In honor of the Oscars, slideshows!

Honestly, I could care less about who wins what award.

The real fun that comes with award season is getting to check out the heinous dresses--and, yeah, okay, the pretty ones too.

The slideshows I will be critiquing this week all hold a common thread, the Oscars.

This Huffington Post slideshow commemorates the worst Oscar dresses of all time, and trust me, they are BAD.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/25/worst-oscar-dresses-of-all-time_n_1300974.html

I enjoyed this slideshow because the speed that the ticker went was long enough that I could read the captions on each photo but was short enough that I wasn't yawning the whole time.

There was no music for this slideshow, but that worked. Honestly, even if there was sound, I wouldn't hear it through my "Oh God's!" and "What was she thinking's?!"

 Now, a lot of people were hating on Angelina Jolie's attitude pose, like the Descendants writers who poked some fun at her when they accepted their award.

BUT I'll be that girl who sticks up for her, because without the slit the dress is super boring, so really she had no choice but to stand like a tool.

This next slideshow is from www.styleite.com and shows her various poses throughout the night. There is a clip from her presentation at the Oscars that plays simultaneously so the sound from the clip provides some background noise, though I don't believe it is intentional.

http://www.styleite.com/media/angelina-jolie-the-descendants-screenwriters-pose/

I'm really not a huge fan of music with a slideshow unless the slideshow is about music.

The target audience for new media is of a younger age range and frankly... they are already playing music on their iTunes! It's annoying to have to turn it off unless the music or sound to the slideshow really adds another element, such as music to a slideshow about a blues singer would be enhanced by his/her music.

The photo gallery I browsed was http://www.celebuzz.com/photos/the-best-dressed-men-at-the-2012-oscars/84th-annual-academy-awards-arrivals-4/. The gallery only had seven pictures, which I thought was inadequate. 

I love slideshows as a medium of storytelling, but photo galleries don't tell a story. They are simply a way to gather pictures. 

NewsINK

NewsINK is an online magazine that covers news, basically in Caledonia County, and a little bit of New Hampshire as well.

The theme for this issue was town meeting. I wrote a story about St.Johnsbury, VT, which 25 years ago, during the days of St.J Trucking, was a pretty successful area.

Now, it's kind of a dump.

Check out my story to see where the town clerk candidates think St. Johnsbury is heading:

LSC CRIBS

This week's edition features a tour of ANGRY ANI's CHILL PAD:

On the latest episode of LSC Cribs we followed Angry Ani on a tour of her Main Street apartment in Lyndonville.

If you are not aware of who Angry Ani is, you are missing out. Angry Ani’s popularity came from her opinion column in Lyndon State College’s newspaper The Critic.

Though she is famously known for the outrageous rants in her column, this week we get to find out what doesn’t make Ani angry.

Angry Ani is a woman that knows exactly what she likes and this knowledge seems to know no bounds. Her tricked-out apartment is nothing to be ashamed of and is most definitely worthy of being the spotlight on this week’s podcast.

Angry Ani lives in quite the palace: 75 square feet, two bed-rooms, one kitchen, a half bath, and a living room equipped with a hammock.

To get to Angry Ani’s “chill pad,” visitors must climb the “stairway to heaven.”

Angry Ani likes to “keep it classy up in here,” with several items that are precious to her. Among them are her beloved dogs, two Lay-Z-Boy recliners, one flat screen television, and a “no pants policy.”

Angry Ani’s kitchen lives up to her vivacious personality, being decked out with hardwood flooring, a great view of the driveway, and a fridge stocked with Corona Light and pudding.

Angry Ani keeps all different types of pudding “up in here.” She also “represents” by showing off some LSC pride with a flag that hangs above the sink.

In her down time, Angry Ani likes to cook in her saffron kitchen that is lined with multi-colored Christmas lights, “’Cause we’re always shinin’ bright.” Angry Ani likes to keep it classy.

None of these wonders even come close to the amazement that is the “Scoliosis shower”, or as Ani says, “the S.S.—or the scolioshish shower.” Angry Ani can stand in the shower despite the slanted walls, but it “looks like she has that disease where her back is crooked.”

Now to where the “magic” happens, Angry Ani’s bedroom.

Angry Ani’s room comes with a Greek flag to show her Greek pride.

Whenever her bed moves, the ceiling fan in the apartment below will shake. “I know how to make the ceiling fan shake,” Ani assured us.

If Angry Ani does one thing well it’s not caring what other people think because they are wrong. Ani shows off her 2011 Robert Pattinson calendar to all who enter her bedroom. “He’s hot,” she exclaimed.

Of course, Angry Ani’s ride is “baller status.” Her Honda Element is “riding dirty,” with a crooked roof rack. With 30 inch spinners, a plastic floor (for easy clean ups), six cylinders, and seats that turn into beds, Angry Ani has made sure her ride is “fly .”

Before leaving Angry Ani’s crib, she left us with one last message. “’Outta my house bitches! Peace!”

Next week, LSC Cribs takes a heavy metal tour of the “Hall of Pain” suite in the Rita Bole Complex with Nick Brien, General Manager at WWLR, and his suitemate senior graphic design major Chad Abromovich.

LSC Cribs!

For our podcast, we are going to emulate the MTV series Cribs.
We will verbally "tour" two cribs-an off campus student and a residence hall student.


Start with a mini intro of whose crib's we will be hearing about, have some background hip-hop/funky music that's not copyrighted (possibly this website: http://freeplaymusic.com/)

Then start with the person saying "Hey this is Angry Ani talking and welcome to my Crib"

Then we go through the crib, and we have the two voices (the host and Ani) and music to keep it interesting.

We will have some pictures to post on the blog to go along with the podcast.

We will be touring Angry Ani's apartment and Heather's brother's dorm.

Good Fucking Advice

Good Fucking Design Advice is a project where you can get immediate feedback on design work. Plus the advice can be applied to other aspects of publication, and is all in all, pretty "fucking" cool.

Podcast, Podcast, Podcast

I listened to a podcast from NPR about taxing the rich, which was an excerpt from All Things Considered.

Pro's: Music, Humor, Interesting Journalism Topic.
Con's: 45 mins long, which could be a pro if a person has a long commute, but my commute is fairly short, so listening to something for so long can lose a listeners attention. Also a larger file size.

The second Podcast I listened to dealt with the reality of the financial benefits that stem from hosting the Superbowl. This was a podcast, also from NPR, from the show Planet Money.

Pro's: Catchy intro, perfect length, lots of information, music, and different types of voices. These elements grab the listeners attention and hold it, making it hard to zone off and stop listening.
Con's: There are none. I really enjoyed this podcast.

The third was an excerpt from Fresh Air (yeah, you guessed it--NPR. Can you tell I love public radio?) dealing with the practice of yoga.

Pro's: Interesting topic, interview with the actual author of the book.
Con's: No music, both speakers had the same breathy voices, very long, I definitely zoned out a bunch. I wasn't a fan because of the length and monotone nature of the cast. I think podcast's need changes in voice/natural sound, things that make it more interesting.