Selections from my Virtual Library: April 2014

The fourth installment you've all been waiting for is here! Just kidding, most of you are coming out of midterms, in the midst of finals, or done with school so the idea of reading for fun is probably not on the top of your list. But, you should check out these great pieces anyways.

New Yorker

Orson Welle's Shattering "Othello" - Orson Welles + Shakespeare = excellence

The Case for Race-Blind Affirmative Action - A provocative piece 

BBC

Warhol works recovered from old Amiga disks - New art found by CMU students, what a great discovery.

McSweeney's

William Faulkner's Favorite April Fool's Day Pranks - A good laugh for any reader of Faulkner

The Future of Dating - Insane

NPR

It's Official: Americans Are Floating In A Pool Of Ranch Dressing - I detest ranch, but a good read for any consumer

The Rise And Fall Of Stefan Zweig, Who Inspired 'Grand Budapest Hotel' - We all know why this is on the list

Stereotypes Of Appalachia Obscure A Diverse Picture - Beautiful photo essay that captures an interesting American culture

Play It Again And Again, Sam: Quite a cool take on repetition in music

How Rwanda's Only Ice Cream Shop Challenges Cultural Taboos: Rwandan culture discourages the public display of personal needs and it's crazy that something like ice cream can challenge the norm

Under The Streets Of Naples, A Way Out For Local Kids: Cultural restoration and social improvement combine to create a better Naples

The New York Times

I Had a Nice Time With You Tonight. On the App. - Now that there's dating apps, there's also relationship apps

Slate

What Are Cats Thinking? - Guys, I just want to know what Boots thinks of me

Needs Improvement: Student evaluations of professors aren’t just biased and absurd—they don’t even work - Students, think about what evaluations mean before you rate a professor's attractiveness

Much Ado About Nothingness: Was Shakespeare an atheist? Or more of a secular humanist? - A wonderful question to contemplate

Medium

On Acceptance and Expectations - New kinds of college apps are great, but college grade inflation is not

What inner city kids know about social media, and why we should listen - Privacy in the digital age is difficult but understanding student web behavior can tell us a lot

The Atlantic

Access to Good Food as Preventive Medicine: People diagnosed with chronic disease need good food, so why is it so hard to provide it for them?

Do Students Still Have Free Speech in School? - Words published on the Internet surrounding schools blur the line in rules

Why Teaching Poetry Is So Important - Just read poetry!!!!

The Confidence Gap - A must-read for any gender

The Quiet Radicalism of All That - We all know All That is the greatest

Get Rich, Live Longer: The Ultimate Consequence of Income Inequality - Now there's proof!

The Adjunct Revolt: How Poor Professors Are Fighting Back - Respect your professors, they're not overpaid like you may think

Before Gonzo: Hunter S. Thompson's Early, Underrated Journalism Career - Yeah, he's awesome

Selections from my Virtual Library: March 2014

This is the third installment of my virtual library, a year-long project to expand my personal literacy and knowledge base. This past month I haven't been as disciplined with my reading, so there is a slight lessening of sources.

Rookie:

The Art of Waiting: A great piece on why we all need stop fearing the artistic process.

The Atlantic:

Redlining for the 21st Century: Though redlining seems like a thing of the past, the age of the Internet has brought it back. A warning to all apartment shoppers.

International Women's Day: Mothers and Daughters: A great photo essay that looks at educational desires of mothers and daughters.

In Grief, Try Personal Rituals: All I have to say about this piece is that it's important.

The Toxins That Threaten Our Brain: Absolutely terrifying. Even though it's a very lengthy read, it's very much worth it because we are exposed to so many neurotoxins every day.

The Over-Protected Kid: Essentially, we need to let kids mess around more and this crazy, awesome playground accomplishes that in a safe, constructive manner.

Another Bloomberg Editor Explains Why He Has Resigned, Over Its China Coverage: If, in fact, Bloomberg is avoiding certain stories because of fear of losing sales in China, it would be a huge strike against them. This is an incredibly messy issue that should have some interesting developments to watch.

Star Wars and the 4 Ways Science Fiction Handles Race: I haven't read very much about this issue, but it's definitely something to look at in the coming years of new releases.

New York Times:

Casting Shadows on a Fanciful World: My token Wes Anderson article of the month. I love the photo slideshow of the miniatures in this and the quotes from Dafoe and Fiennes.

The New Yorker:

Sacred and Profane: I have mixed feelings about Malcolm Gladwell, but I am fascinated with religious radicals, especially in contemporary society.

Yes, Book Editors Edit: In short, editors deserve respect and are an important part of the writing and publishing processes.

A.V. Club:

The Bleak State of American Fiction: This is directly connected to the above link as it delves more into the actually contents of the argument. Yes, fiction is still valuable, but as the public we need to voice that opinion. 

NPR:

The '60s Are Gone, But Psychedelic Research Trip Continues: Ah yes, the opening scenes of Pineapple Express continue.

How The Cost Of College Went From Affordable To Sky-High: Any college student or soon-to-be college student should be required to read this. 

What Do Jay Z And Shakespeare Have In Common? Swagger: I love any and all modern connections to my main man Shakes.

In The Face Of Disaster, Pritzker Winner Shigeru Ban Designs Solutions: I think architecture is fascinating, and this piece would interest anyone that likes art, design, structure, or problem-solving.

Listening To The Echoes Of Creation: This is so over my head, but it is something I hope I can understand at some point in the near future.

In Arizona, Citizens Keep Close Eye On Immigration Checkpoint: Citizens monitoring their own government, very interesting.

Slate:

This Is What Finding Love Online Looks Like: Another photo essay that captures more than one generation's use of online dating sites.

What’s the Best Way to Execute Someone?: There are so many issues with the death penalty, but this is one of the most alarming.

McSweeney's:

Kafka's Joke Book: Kafka is my homeboy.

Medium:

Two Approaches to Watch in Remedial Education Innovation: Remedial courses in the college world are important and Florida's law is somewhat terrifying whereas California's law makes much more sense in my mind.

Palm Reading For Millenials: A fun little cartoon that a lot of my friends and I can relate to.

How to never forget anything ever again: I still really want to be someone that can recite a bunch of quotes offhand, general statistics, even just specific names. This seems like an easy and fun way to start on that goal.

BBC:

Why climate change is bad news for India tea producers: As an avid tea drinker, this upsets me.

Black Death skeletons unearthed by Crossrail project: Wouldn't be so cool if these were the bones that have the original strain?!

The radical readers of San Francisco: The Beat Generation is one of my favorite literary movements, and I think it is so great that City Lights has expanded so much.

Winter Quarter Words

It's hard to believe that 10 weeks ago I started my second quarter at DePaul. It's even harder to believe how much can change in 10 weeks. 

This quarter I was privileged enough to be in a Reading Poetry class, a simple English prerequisite that would allow me to enroll in more in-depth courses later in my DePaul career. This class was sort of my saving grace as it gave me time to breathe, reminded me that I love what I'm studying, and helped me grow as a writer, reader, and person on many different levels.

Below I've included a recording of myself reading Elizabeth Bishop's "One Art." I had to read this poem for a grade and I'm still not super enthused about the way I've read it, but I wanted to share. Bishop is a master of using classic form and style to create something completely new, and this poem is a great example of that. 

I choose to read this poem for a number of reasons, but I chose to post it because it more or less sums up the struggles of winter quarter. I've lost a lot of ideas, motivation, and opinions in the last 10 weeks and I have truly discovered that loss in any form is hard to master.

As human beings, we lose something every day. But Bishop reminds us that the act doesn't necessarily prepare us for the bigger moments. As much as I wish I could start winter quarter again, the knowledge I've gained is important. 

One Art

  by Elizabeth Bishop

The art of losing isn't hard to master;

so many things seem filled with the intent

to be lost that their loss is no disaster. 

Lose something every day. Accept the fluster

of lost door keys, the hour badly spent.

The art of losing isn't hard to master. 

Then practice losing farther, losing faster:

places, and names, and where it was you meant

to travel. None of these will bring disaster. 

I lost my mother's watch. And look! my last, or

next-to-last, of three loved houses went.

The art of losing isn't hard to master. 

I lost two cities, lovely ones. And, vaster,

some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent.

I miss them, but it wasn't a disaster.  

—Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture

I love) I shan't have lied.  It's evident

the art of losing's not too hard to master

though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster.

Confusing Weather (And Thoughts): A Playlist

I'd love to say this is a spring playlist, but that won't be said for another three weeks at this point. Instead, here's a bunch of things I've been listening to while the weather fluctuates and the confusion climbs about seasons, school, and people. This isn't in any specific order, so maybe it's not really a playlist...

1. Temple State - Spencer Tweedy


2. Come On - Mikhael Paskalev


3. At The Bottom of Everything - Bright Eyes


4. Museum of Flight - Damien Jurado


5. You're Not That Good At Anything - Cloud Nothings


6. Off You - The Breeders


7. Snap Out Of It - Arctic Monkeys


8. Girls - The 1975


9. That Western Skyline - Dawes


10. Irene - Twin Peaks


11. Hypocritical Kiss - Jack White


12. I Got - Young the Giant


13. The Suburbs - Arcade Fire

Selections from my Virtual Library: February 2014

This is the second installment my virtual library, a year-long project to expand my personal literacy and knowledge base. 

In February, I expanded my library to include pieces from Slate, a "daily web magazine," Medium, a collaborative blogging site, and The Guardian. 

I've decided to organize articles by publication. Some publications have more representation than others because a) they post more content and/or b) I find that their pieces are of better quality/more interesting than others as a whole.

The Atlantic:

The Racially Fraught History of the American Beard - Who knew that the facial scruff I have come to love has such a dark past...

Personal Identity is Mostly Performance - How the things we keep and display project  judgements about ourselves to others while simultaneously reminding us who we are.

The Dark Psychology of Being a Good Comedian - Cool data on what it means to be funny, how intelligence and humor are correlated, and how to know when a taboo topic is at its peak of funniness.

Dead Poets Society Is a Terrible Defense of the Humanities - A great movie that needs to be understood in a different light. While literature is about feeling, it is also about meaning and the beautiful nuances of language.

Teachers Wish More People Would Listen to Them - I might be biased, but teachers deserve a lot more respect than they are currently receiving and the data collected from teachers in this summarized study reflects that immensely. 

The Guardian: 

Drip, drip, drip, by day and night - In case you haven't noticed, rain is important to a lot of literature.

Wes Anderson: in a world of his own - Yet another article that reaffirms the love I have for my favorite director. There are lots of great details in the piece.

The New Yorker:

The $5.7 Million Magazine Cover Illustration - Art is something I still don't fully understand, but this piece brings up a lot of great questions to think about in terms of ownership and creativity.

Medium:

Those Damn Gentrifying Hipsters: Avoiding the pull of the “creative class” typecast - A really important read for anyone looking to live in a gentrified/gentrifying area.

Ma Noirceur - We should not strive to be a color blind nation, but rather a nation that is inclusive and self-aware of privilege. 

Slate:

A Photographer’s Moving Tribute to the Pine Ridge Reservation - Pine Ridge has been a source of fascination for me since my junior year of high school, so this photo essay reminded me how awful it is that a place this impoverished exists in the United States.

The Dalai Lama’s Ski Trip: What I learned in the slush with His Holiness - The Dalai Lama is an unbelievable human being. This piece puts him in a great light and has a great voice.

McSweeney's:

Socrates on the red carpet - It's pretty difficult to describe a McSweeney's piece in a non-cliche way, but I seriously love this. 

NPR:

Saudade: An Untranslatable, Undeniably Potent Word - Yet another place for my loves to connect: words and music. Saudade will be the latest addition to my vocabulary.

Fred Armisen's Fake Bands (And Their Real Songs) - Fred Armisen is too good. What a guy.

Selections From My Virtual Library: January 2014

Last year I decided to cultivate a library of Thought Catalog articles because it would give me an excuse to check the addictive, and now relatively mediocre, site on a regular basis because I had a purpose. This year, I have applied the same idea with a different purpose: create a library of online articles from various sources that can expose me to more rhetoric and literature overall. 

Now, I attempt to check The Atlantic, The New Yorker, BBC, McSweeney's, and NPR on a daily basis. Often times there are no articles that warrant a bookmark in the folder entitled "Virtual Library 2014" on my computer, but at least once or twice a week I find myself really loving a work. As I continue to expand my library, I hope to create a monthly post about the current best in my library. Here are January's picks:

Nobody's Son - I always associate The New Yorker with my Grandpa Pietz and early mornings spent in the farmhouse living room looking only at the cartoons embedded within the text. If only I could go back and read everything I skimmed as kid. Maybe I could have read something just as beautiful as this multiple part piece on the death of a father. I can't wait to read more from the magazine this upcoming year to make up for all the lost time. 

Edit Your Novel With Math - At this point it's redundant to tell you that McSweeney's is hilarious, but this in particular was just ridiculous to imagine as a real practice. 

The Danger of Telling Poor Kids That College Is the Key to Social Mobility - Thought-provoking and urgent, all college students know that at this point, college is not really leading us to tons of success and/or money. It may after five years of graduation, but it certainly won't create the sums of money that flash before our eyes as we eat yet another crappy cafeteria meal waiting for the future. Intellectual curiosity needs to be at the forefront of college education for every class of citizen and not just those that can afford college.

"Life Keeps Changing": Why Stories, Not Science, Explain the World - This article reaffirms my complete infatuation with words. Science can explain so many things, but many of the nuances in life can be found with even the scrutiny of a microscope. This article is part of a great series of interviews with authors about their favorite passages of literature and I think the conversational tone of all of them add to their reaffirmation that words may be the only thing that can capture the enduring beauty of life.

4 Ways To Hear More In Music - As someone who used to be a musician and considers themselves relatively well-versed, I first thought that what the author discusses was sort of an elementary way at deconstructing music. And while my observation is true to an extent, I also think that Tsioulcas chooses wonderful examples for her points of instruction. NPR does a great job once again.

Sally Mann's Lecture and Why My Life Revolves Around Death

Two evenings ago I had the great pleasure and unbelievable opportunity to listen to a lecture by Sally Mann, an American photographer whose work focuses on death and decay. Going into the lecture, I was prepared to listen for two hours about how she processed her photos and what her subjects were.

Instead, I was privy to a reading of her memoir, the last 10,000 words to be exact, a deeply thoughtful section that worked its way through discussing the death of her parents, the discoveries of her family history, and her reflections on her work as a whole. During her lecture, Mann was no longer just a photographer, but a human on the deepest level: reflective, emotional, and raw.

Sitting next to the lovely Anam Merchant in the second row

Death has been more of a prominent subject in my life since the beginning of this school year. It's something I never really gave much thought to in high school. But as I've begun to form new friendships and cultivate even more knowledge in my classes, there seems like there is so much to lose the further I move forward in life.

One of my favorite quotes from the evening that Sally said is, "Death as an artistic theme always presents as a self-portrait." Even if we try to create with loss in mind, it always relates back to how we sense things, perceive things, and reflect. 

When I write, I write for myself first. I'm sure this will change as I continue to progress as a writer, but I've always thought as art as more selfish than selfless. Art is what we leave behind for others to remember us by. As much as none of us want to be judged by what stays when we leave, it is inevitable. Mann quoted Ezra's Pound's Canto 81 during her talk, which fits well with the idea judgement after death: 

What thou lovest well remains, 

                                           the rest is dross 

What thou lov'st well shall not be reft from thee 

What thou lov'st well is thy true heritage 

Whose world, or mine or theirs 

                           or is it of none? 

What we love will remain: our art, our relationships, our words. Death is supposed to trivialize everything, but does it ever really do this? I think that it expands everything. When we are faced with death, we should follow Mann's other important assertion that our lives should be spent be trying to get better at living, loving, and seeing. And so when we create anything, especially with death in mind, we are expanding ourselves in the best way possible.

Death fascinates me and I think that it is quite unfortunate that the only way we can experience death is through mourning. It is an unthinkable event we cannot pass through. But that makes death this great theme to create around. Lots of great things come from ambiguity, from grayness, from the gap between what we know and what we cannot understand. 

Looking into the future, I can see myself being endlessly inspired by death. I've always wanted to know who would come to my funeral, what words would be said, what people would remember about me, the photos that would hang on the poster board at the memorial service. But I don't think I'll ever write about those things. I think I'll write about how we face death everything day, what it means to grieve, and when we decide that we are ready to leave. As Proust reminds us, "It is grief that develops the powers of the mind."