In looking over the bestseller lists in the Saturday/Sunday Wall Street Journal this weekend, I was surprised to see two books on the “combined” nonfiction list by an author I’d never heard of. Additionally, although that combined list usually features books that have appeared on either the hardcover or e-book nonfiction list, neither of this author’s books appears there. But there they are on the combined list, The Sun and Her Flowers and Milk And Honey.
So who is Rupi Kaur, and where did she come from? I don’t know enough yet to give a complete answer to those questions, but here’s what I’ve learned so far. Kaur is an Instagram poet with 1.9 million followers, whose posts seem to be relatively short poems and photos with generalized insights about life. Very accessible and fairly universal, especially in their appeal to the experiences of young women everywhere and possibly, in particular, young women of color. Kaur follows no one from the account where she posts her poems and photos, so those 1.9 million followers are presumably people legitimately interested in her work and not the quid pro quo I’ll-follow-you-if-you-follow-me followers that seem to be attached to so many writers’ accounts.
Here are links to Kaur’s website and her Instagram in case you’re intrigued and want to see more. Personally, I am thrilled to see poetry on the bestseller list!
My first reaction upon seeing the flag at half mast in Milwaukee’s Red Arrow Park this morning was: “Oh no! What happened?”
Then about two seconds later I remembered. Today is December 7th.
The clip below of the USS Arizona exploding and sinking is from a 1942 Castle Films “News Parade” feature. Horrifying yet compelling, the footage is hard to turn away from, with billowing smoke that’s a spectacle worthy of a Hollywood film. But this is no movie, and watching it I can’t stop thinking of all the people whose deaths it represents.
It’s good to remember Pearl Harbor today . . . even though it would be nicer to forget. Here is Pathé newsreel footage of President Roosevelt’s “Day of Infamy” speech vowing that we never would.
I spotted the new Milwaukee Bucks Arena on the way to Starbucks for coffee this morning. Do you see it?
Do you now?
For comparison, here is a photo I took of the arena under construction back in July:
As of last Monday (November 27) the side of the arena I drive by every day looked like this:
Only because I remembered that rather striking turquoise-and-yellow color combo from summer did I realize what I saw reflected in the office windows this morning. That new arena is coming along pretty rapidly!
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My old iPhone doesn’t take the best photos at night, but when I saw the moon shining through the branches of our birch tree as I arrived home from work, I couldn’t resist at least giving it a try.
Such strange light mid-morning today. Very bright sun in a cloudless sky, yet also somehow very “gauzy.” It’s not hazy today, nor is it humid or even slightly overcast, so the gauzy quality makes no sense. But you can see how soft some of the shadows are. Even if they are thrown down by more faraway trees, those trees aren’t so distant that I’d expect such faint shadows.
Actually, I think I just figured it out, but sadly it’s now almost 1:00 pm, so there’s no chance to check my theory out. I’m guessing that the fainter shadows are the result of sunlight reflecting off the glass of the Grohmann Museum’s atrium and then casting shadows of those branches from a different angle and with a weaker light. I suppose that might also explain the strangely gauzy quality of sunlight, as well.
Don’t you find it frustrating to notice things and not have time to explore them in that very moment? Now I’ll never really know for sure. Such is life, I guess😄
This is really small in the grand scheme of things, but still I’m super impressed with Heinz’s new ketchup packet. My younger daughter had a doctor’s appointment the other day, and on the way home we stopped at Culver’s. This is what she got with her onion rings.
I love it! Why did no one think of this until now? It seems so obvious in retrospect. But maybe that’s always the way with truly innovative ideas.
This was the view from my office window yesterday afternoon. Bright sun, despite the wind and falling temperatures. I liked the way sunlight reflecting from my building’s windows cast long fingers of light across the street.
Below is what I saw on the way back to my office from a mid-morning coffee run earlier today.
A spare dusting of dry lake-effect snow swirled along the sidewalk like ghostly dervishes and collapsed between wind gusts into white patches along the edges of whatever had momentarily trapped it.
Later in the day, as significantly thicker snowflakes blew past my window, an instant shock of recognition kicked in and I fleetingly experienced that ineffable happiness of childhood when winter’s first flurries are greeted by the excited cry: “It’s snowing!”
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 President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi launched a ballistic missile at Saudi Arabia’s capital city. The missile reportedly targeted Riyadh’s airport but was intercepted before reaching its destination.
We have plenty of other terrible events distracting us here in the United States right now. Don’t feel bad if you missed this.
Here’s why the attempted missile attack and its aftermath is important. Saudi Arabia’s crown prince immediately denounced the missile attack as something that “may be considered an act of war,” and he accused Iran of “direct aggression” against Saudi Arabia because Iran supplied the Shia Houthis with missiles.
The United Nations’ World Food Program currently feeds 7 million people a month in Yemen. These 7 million people will feel the blockade’s consequences immediately. Millions more, already classified as “hungry” will soon face extreme famine.
To make matters worse, Yemen is currently experiencing the “fastest growing cholera epidemic ever recorded,” with 895,000 cases as of November 2 (a week ago today). Over half of the suspected cholera cases are children.
Let me restate that more directly: Around 450,000 children in Yemen have contracted cholera in the past six months.
Cholera—rare in the developed world—is a horrible intestinal infection causing copious amounts of watery diarrhea, vomiting, dehydration, and muscle cramps. It can be fatal; nearly 2,200 people in Yemen have died from cholera since April 27th. The infection can be prevented with a vaccine (effective for about six months), but now that the blockade is in place, neither vaccine nor treatment medicines are getting through.
If something doesn’t happen quickly, many more people will die.
The political situation in Yemen is a mess. In some ways ordinary citizens are mere pawns in a rebellion/civil war that is in part a proxy conflict between longtime rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran. I lack adequate background to make any kind of statement regarding which side is right or wrong.
But surely the world can’t just stand by and watch this happen.
This is the vestige of what was once a side door into the Val. Blatz Brewing Company’s Bottle House. Now it’s an emergency exit for the Campus Center at Milwaukee School of Engineering. More importantly, it’s also a handy little alcove to stand in on a winter day and be shielded from biting wind while waiting for the light at Broadway and State to change 🙂
I’m showing Spotlight in my political science class this week and next. We don’t have a lot of time to talk about the press in our course, but I wanted to work in some reflection on the place of news media in American political culture. I like using films in my classes whenever I can because they deliver such a tremendous amount of information and nuance for the class time given up.
Spotlight is my positive bookend to the more negative, cynical view of media found in the first film of the quarter, Wag the Dog.
In my film studies class, I always show the most recent Academy Award winner for Best Picture as the final film of that course. In spring 2016, that film was Spotlight. Obviously students in my political science class are watching with a very different agenda than we had in my film studies class a year ago spring.
This time around (in political science), we are thinking about the role of “the press” as the Fourth Estate in civic life. Especially given the rapidly disintegrating sustainability of the news media’s traditional business model, not to mention the rise of “fake news” and accusations of partisanship and bias in news coverage, I think it’s important to think deeply about the press both at its lazy, credulous worst and at its most noble best. Wag the Dog and Spotlight do a pretty nice job of highlighting the opposite ends of the ethics/competence spectrum.
Today I learned that it’s impossible for me to shut down the film-studies side of my brain, even when I’m in political-science mode. While watching Spotlight with my students this afternoon, I kept noticing the colors. I haven’t seen Spotlight since showing it in my film studies class over a year ago. I’d forgotten all about its production design. But, boy, it all came back in a flash.
Take a look at these screenshots. (You can click on each image to enlarge it.)
Can you see what’s going on with the colors? Red, green, and blue are EVERYWHERE. Even items that would normally be white or gray or beige are tinged with hints of red, green, and blue instead. (Balancing out the red, green, and blue are black and yellow/gold/brown, the latter often showing up especially in richly colored wood.)
I’m not sure there’s necessarily a thematic purpose behind the color palette used in Spotlight, but it does occur to me that red, green, and blue (RGB) are the primary hues in an additive color system. Cyan, yellow, and magenta (CYM) are the primary hues in a subtractive color system.
Check out this cool photo from Wikipedia. I like to show it to my film studies students because it’s such a great visual demonstrating these color principles in action.
“RGB illumination” by en:User:Bb3cxv via Wikipedia (CC by 3.0)
White light contains all the wavelengths in the color spectrum. Black essentially has none.
So actually, now that I think about it, if I wanted to make some kind of point about the color design in Spotlight, I might talk about how the RGB colors add up to a white light that echoes and amplifies two related themes.
First, that white is associated with purity, and second that light is associated with truth.
The film’s title refers not only to the Spotlight team itself (a special unit of investigative reporters at The Boston Globe) but also to their act of spotlighting and bringing into the light a problem hidden away too long in metaphoric darkness.
Good. I’m so glad I have my blog and was able to get all this out of my head and into a form that could be shared with someone who might appreciate it 🙂
Now it’s time to pack up all my student papers to grade this weekend and head home.
Have a great Friday night, everyone!
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Katherine Wikoff 