school sucks

Sonic Youth

2004-06-20T13:34:00.000+10:00

sonic youth were playing last night (19 june) at the arena, brisbane. i felt very guilty going to it, what with all the exams i've got left to do, but i had to go with my sister stacy who's only visiting the country for a short time.

the arena was maxed out. i haven't seen the place so full in a long while. as soon as we went in, a wave of heat caught us off guard and we quickly took off our jackets. "damn it's hot!" i cried to stacy. "u-huh" she replied.

we came in pretty late (because someone was hungry and wanted to buy pizza from new york slice) and only caught three songs by j mascis who opened for sonic youth. it was a pretty cool set. long solos with heavy distortion, reminescent of the days when guitar reigned the earth.

and then it happened. sonic youth came on. the crowd errupted into cheers around me as kim gordon, thurston moore, lee ranaldo, jim o'rourke and steve shelley walked on stage. it was heaven from then on... except for a minor monitor issue, but that was ok. songs after songs they played. skills seemed unmatched, showmanship was cool, and rough. feedback yielded to them as they showed off their mastery over it. i would've left the arena happy enough if they didn't come back on for an encore, but they did... twice! the crowd went ballistic when they walked on for a second encore.

and that was it. i went to sleep at 4am, not with the feeling of guilt because i didn't study, but with a stupid grin that stayed on my face as i fall into my dreams, feeling secure, with the knowledge that in a post-modern society where there is nothing left but to imitate dead styles, the guitar still lives!

On the Crossroads: a Reply to Assessment of Weblogs

2004-06-12T11:02:00.000+10:00

warning: this post was written on a friend's mac - since i don't have internet access - but it's totally different to the ibm's. it doesn't let me hyperlink and i don't think it'll let anyone leave a comment. so i'll post this up now, but i'll edit it later using an ibm. so if you want to leave a comment, hang on tight and don't forget what you wanna say. check again later and hopefully i'd have already fixed it up.

this is an extended and detailed comment on Jean's Assessment of Weblogs (Tuesday, June 01, 2004):

so here we are... on the crossroads of positivity and negativity.

there are many students who have taken the road of positivity. i've read many comments praising the weblogs''freshness', how interesting and fun it is, how it's an awesome new change to the boring traditional essay mode of assessments.
Shane wrote: "... I thought it was a great idea, and much more rewarding and innovative than another academic essay".
Chris wrote: "I think this is the bit of the course I've enjoyed the most BTW. The diversion of the new".
i agree... to some extent.

there are also a few students who've gone down negative street and thought this assessment did more harm than good. and it's this part that confuses me - not the fact that some didn't like the assessment, but the fact that there are so little negative comments and the fact that only a few students are expressing it.
Penny wrote: "Am I the only one in this course to think that the Blog was a complete and utter waste of time (sorry Jean!) I hated Blog from the word go and NEVER (EVER, EVER!!!) want to hear of a Blog after Friday June 4th is over...".
i agree... to some extent.

it seems like Penny's right - she is the only one. she's the only one who's bothered to express how bad this assessment was for her. but i'm confused because i remember a tut when Jean asked our opinions on the weblogs. the majority of the response was a negative one. i think only three students in the tut didn't complain about it and i think only one actually praised it! wow! it seems that a lot of people have turned a complete 180 on this matter!

but that's not fair - and probably not true either. if you check on the number of comments left on Jean's Assessment of Weblogs (dated tuesday, june 01, 2004), you'll find the number a mere 20 (at the time of writing this post). one was made by Jean herself and a few were left by the same person. so it's not fair and not feasible to conclude, and indeed should not be concluded that the new weblog assessment was a success and accepted by the students. however i do acknowledge the fact that, due to the lack of response and information, any layman can read the coments and conclude that it was stroke of genius.

moving on now and we arrive in my head. as those of you who read my last post would know, (at the moment) my head is a grey, dull, desolate place where it hasn't stopped raining for the last couple of weeks. but disregarding all that, i thought it was unfair that we were the guinnea pigs for a new assessment task. in fact, i hated the fact that we were the guinnea pigs. but i know that someone had to do it. i'm just having a sulk that we had to be them. so here are a few thoughts for future semesters:

1) fair weighting. i don't think that the assessment had a fair weighting for the tasks and the amount of work it demanded of us. a mere 15% is quite disheartening for students. so much work for so little reward. i mean we can get an entire 10% just by rockin up to all the tuts! i wouldn't be surprised if there were a few students who just didn't bother - it was only 15%! but at the same time i'm glad that it is only that small. we were the guinnea pigs and i was glad that if everything turned pear-shaped that it only weighthed that much. on the contrary, this 15% was a large enough stone that anyone who trips over it may fail the course as a result. so for future semesters, i think a re-evaluation of the weighting and the task is needed.

2) access to technology. this was a big one for me. it is a given - and maybe expected - that for a student to attend such universities as UQ, that those students are economically fortunate enough to have independent access to the technologies they would be needing to use in the course of their degree(s) (isn't it true that all essays are to be typped and any hand-written essays will not be accepted? i've had a couple of tutors who made this point very clear). but unfortunately this is not the case. some students do not even own a computer. so in regards to this assessment one must raise the question of fairness across the students. it is plainly unfair that some students can only work on their weblogs from 9am to 9pm at the uni computers (if it's a weekday and they don't hav any classes!) and others can work on theirs 24hrs (if they choose to...). and have you seen the line for the computers at ss&h??! i know access to computers is not limited to this library but phew! jacqui wrote: "I really hated this at the start because I was having Mac issues" - something which i'm having difficulties at the moment. and my friend's not even here so i can't even ask her how things work with bloody macs (no offence - i think they're great and am thinking of converting into a mac user - a big step!). but access to technology is definately something to keep in mind for future semesters. i think some more time needs to be devoted into the setting up of blogs. maybe two solid weeks of lectures and tuts even!(or maybe that's taking it a bit too far)

but all in all, i think that with the proper adjustments, this new weblog assessment task will be an enjoyable, engaging, fresh, alternative, and a helpful one for future semesters. and i've noticed that those people who've left comments on Jean's Assessment of Weblogs, a lot of them are thinking of keeping their blogs going for personal use:
- "I think I'm going to turn mine into a diary about live music in Brisbane 'cause I do go to see a lot of bands and I'm sure my friends would rather me get out my ponderings about it all in my blog than to them" - Adam
- "I have had wild and crazy thoughts about turning my blog page into a series of personal observations about the world, as well as trying to keep it as a bit of a diary. some of my imaginary postings so far would be enough to get me fired, though. have to think about a more centred and less controversial theme. wonder if i could really make it anonymous???" - Carol
- "I'm going to keep mine going - probably take the emphasis away from subcultures though, move it more into generalised stuff. I guess i'll still use it as a studious blog, but it'll probably just be a big bitch about everything. hmm... definately keep it going though" - the ever serious Som
- "i think i might keep up with the blog. i've been really slack but can see myself maybe keeping it up when this is all over. i like the idea of using the blog to have a big, fat, rant if the mood strikes me. and this probably sounds really nerdy but i'm quite looking forward to improving my blog design/ template and doing the whatever it is that needs to be done to make it look cool. is there a site that show you how to do different things or is it just a matter of figuring it out?" Maddy
- "Yeah for sure! Blog on!" - Renne

pretty cool huh? yeah well you know what i'm gonna do with it. obviously i'll keep it going. i already have! this entry is posted well after the closing date for marking. acutally, this started off as a method of procrastination amidst all my academic stresses. so good luck to those of you who will be carrying on this blog phenomena. and (i think) since our names will be deleted from Jean's page, i will replace the list and put up your links on my page so you can all keep in touch and keep networking. and i'll also give you the low-down on gigs happening around our very own bris-vegas. this experience wasn't all bad. hey i even get to go on a date with ana! (check out her page). good luck with the rest of your assessments for this semester.

rocky

ps. if you want your page linked on mine, leave a message.

Give me an excuse. Give me the knife. v.2

2004-06-01T14:11:00.000+10:00

sorry, nothing to do with mstu2000 again. don't bother reading this; i'm just using my blogger for a personal discharge of thoughts and frustration in the hopes that i can feel better after i finish posting this. well it seems like life has made a turn for the worst... again. yup, it's that time of year again boys and girls; assignments pilling up, exams coming up, and everyone seems to have a cold. let's see now, where do i start... ok, i've got one of them colds that everyone seems to have; i just got dumped, which is causing me some serious mental and emotional damage (also made harder because we live together!); i have a 2500-word ARTT2109 essay due in an hour and a half which i haven't finished (will have to do an all-nighter tonight!); i've gotta spend the day tomorrow entertaining my cousin (jerome de la cruz - also a dj, brother of james de la cruz from the avalanches) who've come up from melbourne and i haven't seen in over 5 years or something ridiculous like that; i've got a friend's birthday on monday (ana matheson - whose blog is eriamopus); my sister (ex-coda member and front-chick) whom i haven't seen for 1 and a half years is flying down from indonesia on thursday - we're gonna go watch a whole heap of awesome bands (eg. shuriken, letraset, standing 8 counts, sonic youth)[coda and shuriken are both part of soundmalfunction recordings]; i've got this MSTU2000's 1500-word essay due in 2 weeks, which just happen to be the same day that i've got a 2000-word ASIA1110 take home exam due (we just got them today!); ive got an ARTT2109 written exam 3 days after those are due; and another written exam 5 days after that involving short essay questions and a prepared essay question for MUSC1700. if my calculations are correct, i would have written 10 000 words by the 23rd of june. phew! i think i'm gonna commit myself to an asylum under "temporarily insane". help!

alternative media

2004-05-23T18:23:00.000+10:00

just found out from jean that mathew mcdermid is doing something similar to what i'm thinking of doing. but obviously i still don't know what i'm really gonna do... if that makes any sense...

anyways, this guy is doing a bus/arts dual degree and he got interested in alternative media as r&d (research and development) from his business angle. he's looking at 'word of mouth'as a form of alternative media and in particular how the band dispatch have made use of this. he's done a lot of research (as compared to me that is) into word of mouth and found some interesting articles on it, although some only mention it briefly. here's a list of the ones i visited:
- underground press & media is a short article on the beginnings of underground press & media.
- the viral marketing of dispatch: word of mouth describes how they've used word of mouth and became a successful band without signing with a major label.
- alternative music describes the various aspects of alternative music with italy as case study and how word of mouth is responsible for the widespread of alternative music.
- heavy metal history: from sabbath to sabbath documents metal's history and briefly mentions how word of mouth is how fans found out about bands.

these are all cool and interesting articles. they've helped me in trying to decide what to do for essay 2 but still i have no direction for it. in the previous post i mentioned about the cat empire's street team. if i do decide to do the essay on this, it would be a very similar topic to mat's word of mouth because one of the street team's methods to get the word out is word of mouth. there's differences in the way the two bands use alternative media though: from what i understand, dispatch uses word of mouth to be known, to be heard, and ultimately become a well-known successful band without ever signing with a major label or have radio/tv exposure(correct me if i'm wrong); whereas cat empire use their street team to promote gigs, etc.; they're already signed to a major label (virgin i think), released a few video clips and are played on the radio. at this point my mind has just gone numb and i think i just wrote a whole heap of gibberish. let me check... yup! i just read back what i wrote and am totally confused now. anyways, help!!!!

street team = street press?

2004-05-19T15:17:00.000+10:00

right! here we go!
still don't know what i'm gonna do for the 2nd essay but jean said this week we've gotta come up with ideas. so here's one of mine...

i might do the essay on the 3rd topic: traditional mainstream and/or alternative media. you know, the one on how a particular subculture has made use of the street press?

well i'm still a bit hazy on wether this is street press or not, and i'm not even sure i've got a subculture here, but the cat empire is using what they call 'street team' (you can look it up in their flash-based website, browse under 'fans'). basically what they do is they ask you to join their 'street team', ask you where you live, and the next time they're going over to your area, they'll send you a promo pack, filled with posters, flyers, stickers, etc. for you to post up everywhere.

i've got a feeling that the actual contents of their promo pack is traditional media, but i'm not sure on the way they actually do this (i mean getting their fans to promote them instead of doing it themselves). i dunno. any thoughts anyone?

2004-05-18T18:33:00.000+10:00

testing for comment

Give me an excuse. Give me the knife.

2004-05-05T15:10:00.000+10:00

This is my second post but it still feels like a first. I'm so depressed! I still don't know what i'm doing, I don't know anything about blogging, I struggled to set up this blog thing, I don't have internet access at home! And the only time I can invest into this stupid thing is in between classes which is practically nothing! I get depressed after looking at all the other students' blogs and how much they have accomplished, and how far ahead everyone else is. I don't even like computers! I hate the fact that that we all have to spend so much time and effort into this blog and learn about blogs, html, codes, whatever, when it only accounts to 15% of our marks! I mean it'd make much more sense if the weighting is heavier, equalling the amount of work needs to be done for this! And as I write this I realise that I'm using a lot of exclamation marks and that I'm not doing anything constructive and will probably get marked down and penalised for writing this! But at least I'm doing something right?! At least I'm trying! Please tell me I'm not the only one who feels this way. Actually, as a matter of fact, I know I'm not the only one. If anyone would like to express their exasperation as well please add your comments. But I can't even let you do that because I don't know how to add this stupid comments thing! Ha!

2004-05-04T14:32:00.000+10:00

This is my first post. I've been pretty busy with other assessments and have not been able to create this Weblog until now. I'm planning to use this blog for research for my next assignment.