GMU's Comm 399 students on pop, art, fashion, and more
So, Willow Smith is super popular right now. She’s talented, recognized, and extremely cute (OK, Justin Bieber is still No. 1, but you get what I’m saying). Many critics are also calling Willow a fashion icon. She’s been wearing the craziest, most colorful, Lady Gaga-ish outfits. What do you think about that?
Tags: Fashion, Willow Smith
Angelina Jolie is gracing the 2010 December cover of VOGUE magazine. She speaks on raising six kids (and Brad) and she talks about her new movie The Tourist starring Johnny Depp. It’s a really cool feature explaining the other, off-screen Angelina.
Tags: Angelina Jolie, Fashion, feature, Vogue
Talk about staying grounded!
Arian Foster, running-back for the Houston Texans, has made quite a name for himself in his first years in the NFL.
But that is not all he is known for- Foster is an avid poet, writer, and literary junkie. As this article says, Arian is “not just poetry in motion, but a poet in motion.” Also included in the article is a sample of some of Fosters’ work.
Don’t let the muscles fool you!
Tags: Arian Foster, Football, Houston Texans, Interstitial, NFL, Poems, Poet in Motion, Poetry, pop culture, Washington Post
According to Advertising Age, whether or not to print the word ‘Christmas’ in advertisements is more controversial this past decade than ever before. According to the American Family Association (AFA), this year ‘merry Christmas’ will dominate in most marketing messages from retailers, but this won’t be the case in the next couple of years. Some companies already decided to avoid the word and stick to ‘Happy Holidays’ for their ads. Dick’s Sporting Goods has a history of excluding the word which has caused talks of boycott. Check out the list of companies that decided to avoid ‘Christmas’ in their ads
and those that realize ’tis the season to be jolly.
Tags: Advertising, Christmas, Dick's Sporting Goods, Retail
Outside of the Beatles themselves, Badfinger was the most popular act on Apple Records, with power pop anthems like “Day After Day,” the immortal “Without You” (later covered by Nilsson and Mariah Carey) and the insanely catchy “No Matter What” still getting airplay nearly 40 years after they were recorded. Alas, the story was not so pleasant behind the scenes, and lone surviving member Joey Molland recounts the highs and lows in a recent in-depth interview with Music Radar. Their entire Apple output was reissued with new bonus tracks last month and is well worth seeking out if you’re a Beatles fan (and who isn’t?).
Back in April The New York Times printed “Out of the Closet and Up, Up and Away,” a feature story about gay night clubs where the patrons dress up as superheroes. The story then goes on to the history of gay creators in comics and gay characters in comics.
The reporter George Gustines started out his story by describing a scene at Skin Tight, USA party at the Stonewall Inn in New York. In addition to interviewing the co-founders of the party for the first part of his article, Gustine also interviewed various gay comic book fans, creators and reporters.
Other than the interviews, he seems to have plenty of research into gay comic book characters, citing many of the current homosexual characters in the mainstream comics of Marvel and DC. Gustines even foundout that there is a charity, Prism Comics, that helps LGBT comic book creators.
The feature is organized in an odd way. It kind of jumps around from topic to topic, always focusing on homosexuals and comic books somehow, but in a different way each time. Gustines begins his article talking about the Skin Tight, USA party, but clearly that is just the lead for the story, and does form the focus of it.
Using that as his set-up, Gustines then writes about how in the mid-80s comic books were beginning to become aware that there were homosexuals in the stories themselves, and that some creators had begun to come out of the closet.
Gustines then transitions this into describing how comic books were read by gay fans and they felt that they could find acceptance within those stories and could identify with other misunderstood characters like the mutants of the X-Men.
Gustines then lists several recent gay and lesbian characters to have come out from Marvel and DC Comics in recent years. He then tells of Prism Comics which helps LGBT comic book creators.
Gustines ends his story thinking about what the future holds for gay characters in comics and cites that Showtime almost picked up a show based on a comic book about a gay teen with super powers. They passed, and its producers are still looking for someone to make it.
This article does a great job of tying together the various aspects that comic books and homosexuality have influenced and helped each other. I don’t believe there was not a question asked that I wanted answered, but I thought it would have been interesting to see if there were any groups or people out there that specifically opposed gay characters in comic books.
Gustine has a great article here. I’m glad I found it while browsing NY Times archives for a feature story about comics (there aren’t many). It also helps illustrate that comic books are a window into our society and are something to be taken seriously.
CWG Magazine recently published a feature on their site on the band Terrible Things, which can be read here. The writer, Kendra Beltran, used some interesting techniques in terms of composition and the online presentation of the feature story. In order to write the feature, Beltran interviewed drummer Josh Eppard and attended the band’s first local L.A. show. She did background research on the formation of the band, which can be seen in her introduction in which she talks about the members of the band and the previous bands that the members played in.
Beltran’s voice comes through in the feature, which is one of the reasons it is so enjoyable to read (for example at one point she writes, “In the end, we ran out of time because Josh had to load his shit (his words not mine) and we continued our gabfest before he took the stage in L.A.”).
I think Beltran chose a type of composition for this feature that is well-suited to blog-type postings on the Internet. While most magazine features tend to be much more linear, this particular feature was composed of six very short paragraphs that introduced the band and why Beltran was writing about them (they recently played their first local show). The next part of the story then transitions into list format, in which a title presents a given topic (for example, “Josh Eppard on the Terrible Things”) and then subtitles below setting up the response to certain questions (for example, “Missing loved ones” and “Talking shit on other bands”). This type of format would appeal to the casual online reader who can easily skip from point to point. It would not be necessary for the reader to sit down and focus on reading the article start to finish.
Beltran’s interview seemed to be very free-flowing and the topics varied greatly. I think it probably would have been interesting to see if the drummer would have cooperated with a more formal sit-down interview. I think Beltran probably let the drummer dictate the course of the interview more than a normal feature writer would, but in this case it worked well.
Tags: Feature response, Music
Reflections on the feature:
Excuse me, did someone say Cher? What first caught my eye about the movie “Burlesque” was the idea of Cher playing a Vegas show girl who continues to perform despite her age. The New York Times article, “An Ageless Diva of a Certain Age,” by Frank Bruni, explores Cher’s career and personal life while interviewing her after a long day of shopping.
The interview conducted in Cher’s Midtown hotel suite at the Four Seasons covers a wide range of events in her life. Bruni also references interviews with Stanley Tucci, Steven Antin and Mike Nichols.
Bruni digs into Cher’s accomplishments by researching her film career and music career. There is also a great deal of research conducted about Cher’s influence in the new movie “Burlesque,” as well as gathering information from Hollywood insiders.
This feature has a consistent flow of ideas with the structure of observation followed by a quote, is used frequently throughout the feature. The use of describing the scene of the interview is used to transition into new ideas. I was impressed by the wide verity of topics that Bruni discusses in his interview with Cher. The part of the interview about her family was too short and left me with some unanswered questions. How comfortable is she with her daughter becoming a man? Also how supportive and what is her relationship like with her daughter?
A look at the feature by paragraph:
The feature begins with an interesting lead of telling the readers Cher needs foot surgery. He then describes what Cher did earlier in the day while tying in her need of surgery. Bruni suddenly leaps from the introduction into describing what her plans are for the evening to give the reader a feel for what’s ahead for Cher. Bruni establishes the setting and what state of mind Cher is in for the interview.
The beginning part of the feature focuses on her age and the obvious question of how old is the legend. Bruni quotes a joke Cher made about her age which establishes the light hearted tone of the feature. There is a transition into describing her physical state and how Bruni finds it hard to see her as someone who is getting older. The brief but very vague recap of her remarkable career and her persistent nature establishes her as someone worth reading about. The first introduction of Cher’s new movie, “Burlesque,” is made and paints a clear image of the role she is playing and describes the energy she puts forth in the role.
There is another transition back to the physical scene of the interview. Bruni describes the less wild and different version of Cher he is experiencing. He comments about her physical appearance and how she has not seemed to age. Even her clothing reflects the youthfulness of Cher he is experiencing. He acknowledges how others seem to take care of the details for her. Then he takes us back to another visual of Cher in the interview which signals a transition.
Then there is a focus on the role acting has played in her career and the attitudes of Hollywood insiders. Bruni also highlights her future plans and describes Cher’s knowledge of her limits of exploring new genres. He then established her career and quotes Cher. Bruni distinguishes Cher from other actors as someone who does not push her opinion on others. Bruni then uses another source, Mike Nichols, who reflects on the previous discussion of Cher’s limits.
Then there is a brief look into her personal life of her relationship with her daughter and her own love life. The feature transitions to talking about her use of Facebook and Twitter. An example of one of Cher’s tweets is used.
The look at her personal life is focused on her relationships with her celebrity friends. He cites an example of a specific friend, Winona Ryder, and uses a quote from Cher about her close friends past criminal behavior.
There is another look at the movie “Burlesque” and Cher’s influence in production. Bruni uses a quote from Stanley Tucci to discuss her relationship with cast members. The relationship between Clint Culpepper and Steven Antin on set is examined and a quote from Cher is again used after description. Cher’s performance in the movie is discussed in further detail and a joke from Cher highlights the young age of the cast.
Description of the scene is used to transition to examine her busy schedule of talk show appearances and to transition to the closing of the feature. Cher’s critic’s expectations and her personal expectations are discussed. The kicker brings the lead of the foot injury back into the feature.
Tags: Burlesque, Cher, Frank Bruni, movies, New York Times
Collegehumor recently posted a video called “If other directors made the social network.” It envisions popular film The Social Network as directed by famous directors like Wes Anderson, Michael Bay, and Quentin Tarantino. What makes this video funny is the observations made about the different directors. Check it out here.
This video ended up winning the best in show award at the ‘Anime USA’ convention that I attended last weekend. This is the “I Love the Whole World” song used in the Discovery Channel commercials, mashed together with various shows. I think many of the shows fit the lines pretty well
Tags: Anime, Anime USA, Best in Show, Contest, Convention, Music, video