Throughout the semester we have studied closely many different forms of narrative, looking closely at how they represent a narrative structure no matter what medium the narrative is presented in. We have looked at television (reality tv, sports, etc.), comics, music, "Choose Your Own Adventure" books, and upon discussing these different forms of narrative, I realized one narrative that is never mentioned but is probably the greatest form of narrative of all. Life

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In our modern world, there is no telling when our video game technology will reach its peak. Technology is advancing at a faster rate every year with very rich competition within the market, especially around this time of year. The Christmas holiday season is probably the biggest turnout for our market today with people giving an arm and a leg for the year's hottest items. It is of no surprise that even in today's economy, people are still rushing to their nearest game store to buy the most popular games. The gaming industry has evolved in so many ways over the last 30 years (probably closer to 40 years) that its hard to keep up with the latest software finding itself in children's homes. So as we reach the year 2010, what have we learned about video games? That there's always something new to learn.

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For my project I will analyze the story of Gamehenge by Ernest "Trey" Anastasio from the band Phish. The story was written as Trey's senior thesis in college and is a story of a man who suddenly wakes up in this fantasy world called Gamehenge, a play on Stonehenge, full of talking Lizards that are suddenly taken over by an evil man named Wilson. Most of these songs he now incorporates in his repertoire today. The story is provided with musical background as the story is told. The paper is provided with an audio clip of Trey narrating the story while in between breaks, he plays a song relating to the story. He is also playing guitar while he is narrating, simply playing over his already recorded narration. It is very interesting how he provides the musical backdrop added to the storyline. It seems to blend in perfectly. I will analyze this piece of narration in detail for my project and include a sample of the audio/story.

A while back we talked about how narrative plays in sports media. In the continual search for intriguing plot lines, the media picks and chooses what narrative is going to be in play. They will usually try to make a story out of anything but as soon as Brett Favre chose to sign with the Minnesota Vikings, it was almost too easy. It was as if they were handed the Bible. The media, mainly Sportscenter but other media outlets as well, had a frenzy even when Favre was "retired". It was too much, taken to the extreme. Nobody had cared what he did and people were becoming sick of it. But when he decided to return to Minnesota instead of Green Bay, they had a feasible plot they could work around and spin towards the audience.
For those that don't watch much football, the Minnesota Vikings and the Green Bay Packers have one of the most historic rivalries in the NFL. The Green Bay Packers are located in Green Bay, Wisconsin (two Midwestern teams). Brett Favre has been on the Packers for 15 years (1992-2007) and became a natural "hometown hero". Setting up this plot as Minnesota as the "villain" in this story, it is comparable to Luke Skywalker going to the "darkside".

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Written in the form of a second-person point of view, the book “Nightmare Store” starts off the story telling you that you are from a small town in Mississippi visiting your Aunt & Uncle in Atlanta. It never gives away the gender of the main character because of the pre-tense that anyone can “choose their own adventure”. Since both Uncle Jerry and Aunt Louise will be out that evening, Uncle Jerry suggests you go shopping at “Wallenberg's”, the new department store. While in the television section, you dose off and fall asleep. This is where the story truly begins.

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In our last class, we discussed how flashing images of light can be taken as a form of narrative in itself. When certain patterns emerged, a story was told through sound and visual explanation. I suddenly thought of music as a narrative in itself, live music in particular. The first thing that came to my mind was the improvisational rock band, Phish.
Phish is comprised of just 4 members but most fans claim that there is a 5th member in the band, Chris Kuroda. Kuroda is the lighting designer/operator for Phish. Just as each concert is unpredictable, his lighting effects are just as much unpredictable, seemingly communicating telepathically with the band. He knows when the musical "peak" in a jam is going to occur, when a jam is going to be more ambient than rock-sounding, and when to cut off the lights altogether.

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In referring to Hoya's blog about sports commentators, I started to wonder myself if we even needed commentators at all. I personally would prefer a different form of viewing professional sports. For example, the NFL network has a show called, Mic'd Up where they show the game play by play but show the audience what both the players and coaches are saying on the sideline, even showing the inappropriate language. Most of the time commentators do not have anything to say and end up either talking about a topic either completely unrelated or something so obvious that does not needed to be said. A great example of this is John Madden. Either he is the dumbest man alive or is completely wrong for the job yet he is one of the most popular commentators around.

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In "Setting the Record Straight", Scott McCloud cleverly defines comics through an actual comic medium. He defines comics as "Juxtaposed pictorial and other images in deliberate sequence, intended to convey information and/or to produce an aesthetic response in the viewer". Taking this definition into account I started to think about how technological advances in not just our own society but other more technologically advanced societies (such as Japan) will possibly change how we perceive comics. He pointed out that photos from a photo booth can be considered comics because nowhere does the definition for comics state that the images have to be drawn. The idea of using photography for comics really stuck out in my mind as particularly interesting. The only thing close that I could find on the internet was this image, which isn't even a comic because it is only one picture and not a series of pictures in sequence, but has bubbles in it to make it seem comic-like. I find it hard to believe that nobody has toyed with this idea. It might be somewhat time consuming but nevertheless interesting.

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I agree that most shows on television need to be somewhat complex when narrative structure is concerned. But I don't know why the article left out one of the most controversial yet, overly stimulating comedies of the 21st century. The show I am talking about is South Park. Not well know for complexity and deriving most of it's key elements from other classics as "The Simpsons", it is constantly pushing the envelope as each episode unravels a plot completely unrelated to the overall setting of the show. While characters do eventually end up evolving (Eric Cartman- "Scott Tetherman Must Die" episode) into something unexpected, as well as experience gruesome deaths and sex changes (Chef) and (Mr. Garrison) respectively, the actual background of the show remains the same, much as in "The Simpsons". With hysterical metaphors and plays on society this witty comedy should be considered when talking about contemporary American television. Although it has been on a decline in recent years it is still regarded as a revolutionary show of it's time.

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