In addition to writing and compiling articles for this blog and others, I also edit two professional newsletters for ESLemployment. Please click HERE for more information.
Dr. B.Lee Hobbs, a professor of English who has worked in various sectors of education since 1993, invites you to participate in this online space for all Literature/Language/Writing scholars & students willing to meet, discuss, engage, learn & resolve issues in an academic discourse--ongoing since 2005.
Recently, because I teach a Science-fiction literature course, I was asked by the public relations department of Saint Leo University to provide some commentary for Ted Anthony, a noted Associated Press journalist writing a news story on the upcoming Star Trek film and why Star Trek, as a pop-culture phenomenon, seems to resonate on an almost folkloric level with certain elements of American society. I was happy to oblige but I had to admit that it was a solid question and one that would warrant some reflection first. Since its debut, Gene Roddenberry’s famous series from the 1960s has certainly proven influential in many ways. For example, concepts from this speculative fiction about Earth’s distant future have found their way into the English vernacular and in technological innovations.
Even those who have never watched a single episode may be familiar with . . .
Back by popular demand is the hyperlink to Thom Holbrook's hilarious commentary on Victor Fleming's The Wizard of Oz and his observation that the Scarecrow was packing heat!
After reading the article, I do challenge you all to re-watch the scene on YouTube and let me know if . . .
Defiance. Dir. Edward Zwick. Perf. Daniel Craig, Liev Schreiber, et. al. Paramount, 2008.
21 February 2009
ENG 340 Students,
A big, sincere "thanks" to all of you who took time out of your Saturday today to come with me to the screening of Edward Zwick's Defiance at the Muvico Starlight 20 Cinema today on Bruce B. Downs in New Tampa.
The film cited below is the second part of the Bernard Offen trilogy. The entry to the first part of his story can be found by clicking HERE.
My Hometown Concentration Camp: A Walk in the Krakow Ghetto and Plaszow Camp. Dir. Bernard Offen. Perf. Bernard Offen. DVD. www.Bernardoffen.org, 1997. 23 minutes.
The Work. Dir. Bernard Offen. Perf. Bernard Offen. DVD. www.Bernardoffen.org, 1983. 37 minutes.
ENG 340 Students,
In our last meeting, we, unfortunately, did not get to discuss the screening in much detail since it completed just as the class meeting did. Because of the levity of the film's subject, I realize that some of you probably needed to "process" a little. Please remember that you can always stay after class to discuss if you would like or come by during my office hours to do so as well. I read in some of your comments that you were getting nightmares and, although I do want you to absorb this material, I don't want it to have an adverse affect on your health.
As an optional assignment, please consider discussing this short documentary of Bernard Offen that we screened in a previous class meeting (cited below) in this entry's comment box.
Dekalog, Osiem [The Decalogue 8: Thou Shalt Not Bear False Witness]. Screenplay by Krzysztof Kieślowski and Krzysztof Piesiewicz. Dir. Krzysztof Kieślowski. Perf. Maria Koscialkowska, Teresa Marczewska, Artur Barcis, Tadeusz Lomnicki. 1988. DVD. Chicago: Facets Multi-Media, 2003.
28 January 2009
"Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour." (Exodus 20:16, Douay-Rheims 1899 American Edition)
This short, but poignant film is a complicated story about . . .
Fanny Judelowitz was born in Liepaja, Lativa on October 27, 1922. She was the oldest of three girls born to a Jewish family in this Baltic seaport where a large Jewish community once existed. Fanny . . .
Sorry we didn't have time to watch more of this clip in class but at least we got to see the first section of the introduction. A paragraph or two please: What is different about . . .
As you screened the film today in class, I asked you to take notes in your journal on the following information. Some of these you may have needed to answer outside of class.
Today's Film Review courtesy of English-blog contributor Allison R.
*Warning: Article may contain spoilers!
The Thriller That Keeps You Guessing
The Amityville Horror, a film directed by Andrew Douglas, was released in 2005 starring Ryan Reynolds. A combination of special effects, suspense, and a well written story line help to make this film an instant success in the cinemas. If its mystery and on the edge of your seat suspense that the viewer craves, then this is the film to see. After seeing this film once viewers everywhere will be begging for more! The film is based on a true story of a family murdered during their sleep by a brother/son, Ronnie DeFeo, who goes insane from spirits living in the house. These spirits take control of the boy and convince him to commit the murders. The film then moves on to show a family, a year later, move into the house and experience all the bizarre incidents that occur. The main character, George Lutz, undergoes psychological changes and in the process is possessed by the same spirits that took over Ronnie . . .
Today's Film Review courtesy of English-blog contributor Rachael T.
*Warning: Article may contain spoilers!
Heroes in the Eyes of the Beholder
First a synopsis:
From the creators of the hit trilogy, The Matrix, comes a thrill ride of a movie that'll leave you quoting it for the rest of the day. V for Vendetta is a perfect blend of action, suspense, mystery, and drama, making the film . . .
This month there has been a lot of discussion about the concept of "truth." Do you recall the film Dekalog 8 by Krzystof Kieślowski? It had everything to do with telling "the truth," remember? So did the documentary Strongwoman. Several of you, I might add, expressed that you did not believe Justyna's testimony (which seemed to horrify Maria Z. who, in fact, did!)
In our last exercise we looked at Henry Adams's (1838-1948) admonition to learn as the prime directive. In other words, the ability to learn or the process of learning, above all, is the most important thing of all since it gives a person "enough" to get by in life. If we take this statement for granted, are we then to assume that we should be learning "truthful" things? Would Adams sound nearly as clever if he told us to go out and fill our heads with "untruths"? It seems important, then, if we are to learn let it not be wasted on lies and propaganda (useless data) but on knowledge that we somehow know to be true . . .
The film Process B-7185 by Bernard Offen and the academy award winning Hollywood production Crash elicited so many responses (see HERE for Process and HERE for Crash) that I felt it deserved another devoted blog entry. This difference about this entry, however, is how similar thematic developments in both (one was a historical auto-biography, the other a work of fiction) diverged and brought understanding to sensitive issues such as racism, intolerance, hate and hate-crimes (as opposed to war-crimes, for example). Some of my students did a wonderful job comparison writing exercises involving subject matter from both films . . .
Today was really a great opportunity in class as director and filmmaker Maria Zmarz-Koczanowicz visited our room, showed a Kieślowski short, gave a small talk and answered student questions. It was interesting to hear some of the inside information, such as details about the film Strongwoman, that weren't put into the film due to time restrictions and legal reasons. Also, we found out, some things we observed superficially--like the technique of transitioning from monochrome to color in Children of the Revolution--actually had a more layered meaning that we first imagined . . .
The independent film about Hurricane Katrina, by filmmaker Creighton Hobbs, got such an overwhelming amout of remarks (read them at THIS ENTRY) I came to the conclusion that some of the more lengthy (and thought out) ones deserved a blog entry of their own. What makes this approach different is how some of my students compared not only the film but the event itself to ideas expressed in the film Crash, Process B-7185, and others. . .
Dzieci Rewolucji [Children of Revolution]. Screenplay by Maria Zmarz-Koczanowicz and Leszek Koczanowicz. Dir. Maria Zmarz-Koczanowicz. 60 minutes. Telewisja Polska [TVP], 2002.
That's revolution, not "corn."
The next in our series of Maria Zmarz-Koczanowicz documentaries examines the after-effects of revolution, particularly the people themselves. While Generation '89 used this "then and now" model for the details of one event in Polish history, this films looks at a much broader spectrum. This time, Zmarz-Koczanowicz looks at many different revolutions from many different dates in several European nations . . .
The 44 minute documentary from 2002 Siłaczka [The Strongwoman] by Maria Zmarz-Koczanowicz reports the story of Justyna, a young girl who was a champion weightlifter in Poland, who brought charges of alleged sexual abuse committed on her and her sister Aneta by their trainer, an older man and respected member of the community. A young journalist learns about the scandal in Malbork and goes to investigate why justice wasn't served. What she discovers is something neither she nor the viewer are likely to suspect. The neighborhood, it seems, decided to support the alleged molester (even though all of the weighlifter's friends attested to the journalist that "Justyna's story was true) . . .
Today I screened the first part of a documentary film called Pokołenie '89 by director Maria Zmarz-Koczanowicz. This comprehensive exposé provided a series of concise vignettes about the Independent Student Union [in Polish, "NZS"] participants who, in the late '80s, actively opposed the Communist government in Warszawa, Poland. Says the Visegrad Documentary Library:
The portrait of the first generation of Poles who reached adulthood after 1989, the turning point for the political transformation in Poland. The protagonists are middle-class people from Warsaw.
I will show the conclusion in the following class meeting. Granted, this material is hardcore and radically different from anything I've shown thus far. For example, the production is subtitled. So, for several at least, this is the first opportunity some of the students have had to literally "read" a film as a text. My decision to immerse them . . .
When hurtful stereotypes and ignorant prejudices collide, a major accident is bound to ensue. Mao once said, "without destruction there can be no construction." I interpret this to mean that in order to construct (or re-construct), a positive deconstruction is sometimes necessary first . Crash is layered enough to do that and much more. If you have a class of top-level English students that seem open to receiving pop-cultural topics for writing and discussion subject-matter, you might have some success with this piece.
The film itself is a full two hours long and it took two complete class periods to show this film in its entirety to my class. Should you decide to screen this film, your students should be forewarned: It's certainly violent, graphic and has something to offend almost everyone. But, at the same time, some really important social issues are first toyed with and then brought to the surface. The narrative results in an amazing chain-reaction of hatred, prejudice and bigotry. Does hate fuel the uninformed and misguided opinions or do uninformed and misguided opinions inform the hate? In the third class period, I conducted a . . .
As several of you might know, I lived as an expatriate for many years overseas, primarily in post-Communist Europe, teaching, doing research and operating new businesses after the Berlin Wall came down in East Germany.
I made many good friends there including Mr. Bernard Offen - a survivor of the Holocaust - who has dedicated much of his life to giving, sharing, educating and promoting peace. I had the opportunity to learn a lot from Bernard and . . .
Katrina. A name many will likely never forget, no matter how much they'd like to.
The damage she caused was absolutely devastating, her aftereffects heartbreaking and the embarrassing bureaucratic response to her a national tragedy. These points are not the subject for this post. Instead, I ask you to consider the subject of "process" on the subject of this catastrophe.
On the surface, process is only a word, like procedure, that we use everyday in a rather benign way. In theoretical terms, it is nothing more than a signifier that signifies "an action, or a series of actions or events, progress [or] course" (OED). The process of getting from here to there, from this state of affairs to that. As a verb, we "process" our feelings about things and even process our food. As writers, can we . . .
"The Stone Age was marked by man's clever use of crude tools; the information age, to date, has been marked by man's crude use of clever tools." ~ Source Unknown
I've been using the instructional videos from this production company, the Standard Deviants, for some time now. They also have a series on grammar and punctuation in a similar format but it's the one on writing for college that I generally try to incorporate somewhere in my writing courses near the beginning of the semester. The overall success of this series has . . .
For Monday's English composition class, I used this educational video as part of my daily lesson plan:
English Composition: Writing for an Audience. Program 2. "Finding Something To Say." Nar. Peter Berkow. Prod. Peter Berkow and Anita Berkow. Annenberg/CPB, Annenberg Foundation-Corporation for Public Broadcasting. PBS. 30 minutes. 2000.
For Friday's English composition class, I used the following production as part of the lesson:
English Composition: Writing for an Audience. Program 1. "School Writing / Real World." Nar. Peter Berkow. Prod. Peter Berkow and Anita Berkow. Annenberg/CPB, Annenberg Foundation-Corporation for Public Broadcasting. PBS. 30 minutes. 2000.
Today's Film Review courtesy of English-blog contributor Adam Mc.
*Warning: Article may contain spoilers!
The Tooth Fairy
I would like to start off by saying that both of these films were excellent additions to the Hannibal Lector series. They were the only films of the series that I had not seen before and not only did they explain many of the events that take place in the later films, but were also just as entertaining. Whether you're a fan of films with good plot twists and storylines or just a good old fashioned fan of the blood and gore that all of these films have become so famous for, you will definitely enjoy both Man hunter and Red Dragon . . .
Today's Film Review courtesy of English-blog contributor Daniel M.
*Warning: Article may contain spoilers!
The Evolution of Dracula
Count Dracula has gone through many changes since the original publication by Bram Stoker in 1897. Dracula has been depicted in many different views in film and theater. He has gone from a hideous beast, to a suave gentleman, and then as a tired old man. In the 1931 film Dracula, and the 1992 film Bram Stoker’s Dracula the vampire is portrayed in two very different ways. The differences and similarities in the two films are both minor and drastic. At the same time though, the films seem to get much of the same elements across . . .
Articles, that is, not money. Of course, you can ALWAYS contribute $ by just clicking on any of the ads, but what this entry is all about is your writing contributions.
Are you an aspiring writer? Got tons of good ideas floating around in your head but no where to show them off? Then, . . .
Lee Hobbs, a North American native-speaker (and partial descendant of Native-Americans and wily Welshmen), renowned global citizen (and infamous universal denizen) spends much of his existence "searching for sanity beyond the self-dynamic" After earning his bachelor of arts (in fine art) in 1993, he spent six of his thinner years trekking across the planet, experimenting with entrepreneurial endeavors, and working in the emerging ESL field of Post-Communist Europe. During that time . . .
