My last blog post was depressing, I'll give you that, but from it's depressing ashes I have planted, grown and am now tending to a new experiment! I am finally going to start a youTube channel. Took me long enough! All because of the question: Why not? Yeah. Yeah, why not? If it fails, it fails- then at least I'll know I'm not good with the visual arts and maybe practice to get better at it!
The topic for my first video will be 'death'. I know, again, depressing, but I promise you it will end happily. Not fairy-tale-happy-ending, but happily. It'll be like the phoenix...like Dumbledore's phoenix, Fawkes. Seriously: I'm totally brushing off the ashes.
My first video won't be a blockbuster.
People may not even watch it, but I don't like being watched anyway.
I just want to know what it means to communicate through different medias: portraying something like 'death' in a book is very different from portraying 'death' in a movie. Not that I've mastered writing (barely a yellow belt) but can I act it? Can I find something, record it, and have you know it's 'death' without my saying so, without a billboard that reads 'This! This is what Death looks like!'
Yesterday my grandfather recruited me to teach him Internet basics; I willingly agreed. He'd been asking and asking for a couple weeks now but I hadn't been available in the mornings until, well, just yesterday morning!- I planned nothing except to download Spotify for him because he's also been asking me to find obscure music records of Ray Conniff and Frank Sinatra, and since the library proved unhelpful (unfortunately) Spotify seemed the best option. Although, he doesn't know how to link his computer to his Bose stereo, which annoys him, but he'll settle for regular audio if he has to.
First world problems, bro.
So, he sits down in front of his computer and asks all these questions; making all these comments:
"My computer is old, I know."
"You know, I type really slow on the computer."
"Aha, I don't remember my password. You have to write it down for me. See, there. Here's the tape. Tape it there."
"Can I listen to music with this?"
"Do I have to click twice?"
"YouTube?"
and my favorite conversation:
"'What's on your mind?' What's on my mind? I don't know what's on my mind."
"Grandpa, that's called a status."
"What's it for?"
[pause] "Um...it's to, uh, share your thoughts with your Facebook friends. So, what're you thinking about now? You could put like 'I'm eating' or 'Watching television'."
"I want to fly."
"Oh, so, you want me to-."
"W. ...Justine, where's the A? A. A. A. N..."
(Now just imagine all this said with a Filipino accent and you've got the gist of it.)
Sometimes I forget how different my grandfather's generation is from my generation. I forget that it wasn't as quick to communicate. Travel wasn't as quick. Shopping wasn't as quick. Music wasn't as quick. Television wasn't as quick. It's ironic that as people age, the rest of the world moves faster, and sometimes elderly people find the need to keep pace.
Not that grandfather is taking a typing course anytime soon. I think he's pretty content with idly listening to music on Spotify.
After all, he did say that he'd call me if he needed help.
I am honored to be such an expert on Facebook usage!
Although, I have thought about buying my grandfather a book called 'Facebook for Seniors'.
Mostly for kicks and giggles. I wouldn't actually ask my grandfather to read it.
...I might read it though.
No, no, no! I'm not ranting against technology. Hello, blogger here! I use my Facebook statuses to share newspaper articles, or (what I hope are) encouraging words, songs, organizations, publications; I am sharing and sharing and sharing, but yeah, 'What's on my mind?' Not always very important things. Not always very honorable things. (Zuko, anyone?)
WongFu Productions has a perfect illustration of our love/hate relationship with technology. In fact, they have five very good, very funny illustrations of it.
Care to watch it?
For those of you who are wondering why my grandfather wants to fly it's because he's a retired pilot.
Communicating is hard work. Of course, all things that require reciprocity are hard work because everyone knows, from experience, that communication is listening and feedback. I can listen all I want, but you can only talk so much until you'd rather talk to a wall than to me. I can talk all I want, but you're not a wall!- you've got opinions too!
But this isn't always the case, sometimes people have different ways of communicating, and I don't mean that one person prefers cuddling over home-cooked meals. No, really, I mean, consider this, my fellow geeks: does it bother you that some people will prefer the movie, as opposed to the book upon which its based?
I know that drives me mad.
Although I've learned that movies and books are two different medias. I will almost always prefer the media of a book, but a near-perfect example of appreciating both the movie and the book is Life of Pi.
When the first advertisements for Life of Pi: The Movie were out I knew that regardless of its success or failure I was going to like this movie. Life of Pi: The Book is intensely descriptive, heavy with dialogue, and purposefully challenging. Life of Pi: The Book works for the very same reason Anna Karenina by Tolstoy works, for the same reason The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien works: because books can be of any length!
But movies are generally limited to 1 1/2 to 3 hours in length. Any longer and most of the audience has lost interest and/or fallen asleep. (But trust me, I could watch a movie for that length of time and be fine.)
However much it bothers me that people can't appreciate the book-version as much as the movie-version, should it really bother me?
Even within the same medias, writers, directors, actors, etc. want to communicate with people outside their usual social group.
Christians/The religious want to convert non-believers/atheists.
Non-believers/atheists want to educate Christians/the religious.
Scientists want to instill sciencey-stuff into thespians.
Thespians want to convey powerful emotions to their audiences.
But, generally, Christians only reach Christians. Atheists only reach atheists. Scientists only reach scientists. Thespians only reach thespians.
When a Christian, or an atheist, or a scientist, or a thespian writes a book, hoping that the book will help outsiders understand it doesn't usually work. I've worked at a bookstore long enough to know that people who are interested in business go only to the business section and nowhere else. I'd be hard-pressed to convince a customer interested in graphic novels to attempt a perusal into the local history section--frankly, it's just not what they're looking for.
I'd even be more hard-pressed to convince someone to read the Harry Potter books, if they only want to watchHarry Potter.
But frankly, some people are just more visual.
So...how do writers communicate with movie-goers?
How do directors communicate with bookworms?
How do musicians communicate with scientists?
How do Christians communicate with the non-religious?
I don't know!
But I'll try and be all ears for you!
I want to make more people read, but I'm only talking to people who already read. How can I communicate with non-readers?
