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May 31, 2004

Vertigo and Cinematography

I'm teaching cinematography through Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo this week (through Tuesday), and I've been trying to track down a few film stills to support some in-class activities. The main difficulty is actually finding stills that are in the proper aspect ratio. Most of the stills online appear to be publicity stills (not film stills) or cropped. So far, I've found this book review with a couple of good stills. Any suggestions (in the comments or by email) would be much appreciated.

Update: Here are a few other Vertigo sites I found after my original post: A site called "Vertigo Described," which includes an extende essay on the film as well as a few film stills (too cluttered for my purpose), and a very interesting news article on a "Vertigo Tour of San Francisco" that directs tourists to all of the locations Hitch used in the film. Finally, a site called NorCal Movies, which is dedicated to documenting films made in Northern California (this site has plenty of great film stills, but having a better method for finding stills would probably be a good thing).

Cross-posted at Palimpsest.

Posted by chuck at 11:45 PM | Comments (8) | TrackBack

Coffee and Cigarettes

I went to see Jim Jarmusch's latest, Coffee and Cigarettes (IMDB), Saturday night but haven't really had time to blog about it. The premise of the film is in keeping with Jarmusch's minimalist style: essentially Coffee is composed of eleven conversations over coffee and cigarettes, usually with musicians and actors playing some version of themselves. One of the difficulties of such a premise is that it's easy to see the scenes as unconnected, a series of slight fragments, without any real connection. In addition, the segments in teh film were shot over a seventeen year period, adding to the perception of the film as a slight distraction, but Jarmusch carefully weaves a meditation on celebrity and fame, as Jonathan Rosenbaum's review illustrates.

Perhaps the most powerful example would be the Cate Blanchett segment, in which "Cate," a famous Hollywood actress doing publicity for one of her films, meets her punk rock cousin (also played by Blanchett) at a fancy hotel bar. Here the high-key lighting accentuates "Cate's" celebrity as the two struggle through a conversation with Cate's fame preventing them from any mutual understanding. A similar segment starring Tom Waits and Iggy Pop also works well. Two of the coolest musicians on the planet meet for coffee, and again, they fail to connect because of perceived slights (Iggy points out that the juke box doesn't have any Tom Waits songs, for example). Because of the "naturalistic" style of these scenes, it's easy to see them as unplanned or acidental, but given the careful plotting, I do think there are some clear resonances at work.

The segments are also linked visually through the setting, usually "dive" coffeehouses (the Cate Blanchett segment, "Cousins," is one exception) where customers can still smoke, rather than trendy Starbucks-style coffeehouses. The overhead shots of checkerboard-pattern tablecloths covered with coffeecups and ashtrays accentuate these connections, and the black-and-white cinematography (by several cinematographers including Tom DiCillo and Robby Müller) beautifully captures the film's mood (I'm now convinced that the decline in black-and-white cinematography can be directly linked to the decline in tolerance for cigarette smoking in public).

I'll refrain from describing other segments in detail, but it's a fun film, on course with Jarmusch's Night on Earth in structure and style.

Posted by chuck at 12:38 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 29, 2004

Political Wiki

The political bloggers at the Daily Kos have started a political wiki, dKosopedia. Typical entries focus on politcal parties, prevailing issues, key documents (Bill of Rights, etc), and reading polls. This will no doubt be a useful link for my election course this fall, but what I like most about the site is that it is a collaboratively-authored project that can use the wiki format to frame (in Lakoff's sense) pertinent political issues. Worth watching.

Posted by chuck at 11:58 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

Sleepy Saturday Morning Linkfest

GreenCine Daily has a wealth of weekend reading material on film and media today. A few of the highlights:

On the home front, the Atlanta Film Festival kicks into gear soon, and I'll try to catch as many films as my (currently very small) budget permits.

Posted by chuck at 11:35 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Blogging and the Public Sphere

I'm somewhat unconvinced by some of Habermas's arguments (though I haven't yet had enough coffee to explain why), but I've felt for some time that his discussion of the public sphere fit nicely onto conversations about blogging. Clancy is giving a conference paper on the topic building on the work of Trish Roberts-Miller and Andrew Ó Baoill.

Yet another link for my Georgia Conference on Information Literacy paper.

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May 28, 2004

Moving to the Public

Here's a quick reference to Charles Lowe and Terra Williams' article, "Moving to the Public: Weblogs in the Writing Classroom," included in the Into the Blogosphere collection. Among many other projects (like George, I've got a busy summer planned), I'm looking ahead to my paper for the Georgia Conference on Information Literacy, and this article will provide a useful touchstone for discussing using the public nature of weblogs for teaching student writing. I'm still planning to use an election-themed course in the fall, and hopefully I'll be able to integrate some o fthose experiences into the paper as well (link via Clancy).

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"The Photographs Are Us"

I had planned to write an extended entry on this Guardian article by Susan Sontag on Abu Ghraib, but other things got in the way. It's still one of the better essays I've seen on these images, and it may be relevant to a project (conference paper/article) I'm planning on documentary film.

Update 8/31/2005: The Guardian link appears to be dead, so here's another version of the same article at Common Dreams.

Posted by chuck at 8:06 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Lost Boys of Sudan

Last night, I went to see Megan Mylan and John Shenk's 2003 documentary film, Lost Boys of Sudan (IMDB), a dcoumentary about Sudanese refugees who have moved to the US to escape the growing humanitarian crisis in their home country (thanks to Jason for the link). The film explains that in 2001, when the documentary begins, most of the refugees are Dinka tribespeople who crossed the border into Kenya. The documentary focuses on two of the "lost boys of Sudan" who move to the US, Peter and Santino, and their struggles in the US once they arrive. The film itself is important viewing, especially given the utter lack of attention given to human rights violations in Africa in the US media, but I would have liked a deeper exploration of the humanitarian crisis in Sudan than the film offered.

The film opens with a brief voice-over explanation of the civil war in Sudan, illustrated with paintings and told from the perspective of one of the two "lost boys." This is the only major use of voice-over in the film, and the filmmakers wisely avoid the god-like omniscient narrator that continues to dominate much documentary fimmaking. However, despite this attempt to situate Santino and Peter as the "storytellers" of the film early on, there were still several moments in which I was conscious of the filmmaker's gaze (or perhpas, more precisely, the editor's scissors) when watching certain scenes.

From there, we get a few images from a refugee camp in Kenya and an explanation of the program that brings several hundred young Sudanese men to the US for education and employment. The scene in which the men learn who has been accepted and who hasn't is pretty powerful, especially given the extent to which they view the US as a ticket to freedom, something the film will eventually and repeatedly undercut. This sequence also highlights the sense of family and community that the boys will be leaving behind and the hopes that are being placed on their shoulders (one tribal elder wrns the boys not to get caught up in the "baggy pants" crowd).

The rest of the film then traces Santino and Peter's struggles to make their way in the US, especially after many of the promises of opportunity and support fail to materialize. Both Santino and Peter originally settle in Houston, Texas, and both immediately notice that their appearance intimidates many of the locals. Eventually, both take factory work, but Peter begins to seek out opportunities to further his education. After receiving little support from his contacts in Houston, he eventually decides to move to Kansas City, where he enrolls in a public high school, managing to perform well in school almost in spite of a well-meaning, but oblivious, guidance counselor.

Santino's story conveys many of the problems that immigrants might face. He fails a driver's test, drives without insurance, and is eventually in a small car accident, and as a result faces several traffic tickets. The documentary doesn't explicitly offer any blame for Santino's poor decisions, but the absence of a local support network seems to be partially at fault.

In both stories, I found myself struggling to understand the agency of certain actions/events in the film. Santino, in particular, confronts a fairly bewildering (if not entirely unsympathetic) bureaucratic system, and in those scenes, I rarely noticed anyone with whom Santino could talk about navigating these complexities. Peter, on the other hand, is portrayed as completely independent, eventually choosing to take an apartment on his own. Throughout his life in Kansas City, he is often seen attending a local church and attempting to integrate with the teen group there. These scenes are a little more difficult to read. Peter clearly remains on the outside, but it's only partially clear why that's true (he sits passively while others sing worship songs that stand in stark contrast to the emotions in the songs that were perormed in Sudan, for example). In both stories, the film complicates the narrative that immigration to the US will solve all of their problems, something that becomes particualrly clear when Peter calls his sister who cannot understand why Peter isn't sending more money home.

Overall, it's a compelling film, and it generally avoids the documentary trap of objectifying Peter and Santino, although I think the film could have been a little more self-conscious of its status as a story. In typical verite style, the filmmakers seem to avoid any kind of artistic signature and do not explicitly acknowledge their role in shaping the story. I think there's a way of calling attention to one's status as an author without going to the extremes of a Michael Moore.

To its credit, the film also avoids easy answers. I didn't walk away from the film thinking that I now understand the Sudanese refugee crisis or even that I understand what it's like to assimilate from a Sudanese refugee camp into American culture. In that sense, I think the film works very well as a documentary. While avoiding many of the simple truth claims often associated with documentary filmmaking, the film still conveyed a profound sense of injustice about the situation in Sudan.

Update: One other question that the film doesn't really address: what about the lost women of Sudan? The film focuses primarily on the young men who come to the US to earn money and get an education (an eventually help their families). One of the questions that seemed unanswered and that I left implied earlier: how are the Dinka women dealing with this crisis?

Posted by chuck at 4:56 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 24, 2004

The Killers

Listening to Album 88: The Killers' "The Ballad of Michael Valentine" is a great garage song. The Killers have been compared to the Strokes, and while they do have the guitar and melancholic vocals of contemporary garge rock, the Killers' lead singer, Brandon Flowers, doesn't really hide his appreciation for the "stadium songs." Anyway, it's a great song, and maybe when I get my car back from the shop, I'll go out and buy the CD.

Small bit of trivia: the name Michael Valentine comes from Michael Stipe's rumored pseudonym when he stays in hotels.

Speaking of Album 88, is anyone out there going to the WRAS Fest fundraiser?

Posted by chuck at 3:55 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

A Beautiful Mind(fuck)

I'm getting closer to finsihing my horror film essay, and I decided to surf around and look at a few journals where I could pitch this project (particularly to see if there were any special issues on horror film just waiting for my paper). One of the venues I've considered (though maybe not for this paper) is Jump Cut, a journal that I've always appreciated--good articles on film and popular culture, usually with a clear left politcal bent.

More relevant for now: while I was surfing their recent archives, I found this article on "mindfuck" films by Jonathan Eig. I may have more to say on this topic later, but I think the mindfuck film (Memento, Mulholland Drive, and Donnie Darko, among others) seems to be tapping into some of the same problems that I'm trying to address in my work on time-travel films.

Posted by chuck at 2:28 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 23, 2004

Spurlock Interview in the AJC

Just a quick link to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution interview with Morgan Spurlock, director of Super Size Me. The interview will likely disappear in a few days, but Spurlock's take on the issue of personal responsibility within the fast food industry is similar to mine (I originally had some trouble articulating this in the comments below):

Q: The government and the food industry say that personal responsibility and physical activity are key to reversing the obesity epidemic. What's your take?

A: They need to accept some responsibility, especially the corporations. If you're McDonald's and you serve 46 million people a day, and you tell me you have no obligation to educate your consumers and help them make the right choices. . . . That's absolute malarkey. This is a two-way street.

True, we Americans make bad choices every day. We overeat and underexercise. When your big sellers are fries and shakes and you're going to educate to the point where we're not going to eat those, why would you do that? Your bottom line is going to get hit.

Q: At the end of the movie, you throw responsibility for what we choose to eat back to consumers. What do you think they're going to do?

A: For me this film is a snapshot of your life, that we make bad eating choices, health choices, exercise choices every day. I want people to walk out of this film and say, 'I need to take more responsibility in my life, I need to eat better. I need to exercise more, I need to be a better role model for my kids.'

Parents need to understand if you eat out three or four times a week and don't exercise, you're going to raise kids who do the same thing. The biggest place where we need to focus our energies in this country is the schools. We're educating kids in the classrooms and damaging them in the lunchrooms. We're giving them a diet filled with fat and sugar and junk and we're saying it's OK to eat this, it's fine.

Posted by chuck at 11:24 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

May 22, 2004

Super Size Me

Last night, I went to see Super Size Me (IMDB) at a packed 9:30 screening at the Midtown Art Theater (and according to the ticket guy, the earlier screening nearly sold out). The reception of the film was very enthusiastic, with lots of applause and laughter, and I really enjoyed it. I had been in a bad mood all day, and the film's humor (as well as Spurlock's success as an independent filmmaker) really cheered me. I'm not sure I have anything new to add to the discussion, but here are some quick hit observations:

Like Jenny, I appreciated director Morgan Spurlock's affable approach to the topic. He managed to criticze the fast food industry without coming across as shrill or grating. Also, as Jenny notes, part of what makes the film powerful is the degree to which Spurlock's health declines, but perhaps more powerful are the changes in mood, his depression and the buzz he gets when he finally eats a McDonalds meal. The intersperesd interviews demonstrate the extent to which fast food chains have created a "fast food culture," through advertising and misleading information (the sequence in which Spurlock tries to find nutritional information at several McD's is informative and funny). They also illustrate the extent to which alternatives (often a little additional financial cost) are available.

Not sure I have much more to add here, but the film is a lot of fun. I'm hoping the buzz will allow the film to be seen outside the art house context because I think the film offers a wry, but thoughtful, take on a serious problem.

Posted by chuck at 12:25 PM | Comments (8) | TrackBack

Documenting War

Via GreenCine, two links to recent and intriguing documentaries focusing on the coverage of the current war in Iraq, neither one of which is by Michael Moore. Not that Moore's film isn't intriguing, but I've heard so much about it, I feel like I've already seen it.

Esteban Uyarra's War Feels Like War (on PBS in July, according to Caryn James' New York Times article)focuses on his experiences covering the war as an independent journalist, specifically the distinctions between independent journalists and those embedded with the military, which Uyarra describes in this intervew as "a great trick." Uyarra adds that embedded reporters quickly learned what they could and could not film, comparing the coverage to closed-circuit TV, where you get a series of documentary images (of bullets flying, of tanks rolling), but not explanation or understanding of what is shown. He also explains that even as an independent journalist, he was prevented from filming border crossings.

Perhaps the most interesting element of the interview with Uyarra is his reflection on whether or not he'd want to film in a war zone again. Uyarra recalls that

The first time I was asked that I said no. I'd just finished editing and once you start watching the same thing over and over you feel slightly more guilty about going to a place to film rather than to help. So my answer was no, but not out of fear. I wasn't afraid when I was there - I was too focussed on doing the job. It was a sense of disgust, not of the journalists, but of the whole idea of war. What you have to go through mentally and how stupid you feel that there is nothing you can do. But saying that, I've just come from Haiti which was been really dangerous, with people shooting every where and machetes flying around and that felt more chaotic than Iraq.

In Iraq you still felt that you knew where the bombs may come from. You can't say that of a random machete. I also enjoyed being in Haiti so I might be getting addicted to all this adrenaline. I don't feel like I want to do it all the time - it's like the once in a while cigarette - I'm a social smoker when it comes to war zones! I don't think I'll be chasing channels to send me to conflicts but if they ask me I know I will do it. I don't have the imagination to create things out of nothing. If you give me an empty room, an actor and a tripod then I am lost. But if you give me people running from bombs I can dance with the camera and almost choreograph shots in my mind - I see people moving almost before they move.

Uyarra's answer here reminds me of Chris Hedges' recent book, War is a Force that Gives Us Meaning, in which Hedges theorizes the power that war has on almost everyone.

The second film worth noting is Control Room (IMDB), a documentary by Jehane Noujaim, which focuses primarily on Arab perceptions of the United States' was with Iraq, concentrating on Al-Jazeera's coverage of the war. As Caryn James notes, the two films point to the difficulty of covering the war, an issue that has become especially poignant recently with the photographs documenting abuse in Abu Ghraib. I haven't seen either film yet, but both films promise to provide us with an opportunity for asking questions about the possibility of documenting war.

Note: A.O. Scott also has an insightful review of Control Room.

Posted by chuck at 11:30 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 20, 2004

Man on the Moon

I discovered the "Andy Kaufman Returns" blog a few days ago, and I've become increasingly fascinated by it, especially as the story gains even more publicity from this press release. Of course I don't really buy the story. Anyone can issue a press release, and in the blogosphere, nobody knows you're a dog (or more precisely, nobody knows you're not Tony Clifton), but the prank is a pretty good one, effectively playing Kaufman's practice of mixing "reality" and "performance" against the possibilities of performing alternate selves on the Internet. It's an entertaining read that captures the spirit of Kaufman's comedy.

Begging to Differ has an interesting post on the topic, commending the pranksters for their thorough research into Kaufman's biography, and Snopes uncovers several of the prank's inconsistencies, including the backtracking on some of the information in the press release.

Posted by chuck at 6:05 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

Dawn of the Dead 2004 Links

I'm working on my "mediated horror film" article (I still don't like that phrase), and I've been trying to think through the recent Dawn remake. I saw the film a second time recently at a creepy dollar theater up in Gwinnett County, and the film's focus on TV and video seemed less significant than in my initial viewing of the film. This entry appears (somewhat unintentionally) to have turned into a brainstorming entry.

The opening and closing credits are clearly the most explicit references to TV and video, and there are several other key references. One point I hadn't noticed, articulated by Jami Bernard, is the fact that Ana's (Sara Polley) husband is watching a Survivor-style reality TV show. The survivors watch big screen news broadcasts in order to learn information about the zombies, with one security guard dismissively questioning the validity of the TV reports by commenting, "They say a lot of things on TV." Later in the film, the gun store owner-survivalist guy, Andy, shoots various zombies based on their resemblance to celebrities (Rosie O'Donnell, Burt Reynolds). I'd also note in passing that Elvis Mitchell's observation about the film's resemblance to a video game is also relevant (although I still disagree with his review).

But during the second half of the film, there's very little focus on the media/TV. In this context, I've been trying to interpret the final sequence when the zombies' pursuit of the living seems to accelerate. The sequence reminded me of the opening battle scene in Saving Private Ryan, at least in terms of how it was filmed, a reaction shared by the Diabolical Dominion reviewer (I've been trying to find out/figure out if they used the same effect).

Wesley Morris of the Boston Globe discusses the film's Blair Witch-inspired ending, but he seems to take the use of video in horror film pretty much at face value:

Video might just be the final frontier for horror, which is too junked up with noise, formulas, and the witless bravado of mediocre directors to matter anymore. It's how thousands of amateur home-moviemakers capture immediate reality. Exploiting that "amateur" technology to spook us is a stroke of brilliance, conveying an end-of-the-world darkness in a format we associate with truth. This is an idea grasped by both the makers of the smarter, more rigorously structured "28 Days Later" and the boys behind "Blair Witch."

"Dawn of the Dead" is afraid to commit to a similar mood of digital doom, however. In the end, it's no substitute for either of those movies or, even more so, Romero's own idea of rancid humanity.

I'd agree with him that film generally seems to associate video with truth or immediacy, but it seems crucial that the Blair Witch films are constantly working to undercut that. I'm less inclined to agree that Dawn dodges the "doom" of the other zombie films. Specifically, I'd point back to the apocalyptic images during the opening credits, which show that the zombie plague has infected the entire world. By returning to a "mediated" delivery (a camcorder instead of TV, but clearly coded as mediated), the apocalyptic imagery is reignited. That being said, the satire is less focused than in the Romero original, and the commentary on mediation less nuanced than in both Blair Witch and The Ring. More later.

Posted by chuck at 12:50 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

May 19, 2004

4th District Candidate Nadine Thomas

Just a quick link to Nadine Thomas's campaign site. Nadine Thomas is one of the Democratic candidates for the 4th district Congressional seat abandoned by Denise Majette. I like her economic positions quite a bit, but a clearer stance on the war in Iraq would probably be helpful.

Posted by chuck at 12:01 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

More Georgia Politics

Many bloggers have been commenting on Zell Miller's creepy speech (comparing the torture photos to showering in gym class) at the Georgia Republican Convention, but to my mind, the bigger news at the convention is a passing comment by one of Georgia's Republican candidates for US Senate, Johnny Isakson. According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution Political Insider,

Isakson, working to dispel that dreaded tag, "moderate," echoed Oklahoma Sen. James Inhofe's words that he was "outraged by the outrage" of Democrats over the mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners.
As Rusty points out, the Senate GOP candidates are trying to flash their conservative credentials right now, but such dismissive comments should not be tolerated. Rusty couldn't find a specific transcript, and I've just started looking, so far without success.

Posted by chuck at 11:25 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

May 17, 2004

The New Jerry Lewis

Michael Moore apparently received a twenty-minute standing ovation after a Cannes screening of his new film, Fahrenheit 9-11 (IMDB). Wonkette's entry is snarkier than mine, though to my credit, I came up with the Jerry Lewis bit before I read her entire entry. Drudge (shudder) has the full scoop on the enthusiatsic reception of Moore's film.

Update: Reviews of the film have been intriguing thus far: GreenCine links to Peter Brunette's indieWIRE review. Brunette notes that

This time around, Moore drops the zaniness and high entertainment value evident in "Bowling for Columbine," in favor of an elegiac approach that is less funny but ultimately, maybe, more politically effective.
Here's hoping that Miramax can find a way to distribute the film before this fall's election. I'm guessing that the Cannes buzz will do nothing but increase the film's profile and that we'll see the film pretty quickly.

Meanwhile A.O. Scott, in an article on the film's buzz, notes that Moore's influence can be measured in Morgan Spurlock's Super Size Me. Scott adds that it's now easy to forget that Moore's humorous, didactic, populist filmmaking style is relatively new:

Fifteen years after "Roger and Me," which took on General Motors, this style of filmmaking seems so familiar, so naturally suited to populist finger-pointing, that it is easy to minimize the originality of Mr. Moore's first film and the discomfort it caused. For a long time, the ethics of documentary filmmaking, especially about weighty social and political issues, had been essentially journalistic. The films, even when their intentions were polemical, strove to be objective and rigorously impersonal. In the cinéma vérité rule book, the on-camera presence of the director was forbidden, and when documentarians did appear in their own movies it was in the role of self-effacing narrator or interviewer.
To a certain extent, I think Scott's right. Many early critics didn't even regard Roger and Me as a documentary (Errol Morris faced similar problems with The Thin Blue Line). And Moore certainly departs from the cinéma vérité style of filmmaking; however, even in cinéma vérité documentaries (such as Barbara Kopple's amazing Harlan County, USA), the presence of the director is clearly in evidence beyond a mere "narrator" or "interviewer." In general, though, Scott's piece illustrates just how much Moore has been able to contribute to documentary filmmaking.

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Beautiful Day in Boston

The Boston Globe and Daily Kos have images. Also check out The New York Times article.

John Scalzi has some advice for couples getting married.

Posted by chuck at 3:13 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 16, 2004

Playing With Time

My modem is far, far too slow to view the films at home, but Playing With Time looks like a fascinating experiment in "cinematic" time. The clips use time-lapse and slow-motion photography to show events that cannot be seen by the human eye. There's nothing particularly new there; in fact cinema's origins are somewhat based on the sceintific attempts to capture movement in time, but that doesn't mean that these films aren't cool to watch.

Note: On a quick scan through Blogdex (as well as the Playing With Time website), it appears that this project has been around for quite a while. It's part of a touring musuem exhibit and includes detailed instructions on how to direct your own time-lapse movies. More discussion at Metafilter.

Posted by chuck at 12:09 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 15, 2004

Copper Green

The Abu Ghraib prison scandal is becoming even more disturbing. According to a report by Seymour Hersh, Donald Rumsfeld encouraged the type of "interrogation," including using physical coercion and sexual humiliation, conducted in the Abu Ghraib prison. Hersh writes:

The roots of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal lie not in the criminal inclinations of a few Army reservists but in a decision, approved last year by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, to expand a highly secret operation, which had been focussed on the hunt for Al Qaeda, to the interrogation of prisoners in Iraq. Rumsfeld’s decision embittered the American intelligence community, damaged the effectiveness of élite combat units, and hurt America’s prospects in the war on terror.

According to interviews with several past and present American intelligence officials, the Pentagon’s operation, known inside the intelligence community by several code words, including Copper Green, encouraged physical coercion and sexual humiliation of Iraqi prisoners in an effort to generate more intelligence about the growing insurgency in Iraq. A senior C.I.A. official, in confirming the details of this account last week, said that the operation stemmed from Rumsfeld’s long-standing desire to wrest control of America’s clandestine and paramilitary operations from the C.I.A.

The article goes on to explain that Hersh's source, a high-level intelligence officia, said that President Bush was aware of the program. In general, this article offers a scathing review of Rumsfeld's pursuit of the "war on terror," as well as the reconstruction of Iraq. Particualr criticism is reserved for Stephen Cambone, Rumsfeld's Under-Secretary of Defense for Intelligence, who shared Rumsfeld's approach to the war. Hersh adds that
When it came to the interrogation operation at Abu Ghraib, he said, Rumsfeld left the details to Cambone. Rumsfeld may not be personally culpable, the [anonymous Pentagon] consultant added, “but he’s responsible for the checks and balances. The issue is that, since 9/11, we’ve changed the rules on how we deal with terrorism, and created conditions where the ends justify the means.”
Finally, the article explains the source of the motivation for specifically using sexualized, specifically "homosexual" forms of humiliation, a 1973 book called The Arab Mind by Rapahel Patai. The article further suggests that the photographs themselves might have had a practical purpose: it's possible they were to be used to blackmail prisoners to spy on their fellow inmates rather have the pictures appear in public.

There's so much awful information in this article, it's difficult to know where to start. I've already signed the petition demanding Rumsfeld's resignation, and this news only solidifies the belief that he should resign. It's pretty clear, as the article suggests, that the behavior here has "lowered the bar" for this war and future wars in terms of following the Geneva Convention. Since September 11, we've seen the logic prevail that "the ends justify the means," and as Abu Ghraib illustrates, that belief can have devastating consequences.

Sign the petition demaning Rumsfeld's resignation. Article via Atrios.

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May 14, 2004

Six Degrees, Reality TV Style

How weird. I went to college with this guy. Talk about blurred realities.

Posted by chuck at 8:10 PM | Comments (16) | TrackBack

Linklater To Adapt Dick Novel

While surfing IMDB, I learned that Richard Linklater is planning to adapt (more info here) Philip K. Dick's trippy drug/schizoprenia novel, A Scanner Darkly, with Keanu Reeves playing police officer Fred Arctor, who is also Bob, a notorious drug dealer. Because the film is in pre-production, its status is liable to change, but with Winona Ryder and Robert Downey, Jr. also among the cast members, I'm guessing this film is well on its way.

Posted by chuck at 4:41 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Blair Witch Links

Collecting links for my article on the cycle of "video-oriented" horror films (Blair Witch, The Ring, Dawn of the Dead 2004). Right now, I'm finishing up the section on Blair Witch, and just wanted to point to some of the film reviews:

I may add a few more links later, but my use of mainstream reviews (NYT, Salon) is intended to track the Blair Witch "phenomenon" more than to supplement my interpretation of the film.

Posted by chuck at 3:40 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Super Size Me Blog

Morgan Spurlock, the director of the popular new documentary, Supersize Me (IMDB), has a blog. In one recent entry we learn what it's like to be a guest on David Letterman.

Super Size Me is Spurlock's documentary in which he eats nothing but McDonalds meals for one month while interviewing experts on the obesity problem in the US. Over the course of the film, Spurlock gains something like 35 pounds and sees his cholestoral level skyrocket.

Note: edited for typos.

Posted by chuck at 11:49 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

May 13, 2004

Baghdad Blogger: The Movie

So, it wasn't my wittiest entry, but I did predict there would be a movie based on Salam Pax's blog back in August of 2003. Now it's really happening. Media group Intermedia is currently searching for a screenwriter. It's interesting how the film is being pitched, too:

"He's like a Nick Hornby in the middle of a war," Scott Kroopf, chairman of the company's film division, told film industry website ScreenDaily.com.
In general, I'll be interested to see how the film industry portrays this war, and it seems promising to see a film made from Salam's perspective.

Posted by chuck at 11:28 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Movies in Atlanta May 13-19

Here are a few links to upcoming movie events in Atlanta. I haven't yet decided what I'm going to see, but this looks like a great weekend for independent and international film in Atlanta. Cinema India appears to be kicking into gear at the High Museum this weekend, with Anything Can Happen and I Have Found It among the featured films. Georgia State University's Cinefest will be screening Spalding Gray's Swimming to Cambodia on May 13. Next Thursday, May 20, documentarians Steven Channing, Rebecca Cerese, and Cynthia Hill, will be screening February One, about four college freshmen, now known as the "Greensboro Four," who challenged segregation by staging a sit-in at a North Carolina Woolworth's. The screening is part of Atlanta's IMAGE Film and Video Center and will be held at the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historical Site.

On a related note, the Atlanta College of Art will be featuring the work of Darren Weik, whose work investigates the use of violent images in movies and on television. Weik's show runs through May 16.

Finally, as part of their Mondo Movie Nights, the Starlight Drive-In (on Moreland, a few miles south of Little Five Points) will be screening The Road Warrior and Soylent Green, perfect for the drive-in experience. One of my final entries on the original Blogger version of the chutry experiment recounts my experience watching David Bowie's Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars at this drive-in.

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Glowing With Vivid Intensity

I've just learned that Trinh Minh-ha will be giving a public lecture tonight (Thursday) in the J.W. Jones Room at Emory University's Woodruff Library at 7 PM. Skip (or tape) the Frasier finale, and instead listen to one of the most important and exciting filmmakers working in documentary film today.

Side note: In the same issue of Art Papers, my colleague at Tech, Philip Auslander, has an article on iona rozeal brown, whose work considers Japan's appropriation of hip hop.

Posted by chuck at 5:07 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 12, 2004

Manuel Maloof Turns 80

Via Jen at the Atlanta Desk, Manuel Maloof, owner of Manuel's Tavern, a hangout for Democratic politicians (and other locals) here in Atlanta, just turned 80. Maloof also served well as Dekalb County CEO, as Jen's post suggests.

Manuel's is one of my favorite Atlanta bars. In fact, it's where I had my MA graduation party back in the day.

Update August 10, 2004: Many of you will know by now that Manuel Maloof passed away in early August. Maloof is someone who genuinely made a difference in the local political scene. He will be missed.

Posted by chuck at 4:58 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Democratic Candidates for US Senate

After Shan's comments about Cliff Oxford, I've decided to do a little research on some of the prominent Demcoratic candidates for Zell "Deficit of Decency" Miller's US Senate seat. The Athens Banner-Herald has an article mentioning Cliff Oxford's announcement that he'll run for Senate, but it was written before Oxford's messy divorce and charges of violence toward his wife recently became public knowledge. Oxford admits that he is partially at fault for the failed marriage, but denies any violence against his wife. Complicating matters, his ex-wife has come out in support of Oxford's candidacy. I'll be honest, I don't know where I stand on his candidacy. I've heard several endorsements of Oxford (Jimmy Carter, in fact, encouraged him to run), but I can't really support Oxford if these charges are true.

In the meantime, I'm going to link to the homepages for several of the key Democratic candidates. I'm not ready to make an endorsement just yet. My current representative, Denise Majette, is a little too moderate for my tatses. One of the other leading candidates is Mary Squires, currently a Georgia state senator in Duluth. While I disagree somewhat with her stance on gun control, her position would likely play better in Georgia than mine. Finally, Shan mentioned Jim Finkelstein, who isn't as well known, but seems to have a well-rounded platform. If anyone else out there has a link to a (Democratic) candidate's homepage, let me know, and I'll be happy to add it. Again, I'm not ready to endorse just yet, but once I learn more, I'll make a decision soon.

Update: Here are links to Leigh Baier, Jim Boyd, and Cliff Oxford. I've just noticed that my blog entry (and comments) are higher ranked on Yahoo than Oxford's official site. This may be true of other candidates as well, but for now, I've just checked on Oxford, so I'm going to try to be a little more careful about how candidates are represented here, though I'm not quite sure how I'll do that.

Posted by chuck at 4:43 PM | Comments (40) | TrackBack

Local Political Blogs

After attending the MeetUp last night in Decatur (at Ashton's, a coffeehouse/ice cream parlor/restaurant I'll be visiting more often), I'm going to try to start following some of these local political blogs.

One of the reasons I often feel disconnected from politics is the fact that I don't know much about local candidates, and it appears that bothe of these blogs can provide me with some more useful information.

The consensus of our meeting is that there is a lot of work to be done, but people were volunteering to write letters to the AJC, to register new voters, and to provide people with rides to their voting centers. It was also cool that one of the Demcoratic candidates for Dekalb County CEO, Doug Teper (currently in the Georgia House), stopped by to chat (and listen) for about half an hour.

Posted by chuck at 1:16 PM | Comments (38) | TrackBack

Fair and Balanced Editorial Pages

A Wisconsin newspaper has a small problem. They haven't received enough letters supporting Bush's pursuit of the war on terror and, therefore, have been unable to print a politically-balanced letters to the editor page:

We’ve been getting more letters critical of President Bush than those that support him. We’re not sure why, nor do we want to guess. But in today’s increasingly polarized political environment, we would prefer our offering to put forward a better sense of balance.

Since we depend upon you, our readers, to supply our letters, that goal can be difficult. We can’t run letters that we don’t have.

I'm tempted to point out the obvious: President Bush's administration has done more that should be criticized than supported, but that's a little too easy. Genreal JC Christian, however, has kindly offered to help balance the tide of anti-Bush letters.

To be fair, the newspaper, the Appleton Post-Crescent revised their call for letters, noting that they sounded as if they were supporting Bush, which they suggest isn't the case.

Posted by chuck at 12:13 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 10, 2004

Film Schedule Brainstorming

Here's a quick tentative schedule of my film screenings for my summer film course. I'm running into the difficulty of having only eleven weeks (rather than the normal fifteen), which allows me only one week on documentary film and one week on global/independent cinema. Of course, I'm trying to include some indie/global films elsewhere in the semester, but it's hard to juggle everything. Here's the schedule so far. Suggestions are welcome.

Week One: Distribution, The Player (1992)
Week Two: Mise-en-scene, Blonde Venus (1932)
Week Three: Cinematography, Vertigo or North by Northwest (1958 or 1959)
Week Four: Editing, Very tentatively, Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
Week Five: Sound, The Conversation or Meet Me in St. Louis (1974 or 1944)
Week Six: Narrative, Citizen Kane (1941)
Week Seven: Documentary, The Thin Blue Line (1988)
Week Eight: Genre I, Lady From Shanghai or another film noir (1947)
Week Nine: Genre II, Blade Runner (1982)
Week Ten: Global/Indie Cinema, Do the Right Thing (1989)
Week Eleven: Film Theory, Run Lola Run (1998).
I think the syllabus seems a little too heavy on contemporary films right now, but if I don't include The Conversation for sound, I'll pretty much lose "New Hollywood." I really wish that I had two weeks on documentary so that I could work in a cinema verite documentary (Harlan County, USA, for example). I'm also short on experimental films. I'd like to do Man With a Movie Camera, among others. Citizen Kane seems mandatory, and "narrative" is probably the best fit for it. I have some reservations about The Player, but I think it does the meta-Hollywood thing well, and it introduces auteurism, distribution, and exhibition issues nicely. Other suggestions, again, are welcome.

I have a few supplemental scenes that I'm already planning to use. I watched Sullivan's Travels (the film that inspired O Brother Where Art Thou) last night, and it conveys crosscutting nicely during one chase scene. His Girl Friday is perfect for overlapping dialogue, and will allow me to discuss screwball comedy during the sound week. Right now, it's a pretty conventional syllabus, so I'm trying to find alternative short films, etc, that might broaden the scope of the class beyond Hollywood.

Posted by chuck at 6:03 PM | Comments (9) | TrackBack

Using Public Guilt as Motivation

I'm mentioning this Meetup on my blog just to make sure that I attend:

What: Democratic Party Meetup Day
When: Tuesday, May 11 @ 7PM
Who: Democrats and friends

Posted by chuck at 12:31 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Searching for the New Ishtar

Via GreenCine, one more link to a Guardian article noting the number of summer blockbusters whose budgets (before advertising) appear to exceed $200 million. Anne Thompson notes that some of these films are bound to bomb based on bad word of mouth (Van Helsing; Troy; and I, Robot are apparently the top candidates). Thompson notes that you can "buy" a first week audience, but with the number of blockbusters and the size of contemporary budgets, some films are likely to lose a lot of money.

In somewhat unrelated news, I've just learned that Roger Avary, who co-wrote Pulp Fiction and has written and directed Killing Zoe, Rules of Attraction, and Glitterati, has an online journal. Judging by the number of comments, I'm a little late to this party, but still very interesting.

Posted by chuck at 11:57 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

Production-Distribution-Exhibition

I'll start teaching my Introduction to Film course tomorrow, and a major focus of the course will be how the film industry itself imposes upon what films get made, how they get distributed, and how those factors inform our interpretations of the films we do watch. Cinema Minima has compiled a number of links over the last few days that might help me (or my students) to think through some of these issues:

  1. "Short Features Belong to a really Fucked Up Breed of Cinema:" A discussion on Esoteric Rabbit of the difficulties of distrubting films that run between 40 and 70 minutes long. Such films rarely play outside of festivals, leading filmmakers to create new ways of distributing their films.
  2. I'm repeating some industry gossip here, but according to one Disney employee, Eisner's decision not to release Fahrenheit 9/11 has less to do with a fear of BushCo than it does a fear of Roy Disney. This power struggle has had interesting consequences for some time, as the recent release of Destino indicates (go to A Fly on the Wall for the Michael Moore scoop).
  3. There was a Flash Film Festival in Paris on May 8. This might be less pertinent to a film course, but it's still an interesting concept.
  4. A workshop on obtaining financing for your film led by Carol Dean, executor of the Roy W. Dean Foundation.
  5. In unrelated news, Gawker reports that New York Times critic Elvis Mitchell invited Bill Murray to his last film criticism class at Harvard. Hilarity (and, apparently, drunkenness) ensues.
One of my projects in the film class will be to provide a short stream of links for my students, some that pertain to the films and readings themselves (links to IMDB pages, etc), but others that will hopefully give them a better picture of how the industry works and how that contributes to our experiences in the movie theater watching movies.

Posted by chuck at 11:19 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 9, 2004

Apparently There is a Cheating Crisis

Go read the latest Doonesbury. I shouldn't have spoken so quickly before.

Update: It looks like Doonesbury is going to follow the cheating theme all week.

Posted by chuck at 4:36 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Lost in Boston Friday Night and Saturday

After my adventures at the List, I took the T back to the dorm. The T was packed with fans on their way to Fenway for the game, which was a lot of fun. After a quick rest, I walked up and down Newbury Street, a long stretch of art galleries, stores, and restaurants, for two hours or so, mostly observing the people who were out walking on a nice weekend evening. I finally stopped for dinner at Bhindi Bazaar, an Indian restaurant on Mass. Ave (that's how a true Bostonian would say it). I had the chicken caffreal, which is a green herb curry from Goa flavored with cilantro, green chiles, and lemon. Very tasty. But by the time I finished dinner, I was exhausted (I realized around this time that I'd been walking since about 9 AM), so my last night of nightlife in Boston was somewhat abbreviated.

Saturday, I had 2-3 hours to kill in the morning before my afternoon flight, so I swung by the Museum of Fine Arts, which was practically next door to my dorm. I first glanced at some of the work by students of the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, on display for a sidewalk sale. The museum itself was a little pricey, but well worth it. I skipped the Gauguin Tahiti exhibit and concentrated on the MFA's great collection of nineteenth and twentieth century European paintings. I also caught their solid collection of Georgia O'Keefe paintings in the American wing, but the most exciting work that I saw was the Tim Noble and Sue Webster exhibit (available until August 15). Their work uses bright lights, colorful neon, and rubbish found nearby to create punk-influenced, satirical sculptures. Most compelling were the shadow sculptures where they took rubbish (tin cans, etc) and projected light to create "shadow sculptures" resembling in one case a skyline, and in another case, two human figures sitting back to back (more on Noble and Webster here and here, including a screen shot of their very cool, funny piece, "Girl Friend from Hell"). It was a fantastic culmination for a great trip.

I do regret missing the Institute of Contemporary Art, and I also wish I'd made time for the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, a fascinating collection of fine and decorative art, but hopefully there will be opportunities to return to Boston soon. After this trip, it has definitely become one of my favorite cities.

Posted by chuck at 11:50 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

Lost in Boston Wednesday through Friday

I returned from my trip to Boston late yesterday evening, and it was a wonderful trip! Very refreshing. Just what I needed after a long academic year. I'll get the official, professional stuff out of the way first: I think that my paper went fairly well. My paper on Robert Greenwald's Uncovered felt a little non-topical, especially to the extent that the film itself is a little disappointing, but that may provide a path for thinking about the ephemerality of the political/topical documentary. The panel itself was excellent. The panel coordinators did a terrific job of assembling a nice survey of papers on documentary film, although one panelist took the opportunity to comment on the Abu Ghraib torture images (specifically focusing on the New Yorker article). We then went to a nice Indian restaurant across from Northeastern University (I didn't catch the name) where we made plans to pursue the ideas discussed in the panel further. I attended one other panel that afternoon, but decided to take George's advice and take advantage of my time in Boston.

Because I wanted to do CSA as cheaply as possible, I stayed in the dorm provided by the university (at something like $40 a night). Soon after I arrived on Wednesday, I met my roommate for the weekend, Adam, and we met up with another person from the conference who once lived in Boston. She gave us a nice walking tour of the area around Northeastern that evening, pointing out the Fens, the Museum of Fine Arts, and about twenty colleges.

Thursday, I gave my paper, and then I decided to go exploring. I found my way back to Fenway Park and decided to buy a camera and take a few pictures, including one shot of a really nice woman who was painting a portrait of Fenway. Later that evening, I took George's advice and went to Legal Sea Foods for dinner. It happened to be prom night in Boston, so it was entertaining to see all of the local high school kids in their prom night-best running around the Prudential Center shops. I had the wood-grilled salmon fillet with cajun spices (here's the menu in PDF), which was very tasty, with a side of fries and greens. After dinner, Adam and I wandered Boston for a while before finishing up with a drink at one of Northeastern's college bars.

Friday, Adam and I started by taking the T (Boston's subway/rail system) up to Cambridge, where we spent the morning wandering around Harvard's campus and taking a few pictures. Soon after lunch, we went in different directions so I could walk down Freedom Trail (which he had done earlier) and wander around Beacon Hill. I spent a little time in Boston Common, which was fairly crowded for a weekday due to the unusually warm temperatures. I walked about half the Freedom Trail and decided to cut back and go by MIT to see the List Visual Arts Center based on George's recommendation. Unfortunately, the exhibit George described was already gone, and my reaction to the two exhibits currently on display was somewhat ambivalent. Marjetica Potrc's "Urgent Architecture," which consisted of a collage of architecture based on her research on temporary structures in Caracas, West Palm Beach, and the West Bank, was fairly compelling. The other exhibit, Artur Zmijewski's "Selected Works" included videos that "challenge moral codes against displaying 'defective' human beings." Zmijewski's efforts to challenge these norms were mostly interesting, especially two videos of a choir of deaf children singing a Bach sonata. I was more disturbed by a video of nude men and women playing tag, which we later learn was filmed partially in a basement and partially in a gas chamber. As I write about my experiences at the List, I realize that these works did challenge me, but I'm not sure I've come to any conclusion about them.

Posted by chuck at 11:04 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 5, 2004

Boston Bound

I'm off to Boston for the Cultural Studies Conference to present my paper on Robert Greenwald's Uncovered (which I've just finished revising). I'll be back on Saturday evening. I don't have a laptop, so any conference blogging will have to wait until I come home.

Posted by chuck at 3:14 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

May 4, 2004

Nous N'Avons Pas Vote Pour Lui

Via Andrea Jones, the AJC political blogger (who got it from Wonkette, though I can't find the link), a Seattle luggage company is seeing skyrocketing scales because of their creative "care label," which reads in translation: “We are sorry that our president is an idiot. We didn’t vote for him.” Go to the AJC blog to see the label for yourself.

Meanwhile, the bobblehead controversy I blogged yesterday is making the rounds.

Posted by chuck at 11:55 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Is There a "Cheating Crisis?"

Mike Arnzen recently blogged about the Primetime Thursday special on the "Cheating Crisis." Because I rarely, if ever, watch primetime television (for reasons that have nothing to do with being a snob--I'm simply too lazy to watch primetime television), I didn't see the episode. Basically, it sounds like Primetime is offering a familiar argument: the Internet is making it easier for students to plagiarize papers or to share test information via text messaging. Students feel pressure to cheat because of the need to sustain a solid GPA. Students see adults cheating in the workplace without any serious consequences, so they believe they can get away with it, too.

After quickly glancing through the article about the Primetime story, I'm a little suspicious of some of their statistical information. According to the Turnitin analysis, something like 30% of all submitted papers "have significant levels of plagiarism," which seems a little misleading, given the ways in which the program measures "plagiarism." Most of my students have fairly significant "matches" with other sources, simply because they are quoting familiar passages. I'd also guess that the ABC survey (which I'd imagine is based on self-reporting and may in fact suggest higher levels of cheating) may also be innacurate. But before I state my primary reservation about the "cheating crisis," I'll point out that, yes, I've caught a few students who have plagiarized, either through Turnitin or Google searches and that I will continue to use those resources as deterrents (although I'm ambivalent about using them). I think they are "necessary evils," especially when I'm dealing with such a large number of students.

My primary objection to calling the current situation a "cheating crisis" is that I wonder if there are more students cheating now than in the past. It was relatively common for students to cheat on tests when I was in high school, and I'd imagine (although I can't confirm it) that some of my classmates plagiarized papers. And universities certainly have a history of academic dishonesty, as the so-called Jan Kemp Affair at the University of Georgia illustrates (I also remember hearing stories about students at UGA who routinely altered their professors' gradebook, but certainly can't confirm that).

What I'm suggesting is that Primetime's claims of a cheating crisis seem to imply an innocent past when students were more honest and cheating was less widespread, and I'm simply not convinced that students were any more honest ten or twenty years ago than they are now. In fact, perhaps there really isn't a cheating crisis so much as the new computing technologies have made cheating somewhat more obvious because of the very materiality of cell phones, graphic calculators, and paper databases. The kind of cheating that might have involved a conversation in the hallway or dorm is now made visible by the technologies that seem to enable dishonesty. The "panoptic" systems of surveillance make cheating easier to trace.

I realize that I invest a lot of trust in the teacher-student relationships that I cultivate (and when students do cheat I often feel somewhat betrayed), but it seems that to speak of a cheating crisis establishes a teacher-student relationship based on suspicion. Mike's absolutely right on this topic--we do need smaller classes. I also realize that my confidence in my students derives in part from the comparatively small class sizes in composition classrooms, a relationship that cannot be duplicated in large survey courses. When the teacher and student have a personal relationship (and the student isn't a mere number), I'd imagine there's a certain responsibility to that relationship that reduces cheating.

Posted by chuck at 2:53 AM | Comments (8) | TrackBack

May 3, 2004

Creative Loafing's History of Atlanta

While doing some random, procrastinatory surfing, I came across this article in Atlanta's alternative magazine, Creative Loafing, marking the magazine's 30th birthday. The article recounts the recent history of Atlanta's musical, political, and cultural scenes, including political scandals (how could anyone trust politicians named Swindoll and Skandalakis?). The article, which is a couple of years old, brought back a lot of memories. These lists, which often document buried "cultural artifacts" (stores, bars, and clubs that have closed down; bands that have broken up; annual events that no longer take place) always suggest to me an alternate history, another Atlanta that could have been.

From the same issue, check out this "Where are They Now?" article, which mentions former Atlanta Knights goalie, Manon Rheaume, the first female athlete to play in a major-league men's pro-sports game. When I was at a Gwinnett Gladiators minor-league hockey game the other night, someone was asking me what happened to her the other day--here's the answer.

Posted by chuck at 11:50 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Georgia Conference on Information Literacy Program

I just checked the program for the Georgia Conference on Information Literacy and realized that I'm on the same panel as fellow blogger Dennis Jerz. Also good news: the panel is at 10:30 AM. I should be fully awake by then.

Posted by chuck at 3:52 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Hasta la Vista, Bobblehead

According to the Smoking Gun, Arnold Schwarzenegger is threatening to sue an Ohio company that is selling a bobblehead doll featuring the name and likeness of the California Governator. The bobblehead company argues that because Arnie is an elected official, his image is public domain. Brian Flemming has an open letter to Arnold's lawyer, Martin Singer.

Posted by chuck at 12:09 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack

Revival of the Revenge Film

While doing a procrastinatory blogroll surf, I came across a GreenCine link to a New York Times article by A.O. Scott that addresses the sudden popularity of the "revenge film," with the most palpable examples being The Punisher, the Kill Bill films, and Man on Fire.

Scott notes that although many of these films were in production before 9/11 (especially the Kill Bill films, which have been planned since the mid-1990s), the revenge film has increased in intensity since the 9/11 attacks. It's an interesting argument, and if I weren't procrastinating too much already, I'd give the article even more attention (I'd also link to the blogger I've read recently who made a similar observation).

Posted by chuck at 11:57 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

My Contribution to Grade Inflation

I'm just about to turn in grades, and now I'm thinking that perhaps I should follow the "advice" of Michael Bérubé and recalibrate my grades to avoid grade inflation. I'm sure that my students would be pleased to see me uphold the virtues of rigor and fairness that grade inflation has destroyed.

To be honest, grade inflation is apparently relatively minimal here at Tech (at least my students tell me that), especially given the "stingy" reputation of engineering professors, but this issue has an additional complication in Georgia in that most in-state students are on the HOPE scholarship (which pays tuition and a small book allowance) and have to maintain a 3.0 GPA to keep the scholarship.

Posted by chuck at 1:51 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

May 1, 2004

More Uncovered Stuff

Quick link to a Blogging of the Presidency review of Uncovered. One of my specific goals right now is to find reviews or descriptions of house parties. One of my major arguments about the film is that it should be understood specifically in terms of the reception carefully crafted by MoveOn, Greenwald, and others.

The difficulty here is that the film has such a clear position on the war (specifically it is critical of the Bush administration's misleading statements on WMD). One critic I've read asserts that this stance risks foreclosing debate on the war, including opposing it on grounds other than lies about WMD. Because of the MoveOn house parties, I think this reading needs to be complicated. Uncovered isn't an isoltaed text, something that ends when the credits roll, but an open text that encourages discussion through its unusual production and distribution.

Mary at Pacific Views also has a review, while Corey at Burt's Taco Palace also offers a succinct review. More later, I'm sure.

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