Debt ceiling talks...in 3-D!

Am I the only one who feels like the daily non-progress on the debt ceiling talks is like watching disaster footage frame-by-frame ("The Hindenburg catches fire...NOW")?

Seeing as nothing says "disaster" quite like 3-D, here's one vote to move the negotiations between the President and the Speaker of the House, amongst House Republicans, between the Gang of Six and all comers, etc etc, onto C-SPAN...in 3-D! We can all rock our cool glasses, and the negotiations will play out something a little like this...

What is this Google+ of which you speak?

Teaching COMM 311 (Media Literacy) again this summer, and the new wrinkle is Google+. Maybe you've heard of it? Ha. Maybe you're on it? Maybe you've figured it out?

I guess I've been on now for a fortnight--not only did I fail to win Wimbleton AGAIN, but I'm still feeling my way on Google+. I think I'm averaging the creation of a new circle every two days, as I try to refine my organization of contacts. Not that I'm posting a whole heck of a lot over there...but by God, I'm organizing my circles.

As the fizz of the new slowly subsides, I've been thinking about where the buzz came from, and what the draw is for folks. I have a few ideas, and I'd love to hear yours....

1. Manufactured scarcity. The game of needing to get an invite was kind of a funny riff on the are-you-cool-enough-to-get-into-the-club? game. You bet there was a bunch of folks hot to get onto Google+ because, well, X got in and they didn't. Yet.... Though by this late date, it's really a beta in name only, isn't it? Anyone want in anymore that can't get in? We can sort you...

2. A fresh start. Americans love a new frontier, and they love starting over. Here was a chance to not only be an early adapter, but also a place where you could ditch the parents, or the ex, or those folks who you don't even know how you became facebook friends with but don't have a gracious way of saying see ya to. To say nothing of the annoying / embarrasing photos. Or the confusion of the privacy settings. Or... you get the picture.

3. The potential. Google+ plays out like one of those inkblot tests you studied in Psych 101--everybody gets to project their hopes (desires?) on this new system. This is particularly true of folks who are IN on the Google Docs thing. I myself am particularly intrigued by the possibilities of networking a number of folks together in a video conference--virtual post-dissertation group, anyone?

What's your take on Google+? I'd love to hear your experiences... Now let's see if I can hook up an RSS feed on Google+ like I have on Facebook--THEN we'll be cooking...

Day 3: Oh yeah!

30-DAY FILM CHALLENGE, DAY 3:

A film I watch to feel good...

Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986)

When I was actually in high school in the 80s, I actually was kind of annoyed by Ferris--I remember sympathizing more with his buddy Cameron. (Come to think of it, I kept rooting for Ducky in Pretty in Pink... there's a trend here, I'm afraid...)

So 25 years later, though I still have never lived in Chicago, and I have to acknowledge the questionable racial politics of John Hughes (here and elsewhere--Long Duck Dong anyone?), I will always pull up a seat if this one appears on cable.

It's innocent and playful in a way that I seem to not have appreciated at the time...

The 30-day film challenge!

Before undergoing a successful medical procedure (woo woo!), a dear mentor of mine posted responses to a facebook 30-day film challenge in one shot... Seeing as I'm asking my COMM 229 summer class to blog again, I need to get back in the game myself. So...

In an attempt to jump-start some more writing by doing some "warm-ups" here, I'm going to spend June working through this challenge... Maybe July will be an old classmate's music challenge? Ha! One month at a time. Look: I already missed the 1st, so I'm going to double-down here to catch myself up. This month's for you, Joan....

DAY 1: YOUR FAVORITE FILM--Blue (1993, d. K. Kieślowski)

I was a new M.A. student in Austin when the first of the Three Colours trilogy hit the theaters--and I was gobsmacked. I've had numerous conversations with Folks Who Know about which of the trilogy we like the best, whether the trilogy wasn't really a rehash of The Decalogue (1988), and so on. I believe I'd seen a few Kieślowski films before, but Blue in the theater was special. It marks for me the start of my own ability to take film seriously...

There's another way in which Kieślowski was an inspiration to me: to not give up on my doctoral studies. Walking away from my dream school (which had accepted me, but only with potential funding contingent on Year One) seemed at the time like one of the hardest things I ever did in my life. But because I decided to go to Lithuania to regroup / reapply, it really was one of the best things I ever did in my life. In an interview book, Kieślowski relates that it took him THREE TIMES to get into the Polish film school in Łódź--I figured I could live with applying for Ph.D. programs twice...or more.

Using a page from the Jim Naremore school of teaching Intro to Film (Citizen Kane, full stop), I used the trilogy to introduce film form and style to students in Columbus, IN as a Future Faculty Fellow. I used these films whenever I taught my Central European Cinema topics course. And this fall I'm teaching an honors section of a First Year Seminar that centers around the Three Colours. These films are so rich... they lend themselves to reviewing time and again, and seem to work great as a limited set of texts to introduce students to academic film studies...

DAY 2: LEAST FAVORITE FILM: The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)

With video-on-demand, it's really easy to opt out of bad films--you just leave the window where you're screening the bad Netflix film, and try again. But a bad experience in the theater...and with friends...that's tougher.

I can't say I have any real hard-core grudge with this film, truth told. But seeing as I'm working with my Intro students on the notion of narrative in general, and Todorov's notion of equilibrium in particular, I find myself using this film as my example of narrative frustration. Three hours of great looking film...but film that starts in the middle of things, and ends in the middle of things. No resolution, no nothing.

A lot of Tolkien fans might be more forgiving than I was... and maybe if I go back and watch the trilogy in one shot I'll be less crabby. But.... yikes.

Time will tell if I manage to work the challenge all the way through June--but this is a good way to dust off the proverbial cobwebs. Let me know if you're playing along at home--would love to read other folks' choices on these prompts. Peace!

~bpi

From despair to where?

Last week I had one of the best media-induced highs in recent memory... No, not the Pack beating Philly! No, it was Steve Buckley's "coming out party" on WEEI. For those not in New England, Buckley is a known and respected sportswriter/commentator, and his column in last week's Herald prompted a fascinating four-hour conversation on sports-talk radio about the politics of coming out, gender and sports, etc. Amazing stuff, no kidding.

But by the weekend, all that feelgood got swept away with a phone call from my brother, saying that the congresswoman from Tucson had been shot--that a lot of people had been shot. Nils reminded me that Mom & Dad had volunteered for her campaign this past fall, that they'd met her at our neighborhood friends' house where we always do Thanksgiving and Christmas... That first day had a lot of phone calls checking in on folks, emails inquiring about possible family connections with those killed, etc. Awful. Just awful.

(Among other things, I learned that Congresswoman Giffords went to UHS--but I don't recall running across her there.)

And now that the initial shock is over (well, maybe--IS it over?), the killings have become major political fodder. I was AIMed by a student who wanted to blame Fox News et al, but that seemed too simple. Palin's "target map" speaks more as an overt representation of the overheated rhetoric than anything else I can point to tonight...but that's too easy, too.

This needs to be a real gut-check for all of us, folks. As a state, as a nation, as a global community: who are we becoming? Who do we want to become, and how do we get there?

I want to keep working this through for myself this week--and I'm particularly anxious to hear from AZ folks, to get a sense from them about the state of the state, from their personal perspectives.... Be in touch?

Happy New Year! (2011, and all that...)

I figure I'm still good until Thursday to tell every everyone Happy New Year...after "Three Kings Day" on the 6th, the Christmas stuff gets repacked, and we all resign ourselves to the 2011-ness of it all. (By the way, are you a pro-"twenty-eleven" blog reader, or a pro-"two thousand eleven" blog reader???) Regardless, one of the best ways L & I wound down 2010 was to make a quick getaway to Manhattan after finals... and finally got to several places I'd wanted to check out for years...



First, we got to the top of the Empire State Building on Saturday night...Well, I guess we could have paid some more and gotten up another 12 floors, but the 80+ floors seemed good enough for us. Clear cool night, so we could see for miles in all directions. (KISS were no-shows, though.) New York & Vilnius seem to be the only two cities that really make me weak in the knees...

Next, after a semester of John Lennon-related readings (solo album releases, 30th anniversary of his death, etc.), I made a solo pilgrimage early Sunday morning to the Dakota and Strawberry Fields. Knowing the back-story of his murder made the gates of the Dakota--I guess I just felt numb. There's nothing marking Lennon's death there--no need, perhaps. Plus, across the street is where the "Imagine" mural is located. Quiet and still at 8am...

And finally, I got to the MoMA--half a day was enough to make a dent, and not much more. Still, I was lucky that the Andy Warhol film exhibition opened on the top floor, including a gallery space with 13 screen tests all screening simultaneously. Warhol's subjects stare back at you--and projected at 16fps (after being shot at 24fps), their slow-motion added to their oddness.

Well, not everybody stared. Lou Reed stared. Niko stared. Alan Ginsberg stared. But Dennis Hopper couldn't help himself....