Final post for November
1. Check out this article and the graphic that goes with it. You'll have to click on the MULTIMEDIA side bar that says "Timeline for Chinese Democracy". It's a great graphic as it parallels GNR with the music world. What do you think? Is it effective? Eye catching? How might we use this idea for something in The Voice? What specific article ideas could be expressed through this kind of graphic? Think outside the box! Go crazy.
2. Here's a story on a trend from the NYTimes. It's well written, focused, and appealing to more people than those receiving shoe shines. Great. Now, what trends could we focus on in the next edition of The Voice? What sliver of campus could we expose and bring to the greater community?
Share your thoughts, comments, brilliance.
11 comments:
I enjoyed the shoeshine trend article because it covered a topic that's not super important to the community, but a nice little human-interest piece.
I feel like trends are an incredibly important part of high school, and you see them everywhere at MA. For example, glasses with the lenses punched out. I see tons of junior boys wearing wayfarers with the lenses gone. I mean, come on, this is impractical because these glasses no longer shield you from the sun or enhance your vision. Instead, they are just plastic frames on your face. There are lots of other examples I see daily at MA:girls wearing tights instead of pants, bandanas, and people drinking guayaki. Any of these would make good articles about trends in the MA community
I read the shoeshine trend article and found it interesting because of the financial connotations of the issue at hand and the way it is balanced with the "human interest" part. I think its a great article in that respect and it really gives insight to a little-known (in my opinion) topic.
As for MA, one thing that I think we could focus on could be the hacky-sack culture at MA. I don't think a single day has gone by where I have not seen people playing hacky-sack outside of the theatre and music buildings. Its an interesting phenomenon that I have not seen at many other schools, and something that reflects MA's unique, individual style. I would really be interested in seeing an article like this one in the Voice, as long as it has some sort of relevance to a larger, more prevalent issue (as this one does with the economy).
Guns N’ Roses
The way the writer describes it, Chinese Democracy sounds like a sub-par attempt at copying an electronic Radiohead/Smashing Pumpkins album that has been massaged over with a Tiras-esque neuroticism. I found the writing very compelling (and obviously opinionated); the colorful comparisons between the specific tracks on the album to other artists’ work were particularly effective. However, after reading the article, the timeline graphic felt a little bit like an afterthought.
For me at least, the absence of connection between events on the “World History” timeline and the events on the “Guns N’ Roses History” timeline made the graphic hard to follow. While it does point out the ridiculous amount of time Guns N’ Roses took to produce the album, the use of sporadic events (e.g. the founding of Google, the invention of breath strips, etc.) left me a little puzzled (unless of course, the graphic was meant to be funny…).
However, the parallel sentence structure (i.e. starting with “Confirmed!”) between the final events of the two timelines was fun to read, and I wonder why the designer didn’t follow through with that structure in the rest of the graphic. In my opinion, the graphic would have been stronger as a comparison between a strictly “music history” timeline and a “Guns N’ Roses History” timeline.
This kind of parallel timeline could definitely find its way into the news or features sections of the Voice. For example, a comparison between the development of the MA music department and English department, or the tracking of the history of the MA minicourse/outings program along with the history of the school in general could potentially be interesting graphics.
-Tiras Lin
I've always passed by the empty shoe-shine stations at SFO and wondered who, exactly, bothers with these things. Now I know. The shoeshine article is a great little window into the New York business culture, and how it's changing.
I definitely agree with Josh and Nish that we should try to put something like this in the voice. Maybe we could get some date from the cafe about what people are buying most/least and look for some interesting trends. Clothes are an easy one (think American Apparel sweatshirts with the white zippers circa Fall 2007). Even those disposable cameras that keep popping up every time you think film is dead. I'd read one of those articles.
I also read the shoeshine article and I really enjoyed it. It provided an interesting insight into the business culture of new york city and the economy through a window that is not often explored. This article showed the interconnectivity of everything in a community. I hadn't realized how something like shoeshining could be used to gauge the financial climate of an entire city.
I also really liked the way in which the article was written. It was really easy to read because there was the element of human interest as well as an overarching analysis of something prevelant on a national level. It talked about something that I think many people could relate to, but gave the article an overall importance as well.
I really liked the time line for GNR's history because it didn't use traditional shapes. The photos were in round "frames" which was made particularly eye catching because the photos weren't perfectly cropped to fit each frame. I think it makes a more interesting look, especially having just done a time line for the voice, to use the different shapes and funky cropping. I also liked that it was vertical and that the photos weren't all the same size, both un-traditonal time line aspects. I think that if we do another time line we should think about doing it in a sidebar style, or wrapping around the article to make it more interesting.I think that a time line in sports would be cool -- and it could be kinda cheesy but it would be cool to play around with using different balls/equipment as the frames to mimic the "Chinese Democracy" time line style.
My reasons for enjoying "'Shine 'Em Up, Sir?'" perfectly echo those of others who have commented, so I'll go right into the trends I see and wonder about at MA.
Like Josh, I think the consumption of Guayaki is notable. The drink is heavily caffeinated, which supports the ideas I already have on how little sleep our community gets and how addicted to caffeine we are. Heading more into fashion, I find it rather amusing how prevalent flannel is in students' wardrobes. It seems there is a growing love of 'thrifting' for clothes at MA, and it is way cooler to get a cute outfit from Goodwill than some random store. Also, like Josh mentioned, I have noticed quite the lack of pants among female students. I'm not really sure how we could cover it, but personally I think tights and leggings are meant for skirts and dresses, not t-shirts. This too could even tie into the economic picture; I've seen multiple sources mention the correlation between short skirts, bright colors, and a bad economy.
Guns 'n Roses
Like Tiras, I can also see the "parallel timeline" being an effective addition to an MA Voice article. Of course it could compare a specific aspect of the school (the Outings department or something like that) to the larger MA school history but I think it would be more interesting to compare a part of MA to larger society.
An example of this could be something like comparing MA fashion trends (with lots of old pictures of MA students) to fashion trends outside the MA community.
The one trend that has really stuck out to me at MA this year is the increase in computer game usage during every possible break during the school day. Whether it is chambers, lunch, or break, it seems like students are always in the library playing a computer game. This has been seen in years past, but not to this degree. It seems like it is happening more frequently and by a larger group of people. Perhaps this is because of the emergence of BM-TRON, a game simple enough so that anyone can be good at it, and also is between players, so people can rationalize their playing it by convincing themselves that they're being interactive. Either way, theres a clear increase, could make a good article; I feel like I could write a good op-ed on the appeal of bm-tron.
Zeke makes a good point about the rise of computer game use in the library. This along with the other trends states in this blog (hacky sack, clothing etc.) could all make for good articles. I think that it is a good way for students to relate to the paper, as it is about THEM. Even things as simple, yet very present in the relationships between students and teachers could be good. For example, there are some obvious trends that students follow in relationship to certain teachers like the librarians. Commonly, students choose to follow relationship of "us versus them" in the library. This could fit well into an article on computer use.
I too read the shoeshine article. As several others have expressed, I appreciate how this article uses the fairly obscure trend of shoe-shining as a reflection of a greater global trend. I think if we can have that kind of connection, with a bit more analysis, we could write some really great trend features.
Of the ideas already thrown out I particularly enjoy Guayaki and hackysack – I think it is important to see trends beyond material consumption (though I guess Guayaki could qualify as a consumed material). I think some of the words we use ("legit", for instance) show some interesting things about our community.
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