Meredith Silverman

Don’t worry, I’m not transferring schools. MushaBelly University is the name of an online world I explored for Dust of Magic. You can read my review and view screenshots of the online world here.

Here’s the conversation I recorded:

“I know your phone number,” he said.

“Ha ha. I’ve got your number,” she said.

“You don’t know my number,” he said.

“‘Course I do… (646) my ass,” she said.

“Shut up,” he said.

Written down like that, it doesn’t make any sense. But in context it was perfectly clear.

Here’s how I would write it as a dialogue:

“But I do know your phone number,” he protested.

“Ha ha,” she said evasively. “I’ve got your number.” She turned away and picked up the remote control.

“I’ll bet you don’t know my number,” he pressed.

“‘Course I do,” she said absently, flipping through channels. She thought again of the way he had stumbled through her phone number, which the dry cleaner used as a password. “(646) my ass,” she said, shaking her head.

“Shut up,” he laughed.

For our second 2×2, we were to make a narrative in which the first frame was the same as the last frame.  If you’ve told your story well in between, the image will mean something new on second viewing.

Click to view.

A musician friend was staying with me and I showed him the website for this device, the monome. I didn’t realize it wasn’t the only device of its kind until he pulled a sampler out of his duffel bag and started playing with it.

In fact, after doing the reading I realize these devices are in the same family as the Roland TB-303.

I like the monome for its sleek looks. I like the way samplers in general operate, kind of like a portable, customizable version of Garage Band. For someone who doesn’t know anything about electronic music, they seem both magical and — maybe — magically easy to play.

I saw Ben Harper in concert when I was in high school. He played two sets with his band, and then came back onstage to play a full acoustic encore set. He gave so deeply and so much to his audience.

When I was in high school (and listending again now) I loved his music for its catchiness and simplicity. After that show, I loved it because Ben Harper made it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtoYKmmnyC4

Our task in this class is to understand what makes children want to play with certain media or toys — what makes certain activities magic. We started with a couple of limitations.

In general, all-time favorite toys do certain things. They:

• inspire creativity or open-ended play
• use humor and themes kids can relate to
• are cool, often inexpensive items that kids want to own and collect
• pay attention to details (are internally consistent, let kids easily create a mental map or an idea of their progress toward an established goal)
• allow kids to feel mastery (let them immediately play and immediately succeed, add challenges slowly)

Magic toys must be tailored to children’s specific needs, that is:

• reflect their user competency (ability to read, use a mouse or keyboard)
• reflect their cognitive ability (ability to count, identify colors, connect their actions with the feedback they’re receiving)

Those are our guidelines, but they’re far from being a recipe.

We’ve been warned that kids are not just smaller, less experienced grown-ups. They’re a special kind of creature. If you’re trying to get inside their heads, it helps to have one, test with one, or at the very least remember what it was like to be one.

Our assignment was to create a 2×2 no longer than 2 minutes and with no more than 50 words. We were supposed to use color as a narrative element. For a subject, we each picked an emotion from a hat, and mine was jealousy.

It clocks in at 1:35 and has exactly 50 words. Click here to watch.

Al Green was great at writing songs that could’ve been about either Jesus or romantic love. The same sense of euphoria and worship come through toward both subjects.

Al Green’s Up Above My Head, excerpt, recorded 1972

Here are two video short stories I found this week:

• nonfiction – http://www.rocketboom.com/vlog/rb_07_feb_09
• fiction – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_oPC8O6Gnk

The presentation I’ll be giving in class this week is located here: http://www.themeredith.com/itp/current_events.ppt