Monday, July 21, 2014

Vote for Comment of the Week

Voting closes Thursday noon.

Student #1 has left a new comment on your post "Childhood Ruined: Disney Character's Face Falls Of...":

This is undoubtably the funniest thing I've seen all day. Literally every single element of this video has been engineered to bring me joy.

Let's begin with the setting: a summer late afternoon, long shadows and bright blue sky. Just from looking at the very first frame, one slips into character. I can just feel the fatigue of having a fun day at the amusement park, and the excitement of being able to finish off this perfect day with a performance from my favorite superheroes. The anticipation is high from the beginning.

I'd also like to take a moment to address the use of props. The MC wields a single laptop that looks suspiciously like a Macbook with an Incredibles sticker on it.

And who is the MC, anyway? Is he some obscure figure from the movie that I've overlooked? Is his an original character, engendered specifically for the purposes of this performance? He has an aura of mystery and I'm dying to know more.

Next, the reveal. Elastigirl herself enters, stage left. Watching this video for the first time, I must admit to emitting an audible gasp. Everything about the actress was perfect: her slender yet curvaceous body, her lithe gate, the modest wave. And, of course, the mask. The flawlessly iconic mask.

The incident. The fateful trip. The mask comes crashing to the ground, and with it falls the hopes and childish dreams of the audience. The icon has fallen, our Madonna. The illusion, perfectly crafted up to this point, has been violently shattered by a few missteps. The first time around, I completely missed the rest of the video because I was laughing so hard.

And finally, the aftermath. I'd like the bring up the MC again: he was a champ. After rewinding and watching the video for the second time, I followed with bated breath the journey he took, from the initial "Oh no" to his faltering words as his attention is consumed by our fallen angel Elastigirl.

As her bald pate was revealed to the viewers, I lost it. I was left with a plethora of questions: Why was the back of her head bare? Why just that part? Was it always like that, did they just have her never turn her back to the audience? Or maybe it was ripped off in the Mask Incident? Maybe we'll never know.

Altogether, a hilarious end to an otherwise bland afternoon. Thank you, jezebel.com, for posting this tidbit of happiness.

Student #2 has left a new comment on your post "Church Sound: What Four Wireless Mistakes Are You ...":
Being the sound designer at my high school, I can say that I've experienced the problems described in this article. Our high school was built in the 1960’s by architects with limited acoustic experience and no idea of where technology would be in 50 years. This means I am constantly fighting with feedback. There is little to no absorption of the sound waves. All of the exterior walls are solid concrete making it very hard to avoid feedback problems. I can't begin to count the number of times actor will go on stage to find that there mic isn't on, it makes me livid! No matter how many times I ask them to LEAVE THEM ON! Somehow they still get shut off. The microphone asst. (who should also be monitoring the battery level) is forced to run back and forth to turn mics on. As for channel assignments, I've developed a fairly good method to keeping them organized during a show. The only part which gets challenging is when actors decide to change their mics during the show, and I end up pulling the wrong slider during the performance. The combined challenges of a high school with a bad PA system and actors that love to make life difficult makes it hard for me, , but I do the best I can with the technology I have. 
Student #3 has left a new comment on your post "Are you a Millennial leader?":
Millennials aren’t a new, super genius species. The new generation simply had more time to grow as technology developed, slowly working out the functions of newer technologies as they grew and developed themselves. Just as children from the 80’s understood more about rock and roll than their parents, Generation Y understands more about technology largely due to popular culture and exposure. Changing leadership techniques in the workplace may not necessarily be the most beneficial to the millennials, but incorporating technology would probably work the best to keep them invested and diligent. Being exceptional at manipulating technology will help work processes increase drastically in productivity and efficiency, as long as the workforce remains invested. Motivation is a significant factor, however it is no more important than the motivation required for the effectiveness of any other generation. The claim that Generation Y holds more divergent thinkers is a stretch, though not entirely implausible. Simpler ways to communicate and discover have materialized, and at the swipe of a finger anyone can go from deserts to icebergs in a 10th of a second. With more versatile exploration comes more versatile ways of thinking, which will hopefully bode well for millennial leaders in the future.
Student #4 has left a new comment on your post "Fear of audience participation":
Interactive theatre has always intrigued me because of the thin line between “fun” and “mortifying” that it frequently dances on. When I was young, my parents would take me to children’s performances from time to time and they frequently required someone to come onstage with an actor. As a more timid child, I never raised my hand, I never jumped up and shouted “Me! Me! Me!” and that was all just fine by me. One night, my parents took me to a performance of “If You Give A Mouse A Cookie.” For the life of me I can’t even remember the context of why they needed a volunteer, but sure enough, they asked for one. However, tonight was different. There was no jumping or yelling from the other kids, and I remember sitting in a front row seat, right in front of the lead actor. Cringing, I felt a dozen eyes shift to me, and then I watched, horrified, as the lead came up to me and led me to the stage. My “job” as a volunteer was to dance to some music with him and a couple of the other actors, and I did, but after that I refused to go to the theatre with my parents again. Looking back on it, it’s silly how mortified I was, but thinking about if that happened now, I can still completely agree with the testimonials in the article, as I would be just as embarrassed as I was as a child. 
Student #5 has left a new comment on your post "How to Handle Social-Media Criticism":
Social media has both its positive sides and its negative sides. I worked as a digital media intern for a top 40’s radio station in Boston (#10 market) for a year and did a lot of social media management so I do have some experience in this field. There are only so many things you can do in a situation such as this. Obviously, everyone is entitled to his or her own opinion. If it is strictly an opinion statement, I say leave it be. If it is personal attack or you have determined that it warrants a response, the tips in this article are perfect guidelines. It is extremely important to stay professional in all responses and even posts, especially when posting for a business or group. As an individual it is ok to get a little more creative but you must remember to be respectful. Most of all you must remember that usually these arguments are not worth your time and you should choose your battles very carefully. Getting into worthless arguments online is not a help to you as a person you’re the company you may be working for. You have to remember that criticism is a part of life and as long as it is not a personal attack you should almost always just let it go.

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