Hello Everyone!
This week, I came to the realization that the way I approach going to the grocery store is very similar to my approach to museums. Whenever I go into a Trader Joe’s, I wander the aisles, glancing at the different food options on display, some older classical staples like eggs, fruits, and pasta, and some newer, more modern offerings like Ube Mochi Pancake Mix. I stop at the foods that interest me, examining them with just a bit more detail, admiring the labels, ingredients, and nutritional value to deeply reflect on whether or not I would even want to eat it. I think to myself, “I love the creativity of this,” or perhaps its counterpart, “What was going through their heads when making this?” And at the end of my grocery run, I feel just a bit more intellectually (and in this case, nutritionally) fulfilled.
With that said, let’s find out What’s Up With Will…
What I really appreciate about the Gender Studies class is how the professor frequently brings in other guest lecturers who are at the forefront of the field to chat about their recent works. This is the second time this semester, but I think there is something extremely useful and engaging about being in an actual dialogue with others from the discipline, rather than just in a dialogue with their work.
One of the questions that I asked the guest lecturer was how they went about selecting the examples that they wrote about, and they responded that over time, they built a repertoire of examples and lived experiences that naturally evolved from a collection of disparate things into a story that only you can tell. This is true of all of us, though. We are all building our own archives filled with everything that we come into contact with, and from that archive, we can build our own story to tell.
After the guest lecturer left and we continued to chat about this week’s readings, I felt compelled to do a show and tell about the Asian Art Museum that I went to last week, leaning into my own experiences to engage with the reading. It felt like being in kindergarten again, yet liberating to bring parts of my life into the classroom. As I move forward towards the final paper in this class, I think I want to continue diving into this experiential autoethnographical side of academia.
In Methods, we started with a collective activity to recap all that we have covered so far in class, moving from the initial brainstorm for research projects to the interview process. All of these steps were part of the fabric of our methods, whether we realized it or not, so as we begin to write about our methods more deeply and clearly, each of these steps should be included in the methods section itself. As the professor stated, we are essentially writing the recipe for this research project and how to recreate it if someone wanted to.
We also took the time to explain our projects to our peers, because as the professor stated, every time you talk about your research offers the opportunity to learn something new about it. Through the three rounds, I was able to think more about certain analytical sections to dive into around the approachability of wine and the creativity of how a wine bartender explains wine.
Finally, we moved from the methodology section of our projects to the analysis portion of our projects. In qualitative research, analysis is composed of three parts. First is the claim, which ultimately is used to highlight something in particular to the reader. A claim provides background, describes how it fits into the paper, and explains why the section connects to the overarching research questions. Next is the evidence, a data extract, a quote from an interview segment, or a piece of text that can be interpreted to better understand the claim. Finally, there is the explanation, the point at which you explain how the evidence fits the claim. Our professor said that oftentimes, researchers fail to include the explanation section, but it is where the analysis gets tied together. Through this explanation section, you point out the points (both obvious and non-obvious) that support your claim and bring you to your conclusion.
In my public speaking class that I am teaching, I spent the week reviewing introductions, conclusions, main points, and evidence/examples for the persuasive speech, as well as providing workshop time. While I had already covered these things for the informative speech, it never hurts for a refresher. I also could tell that there was a miasma of stress and fatigue in the room from midterms and the upcoming final exams. I know that if there is one class that is going to be put to the wayside, it’s going to be the public speaking class, so having some dedicated workshop time just to complete the speech (which we will begin presentations starting next week) will help the students actually prepare for the final in-class assignment. I also want to see the students thrive, and if we finish our final big speech early, the students have one less thing to worry about come finals week.
On my way into school this week, I stopped by the Castro for this newsletter’s Will Willis Weekday Excursion.
My first stop was the Photo Booth Museum, a place dedicated to keeping the analog photo alive. It’s filled with multiple old-school analog photo booths that were rescued, rebuilt, and restored to working order (like the Auto-Photo Model 9 pictured above), as well as a couple of old signs. Despite signage saying “3 Poses for 50 cents”, photo prices have inflated a lot more than in the past 50 years. Instead of getting myself a photo strip, I decided to take a photo on my phone while inside a photo booth. Am I contributing to the downfall of analog? Perhaps, but maybe there’s something deeper to this photo inception art piece. Say Cheese!
I think my second stop overheard that I said cheese, and they said, “Yes, please!” Gada specializes in Tunisian-style flatbread sandwiches drenched with cheese. I got myself a “Cheese Please!”, with potatoes, caramelized onions, and cornichons piled high on top of the flaky, chewy Melawi bread, and then topped with raclette. I loved the texture of the Melawi Bread, and it is somewhat reminiscent of naan, and as for raclette, what’s not to love? I have been seeing a lot of hype online about places that melt the raclette and then scrape it onto your meal, and it holds up to the hype, but I never once doubted that it wouldn’t, because, at the end of the day, it’s just melted cheese.
Baseball’s in season, and we are in prime time giveaway season. In honor of Brandon Belt Appreciation Day, the giveaway was a Brandon Belt themed Aloha shirt, and while I had no clue who Brandon Belt was, I love a good Hawaiian shirt.
“You Had Me At Aloha!”
On my way to the game, Rylee and I looked up Brandon Belt, and all I could find was that he was a player on the Toronto Blue Jays, but had played 12 years for the Giants and was part of the Giants’ 2012 and 2014 National Championship teams. I totally understood the impact that he had on the team, but we looked at the schedule, and the Blue Jays were playing today, so we thought Brandon Belt would not even be in attendance. It felt like a matter of an ex begging to get back together again. As the ceremony started, we got more and more confused as his former teammates, coaches, friends, and family walked onto the field, and we were shocked when Brandon himself came out to give a speech. That’s when we realized that he is not currently playing for any team, which made this whole event start to make sense.
What stood out to me about this was the palpable excitement that everyone in the stadium had for Brandon. In addition to the Aloha shirts, people wore captain’s hats and giraffe gear in honor of his two nicknames (“Baby Giraffe” and “The Captain”). The players and coaches on the field were also enthusiastically fervent about Brandon’s time with the Giants. I am a relatively newly minted Giants fan, so I am missing out on part of this team’s lore. It has me thinking about the current players, such as Jung Hoo Lee, Matt Chapman, Willy Adames, and Heliot Ramos, and how I kind of hope that some of them will have long-lasting relationships with the Giants. Maybe one day, we will be celebrating these players for their accomplishments, and I will be able to reminisce with the same enthusiasm as everyone here did about Brandon Belt.
I have been binging these Binging With Babish X Alton Brown Crossover videos this week. I had no clue that they collaborated together, but I have seen like 4 or 5 this week. They make for quite the dynamic duo. I love Gator-Wine, but I question their ranking of both the Mai-Tai and the Aperol Spritz.
