Category Columns
Three Days in Auschwitz
(Originally published by USC Shoah Foundation) I expected to feel an intimate and profound connection to Auschwitz after touring the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum for the first time late last month. After three consecutive days visiting and working at the museum, I was indeed moved. But the insight I was hoping for came from beyond the […]
Impact in Profile
(Originally published by USC Shoah Foundation) I recently emailed a teacher to ask if he was willing to be featured in a profile story on the USC Shoah Foundation website about his experiences using IWitness in his classroom. I had never been introduced to him and he had not been expecting to hear from me. […]
Vampires don’t suck
(Originally published in The California Aggie) Disclaimer: I have never read a Twilight book and only saw the first two movies so I could make fun of them. Therefore, what I am about to say may come as a bit of a shock. Twilight isn’t so bad. My change of heart came last Thursday, when […]
The end
(Originally published in The California Aggie) Screenwriters have perfected the art of the great ending over the last 100 years or so. I’ve always been a proponent of learning by imitation, so I think I’ll steal a page from their proverbial book today as I try (probably in vain) to neatly wrap up my career […]
Year in review
(Originally published in The California Aggie) As my tenure as Aggie editor and columnist winds down, I find myself struck by something that strikes many arts writers at the end of the year: the urge to think back on everything that happened over the last 12 months and judge it mercilessly. Let’s dive right in, […]
Goodbye, Oprah
(Originally published in The California Aggie) This time next week, the woman who brought us Favorite Things, the Book Club and Tom Cruise jumping on a couch will have officially closed the curtain on the most iconic daytime talk show of the last 25 years. You must know whom I’m talking about. After 25 years, […]
TV’s top 10
(Originally published in The California Aggie) What do an unemployed New Yorker, an Atlantic City gangster and an English countess have in common? They all made my list of the top seven television characters. I’ll qualify this list by admitting that it is completely biased and not in any way exhaustive of the history of […]
Now playing
(Originally published in The California Aggie) If you’ve been reading this column with any semblance of regularity, then you must have figured out one thing about me: I see a ton of movies. Some are good, some are bad and a select few are great. As a token of my appreciation to you, dear readers, […]
Internet sociology
(Originally published in The California Aggie) Experts may say the Internet is cutting down on face-to-face human interaction, but it’s also provided us with some of the greatest forums for social observation the world has ever seen. I’m talking about the dozens of websites that have popped up in the last five years that allow […]
Girl power
(Originally published in The California Aggie) The Bechdel Test goes something like this: In a given movie, 1. Are there at least two female characters? 2. Do they talk to each other? and 3. Do they talk to each other about something other than a man? Think back to some of your favorite movies. Chances […]
Robin Migdol 