last class of eating san francisco

for our last class, the students and i in eating san francisco prepared a final feast. the assignment was for each of us to prepare a dish that was a) delicious and b) made from local, seasonal ingredients.

after a semester of delicious meals - in north beach, the mission, the castro, chinatown, and cole valley - this meal, the one we made collectively, was by far the most delicious.


(to learn more about what was served, roll your mouse over the annotated version on flickr.)

in addition to cooking a delicious meal, my students made media documenting their culinary creations. here's what they made:

Marco Abellera, Locally Prepared Dish
Chris Begley, Locally made Fruit n Nut Couscous for the last ESF of the year
Sam Blackburn, ESF's Final Feast. Best Meal of the Year!
Jessica Elkus, Napoleons!
Teresa Garcia, ESF: Pollan and me (and ESF: Final class banquet)
Jessie Hill, Localvore
Michael Kao, Local food
Stephanie Luu, ESF-Cooking Your Own Local Food
Kelli McCloskey, Cook A Delicious Meal For The Fiesta!
Austin O'Kane, Local, Organic and Everything a Meal Should Be…
Laura Plantholt, Cooking with Seasonal, Regional Food (and flickr set a delicious seasonal, regional dish)
Joel Weston, Turkey and Papas
Ashley Williamson, Strawberry Shortcake!
Ali Winston, ESF: The Last Supper


wow, ESFers, what a class, thank you. let's keep eating san francisco.

5 ways my students use twitter

this semester, all of my students (12 students in digital media production; 17 in eating san francisco) are using twitter.

i require them to do two things on twitter. first, for each of them to follow everyone else in the class. second, once they have completed a class project (a video, a blog post, a flickr set), they must tweet about it and include a link to it. other than that, they are free to use twitter, or not use twitter, in any way they choose.

over the semester, my students have come up with some really creative and collaborative uses of twitter. i'm impressed.

here's 5 ways my students use twitter

1. to announce and link to a blog post about one's role and contributions to the campus newspaper.


2. to set up - and say thanks for - interviews with people for class projects.


3. to negotiate dinner reservation times for class field trip.


4. to announce and publicize events taking place on campus.


5. to share readings and resources relevant to last night's class discussion.


and


(my students also, from time to time, use twitter in completely inane ways; maybe one day i'll blahg about that.)

last project and final feast assignments

last project and final feast for eating san francisco

last night, we made our way to zazie in cole valley for dinner and to mcdonalds on haight for dessert.



1. working solo or collaboratively with others, create and share a story about our evening. your story must involve zazie, mcdonalds, and michael pollan's omnivore's dilemma. make sure you use pollan in a significant way. as always, your project must rest upon a platform that a) supports multimedia, b) is open to the public, and c) allows visitors the opportunity to comment on your work. when finished, and no later than class on wednesday, thick tweet your project.

2. for our last class on wednesday, make sure you have read pollan's omnivore's dilemma and be ready to discuss it.

3. also, working solo or collaboratively with others, prepare a delicious dish for wednesday's class. your delicious dish must be made from local, seasonal ingredients. if you don't know what that means, find out. also, when preparing your meal, consider shopping for local, seasonal ingredients at USF's farmer's market on sunday. document the process. as always, your project must rest upon a platform that a) supports multimedia, b) is open to the public, and c) allows visitors the opportunity to comment on your work. when finished, and no later than next friday (may 8 15) at 5 pm, thick tweet your project.

student made media about a field trip to chinatown

last week, eating san francisco took a rare saturday field trip and found ourselves in chinatown. students were assigned to make media about their experiences.


here's what they made:

Marco Abellera, China Town - Eating San Francisco
Chris Begley and Ali Winston, Saturday Morning in Chinatown
Sam Blackburn, ESF Does Dim Sum! (plus flickr set)
Teresa Garcia, ESF Chinatown Project
Jessie Hill, Phoenix Talons and a Little Bit of Heart
Michael Kao, Chinatown
Stephanie Luu, Eating San Francisco-Dim Sum
Kelli McCloskey, Chintatown Project
Nick Minnott, Tin How Temple/ Chinatown/ Chicken Feet
Austin O'Kane, Dim Sum Experience
Katie Olson, Adventures through Chinatown
Laura Plantholt, Dim Sum for Dim Dummies
Joel Weston, Just a Tourist
Ashley Williamson, Good Fortune in Chinatown

chinatown project

chinatown project assignment for eating san francisco

yesterday, we field tripped to chinatown. the chinatown crüe arranged for a tour of the tin how temple, dim sum brunch at new asia, and a brief visit at the golden gate fortune cookie factory.


1. working solo or collaboratively with others, create and share a story.

2. your story must involve food.

3. your story must involve chinatown.

4. your story must teach us at least one thing about food. teach us something interesting, something fascinating.

5. be creative.

6. as always, your project must rest upon a platform that a) supports multimedia, b) is open to the public, and c) allows visitors the opportunity to comment on your work.

7. when finished, and no later than class on wednesday, thick tweet your project.

a talk about the future

tomorrow i'll be giving a talk as part of the communication and the future conference at cal state east bay. if things go as planned, i hope to cover four things.

exhibit a: twitter assignment

exhibit b: cook a delicious meal assignment

exhibit c: a community garden on campus


exhibit d: jerusalem artichokes


update: a photograph of the audience:

educating minds and hearts (and bellies!) to change the world - a saturday talk for recently admitted students

this afternoon, i'm giving a talk to recently admitted students to USF. with luck, my talk will correspond roughly to some of the pictures and projects below.







update: pics of the admitted students!

cook a delicious meal project

cook a delicious meal project assignment for eating san francisco


1. cook a delicious meal.

2. you may cook your delicious meal solo or with others.

3. you must share your delicious meal with at least one other person.

4. document the process.

5. as always, your project must rest upon a platform that a) supports multimedia, b) is open to the public, and c) allows visitors the opportunity to comment on your work.

6. when finished, and no later than next thursday night, tweet your project.

castro project

castro project assignment for eating san francisco

1. two weeks ago, we read and discussed gayle s. rubin's "the miracle mile: south of market and gay male leather, 1962-1997." then we formed into groups to brainstorm topics for our upcoming walkabout and dinner in the castro.

2. last week, we field tripped to the castro. the castro crüe arranged for us to meet at and tour the castro theater, hear a brief lecture and tour the GLBT historical society museum, and eat and drink at the sausage factory.




3. now, working collaboratively within your group, create and share a story about the castro.

4. be sure to use original media material - your own photographs, video, words, interviews, ephemera - in your story.

5. be sure to use at least one photograph taken by one of your classmates outside your group. be sure to cite or, better yet, link to that classmate's work.

6. be sure to include original research, using two or three relevant, credible, and creative sources. if relevant to your story, consider using rubin's "the miracle mile" as one of your sources.

7. be sure to work together. the more you work together, the better your work will be. trust me.

8. as always, your story must rest upon a platform that a) supports multimedia, b) is open to the public, and c) allows visitors the opportunity to comment on your work.

9. sometime before class on wednesday, thick tweet your group's castro project.

what i eat and drink in a day assignment

what i eat and drink in a day assignment for eating san francisco

1. document everything you eat and drink in one whole day.

2. be honest, real, and smart.

3. take your day's worth of information, mix it up creatively and interestingly, and share it on a platform that a) supports multimedia, b) is open to the public, and c) allows visitors the opportunity to comment on your work.

4. sometime before class on wednesday, post a thick tweet that includes a link to your what i eat and drink in a day project.

5. keep in mind there is no class on wednesday.

6. by the end of friday, comment on other ESPers' work. comment significantly and constructively. or comment in any way you choose. just comment.

reading assignment for wednesday

reading assignment for wednesday's eating san francisco class

prior to wednesday's class, read Ann Garrison's "Suicide in the City" and Marina McDougall and Hope Mitnick's "Location: San Francisco," both from Reclaiming San Francisco, and be ready to discuss in depth. also, be ready to give a brief (2-3 minutes) demo of your mission project.

mission project

mission project assignment for eating san francisco

last night we field tripped to the mission - first to see murals at balmey alley, then for dinner at taqueria vallarta, and finally for some local goodness at mission pie. now's the time to create.


1. using food, tell a story about the mission. or, using the mission, tell a story about food.

2. your story must include at least one interesting and researched thing about the mission and at least one interesting and researched thing about the food we ate.

3. your story must rest upon a platform that a) supports multimedia, b) is open to the public, and c) allows visitors the opportunity to comment on your work.

4. sometime before class on wednesday, post a thick tweet that includes a link to your mission project.

silver in seattle

yesterday morning sarah took me to the airport, virgin america took me to sea-tac, and a taxi took me to seattle where i was part of an event called Join USF in the Pacific Northwest at the edgewater hotel. the event included puget sound-area USF alumni, parents of USF students, a recently graduated USF student, and two admitted-to-USF students.

i began with this photograph.


this generation is the media maker generation, i said while sharing stories about my students in eating san francisco and digital media production. this is the generation of students i've been waiting for for fifteen years - they make media, they share media, they collaborate with media. at the same time, i shared my profound nervousness about the always-logged-on-ness of this generation. they are crazy creative but they are always on and always connected and some seem to have lost the ability to simply be with themselves and their thoughts. healthy attention spans seem to be at stake.

then i shared my teaching philosophy - log off before you blog off. i explained that i require my students to have offline, physical experiences and then use digital media to create and share stories about these experiences. to explain what i meant by this, i shared two student projects - eating san francisco student ali winston's North Beach Storybook 1 and recent USF media studies graduate lulu mcallister's How to Make a Delicious Omelet Using Wild Foods.


then i excitedly described USF's organic garden.

media studies professor melinda stone, art + architecture professor seth wachtel, and two year's worth of USF's garden project living learning community students have created a food-making, sustainable, beautiful, inspiring, and totally delicious organic garden on campus. USF architecture students designed and built a tool shed for the garden and various media studies classes have blogged, reported, and documented the garden and the gardeners. USF's organic garden offers different opportunities for different students in different courses taught by different professors from different disciplines. in two short years, the garden has become a working garden, a place for contemplation, a classroom, a community garden, a green lab.




time was getting tight so i raced through a past assignment for my intro to media studies students: edit USF's wikipedia page. returning to log off before you blog off, i explained that my students were required to work in groups to find books and other bound materials in gleeson library and to find relevant online resources to back up their wikipedia edits and additions. i mentioned that this semester my digital media production students will return to this assignment.

i ended with a map of san francisco filled with pins that link to blog posts and flickr sets created by last year's digital journalism students. i explained how my students began with campus, stretched to nearby golden gate park, and eventually took on the city as their beat. i then asked what would the map look like if it were generated by multiple students in multiple classes from multiple disciplines from multiple universities?


and then i said virgin america planes look like ipods, said something about me media and we media, and thanked them for inviting me to seattle.



(sorry for photographing only one side of the room!)

north beach project

north beach project for eating san francisco

for the last few weeks, we've been reading, watching, and discussing food and culture. we've read, among other things, anne bower's "watching food: the production of food, film, and values," margaret coyle's "il timpano - to eat good food is to be close to god: the italian-american reconciliation of stanley tucci and campbell scott's big night," and nancy peters's "the beat generation and san francisco's culture of dissent." we've watched and discussed the film big night. and last night we field tripped to north beach - for dinner at bocce cafe and then a tour of the italian french baking company. now's the time to create.


1. select a platform. your selected platform must a) support multimedia, b) be open to the public, and c) allow visitors the opportunity to comment on your work.

2. create a story about food and north beach. use evidence and artifacts you experienced and gathered from our field trip.

3. as long as your story is about food and north beach, it can take any form. your story must also include, in some way, the beats.

4. make sure your story is interesting to people other than yourself. edit your story over and over and over again so that it contains zero mistakes and typos.

5. be as creative as possible.

6. sometime before class on wednesday, post a thick tweet that includes a link to your north beach project.

students sharing media

this week, all 28 students in DMP and ESF joined (or were already on) twitter, giving us an individual and collective platform for presentation, conversation, and collaboration.

i've been encouraging my students to take their already existing information (blog posts, flickr sets, foghorn articles, USFtv clips) and optimally upload it to twitter. already existing information optimally uploaded, or aeiou, in 140 characters or less.

in the last week alone, the USF twitterverse has been aflame! stephanienow shared her recipe for raviolis. melstrikesback made a mixed tape (with sound!). skblackburn shared her pics of pelosi. smhz, _Kerr_, and elisamaite shared perspectives about teaching college students. and joelAweston, teresacgarcia, and Kellimccloskey, or the north beach crüe, shared their culinary recommendation for ESF's first field trip.

also through twitter, the foghornonline met jonnyhech and a video game columnist was born.

it's a promising spring semester.

the day before the first day of classes

one of the magical things about working at USF is its proximity to golden gate park. the western tip of campus is a whopping one block away from the north-eastern tip of the park. east to west, golden gate park stretches around 3.5 miles and leads directly to the pacific ocean. weather permitting, this is the walk i always try to take on the day before the first day of classes.


in fall, i taught two sections (nearly 80 students) of intro to media studies. starting tomorrow, i am teaching two smaller, seminar-like classes: digital media production (12 students) and eating san francisco (15 students).

in some ways, the two classes are totally different. in digital media production, or dmp, all of the readings are online, free, and in multiple forms of media; in eating san francisco, or esf, nearly all of our reading comes from three books. in dmp, students will log on, tune in, and create, participate, and collaborate; in esf, we'll spend a lot of our time logged off, eating real food and doing walkabouts around the city.

in another way, though, the classes are extremely similar. both require students to learn and use digital platforms to research, present, and share their work. although dmp will be more systematic in its coverage of web 2.0 tools, students in both courses will design, create, and publicly share their findings via platforms like flickr, facebook, twitter, blogs, google maps, yelp, and zotero.

with new classes, new students, and a new president, spring has potential.

eating san francisco (spring 09)

i'm teaching two new special topics courses this spring. one of them is called eating san francisco. classes begin january 28.


Eating San Francisco
Weds, 6:15-9:00 pm, Cowell Hall 413

Professor: David Silver
Office hours: Tues & Thurs, 10-11 am, Kalmanavitz 141
Contact: dmsilver [ at ] usfca [ dot ] edu

EATING SAN FRANCISCO is a special topics media studies seminar focusing on food, culture, and the city of San Francisco. In this course, we will a) read books and watch films to better appreciate the relationships between food and culture, b) take field trips and arrange dinners to better understand San Francisco's diverse neighborhoods and cultures, c) learn how to cook and document a delicious meal made entirely of seasonal, regional ingredients, and d) learn about and how to use appropriate forms of social media to present and share our findings.

REQUIRED READING:
o Reel Food: Essays on Food and Film, edited by Anne L. Bower (Routledge, 2004)
o Reclaiming San Francisco: History, Politics, Culture, edited by James Brook, Chris Carlsson & Nancy J. Peters (City Lights Books, 1998)
o The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, by Michael Pollan (Penguin, 2006)

SCHEDULE:
January 28
Introduce ourselves, distribute syllabi, and discuss course expectations

February 4
Read:
o Anne L. Bower, “Watching Food: The Production of Food, Film, and Values,” from Reel Food, pp. 1-13.
o Richard A. Walker, “An Appetite for the City,” from Reclaiming San Francisco, pp. 1-19.
o Michael Pollan, “Our National Eating Disorder,” from The Omnivore’s Dilemma, pp. 1-11.

February 11
Read:
o Margaret Coyle, “Il Timpano - To Eat Good Food Is to Be Close to God”: The Italian-American Reconciliation of Stanley Tucci and Campbell Scott’s Big Night,” from Reel Food, pp. 41-59.
o Marlisa Santos, “Leave the Gun; Take the Cannoli: Food and Family in the Modern American Mafia Film,” from Reel Food, pp. 209-218.
o Bernie Lubell, Dean MacCannell, and Juliet Flower MacCannell, “You Are Here (You Think): A San Francisco Bus Tour,” from Reclaiming San Francisco, pp. 137-150.
Watch (prior to class):
o Big Night (Stanley Tucci and Campbell Scott, 1996).

February 18
Read:
o Nancy J. Peters, “The Beat Generation and San Francisco’s Culture of Dissent,” from Reclaiming San Francisco, pp. 199-215.
o James Brook, “Remarks on the Poetic Transformation of San Francisco,” from Reclaiming San Francisco, pp. 123-135.
Field trip: class meets in North Beach for dinner and walkabout.

February 25
Read:
o Miriam Lopez-Rodriquez, “Cooking Mexicanness: Shaping National Identity in Alfonso Arau’s Como aqua para chocolate, from Reel Food, pp. 61-73.
o Margaret H. McFadden, “Gendering the Feast: Women, Spirituality, and Grace in Three Food Films,” from Reel Food, pp. 117-128.
o Carole Counihan, “Food, Feelings and Film: Women’s Power in Like Water for Chocolate,” Food, Culture & Society 8.2 (Fall 2005): pp. 201-214.
Watch:
o Like Water for Chocolate (Alfonso Arau, 1993).

March 4
Read:
o Timothy W. Drescher, “Street Subversion: The Political Geography of Murals and Graffiti,” from Reclaiming San Francisco, pp. 231-246.
o Juan Felipe Herrera, “Riffs on Mission District Raza Writers,” from Reclaiming San Francisco, pp. 217-230.
o Randy Shaw, “Tenant Power in San Francisco,” from Reclaiming San Francisco, pp. 287-300.
Field trip: class meets in the Mission for dinner and walkabout.

March 11
Read:
o Raymond Armstrong, “All-Consuming Passions: Peter Greenaway’s The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover,” from Reel Food, pp. 219-234.
o Rebecca L. Epstein, “Appetite for Destruction: Gangster Food and Genre Convention in Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction,” from Reel Food, pp. 195-208.
o Ann Garrison, “Suicide in the City,” from Reclaiming San Francisco, pp. 115-121.
Watch:
o The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover (Peter Greenaway, 1989).

March 18
o Readings, film, and meeting place to be determined by students.

March 25: SPRING BREAK!

April 1
Read:
o David Greven, “Engorged with Desire: The Films of Alfred Hitchcock and the Gendered Politics of Eating,” from Reel Food, pp. 297-310.
o Gayle S. Rubin, “The Miracle Mile: South of Market and Gay Male Leather, 1962-1997," from Reclaiming San Francisco, pp. 247-272.
o Marina McDougall and Hope Mitnick, “Location: San Francisco,” from Reclaiming San Francisco, pp. 151-161.

April 8
Watch:
o The Times of Harvey Milk (Rob Epstein, 1984).
o Milk (Gus Van Sant, 2008).
Field trip: class meets in the Castro for dinner and a walkabout.

April 15
Read:
o Michael Ashkenazi, “Food, Play, Business, and the Image of Japan in Itami Juzo’s Tampopo,” from Reel Food, pp. 27-40.
o Pete Holloran, “Seeing the Trees Through the Forest: Oaks and History in the Presidio,” from Reclaiming San Francisco, pp. 333-352.
o James Lyons, “What About the Popcorn? Food and the Film-Watching Experience,” from Reel Food, pp. 311-333.
Watch:
o Tampopo (Juzo Itami, 1985).

April 22 (Most likely, class will meet Saturday, April 25)
Read:
o Anthony W. Lee, “Another View of Chinatown: Yun Gee and the Chinese Revolutionary Artists’ Club," from Reclaiming San Francisco, pp. 163-182.
o James Sobredo, “From Manila Bay to Daly City: Filipinos in San Francisco,” from Reclaiming San Francisco, pp. 273-287.
o Susan Schwartzenberg, “Going Public: The San Francisco Civic Center,” from Reclaiming San Francisco, pp. 21-34.
Field trip: class meets for dim sum and walkabout in Chinatown.

April 29
Read:
o Michael Pollan, “Industrial Corn,” from The Omnivore’s Dilemma, pp. 15-119.
o Julie Guthman, “Can’t Stomach It: How Michael Pollan et al. Made Me Want to Eat Cheetos,” from Gastronomica (Summer 2007), pp. 75-79.
Watch:
o King Corn (Aaron Woolf, 2007).
Field trip: class meets at McDonald’s on Haight Street for dinner and walkabout.

May 6
Read:
o Michael Pollan, “Pastoral Grass,” from The Omnivore’s Dilemma, pp. 123-273.
o Jesse Drew, “Call Any Vegetable: The Politics of Food in San Francisco,” from Reclaiming San Francisco, pp. 317-331.
Watch:
o The Real Dirt on Farmer John (Taggart Siegel, 2005).

May 13
Read:
o Michael Pollan, “Personal - The Forest,” from The Omnivore’s Dilemma, pp. 277-411.
Field trip: class meets in USF’s organic garden for dinner and revelry.

GRADING:
Each of the following constitute roughly 10% of your final grade:

Reading and film-related quizzes and exercises
Class participation and collaboration
North Beach project
Mission project
Castro project
Chinatown project
McDonald’s on Haight Street project
USF’s Organic Garden project
Cook and document a delicious dish project
Cook and document a localvore meal project

If you are concerned about your grade, you may request a meeting with me anytime during the semester.

RULES:
1. No late work accepted.
2. In class and during field trips, try your best to listen to and learn from everyone.
3. Starting February 4, no drinking out of non-reusable containers in class. Be creative with your thirst-quenching solutions.

designing a syllabus for eating san francisco

this spring i'm teaching two new special topics courses - digital media production and eating san francisco.


eating san francisco requires students a) to read books and watch films to better understand the relationships between food and culture, b) to take field trips and arrange dinners to better understand san francisco's diverse neighborhoods and cultures, c) to learn how to cook and document at least one delicious meal, and d) to learn and use appropriate forms of social media to present and share their findings.

nearly all of our reading comes from three books: reel food: essays on food and film, edited by anne l. bower (routledge, 2004); reclaiming san francisco: history, politics, culture, edited by james brook, chris carlsson & nancy j. peters (city lights books, 1998); and the omnivore’s dilemma: a natural history of four meals, by michael pollan (penguin, 2006). and along the way, we'll watch films like big night (stanley tucci and campbell scott, 1996); like water for chocolate (alfonso arau, 1993); the cook, the thief, his wife and her lover (peter greenaway, 1989); and the real dirt on farmer john (taggart siegel, 2005).


eating san francisco includes multiple field trips. because the class meets in the evening (weds, 6:15-9 pm), our field trips will include dinners and walkabouts. probable destinations are north beach, the mission, castro, haight-ashbury, and USF's organic garden. and i hope students will agree to meet once on a saturday, for dim sum, in chinatown.

eating san francisco will no doubt be delicious, but it will also be demanding. i expect students to fully research san francisco's diverse histories, foods, cultures, and neighborhoods. i expect students to creatively and collaboratively document, through words, photography, and video, their experiences and explorations across the city. and i expect students to learn how to cook and document a delicious meal made entirely of seasonal, regional ingredients.


with sarah away at a library conference in denver, i've been working day and night on the syllabus. with luck, i'll post it this weekend.