January 2012
1 post
6 tags
The Big Waste.
It made me so happy to watch The Big Waste Food Network special. Chefs Flay and Simon competed against Anne Burrell and Alex Guarnaschelli to see who could go around to shops and farms and bring back as much food that was going to be thrown away. There are ridiculous rules for why food gets thrown away such as a chicken having a broken wing or corn being pushed down to the ground by a hurricane....
December 2011
1 post
October 2011
1 post
The Future of Time
This piece really resonated with me just because I am such an accelerated person and I always feel a sense of urgency but when it comes down to it, I usually end up waiting on others or for things to happen. I don’t know if it will be possible for our culture to take this message seriously because productivity is such a big tenet of capitalism but I hope it does because it might help us live...
September 2011
3 posts
5 tags
6 tags
My Nice scrapbook page is done now too :)
August 2011
2 posts
6 tags
June 2011
2 posts
May 2011
1 post
I saw this Pan Am shoulder bag in white on Gilmore Girls and have to have it! I love the vintage feel of it and it reminds me of Catch Me If You Can. The only question is blue or white?
April 2011
1 post
4 tags
‘Make Believe’ reveals real magic
Documentary features student, following her passion and growth as a young magician
By Ivana Wynn Published April 6, 2011
“Make Believe,” featuring UCLA student Krystyn Lambert, will be showing at the Majestic Crest Theater in Westwood on Saturday.
Photo Courtesy of KRYSTYN LAMBERT
For her 10th birthday, second-year philosophy student...
March 2011
6 posts
7 tags
Interview with Sara Gruen
I did this interview with Sara Gruen for ULM originally but they were unable to take it so I’m posting it here in conjunction with Water for Elephants’ release this April (the 22nd) starring Robert Pattison, Reese Witherspoon and Christoph Waltz.
Writing historical fiction has given Sara Gruen the chance to leave the house and explore. Her first novel Water for Elephants was a #1...
2 tags
Screen Scene: Sucker Punch
By Ivana Wynn
Credit: WARNER BROS.
“Sucker Punch” Directed by Zack Snyder Warner Bros.
When Zack Snyder unveiled the trailer for “Sucker Punch,” his first original film, at Comic-Con last summer, eager fans were on board with his rendition of girl power and curious about the themes the film would explore, even if others were rolling their eyes. In “Sucker Punch” you can count on...
Runyon Canyon
Gillian and I made it happen — we took a hike at Runyon Canyon in Hollywood this morning and actually exercised for once! I can’t believe I’ve lived in L.A. my whole life and never hiked this trail. If you like instant gratification, this is the trail to go to. You only climb for 10 minutes before you get a stunning view of Downtown, Hollywood and Westwood all around you....
“Nostalgia, in fact, may depend precisely on the irrecoverable nature of the past...”
– Linda Hutcheon, postmodern theorist
What a smart lady. Nostalgia is one of my favorite topics (one which I am currently writing about in my essay on letters and diaries in Caribbean literature) and I have never heard it defined so eloquently before.
February 2011
4 posts
4 tags
University Link February 2011
The issue I guest edited for University Link is finally here! It was an exciting job for me, overseeing editing, writing pieces, coming up with cover lines and even doing photo credits at the very back. It’s fitting that I should post this today because my guest editor letter references Valentine’s Day. Enjoy!
Valentine’s Day was a holiday created for Christian martyrs during Roman...
4 tags
Podcast “Stuff You Should Know” teaches with sound bites of knowledge
Chuck Bryant and Josh Clark, hosts of “Stuff You Should Know,” will discuss their media experiences
By Ivana Wynn
Josh Clark and Chuck Bryant host the “Stuff You Should Know” podcast.
Credit: HOWSTUFFWORKS.COM
The popularity the “Stuff You Should Know” podcast has garnered from the 292 episodes that have been recorded...
5 tags
Paradoxes of Postmodernism.
Postmodernism is a wild, confusing, self-reflexive world that makes me feel stuck with no hope. I think what contributes to that feeling is the paradoxes (not to mention ironies) that have developed in this era, which were largely brought on by technology and mass culture.
Originality is supposedly dead because everything has been done but postmodern artists recycle pieces of past literature and...
January 2011
6 posts
“Perhaps this trauma of separation-beginning from our very birth-is the normal...”
– Loving Che, Ana Menendez
Wise words - every day is a battle for independence and a grounded approach to life.
Meta.
This quarter I’m taking two postmodern literature classes and it’s all about metafiction, which seems groundbreaking at first but I feel doesn’t accomplish much other than making you aware that everything is socially constructed.
We are addicted to referencing other works in media in our own lives/papers/conversations etc. I realized I’m even guilty of it when I was...
“This is like reading a letter from the Founding Fathers.”
– Elias, on my handwriting. :p
4 tags
December 2010
7 posts
2 tags
Larry Fink.
I just interviewed this photographer (not the CEO) who has been taking photographs for magazines and teaching photography for 45 years. It was a privilege to have access to this man’s wisdom. He’s a leftist radical sort who grew up in the sixties and his photos are very political. He followed McCain, Clinton and Obama’s campaign trail for Vanity Fair. He has published...
“If we did not hold so much, i would not write.
If it were not for memories, for...”
– The Ghosts Poem by Linda Gregg
When I first read Linda Gregg’s two collections, Too Bright to See and Alma, I could not connect to her. I felt that she was whiny, numb and pessimistic. Writing about her has made me search for those moments when she glimpses hope. Perhaps because I know she is...
West Side Story.
I got free tickets to West Side Story’s opening night at Pantages from the magazine and invited Michelle, New Yorker and Latina at heart, to come along. It was an entertaining show with stylized, ballet-influenced dancing that still had a lot of flavor and energy. It’s a classic story really. White boy falls in love with Latina. The end was abrupt though and didn’t feel like much...
“On the road to sexuality there are a lot of tussles in the backseat, where you...”
– Professor Mullen while discussing sexuality in Kiki Petrosino’s poetry collection, Fort Red Border.
November 2010
9 posts
“While readiness to recognize alternative worlds may be liberating, and...”
– Ways of Worldmaking by Nelson Goodman
This is exactly what I said when I learned about post structuralism.
“Eating alone is a disappointment,
but not eating matters more,
is hollow and...”
– Pablo Neruda, The Great Tablecloth
“I exist, that is all, and I find it nauseating.”
– Jean-Paul Sartre Nausea
Rational Americans.
Something that I never become accustomed to hearing in my classes and in conversation with other students here at UCLA (and which I imagine is applicable to most American youth) is the sarcasm, irony and cynicism that dominates their language. For example, we were discussing Coleridge’s Fears in Solitude the other day and people were making claims about the ending of the poem which presumed...
Film screenings feature a forgotten social class
By Ivana Wynn
Credits: THE HAMILTON FILM GROUP
Director Matt Porterfield filmed his first feature, “Hamilton,” in the same neighborhood, on the same block and in the same house in Baltimore where he grew up.
When “Hamilton” opens, 17-year-old Lena, a new mother, is looking for Joe, the father of her child. From this situation, Porterfield...
Latin American Writers.
I’ve been reading a lot of Latin American writers lately and I just love the way they combine the values and stories of Hispanic culture and Spanish (whether from Mexico, Puerto Rico, or Dominican Republic) with English and our American lifestyle. I think being American with that distinctive cultural background allows you to reflect back on previous generations’ lives and the beliefs...
Yesterday I opened my mailbox here at the apartment for the first time and the space was absolutely crammed with old mailings and letters addressed to previous renters of my apartment. Most of the papers were crumpled. I can just imagine the postal worker having to shove each new letter in there to make it fit. It was an interesting experience, going through all these females’ old mail....
October 2010
14 posts
I’m so excited for my interview with Rob Guillory on Friday for University Link. Rob is a comic book artist and is currently the artist for CHEW, the comic about Tony Chu, an FDA agent and Cibopathic, which basically means he knows everything about something once he’s tasted it. This also means he is tasting grotesque things like people’s body parts to track down what happened to...
My 20th Birthday Tea Party.
I usually don’t celebrate my birthday because I’m too busy but I came up with the idea of having an afternoon tea party and made it happen :) I wanted to reunite my friends from the England trip this summer and be nostalgic about tea time together but ironically, it ended up being a mixed group of people. Michelle and Justin were the only Stratfordians that actually...