Other things I’ve been doing

Technically a lot of this has been things I have been watching.

I think taking the online classes has helped me get better about finding ways to work in things I want to watch. The first two MOOCs I took had introductory videos, and then some interviews, but most of the material was reading comics and articles, and then writing on discussion boards. The other classes have been a lot more video lecture style, with less reading.

As I have found ways to fit the class videos into my day, I have also found it easier to incorporate other things I have been meaning to watch. That has included documentaries about school re-segregation, the Italian American immigrant experience, the lost stories of early black settlers in Canada, pollution in Detroit, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, the MOVE bombing in West Philly, and even a collaboration between David Byrne and Bryan Eno.

There are a lot of thoughts and feelings about most of those, and so they may come into other writing. Right now they are just expanding my background understanding of how everything fits together. I still feel like there is this process of coiling up for a launch, but if it never becomes something dramatic, and is just me learning more and growing more over time, that has merit.

I do see how things are going in different phases. A lot of these things have been on my list for a long time, but I had to finish the month of reading screenplays first, or I had to finish the classes.

There is some relief in seeing old items checked off, but then new items join them. For example, I finally wrote out a card to my friend in Poland, and have it stamped and addressed. I have been meaning to do that since she sent me a Christmas card in 2013. I have finally written my letter to University of Oregon telling them how disappointed I am with them for going after a rape victim’s therapy records to use in their defense against mishandling the rape case. I got the information on upcoming activities out to two single adults I’d been meaning to write to. At the same time, now I find that I really need to write to people involved with “Grimm” and express my feelings about how they are losing their way. I have some notes.

I have written to the two people whom I know have read my un-reviewed books and asked them to post reviews on Amazon. (The Family Blood one just went up!) I still need to go over the ideas that KDP itself provides, which will probably at least mean posting previews on Goodreads.

I have sent a link to the Out of Step screenplay to Derek Hough after feeling like I should do that. I sent it via both Facebook and Twitter, neither of which will necessarily be effective, but I didn’t know how else to do it. (http://studios.amazon.com/projects/59569, by the way.)

Sometimes it’s exhilarating, and sometimes it’s discouraging, but in general I feel like there is forward momentum. Some things need to wait, and that can be okay assuming you are setting the right calls when you prioritize. I hope I am.

Things I am still working on:

• Contacting all of the single adults in the ward. There are 44 left out of 115, and all the easy ones have already been done. This is one where you just have to do a few at a time.
• Learn more about the anti-inflammatory diet, but coconut oil has already been incorporated for dementia. There are some other anti-dementia tasks I need to look at, but there is a bigger issue there that I am not ready to write about yet.
• Learn more about chakras.
• Read the full version of Ta-Nehisi Coates “The Case For Reparations” (I have read a shorter version.)
• Write to my Plan kids.
• Go through this list of accounts that haven’t been active for a while and check on them. That will be another “Pace yourself” one.
• Organize the temple names.
• Create a vision board. I feel it will help.

There are some other documentaries that I have on my list to watch, but I think I will save them for a lead-in to my Native American Heritage reading, which I think I will start in about six weeks.

What is magical about that six weeks? And what about writing new stuff? Good questions! I shall answer them on the blog Monday, but first, there will be music reviews of Hammy Havoc and Loose Logic (apparently this week is unusually alliterative), then Padova on the travel blog, and I am not sure about the Provident Living blog yet, but I think I might start some posts about living as a disciple.

For now, if you would like some videos to watch….

Separate and Unequal: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/separate-and-unequal/

Speakers for the Dead: http://blogs.indiewire.com/shadowandact/watch-speakers-for-the-dead-50-minute-documentary-on-hidden-history-of-blacks-in-canada-20140707

The Godmother of Rock and Roll: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/episodes/sister-rosetta-tharpe/film-the-godmother-of-rock-roll/2516/

The Italian Americans: http://video.pbs.org/program/italian-americans/

How David Byrne and Brian Eno Make Music Together: http://www.openculture.com/2012/05/how_david_byrne_and_brian_eno_make_music_together.html

The Bombing of West Philly: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8eHpRjxk7N4

13 in the Hole: http://www.cultureunplugged.com/documentary/watch-online/play/12686/13-In-The-Hole

Coming up:

http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2015/04/10/10-fascinating-documentaries-about-native-americans-you-can-watch-right-now-159964

http://news.nationalpost.com/silent-no-more

Things I’ve been studying

I mentioned this earlier, but I signed up for some massive open online courses (MOOCs) that I couldn’t resist.

I felt like I had enough going on that I shouldn’t take on anything else, but they sounded interesting, and I wanted to.

Microbes Rule the World: Effects of Disease on History

This came through the Canvas Network, through which I had taken my previous comic book courses. It was affiliated with Weber State University, taught by microbiology professor Craig Oberg and history professor Gene Sessions.

The information was interesting. I think the great weakness of the course was a tendency to oversell. They would go over events and things that were happening with disease, and then make a connection and say “There can be little doubt…” but there was room for doubt, especially when the effect they ascribe to the plague happened 200 years later. It doesn’t even mean they’re wrong, but if they were truly convinced of the impact they should have been able to make a stronger case. The things that happened are interesting enough even if there were other important contributing factors.

Religion and Hip Hop Culture – RELI157x

I learned about this course on Twitter. Hip Hop is a musical area where I feel my knowledge is pretty lacking, so it felt important to take it. That sense of need is what pushed me over the edge to sign up for any class, and so I signed up for the microbe class at the same time. However, this class is through EdX, and associated with Rice University, taught by Dr. Anthony B. Pinn and Professor Bernard “Bun B” Freeman, from UGK. (No, I’d never heard of UGK before, but it was clear it was a big deal.)

Defining religion as the search for complex subjectivity, we studied how hip hop was influenced by Christianity, by Islam, and how it all interacts.

As a way of communing with others, celebrating, and expressing yourself, hip hop can be a part of the search, but I felt that it made more sense to think of hip hop as art. You can discuss religion and painting together, but you would not expect painting to replace religion. However, within days of completing the class, Bill O’Reilly blamed the decline in Christianity on hip hop, so shows what I know.

I liked the way the class made you think, and then grade yourself. That sounds like a cop-out (and you can pay a fee for them to grade you and get real credit), but the criteria were so clearly explained that it was easy to know whether you had met them or not.

The Rise of Superheroes and Their Impact on Pop Culture – POPX1.1x

Once I registered with EdX, I saw this, and comic books are how I got into MOOCs in the first place. How could I not? This class is through the Smithsonian Institution though, mainly led by Dr. (and Batman producer) Michael Uslan, with participation from David Uslan, Dr. Christopher Robichaud, and Stan Lee.

It is too early to tell how the class is going to go. We have only had one full week of instruction, and I have not been able to work on the assignment yet because I needed to upgrade Office. I guess when 2013 is out you need to let go of 2002. Anyway, I expect to enjoy it.

Master Tailor Package: 300+ Sewing Courses

This was probably the most foolish. I don’t even have a sewing machine, and unlike the MOOCs, this course had a fee. It was just a really good deal, I have a year to complete it, and I don’t know – it felt like too good an opportunity to pass up. I am not even going to look at it until after the Comics class wraps up, and then I’ll see.

The problem is I really like learning stuff. All kinds of stuff. Still, I have a lot of things that I am trying to accomplish in a fairly short period of time. Sometimes there are dilemmas.

All I can responsibly say is that because of time constraints I absolutely will not sign up for any new classes for at least a few months, unless they sound super-awesome or directly correlate with areas of interest where I feel greater knowledge is important.

(For anyone wondering, I finished the dolls last night at a little over one hour into Newsies. I’ll probably finish the movie tomorrow, possibly without working on anything while I am doing it.)

Things I have been watching

There has been more going on over the past month or so than reading screenplays. Some were things that I wanted to make happen, and have only started being really successful since finishing reading screenplays, which probably contains some sort of lesson about how I am bound by the laws of time and the need for sleep. Anyway, the next few posts will cover some of the things I have been up to.

I used to buy things more readily, which I see now as a bad habit not only for financial reasons but also for clutter. There was a time when it seemed reasonable to buy a movie that I had never seen but wanted to, especially if it was on sale. Often I would get to see them, and even enjoy them, but I did not really need to own them. And of course, I had no idea that the technology would become obsolete.

I had already gotten rid of most of my video cassettes a while back, but there were four that I was determined to watch, and they have been hanging around. This is also the time of year that we work on dolls, and with the table set up in the family room, where we have the old television with the VCR built in that we only use for videocassettes and video games, I found a way to be productive.

The Christmas Wish (1998) -

This was actually a gift from a friend, so I needed to watch it. There were good things about it, but it was also somewhat artificial and contrived. There were some fun familiar faces though, including a guy who has been in four episodes of "The A-Team", and the love interest is Naomi Watts before she was famous.

Emma (1996)

This is the Kate Beckinsale one. I saw the Gwyneth Paltrow one in theaters, and I read an interview with Kate where she felt like her adaptation was better. I specifically remember her saying something like just because the other shows Emma doing archery it doesn't make her an independent woman.

Kate, you were so, so wrong. I say this as someone who hasn't been able to take Gwyneth seriously for years, but that version - adapted and directed by Douglas McGrath - made it possible for me to finish reading the book. Since Jane Austen is my favorite author, but that one book kept tripping me up, that was a big deal for me. It was light and charming.

The problem with the book is that the characters are difficult. Austen heroines are really different from each other, which I have to believe was deliberate, and here I think she wanted to see how unlikable she could make some people and still have you like them. She cuts it pretty close, which could make an adaptation difficult.

The Beckinsale version is terribly dreary. The characters are generally annoying, and then the way they try and lighten it up is with fantasy sequences, but it doesn't work at all. It was badly done.

Little Women (1994)

It wasn't horrible. The book is very episodic, and that can result in disjointed movies. This was fairly smooth, but a lot of the casting didn't work for me, especially Winona Ryder as Jo. Still, I don't think you're going to get a much better movie out of the book than this one.

It's a Wonderful Life (1946)

Actually, I had seen the ending many times, getting in as early as when Clarence and George are at the bar, but I had never seen the whole thing. It does feel long leading up to where the money goes missing, but they are carefully constructing the difference that George makes, and how much he didn't want to make it.

I could tell from the parts I had seen that George had saved his brother's life, and kept Mr. Gowers out of jail, but it was not clear coming in late how much he had wanted adventure, and to leave town, and how often he kept deferring his own dreams because of the needs of others.

That might make it worse, because it seems like you should be able to get something you want every now and then while still thinking of others, but maybe that made it easier to forget that it was a wonderful life. I just see it in a different light now.

The other thing is that I kind of assumed George had done something special for Violet to keep her from being that girl picked up by the vice squad, and that didn't seem to be the case. The difference appears to have been the town. A town where people have a chance of making it, and getting their own house and their own business, instead of being at the mercy of a slum lord like Potter, seems to be one that is happier in other ways.

That tracks. I have been reading about real estate practices and predatory lending, and Pottersville seems completely plausible without something working against it like Bailey Savings & Loan. There aren't enough businesses like that, actually. I know people think of Capra as corny, and you can make a case for that, but that doesn't make him wrong.

As you can see, these VHS tapes may not have been the best investment back in the day. Also, it's odd how much of a Christmas theme there ended up being. Since our favorite VHS find is Muppet Family Christmas, maybe that's where our real impulse trigger is.

There were two other non-VHS things in here.

Showrunners: The Art of Running a TV Show (2014)

I helped back the Kickstarter here, and part of that was receiving a flash drive with the movie on it. I really liked it. There are great interviews, including with the makers of "Person Of Interest" and "White Collar", so that resonated for me, but also it's just really good information.

Newsies (1992)

A lot of people seem to love this and I noticed it was playing so set it to record on the DVR. I hoped to watch it last night while finishing the dolls, but Misty worked on stuffing while watching other things. There are still ten dolls that need stitching up. I may do that tonight.

Band Review: Palaye Royale

Once a band follows me and ends up on the review list it generally takes about six months to get to their review, but I am following them and seeing updates during that time. Palaye Royale has really stood out during the wait. They have been active, and building a strong base of loyal fans, based largely on their being accessible to fans and caring.

With roots in Las Vegas and Toronto, Palaye Royale self-describes as a Fashion-Art Rock Band. In this case, that seems to mean primarily that the visual components, including clothes, are important. Many art rock bands are notable for their focus on the atonal (and a-melodic). Other than an odd transition in "Die for Something Beautiful", that is not the case here.

I can't think of any bands where I can make a good sound comparison. In some ways there is an alt-rock vibe, but with strong elements of funk and excellent use of piano. Many of the songs are really beautiful.

(I suspect that fans of Black Veil Brides and Farewell My Love might enjoy Palaye Royale.)

The band is unsigned and relishing it, having released two singles and a six-track EP, as well as being featured in a Samsung commercial. Current touring should strengthen ties with fans and add more. The band should be able to do very well.

I really only have one criticism to make. I wouldn't even know about it if I hadn't watched the videos, a few of which feature Native American headdress. It isn't even a major part of the videos, which could be a couple of years old (most of their songs are from 2013), but there is growing awareness about that issue, and it's something to think about. Rock is better used for sticking it to the man than disrespecting minorities, regardless of whether or not there is malicious intent, especially in the service of a fashion statement. That's all I have to say about that.

Otherwise, this is a good band, and worth checking out.

http://palayeroyale.com/

https://www.facebook.com/PalayeRoyale

https://www.youtube.com/user/PalayeRoyale

https://twitter.com/PalayeRoyale