Meacham Writers' Conference, Chattanooga, TN

The Meacham Writers' Conference is held every semester at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and Chattanooga State. It is a chance for undergraduate writers to submit fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry in order for their writing to be workshopped by a visiting writer. The conference began on October 24 and ended on October 27, and there are also several public readings each day of the conference. The visting writers included Lee University's Dr. Chad Prevost, Rebecca Cook, Laurel Snyder, Richard Jackson, and Sebastian Matthews, among others.

Because of my busy school and work schedule, my participation in the conference only included the Saturday morning workshop. I submitted a short story, and my piece was group with three creative nonfiction pieces in a workshop by Laurel Snyder. Snyder was a former student and professor at UTC and a graduate of the MFA program at the University of Iowa, one of the nation's leading graduate programs in creative writing. The three other students in my workshop were students at UTC and attended for a nonfiction class requirement, and I know atleast one of the students was an English major with a writing concentration.

As far as the other three pieces go, they had potential, but that was about it. I enjoy reading other writers' work and offering suggestions. Workshopping is really easy for me because even though I am not the best writer, I understand what makes good writing. These workshops gave me an idea of the level the English students of UTC were writing at. I was hoping to find that the writers at UTC were better than I was so I could really learn from the experience. Truthfully, the pieces were either boring, unclear, or completely ridiculous. I was worried that the writers of Lee University were behind the curve, but actually, I think we are ahead (atleast ahead of UTC).

Laurel Snyder was completely helpful as the workshop moderator. She spent plenty of time on each piece (we even ran almost an hour over the scheduled time). The advice and criticism was well-spoken and clear. She did not focus much of positive aspects of the work, just commented enough for the writer to understand and moved on to something that could have been done better.

Disclaimer: Do not attend the Meacham Writers' Conference if you are an introductory writer who cannot take criticism. This workshop was created so writers know what to improve upon, not so they can continue to blindly make the same mistakes. Also, in my workshop, Laurel Snyder used language that might be offensive to sensitive writers.

I would recommend the Meacham Writers' Conference to anyone who enjoys writing, reading, and striving for improvement.

Official website: Meacham Conference
Laurel Snyder's blog: Jewishy Irishy
Laurel Snyder's webzine: Killing the Buddha

Chicago, Illinois

This was my first trip to Chicago, Illinois, and I was surprised to see how much I enjoyed the city. I only spent about a day and a half in the city, which was not nearly enough time. I only visited 1.5 museums out of the many in the city. The transportation systems were fairly clean and relatively easy to figure out (despite missing three trains), but the fares will soon be increased; the federal government does not contribute enough funds to the transportation system. The plan of the city was easy to navigate. The streets were not nearly as crowded and dirty as New York City. Of course the pizza and shopping were great (there's a three-story H&M).



The Navy Pier turns into the "Navy Fear" in October, and the city decorates everything for Halloween. Rusty, faded cars and boats line the streets and tell stories of plunging into the lake or sinking without cause. The renowned ferris wheel seemed fun but ultimately terrifying (to say I'm acrophobic is an understatement) when the furious wind began to rock the cart at the top of the circle.

Chicago, Illinois: The Museum of Science and Industry

Chicago, Illinois: The Art Institute of Chicago

"Brushstroke with Spatter" by Roy Lichentstein


"The Bedroom" by Vincent Van Gogh

Oak Park, Illinois: The Hemingway Birthplace and Museum

Ernest Hemingway is one of my favorite authors, not to mention one of the most influential authors on the entire world of literature. He is famous for many novels and short stories, such as For Whom the Bell Tolls, A Farewell to Arms, “The Snows of Kilimanjaro,” and “Hills Like White Elephants.” His first Scribner’s novel, The Sun Also Rises, is my absolute favorite novel, almost to the point of obsession. I am completely in love with the physically and emotionally scarred Jake Barnes and his relationship with the promiscuous Lady Brett Ashley. The book captures the settings of the Lost Generation, a group stranded after the first World War, living in modernist Paris, drinking absinthe, reading and writing, and traveling to illustrious cities like Burguete and Pamplona in Spain.



Needless to say, I was overjoyed to find out about the existence of a Hemingway museum in Oak Park, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. Hemingway was born in Oak Park, an area filled with literary history and houses by Frank Lloyd Wright. The city itself was picturesque of a quaint town in autumn. Boutiques and shops lined the streets. The weather was somewhat dreary but still nice enough to walk to the museum.

The museum and birth home are completely run by volunteers and members of the Hemingway Foundation of Oak Park. I thought that because all the employees were volunteers, they must really care about the museum and want to give the best experience for the guests. I was wrong. The volunteers were snooty and awkward; the tour guide seemed to rehearse a script rather than inform about the birth home. The attendant overseeing the museum practically made me beg for her to open the gift shop. When she finally decided to walk down the four steps to the shop (and after I swore to purchase something), she forced my boyfriend to sit at the ticket table while I looked. While in the gift shop, a man I had seen wandering around the exhibit entered. The volunteer questioned whether he had paid the ticket price and continued to interrogate him (I think it would be impossible to enter the museum through the only doorway, past the only attendant, without being noticed). He finally presented his ticket and she left him to look at the slightly overpriced memorabilia. I did manage to find a Hemingway world map for a friend and a decently-priced poster for myself, therefore keeping my word to the disgruntled volunteer.

The house itself was a little hokey; everything was reproduced and sometimes inconsistently. The house was obtained by the foundation in the 90s, so most of the house has been recreated using photographs. In the sitting room of the house, a photograph depicted the room with bold stripes painted on the walls, when in reality, only a small panel of the wall was painted. When asked why only this section was painted, the tour guide said, “I don’t know. I guess someone just didn’t feel like finishing it.”

The museum contained no actual manuscripts and focused largely on The Old Man and the Sea. Some of the exhibits were poorly constructed, with fake leaves strewn about the display. Only one case exhibited The Sun Also Rises, even though this novel was the catalyst for the legend of Ernest Hemingway. The museum was a major disappointment for me.

Across the Universe

Across the Universe was the biggest anticipated film of the fall season for me. As an avid Beatles fan, the idea of a musical film based entirely on Beatles songs sounded perfect. The film is set in the 1960s during the Vietnam War and deals with historical events of the time, such as racial struggles, the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., anti-war groups, the hippie movement, and psychedelic drug use.

After finally seeing the film (after it opened in Chattanooga a few weeks after the release date), it was everything I expected. Jude, played by Jim Sturgess, travels to the United States in search of his absentee father, only to find his father a disappointing janitor at Princeton. While lurking around campus, Jude meets Max (Joe Anderson), a rule-breaking Ivy League student, and befriends him. Max later introduces Jude to his younger sister Lucy (Evan Rachel Wood), an angsty teen whose boyfriend was shipped off to Vietnam only to return as a dogtag and box of ashes. The three characters end up living in the Village of New York with a Joplin-esque singer (Dana Fuchs as Sadie), a guitarist resembling Jimi Hendrix (Martin Luther as JoJo), and a misguided lesbian (T.V. Carpio as Prudence). As the film progresses, Max is drafted to the Vietnam War, Jim and Lucy fall in love, and the cast of characters battle with the repercussions of the current state of the country. The film is packed with Beatles references (such as the name choices), hallucinations (Bono’s magical mystery tour), beautiful costumes, and incredible makeup (the soldiers examining Max are both frightening and amazing).



The film is a musical, so it does include several cheesy scenes, such as business men dancing on the streets, teenagers running through a glowing bowling alley, and bizarre scenery. There are a few guest appearances, like Bono donning a cowboy hat and colored lenses (that’s odd…) as Dr. Robert and Eddie Izzard as the over-the-top Mr. Kite. Some of my personal favorite songs were “Let It Be,” the opening “Girl,” and “Something.” Both Jim Sturgess and Evan Rachel Wood have excellent voices, and I was surprised to find out that most of the musical sequences were filmed live on set. Some songs that were missing (that I would have liked to have seen): “Eleanor Rigby,” “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da,” and “The End.”



Official film website: acrosstheuniverse.com
IMDB: Across the Universe
Trailer: YouTube

In the Shadow of the Moon

I first learned of the film this summer when Entertainment Weekly reviewed the film and highly recommended it to its readers. Later in the fall, trailers for the movie appeared on virb.com (the hipster's myspace).

This film is not exactly one I would have known about prior to dating my boyfriend, an expert on all things Apollo, but I must say that I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was refreshing to focus on a screen portraying history and the remarkable feats of scince instead and tuning to VH1 to see which trashy woman the d-list star rejected this week. The documentary, a Ron Howard production, illustrates the space race of the 1960s with particular emphasis on the United States' NASA's Apollo missions. The film combines footage of astronaut training, world news reels, and actual video footage of space with current interviews with the men who lived it all. The former astronauts speak candidly about their experiences with the Apollo program, including botched trials, dangerous situations, and how it feels to be in the expanse of space. The focus surrounds the twenty-four men who flew to the moon and their crews at NASA.

It was interesting to see footage of various Apollo happenings without completely focusing on the famous Apollo 11 mission. I think most Americans see Apollo 11 as the only successful mission to the moon, and even then tend to forget that two men other than Neil Armstrong were also on the flight (Buzz Aldrin and Mike Collins). Mike Collins was actually one of my favorites in the film. Collins stayed behind in the ship while Armstrong and Aldrin walked the surface of the moon.

I enjoyed the footage of Apollo 8, the first mission to completely orbit the moon. This flight was manned by Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and Will Anders. It is famous for capturing the Earth's rise over the moon while the ship was in lunar orbit. As the Earth rose in space, the astronauts read parts of the Creation story from the Bible.

The film does lack information about what the men did with their lives after their trip to the moon and back. After the hour and forty minutes, I was left wondering why society's moonman, Neil Armstrong, was not in the film. Everyone else, however, did make an appearance: Buzz Aldrin, Jim Lovell, Al Bean...but Neil was only discussed in commentary.

Overall, I thought In the Shadow of the Moon was an amazing film, and I would recommend it to anyone interested in the space program, science, or knowledge in general.