Do you listen to music, really?
When was the last time you listened to a CD? If your in the majority, its probably been awhile, and your CD collection has been taking a back seat to your easily accessible and ultra portable Ipod or MP3 player, the major music medium of this generation.
Portability’s great, 40,000s songs on one device is great, and Ipods are great too, but please recognize that these systems have serious limitations. Its not that I don’t like Ipods filled with MP3s – I own one and use it almost everyday – its just that I think people don’t realize what their loosing by listening to MP3s.
The average MP3 today has a bit-rate of around 160 Kbps. Thats fine for the car and most headphones, but what about music in your home? What about when you really want to experience a band for the first time, really hear the sound the way the artist intended. Its for situations that keep me holding onto a couple treasured CDs. Why a CD? Because they have bit-rates of over 1400 kbps, significantly higher than your average MP3. A higher bit-rate means a crisper, smoother, sexier sound.
From now on MP3s are for driving and headphones, and CDs or better compressed files will before home listening? Total and unanimous agreement? Yeah right, as if thats going to happen. I don’t even know anyone who has a stereo anymore, let alone someone who listens to music on its own. Im told there was a time when friends would gather round a pair of stereo speakers and just sit and listen; really taking in an album. Music today has been functionally displaced, used to supplement what we’re doing, as it alone isn’t enough to hold our attention. I find that kind of sad, yet I suppose its just reality.
Even the content of music today reflects how we are intended to use it. I doubt I’d get much more from Madonna’s ‘4 Minutes’ listening to it intently rather than it just serving as background filler. The same goes for many of the popular artists of day.
I recognize there are many exceptions, and I know that pop music hardly represents all thats popular. But gone, I think, are days when artists like Simon and Garfunkel, Bob Dylan, and John Lennon dominated the charts, speaking not about “having wha chu want,” but about what changes we needed to make in our society, and how by working together we could really make a difference. I wonder if they thought their songs would have more of an impact, because I don’t think this is what they intended.
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Lack of Posts
For whatever reason I decided to start this blog a few days into exam season and have really felt the effects of that decision.
I’m hoping for two regular blog posts each week, with hopefully some interesting discussion in the comments section.
A number of people did actually comment on the ‘100 Things’ to do in my life post. I’m hoping that in future more controversial posts more feel free to comment directly in the comment section so others can see.
Tomorrow I’ll be writing about a topic close to my heart, which I had hoped to podcast about weeks earlier: The state of Digital Music.
Later in the week I hope to write what will be one of my more polarizing blog posts, a review of the politics of Barack Obama.
Same Bat time, same Bat channel.
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100 Life Goals
A couple of years ago I had a conversation with a mentor of mine. He told me a story about man who’d written one hundred things he wanted to accomplish in the span of his life. For whatever reason thi idea has stuck with me, and making this list has been on my list of things to do for quite sometime.
These goals aren’t written any order, and while some are certainly more important than others, they are all important to me. The man in the story was able to cross off every one of his one hundred goals. I’m not sure how many of these I’ll be able to cross off before I die, or how many more lists of one hundred goals I’ll have to make, but I can say I’m glad to have made this list, and even if a single one never happens, I feel I’ve lead a rich and rewarding life. I guess I just hope I live long enough for #12…
100 Life Goals:
1. Work on a big budget movie.
2. Act in a play.
3. Speak to an audience of 5000.
4. Dress in a suit for work.
5. Visit Italy in a slow, savory way.
6. Get married.
7. Snorkel with tropical fish.
8. Go Surfing.
9. Grow my own vegetables.
10. Make Sushi.
11. Visit Mississippi.
12. Have a really really awesome honeymoon.
13. Go to a hockey game.
14. Play golf with Dan Kraemer.
15. Shoot a machine gun.
16. Visit a winery.
17. Stay at a monastery.
18. Eat sushi in Japan with Libby.
19. See the pyramids.
20. Visit Texas.
21. Make Thanksgiving dinner.
22. Shoot video that plays on the news.
23. See a U2 Concert.
24. Have the best wedding video slideshow ever.
25. Plant a tree.
26. Meet a famous director.
27. See a movie at Gruaman’s chinese theater.
28. Go skinny dipping with my wife.
29. Name my son Jackson.
30. Be named head of a committee or organization.
31. Work on a computer game.
32. Appear on a late show.
33. Write a story that becomes a movie or a book.
34. Make a useful invention.
35. Be cited by a textbook.
36. Surprise my wife with a vacation.
37. Go to Hawaii.
38. Paint Purple palm trees behind my flat-screen TV.
39. Own a great TV.
40. Have an impressive sound system.
41. Have an impressive song collection.
42. Pay for a large group of people at a restaurant.
43. Stay in a vineyard in a sleeping bag.
44. Stay in a penthouse
45. Teach my children about movies.
46. Have a weekly movie club.
47. Appear on a TV show.
48. Be somebody’s boss.
49. Play an incredible and elaborate prank on somebody.
50. Be paid for my knowledge about technology.
51. Have a website.
52. Help someone in who is in dire need.
53. Share my faith with a group of non-Christians.
54. Go to a Michael Jackson concert.
55. Take a picture with the Hollywood sign.
56. Pray for my Wife, Children, and Grandchildren.
57. Play paint ball with my Dad.
58. Work for NBC.
59. Intern for a cool company in my field.
60. Help make a documentary.
61. Take professional grade pictures.
62. Run a marathon.
63. Graduate from College.
64. Be the best man at a wedding.
65. Get my masters degree.
66. Fish in a tropical sea.
67. DJ a party.
68. Give someone a really nice but anonymous gift.
69. Have a big Godfather Italian pasta night with all my guy friends.
70. Have a great and surprising stag party where Im able to tell all of my best friends how much they mean to me, and how they have helped contribute to who I am today.
71. Have large printouts of pictures I’ve take all around my home.
72. Go on a missions trip to Africa.
73. Go on a missions trip to South America.
74. Go on a big adventure with my wife to another part of the world, for work and for pleasure.
75. Visit the Eastern Side of Canada.
76. Speak just a little french in Quebec.
77. Eat Pizza in New York.
78. Visit little Italy in New York.
79. See Conan Obrian on the Tonight show.
80. Take an amazing picture in Central Park.
81. Take a beautiful picture of my Wife that she agrees is beautiful.
82. Own my own High Definition video camera.
83. Own a newer Volkswagen.
84. Be a youth leader at a Church.
85. Sit at the head of a table with my Wife, Children and Grand children.
86. Pay for my Children to go to College, at least part of the way.
87. Own three properties.
88. Reach level 40 on Halo 3.
89. Teach my children about Video games.
90. Take my parents on a Vacation.
91. Be a supporting and enabling husband to my wife.
92. Remain friends with Matt, Dan, and Matthew and Noah, all my life.
93. Host a big family gathering.
94. Visit Israel.
95. Host a missionary.
96. Study the bible.
97. Have one daughter named Penny-Ann.
98. Take amazing pictures of my family.
99. Have been on every continent besides Antarctica.
100. Raise my family up in Christ, and follow his teachings, and listen to his call, all of my life.
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The Beginning
I like to communicate.
I’m pretty sure it probably stems from my emotional neediness. I don’t always do it well, concisely, or even with purpose, but believe me when I say I really like communication.
For me, this is a year of great change. In August I’ll graduate from Simon Fraser University with a Bachelors degree in Communications, bringing to end roughly 17 years of continuous education; although I really think it shouldn’t be, this is sometimes a scary thought. Secondly, and by far much more importantly, on August 9th of this year, I’ll have the privilege of marrying my high school Prom Queen, the gorgeous Libby Williams. This is a REALLY scary thought (but mostly just exciting and happy). My life is changing and school is ending, but I don’t want that to result in me never again writing a critical paper or voicing my opinion (my opinion is now Libby’s opinion).
I’m not the brightest kid in the class, dipping even as low as upper middle. So when I argue a point, it’s not always right. That said, I do try to ground my opinions in something, and I really do love to argue – I also have an opinion on everything.
I happen to know everything because I read lots. Everyday I read select articles from all of the sites in my blogroll, and sometimes a few of these articles make me think more than others. Movie news, technology, politics and entertainment. Some much more important than the others, but all fascinating to me.
Thus, out of my passion for communication, thirst for argument, and desire to produce and distribute my own voice, I’ve begun this BLOG and correlating PODCAST.
So I hope you check back a few times every hour. I’m pretty new at this, so things should get better. But even if they don’t, I hope to continue. Communication is really important to me, so I’m going to keep practicing.
Cheers,
-Adam Schellenberg
AGENDA Multimedia
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Below is a list of a few issues I hope to discuss in future Posts:
1. I want people to understand more about politics, where they stand on issues, and how government policy decisions will effect their lives. Probably the issue nobody knows about that I care about most is that of net neutrality. More about this in later posts.
2. I want people to understand their televisions, hook things up properly, and not pay way more than they have to. Otherwise they’re going to continue ruining their every movie experience and not even know it!
3. I want people to stop buying those small plastic Home-theater-in-a-box sets from Wal-mart. Those sets are junk, and people usually seem very unsatisfied with them. Its my hope, nay, my prayer, that people begin to realize they can buy incredible sound equipment from Craigslist for the same price.
4. Finally, and likely in vain, I want people to act more responsibly when it comes to the serious issue of watching movies. Far to often the market rewards the worst films with the greatest box office revenues. I’m not talking about your Spider-man 3’s, but more your Scary Movie’s and Saw films.
So there it is, in short, why I’m starting this blog. Be sure to check back a few times everyday for updates!
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