The Farmer's Market

My relationship with Media today is more of an addiction than anything else. My first impulse upon waking is to check my Gmail and Facebook. Rather than eating, making coffee, showering, or simply reading the daily news, I choose to sit in front of my computer immediately after rising. Often, the only pressing matters I discover are half a dozen junk emails and the same three friend requests I have been ignoring for at least a month. Still I set my alarm at night to allow myself two hours to get ready for the next day's activities in the morning. One of those hours is provided merely to sit and refresh the same three websites, practically begging for something, anything, to happen.

Unfortunately this addiction is old news. I can remember the days before Facebook when MySpace was my vice. As a freshman in High School I was exposed to this wonderful social-networking tool. I loved learning the basic html codes that allowed me to personalize my profile. My obsession began with all the ways I could show everyone all about me. It was an easier way to relate with my peers than face-to-face interaction. I felt safer behind my profile and more "popular" than I had before. I also remember the intense fights that ensued between my parents and I. My grades began a steady decline as my addiction spiked. This public forum for very personal communication caused tension between my friends and I.

More recently I have seen the effect social networking websites are having on the rest of my family. My sister, 15, has a Facebook, my mother, 52, has a Facebook, and my brother, 11, has recently requested my friendship on Facebook. This seems like an invasion of privacy, and has only led to more turmoil in our relationships. Previous to joining Facebook my little brother was on Club Penguin. If you are unfamiliar with Club Penguin, it is a virtual reality not unlike Second Life, only for children. They create avatars and skate around going into stores and interrupting each other's conversations. I asked my brother a few years ago why he liked this website and he told me it was easier to get along with kids in Club Penguin than it was in school.

I have since developed a penchant dislike for Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and the like for simplifying friendships to a linked profile or tagged picture within their network. Still, I cannot seem to find anything more important to do at 7am than check my Facebook. I don't have as many hours to waste away at the computer as I did at 14, but when I do have hours to waste, you better believe they are spent in front of the profiles of men and women I either have not seen in years, or those I see on a daily basis.

Having recognized this about a month or two ago, I have tried to break the habit. My first coping strategy has been to discover new websites that are interesting, educational and/or entertaining. The only one that has stuck, barring my online banking, Blackboard, and Google from the list, has been Slate.com. I really enjoy the daily photo blogs and editorials on the News. I also like the side bar on the Slate website that links me to articles on The Huffington Post, CNN, The Washington Post, and The Onion. I hope that I will continue to find websites besides Facebook to stalk and I'm open to suggestions. I should delete my Facebook completely; but what would I do while I drink my coffee??

Noises ON- Eightieth and Beyond

UpperWestSide: Silent Tour

For my sound walk, I began on my block. As I left my building, the first noise I noticed was the distinct click of the lock as the door closed behind me. At first, I thought all I could hear was the traffic on Amsterdam and the middle school kids yelling and laughing outside of T&R (the pizzeria around the corner from my house.) --

FUN FACT: T&R used to be Pete's Pizza; Pete was a funny Italian man, always laughing and smoking a cigarette, serving us Italian Ices for 25cents after school. I loved Pete. Due to marital problems, Pete fell off so to speak, and got bought out by T&R. They no longer have Italian Ice for 25cents, the after school special is overpriced, and the white slices have taken a hit in the quality department. However, the drunk slice at T&R is always appreciated late night. --



Anyway, as I approached the middle of the block, I passed a young couple with a baby practically gurgling at each other. I smiled though; the yuppie families in my neighborhood are kind of cute. I began to hear a horn player practicing some blues in a nearby apartment and I started to really become enthusiastic about my walk. As I passed another building I heard more music; This time a piano student having a lesson. They must have been in the basement apartment because I could hear the teacher encouraging the student as they practiced. Coming to the corner, I could hear the whirring of the fans in Andy's Deli and my homeboys inside shouting orders and Delivery!

I crossed Columbus and walked passed the Museum of Natural History. As I passed, there was a little boy with his nanny and sibling in a stroller walking next to me. I heard the little boy say to his nanny, "I've been here 5 times and the planetarium 8. I'm named after the planetarium, Did you know that? The real name is the Hayden Planetarium." She didn't respond at all, and he must have repeated himself four of five times after that. Realizing this woman either couldn't understand him or didn't think he deserved some sort of response really bothered me.

I made a left onto 77th Street and headed toward Central Park. At that point I stopped hearing conversations and heard only buses, which make me turn my head every time, and footsteps. I heard puppy footsteps, a Great Dane's footsteps, strollers, the business man shuffle step, the clickity clack of heels, and bike tires on the slick sidewalk. I was enjoying being attuned to the beings walking with me when I was rudely interrupted by a man yelling at a taxi. Apparently he thought the driver should make a left from the far right lane in order to pick him up going in the opposite direction. But so it goes.

I walked into and through the park to the East side and then back. It's amazing how the sound changes in the park. Immediately it seems deceivingly quiet. But then I noticed the birds were all singing a symphony of spring, despite the drizzle. I know this assignment was about sound, but the most noticeable thing to me in the park was the smell of grass and dew. I became lost in the beauty of the green against the gray sky and I didn't hear much besides the sounds of life around me. Leaving the park was a rude awakening. I started walking faster, the noise of traffic seemed to have doubled since I had entered the park, and on CPW I could hear the C/A/B/E train whurr by underground. The man at the hot dog cart was shouting out his "reasonable" 3$ bottles of Poland Spring and things were much more chaotic.

I hurried home and the noises became familiar and comforting. Although, the loss of my kitten makes noises at home relatively unbearable and while writing this blog I've thought i heard him playing with the curtain strings three times. I guess I've enjoyed being out of the apartment and listening to noises, but now I'm having a hard time appreciating being so attuned to this sense.

Kitty-Tron Delta 3000, my Oscar, the cat about Eight-Oh

Oscar was my kitten for six months. He was discovered abandoned, barely a month old, hiding under the floorboards of a pizzeria in Bed-Stuy. I took him in and he was the light of my life. When we rode the subway home after I picked him up in BK, he fit in my winter hat.

He quickly grew into a proud prowler of the night--he thought he was the lion King. Oscar was a killer extraordinaire, he loved plastic bags, and stalking pigeons on the roof. I couldn't keep him locked up inside, I trusted him, and he took a fatal fall two nights ago. May he rest in peace, knowing he survived so much, and he was loved by everyone he touched.

Apocalypse Now...

I just realized that the photograph I posted with my Apocalypse Now blog isn't showing up.

I'm trying again 'cause I think the image is worth it.

Mind Is Brave

Despite having already done the "Design I Like" Blog, I discovered a website this weekend that also has a design I like. I have to tell you how I found it because it was random chance and very scary.

I went to Ft. Lauderdale for Spring Break which was amazing and on the last night I went to a Jazz Club in Miami and saw an incredible Cuban band. As I was leaving the club, I saw a poster on a telephone pole and all it said was, "Mind is Brave." Underneath where usually you would see phone number tabs to take home, there were tabs of this website: http://mind.isbrave.com/
Anyway, I put it in my pocket and completely forgot about it.

I sat down on Sunday to do the assignment, took many breaks, and was unsatisfied with the blog I had done. At some point I pulled the tab out of my pocket and meandered to the website. I discovered that it is part of a Diesel campaign and one of a series of three short films. Personally, I like the Mind video best but all of the videos have different camera angles, colored lighting, and thematic elements that represent their titles. There is a very psychoanalytic perspective in the ideas presented. The Mind is completely captivating and the journey along a thin line between sanity and insanity is explored. Bravery as a quality surpasses these human weaknesses. I still don't quite understand the correlation between these clearly meditated, artistic, provocative films and Diesel marketing their clothing, but props to Diesel for opening this up to the public. If you have any curiosity, check it out.

Design I Like... The Kiss and Snickers

After reading this assignment four or five times over the last two weeks, I finally decided that Snickers was the Design I Like. While I think that the marketing scheme talks down to the American people by making words up out of thin air, I have to admit they make me laugh. Not to mention they're everywhere. As you can see above, the brown posters can be found dominating subway cars, telephone booths (who uses those any more?), and buses. The blue and white font is recognizable from Snickers' candy bars, as well as the chocolate coloring with red highlights. While this design and campaign in general doesn't really inspire any intellectual musings from the public it definitely sells candy bars. Next to Jameson ads on the Subway, which the Jameson bottle speaks for itself so the campaign lacks design ingenuity, I like seeing life size Snicker bars that make me laugh and vary so greatly. The beauty of fake words is there are a plethora of clever puns that exemplify the reasons why chocolate and peanuts make a great couple. The combination of inundation and familiarity is effective and commendable.



I love this poster, I have it hung behind my bed. Entitled, Kiss, it embodies more than just a kiss to me. It is devotion, warmth and love. The colors, distinct almost spiritual aura around the bodies and the unity of their bodies all portray that passionate love.

Little Boy Blue and the Man in the Moon

Apocalypse Now was originally released in 1979 and won two Oscars—one for cinematography and one for sound editing. The film follows its main character, Captain Benjamin L. Willard through the chaos of Vietnam. His mission is to find a rebel Green Beret Colonel who has assumed a god-like role in a Cambodian village. During the process, Willard and his troops digress to the most primal human behavior. Starkly juxtaposed to the beauty of the terrain, these soldiers are immersed in an unfathomable barbaric chaos.

I am genuinely embarrassed to admit that before yesterday I’d never seen Apocalypse Now. When we were given this assignment I realized that the film, which my father gave me as a birthday gift when I was in High School, was still sitting in it’s packaging on my bookshelf. I am SO glad I unwrapped it. Apocalypse Now was one of the most beautiful, powerful movies I’ve ever seen.

The initial scene of the movie establishes an insane, tumultuous tone. There is a crescendo of music, helicopter blades, and shots of only the captain’s eyes, and flares exploding against a beautiful beach. Immediately, as the audience, I felt the anxiety. As the captain begins to interact with others, the camera captures these interactions from his perspective; when he is spoken to, the editing is such that, the image of whomever is speaking is brief and the camera wanders to hands, food, feet, anything the captain is paying attention to rather than them. This approach makes the viewer realize immediately, how frazzled the captain has become.

After the Captain has been assigned to his mission and is excused, there is another beautiful shot of the beach, followed by another crescendo of helicopter blades. This pattern continues throughout the duration of the film. The helicopter not only signifies the mounting insanity, but pushes the plot forward as well. Immediately following the beauty and insanity, there is a persistent fade to darkness, in which all the soldiers’ thoughts are suspended.

Whenever there is danger, the battlefield is blurred by yellow and red flares. While this is probably an accurate depiction of a battlefield, it also adds an artistic imagery of the danger and rage that blinds the soldiers in this desecration of reality. The most interesting character in the entire film to me, Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore is played by Robert Duvall. Col. Kilgore is assigned to help Captain Willard reach the river to Cambodia. Throughout the battle they fight together, Col. Kilgore is insensitive to murder and makes a point to check out the waves for surfing as he and his troops massacre Charlie, which in this instance, is mostly women and children playing outside of a church. After the battle, the helicopter appears again, and lifts a goat into the air. The shadow of the goat against the sunset is heart wrenching, as well as the goat’s squeal, which is audible over the music and the helicopter. Once the beach is secure, Col. Kilgore spearheads a party, “as if we were home.” “Charlie don’t surf,” Col. thinks he can do anything he’d like. Whenever he speaks to his men, the Col. is shot from below. He appears taller than the rest of them; his position and personality allows him to escape any moral hierarchy. They smell napalm on the beach, and Kilgore finally gets on the men’s level. As he addresses the smell and the war, he gets down on one knee and is finally their size. He expresses a fear that the war will never end. Although this scene and humility is short-lived, the visual impact is profound.

The entirety of the movie is intentional. Every shot is meaningful, and as the mental capacity of the soldiers’ decreases, the darker things become and the more twisted images become. Beauty is destroyed and confused for danger, and vice versa. Danger eventually becomes beautiful, and all modern order is annihilated.

If anyone is as reluctant to watch war movies as I am, and has put this film on the back of the shelf, so to speak, please watch it. It’s an important film. Similar to Lord of the Flies in its effect and portrayal of the human mind in a jungle, the visual images will not soon be forgotten.