Day 203, October 5, 2020
Shopper's World
Today's soundtrack: Roy Buchanan Live at Rockpalast, 1985 (Hmm, in hindsight, not the greatest representation of Roy. I'll find another sometime soon.)
Some days you wake up and look at yourself in the mirror and think, huh, I look tired. I had one of those strange sleepless mornings where I woke up before dawn and struggled to fall back asleep. I got up for a drink of water at least twice. I ended up reading the New York Times until I could not focus, and then I'd fall asleep for a little bit, then find myself tossing and turning again. I think, in addition to everything else happening in the world, my sleep patterns are are all upended from the colonoscopy, mostly the sleepless night of prep, and the recovery day.
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| Franklin looking nonplussed. |
In the first post below, you will find that in 1951 Shopper's World in Framingham opened. This was the mall of my childhood, a two floor open air mall anchored by a space age Jordan Marsh store and large courtyards open to the sky where in the winter they would bring in reindeer and host Santa sittings. On the ground floor was a mysterious store filled with gem stones, pentagram patterned fabrics, runes, and behind a beaded curtain, a fortune teller. There was always something mysterious and ominous about the store. Even as a pre-teen child I could tell there was something solemn, and almost supernatural about the shop that made one speak in hushed tones.
I never ventured behind the curtain, but my mom and her friend went back there once. I was fascinated, and despite my desperate pleading for details, I never learned what was revealed. I imagined a medium something like the mysterious Helen Duncan who could conjure up the spirits of the dead and produce ectoplasm as a kind of evidence. Or maybe there was a crystal ball, or tarot cards. I guess I will never know.
Instead, I spent most of my time nested within the inner enclaves of racks of clothes, that hollow space between sleeves and hanging dresses and pant legs where one could climb and dangle while one's mother shopped. A small child could go nearly undetected aside from the occasional unsuspecting suburbanite who would gasp and clutch herself when she pulled a blouse off the rack and revealed a momentary glimpse at a feral child who dropped down and slipped under the racks of clothes and disappeared into the aisles of undergarments. I can still smell what it is like to be surrounded by garments and the fixative, or whatever chemical it is that fresh from the factory clothes are permeated with.
More often than Jordan Marsh, however, we were across the street at Filene's Basement, where the smell of clothes was augmented with a cardboard box undertone.
But Shopper's World had the movie theater, and that was what drew the kids. That is where I saw Firefox with my dad, while my brother and mom went to see Annie. I can't remember what other movies I saw there, though I am certain there were dozens. My Bodyguard. It was a time when you needed to make sure you had a dime to call home when the movie was over for a ride. It was a time when the sight of nervous reindeer in the courtyard of a mall seemed as natural as anything else might be.
I don't think anything of the old Shopper's World exists anymore. Like most other things of that era, visions of the future seemed disposable and I'm sure a giant flying saucer dome roof is quite the thing to try to repair. But for at time, as a kid, that was my town square. We would still ride out bikes to the town center to the penny candy store, but other than Lemonheads and Fireballs there was little else to hold a kid's attention. There was an innocence to the time, before I found music, cigarettes, guitars, sex. The most trouble one could get into was disturbing the movie with prepubescent antics.
It is interesting to end up here in this thought. This morning I was writing about the before times, back when one is a child and there is an innocence to all things. Even when you do something bad as a child, it is an innocent thing, like spooking a mom as she shops, or hiding so deep in the recesses of the department store that your mother needs to have you paged over the store intercom.
Sleep well,
Leo
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| A pandemic hospital selfie. |
From Our Friends:
From MassHumanities/MassMoments:
On this day in 1951, Shoppers' World in Framingham opened for business. The first suburban shopping mall in the Northeast, and only the second in the country, the complex was a revolutionary design. Anchored by a branch of Boston's Jordan Marsh Department Store — housed under a futuristic "space age" dome — the mall was a sign of things to come. Over the next decades, retailers would concentrate their investment in auto-friendly malls in the suburbs rather than downtown shopping areas. With its large middle class and new housing developments, Framingham was an ideal location for this new style of shopping. Eventually the original Shoppers' World design would become dated, and in 1994, over the protests of preservationists, the landmark was demolished.
From the Cultural Research Network:
“Geeking” and “Prototyping” the “New Normal”
A/Professor Christina Dunbar-Hester and Professor Fred Turner
Could we imagine and prototype human life in the post-pandemic world? Will geeks rule in the emerging social conditions of the new normal, or will they simply become extinct in the digital mainstreaming of daily life? The webinar will tackle the question of human typologies in new social formations and online networks.
Register here:
Date & time:
October 8, 2020
Los Angeles (Pacific Daylight Time): 10:00 PM
October 9, 2020
London (Greenwich Mean Time +2): 7:00 AM
Melbourne (Australian Eastern Standard Time): 4:00 PM
From the AAC&U:
Inside Higher EdPrevious research on the value of liberal arts education relied on using attendance at liberal arts colleges or enrollment in liberal arts and sciences majors as proxies for a liberal arts and sciences education. “But a liberal arts and sciences education is more than a set of academic disciplines, and students receive it across diverse sectors of postsecondary education,” the authors contend. Read more >>
By Jordan HarperNow that many colleges and universities have published solidarity and commitment statements in response to Black Lives Matter and calls for the eradication of structural racism, what’s next? Read more >>
From Academic Impressions:
The Words We Use: How Higher Ed is Responding to Calls for Culturally Relevant Pedagogy Increasingly, faculty leaders are responding seriously to the call for more “culturally relevant pedagogy,” referring to more inclusive classrooms and pedagogical styles. This article draws on findings from a recent inquiry into how institutions are thinking about equity within pedagogy. In late 2019 (prior to the COVID-19 pandemic), we conducted 28 phone interviews with both administrators and academics in higher education, from distinct universities. We spoke with leaders of Centers for Teaching and Learning, leaders in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and faculty in leadership positions. Here is a snapshot of how institutions are responding to the call for culturally relevant pedagogy. Read more. Perspectives from Underrepresented Women in Higher Ed Leadership Developing Intentional Strategies to Improve Campus Climate: A Discussion Space Creating Equitable and Inclusive Meetings Create a Culture of Cross-Campus Open Dialogue |
From EducationAdminWebAdvisor:
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From the Five College Center for East Asian Studies:
From the UMass Arts Extension Service:
PANEL - Creative Climate: Inspiration and Activation |
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| The wood is all stacked! |
Today's Online Teaching Tips:
From NISOD:
From NABCA:
From the AAC&U:
Meeting the Instructional Challenge of Distance Education
Inside Higher Ed
From McGraw Hill:
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