Tunis, Walter. “Remastered and reissued, these are the albums that started it all.” PopMatters 19 June 2009 19 June 2009 <http://www.popmatters.com/pm/article/102245-remastered-and-reissued-these-are-the-albums-that-started-it-all/>.
With the 40 year anniversary approaching of Woodstock, a plethora of albums and performance tapes from all the artists will be released in its entirety. The music festival took place in 1969 during political unrest and was the defining moment of the cultural revolution that had been taking place. Three days worth of music has still left an impact on popular music today as such great acts came out for the concert and others found their starts at the festival. In 1970, the original soundtrack from the concert accompanied with the Oscar-winning documentary was a hit. It contained the mind-melting rendition of Jimi Hendrix’s “Star Spangled Banner.” It also had the important performance of Santana and The Who.
In 1971, Woodstock 2 was released. This soundtrack contained even more songs and sound clips from the festival. While it did not contain as many gems as Hendrix and Santana, it still was popular. It contained a trippy song by Jefferson Airplane and the little known band of Hendrix, Gypsy Sun and Rainbows. Walter Tunis writes that these two albums is what started the Woodstock enterprise and the material expected to be released in August will have its similarities (obviously) with these two albums.
Friday, June 19, 2009
Twitter Features
Hoak, Amy. “Tweet success: It’s easy to lose interest in Twitter, but there are reasons to stick with it.” PopMatters 18 June 2009 19 June 2009 <http://www.popmatters.com/pm/article/102173-tweet-success-its-easy-to-lose-interest-in-twitter-but-there-are-rea/>.
Twitter has emerged on the public scene as a revolutionary technological feature. Amy Hoak examines the features of Twitter that require a bit of exploring in order to use this feature to its fullest potential. Research from Nielson has shown that 60 percent of the people that sign up for an account on Twitter end up abandoning their account. Hoak continues the argument from Nielson that the reason is due to the fact that many of Twitter’s features require a bit more time to figure out and a second chance.
Hoak goes into the various benefits of Twitter such as networking, a real-time opinion aggregator and a way to find deals on items. Businesses use it to gain customer opinions and employees use it to find new jobs. Frugal shoppers can follow companies like Dell and find out about deals on refurbished laptops. According to Hoak, the possibilities are large. She lists five different features that are worth a second chance such as the hash mark narrowing tool. She also brings up the trending topics that appear on the right hand side of the Twitter page, that allow users to know about recent events as they happen and people’s opinions. Twitter may require a bit more time to find out the point of it, but the possibilities are plenty.
Twitter has emerged on the public scene as a revolutionary technological feature. Amy Hoak examines the features of Twitter that require a bit of exploring in order to use this feature to its fullest potential. Research from Nielson has shown that 60 percent of the people that sign up for an account on Twitter end up abandoning their account. Hoak continues the argument from Nielson that the reason is due to the fact that many of Twitter’s features require a bit more time to figure out and a second chance.
Hoak goes into the various benefits of Twitter such as networking, a real-time opinion aggregator and a way to find deals on items. Businesses use it to gain customer opinions and employees use it to find new jobs. Frugal shoppers can follow companies like Dell and find out about deals on refurbished laptops. According to Hoak, the possibilities are large. She lists five different features that are worth a second chance such as the hash mark narrowing tool. She also brings up the trending topics that appear on the right hand side of the Twitter page, that allow users to know about recent events as they happen and people’s opinions. Twitter may require a bit more time to find out the point of it, but the possibilities are plenty.
Food Inc.
Rea, Stephen. “Don’t watch ‘Food, Inc.’ if you don’t want to ruin your appetite.” PopMatters 18 June 2009 19 June 2009 <http://www.popmatters.com/pm/article/102200-dont-watch-food-inc.-if-you-dont-want-to-ruin-your-appetite/>.
Stephen Rea offers a synopsis of the documentary Food Inc that delves into the world of mass produced food. The images presented to consumers in a grocery store are misleading. They present a picture of cows in rolling pastures and the family farm. However, upon closer inspection, the food that is at the market is from commercial farms where cows are standing in their own excrement and chickens are pumped with chemicals and never see the light of day. It follows companies such as Monsanto, that chase small farmers out of business by suing them for planting their genetically altered soy seed or by the simple politics of a monopoly.
The creator of the documentary does not aim to change people’s eating habits necessarily. Instead he wants to allow more information to be available to the consumer. He claims that the misleading information provided about food is un-American and people should have the right to know what exactly they are buying. He also advocates for there to be a greater choice when it comes to the kind of food that can be bought. There should be more organic and slow-grown foods made available. The documentary has been met with some amount of resistance from the large companies, in particular Monsanto. However, they refused to be contacted during the making of the film and so far the documentary has been a success.
Stephen Rea offers a synopsis of the documentary Food Inc that delves into the world of mass produced food. The images presented to consumers in a grocery store are misleading. They present a picture of cows in rolling pastures and the family farm. However, upon closer inspection, the food that is at the market is from commercial farms where cows are standing in their own excrement and chickens are pumped with chemicals and never see the light of day. It follows companies such as Monsanto, that chase small farmers out of business by suing them for planting their genetically altered soy seed or by the simple politics of a monopoly.
The creator of the documentary does not aim to change people’s eating habits necessarily. Instead he wants to allow more information to be available to the consumer. He claims that the misleading information provided about food is un-American and people should have the right to know what exactly they are buying. He also advocates for there to be a greater choice when it comes to the kind of food that can be bought. There should be more organic and slow-grown foods made available. The documentary has been met with some amount of resistance from the large companies, in particular Monsanto. However, they refused to be contacted during the making of the film and so far the documentary has been a success.
The Evolution of Popular Music
Jenkins, Chadwick. “Selling Sounds: The Commercial Revolution in American Music.” PopMatters 19 June 2009 19 June 2009 <http://www.popmatters.com/pm/review/95063-selling-sounds-by-david-suisman/>.
A review of David Suisman’s book, Selling Sounds: The Commercial Revolution in American Music, Chadwick Jenkins covers the basic history of the development of popular music at the turn of the century. The Witmark brothers created the market for published music with their steam-powered printing press. Before them, popular music was limited to local sensations and the few exceptions did not make it big in today’s sense of fame and fortune. The innovation of the printing music made it possible for popular music to become popular on a grander scale.
The review also looks into the career of music-pushers, who were the salesmen of music back in the day. They would play the song at retail counters and would try to win the opinion of the sales girls behind the counters by dedicating the songs to them and buying them perfume. The new market made music a more urgent commodity, as you had to buy today’s music today before it became yesterday’s music. The invention of the gramophone also aided the evolution of the music industry. Jenkins writes that Suisman tells the story accurately and the book is very enlightening.
A review of David Suisman’s book, Selling Sounds: The Commercial Revolution in American Music, Chadwick Jenkins covers the basic history of the development of popular music at the turn of the century. The Witmark brothers created the market for published music with their steam-powered printing press. Before them, popular music was limited to local sensations and the few exceptions did not make it big in today’s sense of fame and fortune. The innovation of the printing music made it possible for popular music to become popular on a grander scale.
The review also looks into the career of music-pushers, who were the salesmen of music back in the day. They would play the song at retail counters and would try to win the opinion of the sales girls behind the counters by dedicating the songs to them and buying them perfume. The new market made music a more urgent commodity, as you had to buy today’s music today before it became yesterday’s music. The invention of the gramophone also aided the evolution of the music industry. Jenkins writes that Suisman tells the story accurately and the book is very enlightening.
Cliches of a Slasher Movie Revived
Fuchs, Cynthia. “Dead Snow (Død snø).” PopMatters 19 June 2009 19 June 2009 <http://www.popmatters.com/pm/review/102208-dead-snow-dd-sn/>.
Cynthia Fuchs reviews the IFC movie, Dead Snow, commenting on the movie’s awareness of the clichés it plays off of. Fuchs gives a large synopsis of the movie, tracing the build up of tension resulting in Nazi zombies. A group of medical students on vacation go to the mountains to stay in a cabin and partake in snow activities. A “wanderer” ends up in their cabin, surprising them. He warns the young people about the town’s past, a past that the students did not look up before arriving at their destination. In 1942 there had been a conflict between the Nazis and the Norwegian villagers. Not much detail is given as to what exactly happened in the conflict, but the wanderer warns the students that there are things that should not be woken up.
Of course, the students wake up the Nazi zombies. This is Fuchs point. The movie is fully aware of the clichés and actually has characters refer to the clichés—they just do not realize that they are in one. The characters’ survival is also based off of clichés. The oversexed girl does not have much luck, while the one with morals and sensibility lasts longer. The jerk guy ends up having more trouble than the valiant guy. Yet, the clichés do not overpower the appeal of Nazi zombies.
Cynthia Fuchs reviews the IFC movie, Dead Snow, commenting on the movie’s awareness of the clichés it plays off of. Fuchs gives a large synopsis of the movie, tracing the build up of tension resulting in Nazi zombies. A group of medical students on vacation go to the mountains to stay in a cabin and partake in snow activities. A “wanderer” ends up in their cabin, surprising them. He warns the young people about the town’s past, a past that the students did not look up before arriving at their destination. In 1942 there had been a conflict between the Nazis and the Norwegian villagers. Not much detail is given as to what exactly happened in the conflict, but the wanderer warns the students that there are things that should not be woken up.
Of course, the students wake up the Nazi zombies. This is Fuchs point. The movie is fully aware of the clichés and actually has characters refer to the clichés—they just do not realize that they are in one. The characters’ survival is also based off of clichés. The oversexed girl does not have much luck, while the one with morals and sensibility lasts longer. The jerk guy ends up having more trouble than the valiant guy. Yet, the clichés do not overpower the appeal of Nazi zombies.
Current's Stuggle
Kim, Gina. "Arrested journalists’ TV network on a mission." PopMatters 19 June 2009. 19 June 2009 <http://www.popmatters.com/pm/article/102227-arrested-journalists-tv-network-on-a-mission/>.
Current TV is trying to find its voice with a targeted audience of ages 18-34 year olds. They have recently gained more media attention as the two journalists in the custody of the North Korean government were doing a story for Current when they were arrested for crossing the border into the communist nation. Regardless of their guilt in such an act, the journalists were in the pursuit of a story that follows Current’s mission. They want to provide news that the mainstream news outlets are not airing. They are not necessarily looking for trouble but they want to air stories that are otherwise being neglected. Gina Kim offers some examples of Current’s past targets such as the Mexican drug wars and the risks taken by Somali refugees.
The article focuses on Current’s struggle to find their voice. They have earned a sizable amount of money through cable licensing and advertising. However, they have not reached a big enough audience to qualify for Nielson ratings. Their target audience is part of a “self-centered age” which troubles the company’s ambitions. Their audience would rather watch their stories for free online than pay for a subscription to their cable channel. They have made some progress but more has to be done for them to reach their intended place of destination.
Current TV is trying to find its voice with a targeted audience of ages 18-34 year olds. They have recently gained more media attention as the two journalists in the custody of the North Korean government were doing a story for Current when they were arrested for crossing the border into the communist nation. Regardless of their guilt in such an act, the journalists were in the pursuit of a story that follows Current’s mission. They want to provide news that the mainstream news outlets are not airing. They are not necessarily looking for trouble but they want to air stories that are otherwise being neglected. Gina Kim offers some examples of Current’s past targets such as the Mexican drug wars and the risks taken by Somali refugees.
The article focuses on Current’s struggle to find their voice. They have earned a sizable amount of money through cable licensing and advertising. However, they have not reached a big enough audience to qualify for Nielson ratings. Their target audience is part of a “self-centered age” which troubles the company’s ambitions. Their audience would rather watch their stories for free online than pay for a subscription to their cable channel. They have made some progress but more has to be done for them to reach their intended place of destination.
Isolation in Technology
Colville, Liz. "Surfing Alone: Is Digital Technology Destroying Relationships?." PopMatters 15 June 2009. 19 June 2009 <http://www.popmatters.com/pm/column/94800-surfing-alone-is-digital-technology-destroying-relationships/>.
Technology has created a society more isolated from each other than before, argues Liz Colville. She examines the evolution of people’s actions through the development and acceptance of technology. More and more people are embarking upon solo journeys into the internet, arranging their meetings through written electronic communication as opposed to calling them or making face-to-face plans. The etiquette of communication differs online than in person. It is okay for someone to ignore an attempt to a conversation online, whereas in person, it would be considered rude for someone to walk away from another. She argues that people need to make the effort to arrange more in person meetings. She quotes Keith Ferrazzi in the beginning as ordering the audience of his speech to “Have one long, slow dinner this week.”
Colville pulls from Robert D. Putnam’s “Bowling Alone,” a book written when the internet was still new. She hails it as an ominous warning of what has now occurred. People meet online and get along great but when they meet in person, the relationship ends due to the awkwardness. She turns her examination to the positives that the internet and other technology offer. There are more opportunities for people to connect with others from different countries and societies due to the far-reaching influence of certain websites. She aims to persuade readers to strike a balance between online facilities and maintaining personal, physical relationships.
Technology has created a society more isolated from each other than before, argues Liz Colville. She examines the evolution of people’s actions through the development and acceptance of technology. More and more people are embarking upon solo journeys into the internet, arranging their meetings through written electronic communication as opposed to calling them or making face-to-face plans. The etiquette of communication differs online than in person. It is okay for someone to ignore an attempt to a conversation online, whereas in person, it would be considered rude for someone to walk away from another. She argues that people need to make the effort to arrange more in person meetings. She quotes Keith Ferrazzi in the beginning as ordering the audience of his speech to “Have one long, slow dinner this week.”
Colville pulls from Robert D. Putnam’s “Bowling Alone,” a book written when the internet was still new. She hails it as an ominous warning of what has now occurred. People meet online and get along great but when they meet in person, the relationship ends due to the awkwardness. She turns her examination to the positives that the internet and other technology offer. There are more opportunities for people to connect with others from different countries and societies due to the far-reaching influence of certain websites. She aims to persuade readers to strike a balance between online facilities and maintaining personal, physical relationships.
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