Sign, sign, everywhere a sign. blockin out the scenery, breakin my mind.

I am having a hard time reading Faigley's website, because it's a website. Too much textbooky type stuff to read and scroll through on a screen, although the pictures are nice. As portable as laptops are, I cannot underline things, flip to see how many pages I have left to read, or jot notes in the margin. It's interesting stuff, but it's not getting through to me as clearly as a neatly stapled packet. Anyone else? I guess the materiality does matter...

Speaking of which, the internet is apparently at risk of being clean-slated. See the newest link to your right for more details. I wonder if this is a step forward in the Digital Age or a step back. We evolve all the time. Just this morning I found this website, so who needs TV, really?

Ahead of its time:

Art in its various forms has been weighing heavily on my mind lately, between frequent discussions of Grindhouse, watching Entourage, trying to re-form my poetry habit, somehow getting signed up for the four posters-a-month club, and just trying to express myself in a way that is both effective and stylistically me. I wish I could paint or draw or do something artistic, although writing is definitely an art form as well, and I can make decent things out of clay...I'm working on a video for my final project about art in the form of graffiti. It's interesting to me because it's the only writing I can think of (besides slander I guess) that's automatically a crime. Berger's quote about the loss of authority over art that came with the means of reproduction reminded me of graffiti: "For the first time ever, images of art have become ephemeral, ubiquitous, insubstantial, available, valueless, free. They surround us in the same way as a language surrounds us. They have entered the mainstream of life over which they no longer, in themselves, have power." Aside from wanna-be gangsta tagging, the words themselves along with the surface they were painted, etched, or carved on create a meaning that's bigger and stronger than most textbooks I read. The message is short and powerful, sometimes incorrectly spelled, but contextualized in life. We all live the context, and I found that most of the messages in graffiti (found on this website and taken from all over the world) dealt with themes of love, politics, religion, the economy, etc...

non-sequitur:

In addition, Literacy in American Lives contains a chapter about the nature of early writing as secretive, rebellious. I think about notes passed back in forth in class, from my own schooldays. I once wrote the naughtiest words I knew on a chalkboard in the church basement (I don't know exactly why), knowing they'd be discovered and I'd probably go to hell for it.

I was excited to see that Faigley included information about Adbusters, I've used that site in conjunction with teaching a media awareness unit with high school kids. Other than the nonstop stupidity charade that is our current governmental regime, the hyper-consumerism of this country makes me itchy in unmentionable places. I always thought I could do well in advertising but never pursued it for the same reason I'm not a smarmy lawyer (not that all lawyers are bad, some of my best friends are lawyers): I don't think it's right to intentionally manipulate people and words, and people/words are obviously easily manipulated. Here's a few more pictures they didn't include:

I'll give you a moment to find your brain-sanitizer and acknowledge that reality is not as fun as the high-gloss air-brushed world we are continually fed.

Given what Siegel's article says about multimodality transformations and literacy, it makes sense that this is where we're at: we're a bunch of sign-reading mofos.

Thinking outside the idiot box

Has our collective sense of humor gotten more sophisticated in the last few decades? I present to you: Small Wonder vs. Arrested Development:




I have been saying for a while now that daytime television sucks the soul out of people. It's a chicken and egg type question--does being depressed and out of work make horrible shows such as Springer, Maury Povich, Keith Ablow, Cristina's Court, Judge Alex, Divorce Court, etc seem worse, or do horrible shows cause people to be depressed and out of work? It's a shame spiral, really, I might have to just move out or get extended cable or something if I continue to stay at home during the day when I don't have class or work. Or perhaps attending Everest Institute to become a medical assistant in seven short months is the answer. At least then I'd get to wear scrubs, that seems to be a selling point of their commercials. I like to bitch about TV, the messages sent discretely and overtly, the predictability of plot lines, the representation of life. TV is white noise for me, something to have on while doing homework, although I find situational and cartoon comedies comforting. I like Cops and Sex in the City (that's two shows). I dearly miss having Comedy Central and think that shows like the Colbert Report and the Daily Show have a lot of potential to educate the masses. Not MTV. I think Sesame Street is an amazing program still. But I digress.

I think we are overlooking an important resource in assuming that television and other pop culture items have little or no educational value. We are going against the grain. Kids want to talk about movies they've seen, songs they like, shows they watch, but we rarely incorporate common themes or ideas from their natural interest. Granted, TV for the most part sucks. I dig Steven Johnson and his article for suggesting that TV programs such as 24 (which I can't watch since I haven't seen the first season) are cognitively beneficial. His explanation of the Sleeper Curve (the most debased forms of mass diversion--video games and violent television dramas and juvenile sitcoms--turn out to be nutritional after all) supports my idea that most of what you think you know is probably wrong. If nothing else, Johnson's prescription to just watch the box for a few hours and think about it will inspire great enthusiasm in students who are increasingly difficult to engaged in classrooms and textbooks. Also, as much as we hate to admit it, television and movies are an extremely influential part of pop culture, our sources of fashion, slang, brand name consciousness, etc.

I really don't dig on reality TV, but Johnson claims the true test of the Sleeper Curve is the junk improving as well as mediocre/good programming. I loathe Fear Factor. I love Being Bobby Brown. It's a crap shoot. In addition to being a vehicle for extensive public humiliation, reality television provides water-cooler chat and camaraderie. Most seem to rely on plying contestants with alcohol or an overabundance of dramatic camera work. I agree with Johnson that being aware of the junk and the non-junk is key if you're going to try to make a case for educational television. I have used some advertising/media literacy/awareness lessons before, both in AISD and in Gardner Betts with a lot of success, this link is probably best for high school, this one's good for littler ones.

Making the case for a hip-hop education is a challenge. Today's hip hop as heard on radio don't often strike a cord with me, maybe because I'm white or too old, whatever. But I do know that the kids, they love the music, and we overlook this in the classroom the same way we do other non-traditional media. H2ED seems like a good organization with a strong support base of teachers, parents, community, etc. Also, it reaches further into the culture than does the traditional white-based public school curriculum. Hip hop music as I've seen it would require a certain amount of discernment, as there are a lot of controversial messages sent in many hip hop videos and songs.

Shihan, poetry slam: