Fleetwood Mac has not always been the Fleetwood Mac that shot to success in the late 70's. The band started out as a British-American Rock band in 1967. Within the bands first ten years they lost all of their member but Mick Fleetwood, the drummer. They did not reach success until they were Christine McVie, John McVie, Lindsey Buckingham, Stevie Nicks, and Mick Fleetwood. This is the Fleetwood Mac that most know and love. The Fleetwood Mac that brought us songs like; "Don't Stop", "Landslide", "Dreams" and "Go Your Own Way".
Like any other Rock and Roll bad they had their ups and downs. From cheating lovers to drugs and alcohol. These elements provided music lovers with some of the greatest songs of all time. Perhaps the most interesting story of Fleetwood Mac is that of Stevie and Lindsey. Stevie and Lindsey met in high school and joined the band together. Lindsey told Mick that he would only join the band if Stevie was also joining the band. This shows his dedication and love for her. But, like any great love story does, their romance took a turn for the worse.
The very thing that brought Lindsey and Stevie together ended up destroying them. The success got to their heads and Stevie ended things with Lindsey. This break up produced songs like "Silver Springs" written by Stevie, a woman scorned and ready to haunt you with her voice and "Go Your Own Way" Lindsey's response to Silver Springs telling her to go ahead and shack up, he didn't care anymore. Through the break up of Lindsey and Stevie the band stayed together. Even after Christine and John divorced they stayed together. These breakups gave us some of the best songs in Rock and Roll and one of the best albums the band has produced, "Rumors".
As the drugs and love tried to tear them apart they vowed to stay together when as a band they wrote "The Chain". The band being the chain that would never be broken. Eventually the chain was broken when Lindsey left the band because he did not think Stevie was healthy enough to go on tour. The years following Lindsey's exit lead to Stevie's solo career and John and Christine's exit. Mic Fleetwood continually fought to get the band together but was never able to get all five members back at the same time until now.
The band just kicked of their 2015 North America Tour, "On With the Show". The show is sold out in almost every venue, because there is nothing like the five of them being back together. The band was able to overcome heartbreak, drug addiction, betrayal, cancer and much more. This website is dedicated to that great band that is finally back together and the history that gave us the great music.
Lev Manovich in his text, "The Language of New Media" discusses the changes of media. He gives us five principles that helped to bring about New Media. This new media allows us to share information, ideas, art, etc. in ways that Fleetwood Mac probably never though possible. In 1975, they never would have thought that their music would be available on the internet or that people would be making websites about them. Lev Manovich discusses why these changes are important and what they do to make our technological world better for everyone, including bands like Fleetwood Mac.
Tuesday, November 11, 2014
Monday, November 10, 2014
It's all about a...
Zelda, as with most video games that started when it did, is all about a girl. Princess Zelda. So of course the main character is a guy named Link( If you've ever gotten this confused and called Link Zelda don't worry you're not the only one. But more on that will be discussed on the Memes page.) Zelda has gained a following of fans for many different reasons, it's music and story lines being two of the biggest. However, Zelda's fans haven't stopped at simply enjoying what Nintendo produces. By means of New media we've taken an already fantastic series of games and built a community around this similar interest. This website seeks to study the effect easy access to community-based internet sites has had on Zelda, and it's community, using the theories of Lev Manovich.
In his book "The Language of New Media" Manovich compares the invention and progression of the computer to the invention and progression of Cinema and how both have changed the societies they were introduced into. He discusses five main principles on New Media in his book and how it either builds on the bones of what came before it, or breaks away from the past into a new form of perception and communication. I will be discussing four of those five principles here.
In his book "The Language of New Media" Manovich compares the invention and progression of the computer to the invention and progression of Cinema and how both have changed the societies they were introduced into. He discusses five main principles on New Media in his book and how it either builds on the bones of what came before it, or breaks away from the past into a new form of perception and communication. I will be discussing four of those five principles here.
Blog Post to the Eighth Degree
Felis Catus is the scientific name for the common household cat. They belong to the mammalian family because they give live birth, have hair, and produce milk for their young. Cats are K strategists since they produce only a handful of young and provide parental care.
Cats are superb predators which prey mostly on rodents, birds, and other small animals. Their claws allow them to climb trees with ease. They are well known for almost always landing on their feet. This is due to their tails that provide them with excellent balance.
It was originally thought that cats were first domesticated in Egypt. This is not true. There have been cat bones and human bones discovered buried together in Cyprus around 9,500 years ago. Scientists believe cat domestication began in the Fertile Crescent in the Middle East.
Many cultures have revered cats. One of the main ones is Egypt. There are many paintings that depict cats. One of their gods, Bastet, was often drawn with cat-like features. Japan views cats as lucky especially the "Maneki-neko" which is image or statue of a cat with a waving paw. These are usually very decorated. The popular icon, "Hello Kitty," is fashioned after this welcoming cat.
Cats have become an integral part of pop culture. They have been used in cartoons such as "Tom and Jerry" and "Sagawa." "Garfield" is a whole comic strip dedicated to a cat. "America's Funniest Home Videos" is known for having segments of the show featuring funny cats. Cat videos have saturated YouTube and other video websites. Who can resist those funny cat videos? I know I have wasted quite a bit of time watching hilarious videos about cats.
This ties into the Manovich text I will use to add meaning and analysis to this website. Manovich's main idea is to make a record and comment on the change before, during, and after the age of computers. He believes there have been drastic transformations to our culture and daily lives as a result of advances in technology.
There are phrases and words that didn't even exist fifty years ago. It's now common to say "Google it" or "Hashtag." Most of our parents and grandparents have no idea what we are talking about if we use these phrases. We have become a society where information is just a click away. No more having to go to the library and sort through cards to find information. We can now just look it up on our iPhone or tablet.
The shift to computers has resulted in "media as the message" which means the actual medium is an integral part of the information conveyed. This is especially prevalent in websites where hyperlinking adds multiple layers of information. Manovich believes five principles are an important part of the technological age. These are numerical representation, automation, variation, modulation, and transcoding which will be discussed further in relation to the content of the rest of this website.
Tuesday, November 4, 2014
Don't Stop thinking about your project.
For my final project I will have a page for:
I will include memes because they are a prime example of New Media and variability. Variability is the principle Manovich explains as taking a simple image or text and adding your own variation to it. Fleetwood Mac fans have done this well with song lyrics, most of the time by taking the lyric and changing it to fit the picture they are using in their meme. Memes are also a good example of the principle viralness. If you create a meme that people can relate to, they can then reblog, repost, and share this meme making it gain popularity. I don't think that any Fleetwood Mac memes have gone viral, but it is still an important principle to discuss.
Band Members:
On this page I would like to give a biography of each band member including pictures and videos if necessary. Each band member has a different background and when they put those differences together they were able to make great music. In order to apply a Manovich principle to this page I will include photos of the band members. Photos are a good representation of the art in the digital age. I am going to strive to find pictures of the band members that are either edited or fan made in order to show how you can use new media to make a photo.
Videos:
This is probably the most important page for my site, Fleetwood Mac is a band so it is necessary to show their music. Videos are a great way to display music, whether it be an actual music video or a fan made video. I intended to include both on this page. Videos are a representation of the principle the medium as the message. When Fleetwood Mac writes a song they have a message they want people to hear. In order to spread that message they have to produce a medium, a song. Music videos can then be used to further portray the message they were trying to send through their song.
Interviews/News:
On this page I would like to include videos of interviews, news reports, blog updates about Fleetwood Mac. They are currently on tour so there is a lot of buzz about them on the web. I think this page would be a good spot to talk about the principle transcoding. Transcoding is basically taking something like an interview or a news article and putting it on the web, making it available to more people via the internet.
- Memes
- Band Members
- Videos
- Interviews/News
I will include memes because they are a prime example of New Media and variability. Variability is the principle Manovich explains as taking a simple image or text and adding your own variation to it. Fleetwood Mac fans have done this well with song lyrics, most of the time by taking the lyric and changing it to fit the picture they are using in their meme. Memes are also a good example of the principle viralness. If you create a meme that people can relate to, they can then reblog, repost, and share this meme making it gain popularity. I don't think that any Fleetwood Mac memes have gone viral, but it is still an important principle to discuss.
Band Members:
On this page I would like to give a biography of each band member including pictures and videos if necessary. Each band member has a different background and when they put those differences together they were able to make great music. In order to apply a Manovich principle to this page I will include photos of the band members. Photos are a good representation of the art in the digital age. I am going to strive to find pictures of the band members that are either edited or fan made in order to show how you can use new media to make a photo.
Videos:
This is probably the most important page for my site, Fleetwood Mac is a band so it is necessary to show their music. Videos are a great way to display music, whether it be an actual music video or a fan made video. I intended to include both on this page. Videos are a representation of the principle the medium as the message. When Fleetwood Mac writes a song they have a message they want people to hear. In order to spread that message they have to produce a medium, a song. Music videos can then be used to further portray the message they were trying to send through their song.
Interviews/News:
On this page I would like to include videos of interviews, news reports, blog updates about Fleetwood Mac. They are currently on tour so there is a lot of buzz about them on the web. I think this page would be a good spot to talk about the principle transcoding. Transcoding is basically taking something like an interview or a news article and putting it on the web, making it available to more people via the internet.
Blog Post the Seventh
I would first like to discuss memes. Memes exhibit variability. Variability is when a certain object has basic elements to it, but the user can add their own flare or creativity to this object. In the case of memes, there is a basic format whether this be a specific image or the type of font used which everyone follows. Each user can however add their own saying to the meme. This makes it so their is a wide variety of sayings on the same meme. Automation can also be used to describe this. Automation is basically a website or other page generates a template and then you can add to that template. There are meme generators that give you the basic meme and the correct font, all you do is type in what words you want to put on it.
Videos show the principle of viralness. When something goes viral, it becomes extremely popular and many people are sharing the item with others. This chain of sharing continues until eventually it dies out. Youtube videos are a great example because they become popular then many people share them on Facebook or other social media sites. This chain continues until the video loses it's popularity and just becomes a regular video. Videos also show variability. There can be several parody videos of the same show or movie, but they all have their own twist on the topic.
Fan art is a great way to illustrate the principle of art and the artist in digital culture. The idea of art and the artist has to do with how the image is rendered. Art can now be made with computer programs or edited with computer programs. Many images now are taken with digital cameras and edited on the computer. The other thing is that the artist and the art can be manipulated by someone else. People take images like a picture of the Fantastic Four and put their face on one of the characters. This changes the piece of the original art drastically. The art and the artist are changing all the time online. They do not always stay the same. Online fan art is represented by numerical representation. This means that the image is made up of code based on 0's and 1's.
Online memes, videos, and fan art are all examples of numerical representation and transcoding because they are made up of 0's and 1's.
Videos show the principle of viralness. When something goes viral, it becomes extremely popular and many people are sharing the item with others. This chain of sharing continues until eventually it dies out. Youtube videos are a great example because they become popular then many people share them on Facebook or other social media sites. This chain continues until the video loses it's popularity and just becomes a regular video. Videos also show variability. There can be several parody videos of the same show or movie, but they all have their own twist on the topic.
Fan art is a great way to illustrate the principle of art and the artist in digital culture. The idea of art and the artist has to do with how the image is rendered. Art can now be made with computer programs or edited with computer programs. Many images now are taken with digital cameras and edited on the computer. The other thing is that the artist and the art can be manipulated by someone else. People take images like a picture of the Fantastic Four and put their face on one of the characters. This changes the piece of the original art drastically. The art and the artist are changing all the time online. They do not always stay the same. Online fan art is represented by numerical representation. This means that the image is made up of code based on 0's and 1's.
Online memes, videos, and fan art are all examples of numerical representation and transcoding because they are made up of 0's and 1's.
Monday, November 3, 2014
Five for Figh--Zelda
My website will have five pages: intro, memes, music, fan-fiction, and Zelda video game walkthroughs.
I chose to include meme's because they are a classic example of digital media, and there are some excellent Zelda meme's that range from inside jokes only the Zelda nerds would know to more general true to life things that anyone could relate to. And they usually come in a humorous package which is most of the fun of memes.
Music may actually be my first page just because it is such an integral part of the Zelda games. Two of the most popular Zelda games are "Ocherina of Time" and "Twilight Princess" and while they are far from the only games in the Zelda series that use music they are two of the games where the music has become very well loved. so loved, in fact, that fans have taken the basic rhythms and tunes of the original songs and reworked them into techno, medleys, and more. Which I think is also a very good example of modularity because fans break down the original songs and rebuild then into something that's new, but still recognizable as a Zelda classic.
The next is fan-fiction. This one is one I'm still on the line about. It does show how gripping Zelda is to its fans because they like it enough that they want to write in it and share that writing. And I think fan-fiction fits into new media principles under the idea of transcoding. Although fan-fiction is not the only aspect to this, I believe fan-fiction is one of the things that highlights the cultural layer of Zelda, while the video games stay mostly on a computer layer. The game itself is man vs. computer and- unless you're playing Link in Super Smash Bros- doesn't really pull in a community on its own. It's not until you start getting things like fan-fiction and memes, etc, that a community starts to be built around a common interest, in this case Zelda.
The last is Zelda video game walkthroughs. This was also a topic I was kind of on the line about. However, I've chosen to include them because they are an integral part of the Zelda video game. There are written walkthroughs for when you get stuck or just want to find extras like heart pieces. There are also video walkthroughs that, in a weird way, kind of tie into automation. In automation, a ground work is laid and things are set up so that the human can intentionally be removed. With Zelda walkthroughs someone will record themselves playing the game and post it on the internet. After they have laid this groundwork anyone who wants to "play" the game, but doesn't want to play the game can watch the game of their choice with the click of a button. Or, many buttons really cause an uncut walkthrough can rarely be done in one video.
Post #7: Website Pages
Besides the intro page, I intend to have pages for Music, Videos, Characters, and Artwork. The selection of these four topics was done carefully to focus on the fan-based production of the Dr. Who television series, which I feel most lends itself to many of the ideas discussed in the Manovich text.
The first section, music, was selected because the show relies heavily on a supportive soundtrack, largely consisting of character motifs. The way that a song (especially one without any lyrics) can be produced and marketed in such a way that it makes a connection with a character on screen is a very interesting aspect of the way that this show functions. The music, when made available to the fans, undergoes even more change, often it is remixed, added to, or simply performed in different ways. I think that most of the topics I have chosen could be associated with Manovich's discussion of viralness, but the ability to send out, in digital form (Numerical Representation) the music used for the show, creates a system by which the fans may edit and adjust it however they want to.
The second section, Videos, is meant to target the large amount of speculation, criticism, and reaction to the show in the form of home-made videos. The amount of such videos is extremely high, and range in quality, both of content and of production, from very good to terrible. Every season there is an uproar within the fan community surrounding the season finale, especially if it means that the main role, that of The Doctor, is going to be re-cast.
The third section, Character, is going to focus on the representation and development of each of the characters (or species in some cases) in the Dr. Who Universe. This section will include aspects of the way in which the character developments have changed in terms of the audience's reactions, as well as their development throughout the show. Major revisions or upgrades to the ideas of characters such as those common to the Doctor and his companions, but also such as the revisions to the Cybermen in Nightmare in Silver will make up a discussion of the changing nature of the content.
The fourth section, Artwork, will focus on the fan-made production of artistic content, including that which goes beyond the imagery of the show itself in order to provide a commentary or revision of some kind. This has been done, for example, in the form of depictions of romantic relationships that don't actually exist in the show, but which fans would like to see happen. In addition to the traditional forms of artwork, I would also like to address the issue of costumes that are developed for comic-con or cosplay events, as many of them are of good quality and an interesting nature.
The first section, music, was selected because the show relies heavily on a supportive soundtrack, largely consisting of character motifs. The way that a song (especially one without any lyrics) can be produced and marketed in such a way that it makes a connection with a character on screen is a very interesting aspect of the way that this show functions. The music, when made available to the fans, undergoes even more change, often it is remixed, added to, or simply performed in different ways. I think that most of the topics I have chosen could be associated with Manovich's discussion of viralness, but the ability to send out, in digital form (Numerical Representation) the music used for the show, creates a system by which the fans may edit and adjust it however they want to.
The second section, Videos, is meant to target the large amount of speculation, criticism, and reaction to the show in the form of home-made videos. The amount of such videos is extremely high, and range in quality, both of content and of production, from very good to terrible. Every season there is an uproar within the fan community surrounding the season finale, especially if it means that the main role, that of The Doctor, is going to be re-cast.
The third section, Character, is going to focus on the representation and development of each of the characters (or species in some cases) in the Dr. Who Universe. This section will include aspects of the way in which the character developments have changed in terms of the audience's reactions, as well as their development throughout the show. Major revisions or upgrades to the ideas of characters such as those common to the Doctor and his companions, but also such as the revisions to the Cybermen in Nightmare in Silver will make up a discussion of the changing nature of the content.
The fourth section, Artwork, will focus on the fan-made production of artistic content, including that which goes beyond the imagery of the show itself in order to provide a commentary or revision of some kind. This has been done, for example, in the form of depictions of romantic relationships that don't actually exist in the show, but which fans would like to see happen. In addition to the traditional forms of artwork, I would also like to address the issue of costumes that are developed for comic-con or cosplay events, as many of them are of good quality and an interesting nature.
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