Internet? Are you there? Its me. Brodie.

So its true, I haven't made a new blog post in some time. This is partly due to two separate factors. The first is that I sort of ran out of ideas, and the second is that I've only had one idea to talk about. However its a pretty big one, one so big that I'm going to post my thoughts on it in different posts (or "chapters", cause that sounds way cooler). And its on the internet. Its something that isn't talked about as nearly much as it should be, and something that I believe will come to characterize our generation when we look back, 10, 20, 50 years from now. My first topic will be the internet's influence on media, and later I will talk about how its changed the way we communicate. I'll probably go on more later, but these are the two things I really want to talk about. First of all, internet, and media. Once again, these are all random collected thoughts and observations, which will hopefully help you think and do some more observing yourself.

I'd like to start my little blab from the end, because I was planning on doing this before my little revelation, and oddly enough once the revelation happened, I knew I had to do this. (Makes it sound like I'm conquering the universe or something).

I don't exactly remember how I stumbled across Google Reader, I knew about RSS feeds (Really Simple Syndication), feeds which could be "subscribed" to and then organized into a personal collection through a site or program. Perhaps it was just my simple observation of how many sites allowed for RSS feeds.

Anyway, I already had a Google and a Blogger account (clearly), so I set up Google Reader and got to work. It really was Really Simple. All I had to do was click on the RSS feed button logo thingy on my favourite sites, it would take me to a page asking me which program I wanted to import it to, I'd hit Google Reader, and schwabamo, there it was. It updated nearly instantly and would keep track of which new posts I hadn't read yet, and which ones I had. Impressive.

Needless to say, I have lots of sites I enjoy visiting or reading. Sites for news, music news, tennis news, music blogs, tennis blogs, as well as the blogs of a couple of friends. I now have a total of 30 subscriptions, and it continues to grow. (I can also access it on my phone, which is a story I'll save for later).

It was then when I realized that I had established my own, personal, customized newspaper. How effing cool is that? If you said "damn cool" you would be correct. I was able to get "real" news from The Daily Beast (I dig politics), "real" tennis and sports news from feeds from ESPN, etc., as well as blogs commenting on sports, just written by whoever. Not to mention blogs for downloading new music. In other words, crap I care about, and may or may not get around to eventually through my "internet surfing", but needless to say, it was all in the same place now, and there was no turning back. I now check Google Reader several times a day, and I'd say it gets anywhere from 150-300 updates a day.

So what is this revelation I speak of (other than the fact that RSS + Google Reader = mega awesome)? Its no secret that there is a very serious decline in the selling of newspapers and their subscriptions, which has lead to cutting of jobs, and even entire sections of the New York Times (Colbert joked "Recreation and Leisure" would now just be "Leisure"). I have seen several comments on this, many by old white guys who work in the business and they tend to come to these conclusions (outside of the silly "its a recession" explanation):

1) Internet kills newspapers, because to stay relevant, they must publish stories online, therefore people can get it for free.

2) Blogs kill newspapers because people can get their "news" and comment from people's blogs for free, and don't need a newspaper.

3) Because blogs are personal, and written in a non-professional style, they're more approachable and easy to read, so therefore newspaper is "stale" and boring.

4) There's several other things about how the internet kills newspaper, like people are so used to reading screens, and printed word has lost its relevancy all together, to a younger generation etc.

5) Lastly, I've seen/read said old white men saying that written print will never die (something I agree with) and that newspapers need innovation to "capture" a younger generation and regain readership.

So what is true, and what is not true? I actually think all of these points are true, especially the blog one, a word that has now become household. However, there's a gigantic reason that seems to be entirely ignored yet completely obvious, that wasn't even revealed to me until Google came along and enhanced my life once again (ahem).

That is the sheer variety and customizability (apparently that actually is a word...) of the internet. I now have a (somewhat) entirely personal newspaper set up. Its all about stuff I care about, and I can read the latest tennis news on my ESPN feed and scroll an inch down and read C Note's opinion on Roger Federer being a huge jerk over at Forty Deuce or how Pete Bodo thinks Fed is the best thing since sliced bread at TennisWorld A newspaper with opinion articles you actually want to read? Does it get much better?

This is something where newspaper will never compete. And for that reason, internet is becoming the true media. This extends beyond newspaper, to TV, magazines, everything. Internet is also in real time, which is where it destroys magazines, but that's a different topic all together.

So where does this lead us? I once again bring up The Daily Beast, and American based news site, only on the web, that tries to capture the modern (mostly American) political and popular culture in summarized form, linking you to full off-site articles. However, it also includes incredibly interesting blogs (such as John McCain's surprisingly awesome daughter) and guest blogs, featuring writers as popular as Al Gore. Perhaps its much like Google Reader, but instead condensed into a single site.

Lastly, I'd link this to something incredibly interesting I learned as far back as (I think) grade 8. It was on the loss of jobs in factories, to robots, etc. My teacher taught us that robots taking human jobs actually created MORE jobs. There's jobs creating from the parts needed to be manufactured, people to put them together, and people to service them. Here's hoping that online news will be able to survive as a business (presumably through advertising) and through web designing and administrating. This isn't a ton of jobs, but lets be honest, newspapers don't employ a whole ton of people as it is (hence 4 zillion freelance writers). Its an interesting prospect, I think, the internet's overall effect on media, and as the internet continues to grow and become a simple, self-efficient, self-functioning beast, it will take over how we consume media, specifically news and relevant information. Here's hoping that the move will not be for the worse (like the poor music industry) as the internet continues to develop and be one of the most influential and important things in society's day to day existence.

Comments (on my post or in general), random thoughts, and observations are all welcome :)

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Now playing: Nightingale - One Way Ticket
via FoxyTunes

Domi and Dina

lol.
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Now playing: In Flames - Delight and Angers

"Sport is something that brings people together"

As many of you know, I happen to love tennis. Oddly enough, women's tennis more, for some reason. I used to watch it a ton when I was a kid, but I kinda stopped paying attention once I got to high school. Last summer, having May off, cause of university, I started watching The French Open, and was immediately mesmerized by one player in particular, Ana Ivanovic. I actually think it was her forehand, it was kind of off the hook. I suppose the looks didn't hurt either. But I immediately got caught up in the story of this girl, who had come from a war torn Serbia and cracked the WTAs top 10. She had lost the final of the French to Henin the year before, and she had since retired, so there was a big question of if she could make it to the final or not, and what would happen. As we all know now, she won in epic fashion.

That video was what was SUPPOSED to be aired Monday night at the Billie Jean King Cup (a one night event at Madison Square Gardens with Ana, Jelena Jankovic, and the Williams Sisters). The sort of hilarious thing is that there's controversy over whether it didn't get played cause Bill Clinton was there and made a speech (and was the President when the NATO bombings happened), or because she didn't make it to the final of the BJKC (JJ didn't, and her's didn't get played). Whatever, just watch the video, its fantastic, and tells a fantastic story.

O Chris Cornell, Where Art Thou?

Something that I find endlessly entertaining is people's ridiculous reactions to a musician or band who drastically changes their style, genre, or approach, for an album. Sometimes the reaction is justified (one thinks of the horrible new Cryptopsy album), at other times the music is quite good (like people who still think the new Metallica album is horrible). Perhaps I should make a special little note of Ulver, who have somehow gone from black metal, to neo-folk, to electronic, to ambient, touching on seemingly every genre in between and still being brilliant as hell.

Regardless, it really shows two things that are endlessly interesting. First, people's resistance to change. Bands can change a little bit at a time (Dream Theater?) and its ok, its nothing too drastic. But once they go too far, there's an outcry, regardless. The second thing is how important people's expectations are when they listen to new music. The band's past work, what they've read about it, even the album art will influence what they think before they hear the music. Which is kind of unfortunate, because the music can be quite good, once you get past the shock of the change that's happened.

Case in point for today is Chris Cornell. Lead singer and main songwriter for the now long gone grunge band Soundgarden, he's one of the most important figures of 90's hard rock (something that has a bit of a special place in my heart). Soundgarden are known for such awesome songs as Black Hole Sun (which is accompanied by a fantastic music video)



Once Soundgarden disbanded, Chris released a solo album in 1999, formed Audioslave with three members of Rage Against the Machine (who released 3 albums), and released another album in 2007 (which featured You Know My Name, the main song for Bond: Casino Royale). All good. Well, Chris then decided that he should work with Timbaland, acclaimed hip hop producer and bazillionaire wonderkind, after a reccomendation from Rick Rubin.

Its safe to say this was a weirdass choice and it produced incredibly weirdass results. Or typical results. I first stumbled upon the single "Scream", and was pretty well outraged. I was definitely the victim of my own criticism, as it was a far cry from the hard rock edge I'm used to from Soundgarden and Audioslave. Its a strange song, it has a sort of upbeat hip hop beat, yet the vocals are sort of soaring and slow (and totally Chris Cornell). After a few listens I actually started to really like it (I'm listening to it right now). Its weird for Chris Cornell, but after you get past the shock, you realize its a pretty sweet song.

The unfortunate part is that the rest of the album, sadly, is nowhere near up to par. I haven't listened to the whole thing, but its just so... forced. In "Scream", Timbaland sets up a sweet platform for Chris to bounce and soar off of. Some of the other songs are trying to be driving or energetic and its just... odd. I think anyway, fans of hip hop and more pop like stuff might really dig the other stuff. Sadly, Chris is pretty well receiving a huge lashing from his devouted fans, and cries of "sell out!", though I think this was just an honest experimentation. After all, it IS just music. Whatever that means.

Here's "Scream" (if you want to see the actual video, which is a couple minutes shorter, search it up, it wouldn't let me embed it)

Because I Can

I just thought I would post this, cause I can. Even though both elections are long past, there was an opinion article in The Gazette, UWO's student newspaper (which is rather fantastic), saying how the Canadian election was just so much better than the American one that was happening at the time, and how we have all this respect for each other in the campaign season, compared to the Americans which are quite the opposite. While I'm normally all for Canadian pride and subsequent American bashing, I was less than impressed by the Canadian campaigns that were taking place, so I wrote a letter to the editor, which I think is pretty badass. Baha. Its on page 4.

The Gazette, October 2nd, 2008

Concentration?

I have come to the conclusion that the sun is in fact the enemy of concentration. I remember in public school I always had the hardest time doing work once the weather got nice, the sun always pumped me up and made it hard to concentrate. I am suffering from the same pain now, I could have probably been done this assignment and hour or two ago if I put my mind to it. And the sole reason for me writing this blog is to find another excuse to waste time. Oh school work, you are so difficult sometimes.



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Now playing: Matthew Good - Black Helicopter
via FoxyTunes

The Great Outdoors

So I love the outdoors, its true. I in fact one day dream of discarding humanity and living in a cabin in northern Ontario or Sweden or something. Sort of. Anyway, I like going to the near by forest and taking pictures, its quite nice and inspiring, especially at the changing of seasons. I don't do it that often, but I thought I would share some of my favourite pictures I've taken from there. I by no means claim to be good at it, it's just a lot of fun. And they make great wallpapers. Baha.