Author Archives: Katherine Wikoff

Unknown's avatar

About Katherine Wikoff

I am a college professor (PhD in English, concentration rhetoric) at Milwaukee School of Engineering, where I teach film and media studies, political science, digital society, digital storytelling, writing for digital media, and communication. While fragments of my teaching and scholarship interests may quite naturally meander over to my blog, this space is intended to function as a creative outlet, not as part of my professional practice. Opinions are my own, etc.

Is that a Dr. Seuss chimney?

Posted on October 4, 2012 by Katherine Wikoff

Nope.  Just ours, distorted in the reflection of our neighbor’s car window.  Totally Grinch-worthy, don’t you think? I love Dr. Seuss books for their art and wordplay.  Just looking at a list of Seuss titles brings back each book instantly, almost viscerally.  I … Continue reading →

Posted in Books and reading | Tagged | 4 Comments

“Imagine”: A reminder that the “big picture” requires “small details”

Posted on October 2, 2012 by Katherine Wikoff

My friend Lisa recently loaned me a copy of Imagine, by Jonah Lehrer.  This was the book at the center of the maelstrom this summer about various ethics and quality issues with Lehrer’s work: his “self-plagiarism” (recycling previously published material), “sloppy” … Continue reading →

Posted in Books and reading | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Banned Books Week as “required reading”?

Posted on September 27, 2012 by Katherine Wikoff

This weekend marks the beginning of Banned Books Week here in the United States (September 30 – October 6, 2012).  One thing that’s worth noting on the list of banned or challenged books published on the American Library Association’s website is how … Continue reading →

Posted in Books and reading | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

“It’s” versus “its” and “who’s” versus “whose”

Posted on September 26, 2012 by Katherine Wikoff

These are some tricky ones, and even people who kinda-sorta know them will still call me up to ask which spelling to use in a particular sentence.  (Which, in fact, someone did just the other day.) The way most people remember … Continue reading →

Posted in Grammar, punctuation, usage, mechanics | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Addendum to my “Hunger Games” post

Posted on September 25, 2012 by Katherine Wikoff

I stand corrected.  Having merely seen the film and not read the Suzanne Collins novels, I completely based my assumptions about District 11 on what I saw in the movie.  Now I’ve done a bit more digging and discovered that … Continue reading →

Posted in Books and reading, Movies and film | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Why “The Hunger Games” should win the Academy Award for Best Production Design

Posted on September 25, 2012 by Katherine Wikoff

I was finally able to watch The Hunger Games about a week ago and was extremely impressed by the film’s visual design – the locations, costumes, sets, props, makeup, etc.  Immediately I began thinking about writing a post arguing that the film … Continue reading →

Posted in Movies and film, Popular culture, WPLongform (posts of 1000 words or longer) | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

The “Little House” Books: A new collection looks back

Posted on September 22, 2012 by Katherine Wikoff

A review in this morning’s “Review” section of The Wall Street Journal alerted me to the recent republication of one of my favorite childhood series, the “Little House” books by Laura Ingalls Wilder.  This new collection of Wilder’s nine books is … Continue reading →

Posted in Books and reading, Movies and film | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

A rainbow without rain

Posted on September 20, 2012 by Katherine Wikoff

Today was a sunny, breezy day in Milwaukee.  But the sky looked so strange!  Mostly this was due to many different types of clouds coexisting oddly in the same space.  Puffy, flat-bottomed cumulus clouds sailed like a scattered armada across the bright blue … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , | 2 Comments

George Martin: the man behind the Beatles’ sound

Posted on September 11, 2012 by Katherine Wikoff

Today’s Wall Street Journal has a fascinating story on / interview with George Martin, the man who produced all of the Beatles’ music except the Let It Be album.  A BBC documentary titled Produced by George Martin is being released … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Double helix – fire escape and shadow

Posted on September 10, 2012 by Katherine Wikoff

I hope you’re not tired of photos.  Because here’s another one I took this morning of the fire escape winding down the side of Milwaukee’s City Hall.  The only camera I had with me (again) was my iPod Touch, so … Continue reading →

Posted in Milwaukee | Tagged , , | 2 Comments