News, Events, and Happenings on the Marinette Campus
The Driftwood is our student-centered e-newsletter for the Marinette campus. We’ll bring you tips for navigating life as a masked-and-distanced or online student, as well as suggestions for entertaining yourself while you’re social distancing.
- Campus News 1
- Campus News 2
- Campus Services: Career Services
- Movie Recs: The Trilogy Edition
- World Films: The Middle East
- Recommended Reads
- Podcast Picks
- Gamer’s Corner
- The Trash Vortex: ’80s Movies
- Local Favorites: Last-Minute Winter Activities
- Self-Care Corner: Spring Cleaning for the Mind
- Recipe Roundup: Bachelor’s Banquet
- Storytellers #1
- Storytellers #2
- Storytellers #3
- Storytellers #4
- Storytellers #5
- Poetry Corner
- Travel Tales: Trash Travels
- Real Talk #1: Celebrity Q&A
- Real Talk #2: Humanizing Our Professors
The Driftwood is published by the UWGB Practicum in Literary Publishing class.
Book Recs Editor: Grace KraniakCelebrity Q&A Editor: Will KosmalDiversity Editor: Shannon RibichFlash Fiction Editor: Serenity BlockGaming Editor: Will KosmalLocal Favorites Editor: Sydney HansenMovie Reviews Editor: Shannon RibichPodcast Reviews Editor: Serenity BlockRecipe Roundup Editor: Jake PuestowSelf-Care Editor: Grace KraniakSerial Fiction/Poetry Editor: Jake PuestowSuccess and Travel Stories Editor: Conner TuthillTrash Vortex Editor: Shannon RibichWorld Films Editor: Jake Puestow
Interested in being on the Driftwood staff? Enroll in ENG 224: Practicum in Literary Publishing for the spring 2022 term.
Questions or News Items? Contact The Driftwood‘s advisor, Tracy Fernandez Rysavy.
If you’ve ever taken a creative writing class with me, you know that all roads lead back to Star Wars. Not the prequels, which I largely ignore, nor the sequels, which I pretend do not exist, but the original trilogy released starting in 1977. 
This thriller follows Qiwani, a disabled newspaper man at the local train station, as his romantic obsession with a rogue saleswoman, Hannuma, becomes deadly. A spectacularly shot Hitchcockian-style thriller, Cairo Station leaves you with this uneasy feeling suspecting that something, somewhere is going to happen. Finishing off with an ending that’ll leave you on the edge of your seat, this is one you won’t want to miss if you’re a lover of suspense. Watch now on Netflix. 
This film follows the court trial of Hossain Sabzian, a man who impersonated a famous Iranian director—Mohsen Makhmalbaf—to gain the trust and admiration of a random family. Somehow both a documentary and a drama, this is more of an engaging discussion of film and its impact on people. For any lovers of the art of cinema, this is especially one that you won’t want to miss. Watch now on Amazon Prime. 
Are you familiar with Hulu’s Little Fires Everywhere, released as a series in 2020? Did you know it was previously a novel? Celeste Ng’s novel by the same name is the captivating story of the power struggle between a non-traditional mother and a “white picket fence” mother in the not-so-distant ‘90s. While they duke it out to either “prove” or “disprove” the best way to raise a child, their kids learn what it means to live, to love, and all the struggles that come with becoming young adults in a world that believes in conformity at all costs. The author plays with the idea of breaking the societal expectation boundaries by becoming a traveling artist while her daughter is still an infant. They decide to settle down for the first time in a sleepy little town of upper-middle class citizens where life appears to be perfect. Almost everyone graduates high school, attends a prestigious college, and starts a family soon after. What happens when these two worlds collide cannot be undone. Romantic entanglements, family neglect, and secret pasts finally bubble to the surface for all to see. What’s more important? Fitting in or giving your child the best life you can give them?
Are you looking for new book to read? Look no further than the Pride Center’s queer book of the month: The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall. The novel tells the life story of Stephen Gordon, a lesbian born to a wealthy family in the twentieth century. Filled with many depressing twists and turns, the book shows the sadness that could come from living in a time where being queer was criminalized. Despite its overall emotional story and somewhat controversial content, the book was historically significant as one of the first modern novels about lesbians. Stop in by the Pride Center (M-145) lending library to check out The Well of Loneliness today! If the copy is gone, there are over 200 other queer-friendly books to choose from.
The White Vault tells the story of a repair team sent to Outpost Fristed, located on the island of Svalbard, Norway, which has the northern-most human settlement in the world. Consisting of experts from across the globe, the group works to find out why the outpost is sending out strange signals. Although they manage to fix the radio, a massive snowstorm traps the team on the base because travel is not advised. The longer the crew stays in Outpost Fristed, the more strange and terrifying things they uncover beneath the ice.
The Magnus Archives follows Jonathan Sims, the new Head Archivist of the Magnus Institute, which collects and investigates paranormal reports. Each episode, Sims reads a statement made by people who believe that something supernatural occurred to or near them, and the findings made by the Institute related to the report. As the story goes on, you begin to realize that these statements all have elements in common, but Sims refuses to believe that any of them could be true or connected. From there, a larger narrative grows to encompass horrors far greater than Sims could have imagined.
“In space no one can hear you scream,” the tagline to the popular Alien movie series, very accurately summarizes how some might describe their first time playing Alien Isolation. In this game, which is indeed based on the Alien films, you are Amanda Ripley, the daughter of Ellen Ripley, and have been searching for your mother when you finally strike gold. The flight recorder of the ship that Ellen was last recorded to be on is to be found on a space station by the name of the Sevastopol with a team of researchers. Unfortunately, the place had other visitors already on board—ones that are not too friendly either. Crawling through tiny air vents in the pure darkness, you have to move with caution, or the “monster” may come for you. You not only have to run from a monster that hides within the darkness but from other survivors on the station where self-preservation is the first thought on everyone’s mind. There is something amiss, and it’s up to you, Amanda Ripley, to find out what is really going on at the station. There is also mic compatibility to make it more immersive. Alien Isolation can be played on PC, all Playstation systems, all Xbox systems, and even on Android and Apple phones.
Pretty in Pink is the kind of teen movie that helped solidify the “Brat Pack” era. For reference, this term was coined by New York Magazine for a group of popular actors who frequently starred in coming-of-age movies in the eighties. This ripple of cinema introduced a golden time of teen movies that were both relatable and aspirational.
The Lost Boys: When teen brothers Michael and Sam move to Santa Clara, California, little do they know that it’s the “murder capital of the world.” Michael, at 18, soon disappears into the local night life, so Sam heads to a local comic shop where he meets Edgar and Allen Frog, two brothers with a knack for melodrama. The brothers unceremoniously hand him a comic on vampires and warn him in throaty, Apocalypse Now tones that there’s more to sunny Santa Clara than meets the eye. Sam scoffs at first, but then Michael shows up at home acting very strangely—avoiding sunlight and drinking what looks like blood out of a bottle. Oh, and at one point, he accidentally floats up to the ceiling and can’t get down. Meanwhile, a pack of good-looking if big-mulleted boys led by Kiefer Sutherland’s David stalk menacingly in the shadows. The Frog Brothers soon convince Sam that Michael is likely a half-vampire, and the only way he can be human again is for Sam to join them on a quest to kill the head vampire. Problem is, they’re not quite sure who holds that distinction. Is it David? Or someone else entirely? The film fails the Bechdel test miserably—the lone woman in the cast, Jami Gertz’s Star, is a more ethereal version of the Manic Pixie Dream Girl stereotype whose only purpose seems to be serving as Michael’s damsel-in-distress and saying people’s names with tear-filled eyes. But The Lost Boys also packs edge-of-your-seat suspense with laugh-out-loud one-liners and a terrific ’80s soundtrack. If I can tell my inner feminist to pipe down and let me enjoy this Trash Vortex classic, you can, too. —Available on Netflix. 
Trying to make the most out of the Wisconsin winter? Here’s a list of activities to make sure that your winter is the best it can be.