Wednesday, 28 November 2007
Morrissey v the NME again? Oh joy.
I found this story pretty interesting and since it's all about the media I thought it was relevant enough to stick on here.
Morrissey has just given an interview with the NME which said publication has now labelled "his most contentious interview in years".
We'll see.
Some people may remember, others (like me) may just have heard about it, but in 1992 the NME and Morrissey had a falling out after the former accused the latter of being racist. You see, Morrissey had appeared onstage at a Madness reunion gig in Finsbury Park, draped in a Union Jack flag at a time when far-right xenophobes the British National Party were on the rise. Around this time there were no such things as internet forums, so there was no real nationwide discussion amongst music fans about what had happened. All there was, was the NME, and it's glaring headlines. The front page read "Morrissey: Flying the flag or flirting with disaster?". The only opinions given on the subject were those of the NME writing staff and the readers who wrote to the magazine. It was all pretty one sided, and Morrissey and the NME ceased all relations for 13 years.
(The original, 1992 front cover)
Until 2005, when Morrissey was promoting his 7th solo album, 'You Are The Quarry'. Charge of the NME had changed hands, and the current editor was the young Conor McNicholas, who was keen to reconcile Moz and the publication. The interview went without a hitch, the NME went back to hanging on the singer's every word, and Morrissey got the publicity he wanted for his album.
It would seem, however, that McNicholas was not as different to his predecessors as he would have Moz, and us for that matter, believe. This week the NME have run another front page interview with Moz, leading (very predictably) with the headline "Bigmouth Strikes Again!" and it looks likely that the feud will be rekindled.
In the interview Moz complains that there is no longer a sense of British identity, that he has no problem with immigration as such, but that when you compare England with countries such as Germany or Holland, we have much less sense of identity.
Unlike in 1992, this time there are internet message boards for people to discuss the issue on, and (also unlike in 1992) this time the votes seem swayed in Moz's favour.
The problem is, the NME doesn't have the same sway in the music world now as it did 15 years ago, and recently it has become the subject of much ridicule for becoming too 'glossy'. Under McNicholas' reign it has changed from newspaper format to glossy print, become sponsored by hair products and included a 'tabloid' section, in which they report on the personal lives of the musicians featured. Because of this, the NME is now seen as something of a joke, and McNicholas a man who will do anything to generate publicity and make a name for himself.
Today, the day the newest issue was released and the day people first had a chance to read what it is that Moz actually said, some emails between McNicholas and Morrissey's manager Merck Mercuriadis have surfaced. In them McNicholas attempts to explain to Mercuriadis that the magazine decided to publish Moz's quotes so they could make a stand against what he said and, in his own words have "the NME's position made very clear".
McNicholas seems to believe that the NME is a publication responsible for taking a stand against artists whose comments could be seen perhaps as slightly inflammatory, rather than a music magazine responsible for reporting on music.
The general attitude towards the article is much more against McNicholas than against Morrissey, which couldn't possibly be what McNicholas had intended. The main view seems to be that this is just a shameless attempt on the NME's part to generate publicity for a magazine which seems to have become irrelevant in todays world of internet forums and music based websites.
Taking this stance is also an unwise decision for the magazine itself. An ongoing feud with Moz may have got people talking seriously about the NME for the first time in years, but they don't seem to have thought through the damage this could cause them. Statistically, sales of the NME rise by 30-40% when Morrissey is on the cover, something that is unlikely to ever happen again.
Even the journalist who conducted this particular interview requested his name be removed from the article as he did not agree with the direction the article was being taken in.
Could it be that in this age of widely available technology a one sided accusation like that against Moz in 1992 just won't cut it anymore? I believe it's simply the case that people have much more access to means of expressing themselves now, and that they see this not only as some desperate attempt by the publication of trying to get people interested in buying the magazine once again, but a rather cynical attempt by one man to make a name for himself as an editor who is not afraid to tackle serious issues (despite having 'dumbed down' the magazine in the eyes of many).
He also seems to have forgotten that Morrissey likes suing people.
(Click HERE to read the emails sent to Morrisseys manager by Tim Jonze, who conducted the interview, and Conor McNicholas. There's also a lovely letter sent to the NME from Moz's lawyers. I told you he likes suing people.)
Monday, 26 November 2007
Why UWIC, and why media?
Good question.
We'll start with media, since I was doing that before I came to UWIC.
I decided whilst I was still at school that I wanted to do media at college. If I'm honest it was for two reasons; number one was that at the time I wanted to be a journalist for a music magazine, specifically the NME (as Niles once said to Frasier: "Were we ever that young?"). Number two is that I didn't know what else I wanted to do. I was good at English but couldn't see what career a qualification in English would lead to, besides becoming an English teacher, which really wasn't up my street since I despised schoolkids enough when I was one, let alone being the 'mature adult' in a class full of them.
So I suppose those were my reasons for chosing media. At the time it seemed to really go with what I wanted to do in the future, though it seemed to become more and less relevant every time my aspirations changed. Chosing to study media at university was an easy choice for me; I already had a qualification in media, I'd enjoyed most of what I studied at college and was looking forward to learning more about the cultural side of media studies.
So that's media, now, Why UWIC?
This decision was much less academically based. I wanted to come to the city of Cardiff since I already knew people living either here or in Newport, and I definately wanted to move away from home. I chose UWIC specifically because I liked the idea of doing a media course that also involved culural studies, which really caught my interest.
So those are the reasons for me being where I am today. Some of them were made on a whim, others carefully considered, but I'm glad they've all lead me here.
We'll start with media, since I was doing that before I came to UWIC.
I decided whilst I was still at school that I wanted to do media at college. If I'm honest it was for two reasons; number one was that at the time I wanted to be a journalist for a music magazine, specifically the NME (as Niles once said to Frasier: "Were we ever that young?"). Number two is that I didn't know what else I wanted to do. I was good at English but couldn't see what career a qualification in English would lead to, besides becoming an English teacher, which really wasn't up my street since I despised schoolkids enough when I was one, let alone being the 'mature adult' in a class full of them.
So I suppose those were my reasons for chosing media. At the time it seemed to really go with what I wanted to do in the future, though it seemed to become more and less relevant every time my aspirations changed. Chosing to study media at university was an easy choice for me; I already had a qualification in media, I'd enjoyed most of what I studied at college and was looking forward to learning more about the cultural side of media studies.
So that's media, now, Why UWIC?
This decision was much less academically based. I wanted to come to the city of Cardiff since I already knew people living either here or in Newport, and I definately wanted to move away from home. I chose UWIC specifically because I liked the idea of doing a media course that also involved culural studies, which really caught my interest.
So those are the reasons for me being where I am today. Some of them were made on a whim, others carefully considered, but I'm glad they've all lead me here.
Symposium
I'm on the anti-celebrity side!
I'm a bit gutted about that, for obvious reasons. I think I might show up for it in a 'Free Paris' t-shirt or something.
No, on a serious note, I'm sure it'll be fun. As long as I get all the necessary research done and prepare for it it should be fairly easy. There is a lot to be said against celebrities I suppose.
It's on December 4th so I'll post something afterwards saying how it went.
Six Feet Under
This is the promo shown on American TV for season 4 of my favourite TV show, Six Feet Under. It's a little over-dramatic, I'll admit, but it's quite fitting to the tone of the show.
For those that don't know, Six Feet Under is a drama/black comedy about a family run funeral directors and the lives of all the family members. It also has the best ending to any TV show ever.
Sunday, 25 November 2007
Drowned In Sound
As I mentioned in my CV, I did a week of work experience with Drowned In Sound records in 2005. They're a small indie label but have earned a good name for themselves in the industry. DIS began as a website run by Sean Adams, who then set up the record label, Drowned in Sound recordings. The first artists signed to DIS records were the Kaiser Chiefs and the limited edition single "Oh My God" was released.
Anyway, as I said, I worked there for a week in 2005 and had a few news stories and music reviews published on the website.
This is some of the stuff I did:
News Story: Victoria Bergsman leaves The Concretes (read it here)
News Story: Placebo announce December tour dates (read it here)
News Story: Animals become Men at 18? Young Knives announce shows... (read it here)
News Story: Little Barrie keeping themselves busy... (read it here)
Single Review: Panic! At The Disco "Lying Is The Most Fun A Girl Can Have Without Taking Her Clothes Off" (read it here)
Single Review: Moneen "If Tragedy Is Appealing, Then Disaster's An Addiction" (read it here)
Single Review: My Awesome Compilation "Awake" (read it here)
Some terrible single titles there, I know.
Anyway, working at a record label is what I'd like to do in the future so that week was a good experience for me, and I learnt to make tea exactly the way everyone liked it (though the coffee machine was an entirely different matter)
Click the image below to browse DIS.com for yourselves.
Anyway, as I said, I worked there for a week in 2005 and had a few news stories and music reviews published on the website.
This is some of the stuff I did:
News Story: Victoria Bergsman leaves The Concretes (read it here)
News Story: Placebo announce December tour dates (read it here)
News Story: Animals become Men at 18? Young Knives announce shows... (read it here)
News Story: Little Barrie keeping themselves busy... (read it here)
Single Review: Panic! At The Disco "Lying Is The Most Fun A Girl Can Have Without Taking Her Clothes Off" (read it here)
Single Review: Moneen "If Tragedy Is Appealing, Then Disaster's An Addiction" (read it here)
Single Review: My Awesome Compilation "Awake" (read it here)
Some terrible single titles there, I know.
Anyway, working at a record label is what I'd like to do in the future so that week was a good experience for me, and I learnt to make tea exactly the way everyone liked it (though the coffee machine was an entirely different matter)
Click the image below to browse DIS.com for yourselves.
Text And The City
See what they did there?
This is an assignment we were set especially for the blog. We had to go out in small groups (I was with Helen and Ephraim) and take photos of text we felt summed up the essence of Cardiff. We decided that rather than just taking three photographs, we would take quite a few and then could all decide individually which ones we wanted to use.
These are the three I decided to use, plus a little bit about how I feel it sums up the essence of Cardiff:
This bit of text appears above the main entrance to Cardiff Central train station and has the word 'Welcome' written in both English and Welsh. I felt that this was relevant to what I was doing as it shows that the Welsh value and are proud of having their own language. A survey taken in 2001 found that just 11% of the population of Cardiff can speak Welsh, but despite this almost all signs in Cardiff have both Welsh and English text on them. I feel this sums up the essence of Cardiff as it shows that although there aren't many people in Cardiff who can speak Welsh, they are still proud to have their own national language and value those who can speak it.
This picture is of a bridge near the Grangetown area of Cardiff and is one of several bridges around the city sporting the Brains Beer monicker and a catchy line to go with it. This particular bridge says "It's Brains you want!". Cardiff is the only city that has these bridges, and when I think of something that only Cardiff has, I often think of these. It is this sense of being unique that makes me think they capture the essence of Cardiff, as Cardiff is a capital city, but is nothing like other capital cities in Britain. The inner sleeve of the album 'Fuzzy Logic' by eccentric Welsh band Super Furry Animals features a photograph of the band stood in front of this exact bridge.
This photograph of a Chinese supermarket is the final picture I have decided to use for this assignment. There are several of these such supermarkets on the same street as this one all selling foods aimed specifically at certain cultures; there are several stores specialising in Halal meat, others for specifically Chinese foods and many more. The fact that there are several of each type of store shows that there is a market for these stores and higlights the diverse range of people living in Cardiff.
This is an assignment we were set especially for the blog. We had to go out in small groups (I was with Helen and Ephraim) and take photos of text we felt summed up the essence of Cardiff. We decided that rather than just taking three photographs, we would take quite a few and then could all decide individually which ones we wanted to use.
These are the three I decided to use, plus a little bit about how I feel it sums up the essence of Cardiff:
This bit of text appears above the main entrance to Cardiff Central train station and has the word 'Welcome' written in both English and Welsh. I felt that this was relevant to what I was doing as it shows that the Welsh value and are proud of having their own language. A survey taken in 2001 found that just 11% of the population of Cardiff can speak Welsh, but despite this almost all signs in Cardiff have both Welsh and English text on them. I feel this sums up the essence of Cardiff as it shows that although there aren't many people in Cardiff who can speak Welsh, they are still proud to have their own national language and value those who can speak it.
This picture is of a bridge near the Grangetown area of Cardiff and is one of several bridges around the city sporting the Brains Beer monicker and a catchy line to go with it. This particular bridge says "It's Brains you want!". Cardiff is the only city that has these bridges, and when I think of something that only Cardiff has, I often think of these. It is this sense of being unique that makes me think they capture the essence of Cardiff, as Cardiff is a capital city, but is nothing like other capital cities in Britain. The inner sleeve of the album 'Fuzzy Logic' by eccentric Welsh band Super Furry Animals features a photograph of the band stood in front of this exact bridge.
This photograph of a Chinese supermarket is the final picture I have decided to use for this assignment. There are several of these such supermarkets on the same street as this one all selling foods aimed specifically at certain cultures; there are several stores specialising in Halal meat, others for specifically Chinese foods and many more. The fact that there are several of each type of store shows that there is a market for these stores and higlights the diverse range of people living in Cardiff.
Lost in Translation analysis
So here's a copy of the finished essay. As I said in a previous post, I think it's pretty good, but we'll have to wait and see what Andrea thinks. We should be getting the grades back tomorrow. I didn't want to post the whole thing in a post on this blog as it would take up too much space, so I've created another blog on which I'm going to store all my essays, then post links to them on here.
(Read the essay here)
Thursday, 22 November 2007
Thoughts and Feelings
For now I'm pretty happy with the course and the work I'm doing. We have one assignment due in every week from now until the end of term, which has me a little worried but I think I'm pretty good at just keeping my head down and getting on with work so I should be ok. I'd say so far I'm enjoying MSVC 103 the least, as I don't enjoy over-analysing films and sometimes I find it difficult to do so. I'm really happy with 101 and 102 though as the theories we've been studying are really interesting; I'm just shocked at how little I knew about some things. I think for the Literature Review assignment I'll study feminism as that's the theory I've found most interesting so far.
My CV
Here I'm going to publish a copy of my CV as part of my blog assignment.
Lauren Starkey
A01 The Bakery, Cardiff
DOB: 15/07/1988
Email: too.emo.for.my.shorts@gmail.com
Qualifications:
BTEC National Diploma in Media Studies: Merit, Merit, Merit
(Fareham College: 2004 - 2006)
AS Level English Language and Literature: D
(Fareham College: 2004 - 2006)
GCSE:
English Literature: C
English: B
Maths: C
Science: CC
Drama: B
Electronics: C
French: B
RE: A*
History: D
PE: E
(Henry Cort Community College: 1999 - 2004)
Experience:
Proguard Central Services: 2005 - 2006
Office Cleaner
Cleaning all desks, floors and bins in an office supplying confectionary to shops.
TKMaxx: 2006 - 2007
Store Associate
Trained on tills and Customer Service desk,
Trained on Fitting Rooms
Processing and putting out stock
Item by Item procedures
Began training as Customer Service Supervisor before leaving to attend university
Work Experience:
Rainbow Corner Nursery:
Trident Work Experience, two weeks, 2003
Helping prepare lunch for children
Supervising children at playtime
Reading stories
General care and supervision of children
Drowned in Sound Recordings:
Self Obtained work experience, one week, 2005
Making tea
Writing reviews and news stories for drownedinsound.com
Working with artists Personal Assistants on errands
Designing and placing advertisments for the band Metric
Interests/Aspirations:
My main aspiration is to work as a talent scount or advertiser for a record company. To further this aspiration I took up one weeks work experience with the record label Drowned in Sound Recordings. This label also runs Europe's biggest independent music website, drownedinsound.com. Whilst working with Drowned In Sound I was responsible not only for helping out with the record label side of things, but I was also asked to contribute to the website in the form of writing news stories and music reviews. I enjoyed the week I spent working there and feel it has cemented my hope of working within the industry.
Music is my main interest and I like to spend my spare time listening to music or going to gigs and festivals to see live music (though sadly I cannot play anything myself due to lack of talent).
Lauren Starkey
A01 The Bakery, Cardiff
DOB: 15/07/1988
Email: too.emo.for.my.shorts@gmail.com
Qualifications:
BTEC National Diploma in Media Studies: Merit, Merit, Merit
(Fareham College: 2004 - 2006)
AS Level English Language and Literature: D
(Fareham College: 2004 - 2006)
GCSE:
English Literature: C
English: B
Maths: C
Science: CC
Drama: B
Electronics: C
French: B
RE: A*
History: D
PE: E
(Henry Cort Community College: 1999 - 2004)
Experience:
Proguard Central Services: 2005 - 2006
Office Cleaner
Cleaning all desks, floors and bins in an office supplying confectionary to shops.
TKMaxx: 2006 - 2007
Store Associate
Trained on tills and Customer Service desk,
Trained on Fitting Rooms
Processing and putting out stock
Item by Item procedures
Began training as Customer Service Supervisor before leaving to attend university
Work Experience:
Rainbow Corner Nursery:
Trident Work Experience, two weeks, 2003
Helping prepare lunch for children
Supervising children at playtime
Reading stories
General care and supervision of children
Drowned in Sound Recordings:
Self Obtained work experience, one week, 2005
Making tea
Writing reviews and news stories for drownedinsound.com
Working with artists Personal Assistants on errands
Designing and placing advertisments for the band Metric
Interests/Aspirations:
My main aspiration is to work as a talent scount or advertiser for a record company. To further this aspiration I took up one weeks work experience with the record label Drowned in Sound Recordings. This label also runs Europe's biggest independent music website, drownedinsound.com. Whilst working with Drowned In Sound I was responsible not only for helping out with the record label side of things, but I was also asked to contribute to the website in the form of writing news stories and music reviews. I enjoyed the week I spent working there and feel it has cemented my hope of working within the industry.
Music is my main interest and I like to spend my spare time listening to music or going to gigs and festivals to see live music (though sadly I cannot play anything myself due to lack of talent).
*Breathes a sigh of relief*
I finished and handed in my first assignment for Andrea the other day, and it was such a relief to get it out of the way. I think I did pretty well, Lost in Translation was an easy enough film for me to analyse because I've seen it so many times and know it pretty much inside out. There were some parts I found difficult, even just getting up the motivation to sit down and do it was challenging enough at times, and I worried I was repeating myself a bit too much, but all in all I think I did a good job. Just got to wait to get my grade now.
I'll post the analysis up here as soon as I work out how to create a link to it.
I'll post the analysis up here as soon as I work out how to create a link to it.
Thursday, 8 November 2007
Lost in Translation essay
So, for assignment one of MSVC 103 I decided to do my semiotic analysis on Sofia Coppola's "Lost in Translation". It's my favourite film so I know it pretty well already, and since this is only the first assignment we've done I didn't want to throw myself too much in at the deep end. I've written a detailed essay plan and am just starting the essay itself. It is due in on Monday the 12th of November.
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