Michael's Gridlock Excursions

    For Week 5 we delved into the world of audio presentations, as well as the listening and editing that comes with it. I enjoyed learning Audacity on my own time, as well as the assignments that I created from scratch using it - it made me feel like I was my own DJ of sorts. The different audio dramas that I had listened to also left an impact on me; I've come to realize that I'd much rather listen to TV than to watch it, and that horror audio is a hell of a lot scarier than any horror movie i've ever seen. I'm also excited to work others on a radio show - not only am I eager to see my idea come to fruition, but also the ideas of others as well. Here's my work for the week:          Moon Graffiti      DS106 Radio      Radio Show Ideas      Experimenting With Song Editing      Sound Effect Story #ds106 I never had an interest in Jessica Jones, but after listening to ds106 R...

     Growing up, I used to travel with my family by car to just about anywhere and everywhere, and during the trips we always had a habit to listen to whatever podcast or audio book that my parents hooked up. This usually meant NPR, Adam Carolla, or whatever random melodramatic historical novel they could find, but rarely ever did we actually listen to any audio drama.     Now I'm off on my own, and have had the pleasure to lay down and listen to Moon Graffiti, which is only lacking in the fact that it's too short for my tastes - I was searching for the sequel that didn't exist after I was finished! The way this story is told is truly novel: The chilling speech that the drama opens up with and it's historical accuracy only makes the fictional body of the drama that much more interesting and thrilling. The utter silence that is the moon is still somehow captured when the two voice actors 'put their helmets on' and switch to radio chatter, investigating thei...

    So I had an idea for a radio show - well, I had multiple ideas, and I got stuck on one that I thought was the best out of all of them. At first I thought that it Me and a group of people could play a game of some sort: karaoke, trivia, twister, or whatever while eating absurdly spicy food. After realizing how similar the idea was to Hot Ones as well as my hatred for all spicy food, I thought of having a live broadcast of a drinking game like Kings or shout-casting a Beer Pong tournament.      But then something amazing happened in my head: I realized that I needed a tame, mature idea for a radio show that was also family friendly, entertaining, and worth listening along too. Once I set those factors as my guidelines for my brainstorming, I had the idea of having a simple talk show that took guests on the air for any and all complaints that they might've had. I came to understand that today's world is filled with people who are dissatisfied with some...

    An epic story from the barnyard, about a young bull and his quest for revenge on the infamous Triad Chickens of the west side. Will he be able to end the chickens reign of terror? tune in to find out.

    For this Audio Assignment, I decided to take one of the songs that had been stuck in my head as of late, and experiment with Audacity, editing the song to make it sound to my liking.     I first took the entire song and reversed the intro, chorus, and outro separately - reversing the entire song would cause the outro to play first and the intro last, which wasn't what I wanted. I then altered the equalization settings on the song to bring out the bass and vocals, and make the background instrumentals quieter, but sharper. I added a slight soft distortion effect to the entire song, as well as boosted the bass and treble a little bit more, and voila. If you're curious on the name of the original song, it's the title backwards.

      This last Wednesday, I tuned in to ds106 radio to listen in on an 'Audio Drama' that was airing for the evening. Admittedly, I didn't enjoy the show at first, because the drama that was being presented was simply the audio from a Netflix series that I didn't recognize at the time. I also was frustrated that not only were there points in the broadcast that I did not understand because the necessary audio ques were not there, but also that there were certain audio ques that signified that what I was hearing was intended to be watched.      That being said, after putting my frustrations aside, I was able to recognize that the audio was from the Netflix series Jessica Jones, a series that I had seen before but had never taken the time to watch. But once I was able to understand the context of what I was listening to I honestly enjoyed the rest of the presentation. I took the experience as a lesson that context can make or break an audio presentati...

    This week I experimented with taking photos and looking deeper into different visual works, from the daily creates to the readings. I found it entertaining to get to know my 'inner art student' this week, attempting to be creative with the different assignments.     My work for this week:     http://ds106lachdown.blogspot.com/2017/09/the-visuals-of-storytelling.html     http://ds106lachdown.blogspot.com/2017/09/its-bird-its-gargoyle.html     http://ds106lachdown.blogspot.com/2017/09/who-said-whaaaa.html     #tdc2081 Flawless, if I do say so myself pic.twitter.com/9sGENFh8FM — Lachdown (@Lachdown3) September 21, 2017 #tdc2082 This morning I bet my friend that he couldn't make SPAM taste good for me. This is what he made. And now I owe him $10. pic.twitter.com/wzds7IlJj1 — Lachdown (@Lachdown3) September 22, 2017 #tdc2083 This is one from when the Solar Ec...

    This week I was tasked to do some reading on how to become a better photographer, as well on what elements create the narrative and tell the story for visual presentations. From the readings I learned that nearly every detail in a picture, video, or movie can be tweaked to design the desired narrative and emotional effect in a visual presentation - the objects in the foreground or background, the spatial awareness in the shot, the contrast of different colors or objects within the shot, etc. I then went back to some of my favorite superhero movies and paused them for a moment to analyze and attempt to identify the narrative that the creator may have intended for that particular shot.    First i went back and watched a somewhat dramatic piece, "The Dark Knight Rises". I paused the movie during one of my favorite moments, when Bruce Wayne climbs to his freedom after being injured and imprisoned by the villain Bane. In this particular shot I recognized firs...

Pictured: Goliath, Leader of the Manhattan gargoyle clan. Photo captured during the day.

     This assignment had em mix and match a photo, character name, and quote from different spy movies and mix and match them all together to try and confuse people:     The photo comes from "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind" a spy movie released in 2002, while the quote comes from Jason Statham in the movie "Spy". Harry Hart, the name I used to tie it all together comes from "Kingsman: The Secret Service". The common theme for the elements I chose is that they're all British in nature

     I'm guilty of not being too invested in this class until this week, but I must say that the assignments for this week were fairly interesting and fun to do. I enjoyed how we focused on the idea of a Superhero, and it allowed me to think more about the heroes that we admire, as well as what actually makes a hero.     Honestly, I'm interested to see where we take the idea of a hero from here on out. I can't stop at just an introduction for my hero after all, I need to make the entire story from start to finish, Prequel and Sequel included! Here's all my work for the week:  http://ds106lachdown.blogspot.com/2017/09/superhero-idea-jasper-regan.html http://ds106lachdown.blogspot.com/2017/09/vonnegut-and-preacher.html http://ds106lachdown.blogspot.com/2017/09/how-do-superheros-earn-their-title.html #tdc2073 Trumpenese attack the koreans at Gyeongbok Palace, 23 July 1894. pic.twitter.com/N4D6OECZjp — Lachdown (@L...

I have an idea for a hero:    A man wakes up on top of a mattress that he had not used in 10 years. He opens his eyes in the house that was owned by his father - who had purchased the residence in 1992 in celebration of his wife's pregnancy, and his own retirement. Hearing the waves crash like thunder off in the distance, the man shifts to the side of the bed and sits, managing a quick stretch to straighten his back and make sure his neck was working correctly - he still didn't wasn't sure if travelling between realities was detrimental to his health, but he parishes the thought knowing that it wouldn't make much of a difference if it did. He stands and realizes that he was not clothed, and worse yet, he realized that he couldn't remember that last time he had been clothed. He closes his eyes begins to imagine himself in a black leather jacket, made of Unobtainium epaulets and formal military trousers, but instead he chuckles and opens his eyes to find himsel...

~~     So - After watching 'Kurt Vonnegut on the Shapes of Stories' I've gained new insight on how stories are made, as well as how to quickly tell if another hero story coming out of Hollywood is going to be something I enjoy or not. So Vonnegut's lecture is a quick video that shows that all stories can be identified by the quality of life that the main protagonist has throughout the story, and he shows this on a graph. So for example, Hunger Games starts with the main hero having a not so average life, but her happiness and well being plummet once she's joined the games, but then they skyrocket and hit their highest point once she's won them.     This makes stories like 'Preacher' (A TV series i mentioned in my last post) all the more interesting to me, because not only does the main character's quality of life not improve after obtaining his powers, but it actually drops slowly but surely over time. I found this interesting, only because I...

Pictured: 'Z', Real Life Superhero since 2001. ~~     So I've been doing a bit of reading on something that I thought was a simple topic: Superheros.  Batman. Superman. Wolverine. Deadpool. Kickass. I mean, after a quick google search I even found 'real life' superheros along with the wacky personas that they make for themselves. That being said, I'm starting to see the similarities between the heroes we grew up to know and love and the people that abuse their Halloween City memberships.     The one thing that I saw in all the 'heroes' I stumbled across is that they're all different from each other in vastly different ways. Now I know that sounds like a no-brainer, but think about it: there's no one quality or trait that can identify every single superhero, and this is true even to the point that these 'superheros' exist in real life with no powers whatsoever. Further reading lead me to the 'heroenkonzept' idea, whe...