iPod Vids!
I finally sat down this morning and figured out how to get vids onto my iPod touch! \o/
I'm writing it here because it took me a while to figure out. I looked at several google hits, most of which said "use Handbrake" or "buy my product", but weren't very specific. I've used Handbrake before and like it, so I wasted some time fussing with the controls a bit and had some limited success with converting my vids to an iPod-friendly format.
I finally realized that Handbrake has a preset feature, because I don't catch on to obvious things, since I believe it to be Much Harder than it actually is. It isn't hard at all! Anyhow, perhaps you are new to this stuff, too, and might appreciate being spared the google searches and frustrating dithering that I did this morning before I got it.
To get vids on your iPod using Handbrake:
1) download Handbrake if you don't have it (it is open source and free)
2) install the program
3)open Handbrake
4) click "toggle presets" in the top right corner of Handbrake, and under the "Apple" heading, choose the type of iPod you have. (if you have a non-Apple mp3 player I think you can use 'universal', though I am not certain)
5) click "Source" at the top, open the file you wish to convert, and then hit "play". It will start encoding and save the converted file to your desktop.
6) If you want several films converted, put them in the queue (do step 5 but hit "add to queue" instead of "play").
7) make a playlist in iTunes (or whatever program you use), and drop the converted files in. Make sure you tell you iPod to sync to that folder.
8) I also had to change the preset to "sync all movies", because mine defaulted to only putting the 10 most recently added videos on my iPod.
I am an utter novice about most of this stuff, so I didn't play with any of the other business on Handbrake, I just let its preset go ahead for me.
The Anthropology of Vidding
Yesterday in lecture we watched an hour-long filmed presentation called "an anthropological introduction to YouTube" by Michael Wesch of Kansas State University. Wesch played a small portion of "Us"and discussed it in terms of copyright and remix culture, then segued into a Lawrence Lessig monologue about how we're turning our children into pirates.
In a lot of respects his claims about the transformative nature of YouTube are a little overblown, or at least idealistic, and he definitely focuses more on the positive aspects of the site than the negative or problematic. As my professor pointed out in discussion today, nowhere does Wesch mention that YouTube was bought by Google two years after the site appeared. There's no analysis of the economics of the site or how ads function, much less the automated and difficult to counter copyright policing that happens, or the way YouTube content is now regularly appropriated as a vehicle for direct marketing, like the handy links that allow you to Buy This Song from iTunes or Amazon. Which is okay--one introductory, anthropological film doesn't have to address everything, but I would have liked some acknowledgment of the profit structures in place here. Another aspect of YouTube culture that he touched upon but didn't elaborate was the interconnectedness of what he calls the "mediascape". I tend not to watch a YouTube video unless I see it linked from someone whose blog or journal I follow, or on facebook, or if someone emails me a link.
It was an interesting piece--I was definitely engaged by it throughout, and I think I learned a little bit about the culture of YouTube that I didn't know before. I wouldn't say I loved it, but it definitely gave me a lot to think about with regard to online community and how technologies and use are shaping the cultures of those communities. On a purely personal note, I was thrilled at the Numa Numa video--I remember it making the rounds back in early 2005 and I swear I sat and watched that video a hundred times that week. I also had an almost visceral gut-punch when lim's "Us" came on, late in the presentation, because holy shit, this was class and here was "Us" on the screen! I have watched this vid countless times, spent a great deal of time discussing it with friends, and have even gone through it frame by frame in an attempt to identify each image. The rest of this post comes from a synthesis of a great deal of those discussions, and was helped by friends in a variety of corners of fandom who chose to help me explicate my love of vids in general and this one in particular.
I'd like to focus on "Us" in particular, because while I think Wesch's engagement with the vid is entirely valid and it does work well as a statement against copyright and in support of fair use and remixing, there's more that can and should be said about it as a comment on its specific context, a community which is marginalized and overwhelmingly female. When Wesch says that "these are clips from movies", he neglects that these are clips from beloved fannish media, shows and movies. The images are obscured so much that it's almost impossible to identify them unless you are a member of this community and recognize how they have been collectively invested with incredible emotional weight by fans who love the characters, who have written and read thousands of pages of fanfiction about them, who have painted and drawn them, who have recorded podfic about them, or who have worked and reworked source images into vids.
Many of the clips lim uses come from particularly large slash fandoms, like Star Trek, Due South, and Stargate: Atlantis, in which (mostly female) fans tell each other stories about the inferred gay relationships between the series' leads. It can be read as a commentary about what women are watching, what they can and can't see in mainstream media, and what their role as an viewer might be. If you look for images of women in the vid, you'll find that there are few, but the ones we see are revealing. The actual women we see in the vid are examining, analyzing, seeing, gazing, their thoughts unknown. Also present in the vid are caricatures of women as perceived by men and male-oriented media--garish, stereotypically feminine, hypersexual, and commercialized. Fandom, including slash media fandom, is a thriving, engaged, energetic remix culture, and that is the culture lim's vid celebrates. It is as much about the fandom as about the source, and it is for the fandom and for the art of remix that the vidder throws in her lot with the "pirates" in this piece. Kristina Busse's curator's note about the vid points out the way "Us" also interrogates the outsider's interest in fandom. Alexis Lothian, whose article in the latest issue of Cinema Journal examines "Us" and piracy, writes engagingly of her reaction to seeing this vid in a gallery exhibition in Riverside.
I want to make a brief note about vid culture, here--lim's vid is among the most famous, but vidding culture stretches back decades to the 70s (and even before) with the advent of the VCR, when women would tape episodes of Star Trek and painstakingly record vids of their favorite shows onto VHS tapes, which would be circulated privately among friends. The advent of digital video editing technologies allowed for much easier, higher quality remix vids with more sophisticated effects and cutting, and innovators in the vidding community continue to push the boundaries, learn, and collaborate on new technologies in the pursuit of their art. This culture predates widespread access to the internet and certainly predates YouTube by a number of years, yet it is often overlooked. For more information on the history of fannish vidding, I urge you to check out Francesca Coppa's article in Transformative Works and Cultures, Women, Star Trek, and early fannish vidding.
YouTube actually has a somewhat poor reputation among many vidders (though this is by no means universal). Content created within a particular context and using images in dialogue with particular community standards and expectations can go viral on YouTube, where it is stripped of that context and laid open for abuse from anonymous commenters. This famously happened with Killa's Star Trek Kirk/Spock vid, "Closer", set to the Nine Inch Nails song, which is a constructed reality vid that uses clips from the source to tell an alternative story--in this case, remixing the episode "Amok Time", in which Spock must return to Vulcan to consummate "pon farr", the biological need to mate, to ask the question, "what if they hadn't made it to Vulcan?" Within a fannish context, which accepts the premise of a Kirk/Spock relationship and takes it seriously, this vid is a disturbing commentary on implications of canon and becomes a visual essay examining and problematizing violence and rape. On YouTube, lacking that context, commenters considered it funny and bizarre. The vidder loses any control she might have had over the distribution of her work, which she may have only intended for a particular community. Henry Jenkins discusses this issue at length in his post "How to watch a fanvid". For another vid that celebrates female fannish engagement with Star Trek as a franchise, see jmtorres, nigaeli et al.'s The Long Spear, which begins with a meditative reflection on the new Star Trek reboot and becomes a meditation on fannish history, vidding history (many of the clips pay homage to early vids), female viewership, and the attachments between a source and its fans as well as the attachments fans form with one another.
YouTube is also unfavored by fannish vidders due to their somewhat extreme enforcement of copyright, which leaves little space for consideration that works might be valid fair use. Vidders are vulnerable to having their content pulled, or worse, can find themselves under threat of prosecution for copyright infringement. While fair use should protect remixed video, many sites are unwilling to risk culpability or legal expenses, and may not wish to anger advertisers with remixed content, and vids are pulled without warning or recourse for the vidder. This recently happened on a large scale when imeem, a site widely used by vidders for hosting and streaming their vids, suddenly pulled all of the vids off the site a few months ago, with something like 2 days' warning, leaving thousands of broken links around the internet and vidders at a loss as to where they should turn. Copyright infringement was not the justification for this--profit was. Imeem made no bones about how user-generated content (UGC) is not profitable. There was also no mechanism to download the work or save the conversations and feedback attached to the vids hosted on imeem. Currently, blip.tv and bam are in use, though many vidders have expressed that neither is satisfactory, and many are working to create embed functionality in their own websites as an alternative. That alternative, unfortunately, removes the very attraction of YouTube--the promise of a central, social space to share your creations.
There are valid concerns about the future on internet and especially the protection of user-generated content. Public Knowledge has an interesting post about what the video-driven future of the internet might look like, one which questions the dismissive attitude so many people have toward UGC. There's also the Organization for Transformative Works, which is a fan-run organization which advocates on behalf of fans and the legitimacy of transformative works, has provisions for legal support should it be necessary to defend a fan who chooses to protest on the terms of fair use. The OTW also owns its servers and is looking into eventually creating a site to host fanvids where creators do not have to fear being TOS'ed off their sites.
Butternut Squash Galette
Last night I made a butternut squash galette, because I was so won over by a friend's descriptions of her success with the smitten kitchen recipe. I often cruise several recipes for a given meal and then combine my favorite aspects of each and adapting ingredients based on what I have on hand, which is why I'm not the world's best baker but I can be an eager and adventurous cook (this is compounded by the fact that I notoriously do not measure things). So, I found this attractive recipe on the food network website, and went to town.
It turned out delicious, and I'll definitely make it again sometime. Here's my cobbled-together version of the recipe, in case you're interested. I basically used the Smitten Kitchen crust and the Food Network filling, with some adjustments to each (with a hat tip to Megan's Grandma's Pie Crust which inspired me to add lard).
For the pastry:
5/8 stick of cold butter (reserve the other 3/8 for filling)
3 tablespoons of lard (or just use a whole stick fo butter and omit the lard)
1 1/4 c flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 c sour cream
2 tsp fresh lemon juice
1/4 c ice water
Cut together the butter, lard, salt, and flour (I used a fork, but if you have a fancy pastry blender go ahead and use that) until it's combined--texture will be pebbly. In another bowl, mix the lemon juice, sour cream, and cold water. add wet ingredients to the butter/flour mixture just until combined (do not overwork pastry dough or it becomes tough). Roll up in wax paper and stick in the fridge for an hour.
For the filling:
One small butternut squash (or a portion of a larger one)
One cooking apple
One leek
One small onion (I used red onion b/c I had it, but other recipes have called for yellow)
3 tbsp melted butter
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp fresh lemon juice
three leaves fresh sage
3 sprigs fresh thyme or winter savory (I had the latter on hand)
a pinch of dried basil (optional)
one chive, minced
cayenne pepper to taste (I used a fresh jalapeno b/c I had it, but in retrospect would use cayenne)
pepper to taste
salt
1/4 c fontina cheese, grated (I saw recipes with other cheese, like blue and goat. I liked fontina)
Do NOT peel the apple or the squash. Cut the apple in quarters, core it, then slice each quarter in 3rds. Put apple in a bowl and toss with lemon juice and brown sugar.
Take the squash, cut lengthwise, remove seeds and stringy/pulpy bits. Slice it into thin crescents similar in width to the apple slices.
Cut the onion into half-moon slices, too.
Slice the leek into thin discs, beginning at the white part and going up into the light green part--stop if it seems to get tough. If your leek is small, use two of them.
In a bowl, combine the melted butter with the sage, thyme, basil, chive, hot pepper or cayenne, pepper, and salt.
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
Take the pastry out of the refrigerator after an hour. Turn onto a floured surface and roll until you have a rough circle about 12 inches in diameter. Transfer dough to an ungreased baking sheet.
Arrange the squash, apple, onion, and leeks in the center of the pastry, leaving a few inches' margin along the edge. I did a layer of squash, then apple, then onion, but you can arrange them more casually if you prefer. Pour buttery herb mixture evenly over the top, then sprinkle half of the cheese over that.
Pull the edges of the pastry up and pleat them so they stay. Most of the center will be exposed.
Bake at 400 degrees for about 55 minutes, then sprinkle remaining cheese over. Bake five minutes more, then remove from oven and let cool on a cooling rack. Serve hot, warm, or room temperature.
On farming
I haven't been posting much about farming this year, and I'm not exactly sure why. I think there are a lot of feelings and thoughts that seem inexplicable, or at least too tactile to translate into blog posts. I think instead of writing about the farm, I cook about it--I can be very meditative when cooking, which is the act of transforming vegetables and meat that comes from a land I have known and worked, from the hands of people who are such good friends they often feel like family. I have learned invaluable things from them--patience, cultivation, joy-in-work that's so unlike the solitary joy-in-work of writing and reading.
There's a depth to the experiences I get from farming, a history of my work on this farm and the one I worked on before, that feels like an abiding warmth tucked behind my heart. I don't get to work out there as often as I'd like, but I love doing it whenever possible. This was my fourth summer working on an organic local farm--for two years I worked as a field hand twice a week at a small farm that sells to Madison-area high-end restaurants. I could go to the Old Fashioned, the Willy St Co-op, Lombardinos, Sardine, and more and order something off the menu and know that the tomatoes that came with them, or the basil, or onions, or the microgreens, were ones that I had gotten sick trellising, that I had planted and weeded and harvested. For the past two summers, I have worked a CSA work trade with a local CSA farmer, Kriss, and her kids with whom I had worked at the previous farm. So I've known the family for over four years now, and I have learned so much from them and have been so warmly welcomed by them that I can't even begin to explain it.
I remember earlier in the summer on the day we harvested several hundred carrots in the pouring rain. One of my boots was full of water, I was wet and constantly sneezing and fiercely happy, to be in the garden with my friends and talking about how we came to this local community, the ways it has healed parts of our hearts that we didn't even know were unhappy. The utter breathtaking beauty of four colors of carrots, freshly scrubbed in giant heaps. Eating them in the rain, with grit in the teeth and laughter bubbling up from the throat.
Or there was a time this summer I spent about four hours on impossible weeding and mulching in the peppers--every time I came out there after that, there were the plants growing red or green or purple fingers straight up toward the sun, unhindered by the four foot grass that used to be there. The beauty of beets, the heady scent of chamomile and basil and thyme, the joy of picking beans in the garden directly next to the sow and her gamboling baby piglets, the inquisitive lows of the steers and the cacophony of the herd of sheep bleating and baaing each with its own distinctive voice. Having to constantly fend off the snuggly affections of Captain Jack, the scruffy, scarred, half-tailed most loving cat in the universe.
I even cherish the heartbreaks. The tomato crop was practically nonexistent this year because of a blight, which is just depressing after all the work and care and maintenance that goes into tomatoes. Last year we got heavy heavy rains early in the summer, and the entire lower garden was hip deep in standing water--all the work that everyone had done seeding, planting, and weeding it was gone overnight. I've learned so much from witnessing these setbacks and how the farmers learn to accept them and move on.
I know I'm very lucky to live where I do, right in the middle of an active and engaged and productive network of CSA and organic farms. I'm lucky to have the flexibility of schedule to allow me to trade 40 hours a summer for a box of food. I'm lucky to have a body capable of doing this work. It's not the kind of work everyone or even most people can or should do, but I am happy I am doing it. It teaches me and nourishes me to grow and love and experiment and be present and remember and share in ways that most other things in my life don't do.
On Sunday I had the rare pleasure of giving back just a little. As you know, I work in a bookstore, and we're heavily involved with the WI Book Festival. We were an outlet for the tickets for Wendell Berry, so I snagged three tickets early on and invited Kriss and my friend Sandy. I'm not a huge Wendell Berry fan, but I knew Kriss is--in fact, I got her a copy of a beautiful edition of The Mad Farmer book for Christmas, and that's been my only exposure to his work. However, she says that Berry is one of the reasons they decided to move away from the city to a small town in rural Wisconsin and start their own farm. Anyhow, the talk was interesting but the best part was having hot chocolate with my friends afterward and discussing interdependence and balancing the pros and cons of small communities. Kriss wrote a bit about it in her blog, which I'm posting with her permission.
This weekend I'm going to the farm to do some post-CSA season organizing and even some planting. I'll also be getting some lard from them for use in a pie crust recipe I just got from friends. I have two giant pumpkins and a bunch of gone off apples from the organic discount bin at the co-op, so I think my house is going to smell really amazing. I love farm food so much, it's such a joy to handle and chop and cook and eat. I love the bizarre colors (purple carrots and kohlrabi are my favorite!). I love sharing it with friends, like the curry I made for movie night the other night.
Bookshelf
I finally got around to unpacking all of my books, and surprisingly they actually fit on my available bookshelves! I did a ruthless purge before I moved, sold three boxes or so of books, so I guess I'm used to thinking I have more of them than I actually do!
Anyhow, for a wannabe librarian I'm not excessively organized about my books. I actually group them by size (where will they fit?) and loosely by genre, but really it's by emotional impressions and relational reasons in my head. I'm an intuitive book owner, and my system is not exact.
So, I sat down to my computer after finishing up, and looked over at the bookshelf by my desk. The bookshelf itself was my grandmother's, and it's my favorite one (I even love it more than I love my bookshelf-bed). So all my favorite books or genres of one kind or another are on here, as well as most of my nonfiction and theory because hey, you never know when you'll want to consult Simians, Cyborgs and Women or Sister Outsider. (ETA: And actually, I swear to god, not one week after posting this I actually DID have a conversation with a friend in which I leaned over and looked at Haraway. Trufax, I am not joking.) Also the books I need for school are here so they're handy when I go to do my assignments.
Anyhow, I realized that my bookshelf is predominately full of female authors. I had a hunch about that, and leaned over and counted them--out of 127 books, only about 20 are by men, and about half of those are Chip Delany. A handful are by trans people. HM. Of course, I have tons more books elsewhere in the house that are by white straight men, don't worry.
It feels good to have all the books back in my life!
I had an angsty wallow last night about writing anxiety. I've been having a lot of anxiety about writing of all kinds lately--homework assignments to emails to blog posts to fiction to feedbacking to book reviews to comments to tweets, all of it. I am trying to be compassionate to myself, but I'm really struggling with that because I don't think I'm as good a writer as I want to be, and so much of my personal and professional interests are tightly bound up in writing and reading, so much so that I think writing is an integral aspect of my identity. If I can't see myself as a writer, what am I? These are the sort of existential questions that keep me up until 2am flicking mournfully through my WIP folder.
In other news, hey, did you know that women and gays are apparently ruining Sci Fi for the rest of us them? Seriously, these dudes are so privileged it goes beyond offensive right into hilarious.