Wednesday, January 16, 2008

MLK break-down

Several Things:

First: Schools back on, these are my classes:
New Media Theory: this one should be really good, but already the reading load is freaking me out a bit. I had 200 pages in this class alone this week. That is about twice as much as my seminars last semester.
Classical Rhetoric: Aristotle, Socrates, Plato. You know. All those old, white, dead guys with togas.
Writing Studies II: the continuation of my "introduction to the field," this class is more focused on methodology whereas last semester was more of a historical survey.
Writing With Video: This is a last minute addition. Due to low enrollment, this class is only meeting one day a week instead of two making it doable for me. Four classes sounds like a lot, right? Well, since classical rhet is really more of a lecture class than a seminar (check that--IS a lecture class), I am going to switch it to an audit--go to class, listen to lecture, do little else. WWV should be really fun (if very time consuming) and will qualify me to teach the class in the future, which may or may not be totally awesomes. What is totally awesomes is that as part of the enrollment for the class, they check out a MacBook to each student for the whole semester. Oh, heck yes. I will hopefully be buying one at the end of the year, but this will tide me over until that glorious moment arrives.

Second: Finally saw Helvetica. I was really engaged by it. The rhetoric of typography is something that I hadn't given much thought to, but should! I look forward to future studies here.

Didn't manage to see The King of Kong: a fistful of quarters yet, but I'm on the waiting list at the library.

Third: I was able to do quite a lot of recording over the break. The "Hummingbird" demo is finally done and up on my myspace, and "Transparent" only needs a few more vocal overdubs (I'd also like Jon T. to play some piano on it for me, so some long distance collaboration is going to need to happen). Recording music is really fun for me, but I am a hopeless amateur at it. My vocal mic is super low quality, I have no sonic mixing abilities, and the songs suffer because of it. But, at least I am getting them recorded, right?

Hummingbird is really a favorite of mine, but it never comes off right when I try to record it. As I have mentioned elsewhere, imagine Gladys Knight singing it with a gospel choir in the background. I'll post more about Transparent when it is ready for listening.

I guess that's it for now. Give this a watch if you are so inclined:

1 comment:

  1. Writing with video sounds really cool. I can't wait to see what you produce.

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