I have yet to formulate any thoughts on this, but it was too cool to not share.
great piece of performance art
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Category Archives: Arts & Entertainment
Judging Greatness
Either I’m on a roll today, or I’m just wasting time. But I came across another interesting something on my way over to Yahoo! to check the weather (in hopes the temperature has crawled above 30).
How do we judge greatness? This question was taken up by Yahoo! Sports as they tried to ascertain how great the Patriots team is. The conversation starts out straightforwardly enough, but then someone asks how the Patriots compare against any professional team in the history of sports. Sure, the question should require a logical-enough answer — athletes run a certain number of yards, throw a certain number of passes, and score a certain number of points. The comparison gets more difficult, it would seem, when we’re talking about different sports, but the members of the conversation seem friendly enough toward the direction of the talk. The Patriots apparently (I really don’t keep track of this stuff) have a perfect record this season, but are they “great?”
I’m not surprised at their answers, but I’m not fond of the idea. It takes a team having all-star players in addition to a stellar record (wow, all these astronomical analogies) in order for a team to be great. In other words, image seems to play a “great” role. It doesn’t seem to matter whether a team of athletes come together to work like a machine. We need to see someone who climbs above the rest, a representative of the team. A face. A name. Individual stats. But how does an athlete get into the Hall of Fame? How much does it come down to image and how much does it rely on the actual numbers related to their performance? Do they have to win the crowd or just win the game? Hmm. I would say winning the crowd. The crowd hears the stats, but they also have to love the player. And yet loving the player without the logic of stats is not enough. Okay, I hope you get the point. I’ll stop before I drive myself in circles.
I’ll be honest, though. The only reason I clicked on the link to this video is because I saw the title, “Best Sports Team Ever?” along with an image of Michael Jordan. “Oh, no, no,” I thought. “If they’re putting the Chicago Bulls up there, they’d better add the LA Lakers. . . .” They didn’t. I’m hurt. Didn’t the late 80s have some of the best games when Magic Johnson, James Worthy, and so many others hit the court? I’m going to complain now. Clearly folks who are trying to properly represent sports history are suffering from a selective memory 😉
My Horoscope Likes the Rhetorical Self
Your powers of persuasion are kicking some serious butt right now, and you could sell ice to an Eskimo if you had to! But the only thing you should be selling right now is yourself! This is an excellent time for you to promote yourself at work or in a social context — you are a valuable commodity, and everyone needs to know it. Ask for that raise you’ve been angling for. Ask that cutie to spend some time with you. The responses you get will make you smile.~Yahoo Horoscope for Cancer on January 29, 2008
It’s not necessarily what the horoscope says that I find interesting, but the fact that horoscopes, in general, tend to offer advice about what you should do. That because the moon is in a particular alignment with Saturn, I should sell ice to Eskimos. (Yes, yes, of course that’s not what it’s saying.)
It creates this division in the pathos and the logos. For instance, the economy is in a down-turn, shall we say… a recession, which would indicate to me that asking for a raise would be naive, but, hey, my horoscope says I should do it and the humanity in me wants to cling to that hope of an invisible force guiding me to a good decision.
Plus, how many people fall within my sign? Could you imagine if all the Cancers in the world suddenly went to work and asked for a raise? It’d be a coup! Hmm, now these horoscopes could be interpreted as some grand conspiracy theory about trying to ruin the economy or such. We’ll be calling out astrologists like communists at the McCarthy hearings. Oops, there goes my flight of fancy.
Back to the point. It’s like these two sides are competing. My logical self wants to disregard the information as mere frivolous fun and, yet, it’s still on my homepage. I don’t consciously believe that I have some sort of super power of persuasion right now (or ever really), but it’s probably worked its way deep enough into my subconscious that I’ve decided to talk about it here. Perhaps disregarding horoscopes as absurd is just a defense mechanism; I’m really a true believer, ready with planets and charts to search for my destiny. But that’s the thing, isn’t it? That even though I don’t want it to have an effect on me, it still does. On some level, I am persuaded that today was a good day or will be a good day, simply because there was some indication that it would be a good day. That, because I was told I’d be persuasive, I then must fulfill it and become persuasive.
Oh, but if my boss is reading this, I’ll take any kind of raise you give me.
Venice Beach: Rhetorical Mecca
Just off the skate park in Venice Beach, a few yards away from the boardwalk roller bladers, snake charmers, and sunburned hippies selling bundles of white sage, a group of graffiti artists quietly works. Every day, the cement wall –the last remnant of the Venice Beach Graffiti Pit–is covered with tags, portraits, and large-scale collaborative works of art. Early the next morning, a new group of artists begins again. They cover the previous day’s designs, responding to the wall’s patterns, images, and textures, and challenging the next day’s artists in a visual call and response. I visited the beach to catch a sunset with my sister and her husband during my LA trip this weekend. While we watched the artists work, my sister mused aloud, “I wonder how large that wall will eventually become.” She was referring to the layers and layers of paint literally making the monument grow. Later, I did a few online searches for the pit and found that the area has been somewhat immortalized in Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2 video game, spreading its influence even further.A few loyal photographers cover the evolution of art on the wall of the graffiti pit. Here’s a link to one. (You can also easily find footage on YouTube.)
http://www.labelnetworks.com/entertainment/graffiti_fall_06.cfm
Is it dying or just . . . um . . . undergoing massive change?
Coffee, anyone?
Center for Digital Storytelling
To Do List
This is somewhat similar to the PostSecret thing, but instead it’s to-do-lists:
Virtual Worlds Threaten Values
Courtesy of Digital Urban Blog, there’s something fishy in Second Life…
http://digitalurban.blogspot.com/2007/10/virtual-worlds-warning-viewed-live-in.html
You have to ask yourself about the idea behind this kind of marketing. It seems to reek of a Tipper Gore Bible Thumper trying to convert the sinner to follow the righteous path, even if it is just a news report. So, are they entering the unholy lands to convert the sinner or are they merely marketing to their audience?
Competing Secrets
Um, being a bit bold and offering up this link.
I find the idea of people competing for the best secret intriguing.