User:Drewelliott

Always Wanted To Schedule

 * Topic I have always wanted to make, star and produce my own Karaoke video.


 * Research Component- I will be learning the skills to film and edit a movie with the imovie program on my Mac.


 * week 1- Begin going to a Karaoke Hot-spot. Start watching the videos for ideas on location, theme, costumes, lighting and any other nutty-ness that may need to be included. Try out a few songs to see what I might like to sing. (Think about taking voice lessons for the next 8 weeks). Start basic filming. Start working with imovie and playing with how to import, cut and edit.


 * week 2- Continue to appear at Karaoke Hot-spot for more practice. Choose song after this night. Find music for song and import it into imovie. Begin filming small scenes. Speak with friends and or strangers to see if they would mind being in my (bound to be an international hit) video.


 * week 3- Practice the song some more at the local Karaoke Hot-spot. Ask host if I can film it twice next week. (Should they say NO! look for way to blackmail them). Type out the words to the song and add them into imovie. Film anything that could go into movie. Start choreography for the big dance scene.


 * week 4- Set dance scene and film. Don't forget to show up at the Hot spot for local Karaoke. (I am starting to enjoy this a little too much I would imagine). Record song and import the track to imovie. Begin edits of behind the scenes footage. (Duel set DVD to be released at the end of production).


 * week 5- Re-shoot dance scene (someone was off). Add in some sort of flight motif. Being work on the Love Story scene. Find someone who might be willing to make out with me on film. (Put copy of this footage in safe for future blackmail needs). Shit! I almost forgot to go the Hot spot for local Karaoke. Try and find a second Hot spot just in case. (Settle for a Warm-spot if unable to find one).


 * week 6- Start presentational skills workshop. Type up how to use imovie skills list. Buy microwave popcorn for release date. Find a red carpet. Make tickets. Hit up the Hot spots or Warm-spot and sing my heart out. Finish behind the scenes footage. Viewing of rough-cut of video. (No press allowed, it may be leaked). Hire bodyguard. Look for agent.


 * week 7- Blackmail person who made out with me to spot for the after party. Touch-ups on video. Second presentational skills workshop. Buy huge (like the size of Oprah) sunglasses. Return to the Hot spot for local Karaoke for the last time. (This has really hurt my social/dating life) See if person who made out with me will go out to dinner.


 * week 8- ZOMG! I am about to be the next "One Man Boy Band". Quick think of a Stage name. See stylist for red carpet outfit. Write acceptance speech. 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1

Midterm Assignment 1: Taste & Aesthetics
For over a year now, I have hated a piece of art housed on a hillside in The Olympic Sculpture Park. Like a teenager with blue hair and an eyebrow piercing screaming, "look at me I’m cool, I’m original", the Typewriter Eraser, Scale X (by artists Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen) sticks out like a sore thumb in a crowd of otherwise benign pieces. This sculpture has an almost comic book quality, and adolescent in nature, instead of inspiration is leaves me wanting an explaintation for its inclusion in the park. Even the size of the piece is obnoxious, I don't understand the reason behind displaying something so ugly and in such a grand scale. I don’t think I’m alone in saying that if we have to see public art on a daily basis it would be nice to see something that doesn’t look like it should be popping zits on its way to high school. I think that we, Seattle, could do a better job in choosing our public art. The least we could do is choose something that people would recognize. Until today I had no idea what it was, I've never heard of a Typewriter Eraser; I thought it was a big wheel with blue hair.

The artists, Oldenburg and Van Bruggen, have been partners in art and in life. The husband and wife team were best known for their sculptures and drawings that disrupted our expectations of how ordinary objects should look and behave. Although the monumental size of these sculptures (ranging from musical instruments-to badminton shuttlecocks-to garden tools) help bring these objects out of context, I still ask myself, WHY? What I found out was that Claes enjoyed playing with his father’s typewriter eraser as a child and these memories have obviously stayed with him over the decades, finding root within his work. The typewriter eraser in the park is one of three sculptures of Typewriter Erasers that Claes and Coosje created. I also discovered that the pair really tried to incorporate some idea/understanding of the local area. Here in Seattle they choose the typewriter eraser due to the fact typewriters were wildly popular throughout the bulk of the 20th century. When the word-processing units on PC’s replaced the typewriter in the early 80’s (the boom hit here more so than anywhere else) the people who spent a significant amount of time working with a typewriter began to have an easier way of correcting their mistakes. Claes and Coosje felt the piece would hold a lot of humor for such individuals. The work becomes a monument to the era of before modern computers. I personally don’t see humor in a typewriter eraser, but then I don’t type and I have never used a typewriter. I'm a child of the Information Age.

Another pair of artists who share a love for large-scale replications of standard objects are Christo and Jeanne-Claude. One of their more popular works is a group of sculptures called "The Umbrellas". Housed in both Japan and Southern California the installation held hundreds of yellow (California) and blue (Japan) umbrellas scattered up and down the countryside. Rolling in hills and into lakes. While this work is very similar to that of Oldenburg and Van Bruggen, the use of this object speaks more to me. Why, I am unsure, I think it’s due to the use of the object in masses. Oldenburg and Van Bruggen’s work seems to have a forced humor and spontaneity to it, where as, Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s work falls into the ironic and witty.

Overall, I did find a small appreciation of this work. I did find I liked several other sculptures by the husband and wife team, but I don’t feel as if I changed the way I look at this piece. I just don’t like it. Personally I like to look at art that provokes thought, this piece leaves me confused and frustrated. Drewelliott

Midterm Assignment 2: Manipulation
Paris Hilton in Carl's Jr. ad. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gby0zfCYiA

A fallacy was committed on purpose, during the time when Paris Hilton was popular for her catch phrase "That's Hot" Carl's Jr. used the popularity of her catch phrase to promote their new Spicy BBQ Burger. This ad had little to do with the burger and more to do with selling sex. I feel that this ad falls under the DUBIOUS AUTHORITY: a figure of undeclared or unrelated expertise makes claims about something. Just because Paris deemed herself to be hot does not mean she is the guru of fast food. This ads almost implies that by eating fast food you will be "Just as Hot" as Paris herself: You too can wash a car with your body (and in the frames that the burger appears) never drop a drop of that oh so hot BBQness. Shortly after this ad aired it was removed from stations across the nation. Why? you ask. Well, after too many young girls and bored housewives tried to emulate the ad and were arrested for indecent exposure, the local police precincts picketed the local fast food chains and the ad was pulled. Thanks to ads like this, 50% of America is over weight and the obesity rate is about 30%, not really the type of women you want to see rolling around on a car in a swimsuit. I have a feeling they would forget about the swimsuit and car completely and head straight to the nearest fast food chain for a burger of their very own.Drewelliott

Welch's, the trusted name associated with Grape Juice, released an article on their website showing how grape juice and red wine act in similar ways in their effects on maintaining heart health. Studies have suggested that moderate red wine consumption is beneficial to cardiovascular health. Welch's claims that their grape juice has the same effects. Grapes contain resveratrol a phytoalexin that protect the fruit against disease, and these antioxidants may do the same thing for your body. A French study shows grape juice has a heart-healthy effect much like the grapes used to make red wine. Certain grape juice is shown to stimulate nitric oxide production, which relaxes arteries and is associated with healthy blood pressure. This ad for Welch’s Grape Juice has committed a fallacy quite by accident. The ad actually encouraging people to LICK their new advertisement in People magazine. The ad states that if you peel up and remove the sticker you'll learn about the healthy facts that grape juice can provide. The front of the advertisement shows a huge bottle of the juice, while the back has a strip that peels up and off, with text that reads: "For a TASTY fact, remove & LICK." (via Wall Street Journal.) Apparently if the sticker has been lifted - then someone else has already run their tongue over the page. Scented ads are one thing - but saliva on magazines is another thing altogether. What the ad fails to mention is that certain grapes contain these heart healthy qualities and others don't. Do Concord grapes? After all, this is what Welch's grape juice is made from. Raisins are a form of a grape, do they do the same thing? The company inaccurately states that all grapes help in maintaining a healthy heart. This falls under the OVERSIMPLIFICATION:or when someone makes a simple solution for a complex problem.