Verve Blogs
Cooking without class: Vegan pizza makes for a perfect Friday night
When I was growing up, Friday night was pizza night. Between my two brothers and me, our palate was limited. As my age has matured so has my palate. My younger self would say, “Vegetables on pizza? Ew.” In my teenage years I said, “I will take the chicken Alfredo pizza, good sir.” I never thought my pizza choice […]
The art in film history: Charlie Chaplin perfected comedy
Picture your favorite comedy movie. You got it? Is it funny because of the jokes or the actions of the characters? Now imagine watching that same movie on mute, the entire duration of the movie. Would it still be funny? In 1925, movies were silent without dialogue and sound effects, though not two years later this […]
Art column: “Transport” through time and place
Artwork can be a vehicle, transporting the viewer through time and place. In a gallery space, passengers can visit artworks from a variety of artists, cultures and locations, bringing with them their own knowledge and experiences. The audience is transported to different times and different places, finding their own paths of connection. Experiencing an original artwork in realtime exposes the viewer […]
The art in film history: A passion for the classics
When I was a junior in high school there was a class offered called American Film History. In my mind, that meant an entire hour every day dedicated to watching movies, which was a lot better than an hour of Chemistry. But what I didn’t know when I signed up for this class was that […]
Cooking without class: A vegetarian experiment
Every time I tell someone I occasionally dive into the art of vegan cooking, I get some peculiar looks. In the Midwest, there is a lot of pressure to eat meat, dairy and eggs. For the most part, eating a plant-based diet is unusual around here, but I can’t resist an adventure into the land of […]
The Little Pour on the Prairie: Art students participate in iron pour
Timing is everything. Shortly after being accepted into the Master of Fine Arts graduate program at the University of South Dakota, I had the opportunity to participate in a grant project overseen by Jordan Eaton, a Bachelor of Fine Arts graduate. Eaton wrote and received the grant in 2012 and has spent the past few years […]
Don’t shrug off Midwest hospitality, embrace the one-of-a-kind trait
As the Boeing 747 touched down in Minneapolis-St. Paul, returning me — and nearly all of my worldly possessions, stuffed haphazardly into three separate suitcases — onto American soil for the first time in over 12 months, I was unsure what to expect. Fanfare? A welcoming committee? Simon and Garfunkel singing either “America” or “Homeward Bound?” Was […]
‘Noah’ digs deeper into biblical story
Lots of people know the story of Noah’s Ark. Or do we? The latest adaptation starring Russell Crowe digs deeper into the story. For starters, this film is directed by Darren Aronofsky of “Black Swan” fame, so this is going to get complicated. Noah, as depicted in the film, was a man who would put […]
Trends to avoid this spring
Some rules are simply meant to be broken. There are so many “what’s hot” and “what’s not” articles out there, but it may be difficult to decide, as a college student, what to actually listen to. There are also those unwritten rules everyone should follow. When someone fails to obey these, the “offender” can get […]
Don’t bet on a South Dakota spring
“South Dakota? You know it gets cold there, right?” This is what more than a few people back home said to me when they heard I was coming to school here. At the time, I thought it was pretty stupid. The only difference between the weather here and in Illinois was that Illinois got it […]