Between Realities
Having fantastic time. Stopped to see the Great Imaginary Wall. It is beautifully huge in a very big way. Every part is unique and you never see the same piece twice. These pictures do not do it justice – so much justice here. We will be heading back the Rod Serling Omni-Route and onto the Moebius Strip at the Roswell Parallel Interchange, once we get the GPS working.
I tried a little mass media-blogging experiment. As a consequence of playing with the blog system here are my present top posts.
Magazine Cover & Book Spine Poem: Traveling with The Dead
The Dadaist Detective and the Curious Case of the Asemic Arsonist
Mail From the Borderlands: Who casts not up his eye to the sun when it rises?
Book Spine Poetry: Strange Doings
Broken Folklore: Glouyeinshire Tales
Some of these posts go back to 2014 ( I remember when that was once perceived as considerably far enough in the future to be a setting for a Speculative Fiction narrative), if you missed out on any of these, you may wish to take a look. For those of you who have seen the posts, I include some new compositions based on screen capture of a blog post ( pedalling faster ), scanography, and some digital photos of the family TV screen.
I also have a couple of questions about blog layouts and reading habits related to blog posts. I have included to a musical component to the blog to make the whole process of reading the blog more enjoyable.
Blogs include a range of components, depending of the content and intended target audience. Some of these components reflect the social media aspect of blogging. Besides likes and comments, many bloggers will include My Community, Recent comments, Top Posts & Pages, and Recent Posts Visited & Liked by the blogger. These specific components of a blog’s layout demonstrate the blogger’s activity in producing and interacting with the blogging community. It also provides a structure that invites/encourages others to participate in the shared social experience of blogging.
Further components enable a viewer to explore the blog based on related subjects by using Categories and Tags ( presented as lists/clouds ). The blog can also be explored through searches and an archival search/listing. The viewer can often interact through comments that go back a number of months or even years.
Pondering all this left me wondering about the effectiveness of these components. I also began considering how the expansion of digital devices has altered how blog posts are being accessed. Recently WordPress made changes to the Editor & Reader to accommodate a growing audience that are using digital tablets & phablets , as well as phones and laptops. Many were not happy with these changes, especially those “old school” desktop bloggers who found that the new touch-screen interfaces & layouts were less friendly when trying to use a desktop screen & keyboard. They also noticed that the Reader’s new layout, designed to be more friendly to a Touch-screen Tablet was more effective at presenting specific type of content – posts with more than three images and posts with longer pieces of prose text were presented more clearly.
This is actually an example of mass media technology subtly shifting into a new medium. It is subtle because the technological advances do not initially appear to either the creator/producer or the target audience to be a change in media; the changes are seen as enhancements, but still considered the same medium. Moving from radio to television is an obvious change from one medium to another, as is going from photography to cinematography. Changing from black and white to colour photography/cinematography/television is a change in media. Moving from a desktop screen to a hand held touch screen is technological enhancement that alters how the viewer interacts with the media content, therefore it is a change in the type of media delivering the content. When you change the medium, you alter the message.
So here are the questions I have been considering – I am hoping you will provide some feedback.
How many of these components do you include in your blog’s layout ? Why ?
Do you use any of these blog features when visiting other blogs ? Why ?
How are you accessing blogs such as mine ?
Are differences in digital devices influencing your consumption and production of blog content ?
Hope you enjoyed the post and thanks for any input you may provide.
DIRECT GAZE ( THE LOOK )
A demand is made through direct gaze when a figure gazes directly out of the media text at the viewer, demanding a response. It involves a character-model making eye contact with the viewer, and establishing a personal connection in the viewer’s mind. – Advertisement Appeals
I went down to the St. James Infirmary,
I saw my baby there
She’s laid out on a cold white table
So, so cold, so white, so fair.
The Ontario Canada Connection
(not Grimsby – See War of 1812)
makes you question
&
“Why Blind River ?”
water runs downward –
catching thoughts splashing upwards,
rocks of doubt now smooth.
Ukraine looks to Canada –
“Help –
Modernize Military’s ‘Soviet Mentality!”
Now – just
Consider Crimea & The Spanish Netherlands –
Can it be anymore Obvious ?!!
Look at the coastline.
False Flag 1DF !
Distant lands call out
the very thought of you now –
remember me please.
Bill Hicks’s clone believes
he is reincarnated –
remembrance of things,
past knowing eyes, many names –
multiple faces.
But who is Alex Rosencrantz G. Jones, really ?
A Performance artist & Existentialist Playwright.
( Eugène Ionesco psychodrama by way of Bio-engineering)
Excerpt from his Most Recent Work:
Lines from a-n on/going Campai(g)n[e]
( Staged Scenes in Free Verse )
Alas, I can not rotate,
distance still equal to zero.
It depicts the Solitude & the Insignificance;
Off Human Existence,
steps Truth in a tangible way. – The President
Letters & small dogs,
it’s like the Hò Hao Oho. – The Attorney General
Walking in summer sunshine,
a white-washed provincial village,
under intense blue sky,
pebbles caught between my toes
like alternative Fractal Factuals. – The Chesterfield Counsellor
I have been a surrogate,
at The Thyme Oar Two,
Oh, that rowing campaign.
I did not have communion
with The Spanish Netherlands,
while getting out the boat. – The Attorney General
The Thyme Oar Two,
excellent drinks,
the dancers wore out
stalkings.
Communion –
I am not a believer. – The Slavic Ambassador
To stay where she is fýgar,
immigration powers ply the pylons.
In Calais the children
skip stones across the water.
Pipe Marches to the beat
of the Various Rich,
as the Interior sleeps
the way of the previous thrush. – The President
Shocking. – The Chesterfield Counsellor
Criminal. – The Slavic Ambassador
Conspiracy. – The Attorney General
So sad. – The Public’s Persona
I laughed when you said,
you were leaving.
It never entered my mind. – The President
There are seven days in a week. – The Public’s Persona
The ceiling is up. – The Chesterfield Counsellor
The floor is down . – The Attorney General
I have several children. – The President
I have several children. – The Attorney General
I have several children. – Unnamed Actor who looks like President
I have several children. – The Slavic Ambassador
All stupefying,
as they are All,
so indisputably True.
Who knew it was so complicated ? – The President
Let me check my phone.
I am getting my origami
confused with cross stitch. – The Chesterfield Counsellor
Theatre that invokes
an imaginative Truth
expels false facts
fogging facile faculties,
greatly held units,
and /or property of Hama. – Unnamed Actor who looks like President
People crack.
Make your removed I
by extension as
an extensive frozen field/forest
trekking away.
filling up with hope/fear. – The Public’s Persona
You look like the man. – The President
What man ? – Unnamed Actor who looks like President
You do. – The President
Hoodoo ? – The Public’s Persona
“Fidus Achates” – the Prompter.
We all know that line, but which character says it ? – UFO Janitor.
Characters exit to applause. After applause ends and all is silent, the Audience then enters and takes their seats.
Against protests loud –
He inherits cyber-war,
offering no proof.
To start –
my marketing decision,
process illegal and dangerously illegal criminals
– the basis for each order
to the public.
Here’s to the Good Times –
Backwards is now no longer –
and an Open Mind.
Deep?
He decided to raise money.
Salt Flats, Chilly Nights –
A Road Trip to Death Valley –
& Promoting Kitsch
A Desperate Bid –
Before Vaquitas Vanish,
Save Them – tears wash shore.
Jewish leaders vow:
“We will not be daunted” –
strength in face of threats.
Note: Haiku constructed from news headlines. Free verse composed using found text.
