It is the morning after Thanksgiving, a bit chilly and overcast, there’s a calm on the streets, and the house is quiet with family finding space for themselves. I thought I’d send out a slightly shorter version than usual, I’ve been building up links through the week to share with you.
I'm back from a few days in Chicago, but I'll save that for another issue, possibly next week. Just to say that the city was big and bold, so busy and a little overwhelming at times. I'd like to go back I think, it's such a huge place that I don't feel I even skimmed the surface.
So, hope you're well. Here we go.
Stephan
Teaching & Learning
The semester feels like it is slipping away, and already my thoughts are turning to what I’ll be teaching in the new year, that’s the spring semester for university. I was asked to write a two-year plan, and actually what is starting to shape up is an idea of what I might do in the next four years. Of courses there are a few things still up in the air, for us to think about and might change what happens, but in terms of work at least this is what it might look like.
The short blocks are what we call mini’s, about half of the full semester course. I like teaching these, they’re almost like tasters, you can introduce a few new concepts to the students, create outcomes, and wrap things up quite nicely. The students seem to like them too, they almost always fill up, and as they’re usually 6-9 units, can make up for lost credits, or gaps in their schedules.
There’s a routine, at least for the next two years, and the third year 25/26 and although it seems a long time away 26/27 could either be more of the same, or perhaps include a new course. What I think I’m missing is an audio documentary course, would love to teach something like that, perhaps a mini.
I was wondering about a short fiction filmmaking course, but I’ve not had great results with this in the past, it’s hard in such short spells to get students beyond genre dramas, and you can find yourself wading through cliché, even if there are one or two who want to make something more interesting.
We’ll see how this plays out. You’ll notice too that I have an option to take some leave at some point next year, which would be more convenient if it was in the Spring Semester, although would work in Spring, especially if I wanted to make a film, when there’s lots of light.
Life Lessons
November is Native American Heritage Month, which is an odd title, as many indigenous people in America don’t identify as Americans, or that for many years, America didn’t recognize Indigenous people as having a voice in the land that was once theirs. It still doesn’t.
I think many people don’t like to think too much about the origins of Thanksgiving, a piece of colonial myth-making, where the story of an occasion of breaking bread between settlers, and native peoples, was a whitewashing of a more shameful and terrible truth. There's also a connection to winter harvest, and the discovery of new foods, sweet potatoes, corn, turkey etc.
But Thanksgiving does exist as a time for people to get together, and to share a meal, and take some time away from work. It is probably the most celebrated of American holidays, people go all out, traveling from far to make it home. There are so many familiar Thanksgiving tropes, from the right wing uncle at the dinner table, to the Turkey Bowl game where someone injures themselves, to all the men taking themselves off to watch the football, while women clean up in the kitchen.
Many of these strange traditions we’ll find back home at Christmas, which, as so many holidays in the UK, is a mix of Pagan and Christian traditions. It's possible that every country has this sort of occasion, which is a mixture of historical, traditional, religious, and is now more of a time for family and friends, and that at least is something that is good, although we shouldn't kid ourselves that the origins are anything to celebrate, which is pretty much where people find themselves nowadays.
Lost and Found
I love the work of Christoph Niemann who draws for the New Yorker, and speaks in a nice episode of Abstract on Netflix that is available to watch in full on YouTube. These rules for drawing a wonderful.
We always feel like we're missing home when we watch the Bake-off, or The Great British Baking Show as they call it in the states. You can find all the recipes, for signatures, showstoppers and more, for each of the contestants, and from the judges all on one webpage.
I knew you could learn Navajo with Duolingo, well I have issue with the word "learn”, but at least you can start. Now there's a version of Star Wars that has been dubbed into the Navajo language. Here's a short film about it below.
Btw - Covid is still here and I'm hearing lots of people in my close circles are getting it, I got my shots on Wednesday and the last few nights have been a bit feverish and my body has been achy, but obviously this is important. You can get testing kits for free again via USPS, just fill in the address form here.
I am playing with Procreate Dreams on the iPad, it isn't as sophisticated as I thought it would be, but I can see how you could produce some quite interesting results. The tools are similar to just the normal Procreate, but this interface is entirely designed around animation. Here's my first attempt at something, just playing around really.
Thank you
I have a few things to do this afternoon in preparation for visitors over the weekend, just tidying the house and getting a few things in. I'm avoiding Black Friday, it is pretty grim, and often you're not actually getting much of a bargain anyway. You might use a chrome extension to check, such as Honey or Camelizer that will show you the price history and help you figure out if you're actually getting a good deal…or you could just not buy it.
It's that time of year, as we're heading towards the next holiday that you wonder if you'll have a ride on the Christmas bus. First day back!
I'm enjoying a few days to recover and sort myself out, the boys are having long lie-ins in the morning, they need it, and we're enjoying the peace and quiet.
Back next week with Chicago stories, but until then, take care.