Big Ol' Italian Words

So my roommate works at The Smoking Goose in Indianapolis as their production manager. Since I am so privileged, I get to try some really awesome -and also strange- cuts of cured and smoked meats.

He is making Wild Boar Soppressata. I have never had wild boar before, but the really special thing about this salami is that it is fermented. I never usually think of salamis as being fermented, so that kind of blew my mind. I also got to try a cured salami called Ciauscolo which is also fermented.

The strange thing that I noticed about both of these were that they had a hint of the room in which they were cured in the flavor profile. It didn't taste odd, or sterile or really anything identifiable, but it did have a sort of funk to it. A funk like a blue cheese funk, or a sour beer funk. It tasted interesting.

This got me thinking. I wonder about some of the foods and spirits we consume, and about how they are aged. Take bourbon, for example. Though manufacturing bourbon is done fairly uniformly, they still vary pretty wildly. This is because they are aged in different ways. Last year I visited Buffalo Trace and Woodford distilleries, and I could taste the rooms they were aged in in their respective products. It was a kind of confusing experience in that my smell was giving me sensory information I thought my tongue should - if that makes sense.

I feel like the metaphor for ourselves at this point should be obvious. We are a product of our environments where we are allowed to 'ferment'.

Here is a recipe for Soppressata and Penne pasta. Simple. Rustic. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

Olive oil

4 ounces soppressata or other hard sausage, cut into 1/4 inch dice

6 ounces pancetta, cut into 1/4 inch slices (your deli counter will do this for you) and then cut into 1/4 inch dice

1/4 teaspoon fresh ground pepper

1 tablespoon chopped parsley

5 garlic cloves, chopped

1/2 cup basil leaves, chopped

Two 28 ounce cans whole tomatoes, drained

Salt and pepper

1 14 ounce can diced tomatoes, drained

1 pound of ziti, penne or other small tube pasta

14 ounces fresh mozzarella, cut into one inch dice

Directions:

1. Coat the bottom of a 12 inch frying pan with olive oil and heat over medium heat. Add sausage, pancetta and pepper and cook until lightly browned, adding the parsley near the end.

2. Raise the heat to medium high and add garlic and basil and cook for one more minute.

3. Pour the whole tomatoes into a bowl and crush them with your hands. Add them to the pan and boil them uncovered for about 8 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

4. Stir in diced tomatoes and cook one more minute. Remove from heat and cover the pan.

5. Cook the pasta until it is two minutes from being done. Drain and add it to the skillet with the tomato sauce. Stir over medium heat for a few minutes until pasta is done.

6. Fold in mozzarella and serve at once on your favorite plate.

Fear the Fear II & III

I think my timing was a bit off for my presentation of my assignment. I meant to present my video a bit earlier in the class but I hesitated until the last second. With that in mind, I don't know if people were in the "fear" mode when I presented. But it seemed as though people were receptive to it. Compared to my hypothesis about my project, I think people were enticed by the thought of the unknown and were actively interested in my project.

Aside from the obvious answer of changing my presentation timing, I think that my project was well thought-out. I enjoyed putting my project together and analyzing what it was I was really afraid of.

There were a couple fear projects that resonated with me. The first was David's grief of losing a child and the second was Dana's project on the fear of losing a loved one. David's was an unapologetic outpouring of emotion. It made me think about the possibility of losing a child in the future. Dana's made me want to spend more time with my family. Looking at my project in relation to the two, it seems theirs' were based on a family theme, whereas my project was focused on my own life. It makes me feel a bit selfish about the content of my project.

Fear The Fear

I was way more nervous to interact with people than I think I realized. After my initial plan to shoot and interview inside the hotel failed, I was forced to think on my feet and come up with a plan. I walked and drove around French Lick and West Baden until I saw a promising location and went in for the kill. I never got anybody to do a traditional interview like I had envisioned on the way down. People seemed really put off by the fact that I had a camera. The managers who I talked to were generally quite antsy to get me out of the building.

I initially stopped at the West Baden hotel. I did not bring any of my camera equipment in with me and proceeded to try to find the front desk. I really wanted to save the reaction shot of the dome for when I had better equipment, but unfortunately a shitty video on my phone will have to do. I tried to make it look like I wasn’t filming, but I think I just walked through the huge space looking like a bit of a schmuck, mouth agape, staff and patrons curious about my sanity.

The ladies I talked to at the front desk were curious about what I was filming and I tried to play up my student status to get their sympathy or some information. They passed me onto their marketing director Diane Duncan. I had to call Diane to see if I needed a $50 press pass to shoot inside the building and on the grounds since the hotel and grounds are “copyrighted”. I am going to have to check with my Tech and the Law professor Bryan Redding on that…  Oh, and since it was a Friday at 3 pm. Diane was unavailable.  So, no shots inside the hotel, instead I snuck one as I walked away. The building and dome were absolutely beautiful, but those images will just have to exist in my mind.

I learned that French Lick and West Baden are essentially smashed together and separated by a railway. This railway was now a museum and where I decided to go after being turned down from the Hotel to regroup and determine a new plan. There was not much going on there. Apparently Ben had been there before… I almost abandoned the project entirely at this point but at risk of looking like the idiot l was in the dome, I soldiered on into French Lick.

In French Lick I first found Steve at Whites Service convenience store who didn’t have time for an interview, even though it looked like he had time for everything else imaginable. He recommended I go “over there” when I asked about potential interview candidates. I thanked him for his time and promptly left. “Maybe I should abandon the project?” “People do not seem to want me here” were some of the thoughts pouring through my mind at that point.

Walking away from Whites, I snapped a few pictures of French Lick. It seemed like a town that was a combination of an up-and-coming suburb and a small town. It was a weird, off-putting feeling and anybody who I walked by looked like they did not want to interact with a stranger who carried a camera. This was when I was the most nervous. I was in a foreign town. I had a lot of expensive camera equipment with me. There were some rough looking folks walking around. I was alone. Surveying the town by car sounded like a better idea and was what I decided to do.

I drove around town for a little bit. Actually a lot. I was actually nervous that I would be stopped because I was essentially circling the town trying to decide the best location for an interview. The winery was the best choice and I stopped for a look.

The most receptive person to my insistence on an interview was Nicole at the Winery but I think it was only because I conned her into an ‘interview’ through a wine tasting. Only one blurry image of her exists. Aaron was quite more knowledgeable about wine than Nichole was, so he helped me through the tougher questions I had.  The manager Laura requested that I run any pictures of the winery by her and her team before I made them public. I did not take anymore pictures after that.

Driving out of West Baden/FL I felt like I had quasi-accomplished something. I had an experience in the way that some people, like me, look back on high school and say “it was an experience”. I do not know if it was positive or negative, and honestly, it was a lot of the negative. But I did learn to take on my own challenges and to tell a (hopefully) compelling story.

Fearing the Fear Assignment

1. I have decided I am (mostly) afraid of the unknown. I do not often like to change. It makes me uncomfortable.

2. ???

3. I think people will be excited for my project. I think people will actually like to experience what I will experience but from a vicarious position because, deep down, they are afraid of the unknown too. The unknown offers a sort of excitement about it, though that may be enticing.

To make sure people can get the feelings that I will experience vicariously, I will put some stipulations on my project.

Takeaway10

Eh, a bit late on this. Sorry!

I missed class this week but...

The truth is this fear assignment got me thinking a lot about my job and I felt like I needed to take some time and reflect on some goals and take stock of my career position. I was offered to apply to a position by a friend who thinks I would be a serious contender and would give me a solid, reputable recommendation. Some consequences are I would have to quit school just shy of graduating with a diploma (could school be a wasted investment?). My personal relationship would be jeopardized--she was offered the same one. I had to think about those.

However, I currently work as a server, bartender, trainer, administrator, assistant manager at a restaurant. I do not want to be in the restaurant industry anymore and instead want to start working towards a career that is related to MAS. So I've been searching for something that can satisfy my needs and the truth is...

I am scared. I have worked in restaurants for a steady paycheck for about a decade! Its all I know! I am afraid of what is out beyond restaurant-land! Which brings me to...

Fear...

Fear. What is Fear?

I think Fear is an evolutionary feeling we have towards things that are dangerous, or that we perceive as dangerous.

What I find really interesting about Fear is that when we evolved our prefrontal cortex we evolved the ability to plan things out in our minds. With that ability comes the ability to Fear something that has not happened yet, or may not happen. This reticence towards certain actions based on Fear is something that must be distinctly human because there must be something about the outcome of that action that is not agreeable.

For example. Talking to a room full of people is widely regarded as one of the most difficult things one can do as a human. It is one of the biggest fears people mention. What could go wrong? Well, for starters you may forget to put on pants that day. Wouldn't that be embarrassing? What if you forgot your whole speech and just stood up on stage for ten minutes in silence? That is a possibility, isn't it?

Now, those things are not likely to happen, but in our minds we are able to envision them.

Why Do We Have Fear?

This Fear we have brought with us up the evolutionary chain only serves its intended purpose some of the time. The rest of the time, it is mostly a hindrance.

By overcoming Fear, or the perceived threat of some sort of inconvenient discomfort, we may be able to accomplish goals better and faster.

Takeaway 9

I am writing this as I just finished kegging the tequila beer I mentioned as a part of my previous assignment. Oh man, this is going to be tasty!

Anyway, today was a really great way to start off the week and welcome a renewal of energy toward getting things accomplished. It seems the end of another semester is in sight... didn't we just start last week?

One of the most powerful things brought up in class a couple times was the quality of the things and people around us as opposed to the quantity. Something that I have learned is that everything in our lives requires constant attention and maintenance, otherwise it will come into a state of disrepair.

Or in a more streamlined version "everything around us is in a constant state of entropy".

Entropy - lack of order or predictability; gradual decline into disorder

The things we choose to not take care of will gradually fall apart. This is true of all things. Relationships. Cars. Pets. Roads. Guitar skills. I could go on but I think you get the picture...

Another thing brought up today was a surprising lack of people who knew who they were. Now, that is not to say that I am the most confident person in who I am. But I feel like I have a pretty good grasp on the previous experiences that have shaped me into who I want to be.

I know who I want to be, but ultimately its the future that makes me nervous.

Maybe that was the point of the exercise; to challenge us to look into the crystal ball of the future and see the kind of people we wanted to become? Or maybe it was to take stock of all the experiences we have had and try to make sense of them all and amalgamate them into a singular person to better understand ourselves?

Man, I don't know if I will ever understand existentialism...

Two Questions

Who am I? Why am I here?

I am a person who is creative and can motivate other creative people to make some cool art together.

In September of 2010 I co-founded a record label with some friends. Now, as cool as that may sound it was actually a terrific failure. I say terrific and not terrible because I learned so much more in it's failure than I would have had we succeeded.

The label was focused mostly on recording hip-hop and rap artists out of a small studio located on Market Street. These were artists who would come to us needing studio time and we would charge them, that is how we made our money. I can say in confidence that about 99% of the 'artists' who came through were simply thugs who were trying to cement some sort of credit to their names by sounding hard on tape. It was pretty obvious that most of them had no talent.

With that being said, I did get some cool opportunities from my job. I got press-passes for free to concerts with other perks. I got to work with the 1% of artists who were actually good. And I got to be surrounded by musicians who had passion for their craft.

I left the company I helped to create in July of 2011, we were pretty much a zero-income company at that point and were unable to pay our studio rent. It was a sad day, but I had seen the writing on the wall.

While my label, Heroic Music Entertainment, as it was called, was doing it's thing on Market Street, I was also doing my part to keep the low-end of a rock band called The American Night held down. In 2010 I had just moved back up from Bloomington after attending Ivy Tech and Indiana University. The American Night was a band from my hometown whose members just happened to be living in Bloomington too. When a spot opened up, I auditioned and was given the part.

It. Was. Awesome.

This experience gave me so many new opportunities.

Probably the best experience was recording our album. Through a connection we were able to connect with Bob Kevoian from Bob and Tom. He liked us so much he payed for some studio time with a great engineer and producer Alan Johnson. The album sounded great, and we could not have gotten a better product or a better mentor.

I strongly recommend checking out our songs here

I also have to give a shout out to Alan Johnson who has the most beautiful recording studio in the world.

Unfortunately, as with most music groups, fame and fortune was not in our cards. Our drummer ended up moving to Louisville which made our twice weekly practices almost impossible. We decided that it was time to call it quits. So we packed up our songs and bid each other the fondest of farewells. We still see each other all the time, however getting everybody all in the same room together is almost impossible.

So, to answer the Two Questions. I would say that these are the experiences that have dictated my current path on my journey of life the most. They serve to remind me that I am capable of creating cool things with cool people and that everybody can play a part in the story that is me.

Takeaway 8

I am surprised I haven't thought of this before. Class Take Away meet my favorite Take Away Show.

I just wanted to share a little moment of synchronicity I experienced just then.

Okay. Now with that out of the way-- I experienced way more emotion from trash then I thought I would. Ever. Seriously, I got choked up at some points.

I am really jealous of Vik Muniz in the way he can inspire people to improve their situations by showing them his vision. It seemed at multiple point that people doubted Vik's vision for this two year project. But he powered through their doubt and was able to convince them that his project was worthwhile and constructive to his subjects' lives.

Not only that he DID improve their lives. That was the most amazing. To see their lives improving and how they left the garbage - or even why they returned. It was almost an expose of the human condition and how people view their happiness.

Takeaway 7

Whoa...

I feel like it was so long since our last class meeting. We had a lot of built up things to get out. Which was really good, as it turns out.

I thought the class was quite receptive to my project which was really cool! It seemed like a majority of the class got a laugh out of the donkey butt, which was okay too.

David's project touched me the most. I think it resonated with me so well because it seemed like he was down about it. He mentioned something personal that happened in his life recently, but he still managed to keep the alteration and the transformation of the book positive. I think it also stuck with me because it was entirely white and I imagine him as a super colorful type person which is awesome and so indicative of his awesome personality.

Altared Book and Bliss

What is your opinion of combining technology and the human body as she did in the video?

This delves into an insanely interesting field to me – transhumanism. Whereby we are augmenting our daily lives and routines to the point it is plausible that we will eventually begin augmenting our bodies with it as well.

I think it is an inevitable outcome. The fact is we can improve technology to the point we can essentially control our own evolutionary path as humans. Those who are technologically augmented will be more physically fit in their new increasingly mechanical environments.

Is it a good thing? I am sure most naturalists will say no. I think that there will be fantastic failures. Disastrous outcomes of experimental procedures are a definite possibility. But in the end, the result will be a positive gain for the continued existence of humanity. So long as the technology we create has the ultimate goal of doing and being good, then ultimately it will be good.

What is your opinion of combining a media arts and science project with your own body?

This is something that has never crossed my mind until now. I have always just assumed that our projects we created in MAS existed in a digital realm. They existed to be viewed and perform their functions wholly separately from our physical bodies. But using our bodies in conjunction with that could prove to be a fantastic undertaking.

I feel like any projects I would undertake using my body would only be a creation of art in a more traditional sense. A painting, a picture, a sculpture etc. It would be something I am interested in doing, but I have not thought critically about it and have no ideas for a project at the moment I write this.

How similar were other students’ ideas to each other?

The other students seemed similar, but it seems everybody put their ideas into their own words. There are some ideas that are pretty prevalent throughout the posts, things like burning it, freezing it, tearing pages out etc.

How similar were other students' ideas to your own?

Other students’ ideas were similar in some regards. I found some synchronicity throughout much like the other student’s answers were similar.

What stood out to you?

“Oneirophant” has a post: I made a grid system on the book, and then ‘carved’ or cut down to individual words to create a ‘single page’ that either would become a story, or became some kind of ‘vision-board’-esque thing.

I think that is a really cool way to change the book. It is using the books story to make a new one.

What is the purpose of looking at each other’s posts?

Looking at others’ posts force us to consider the synchronicity and serendipity of our posts.  There will always be congruent ideas amongst a group and there will be unique ideas too. The beauty of it is being able to appreciate both.

I decided to create a pinata out of my book. Included are some pictures of the progress. The "candy" of the pinata is oragami flowers and cranes out of the images and tables in the book and the "confetti" is random snipping of inspiring or interesting words.

I created a pinata because I felt I didn't really get anything out of the Wordpress class. So now, as I have changed by book, I can finally get something out of it.

Class Takeaway 5

I think the "What If..." questions we wrote are going to be a big help in the fishbowling of this assignment. At first I didn't know if I could do 50 questions but it seemed around half way they came easier and easier, but then near the end they were more difficult to think of. After turning in my questions I took a look around my classmates' submissions. I thought they were remarkably similar in some cases. People seemed to really explore the transformative nature of their "Altared" book.

I am looking forward to physically changing my book too. So much so that I am debating doing multiple changes to it. Maybe making it like "This Is Not a Book"? We'll see.

Just so I have a record of this for the Bliss assignment I think that my ideal creative space is a coffee-shop-like space. Some place where there are other people being creative but it isn't a super-traditional creative atmosphere like a library. This assignment in particular should help me find the creative space that best suits me and that would be a huge help to me on my creative journey!

What if I slept on my book for a night?

Sleeping on our book put made us to think about our book in an altered mindset, which in this case was sleep. My experience was quite uncomfortable, probably because my book is large and my pillows are old and flat. Which reminds me: I need new pillows. I don’t know if I gained any new what if’s about my book from sleeping on it, but maybe they’re just in my sub conscious.

1. What if I showed the book aging?

2. What if I changed the book from a negative to a positive?

3. What if I found some serendipitous way to change it?

4. What if I found the value of this book?

5. What if everything was worth something?

6. What if I aged the book and did something cool with the result?

7. What if I made paper airplanes out of the pages and threw them all?

8. What if I made tea paint portraits?

9. What if I explored how the book ages?

10. What if I knew the origin of the book, but changed the final product?

11. What if I threw the pages off of a building?

12. What if I made a portrait?

13. What if it had a message?

14. What if I made it a positive message?

15.  What if I wrote in the book to change it?

16. What if I constructed something with it?

17. What if the book was no more?

18. What if I explored the utility of my book?

19. What if I am not really upset with the book itself but with the experiences I have had with it?

20. What if I gave the book away?

21.  What if I reorganized the pages?

22. What if I turned the book into a game?

23. What if I cut out all the letters and made a self-portrait?

24. What if I wrote a poem out of the reorganized words?

25. What if somebody else could enjoy the book?

26. What if I left parts of the book in different places?

27. What if I took the book on a journey?

28. What if I made a piñata and filled it with word confetti?

29. What if I made the book into a secret code?

30. What if I used the book as a hiding place for things I don’t want people to find?

31. What if I used the book as a chemistry experiment?

32. What if I left the pages out in the sun?

33.  What if I reorganized the book and left notes in public places using the words?

34. What if I reorganized the words and made lyrics and recorded the book to make a song?

35. what if I rewrote the book but changed some words and gave it to somebody?

36. What if I forgot about the book?

37. what if I yelled at the book?

38 what if I made a collage out of all the pictures in my book?

39 what if I used the book in a ritual?

40 waht fi I msisellped lal eht drwos ni eht kobo?

41. What if I made a decoration for my mantle?

42. What if I used the book to clean my mantle?

43. What if I used the book to usher in the spring time (this winter has been very cold and snowy)?

44. What if I made the pages into flowers and gave them to people I cared about?

45. what if the book was food?

46. What if the book was plant food?

47. What if I could grow food from my book?

48. What if I left the book at the bus stop outside my window and listened to people use it?

49 What if I did science and poured different things on the book?

50.  What if the book became my diary and I recorded my thoughts in the margins

Class Takeaway 4

I took away the great ideas my classmates had about the concept of opportunities. I really enjoyed seeing about all of their projects and ideas.

I think the one that resonated the most with me is the one girl whose project was to let another classmate know that her ideas were not shit. I think that was a really touching sentiment. With all the other projects focused on being creative and focusing that creative energy on ourselves, it was refreshing to see somebody focus that energy to another human being. It was selfless and beautiful.

Opportunities in Every Bottle

I have something wrong with me.

For almost three years I have been brewing my own beer. I have quite a bit of money invested in my setup and generally take great joy when a beer turns out great, and look to see how I can improve with each beer that didn't turn out as I had hoped it would. This winter I brewed about 25 gallons to keep me happy and warm, and so I would not have to make more outside (I have to boil my beer for about an hour and must do so outside). I still have ten gallons to go through. I am in college. I have friends.

I have something wrong with me.

I have wanted to brew another beer for early spring for a while now and have had several ideas floating around in my head. Fruit beers have interested me. Chili beers too. But -- nah. I want to try something crazy.

What is crazier than tequila?

That's right I want to do a tequila beer. A beer with all the hoppy goodness you would expect from a glass of foamy frothy goodness and then a firm smack in the face from the agave angel herself.

Brewing beer is an experiment each and every time. I have brewed the same recipe, aged the same amount of time and still come out with drastically different flavor profiles. I think each batch of beer represents a really unique opportunity to learn something new and grow as a brewer. I am friends with brewers for production breweries and they learn something new everyday about an art and science that has been around for thousands of years.

My recipe is from a kit-- so not my own creation. It is from a company called northern brewer.

O.G: 1.074      READY: 6 WEEKS
SPECIALTY GRAIN
- 3/4 lb English Dark Crystal
FERMENTABLES
- 3.15 lbs Gold malt syrup (60 min)
- 1 lb Corn Sugar (60 min)
- 6 lbs Gold malt syrup late addition (15 min)
HOPS & FLAVORINGS
- 1 oz Warrior (60 min)
- 1 oz Mosaic (20 min)
- 2 oz Mosaic (10 min)
DRY HOPS
- 2 oz Mosaic
YEAST OPTIONS
- Liquid yeast Option: Wyeast #1056 American Ale. Optimum
temperature: 60–72°F
- Liquid yeast Option: White Labs WLP001 California Ale.
Optimum temperature: 68–73°F

Doodle Dawdlin'

The "S" that I chose to dwell upon while making my marks was "synchronicity". I re-watched the video on doodling, wanting to reconnect with our class lecture on our egg projects and the topics we talked about. I thought it was interesting what happened.

I was watching the show on Netflix "Idiot Abroad" with my lady friend. Something occurred to me that hadn't before -- Beth Lykins is the polar opposite of Karl Pilkington (the main character of the "travel show"). If Karl is a character construction from Ricky Gervais and his producers then that man is a fucking genius. Karl is a completely sheltered, unambitious, and self-absorbed individual who is absolutely terrified of the outside world. He hates being in the outdoors, or being surrounded by people, or really just being in a situation that puts him into an experience that he has never had before.

To remember this thought, I wrote "Plikington" on my paper. Don't know if words are allowed in a doodle -- don't care because its mine.

This was not a typo. I wrote "Plikington". I have had a sneaking suspicion that I am dyslexic for a very long time. I was kicked out of my advanced classes I was assigned to when I was in elementary school because I had the hardest time deciding between what was a "b" and what was a "d". It was a struggle and I wrote that on my doodle too.

Which is an interesting transition because during that time I used to think that doodling was possibly the worst thing I could have done with my time in grade school. I used to think that the kids who were reprimanded for it simply didn't care which was a travesty in my mind. I did well in school. I guess I just didn't know that other people learned in different ways.

This video was interesting because it showed me that people who doodle or let their mind wander are in fact engaging MORE of their brain than others. I like being engaged. But doodling doesn't seem like the answer. I want to connect with the instructor and let them know that I am engaged so this was a difficult concept for me to wrap my mind around because I feel that I am dividing my attention between what I am "selfishly" working on (mah doodlez) and the ideas the teacher is trying to convey.

I really wanted to write some more "synchronous" ideas for this, but this is what I discovered about my doodling.

Class Takeawawaway 2

The main thing that I took away from this class is that I don't think I am fully engaging my brain when I am trying to learn. My experience with NEWM-N250, the team building class, taught me that my learning style is that of kinesthetic/visual. Meaning I learn best by moving and doing something and seeing something to learn. It is really surprising, then, that I am not a doodler, which is what we were assigned to do for homework.

This is actually something I am not practiced at. I haven't doodled or drawn, even, since I was in middle school or junior high. What do I draw?! How do I doodle?! Is that a silly question? Meh, probably...

Being creative is something that I strive to be everyday, and most days I feel like I am falling on the side of mediocrity. Sure, I know how to operate the programs that we use in MAS, but am I using them? Too often I feel we are challenged to analyze an audience and to find out what they like. But in MAS I am not sure we are challenged enough to find out what we like. If I can be inspired, truly inspired, I feel like I can make some groundbreaking media that is worth remembering.

Maybe it will just start with a doodle...

An Egg and A Fishbowl

So remember that last time that I said I needed to find a starting place to begin my egg assignment. Totally did it. No big deal.

Considering I introduced myself as somebody who is familiar with audio editing programs and techniques, I decided to do a little "Egg Song". What does it sound like to physically cook and enjoy the sustenance of an egg? Well there is a symphony of sounds in all kinds of cooking, and often times we over look some things.

Now, I want to say that this song did not turn out as well as I had hoped. Sure, the recording part went fine. I got to use my Zoom recorder and even got to enjoy some food. However next, I took off creating my project without doing much planning. I just started jamming sounds together out of excitement to hear the final product. This is a major downfall for MAS folks; we gotta remember to plan ahead to make the cool stuff! Naturally because I did not have a definite final product in my mind it sounds kind of mis-mashed in places but ultimately the listener should be able to make the distinction between all of the sounds I included.

Enjoy, if you would like, my "Egg Song"

Cheers!

Class 1 Takeaway

My take away from this class was the concept of fishbowling. I thought that was a really novel concept in terms of creativity. When we were initially given The Egg, I was looking around the room and noting people's reactions. Most had a blank look. They seemed to be saying "well now what can I possibly do with this?".

The fact that the assignment was so broad, so open, people simply did not know what to do. I know I did not, at first, either. But then after Barry Schwartz's video, it seemed to make sense.

Narrow down the possible choices.

So I thought about how I introduced myself to the class to give myself a starting point. What were their expectations about my project (not that I am doing this project specifically for them) going to be? I had to fishbowl myself to get a good starting point for my Egg assignment, and I think I've found it.