tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-51468042011-04-21T19:30:46.385-04:00the chutry experimentI'm Chuck Tryon and I'll probably spend a lot of time writing about popular culture, since I teach cultural studies at Georgia Tech. I may also spend a lot of time writing about politics, since I have an overdeveloped sense of righteous indignation. We'll see how it goes.chutrynoreply@blogger.comBlogger1121100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146804.post-106903091415903392003-11-16T20:01:00.000-05:002003-11-16T20:02:26.390-05:00A Better World Through Blogging
Like almost everyone else, I've been thinking about submitting to the CFP on blogging (now that the deadline is fast approaching).
Right now, I'm intrigued by questions about the social and political effects of blogging. Anne Galloway has linked to Adam Greenfield's pessimistic reflection on whether or not IT have made the world a better place. He challenges chutrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146804.post-1069030807036588902003-11-16T20:00:00.000-05:002003-11-16T20:00:39.296-05:00Turning Tables
In the original incarnation of the chutry experiment, I reflected (scroll down to March 16 and 17) on what I found to be a fascinating use of blogs, the first hand accounts from journalists, soldiers, and civilians on the war in Iraq, the most famous of which is, of course, Salam Pax. I was struck by the fact that the immediate publication associated with blogging seemed perfectly chutrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146804.post-1069030575292750922003-11-16T19:56:00.000-05:002003-11-16T19:56:46.746-05:00Happy Endings and Afterimages
I'm still thinking about issues pertaining to the temporality of blogging and had the good fortune of coming across an interesting definition via Jill's blog: In weezBlog, Elouise Oyzon writes,
Blogs are a first person narrative in real time.
Can't wait to see how mine turns out. I do so hope it has a happy ending. Don't we all?
I certainly like this definition chutrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146804.post-1069030410557756022003-11-16T19:53:00.000-05:002003-11-16T19:54:02.043-05:00September 07, 2003
"Blogging and the Everyday" Paper Notes
A few disorganized thoughts: Like mcb, I'm working on my article for Into the Blogosphere. Because of my research on cinematic time, I became intrigued by the relationship between blogging and time, especially the ways in which blogs are used to assimilate our experiences. I'm still struggling with a number of difficulties, including the chutrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146804.post-1069030246526681842003-11-16T19:50:00.000-05:002003-11-16T19:51:18.060-05:00September 27, 2003
Myopia, or Writing and Everyday Life
One of my favorite things about blogging is that whenever my thinking feels stalled or when I become too caught up in the frustrations of everyday life, I know that I can rely on one of my fellow bloggers to provide the spark that re-energizes my thinking. One of the blogs I visit regularly to get my focus back is weezBlog, and her most chutrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146804.post-1069030095198312682003-11-16T19:48:00.000-05:002003-11-16T19:48:46.763-05:00September 30, 2003
Television and Duration
I'm still reading Margaret Morse and thinking about the blogging and the everyday paper. In her discussion of nonplaces, Morse discusses television, specifically Raymond Williams' understanding of television as "flow" (although she articulates her understanding of "flow" against his) as "the pure juxtaposition of unrelated segments" (229). As Morse chutrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146804.post-1069029973775491832003-11-16T19:46:00.000-05:002003-11-16T19:46:45.356-05:00October 21, 2003
The Future of Blogging
I've been planning to reflect on some of the questions raised by the Perseus White Papers' The Blogging Iceberg, in part because I think it speaks to some of the concerns I want to address in my "Blogging and the Everyday" paper, which is constantly shifting focus as I continue to write, read, and reflect. Warning: random thoughts ahead. I mostly wanted to chutrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146804.post-959358612003-06-23T01:27:00.000-04:002003-06-23T01:27:13.470-04:00Once You Use MT, Everything Else is, Well, Empty
I've decided to follow the pack, so to speak, and participate in the blog collective Wordherders. The major benefits include the cool opportunity to particiapte in a collective of other academic bloggers and to use the far more flexible blogging program, Moveable Type. I'm in the process of transferring archives (and hopefully comments) to my chutrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146804.post-958035272003-06-18T16:39:00.000-04:002003-06-18T16:39:46.136-04:00Quirks
Okay, my sense of righteous indignation has been tapped (probably because of spending a little too much time in my apartment). The House recently voted to permanently end estate taxes in 2013. According to Republican Dennis Hastert, the repeal protects typical American families, you know all those families who have estates in the top 1.5 percent of the U.S. population. The result is chutrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146804.post-957683622003-06-17T17:52:00.000-04:002003-06-18T18:07:40.000-04:00The Man Comes Around
Inspired by George's entry on new music and needing to break free from my apartment for a few minutes, I walked up to Wuxtry to buy a couple of CDs. Unlike George, I was lucky enough to find the CDs I wanted, the White Stripes' self-titled 2002 release (pretty rockin' so far) and Johnny Cash's The Man Comes Around, his most recent American/Lost Highway recording.
I've chutrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146804.post-957594092003-06-17T13:11:00.000-04:002003-06-17T13:13:00.000-04:00Virtual Participation
Because my car is now officially dead (I may have a replacement, a 1989 Camry, in a week or so), I've been more or less trapped in my apartment. Even though MARTA (the Atlanta mass transit service) claims to be "Smarta," it's not terribly convenient and the busses don't run after 11PM, making it hard to catch late movies. One of the results of this immobility has been thechutrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146804.post-957057562003-06-16T01:17:00.000-04:002003-06-16T01:20:07.000-04:00Mezza, a Movie, and a Moth
Finally had a chance to go back to Mezza, a wonderful Lebanese restaurant in the Oak Grove neighborhood. I went originally a few months ago, and I've been craving it ever since. It's a tapas style restaurant and S and I ordered falafel, fried eggplant (which I really like--the tahini gives it a terrific kick), chicken shawarma, and beef stuffed grape leaves. It's chutrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146804.post-956648642003-06-14T13:23:00.000-04:002003-06-14T13:43:56.000-04:00Virilio and Marker
I've been a lazy blogger lately, and I am feeling a little guilty about it. For the most part, I've been trying to work through some ideas for a couple of articles I'm trying to finish. I'm most excited about my paper on Chris Marker's Sans soleil, especially after revisiting Manovich's The Language of New Media, especially because his notion of a "database film" so clearly chutrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146804.post-954705352003-06-09T12:44:00.000-04:002003-06-09T14:05:45.000-04:00David Bowie at the Drive-In
Went to see Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars at the Starlight Six Drive-In last night, after a great dinner at Mambo (scroll down for a review), a terrific Cuban restaurant in the Highlands. The screening of Ziggy Stardust, directed by D. A. Pennebaker was part of the Atlanta Film Festival, which started this weekend and runs throughout the week (I might be chutrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146804.post-954063622003-06-07T12:01:00.000-04:002003-06-07T12:01:39.000-04:00Rainy Day in Georgia
It's raining here in Atlanta, which probably means this afternoon's peace rally starting Grant Park will not be as well attended as it might be otherwise. I'm unable to attend due to a family commitment, but just wanted to extend my digitally expressed support. With the rainy weather contributing to my laziness, I've been touring the blogosphere and wanted to metion a chutrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146804.post-953168382003-06-05T01:03:00.000-04:002003-06-05T01:18:47.000-04:00Jog Blog
I've started jogging again, and I'd forgotten how much I enjoy it. I'm still out of shape, but I live in a great residential neighborhood in North Decatur with lots of trees, and in the later part of the evening, very few cars, a rarity in Atlanta. Jogging is one of the few activities where I find myself completely in the moment, able to forget the rest of the world for just a few chutrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146804.post-953094482003-06-04T21:35:00.000-04:002003-06-05T01:05:34.000-04:00Town Hall
I attended am invigorating town hall forum on human rights last night at First Iconium Baptist Chruch with Doreen. It was a pretty cool experience, with the Church's Gospel choir inspiring the audience and several guest speakers, including Loretta Ross, Executive Director, National Center for Human Rights Education, and Debbie Seagraves, Executive Director, American Civil Liberties chutrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146804.post-952919942003-06-04T13:26:00.000-04:002003-06-04T13:43:58.000-04:00Chris Marker
I've been in research mode for the last few days, trying to finish up an article on Dark City and another on Chris Marker, specifically on Sans soleil, which partially explains the light blogging for the last few days, but in my "research" in the "periodical stacks" at my local bookshop, I came across a series of articles in Film Comment about Marker, including a rare interview chutrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146804.post-951216562003-05-31T11:17:00.000-04:002003-05-31T11:17:20.090-04:00Salam Pax to Write for Guardian
According to reports, Salam Pax has signed to write a bi-weekly column for the Guardian. I've always found his blog reflective and informative. I'll be interested to see what he can do with a newspaper column. chutrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146804.post-950871572003-05-30T12:50:00.000-04:002003-05-30T12:50:39.763-04:00Monopoly or Democracy?
Ted Turner makes one of the strongest arguments I've seen in opposition to further deregulation of the media:
Large media corporations are far more profit-focused and risk-averse. They sometimes confuse short-term profits and long-term value. They kill local programming because it's expensive, and they push national programming because it's cheap -- even if it runs chutrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146804.post-950221102003-05-29T00:32:00.000-04:002003-05-29T01:00:42.000-04:00Say, Didn't We Just Destroy Iraq...
Because their leader was guilty of torturing and killing his own citizens? Didn't we also support once that leader with money and arms because it supported our "interests?" This Guardian story contains some pretty horrific images. According to British reports, two prisoners were boiled to death, and according to the State Department's website, torture in chutrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146804.post-949985762003-05-28T14:04:00.000-04:002003-05-29T00:32:42.000-04:00Random Wednesday Post
Just a couple of interestng items that crossed my path in the last few minutes:L sent me a link to this interesting satire recently discussed in the Washington Post. Perhaps most disturbing is the fact that the author of the site has had dozens of serious inquiries. The FAQ page and the "prices" page are especially entertaining.
From Invisible Adjunct, the Time Travel chutrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146804.post-949959032003-05-28T12:55:00.000-04:002003-05-28T12:55:09.066-04:003D Movies Are Making a Comeback
According to a Wired online story, James "King of the World" Cameron announced at the Large Format Cinema Association conference that he is planning a high-definition, 3-D digital feature (no details on the script, but some rumors have him eyeing a plot based on a manned mssion to Mars, a plot that didn't work out very well for Brian DePalma or John Carpenter). chutrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146804.post-949748922003-05-28T01:02:00.000-04:002003-05-28T01:02:47.946-04:00Man Without a Past
Went to see Aki Kaurismäki's Man Without a Past tonight at the Plaza. Past is a challenging film to describe: it focuses on a man who is beaten so severly by a group of muggers that he develops amnesia. The man then adapts to his new situation, moving into a small apartment (essentially little more than a shed) and taking a job with the Salvation Army. Undeterred by his chutrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146804.post-948756932003-05-25T20:14:00.000-04:002003-05-25T20:16:07.000-04:00Emergence
After Matt Kirschenbaum's enthusiastic mention of Steven Johnson's Emergence, I've been immersed in his discussion of "organized complexity," the ways in which complex behaviors can emerge from relatively simple rules. So far I've been most intrigued by his discussion of Jane Jacobs' The Death and Life of Great American Cities. Because I had read Jacobs through a different lens, I chutrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146804.post-948452882003-05-24T22:16:00.000-04:002003-05-25T20:25:07.000-04:00The Thirteenth Floor
[Spoliers ahead] I rewatched The Thirteenth Floor the other night. It's one of my favorite "cyberthrillers," even if it's slightly flawed. The 1937 Los Angeles VR world, for example, really seems to open up the possibility of doing something more interesting with the detective story and especially with film noir (although noir is, of course, more of a post-war phenomenon).chutrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146804.post-948442192003-05-24T21:31:00.000-04:002003-05-24T21:31:03.790-04:00Wag the Blog
One of my former students alerted me to a FoxNews article claiming that Bill Clinton may be joining the realm of bloggers. As much as I hate Fox, this is interesting news. I also have to give credit to one of the commenters on this blog the title to this entry. Stay tuned on the Bill Clinton story. chutrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146804.post-947886362003-05-23T11:11:00.000-04:002003-05-25T20:20:31.000-04:00Dynamics of a Blogosphere Story
Reading Scott Rosenberg today (note: it's a Salon.com blog, so I'm not sure about access for non-subscribers), I came across two interesting stories about online journalism, including one focusing on the role of blogging in creating a new kind of news story: Microdoc News has an interesting article arguing that the "blogosphere stories" develop following a chutrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146804.post-947176622003-05-21T23:08:00.000-04:002003-05-22T14:25:12.000-04:00Media and Democracy Part II
(Scroll down for a discussion of WiFi for homeless people)
There was a solid turnout of approximately 500-600 people (despite the rain) for the discussion of the deregulation policy under consideration by the FCC. The event was sponsored by community radio station WRFG 89.3. Panelists included the two Democratic FCC commissioners who plan to vote against chutrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146804.post-946481162003-05-20T15:52:00.000-04:002003-05-20T16:08:23.000-04:00Media and Democracy
FYI, Atlanta readers: There will be a major public discussion about the deregulation of media ownership at Glenn Memorial Chapel on the campus of Emory University tomorrow night, May 21, at 6 PM. Planned guests include Jon Lewis, Cynthia McKinney, Amy Goodman of Democracy Now, and Jonathan Adelstein of the FCC.
The event is open to the public, and guests are invited to chutrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146804.post-946393732003-05-20T12:21:00.000-04:002003-05-20T12:21:20.466-04:00Say It Ain't So, Joss. Say It Ain't So
Final episode of Buffy tonight. Salon has a good article about the series and an interview with series creator Joss Whedon. chutrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146804.post-946182882003-05-20T01:08:00.000-04:002003-05-20T01:08:50.183-04:00Dating a Blogger
George mentions this New York Times article about "Dating a Blogger." It's an interesting little article about some of the risks involved in blogging about social relationships:
In the rush to publish, many bloggers are running headlong into some of the problems conventionally published memoirists know too well: hurt feelings, newly wary friends and relatives, and the chutrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146804.post-945849282003-05-19T11:38:00.000-04:002003-05-19T11:58:23.000-04:00Road Trip
Recovering from a long, exhausting weekend in Athens (currently college sports scandal central with multiple football players suspended for smoking pot and/or selling their championship rings on e-Bay). My car--a hardworking 1989 Mazda 929--broke down while I was just outside of Athens Friday evening, leaving me with a few unexpected hours of time to explore downtown Athens. After chutrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146804.post-943708462003-05-15T00:42:00.000-04:002003-05-15T01:04:12.000-04:00Chaos
Just watched Coline Serreau's 2001 French film, Chaos at the new Madstone Parkside 6 in Sandy Springs. Serreau, who also directed the film that, um, inspired, Three Men and a Baby, satires the complacency of French bourgeois culture through this frenetic feminist thriller. The film opens with Paul, a high-powered businessman, and Hélène, a successful attorney, rushing through their chutrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146804.post-943095642003-05-14T00:40:00.000-04:002003-05-14T00:40:22.610-04:00"Put Me in, Coach"
Attended tonight's Tech-Georgia baseball game (Tech lost 10-3! Boo!) at Turner Field with my sister and a couple of friends. Despite the blow-out, it was fun to catch a college b-ball game again.
Also had the strange experience of parking in the lot where Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium used to stand. I stood precisely at home plate and looked out at the outline of the chutrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146804.post-943078092003-05-14T00:02:00.000-04:002003-05-14T00:02:37.000-04:00Congratulations!
Congratulations to Jason, author of No Symbols Where None Intended, who is now the father of a baby boy, a.k.a. the "Little Man." Mother and child are "recovering nicely."
chutrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146804.post-942741862003-05-13T12:49:00.000-04:002003-05-13T12:49:16.020-04:00Downstream International Film Festival
My sister mentioned (by email) a local film festival that is currently organizing and seeking volunteers, and after my wonderful experience with the now defunct Freaky Film Festival in Champaign, I thought I'd investigate. I did some quick research, and noticed an ad in Creative Loafing for the Downstream International Film Festival. I'm not sure this is chutrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146804.post-942281452003-05-12T18:06:00.000-04:002003-05-12T18:07:33.000-04:00WMD: "We Might Deceive"
The Washington Post article documenting the inability to locate any major evidence of WMD is certainly disturbing news and completely calls into question our motives for a pre-emptive war against Iraq. I'm not sure I can really add much to what other people have said, so instead of commenting further, I'm adding a quick link to Christopher Allbritton's Back in Iraq 2.0.chutrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146804.post-941814642003-05-11T23:30:00.000-04:002003-05-11T23:30:32.050-04:00Impossible Cinematography
Just read this month's Wired cover article on The Matrix Reloaded, and I think I'm pretty excited. The sequence they're referring to as the Burly Brawl seems relevant to my current research direction, specifically in terms of its treatment of the relationship between digital effects and identity fragmentation. I want to see the film before I comment further, but I chutrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146804.post-941601102003-05-11T15:16:00.000-04:002003-05-12T01:11:41.000-04:00I'm Going Straight to Hell, Just Like My Mama Told Me
Just took the Dante's Inferno Test after reading about it on Kieran Healy's weblog.
Here is how I matched up against all the levels:LevelScorePurgatory (Repenting Believers)Very LowLevel 1 - Limbo (Virtuous Non-Believers)HighLevel 2 (Lustful)Very HighLevel 3 (Gluttonous)ModerateLevel 4 (Prodigal and Avaricious)ModerateLevel 5 (Wrathful andchutrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146804.post-941323272003-05-10T23:48:00.000-04:002003-05-11T01:27:28.000-04:00Grading Marathon and X2: X-Men United
Spent all day today (well, 9-5) grading diagnostic exams for Georgia Tech. It's an utterly exhausting activity, but I need to make a little money this summer (anyone have a part-time job?) and I like to be a good departmental citizen (mostly I need the money). I think the most striking moment (for me) was reading an essay on academic honesty in which a chutrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146804.post-940021842003-05-08T13:45:00.000-04:002003-05-08T13:54:34.000-04:00Plagiarism for Fun and Profit
While reading the Invisible Adjunct, I discovered that Kieran Healy's weblog has an interesting discussion of plagiarism going on right now, including some discussion of turnitin.com. With online search engines changing the way research happens, talking about plagiarism becomes much more complicated, especially when it's so easy to copy and paste information from chutrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146804.post-939664112003-05-07T22:58:00.000-04:002003-05-08T00:23:19.000-04:00Random Wednesday Night Post
With summer starting, I'm feeling a little lazy and self-indulgent. It has been a long year, and I need a few days to unwind. Readers are, as always, strongly encouraged to comment.I'm reading Michael Chabon's first novel, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, and I'm really enjoying it, so far, especially the treatment of a lost Pittsburgh summer (which of course remindschutrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146804.post-939375872003-05-07T13:20:00.000-04:002003-05-07T22:57:57.000-04:00Dear Raed Posting Again, or The Sexual Life of Palm Trees
Just received the good news that Salam Pax has finally been able to update his blog. I'm glad that he was able to weather the war, and I'm excited to read his reflections on the possibilities and problems in post-war Iraq. I think what strikes me most about his blog are the feelings of ambivalence about the war. On the one hand, he chutrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146804.post-938076342003-05-05T12:28:00.000-04:002003-05-07T15:20:36.000-04:00A Mean-spirited America
I read editorials like this one by Jill Nelson, and think she's absolutely right: we have found little evidence of a WMD program in Iraq; Bush's contributors (Haliburton & friends) stand to clean up (literally and figuratively) from this war; civil rights are consistently being threatened in the name of a war on terror; Bush wants to repeal dividend taxes while auditing chutrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146804.post-937091442003-05-03T12:46:00.000-04:002003-05-03T17:41:08.000-04:00SCMS 2004 Conference
Next year's theme for Society for Cinema and Media Studies conference, Mediating Tomorrow's History: Live Coverage and Documentary in the Digital Era, looks really good. Especially given the recent (current? who knows?) conflict in Iraq, in which digital technologies played such an important role (embedded reporters, bloggers), there are a lot of pertinent questions here. chutrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146804.post-936902692003-05-03T00:48:00.000-04:002003-05-03T01:10:30.000-04:00Ararat
Wow. I am completley stunned. Atom Egoyan's film about the Armenian genocide, Ararat is one of the best films I've seen in a long time (and I see a lot of films). In many ways, I think it was the film that Egoyan, an Armenian-Canadian was born to make. Some reviews of the film (such as Roger Ebert's) have been tepid, regarding Egoyan's cautious attempts to represent the genocide of chutrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146804.post-936558722003-05-02T11:40:00.000-04:002003-05-02T20:20:18.000-04:00I Need New Sponsors
Okay, I'm becoming tremendously annoyed with the banner advertsiements on top of my blog. Because I wrote about a certain piece of embattled cloth a few days ago, the search engine (or whatever) on Blogger has completely misinterpreted my politics, so I am now seeing advertisements for documentaries about my part of the world whose politics diverge tremendously from my own.chutrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146804.post-936023882003-05-01T12:32:00.000-04:002003-05-02T10:47:39.000-04:00Fear Factor
Great talk by Alison McMahan on "Immersive Virtual Environments" this morning, specifically in her careful taxonomy of terms such as "immersion" and "presence" that are often loosely defined. She then discussed her current VR project, Memesis, specifically in terms of her attempts to use conventions of horror films in order to "test certain theories of presence and immersion in the chutrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146804.post-935684792003-04-30T22:11:00.000-04:002003-04-30T22:20:24.000-04:00Cool Lecture
Visual culture scholar, Alison McMahan, is giving a talk entitled, "Fiction and Presence in Immersive Virtual Environments," at Georgia Tech at 11 AM in Room 343 of Skiles Hall. It should be an interesting talk. I'm particularly excited about the talk because her essay, "The Effect of Multiform Narrative on Subjectivity" was pertinent to my work on alternate reality films in my chutrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146804.post-934351042003-04-28T21:22:00.000-04:002003-04-29T23:10:08.000-04:00Your Friendsters and Neighbors
Friendster, a social networking site that operates on the "six-degrees-of-separation" principle, has been creating a lot of buzz today. The premise is that you enter your profile--including your interests, favorite TV shows, movies, etc--and link to your friends. It seems a little different than standard dating sites--like Match.com--in that it more chutrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146804.post-932991312003-04-26T11:47:00.000-04:002003-04-26T12:57:45.000-04:00Flag Controversy
I thought current and former Georgians might be interested in this story: The Georgia flag controversy has taken yet another turn. After the previous governor, Roy Barnes, finally eliminated the large Confederate battle emblem, current governor, Sonny Perdue, ran on a promised referendum allowing state voters to vote on the flag, strongly implying that the old flag, with a chutrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146804.post-932593352003-04-25T16:11:00.000-04:002003-04-25T16:29:41.000-04:00Two Thumbs Up
In recognition of Roger Ebert's Overlooked Film Festival, I thought I'd include a shoutout to one my favorite mainstream film critics. There's a transcript of an interesting interview with Roger Ebert in the Progressive where he discusses Michael Moore's Academy Award speech, Bush's theocratic impulses, and political Hollywood films. At one point, when the discussion turns to chutrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146804.post-932441172003-04-25T11:32:00.000-04:002003-04-25T13:26:02.000-04:00Further Proof that Ben Affleck has Sold His Soul
Just learned from the Invisible Adjunct that Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez "have secured a deal to remake the classic movie Casablanca". Anyone who has spent a lot of time with me knows that I am far from a purist when it comes to remakes (and I don't have any special allegiance to Casablanca as a film), but this one seems like a car crash chutrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146804.post-931089162003-04-23T08:57:00.000-04:002003-04-23T16:31:29.000-04:00Blogging and Death
Wired Magazine has an article about the continued presence of blogs and web journals after their users die. The article focuses on a student, Adrian Heideman, at California State University, Chico, who kept a web journal until September 2000, when he died due to alcohol poisoning. The article discusses the mixed feelings of friends and family regarding the continued presencechutrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146804.post-930234182003-04-21T23:35:00.000-04:002003-04-22T01:34:20.000-04:00Writing Machines
Listening to Alice by Tom Waits and Ancient Melodies of the Future by Built to Spill.
Working on some ideas for my discussion of Katherine Hayles' How We Became Posthuman and Writing Machines for the electronic pedagogy seminar at Georgia Tech. While reflecting on Hayles' argument that critics consider more carefully the materiality of the medium, I came across George's post chutrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146804.post-929914842003-04-21T13:07:00.000-04:002003-04-21T15:47:02.000-04:00Bombers, Basra, and Burgers
For their hypertext project in my English 1102 course, one group decided to focus on fast food culture (I'll provide that link later). While doing research for their project this week, they discovered that fast food franchises Burger King and Pizza Hut have already arrived in Iraq. The franchises are set up inside the military bases, but it strikes me as just a chutrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146804.post-929052442003-04-19T18:09:00.000-04:002003-04-20T21:12:21.000-04:00Homecoming
Had the strange experience of grading Regents Exams at Georgia State University today. Now that I've been grading Regents exams for three Saturdays in a row, my senses are completely dulled. I have become a grading machine. But what was intriguing about the experience was returning to Georgia State, where I earned my M.A. in English in August, 1995. I grew up in Atlanta, and chutrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146804.post-928708892003-04-18T23:36:00.000-04:002003-04-20T00:48:06.000-04:00"Must See" New Media
Listening to Leonard Cohen's Ten New Songs.
Matt Kirschenbaum called my attention to Adrian Miles recent discussion of why television is a more insightful reflection of the new media. Matt's reference to Lev Manovich's The Language of New Media is useful here, too. I've been trying to work out some similar questions, generally from the point of view of film studies, andchutrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146804.post-927822862003-04-17T11:28:00.000-04:002003-04-17T11:56:05.000-04:00David Gordon Green
In an interview promoting his debut film, George Washington, with Netribution, a UK film site, Green says:
We didn't spend a lot of money on anything, but all of the money we had was put into the camera department to capture the landscape and environment in a way that would be cinematic. -- To me, film is the perfect blend of pictures, performance and music. To create an chutrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146804.post-927306012003-04-16T14:55:00.000-04:002003-04-16T17:14:54.000-04:00Run Lola Run
Just finished teaching Tom Tykwer's stylish 1998 film, Run Lola Run in my freshman composition class. My students responded to the film incredibly enthusiastically and the discussion ended up being very productive. Since Lola brings together the possibilities of time and the possibilities of cinema, I've felt for a long time that it would prove to be an effective capstone to an chutrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146804.post-927106902003-04-16T08:20:00.000-04:002003-04-16T08:20:05.746-04:00I've Gone Public, Finally
My weblog has finally gone public. Here's your chance to get in on the ground floor of a really sound investment.chutrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146804.post-926968692003-04-16T00:54:00.000-04:002003-04-16T00:57:58.000-04:00All the Real Girls, Take Two
George has offered a compelling reading of the film, All the Real Girls that complicates my original reading (just scroll down to my previous entry). My original entry foucsed on what I found to be a spirit of nostalgia that seemed to permeate the film, and looking back I'm not sure if my entry articulates clearly enough that I don't see that nostalgia as at all "chutrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146804.post-925158122003-04-13T00:43:00.000-04:002003-04-13T00:53:30.000-04:00All the Real Girls
Just returned from the Tara, where I saw David Gordon Green's latest film, All the Real Girls. Green, who directed the critically acclaimed George Washington has made what I regard to be a stunning film; it's a contemplative, reflective film, one that takes its time to trace out its characters (not to mention the fact that a Will Oldham song plays during the opening credits).chutrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146804.post-925003632003-04-12T17:21:00.000-04:002003-04-12T18:11:00.000-04:00Nowhere in Africa
Went to see Caroline Link's Nowhere in Africa last night at the Plaza. It's a visually striking film that uses the African landscape very well. Nowhere focuses on a Jewish family forced to flee Germany for Kenya during World War II. The father, a lawyer, leaves Germany before his family, taking a job managing a small farm and sending for his wife and child once conditions in chutrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146804.post-924981912003-04-12T16:22:00.000-04:002003-04-12T18:16:21.000-04:00No Symbols
Just returned from six hours of grading Georgia Board of Regents essays (required of all students who graduate from a state of Georgia university) where I learned that one of my colleagues, Jason, has a weblog. Check it out! chutrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146804.post-924338712003-04-11T11:51:00.000-04:002003-04-11T11:51:37.593-04:00For the Patriot Who Has Everything
I've just discovered that Collectibles Today has taken down the link to the figurine of the child holding a machine gun. The other figurines are still there, ready to order. Maybe they realized just how disturbing it is to show a small child holding a machine gun? Randy, in a comment to my previous discussion of figurines points out another example of this chutrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146804.post-924239672003-04-11T08:54:00.000-04:002003-04-11T08:58:55.000-04:00Blogshares Redux
While preparing to teach this morning, I went to check on my blogshares stock (I'm back in the black, thank you, but won't be recommending any more stocks, since my last recommendation tanked right after I gave it a plug) and learned that the creator of blogshares is considering resetting everyone's accounts at $500 (plus 1000 shares in your own blog) once the game goes live (chutrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146804.post-924060312003-04-11T00:08:00.000-04:002003-04-12T19:48:31.000-04:00Baghdad Falls
Steven Berlin Johnson offers an intriguing reading of the televised images of Saddam Hussein's statues being toppled. I've been thinking about these images for a couple of days, in part because I recognize that they will achieve iconic status; these images almost certainly will be the ones with which the war in Iraq will be remembered (or at least packaged on television), and theychutrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146804.post-923876302003-04-10T18:18:00.000-04:002003-04-10T22:39:31.000-04:00And the Nomination for Director of the Ministry of Misinformation Goes To...
"The war started right here on Sept. 11, 2001," Gov. George Pataki said.
Maybe I'm wrong, but I thought Al-Qaeda was responsible for the events of September 11, not Saddam Hussein. Check out the story here. chutrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146804.post-923736932003-04-10T14:02:00.000-04:002003-04-11T08:28:33.000-04:00Blogging, Time, and Memory
George asks some interesting questions about blogging and time, specifically in terms of eighteenth century epistolary novels, such as Pamela. As George points out, Pamela is
a story told in letters, narrated by characters who don't know how the story is going to end....Richardson called this "writing to the moment"; things happen to his characters, and almost chutrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146804.post-923066232003-04-09T14:45:00.000-04:002003-04-09T16:41:29.000-04:00On a Mission from GodPerhaps I'm wrong, but does anyone else find this a little creepy?
Update(s): I did some more exploring and found out there is an entire series of these figurines. The army figurine (showing a small child in military khakis holding a machine gun) is by far the more disturbing, but both identify our assault on Iraq with childhood innocence. The celebration of the "chutrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146804.post-922654362003-04-08T23:30:00.000-04:002003-04-09T13:44:51.000-04:00
Bearish on Blogshares
My Blogshares portfolio is tanking fast! I lost something like $100 (virtual) dollars investing in the popularity of Back in Iraq. So, I'm totally bummed. I'm also somewhat disturbed by my immediate and complete addiction to this game that so closely simulates the stock market. George discusses some of the finer points of Blogshares in a recent post. In the comments chutrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146804.post-921779942003-04-07T18:20:00.000-04:002003-04-07T22:20:16.000-04:00
Bullish on Blogshares
Just listed my blog on Blogshares after noticing that several of my favorite blogs, including George's and Liz Lawley's weblogs are listed. Blogshares is "a fantasy stock market for weblogs. Players get to invest a fictional $500, and blogs are valued by inbound links." In other words, the price of shares in your weblog increases with the more people who link to your chutrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146804.post-921238462003-04-06T23:20:00.000-04:002003-04-09T11:01:02.000-04:00
More Gary Hart
Democratic presidential candidate, Gary Hart, has been asking some important questions about the consequences of our actions in Iraq. He points out that democracy does not equal "liberality," and challenges current leadership to consider the problems that may arise in a supposedly "democratized" Iraq. Most provocatively, he makes a call to action for those people (including chutrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146804.post-920287422003-04-05T01:47:00.000-05:002003-04-05T01:47:43.700-05:00
Friday Night
Sushi for dinner and a Vic Chesnutt concert to top it off. Sometimes life is good.chutrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146804.post-919904352003-04-04T11:45:00.000-05:002003-04-04T11:55:13.000-05:00
The Third Photograph
Found this "correction" in the LATimes, apologizing for an altered photograph, in which the photographer (who was fired) combined elements of two different photographs in order to "improve the composition." While the paraphrase of the original caption suggests that the American soldier is directing the Iraqis to take cover (against Iraqi weapons), the image itself seems chutrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146804.post-919336982003-04-03T15:12:00.000-05:002003-04-03T15:24:58.000-05:00
If You're Against the War, You're a Terrorist
A recent bill in Oregon would land protestors who "disrupt" daily activities in jail for twenty-five years by labelling them as terrorists. I realize this bill has little chance of passage, but the mere fact that it seems worthy of debate is rather troubling. I think what bothers me most is the implicit equation between anti-war sentiments and chutrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146804.post-918601312003-04-02T14:08:00.000-05:002003-04-04T15:36:16.000-05:00
Back in Iraq 2.0
Jill Walker makes an interesting point about Christopher Allbritton's weblog, Back in Iraq 2.0, suggesting that it represents a kind of double consciousness:
It's fascinating reading, though less about the war now than about the experience of travelling in such a region at such a time. It's also about being and not being at the same time: he's a journalist but not a chutrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146804.post-918007032003-04-01T18:00:00.000-05:002003-04-03T21:25:48.000-05:00
Independent Filmmaking
An independent filmmaker friend of mine, Chris, has started his own weblog in order to document the difficulties and (hopefully) the rewards of making an independent film on digital video. Conversations with Chris have often challenged me to rethink my defintions of "independent cinema" and the complications involved in the cinematic mode of production. As I mentioned a chutrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146804.post-917841902003-04-01T13:08:00.000-05:002003-04-01T13:08:15.076-05:00
Roger Ebert's Overlooked Film Festival
Just IMing with Renee about Ebert's Overlooked Film Festival, which I'd like to attend (not sure my schedule will allow it). It's a good festival. I went last year, when I was teaching at the University of Illinois to see the anime version of Metropolis. The Virginia Theater is a great venue for watching films, and Ebert is actually a very thoughtful chutrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146804.post-917811392003-04-01T12:03:00.000-05:002003-04-02T11:48:04.000-05:00
Donnie Darko
Watched Donnie Darko again last night after hearing a paper on it at ICFA. The film does some interesting things with time travel, most notably its treatment of the 1980s. The first line of the film, spoken by Donnie's older sister (played by Jake Gyllenhall's real-life sister, Maggie) Elizabeth, is her proclamation, "I'm voting for Dukakis." The setting of the film, its 80s chutrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146804.post-916845162003-03-30T22:57:00.000-05:002003-03-30T23:25:53.000-05:00
Strange Days
Just emailed my application for a film panel at the Rocky Mountain MLA in October. It's basically going to update some of my concerns about cinematic representations of digital technologies that I raised in my Dark City paper, but looking at Kathryn Bigelow's 1995 film, Strange Days. After talking with Jay Telotte about my Dark City paper, I've become a little more motivated to chutrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146804.post-916384032003-03-30T01:18:00.000-05:002003-03-30T01:47:09.000-05:00Irreversible
Went to see Gaspar Noe's Irreversible tonight at the Plaza. I'm not quite sure how I feel about the film, either. The film opens with the credits, scrolling "backwards," up the screen, and suggesting the film's premise of telling a story in reverse chronological order, followed by a scene of tremendous violence, with two men savagely beating a man (significantly in a gay sex club chutrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146804.post-916202662003-03-29T17:09:00.000-05:002003-03-29T17:46:30.000-05:00
AtlantaBlogs
Decided to join the AtlantaBlogs webring after reading George's discussion of finding his blog on a directory of Kansas City blogs. Found it interesting that AtlantaBlogs maps its collection of blogs on the map of MARTA rail lines for two possibly related reasons: (1) it privileges MARTA as an important part of the city's landscape, a primary means of negotiating a city whose chutrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146804.post-916090412003-03-29T12:20:00.000-05:002003-03-29T12:37:20.000-05:00
Time Travel as Defense
Found this article on Blogdex amsuing, especially given the subject of my dissertation. It seems that Andrew Carlssin, who is accused of insider trading, is claiming to be a time traveler from the 23rd century in order to explain his uncanny stock success during the recent bear market. Apparently he has gone from a $800 investment to a fortune well over $300 million in chutrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146804.post-915893432003-03-29T00:52:00.000-05:002003-03-29T00:54:47.000-05:00
Spider
Went to see David Cronenberg's Spider tonight. The film, based on a novel by Patrick McGrath, stars Ralph Fiennes as Dennis, a mentally ill person living in a halfway house in England. Dennis, a schizophrenic, struggles with the memories of his traumatic past. The film was well acted, with Ralph Fiennes, Miranda Richardson, and Gabriel Byrne all giving effective, compelling chutrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146804.post-915699022003-03-28T17:05:00.000-05:002003-03-28T17:05:33.873-05:00
Campaign Blogging Reform
Democratic Presidential candidate Gary Hart has entered the blogosphere. Hart comments that
From time to time, I'll post my thoughts on current policy matters, as well as share some stories about where I'm traveling and the people I'm meeting. I'll also ask some of my friends to share their thoughts as well. I cannot promise to be as skillful at this as many of thosechutrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146804.post-915253622003-03-27T23:36:00.000-05:002003-03-30T02:40:03.000-05:00
Details and Emotions
The title of this blog comes from Jill Walker, a graduate student in Norway, who amplifies some of my earlier observations about Lt. Smash's blog. She writes:
Lt Smash on the other hand rarely notes details. A hard sarcasm filling every word. Perhaps that's the only way he can cope with his life right now. When the sarcasm lifts set phrases appear: "We will not forget. chutrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146804.post-915161842003-03-27T20:44:00.000-05:002003-03-27T23:48:09.000-05:00
Vic Chesnutt
Just found out that Vic Chesnutt is playing the Echo Lounge on Friday, April 4. If anyone in Atlanta happens to be reading my blog, it's definitely a show well worth seeing. Chestnutt is more or less a local musician whose stripped down acoustical stream-of-consciousness songs caught the ear of Michael Stipe who has produced and sung on several of Chesnutt's albums. Bit of chutrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146804.post-915107692003-03-27T18:56:00.000-05:002003-03-27T20:54:30.000-05:00
Always be Excellent
Just began reading The University in Ruins (1994) by Bill Readings. Readings addresses some issues of deep concern to me as an academic. More than just observing the corporatization of the Western university, he highlights the reasons behind this transformation, noting that:
The Univeristy is becoming a different kind of institution, one that is no longer linked to the chutrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146804.post-914360872003-03-26T16:43:00.000-05:002003-03-26T22:58:06.000-05:00
Tokyo Rose and Salam Pax
Just read William Gibson commentary on Salam, and it's worth checking out. I'd agree with Gibson's assertion that Salam is not an Iraqi ruse, but his suggestion that intelligence organizations are learning from Salam seems like to more intriguing, albeit scarier, claim in my opinion. Of course, on an ideological level, blogs are operating in all kinds of complicated chutrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146804.post-914344012003-03-26T16:13:00.000-05:002003-03-26T16:34:29.000-05:00Embedded Journalists
A colleague, Doreen, has started her own blog, Diary of an Aging Protestor, where she addresses the vosual and verbal rhetoric of the war in Iraq. In her March 25 entry, The Military Eye, she powerfully discusses the ways in which embedded journalists "are so insidiously part of the military machine." It's a powerful account of the ways in which the TV viewer's POV is "chutrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146804.post-913851422003-03-25T21:45:00.000-05:002003-03-25T22:12:12.000-05:00
Warblogs
While reading materials for this week's electronic pedagogy seminar here at Georgia Tech, I've been thinking pretty heavily about coverage of war and weblogs. Given some of the questions that Beth E. Kolko, Johndan Johnson-Eilola, and others have been addressing regarding hypertext writing and identity consturtion, I haven't been able to think of anything but the weblogs that claim tochutrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146804.post-913828352003-03-25T21:00:00.000-05:002003-03-25T21:02:15.000-05:00
Back from Florida
Returned from the ICFA [International Conference for teh Fantstic in the Arts] on Sunday afternoon, but I've been too tired and busy to blog since then. The paper was well received, and I made several useful connections during the conference. Had the chance to meet and converse very briefly with Brian Aldiss, author of the story that AI: Artificial Intelligence is based on.chutrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146804.post-909745442003-03-19T00:56:00.000-05:002003-03-19T00:56:47.373-05:00
Leavin' on a Jet Plane
Just finished my paper on Dark City, and I'm generally pleased with it, given the limitations of a conference paper. I'm off to Florida in a few hours. More than anything, I'm preoccupied with thoughts of the upcoming war. The precedent of pre-emptive war is deeply troubling to me. The precedent of pre-emptive war with such flimsy evidence regarding the existence of chutrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146804.post-909310282003-03-18T11:41:00.000-05:002003-03-18T12:42:32.000-05:00
Turkle vs. Stewart
I'm finishing up my conference paper for the ICFA conference in Ft. Lauderdale, and as I've mentioned in previous posts, my major struggle has been to consider how my argument might respond to Stewart. In "Body Snatching," published in Alien Zone II, Stewart writes that the Strangers' simulated photographs mark
the outmoding not just of photography by the simulacral mock-upchutrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146804.post-908707712003-03-17T14:28:00.000-05:002003-03-17T15:05:20.000-05:00
Under Fire in Baghdad
With war in Iraq appearing increasingly inevitable, I'm having a hard time thinking about anything else. Particualrly concerned with questions about media representations of the war. In his March 16/17 blog, Kevin Sites asks some important ethical and safety questions about covering the war:
It seems somewhat cyncial, unforgivingly opportunistic to feed a career on chutrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146804.post-908376332003-03-16T23:57:00.000-05:002003-03-17T11:18:22.000-05:00
War and Digital Reproduction III
Okay, I need to stop riffing off Benjamin's title, but with war appearing to be increasingly likely, I've been thinking about these questions with an increased sense of urgency. I was IMing with George this evening when he mentioned that Liz Lawley had come across an Iraqi blog, Where is Raed. The sections that I've read are quite powerful and seem to chutrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146804.post-908191192003-03-16T16:52:00.000-05:002003-03-16T16:56:38.000-05:00
Adaptation News
Received the good news that my review of Spike Jonze and Charlie Kaufman's Adaptation was accepted for publication by Scope, an online film studies journal, affiliated with the University of Nottingham. I'll post a link to the review when it appears online, hopefully later this year. Writing the review turned out to be a fun--but challenging--process. In particular, I enjoyedchutrynoreply@blogger.com