Best "Police Academy" Character Ever?

My vote goes in for Sweetchuck. Or maybe Tackleberry.

Best Love Song Ever?

My vote goes in for "Duke of Earl" by Gene Chandler. Yours?

Shameless...

Has anyone checked out this totally incredible show on BBC America yet? It's called Shameless. I just rented it from the new release section at Kim's Video and was completely blown away - even after just the first episode! It's about a family of kids, The Gallaghers, that live with their alcoholic dad in a housing estate in Manchester...It's the kind of show - and there aren't many like it - that rides the "thin path" between hilariously funny and outright depressing. Kinda like the original British version of The Office, at least in the way it makes the quotidian out to be really interesting and funny and despairing at the same time. Rent it (Netflix, whatev's...you can get it on Region 1 now) or watch it on T.V., you'll thank yourself you did.

The Kingdom...

So, there's a new Michael Mann movie coming out, though he's producing it - not directing it...It's called The Kingdom, with Jamie Foxx. It's about an elite FBI unit that gets sent to Saudi Arabia to investigate a suicide bombing, then half the team gets captured and Jamie Foxx, I assume, has to bail them out. Has anyone seen the previews? What do you think it will be like? Good? Bad? I think it looks cool. I'm gonna go see it maybe.

28 Weeks Later...

Has anyone else seen 28 Weeks Later yet? I saw it yesterday afternoon. It was awesome. I loved the first one, but was a little suspicious of this second installment. First of all, I was afraid they were going to try to cash in on the first film's success and make a shitty franchise out of it - secondly, I was wary of the change in directors. However, it all comes together quite nicely, though its not nearly as "jump-out-at-ya" scary as the first one, its nonetheless really wild to watch and hyper-stylized. I'd be interested to hear from ya'll if you've seen it or if you plan (or don't plan) on seeing it. Did you guys see the first movie? What did you think of it? I really enjoyed both of these, though they're both pretty different films. This second one is a little more action-packed out, with Americans fulfilling the role of "bad guy" - or at least as bad as the zombie/"Infected" people are made out to be, which I thought was a bold, cool move on the writers' part...Anyway, let me know what you think.

Hey, Little Piggie...

By this time, you all know how much I love calling people "little piggies," or some variation ("Piggie-Bear" comes to mind...). Click the link below to read about a real big pig.

"It feels really good," Jamison said. "It's a good accomplishment. I probably won't ever kill anything else that big."

Finals Week Is Kinda Like A Turkish Prison...

I hadn't seen this movie in years, but it came on AMC tonight when I was up studying for my final in this class I'm taking called "Problems in Gothic Art and Architecture." I'm pulling an all-nighter right now - it's 2:38 a.m. and I have to take the final at 12:30 in the afternoon and have finished one part, the take-home portion, of the final, but have yet to start studying up on the images that I may or may not encounter on the test tomorrow. Anyway, back to the movie. I forgot how good this film is. I didn't know Oliver Stone was responsible for adapting the book. I had forgotten about the gay prisonsex shower scene, and probably could have afforded to, though. I hope none of ya'll end up in a Turkish prison anytime soon. It's not something that you want to have happen to you - trust me, I seen the movie.

Course Descriptions for Next Semester...

I recently registered for my courses for next fall. Here's the list of classes I'll be taking and the course descriptions, if you care.

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Topics in Islamic Art and Architecture: Ottoman Art and Architecture, 1450-1600

Dr. Bates

The subtitle of this course might read, “The formation of an imperial art.” The focus will be on the transformation of the Ottoman sultanate into an empire following the conquest of Constantinople in 1453 and the creation of art and architectural forms that defined its enhanced status. The artistic traditions from which the Ottoman Empire derived its inspiration were from the East as well as West: pre-Islamic and Islamic Turkic, Greco-Roman, Islamic/Asian, Byzantine/Christian, and contemporary European. The amalgamation of such diverse sources took place during the period approximately between 1450 and 1600. We shall consider mainly architecture but will refer to Ottoman historical paintings, textiles, and objects that were used in court ceremonies. Requirements for the course are: readings to be briefly discussed every week; a short research paper, 10-12 pages, and a take-home final examination.

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Topics in Contemporary Art: European Art 1945-1982

Dr. Romy Golan

This lecture course will survey European art from the aftermath of WWII, covering such movements as Art Brut, Informel, Zero Group, The Independent Group, Fluxus, Nouveau Realisme, Situationism, Arte Povera, Art and Language, Institution Critique, Neo-Expressionism, up to Documenta 7 of 1982.
It will focus on specific themes and modalities that distinguish European art and art criticism from its American counterpart. These will include: rewriting the first historical avant-garde at mid-century and the question of the neo-avant-garde; the “triumph” of painting at the aftermath of WWII; the impact of John Cage and the question of the “open work” from Fontana (Italy) to the Independent Group (England) to Fluxus (Germany); Pop and the cocacolonization of French culture; New Urbanism and Situationist derive; Beuys/Richter and trauma; theory and Institutional Critique; the key role of exhibitions (such as “When attitudes become form”) and of international ones like the Venice Biennale and Kassel’s Documenta; the return to painting in the 1980s.
There will be a mid-term and a final paper based on class readings and lectures.

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History of the Motion Picture: Aesthetics of Film

Dr. Paula Massood

This course will introduce students to graduate-level film analysis by acquainting them with basic film vocabulary, techniques, and styles. Central topics for study will include narrative structure and nonnarrative forms, mise-en-scene and shot composition, camera movement, editing (continuity and montage technique), and sound. Students will also be introduced to a variety of critical approaches to film analysis, including narrative, genre, auteur, industry, technology, and reception. By the end of the semester, students will be familiar with the
fundamentals of research in Cinema Studies and the essential bibliographic and archival sources for research and analysis.

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I've decided that my unrelated minor (you have to pick a major - which mine is in 20th century art - a related minor - which for me is 18th and 19th century American and European art - and an unrelated minor at the CUNY-Graduate Center) will be non-Western art. That said, I am taking the Ottoman Art and Architecture class to fulfill my last course requirement for this section of my coursework. The other classes I've taken have been "Islamic Art in the West" and "Colonial Latin American Cities." I don't know anything about Bates, but I hear he's quite good and am really looking forward to this class.

I've taken a class with Romy Golan before: "The European Fifties" seminar last semester. It was a really good class - she's really sharp. I worked as her research assistant that semester, too. She's a tough professor, but I like her - I'm expecting a lot out of this lecture class and it fits in perfectly with my dissertation ideas (see previous post on this if you're interested).

Lastly, I've enrolled in a doctoral certificate program in film studies to help give me some additional firepower when it comes to job-hunting, so the class on film aesthetics will be my first foray into coursework for this since I've been at the G.C. It should be good, though, and get me on my way toward completing the 15 credit hours required to receive the certificate. I've already got three going towards it from Stony Brook for a class I took there entitled "Cinema and Public Memory." Next spring, Dr. Hendershot is teaching a course on the horror film - a whole semester of horror! I can't wait!

Sloop John B

Tonight, I listened to a song that I've since decided is one of the best songs - EVER. I know, I know, you've heard it a million times. So have I. Big deal. I grew up on this kind of shit. I explicitly remember being picked up to and from school and having the Oldies (96.3, at the time) FM station on. For that reason, I'm electing the Beach Boys' "Sloop John B" as one of the best hits ever made. Granted, there are plenty of Beach Boys songs that are at least as good as this one, but they weren't as big of hits, and for that reason, I have to say that this is one of the best songs the group ever made. I mean, really: who goes sailing with their grandfather, gets extraordinarily drunk, then refuses to speak to their grandad. That's what the song is about and I can't imagine anything worse - and for that reason the song's a winner in my book. My grandad is a complete badass. He's a WWII vet (Battle of the Bulge), and he just hangs out and drinks beer all day. But, here's the catch: he never gets drunk. He's sharper than a tack and harder than nails AT ALL TIMES. That's why my grandad is a badass. I love him and I call him at least three times a week to check in on him. Recently, though, there's been some trouble on the homefront. Apparently, my grandad lives next to a methamphetamine house. The owner flipped out on him the other day for cutting his grass shorter than he cuts his - clearly, this is paranoid behavior. I just don't want my grandad to get hurt by these people. They overdose at the house on a weekly basis and he, nor I, can do anything about it. The cops can't, either. It's just treated as an overdose. They can't exactly go into their home and seize shit. So, shit goes bad with my grandad and his next-door neighbors. What should I do about this? Wait it out and hope he doesn't have another encounter? Call the cops and tip them off? That's a sure-fire way to get my grandad on the top of their "suspect list." I don't know what to do, and I really don't appreciate my family members being threatened by some cracked-out meth head. I'd never get in a fight with my grandad. He's too much of a badass. Plus, he'd probably whip my ass.

Down and Out...

Sorry for the brief hiatus...On Thursday, I woke up with a sore butt and thought it was just a really, really bad bruise. By Friday morning, the "bruise" had swollen to the size of a baby's fist - I went to the doctor and he told me I had developed an abcess. In the South, older people call it a "risen" - my grandmother called it that when I explained the symptoms of what I had to her. It was really, really painful and made walking and sitting extremely difficult, so I've been laying in bed since last Friday for the most part. It got so bad on Saturday morning, that I had to go to the ER at St. Luke's hospital, which is two blocks up from me. They prescribed me Vicodin, which I have been taking ever since to feel better. Then, on Sunday morning, as I was getting ready for a Sitz bath that I'm supposed to take with this (read: Epsom salts and water as hot as you can take it), it ruptured. I was removing my underwear and felt a little "pop" and thought "Wow, that doesn't feel right." Then, I reached back and touched my ass and it was all wet back there. Pus and blood were running rapidly down my legs and dribbling onto the floor of the bathroom, which they have now permanently stained. I went to the ER again on Monday, yesterday, and they didn't have to lance it because it popped on its own. Now, I'm just waiting for all the fluid to drain.

Dissertation Ideas...Your Thoughts?

Fig. 1

Fig. 2

Fig. 3

Fig. 4

Fig. 5

OK, so I'm going to throw some potential dissertation ideas at you guys now and I want you to respond and tell me what you think is the most interesting-sounding/viable topic that hasn't been worked on yet, to your knowledge. We'll go through the images from top-down here and I'll tell you what each image is and what I want to work on in terms of it. So, let's begin. First off, Figs. 1 & 2: Fig. 1 is a painting from Jorg Immendorf's "Cafe Deutschland" series. I really like this series. It's paired with Fig. 2, which is a drawing that Martin Kippenberger (R.I.P.) did on hotel stationery - from what I understand, he did hundreds of these. Both were members of the Dusseldorf branch of the Junge Wilden/Neue Wilden, or "Young/New Wild Ones" of German painting in the late 70's, early 80's. Other members of this generation of artists include Salome, Elvira Bach, and Rainer Fetting (these three are all Berlin-based, though). I don't really have a particular slant with this one - I just thought of it tonight. Hell, I think I could write a whole dissertation on Kippenberger's hotel stationery pieces alone, but I just wanted to throw this one out there anyway and see what ya'll thought. Second, I've been considering making the Vienna Actionist group of the 60's as the subject of my dissertation (see Fig. 3). Fig. 3 shows some images of a Gunter Brus performance in which he slashed himself up with a razor blade in front of a live audience. Gross and disturbing. I told one of my professors I was considering working on this and she got a really disgusted look on her face - she confirmed (which I had already suspected) that "everyone hates that stuff!" I kind of hate it, too. But I think I need to outthink my hatred for it - I feel like an immediate sensation of disgust and, in turn, repudiation of this relatively obscure movement lets the movement win, in a way. We can't be shocked anymore, and that's why we feel today like this work was immature or something, but in the 60's - not to mention coming out of the extremely conservative, Christian environment that is Austria - I think there's something here. I'm particularly interested in what I would call "the vicissitudes of the Dionysian and Apollonian" (read: nod to Gass) within the 4 member Vienna Actionist group. So, what do you think about that one? OK, moving on...My final dissertation idea focuses on perhaps the most well-known artists I'm considering doing my paper on: Gerhard Richter (whose work is not pictured - I figured we'd all seen at least one) and Sigmar Polke and the notion of history and collective memory/amnesia. I'm particularly interested in these two artists' early work in the "Capitalist Realism" movement, which not many people have worked on, to my understanding. Moreover, I think both of these artists, as they were born in East Germany and come to the West as adult artists, provide an interesting and "poppy" (See Fig. 5 of Polke's "Playboy Bunnies") critique of capitalism in the 60's of West Germany. I'm also interested in German national identity and the concept of a collective amnesia, which Richter and Polke (and Kiefer, but I don't want to work on him too much, though he, of course, would be discussed at some length) conjuring images that are either "blurred" (read: the photographic blurred quality of Richter's Baader-Meinhof series) or "confused" (read: Polke's "Watchtower" above in Fig. 4 - it's a lifeguard shack, but the title lends it the rather ominous overtones of surveillance - not to mention concentration camps, etc...). Anyway, those are my ideas for a dissertation - I'd really like to get a lot of responses/comments/dialogue going on this one, so, please, feel free to put in your two cents.