Mixtape

I kind of did a post for the mixtape project last week, but I will try to add onto my argument. Listening to a few mixtapes from classmates in class on monday really showed the level of creativity that this project sparked. I cant speak for everyone, but i know that this project allowed me to show creativity with music that i otherwise just kind of threw to the side. Its a completely different realm when you have to listen to each song over and over to try and find the perfect place for it on the cd. I was already a huge music lover, but this project really cemented that. For the first time in years i actually took the time to listen to each individual song, realize its meaning and use that to organize a flowing cd. After finishing it, i also realized that this project was really not all that difficult. I mentioned in my last post that it was harder than i thought it would be, I dont feel that the project was what was difficult, it was trying to get away from being so used to something that was so easy, the ipod playlists and the shuffle button. This project provided a way to be original while using anothers work too. Early in the semester a lot of our talks focused around what it meant to be truly original and if that could be achieved when using ideas from other people in your field. This project has shown that that is truly possible. The mix cd created, although it used existing songs that others had devised, was still an original work. The combining of multiple artists onto the same cd, created somethign that may never have been created and was in itself an original work of mine. Using another's ideas does not mean your work is not original, it can actually allow yuo to create something that is more original than if you had created everything from scratch.

Seeing that we are about to come to a close on our mixtape session I feel that that is a good subject for this blog post. I always use to make mix cds of all different types when I was in highschool so that I would have something I enjoyed listening to if the radio started to drop in quality. I remember just mixing different genres together that should not have been on the cd just because they were songs that I liked and I didnt really care if there was any order to the cd that I was making. Needless to say, these mix cds were not very good and the randomness at times was too much, but it wasnt worth all of the work to organize at the time. I wasnt always in this rush to create my mix for the road though, when I started playing cards with a group of friends, I would generally get a rap or rock mix going that everyone would enjoy listening too. When it came down to these I actually put a little more thought into what I was doing, and they generally flowed pretty well. This is something I thought was a thing of the past though. After I got my ipod I never thought that I would be making a mixtape again, yet here I am trying to create a well flowing, energetic mix for someone to run to. It is yet again proving kind of difficult. I became so accustomed to the random shuffle on the ipod when it came to how my playlist plays while I run that there was never really any thought or effort put in on my part. Ive again realized that it can be extremely difficult to get the perfect mix, especially when it is not being created for my own use, but for the use of another. Creating a good mix cd is no easy tax, and it really is a great way to show a form of creativity that you cannot really display in writing alone. It has kind of brought back memories of sitting at the computer years ago trying to make that perfect mix, and it has reminded me how the ever increasing technology kind of hinders creativity and thought in music. It is so much more difficult and thoughtful to create a cd for a friend than it is to just let them pick what they want out of your itunes library.

Well i tried to upload my image from the in class cut up that we did last friday, but yet again i was unable to upload anything to blogger. But this cut up method of William S. Burroughs provides a way to express creativity in a different fashion than would be normally thought of. If time is placed into getting some organization to the cut up, it is amazing how vivid and flowing a story arises, from things that are from multiple sources. An example is from the cut up i made with articles from the badger herald and daily cardinal--- On top of that, then its cold for everybody. Where you finish the record weekend jam-packed with weather as an excuse. It doesnt make the most sense, but to combine the thoughts of multiple people that already laid out what they wanted, to make something completely different, adds a new aspect of imagination to the writing world.

New Writing Process.

The article by Geoffrey Sirc presented a fairly confusing means of displaying an argument. It seemed that he was just jumping to unrelated points between each of the three parts in this essay at first look. He did tie them together, but to me it didnt seem like a very strong argument was made by him for anything. Even with this there were some good ideas that I got out of his essay. His discussion about minimalism and how to create a mix tape led me to the question of whether these approaches should be applied to the writing process. Would more unique and better written works come about if they were broken into smaller parts and then unified into a flowing body? If freshman composition courses took these approaches, maybe success in writing would be more apparent when looking at different individuals writing. The writing process as of late has plenty of flaws, but is there any real way to make changes to something that has been with us so long?

Multiple Personalities

So i realize that this post is slightly late, but I'm kind of glad i waited until after our class discussion today to make this post. Our talk about how we have different personalities around different groups, and Pat's mention of his differentiation between the Professional Patrick and the student Pat was interesting. It got me thinking about myself and situations like what we discussed and I realized that I'm the same way. When it comes to school or work, I always make sure to use my full name for the sake of sounding more professional and more mature. When applying for internships or for a new job, using nicknames is not something that would aid in the acquisition process. This doesn't just come up between professional and non-professional settings though. After placing thought into this idea, I realized that the different people I hang out with call me different nicknames, now I don't know if that means I act different around them, or if it is simply that I introduced myself different ways. But when i spend time with coworkers, most just use my first name, whereas with high school friends or close friends from when I first came to Madison, I'm known by only my last name. It has kind of made me want to be more attentive when I'm around different groups of people to see if there are slight changes in actions or personality when being put into these different situations.

Sampling Experience

To start off, when this assignment was first introduced I didn't think that it would be very difficult at all. I made collages and all that type of stuff in the earlier part of my life, but I definitely underestimated the effort and time required to do this project well. Also, did anyone else have problems getting photoshop to work exactly how you wanted it to? That was my biggest problem with everything, photoshop, if never having used it before, is extremely difficult to really learn in such a short time. Moving on to the project itself, I liked the second project slightly more than the first one. It provided a sense of security to know, that everything being used in it was OK to actually use. I was able to find a lot of similar pictures using the creative commons website, but it also allowed me to find pictures that I was not able to find just searching google regularly, which I feel, made my project better. This project also made it even more clear though, how much the ridiculous copyright regulations actually are. Although I found pictures I liked more through the creative commons, it still limited the amount of creativity I was actually able to use throughout my project.

Downloads

After getting through more of Lessig's book, some startling news has been revealed. The fact that so many American citizens could be classified as felons is unfathomable. This information should tell the lawmakers something, and that something is that there is clearly something wrong with the approach taken towards copyright and especially its relation to the music industry. Im not trying to advocate that all laws regulating music downloading and sharing should go away, but there are better ways of regulating out there. Stealing in no way should be warranted but in many instances downloading music is a way to hear an artist you may not be sure about, or sharing music with friends through the internet to try and spread your taste in music. Granted by putting your music on the web it does make it available to more than just your friend, but we live in a world filled with increasing technology. It takes far less time to upload all of your music to your computer to share with friends. Also, it allows a spreading of tastes to friends that may not be within range to just hand them a cd. Some people do download music so that they never have to purchase a cd again, but the entire country should not be denied their rights to progress our society because of the actions pursued by others. And honetly, in the end, I don't feel that the artists are really losing out on much. They may sell fewer cds, but they may gain extra fans at concerts that they would not have otherwise had. The regulations on music arent to benefit the public, or even the artists, they are solely there to protect the huge corporations and that is something that needs to change.