How can you tell if a space alien is a friend or an enemy? One spaceman has that decision to make in Tom Godwin’s “Cry from a Far Planet.” Listen to Dennis Jerz read the science fiction classic to discover the answer.
The cast of comical, quirky characters are most enjoyable. Marigold (Carolyn Jerz) is hilarious as the new age, love child who always sees the best in everybody and everything. Jerz floats, whirls, and glides across the stage. She’s delightful and believable in her role. Her presence on stage brings lightness and spreads joy. —Burgh Vivant
Carolyn Jerz lights up the stage from her first entrance, almost literally. Dressed in bright colors and elaborately coiffed, with her face made up so pale white that it glows (think Björk meets Catherine O’Hara in Beetlejuice), Jerz imbues the role of spiritualist and yoga enthusiast Marigold with an outsider energy that is otherworldly, larger than life,…
Moments after Donald Trump was rushed to safety following a failed assassination attempt at a Saturday night rally, some of his supporters turned toward the press pen with obscenities as they fingered reporters for blame. “This is your fault!” one attendee emphatically yelled, pointing at individual journalists as he approached the fence line separating them from attendees.…
The daughter is in “Very Berry Dead,” a new play which opens this Friday and runs for two weekends in Pittsburgh.
The writer, director, and one of the cast members talk about the play that my daughter Carolyn is getting ready to open Friday. Tickets: https://veryberrydead.bpt.me/
So important to be teaching research skills and critical thinking at a time when powerful people manipulate the public with their lies.
Glenda Morgan does not sound that impressed with Google’s latest promises about AI and education. [T]hus far I am unconvinced that the kinds of tutoring currently offered via AI matches the concept of watching a student’s thought processes and identifying the core issues they aren’t understanding. Instead, AI tutoring today seems to consist of breaking…
When scholars of journalism study the effects of the shrinking press corps, they usually focus on how it hurts civil society. Vast swaths of the country are at risk of becoming “news deserts,” with limited access to reliable local journalism. This state of affairs makes it harder for people to make educated decisions and is…
Over the past couple of years, researchers at Jigsaw, a Google subsidiary that focuses on online politics and polarization, have been studying how Gen Zers digest and metabolize what they see online. The researchers were hoping that their work would provide one of the first in-depth, ethnographic studies of Gen Z’s “information literacy.” But the…
Joel Lipton, 10 years old at the time, wrote to Peanuts cartoonist Charles Schulz. Fast-forward to this past February, when Lipton and his wife were cleaning out their closet. […] “Dear Joel,” the letter reads. “I think it is more difficult these days to define what makes a good citizen then it has ever been…
Apple has apologized, but like writer Peter C. Baker, I’m not quite ready to let go of that really horrifying ad depicting a roomful of beautifully displayed musical instruments, sound gear, art supplies, and even toys being slowly squashed by a huge hydraulic press (ostensibly to highlight the creative potential of the latest iPad). Picture…
I’m very amused at this nerdy news story about some tension between a judge who asks for legible documents and a lawyer who files documents with flasher typography. While I recognize that language changes and the distinction between “font” and “typeface” is unimportant to the general public, I teach my journalism students that historically…
It’s unlikely to be at the forefront of the former president’s mind as he reflects on the verdict, but one immediate consequence is that Trump will probably lose the honorific title of “Mr” in the news pages of the UK’s Daily Telegraph. The Telegraph’s style guide states: “Defendants in criminal court cases … are to be referred…
At the Johnstown Flood Museum. (May 31 1889 the neglected dam at the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club broke, unleashing devastation on the valley below.)
My contribution to WAOB Audio Theatre’s plan to record all the proverbs.
Have you seen Apple’s “Crush” ad? It features a huge huge hydraulic press crushing musical instruments, art supplies, google-eyed toys, and other beloved artifacts of imagination and creativity. I remember seeing a video years ago that showed how a smartphone replaced a desktop full of tools like a calculator, notepad, rolodex, and so forth. But…
I’m still teaching journalism and my usual courses, but after 21 years I’ve stepped aside as faculty adviser to the Setonian. The student voice of the hill (founded in 1919) will continue to evolve. First published in 1919, The Setonian not only predates SHU’s journalism major, it also predates the majestic London planetrees that the…