Lo! We have just returned from a constitutionally restorative week of touring the Desert Southwest (the den of iniquity known as Las Vegas and the lush, verdant sanctuary of Zion Canyon National Park).  These scenic locales truly embody the Yin and Yang of vacation destinations.  I invite you to take a peek at our photographic  documentation of the event, and beseech you to consider such a trip of your own undertaking in the near future.  Cheers!

Thanks to everyone who contributed or otherwise helped out with OSU-Marion’s Digital Archive of Literacy Narratives event. Your efforts have helped to build up what promises to be an invaluable scholarly resource–and the stories themselves are fascinating to listen to, to boot!

If you weren’t able to submit a narrative, not to fear. The site is always up and ready to accept contributions: just head on over to http://daln.osu.edu.

May 20 (Marion Campus) and May 21 (Delaware Center)

On May 20 and 21, The Ohio State University at Marion will hold two days of storytelling about literacy on the Marion campus May 20, as well as the Delaware Center on May 21. This event is open to all members of the university community who want to tell their stories about reading and writing, and to preserve these small pieces of history in the national Digital Archive of Literacy Narratives (DALN, located at: http://daln.osu.edu) where they can be accessed online by members of the public, educators, librarians, family members, and communities interested in literacy practices, values, and history.

Literacy stories are personal narratives about reading or composing in any form or context. They often focus on powerful memories about those events, people, situations, places that are connected with reading and writing in a person’s life.

Literacy narratives can be short or long, and they can be about people’s experiences as a small child, a teenager, an adult, or a senior. Literacy narratives can be about reading stories books, cereal boxes, music, or video game cheats. They can be about composing letters, Facebook pages, song lyrics,’ zines, blogs, maps, or essays in school.

The value of collecting literacy narratives, as the DALN makes clear, is the larger picture they represent when assembled in a digital archive. As a collection, these stories represent a historical trace of groups, communities, cultures, values, the ways in which reading and writing shape lives, and the ways in which literacy practices and values are changing rapidly in the 21st century.

Light refreshments will be served. For additional information, please contact Ben McCorkle at mccorkle.12@osu.edu.

For those of you interested in following my scholarly output, please do take note: The new issue of Harlot (the OSU-based online journal of rhetorical criticism/analysis/theory with a more populist spin) is out, and yours truly has a piece included within. Part of the special section on “Presidential Rhetoric,” my contribution is called “The Annotated Obama Poster,” and it’s a meditation/critique/series of observations on Sheperd Fariey’s near-ubiquitous Obama “HOPE” poster (a subject still very much in the news as the legal wrangling between Fairey and the AP continues). Plus, I’m in the good company of fine folks like Elizabeth Losh, John C. Landreau, and a host of others, so please give the issue a look-see, won’t you?

I meant to hype this several weeks ago, but, well… things were happening, all right? Anyhoo, the Digital Media Studies program has a new flash-based promo up that’s pretty slick and worth a peep (Kudos to Melanie Yergeau for the mad Flash-fu). So peep, fools!

PS.– Some of my own stuff is mixed into this promo; find it all and win a prize!

…because i just got back from a vay-kay there.

1. The toll on my lungs, a nicely blended combo of high altitude and smog, didn’t really become noticable until around dusk every day.
2. Public Displays of Affection are *really* common here, among old, young, straight, and gay alike. It’s pretty noticeable when you walk through parks, festivals, and museums. No one seems unnerved by it, though.
3. Also notiecable? The policia, federali, military presence. They are *everywhere* and moreover, they all seem to have their guns at the ready. As with #2, though, no one seems too unnerved by it.
4. The virus that is the American Branding Machine has encroached upon Mexican soil: Starbucks, McDonalds, Applebees, Wal*Mart, and pretty much most other big U.S. corporations can easily be found down there… If one were to squint, one might be forgiven for mistakenly thinking one was in NYC.
5. Public art is *everywhere.*
6. Holy cow–there’s an awful lot of old stuff here: churches, pyramids, castles, etc. the U.S. is a cultural baby in terms of Western Hemisphere nation-states.
7. Despite its bloody back-story, the merging of indigenous and Spanish cultures seems to have happened to a much greater extent than the U.S.’s Anglo-Native American merger…
8. Tacos al pastor 4-eva!
9. I’m apparently resistant to Montezuma’s revenge (also known locally as “turistas”). Thankfully.
10. Pics here.

I mean, just look at the cool flyer… why wouldn’t you take this course? Am I right? Anyway, here’s the course description:

MW 10-12
5 credit hours. Fulfills GEC Requirement for Analysis of Texts and Works of Art: Cultures and Ideas

Do you know that friend of yours who is somehow always able to convince you to do things you know that you shouldn’t, like drive up to Cedar Point in the dead of winter and go ice skating on the frozen water rides when you have a test the next morning? Or what about the time you were goaded into participating in that hardboiled egg eating contest, even after your doctor warned you about your high cholesterol levels? Ever wonder how it is that you keep falling for those arguments over and over again? No, it isn’t sorcery, some sort of experimental mind control technology developed by the CIA, or even some deep-seated fault in your character. The secret to your friend’s success is rhetoric, and this course will help you understand just how it operates and how you can disarm its powerful influence over you.

“Introduction to Rhetoric” is a course that deals with what is perhaps the oldest academic discipline in Western civilization. This study of the persuasive arts is also useful for us even today, especially in an age where new media forms are changing the nature of how we communicate with one another. To better understand the history and theory behind this all-powerful discourse tool, this course explains the basic concepts of rhetoric developed by the ancient Greeks and Romans. It also examines some of the more important changes to rhetorical theory over the discipline’s 2500-year existence and considers how they apply to actual practice.

Texts TBD. Requirements include course paper, class discussion, readings, and additional assignments. For more information, contact Ben McCorkle (mccorkle.12@osu.edu).

[Forwarding release to potentially interested readers.--ed.]

Tell Us A Story

It’s amateur time at the Digital Union!

Have something to say? Pull out your videocameras, crank up your audio recorders, and create a 2 minute piece for the Digital Union’s Tell Us A Story contest. Open to faculty, staff, students, kids, community members, seniors, out-of-towners, and more – this is your opportunity to create a short and snappy piece about anything you’d like. There is a catch; each submitted project must:

1.    Be less than 2 minutes long
2.    Include the sound of water
3.    Include the phrase, “In the last 4 years I never”

No experience or equipment necessary. Stop by the Digital Union to learn how you can check out video and audio recorders for this project. Winning pieces will be aired online and at the Wexner Center for the Arts on February 18th. All pieces must be submitted to the Digital Union by 5 pm on Thursday, February 12th.

Email digitalunion@osu.edu if you have questions. Please forward freely.