Media Profiles Assignment

Hello! & welcome back to Rush Delivery.  For this week’s assignment we were to read a few articles concerning television critics & their respective styles/tastes & jot down some thoughts about what we read. 

            The 1^st article assigned centered on a television show critic named Alan Sepinwall.  I could immediately tell I would enjoy Alan’s style of writing upon reading his self-criticism of some of his early work & how it caused him to label himself a “dumbass”…even if it was just at times.  Alan had a few shows he paid particular attention to but his personal diamond in the rough was NYPD Blue, which he eventually became the leading fan-boy of.  I can’t say I’m a huge fan as majority of police procedural shows bore me to exhaustion (minus Dexter maybe, but since its primary focus is on a serial-killer I’m not sure how well it fits into that category). 

            One of the more interesting aspects of the article to me was the explanation of how difficult it is to be a critic for certain types of shows.  They even compare Alan’s favorite NYPD Blue to modern dramas such as Mad Men & Boardwalk Empire (2 big favorites of mine) and say that even a popular classic such as the Blue can’t withstand against the likes of modern dramas with the many twists, turns, and hailstorms of activity they contain (Breaking Bad comes to mind for me..). 

            The second article was actually a blog post concerning the 1^st article making things fit very well together.  In the blog I couldn’t help but agree with Levin’s (the blog-author) statement that Sepinwall is an amazing critic because he gets so intensely-in-depth with the shows he critiques.  Levin cited Sepinwell’s Chuck campaign to save the show when it was failing as well as his appearance on NBC’s Community for the same purpose.  I am not personally a fan of either show but love the dedication Sepinwall shows for the programs he loves.  It reminds me of the “Bluth’s bananas bit die-hard Arrested Development fans pulled when the show wasn’t bringing in the numbers.  Fans sent actual crates of bananas to FOX studios in petition of cancelling the show and saved, if only for another season (although it’s coming back as an exclusive series on Netflix, so yay!!).

            The final steps for our assignment (which I found quite intriguing) was to choose 2 hyperlinks found in either article & explain why we chose them & what they showed us.  My first choice comes from the original article concerning how Sepinwall is able to write-up on 15 shows per week.  The actual hyperlink stated “advanced screeners.”  I really clicked on it because I was curious about how Sepinwall acquires his advanced screenings.  I couldn’t see a respected critic as a media pirate but I wanted to see.  The link led me to Sepinwall’s Twitter account (a social media form I could care less about) and merely stated that he had seen the week’s new episodes of Community, Parks & Rec, & The office in advance and would post those reviews that night.  So my prying did not really answer my question as to where he gets his copies but I could only assume that the network is providing them as they know Sepinwall is a fan of those series in particular.

            The second link I chose because it was an interesting label/term that I wished to know more about and it came from the blog.  The actual link states “pop-culture scholar” and intrigued me because I wasn’t sure exactly what that meant, I mean anyone who obsesses and consumes a large quantity of pop-culture could be considered a scholar in that topic.  The link led me to the background bio on a television blog by a one Mr. Miles McNutt entitled Cultural Learnings.  The blog’s goal, as stated in the bio, is not to simply recap the show but to place it within the context of the series, the season, its genre, and on occasion broad literary and cultural philosophies.  I found that an excellent description until I read a few posts and could only categorize them as strange and twisted rants about the show mixed with ludicrous guesses on where it may turn next.  I did find many of the posts quite comical but in general it was not for me.

TV Show Lists

Hello & welcome to Rush Delivery!  I will be using this blog for Advanced Media Criticism with Dr. Jenny Nelson (or just Dr. J if you're hip to it) at Ohio University, spring semester.  For our 1st assignment we've been told to assemble some lists of tv shows we've been watching/forced to watch/recently started watching amongst other things, so here goes!

Current Shows:

• Shameless
• House of Lies
• Flight of the Conchords
• World's Worst Tenants
• Workaholics
• The Walking Dead (it's not currently on but it will be back soon)

For the most part I watch these shows via downloading them then playing the files through my Smart TV/Xbox 360 or just by watching them as they premiere on tv (mainly the shows that are not on premium cable channels).

Peripheral Shows:

• This Old House
• Anything on HGTV really because of the parents
• There's not too many in this category as all my siblings are gone & so is there influence & my parents usually clonk out pretty early so I'm left to watch as I please.  As for my roomates we tend to always watch the same shows together.

Guilty Refusals:

• 30 Rock
• The Big Bang Theory
• Community
• Parks & Recreation
• Family Guy (I watched the older seasons but feel like the more recent ones aren't up to snuff)
• The Simpsons (same deal as Family Guy)

Guilty Pleasures:

• Not sure how guilty of a pleasure it is but I absolutely love PBS, so pretty much anything in their primetime line-up. Some examples would be:
• History Detectives
• Independant Lens
• Globetrekker
• Anything backed by Ken Burns
• Masterpiece Classic, Contemporary, or Mystery, they're all fantastic.
• Antiques Roadshow

All-Time Favorites:

• Breaking Bad
• HomeLand
• Weeds
• It's Always Sunny in Philidelphia
• Tosh.O
• Friends
• Home Improvement
• The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
• Doug
• Recess
• Cowboy Bebop

Shows I used to Like, But Not So Much Anymore:

• Family Guy & the Simspons as I said earlier.
• Pawn Stars
• Storage Wars

I Would Rather Eat Coal than Watch These Shows:

• Anything produced or distributed by MTV in the last 5 years or so. They're so god aweful I don't see how people can stand them haha.
• Judge Judy or any similar court-room daytime show.
• News of any sort.
• Modern cartoons geared towards kids, they just don't make them like they used to I guess.

Shows that are so strange you can't help but find them hilarious (also shows your mother would find incredibly offensive):

• Tim & Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!
• Check it Out! with Dr. Steve Brule
• Metalocalypse
• Squidbillies
• Ren & Stimpy
• Any of the Aqua Teen Hunger series

That about sums up my lists, hope it was enjoyable/informative!!
& thanks for reading,

Chris Rush of Rush Delivery

Collapsus Reflection

This assignment involved playing an online interactive trans-media game entitled Collapsus.  This game highlighted peak oil use and the problems bound to occur with its usage.  Below is a link to my audio reflection of the game & trans-media work in general, enjoy.


Collapsus Reflection

Reflection on gaming Presentation

Hello friends & readers of Rush Delivery.  In today’s blog I’ll be discussing my video game design presentation & some strengths/weaknesses that I found after the presentation.

            One tough concept to explain was the game mechanics.  Even though I could be as detailed as possible, someone unfamiliar with video or computer games may not fully comprehend certain aspects of the game mechanics.  For example when I say the mouse controls the character I do not mean it moves him from place to place, it allows you to select interactive elements of the game.  The arrow keys are what actually make your character walk and move around.  This could have been better explained with a short demo if I had the knowledge and ability to make one.

            Another area of confusion could have been the goals of the game.  Seemingly the easiest part of the game to understand, it was not as easy as I thought.  Because our game was a virtual reality game, reminiscent of the Sims, the goals are very broad.  The main goal is to upgrade your house, or cave for our purposes, and your character.  This again could be a hard concept to grasp if one isn’t familiar with the Sims or other virtual reality games.

            I think of all the qualities a game must have the easiest to understand are the objectives of the game.  Although a game’s objectives can range depending on the type of game you’re playing its simple if all you need to figure out is the overall objective.  For example, even if you’ve never played Mario before, if someone tells you the objective is to finish the level you would know what they meant.  Or if you were watching a game of Call of Duty and you ask what’s the objective, I could say it’s to accumulate the most kills and reach the determine kill count first & you could understand.

Hero & Villain

We were assigned a project to design our own hro and villain duo.  They had to complement each other in look, skill, and shape.  Here is our designs.

Mr. MoneyBag$ (Hero)

The Tax Man (villain)

The Freak Factor

Hello again friends! & welcome back to Rush Delivery.  In today’s blog I have been asked to read an article titled Freak Factor: Discovering Uniqueness by Flaunting Weakness by David Rendall.  This article can be found hereà Freak Factor by David Rendall

            Rendall begins his article by making you identify your own personal weaknesses.  By knowing what your weaknesses are you can begin to correct them, or as Rendall says in point number two use them to configure your strengths.  He lays it out in three well said points.

§  Weaknesses give important clues to your strengths.

§  You find success when you find the right fit.

§  Your weaknesses make you unique.

All three points are excellent explanations about finding your right place that I would never have thought of.  These are also a perfect segway into Rendall’s third point.  For each weakness we have an equal strength that applies, they are linked.  A few examples Rendall uses in his manifesto would be having the strength of patience also gives you the weakness of indecision, or the strength of positivity gives you the weakness of being unrealistic. 

      Rendall then gives some examples of such weaknesses earning great success for some.  Such as Virgin founder Richard Branson having dyslexia yet becoming the president of a record/cellphone/airline company.  He now owns his own island and is free to invest in such ventures as a jet that takes civilians into the atmosphere for short trips, although it’s still in the works.  Rendall also explains how disorganization isn’t always negative as we’re told.  Alexander Fleming found penicillin while searching through his messy desk after vacation.  If he wasn’t unorganized millions of people today would suffer due to the lack of penicillin.

      Rendall’s fourth and fifth points are about fixing your weaknesses.  His advice; forget them.  We waste our time and energy trying to fix what’s wrong with us when we should be focusing on boosting our strengths.  Trying to fix a weakness just makes you frustrated and even if you are able to fix it doesn’t become a usable strength.  Working on improving our strengths is easy and enjoyable, they’re our natural gifts and our best route to success as Rendall points out.

      His sixth point applies the same principal; don’t try to do both.  It’s much easier to improve upon what we already know and like and vice versa it’s tiresome and painful to work on something we hate.  Also trying to do both is too consuming in a world where everything is hustle bustle.  His seventh point advises us to pick our battles.  If you know you’re not great at math don’t become an architect, try being a producer instead.  Finding the right fit as Rendall puts it will help you improve your strengths and gain confidence.

      Rendall’s eighth point is about the power of uniqueness.  Being a freak isn’t something to be ashamed of; it means you possess something no one else does.  Rendall uses the example of the leaning tower of Pisa on how its imperfections over the years and numerous attempts at being fixed ultimately lead to it becoming a huge tourist attraction.  His final point is titled putting your quirks to work and he lays it out in four excellent points.

§  Pick situations that maximize your strengths.

§  Instead of procrastinating on things you hate just don’t do them all together.

§  Partner up with someone that is strong where you are weak.

§  Look for the freak in others.

Rendall’s first point of discovering your weaknesses is a perfect starting place.  I find this to be a key part of any plan.  If you know your weaknesses before you begin it will be easier to tackle the task at hand if the right positions are assigned to the right people, which is a perfect example of how to use it in a group project you may have in school.  His third point is also helpful.  If you are stuck on your weaknesses and just can’t get around it find what strength corresponds to it.  That’s a perfect way to realize what you should go after if you are unsure of yourself.  This would be a great tool for a student unsure about selecting their classes for next quarter.  Finally I feel Rendall’s fourth point of forget about your weaknesses to be the most helpful.  This is something people struggle with all the time when the answer is easy; forget about them.  A weakness can be easily concealed when your strength overpowers it.

In the creative world I have found my strengths to be useful.  I’m good at sparking initial ideas, as well as adding on to others ideas.  I’m also good at researching past ideas and using it to exemplify a current idea.  My weaknesses are I am easily frustrated when my ideas are shot down, although I do not take offense.       

Super Power

For this week's assignment we were told to listen to an epsiode of This American Life pertaining to superheroes then select a superhero/power ourselves and provide a short audio response as to why we would want said power, what we would do with it, & whether or not we can relate to said superhero.

The Flash

My Audio Response to the Flash

Link to This American Life episode concerning Super powers