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Four hundred thirty sixth entry - a note
2009-06-03 22:53:46
Time - 9:48, Noise - Dead By April - "Angels of Clarity"
By promoting our way, we exclude others.
Exclusion is a sort of shorthand for prejudice... when you think about it.
- Jen -
Four hundred thirty fifth entry - shock
2009-03-03 09:42:42
Time - 8:32, Noise - George Harrison - "I Got My Mind Set on You"
They changed my .org. *sigh*
I was relieved when I saw that I could drop away the menus I didn't want, but half of the options I use are in five different menus now, so that doesn't really help. The setup from before kept them within two or so menus. And now they added stuff I don't use and didn't want.
Oh well. It sounds like I'm complaining, but I'm really not. It's not a bad change - just one I didn't need is all.
By the way... let's all be proud of Ulty. At 21 years old, I've finally managed to score my first job - and it's not even a *real* job when you think about it. Ten hours a week at the most taking care of the recycling rooms in my dorm hall. But hey, I get paid for it. Yesterday was my first day, and it's majorly frustrating when they don't keep the rooms maintained. I worked for my allotted two hours per day and still didn't manage to get up to the fourth floor. I have to do that today and then hope I still have time to maintain the other three floors before my awkward Tuesday schedule swallows up my time. At least I'll get the fourth floor done. That's all that matters. Once I get that under control, maintaining them every day will be much easier and quicker than the initial clean out was.
Anyway, classes soon. Gotta go. See you, folks.
- Jen -
Four hundred thirty fourth entry - just stopping by
2009-01-26 12:35:50
Time - 11:07, Noise - the former FMV2 mix... -_-
http://www.animemusicvideos.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=85211&p=1210310#p1210310
You had to have figured I would probably do this. It wouldn't surprise me if pretty much all of you had already forgotten about the project and deleted your clips. I wouldn't blame you, either.
Go figure, though... I manage to score some editors that I really wanted in a MEP and then I go and fuck it up. That's so like me... failing at everything I try to do.
As you might guess if you've been following along (not that I imagine anyone has been), I'm back from Spain. Actually, I got back six weeks ago and I started school again last Tuesday. To tell the truth, I don't really want to be here. I want to be back in Spain, and given my major and how pointless it was to come back this semester, I was really stupid to not go for a full year abroad. There's not much I can do about it now, except to wait until I finish my minor and hope to high hell that I can try to go for another semester abroad or that I can at least visit Spain for a week or two after I graduate. I have zero support from my family on this matter, of course, as they all thought it was a waste of time and money to send me over there to begin with. But whose time? And whose money? Certainly not theirs. The money I'm using to go to college is all loans that *I* will have to pay back, and anything that I borrowed from them for Spain was paid back literally within three days after returning home. Anything that I'm doing now is on my head later - no one else's.
I don't really know how to end this without it diving off the deep end into Emo Land, and there's nothing to be gained from that, so I'll end it here.
Expect my presence around the site to be like it has been while I was abroad - scarce. I still check the site daily, but you likely won't see me actively participating for quite some time.
See you.
- Jen -
Four hundred thirty third entry - vanishing act
2008-09-02 03:53:39
Time - 2:49, Noise - that music from Koop's new video...
Goodbye, farewell.
I'm leaving on my flight for Seville, Spain tomorrow (well, today, technically). I'll see you all in December. Try not to edit anything too awesome while I'm gone, 'kay? : )
- Jen
PS: if anyone is still alive in FMV2 when I get back, hopefully we can remodel that thing and finish it properly. For now, it's on hiatus. -
Four hundred thirty second entry - useless garbage
2008-07-21 00:52:55
Time - 11:24, Noise - echoing in my head
Ugh. I still hurt from falling down the stairs. Last time, my tailbone kept hurting for a month, but this fall wasn't nearly as bad, so I hope it heals quicker.
Anyway, the point of this entry is that I don't watch music videos. I'm not talking about the things we edit. I'm talking about those Cod-forsaken monstrosities that they show on music channels and try to pass off as entertainment. There are a couple of "real" videos that I find to be extremely well done, but those are few and far between. (For example, Vast's "Pretty When You Cry" is quite good and actually offers up an entirely different interpretation of the song if you've heard it before you saw the video.)
The subject of today's topic is a well-known song, and I assume a well-known video as well - Rihanna's "Umbrella." I don't particularly care for the hip hop and/or R&B genre(s) of music anyhow, but I've heard this song enough - and looked up the lyrics to be sure - that I know it's more or less about always being at someone's back, no matter what the circumstances. Unconditional friendship, essentially. It's a good message, and certainly better than half of the songs that are about getting smashed and smokin' a blunt, or, and let's not get me too carried away on this, but those ones where the entire song is every rapper in the song spending the entirety of said song chanting each other's names with the occasional "uh huh" and "yeah" thrown in for rhythm's sake. You all know the kind.
Anyway, back to "Umbrella." I guess my one and only question is this: why in the world does a song about positivity and friendship have a video where Rihanna is doing NOTHING but standing around and looking sexy? What does that have to do with the song AT ALL??? Congrats, Rihanna, you've turned yourself into a sex symbol for four minutes instead of an artist to be taken seriously. Sadly, this is the trend of so many videos nowadays - at least, all of the one's that don't show the band playing in front of a fake audience for three-and-a-half minutes. Videos have zero substance anymore, and to find that rare gem that actually tries to tell a story (hopefully related to the song) through the video is exciting to say the least.
A few examples of what I consider to be well done videos include:
Vast - "Pretty When You Cry" - the song gives the impression that it's about a guy who has a sort of twisted obsession with a girl. However, the video puts a much different spin on this, empowering the woman more and turning into a Little Red Riding Hood Nightmare, more or less.
Gackt - "Last Song" - yes, this shows a fair bit of Gackt singing, but underneath that is the story of a man writing a song for the woman he lost while interjecting various interactions between the couple.
Mute Math - "Typical" - this takes the traditional "show the band playing the song" and turns it backwards... literally. If you're going to use the generic playing-band idea, at least this shows ways to put creative twists on it.
Most anything by Nine Inch Nails (I can't speak for their newer albums, however) fits under the idea of a well done video, even if only because of the imagery they often have.
But sexy girls dancing around? I'm sorry, but unless your song is about sexy girls dancing, I think it's pure, utter garbage to have a video centered around that. Technology has improved enough that it doesn't take a hell of a budget to make an impressive video... now artists just need to find creative ideas to make that happen.
I guess that's my rant for today.
See you, folks.
- Jen
JOURNAL: dj_ultima_the_great (Jen )
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