Sunday, February 25, 2007


Two couples sitting on benches talking at what appears to be a city park in Amman, Jordan. The couples are both dressed very traditionally for the Middle East; the women are both dressed very conservatively with head scarves. The woman on the right is dressed in the more old-fashioned long dress, while the woman on the left is more modern wearing pants and a shirt, both of them however are wearing open-toed shoes which is not very common with women who wear head dresses.
The New York Times' Screens blog features several different videos from YouTube, the popular free online video blogging web site. In last Wednesday's blog for example, Virginia Heffernan (the author of Screens), discusses Hillary Rodham Clinton's online video blogging.
The site is relatively simple, it's a part of the New York Times web site under the Arts section. It has a white background with visible and clear black font. The author occasionally plays around with font shape and style but she doesn't stray too far from the norm. the simplicity and clarity of the web site is understandable due to the fact that there is a need for it to appeal to a wide range of readers, I can't begin to imagine how many people read the New York Times and visit the web site each day. If it was a more specific blog site with a smaller audience with a certain focal point, the author would have more room to experiment and play around with it. In addition, the subject matter is not all that colorful or out there. The most recent blog was not interesting to me in the least bit. That is mostly because I did not know who Rick Rubin and Ray Stevens are, and she fails to provide any background information or explanation as to the subject matter at hand. She seems to be running on the assumption that her readers will know what she's talking about, and maybe her audience will, I don't know what kind of people read her blogs. She does have some interesting YouTube videos on the blog site from time to time. I found the blog about Hillary Clinton very interesting.
She does, however, incorporate a lot of Videos and pictures in her writings, thereby taking full advantage of the things that the new age of internet has allowed writers to do, and she has an appealing wit and edge to her writing.

Sunday, February 18, 2007

Observational Essay: Gangster Rap Ballet

Luc, one of my friends, and I crossed the street, and started walking up the stairs towards the Skate City’s double doors. “Dang, there’s a lot of people here tonight, I’ve never seen the parking lot this full, they must be packed.” he says as he holds the door open for me. I step out of the cold and into the warm sweaty air of Aurora’s Skate City. I look around me and feel as if I’ve stepped back a few decades, the rink looks like it came straight out of the disco era, neon lights, disco ball, the works; the only difference is people are skating to the rhythm of Young Joc spilling out of the speakers rather than ABBA.














We walk in and towards the Deejay booth, Luc introduces me to Bobby, a stout 30-something year old in a red shirt and a shiny gangster-like medallion around his neck, and Kevin, a tall broad-shouldered guy in an orange flannel shirt. Bobby nods at me and continues to go about his business while Kevin shakes my hand inviting me to come sit in the Deejay booth so I can ask him questions. He has a very welcoming and charming air about him.

This winter has been especially frigid, seven storms in seven weeks means excellent business for the owner’s of the skating rink. I talk to Bobby, one of the two Deejays working, just as Luc predicted, tonight’s been one of their busiest nights ever, and he’s right, its very busy. The rink is packed, a full house of 230 people, just one person short of their all-time record high. I learn they have adult skating sessions, for people 21 years old and up, every Sunday night from 6:30 to 9:30, which usually average about 180 people.

Sitting in the Deejay booth I feel awfully important, I do have the best seat in the house after all. The people flying by create a cool breeze, a nice refresher from Skate City’s thick musky air. From my throne I can see everyone skating by ever so gracefully, as if floating on air. Couples skate by, holding each other close, dancing to the slow romantic songs. Packs of people skate by, bobbing, bouncing and kicking, all on the same beats, all together, perfectly synchronized. In the middle of the rink there are a few skaters standing in a circle, they are the “best of the best”, they show off their moves, and learn new ones. They move with such fluidity; twirling, hopping, and kicking their skates out like it’s what they were born to do. As I watch them, a smaller guy steps into the circle, he starts off slow and eventually gets more into it, all of a sudden he stops dancing and throws his body into the air, tucks in while doing a 360 degree flip, and lands, perfectly. He just did a standing back tuck, on skates. The rink breaks out in applause. I am shocked. I can do a back tuck; I used to be a gymnast, but not a standing back tuck, and definitely not a standing back tuck on wheels.

The people at skate city are much unlike the image I was expecting, that is, one of bunches of children awkwardly trekking by, falling over every few strides. Not here though, everyone knows what they’re doing, according to Bobby, “You don’t show up if you don’t know what you’re doing.” I can definitely see why, this would be extremely intimidating to a new skater such as myself.

“ I could never skate here.” I said to Kevin, the other Deejay. “Nah, you’d be fine. We’re like a big family here, most of the people have been coming for so long that we all know each other, I look around and I don’t think there’s a single person in this rink I don’t know. We have people of all ages, all professions, and from all sorts of different backgrounds,” he said pointing to Mike. Mike, a frail bald old man, is their oldest regular. At a whopping 61 years old, Mike has been Skating for over 30 years and is still very much capable of keeping up with the skaters half his age.

As Kevin and Mike started reminiscing about the good old days with Skate City, a girl fell skating on the rink, instantly sending people jumping out of her way. Many stopped to help her up, and even more skated by her, checking to see if she was ok. Kevin looked at me and said, “ I started organized adult and hip hop skating in Denver about 20 years ago when I moved from Kansas City, we started out in Littleton, but the community didn’t want us there, so we got shut down. It attracted a lot of black people and we were in a predominantly white neighborhood. I can understand why they were worried, but we take a lot of security measures, we have police officers patrolling the area and two or three officers on weekend inside the rink.”





The sense of community is obvious; it’s all around. Everyone seems to know everyone. Numerous people also pick up on the fact that I’m an outsider, they skate up to me and ask why I’m not skating. I try to explain that not only am I incapable of skating in the first place, but am also sore and aching from the car accident I was just in. Kevin shoos the people trying to flirt with me away, “They all use the same lines, I don’t know why they can’t be a little more creative.” He explains apologetically.

Kevin spins the tunes for adult skating every Sunday night; he is occasionally relieved by Bobby to hit the rink. When he does it’s amazing, he stands tall at 6-foot-4 with his skates on, the grace with which he moves seems surprisingly out of place in relation to the hard-core gangster rap he’s skating to. Luc leans over and says, “It’s like a gangster rap ballet isn’t it?” I pause for a moment and realize that’s exactly what it is, it’s something that’s happening all over the country, it’s beautiful, graceful, creative and in everyway unique.

Sunday, February 11, 2007

Randomly Selected Words

Advantage, barricade, coexist, digression, electoral, frame, genome, horticulture, integration, knish, ledger, maniacal, neutralize, overhang, pedicab, quadrennium, raucously, salutatorian, tiresome, uric, venerable, whelp, xeric, yiddish and zouave.

Randomly Selected Words.

Advantage Rent A Car Discount Rental Cars Cheap Car Rentals Car Hire and Car Rentals In Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Houston, Dallas Texas, Phoenix, and Seattle. Welcome to National Barricade. Celebrating over 54 years of service from 1951-2005. Every letter has a symbol that represents a system of thought: The crescent and star for Islam; the pentagram for Wicca; the relativity formula for science; the star of David for Judaism; the Karma Wheel dotting the i for Buddhism; the Tao symbol for Taoism; the cross for Chrisitianity. This post is going to mean absolutely nothing to people who don’t play World of Warcraft, so I give you fair warning. The half-dozen or so people who don’t play the game can stop reading whenever their interest wanes. Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) is officially in the race for President now. HTML frames allow authors to present documents in multiple views, which may be independent windows or subwindows. At a recent roundtable discussion on cancer prevention that included NHGRI Director Francis Collins, M.D., Ph.D., President George W. Bush urged Congress to pass legislation to protect Americans from having their genetic information about cancer and other diseases used against them in health insurance or employment. Many of us love to grow our own vegetables because it is easy, cost effective and offers a high degree of satisfaction. One of the fastest-growing fabless semiconductor companies in Silicon Valley, Integration Associates designs and delivers tested wafers and packaged ICs for RF, Infrared, Modem, and Power Management applications for systems from notebook computers to communications networks. Momma's Knishes takes you there. With all the debate about the increase of American troops in Iraq, Lila Harmon of Winter Haven has a surge of her own going on with a son, a daughter and a son-in-law all soldiers and all notified they will be going to Iraq. Due to me being sick last week and general busyness, episode 17 of the podcast is going to be a little late. Our full service search engine optimisation packages ensure indexability and maximum visibility within algorithmic search engines. A measure of the potential dilution to which a common stock's existing shareholders are exposed due to the potential that stock-based compensation will be awarded to executives, directors or key employees of the company. Main Street Pedicabs has been perfecting the design of human powered pedal vehicles since 1992. A period of four years. As a petty thief turned aspiring actor and detective in Shane Black's raucously entertaining "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang," Robert Downey Jr. is on screen almost all the time, which is good news, since few performers can hold the screen as well. Salutatorian speech template including 10 speech topics, and tips for the graduating student with the second highest academic rank. Joseph Wade -- the detective covering the theft of an $11,000 Château Pétrus and other expensive wines from the cellar of an Atherton home -- is also working on a case in nearby East Palo Alto, Silicon Valley's most impoverished and dangerous neighborhood. The uric acid test is used to learn whether the body might be breaking down cells too quickly or not getting rid of uric acid quickly enough. Venerable Music is an internet based business dedicated to promoting and preserving all kinds of music recorded in or by artists active in the 78rpm era. Providing quality obstetrical and whelping productsand services to the veterinary community since 1997. The Foundation offers financial assistance to committed, self-publishing comic book creators and qualified charitable and nonprofit organizations. Oy, am I schvitzing. (note: the ending"ing" is an English ending, in Yiddish: I shvits, you shvitst, he/sheshvitst, we/they shvitsn, you in plural shvitsn, you in polite versionshvitst. The uniform of the 5th New York Volunteer Infantry (Duryée's Zouaves), 1861, consisted of a distinctive jacket, vest, sash, baggy trousers, and fez.

Jam Skating

Jam Skating is… dancing on skates? Exactly. According to the Urban Dictionary Jam Skating is an art form derived from artistic skating in which a person or group of people perform various tricks, stylish moves, and other visual displays to entertain an audience or compete in a jam skating event.




In my research, I found many websites on the matter, only strengthening that this is not as uncommon as one would think. According to Roller Skating Association International, the sport developed thirty years ago along with the roller disco fad.
For most people, roller skating is something you did at birthday parties growing up, and maybe on occasion with your own kids. What most people don’t realize is that this is something people do, and on a regular basis too.
I plan on learning the rules of the game, and this secret roller skating society.

Some other websites i found helpful:
www.jamskating.com
www.jamskate.com
www.learntojamskate.net

Thursday, February 8, 2007

PostSecret

At first glimpse the PostSecret page comes off as plain, that's because it is, that's how they meant for it to be. The makers intended for the focus of the website to be the pictures of the postcards and nothing else. The blank black background and the simple fonts chosen draw the attention of the reader away from the surrounding and to the true intention and purpose of the website; the secrets. The site also has a bit of darkness to it, a sense of secrecy and security, as if it was hidden and unknown. While the simplicity of the colors of the fonts allow for the site to stray away from any sort of wildness, thereby drawing in and appealing to a larger audience. Not to mention the fact that the writing is all perfectly legible.
The focus of the website is the people, and their secrets. The postcards are all displayed plainly with no text surrounding them explaining or pertaining to them. This is probably because, for the most part, the post cards are very much self explanatory. When they are not, they are left ambiguous because the people sending them meant for them to be that way.
There are no subcategories to the site, just a string of pictures, one after another in one long column. To the side of the column there are a couple of links but they all lead to different points on the same page, so there’s no type of progression between different pages. Towards the end of the page there are a couple of uplifting reader stories and successes in conquering their depression. There are also a few links to information about different book signings and some background information on Frank Warren, the author’s, PostSecret Books.
The site can definitely be very eye-catching at times, depending on the secrets of the week. The most vivid and dramatic secrets are usually posted at the top, being the first thing you see when you go to the site, they serve the obvious purpose of the attention-grabber, drawing the reader in and keeping them there until the very end. Many a time I’ve found myself getting to the end and thinking “That’s it?”; the site just has a way of becoming very addictive, once you’ve had a taste you just want more. In more ways than one the site is definitely a very successful one; it has established a solid reader base. The website has also lead to more successes for Frank Warren; he has published several books, the profit of which all goes to Hope, the suicide helpline, as well as raising awareness about depression and allowing for the aid of people in need of it.

Thursday, February 1, 2007

Spill Your Soul Today!

Spending hours upon hours in front of a computer screen, or any kind of screen to that matter, is not often an activity I choose to engage in. This is largely due to the fact that I lack the time, energy and attention span to do so on a somewhat regular basis. However the single website I have found myself frequenting quite often is the PostSecret homepage. The idea behind this website is ideal for the modern American culture in which there are limited personal connections and honest interactions between people. The concept is simple, people create 4-by-6-inch postcards out of any mailable material containing their deepest darkest secrets and mail them to the people at PostSecret. The people at PostSecret look through them and post a new batch of chosen secrets every Sunday.
Its an interesting phenmenon behind the appeal of this site, everyone wants to know secrets, everyone wants to know the latest dish, everyone wants to laugh at people pathetic, creepy, and depressing secrets and also let a couple of things off their own chests. PostSecret offers all that in addition to the factor of anonymity, a safe medium for people to say whatever they want to, to whoever they want to, without being exposed. It has created an intriguing web-based porthole into the secret lives of the people we work and live with that seems to have grasped onto the public eye without any intent of letting go any time soon.
In addition to the site's success on the web, Frank Warren, the establishor of the site, has also had numerous successes in his book publishings of the secrets sent. There are 3 PostSecret books so far, in addition to an expected several more to come. His books are available just about everywhere books are sold.