Students aim for Broadway in musical with true-life focus

David Mahokey of Dunbar, a senior at Point Park University, and Greg Kerestan of Greensburg, a senior at Seton Hill University, wrote the 20-song score and script, respectively, for ″In Control,″ a musical that focuses in part on Mahokey’s real-life battle with bone cancer. Two free performances of ″In Control,″ directed by Anthony Marino, artistic…

Books Without Borders

The heartbreaking thing is that this fall, over 10,000 bookstore employees across America will be out of work. The way the publishing industry is going, many of those people won’t be able to find jobs that are even tangentially related to books anymore; they’ll go on to work in movie theaters and grocery stores and…

Karel Capek Slighted

The layout of this display at the Carnegie Science Center almost makes it look like the Maria duplicate in Metropolis came before Karel Capek’s play RUR (which was written in 1920, first performed in 1921). Similar:Shakespeare on EclipsesPrepping for tomorrow’s first meeting of…AcademiaIntroduction to The Cherry Orchardhttps://youtu.be/8o_4Bjcfl0Y   …AcademiaWhen Students Won't Do the ReadingReading this…

Carnegie Science Center Model Train

The control panel. Similar:Broken on Purpose: Why Getting It Wrong Pays More Than Getting It RightI have recently started managing the Fac…BooksMy Ouya arrived.My Ouya arrived — a Kickstarter-funded …CybercultureAnd if my point of view is somewhat misty-eyed…And if my point of view is somewhat mist…Aesthetics‘Aims’: the software for hire that can control 30,000 fake…

USS Requin

Images from an extended tour of a cold war submarine. (We liked the tour we took last year so much, my son and I came back.) [portfolio_slideshow size=medium trans=scrollHorz ] Similar:STEM Education Is Vital–But Not at the Expense of the HumanitiesPromoting science and technology educati…AcademiaStephen Greenblatt's The Swerve racked up prizes — and completely misled…

Stage Right Greensburg Wizard of Oz

My daughter, as the wizard, with her talented castmates, in our local theater school’s preteen summer camp musical. Similar:Move Along Home (#StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch, Season 1, Episode 10) Hopscotch Cringe Shenanigan…Rewatching ST:DS9 I was kind of dread…CultureRespect the Text: Teaching Textual Primacy to Non-English MajorsIn the past, I have used the first day o…AcademiaQpid (#ST:TNG…

Bluejay Catching a Bug

My friend and colleague, Balázs Tarnai, shared these pictures of a bluejay catching a bug on his garage roof. Similar:I played hooky from work to see Wild Robot with my familyI played hooky to go see Wild Robot this…AestheticsThat’s water under the bridge! Crowds of NPCs charge across, sweeping the player along. G…That’s water under…

LEGO figures flying on NASA Jupiter probe

LEGO figurines representing the Roman god Jupiter, his wife Juno and Galileo Galilei are flying to Jupiter. (NASA/LEGO) August 4, 2011 — They have launched aboard the space shuttle, visited the space station, and flown to Mars. Now, three more “very special” LEGO figurines are set to fly to Jupiter with NASA’s Juno spacecraft. The…

Textbooks for Fall 2011

Students are starting to contact me asking about books. I will have the course websites up in a week or two, but for now, here are the textbooks. LA101 “Seminar in Thinking and Writing” From Inquiry to Academic Writing: A Text and Reader, Second Edition (ISBN 978-0-312-60141-6) The SF Writer, Fifth Edition (ISBN 978-0-205-75197-6) EL200…

The 1982 Tron Holiday Special

Sides: split. Gut: busted. Milk droplets: transferred to computer screen via nasal passages. The 1982 Tron Holiday Special from Rip Taylor via The 1982 Tron Holiday Special from Rip Taylor, Scott Gairdner, Ryan Perez, PerryAdamSmith, Nick Mundy, Funny Or Die, dannyjelinek, BoTown Sound, and James Codeglia. Similar:In Which I Ask a Hard-working Journalism Student to…