Performing Cultural Revolution Nostalgia
I have been mulling over and trying to make sense of what exactly took place at the Cultural Revolution theme restaurant that I visited last week. I have photos, video, and some notes I wrote after...
View ArticleOccupy Student Debt
**This is a repost of the original Facebook image and accompanying text. I have been meaning to archive a copy here. A sociology student at Hamline interviewed me about this image for her blog shorty...
View Article“Take Up Arms and Get Rid of the Guy”: Tom Head and the Conspiracy of Opinions
I’m not even sure what to do with this video clip. The first time I watched it I was just stunned. When it ended, I promptly watched it again three or four times. There was no Onion watermark in the...
View ArticleHow the Auggies Schooled Minnesota Higher Education on the Marriage Amendment
Higher education in Minnesota has been schooled by the Auggies. Last Wednesday, Augsburg College publicly took a stand stating its opposition to the amendment to the Minnesota constitution that would...
View ArticleWould the Authentic University Please Speak Up!
What does it mean when a university faculty takes a symbolic vote, but the administration “won’t take an official position?” What does it mean when so many universities’ advertising, their senior...
View ArticleMystery Object #7: Day Glo Watergate Poster
If he were still alive, today would have been Richard Nixon’s 100th birthday. No doubt because anniversaries make for easy news stories, I have already heard more than a few mentions in the media of...
View ArticleMystery Object #11: Lung Money
The other day, as I was paying for a cup of coffee in Greenville, Ohio, I looked down to see a most unbelievable thing—a massage raffle for a lung transplant. Let me write that again just in case you...
View ArticleFashion is Most Glorious!
Walking on Chunxi Lu in Chengdu I passed a full sized advertisement which draws upon the imagery and language of the Cultural Revolution. Featuring a worker, peasant, soldier trio the text plays on...
View ArticleXi Jinping Meets Che Meeting Mao
While the Chinese media featured a photo of Xi Jinping meeting a geriatric and ancient-looking Casto—the Chinese leader in a dark business suit clashing with the revolutionary’s casual retirement...
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