Welcome Spring! It was great arriving home this week to a sunny and warm city after the chill of Toronto—there was a great buzz out on the street yesterday as people took advantage of a near perfect Saturday afternoon. I was also happy to get back into my routine at work and meeting with students this week reminded me of all that they have learned and absorbed this semester. There are some especially fantastic year-end projects shaping up in my American New Wave Cinema class and I have been enjoying the critical discussion with my Contemporary Art History students who have visited the Vancouver Art Gallery MashUp exhibition and drawn ideas they have taken from their lectures and seminars to critically assess what they viewed there. As for my Intro to Film students, I have enjoyed listening to many of their recent film picks (I am always adding to my list) and hearing how they have made efforts to really pay attention to aspects of production and design they would have normally ignored or overlooked.

In this week’s media links, I also noted several interesting connections to artists and ideas I have recently lectured about in my courses that are making the news, including: the significance of Robert Mapplethorpe’s photo projects in the 1980’s; Stanley Kubrick’s influence on the American New Wave; and the role of new technologies like virtual reality in revolutionizing art and filmmaking practices. Enjoy the content and have a great first week of spring!