by Mackenzie Patel Yeah, what up, Detroit? Unlike like last month, I was a powerhouse of words this December.  Ideas popped into my mind like gumdrops, with articles like “How I Relate To Biggie Smalls As A White Girl” and “Why Sexualizing Classical Music Is A Great Idea” leaking out. Finals exams only slightly kicked… Read More


by Mackenzie Patel Hi All! These past few weeks, the Photoshop world of graphic design has infiltrated my internet history, bedroom walls, and course schedule. December was the month of Chris Bigalke, a designer based in Portland that I discovered on Wilco’s Instagram feed. Featuring saturated, grainy colors and outlandish imagery that combines Andy Warhol… Read More


by Mackenzie Patel Hi all! Here’s another art history paper that I wrote this semester–enjoy my analysis of this photograph! Canyons of shredded destruction hide behind the soft curls and gelatinous skin of a toddler, wide-eyed and curious. The agony of wartime, of pure red and tattered limbs, is absent, her olive face showing nothing… Read More


by Mackenzie Patel The chewy-smooth delight of ground nuts is an ecstasy no drug can replicate. The grainless spread, whipped to a thick perfection, soothes any tongue and smothers the roughest taste buds. Jiffy, Peter Pan, Smuckers, and the homemade Publix brand—I don’t discriminate amongst different brands for they all deliver the earthy essence of… Read More


by Mackenzie Patel Hello all! I’ve been an unproductive marshmallow these past two months, but my head is screwed back on and I’m ready to write again. September and October were solid for only a second, the evenings of hangouts and randomness crawling into a locked time capsule. I won’t remember what I did on… Read More


by Mackenzie Patel Technically, I spent a day and ¼ with the Viennese, so that snappy title is a goddamn lie. Prague was a playpen of commercialization (except the medieval Vysehrad) while Vienna was a classy bar of merlot, Campari, and Aperol. Going from that overcrowded, emotional city to the modern frankness of Austria was… Read More


by Mackenzie Patel Hi all! It’s been graying eons since I’ve posted on LTA, but here’s a stereotypical MACKENZIE PATEL post about my one and only stable, reliable love: Ancient Rome. I first traveled to Rome in the summer of 2011, the sticky months of ignorance and unformed personality gracing my 14-year-old self. That trip… Read More


by Mackenzie Patel **I wrote this paper for my Art History class, but I thought it’d fit perfectly within LTA!** Frida Kahlo. That name, brimming with constant sorrow, incredible creativity, and violent feeling, was the focus of the Harn’s Mirror, Mirror … Portraits of Frida Kahlo exhibition.  Frida Kahlo, a portrait shot by Antonio Kahlo… Read More