Yesterday I commented briefly on the fact that I thought that sci-fi shows seem to be getting for more militarised:
The current trend in American sf towards quite militaristically themed programmes is unfortunate perhaps (a little too rah-rah army) but unavoidable given the leanings of the U.S govt of late (and the so-called "War on Terror").
(Is it weird to blockquote yourself?)
Anyways, I guess I must have picked up on this vibe from the ether as this morning I found a link to a blog post (http://barnesm.journalspace.com/) from a few days ago on this very topic. (Which may or may not do a much better job on it than I did :)
Another example of how our scif-fi, and perhaps these are a reflection of societal changes, is the attitudes held by the protagonists are moving towards a more 'total war' mind set.
In Star Trek: the Next generation ' I, Borg' (1992) the federation is facing an enemy (The Borg) that is threatening to wipe it out, (- although in spite of this the population of the federation never seems to drop below billions of beings), when the Enterprise crew develop a computer virus to infect their pet Borg 'Hugh' and send him back to the collective this virus would wipe the Borg out. Do they choose to eliminate the 'greatest threat the federation has ever faced', NO of course not, everyone in the crew from the captain down are bleating about stuff like: Hugh's now an individual, we don't have the right to wipe out a species…etc.
Now contrast this with
Battlestar Galactica: reimaged 'A measure of salvation' (2007) where humanity is down to less that 50,000 and the Cyclons hold the numbers, the weapons and the reproductive advantage, when a way is found that if they kill the infected cyclon prisoners when they are in range of a resurrection ship when these cyclons ('skin jobs' as they call them, thank you Blade Runner) download they will infect the entire race, (trust me it makes sense in the series) and die. Both the president Roslin and Commander of the Military Adama hesitate all of 2 seconds before they put in motion the plan for Genocide, any hand wringing, any 'do we have the right', they initiate the plan as soon as possible.
I popped out to Caffe Della Piazza in Garema Place (Civic, Canberra) last night - a bit of a favourite in the Italian stakes in town.
What I particularly like about this restaurant is the way they list the recommended wines with each meal (evidently they have a multi-award winning wine cellar). I can't say I've generally followed the recommendations to date but thought I'd give it a try last night as I really didn't know what I wanted.
So I had the Pollo Martinella (something like that) - chicken breast sitting on top big mushroom with fetta and with this a Villa Maria Sauvignon Blanc - worked an absolute treat. Nice, full, fruity and cold.
(Excuse the brevity of the post, I'd figured that I could do a spiel on the joys of filling in breakfast radio but checking back I did that last week. Oh well. )
I figured that if I was going to be a single geek on Valentine's Day, I should act like one :)
Possibly the geekiest thing about Battlestar Galactica (BSG) is the fact that the I.T genius just happens to be shagging - either in flashback or imagination - the most attractive woman in the show (far right of pic) and is now working his moves on the second most.(middle of pic) (Actually, for the record, I find the first one a little disturbingly masculine for my tastes but I'm sure fanboys across the 'tubes feel differently).
But seriously, while it's very early days yet, I'm really enjoying this show (and not just for the nerd wish-fulfilment reasons above) - BSG is actually well written sci-fi (sf) with a lot of interesting ideas.
The current trend in American sf towards quite militaristically themed programmes is unfortunate perhaps (a little too rah-rah army) but unavoidable given the leanings of the U.S govt of late (and the so-called "War on Terror").
BSG however has made the most of this with some interesting insights into the ethical issues involved in dealing with possible suicide bombers and enemy-within paranoia. (I'm looking forward to their examination of Abu Ghraib style interrogation).
While I'm yet to see it, from what I've read, as the story progresses the evil robotic Cylons come more and more to represent the US forces in Iraq while the plucky humans act like the insurgents.
Now maybe this is just one skewed view of the development of the story but I've read this in a few places (none of which spring to mind of course or I'd link to them) so I'm prepared to accept this as true.
This is one of the things I really like about the SF genre (and the horror genre as well for that matter) - because they are somewhat marginalised, put into the too-nerdy-to-take-seriously basket, you'll often find that they contain some of pop cultures most incisive social commentary.
Waiting at the traffic lights this morning on the ride to work, a song fragment popped into my head. I don't know the title (I'm guessing Daniel) but the lyrics were
And it looked like Daniel, must be the clouds in my eyes
I'm pretty sure this is an Elton John song but the whys and wherefores of why it came to mind are beyond me.
Anyway, it made me think about the number of songs that have people's names in them and whether these songs are somehow special to them. (Or alternately, whether they cringe every time it comes up - imagine Roxanne, for instance).
Personally I've never heard a song with my name - Colin - in it so I don't really know. Interestingly, a quick google tells me that Blur have a song called Colin Zeal but this is the first I've heard of it's existance.
So given this lack of a song about - well - me (ok, more specifically my name but you know you would make it about you as well), I started pondering who might actually sing a song about Colin.
A few tidbits about Colin before we press on - it was last year announced as the twentieth whitest name ever and in my case, came from one of the Chronicles of Narnia books - either The Silver Chair or The Horse and His Boy. (Which I suspect is why I have a slight aversion to the fantasy genre).
Colin is a particularly English name (Scottish as well) so my first thought was Jarvis Cocker/Pulp - given the Blur thing it's nice to see that I wasn't so far off. Being a Jarvis/Pulp song I would imagine Colin wearing a green vest with diamond patterns on the front, working in a bank and living a life of quiet desparation while dreaming of more. (Of course, that sums up a lot of Pulp songs - bless'em)
This being a bit bleak, I moved on to Australian Crawl and particularly one of my favourite songs of theirs, Errol. (About Errol Flynn).
Hey, if they can write a song about a guy called Errol, how difficult could Colin be? And the chorus works pretty well too.
"Oh Colin, I would give everything, just to be like him"
Tenacious D might like the comedic value of a name like Colin - I really don't know what they might do with it and for some reason I'm concerned that this would end up being a metal-opera song about a gerbil or something, so possibly better that they don't.
I have to say I'd be pretty happy if Peaches released a Colin song - I really can't imagine how it would go but it would be sexy as all get out, there would be great riffage, a healthy dollop of swearing and my cool factor would easily double overnight.
Eeyewww - I just thought of another band that could conceivably write a Colin song - The Whitlams. Damn them to hell for spoiling my daydreams of being musically immortalised.
Other possibilities - Augie March, Bjork, Cake, Chumbawumba, The Flaming Lips, Franz Ferdinand, Justin Timberlake (just kidding), Lemon Jelly, Machine Translations, Mogwai, Morrissey, Pink Floyd, The Shins, The Stone Roses and Yo La Tengo.
I'd like to be able to add Nick Cave to that list (and possibly Kiss) but that's never going to happen.
Ooh and I just thought of another Col song that I have actually heard - Weddings Parties Anything - The ballad of Peggy and Col.
So what about you? What are your songs or who do you think would write a good song about you/your name?
(Here are the lyrics to Colin Zeal anyway, for what it's worth)
Colin Zeal knows the value of mass appeal He's a pedestrian walker, he's a civil talker He's an affable man with a plausible plan Keeps his eye on the news, keeps his future in hand
And then he...
Looks at his watch, he's on time yet again Looks at his watch, he's on time yet again He's pleased with himself, he's pleased with himself He's so pleased with himself, ah ha
While sitting in traffic, Colin thinks in automatic He's an immaculate dresser, he's your common aggressor He's a modern retard with a love of bombast Keeps his eye on the news, doesn't dwells on the past
And then he...
Looks at his watch, he's on time yet again Looks at his watch, he's on time yet again He's pleased with himself, he's pleased with himself He's so pleased with himself, ah ha He's pleased with himself, he's pleased with himself He's so pleased with himself, ah ha
And then he...
Looks at his watch, he's on time yet again Looks at his watch, he's on time yet again He's pleased with himself, he's pleased with himself He's so pleased with himself, ah ha He's pleased with himself, he's pleased with himself He's so pleased with himself, ah ha He's pleased with himself, he's pleased with himself He's so pleased with himself, ah ha He's pleased with himself, he's so pleased with himself He's so pleased with himself, ah ha
He's a modern retard, he's terminal lard He's an affable man, with a carrotene tan Because Colin Zeal's ill Colin Zeal's ill Colin Zeal's ill)
For work recently I've been converting some videos made in Auslan (Australian Sign Language).
They are set up like a morning tv talk show, with host and guest doing an interview on a comfy couch in a pastel studio - just with no sound.
At uni, it was drummed into me endlessly by my film teacher (and I thank him for it to this day) that the pictures are only half of the film/video - the soundtrack is equally important but generally is not treated as such.
This is the obvious exception. (That said, I was still surprised at first that there was no sound at all and had to call and check if there was meant to be any - old habits die hard)
It is said that when (hearing) people communicate, they get something like 93% of the meaning of the conversation from non-verbal cues - body language, facial expressions and the like. (Not sure if tone of voice applies here - I guess not). This makes it interesting to watch someone signing, as it's all non-verbal. Does the 93% rule still apply or is there some other equation drawn into the mix?
This isn't one of the videos that I've been working on (not sure about the copyright issues) but it is a good example of the expressiveness that comes into Auslan.
There are the hand gestures but there are also a range of facial expressions.
This next one is kind of interesting as well in that the resolution is a fair bit lower, which raises the question, how detailed are these gestures and how large does the screen need to be to convey the conversation in a video. (A question I'm working on at the moment with our Auslan teacher)(Update: apparently the 320 x 240 is too small, she prefers the 720 x 576)
A few other random thoughts that come to mind:
Do people sign differently when they are drunk, angry/fighting, distracted, have sore hands?
Wouldn't it have been cool if there was a moment in the Buffy episode "Hush" - the one where monsters steal everyone's voices - if there were a couple of deaf people signing to each other going - "what are these people all freaking out about?"
How do you work around the use of voiceover in videos? (Subtitles?)
Am I invading people's privacy by posting these videos? (Well, they put them up on YouTube)
What about "singing" along to music? (Actually, this is one of those questions you ask when you already know the answer - here's a final video where someone is signing a song - it's Savage Garden so I'm guessing it can only be an improvement) (Damn it, it had to be the only Auslan video where they have the sound on it :)
On Friday I finished the shell for the new XXfm (currently known as 2XXfm - more on this in a minute) website - you can check out the whole site here - http://www.users.bigpond.com/colsim
This isn't the first time I've worked on the XXfm website but it's certainly been a different experience to the last one. For one thing, I've learnt a fair slab of CSS this time. (Whoo, welcome to 1998 :) This means that the site is lightweight (ie - small file size meaning that it loads quickly) and that it's easier to change.
I could go off on a big bitch about the way that politics, ego and empire building have made it more difficult to go about implementing the website (which strictly speaking still isn't finished) but frankly that would involve joining the game and I would just as rather not. Besides, I'm sure that some of my actions are probably relatively controversial (in a small community volunteer organisation sense, not in a logical sense) and I could do without the aggravation. So I won't.
Suffice to say that the station has been known as 2XX ever since we switched from the AM band (where all call-signs are 2 letters prefaced by a number indicating the state/territory that you are in). My feeling is that the station identity needs a revamp and that 2xx suggests that we are still an AM station (in attitude at the very least).
Shifting to XXfm seems a logical move. (Technically, the station callsign was changed to 1XXR fm when we go the FM license but XX seems a little stronger, edgier. )
Having been involved in a volunteer community organisation before however where we tried to change the name, I know that this is a highly contentious issue - we went from RAT tv (Richmond Access Television) to YCAT (Yarra Community Access Tv). Yarra TV - my suggestion, died in committee. (I read a quote a while back that
committees are the cul-de-sacs that ideas are lured down and quietly strangled
).
Anyway, my point is that changing the name - and ideally the logo, as this has been around as long as the station - is going to cause ructions. I have full support from station management but there are some there who aren't necessarily on top on things when it comes to dealing with people.
Wow, I guess this has all been building up in me for a while.
Getting back to the website building, I started by investigating as many other community radio stations as possible, getting an idea of the kind of content that they provide and stealing as many good ideas as I could find. This included sections like - how do I get my band on air, announcer and listener profiles and a community discussion board.
To this I've added things that I haven't seen on other sites but that I have come across in the course of general browsing and investigating nifty web tools for work (Flickr badges, interactive Google maps) and added the possibility of user generated content - XXfm promos and custom designed banner ads for the station.
This progressed to whipping up a design in photoshop - all very web 2.0, rounded corners and clean space, simple colour scheme (orange black and white) and from there it was on to actually building the thing.
With a quick stop to work through a Learning CSS book on the way, what you see above is pretty much the culmination. (The rounded corners are yet to come - they're much more fiddly than you would think).
Probably the most challenging part of the building process - after fracking around trying to find a colour combination that has sufficient colour and contrast difference to meet accessibility guidelines - has been ensuring cross browser compatibility.
I was a little surprised here to find that IE7 tended to display things much better than my much preferred Flock and Firefox. Most of the tweaking has been to get things positioned properly in the minority (but superior) browser. (Of course, my buttons display properly now in the Firefox family and are just a bit off in IE but it's all good)
Getting access to the web server will be the next challenge - apparently that presents a security risk. (Sigh).
