media studies

In order to celebrate our first New Years Eve together, it only made sense for The Best Girlfriend Ever and I to do something extravagant together, something a little crazy and excessive, and maybe a little goofy, too, so once we realized that I would be in Philadelphia for the MLA conference, we decided to take the short train ride to New York to spend New Years Eve in Times Square, waiting for and eventually watching the ball to drop. ... read more »

A few pointers to videos, blog posts, and other distractions, to celebrate the end of the semester: ... read more »

A few links to celebrate the end of finals week: ... read more »

I’m in the last throes of the semester and ready to start thinking in earnest about spring semester and some writing projects that have been, shall we say, dormant for the last few weeks.   Here are some of the links that have crossed my radar over the last few days: ... read more »

A few links to get you through exam week: ... read more »

Just a quick pointer to a CNN article on the role of social media in boosting the word-of-mouth support for The Blind Side that happens to feature a couple of brief quotes from yours truly.  It’s a nice little overview of how social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook have helped to speed up and expand the reach of movie audiences.

This was one of the best conferences I ever attended. The take home message for future conference organizers is hard to replicate: 1) carefully chosen speakers 2)  given ample time (2 speakers in 1 and 1/2 hour sessions) and 3) beautifully choreographed two-day flow, where distinct areas of approach, method, discipline and theory, hit against each other to build to a crescendo. Not one dud. Here’s the rap sheet of one-liners: ... read more »

In recent weeks, I’ve become casually interested in the hype surrounding James Cameron’s Avatar, a $500 million, special-effects laden, 3-D epic that serves as Cameron’s first feature-length narrative film since 1998’s Titanic.  It’s easy to forget that when Titanic came out, there was concern that the film would sink Cameron’s career and, potentially, a major studio.  But since then, Cameron has assumed a powerful position in the pantheon of blockbuster auteurs, alongside of Spielberg, Jackson, and Lucas (I’d include the Wachowskis here, but they need something besides th ... read more »

Now that my computer seems to be back up to speed, I’m hoping to blog on a regular basis again.  I’ve got a couple of posts brewing including a discussion of a graduate seminar I’ve been asked to teach, a version of my Using Technology in the Language Arts Classroom course I’ve done twice before.  I was unhappy with how the previous version turned out, so as usual I’ll be soliciting advice, crowdsourcing, and trying to rethink how the course might work best.  I’m also still thinking about a “decadism” post as I contemplate all of th ... read more »

One of the underlying narratives associated with Hollywood mythology is the “discovery story,” the idea that a talented newcomer emerges by chance, out of nowhere, to become a Hollywood “star.”  Lana Turner was  discovered, so the legend goes, on a barstool at Schwab’s drugstore.  Now, as the tools of filmmaking and film distribution have been democratized, those discovery stories have expanded to filmmakers as well.  And although it is the case that such stories can be read ideologically, it is also true that YouTube and other video sharing sites still offer us the opportunity to be astoni ... read more »