Luke Brodie!!!

So did you guys check out my new Spanish Emo look? Yeah, I sound a lot like Dashboard Confessional, except I'm the Ricky Martin version....

Nope, just kidding...

I'll wait for you to catch your breath

Thank you Luke Morton for pointing this out to me. Be sure to check this guy out! He actually rocks; I only wish I new what he was singing about...

Isn't it like we were separated at birth!

(I linked you to the translated version of his website... you can get to the truly Spanish site at http://www.lukebrodie.com.)

David Brooks on Roberts Confirmation

Be sure not to miss David Brooks' take on the John Roberts Confirmation hearings. I'm not really following it too closely, so I think his column sums up how I feel quite nicely.

Ready? Cue the Sun... - New York Times

(The title of the column is a brilliant allusion to The Truman Show, which I just caught while looking at the article again!)

genre vs. auteur?

So this weekend was a good one. Mowed the lawn. Nearly finished painting the front room.

Sarah worked most of the day on Saturday, so I took the time to watch a movie that I got at goodwill called "Kansas City Confidential". It's a crime drama of the film noir persuasion. I got to be a film geek and think about all of the conventions of this genre of film, all of which stems from my minor in film from Middle Tennessee State University. I won't go into the conventions of film noir at this time... perhaps at a later date (I seem to say that a lot on here, don't I?)

As I mowed the lawn, I got thinking about what draws people to watch certain films. KC-Confidential is a somewhat forgettable film, and it didn't do too well when it was released. Not even a very notable cast. But I ate it up. And I would watch any number of films similar to it. Why?

So here's my question: what draws you to see a certain film? Obviously, you see a film becuase you think you'll like it, or someone else has told you that you'd like it (a friend, a movie critic, a blog). Here are some possible sub-questions to clarify:

• Is it because of the director's past work? (e.g. Steven Spielberg, Peter Jackson, Cameron Crowe) this is related to autuer theory
  
• Or possibly the lead actor's past work? (e.g. Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan, John Cusack)
• Is it because of the type of film that it is? (e.g. Chick Flick, Horror, Sci-Fi Hobbit Epic) this is related to genre theory
  

And the question that follows is by what standard do you critique if the film was good? I would hazard a guess in saying that part of your answer has to do with holding it up against your answer to the previous question. If you saw it because of a director/actor, you would compare it to what he/she has done in the past. If you saw it because of the type of film, you would compare it to other films that you have seen in that genre of film.

I realize that there are films that one sees without any predisposed notion about it's contents, but this is very rarely the case anymore, thanks to our mass market/mass media culture. So please humor me and tell me what you think about when you spend your $9 (in the theater), $4.50 (at blockbuster), mouse click (netflix... woot!), to see a movie. And try to use specific examples where ever possible to show films that surprised you or your were disappointed by. I'll even post a comment or two about what standard I see movies by.

Happy Typing!

First day of classes off to a (slow) start!

Today is the first day of regular classes at Erskine. I hurried out the door a few minutes late, after making good time for the first half of the drive I got stuck behind a trailer, and set foot in the classroom on the dot of 8:00. This morning I have Early and Medieval Church History with Don Fairbairn. Turns out that Dr. Fairbairn is in Belgium currently, so he had a video lecture prepared to show during the class. Our graduate assistant was unable to get the DVD up and running, so all we had to do was fill out a piece of paper about ourselves. Class was dismissed promptly at 8:15! All that driving fast for nothing! And here's the even better part... my next class isn't until 7:00 pm! Tonight!!! Fortunately I have a reading assignment already, so I can get started on that. Oh, and there's chapel in an hour (11:00 am).

In lieu of posting something interesting from today's class, here's a rundown of my weekly class schedule:

• Tu. 8:00-11:00 am – Early and Medieval Church History
• Tu. 7:00-10:00 pm – Hebrew I
• We. 8:00-11:00 am – Bible Survey
• We. 1:00-4:00 pm – Old Testament I

I'm really excited to have classes starting... actually, I was really hoping to have a class today, so I'm a bit disappointed that I don't really have much to do... okay, so this is going on record that I am "disappointed" with the fact that "I don't have much to do"... please remind me of this when I'm feeling the crunch by the middle of October (if not sooner).

Another back yard friend

Another back yard friend
Originally uploaded by Luke and Sarah.

You must be thinking, "do they have nothing better to do in South Carolina than take pictures of animals around the house?" Well, truth is that we haven't had much time to get out to do things to have pictures of. It's been work work work for Sarah and school school school for me.

I was mowing the lawn the other day and was totally freaked out by this spider; so freaked out that I didn't mow in the corner where I first saw him. A few days later I finally snapped a picture of him and went online to identify it (and also figure out if he would eat my flesh!) Turns out that he's only a harmless garden spider, the Black and Yellow Argiope. The article I read says that they're actually a very helpful garden spider since they eat a lot of bugs. All they do is sit there with their head down (almost playing dead), and they even eat their web every night and spin a new one in the morning!

So I've decided to not kill him, or at least transplant him to my neighbors yard, but I guess I'll have to be out late mowing that corner if it's ever gonna get done!