A sad moment for music this week, as the news of Donald “Duck” Dunn’s passing was announced. His bass playing was immortalised on Stax Records as he was a part of the house band, along with being involved with Booker T and The MG’s.
Check out the girls dancing in this video, so cool and aloof.
However, and maybe you’re like me, your folks weren’t into soul music (it’s a relatively new thing for me, Neil introduced me to it a couple of years ago), but there was a sound they did dig. Or they loved the car crash sequences like my Dad. Whatever the case, my first introduction to Dunn’s work was this.
Twice as much Friday today, enjoy!
xoxo Nyssa on the 18th May, 2012 | no comments
filed under music
and tagged with | booker t and the mgs, donald duck dunn, hello friday, stax, the blues brothers
Introducing Hello Friday! where I get all the fun of scouring You Tube for my favourite Friday songs. I mean, I like all the serious schoolwork and everything, but these are the songs I’m listening to when I’m doing some sewing, swanning around in a pretty dress or putting the final touches on the week before the weekend lands.
And of course, I’m always looking for new songs, so the more posted in the comments each week, the better!
First up is Johnny Taylor’s ‘Who’s Making Love?’ and I’ve chosen it for several reasons:
1. It’s on a Stax compilation vinyl Neil got for me for my birthday this year and it’s the song I look forward to hearing the most when I put the record on (I don’t have a digital copy of this one yet).
2. The cat sees me sauntering around the house while it’s playing and hides. Known fact: my cat has no taste. I mean, he likes cat food for goodness sakes.
3. The suit Taylor is wearing in the video is enviable. You need to see it.
xoxo Nyssa on the 11th May, 2012 | 1 comment
filed under music
and tagged with | hello friday, johnny taylor, stax
Of all the feedback I’ve received about how my friends use social networks to interact with television, one has kept repeating itself — of all the people I casually spoke to, in real life and on the blog, they considered Facebook for their real-life friends, while they were more likely to follow strangers and the fictional on Twitter. I’m sure there’s a lot that could be written on that, but I think the case of my long-suffering finance is probably the best example. For him, Facebook is a tool, where he can receive invites and plan who’s gear we will drive to the next music festival, while Twitter is an entertainment source, where there’s often cute animal pictures, silly graphs, and marketing blogs he might never have known about.
This means my initial idea, a show where The User is a viewer, but perhaps not a participant, will work well the Twitter format. While you can interact with users on Twitter, by retweeting what someone else has said, or mentioning them in your own tweet, it’s not quite like the interaction you experience on Facebook.
Throughout these discussions, I was pointed in the direction of other characters on Facebook and Twitter. Jane pointed out that when you follow updates about the film ‘Anchorman’ on Facebook, there are often quotes from the film.
However most of the time, it’s not posted like you’re actually following Ron Burgendy on Facebook. (It’s a shame really, he’d be really good on Facebook I think).
Another piece of work I was reminded of is Dan Sinker’s @MayorEmanuel. The Economist has a great article on it, but to sum it up, in 2010, it was rumoured that The White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel would run for Mayor in Chicago. Journalism professor Sinker started up a fake Twitter feed, @MayorEmanuel. Unlike most fake Twitter accounts, where there is no story arc, @MayorEmanuel did. It even had an ending, concluding when the real Emanuel made it as Mayor.
What all this discussion has taught me is that a well written Twitter/Facebook feed is just as entertaining as a well-written TV show. The idea is solid, which is also reassuring, given that this is Week 9. Now comes the time to write the ten minutes.
xoxo Nyssa on the 30th April, 2012 | 1 comment
filed under COMM1000 | uni | writing
and tagged with | social media
Now we’re at Week 7 at university. Week 7! Time to really get this project about The Fangirl, The Rockstar and The Fight to Save Rock ‘n’ Roll off the ground.
Speaking with my lecturer today, we discussed how at the moment, my story is quite large, with moments of many details, while other areas quite sparse. What I’m actually required to hand in is a ten minute treatment (storyboard and script) of a story that is delivered through “transmedia”. To put that without sounding like I made the word up, I am delivering my story through TV and social media (Twitter/Facebook/assorted procrastination aids). So while I’ve been talking about this broad story, I will actually only focus on a smaller story from within the larger plot.
So there’s some characters, like The Fangirl and The Rockstar, but there’s also The User, which is You. You’re the person who follows these characters on Facebook, on Twitter, you’re a part of their world as you realise the venue is closing and they’re self-destructing. You talk and gossip about them like normal TV characters, except they exist beyond the box, they also exist within your social networks. You can post on their Walls, elict responses from them, much like most people on your friends list. Essentially, you’re a voyeur, like normal, but the added social media element allows for a more emmersive experience.
At Boogie, over a couple of beers and some outrageous costumes, I talked to some of my friends some of my demographic — twenty- and thirty-somethings who love live music and enjoy quality television, about whether they would add TV characters to their social networks and what would make the experience rewarding.
The response from my relaxed focus group was actually an overwhelming “not reeeaaally”. Did I have the right demographic?
“I might follow them on Twitter, especially if they were funny or entertaining,” someone mentioned. “Facebook is just… well, I have my real friends on Facebook.”
“I think the only reason why I might follow them on Facebook is if I could actually do something,” another mentioned. “Like if I could actually go and save the venue.”
“What do you mean?” I asked. “While based on a true story, I don’t know about actually threatening to close down a venue just for more Facebooks ‘likes’.”
“Well, even if the TV show is great, why would I follow fake characters and care about a fake venue? Let me try and do something, change something.”
That snippet of conversation was the opinion of three blokes in their mid-twenties to early-thirties. It’s vastly different to how I imagined the pitch working — The User would be a voyuer into The Fangirl and The Rockstar’s world, with (potentially limitied) social media interaction. The User would not have any effect on the outcome of the series. The boys said they’d be happy to rally in the name of live music and if they had to follow the characters to get all the details, then that wouldn’t be a problem.
So I’m throwing it out there — do you want TV characters within your social networks?
To tempt you to answer, here is a picture of Julian Casablancas and Jarvis Cocker being cool. This is the type of rockstar The Rockstar wants to be.
source: nme.com
xoxo Nyssa on the 21st April, 2012 | 1 comment
filed under COMM1000 | uni | writing
and tagged with | social media
What I need to focus on in Narrative for Multimedia, everyone’s favourite class where I get to write a script about The Fangirl, The Rockstar and The Fight to Save Rock ‘n’ Roll, is tightening up the storyline, ironing out the kinks and colouring in the details. So let’s dig in.
The outline is The Fangirl, a blogger, a uni student, goes to see The Rockstar play on weekends at their favourite venue. She is not a groupie and they don’t sleep together, but they know each other and inspire each other — he dedicates songs to her and she writes reviews about him. When the venue is forced to close due to political pressure, their world is turned upside down and their familiar relationship pulled from right out underneath them.
They continue to drink together, in dives late at night; they begin to self-destruct. He stops playing music and she stops writing. They sleep together and nothing is like what it used to be.
While in this haze of apathy, The Fangirl is called into action to rally in support of the venue. However, I am not sure how yet. I know that personally, the thing about breaking the hold that apathy has on you is that there isn’t really a significant “lightbulb” moment, no major event triggers the urge to change. For me personally, small things if anything have prompted change. Wardrobe Rehab was spurred on by wearing a cheap polyester shirt and suffering the consequences for the final time. The will to change my overall mental health came from buying a ticket to see a gig at The Ding Dong Lounge for $20 and then not going because I felt unwell. A major life overhaul over $20! I moved out of my flat, changed jobs and went back to uni over $20! And it wasn’t a sudden leap-from-the-couch change, it was slept on, spoken out loud to someone, and then acted on.
Although, perhaps for the sake of Television, it might help to exaggerate. For Entertainment’s sake, y’know?
One of my favourite call-to-action themes is the idea of not wanting to be a nobody. The Fangirl does exist in a situation where what she is and does — a female blogger — could be considered useless, especially compared to The Rockstar, who is creating music, a more traditional (perhaps valued?) artform. Although it goes both ways — The Fangirl is a university student, while he has a go-nowhere dayjob.
I was reminded of this theme upon listening closely to a song called ‘King of The World’ by First Aid Kit. I saw them at Golden Plains and was reminded to buy a record when I heard them on the radio the other day.
Firstly, I have seriously listened to this song at least five times today in the car on the way to and from work.
Secondly, there is a verse that I find quite endearing, and perhaps true to The Fangirl’s situation:
And once you asked me well what’s my biggest fear
That things would always remain so unclear
That one day I’d wake up all alone
With a big family and emptiness deep in my bones
That I would be blinded, turn a deaf ear
And that my fake laugh would suddenly sound sincere
(You can check out the rest of the lyrics here.)
Once inspired to save rock ‘n’ roll and rally to reopen the venue, The Fangirl convinces The Rockstar to join her. And in a straight-from-SLAM turnout, a message is sent and the venue is reopened! On opening night, when The Rockstar is back on the stage and The Fangirl is back on the dancefloor, the pair realise that they never truly lost anything, and that the music never truly died in the first place.
So back to the idea changing to save yourself from being a nobody — how does it affect The Fangirl and The Rockstar?
The Rockstar’s trigger to change and “become somebody” is when The Fangirl suggests to him something along the lines of, “Maybe you were never born to be a rockstar anyway. Perhaps it’s a phase you’ve grown out of. Enjoy life in a suit.” Just you try telling an artist that their day job is their career and their art is a hobby. Their parents have been telling them that for years, they certainly don’t need to hear it from you.
Fair enough, The Rockstar accepts The Fangirl’s challenge, but what triggers her to get off the couch? What provokes her to look inside herself to realise she is more than just a girl that goes home with some uninspired suit, that she’s more than just a groupie sleeping with a has-been and, most importantly, that she has the drive to change? In her case, it could very well be nostalgia, but I think it is something more.
So I’m going to throw it out there — what has inspired you to get off the couch? Has it been an ordinary event that drove you to do something amazing? Was it a major kick in the bum to make a small but important change?
xoxo Nyssa on the 16th April, 2012 | 4 comments
filed under COMM1000 | uni | writing
and tagged with | first aid kit
Winter arrived on Monday, just as Neil and I pulled out onto the Hume Highway. The temperature dropped, the rain fell, and suddenly we all considered ourselves lucky we managed to pack the tent up and clear the campsite in time. Boogie 6 had finished, and with that, Festival Season and Summer were over.
Mind you, Boogie 6 was pretty kickass.
We did get some fine weather (aside from those blistering cold nights, thanks Tallarook), a chance to dress up, and, of course, some music. Oh! the music! I still don’t know who my favourites were yet. Lanie Lane was cute, as always, managing technical difficulties with some giggling and singing along. It was mentioned that she does better with her band, but I think I’ve got a bit of a crazy crush on her, so perhaps I’m biased.
I bought some vinyl by Eilen Jewell, another rockabilly lady. Neil and I kind of wanted to keep her in our pockets, her accent and songs so sweet. Neil was fairly keen on Dawes, while I would definitely rate King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard, as well as the Merri Creek Pickers (who I have probably seen before).
Then, there was The Superholics, featuring favourites like Kram and Dan Sultan. Poor Dan Sultan, he’s been the running joke among our crew for a year now. We spotted him at Boogie last year on Day One, and then on Days Two, Three and Four as well, still wearing his original outfit from Day One. Day Three saw his punter wristband turn into an artists’ wristband and he played what can only be described as a noisy set which was probably quite remarkable in his mind, but for everyone else, oh, it was… well, drunk. Anyway, we let Sultan have his Sexiest Music-Man Alive title back as the supergroup belted out some classics from the 70′s and 80′s.
As for the success of our costumes, well, why don’t I show you? These pictures are dedicated to Zoe!
And for those who want to see my Crappy Yellow Corporate in action, here I am with Az, who joined me in Yellow Solidarity. You can thank Jane for the picture.
xoxo Nyssa on the 13th April, 2012 | 1 comment
filed under music | out and about
and tagged with | boogie
So it is almost time to SHAKE IT LOOSE TOGETHER and head off to Boogie, the final festival of the season. This means winter is almost here, but that can’t stop us from a Great Friday leading into a Wicked Weekend.
Saturday night is Dress-Up Night. Last year we all donned white lab coats and went as doctors. I was Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman. Anyway, it is difficult to get a good group theme going as costumes can be time-consuming and expensive, plus Nick doesn’t like Yellow. This year, we decided to have mini-themes — Tutus, Crappy Corporate and Yellow. I couldn’t pick a theme, so I decided to go for all of them. In the same outfit.
Here is a sneak peek of my costume. In true me-style, I actually quite like it as every day wear.
Coat and shirt both from the op-shop. Thank you Sunbury and Footscray!
xoxo Nyssa on the 6th April, 2012 | 3 comments
filed under fashion | out and about
and tagged with | boogie
Just Quickly: I am taking a class at uni this semester, the very interesting Narrative for Multimedia. (Not featured, the very dull Software Engineering Fundamentals and The Entrepreneurial Process. I’m bored just thinking about those titles). I’ve struggled to describe what it’s about, so bear with me, but it’s about the role of narratives and story in our multimedia experiences, be that from a traditional perspective of cinema or television, or a more modern concept, such as a website or a commercial. By the end of semester — seven weeks away for those playing at home — we’re to present a ten minute script and storyboard. A pitch if you will. I’ve gone semi-traditional here and will be pitching a television show, with a well-integrated social media aspect.
The fun part is sharing the research and development with everyone.
It’s an age-old story I’m pitching, especially if you’ve been following the narrative of my blog, my Twitter, basically anything to fall out of my mouth over the past… seven years? Gosh.
Anyway, it’s the story of The Fangirl, The Rockstar and The Fight to Save Rock ‘n’ Roll!
The Tote, blah blah, closed down, yes yes, reopened, yada, yada, yada. I know, stay with me on this one over the next couple of months as I formulate the perfect pitch, the ultimate script, and hopefully something that resembles a storyboard.
The other important part of this project is the integration of social media. I believe that it can work, because being on the Internet and watching television at the same time is not an uncommon thing to do. However, I do believe that it needs to be less work for the viewer/consumer than it has been in the past.
For example, Neil and I thoroughly enjoyed watching Slide on FOX8 last year. Once we percivered through the first two episodes, which were not noteworthy at all, it suddenly transformed into a warm, sunny teen drama, which was both heartfelt and funny. Of course, the comparison to Skins remained true, however ‘Slide’ was a much cheerier experience. Yes, the “Slide Five” had to overrcome some tough backgrounds AND puberty, but it didn’t require me to mentally prepared for 45 minutes of feeling depressed.
image credit: mcn.com.au
‘Slide’ had a strong online component, and I’m not going to lie to you, I’ve never engaged with it. When I come home to enjoy some time online, by the time I check Facebook, Twitter, Pintrest, my Google Reader, perhaps do some blogging myself, and sift through all the animal pictures Neil has sent me during the day, I don’t feel particularly enthused by the idea of having to check another website to see what some characters I timeshift each week are up to. They’re waiting on my Tivo-like IQ box. I’ll watch them when I’m ready.
I’ve spoken to friends about this requirement to log on to an additional website to engage with an “interactive” show and although perhaps we’re not in the correct demographic for a teen drama (mid twenties to thirties), similar themes came up — it would be distracting, rather than complimentary, to have the computer and the television both providing content. Sure, we may use the Internet while watching television, but the minute that they’re both providing related content, suddenly one distracts from the other. Is it a TV show? A web thing? Ugh, one or the other please. My next step is to see if there is any formal documentation about this.
The experience I would like to provide is strictly complimentary — it’s not required (not that the online component to ‘Slide’ was required either), but if you wanted to engage in it, it also wouldn’t be hard work. There are already established social media frameworks out there, such as Facebook, that consumers regularly check on and participate in. Why build a completely new website, as nice and flashy as it would be, where consumers and characters can both interact, when the framework is already there, consumers already know how to use it, and the characters in the “real world” are more likely to use it?
Characters would use channels such as Facebook, Twitter, and perhaps some periphery networks such as Tumblr, Last.fm, and others depending on their interests, to interact with each other as well as the consumers. It would adapt well with time-shifting consumers, as there would be no spoilers. In fact, the mere fact that a character could appear on a consumers’ timeline may remind the consumer that “Oh yeah, I taped that show last night, I might watch that when I get home.” Unlike online content at the moment, where it is all prepared in advance and then delivered as the show airs, these characters would post status updates and tweet throughout the weeks the show airs. It wouldn’t be overbearing or obnoxious, and would fit neatly into a consumers’ exisiting social media experience.
In summary, the social media aspect of my television pitch should not feel like an afterthought, or exist on what feels like a completely separate part of the Internet. These characters can exist within the consumers’ world, not only through the television once a week, but in their pre-existing social networks, interacting just as anyone would.
xoxo Nyssa on the 3rd April, 2012 | 6 comments
filed under COMM1000 | uni
and tagged with | slide, social media
Two Very Important Things have happened this week. I turned 27 and Hanson announced that they are returning to Australia. Nothing like a birthday and a blast from the past will set your mind to ponder to quickly.
When I was young, I simply just liked whatever music my parents liked, which was a collection of country, 60′s and some Elvis. When I was a teenager, I was all about Top 40 and, most importantly, Hanson. As mentioned before, I had friends who were into more alternative artists, artists who I am now listening to for the first time, but back then, I didn’t quite have the confidence to pursue music that was marketed to a slightly older demographic. Maybe that made me a “sheep”, I think I look back and realise that it was a safe-space away from all the other terrifying things my body and world were trying to do to me.
I loved magazines such as ‘Smash Hits’, but I also loved Australian based publications such as Dolly and Girlfriend. By the time I was old enough to read them, their heydays of providing important information to young women was behind them, for example Dolly’s excellent monthy column, ‘Dolly Doctor’ had become a watered down version of what it used to be in the 80′s and early 90′s, a fact realised when I found a stash of old ‘Dolly’ magazines in a holiday house with my friend Cheryl one summer (it didn’t make me stop buying them — they had lots of Hanson pictures in them). With the Internet being a fairly new thing in homes, it was ‘Dolly’ or nothing.
These days — and I say that like I’m old, which I understand I’m not — there is Rookie Mag, by Style Rookie‘s Tavi and her crack team of writers. I know I’m not the only not-a-teenager reading, because it is a well curated slice of Internets that’s quite hard to resist. Sometimes I wonder if Teenage-Nyssa would’ve enjoyed it and how her music tastes may have shifted, or at least expanded, from learning about not only today’s pop idols, but other past and present musicians as well. That’s impossible to know, so instead, in true Rookie style, I have written a mix-tape to my younger self that Today-Nyssa quite enjoys It’s about how women and pop music can come together without needing to be hit again, or rubbed the right way, or zig-ah-zig-ahhh.
1. Best Coast, ‘Crazy for You’
There’s even CATS in this video.
2. Cults, ‘Oh My God’
3. Wild Flag, ‘Romance’
4. Super Wild Horses, ‘Golden Town’
5. Lanie Lane, ‘Ain’t Hungry’
Little Nyssa need not know that myself, along with Neil, Johnny and Nick ambushed poor Lanie at Golden Plains this year…
(And in a nice coincidence, I found this article — Confessions of a Fangirl — on Rookie today. Two of my favourite things just collided!)
xoxo Nyssa on the 30th March, 2012 | no comments
filed under music | stuff
and tagged with | best coast, cults, hanson, lanie lane, rookie, super wild horses, wild flag
I was re-watching some of my favourite ‘Flight of The Conchords’ episodes the other day as a part of some research for a university project and remembered this scene from episode 10, season 1, ‘The New Fans’. It’s just the kind of image to make you love Kristen Schaal. Especially since she was pretty awesome to begin with.*
*yes, I cheated and linked all her appearances on ‘The Daily Show’. Post your favourites in the comments.