Beware the First of March!!

To All Media Arts Students:

Tomorrow, March 1st--Quiz during 1st and 2nd periods. (What a way to wake up to the week before spring break!!)

Until then...

-Mr. Hoban

News Flash: Teacher Calls Out, But School's In Session!!

Dear Media Arts Students Who Came to School Today:

You are stronger than most! Even I was stymied by today's storm. Sorry I cannot be with you today. The good news is: no quiz! The bad news is: it'll come back to haunt you...probably on Monday, since tomorrow is up in the air as well. So, it's settled. The quiz is now officially moved to Monday March 1st (in like a lion!)

As I continued 'stumbling 'round' the web yesterday, I came upon this very cool web site: Make Something Cool Everyday. Outstanding words to live by for the creative types! The challenge is now out there. Can you make something cool everyday? Check out the site, particularly the photo labeled (on the bottom) "7/6/09: 5 Cuts". Totally up our collective alleys!!

For today's class (sans teacher): keep working on your individual creations.

-Mr. Hoban

Put Another Record On!!

Word has it, we're having school tomorrow!! HAHAHA!!!

Anyway kiddles....Study up. Read up. Do whatever you need to do to prep for tomorrow's quiz. No biggie if you've been following along (and have checked in on the blog AND read the book!)

It was nice to FINALLY get started on the record project. I liked seeing all the activity in both classes. (Can you believe it? A certain student actually started doing something in class!! (I can't name names but suffice it to say, I was impressed with this particular student's output. Keep at it...you know who you are!!))

I found some related links to today's proceeding. Thanks to Isaiah West for inspiring me to check out what's on the web with regard to vinyl art.

Check out "Record Recycling" and "How To Make a Record Bowl". If you do a search for "vinyl art" on Google images you'll see a plethora of plastic pop-art (?) possibilities!

Any other search possibilities? Share them with your classmates in your next comment.

Have a wonderfully snow-less evening!

-Mr. Hoban

Music Appreciation

As we venture into uncharted expressions of mangled media art, let's not forget--that even though we may be warping vinyl, hot gluing records and slicing or dicing album art, the primary expression--the music--is the art form of primary inspiration and appreciation at this particular point in our exploration. So go ahead and 'pop' the Fab Four off the cross walk on Abbey Road, or melt the tracks on Side A of Zeppelin's "In Through the Out Door", or adhere Jay Z's rap lyrics to a suspended CD...it's all good...and all in the name of manipulated media art. Let's get busy!!

For future re-visits, here is the video of Maestro Benjamin Zander discussing the importance of classical music appreciation (a great piece!):



And now for a little fun. Below, are the lyrics from Radiohead's No Surprises. I decided to do a little media manipulated opportunity on this blog...a sort of "guided stumbleupon" journey. See if you agree with the hypertexted imagery I've sprinkled throughout the words! Let me know what you think (or make your own suggestions) in your comments.

AND REMEMBER: quiz on Thursday!!!


No Surprises
By Radiohead

A heart that's full up like a landfill
A job that slowly kills you
Bruises that won't heal

You look so tired unhappy
Bring down the government
They don't, they don't speak for us

I'll take a quiet life
A handshake of carbon monoxide

And no alarms and no surprises
No alarms and no surprises
No alarms and no surprises
Silent, silent

This is my final fit
My final bellyache

With no alarms and no surprises
No alarms and no surprises
No alarms and no surprises please

Such a pretty house
And such a pretty garden

No alarms and no surprises
No alarms and no surprises
No alarms and no surprises please


(what a happy song!)

Trolling For Comments...

Anyone and everyone should write about their record/album cover project ideas here. List any materials you may need some assistance in getting. Also, don't forget to visit Stumbleupon.com. It's a great place for random web sites to inspire you!

Here's another cool site: Hemmy.net (the weblog that never sleeps.) Great examples of amazing works of art!!

-Mr. Hoban

Imbedded Videos Are "The Bomb"!!

These are a few videos I'd like you to "experience". Make sure you take the time to listen to a little bit of the recording medium examples (wax cylinder, 78 record and 45 album). The first video is of the classroom whiteboard and the scribbled notes that I made based on our in-class discussion on the history of sound recording media. Follow the helpful annotations (programmed by video superstar Arno Konings) as I talk you through the mess on the board. (Hint, hint: this is important stuff for next week's quiz.)




Here is a very cool rendition of "Stars and Stripes Forever", coming to you through the magic of 19th century technology: wax cylinders!!




And now for something completely different. A jukebox playing 78s:




And now, The Righteous Brothers with their hit single, "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'" on a 45:

What Did the Media Artist Do in Class Today?

Please write your detailed response in the comment space, answering the question above.

The last student to post their entry MUST comment on all of the preceeding ideas from your classmates.

Your comments must be received by 10 pm tonight.

Thank you.

Mr. Hoban

Onward and Upward

Dear Media Arts Students:

The recent accumulation of snow (and days off from school!) leads me to take the following drastic step: we must leave our exploration of LIVE broadcast entertainment and delve into the world of RECORDED SOUND for the media masses. We will begin our journey on Tuesday when we all return from such an unexpected SIX DAY WEEKEND!!! Iiiii Yiiii Yiii!!!

I mentioned in class last week that everyone should purchase a book from the bookstore called "33 1/3 OK Computer". Here is a link for that title, to give you an idea of what the book is about and what we will soon be covering (more on this later.) I recommend everyone purchase this book and begin reading Chapter One. Details will follow.

Also, regarding my " challenge" of finding the monument to the "Martian Landing" somewhere in Grovers Mill, New Jersey--only one student thus far has taken me up on my offer. Congratulations to Alex Shay (pictured below.) He gets his Hoagie Haven sandwich to order at some date in the very near future. Anyone else up for the challenge? Get movin'!!

See you next week.

-Mr. Hoban


The first student to find the Martian Landing Monument!!

Radio On Radio: War of the Worlds on Radiolab

WNYC's Radiolab, I'm finding, is a great radio program and a wonderful resource for the Media Arts class. Today we listened to the drama/analysis by Radiolab co-hosts Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich, on The Mercury Theatre on the Air's "War of the Worlds" radio play. As the students took notes during this "audio portion of the class", I helped their understanding/enjoyment by performing a Google search on key content points mentioned in the show. If something or someone important was mentioned, I did a realtime image search and threw up a few relevant pictures on the plasma screen to assist with the learning. (Hint to future quiz takers: the picture prompts were important! Why not re-listen to the show and see what you may recall was up on the screen.)

A good discussion followed the audio portion, and talk centered around the concept--Could this happen again? I offer the opportunity for the Media Arts students to continue listeing to the second part of the show anytime they wish to see what further explorations and discoveries were made by the hosts and their on air guests. [We ended at ~28:00 minutes.]

All this coverage of the War of the Worlds broadcast inspired me to take a trip to nearby Grovers Mill, just across the tracks near Princeton Junction. There in an out of the way park (covered in about 6 inches of snow!!) is the monument to the "Martian Landing". Here's ONLINE ACTIVITY #1 (to which you students can leave your comment): take a close look at the relief sculpture (pictured and videoed below) and describe the artist's reasons for choosing these particular images/symbols in telling the story of the broadcast.


On location at the Martian Landing Site:




And Some Still Details:







ONLINE ACTIVITY #2:

Any current Media Arts student has the opportunity to WIN A HOAGIE HAVEN SANDWICH OF CHOICE if they can find the exact location of the Martian Landing Monument in Grovers Mill, New Jersey. To win your prize you must go to the site, take a picture of you with the monument in the shot as well and email it to me at my Hun School email address. Good Luck! For inspiration, here's my photo of me freezing my tuckus off at the monument:

The Week of February 8th

Good going to those students who joined the conversation on the first blog posting this weekend. Everyone should be signed up and ready to "report for duty" at least once a day to check any new posts on this site.

We'll continue to explore the "radio play" as the art form of choice/necessity in the early days of broadcast radio. We listened to examples of early radio shows including The Mercury Theater's production of "War of the Worlds". We'll take a closer look at this famous radio show by listening to another current day radio program called Radiolab and their investigation of this landmark program. We'll be "tuning into" Radiolab's broadcast (through the magic of Internet archiving!) here. Prepare to take notes as we listen to a portion of this program in tomorrow's class.

-Mr. Hoban