Performing Arts on the Web

In the past year, there was a distinct dearth of performing arts events that I attended. The numerous reasons for this, though the primary reasons are a paucity of disposable funds and location/distance of the events from my location. Consequently, I have been searching the Internet for various alternatives to tide my interest in the meantime. Over the many of the following posts, I’ll be inserting some of the content I find. Please note: None of the embedded content is owned or licensed by me.

Video Clip: Alessandra Ferri & Sting


Choreography by Heinz Spoerli. Music by Johan Sebastian Bach – ‘Prelude’ from “Cello Suite No. 1 in G major”

One of the first thoughts to run through my head while viewing the video was how surprisingly flexible Sting was. Overall I thought the clip was very interesting. I don’t have a background in dance, but I think the ballet choreography was more towards modern than classical. The short clip itself was well-lit and filmed, and may serve as an introduction to types of ballet that people unfamiliar with dance as a performing art may appreciate.

Beginnings Novel News

As much as I intended to have the novel finished by this date, my progress has been significant but limited. I just finished writing a ‘marathon’-length scene between two of my characters. That scene may be the longest single scene I have ever written that takes place inside one fixed location. I have yet to actually type it into the computer, but I’m guessing it will be around 20-30 pages. Considering that the entire scene utilizes just two characters, I’m curious what my opinion of the scene will be when I reread the novel as an entire whole. The remaining parts of the novel won’t be any easier to write, but should be comparatively quicker to produce.

Admission

I’m using today’s post to do something that probably is not done often in blogs. I admit it: I was wrong. I made the following post in October of 2007:

For the first time, a woman and a black man lead the polls in the Democratic Party. Unfortunately, those polls results do not reflect what I believe to be actual reality. I am more than willing and ready to be proved wrong, but I simply do not think the general American populace will elect either a woman or black man as President of the United States. Would the public settle for a woman or minority if they had no choice, yes. But given an alternative, I do not believe people will choose a female or minority leader.That means I am pessimistic about either Clinton or Obama securing the Democratic nomination for President, much less either actually winning the general election. As I told someone this week, either of them would actually serve to bolster the chances of one of the white male candidates. So here would be my prediction. Assuming Clinton actually fails to secure the nomination, it will probably be Biden or Edwards leading the ticket with either Clinton, Obama, or Richardson balancing out the bottom-half of the ticket.

Clearly, my thoughts from back then did not reflect the reality of the electorate, as measured on election day. As we conclude the first 30 days of America’s first African American president, I ponder what aspects of the Obama package led to his election. Was it his race, his message, the economy, the anti-Bush/Republican movement of the populace, or some other nebulous factor? Apparently, President Obama’s approval rating has decreased to the mid 60’s percentile. The news commentary I heard on ABCnews mentioned that this drop was typical of new presidents within their first month.

Because I’m near the saturation limit on all the discussions/news about the economy, I will not address that in this post, except to say that it is interesting that the government is rushing to fix this problem. One might think they would have learned from the Patriot Act or the bill that authorized former President Bush to go to war with Iraq: rushing bills through Congress, particularly a bill that almost nobody has read the entire way through, tends to lead to greater and more exacerbated problems in the future.

Working with IR Photography

I recently purchased an IR lens filter from B&H Photo, with the desire to begin exploring infrared photography. Since I left high school, I have not really spent time going back to the basic technical aspects of photography. But to justify the purchase of the lens and to really master IR photographs requires me relearning what I used to know about light and filters.

As the example photograph demonstrates, the image that shows up on the back of the digital camera removes the lower color wavelengths of light, leaving only about 50% of the red spectrum visible and the lower 700nm+ ranges of the infrared. I now have to readjust the techniques I learned so many years ago when I first started with black & white film. Contrasts are different, and exposure times are extended. Adding additional difficultly is the fact that with so little light coming through the lens, autofocusing becomes problematic. But the results, when things work, are extremely interesting.

Image 1: Sunset at Lafayette Resevoir. Image 2 & Image 3: Afternoon Jogger at Lafayette Resevoir.

Do Mens' Magazines make you feel Less Than?

According to this article, males who peruse mens magazines (i.e. Maxim, FHM, Stuff, etc.) and are exposed to the highly sexualized images of women suffer from more body-image problems than their non-perusing peers.

I had conflicting thoughts about bringing this article up. They do not have any links to the actual studies (despite being a ‘science’ website) and the research methods they used are somewhat questionable. The method of assessment was self-report after being split into either an experimental or control group. The two groups data was then compared against each other. Other than the common problem of the majority of psycho-social data coming from college undergraduate males, identifying actual body-image problems from self-report questionnaires is problematic. Even if clinical therapeutic measures were used to define the dividing line between possessing or not possessing a body-image problem, the conclusions for why this might occur are mostly opinion.

The researchers say that by looking at idealized, sexualized women, guys feel less-than because they start thinking they need to measure up on the attractiveness scale to snag such a mate.

"Men make the inference that in order to be sexual and romantic with women of the similar caliber they see in Maxim magazine, they also need to be attractive," said lead researcher Jennifer Aubrey of the Department of Communications at the University of Missouri, Columbia.

Even if the statement about men making the inference is true, this does not directly connect to why the men would have body-image problems. For example, if I tried to run the 100 meter dash against an Olympian, not only would I lose but I may also feel like less of an athlete than my competitor. It is debatable whether or not my feelings are realistic and even if unrealistic, the feelings may be transitory. In other words, next week I may return to my original conclusions about how much of an athlete I actually am.

Nevertheless, Aubrey said lad magazines send the message that guys should be having lots of sex.

"So you have that in your head while you're looking at these magazines. If you want to get as much sex as possible with these types of women, then what's left but the feeling you need to look a certain way in order to do that," Aubrey told LiveScience.

What message the magazines send is also contestable, particularly since it is problematic to separate the effects of the images out from those of the words. These magazines often directly offer suggestions and advice on securing more sexual encounters and descriptive techniques on how to master the sexual encounters obtained. But even if the statement is technically correct, and men viewing the pictures believe they need to look a certain way in order to secure sex, if that view is correct in actuality then the researchers whole premise (i.e. the views are signs of body-image problems) fails. An example of this would be if you wanted to physically lift a 1972 Volkswagon beetle over your head, but you believed you would first have to go to the gym and work on weightlifting for three months before you would succeed. Unless you already are a ‘strongman’-style bodybuilder, this is likely the correct view. In other words, if you believe you need to work out, wear nicer clothes, and maintain your personal grooming to secure sexual encounters with more attractive women, you are likely correct.

Interesting YouTube Video

This brought a smile to my face.