April 20, 2007
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The Cultural Blender "internet movie"
The video is rated: PG13 and Xanga Rated as basic guidance because the Marilyn section shows the nude calendar photos. Because of the "nudity" this video will not show up on YouTube right away. I'll create a "YouTube Safe" version covering up the nudity for my YouTube Channel. Hit the "pause" button to let the stream buffer if you experience a "jerky" presentation.
Over one month in the making! I had the "wrap party" last night. I'm finally finished with Part 1 of "The Cultural Blender Movie". The renovation project I began back in February for my Cultural Blender website included plans to create a video of the "icons in the blender". Almost all my free time since has been relegated to constructing individual webpages, like "Elvis", "John Wayne" and "Marilyn", also updating the total design of the website, and using my new Sony Vegas video editing software to make the movie, which will eventually incorporate all 40 or so images in the blender graphic.
The internet movie is 9 minutes and 16 seconds long. Almost two minutes of "credits" are included at the end of the video, sourcing the music, film and video footage, and giving web addresses for the official sites of the icons featured, so there's only about 7 minutes of animated footage. Part 1 of the video contains the following American pop culture icons in order of appearance. (I will agree ahead of time that Jesus Christ is not an "American icon" but the "icons" section of the Blender discusses the move in popular culture away from purely religious iconography to the "pop" icons some fans "worship" today. So Jesus is the "original" icon in the Blender, as far as I'm concerned.)
Shirley Temple, Coca Cola, Napster, John Wayne, Jesus Christ, Elvis, John F. Kennedy, the lunar landing, Star Trek, Howdy Doody, The Lone Ranger, Davy Crockett, Marilyn Monroe, Arnold Schwarzenegger, cigarette advertising, Richard M. Nixon, and the Smiley face. Each icon is given a few seconds of footage, and the animation consists of layered images, video, music, and sound bytes. This is almost like a "living web page" from AllThingsMike. I have tried to assure that everything is high quality, and that I've given credit for everything I am featuring. Most of the images, as with my Cultural Blender website, and a lot of AllThingsMike, were gained in countless web searches beginning in 2001, when I created the website. I use a lot of the chroma key and pan and zoom features familiar from slideshow programs, but everything has been personally manipulated.
I lost count of the amount of images and sound bytes that are included in these nine minutes, since I made almost a dozen overlays in order to get the amount of layers I needed. Watching the video again last night before I finally uploaded it to my server, I am still finding "mistakes" and want to tweak it some more, and the footage I compiled first is not as "professional" as the later footage, but if I keep tweaking it I would never present it. The credit sequence alone took two full evenings to complete.
I'm quite proud of my latest "baby". I always wanted to see one of my videos "take off" like the viral videos made by Jib Jab or the Cat Head Theater or the new "Landlord" video on Funny or Die.com that Will Ferrell made. (I've deliberately left those other videos without links. They're already famous!) Perhaps this is the one. I know that nine minutes is "long" in internet time, and because of the quality and the size of the file, the video will load slower on some computers. As usual I give my readers a chance to sample the video in a number of ways.
1. GOOD. The video streaming above is on Xanga. It would be nice to see this on the "Most Viewed" or the "Boost" page for videos. But I won't beg. I always tend to get the "criticisms" when I do. (Slow loading, too long, etc.) The quality is somewhat compromised.
2. But better than the Google feed. I might render a higher quality stream for the Google page.
3. BETTER. The best quality stream is on the Cultural Blender Movie page on the Cultural Blender website. It begins immediately when you click the page, so you might have to hit pause on the player until the buffering is complete.
4. BEST. On the Movie Page there is also a download available for a limited time of the complete 256MB Mpeg2 version of the movie. This is the highest quality video version available, and you can also right click THIS LINK and "save target as" to your computer, in order to have your own "copy" of this video. It could take up to a half hour to download the file to your computer, but once on your computer, you can view at will without delay anytime you wish. (I will disable the download when my server bandwidth limit is reached, hence the "limited time".)
NOTICE: I will be sending a "mass message" to all my "subscribers and friends" announcing this video post, and I am also using this as the topic entry for the Internet Island topic post #24: Cultural Icons. I haven't figured out how to correlate the video with the topic of "Paperwork and Food" or else I'd be able to enter this in the latest Featured Grownups topic as well.
All in all , I'm very happy I can finally present my Cultural Blender video and I hope it receives at least as nice a response as my other videos, poems, and prose here on Xanga. I had a great time making the video, and I've already begun plans for Part 2.
Please note that Xanga has adopted a "grading system" for both the individual blog entries and for the video page itself. By clicking 1-5 stars, you "rate" the entry or the video. There is also a place showing "votes" but I haven't figured that one out yet. The "stars" system is used on both YouTube and Netflix and other sites to rate content. Even MySpace has announced that users can "rate" news stories (like on Yahoo News), and the highest rated content is given "featured" status on the front pages of these sites. "Featured Content" in case anyone was wondering, on Xanga is now HERE. It's called "most discussed" and you'll find five or six entries by The Theologian's Cafe, as usual. EDIT: 4/21/07 4:00 pm pdt. I just uploaded the "YouTube Friendly version of the video HERE. It was neat writing the disclaimer: "This version is modifed from the original version. Nude images... have been covered with clothing "
Comments (33)
5*s Way excellent! It even seemed too short, believe it or not! Good job, Mike! Looking forward to the next one!
Hi mike, what did you do about a place to live?
I just messaged you.
It was well worth the visit!
GREAT Video!!
Ronald Reagan smoked???
Where is the smiley watertower located?
Excellent!
Hi Michael,
Despite I haven't seen your video (YES! Still the same about the Mac OS 9...) I've boosted it and rated as 5, because I'm sure it's of hight quality!
It seems I have to wait for the YouTube version...
Have a great weekend,
Isabel
I downloaded your video in all its 256 meg glory and I was thoroughly impressed. You did an excellent job on it. I am anxiously awaiting part 2. Will there be parts 3 or 4? There are so many icons I can think of that I'd love to see get the Mike treatment: The Beatles, James Bond, drive-in restaurants, fast food restaurants, veg-o-matic (ha-ha), Harley Davidson, NASCAR, vinyl records, 8 track tapes, many many films and directors and actors...books, computers... the list could go on and on. You covered some of the most prominent ones in this first clip wonderfully. This project could keep you busy for years. At first, I felt that Jesus was out of place in this piece, but at the end, that picture of him with the googly eyes giving the thumbs up made me laugh and realize he has had his influence in our era even though he is a carry over from the past. You know I'm agnostic, but I can't imagine what the world would be like today if not for the Christmeister
~Ben
Your video is awesome. I am a huge Marilyn Monroe fan... I think models today should look like her, instead of like they are starving to death. Marilyn was beautiful, but Hollywood killed her. The video was well done and I can see why it took so much time. You are a very talented guy, Mike.
I have checked out the supposedly featured content, but I am still not content with it, or the boosted entries etc. I guess I am a believer in... if it's not broke don't fix it, and I don' think it was broke.
Thanks again for stopping by and all of your wonderful comments... I really do appreciate the time you take to come by. I think you are probably a much faster typer than I.
Hugs, Tricia :wave:
Ha, I'll give you five stars, Mike. The good stuff.
I watched the movie in my subs. It was really good, well done
xanga is overwhelming with all of the clutter... I could sit here for days but this movie and your blog always gets 5 stars
Yeah, I voted, cuz it won't let me vote again... You have seven votes, is that new since you sent the message or maybe it is just not showing up from your end. Xanga has been really screwy today.
Hugs, Tricia
:goodjob:
Very nicely done! That must have taken a long time to put together?!
Hey thank you very very much for your comment on my weblog! It's very rare to get a comment so thoughtful, and now that I think about it, I've only had a handful of such comments. I don't have a blackberry or an audio recorder at the moment, but if I did, it would certainly help. It's not really a big problem, it's just that something will hit me out of the blue, and then I'll think about it for a little bit, get distracted, and then it's hard to recall. Later on though, certain triggers usually cause me to remember, and with those things I usually have an excellent memory. It's just annoying between the loss of the thought and the trigger.
Troy
Hi Mike!
Wow! You've done a fabulous job with this video! :coolman: You really are very clever in arranging everything so well. The cultural blender is such a great idea. I really do admire everything you've done here.
RYC: Thanks for your comment! I absolutely agree with all you've said. :yes:
Very enjoyable indeed. But where's Lee Remick?:)
i liked it. especially the smilie and the marily monroe sections. i didn't know marily monroe was in playboy or if i did it wasn't in my mind up at the front. very good. must have taken a lot of time and patience to put something like that together.
Great stuff Mike could not figure out how to vote for it though. Judi
im glad you support me and my vlogging so much. i use a digital camera to do my video, so i dont know if i can stop the fuzzy. hopefully i can.
and thank you very much on the compliment. i really do want to start acting, it makes me feel very happy that a third party all ready supports me.
well thank you very much, you comments made me feel very good.
Hi Mike,
That was a very fun video ... even Arnold came out in it!
:fun:
I was finally able to vote for your video... I had to look at some strange stuff first.
Hugs, Tricia :wave: :fun: :wave: :wave: :fun:
:goodjob: You put a lot of work into this and it's worth it! I was able to view it fine on the CulturalBlender site just now, better than on YouTube. Interesting look at America and I could identify everything.
Fun stuff. I took notes as I was watching it to make sure I commented on everything. First, it was a great video. I know you worked hard finding and editing everything just right. I am proud of you. Your placement of Jesus of Nazareth seems odd to me. I'm not sure when "King of Kings" came out, though, so it might make sense. I'm surprised you didn't include the miniseries "Jesus of Nazareth" or "Godspell," two of my faves. I loved the Buddy Christ, though
YAY for the Star Trek segue! I am surprised that you didn't use the Kirkian Trek and opted for Picard and The Next Generation, but it's a series I much prefer anyway. (My parents and I watched two episodes just last night.) Based on time spent, it seems very much that Marilyn is the hightlight of the show. The images seem out of order as far as timing goes, but thematically it's gorgeous. I love all the photos except one - the one where she has that vapid smile on her face. What a beautiful nude, though. And I love her more before she went platinum blonde. Thanks also for including her sassy brunette costar from one of her famous movies. I can't remember which movie, but you likely know. YAY for "Thick as a Brick"! It seemed an odd segue while a 50s- or 60s- style woman made toast, but you gotta include the Tull there - it's your signature 
Thanks for including cigarette advertising. 1971, eh? Wow! Some of the Camel ads were a little bit blurry on film, but not enough to really notice. The quality of Nixon's voice, also, made it hard to understand him sometimes. It seemed muffled or quieter than usual, but I blame Tricky Dicky on that one. I ADORED the evolution of the smiley (and the bong was really funny). Yay for ending with Badfinger! I hope I didn't comment too much or too critically. This was an amazing feat, and we all look forward to more. Much peace and happiness, my friend! ~ Emily
RYC-I saw you blogging on Halie's site and decided to take a look for myself. The video is really neat! That's a talent for sure!!
I just read your comments on my Internet Island post. I'm surprised I went back to read them, too. Otherwise, you would have been right about me never getting around to reading it. I went to check out the newest II member's stuff and realized that she had posted a lot since then, too, so I posted at her most recent entry too, then thought to read my own backlogs to see if anybody was still paying attention to II. Sorry, it's an exciting, caffeinated sort of morning. Goofy cartoons were wonderful! I vividly remember Goofy teaching people how to ski... and the mishap mayhem that resulted. Goofy (and Eeyore) was always my mom's favorite, too. She had a Goofy nightshirt that we used to steal when we went camping or were sick or whatever. My siblings and I are probably more familiar with some of the Donald Duck stuff from the 50s, and the Chip and Dale stuff intertwined. Back when the Disney Channel actually showed classic cartoons... we didn't get the Disney Channel, but sometimes they'd have free access to try to entice new subscriptions. My mom would break out the blank VHS tapes and record some of the finer classics.
Those old tapes have seen a lot of wear and tear, but I think my sister has some of the best in her possession. Now Netflix has a lot of the classics, so when I'm feeling sentimental, I'll have to "rent" them. 
Talk about long comments! We've been pretty verbose to each other today. It's the normal way, though, ain't it? 
Excellent job Mike...I loved this. you really caught a creative spin on how bringing out culture in a montage....
Great stuff
Hi Michael!
I had to come back after seing the video!
It's is truly art!
That's a well-spent time of your life. I can't even imagine the work you had to put it together! What a rhythm... Those 9 minutes run!
It's great!
Congratulations! Congratulations!
Isabel
p.s. "Thick as a Brick", for personal reasons, brought me back a lot of memories too...
Couldn't vote because... I don't know why the page won't load. I'll try again later.
I enjoyed the video. I can see why it took so long. Nice. It brought back lot of memories.
Was it on Howdy Doody that there was a dog (puppet) who did the Nestle chocolate commercials with his deep, long "Chaaaaaaaawcolate" and clicked his jaw shut at the end?
:wave:
totally cool! thanks!
great job! Five stars and two E props that was excellent. :coolman:
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