The Fifth Floor sent out a call this year for 17-syllable film reviews of recent releases. We asked Senior Lecturer Dana Och, who teaches in the Film & Media Studies program, to rank the winners and respond to their haiku. And she did so—in haiku. We don't even have trophies to give, but took the opportunity to find out what each of the winning alumnae have been up to. So let's get rolling....
Gloria Bell poster
First Place: "Gloria Bell" by Patti Jo Swenda
divorce lonely free
party dance sex mother jerk
start over free Free!
Judge's Response:
Julianne Moore, oh
A delight in everything
Always a blank slate
Patti Jo Swenda
Catching Up with Patti Jo:
"I graduated high school in 1970, and selected the University of Bridgeport, Conn., for an AA in Retail Management/Buyer: only one hour to the fashion district in New York City!
"I left UB after two years to get married, and moved to Taichung, Taiwan. My husband was stationed at an Air Force base in Taiwan, and traveled back and forth from Vietnam to his home base.
"Returned to the States; gave birth to Baby #1; we both applied to Pitt.
"I finished a BA degree in Literature and Writing. Hubby chose the sciences and went on to Pitt Dental. We made two more children. I attended Community College of Allegheny County to receive an AS in Data Processing as I recognized computing was the future.
"Sorrento’s on Atwood was our pizza staple, the “O” for fries and burgers. Pittsburgh professional and collegiate sports from 1974 to1981 were awesome! Pittsburgh also had one of the coldest winters—even closed the bars.
"Left Pittsburgh: my husband served in the Navy to pay back the Navy dental scholarship at Pitt (We toured Europe in 1984 before it was the EU).
"We built a small boutique dental practice in southeastern Pennsylvania. I was the administration/management end of our partnership. I earned an MBA at West Chester University to help manage all aspects of a dental office. I also recycled my BA from Pitt to be an excellent speaker/correspondent with vendors, dental and medical specialists, and to train staff on the proper way to write letters or send a greeting.
"Retirement arrived after 32 years in a 1500 square-foot private practice of excellence!
"We had traveled extensively for history, golf, and wine (keen oenophiles), even during working years. I have traveled to all 50 states and many countries on each continent, except Antarctica. It was a bonus visiting our adult children who lived in different countries and continents.
"The coronavirus has settled me, and I have hauled out my travel notebooks to finish my book!"
Little Women poster
Second Place: "Little Women" by Angele Ellis
flashback/flash forward
brave and brilliant petticoats
your leaves still turning
Judge's Response:
Amy has real depth?
Greta Gerwig makes her real
No one in bear suit!?
Angele Ellis/Rebecca Clever Photo
Catching Up with Angele (BA, English 1979):
"My memories of Pitt are entwined with The Pitt News. Then (as now) on the fourth floor of the Hotel Schenley/William Pitt Student Union, it was a warren of castoff office furniture and manual typewriters. One broken bathroom had a claw-footed tub painted Pepto-Bismol pink, filled with stacks of back copies. A black teletype machine the size of a public mailbox clattered out stories from United Press International. This machine had bells on top; all five had pealed (so the legend went) after President Kennedy’s assassination. The building was full of illustrious ghosts. We knew our battered space once housed the opulent suite of Broadway star Lillian Russell.
"After putting the paper to bed—a more evocative phrase when paste-up was done by hand on blue-ruled white boards, although the lines and paragraphs that, as an editor, I was sometimes called in to cut (literally, with an X-ACTO knife) had been translated into strips of copy by hulking “modern” word processors—my friends and I went to The Pancake Kitchen for a post-midnight breakfast. This dingy predecessor of Pamela’s was a 24/7 diner with wonderfully cheap plates of pancakes and eggs and endless refills of bitter coffee.
"In my checkered career, I’ve done many kinds of writing and editing besides journalism: technical and business writing; academic editing and writing; advertising; fundraising and grant writing; poetry and fiction. My first book, Dealing With Differences: Taking Action on Class, Race, Gender and Disability (Corwin, 1997), is a supplemental curriculum that originated in a high school pilot project. I’m the author of Arab on Radar (Six Gallery, 2007), whose poems won an Individual Artist Fellowship from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts; Spared (A Main Street Rag Editor’s Choice Chapbook, 2011); and Under the Kaufmann’s Clock (Six Gallery, 2016), a prose/poetry hybrid inspired by my adopted city, with photographs by Rebecca Clever.
"Only once has my haiku received greater distinction than placing second in this competition. In 2009, after winning the Pittsburgh Filmmakers’ G-20 Haiku Contest, my verse was featured on the marquee of the Harris Theater."
Bohemian Rhapsody poster
Third Place: A mashup of films by Darline Kress
Mercury Exalted
Colman Favourite Queen
Pianist Travelog
Judge's Response:
Colman is my queen.
Short-haired goddess, always kind
We rock you, again.
Darlene Kress
Catching Up with Darlene (Dunn) Kress (BA, English 1971):
After completion of bachelor’s degrees in English and Psychology, Darlene earned an MBA and supplemented her credentials with a CPA certification.
Utilizing strong oral and written communication skills, Darlene’s career encompassed the preparation of narratives for judicial court cases, texts for educational seminars, and financial summaries for corporate reports. She has served as an officer for various not-for-profit organizations. Darlene’s speaking engagements have ranged from serving as a community outreach speaker to being an educational instructor.
Retired from public and governmental sectors, Darlene maintains a private CPA practice specializing in domestic and international tax matters.
Delighted with the opportunity to replace technical terminology with creative writing, Darlene finds this to be a refreshing experience.
Recently, her thoughts on the pandemic were published in The Colorado Sun.
Darlene is hunkering down in Highlands Ranch, Colorado, with her husband Herb. Together they are enjoying the daily visitors to their open air aviaryand the weekly driveway socials with their daughter Sarah, son-in-law Lance, and grandson Micah.