What Cameras Mean

My friend Dan is planning on making a documentary about the American perception of poverty in Africa. He's planning on interviewing many high-ranking officials and intellectuals in America and Africa and getting their perspective of what is really at the root of the issue of poverty. On his list are authors like Thomas L. Friedman and men like Desmond Tutu. When asked how he's going to get these interviews, he said plainly "You can do anything with a video camera."

This got me thinking about what a camera means in today's world. In the book Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman talks about what seeing things through a camera lens does to our perception of things - versus learning about things through print.

In crime dramas, you always know the suspect is in trouble when they are taken into interrogation room and they remark suspiciously "There are no cameras in here."

To my friend Dan cameras represent power. People let him interview them - people who wouldn't let him otherwise - because the camera represents the possibility that whatever they say into the camera will go past Dan and be communicated to countless other people, to an audience of infinite number.

To the suspect being interrogated, cameras represent accountability. Whatever happens in that room will be seen by someone else - someone who might be able to give that information to someone who could help him if something goes wrong. In this situation, the camera provides a sense of comfort.

89.1 FM, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways...

89.1 The Wood FM radio is the college station of Lindenwood University in St. Charles, which is about 20 minutes west of St. Louis county. I love this station in so many ways I cannot count them. The station is phenomenal. You can find a list of their recent music (here) and what is currently playing (here). They do not, to my deep regret, have radio streaming online. It is very sad.

It is like they are playing a much cooler version of the music on my computer. Ah. I love them.

One more reason to add to the list is that I heard a great song on the station two days ago and couldn't find the title on the website and couldn't find the song through lyrics search on Google. So I emailed The Wood and the next day a dude emailed me back with the song title. They rock. In the email I was almost inappropriate in my effusive praise.

Well, the song is called "Wrestle with God" by Wild Sweet Orange. You can listen to it (here).

http://www.becker-posner-blog.com/archives/2007/12/events_field_an.html

Events, Field, and the Liberal Skew in Higher Education-Becker

Quiet City

I'm excited about this movie. It looks beautiful. The dialogue all seems like something that I would say.

Kickin it Las Vegas style

I picked up this little treasure at the Salvation Army across the street from our hotel in Marathon, Florida. In case you were wondering, it's a shirt. And yes, I will be wearing it all the time.

Coldplay and Barcelona

Sorry, I couldn't resist the awkward 90s band photo. Ouch.

This is kind of old news in the music world, but new for me. I found out in the American Airlines' music magazine that Coldplay's new album (rumored to be called Prospekt) is being recorded (with the help of Brian Eno) in various churches around Barcelona. My brother Clay and his wife Liz live there, so it's extra cool. I love me some Coldplay.

Reading: The Golden Compass

There's not much else to do on family trips than read by the pool and reject invitations to get in the pool by my nieces and nephew. And get a little Sun-In crazy (I haven't been this blonde since Allie messed up my highlights two years ago and I had a solid spot of yellow on the top of my head). Anyways, I was really proud of myself for reading the 400-page The Golden Compass in like 4 days until I talked to Kara who packed away a 1,000-pager (The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follet) in about the same time. Whatever, she was an English major.

So, I read The Golden Compass because of the movie, of course. I haven't yet seen the movie, I was pissed at all the hubbub about Christians boycotting it (mostly on Facebook from what I've seen) and I will definitely see it. Also, I was intrigued because I had heard that it was the Atheists' response to The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis. I wasn't going to check it out until multiple friends had read them (there's three in the series) and loved them. Also, Wampler (my campus ministry leader at Mizzou) loved it - or rather, loved the first one and thought they went downhill in quality for the last two.

The book reminded me a lot of Harry Potter in the style of writing and because it centered around one "chosen" child growing up not knowing who they really are and going on adventures and who will eventually save the world. As far as the Atheist undertones, the only clear way this came out was that none of the characters were completely honorable or completely dishonorable. In the beginning the Master of Jordan College (who had been taking care of Lyra - the main character - since she was little) tried to poison Lyra's Uncle Asriel (who's Lyra's only blood and very cool). What?? The Master must be evil, right? Well, no, not exactly. Later on it looks in on a conversation between the Master and his colleague and he did it only because he was afraid because of what Uncle Asriel was up to and thought it was the right thing to do. So do you hate him or not? Pretty much all of the characters are like this - in fact, I was a little annoyed by Lyra sometimes.

But having complicated characters is realistic, right? And also a sign of good writing, I think. However, it seemed like there was less of a possibility of there actually being a right answer, like the right thing to do. Everything was confusing. Overall, it was an interesting and entertaining book and kind of reminded me of The DaVinci Code in some ways, but I don't know why. Maybe because I felt like I had to finish it even after I got bored.