Blog of the week

“It's very hard to keep personal prejudice out of a thing like this. And no matter where you run into it, prejudice obscures the truth.” The truth isn't something that can be prefect defined often times truth can be clouded by our own biases. The film takes an objective stance on truth that it's out there but it doesn’t present itself until we search for it. The quest of the film is eliminating that we already know the truth and letting ourselves hear the opposite side of things. It is not to manipulate or sway people from their original view,but to give them something more outside of their own prejudice. The film shows us that we can speculate and theorize, but there are only so many factors that make up truth. We have to leave our notions at the door and look at the evidence that is presented to us. Before we get to the truth there is a feeling of uneasiness and uncertainty that is only solved by coming to a conclusion that best fits the evidence we are presented. The film never tells us who the murder is or if the boy is actually the murder, but this doesn’t matter with the context we are given the thing to know is that if the boy is guilty or not using the evidence that is presented. The film is a struggle in the obstacles we have to overcome in order to get to the truth. The whole argument of truth is an interesting one that has been going on for centuries. A common way to frame it is in sophistic rhetoric vs a more platonic rhetoric. I feel when framing it that way Juror 8 has a more platonic view on truth trying to achieve it from what he has compared to most of the other jurors at first making claims on the truth based on their biases. They say “The boy must be guilty cause X” ,but he refuses to accept this and takes them down around where he must force them to rexamine things.

12 Angry Men

The clip above is the famous catchphrase of the video game character Phoenix Wright he's known for proving his clients innocents on seemingly impossible cases and finding the real culprit.  In 12 Angry Men the case seems hopeless for "the kid" the 19-year old on trail accused of murder.  All  the jurors vote "guilty" ,but one.  This lone juror isn't swayed by the prosecutions evidence and his task now is to convince everyone else of the man's innocence. I think the film is a good glimpse into American culture of the 1950s both the real and the imagined.

 "The defendant, when we glimpse him, looks "ethnic" but of no specific group. He could be Italian, Turkish, Indian, Jewish, Arabic, Mexican. His eyes are ringed with dark circles, and he looks exhausted and frightened. In the jury room, some jurors make veiled references to "these people." Finally Juror No. 10 (Ed Begley) begins a racist rant ("You know how these people lie. It's born in them. They don't know what the truth is. And let me tell you, they don't need any real big reason to kill someone, either...") As he continues, one juror after another stands up from the jury table and walks away, turning his back. Even those who think the defendant is guilty can't sit and listen to Begley's prejudice. The scene is one of the most powerful in the movie." (Ebert's "Great Movies" series.

I can't help but agree with Ebert on this point about this being one of the most powerful scenes in the film.  Even though these men believe the man is guilty they won't stand for him being dehumanized. He may be a criminal in their eyes,but that doesn't make him a  monster.

Juror No.10s rant isn't out of place and what we most associate with the 1950s time period. Though in my modern sensibility I expect others to join in on it and I'm pleased when that doesn't happen.  Though thinking about it that wouldn't make sense the film like I said is a picture of 1950s America though these biased and bigoted people exist like the film shows they aren't the majority. It's saying that some people may hold this attitude,but not everyone does.


The film is the power of the individual to make a change and changing the ruling consensus. The locked room to me can be read as a metaphor for society. Were all locked in a room with each other and can't get out.  The best we can do when we disagree is try and solve it as best we can.  We should be tolerant of others and not so quick to judge.  We don't know much of the young man on trail if he's a good or bad person ,but that doesn't matter.   What matters is giving him a fair trail. The power of this hasn't been placed in the hands of one ,but of a collective.

99 Red Ballons

Well...Not really when thinking of the film and its title it's the first thing that pops into my mind. Though the film "The Red Balloon" and this song are unrelated or are they.  Looking at the songs lyrics it's about 99 Balloons that  are mistaken for UFO's and then shot down by pilots. This show of force then  proves a war that last 99 years.

The songs upbeat mood would suggest a more happy experience if one doesn't look at the lyrics. When one thinks of balloons you get joyful images usually of childhood, but not always. In the film the balloon is childhood personified it's whimsical and playful.  In the song it is the same,but it takes a dark turn and at first they start of as an unknown entity.

Both the song and the film use a fairly mundane object to tell a compelling and interesting story. In the film the balloon  is mostly whimsical and playful presenting childhood. Though the symbol of the balloon could also be taken as sad in that the child is alone and just plays by himself with his balloon. The other sad thing is that the other children take  his fun away and instead of being gentle with the balloon try their best to pop it missing the beauty of it.  In the song the pilots want to shoot down the balloons to put on an entertaining show. This backfires on them and starts a war.

To move away from this song the film "The Red Balloon" also reminds me of the shorts "The Blue Umbrella" and  "PaperMan"

"The Blue Umbrella" is a story of the titular blue umbrella and a red umbrella which are seemingly magical and fall in love while the human characters are blissfully unaware of the magic in the mundane.

 

Adam WarRock-PaperMan

 "Paperman" is another case of mundane objects coming alive in magical wonder. In this case it is paper air planes coming alive and leading two people that meet each other earlier in the day back together. What all of these things share in common is an enchaining and coming alive of the everyday. I think the message of these all is that there is lots of wonder in our everyday even if we don't think about it.  It may not be as wonderfully magic as these films,but it's out there or it might be that's up to you to decided

"The Red Balloon" is an innocence in childhood and about our amazement in that time. It shows though the adversity face then and now all that can be overcome. The time the boy in the film is most happy is when he's interacting with his balloon and just being a child. He;s naturally curious and wandering the streets,eating sweets embracing childhood plus most importantly his life. I noticed in the film there is kind of an "old yeller moment" where the boy stomps on the balloon letting go of it when he notices that it's in poor condition.  It's a lesson in hard choices and learning to let go and how that can often lead to a reward. Though it's all out of a genuine care and not a cynical one.

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My Attempt At Remix

So after talking so much about Remix and appreciation I took a shot at remixing works I appreciated using the basic tools of Audacity and my imagination.



My first attempt was make Adam WarRock's Sinister Six and Superior track one cohesive story since the main focus is on Doctor Octopus so I took the start and end of the first song and spliced in most of Superior after it. Since Superior Spider-Man is Doctor Octopus as Spider-Man. It just seemed like an interesting idea and one that would thematically work together. Needless to say this feels to me like a bad remix by me because it doesn’t feel like I did much but cut things out and paste other things in.

The Superior Spider-Man

It feels like the minimal amount of work it did come from a loving place but that's no excuse for bad work. I guess part of it is what I envisioned in my head was different than what came out which I had to high of hopes for my first attempt. Also there are some blatant errors like Spider is cut off the final line of the track.

My Second attempt at a remix was using Vienna Ditto's Little Fingers and The Undefeated as a
True Detective mashup/soundtrack/I don't know the proper term for this one. I feel this is a better remix I spent more time on it for sure. I don't think that is why though I like this one more that may be partly because I had a clear idea on what I wanted for this one. One I first heard Vienna Ditto a week ago I immediately said to myself this needs to be in “True Detective “Season 1 an impossible thing to do retroactively or is it? Anyway this remix is better but I feel the execution is not as good levels rise and lower and sometimes soundclips are drowned out by music.

My third and final attempt was a mash up or combination of three different Adam WarRock's track “Marvelous” “Nova” and “Andrew Garfield SDCC” this was a more ambitious attempt due to the amount of clips involved. I feel this is on the same quality as the previous remix or a bit better. At this point I had discovered some tricks in the tools I was using that I hadn't spotted before due to having spent a longer amount using them previously. As with the turtle I learned by playing. 

 



Overall this experience gave me more respect for “Girl Talk” an artist I don't actually listen to but know of who mostly does mash up and remixes it is definitely not easy work. An idea I didn't have previously but would certainly not cross my mind now. 

Girl Talk aka Greg Gillis

 



Which remix did you like best?

Visting old Friends

Looking back at Doctorow's introduction to Little Brother which I've used earlier in my Autobiography Doctorow says the following “"Finally, let's look at the moral case “ (linking to rest of quote)



Remix and copying/sharing is a natural occurrence of humanity. Pablo Picasso said “Good Artist Borrow;Great Artist Steal. Most ideas in history are in some way inspired by something or someone else. Looking back to our traditional folktales so many versions exist because every so often someone wanted to put their own spin on it.

Many  Versions of the Vampire myth exist as well as any Myth that one can name

Remix Culture has existed longer than the term itself when Arthur Conan Doyle stopped writing Sherlock Holmes the fans continued it without him. It's like this Doctorow quote “Embodying a personal recommendation between two people who trust each other enough to share bits” Remix is an act of love towards an idea. Remix can bring in new people to appreciate a work by adding elements that weren't there,before I bet a number of people who don't care for Jane Austen read or were at least mildly curios at something like Pride and Prejudiced and Zombies due to people who have a love for weird fiction mash-ups or potential exploitation films ala Abraham Lincoln Vs The Supernatural. 

Sherlock Holmes through out the ages.

 



Remix is an important culture tool I believe it helps keep works out of obscurity Doctorow says ““For me -- for pretty much every writer -- the big problem isn't piracy, it's obscurity “. Remix is powerful tool to bring something back to popular conscience after it's fallen into a relative obscurity. One example of this I believe is “The King in Yellow” by Robert Chambers which has in the past year has risen back a prominent state of a novel everyone and their grandmother is reading. This is no accident though it is thanks to it's themes and lines of dialogue contained with in it featuring heavily in the HBO series “True Detective” (Great Show by the way)

That of course is may not be considered a traditional remix but it is taken something someone loved and found interesting a re purposing it for a brand new idea.



Remix is an art form just like film making,video games. writing,etc. There exists bad remixes,good remixes and everything in between. But, just like every other art-form that exists it is done out of love and not for a quick grab of fame or whatever else there is to achieve.

Numbers Turned into an Image a form of Remix

Again I come back to old friends Andrew “bunnie” Huang says”
"Hackers are explorers, digital pioneers. It's in a hacker's nature to question conventions and be tempted by intricate problems. Any complex system is sport for a hacker; a side effect of this is the hacker's natural affinity for problems involving security. Society is a large and complex system, and is certainly not off limits to a little hacking.”



I believe that those that remix as well as those just consuming look at works of art and ask themselves what can I do with this to make it more personal. Questions are brought up in group or individually” wouldn't it be cool if they did this?”. There is also the popular “I would have done this instead”

Remix and hacking are both an art from of the new media age.

WarRock as the Informed User and Remix Culture

WarRock is an example of the informed user in that he uses the new media tools for work,play,interaction all wrapped up into one. WarRock on the FAQ portion of his site states that he makes his music by plugging a microphone into an Alesis preamp mixer which feeds the signal to his external USB sound card which then travels to his Macbook. For tracking and editing he uses Garageband and Audacity to do light mastering. While his professional releases are mixed and mastered by others.

Picture of Adam WarRock from The Guardian

What advantages has the internet provided you that other mediums can't offer you?

“For one, it's freed me of the need to build a regional base. Most bands, they have to start in their own hometown, or region, and build a fanbase up that way. That requires getting in good with the local bookers, knowing people that run the venues, know the other bands. I just made music that went straight to the consumer no matter where they lived, and when I started getting more coverage, I was able to go on tour and just do shows in a ton of cities where I had an already established fanbase. Not only that, but I didn't have to deal with the local politics of a live scene, and didn't have to constrain myself to only breaking through in one area. I even have fans in like Turkey, Norway, Sweden and Australia, places I've never even been! But if I ever do go, I at least know I can succeed somewhat “

Besides his own work WarRock also shares and mentions other work he is appreciative of. Going through his site and social media platforms one can find recommendations for other indie artists, comic book series, fan created works etc. WarRock is a producer and consumer of the new media age.

http://www.adamwarrock.com/?p=2180

WarRock's love for his craft and his influences really shine through his work and his writings. Most of the songs he post on a weekly bases come with a couple of words on what it's about and what influenced it. WarRock's samples have a wide range which include common hip hop samples such as 90s “gangsta rap” West Coast Avengers mix tape to a Vampire Weekend EP. As well as things like a Jane Austen influenced song with a Maroon 5 “Moves like Jagger” sample.



WarRock like Doctorow is supportive about fans of his remixing his work as well as sharing it.

How do you feel about remix culture and people taking your songs and making music videos out of them or just remixing your song while still crediting you?

Yeah, I’m totally down with people using my music and doing whatever they want with it, so long as they credit me and throw a link to my website. I think that so much music is out there illegally (I get Google Alerts daily about which torrent or mp3 site has my albums up) that if we get credit, and it’s presented in a quality that is acceptable, I’m all for it. I love the interactive part of music, and I would be kind of a hypocrite if I didn’t, being that that’s what I do with my site as it is.

Adam WarRock An Introduction

Adam WarRock is an indie musician that has been producing music online since 2010. WarRock is a former lawyer turned rap artist. Unlike the rap artist on the radio you'll hear a different kind of tune from WarRock. His songs are pop cultured influenced taking the things he loves and mixing them with a personal touch to create a unique blend of hip hop.



Adam is an example of the informed user and a participant of Remix culture. Taking a look at Adam's site his web presence spans all over the major social networking sites where he can keep in touch with fans and interact with them.

                                          (The name takes inspiration from Marvel Comic's character Adam Warlock)

How do you use social networking in relation to your work?
“I use it to not just promote my releases, but also to stay connected to fans. I think people want to support artists who have full personalities, who reveal a lot of themselves and make themselves accessible. I pretty much get on twitter and blab about politics, rap music, tv, whatever, and talk with strangers. It's a great way to just put a personal touch on my product"

 

WarRock is consistently putting out tracks some weeks there is a new song everyday while others times there may be a short term break before any new material is released. At this point though WarRock's catalog stretches quite far so those new to him have plenty to devour in that downtime. A good portion of WarRock's catalog is available for free (500+ songs) unlike the traditional music model.

  

(WarRock performs an a Hip-Hop sub-genre known as NerdCore)

Pictured above is MC Frontalot known by many as the Godfather of "NerdCore"

Once a year he hosts a donation drive where fans can support him by donating money. Donates as low as $1.00 net fans an exclusive mix tape album along with other goodies. Of course there are also WarRock's album releases which fans can also buy to support him. The past albums of his including last year's “The Middle of Nowhere” have topped Bandcamp.com's top sellers. 

                                                   (A 2013 Donation Drive Song  plus music video)
 



             Bandcamp.com is an indie music distribution site where many prominent indie artist reside.

What is your preferred method to distribute your content over the web and why?

I mainly use Bandcamp.com, which is kind of becoming the staple mainstay of indie artists. Not only is it incredibly easy to use, but it takes a much lower cut than iTunes/Amazon (which take cuts of about 30% from your profit margin). Plus, it allows me to collect emails and build mailing lists, automate free codes, and sell merch in the same location.”