Inspiration for innovation:
http://www.onlyrevolutions.com/
Poke around. Harlot could pick up a thing or two.
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Category Archives: Arts & Entertainment
The jury is still out on this one…
but the Legos are so damned cute!
Click on the link below to see a collection of poems brought to miniature Lego life.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/billward/sets/72157594251738664/
“my humps, they got you”
I am still a big fan of Alanis Morissette cover of Fergie’s “My Humps.” If you don’t know what I’m referring to, congratulate yourself on making good use of your free time. Then, go here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W91sqAs-_-g
It’s a strange and glorious mix of the ridiculous and the…kind of good? Mostly, it’s ridiculous.
Now, Tori Amos is giving impromptu performances inspired by other, um, cultural phenomena. Here are a few lyrics to a song she recently performed in concert. The best part of the audio is the audience reaction. After a few uncomfortable laughs, it’s completely silent. What are these singers up to?
Britney, they set you up
Is your contract winding up?
But you drank from the cup
Boy, this is what it looks like
Yes, I said, this is, this is what it looks like, Disney, yes
When a star falls down
When a star falls down
You may be a mother
Baby, you still need a mother
Yes, I may be a mother
But I still need a mother
To pick me up
Yes, to pick me up
doo dah, doo dah . . . the clowns are coming to town . . .
Thanks to the indomitable Chris Higgs for passing along this news link:
http://asheville.indymedia.org/article/107Clowns
Given this town’s love for subversive humor (cf. Doo Dah parade), this story will undoubtedly find some supportive listeners. Will someone PLEASE write about dark humor and the rhetorical strategies of these avant-garde-esque responses to entrenched ideologies? Is their unusualness their effectiveness? How is it that laughter and dalliance can challenge hate groups? Are demonstrations like these fundamentally different than the satire we’ve become accustomed to (like the Daily Show)?
I should also point out (for those of you who read the article linked above), that the chant “Who’s street? OUR street!” is most likely taken from the Reclaim the Streets movements that happened in the late ’90s. Viewed as rhetorical occasions, these events are fascinating: mobs of people are covertly alerted to a gathering at a specific time and a specific place, where they “flash” on the scene and basically throw a party in the streets. The trick? Pavement is ripped up and trees planted in the middle of the road (while others provide cover). Talk about rhetorical strategy! These events (in my own opinion) were the precursor to “Flash Mobs” which earned notoriety a few years ago.
Alright . . . enough from the kid who is looking to make a dissertation out of the rhetoric of social movements . . .
to educate and/or to entertain?
They say that when you’re working on your dissertation, you can’t help but think of everything in relation to your project. I’d like to think that doesn’t apply to me, but, in fact, I do find myself thinking about all things as they relate to the issues of intellectualism and anti-intellectualism in American culture (the focus of my project).
Bear with me here. Recently, I’ve been researching the 19th-Century lyceum in the U.S. and its role in fostering or stifling intellectualism. In brief, the lyceum consisted of a series of public lectures; town meetings, debates, and discussions; and various newsletters and journals–all with the goal of “disseminating useful knowledge” to the American public. Though this relates to Harlot in a number of ways (of course), one important issue in the literature about the 19th-C. lyceum pertinent to a discussion of Harlot is the relationship between education and entertainment.
Both the organizers and participants in the various forms of the lyceum in the U.S. emphasized the importance of making the lyceum both educational and entertaining. The lectures, the discussions and debates, and the publications all had as a part of their mission to provide “useful knowledge” AND entertain.
Isn’t that what Harlot is and will be doing? We want to have interesting, thoughtful conversations (thanks to 21st Century media) that are also fun and entertaining–in various forms, with a variety of participants.
Wow….everything really does (or can) relate back to your own research. Whew….
Persuasive gaming
I’m watching The Colbert Report, where the guest is Dr. Ian Bogost of Persuasive Games, an organization that designs and distributes videogames intended for persuasion, activism, or instruction. From their site (www.persuasivegames.com):
“Our games influence players to take action through gameplay. Games communicate differently than other media; they not only deliver messages, but also simulate experiences. While often thought to be just a leisure activity, games can also become rhetorical tools.”
I’m fascinated by their claim that not only can games be used rhetorically, but that they offer distinctive forms of influence through experience.
And I can’t wait for some conversations in Harlot about the rhetorical potential–and actuality–of games of all sorts…
Check out this cool site about the cultural uses of videogames.
Musical Inspirations
“Whether in music or in fiction, the most basic thing is rhythm. Your style needs to have good, natural, steady rhythm, or people won’t keep reading your work. I learned the importance of rhythm from music — and mainly from jazz. Next comes melody — which, in literature, means the appropriate arrangement of the words to match the rhythm. If the way the words fit the rhythm is smooth and beautiful, you can’t ask for anything more. Next is harmony — the internal mental sounds that support the words. Then comes the part I like best: free improvisation. Through some special channel, the story comes welling out freely from inside. All I have to do is get into the flow. Finally comes what may be the most important thing: that high you experience upon completing a work — upon ending your ‘performance’ and feeling you have succeeded in reaching a place that is new and meaningful. And if all goes well, you get to share that sense of elevation with your readers (your audience). That is a marvelous culmination that can be achieved in no other way.
Practically everything I know about writing, then, I learned from music.”
— Haruki Murakami
Isn’t it true there’s an almost undetectable current, or rhythm, in the art, music, and writing that holds our attention long enough to actually move us? I stumbled upon this quote online; see the full NY Times interview here.