1. Critique them. Failing that, criticize.
The Cynical-C Blog regularly posts selections of one-star Amazon reviews of classic literature, film, and music. I’m all for questioning the canon. But most of these reviews are dedicated to the fine art of missing the point. I couldn’t help pulling out a few of my favorite assertions about books [...]
There seems to be an online community for every conceivable interest these days. Some of the most amusing, in my book, are online havens for grammar nerds. Oh, the squabbling over minutiae! Oh, the factions: prescriptivists battling descriptivists! It’s an anthropology graduate student’s dream come true!
At the same time, it is comforting to know that [...]
Ever since Jenny Venn, the graphic design professor at the University of Wyoming, mentioned that most of her students’ initial interest in graphic design comes from their experience with graphic novels and Japanese anime and manga, I’ve been thinking about the way comics reflect culture. Here are a few nifty sites I encountered as I [...]
We’ve been focusing so much on the visual lately that it seemed a sensory switch was in order. And since R&D has yet to find a way to get Pat the Bunny up onto your monitors, for today’s globally-themed post, I’ll ask you to lend me your ears instead.
Forvo bills itself as the largest pronunciation [...]
So far, we’ve talked quite a lot about high art. But what about the history of design, say? Or folk art? Or out-and-out kitsch?
Enter The Museum of Online Museums, a clearinghouse of collections big and small. Sure, they’ve got links to heavy hitters like the Rijksmuseum and The Art Institute of Chicago, but they also [...]
Last week’s post dealt with how new technology facilitates direct encounters with masterpieces of art. But the whole reason the discipline of Art History exists is that there’s always much more to a work of art than meets the eye.
Enter smARThistory, a “free multi-media web-book” created by two art historians: Dr. Beth Harris, Director of [...]
I have to confess: when my junior high art teacher brought in Georgia O’Keeffe prints to inspire the class, my reactions were 1) “It’s a flower”; 2) “It’s big”; and 3) “I don’t care.” (“I’m hungry” might have been mixed in there, too.) But oh, what a difference when the O’Keeffe Museum opened in Santa [...]
Those of you who have had occasion to visit the Wyoming Humanities Council offices in Laramie have probably noticed that we have the good fortune to host traveling exhibits, especially ones that we’ve helped to fund. Right now, for instance, every time we come to work, we get to look at photographs by Sara Wiles [...]
Savethewords.org gives words dropped from common usage, and thereby from the dictionary, a second chance at life! Scroll over the screen, and abandoned and neglected words cry out for your attention: “Pick me!” “Yes, yes, me!” (You can disable the yelling, if you find it really annoying.) If you discover a word that deserves to [...]