into the Internet Star. We talk a lot about the Internet dethroning television, but I think it may also be dethroning the role popular music plays as we’ve come to know it.
In the end, if media ecologists like Marshal Macluhan and Neil Postman are to be believed, every new medium offers it’s own unique world of discourse and is never an extension of previous mediums. Television is not an extension of Radio, Internet is not and extension of Television. And while these mediums affect each other, they’re totally different in what type of output they’re prone to making. But again, I’m talking about the position and function these mediums occupy in modern culture, not which ones are better at what.
Now for us sci-fi futurists who attempt to foresee the evolution of internet/interactive media, to show what the Internet Star could become, I look at the work of Will Wright. His name has been attached to such milestones in interactive media like Sim City 2000 and The Sims franchise- he’s currently working on a new project which is bound to be another revolution in the gaming industry called ‘Spore’. Basically a simulation of ‘evolution’, you start as a one-celled organism trying to survive in a 2-D environment. After surviving as the fittest, you have the opportunity to evolve and evolve you do, the user designing every facet of there creature along the way, moving to an aquatic environment, then crawling onto land, and ultimately starting a civilization. The game gets even more macro but the content is not what’s important here, it’s the tools.
Spore is the first mass market experiment with what’s becoming known as ‘Procedural Content Generation’ (PCG). An indirect result of the Demoscene, PCG can best be explained by comparing a game like this to more traditional ones. Previous games like this required armies of programmers and animators to design all of the content for the various roads you can take your creature/society down, but with PCG it is instead designed with algorithms which create the animations and basically everything else in that virtual world, on the fly. It’s like animated clay and legos, and it allows for tremendous versatility in design in 3-D space.
Maybe I’m trying too hard, but I want to compare something like this to a newish form of rock star, the DJ. DJ’s reside in a specific sub-culture, but they take the outputs of generations of sound makers and will create there own sounds, ‘on the fly’. What interests me in the evolution of Internet media, and the Internet Star, is as new forms of content generation spread, what kind of work could be created? And I suspect with the growing sophistication of technology and audiences, even the Internet Star could give way to something even more media encompassing. Let’s DJ reality?
Thursday, September 14, 2006
Monday, September 11, 2006
What's today's date?
and enjoy this picture as well.
The joke is in the papers and on the tv stations.
This graphic is from Newsday.
I'm sure the TV was worse, but I didn't see any.Here is actually a good article from Newsday (surprising I know!) about how the rest of the world today "Remebers 9-11, but many not crying". From the article:
German Chancellor Angela Merkel -- an advocate of repairing ties with Washington that were frayed under her predecessor Gerhard Schroeder -- had veiled criticism of the United States, saying: "The ends cannot justify the means."
"In the fight against international terror ... respect for human rights, tolerance and respect for other cultures must be the maxim of our actions, along with decisiveness and international cooperation," she said.
..."You gave us every legitimacy and every opportunity to continue fighting you," said Ayman al-Zawahri [senior Al-Qaida leader], addressing the United States.
....New Zealand's Prime Minister Helen Clark joined many when she said: "No, we're not more secure since 9/11."
Saturday, September 09, 2006
Retirement Artists Complex
Here is a NYTimes article about a Burbank Complex designed specifically for retired people. It was created:
"With the understanding that not everyone wants the old-school model of golf course retirement...
...the colony offers artful self-expression: a digital film editing laboratory, a theater, drama classes and studios open for inspiration 24 hours a day. "
Now all they need is prescription psychadelics to complete the package...
Wednesday, September 06, 2006
let's start a new trend.
so the chippies is about what rules and what's messed...
i had a dream in which doug was trying to convince me that the new trend in facial hair was the inverse beard (basically you shave where the beard would be).
that rules.
i had a dream in which doug was trying to convince me that the new trend in facial hair was the inverse beard (basically you shave where the beard would be).
that rules.
Tuesday, September 05, 2006
on the lines, out of the air waves
I've recently become re-hooked on the internet radio PANDORA. Simply type the name of a song or artist you like and it provides songs by other artists that you'll probably also like. Signing up is free if you don't mind a few unobtrusive ads. It keeps track of all of your "radio stations" and songs that you liked and disliked. Enjoy.
Monday, September 04, 2006
Really Dramatic
I've finally finished watching all the available episodes of Young American Bodies, an online soap opera created by Joe Swanberg (LOL, Kissing on the Mouth). Everyone should watch these episodes, I can't figure out how to write about them, but they exist somewhere in the fuzzy/ awkward line between soap opera and reality tv. It's all about sex and twenty something relationships, but some of the understated moments of narrative in the show are very beautiful and honest. It's all for your free viewing pleasure at nerve.tv in streaming video format.
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