Instagram Photos

Be sure to check out my instagram photos taken with an iPhone I "rented" from verizon. The set can be found on flickr

I personally really enjoyed shooting with the iPhone and instagram app, it's been my favorite thing to take pictures with so far because it's fast, easy to use, and it shares directly with flickr and facebook at the touch of the screen. It also took better images than the droid and droid apps I used and the app itself was just streamlined for taking a lot of pictures. I wish I could keep the iphone but alas I must return it this week.

Instagram 1

Photo by Matt Embrey
Taken with the Instagram App for the iPhone

Capstone Blog 2

So I was searching around on the internet and I was reading my favorite photo blog and came across a separate blog made by the same people. We love Phoneography is a blog that gathers all of the best images and techniques on using photography applications from your smartphone. This is why the this specific topic is so interesting to me, I've spent hours, and hours of my life in a darkroom trying to get a single image to work, trying my hardest to remove dust, burn the sky to the right exposure, and here I find this blog that has beautiful, I mean absolutely gorgeous images taken with a cell phone. These pictures could totally be put into a gallery in NYC and no one would have any idea that a cell phone was the medium. It just blows my mind.

There are so many apps out now for both the Iphone and Android smartphones that try to emulate old school styles of photography. Then there are now different lenses for iphone cameras which is something I would also like to explore.

Capstone Blog 1

Well for my capstone project I hope to somehow compare the difference between Phoneography and Analog Photography. Phoneography is basically what it sounds like, using your phone to take pictures instead of a normal digital camera. I find it fascinating that we have the power to emulate photographs and their analog processes from the entire history of photography on this small useful device almost everyone carries around with them. I want to compare applications like "Instagram" for Iphone, and 'Fx Camera" for android, with the real thing if possible.

My learning objectives are to come away with a greater understanding of older means of photography, the ways technology is transforming art, and to make art through several different forms of production.

I personally have a terrible time with meeting deadlines and objectives and I want to get better at that. I'm not sure why I procrastinate on everything. It's my worst fault as a person and I know that this year it has to stop because after college, If I continue to fail on turning things in on time i won't be able to keep a job.

White people as an "oppressed majority"

The idea that white people are the ones being oppressed, and scrutinized more than an actual minority is preposterous! As an American white male I am afforded privileges that most minorities cannot have. White people are generally treated better than most, as we have been the majority and therefor have become used to a set of customs, which is really just a myth. White people have been treated better because we were the ones who oppressed everyone else, be it wiping out the Native Americans, forcing blacks into slavery, or the crack epidemic tied with the Reagan years. White Americans who suddenly feel targeted ones, honestly should feel bad for the things that our race has done, however we should celebrate our differences through diversity, and tolerance. True, the recession did scare a lot of whites, as mentioned it hurt us financially and psychiatrically because we had not had the playing field at a economically level ground. So those who feel like we are falling from grace, and say it's a principle, not racism, I have two things to say to you; It's probably about time we let someone else rule the world for a while, we messed things up so terribly, how can anyone do worse. Secondly, I think it's vital as human beings to evolve, not just from single cells to more advanced stages of life, but to evolve emotionally, and mentally. If we can embrace change as a positive, that interracial couples make some damn cute babies, that people are on a core level all the same, thus deserve the same, equal opportunities, regardless of our race, creed, gender, sexual orientation, religion, ect. We are all unique in our own ways, yet we are all put on the same rock, spinning around space together, for a certain amount of time, we are all going to die in less than a 100-120 years, this is fact. So we must embrace what little time we are given, and accept that things are universal, all humans are beautiful.

Characters

During the lecture about characters and archetypes, I was fascinated with Joseph Cambell's "Hero With a Thousand Faces" and the idea of Monomyth. As a kid we are all read the same types of stories with the basic plot line of the Hero, the Princess, and the Anti-Hero all fighting it out, and as most stories with these archetypes, the Hero wins and gets the girl, thus living happily ever after. The idea that you can find the exact same plot throughout these types of stories actually doesn't sit well with me. Obviously this statement has elements of hypocrisy, as I am a fan of movies like "Star Wars" and "Avatar." The main reason I like these types of movies, is because it allows for the creator to be as visually stunning as possible, while maintaing that sense of familiarity, therefor keeping the short attention span of viewers. However there are certain movies and shows that allow for character growth, in completely different way that that of the Monomyth.

I am currently watching a great TV show called "Dexter" on Showtime that uses the main character Dexter to mix up what you would consider a hero, mainly because he is a serial killer. The thing with Dexter is that he is constantly dealing with a "Dark Passenger" a force deep inside of him that keeps him in a non-stop battle with his public and private lives, including trying to raise a family.

The Dark Passenger is always telling him to kill, a problem that has plagued him since he was a child, which we find out was caused by seeing his mother being chopped up with a chainsaw because she was an informant for the police. Harry Morgan was the cop who found Dexter in a shipping container full of blood after several hours, and eventually he adopts Dex. This is crucial to the development of Dexter, mainly because Harry tries to install a sense of morality with a set of codes that he must always follow in order to keep his dark passeger contained. Harry understood that he wouldn't be around forever to protect his son, so the rules that Dexter must follow still allow him to kill those who would hurt innocent people. Dexter works as a blood splatter analysis for the Miami Police, giving him access to DNA, criminal databases, and the ability to know how a homicide department works. With Dexter you have a character trying to juggle multiple lives while still having to be the same person, act exactly the same way to the the people he sees day in and day out, even after getting back from a murder, chopping them up into perfect sized pieces, and dumping them 30 miles out at sea, donuts in hand for the unsuspecting detectives working side by side.

Daily Show Blog 4

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
The Biggest Newser
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog The Daily Show on Facebook

My personal favorite news show is the Daily Show with Jon Stewart, and even though it is "fake news" I truly believe that it has more relevance on our current media, and political environment than most present news shows on TV today. The example above is my evidence for this argument, specifically the part where CNN has you text in the story that you would like to see. As Stewart explained, all three news stories are interesting, and significant to the world. Afghani women losing protective shelters, one of the worlds largest arms trade shows in the Middle East, and Iraq-Afghanistan female veterans finding themselves homeless, sometimes with kids, the public should have the right to be informed on such pressing issues. However CNNs programmers seem to think showing clips from youtube is more entertaining, and their right, it is much more fun to watch a cat putting on a bunny rabbit mask. This is what's so great about the Daily Show, Jon Stewart has a free and open platform to rip on whatever he and his writers woefully please just for a laugh, but in a sense not just for a laugh, to show what is the morally correct thing to do.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Crisis in Dairyland - For Richer and Poorer - Teachers and Wall Street
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog The Daily Show on Facebook

The idea that teachers, the people who are directly involved and in charge of out children's education, apparently are the ones bankrupting out economy, while Wall Street CEO's require millions of dollars in bonuses from the same pool of money that taxpayers used to bail out the banks that were corrupted by these same CEO's! Stewart is able to point out the hypocrisy not just in politics but the 24/hr media whom covers it. We must do all we can to see through the BS, cut the crap, and get straight to what is right and decent. The Daily Show does just that with a wink and a smile.

Photo by Matt Embrey

I think the problem with our campaign was that there was a lack of consistency throughout the ads. Another problem we ran into was how to transform the historical figures into something that a tween would think is funny. I liked the explorer theme and wish to continue down that path except this time i think it might be better if we created a narrative to entice the viewer. Stories are what makes the world interesting, and I think the single image with the line "what if _______ had a cell phone" could be taken a lot further. Perhaps dividing up the ad into small comic book like sections would break it up to allow your eyes to flow throughout the image instead of jumping around.

Originally uploaded by samuel pritzker

Maps & Atlases - Solid Ground from FatCat Records on Vimeo.

Here's a video from one of my all time favorite bands; Maps and Atlases. This video was directed by Taryn Gould and Emily Kowalczyk.

There are a couple of reasons why I posted this video even though it has nothing to do with sex or how women are portrayed in most music videos. The most obvious being that this was directed by two women, and secondly, this video is beautifully captured without the use/need for sex appeal. That's what I really like about this video is the fact that it's all about the art, the ability to make a music video where it tells a short story, has innovative, creative shooting techniques, and is visually aesthetically pleasing. What this does is allow the viewer to focus on the music, which is the whole point of making a music video! Not the idea of releasing a single, then making a video for that song which isn't really about the song, more so of a way to show off, either girls, money, power, or all of the above. In the video for "Solid Ground" the music is integrated with the video. (See the description below the video on the Vimeo site.)

Social Media Campaigns

Personally I am a fan of ad's that use social networking sites like Facebook and Youtube to promote their ideas and products because it changes things up. I'm all for change, especially when it comes to seeing an advertisement. Americans are blasted with thousands of images everyday so whenever a company can mix things up to present their ideas differently, I say go for it! My favorite example of an internet company who utilizes every possible outlet is Threadless a very awesome t-shirt company where the basic democratic system it operates from relies on people to submit designs, then other people vote on those designs, and whatever shirts are voted 5 and a $Buy$ (0-5 scale) wins and gets printed for a limited time. Not to mention the designers win up to $2,500, which makes the competition worth the while for all involved because it makes designers design harder, thusly making the shirts awesome and awesomer. (it's a blog, mistakes will be made!) Threadless's ad's can be seen throughout the internet on sites such as Facebook and the like.

Here's my favorite shirt design by Sebastien Heintz

"Renaissance"

Favorite Ad Campaign

My personal favorite ad campaign is from a Chipotle radio marketing campaign in which two guys compose one minute short songs about burritos. The lyrics are witty and catchy like in the song "Life is Burritoful" with a chorus of "Life is burritoful, life is fajitaful, everything's keen with rice and some beans, life's okie dokie, getting down at Chipotle. Chipotle will brighten your day!" It's just a nice and clean ad, no pressure, everything is "keen" as they say and that's what I really like about it. It's not a high priced, flashy, and expensive ad, it's just a good old toe-tappin tune can sing along with and that is very appealing to me. My other favorite songs lyrics make no sense but it doesn't really matter;

"Burritos make you crazy
Burritos get you high
Burritos make you happy and you don’t know why

They full of rice and beans
They can set your sould free
They’re almost as good as swimming with manatee

But why would you even go swimming in a no wake zone
When you can have a nice burrito right here at home
So go swimming if you want to with or without a manatee
don’t forget the best burritos come from chipotle
the best burritos come from chipotle
the best burritos come from chipotle

You can go swimming if you want to with or without a manatee
don’t forget the best burritos come from chipotle"

Now who doesn't love a fun song about burritos and manatees?

TV News What to do?

I would like to be a part of a creative team who produces a series of short segments. I would really like to produce one segment, then shoot a different show (or more than one). Basically I want to make awesome interesting shows that might live up to the expectations of the most professional news team pictured above.

TV News

What would you like to say?

I think that I would prefer to have a creative role in this class by shooting, and producing a series of short stories focusing on either local people and how they are an integral part of the Shepherdstown/Shepherd University community, or to highlight specific issues relating to Shepherdstown. I'm a big fan of programs that tell stories by using the people that are most passionate, or have a unique take on a certain idea or issue. For example "This American Life" which started out as a radio show on PRI, produced two TV seasons which featured different people and their interesting stories in a series of acts all focused on an overall theme. one of my favorite episodes is called "My Way" where one of the stories features a politician named Brad Blanton who's main platform is "Radical Honesty", the idea of never telling a lie, always speak the truth, no matter what. TAL is really great at showing different ideas, from a unique perspective and that is the kind of angle that I would like to work from.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0zg05N2tuY

Coding is hard

and I'm having trouble doing so but hopefully this week will be productive. Just like from what I saw on the Colbert Report today, the Muslim community center in NYC that has everyone up in arms looks cool as shit. Productivity, aka productive in society.



I mean seriously, it looks cool, it's better than than this:

an abandoned burlington coat factory.

Online Identity

I think as a citizen of the internet that users have a certain responsibility to use the web in an ethical manner. While were in new ground when it comes to internet law, meaning that things aren't as black and white as with everyday life in the streets, anonymity gives people the opportunity to do, and say things that they normally wouldn't be able to do, since it's practically impossible to trace ones identity. For example with the sock puppet case where the mother posed as a 16 year old boy to seek revenge on her daughters ex-friend, she was able to toy with an insecure child's feelings, which ultimately led to her suicide. Even worse this wasn't illegal and if not for an accomplice's confession, the mom would have gotten away with it. As a society that has braced this awesome technology, we must not abuse this privilege. Facebook is an important tool in todays society, where everyone is connected to all things simultaneously, where we are confronted with multiple versions of what some consider the truth, we must be able to decipher and decide what is in fact real and not. It's a two way street where we should try to post the truth, while at the same time figure out what isn't honest.

Website Idea

So for my website for this class I am going to base it upon white water rafting and all of the aspects that concern this topic. Things like different rivers, classes of rapids, types of boats and gear, what to do when, so on and so forth. This is a very interesting topic to me and is relevant in my life because I'm a third year rafting guide on the Shenandoah and Potomac Rivers with River and Trail Outfitters. I think it will be easy to find 25 pages worth of content to fill a site and look forward to the challenge of building a website since this is going to be my first attempt.

Music and the Media

Most music that is in the mainstream media is considered to be the most popular music mainly due to the fact that record companies have made it so by paying dj's and radio stations enough to keep their artist's song on a current rotation several times a day. Now that doesn't mean that pop music is good music, most of the time it's the same thing, another strung out 16 year old disney actor turned singer who's got a number one hit on the radio because her label is pumping enough money that no one bothers to actually listen to it. Radio isn't made up of specific genres, but lumped together with the "top hits" so that within a 20 minute listening period atlas one of the songs you will know and maybe like.

CONGRATULATIONS! EPA SETS NEW POLICIES ON MOUNTAINTOP REMOVAL
Friday, April 2nd, 2010

The following email was sent to the 41,000 supporters of iLoveMountains.org. To sign up to receive free email alerts, click here.

Because of your actions, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency made an unprecedented and historic move yesterday toward curbing the devastating practice of mountaintop removal coal mining. The new policy, effective immediately for pending surface mine permits, stipulates that the practice of valley fills - which bury streams and poison Appalachia’s water sources - will not be permitted unless they meet a high standard.

While this is indeed a historic moment in the fight to end mountaintop removal, and we applaud the EPA for this decision, the policy itself could be overturned by a new presidential administration. We need to pass a law making it permanently illegal to pollute the waters of Appalachia.

As Senator Lamar Alexander said in a statement issued Thursday:

“The new EPA guidelines are useful in stopping some inappropriate coal mining in Appalachia but Congress still needs to pass the Cardin-Alexander legislation that would effectively end mountaintop removal mining.”

Please help us pass the Clean Water Protection Act and the Appalachia Restoration Act, two bills which are currently in the U.S. Congress, to ensure that no administration can overturn policy and allow mountaintop removal to continue devastating the communities and environment of Appalachia.

Contact your Congressional representative about the Clean Water Protection Act (H.R. 1310) and your Senator about the Appalachia Restoration Act (S. 696) TODAY and urge them to cosponsor these bills.

Our goal is to pass this legislation THIS YEAR — help us make this a reality by calling today!

Matt Wasson
iLoveMountains.org