Jennifer Grey and DANCING WITH THE STARS

I have a confession to make: I'm semi-addicted to the current season of DANCING WITH THE STARS. Until a couple months ago, I had never seen an episode of the show. However, one of the contestants this season is Kurt Warner. Warner was one of my Dad's favorite football players of all time and I know if he was still alive, he would be watching the show because of Warner. Warner's retired from football and hasn't lived in St. Louis for years, but there are a lot of people in and around the St. Louis area who still remember him for the classy athlete he is.

Anyway, so I've seen four episodes this season and there are some things I noticed very quickly. First of all, the judges have their favorites. This was evident from the very beginning. They probably won't ever admit it, but they do. It's obvious in their comments and how they relate with the contestants.

I'm not sure how other seasons have been, but this season had two contestants who had a huge advantage over the other contestants: Brandy and Jennifer Grey. Brandy is a huge musical act with a major background not only in singing, but dancing. As for Grey, one her biggest claims to fame (after being the daughter of legendary character actor Joel Grey) is that she was the lead female in the movie Dirty Dancing. I know the dancing in that movie wasn't quite the same thing and Grey has had some physical ailments that have hindered her physicality in recent years. However, unlike a lot of the contestants on the show, she's not a dancing novice.

I'm not trying to be flippant because I know Grey was in a major car accident a few years ago and also had thyroid cancer. However, she seems to be a major whiner. She's always complaining about some body part or other hurting or about how hard it is for a woman her age to be competing. I think a lot of it is just a show for the cameras for sympathy. I've never seen her wince once during the actual competition. Not only that, but she is clearly the judges favorite. There have been a couple of times where she made some error (I'm not a dancer, so if you make an error and I catch it, you know it's big), but the judges have glossed over it and given her a 9 or 10. She also is really good at putting on a big emotional display, usually accompanied with tears, for the judges after dancing.

Jennifer Grey is the woman the judges want to win. Just think of the headlines: DIRTY DANCING STAR WINS DANCING WITH THE STARS. Personally, the consistent whining I've heard from her has really turned me off and I hope she gets voted out off before the finale.

The One Letter Win

Ken Jennings has a great post about Caitlin Burke, the woman who won a Caribbean cruise Friday on Wheel of Fortune with only an apostrophe and one letter on the board. It's a great explanation. Hopefully, it'll help put to rest the "controversy" surrounding Burke's win.

THE BEAVER a Movie Starring Mel Gibson

Here's the movie poster for THE BEAVER. A movie directed by Jodi Foster which stars Mel Gibson as a mentally-unstable man who wears a beaver puppet on his hand that he treats as a real person.

Due to Gibson's very public break-up with and outburst against his ex-girlfriend, Oksana Gigorieva, the movie might never be released in the U.S. However, it is going to be released overseas and the following poster was recently released as publicity for the movie.

I'm hoping that the movie will be seen in the U.S. if nothing else as a direct-to-DVD title. Mel's a messed-up man, but he's still a good actor with some decent comedic chops. I know a lot of people in Hollywood view him as poison, but that's not a consensus with the American public. Gibson has been a box office boon for cinema for decades. He's someone the American public loves. He's like the crazy uncle that everyone loves, even if they just love to hate him. He's become a kind of living embodiment of Archie Bunker and the public loved Archie. I think with the right marketing THE BEAVER will be a box office smash. The title alone is going to bring in the teenage-boy crowd.

DJ Pogo's UPular

Here's an entertaining and catchy dance song from DJ Pogo. All of the lyrics in his music are taken from a particular movie. He did this with some Disney songs and the Disney legal machine went into maximum overdrive. To avoid a lawsuit, DJ Pogo worked under contract for a year for Disney. During that time, his versions of all of his Disney stuff were unavailable except on Disney's sites. His contract recently came to an end and a lot of his stuff is now back up, but it can only be embedded from the official Disney locations. The Mouse just doesn't know when to stop does it? Anyway, here's his video "Upular" inspired by UP.

The Continuing Push For Longer Schooling

In the Nov. 8, 2010 edition of Newsweek, there is an article entitled "Class Action" about extending school days and the overall school year. I applaud the author, Sehba Ali, for starting a public charter school in San Jose, CA. I must also recognize that this article is the first time I've read something by a proponent of longer schooling that actually points out negatives of pursuing longer school days and a longer school year. Most proponent of More-Schooling won't even acknowledge that there are negatives, let alone actually discuss them.

With that said, I think the author is wrong. A longer school day and longer school years, even when accompanied with more focus on subjects besides reading, writing, and arithmetic and increased teacher assistance will not "fix" the education problem in the United States. Based upon the article, it seems that the author is under the false assumption that public education is a social panacea.

Public education is not a panacea. It's not going to fix society's problems. The problem isn't that students don't spend enough time in school. Therefore, adding more hours to a school day or lengthening the school year is not going to solve anything. The problem is that the home lives of many students outside of school and the breakdown of social norms. True education is founded upon truth, but if a person is surrounded at home and bombarded by messages from their culture and society that tell them everything is relative, then no matter how much time is spend in school, real education can never take place.

Wierd Trivia

After debating the issue for five minutes in 2009, the Common Council in Madison, Wisc., voted to make the pink plastic flamingo its official city bird.

Hang gliding is banned at national parks in Ethiopia to prevent stampedes. Antelopes often mistake the contraptions for vultures.

Real names of some fictional characters:

"Comic Book Guy" on The Simpsons: Jeff Albertson
Policeman in Monopoly: Edgar Mallory
Shaggy from Scooby-Doo: Norville Rogers
The Professor on Gilligan's Island: Roy Hinkley

--All of these bits of trivia can be found in the latest edition (Nov.-Dec. 2010) of Mental Floss magazine.

On the Unknown

"To be certain of God means that we are uncertain in all our ways; we do not know what a day may bring forth. This is generally said with a sigh of sadness; it should rather be an expression of breathless expectation." --Oswald Chambers

FOX TROT and George Lucas

I particularly enjoyed this "Fox Trot" comic from this past Sunday, Oct. 31, 2010. For STAR WARS fans, it really is a scary costume.

Mental Floss and Charles Addams

The Nov./Dec. 2010 issue of Mental Floss magazine has a nice little article about Charles Addams, the kooky cartoonist who created the Addams Family. I'm more of a The Munsters guy myself, but the article is still a good one. Also, Mental Floss is just a great magazine.

Graphic Novel Review: TENKEN

TENKEN is a graphic novel manga that blends sci-fi with Japanese mythology. Divided into nine chapters, the story is set sometime in the future after a "dirty war" has tainted much of the planet. The story begins with the introduction of Manaka, a construction crew supervisor. One of his hardest workers is a young girl named Saki. Manaka met Saki one night at a bar. She pleaded to let her work for him and he agreed. She claimed she had fled from the mountains to escape an arranged marriage. Manka and his team are in the midst of preparing for the annual Tenken celebration, a festival that reenacts the myth of Susanoo and Orochi and the marriage of Susanoo to Princess Kushinada.

According to the myth, Susanoo was walking along the Earth when he came across an old man and old woman weeping bitterly over a young girl between them. The old man explains to Susanoo that the reason they are weeping is that they had eight daughters, but for the past seven years a multi-headed serpent has come and devoured one of the daughters. Kushinada is the last of the sisters and the serpent is due to arrive and eat her, too. Susanoo asks that if he kills the serpent, will they give him Kushinada's hand in marriage. The couple agrees. Susanoo turns the girl into a hair comb and places it in his hair. He then has the couple brew eight barrels of sake and helps them build eight stalls to place the sake. He places a barrel of sake inside each stall. When the serpent, named Orochi, comes he places each of his heads in the barrels and drinks and falls asleep. While the beast sleeps, Susanoo takes his sword and cuts each of the heads off and then cuts the great snake to pieces. He returns Kushinada to her human form and they are married.

In the novel, Tenken is the annual celebration that memorializes the event. However, each fifty years the event is a particularly significant celebration, larger and more ambitious than in other years. In the mountains it is rumored that every fifty years a "hidden festival" takes place where the girl playing Kushinada in their festival is actually sacrificed to Orochi. Manaka soon learns that Saki is actually the girl who has been chosen as this year's Princess Kushinada in the mountains and that she has been running not from an arranged marriage, but from an arranged sacrifice. The people of the village believe that a female must be offered to Orochi every fifty years otherwise terrible things happen. Soon Saki believes the story, too, which leaves Manaka to decide if he can be like Susanoo and save the girl from the dragon.

Unlike a lot of books that are marketed as graphic novels, TENKEN is a true graphic novel. It's not a collection of comic books, nor is it a visual adaptation of a literary work. Instead, it is a novel that was conceived as being read in story-board format. For that, I give Yumiko Shirai credit. Not everyone can write a book and there are even fewer who not only write a book, but storyboard the entire thing out.

It should also be noted that TENKEN isn't just a graphic novel, but it's a manga. What that means is that the story is read from right to left instead of left to right.

The illustrations are done in black and white and, like the overall plot of the story, combine a dystopian sci-fi style with fantastical dreamlike images. Shirai does a good job of balancing and meshing the two, but there were several moments that I became confused and wasn't able to decipher what was happening until a few panels later. This didn't happen very much in the first third of the story, but happened more in the middle section, and happened during the last third.

My biggest problem with TENKEN is that I really didn't like the story, particularly towards the end. I realize that part of it is because of my ignorance of Japanese culture. Perhaps, if I had known about the Susanoo story before I started reading TENKEN, I might have appreciated it better. But, even though I'm college educated and like learning new things and trying new experiences, I `m just a poor white American and the last part of TENKEN didn't make much sense to me. I think it has to do with the spirit of Orochi, a giant eight-headed snake, possessing the soul of a man so that he can use that soul to lead a woman to him every fifty years so that he can merge with her soul and then let her body rot. Orochi is apparently real, but he only exits in the spirit world, but even though no one can see him (except those who are the modern embodiments of gods who once walked the Earth), he does come out and cause death, mayhem, and destruction, especially every fifty years if someone tries to get in the way of his new "princess". Of course, I'm not even sure if that's even right because the last part of the story was confusing for me and I had a difficult time figuring out what was happening.

I can see TENKEN being extremely popular with those who enjoy magna and/or Japanese culture. I also believe it's a book that those who have a serious interest in graphic novels will at least appreciate. I can also see someone who has an interest in studying myths, legends, fables, etc. from different parts of the world might like TENKEN. Personally, I appreciated reading it and think it's an excellent graphic novel, but was really confused by parts of the story which hampered my enjoyment.

Book Review: DEMOULIN CATALOG NO. 439

Once upon a time in America (particularly at the end of the 19th Century and the beginning of the 20th Century) three brothers united in the small city of Greenville, Illinois and formed a business. These men were the DeMoulin brothers and they named their business the DeMoulin Brothers Company (imagine that). The business they started was unlike any other business that existed. At this point in history there was no Internet, no television, and no radio. Museums and libraries existed mainly in large metropolitan areas. The middle class was on the rise and, by and large, the American man found that at the end of each day and week he had some leisure time. Seeking out the companionship of other males as well as cheap, and sometimes free, life insurance for their families, these men flocked to lodges. Even the smallest villages in the country usually had at least two to four different lodges that a man could join. Some men joined one, others joined as many as they could. The Freemasons, the Odd Fellows, the Knights of Pythias, the Modern Woodmen of America, and the Improved Order of Red Men were just a few of the dozens of national fraternal organizations that existed. To make meetings more fun and increase further increase membership, elaborate rituals were developed. The DeMoulin brothers recognized this and were able to capitalize on it by creating a business around the manufacturing of lodge initiation devices and side degree, or burlesque, paraphernalia. From the creation of the DeMoulin Brothers in the late 1890s until 1930, these devices were the bread and butter of the company.

CATALOG #439 was the final catalog the DeMoulin Brothers Company published that featured these fraternity initiation devices. CATALOG #439 has now been republished by Fantagraphics Books. Besides the catalog itself, the book contains three distinct essays: an appreciation from magician David Copperfield, an introduction by Charles Schneider, and an essay by William D. Moore about lodges. Copperfield’s brief piece reveals that he is an avid collector of DeMoulin merchandise, why it fascinates him, and retells a public accident Copperfield was involved in when he appeared on LATE NIGHT WITH CONAN O’BRIEN. Schneider’s introduction is the heart and soul of this new reprint of CATALOG #439. He provides the context for the catalog, a short back story about the three DeMoulin brothers and their company, the relation of the company to the people in and around Greenville, IL, the significance of their work, and why the DeMoulin Brothers and the devices they created are relevant today. Lastly, Moore’s essay provides a short historical perspective about fraternal lodges in the United States and how the items the DeMoulins manufactured fit into that perspective.

The catalog doesn’t contain all of the equipment, devices, and gadgets ever manufactured by the company, but it contains a majority of them and all of the most popular ones. The Bucking Goat, the Trick Desk Telephone, the Lung Tester, and the Invisible Paddle Machine are just a few of the items of hilarity that can be found within the pages. There is a trick chair that collapses when a person sits in it as well as another trick chair that falls backwards when someone pulls a chain. There’s a frightening looking faux guillotine as well as a pledge altar that features a skeleton that pops up and shoots water into the eyes of a praying confessor. There are electric buzzers and carpets, spanking paddles that shoot off a blank cartridge, and a mysterious vat where “goat’s blood” can be served from. There are many other devices as well as masks, costumes, and wigs and other hair pieces that could be used to frighten and entertain. In addition there are other artifacts that a lodge could use in their meetings, such as ballot boxes, furniture, and banners as well as items for parades and public displays such as fake weapons, large umbrellas, batons, and flags. Most of the items are illustrated and include a brief description as well as suggestions for other devices and real testimonials from customers.

There are three appendixes to CATALOG #439. The first was one that was included in the original DeMoulin Brothers Catalog #439. Appendix I provides directions on how to use the items listed in the catalog as well as suggestions on how to implement them into meetings. Appendix II is a collection of some of the original patents that the DeMoulin brothers had for several of their items. Appendix III includes a few serious items the company manufactured that were geared towards Masons, including priest garments, tabernacles tables and veils, and specially designed metal ornaments.

The items listed in CATALOG #439 are highly sought-after by collectors. DeMoulin merchandise has a particular connection to magicians and practical jokesters. Some of their devices served as prototypes for devices created by magicians and illusionists years later. The DeMoulin catalogs themselves, particularly CATALOG #439, were the forerunners for the popular prank and gag catalogs popular with children from the 1930s-1970s. The book is a time machine into a different era of America history, where masculinity wasn’t feminized and people were encouraged to snub their noses at the propriety and civil correctness of society. It’s joy to see the book in publication again.

Election of 1800 Campaign Ads

Do you think this election season has been particularly dirty? Then you don't know much about history. Watch the following video and some campaign ads that were made taken directly from written words of Thomas Jefferson and John Adams. You'd never know they were on the same side during the Revolution.

Happy Halloween!

It's Halloween, the eve of All Saint's Day. Have a Happy Halloween and in the words of E.T., "Be good." :)

Daft Punk's "DeRezzed"

I can't deny it. I'm really excited to see this movie.

The Scariest Creature of Them All

I agree with this strip. I can't think of a fictional creature that is more frightening.

Another ARGYLE SWEATER in Oz

Here's "The Argyle Sweater" comic strip from yesterday (Monday, October 25, 2010).

Most Influential Man in America?

I debated about mentioning this. However, the results of the survey are floating all over the Internet and I'm sure it'll be talked about on radio shows for days, weeks, and (where news is slow) in some cases months to come.

Today a website called AskMen.com revealed the results of their annual "Most Influential Men" list. According to the website, Jon Stewart is the most influential man in America.

Really? I really don't think AskMen.com is a very reliable source of information. Even though it has actual paid writers on staff, the issues discussed about (outside of health matters) are often less reliable than information found on Wikipedia. Also, other than the gimmicks they do, such as this annual list, no one even knows the website exists.

That aside, they rank Jon Stewart as the most influential man in America. There's also three people listed in their top ten that I've never heard of before: #8 Graydon Carter, #9 Jose Mourinho, and #10 Elon Musk. I'm an avid reader and still read newspapers and magazines in addition to books. I'll be the first to admit that there's so much I don't know and that I'm not as cultured or experienced as many others. Still, you would think I'd of heard of all the people in the top ten list of the most influential men in America. But #8, #9, and #10 were completely unknowns. After doing some research I discovered that Carter is the editor for Vanity Fair, Mourinho is a soccer coach, and Musk is the co-founder of PayPal. That makes sense now because Vanity Fair is a magazine that no one reads, soccer is a sport that will never be popular in America, and unless you let people know you co-founded PayPal no one is going to know.

The real most influential man in America is a multi-billionaire (#35 of the richest people in the world) that the usual publications tend to ignore: George Soros. Soros broke the British pound in 1992 and made hundreds of millions of dollars off the stock market crash and Great Recession in 2008 (there is circumstantial evidence that he actually helped start the recession and cause the crash just so he could make more money). Soros isn't as recognizable as other American billionaires, but the guy has his hands in more political and media organizations (mostly progressive in nature) than anyone else in the country.

Jon Stewart is the most influential man in America? That's only because Soros wants you to think that. Wink, wink.

Why Punctuation Matters

Even though I'm not teaching at the moment, I still do my best to use correct punctuation. The use of punctuation is one of the things that separates great writers from good writers. There is power in punctuation. I couldn't always get my English students to see that when I was teaching and it's even more difficult outside of a classroom. However, punctuation is important and it can be powerful.

The best example of that I've seen recently is in this article by Jeff Weintraub. It's funny, but illustrates the importance of punctuation.

Thanks to Justin Taylor for pointing the article out.

Why Book Abridgements Are Bad Or Don't Talk Down to Kids

Here's a great illustration of why literary abridgements and adaptations usually aren't very good. It's also illustrates why we don't have to "dumb" down to kids. Speak to them at their level, but you don't need to "dumb" things down. Thanks to Jack Hager for posting this strip.

Media Consumed: September 2010

Books Read
TV's Greatest Game Shows by Tom DeMichael
Jaws by Peter Benchley
*Discover Your Inner Hermit Crab by Jim Toomey
The Strange Case of Origami Yoda by Tom Angleberger
Moments With the Savior by Ken Gire
Hot for Words by Marina Orlova
CliffsNotes on To Kill a Mockingbird by Tamara Castleman
Crazy Love by Francis Chan
On the Blue Comet by Rosemary Wells

TV's Greatest Game Shows was an interesting little book that contained a little bit of nostalgia for me. I had heard of many of the shows discussed in the book and some I have fond memories. I also learned about some shows I never heard of before.

Jaws was a better movie than it was a book. I understand that the movie would never have existed without the book, but this is an instance where the movie is better than the book.

Crazy Love is a book that every Christian in America should read. It's challenging, uplifting, thought-provoking, and encouraging all at the same time.

Finally, On the Blue Comet is a great young adult novel. It's never really explained exactly how the fantastical things in the story happen, beyond some vague mysteries of time travel. However, the story doesn't need to explain itself. It's a time travel story set during the Great Depression and has some remarkable trains. It also has some beautiful, lavish illustrations that are worth the price of the book alone.

*Denotes a comic strip collection

Movies Viewed for the First Time
The Librarian: Curse of the Judas Chalice
Wall Street
Forbidden Planet
Resident Evil: Afterlife
Sullivan's Travels
Feast
Feast II
Devil
Kelly's Heroes

Wall Street was a much better movie than I expected it to be. Forbidden Planet was a sci-fi movie that I should have watched years ago. It's dated a little, but it's worth watching to see a young Leslie Nielsen and it marks the first appearance of Robby the Robot.

Sullivan's Travel was a hilarious screwball comedy. They really don't make movies like that anymore and Preston Sturges was a genius.

Feast was a decent low-budget sci-fi picture, but Feast II ranks as one of the worst movies I have ever seen.

Devil is a thought-provoking story with some heavy spiritual elements to it. The story is by M. Night Shyamalan, but he didn't direct.

Kelly's Heroes was a solid movie that reminded me of a military version of the original Ocean's 11 or The Italian Job.

A Pearls Tribute to Charlie Brown

Here's a "Pearls Before Swine" that's a tribute to Charlie Brown. It's from May 4, 2008.

VOYAGE OF THE DAWN TREADER--International Trailer

This December, THE VOYAGE OF THE DAWN TREADER finally comes to theatres. I am SO looking forward to this movie. When the teaser trailer was released a couple months ago, I was worried that they had cut one of the most important parts of book. I'm not going to give anything away, but in this trailer you can see a dragon flying around a few times so methinks they have kept that key part of the story. The first four original books in The Chronicles of Narnia continue to become more and more complex. I like THE HORSE AND HIS BOY, but as the fifth tale in the cycle, it's my least favorite. THE MAGICIAN'S NEPHEW is an origins tale and my favorite book of them all is THE LAST BATTLE; I tend to like the concluding tales of sagas the most. I'm not sure why.

"Shine" by The David Crowder Band

The David Crowder Band has written and produced some powerful worship songs. Unlike many contemporary worship songs, Crowder's songs usually are musically intricate, consisting of more than just a chorus and a few words. They also are also usually built upon sound doctrine instead of just the syrupy pseudo-spirituality of many Christian-pop tunes. Thanks to Jack Hager for directing me to this video by posting it on his blog. It's all about hope and most of it's done using Lite Brite animation.

The Relentlessly, Delieberately Uninformed

I usually don't repost entire blog posts, but Seth Godin had an unusually good one yesterday. Godin posts lots of good stuff. I often retweet his posts. However, this post I found particularly noteworthy. You can read the whole post below. Also, you can read the post here.
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Deliberately uninformed, relentlessly so [a rant] (Seth Godin, Oct. 20, 2010)

Many people in the United States purchase one or fewer books every year.

Many of those people have seen every single episode of American Idol. There is clearly a correlation here.

Access to knowledge, for the first time in history, is largely unimpeded for the middle class. Without effort or expense, it's possible to become informed if you choose. For less than your cable TV bill, you can buy and read an important book every week. Share the buying with six friends and it costs far less than coffee.

Or you can watch TV.

The thing is, watching TV has its benefits. It excuses you from the responsibility of having an informed opinion about things that matter. It gives you shallow opinions or false 'facts' that you can easily parrot to others that watch what you watch. It rarely unsettles our carefully self-induced calm and isolation from the world.

I got a note from someone the other day, in which she made it clear that she doesn't read non-fiction books or blogs related to her industry. And she seemed proud of this.

I was roped into an argument with someone who was sure that ear candling was a useful treatment. Had he read any medical articles on the topic? No. But he knew. Or said he did.

You see a lot of ostensibly smart people in airports, and it always surprises me how few of them use this downtime to actually become more informed. It's clearly a deliberate act--in our infoculture, it takes work not to expose yourself to interesting ideas, facts, news and points of view. Hal Varian at Google reports that the average person online spends seventy seconds a day reading online news. Ouch.

Not all books are correct or useful. Not all accepted science is correct. The conventional wisdom might just be wrong. But ignoring all of it because the truth is now fashionably situational and in the eye of the beholder is a lame alternative.

I know this rant is nothing new. In fact, people have been complaining about widespread willful ignorance since Brutus or Caesar or whoever invented the salad... the difference now is this: more people than ever are creators. More people than ever go to work to use their minds, not just their hands. And more people than ever have a platform to share their point of view. I think that raises the bar for our understanding of how the world works.

Let's assert for the moment that you get paid to create, manipulate or spread ideas. That you don't get paid to lift bricks or hammer steel. If you're in the idea business, what's going to improve your career, get you a better job, more respect or a happier day? Forgive me for suggesting (to those not curious enough to read this blog and others) that it might be reading blogs, books or even watching TED talks.

As for the deliberately uninformed, we can ignore them or we can reach out to them and hopefully start a pattern of people thinking for themselves...

Pearls Before Swine and Popeye

Here's a "Pearls Before Swine" strip from Sunday, March 16, 2008 that alludes to Popeye. "Pearls Before Swine" and Popeye. I love it.

Final Thoughts About and From THE DUMBEST GENERATION

"The production of spirited citizens requires more than meditations by academics and strategies by activists, and it transpires not only in classrooms and among advocacy groups. Learning and disputation, books and ideas, must infiltrate leisure time, too, and they should spread well beyond the cerebral cliques. This is why leisure trends among the general population are so important. They log the status of knowledge principle, and when the focus on under-30-year-olds, they not only reveal today's fashions among the kids but also tomorrow's prospects for civic well-being....

"The Dumbest Generation cares little for history books, civic principles, foreign affairs, comparative religions, and serious media and art, and it knows less. Careening through their formative years, they don't catch the knowledge bug, and tradition might as well be a foreign word. Other things monopolize their attention--the allure of screens, peer absorption, career goals. They are latter-day Rip Van Winkles, sleeping through the movements of culture and events of history, preferring the company of peers to great books and powerful ideas and momentous happenings. From their ranks will emerge few minds knowledgeable and interested enough to study, explain, and dispute the place and meaning of our nation. Adolescence is always going to be more or less anti-intellectual, of course, and learning has ever struggled against immaturity, but the battle has never proven so uphill. Youth culture and youth society, fabulously autonomized by digital technology, swamp the intellectual pockets holding on against waves of pop culture and teen mores, and the Boomer mentors have lowered bulwarks to surmountable heights. Among the Millennials, intellectual life can compete with social life, and if social life has no intellectual content, traditions wither and die. Books can't hold their own with screen images, and without help, high art always loses to low amusements.

"The ramifications for the United States are grave. We need a steady stream of rising men and women to replenish the institutions, to become strong military leaders and wise political leaders, dedicated journalists and demanding teachers, judges and muckrakers, scholars, and critics and artists. We have the best schools to train them, but social and private environments have eroded....Teachers try to impart knowledge, but students today remember only that which suits their careers or advantages their social lives. For the preparation of powerful officials, wise intellectuals, and responsible citizens, formal schooling and the workplace training are not enough. Social life and leisure time play essential roles in the maturing process, and if the knowledge principle disappears, if books, artworks, historical facts, and civic debates--in a word, an intellectual forensic--vacate the scene, then the knowledge young people acquire later on never penetrates to their hearts. The forensic retreats into ever smaller cells, where nerds and bookworms nurture their loves cut off from the world.

"Democracy doesn't prosper that way. If tradition survives only in the classroom, limping along in watered-down lessons, if knowledge doesn't animate the young when they're with each other and by themselves, it won't inform their thought and behavior when they're old. The latest social and leisure dispositions of the young are killing the culture, and when they turn 40 years old and realize what they failed to learn in their younger days, it will be too late....

"Fewer books are checked out of libraries and more videos. More kids go to the mall and fewer to the museum. Lunchroom conversations never drift into ideology, but Web photos pass nonstop from handheld to handheld. If parents and teachers and reporters don't see it now, they're blind.

"If they don't respond, they're unconscionable....Adults everywhere need to align against youth ignorance and apathy, and not fear the "old fogy" tag and recoil from the smirks of the young. The moral poles need to reverse, with the young no longer setting the pace for right conduct and cool thinking. Let's tell the truth. The Dumbest Generation will cease being dumb only when it regards adolescence as an inferior realm of petty strivings and adulthood as a realm of civic, historical, and cultural awareness that puts them in touch with the perennial ideas and struggles. The youth of America occupy a point in history like every other generation did and will, and their time will end. But the effects of their habits will outlast them, and if things do not change they will be remembered as the fortunate ones who were unworthy of the privileges they inherited. They may even be recalled as the generation that lost that great American heritage, forever."

From The Dumbest Generation by Mark Bauerlein, pp. 233-236.

Larry the Croc on JEOPARDY! the final strip

Below is the "Pearls Before Swine" strip from Sunday, October 17, 2010 that concludes the saga of Larry the Croc on Jeopardy! I think Larry has become the Charlie Brown of "Pearls Before Swine".

Larry the Croc is a JEOPARDY! King?

Here is Saturday, Oct. 16, 2010 strip "Pearls Before Swine" strip in which Larry the Croc continues to amaze everyone with his mental prowess.

Kermit the Frog Under the Pressure

It's amazing what you'll come across on the Internet. I came across this video yesterday because I'm a sucker for the Muppets, particularly Kermit the Frog. The video appears to be a homeless man performing to earn a little money.

In actuality, the "homeless man" is an actor and puppeteer who filmed the video with a filmmaker friend to raise awareness and money for homeless people. You can find an interview with the two men on the CNN website that gives the inside scoop. It's a great little video and it's easy to see why it's gone viral.

Today's "Pearls Before Swine"

Here's today's (Oct. 15, 2010) "Pearls Before Swine" strip. It continues the saga of Larry the Croc on Celebrity Jeopardy!

New BACK TO THE FUTURE commercial

Next week the cast of Back to the Future is reuniting on Spike TV at the 2010 Scream Awards. In honor of the event they've re-created the original tv commercial for the movie. Michael J. Fox, Nikes, and a DeLorean. What could be better?

Snookie from JERSEY SHORE on SOUTH PARK

I don't get MTV's show Jersey Show. You can say "It's a Jersey thing," all you like but it still doesn't make sense. Why are we, as a society and culture, making a bunch of young adults who have the mental and emotional capacity of children with no morals into millionaires and celebrities? Apparently I'm not the only one that feels that way. Last night (Wed. 10/13/10) South Park didn't hold back any punches and took on the whole Jersey Shore and "Jersey" mentality. They particularly made fun of Snookie, who's real name is Nicole Polizzi. Below is how she was pictured throughout the episode.

South Park pokes fun at everything, but they really don't enjoy most celebrities, particularly those who become famous for doing nothing.

Tears of the Saints

When I was a senior in college, I wrestled with God. It wasn't the first time, nor would it be the last. Throughout my collegiate days I had been involved heavily in ministry groups. I went on three different mission trips, twice to Mexico and once to Chicago. I usually did at least one or two service projects a week. I collected food for the homeless and food pantries. I helped out at the city rescue mission. For three years, I spent several months preparing for a two hour program for inmates at the county jail.

Since I was about five years old I had wanted to act and be in movies. That had always been my dream. That was still my dream in college and still remains today. However, during my senior year in college I felt that I wanted to be a foreign missionary. I seemed suited for the work. I knew that the life wouldn't be easy, but because of my skills, talents, and personality I knew I would adapt to it and would adapt well. But, deep in my heart of hearts I knew God didn't want me to do that. I begged with him. I pleaded with him. I had an application to teach with an organization in China for two years that was filled out, but I hadn't sent in the mail. I don't know why, but the message I kept getting over and over was: "No. I want you here, Tom. Not there." It didn't make any sense to me and even now at times it still doesn't make sense. So, I never sent that application out and, as of yet, I've never become a full time foreign missionary. Instead, I've remained in the states and have ministered to the people around me in the best ways that I can.

I mention this because a little over a year ago someone sent me a link to the following video.

I cried when I watched it for the first time. It brought back a flood of memories and feelings from my own life. I had meant to post it right away, but then my dad died unexpectedly. I had never forgotten about the video and now seems as good a time as any. Hopefully, when you watch it, it will spur you into some action of your own. I know personally that not all of us are called to be foreign ambassadors for Christ. However, some of us are and we just need that extra little nudge.

Even More from THE DUMBEST GENERATION

"Because the American tradition lies in the hands of the populace, it does not demand conformity, nor does it homogenize different cultural, political, and ethnic strains in U.S. history. In fact, the opposite happens. People read and study the same things, but their knowledge amplifies differences at the same time that it grants them a shared inheritance. The more people know, the more they argue. They quarrel over, precisely, what America is about, over who the heroes are and who the villains are....

"Knowledge breeds contention, then, but that's how a pluralistic, democratic society works through rival interests and clashing ideologies. Disagreements run deep, and messy pursuits and cravings for power cloud the ideas and values in conflict. But the battles that ensue solicit the intelligence and conviction and rightness of the adversaries, and they collide armed with the ammunition of ideas and phrases, works of art and lessons in philosophy and religion, episodes from history and literature."


From The Dumbest Generation by Mark Baurlein, pp. 217-218.

The Continuing Saga of Larry the Croc on JEOPARDY!

Here's the strip from today's (Oct. 14, 2010) "Pearls Before Swine". I really hope this storyline turns into at least a two week run.

Larry the Croc and Alex Trebek: "Pearls Before Swine" and Jeopardy!

Here's yesterday's (Oct. 13, 2010) "Pearls Before Swine" strip where Larry the Croc meet Alex Trebek

Did You Know 4.0 From xplane

A year ago I saw the following video for the first time. It's from a company called xplane which has an office located in St. Louis. The information contained within is fascinating. They have been releasing videos like this about once a year so there should be a new one coming out in a few months. What do you think?

The Crocs Go On JEOPARDY

I'm a huge fan of both the comic strip "Pearls Before Swine" and the game show Jeopardy! Yesterday the strip began a storyline where one of the Crocs, Larry, stars on the Celebrity edition of the show. Below is the strip. I'm curious to see how it all turns out.

What I'm Reading Right Now

Here are the books I'm reading right now (Tuesday, October 12, 2010):

Happy 10 Day!

I just realized that today is 10/10/10. Happy 10 Day everyone! Ten is supposedly a perfect number. Maybe today will be the start of something good.

I Saw An UFO

People see UFOs more often than one might suspect. I've never doubted that. However, I don't believe in aliens. In my opinion, UFOs can either be explained, are all either some sort of government (whether the U.S. government or some other country) secret projects, are some sort of secret project by some private enterprise or business. I don't think someone who claims they've been abducted by aliens to be lying. Instead, they have probably had their mind tampered by some sort of drugs (either of their own doing or by someone else, perhaps willingly or perhaps unbeknownst to them) or some form of hypnosis. If they were really kidnapped and had experiments performed upon them, it wasn't by aliens but by the government or some private enterprise.

I bring this all up because last night I saw an UFO for the first time in my life. I was on my way to Highland, IL for pick-up rehearsal for HARVEY. I had just turned on Hwy 140 when I saw this bright light.

It wasn't a star. It didn't look like an airplane. It wasn't a cloud. It wasn't a contrail. It kind of looked liked a falling star, except it never moved. It just sat there in the same place. I was so fascinated by this thing that when I got to the country road that I take to Highland, I pulled over to look at it some more and take a picture.

The object continued to just sit there. Then I saw what kind of looked like two jets coming from two different directions flying towards the object. They had a very short contrail following them that disappeared almost immediately, but instead of being white these contrails were red. The jets appeared to pass by the object, but then kept right on flying. Not long after I saw another object appear in the sky just like the first one.

I had to get back on my way to Highland, so I got back in the car and starting driving. By the time I got to Highland, I could see about five or six of these objects as well as the two jets. The jets had moved and gotten smaller in appearance, but they were the only objects to have done so. Also, I'm not sure if it was because of the quickly approaching nightfall and the lack of sunlight, but all of the white objects now appeared red. I got to the theatre for rehearsal soon thereafter and didn't see the objects again. And that is my experience seeing an UFO for the first time.

Book Review: ON THE BLUE COMET

I have never read a story by Rosemary Wells before, but when I saw the beautiful cover of ON THE BLUE COMET and read the cover, it was a book that I had to read. I mean it’s a time traveling story with trains! The story follows Oscar Ogilvie, an eleven-year-old boy living from 1931 Cairo, IL. The story actually begins a few years earlier. After the tragic death of his mother, Oscar and his father find refuge together in a Lionel toy train set that they build together. The set expands and soon takes up the Ogilvie’s basement. Oscar’s aunt think’s Oscar’s dad is insane and is wasting his money, but the father and son both know better. Then the stock market crashes in 1929 and everything changes. Oscar’s dad eventually loses his job working for John Deere. They have to sell the house and all the trains. Oscar moves in with his aunt and her daughter and his dad leaves for California to try to find a job with the John Deere plant out there.

Work is scarce and Oscar’s dad has a tough time at it first. Meanwhile, Oscar is working on improving his math grades at school. While his aunt and cousin go about their tutoring and speech lessons to wealthier families, Oscar stays at home. One day he meets an older man named Mr. Applegate. Mr. Applegate used to be a mathematics professor at Princeton, but his theories about Einstein and time travel were too advanced for the time. He lost his job and now travels around from place to place looking for work. Mr. Applegate helps Oscar with his math and introduces him to great literature. Mr. Applegate eventually gets hired at the local bank as a night watchman. Weeks before Christmas the bank reveals an impressive lobby display of trains, all of which used to belong to Oscar and his father. Mr. Applegate lets Oscar in to watch every night, showing him how to turn the alarm back on when he comes in. One night, Oscar forgets and two criminals show up to rob the bank. One of them doesn’t want any witnesses and tries to shoot Oscar. Mr. Applegate calls out for Oscar to jump and jump he does, becoming small enough to board one of the trains on the lobby display.

However, things grow more mysterious when Oscar discovers that he actually is traveling on a real train in real time from Chicago to Los Angeles. He needs to get back home and stop the robbers, but he’s not sure how. His journey takes him not only from part of the country to the other, but from one time to another, too.

ON THE BLUE COMET is a very creative and imaginative story. The story is basically a piece of historical fiction with some sci-fi and fantasy elements tied in. The settings of the story are grounded in reality. Many of the events that take place are historical, the places are real, and the famous people Oscar meets are people he very well could have met in those situations. I liked it how Ronald Reagan is never referred to beyond his nickname of “Dutch” or that Alfred Hitchcock is only known to Oscar as Mr. H. The famous people he meets doesn’t stop there because later he meets the Kennedys, J.P. Morgan, Nelson Rockefeller, Henry Mellon, Charles Merrill, and Edmund Lynch but they are all referred to by their real names.

The book is illustrated by Russian artist Bagram Ibatoulline. Until recently, I had never heard of the man, but not long ago I read Kate DiCamillo’s children’s Christmas story, GREAT JOY and Ibatoulline drew the illustrations for that book. His pictures for ON THE BLUE COMET are quite literally astounding. They are like looking at actual paintings from a different era. These pictures go along way in helping to further set the mood, tone, and settings of the story. I also liked the occasional use of the newspaper articles and hand-written letters in the book. They help augment the visual appeal of the text.

I very much enjoyed reading ON THE BLUE COMET. It’s a story that older elementary kids and early middle-school students who have an interest in time travel, history, or trains will enjoy and if someone likes all three they are sure to love it.

Last Weekend For HARVEY

This weekend is your final chance to see Hard Road Theatre's production of Harvey. It's a great show. They really don't right comedies like this anymore. Not only that, but you can see my (Tom Varner) award-winning-deserving performance as Elwood P. Dowd.

Performances are this Friday, October 8th and this Saturday, October 9th at 7:30pm at the Elementary Auditorium, 1800 Lindenthal Ave., Highland, IL.

You can buy tickets at the door or reserve them by calling 618-654-7748. Ticket prices are $8 for adults, $7 for seniors, and $6 for children.

Come on out and see the show. It's a night you will enjoy and a performance you won't regret seeing.

Too Young For Facebook

This past Sunday Aisha Sultan, a reporter for St. Louis Post-Dispatch, had an interesting column in the new" Home & Away" section. The column was about young children who have Facebook accounts. In the column, Sultan quotes Doug Terfehr who says his family has found a safe and useful way to merge family and Facebook.

According to Sultan, "Terfer says most of his family lives out of town, so he and his wife created an account for their 7-year-old son a year ago as a way for him to keep in touch with relatives. They post pictures of the kids' special events, and grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins can comment.

"It's almost like getting a letter from grandma and grandpa all the time, " he explained. It was too cumbersome to e-mail photos with attachments and not an interactive experience for the children....

"It works great for us," he said because it gives his children a way to relate to far-flung extended family and develop a relationship with them."

My reaction to all of this is instead of making a Facebook page for your six-year-old (the age of the boy at the time they created the account), why not sit down with him and write a letter with him to the grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins? Why not have the kid draw a picture showing something he's done to send to grandpa & grandma? Why not actually print off a few of those digital photos for the aunts & uncles so they can frame them? And if everyone wants to keep in touch, why not call them up on the telephone once a month? These things would take just as long as it does to do things "safely" on Facebook, are safer, would be appreciated much more by the relatives, and would be a lot better quality time spent with your child than being online with them.

In short, kids that young don't need to be on the Internet and they definitely don't need a Facebook.

You can read the entire essay here.

More Thoughts From THE DUMBEST GENERATION

"Few things are worse for adolescent minds than overblown appraisals of their merit. They rob them of constructive self-criticism and obscure the lessons of tradition. They steer their competitive instincts toward peer triumphs, no civic duty. They make them mistrust their guides, and interpret cynically both praise and censure. They set them up for failure...

"The twenty-first-century teen, connected and multitasked, autonomous yet peer-mindful, marks no great leap forward in human intelligence, global thinking, or "netizen"-ship. Young users have learned a thousand new things, no doubt. They upload and download, surf and chat, post and design, but they haven't learned to analyze a complex text, store facts in their heads, comprehend a foreign policy decision, take lessons from history, or spell correctly. Never having recognized their responsibility to the past, they have opened a fissure in our civic foundations, and it shows in their halting passage into adulthood and citizenship. They leave school, but peer fixations continue and social habits stay the same. They join the workforce but only to realize that self-esteem lessons of home and class, as well as behaviors that made them popular, no longer apply, and it takes them years to adjust. They grab snatches of news and sometimes vote, but they regard the civic realm as another planet. And wherever they end up, whomever they marry, however high they land in their careers, most of them never acquire the intellectual tools they should have as teenagers and young adults....the knowledge and culture traits never catch up....

If young people don't read, they shut themselves out of public affairs. Without a knowledge formation in younger years, adults function as more or less partial citizens. Reading and knowledge have to enter their leisure lives, at their own initiative....

As the rising generation reaches middle age, it won't re-create the citizenship of its precursors, nor will it ranks produce a set of committed intellectuals ready to trade in ideas, steer public policy, and espouse social values on the basis of learning, eloquence, and a historical sense of human endeavor. This is one damaging consequence of the betrayal of the mentors that is often overlooked."

From pp. 201-203 of The Dumbest Generation by Mark Bauerlein

It's a Small World at the Taco Bell

Stephan Pastis, the animator and creator of "Pearls Before Swine" wrote a hilarious blog entry a couple weeks ago about his experience at a Taco Bell drive-thru.

He writes, "The drive-thru lane that wraps around my Taco Bell is narrow with high curbs on either side.

If you filled it with water and put multi-ethnic singing midgets along its sides, you’d have the “It’s A Small World” ride at Disneyland."

To see what happens read the whole thing here.

From Ray Bradbury

"You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them."
--Ray Bradbury

Check This Out: Jurassic Park the Musical

Several days ago, a friend of mine sent me a link on Facebook that led me to the following videos. Basically, a group of college students in Lincoln, Nebraska got together in the Spring of 2009 and put together a musical in the backyard of a house. The show was JURASSIC PARK: THE MUSICAL and around 250 people attended. A video of the show was made and has now been posted on the Internet, as well as a short documentary about the experience. I'm doing what little I can to help the videos go viral. The show is hilarious. The show is brought to you in three parts followed by the documentary. Enjoy and pass the word along.

Jurassic Park the Musical Part 1 from Mark Hennings on Vimeo.

Jurassic Park the Musical Part 2 from Mark Hennings on Vimeo.

Jurassic Park the Musical Part 3 from Mark Hennings on Vimeo.

The Making of Jurassic Park the Musical from Mark Hennings on Vimeo.

Book Review: THE ART OF DREW STRUZAN

E.T., the Indiana Jones movies, the Star Wars movies, the Back to the Future trilogy, the Goonies, Harry Potter, and Frank Darabont’s Stephen King adaptations are all movies that Drew Struzan created all the promotional art. From the late 1970’s until his retirement at the end of 2008, Struzan was THE movie poster artist. His artwork came to define some of the movies he helped promote.

THE ART OF DREW STRUZAN isn’t a collection or treasury of all of Struzan’s movie posters. Instead, it is more akin to an author’s favorites or best-of collection. Struzan worked on the movie posters and promotional materials for around 200 different films; only 40 are collected here. In addition, there are a series of sketches, some in black and white others in color, as well as comments from Struzan about each of the movies. The book contains a forward by Frank Darabont that laments the fall of the movie poster artist and the rise of digital and PhotoShopped posters.

The book is a bit larger than an average book, but smaller than most art books. It’s about 9”X12” in size with a black cover. The writing is easy to read and a person can read the entire book within a few hours or less.

Besides the artwork, some of which hasn’t appeared before in the other two Struzan books available, what I liked most about the book was Darabont’s foreward and Struzan’s comments. Which is to say, I liked the entire book. Even though it’s a book about the work of a particular movie poster artist, it provides a glimpse into the business side of motion pictures and how that often conflicts with artistic side of the movie business.

This is an excellent book that any visual artist or movie fan will enjoy and is almost a must-have for either one.

Mitch Albom On Obama & South Korean Education

A few weeks ago, Mitch Albom had a very interesting essay in the Detroit Free Press about some of President Obama's comments on education in the United States as compared to that in South Korea. Albom became famous for a little book he wrote called Tuesdays With Morrie . That was a good book, but then Albom went to write a series of other books, all bestsellers, that were mushy, pseudo-spiritual tripe. So, I'm not really a big fan of Albom. However, I concur with most of his sentiments (everything until the sappy end) in the essay.

In the past few weeks Obama and his Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan seemed to have been making a push towards lengthening the number of hours students spend in school as well as the length of the school year. As Ablom points out, even if every school in the country does that, it will not help improve the quality of education in our high schools. In South Korea, everyone still cares about education, unlike here in the U.S. where education is now seen as a "right", not a privilege.

"What you don't hear is cheerleading squads. What you don't hear is spring break trips to Cancun. What you don't hear is classes to boost self-esteem, to celebrate an ethnic group, to explore the arts. What you don't hear is Glee or High School Musical or other coolness-driven entertainment fantasies about high school fashion, sex, talent, or jockdom.

How are our kids supposed to mimic these kids when this place doesn't look anything like the American school system?

...One of the questions I was asked by the media here was, "What do our children have to do to become global leaders?" That's not a common question in the United States--not to a visiting writer, anyhow.

...How are American kids going to copy that? We're not disciplined enough, we're not hungry enough, and, most important, either parents don't say it enough, or if they do, kids ignore them.

That also doesn't happen in Korea. Respect for elders is paramount in Korean society."

Read the whole essay here.

R.I.P. Stephen J. Cannell

I just found out that Stephen J. Cannell died a couple of days ago from complications from melanoma (skin cancer). A lot of people might not know who Cannell is, but at one time he was one of the most powerful tv executives around. He created two of my favorite tv shows that I watched as a kid: The Greatest American Hero and The A-Team. He was the creator of a lot of other shows too, including The Rockford Files, Hunter, Hardcastle and McCormick, Wiseguy, The Commish, and Renegade. He was a producer who was very hands on with his projects: he wrote many of the shows he produced, he directed a lot of them, and some of them he even acted in.

R.I.P. Tony Curtis

Actor Tony Curtis died yesterday (Thurs. Sept. 30, 2010). Curtis acted in a lot of movies, but the two I've seen I remember him in the most are Some Like It Hot and Spartacus. From what I've seen in the pictures, Curtis was a talented actor who never quite got his due.

A year and a half ago I had the opportunity to meet Curtis in Chicago. He was very friendly and seemed to enjoy signing autographs and the attention he was getting, though he was prone to wandering (particularly his hands on ladies bottoms and bosoms). Apparently, he died in his sleep at home. Rest in peace, Mr. Curtis.

LeBron James Says Racism Is Now Why He Is Disliked

LeBron James says that racism is a "factor" in why he is now considered one of the most disliked athletes in professional sports. I've never been a fan of James; I think he's highly overrated and one of the most egotistical athletes ever to play basketball and I don't think he has enough talent to live up to his hype. However, let's give credit where credit is due. In his special "The Decision" broadcast on ESPN this past summer, James donated all of his proceeds from the event to the Boys and Girls Club of America. James is also a talented athlete. He's a good basketball player who has leadership potential.

However, racism is not the reason James is no longer in the favor of public opinion. It's all about loyalty, something James has shown he has very little, and money, something James has shown he adores. He could have stayed with his home team, in the state he grew up in. That would have been the loyal thing to do. Cavalier fans have supported James when others abandoned him. He was Cleveland's favorite son. But, he got greedy and despite having a multi-million dollar offer from the Cavs, he jumped ship and went to Miami, a place who was able to offer him more money.

I would not have liked James if he stayed with the Cavs, but I would have respected him a lot more. But not only did he abandon his home team, he did it on a cable special in front of the whole world. It's a little too much of, et tu Brute? Now James claims that the reason his decision is so unpopular is because of racism. That's just plain stupid and makes things even worse. The only way James will ever gain favor again is if he actually starts living up to his hype and wins and wins big.