Posted on 2 Comments on things to watch in class

things to watch in class

Building off of ‘Things to Read in Class,’ a very incomplete list (with a special shout out to Jessie Daniels, and her ‘Sociology through documentary’ wiki):

Wealth & Privilege: The American Ruling Class (2005, dir. Kirby), Born Rich (2006, dir. Johnson).

Race & Segregation: Big Easy to Big Empty, (2007, dir. Palast), When the Levees Broke (2006, dir. Lee), Trouble in the Water (2008, dirs. Deal & Lessin), Banished (2008, dir. Williams), Little Rock Central: 50 Years Later (2007, dirs. Renaud & Renaud)

Poverty: Secrets of Silicon Valley, Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price, Maxed Out, Born into Brothels (2004, Briski & Kauffman), 30 Days: Minimum Wage (2005, dir. Spurlock)

Tourism: Cannibal Tours (1988, dir. O’Rourke)

Urban: The Philadelphia Story, The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces (1988, dir. Whyte), L.A. Is Burning (1993, dir. Mannes), Mission Hill and the Miracle of Boston, Blade Runner, Dislocation (2006, dir. Venkatesh), Flag Wars (2003, dir. Bryant & Poitras), Slacker (1991, dir. Linklater), The Brickyard (2008, dir. Scott), Hoop Dreams (1994, dir. James).

Global Issues: Favela Rising, (2005, dir. Zimbalist & Mochary), Life and Debt, Mardi Gras: Made in China, (2005, dir. Redmon), An Inconvenient Truth (2006, dir. Guggenheim).

Health Care: The Great Health Service Swindle, Sicko (2007, dir. Moore), Selling Sickness, The Business of Being Born, Medicating Kids (2001, dir. Gaviria), Titicut Follies (1967, dir. Wiseman).

Politics & Economics: The Corporation (2004, Achbar, Abbott & Bakhan), American Blackout, (2006, dir. Inaba), Can Mr. Smith Get to Washington Anymore? (2006, dir. Popper), Who Killed the Electric Car?, Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room (2005, dir. Gibney)

Culture: Style Wars (1982, dir. Silver & Chalfant), Good Copy, Bad Copy (2007, dir. Johnson, Christensen, & Moltke), The Story of Stuff (2007, dir. Leonard)

Gender: Killing Us Softly (I, II, & III), Live Nude Girls Unite (2000, Query), All Different, All Equal, A Stranger in Her Own City (2007, dir. Al-Salami).

Immigration: Cash Flow Fever, The Other Side.

Education: Boys of Baraka (2006, dir. Ewing).

Food: Our Daily Bread (2005, dir. Geyrhalter).

Sexuality: Freeheld, For the Bible Tells Me So, (2007, dir. Karslake), Daddy & Papa (2002, dir. Symons), Gay Youth, Abstinence Comes to Albuquerque (2006, dir. Stuart), 30 Days: Straight Man in a Gay World (2005, dir. Spurlock).

Religion: Born Again (1987, dir. Ault), What Would Jesus Buy? (2007, dir. VanAlkemade), Jonestown: The Life & Death of the People’s Temple (2006, dir. Nelson), 30 Days: Muslims & America (2005, dir. Spurlock), Jesus Camp (2006, dir. Ewing & Grady), Hell House (2001, dir. Ratliff).

Presentation of Self: Darkon (2006, dir. Meyer).

Representation: Sans Soleil (1983, dir. Marker), Reassembladge (1983, dir. Min Ha), The True Meaning of Pictures (2002, dir. Baichwal).

Bureaucracy & War: Conspiracy (2001, dir. Pierson).

Posted on No Comments on wordle

wordle

This is the image produced by ‘wordle‘ when I had it run my entire manuscript. Pretty humbling. After the ASA meetings, where I described my research dozens of times, I perhaps should have just passed out copies of this image. (I don’t know why it’s shaped like New York State.)

Addendum: Interestingly, The Boston Globe offers up a similar analysis of the two presidential candidates’ blogs.

Posted on No Comments on karl marx, podcasted

karl marx, podcasted

One of the highlights of my graduate career at CUNY was learning Capital with David Harvey. It was a page by page, reading, and I used a great deal of what I learned in my Foundations of Social Theory class last term. He has been teaching Volume One for forty years, and now anyone can have the privledge. Find all 13 two hour lectures here. (I would include something pithy and insightful here, but my notes are a few hundred miles away right now…)

Posted on No Comments on auto-tuned

auto-tuned

There is a great podcast with the New Yorker’s Sasha Frere-Jones, that places auto-tuning in a historical and technological context. Very interesting… and already a part of next year’s Media, Technology, & Sociology course. (He also has a nice rundown of the Lost season finale, which highlights Jeremy Bentham–which I hope wasn’t lost on my urban students!   …McSweeney’s has a nice catch up screenplay)

Posted on 1 Comment on social d

social d

Social Design Notes is my new favorite website. I’ve used a dozen things from it in the last hour and a half for my classes and my book. It’s worthy of more than just an add to the blogroll. Also, on there somewhere, there is a pdf on ‘Visualizing Information for Advocacy,’ which ends with a list of free software tools, some of which are fabulous: OpenOffice, NeoOffice, Ajax13, Inkscape, PDFCreator, Scribus, The Gimp, and GimpShop.

Posted on No Comments on DIY

DIY

DIY is something that recently bridged the gaps between my teaching and my research. Clau recently reminded me of the old saw that ethnographies are often about the ethnographers themselves, and I guess that there is an element of that in my own musings. I always thought that the walking guides I have been writing about are a little like ethnographers themselves, but that’s not too far removed. Anyway. I’ve been thinking about music as well, and DIY tools to make everyone more musical in a fashion. (Being on a MFA thesis committee on mass-participatory/social networking technology dance certainly prompted these thoughts as well.) It brings up Benjamin, of course, and a student in the Media, Technology, & Sociology class is hard at work on Garageband (both in theory and practice). But here are a few more of those sorts of programs (via ‘I Am Robot and Proud‘ website): Audacity, Processing, Chocopoolp, and Renoise.

Speaking of student projects (and DIY), here’s a part of someone’s final:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-h3AuyR6EmI]

And also.