Wednesday, September 29, 2010

MEDIA MEDITATION NUMÉRO DEUX: The Ultimate Movie Experience?

An intimidating title, I'm aware... So, for this blog I thought I'd bring up a particular event that happened to me over the summer.  There was a movie.  There was Tempur-Pedic®.  There was Awesome.  Any clue? Well, I'll start by giving you some backstory.

Sometime midway through July, I was sitting at my home computer (during a dreary afternoon) which happened to be situated in my bedroom.  Suddenly, I recieved a phone call -- one of my best friends, who so generously bought me and his fiancé (another good friend) dinner for my birthday, offered to buy me, his fiancé, and their roommate tickets to see INCEPTION... IN IMAX!


Now I know what you're thinking... "Stupid Jeff, I saw INCEPTION in IMAX too!" Well, here's where things get interesting...

As a native of Massachusetts, the most obvious IMAX theatre to go to would be in Boston (at the BOSTON AQUARIUM).  However, I was in no mood to drive a few hours -- even to see INCEPTION in the IMAX.  So, I looked at the IMAX website, and found that the closest one to go to would be an hour or so drive (Reading, Massachusetts -- the theatre itself was inside JORDAN'S FURNITURE).  Telling my friend of the locale, and offering to drive the four of us, the ticket orders were placed and, before I knew it, we were at the furniture outlet.  

Now, the problem with getting to the theatre was we had to walk through showcases, dinettes, bedrooms, living rooms... etc.  A genius strategy, on JORDAN'S FURNITURE's part.  To spare the details, we got our tickets and fought to get good seats... which weren't that great, but (as you'll soon find out) all sins were forgiven.  After being sat down, and enduring the lightshow before the previews, a small image of Eliot Tatelman appeared on screen.  He welcomed us to the theatre and let us in on a little surprise... the seats we sat in? Tempur-Pedic®.  Not just that... but they had their own sound amplifiers in them! And these seats were exclusive to the IMAX in Reading.

I know what you're thinking... "HOLY S#!T! HOW AWESOME WAS IT?!"

It was most excellent.  The movie seems to thrive off playing with all three of your brains.  I don't want to spoil too much of the movie (as those who haven't seen it will have it ruined), but here are some ways this movie seemed to toy with me: for one, my reptilian brain was constantly being squeezed for its fight or flight response.  The intense action sequences and certain moments that will frighten you (if only for a moment) drew out my inner beast.  Second, the neocortex is easily broken down.  This movie is about dreams and in dreams anything is possible. There are scenes in this movie that break reality... one of which is the famous bending city...(and the Penrose Stairs. )


Click the image for a full-view

But, believe me when I say, this movie is much more than impossible steps and flipping cities.  The music (which is tied to events in the movie) plays on the limbic brain easily (example: since our brain processes information faster than we realize, external stimuli such as music sounds slowed down in our dreams), and since the plot and action are never too far ahead of each other, there is no stressful thoughts or trouble keeping up with what's going on.  

If you haven't seen this movie yet, than you need to get to the nearest IMAX and strap in... because Inception is one ride that is not only thought provoking, but is well done and guarenteed to entertain!

CLICK ON THE PIC FOR THE HQ VERSION


Much credit to Paul Martin's Blog for posting this HIGH QUALITY poster.

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Media Meditation #1: It's Rainmeter! and Phineas Gage

So, a little while back I installed an interesting little program called Rainmeter.

Essentially, it's a nifty little tool that allows you to customize your desktop with a plethora of features.  There are a few standard themes, but you can download different skins (I got one designed after the game "Mass Effect 2").  Even better, if you're connected to the internet (and know a little bit of coding), you can get things like weather forecasts.  There are a few problems with this thing.  for one, it's not necessarily a "pick-up and play" sort of tool... it takes a lot of getting used to.  

Navigating menus isn't the only problem either; in order to get things like your local weather forecast, you have to get a few numbers from some weather website (the name escapes me right now) and get a specific number, edit the code for the tool, and have a decent internet connection.  Not to mention, it can slow down your computer.  And even if you manage to get everything down right, you have to start it up every time you turn on your computer.  

I hate to say it, but using a Mac is easier. 

NOT RECOMMENDED.

Photobucket

Screenshot of my desktop, post-Rain... nifty, eh?
 

In other news, I managed to catch bits and pieces of the Phineas Gage gig on Champlain's campus last night (I had a 7:45 - 9:00 class).  Good stuff.  If they had played "Rocky Mountain High" while I was there, I'd have thought they were perfect.

Not saying you weren't, Mr. Williams!



Thursday, September 16, 2010

Minor Blog Updates

Played around with a few things, nothing really special.

I've also been screwing around with a little thing called "Rainmeter".  I'll go into detail in my next post.

Sunday, September 5, 2010

Day 1 - First Blog!

Since my Media and Society class expects me to have a blog up by now, I figure I'd learn through experimentation with this thing.  It looks similar to Microsoft Word, so there shouldn't be too many problems, I just hope that I don't run into too many complications or HTML errors or whatever might catastrophically ruin this blog.


blargh, this will happen a lot; I ramble on and let my stream of thought take over.


Anyway, to those watching (which will hopefully be an impressed professor!), I'll try to keep up with this blog with all my ideas and thoughts on the current media and, who knows, maybe I'll get a few movie reviews in!