March 12, 2007
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Cultural Blender's Major Overhaul
COMING SOON: MAJOR OVERHAUL OF THE CULTURAL BLENDER WEBSITE
A Treatise based on the assumption that there is no cultural trend or reference used today that didn’t exist in another form either ten or twenty years ago, or ten or twenty minutes ago, and was copy/pasted into it’s present existence.
I have always called myself a “student of popular culture”. To offer a loose explanation: In my spare time, by the very act of existence, by watching tv, reading magazines, and buying every media software ever invented, (including quite a few that don’t exist anymore) I have “studied” all the popular cultural trends in American Society as they happen, and try to find an academic reason for why they react to history, or if history reacts those trends. When a cultural icon passes my frame of reference, I try to remember each in it’s social context and in chronological order. By doing this am trying to develop a view of society and culture by watching these trends, their impact, importance, and lasting effects. Most importantly, I wish to document my somewhat skewered personal beliefs and rants about society, and it’s somewhat sick sense of humor.
So, in the interest of purely academic bullsh*t, I have decided to write my master’s thesis on the subject of popular culture, from at least as far back as memory serves till yesterday, or whenever I decide to FTP a page or two to this site. This website will incorporate this “thesis”. The major point of the piece (this website) concerns, as the title suggests, the immersion of 21st century society with a popular culture based on advertising and entertainment, which changes as rapidly as technology, so arrives and departs much quicker as the years multiply. (And as I age.) Since most cultural “art” and “music” in the 21st century is copy/pasted from something that existed before in either that or another form, this has really started to get interesting. With the proliferation of “boomer nostalgia” sites on the internet, young people growing up today are discovering history and culture as more and more is remembered, unearthed, and documented.
All American Popular cultural icons carry equal weight in cyberspace. Most everything has it’s own cadre of websites, “fanzines” of another time created on a current medium for a current society.
This website, part of the ever growing AllThingsMike webhub linking the writing and art of Michael F. Nyiri, brings us Culture in a Blender, all in one place, in and out of context: entertainment and historical significance are equal here. Art and advertising exist like the flavorful ingredients of a fine elixer……an elixer created in the Cultural Blender.
So pick your button on the blender, or chop, blend or puree them all together
Original text from site commencement in Oct. 3, 2001
Although I spent most of the weekend in my media room on the computer, I rarely visited any of my sites, including Xanga, because I was immersed in the creation of my latest "MikeVideo Internet Movie", which I'm creating with my new Sony Vegas editing software, an "animation" based on the image above of "The Cultural Blender", one of my very first composites. So far, I've got only three minutes of "footage" but there will be more going on in this particular "movie" than even "ArtViews' which at ten minutes incorporates 270 visual and 90 audio elements.
The "movie" will be the first part of a major overhaul of the website, which I lamented here on the blog in 2005: "Every time I take a gander at the Cultural Blender site, I see an "unfinished" symphony. I still have ideas in my head, and still want to "complete" the site one day, but for now, there are lots of surprises among the sections." The last section of the "Blender" to be constructed was the "Robots" site. The multimedia "presentation" of the Blender will be the first step involved in creating webpages for each of the cultural icons I chose for the "blender image". First up will be Shirley Temple, John Wayne, John F. Kennedy and Jesus Christ. I have finally found a video editor which makes it possible to create some of the ideas I had for image manipulation when I first made the composite. As usual, it takes computer ability a bit of time to catch up with my imagination.
Keep an eye out for the updates as I create them. All the individual "Icon Pages" will appear here on WhenWordsCollide before they appear on the Blender.
Comments (44)
The melting pot, huh?
Question, I may have already asked; what Artie Shaw song are you dancing to in the video?
Caught my eye! Although you may need to change name from "baldmike" to "mikewithhat"....
Looking forward to your overhaul. You look nice with a smile....;-}
Was on your site a while back, watching a clown video, my mouse fell off the arm of my chair, and my computer went wacky, and how do I find that clown video again? Wasn't that Clarabell?
Overhaul! Can't even keep up with all that is going on here already, lol! (That's a compliment.)
Michael,
:wave:
You never cease to intrigue me with what you do with this tool called the internet. It is truly an adventure in having you as a friend. By the way, I spotted "Conan the Barbarian" in the blender, and I had to just say, "Shiny!" :coolman:
BE blessed!
Steve :sunny:
...and I forgot to mention the Lone Ranger. Fantastic!
:goodjob:
Interesting stuff!!! I'm a pop culture idiot - don't give me that category in Jeopardy!!!:wave:
Thanks for the comments on my own site. To our credit, my brother taught himself real guitar (acoustic, electric, bass, and a little bit of drumming) and now plays almost as well as the professionals. He's even put together a set that he can play and sing at the same time. With the help of his friends, he could expand his ouevre. I really hope he pursues music more fully when his enlistment is up. Of course he prefers the real guitar and is a true "guitar hero," he enjoys the game when he's with his less-musically-inclined friends. At the same time, my husband has a bass guitar that he got decent at, but he's a gamer at heart (woe is I).
Thanks for enjoying my vacation times, too. I really am lucky, and I'm glad that I'm aware of that. While you buy media and my husband buys food and video games (and is still somehow pretty physically fit), I'd rather spend my money on travel. If a month goes by without even a small roadtrip, I get antsy. It doesn't matter if I travel to Greece or just down the road; I have this incredible wanderlust and desire to get a feel for different areas of the world, or even my own community. You are still young.
I can't wait until you qualify to live in that "senior" community you've mentioned a few times.
You mentioned England, which is beautiful and can be as nostalgic as you want it to be, but your mention of Hungary has me singing Jethro Tull's "Night in Budapest," which is later and somewhat silly and sultry and I love it. In the meantime, I'll update my streaming music as the songs come to my mind and will, and I'll be on the lookout for the next Internet Island topic
Eden and I really appreciate your blender art. We're both sitting here looking at these blenders . Your graphics are always outstanding, Mike. Popular culture sounds like an excellent thesis topic.
Mike, RYC: I do think Steve understands to a degree but not fully, of course it's his child, so he doesn't quite see it like I do. We had a good talk about it, he had a good talk with her, I am sure it will all work out!
I like your blender!
RYC: Thank you so much for your critique of my review (of 'Jew Girl' by EminemsRevenge). I will take your comments and use them in future projects!!! (Maybe I should get a thesaurus!) Have a great day!
The very fact that you have the opportunity to write a comprehensive thesis on pop culture is amazing in and of itself. I am, perhaps, most aware of the music angle - how today's music "borrows" from that which went before, and so on, backwards through time. That's one of the most fascinating aspects of music for me - how it is all linked in some way. A lot of modern musicians attribute their songs to the Beatles, Led Zepelin, etc., where those bands attribute their music to the styles before them. It's all been done before, so to speak, and yet new and fresh music is constantly being developed. Good stuff.
This sounds interesting. I don't think I'm particularly aware of these things, but I do notice the recycling. Target commercials look sooo 1960's. There's another commercial (for a credit card, I think) in which the girl ends up looking like Audrey Hepburn and they're singing "Downtown." Kids love big band music of the 40's (much to my mother's delight). I'm looking forward to seeing your take on it all.
Love the hat!
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Great blog you have here but I was wanting to know if you knew
of any user discussion forums that cover the same topics discussed in this article?
I'd really love to be a part of group where I can get feed-back from other knowledgeable individuals that
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An interesting discussion is worth comment.
I think that you ought to write more on this issue, it might not be
a taboo matter but typically people do not speak about these issues.
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