Notes on episode 8

Notes on episode 8

by paul bond

| Syndicated
August 27, 2014

This episode features Omar’s haunting whistle again. I like the effect better this time – the slight echo, the dark, empty street – and the episode’s epigraph is delivered at the end Daniels explains to his wife the problem inherent … Continue reading →
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Parallels in episode 7

by paul bond

| Syndicated
August 24, 2014

Episode 7 starts out with another parallel. The opening scene discusses the coded message from the wiretap, then the epigraph at the end of the credit sequence reads, “A man must have a code.” Bunk says the line in … Continue reading →
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Subliminal messages

by paul bond

| Syndicated
August 20, 2014

Episode 6 opens with Brandon’s tortured corpse sprawled across the hood of a car, for everyone in the projects to see. His death is the central point to the episode. It closes with a repeat of the image, in the … Continue reading →
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Reflections on episode 5

by paul bond

| Syndicated
August 19, 2014

I wrote a little about the use of mirrors last time around. We see some more in episode 5. The opening scene shows Avon Barksdale in the apartment of one of his girlfriends. We see him and his reflection divided … Continue reading →
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Notes on episode 4

by paul bond

| Syndicated
August 18, 2014

In the commentary for the first episode of The Wire, David Simon said they used CGI special effects to put the towers in behind the low-rises, because they had been torn down a few years earlier. I thought of that … Continue reading →
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Switch the soundtrack

by paul bond

| Syndicated
August 14, 2014

There was this one scene is episode 3 of The Wire where the camera pans across Rawls foot up on his desk. I saw that and thought of Dean Wormer from Animal House and his famous speech about putting his … Continue reading →
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Episode 3 sights and sounds

by paul bond

| Syndicated
August 14, 2014

Recurring themes We’ve seen several shots of surveillance so far. Here’s one of the monitor in the office in Orlando’s. It’s only visible for a few frames as D’Angelo walks by, but it caught my attention as an example … Continue reading →
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Every picture tells a story

by paul bond

| Syndicated
August 13, 2014

Composition The first thing I notice in the second episode is symmetry. Gant’s body is in the center. The camera moves, but mostly maintains an imperfect bilateral symmetry. The imperfections and imbalances are important, because otherwise the composition would appear … Continue reading →
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Some opening salvos

by paul bond

| Syndicated
August 12, 2014

Here are a few thoughts on some shots from the opening episode of The Wire. Design I love this shot. the two characters are framed in the restaurant window, with “burger” in neon above Wee Bey and “chicken” above D’Angelo. … Continue reading →
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String doing his thing

by paul bond

| Syndicated
August 9, 2014

This scene from The Wire caught my eye from a design and photography standpoint. There’s an interesting color contrast going on between the reddish tones of Stringer’s shirt and tie and the greenish background. Red and green are what is … Continue reading →
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Information concepts

by paul bond

| Syndicated
July 17, 2014

I’ve been thinking about the new Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education (PDF). I was never a big fan of the current ACRL Standards, mainly because I find them too unwieldy – 5 standards, 22 performance indicators, 71 outcomes, … Continue reading →
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To boldly go where Neil Young has gone before

by paul bond

| Syndicated
June 25, 2014

Another session of The Internet Course has wrapped up. We had to work this one a bit differently. We only had five weeks, a third of the time, and we only had one fourth of the people. So it was … Continue reading →
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Cloudy, with a chance of vectors

by paul bond

| Syndicated
June 24, 2014

Early on in the Thought Vectors experience someone whose name I don’t remember wordled Vannevar Bush’s As We May Think. I do remember that I thought it was interesting to muse upon what you could pull out of the word … Continue reading →
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Vectoring through concept symbiotics

by paul bond

| Syndicated
June 17, 2014

Vectors Once upon a time, way back in my undergrad days, Johnny D asked if I wanted to play some pool. “Dude, I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of times I’ve played pool.” “So what? … Continue reading →
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Your brain on the internet

by paul bond

| Syndicated
June 17, 2014

The communicator badge, the enhanced vision visor that Geordie LaForge wears, and the attached and embedded technology of the Borg are all examples of wearable computing, in a sense, but they also represent a continuum of connection. The badge is … Continue reading →
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Cartography

by paul bond

| Syndicated
June 16, 2014

I thought the map of the social impacts of the internet was a great project for The Internet Course. Here is the map: View Larger Map It serves as another awesome example of the benefits of putting the students in … Continue reading →
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Odd futures

by paul bond

| Syndicated
June 10, 2014

The Internet Society has a page of possible futures for the internet, not all positive. Something I find interesting about them is that they put these scenarios together in 2009, projecting ten years ahead. So we’re halfway between their vantage point … Continue reading →
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Impact mapping

by paul bond

| Syndicated
June 9, 2014

Jessi, of the illustrious Internet Course crew, suggested that we cover the impacts of the internet through a Google map. It seems counterintuitive to me – I think of the internet as the cloud, the ether, so geolocating its impacts would never have … Continue reading →
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Playing with HTML

by paul bond

| Syndicated
June 5, 2014

We’re playing with HTML in The Internet Course this week as a part of looking at how the internet works. I like doing this because it gets our hands dirty with what goes on in the background. It also ties … Continue reading →
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Blogging the internet

by paul bond

| Syndicated
June 4, 2014

I don’t blog enough. Somebody should do something about that. I might have to make that my blog’s slogan, since Jim puts me to shame. But he does that to everybody. Writing is a laborious process for me. I think … Continue reading →
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Inner Internet workings

by paul bond

| Syndicated
June 2, 2014

This week in The Internet Course we’ll be looking at how the internet works. The readings the class summarized cover a lot of different parts: infrastructure, IP addresses, DNS, TCP/IP, other protocols, email, browsers, ISPs. We could look at it … Continue reading →
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Looking down the well

by paul bond

| Syndicated
May 30, 2014

One of the things that caught my attention while poking around the Whole Earth ‘Lectronic Link was this statement on their timeline: The WELL presented its first users with the sole disclaimer: “You Own Your Own Words.” I thought that … Continue reading →
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Chalk talk

by paul bond

| Syndicated
May 28, 2014

I looked over Jim’s collection of chalkboard shots, and thought a little about each one. In the 70s, we see conditions developing – protocols (like FTP), applications (email, games), and personal computers (Apple II). These things are setting the stage … Continue reading →
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On to week two

by paul bond

| Syndicated
May 26, 2014

This week we start looking where the Internet comes from. The class has put together a good collection of readings and summarized them. In addition to that, we’ve read Hafner and Lyon’s Where the Wizards Stay Up Late, Kevin Hughes’ … Continue reading →
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Wizards

by paul bond

| Syndicated
May 23, 2014

I saw this movie when I was a kid. I don’t remember anything about it, so it may not even be relevant, but the title fits. So there. There were a few passages from Where the Wizards Stay Up Late … Continue reading →
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Summaries so far

by paul bond

| Syndicated
May 22, 2014

The summaries I’ve skimmed through so far have been quite good. It’s interesting to consider the connections between them. The past and the future of the internet exist on a continuum rather than as two separate things, as Kim suggests. … Continue reading →
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Reading research

by paul bond

| Syndicated
May 21, 2014

I have to say Bravo! to the class for their research so far. I was concerned that people would pull things from content farms, but so far almost everything has been serious academic research. There are pros and cons to … Continue reading →
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Crime online

by paul bond

| Syndicated
May 21, 2014

When we were brainstorming ideas for The Internet Course, someone mentioned crime as one of the impacts. The truecrimers among us were very pleased. Criminology has produced plenty of research on cybercrime. Another way to find out about it is … Continue reading →
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Summary examples

by paul bond

| Syndicated
May 20, 2014

Here are some examples of article summaries. Author names have been omitted. A good summary should give readers a clear idea of what an article is about, what arguments it makes and what conclusions is reaches. The point of summarizing … Continue reading →
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The Internet Strikes Back

by paul bond

| Syndicated
May 18, 2014

Tomorrow starts the second session of The Internet Course. But instead of the leisurely twice-a-week over 15 weeks, 75-minute class pace of the Spring session, we’re doing two hours a day, four days straight every week for five weeks. “Heading … Continue reading →
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