Casablanca on the Big Screen
In June, The Michigan Theater (in Ann Arbor, MI) kicked off its 2010 Summer Classic Film Series with John Huston’s The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, and it ends next week with Fritz Lang’s newly restored Metropolis, which will feature a live organ accompaniment of the 1927 original score. …
Why I Use Tweetdeck (and You Should Too)
Disclaimer: I’m writing this post primarily with my film students in mind, but I would argue the same for non-students.
From what I can tell, most of my film students — who are required to use Twitter this semester — are turning to the Web to tweet. Since this is where …
Teaching 200 Students How to Tweet: The Challenges
For three semesters I have attempted to incorporate Twitter into the college classroom, even once relying on the service to arrange a win-a-free-textbook contest for my Film Noir students. But overall, these attempts have failed miserably as the majority of college students — at this point in time anyway — …
Everybody Loves Raymond and Seinfeld
Regular followers of Unmuzzled Thoughts have heard me blabbing that one day I’m going to publish an essay explaining why those who loved the sitcom Seinfeld should theoretically also love the sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond. Well, that day has come. I finally gathered my thoughts, supported them with evidence (sifting …
The Thrill of the Long Shot
Over the weekend, The Film Dr. tagged me in a blog meme begun by Stephen Russell-Gebbett who blogs over at (the interestingly titled) Checking on My Sausages and MovieMan0283 who blogs at The Dancing Image. According to the guys, the person tagged is to submit a gallery of images that …
Listening to music and watching movies from the ’70s and ’80s does not necessarily indicate that Generation X is living in the past. So why is popular culture suggesting otherwise about my generation? To answer this question, we might consider the people who are offering up these onscreen representations as well as those who are buying into it.
In his column “Gen X Has a Midlife Crisis,” NY Times film critic A.O. Scott considers the current state of Generation X as seen by popular culture. Through an analysis of three texts released in 2010 — the novel The Ask (Sam Lipsyte) and the movies Hot Tub Time Machine (Steve Pink) and Greenberg (Noah Baumbach) — Scott summarizes what contemporary society apparently thinks about those of us born between 1965-1980
Elation, Star Signification, and Singin’ in the Rain; or Why Gene Kelly Gets Me All Hot and Bothered
Aside from my spouse, four men can elicit from me feelings of sheer elation. Two are deceased, one resides in the U.K., and one begs for food every morning at 6:35 AM. Those who follow my Twitter stream and/or my Facebook Page will likely deduce that William Shakespeare and Colin …
An American Bromance:
Homosocial Love in Film and Television
2010 Film & History Conference:
Representations of Love in Film and Television
November 10-14, 2010 | Hyatt Regency Milwaukee
www.uwosh.edu/filmandhistory
Deadline EXTENDED: Sept. 15, 2010
In American cinema, the buddy film, which tends to focus on male relationships, has been surging. Consider, for example, I Love You, …
Last week Dominique Homberger, a tenured LSU biology professor, was removed from her class mid-semester for “allegedly grading too harshly.” According to one article that covered the event, “more than 90 percent of [her] students were failing or had dropped the [introductory-level biology] class.” After considering those numbers, the dean …
Tuesday night, while my Film Noir students and I screened Body Heat (Lawrence Kasdan, 1981), I tweeted twice. First, while watching the opening credits, I wondered whether my students would recognize Mickey Rourke. As expected, they didn’t. Second, after the three major sex scenes had passed, I tweeted that Double …
