week #7 excerpts

Memory/memoir: readings + Discussion

LeAnne Howe (English/American Indian Studies), Audrey Petty (English) and Robert Ramirez (Theater)

Metro: I originally decided to go to this event because Professor LeAnne Howe’s story “An American Indian in Japan” sounded so interesting. And it was. But Professor Audrey Petty’s stories from people who lived in Chicago’s (now extinct) housing projects was phenomenal as well. She wrote/told all of her stories in the first person — of the person she had met that had experienced living in and being evicted from their homes.

"Dear Mandela" Film Screening University YMCA

Alejandra: "Dear Mandela" is a documentary about people being forcibly removed from shacks in South Africa.  Much like in the apartheid era, the government is using violent tactics to separate those in power from those not in power, but this time they are focusing on economic differences rather than race.  

Found Magazine:
Davy Rothbart

Gino:  What is Found Magazine? It's a collection of notes, receipts, crumpled paper, or anything found, like below. How did the magazine start? Davy found a note on the windshield of his car one day. It said "Mario, I hate you, I don't know why your car is here if you're supposed to be at work. I really hate you. Page me later." He thought it was a shame that only the people finding these hilarious notes were able to witness this hilarity. He wanted to share it with the world, so he started a magazine.  

Intimate Moments: Davy Rothbart

Seano:  Today he shared with us the first piece he did for the public radio fixture TAL, a piece on neighbors featuring some striking responses from Fred Rodgers, who you may know as Mr. Rodgers. The part that stood out most to me comes after Davy explains a difficult relationship between himself and his old  neighbor in an apartment building, stemming from Davy's music being too loud and his neighbor pounding the floor with a broomstick in attempts to silence him. The producer poses the question to Mr. Rodgers of "what is it that we're afraid of do you think?" when we're confronted with these neighborly conflicts. "Perhaps, we think that.........[long pause].........we won't find another human being inside that person. Perhaps we think that 'oh there maybe are people in this world who I can't ever communicate with. And so I'll just give up before I try'. And how sad it is to think that we would give up on any other creature who's just like us." This part struck me. 
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/184/neighbors?act=1
 

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ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN ENGINEERING

Jerry Kennelly, founder of Riverbend Technology

  at the Siebert Center

Allison:  These were some big ideas that really resonated with me regardless of not understanding the complicated jargon associated with techie culture:
1) Despite being wealthy beyond a broke college kid's comprehension, Mr. Kennelly urged us to not make becoming a rich a priority. We should all strive to change something that bothers us, to amend or advance the world as much as possible. Money may bring stability but being a part of something bigger that gives back exponentially is far more fulfilling. Says the millionaire. 

  Jovi Radtke

 Harrison:  Wooohooo!!! Jovi Radtke was such a nerdy, silly, queer person. I could dig it.
She identified as a boi, which means she identifies as female, but often expresses her gender more masculine-ly. After a quick research session (wikipedia) I discovered that this term is also used for young boys who like older men, butch lesbians, and by Avril Lavigne.

  

Big Data:  Jon Orwant, Google Engineering Manager 

Carolina:  A lot of what he was talking about reminded me of last week’s talk by the CEO of eBay but I noticed how different I felt between the two. Last week I felt like the talk was geared towards profits and money that  Erin:  This week I went to a lecture called Big Data with Google engineering manager Jon Orwant. Which started off with I will be talking about chickens, potholes, and get around to big data. After that announcement I couldn’t wait to see how an engineering manager from Google would incorporate such silly things like chickens in relation to big data. Especially since I thought that he would speak very dull, slow and all genius like. Me being judgmental I actually ended up laughing most of the lecture he was quite the character. He didn’t just talk about numbers and scientific facts when it came to Google and how big data works globally. I was able to absorb more information that way. Orwant made a point that big data really doesn’t mean anything but, some how it is understood as well as attractive as a title when it came to bringing a crowd together for his lecture.  Selina:  Another thing that I didn't know Google was capable of is this: Say you type in the question "who is the president of the US" into Google and you get the answer "Barack Obama." If you type in "where was he born" next, Google assumes you mean Obama and answers with his birthplace, Honolulu. This action by the search engine is called parsing queries. Orwant showed us screenshots of these searches doing the above during the lecture, but when I tried it at home Google didn't know that I meant Obama when I typed "where was he born" after the first question... so I'm not sure if I was doing something wrong, if Google was doing something wrong, or whether or not it is a live, usable feature in Google yet.

The Museum of the Need to Know: the Consumption of Digital Infrastructure on the China-Russia Border

Christian:  The "infrastructure" (in quotations because infrastructure is the exact term used in the brochures of the e-city building) in mind is a mysterious location on the border between China and Russia where transnational commerce and exchange takes place. A small tourist location with one major hotel, this physical building being built is known as the 'e-city building' (much of this lecture was made secretive, hidden, and confidential). One of the biggest attractions to the e-city building was not its pretty facade, covered in binary relief, but the technological advancements in promised. A slide was shown that uncovered its surveillance room and in it, in homage to science fiction cyber crime films, there was a massive wall covered edge to edge with monitors that could become larger monitors to focus on surveillance details and two operators who seem to have been linked into the surveillance system as if their brains were linked into its matrix. The photograph only showed the backs of their heads and the glow of the screens haloing their ears, but you feared if they turned around their eyes would have been replaced with the cool lifeless touch of those exact monitors. 

The year I broke my voice

by Madsen Minax

Monica: The film was very interesting and unlike anything I had seen before. It was a film with a series of vignettes based on 1980s films such as: The Outsiders, Stand by Me, and The Year My Voice Broke. The element of sex and sexuality drives the whole film, but also shows how fragile the transition between childhood and adulthood can really be. Puja:  Okay, maybe it doesn't sound too different from every other movie but this one just seemed like it was on a different page altogether. If there is a predictable plot or traditional story line, it's not very obvious.  Roshni:  He explained how it was not a narrative and rather a compilation of random scenes. He planned for each scene to be taken all the way through without any retakes,

 Lemann Lecture Series. Kids & Politics: Civic Engagement and Service Learning in Brazil Professor Terrie Groth, Political Scientist from University of Braslia, Brazil 

Becca:  In these last two pictures you can see him actually asking us to come forward and be a part of this "game" where one guy (who he is pointing at) finds himself on a beautiful island alone where he gets to do whatever he wants, whenever he wants.  All of a sudden the rest of us are shipwrecked on the same island.  Now, we have to figure out how to eat together, sleep together, keep peace together, and this he says is how they teach politics to the youngsters.  There is no designated leader at least not in the beginning because politics starts with everyone asking questions together and trying to answer them together.  It was really interesting because, not that I have thought about it ever, but I realized my view of what is politics has not changed since our mock bush/gore election in fourth grade where we didn't learn much about politics at all except from what we heard form our liberal surroundings.  This guy is good this guys is bad, done.  It is really interesting to see the basis of politics in learning change.  I think I might need to join the kids class to have a refresher on politics, because as the Prof said its all about being involved and participating, something I knew but didn't believe completely.  I went home and voted on the student fees and our mascot.  

Hello there, I see you. MWUAH <3