Terminal Rhetoric

Portfolio website

http://web.cortland.edu/Hushla60/portfolio/

Last neovox article

Sorry for the lateness of this. I was waiting to get the paper back from a professor. But anyway.. here it is.

]]> Once in a long while a television show comes along that redefines the genre. In the early 1990’s Seinfeld redefined the half-hour sitcom. It tagline, “the show about nothing” mean that the plot revolved around the seemingly mundane acts of the cast of characters in everyday life. What made it so interesting were the personalities of the characters. A whole generation of sitcoms followed this same formula. These have had varying degrees of success.
Reality television was a short-lived fad. Don’t get me wrong, it is still everywhere, but the novelty has worn off. They have succumbed to the same problem that faces sitcoms: lack of innovation. Both have contrived plots, obvious endings, and not so surprising twists. Reality TV continues to flood the airwaves. Sadly, I think it’s because they really don’t know what else to put on the air. It’s cheap to produce, they don’t have to pay actors, and the production values are far less.
Great television is layered. It has a surface humor that is pretty obvious (a laugh track often helps) and below that ever more complex humor, satire, and pop-references that all may or may not get. Family Guy abounds with spoofs on all sorts of shows from the past three decades. The Simpsons is full of references to film, literature, and pop culture that can require more than a rudimentary knowledge to fully get. The beauty of these two shows is that you don’t have to have a degree in philosophy to find them funny.
In 2003 Fox launched a new sitcom airing on Sunday night: Arrested Development. As far as this writer is concerned, the Seinfeld of the new millennium. Unfortunately after two and a half years, it’s been put on the chopping block. Perhaps the public en masse is not ready for such a fresh and original show.
Produced by everyone’s favorite red head, Ron Howard, who also narrates the show, Arrested follows the trials and tribulations of the Bluth family. The show pokes fun at politics, the media, the military, and every part of the spectrum of American life. In one memorable scene Lindsey, a typical wealthy ditz, akin to a Paris Hilton maybe, decides to protest the war in Iraq. They are allowed to do this only in a “freedom zone” a six by six cage outside an army base. When some locals come by and begin spraying the protesters with water, they all leave, but Lindsey remains and does some cage dancing.
The cast is full of seasoned actors and actresses; Jason Bateman, Jeffrey Tambor, and Portia de Rossi are probably the most recognizable. Each character is unique, and probably the first shows to have a main character lose a hand.
Arrested moves very fast. There is no time to sit back and think if something was a joke or not. There’s no laugh track so you can’t depend on them to tell you what’s funny. Either you find something humorous or you don’t. Then it’s on to the next one. The writing is extraordinary. Often times it seems like the actors are ad-libbing but the writing is just that good. But regardless of all of its stellar qualities it will be gone before you know it.
Sadly by the time people catch on to Arrested it will be gone. Then who knows how long it will be before the next sitcom comes along that is in the same vein as Arrested. When it does come, I hope we’re ready for it. It’s a shame to see great television come and go while such garbage as King of Queens, Joey, and every other half-hour crapshoot continues unabated.
By now it’s too late to save Arrested Development. So all I have left to say is enjoy the three or four new episodes still coming. Go out and pick up the first two seasons on DVD. You will not be disappointed. And in the future maybe, just maybe, you’ll flip onto a show that seems weird and quirky you’ll give it a chance. You might even save its development from being arrested. (I apologize for the lame joke.)

Personal Blog

www.myspace.com/daedalus22

My Portfolios

I kept posting my portfolio sites on here, but they would never show up. Finally, I realized that I was posting them to the Neovox blog. Sorry

Click here to view my professional portfolio. There you will find a link to my personal blog.

Not so bad

So I've spent much of the semester, and my life for that matter, in complaint of technology.
A startling thought occured to me late Friday night. I was lying in bed having an asthma attack, my phone was dying, and my ipod battery had run out. I got up, grabbed an ipod charger and plugged it in next to my bed so I could lay in bed and listen to my music while it was charging. Then, I put my phone in the charger and laid it across my bed so that I could stlil keep in contact with my friends even though I am too sick to go out. And lastly, I pulled my laptop over and laid it next to me on my bed, so that while my tv flashed in the background, I could try to do a little bit of work and talk on AIM since I was alone, sick, and too tired to sit up even on a Friday night.
And my revelation came to me. Maybe, after all my whining of technology, there realyl are times that I enjoy it--or maybe even depend on it.

Final Entry-neovox article

...here then is my fInal post and my final neovox article...I wrote the angry first half in a mad rush a couple months ago...the second and more optimistic half just right now...enjoy...I have appreciated this class and specifically our dialogues very much...peace...

]]> Teddie Buffa
Neovox Article #2

I hate liberals. I hate conservatives. I hate anyone that can generalize him or herself into a category that ends with 'ist'. I hate the politics and political policies of our nation over the past five years. I hate the bush administration and slander that they have added to the name of our nation. I hated the sad attempts of that spineless fool John Kerry as he attempted to play the middle ground of every issue and carefully come across as a good guy and therefore lose himself the election at a time when we needed a strong democratic leader to step up and play ball with the sick and disgusting right side and the bullshit rhetoric that they spun (and spin). I hate the right side and their policies of greed and death that they have spread across the world. I hate they have made the world hate us. I hate the ignorant fools that voted for bush while only considering a single issue or 'hotbutton' ideal. And I hate the liberal left that foolishly voted for Kerry because there was no better alternative (and I hate myself because I was also fooled into this method of thinking).
I love Amerika. Let me say this again-I love Amerika. I love the concepts and ideals that it stands for. Freedom!
Beautiful and wonderful freedom.
A land of opportunity for one and all.
A place where the lowest man can rise and make worth of himself! These were the ideals that our nation was founded on. The way I live my life and choose to act could not be without the help of this place and the men and woman that founded it. What has happened?
We are on the verge of becoming a police state. Speaking out heavily against the government can get you on a terrorist watch list. What has happened to the great questioners of the state of things? Where are the Abbie Hoffmans? Where are the people that have the balls to stand up and speak out against the goings-on of our governmental system? There is a dynasty in charge now. A dynasty. Like father-Like son. They are hijacking the highest ranks of our court system for years to come. They are setting up themselves into positions of immense power. And they are doing it right before our eyes.
This sounds like a call to activism. It is not. This is a call to inform yourselves. I was an activist once. I quit right around the time that Bush was reelected. I watched the best minds of my generation fall into the trappings of apathy and stupidity and argument. I sat with leftist liberal thinkers and watched them fail miserably to come to agreement on anything. The right had organization and strength in belief. We had a bunch of loudmouth fools who could not find a common ground and work together on even the simplest of issues. Our only heroes were hypocritical radicals like Michael Moore. This was a man who would be just as horrible as bush if he was in charge.
Bush did not steal the election this time. This was a victory because over half of our nation voted for him. Why? It seems so obvious if you are a liberal that he is evil. But look at the other side for once. Have a conversation with a conservative. They don't bite. Conservatives need to have a conversation with Liberals. We need dialogue; we need progress. I have never seen a liberal and a conservative on this campus sit and have a quiet conversation about ideals. It usually turns into a shouting match of nonsense rhetoric. Both sides are foolish and both sides are right and wrong simultaneously.
Not all conservatives love Bush and not all liberals loved Kerry. The only reason why Bush won the last election was the amazing ability of his administration to cover up the lies. They kept the lies under wraps long enough…or at least to get people to look the other way by slandering the left and appealing to the beliefs of their target voters.
Inform yourselves. Ours is a generation that could change things. Ours has a chance to be intelligent about the issues and prevent needless wars and potentially save our dying nation. Become informed. Look beneath the surface of things and away from the trivial trappings of your own lives. We are nearing a scary time in our history and we must avoid the potential horrors of the future. We live in a global world in which nations can communicate and have dialogues with each other. We are angering friends and allies alike. This must be stopped and we have the power to due so. Help yourselves become informed. Fuck ignorance. Fuck Apathy.
So here we are. It is almost 2006. Things seem to be slowing down at least a bit. The right seems to be failing at least slightly. Several of the proposed bills that they have presented have been shot down, including the reentry of the patriot act. It’s not finalized yet but it seems as though several parts of it will not be allowed to continue.
I have a friend whom said something to me the other day.
She said that Art doesn’t matter.
This is a person of twenty-something years of age who actually believes what she was saying. This both enraged and saddened me. Could this be a sentiment of our generation? Do we have the great artists who will help usher us into the future. Is there a young Dylan living in our ranks somewhere? I like to hope so. I live for my art (any by art I mean anything of artistic creation…music, literature, brush to canvas, etc…) and I will die for it. When she said this sad statement to me I contemplated my answer in wondering what the function of art is, and why my generation seems (for the most part) so devoid of it.
It helps us find a unity and a voice…doesn’t it? A good song helps us stand together in unity and compassionate understanding of each other. A good novel can point out the need for social reform. A good painting can make us wish for a better world. We need to find our artistic souls, our unified voice as a generation…
There is hope. In ourselves…in our art…if only we can begin taking ourselves seriously… We are all of us part of this nation, this world. Let us start acting like it.

http://christinekanella.blogspot.com/

just in case we need to post our personal blog too, which I shockingly enough, really grew to enjoy!

e-pholio

Here it is!!

web.cortland.edu/gordon49/aboutme.htm

Blog Books

I was in Borders the other day and I saw a book that had compiled all the best/most popular blog entries of the year... I actually felt really compelled to look at all the entries and see what everyone else was writing about, and more importantly, what blogs were really so amazing to be put in a book. Who knew blogs would become such a craze in American society?
Just thought this was really interesting and wondered if anyone else had seen it.

Portfolio

Here's a link to my professional site. I don't know, on my computer it looks good. There is a navigation bar on the left and what not. But on my friends, it looks really crappy. Could anyone be so kind as to tell let me know what it looks like on their computer?

http://web.cortland.edu/murray78/webpages

final website

Here's my professional portfolio

http://web.cortland.edu/hendri09/portfolio/home.htm

portfolio

here is my portfolio... have a spectacular break everyone, can you believe we're done for the semester??

http://web.cortland.edu/dance86/homepage.htm

Heather's Portfolio

White and sterile. Enjoy.

Click.

final project

portfolio

Have a nice break everyone. Good luck with finals! :)

About your revised NeoVox articles

If you haven't already, please post them here. Next semester NeoVox will be moving to publishing in a blogging format, so it will be easy for the designers to shift your articles over. Look for them to start showing up in Feb.