FOOT - Pleasure Text

Reaper

     A show that my boyfriend and I have recently been indulging in lately is called Reaper, and it aired a few years ago on the CW. We found it on Netflix instant streaming, and decided to give it a try because a friend said he loved it. After the first episode, we were hooked! It was directed by Kevin Smith, who is Silent Bob in the Clerks movies, and he is hilarious. The main actor, Bret Harrison, is fantastic and does physical comedy very well.

     The show centers around Sam Oliver, an employee at The Work Bench, which is basically a Lowes or Home Depot kind of store. He works with his two best friends, Sock and Ben, and his crush, Andi. On his twenty-first birthday, he finds out that his parents sold his soul to the devil but that he could not take it until he was twenty-one. Sam's father was very ill, and the Devil visited him and told him he would save his life if he could have his first son's soul. The parents accepted this and planned to never have children, but we find out that a fertility doctor also sold his soul and the only way to get out was to lie and tell Sam's parents that they were infertile. Basically, Sam is screwed and has to work as the Devil's bounty hunter.

     The Devil is played by Ray Wise, and he is hilarious. The whole show is centered on Sam's bad luck and hilarious ways he tries to be the 'bounty hunter' and catch souls for the Devil. He has to catch the evil souls who break out of hell and send them back through vessels, which can be anything from a Dirt Devil to a toaster. He then transports them to the BMV, which is 'hell on Earth' and they get sent back. The show is witty and very entertaining, but unfortunately only lasted two seasons. As of right now, we have one episode left, and we don't want to watch it because we don't want it to end. I would highly recommend this show to anybody who can deal with the super-natural. It's hilarious, and I think I am going to buy it on DVD for sure. Here is the trailer, which shows most of the first episode.

     The funny thing is in the trailer, Andi is played by a totally different person. I read online that they replaced her after the pilot, and they went back and shot all of her scenes with a new actress for some reason.

FOOT - Cleveland Film Festival Review

Crime After Crime directed by Yoav Potash



A. Personal Issues

     This film dealt with a lot of personal issues. To sum it up, it follows two environmentalist lawyers who volunteer to take on the case of Debbie Peagler, a woman who has been in prison for over twenty years. She was put away for first degree murder against her ex-boyfriend, Oliver Wilson. She did not commit this crime, but she did lead him to the area where it happened. He was not intended to die by Debbie's knowledge, she just wanted to scare him into leaving her alone. When Oliver was alive, he 'pimped' Debbie into prostitution and kept the money for himself, beat her physically and with a bullwhip. He also molested her daughter. She was told when she went to prison that she was going to be put up against the death penalty unless she pleaded guilty, which she did. This way she had 25-life and a chance to maybe see her family again. The two lawyers take on her case after her twentieth year, when a new law passed in California that allows domestic violence cases to be reopened if evidence can be provided that the person was abused. The team of Debbie, her lawyers and the film crew and director who got very involved help Debbie battle to her freedom, which seems like a losing battle. The courts were basically in the wrong twenty years ago, and try to cover up their mistakes by continuing to lie and keep Debbie in jail to cover their own butts. The lawyers eventually find out that at maximum, Debbie should have had six years in prison. Shortly before hitting the courts again, Debbie is diagnosed with termianl lung cancer, and the race to free her quickens. The issues range from domestic violence, abuse (both mentally and physically), and forgiveness. I think that forgiveness is the biggest part of this, because Debbie ends up seeking and receiving forgiveness from Oliver's family. Hope and the loss of hope are also important issues in the film, since Debbie's hopes keep going up then getting stomped on by the District Attorney.

B. Technique

     The technique that the director used was incredible. It was go from your standard documentary shots of somebody talking with files and books behind them, to a chilling shot of a rose outside of the prison that Debbie was in. The technique showed a lot of symbolic elements, such as the rose, which is beautiful but still has thorns. I felt like it showed how Debbie was throughout the film. She was strong and beautiful like the rose, but still had the thorns which to me represented her past. Another shot like this was after she gets denied parole, it cuts to a shot of roadkill outside of the prison. This showed her feelings, which were helpless and empty like the roadkill. Basically, the director used a technique of incorporating symbolism to tell the side of the story that he could not blantantly come out and say because it was a documentary with real feelings and actions, so he had to show these things so we would understand since he could not make these things up.

C. Acting

     The acting in this film was incredible...because it was real. The film is a documentary, so we are witnessing real actions when they really happen. I am sure that they had to stage some things, such as a phone call where the film crew may not have been present or something, but a majority of it was real. I thought that seeing real emotion on film was amazing, and a documentary was perfect for that. There was a scene where one of the characters gets good news and is happy, then just breaks down and cries. The director said that it was real, and it carried on through my vision of the film. 

D. Plot

     The plot was something that I mentioned primarily in the 'personal issues' section. I suppose I could go forth to say that it was carried on in a real and brilliant way. I feel that since this film took years to make, it had a very intense and everchanging plot. The director had no way of knowing whether or not Debbie would ever be free, and he did not know where his story was going. I think that the way it was edited and carried out was great. He arranged the many different scenes of people talking in a way that made the plot run smoothly, which was great because he had a big story to tell, and no way of knowing which way it was going.

E. Themes

     The main themes in this story, to me, are forgiveness and hope. Debbie was forgiven by Oliver's family, which would be very hard for them to do. Even though he did absolutely horrifying things to her, she was still in a sense involved in his death. She never intended to have him killed, just beat up so he would leave her alone. His family ended up speaking on the stand to help free her, which was very big of them. Hope if another theme that is evident throughout the whole story. We watch Debbie's eyes fill up with hope and happiness, then watch them fade to black when she hears bad news. As a viewer, I had hope as well throughout the whole film. Debbie also has a profound love and faith for God, and she mentions it and shows it to us throughout the story. I think that hope and forgiveness are the main themes in this story, and they are very easy to see as you progress through the film.

F. Genre

    The genre of this film was 'documentary' I suppose when it all comes down to it, but it was also a drama and a story fulled of hope. It could also be placed into the crime genre. I think that the story had so many elements that it would be hard to place just one, but I think that people who are into the judicial system as well as stories filled with hope and truth would enjoy it. Being a true story also could be another genre that it could fit into.

G. Representation

     The way the film was represented, as I have said before, was amazing. It was shown as it happened, and I know it had to have taken a lot of work to get the information he did. The symbolism that he used in his technique made it be represented in a way that was compassionate to Debbie and her story. Also, it was represented in a way that made the viewer feel real emotions and get drawn right into the story. I have never had a movie move me like this one did. Following the story for years made it intriguing as well.

H. Ideology

     The film has many ideologies throughout it, because it has both political and judicial elements. The film steers into the direction of being on Debbie's side, which you should be because she was basically innocent throughout the whole thing and wrongfully incarcarated. The political elements in it were enough to make the viewer angry with the way the world works and how courts can away with fraudulent evidence as well as the use of perjury on the stand.

Overall...

     Overall I am so happy I went to see this movie. It made me laugh, cry and feel anger as real and raw emotions that I have not felt in a long time through film. I have never been so attached to characters, and I think it was because they are real people with real feelings and I got to see that through this film. I think that the director did a great thing by making this film and spreading awareness about domestic abuse as well. I never even heard of Debbie and I am glad that I did because although her story was heart-wrenching, it was true and I learned a lot from watching it.

FOOT - Cleveland Film Festival Experience

Crime After Crime at the Cleveland Film Festival

     
     Above is the trailer for the movie I went to see today. I went with Rosey from class as well as my mom. We all really enjoyed the movie, which I will go into more detail on in my next entry. I wanted to include the trailer here since I have a feeling that my other entry will be quite lengthy. 

    The familiar smell of popcorn and the sight of overpriced candy was at this theater as well as others, but it was overwhelmingly busy as well as filled with very excited people. I suppose I never really thought about the fact that this festival is international and has films and film crew from all over the world. In fact, a fair amount of the movies that were available for viewing had subtitles or actors with thick accents. I think it is really neat that we can go and see these films so close to us; I think we're lucky.


     Overall I really enjoyed my time. I loved how the assistant director of the festival would talk to the audience before the film and how the director stayed to answer questions afterward. It was also great to shake the director's hand and talk with him after the show. I think that these interactions and introductions really helped shape this experience into something special and separated it from an everyday movie theater experience. I suppose that I never thought that talking to the director would be an actual possibility, but I remember that I went to the festival when I was in high school and that happened then as well. I would really like to go and continue an annual trip to the film festival next year!

Update 3/31/2011: I forgot to mention the best part....there were NO kids!!!!
     

FOOT - The iPad, Kindle, and the future of books

"...the physical book and bookstores are dead."

     This quote is just terrifying, and I hope it never comes true. I learned a lot from this article, and I am a Kindle owner. I was hesitant to buy one when they first came out because of my obsession with the tangible, musty-smelling hardcovers that I can set on my bookshelf. These qualities are what I love about books. I also love to look at the cover and ponder why the author chose that picture or artwork to encompass their entire book in one glance. I also like to read about the author and see what they look like in their picture. I suppose I initially got the Kindle because there were several novels that I needed for class that had free downloads on the Kindle. The thing basically paid for itself, and I am glad I got it, but I really only use it for class. I have downloaded many many free books on it, like the classics, and it is great for that. But when I am trying to read for pleasure, it is just not the same, so I kind of split up the book and the Kindle purchases. 
     I suppose I never really thought about how much an author makes off of their books. I know in the end if they are successful then they end up making a lot, but the fact that the publishers get the biggest cut just seems a little weird to me. I suppose it makes sense, because without the publisher you would have no sales anyways, but it still doesn't seem fair. I would rather my money go to the brilliant person who wrote the book and their editors versus the person who slaps a 'Penguin' title on it and rakes in all of the money!
     Another thing I never thought of that this article made me think about was the fact that Amazon (and I LOVE Amazon) are kind of shady about the way they run business. I tend to order a majority of my trade books through their site because I have Amazon Prime, which gives you free two-day shipping. It's nice to have the book waiting for me on my doorstep two days after ordering it, but at the same time, it is kind of stupid that they don't split the money up properly. I suppose a trip to the bookstore is in order, so maybe I can help ensure that the horrible quote at the top of the page never comes true!

FOOT - Firestone Experience

                During my time at Firestone, I spent a lot of one on one time with my student, Jazmin. We were lucky enough to have some sanctioned time to work quietly together, which is more than I can say about last semester.  Last semester I still felt like a student because I traveled around with Jazmin and barely had any time to help her. This semester, although we only met a few times, was much more beneficial for me because it made me realize that I really can teach and I really can make a difference.

                I never really thought about merging several different modalities into test preparation. I suppose this is because test taking is one of those things that hasn’t changed in so long it seems like it never will. Also, the rules are very strict while taking the test. I can think of a few ideas that might be beneficial to students preparing to take tests through the use of different modalities.

                The first modality that I would incorporate into my classroom would be the use of music. I know that some students do not like any sound when they are studying or preparing for a test, but some do. I suppose I could let them bring in their mp3 players while in my class (not the OGT, I doubt they would allow that), or play classical music quietly while they were studying. Music has always been known to improve brain function as well reduce stress. Music also helps keep the brain stimulated and alert, and this could easily help students continue to pay attention when they were losing interest in the passage.

                Another idea that I came up with was to write their own ‘passages’ as they would appear in the OGT. They could write about whatever they wanted, and they would then create questions to go along with it. I suppose this does not infuse a new modality, but nonetheless it changes the cliché way of staring at a test packet to study. You could also have students act it out, which may be able to stimulate the students’ thinking into a visualization when they take the real test.

                When I was helping my student, we came across the word ‘irony’, and she knew what it was but she said she could not really put it into words. I was so caught off guard that I was having trouble explaining this to her. Sure, I know what it means, but she’s right; it’s hard to put into a definition! We decided to look the word up online on my phone and found a mutual definition that we both liked. Just by doing this, which you could do with a dictionary or thesaurus as well, we were able to continue on with our passage and make more sense of it together.  I know that Jazmin would not be able to use a cell phone to look up definitions while taking the real test, but being able to look it up then may have saved her a future answer on the real test. If we just breezed past the word and continued on, she would still not be able to say what it meant exactly. By looking it up, we have ensured that she will know the definition for next time. I would certainly allow my students to use tools such as the internet or text books to look up any word they did not know during test preparation.

                Another multi-modality that I could incorporate into my future teaching strategies would be to create a board game. I would have students get into small groups and make a board game out of an assigned passage. There would need to be multiple choice questions in the game based on the passage just like their practice tests. After this, I would have them go around and play the other games. They could do teams as well if they wanted to. I would make whoever answered the question say why they chose it. By doing this, the other students will get to hear their peers defending their answers, and maybe a new strategy could come up that might help another student out. There are even websites that allow you to create your own game online, so that could be an option too.

                One thing I would like to comment on is how unfair I think the OGTs are. I think that you could be a very intelligent person and do poorly on them, because sometimes the answers are designed to trick you. I don’t think that a test should be able to hold back a student from graduating. I believe that for the writing piece, the students should be able to submit their very best piece of work from an English or journalism class. Along with that, they would include the prompt/question/story that went along with the piece that they wrote. If America really wanted to test literacy, they would use my suggestion because the submitted pieces would have been written while the child was actually trying to do well for a grade, and not panicking or having an anxiety over a test that does a less than substantial job of testing the child’s real skills.

                In conclusion, test preparation could be updated and livened up through the use of multi-modalities. It was difficult to come up with ways to use modalities on something so traditional, but it was possible. I think that as a future teacher I will be able to use a variety modalities in all of my lessons, and be able to change them as needed if I feel that my students are not grasping the concept at hand. I think that by livening something so dull up, we will be able to increase the number of students who pass the OGT, as well as provide them essential skills that they will need as they progress through their educations.

FOOT - I ♥ Novels

     While reading Dana Goodyear's article I ♥ Novels, I could not help but be inspired. I really thought that this was neat, and it would be something I would honestly consider doing. I love the idea of being able to write whenever you feel inspired, and being able to share your ideas with others online who can give you feedback. I always planned on writing a novel one day, and maybe even just posting some excerpts online for my peers to view would be helpful for me to see if I have a good idea and if I execute it well or not. I currently use the 'Notepad' on my iPhone right now for everything. It looks like a little legal pad of paper, and I use it to keep track of bills, make note of songs I want to download, and even write down little inspirations or ideas that I have throughout the day. So, in a sense, I was kind of gearing up to use a website like the one listed in the article. I suppose I just did not know they existed.


     I think that my favorite part of the article was when I read that the texts would go unedited. I love the idea of not making your expressions perfect, because they're not. Trust me, I go crazy with spelling and grammatical errors anywhere else besides in forms of expression or creative release. I guess what I am saying is that I think the idea of leaving them as they were is really inspiring. Instead of taking these ideas and turning them into a perfect piece of literature, they are left unedited and unaltered. 

     As much as I enjoyed this article, there were two flaws for me. The first was the amount of criticism that these girls and the websites received. I thought it was just ignorant when the site was being reviewed and people were saying that the girls' names sounded like the name of a dog. People need to realize that nobody is hurting anybody when they write literature online. Second, I wish that men were included in this more. Overall, I really enjoyed this article and had never heard anything like it before.

FOOT - You're Leaving a Digital Trail

   

  In the article You're Leaving a Digital Trail by John Markoff, a study takes place and follows around a group of college students and tracks their every move through their mobile phones. I was a little thrown off at the creepy-factor in this article. Honestly, I know that the friendly faces at AT&T can track my every move with my iPhone, but it still freaks me out. The creepy-factor increases with the desire of the government to get in on this to find out where diseases start to stop them earlier. I think that idea is kind of cool, but there has to be a more private way to do this. The article states:

"The idea revolves around three principles: that you have a right to possess your own data, that you control the data that is collected about you, and that you can destroy, remove or redeploy your data as you wish" (Markoff, 2008).

     Honestly, I appreciate the fact that I can control the data a little bit, but I shouldn't have to. I know within the last decade or so cell phones have rapidly increased in popularity. Everybody from a child to a senior citizen has one, and they have become increasingly more apt to do things like contain a GPS that uses your location to give you directions as well as provide you with instant updates to your e-mail accounts and social networking sites. This is great for society, but maybe not that great. By leaving this 'digital trail' we are losing our privacy and we really have no way to know what people can find out about us. By using these sensors in phones, people are able to spy on us and find out where we are and what we are searching for on websites like Google. 

     I suppose overall this article has made me aware that what we say and do over our cell phones is not as private as we may think. I will say in closing, that this make me laugh at the idiots who send naked pictures of themselves to other people. The owner of the other phone may not be the only one who saw that!

FOOT - I'm So, Totally, Digitally Close to You

     Reading the article I'm So, Totally Digitally Close to You, made me realize even more in depth than I already did just how creepy Facebook and Twitter can be. Mind you I am one of those people that he mentions in the article that has been connected to the internet for a majority of my life, but I know the boundaries of it and I do not let it rule my life. When the author was mentioning how his friend posted updates on twitter about making sandwiches daily, I realized that there needs to be a boundary of what goes on the internet and what does not. I don't mean just things like what type of sandwich this lady is eating, because I am sure maybe somebody cares about that, but things like where you are and where you are going and where you live are just not things that need to be shared to the wandering eyes of creeps out there on the internet. That 'foursquare' application that is on cell phones as well as through facebook is very, very creepy. It allows the user to publish exactly where they are. It is not vague, either. It will say things like "Katie May just checked into White Hall on Kent State campus" (not that I use this app, just an example!). And to be honest, this is just too much information.



Additives online?

      I do have a facebook, and I like it. I use facebook to keep in touch with friends and family, especially the ones who I do not get to see very often. I have nothing against it, I just think that people need to be aware that even with privacy settings, anything you put on the internet can be seen by others. I have my facebook settings correllated to the most private it can be, but I know that it could still be seen or hacked, and that is why I do not put things like my address or phone number on there, like some people do. The only other real concern I have is what the article was saying about people can get too wrapped up in these websites. It becomes an addiction, and if people realize that the internet and the real world are too different things, there may not be a problem. I like to think of the bad aspects of social networking as the additives to this ambient, parasocial universe. Giving too much information, not protecting yourself and letting the addicting additives rules your universe may compromise your internet-life, but if you use the two and realize the differences between life and your web-life, you'll be just fine being digitally close to friends online.

FOOT - Extra Credit

I have found that throughout the semester thus far, I am learning a lot about different texts to incorporate into my future classroom. First of all, the idea never crossed my mind to incorporate social networking into a high school. I suppose it is because I always think of social networking as something that you do outside of school for fun, or as a hobby. I really like the idea of collaborating with a different high school or university using a special facebook page. I know we have not gotten that far in the semester, but it is something I am looking forward to. In fact, instead of just incorporating a text-based literature circle, I think it would be fun to have the students post pictures that they have drawn or found online and comment to one another. The picture alone could be a great project, by having them draw their interpretation of a character or a theme of the novel. I also think that they could include videos about their thoughts, or maybe act out their favorite scene in the book (Only in a private group!). Now that I am thinking about it, the ideas just will not stop flowing and there really is a lot you could do through social networking sites.

I also think that the utilization of film in the classroom is important, too. I don't want to be that teacher who puts on a movie and lets their room turn to chaos because the kids are not paying attention. I want to be the teacher who plays insightful films that are both interesting and pertinent to what the students are doing and learning. I think maybe by playing a film that is similar to a text, or has some common themes, but is different would be nice. A really neat project could be to have them compare the text and the film in a compare/contrast type of paper. Not only just the main points, but things like how and why did the film represent itself differently than the book? Also, maybe having them see if the two modalities were switched how they think it would have been different.

I genuinely liked the idea of our multi-genre autobiography assignment. I liked that it was very open, and you could make it the way you wanted it to be made. I really think that this is something I would like to do with students at the beginning of the year. It would give them a chance to let me know about them, and know what they like. It would also maybe let me provide things that they find interesting. For example, say a majority of the students showed that they really liked the Harry Potter movies and books. I would be able to see this and possibly incorporate it into a future lesson that would be important to them as well as keep them interested. I think I would include a final part about what they would like to read and learn this year. Maybe I would have chosen a book already, or maybe I could squeeze on in like I said before.

All in all, I am really learning a lot in this class. I certainly am thinking in new ways too. I think that by varying my future lessons with my students I will be able to keep them interested by changing the way I do things through a variety of modalities! 

PYTASH - Chapter Five, How Poems Work

After reading this chapter, I can think of several ideas to help teach poetry. In fact, I was reminded of something a student teacher did with my English class when I was in high school. He had us choose a song that we liked with lyrics, and bring it in to the class to play along with a sheet of the lyrics. We had to read it out loud first while the class listened, then we played the song and followed along. I realized that they were completely different-sounding when we did this! I chose Jack's Mannequin's song Bruised, I remember. The lyrics are here if you're interested. The two sounded so different, and it was great to hear the vast variety of songs and genres that the students chose. I always planned on using that activity in my classroom, and this chapter made me remember it. I also really liked Jago's 'Sensory Images' chart that she included. I can see myself using this in the classroom as well.

I liked how in the beginning of the chapter she was talking about how music and poetry are similar, but students do not seem to see it that way. If we can bridge the gap between the two with something like the activity I mentioned, I think they may like it more. In fact, just look at the graphic I included. If they TRY, maybe they won't hate it or judge it. Jago mentions so many types of poetry that it gives us a large window to work with. 

I also liked (wow, I like a lot in this text. Dr. Pytash, you pick awesome books) how she included Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven" and how he built on it. The 'nevermore' and the fact that it is a big creepy black raven are what drive the poem and make it what it is. If he had chosen a parrot and didn't include that rhyme scheme, it would be totally different. I think that that final part proves to us that we can teach students to build on poems and change them. After all, poetry is a creation and reflection of one's self, so they can make it grow and change just like they do.

FOOT - Pleasure Texts: Good & Bad

     The other night, my boyfriend and I decided to watch a movie, and we picked "New York I Love You". We were excited because it has an all star cast, including Rachel Bilson, whom I adore. Also, it features about a dozen different love stories involving the city and the people in it. Each story is directed by a different director, which my boyfriend was excited for because he has a film degree and loves all things film-related. Unfortunately, the stories were very very bizarre and we did not enjoy it very much. Seeing the different lighting, sound and editing choices that all of the different directors chose was really interesting though. I have noticed that I am much more inclined to pay attention to these small details than I was before. 

     Speaking of film, over spring break my friend Ryan is shooting a film-short in hopes of getting into film school at my house. My boyfriend is helping him, and I am pretty excited to see all of it happen. The story is about an insomniac who accidentally kills his girlfriend, and she starts haunting his dreams, so he never sleeps. Due to the insomnia, he still sees her because the lack of sleep is making me mad. I am pretty excited to help work on this, and maybe in my readings of "Great Films and How to Teach Them" I will learn a few things! I'll be sure to post some of the work we did, maybe as a video, if he is able to get part of it online for me.

     Another I guess you could call 'pleasure text' I have been reading is actually called The Dog Cancer Survival Guide by Dr. Demain Dressler, DVM. My pug, Polly, was recently (Valentine's day) diagnosed with mast cell tumors, and she has been going through chemotherapy for it. We actually went for her second treatment today, and her main tumor's swelling has decreased by fifty-percent! The vet said she is pleased with how Polly is doing so far in the treatment, which is great news. The book has taught me how to cook homemade dog food with cancer-fighting foods in it, what supplements to give her, how massage can help, and even how to meditate with her! The book has been helpful for me in the rough time, but we are hopeful for her! It was for my Kindle, and it updates automatically anytime new information in found. If you know anybody going through anything like this I would highly recommend the book for them.

UPDATE 3/4: Polly is doing well! After her chemo appointment on Tuesday, they said her main tumor has decreased fifty-percent in size! And the doctor is really pleased with how she is doing so far :)