Audio Reflections for my classmates' Song/Music projects

These are reflections of my classmates' Song/Music projects:

Joe Battaglia's Blog http://jbfilm.blogspot.com/
My reflection of Joe's Song

Jordan Bond's Blog http://jbond00777.blogspot.com/
 My reflection of Jordan's Song

Cameron Brown's Blog http://cameronbrown9080.blogspot.com/
Unfortunately Cameron hasn't posted his song yet, but once he does come back here for my reflection!

Brainwashed!

Here's the link to the Bainwashed article by Seth Godin

The way of the lizard is within all of us! Well, at least the "lizard brain" is within all of us. The lizard brain? Well that's the small inner part of our brains that worries solely about the safety of our social being.

Sometimes you run across someone who just really doesn't care about what people think, and maybe there's a few times when you just can't be around them because they are so damn embarrassing! Well, those people are weird, yes, but they have learned to ignore the 'resistance' of the lizard brain.

Viva la Resistance?

You might abide by this resistance in most situations, but when we want to be creative, all of the sudden the common 'resistance' creates this barrier that we really really wanna get past. We know we are capable of creating beautiful and thought provoking things, it just takes some balls.

The best artists jump off cliffs on a regular basis. Not literally, but they take the risk that they will be laughed at, or even ostracized in some cultures. But as Seth Godin puts it, it's taking these risks that leads us to get rewarded.

If this all hasn't hit home yet, take with you the quote that will stay with me for a while. Seth Godin states "that the act of genius required to produce something original and important is crippled by the resistance, and ignoring the voice of skepticism is critical in doing the work."

Don't feel like you are creating for others, or the general population or culture as a whole. Create for yourself, you know deep down you can make rad stuff.

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From the same article, I decided to take a look at the "Ship" excerpt. Basically from the same scheme as the lizard brain, "Ship" says that ignoring the gecko is just not enough, kid. You need to DELIVER. And then after that.... YOU NEED TO DELIVER AGAIN. Timely, accordingly, efficiently. Many people and companies are easily capable to take risks in creating product, and they might be damn good, but do they really close the sale and make a difference? Do they become an indispensable contact?

In "Ship", Seth Godin says that shipping is affected by the lizard brain as well. Even after you jump off the cliff with your new masterpiece, will you ship it? Are you still afraid you might fail miserably if people experience it? It's scary; you're held accountable for the decisions made, what if things go wrong?

Seth Godin: Don't give a flying rats butt! You are there to deliver. You are there because you are the linchpin, the ones we can't live without. You and your organization are the ones that can get things done and close the sale, ship the product and make the difference.

So first we have "The Lizard Brain", the element that has kept me from creating things for years. And now we have "Ship"!!! Combined, this has given me so much more comfort about my creativity blog. Now, I can create how I want to create, what I vision. And then after that, I post it here, for the world to see. My parents, my teacher, my friends, my colleagues, people that hardly know me and people that will never know me.... I think I'm a new man.

Reflections of my classmates Soundscapes projects

Here are a few of my classmates' Soundscape projects and my reflections of them:

Andrew Widlicka's blog http://awid7.blogspot.com/
My reflection of Andrew Widlicka's project

Alex Welsh's blog http://alexscreativityblog.blogspot.com/
My reflection of Alex Welsh's project

James Watson's blog http://jameswatson14.blogspot.com/
My reflection of James Watson's project

They are bomb!

La Roux vs. Skream - In for the Kill

This couldn't be a more perfect time for a blog post about song covers. If you take a look at music today, especially from the music blog scene, you will find hundreds of 'singles' posted every week for free download of essentially a cover of a song but in a different genre and style completely. I'm so so so addicted to finding these 'singles' everyday and usually fall in love with a new song every day. With the help of music blog sites like Consequence of Sound and Dirty Mexican Lemonade (more of a college frat music scene) I discover these new songs daily. (Recently I started visiting Hype Machine which aggregates all music blogs by the songs they contain and the internet popularity.)

Anywho, I decided to take a look at both La Roux and Skream's versions of "In for the Kill", originally composed by La Roux. I found this on the internets a while back but it still kills me every time.

So here's La Roux and their new music video (they rule)

And here's Skream (they rule more... maybe)

Seriously, these are two different but incredibly awesome approaches to "In for the Kill". Notice the lyrics, or should I say the acapella track, stayed the same but the instrumentals had a drastic difference.

Let's talk speed. Being a droopy dubstep song, the speed is very slow in Skream's version compared to the original's. La Roux is a very upbeat electropop/synthpop duo and their music works like a pulley on your body in a discotheque trance. Skream is known to scramble brains with their magical, magical bass drops. Using only a Drum & Bass kit and high pads (pads being the same melody from the original), they have a smaller arrangement of instrumentation as well.

I'm pretty sure Skream's version is more intense because of the massive bass, high notes, increased volume in vocals, and not to mention the huge D&B drop towards the end....

The timbre of Skream's version is far different because of the added echo in the vocals, giving a lingering effect of Eleanor Jackson's voice (love it, need it).


Well you can probably tell which song I'm leaning towards here, but in case you didn't know..

Skream's version just melts me. I usually enjoy a healthy serving of electropop, especially La Roux, but Skream hit the nail on the head in between dubstep and ... I don't even know, like some kind of empty void with you and the vocals. Ya feel me?

My Music/Song Project

This is my song that I composed for the Song/Music assignment, Lab #2. It's supposed to be a Latin, upbeat feel. It was created using Garageband.

Soundscape Project

This is me and my partner Jordan Bond's Soundscape presentation. The emotion we were going for was "feeling when seeing the sun rise for the first time."

Finding My "Howl"

Jonathon Flaum wrote an interesting short story in his excerpt, "Finding Your Howl", which can be found on this website. (Search for "Howl" if it doesn't already direct you.)

Flaum's first segment tells an interesting and metaphysical story about a pack of wolves released back into the wild after being born and raised in the comfy confines of captivity. Turns out many of the wolves didn't like the change of environment, except for one wolf.

Mumon is the lone wolf that would rather relearn to hunt and live like his ancestors instead of the humiliating place where he was spoon-fed his meals. The transition is tough because of one important missing element: they had lost their ability to howl. He ends up finding his ability to howl after essentially "dying" or passing through another phase as some would say in a spiritual tenor.


This story reaches to everyone in a different way. I think what Flaum is trying to jab at is our inner passion. He says that we all, by nature, have instincts to lead, create, and make differences. Our minds are raised in captivity from birth. People tell us what to do and how to think. It's difficult for us to transition ourselves back into the wild where we rely on our instincts because we have forgotten how to howl.

Here is a short audio clip of myself discussing one of my favorite quotes by Ralph Waldo Emerson.

“What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us”

"who am i?"

Mitch Ditkoff's 14 Ways to Get Breakthrough Ideas

After reading Mitch Ditkoff's 14 Ways to Get Breakthrough Ideas, much of the frustration that comes during my creative process finally has a few remedies to take note of. This article provided 14 different notions that innovators should consider when coming across the difficult stages of idea birthing and brainstorming.

The man, the myth, the homework assignment.

One thing that immediately caught my attention was the contrast of the 2 “schools of thought” or philosophies about idea creation or reception. I think Ditkoff wants to begin this excerpt with a sense of open-mindedness, which in fact becomes the basis for many of his different thinking tips.

Ditkofff also annotates towards the end of his prelude that we are all capable of conjuring brilliant ideas, it might just seem more difficult given our mood, circumstances, and conditioning.

Let's take a look at 3 tips that hit home for me...

#2 Immersion

I couldn't explain with all the blogspace in the world the agonizing pain that frustration brings when trying to conceive a new or innovative idea. Mostly because I'm already so caught up in many other different things in my life that I couldn't fully concentrate in the first place. Well, that is what Mitch Ditkoff is yelling at me about in his second proposition to idea-birthing: “Immersion”

He says that ideas are flowing in and out of us all the time, it's the capacity at which you can receive and foster a breakthrough idea. When I thought about this, it hit me that I always experience minor epiphanies daily but I'm too busy to give it thought and attention. And then, when I finally sit down to come up with something creative I am unable to and it frustrates me, and so does the laundry, and my phone going off, and my unsorted emails, blah blah etc.

 New Concept: Thinking cap that sorts your Gmail and underwear for you.

The point is, we are the only animal that attempts to multi-task all of our duties at one time, and it's an overhaul on the mind. True creativity stems from dedicated time to creativity.

#3 Tolerate Ambiguity

So now that I've learned how to deal with outside distractions when in my thinking chair, what about all the distractions and hurdles that lie within the creative process itself? Sure, you've sat down with no other commitments to divide your attention upon, and you've come up with a general notion for something innovative, but there's still so far to go.

Ditkoff explains that ideas don't commonly fall out of the sky and hit us all at once. In fact, he says new ideas come from constant practice, trial and error, and series of approximations. There is a “grey zone” that separates our initial notions from fully developed ideas or innovations. He uses Thomas Edison as a prime example with the 800+ trials he went through to finalize the lightbulb. But Mr. Edison held an attribute throughout his process that helped him endure the constant “failures”, and it was that he didn't see his failed attempts as a negativity, he saw them as “ways to not create a lightbulb”. We are all destined to fail at least once, but it's how many times you can endure that feeling of failure before you give up.

Thomas Edison did eventually give up on minesweeper.

#4 Make New Connections

Sometimes it's difficult to think of an innovative new concept because you are trying to create the most insanely fresh and untouched idea possible. Many new concepts derive solely from two or more existing ideas combined in some way. Ditkoff says “Rollerblades? It's just ice skating and roller skating combined.” 

 Taking it a step further.

If I could do one thing, it would be to create the newest, freshest concept known to us today. But let's get real, it takes less effort to construct and idea using two or more existing elements and creating a connection for them.

I remember one day being bored, trying to think of a new concept for a useful website. It was difficult to get started because I was confined to thinking about the non-existent, “the frontier”. Well, I wasn't getting anywhere, until I realized “Holy spit, Adrian there has to be a website for almost every concept I'm thinking of, but there is a high probability there isn't a website that creates a useful connection of preexisting innovations.” So then I began thinking in a different spectrum, like using different Lego pieces to build something big, instead of trying to create the new Lego piece.

Well anyways, I then came up with a video/audio/text chat site that combines shared e-textbooks for college students to collaboratively study online.

Yahyahyah it's kinda lame but you get the point right?

Activity #4:

Nouns

-computer

-car

-hat

-fan

-table

-drink

-chair

-window

-power

-wheel

Verbs

-organize

-communicate

-prioritize

-concentrate

-read

-relax

-save

-hear

-draw

-sing

Adjectives
-loud
-tall
-short
-small
-sharp
-dark
-colorful
 -black
-rich
-attractive
Intriguing connections:
Computer table, Fan with different color blades, Recliner chair with speakers built in. To-Do list on a Window pane?...

Inspiration Ignites Creation

One of the few things that I will eternally cherish is the feeling of inspiration and connection that comes from different forms of media. I see my self as a creative person, but I recently noticed through my media courses how heavily I depend on inspiration to begin constructing an idea.

My first source of inspiration comes from the movies I watch. Nothing stirs my mind like 2 hours of good cinema. One of my favorite movies of all time is Quentin Tarantino's most recent film, Inglorious Basterds. This historical fictional movie begins with my favorite scene of all time, where Nazi Colonel Hans Landa arrives at a dairy farm in France to interrogate the local farmer about rumors of his hiding of a Jewish family. This is the finest portrayal of tension and release that I've seen from a movie in a long time. Hans Landa sits with the farmer in his own kitchen, making himself quite at home, and barrages the man with calm questions as to whether or not he is actually hiding a family.

As tension builds, the simple French farmer begins to slowly break into the truth, which Colonel Landa extracted so intricately, about the Jewish family hiding in the floorboards just beneath the Colonel. The tension first releases when the Colonel orders his men to open fire onto the family below, killing all but one young woman. At this point, tension sets in once more as we watch her make a fumbling escape. The Nazi Colonel spots her running not too far off in the distance, draws his Luger pistol from the holster, and raises it to focus his aim on the girl, and after a second, tension releases for the last time in the scene when he decides to hold his fire and let her escape.

Dinner with Hans Landa is awkward to say the least

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My newly favorited animated film Wall-E also has an enticing and emotional introduction. In the opening scene, we pan through outer space to find our planet Earth as a future wasteland of trash and dirt. We are led to presume that the human race have abandoned Earth for some reason because there isn't a single sign of life. This is the first time I really noticed how active one's mind is while experiencing this scene. No information pertaining to the disappearance of man or the environmental catastrophe is spoon fed in a didactic manner.

Now this is only a small portion of the opening scene, but the same patterns follow with unexplained shots of the now-destroyed appearance and functionality of our planet.

 

Honestly, "Put on your Sunday Clothes" makes the entire movie.

And you know what, it blows my mind even further that as an animated film geared towards children, Pixar asked for a lot of engagement through it's active scenes.

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Family Guy is one of the only animated series that I truly appreciate. Seth MacFarlane, creator and main voice actor, is my hero for his no-fear expressionism through Family Guy. He has a loud liberal voice throughout the show, but it usually provides corrections to common misunderstandings about contemporary issues.

For instance, here is a typical dialogue between the ever-naive Peter Griffin and his political-literate dog, Brian. (Brian is Seth MacFarlane's main vehicle of social and political expression.) This scene involves the issue of the attacks on September 11th. Peter represents a misunderstanding American while Brian corrects him with proper knowledge on the subject.

Albeit Peter's first line about AIDS is a bit ridiculous, but then he asks about the many different ideas that many American's confuse as the truth about the terrorist attack until Brian explains to Peter in a paraphrased truth. Peter is a caricature of the uninformed and irrational American, and this is an example of subtext.

Modern day Plato and Aristotle

 

 

Why Media Studies, Adrian?

Currently I'm a Media Studies major within the School of Media Arts & Studies. I chose this major because I am still unsure of a specific career but I know that it HAS to be media. From my understanding, this major will get my feet wet in many different areas of media as a whole, and from there I can (hopefully) find a groove to fit in.