political cartoons

Political cartoons have long been a favorite of mine and sharing them with my AP government students this year has been very fun. I have often used cartoons in my U.S. history classes, but I always had to explain them to the students and they rarely seemed to really understand them or enjoy them. The bright kids in AP not only enjoy them, they sometimes have to explain them to me! The best site I have found for political cartoons of current events is cagle.com Here are a few of my recent favorites.

3:10 to Yuma

This film had its messages: about family and sacrifice and finding something bigger and more important than yourself to live and die for. However, the messages were not important enough to warrant the amount of graphic death it portrayed. Furthermore, the graphic images are not needed to show the horrors of senseless, wanton killing. Why do filmmakers think that spectators don't have enough imagination to understand horrible, multiple, senseless murder without actually seeing it? I do and I don't think I am particularly imaginative. Just as I can read a book (without pictures!) and be horrified, disgusted and moved to tears, I can do the same with a well-made movie. Maybe the filmmakers don't have enough confidence and faith in themselves to believe that they can make us "see" what they don't actually portray on the screen.

That said, I didn't completely dislike this film. I wouldn't recommend it without serious warning and without feeling badly that I was contributing to someone else's desensitizing, but . . . I was glad to see that Christian Bale had apparently made it to Santa Fe . . . (Newsies?)

Elizabeth

Last night we watched Elizabeth, with Cate Blanchett. (I think there is another recent Elizabeth I movie that I haven't seen yet.)

I always like history flicks, even if the history isn't perfectly accurate--what with revisionist history, whoever knows anyway? In any case, I don't know English history well enough to complain.

Blanchett was wonderful as the Virgin Queen--we always wonder if she really was, don't we. She played her as an intelligent, wily, ruler and also as a real woman who could be jealous and vindictive.


I don't think everyone would really enjoy this film. The people and their costumes were beautiful, but it was a bit slow moving. I knew that the Spanish Armada would be decimated by a storm. I suppose the movie would be more of a thriller if you didn't know that before watching.

Stardust

A fun fantasy, a faery tale. Certainly you could recommend this film to almost everyone--there is nothing that would offend. It has a nice message of true love, honesty, intelligence . . but it is not a "must see."

Michelle Pfieffer is a wonderful wicked witch, but Robert DeNiro is a bit strange as a pirate in drag.

Once

Once, a sweet little film. My husband was less than enthralled, but I kind of liked its simple tale. Actually, we both liked it more the next morning . . . its sweetness kind of grows on you. I went online and found out that for its $160,000 investment it did quite well AND the couple actually got together afterward. In fact the main characters were very worried that they would include that in the film and they didn't want it there. The story is just about the week they met, made music, and moved on--at least temporarily.

ImpressiveTexting

I have never been happier to live in Utah than during the week after the death of President Hinckley. I was thrilled by the every channel, every station, coverage of his life and the funeral plans. I loved hearing people talk about him. The outpouring of love for President Hinckley was seen and heard everywhere. By far the most touching tribute came on Monday morning. Apparently the word of President Hinckley's death spread to the youth by text messaging, followed quickly by the suggestion to dress up at school on Monday in his honor. During first period I noticed many kids dressed in their Sunday clothes. I asked one, an athlete, if he had a game that day (they often dress up on game days). He said, "No, some of us just wanted to dress up today." I asked, "Why?" "For President Hinckley" was his reply. I was amazed. The next hour a boy from Mexico told me the essentially the same thing: "because the Prophet died." I quit asking and just smiled at them the rest of the day--and felt bad that no one told the teachers of the plan.

the disconnected

I have been quite concerned about the disconnect of our current teens and young adults for several years. Supposedly they are very media-savvy and have connections to the world, but not all of them are using their connective possibilities as well as I think they should.

This first started to bother me several years ago when I noticed that youth are constantly connected to their ipods or other music devices. No one seems to care about connecting with other human beings they encounter. It seems like no one goes for a walk, run or hike anymore and just listens to their own thoughts or to the birds singing. If you are plugged in with your earbuds do you hear the fall leaves or the newly fallen snow crunch beneath your feet? I would really miss that in my life. I need some solitude and quiet to listen to nature and to my own brain waves. On a secondary note is the safety issue. If you are plugged in can you hear a car approach or an attacker?

Then I started to notice that some of the young adults I know hear very little news. Whether in their apartments or cars they listen to their own music list. When you listen to a radio station, even the most "all music" format will break in with important news or news of a crisis. This problem was evident a few weeks ago, with the death of President Hinckley. Though many kids learned about his death thru text messaging (which I will discuss in another post), some missed important news that they wished they had heard. For example, my daughter-in-law, who lives in SLC, did not hear about the viewing until it was too late to make plans to go. She and my son do not have television, never listen to commercial radio, and do not get a newspaper. I know they use the internet for news and information, but apparently they do not often access local sites. I mentioned to another daughter how much I enjoyed the overwhelming news coverage the week of President Hinckley's death. Because they, too, do not watch television or listen to commercial radio, she did not know what I was talking about. They completely missed the televised funeral.

That same couple got caught in this week's snowstorm on I-15. If they would have listened to the radio before they got on the freeway, they would have been forewarned and could have avoided several hours of standstill traffic.

They have ipods, laptops, DVDs, CDs, and internet access. They are plugged in, but not to the rest of the world.

Juno

I finally saw Juno. I liked it very much and want to see it again so I can figure out exactly what I think. It was not what I expected. I had heard it was about a normal, popular, fun teenage girl that happens to get pregnant. It is about an offbeat, popular with her small circle, intelligent in a way that may not easily be recognized by teachers, girl, that happens to get pregnant. The way she deals with the pregnancy and how it deals with her is the story. It is not a movie that I would recommend to everyone--I know many people that would be put off by the language. It has very little actual "swearing," but the language is sometimes crude and often flippant about sacred things. That said, it also has a lot of beauty. I love the characerization of Juno's parents. They are a bit nutty and certainly not what I ever aspired to be as a parent, but they love her and support her in amazing ways. I will watch this movie again.

Photo Essay

I am quite unsure how this photo essay is going to
look on my blog. I haven't yet figured out to
reliably move my photos around. I would like to put them in a nice straight line, though only for the last one is the placement really important. If you haven't figured it out yet, I am trying to
illustrate the community of technology users.






All of the people in the photos are connected to me--
most quite close. I was trying to show the
upcoming generation and their natural curiosity
and affinity with computers, cell phones, X-box,
and the like. I am a part of them, but it is a
struggle for me to stay with them. Since the
little ones pictured are my grandchildren, it is
crucial to me to keep this connection. I want to
be important in their lives and media will
definitely be with us.







In our media education
masters's program, I hope to continue
to learn ways to, not just keep up with them,
but help to guide them through the media maze.













































The last picture, the one of the older couple
dancing, is very important to the essay. The
couple are my in-laws, Ken and Ann Smith.
They are my technology role-models. They
are in their 70s (well, in a few months they
both will be) and they use their computers
daily. They both have their own, but I think
they actually have four working computers
in their home. They had a computer long
before we did--I think they still have an
Apple 2E in the house somewhere. Among
his other computer activities, Ken spends
many hours daily indexing for the LDS family
history program. Ann is writing her personal
history, is ward historian, and actually works
online for a company based in Poland. They
keep up with their posterity through emails.
I think they are amazing and, technologically
speaking, I want to be just like them when I grow up.

Amazing Grace

I saw the movie Amazing Grace this past weekend. I have been wanting to see it for quite sometime and it was everything I expected--very moving, inspirational and historic--and I really enjoyed it. If you haven't seen it, it is about the fight to abolish the slave trade in Great Britain. It tells the mostly true story of several good men (and one woman) who spend many years, much money, and a great deal of at least the main character's health in this noble cause. It also tells the story of the repentant slaver who wrote the hymn "Amazing Grace." That actually was my favorite part. I will never listen to the words of that beautiful hymn in quite the same way again.

However much I liked the film, there was a new element in my viewing. It was interesting to see that my recent education has, to quote one of Jeana's students, "ruined" movies for me. I didn't just love this great story; I also could see that it wasn't the most well-made movie. It's flashbacks and forward were confusing--I couldn't keep track of which was which and I have no real idea of how long the fight took, though I think about 20 years. It was a decent telling of a beautiful story, but it just wasn't really art. I am still enough of a novice in this field that I can't tell you any more about what was wrong with it, but I could feel that it was missing something.

That said, it still was good for all the reasons I already mentioned and if you haven't seen it I heartily recommend it. I may purchase it to use one scene in class. The story is contemporary with our own Revolution & writing of the Constitution. There is a moment in Parliament where several speakers are openly disdainful of the idea of petitions and rule of the people rather than by the "rightful rulers." I think this scene would go far in helping to illustrate how really revolutionary our new form of government was.

P.S. Notice how I got some images into this post! Whoopee! There is hope for me, yet. Now can someone help me figure out how to move them around? My usual "format to move" doesn't seem to work.

Thoroughty confused

Okay . . . here are the two images I wanted to have go with the last two posts. I have no idea why I was suddenly able to get them and why I couldn't before--let this be a harbinger of good things in my media future.

I think my media blogs have not been what was intended by either Amy or Erika, but I hope they work given the raw material that I am.

Disappointing forays

This post is about my media disappointments this week. As you all know, I am the most novice of our group--at least when it comes to electronic media interactions. This week I have tried to do a couple of new (to me) things and they were not all successful.

I am going to start backward--just a few minutes ago I posted about my Sunday morning viewing. I wanted to add a photo about the Quick Draw segment I told you about. I searched and searched to no avail. I decided that I really needed an image in the post, so I decided that Gertie the Dinosaur would do. It was very easy to find an image of her and I attempted to insert her into the text. I tried two different methods: my usual cut-n-paste and, when that didn't work, I tried working with the blogger site, reading instructions, inserting a URL where they asked for it. There is still no image on the post.

#2 Last week my niece had twin girls. One of them was given my mom's middle name as her middle name--in fact she is the fourth child in the family to be given the same middle name as my mom, who passed away nearly sixteen years ago. As soon as I realized this I thought of Sally Field's classic "you like me, you really like me" Oscar acceptance speech (1984/5, Places in the Heart). I could visualize my mom, looking down from the spirit world, saying that. It made me smile and I decided to send an email out to my family, retelling my "vision" and add a clip of Sally Field from that Academy Awards show. But, I search as I may, I have been unable to find this clip. I did find that it had been on YouTube, but was removed for copyright issues. I went to oscar.org, the official Academy site, hoping they would show it, but no luck there either. This was really disappointing because it was a new foray for me, to send an email with clip, and I spent a couple hours trying to find it--I figure is out there somewhere, but where? I still haven't sent the email . . . it just won't be the same w/o the clip. BTW, I did find out that it is the most lampooned Oscar speech ever and I remember the clip the way most people do--however we aren't remembering it correctly. Here is the actual quote: "I haven't had an orthodox career. And I've wanted more than anything to have your respect. The first time I didn't feel it. But this time I feel it. And I can't deny the fact that you like me... right now... you like me. Thank you." If you can see a picture of Sally Field on this post, then you will know that Erika helped me solve that dilemma.

#3 Okaaayy--guess that didn't work either. I am finding that when I click on the "add image" icon for the first time, nice little instructions about how to do so come up. But, if I close it and try to return, I can't get back to the instructions. Does anyone know what I am talking about and know how to help me?

Enough about my disappointments. I hope my blog signature was well chosen--I want to be the Learner, not "she who threw in the towel."

Sunday Morning Viewing

The only television show I watch regularly is Sunday Morning on CBS. It is an eclectic mix of news/variety/arts/politics that I really enjoy. This last Sunday they introduced a new segment about media in the lives of our children. On the cbsnews.com website they called it QUICK DRAW. The title is perfect. As the voice over tells the story, a line drawing emerges to illustrate it. My first thought was of our sketcher Matt; my second thought was of the early cartoonist, Winsor McCay, the one who drew Gertie the Dinosaur. Basically it showed three generations of a real family and how the explorable world of the average eight-year-old has gone from six to zero miles from home. At first this is only sad as you think of all the obese, housebound children of today. But then they showed the housebound child conversing/playing/learning about friends, family, and places across the globe. But we need to help kids and families find some middle ground, because there really is no substitute for being out in nature, not just viewing it on a screen. I tried to find a link that I could give you so you could watch it, but all I found was this other person's blog about it:

I loved the new segment CBS has introduced: QUICK DRAW: Josh Landis and Mitch Butler on the age of anxiety. I will be watching to see if it makes it to YouTube. It was a very good “editorialized cartoon” of how fast things have changed. Children are no longer outdoor children, but indoor children. It reminded me of how many hours I would spend exploring while my parents had no idea or concern as to where I was.


I had to smile when I read "makes it to YouTube." I had never been on YouTube until last September and really resisted going there for Amy's class. I think I had the typical older generation's attitude of "I don't understand it . . . it must be bad." Since September my attitude has changed--there are so many fun, interesting, and just plain cool things on YouTube. I wouldn't have thought to watch for Quick Draw on YouTube, but now I will.

Hello Media Mates!

Well, this is it . . . I guess I have a blog now.

This is supposed to be a media blog, so I thought I would start with one of my favorite media images: me and my '04 Thunderbird.