Media Aesthetics - Did You Notice?

I figure I'll kill two birds with one stone here and discuss the ability for all of us to create projects that are aesthetically sound, while doing a blog post! I'm under the gun here so this one will be short, and most likely the next post as well; I'm in the midst of a double-whammy of mid-term exams and projects to be written, shot, edited, and formatted. These things take time people.

Anywho, for those out there who are into being creative when it comes to snapping photos or shooting films, I'm studying how to adjust the screen in which we view these objects so that those within the screen develop stronger emotions, power, size etc. Here's a few examples of pictures that emphasize certain aspects of what all goes into media aesthetics.

1. Narrow-angle lens creating a short depth of field. Objects in the mirror are closer than they appear.
2. The classic figure/ground principle. Do you see angels or devils?
3. Overlapping planes. A way to give a 3D feel to a 2D screen.




I missed posting yesterday so I'll bore you with why I couldn't post.

Sports!: Tiger Woods wins by sinking a 25 foot putt on the last whole and to take his streak of wins to 10. The guy is ridiculous. Also, the Rockets are sitting at 22 wins. Can they keep it going?

Political Jargon

Ok, ok. Let's put it all out there and get it out of the way now before I make another post in November. I'm a journalist, but as you can tell by my blog, I have absolutely no interest when it comes to covering politics. I keep myself up to speed as any normal citizen should. But it is my belief that the way politics are run, it's a web of he said she said baloney. So here's were I write a quick blurb about politics.

As we are heading into a our last 3 months of the primary elections, the Democratic candidate race has been nothing short of neck and neck. Barack Obama vs. Hillary Clinton. Man vs. Woman. Black vs. White. And any other racial, sex, or discriminatory manner you can put them up against each other. Obama, out of the last state to get added to the union, and Clinton, the mid-westerner from Illinois certainly have a clash on certain ideas. I think the next three months will be very interesting to see who will get the nomination from the Democratic party come convention time. The Democratic National Convention this year will be in Denver, August 25-28. On top of who does indeed win the vote, I think the most interesting thing to find out is who these candidates will choose as their running mates.

This sly fellow? Most likely their competition, seeing as how Romney, Huckabee, my mother, my father, myself, and everyone else has dropped out of the running for the Republican nomination. While I attended Arizona, there was constant talk of Senator John McCain making a push for President. It's crazy that the time is actually here. Arizona loves John McCain. And obviously so do all the republicans in the 50 states and the District of Columbia.

The only opinion I will give on the matter of John McCain is that whoever he does face, he has a tough challenge ahead of him. The Democrats are in control of the House, Bush has somehow been in the oval office for nearly 8 years, and voting in another Republican may be a difficult thing to do come November. It will also be interesting to see who he picks to run with him. Give Bob Dole a holler.

On a side note, and a note I'd rather write about, the Houston Rockets are heading into that amazing 5-game stand starting tomorrow against the Los Angeles Lakers. Will the Rockets keep the streak going at 22? If they do, will they honestly last the entire week? If not, my question to you is who will be the team to squash the chance at making history?

Love Music?

Another thing that I will rarely do, is post movie reviews. It will have to be something truly inspiring for me to want to mention them in my blog. That being said, I wanted to recommend a feature film for all those music lovers out there. It's called August Rush. Sure, you've probably heard about it or saw the previews for it months ago. But it's a great feel good movie.

I think it means something more to people who come from a musical family, or grew up playing an instrument and still do. The story line could use a little work, but I'm a critic and always look for different ways a story can be told. I think that it helps you to realize what true music is, and how it is felt. I would say that it has a modern day Mr. Holland's Opus feel. If you don't know what that movie is, add that to the list as well. If you do decide to take the plunge and rent it, I hope that you enjoy it.

Will the Wildcats Dance in '08?

In the quarterfinals tonight of the Pac-10 Tournament, the Wildcats lost to Stanford 75-64. An 11 point deficit for all those english majors out there. A source told me tonight that if the Wildcats lost by more than 17, the Wildcats would not get the at-large bid that they need to get in this year's NCAA Tournament. So by his standards, the Wildcats have a shot. I'm really torn as to if they actually deserve a spot this year. Do I want them in the tournament? Can I say yes? But there are certain factors that may contribute to the Cats not making the tournament this year.

#1: 2 Key losses to Arizona State.. As much as it pains me to type the previous sentence it needs to be said right off the bat. First losing to the Sun Devils on the road 64-59. At the time, the Cats were ranked #24. James Harden, the Freshman phenom for the Devils this year put up 26. The second loss came at McKale Center, where the Cats pretty much only needed Jarryd Bayless to play. Bayless put up an unbelievable 39 points, but the Cats had no other help and lost the game 59-54. Can someone say where was Chase Budinger? These 2 loses, as much as I cringe to think about them, where just 2 shots in the foot.

#2. Jarryd Bayless' knee injury.. The Wildcats went 1-3 when Bayless was injured. Thats an average of 20 ppg that you just don't get. Other players tried to step up, mainly Budinger who already should have, but to no avail. Those three loses (one against ASU) put the Cats on a bad track and they desperately needed Bayless back.

#3. Wise steps up, then sits down. There's so much you can say about Nic Wise this year. He increased his playing time significantly after keeping the team together when Bayless went down. He stepped up defensively and increased his ppg by 8. But then a knee injury sidelined him for more than 2 weeks. He was a spark plug to the team, then it was extinguished when he went under the knife.

#4. Going 8-10 in conference games. Jay Bilas even said that the Pac-10 was the toughest conference to be in this year. This fact made it even more important for the Wildcats to show a strong presence and win games. They didn't. Not only did they lose to ASU twice, but they lost to Oregon twice as well. Porter and his tre-ball always kill the Cats when they play the Ducks. However, the Cats did beat Washington State twice. And they have been ranked all year long. Those two wins could keep them in the hunt.

There's so many factors that go into what grants a team a spot in the NCAA tournament. As a team, you hope that the committee focuses more on your important wins, as opposed to you're big losses. It's a tough situation that the Wildcats are in. They have one of the hardest schedules in the country this year, if not the hardest. That may work in their favor but we won't know what will happen until Sunday. My projection: Arizona makes it and earns a 8 or 9 seed in the field of 65.

Question: If the Wildcats do in fact make the tournament, how deep will they go? Sweet-Sixteen? Elite-Eight? Final-Four? National Champion?!?

Trivia answer: The team with a current 10-game winning streak? The Boston Celtics.

No Yao? No Problem.

You know, it's just too good to not write about. The Houston Rockets are the NBA right now. They are on a 20-game winning streak that puts them into the top 3 streaks of all-time. They tied the 1970-71 Milwaukee Bucks streak and with another win will put them in sole possession of 2nd place. The top streak? 33 games by the 1971-72 Lakers.

It's an amazing feat to accomplish 20 wins in a row. But the hard part is what's coming ahead for the Rockets. After tomorrow's game against the Charlotte Bobcats, the next 5 are against teams that are just plain good. They've got the Lakers on Sunday. Followed by the Celtics, Hornets, Warriors and Suns next week. Are you kidding me? If the Rockets push through next week and still have this miraculous thing going, then I'd put money that they can knock on the door of 33 wins in a row. Any takers?

Trivia answers: Joe Girardi caught David Cone's perfect game as a New York Yankee on July 18, 1999.

This post's question: What team this season is currently on a 10-game winning streak?

Spring Training - Little League Rules?

Let me introduce Joe Girardi. Girardi is, as you can see, the new head coach for the New York Yankees this season. Girardi was also a player, a catcher, that played for 14 years in the major leagues I might add. An incident occurred in Spring Training last Sunday. There was a play at the plate in the Yankees game against Tampa Bay. Elliot Johnson, an infielder for the Devil Rays was hustling to try and beat out a throw, and in the process lowered his shoulder and took out catcher Francisco Cervelli for the New York Yankees breaking the catcher's wrist. Johsnon is a member of the 40-man roster. What this means is that he's technically on the team, but not necessarily on the major league roster. He's trying to make the ball club. The day this all went down was his 24th birthday.

Joe Girardi didn't like the actions that Johnson took. Spring Training is looked at as practice games to some because the games don't have any impact on the standings in the regular season. Girardi thought that this was over the line, and that it was uncalled for, implying that these games are "practice" and shouldn't be played at 100 percent Pete Rose had this to offer:

"There's one way to play the game of baseball and that is to win. If you try to win and you are within the rules, that's the only way to play ... I don't know why Joe Girardi would get mad; he's a catcher and that's what happens."

I completely agree. Girardi has no right to argue the fact that Elliot Johnson was giving 200%, and is trying to earn himself a spot on the permanent roster. Tisk, tisk Joe.

On a side note, how about Tommy Lasorda arguing a foul ball call today? #2 can still get down to business.

Related question today is: Joe Girardi caught a perfect game in his career. The pitcher, David Cone. The team? Well that's the question.

The Controversial Shot

Over the weekend, a controversy took place at Pauley Pavilion. To those non-college basketball fans, that's UCLA's home basketball court. They were playing in their final regular season game versus the Golden Bears of California. With just a few seconds remaining on the clock, Josh Shipp put up a desperation shot on the baseline that went over the corner of the backboard and dropped in from the sky to put the Bruins up and eventually give them the win. Here's the video, watch carefully:



Maybe this should clear things up for all those out there that are in awe that the game was won with this circus shot from Josh Shipp:

NCAA Rules, Rule 7
Out of Bounds and the Throw-in
Section 1, Article 3
The ball shall be out of bounds when it passes over the backboard from any direction.

So, ladies and gentlemen, UCLA won the game on an illegal shot. The dispute lies with the officials. The official claims that it "was to close to call" and that he didn't call it because of that specific reason. Or was it because the Pac-10 has had a bad history when it comes to close games and making the correct calls? It is the responsibility of the official to blow his whistle in this situation. If people want to argue that the shot was good, I'll just refer you to the above rule. Was it an amazing shot? Yes, it was, for a game of H-O-R-S-E on a sunny afternoon with your buddies. But in an NCAA setting where the #2 team ranked in the country has the chance to lose it's last game of the season, you have got to blow the whistle. Poor call on the officials. Very poor call. But the question with this post is, because it was too close to call, did the officials make the correct decision by not blowing the whistle and calling the ball out of bounds? I'd love to hear your arguments.