(4th journal) Why Don't You Look Where You're Going? The Movie

You're the director of the new full length motion picture based on the Walter Van Tilburgh Clark story, "Why Don't You Look Where You're Going?"

You've got to make some decisions to make this the best movie since Citizen Kane (see link).

You can cast the movie's main characters (the sailor, the young man, the masculine young lady, the tall man, the matron, the fat man) using Hollywood actors. Explain your decisions.

You can provide some songs for the movie's soundtrack to fit in with some key plot events or for the opening or closing credits. Explain your decisions.

Or to flesh out the rather sparse plot and dialogue, add some appropriate new scenes that fit in with the spirit of the original story.

Reminder of length requirement: 25 blog lines or 200 words if done on the blog--one page double spaced typed if NOT done on the blog.

Extra credit if you POST before Tuesday morning.

Turkey Day Time Out (Journal #3)

The Thanksgiving Holiday has always been my favorite, because it's Christmas without the hassles--the endless carols, the mad shopping rush, and whatever it is that has transformed the religious feast into a commercial beast. I celebrate my Thanksgiving with lots of food and family, nothing unique here, I'm sure, but certainly keeping in the spirit of the holiday. What I'd really like to know is how you spent your Thanksgiving vacation, especially if it turned out to be a pretty special one. For those of you who don't care to share such personal stories, or if your vacation wasn't so good, feel "free" to write about "anything" that especially excited or interested you over the six-day break. Did you read a good book, watch a good movie, or draw or Thanksgiving turkey with a younger sibling or relative (see above photo)? Let me hear it. "Thanks" for sharing.

Meanwhile, to draw a "hand turkey":

Directions are given for right handed individuals. Reverse as appropriate.

• Place your left hand on a piece of paper with the fingers outstretched, thumb at 45° from the vertical.
• Trace around your hand, include the base of the palm.
• Draw a small triangle protruding from the thumb outline to the right at about the level of the base of the thumbnail. This is the beak.
• Draw a wattle under the beak.
• Draw turkey wings in middle of the palm outline.
• Draw turkey feet protruding from the base of the palm outline.
• Decorate as desired.

11-11 Veterans Day

Here is the History of Veterans Day taken from www.military.com.
(Click on the link to discover even more about the holiday).

Veterans Day was originally set as a U.S. legal holiday to honor Armistice Day -- the end of World War I, which officially took place on November 11, 1918. In legislature that was passed in 1938, November 11 was "dedicated to the cause of world peace and to be hereafter celebrated and known as 'Armistice Day.'" As such, this new legal holiday honored World War I veterans.

In 1954, after having been through both World War II and the Korean War, the 83rd U.S. Congress changed the name of the holiday to Veterans Day to honor American veterans of all wars.

Thank a veteran today, even if you're reading this someday after 11-11.

Mystery With a Moral

"Suspended in time and space for a moment, your introduction to Miss Janet Tyler, who lives in a very private world of darkness, a universe whose dimensions are the size, thickness, length of a swath of bandages that cover her face. In a moment we'll go back into this room and also in a moment we'll look under those bandages, keeping in mind, of course, that we're not to be surprised by what we see, because this isn't just a hospital, and this patient 307 is not just a woman. This happens to be the Twilight Zone, and Miss Janet Tyler, with you, is about to enter it."

Watch this 1960 television production of The Eye of the Beholder (it's 22 minutes long), a episode written by the master of television suspense, Rod Serling. Serling's show The Twilight Zone, ran for six seasons (1959-1964). It was a collection of short TV films that explored the unknown and uncertain mysteries of life, but often with a moral twist.

In this video, Serling criticizes the obsessive pressure that is placed on individuals to conform to society. Artists in the late 50s and early 1960s often examined this theme. The new and powerful medium, television, provided clear directions as to how one should look, talk, and act. Serling skewers conformity, especially when it comes to appearance. The surprise ending pounds this point home like a judge's gavel: "Beauty, indeed, is in the eye of the beholder."

However, we're studying Edgar Allan Poe and specifically, his methods of creating mood. Poe was a masterful story teller, but the story was the star. Don't look for hidden meanings or underlying criticisms of society in Poe.

So rather than write about theme, your assignment is play the role of a film critic. Watch the video carefully and analyze the "methods" that Rod Serling uses to create the suspenseful mood of this short television film. Include elements of dialogue, setting, lighting, music, plot, character, etc. and be specific.

You don't have to respond to this on the blog, or even in your journal. But you will have to respond intelligently on your next test.

Now back to the theme, not the focus of your assignment, but definitely an important matter. What better explanation is there than Rod Serling's narration that closes the episode:

"Now the questions that come to mind. Where is this place and when is it? What kind of world where ugliness is the norm and beauty the deviation from that norm? You want an answer? The answer is, it doesn't make any difference. Because the old saying happens to be true. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, in this year or a hundred years hence, on this planet or wherever there is human life, perhaps out amongst the stars. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Lesson to be learned—in The Twilight Zone."

clipped from video.yahoo.com

Your Favorite Fears (journal #2)

You've just finished studying two Edgar Allan Poe horror stories. Poe was a master of the genre, even though his characters, his plots, his diction, and his themes seemed eerily similar to some other Poe story that you read. For instance, his madmen never admitted to be, well, "mad," though it only took an evil eye, an insult, or a black cat to set them to killing.

You know, "sopoe," as your English teacher would say.

Nevertheless, Poe, like few others, could elevate the soul to chilly heights, and lower it to somber depths. He did so WITHOUT using elements of the supernatural. Too easy. Poe explored the psychology of fear. Maybe it was the imaginary fear of the madmen, but it was a fear minus the easy props and stimuli of ghosts and goblins.

Your next journal assignment is to tell me what gets your blood boiling, your veins pulsing, your heart thumping (notice how all of these are heart metaphors?).

In plain English, your assignment is to write about one of the following:

1. your favorite writer of horror or mystery fiction
2. your favorite horror or mystery novel or story
3. your favorite horror or mystery movie
4. You don't like the genre at all, you say? Tell me why, and cite specific experiences with these genres to make your response specific and interesting.

By the way, I used to be a huge Stephen King fan. I think his novel The Stand is a masterpiece.

Your Favorite Stock Character--Extra Credit

Worth 3 points. Who is your favorite "stock" character? Tell me the character type and then tell me something about the character. Choose characters from "appropriate" artistic sources, not from inappropriate movies, for instance.

Here's my extra credit assignment of the story of one of the most famous "stock" characters in history, namely Ebenezer Scrooge.

Ebenezer Scrooge is a miserly misanthrope in the Charles Dickens' classic, A Christmas Carol. His love of money and disdain for Christmas characterizes the original Scrooge. Scrooge overworks and underpays his loyal employee, Mr. Bob Cratchit. Cratchit, a good and holy family man, has bills to pay and a crippled son (Tiny Tim) to take care of, but he faces his responsibilities with Christian fortitude, and he refuses to admit to his poor family that Mr. Scrooge is a bad man. You might say that Cratchit is a stock character himself, the "poor but happy" fatherly figure whose religion and stoicism keeps his family in food and clothes.

Back to Mr. Scrooge, who grudingly allows poor Bob to take the day off on Christmas Day, but orders him to arrive earlier the next. He greets holiday well wishers, like his kind nephew, with a "Bah, humbug" that of course, is universally recognized as the reply of the Christmas Scrooge. Suddenly his world is turned inside-out when he is visited by the ghost of Jacob Marley, his former business partner and a scrooge like himself. The forlorn ghost, who now does penance by walking the earth in heavy chains, money boxes, and keys, warns Scrooge to mend his ways, lest he suffer the same fate.

Scrooge is shaken, but falls asleep. During the rest of the well known story, he is visited by three Christmas ghosts. He then undergoes a miraculous change. The new Christmas loving Scrooge sends a huge turkey to the Cratchit home, raises Bob's salary, and becomes a surrogate grandfather to Tiny Tim.

This Christmas tale is a story of faith, faith in humanity and the goodness that lies within us all. It was buried in Ebenezer Scrooge, and then unearthed in the joyful end of the novel.

"God bless us, every one!"

See You in Detention

First listen to the video (at the end of this entry) with the sound muted. As each character appears, try to identify the teenage movie stock character. This won't be too difficult, despite the somewhat laughable fashions of the 80s. The sad truth is that everyday we will also stereotype so quickly, often just based on the way someone dresses, walks, or talks.

The Breakfast Club, a 1985 John Hughes written and directed film, first builds up its characters' stereotypes, only to shatter them to pieces. We, and the characters within the movie, see how all of these contrasting "types" are really more similar than they are different. Who would've thunk it (this expression is a cliche, the bad grammar completely necessary)? And it only took two hours of being locked into a room for a Saturday morning detention. Could life be so easy?

My capsule review of the movie? The critic in me, no longer a teen or even a young hip teacher, says that much of the movie dialogue today sounds so unreal, so exaggerated, so silly. And yes, the repeated use of the F word bothers me (I'll never get used to hearing teenagers curse). However, I have to admit that it (the dialogue) and the rest of the movie are never boring. Even in the preachy long monologues (and there are many), Hughes' characters make us care about them.

The lesson is this. Stock characters are OK in literature and film, but stereotyping in real life is dead wrong, and probably responsible for creating every hateful -ism known to mankind. Watch the film to learn that a man (or woman) shouldn't be judged by his clothes or the company that he keeps.

VCR alert for The Breakfast Club for Friday, November 2, 7 p.m. on the Bravo Channel. "Free TV" means freedom from the unnecessary rough language, too.

clipped from www.youtube.com