Category Archives: History

Hemmed in, but still a beacon

Posted on May 2, 2018 by

For decades Milwaukee’s favorite weather forecast has been the flame atop the Wisconsin Gas Building. It changes color and flashes to announce rising/falling temperatures, snow/rain, or a steady state (no change from current conditions). There’s even a little poem to … Continue reading →

Posted in architecture, History, Life, Milwaukee, Photography | Tagged , , , | 6 Comments

YouTube: In the Beginning

Posted on April 12, 2018 by

I’m teaching a mass media course this quarter, and while doing class prep recently, I needed to look at something in the internet archive, aka the “Wayback Machine.” (Wikipedia article here) Have you used this super cool  site before? You … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, History, Learning, Life, Popular culture, Television | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

The Birth of a Nation: Lighting and (mostly “non”) camera movement, racism, and Abraham Lincoln’s assassination reenacted a mere 50 years after

Posted on March 27, 2018 by

I’m teaching my film studies course this quarter, and this post was actually prompted by the utilitarian need to have a couple of neatly-cut film clips for efficient class use. But because it might also be interesting for people outside … Continue reading →

Posted in History, Life, Movies and film, Political Analysis, Popular culture, Teaching | Tagged , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Sergei Eisenstein’s Google Doodle (and cinema tropes)

Posted on January 24, 2018 by

Monday’s Google Doodle honored revolutionary Russian filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein. Here is a cool video I found that provides a little biographical info along with the actual Google Doodle. Sergei Eisenstein was the first “modern” filmmaker. He basically invented modern film … Continue reading →

Posted in Creativity, History, Milwaukee, Movies and film, Music, Popular culture, Television | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Unleashing the potential of VR (virtual reality)

Posted on January 10, 2018 by

Virtual reality (VR) is going to shape itself into an art form that is quite different from contemporary cinema. We can’t really predict yet how things will turn out, although my bet is that movies as we know them are here … Continue reading →

Posted in History, Learning, Life, Movies and film, News, Popular culture, Teaching, Technology | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

More interesting stuff about pigeons and people

Posted on January 7, 2018 by

After my post on dovecotes ran a few days ago, my friend, colleague, and fellow blogger Sally Cissna published a really fascinating blog post about the relationship between humans and pigeons a century ago. Her post contains several old newspaper … Continue reading →

Posted in Food, History, Popular culture, Technology | Tagged , , , , , | 7 Comments

Of dovecotes and pigeonholes and ortolans and extinction

Posted on January 4, 2018 by

In reading a novel set in England around 1815 this past week, I followed two characters into a “dovecote” that had fallen into disrepair. I’d heard that term before and vaguely associated it with some kind of architectural feature similar … Continue reading →

Posted in architecture, Food, History, Milwaukee | Tagged , , , , | 5 Comments