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Striving for the Third Space Conception: Classical Origins in Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin and Le Corbusier’s Villa Savoye

Striving for the Third Space Conception: Classical Origins in Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin and Le Corbusier’s Villa Savoye

This article was originally written as a term paper for an architectural theory course at Princeton University. It has been revised and updated for web publication. An elaborate house of planes and pitched roofs emerges from a green hill in Wisconsin, while a house that resembles a spaceship stands apart in a field in France. The two houses, the first being Frank Lloyd Wright’s estate and studio,…

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Tortoise: "Volcanoes and Detectives-- Writing unconventionally in academic work (and maybe doing it well)"

Tortoise: “Volcanoes and Detectives– Writing unconventionally in academic work (and maybe doing it well)”

In my final article for Tortoise: A Journal of Writing Pedagogy, I look at three somewhat messy essays from my Princeton career and assess what went right–and wrong. From essays about volcanoes, eccentric architects, and detectives, this one’s got it all. Read the article here. Image from Tortoise: A Journal of Writing Pedagogy. Courtesy of Princeton Writing Program.

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Predictions from the Edge of the World: Meet Mitch Bushuk, Climate Forecaster

Predictions from the Edge of the World: Meet Mitch Bushuk, Climate Forecaster

Mitch Bushuk recalls being ‘focused’ while on board a helicopter over Jakobshavn Glacier in Greenland. “We’d search visually for open water, then we’d fly the helicopter towards the open water, hover over it,” Bushuk says. “We’d open up the side door, then we would basically try to throw the probe out the window and hit the patch of open water.” Bushuk acknowledges the task’s challenge. “It…

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Quote of the Fortnight: "I, Claudius" -The Madness of Caligula

Quote of the Fortnight: “I, Claudius” -The Madness of Caligula

This week, Expedictionary’s Quote of the Fortnight returns, this time with a quote from Robert Graves’ classic I, Claudius. The book, a fictionalized autobiography of Emperor Claudius’ life and the story of the first three Roman emperors (Augustus, Tiberius and Caligula), has startling parallels in considering the aims of an unstable leader who goes at great lengths to consolidate his power with…

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Top 5 Fiction Books Read in 2016

Top 5 Fiction Books Read in 2016

2016 was a tough year, but I managed to read a lot of good books in the meantime. Here is part II of my annual book list, this time in the fiction category. Read my nonfiction picks here. Note: this is a list of the best books that I read this year, not the best books published this year.   Courtesy Simon & Schuster 5. Loner, Teddy Wayne, 2016 David Federman is a freshman at Harvard and just…

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Top Five Nonfiction Books Read in 2016

Top Five Nonfiction Books Read in 2016

2016 was a pretty rotten year (except for the Cubs, I guess). All the same, I managed to read a lot of good books. Here are the five best nonfiction books I read this year. Next week, I’ll announce my top five books in fiction. Note: this is a list of the best books that I read this year, not the best books published this year. Image Courtesy Open Library 5. The Cheese and the Worms: The Cosmos…

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The Nassau Weekly: "Trumpymandias"

The Nassau Weekly: “Trumpymandias”

Read my parody of Percy Shelley’s classic poem “Ozymandias.” Yes, Trumpymandias. A short excerpt: “And on the pedestal these words (the best words) appear: ‘I am Trumpymandias, businessman of businesses, Look on my structures, nasty woman, and be sad!'” Read the whole thing at The Nassau Weekly webpage.    

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WPRB: Talking Blood Falls on “These Vibes are Too Cosmic” Listen to Brian Kraus' science radio show, "These Vibes are Too Cosmic" for WPRB. In the 11/22/16 episode, I talk about "Blood Falls," a geologic phenomenon featured as a plot point in my (forthcoming) creative thesis.

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The Nassau Weekly: "The Ashes of Moria"

"When all this is said and done, when the refugee crisis is over, what will remain of Moria?"

Statue of Sappho on Mytilene, Lesbos. (c) Harrison Blackman  This past summer, I visited Lesbos as part of a Princeton journalism class on the refugee crisis. A month after our class visited the Moria refugee camp, its occupants rioted and burned Moria to the ground. This is my account of visiting Lesbos–during the calm before the storm. While difficult to perceive, there were clues of the events…

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Nassau Weekly: The Bourne Escalation This week in the Nassau Weekly, I reflect on the latest Bourne film, and Hollywood blockbuster screenwriting in general. Check out the article in the hyperlink above.

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Reporting from Greece: "Getting to know Greek literature-A look inside Aiora Press"

Reporting from Greece: “Getting to know Greek literature-A look inside Aiora Press”

The interior of Aiora Press. (Amanda Blanco) This summer, I had the privilege of taking a journalism course in Athens, Greece. In my final blog article for the class, I interviewed the founder of Aiora Press, a Greek publishing house that translates the Modern Greek classics for international audiences. Check the article out here!

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Reporting from Greece: "Paradise lost"

Reporting from Greece: “Paradise lost”

A restaurant in Molyvos, Lesbos, is completely empty, in the middle of high tourist season. This summer, I have the privilege of taking a journalism course in Athens, Greece. Weekly updates will explore new facets of Athens as my classmates and I search for stories from some of the world’s most fascinating and historic locales. This week, we take you to the island of Lesbos, which lies just six…

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Reporting from Greece: "St. Paul's Day at the Areopagus"

Reporting from Greece: “St. Paul’s Day at the Areopagus”

Orthodox priests display an icon of St. Paul on the Areopagus, the location where St. Paul delivered a famous sermon to the Athenians. (Amanda Blanco) This summer, I have the privilege of taking a journalism course in Athens, Greece. Weekly updates will explore new facets of Athens as my classmates and I search for stories from one of the world’s most fascinating and historic locales! In my…

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Reporting from Greece: "The Heat"

Reporting from Greece: “The Heat”

Athens, Greece (Harrison Blackman) This summer I have the privilege of taking a journalism seminar in Athens, Greece regarding the refugee crisis. My classmates and I are compiling a blog of our articles, which should prove to be an interesting compilation by course’s end. My first article, an essay about my impressions of Greece, can be found here.

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Tortoise: A Journal of Writing Pedagogy

Tortoise: A Journal of Writing Pedagogy

Crafting a cohesive argument with a unified thesis is difficult. In this article for Tortoise: A Journal of Writing Pedagogy, I reconsider one of my less successful academic papers — a critical analysis of the United Nation’s World Heritage Committee’s definition of cultural landscapes — an argument which morphed into a discussion of the role of buffalo in shaping the landscape of the Great…

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The Daily Princetonian: Unfamiliar Street – West Georgia Street, Vancouver, BC 'Unfamiliar Street' is a travel series in which we take you to a cool street far from Princeton, NJ. This week, I wrote about West Georgia Street in Vancouver, British Columbia, one of the main thru-ways through downtown. Check the article out here.

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The Daily Princetonian: Artistic Criticism – Visiting The Frick Collection This week in Street, I ventured off campus to review The Frick Collection's new exhibit, "Van Dyck: The Anatomy of Portraiture," an exploration of the portraits of Flemish master Anthony Van Dyck.