Monthly Archives: January 2014

Saigo Takamori (1828-1877)

Posted on January 23, 2014 by

Today is the birthday of Saigo Takamori (1828-1877), also known as the Last Samurai. He was born in Kagoshima in the south of Japan on Kyushu island. Though born into a poor samurai family, he still received the requisite military … Continue reading →

Posted in Japan | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Extending the moment

Posted on January 22, 2014 by

Adam Magyar, a Hungarian born photographer and videographer, has found a way to truly extend the moment. Using a specially designed industrial camera ($16,000) used to shoot high resolution images at incredibly high speeds -100,000 frames per second (film is … Continue reading →

Posted in film, photography, short films, videos | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

“Fictional Characters” by Danusha Lameris

Posted on January 21, 2014 by

Do they ever want to escape? Climb out of the white pages and enter our world? Holden Caulfield slipping in the movie theater to catch the two o’clock Anna Karenina sitting in a diner, reading the paper as the waitress … Continue reading →

Posted in poetry, story | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

At the top of the stairs

Posted on January 20, 2014 by

Yesterday we went to a performance of the Sweat Girls, known as the monologue mavens.  Six women, mostly of “a certain age” told their individual stories about aging, financial woes, retirement fantasies, working at Aldi’s because of the need for … Continue reading →

Posted in catharsis, family, women | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Community functioning at its very best

Posted on January 19, 2014 by

Last night we attended a fund-raiser for the displaced workers at the three businesses that burned down in Evanston, one of which our son IB worked at as a bartender (see “Two paintings were saved”). The Evanston business community came … Continue reading →

Posted in community, work | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Ghosts in the Lobby of the Secor Hotel

Posted on January 18, 2014 by

The Secor Hotel as we called it , but actually named the Hotel Secor, was at one time a luxury Hotel in Toledo, Ohio where I grew up. My mother recalls attending wedding celebrations there and dances she and my … Continue reading →

Posted in photography | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

HITACHI, cause of the Civil War

Posted on January 17, 2014 by

We are setting the scene for Reconstruction by exploring the causes of the Civil War. I assigned pairs of students a single cause that they researched and presented to the class using powerpoint. The students took notes during each presentation … Continue reading →

Posted in Civil War, Reconstruction, Teaching | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment