Category Archives: News

Why this year’s Best Picture award dooms the Oscars to irrelevance

The last film that students watch in my film and media studies course is whatever has won the Best Picture Oscar that year. I was a little nervous to see what won this year because some of the nominees were … Continue reading

Posted in Creativity, Higher education, Media studies, Movies and film, News, Popular culture, Television | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 10 Comments

Look for the Union Label (some thoughts prompted by the Alec Baldwin on-set shooting incident)

When I saw this “poster” today, I realized that I haven’t seen any union promotions in a really long time. It also put me in mind of this old TV ad. I’ll bet every American above a certain age still … Continue reading

Posted in Movies and film, News, Political Analysis, Popular culture, Television | Tagged , , , , | 6 Comments

When seeing is disbelieving

Sitting in a waiting room this week, I picked up the November 2017 issue of National Geographic and opened to the cover story about “happiness.” It was a good article, and I was reading and learning and taking it all … Continue reading

Posted in Life, News, Political Analysis | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

You knew me when :)

Oh hey, I’m famous sort of.  I’m quoted in an article that went out over the AP wire nationwide today about the new Foxconn plant that just broke ground in southeastern Wisconsin. It’s so strange how this all came about, … Continue reading

Posted in News | Tagged , , | 5 Comments

The Weather Channel’s amazing new “Immersive Mixed Reality”

The Weather Channel this week introduced new technology that will add astonishing visual effects to their broadcasts. Check out this Co.Design article, with video, where you can see a demo in which the anchorman barely escapes being crushed by a … Continue reading

Posted in Creativity, News, Popular culture, Technology, Television | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

Unleashing the potential of VR (virtual reality)

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

The humanitarian disaster looming in Yemen

You probably haven’t seen this bit of news, and with any luck at all the situation will be resolved before becoming a major story you can’t avoid. This past weekend, Houthi rebels fighting in Yemen against the internationally-recognized government of … Continue reading

Posted in News, Political Analysis | Tagged , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Can membership-based community journalism thrive in the U.S.?

Another “journalism” post as a follow-up to my last one. I’ve heard rumblings previously about this community-created, membership-driven model of journalism from The Netherlands’ De Correspondent (click on the “English” button at the top of their page), and today I found this intriguing … Continue reading

Posted in Creativity, Milwaukee, News, Political Analysis | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Al Jarreau as “The Jazz Singer” (SCTV)

Among my favorite moments from Al Jarreau (who was born in Milwaukee and passed away yesterday) is this parody of Neil Diamond’s 1980 remake of The Jazz Singer. You know it’s going to be great the moment you see Sid Dithers … Continue reading

Posted in Life, Milwaukee, Movies and film, News, Popular culture, Television | Tagged , , , | 6 Comments