media fast, take two; or, final exam for intro to media studies

1. sometime between today, tuesday, november 29, and monday, december 5, stop using all modern media. you can read books and magazines and papers, but stop using media that is electronic or digital. no iphones, no facebook, no text. no computers, TVs, or radios. no CD players, digital cameras, or tape recorders. mark the time your media fast begins.

2. continue your fast for as long as possible. go longer than your first fast.

3. when your absence from media becomes dangerous, impossible, or unbearable, return to them. note which device you broke your fast with and record the time.

4. calculate how long your media fast lasted.

5. take some time -- a few hours, a day -- to reflect upon what happened.

6. in no more than two pages, share your findings. be sure to include connections with at least two readings from intro to media studies.


7. once you have finished your two-page essay, copy your favorite part - a sentence, a few sentences, a paragraph - and paste it as a comment to this blog post. you can comment anonymously, with an identifiable nickname, or with your full name - your call. If you do comment anonymously, be sure to notify me so i can make sure you fulfilled this part of the assignment. (i will give a brief demo on commenting to blogs in class on thursday.)

8. bring your final essay to class on tuesday, december 6. make sure your name is on it.

tip: think about the timing of your media fast and strategize accordingly.

leveling up with gene yang at san francisco public library

great looking event - and extra credit opportunity for intro to media studies students - at san francisco public library:


saturday, november 5, 1-2:30 pm.
latino/hispanic community meeting room b
main library, lower level

media fast homework assignment

1. sometime between thursday, october 27 and monday, october 31, stop using all modern media. you can read books and magazines and papers, but stop using media that is electronic or digital. no iphones, no facebook, no text. no computers, TVs, or radios. mark the time your media fast begins.

2. continue your fast for as long as possible - the longer, the better.

3. when your absence from media becomes dangerous, impossible, or unbearable, return to them. note which device you broke your fast with and record the time.

4. calculate how long your media fast lasted.

5. take some time -- a few hours, a day -- to reflect upon what happened.

6. in no more than one page, share your findings. make sure your name is on the page and bring it to class on tuesday, november 1.

tip: think about the timing of your media fast and strategize accordingly.

mid-term 2 study guide

Mid-term 2 for Intro to Media Studies covers all the assigned readings, lectures, and guest lectures from September 27 to November 1. The test includes 33 multiple choice, true or false, and fill-in questions. You have the entire class period to take the test.

In preparing for mid-term 2, you should read and understand the following:

Steven Lubar, “Radio,” in InfoCulture: The Smithsonian Book of Information Age Inventions (Houghton Mifflin Co, 1993), pp. 213-241.

Reyhan Harmanci, Battle over KUSF’s Future Rages On, The Bay Citizen, March 19, 2011.

Sami Grover, Cutting-Edge Animation & Video, Made in Off-Grid Treehouses, Treehugger blog, July 20, 2011.

Robert A. Rosentone, “The Historical Film: Looking at the Past in a Postliterate Age,” in Marcia Landy (ed), The Historical Film: History and Memory in Media (Rutgers University Press, 2000): pp. 50-66.

Richard Campbell, Christopher R. Martin, and Bettina Fabos, “Television and the Power of Visual Culture,” Media & Culture: An Introduction to Mass Communication, 7th edition (Bedford/St. Martin's, 2010), pp. 143-171.

Joseph Turow, “Understanding the Strategies of Media Giants,” Media Today: An Introduction to Mass Communication, 4th edition (Routledge, 2011): pp. 192-223.

You should also review your class notes and be familiar with the following:

* early amateur radio and DIY culture
* radio's development into a consumer product
* radio and advertising
* radio and war
* the current state of KUSF
* Trout Gulch
* How-to Homestead
* Professor Kaiser's lecture about film and memory
* mainstream films construction of historical worlds
* early television sponsorship
* quiz shows
* the economics of reality tv
* threats and challenges to television
* the basic strategies of Disney, News Corp, and Google
* Professor Silver's lecture on Bob Dylan.

Also, review notes from class discussions of popular music projects and student media fasts.

Friendly reminder: consider studying and discussing this material with a classmate or small group.

#occupywallstreet homework

During class on September 13, we discussed the current issue of Adbusters magazine, including their project #occupywallstreet.


Yesterday, September 27th, I asked students whether they thought #occupywallstreet had actually happened. Most of you said no. Then I asked if you thought it was still going on. Even more of you said no.

Your homework for Thursday, in addition to the reading on KUSF, is to answer the following three questions:

1. What's happening with #occupywallstreet?
2. What was the source or sources you used to find out what's happening?
3. Why did you use this source or sources?

You should be able to fit your answers within one-third of a sheet of paper. Your homework is due at the beginning of class.

mid-term 1 study guide

Mid-term 1 for Intro to Media Studies covers all the assigned readings and all the lectures from August 25th to September 15th. The test includes approximately 30 multiple choice, true or false, and fill-in questions and one brief (1 page written) essay. You have the entire class period to take the test.

In preparing for mid-term 1, you should read (or listen to) and understand the following:

J. Charles Sterin, “Early American Newspaper Publishing,” from Mass Media Revolution, pp. 96-101.

Richard Campbell, Christopher R. Martin, and Bettina Fabos, “Magazines in the Age of Specialization,” Media & Culture: An Introduction to Mass Communication, 7th edition, pp. 280-303.

Tom Standage, A special report on the news industry: Bulletins from the future (especially The people formerly known as the audience; and The Foxification of news), The Economist, July 7, 2011.

Fresh Air with Terry Gross, Late Night "Thank You Notes" From Jimmy Fallon, NPR, May 23, 2011 (45 minutes).

Fresh Air with Terry Gross, Covering "Tainted Justice" And Winning A Pulitzer, NPR, May 3, 2010 (38 minutes).

You should also review the syllabus and your class notes and be familiar with the following:

* 10 elements of new media
* early stages of US newspapers
* the relationships among the Industrial Revolution, urbanization, literacy, and newspapers
* the relationships between news and technologies
* why newsrooms matter
* journalism and justice ("tainted justice")
* magazines as mass media
* muckrakers
* jacob riis
* magazines and gender
* magazines and specialization
* magazines and visual culture
* magazines and consumer society
* the relationships between transportation and media

Also, review notes from class discussions of Adbusters and Rebecca Solnit’s Infinite City: A San Francisco Atlas.

Friendly suggestion: consider studying and discussing this material with a classmate or small group.

introduction to media studies, fall 2011

Introduction to Media Studies
Section 01: Tues & Thurs 9:55-11:10 am, Cowell 106
Section 02: Tues & Thurs 12:45-2:00 pm, Cowell 106

Professor David Silver
Office: Kalmanovitz 141
Office Hours: Tues & Thurs 2-3 pm & by appointment
Contact: dmsilver [ at ] usfca [ dot ] edu

Introduction to Media Studies introduces students to the field of media studies in general and media studies at USF in particular. Throughout the semester, we will read, listen, watch, research, discuss, create, and write about the printing press, newspapers, magazines, books, comics, the telegraph, popular music, radio, telephones, film, television, cable television, computers, computer games, the internet, social media, and mobile devices.

Learning Outcomes
Upon completion of this course, students will:
1. Be able to explain the key developments and social actors of media history, from the printing press to social media;
2. Be able to explain how these key developments were and continue to be embedded within larger cultural, economic, political, and social conditions; and
3. Become more familiar with USF media studies professors and Gleeson librarians and their different approaches to studying and making media.


Calendar
Tuesday, August 23
Introduction, distribute syllabi.

Thursday, August 25
Prior to class, listen to: Fresh Air with Terry Gross, Late Night "Thank You Notes" From Jimmy Fallon, NPR, May 23, 2011 (45 minutes).

Tuesday, August 30
Read: J. Charles Sterin, “Early American Newspaper Publishing,” from Mass Media Revolution (Allyn & Bacon, 2012), pp. 96-101.

Thursday, September 1
Read: Brooke Gladstone, Discussion with Steve Coll and Matthew Yglesias, On the Media, February 20, 2009; and How News Happens: A Study of the News Ecosystem of One American City, Journalism.org, January 11, 2010; and listen to: Fresh Air with Terry Gross, Covering "Tainted Justice" And Winning A Pulitzer, NPR, May 3, 2010 (38 minutes).
Guest in morning section: Professor Teresa Moore (Media Studies & Journalism, USF)

Tuesday, September 6
Read: Tom Standage, A special report on the news industry: Bulletins from the future (This includes: A little local difficulty; Reinventing the newspaper; The people formerly known as the audience; Julian Assange and the new wave; Coming full circle; and The Foxification of news), The Economist, July 7, 2011.
Guest: Professor Michael Robertson (Media Studies & Journalism, USF)

Thursday, September 8
Read: Richard Campbell, Christopher R. Martin, and Bettina Fabos, “Magazines in the Age of Specialization,” Media & Culture: An Introduction to Mass Communication, 7th edition (Bedford/St. Martin's, 2010), pp. 280-303.

Tuesday, September 13
Purchase and read, cover to cover, the current issue of Adbusters magazine.

Thursday, September 15
Read selections from Rebecca Solnit’s Infinite City: A San Francisco Atlas (University of California Press, 2010).

Tuesday, September 20
Mid-term 1

Thursday, September 22
Field trip to Gleeson Library to see Monsters on the Bookshelf exhibit.
Guest: J.H. Everett, visual storyteller and writer who has worked with the Jim Henson Company.

Tuesday, September 27
Read: Steven Lubar, “Radio,” in InfoCulture: The Smithsonian Book of Information Age Inventions (Houghton Mifflin Co, 1993), pp. 213-241.
Guest: Joe Garity, Reference Librarian and Media Studies Library Liaison, Gleeson Library

Thursday, September 29
Read: Jennifer Waits, Radio Station Field Trip 9 - University of San Francisco's KUSF, Spinning Indie blog, February 3, 2009; Jennifer Waits, Students Hold Wake for KUSF, Radio Survivor blog, March 25, 2011; and Reyhan Harmanci, Battle over KUSF’s Future Rages On, The Bay Citizen, March 19, 2011.
Guest in afternoon section: Professor Steve Runyon (Media Studies and KUSF, USF)

Tuesday, October 4
Read/Watch: Sami Grover, Cutting-Edge Animation & Video, Made in Off-Grid Treehouses, Treehugger blog, July 20, 2011; Anastasia Van Wingerden, Home Haircut, How-to Homestead, 2011 (4 minutes); and Melinda Sk8, Sk8 Sisters on the Farm, How-to Homestead, 2009 (2:15 minutes). Also, spend some time with How-to Homestead and be ready to discuss.
Guest: Professor Melinda Stone (Media Studies, Film Studies, and Environmental Studies, USF)

Thursday, October 6
Robert A. Rosentone, “The Historical Film: Looking at the Past in a Postliterate Age,” in Marcia Landy (ed), The Historical Film: History and Memory in Media (Rutgers University Press, 2000): pp. 50-66.
Guest: Professor Susana Kaiser (Media Studies and Latin American Studies, USF)

Tuesday, October 11
No class: Fall Break

Thursday, October 13
Guest: Alex Hochman, Assistant Director of Career Services, USF

Tuesday, October 18
Read: Richard Campbell, Christopher R. Martin, and Bettina Fabos, “Television and the Power of Visual Culture,” Media & Culture: An Introduction to Mass Communication, 7th edition (Bedford/St. Martin's, 2010), pp. 143-171.

Thursday, October 20
Joseph Turow, “Understanding the Strategies of Media Giants,” Media Today: An Introduction to Mass Communication, 4th edition (Routledge, 2011): pp. 192-223.

Tuesday, October 25
Watch selections from Martin Scorcese, No Direction Home: Bob Dylan (2005; 208 mins).

Thursday, October 27
Popular music group projects due in class.

Tuesday, November 1
Media fast assignment due in class.

Thursday, November 3
Mid-term 2

Tuesday, November 8
Read: J. Charles Sterin, “New Media,” from Mass Media Revolution (Allyn & Bacon, 2012), pp. 194-215.

Thursday, November 10
Read: Ashley Parker, Twitter’s Secret Handshake, New York Times, June 10, 2011 ; and Tina Rosenberg, Crowdsourcing a Better World, New York Times, March 28, 2011.

Tuesday, November 15
Read: Malcolm Gladwell, "Small Change: Why the Revolution will not be Tweeted," The New Yorker, October, 2010; Henry Jenkins, Nine Propositions Towards a Cultural Theory of YouTube, Confessions of an Aca-Fan, 2007; and Eli Pariser, Beware online "filter bubbles," Presentation at TED 2011.
Guest: Michael Stevenson, lecturer and PhD candidate at the Department of Media Studies, University of Amsterdam.

Thursday, November 17
Read: Rob Walker, Inside the Wild, Wacky, Profitable World of Boing Boing, Fast Company, November 30, 2010; Phillip Mlynar, The Cool Kids: Cool with Recording for Mountain Dew, SF Weekly, July 27, 2011; and Kim Severson, Neighbor, Can You Spare a Plum? New York Times, June 10, 2009.

Tuesday, November 22
USF alumni panel featuring:
o Aaron Dias-Melim, Marketing Associate, Square, Inc.;
o Travis Hayes Busse, Production Manager / Assistant Booker, Thee Parkside;
o Sara LaFassett, Interactive Media Specialist, Saint Mary's College of California; and
o Joseph Montana, Marketing Media Coordinator, Rickshaw Bagworks.

Thursday, November 24
No class: Thanksgiving Break

Tuesday, November 29
Read: Zadie Smith, Generation Why? New York Review of Books, November 25, 2010.

Thursday, December 1
Review for final.

Tuesday, December 6
Final

Grading
30% -- Quizzes, homework, in-class assignments, and group projects
20% -- Mid-term 1
20% -- Mid-term 2
30% -- Final

Attendance Policies
1. Missing class, or attending class unprepared, will significantly affect your final grade.
2. If you do miss class, contact a classmate to find out what we discussed in class and ask to borrow his or her notes. Then, do the same with a second classmate. After doing this, if you have questions about missed material, visit me during office hours or send me an email.
3. On days that assignments are due in class, a complete assignment is your ticket to ride. In other words, if you have not completed the assignment, do not come to class.

Rules
1. No late work accepted.
2. No drinking out of non-reusable containers during class.

cool class alert: community based urban agriculture: design and management

cool class alert!

Ever wonder where your food comes from? Ever want to see a giant carrot grow from a tiny seed? Looking for a great community of students who share a love of food? Are you ready to get your hands dirty this fall semester? Consider taking Community Based Urban Agriculture: Design and Management (ENVA 130).


In this fun and engaging class, students will learn about composting, seed starting and building community all while learning the real skills for living a more sustainable life. We will work in the garden every Friday and harvest a bounty of delicious food. As the warm fall weather rolls in, we hope to see you in the garden!

Community Based Urban Agriculture: Design and Management meets Fridays from 11:45 am - 3:25 pm and is taught by Justin Valone.

a ten-day trip to north carolina

sarah, siena, and i recently returned from a ten-day trip to north carolina. we stayed mostly in hickory, where sarah's friend and college roommate pattie, her husband dan, and their daughters kenzie and maya live. good times for all, including the girls.


for three days, i bolted to nearby asheville. with help from a USF faculty development fund award, i was able to spend time with the black mountain college museum + arts center collection at ramsey library at the university of north carolina asheville.


black mountain college, or BMC, was a small liberal arts college that existed between 1933 - 1957 in the blue ridge mountains in western north carolina. the focus of black mountain college was the education of the whole human being.

for its time - and for our times - black mountain college was massively experimental. faculty owned the university. all students, faculty, and faculty families lived on campus, where they ate together in the dining hall and danced together on saturday nights. there were no grades. classes were not mandatory but once enrolled, students - as well as professor - were expected to be fully prepared and participatory. at the center of the curriculum was arts because arts encourage students to focus, create, engage, and cooperate. students were included in nearly all meetings and committees, even those responsible for faculty hiring and firing. the responsibilities of running the college were shared by all.

i am especially interested in BMC's work program. black mountain college combined formal studies and physical labor. in between classes and coursework, students - and sometimes faculty - cleared the hillside for pasture, waited tables in the dining room, maintained campus roads, hauled coal, dug ditches, collected field stones for masonry work, served and cleared four o'clock tea, and, miraculously, designed and built a building.


my main interest is the farm on black mountain college. in particular, i am interested in the history of the farm and its changing role within the college and its work program. i am interested in the farm work - who taught the skills? who organized the teams? who did the work? i am also interested in the farm's output - what was grown? which animals were raised? who got the food? and finally, i am interested in how the farm was used as a creative and collaborate space for student and faculty learning.





black mountain college is primarily known and remembered for the remarkable faculty, visiting faculty, and students it attracted. a partial list includes josef and anni albers, ruth asawa, john cage, robert creeley, merce cunningham, willem and elaine de kooning, buckminster fuller, alfred kazin, jacob lawrence, charles olson, arthur penn, robert rauschenberg, and m.c. richards. new and important things happened here - bucky fuller would attempt his first geodesic dome, john cage would stage the world's first "happening," and merce cunningham would form his dance company.

because of this, black mountain college has received plenty of attention. there's martin duberman's black mountain college: an exploration in community and mary emma harris' the arts at black mountain college. there's cathryn davis and neeley house's documentary fully awake: black mountain college and the black mountain college project. and then there's the über archive, the black mountain college collection at the state archives in raleigh, north carolina.

after three days in asheville, i said thanks to sally klipp, special collections librarian at ramsey library, and drove back to hickory. then, pattie, dan, kenzie, maya, sarah, siena, and i drove to blowing rock for a few days in a log cabin in the mountains. fun, watermelon, and good food were had by all.




before we left, i asked pattie when the best times are to visit north carolina. "april and october," she answered without hesitation. thinking of my sabbatical a year from now, i said, "cool - we'll be back then."

first USF garden work party of the summer

yer invited!


please join us for the first USF garden work party of the summer. no gardening experience necessary. all ages welcome.

where: USF garden, turk & tamalpais (directly west of parking lot)
when: sunday, july 3, 11 am - 4 pm
what: garden work party! solar oven demos! free food! fun people!

please bring a dish to share. all volunteers are encouraged to bring home fresh garden goodies, including veggies, herbs, and fruit.

see you there.

(garden sketch by lizzie roeble; flyer design by brittany rowles)

summer to do list

paper 5 for golden gate park first-year seminar

Paper 5 for Golden Gate Park

1. In Paper 4, you selected a topic related to Golden Gate Park and your major (or prospective major) and wrote a paper about it. In Paper 5, you have two options: a) significantly expand upon the ideas discussed in Paper 4; or b) select a new topic (and clear it with me) and write a paper about it.

2. Include at least four new sources. Do not use the first four sources you find. Use the best four sources you find.

3. Your paper must be between 7-8 pages, including a bibliography, either in MLA or APA.

4. Integrate as many as possible writing skills and techniques discussed this semester in Rhet 195. This includes: introducing your topic; using credible and legitimate sources; summarizing outside sources (recall the "believing game" strategy); selecting and integrating quotations effectively ("quotation sandwiches"); differentiating between what others say about your topic ("they say") and what you say ("I say"); introducing a naysayer; and answering the "who cares?" and "so what?" questions.

5. As always, edit carefully.

6. Be ready to share elements of your work with classmates. Also be ready to read your classmates' work and provide constructive and creative feedback.

7. Paper 5 should be the best paper you write for this class.

8. Paper 5 is due in class on Thursday, May 5. No late work accepted.

summer undergraduate research assistantships with the USF garden

The USF Garden Project is currently seeking 2-3 undergraduate research assistants for summer positions in the garden. The RAships run from May 20, 2011 - August 25th, 2011.


Research assistants must be able to work at least 10 hours a week and be prepared to undertake a variety of jobs in the garden. RA duties include:

1. Serve as teaching assistant for Urban Ag summer course (taught by Justin Valone);

2. Plan and plant summer garden beds;

3. Maintain garden - weeding, watering, oversee irrigation, manage compost;

4. Work with Upward Bound students (1-2 hours/week for 5 weeks) teaching garden skills;

5. Harvest and deliver garden goodies to Booker T. Washington Community Service Center's food pantry every Thursday;

6. Plan, manage, and implement weekly community work days - publicize work days, organize group tasks, and hold open garden hours; and

7. Plan and prep autumn garden beds for fall classes.

Interested USF students must email a letter of interest to David Silver with a CC to Melinda Stone and Justin Valone no later than Tuesday, April 26. In your letter, please describe your qualifications, state your availability for summer, and tell us why you want the job and why you are the best person for the position. Decisions will be made by end of April.

(photos taken by USF garden project student lily rothrock)

food and culture project for green media

food and culture project for green media

1. select, research, and cook a dish that means something to your family, culture, and/or heritage.

2. enlist a family member to help you cook - or help you learn how to cook - your dish. your family member can be anyone - a mother, a father, a grandparent, a great grandparent, a cousin, an aunt, an uncle, a brother, a sister, or anyone else related to you. although the family member does not need to live near you, s/he does need to be accessible via communication (phone, Skype, email, letters, carrier pigeons). ideally, the family member you select should be someone you enjoy learning from and spending time with.

3. using words and photography, document your cooking process in the form of a blog post, flickr set, or video. be sure to include a recipe. you may use up to 20 photos - no more. if you are making a video it must be under 2 minutes long.

4. at least one of your photographs must be of your family member or of the communication between you and your family member.

5. your goal with this project is to tell two stories - one about the relationship between food and culture and one about the relationship between you and your family member. this part will not be easy. be creative.

6. once finished and certainly by class on tuesday, april 5, tweet your food and culture project. Be sure to include a link and #greenmedia somewhere within your tweet.

7. bring your dish to class on tuesday, april 5. bring serving utensils, a plate, a bowl, a fork, a spoon, and your appetite.

paper 4 for golden gate park first-year seminar

Paper 4 for Golden Gate Park

1. Select any topic related to a) Golden Gate Park and b) your major (or prospective major) and write a paper about it. Be sure to select a topic that truly interests you.

2. Find and use at least three outside readings. As discussed in class, your readings must be from credible and legitimate sources.

3. At some point in your paper, you must introduce a naysayer. For this part, I highly encourage you to re-read Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein's chapter, "'Skeptics May Object': Planting a Naysayer in Your Text," in They Say / I Say.

4. Also at some point in your paper, you must answer two questions: "Who cares?" and "So what?" For this part, I encourage you to re-read Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein's chapter, "'So What? Who Cares?': Saying Why It Matters," in They Say / I Say.

5. As decided collectively in class, your paper is to be between 3-5 pages - no more, no less.

6. Edit carefully. If I find three or more errors - spelling, grammar, typos - I will stop reading your paper, return it to you, and ask you to re-edit and re-submit.

7. Sometime between now and class on Tuesday, April 5, tweet the topic of your paper. Be sure to include the #rhet195 hashtag in your tweet.

8. Paper 4 is due in class on Tuesday, April 5. No late work accepted.

the horse sculpture in the WPA horseshoe pits in golden gate park (1955 and today)

in 1937, artist jesse s. "vet" anderson completed two bas-relief concrete sculptures - "horse" and "horseshoe pitcher" - overlooking the WPA-funded horseshoe pits in golden gate park. in 1955, "horse" looked like this:


today, "horse," like so many of today's federally-funded programs that benefit everyday people, looks like this:

food media person project for green media

food media person project for green media

1. select someone - anyone - who makes food media and prepare a 5 minute presentation about that person. your presentation must feature some kind of media - a television show clip from youtube, video, blogs, photography, a book - made by that person.

2. i suggest you select someone you strongly like or dislike. selecting someone you're indifferent to will make this project more difficult.

3. in your presentation, share what you like or dislike about your food media person. be sure to address what you like about their tactics and techniques as well as their personality and style.

4. make sure your presentation is under 5 minutes and does not include powerpoint.

5. sometime between now and class on thursday, march 10, tweet about your food media person. Be sure to include the #greenmedia hashtag in your tweet.

6. on thursday, march 10, be ready to share your presentation in class.

paper 3 for golden gate park first-year seminar

Paper 3 for Golden Gate Park

1. Select any topic you wish related to either the Midwinter Fair of 1894 or the Japanese Tea Garden. You are required to choose a topic that interests you.

2. Research your topic. You must have at least three sources: one from our class readings and two from outside our syllabus. As discussed at length in class, your sources must be legitimate.

3. I highly encourage you to walk into Gleeson Library, make a left, and head to the Reference Desk. Share your topic with a librarian or library staff and see what happens.

4. Keep in mind that everything we do in this class is cumulative which means by now I expect you to know how to introduce your topic, how to summarize your sources, and how to select and integrate quotations into your argument.

5. In this paper, I am especially interested in your ability to differentiate what others say about your topic ("they say") and what you say about your topic ("i say"). Consider re-reading Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein's chapters “‘Yes / No / Okay, But’: Three Ways to Respond” and “‘And Yet’: Distinguishing What You Say from What They Say” (pp. 55-77).

6. Edit carefully. If I find three or more errors - spelling, grammar, typos - I will stop reading your paper, return it to you, and ask you to re-edit and re-submit.

7. Sometime between now and class on Thursday, March 10, tweet the topic of your paper. Be sure to include the #rhet195 hashtag in your tweet.

8. Paper 3 is due in class on Thursday, March 10. No late work accepted.

first friday farmstand

please join the garden project living learning community this friday at harney plaza for good food and fresh produce. first friday farmstand offers homemade meals made with fresh veggies, fruits, and herbs grown in our organic garden on campus. lunch will be served from 12-2 or until the food runs out. bring yer own bowl and receive a half-priced soup or salad!


menu includes: happily harvested garden greens, potato leek soup, veggie sandwiches on homemade bread, veggie quesadillas, collard dolmas, garden tea, and a to-be-determined dessert. friday's farmstand will also feature salves and tinctures made by garden project students during a homestead workshop with sarah duscoe of the wellness place.


this farmstand is in sponsorship with robin kuehn, a history major at USF and garden project student during 2009-10. this summer, robin is participating in a 4,000 mile bike & build ride across the US with stops to help work on affordable housing projects. half of friday's farmstand proceeds will go to support robin's summer quest.

garden salad with herbed vinaigrette

lunch project for green media

garden salad with herbed vinaigrette

1. from a garden, a farmer's market, or a grocery store, select some greens for a salad. remember: the more diverse your ingredients, the more delicious your salad. for this salad, i harvested a selection of mixed mesclun lettuce, arugula, and (for the vinaigrette) some fresh herbs.




2. wash and rinse greens and herbs and set aside.


3. get your ingredients for the herbed vinaigrette ready. this includes: red wine vinegar, dijon mustard, olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic, a shallot, and fresh herbs.


4. in a small bowl, put 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar. add 1-2 pinches of salt and whisk. add 2-3 shakes of ground black pepper. whisk.

5. add 2 cloves minced garlic and/or 1 diced shallot.

6. whisk in 1-2 teaspoons of dijon mustard.

7. whisk in, a tablespoon at a time, 3-4 tablespoons of olive oil.


8. optional but highly recommended - add 1-2 tablespoons coarsely chopped fresh herbs. depending on season and access, consider using any or all of the following: basil, marjoram, oregano, parsely, savory, tarragon, and thyme. whisk.

9. place the herbed vinaigrette at the bottom of a large bowl. place the lettuce greens over the vinaigrette. place anything else - diced avocado, chopped hard boiled egg, walnuts, you name it - over the greens and mix your salad.


10. if possible, eat your salad outside with others.


11. when making the vinaigrette, consider doubling or tripling the recipe - sealed in a jar and placed in the fridge, the vinaigrette can dress a week's worth of salads.

lunch project for green media

lunch project for green media

1. today in class, we decided who would make what:


2. using words and photography, document your preparation process. be smart and be creative. take more photographs than necessary (so that you can select your best shots later) but don't let your photography get in the way of your cooking.

3. select between 5-10 photos and make either a flickr set or a blog post.

4. make sure one of your photos documents where you got one or some of your ingredients.

5. make sure one of your photos documents all of your ingredients ready to cook or what one of our readings called mise en place.

6. make sure at least one of your photos includes a human being who is not you.

7. somewhere within your flickr set or blog post, provide a recipe for your dish. include a recipe title, ingredients, and directions. consider your audience carefully.

8. as discussed in class, what i want to see in this project is some soul, some kind of voice, something human.

9. once finished and certainly by class on tuesday, tweet your lunch project. Be sure to include a link and #greenmedia somewhere within your tweet.

10. bring your dish to class on tuesday, march 1. bring serving utensils, a plate, a bowl, a fork, and a spoon.

a talk for admitted students

today, i'm giving a talk to recently admitted students to USF. with luck, my talk will go something like this:
















update! here's some pics from the talk: