This week’s reading discusses the integration between technology and culture, and that ever-persistent buzz phrase of first year communications; technological determinism. Don’t get me wrong, I support the theory that technology is an agent of social change as much as the next man, but after months of hearing the phrase used time and time again in lectures, tutes, presentations, general lunchtime discussion, I’m afraid I’m tired of it.
Author Archives: stefanblair
peer review #2
Wellity, wellity, wellity, now that the break has come and gone and we’re back at it, it’s time for another peer review!
Thanks to the broken down hierarchy of the Networked Media course, I feel as though my peers extend far beyond just my fellow students, but include my teachers and lecturers too. In light of this, Adrian’s little mistake with the readings for this week mean that it’s harder than ever to conduct a peer review, seeing as nobody seems to have completed the reading yet. Whilst Apple’s name was enough to draw me to his page from the blog roll, only to find out he had his wisdom teeth taken out during the break, ouch man, hope you’re feeling fine now. And finally Avril shares her thoughts on GEN Y’s inability to ask a good question, and blames “old man Google” for this. Great stuff Avril, what more can I say.
solitaire records
A recently founded Melbourne record label, started by a group of friends of mine. Check it out, things gon’ happen
http://www.solitairerecordings.com/
Pulling Faces
Here’s one for all you Paul McCartney fans. Everytime I visit his website I seem to find yet another online treasure surfaces itself for my viewing pleasure. Today I happened to stumble across a link entitled ‘Pulling Faces’, which is literally just a collection of Sir Paul pulling faces for the camera. Love it Paul, keep it up, great work!
Check it out here, whilst enjoying some nice weird late 70s McCartney, perfect for a day like today.
HELP!
I don’t know if anyone will actually read this, but if anyone from my course has any advice on appropriate things to print out and hand in by Friday, that’d be super cool.
Thanks guys, big love
Your boy Stef
this week in readings…
Wow, what a week it has been for students doing their assigned readings. First up off the block is Carli, whose love of the word ‘experiential’ may draw us closer together than we’ve ever been, amen sister. Meanwhile Kenton‘s photo montage reaction drew attention to the fact that he’s not much of a ‘reeder’, haha, pun of the day, keep up the great stuff. And last but not least Amy‘s wonderful inclusion of such a terrific quote is the stuff dreams are made of.
Keep up the ripper work pals, can’t wait to peer review you again sometime.
symposium #6
Art and culture progress independently of technology. As Adrian said during the symposium, everything from the wheel, to fire, are forms of technology. At the same time however, technology cannot progress independently of art and culture. There is an innate reliance technology has on humans, as it depends on us in order to progress, however, as I’m sure all of you know, especially in todays times, humans also have an incredible dependency on technology to live.
a simple guide to html
Alright, so, in about 2 hours I have to sit this ‘HTML Test’ in Networked Media class, so I thought I’d write myself up a little cheat sheet, and post it for all to see, as we’re allowed to use the Internet as a resource to help us out.
Note, the brackets ‘( )’ are unnecessary within the coding process.
To write a page header, the necessary coding is as follows:
<head> <title>(Whatever you wish to entitle your page)</title></head></html>
Wanting to create a header for a body of text? Well, look no further than these simple symbols:
Note, if you desire a second body header, simply change the 1, to a 2!
<body>
<h1> (Whatever you wish to entitle your body header)</h1>
</body>
Looking to create a a paragraph, simple:
<p> (Whatever you wish to write within your paragraph)</p>
Want to insert an image to your webpage?
<p><img src=”(The file name of the particular image)“></p>
How about linking another website to the image you’ve inserted? Yes, it can be done!
<a href=”(The address of the website you wish to link)“><img src=”(The file name of the image)”
Wanting to place something in another part of the page? Simply state where you wish it to be aligned!
align=”(Where you want your text/image placed, eg. left/right“></a>
Bob Dylan – 18/08/14
Monday night, my dad and I attended Bob Dylan’s first Melbourne date for his Australian tour at the Palais Theatre. As an avid Dylan fan, I of course already knew about his reputation for what many refer to as ‘sub-par’ live routines, however, I must say to those nay-sayers that if you’re going to attend a Bob Dylan concert expecting the excellent melodic voice exhibited by Dylan on his 1969 album Nashville Skyline, you’re a fool before you’ve even criticized his performance.
To be honest, besides knowing what not to expect, I was not really sure what to expect, however, what was delivered validated his stance as one of music’s greatest icons (as well as the outrageous ticket prices).
Over the two-hour performance Dylan had the sold-out audience entirely captivated, playing a set list that consisted majorly of Dylan’s more recent works. The first real highlight for me came early into the first half of the show with his rendition of ‘Workingman’s Blues #2’, from his 2006 album ‘Modern Times’. Dylan’s poetry is the one thing that seems will live on forever, and has certainly outlasted his vocal chords. Nevertheless, he had the crowd captivated by his simple poignant words as he mumbled/sang/spoke his way through the set
Even though the sound was ostentatiously mixed to highlight whatever Dylan was playing (whether that be a quick burst of harmonica, or the sporadic, out of key piano fumbles he played here and there), his backing band held the songs together, maintaining sweet folk/country rhythms; the perfect accompaniment to Dylan’s grumbles. Don Herron, (Dylan’s pedal steel/ banjo/ keys player) proved to a be a particular highlight to myself, showcasing an immense quality of musical talent as he shifted to and from his many instruments adding layers of melodically perfect country licks to the solid groove set by the rest of the rhythm section.
It seemed that the majority of the crowd were nearly as old as Dylan himself, and had come along to relive the glory days, and as expected ‘Tangled Up In Blue’ was an obvious crowd favorite, receiving massive applause from the crowd as soon as they were able to figure out what Dylan was singing. As Dylan and the band worked their way through the song, the elderly man sitting next to me couldn’t help but show off an incredible smile as Dylan mumbled the lyrics “Lord knows I’ve paid some dues getting through / Tangled up in blue.”
After a brief 20-minute intermission, initiated by Dylan mumbling a few inaudible words before busting out a charming ‘thankyou’, the crowd eagerly returned to their seats for the remainder of the show. Bob’s showmanship never faltered through the set as he delivered somewhat shaky renditions of classics such as ‘Simple Twist of Fate’, ‘All Along the Watch Tower’, before finally ending the encore with ‘Blowin’ in the Wind’, getting the crowd out of their seats, for a standing ovation that lasted long after he had left the stage.
It seemed that the majority of the crowd at Dylan’s first night at the Palais left completely content with the show put on by Dylan and his band. I for one thoroughly enjoyed the set, and am ecstatic to have seen a performance by one of music’s untimely figures.
Bob
don’t be so hard on yourself, man
Adrian believes he has a public perception within the course as the grumpy old man, but please don’t doubt yourself Adrian, I’m still listening. I am very impressed to find out that he is self taught in the field of network literacies, as I believe he has vast knowledge that all of us can learn from.
“Every medium must bow down to the Internet.” His comments on the post-industrial age I found particularly interesting. I really do hope that his visions of the broken down education system will come to fruition. I whole heartedly agree with the views he put forward from the principle of Templestowe college, as my high school Eltham college followed a similar system, it was more like a university, we were allowed to choose to start early, finish early, or start later and finish later, which I found supremely beneficial towards my learning. Anyone who knows me, knows I am not a morning person, so starting later in the day did wonders for my education, and considering how narrowly I scraped into the media course, I feel as if I had an earlier start time it would have been a different story. Viva la post-industrial world.