Day laborers, cotton pickers, in field, Lake Dick Project, Arkansas, 1938
Chinese immigrants 1875
Albert Johnson - President of Eugenic Research Association
Spanish Casta Paintings
Mexican nationals awaiting employment through the bracero program. Mexicali 1954
Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles
Juan Logan - Some Clouds are Darker 2011
Along with our questions and discussion, the author gives us a glimpse of many physical aspects that are affected by the issues presented in the narrative:
St. Louis Rams Stadium with Arch in the background.
Tyree Guyton's Heidelberg Project.
Public Housing in Baltimore Maryland circa 2006.
World Stage Gallery, Los Angeles California.
Project Row Houses, Third Ward in Houston Texas.
Race and Place Today.
Featuring the SLN studios of Twitch.tv is a special report!
In today's episode of Intro to Digital Media: The Night Edition, a student receives and ominous call! Followed by the directors cut with more CUMBIA!
This is classified audio from a deleted broadcast of NBC5 in Dallas, Texas. Please understand it's this has never been heard by anyone, so it makes it HIGHLY volatile if ever released to the public.
For this project, I decided to go with two different ideas that contrast with each other, but have similarities. The first has a color pallet that mirrors a bit of the central image and the fonts that also contrast each other. Both of the CDs are titled "Seguir Adelante" which roughly translated to english means to push forward, or to progress in life. My father has always mentioned this to me when referring to life, and what we must do to overcome the obstacles in it.
Black and White
Colorized Version
A simple post displaying a single image being cropped into three different aspect ratios that obey the rule of thirds.
16x9
4x3
3x2
In this post I have compiled some of my favorite album covers that span across all spectrums of music. Some of these albums are some of my favorites, but others were chosen specifically for its unique cover art that has always caught my attention. Our first one is one that till this day I do not quite understand, which is The Mars Volta - De-Loused in the Comatorium.
Que?
I've listened to this album many times all the way through, as it tells a story about a deceased friend of the band. However, the album cover and the lyrics of the album mystify me as they are layered with metaphors and allusions to the life of said friend. Next is Paul Wall & Chamillionaire - Get Ya Mind Correct a rap album from Houston based rap duo.
Nice try Nike, I see your hidden advertisement.
The image perspective of this album cover always caught my attention and the use of only two colors, red and white. Next is Los Tigres Del Norte - Corridos Prohibidos, translated means prohibited corridos which are folk tales that are told through song. The reason for the prison line up album cover is because of the content of corridos that speaks of drug dealers and narco trafficking.
Prohibited....in Mexico.
In 1996, Rage Against the Machine - Evil Empire was released and I was only 10, and would not listen to this album for another 5 years and many more years until I actually understood it. Of all Rage Against the Machine albums this cover has always been my favorite. The title "Evil Empire" that refers to Ronald Regan's speech where he refers to the USSR as the "Evil Empire".
Featuring lyrics that provoke.
Ah yes, No Doubt - Tragic Kingdom an album cover that has forever reminded me of a trip that I took during the mid-nighties to Los Angeles. An amazing album on its own, the cover always perplexed me because you have the juxtaposition of Gwen Stefani's beauty with rotting fruit in a satire towards a Mid-20th century advertisement.
Tasty.
After years of hearing my brother listen to Metallica albums, I finally gave Master of Puppets a gander while I was high school and I was hooked. It was hard to pick between many of their album covers, but it was this one that resonated me. The symbolism of the grave site together with the puppeteer, alludes to a grim metaphor between military and the government that controls it.
MASTER.
Again harking back to the 90's, Fugees - The Score makes me question the genre of the album. Just showing three faces, all with different expressions interested me to give it a listen after hearing Killing Me Softly, which until this day reminds me of my oldest sister.
Still waiting for The Score 2.
Bone bone bone bone.. Bone.. Bone.. Bone.. Bone.. Bone. Just as Mars Volta I still do not get this post apocalyptic backdrop of this album art. However, similar to Mars Volta and No DoubtBone Thugs-n-Harmony - E.1999 Eternal just captured my attention compared to other rap/hip-hop albums that were being released speaking directly to the cover art.
I miss my uncle Charles y'all...
Larry breaking the rules of "closure".
Larry becoming one with the long shot.
Larry finding his asymmetry.
Larry becoming symmetrical in nature.
Ready for his close up Mr. Deville.
Larry finding his inner balance, focusing his weight of gaze.
Closing his photo shoot, Larry conforms and obeys closure.
Musical genres are often tied to a generation or a decade, and that is no different to disco. Originating in the late 1960's lasting until the late 1970's it fused influences from funk, soul, pop, and salsa music. Thus making Disco a menagerie of organized noise combined to create a sound all of it is own, and inspiring me to create a documentary based on it. This planned documentary would give an outline on the origins but its primary focus is on modern day reemergence around the globe and its continued presence in popular music. Combining media that is free-use and copyrighted material, I plan to construct a documentary that is both informative and cost effective. Below I have chosen a few pieces of media that would be part of said project.
Licensed for Reuse:
The images below were found using Google's "Advanced Search" options to locate images that are available for reuse by anyone. A ubiquitous scene at many establishments of disco night life was the light up dance floor which is being displayed in the following image, and a disco club. Also the image of the disco ball at the top of this post was also found using this feature on google, and you could not be enjoying disco without the ever popular disco ball.
Another essential piece of a Disco club, the light up floor, also a popular venue the "Roxy".
Public Domain: In this particular clip, titled "Dance Video Mix Vol. 29 70's y 80's (remastered)" by DJ Marloz, several clips of disco music are interwoven to make a video mix. Bordering on infringing on copyrighted music, it limits the clips of songs to a very minuscule length that does not include the whole song. Also being released in a foreign country (Mexico), this is a grey area when it comes to the law being applied to it. Since it was found in Archive.org, it belongs on the public domain allowing anyone to use it.
Fair Use: Below is a selection of songs/mixes that are fair use that are examples of the ressuregence of disco in modern times, but has been given the nu-disco moniker to define it. These songs/mixes are for the most part also available for download which blurs the line of copyrights. Soundcloud uses Creative Commons for many of these songs in order to allow the downloading of this media from their website.
Pay to License: In this documentary, I would use only a couple copyrighted songs to keep the cost down of the production. A song that continues to be played in many modern day shows/movies is Earth, Wind & Fire - September. This disco classic is made more memorable with the video that clearly depicts the ostentatious fashion used by some musical groups of the era. To bring it to the present time, Martin Solveig - Night Out (Lenno Remix) is a clear example of how nu-disco is very much being embedded into newer popular songs with remixes that giving it that disco infused sound.
The Native Instrument's (NI) "The Future is Now" direct to web advertisement focuses on its new product the Traktor Kontrol S8. Months before it was released, NI had been teasing the product and its attempt at viral marketing with the hashtag #thefutureisnow. Debuting in late 2014, this commercial paints the Kontrol S8 as a revolutionary piece of equipment for all DJs around the world. The Kontrol S8 was heavily critiqued for its lack of jog wheels, that have been a staple of popular DJ equipment. This commercial did not help build its rapport in the DJ community with the pretentious futuristic first display of the S8. Before breaking down individual frames, here is the complete ad:
The commercial opens with darkness giving anonymity to DJ that could easily be anyone (Figure 1). The first display of the actual device happens in containing a color palette (Figure 2), which has a striking difference to the theme of the commercial that is monotone colors.
Figure 1. The lone DJ enters as he readies to control humans via music.
Figure 2. The Traktor Kontrol S8.
In this frame (Figure 3), Native Instruments shows the purported heads up display that DJs will envision when using the Kontrol S8. The main draw of this piece of equipment is to get "rid of the computer," which is counter-intuitive, since the actual equipment requires a computer to function.
Figure 3. The HUD that all DJ's using the S8 will see while in operation.
Not only having giving a DJ a virtual heads up display, the Kontrol S8 is able to read crowd levels, that contains a slider allowing him to "turn up" the crowd at a whim (Figure 4). The pretentiousness really shines of Native Instruments giving the notion that the Kontrol S8 can function as a bio metrics reader during a concert (Figure 5).
Figure 4. New feature for the Kontrol S8, crowd control slider.
Figure 5. The S8 also functions as a bio metrics reader for on the go analysis.
In the final frame (Figure 6), #thefutureisnow flashes as the crowd of music induced fanatics are seen as something out of a crowd of zombies. Native instruments' attempt to give a vision of the future of djing falls on its face by trying to go viral with this twitter/facebook hashtag. The overuse of scenes out of a sci-fi movie, builds the wrong image of the new product. Native Instruments strategy of pushing the Kontrol S8, rather than show how futuristic the product is, it just gave us a fantasy that does not exist.
Figure 6. #THEFUTUREISNOW where concerts function as doctor visits.
The godfather of FIFA also known as Sepp Blatter, finally leaves his post in the international governing organization of soccer, after on going pressure by other soccer federations. This comes after many allegations and charges of corruption by different governments around the world, and the Department of Justice of the United States. Sepp Blatter has been the President of FIFA since 1998, thus ending the longest running occupation of a FIFA president in it's history.
