The latest writing to share is this playlist tutorial demonstrating how to make links to lyrics and songs from a blog posting. This draft is a 3.6 megabyte Flash movie.

Posted by Daniel Anderson at 11:13 PM
Taged as >> learning the way of the link | Permalink

This 10.3 megabyte video offers images, words, and sounds collected from a recent trip to L.A. It's also my meager first attempt at using Sophie, a kludged slide show that I screen recorded so it could be posted.

Posted by Daniel Anderson at 11:35 PM
Taged as >> wav files fly like birds | Permalink

Turn on the discernment and see if you can identify the oceans. Sample 1 (30 second audio clip) and Sample 2 (26 second audio clip) were recorded on opposite American coasts.

Which clip is the Pacific and which is the Atlantic? After you take a guess, reflect on why it might matter.

Posted by Daniel Anderson at 07:17 PM
Taged as >> listen to the breathing sweeps | Permalink

Step up or click down and try the guessing game (48 second audio file).

There are two places here--not cities, but environments or rooms. The key to recognizing them should be the background music. These are from a recent trip to New York, if that helps. If you can't get it, try a second audio file with more clues. (63 second audio file).

Posted by Daniel Anderson at 08:03 AM
Taged as >> sound files tell stories | Permalink

Looks nothing special
In late summer.
In the rain in the yard,
You’d cut it down,
Its thick branches drooping
With the weight of water
Flown over lime-colored leaves.
Even in a sky without sun
They glisten like liquid sugar.

If you live in the woods,
You ought to know something about trees.

A home sits among hickory or beech.
Scrubbed, polished,
Swept and mopped,
Filled with love,
Likely anger,
Indifference,
All the emotions
That seep into a place
Mix with the vibrations
Of the growth around it.
The lumber itself steeped
with the whispers of the forest,
The hush of trees as they sway,
Ocean sounding and woeful
In a changing way.
Each day backed
By a sound track
Of trunks stirring air
With the movements
Of the turning earth.

It’s what starts the seed
Before the sun climbs
Into springtime’s sky;
What stops the man
In the heat to say nothing
Of the rays of summer;
What turns the worm
Beneath the forest floor;
What tints the willow
Pale green, then yellow
As the days grow short.

What else could change the world,
If not the wonder of whatever
That soaks into the fibers
Of mountain aspen,
Southern pine,
Or, here, the dogwood?
Stooped, wet, and green
Against the green and growing world,
You’d cut it down
Not knowing
Its sheet-white blossoms
Will flower the yard in spring.

Posted by Daniel Anderson at 09:28 AM
Taged as >> sometimes inside wants out | Permalink

From today's Washington Post comes this piece on mash ups. I have three perspectives on the mash up:

1.) As a writer, I'm eager to use mash ups to create new messages. My Yomamma Mash was great fun to make, but also helped me see through the issues circulating around the controversy over Stephen Colbert's speech at the correspondent's dinner. Yomamma offers strong virtual slaps to the face, and blending Colbert's words with the video clips from the M-TV show made me realize the serious criticism and angry challenges beneath the humor of the speech.

2.) As a writing teacher who favors new media, I'm encouraged by the trend to remix video content because it results in sentiments like

Top-down marketing, when the company creates a message for consumers to absorb, is an antiquated approach, said Tim Hanlon, senior vice president at Denuo, a division of the advertising firm Publicis Groupe. Consumers are savvy about the messages companies send and are now empowered to offer feedback about those products. "They don't need marketers," he said. "It's the new landscape."

I'm curious to see how the concept of the mash up makes its way into the landscape of education. So far the phenomenon exists outside the boundaries of the classroom for the most part. I wonder why, and when it might be brought into teaching. Why not now?

3.) As someone who studies writing and media, I wonder similarly if and when mash ups will make it into the conversations of scholars. I don't mean, when will scholars talk about mash ups, like now in this blog posting. I mean when will they talk through mash ups. Jeff recently posted a video trailer for an academic article. My Mission Improbable mash up was done mostly for fun and does not work as well as the Yomamma clip, I think. What can scholars make of with these alternative forms of expression?

The Washington Post includes with its article a mash up challenge. I'm going to try to use the raw materials to create a response to something academic, probably to follow up on the recent discussions composition teachers have had about writing outcomes. Anyone care to join me?

Posted by Daniel Anderson at 08:47 AM
Taged as >> let's mix it up academically | Permalink