I get to write these things for my pedagogy seminar, and they're sort of journal-like so I thought I might as well post them.
( Mike Rose: Lives on the Boundary )

A leather-clad motorcycle messenger and a transvestite cannot disguise the fact that this film is not, technically speaking, very funny.
Two Stars.

Lexiphanic - indulging in bombastic talkie-talkie
métier - one's forte
rapprochement - establishment of harmonious relations
termagant - a violent, overbearing, or quarrelsome woman.
virago - An amazon; a fierce or abusive woman.
peradventure - perchance
pellucid - clear, distinct, transparent
Words about Poop
Scatomancy - Divination or ( Read more... )

I didn't understand about 60% of the dialog. However, there was Ben Kingsley, who I will forever think of as Feste. Still, The Limey was probably better.
Two Stars.

Pretentious and disturbing. Not a good combination.
One Star

Calvin Coolidge: "Progress is made by lazy men looking for easier ways to do things"

In a sense, the eighteenthy century believed, writing creates the self. Certainly, Boswell thought so. His fragmented energies found both a corrective and a display in his journal. He would fret on days when nothing exciting could be found for it, as if it led a surrogate existence more valuable than his own. (45)
-- Ormond Seavey, Becoming ( Read more... )

This gets better every time I see it. I think I'm going to show it to my class when we cover Foucault's "Panopticism."
Five Stars

David Lynch does Star Wars! A Baffling Sci-Fi Extravaganza! Kyle McLachlan doing that pseudo-acting thing! Sting in rubber underwear!
Three Stars

It's Mark Twain meets Reality TV! Everything you need to know about America is right here ( Read more... )