pop-culture for everyone.

in my internet-snooping, i found a few other organizations that i am jealous i don't work for:

americana: the journal of american pop culture is my new favorite thing. the present issue gives the academic treatment to csi and finding nemo, among others. i can't lie, i long to attend a large university perhaps only for the opportunity to enroll in classes like "philosophy and star trek" or "the simpsons: sitcom as political and social satire," so this journal had my loyalty almost immediately. it's only published semi-annually, but you can peruse their past issues on their site back ten-plus years, so there's plenty of material.

popmatters is a similar online pop culture journal, with more emphasis on the 'pop' and less on the 'culture.' they have features that hold their own against the more academic "americana" journal, but they exist alongside reviews, regular columns, and a section called "moving citations" that keeps an eye on relevant articles/links floating around on the internet as they are published.

the national association of comics art educators (who go by NACAE and pronounce it 'nay-say', apparently) are a group of, well, teachers that really dig teaching about making comics. there website requires some rooting around and a discerning eye, but there are quite a few solid ideas on their site that can be adjusted for use in a variety of contexts. i am wary of mentioning the available prompts, exercises, and lesson plans due to their propensity for misuse, but the site actually contains some interesting ideas to digest and incorporate in teaching practice (rather than simply regurgitating mindlessly). ultimately, a lot of the content boils down to strategies for teaching students to communicate in various visual/non-traditional ways.

a new friend for heart-sleeve studio.

heart-sleeve studio (and its companion blog, heart-sleeve studio blog) have served as my online handle for what i lovingly refer to as my "illustration and other nice things" for quite some time now, mostly because my name is unreasonably difficult to spell. here we have a new friend to showcase all the other nice things that i didn't actually draw slash make myself, but instead want to share so other people can make or teach or learn them too. feel free to visit heart-sleeve studio to see where i'm coming from (and probably notice that the distance is not very far at all). in any case, welcome!