Gray Back Matter

Write letters for a month? Sure!

2012-02-01T03:00:00.001-07:00

I'm doing this challenge. I have 11 friends and acquaintances who would like to receive a letter from me. I promised to write one letter a day to each of them during this month. We'll have to see if I can make it through the month. Sign-up and more info can be found at lettermo.com.

State of the Union 2012

2012-01-24T22:22:00.001-07:00

Review: The Best American Mystery Stories 2005

2012-01-09T02:27:00.000-07:00

The Best American Mystery Stories 2005 by Joyce Carol Oates
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Quick points:
- Easy to see how each story reflects Oates' personal history, which seems to influence her own writing
- All worthwhile reads but here are the stories that stick with me: "The Identity Club" by Richard Burgin; "Delmonico" by Daniel Handler; "Jack Duggan's Law" by George V. Higgins; "The Shooting of John Roy Worth" by Stuart M. Kaminsky; "Until Gwen" by Dennis Lehane; "The Shoeshine Man's Regrets" by Laura Lippman; "Case Closed" by Lou Manfredo; "Public Trouble" by Kent Nelson; "Officers Weep" by Daniel Orozco; "The Last Man I Killed" by David Rachel; "One Mississippi" by Joseph Raiche; "The Love of a Strong Man" by Oz Spies.
- I'm not going to attempt to provide a summary and analysis of these stories. I mean, how do you compete with Oates? Especially when she takes Edmund Wilson (!) to task for his characterization of mystery stories as being overwrought and focused too intently on the plot.

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Review: Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things by Randy O. Frost and Gail Steketee

2011-12-03T05:24:00.001-07:00

Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things by Randy O. Frost
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

First, I have not seen a full episode of the A&E show "Hoarders," only clips and ads. So if you have seen the show, this book may or may not be what you expect. Unlike most reality TV shows, however, Frost and Steketee do not have to shape a hoarder's life for dramatic effect; they can let the facts speak for themselves. And the facts are engrossing.

The authors are psychologists who conduct research on hoarding, and in "Stuff" they present case studies, composite profiles, and historical instances of hoarders and the effects they and their possessions have had on family, friends, and society. There is the famous story of the Collyer brothers of New York, whose lives are notably the focus of E.L. Doctorow's latest novel, "Homer & Langley." The details of their lives seem to characterize many hoarders profiled elsewhere in the book: financial independence or being well-to-do, symptoms that point to OCD, intense attention to detail, rich inner lives and stories for their possessions, relatives who are themselves hoarders or collectors, limited social lives.

Frost and Steketee are careful to point out that hoarding is not a recent phenomenon in the U.S., as the show "Hoarders" might suggest, nor do hoarders fit within an easily definable personality profile. They can be as young as five years old and as beautiful as a runway model. Some hoarders require extreme interventions that involve social workers and cleaning crews while others, such as the woman whose home was lined with shopping bags of unworn clothing and accessories, can eventually control their hoarding with professional help.

The authors address the state of research on hoarding, its causes, and treatments, as they cover different aspects of hoarders' lives. They often note how very little research has been done on a particular topic, because it is difficult to conduct a study when, for instance, a participant takes close to two hours to answer a 15-minute questionnaire or write paragraphs to a multiple-choice question.

"Stuff" is aimed at a general audience, rather than an academic one, so Frost and Steketee present their case studies and profiles relatively free of awkward phrasing and unfamiliar jargon. This also means that they can share their own experiences and insights of working with and interviewing hoarders and hoarders' relatives. One notable example was one of their undergraduate research assistants who didn't realize her mother's problem had a name. During their interview, she would yell at her mom and throw accusations at her, despite everything she learned in class.

In spite of the current economic downturn, stuff is affordable, credit is still readily available, and one person's junk pile always holds the promise of unclaimed treasures. With "Stuff," Frost and Steketee present complicated, sometimes sympathetic, portraits of people living with a psychological problem that is all too often misunderstood. (4.5 stars)

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Review: 79 Short Essays on Design by Michael Bierut

2011-10-04T00:16:00.001-07:00

79 Short Essays on Design by Michael Bierut
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The majority of what's collected in this book are reviews, but they sometimes read like essays. Because of this, Bierut's writing refers to controversies and hot topics at the time and they occasionally show their flaws in the light of the passing years. Some are remembrances of influential designers, artists, photographers, and creative persons who have recently passed away and played some role in shaping Bierut's life. But the best work comes in the form of the more recognizable essays, that is, the writings that transcend time while capturing it. A shining example of Bierut's congruent power of writing as a designer can be seen in "On (Design) Bullshit." Bierut recounts one of the major confrontations between architect Richard Meier and artist Robert Irwin in the 1997 documentary, "Concert of Wills," which chronicles the construction of the Getty Center in Los Angeles. He finishes the piece with an example from his years working as a designer with Massimo Vignelli. What is evident in reading these 79 articles is that designers are influenced by any and everything, even falling off a treadmill at the gym.

Given that this is a book on design written by a notable designer (Bierut is a partner in renowned international design agency Pentagram), the content and how it is packaged are presented in a clever manner: each article is presented in a different typeface, most of which is connected to or referenced in the article. (See "I Hate ITC Garamond.")

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Tags: books, reviews, design, art, essays, architecture, photography, movies, typography, music

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'Show Me Where Ya Noms At'

2011-10-02T20:46:00.001-07:00

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"Thinking About You" - Frank Ocean & Bridget Kelly

2011-09-17T23:47:00.001-07:00

Frank Ocean's:

Frank Ocean - Thinking About You (music video) from High5Collective on Vimeo.

Bridget Kelly's:

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September 11, 2011

2011-09-11T15:05:00.000-07:00

Sept. 11:2001-2011

When theydon’t want to defend the people they put them in uniforms and start defendingthe country.

— Samuli Paronen

There isno instance of a nation benefiting from prolonged warfare.

— Sun Tzu

In war theresult is never final.

— Clause von Clausewitz

Am I still dreaming?

Two weeks ago, I told a friend/coworker that I sometimesfear going to sleep because during my slumber I may slip into a parallel worldthat is at once familiar yet fundamentally different from the day before. Itwould be no different than if I were living in a dream.

----------

This is my freshman year at Oberlin College. Last week, Ihad finished an exhausting and exasperating orientation with my dad: setting upa local bank account, buying textbooks amid the throng of Obies new and old,checking out the local restaurants and my new co-op, settling into my dorm roomfrom the nearby Motel 6. I am the only person from my high school who isattending Oberlin. I am sharing a room again, albeit with a stranger from Californiainstead of my brother. That Monday was a long day for me 10 years ago, one thatbegan with 8 a.m. calculus and ended with dinner at the co-op. All of thisnewness took its toll on me and I sleep Monday night as I had little to worryabout the next day since my first class didn’t begin until early afternoon.

I wake up about a quarter to 11 and the first thing I hearis two people outside my window talking about the attack on the World TradeCenter towers. I didn’t think much of it since the north tower had been bombedbefore in 1993, and they were probably talking about it within an internationalpolitical context, as many Obies, I would later find out, are wont to do.Groggy, I go back to bed.

Around 11:30, I wake up, brush my teeth, wash my face,change my clothes, and leave for lunch. I walk through the student union andsee my classmates huddled around TVs, watching footage that wouldn’t be out ofplace in an action film. The World Trade Center had been completely destroyedby airplanes. Two other flights had been hijacked: one crashed into thePentagon, the other into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania instead ofWashington, D.C. Le Monde runs theheadline, “We Are All Americans.” This is not a dream.

Classes are canceled. I receive emails and see posters aboutimpromptu teach-ins on Middle East politics and U.S. foreign policy. Classmatesmake calls to friends and family with questions and reassurances and concerns.I barely know anybody on campus and I don’t know anyone who is from New York,so I watch TV, refresh the news websites, and listen to conversations. It seemseveryone went to the local Red Cross to give blood, so much so that the staffhad to turn away would-be donors. It is the only act many of us could takewhile in the middle of rural Ohio. Come early Friday morning at my first realjob as copy editor for The Oberlin Review,I would edit an article about this incident and see my RA featured in theaccompanying photograph. I watch clips of the plane crashing into the second toweron TV and news websites. They eventually meld into one infinite mental loop ofdisbelief. This is not a dream.

----------

Or is it? In the following months, I become a glutton forinformation. I read about and watch Bush talk about al-Qaeda being responsiblefor the attacks in New York, Virginia, and Pennsylvania. It is not until justbefore the 2004 presidential election that al-Qaeda’s leader, Osama bin Laden,would claim responsibility for September 11. But none of us knew that thatwould happen at the time.

----------

News outlets talk about the U.S. invasion into Afghanistanto conduct its hunt for the terrorists responsible for the heinous attacks andfor those who supported them. I learn about the Taliban and its stranglehold onthe country and about the irreplaceable and historic Buddhist statues that theyhave denounced and destroyed. I copyedit Review articles about student-ledprotests against the war. The editors comment on the friends and classmates whohave been interviewed and photographed. In between consultations with the styleguide and the copy chief, I occasionally wonder why I’m in a crumbling,overheated bomb and tornado shelter that had been converted into a dormbasement, putting together a print newspaper, instead of joining the protestsor forming an activist group or signing up to an NGO. During the quiet moments,I sometimes see the editors pause over the words and photographs, as if theyare asking themselves the same question. Then they continue with their work andso do I. We have a noon deadline to meet.

----------

Two weeks before my 19th birthday, the U.S. and Britainbegin bombing Taliban forces in Afghanistan, thus starting a war that wouldcontinue to this day. Two days after my birthday, House Representative Frank JamesSensenbrenner Jr (R-Wisconsin) introduces the USA PATRIOT Act. The acronymstands for “Uniting (and) Strengthening America (by) Providing AppropriateTools Required (to) Intercept (and) Obstruct Terrorism.” Five days after mybirthday, Bush signs the act into law. In the days before and after its passageon both the House and Senate floors, many senators and representatives fromboth parties protest that they did not have enough time to review the bill’s340 pages.

Among the powers granted to the government in the bill: the eliminationof warrants for wiretaps and confiscation of communiqués from anyone suspectedof aiding or being a member of a terrorist organization; warrantless searchesof an individual’s home; the absence of probable cause when using a NationalSearch Letter, a form of government request for information and paperworkrelated to any individual, and which includes a gag order forbidding thetargeted individual from knowing about the NSL.

A 2007 internal FBI audit finds that the agency violated itsuse of NSLs more than 1,000 times since 2002. The audit’s sampling covers only10 percent of the bureau’s national security investigations.

----------

The first 20 detainees arrive at the Guantanamo BayDetention Camp that following January. It is five days before my sister’s 18thbirthday. I spend my winter term volunteering at the hospital down the streetfrom my high school. GTMO, as abbreviated by the military, remains open andholds 171 detainees as of May 2011. Among those detained since theestablishment of “Gitmo” were children as young as 13 years old.

----------

“The War on Terrorism.” “The Axis of Evil.” “Weapons of MassDestruction.” The next target is Iraq. Then-Secretary of State Colin Powellgives a presentation to the U.N. about mobile biological weapons labs and thesale of yellowcake uranium in Iraq. The U.S. and its allies begin bombing Iraqon March 19, 2003. The target is Dora Farms where, according to military reports,Hussein is visiting his sons Uday and Qusay. One civilian is killed and 14others are injured, including nine women and a child. No Iraqi leaders were present.Hussein has not visited the farms since 1995.

I read reports of Iraqi antiquities being looted by Iraqisand U.S. and allied forces. I see an image circulating online supposedly of aU.S. soldier using a crowbar to pry a gold plate off a door of an Iraqi palace.News shows and websites present images of a statue of Saddam Hussein being torndown. In addition to philosophy, I study Chinese and Japanese culture, history,and art.

----------

Bush, wearing a flight suit, declares the war in Iraq to befinished onboard the USS Abraham Lincoln on May 1, 2003. Nobel Prize-winningeconomist Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes write a book in which they conservativelyestimate that the Iraq war has cost the U.S. $3 trillion. Their book, titled“The Three Trillion Dollar War,” is released in February 2008. As of August2011, the U.S. Treasury estimates the national debt to be $14 trillion.

----------

For a brief period, the U.S. had the world’s goodwill. Bush andthe rest of his administration squander it, hastily and nastily.

----------

Over the years, I try to imagine what the world would belike if, instead of telling Americans to work — and spend — as they did beforethe dot-com crash, Bush had asked everyone to donate their time and skills and fortunetoward those who cannot meet their basic needs, who live in unfortunatecircumstances not of their own making. Would we have avoided the wake of luxurySUVs, sub-prime mortgages, “toxic assets,” bank bailouts, and home foreclosuresthat marred the past half-decade and continue to plague us to this day?

----------

One month before my birthday, I wake up and wonder if I haveslipped into another dream. I am studying nutrition, trying to become aregistered dietitian. I am trying to help strangers, friends, and familythrough food and nutrition education. I am working at another student-runnewspaper, the Arizona Daily Wildcat,as an avocation while my colleagues and friends work there as a stepping stonetoward a vocation that, depending on your point of view, is either goingthrough its death throes or just a painful metamorphosis. Aside from theprecocious, many of them did not fully grasp the enormity of September 11, 2001at the time. But they have been learning of and living through that event’saftermath.

----------

It becomes increasingly difficult to follow the news as Ionce did, mainly because my old habits and newsfeeds left me with manysleepless nights, but also because there is too much information and whitenoise and not enough curation and analysis and context. Trusted sources seemscarcer. I lose track of many of my friends’ personal lives and vice versa. Itry to make up for it online.

I read, watch, and listen to the remembrances andcommemorations in the days leading to the 10th anniversary. I never paid muchattention to them in previous years because it somehow felt exploitative andbecause I was not ready to remember that day.

----------

I am learning more about my limitations. I am learning tofind a space I can call my own. I am relearning not just what it means to be anAmerican at a time when America is unsure of itself and fearful of theuncertain future, but also what it means to be human and humane.

----------

I tell myself: The tragedies of September 11, 2001 happened.Our follies and missteps since that day stay with us. We are haunted by thepast and exorcised by the creation of a present inspired by visions of a betterfuture. This is not a dream.

----------

To hold apen is to be at war.

— Voltaire

The onlyend of writing is to enable the readers better to enjoy life or better toendure it.

— Samuel Butler (1709-84)

Neverdespair, but if you do, work on in despair.

— Edmund Burke

Do whatyou can, with what you have, where you are.

— Theodore Roosevelt

Formyself, I am an optimist — it does not seem to be much use being anything else.

— Winston Churchill

My review of "Chasing the Perfect: Thoughts on Modernist Design in Our Time"

2011-07-27T02:42:00.002-07:00

Chasing the Perfect: Thoughts on Modernist Design in Our Time by Natalia Ilyin
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A collection of personal essays centered on design, Ilyin voices the doubts some of us have when we see a chair, fork, or table in a catalogue that looks perfectly designed with its clean lines, brushed stainless steel surface, and its hefty price tag. We see these items for their promises of a better life after we slide our plastic cards through the checkout line and bring back the haul into our homes. But these promises can often be nothing more than hollow and imbalanced, despite appearances. Even when we choose imperfection, as Ilyin notes with great insight, it's for the "right" type of imperfection.

"What will happen to us as a culture when we have been completely conditioned only to choose between options, rather than to come up with solutions?" Ilyin asks. It's a question that goes beyond the world of design.

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Tags: books, reviews, design, history, art, architecture, essay, memoir, technology

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My review of "The Poisoner's Handbook" by Deborah Blum

2011-06-14T01:24:00.001-07:00

The Poisoner's Handbook by Deborah Blum
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Blum does a wonderful job of portraying the lives and work of Dr. Charles Norris, New York's first professional chief medical examiner, and Alexander Gettler, a tireless toxicologists and researcher. She shows how prevalent and easily available various poisons were in New York during the early 20th century. The descriptions of the havoc left behind by the different poisons, which frame each section of the book, are succinct with a touch of Blum's flair for the right detail without being gratuitous — an interesting balancing act to read. As we learn about each poison, Blum provides examples of actual crimes and accidental deaths related to them. Ironically, one of the more horrific times for alcohol-related deaths was Prohibition due to people imbibing industrial alcohol adulterated with government-sanctioned chemicals that were supposed to deter them. Despite what some may say and think of them today, the Food and Drug Administration was finally given expanded regulatory oversight over numerous manufactured products such as pesticides, makeup, and food and alcohol. Norris and Gettler's hard work, persistence, and rigorous research helped pave the way to a safer world.

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(It's scary how much Blum knows about how to poison a person ... which makes for a very funny "Author's Note.")

Tags: books, reviews, history, mystery, food, crime, music, biography

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A brief review of "A Bride's Tale" by Kaoru Mori

2011-06-12T22:48:00.001-07:00

A Bride's Story, Vol. 1 by Kaoru Mori
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Sumptuous period detail with patient, unfurling storytelling. Mori has shown much improvement since "Emma" with this story of a 19th century Middle Eastern bride and her new family. Unlike other manga reprints, Yen Press has published this in a larger format (about the size of a regular paperback) that succeeds in showcasing Mori's fine art.

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Tags: books, review, manga, comics, history, love

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My review of Jonathan Franzen's "Freedom"

2011-05-25T18:46:00.001-07:00

Freedom by Jonathan Franzen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

What does it mean to be a person in the "land of the free" when each and every one of us are bound by the relationships we find ourselves in, regardless of whether or not we want to be in them? What does it mean to be "free" in a world that, despite or because of, our global connectedness to whatever abstract or concrete degree that we can see and feel it, doesn't allow us to be truly alone to experience utter freedom? Can we find some redemption and solace in knowing that just as we are free to make mistakes, we are equally free to correct them? These types of questions were popping in my mind as I read "Freedom." Franzen attempts to put into a novel a definitive account of not only one family's saga and but also the national generational sensibilities that seeped throughout the U.S. of the 2000s. He succeeds in weaving together the thoughts and actions of his characters with objective and acute observations about them in a way reminiscent of voice-overs in nature documentaries. Patty's early life in the beginning of "Freedom" was a slog to get through and it was jarring initially to read her memoirs in the third person, but it laid the foundation for her dealings with her family and friends later on. Reading the travails of the Berglunds in "Freedom" felt as messy, fascinating, and complicated as hearing the latest life news from a close friend or family member.

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Tags: books, literature, reviews, US, ideas

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In need of service

2011-05-25T18:44:00.001-07:00

Life has been busy. This place needs a new coat and some freshness in it, which I will work on.

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Sunday itinerary at the 2011 Tucson Festival of Books

2011-03-13T01:01:00.000-07:00

Who is this rabbit?

I'll be tweeting for the Arizona Daily Wildcat @wildcatarts as SK. Here's my itinerary for second, and final, day of the 2011 Tucson Festival of Books with alternatives in place:

10 - 11 a.m.
Critics Table: The Power of the Restaurant Review
Culinary Stage - UA Mall
Bon Appetit magazine's EIC Barbara Fairchild, Tucson-based reviewer Rita Connelly and chef Janos Wilder all at once? I'm there.

Alternatives:
Building Comics from the Ground Up
Integrated Learning Center - Room 140
This is my first alternative if my first choice is full, which, given my experiences yesterday, is likely. Terry Moore was great to interview and Eric Esquivel is an engaging guy on, well, any topic.

Against the Odds: Women in Jeopardy
Student Union - Tucson Room
I caught Wendy Corsi Staub and Libby Fischer Hellmann at a panel about relationships in crime fiction and they were great to listen to, so this sounds like a good choice.

11 - 11:30 a.m.
Time for an early lunch, which proved to be a prudent choice yesterday.

11:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.
Modern Heroes/Heroines in Science Fiction and Fantasy
Integrated Learning Center - Room 140

Alternatives:
Banned Again! Difficult Issues in Teen Novels
Join Lauren Myracle, the most frequently banned author in the country, to talk about her experiences with censorship and the importance of building bridges rather than taking oppositional stances when a book is challenged. Oh, and she promises not to be boring.
Education Building - Kiva Auditorium
I've never read any of Myracle's books since I am not her target reader nor am I a parent. I'm curious as to what has made her books so controversial.

Writing Science for Non-Scientists
Integrated Learning Center - Room 137
Meg Daley Olmert

The Graphic Novel: Is a Picture Really Worth 1,000 Words?
UA Mall Tent
Diana Gabaldon and Luis Alberto Urrea speaking about graphic novels? Might be interesting, especially since I reviewed the comic book adaptation of Gabaldon's first novel for the Arizona Daily Wildcat.

12:30 - 1 p.m.
Break!

1 p.m. - 2 p.m.
The Woman Who Ate Chinatown
Culinary Stage - UA Mall
I haven't read Shirley Fong-Torres' book, but it sounds like something I would do.

Alternatives:
Dry Run: Preventing the Next Urban Water Crisis
UA Bookstore
There are obvious reasons for my interest in this.

Crazy Desert Dudes: Surviving the Southwest
Koffler - Room 204
From what Mitch Tobin told me in an interview early this week, this is about how to incorporate your own desert experiences into your writing and everyone will be talking about their desert adventures.

Books into Movies: Adapting and Being Adapted
Modern Languages - Room 350

2 - 2:30
Wander around, take photos, avoid the E-Reader Experience tent

2:30 - 3:30
Appetite for America: How Fred Harvey Fed America
Culinary Stage - UA Mall
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Harvey_(entrepreneur)

Alternatives:
How I Killed Pluto
Mike Brown is an astronomer and the author of "How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming." He discovered Eris, the largest object found in the solar system in 150 years, and the object that led to the debate and eventual demotion of Pluto from a real planet to a dwarf planet. Mike was named one of Time's most influential people of 2006.
Arizona Daily Star Pavilion - UA Mall

Food Writing 101
Integrated Learning Center - Room 135

Physics of Magic
Integrated Learning Center - Room 140

3:30 - 4 p.m.
Break!

4 - 5 p.m.
Future of Publishing
UA Bookstore

Alternatives:
Writing and Publishing Personal Essays
Integrated Learning Center - Room 119

Science Fiction vs. Fantasy vs. Horror: The Ultimate Showdown
Integrated Learning Center - Room 140
The fact that Arizona Public Media's Mark McLemore is moderating this would be worth a visit.

The Locavore Kitchen
Culinary Stage - UA Mall

University of Arizona Asian Music Club, Purple Bamboo Ensemble
Bear Down Entertainment Stage
I didn't know the UA had such a music club. Might be worth catching.

See you there!

Tags: Tucson Festival of Books, literature, business, publishing, food, writing, workshops, cooking, music, astronomy, history, Chinatown, comics, books

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Going to the 2011 Tucson Festival of Books: Saturday edition

2011-03-11T23:57:00.003-07:00

Book Fair , originally uploaded by arizonadailywildcat.

This will be my second year attending the festival, and it looks to be a good lineup. I'll be posting updates and observations about the event via the Arizona Daily Wildcat's Twitter account for the arts desk, @wildcatarts, and through my own account, @GrayBackMatter, with #TFOB in my tweets. I will also have the day's recap at either DailyWildcat.com or the Daily Wildcat arts blog, On the Beat.

You can find more information about the two-day event in my Daily Wildcat preview article and at the official website. The organizers have also created apps for iPhone and Android users for the first time this year, which contains information about the festival. The Android version still has some bugs in it, but it's not a bad way to figure who and what are where.

Here's my Saturday itinerary for the festival with alternatives in place in case something is canceled or I get bored:

10 - 11 a.m.
Bringing Meaning out of Meaninglessness: How Literature Can Respond to the January 8th Shootings
Chemistry - Room 111

Alternatives:
Are You Smarter Than a Cheese Grater? Word Games with Merl Reagle
Arizona Daily Star Pavilion - UA Mall

Digging Holes and Turning Cards: Creating Characters that Become Books with Louis Sachar
Education Building - Kiva Auditorium

11 - 11:30 a.m.
Small lunch break + Chinese dance

11:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.
Spin, Ink: Exposing Corporate Malfeasance
Koffler - Room 204

Alternatives:
Hot Times: Can Nature Survive Us?
Student Union - Gallagher Theater

Bon Appétit Desserts with Barbara Fairchild
Culinary Stage - UA Mall

Writing Comedy for TV: An Interview with Bill Odenkirk
Integrated Learning Center - Room 130

Collaborative Food Writing: A Delicious Blend of Science, Art and Great Taste
Integrated Learning Center - Room 119

12:30 - 1 p.m.
Small lunch break + meandering
I'll probably check out the Twitter wall and head to the E-Reader Experience tent to play with the Nook, Kindle and other gadgets.

1 - 2 p.m.
Be the Moon: Stories of War and Hope
Integrated Learning Center - Room 130

Alternatives:
Colossus: Hoover Dam and the Making of the American Century
Integrated Learning Center - Room 150

It's Okay to Eat Watermelon: Wally "Famous" Amos
UA Mall Tent

Louis Sachar
Teen Authors Lounge

2 - 2:30 p.m.
Meandering + rehydration + snack time

2:30 - 3:30 p.m.
I See Rude People: The Collapse of Civility and What We Want To Do About It with Amy Alkon
UA Bookstore

Alternatives:
From Silly to Serious: Writing Across Genres with Louis Sachar, Candace Fleming, and Grace Lin
Education Building - Kiva Auditorium

Writing Spaces and What They Look Like and How You Can Design Your Own
Integrated Learning Center - Room 119

How to Document Your Culture: 40 Years of Photographing Latinos in the U.S. with José Galvez
Integrated Learning Center - Room 137

3:30 - 4 p.m.
Break time + confer with other reporters + take photos

4 - 5 p.m.
Writing Your Family History Through Family Recipes with Linda Murray Berzok
Integrated Learning Center - Room 135

Alternatives:
The Glamour of Grammar: A Journey Through the Magic and Mystery of Practical English with Roy Peter Clark
Arizona Daily Star Pavilion - UA Mall

The Ties that Bind: Relationships in Fiction
Student Union - Catalina Room

Twisted and Torn: Relationships in Crime Fiction
Modern Languages - Room 350

Eagerly Awaiting the Zompocalypse
Integrated Learning Center - Room 150

I hope to see you there!

Tags: books, reading, Tucson Festival of Books, arts, journalism, media, literature, food, recipes, cooking, Tucson shooting, fiction, workshops, literature, Arizona Daily Wildcat, Bon Appétit magazine, Hoover Dam, Arizona, history, mystery, crime, war, memoir, Oberlin College

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Arizona's government plans to cut $170 million from state universities

2011-03-11T22:32:00.002-07:00

My friend and news editor at the Arizona Daily Wildcat goes on Arizona Public Media's "Arizona Week" to talk about the $170 million cuts to the state universities:

Tags: video, journalism, education, Arizona, government, Arizona Daily Wildcat

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My review of A.J. Liebling's "Between Meals"

2011-03-08T00:00:00.001-07:00

Between Meals: An Appetite for Paris by A.J. Liebling
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Due to a combined misfortune of timing and circumstance, I have not been to the Paris that Liebling describes in "Between Meals." Given that this was Liebling's last book before his death in 1963, I suspect that the Paris contained within this slender book were no more than so many remembered meals by the time this was published. Regardless, Liebling's Paris recalls a time when people savored their food and drink. (Then again, this was also when our traditional notions of men and women dominated and civil rights in America were not at a high point.)

However, as the title implies, the meals were secondary to the people who toiled to create them and the company they provided to those who appreciated good food. The meals, which are sumptuously described, are nothing more than catalysts for Liebling to recall his Paris and its inhabitants.

Liebling's writing exemplifies the New Yorker magazine's style: literary in tone, knowledgeable without sounding too snobbish, rich with the right details, humorous and opinionated without being unseemly. Few writers and journalists nowadays can write like this and not sound pretentious. Even though "Between Meals" represents its time and an era that no longer existed, it continues to serve as a classic food memoir by which other food memoirs should be judged. Well worth reading.

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Tags: journalism, food, memoir, reviews, books, writing, New Yorker magazine, Paris, France, wine, nonfiction

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It started out well...

2011-02-27T22:35:00.002-07:00

Oscars: Opening Montage with Anne Hathaway and James Franco

Posted to New York Magazine by video on February 27, 2011

Click to Play | View Details

Tags: Academy Awards, 2011, video

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Academy Awards 2011 edition

2011-02-27T22:22:00.001-07:00

The winners:
Documentary short subject - "Strangers No More"
Short film, live action - "God of Love"
Short film, animated - "The Lost Thing"
Film editing - "The Social Network"
Visual effects - "Inception"
Sound editing - "Inception"
Sound mixing - "Inception"
Documentary feature - "Inside Job"
Makeup - "The Wolfman"
Costume design - "Alice in Wonderland"
Cinematography - "Inception"
Art direction - "Alice in Wonderland"
Original song - "We Belong Together" by Randy Newman
Original score - "The Social Network" by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross
Animated feature - "Toy Story 3"
Foreign language film - "In a Better World" (Denmark)
Adapted screenplay - "The Social Network"
Original screenplay - "The King's Speech"
Best actress in a supporting role - Melissa Leo for "The Fighter"
Best actor in a supporting role - Christian Bale for "The Fighter"
Best actress in a leading role - Natalie Portman for "Black Swan"
Best actor in a leading role - Colin Firth for "The King's Speech"
Best director - Tom Hooper for "The King's Speech"
Best picture - "The King's Speech"

My picks:
Documentary short subject - "The Warriors of Qiugang"
Short film, live action - N/A
Short film, animated - N/A
Film editing - "Black Swan"
Visual effects - "Inception"
Sound editing - "The Social Network"
Sound mixing - "Inception"
Documentary feature - N/A
Makeup - "The Wolfman"
Costume design - "Alice in Wonderland"
Cinematography - "Inception"
Art direction - "Alice in Wonderland"
Original song - N/A
Original score - "The Social Network" by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross
Animated feature - N/A
Foreign language film - N/A
Adapted screenplay - "True Grit"
Original screenplay - "Inception"
Best actress in a supporting role - Hailee Steinfeld for "True Grit"
Best actor in a supporting role - John Hawkes for "Winter's Bone"
Best actress in a leading role - Jennifer Lawrence for "Winter's Bone" or Natalie Portman for "Black Swan"
Best actor in a leading role - Colin Firth for "The King's Speech," Jesse Eisenberg for "The Social Network," or Jeff Bridges for "True Grit"
Best director - N/A (Too tough to choose!)
Best picture - N/A (Missed out on four of the nominees: "Toy Story 3," "127 Hours," "The Fighter," and "The Kids Are All Right."

So what have I learned from the Academy Awards this year? One, many of the Best Picture nominees deal with the body in one way or another: "Black Swan," "127 Hours," "The Fighter," "Inception," "Winter's Bone," "The King's Speech." The show, from what I could watch, had a lot of missteps in terms of pacing and entertainment. Now, it's time to try and catch the nominated films I missed, especially "Toy Story 3."

Tags: films, movies, awards, 2011, Academy Awards

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Brief comment on the 53rd Grammy Awards

2011-02-16T02:09:00.002-07:00

I saw about the last third, but it was a great last third.

Arcade Fire won Best Album of the Year for The Suburbs.
Esperanza Spalding beat Justin Bieber for Best New Artist.

All is right in the world of mainstream music — for now.

Tags: music, TV, awards, 2010

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My review of 'The 4 A.M. Breakthrough'

2011-02-16T02:01:00.001-07:00

4 A.M. Breakthrough: Unconventional Writing Exercises That Transform Your Fiction by Brian Kiteley
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Unlike his previous book, "The 3 A.M. Epiphany," this is a collection of writing exercises and prompts to jumpstart the imagination. Many of the exercises require research, which is a nice challenge. Many of the explanations are autobiographical in nature, which often proved to be engaging for me. (Your opinion may vary.) I haven't taken many English or creative writing courses, but I was surprised that Kiteley notes how graduate students often resist or groan about writing prompts. There is a lot of great writing that is produced within defined restraints and conventions, e.g. genre fiction. At some point, I'll have to randomly choose a prompt and write within its borders. For now, this book provides some roundabout insights into how writers approach the blank page and generate strands of fiction that may or may not be used in a future project.

View all my reviews

Tags: books, writing, literature, reviews

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Valentine's Day in Japan

2011-02-11T02:49:00.002-07:00

From the Wall Street Journal blog, Japan Real Time:

"In Japan, the burden falls on the woman to shower the men in her life with chocolates. And in another departure from the Western tradition, it is a gesture that sings a more obligatory note than a lover’s serenade."

(UPDATE: My friends on Facebook pointed me to "White Day," which takes place a month after Valentine's. I'm not surprised there is an answer day. My thanks to Chris and Liz for pointing this out!)

Tags: Japan, culture, Valentine's Day, chocolate, food, business, social

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Photo editing diversion

2011-02-07T19:22:00.002-07:00

This comes from my friend Abby via Facebook:

(1) Go to Wikipedia and hit Random Article. The first article you get is the name of your band. (2) Go to quotationspage.com and hit Random Quote. The last four or five words of the very last quote of the page is the title of your album. (3) Go to flickr and click on “explore the last seven days." The third picture, regardless of what it is, is your album art. (4) Use Photoshop or similar (picnik.com is a free online photo editor) to put it all together.

I cheated a little in my creation. Instead of choosing "explore the last seven days," I went with the third picture from The Commons area of Flickr to avoid any issues with copyright. (The Creative Commons area is also a good place to grab a photo, too, as long as you are familiar with Creative Commons licenses.)

Anyway, here's the result:

I did the photo editing with Aviary's Phoenix tool, which is free to use.

Tags: photography, art, Facebook, friends, diversion, Creative Commons, Flickr

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Bo Coker is Making a Record!

2011-01-28T23:52:00.001-07:00

With a few days to spare, friends of Bo Coker (which includes me) were able to fully fund his Kickstarter project.

Congratulations Bo! Can't wait to hear the album!

Tags: friends, music, good deeds

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Review of "Peepo Choo" by Felipe Smith

2011-01-27T23:43:00.001-07:00

Peepo Choo, Volume 1 by Felipe Smith
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Felipe Smith brings a kinetic feel to his satirical look at American and Japanese subcultures, whether it's comic books or organized crime. Like much of mainstream manga, Smith exaggerates: anatomy, weirdness, violence, sex. But in bringing his art and story to such extremes, he lays the groundwork for finding out the complicated truths and disheartening assumptions about people and subcultures on both sides of the Pacific. As evidenced by the cover, there are many sexually and violently explicit images, but they are similar in tone to pulp fiction (and I don't mean Tarantino's movie, either) or to a grindhouse movie, only better. This is an odd, manic, and exciting introduction.

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Tags: comics, reviews, comic books, manga

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Arizona Daily Wildcat's EIC interview on Arizona Illustrated

2011-01-27T22:57:00.001-07:00

(Via)

Tags: Arizona Daily Wildcat, video, interview, journalism, Giffords, shooting, Internet, University of Arizona

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New Roisin Murphy

2011-01-23T03:39:00.001-07:00

Mason Ft. Roisin Murphy - 'Boadicea' (Evil Nine Remix) by Evil Nine

Tags: music

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First episode of 'Portlandia' online

2011-01-14T23:51:00.001-07:00

By Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein, the series premieres on IFC on January 22, but it's already showing up on Hulu:

Tags: TV, video, politics, humor, food, Portland, Oregon, music

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'The Daily Show' criticizes criticism of memorial at the UA

2011-01-14T23:02:00.003-07:00

First, context:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c

Veiled Criticism

www.thedailyshow.com

Daily Show Full Episodes

Political Humor & Satire Blog</a>

The Daily Show on Facebook

(Via)

Unbelievable. I can't believe the pundits would say such plainly ignorant comments. You're questioning the timing of the memorial service? (And this coming from an Obie, sadly.) The prayer offered by a Pasqua Yaqui Indian who is a native Tucsonan, a family doctor and UA faculty member, and who was given special permission from his tribal elders to share something sacred with the world at a memorial service? (This is not the first time prayers have been offered on campus after a tragedy, either.) That it wasn't a better show? That it was too much of a pep rally? (Ever heard of catharsis?)

Talk about grasping at straws and being completely out of touch with Tucson, Arizona, and any culture that isn't your own.

Tags: Tucson, Arizona, media, politics, journalism, commentary, video, humor, idiocy

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Together We Thrive

2011-01-13T02:14:00.004-07:00

Together We Thrive, originally uploaded by arizonadailywildcat.

This photo by Ernie Somoza goes with my article here.

President Obama's speech at McKale Center in Tucson

2011-01-13T01:52:00.000-07:00

The New York Times has a full transcript here.

The Arizona Daily Wildcat has been covering the attack on Giffords and 19 others well. You can find my modest contributions to date— the first public statement from Jared Loughner's family and a paper chain organized by the UA & ASU with messages to Giffords and those injured or killed — here and here.

What happened.

Tags: Arizona, politics, shooting, news, work, journalism, Obama, speech, UA, ASU, Tucson, Jared Loughner, Arizona Daily Wildcat, Gabrielle Giffords

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Wading into the 21st century

2010-12-27T23:52:00.003-07:00

I type this using the Firefox extension ScribeFire in order to talk about the use of my new G2 phone and to test out its tethering function. My parents have cable but no Internet, so it's always tricky trying to find some way to get online. I had to install two applications, one for my laptop, another for my phone, in order to get any sort of connection. It's working right now and I'm rather amazed. This is like being in the middle of a jungle with a satellite phone as my only means of communication, only with smaller, lighter equipment and much less money needed.

However, such breaks from being ever connected (or at least potentially ever connected) give me opportunities to step back and evaluate where I am. Now a house cleaning is in order, literally and metaphorically speaking, which will be followed by a new order. To aid in this endeavor, I'll keep a list of what I've parted with. It will serve as a map of progress.

Meanwhile, I'll be thinking about this year and all I need to do in the time that remains.

Friends and projects

2010-12-15T23:45:00.002-07:00

My friend Bo is working on creating a record and asking for funds via Kickstarter. Minimum pledge is $1 for a song and public thanks. More info here:

Tags: friends, music

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New season

2010-12-15T02:10:00.001-07:00

Finals are done. After some rest, change.

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Review of Garth Ennis's "Punisher: Valley Forge, Valley Forge"

2010-11-19T03:19:00.001-07:00

The Punisher MAX, Vol. 10: Valley Forge, Valley Forge by Garth Ennis
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Garth Ennis ends his five-year run on the Punisher series not with a shower of bullet casings falling to the floor, but with the slow, intense burn indicting those who would seek to profit from war. Because this was published under Marvel's MAX series, Ennis and a stable of wonderful artists (Goran Parlov does some of his best work in this volume) had much more creative freedom to explore the idea of the Punisher in the real world. Who needs to be punished the most severely today? The answer: those who would pave their career paths with the blood and bodies of innocent soldiers as they seek a comfortable retirement. In the world of comics, no one deserving goes unpunished. A shame that does not yet hold true in the real world.

View all my reviews

Tags: comics, reviews, war, politics

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'Matthew Herbert - How I made a concert out of the Guardian'

2010-11-13T01:19:00.002-07:00

Via, of course, the Guardian newspaper. The article says Herbert based his composition on the September 25, 2010 issue. The concert, titled "One Day," is scheduled to debut on November 20 at the Royal Festival Hall in London.

Tags: video, music, concert, newspaper, media

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'I love stop motion'

2010-11-11T02:26:00.003-07:00

I love stop motion from chloe fleury on Vimeo.
"Personal project about stop motion story. Everything is made of papers. Big thanks to Erin Austin and Rob Gungor who made the music."

Tags: video, movies, animation

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Margaret Atwood: three reasons to keep physical books

2010-10-29T01:03:00.001-07:00

(Via)

Tags: books, video, literature, technology, interview

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Robyn - Indestructible (dance version)

2010-10-28T01:57:00.001-07:00

Indestructible (Edit) by robyn

Tags: music

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Review of "Literary Hoaxes" by Melissa Katsoulis

2010-10-28T01:55:00.001-07:00

Literary Hoaxes: An Eye-Opening History of Famous Frauds by Melissa Katsoulis
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

(More like 3.5 stars.) Aside from needing copy editing in the Ern Malley section, this was a good book. It often read like a series of columns about different literary hoaxes and pranks. The only section I couldn't finish was the Holocaust memoirs. I felt ill knowing that these writers were using that tragic period for less than honorable reasons.

Many hoaxes fed into many people's propensity to gravitate toward the outrageous and conspiratorial. The more harmless ones highlighted criticisms of the literary establishment or jumpstarted a writer's career. (Big example: Dan Brown.) Katsoulis's book shows how powerful the printed word can still be, and how journalists, critics and experts are invaluable when it comes to exposing the truth behind the hoax.

View all my reviews

Tags: books, reviews, literature, nonfiction, USA, Britain, Australia

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Love the headline

2010-09-08T02:35:00.002-07:00

NPR - "FDA to Lipton: Tea Can't Do That".

Tags: food, tea, health, FDA, government, business

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Looking at naked "Bodies" and catching "The A-Team"

2010-06-16T01:53:00.001-07:00

For the first issue of Monsoon, i.e. the Arizona Summer Wildcat's arts section, I take a sneak peek of the "Bodies...The Exhibition" currently on display in the Rialto Building until September. Words, in this case, can prove to be inadequate, which is why there's also a slideshow. Gordon took some amazing photos for this.

Continuing the '80s revival is "The A-Team" movie. I say it's good for an escape from the summer heat. Another '80s revival, The Karate Kid, is also out in theaters. I'll have to catch that, too, since they were formative pieces of my pop culture tastes.

Tags: art, photography, reviews, writing, journalism, movies, 1980s

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Review of "Best American Magazine Writing 2001"

2010-05-24T03:38:00.000-07:00

Overall, an excellent collection. Highlights by order of appearance:

Gretel Ehrlich's "The Endless Hunt" - about her experiences on the ice with her Greenland Inuit friends as they hunt for food. Harrowing stories.
Anthony Lane's "The Maria Problem" - A review of the "Singalong-a-Sound-of-Music" event along with an "appreciation" of the movie musical.
Rian Malan's "In the Jungle" - amazing in-depth investigation that uncovers one of pop music's great mysteries and tragedies.
Robert Kurson's "My Favorite Teacher" - Kurson tries to grapple with the fact that his high school biology teacher and role model is a serial sex offender convicted of murdering a teenage hitchhiker.
David Foster Wallace's "The Weasel, Twelve Monkeys and the Shrub" - a dense yet incisive look at the 2000 McCain presidential campaign and what it means to be a journalist covering it, what it means to be a potential voter caught in it. A stark contrast to his 2008 campaign.
Malcolm Gladwell's "The Pitchman" - a profile that is as engaging as its subject, Ron Popeil.
William Langewiesche's "The Million-Dollar Nose" - another profile, but accordingly, of a different flavor that is no less interesting than Popeil. This one is on the influential American wine critic, Robert Parker.
Elizabeth Gilbert's "The Ghost" - an amazing look at Hank Williams III and his struggles to deal with his grandfather and father's legacy while marking his own path as a musician.
Lewis H. Lapham's "Stupor Mundi" - a wonderful essay on Patrick O'Brian, author of the "Master & Commander" series. This can induce anyone to seek out O'Brian's work.
Donna Tartt's "The Glory of J.F. Powers" - a critical essay/review that coincides with the reprint of Powers' stories, which had a decidedly unromantic view of priests and the Catholic church.

Also worth reading for certain aspects:
Bill Vaughn's "Skating Backwards" - a humorous chronicle of Vaughn's efforts to transform a patch of polluted swamp into a cozy, clean pond.
Sean Flynn's "The Perfect Fire" - a tragic tale of a warehouse fire that claimed the lives of six firefighters.
Anne Fadiman's "Mail" - a personal essay on handwritten letters just as email began to take over people's lives via AOL.
Robert Olen Butler's "Fair Warning" - a short story about a young female auctioneer who can sell anything yet cannot find love.
Donald L. Barrett and James B. Steele's "Big Money & Politics," "Soaked by Congress," Throwing the Game" - a series of articles that examines how campaign finance and lobbying efforts prove detrimental to the average US citizen.
Jonathan Gold's "Paris on the Hudson" - a fun review of New York's Pastis restaurant.
James Wolcott's "Forever Young" - a critical appreciation for the work and legacy of the singer and entertainer, Bobby Darin.

(From my Goodreads review.)

Tags: writing, essays, journalism, books, reviews

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Quotes to remember

2010-05-16T08:19:00.001-07:00

It is the deep conviction of vast numbers of individuals that they have no proper story. Their personal experience of storylessness, and hence of valuelessness, is very great. Dramatic resolutions are lacking — loves, no one believes in; flights, captivities, wilderness campaigns, the founding of colonies, explorations, the adventures which for centuries were made possible by an expanding world, all these are absent. Nevertheless people still conceive of themselves as actors and characters. They are prepared but they are not called into action. They feel like unemployed extras; they stand ready and have nothing to do but bear passive, humiliating witness to the greater significance of the new man-made world. Joyce meant to say, I think, that there is remaining significance in myth which sustains the individual. The collective life of mankind he does not admire. History, he agrees with Marx, is a nightmare from which we struggle to awaken. But myth, an extract from the experience of the race, can, he feels, give meaning to the life of the individual and sustain him invisibly. Art — the fresh feeling, new harmony, the transforming magic which by means of myth brings back the scattered distracted soul from its modern chaos — art, not politics, is the remedy.

— Saul Bellow, in "Writers" by Nancy Crampton, dated 1973

All government, in its essence, is a conspiracy against the superior man: its one permanent object is to oppress him and cripple him. If it be aristocratic in organization, then it seeks to protect the man who is superior only in law against the man who is superior in fact; if it be democratic, then it seeks to protect the man who is inferior in every way against both. One of its primary functions is to regiment men by force, to make them as much alike as possible and as dependent upon one another as possible, to search out and combat originality among them. All it can see in an original idea is potential change, and hence an invasion of its prerogatives. The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out for himself, without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane and intolerable, and so, if he is romantic, he tries to change it. And even if he is not romantic personally he is very apt to spread discontent among those who are.
— H. L. Mencken, Smart Set, December 1919

Tags: literature, art, politics, culture, reference, writing

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Another spring comes to an end

2010-05-14T10:37:00.000-07:00

The last articles of the spring:

The Arizona International Film Festival's opening night shorts - great start to this 10-day event.
I talked to the main guy behind Marvel's motion comics about his latest project, "Iron Man: Extremis."
The AIFF's "The Tijuana Project" can be heartbreaking if it weren't for the kids.
Though the title is a little more confrontational than I like, it complements the topic of nondrinkers. I get an official Letter to the Editor about this column.
I got news of supposed appearances by Lupe Fiasco & B.o.B. at a Sam Adams concert.
Finally, I review the top 10 UA/Tucson arts stories of the 2009-10 year.

Amazing at how much happens in Tucson if one looks and listens carefully.

Tags: movies, reviews, comics, Mexico, drinking, journalism, writing, concerts, events, news

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A.V. Club's Undercover series: Ted Leo & the Pharmacists

2010-05-08T15:04:00.004-07:00

On repeat:

Ted Leo And The Pharmacists cover Tears For Fears

Tags: music, video

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What I've been up to, as of April 3

2010-04-04T01:37:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the quiet here. I've been busy:

For the March 31 issue, I review The Desert of Shallow Effects, the solo debut of former Beulah frontman Miles Kurosky, and the new Goldfrapp CD. I also read the new Twilight graphic novel, which, given the source material, it's not bad. The Comics Corner revue returns.

I talk about the first day of the 2010 Tucson Festival of Books, which happened the weekend of March 14.

And in the Feb. 3 issue, events for Black History month at the UA.

Every issue of the Arizona Daily Wildcat is now available at issuu.com as PDF versions of the print edition. You can see the page design this way. The Wednesday WildLife section looks pretty sweet.

Back to work.

Tags: music, reviews, journalism, comics, movies, books, events, writing, design

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Busy busy busy business

2010-02-23T14:42:00.000-07:00

Funny that after talking about the fragmented decade I become a person in charge of selecting moments of the new decade for prosperity. (I still believe that paper will outlast electronics longer, if not better. Of course, it doesn't hurt to back up paper with electronic copies.)

Putting together an arts/culture/lifestyle section greatly depends on what its goals are. Even though the World Wide Web is supposed to be the great equalizer when it comes to distribution, this is clearly not the case. Every search engine ranks its results, and some, like Google, determine these rankings based on how much money is paid for one's own place. Also, it helps to know who your audiences are and how your content is distributed to them.

With that in mind, I've been trying to make the Arizona Daily Wildcat arts section focused primarily on local events with some connections to national and international events and news. The main impetus for this is that the vast majority of the Wildcat print readers are UA students, faculty, and staff. The rest of the print readers are members of the Tucson community. Most online readers, it seems, are alumni and a few students who didn't pick up a copy of the paper. (The fact that the Wildcat now posts PDF versions of each edition to Issu.com is great. Visitors can see the design layout of each page.) Given that our ad revenue still comes primarily from print ads, it is a background concern for an editor, unfortunately.

As I understand the responsibilities of the advertising department, they sell print and online space to businesses and individuals based on the content of the section and the section's reader demographics. If the advertisers and the sellers know what the section is about and who the readers should be, then they can determine what ads would be most appropriate for the section. With the amount of money going into print advertising decreasing across the publishing industry (of course, there are some notable exceptions), it can be difficult to keep this in mind.

However, due to the various megamergers of the past 30 years and the subsequent formation of monolithic, international conglomerates, publications that used to be fed from different tables by different chefs are now seated at the same table and eat from the same menu. (Don't know if this metaphor works...) The employees at the different companies are often painfully aware that they are competing with people who are essentially coworkers.

Given the importance of advertising and editorial content, some newspapers have taken a proactive approach to what appears in their paper, even when it comes to ads. This is nothing new to many magazines, though, especially since they are aimed at niches with easily identifiable readers. (I'm thinking of Utne Reader, Mother Jones, National Review, GQ, etc.) But they do this in order to align their ads with their content. This isn't to say that they are colluding to bring in ads, but that the newsroom ensures that their values aren't in conflict with their advertising department's goals. Anyone involved in the media nowadays, even at the college level, needs to know what their business is up to in order to survive.

Tags: work, life, journalism, media, advertising, business

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Personal Year/Decade in Review notes

2009-12-16T02:10:00.003-07:00

What a weird, sad, maddening and wonderful decade. Trying to keep up with various cultural incidents — we've become too fractured to call them events, really — is just about impossible. The splintering of media channels, despite the various mergers and conglomerations, has left us with the possibility that developing an ADHD-like approach to artistic and cultural experiencing might just be evolutionarily advantageous.

How does a person make sense of what's happening in the world nowadays? When RSS first came out, it was touted as the best way to filter out the "useless" online content and get to what we're really interested in. The "good" stuff, so to speak. Now it seems to add to a burgeoning sense of self reinforcement, that is, what you find and read only reaffirms what you already believe as opposed to challenging those beliefs, testing them under the twin beacons of logic and emotion.

Fashion became a big deal under the Obama administration.

Journalism in America is undergoing an apocalypse.

I reclaim the meaning of "apocalypse" to be profound change or transformation, rather than the end of the world.

Yea to old-school, violent, and manipulative vampires, no to melodramatic, sparkly (!), brooding vampires.

Yea to zombies, whether they come in the form of movies (28 Days Later), comics (The Walking Dead), or classic literature (Pride and Prejudice and Zombies).

Yea to comic books being part of the pop culture discussion, no to fanboy baiting and event exhaustion.

Lists about any section of culture, whether it's music, movies, TV or whatever, cannot help but reflect personal tastes. But if you gather enough of them and compile them into one master list, will that give you an "objective" view of what was good?

Simon Reynolds' Notes on the noughties: The musically fragmented decade.

Tags: music, culture, lists, comics, movies, TV, culture, fashion, media, 2000s

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Hip-hop at the end of its tired decade

2009-12-16T01:36:00.002-07:00

Before I began writing this entry, I read Simon Reynolds's "Notes on the noughties" series for The Guardian online, and was struck by his insights and odd sense of humor. (Beards as signifiers of musical authenticity, anyone?) I'm surprised at how much I agree with him, and somewhat annoyed and relieved that he put together observations that have been bothering me these last few years. Following the same vein, I'm going to put down my own thoughts on the decade in an effort to make sense of it all. For this first part, it might help to read the New Yorker article by Sasha Frere-Jones about hip-hop before continuing.

Hip-hop is moribund, if not dead as a week-old roadkill, at the end of this decade. Sure, there have been several albums and groups that have excited me in recent years, e.g. The Roots, Mos Def, Talib Kweli, MF Doom, J Dilla and so forth, but much of that has been what's called "backpack" or "underground" hip-hop and those camps will always have their devoted followers. To me, hip-hop stopped being interesting and/or popular around 2005-2006. Before that, the explosive experimentation in production, personas, album-length statements, and straight poppiness of the music propelled hip-hop to our collective consciousness. You couldn't avoid it — radio stations, clubs, school dancefloors, malls, iPods, stadiums, ringtones.

But then producers and MCs reached a point of rehashing and creative staleness. A sample, which became increasingly and prohibitively expensive as the years went on thanks to tight copyright laws and a lawsuit-wielding RIAA, from old, obscure R&B or soul music can only be used so often and manipulated in so many ways before it becomes predictable fodder for the next toothless MC. Even the artists themselves are struggling to get out of the corner hip-hop has painted itself in:

Lil Wayne might need guitar lessons

Kanye West sings on latest album

Most Jay-Z's lyrics since 2001

Timbaland gives up hip-hop for pop music

That last one hits hard. (That first one hits weird.) Timbaland's collaborations in the first half of this decade with Missy Elliot — untouchable. Their songs reached a critical focal point that included raga beats, warped sounds, fun(ny) and knowing lyrics, and nods to hip-hop's past. And it reached beyond hip-hop audiences to show how music from around the world can be synthesized for an American audience. How can anyone — MCs, producers, listeners — not raise their standard after listening to Miss E ... So Addictive or Under Construction?

When 50 Cent first showed up and blew up, (and eventually shut down to open a fragrance line and rehash the Terminator movies)

the signs were clear: hip-hop was regressing to the 1990s model.

Which, personally, was not good. My first major exposure to pop music was hip-hop and R&B of the 1990s. I grew up on the self-destructive Biggie Smalls v. 2Pac rivalry, the easygoing flows of Nate Dogg and Snoop (Doggy) Dogg, Dr. Dre's hit-friendly The Chronic, and Power 92.3, which was and has been one of Arizona's main sources for new hip-hop and R&B music. (I remember staying up till midnight to catch the premiere of its 2-hour, R&B-only program, which was unheard of for most hip-hop stations at the time.) The then-epic collaboration between Dr. Dre, 2Pac, and Roger Troutman, 1995's "California Love," dominated junior high and the first half of high school.

While the music was good and great, the lifestyle and culture that accompanied it — in the form of classmates who were wannabe gangstas, had several relatives who were in or died because of gangs, or were already initiated thanks to said relatives — were not. This exposure continued all the way through high school to my sophomore or junior year when a riot broke out at lunchtime. Two rival gangs had brought their idiotic feud to school grounds, and in an effort to confuse and scatter security, faked several fights away from the real ones. As in elementary and middle school, I was in the thick of it all while being a distant observer, standing on an outdoors table as the crowds jostled and swirled around me like a violent tide.

It's interesting to see that as the strain of hip-hop embodying gangsterism fades out of my cultural and personal experience, so too does it fade out from the consciousness of the critics, artists, and the general public at the end of this decade.

Tags: music, life, news, 2000s, essay, culture

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Wildlife year/decade in review OR My year in lists

2009-12-10T01:28:00.000-07:00

I create a list of alternative Christmas songs for this week's WildLife. Twisted Sister, unfortunately, did not make the list.

I contribute to WildLife's list of the best movies of the decade. Of course, I am willfully different in my choices.

Finally, I give my list of the year's best comics and graphic novels.

Tags: writing, journalism, reviews, music, Christmas, art

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Decade in Review

2009-12-08T01:17:00.001-07:00

I contribute to the Daily Wildcat's Decade in Review issue, which was an interesting issue. (A shame it didn't have campus stories.) Of the four entries I wrote, only one made it to print while another was misattributed to me mistakenly. The rest went unpublished for various reasons too mundane to mention. Here's what I wrote:

Top National Stories - Contested Election of 2000

While this was not the most contested presidential election in U.S. history — that honor goes to the 1876 election between Rutherford Hayes and Samuel Tilden — the 2000 election was significant for several reasons.

It saw a major shift in the judicial branch’s power. Despite numerous media organizations declaring Democratic candidate and then-vice president Gore as the winner based on exit polls, by the end of Nov. 7, 2000, the U.S. still had no clear winner in the presidential race. It became clear that the contest hinged on the winner of the popular vote in Florida.

Gore called for a hand recount. The multiple legal moves left a nation of voters, many of whom had voted for the first time in a national election, anxiously awaiting a decision. The U.S. Supreme Court eventually ruled 5-4 that the recount was unconstitutional, and could not be completed in time for the second deadline extension.

In the end, the U.S. had a new president, George W. Bush, who would have a profound impact on the decade, regalvanized Democratic and Republican parties and a new generation that discovered that every vote matters.

Economic Collapse(s)

The current economic depression was not the first time the U.S. and the world faced a series of events that led to an economic crisis. The dot-com bubble of 2000-2001 resulted from certain converging factors. It came at the end of a series of economic crises that began in 1997, albeit they came from Asia and Russia. The upcoming completion of the Human Genome Project brought the promise of customized medicine, and gave rise to biotech companies that operated like their e-commerce counterparts. (Remember the term, “e-commerce”?) The Internet Tax Freedom Act of 1998 barred taxes on broadband and online commerce, which encouraged the spread of Internet availability.

Just as the U.S. began its first steps of economic recovery under the leadership of George W. Bush, Sept. 11 happened. Nationwide travel, and the subsequent flow of trade and commerce, came to a grinding halt. Bush encouraged the American public to spend and then-Chairman of the Federal Reserve Alan Greenspan lowered interest rates to match. With the free availability of credit, one market that remained untapped and connected to America’s desire to not travel was housing. Predatory lending and subprime mortgages resulted in the collapse of various national and global banks, which has led the U.S. and world to their present economic situation.

Top National Trends - Obesity

Of all the health issues this decade, obesity has dominated the news like no other. Since the late 1980s, the prevalence of overweight and obese grade school children has almost tripled, according to the latest data from the CDC. The rate of adult obesity among states has reached at least 20 percent with some counties seeing rates close to 45 percent.

Obesity has been linked to such chronic diseases as various cancers, heart disease and type 2 diabetes. What used to be seen primarily in middle-aged adults and was almost unheard of in children under the age of 20 has become increasingly common among children this past decade. In an effort to control this preventable disease, public health organizations have focused their efforts on childhood obesity, calling it an epidemic.

Wanda Howell, a UA distinguished professor and director of the nutritional science department, said Americans need to make fundamental changes in how they approach the issue of obesity.

“The change in eating behavior, the cultural shift if you will, has to happen at a very young age,” she said. “So pregnant women and young children really, in my view, need to be the focus if we are to change our American cultural heritage of this land of abundance with no reality check relative to good nutrition and weight control.”

WTF Moments - Pluto No Longer a Planet

Pluto has always been the misfit of our solar system since its 1930 discovery by Clyde Tombaugh. Its orbit is inclined relative to every other planet in our Solar System. Whereas the other planets have circular orbits centered on the Sun, Pluto has a highly elliptical, off-center orbit that takes 248 Earth years to complete.

So when better equipment detected new astronomical objects within our solar system that rival Pluto in size, the International Astronomical Union decided to discuss the fate of Pluto’s status as a planet at its August 2006 conference in Prague.

After much heated debate, the International Astronomical Union adopted new guidelines as to what defined a planet. This led to a vote that demoted Pluto’s status as a planet and reclassified it as a “dwarf planet.” Based on the new criteria, what ultimately disqualified Pluto as a planet was that its orbit overlaps that of Neptune — a charge, critics argue, that could also be brought against Earth. In the end, the Solar System was left with one less planet and one more world of broken hearts.

Tags: news, 2000s, journalism, writing, politics, health, nutrition, science, space

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Chicano history comes alive at symposium

2009-12-02T15:27:00.000-07:00

Brief week this time: a preview of an upcoming event by the UA's MEChA group.

Tags: journalism, events, concert, music, writing

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Scratching the surface of the Arizona State Museum

2009-11-25T13:13:00.001-07:00

This week, I spent time behind the scenes at the Arizona State Museum to see how the people at the archeology repository do their work. My thanks to Patrick Lyons, Arthur Vokes, and Katie MacFarland for taking the time out of their busy schedules to speak with me, and thanks to my editor Justyn Dillingham and the Wildcat's copy desk for help with the editing.

Tags: writing, journalism, science, archeology, people, profiles

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Asterios Polyp - best graphic novel of the year?

2009-11-18T07:57:00.000-07:00

Here's my argument for it.

Tags: writing, comics, art, design, books

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Look What I Received in the Mail Today

2009-11-16T13:33:00.002-07:00

A copy of Shivering Sands by Warren Ellis, one of my favorite writers:

Tags: writing, books, comics, culture

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Daily Wildcat theft - the end?

2009-11-13T19:53:00.000-07:00

I wrote an opinions column about the entire Daily Wildcat theft case, which is kind of a companion piece to Shain Bergan's column earlier this week.

Tags: writing, news, journalism, fraternity, crime, police

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Second annual Tucson Comic-Con

2009-11-09T23:35:00.003-07:00

The second annual Tucson Comic-Con was great. I was able to get some wonderful interviews with many of the creators and vendors at the event. You can find the Wildcat's event coverage here. There are photos by the enthusiastic Gordon Bates and a video of my interviews that are edited by the wonderful Kelli Horan, who was able to read my mind and put together exactly the type of story I wanted to tell. Thank you guys!

Tags: journalism, video, audio, comics, photo

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Comic-entricity

2009-11-05T12:57:00.001-07:00

I write a preview for the upcoming Tucson Comic-Con.

And I expound on the second graphic novel to be nominated for a National Book Award for a Comics Corner column.

Tags: comics, news, journalism, writing

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The Halloween articles

2009-10-29T23:50:00.000-07:00

Apropos of the upcoming holiday, I discover that there is a Tales from the Crypt graphic novel series.

For this week's Wildlife, I contribute my list of the scariest movies to the staff inventory. My intro as to how I chose my list was taken out. (They're based on my childhood fears.)

The new, American-made "Astro Boy" movie was good overall.

Built to Spill plays tonight! What's surprising is that the band is playing at a small nonprofit after watching a documentary about the group.

Tags: comics, movies, Halloween, music, anime, concerts, reviews, writing, journalism

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Recipes for entertaining this fall

2009-10-28T19:43:00.000-07:00

Here are two recipes for your Halloween and fall parties.

Tags: writing, food, recipes

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Grinding strangers in the Southwest

2009-10-22T18:39:00.000-07:00

Busy week at the Wildcat:

I review the latest A Place to Bury Strangers album. Shoegaze-y goodness.

I visit the Tucson Museum of Art to take in its exhibition, "Ansel Adams: A Legacy,"which represents the photographer well.

I'm in a grindhouse trailer for The Loft's Grindhouse Movie Trailer Massacre competition.

Tags: music, art, photography, movies, reviews, writing, journalism, life

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Fighting Oil With Biodiesel

2009-10-16T17:32:00.000-07:00

I review the documentary "Fuel" and find it to be dense primer on the fight for alternative energies in the U.S.

Photo courtesy of thefuelfilm.com

Tags: journalism, movie, reviews, environment

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Moore's Das Kapital with Jaxx's 'Scars'

2009-10-13T21:15:00.002-07:00

I watched Moore's "Capitalism: A Love Story" and find Moore is more intrusive in this movie than before.

Basement Jaxx returns with a new album, "Scars," which I review for the Daily Wildcat.

Tags: movies, music, reviews, journalism, writing

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Daily Wildcat theft

2009-10-10T17:52:00.000-07:00

I contribute to the story about the ~10,000 copies of the Arizona Daily Wildcat being stolen.

It's suspected that the theft was probably carried out by Phi Kappa Psi members. There was a sheet of Spanish homework among the piles of papers. The names are of Phi Kappa Psi members.

The possible cause for the theft? It might be related to a Police Beat incident that happened at their fraternity. Since the stories broke, the fraternity has launched an internal investigation. Given the responses of the fraternity leadership to the incident and the homework discovery, I wouldn't be surprised to find out that members were carrying out orders.

Despite what many online commentators have said, this incident does constitute a crime, i.e. censorship.

Tags: journalism, crime, newspapers, media, censorship

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Metal mania, Merge, and movies

2009-10-04T13:43:00.003-07:00

Busy week:

I somehow survive listening to Metalocalypse: Dethalbum II.

I delve into the history of Merge Records and find out I have many albums from them.

I argue that comics made into movies are often awful.

Tags: reviews, comics, music, journalism, essays, writing

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"Whiteout" a washout

2009-10-04T13:41:00.001-07:00

My review of the "Whiteout" movie, based on the graphic novel by Greg Rucka and Steven Lieber, was published this week in the Arizona Daily Wildcat.

The movie didn't do so well at the box office.

Tags: reviews, movies, comics, journalism, writing

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Pains of Being Pure at Heart concert

2009-09-23T04:07:00.001-07:00

Great show. Tauni met up with me. Liked all the bands, surprised about Cymbals Eat Guitars. Two of the guys from The Depreciation Guild are also in PoBPaH, which might explain how one song from each band referenced the drum intro from "Be My Baby."

Found out Peggy of PoBPaH is good friends with Carlen, who costars in the band's video, "Everything With You." Apparently Carlen found her through MySpace and they later met for a "blind MySpace date." (Sounds like something Carlen would do, actually.) She's just as sweet as Carlen.

Tags: music, concert, friends

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Flamenco on display

2009-09-22T13:49:00.000-07:00

My first multimedia project of the semester was on Tucson's First Spanish and Flamenco Festival. Photographer Emily Jones captured some great images while I interviewed some UA students who performed at the festival.

Tags: dance, multimedia, review, audio, photo, journalism

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Yo La Tengo proves "Popular," Frankie's brings Philly soul

2009-09-16T16:53:00.002-07:00

This week, I review Yo La Tengo's Popular Songs album, which is not another greatest hits album.

I eat my way through the menu at Frankie's South Philly Cheesesteaks.

Tags: music, food, reviews, journalism

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Food and music is the life I live now

2009-09-11T17:34:00.001-07:00

My apologies for posting these so late. There have been some network problems and I've been rushing from one class to another. Anyway, here they are:

Saigon Pho review: "And it is the broth that distinguishes Saigon Pho’s version of this comfort food."

On Sally Shapiro's second album: "Whereas Sally Shapiro’s Disco Romance sounded like the perfect winter soundtrack, My Guilty Pleasure rushes in like the spring snow melt."

Tags: music, reviews, journalism, food

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Talking about Disney+Marvel, pizza, "Extract"

2009-09-10T03:07:00.003-07:00

I talk about Disney's purchase of Marvel Comics, which is a nice present for Marvel's 70th birthday. What wasn't a nice present is Kodansha ending its licensing agreement with Tokyopop, a major U.S. manga publishing company.

(Illustration by Ken Wright. Copyright Arizona Daily Wildcat.)

Mario's Pizza is better than average.

Mike Judge's "Extract" is not bad.

Tags: comics, business, food, movie, review, journalism

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Comics Corner #1

2009-08-27T01:40:00.002-07:00

Check out my comic book column at DailyWildcat.com. I talk about DC Comic's Wednesday Comics.

Tags: comics, review, writing, journalism

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This is playing in my brain

2009-08-08T05:00:00.002-07:00

Great Northern soul song by Bonnie Brisker:

Tags: music

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Julie & Julia review

2009-08-02T03:47:00.001-07:00

I finished "Julie & Julia" by Julie Powell today in order to prepare for the upcoming movie. Normally, I don't read books with movie tie-ins, but I'm reviewing the movie for the Summer Wildcat. (The movie is also pulling material from "My Life in France," Julia Child's memoir of her formative years in France, so I'll have to make as much progress into that as I can.)

After reading Powell's book, I'm of two lines of thought. In one, I enjoyed reading the cooking ordeals and triumphs that Powell experiences. With the other, I found myself exasperated with many of the events.

It's admirable that Powell chose to tackle the first volume of "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" in order to have something more in her life than a government secretary job. This is no different than someone who decides to create an organic garden in a rented home or starts knitting sweaters for the homeless or something. We crave meaning in our lives through our endeavors. But instead of rallying to her cause, I found myself often wishing that Powell would quit whining and stop acting like such an awful person.

I guess the main problem I had with the book is that cooking looks to be mostly a horrible affair, fraught with danger and inedible treats. Even reading the triumphs were not enough of a palliative to the noxious (or is that obnoxious?) effects of book. Cooking should be seen as a fun adventure, not a necessary hassle.

Yet for the sake of the story and ourselves, what progress can there be if we start from a state of perfection, or, perhaps, a state of satisfaction? If that were the case with Powell's book, I don't think I would have had the patience to read past the first chapter, let alone finish it.

So, it has an interesting premise and moments of sympathy and humor, but I can't recommend this book to most of my friends.

Tags: memoir, writing, journalism, cooking, movies

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Your new textbooks: Comics you need to read

2009-07-29T03:44:00.002-07:00

I recommend some comics for incoming UA students. Here's an example, a manga by Kiyohiko Azuma:

Tags: journalism, reviews, writing, comics, manga

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(500) Days of Summer review

2009-07-29T03:41:00.000-07:00

I saw (500) Days of Summer with one of my reporters, Ali, last night. The movie follow Joseph Gordon-Leavitt who plays Tom, an employee at a greeting card company. Zooey Deschanel's character, Summer, joins the office as the president's personal assistant and the object of Tom's love interest. The story begins with Leavitt moping about the breakup with Deschanel, and from there it jumps back and forth within those 500 days of the relationship.

Too precious: omniscient voiceover, flashbacks, footage of respective childhoods, musical number complete with animated bluebird, ironic juxtapositions, and the name that comes up at end.

Good stuff: ironic juxtapositions, especially with a particular split screen sequence; color and music themes (shades of blue associated with Deschanel); female singer-songwriters and indie music including the Pixies, Regina Specktor, The Smiths, Feist, and Carla Bruni on the soundtrack; some good insights; Leavitt and Deschanel look like a believable and lovely couple (this equals good acting).

So, combine a good-looking couple onscreen with a soundtrack to appeal to the indie crowd (which would include me), and you've got a movie that is soon to be overhyped. If (500 Days) wasn't trying so hard to win your affection, the movie would come off that much better.

Tags: movies, reviews

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Raphael Saadiq's new concert DVD

2009-07-21T00:31:00.001-07:00

Raphael Saadiq - Love That Girl from Artists Den on Vimeo.

A great song. Gotta love those classic moves.

Tags: video, music, soul

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A Friendly Challenge

2009-06-29T02:21:00.002-07:00

From my friend Bo:

"The first five (5) people to respond to this post will get something made by me. You can tell me something you might like if you want to, and I'll try my best to do it but I can't promise anything, sorry!

This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:

- I make no guarantees that you will like what I make.
- What I create will be just for you. (you get to decide what happens to it and where/if it'll be posted, if applicable)
- It'll be done by the end of this year (2009).
- You have no clue what it's going to be. It may be a mix CD or an icon. I may make something. I might bake you something and mail it to you. Who knows? Not you, that's for sure! [not me either]
- I reserve the right to do something completely weird :)

The catch is that you have to put this in your journal as well, if you expect me to do something for you! (cuz it's more fun that way)"

So I'll do the same. Leave a comment and we'll get started!

Tags: friends, random, life

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On the Menu at Home

2009-06-29T01:57:00.001-07:00

My sister and I went on a cooking spree today thanks to the ingredients heading past their peaks. This is what we created:

Cucumber burgers - slices of Armenian cucumber served in place of bread buns. After deseeding, they felt a sprinkle of salt and are then grilled on both sides. Grassfed, hormone-free hamburger patties from a Cochise, AZ rancher go on the griddle with a light touch of S&P. Sliced white onions from a local farmer are placed between the patties so that they can absorb their juices as the two are cooking. The meat enjoyed a rest with the brown, softened onions.

Notes: I ate these straight up while my sister added her condiments and fixings. You can eat these with knife and fork or with your hands. You can use the center of the cucumbers to hold the onions.

Warm purslane salad with red string beans and beets - With the exception of the garlic and the "dressing," all of the ingredients came from the CSA. The beets are peeled and cut until they're the size of your entire thumb. The string beans are cut to the same length. After heating a tablespoon of neutral tasting oil (vegetable or canola) in a wok, the beets are tossed in and stirred constantly for about 3-5 minutes. They took on a deeper red color. The string beans are thrown in and swirled around the wok for a few minutes. Minced garlic from one or two cloves is squeezed into the middle and mixed for about a minute or two just to take away some of that rawness. This is then placed on a bed of roughly chopped purslane. Pour some pickling juice (sweet, salty and spicy, with Vietnamese fish sauce as a base) over everything.

Notes: My sister felt a dominant flavor was missing. (Then again, she says that with everything made at home.) I liked how the flavors of every ingredient came through clearly without one element overpowering the others. It might even taste better after it has been sitting in the refrigerator for a day or two. My mom created the pickling juice based on what her co-worker had given her one day.

Sparkling cucumber cooler - There was a lot of cucumber left over (I still have one and a half sitting around) so I made this based on a recipe from a CSA member. Three parts of cucumber to one part of Granny Smith apple with a scant quarter cup of sugar, a pinch of salt, and the juice of one lime — all of this went into a food processor or blender until it took on the consistency of applesauce. This then went in a pitcher or serving bowl. A bottle of cold sparkling water or ginger ale is added. Sugar and/or salt was added according to taste. (I had ginger ale on hand so it needed a little salt and lime.)

Notes: I'm awaiting the results tomorrow.

Apple, cranberry & blueberry crisp or cobbler - My sister made the crisp, I made the cobbler. I added cinnamon sugar, allspice, cloves, and nutmeg to my apples (1/4 cup, 1/4 teaspoon, 1/8 teaspoon, 1/4 teaspoon respectively) whereas she didn't. She used a simple butter batter whereas I used oats mixed with creamed butter and brown sugar. She added more of the dried cranberries and blueberries than I did so the crisp didn't have as much syrup as mine did. In place of the cinnamon sugar, my sister used plain sugar.

Notes: Hers taste great. Not too sweet, which was surprising given the ingredients. It needed some spices in the apples or salt in the batter, though. I'll be tasting mine at the newsroom tomorrow.

Summary: With the exception of the apple crisp and cobbler, neither of us have made the dishes in this way before. And, in my opinion, they came out surprisingly well. My only regret was forgetting to take a photo of the food before eating. Que sera, sera.

Tags: food, cooking, life, recipes, experiment

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Hundreds gather to commemorate 'King of Pop'

2009-06-27T00:25:00.001-07:00

My article on Tucson's reaction to Michael Jackson's death.

Tags: Tucson, music, journalism, Michael+Jackson, writing

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Basement Jaxx // Play with it - MXP4

2009-06-23T01:53:00.002-07:00

FULL SCREEN hosted by playlive.fm

Best Tucson Restaurants (So Far) & Congratulations

2009-05-14T19:59:00.001-07:00

Apologies for the lateness of this posting — finals, etc.

For the Commencement Issue, I cut loose, a little, and highlight some of the best restaurants Tucson has to offer students.

Congratulations to all the Arizona Daily Wildcat graduates!

Thank you all for your hard work to keep the UA/Tucson community informed.

Hope to see you in print, online, or, perhaps, on an e-book reader.

Tags: food, reviews, journalism, writing, restaurants, Tucson, technology

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Thoughts on journalism

2009-05-08T17:13:00.001-07:00

A clarification. In yesterday's post, I talked about an incident that occurred in a journalism class involving a student and her video project. It may look as if I was deriding the UA School of Journalism and its journalist-professors. I was not.

Instead, my scorn was aimed at the student and her project. The fact that she could make such a project and try to pass it off as journalism is ridiculous. Just as there are some articles and events that do a great disservice to the credibility and staff of the Arizona Daily Wildcat as well as the UA community, the same can be said of what goes on in the School of Journalism.

The point I was trying to get across was that the classroom is not the same as the work environment, yet both are vital. The classroom can be a laboratory where people can experiment in a safe place without fear of reprisal from the general public. This is no different from an artist drawing in a sketchbook or a choreographer dancing in an empty studio.

But this experimentation is not the same as displaying one's paintings or performing a dance piece — or writing for a regular newspaper. As that student may have perceived it, her class work was not under public scrutiny, so there was little or no consequence.

So you turn in shoddy work for a journalism class. Your classmates may not respect what you've done and your grade may have taken a hit, but there's always the next assignment to boost up your grade. That is, if you even care about your grade or the class.

But turn in shoddy work at the newspaper and you'll get complaints from students, faculty, alumni, parents of students, local businesses, special interest groups, other staff members, etc., and you may never get a chance to regain their trust again. There are real and lasting consequences involved with working at a newspaper — even a student-run newspaper — and that student, for better or worse, didn't get to see and feel those consequences in the safe confines of the classroom.

------

Since I'm on the topic, there has been a national discussion going on about how to save newspapers. Guests and callers on a recent episode of The Diane Rehm Show offered a few suggestions including nonprofit status, new business models, and a government bailout similar to what the auto industry has received. Wednesday's Democracy Now! showed an excerpt from David Simon, creator of The Wire, who testified before a Senate hearing led by Sen. John Kerry about the state of journalism and the need for "high-end journalism," that is, professional journalists. He advocated for a nonprofit model for newspapers. Ariana Huffington of The Huffington Post, and Steve Coll, former managing editor the Washington Post, also testified and presented different views as to what can be done for the newspaper industry.

I wonder if it's possible for the newspaper industry to survive. I doubt it can continue in its current physical form. I also doubt we can get the same quality of reporting from online sources without significant capital to finance it. As Simon summarizes so well, the major blogs and news aggregators feed on the primary sources of news and those who follow these secondary and tertiary sources do not have to pay for the content. But they still need the newspapers to provide the news.

People have become accustomed to getting free information online. However, people are also willing to pay for online content so long as they get perceived value. When selling something online (and the news is a product that is sold), the buying process needs to be so quick and easy that even a child can do it. (Amazon and iTunes are good models to consider.)

Given that two-thirds of North America's population uses the Internet, I'm surprised that industry leaders haven't moved faster to transition online or create a stronger print/online hybrid. It's almost like the American auto industry and hybrid cars...

Tags: journalism, radio, thoughts, business, online

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Summer preview

2009-05-08T13:16:00.001-07:00

For the final Wildlife issue, I write about what you can do during the summer in and around Tucson.

Tags: writing, journalism, life, summer

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Editorships and scholarships

2009-05-07T00:46:00.001-07:00

I was passed over for the summer editor-in-chief position at the Arizona Daily Wildcat. It went to Justyn Dillingham.

I was also passed over for the fall art & features editor position at the DW. The position also went to Justyn.

When combined, these facts may lead one to think that I may be feeling bitter about the results. Yet I'm actually a little relieved to not have both positions. It has given me the chance to take some much needed time off. I've been in class ever since I began my study of nutritional sciences, and it's nice to have the opportunity once again to travel or work at a better-paying job.

My best friend Matt invited me to visit him in Boulder, CO, this summer to attend a Death Cab for Cutie, Andrew Bird, and RaRaRiot concert, and I'll be able to do that for once.

Of course, I'd like to continue to work at the DW. Where else can I get journalism training without taking the classes? Where else can I meet people doing journalism because they want to do it rather than because they have to do it for a journalism class? Where else can I see journalists out in the field working to get stories that have a direct impact on UA students?

This isn't to disparage against the journalism department since they have, so I'm told, some good great professors with strong backgrounds in journalism. But the classroom is a safe environment where someone can shoot herself "testing" 3 different tequilas while wearing a low-cut dress and claim it as an investigative piece into the various brands of Mexican tequila in a crappy YouTube-style video. (Sadly, this actually happened in a journalism class. I'm not sure what grade that person got. The sad and annoying part is that she didn't even get any tequilas that aren't readily available in the U.S.! How informative can that be?)

Questions I've been asked by others regarding my work at the Wildcat: why are you doing this? Why write for them? Why not work at a job more related to nutrition like diet tech or assistant at a RD's office? First, I missed the hectic environment from my days at the Oberlin Review. Second, I didn't really develop my skills as a journalist while at Oberlin aside from my work as a copy editor and manager. Third, I think developing these skills will be helpful in the future. I'm adding to my writing portfolio and stretching out my resume. I'm also learning more about the Tucson community and what it has to offer by way of its food and arts. Though the latter may not be as important to a dietitian, it's vital to know what local food resources are available so that clients can used them to their full advantage.

As it stands, I've already done a lot for the Nutrition Club this year, which was one of my and the officers' goals. It was enough to earn me the club's scholarship. I've also been elected to be a club fundraiser, and my goal next year is to raise enough money for at least two scholarships again. Hopefully, I can exceed that goal with our new officers.

Tags: journalism, writing, life, nutrition, work

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Enjoying a film festival with guacamole and gelato

2009-04-30T02:35:00.001-07:00

I've been very busy at the Daily Wildcat these past two weeks:

Marisa Fisher, Brandon Specktor, and I reflect on the Arizona International Film Festival. We also chose the best of the festival. (You can find a video hightlight of our discussion here.)

I wrote reviews on certain AIFF films on the Wildcat Blog. (Unfortunately, I didn't have time to comment on all the films I watched.)

Want to find gelato? I went on a search for great gelaterias in Tucson.

Co-host Becca Lesser shows me her family recipe for guacamole, which is used for their restaurant, in the penultimate installment of Conquer the Kitchen.

Tags: journalism, art, films, food, gelato, writing, video

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Words of the Night

2009-04-30T02:06:00.001-07:00

Hypopanpituitarism - the subject line of an email.

Overheard in the newsroom:

Heather: "I think I'm teething."
Shain: "That's the weirdest thing I've ever heard a grown-up say."

Tags: journalism, words, life

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Screw Earth Day! - Grist's April Campaign

2009-04-27T18:47:00.001-07:00

"One day is for amateurs." - Grist on Earth Day.

For the month of April, Grist Magazine has been embarking on a fun YouTube campaign with Umbra hosting the festivities and facts:

Tags: environment, video

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"Against Readings"

2009-04-27T18:05:00.003-07:00

From The Chronicle of Higher Education's Mark Edmundson:

"Schopenhauer tells us that all major artists ask and in their fashion answer a single commanding question: 'What is life?' The critic works to show how the author frames that query and how he answers it. Critics are necessary for this work because the answers that most artists give to major questions are indirect. Artists move forward through intuition and inference: They feel their way to their sense of things. The critic, at his best, makes explicit what is implicit in the work.

This kind of criticism is itself something of an art, not a science. You cannot tell that you have compounded a valid reading of Dickens any more than that you have compounded a valid novel or a valid play. When others find your Dickensian endorsement of Dickens to be of use to them, humanly, intellectually, spiritually, then your endorsement is a success. The desire to turn the art of reading into a science is part of what draws the profession to the application of sterile concepts."

Even though this is about applying a certain analytical vocabulary, this quote jumped out at me.

Tags: literature, criticism, writing, reviews, education

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A Quickie Review

2009-04-22T02:15:00.001-07:00

Quiet week for me:

My review of the new CD from DOOM (formerly MF Doom) is published.

Tags: music, reviews, journalism, writing

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A Taste of France in Tucson

2009-04-09T02:05:00.001-07:00

As the Thrifty Foodie, I investigate the offerings of Ghini's French Caffe.

Becca helps me Conquer the Kitchen this week with an Easy Pita Pizza.

I am taking a break in food reviewing next week to focus on a community nutrition project. But I shall return with another Tucson delectable in print.

Tags: food, reviews, writing, video, cooking

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The Weekly Update

2009-04-04T01:22:00.001-07:00

I review 5th Street Deli & Market, as does Andi Berlin, a former Daily Wildcat staff member who is interning at the Arizona Daily Star. She's secretly following me...

Becca Lesser teaches me how to Conquer the Kitchen with matzo ball soup.

Tomorrow, I will walk/run with the UA Nutrition Club for Run For Your Life 5K, which is benefiting Tucson Community Food Bank, UA4Food, and Heifer International.

Tags: food, reviews, video, cooking, journalism, charity, nutrition

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New Lucky Soul!

2009-04-04T01:14:00.001-07:00

Whoa Billy - Lucky Soul

Tags: music, video

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I Give My Love to the Vegetarians & Vegans...

2009-03-28T01:07:00.001-07:00

Through the Arizona Daily Wildcat:

I visited Govinda's Natural Foods Buffet for this week's Thrifty Foodie review. It's a beautiful place with yummy food.

I Conquer the Kitchen with Ali Freedman and her recipe for vegan snickerdoodles. They taste just like regular snickerdoodles!

Alas, the Mix is dead. But look for next Wednesday's WILDlife for my CD review and my next Thrifty Foodie review.

Tags: journalism, food, writing, video, cooking, life, school, news

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Wearing the Green over the Blue (WILDlife & St. Patrick's Day)

2009-03-13T01:08:00.001-07:00

This week, I'm in love with Neko Case's new album, "Middle Cyclone." (It should read 4.5 out of 5 stars.)

Becca Lesser and I "Conquer the Kitchen" with a tasty, and potent, Baileys Chocolate Mousse Pie. (Sadly, I had no time to make the crust, but I did make the whipped cream from scratch.)

I offer a shorthand guide of place for good pub grub on University Avenue and Fourth Avenue. I won't be making friends with The Auld Dubliner or Gentle Ben's anytime soon. Then again, I doubt they even noticed me there unless I had a pint in hand. (Note: I don't drink.)

I contribute to this week's Mix, which is in honor of St. Patrick's Day and Irish performers. I recommend The Pogues' "Transmetropolitan" and Dexys Midnight Runners' "Jackie Wilson Said" and "Let's Make This Precious."

And now, spring break!

Tags: journalism, criticism, reviews, video, food, music, cooking

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The Dark Knight - review notes

2009-03-13T00:45:00.001-07:00

[Some thoughts and reactions that I found scribbled on a piece of paper as I was cleaning. Cleaning house, so to speak, physically and mentally.]

Nolan offers an interesting interpretation of Batman and those around him.

Tense movie - problems and paranoia build up...
- Good control over pacing

Excellent interpretation of the Joker.
- Esp. in the beginning, with how he treats his gang.

Tech and fight scenes

Mob left an open question...

Not a hero the city needs but one it deserves.

To bear the burden

"An engine of chaos"

Need something to reward their faith

*Prisoner's Dilemma* - and they played the scenario with the best outcome for everyone...

To seek validation/invalidation for one's existence...
- Harvey, Batman, Joker

Joker's left alive!

1st movie w/o "Batman" in title

Lives up to the title, though...

Tags: movies, reviews, thoughts, philosophy

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I Am the Fourth Estate

2009-03-02T01:21:00.001-07:00

This week, I eat at The Hungry Fox and find some good comfort foods while under the careful watch of stoic nutcrackers.

I Conquer the Kitchen this week with Lisa Gatlin. We make a rainbow cake that's fit for a festive birthday. And we now have a theme song, too!

Check out Wednesday's Daily Wildcat for a culinary tribute to the late, great Dr. Seuss.

Tags: news, journalism, writing, video, cooking, food, reviews

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25 Things, Or Why I Rarely Do These Lists

2009-02-20T01:53:00.004-07:00

1. From 4th to 8th grade, I immersed myself in books on religion, philosophy, science, psychology, art history, history, sociology, spirituality, mythology, the paranormal, magic, world superstitions, and urban legends along with whatever "age appropriate" fiction I could grab from the Phoenix public libraries, all in a search for answers about the world, myself, and people. In contrast to most of my friends at that time, these books were my "church" since my family is areligious. My grand conclusion, which I rediscovered junior year of high school, is that the world is a strange, sometimes beautiful place.

2. Despite the areligious nature of my family, we are quite respectful of the dead and I am especially mindful of how funeral rituals in my family are conducted, knowing that I may have to perform them someday.

3. I fear pain more than death. Yet I'm fine with needles and heavy dental work.

4. I've been told I should do the following professions based on my skills and interests: dentist, detective, columnist, ninja (I'm Chinese but whatever), pharmacist, doctor, scientist, professor (caveat: see next item), counselor, psychologist, and stockbroker.

5. I've been told to not do the following professions: chef, restaurant owner, philosophy professor, journalist, copy editor, and teacher.

6. I walk quietly most of the time and inadvertently sneak up on people, scaring a few years off their life each time. (Hence, the ninja suggestion.)

7. My first kiss was in 1st grade from a girl named Leigh. It was lunch recess and we were in the middle of the bustling soccer field. She said she liked me and then kissed me on the lips, catching me completely off guard. This kid named George liked her at the time and saw what happened. He put up his fists, wanting to fight me then and there. Thankfully, the recess bell rang and we all went back to class. Leigh moved and transferred to a new school a few weeks later.

8. My parents believe that I'll be the last child, out of three, to get married.

9. My siblings and I look like our parents, but according to friends, family and ourselves, we don't look like we're related.

10. One thing I think everyone needs, and deserves, is custom tailored clothing.

11. Although I don't watch them that often, I get sucked into anything that showcases fashion e.g. the Academy Awards, America's Next Top Model, Elle, Vogue and so on. But I find most men's fashion to be painfully drab compared to women's fashion.

12. Depending on the subject, I tend to write treatises and monographs via email, much to the consternation or delight of the receiver. The most I've written in an email so far was approximately 5,300 words, which took about 3.5 hours to write and edit. (Editing took up the majority of that time, actually.) I've been trying to cut back on such emails.

13. I discovered last year in a not-so-fun way that I'm not allergic to bees. As far as I know, I'm not allergic to anything.

14. I want to go on food tours around the world, starting with the good ol' US of A. But at the top of that list would be China, Spain, Japan, Mexico, France, and Italy.

15. I try not to dream because about 25 percent of them come true. It weirds me out every time. When not dreaming about glimpses of the future, I dream about superheroes and superpowers, fighting or living among zombies, and a melange of action/adventure/espionage.

16. I rarely read books more than once for leisure because I don't have the attention span or the patience to revisit them. But I'm fine with re-watching movies and TV shows.

17. My fingers are rather flexible. The most flexible digit is my thumb, which I can bend backwards to a 90 degree angle.

18. The lack of a defined chin or jawline on any person or animal is unsettling to me, e.g. three-toed sloths.

19. Whenever I need to say something important to someone or someones, I imagine the conversation in my head over and over again. However, the actual conversation never happens as I want it to, e.g. asking someone to go out on a date, speeches, interviews.

20. The bon mots that come out of my mouth most of the time are ex nihilo, that is, I have no idea where they come from, such as "ex nihilo."

21. What I consider debating, others see as arguing. This has led to many unfortunate misunderstandings.

22. I go overboard with research when it comes to something new and unknown. Actually I delve into a topic much more deeply than I need to sometimes.

23. The "weirdest" things I've eaten is a three-way tie between stir-fried dog, stewed fish intestine, and congealed pig blood.

24. Visiting my parents' villages in China was one of the best, and saddest, trips of my life. The villagers were either 50+ or children no older than 10. Adults younger than 50 had moved to the cities or out of the country, earning money to send back home. Many houses were dusty and overgrown from years of emptiness. I walked on a pathway made of garbage that led to an area of seemingly endless rice paddies. One household invited my two siblings and me to their meal of rice and stir-fried vegetables. They were a married couple with an infant. They barely enough had food for themselves. We thanked them but declined the offer. The village roasted a whole pig and set off a chain of firecrackers in honor of our visit.

25. I hate writing lists/memes such as this mainly because I have trouble finding anything worth saying, but I like to read them.

Tags: lists, life, fact, fiction, writing

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I Am the News

2009-02-20T01:53:00.001-07:00

I "Conquer the Kitchen" with Kim Kotel's Cheesy Chicken.

In the latest installment, "The Thrifty Foodie" reviews Guilin Chinese Restaurant and its vegan and vegetarian-friendly menus. (Mike Christy has a snazzy photo for it!)

I write about philosopher Daniel Dennett's talk about Darwin's "strange inversion of reasoning" and its connection to philosopher Alan Turing's conception of machines.

Tags: life, writing, journalism, news