Here’s a preview of Le Soleil or the Sun card from The Lenormand Revolution deck (La Révolution Lenormand), for which I’ve done the art in co-creation with the illustrious Carrie Paris. If you’re new to the Lenormand, it’s a card divination system popularly believed to have been designed by the French cartomancienne Marie Anne Adelaide Lenormand (1772–1843), who was counsellor to Joséphine de Beauharnais, Empress of France (the wife of Napoleon Bonaparte).  She also claimed to have advised several leaders of the French Revolution, including Robespierre and Marat. Lenormand historians assert that the 36-card Lenormand deck, known as le petit jeu de Lenormand was, in fact, created…

Listen, I’m voting again for President Obama mostly because 1) reproductive rights are cool and 2) I never thought he was the second coming in the first place.  But, have you seen the Obama Store?  There’s something deeply wrong with a nation when its president attempts to sell branded consumer loot through an online catalog as a part of his fund-raising and messaging strategy. Mouse over “Collections” to choose consumer products designed expressly for you!  What target market do you fall into? Women for Obama, African Americans for Obama, Latinos/Hispanics for Obama, AAPI (Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders) for Obama,…

In their 2001 bibliographical essay, “Cultural Studies and Composition,” Diana George and John Trimbur contribute to the text A Guide to Composition Pedagogies (Tate, Rupiper & Schick) by chronologically mapping the rise and themes of cultural studies in the composition classroom.  They end with a call to hold a key contradiction in sight as cultural studies within the field of composition studies continues to develop: contributors, such as the authors, who create theory and methods for teaching writing through cultural critique engage in “the production of scholarly commodities” at the same time that their work aims to critique the rhetoric…

Mitt Romney is still having trouble understanding cultural context and target audience in his communication efforts.  At the end of February this year, fighting in the Michigan primary, he tried to convince the working class folks in Detroit that he’s one of them—“a Detroit guy.”  He told them he drives a Mustang and a Chevy pick-up—and that his wife drives “a couple of Cadillacs.”  He almost had them with the muscle car and the truck.  But when he threw in his wife’s two caddies, which she alternates use of between two of their houses, the jig was up. Romney—who made…

Finally, an unanimous decision to observe the situation in Syria has been made by the UN Security Council. Up to 30 UN military observers will be sent to the region. What a relief. We do so desperately need highly qualified analysts to decrypt culturally complicated messages like this one, which emerged from the country on April 12, 2012.

by Roz Foster Photo credit: AFP In 2012, Martine Aubry may become the first présidente (female president) of France.  In 2000, Aubry pushed through the 35-hour workweek along with universal health care for France.  She’s been mayor of Lille since 2001 and the leader of the French Socialist party (the first woman in the role) since 2008.  She is currently a candidate in her party’s primary (which will be held October 9, 2011) for the upcoming 2012 French presidential election.  On July 26 of this year, she revealed a key facet of her proposed presidency.  Publishing an article in Le…