Morrissey Speaks

Seattle is credited with being the birthplace of alternative music.  Fair enough, they did turn out Sound Garden, Alice In Chains, Pearl Jam, and more recently The Decemberists and The Postal Service…but Vegas, known for phrases like “Vegas baby!” and “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas” is now being noticed for spawning talent that surpasses lounge acts.

The Killers, Panic! At The Disco and The Higher are natives to Sin City.  Vegas Local band OTHERWISE is pushing forward this year in hopes of getting signed.  OTHERWISE has received many kudos for their musical forte, and they definitely have what it takes to line the walls of the Hard Rock someday.

But like most business, bands and brands they are trying to find their footing, in a world where social media and reality collide to forecast profitability.

This can be a problem if concert attendance, and online presence don’t correlate. Online popularity can mean instantaneous global buzz.  Keep your fans, followers and friends entertained and the possibilities are endless.  But the real challenge is how exactly do you keep them entertained?

Well IKEA, the contemporary furniture store, used social networking in a very unique way, and the result was effortless viral marketing.

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I suggest the boys of OTHERWISE don’t re-invent the wheel, but tailor it according to their needs. Perhaps instead of using furniture, allow fans to tag articles of clothing.  The clothes will then be given to the winner at their next concert.  The tagging feature will instantly expose the band to all of that person’s friends, and it will guarantee another fan showing up to the show to claim their prize.

my vote is to do an onslaught of gorilla-style marketing, using unique executions. I think the boys should go to the elevators of the Las Vegas Airport and sing an acoustic version of their hits.  A little eccentric, but it’ll get people talking.  It’s effortless for them to do what they love, and with Vegas being the home to many industry leaders, you never know who they might run into.  If they video the elevator serenade and  put it onto YouTube, they can step back and watch the buzz go viral.

So, this blog, up until this point, was crafted to deliver information that was assigned for my JOUR 333 class. I learned so much in this class, I can’t explain how crucial I think this class is for anyone in journalism/communication/web development/advertising sphere.

This class explored social networking media and illustrated the importance of this medium to deliver content. On top of learning how to utilize twitter, facebook, youtube, delicious, flickr, utterli, kyte and other social media we dove into the nuts and bolts of web development with dreamweaver.  This topic was especially interesting to me. To create something and publish it to the web, well it swings the door wide open for your works to go global.

With the skills I’ve learned in this class I am confident that I could use the Web site I created to my advantage.  First and foremost, I am a writer, and through MY web site I can display my craft.

Now that this class is over with, I must admit, I’ve been lagging with this blog.  But  when there is a grade riding on you completing assignments, it motivates you to reach your deadline.  I think that this blog is something I can be proud of, and so i refuse to let it go to the wayside.

But from this point on, the direction of this blog will change….tbd what the content them will be, but stay tuned.

“you light out after the territories” – mark twain.

I created my own take on James Lipton’s “Inside the Actors Studio.” (I’m a Lipton-addict) He has a certain je ne sais quoi about himself. He can make a complete stranger spill their guts. I’m not so naive as to think that there is no editing involved, but you have to admit there’s only so much magic that an editor can work…the rest is all Lipton.

Well that’s my rave about Lipton – anyway I wanted to try to re-create that magic with a fellow student in the film college, Denis Baldwin.

I wanted him to tell his story, and be open about the way he approaches the material he sets out to make.

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I had a rough start to this project. I set the interview up to take place in the student union. It was a busy part of the day and I did not plan for the audio accordingly. And I am working on limited supplies too – so that didn’t help the cause either. I went home to edit the video and the it was barely audible. I then had to ask my subject to come hang out again for an hour to be re-interviewed. Now, I lucked out that my subject was such a good sport about the whole situation. And it was a great lesson for me to learn – CHECK AUDIO LEVELS and pick an appropriate location for the interview. The do-over went ten times better than the dry-run and I also got a chance to talk to a second source, TJ Thompson (Baldwin’s best friend), to attest to the nature of my subject.

My pursuit of journalism is in it’s infancy, so there will be fumbles along the way…just got to make sure to learn from these rookie mistakes.

Vegas is peculiar on many levels. From 24 hour Wal-Marts, slot machines in grocery stores, the strip and good ‘ole downtown…Vegas breaks the mold for what the rest of the nation considers “normal.”

Amongst the oddity’s that this city host, zoning is one of them. It’s a part of Vegas’ local-culture. A mansion with guards, gates and a pool could be located kitty-corner to a row of trailers that’s nestled neatly in the bosom of a middle-class neighborhood.

The history behind the zoning conundrum – the city wanted to diversify the school district by having students from all walks of life zoned for the same schools.

Graffiti artist make their mark in vacant lots with their “tag.” These lots are wide open for taggers to run “bomb” with spray paint. I personally enjoy the work  these “delinquents” (Mayor Goodman’s words – not mine) create, but my garage has never been assaulted with unwanted images either.

With that being said, I shot some pictures around a neighborhood on Vegas Valley and Cabana. The location was random, and out of that developed a story. I wanted to highlight the juxtaposition of beautiful homes and landscaping, that sits back-to-back with these empty lots.

Eye sores, obnoixous welcoming music and tons of movement on a Web page are obvious NO-NOs in Web design.  Yet here’s a list of offenders that take no mercy on their viewers.

http://www.frnz.de/ This site is jarring to say the least. When you visit this site you just want to make it stop.  Not only is the overlay of words incredibly distracting, the home button is in neon green and keeps flashing back and forth in an effort to draw attention.  The designer did not think about scanability at all. Professional appearance, color synergy and forethought in typography is non-existent.  A sketch or two before creating this site would have lessen the blow of this catastrophy.  Honestly, it looks like it might have viruses, so I was nervous to explore the links-never a good thing for a Web site.  This site gets a big “YIKES!”

www.vfdesigners.com

This is painful to see, a “DESIGN” company displaying this site in attempt to draw business.  It’s clear by the different type-faces, and “click here” button that leads me to believe they put  effort into, but they just aren’t good at what they do.  This site is in Portuguese and it won’t let you enter unless you have it translated, which brings up another point in Web development, global appeal. The internet has no borders and I think designers need to take different cultural taste into account. What is tasteful in one part of the world most likely won’t be in another part, so an understanding of design flaws from a intercultural perspective should be considered.  At any rate though, this site is an EPIC FAIL!

I want to make note that the designers of these Web sites, while they appear to be devoid of taste and function, have made an honest attempt at creating a Web site.   I think this is commendable, but I would also recommend a class to them.

What do you think about these sites?

With convergence in the newsroom on the rise, it is imperative to be a jack-of-all-trades. A mix of designing, writing and coding is what the job market demands.

Acquiring theses skills will make you more marketable, and allow you to express your creativity in a multitude of ways. So, I have compiled a list of resources that are useful and will help in all of these areas.

HTML HELP-

Webmonkey.com has become a very useful tool for me to keep up-to-date on building web pages and learning the basics of coding.

html goodies- will hold your hand throughout the html learning process.  It will define the language (javascript, rss etc) and then explain the uses of it. The best part of this site is that it offers ideas and tools for monetizing these skills.

DESIGNER HELP

Designer’s help- is a great place for Web designers to get tips about common problems that arise for a novice designer.  The site offers tips about how to speed up loading time, explaining the difference between binary uploads and ascii, banner makers, etc.

designer’s toolbox – this site is a forum for Web designers to discuss different aspects of designing.  It links to other sites that designers have found useful.  They have referenced sites that address css, fonts, images, icons, inspiration, tutorials, widgets, etc.

WEB WRITING HELP

Web Writing Basics describes how to write for the web.  This information might sound like common sense, but it goes in-depth about how to generate content. It also describes how to create a buzz about the output, and discusses how to tailor the information you share to your audience’s needs and expectations.

Web Writing/Designing This site showcases a combination of both designing and writing for the web.  The point of writing is to have it be read.  Blocks of words and hard-to-read text is a surefire way to ensure that your writing will go unread.  This site points out the “don’ts” of writing for the web, and then offers solutions.

I’ve bookmarked all of these sites, and I try to visit each one at least once a week to stay competitive. I hope you find them useful.

Janell Gripes about twitter.

Why doesn’t Janell like  tweeting, twittering, tweeples or any pre-fixes that start with [tw]?

“10. I don’t think most people are that interesting

9. I don’t think people (who are not my mom) would find me interesting

8. Twitter can be easily abused by spam bots and I don’t have time to filter the mess

7. @#dbpTwitter short hands makes my head hurt

6. The word “twitter” is annoying to say as it is to type

5. This headline

4. I barely update my Facebook status

3. The Obama Twitter Incident could happen to anyone, even me

2. I’d rather read someone’s blog than see a blurb. Give me the pie not the slice

1. Celebrity twitters are the root of all evil.”

I can’t help but explore and expand on her rationale.

The Internet is an unfiltered breeding ground for misinterpretation.  Tweets can be truncated and warped for others to misconstrue.  Editing someone’s opinion and then broadcasting that opinion with their attribution is misleading to say the least.  If google really is your resume, there is a huge problem with trying to protect your words, thoughts and ideas from this global game of telephone.

Marshall McLuhan, a great philsopher, educator and scholar theorized that ”the medium is the message.”

Twitter is a medium in which we broadcast information, ideas and updates.  The twitter platform limits the message to 140 characters, and the system of re-tweets, categorical groupings, shorthand, etc., reflects itself on our meaning.

-This is not to say that a meaningful message can’t be described through this format, but the level of quality should be questioned.

The free-for-all cloud of social networks  has everyone lost in the fog. Twitter gives everyone-who-might-have-nothing-useful-to-say-at-all not only a license but encouragement to spread their jibberish. And what’s worse is that they might ruin your message in the process.

So, what’s the solution?

Oh my Mika! A Review on MIKA.

This Brit takes pop, sprinkles a dash of electronica and a pinch of dance music… and viola Mika’s new album in a nutshell. But there’s more to Mika than just his music…

His feminine mannerisms, soft voice and style risks have people in the media discussing his sexuality.  This androgynous angel pleads the fifth on the topic, opting to add to his mystique.

His lyrics contain ambiguous lines that touch on the sensitive subject, but remain too vague to draw a conclusion.  They are, however, very sexually charged. For example, a pre-teen lollipop fiend will think that his lyrics “sucking too hard on a lollipop” will mean just that.

The song that really got toes tapping to his music was “Grace Kelly,” which was very successful on the radio.  It was about how he could morph himself into anything for the person he loves to want him.  But he doesn’t understand why he is not loved for who he is in the moment. The beat is light and fun, and his voice bounces across the notes in a playfully.  It’s intoxicating, and you just can’t help but sing along to it. His music releases a rambunctious energy.

“The Boy Who Knew Too Much” album mixes up the expected Grace Kellyish-style by inserting slower songs into this collection.  “Blue Eyes” is melancholy, while his voice carries within it a wisp of anger.  These emotions that are juxtapose to bubbly background beats that creates a level of complexity in the composition.

After hours of digging through ePortfolios for inspiration I selected three.  I found the creme de la creme of ePortfolios, and deciphered what I liked about them, and what I didn’t. The three designs examples I settled on looked great, professional and functional.

However, there was something missing, something lackluster about all these designs.  They weren’t me.  I was missing a personalized touch.  Mainly, because I didn’t author them.

I chose “TheToke” because it’s crisp and exciting.  It has an interactive element. It doesn’t overstimulate the  viewer. The designer made it user-friendly and labeled the links clearly.  Viewers don’t have to wonder around the site for anything. It’s at their fingertips, literally. The design allows the viewer leeway to customize the site for themselves.  They can change the view mode, modifying it to their preferences.

While it’s good, I would still change a few things : – the opening page takes awhile to load [understandable] but perhaps to entertain the viewer a more lively animation would work better.  I don’t like that it’s not clear about what business it conducts. The way it’s setup now the viewer would have to click on the page bar that said “what” for them to discover what business it is.   I would also like the social network links to have an icon so the site could easily be shared.

“Vault49″ design- this design is very catchy, but again not overwhelming.  The artwork is visually interesting, and the page doesn’t take a long time to load.  The left-hand side has a sidebar with links on it, when you click the link you can see that item appear in a photo that is the main focus of the page.

Improvements/mutations- This is a designer’s site, and it’s setup to describe subjects to viewers through the photos.  That makes sense for their business.  However, I would  swap the sidebar to thumbnails, and the main focus be a blurb/tease of my writing/resume/etc.  I would also rather have the sidebar morphed into a page bar that lines the top of the site.  Again I think that the social media sites should be highlighted on the pages with a RSS link, and then a link to it.  Perhaps even a widget that allows for interaction right there on the ePortfolio site.  I would really link to see the contact information to be a key focus of the page.  Perhaps, placed on the left-hand side in larger text.

Form Troopers

“Form Troopers” design – I like that it quickly loads, and the graphic where “the news” will be displayed drops down onto the page.  It seems playful. I really like that is has personality, with all the objects in the background [including a robot with a tomahawk?].   The background is white/ lighter colors than the focus of that page, that is in a black box.  The page bar is black and clearly displays page links in white. Some of these pages display an interactive element of a video.  They use movement sparingly, by only displaying one video at a time. I love that the drop down menu of the “contact info” bar displays all their info. and a map of where they are located.

Troopers caught my attention because it has basic features, but it might be too basic to be impressive.   It takes awhile before it’s clear what business it conducts, which I’m not a fan of.  The mini-blurbs on the featured news portion are too short and the type too small.

If I had to choose one of these three it would be troopers, modified by my minor suggestions of course. =]

I would add a touch of lightness to the site with a personalized cursor.  I haven’t decided on what the icon would be, but it would be epic. hah

what do you think my cursor should be?

A) A picture of me

B) A reporters notebook

C) Other