Goodbye Captain Morgan

 

Goodbye Captain shirt

You served your purpose well

Advertising, promoting

Yourself

And suffered a painless death

Red spraypaint at the center

A big red ubik can ate you up

and stained my back for a couple days too

Goodbye Captain

My Captain

 

The Beginning

From the very start we were up against the University. We couldn't show films here or there or anywhere because of copyright issues. Then couldn't post flyers anywhere because we were showing those movies without the aforementioned copyright permissions. Then we didn't know what we could write on the flyers because we didn't want to get shut down. As far as we were concerned, the society of control was Penn State. Not like we didn't know this already, but here it was an actual battle trying to plan film fest and to work within the boundaries and rules of the university. We must have spent at least two meetings just discussing where we could advertisw/promote the thing and how we could do it without getting shut down. Eventually we sort of flipped off the University and decided to post what we needed where we needed and if the posters got taken down, which i suspect they did, then so be it. I also used some promotional techniques that m good friend Kacy, who graduated last year, employed while working at Hooters. The Wing Zone people use the same method. I slid flyers under the doors of almost every apartment in my building (Calder Commons). That way I avoided the University altogether. Other promo work on my part included requesting time to speak to the class about it in my other classes and using angel to email classmates from other classes film fest info.

 

Entropic Film Fest

This was the greatest film fest that never happened. Although we had all the components of film fest it somehow never got off the ground. The power was an issue, more and more equipment was needed and then wouldn't work, and a billion other things. Considering all the promotional work that the group did, I could hardly believe it when no one except for some far out grad student showed up. I mean there was literally no one. At first it felt like such a waste, but as the day progressed it became something else. It became nothing. We were certainly in an autonomous zone. We played fetch with Echans's adorable canines Aphi and Pip. Later when I left, my cab driver turned out to be one of Echan's roommates and he inquired if I had seen her and the dogs. It was an interesting coincidence. We ate junkfood and drank soda. Frisbees were thrown, trips were taken to Papa John's, and finally, we watched a movie. Children of Men is pretty good. It's still just hard to believe that we spent so much time and effort getting the word out about film fest and no one showed up and the fact that no one showed up was okay because nothing was working. I would not have been so accepting of the entropic film fest if people had showed up and nothing was working.

 

I think that one possible reason for our lack of general attendance was due to the society of control. No one had seen any posters for film fest around campus even though we posted hundreds. Either people weren't looking hard enough for them or they were taken down. I happen to believe that they were taken down, because it was a little too "out there" for PSU. That could be a reason too. When describing film fest to my friends, they all got this puzzled look on their faces and asked me why the hell I had chosen to be a part of the project. I explained to them the need to talk about living in a control society whereupon they primarily responded with sarcastic hippie phrases such as "far out, man," and "whoah." They were quick to dismiss the whole thing as hippie, in a pejorative sense.

 

Point of Information

Boggie Monster did an awesome job with the stencils at the trench. I was discussing the grafiti installation with my friend, who is a film major. I mentioned that it was in a trench that some other film major had dug to be part of his set and that there was also war propaganda around. When I returned to the Center, most of the grafiti had already been done and helmets, which were faily authentic looking were also painted. I felt like something was amiss, or wrong, or not quite right about that - the whole defacing someone else's property thing. Yes, spraying the helmets could have been seen as an anti-war gesture, and I think most people would agree that is it time to pull out of Iran/Iraq/you know. However, the guy who's film final this was, is a junior who worked his ass off to make the film and spent every penny he had on the props/set. The kicker is that the film is ANTI-WAR.  The  film centers around the protagonist who is so overcome with grief and depression, that he contemplates killing himself. The film raises questions about the morality of war, and suggests that war is simply not worth it because of the effects it has on human life and not just in the premature ending of it. Anyway

 

[ Dear Coco:  Please note that at the time the film was made, the center was wrecked.  They destroyed property that they had permission to use, not mess up.  The doors were broken in, there were fake guns and other things lying all over the place.  They showed very little if any respect for the center, and by taking that massive fuck up and turing it into something related at least to class, I was trying to reclaim the space for soemthing good.  In addition, I completely sympathize with a poor junior film major who spent all of his money on props, but I believe that if they were of any real value to him, he would have removed them after the filming.  As it stands, at the end of the semester, no one had done anything to restore the land that had been slashed through with a front end loader of some sort, or pick up the numerous helmets, canteens, bags, garbage, etc. that was left.  There were piles of white crosses and helmets on the other side of the center as well as by the trench.  So... If he wants me to pay him for the helemts, that's fine, but I did what I did as an act of reclaimation and remix.  And seriously, if the guy was really concerned with his "stuff," it wouldn't have been sitting out there in the rain for three weeks.  Thanks for letting me know, though, in case I do get an email. ]

 

Friggin HTML

So I tried for 2 hours now to set up a poll for the class and for all the other perspective film fest attendees to get them involved in the planning of film fest i.e. have them vote or suggest a film to see. All the polls keep generating html that I can't get to show up or to paste onto this here wiki and I am going INSANE. One of the most surprising aspects of the project thus far has been the extent to which I have had to ask other people for help outside of the classroom. For instance, I am now on the phone with my friend Steve trying to work this thing out. Here's hoping.

 

 

Final Project:  Film Fest

 

Film Fest Proposal 

 

 

i guess i should have mentioned that the link below is my ubik remix, though i think i misunderstood completely how to do it and would like to redo the remix. it's coming.

engl473.bmp

 

Your life was the lit fuse on a stick of dynamite

We were all waiting for it to go off

For that boomtastic explosion

That would have been your future.

I watched you grow up, settle in, find a place among 86

Through some superficial cattle call process

You shone with genuine sincerity, caring, eagerness

Waiting to go off, to show us what you could do

A friend to all, loyalty to put a spaniel to shame

Warmth, thoughtfulness, excitement

In your eyes, everyday

Now it's coming back

Now I remember how awful it was

To watch my my parents collapse

When they had lost one of their own- our

Own

And my heart breaks for your father

Though we've never met. For your mother, though I've never met her either.

I am so sorry the world will never get to see your fireworks or your dancing sparks

I wish you had gotten more than just the fuse.

 

 

This past semester was marked by my frenetic attempt to get into law school. In high school I was spoiled, and our college counselors all  but did the applications for us. There were only about twenty something kids per counselor, so life was great. Our English  teachers  had us working on personal statements for a month and everything was sent from the school to the universities. Doing the law school thing alone was ridiculous. I had no idea what to put into my personal statement, it was more like a life story-remix. You know, I tried to sell myself to a bunch of phogies sitting arounf a table whom I've never met and who have never met me. I tried to include rough spots in my life which I, of course, came out of at the other end much wiser, much stronger, much better than before. I am constantly evolving into superhero-ness in my personal statements. I am constantly looking for that next impossible mountain to climb. On paper, I will recoginize the impossibility of the mountain, attempt to climb it, possibly lose a leg or two, adjust to the new prosthetic limbs, and scale that monster mountain all the same. In my personal statement, pain and disappointment are words that will never make it on to the page because I, as a personal statement, am all optimistic, all appreciative, and all capable. I am this and I am that and I have unlimited positive attributes. I am different than everyone else, than everyone's else's words on paper, in 2 pages or less, using the same vocabulary, using the same word processing equipment, using the same constructs of language as everyone else. Elle Woods, you have no idea how innovative you really were. I am worn out from jumping up and down on paper crying out, "Oooo! Pick me! Pick me!" only to receive rejection after rejection after rejection. Personal statements, you suck.

 

Coco, I feel your pain. Sometimes I lay awake and punch the pillow because of frustration stemming from someone's idea of throwing us onto this damn planet and not giving us a clue what we're supposed to do or where we came from. And I like your phrasing, 'shit show.' Haha. Wilson to me doesn't sound like a crackpot, and one of my main feelings are who's to say? No one knows who the real 'crackpots' are, all I know is I enjoy the thought provoking effects of Trigger. ~BigYellowPeep

 

Cosmic Trigger is affecting me. The Grand Inquisitor keeps popping into my mind. As a freshman in PHIL113, Philosophical Lit, I read this piece for the first time and was outraged. HOW IN HELL could anyone expect us to be free?!!! It's not practical to realize your own freedom. It's not a fair predicament for someone in college, paid for by loving parents, to suddenly realize infinite possibility and to sieze her freedom. Imagine the repercussions! Imagine the shit show that would surely follow. Cosmic Trigger is making me realize that possibility for infiniteness all over again and the result has been truly disturbing. All of the sudden my mind is on again and I can't shut it off. The subjects in this book, Leary, Horus, the Sufi Clown, all those crazies and possibly the biggest crazie of them all, Wilson himself who modestly seeks to link no see them together in some sort of understanding should have made me dismiss this whole book as the result of too many happy hippies still tripping together in a naive past. But the science. The apparent brilliance and the evidence Wilson offers to support claims of sanity and the logical manner by which Wilson and Leary conduct'''' their search begs the question, "Is there something to all this?" Maybe I'm not being critical enough. You see what you want to see, the inkblot. Wilson's right of interpretation is his for sure. My responsibility of rejection is also mine. But Wilson is aware of the desire to see what he's looking for and even shares it with the reader. Why can some people, no matter how much of a crackpot they might be, work with their freedom when I am just confounded and angry about mine!

 

Maybe freedom turns you into a crackpot, you become an outsider. Wilson doesn't **seem****** like a crackpot though. His words are written coherently enough, convincingly'''' enough possibly. Is he trying to convince or only to share? In either case, it seems to me that Wilson is at least free and I can't help but feel less free because of this book.

 

A Novel Idea http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oGX8oEMY48

Another One: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-cBTvZEV8M

 

If you like Family Guy, this is funny. The bonus is that it relates to class and the definition of a novel. Happy Mardi Gras.

 

 

Old.

 

In Ubik the director of the moratorium claims that its difficult to gause someone's age after ninety. I hope the future is not full of old, old, people living miserable,though possibly productive lives. Even the half-dead are old. The desire to live long has seriously compromised the ability to live well. Runciter's wife has even been taken over by an annoying teen. Sometimes you should just pull the plug.

 

Ubik.

 

It's obvious that Minority Report ripped off its better ideas from this book. Precogs and all, it's just so obvious. The twins? There were definitely twins in the movie, although they weren't bad or working for the other side, they were Swedish looking and not really key players. I don't remember ever hearing about Philip k. Dick when the film was released, though my friend Mike claims everyone knew that the film was a loose adaptation. I should pay better attention.

 

The unwanted house guest.

 

How do you get rid of someone who has overstayed their welcome? What do you do? How many times, really, can you walk out into the living room and see their bony naked ass on top of your roomate before you go apeshit? I am sick and tired of 1) reassembling the couch cushions from the apparent "nest" on the floor everytime I want to sit down on the couch and 2) picking up and disposing of random condom wrappers from the floor. I am at my absolute wits end. Politely requesting that the pair go somewhere else, say perhaps, his place, has proven to be 100% ineffective. I am this close to walling them into the living room in the style of Poe in the Cask of Amontillado.

 

I thought about what you said Coco, and I think you have a valid point. Experimenting is a beautiful thing in life, and it gives us freedom. But I have experienced control, and for the sake of Karma, I’d rather not be proud of illegal things that have led to trouble. But just between you and me, it was freaking sweet and I don’t regret a thing. You know what I mean? - GoNZo

 

Vertigo. I thought that vertigo meant falling down. My only exposure to this word was last year when a certain friend kept falling down and attributing it to "vertigo" instead of multiple shots of Jack and several pitchers of beer. Now that I know it's a feeling of dizziness that can lead to falling down, I also understand this word in relation to navigating through the wiki. My initial reaction to this hellhole was "what the hell?"...but eventually I came around. Now the problem is not how to create a username or what have you, it's what I'm going to write. There's infinite possibility and too much freedom. I don't want to use the freedom of this medium in a meaningful way, even though this first entry is mostly BS. Please forgive someone who has never blogged and is probably boring the pants off you.

 

Wiki Proposal Response

 

I'm a technophobe and I hardly use my laptop for more than word processing, iming, uploading pics, and shopping but this Wiki thing sounds promising as described by Mobius. I think the goals of the project are realistic and that integrating wiki into the compositional curriculum would in fact provide exposure to common media used beyong the walls of academia and in the workplace. It is necessary to address the changes in media to better understand and to better question the rhetoric behind the information.

 

 

Social Engineering

 

Companies are ridiculous. Social engineering is nothing more than a glorified term for entrapment. I noticed near the conclusion of the piece, when the writer discusses the pros and cons of his USB method, that police interference would be most unwelcome. Why? This must be illegal or else he wouldn't be worrying about it! Should this type of investigation be legal? When I read the two texts side by side, social engineering came off as seedy criminal activity. On the one hand, companies are unethical because they employ these methods to test unwitting subjects, but on the other hand, what other way is there to get good dependable data?

 

Cyberspace as a Geographical Interest

 

This is ridiculous. Cyberspace is too big to even be considered in the same context as land geopgraphy that has clear boundaries and limitations. The sheer quantity of information is so vast that no one can reasonably expect to navigate through all of it or even enough of it to make some sort of difference in the cyber atmosphere/evironment. This sounds a lot like the war on terrorism or some other highly idealistic and arrogant claim.

 

Pan's Labrynth

 

Have you ever gone to a film expecting one thing and then the film totally defies those expectations? This is that film. I heard nothing about it before viewing the film except that it was a more adult version of a fantasy film. I suppose I was thinking Harry Potter with more blood and gore. I was also expecting the film to be in English. Instead what I saw was more than elaborate battles scenes or easily digestible frou-frou. The film was about two realities, or more than two really. There were so many different narratives going on, and some were fantastic and some were political. Two different types of violence were present all throughout, the child's threat of violence, and the actual violence of civil war. Isn't all this tracking technology a child's threat of violence?

 

A Link to Keep up with what's going on at home.

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?brd=1676

 

RFID IDEA

I am the most non-creative person ever. I asked everyone I could since this assignment what they would do with this technology and the most practical and non-controversial application I could come up with was some sort of travel chip, because getting an expedited passport is a BS process. Getting the passport is inconvenient, expensive,and sometimes even untimely. I was unaware of the rules pertaining to a minor's passport. I didn't know I had to get a new one once I turned 18 and I had to push back my senior Euro-Trip by a day while I spent a whole bunch of money the next day getting a new passport somewhere in Old City, Philly. I would have liked to show some ID and get a chip instead and my friend who went with me would have too! At first I thought about tagging sex offenders but I think that some of my classmates are on to something in their concern for mcarthyist tendencies related to this kind of tagging. Once again, it's the whole paradox that Mobius was talking about. The New Frontier and the ever necessary discussions about moral obligations and safety precautions/social acceptance...who to chip and who not to chip.

 

Random Surveillance Camera Appreciation

Thank God for the surveillance camera. What I could not see with my own eyes, what was cleverly hidden from me, that magic mechanical eye caught and booked. Three years together and not a hint of mistreatment or misogynistic tendencies. Three years building castles by the sea. I never saw what the camera caught. Some in the class may think that the cameras on Calder Way are intrusive and completely unnecessary, just another way for the S.C. cops to issue more public drunks. By the way there were 6,000 arrests last year and half were for DUI's. However, I would argue that most of the time the local authorities use the technology to locate crazier freaks such as the Blanket psycho. If you don't get the reference good but surveillance could have saved my life. Crazy how machines capture the act and not the person and how the actions may in fact define the person. Are actions the only things that define us? Can people who do bad things be good "at heart" or is that just some poetic mechanism we've invented to keep our American optimism alive? What does it mean to be good or bad? Perhaps there really isn't that sort of grand opposition, but if there were, what would make someone good and what would make them bad? Can you separate actions from essence?

 

Film Fest Autonomy

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Sleeper Brazil Blade Runner Total Recall The Matrix Children of Men Metropolis 1984 Thunder Love

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