tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35557243274280442902024-02-07T05:48:32.972-08:00Some Assembly RequiredDr. Bjorn Ingvoldstad's media-focused blog on life, the universe, and everythingDr. Bjorn Ingvoldstadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02286850922793980667noreply@blogger.comBlogger118125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3555724327428044290.post-14387910286873492582021-07-02T21:29:00.000-07:002021-07-02T21:29:11.222-07:00This Covid moment. This aching loss.<p>Where do I start?</p><p>It's been over three years since I've posted on this blog. And a lot has changed.</p><p>A new U.S. administration. A national reckoning on race and racism. A global pandemic.</p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicfs7JFU_4HytYm86WgsZya3AcRMEdhaq0KARow0pbkfhvOhrvmEchmSQCdPF6o1g3C9oZyNphSuWtD0ZBH93PRhFBxDrf_AvFtZRffQ2k-jpf1mpXqqNepeR2oMJs3e_pvcvCt6yXnwQC/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="213" data-original-width="320" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicfs7JFU_4HytYm86WgsZya3AcRMEdhaq0KARow0pbkfhvOhrvmEchmSQCdPF6o1g3C9oZyNphSuWtD0ZBH93PRhFBxDrf_AvFtZRffQ2k-jpf1mpXqqNepeR2oMJs3e_pvcvCt6yXnwQC/" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">October 2016--Dad's Cape Cod grandson had just turned three years old,<br />and Grandpa was fighting the good fight.</td></tr></tbody></table></p><p>Three years ago my parents were still in their house. My mom's cognitive abilities were slipping, but she was giving it a go. My dad... Dad was still alive.</p><p>If nobody else read these blog posts, Dad did. See my last entry from 2018, where he corrects my use of the word <i><strike>Sisyphusian</strike> Sisyphean</i>? Once an English teacher...</p><p>I miss my dad so much. And I haven't done a terribly great job working through that loss. I get it.</p><p>Is that why I'm here, blogging again? Talking cure? </p><p>There's a lot to unpack from this Covid moment, and maybe some regular dispatches here can be a part of that unpacking. Having a little more headspace bandwidth might help facilitate.</p><p>Or not. But let's try.</p><p>Between the summer and sabbatical in the fall, I'll try to more regularly post dispatches from over here. </p><p>Let's try.</p>Dr. Bjorn Ingvoldstadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02286850922793980667noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3555724327428044290.post-51190964900848690062018-06-04T04:45:00.000-07:002018-06-04T14:54:07.175-07:00As he pleased: Orwell's essays<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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For about the last year, I've been picking away at the Everyman's Library volume of George Orwell essays--and this morning I found myself up at 5:30am to finally finish the book. At 1363 pages (excluding biographical intro, endnotes, etc), this is an accomplishment in perseverance that has to rank up there with reading <i>War and Peace</i>.<br />
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Except that, in framing it that way, it sounds like it was a slog--which it was not. Spending time with Orwell, often in the early morning, with fresh coffee on the side table, and a sleeping 4-year-old to my right, felt more like a real treat. Similar to reading <a href="http://www.kingsolver.com/" target="_blank">Kingsolver's</a> essays this winter, or <a href="https://culture.pl/en/article/10-unforgettable-quotes-by-czeslaw-milosz" target="_blank">Miłosz's</a> interviews in Kaunas, it was a chance to spend some real time engaged with a thinker who gave comfort, spoke sanity, and provided a needed sense of connection...<br />
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I've been buying an Everyman's Library selection for DH every year for his birthday--the hope is that, at some point, he suddenly realizes he's got a nice little library for himself there. I'm consciously trying to have books from different countries for him, so that it'll be a sampling of world literature when all is said and done...<br />
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And in the meantime, of course, I'm reading them myself. For his 4th birthday, coming near the end of our first full year of 45, I decided to seek out some wisdom (or even just sanity) from the man who gave us <i>1984 </i>and <i>Animal Farm</i>. (I haven't read either of those again since high school--the time is still right to revisit.) This collection includes a wealth of pieces written for newspapers and magazines over the years, including a number of book reviews and a regular column he called "As I Please."<br />
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This column (80 pieces in all) was a "writer's notebook" kind of prose, often with 3-5 tidbits brought together for a snapshot of his thoughts that week. "As I Please" was particularly remarkable for its everyday-ness, especially in the context of wartime concerns. Orwell was always concerned with politics, but as much as anything about the politics of the everyday: socialism as a means for fostering humanity... It all read as anything but didactic.<br />
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I wonder what our son will make of this country's 2016 election, and how he'll make sense of it. I wonder if he'll still be trying to get his head around it 50 years later, as I seem to be doing now <a href="https://www.npr.org/2018/06/01/615534723/the-busboy-who-cradled-a-dying-rfk-recalls-those-final-moments" target="_blank">about 1968</a>. My guess is that these Orwell essays will still be relevant: the struggle to remain human in an inhuman time feels downright Sisyphean.<br />
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Surely we must be happy.Dr. Bjorn Ingvoldstadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02286850922793980667noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3555724327428044290.post-39808709659342322512017-09-24T23:36:00.001-07:002017-09-24T23:36:33.620-07:00THE VIETNAM WAR (2017): Déjà vu all over again<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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We're now on the back nine (hours) of the latest Ken Burns opus, <i>The Vietnam War</i> on PBS. Tonight's episode was on the first half of 1968. I was born in December 1968, so I was <i>in utero </i>for the assassinations of both MLK and RFK--but this terrible historical moment has only become more of a touchstone to me as I raise my own son.<br />
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My reverence and respect for my own parents, starting a family in the midst of all this? What a defiant piece of optimism. Decades later, I'm still cribbing notes, I kid you not.But I'm being reminded, watching this series, of <b>the iconography of death</b> that the Vietnam War brought home: frozen in time, burned in collective memory. From a Buddhist monk's protest self-immolation to a Viet Cong's street execution, to a student cut down at Kent State.<br />
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I remember, as an undergraduate, studying about how the war was the first to be directly piped into American living rooms via television, and how crucial that was in the domestic perception of what was happening half a world away in our names. Hearing Johnson complain about "damned media lies" tonight, you can't help but see the table being set for the putrid rhetorical assertions of "fake news" to which we're now regularly subjected by the current administration...<br />
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The first of <i>The Vietnam War's </i>ten episodes is called "Déjà vu," connecting France's experience as a colonial power with that of Americans trying to stem the falling dominoes. The film convincingly argues that JFK and the US forces made a fundamental misread of the situation as early as 1961: that this was about the Cold War rather than colonialism. That as a result, the whole enterprise was essentially lost as soon as it began--a long, slow, bloody tragedy.<br />
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To me, one of the most striking aspects of the series has been the soundtrack--along with usual suspects from the 1960s, there's an ominous, electronic, decidedly 21st Century howl cutting through the documentary as well. Trent Resnor, my friends, is all over this doc. Let that sink in. You know: Head like a hole, black as your soul, Nine Inch Nails Trent Resnor? Yep.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7feZURllGkFN8Ms6Fh77Gw8JqBSu3jV_3hLmPbFFHwMFjQa6xMef0lcpiA6f2g1Abzi07gdsYerYeYqLKRyP05r_zCrJreE3D2bgSomVvcxSsYil6kqGTQtmAxSAX_yZ3VRt3rK4ddDzA/s1600/51HglfDwFlL._SX330_BO1%252C204%252C203%252C200_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="499" data-original-width="332" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7feZURllGkFN8Ms6Fh77Gw8JqBSu3jV_3hLmPbFFHwMFjQa6xMef0lcpiA6f2g1Abzi07gdsYerYeYqLKRyP05r_zCrJreE3D2bgSomVvcxSsYil6kqGTQtmAxSAX_yZ3VRt3rK4ddDzA/s200/51HglfDwFlL._SX330_BO1%252C204%252C203%252C200_.jpg" width="132" /></a>An absolutely inspired choice: the soundtrack refuses the reflex to assign the film (and the war) to the dustbin of history some half-century previous. This isn't only about THEN, it's about NOW. Our war in Afghanistan has now gone on longer than our war in Vietnam, with no end in sight. Svetlana Alexievich's <i>Zinky Boys </i>(1989), the 2017 Nobel Prize for Literature's oral history on the Soviet war in Afghanistan,<i> </i>now feels that much more imperative to read...<br />
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Finally, watching <i>The Vietnam War</i>, I'm struck by how the rhetoric of the Right we hear from the 1960s seems at times to fit that of 2017 hand in glove. One example: a caller to WEEI this afternoon asserting athletes' protests during the National Anthem were "spitting in the eye of the military."<br />
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You can't make this stuff up. Head-shakingly incredible.<br />
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Or not. Innit.<br />
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<br />Dr. Bjorn Ingvoldstadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02286850922793980667noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3555724327428044290.post-47375300820161021082017-09-14T08:45:00.002-07:002017-09-14T08:46:57.337-07:00Grant Hart (1961-2017), RIPI opened up Facebook fast before squeezing in a car payment before leaving the house this morning... and read the news that Grant Hart had passed away overnight. Stunned--though apparently if I was paying more attention it really wasn't unexpected (<a href="https://blog.thecurrent.org/2017/09/songwriter-and-husker-du-founder-grant-hart-passes-away-at-56/" target="_blank">see this blog post from The Current for more</a>)...<br />
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April 1987. Spring of senior year of high school. What still holds as the best week of non-festival concert-going: U2, X, and Hüsker Dü. The Hüskers played an all-ages show up in Phoenix--and if I remember right I have a flier somewhere with autographs. We didn't know it at the time, but this would be their last tour, in support of their final album <i>Warehouse: Songs and Stories</i>. Specifics are hazy, but I do remember being blown away...<br />
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Despite the electronic drum set, Picture Picture's set included a cover of "Celebrated Summer." That was a Bob Mould song, but I guess I sort of pulled a Grant Hart by singing while playing that one. Perhaps mercifully, I have no recording to document our reverence--but we were playing it as straight as we could (with Tama Techstars).<br />
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And I remember getting psyched to start college that fall in Minnesota: the land of Hüsker Dü and The Replacements, the land of Prince and the Suburbs and Soul Asylum (and even bands not yet on the radar, like Gear Daddies and Trip Shakespeare)... Going to school at Gustavus, on some level, was about gaining entry to a vibrant music scene of which I only vaguely had a clue.<br />
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Grant Hart was only 56. I find myself sitting quietly this morning, at a coffee shop in Plymouth, sitting outside and streaming a playlist of his music. An early Hüsker song erupts into my ears, Hart pleading/shouting: "WHAT DO I WANT?!?! WHAT WILL MAKE ME HAPPY?!?! WHAT DO I WANT?!?! WHAT WILL MAKE ME HAPPY?!?!"<br />
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How can you not cry. <br />
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Driving up this morning, I took a deep breath and told Loreta how happy I was that we sorted our wills and such last year. Because we all want to live to 100, but... On Tuesday, my students were introducing themselves in part by offering up their five-year plans--and mine is to see my son in 3rd grade. But... You just never know. Every day is precious, and unfortunately the universe offers up regular reminders.<br />
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Tell those you love that you love them, my friends.<br />
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<iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="380" src="https://open.spotify.com/embed/user/893thecurrent/playlist/3gGnsvJt8X5EimJIddjFJn" width="300"></iframe>Dr. Bjorn Ingvoldstadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02286850922793980667noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3555724327428044290.post-72958716310825867132017-06-28T20:54:00.002-07:002017-06-28T23:13:16.166-07:00What teaching Hitch taught me: five things<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Let's pick up the thread <i>in media res</i>, and we'll eventually work our way backwards (and forwards)...<br />
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Summer I ended Monday--I had the opportunity to teach a Topics in Film course on Hitchcock at the BSU Cape Cod campus in Yarmouth as a hybrid. I tried to pitch it really broadly (no pre-requisites / no assumptions about film studies backgrounds going in) to attract not only Strat Comm students I advise there, but also potentially folks in other Cape-based programs (education, business). We had enough students for the class to run--barely!--but I had more students driving "over the bridge" than not, which was a real surprise... Regardless, I'm really glad the class ran... and here are a few things I learned in the process.<br />
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<b>1. That <i>Hitchcock/Truffaut </i>book? It's as crucial as advertised. </b>I've had a copy of this book on my shelf for a while now, but never had taken the chance to dive in. But now, having read it all twice this summer, I can affirm its usefulness in accessing the notion of Hitchcock as an <i>auteur--</i>not least of which because it was Truffaut who did this book as an object lesson in <i>auteurism</i>. Thanks to Arthur for alerting me to the documentary film centered on the book from 2015--talking heads from Peter Bogdanovich to Martin Scorsese supplement Hitch clips + fragments of original interviews that comprised the book.<br />
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<b>2</b><b>. Surprise vs. suspense: it matters. </b>A key conversation in the book, a crucial distinction made. Surprise lasts seconds, suspense can last for reels. The former can be a thrill, but the latter is what keeps the engines humming. One of those OF COURSE / WHY DIDN'T I THINK OF THAT head-slap moments, once you get your head around it.<br />
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<b>3. MacGuffins: they don't matter. </b>Another thing that shines through in the book-length interview is the inventive use of "MacGuffins" as an excuse to move plots forward. Sometimes whole film projects would get waylaid by studio misunderstandings on this count--what <i>are </i>The 39 Steps, after all?!<br />
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<b>4. Hitch is a "matrix figure" in film (history). </b>Hitchcock made 53 feature films in his career, spanning from silent pictures in the 1920s to the beginning of the "New Hollywood" era in the mid-1970s. He was in Germany during the filming of Murnau's <i>Der Letzte Mann</i> (1924). He negotiated the coming of sound, Classical Hollywood and the <i>Paramount </i>decree, the coming of television, wide-screen and 3-D... And it's not just Hitchcock and his films: the study of Hitch, as our other textbook <i>A Hitchcock Reader </i>makes clear, reads like film historiography--from <i>auteur </i>studies to feminist film studies to industrial studies. Hitchcock becomes a way to think through film history itself. That's what John Orr meant when he referred to him as "a matrix figure," and why I think it worked so well to integrate Gomery's "four ways of doing film history" into the course's conversation.<br />
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<b>5. You could do a whole lot worse than watch 25 Hitchcock films in a summer. </b>This was an arbitrary number, but I've set a goal for myself to see about half of Hitch's total output this summer... With only five weeks, and it not being a full-bore film studies course, I think it's right that we kept ourselves to about ten required films this semester. I figured I wouldn't get to 25 by the end of the semester, but I did complete #18 last night (<i>Spellbound</i>, 1945)...Dr. Bjorn Ingvoldstadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02286850922793980667noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3555724327428044290.post-30144021791405589592016-11-09T20:42:00.003-08:002016-11-09T20:45:17.485-08:00The night after the election: five books<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjD11TNhOIXXlV7RG5zIotxYgjlnnbhyQzx8zkPXAQtmeTth7KJyuO8ASjva0Q0aZyaIM4NRUfb8Xgp78-MaXDv4V3fHpTDO489SaJw7E8VV33XPU9dINKcb5tK4vhcVEpqpE15MyvhzFHL/s1600/51GHA7PB1TL._SX339_BO1%252C204%252C203%252C200_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjD11TNhOIXXlV7RG5zIotxYgjlnnbhyQzx8zkPXAQtmeTth7KJyuO8ASjva0Q0aZyaIM4NRUfb8Xgp78-MaXDv4V3fHpTDO489SaJw7E8VV33XPU9dINKcb5tK4vhcVEpqpE15MyvhzFHL/s200/51GHA7PB1TL._SX339_BO1%252C204%252C203%252C200_.jpg" width="136" /></a><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;">S</span>till processing the results from Tuesday's election--mostly a numb, profound sadness, at this point. But, talking to a colleague this morning, I realized that one blessing was that DH was small enough not to have "the talk" about the Trump election. Many of you are not so lucky. But no: hopefully he will grow up with Trump like I grew up with Nixon...almost totally oblivious. Small mercies, right?<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBF_Y66tjYl9oq2xsMclJnY1HL3dVT7E8aaIZx2gET5mY6OZLU1UCjO_6UL7XSAfjk_DnDm-2S0Wg6QyRp93opL89sV0Nr980fy1GLYlyIdofwI2RiRHRg9YWrqhotOx_uHknx6s1TiFdu/s1600/51Z3W738YYL._SX326_BO1%252C204%252C203%252C200_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBF_Y66tjYl9oq2xsMclJnY1HL3dVT7E8aaIZx2gET5mY6OZLU1UCjO_6UL7XSAfjk_DnDm-2S0Wg6QyRp93opL89sV0Nr980fy1GLYlyIdofwI2RiRHRg9YWrqhotOx_uHknx6s1TiFdu/s200/51Z3W738YYL._SX326_BO1%252C204%252C203%252C200_.jpg" width="131" /></a>So here are five books that rocket to the top of my queue in the wake of the 2016 election--and, I guess, the kick-off of the 2020 election too. (Yep, Michelle Obama and Elizabeth Warren are already trending...)<br />
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1. Leonidas Donskis, <i>Loyalty, Dissent, and Betrayal: Modern Lithuania and East-Central European Moral Imagination </i>(2005). An early entry in the "Boundary of Two Worlds" Rodopi series, this is one I've had for a while, waiting for the right opportunity. Donskis passed away this year, and I'm still disappointed in myself that I didn't try harder to connect with him in Kaunas when I had the chance. The interweaving themes of loyalty, dissent, and betrayal take on new resonance this week...<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjEdF2cLUNc2Cd33BdoKzj01Jx38ZvVUQU2I2WfY4kpP2VPU5EiBSIx6-geEpsfVz_YtF-X_7g1tY4y78gdBzpp_TU-YTQZaySxA_BB2gl-mybajSZ8sDztDgqBnXXhQGfZmL040OcjNy0/s1600/41H1NTT4NNL._SX315_BO1%252C204%252C203%252C200_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjEdF2cLUNc2Cd33BdoKzj01Jx38ZvVUQU2I2WfY4kpP2VPU5EiBSIx6-geEpsfVz_YtF-X_7g1tY4y78gdBzpp_TU-YTQZaySxA_BB2gl-mybajSZ8sDztDgqBnXXhQGfZmL040OcjNy0/s200/41H1NTT4NNL._SX315_BO1%252C204%252C203%252C200_.jpg" width="126" /></a>2. Richard J. Evans, <i>The Coming of the Third Reich </i>(2005). I've been eyeing Evans three-volume history of Nazi Germany for several years, and it's finally (past) time to dive in. Please God let the ready comparisons be hyperbole. <a href="https://howapoemmoves.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">My friend Adam</a> reminds me, though, that today is the anniversary of <i>Kristallnacht</i>...<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnDRXMk4fZCBH8_qkB_7F_dLn0iuPZR1tt832uMtQbSFRydKIDldCGmYwgbWJVhXevxEKUOJWXz4OquRDROYINnQ-S6BlEtPomUk-pfpg9DgV5lCMrqx2fP5bHg7RMWreB6CtcUPkQi-EB/s1600/4199pi-1AwL._SX329_BO1%252C204%252C203%252C200_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnDRXMk4fZCBH8_qkB_7F_dLn0iuPZR1tt832uMtQbSFRydKIDldCGmYwgbWJVhXevxEKUOJWXz4OquRDROYINnQ-S6BlEtPomUk-pfpg9DgV5lCMrqx2fP5bHg7RMWreB6CtcUPkQi-EB/s200/4199pi-1AwL._SX329_BO1%252C204%252C203%252C200_.jpg" width="132" /></a>3. Jeffery C. Isaac, <i>Democracy in Dark Times </i>(1998). Another one on the office shelf that has been waiting for its time. Just think: Isaac wrote this <i>before </i>9/11, <i>before </i>eight years of W, <i>before </i>Afghanistan and Iraq, before Ukraine and before Syria. And before The Donald.<br />
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4. Timothy Garton Ash, <i>Free Speech: Ten Principles for a Connected World </i>(2016). <a href="http://www.timothygartonash.com/" target="_blank">TGA</a> has been one of my main men since working on my M.A. in Austin, and while he's less regionally focused now in his more recent books, he continues to be a source of inspiration and insight. If I were ever to take on teaching Media Law & Ethics, I think we'd have to take this one on together. But I'd like to take in on myself, regardless--the book is on my nightstand, waiting.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiScGPKOdiLbUBs77YowOGabbZyLmaWsWetI8xksXi7Dwqgc3IxBq-tK8iCZHCGYrIUvAvziXjnd4_em8u9cH2pcNqwvvbR0-wMdgP0oZaAZWRAZh_5eTTzAgU9OziEIPIxF2h1sZ76_IGu/s1600/51%252BB8cqHZ8L._SX322_BO1%252C204%252C203%252C200_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiScGPKOdiLbUBs77YowOGabbZyLmaWsWetI8xksXi7Dwqgc3IxBq-tK8iCZHCGYrIUvAvziXjnd4_em8u9cH2pcNqwvvbR0-wMdgP0oZaAZWRAZh_5eTTzAgU9OziEIPIxF2h1sZ76_IGu/s200/51%252BB8cqHZ8L._SX322_BO1%252C204%252C203%252C200_.jpg" width="129" /></a>5. Donald J. Trump with Tony Schwartz, <i>Trump: The Art of the Deal</i> (1992). Because, well, four years is a long time. Actually, I don't know if I could really get myself to read this. It seems like <i>something </i>here might be useful to understand the phenomenon--but I just don't know. If you want to bet $1 on which of these I never ever get to--the smart money is here.<br />
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Dream EP of the week:<br />
Devo, "Freedom of Choice"<br />
<a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/2016/" target="_blank">Bob Dylan</a>, "Talkin' John Birch Paranoid Blues"<br />
X, "The New World"<br />
R.E.M., "Ignoreland"<br />
<br />Dr. Bjorn Ingvoldstadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02286850922793980667noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3555724327428044290.post-66786824217135398372016-09-05T19:58:00.003-07:002016-09-05T19:58:40.816-07:00Becoming a Montessori dad...Tomorrow is DH's first day of pre-school, and I've got my camera ready.<br />
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And it's not going to be "just" pre-school--this will be a Montessori pre-school in town.<br />
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What does "Montessori" mean to you? I'm just starting to really sort out what it means to me, actually. Alternative? Quality? Private? Communal? Those are all initial adjectives that come to mind, I guess.<br />
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I thought about posting this as an open letter to Cookie, a former Montessori teacher who now runs his own, "Montessori-inspired" school, <a href="http://www.truenorthteens.org/" target="_blank">True North</a>. I'm saving that idea for another post. Or a podcast. But he and several other CT friends were who we consulted as we weighed our options for DH for the fall. Their positive Montessori experience informed our decision, and so here we go...<br />
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One of the things that Cookie did for us on a recent visit was loan us his copy of <i>Montessori Madness! A Parent to Parent Argument for Montessori Education</i>. We are hungry for information right now: wanting to maximize our son's experience, and look for ways to make different major facets of his life complementary and mutually reinforcing.<br />
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So what follows is much more of a reaction to the book than any experience with our school... I purposely pushed to finish the book <i>before </i>the first day of class... Plenty of time to reflect on the experience itself in the coming year...<br />
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On the whole, I like what I am hearing from the book. I have a better sense now of how classrooms are consciously prepared to allow for exploration in a way that might maximize student potential. And I loved how Eissler underscored the strategic importance of <i>serendipity </i>in the class--and the importance of the teacher / guide being able to nimbly make connections and enable launching points for curious students.<br />
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The biggest single problem I had with the book was its need to set up public education as a negative foil for Montessori--problem/solution, right? Maybe it's because I'm a public university professor, or maybe it's because I'm a product of K-12 public education, or that my parents were both public school teachers... But I just don't see the call out public schools this way. I think about some of the problems in districts whose students feed into my home university, and realize that maybe this is <i>white privilege</i> talking. But... is it really <i>that </i>bad?<br />
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I guess that's something to keep an eye on--but reading this book has made me eager for the school year to start, and to help our son begin his newest adventure. His classroom will have students ages 3-6, so it will be a very different dynamic from the toddler-heavy daycare he was in. He's hungry to spend time with "friends," and there's a whole lot of new ones to meet.<br />
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Tomorrow!Dr. Bjorn Ingvoldstadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02286850922793980667noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3555724327428044290.post-16411183029962651942016-08-22T21:08:00.001-07:002016-08-22T21:08:12.485-07:00Baseball fragments (1)--for the pennantEighth grade, and we're over a year out from the move from Manitowoc to Tucson. The GATE experiment is not yet a disaster--we're still in the first quarter, so too early to log those D's in English, or Social Studies, or (yes) Woodshop.<br />
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Somehow the importance of the day's game is not lost on my Social Studies teacher, who pulls some strings, gets me out of that afternoon's class, and allows me to watch the one-game playoff between the Brewers and the Orioles. This was the proverbial 163rd game--a one-game playoff to see who would win the A.L. East pennant. Don Sutton on the mound...<br />
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It is a small kindness, but a profound one. How did that happen? I just remember being alone that afternoon in the room, with a TV, in the second-floor room at Vail Junior High.<br />
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This was the apex of baseball madness for us all--BOAT League being a prime mover for us all. But on top of everything, there was that bet with PJ. The most unlikely bet I would ever win--and probably the reason I don't bet on <i>anything</i> any more.<br />
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Earlier--late spring or early summer, when Milwaukee was like 5th in their own division--PJ goaded me as only PJ could do. Frikking Yankees, right? They stink, he told me. There's no way the Brewers are doing anything this year. And earnest me takes the bait: hook, line, and sinker.<br />
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The bet: $10 that the Brewers will not win the A.L. pennant. Even odds. What craziness (or what naïvety) held me to make that bet? But I couldn't back down, I guess.<br />
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Then the most amazing thing happened: the Brewers went to the World Series, beating California in a five-game series.<br />
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And I won $10.<br />
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PJ was so mad, he wouldn't even talk to me for a week. His <i>dad</i> paid me the money. And his dad told me what a dick his son was being. Which, looking back on it, is pretty hilarious.<br />
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The Brewers took the Cardinals to Game 7 that year, but came up short. I'd forgotten that Rollie Fingers was injured, and didn't pitch at all that series. Maybe things would have been different with him there, but that final game was a blowout.<br />
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I remember hearing, though, about the rally at County Stadium afterwards, including Robin Youth riding in on a motorcycle (must have been a Harley-Davidson, seeing as their factory is there in town). The crowd chanting IT JUST DOESN'T MATTER.<br />
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Yount. Molitor. Cooper. Gantner. Simmons. Vukovich. Fingers.<br />
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Gorman Thomas.<br />
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They were the team I grew up with--the team that never won it all, and actually got the closest after we'd left Wisconsin. But they were the team that captured my heart in the late '70s and early '80s. They were the template for what a team you root for really could be.<br />
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<a href="https://youtu.be/IQSrlo6jgv4?t=52s" target="_blank">They were <i>mine.</i></a><br />
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<i>Trying to write a little this week--and baseball is the engine. Some wholeheartedly subjective and personal moments to reflect upon. So sue me.</i>Dr. Bjorn Ingvoldstadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02286850922793980667noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3555724327428044290.post-47357983122366982842016-01-04T11:04:00.003-08:002016-01-04T11:04:38.044-08:00Media Studies, or "Ways of Seeing"<div style="border: 0px; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; margin-bottom: 1em; outline: rgb(0, 0, 0); padding: 0px;">
<i>This entry originated as a discussion board post this afternoon--it's Opening Day for a two-week Intersession section of Foundations of Media Studies. I usually say something like this to my new media studies students at the beginning of every semester...</i><br />
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One of the fascinating things about teaching media studies is that, on the one hand, everyone I work with is already an expert! Think about it: each and every one of you can go deeper than me in terms of these <span class="mceItemHidden" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 13px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: rgb(0, 0, 0); padding: 0px;">online</span> games, or those <span class="mceItemHidden" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 13px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: rgb(0, 0, 0); padding: 0px;">YouTube</span> <span class="mceItemHidden" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 13px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: rgb(0, 0, 0); padding: 0px;">vlogger</span> stars, or that television series, or whatever. I'd be an idiot to pretend otherwise! It's this kind of deep knowledge (and passion!) that makes media studies courses instantly vital.<br />
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What, then, does a professor like me have to offer You The Students?<br />
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To riff on my man John Berger, I would say that a course like this invites you to consider "ways of seeing" media that you might not have fully considered before. Others might call this a set of theoretical "lenses" through which we might look through to understand our media-saturated world.</div>
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Example from today's reading: the colors of a stop light. Why does the color red mean "stop"? SPOILER ALERT: It's a social construction. In Chapter 1, we start to think about "meaning" as sets of inter-related, socially constructed sign systems. As goes stoplights, so goes language, visual communication, montage, <span class="mceItemHidden" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 13px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: rgb(0, 0, 0); padding: 0px;">soundscapes</span>, you name it.<br />
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And this week, here's our "ways of seeing" short-list: semiotics, narrative, genre, representation, globalization, ideology, and industry. That's a heck of a week, <a href="http://www.joebobbriggs.com/" target="_blank">if you know what I mean and I think you do</a>.<br />
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Anthropologists describe what they do as "making the familiar strange." And while on the one hand we're all experts, on the other hand we all can benefit from understanding our world through new perspectives. It's part of the reason why I like having my US students reading a UK textbook. One more small way to make the familiar strange...</div>
Dr. Bjorn Ingvoldstadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02286850922793980667noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3555724327428044290.post-19669394063309237752016-01-02T20:53:00.000-08:002016-01-02T20:53:17.885-08:00"Time really is moving faster"<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgu5CQiUrpg2oVYzJ2R7D4R6mQm-Rt9oRojreXC1ZYf_w1xDDFKke7CqoQX_i6Er4LKQySdtS21iNWdUk6X6zSicZJoHERAuaDdBRSgRsmQHX7Ka74Qebf4owCiwc-wX49BHXTHjUxOok5e/s1600/51fGl0%252Bd42L._SX304_BO1%252C204%252C203%252C200_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgu5CQiUrpg2oVYzJ2R7D4R6mQm-Rt9oRojreXC1ZYf_w1xDDFKke7CqoQX_i6Er4LKQySdtS21iNWdUk6X6zSicZJoHERAuaDdBRSgRsmQHX7Ka74Qebf4owCiwc-wX49BHXTHjUxOok5e/s200/51fGl0%252Bd42L._SX304_BO1%252C204%252C203%252C200_.jpg" width="122" /></a>These days, the vast majority of my library time is spent in the Children's Section--it's rare that I have a little time to poke around and browse the stacks anymore.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTKUlNN_yulxkiXhd4kjOhGZgMDcpjciCF6JpNR3BTg5HxB8UTvm9PoHrhA0aZsUrtUeSpu0qZrOiadCWVkrV2p3RQNvYJ_9oEsVE2i1Qi9QakYGlN8jupbeP5KF4NSueU1MLyRBdpMC0p/s1600/51TuvYWQnhL._SX320_BO1%252C204%252C203%252C200_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTKUlNN_yulxkiXhd4kjOhGZgMDcpjciCF6JpNR3BTg5HxB8UTvm9PoHrhA0aZsUrtUeSpu0qZrOiadCWVkrV2p3RQNvYJ_9oEsVE2i1Qi9QakYGlN8jupbeP5KF4NSueU1MLyRBdpMC0p/s200/51TuvYWQnhL._SX320_BO1%252C204%252C203%252C200_.jpg" width="128" /></a>But today I was running errands during nap time, and so I snuck a look around, and found a thin volume co-written by Douglas Coupland (<i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Generation-X-Tales-Accelerated-Culture/dp/031205436X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1451795832&sr=1-1&keywords=generation+x" target="_blank">Generation X</a> </i>et al.) and Hans Ulrich Obrist (o he of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/888158431X?keywords=hans%20Ulrich%20obrist&qid=1451795788&ref_=sr_1_13&s=books&sr=1-13" target="_blank">the interview books I picked through</a> @ the VDU library) called <i>The Age of Earthquakes </i>(2015). [For now, I plead ignorance on Shumon Basar.]<br />
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It turns out that this is something of an update of our man Jon Berger's <i>Ways of Seeing </i>(1972)--the authors are working to link our media-saturated NOW in ways not readily apparent to climate change, the 1%, political atrophy, the loss of the Social, and so on. And they do so in a way that not only touches on Berger, but clearly also <i>Generation X</i> (1991) as well.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-SP_2lZeNJXzsvnb-z7-o7ZEab-awkpr_VJkt8i__ktg_Byw0VlukNjHKSfQck-edhecZUquB8tAaAO8v0dQYKlSVszoRpt5keXK8fVsVT3ZLM3bb862sIikB2F5I2ER1PHibsdfcTke0/s1600/51FZ-Jz8yQL._SX258_BO1%252C204%252C203%252C200_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-SP_2lZeNJXzsvnb-z7-o7ZEab-awkpr_VJkt8i__ktg_Byw0VlukNjHKSfQck-edhecZUquB8tAaAO8v0dQYKlSVszoRpt5keXK8fVsVT3ZLM3bb862sIikB2F5I2ER1PHibsdfcTke0/s200/51FZ-Jz8yQL._SX258_BO1%252C204%252C203%252C200_.jpg" width="172" /></a>What would happen if I led off my accelerated Media Literacy course on-Cape this fall with something like THIS? What kinds of initial conversations might this jump-start? What would it foreclose? What are some other new titles that need considering?Dr. Bjorn Ingvoldstadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02286850922793980667noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3555724327428044290.post-28876937026035916852016-01-01T21:25:00.001-08:002016-01-01T21:25:47.988-08:00TarkovskyOne of my go-to end-of-semester palate cleaners has been Kieślowski's <i>Three Colors </i>trilogy--how many dozens of times have I enjoyed returning to those films? But for whatever reason, this winter has been a little bit different.<br />
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This time, I find myself working through Tarkovsky: <i>Mirror </i>(1974), <i>Nostalgia </i>(1983), and currently <i>Solaris </i>(1972). (Just about everything is available on YouTube w/ English subtitles--the poor man's Hulu strikes again!)</div>
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I'm in no position to offer up anything profound yet, but my initial note is that I remember Dina Iordanova first introducing me to Tarkovsky in 1993--and that I really wasn't ready for him yet. The long takes and the decidedly poetic cinematic craft were not in sync with what I was looking for at the time, I guess. Still: I read and loved <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00E2972BU?keywords=sculpting%20in%20time&qid=1451712270&ref_=sr_1_3&s=books&sr=1-3" target="_blank">Sculpting in Time</a></i>, and I did watch most [if not all] of his seven films in Austin.</div>
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Middle age? A more conscious need to slow things down? A desire to revisit a key <i>auteur </i>from the region? Make of it what you will--this year's model is Andrei Tarkovsky. </div>
Dr. Bjorn Ingvoldstadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02286850922793980667noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3555724327428044290.post-16487323651965026612015-12-11T19:53:00.002-08:002015-12-11T19:54:00.728-08:00Who am I? Take 2: I am a father.One of the things we did to celebrate my birthday yesterday was go to a local library to celebrate the completion of our having logged 1000 books read to DH. It took a few takes, but his picture in now hanging in the "Hall of Fame" of Mashpee's kids' section. Pretty great.<br />
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We went out for dinner as well to celebrate yesterday evening. What we order is, in part, a strategic hedge on what DH will eat himself for dinner--though it turns out he was all about those salty chicken fingers after all. And those fries. Oh dear.<br />
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I have 1000 pictures I would love to share with you.<br />
<br />
But I feel more and more ambivalent about posting any of them. Still, every now and then, I can't help myself. But maybe not tonight.<br />
<br />
Tonight: though I actually got home from school with the sun still up, the post-nap snack routine kept us from getting out the door until the sun was well down. But no matter--we were swinging at the canal, inky night or no inky night. Alas, no evening canal traffic for us...but we got to visit all the giants on 6A as we meandered home.<br />
<br />
We are SO lucky to have "Dom" in our life. So so lucky.<br />
<br />
Blessed? Sure. OK.<br />
<br />
Blessed.Dr. Bjorn Ingvoldstadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02286850922793980667noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3555724327428044290.post-32845132421659923042015-12-10T20:27:00.001-08:002015-12-10T20:27:40.956-08:00Who am I? Take 1: I am 47.Thought experiment to jump-start the blog, therefore to jump-start 2016 writing: on my birthday (and on through finals for the next two weeks or so), I ask myself to self-define.<br />
<br />
So to start: today I am 47 years old. As I said to L tonight at dinner, unless I live for a loooooong time, I've most likely seen more than half my life played out already. The proverbial "back nine." Which is odd, but not disorienting. Another good reason to keep questioning how I live out my priorities in life--because it's finite. Not that I'm feeling morbid or overly mortal: just trying to be real.<br />
<br />
Last year, we were on the verge of leaving for Kaunas. Five years ago, DH was an idea. Ten years ago I was in my last year @IU, and we had just accepted a tenure-track position half-way across the country. Fifteen years ago, we were in Vilnius doing dissertation work and broadcasting for the state radio. Twenty years ago, I'd never yet been to Lithuania before--just finished my MA, and was pondering my next move, seeing as it wasn't going to be NYU. Twenty-five years ago, I was going into my last semester @Gustavus. Thirty years ago, I was a high school junior: tennis team, Assorted Images, OSLC youth group.<br />
<br />
47 years seems like a long time. It IS a long time. But at least in some ways, I can close my eyes and I'm right back to these other places and times. (In others, my life pre-DH seems like a haze--I know I did SOMETHING or other, and I guess it was pretty darn important, but whatever.)<br />
<br />
I'm older at this point than my parents were when we moved from Wisconsin to Arizona. I think I'm older than my mom's mom when she died.<br />
<br />
I thought I would feel wiser by now. Maybe this is as good as it gets.Dr. Bjorn Ingvoldstadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02286850922793980667noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3555724327428044290.post-78710706189438688862015-07-10T00:29:00.000-07:002015-07-10T00:33:47.590-07:00Top 5 reasons to love Eisenstein<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVGt8_z63uBZGYhGEwt6Tn8DALirUru1JnMjBWbVSj9eWgwCCvCLbZHsFizLjBDgnxRI5FmUzasF0ysUT6J7imMeRpDivoLKxZPFknzrWC7NKm8yV7VIoU_WRoj4dd1-n9wTesYLX1xTQg/s1600/tumblr_mwm4vfflRZ1rovfcgo1_500.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVGt8_z63uBZGYhGEwt6Tn8DALirUru1JnMjBWbVSj9eWgwCCvCLbZHsFizLjBDgnxRI5FmUzasF0ysUT6J7imMeRpDivoLKxZPFknzrWC7NKm8yV7VIoU_WRoj4dd1-n9wTesYLX1xTQg/s200/tumblr_mwm4vfflRZ1rovfcgo1_500.jpg" width="141" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Eisenstein and Chaplin<br />
ham it up! No Photoshop! </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<i>One of the things I'm going to try this summer as I blog along with my Film History students is post different "Top 5" lists [with all apologies to both David Letterman and Chris Rock] as a way of guiding students to go deeper into a particular area of study... Batting lead-off: Sergei Eisenstein!</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<b>1. The editing. </b>In my graduate work, we developed a class called "Production as Criticism," where each year the instructor would bring their own "problematic" to the table (e.g. police procedurals, music videos, Dogme95). I like to imagine what an editing class dedicated to playing with Soviet montage might entail. I suppose this is more "film school" than what we do at BSU. Still...<br />
<br />
<b>2. The writing. </b>I vividly remember first being confronted with Eisenstein's theoretical writing about his different types of montage, of how he was trying to bring elements of kabuki theater, iconic painting, circus, and God-knows what all else into his work. Check out his book <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Film-Form-Essays-Theory/dp/0156309203/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1436513574&sr=1-1&keywords=eisenstein+film+form" target="_blank">The Film Form</a></i> for starters.<br />
<i><br /></i>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLoZBoIOlBz4qt91nSyAPPmSloLTK9CtFK865bVUTBQOzeDYqPqlrUQV_z_jNpcjAXGVk50NHyzm863j_P-2WFsleC_do3NSYybwOEuAA5V6reAat6o9kYoqSAlQYWXS3jC9vsy_m5LDE2/s1600/images.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLoZBoIOlBz4qt91nSyAPPmSloLTK9CtFK865bVUTBQOzeDYqPqlrUQV_z_jNpcjAXGVk50NHyzm863j_P-2WFsleC_do3NSYybwOEuAA5V6reAat6o9kYoqSAlQYWXS3jC9vsy_m5LDE2/s1600/images.jpeg" /></a></div>
<b>3. The posters.</b> Soviet constructivism is in full effect--not only in the frame composition in shot after shot within the films, but in the promotional materials as well. Completely of-the-moment, and so, paradoxically, timeless.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<b>4. The hair</b>. I mean: come on! Can't you see him leaning over his Movieola, running his hands through his hair for the umpteenth time, as he tries to make the cut <i>just so</i>?<br />
<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9OngT3T3O5zjHcBPZZTFhhOfTd4zuj4cOZ02CnUml7khtYLRWnLAMzs8W1MLDzImUsgSJsmqWtK_G_Y3TOIFsYGfPL2MAHZKhXnZM5Ibg_dkus1U6KEUE46W0twIKisz6BllwQ-rqpv-h/s1600/sergei-eisenstein.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="149" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9OngT3T3O5zjHcBPZZTFhhOfTd4zuj4cOZ02CnUml7khtYLRWnLAMzs8W1MLDzImUsgSJsmqWtK_G_Y3TOIFsYGfPL2MAHZKhXnZM5Ibg_dkus1U6KEUE46W0twIKisz6BllwQ-rqpv-h/s200/sergei-eisenstein.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"So now if the baby carriage<br />
is rolling down and to the right..."</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b>5. The YouTube availability.</b> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=sergei+eisenstein" target="_blank">Go ahead: run a search.</a> Just about <i>everything </i>of his is available now for streaming for free. After <i>Potemkin</i>, maybe try <i>October</i>? Another example of the Internet as an incredibly rich archive for film historians. This kind of access is something we could only dream about 20-30 years ago. Is <i>this </i>the golden age of "doing film history"?<br />
<br />
<i>Sergei Eisenstein was born in Rīga (Latvia) during the Czarist era, and his father was a well-revered architect of the </i>art nouveau <i>style. <a href="https://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images;_ylt=AwrBT7bUc59VMMQAj2ZXNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTEyMmNoam01BGNvbG8DYmYxBHBvcwMxBHZ0aWQDQjA0ODZfMQRzZWMDc2M-?p=Eisenstein+Riga+Art+Nouveau&fr=aaplw" target="_blank">Check out some of these buildings!</a></i>Dr. Bjorn Ingvoldstadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02286850922793980667noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3555724327428044290.post-18631402394506720172015-06-22T04:22:00.000-07:002015-06-22T04:22:58.011-07:00How to stumble into a new replay project<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWAITtLzTcjH1kkHd8pRIYOGlkpmNmjvTS5aTtBRpKKFjbapelJOeuByeaSZfasTRXBa9-3WfKvbZzBpf3f8NvNvAuM2oSOz3ApgjKh6m8N4031FBj-F-F8EJXHsDwhd2YMG-Kw-rhejE-/s1600/Tiant+75.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWAITtLzTcjH1kkHd8pRIYOGlkpmNmjvTS5aTtBRpKKFjbapelJOeuByeaSZfasTRXBa9-3WfKvbZzBpf3f8NvNvAuM2oSOz3ApgjKh6m8N4031FBj-F-F8EJXHsDwhd2YMG-Kw-rhejE-/s1600/Tiant+75.jpg" /></a></div>
In the past few years, I've done my share of Googling <b>Strat-O-Matic Baseball</b>, <b>APBA Baseball</b>, and <b>Status-Pro Baseball</b>. I'd even searched out "replay" for seasons like 1967, 1982, and 1991 for obvious reasons (if you know what I mean and I think you do).<br />
<br />
Along the line, I stumbled upon <i>One For Five</i> magazine more than once. At first, it might have been a result of a failed attempt to track down whether or not <i><a href="http://efqreview.com/" target="_blank">Elysian Fields Quarterly</a> </i>was still publishing. But looking for online writing about baseball boardgames brought me back to their website again and again.<br />
<br />
It actually seems to be the case that <i>One For Five </i>began as a labor-of-love blog (<a href="http://oneforfive.com/">oneforfive.com</a>), and has become a magazine thing as well. And one of the beautiful things about 2015 is being able to order said magazine despite being in Lithuania... The PDF travels light! (This nudged me into getting an electronic subscription to <i><a href="http://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/sight-sound-magazine" target="_blank">Sight And Sound</a> </i>this summer as well, but that's another topic for another time.)<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjd6qkA-U-VgZ37sZ_qpyx5biGZwiHmKE3-4hRWX8nxygHcBAK0jFuvkIBiinPQRmDz9UUvxLelFbuHa84GVqspTRo7CncxUN5Q-tclIj0VoBaW8AEP-rXaVJZp50knGGcDEcIUp1B0BVfc/s1600/Cover.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjd6qkA-U-VgZ37sZ_qpyx5biGZwiHmKE3-4hRWX8nxygHcBAK0jFuvkIBiinPQRmDz9UUvxLelFbuHa84GVqspTRo7CncxUN5Q-tclIj0VoBaW8AEP-rXaVJZp50knGGcDEcIUp1B0BVfc/s320/Cover.png" width="248" /></a></div>
It turns out that the magazine covers more than baseball--this issue reviewed a number of hockey games (yeah, I'm pondering a Strat tourney that will hopefully end with <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Orr-My-Story-Bobby/dp/042527702X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1434971237&sr=1-1&keywords=bobby+orr" target="_blank">Bobby Orr soaring over the crease</a>), and even provided a lead for a friend looking for Formula 1 fodder.<br />
<br />
But the big bonus for me was the extended interview with Greg Sovan, who has created a number of different baseball games over the years. This was absolutely fascinating to me: hearing him talk through his ideas of how these games differentiated...and why.<br />
<br />
Part of the coolness of picking up Strat for the '67 replay was to grapple with another way to convert a season's worth of stats into a fun, playful board game. Having grown up with Status-Pro, that was always THE way to do it... but of course it's remarkable to see how other folks do it. And to hear them TALK about how and why they chose to do this or that... well, to quote my little boy, "That's so cool!"<br />
<br />
Another bonus with the magazine was a sampler from Sovan's <b>Lineup Card Baseball</b>, with all necessary rules & charts, along with tables for the 1975 Reds & Red Sox. Instant '75 WS replay potential!!!<br />
<br />
And so yes, now that the semester here is over, and before the online summer session course kicks in, I am indulging in revisiting 1975. More to follow on this game vis-a-vis Strat and Status-Pro, the 1975-ness of it all, and such... But for now I am happy to report that Louis Tiant notched 13 strikeouts for Boston en route to a 4-2 victory in Game 1.<br />
<br />Dr. Bjorn Ingvoldstadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02286850922793980667noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3555724327428044290.post-64970933044062127812015-06-21T03:37:00.000-07:002015-06-21T03:37:25.961-07:00An auspicious start...Seeing as the 1967 Strat-O-Matic Baseball tournament is on Fulbright rain delay (with the Cardinals dangling precariously close to elimination at the hands of the shockingly hot White Sox), we're filling the, erm, <i>void</i> in Kaunas with a replay of the 1975 World Series...<br />
<br />
...And I've got to say, Red Sox fans: you've gotten a rather auspicious start to the proceedings, with Dwight Evans going deep to lead off the Bottom of the 1st. After two innings in Game 1, Boston leads Cincinnati 1-0.<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEij1yTQWVS9DGCB4vw0PXuNNF97c9B8gE7s3_K1bKoDwp7WByG6hKxNY7ClkjyAkL0YJ4-Za3sB8K3KQm8xdFAGN1DyWIqgDAv4f6LY6AML3-IVm9qkv8BhZYIaHIQfTbBAW9Tpt4eUSoAt/s1600/Evans+75.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEij1yTQWVS9DGCB4vw0PXuNNF97c9B8gE7s3_K1bKoDwp7WByG6hKxNY7ClkjyAkL0YJ4-Za3sB8K3KQm8xdFAGN1DyWIqgDAv4f6LY6AML3-IVm9qkv8BhZYIaHIQfTbBAW9Tpt4eUSoAt/s320/Evans+75.jpg" title="" width="228" /></a></div>
But let's back up a bit: that's the first home run EVER for me using this new game called Roster Card Baseball...and that was the first Red Sox batter EVER for me with the game. How great is that?<br />
<br />
I remember playing a few warm-up games between the 1967 Red Sox and Yankees as I tried to sort out Strat-O-Matic... not only did Boston refuse to beat New York (twice, in fact--a preview of coming attractions in the tournament, it turns out), but it was good old Mickey Mantle who hit my first-ever Strat homer.<br />
<br />
Sadly, my first Status-Pro Baseball home run has been lost to history. I can only say that the most famous homer was Willy Randolph (1979) hitting a walk-off homer for me with "HIS ONLY HOME RUN NUMBER! HIS ONLY HOME RUN NUMBER!" I wish I could remember the circumstances.<br />
<br />
If I can get a little blogging momentum, I promise more to follow on how I came across this new Roster Card Baseball game, as well as how my writing about baseball board games resurfaced this spring @VMU...Dr. Bjorn Ingvoldstadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02286850922793980667noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3555724327428044290.post-40114810580276911382015-05-16T03:03:00.000-07:002015-05-16T03:03:48.335-07:00Catching up with old 'friends'One of the simple pleasures of being back in Lithuania is revisiting old stomping grounds (Vilnius Old Town still has the magic), listening to local radio (<a href="http://pliusas.fm/" target="_blank">M1+</a> is streaming as I write this), and even reconnecting with old reads like <i>The Vilnius Review</i>.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKoU2-nHynlCz4BnkF5Ea0OYAEa0rrlJ2a4OyDKzZs7dsbRDdAK3EjTEZe7pR368roCnOA-_rIwuZsKhIlkC6WvbdXhAYbgi-wQQfKG_h77COK-fikURbqFe0KoS5Z020ymGtXWQIolqpp/s1600/tr_images.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKoU2-nHynlCz4BnkF5Ea0OYAEa0rrlJ2a4OyDKzZs7dsbRDdAK3EjTEZe7pR368roCnOA-_rIwuZsKhIlkC6WvbdXhAYbgi-wQQfKG_h77COK-fikURbqFe0KoS5Z020ymGtXWQIolqpp/s1600/tr_images.jpeg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Formerly available in a kiosk next to the Vilnius bus station (among other places),<br />
several years' worth of <i>The Vilnius Review </i>can now be downloaded for free!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: left;">
This is a literary journal along the lines of <i>Granta </i>or <i>The Paris Review</i>, but of course with a local/national slant. Along with the now-defunct daily program "Radio Vilnius" and the still-kicking <i><a href="http://www.baltictimes.com/" target="_blank">Baltic Times</a></i>, <i>Vilnius </i>(as it was called in the 1990s) was another English-language "way in" to Lithuanian news and culture, invaluable to an eager student looking for material.<br />
<br />
If you've ever visited (or lived) in Lithuania and/or have a stake in world literature, have a look.<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i><a href="http://www.ebooksfromlithuania.lt/en/e-books/periodical/the-vilnius-review/?&page=1" target="_blank">Click here to access <u>free download</u> options for back issues of <b>The Vilnius Review</b>!</a></i></div>
Dr. Bjorn Ingvoldstadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02286850922793980667noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3555724327428044290.post-47449905754500387322015-05-04T13:48:00.001-07:002015-05-05T13:18:07.971-07:00Chernobyl... and IgnalinaThings finally seem like they're setting down. The apartment search, the visas quest, filing taxes abroad, the Kraków conference, the V2 presentation: all sorted. The funny thing is that now we've less than three weeks of classes left, and then final exams. If we hadn't carved out the extra time, we'd be on the brink of returning already. Unreal.<br />
<br />
I have a lot of things in mind to download here--I hope I have (or take) the opportunity in the coming weeks and months to do so. I think this desire to say NOTHING when things sort of go off the rails has led to a lot of... circumspection these past three (six? eighteen?) months. And that's probably all for the best.<br />
<br />
But it's time to write again. To blog, but to also do some academic writing: something bigger. It's time, isn't it?<br />
<br />
We shall see.<br />
<br />
But tonight, let me just touch briefly on a documentary film that LTV just screened call <i>A Different Chernobyl</i> (Ukraine, 2011). The film wasn't interested in going over the 1986 tragedy one more time--rather, it wanted to paint a portrait of the town and its inhabitants...<br />
<br />
And you couldn't help but think about Ignalina and its Chernobyl-style reactor--how it could have just as easily been Lithuanian Aukštaitija that suffered the worst of a reactor meltdown. Loreta's dad's home village of Dysna is easily within 30km of Ignalina (the range of the Zone).<br />
<br />
Like the crackdown on the Maidan pointed to an alternative history for Lithuania, so too this disaster could have been even more a part of Lithuanian history instead. I'm convinced: there is much for Baltic scholars to learn from the experience of Ukraine and the Ukrainian people.<br />
<br />
The film shows people going back once a year--May 9th, or V-E Day (per the USSR and then Russia). Once a year, for a day (more than that is unsafe)--to remember and celebrate what was.<br />
<br />
<i>Interested readers need to seek out <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Voices-Chernobyl-History-Nuclear-Disaster/dp/0312425848/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1430772154&sr=1-1&keywords=voices+of+chernobyl" target="_blank"><b>Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster</b> (1997)</a>--harrowing, heartbreaking, and absolutely vital.</i>Dr. Bjorn Ingvoldstadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02286850922793980667noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3555724327428044290.post-758053978118343522015-03-14T13:55:00.001-07:002015-03-14T14:09:43.664-07:00Kovo 11-a & Ukraine<iframe width="420" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/D3kJY892Yi0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><br />
<br />
Wednesday was the 25th anniversary of the 1990 declaration of a (re)independent Lithuania--but it was an anniversary under the cloud of continued strife in and around the Ukraine.<br />
<br />
In the last few weeks we've seen the odd theater of the Minsk cease-fire conference (and its bloody aftermath); we've seen a key Russian opposition leader gunned down days before a Moscow rally; and we've seen Lithuania jump-start a plan to reinstate a type of military draft in order to get troop numbers up to believable levels.<br />
<br />
This wasn't the script for how the quarter-century of independence was supposed to feel. This wasn't the script for how "Europe" was supposed to be in 2015.<br />
<br />
In fact, sometimes it feels a lot like how I imagine 1938 or 1939.<br />
<br />
<i><b>Transitions Online</b> has been running a series of short opinion pieces from key Ukrainian voices on the ongoing crisis--<a href="http://www.tol.org/client/article/24725-what-can-ukrainians-expect-from-europe.html?utm_source=TOL+mailing+list&utm_campaign=c25023678c-TOL_newsletter_21_11_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_35d0a711b5-c25023678c-298047614" target="_blank">CLICK HERE</a> for the latest installment.</i><br />
<br />
<br />Dr. Bjorn Ingvoldstadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02286850922793980667noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3555724327428044290.post-16651982926598519322015-03-10T03:46:00.003-07:002015-03-10T03:46:27.484-07:00Surfing the shortwavesOne of the luxuries of this semester has been having time to read some magazines cover-to-cover--for instance, the most recent issue of <a href="http://balticworlds.com/about/centre-for-baltic-and-east-european-studies/" target="_blank"><i>Baltic Worlds </i>(free for the taking from the Centre for Baltic and East European Studies [CBEES] @Södertörn University</a>, home of the 2011 Baltic Studies in Europe conference)!<br />
<br />
The article in particular that's prompting me to write is a short piece by Thomas Lundén on shortwave radio listening during the Cold War. It made me think of being in Šeduva and listening to shortwave in the late-90s...<br />
<br />
As a conversational English teacher, I didn't have much of anything to sort in terms of grading--and a week's course prep could be adapted to the full range of ability levels. So... there was a lot of time for other things! And though I didn't have a TV, I didn't really miss it--I had my cassette/radio player.<br />
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I can remember going regularly to the BBC, but also searching around for random things... Hearing broadcasts meant for troops in the Persian Gulf was something--and hearing coded bursts of numbers and letters was something else. (This was echoed by <a href="http://www.wired.com/2011/09/ff_uvb76/" target="_blank">the 2011 <i>Wired </i>piece discussing a curious Russian station</a>.)<br />
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Of course, there was also "Radio Vilnius," the half-hour English-language daily broadcast on the Lithuanian state radio... That was an access point to local news and culture, as much or more than <i><a href="http://www.baltictimes.com/" target="_blank">The Baltic Times</a></i>. And my interest in that show was parlayed into actually working for the program in 2000-2001, but that's another post for another time...<br />
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I wonder if Mr. Lundén is on Facebook?<br />
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<i><a href="http://swling.com/blog/2015/01/shortwave-radio-recordings-radio-vilnius-1990-1991/" target="_blank">Click here for a set of archived recordings of "Radio Vilnius" from 1990-1991!</a></i>Dr. Bjorn Ingvoldstadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02286850922793980667noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3555724327428044290.post-31688610617925251642015-03-02T01:06:00.000-08:002015-03-02T01:07:59.273-08:00Kaunas chronicles: baby stepsWe've been in Kaunas for a month now--the time has absolutely flown by. Now that we <i>finally </i>have our own apartment, it feels like something of a "reset" for the Fulbright... It was incredibly gracious of my father-in-law to help us by letting us stay w/ him in February, but it's just got to be better for everyone involved to have our own space again.<div>
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I'm teaching two classes at the moment... I'm co-teaching a Creative Nonfiction course (which is moving from print-based feature writing to a more transmedia storytelling approach), as well as an Innovations and Technologies course that's all mine. Both of those are undergrad courses, but I will be taking the 2nd half of a grad seminar on Visual Culture, bringing a production component to bear on their theoretical base.</div>
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It's at least a whole other blog post, but it's immediately striking how large the undergrad classes are--over 150 each! Here's my tease: How in the world do you facilitate the practice of writing in a lecture hall setting?!</div>
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So it's baby steps here in Kaunas--figuratively and literally. Did I mention DH is walking!!?!?!?!</div>
Dr. Bjorn Ingvoldstadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02286850922793980667noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3555724327428044290.post-56668744095619785122015-01-27T09:30:00.000-08:002015-01-27T09:30:15.810-08:00By necessity, life slows down...if only for a day<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Thankfully, the power is back on. We were without for only about five hours this morning. But the blizzard still rages--and Juno is supposed to be with us on into tonight.<br />
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DH is sick: either a reaction to immunization yesterday, or that flu bug certainly floating around our pediatricians' office. (Why didn't I ask to wait on this appointment until we're back?)<br />
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So now I am in his room as he sleeps. Braškė is catching up on her sleep--I was up and watching earlier last night, and then she was "on duty" later in the night / early morning.<br />
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Finished my Havel book. Drinking coffee, watching the trees whip in the snowy wind. Monitoring his breathing. Making sure we still have power.<br />
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There's nowhere to go today--and we can't even shovel until the wind abates. No push to pack or clean--at least not until he's healthier.<br />
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No: today is, ironically, a luxury. Life has slowed down.<br />
<br />Dr. Bjorn Ingvoldstadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02286850922793980667noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3555724327428044290.post-78144717430343338312015-01-10T08:12:00.001-08:002015-01-10T08:18:15.950-08:00Revisiting the "Glory Years"It may not be Ice Bowl II, but it's going to be chilly tomorrow when the Cowboys come to Green Bay for their divisional playoff. And when we start talking Ice Bowl, I start thinking about a record I checked out from the city library so many times I could recite chunks of it by heart...<br />
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<i>The Packer Glory Years </i>features radio commentary from the three-year run of NFL championships, culminating with Bart Starr's quarterback sneak to win the Ice Bowl against Dallas. It all happened before I was born, but throughout the perpetually 4-8 1970s (at least that's how I remember them), the Packer legacy was imprinted on me--largely through this record. And thanks to the glory of YouTube, I go back and listen to it again about once a year.<br />
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We played our share of pickup football, and I'm sure it had something to do with my concurrent fascination with tabletop football games. And there is the curious case of recording the play-by-play of a couple Super Bowls that HAS to be on a cassette somewhere or other still--with Troy Wiegand doing color commentary!<br />
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This was the match-up I was hoping for this week--Packers/Cowboys has been a great rivalry well beyond the Ice Bowl, after all. In particular, I'm thinking about the 1990s when Green Bay seemed like they just couldn't get past Dallas. Texas was a cruddy place to be a Packer fan in the early-to-mid 90s, though the emergence of the sports bar helped to mitigate greatly (and was a nice way for a grad student to blow steam before hitting the books again)...<br />
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I remember being at Adam & Yael's wedding reception in Boston, stealing updates at the bar during a particularly brutal Packer loss in Dallas during the 1996 playoffs. It became clear that GB needed home-field advantage, and it made every game of the 1996 season matter--which was extra fun, because I was back home in Arizona that fall, saving up for my first trip to Lithuania. Dad and I would go to a sports bar on the west side of town after church--it was our thing. I could wax poetic about that year's Super Bowl win--against who? oh yes, the Patriots!--but let's double back to this weekend's game with the Cowboys.<br />
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In the greater scheme of things, football means a lot less to me than it did 20, 30, or 40 years ago. Still, tomorrow's game takes me back to elementary school in Manitowoc: playing football, playing football board games, listening to records of football games. As DH drags our chairs around the living room, and I'm washing dishes listening to this recording, it all comes back.<br />
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How can I not smile? Dr. Bjorn Ingvoldstadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02286850922793980667noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3555724327428044290.post-26047284230282590212015-01-08T19:36:00.000-08:002015-01-08T19:36:00.676-08:00This week, my 229ers wrote on a particular track for a "sound & semiotics" paper... here's the Spotify playlist!<div>
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</div>Dr. Bjorn Ingvoldstadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02286850922793980667noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3555724327428044290.post-81412953490799011452015-01-05T20:53:00.001-08:002015-01-06T07:05:00.715-08:00The brave new world of Intersession<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ9AIBEOV02ezDOIZR9r9m7sGXZk-EUq_tzTnO4tt5TX2cJnylS-2Itkdf0e17RabFTvonccFmqyYmE1ojFtcQgN23My2Q01Na7z5XOcYfRL4LI19SincbRoQtaxZXNDC7lVNwSUueObaK/s1600/MV5BMTYzNDc2MDc0N15BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwOTcwMDQ5MTE@._V1_SX640_SY720_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ9AIBEOV02ezDOIZR9r9m7sGXZk-EUq_tzTnO4tt5TX2cJnylS-2Itkdf0e17RabFTvonccFmqyYmE1ojFtcQgN23My2Q01Na7z5XOcYfRL4LI19SincbRoQtaxZXNDC7lVNwSUueObaK/s1600/MV5BMTYzNDc2MDc0N15BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwOTcwMDQ5MTE@._V1_SX640_SY720_.jpg" height="320" width="216" /></a><br />
It's Opening Day today for the university's (relatively) new offering: two-week Intersession classes, wedged between New Year's Day and MLK Day. I'm teaching Foundations of Media Studies (COMM 229) online, a class I feel most comfortable trying out in this accelerated format.<br />
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"Accelerated" is kind of under-selling it. I mean, I prefer to spread out my summer classes across both sessions, for a 10-week class. This way, it's a little more rapid than the 14-week semester, but not as condensed as the 5-week flavor.<br />
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But now take each of those ten summer school weeks of COMM 229, and make each of them a day. Now put the petal to the metal for ten days, and you've got yourself an Intersession class.<br />
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Dear Lord.<br />
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<span style="text-align: center;">Inevitably, some things need to change--for instance, weekly (would-be daily) screenings have been sacrificed in favor of recommending we talk about </span><i style="text-align: center;">Boyhood </i><span style="text-align: center;">(2014) as something of a case-study of key concepts. And besides, it's kind of fun to make a pedagogical bet that this one will win the Best Picture Oscar this spring... </span><br />
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Gusties (and other fellow travelers) are familiar with the January Term ("J-Term"!) in which you'd take a single class for the month--the idea being that you could explore something outside your major while having a different kind of rhythm on campus. By definition, J-Term classes could not count towards other requirements--it was its own requirement, as I remember. So when several friends and I took Television Criticism, it was because it seemed like a cool idea--not a way to chip away at the dreaded Speech-Comm major. Of course, a lot of people thought it was a lark to be able to watch TV for college credit...until they really got their heads around the readings and such.<br />
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So let's see how this works--maybe in 25 years' time, someone will think back on this class, the way I'm remembering Gustavus in January 1988...Dr. Bjorn Ingvoldstadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02286850922793980667noreply@blogger.com0