Hello, it’s been a full twenty three days since I last wrote an issue, and it’s about time that I got back to it. Happy New Year btw, hope that 2024 brings you what you’re hoping for and only has nice surprises.
I hope that you’re well and had a restful break, and managed some downtime away from screens, and spent a bit of time with family, and friends, maybe playing a few games. Perhaps you managed to squirrel yourself away and read some books, skulk down to the basement and binge watch an entire series on the basement tv. I might be giving too much away.
As it was, we travelled to Wilmington in North Carolina for a few nights, spending Christmas walking on the beach, enjoying some sunshine, wearing shorts! We ate Chinese takeaway on Christmas Day, which I hear is a tradition for many families who might not want Turkey and trimmings for many reasons.
Our trip is already feeling like it happened a while ago, it was good to get away. It switched on the creative urge, I did some sketches and watercolours, read for pleasure, forgot about work for a bit.
Teaching & Learning
…but it couldn’t last forever. I’ve been preparing my courses and thinking about the semester. Teaching starts in just over a week’s time, and I’m looking forward to meeting my groups, and getting to know the students. I will have a few returning from this past semester, which is great, but makes me a little self-conscious, I’ll have to be careful not to repeat myself in anyway, make sure I’m not telling the same stories, it’ll be good for me.
I’m really thrilled to be teaching a course with a dear colleague, and although I’ve co-taught before, something tells me this will be a little different. Towards the end of last year, as my thoughts turned to this new course, which is called Whispers & Echoes: Learning Documentary Filmmaking through the lens of Third Cinema, I started to make lists of readings, films to watch, podcasts to listen to. I imagined what I’ve been doing in other courses, and approached it as I always do. Then a voice in head, suggested that I do this differently, and why not? I’m going to be very open, I’m certainly not going to bombard students with lots of materials, as I usually do, because these don’t get read, and students don’t know what to do with them. Instead, I’m going to think more acutely about the concept of just in time teaching, where ideas, concepts and discussions in class might need some extra support through these resources, to answer particular questions, rather than preempt those that don’t get asked.
I hope this doesn’t sound too confusing, I suppose the idea is to be a little more open and fluid, rather than prescribed. I’m also incredibly open to seeing where ideas in the class take us, how the students will interpret the brief, understanding it from their point of view, and helping them to use their voices, find a language to express themselves. More often than not, with the students that I have, I just need to get out of the way. I can’t wait for this to begin.
Life Lessons
Looking back on last year, there was a lot of travelling, to San Francisco, then Boston, and Cambridge, then to Minneapolis, and back to the UK for a bit, spending a week at the Sheffield DocFest; and a week in Nantes, France; and Wales, before heading back to Pittsburgh. I spent a few days in Chicago, at a conference, and we ended the year in Wilmington, North Carolina. In between all that there have been weekend soccer tournaments, and short trips to Washington DC, and various other places in PA, Ohio, and other neighbouring states. It always feels like we’re going somewhere.
I love all this travelling, of course, and I have a routine, around finding somewhere interesting to visit, looking for cafés, record stores, and bookshops; finding museums, and generally avoiding more touristy places, or downtown areas, because there usually isn’t much there. I’m starting to get to know parts of the country, there are places that I would like to go, but only with the rest of the family, not on my own, because that wouldn’t be much fun. I’m also managing to skirt around the more soulless bits, chain hotels, chain food places, chain anything that has a distinct whiff of corporate America; mostly because these are usually so tired, and unhealthy for body and mind.
I’m appreciative of cities and communities that are bike friendly, or at least accessible for pedestrians, because there are miles and miles of shops, malls, and shopping centers that are seemingly built around parking lots, full of trucks, and no trees, only concrete and asphalt. It’s in little neighborhoods that you’ll find local businesses, a few places where people can sit out on the street. I sometimes think this is why people in America like traveling to European cities, because they can walk around, and mingle in open spaces, enjoy parks, and pedestrianized streets, and just watch life go by.
Lost and Found
I’ve been listening to music and watching movies over the break. This season of Fargo is good, but heavy going, with terrible dark themes of abuse and violence against women, I’m missing the playfulness, and humor of previous series. I watched Alexander Payne’s The Holdovers, with great performances all round, a film set around the time I was born. I watched a zippy heist series called Culprits which had some interesting characters, but sort of lost its glean a bit.
There are a few things coming up, we move around between streaming channels, so at the moment we’re on hulu, and next month we might try HBO, which has inexplicably changed its name to…Max, which is a bizarre thing to do to such a well-known and reputationally strong brand. Anyway, I’m looking forward to the next series of True Detective, with Jodie Foster; who I also thought gave a relaxed and fun supporting performance in Nyad, with Annette Benning in the titular role in the true story of long-distance swimmer Diane Nyad’s attempt to swim from Cuba to Florida.
I bought a few records over the break, and discovered a few new artists, including Judee Sill, who was a singer and musician in the early 70’s, owner of a beautiful voice, and a writer of troubled, delicate songs. There’s an interesting BBC interview with her, and a great performance of one her songs, the kiss, recorded in session. Apologies to “whispering” Bob Harris, who’s intro I cut off, you can always scroll back if you want to hear it, but I wanted you to hear this without the preamble.
There’s also a documentary which I’ll try and track down, where current artists talk about Sill’s influence on their songwriting, including Adrianne Lenker of the band Big Thief.
Thank you
So, there we go. Back to it. I have a few days this week to get all my work lined up, try and not commit to too much this semester, because there’s already so much going on.
We’ve had a little snow these past few days, and the sun is shining through the blinds, it makes the place seem so pretty, even if it can be a little glum this time of year. I know for many people January and February are bleak, and I did hear an unsubstantiated rumor via tiktok that we’re supposed to hibernate this time of year, and save our resolutions and new beginnings until Spring, which is the true time of rejuvenation and rebirth, so hang in there! Just enjoy the box sets, and do a bit of stretching, and go out for a walk when you can. I’m sure you’ve got some holiday chocolates to finish too, that’s all fine.
I’ll try and keep up with the creativity, it’s fun to have that little burst, and hope to catch up with my friends, and settle into routine at work. I won’t make too many promises, to myself, that I won’t keep.
I hope that you’re well, thank you for staying with me, and let me know if you have questions or concerns, stuff you’d like to ask me, about work, about anything. A friendly wave to new people who signed up over the break, welcome to these pages, and I look forward to getting to know you. Remember, a like is a high-five, and a comment is a warm hug.
Take care.
Happy New Year Stephan, from the three of us! x
There was I thinking Pat Bamford might have made it into TSIB ...