I watched the “Bags of Gold” video for the first time about six months ago, and it was one of the first things that really sold me on DS106. I remember not understanding parts of it—the allusions, the web 1.0/2.0 distinctions, the blackboard forum dissection—but I remember thinking that Campbell seemed like a zealot ...

This is a post for a new assignment submission called “Mission: Defamiliarize.” The idea is to take a series of ten photos that make a familiar place–in this case Ann Arbor, Michigan–seem strange, magical, creepy, whatever. Her...

GATEWAY TO GEEKERY: HERMAN MELVILLE Why It’s Daunting: Whoa, Herman Melville. Arguably the most important American writers of all time, Melville wrote what many think is the greatest novel ever written (certainly the greatest written by an American). But without a road map, the amount of work that Melville produced can be intimidating: nine novels ...

  TDC 10: Merge two photos of contrasting places. So, the photos are 1) a snow-covered chair from my backyard (we’ve been getting our first real snows of the year within this past week or so) and 2) a swimming pool from a hotel I stayed at in Saugatuck. I didn’t swim in the pool, ...

  This clip–from the intro of Batman: The Animated Series–is rad. The B-Man isn’t even doing anything, just letting his cape blow in the wind, not even turning around to acknowledge the lightning touching down right behind his heavily armored shoulder. Fun fact: The old B:TAS show didn’t actually say its title in the introduction; ...

TDC 7: Everyday object as musical instrument. This was boatloads of fun. I took an empty bottle (hence “Dead Soldiers”) and tried to make all the sounds I could with it, recording the noises with my laptop’s internal mic. I tinged a butter knife against the belly of the bottle; I tapped my finger against ...

So I wasn’t sure what to use, first of all. I wish I had a Marantz all my own, but for now I’m just using the internal mic on my computer which limits what I can record somewhat (I said somewhat, okay). So, since we had our first real snowfall of the season (stlll snowing ...

Dr. Bagman gives his TED Talk. Brown bag lunch to follow.

It is what it is, people of Gotham.