To those of you blaming tryptophan for your Monday morning lag, Tomorrow, December 1, marks World AIDS Day, which seems like a good moment to point to some online resources about the history of the illness, its impact, and the art and activisim it inspired. The Carpenter Center here at Harvard has organized an extraordinary [...]
Archive for November, 2009
AIDS Artwork and Activism
Posted in advertising, illness, LGBT, photography, politics, visual culture, tagged ACT UP, AIDS, World AIDS day on November 30, 2009 | 3 Comments »
A Thanksgiving Feast (of Archives!)
Posted in books, cartoons, food, humor, visual culture on November 23, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Dear preemptive vacationers, I realize there’s been a lot of food in these dispatches lately, perhaps in subconscious anticipation of Thanksgiving this Thursday. I don’t know about you, but when I think about Thanksgiving (or Turkey Day, as I’ve heard it called), I think about sweet potatoes with marshmallows, fresh roasted turkey, grandmotherly love—and that’s [...]
The Wonders of Coffee
Posted in advertising, commerce, commercialism, domesticity, economics, food, leisure, shopping, video, visual culture on November 20, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
To students seldom awake before ten, Like many scholars, I’ve relied on coffee as a lifeline for most of my academic career. By senior year of high school, I was already bringing a plastic mug full of instant Maxwell House (terrible, I know) to class. In college, I even considered footnoting the local convenience store [...]
Chickens and State Fairs
Posted in commerce, food, leisure, photography, tagged georgia, state fair on November 18, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Dear lethargic readers, It’s one of the regrets of my life thus far that I’ve never been to a county or state fair—to my knowledge, there weren’t many (or any) on Long Island where I grew up. Thanks to the Digital Library of Georgia, however, I can at least enjoy the “idea” of the state [...]
Musketeers, Cowboys, and Stop-Motion Desecration
Posted in film, humor, visual culture, tagged europa film treasures on November 16, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Dear readers suffering from archive-related-asthma, Allow me to introduce you today to the fabulous Europa Film Treasures, which brings together rare archival movies from 28 of the best collections across the continent. But don’t let the name fool you: you need not be a Franco-, Russo-, or Swedophile to appreciate these silents and talkies. A [...]
Wheelchairs and Weddings
Posted in advertising, disability studies, film, television, visual culture on November 13, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
To my fellow homebodies, If you, like me, have found yourself reluctantly addicted to FOX’s high school dramedy Glee, then you know that this week’s episode shined its bemused spotlight the show’s wheelchair-riding, background singing Artie Abrams. The character has raised the ire of some disability advocates because he’s played by a nondisabled actor. But what [...]
Veterans and Recruits
Posted in advertising, military, video on November 11, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Dear holiday lovers, Growing up, I definitely didn’t take Veterans’ Day very seriously, except as a reason to sleep in. There were only two people in my family who ever saw a battle front—my Bronx-reared great-uncle, who was a paratrooper in the Pacific, and my Czech grandfather, who fought with the Russian army against the [...]
Card Catalogs and the Environment, Conserved
Posted in books, cartoons, environment, libraries, visual culture, tagged card catalogs, University of Iowa on November 9, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Dear last-minutes-before-class loiterers, Like some of you, I’m just old enough to remember the days of ye olde card catalog—when finding a book required more than a quick Google search. No, the dedicated researcher pulled out drawer after wooden drawer—even stacked them in a dangerous Jenga-like tower—and then flipped endlessly to find the perfect book [...]
British Invaders and the Beach Boys
Posted in Uncategorized on November 6, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Dear strolling students, To end the week, I thought I’d point you towards the amazing Concert Vault, which includes an overwhelming number of live concerts from the 1960s to the present, to turn your living room into the Palladium. A vaguely embarrassing confession: I didn’t discover the music of the 1960s and 1970s the way [...]
Eisenhower and Bush Sr., Now Kid-Friendlier!
Posted in advertising, cartoons, politics, video on November 4, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Dear reluctant researchers, As you ponder the results of yesterday’s elections, I thought you might appreciate a visit from the ghosts of political campaigns past. No, I haven’t summoned the spirit of Fiorello Laguardia again. But I have uncovered a fascinating archive from the Museum of the Moving Image: “The Living Room Candidate,” which includes [...]
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