It's been a wild 2 and a half weeks since my last entry. I am now living in Massachusetts (where it's cool to like John Kerry!) and have begun graduate school at Smith College.
I'm taking a twice weekly seminar called "Thinking About Learning," and spending five mornings a week assistant teaching at the local summer school (which has both remedial and enrichment classes). It's quite jarring to go from 8 to 5 semi-corporate workdays to mornings hanging out with fourth graders and afternoons in the sun, running errands, doing reading, or exploring.
I have a bazillion pictures to post, which are inaccessible right this minute but I should get up before too long.
The move was hard, and long, and let me just say that it takes a lot longer to get from Columbus, Ohio to Western Massachusetts than I thought.
It doesn't feel real, exactly, but I have my Smith ID, and parking permit, and assignments to do, which lends some credence that this is more than just a dream.
So, there will be fewer links and blog-like entries until I get my computer situation resolved (old laptop + requirements for wireless card + wireless being my only option = quite a few days away from having regular computer access). I do, however, plan to get back to regular postings more since Smith has computers with internet access just hanging out all over the place.
We saw "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban: The IMAX Experience" on Saturday. I really enjoyed the movie, and it was pretty cool to see it in IMAX.
You can click on 'More' for some rantings on the topic and some spoilerish stuff.
I thought the movie was excellent. It conveyed the darker mood of the third book and the burgeoning adolescent angst of H, H and R beautifully. This particular book is not my favorite; I actually don't like Sirius very much. He's always bugged me. I know I'm in the minority on that one. Also, full disclosure: I've read all the books, I enjoy them greatly, but am by no means a hard core fan.
I think that when adapting a book for a film, it's important to have audience in mind. The HP movies are never going to please everyone--they will either be made to perfectly suit an audience that's never read the books (the first two movies were like this--slavish to detail and very plot-driven) or they will be made for people who have read and know the books (like this one). Having read the books, I much prefer the latter type of interpretation. It's far more interesting to see relationships grow, and the tension therein as portrayed on screen than to just see plot point following plot point and so on.
I have been so irritated by several people I've run into who rant and rave about how the film got x and y wrong, and see! Look at page xxx to see how wrong it was! Folks who get that worked up about it make me sad, because if you go to a film adaption hoping for accuracy chances are you will be disappointed. In my discussions with said people, it seemed like they were so focused on accuracy that they missed all the nuance involved in the film.
That said, there were some things I might have done differently, specifically related to the Harry/Remus relationship (wasn't developed enough at the beginning--all of a sudden they're bonding over James, but we never hear Remus explain to Harry that he knew James, etc.), Hermione's extreme classload, the patronus and the stag, and Ron and Hermione's fighting. Those are minor qualms, however, because I was enjoying the mood and the setting.
I loved Cuaron's Y Tu Mama Tambien, and read an interview where he talks about the similarites between YTMT and HP, and knowing that he was cognizant of that I noticed the homage he makes to YTMT in the HP film and other similarities. Basically, the HP series as a whole is one big Bildungsroman, and this movie really tapped into that, I feel.
I don't want to seem like I am against pedantry, goodness knows that I have things I'm fanatical about, but I do get dismayed when I hear cries that the films of the HP books should be exactly the same as the books. When the majority of the audience has read the books, where is the fun in that? People who miss a plot point or are confused can always go back to the book to get more depth. As far as I'm concerned, that's better than eliminating the necessity of the books from our cultural notion of HP. I feel differently, say, about Troy, because for some it may be their only dalliance with the Iliad, and there are (I hear, haven't seen the movie yet because I fear my inner pedant will ruin it for me) inaccuracies throughout. Of course, to be fair, Troy isn't meant to be a straight up adaptation of the Iliad alone.
In any event, I really enjoyed the movie and recommend it. I think Emma Watson is awesome--I love Hermione, which goes without saying as she is a heroine of the Lisa Simpson cloth, and they are irresistable to me. Watson just keeps progressing and is really impressive as an actress. Radcliffe is getting better (hooray for better direction), and I definitely look forward to the fourth movie and seeing what yet another director does with the franchise.
It's been hard to find time to read in all of the pre-moving preparations and packing, but I finally finished How to Be Alone, by Jonathan Franzen.
I like Franzen; I can't help it. I think that were I a novelist, I'd probably come across as a little bit cranky and elitist. Thus, I'm not one of the people turned off by those qualities of his. (In fact, I don't think he's "elitist" at all, I actually, I think he's very aware of the choices that make him seem so and is embarrassed by them, but that's a discussion for another day.)
The collection is good, although some essays are more interesting than others. My favorites were "My Father's Brain," and "Meet me in Saint Louis."
I didn't know until last night that I had a cable channel called "Discovery Times," which is some sort of joint venture between Discovery and The New York Times. While packing, I stumbled upon "Disciples," because I thought it might be some sort of documentary about Jesus' disciples, which might have been interesting. You can go here to see when you can catch it on Discovery Times--it appears to be in heavy rotation this week.
Turns out, it was even better. "Disciples" documented the experience of the Christian Pop Band, Jake along with other aspects of the huge Christian Rock industry. It was terrifyingly fascinating. My only brief rendevous with Christian Rock was a trip with a friend's youth group to Akron, Ohio to see the Newsboys. As a band, they're competent, but the whole vibe of the concert squicked me out. For some reason, if it's thousands of people basking in the light of a secular group, I'm fine, but adding all the proselytizing makes me very nervous.