Blogs

Welcome fellow inquirers.

We are about to start our study of Darwin's Origin of Species. We will be reading approximately two chapters per week over the course of this seven week class.

Here is a rough schedule of readings and topics for discussion.

Hey folks,

Still working on securing us a permanent home, but for now, let's meet at the Walker Church at 2pm.

Walker Community United Methodist Church
3104 16th Ave S

It'll be a short class because another group has the space at 3:30, but we can finally meet one another and get things moving. Don't worry if you haven't made it to any classes so far, there's still plenty of time to get in and get going.

See you tomorrow!

For an interesting take on how technology and culture converge, check out The Printing Press as an Agent of Change.

For a sobering look at the relationship between a journalist and a source, read Janet Malcolm's The Journalist and the Murderer.

For ideas on what's next for newspapers, check out The Nation article by Bob McChesney and John Nichols: http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090406/nichols_mcchesney

A great book on feature writing is William Blundell's The Art and Craft of Feature Writing.

For any questions about anything, peruse www.poynter.org. You may have to register to have access to articles or blogs.

Some names to look out for on the future of journalism and civic engagement in general: Clay Shirky. I encourage you to watch his lecture on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_0FgRKsqqU

Jay Rosen is a professor at NYU and has written many articles and books about newspapers and journalism. You can review his blog PressThink or citizen journalism project NewAssignment.net.

Hey . . . I wanted to thank everyone who came out for Culture Jamming last night. We watched Can Dialectics Break Bricks and talked a little bit about effective culture jamming and how you might incorporate the Situationist tactic of detourning films and media into your own practice. One person said he would like to detourn Full House, which is a really gool idea.

What is detournment -- I could say come to the next class and find out! Basically it's the practice of taking an existing moving and putting your own dialogue into it for your own purposes (usually political). It never really caught onm but maybe we'll revive the practice!

For class next Wednesday, we're going to watch a re-enactment of the trial of the Chicago 8, charged with conspiracy to disrupt the 1968 Democractic National Convention in Chicago. The film stars Michael Lembeck as Abbie Hoffman (he palyed Julie's husband on One Day At A Time), Peter Boyle as David Dellinger, Robert Carridine (from Revenge of the Nerds) as Rennie Devis and Elliot Gould and Robert Loggie as lawyers Len Weinglass and William Kunstler. It's a really great cast and interspersed with interviews with the original defendants. We're also reading some excerpts from Hoffman's book "Soon to Be a Major Motion Picture."

We also had a suggestion that people see Manufacturing Dissent about Michael Moore. I may do a comparison of that movie with one of Michael Moore's agit prop films in a future class and we can have a discussion about that and mix it up a little.

In the future, we'll discuss the Situationists a little more, look at some 'zines and advertising, participate in Adbusters, and oh so much more!

Feel left out? Don't!. Come to the next sesssion of From Abbie Hoffman to Hothead Paisan and be a part of the conversation!

Weds nights at 7:00, 150 Blegen Hall, University of Minnesota.

Cheers!

I heard from some people that the website was kind of confusing. So here is the 4-1-1 on the Basic Acting . . . class.

It meets Tuesdays and Thursdays for four weeks, October 13 through November 5th from 7:00 - 9:00 pm at Franklin Artworks.

We will be building off of previous exercises in each class, but if you can't make some classes, feel free to sign up anyway.

There are some articles posted on the site already to get you interested and excited about the class. So click on the class page and tool around a little bit and see what's out there.

I'm really excited about the class and look forward to seeing you all there!

Laura Winton (aka Fluffy Singler)