Renata, Carolyn and Alex in a scene from this weekend’s Pippin.

Similar:Chess tournament.PersonalFun and Games with Samuel Beckett and Pict.Beckett’s masterpiece Waiting For Godot …CultureLong Live the LARPers — My daughter plays the antagonist in this award-winning 48 Hour Fi…https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ku7wzUtO…AestheticsJournalism Tips: Newsworthy vs SnoozeworthyA newsworthy story is recent (rather tha…CultureHad a rough day. Designing another 10 sq cm of #steampunk control panel doesn't fix everyt…AcademiaThings may…

One strategic twist-tie, and my bedside cable-tangles are a distant memory.

Similar:Father-daughter bonding between takes.That’s a prop knife in my right hand. AestheticsI think I smelled a hint of my mint toothpaste just now. Wishful thinking, or another sign…For the past 2 weeks I have slept a lot,…AcademiaSiblings gotta sib.PersonalMy meeting was cancelled, so I spent the morning assembling a cabinet for a Little Free Li…AcademiaThe…

My dad predicted Trump in 1985 – it’s not Orwell, he warned, it’s Brave New World

As my father [Neil Postman] pointed out, a written sentence has a level of verifiability to it: it is true or not true – or, at the very least, we can have a meaningful discussion over its truth. (This was pre-truthiness, pre-“alternative facts”.) But an image? One never says a picture is true or false.…

Journalists call out White House claims on terror reporting

The easily-disproved surface-level claim, that the media have not “adequately” reported on terror, is nerd-baiting. What’s more important to the White House seems to be that the public fear imminent and ongoing attacks by Muslims, and now journalists around the world are reminding the public that they covered all these incidents (including minor ones, such…

Business is the most popular college major, but that doesn’t mean it’s a good choice

Make that dime-a-dozen business degree more marketable. Study the humanities or the arts, too! Learn how to develop critical thinking, self-reflection, compassion and wisdom that will help you decide what to count or measure or build, and why. And, hey, artsy people! Take a statistics or grant-writing or computer programming class. The world needs more balanced…

More Fake News from the Biased Fake Crappy Bad Media

Clearly the pesky reporters whom the powerful keep insulting and belittling in oder to diminish their impact aren’t doing their pesky insulted belittled and diminished jobs. Isn’t there celebrity cleavage to report on? Because that cleavage won’t cover itself! President Trump’s eldest daughter said she’d give up management of her businesses. We checked. … “I will…

“I’d never heard of this play before now, but I love it.” — World Drama student

A gifted graphic design major in my World Drama class loved a passage in The Importance of Being Earnest so much she blogged it as a six-panel comic. Similar:CNN reports Biden's dog was "involved in another biting incident"CNN’s headline: “Bidens’ dog Major invol…Current_EventsStudent journalist experiences the 'trickle down' of hostility toward the pressMy own students…

Hacking the Attention Economy

The techniques that are unfolding are hard to manage and combat. Some of them look like harassment, prompting people to self-censor out of fear. Others look like “fake news”, highlighting the messiness surrounding bias, misinformation, disinformation, and propaganda. There is hate speech that is explicit, but there’s also suggestive content that prompts people to frame…

Newsworthy vs snoozeworthy

Jerz > Writing > Journalism Similar:Practicing my Unity3D design skills. Forgot to turn on gravity.https://youtu.be/PkxxiPAmTFg I’m brus…AmusingU Michigan's North Quad Complex: A Media CathedralThe North Quad Residential Complex at th…AcademiaEngrossing but difficult to watch: "Man in Cave" documentary on caver Floyd Collins I’m conflicted. This is a very well do…AestheticsWhite antiracist hero: "A hired killer fired a bullet right…

York Corpus Christi Play Simulator Screencast (PSim 2.1; D.G. Jerz)

Another digital artifact lives. The York Corpus Christi Pageant Simulator was my first serious accomplishment in digital humanities. After I learned all the medieval drama content from a class with Andrea Johnston at the University of Toronto, I made the computer program as part of a humanities computing course with Willard McCarthy in 1994, and…

The Last Soviet Citizen

Interesting reflection on the collapse of the USSR, from the vantage point of a cosmonaut who returned to a completely different world. After blasting off from Baikonur, Krikalev wouldn’t inhale earthly air for 312 days. In that time, the soft-spoken cosmonaut would watch his country crumble from 200 miles up. Presidents would change. His hometown…