It’s been nearly a month since Michael Jackson died and amazingly it’s taken nearly this long for me to really understand what we’ve lost and how I feel about it. When Jackson’s Thriller came out in 1982 [corrected, thanks Noel] I was a youngster pretty much fresh out of high school. The music of the eighties was the music of my generation and Jackson competed with other artists of the time such as Prince, Cameo, Terrance Trent D’Arby, and George Clinton. There were also jazz, rock and blues artists taking up my attention such as Stevie Ray Vaughan, The Police, Miles Davis and George Benson.

While I enjoyed the dancing and singing that Mike introduced to the MTV generation, I was way more into artists such as Prince who were more instrument oriented. I was also extremely turned off as Micheal started to bleach his skin and point his nose, which I saw as a rejection of his blackness. As he became stranger and stranger I stopped paying much attention to him, after all, I’d been listening to MJ since the early 70s…yawn.

But you never miss anything until it’s gone.

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I ran across this website recently. The Big Myth is an educational site which seeks to inform students about mythologies across the globe. I’ve always been interested in mythology, ever since my mom would read African fables to me as a child. Myths and fables have traditionally served an important purpose within a culture. It is used to educate and, to some extent, indoctrinate the youth into the ways and expectations of a certain culture. Myths can also impart universal lessons that may be relevant to any culture. In fact when you look at different myths from different cultures you see that many of the lessons are the same. People do enjoy a striking similarity of values around the world.

A previous article in this magazine documents my exploration in bringing African fables to the digital age using motion graphics and animation. I was sure that I wasn’t the only one exploring this theme but have not run across many that approach the subject in a similar fashion. The Big Myth uses the same technology (Adobe Flash) but puts it into an educational framework including a teachers guide and forum. I also appreciate the fact that it includes five myths from Africa. I’m of the firm belief that African American youth would be well served by being exposed the unbridled imagination and time tested values that ancient mythology can provide, in contrast to the kind of gritty, “keepin’ it real” urban mythology that they are currently inundated with.

The Big Myth is funded by grants from the Socrates Fund of the European Commission, the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Sciences and Kennisnet. It includes animation, sound effects, music and narration.

Click here to experience The Big Myth.

Here’s a site you don’t want to miss. I won’t go into too much detail. If you know who John Coltrane is you’ll want to hop right over to johncoltrane.com and check out his biography, pictures, and other information. If you don’t know Coltrane then you’re in for a treat as you’re introduced to one of the giants of modern jazz.

The site is Flash based and provides a seamless integration of audio, video, text, and motion graphics. Enjoy!

[Show as slideshow]

A colleague sent me the link to this video. I was immediately taken by the motion graphics created to open the film. I know how labor intensive it is to put those kind of things together and the way the designer works the text and graphics is tight. As I watched, however, the content started to get to me. It’s the usual story of America projecting power into the third world. I’m no expert on Africom but I’ve been around the block enough times to know how things work. A serious understanding of history reveals the fact that nations don’t spend time and money in other countries unless there is something to gain. America is no different. When we talk about “American interests” we are talking about America’s ability to create wealth for itself. Or it’s ability to project power in order to allow it’s multinational corporations the ability create wealth. America’s foreign policy is an outgrowth of European foreign policy which, for the past 500 years has meant slavery, colonialism and exploitation for non-white people the world over. This is also referred to as white world supremacy and it’s rarely given any attention in the western press. (more…)

As graphic designers we are in the unique position to create, influence, interpret and preserve culture. The visual materials we produce, both printed and electronic are records of our times. The western-based cultural tradition of writing dates back thousands of years. This history, stored on paper, tablets or scrolls is, for the most part, safe and stored in museums and archives.

Before the written tradition, however, was the oral tradition — the practice of spreading a people’s history and ideals through the spoken word, many times in the form of fables. This project seeks to modernize and archive the African oral storytelling tradition using computer-based motion graphics and interactivity. Using MacroMedia Flash MX (an authoring and animation software) the project merges the spoken word with interactive and kinetic graphics, music and sound…
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Black United Students (BUS) was founded 40 years ago this year, on the campus of Kent State University. The organization has gone through many changes over time. But, much remains the same.

Dr. Larry Simpson, the first president of BUS, returned to the campus November 8, 2008 for a celebration of the past 40 years.  He’s now the Senior Vice President of Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA, in charge of academic affairs. Over the years his experience with BUS has served him well. As he stated in his keynote address the other night. Being involved in BUS gave him a window into the adult world that he may not have experienced had it not been for BUS. Mostly, it was about learning how to work with other people and function as a member of society. (more…)

Young people turned out in force for a political rally at the Quicken Loans Arena on October 29th, 2008. LeBron James, Jay-Z, the Obama Campaign and the Democratic Party held a large rally in downtown Cleveland that was well staged and attended.

News media from around the world were represented, including a Kenyan paper called “The Nation,” “Al-Jazeera English,” and all the major U.S. news outlets.
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Today Senator Barack Obama wrapped up the presidential campaign that began “on the steps of the Old State Capitol in Springfield, Illinois, “with his “closing argument,” delivered to a full house at the Canton Memorial Civic Center in Canton, Ohio. His closing argument summed up the current state of the campaign and, I’m sure, inspired many residents of Northeast Ohio to continue to work even harder to put him in the White House, on November 4th, 2008.

Even as the diverse crowd basked in the words of the presidential candidate, plans to implement the “final solution” for African Americans, Barack Obama in particular, were being foiled by federal agents in Jackson, Tennessee. This makes the 4th assassination attempt on Baracks life, that’s been publicized, since he began his campaign on the steps of the Old State Capitol.
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I found this while surfing the web. I try to present original content on this site but I got a chuckle out of this video and sometimes a little comic relief is a good thing. This particular video comes with an advertisement. I can’t say I like that, so we’ll see if I include embedded video like this again.

Portrayal Of Obama As Elitist Hailed As Step Forward For African Americans

Joining the site

Quadratix is currently accepting submissions to contribute to the site. In order to post you first have to join. Look under the heading “Meta” at the bottom of the far-right side bar for a link called “register”.

Note: Click on images for larger view.

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