My Tamagotchi Diary
Angie Sijun Lou’s diary of raising a Tamagotchi, which partly inspired her short story in issue no. 257, “Bubble.”
Florence Thompson, the Subject of Dorothea Lange’s Iconic 1936 Photograph, Holding a Framed Copy of “Migrant Mother”, 1978
Florence Owens Thompson, the “Migrant Mother” in Dorothea Lange’s world-famous 1936 photo, holds up her likeness during an interview after her identity was made known on October 10, 1978.
In March 1936, photographer Dorothea Lange was working for the U.S. government’s Resettlement Administration (later the Farm Security Administration) to document rural poverty. While driving past a migrant pea-pickers’ camp in Nipomo, California, Lange turned her car around and encountered Thompson.
Thompson, then a 32-year-old mother of seven of Cherokee descent, was stranded at the camp after her family’s car broke down. Lange took a series of frames in a span of just 10 minutes. The final frame, showing a worried Thompson staring into the distance while her children shield their faces, became known as “Migrant Mother.”
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| Migrant Mother, taken by Dorothea Lange in 1936. |
After the photo was published in a San Francisco newspaper, the public outcry prompted the federal government to immediately rush 20,000 pounds of food to the starving pea-pickers’ camp.
Because Lange was working as a government employee, the photo went directly into the public domain. Lange never asked for Thompson’s name, and Thompson never received a single cent in royalties or compensation, even as the photo became a globally recognized masterpiece printed in textbook after textbook.
For over 40 years, the public had no idea who the “Migrant Mother” actually was. Meanwhile, Thompson worked multiple jobs (picking cotton, waitressing, and working in a cannery) to raise her children.
In 1978, a reporter from The Modesto Bee tracked her down to her mobile home in Modesto, California. This specific image was captured during that revelation. Thompson expressed bitter resentment toward the photograph, stating:
“I wish she [Lange] hadn’t taken my picture. I can’t get a penny out of it. She didn’t ask my name. She said she wouldn’t sell the pictures. She said she’d send me a copy. She never did.”
While Thompson initially viewed the photo as a curse that froze her in her lowest moment of poverty, her children felt differently. They grew to be immensely proud of their mother, viewing the image as a monumental tribute to her resilience and the strength of a mother who sacrificed everything to keep her children alive.
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| Thompson (seated) with three of her daughters (from L. to R.), Katherine, Ruby and Norma, in 1979; 43 years after Migrant Mother. |
In August 1983, Thompson suffered a stroke and was diagnosed with cancer, leaving her family with staggering medical bills they could not afford. Her children leveraged her late-in-life fame and issued a public appeal.
Recognizing the woman who had humanized the Great Depression for generations, the American public sent in over $110,000 in donations to cover her medical care. Thompson passed away a month later in September 1983 at the age of 80.
Spooky and Fun: 40 Groovy Photos of a 1980s Halloween Party
These groovy vintage photos capture the playful spirit of a Halloween party around 1982-83. The images show friends dressed in creative homemade costumes, bright decorations, and the lively energy of a classic decade celebration.
From witches and monsters to pop-culture characters of the era, the photos reflect both the spooky and fun side of the holiday. With big hair, bold makeup, and plenty of laughter, the collection offers a nostalgic glimpse of how Halloween parties looked and felt more than forty years ago.
Guns N’ Roses Members Posing With Arnold Schwarzenegger ‘Terminator’ in 1991
The collaboration between Guns N’ Roses and Arnold Schwarzenegger for the 1991 single “You Could Be Mine” is one of the most iconic pop-culture crossovers of the 1990s. The track served as the theme song for the blockbuster film Terminator 2: Judgment Day.
Director James Cameron wanted a hard-rock track to reflect young John Connor’s (Edward Furlong) rebellious nature. Arnold Schwarzenegger personally invited the band to dinner at his house to negotiate and finalize the deal for the song’s placement in T2. Schwarzenegger himself would comment upon it: “[The band members] have been big, big fans of Terminator and have expressed that many times. And I have been a fan of their music, so we checked into what it will be like to do a video together or to get some of the music.”
Directed by Jeffrey Abelson and Andy Morahan, the video mixes live concert footage of GNR performing at the Ritz in New York City with cinematic narrative scenes. Schwarzenegger’s T-800 character arrives at the venue on a mission to eliminate Guns N’ Roses. After tracking down the band in an alleyway following their set, the Terminator confronts Axl Rose and Slash. He scans the band members, determines that killing them would be a “waste of ammo,” assesses Axl Rose as a non-threat, and walks away into the night while Axl smiles and winks.
In Terminator 2, the song plays early in the film when John Connor rides his dirt bike with a boombox strapped to the back while hiding from his foster parents.
Released in June 1991, the single became a major hit and helped fuel excitement around the film. It was a perfect collision of rock, cinema, and early ’90s culture, an era defined by rebellion, big personalities, and MTV-driven hype.
20 Stunning Portraits of Lillian Gish in the 1920s
Lillian Gish (October 14, 1893 – February 27, 1993) was an American actress best known for her work in movies of the silent era. Her film-acting career spanned 75 years, from 1912, in silent film shorts, to 1987. In the 1920s, Gish reached the pinnacle of her fame as the “First Lady of American Cinema,” solidifying her legacy as one of the most brilliant, technically skilled, and fiercely dedicated stars of the silent film era. Known for her ethereal, delicate appearance, she defied her fragile screen persona by performing her own dangerous stunts and driving the technical and artistic evolution of filmmaking.
Gish began the decade by starring in several masterpieces directed by D. W. Griffith, later moving on to massive independent projects. Filmed during a real 90-mph blizzard, Gish performed one of cinema’s most famous and perilous climaxes in Way Down East (1920). She lay unconscious on a real ice floe drifting toward a waterfall. Wanting the shot to look authentic, she trailed her hair and hand in the freezing river, which caused permanent nerve damage and a lifelong loss of feeling in her hand.
Her final major collaboration with D.W. Griffith was Orphans of the Storm (1921), co-starring her sister Dorothy Gish, set during the French Revolution. Later in the decade, she gave critically acclaimed performances under Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), with The Wind (1928) standing out as one of the final artistic triumphs of the silent era.
Gish was far more than an actress; she was an expert in the mechanics of early filmmaking. In 1920, she stepped behind the camera to direct the feature film Remodeling Her Husband, which starred her sister. Throughout the decade, she remained a highly regarded silent cinema theorist and historian, famously advocating for silent film as a universal visual language, or an “aesthetic Esperanto.”
Visually, Gish bridged the gap between traditional sensibilities and modern glamour. Her portraits from the early 1920s showcase her in flowing, avant-garde designs, such as luxurious Mariano Fortuny gowns, which helped transition film costume design from Victorian-era restraint into expressive modernity.
When synchronized sound (“talkies”) arrived in 1927, the landscape of Hollywood changed overnight. Preferring the poetic expression of silence, Gish chose to exit the Hollywood mainstream at the turn of the decade, returning to her roots on the Broadway stage before making triumphant cinematic comebacks in later decades.
