Class of oct 14th

We explored the early history of video games in class today. Its something that I value much more than opera.
Atari brought the first video game console to the public. It was also my first video game console. During my wee days as a toddler, I logged many hours playing games like Pitfall, Frogger, and Cops & Robbers. That is, until my brother got a Nintendo Entertainment System. This was the system that reinvigorated the industry. Games like Mario, Megaman, Zelda, and Donkey Kong launched the Nintendo company to the forefront of the industry. Super Mario Bros 3 was my favorite. The success of this console brought about the next generation of gaming and competition in the forms of the Super Nintendo and the Sega Genesis. At the time I preferred the Sega Genesis, but now looking back I think the Super Nintendo withstood the test of time better.
This lead to the proceeding generation: The N64, Sega Dreamcast, and Sony Playstation. With these consoles, video games were given their first real taste of 3D graphics. The single greatest game between all three of these consoles was Goldeneye 007 for the N64. This was the game that really got me into gaming and sparked my love affair with first-person-shooters. Not only was the single-player campaign fantastic but the multiplayer was absolutely incredible. With so many features and highly addictive gameplay, the multiplayer was what kept me up late at night. It also helped that I was really good at it. I only owned three games for the N64 and this was the main one. Goldeneye was also one of the few games based off of a movie to be legitimately good. pure awesomeness.
Until...
Enter the PS2 and Xbox. These systems did 3D right. And the Xbox brought the coming of the new king of the first person shooters: HALO. Say what you will but the Halo franchise is worth over one billion dollars. The gameplay is highly addictive like Goldeneye but now you can play online with people all over the world, with better graphics, more features, and an all new storyline. Because I loved the Xbox so much, I sold my PS2. I didn't need it. Most of the Sony exclusives were slow-paced Japanese styled games that didn't really appeal to me. But this wasn't the end of the video game history...
to be continued....

Class of October 7th

The primary focus of class today was the history of computers. It was interesting to see how the work of several hobbyists changed the world as we know it.
What I found especially odd was that the documentary didn't really mention Steve Jobs having any special computer skills, only that he knew that computers were the way of the future and that investing in them was the way to go. Here's my theory: A future version of Steve Jobs accumulated enough wealth to make a time machine and traveled to the past to tell young Steve what to do in life. It sounds far fetched but considering how far computers have come in 2 decades, where will they go in the next 2 or 3? Or he sold his soul to the devil, whom I think is a PC ironically.
Originally the computer was made to calculate trajectories and spreadsheets and now look at it. The computer can be used to acquire information instantaneously, watch HD movies and music from virtually nowhere, create art, communicate with people a world away, steal people's identities, shop for things you never knew existed, etc.
Its just amazing to have such a versatile device in your hands. And now it seems these features are becoming more and more streamlined to fit into cellphones.

Flipbook

This is a pic from my flipbook animation.

Class of Oct 2nd

Like our review of the history of radio on Tuesday, we explored the history of television today. We went over the science of it, the pioneers of the format, and discussed the differences between radio and TV.
First of all, I would like to say that I felt sorry for the man that invented television because he received barely any credit and died distraught and alone. I wonder if he knew that was going to happen, would he have still created TV in the first place?
One of the examples of early TV shows that we saw was Amos N Andy. I am pretty well acquainted with this show because my dad has the entire series on VHS. Ive seen more than a dozen episodes. Its pretty funny and reminiscent of modern sitcoms. I always thought it was weird that though Amos is in the title, that character showed up very rarely in the actual show. Kingfish and Andy were the main characters. I also that it was interesting that although it takes place in the 40s/50s and stars mainly African-American actors, that it doesn't just degenerate into vulgar stereotypical antics that the racist time period was prone to do. In a way the show was kind of groundbreaking.
I visited MZTV.com and read one of their articles on linking the designs of cars during the 50s to the design and influence of TV at the time. Like the site says, it may not be obvious at first but once you think about it, it makes sense. Its similar to how some of the most modern cars today are influenced by movies that place in the future. So like TV in the early 50s, cars have also come along way. TV will soon be broadcast in a digital signal, HD is becoming the new standard, and channels number in the high hundreds with digital TV. Cars have anti lock brakes, power steering, standard air conditioning, have higher gas mileage, and hybrids are becoming more and more popular as gas prices continue to soar. So whereas TV has evolved to a digital signal, automobiles may soon have to evolve as well into more advanced hybrids or hydrogen-powered cars. Likewise, most households today have multiple TVs and cars.

Class of 9/30

Today in class, we studied the evolution of wired telegraphs to wireless broadcasting. Its amazing to see how far we've come in 100 years. People from a century ago would have been stupefied by my cell phone which sends & takes pictures, takes & sends videos, sends text messages, plays music, has a calendar, has a calculator, tells time, has an alarm clock, has a unit converter, has a stop watch, and last but not least allows me to communicate with people many many miles away from me. All that without an IPhone. An IPhone probably would have given people heart attacks 100 years ago.
Broadcasting gave rise to the radio. While I loved Orson Welles' War of the Worlds show and the drama that it caused, I hate the ending to that story. Its far too simple and easy of a way to solve the problem. It would be like if Jason Vorhees suddenly died of a heart attack just before he kills the main character. Or if Joker just turned himself into Batman after having a change of heart.
I visited OTR.com and found an old clip from the Jack Benny show. My dad has a cassette collection of the Jack Benny show, so I've heard it before and it enjoyed it very much as a kid. This particular segment featured Mel Blanc doing his patented train depot announcer gag where he uses comedic pausing in between syllables. Its pretty funny in an old school kind of way. I like it because it shows a rare example of Blanc's fantastic acting when he's not a cartoon character. Those were the good ole days.

Class of Sept 25th

In class today, we looked at each others flipbooks and watched more excerpts from movies.

Most of the flipbooks were pretty creative and fun to flip through.  I especially liked Matt's which he made by filming his house with a video camcorder, then capturing each frame, and then printing each out.  It was the most fluid of all the flipbooks and it reminded me of one that came in a box of cereal.

The first film we viewed was Videodrome.  It reminded me of an episode of Cowboy Bebop, where a boy's consciousness gets trapped in the internet, and he manipulates people with artificial videos.  There is a similar concept of the ambiguity of whats real in videos.

We then watched three films based off the great works of Philip K. Dick: Total Recall, BladeRunner, and Minority Report.  Personally I like Minority Report the best because I like the plot the most.  All of them feature a motif that shows that nothing is what it seems.  This pops up a lot in Dick's novels.  Personally my favorite Philip K. Dick-based movie is A Scanner Darkly.  It featured amazing and beautiful rotoscoping technology.  The viewer never knows exactly what is real or what is a hallucination.  Very Interesting.

The last film we watched was Avalon and it examined how videogames are changing the way we view reality.  It was directed by the man who made Ghost In the Shell, which is one of my favorite animes.  I thought it was especially interesting when they said that people in the fictional world make a living from playing the game.  People in real life do that with games like World of Warcraft and Diablo.  I think its amazing that games have become like sports and that their virtual reality can be just as pertinent as normal reality.

Class of Sept 23

Today in class we watched a variety of classic films. Some I've seen, some I haven't, and some I would like to see later.
Alfred Hitchcock's BIRDS is a timeless classic. It draws the viewer in with a rich immersing feel. Hitchcock was the master of horror for his era, and this film shows why. He takes an ordinary thing like birds and transforms them into a horrific force of nature rivaling Mike Myers or Jason.
2001: A Space Odyssey is another acclaimed movie. Rather than a just a meaningless sci-fi film, it examines what the future may bring and how the human psyche has evolved. Have we gotten more or less savage? Are machines able to reason as well as humans and if so how long before they are controlling us? I wish to watch this film in its entirety when i have time, if only for its astounding production quality.
A Clockwork Orange is another fantastic film. The diction, plot, and acting are all topnotch. I can definitely see its influences in other movies, such as the Joker in the Dark Knight. Its reference of Singing in the Rain is great way to show the lasting effects of previous generations.
I'm not really a fan of Polyester and I have bad memories of Rocky Horror Picture Show so those didn't really inspire me. But I'm curious as to what movies we will watch next.