Last Post December 8, 2007
Posted by jeffpm in : Uncategorized , 2commentsOh what a sad, sad day. This semester flew by and I can’t believe this will be my last blog post for Rock Soul Prog. I had a great time with this class, and I think the website is a perfect culmination of the things that we’ve learned throughout the course of the year. I’m very interested to see what next semester’s class is going to produce, so Dr. C., can you please send us a link of their final product when the time comes? Thinking about it now, I also think it would be interesting to read next semester’s blog posts and see if there are any parallels between them and us. We will have to see. Good luck on finals everybody and have a fun and safe holiday season!
Cheers, Jeff
The Art of Texting December 6, 2007
Posted by jeffpm in : Uncategorized , 3commentsI’m just going to come out here and say it…I hate text messaging. I don’t know if texting just recently got popular or just that nobody did it back home, but one of the first things I noticed when I got to school was how much people text message. Everywhere I go around campus I see people furiously punching the numbers on their phones. Text messaging wouldn’t bother me if they consisted of short little messages like “let’s meet for dinner” or something of the sort. But from what I’ve noticed, these chronic text messagers like to have full fledged conversations. I guess what I really don’t understand is why people just don’t call each other. I understand if you’re in class or something like that, but it’s really annoying to hang out with someone who’s in the middle of a texting conversation. For instance, my roommate sent over 5,000 text messages last month. That comes out to a little less than 200 a day! 200 a day! I don’t know what else to say about it, but I really hope texting is just a fad that’ll disappear within a couple months…
Music in Nature December 4, 2007
Posted by jeffpm in : Uncategorized , 2commentsHas anyone ever just gone outside and listened to the world? Every now and then I like to go outside and find patterns in nature and the outside world. I think the morning is the best time to do it since the birds are ferociously chirping, and I can usually find some type of rhythm to it. I don’t do this often as I would like, but I was thinking about it during my walk to Trinkle today…
Wrapping Up December 3, 2007
Posted by jeffpm in : Uncategorized , 2commentsSo it seems that our final project is coming to a close…what a relief. There were some times that I thought this thing would never even get off the ground. All that’s left is the album art and random bio’s and stuff so it is very close to being completed. It’s kinda sad we only have 3 more classes left!
For those of you who haven’t seen it,
So I’ve been listening to more hip hop recently, and I suppose I thought I should write about it since rap isn’t really something we’ve discussed in class. I like basically all types of hip hop except for the stuff that’s popular right now…Nelly and Soulja Boy just don’t do it for me. I’ve been listening to the Beastie Boys a lot recently and I dig in their early days they successfully mashed up elements of rock and rap into one sound. Their sound changed with the addition of Mix Master Mike, but I really like the style he brought into the group. Dizzee Rascal is another favorite of mine. He’s from the UK and he writes and produces all of his own music, which is a feat in itself. He is one of the pioneers of “Grime”, which is a mixture of UK Garage, dancehall, hip hop and drum and bass. Here’s a video of Dizzee Rascal’s “I Luv U”, I believe this song came out when he was only 18. and please note, I did not see Kyle’s hip hop post before I posted this..what a coincidence! So now that Thanksgiving is over, it’s time for Christmas! Part of the reason why I like Christmas so much is because of the music. My favorite tune would have to be “Carol of the Bells”. I believe it started off as a Ukranian carol but has now made it’s way into American culture. Home Alone was a favorite movie of mine when I was young and Carol of the Bells was featured in it, so that’s probably why I still like it so much. Also, the Trans Siberian Orchestra does a great job covering it and adds a much more rockin’ sound to it. Happy Holidays! I know this is quite a bit late…but I kinda said my thing during class. Essentially what I said was that music isn’t something that defines my life, but it definitely plays a major part in it. I can’t remember the first time I really started listening to individual artists, but I think it started around the time I played Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater. That game had a great soundtrack and it really got me into punk. Another game that influenced my music selection was Test Drive 5. Most of the songs were industrial/metal and I was really digging them at that time. It’s interesting to look back and realize that most of my music selection from back in the day was based off of video games! So I think I got some CD’s based off of the artists from THPS. Napster also played a big part in how I discovered/obtained. I remember being on a super slow 56k connection and it took around 15 minutes to get a song. Since it took so long to get the music, my library was very limited, but it made every song that much better. So that’s basically how I started getting interested in music when I was younger! For some reason this didn’t publish…it was supposed to be up a couple days ago! The project seems to be coming along well enough, and I’m pretty excited about it. If everything goes according to plan I think the end result will be pretty creative and informative. At first, the whole task seemed daunting but now that we’re organized in groups and we each have tasks to complete, it’s not so intimidating whatsoever. As far as including the books we’ve read in class on the site goes, I think we have a good start. Putting together a band is a lot like the Commitments. The compilation idea is from High Fidelity, and going back through all of the decades is very much like Glimpses. Now we just have to find ways to incorporate Sweet Soul, AwopBop, and Flowers into the mix. Cheers! I was thinking about it, and the blog is a great way to show my progress on the website and for the rest of the class to comment on what they like, what should be changed, etc. I made this image today and it will basically be the home page. I plan on putting the timeline on the piece of paper, and somehow making it look handwritten. The album art will also be on the timeline, and will actually serve as the link to that decade’s page. I was thinking that once I got the album art, I could touch it up in photoshop and make it look like a polaroid that could be taped to the piece of paper as well. I guess I’m thinking that I want the page to look hand made, sort of created by us (the class/band). I would really like to hear peoples thoughts…go ahead and bash my ideas all you want! After all, this is OUR website and if there’s something you don’t like, I won’t take it to heart. So go on, tell me what you like, what you don’t like, what should be added, what should be removed, anything that you’re thinking. For instance, I know there needs to be a better title than Timeline of Rock, I just put it in there to be filler. Thanks guys! I don’t really know my intentions for writing this post, I guess I just want to share some of the podcasts that I enjoy. I started listening to podcasts in the beginning on my junior year and I believe that’s when the podcast boom started. iTunes had just started incorporating podcasts into the program and that’s where I found out about them. Just out of curiosity I opened up the podcast pane to see what it was all about, and decided I wanted to download a comedy show. The first one on the list was called “FrankWit” so I downloaded it and gave it a listen. For some reason, I instantly fell in love with the show, and with the concept of podcasting in general. It was so convenient to be able to listen to these shows whenever I wanted (as opposed to having a show being played once on the radio). FrankWit basically consisted of two average Joes bullshitting for an hour and a half. The first shows were pretty rough, but they eventually got a good format for the show and it ended up being something really funny and entertaining. To make it even better, 1-2 shows were being released a week and I constantly found myself listening to them in school. FrankWit had quality shows for about a year, but then suddenly started to get worse and worse after one of the hosts decided to quit and several replacement hosts were put on. Now, the shows are very sporadically released and I can’t say I’ve listened to one all the way through in a while.. If anybody does listen to podcasts, feel free to leave a comment with what shows you listen to…Hip Hop
November 29, 2007
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Christmas Music
November 25, 2007
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Music Testimonial
November 24, 2007
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Project
November 16, 2007
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Project Site
November 9, 2007
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Podcasts
November 8, 2007
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One of the great things about podcasts is the networking. Shows will constantly talk about other shows, which gives the other shows popularity and allows listeners to broaden their podcast subscriptions. FrankWit introduced me to the Mediocre Show which is fantastic and I still listen to on a weekly basis. I also subscribe to several video podcasts which include Diggnation, We Need Girlfriends, and The Totally Rad Show. I strongly encourage everyone to find a podcast, I’m not lying when I say there is something for everyone out there!
