Tommy Collison's Blog, page 5

Nancy Wake

Via The Independent:

Resistance heroine who led 7,000 men against the Nazis

Ms Wake, who has died in London just before her 99th birthday, was a New Zealander brought up in Australia. She became a nurse, a journalist who interviewed Adolf Hitler, a wealthy French socialite, a British agent and a French resistance leader. She led 7,000 guerrilla fighters in battles against the Nazis in the northern Auvergne, just before the D-Day landings in 1944. On one occasion, she strangled an SS sentry with her bare hands. On another, she cycled 500 miles to replace lost codes. In June 1944, she led her fighters in an attack on the Gestapo headquarters at Montlucon in central France.

[...]

Nancy recalled later in life that her parachute had snagged in a tree. The French resistance fighter who freed her said he wished all trees bore "such beautiful fruit". Nancy retorted: "Don't give me that French shit."

Inevitably Irish: From West Egg to NYU

 

One of the things I did this summer was start reading what I’ll loosely term here as “modern American classics”. I started with The Great Gatsby, followed with Slaughterhouse Five, and then moved onto The Grapes of Wrath. [1]

I did this because I wanted to be able to hold conversations about literature with other American students. Books of this ilk are assigned reading for American high school students.

As an Irish teenager recently transplanted into lower Manhattan, and attending college with 20,000 other undergraduates, I found one aspect of The Great Gatsby to be particularly resonant. 

In The Great Gatsby, Nick (the narrator) is writing about New York life as a foreigner to the city. Everything in the novel is inexorably affected by the Midwestern lens Nick sees things through, with all its inherent traditional morality. He is an alien to the fast-paced lifestyle and decadent parties that he meets in West Egg. 

I can’t help but relate to Nick when I write this blog, given that I’m also a transplant to NYC and a helpless victim of my own lens. Of course, all writers are subject to their own bias and subjectivity, and I have yet to ferret out the immorality and decadence that Nick found, but I think moving from a slow, conservative, somewhat introspective town in Ireland to the ultra-liberal, outgoing NYC is a jump similar in nature to Nick Carraway’s.

Recognizing one’s bias doesn’t actually go too far in mitigating it, and I think this blog will always be characterized by its inevitable Irish perspective. I don’t want to keep coming back to that Irishness, though — I think it’s a pretty narrow niche to peddle. All the same, I feel it’s interesting, and important, to take note of it. 

 [1] As always, you can check my Reading Log to see what I'm reading, and I keep a separate GoodReads shelf with titles I read specifically for college.

Photo: Washington Square Park. 

 

John Siracusa on Mavericks, Tommy Collison on publishing

I just finished John Siracusa's review of Mavericks, Apple's new software update for OS X. My takeaway has, perhaps surprisingly, nothing to do with Mac software. 

To me, Siracusa remains one of the best technology writers today. The review is well-researched, thorough, and presented in language that's never overly technical. Even more than that, his business model, releasing the content for free online while simultaneously offering paid eBook versions, is one that fascinates me. (Not coincidentally, it's also the model I use in publishing my own writings -- see That's Me and A Certain Freedom.) 

It fascinates me because it represents the state of publishing today. In the past, publishing on a large-scale was time-consuming and expensive -- it only became cheap in bulk, which kept a lot of casual writers out of the market. Try to imagine John Siracusa pitching his Mavericks review to a traditional publisher 20 or 30 years ago. It's a piece of writing with a relatively narrow interest range, and it's probably too short for most publishers to take an interest in.

But thanks to the internet, Siracusa can publish his review, and those who are interested can find it. Some will even pay for it. The internet connects those who care about Mavericks reviews with those who publish them. It's an example of how writers today can circumvent traditional means and still publish their work for an audience and still get paid for it. 

That's why I have no problem including the review in a Reading Log -- it feels just as legitimate a read as Kurt Vonnegut or Neil Gaiman. 

Check John Siracusa's OS X 10.9 Mavericks review out on Ars Technica, the iBookstore, and the Kindle store.

 

King Juan Carlos I of Spain Center hosts panel, films to discuss Spanish economic crisis

I made my print debut in a North American newspaper today, with an article on the Indignados movement in Spain. Last week, I became a contributing writer for the Washington Square News, NYU's student newspaper.

As I walked down Broadway on my way home from the WSN office yesterday afternoon, I couldn't help thinking that I really had achieved something I was proud of. I first visited NYU and decided to apply here in July 2011, and obviously I had wanted to write for newspapers for years, even at that stage. We hear and read so much about people trying to achieve their goals that I feel we rarely hear from those who set a goal and followed it through. Sometimes, it's hard with longitudinal goals to step back and realize you've made progress, but as I sit by Washington Square Park (what passes as a campus here at NYU) with a copy of the WSN, I can't help but feel like I've achieved something.

Review: The Last Five Years in concert at 54 Below

I hate reviewing shows that are like babies to me. As a 19-year-old male, it feels weird typing that anything is my baby, but there are certain shows that feel so close to my heart, and that I have such fond memories of, that they feel like babies to me. 

I also hate that, for the last couple years, this is how I've chosen shows. I'm very slow to get into new shows, preferring to revisit old reliables with new casts or new imaginings or different sets or on tour. It goes much the same way each time -- a friend introduces me to a show, I devour the script, I watch all the versions on YouTube, I go to outlandish lengths to see the show. (When my brothers were in college in Boston, I scheduled a trip to visit them that just so happened to coincide with the musical RENT visiting Providence, RI, with original cast-members Anthony Rapp and Adam Pascal.) 

 

(Excuse the extreme blurriness.) 

So as I took my seat at the bar with my parents in 54 Below in NYC, I felt apprehensive. I was about to see Adam Kantor and Betsy Wolfe reimagine characters I thought I knew so well. If I had owned a physical copy of the original 2003 Off-Broadway recording of The Last Five Years, it would have been worn out. Suffice to say I clicked on the MP3s in iTunes hundreds of times, but it's just not the same.

Speaking of iTunes, I had (of course) preordered this new cast recording when it was announced. Kantor and Wolfe were part of a 2013 revival earlier this year. I actually happened to be in New York while it was running in the Second Stage Theater, but opted to meet a friend for lunch the afternoon I had provisionally chosen to see the show. At the time, I thought little of it, but in retrospect, I feel I was avoiding seeing the show. That sounds bad, but I did feel scared -- new casts reinvented roles all the time, why did it matter? But still, I felt this show more intimate than most -- there are only two cast members and you essentially watch a marriage disintegrate. This was the first revival cast: as clichéd as it sounds, I just wasn't sure if I was ready to let new actors take those roles over.

As I watched Adam Kantor and Betsy Wolfe sing their hearts out in 54 Below earlier tonight, I realized something new about seeing shows, especially ones you're familiar with. Adam Kantor takes over the role Norbert Leo Butz originated, and it begs the question -- who is Adam playing? Jamie, the show's protagonist, or Norbert's interpretation of Jamie? Too many times, actors play it safe and give audiences what they're used to, or what they're expecting. Instead, the new actor should bring his own vibe to the character, making him recognizable to the audience but in no way the same.  Betsy Wolfe took Cathy in a completely new direction that felt so right , even if it came completely out of left field. [1] Betsy's ownership of the role brought a newfound sense of dynamism and emotion that made the show click in a way I'm not sure I've ever experienced before.

The actors are trying something new, making the characters their own. 54 Below taught me that, well, that has to be okay.

Congratulations to Jason Robert Brown [2], Adam Kantor, Betsy Wolfe, and everyone involved with the wonderful production of The Last Five Years. I wish it a long and happy life.

[1] Here in NYC, I watched my first ever game of baseball with a friend a couple weekends ago, so expect a few baseball metaphors to pop up in Collision Course from time to time. 

[2] I had the pleasure of meeting JRB earlier this week at the album launch of The Last Five Years . What a total delight.

 

Disabled Diversity

I spotted this in a Starbucks the other night, and something about it jarred with me: 

I don't quite know why it doesn't sit well with me, but I think it's the fact that it's referring to a disability as an example of diversity. Having more women in tech is an example of diversity, but disability, I feel, isn't. Disability is a limitation on somebody's mental or physical abilities -- I'm not proud of being different on account of my physical limitations. 

Friendly reminder that I've written extensively about growing up with a physical disability.

College Reading

One of the most common questions I get about NYU is what professors are getting us to read for each of the courses. Since I'm a compulsive list-maker (thanks, Mum!), I decided to start keeping a list of required reading. I thought about making the list on 42409, like my Reading Log, but Andrew reminded me how great GoodReads.com is, and so I've created a for-college reading shelf on my profile. I might organize them by module in the future, but for now I think it's okay as-is. (If the book is called The Foundations of Chinese Society , you can probably guess which module it was for.)

One thing I haven't figured out is how to include the short PDF excerpts I read for class each week. In any given week, I read about 100 pages of assorted books and journals, either as background for class or required reading for lectures. I haven't decided on a good way to list those, so I'm avoiding them for now.

Fall in the Park

9:05am. I decided to get up a couple minutes early today to catch Washington Square Park before it gets too busy.

I'm reminded this morning why the park is my favorite part of Manhattan. There's so much activity -- people walking their dogs, students catching up on their reading, gingers taking photos and blogging them...

Fall is definitely in the air, too -- it's currently a chilly 13°C/55°F and I can't see it getting much warmer.

NYC Rain

The weather's been pretty pleasant so far, but it's scheduled to get pretty bad over the coming days. Living in NYC is different to Ireland in that here, we have distinct, discernible seasons. The fall colors in the park are gorgeous, I'll upload some photos soon.

My friend Anthony turned me on to the Hipstamatic app for iPhone, which this photo was taken with.

Leaving New York's Never Easy

R.E.M. said it best. I just passed 6 weeks living here and I'm finally starting to feel as if I'm settling in. I'm even developing that singularly New York-ish desire never to leave the city.

One of the things that characterized this summer for me (apart from trying to see all my friends again for the last time before I moved away) was people telling me to be careful in New York City. They seemed to be personifying NYC as this nebulous physical force that chews people up and spits them out. Although I was grateful for whatever advice people gave me about moving continents, I couldn't help thinking that they were being hyperbolic. Is New York that different to other cities? Will SF eat you up? How about London or Chicago? 

After being here for a prolonged length of time (the longest I've lived alone in any city), I can say that they were over-exaggerating, but at the same time, I feel like I can see where they're coming from, too. NYC is very much an always-on city and that can get exhausting at times. That said, it's only as busy as you make it; you can chill out in bed for an evening and read if that's what you'd prefer. I think you combat some of NYC's overwhelmingness by having a schedule -- putting order on your day gives you control over it. (This is true whether you're living in the Irish countryside or a busy city, of course.) I have lectures and readings and recitations each week, which break down my time into more manageable chunks, so I can carve out 'blocks' of time to meet people for lunch or read or catch up on e-mail. Incidentally, it's much harder to waste time in these small blocks -- it's very hard to feel as if you've just spent a whole afternoon doing nothing at all.

NYC can eat you up if you're not careful, but life in general can too, so there's no need to be especially worried about this city.