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cycling / photo / Rowan / Tuesday / video — Comments Off
7
Oct 25

I reference dramatic reality, undramatically

This is a reminder that this is a light week, because of working events. But Catober is here to amuse you. But there are about 800 words here and four photographs from yesterday’s bike ride. So, yeah, light week.

In my criticism in sport media class we examined two different kinds of stories. The students selected these. One of them was this incredible piece from CNN: ‘Harmed, outed, scrutinized’: How new sex testing rules affect athletes:

Just like Ajok and Imali, a raft of athletes will no longer be allowed to compete in the women’s category at the World Athletics Championships, which are currently taking place in Tokyo, Japan.

Track and field body WA announced earlier this year that beginning from September 1, anyone wanting to compete in the “female category” of its elite events would be required to take a “once-in-a-lifetime test” in the form of a cheek swab or blood test that will screen athletes’ genetic samples. This will determine whether they contain the SRY gene – or “a genetic surrogate for a Y chromosome” – according to the organization.

The decision comes following a World Athletics Council meeting where, along with a raft of other policy changes, the council agreed to adopt multiple recommended conditions of “eligibility in the female category,” WA confirmed in a press release.

The World Athletics Championships hosted something like 2,200 competitors from almost 200 countries and teams. Not everyone, of course, was subjected to this strict scrutiny. It’s an in-depth story that does a nice job explaining this process and some of the biological information to people who aren’t expected to be experts. I wish my lovely bride wasn’t teaching in another building at the same time as that class, because this subject has become one of her primary areas of research expertise. I am not an expert in this area, which meant I had to learn a lot the last few days. The class handled the conversation with interest and care. I was pleased to see what we got out of the story, from a critiquing point of view.

We also discussed this other story which didn’t offer us a lot. But I was able to get in several points about how all stories aren’t created in the same way, some of them aren’t going to have all of the features (or conspicuously lack them) when we’re doing a critique. I turned it into a criticism of Sports Illustrated in general. Because there’s always some context to understand, somewhere. And maybe that’s a note that will seep in over the course of the semester.

We started talking about storytelling in org comm today. Presumably I have a little expertise in this area. There were 14 or 15 slides to digest, getting into the different kinds of stories we receive from the media, our different levels of participation and sociality, fan-centered media messaging and the structures of dramatic reality storytelling. (The by-the-book version requires a story to have drama, adversity, crisis, mentors, persistence and a final reward to be a dramatic reality.)

Here’s a video I showed them that included all of those things and Da Coach O, in under four minutes.

The class will have to put some of that in to practice on Thursday, but they don’t know that yet. So don’t tell.

Here are a few shots from yesterday’s ride, which was a slow, 21-mile tour of some new roads, and some old roads. You can really see the passage of time here, which could be seasonal, or about an afternoon, depending on your meaning.

I love these yellowing cover crops.

On a road I think I’ve been on just once or twice before, we have a discovery for the Barns By Bike catalog.

And on a nearby stretch of road, which I think was entirely new to me, another.

I found myself up a hill, over some bumps, around a bend and taking a left turn. I figured I would just ride that a certain amount and then turnaround. The easy part is getting lost. The difficult part is retracing my steps if there are too many turns. So as I pedaled along some scenic, tree covered roads dotted by a cemetery here and a neighborhood there, I was trying to play the map out in my head: I’m going, roughly, east and this should dump me out … where?

Eventually I got to a stop sign and, considering the amount of daylight I had left, and what I wanted to do with it, decided to turn around and start my hustle for home. It was delightful. Three empty roads and one of them wide open with fields on either side and the only sound was the sound of my tires on the road. I got back to a little crossroads community I know well, turned right and started racing home.

As I got close, this was one of my last views.

I made it in just before dark, and hopeful I can go out again soon. Maybe for some more old roads, maybe for some new ones.

photo / Rowan / Thursday / video — Comments Off
2
Oct 25

A specific elegance

Here’s the view from the campus office, where we live next-to-corner-office wishes and sixth floor dreams. Also, I share this office with my lovely bride, though we are seldom there at the same time. Offsetting office hours make that happen this semester.

Anyway, just look at those clouds. There’s a certain elegance in the clouds when they thin and march out like that. I wonder if that’s how earlier artists were inspired to take on the challenge of forced perspective.

The office has lights, but I do not know if they work. Plenty of natural light comes through that window, and I’ve never tried turning them on.

The office has the four travel posters that commemorate our honeymoon. And there are a few other framed things on the wall. I should add some of my own. And there’s a bookshelf, but I should add some books that are currently sitting in the basement, looking awesome. We have a rug we need to bring in.

I have also been collecting vintage local sports pennants. I’d all but completed the set when countries started shipping things to the U.S. The baseball pennant I bought two months ago from someone in Canada is somewhere stuck in that morass, so I’m getting a refund. But I need a new vintage baseball pennant, so back to E-bay, I guess. Then we can get a giant frame and hang that on an office wall.

In my mind, this will look really classy and cool.

The first problem is that there’s a lot of cool stuff I could put on a wall. The second problem is the nails. Or, more precisely, the nail holes. It feels very permanent, and I don’t mean in the photo that’s been on your grandparents’ wall your whole life sense of permanence. This is silly, there are several high quality putties and sealants and a fresh coat of paint goes a long way, but puncturing drywall is a real commitment.

This also explains all of the things not hanging on walls here at home, where I could also put up some other cool stuff.

In Criticism today we watched the new documentary on British Olympian Tom Daley.

It left something to be desired, from a critical perspective, but Daley was an executive producer, and I’m sure that figures into it. He’s going to tell his story his way — and why not? With that in mind, much of it felt a lot like a sort of oral history he was recording for his children.

It’s also an unconventional documentary in some respects. He’s watching footage of himself on a big screen, footage from throughout his life, because there have always been video cameras. And he was such an incredibly high profile athlete throughout his diving career, there were always broadcast cameras, too. Plus, I’m a big believer in the need of time and space away from the subject of a documentary. Maturing, evolving, crystallizing perspectives and all of that. This doc ends with his Paris Olympics. (And it felt rushed at the end.)

It got a mixed response from the class, now I’ve just got to get them to explain aloud why. But criticism is a learned process, and we’ve got some time yet to go this term.

In org comm my god-brother-in-law came to talk about his work. He’s a professional mountain biker, a filmmaker, a storyteller. Brice is also pretty great at all of those things. So he talked about niche storytelling. He was great at that, too. Here’s one of his films.

What was gratifying to me was to see how so many of the students were engaged in what he was saying, even though he is in a niche field, and this was not their niche. Well, most of them. One guy in the room, turns out, rides a bit, and they got nerdy with the vocabulary in a hurry, which was amusing to watch. There were suddenly industry specific terms flying all over the place and everyone else in the room came to realize they had no chance of catching up, or even catching on. It’s a niche kind of storytelling.

And look, I ride bikes. I tell stories. I do niche things. I teach this class. I was taking notes on what Brice was telling us.

I have some more things to grade, but if I did that tonight, what would I do tomorrow? Plenty of other things, of course. So I’ll just grade (tomorrow) instead.

See how I do that? There’s a certain elegance to it.

Rowan / Thursday / video — Comments Off
25
Sep 25

There are many kinds of star power

Today in my Criticism class we watched, and discussed, the Nine for IX documentary, Venus vs. The tennis icon took on a years long fight for equal pay in women’s tennis. This is a great documentary, a documentary which, itself, was the beginning of a momentary effort by ESPN to correct a gender imbalance. This was the debut of the Nine for IX series. It debuted as ESPN carried their first installment of Wimbledon, and just a few years from the resolution of this long campaign.

So, if you’re keeping score, last week we went from a 1999 doc produced about a 1968 event, the Olympics, to a 2013 doc today which focuses on parts of the early 21st century career of Venus Williams. Next week we’ll watch a program produced this year.

And, also next week, I think I’ll take some stills from the Venus vs. program and talk for a moment about shot composition. I’ve given the class a primer on critiquing techniques and one of the points is about visuals. That documentary, produced and directed by Ana Duvernay before she’d become a huge hit-maker, has some things to say, visually.

In Org Comm today we continued our conversation on branding, which features a lot of sports commercials, and will somehow go into Tuesday.

My favorite one of the bunch isn’t even a real commercial.

And also this one, just because of how Peyton Manning trades on his referent power, and his incredibly philanthropy through the meaning transfer model …

Don’t tell the students, but all of the star power things we’ve been talking about this week are on an assignment they’ll have to conquer on Tuesday. That’s when we’ll start to see if I’m making any sense.

Rowan / video / Wednesday — Comments Off
24
Sep 25

And if that wall asks anything of me …

It turns out that we streamed the Charles Barkley conversation last night. You can watch it here, if you like.

If that doesn’t automatically jump to the right moment, just scrub to about 13:00 to get to the talking.

I’ve got nothing for you, but a day of timeless email tales, and trying to figure out how two days of branding talk will become three days of branding talk, and working on an assignment for next week. And also re-watching a documentary we’ll watch in class tomorrow. One must make notes so one can have something insightful to say.

Also this morning there was a Zoom meeting. And all afternoon, a faculty meeting. So enjoy Sir Charles, I want to blankly stare at a wall now.

cycling / Monday / photo / video — Comments Off
22
Sep 25

I’m not saying I rode with a ghost; I’m also not not saying that

I’ll just tell you, straight away, that this is going to be a full week for me. I’ll probably feel it for the next three weeks. Which is to say that this week is busy, and I’ll insist upon taking an extra moment or two next week to recover. And, because of that, the week after that, I’ll be in this same boat again.

Also, I have papers to review, extra meetings to attend and some things to write. And I’ve been writing other things. Maybe some of them will see the light of day at some point. Plus the regular work, of course. Well, it keeps you busy, as they say. Anyway, you’ll probably just get a lot of scenes this week. So let’s do that!

Here’s a little sunset montage I made, but I don’t think I ever shared it. Nothing to it, just a few extra photos, literal over-the-shoulder photos.

I went on a circular ride on Saturday. A crude circle. A child’s unsteady drawing of a circle, if you looked at the map, and if the child did not yet understand circles. The wind was in my face for about three-quarters of the ride. Especially right here. I’d been ducking one breeze and then took a hard left, thing I could be relieved because that wind would be on my shoulder, but, no, an even more annoying breeze was in my nose.

A bridge near us has been closed for a good long while. Closed in a “Yes, this applies to you” way. But now it is open. If you go over that bridge you’re pretty quickly into another township, which makes for three or four in one quick effort out that direction. This was from today’s ride.

And on that same ride, as I paced myself back toward the neighborhood and the approved low-light roads … the sun is telling these spent cornstalks good night.

It’s not as dark as I look, and I made it back into the evening roads. It’s a nine-mile route with bike lanes or extremely low traffic or both. And, if you’re really desperate, you can add in another five miles of pre-approved neighborhood roads to the mix. (I have negotiated this with my lovely bride in a safety-first way and, since, have only annoyed her with my choices twice.)

So I made it back to that area, and that’s where this photo is from.

I was on that road because one stretch of those 14 miles of evening roads is now being undone and redone. It’d be great for the gravel bike, but that’s not what I was riding. I suppose the good news is that I was able to share that chip and seal news with the local bike ride group we’re forming up. Way out here, where the heavy land and the green sands meet, we have a hardy little bunch of eight people in that riding chat, and that doesn’t include one of other just-too-far-away riding buddies and a few of the notorious no-one-can-hold-their-wheel beasts that I see out from time to time.

I rode with one of those guys for a while today. I was just a few miles in and then I heard the noise come along side. Big man. He turned his head to look at me for about two pedal strokes, wordlessly, and then moved to the front. I sat on his wheel for about three miles, turning out 25 and 26 mile per hour splits. I had to let him go, and he had the decency to turn a different direction at the next road.

I see him on Strava. I think I saw him off in the distance on a ride earlier this year, when I chased a taillight for miles, but then it disappeared I know not how. The locals say that, on a quiet evening, if you listen really closely, you can hear him sigh, shift gears and pedal into the phantom world.

I bet he would have enjoyed Saturday’s wind.