Sound Tracks: Music Without Borders

PBS series Soundtracks: Music Without Borders is a catchy and perfect title for the content of this new show.   PBS is a network aimed at reaching an older demographic and with this show, it is trying to attract younger viewers and those who have an interest in music.  Soundtracks: Music Without Borders focuses on four reporters exposing music from around the world and how it can be used beyond the purpose of entertainment and take one beyond his personal realm of music.  In the pilot episode, we are taken to Russia, Nigeria, and Kazakhstan.  Each reporter gave a taste of each country’s culture and music and how it influenced politics and its people.  I looked forward to the segment about the controversy on the Kazakhstan’s fake national anthem featured on the movie Borat the most.  It seemed the most interesting because I’ve seen the movie. I also enjoyed the portion in Nigeria highlighting Afrobeat because I haven’t been exposed to that music genre and it also raised awareness about governmental issues in the country.  Each story presented a different way of looking at music. I feel that if the show continued to share stories with topics that the target audience can familiarize with (e.g. Borat); it will be more attracting.  Its various subject matters give the show potential for bridging education and pop culture or “brainwashing” material together.

I think the show is diverse and has content that will allow its viewers to be more open minded. The show is great for introducing different styles of music that can be refreshing to the ear. I don’t really watch PBS because I feel like I’m in class. Now that I know about the show, I wouldn’t mind watching it if there wasn’t anything else on TV that I find interesting.  I’d probably try to tune in at the beginning of the show to see what topics they are going to cover.  I liked how the show mixed in two topics I knew nothing about and one I related to.

Links Worthwhile

I haven’t really had time to watch as much TV as I used to but here are two links that I think are worth knowing for finding out the latest in the entertainment business.

http://mashable.com/entertainment/tv/ is a good resource because it covers multiple categories about what’s going on in the TV industry.  Each post is labeled with either entertainment, tech, mobile, and web video which make it easier for you to pick out your interests. Mashable.com is a site that is a good resource in general for keeping up with what’s going on in the digital communication world.  With new advancements and capabilities constantly being introduced, this site is a resource to keep up with new features that become available, especially for the iPhone.

http://www.tvguide.com/ I was surprised that this site wasn’t a resource on the class website already and I almost feel hesitant to link it!  I go on this site mostly when I’m lazy to surf through the channels because the cable box in my room doesn’t tell me what’s on TV.  I usually take a peek at the “Breaking News” headlines to find out what’s the going on in the entertainment world.

These are two links that are relative to labor/work/jobs:

http://www.labourstart.org/and http://usa.labourstart.org/ This is a great site for reading about labor news going on globally and nationally.  The first link covers international labor news with headlines listed for each country.  The second link is labor news happening in the US.  Then you can click a specific state to read what’s happening there.  This site is handy allows you to get a jist of what’s happening everywhere just be reading the list of headlines.  It’s interesting to see what different topics are being talked about within each country such as comparing our labor news to a third world country.

http://www.poynter.org/subject.asp?id=62 I was skimming through this site and clicked the careers link and it lead me to articles by a Joe Grimm.  Then I looked into what the site was about and who this guy was to see if he was legit.  Poynter is an institute for journalists and Joe Grimm is a teacher and visiting journalist at Michigan State University.  Although the site’s target are journalists, his articles were aimed at giving advice to those looking for a job.  Some of his articles that I find interesting are How to Make the Most of  Job Fair, Writing for Free and Getting Nowhere, Worry about the Internship, Not the Housing, Take Multiple Internships or Blog?, and Don’t Read Too Much into the Job Posting.

New Qtr, New Class, New Focus

My previous posts focused on digital communication technologies for my com495 class fall qtr.  Today was my first day of winter quarter and I’m in a different special topics com495 class: “The Office 2.0” – Creating and targeting a reality TV show about life and work.

How do you take a great idea and cultivate it into a successful pitch to TV execs? In this workshop class, students will examine an idea for a TV show and will research the concepts, formats and materials needed to make it marketable. Students will work in teams; meet and interview experts; research potential audiences; and study the current TV landscape. The class will culminate in a final project presentation to “clients.”

I’m pretty excited about this class because I mean one of the class requirements is to have TV access; when have I ever had a class assignment like that, to watch TV? NEVER.  Also, I don’t get a chance to watch TV that often but now I have more of a reason to.  I think this class will keep me up to date with current events which is something I need to work on.  This is definitely a unique class and I’m glad I got in!

The Last Bite…

Alana and I had fun with our project because eating was basically our homework!  We decided that we were going to work on adding the sharing content features and gadgets to make our blog more user friendly.  We want to do more with our blog but for now our blog is simple.  We tweet more than we post because we want to keep our visibility so that when we do publish a blog post and tweet about it, it won’t come out of no where.  A majority of our readers are our friends and those who follow us on Twitter.  We’ll probably start to look up and follow other similar food blogs or blogs that have content relative to ours so we can get more readers.  As we’ve said before, we’re also going to add content about other things than just the restaurants we go to.  Also, we’ll probably keep playing around with our layout and one of our friends offered to do a banner for us.  So stay posted and keep up with us!  Because we’ll still be eating even after the class is over.

http://emeraldbites.wordpress.com

twitter.com/emeraldbites

Hop on the Bus!

Before I get into the main topic of this post, I wanted to share about something I posted about back in November.  I did a birthday post about how I got an iPhone for my birthday and one of my favorite apps was Words With Friends (WWF).  On December 11, Wired.com awarded my favorite app the “Wired.com Readers’ Favorite iPhone Apps of 2009.” Yay!  A well deserved award because I’ve persuaded many of my fellow iPhone buddies to download the app and play. Definitely check out the rest of the top 5 iPhone app winners.   Congrats to WWF!

Now on to a different matter, today I had to turn in my paper about my internship as a field organizer/communications intern for the Dow Constantine campaign.  I finally went onto the Washington Bus website and found out what the organization was all about.  This is what I found out…

We’re you. We’re young people here in Washington who want to make our state a better place. We live in Vancouver, Yakima, Seattle, Tacoma and everywhere in between. We know politics doesn’t happen only in Olympia or in a business suit – it happens everywhere we are, dressed in sneakers and hoodies. At the Bus, we know we can shape the future of Washington – and even more importantly, we put our words into action.

I think that the Washington Bus is an awesome idea!  It’s great to hear that there are organizations out there who are reaching out to the youth to get involved.  Their blog Hella Bus caught my attention because I say “hella” hella.  When I read through their blog, I was enticed and wanted to read it because I felt like I was talking to one of my friends because of the content/dialogue.  I feel like the author or one of the authors (since I’m not sure who the writers are) share similar interests.  I like how their content mix because it has random posts that anyone can get a good laugh out of and then they also have informative posts and promote events.  There’s a little something for everyone.  Their blog tag is “the washington bus’s blog– politics for our generation.”  I just wanted to spread the word about their blog because I wanted to give the people behind this idea props!  It’s definitely something everyone check out once in a while (especially if you’re one of those people who aren’t really interested in politics), at least this is an easier, more conversational read.

Be informed!

All for One

Photo from Digital Convergence and Its Consequences Hong Kong article.

Home telephone service. Television. Internet access. Mobile service.  The four things that make the our current world spin.  In the Your Television is Ringing article, it focuses on the idea of convergence which is “the coming together of previously separate communications and entertainment services: fixed and mobile telephony, broadband internet access and television.”  Billions of dollars are being spent by different companies emphasizing customer efficiency, simplicity, convenience, and freedom, which can make up a “digital paradise” for customers.  As companies continue to envision this paradise for consumers, it may seem like the ideal way to go because you’re paying for all your needed services to one company, well that’s just it, it’s all under one company.  Who knows what the people with the big bucks upstairs are doing and controlling with our communication and entertainment options.  Customers are blinded by this “digital paradise.”

My roommates and I are Comcast customers and have been persuaded numerous times about purchasing the Triple Pay package which includes a land line, cable, and internet service.  Honestly, we don’t need a landline because we all have cell phones that we use.  If anything, our landline would probably just receive calls from telemarketers and we really don’t want to pay for those calls.  In contrast, my home phone at my parents’ home serves more purpose because we’ve had that line for a longer amount of time and was our main line before the cell phone takeover so that number has been given out to more people.  My parents are the only ones who receive calls on that line, mostly long distance or business calls.

As college students, we only needed internet and cable and we told Comcast that.  We were offered a package which only included cable and internet for a cheaper price than if we paid for each separately.  Perfect for our needs BUT then there was a catch.  This deal only accounted for either 3 or 6 months and then our bill would be the same amount as paying for a Triple Play package.  In the end, we’re still pushed toward the Triple Play bundle.

The idea of a “quadruple play” is the direction that these services are companies are headed towards.  I feel that customers will be blinded by the convenience of a “all for one” deal but these companies are plotting to monopolize and trap us.  There’s a reason for having different companies who provide the same services of either cable or wireless service.  There’s a reason why there’s AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile and Comcast, Qwest, Clear wire.  These companies satisfy different customers.  There are some people who don’t care about paying less for a service that’s not up to par to its competitors.  Sometimes it’s just even about not being able to afford it.  Companies need to find better ways of bundling their services.

How is a quadruple package going to benefit you?

How long do you think home phone lines are going to last?

How do you feel about all your communications and information being under the roof of one company?

I see you!

Me.

Fring action

I see you, but in a whole other way.  This morning I was introduced to an iPhone application called Fringe.  My best friend who I’ve been either iChatting via video and Skyping with every night called me during my slumber and told me to download the Fringe app.  He said that it would be a way to do Skype with our phones so we both logged onto our Skype accounts on the Fringe app. We thought were going to be able to video conference on our phones but we learned that it was a one way video communication deal.  Then I logged onto my Skype account on my Mac and he called me on my Skype account through Fring on his iPhone.  Ta-da!  We were able to communicate and he was able to see me but I wasn’t able to see him.  Pretty cool huh?  He works at AT&T and all his co-workers were able to see me be a bum at home.  My friend who also works with my best friend was able to see her son and boyfriend at home while she was at work via Fringe.

That video pretty much sums it up and actually expanded my 5 hour knowledge of Fring (including the pronunciation which I thought was “fringe”).  You can also log onto other accounts through Fringe such as MSN Messenger, ICQ, SIP, Google Talk, Twitter, Yahoo, and AIM.  As for me, the Skype, AIM, Yahoo, and Twitter are the programs I use the most.  I’m curious to see

I recommend that anyone who has an iPhone or iTouch should try out this app. Fring Adds Video Calling to iPhone was posted on Dec. 1 so Fring and the video feature is very recent.   I’m not really sure how it would work on an iTouch but Fring works with network data service and wifi.  I think it can be both a fun and useful app to have.  I like the idea that I can take my friends anywhere with me and video chat with them.  It’s like sending them a video but it’s me live. The only downside is your friend with whom you’re trying to communicate with must be on a computer with a webcam for you to see them.  I see this being useful for me because my dad works in Afghanistan and it’d be fun for him to call me on his Yahoo account and see him wherever I am.  I think I’m going to ask him to try it the next time he calls which will be pretty exciting.  This app could also be useful for on-the-go business and group work.

I’m glad that my best friend introduced me to this app because I feel like an early adopter (even though it’s probably been around for a while) and I think it’ll be fun to learn and see how this app progresses.  It’s definitely one of the more useful apps that I’ve downloaded for free.