So, I ranted and raved in my last entry about American holiday commercialism. Now let’s do a show-and-tell thing about Christmas in Washington!! I was recently out and about DC a couple of weeks ago, and took these pictures…
Charity, our fellow gBlogger, standing in front of the Norwegian Christmas tree at Union Station.
A lot of cities are famous for their holiday displays. Look at Chicago and their shockingly famous Marshall Field’s Christmas store window displays- they’re amazing, and they’ve been a tradition for Chicagoans for 150 years now. Unfortunately, this year is the last year flocks can gather around the thirteen window displays of Marshall Field’s, because of a recent acquistion by Federated Department Stores, Inc. The store will be re-christened Macy’s, instead of keeping its’ original name.
Marshall Field’s, on Chicago’s State Street
Continue reading ‘american holiday commercialism…’
Film and video have, since the late 1920s, have been considered almost completely integrated with sound and music. But what happens when you explore the differences between Deaf, hard of hearing and hearing audiences in respect to their response to sound in film? You can sorta see two mediums that are generally considered convergent in today’s society, and how they become almost totally divergent with Deaf and hard of hearing film viewers.
Jaws and sound? Read on…
Continue reading ‘two intertwined mediums do not a medium make…’
Whew, I’m glad I was able to get this ‘notebook’ at a booth near the train station in Istanbul, because I have a lot of writing to do- I’m six days behind! It’s hard to believe, the time flies by, that it does. Last I left off (in the other journal), I was on the train to Istanbul, Turkey. That train ride was pretty uneventful, until the border crossing. When night came, we took shifts sleeping. The people on the train looked suspicious, and, on heightened alertness because of the contractor’s warning, we were paranoid. But taking shifts isn’t paranoid-it’s smart.
Continue reading ‘Backpacking Part IV: An Eventful Turkish Border Crossing’
Again, this is an excerpt from my journals written live during my travels in Europe last summer.
We paid for a two-hour metro ticket (they allowed us both to use it) with money we had ‘set aside’ and which I hadn’t included in the amounts stated before. We arrived at the train station, and they have this section cordoned off where people have to pay to get in the train station, run by people in official uniforms. I still have no idea what it’s for or why they make people pay, but we got in without paying, acting lost and confused and deaf (great acting, huh?)
Continue reading ‘Backpacking Part III: Romania Part II- More Deaf People in Unexpected Places’
Here’s another journal excerpt from my European travels last summer.
Me on a train ride.
Picture taken by Robyn Girard
6-22-05 (Tuesday)
We were stuck at the Bucharest train station for maybe 20-30 minutes before getting onto our next train, to Suceava! They were getting ready for this broadcast there, though what the subject was, I have no idea. There were three different channels there getting ready to broadcast, I’m assuming at 1 pm.
Women and their female children were selling blankets, tapes, etc. throughout the ‘waiting’ area, outside the trainstation between tracks. When we got on our train, we had to wait perhaps another 45 minutes before finally leaving. During this time, people were constantly coming in and out trying to sell this or that. Some came in, dropped several products onto the seat next to us, then proceeded to the next car. When done, she’d (always a female) come back to see if we wanted anything (nope), then take it all back and perhaps move to the next car.
Continue reading ‘Catching Up: Backpacking Part II- Romania Part I: Beauty in a Third World Country’
As I sit here in my chair in the Ballard West RA office, I have some time on my hands and observe the lobby that’s often full of life, with freshman seated on the lounge chairs and couches, chatting, goofing around, and discussing what to do tonight.
Continue reading ‘What becomes of everyone?’
One thing I’ve gotten used to about college life is not going home for Thanksgiving Day, usually for several imposing reasons such as: it’s expensive to fly home especially when I’ll be going home soon for Christmas, I have to remain for a basketball tournament (which isn’t a factor this year as I decided not to join the team), etc.
Continue reading ‘Turkey Day’
I want the new video iPod. You would not believe the discussions I’ve already had with several people about how Deaf people would benefit from the use of a new video iPod.
“The women of this Nation still retain the liberty to control their destinies. But the signs are evident and very ominous, and a chill wind blows.”
-justice harry a. blackmun
Justice Blackmun was talking about abortion. I originally started this blog thinking I’d talk about abortion and the issues surrounding it, since I’m a California voter, and we were recently asked to vote on that issue, but I really think I should be writing about something else.
Continue reading ‘a chill wind blows…’
