Author: Michael Janairo
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Friday Photo: Dan Flavin and Me
Dan Flavin artwork and me at David Zwirner Gallery, March 9, 2018 (Photo by Deborah Zlotsky) -
RIP Storify
The Storify logo appeared to be an “S” or was it begin and end single quotes? Storify is at an end. For the past seven-plus years, I’ve made 34 Storify stories by combining posts from Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube to tell stories in different ways. At the time I started, it felt like a great possibility for storytelling in general (check out this Storify) and the future of journalism in particular.
Storify will come to an end on May 16, 2018—and so will access to all the stories people created over the years.
So here’s a look back before it leaves.
- My most-read Storify, with nearly 3,000 views, was reactions to the 2011 Super Bowl Halftime Show: https://storify.com/mjanairo/super-bowl-half-time-show
- Another well-read Storify was the breaking news of reports of a gunman on the campus of the University at Albany in 2013 (it turned out to be a man in law enforcement visiting his son): https://storify.com/mjanairo/lockdown-rumor
- Sometimes I used Storify to save social media conversations I found interesting, as in this one about the Filipino identity of Rico, the main character in Robert Heinlein’s Starship Troopers: https://storify.com/mjanairo/starship-troopers-rico-and-identity
- Another one I used often as a cautionary tale for social media users is called The Aurora Twitter Fail, in which a fashion brand touted its Aurora dress for trending on social media on the day of the mass shooting at the movie theater in Aurora, Colorado: https://storify.com/mjanairo/the-aurora-twitter-fail
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Duolingo talking about a revolution
Studying Spanish in Duolingo, I came across back-to-back exercises talking about revolution.
- ¿Qué es una revolución? “What is a revolution?”
- Cada revolución es neuva. “Each revolution is new.”
Is this strange? Is this pointing to some kind of truth about the revolutions in Spanish-speaking countries? When I’m in Spain, especially in Catalonia, am I likely to hear talk about a revolution?
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Friday Photo: Florence, Italy
Giotto’s Campanile as seen from the Duomo, Florence, Italy, March 2006. -
Thank you, SFPA, for the Rhysling nomination!
My poem “Instructions for Astronauts” has been nominated for a Rhysling Award by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Poetry Association (SFPA)!
The poem was originally published in the Mithila Review along with a video produced by Salik Shah that includes my voice reading the poem. The Rhysling nomination means the poem will be published again, this time in The 2018 Rhysling Anthology of all nominated poems.
