April 2009 Archives

Gamer's Lament

By Ryan C. DeNardis on April 18, 2009 1:49 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks
I'm blogging from the HUB.  Woot!

I'm interested to see how my opinions will change tomorrow through the TLT conference, but looking over the day's events, I saw that three School of Music professors I had in the past are doing a lecture on video-gaming and real-life preparation.

I've been thinking about this for a few days now.  I remember when I was in elementary school, and video games were a thing a lot of guys did, but never really talked about much.  It was a geek thing.  Girls didn't like it, so guys would play it sparingly and rarely mention it.  But when a discussion would start, geekisms would take over.

We've seen a dramatic change over the past 15 years.  Walking through South Halls this afternoon, nearly every room was blaring with the sound of video games of every kind: the latest Madden, N64 Mario Kart, Atari.  This is an all male floor, granted, but it was unthinkable before that we'd live in a world where video games weren't just geek food, but items of social engagement.

Or art!  One thing we've overlooked greatly since the dawn of the game is the art behind it.  Sonic the Hedgehog, in it's heyday, was bright, vivid, and fast.  Final Fantasy 7 proved that video games could have amazing scores and phenomenal story lines.  The Wii has started a group of games created specifically to be aesthetically pleasing.  It's amazing that video games have finally come so far, and while I'm excited to see the whole new era it's ushering in, I take pause to remember the niche group that once surrounded it.  Before it became a part of mainstream mass media.

But unlike other forms of mass media, video games don't seem to really be overrun by money-making schemes.  (Or at least not very often).  We can blame E.T. for this.  And this is why video games may offer the greatest chance for the emergence of new art and social engagement in a way that many other modern forms of mass media, even social networking sites like Facebook, simply can't.  Between Microsoft's utilization of video and audio chat during gaming to the Wii's unique, active approach, we are not only seeing the dawn of gaming as part of the mainstream, but as way for people to express themselves (and not just by killing zombies).

In conclusion - I am so hyped for this conference tomorrow.

"A Rainbow Coalition"

By Ryan C. DeNardis on April 10, 2009 12:56 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

This ad just came out.  Mark Morford claims this is a good thing, as religious intolerance is shaking in its boots more than ever before.  Still, I'm sure I'm not the only one a little perturbed by this message.

How has homosexuality infringed upon my life?  People assume I'm gay and act like ignorant jerks.  But that's not my fault, and it's not the fault of homosexuality.  It's the fault of uber-conservative intolerance.

I was having this conversation about gay marriage with a couple of friends of mine at Eat 'n' Park a few days ago, explaining to them the free thinking community's stance on denying gay marriage on the grounds of the separation of church and state and the fact that most of this intolerance seems to stem from religion anyway.  Our waiter stopped us and explained that he'd been fighting the battle for a decade and he understands the church vs. state argument, but will continue to fight.

My alignment with the free-thinkers' stance (not all of them, just a chunk) was shattered in that moment.  There I was being solipsistic again (a state of mind and being that I absolutely despise beyond anything else).  I didn't take into account what the gay marriage movement meant for the gay community.  It's not entirely about marriage.  It's about equality and rights and social tolerance.  I think I agree with the waiter: although church and state should remain separate, this is one of those times when the government needs to step in and fix things.

From here on out, I'm an ally.  I'm getting a sense of just how important this movement truly is for homosexuals.  I'm worried that when this all breezes over (finally!), atheists will be the next target for American intolerance.  And I hope I'll have an ally then, too.

So, there you have it.  Badly paid actors: $1400.  Grass-roots campaigning: $250,000.  Realizing that shoving your archaic, intolerant notions of relationships and equality is actually weakening your stance against a social movement that you can't really stop anyway: Priceless.

"Rainbow Coalition?"  That's a storm that will dissipate faster than most people think.  They'll blow a lot of hot air in the meantime, maybe even strike a few landmarks, but the winds are changing.  The winds have been changing.

Mainstream Media

By Ryan C. DeNardis on April 6, 2009 9:57 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks
Comm 100 is one of the strangest classes I've ever taken.  Everything I've learned in there sounds like a conspiracy theory, even though we're only studying the way everything works.  There's no conspiracy.  We're a debt-based capitalist democracy (which does sound a little pradoxical) and our economy really is driven by consumerism.  So it should come to us as no surprise that nearly everything we do is riddled with advertisements and endorsements to entice us to buy more.

I'm unsure whether to call this bad or good.  In fact, there are aspects of both in there.  Hopefully, I'll develop some cohesive overview of mass communication in our country by the end of the semester (and if I don't, I'm sure visiting Tokyo and Taiwan will help me reassess everything a little more effectively).

I found this video on YouTube by comedian Jon Lajoie.  In the words of Corky Romano, "It's funny 'cause it's true!"



I think the portrayed 'problem' with mass media is above the control of government and even, at this point, advertisers and big money-making machines.  The public supports simple, overly dramatic television shows with little meaningful content.  But that may be part of a feedback loop started and reinforced by these big companies.

This is yet another time when I don't know what to think.  The vast arrays of mass communication and media available to us in the mainstream is astounding, but the amount of advertising the generally solipsistic programming approach is not.  Although I don't have a TV, when I'm by one, I'm glad Penn State provides programming from India, Italy, China, and South America.  I'm glad shows like "NOVA" are still around.

I think (and this is my theory, and many people, including my teacher, would probably debate otherwise) that this trend of mind-numbedness began in the 80's (maybe 70's, my time-line's askew) when televisions became affordable necesseties around the house instead of an expensive status symbol.  Televisions are still status symbols.  But they're also another step in the direction of the "American Dream."  From this stance, how television programming has become an embedded 'given' in our American culture is not so difficult.

Things aren't this way in Italy, and I'm curious how it is in other countries.  While there are celebrities around the world, I don't think anyone worships or follows their celebrities quite like America does.  I think this is bad.  If we follow celebrities, shouldn't it be their accomplishments more often than their 'problems?'  And we do, sometimes, but I more often hear about who broke up with who and "by the way, this movie they've been shooting for three years that's coming out next week" is a footnote.  If we're following actors and actresses and high income workers, the focus should be on their work, not on their private life.

This invasion of other people's existance is inhumane.  Mainstream Media becomes a virtual petting zoo.

Something I've learned from being picked on from elementary school and throughout college - when you start going out of your way to pick up and exploit every single characteristic 'problem' or 'in consistancy' about a person, unless you're paid to do so by that person him-/herself (like a psychiatrist, or as part of a BDSM session), you need a life.  This exploitation is, in my opinion, one of the ugliest sides of our culture: it shows us as lazy, boob-tube sucking, malignant tumors soaking up and reinforcing and false reality.  There are times to do that (like ARG's), but not like this.

But in the general use of mainstream media as a consumerist goldmine (which it kind of is), it's not necessarily bad in and of itself.  But we have to be careful.  When we start significantly sacrificing art and worldviews as part of a congolomerate money-making scheme, which we are, some things ought to be reassessed.  But I'm not quite sure what yet, so I'm keeping my cards to myself.

Cross Currents

By Ryan C. DeNardis on April 5, 2009 10:03 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks
Just a quick post.  Sorry for the lack of updates...

I went to a now annual concert designed by Mark Ballora called "Cross Currents," which mixes the edge of contemporary concert music and electronic multimedia and brought in performers and artists from the School of Music, the School of Visual Arts, and NYU.  I was impressed.

That's an understatement.  I recently won a major award for my piece for two player pianos, laptop, and pianist, "Conlon Nancarrow at the LHC," and I've never felt as far behind the curve as I do now.  But that's not a bad thing.  Now I have something to strive for, and nearly everything produced at this event was revealing, engaging, and breathtaking.

Look out for this concert next year.  It will astound you.

Google those artists, too.  My favorite piece was something the NYU New Music Ensemble created called "Domesticated Animalia" for flute, alto flute, clarinet, Max/MSP+Jitter, electronic tape, and live audio effects.

Awesome.  We need more of this at PSU.
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