Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Monday, January 27, 2014

Ikiru (Japan: Akira Kurosawa, 1952)



Ikiru (Japan: Akira Kurosawa, 1952: 143 mins)

"Akira Kurosawa, Part 1." Director's Club #141 (January 1, 2018)

Allie, Edward. "#9: Ikiru." Arts and Faith Top 100 Films (2011)

Ikiru Revisited." Mystery Man on Film (August 4, 2009)

Hogg, Trevor. "Epic Dreamer: An Akira Kurosawa Profile." Flickering Myth (March 24, 2010)

Kaufman, Aryeh. "A Study of Kurosawa’s Ikiru, Part 1 ~ What it Means to Live ~" Offscreen (April 30, 2009)

Meyer, Isaac. "Never Look Away." The History of Japan #236 (April 21, 2018) ["This week, we discuss the career of Japan’s most legendary director, Kurosawa Akira. From humble, middle class beginnings, our story will take us through some of his most notable films, and include detours into the lives of Mifune Toshiro, George Lucas, and even Francis Ford Coppola!"]

Richie, Donald. "Remembering Kurosawa." Current (Decmeber 9, 2009)

Zhou, Tony. "Akira Kurosawa - Composing Movement." (Posted on Vimeo: March 20, 2015)

Saturday, January 25, 2014

Medium Cool (USA: Haskell Wexler, 1969)

2001: A Space Odyssey (USA/UK: Stanley Kubrick, 1968)



2001: A Space Odyssey (USA/UK: Stanley Kubrick, 1968: 141 mins)

Beyl, Cameron. "The Directors Series: Stanley Kubrick, Pts. 1-5." The Film Stage (February 11, 2015)

Copley, Rich. "UK's presentation of '2001: A Space Odyssey' is a musical trip." Herald-Leader (January 29, 2015)

Darius, Julian. " On Jack Kirby’s 2001: A Space Odyssey Adaptation." Sequart (May 21, 2013)

Figueras, Mark Anthony. "Kubrick in Color." (Posted on Vimeo: January 2016)

Kaneria, Rishi. "Red: A Kubrick Supercut." (Posted on Vimeo: 2015)

Kuersten, Erich. "CinemArchetype #4: The Hanged Man." Acidemic  (February 12, 2012)

LoBrutto, Vincent. "Experimental Narrative: 2001: A Space Odyssey." Becoming Film Literate: The Art and Craft of Motion Pictures. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2005: 312-318. [BCTC Library: PN1994 L595 2005]










The Work of Stanley Kubrick from Stefano Westerling on Vimeo.








Resources for January 25, 2014




Jezebel: "Revenge Porn Purveyor Hunter Moore Finally Arrested by the FBI"





Ramin Setoodeh for Variety: "Julee Johnson gives her take on Lars Von Trier's movie"

Metanoia Films has the remastered version of Scott Noble's PsyWar online

The Power Principle: Corporate Empire and the Rise of the National Security State (Metanoia Films: Scott Noble, 2013: Part 1: Empire, 95 mins; Part II: Propaganda, 98 mins; Part III: Apocalypse, 70 mins)

Mr.Death "The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter" (UK/USA: Errol Morris, 1999: 91 mins) [To watch the documentary online]


The Marriage of Maria Braun (West Germany: Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1979: 120 mins)




Snag Films has a wide selection of free documentaries available to watch online





The Marriage of Maria Braun (West Germany: Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1979)




"One of the most prolific and influential European filmmakers of the second half of the 20th century, Rainer Werner Fassbinder completed nearly 40 feature-length films between 1969 and 1982 (the year he died at age 37) and left behind one of the most cohesive and provocative bodies of work in the history of cinema. In his many melodramas, gangster movies, literary adaptations, and even sci-fi films, he returned obsessively to themes of love, crime, labor, and social and emotional exploitation. He was similarly fixated on his beloved performers, many of whom—Hanna Schygulla, El Hedi ben Salem, Ulli Lommel, and countless others—comprised a repertory company whose fierce, complicated devotion to their visionary leader defies comparison." -- Film Society Lincoln Center (2014)






The Marriage of Maria Braun (West Germany: Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1979: 120 mins)

Brockmann, Stephen. "Die Ehe der Maria Braun." (1979) or West Germany Rebuilds." A Critical History of German Film Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2010: 356-369. [Professor has copy of the book]

Hancock, James, Mikhail Karadimov and Aaron West. "The Meteoric Career Of Rainer Werner Fassbinder." Wrong Reel #233 (February 2017)

Hoberman, J. "The Single Antidote to Thoughts of Suicide: Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s American friends." Moving Image Source (June 28, 2012)

Hudson, David. "Fassbinder: Romantic Anarchist (Part 1).” Keyframe (May 16, 2014)

Jones, Kent. "Heartbreak House: Fassbinder's BRD Trilogy." Current (Septemvber 29, 2003)

Leadbetter, Kate. "Fugitive Physicality and Female Performance in Werner Rainer Fassbinder's The Marriage of Maria BraunVeronika Voss and Lola." Movie (August 2010)

Mahani, Najmeh Khalili. "Mirroring History: Fassbinder’s The BRD Trilogy." Offscreen 17.2 (February 28, 2013)

Moeller, H.B. "Fassbinder's use of Brechtian aesthetics." Jump Cut #35 (April 1990)

Ruffel, Joe. "Great Directors: Rainer Werner Fassbinder." Sense of Cinema (May 2002)

Trocan, Irina. "Fassbinder's History Lessons." Keyframe (January 9, 2016)

Close Encounters of the Third Kind (USA: Steven Spielberg, 1977)



Close Encounters of the Third Kind (USA: Steven Spielberg, 1977: 132 mins)

Benedict, Steven. "The Techniques and Themes of Steven Spielberg." Vimeo (August 8, 2012)

"Close Encounters of the Third Kind and the Search for Meaning." Pop Culture Case Study (November 9, 2016)

Haskell, Molly, Michael Koresky and Violet Lucca. "Steven Spielberg." Film Comment Podcast (October 3, 2017) ["Looking ahead to the New York Film Festival premiere of Susan Lacy’s documentary Spielberg, this week’s Film Comment podcast considers the household-name auteur: the architect of the modern blockbuster, and a surviving (and thriving) master of the Classical Hollywood vernacular. Molly Haskell is on hand to impart wisdom from her most recent book Steven Spielberg: A Life in Films, which came out in the spring, as well as firsthand recollections of writing about Spielberg in the age of second-wave feminism. She joins Film Society of Lincoln Center Editorial Director Michael Koresky, who edited the Reverse Shot book Steven Spielberg: Nostalgia and the Light, published with Museum of the Moving Image this summer, and FC Digital Producer Violet Lucca for a discussion spanning Spielberg’s big marquee titles and his less appreciated works."]

Hynes, Eric. "Wishing On a Starship." Reverse Shot #31 (2012)

Kuersten, Erich. "The Primal Father (CinemArchetypes #8)." Acidemic (March 19, 2012)

Lee, Kevin B. "The Spielberg Face." (Posted on Vimeo: 2012)

Tracy, Andrew. "Depth Perception." Reverse Shot #31 (2012)

The Tenant (France: Roman Polanski, 1976)



The Tenant (France: Roman Polanski, 1976: 125 mins)

Bradley, S.A. "Nowhere Man: The Outsider in Horror." Hell Bent for Horror #30 (January 21, 2017)
["The Us vs. Them mentality is a backdrop for some really good horror stories. Frankenstein being a great example. The Monster is the outsider, but yet you sympathize with him. In these conflicts, horror is uniquely suited to tell some great stories, and give different results. What makes THEM…them? How easily can WE become THEM? “Civilized” society is a tough path to tread. In this episode I talk about Horror and the outsider. I bring up Frankenstein and then go from short stories to little known movies to popular movies of the last decade."]

Bradley, S.A. and James Hancock. "Roman Polanski's Apartment Trilogy." Wrong Reel #253 (April 2017)

Cairns, David. "Eternal Recurrence: Beginning at the end with Roman Polanski." Moving Image Source (September 8, 2011)

Del Valle, David. "Wig of a Poet: Un Polanski Rorschach." Acidemic #6 (2010)

Duvall, Jamey, Mike White and Alex Winter. "The Tenant (1976)." The Projection Booth #344 (October 10, 2017) ["Adapted from a book by Roland Topor (Fantastic Planet), the film also stars Polanski as Trelkovsky, a man in need of a new apartment. He finds one where the previous occupant has defenestrated herself. After her death, he's able to move in and finds that his neighbors don't like him being noisy... in fact, they don't like him being him at all. Some put this alongside Polanski's Repulsion and Rosemary's Baby as his “apartment trilogy” in which explores the terrors of urban paranoia."]

Fernandez, Ingrid. "Visions of the Other: The Return of the Abject in Roman Polanski's The Tenant." Bright Lights Film Journal #78 (November 2012)

López, Cristina Álvarez and Adrian Martin. "Roman Polanski: Cinema of Invasion." ACMI (October 13, 2016)

Savage, David. "A Polanski Guide to Urban Living." Cinema Retro (July 27, 2007)

Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Resources for January 22, 2014

Smells Like Human Spirit #67: "Deconstructing Edward Bernays’ Propaganda (Part 4)" and Part 5

Benton, Michael Dean. "Astroturf and Front Group Research: The Center for Union Facts." Dialogic Cinephilia (January 20, 2014)

Meghan Neal for Vice's Motherboard: "Obama's Linguistic Loopholes"

"The ability to perceive or think differently is more important than the knowledge gained." -- David Bohm, quoted in New Scientist (February 1993): 42.

David Miller on Divine Salve: "My Speech at Martin Luther King Rally"


Merriam-Webster's Word-of-the-Day

gaffer \GAF-er\

noun 1 : an old man — compare gammer; 2 a: foreman, overseer — British b : employer; 3 : a head glassblower; 4 : a lighting electrician on a motion-picture or television set

EXAMPLES

Before the first day of shooting, the gaffer spent several days setting up all the lights.

"Meanwhile, almost a hundred crew members, gaffers, lighting and camera people, makeup artists, sound technicians, producers and security were outside creating scenes for 'Draft Day.'" — From an article by Michael Heaton in the Plain Dealer (Cleveland, Ohio), May 15, 2013

Though movie and cinema buffs associate "gaffer" with Hollywood, the word actually pre-dates motion pictures by about 300 years. The first recorded use of "gaffer" dates from the 16th century, when it was used as a title of respect for an older gentleman. Later it was used as a generic noun for any elderly man, and then it picked up the sense "foreman" (still used in British English), perhaps because the foreman was the most experienced and, most likely, the oldest person in a work crew. Today "gaffer" is usually applied to the head lighting electrician on a movie set. The gaffer's assistant is called the "best boy."





Brody, Richard. "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Folk Singer" The New Yorker (December 5, 2013)


Merriam-Webster -- Word of the Day

wangle \WANG-gul\

verb 1 : to resort to trickery or devious methods; 2 : to adjust or manipulate for personal or fraudulent ends; 3 : to make or get by devious means : finagle

EXAMPLES

Somehow, Irene managed to wangle front-row tickets and backstage passes for the concert.

"He quits his job, wangling a huge pay-off by blackmailing his boss, and buys a ridiculous red sports car." — From a film review by Marc Lee at telegraph.co.uk, November 21, 2013

"Wangle," a verb of uncertain origin, has been used in its sense "to obtain by sly methods" since the late 19th century. Occasionally, one sees "wrangle" used similarly, as in "wrangle a huge salary," but more typically it means "to argue or engage in controversy." Did the "obtain" sense of "wrangle" evolve through confusion with "wangle"? Not exactly. "Wrangle" was used with the meaning "to obtain by arguing or bargaining" as early as 1624, long before "wangle" appeared in the language. The sense had all but disappeared until recent decades, however, and its revival may very well have been influenced by "wangle." The "obtain" sense of "wangle" is currently more common than that of "wrangle," but both are considered standard.



Monday, January 20, 2014

Michael Dean Benton - Astroturf and Front Group Research: The Center for Union Facts

I was searching for a video on Youtube and an advertisement started before I could watch it. I had my cursor hovering over the "skip ad" button as the necessary five second buffer ticked away, but I noticed the ridiculous nature of the ad and let it continue playing. The absurdity lay in its obvious distortion through child actors of the nature of union voting. There was obviously no pretense toward presenting an accurate picture of unions and it was obviously not designed to appeal to anyone other than rabid anti-union people. Furthermore it engaged in the depiction of gross ethnic stereotypes -- Greaser Italians and shade wearing African-Americans as union muscle/enforcers who are a threat to "our" democracy (I'll leave you to speculate who is the "our" population that is threatened by these ethnicities). My only conclusion was that it was designed to whip up hysteria in the already-faithful followers of this ideology and ensure that they did not waver from their support of the Employee Rights Act (notice the Orwellian doublespeak in Orrin Hatch's proposed bill that gives one the impression it is designed to protect workers). Most likely the creators of this ad hoped they might also sway some naive citizens:



At the end of the video it states that you can follow a link to find out more. The link takes the curious to the The Employee Rights Act website. This website once again does not provide any obvious information "about" (the requisite link/button that appears on any legitimate site) the organization behind the website and it is loaded with more videos (including ones that attempts to link unions with totalitarian societies like North Korea... once again so gross a distortion of reality one has to wonder who would buy into this disinformation). The Center for Union Facts is listed in name only as the organization that promotes this legislation and created the ads. They are attempting to appear as a citizens, grassroots group just looking out for workers' rights. They have many more thinly disguised websites, such as Labor Pains, seeking to amplify their voice online through the appearance of multiple organizations all joining in on the support of this legislation.

I decided to find out more about The Center for Union Facts and visited Sourcewatch to get some background on this organization. This is a secretive front group set up by lobbyist Rick Berman and is part of family of front groups under the umbrella organization Employment Policies Institute "created by Berman & Co., a Washington, DC public affairs firm owned by Rick Berman, who lobbies for the restaurant, hotel, alcoholic beverage and tobacco" industries. They are also behind one of the more notorious front groups Center for Consumer Freedom, whose efforts notoriously included running:

media campaigns which oppose the efforts of scientists, doctors, health advocates, animal advocates, environmentalists and groups like Mothers Against Drunk Driving, calling them "the Nanny Culture -- the growing fraternity of food cops, health care enforcers, anti-meat activists, and meddling bureaucrats who 'know what's best for you."

Berman & Co. efforts to mislead American citizens is so egregious that they start off Sourcewatch's entry on what is a Front Group.

A reminder: research the information you are presented with, especially when it is so blatantly trying to sway your opinion. If an organization does not clearly represent to their audience who they are and what their purpose is, then there is most likely a reason why they are hiding their true identity. For instance, while googling the Sourcewatch website this advertisement appeared (it says "ad" in small letters next to the link, but the unaware/naive often miss that and it is placed strategically at the top of my search results). It claimed to have proven that Sourcewatch has a hidden agenda and funders. Click on the host website Judicial Hellholes "about" link -- it is a false link. Who is ATR, the organization behind the Judicial Hellholes website and why are they not forthcoming about their agenda/identity? What is Judicial Hellholes purpose -- seems obvious they are a site designed to advocate for "tort reform," but why are they once again so secretive about who is supporting this effort and what are their broader connections (for more on these misleading "tort reform" campaigns listen to an interview with documentary filmmaker Susan Saladoff.

As an example of a forthright group, check out Sourcewatch's "about" link. Notice how the first thing they do is mention their parent organization with a full link to its website and another link about their purpose/funding/members.

Once again, even without full research one can sense when a front group is trying to mislead citizens. I would like to encourage all citizens to develop the skills necessary to uncover the background to information they access and then share these skills with others so that we can protect ourselves from front group disinformation campaigns.

Paul Dean at The Sociological Cinema provides a good analysis of the purpose of this type of misleading/manipulative ad campaign: "Ideology and False Consciousness in a Super Bowl Ad"

Sunday, January 19, 2014

ENG 282 1st Week: Responses to An Oversimplification of Her Beauty (2012)




Michael Benton:

Literally blew my mind. Changed the way I think about films and filmmaking. Expanded my conception of storytelling and narrative. Revised my philosophical understanding of time experienced through relationships (or is that vice versa). I'm going to screen it again tomorrow for my students.

Patrick Reynolds:

First time attempting to review any film, but certainly one as creative and complicated as this. Complex for a neophyte like me, but certainly sense the passion with which it was done. Incredible how complicated with such simple technology. Brought long forgotten feelings/emotions to the forefront for me - these were expressed in a very unique but identifiable way ( e.g. "I would never go anywhere, but I am shrinking"). Certainly expanded my conception of what films can be. Would like to see it again. I sense the birth of an entirely new area of artistic appreciation in my life... One last thought: the use of animation was interesting; like much of the rest of the film, it went a direction I didn't expect.

Michael Benton response to Patrick Reynolds:

I'm listening to this song as I write this:

a re-interpretation by Sonic Youth of the tragic song by The Carpenters called "Superstar" (you need to know the fate of Karen Carpenter to understand the depth of this tribute). It is a part of my youth and reminds me of people that I have lost as I grow older. I've listened to it four times now because it is bringing up memories of then/now, people/places. dreams/desires, past/future, and it all flits through my consciousness and I attempt to hold on, but like Ulysses in the land of shades it is but a temporary visit with what is now lost, but still the promise of what will be beckons. Likewise this film, a film I have been struggling with, trying to think about and somehow your response unleashed another piece of my attempt to understand why it moves me so ... or perhaps it is slipping away again..........

Ebony Angel:

An Oversimplification of Her Beauty begins by asking a seemingly uncomplicated question, “How would you feel?” The question doesn’t mean much in the first five to ten minutes of the film, however, by the 85’th to 90’th minute the question has been transformed into something of an emotionally loaded accusation/appeal for empathy.

Terence Nance, the main character/director of this film, artfully (literally; drawings, animations, and stop motion clips are incorporated throughout the film) transforms the question (“How would you feel?”) by unraveling the psychological experience of a relationship and its uncomfortable ending . . . an experience most of us undergo, yet often deal with silently and in our own respective ways; typically simplifying and describing the ending/experience as cut, dry, and past-tense to others - if discussed at all.

Nance, instead, takes his relationship and its conclusion and shares it with the viewer in all of its messy, disorienting, painful, selfish, complex, and irrational glory – which is how the experience of a meaningful relationship actually is. Throughout the film repetition of scenes, phrases, and camera angles are used to relay how memories can haunt, even long after the relationship/feelings/situations have changed. The moments cherished most are remembered longest . . . in his case, her (his muse Namik’s) beauty, her lips, her smell, her taste, her way of intellectualizing her feelings to protect herself.

A clear timeline of events is not prominent in the film; which adds to the disorienting feeling that progresses throughout the film. This initially seemed somewhat problematic, but, in reality, timelines do only get more muddled with time. So, as with relationships, while it is frustrating that time deteriorates our mental timeline of events, I was left to ponder the actual importance of a clear timeline.

Similarly absent was an objective narrative of the relationship. Nance’s romanticizations of what he wanted/expected/hoped for/idealized along with good amounts of both self-doubt and criticism are tangled up in his largely one-sided representation of events. Also, the viewer only receives superficial glimpses of who Nance is. The viewer can only be involved with whom they are presented; a seemingly mysterious, and creative character. We, as viewers, are engaged with him (feeling, seeing, and experiencing through him) regardless of how flawed his perception of the experience may be in reality (although, it should be noted, the way in which the experience is presented, reality takes a back seat to perception).

While An Oversimplification of Her Beauty seems to be Nance’s way of ending – or more accurately – accepting the ending of his relationship with Namik, and while the film does a superb job of encapsulating the evolution and devolution of a meaningful (to at least one of the parties involved) relationship, I couldn’t help but wonder if my inclination to sympathize/connect with Nance’s portrayal of events had more to do with his abilities as a director, than his character as a person.

While I would have enjoyed hearing more of Namik’s perspective, there is no question that Nance is an incredibly skilled director and creative person. An Oversimplification of Her Beauty uses a unique combination of art, sounds, and breaks in film to trigger memories/experiences and to convey emotions and ideas that I doubt could ever be conveyed through simple scripted lines. While this film may not be for those unaccustomed to the abstract, I think it would be hard to find someone who couldn’t relate to some aspect of the film.

Michael Benton responds to Ebony Angel:

"How would you feel" - the question situates us in the creator's shoes immediately and the repetition of the question throughout the re-conception/re-vision of this tale about a possible romantic moment in the filmmaker's life/story continually re-situates us, asking us to repeatedly re-imagine our original and continuing responses to a situation.

"How would you feel" - this question now haunts my consciousness. How would you feel if I created a film/artwork/song/story that changed the way you understand the world? How would you feel if I suggested or screened a film that changed your understanding of the world? How would you feel if I critiqued or responded to something you thought you understood and with my words/ideas I completely changed that understanding throwing everything into question and re-beginning that narrative so that you must re-visit it with new "eyes."

"How would you feel" - so many people enter into our lives and touch us in so many ways. What are the traces of those intense moments in which they forever change us. How do we sift through the sediment of these moments...

Ebony, this is a fantastic response. You skillfully break down the film and ask important questions. In the extras to the film there is a commentary track by Namik in which she comments on the film. I think you hit on one of the best parts of this film for me. In our contemporary mediatized society we are encouraged to give ourselves up to the power/authority of the "controlling" narrative. We are constantly being pressured to just go along for the ride (if we want pleasure and enjoyment -- just sniff the poppy, acquiesce to the siren's song, don't question....) ... the lights dim, the film starts, our minds shut off....

How would you feel.... if someone questioned that process and continuously questioned the nature of filmmaking, relationships and our identities as they are produced/constructed and re-assesed/re-conceived over time.

Thank you for you response Ebony!

Rory Barron:

Honestly, I'm not entirely sure how to review this film. It's completely fantastic and it loosely reminded me of a few personal experiences that I find hard to put into words. From an artistic perspective, it's an original portrayal of love and how it effects the people involved (even if one does not love the other in the same way) in an intimate journey. I think I find reviewing this film difficult because I'm unable to clearly define the journey we experience throughout life and how our lives connect with others. This film is just one portrayal but it's amazing and definitely worth seeing.

Kelly Frances:

I had to think about this movie for awhile. My knee jerk reaction was that it annoyed me a little, but then the more I thought about it the more I liked it. I liked how weird it was, even though I was confused at some parts. I think this movie was the abstract mind of a guy and his thoughts and feelings on his past relationships. In particular, this one girl that I don't even know if they end up together or not. I think the repeating that keeps happening is the repeating thoughts that the main character Terence keeps having...and that made me think about all my past relationships. And how I used to get hung up on why they rejected me or why things didn't work out. And how I analyzed and wondered and obsessed. And I feel like that was what Terence was doing and thats what the film was about. I think is was a very unique and beautiful movie...but I have a hard time with these movies because I get distracted trying to analyze it instead of sitting back and taking it for what the movie is. I really would like to see it again because there is so much I kind of feel like I missed. The one thing that I keep wondering is if that footage/interview of the girl and him was real or scripted? Either way, I liked that part and love how the the writer/director/main character Terence really put his heart and soul into the film and did something experimental and something that is very thought provoking. The opening credits were my favorite part because the music and cinematography were so perfect and beautiful. If anything this film speaks to hearts and I would imagine anyone who has experienced love/lust/heartache will feel and get something from this movie.

Seth Gardner:

An oversimplification of her beauty is an intriguing film to say the least. There are some things I didn’t like that they did and some things that I did like. First and foremost Ill say that it is extremely refreshing to see a film about African-Americans produced by African-Americans that had literally nothing to with the fact black and was in no way about their blackness. This is just a dude who loves this girl. In the movie culture it seems that the only reason an African-American is cast is to be token black dude doing and saying stereotypical black things. So, for the purposes of this movie, that is one of the biggest takeaways that I got from the movie. As for the story itself, which the movie claims to be true, I thought the voice over was a little aggressive and constant and after a while I really had to concentrate on not tuning out what the voice over was saying. Between the voiceover and the extreme nature of the non-linear sequencing Ill say it was difficult to get into the movie for quite a while. The visuals were nice but they seemed to lack any real meaning that I got anything from and really clashed with the theme of the movie. In the end though, the story that is told of this young man and the fact that he made a movie to tell this girl he loved her only for her to still reject him is something that I definitely felt. If I had gone through all that trouble only to get rejected anyway I’d probably develop some sort of alcoholism. Overall though, I thought it was enjoyable and would probably show to my friends.

Jordan Rector:

This film was like nothing I've seen before. I can remember only a select few movies that focused on why we feel the way we do under certain circumstances. The first 20 minutes of the movie really stuck in my head. The repeating question "How would you feel?" is an important question when dealing with a persons feelings. It shows how the main character grows through past experiences with dating. I used to get so hung up on why my relationships didn't work out. Replaying old times together in my head over and over to try and understand what went wrong. I felt as though i had literally been in Terence shoes in some of those situations. The chronological order of things was a bit confusing at times but made more sense as he started to show the different kinds of people he's dated over the past. I enjoyed how in depth he got with his feelings. Sometimes maybe too deep because i couldn't have told you what the movie was about until the very end. Ill have to watch this movie multiple times to break down some scenes i felt were important and relate-able. I also wonder if the scenes where she was being interviewed is scripted. Some scenes you can clearly tell they're acting a part but in the interview scenes there was an enormous amount of attraction, connection, and passion between the two of them that it felt incredibly genuine. This movie is something that i will reference when some of those similar situations happen in my life. The cinematography and and pretty music accent this film very well with what Terence is trying show the audience.

Emily Hensley:

An “Oversimplification of Her Beauty” is a unique up beat film within a film that expands on ideas presented in Terrance Nance’s previous film “How would you feel?” Nance tells a tale of his journey dealing with and trying to express his undisclosed love for his lady friend, who just happens to already be taken. The narrative style engages, captivates and devours the audience with the young man’s opposition of feelings, emotions and past relationship experiences. While watching this film the audience is forced to ponder the question “How would you feel?” as this becomes a repetitive theme throughout the film. The audience is invoked to feel empathy for Nance, as most human beings have walked a day in similar shoes; falling in love or drowning out of love.

Nance’s past relationships come alive and practically jump off the screen with the use of several simple but mesmerizing visual effects; revealing how his past plays a role in the love triangle he experiences. Through the visual effects the audience is taken on an adventure traveling through Nance’s mind, memories and his realization of what truly occurred in his past relationships. There is also a very intimate appeal using photographs, old family movies and raw emotion as an artistic style. With that being said creativity just radiates throughout with the use of multiple artistic forms, poetic gestures, eccentric colors, visual effects, wooden puppets, and personal filmed interviews with Nance’s love interest.

Nance recognizes his faults and mistakes as he grows and learns as a human being. This concept is a great lesson to learn as in today’s vain society most people never take the time to analyze their past relationships or why they didn’t work. People never think they are at fault for failed relationships or how past relationships mold us into the partners we become. This feature I feel represents how relationships and their success can be defined and redefined as cause and effect from past to future. Although many aspects of relationships and love are presented in Nance’s vision, not all are clearly stated…which guides the audience to think and grasp their own ideas of what the film brings to them and their life using a fresh and hip style.

Saturday, January 18, 2014

Resources for January 20, 2014

Carlos Miller for PINAC: "Bullied Student Files Internal Affairs Report Against Lying, Mocking Cop as Dad Records"

Smells Like Human Spirit Episode 60 – Deconstructing Edward Bernays’ book Propaganda (Part 1) and Part 2 and Part 3





Cara Buckley for The New York Times: "Armond White, Ousted Critic, Has Words on his Expulsion from the New York Film Critics Circle"

Wilson, Michael S. "NOAM CHOMSKY — ‘Everyday Anarchist’: The Modern Success Interview" Modern Success (August 20, 2013)

Lisa Wade for Sociological Images examines how the young man Mark Duggan killed by Police last week in London is visually framed and represented by the media: "Picturing Mark Duggan"

Cohn, Cindy and Parker Higgins. "Rating Obama’s NSA Reform Plan: EFF Scorecard Explained." Electronic Frontier Foundation (January 17, 2014)




Adrienne K. for Native Appropriations: "They give out oscars for racism now?"

Michael Pollen for Mother Jones: "Michael Pollan Explains What's Wrong With the Paleo Diet."

Friday, January 17, 2014

Resources for January 18, 2014

Electronic Frontier Foundation's scorecard on Barack Obama's January 17th "NSA" speech: "Scorecard: Will Obama Hit the Mark on Real NSA Reform?"


Life by Rheotaxis
by Wesley Houp

You were never a teacher,
always a pupil.
The only teachers you have
are the ones without words.
The only teacher on earth
is the earth.
Better to be humanly dumb
and earthly wise.
This I learned from Naiads,
water's lecturers.
Their lesson, slow
and oppositional,
does not instruct us to push on
but always to go back.


Mohosinul Karim for Dhaka Tribune: "Hijras now a separate gender"

The BBC reports: "Germany allows 'indeterminate' gender at birth"

The BBC reports: "UN panel confronts Vatican on child sex abuse by clergy"

Neil McDonald for the CBC: "Contempt of cop, America's defiance revolution: Like NSA leaker Edward Snowden, ordinary Americans pushing back against authority"


The 50 Best Films of 2013 (In Twenty Words) from Michael Mirasol on Vimeo.




Jennifer Levitz for The Wall Street Journal: As "West Virginia Begins to Lift Water Ban" Chemical Contamination Heads to Ohio and Kentucky

Noah Brand for The Good Men Project: "Five Important Things Women Don’t Know About Men"





Schippers, Mimi. "Compulsory Monogamy in The Hunger Games." Sociological Images (December 2, 2013)

Parker Higgins for Electronic Frontier Foundation remembers free and open internet activist Aaron Swartz one year after his suicide

Resources for January 17, 2014

"My own concern is primarily the terror and violence carried out by my own state, for two reasons. For one thing, because it happens to be the larger component of international violence. But also for a much more important reason than that; namely, I can do something about it. So even if the U.S. was responsible for 2 percent of the violence in the world instead of the majority of it, it would be that 2 percent I would be primarily responsible for. And that is a simple ethical judgment. That is, the ethical value of one’s actions depends on their anticipated and predictable consequences. It is very easy to denounce the atrocities of someone else. That has about as much ethical value as denouncing atrocities that took place in the 18th century." -- Noam Chomsky (2012)

Errol Morris: Believing is Seeing: Mysteries of Photography

Rebecca Schuman for Slate: "Even Ph.D.s Who Got “Full Funding” Have Huge Amounts of Debt"

King, Danny. "Clint, Caught in the Act: On The Beguiled, and Don Siegel's Leading Man." Bright Lights Film Journal #82 (November 2013)

Doctorow, Cory. "Judge rules TSA no-fly procedures unconstitutional". Boing Boing (January 15, 2014)

Brooks, Brian. "86th Oscars: The Full List of Nominees." Film Society Lincoln Center (January 16, 2014)








Merriam-Webster Word-of-the-Day: ostentatious \ah-stun-TAY-shus\

adjective: marked by or fond of conspicuous or vainglorious and sometimes pretentious display

Now that he has money, Edwin wears expensive designer clothes, drives an ostentatious car, and frequents the trendiest upscale nightclubs.

"'Washingtonians are more understated in their style,' says Pamela Sorensen, founder of the website Pamela's Punch, where she covers the local social scene. 'Being flashy or ostentatious is frowned upon.'" — From an article by Kimberly Palmer in the Washingtonian, January 2014

"Showy," "pretentious," and "ostentatious" all mean given to outward display, but there are subtle differences in the meaning of these show-off words. "Showy" implies an imposing or striking appearance, but usually also implies cheapness or bad taste. "Pretentious" suggests an appearance of importance not justified by a thing's value or a person's standing. "Ostentatious" is the most peacockish of all, stressing the vanity of the display.


Cory Doctorow for Boing Boing: "Dirty secrets of America's most notorious patent troll"

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Resources for January 15, 2014

Michael Parenti is featured on Smells Like Human Spirit: "Dr. Michael Parenti on the ‘Make-Believe Media’" -- "In this interview, he discusses the use of entertainment media as propaganda, and the relationship between government agencies and the production of such content. Later on in the talk, Dr. Parenti also provides his take on the media’s coverage of the Obama Administration’s escalating use of drones, and the recent death of Margaret Thatcher."




Stork, Mattias. "Space-Wars: Mapping the Aesthetics of Post-Cinematic City Space in Action Films and Video Games." Mediascape (Fall 2013)





Sabo, Lee Weston. "Abnormal Intelligence: Sam Fell and Chris Butler's ParaNorman." Bright Lights Film Journal #82 (November 2013)

Dima, Vlad. "Buried Alive in Space The Non-Story of Gravity." Bright Lights Film Journal (November 2013)


I am an imaginative existentialist-anarchist that feels that this video humorously gets to the heart of cat ennui, but also the anguish of the individual in a conforming society that restricts their ability to fully realize their autonomy




Dinner last night from a recipe on Just One Cookbook: "Omurice (Japanese Omelette Rice) オムライス"


Signs I Can No Longer Avoid
by Wesley Houp

Only the gasping crow
in Wendy’s parking lot
cares less for himself.

His murder leaves him to a last meal
and rides out the storm nearby
in a dead locust
like old snags of black plastic
left by a flood,
half notes on the staff
of an apocalypse.

The tornado touches down
in a blind-spot
and uproots a dusty barn
full of retired pigeons
with no insurance.
They circle twice
and return to roost in the ruins.

A long, harsh winter
followed by a cold, dry spring
wilts the crocus-tips of dreams.
Behind the urgent treatment center
a stray cat licks grease out of some ashes.

Tuesday, January 14, 2014

Resources for January 14, 2014

Ildari, Max. "Blue Is the Warmest Color 2: A Response to Lorrie Moore’s Review in the New York Review of Books." Bright Lights After Dark (January 10, 2014)

Bowen, Chuck. "The Cloud over THE WOLF: On the rise of the ‘Leonardo DiCaprio’ character." Keyframe (January 12, 2014)

Olavarria, C.M. "The Church of Holy Motors: A Transformation in Metafilm." Bright Lights Film Journal #82 (November 2013)

The Internet Archive features multiple parts of a long-lost (or at least hidden) Peter Bogdanovich interview with Orson Welles from 1969 - 1972

Amy Goodman for Democracy Now reports "The FBI, the NSA and a Long-Held Secret Revealed."

Carl Root and Edward Green for Uprooting Criminology: "On Academic Freedom and Sitting Ducks"





Huffington Post: "'What I Be' Project Reveals People's Darkest Insecurities In Stunning Photos"

Riley, John A. "Existential Lethargy: Hong Sang-soo's Nobody's Daughter Haewon (2013)" Bright Lights Film Journal #82 (November 2013)

Bordwell, David. "Understanding Film Narrative: The Trailer." Observations on Film Art (January 12, 2014)

Sunday, January 12, 2014

Blue is the Warmest Color (France/Belgium/Spain: Abdellatif Kechiche, 2013)

“Few films dig so deeply (and with such sense of intimacy) into the complexities of human relations, the joys and pains of self discovery and the hurtful realisation that our bodies and mind can yearn opposite things.” — Fernanda Solórzano



Blue is the Warmest Color (France/Belgium/Spain: Abdellatif Kechiche, 2013: 179 mins)

Beauvoir, Simone de. The Second Sex (1949: PDF copy)

Bell, Nicholas. "Blue is the Color of My True Love’s Hair: Kechiche Takes Us Deep Sea, Baby." Ion Cinema (October 25, 2013)

Berger, John. The Ways of Seeing. (1972: Summary/outline of this important book that studied how we are position to observe people and objects in art)

Blue is the Warmest Color Critic's Roundup (No Date)

Blue is the Warmest Color (Graphic Novel) Wikipedia (No Date)

Dargis, Manohla. "Seeing You Seeing Me: The Trouble With Blue Is the Warmest Color." The New York Times (October 27, 2013)

Dayoub, Tony. "The 51st New York Film Festival #3." The Cinephiliacs (October 13, 2013)

Hudson, David. "Abdellatif Kechiche’s BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOR: A coy coming-out drama this most definitely isn’t.” Keyframe (May 23, 2013)

---. "Abdellatif Kechiche’s BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOR: 'The experience of the film transcends flaws both real and imagined.'" Keyframe (October 11, 2013)

Ildari, Max. "Blue Is the Warmest Color 2: A Response to Lorrie Moore’s Review in the New York Review of Books." Bright Lights After Dark (January 10, 2014)

Jones, Kristin M. ""Review: Blue Is the Warmest Color." Film Comment (2013)

Kennedy, A.L. "Sartre and the Individual." A History of Ideas (April 15, 2015) ["Writer AL Kennedy on Existentialist ideas about the individual. Jean Paul Sartre argued that, for humans, 'existence preceded essence'. This means that there is no blueprint or template from which to work - humans are free to make themselves up as they go along. Being an individual comes from the way you negotiate this freedom and the choices you make in the face of it."]
Lee, Janet. "'Blue Is The Warmest Color'." Neon Tommy (October 22, 2013)

Mayer, Sophie. "Blue is the Warmest Colour: This part-adaptation of Julie Maroh’s graphic-novel saga of a lesbian love affair trades a new voice for the same old male gaze." Sight and Sound (February 20, 2015)

McCahill, Mike. "21st Century Directors You Need to Know About: Abdellatif Kechiche." Movie Mail (May 2, 2014)

McNeil, Jeremiah. "Blue is the Warmest Color" Dialogic Cinephilia (December 21, 2013)

Moore, Lorrie. "Gazing at Love: Blue is the Warmest Color." The New York Review of Books (December 19, 2013)

Rich, B. Ruby. "Blue Is the Warmest Color: Feeling Blue." The Current (February 24, 2014)

Roberts, Soraya. "Blue Is the Warmest Color is about class, not just sex." Salon (November 3, 2013) ["Sex and sexuality are only half the film's story. It's also about lovers from different economic worlds."]

Sartre, Jean-Paul. "Existentialism is a Humanism." (Lecture given in 1946: published in Existentialism from Dostoyevsky to Sartre, ed. Walter Kaufman, Meridian Publishing Company, 1989) Marxist Archive (2005)

Stern, Marlowe. "‘Blue is the Warmest Color’: See What the Sex Scene Looks Like In the Graphic Novel." The Daily Beast (October 28, 2013)

Thompson, Martha. "Blue Is the Warmest Color 1: Unresolved Alienations of Class." Bright Lights After Dark (January 2014)

Zaman, Farihah. "The Pleasure Principle: Blue is the Warmest Color." Reverse Shot #33 (2013)











Taxi Driver (USA: Martin Scorsese, 1976)

Resources for January 12, 2014

A collective statement from the experimental filmmaker collective C.3.3.: "An Open Letter to the Film Industry"

Masha Gessen for Slate: "“I Was My Own Person Again”: The women of Pussy Riot made meaning out of a horrific experience in prison. Now, they’re launching another protest movement in Russia"

Violet Blue for ZD Net: MIT website hacked by Anonymous on anniversary of Aaron Swartz suicide

Bill Moyers alerts us to the relaunch Carl Sagan's great TV Show Cosmos with new host astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson "The New Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey"



Kaletzky, Marianne. "Enfeebling Fables: Weak Allegory in Les Carabiniers and The Silence." Bright Lights Film Journal #82 (November 2013)

A website that helps you in finding and contacting your congressional representatives

Hartman, Andy. "Structural/Sexual Transgression: Todd Haynes' Poison as a Critique of Homonormativity." Bright Lights Film Journal #82 (November 2013)

The New York Times shares: "Mapping Poverty in America: Data from the Census Bureau show where the poor live"

Thompson, Martha. "Blue Is the Warmest Color 1: Unresolved Alienations of Class." Bright Lights Film Journal #82 (November 2013)

Thursday, January 9, 2014

Resources for January 9, 2014

Gary Potter for Uprooting Criminology: "Lies, Damned Lies and Immigrant Crime"

Very inspiring to those of us seeking to do the same in our cities/regions. Democracy Now: A Socialist Elected in Seattle: Kshama Sawant on Occupy, Fight for 15, Boeing’s "Economic Blackmail"

"Tomorrow morning," he decided, "I'll begin clearing away the sand of fifty thousand centuries for my first vegetable garden. That's the initial step." — Philip K. Dick, The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch (1964)




Kim Willsher for The Guardian: "French workers at Goodyear tyre plant take bosses captive"





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Laura Willard for Upworthy: "Enjoy A Few Moments Of Messed-Up Messages, Created And Shared By The Beauty Industry. Here It Comes"


Wednesday, January 8, 2014

Bluegrass Film Society: Spring 2014

1/14: An Oversimplification of Her Beauty (USA: Terence Nance, 2012: 93 mins) [Suggested by Jeremiah McNeil]

1/21: Canceled because of weather

1/28: Danton (France/Poland: Andzej Wajda, 1983: 136 mins)

2/4: Bill Nye/Ken Ham -- Evolution vs Creationism debate

2/11: Black Moon (France/West Germany: Louis Malle, 1975: 75 mins)

2/18: The Last Wave (Australia: Peter Weir, 1977: 106 mins)

2/25: A Man Escaped (France: Robert Bresson, 1956: 101 mins)

3/4: The American Friend (West Germany/France: Wim Wenders, 1977: 125 mins)

3/11: The Wind Journeys (Columbia/Germany/Argentina, Netherlands: Ciro Guerra, 2009: 117 mins) [Suggested by Laura Webb]


3/25: A Separation (Iran: Asghar Farhadi, 2011: 123 mins)

4/1: The Apple (USA/West Germany: Menahem Golan, 1980: 90 mins)

4/8: The Day He Arrives (South Korea: Hong Sang-Soo, 2011: 79 mins)

4/15: Fatherland (aka Singing the Blues in Red - UK/West Germany/France: Ken Loach, 1986: 110 mins)

4/22: Kebab Connection (Germany: Anno Saul, 2004: 96 mins)

4/29: Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (USA: Russ Meyer, 1970: 109 mins)

5/6: Crime Wave (Canada: John Paizs, 1985: 80 mins)

Monday, January 6, 2014

Resources for January 6th, 2014

Saunders, D.J.M. "Hope and History: Beyond Violence." Bright Lights Film Journal #82 (November 2013)

Soles, Carter. "Team Apatow And the Tropes of Geek-Centered Romantic Comedy." Bright Lights Film Journal #82 (November 2013)


Merriam-Webster's Word-of-the-Day
behest \bih-HEST\

noun 1 : an authoritative order : command; 2 : an urgent prompting

EXAMPLES

At the manager's behest, several of us stayed to work late so that we could finish the project ahead of the deadline.

"They say the constitutional separation of powers blocks the panel—created at the governor's behest—from policing the legislative branch." — From an editorial in The New York Post, November 29, 2013

Today's word first appeared in 12th century Old English as "behǽs," which is formed from the prefix "be-" and the Old English verb "hātan" ("to command" or "to promise"). While "behest" was originally used only in the sense of "promise," it acquired the additional sense of "command" among speakers of Middle English. Among contemporary English speakers, "behest" is no longer used in the sense of "promise" but rather denotes an authoritative or urgent request or command. Old English "hātan" also gave English the now-archaic words "hest" (meaning "command") and "hight" ("being called or named").


“There's a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious—makes you so sick at heart—that you can't take part. You can't even passively take part. And you've got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you've got to make it stop. And you've got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it that unless you're free, the machine will be prevented from working at all.” ― Mario Savio, December 2, 1964


Senses of Cinema: "2013 World Poll"

Democracy Now headline: "Iraq Loses Control of Fallujah, Key Site in U.S. War"

Ted Hope asks a question I have been pondering in regards to films/filmamking - "Have We Forgotten How To Tap Into The Subconscious?"

Two reports on innovative college courses in Kentucky and Oregon that seek to provide community and collaborative learning between university students and prison inmates. The Lexington Herald-Leader: "Course pairs University of Kentucky students, inmates" and Daily Emerald: "Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program grant extends unique learning opportunity for students"

Slice of Sci-Fi podcast: "Grimm’s Reggie Lee: Sgt. Wu To You"

Cobb, Thomas. "Blue Jasmine and the Great Recession: Paean for Our National Nightmares." Bright Lights Film Journal #82 (November 2013)

Rebecca Solnit for TomDispatch writes an important essay for writers/artists/activists in regard to the long effect of their works: "The Arc of Justice and the Long Run"

In the Realm of the Senses (France/Japan: Nagisa Ôshima, 1976)



In the Realm of the Senses (France/Japan: Nagisa Ôshima, 1976: 109 mins)

Dixon, Parker, et al. "Nagisa Oshima & the Radical Cinema of Japan." Wrong Reel #106 (January 2016)

Hudson, David. "Sex in the Movies." Green Cine (2005)

Ôshima, Nagisa. "On In the Realm of the Senses." Current (April 1983)

Parkinson, David. "Oshima's Passions/" Movie Mail (February 27, 2013)

Richie, Donald. "In the Realm of the Senses: Some Notes on Oshima and Pornography." Current (December 2006)

Sunday, January 5, 2014

Resources for January 5, 2014

Reverse Shot takes aim at what they see as the 11 Filmmaking Offenses of 2013 and they also give high praise to what they see as the best of 2013





My good comrades explain why they named their excellent band "Dirty Sheep": In the Name of...

The Pervocracy: "Cosmocking Catchup: October-December '13!"




New trailer for Arnaud Desplechin’s JIMMY P with Benicio Del Toro and Mathieu Amalric:



Neil Patrick Harris' gift to David: a mechanical flipbook


Looking forward to the opportunity to check out this British TV series



Asch, Mark. "Careful and House by the River: On Guy Maddin and Fritz Lang’s craftsmanship in the creation of fraught psychological states." Keyframe (January 4, 2013)


Owensboro, KY filmmaker PJ Starks on independent filmmaking and regional film festivals

Friday, January 3, 2014

Resources for January 3, 2013

Karissa Rosenfeld for Arch Daily: "Norman Foster-Designed Scheme Aims to Transform London into 'Cycling Utopia'”

Open Culture: "Isaac Asimov Predicts in 1964 What the World Will Look Like Today — in 2014"

Chatterjee, Parma. "A Tale of Two Bookshops: Sex and Books and The Big Sleep." Bright Lights Film Journal #82 (November 2013)

W.R.: Mysteries of an Organism (Yugoslavia/West Germany: Dusan Makavejev, 1971: 84 mins)



Steve Bennen for the Rachel Maddow Show: Florida Governor Rick Scott's mandatory welfare "Drug-test policies end in failure"

Aasif Mandvi's classic satirical look at Florida's attempt to require mandatory drug testing for welfare recipients


Skeptoid podcast episodes:

"Scientists Are Not Created Equal" (Skeptoid #25) - Does calling someone a "scientist" mean that he knows anything at all?

"Reflexology: Only Dangerous If You Use It" (Skeptoid #24) - Reflexology is really no more than a foot massage - so why might it be dangerous? Here's why.

"Listener Feedback: That Darned Science" (Skeptoid #324) - Skeptoid responds to some listener emails that question the validity of the scientific method.

"8 Spooky Places, and Why They're Like That" (Skeptoid #323) - These strange places around the world rank among the most macabre, but have interesting explanations.

"Negative Calorie Food Myths" (Skeptoid #322) - Negative calorie foods, said to require more energy to digest than they provide, are a popular food fad.

"Skinwalkers" (Skeptoid #321) - Navajo witches are said to be able to shapeshift into animals. Is it just a tall tale, or is there some truth to it?

Thursday, January 2, 2014

Sweet Movie (Canada/France/West Germany: Dusan Makavejev, 1974)



Sweet Movie (Canada/France/West Germany: Dusan Makavejev, 1974: 98 mins)

Barker, Jennifer Lynne. The Aesthetics of Antifascist Film: Radical Projection. Routledge, 2013. [Get through interlibrary loan]

Makavejev, Dusan. Terror and Joy: The Films of Dušan Makavejev. University of Minnesota Press, 2009.

Mortimer, Lorraine. "Something Against Nature: Sweet Movie, 4, and Disgust." Senses of Cinema #59 (2011)

Resources for January 2, 2014

In 2014 lets collectively realize a better world



Zack Beauchamp for Think Progress: "Chinese Muslims Freed From Guantanamo Ten Years After Being Found Innocent"

Cory Doctorow for Boing Boing: "Jacob Appelbaum's must-watch 30C3 talk: why NSA spying affects you, no matter who you are"

Merriam-Webster Word-of-the-Day:

endemic \en-DEM-ik\ adjective

1 : characteristic of or prevalent in a particular field, area, or environment; 2 : restricted or peculiar to a locality or region

EXAMPLES

A recent report identifies the country as a "failed state," citing endemic corruption at all levels of government.

"Aucoin's research focuses on the development of rapid diagnostics as a resource to countries where disease is endemic and expanding." — From an article in the Reno Gazette-Journal (Nevada), December 3, 2013

If you translate it literally, "endemic" means "in the population." It derives from the Greek "endēmos," which joins "en," meaning "in," and "dēmos," meaning "people" or "populace." "Endemic" is often used to characterize diseases that are generally found in a particular area; malaria, for example, is said to be endemic to tropical and subtropical regions. This use differs from that of the related word "epidemic" in that it indicates a more or less constant presence in a particular population or area rather than a sudden, severe outbreak within that region or group. The word is also used by biologists to characterize the plant and animal species that are only found in a given area.


Taylor, Bron. "Battleground Pandora: The War over James Cameron's Avatar." Bright Lights Film Journal #82 (November 2013)

Skeptoid podcasts:

#2: "Religion as a Moral Center"

#3: "Rods: Flying Absurdities"

#317: "Attack of the Nanobots! Is it possible for nanotechnology to result in an army of self-replicating machines that consume and destroy our society?"


Democracy Now episodes:

"Top 20 Democracy Now! Segments of 2013"

"2013 In Review: Power, Politics and Resistance"

Wednesday, January 1, 2014

ENG 102 Spring 2014: Analyzing Arguments

1) "2013 In Review: Power, Politics and Resistance" Democracy Now (January 1, 2014)

2) "Headlines for January 14, 2014" Democracy Now

3) Political Compass Test

4) Martin Luther King, Jr. speech (David Benton edit)


Doctorow, Cory. "Jacob Appelbaum's must-watch 30C3 talk: why NSA spying affects you, no matter who you are" Boing Boing (December 31, 2013)

Taylor, Bron. "Battleground Pandora: The War over James Cameron's Avatar." Bright Lights Film Journal #82 (November 2013)



Steve Bennen for the Rachel Maddow Show: Florida Governor Rick Scott's mandatory welfare "Drug-test policies end in failure"
Aasif Mandvi's classic satirical look at Florida's attempt to require mandatory drug testing for welfare recipients


Skeptoid: Critical analysis of pop culture phenomena.

Solnit, Rebecca. "The Arc of Justice and the Long Run" TomDispatch (Reposted on Reader Supported News: December 24, 2013)

Laura Willard for Upworthy: "Enjoy A Few Moments Of Messed-Up Messages, Created And Shared By The Beauty Industry. Here It Comes"





A collective statement from the experimental filmmaker collective C.3.3.: "An Open Letter to the Film Industry"

Masha Gessen for Slate: "“I Was My Own Person Again”: The women of Pussy Riot made meaning out of a horrific experience in prison. Now, they’re launching another protest movement in Russia"

"'What I Be' Project Reveals People's Darkest Insecurities In Stunning Photos"

Human Resources: Social Engineering in the 20th Century

Century of the Self