4/25/2004
but i don't wanna study
at first i got 'wuthering heights' but i thought that was lame so i changed some answers and voila! yup, i'm a cheater.
4/23/2004
ok fine then
since all the cool kids seem to be doing it, we're going to play this 'ask three questions' game too. so here's your chance to get to know the girls at digitaldownpour a little better. want to know why allie went nuts at the digital downpour party? always wondered if mira is secretly a karaoke genius disguised as a terrible singer? want to know the secret incredients to our 'drink of death'? sure you do. just ask us each three questions in the comments and we will answer shortly.
4/16/2004
this is wack
ok so I know i already put a link to these videos in an earlier post, but I don't think anyone actually read our blog back then. plus this video may just be the most wack thing ever.
4/14/2004
bloggers gone wild: the video
4/13/2004
digital booze
4/12/2004
say what?
here are some memorable quotes from friday's coms party. most of them are allie's cause she is hilarious.
"Oh, yea, I out crazied them good!"
- allie, on outcrazying the crazy people in the park.
"I tought I was just drunk."
- allie, on why she didn't notice that her glasses were covered in muck.
"Joffe's downstairs flirting with that band....Yea he's networking"
-em, on where joffe is.
"I want to call digital downpour!"
- allie, flustered that she didn't have the number for our blog.
photos and bloggers gone wild video coming soon!
"Oh, yea, I out crazied them good!"
- allie, on outcrazying the crazy people in the park.
"I tought I was just drunk."
- allie, on why she didn't notice that her glasses were covered in muck.
"Joffe's downstairs flirting with that band....Yea he's networking"
-em, on where joffe is.
"I want to call digital downpour!"
- allie, flustered that she didn't have the number for our blog.
photos and bloggers gone wild video coming soon!
4/09/2004
Self-eval
From the first day of blogging with Allie, I knew I was in for one wild ride. But just how wild, I could never have guessed. The endless giggling over whether to call our new web journal ‘a streetcar named blog’ or ‘blogcicle’ pretty much set the tone for the rest of the semester. But soon, we sobered up long enough to stumble upon a book of Haiku lying by my computer, page 14-
Winter downpour,
even the monkey
needs a raincoat.
-and our much loved home away from home, digital downpour, was born.
While I think I’ve kept pretty much the same tone of voice since the beginning, my early entries were a bit random and only slightly related to the class. My posts were often left on the back burner while I fiddled with the layout of our blog, adding some colours here, a comments link there and a few photos scattered in between. But, eventually, I shaped up and started to relate my posts directly to the readings and was (usually) getting at some kind of point towards the end.
I must say, I’m very happy with how this whole blog experience turned out. At the beginning of the semester I barely knew what a blog was and now every other word out of my mouth is blog this or blog that… well not quite, but it may as well be.
My favourite post of mine is probably ‘Objective Journalism vs. Journalistic Activism’, inspired by the GNN guest speaker. As for my favourite other blog, it’s hard to choose just one cause there are so many awesome bloggers in the class. Basically, if it’s on our list of blog links on the left, then it rocks. Special shout outs to Em, Jerry and Mike and Jer’s class and photo blog.
An even more special shout out goes to digital downpour's very own queen of sarcasm, Allie. A gal couldn't ask for a better blog-buddy than she.
So while Coms 256 may be over, digital downpour is just geting started, and we're just going to keep on blogging like there's no tomorow. Just you try to stop us.
Winter downpour,
even the monkey
needs a raincoat.
-and our much loved home away from home, digital downpour, was born.
While I think I’ve kept pretty much the same tone of voice since the beginning, my early entries were a bit random and only slightly related to the class. My posts were often left on the back burner while I fiddled with the layout of our blog, adding some colours here, a comments link there and a few photos scattered in between. But, eventually, I shaped up and started to relate my posts directly to the readings and was (usually) getting at some kind of point towards the end.
I must say, I’m very happy with how this whole blog experience turned out. At the beginning of the semester I barely knew what a blog was and now every other word out of my mouth is blog this or blog that… well not quite, but it may as well be.
My favourite post of mine is probably ‘Objective Journalism vs. Journalistic Activism’, inspired by the GNN guest speaker. As for my favourite other blog, it’s hard to choose just one cause there are so many awesome bloggers in the class. Basically, if it’s on our list of blog links on the left, then it rocks. Special shout outs to Em, Jerry and Mike and Jer’s class and photo blog.
An even more special shout out goes to digital downpour's very own queen of sarcasm, Allie. A gal couldn't ask for a better blog-buddy than she.
So while Coms 256 may be over, digital downpour is just geting started, and we're just going to keep on blogging like there's no tomorow. Just you try to stop us.
4/08/2004
Media Hegemony and the American Dream
Three simple steps to living the American Dream:
1. Start with a little.
2. Work hard or get lucky.
3. End up with a lot (and live happily ever after).
So I’m reading The Gazette yesterday and a headline in the business section catches my eye: ‘Trump’s hit reality show pushes American dream’. A vague recollection of a short lived class discussion comes to mind in which one student was heard to say "it happens everyday". Well, that may be true, but I’m not convinced. As far as I’m concerned, the question isn’t whether ‘rags to riches’ success stories are daily occurings or not but rather why the mainstream media is so set on convincing us that they are?
The Gazette article went on, not to critique the Trump show at all, but to focus on how NYC tourists are now flocking to the Trump Towers with their cameras, wanting to re-enact the "You’re fired!" catch phrase, which, by the way, may soon be copyrighted property of Trump himself.
The whole concept of ‘The Apprentice’ is based on glorifying material wealth as a measure of success and happiness as do most ads on mainstream television. You’re not complete. You need more stuff. Why don’t you buy this new car? Of course you can afford it cause you’re going to make it rich some day.
But where are all the reality shows about people who don't make it rich? Real people who work hard all their lives and still don't end up any better off, financially at least, than when they began. This obviously doesn't fit with the dominant ideologies the media wants to present, and it certainly wouldn't sell as many products as the escapist breed of reality shows which make people envious of what they see on tv.
So, getting back to my original question of why the media is so intent on perpetuating the belief that the average Joe can become a millionaire, could it be because the notion of the American Dream as a metanarrative of "common sense" encourages the ‘more is better’ mentality, in turn driving the consumer-tendencies in all of us?
Oh yeah. The article also plugs Trump’s new book, aptly titled How to Get Rich. Because we all know it’s as easy as one, two, three.
1. Start with a little.
2. Work hard or get lucky.
3. End up with a lot (and live happily ever after).
So I’m reading The Gazette yesterday and a headline in the business section catches my eye: ‘Trump’s hit reality show pushes American dream’. A vague recollection of a short lived class discussion comes to mind in which one student was heard to say "it happens everyday". Well, that may be true, but I’m not convinced. As far as I’m concerned, the question isn’t whether ‘rags to riches’ success stories are daily occurings or not but rather why the mainstream media is so set on convincing us that they are?
The Gazette article went on, not to critique the Trump show at all, but to focus on how NYC tourists are now flocking to the Trump Towers with their cameras, wanting to re-enact the "You’re fired!" catch phrase, which, by the way, may soon be copyrighted property of Trump himself.
The whole concept of ‘The Apprentice’ is based on glorifying material wealth as a measure of success and happiness as do most ads on mainstream television. You’re not complete. You need more stuff. Why don’t you buy this new car? Of course you can afford it cause you’re going to make it rich some day.
But where are all the reality shows about people who don't make it rich? Real people who work hard all their lives and still don't end up any better off, financially at least, than when they began. This obviously doesn't fit with the dominant ideologies the media wants to present, and it certainly wouldn't sell as many products as the escapist breed of reality shows which make people envious of what they see on tv.
So, getting back to my original question of why the media is so intent on perpetuating the belief that the average Joe can become a millionaire, could it be because the notion of the American Dream as a metanarrative of "common sense" encourages the ‘more is better’ mentality, in turn driving the consumer-tendencies in all of us?
Oh yeah. The article also plugs Trump’s new book, aptly titled How to Get Rich. Because we all know it’s as easy as one, two, three.
