first day of class!  highlights for the day include a lecture on the concept of the cinematic/sinematic body, a brief mediation on the conflict of artists (poet/sculptor) in Percy Bysshe Shelley's OZYMANDIAS, loud music by Springsteen (Candy's Room) and Beck (Hollywood Freaks--lyrics in the sinematic bodies archive below), unsolicited photography by the professor, and, last but not least!, a screening and quick discussion of CSODA POK by panOptic.

today opens to the glorious heavy guitar rumblings of the pixies; in our seminar, we go over the basic groundrulez of the class--no spitting, cell-phoning, or whining allowed. gratuitous displays of intellectual prowess, however, are both encouraged and appreciated; later this same day, we begin our screening of BILLY WILDER's SUNSET BOULEVARD and received our first READING ASSIGNMENT: finish NATHANAEL WEST's DAY OF THE LOCUST for NEXT WEDNESDAY, September 8, 2004.

NO CLASS--LABOR DAY; you are encouraged, of course, to read ALL of WEST's amazing LOCUST NOVEL. As you read DAY OF THE LOCUST, keep your eyes on Homer's hands--think about the relationship of Homer with his hands and how that relates to his doings with the "fairer" sex.  ALSO and AT ALL TIMES: keep the image of Tod Hackett's painting and the relationship between ART and CINEMA foregrounded as you read. If Shelley's OZYMANDIAS was the secret story of a "war" between a SCULPTOR and a POET, then LOCUST can be read as a "war" or a "romance" between a PAINTER and HOLLYWOOD.

we will continue our screening of WILDER's SUNSET BLVD and begin our discussion/analysis of DAY OF THE LOCUST.

Today you received a "MICRO-ESSAY" assignment via email; here is that assignment:

micro-essay assignment one! 

Due September 20, 2004, MONDAY, at the beginning of class.  The specifics?  TYPED! TWO-PAGES TOPS! NO COVER PAGE or FOLDER, a STAPLE is fine.  YOU MUST PUT YOUR GTAs NAME on the TOP OF THE ESSAY ABOVE your name. You should have an EYE-GRABBING TITLE. WRITE as if your LIFE depended on it. DO NOT try to guess what we want; merely douse us with the exhilirating force that is YOUR imagination.  What will you write?  Fill in the blanks and complete the following paragraph. TWO pages tops! Can't write that LITTLE? then EDIT EDIT EDIT 
 

It does not take a great stretch of the imagination to argue that Nathanael West and Billy Wilder share some significant and significantly twisted interests.  For instance, West's Day of the Locust (1939) spends much of its time focusing on ______________________________________ 
___________________; while Billy Wilder's Sunset Boulevard unfolds as an exposé of________________________________________________.  Let's look at one key moment from each work that makes the case for a West/Wilder tale of collusion. [continue this essay selecting specific textual outtakes from West's novel and references to specific scenes/images from Wilder's movie to make your case strong.] 

Having focused on one of the places where the novelistic vision of West and the cinematic eye of Wilder overlap, let us conclude by identifying one of the places they conflict.  Where Nathanael West's satiric fiction illustrates _________________________________ 
___________________, Billy Wilder's tragic comedy seems a tad more interested in_______________________________________. 
 

continue discussion of LOCUST (you MUST have the book finished b4 entering our room!). Also, we will continue our screening of BOULEVARD. ALSO! the KENNETH ANGER book, HOLLYWOOD BABYLON is IN at the bookstore.  Please begin perusing this decadent volume.

read the first 81 pages of John Berger's WAYS of SEEING and continue your reading in ANGER's HOLLYWOOD BABYLON--all the time you are reading identify connections between WILDER, WEST, ANGER and BERGER. In class we will return to the concept of "sinematic bodies" as we move amidst literature (WEST), film (WILDER), gossip (ANGER) and oil painting (BERGER).

take-home micro-essay due! finish reading John Berger's WAYS OF SEEING; also, randomly read ANY ten chapters from ANGER's hollywood babylon. 

we will complete our discussion of WILDER, WEST, BERGER and ANGER. time permitting, we will screen a key 10 minute sequence from GIANT directed by George Stevens--in a bizarre twist, the professor will pause the film and madly attempt to do battle with SARGE from GIANT.  More bizarre yet? The professor's strange puppet-show with his hands during his document presentation of BERGER's WAYS OF SEEING.

enter class having carefully read SCENE FROM THE MOVIE GIANT by TINO VILLANUEVA; guest lecture by the one and only MIKE HIGH today!

we will continue our discussion of SCENE FROM THE MOVIE GIANT--Time permitting, we will also begin to talk about some of the photography in Sill's SIX WOMEN PHOTOGRAPHERS--in particular CARRIE MAE WEEMS's work.  Consider the following question as you read:  IS IT POSSIBLE TO READ JOHN BERGER'S SEMIOTIC MEDITATION, WAYS OF SEEING, AND TINO VILLANUEVA'S POETIC MEMOIR, SCENE FROM THE MOVIE GIANT, AS VERSIONS OF EACH OTHER? AS MIRRORS? HOW SO?

IMAGE CREDIT: Carrie Mae Weems, Mirror, Mirror (1987); silver print 

In class, we will begin screening BLOW-UP, directed by the one and only Michelangelo Antonioni--in preparation for the screeening, reread or, if you are totally lame, READ for the first time pages  129 to 155 in BERGER's WAYS OF SEEING (believe it or not, p. 155 may be the most important "paragraph" of that chapter.

we continue screening antonioni's meditation on photography! as you watch the film think back on your reading of berger; come to class prepared to read a passage from berger that DIRECTLY relates to Antonioni's opus. also, over the weekend, "READ" & "SEE" SILLS book of photography--is it possible to build a rationale for competing photographic philosophies between Antonioni's "THOMAS" and the real photographer's SILLS anthologizes in her volume?
 

we will finally finish hanging out with BERGER, ANTONIONI and SILLS. the professor, in retelling the mysteries of PLATO's cave allegory, reveals a peculiar affinity for hand-puppets.  also, read VERY carefully, the three page extract from Susan Sontag's ON PHOTOGRAPHY.

come into class having read the first 99 pages (the end of Chapter 6, part 2) of HUXLEY's BRAVE NEW WORLD. try to forget that most of us were forced to read this book in high school.  that is really too, too soon for most folks to figure out the canny and uncanny realities of Huxley's vision/nightmare.  keep BERGER, ANTONIONI, and SILLS foregrounded, the whole issue of mechanical REpresentation in your mind's eye, as you read this masterwork of 20th Century Literature.

read to page 145 (the end of Chapter 9) as you thrill to the excesses of "orgy-porgy," "soma," and superstar telecelebrity JOHN, "The Savage."

read to page 229 (to the end of Chapter 16) in BRAVE NEW WORLD.  As you read, consider the satiric power of Huxley--how does his satire differ from West's; what about Cindy Sherman's? 

finish BRAVE NEW WORLD!

Peeping TOM by Michael Powell is screened in the BIG HOUSE, Hardy Tower 140; brace for the sinematic centerpiece of our class project!

Peeping TOM continues!

Memorable Quotes from  Peeping Tom (1960) 
Mark Lewis : Do you know what the most frightening thing in the world is? It's fear. 

Vivian : What would frighten me to death? Set the mood for me, Mark. 
Mark Lewis : Imagine... someone coming towards you... who wants to kill you... regardless of the consequences. 
Vivian : A madman? 
Mark Lewis : Yes. But he knows it - and you don't. 

Mr. Peters : Got a question for you. Which magazine sells the most copies? 
Mark Lewis : Those with girls on the front covers and no front covers on the girls. 

Mrs. Stephens : Instinct's a wonderful thing, isn't it, Mark? A pity it can't be photographed. If I'd listened to it years ago, I - I might have kept my sight. I wouldn't have let a man operate I had no faith in. 
 

Thanksgiving WEEK-- no class for SINEMATIC BODIES, E220.

Enjoy your holiday--peace to you and your various beloveds!

Spoken Word/Jazz/Gospel; walk into the room having carefully "read" and having carefully listened to the SPOKEN WORD CD

ENTER THE class having read the entire SPIEGELMAN book.

Final exam today in class--the exam is comprehensive and CLOSED BOOK, so bring a pen and nothing else. After class, the MIMES will run amuck on campus! Bring your outfit, makeup and attitude!