GUITAR PLAYER MAGAZINE

Thesis: Guitar Player Magazine is dedicated to both aspiring and veteran musicians; displaying the latest products, offering professional insights, and even some basic lessons of favorite songs.

Five Facts:

a: Guitar Player was started in the late 60's, but flourished in the 80's thanks to editor Tom Wheeler. 

b: A subscription of 12 Issues is only $14.99, while 24 issues for only $22.99.

c: Readers praise Guitar Player Magazine for its wide variety of musicians (all with different styles). 

d: GP offers guitar lessons for popular songs: for example, in this month's issue, Matthias Jabs gave an interpretation of Jimi Hendrix’s All Along the Watchtower.

e: GP also gives reviews for the latest equipment.  For instance, this month reviewed the specs of five different AMPs. 

Triune: Like all magazines, Guitar Player primarily mixes the NEOCORTEX and LIMBIC brains -- the first 19 or so pages are colorful images and poses of artists displaying their products, with specific fonts to emphasize the point their trying to make. Later, the pages are primarily detailed with interviews and product descriptions -- utilizing the NEOCORTEX.

TRENDS: The magazine utilizes a strong EPISTOMOLOGICAL SHIFT in many of the pages -- using professional guitarists to advertise their products (a way of saying: if you play this, you could be professional). There’s also a good PERSONAL SHIFT, with multiple artists (Dweezil Zappa, Wilson King) talking about their genre of music and how they got into that specific type of music.

Principles: Guitar Player uses blatant PRODUCTION TECHNIQUES, such as flashy fonts and bright colors in their products. There’s also a sort of even PACING in the magazine: the first few pages are straight up advertisement, which is followed by an even amount of articles. The articles and advertisement then play an even game of volleyball over the pages.

Persuasive Techniques: The magazine plays a unique game of BANDWAGON and BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE: products use both popular artists and professional models to advertise -- as if saying that their product is used by professionals AND plain folks like you and me. There’s also some HYPERBOLE: “The Greatest Guitars are products of Great Vision”

MEDIA MEDITATION NUMBER FOUR: Where'd Old Vegas Go? (M-RATED BLOG)

Are you ready for a blast from the past? Well, too bad.

Oh, boy, another Video Game...

Don't fret, because this is a fairly popular title.  More importantly if you played its predecessor, Fallout 3, you should feel right at home here.  

FALLOUT: NEW VEGAS, just like the rest of the series, takes place in post-apocalyptic America, in the year 2281.  Just like the rest of the series, you'll find that the atmosphere has a unique 40's/50's vibe -- seen in both technology and the game's music (I'll get into it a little later).  Developed by Obsidian Entertainment, this game is not a direct squeakquel to FO3 nor does it make any mention of the 3rd installment's plot.  And, just like most of Obsidian's games, it's pretty buggy.

STORY: The game starts pretty bluntly; you are a Courier who has been ambushed on delivery across the Mojave desert.  A unknown figure in a checkered sport jacket hints that your delivery was rigged for you to die... right before he pulls out a 9mm and, to put it simply, pops a cap in your dome.  Luckily, you are dug out by a robot (with the face of Vegas Vic) and brought to a nearby town to be healed up.  After you are patched up (in the form of character creation -- your gender and race (Caucasian, Afro-American, Hispanic, Asian) are all customizable) the doc leads you through the steps to customizing your initial stats for the game before you are shoved out the door into a wide open world.

GAMEPLAY: The gunplay in New Vegas is not much improved from FO3, with only slight touch ups and some new weapons added.  However, the key theme of this game does open up for plenty of gambling (which, unfortunately, takes a while to get to).  Blackjack, Slots, Roulette are all here.  No poker though -- a shame.  And, just like in real Vegas, the better you do -- the more Casinos will bribe you with food, hotel rooms, and so on.  Get too lucky, however, and you'll get banned from gambling in a specific casino.  New Vegas also brings a new element to gameplay: Factions.  There are nearly two dozen factions in the game, some of which you can join through working for them.  However, aid one faction and its rival will turn against you -- even hunt you down.

GRAPHICS: If you bought this game, it wasn't for the graphics.  In comparison to current "Next-Gen" titles out on the market, New Vegas is a step down -- looking exactly like its 2 year old predecessor.  Remember my mention of bugs? You'll find that models will occasionally glitch out, even to the point where a dog's eyes will float outside of its head. Nice goin, programmers!  Plenty of the gun textures are also very iffy, if not worse than the previous title.  

SOUND: I brought up the game's music earlier.  The game's tricked-out watch (called a Pip-Boy) not only allows you to check your inventory, stats, and quests, but allows you to tune into two separate radio stations -- each with a unique vibe to it.  The "Mojave Music Radio" station plays strictly western music, while "Radio New Vegas" (hosted by none other than Mr. Las Vegas himself, Wayne Newton (who voices himself in-game)) plays both news going on in-game (mainly, your character's exploits) and popular Rat-Pack Era music (including Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra).  Although the music is nice, you'll find that the game's system has a bad habit of repeating the same songs a little too much.  

Fun as the game is, I wouldn't recommend buying it until it comes cheaper (and, if you read my last blog, you'd know a special place where you can get good deals, in the future).  

Well, ain't that a kick in the head?

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Where will Jeff tread next? Will it be another game review (God, let's hope not) or will he shake things up with a thought-provoking blog focused on today's corruption of the media?!

Nah, it'll probably just be the Matrix.  Yep, The Matrix.

MEDIA MEDITATION NUMÉRO TROIS: Rickles Roast with a Side of Zombies?

Don Rickles roasts Dean Martin on his own show.

Midway through the summer, I discovered this gem on youtube -- among others -- and found myself laughing.  I don't recognize some of the celebrities brought up by Rickles, but the way he delivers his jokes is hilarious.  He never breaks eye contact, he lets it stream out naturally, and he doesn't degenerate into strings of curse words.  Rickles is also very animated; he doesn't remain static and read off of a cheat sheet, he uses the stage to his advantage and isn't afraid to let it all out.  He perfects his EMOTIONAL TRANSFER to the audience.  And his PACING is flawless.  Rickles manages to tickle my LIMBIC BRAIN in 6 minutes; something most comedians today can't do in an hour.  Now, I'm not saying all of today's comedians are bad... just that most of them lack the natural ability Don Rickles possesses -- the ability to deliver a joke with such surgical precision.  Of course, this is just me sucking up to a comedian who's pushing 85.  

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IGN's Video Review of Left 4 Dead 2.

HUMANS VS ZOMBIES, CHAMPLAIN

Because of the "Humans vs. Zombies" game currently going on campus, I figured I'd make an honorable mention to the genre of horror that has persisted since the popular inception of George A. Romero's 1968 hit: Night of the Living Dead.  The video above is a Video Game review of Valve's sequal to their Co-Op hit, Left 4 Dead -- aptly titled, Left 4 Dead 2.  Both games were on sale for about 7 dollars each, a few weeks ago, on Valve's special media platform, and a great example of CONVERGENT MEDIA, "Steam".  Steam is not only digital distribution software (aka, buying and downloading video games), but it also operates as a multiplayer and communications platform.  Unlike retail outlets, Steam also hosts special deals for certain video games; taking percentages off for limited times (such as the Left 4 Dead 66% off sale).  

I don't considder myself an avid gamer, but the zombie genre of horror has always been a favorite of mine; and a video game based upon said genre is right up my alley.  I'm not going to buy every game that has a zombie in it, however -- the game has to be good; other people need to reccommend it.  So when my roommate from last year, who barely plays video games, praised it, I felt the need to pick it up (of course, I ended up waiting a year to get it... money's tight during college!).  Surprisingly, it was really fun.  Being a zombie game, it obviously works on the reptilian brain, but moreso this game likes to squeeze your reptilian brain for every juice of fight or flight its got.  The zombies attack in mobs, there are "special" zombies that can have special abilities ranging from a "Hunter" who will jump great distances and pounce on you, to the "Tank" who can sustain a lot of gunshots and pummel you to death... did I mention it can grab chunks of pavement and throw it at you? This specific "Special Zombie" even gets his own theme song that creeps in with its glutteral roar -- as if its size, speed, and durability wasn't enough to stimulate the Reptilian brain.  

Not someone you'd want to be cornered by...

Now, I don't remember how the rules of the "H.v.Z" game go (I played once last semester) but it is the equivilant to a week-long game of nerf tag.  One "Original Zombie" or "O.Z" is chosen from a group of those willing, and every person he tags becomes a zombie.  To distinguish zombies from humans, Humans must wear a bandana on their arm, leg, or anywhere visible (EXCEPT THE HEAD) -- Zombies wear bandanas on their heads.  Throughout the course of the week, there are missions that humans can complete for points -- which risks them getting infected.  To combat the undead, Humans use nerf guns and socks to temporarily knock out their opponent.  To keep the game from interfering with classes, the insides of buildings are safe zones -- meaning zombies can't infect humans inside.  Despite seeming pretty nerdy as someone outside looking in, the game is surprisingly very fun and challenging; requiring both organization and physical fitness to survive.  

I didn't sign up this year because I'm more worried about passing my classes... but I might sign up next semester!

MIDTERM REFLECTIONS: Where Has Time Gone?

After studying 21st century media for eight weeks in this class, what have you learned?

I've learned to look at media (music videos, television, movies, adverts, etc.) with a tad more scrutiny; how they manipulate viewers by playing off the triune brain (Fight or Flight and Mating with the reptilian brain, for example) and the devilishly clever persuasive techniques they use against us.  Even "The Disposible Heroes of Hiphocracy" conveyed their message of the evil of television through the same manipulative means (and the same outlet).  

What is the most important thing you have learned about yourself as a critical readers, a writer, and a thinker in this class so far?

As a reader, I find that I'm easily drawn into literatures with creatively dark covers.  It also seems that even though I try not to interpret something the same way others would, I end up failing.  As a writer I, sadly, end up conforming and using the same manipulative techniques as the media outlets I criticise.  As a thinker, I am slow but eager to learn more about the media machine.

What's one thing you would do differently this first half of the semester if your were to take this class again?

Without a doubt, I would study a lot more -- be better prepared to spank those quizzes.

What's one thing you would like me to do differently this first half of the semester if you were to take this class again?

I think it would be awesome to watch The Matrix during class :D (otherwise, you're doing great!)

Please comment on the usefulness of the power tools, our course blog, your personal blog, our in-class quizzes, our films, and our books as learning tools.

The power tools are great references for tests and identifying the techniques used by the media to brainwash us.  The class blog is huge on the homework front, plus it gives me an incentive to read the book.  The personal blog, although I don't use mine often, allows me some hands-on experience with media related topics.  The movies we watch are great resources for tests and studying.  The books are interesting in the fact we get some historical background to what we're doing.  The quizzes are helpful in the sense that they train my mind to learn the persuasive techniques better.