What's New? 2010 Edition.

It's been a long time since I've posted. For whatever reason, I thought that graduating from Georgetown while taking on more work would still leave me more time than I had in my previous life season. I guess I feel like I don't have much to share. But I do have some "exciting" happenings from the last few months. Some of which are actually exciting.

(1) I apply to be a Canadian! 

After two years of waiting to hear about Canadian Citizenship application, I found out that I was granted dual citizenship! But that they sent the documents to my old address in Florida! And that, because I hadn't changed my address I would have to reapply completely!

So I reapplied a few weeks ago. And it was arduous. But Mimi loves Canada because of the Avonlea books and because of Robin Sparkles from "How I Met Your Mother." I love it because my dad's side of the family is from the very-Acadian New Brunswick community of Grandfalls. And I like gravy on my French fries.

Communion Confession

Context: I take other people's religions seriously. I am religious, I work with the religious and did my recent master's thesis on Islam. So then I am placed at my grandfather's (very Catholic) funeral. While I am baptized Catholic, I'm not confirmed and thus am ineligible for communion according to the Catechism. Thus the situation unfolded...

The French spoken at the service is not Parisian (my grandfather being an Acadian), but I can still catch a bit of it. My grandfather by the way was a Jedi Master-level Knight of Columbus. They had uniforms, swords out--everything. During the service it comes time for communion, and while not Catholic, I am aware of the Catholic tradition of the "blessing." With the "blessing," a non-Catholic can approach the priest during communion and receive his, well, blessing without taking the bread or wine. To note that you would like the blessing, you simply cross your arms. I explain this to my wife and sister.

So communion begins and I approach the priest with my arms crossed. The priest offers me the communion bread. I pat my hands against my shoulders to emphasize ("Blessing!").

The priest seems to consider that maybe I don't understand French, so in broken English: "Take...my body..."

Tales from DC: Senate Security

Every semester, we ask students to go in teams on a scavenger hunt of the city. One of the stops, inevitably, is to the office of the senior senator from their state. Last semester, a team ended up at a Senate office building going through security when the alarm went off on the tall, male student in the team. And the alarm at the Senate is no joke, it's loud with lights and booming speakers: WAHN WAHN.

Security (moving toward him with the wand): "Sir, do you have any keys, loose change--"
Student: "Oh! Keys..."

He goes out of security, puts to keys in a container and heads back through. And the alarm goes off again. WAHN WAHN.

Security: "Sir did you take EVERYTHING out of your pockets?"
Student: "Well...I still have my cellphone."
Security (agitated): "Sir, please put your cellphone in the tray as well and come through again."

The student goes out of security, puts the cellphone in the tray and comes through again. The alarm goes off again. At this point, a crowd is forming. Security uses the wand and wordlessly passes it over the students belt. Beep beep beep.

Student: "Oh...yeah, my belt..."

The student leaves security again, takes off his belt and walks through again. The alarm goes off. WAHN WAHN. Again. Security uses the wand and stops over his feet.

Security: "Son, are you wearing steel-toed boots?"
Student: "Ahhhh....yeah."
Security (long pause): "How did you get here?"

Questions followed related to whether the student had ever been on a plane or entered any sort of government building.

Places and Spaces: Sunshine

This was taken on the boardwalk of Winchester, VA. We were there visiting some old friends of ours who call it home.

Places and Spaces: Broken Love

This was taken at my sisters new apartment. Birmingham, AL.

Mia and Me: Why My Dog Drove Me Crazy And Why I Miss Her

Mia at our apartment in Chinatown. Washington, D.C.

Mia and I didn't get off to a great start.

I grew up in a house with over-affectionate, lick-lick-lick German Shepherds and Golden Retrievers. When I was dating a very hot Baylor girl (who is now my wife), she expressed that she wanted me to meet her dog. Sure. I would have followed her anywhere.

Mia came into her parent's house in Texas as a part of a pack of animals that included Oliver "who has a weird eye condition" and Suzy "who's totally blind, by the way." They ran for an overflowing dish of food. Mia, a Cocker Spaniel, managed to nudge her way in between the two other huge dogs to eat. My girlfriend (Mimi) invited Mia over and Mia was very excited to see her. Mia took one sniff of me, stared for a moment and then ran back to her dish. I felt slightly snubbed. No licks?

"She likes you," Mimi said.
"I couldn't tell."
"Oh, she scared to death of guys. At least she came up to you."

Almost six years after our initial meeting, I held Mia in my arms at Friendship Animal Hospital as our vet euthanized her. And I held her long after her heart had stopped and the vet had left. I cradled her head which was covered in the tumor that would have strangled her painfully within weeks, if we didn't put her down gently.

Now our house is emptier in her absence. The garbage stays in the can. The tennis balls are packed up in a small bag. No one barks when I go to take a shower. There are no new mystery stains on our couch.

Forecast for Washington this weekend...

Pay-per-level Gaming

Has the Long Tail hit console gaming? ("What is Long Tail?")

It seems increasingly possible that niche gamers who still have fond memories of watching a 2-D Sonic roll through strategically-placed, curving hills or rushing Mega Man through a course of robots in construction hats or taking Cecil and Rosa on one last quest against the Four Fiends might be in luck.

A new trend in the gaming industry is selling new adventures of old games on a level-by-level basis. This is seen in the release of WiiWare's Final Fantasy IV: The After Years, in which players return to the world of Baron following the events of Final Fantasy IV. The story revolves around the son of two of the main characters from the original game. The base price of the game is 800 WiiPoints and then the player can purchase additional levels (all which reveal the "what-is-happening-now" for different characters in the original Final Fantasy IV) for 300 WiiPoints each. Square-Enix released a level-per-month and then concluded with the last level in early September 2009.

Review: Fallout 3

Still catching up. This one will be hard to find the negatives because I was overwhelming pleased with this game...

The positive three, the negative two.

Places and Spaces: The Daily Grind

This photo was taken at the "Daily Grind" in Winchester, VA. Some of our closest friends from Florida grew up in Winchester, VA and they took us to the famous local coffee shop in town. They'd never been, despite growing up in the area, so they learned to appreciate it as I did too.

Review: Batman- Arkham Asylum

So I am way behind in terms of doing some reviews of some interesting new media. Part of it was the completion of my thesis. Part of it was the completion of Georgetown. The End of LOST? Bermuda Triangle? Lots of reasons. But this is me catching up. 

The positive three, the negative two.

Places and Spaces: Jared and Julie's House in Durham, NC

My wife and I recently went on a roadtrip of the American South. We stopped and spent the evening with our close friends Julie and Jared. This was taken at their home in Durham, NC.

Places and Spaces: Jazz at the Sculpture Garden

This is my new theme here at the Gopher. As you know, I love stories. And one of the themes of this blog, whether in my media criticism or in my personal reflections, is the story.

In my short story writing, one of the things I've discovered is that sometimes (in the brief amount of space provided in a short story), you find the narrative in a single person, a single act, a single place, a single space. So, in keeping with my new-found, post-graduate freedom, I'm going to document some places and spaces.

This picture was taken at Washington, D.C.'s "Jazz at the Sculpture Garden" on June 4th, 2010. The Berklee World Jazz Nonet band was interesting, but perhaps formulaic. The girl with the saxophone claimed to be Japanese, from Hiroshima. There was also a Palestinian singer, an Israeli guitarist. You get the idea. All their songs had to do with peace. Perhaps a bit convenient. But it was really interesting jazz with occasional Arabic vocal rifts.

GopherLink! DC City Council nixes the $49 million budget for H St. Streetcars, then finds $47 million later in the day to reinstate the program. Shrewd way to cut $2 million off the program...Read it here.

Tales from DC: Why I Shouldn't Do Recruiting

Last semester, I was sent on a recruiting trip to South Florida. After presenting something about the study abroad journalism program I work for, I paused for questions.

Student: Where do students typically go after they graduate from your program?

Greg: Excellent question. In the last year alone, we've placed five students at Chili's, four at Barnum and Bailey and one at Ringling Brothers.
(silence)
Greg: Nah, just yanking your chain. Ringling Brothers fell through.

Tales from DC: Men and Shoes

In a early class period this past semester:

Male Student: I noticed that in our Frequently Asked Questions paper, you mentioned that you should bring a pair of comfortable shoes to walk in and then heels for work...uh...I know that's just for girls, but should guys bring a pair of comfortable shoes too? You know. To change at work.

Greg: Well, you can. People might call you Mr. Rodgers, but you can.

Eight Reasons We'll Miss LOST

True Confession: I'm one of the Others. And I'm not talking about the LOST characters who walk around barefoot and then throw you in bear cages. No, I'm a true Other.

Typical people can watch a show and then manage to go about their daily lives without talking about it to strangers and dwelling on obscure connections to literature, religion and science. I'm not.

I've written academic papers on LOST. On a youth retreat, I made 25 middle and high school kids sit through the first four episodes (I hooked a good percentage of the kids who weren't already hooked--for weeks they came up to me telling me about season 1 and 2 episodes they were catching up on). I invite friends over and introduce them to the show. In my life, I have never had the inclination or desire to do any of the above with any other show. LOST is different.

I think I may be that guy. But I'm not the only one. There are other "Others" out there. But our reign at the water coolers is nearing it's end. Here's why we'll miss LOST.

(1) Sawyer's Nicknames: During the course of the show, Sawyer's nicknames progressed significantly from "Lardo" (Hurley)  and "Metro" (Jack) to more clever "Crouching Tiger/ Hidden Dragon" (Jin/Sun). And some were very contextual. When Kate is trying to pilot a canoe around the island, she earns the nickname "Magellan" (a maritime explorer from Portugal), or when locked up by Eko, he earns the nickname "Shaft" (a fictional detective from a 70s television show). Whatever else Sawyer was, he was a smartass and we loved it.

(2) Daniel Faraday's Nutty Professor-ness: Before getting shot by his mother while traveling back in time (WTF?), Faraday couldn't help but win our respect on the show. The passengers of Flight 815 are on the island for nine months before figuring out how to take a dump in the forest without getting attacked by polar bears and smoke monsters. Faraday is on the island for five minutes and he's already run tests that tell us that the island is dislodged from Time. Dude. He finally brought us some answers. He made us feel smart just by being on the show.

(3) Desmond, brotha: It's hard not to like Desmond. He has the most engaging love story (statistically, viewers favorite episode of all time is "The Constant"--a hippydippy time travel episode about Desmond's love for Penny). And there's just something about the Scot. He spent some time as a monk. He also spent some time as a pint-guzzling soccer fan. And he also spent some time traveling around the globe as part of an Around-the-World-in-80-Days-esque race. Oh, and he spent some time pushing a button that kept the world from ending. Quite a resume.

(4) Hurley, for representing us: While the rest of LOST characters slowly buy things like the smoke monster, giant polar bears, the Others and time travel, Hurley is the guy who represents us as viewers. His comic relief kept the show from becoming too serious--and this is something other narrative shows need to learn from (*cough* Flashforward, *cough* V).

(5) RAZZLE DAZZLE! They Killed Nikki and Paulo: Yeah, everyone thought it was ridiculous when two new actors suddenly started showing up and doing things with the Flight 815 survivors--especially since we knew they hadn't been there in any previous seasons. Other shows may have been able to pull it off but LOST has fans who literally re-watched old episodes to look for signs of the characters. The producers heard our grief and buried them alive. RAZZLE DAZZLE!

(6) Boone Survive Plane Crash 1 To Die in Plane Crash 2: He survived a 30,000 ft plane crash but died in a 30 ft crash. We kind of liked Boone for a while, but then we found out he and his sister...er....did some laundry in a unique way. So it was time for him to go. What better way than ANOTHER plane crash?

(7) McBeardy: Jack's character has fallen-been redeemed-fallen-and been redeemed again more times than Johnny Cash. The guy seems to be addicted to the process. The emblem of all this is, of course, the beard. At the end of Season 3, we got a twist ending in which a flashback turned out to be a flashforward--and that flashforward featured a mangy-bearded Jack Shephard who had turned to pill-popping and whiskey chugging. Thank God he's our leader.

(8) Dead People Keep Showing Up: The magic of LOST flashback structure (and now it's "flash-sideways"/alternative reality structure) is that folks who have been dead for seasons show up all the sudden. Charlie Pace drowned in Season 3 but has shown up numerous times since then because, well, Hurley sees Dead People and because in an alternative world, he's still just a washed up rock star. And Christian Shephard? Man, that guy was dead before the show started but he's been practically a regular on the show. Put his name in the credits.

All these and for many more reasons, we salute you LOST. Thanks for the ride.

Analysing Depictions of Faith in LOST

It’s no secret that people of faith often feel mistreated and misrepresented by a mainstream media that oversimplifies their beliefs (GetReligion: Martinez; An-Na`im; "Christians Misrepresented"). In the midst of numerous movies and television programs is a television show where the broken find redemption, the lame walk and the dead rise. This blog will analyze the ways in which LOST educates on issues of religion. Issues of faith are mainly represented in three key characters that appear on the show: Locke, a self-proclaimed “man of faith; Jack, a self-proclaimed “man of science”; and Eko”—a drug dealer turned Catholic priest. Entertainment Weekly recently noted the Biblical connections seen in LOST (Click for an 8 minute, 15 second run-down of the show):

It is safe to say that from the outset LOST has been a rare show that allows those able to pick up on its Christian symbolism to appreciate it on a deeper level than the average viewer. Some of those symbols are writ in neon and some in postscripts (ask Christian fans about the thrill they experienced when the character Charlotte Staples Lewis—ahem, C.S. Lewis—arrived on the scene), but they are an ever-present, ever-developing feature of the story (Basham).

What NOT to do in a broadcast

I realize it's been a while since I've updated. Some intelligent thoughts (and some less intelligent) coming soon. I'm snowed in with my thesis. For now:

Tales from DC: Lede Writing Exercise

An exchange from a recent lede writing exercise in class. The exercise was based on a Denzel Washington press conference for the movie "The Book of Eli:"

Student: Alright, here's my lede. "Life...is a journey, said Denzel Washington in a press conference held--
Greg: Wait! Here's an even better one: "Life...is a highway."

(laughter)

Different student: And Denzel would ride it all night long.

GopherLink! An fascinating WPost piece on a woman's encounter with Jehovah's Witness life. I must say the experience isn't atypical. Read it here.

The World's Most Generic News Report

I think you could teach all you need to know about TV new reports just using this single clip from Newswipe:

LOST's Last Supper

The last season of LOST starts tonight and it seems worthwhile to examine the bizarre promotional pictures they put out in preparation for the show. The picture above is a very obvious recreation of Leonardo Da Vinci's "Last Supper." (Psst! Da Vinci Code readers: check out the "V" between Kate and Locke. Sacred Feminine? Is Kate Mary Magdalene?!)

For those who aren't familiar with the show, LOST is a show about err...everything. It started with a plane crash where a bunch of people of broken pasts end up on a Mysterious Island together (for Mysterious Island, read: there are Smoke Monsters/Giant Polar Bears/Weird Time Travelling Occurances/People rise from the dead/Cancer and paralysis gets healed/People have pregnancy problems/the beer is subpar). On this island, some find redemption and some become a bit more broken.

The guy center, Locke (a play on the philosopher), was a cripple who ended up walking when he reached the island. Locke, throughout the story, has been one of two or three characters with which the faith conversations take place. And similar to Locke, many of the other characters have names that reveal something of who they are, what is symbolized with them. At one point, we had a character named Charlotte S. Lewis (C.S. Lewis) and there's of course Christian Shephard (who died, but the rose from the dead? His son Jack, who is to the right of Locke, finds the coffin empty). Numerous other characters have similar intertextual references.

LOST is no stranger to religion. Throughout the show they've frequently used explicit Judeo-Christian narratives (Locke possibly rising from the dead, the empty coffin of Christian Shephard, and the frequent Faith Vs. Science arguements between Locke and Jack). The show understands faith and understands how to get people talking about faith. And here's some interesting thoughts on what can be gleaned from the photo above. This was on the MTV comments board:

There's a lot to analyze with an image like this. Few things to keep in mind: This supper was held before one of Jesus' 12 apostles in the Da Vinci painting betrayed him. This scene is also told via the Gospel of John. I'm surprised you didn't cover who they represented. From left to right: Bartholomew (Illana), James (Richard), Andrew (Miles), Judas (Sayid), Peter (Kate), John (Sawyer), Jesus (Locke or Flocke), Thomas (Jack), James the Greater (Sun), Phillip (Claire), Matthew (Ben), Jude

Thaddeus (Hurley)....wait. While searching for a higher res version of this photo...I found an ALTERNATE version. Hmm. Here is what's worth discussing: Will Sayid be the Judas to F/Locke's Jesus? Jack is in the spot of Thomas, who is known for doubting Jesus' resurrection.

It's been hard to avoid coverage of the promotional photo for the last season, which starts next week. It's a re-creation of Da Vinci's Last Supper with Lost characters substituting the 12 disciples. Some of the coverage has been a bit ignorant (Entertainment Weekly, I'm looking at you), where the author tried to explain a religious doctrine he clearly didn't understand.

Tales from DC: AIDS joke at Church

At Church this Sunday: my wife introduces me and a mutual friend to two pre-school teachers we've just met. 

Pre-School Teacher: "Your names are Roger and Mimi? Oh! Just like Rent."
Mimi: "Except that my husband's name is Greg. And we don't live in New York."
Me: "...and we don't have AIDS."

No laughs. Wrong forum for jokes about AIDS? Too soon?

An Al Khan Comic

 

From the Daily News Egypt, an independent daily newspaper in English.

Islam Viewed Disfavorably in U.S.

Surprise, surprise. American's have an unfavorable impression of Islam according to a recent Gallup poll. The feeling is fairly mutual according to a book last summer that notes that a high percentage of Muslims don't care for the United States. That book was also based on a Gallup poll. Here's the story on the new poll of Americans by the Salt Lake Tribune:

Washington » A majority of Americans have an unfavorable impression of Islam, alone among major religions, a new poll finds.

The survey by the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies found 53 percent of Americans view Islam unfavorably compared with 42 percent who view the religion favorably. Majorities view other major religions favorably: 91 percent for Christianity, 71 percent for Judaism and 58 percent for Buddhism.

What Comprises Blasphemy in Islam?

I think it's difficult for Western audiences to comprehend what constitutes blasphemy in Islam. I say that fully aware that I am not completely sure. At the conference I was at on Islam and the Media, I saw several discussions of Islam in the media which caused a massive reaction. Everyone remembers the Danish cartoons, but a recent one that got less coverage (because there were no death threats), was the outrage against the Playstation 3 Game "Little Big Planet."

The controversy about the game is over the game's soundtrack. A Grammy-award winning Islamic musician included Quranic verses in one of the songs. There was such outrage in Britain that they had to recall the game, take the song out and re-release it.

Millions of copies of Little Big Planet have been withdrawn from warehouses after lines from the Koran were found to be included in the accompanying music.

The game, which was due out on Friday, will now be re-programmed without the offending song – a track by Mali-born singer Toumani Diabate that contains two lines from the Islamic holy book.

So what constitutes blasphemy in Islam and why aren't we sensitive to it? What is it about Western society that makes us numb?

GopherLink! An interesting post from an alum of the program I work for on how the Haiti disaster was mediated. Read it here.

GopherLink! How do Muslims interact on the internet? Dr. Gary Bunt's wildly complex diagram here.

"The Arab"

The Coverage and Representations of The Arab in Western Media

This is a street ethnography performed in late 2009 in partnership with Amy Johnson of Georgetown University's Islamic Studies Department.

Part One

Part Two

Effects of New Media on Islam

How would you like to get an e-card with a Hamas suicide bomber's biography and final video on it?

Yeah. They make those.

I'm currently at the "International Islam and the Media Conference" at the University of Colorado-Boulder. Some interesting papers were presented today on the subject of how new media affects Islam. I think it would be hard to argue, in our digital age, that new media does NOT affect religion; but the way in which it occurs is particularly fascinating.

(1) New Media allows for Islamic discourse. In a study presented by Daniela Schlicht, she examined the German Facebook equivalent "StudiVZ" for it's discussion boards on Islam. On most, she found that participants generally came from two different groups: the "hyphen" Muslims and religious Muslims.

The "hyphen" Muslims she described as secular in terms of most practices. Islam is simply how they were raised and the customs they follow. They would identify themselves with a hyphen i.e. "I'm a German-Muslim." Then of course on the other side are the religious Muslims (don't misread automatically as "conservative" Muslims--although many are).

She noted that on the discussion boards, the debates have come out for centuries in Islamic thought, are at the for front. "Is Islam compatible with secular citizenship?" and visa versa, "Is secular citizenship compatible with Islam?" Debates about Muslim education also take place here. Typically, the religious Muslims will demand that the debate take place using religious texts and religious scholars while secular Muslims will demand that the debate take place using secular texts (Freud, Kafka, etc.) This dichotomy is problematic to actually providing resolve, but what is more interesting is that this debate is perhaps less likely to have occurred without new media.

People generally fall into groups with people of matching worldviews, but StudiVZ's discussion boards allow for Muslims of different worldviews to have genuine conversation.

(2) New Media perpetuates extremism. Hamas has a website which also looks similar to Facebook. But instead of other members of society, the networking site is filled with martyrs (suicide bombers). On each martyr's page, there are: pictures of him/her usually in the typical iconic stance--in front of a Hamas flag, holding gun, staring off at the paradise that awaits them; the final video in which the martyr reasons why he/she will perform the bombing; and a praise-filled biography. And yes, you can send the pages as e-cards to friends.

What makes the site so disturbing is the degree to which it proliferates. More and more martyrs continue to be added. One in particular is a mom (totting an AK-47) holding her child (holding a grenade). The argument noted that by placing the martyr on this website he becomes immortal. The deed is always imminent.

And the story perpetuates itself. Each Hamas martyr now films the same kind of video with the same iconic pictures (flag, gun, distant gaze).

But it should also be noted that the examples mentioned here are from the Arabic site. And there is a difference between the Arabic and English site. The Arabic site shows just what was mentioned above. On the English site, the martyrs are defined as those killed by Israeli soldiers.

GopherLink! Is sports the last bastion of American society where talent is required for celebrity? I'd argue that maybe academia too, but you can hardly professors "celebrities"...

GopherLink! This is a firestorm waiting to happen: former lesbian mom with artificially inseminated child refuses to give child to former partner after going straight.