They are not comic books. They're graphic novels!

I love the undead; I also love comics and good story telling. So, what better way to get the best of both worlds than to read the Hellsing manga! It's a story about a secret organization of vampire killers in London and they are in charge of keeping the world safe from demonic forces. Ironically, the organization, known as the Hellsing Organization, has more than just a highly trained group of military operatives, scientists, and intelligence agents. They are are in possession of of vampire unlike any other, and he is used as a secret weapon against his own kind. His name is Alucard, and he is more than happy to serve his human masters in the battle against what he refers to as "cowards" and "scum".

You have to read the rest for yourself though because believe me, you don't want me to ruin it for you. I would like to discuss 3 main models that apply to graphic novel communication.

• Words
• Pictures 
• Frames

The wording in this series is exciting but also a bit confusing for me personally. Dialogue between characters is great, but since this is a manga, the text bubbles are read from right to left. The sound effects are mostly written in japanese also with a few exceptions for some english and a few SFX subtitles.

Visually, this a great graphic novel/manga. The artwork is fantastic and the action is always explosive, dynamic, and gory. The pictures are what really sell this story. 

The framing is also well placed with the exception of the awkwardness of reading backwards, but thats more of a personal problem. At moments I got a little bit confused with where I was at in the story because of it, but I  figured it out based on the engrossing storyline.

All of these elements communicate simultaneously and effectively; they each play to each other's strengths. We can see the wording that the characters speak and we can see the sound effects and picture them in our minds, right along side the beautiful art that shows location, characters expressions, and the grittiness of the conflicts. Combine those with solid framework and timing and you have one great adventure right in the palm of your hands. Now if you will excuse me, I have more reading to do.   

What is text?

In the world of media, Text is any object that can be read and then interpreted by a person/people. If you think about it, that pretty much refers to anything you see. When you see something, your brain processes the image and then interprets it. You know know what that object is and you have given it a function or value. Intertextuality is the relationship between two or more texts. Most of the time, a text may be used to make a future text more relatable between the itself and the those reading it.

Why do we refer to objects as texts then instead of message? Thats because the term message is singular in its meaning. It follows the linear model of communication which has a sender, a message, and a receiver and thats a very concrete model. With text, you read the object through your television, computer, radio, ect. and you interpret it as if you were reading a book. Thats what makes text a better term to work with as opposed to a "message"; you can bring more of you to the table this way.  

The Recording Industry

Hey, everybody!  It's Vince here and today I'm going to blog about some things I learned this week concerning job hunting in the recording industry. I know last monday during my Comm 203 class Mr. Williams gave us some advice when it comes to finding a job in any media related field. It's a very competitive world and they best way to stay ahead of the game is having connections with people who have connections with people who have jobs in that field.

So to help me learn about where to look for possible careers in the recording, I turned to my Careers in Communications book and went to chapter 5, page 96, and got some helpful information on some websites that allow people to communicate with others who have the same interests. Some of those sites include: RIAA.com (The Recording Industry Association of America), SPARS.com (The Society of Professional Audio Recording Services), and AES.org (Audio Engineering Society). Some of these sites require a small fee for access to certain forums and information, but for someone who needs all the help he can get in this economy, is it can help get me a job, Then it would be well worth it.

My career aspirations

Hello, its Vince again, and I would like to take some time here to write about the purpose of my blog.
I hope to use this blog to showcase some of my skills in the near future in the art of music and maybe some art. I also hope that this site can help me find connections with people who share my interests in what i do and love, which is mostly music. I play the drums and have been playing them for about 6 years and am very passionate about it. I am currently learning a lot about music technology, mostly recording, and am looking into getting a new set of drums so I can record with better clarity. My dream someday is to have my own recording studio, but in the meantime I want to learn all I can about the industry, technology, and business of that field. Getting on the drum subject again, I really want to do covers of popular songs like this dude here,

When I saw this video i was astounded. I have seen lots of good drum covers, but this guy, Cobus Potgieter, was amazing to listen to and to watch. This was just one of his many videos, but the all contain the same amount of awesomeness and passion. Thats what I want to do!

Now about that drum set I want to get, I was thinking about going electronic on this one. I already have an acoustic set that I love dearly even though it's nothing special. My Sonar Force 1003 is the set I have been using for 6 years. Not being made of money, I have made very small attachment upgrades like a few Sabian cymbals and a double bass pedal, but thats about it. So I'm thinking that it is time for an upgrade.

   I still want to keep my old set but space is limited where I live so i might sell it after all. Well, thats all for this update! I will hopefully post more blog updates in the future so keep an eye out! Thanks for reading!                              

First Blog Ever!!!

In class right now. First blog post ever! It's going to be strange keeping a blog. Wish me luck!