In the current rejection of the close-up in mainstream cinema, filmmakers seem to have learnt nothing from the past. The 1950s epics now seem stolid, and most of DeMille is unwatchable. In a few years’ time, The Phantom Menace, George Lucas’s first Star Wars prequel – which was filmed almost entirely in medium and wide…
Does this mean that future weblogs should favour image over text? To do so would be to the detriment of the medium as it is the combination of words and images presented over time that make the visual blog what it is. Yet the contributions that images can make within weblogs should not be underestimated…
We saw other recruits in 20-man teams who had completed the daytime infiltration course with bayonets fixed. They had crawled through puddles of water, slid under barbed wire and thrust their bayonets into tires mounted on wooden dummies. We too completed the course and, panting and sore, found ourselves soaked from bellies to shins. I…
Um, has anyone here actually used MT? The ‘multiple blog’ feature is pretty literally that – it’s not just a mangling of category usage. Each blog has it’s own config, users/permissions, templates, and so forth. For a single user it may not be a big deal, but in a school or business environment it’s a…
A doctoral student at Northeast Urban University — I’ll call him Mr. X — presented my dissertation as his own. He received a Ph.D. and took an excellent research job at Prominent African University. Through my subsequent efforts, he lost his degree, his job, and his reputation. […] Mr. X must have thought that he…
Blogging and other electronic forms of rhetorical delivery and performance will not retain their power and ability to help white people in particular overcome our institutional and other kinds of racism, as I have strongly claimed here, if the Military-Media Complex, the five communication conglomerates in the U.S. as well as others in, for example,…
This online, edited collection explores discursive, visual, social, and other communicative features of weblogs. Essays analyze and critique situated cases and examples drawn from weblogs and weblog communities. Such a project requires a multidisciplinary approach, and contributions represent perspectives from Rhetoric, Communication, Sociology, Cultural Studies, Linguistics, and Education, among others. —Into the Blogosphere Similar:AmLit Rescue…
Putting aside the issue of whether popular culture is distasteful, no one wants to preside at the opening of the Department of Beanie Baby Studies. —Nick Montfort, interviewed by “Mat”. —Interview with Nick Montfort (E Boredom) Similar:In January 2000, I was blogging about dancing paperclips, the transience of literary judge… In January 2000, I was blogging…
Brando revolutionized American acting with his Method performances in “A Streetcar Named Desire” and “On the Waterfront” and went on to create the iconic character of Don Vito Corleone in “The Godfather.” —Marlon Brando Dies at 80AP|MyWay) Similar:Vaccine hesitancy morphs into hostility, as opposition to shots hardens What began as “vaccine hesitancy” has …CultureNew Facebook…
A Sudden Case of ‘Routine Maintenance’ in the Neighborhood of Make-Believe (Jerz’s Literacy Weblog) Our local amusement park has a ride based on Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood. The trolley takes you past large-scale mock-ups of various sets from The Neighborhood of Make-Believe, and yes, Trolley goes through a tunnel. “Come along, come along, to the castle hug-and-song,”…
I recently lamented that my kids are growing up without Mister Rogers -– a very sweet public television show that features an infinitely gentle father figure who wears cardigans and talks directly to the camera. (We don’t have good reception of our local PBS station.) Someone gave us a copy of a Mister Rogers show.…
This site is a listing of Water and Waste-Water Plants throughout North America and some of all around the world, that will give you a tour of their facilities. Enjoy! If you notice any link that does not connect, please send me a quick email with the name of the city for which the link…
The Cassini spacecraft has successfully entered orbit around Saturn, after a seven year voyage. The planet is now the most distant from Earth to be orbited by a spacecraft. —Cassini slips smoothly into Saturn orbit (New Scientist) Similar:The Terrible Things I Have Said and Done My Entire Life, and Right Up Until a Few Days…
Most Americans claim they don’t believe what they read in newspapers or see on TV — only a third say news organizations generally get the facts straight — yet their opinions continue to be influenced by the media. Multiply this curious effect by the dozens of cable TV news shows, the hundreds of newspapers and…
The reason most pre-1940 musicals are unrevivable is that their books tend to be both slapdash in literary quality and fanciful to the point of absurdity. It was only in the late 30’s that the songwriting team of Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart began to emphasize dramatic plausibility, most notably in Pal Joey (1940). And…
Chunking | Forms | Frames | Fitts Law | Flash Usability | Guidelines & Principles | Link Rot | Liquid Design | PDF | ROI | Writing, Reading & Content | Articles & Related Links —Usability (The Net Place) Great collection of links to practical online articles on each of the above subjects. Similar:Blender 3D Flyover…
—No Train, No Gain A great collection of short articles focusing on such topics as how to find an interesting story in a boring budget meeting, the basics of interviewing, and taking notes. For the first time this fall, students will be able to get credit for working for the student paper (of which I…
Let’s say a mother finds an application to Duke University’s Ph.D. program in English under her daughter’s mattress. Obviously the mother is devastated. If she does nothing, in a year her daughter will be dressed in black and sneering in obscure jargon at the Thanksgiving turkey and Aunt Sally’s cranberry Jell-O mold. Where can a…
She was witty, sexually adventurous and intimate with her readers, sharing photos of her travels and exchanging private e-mails and instant messages with fans. She posted messages to other people’s Web logs and created personal profiles at social networking sites. Many readers felt deeply connected to her. Then, three weeks ago, the “Plain Layne” Web…
The story of John Henry, told mostly through ballads and work songs, traveled from coast to coast as the railroads drove west during the 19th Century. And in time, it has become timeless, spanning a century of generations with versions ranging from prisoners recorded at Mississippi’s Parchman Farm in the late 1940s to present-day folk…