Music Music Music

1. Dubstep
- Skrillex
- Skrillex is a very popular dubstep DJ that is known worldwide. My sister is a "Bass head", which is what Dubstep lovers are known as, as Dubstep music uses great amounts of Bass and has Bass drops that will blow your mind. Skrillex uses Ableton as his choice of DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) to create his beats that have crowds going into a craze. Most DJ's today use computer software which has prerecorded sounds of other instruments to create their music. This directly correlates music and technology as they use mixers, and software to align their beats that they then release to the "bass heads."

2. Post-Modern Crisis
- U2
- U2s recording of "Where The Streets Have No Name" was like something you would see out of a movie as they decided to record the video on the top of a liquor store in downtown Los Angeles before cops ultimately shut it down after 10s of thousands of people got word of it from friends and the radio and decided to go enjoy a free concert as U2 was one of the most popular bands at that time after releasing their album "Joshua Tree." I myself am a huge fan of U2 as well as my mother is. My Mother has seen U2 live upwards of ten times, in 3 different countries including, The USA, Canada, and Ireland. The electric guitar is an instrument that the band heavily relies on to make a soothing sound that flows perfectly with the soft voice of Bono, the lead singer of the band. 

3. Girl Power
- Lady Gaga
- Lady Gaga is very popular and a well-known singer and songwriter of the last decade. She as well recently stared in the Grammy-nominated and winning movie, "a Star Is Born." Gaga uses many technologies in her live performances as well as her music video performance to engage her viewers as much as possible. Her halftime performance at the Superbowl in 2017 was one for the ages that saw her being performing on top of the stadium and then slowly dropping down to the stage on the field with the help of some harnesses. Which then features her doing flips in the air while laser beams and lights flash around her to excel the visual effects of her performance. 

4. Punk
- Sex Pistols
- The Sex Pistols are a very influential band from the Punk era. The Sex Pistols rely heavily on the use of the electric guitar and the synthesizer to craft their music. you can also hear a little bit of auto-tune that the lead vocalist used to produce a very unique sounding voice. I chose the Sex Pistols because I am already familiar with their music so I knew a great deal of what they use to produce their wonderful punk music 

5. Virtual
- Gorillaz
- The Gorillaz are a band that I have never seen before. They do not have real musicians who perform but instead of virtual characters that are supposed to resemble the band. This in itself is a use of technology as they have to make the animated characters appear as if they are singing the songs and mouthing along to the lyrics. This new wave band is a pretty cool idea because the performers in the band never have to perform, they just record the music and then let their animated characters go on tour and make the music videos. This is something that I look forward to seeing how it can progress in the future as virtual performances will take away the stress of musicians who go on tour and have to be separated with their families and also will allow the musicians to hide their fame behind an animated character. 

Creepy Video

This is one of the creepiest and most disturbing videos that I could find on youtube. While it is a bit creepy its also very funny.

Creative Video: Bills Mafia

I created a Hype video of the infamous Buffalo Bills Sunday tailgate. From lighting ourselves on fire to jumping through tables, this is Buffalo.

XEROX

For my Xerox project, I created a tree out of cut out pieces of my hands and feet. I created a tree because a tree represents strength and prosperity. I chose to create a tree because I think a strong tree represents a strong life, with the use of hands, legs, and feet I interpret that having a strong base as a human translates to being sturdy and confident like a tree is in the forest. Trees are also essential for life as they produce oxygen for us to breath. The healthy body parts I used can translate to being healthy, strong and a confident individual will lead you a very prosperous life as trees have, as they can live 100's of years. This project was a very fun project that brought me nabk to arts and crafts I did as a kid. The big difference was that this arts and crafts project has a bigger and deeper meaning than when I was a kid and would cut out my hand to make a turkey.

Flipbook

I created an Easter theme flipbook which shows a Red egg pumping up the crowd before riding down a ramp and doing some cool tricks on a skateboard. This project, while although very tedious work was a lot of fun and enjoyable. When I was younger I used to always make flipbooks so I can't believe now as a college student I am creating them again! I hope you enjoy!!

Mr.Roboto

I think mine, as well as many others biggest fear, is the day when AI (Artificial Intelligence) gets too advanced for our own good that they take over the world and then that's the end of human civilization. While today we are still in control I think the things robots can do is extremely impressive. They do more than just help create cars and other things on an assembly line, today they are able to talk, cook, and do things just as normal LIVING humans can do such as intimidate breathing, blinking and talking in accents and many different languages. This is crazy!!!! some are created so well that it is hard to tell if it is a robot or a real person. If you've seen the movie Transendence, starring Johnny Depp you can see firsthand what can occur when we advance technology such as robots too much. In the movie AI takes over peoples living bodies and can repair cuts and broken bones in seconds, this is a pretty cool thing if then they didn't take over your mind and make you follow commands as now you are under their control. Luckily that is just a movie, but if that happens in real life, you can find me on the next SpaceX rocket en route to Mars because there is no way I would make it out alive after the "Robot Revolution." As technology is advancing some of the things they are able to do is amazing and makes everyday life easier. I just hope that it doesn't get to the point where we can no longer control it.

Artist and Inventor Differences

To me, an artist is someone who creates something, usually in the form of music, a painting, or a drawing in order to express themselves. Often they are created for pleasure that has no real use but to have people observe it and form their own opinions. An inventor is someone who creates a product that is like any other or someone who advances an already created product. An artist and an inventor are two terms that can intertwine as an artist is creating something unlike anything done before but it isn't used for anything like a physical technology or other product would be used. therefore I believe while closely related there is a fine line between an inventor and an artist.

Performance Arts Piece

Title:
Don't Smoke

Description:
My video will show facts about what smoking cigarettes do to the human body and organs.

Why did I do this?
I chose this topic because I know of many people close to me as well as celebrities who smoke. While it is already well known what this cancer stick does to people i am creating this to show you directly, in the hopes that people will quit.

What is my message?
Stay above the influence, Life is about living not about doing something that can harm you and others around you or even kill you.

How will my audience profit from this video?
I will show the effects smoking can take on a person body and mental well being, while also showing how gateway drugs can lead to the consumption of harder drugs.

Props and reasoning:
I will use playdoh to create human organs such as the heart, lungs and the brain and inflict damages to them to show the effects of smoking.

21st century technology influenced from the past

Today in the 21st century we have seen technology make a significant growth by being influenced from the past. Today we have social media, self-driving cars, and 3D printing, that people in past generations would not believe would be possible in such a short period of time. One technology that has been influenced by the past is virtual reality. virtual reality allows someone to put on a pair of goofy looking glasses and then completely reimagine the world they live in and the world around them. Virtual reality allows you to play games, train for sports or a career or just relax and watch a movie but that makes you feel as if you are really in the place it is occurring. Virtual reality has its pros and cons, one pro being that it allows military personnel to put these on and train as if they are in a real-life battle which will prepare them better for the future but also can be negative because some people become so obsessed with this 'reality' that they forget it isn't actually real and want it to be their life all the time. In the future, I think virtual reality may become very important as they can help a doctor perform a mock heart surgery so that they are better trained or like I said train the military better for future wars. 

Broadway

After reading and watching many of the articles and videos on the Stage Door blog I decided that my favorite video was the "Michael Buble: Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas." I chose this video because I celebrate Christmas and "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" is my favorite song to listen too around the holidays. This version was even better because he has a live orchestra playing behind him that plays the song so peacefully. Buble's voice is also very pleasing to the ear, you can see he sings with a lot of emotion as he perfects ever note. The lighting on the stage also sets a very nice mood, there is a Christmas tree to his right as expected as well as a large piano, with red and green lights illuminating behind him. The setting gives me a warm feeling just like Christmas as If I was sitting around a fireplace. Many of these videos were amusing but this one really stood out and spoke to me.
Broadway is a very important part of entertainment today that puts on magnificent shows over and over. One that I have seen in the past is "The Lion King", I saw this about a year ago and was blown away at how great it was and how talented the actors were in singing, dancing and acting. I would definitely recommend it and would see it again.

Skittes Grid

For my Skittles grid project, I picked the smiling face emoji with sunglasses on. The actual emoji is a yellow face with black sunglasses but I decided I wanted to create it my own way with some fun colors. Therefore, I decided to make my emoji with a green face like The Incredible Hulk, and with red sunglasses. I also chose red for the mouth because it looks as if someone is smiling with just their lips. This project, while it was quite tedious and stressful to perfectly align each skittle in each row was very fun to work on. The best part was eating all the skittles after!

Carolina Chocolate Drops

Instead of regular class on February 12th, we instead attended Reeves theater to watch a documentary on The Carolina Chocolate Drops. The documentary was very interesting as it took you through the ups and downs that they had as a group. I thought the documentary was very well made but could've been a little shorter. It was often repetitive or had unneeded scenes in it that could've been cut out to make viewers more engaged because i found myself often zoning out. The music they made is not really what i normally listen to but it was still cool to see how popular they became, and ultimately how they won a grammy which is really hard to do. I liked seeing the behind the scenes drama that unfolded after Rhiannon Giddens and Dom Flemons broke up and then Rhiannon got a new boyfriend. As well as the troubles they had as a group which led to Justin Robinson leaving the group in 2011. My favorite artist from the group was Justin before he left the group. i liked him because of his wide variety of musical instruments that he played. im glad to see that after all these years the members are still doing good. Rhiannon and Dom both released solo albums that became very popular and Justin attended college and got a degree in environmental conservation.

CNN: The Most Creative Youtube Videos

The CNN video about the most creative youtube videos was very interesting to watch. The slowed down video of the food being thrown up was fascinating, its crazy how far video enhancements have come that we can slow down videos frame by frame to get every little detail of what happens while it the food was in motion before it came crashing back down on the table. the video looks almost as if there is no gravity as the food and other things on the table seem to float up into the air and then hold stagnant before returning down to the table and causing a major mess of food and drink. The animated John Lennon video was a cool concept that i have not seen before. The creators took the words Lennon spoke in the 1969 interview  and then converted it into an animated interview with pictures and designs that describe what he is saying and tell the story in a visual way. The third video which shows a man moving his arms and then the frame freezing where he moves them to make a collage of his arms everywhere resembled a tree in my opinion, this concept of creativity was very pleasing to the eye. The different levels of creative videos that are on the internet are staggering and its crazy how far technological advancements have come.

Madame Butterfly

    The "Madama Butterfly" opera was a very interesting and brilliant claymation. My first impression of the video was how amusing the video was, it takes a lot of patience and time in order to make a clay video such as "Madama Butterfly" because the creator has to constantly move the dolls in order to make it look smooth and like it is a real figure.
    The overall video was very depressing. The story was about a young lady who fell in love with a soldier as he was deployed in Japan but unfortunately for her he had to leave to continue serving his country.  The women ends becoming pregnant and raises the child herself until the soldier returns and takes the child away from the mother just as he did from all the women he had impregnated as his car is filled with children. The ending to this opera was very sad as the mother breaks her body apart as she now has no reason to live without her child. Overall, this opera was impressive and interesting to watch.

Raul Cuero's Interview about Creativity

Important Points and Concepts from Raul Cuero's interview

• People need to go beyond themself and and their expectations 
• Creativity stems from how you perceive nature, and you must in order to to be creative need to understand your place in it. 
• Children today spend too much time indoors behind computers and not out in the real world which limits todays children's creativity and their communication with others. 
• Good things take time and everything is a process, enjoy the process because you need to go through the processes in life to be successful
• in life depending on your place you will have many different mentors that each play an important and equal role in shaping you into the person that you ultimately become 
• today people are to busy following directions which limits their creativity in projects 
• able to exceed abilities and expectations shows that Raul is living smart, without having to be a part of a certain social class, or belonging to prestigious groups
• people are afraid to take risks and are afraid of failure, failure can be a positive because you can learn and grow from your past failures 

    After watching Raul Cureo's interview about human culture today I would agree with most of his points that he made. One point that Raul made that i agree with is that people are afraid to take risks in life because they are afraid of the negative outcome that may be presented or the fear of failure. Raul makes a good point when saying that failures are what make us and its nit about how many times you fall but about the number of times that you get back up and keep going. This concept is what that I employ in my life often, sometimes I may be afraid to take a risk in something but I try to think of all the positives that may come if I go for it instead of not even attempting it out of fear of failing. I also agree with Raul in the point that todays youth spends too much time in doors and behind computer screens that it is affecting their interactions with people face to face in the real world. Its so easy for kids to just stay in doors and avoid interacting with others which then makes them more likely to not be able to engage in easy everyday conversations with others. Enjoying the process of life is another point that Raul brought up that i agree with. Not everything is going to go your way in life and that is okay, you have to be able to roll with the punches and keep fighting through to ultimately become successful. You need to be able to enjoy and learn from the highs and lows in life.

Introduction

Hello bloggers, My name is Keegan O'Connor. I am a current sophomore student from Buffalo, NY studying Sports Management. In my free time I enjoy watching football, preferably the Buffalo Bills, going to the beach and playing golf with my friends. I enjoy traveling, eating good food and listening to country and rap music.