doctoral candidate in rhetoric and scientific and technical communication
Archive for October, 2006
quest
05 years ago
I’m always on a quest for the best way to read all of my favorite blogs (that would be y’all, btw!). Getting through all of the blogs, seeing what is important that you’re sharing, and getting more information on topics that are important to me isn’t as easy as it sounds.
I read over 100 blogs a day. That’s in addition to reading the news, email, and whatnot.
So, what is an avowed blogophile to do?
RSS feeds. It makes all of the difference in the world when you’re going through so many blogs. It allows you to read them without surfing out, to go to a specific entry quickly, and to comment when the mood strikes.
I’ve been using both the Safari feed (Safari is the browser that comes with Macs) and the Firefox extension, Sage. Both work very well. Both are easy to handle.
However, if I was away from my laptop, I wouldn’t have all of my feeds bookmarked on another computer. I wouldn’t be able to keep up with y’all nor even remember where all of the sites are that I do visit.
So I started looking elsewhere to load all of my feeds online and visit from one centralized place. Over at Unfogged, ogged recently wrote about feed readers. He gave me a push to look out at the world of online feeders once again.
I had tried the Google reader when it first came out and hated it. It didn’t do what I wanted it to do. Bloglines seemed too slow for me and cumbersome.
But I wanted to be fair and decided to look at all of them again. I tried out all of the readers that ogged suggested (and a few more).
I came back to Google Reader. It updates continually. It shows photographs in large sizes (which is really nice when you’re visiting photoblogs). It even has this cool feature where I can share some of the things I’m reading. I just select the Share button and voila! You are now able to see what kinds of things I think are important and worth sharing. You can even get an RSS subscription to my shares.
I know that some of you are not interested in RSS feeds. But, I have to tell you, they are a great tool for those of us who do use them. They save time and allow us to aggregate all of our favorite places into one place so we can give them the time they really deserve.
fur
05 years ago
The other night I watched HBO’s First Look for the new movie, Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus. I was excited to watch it because it has created a bit of a ruckus in the online photography community.
Some people are appalled at this movie. It’s not a true portrayal of Arbus or her family or her craft, they say. Others say that Kidman is the wrong person to portray Arbus. Still others say that making something up about a real person is an abomination.
I like movies. For me, they are all about escaping from the every day and going into a totally different world. I am interested in movies with photographers in them – real or not. It’s interesting to see a writer’s/director’s portrayal of the art.
As I watched First Look, I found the commitment of the actors in the film to be amazing. They all read up on Arbus and the people she photographed. They studied her photography. They learned as much about her and her craft as possible.
The screenwriter, Patricia Bosworth, also wrote a biography about Arbus. She said that she was interested in taking the reality of the photographer and applying it to a fictional situation. She said that it speaks of the type of person that Arbus was. Amy Danger, the production designer, has created amazing scenery that is worthy of being photographed itself. It is pure eye candy that pulls the viewer into a world that is at once retro and, at the same time, surreal.
If this movie gives us even the smallest glimpse into the kind of person that Arbus was and why she photographed in the way she did, it will mitigate the misgivings of the naysayers. If it delivers on the beautiful colors, subtle nuances and interesting characters as the trailers and First Look intimate, it will be just the type of movie that I can lose myself in for a few hours. I’m looking forward to seeing it.
under stars
05 years ago
american life in poetry: column 081
by ted kooser, u.s. poet laureate, 2004-2006
Readers of this column during the past year have by now learned how enthusiastic I am about poems describing everyday life. I’ve tried to show how the ordinary can be made extraordinary through close and transforming observation. Here Tess Gallagher goes to the mailbox to post a letter. We’ve all done that, haven’t we? But notice how closely she pays attention to this simple experience, and how she fits this one moment into the meaning of her life.
Under Stars
The sleep of this night deepens
because I have walked coatless from the house
carrying the white envelope.
All night it will say one name
in its little tin house by the roadside.I have raised the metal flag
so its shadow under the roadlamp
leaves an imprint on the rain-heavy bushes.
Now I will walk back
thinking of the few lights still on
in the town a mile away.In the yellowed light of a kitchen
the millworker has finished his coffee,
his wife has laid out the white slices of bread
on the counter. Now while the bed they have left
is still warm, I will think of you, you
who are so far away
you have caused me to look up at the stars.Tonight they have not moved
from childhood, those games played after dark.
Again I walk into the wet grass
toward the starry voices. Again, I
am the found one, intimate, returned
by all I touch on the way.
“Under Stars” copyright (c) 1987 by Tess Gallagher. Reprinted from “Amplitude: New & Selected Poems” with the permission of Graywolf Press, Saint Paul, Minnesota. Gallagher’s most recent book of poetry is “Dear Ghosts: Poems,” Graywolf Press, 2006. This weekly column is supported by The Poetry Foundation, The Library of Congress, and the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. This column does not accept unsolicited poetry.
self-portrait, week #1
05 years ago
by dawn
in self portrait
I recently read an entry on daisies’ blog about self-portraits and self-assessment. It made me think about a lot of things.
I’m currently working very hard on dealing with some body issues that I have with myself. You see, I love food. I don’t love it in the way that it makes me happy. It’s more of a love-hate relationship. I think about it all of the time. I eat whenever I’m sad or worried or stressed. I eat to take the worry out of eating and then eat more when I become stressed over eating so much.
I’m working on dealing with some of these issues. I’m working on repairing a self-image that has been torn down by plenty of people telling me how ugly or fat I am. The saying goes that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. But so is ugliness. One person’s ugly is another’s beauty.
I need to remember that.
When I was 16, my aunt (an aunt by marriage, not by blood) told me that I would always be girlfriend material and never wife material because I just wasn’t beautiful enough. My nose is too big, she told me. My body was not the kind that men wanted for the long-term (whatever that means). And I should have ignored her.
But I didn’t. I can still remember the day, the place, and the look in her eye. It was mean. She was delighting in tearing me down. It was gleeful to her.
And when the next person who came along, another person who was supposed to love me, and told me that I was stupid and ugly and fat, I believed him. If two people who supposedly love me say this to me, it must be true. Right?
Wrong. And even if it was true to them, it didn’t need to be my truth.
I’m taking back my life. It’s mine to define, not anyone else’s. I get to decide about myself. I get to feel good even if I’m not perfect. I get to be happy about the small goals that I meet or the little hurdles I cross.
Yes, it’s nice to be patted on the back or told that someone is proud of me (especially if it’s someone I trust). But, in the end, my opinion of myself is the one that counts the most.
And, truthfully, I’m worth so much better than what I’ve allowed myself to have.
I’m taking me back.
friday fun
05 years ago
I’ve been saving up a bunch of links to blog about because they strike my fancy at the time.
I thought that today I could share a few of those links and let you in on all of the enjoyment that I have while reading RSS feeds and checking all of you out. (there is only slight sarcasm there – really).
mathowie’s community blog
This is a 22-minute song using Arlo Guthrie’s Alice’s Restaurant as a foundation. It’s a humorous look at online communities and how people interact.
guess-the-google
This is a highly addictive game that requires you to understand that all elusive Google algorithm of how it associates different images with different words. Some of them are obscure. Some of them are simple.
A hint: pay attention to words in the images. It helps.
animator vs. animation
This is a great Flash animation of the animation trying to outdo the animator. It’s fun. The director of my department sent it out to a few of us one morning. His son had found it.
flashforward film festival winners & finalists
Amazing, irreverent, beautiful Flash productions. All of these are winners and/or Finalists in the Flashforward2006 Austin Film Festival. Take your time with this. There is some amazing work in there.
I think that’s good for this Friday. I’ll save some for next Friday. Let me know what you think and if you found any of this worth your while or fun or boring or what.
visual rhetoric
0
One of the things that I’m drawn to again and again within my course of studies is rhetorical media.
What does an image relay to the person who views it? What does it mean from the person who has created it?
I think advertisers understand the concepts of rhetorical medial very well. For instance, the minute I see the black silhouette on bright backgrounds with white lines coming from its ears, I think, automatically, iPod, Apple, music, iTunes. It’s brilliant really.
But what about art?
I recently watched a movie, Cradle Will Rock, that addressed this very topic but in a subtle way. It portrayed Diego Rivera painting a historic image on the walls of Rockefeller Center for commission from John D. Rockefeller.
Rivera was a brilliant artist and wanted to paint the past, present, and future. He included scenes from American history. At the time of the painting, Lenin was in power and there were already fears of Americans being coerced by the communists. Rivera also portrayed what he saw for the future. He painted items that were on his mind, including a cell of syphiis.
What Rivera saw as a painting speaking to the state of the world and his vision of it, Rockefeller saw as an offront to the very foundation of the nation. This amazing piece of art that he commissioned was subsequently demolished with hammers.
What made this art so powerful that not only did two men see it differently but that it moved one man to have it demolished?
The Commercial Rhetoric Art Project looks at this topic in a new way. It takes common images that we see each day and rearranges them to give us a different message.
But what makes that message better – or worse? What makes it change an image from advertising to art? And is art an advertisement for an ideology?
buddy walk
0
As you all know, my nephew, Justice, was born 3 years ago with Down Syndrome. And, as you know, 75% of the proceeds of the sales of my photography go to the Sharing Down Syndrome organization.
While I don’t like to ask for your money, it is that time of year again that I will reach out to you for support in our annual Buddy Walk for Sharing Down Syndrome Arizona! It is an event that celebrates the many abilities and accomplishments of people who have Down syndrome. The proceeds of this event will benefit the many families of children with Down Syndrome.
Details about the walk are available at www.sharingds.org. We are also asking that you please consider making a monetary donation to Sharing Down Syndrome Arizona on behalf of Justice. Sharing has been serving children with Down syndrome since 1991 and your donation is tax deductible. Contributing through this website is simple, fast and totally secure. It is also the most efficient way to make a contribution to our fundraising efforts.
My sister-in-law, Jenn, Justice’s mom, has created a team, “Justice Leagueâ€, that will track the amount of pledges we collect. In order for your pledges to count toward our team, please visit Sharing DS – View Teams and click on “Justice Leagueâ€. There is a link located at the top of the page to make a pledge toward our team.
Thank you for your support.
elegy for an old boxer
05 years ago
american life in poetry: column 080
by ted kooser, u.s. poet laureate, 2004-2006
One of poetry’s traditional public services is the presentation of elegies in honor of the dead. Here James McKean remembers a colorful friend and neighbor.
Elegy for an Old Boxer
From my window
I watch the roots of a willow
push your house crooked,
women rummage through boxes,
your sons cart away the TV, its cord
trailing like your useless arms.
Only weeks ago we watched the heavyweights,
and between rounds you pummeled the air,
drank whiskey, admonished “Know your competition!”
You did, Kansas, the ’20s
when you measured the town champ
as he danced the same dance over and over:
left foot, right lead, head down,
the move you’d dreamt about for days.
Then right on cue your hay-bale uppercut
compressed his spine. You know. That was that.
Now your mail piles up, RESIDENT circled
“not here.” Your lawn goes to seed. Dandelions
burst in the wind. From my window
I see you flat on your back on some canvas,
above you a wrinkled face, its clippy bow tie
bobbing toward ten. There’s someone behind you,
resting easy against the ropes,
a last minute substitute on the card you knew
so well, vaguely familiar, taken for granted,
with a sucker punch you don’t remember
ever having seen.
Reprinted from “Headlong,” University of Utah Press, 1987, by permission of the author. First published in “Prairie Schooner,” Vol. 53, No. 3, (Fall 1979). Copyright (c) 1979 by James McKean, whose latest book is nonfiction, “Home Stand: Growing up in Sports”, Michigan State University Press, 2005. This weekly column is supported by The Poetry Foundation, The Library of Congress, and the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. This column does not accept unsolicited poetry.
wait, weight
0
I’m a little late in talking about this, I know. The Daily Mail wrote on the story on October 4th. I was thinking about this, though, since the moment I saw the photograph and read the article.
This is the thing, in case you haven’t heard. The fashion designer, Jean Paul Gaultier, decided to use ONE size 20 model in his runway show (you can click on the image to the left to see the image in a larger size). Okay. This is good and fine. EXCEPT, he used ONE larger model and the rest were all size 0.
Not only did he only use one plus size model BUT his show was focused around aerobics. Reuters reports:
“…Gaultier again took the audience by surprise as he turned a catwalk into a fitness room, equipped with glittery exercise machines, sending models racing along in elaborate training suits, pumped up by songs such as Diana Ross’s 1982 hit “Muscles” and excerpts from aerobics classes.
Wearing eyeshades and high-heeled Converse shoes, models paraded in baseball jackets in embroidered satin with shorts reading Gaultier on the buttocks as a recorded voice screamed encouragingly: “Now, we all want to have thighs of steel.”
While I couldn’t find a comment from Gaultier to explain his reason for using one larger sized model, I find this to be a mockery of women who are larger than a size 0. And…what is a size 0 anyway? It makes me think of the Emperor’s Clothing where they would really be naked because 0 means nada.
And why care about what size you are when the highly regarded (ahem) Hewlett-Packard is so willing to make a camera that slims us down automatically?
And do you notice how all of this is aimed at women? Not one man in the HP ad. Not one man in the catwalks is being mocked or disregarded.
Women are the whipping posts for the weight issue. It’s easy to make fun of women because we seem to buy into it so much more. We seem to feed into the furor that arises over weight and feel that we have to meet some ideal look in order to be desireable. And many men feed into that by focusing so much on a woman’s weight.
Sure, being overweight is unhealthy. I completely agree. Being underweight is also unhealthy.
Every person has a weight that is healthier for her or him and it isn’t often in the size 20 or the size 0 areas. It’s in-between. And finding that weight is more important than fitting into designer clothes or buying into a camera that makes us look like something we’re not.
I’d rather be me, fat and all, than be anyone else or try to fit some ideal that is not only dangerous but unattainable.