Farewell Dear Friends...

As a Graduate student staring down the long, dark corridor to graduation, I am reflecting on the experiences of the last two years and recalling a poster someone bought me many years ago.

At the time, I thought the poster was humorous as I watched the Three Stooges almost religiously on television. However, I did not fully understand the poster's message until now.

Following graduation in December of 2008 with my B.A. in Communication, I was naively optimistic about finding employment in an economy that got flushed down the toilet and is still struggling to resurface. I will graduate May 5 with a M.A. in English. This time I am truly optimistic about starting a career and not simply just finding a job. I will be re-released into the world armed with a new skill-set that will provide me with more opportunities for success that were unavailable several years ago. However, the education I received did not come from the classroom, the countless hours reading page after page of seemingly useless literature, or from lengthy research papers. Instead, I was baptized by fire by my mentor, Dr. Martina Harris, in the School of Nursing. She has given me an unlimited amount of room to hone my strengths, recognize my weaknesses, and learn new things. I am reminded of the quote: "Give a man a fish and he'll eat for a day. Teach him how to fish and he'll eat forever." At the hands of Dr. Harris, I will never go hungry.

I can only hope all of you have similar experiences and find yourselves working with someone like Dr. Harris who is willing to take you under her wing and give you the tools necessary to negotiate the hairpin turns of the winding road of life.

In the meantime, farewell dear friends. It has been a bumpy ride, but a necessary one. Good luck in your future endeavors.

Reflection: 1996 Mt. Everest Disaster

Shopping for the perfect song that conveys just the message you want to send is like looking for the perfect pair of shoes to match the dress you bought last summer that is a size too small that you were hoping you would lose enough weight to fit in this summer—you just know when you hear it or in the shoes’ case when you see them. Whew! Did I get it all in there? Typically, the first element in my video-making process is the music. The music is the foundation upon which I construct my entire production. I allow the natural changes in the song(s) to dictate the flow of images providing the viewer with a cohesive bond between rhythm and emotion. There is nothing like an‘aha!’ moment when the music and images come together harmoniously.

Up until this point, I have had no problems with locating songs to convey a particular emotion. However, this project proved to be a worthy adversary. It was truly a “kill the baby” moment. The song I had chosen was perfect lyrically and even emotionally, but something was still missing. I needed a shift in emotion and could not locate the perfect song to accompany my chosen tune. I had already exported my video into QT format at least four times and had decided it was good enough. But “good enough” just isn’t good enough for me. I had to woefully and with anticipated regret hit the DELETE button. As the product of an unrelenting perfectionist complex, I began anew. I sat for hours combing through my iTunes library and YouTube searching…. I knew I would know it when I heard it. Soundtracks are some of the best places to locate unique music. I racked my brain over and over crawling through the darkest recesses of my mind…The Last Samurai, 300, Troy, Snatch, Gladiator, The Hunger Games, The Last of the Mohicans. With great frustration I finally emerged victorious—Braveheart. Bingo! Perfect pair of shoes. I ended up pulling three songs from the soundtrack as they all went well together—naturally. After spending an additional six hours perfecting my project, I fell asleep content.

While I still long to use Final Cut, I managed to locate some new features in iMovie that really breathed some life into my project. Overall, I am happy with this project. I feel like it has more depth than my first project, but my first project was very cohesive and groovy. So, if anything it has been a cool experience to dabble in creating two very different multi-modal videos. 

Chaos loves company

During an art appreciation class at a local community college, I was introduced to the idea that the human eye tries to make "order out of chaos." Of course, the professor was referring to an onlooker of eccentric artwork, but I like the idea of order and chaos duking it out. This phrase can be applied to anything (at least in my world anyway). I want everything placed in a neat little box with a ribbon around it. I think we have been conditioned this way and as a result we find ourselves struggling to break free. This is certainly important for someone who has imprisoned their creativity for many years replacing it with reason and a hard-nosed, old-fashioned work ethic that does not allow for foo foo drawings and creative writing. "Damn hippies!! That is all they do is sit around singing kum ba yah and not working!" That is what I think my papaw would say if he were still alive. Probably not, but it is fun thinking about it.

My papaw was a reserved man. He only spoke when he had something to say and most of the time it was to tell you you were doing something wrong. However, he made known his love for others through small gestures. For example, I remember as a wee tot camping with my family in Tellico. We did not have a lot of money, and I think even if we did nothing would have been any different. We love the outdoors, and we love to camp--present tense. Every summer we camped alongside the Tellico river near Green Cove. Papaw would take me by the hand (I was only 7 or 8), and he would walk with me to the little store to get a creamsicle. While this may seem silly, it was huge to an eight year-old. The walk felt like it took forever like we were walking to China and back, but I am sure it was only a half mile or so round-trip. The temperature was hot enough to bake my drawers so you can only imagine what happened once I got my ice-cream. I spent more time licking it off my hands than off the stick. I grew very frustrated because my papaw would not let me walk down to the river and wash my hands and by the time we reached the campsite I was sticky from head-to-toe.

So what does eating ice-cream with my gramps have to do with order, chaos, and artwork? Not a damn thing! But I can certainly give him credit for not only teaching me a strong work ethic, but also allowing me the freedom to be myself. More importantly I can credit my love for the outdoors to those special camping trips and everyone involved. Inspiration can come from anywhere and experiences such as these are most often the source for me.

Prior to returning to school this past fall (2011), I took a trip to VA to hike a section of the Appalachian Trail in the Shenandoah Valley with my brother's now fiance, Leanne. We traveled approximately 50 miles in 4 days with no chance of a bath or real food.

It was an amazing experience as we learned a great deal about ourselves and the world that surrounds us. We encountered at least one bear each day, snakes, and beautiful scenes that bordered on epic. Most of all, we met many strange and interesting characters on the trail. One such character named Heavy Metal (everyone has a trail name) was an older man, tall, thin, white hair--scary. We had been warned about him by another hiker who told us not to spend the night in a shelter with him because he would steal you blind and ask you for weed. Talk about having your eagle eyes on the lookout for this shady character, Leanne and I were actually relieved to finally run into him on the trail. Heavy Metal pretty much lives on the AT traveling from shelter to shelter spending the night and stealing everyone's stuff. Along the trail you will encounter subdivisions and opportunities to receive what is called 'trail magic.' Trail magic can be anything from money to food to water. It has become a way of life for many of the thru-hikers--a means for survival. I can imagine there are times when one finds him or herself stuck without enough food/water and needs money to acquire more. However, there is an understood rule that if you take trail magic, you don't take it all. You must leave some for others. Heavy Metal apparently did not get the memo. Leanne and I were the happy recipients of trail magic in the form of agua. I ran out on the third day and happened across some people traveling through the Valley and stopping at the overlooks for photo opps. I was so relieved as the heat was borderline baking my synthetic undies. Leanne and I decided to whip up one of our oh so deelish freeze-dried dinners. Truthfully they aren't that bad, but they are certainly nothing compared to the real deal you get at home. Teriyaki chicken tastes nothing like chicken and since everything tastes like chicken that is a feat unto itself.

Any time we would prepare food, I thought of my grandparents and those memorable camping trips. Being a southerner, we take our food very seriously. My grandma (Nanny) would bake cobbler, pies, and biscuits in a propane-fired oven that was a staple in our camp supplies. I'm talkin' a full-blown stove like what is in your kitchen. Redneck, I know. Funny how things change, how equipment changes. The stove we used on the AT hike would have been laughed at by my papaw had he been there.

Leanne made eggs one morning. Word of advice: stick to oatmeal. When we were finally picked up on the fourth day (we actually finished a day earlier than planned), we pigged out on potato chips and soda and were content with what we had just accomplished.

Many of the hikers we passed had been on the trail for weeks or months. We may attempt that one day, but for now we are happy with only a few days. Besides, I am not sure I could stand to smell myself for that long or anyone else for that matter.

Returning to my opening paragraph about breaking free from the everyday, I believe Leanne and I have found a way. Without the material items we utilize in our daily lives, it really helps put things in perspective. Trips such as these are moments when time is all you have and each day is real--no artificial fillers. As for order, chaos, and artwork...well let's just say I was happy Chaos decided to stay at home for that trip. Order found her way and blessed our trip. We really did not have any major issues other than blisters, a bee sting, a mouse crawling across my head in the middle of the night, and a curious bear or two. The artwork was...well....see for yourself...

In need of video narrative ideas?

As I beat, bloody, annihilate, and mutilate my final video project idea searching for just the right music/image combo to effectively communicate my message, I ran across this video.

This is quite possibly one of the most creative videos burdened by communicating a specific message that I have watched in a while. Most of the time we are bombarded by images of money, cars, 'ho's, clothing, and jewelry--all material possessions that unfortunately represent success in this country. So, it is refreshing to locate the occasional video that steps outside of the box to tell a story. However, viewers, including myself, don't always realize the amount of mental preparation that goes into the process of creating a narrative production. The above video uses text streaming across the bottom of the screen like a live news feed, actual footage from the news, combined with their own lyrics to equal a multi-layered message that is further reinforced by the gritty guitar riffs and aggressive beats. All of these are possible components to be utilized in our own productions in order to successfully tell our story.

Another unique video narrative is displayed in M. Ward's video for his song "Chinese Translation". This time we have stop motion of sorts that tells a story of life.

I truly enjoy watching the old Chinese man under the tree as he ages. I don't know who came up with this concept, but it is certainly creative and simple. Sometimes it is the simpler videos that tell the best stories. M. Ward gives us some pretty off-the-wall videos most of the time. So, if you are in need of video ideas for your narrative check out M. Ward or Bjork!