Been slow to blog during the busy past week (a cold and snowy Michigan week), what with Ellen Cushman's visit and all the usual hubbub, so it's probably time to catch up. Only three weeks left in the term and I've got stacks of poems from my creative writers that I'm reading today and reflective essays from my comp students that I HOPE to read today. I love reading student work but I'm ready to focus on two writing projects that need (but don't currently have) my constant attention.
Ellen's visit to Dearborn was great. She brought a fresh perspective and the good ideas just spilled from her during both her morning session with writing faculty and her afternoon session with civic engagement fellows. Ellen suggested my Civic Literacy class next fall complete a needs assessment project with selected agencies in Dearborn and Southwest Detroit to determine what kinds of partnerships said agencies might forge with the university in the future. Since we're only beginning to build campus-community partners, such a needs assessment could make the relationships more sustainable. Thanks much Ellen for the ideas.
Saw Grindhouse over the weekend and I plan to see it again as soon as I can. What a brilliant piece of work. Like Pulp Fiction twelve years ago, Grindhouse looks like nothing else currently playing at the multiplex, though of course the film parodies and salutes 70s b-movies of the action-adventure and monster varieties. I grew up loving these movies on cable (and have recently been Netflix-ing the entire Pam Grier body of work) but, living hundreds of miles from 42nd Street or Times Square, never experienced them "at the show." Grindhouse recreates that experience with a sustained sense of play and humor (crackly screen and missing reels, for example). Loved it.
Back to that student work now, but steadier blogging to follow. I promise.
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