silver in seattle

let's move over here

2006-07-22T21:45:00.000-07:00

via a car filled with boxes, plants, and one relatively good natured cat in a cage, we went from seattle to portland to yachats to bandon to mendocino to san francisco. and with that, to the best of my knowledge, silver in seattle became silver in sf.

give it away

2006-07-13T09:35:00.000-07:00

i set up a free node in the lobby of my apartment in old town ballard. originally, it looked like this:

stuff went fast. although the basketball wasn't snagged, most of the books were snatched up pretty quickly. so i added some more stuff, including some plants and a chess board i made in woodshop class in junior high!

purging and packing

2006-07-12T11:58:00.000-07:00

i'm in the last stages of packing. my office is nearly cleared out. i delivered three boxes of books to jessica albano, one of my favorite friends and colleagues here at UW and one of my favorite librarians of all time, with hopes that UW libraries will put them to good use. i recycled about 3-4 boxes worth of papers, tests, articles, syllabi, etc. it's amazing to see how much stuff i'm getting rid of. it's liberating to purge stuff that was so important just a year or two ago. i have to say, it sure will be nice to get out of this building.

in september project news, libraries from three new countries just signed up:

china

art library of museum of site

pakistan

the founders

zimbabwe

bulawayo public library

there are now september project events being organized in 19 countries. watch it grow.

now on to packing and purging my apartment. with luck, that should be done in a day or two. and then, beginning this friday, sarah and i will attend my twentieth high school reunion in beautiful san luis obispo, california!

congratulazioni italia!

2006-07-09T20:12:00.000-07:00

congratulations italy - 2006 world cup champions!

1998 VW Golf: looking for a used car in seattle?

2006-07-08T09:41:00.000-07:00

i just posted the following on craig's list and have already received three requests to see the car. in other words, if you are interested, act now! this car was originally my brother in law jeff's car and has ushered me around the city with class and style for the last five years. sun roof! hatchback! AM/FM-cassette car stereo! a built in holder for two coffees!

update: car = sold. apparently this craig's list thing actually works.

the september project in sixteen countries

2006-07-07T11:38:00.000-07:00

[crossposted from the september project blog]

in the last few weeks, the september project has grown significantly more global. two weeks ago, libraries in 10 countries were planning september project events. today, events are being planned in 16 countries.

from canada, west vancouver memorial library (in west vancouver, british columbia) and chinook regional library: swift current branch (in swift current, saskatchewan), both 2005 september project participants, have signed up again this year.

from costa rica, the university for peace library (in san jose) has recently become the first costa rican library to participate in the september project. (the united nations-mandated university of peace was established in 1980 with the following mission: "to provide humanity with an international institution of higher education for peace with the aim of promoting among all human beings the spirit of understanding, tolerance and peaceful coexistence, to stimulate cooperation among peoples and to help lessen obstacles and threats to world peace and progress, in keeping with the noble aspirations proclaimed in the Charter of the United Nations.")

from greece, the athens university of economics & business library (in athens) will be participating again this year.

from iceland, kopavogur public library: lindasafn branch library (in kopavogur) signed up to participate again this year.

from india, the amity campus jaipur library (in jaipur, rajasthan) and the NIILM center for management studies library (in new delhi) have signed up. in an email, jitender sharma, librarian and marketing manager at NIILM-CMS library wrote: "Our library will always be willing to be a part of this project."

from israel, the pamela and stanley chais public library (in mevasseret - zion) and the university of haifa library (in haifa) have joined the september project.

we look forward to watching the project grow around the planet.

teaching carnival: calling all community college, college, and university teachers

2006-07-06T11:05:00.000-07:00

the idea behind teaching carnival is quite simple: there's a lot of community college, college, and university professors out there blogging about their teaching, so why not encourage various bloggers to periodically compile the posts and offer brief annotations about them?

george (who got his phd in english at the university of maryland roughly the same time that i was getting mine in american studies) came up with the concept and successfully ran the carnival last year. he is now looking for folks to sign up for fall 2006.

seems to me that the avenues for talking about and sharing ideas about higher education teaching are shrinking; projects like this offer new possibilities. if you teach at a community college, college, or university, consider getting involved by gmailing him at georgehwilliams - or just leave a commment here.

call for papers - beyond the book: contemporary cultures of reading

2006-07-03T08:24:00.000-07:00

a great looking conference sponsored by the folks at beyond the book. the details:

Beyond the Book: Contemporary Cultures of Reading
A conference at the University of Birmingham, UK
September 1-2, 2007

Keynote Speakers: Janice Radway (Duke University) & Elizabeth Long (Rice University)

Book groups, Lit Blogs, on-line bookstores, book festivals, reader magazines, "One Book, One Community," Reader's Guides, "Richard & Judy's Book Club," Book TV, "Canada Reads," the "Nancy Pearl Action Figure," "Tuesday Night Book Club,"... reading is hot!

Proposals for 20-minute papers (abstracts of 200-300 words) or complete three-person panel sessions (including abstracts for each paper) are due January, 15, 2007.

i love the concept of one book, one community, and think a conference on the topic is an excellent idea. for more information, contact beyond the book.

all eyes on mexico

2006-07-01T10:02:00.000-07:00

this sunday, mexico holds its presidential elections. stay tuned.

update: as of monday morning, there is no update. the election is too close to call. both candidates have claimed victory. mexico's electoral commission says it might not be able to announce the winner until wednesday. keep staying tuned.

goffstown public library

2006-06-30T11:22:00.000-07:00

[crossposted by the september project blog]

this morning, goffstown public library, in goffstown, new hampshire, signed up to participate in the september project. two librarians, jessica stevens and sandra whipple, are organizing the events and they've already posted a web page for their september project events!

their events include two september 11-related films (the guys and seven days in september: a powerful story about 9/11 - both from 2002) and a lecture titled "civil liberties vs. security in post 9-11 america" featuring richard hesse, professor emeritus at franklin pierce law center.

the other element of their events, called "wishes for our world," is really quite stunning. quoting from their web site:

As we approach the fifth anniversary of 9/11, we would like to help the community remember the events of that tragic day, as well as the more than 3,000 people who lost their lives. Wishes for our world will be an opportunity for citizens of all ages to stop and reflect on their hopes for our world of today and their dreams for our world of tomorrow.

Beginning on September 1st, we will ask local businesses and community organizations to make available pre-cut stars, provided by the library, upon which children and adults may express their Wishes For Our World. Our goal is for the community to complete 3,000 stars and 3,000 wishes, representing the lives lost on 9/11. As the stars are completed between September 1st and September 11th, we will display them throughout the community; on walls, windows, etc.

i've never had the pleasure to visit the state of new hampshire but when i do i'll be sure to visit goffstown and the goffstown public library.

digital democracy + new media activism: a collaboration between the university of san francisco and appalachian state university

2006-06-30T10:29:00.000-07:00

upon learning that we'll be teaching similar classes this fall, martha mccaughey and i decided to somehow, someway link our courses. martha, a professor of interdisciplinary studies and director of women's studies at appalachian state university, will be teaching "new media activism"; i'll be teaching "digital democracy."

we haven't worked out all the details yet, but we've agreed that we want our students to interact with and learn from each other through various forms of digital media. also, we agreed to assign a few common readings so that our students can draw from shared material. students in both courses will read (in addition to other readings):

T.V. Reed, The Art of Protest: Culture and Activism from the Civil Rights Movement to the Streets of Seattle (University of Minnesota Press, 2005)
Jerome Armstrong and Markos Moulitsas Zúniga, Crashing the Gate: Netroots, Grassroots, and the Rise of People-Powered Politics (Chelsea Green Publishing, 2006)

i'm thrilled to collaborate with martha. i first met martha when she was teaching women's studies and sociology at virginia tech, in blacksburg, virginia, and we've been friends and colleagues ever since. plus, together with michael ayers, martha edited cyberactivism: online activism in theory and practice, one of the first and certainly one of the best anthologies on the topic. (incidentally, it was through cyberactivism that i first discovered the work of dorothy kidd, the chair of media studies at USF, and joshua gamson, a professor of sociology at USF.) i am excited to collaborate with martha and even more excited to see what our students create.

hopefully martha and i can use this space to develop our ideas for collaboration.

new reviews in cyberculture studies (july 2006)

2006-06-29T13:39:00.000-07:00

[via RCCS] a new set of book reviews for july 2006:

Connected, or What It Means to Live in the Network Society
Author: Steven Shaviro
Publisher: University of Minnesota Press, 2003

Review 1: Kathleen Fitzpatrick
Review 2: Jarice Hanson
Review 3: Meredith Tromble
Author Response: Steven Shaviro
Shaping Things
Author: Bruce Sterling
Publisher: MIT Press, 2005

Review 1: Teodor Mitew
Review 2: Jentery Sayers
Review 3: Alan Sondheim
Author Response: Bruce Sterling
Unlocking the Clubhouse: Women in Computing
Author: Jane Margolis and Allan Fisher
Publisher: MIT Press, 2003

Review 1: Carly Woods
Author Response: Jane Margolis
Virtual Methods: Issues in Social Research on the Internet
Editor: Christine Hine
Publisher: Berg Publishers, 2005

Review 1: Susan Keith
Review 2: Nils Zurawski
Author Response: Christine Hine

hunger strike against the war in iraq

2006-06-28T08:32:00.000-07:00

july 4th, in washington dc, in front of the white house, a hunger strike to end the war in iraq. at this point, the plan seems to be to fast from july 4th to august 14th outside the white house. from august 14th to september 2, the fast will move to camp casey in crawford, texas. the list of fasters keeps growing, as do the supporting organizations:

CODEPINK: Women for Peace

Gold Star Families for Peace

American Muslim Voice

Cities for Progress

Granny Peace Brigade

Liberty Tree - Foundation for the Democratic Revolution

National Congress of Black Women

Iraq Task Force, Institute for Policy Studies

Progressive Democrats of America

Raging Grannies

September Eleventh Families for Peaceful Tomorrows

Women of Color Resource Center

Women's Institute for Freedom of the Press

let's support any and all efforts to stop this insane war. and let's continue to imagine - individually and collectively - new strategies to stop this insane war.

college + community = smart civic engagement (lawrence, kansas, usa)

2006-06-27T08:21:00.000-07:00

if you plan to be in or near lawrence, kansas, between september 11-17, 2006, please consider attending some or all of the following september project events:

Surveillance and Society Post-9/11
Monday, Sept 11, 7 pm
Lawrence Public Library Auditorium

Professor Mike Hoeflich of the University of Kansas School of Law will lead a discussion pertaining to individuals' rights and group responsibility. Special emphasis will be placed on surveillance changes and whether citizens' rights are being trounced by a post-9/11 mentality of security over freedom. Professor Hoeflich will speak for twenty minutes and then lead a discussion/question and answer period for another forty. Professor Hoeflich is a former dean of the Law School and is a noted columnist for the Lawrence Journal-World.

Religious Cooperation in an Uncooperative World
Tuesday, September 12, 7 pm
Lawrence Public Library

The United States seems to have become increasingly divided with each passing year since September 11, 2001. In a time of divisiveness, learn how radically different religious groups are working together to cultivate peace through building interfaith relationships, fostering understanding and appreciation of differences, and creating opportunities for leadership in local communities. Join us for a panel presentation followed by an audience discussion. We will seek to identify concrete strategies for interfaith cooperation that every person can take back to her or his faith community.

International Perspectives on the Post-9/11 U.S.
Wednesday, September 13, 7 pm
Lawrence Public Library Auditorium

Five international students will offer diverse views on the September 11th attack in the United States. The panelists will share their personal experiences and inner feelings about life in the United States after 9/11 as citizens of their respective countries. Through dialogue, all in attendance will develop a deeper understanding of the global impact of 9/11.

You Be the Judge: The United States Supreme Court in Review
Sunday, September 17, 2:30 pm
Lawrence Public Library Auditorium

On Constitution Day, find out whether you agree with recent decisions by our nation's highest court. Judge Joseph G. Pierron, Kansas Court of Appeals, will lead the group in a re-creation of actual Supreme Court cases, with the audience playing the roles of the litigants, lawyers and judges. You'll have fun as you gain new perspectives on the judicial process and debate rights and responsibilities in America today. Co-sponsored by the Kansas Humanities Council and the Kansas Judiciary and Kansas Bar Association.

i love this september project event for many reasons, including:

it is a collaboration between a public library (lawrence public library) and a university (university of kansas).
lawrence public library's efforts are being coordinated by maria butler, the community relations/volunteer coordinator. judging from the library's events calendar, it seems as though lawrence public library takes community engagement very seriously.
it involves students. for three straight years, KU students have designed awesome september project events. this year, four graduate students - noelle barrick, shannon portillo, michael sweeney, and megan williams - and one undergraduate - julian portillo - are making things happen. i believe most (all?) of the students are in american studies, but i could be wrong.
it features a) experts from b) the community. for example: the panel on the supreme court features judge joseph g. pierron, kansas court of appeals; the panel on surveillance features professor mike hoeflich, university of kansas school of law; and, in a stroke of brilliance, the panel on international perspectives on post-9/11 united states features five international students currently attending university of kansas.
collaborating organizations include local and state organizations. in addition to the lawrence public library and university of kansas, collaborators include the kansas humanities council, the kansas judiciary, and the kansas bar association.
and finally, because it takes place in a public library, the event is free and open to the public. put another way, anyone can participate in - and everyone is invited to - these interesting and inspired events.

way to go lawrence, kansas!

denice denton

2006-06-25T07:36:00.000-07:00

while at UW, denice denton was the first female dean of engineering at a major american university. at thirty-seven, she was the youngest dean ever at UW. she left UW to become chancellor of university of california, santa cruz. through clippings from my mom, who lives in santa cruz, i've kept up with denton and was troubled to hear about the many controversies she had gotten herself into at UCSC. yesterday, in an apparent suicide, she died. (more here and here.) i met denice denton once, in 2001, when i interviewed for a one year position in the department of technical communication, which was, and is, in the school of engineering. during our meeting, denice denton was kind and supportive. sad, sad news.

update: yesterday, june 29th, over a thousand people gathered at UCSC for a ceremony for chancellor denton. also, i found the_sinistral's entry, a few words on denice d. denton, to be quite moving. i wish all freshman engineering students had the experience of taking a freshmen interest group class with professor denton.

this is something i'll surely miss

2006-06-24T14:16:00.000-07:00

la carta de oaxaca is something i'll surely miss. it's located on ballard ave, about three doors down from where i live, and always, always packed. mmm, tamales de mole negro: chicken or pork, smothered in black mole, and wrapped in a banana leaf. washed down with a few cold bottles of sol. thursday night, lynne faulk, sarah, and i feasted there. i'll miss la carta de oaxaca a lot, almost as much as i'll miss living near the super kind and super creative lynne faulk.

smoking cigarettes = the stupidest habit i've ever had

2006-06-23T08:00:00.000-07:00

i've been cleaning out my UW email for the last few days. one email that caught my attention was dated october 19, 2005, and was sent from me to sarah. it read:

by the time i begin walking home, i will have smoked the last cigarette of my life.

eight months ago, i smoked my last cigarette. stopping smoking cigarettes, after eight years of a horrific, deadly, and stupid habit, was one of my all-time best decisions ever.

today, i crave a cigarette like i crave a piece of asphalt.

a soldier coming home

2006-06-22T08:49:00.000-07:00

my first year at UW, in 2001, jeff c. enrolled in two of my classes. he was (and i believe still is) a digital media wiz and it was a pleasure to work with him. i could always count on jeff to say something original. i could always count on jeff to create something original. and i could always count on jeff to encourage other students to be original.

then jeff joined the air force.

then george bush started his war in iraq.

then jeff was gone.

jeff was someone i was thinking about a lot when i wrote "collective wondering" for UW's student newspaper, the daily, in may, 2005. the column's last paragraph was:

I've been wondering a lot lately about the bloodshed of war, the brutality of war, the barbarity of war. And I've been wondering why, in a country with millions of channels and Web sites, the blood remains invisible and unseen, neither felt nor discussed. But most of all, I wonder when the troops will come home and I wonder how great it will be to see my friends and students again. I want that day to be today.

after not hearing from jeff for over a year and a half, it made me insanely happy to see his email in my inbox this week. jeff's coming home. hurry on home, jeff - dinner's on me.

gone

2006-06-20T08:00:00.000-07:00

gone

2006-06-19T11:29:00.000-07:00

grow globally

2006-06-16T10:03:00.000-07:00

this is the third year of the september project. TSP is many things but the most simple definition we like to use is this:

The September Project encourages free and public events in all libraries in all countries on or around September 11.

one of the most exciting elements of the project is the speed by which it has developed nationally and internationally. in each of its first two years, september project events took place in all 50 states. since 2004, more than 1,100 libraries in 34 countries have hosted september project events. this year, libraries in 10 countries have signed up to participate and we are not even in july yet!

in spring, when john klockner, sarah washburn, and i began meeting to discuss this year's september project, we agreed that in order to make our site as accessible as possible, it had to be in multiple languages. with help from current and former university of washington students aljosa corovic, mark hungerford, jen rosenberg, and grace zhang, through financial help from microsoft research (which allowed us to get excellent translation help from sinometrics incorporated), and through some pretty visionary work by klockner, the september project is now accessible in chinese, english, french, german, italian, japanese, portuguese, russian, serbian, spanish, and turkish.

unfortunately, most computers, including the laptop i'm currently working on, do not have the correct fonts to read all languages, especially chinese and japanese. so i am unsure whether or not you, reader, will be able to read all of the characters below. it's certainly worth trying:

九月项目9: 月11日，在全世界范围内鼓励民间活动的开展

le Projet Septembre: organise des événements civiques à propos du 11 septembre dans le monde entier

Das September-Projekt: Weltweite Förderung von öffentlichen Events am 11. September

セプテンバープロジェクト 9月11日、世界中で執り行われる市民のイベントを促進

Progetto Settembrea: sostegno di punti di incontro in tutto il mondo l'11 settembre

Projeto setembro: promovendo eventos cívicos em todo o mundo no dia 11 de setembro

ПРОЕКТ «Сентябрь» инициирование гражданских мероприятий во всём мире 11 сентября

Септембар Пројекат: Подстрекује догаћаје посвећене грађанској иницијативи широм света 11. Септембра

el proyecto septiembre: promueve las actividades cívicas en todo el mundo el 11 de septiembre

Eylül Projesi: 11 Eylül’de dünyanın her tarafında kamusal programlar teşvik ediyor

the September Project: fostering civic events around the world on September 11

when working on things like the september project, you quickly learn that the project can - and will - develop in directions you never imagined. that said, i hope the september project will continue to grow globally and introduce itself to libraries and communities around the world.

walserbibliothek raggal

2006-06-14T11:21:00.000-07:00

[crossposted from the september project blog]

for the last few months, i've had the pleasure to work with jen rosenberg, an undergraduate here at the university of washington. before coming to UW, jen lived in austria and attended the university of vienna. next year, jen will leave UW to attend the university of iowa. through an independent study, it's been a joy to work with and learn from jen.

jen began her work by translating much of the september project into german. what an interesting feeling to see Das September-Projekt: Weltweite Förderung von öffentlichen Events am 11. September on our web site! next, jen began contacting librarians in austria and germany.

jen and i were extremely thrilled when walserbibliothek raggal signed up to participate in this year's september project. walserbibliothek raggal is located in raggal, which is a community of almost 900 people in the austrian alps. a few years ago, due to financial constraints, the library almost closed. fortunately, the entire community got together to fight for the library's existence. today, there are 12 volunteers helping to manage and maintain the library. also, the library is currently putting together a collection of articles from the local newspaper in order to compile a history of this very small town/village for members of their community.

walserbibliothek raggal is a public library and it has a playroom designed for children filled with children's books, DVDs, and CDs. judging from this photograph, it appears that the room is also used for exciting story times!

for jen, originally from vienna and currently in seattle, it must be a thrill to see walserbibliothek raggal on our map of participating libraries. for me, currently in seattle but often dreaming of the austrian alps, it certainly is a thrill.

danke walserbibliothek raggal. danke jen.

final student projects @ uw

2006-06-11T14:08:00.000-07:00

the following comments are my reflections of students' final projects in com 495: sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll. the final project assignment can be found here.

please note

vanessa brandon's "the soul of rock 'n' roll" is an extraordinary paper + mixed cd that explores, among other things, the many influences of blacks and black culture on 1960s rock n roll. on one page, i'm reading about led zeppelin; the next page, i'm reading about robert johnson, willie dixon, and sonny boy williamson; and the next page, i'm reading about the influence of gospel on artists like aretha franklin, marvin gaye, and roberta flack (who, vanessa reminds us, sang "killing me softly" way before the fugees). her research includes an academic article from popular music and society (mike daley, "why do whites sing black?: the blues, whiteness, and early histories of rock"), late-60s/early-70s newspaper articles from the new york times and oakland post, and an article from 1963 from drum great max roach (!) about white exploitation (roach: "White supremacy ... has been used to stultify and inhibit the growth of Afro-American music into what could be a dynamic and vital part of this nation's cultural life"). my favorite sentence from her paper: "What really got me interested in the influences of rock music is the band Led Zeppelin, and when you really like something, you research it." not only did vanessa research this topic, she made media about it. she mixed a cd that juxtaposes some of her favorite zep songs with the original versions. so, while reading the paper, i was listening to memphis minnie and kansas joe mccoy's "when the levee breaks," then zep's version; robert johnson's "travelling riverside blues," then zeppelin's versioin; leadbelly's "the gallows pole," then zep's version. a smart and incisive project.

keri brown's wiki entry, "woodstock," is, as its title suggests, an exploration into the three-day rock festival that took place in woodstock, new york, in 1969. the project begins with a collection of oral histories from people who attended woodstock, from those who couldn't make it, and from those on the stage. a fascinating collection of perspectives, but i would have liked to hear keri's analysis of these personal stories. what is learned from these stories is that woodstock was about much more than music - it was about spirituality, community, drugs, free love, an alternative to vietnam, and experimental living. the project ends with a collection of media coverage - then and now - of woodstock, all from the new york times, as well as links to a number of videos about the concert. keri has put together an interesting and engaging multimedia exhibit of a concert that defined a decade.

y. c. put together a fascinating and impeccably well-designed project that profiles 4-5 number one billboard singles from 1963-1969. half of the project is a print-based portfolio that profiles 18 singles. each single is accompanied by an image of the band (or their album cover), a short profile of the band, and the lyrics of the song. the other half of the project is a mixed cd that features the 18 songs. this project is smart in what it reveals to readers: a fast and profound shift in musical tastes from early-1960s (think "sugar shack" by bands with names like jimmy gilmer and the fireballs) to the experimental mid-60s (think dylan's and the byrds' "mr. tambourine man") to the free-your-mind late-60s (think the beatles' "lucy in the sky with diamonds" and "come together"). as yc acknowledges, there is so many more songs to explore and so many different directions to analyze and that is part of the fun of the project. one significant critique: although her profiles were clear and interesting, they relied almost entirely on wikipedia. too many smart people have written too many smart articles, chapters, and books about popular music to rely solely on wikipedi; one missed connection was barry mcguire's 1965 "eve of destruction," a song that was discussed in one of our readings, todd gitlin's the sixties. what yc has put together resembles a museum exhibition - you read about, look at, and listen to culture changing over the decades. smart project.

Madeline Chipps' wiki entry, "JFK assassination," explores the assassination of president john f. kennedy and seeks to answer three questions: "what specific evidence did the zapruder film add to investigations of kennedy's assassination? what conclusions of the warren commission were put to question after the release of this film? and what were the surrounding issues and consequences of this situation?" madeline begins with an overview of that november day in 1963. next, through text and images, she explores the magic bullet theory as well as a number of inconsistencies with accepted explanations of the assassination. madeline then draws from david r. wrone's book, the zapruder film, to discuss the footage of the assassination, captured famously by a bystander, abraham zapruder. what happens next, happens fast: lyndon johnson is sworn in; lee harvey oswald is killed by jack ruby; and JFK's funeral - televised live to shattered americans. madeline ends by noting lasting influences, including works of jackie kennedy by andy warhol, oliver stone's film JFK, and - my favorite - the JFK-inspired seinfeld episode. madeline does a great job researching her topic, and draws from books like david m. lubin's shooting kennedy and art simon's dangerous knowledge. my main critique is that the body of the project is disconnected from the sources which, instead of being intregrated into the paper, sort of stand alone as an annotated bibliography. in all, a strong project that will peak visitors' interest and curiosity.

kristin cook, rj31, and kim mason joined forces to produce a wiki entry called "battle of the drugs." in an attempt to explore the role of various drugs of the 1960s, the project focuses on eight: alcohol, caffeine, cocaine, heroin, LSD, marijuana, PCP, and tobacco. further, each drug is explored via three different approaches: biological aspects (researched and written by kristin cook); psychological aspects (by kim mason); and legal aspects (by rj31). so, for each drug, biological questions such as what is it made of? what is the effective dose? what is the lethal dose? and what effects does the drug have on the body? are asked and answered. likewise, each section under legal aspects is organized into nine sections: its actual or relative potential for abuse; scientific evidence of its pharmacological effect, if known; the state of current scientific knowledge regarding the drug or other substance; its history and current pattern of abuse; the scope, duration, and significance of abuse; what, if any, risk there is to the public health; its psychic or physiological dependence liability; whether the substance is an immediate percursor of a a substance already controlled under this subchapter. this project is strong, a reflection of three students combining their energy and interests. at the same time, group work is difficult and it's hard not to notice the difference in voice and style in each of the entries. so my main critical suggestion is to go through this project and edit for consistency in style and voice. also, it would be interesting to make more direct and explicit connections to the sixties; the essay, "a look at 20th century anti-marijuana propaganda," is the kind of cultural analysis that can really enrich a project like this. at the same time, this project - perhaps more than any other - is extremely scalable: it can and should grow in terms of more entries and new approaches to each of these entries.

amy dang designed a powerful powerpoint about amelia boynton robinson, the selma marches of 1965, and what has become known as "bloody sunday." this project - which is to be read and watched but also felt - traces the life of robinson and tries to piece together what happened on march 7th, 1965. at times, the project is difficult to behold: it is difficult to look at images of white police beating black people, it is difficult to look at tear gas sprayed into crowds, and it is difficult to watch human beings (of any color) being dragged like cattle. at the same time, amy has accompanied these perspectives with those of hope - something that is made manifest through the heroic life of amelia boynton robinson. through images, oral histories, and video interviews, amy discovers - and shares with us - an amazing life. as amy notes, robinson was also the first black woman to run for congress in alabama (running under one of the greatest campaign slogans ever: "a voteless people is a hopeless people"). although the project overall would be even stronger with more academic resources, amy does a really good job using multiple media to tell a story that is suprisingly, and unacceptably, unknown.

emily fewel's wiki entry, "aprons to suits and everything in between: how cover lines illustrate the (accurate?) progression of women over time," traces the representation of american women in the 20th century by looking at women's magazines' (cosmopolitan, ladies' home journal, vogue, and new woman) covers and story topics. beginning with a cover from 1896, moving to one from 1917, then going to two from 1938 and 1955, emily presents the "model" concept of pre-1960s femininity: women, according to such magazine covers, should stay at home, serve their husbands, and care for their families. yet the 1960s, with new concepts and consciousness of sexuality, new movements toward gender equality, and with books like betty friedan's the feminine mystique (1963), things began to shift. drawing from carolyn kitch's the girl on the magazine cover, emily traces a shift in the magazine covers, especially in the ways that they treat sexual liberation and begin to cover stories that contained cultural and intellectual topics. although emily is quick to critique the magazines for not devoting enough space to issues of empowerment, she notes cogently that the 1960s did indeed bring about shifts in consciousness regarding traditional gender roles, feminism, and gender equality.

amy heather's paper + annotated lyric sheet + mixed cd explores the beatles' most creative period - between 1965-1967, when they created rubber soul, revolver, and sgt. pepper's lonely hearts club band. amy's project is a huge success. the project includes three elements. first, there is a mixed tape that includes seven songs from the three albums (amy's selection process: "the songs were selected by the buzz surrounding them, use of exotic instruments and noises, as well as my own curiosity!"). second, she compiles the songs' lyrics. and third, in a stroke of genius, she uses microsoft word's "track changes" function to add commentary/analysis in the margins of the lyric sheets. in other words, the track change bubbles that usually remind us we need to further edit serve instead to afford us a meta-level reading of her project; we read both the lyrics and amy's commentary together, and nearly simultaneously. along the way, amy reveals that many of the ideas, issues, questions, and concerns of the beatles - like metaphysical transcendence, psychedelic drugs, eastern instruments, and new technologies, for example - were some of the key concepts of the 1960s. her analysis of "tomorrow never knows," from revolver, is especially interesting and fuses together notes regarding recording tactics, timothy leary, lsd, and the dalai lama. one of the reasons this project is so strong is that it relies on and builds off of books, four to be exact: mark hertsgaard's a day in the life: the music and artistry of the beatles; philip norman's shout! the beatles in their generation; denis o'dell and bob neaverson's at the apple's core: the beatles from the inside; and tim riley's tell me why: the beatles: album by album, song by song, the sixties and after.

Melissa Huemmer's wiki entry, "the 1960's sexual revolution: a glimpse into the sexual revolution that inspired a youth culture," is a tour de force. melissa has two main questions: what was the sexual revolution all about? and how did the media frame and deal with its presence? the project is divided into four sections - understand; see; read; update and relate - and includes a massive (and diverse in terms of source and genre) bibliography. in the understand section, melissa provides some excellent context, arguing that although many 1960s-era developments (including new knowledge about human sexuality, the pill, drugs, and a growing counterculture) helped facilitate the sexual revolution, it also can be traced historically, as a reaction to the straight-laced 1950s, but also as a development that had been building for a century. melissa includes a "who's who" of human agents for change and includes freud, alfred kinsey, writers like dh lawrence (lady chatterly's lover) and henry miller (tropic of cancer), the great gloria steinem, and hugh hefner. in the see section, melissa compiles a number of images that, depending on who's looking, are beautiful, liberating, and subversive, or vulgar and evidence of the end of civilization. the last two sections - read and update/relate - compile news stories from then and now as a means to better understand how media outlets like the new york times covered (positively, negatively, and "neutrally") the sexual revolution. this project contains a high level of energy - clearly derived from the author and certainly contagious by its readers. bravo.

jason jang and christine unten's web site, "altamont festival 1969," is a multimedia exploration into the infamous concert called altamont. the event, held in december 1969 at the altamont raceway park in livermore, california, was a free concert featuring (or, in some cases, was supposed to feature) the jefferson airplane, santana, the grateful dead, and, the headliner, the rolling stones. the crowd was estimated at 300,000; security was supplied by the hell's angels. the concert is now known for what happened when the stones tried to play their song "sympathy for the devil." a concert goer, meredith hunter, an 18 year old african american, was stabbed to death by one of the hell's angels. the stabbing, as well as the general chaos, was captured on film. what jason and christine have done is piece together - through images, sounds, and video - what went down that day. they do a great job slicing and dicing but i would have liked to have read more analysis; i want to know what jason and christine think about the event and the aftermath. a strong project about an event that, for many, signals the end of the 1960s.

e. dylan king created volume 1, issue 1 of a newsletter, women's rights quarterly. it's written from the point of view of a feminist organization that exists in 1970, prior to roe vs. wade. as dylan notes, "i am trying to look at the state of reproductive rights during a period in history when abortion was illlegal to better understand the origins of the pro-choice movement." the newsletter includes a cover story called "decade in review," an article on the national organization for women (NOW) established in 1966, and an article on the national association for repeal of abortion laws (NARAL) estalished in 1969. by highlighting women's everyday realities, especially as they related to reproductive freedoms, readers gain a new understanding (and context) of the reproductive rights movement. the newsletter also includes a brief article on jane, an underground abortion services network based in chicago, and one on the redstockings, a radical feminist organization that organized public speak-outs about abortion in 1969. the newsletter even includes a joan fishbein poem about abortion practices of that era, a book review of betty friedan's feminine mystique (published in 1963), and a 1965 national opinion poll about abortion. dylan's sources are superb: newspaper articles and web sites, but mostly books, including david cline's creating choice, marlene gerber fried's from abortion to reproductive freedom, lorraine glennon's our times, and rickie solinger's abortion wars. from the project: "now, we must carry on the movement of our sisters in this decade. it is our body. it is our life. it is our time." an exceptional project.

robin l's powerpoint presentation, "the eternal image of JFK," is a historical exploration of president john f. kennedy as well as an examination of the role his image played, and plays, in society. although the powerpoint's timing is way too fast (we need time to read it!), robin integrates original research, a running commentary, and incredible images of JFK, jackie, the kennedy family, and the kennedy kids. key points include the legacy of the kennedy family, JFK's personal life, his youth, and his catholocism. to run a successful campaign, JFK's team, according to robin's research, sort of transformed him from a human being into a commodity, an advertisment - one based, problematically, on youth, diversity, and hope. robin also notes that JFK was one of the first politicians to understand and take advantage of the visual medium of television. combining articles from the washington post and new york times with w. j. rorabaugh's kennedy and the promise of the sixties and herbert parmet's article "the kennedy myth and american politics" from the history teacher, robin presents a multimedia tapestry of JFK - or, to be more precise, the image of JFK. the project also has sections called "the royal family" (which presents the kennedy's as a very young and constantly smiling first family), "the vision" (which highlights JFK's handlers' sophisticated use of visual culture to make political statements), and "the icon" (which include, again, the constant smile of JFK, portraying a sense of confidence). a strong and heavily developed project with an excellent use of multiple forms of media to present a story.

zach landres-schnur created a blog, called stone cold, that explores the gulf of tonkin incident and some connections between johnson's evidence to bomb vietnam and bush's evidence to bomb iraq. the project has a twist - the blog is "written" by clay stone, fictitious grandson of one of the great journalists of the 1960s, i.f. stone. most of zach's resources are from wikipedia or actual tape recordings from that era, and he uses an article from journalism history (j. blissert, "guerrilla journalist: i.f. stone and tonkin") to learn more about i.f. stone. the core of the project is to better understand the gulf of tonkin, if it happened at all, and the ways it was employed to escalate the war with vietnam. the parallels between then and now, vietnam and iraq, are clear and zach - or rather clay - makes it explicit. my main critiques: 1) less wikipedia and more newspaper and academic articles; and 2) using an anti-bush article from the washington times, one of the most conservative newspapers in the US, is questionable and kind of dampens the sharpness. that said, by presenting the project as a blog, zach can now invite comments; by writing as clay stone, he can now increase perspectives and explore new writing styles. a very creative project.

diana lui designed a big (about 3 feet by 3 feet) and beautiful (fusing text, images, and graphs) poster, titled "oppressed voice of the 1960s: a chinese world view," that explored chinese american experiences in 1960s america. actually, chinese american experiences in the 1960s is only one of three parts of this great project. first, diana gets historical and examines the first wave of chinese immigration (in 1847), the legislative racism in the form of the chinese exclusion act of 1882 (and 1892 & 1902), and cultural racism in the form of some very depressing political cartoons from the 19th century. second, diana looks briefly at chinese americans (and asian americans) involvement in the civil rights movements of the 1960s. she argues that they had little role or voice in the march on washington - nor on student movements in general. that said, diana does introduce a group called asian americans for action (AAA), formed in the late 1960s by kazu iijima and min matsuda. diana also mentions a huge student strike that took place on san francisco state university on november 9, 1968; it was organized by african american, asian american, and latino student groups. finally, drawing from a number of academic articles from international migration review (monica boyd's "the changing nature of central and southeast asian immigration to the united states, 1961-1972," 1974; and hiram l. fong's "immigration and naturalization laws: today's need for naturalization law reform," 1971), diana traces some more recent developments within chinese american experiences and highlights both progress and setbacks. well written and well designed, this is a formidable project.

bobby lyon's media slideshow/video, "b lyon's final project," is an outstanding project. the project's general topic is the intersections between sports and race politics within the very heated late 1960s. the show begins with jimi hendrix's scorching cover of bob dylan's "all along the watchtower." through images and headlines from newspapers, bobby establishes the landscape: hightened tensions between african americans and the police/establishment, muhammad ali going to jail for refusing to fight in the vietnam war, two young black runners john carlos and tommie smith, and a developing controversy about the 1968 olympics in mexico city. then the hendrix song fades out and here comes bob marley's "redemption song." the show's second part focuses primarily on the 1968 olympics, on october 16th, the day that tommie smith and john carlos, sprinters for team USA, won medals. on the podium, receiving their medals, they wore no shoes or socks (meant to represent slavery and discrimination), wore black gloves, and had a civil rights pin on. as the national anthem began to play, they bowed their heads and raised their fists in a black power salute. this second sections documents the event and the aftermath: US freaks out, smith and carlos are dropped from the olympic team, and forced to leave mexico city. this part also briefly touches upon a threat from other african american athletes to quit the team, as well as the growing black power movement back in the US. the last sequence includes a single quote, "we're uniting," then a written conclusion noting that in 1968 some mainstream media labeled smith and carlos "black skinned storm troopers" while much of black america thought of them as heroes. provocative and passionate: a perfect project.

susanna martini designed a web site, titled "the disability rights movement from the 1960's to present," which does exactly what its title suggests. but it also does more. susanna combines multiple texts - words, images, timelines, articles, and, especially, video - to trace a movement that has its roots in the 1960s. susanna does many things in this project but there are two in particular that i think are effective and moving. first, she shares the history of edward v. roberts, the first severely disabled student to go - in 1962 - to the university of california at berkeley. through the web site, and especially the video, susanna weaves her own story as a university student with disabilities - a story that is inspired by and builds upon the great work of edward v. roberts. second, susanna provides a visual montage of a protest on the steps of the capital building in 1990. learning from the often political, often cultural public protests (and marches, and sit-ins, and be-ins, and happenings) of the 1960s, members of the group american disabled for accessible public transit, or ADAPT, were taken out of their wheelchairs and essentially crawled up the steps of the capital building. their message, which would be carried through images in newspapers the next day, was simple: equal access for all people. susanna's project is like pixelated hope.

kim mason [group project; see kristin cook, rj31, and kim mason's project above.]

cristopher mccarter's project, "intermedia," is more of an experience than a project: it includes a brief essay and, well, a home-made book. at first glance, chris' project appears to be about allan kaprow, a quintessential 1960s artist, often called the father of happenings, and whose work characterizes the fluid, experimental, and multisensory nature of so much of 1960s art. however, upon further reflection, the project is about two other things. first, chris traces the roots of intermedia, going beyond kaprow and into his main influences: jackson pollock, robert rauschenberg, and john cage. as chris shows convincingly and creatively, from pollock, kaprow learned that art could surround a viewer - confront and assault them. from rauschenberg, kaprow learned much, but especially in his white paintings, where kaprow learned that art can assume a position between artist and viewer. and from cage, and in 4'33", kaprow learned about the ambient sound of space - and of silence. there is so much more to this project, but let's proceed to the second part of the project: the book. chris deliberately chose to present his project as a book because "the internet complicates the sacredness of the learning experience by providing too much potential for learning." the book allows chris to build a narrative - albeit a fragmented, playful, and intermediated narrative ala marshal mcluhan's the medium is the massage, a major influence of chris and his project. but, the book is not just a book: it is a linked book. thus, from the section on rauschenberg, readers can visit trophy II by visiting a link provided in the book; during the section on cage, readers are encourage to play the accompanying cd-rom which is, of course, silent. and in a deliberate attempt to avoid "the electronic word," chris wrote the book using a typewriter. a supremely creative project.

brianna nishikawa's project on the assassination of president john f. kennedy in 1963 develops in interesting ways. first, she explores the assassination by asking how it affected gereral americans. this leads to a discovery of how the assassination seemed to affect americans personally, as if they lost a member of their family. this, in turn, leads to questions of mediation and media saturation: after all, americans living in 1963 were just getting used to television and they saw on their screens the assassination, the funeral, mourning jackie and the kennedy kids. it's difficult to understand 1963 when you're in 2006, so instead brianna created a slideshow of images and words. using digital artifacts gleaned from websites, wikipedia, and articles from the BBC, she constructed the slideshow, then added to it stills from the zapruder footage uploaded to youtube. add to that words and memories of people who were there, and the slideshow is complete. it's hard to take your eyes off when you're watching it. my main critique is the slideshow's pace: we need more time for reflection. a great project.

amy norgaard's fascinating web site, "the native american occupation of alcatraz island 1969-1971," explores a chapter of US history forgotton by most (including myself until i read amy's project). on november 20, 1969, 78 native americans, organized under the title indians of all tribes (IAT), occupied alcatraz island; they stayed there for nineteen months. their goal was two-fold: first, to establish a center for native american studies, an american indian spiritual center, an indian center of ecology, a great indian training school, and an american indian museum; and second, to buy the land, in terms similar to what the US paid natives for their land, which roughly equaled $24 worth of glass beads and red cloth. combining wikipedia entries and newspaper articles with books like ward churchill's agents of repression and academic articles like d. h. langston's "american indian women's activism in the 1960s and 1970s," amy traces a few key members of what was to become the alcatraz red power movement, including: john trudell, who ran the radio broadcast from alcatraz and later was a major mover with the american indian movement (AIM); lanada boyer/means, who before the occupation had become the first native american student admitted to the university of california, berkeley; wilma mankiller, who later became the first female chief of the cherokee nation; and grace thorpe, who in addition to being in charge of the generator, water barge, and ambulance service also handled public relations and publicity and coordinated visits by jane fonda, marlon brando, anthony quinn, and candice bergen. amy's project justification is perfect: "Throughout school I learned about the women's movement, the Black Power movement and the youth movement, but I was interested in learning about what other groups were doing during this time. I realized that I had never heard anything about the Native American, or Red Power movement." a tremendous project - fueled by curiosity.

monique ohanessian's "twiggy" explores the model twiggy's rise to fame in the 1960s and focuses mainly on two things: 1) twiggy's challenge of traditional standards of beauty, gender, and sexuality and 2) twiggy's contribution to the "ideology of thinness." the paper's cover page is a mock magazine cover starring, naturally, a young twiggy and features headlines like "liberation of body image" and "from jean harlow to kate moss: how twiggy bridged the gap." monique's argument is clear. on the one hand, twiggy significantly challenged normal standards of beauty: she was a twig, she often modeled in men's clothing, and she disregarded traditional sensuous images (which, monique suggests, puts her in the same sexual liberation front as the hippies and merry pranksters). most of her evidence for this comes from late 1960s articles in the london times, the daily mail, and the daily sketch. on the other hand, twiggy represents an early stage of what some academics call an ideology of thinness, a particularly gendered trend carried on by models like kate moss, not to mention most of the contestants from american's next top model. here, monique uses an interesting academic article from the journal of consumer research (craig j. thompson, "speaking of fashion: consumers' users of fashion discourses and the appropriation of countervailing cultural meanings"). monique also makes a tentative connection among twiggy, the ideology of thinness, and a diet market (fad diets, pills, fake food, endless fitness, cosmetic surgery) that in 1992 generated more than $8 billion.

sarah purcell and ashley southwell's "sex in the 60s | if it feels good, do it!" is an excellent web site. ashley and sarah are clear in their focus: they want to explore 1960s sexual attitudes and behaviors and want to better understand the influence the pill and sexual education had on such attitudes and behaviors. they begin with an overview of the sexual revolution of the 1960s, noting society's (or, at the very least, the emerging counterculture's) growing interest in and acceptance of public discussion about sensuality and sexuality, experimentation with group living and casual sex, alternatives to heterosexuality, and free love. next, web visitors can take one of two directions: the pill or sex ed. the pill section traces the development of the pill, the ways it fostered more freedom for women, and how conservatives - social and political conservatives, but also religious conservatives - linked non-procreative sex to promiscuity, the loss of morals, and the erosion of the family. the sex education section is excellent and notes that it was during the 1960s that sex education began in some american classes. however, while the rest of american society was experimenting heavily with new sexual attitudes and behaviors, sex education in the 1960s, as sarah and ashley show us, was hung up in traditional - and sexist - values. without my prodding, ashley and sarah found the prelinger archives and did first-rate research with primary sources. their findings are multiple but here are two: first, while 1960s-era sex education for boys treats sexuality as more normal, sex education for girls all but ignores sex and instead mentions - no joke - weddings, brides, and beautiful dresses! second, one of the films linked sex between unmarried people to perversion and pornography which was, naturally, linked to communist conspiracies! the coolest thing about this project is that before this class, neither ashley nor sarah had ever designed a web site. this project rocks.

jaime ramsay's "the historical journal of berkeley students: then and now" is powerful and successful. it's also extremely creative. jaime's focus is clear: what kinds of activities went down at the university of california, berkeley during the 1960s? and why did it happen then and there? she also asks, to a lesser degree, what is happening there now? what jaime has created is a scrapbook, a diary of sorts - a pre-blog journal "written" by a berkeley student. the journal includes over 25 articles, all from the new york times, published primarily between 1963-1965. (my only significant critique: why not include more local papers?) the journal also includes photographs of the time: images of free speech rallies packed with hundreds of students, images of very nervous university administrators, images of cops bashing students' skulls. the journal also includes annotation in the form of notes handwritten between the images, in the articles, along the margins. taken together, the articles, images, and annotations weave a story that grows very quickly - within literally months, the free speech movement at berkeley was, in many ways, the epicenter of a social movement that was about to spread across the country. along the way, jaime is able to make really interesting comments about the politics of universities, the great thrill of free speech, and what social movements require. more than anything, she is able to sort of replicate the whirlwind that was berkeley in the 1960s, something we talked about in class - and something that lives on now in the form of a journal of berkeley student. a tremendous project.

kathryn robertson's "what's going on, hollywood? variety examines the problems in california's goldmine" is a paper + a print-based, 1968 issue of variety, the magazine for the film industry. kathryn is trying to highlight and better understand the many problems facing the hollywood film industry in the 1960s. her sources are a combination of a few choice 1960s-era articles from the new york times and a number of books, including john izod's hollywood and the box office, 1895-1986 and david e. james' allegories of cinema: american film in the sixties. taking on the voice of a variety journalist concerned about the well-being of the film industry, kathryn traces the many challenges facing hollywood: the ever-increasing popularity of television, color tv in 1965, and increasing outsourcing. i'd like to have heard more about the film industry's reaction to these threats, especially, as kathryn mentions briefly, their direction towards more mature themes and deeper issues. kathryn's project reminds us that the cultural and social developments of the 1960s profoundly affected a spectrum of industries, many of which enjoyed their height of popularity only a generation earlier. smart and creative project.

ketreona say wrote an excellent paper and mixed a griping cd about the legend nina simone. in particular, kat focuses on early 1960s-era issues of race, gender, and national identity, and how simone uses her songs to examine such issues. kat begins with a brief history of simone, with special attention paid to her political views, via articles written in the 60s and published in magazines like ebony, sepia, and down beat. she also draws from an academic article from the journal of american history (ruth felstein, "'i don't trust you anymore': nina simone, culture, and black activism in the 1960s"). then, she gets to the heart of her project: a nina simone song called "mississippi goddamn." simone wrote the song, in 1963, the day she learned of a bombing of a black church in alabama, which killed four young black girls. focusing on the lyrics, kat draws out simone's perspectives on race and gender in 1960s america, as well as the tensions between radical action and peaceful compromise. and in a wonderful twist, kat also examines a particular version of the song, one sung live at new york's prestigous carnegie hall - to an audience primarily comprised of white people. as ketreona weaves together the song and the audience, it's impossible not to smile and nod when simone introduces the song with "the name of this tune is mississippi goddamn, and i mean every word of it." an inspired project.

ashley southwell [group project: see sarah purcell and ashley southwell above.]

christine unten [group project: see jason jang and christine unten above.]

neil r. waite's project on the film the graduate is most likely the most ambitious and creative class project i have ever received. there's a lot to this project but essentially neil has created the experience one gets with dvds. i push play on the dvd player and the film plays and i push play on media player and neil's commentary about the film plays. he focuses on four main sequences. the project also includes a statement of purpose, various promotional materials for the film, reviews from the time of its release (1967), some song files (more on that below), and a bibliography that includes books like: peter biskind's easy riders, raging bulls; j hoberman's the dream life: movies, media, and the mythology of the sixties; pauline kael's going steady; glenn man's radical visions: american film renaissance, 1967-1976; john l. mason's the identity crisis theme in american feature films, 1960-1969; and pauline reay's music in film: soundtracks and synergy. this is a massively researched project. neil's commentaries for the four sequences form the heart of the project. his commentary of chapter 3, the scene in which mrs robinson seduces ben, includes analyses of light and dark, discusses the scene's allusion to hitchcock's psycho, introduces the notion of diegetically incorporated music, and performs a gender analysis of power between the older woman vs the younger man. neil's commentary of chapter 8, a montage sequence that establishes simon and garfunkel's song "the sound of silence" as ben's theme song, includes an excellent analysis of alienation - alienation from others, alienation from his next future move, alienation from the suburban hell of his parents. he also includes a smart analysis of the growing (and socially alienating) role of color tv within american society. watching the graduate with the film's volume down and neil's commentary up generates an entirely new viewing experience. but watching is only one element of this project; neil constantly returns to the role of sound and music, especially the work of simon and garfunkel. near the end, he points out that the song "mrs robinson" was covered by frank sinatra (not to mention by the lemonheads, with whom neil then connects to the more recent film american pie) who eliminated the song's original references to jesus and god and added lyrics that said to mrs robinson "you'll get yours" - thereby adding a misogynist tone that didn't exist in the original. a completely inspired project.

fun-sounding event this sunday in seattle

2006-06-09T11:47:00.000-07:00

i'm not a huge fan of goodbyes and i'm not crazy about goodbye parties. so when my two-time student (intro to communication; sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll) and friend, cameron summers, mentioned having a going-away party i was like, um. but when he mentioned it would take place at a pizza joint, i was like, hell yes!

if you know me and if you are in seattle this sunday, please join us. more info at the evite or on facebook.

details:

what: silverpalooza: a going away party
when: sunday, june 11, 4-7 pm
where: a pizza mart, 5026 university way (university district, seattle)

hope to see you there.

fun-sounding event this saturday in seattle

2006-06-09T11:23:00.000-07:00

most seattlites have their favorite place to get a good latte or espresso and mine is nervous nellie's, located in a tiny alley in old town ballard. (picture of nervous nellie's borrowed from zappini.) the place is small - it seats about six or seven comfortably. their coffee is the best and their toast - good thick bread, cheese added, and topped off with jelly or marmalade - is the kind of snack that gets you going for the day.

as ballard gets more and more yuppified by the minute, places like nervous nellie's remain a bastion of community. it's nearly impossible to enter nervous nellie's and not get into an interesting conversation. no wireless! no cell phones allowed! i love this place.

this saturday, june 10th, nervous nellie's moves! it will be sad to see them move (especially since they are literally about 25 feet from my place), but the new space is big, much bigger, i believe over ten times bigger. so, the question: how will they get their stuff from the old nervous nellie's to the new nervous nellies?

answer: a community parade!

come join nervous nellie's, fans of nervous nellie's, and assorted ballard characters as we move with our hands and feet the cafe east a few blocks.

the details:

what: nervous nellie's big moving day parade
when: saturday, june 10, 2:30 pm
where: parade begins at old nervous nellie's (2315 nw market street); parade ends at new nervous nellie's (1556 nw 56th street)

congratulations to the class of '06!

2006-06-08T22:27:00.000-07:00

june 8th, 2006 - graduation day for the department of communication at the university of washington. it took place in the HUB.

this is what the room looked like approximately five minutes before the graduates entered the building.

for the first time ever, i got a seat in the front row!

here's maria garrido getting her phd (on the right side is professor nancy rivenburgh). maria and i have collaborated on many projects, and she was an outstanding teaching assistant and research assistant over the years. congratulations professor garrido!

here's april peterson receiving her phd (professor jerry baldasty is on the right). what a pleasure to know april for five years. and what a thrill to meet her proud parents. congratulations professor peterson!

there were three senior speakers, all of them great, and one of them was dylan king. dylan and i (and usually sarah, too) have collaborated on many projects over the years - all of them fun and meaningful. dylan was a pro: she walked up, adjusted the mic, and aced it.

and then, my favorite part. the seniors rise out of their seats and make their way - one by one, row by row, sort of waddling like penguins - to the stage to receive their diplomas (professor david domke is at the lower right). this year's seniors were the best.

to all graduates - congratulations!

qatar university library

2006-06-05T18:36:00.000-07:00

[crossposted from the september project blog]

a week ago, qatar university library signed up to participate in this year's september project. this is quite exciting for many reasons.

let's back up a little. for the last two quarters, mark hungerford, a phd student in communication at the university of washington, has worked as my research assistant. before going to graduate school, mark spent four years in turkey teaching english. before coming to UW, he earned his MA in journalism and middle eastern studies from the university of texas, where he wrote his thesis on how the news media portray religious people, particularly muslims and christians. mark is a serious scholar and is currently researching stereotypes and the construction of identity, especially national and religious identity.

for the last two quarters, mark has been teaching me about turkey, turkish culture, and middle eastern culture. it was mark who translated the september project into turkish. and it was mark who recently began contacting librarians in turkey, as well as in egypt, qatar, and saudia arabia. traditionally, research assistantships are opportunities where graduate students learn from professors; in this case, mark and i learned from each other.

what a thrill it was, last week, to open my email and see that qatar university library signed up to participate in this year's september project. what a thrill to learn that dalia gohary, a librarian at qatar university library, is considering a september project event that would celebrate qatar independence day (which is september 3). what a thrill to communicate and collaborate with librarians, professors, and students at a university i've never visited in a country i've never been to.

everytime a new library joins the september project, i can't help to feel that this big ball called earth gets a little bit smaller.

memorial day bbq

2006-06-05T11:01:00.000-07:00

last weekend, sarah's posse had a bbq at karen's house in seattle's north beach. it was a great time and nearly everyone, including anastasia, beth, bre, jay, and jesse, made it. plus, a ton of people without blogs - gasp! - also came out.

despite a massive stomach flu (bleh), it was nice to be in the sun with sarah.

update: i've received a few more pics from that enjoyable bbq. here's one of me and beth kolko, one of my favorite persons period.

and here is one with ryan turner.

upon my induction into uw's president's club

2006-06-04T16:19:00.000-07:00

yesterday, i received a snail mail letter from mark emmert, the president of the university of washington. it read:

Dear David,

Thank you very much for your generous support of the University of Washington, and welcome to the President's Club 2005-2006. Your annual giving exceeds $5,000, and I am delighted to inform you that you are eligible for recognition at the President's Club Purple-level.

the letter was accompanied by a president's club car decal and a president's club ID card which gives me, through june 30, 2007, borrowing privileges at the university libraries, reduced rates on visitor parking, and reduced user fees at hec ed pavilion pool, the waterfront activities center, and the golf driving range.

sweet!

it is not exactly clear to me whether or not this is a mistake. on the one hand, i have never donated $5,000+ to the university of washington. therefore, i don't deserve membership into uw's president's club.

on the other hand, in the last two years, i have received three unrestricted grants totalling $12,500 from what is now the social computing area of microsoft research. because the grants were made out to "david silver, assistant professor, university of washington," i "gave" them to the college of arts and sciences so i could spend the money on the september project. therefore, i do deserve membership into uw's president's club.

whether i deserve it or not, i'm totally taking it. an extra year of borrowing privileges at uw libraries, one of the best academic library systems in the nation, is a great deal - especially when it's for free. plus, anytime a university offers a professor any kind of reduced parking, we must take it, immediately, no questions asked. and finally, through the waterfront activities center, maybe i'll rent a canoe one of these sunny summer days and troll around lake union.

com 495 - final project guidelines

2006-06-03T10:26:00.000-07:00

i'm currently in day three of grading final projects for com 495. more than ever before, i gave the most bare-bones instructions for the final project. the idea was to let students define their own final projects and explore questions that they, not i, was obsesssed about.

my mantra - chanted over and over again, from the very first lecture to when the last slice of pizza was eaten on the very last day - was: follow your curiosity.

com 495: final project instructions.

pick any topic that a) relates to the 1960s and b) fascinates you.

you must include at least one paragraph describing the project. this should include a clear statement of your research question or questions.

integrate into your project at least 7-10 sources. sources should be clearly marked (author, title, publication); sources should be fully discussed; and sources must be compiled into a bibliography.

the project must include at least 2-3 non-print artifacts (images, sounds, videos, smells) from the time period you are examining.

the project should be the best thing you have done during your college career.

the project must include at least one use of the word "I" (or, in the case of group projects, "we") in relation to why this topic interests you. ex: "i chose this topic because i ..."

the project should contain zero mistakes. spell check. edit. edit again. read it out loud. have a friend read it. have a classmate read it. read it to your parents. and then edit again.

i am halfway finished grading the projects and they are, without a doubt, among the most creative projects i have received in my 10+ years of teaching college students.

boycott siva vaidhyanathan

2006-06-02T14:35:00.000-07:00

please consider boycotting siva vaidhyanathan.

seattle reads persepolis

2006-06-02T12:27:00.000-07:00

what would happen if all the readers of a town or city read the same book? that's what nancy pearl asked years ago when she created "if all of seattle read the same book." the concept is as simple as it is profound: a) select a fascinating book, b) encourage everyone to read it, and c) organize interesting public events to discuss it. today, these kinds of progams - often called "one book, one city" - exist all over the world. oftentimes, good ideas spread like fire.

this year, chris higashi and her colleagues at seattle public library's washington center for the book made an outstanding selection for this year's shared reading: marjane satrapi's persepolis: the story of a childhood.

from the seattle reads website: "Persepolis is a memoir in graphic novel form, the first graphic novel in the eight years of 'Seattle Reads.' We can't think of a better choice than Persepolis, to introduce readers to the format, especially for readers who may have resisted thinking comic books are for youths.

Reading Persepolis together, we will explore Iranian history and the Islamic Revolution, the human cost of war and political repression, all relevant topics in current times. Through programs and panel discussions, we will also explore the growing popularity of graphic novels."

smart, smart, smart.

like always, sarah is light years ahead of me: she heard about the book selection, ordered it through the library, and read it before i even had the chance to ask, "what's persepolis?" now i'm reading the book. it's inspiring and depressing, playful and painful. it's brilliant.

although i'm spending today (and the next few days) grading papers, i hope to finish it before tomorrow, saturday, when marjane satrapi will be at my local library, the ballard public library, at 2 pm to lead a discussion of her book. and, for the whole schedule of events around persepolis, visit this page.

thanks chris higashi, washington center for the book, and seattle public library for an inspired set of events.

josh blue

2006-05-31T16:57:00.000-07:00

acting on a tip from my buddy mike peters, i tuned into last night's last comic standing. i'm not a big tv watcher and even less of a reality-tv watcher but mike told me that josh blue would be on.

josh blue is hysterical. he's also extremely intelligent. he's an award-winning comedian. he's also an artist. he also has cerebral palsy. and he's also a paralympian soccer player.

he's also a really nice guy. sarah and i met him briefly at mike and emily's (beautiful, transcendent, quaker) wedding. josh is the kind of person who's tapped directly into life itself. i only met him one night but i could tell immediately that he's a force.

american tv has the ability - if not the tendency - to screw up everything that i find sacred, so i'm not holding my breath to see how a show like last comic standing deals with disability. but there's something about josh blue the person that demands recognition and respect. plus, as i said before, the guy is hysterical. we'll see. in the meantime, josh blue - rock on!

gone

2006-05-31T16:25:00.000-07:00

new reviews in cyberculture studies (june 2006)

2006-05-31T10:08:00.000-07:00

[via RCCS] a new set of book reviews for june 2006:

Matthew Fuller, Media Ecologies: Materialist Energies in Art and Technoculture (MIT Press, 2005)

Reviewed by Virgil Moberg, an assistant professor of Journalism and Mass Communications in the Humanities Division at Jacksonville University in Jacksonville, Florida
Larry Gross, John Stuart Katz, & Jay Ruby, eds. Image Ethics in the Digital Age (University of Minnesota Press, 2003)

Reviewed by Lane DeNicola, a doctoral candidate in Science & Technology Studies at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and a lecturer in Digital Technology & Culture at Washington State University Vancouver
Mark D. Johns, Shing-Ling Sarina Chen, & G. Jon Hall, eds. Online Social Research: Methods, Issues, and Ethics (Peter Lang Publishers, 2004)

Christophe Lecuyer, Making Silicon Valley: Innovation and the Growth of High-Tech, 1930-1970 (MIT Press, 2006)

Reviewed by Michelle Rodino-Colocino, an assistant professor of Communication at the University of Cincinnati
Madanmohan Rao, ed. News Media and New Media: The Asia-Pacific Internet Handbook, Episode V (Eastern Universities Press, 2003)

coming soon ... reviews of Chris Berry, Fran Martin, & Audrey Yue's Mobile Cultures: New Media in Queer Asia, Viviane Serfaty's The Mirror and the Veil: An Overview of American Online Diaries and Blogs, Steven Shaviro's Connected, or What It Means to Live in the Network Society, and Bruce Sterling's Shaping Things.

gone

2006-05-30T09:37:00.000-07:00

writing for my local paper: "Learning from Topsy Smalley"

2006-05-26T12:37:00.000-07:00

today, The Daily ran my editorial titled "Learning from Topsy Smalley." the online version is a bit different from the one i submitted, so i'm reproducing the original version below. as always, i thank the good people at The Daily for giving me this opportunity.

International Handbook of Universities

http://silverinseattle.blogspot.com

www.topsy.org

with luck, i'll have the opportunity to write one more editorial before i leave UW.

gone

2006-05-25T15:03:00.000-07:00

can you pass the acid test?

2006-05-24T11:56:00.000-07:00

as part of COM 495, one student, cameron, tracked down zane kesey, the son of ken kesey - author of one flew over the cuckoo's nest and ringleader of the merry pranksters (whose escapades are best recounted in tom wolfe's sixties counterculture classic, the electric kool-aid acid test). whether on their dayglo-painted bus (driven by - who else? - neal cassady from jack keroac's fifties counterculture classic on the road), partying with the hell's angels, or hosting acid tests (house band = a young group of smiling longhairs who would become the grateful dead), kesey and the pranksters recorded everything. they were like the first reality tv show: they recorded their trips, their trips on the bus, their trips with the cops.

i knew these recordings existed but i had no idea where to find them. so, through the web, cameron finds zane who has been editing the tapes and sells them as DVDs at twenty bucks a pop.

yesterday, cameron and i watched one of the DVDs, called Can You Pass the Acid Test?. although it could use a bit more editing, the footage is formidable. a young (21? 22?) jerry garcia leading his bandmates (including pigpen!) through torrential waves of sound and improvisation. a dancing neal cassady! light shows that even now would be pretty mind-blowing. really interesting stuff. a perfect companion piece for anyone teaching, learning about, or interested in 1960s counterculture.

purge

2006-05-22T18:36:00.000-07:00

those who know me well know i have very few belongings. lately, i've gone from very few possessions to very, very few possessions. i like it that way and have spent the last few months in serious purge mode.

this morning i set out a bunch of stuff directly outside my office. i got some boxes, put some colorful tapestries over them, and placed a number of magazines (mostly the nation) on one box and a ton of cassette tapes on the other two.

above the boxes of stuff, i placed a sign that said, "free stuff."

there was some really good stuff up in there: led zep's houses of the holy and II, some pavement, bjork, and neil young, some tribe called quest, de la soul, and del, vivaldi's four seasons (!), and some great mixed tapes from some old co-op parties in the late 1980s.

nearly everything got taken within a few hours. i was somewhat surprised that the nirvana tape went unclaimed. i wasn't surprised that the two joan sutherland tapes didn't find a new home.

update: i forgot to mention that i was also surprised that janes addiction's nothing's shocking wasn't taken. that tape rocks!

rockaway roadtrip

2006-05-21T21:02:00.000-07:00

back from rockaway beach, on the oregon coast, with sarah, trevor, ally, their dog bosso, and trevor's parents pam and terry. all seven of us stayed at ally's family's beachhouse and we enjoyed great talks, walks, and eats. i have not seen pam and terry for at least seven, eight years - it was quite a treat to catch up.

before we left for rockaway beach, sarah got a sweeeeeeeeet haircut!

Yazir Henri, the Direct Action Centre for Peace and Memory, and the Clowes Center for Conflict and Dialogue Studies

2006-05-19T10:03:00.000-07:00

if i were an undergrad at UW, i'd probably be a CHID (comparative history of ideas) major. the faculty are inspired, the courses are fascinating, and the students - the students are extremely creative and original.

one of the best elements of CHID is its many opportunities (for students, but also for faculty and staff) for international collaboration. as part of the clowes center for conflict and dialogue studies, CHID is bringing to campus Yazir Henri.

details:

When: Wednesday, May 31, 7 pm
Where: Kane Hall 210, UW campus
More info: Contact Theron Paul Stevenson, CHID Director of International Programs, theron@u.washington.edu

from the press release,

Yazir Henri is the co-founder and director of the Direct Action Centre for Peace and Memory in Cape Town, South Africa. Since 1997, the centre has worked with former combatants, torture survivors and political prisoners. Henri joined Umkhonto We Sizwe (MK), the military wing of the African National Conference at age 16, when the apartheid government still held power over South Africa. He received military training in Angola and the Soviet Union, and returned to South Africa as an MK officer, only to be imprisoned for terrorism and treason. Henri emerged from the hands of the police, and from an ambivalent testimony before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, to re-define himself as a poet, writer and peace activist.

Henri will share his personal experience of the liberation war, detention, survival and recovery and explain how these have shaped his current beliefs. He will also describe his Centre’s response to the manifold challenges facing young combatants previously involved in the South African war for freedom, and the larger context of challenges that hamper the building of long term peace and human security in post conflict South Africa.

hope to see you there.

danielle

2006-05-18T08:32:00.000-07:00

two brief notes regarding last night's america's top model finale:

boring

gone

2006-05-17T20:29:00.000-07:00

ballard public library

2006-05-17T11:43:00.000-07:00

via waterboro (maine) public library's blog, i learned that my local library, ballard public library, was chosen as one of the american institute for architecture's top ten green buildings of 2006. rock on ballard public library! one of the best things about living in ballard is its library, an inspirational space and the true heart of the community.

holla back nyc

2006-05-15T21:12:00.000-07:00

this afternoon i heard heavy knocks all at once on my office door. i opened the door: four female college students, a tripod, and a video camera. the four students spoke at the same time, saying different things:

"we're doing a documentary, for a class, can we tape you?"

"it will only take a minute. it's for a com class. com 459!"

"it's about sexual harassment. about standing up to harassment. it'll take like 3 minutes."

"new york city. blogging. hollaback. have you ever been harassed?"

long story short: one of the students heard about holla back new york city, a web site that encourages new yorkers to take pictures of public sexual harassers. the four students were interviewing male and female members of the UW community. they would compile the interviews for a class project for com 459 ("writing for mass media"). smart project.

holla back nyc is pretty impressive. it's disturbing to witness the captured images of harassment in public places (subway, sidewalk, daytime, nighttime). at the same time, the process (take digital photos of harassment which are then posted to the blog) makes the invisible acts of daily harassment a bit more visible. their tagline rocks:

"Holla Back NYC empowers New Yorkers to Holla Back at street harassers. Whether you're commuting, lunching, partying, dancing, walking, chilling, drinking, or sunning, you have the right to feel safe, confident, and sexy, without being the object of some turd's fantasy. So stop walkin' on and Holla Back: Send us pics of street harassers!"

the students were interviewing people and asking if they thought something like holla back nyc could be and should be in seattle. apparently, all the females and most of the males interviewed said something similar should happen here in seattle. i'm sure it's needed so i hope it happens.

like a bubble we burst

2006-05-14T20:39:00.000-07:00

one reason for the slow and deadly response to katrina was that much of the national guard was in iraq. many are still there. as chuck nagel (republican senator from nebraska; member of senate foreign relations committee) notes today in an AP article, "We've got National Guard members on their second, third and fourth tours in Iraq. We have stretched our military as thin as we have ever seen it in modern times." now, bush wants to put them (who? which members are available?) on the border between the us and mexico. how far can we stretch before - pop! - like a bubble we burst?

on the other side, it's interesting to watch the We Are America Alliance come into being. the We Are America Alliance is a newly-forming (early may, 2006, i believe) nationwide alliance of immigrant, grassroots, labor, local, statewide, and national organizations. their goals include:

Produce a million new voters and citizens between now and Election Day 2006
Press our lawmakers to stop the punitive and harsh HR 4437
Enact real and comprehensive immigration reform that provides a path to citizenship for America's undocumented immigrants, reunites families, respects civil rights, and protects all workers.

they have a six-month calendar of events. and, according to a front page story in tomorrow's washington post, they have grown to over 40 collaborators. [press release]

Crossing the Line: A Forum on Immigration

2006-05-12T12:02:00.000-07:00

one of the most important jobs of academics is to bring a little context to important and complex topics - and to bring this context to our students, our colleagues, and our communities. with that in mind, UW's department of ethnic studies is offering Crossing the Line: A Forum on Immigration.

details:

When: Friday, May 19, 5:30-9:00 and Saturday, May 20, 9:30am—12:00
Where: Parrington Commons, 120 Kane Hall, and the HUB.
Sponsor: UW's Department of American Ethnic Studies
Co-Sponsors: Office of Minority Affairs, Diversity Research Institute, and Graduate Opportunities & Minority Achievement Program (GO-MAP)
Props to: Erica Lomelí, Mari Matsumoto, the Ethnic Cultural Center & Theatre, and MEChA

this event is exciting to me for a number of reasons. first, it is clear that immigration has become a key issue in america - a key issue for human rights, a key issue for contemporary social movements, a key issue for fear mongering, and a key issue for the 2006 election. for those reasons, let's educate ourselves and others.

second, the two keynote speakers are impressive. thomas sáenz is, among many other things, lead counsel to the mayor of los angeles and francisco estrada is, also among many other things, the director of public policy for MALDEF (mexican american legal defense and educational fund).

third, saturday's roundtable discussions, "Law, Labor and Advocacy" and "Immigrant Communities: Myths & Realities," look really interesting. i especially like how the participants are primarily from community organizations (NWIRP, Comité Pro-Amnistía General, Hate Free Zone, From Hate to Hope, Seattle Public Schools, and Sea Mar) while the moderators are UW faculty. too often, academics talk to rather than listen to the community.

"the water and jade - we mix"

2006-05-10T22:09:00.000-07:00

brief notes from tonight's america's top model

without jade, there's no show. she's the most competitive and the most cut-throat. plus, she's mean! which, naturally, makes her the most entertaining. she's also totally, utterly delusional. but, you have to admit, nearly each time she takes the best shots. i predict she'll be in the final two, but no way will she win.

danielle. first, they make her have tooth surgery to fix a gap she doesn't want fixed. second, they tell her to stop talking the way she talks (she has a nice, kinda slow southern voice). two times: she's told to keep her mouth shut. but she bounces back. trying to bust into an industry based on the unreal, danielle seems to have at least a few ounces of real remaining.

best laugh out loud line:

jade (who else?): "the water and jade - we mix."

best line overall:

danielle: "when i show up and show out? it's a wrap."

and then there were three!

seattle film screening: final solution

2006-05-10T16:17:00.000-07:00

details:

Film Screening: Final Solution
Time: 6 - 9 pm, May 11, 2006
Place: 075 Johnson Hall, University of Washington
Host: South Asia Studies/Women's Center
Cosponsors: Human Rights Minor and the Center for the Study and Prevention of Ethnic Conflict

this is an international award-winning documentary about the politics of religious violence in India.

[from rakeshfilm.com]: Set in Gujarat in 2002-2003, the Final Solution documents the changing face of right-wing politics in India through a study of the 2002 genocide of the Muslim community in Gujarat. Final Solution was banned in India by the Censor Board for several months. The ban was lifted in October 2004 after a sustained campaign (an online petition, hundreds of protest screenings countrywide, multi-city signature campaigns, and dozens of letters to the government).

following the film will be a Q & A featuring Drs. Cabeiri Robinson and Dan Chirot from the jackson school. more on facebook.

[thanks Irmina Haq for sending this along and for working hard and creatively to enlighted the UW community.]

park branch library - sfpl

2006-05-09T13:15:00.000-07:00

the park branch library (a branch within san francisco public library, or SFPL) will be my local public library in SF and i'm pretty excited about it. it opened on october 29th, 1909, and is the oldest existing SFPL building. the photo was taken circa 1916. i look forward to exploring the 26 SFPL branch libraries.

gone

2006-05-08T23:19:00.000-07:00

update (12.13.2006): i have finally begun work on irina's suggestion!

our new pad

2006-05-08T12:37:00.000-07:00

sarah and i were in san francisco last weekend and we subletted a dream place in the lower haight. our place is on this block:

we'll be subletting the third floor of this place:

new pad + new city = happy:

gone

2006-05-08T10:29:00.000-07:00

playing catch-up

2006-05-07T21:27:00.000-07:00

i've been out of town for four days and during that time:

CIA director porter goss: gone

goss's rumored replacement michael hayden: potentially gone on arrival.

how lame is godsmack?

2006-05-03T17:07:00.000-07:00

i know nothing about the music of godsmack but i know an interesting interview when i read one. take the time to read this, an interview between a real journalist and the lead singer / military recruitment tool sully erna.

update: there's a sound file of the interview here. and a post and huge thread at the big time liberal blog firedoglake.

may day

2006-05-02T10:21:00.000-07:00

there's way too much to cover regarding the immigration rallies that took place across the US yesterday, and way too much to do today to prepare for travel this weekend, but i wanted to note the daily's coverage of seattle's events. in "Taking it to the streets," meghan erkkinen provides the text and matt lutton provides the pics. chris paredes, director of La Raza, and william rorabaugh, a UW professor of history, offer some great insight. erkkinen reports that more than 15,000 marched (the Seattle PI, here, suggest 30,000) - numbers like that, replicated across the country, means we've got a movement.

in "History of May 1 labor rights rallies enhances protest's meaning," jen ludington provides some context of the importance of may day and integrates the perspectives of asuw vice president ashley miller, anti-racism white student union member bradford baker, and myself.

listen up: i've been at UW for five years and never - ever - has the daily churned out, over and over again, such great work. the paper, and everyone involved with it, is on a roll. it's a thing of beauty to behold.

Update: for those who don't read blog comments, what i saw today has a great photographic take on the seattle rallies. as always, she captures the human spirit of the event.

YouTube + front page

2006-05-01T00:28:00.000-07:00

isn't it wild to see an article about YouTube on the front page of the washington post? smart, too:

"Five Months After Its Debut, YouTube Is a Star: Online Video Site Could Help Create Old-Media Celebs, Too." By Sara Kehaulani Goo

new reviews in cyberculture studies (may 2006)

2006-04-30T12:24:00.000-07:00

[via RCCS] a diverse new set of book reviews for may 2006:

Andoni Alonso and Iñaki Arzoz, Basque Cyberculture: From Digital Euskadi to Cybereuskalherria (University of Nevada, Reno: Center for Basque Studies, 2006).

Eugene Thacker, Biomedia (University of Minnesota Press, 2004).

Reading Culture: Theory, Praxis, Politics

Virtual Worlds: Culture and Politics in the Age of Cybertechnology

May Thorseth, editor, Applied Ethics in Internet Research (Trondheim, Norway: NTNU University Press, 2003).

Reviewed by Ted M. Coopman, who is a Ph.D. candidate in Communication at the University of Washington, Seattle.
i really like the diversity in topics (basque cyberculture, bio media, internet ethics) and in nationalities of reviewer and reviewed (england, india, norway, spain, and the US).

hey, please help: i am looking for new media / digital media / cyberculture / contemporary media books and anthologies published a) in countries outside the US and b) in languages other than english. if you know of one, or have written/edited one, please use the comments to suggest it and i'll do my best to have it reviewed.

gone

2006-04-29T16:14:00.000-07:00

anthology turned in

2006-04-28T10:54:00.000-07:00

fully edited, fully copyedited, and now fully indexed, critical cyberculture studies is finished and sent off to nyu press! what a relief! indexing a book is tedious but it's also a really interesting process in that it gives you a first-hand glance at what the book covers. and this book covers a lot! i hope to post the index within a few days - once the publisher approves and formats it. critical cyberculture studies should be out in september.

M/C

2006-04-26T11:32:00.000-07:00

i remember when the online journal M/C - Media and Culture first appeared in 1998. eight years later, it's still going and going stronger than ever. a new call for papers for a special issues on the topic of free (edited by trebor scholz and rachel cobcroft) looks particularly interesting. (see the rest of the CFPs here.)

it's one thing to launch a digital project. everyone is excited to experiment and explore. with time, though, attention spans wander, excitment sort of evaporates, funding runs out, etc. sustainability - online or offline - is hard work. it's great to see M/C not only survive but thrive.

what's happening in darfur?

2006-04-25T10:36:00.000-07:00

this thursday, from 6-10 pm, in HUB east ballroom on the UW campus, is darfest. from the website:

my main interest in darfest is simple: i have very little knowledge of darfur and what is happening there and i want to learn more. that said, i'm also extremely impressed by several elements of the organization of this event.

instead of merely having talks and lectures, darfest is more about culture - music, dance, spoken word, visual arts, and educational displays. the students behind this event seem to be suggesting that before we are to do something about darfur we first need to understand the region, its people, its history, and its culture.
darfest is organized by student groups from two campuses: seattle university's STAND (Students Taking Action Now - Darfur) and UW's Save Darfur Coalition. seattle is a city with a ton of community colleges, colleges, and universities. it's nice to see some inter-campus collaboration.
darfest has many student group and community group co-sponsors: African Student Association, Southern Sudanese Community of Washington, UNICEF: UW, Hillel, Tzadek Hillel, Brit Tzedek v'Shalom, Students for a Free Tibet, Earth Club, Young Democrats, SEED, Sierra Club, VOX, Muslim Student Association, Save Darfur Washington State, African Studies Department, Resident Housing Student Association, Alpha Epsilon Delta. smart.
the folks behind darfest understand that publicity works on multiple fronts. thus, a web site, a word doc press release, and a pdf flyer. (hey! if you have access to a printer, print this out and place it where people will see it.) they've also been quite active on facebook.
finally, the folks at darfest are thinking and working locally, nationally, and globally. after darfest this thursday, they will reconvene sunday (westlake park, 4th and pine, at 2 pm) for a rally and march to raise awareness about darfur. the event coincides with rallies happening all over the country (including washington, dc and san francisco) as part of the million voices for darfur campaign.

to the save darfur coalition and students taking action now - darfur: smart and rock on.

writing for my local paper: "Listening to students"

2006-04-24T09:33:00.000-07:00

today, the daily published my editorial titled "Listening to students."

if you are on the UW campus, be sure to pick up a print copy. trevor klein did a really smart design job with the editorial - seemlessly integrating a screen shot of facebook into the editorial. smart.

the paper (but not the online version) also features an introduction by opinion editor maureen trantham. it was maureen who suggested the editorial, maureen who suggested the single editorial morph into a series of editorials, and maureen who is teaching me a ton about writing op-ed columns.

this week

2006-04-23T19:43:00.000-07:00

this week is shaping up to be a big one!

in com 495, we spend monday talking about the readings on 1960s protest music, be-ins, and the diggers. (btw, jay babcock is working with others on a diggers documentary. stay tuned.) we'll spend wednesday building media in the lab.
i don't know all the details yet but some students in com 495 are organizing 1960s-related film screenings on wednesday nights. rumored films include easy rider, PBS's the sixties, and sam green's the weather underground. the surest sign of a course moving in interesting directions is when students increase class time and space.
this wednesday is my birthday! i'll be 38! i'm a taurus!
if all goes well, the september project will soon (like this week) feature two new languages: german and turkish. this is a group effort. mark hungerford (a UW phd student in communication who taught english in turkey for four years) has translated the site into turkish. jen rosenberg (a UW undergrad who is from vienna) has translated it into german. (more on this, and on translating the site into serbian, later this week. i may begin to crossblog on the september project blog. advice on crossblogging welcome.) john klockner is designing and implementing the whole thing. the concept is simple: if we want everyone to understand the september project, then the september project must be in every language.
this thursday is intriguing. the project for critical asian studies is bringing michael hardt to campus where he'll give a talk on love as a political concept. cool. that evening, at 6 pm, darfest begins. darfest is really interesting and i'll write more about it in a day or two.

finally, we here in seattle have had two glorious days of sunshine. much needed! please keep it coming!

writing for my local paper: editorial accepted!

2006-04-21T16:40:00.000-07:00

i just learned that UW's student newspaper, the daily, accepted an editorial i wrote called "listening to students." it will be published in monday's edition. what great news to learn right as the weekend begins!

hyperlinked society conference

2006-04-19T10:03:00.000-07:00

first, the details:

The Hyperlinked Society: Questioning Connections in the Digital Age.

Friday, June 9, 2006, 8:00am-5:15 pm, at the Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania.

second, good looking set of panelists!

third, apparently it is possible to have meals and lodging fully subsidized and travel partially subsidized. for more information, visit the web site.

crooked timber / crooked timbers project: i'm confused

2006-04-19T09:02:00.000-07:00

via CRTNET, i learned about the crooked timbers project, "a group of communication educators, researchers and practitioners committed to fostering a 'social constructionist' understanding of communication as the primary process for creating and sustaining better social worlds."

great. i'm all for projects! and i'm all for scholars and practitioners coming together to share knowledge! and i'm all for creating and sustaining better social worlds!

but why the name?

for the last few years, crooked timber has been one of the most visited academic blogs around. what gives?

gone

2006-04-19T08:47:00.001-07:00

another professor on the move

2006-04-18T23:15:00.000-07:00

graceful, gracious, and generous. plus, honest - "Last stops to Buffalo," by alex halavais.

the september project 2006 = launched

2006-04-17T21:12:00.000-07:00

this evening, we launched the september project! i'll be blogging more about this in the future.

good times

2006-04-16T18:03:00.000-07:00

time for celebration!

my friend and colleague mike received one of five william h. gates public service law scholarships to attend UW law school. my friend (and wife of mike) emily got accepted into UW's master's progam in public health. i got a fine new job in a fine new city. and sarah? her life is a walking celebration.

we decided to feast!

here's an award i can be proud of

2006-04-13T11:37:00.000-07:00

as part of the 14th annual sexual assault and relationship violence awareness week, the good folks at ASUW CORE have declared me one of the real men at UW.

the week's events end tonight with the safety under the stars run/walk and rally - 6 pm, red square.

Come together to celebrate a safe and supportive community. The run will begin in Red Square at 6:00 p.m. with a rally featuring guest speakers UW Men's Basketball Coach Lorenzo Romar and ASUW GBLTC Director Gregor Stoddard. The Run/Walk will begin directly following the rally and will circle campus ending on the HUB Lawn (HUB West Ballroom if it rains) with live entertainment by Seattle Band Flowmotion. The run/walk is a free event and no fundraising is necessary for race participation If you plan on participating in the run/walk please register online.

More info here.

rock on ASUW CORE.

anti-war teach-in on an american college campus

2006-04-13T10:04:00.000-07:00

as the war in iraq becomes more deadly, more irrational, more insane, and more unwinnable, there is little noise coming from US college campuses and even less noise coming from US college faculty. as bush leans towards another war - this time with iran, this time with nuclear weapons - one begins to wonder, when will the madness stop?

faculty at the university of california, santa cruz have decided to do something about it. The War on Terror: A Credible Threat takes place on april 24, 2006 at the quarry.

from their web site:

As a result of student demonstrations against military recruiters in April 2005, the Defense Department listed our campus as a "credible threat." They specified neither their means of assessment nor the nature of the threat. Because the United States government explicitly labeled the University of California at Santa Cruz a "credible threat" in its "War on Terror", we as educators are obliged to seek and to provide an understanding of both this "War" and the "threats" that the US Government claims to combat.

one day soon there will be anti-war teach-ins, marches, and demonstrations on campuses across the united states. until then, let's learn from the inspired faculty at UCSC.

(thanks, mom, for passing this along.)

fall 2006 course: digital democracy

2006-04-11T11:03:00.000-07:00

this fall, my first class at USF will be media studies 390 - special topics: digital democracy. here's the course description:

Course title: Digital Democracy
Course professor: David Silver

Digital Democracy explores the interactions between democratic movements and digital media. We begin by examining a few pre-Web chapters of digital democracy, where digital includes film, poetry, posters, music, murals, and happenings. Next, we will analyze a number of contemporary case studies (local, national, and global) of digital media used to increase human rights and decrease human suffering. Finally, considering that fall 2006 is an election year, we will observe and explore various emerging forms of digital democracy, especially those related to local, state, and national elections.

In addition to a course reader, we will read:
T.V. Reed, The Art of Protest: Culture and Activism from the Civil Rights Movement to the Streets of Seattle (University of Minnesota Press, 2005)
Jerome Armstrong and Markos Moulitsas Zúniga, Crashing the Gate: Netroots, Grassroots, and the Rise of People-Powered Politics (Chelsea Green Publishing, 2006)

com 495

2006-04-11T00:14:00.000-07:00

i began class today by showing pictures of the huge marches that had taken place in dallas and in los angeles. we meet in a pretty cool computer lab and i can project images from my computer to a large screen (about 8 feet by 8 feet) on the wall. i asked students to get out of their seats and approach the screen for a better look. i wanted them to see what a half a million people look like.

today, we mostly discussed "underground channels," chapter two from todd gitlin's the sixties. the chapter suggests that seeds for what was to become the sixties can be seen in some elements of fifties culture. gitlin focuses on three things: movies, comics, and music. the discussion was really great and all of us were thinking on all cylindars. we could have used way more time on this chapter. we discussed the fact that gitlin's perspective is gendered -- mostly male and mostly white. and then we talked about adding new stories and new voices and new heroes to our collective history.

on wednesday, we're going to try to build two wiki entries - two biographies. rosa parks and allen ginsberg. those two, and especially those two together, immediately illuminate issues of race, of gender, of sexuality, of religion, of nationality. plus, they illuminate individual courage and collective tenacity. i have no idea what the students will build on wednesday and i can't wait.

today, a student asked if she could bring her mother to class. so, about 3 or 4 minutes before class began, i entered the classroom and asked the students who were already there, about 15-20, "hey, is it cool if one of your fellow student's mom attends class today?" everyone said, "yeah." i'm psyched that a student wanted to bring her mom to class.

this is what a social movement looks like

2006-04-10T00:49:00.000-07:00

yesterday, a sunday, a half a million people assembled in dallas, texas.

this is a continuation of the march of 500,000 in los angeles.

across the US, and mostly today, april 10th, people are assembling and marching for human rights. their demand is equal human rights.

this is what people-powered politics looks like.

update: sarah just emailed me to say that she heard of a marcher carrying a poster that says:

perfect.

calling all my high school peeps

2006-04-09T15:42:00.000-07:00

if you are a 1986 graduate of san luis obispo high school - in beautiful san luis obispo, california - please visit our twenty-year reunion blog! so far, i've been the primary poster (and visitor and lurker) to the blog. with luck, this will change soon.

can this be real?

2006-04-08T23:38:00.000-07:00

Bush 'is planning nuclear strikes on Iran's secret sites'

"The Bush administration is planning to use nuclear weapons against Iran, to prevent it acquiring its own atomic warheads, claims an investigative writer with high-level Pentagon and intelligence contacts."what the hell?

this story comes from seymour hersh, an incredible journalist for the new yorker who broke the story of torture at abu ghraib.

nice turnout for daily kos and mydd in seattle

2006-04-08T00:11:00.000-07:00

from friday night's talk, Q & A, and book-signing in seattle ...

crashing the gate book tour comes to seattle

2006-04-06T20:36:00.000-07:00

where would we be without the daily kos?

if you live in seattle, markos moulitsas zuniga of daily kos and jerome armstrong of mydd will be here friday night promoting their new book, crashing the gate: netroots, grassroots, and the rise of people powered politics.

if you're interested in new media and social movements, you should go. if you're interested in grassroots politics, you should go. if you're interested in journalism and investigative journalism, you should go.

also, across the 520 in redmond:

(more info at horsesass.)

three interesting sites

2006-04-06T13:57:00.000-07:00

three interesting sites to which i hope to return:

free exchange on campus, "a coalition of groups that has come together to protect the free exchange of speech and ideas on campus." this is a coalition to fight the lame, shameful, and unacademic campaigns of david horowitz and other right wing extremists. the coalition is impressive and currently includes ten national organizations.
fake tv news: findings, an incredible archive of video news releases, or VNRs, curated by the good folks at the center for media and democracy. teaching alert: an excellent and engaging pedagogical tool for anyone teaching classes on contemporary news, journalism, and media.
april10.org, "Coordinated by the National Capital Immigrant Coalition in the metro Washington, DC area and hundreds of grassroots organizations around the nation, immigrant communities and allies will come together for the largest mobilization for immigrant justice in our nation's history." it's exciting - not to mention fascinating - how fast local, national, and international social movements can grow via digital networks.

i [heart] this story

2006-04-05T13:18:00.000-07:00

maybe it's the way that ivan writes, or maybe it's because i like basketball, or maybe it's because i learned a lot while reading it, or maybe it's because i love stories about sons and fathers - whatever the reason, My father, Basketball, and the late President Chiang Kai-shek, is quite a story.

gone

2006-04-03T21:02:00.000-07:00

george is back

2006-04-03T19:29:00.000-07:00

for three years, george williams' blog was easily one of my favorite academic blogs to read. today, george returns with workbook. excellent.

www.goarmy.com/hoops

2006-04-03T11:23:00.000-07:00

wherever there's young black male bodies, you'll usually find US military recruiters.

this year's march madness (ending tonight: go bruins!) is no exception. glued to the television throughout the madness, i have found it difficult to ignore the new crop of US army commercials. what's with the url they list at the end of each commercial?

http://www.goarmy.com/hoops

http://www.goarmy.com/dunks

both sites are identical and lead you to a page that says this:

the ** note:

** Legal Disclaimer: Not all applicants will be eligible to receive the Special Forces video. To qualify, you must be a male between the ages of 20-30 and a U.S. citizen. Those applicants who do not qualify will be eligible to receive more information on other available Army opportunities.i'll be hitting thirty eight this month so i can't get a free Special Forces video.

_____

btw, for those readers who also teach, i've used this article from salon - "the army be thuggin' it" by whitney joiner - to get students thinking about the intersections between race, new media, and the militarization of everyday life. extremely provocative, extremely depressing.

the folks at facebook seem pretty cool

2006-03-30T19:02:00.000-08:00

the big facebook news these days is whether or not they are worth $2 billion and, if so, who will buy them. wired campus is doing a good job providing updates.

but i've got a different kind of facebook story. as some of you may recall, last quarter, i taught com 300: basic concepts of new media and one of our main topics of study and one of our main platforms of publication was facebook. i thoroughly enjoyed teaching this course and although i have not yet received my student evaluations i believe the students learned a lot. the students worked on a level of creativity that i haven't seen in college students for quite a while.

the final project encouraged students to go beyond academic writing and instead build projects -- facebook experiments with identity, facebook experiments with photo albums, facebook experiments with offline events.

one project was called Best Project Ever and it pretty much kicked ass. it was a group project - thought about, discussed, debated, designed, and produced by nine students: anna h, frankie c, jackie n, jen k, jessie h, jessie s, joleen j, kim m, and kristen h. (that's a lot of students with names starting with j!)

the project was smart. the nine students: a) assembled a list of dream features for facebook, b) asked the rest of us to rank them in terms of what we want to see/use on facebook, and c) designed a detailed print package describing five new features. and then, d) they sent the package to the headquarters of facebook.

this week, facebook wrote back!

first, anikka fragodt, executive assistant to the chairman & ceo of facebook, wrote:

rock on, anikka!

then, randi zuckerberg, director of market development at facebook, wrote:

rock on, randi!

what a great new chapter to an already great course. congrats to all com 300'ers! let's follow what happens, eh?

good stuff happening near you

2006-03-30T08:42:00.000-08:00

good stuff on the horizon:

this book series (conveniently pdf'd by professional-lurker) looks really, really interesting - deadline for abstracts: april 28, 2006.
this conference looks really, really cool - convened by the volunteer-run journal first monday, the university of illinois at chicago (UIC) university library, and the maastricht economic research institute on innovation and technology, may 15-17, 2006.
and this conference looks really, really great, too - sponsored by man medium machine [M3] and the school of communication, technology & design at södertörn university college, september 14-16, 2006.

new reviews in cyberculture studies (april 2006)

2006-03-28T11:26:00.000-08:00

an excellent new batch of book reviews this month:

Love Online: Emotions on the Internet

Connecting: How We Form Social Bonds and Communities in the Internet Age.

Touch: Sensuous Theory and Multisensory Media

it's always a thrill for me - and, i think, for readers of RCCS - when authors take the time to supply a response to the review. thanks mary and ted for the excellent reviews and thanks aaron and laura for your excellent rejoinders.

com 495: sex, drugs, and rock n roll

2006-03-26T12:00:00.000-08:00

tomorrow, spring quarter begins. i'm teaching one class, com 495: sex, drugs, and rock n roll, with thirty students.

i'm excited to teach this course for a number of reasons, including:

i have wanted to teach a class on 1960s america for years, dating back to when i was a graduate student in american studies at the university of maryland.
a class on 1960s america lets us approach all the topics that desperately need to be talked about, wrestled with, and taken seriously. topics like racial differences, gender differences, sexual differences. topics like dissent and rebellion and revolution. topics like idealism and believing in something and trying like hell to fix a broken country.
having been in a social science department for five years now, it feels so good to unfurl my humanities/cultural studies wings. what a pleasure it is to assign tom wolfe's the electric kool-aid acid test! what a pleasure it is to assign a novel!
i'm experimenting for the first time with a wiki. in the past, i've had my students design and build web pages, virtual exhibitions, blogs, and facebooks. but i've never worked with a wiki in the classroom and i'm psyched to see what happens.
the class roster reads like a UW all-star list! out of the thirty enrolled students, i know, have worked with, and have learned from over half of them. there's something about this roster that whispers, "great things will happen."

i love teaching spring classes in seattle. during winter quarter, when it rains every single day, campus falls under what appears to be a collective depression. as we head towards spring, with luck, the sun may appear soon and we can have classes outside!

pew internet & american life project

2006-03-23T13:11:00.000-08:00

the pew internet & american life project, a non-partisan, non-advocacy research organization based in washington dc, continues to churn out interesting and important reports on the state of the internet, digital culture, and american society. their most recent report, "online news: for many home broadband users, the internet is a primary news source," by john horrigan, confirms what many of us have increasingly thought was true - that more and more americans, especially young americans with broadband access, are turning to the net for their news. for those of us interested in politics and political participation, this report is worth our time.

i have recently become a member of the project's advisory board and i look forward to contributing to their ongoing efforts. i have met the project's director, lee rainie, a number of times and he's always got a lot of new ideas and questions. i've spoken with, and used the work of, amanda lenhart, and admire her ability to explain complex concepts in simple terms when interviewed in the media. and i have known, taught (when i was at georgetown university in 2000), learned from, and laughed with mary madden, who is my go-to person when i have a question about music and the internet. i'm excited to be a part of this project.

jay babcock

2006-03-23T10:57:00.000-08:00

i've always loved the music writing of kristine mckenna so it was quite fitting that she wrote this great piece about jay babcock.

who is jay babcock?

jay is my best friend from college - we met at ucla's co-op, were roommates for a while, and shared a group house (with hot tub! and veggie garden!) in west la. jay is the mind and muscle behind arthur magazine - the best magazine (and free!) out there today. he is a writer, he is a cultural historian, and he may be a shaman. he runs a record (and now dvd) label - bastet. and, recently, he organizes rock/cultural festivals (arthurfest, arthurball) that offer something new for everyone. jay is a thinker, a big, big, big thinker. he's also a dreamer and a doer.

(he's also the guy on the right in this pic.)

he's also, sometimes, a real pain in the ass! like most visionaries, he's hyper-focused, exceptionally driven, and super stubborn. but most of the times he's just plain inspiring.

most of my friends and colleagues spend an inordinate amount of time ranting against that which they don't believe. jay - and arthur and bastet and arthurfest and arthurball - reminds us all to also celebrate what we believe.

tacoma reads together

2006-03-22T13:32:00.000-08:00

tacoma reads together is a great program. it was born out of september 11 and born off of nancy pearl's masterpiece, what if all seattle read the same book?, which encourages neighbors to read and discuss a common book. in the past, the shared reading - selected by the mayor of tacoma - was harper lee's to kill a mockingbird, ray bradbury's fahrenheit 451, julia alzarex's how the garcia girls lost their accents, and mary shelley's frankenstein. this year's book is actually a play - arthur miller's the crucible - a play about a witch hunt, hysteria, paranoia, panic, and fear. relevant themes for today's united states, eh?

tacoma reads together events are organized by the tacoma public library's manager of community relations, david domkoski, and this guy is really inspired. events take place at four tacoma libraries - fern hill, main, moore, and swasey libraries - as well as at king's books and the SOTA theater. moreover, the events are diverse and engaging, and include: book discussions, book readings, staged readings, an impressive film series dedicated to hysteria and mccarthyism, and community conversations.

last night, at the main library, over 100 people attended a community conversation about hysteria and american media. panelists included: paul larosa, producer for the newsmagazine 48 hours and author of tacoma confidential; karen peterson, managing editor of the news tribune; dave ross, radio talk show host; and myself. i also served as the conversation's facilitator.

i loved being part of this event! why?

people cared - they took the time to come to the library and discuss issues that matter. people were engaged - the event was supposed to run from 7 to 7:45 pm and instead it lasted until nearly 9 pm. people were into it - there was a ton of questions, comments, and ideas from the audience.
it was diverse. among the 100+ attendees were a few dozen high school students (yes!), young adults, adults, middle-aged adults, and senior citizens.
it was a reminder of the important and inspired role of public libraries. anyone could attend. it was free. and it offered a spectrum of ideas. yet another reminder that public libraries = the heart of a functional democracy.
it was fun. the conversation was lively and engaged but it was also humorous. yes, our times are tough. yes, this war is insane. yes, oftentimes our media seem to have no attachment to reality. but we explored these topics with passion, respect, and humor.
people listened. it was amazing to witness an audience member speak while a whole room listened. and it was beautiful to watch people in the front row turn around to look at and listen to a speaker in the back.

events take place through march - if you are in or near tacoma, be sure to check them out. congrats to david domkoski, the tacoma public library, and most importantly the people of tacoma for an outstanding evening.

update: john larson from the tacoma weekly wrote this article about the event: "media panelists examine hysteria, hype."

in the news ...

2006-03-22T10:18:00.000-08:00

a smart, non-hysterical article about facebook in today's seattle p-i. title: "students misbehaving could pay price for posting photos online." author: christine frey.

the article covers the recent trend for colleges and universities, including the university of washington, to use facebook to bust students for various acts. it also features some sensible words from my student and friend jerome mccuin. yours truly is also featured at the end of the article.

equally important, i was also part of an excellent article in silver chips, the outstanding and award-winning newspaper of montgomery blair high school in silver spring, maryland! title: "SIM-ply obsessed: blazers spend hours creating fantasy lives in popular computer game." author: katy lafen. i had no idea high school newspapers could be this good.

(and a quick shout out to my friend and colleague, alice marwick, who, in this article, provides the media with sensible ideas and observations about online identities.)

something big happened at UW last friday

2006-03-19T18:30:00.000-08:00

on friday, UW, in response to a superior court judge ruling in october, agreed to give $17.45 million in back pay to faculty members. for a great - and brief - overview, see this article. title: "UW to give $17.45 million in back pay." author: christine frey.

key points!

duane storti made this happen. it was professor storti who filed the lawsuit and hired the law firm. storti is a professor of engineering.
the decision upholds the idea that once a merit increase is promised it has to be paid.
the day before the decision, mark emmert, president of UW, received a 5.11% pay raise - retroactive to september. emmert now brings home $494,000 a year, making him the #8 highest-paid president of a major public research institution.

rock on duane storti. and rock on AAUP - UW Chapter for their continued work on our behalf.

sweet! sixteen

2006-03-18T21:06:00.000-08:00

today, UW beat illinois to get to the sweet sixteen - against either u conn or kentucky. what a strange, intense game! what a nervous, nail-biting ending! and what a sweet bracket!

i got interested in college basketball as an undergrad, at ucla, my freshman year in 1986. it was fun to party with friends in rieber hall and then stumble down bruin walk to the legendary pauley pavilion. ucla had the skinniest, most trash talkin', most clutch shootin' player i had ever seen - reggie miller - and it was a thrill to watch him shoot, shoot, and shoot some more.

but i really caught the college bball bug as a grad student, at the university of maryland, sometime between 1995 and 1996. going to games with q-dog (aka kelly quinn, one of the best college teachers i know), we spent years watching laron profit (prof), terrance morris (t-rock), steve francis (whoa), juan dixon (who now plays for the portland trailblazers), steve blake (ditto, also with portland), and chris wilcox (who now plays, i think, for the seattle sonics). watching stevie francis, even if it was for only one season, was a thing of beauty. it was also pretty sweet to watch all those ACC superstars - like tim duncan, vince carter, stephon marbury, and an endless stream of ballers from duke.

here at UW, it's been fun to watch the games, especially in the last two or three years. at the same time, it's sort of frustrating - i wish the university of washington spent the same amount of energy on teaching students that they do on entertaining students.

sweet sixteen - sweet! congrats, guys, and good luck.

brand hype

2006-03-18T11:12:00.000-08:00

brand hype - what a fantastic resource. i wish this site were up and running last quarter, when i taught intro to communication. i'll definately be using this site in future classes.

brand hype is a web site "designed to foster informed debate about product placement in the movies." includes among other things a searchable database, a discussion forum, a few academic essays, and a gallery (don't miss the letter from sly stallone). great example of digital cultural studies.

(via cultstud-l and tedlog.)

coming together, face to face, to share ideas

2006-03-18T10:36:00.000-08:00

great article (free to read, registration required) in the new york times on friday. title: "in the age of the overamplified, a resurgence for the humble lecture." author: dinitia smith.

the gist is this. across new york city, public lectures and readings are increasing and attracting very large audiences. at new york public library, events organized by director of public programs paul holdengräber are attracting crowds of 900. at the YMCA on 92nd street, they have gone from poetry readings on monday nights to lectures, debates, and forums nearly every night. readings and discussion groups at the new school for social research are attracting crowds of over 500. even at bars, like at the kgb bar, readings take place, attracting up to 75 reader-drinkers.

cool.

why is this happening? why now? what explains the current trend of public readings, public lectures, and public discussions?

the article offers three possible answers.

first, media saturation. in our time of overwhelming media saturation, it's nice to experience things in the flesh - off the computer, offline, off the phone, off tv.
second, september 11. according to the article, september 11 has generated a renewed interest in public dialogues. witness geismar katz of the 92nd Street Y: "Before 9/11," she said, "it was difficult to sell a ticket to something on foreign affairs." But now, Ms. Geismar Katz said, "we can't keep a ticket in the house."
and third, face to face is fun. as new york public library's holdengräber notes: "I'm asking people to give me two or three hours of their time," he said, "and I will entertain them. I will bring them into contact with other people," Mr. Holdengräber promised. "They will feel something happen that night that they have never felt before."

two more things. first, it is encouraging to note that many of the attendees are young people. second, in describing his goals with public programs, holdengräber notes, "I wanted to go beyond academic discourse and speak to a very large public, and to the common reader." rock on.

(thanks jeff young for making me aware of this article.)

grading, nene, and sienna

2006-03-16T13:23:00.000-08:00

yesterday, the students in com 201 took their final. for the most part, the scores are really impressive. the best part is that a ton of the 95 students improved their scores from exam one to exam two to exam three. for me, that's the best. this class and these students were more than special and i hope to write more about them both when grading is finished.

i continue to house-sit and cat-sit for sarah while she's in italy. her pad is in capital hill, about two blocks from victrola cafe on 15th, walking distance to everything. every morning and every evening i feed sarah's cat, nene, and with each feeding she becomes more and more nice to me. she has neither scratched me nor bitten me for three days!

when sarah returns, spring will be nearby, which reminds me of this picture - taken nearly two summers ago.

two nights ago, sarah called from sienna. she had just returned from a day trip to florence and was practically speechless from what she had seen. sarah returns sunday night.

critical cyberculture studies

2006-03-15T12:17:00.000-08:00

i've just received word that an anthology that adrienne massanari and i edited, titled critical cyberculture studies, will be available soonish from nyu press. it is exciting to see the book come to life (almost!) and it has been a terrific experience working closely with emily park and her team at nyu press.

i was psyched to learn that howard rheingold, one of my favorites in the field, supplied a soundbite for the back cover: "As studies of the Internet and cyberculture begin to mature, it is a particularly important time for critical studies - critical of the subject matter, and critical of the emerging field itself. The consciously interdisciplinary approach of Critical Cyberculture Studies, and the depth and breadth of the contributions, make this an important foundational work at the beginnings of a new field of studies. If only we had a critical study of communication when the Gutenberg revolution was beginning!" - Howard Rheingold, author of The Virtual Community and Smart Mobs

here's the table of contents:

The Historiography of Cyberculture, by Jonathan Sterne
Cultural Difference, Theory, and Cyberculture Studies: A Case of Mutual Repulsion, by Lisa Nakamura
How We Became Postdigital: From CyberStudies to Game Studies, by Espen Aarseth
Internet Studies in Times of Terror, by David Silver and Alice Marwick
Catching the Waves: Considering Cyberculture, Technoculture, and Electronic Consumption, by Wendy Robinson
Cyberculture Studies: An Antidisciplinary Approach (version 3.0), by McKenzie Wark

PART II Critical Approaches and Methods
Finding the Quality in Qualitative Research, Nancy K. Baym
Web Sphere Analysis and Cybercultural Studies, Kirsten Foot
Connecting the Selves: Computer-Mediated Identification Processes, by Heidi J. Figueroa Sarriera
The Structural Problems of the Internet for Cultural Policy, by Christian Sandvig
Cultural Considerations in Internet Policy and Design: A Case Study from Central Asia, by Beth E. Kolko
Bridging Cyberlife and Real Life: A Study of Online Communities in Hong Kong, by Anthony Fung
Overcoming Institutional Marginalization, by Blanca Gordo
The Vertical (Layered) Net: Interrogating the Conditions of Network Connectivity, by Greg Elmer
The Construction of Cybersocial Reality, by Stine Gotved

PART III Cultural Difference in/and Cyberculture
E-scaping Boundaries: Bridging Cyberspace and Diaspora Studies through Nethnography, by Emily Noelle Ignacio
An Interdisciplinary Approach to the Study of Cybercultures, by Madhavi Mallapragada
An Action Research (AR) Manifesto for Cyberculture Power to "Marginalized" Cultures of Difference, by Bharat Mehra
Cyberstudies and the Politics of Visibility, by David J. Phillips
Disaggregation, Technology, and Masculinity: Elements of Internet Research, by Frank Schaap
Gender, Technology, and Visual Cyberculture: Virtually Women, by Kate O'Riordan

PART IV Critical Histories of the Recent Past
How Digital Technology Found Utopian Ideology: Lessons from the First Hackers' Conference, by Fred Turner
Government.com: ICTs and Reforming Governance in Asia, by Shanthi Kalathil
Dot-Coms and Cyberculture Studies: Amazon.com as a Case Study, by Adrienne Massanari
Associating Independents: Business Relationships and the Culture of Independence in the Dot-Com Era, by Gina Neff
About the Contributors

critical cyberculture studies should be out in september.