Annie: A Study in Contrast and Complement

I enjoyed using clips of Renata with the little girls in her life, to contextualize her role as the child-hating Miss Hannigan. Showing the kids singing “Happy Birthday” not one but three times amplifies her comments about patience and growing up. This video was the most fun to edit. http://youtu.be/WEQQoAta8Uo Similar:"The Nightmare of Prince Prezelsky"Leigh,…

The Tempest, According to My 9yo Daughter

She’s 10 now, but here is her response to seeing The Tempest at Seton Hill University last year. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcxnHUQf5rk&sns=em Similar:Intimations of MortalityPlato, Montaigne, Pascal—those were the …CultureNature walks 2012 and 2018.AestheticsThis class has been everything that I expect it would be and I cannot believe that we are …Some days are slogs.  Some weeks are…

Peter’s Evil Overlord List

Peter Anspach posted this list. Here are some of my favorites. My Legions of Terror will have helmets with clear plexiglass visors, not face-concealing ones. My ventilation ducts will be too small to crawl through. My noble half-brother whose throne I usurped will be killed, not kept anonymously imprisoned in a forgotten cell of my…

Dennis G. Jerz | Associate Professor of English -- New Media Journalism, Seton Hill University | jerz.setonhill.edu

When the Reporter Becomes Part of the Story (Aggressive Reporter Covering Pittsburgh Zoo Death)

Students who are new to journalism often introduce a quote like this: When asked about a habit he’d most like his journalism students to break, Dennis Jerz said, “Usually when I see the phrase ‘when asked about,’ I look for things to throw.” We only encounter that phrase in reporting, so when students start writing…

Seton Hill Student Journalists Launch Local Election Coverage

Students in my journalism class are publishing short articles on the U.S. election, starting with advance stories today, then continuing with live updates on Election Day and afterwards. This year, students have already started publishing articles online as soon as they are ready, rather than waiting until after the print edition has been sent to…

Why ‘Gangnam Style’ Is Actually a Study in Mind Control

I’m not sure “thank you” is the right way to acknowledge this painful link from Paul Crossman. “Oh, come on,” you’re probably saying. “It’s not the music that’s addictive. It’s the dance, from the goofy video. That’s what went viral.” (There’s that word again.) Well, it turns out that this programming effect could be embedded…

Shatoetry iPhone app lets you put… words… in… William Shatner’s… mouth

William Shatner and technology go way back, but it’s taken him until today to get his own smartphone app. Then again, he is a man known to take long pauses. Dubbed Shatoetry, the new app (iPhone-only, for the moment) lets you string together a variety of pre-recorded words — each with three different versions —…

Canada’s Stratford Festival losing ‘Shakespeare’ from its name

Attending this was one of the handful of cultural treats my wife and I splurged on during our grad student days. LA Times – Canada's Stratford Festival losing 'Shakespeare' from its name. Similar:Sources tell Seton Hill University's Dennis Jerz that TV news websites emphasize self-prom…Sources tell Seton Hill University’s Den…BusinessRest assured, there will soon be…

Cover your Backside with B-roll on Vimeo Video School on Vimeo

Great resource. Cover your Backside with B-roll on Vimeo Video School on Vimeo. Now consider this:   Similar:My Latest Classic Tales Online PurchaseJust finished listening to B. J. Harris …BooksAnother delightful section of #steampunk control panel, for a personal #blender3d project….AestheticsJust a handful more of these elegant #steampunk control panels and I can move on…

Addis, LA: Little Orphan Annie stopped for speeding

  Addis, LA: Little Orphan Annie stopped for speeding | #Beet’s B.O.O.T.. Similar:Robots Are Coming for Our PoemsThe robots are quickly and surely coming…AestheticsThe Last Outpost (ST:TNG Rewatch. Season 1, Episode 4) Riker shouts from a cliff while Fer…Rewatching ST:TNG after about a 20-year …CultureTrees (an "Interpretive Travesty")A tree whose hungry mouth is pressed Ag…AestheticsFinal…

FDR in Annie

I’ve accepted the role of FDR in the upcoming Stage Right! Production of Annie. Auditions for the little ‘uns are Friday afternoon. My 10yo daughter and her tweeny friends are sticking out their chins and grinning and singing “Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow / Creeps in this petty pace from day to day” or whatever…

Google Trends: blog, Twitter, YouTube, Facebook (2004-2012)

I rather expected this — popularity of the search term “blog” from 2004-2012. And this, too, was not a big surprise — Similar:I'm not a big fan of Disney's corporate greed.I’m not a huge fan of Disney, largely be…AcademiaMr. Chen Goes to WuhanA Chinese media personality with over ha…CultureTrump administration gave Courage Award to a…

Monsters are People Too

Study used D & D characters to test how subjects responded to eyegaze in human, humanoid, and monster characters. Observers were presented with images selected from the popular fantasy game Dungeons and Dragons (D&D; figure 1a). The images could be of humans, creatures with eyes in the centre of the face (humanoids), and creatures with…