This week is much less busy than last week was. All I have for the rest of the week is fencing tonight, a meeting tomorrow, and maybe tutoring someone on Thursday. There’s no movie tomorrow night, so the two I report on today will be the last I have to report on for a while (until after next Sunday, at least). Don’t worry, I’ll still post, just not on movies.

 

Sunday night’s movie was William Wellman’s Public Enemy¸ made in 1931 and starring James Cagney and Jean Harlow.

 

 

 

 

This was the first “talkie” that I had to see for my class, and apparently my professor chose it because it contains one of the best sound mixes of the early 1930s. I guess it did, but I’ve been spoiled by today’s state of the art digital and surround sound to notice much. It’s a gangster film, and one of James Cagney’s first movies (he looks a little too much like Mickey Rooney, though). I don’t particularly watch gangster movies (the only two gangster movies I love are The Sting and The Untouchables). This one was okay, though. It started off kinda slow, but it picked up closer to the end. There were a couple of things that seemed silly about it (like James Cagney having a tendency to gently bump his fist against someone’s face as a sign of affection). It was kind of hard to understand what some of the people were saying, but that might have been because the volume on the VCR was set too low. Some of the guys in the room got a little punchy at the beginning and heckled it mildly (there’s a part at the beginning where James Cagney’s character’s father walks out onto a porch, and someone in the room jokingly asked, “Is that Gene Hackman?”). The heckling died down after a while, but I suppose it served as a foreshadow to what happened last night (which I’ll get to when I write about last night’s movie). It seemed longer than it really was, but that might have been because I was hungry.

 

Sunday night I also talked to Marisa, and we started creating her character for the Vampire chronicle that Chris and I have been doing off-and-on by e-mail for about a year now. I also listened to a new song called “Oceano.” It was nice, but as soon as I started listening, an image of my alter ego popped into my head, and I could not visualize anything else for the entire song. I don’t know why.

 

 

Last night’s History of Cinema movie was a German movie called The Blue Angel, made in 1930, directed by Josef von Sternberg, and starring Emil Jannings and Marlene Dietrich.

 

 

 

 

Apparently there were separate versions filmed in German and English with the same cast. This was because in the early days of sound, dubbing hadn’t been invented yet, and subtitles were undesirable (mainly because many audience members couldn’t read), so entire movies would be filmed in different languages. The 1931 version of Dracula was filmed in both English and Spanish (unlike The Blue Angel, which had the same cast and director for both versions, Dracula had different casts and directors for each version). We saw the German version (with subtitles). The movie portrays a respected college professor’s fall from grace after he falls in love with a cabaret singer. Apparently when there is a rank of international films The Blue Angel is almost always in the top five (according to my professor). WHY? That’s not just me asking that. It’s my entire class. This movie made Battleship Potemkin look thrilling and exciting by comparison. I guess you’re supposed to feel sorry for the professor, but by then you’re too bored to care. Also, whoever did the subtitles isn’t the most creative person in the world (not to mention that there were some lines that weren’t subtitled at all). There’s a song that Marlene Dietrich keeps singing throughout the movie. I don’t speak German, so I have to follow what the subtitles say. However, the subtitles have her singing stuff like, “I’m programmed for love from head to toe.” What is she-a computer? There were scenes that had absolutely no reason to be in the movie, and shots that lasted way too long to make an impact. I would have fallen asleep had it not been for the relentless heckling going on. That started from the beginning, when four guys started making fun of the German opening credits. Then someone said something (I didn’t catch what he said) that caused Aram to go into a fit of laughter. As soon as he started to calm down, he’d remember what was said and crack up again, which just made the rest of us laugh. The first thing that happens in the movie is that the professor wakes up to discover that his bird died. That would’ve been sad except for the fact that the maid grabs it from him and tosses it into the furnace. The next scene is of a classroom and a bunch of students are gathered around a desk. Someone from my class joked “Time for circle” (as in a fraternity), which set off the laughter again. The students make an unfavorable drawing of the professor (whose name is Rath) and label it “unrat” which apparently means “garbage” (according to the subtitles). The same guy who made the circle joke commented, “Man, this guy’s gonna be pissed. His bird dies and they call him garbage?!” By the end of the film, the four guys who originally started the heckling were now calling themselves the Bad Movie Club. I could go on, but I won’t. I just hope Sunday’s movie is better.

 

 

After that god-awful movie, I went to a hypnotist show in Slayter. I had been to hypnotist shows twice before, and they’ve got to be one of the most hilarious things I’ve ever seen. This was a different guy than before, but it was almost the same format. Some highlights: He hypnotized the entire group into believing that someone’s belt was a poisonous snake. He also hypnotized everyone into first hating Barney (as in the dinosaur, which he had a plush toy of), then falling in love with Barney. One girl was hypnotized into believing that someone in the audience had a shoe phone (think Get Smart), and so she went out into the crowd, grabbed a guy’s foot, pulled his shoe off, and tried to “answer” it. He hypnotized three guys into thinking they were the world’s first pregnant men and that they were in labor (and he also hypnotized three girls into thinking they were world champion nurses and they were supposed to help in the “delivery”). Another guy was hypnotized into thinking he was a seal performing tricks in a circus. Near the end, all the guys were hypnotized into thinking they were Australian male exotic dancers. That was amusing (don’t worry; the most clothing anyone took off was their shoes). The final hypnotic trick was that the entire group would forget everything they did and that they had even been hypnotized—until they left the building, when they would remember everything (and all hypnotic suggestion would be gone). You can imagine these people were rather confused that everyone wanted to walk them out. I ended up behind one of them. He kept asking his friends, “Why do I need to be walked out?” As soon as he was outside, he looked down and started laughing. The rest of us positioned ourselves outside just to see the volunteers’ reactions when they exited. One girl started shouting obscenities, but the rest of them were good sports, albeit embarrassed ones.

 

Well, this post is long enough, and now I have to go to fencing. Bye for now!

 

 

WEBSITE OF THE WEEK

 

 

Secret Service Test

 

This is basically a really sophisticated online quiz (except there’s no HTML code to post into your Xanga site, which is why I’m making it Website of the Week instead of putting it on my quiz page). For the first few sections of the test, I couldn’t figure out if it was in relation to any spy franchise that already exists or whether it was just generic (It is in relation to James Bond, but you don’t find that out until late in the test). What I like about this is that it’s not a personality quiz with choices so obvious you can easily cheat. It’s got general knowledge, (simple) optical illusion and “reflex” testing, not to mention a little James Bond trivia. Go on over and see if you have what it takes.

 

 

Previous Websites of the Week:

The Deadly Follies of Stick Figure Warning Man and Family

Jennifer Government: Nation States

Cannot Find Weapons of Mass Destruction

 

 

-------

 

Well, it appears that I’m going to be co-chair of the Denison AIDS Task Force. On top of that, I may be directing Stages of AIDS (if I can get it approved for this year). Right now, Tasha (the other co-chair) and I have to write a proposal to get re-instated as a DCA committee.

 

Fencing went pretty well Tuesday. I beat two of my opponents, Liz (a different Liz from the one I’ve talked about before) and some guy whose name I don’t know, as well as my instructor/coach (I don’t know what the correct term is). My other two bouts didn’t go as well. I lost to Ross, but the fact that he’s at the advanced level and I’m still beginner might have something to do with it. I also lost to Cherie, but she’s left-handed and it’s hard for right-handed people to beat left-handed people (and I suppose the opposite is true).

 

 

On Wednesday, I sacrificed a DISA meeting so I could go to my movie for History of Cinema. This time the movie was Sunrise, made in 1927 and directed by F.W. Murnau.

 

 

 

Murnau is probably more famous in the United States for his German vampire movie Nosferatu. That was made in 1922. By 1927, Murnau was in Hollywood, and Sunrise was made for Fox. All but about 2 shots were made inside a studio, including a long scene with a cable car (that was done in one take). The forced perspective in the city scene (which Murnau accomplished by creative set-building and by making children and dwarves look like full-grown adults farther away in the scene) is very well done, especially for a movie made in 1927. It’s also got crude sound effects as well as music in a soundtrack, but no spoken dialog (and whoever did the intertitles must’ve been in a silly mood). The film is a romance movie (even though the beginning makes it look like it’s going to be something else) involving a married couple. The husband made me think of Jimmy Stewart, at least when he wasn’t slouching (which he did-a lot; then he reminded me of Quasimodo), and the wife bore a striking resemblance to Drew Barrymore. She’s actually played by Janet Gaynor, who became the first recipient of the Best Actress Oscar (for Sunrise). Apparently, when it first came out, critics praised it as “the most beautiful movie ever made.” I personally wouldn’t go that far, but it was nice. Marisa would probably like it. It’s kind of a tearjerker, and my professor warned that those of us who cry easily at movies should bring a box of Kleenex. I didn’t cry (I usually don’t, so that’s no surprise), but about five guys behind me (including Aram and Mike) were sobbing, as well as the guy sitting next to me. The only guy who did bring Kleenex didn’t cry (actually, he only brought the Kleenex because he had a cold, but the other guys were teasing him about it before the movie started), nor did his girlfriend, who was the only other girl there besides me. Anyways, I’m sorry I had to miss a DISA meeting, but it was a nice movie.

 

By the way, Marisa, the Metropolis anime is (loosely) based on the 1927 silent movie that I saw on Monday, not the other way around. Also, we’re not going to see A Clockwork Orange, so you needn’t worry. The only Kubrick film we’re going to see is The Shining, which is the one and only Kubrick film I’ve seen. However, that’s not until the end of the semester.

 

 

Last night I went to see Ben Stein’s speech. I ended up in the balcony because I forgot that if you want a good seat in a convocation, you have to arrive at least a half-hour in advance (I arrived ten minutes in advance). The first weird observation I made was that there were three people a few rows ahead of me who were wearing identical Halloween masks. I don’t understand what that was about. They weren’t even students. Two of them looked old enough to be professors, and the other one was a kid. If it was some sort of protest, I don’t think it was very effective because I didn’t understand it and I’m probably on the same side (For the record, about 90% of Denison students, including me, are liberal and Ben Stein is a republican, albeit a moderate one. I don’t think most of the students who went had any political motivation, though. They just went because he’s famous. I know that was my main motivation). My most superficial observation about Ben Stein is that he has a lot less hair than it looks on TV. He opened his speech with a bunch of long jokes that the Gaming Guild members (all of whom were sitting in the balcony) found hilarious. He then went onto the bulk of his speech, which was talking about general rules for success (he’s written a book called How to Ruin Your Life, and for the first half of his speech he used sarcasm, then he switched gears and gave genuine advice). Most of his advice was common sense stuff (like “stop and smell the roses,” don’t do drugs, and be nice to people), and not all that political in nature. He got somewhat political near the end of his speech, but by then I had decided he was the type of person who respects opinions different from his (one of his pieces of advice was to listen to those you disagree with as well as those you agree with) and as such, I could respectfully disagree with him instead of getting mad, like I do with George Bush, the caustic ultraconservative guy on Crossfire (I think his name is Novak, but I’m not sure. However, I can respectfully disagree with Tucker Carlson, the moderate conservative on Crossfire. I don’t watch Crossfire, but I would if James Carville were on it), Jerry Falwell, and a lot of the current administration. After the speech ended, he took questions (that’s where a lot of the political stuff came in). Some questions were expected, like his opinion on the Iraq war and the California recall. One guy asked him what he thought of The Passion (the new Mel Gibson movie about the days leading up to the crucifixion of Christ; it’s been embroiled in controversy for the past several months over fears that it could cause anti-Semitism). Ben Stein responded by saying that he hasn’t seen it yet so he couldn’t pass judgment, but his Aramaic was a little rusty (The movie is going to be entirely in Aramaic and Latin. I heard a rumor somewhere that it originally was not going to be subtitled, but Mel Gibson was finally pressured into subtitling it). And yes, we did get him to do a round of “Bueller…Bueller…Bueller” (Apparently at dinner they got him to do the Clear Eyes monologue). So that’s two convocations down, one to go (actually, there are more, but I was only planning to go to three).

 

The D-Day band was announced at the Ben Stein convocation (actually Ben Stein was the one who made the announcement). D-Day is Denison’s big concert event, when they try to bring in the most well-known band they can get (which doesn’t usually mean much, since Denison’s a small school). This year the band’s going to be Third Eye Blind, which I’ve actually heard of.

 

I had some whacked-out dream last night involving magic tables, freaky fans, and a Star Wars video game (that doesn’t exist). What’s amazing is that a (semi) famous person showed up in my dream and they were NOT related to Chris (usually when famous people or characters show up in my dreams they are somehow related to Chris; I’ve dreamt that Robin Williams was Chris’s step-father and that Captain Picard from Star Trek The Next Generation was his father, among others; I’m not sure why my subconscious keeps making that connection). However, all that was put aside by the good (albeit small) omen of the day: They had spudsters at breakfast. Spudsters are basically deep-fried mashed potatoes. It sounds disgusting, but they’re good. I have a feeling that this weekend is going to be relaxing, if not downright enjoyable.

 

My latest discovery is that my computer does play VCDs. Hmmmmm...

 

I just found this on Styx’s website. It’s kind of abrupt, but I have no hard feelings, so good-bye and good luck, Glen, and hello, Ricky.

 

 

Well, I’m hearing thunder outside right now (actually, there was a huge BANG about an hour ago as Liz and I were going to dinner), so I think I’ll get off now and enjoy the storm. Have a nice weekend!

I’ve got so many things going on I barely have time to breathe. It seems that every night I have at least 2 meetings, usually at the same time. So far, I have Fencing, the Denisonian (which doesn’t really have meetings, but writing an article takes up time), Alpha Epsilon Delta (the pre-med honorary), East Asian Club, DISA, Women’s Emphasis (Please stop calling it WE, Kristina), SAC (Student Activities Council), Tutoring students, and AIDS Task Force (Which is the first community service organization I’ve joined, and which may not last long because there is no chair). I’m also supposed to be on Adytum (the yearbook), but they haven’t sent any emails so far). I’m sure I’ve left something out, and these are just my evenings. I didn’t even include the out-of-class History of Cinema movies, which are almost every Sunday, Monday, and Wednesday evenings. Which brings me to the two I have to report on. Sunday’s movie was Battleship Potemkin, a Russian movie made in 1925 and directed by Sergei Eisenstein.

 

 

The movie is a dramatization of a mutiny that occurred on a battleship of the same name in 1905, and a subsequent police massacre of workers in the town of Odessa. Obviously, a few facts were stretched, and the movie is dripping with Communist propaganda. Apparently, this was rated as the greatest film ever for decades (that honor is now most often held by Citizen Kane). My professor says this was because most film scholars are very left-wing and often socialists, but even with that, I wouldn’t give it top honors (just for the record, I consider myself left-wing, but not socialist). I think it was successful in its goal (that is, to ooze Communist propaganda), but it was incredibly boring (the lighting also sucked). I would sooner watch Intolerance 10 times in a row than see this movie again, which is pathetic, considering that Intolerance is over two hours long and Battleship Potemkin is barely an hour.

 

Monday night’s movie was Fritz Lang’s Metropolis, made in 1927.

 

 

There are several different versions of this movie. Fritz Lang’s original cut was almost three hours long, but edited down for release in Germany and in other countries. Obviously, a great deal of footage was lost, and there have been several attempts to reconstruct the movie to Lang’s original vision, using still photographs, the original script and storyboards (which still exist), and every shred of film they can find. This includes the “Old Kino Version” from the fifties (“Kino is German for “cinema”) and the British “Director’s Cut” from the early nineties (by the way, the “Director’s Cut” is a misnomer). The most successful attempt was the “New Kino Version,” which was finished in 2001 (the Denison Film Society showed this version last Wednesday). More footage has been located in the last twenty years, which brought the “New Kino Version” as close to the original running time as it will probably ever get. It also has a new orchestral score, and the entire film has been digitally remastered, bringing the detail to the sharpest point it can get to. All this praise of the “New Kino Version” was given to us by our professor. He then went on to say it was “an outstanding scholarly achievement…and it is boring as hell.” He explained that while the “New Kino Version” was an important and wonderful feat, most viewers would be too bored to appreciate it. The version we were shown was compiled in 1984 by Giorgio Moroder, and it was the most complete version until the “New Kino Version.” It was ninety minutes long, mostly because the intertitles were removed and replaced by regular subtitles (Presumably, the original three hour version contained 127 intertitles). Most critics hated this version (and so did my professor until he saw the other versions and decided that the 1984 version has the highest entertainment value). I’ve never seen the “New Kino Version,” so I don’t know what scenes have been discovered since the 1984 version, but at that point, there were still some important scenes missing. Therefore, there were some intertitles giving plot exposition. For instance, the heroine Maria gets captured and held hostage by a scientist. Apparently, she gets into a struggle with him, knocks him unconscious, and is able to escape, but that footage either is lost or had not been located in 1984, so all we were offered was an intertitle explaining that there was a fight and Maria was able to escape. I had to resist the urge to think of it as a plot hole. The film was partially colorized, but not much (and not in weird tints, like Intolerance, which had some frames that were entirely hot pink). For a movie made in 1927, Metropolis’s special effects aren’t that bad. The most entertaining part of the 1984 version has to be the music. It has a VERY ‘80s score. Giorgio Moroder was responsible for the music in The Neverending Story, and the anthem for Top Gun, so you probably have a feel for his style (lots of computerized music and electric guitar riffs). There were also songs featuring ‘80s artists like Pat Benatar, Adam Ant, Bonnie Tyler, and Freddie Mercury. That was fun except for the fact that the songs seemed to have a little too much relevancy to the scene, which made those scenes funny (and they weren’t necessarily supposed to be). I can see why the critics hated it. The ‘80s music made it seem a lot like a 90-minute long music video (remember, this is a silent movie, so the music’s the only thing you hear), which disconnected you a little bit from the plot. But I actually enjoyed it.

 

Well, now I have to get ready to go to fencing practice, and then AED. The busy life continues…

I hate the stupid mall teenagers.

 

I had to go to the local mall Friday night to buy clothes. This mall is a bad place to be on Friday nights because every stupid teenager within 30 miles congregates there. Most of the guys (and a good number of girls) are goth wannabes and most of the girls have babies. Occasionally you’ll also have the stupid teenagers’ stupid parents, but at least the parents aren’t destructive. Marisa has seen them break a door off its hinges and laugh at it and I’ve seen them beating the crap out of pay phones to get the quarters out (for the record, they were successful). Understandably, I only go there when I really need or want something. Friday they were content with “accidentally” leaning against the handicap-access button and causing the doors to open. One guy was on a pay phone, telling someone about his recent stint in jail. I was glad when the shuttle van arrived.

 

 

 

 

I've always liked that picture. I don't know why.

 

A lot of you may be surprised to hear me say this, but I’m not as enthusiastic about Lord of the Rings as my friends (and a great many others) are. Don’t get me wrong, I like it (Well, at least I like Fellowship of the Ring; I haven’t seen Two Towers yet). It’s just that if I listed my favorite movies, they wouldn’t be in the top ten. I still think Fellowship of the Ring is a good movie, and I supported it and Two Towers at the Academy Awards, mostly because a Best Picture Oscar would be a great leap in credibility of genre films (that’s why  I’m hoping the critics are right about a sweep for Return of the King next year). There are just so many more movies that I like better. The first time I saw Fellowship of the Ring I was confused through most of it. This may have something to do with the fact that Marisa and I were late getting to the theater and we missed the first ten minutes of the movie (basically, Galadriel’s prologue narration). The only names I could remember were Frodo, Gandalf, Arwen, Aragorn, and Gimli (and that’s only because I knew those names before I saw the movie). Of course having characters with similar names doesn’t help (like “Sauron” and “Saruman,” and they’re both bad guys). Plus, I thought Legolas was a girl until he first spoke (and when I figured out who it was Marisa was swooning at). I mostly admired the cinematography, since the plot was confusing. The one amusing point was when the nine travelers first traveled together and Elrond pronounces them the Fellowship of the Ring. At that instant, Marisa and I both exclaimed, “And it’s raging with testosterone!” It’s funny how both of us thought that up simultaneously. The second time I saw it was when I borrowed someone’s DVD. That time, I was able to watch Galadriel’s prologue narration, and suddenly the movie made a whole lot more sense. I still kept getting Merry and Pippin mixed up (Now I can tell the difference more by voice than by sight. I still have trouble with Pippin, but that’s because I’m currently reading a book that has a character named Perrin, who acts in a similar manner). Anyways, a couple weeks ago I had a dream where I wanted to see the movie in the worst way, and I spent this dream feverishly trying to find a copy. I almost never feel emotions when I dream (or at least, I never remember feeling emotion once I wake up). Ever since that dream, a little bit of residual want has been nagging at me. Nothing major, but it was always there. Anyways, after I escaped from the mall I went over to Meijer. I was browsing their video/DVD selection (which isn’t much; it takes up two sides of one shelf in the middle of an aisle) and I discovered they were selling the video of Fellowship of the Ring for $7.99, and I decided “Why not?” For $7.99, I’m interested (I’ve been criticized by two different people today for buying the video instead of the DVD, but the DVD was more expensive and it was locked in a case, meaning that I would have to find a salesperson to unlock it, which could take half an hour. Meanwhile, the video was right on the shelf). As for Two Towers, my interest did not extend to $19.99, which was the price of the video. Plus, I promised Laura that I’d watch the DVD with her. After watching the Fellowship of the Ring video, I’ve found that I like it more than I used to. It’s still not my favorite, but maybe it’s in the top 15. I also understand most of it now. I still have questions, but they’re more out of curiosity than anything essential to the plot.

 

 

I don't really have a favorite character, but Aragorn's probably my favorite member of the Fellowship.

 

And to my two friends who like Lord of the Rings (NOTE: I do not have a "thing" for Elijah Wood OR Orlando Bloom, but my friends do, and I was in an image-posting mood)...

 

 

This one's for you, Laura...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And this one's yours, Marisa (Okay, you might have to share him with Laura, but she doesn't like the long blonde hair so you should be okay).

 

 

 

And now for the best news of the weekend: Garfield.com now has a complete (and free) archive of all Garfield comics, from 1978 to the present. Yay!

 

 

 

 

Yes, I am aware that there’s a live-action Garfield movie in the works. I’m surprisingly skeptic. First of all, I can’t imagine Garfield being voiced by anyone other than Lorenzo Music (who died a few years ago; Bill Murray is going to do the honors for the movie). Second, Garfield and Odie are going to be computer-animated, and the visual effects guy has said they’re going to be made to look like a real cat and dog. I’m a little leery of that. On the one hand, we had Rocky and Bullwinkle, which looked kind of strange, but you got used to it (and am I the only one who thought that movie was funny?). On the other hand, there was Scooby-Doo. That didn’t work, in my opinion. Who knows, though? They may surprise me with Garfield.

 

Well, now I'm going to bed. Good night!

 

 

 

 

 

WEBSITE OF THE WEEK

 

 

 

Cannot Find Weapons of Mass Destruction

 

 

A lot of you may already be familiar with this site, since it’s gotten some press recently, but I thought I’d post it so those of you who haven’t can share in the humor. It’s obvious from the graphic what the site’s format is and what it’s spoofing, so I won’t go into detail. It’s a very simple site. Basically, all you do is go to it, laugh at the joke, show it to your friends, and maybe buy a T-shirt or a teddy bear. Nonetheless, the joke is hilarious, so drop on by.

 

Previous Websites of the Week:

The Deadly Follies of Stick Figure Warning Man and Family

Jennifer Government: Nation States

 

 ------

 

It’s been a weird day. It’s been weird ever since breakfast, when pirates took over the dining hall (The most interesting thing I found out today was that Pirate Day seems to have been invented by Dave Barry). For the most part, participants just wore scarves on their heads and jokingly said a few pirate phrases to their friends. A few, however, embellished. Two of those individuals were at breakfast this morning. They had short pants, eye patches, hats, etc. One of them had a chick beanie baby (complete with graduation cap) pinned to his shirt (I guess he couldn’t find a parrot). The same woman that I mentioned last night was at breakfast too (although her hat looked more like it belonged to the three musketeers than to a pirate), but she was relatively low-key about it. The two guys decided they were going to live the part, especially the one with the beanie baby, who decided that not only was he going to be a pirate, he was going to be a loud pirate. I could hear him all the way from across the dining hall (which was pretty crowded at the time). They discussed everything in pirate talk, from their breakfast to one of their professors. The one that’ll probably make the list of Most Interesting Things Heard on Campus is one delivered by the loud guy to his friend, “Arrr, we best be off solvin’ progressive analogy equations, matey.” At that point, it took all I had to not laugh. I have no clue what a progressive analogy equation is, but it sure sounds funny in amongst pirate phrases.

 

In History of Cinema, we watched Sherlock, Jr, a Buster Keaton film made in 1924.

 

 

 

This was the first time I had seen a Buster Keaton movie, and to my surprise I found it funny. I like him a lot better than I do Charlie Chaplin. We haven’t discussed the movie yet, so I can’t offer any more insight than that right now.

 

Have a great weekend everybody!

I aced my first Biochemistry quiz and I beat my opponent during fencing practice...Yay!

Right now the girl next door to me must be having some sort of major emotional crisis. About three hours ago, I heard her door slam very loudly. Then someone (one of her friends, I guess) started knocking on her door and calling her name, but she wouldn't answer. Then the friend went and got an RA to talk to her. This was about 8:00. When I got back from tutoring a chem student at about 10:00, two of her friends were camped out outside her room, and they're still there.

Disregard my last message about andromediva advertising Pirate Day. I know someone in my SIR list has been mentioning it frequently, and for some reason, I thought it was her. Anyways, my caution about Tuesday seemed to pay off, because either nobody knew about it or they just didn't care. Today a second flier appeared (this time inside Slayter) advertising the 19th as the second annual national Pirate Day (So this must not have come out of the recent pirate craze, then?). I think I may have gotten a clue as to who put it up. As I was walking back to my room tonight I caught site of a woman wearing a brimmed black hat with a long red feather in it, and she had a large pirate flag hanging out of her purse. That doesn't mean anything, I know. I just hope it's not the president of the fencing club, although I wouldn't put it past him. I'll probably do the same thing tomorrow as I did Tuesday, which was listen to my soundtrack, and that's about it.

I guess that's about it for now. I'll be back tomorrow with Website of the Week.

You know, I had a long, detailed post planned, and now that I’ve sat down to type it, I’ve forgotten what I was going to write about. I guess I’ll go into random babble, then.

 

Twice today in two different conversations, I have mixed up Johnny Depp and Keanu Reeves. What the hell?

 

As part of my History of Cinema class, I have to (no surprise) watch movies. I have to watch most of them outside of class, since most movies are over an hour long, which means I have to trudge down the hill two or three nights a week to watch these movies in the Cinema Annex (actually I trudge down the hill every day, but class is at least interesting, whereas I have a feeling some of these movies won’t be). The first out-of-class movie was shown yesterday afternoon. It was D.W. Griffith’s Intolerance, which was made in 1916.

 

 

 

D.W. Griffith is more famous for Birth of a Nation, but Denison’s Cinema Department isn’t allowed to show that movie for class anymore because it glorifies the Ku Klux Klan. Intolerance was basically D.W. Griffith’s follow-up. It’s kind of the opposite of Birth of a Nation in that it attempts to portray how love can be destroyed by intolerance. It’s actually four movies in one, playing out in four different eras. The first is from 1916 and shows how “reformist” policies actually makes life worse for a married couple. The second tells of St. Bartholomew’s Massacre of 1572, in which the Catholic French monarchy ordered the deaths of Protestant Huguenots (there is very little time spent on this plot). The third is basically the story of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ (there is also not much time devoted to this plot either). The fourth is about the fall of Babylon in ancient times. My professor says the movie is “anti-feminist” because of the negative portrayal of the 1916 reformists (all of whom are female). I really didn’t see that, though (and a lot of you may be shocked to hear me say that, because you know how militant feminist I can be). Griffith does seem to be criticizing the reform movements (such as prohibition), but there’s really nothing to indicate that he’s criticizing feminism. Besides, his first film of epic scope was Judith of Bethulia, which had a feminist tone to it (Now there’s an odd combination: a racist feminist). Also, there’s a feminist tone to the Babylon segment of Intolerance. The lead female in the Babylon segment is Mountain Girl, who’s pretty kick-ass for a woman in a movie made in 1916. She fights in battle (she’s pretty good, too) and she “courageously” (for lack of a better term) spies on the enemy and discovers their plan to invade Babylon. Granted, she does all this because she’s in love with the Babylonian Prince (who’s already married), but like I said, it was 1916. You can’t expect everything. I don’t know if my interpretation of the movie is as valid as my professor’s (since he probably knows more about D.W. Griffith than I ever will), but either way, the movie was pretty boring. That said, I have spent more time discussing it than it’s worth. You’re still welcome to share your views, however.

 

Tonight’s movie was The Gold Rush, which was made in 1925.

 

 

 

It was the first Charlie Chaplin movie I’ve ever seen, and it basically confirmed what I had always thought: I just don’t find him funny. Apparently the film is a criticism of America (remember, Chaplin was British), and I caught a glimpse of that, but I can’t put it into a fluent essay yet. At least it was shorter and more interesting than Intolerance.

 

For a while now, andromediva has been advertising that Pirate Day is September 19^th (this Friday). I think it sounds like fun, although I probably won’t do anything for it except listen to my Pirates of the Caribbean soundtrack on my Walkman as I walk around to various classes (I’m too chicken to do anything else). Apparently, somebody at Denison found out about it. Liz and I saw a flier on the door to Slayter advertising it. We have no clue who put it up (it said it was sponsored by Pirates for Higher Education, or something like that), but it says that Pirate Day is September 16^th AND 19^th. Liz wants to dress up for it, but only if someone dresses up with her. The only problem is that I’ve only seen one flier, which means that only a limited number of people have seen it (if you want people to know about something, the only way to do so usually is to plaster every building with fliers). I guess we’ll find out tomorrow. The only pirate-related things I have planned for tomorrow are my Pirates of the Caribbean soundtrack and fencing practice (which I think is just coincidence).

 

Bye for now!

 

 

WEBSITE OF THE WEEK

 

 

 

 

Jennifer Government: Nation States

 

This site was started up by a writer in order to promote his book. Basically, it’s a government simulation game. You register by naming your country, choosing a flag for it, and choosing your national animal and currency. Then you answer a short questionnaire about your political views. This gives your “country” its initial atmosphere. Every day you are given an issue to vote on. These issues range in topics from whether voting should be compulsory to whether Harry Potter books should be banned or not. Each of the choices will have a different effect on your country (whether in terms of type of government, economy, civil rights, etc). You can run your country any way you like. Maybe you want to create your version of paradise, or maybe you want to create hell for your imaginary citizens. Or you can do both, since it’s very easy to create multiple accounts (only one of your countries can be a member of the UN, though). Have fun!

 

Previous Website of the Week:

The Deadly Follies of Stick Figure Warning Man and Family

 

 

Everyone please go to Laura's site and wish her happy birthday. She turns 19 today. Yay!

EDIT: I have more time to post now, so here goes.

 

I prefer to think of September 11^th as my best friend’s birthday (It’s also Tommy Shaw’s birthday, but I digress). I realize that the terrorist attacks of two years ago are something we’re gonna be telling our grandchildren about. I certainly remember what I was doing that day. I found out about it while I was filling out a form in the Office of Academic Support and the secretary told me. At first, I was confused, and I tried to clarify it by going to an Internet news site, all of which were down. Then I went over to Slayter (the student union) and watched it unfold on TV along with several other students, breaking away only to go to work and to class. It was a horrible tragedy, but perhaps the aftermath was handled the wrong way. Of course, I am very sad that so many people died two years ago, and my heart goes out to the families and friends of those lost. As such, I do not believe that the best way to console them is with a media onslaught of memorial services and retrospectives. The memorial coverage last year was appropriate, being the one-year anniversary. However, I expected the same amount of coverage this year and I felt that that would be inappropriate. I was pleasantly (for lack of a better word) surprised that I was wrong. Granted, the only TV I’ve watched today so far was ESPN, and only because that’s the channel the TV in the dining hall was on at breakfast (and it was broadcasting sports coverage like any regular day), and tonight I’ll be watching Inuyasha when it comes on, but the Internet has been very tasteful in its coverage. The atmosphere on campus today was normal (one guy in my lab group didn’t even know it was September 11). The only mention of it was by the Office of Religious Life (which was basically a bulletin about the bells at the chapel ringing at 8:46 am, which I couldn’t hear from my room) and the College Republicans, who put up rather inappropriate posters about it. These posters said something like “We will never forget,” and had pictures of the Iranian hostage crisis of the 70s (which had nothing to do with Al Qaeda), a group of Iraqis burning a flag in 1998 (which isn’t even terrorism), the embassy bombing, the USS Cole, and September 11. The tone of the posters just seemed really nasty to me. Plus, half of them were accompanied by advertisements for College Republican meetings (which seems par for the course for the republican party; someday I’ll post a link to an article about this very thing). Other than that, today was a normal, pleasant day (I know I’m asking to get flamed by saying that, but I had a good day today, which actually defeats the terrorists’ motive to strike fear and sadness in us).

 

Now that the expository paragraph is done, I’ve got Physics homework (part of my good day today was taking a physics quiz and actually knowing what I was doing). I’m so glad tomorrow’s Friday. This week has been crammed. I had Fencing Club and DISA last night, and tonight I had SAC and East Asian Club, plus I was tutoring someone, so I’m looking just to chill out tomorrow night. The library has recently acquired the entire first season of Ranma on DVD, so I might be able to provide myself with some entertainment.

 

Once again, go say happy birthday to Laura. She’s only got one comment so far, and it’s from me.

WARNING: Long post ahead. Proceed with caution…

 

Well, the first Denison weekend of the year is over, and week 2 of classes has started. Actually, I was at Cedar Point all day Saturday, so I only spent half the weekend at Denison. Cedar Point was fun. The weather was sunny and nice, which automatically made it a big improvement over last year, when it was cold, gray, and dreary all day. We actually had amusement park weather this time around. I ended up hanging out with a freshman named Courtney that I had never met before, but we hit it off pretty well since we had similar tastes in rides. She had never been to Cedar Point before, so I ended up playing tour guide, which I enjoyed. In all, I went on the Iron Dragon (which is my favorite roller coaster; I love sharp curves and turns on roller coasters, and the Iron Dragon is full of them. It only has two drops, which makes it even better) and the Mine Ride three times each, as well as the Gemini once (To my surprise, I enjoyed it. The Gemini had been the first roller coaster I had ever ridden. I was 9 or 10, and it was a bad experience. My safety bar had come loose at the top of the hill, and I hadn’t ever heard of the term “airtime,” so I assumed that I was flying out of my seat because of the loose safety bar. I never rode it again until Saturday. There were no such problems with the safety bar this time, and the older, wiser me learned that the Gemini has a LOT more airtime than most other roller coasters I’ve ridden, which is probably what complicated the problem I had ten years ago). We also went on a lot of the other rides I liked, but I often went on them alone because Courtney didn’t like spinning rides (she went on the Corkscrew and the Gemini three times each while I went on the spinning rides).

 

 

The Gemini (Apparently when it was first built in 1977 it was the tallest roller coaster in the world. It's also one of about three racing coasters left in the United States. BTW, most of these photos are from Cedar Point's website)

 

 

 

The Mine Ride (this is a really crappy picture of it, but oh well; that's also a pic of the only drop of the ride; everything else is made up of sharp turns)

 

 

 

 

The greatest ride ever: The Iron Dragon

 

 

Courtney and I both didn’t like vertical drops, so we discussed how insane the people riding Top Thrill Dragster, Power Tower, and the Demon Drop were. For those of you not familiar with Cedar Point, I better explain each of them. Power Tower was built about five years ago. It’s a 300-foot tower with 4 posts. Two of the posts launch you upwards at high speed (I think you hit 3 Gs, but I’m not sure). The other two raise you up to the top slowly, then drop you in freefall. The drop is randomized, so you could be stopped at the top for anything from 10 seconds to a full minute. Doesn’t sound too fun to me (I’m not afraid of heights, but I don’t like that weird feeling you get in freefall. I also don’t like going upside down. Those two conditions rule out most of the roller coasters at Cedar Point, but there’s nothing I can do about it).

 

 

Power Tower...or at least the top half of it

 

 

Top Thrill Dragster is Cedar Point’s newest ride, and it’s billed as a roller coaster, even though the ride only lasts about 20 seconds. Basically, you’re shot up a 400-foot vertical track at over a hundred miles an hour (Like Power Tower, the takeoff is randomized, so you don’t know exactly when the car is going to go shooting out of the station). You go over an arc and straight back down another track. That’s it. Even so, the line is almost always at least 4 hours long. Even Laura (who loves big roller coasters) thinks it’s a waste of time to stand in line for 4 hours for a ride that lasts 20 seconds. If that weren’t bad enough, the ride keeps breaking down. I live about an hour away from Cedar Point, and all summer on the news we kept hearing about it breaking down once more (Laura actually saw it go up the track and back down the wrong way once). It got so bad that they had to bring in the engineers who designed the thing from Switzerland just so they could look at it (apparently, its big problem was that it wasn’t going fast enough to make it all the way up the track). It’s not as big of a problem as it used to be, but it still breaks down frequently. And yes, it did break down on Saturday.

 

 

Top Thrill Dragster...Only for those who are patient and insane (Don't let the lack of people in the pic fool you. That line is ridiculously long)

 

 

The Demon Drop was built in 1982 (I think). The concept is the same as the “drop” posts of Power Tower, except the Demon Drop is only about the height of an 8-story building and the time interval between reaching the top and dropping isn’t randomized. You go up the tower in a car on an elevator cable. Then you’re moved out onto a ledge and dropped about 10 seconds later. The track curves at the bottom and you coast to a stop (By this time, you’re on your back). Well, as if the breakdown of Top Thrill Dragster wasn’t entertaining enough, Courtney and I watched as the Demon Drop’s car went to the top of the elevator shaft and promptly got stuck. Actually, the amusing part was watching the ride operator absolutely race up the stairs to the top (Remember, this is the height of an 8-story building and he was running top speed the whole time, and no, this isn’t going to turn into a physics problem). After about 10 minutes, he finally got the car to move out onto the ledge and drop. Then they did about 15 or 20 test runs before letting people back on.

 

 

Demon Drop...hey, at least it still has a better track record than Top Thrill Dragster

 

In the meantime, we also made observations about the arcade prizes. There were a bunch of kids carrying around stuffed Spongebobs that were bigger than them. There were also a lot of shiny stuffed dolphins that were extremely ugly (I know it sounds cute, but trust me, it wasn’t). The most amusing prizes were the giant stuffed puppy dogs that were bigger than the dads carrying them. But it wasn’t just size that was amusing. Some guy in the Denison group won a bunch of Cedar Point shot glasses. Each shot glass had a picture of a different roller coaster on it. Now, obviously you would have Millennium Force, Magnum, Gemini, and even Iron Dragon, but one of the shot glasses had the Junior Gemini on it. What’s wrong with this picture?

 

The bus rides to and from Denison were better this year, too, except for the Headache from Hell that I had on the way back. This was possibly due to the movies this year. Last year we watched Tomb Raider on the way to Cedar Point and The Mexican on the way back. Tomb Raider was okay, but The Mexican sucked. It’s gotta be one of the worst movies ever made (and it’s extremely hard to believe that it was directed by the same guy who directed Pirates of the Caribbean). This year, on the way to Cedar Point, we watched Bringing Down the House. I thought it was going to be stupid, but it actually wasn’t bad (I probably won’t see it again, though). On the way back, we watched Space Cowboys, which became the first Clint Eastwood movie I’ve ever seen (We didn’t get to the end, though. The bus arrived at Denison just as they were trying to re-enter Earth, so I don’t know what happens after that). I also saw a major grammar error on the Meijer in Sandusky. Along with the logo was a sign that read “Why pay more,” but instead of a question mark on the end it had an exclamation point, so it read “Why pay more!” It’s funnier when Chris says it, actually.

 

 

Okay, enough about Cedar Point. Onto other things (I’m sorry about making this blog even longer, but a number of tidbits are swimming around in my head that I want to post and I’ll probably forget them next time).

 

Someone in the hall keeps making loud squealing noises, and it’s getting very annoying. Oh, God, she’s giggling now…

 

I have some Phantom of the Opera movie news, from IMDB. Apparently, Alan Cumming has been cast as Andre (one of the owners of the opera house), Miranda Richardson is playing Madame Giry (the ballet mistress), and Minnie Driver has been cast as Carlotta (the arrogant diva soprano that the Phantom doesn’t like).

 

I also have DVD release dates for the three best movies of the summer. Finding Nemo comes out November 4^th, X2 comes out November 25^th, and Pirates of the Caribbean comes to DVD on December 2^nd. It’s frustrating how they go in reverse order like that, but there’s nothing I can do about it. In the meantime, The Lion King comes out on DVD October 7^th (I think), so there’s always that (and I STILL want to see it in IMAX; I’m very disappointed that I did not get a chance to).

 

I’m sure you’d just love for me to go on further, but this blog is long enough so I’ll end now. Bye!