Awakening in progress

Soul shake
suddenly I'm awake
after never really knowing.
An eternity of days.
This feeling electrifies
until the trees are all on fire,
pink sky glowing
in my eyes.

I can sense the change.
My body rocks and breaks and
I am built up again.

Your hand parts the clouds and rests
softly on my rising chest.
Fingers spread, my pupils round to daylight.
They drink in truth in tones of green
and blue and white.
Golden rays through gently parted morning blinds
your soft skin on mine.

And your words
make me shiver,
your warm breath on my neck
whispering lines to songs still
only half-written.

And in my mind I make wishes
on feathered seeds floating on the wind.
I send them off
with prayers that I don't yet dare speak aloud.

The wind tumbles over orchard branches that
whisper and sigh
into my burning ears
promises of a life untethered and pure.

I see the world and myself as one reflected in the garden of your eyes.

Three in the country

Spring sounds across the fields
and sunlit patches of ancient mountain ridge
in humming drones
and trilling, twittering harmonies.

Wood slats creek under urban feet
suddenly so distant
from daily cares; chores
and burdens,
bound up and thrown out the window
to bounce along the highway as metallic blurs buzzed by
at breakneck speeds.

We, murmured to stereo sounds
and speculated about life
and love. Thoughts
lingered on moments.
And the road, turned to gravel, wound
under canopies of freshly budded branches.
The shadow and sun danced
across our windshield,
afternoon distractions that we welcomed.

And here.
Here, the air passes through hair and over
skin, too pale from winter days.

Green silence is
broken
as evening creeps
over the tree-lined peaks and songs
celebrating the ecstasy of nothing in particular
sound from the breasts of one hundred
birds.

Sitting in reverent silence at our table,
as coals smolder at our side,
each of us knows instinctively
that we all share the same thought:
how did it take us so long to be here?

Far off cars
smoke stack blackened skies
silently betray slithering lies
and falsified facts
glinting knife in the back
reflecting, collecting
retracing my tracks

send
send it all into the atmosphere
and save the rest for your repast

in shallow attic walls
rack my brains to find and bind
images and memories
slowly slowly fading back
backwards wallow withering fields
flowing into one weathered heap
i look down to spy
cracked and sacred April skies
reflected in meandering puddles
muddled mens' faces floating remote
away away from here

Titillations of jabber and junk

Find the fabled pen on the mountain
frightening in its fine features
sheer height
shaping night
show me something
shaded in the sinister tress sleeping
underneath the earth
a hearth of artful words
and humble behaviour
not really who you are
at heart
a whole in part
fleeting falling filtered thoughts
place your pots on the shelf
filled with figures from forgotten nothings
the ringing in my ears
deafens the dias shining in the seaweed sun
trying to fly above and around
learning to lie in the hardened ground
you slowly laugh
lyrical lark
i've lost the mark that once seemed clear

Futile Attraction

I just took a day to write out a very heartfelt post and now it's ALL gone. Fuck you, Blogger.

Sur le pont d'Avignon

My accordion solo soon to come.

Hold everything.

At least until I can figure my life out.

Wait, you mean things don't work that way? Shit.

Sooo. Leave everything and move somewhere remote and more...prone to nature rather than the superficial. Sure. that could work. If I didn't have an underlying need for people who I actually trust and feel close to. People like that don't just land on my doorstep. It takes time to develop real friendships. Even NOW I still don't feel completely trusting around people I call my "friends."

Life works out. It just does.
Some people really believe that. Ok. But are those the people who resign themselves to a less than satisfactory existence due to the fact that they've flopped into some situation and have decided that it's good enough for them? Wait, that sounds a little too close to my own life right now.
Ok, so then maybe those people are those other ones--the ones who up and set sail on a whim. Relationships? You can make new ones. Money? It'll find its way into you pocket eventually. Until then there's waiting tables and eating--god forbid, ramen. Do people even do that anymore, or is it simply a cliche that's been used to a fictional state?

Shit. All my questions sound ridiculously shallow when I write them out.

Love, attraction. Living quarters. Money. Career (?) -- Ha, that last one is laughable. Is there anything really real? Really worth working for? Or does it all just end up being two choices:
Choice 1: End up alone, having worked passiontely for a cause or having excelled at some skill/talent like the theater or writing best-selling novels that leave others questioning their own lives...or music. Do musicians ever end up being succesful AND happy? But seriously, then end result here is be great at something and work hard and be alone as a reward for having dedicated your life to the pursuit of an ideal and the larger creative mindcollective in the universe.

Ok, or choice 2: kids. deadbeat mindless job to pay the bills. macaroni and cheese, Ocean City weekend vacations, TV show evenings.

I think there was a point in my life where I felt like a had a grasp on some direction. And then all of a sudden I'm standing here in the middle of a rain-soaked road in the middle of the night, and time and age and all of its two ton momentum is staring me down with the brights on.

rewind. refresh.

now begins a new blogging experiment. goal: to see if there are enough fresh thoughts in my mind to litter this digital platform. or do the nooks and crannies in my cerebellum echo with the emptiness that too much time spent away from creativity generates? dust bunnies and cobwebs.

we shall see.

Final Project Feedback

Again, I really loved seeing all the creativity and innovation with so many distinctly different final projects. Rose and Bo's "My Heart Will Go On" was hilarious. The puns were out of control at times--wave upon wave of them. And it's obvious they worked really hard on the project while still being able to have fun.

I also though Tammy's idea to make an online trivia game was great. I don't think I ever would have thought to make something like that and the questions were fun, challenging, and intriguing. The videos of her niece and nephew were cute.

I wanted to comment on Camile's project, as it particularly stood out to me. I like the way she incorporated various elements of remixing and hyperlinking that we learned/used over the semester. For example, using internet archive, she was able to use both original text (the poem at the beginning) and original illustrations to add relevance and character to her text, itself a modern and abbreviated rendition of Carroll's original work. The added element of choosing different options was reminiscent of our group project together and was an added surprise to the text. It (the linked storyline options) seems to have a functional role within the text as well in that jumping to either one scene or another allows Camile to include various main scenes from the original Alice in Wonderland without having to make logical narrative connections between all the different scenes.

Camile was able to tell the story in such a way as to keep the essential elements of Alice in Wonderland intact while revamping the story to fit a contemporary context. It was interesting to identify particular characters and scenes in Camile's work with their counterparts in the original. In this regard, the illustrations she included were helpful as well.

I also thought that Camile's transference of Wonderland to New York city was a creative and in fact logical idea. People feel small and lost and confused in New York all the time. It seems perfect. The only thing I would suggest is that 1) the picture of the white rabbit could be re-cropped since right now it is cut off at the top and his head is missing. 2) the page depicting the angry woman in red is spaced strangely so that some of the words run into each other. Otherwise, a wonderful and creative project.

HELP!

Idea for final project

For my final project, I like the idea of writing about human rights crises in the world. I seem to be magnetically drawn to writing about global crises and human rights issues. I have written about workers' rights in Dubai, womens' rights in Saudi Arabia, the current violence and grass roots peace efforts in Colombia, the current humanitarian crisis in Burma, reconciliation efforts in Rwanda, and the current crisis in Darfur.

I think it will be interesting, given the focus of this class, to (as Dr. T suggested) examine the ways in which increased accessibility and use of the internet, and wider modes of media over the internet has affected global awareness of particular global humanitarian disasters. Instead of looking at just one region or country, I would like to look at a number of different cases, including Darfur (because it is an excellent example of how the internet has been used en masse to reach a global audience and garner solidarity and support for the victims as well as working to influence change) as well as Tibet, and Burma.

Online Academics

I wasn't sure whether we were supposed to write about the online academics links posted or to merely read them and discuss them in class.

In general I think I would have to say that I support MIT's open course initiative. This seems to be a step in the right direction in terms of breaking down the long-established wall that has held University curriculum up on an elitist pedestal. What I mean is that by making everything that MIT teaches completely open and accessible to the public--a public consisting in part of those individuals who may never have the chance to attend an ivy league school--there are no secrets and MIT suddenly becomes relevant to everyone, less untouchable. In the long run, I don't know whether this will prove to be good or bad for MIT. One the one hand, MIT is significantly acknowledging that knowledge is meant to be free, whether it is in the form of a lecture developed by a teacher or not. Yet they are making a subtle distinction between knowledge and academic accomplishment. The information is free; the degree and the MIT name still cost money. In addition, this means that MIT becomes almost more elitist because this distinction--the fact that people will still want to go to MIT and get a degree there because it's respected, because it's established as being upper-crust--almost negates the academic element involved in MIT's respectability and places an emphasis on MIT as a name more than anything.

That aside, the fact that inevitably, someone somewhere is going to put university materials online makes MIT's decision preemptive and wise. They are branding themselves as technologically ahead of the game.

But what about the teachers? By MIT giving away its curriculum, it seems to be disregarding the authorship of the professors and claiming that all work produced or developed at MIT whether it is a class or lecture or an invention or some sort of software, belongs to MIT in the end and thus they can do what they want with this information.

This doesn't necessarily tie into the controversy involving the professor suing for the note to his lecture being sold, but still, there's the issue of whether knowledge can be owned and whether a professor owns the information he gives as a part of a university course. I mean, if the professor gets to sue, does the university get to sue as well? At the same time, I can appreciate the fact that a professor would see his lecture as his own intellectual property and thus lecture notes from that as being part of that property. I don't think it's wrong to share lecture notes, but definitely to profit from them when the professor doesn't share in that profit is wrong.

Response to group projects

There were about three projects that really caught my attention during our group project show last Thursday. Tammy and Alyse's project was one of these three, and since they both volunteered for Camile and my interviews and were subsequent inspirations for two of our fairy tale characters, it seemed fitting to review their project. Somehow this seems to let things come full circle.

One of the things I really liked about Tammy and Alyse's project, "What is Love," was that each of their voices was distinctly present within the work as a whole. While this aspect is inherent to the particular structure of their project, it still bears mention since being able to clearly identify two distinct trains of thought within the work added, I think, to the personality of the piece, adding extra layers to it. By adding extra layers, I mean that not only was their a flash fictional work, which did indeed create imagery and evoke emotion that lingered long after the story itself was over, but there was also a completely separate--yet relevant and connected--dialog occurring in which I as the reader was able to hear both Tammy and Alyse's voices and to understand each of their understandings of the text. In this context, I like that way that Tammy apparently had not been briefed by Alyse on the work she was writing ahead of time, as this would have spoiled the very realistic process of reader reaction and author answer that is documented within their "conversation." Moreover, I liked the way that the stucture lent itself fluidly to a natural explanation of the text. Having an explanation from Alyse, the author was useful, and yet they allowed this explanation to necessarily be displayed in a non -self aggrandizing, non-self righteous way. The author is not setting out a forced interpretation on the reader.

I also like the way that the text can be read in several different ways, which all will influence the way the reader will initially understand the work as a whole. This means that some readers will not go through the reading experience that Tammy went through, as she had only one choice in reading. I chose to read through the flash fiction first, then proceeded to clicking on each of the hyperlinked lines in the text to read Tammy's comments, along with Alyse's responses to them. I usually went back to the text to read the next hyperliked line, but in some cases I would link over to Tammy's full commentary. I never found the jumping back and forth impeding or inconvenient. Rather, I enjoyed the span and webbing of the work and the chance to get a glimpse into the minds of each of the writers.

In addition, I liked the way that

Groupo Projectos

My group consists of me and Camile.

Our idea for the group project is mutli-tiered. First we'd like to create a play loosely based on an ethnographic approach--but without the ethnographic ethics in the sense that we will create five characters and build scripts for them based on short interviews we'll do with them in class, but the characters we create will be stereotypes based on the interviews. The questions we ask will be formed to bring out easy stereotypes in our informants. For example, the question, "what is your favorite music" might elicit a response that an informant likes country music. They might then turn into a character named Bubba who wears a red bandana. The point is that we want to be blatantly clear that we are creating stereotyped characters. Our class mates will be aware of this when we announce that we are looking for volunteer informants. Those who do not want to participate don't have to. Once we know who is interested in volunteering, we'll pass numbers around and randomly choose 5 informants, with whom we will conduct short 10-15 minute interviews.

Once we have our information, Camile and I will create characters and develop a script so that we have a play/story. This play will be acted out with hand and mouth PUPPETS as a puppet show. We will film scenes separately so that we will be ble to develop a "choose-your-own-puppet-show" type presentation online. Viewers will have the task/opportunity to click on links as they come to the end of a scene which ill direct them to a new scene and an alternate development in the play so that each viwer's experience will be a little different. In addition, we hope to create at least one looped scene, similar to 12 Blue, where a viewer will continuously return to a random scene and will have to back track and find a new path to the end of the play/puppet show. Our hope is that this will be a light, comical show in which informants will be able to identify their contributions to a certain character, and where at the same time, classmates will enjoy the process of finding their way through the visual narrative.

We will include intrview transripts and the script we write on our websites.

What is Narrative?

Well, I thought I had a vague idea of what narrative was, and then I read Arseth's article...now I'm totally befuddled. I kept waiting for Aseth to specifically address narrative and discuss what that is--or at least what he thinks it is. He discusses text and what that is and what it's been thought to be. He also discusses cybertext--obviously--and provides a definition of what that encompasses, which was actually quite informative. I was one of the naive people who thought that cybertext necessarily implied computers. Surprisingly to me, Arseth explains that cybertext is any text/"system" that possesses some sort of information feedback loop. Ok. He also refers to ergotic literature as a machine. Interesting. I can't say that I understood ALL of what Arseth talks about, but my perspectives on text and literature and cybertext and ergotic text have been broadened assuredly.

But that still leaves me with the question "what is narrative?" to answer.

UGH.

Is narrative different from text? Is narrative different from literature?

Somehow I feel like narrative falls somewhere between the two. Narrative is more specific than text in that it tells some sort of a story. It is a text, but a text, I think, might not necessarily be a narrative. Similarly, literature seems a bit too narrow a term, since narratives can include non textual aspects. A picture can be a narrative. A song can be a narrative.

People question whether multiple user dungeons and text-based games and digital role playing games and other hypertexts are narratives. They seem to be up in arms about whether these texts can be considered linear or literary, etc. At least in terms of being narrative, I tend to think, well, yes, why not? Whether the author is totally the author and the reader totally the reader, or whether the author sets the groundwork and the reader takes on part of the authorship-creatorship, or is simply more of a participant, engaging in the illusion of authorship, a story is still, in the end being told. As a narrative, I think that's what counts. a narrative can be a story of past, present or future, made up or true, or parts of both. I think the end result--what comes out of every reading, even if each reading is totally unique, counts as narrative.

Remix Peer Review

I really loved watching all the presentations last week; it made me regret not being a film or art major and being able to have the chance to appreciate other peoples' creativity in an intimate communal (yes, it's a class, but it still felt at least somewhat communal) environment. I kicked myself after sitting back down from my own presentation and realizing that there were all sorts of things I had planned on saying and then forgot to under the projector light and in the "hot seat." Ah well.

There were several projects that struck me particularly--especially Bo's since he used lines from the text of my faith. Actually, I have to say that I felt really happy to see those lines up there on the screen, since not a lot of people have ever heard of my faith, and if they have, chances are it's some ignorant gossipy negative misinformation that they picked up (on the Internet).I guess that's why Bo's project made me feel so--um, accepted?--so happy; because without any preconceived notions, Bo took my faith's text with all the rest and sort of equalized everything.

BUT. The project I actually wanted to talk about here is Rose's project: "Strength and Weakness."

I think one of the things I liked most about it was its simplicity, which in fact allowed the detail and meaning of the piece to emerge more fluidly. I was surprised to find that while I had been so engrossed with making my project complex enough and interesting enough, Rose had succeeded in achieving these things with very little technical methods required. Had I once again gone overboard?

Well, that aside, I love the arrangement of Rose's words on each page of her site. Some pages seem to make a shape with her words, particularly the "devour" page, which begins with "a single act of good will" on the left, with words above and below moving to the right in a funnel or arrow and ending with "lonely." The movement makes sense here, I think.

I enjoyed trying to imagine what these sentence fragments were once a part of--what thoughts were they expressing? It's strange to think of all those diary entries shattered and strewn around on the web pages, forming new meanings and significance on their own, and as they exist with other fragments on the screen. I also enjoyed finding the links--looking for the one or few words that would channel me to the next collection of loosely-strung words and phrases. IEach page certainly reads like a poem, and what's great is that there isn't one set order in which to read the poems; each one can change every time depending on how I choose to read it.

Take away show

Beirut a la youtube and La Blogotheque. Hooray!

Is that your final answer?

Yes, I have decided on a project and have started work on it, and NO, it has nothing to do with anything I've written about up until now. HA!

What? A children's alphabet reader (published in 1850) with engraved illustrations. Very aesthetically appealing. COMBINED with Shakespearean quotes that have snuck their way into everyday English language and, alas, have become cliche. There are, I've found, enough to represent every letter of the alphabet!

So, what I've done is edit and change the wording in the children's reader so that I now have a "Footsteps to Learning Shakespeare or the Alphabet in Cliches." Each letter is exemplified with a Shakespearean cliche to show the way in which our English-speaking society (often unknowingly) relies on Shakespeare to simply communicate out ideas.

An enlightening reader for all. And, whatho, there are pictures of animals!

Idea

What about combining Kipling's Gunga Din with Beirut's Elephant Gun?! Jungle, guns, colonialism, adventure, hunting?

Oooh! Plus this picture!

Maybe it can be an explorer/hunter/manly man theme juxtaposed with the elegant beauty of Zach Condon's semi-operatic French voice.

This cannot be a coincidence...

I have been listening to the new Beirut album for the entirety of this last week. I'm talking non-stop listenage. I had Mausoleum stuck in my head ALL day.

Tonight I JUST found a live recording of a Beirut show played in Texas. It was just sitting there on archive.org in the live music section. I really thought it was going to be Arabic music when I saw the link. How could Beirut be on archive.org? BUT THEY ARE! So...WHAT can I do with this?? I MUST somehow find a way to implement this into my remix project. This recording did not just appear for no reason.

One thing I worry about is that I cannot find a clear restrictions statement. Is it truly public domain?

This is the golden link that leads to the recording. Just listen to the trumpet-y, accordion-y, violin-y, ukulele-y goodness!