Friday Flix Cancelled

Your Humble Blogger has been informed that the on-campus "Friday Flix" movie screenings have been cancelled for the rest of the semester. Any additional field trip opportunities will be announced in class and on Club MediaNote.

Changing Channels

When do we watch our favorite TV shows? Do we watch the commercials, or do we fast-forward through them? And if we do watch them, is it too late for the commercials to matter?

How we watch television, when we watch it, and who watches the ads has changed a lot in recent years. As the Los Angeles Times explains, this has had a sweeping impact on television ads, which are still the main source of profits for the TV industry.

Questions...

•Name all the ways television and television viewing has changed in the last 20 years?(your lifetime, more or less)

•Do you think video on demand will replace the DVR? Why or why not?

•How will the new economic realities change what we see on TV?

•If you were a national advertiser--Proctor & Gamble, for example--would you buy more TV ads, fewer TV ads, or about the same?

•If you decide to buy fewer TV ads, what would you replace them with?

Watching TV: It's Complicated

The way television shows make money has changed radically in recent years. Networks, production companies, syndicates and others are struggling to keep up. This NPR story tells how surprisingly complicated it is to simply watch an episode of House.

Questions...

•Is "appointment TV" dead?

•Will streamed Netflix and Hulu eventually replace cable stations?

•Is illegal downloading of TV shows as widespread as illegal downloading of music?

•What things on TV do you want to watch live?

An End ... Or a New Beginning?

Newsweek is one of the nation's great news magazines. At its best, it has provided a sophisticated analysis of topics that should matter to a well-educated citizen whose life involved working, voting, learning and perhaps parenting.

And now, after nearly 80 years, it will print its last edition at the end of the year. Beginning in 2013, it will be a digital-only publication. And the new digital Newsweek will venture into an online world where it is far behind news sites like The Daily Beast and Huffington Post.

NPR reports.

Questions...

•What type of news the usually isn't covered should the new digital Newsweek try to cover?

•How can the digital edition be better than the paper edition?

•What can Newsweek do to get younger readers?

•What type of news stories really matter in creating informed citizens?

Register to Vote by Oct. 22

California Governor Jerry Brown wants you to be registered to vote. Below is his message to California college students...

Subject: Message from Governor Jerry Brown

As a college student you can help decide the future of California by voting on November 6. But the first step is to register as a California voter before the deadline on Monday, October 22.

Registering to vote has never been easier. For the first time, Californians can register to vote online. http://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/elections_vr.htm

Critical choices will be made at this election. California voters will decide issues affecting education funding and college tuition, the state budget process, punishment for crimes, and food labeling rules. And the candidates chosen will shape the policies of our state for years to come.

You are eligible to vote in California if you are:

• A United States citizen,
• A resident of California,
• 18 years of age or older on Election Day,
• Not currently serving any part of a felony sentence (see the Secretary of State’s website for more information).
• Not found by a court to be mentally incompetent.

If you have moved from your previous address, or changed your name, you should register again. http://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/elections_vr.htm

The power is in your hands—don’t miss the opportunity to make your voice heard.

Register before the deadline, Monday, October 22.

Then vote on Tuesday, November 6.

With respect,

Governor Jerry Brown

Friday Flix Schedule

For those of you who wish to attend a Friday Flix movie screening and discussion, here is the schedule for the rest of the semester. All Friday Flix screenings are in SG334 and begin at 12:30.

FRIDAY FLIX SCHEDULE FOR FALL 2012

October

19 – The Night of the Hunter
(1955)
26 – Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein
(1948)

November

2 – Chungking Express (1994)

9 – West Side Story (1961)
16 – This Andromeda Strain (1971)
23 – THANKSGIVING – NO FILM
30 – Rules of the Game (1939)

December

3 – The Sting (1973)

Leaping to Attention

Publicity is the art of drawing attention, and sometimes that is accomplished through self-styled daredevils performing wildly-dangerous stunts. Long ago, people would wrestle bears, walk on airplane wings, or go over Niagara Falls in a barrel. Newspapers would send reporters. Movie newsreels would send out a crew. Radio networks would broadcast live.

Media has changed, and so apparently have the stunts. Felix Baumgartner is the latest daredevil to capture worldwide attention with his 24-mile plunge from a helium balloon to the New Mexico Desert.

What makes this stunt a game-changer is how it used social media. By encouraging tweets, posts, and reposts, Baumgartner and sponsor Red Bull siphoned some of the attention away from the baseball playoffs, the NFL season and other more conventional sporting events.

Questions...

•How do you gather a large audience in old media like television and newspapers? How do you gather a large audience in new media like YouTube and Twitter?

•Does this event work better with new media or old media? Why?

•Why do you think Red Bull sponsored this and not an insurance company or a car maker?

•Where do you expect Felix Baumgartener to turn up in the media now that he has everyone's attention?

•What does this sponsorship do for Red Bull's image?

•How do we know this isn't a hoax?

Friday Flix, Oct. 12

Your Humble Blogger has received details on tomorrow's Friday Flix screening...

SCREENING THIS FRIDAY, OCTOBER 12 AT FRIDAY FLIX! 12:30 p.m. San Gabriel 334

"THE BIG LEBOWSKI" (1998)
Directed by Joel and Ethan Coen
Starring Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, Julianne Moore, Steve Buscemi, John Turturro and Sam Elliot
Running time: 119 min.

The Big Lebowski is a 1998 comedy film written and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen. Jeff Bridges stars as Jeff Lebowski, an unemployed Los Angeles slacker and avid bowler, who is referred to (and also refers to himself) as "The Dude". After a case of mistaken identity, The Dude is introduced to a millionaire also named Jeffrey Lebowski. When the millionaire Lebowski's trophy wife is later kidnapped, he commissions The Dude to deliver the ransom to secure her release. The plan goes awry when The Dude's friend Walter Sobchak (John Goodman) schemes to keep the full ransom.

The film is loosely based on Raymond Chandler's novel, The Big Sleep. The original score was composed by Carter Burwell, a longtime collaborator of the Coen Brothers. The Big Lebowski was a disappointment at the U.S. box office and received mixed reviews at the time of its release. Reviews have trended towards the positive over time, and the film has become a cult favorite, noted for its idiosyncratic characters, dream sequences, unconventional dialogue, and eclectic soundtrack.

The Big Lebowski received its world premiere at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival on January 18, 1998 at the 1,300 capacity Eccles Theater. It was also screened at the 48th Berlin International Film Festival before opening in North America on March 6, 1998 in 1,207 theaters. It grossed USD $5.5 million on its opening weekend, grossing US$17 million in the United States, just above its US$15 million budget. The film's worldwide gross outside of the US was $10,300,000, bringing its worldwide gross to $27,739,163.

Since its original release, The Big Lebowski has become a cult classic. Steve Palopoli wrote about the film's emerging cult status in July 2002. He first realized that the film had a cult following when he attended a midnight screening in 2000 at the New Beverly Cinema in Los Angeles and witnessed people quoting dialogue from the film to each other. Soon after the article appeared, the programmer for a local midnight film series in Santa Cruz decided to screen The Big Lebowski, and on the first weekend they had to turn away several hundred people. The theater held the film over for six weeks, which had never happened before.

Entertainment Weekly ranked it 8th on their Funniest Movies of the Past 25 Years list. The film was also ranked No. 34 on their list of "The Top 50 Cult Films" and ranked No. 15 on the magazine's "The Cult 25: The Essential Left-Field Movie Hits Since '83" list. In addition, the magazine also ranked The Dude No. 14 in their "The 100 Greatest Characters of the Last 20 Years" poll. The Big Lebowski was voted as the 10th best film set in Los Angeles in the last 25 years by a group of Los Angeles Times writers and editors with two criteria: "The movie had to communicate some inherent truth about the L.A. experience, and only one film per director was allowed on the list". Empire magazine ranked Walter Sobchak No. 49 and the Dude No. 7 in their "The 100 Greatest Movie Characters" poll. Roger Ebert added The Big Lebowski to his list of "Great Movies" in March 2010.

DISCUSSION TO FOLLOW

ALL STUDENTS, FACULTY, STAFF, FRIENDS AND FAMILY ARE WELCOME Two hours Flex credit will be granted for GCC staff if both film and discussion are attended.

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 12, 12:30 A.M. San Gabriel 334

Ryun Hovind
Glendale Community College
Adjunct Instructor Media Arts 107
818-240-1000 Ext. 5610

Transfer Time

Your Humble Blogger recently received this email from Kevin Meza, local Transfer Czar...

Greetings,

We are now in the official college application period. Let your students know it's time to come on up to the Transfer Center and apply for fall 2013 admission. Applications for the UCs/CSUs are due November 30th and USC is due February 1. Other private and out-of-state college deadlines vary.

We have a number of application workshops: CSUs, UCs, and USC. We will also hold personal statement workshops. Two of the personal statement workshops will be co-presented by the Learning Center's Coordinator Shant Shahoian and the Transfer Center's Coordinator Kevin Meza as noted on the attached flyer. Here is our list of application workshops.


Kevin A. Meza, PhD
Transfer Center Coordinator
Glendale Community College
(818) 240-1000 ext. 5820

Is This 'Body Bullying'?

In one way, Jennifer Livingston is an all-too-typical American: she is overweight. But as a local TV news anchor in Wisconsin, she is in the public eye. That includes mail from viewers, which is not always positive. When one viewer wrote that Livingston was a poor role model because she was overweight, the television personality chose to respond on the air. The result has been a YouTube video with more than 9 million views. It also introduced Your Humble Blogger to a new term: "Body Bullying."

Questions...

•Is this local news anchor a good role model or a bad role model for young women? Why?

•Is Body Bullying real? Do middle school and high school students have to put up with body bullying?

•What do you think of Jennifer Livingston's public response?

•Do you think this will harm her career, or help it?

•Why do we care what a local TV news anchor looks like?

CicLAvia, Sunday Oct. 7

CicLAvia, the twice-yearly bicycling/skating/walking/just-hanging-out event where 10 miles of city streets are given over to non-motorized traffic, will walk and roll through the heart of Los Angeles this Sunday, Oct. 7, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

The event, which effectively showcases the youthful, multicultural, irreverent energy of urban Los Angeles, visits sites including Downtown's Historic Core, Olvera Street, Chinatown, Mariachi Plaza, Little Tokyo, and MacArthur Park and Exposition Park.

Although CicLAvia draws mostly bicyclists, there are activities for others as well. Downtown's new Grand Park will will have activities for families with very young children. Walkers can participate in a parade down Figueroa. Olvera Street is hosting a Mole' Festival. And Curbed LA has created an architectural guide to historic buildings along the route.

More than 100,000 people are expected to participate. I will be there as faculty adviser to GCC's Coalition of Urban Cyclists. If you want to drop by and say hi, we plan to meet in front of L.A. City Hall at noon. I'll be captaining a white tandem.

For details, go to the CicLAvia website or to the event's Facebook page.

Your Student Newspaper

Glendale College has had a student newspaper since the late 1920s. But as conditions have changed for professional newspapers, the same holds true for the student media. GCC's El Vaquero is available in both print and online versions, and the online edition does a few things differently. In class, we will talk about both versions of the paper, and what makes them appealing.

Questions...

•In what ways is the print edition better for the reader?

•In what ways is the online edition better for the reader?

•What types of stories should the El Vaquero focus upon?

•What publications should the El Vaquero try to be more like?

GCC Cyclists Unite!

The Coalition of Urban Cyclists will hold its first meeting of the Fall 2012 semester today at 3 pm in AU117. All bicyclists are welcome.