Getting the axe

Getting the axe

by paul bond

| Syndicated
May 1, 2013

I heard through Twitter yesterday that Netflix streaming was losing 1800 films as of today. The linked article links to a list of what’s going, and a quick glance found both Black Sabbath and Blood and Black Lace, which had … Continue reading →
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What is this that stands before me?

by paul bond

| Syndicated
April 28, 2013

Black Sabbath, more properly titled I tre volti della paura (The three faces of fear), is out of chronological order in our BavaFest, but perhaps that is fitting. The AIP version, which was streaming on Netflix last week, has the … Continue reading →
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Thoughts on NoirMOOC

by paul bond

| Syndicated
April 26, 2013

It was suggested in the NoirMOOC forum that we should do a post-mortem examination of the course, as a good group of the participants were there as much to learn about MOOCs as for their interest in the subject matter. … Continue reading →
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Tie Game

by paul bond

| Syndicated
April 26, 2013

About a week ago I ran across some interestingways to knot a tie, and I’ve been trying without success to do one of the knots. So it was a fortuitous coincidence that I saw the list of Youtube Film Noir Features in … Continue reading →
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This movie was brought to you by the color Red.

by paul bond

| Syndicated
April 20, 2013

Since Blood and Black Lace wasn’t available through Netflix streaming, I put it in my queue. I found it was on Youtube in the meantime, but neglected to change the queue. So I watched the DVD with commentary by Tim Lucas … Continue reading →
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Il Maestro meets The Master

by paul bond

| Syndicated
April 13, 2013

As you might guess from the title, The Girl Who Knew Too Much was intended to be a Hitchcock parody. American International and Galatea commissioned it as such, and it was originally planned to be a light comedy, although that … Continue reading →
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Hercules in the Center of the Earth

by paul bond

| Syndicated
April 6, 2013

The first couple times I tried to watch Hercules in the Haunted World on Netflix I fell asleep. And while the fact that I was laying down on the couch may have had something to do with it, I think … Continue reading →
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Poking the ruins

by paul bond

| Syndicated
April 1, 2013

Yesterday I wrote a little about some of the NoirMOOC material. Richard Edwards, who is running the MOOC, replied via Twitter: @phb256 thanks for the blog link! His best line in Arson Plus is about “ruins.” It’s a seed he … Continue reading →
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Scenes form a Sunday

by paul bond

| Syndicated
March 31, 2013

That’s a typo in the title, but I decided to keep it because the scenes make the film. One thing I had never noticed before about Black Sunday is that it is a Jolly Film production. As the movie’s hero … Continue reading →
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Arson by night

by paul bond

| Syndicated
March 31, 2013

I made it my New Year’s resolution to read more Hammett, so it was nice that his short story, Arson Plus, showed up in the NoirMOOC. It’s Hammett’s first published story, and it’s not quite as hardboiled as Red Harvest. … Continue reading →
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Further thoughts on MOOCs and libraries

by paul bond

| Syndicated
March 24, 2013

On the 18th and 19th of March, 2013, OCLC Research and University of Pennsylvania hosted a conference titled MOOCs and Libraries: Massive Opportunity or Overwhelming Challenge? The conference served as something of an introduction to MOOCs, with a strong Coursera bias, although … Continue reading →
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InfoLit in MOOCs

by paul bond

| Syndicated
March 20, 2013

Eleni Zazani surveyed participants in the E-learning and Digital Cultures MOOC on their information seeking habits, looking to see if they follow footnotes for further information, and what they do when that information is not openly accessible. The survey … Continue reading →
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Quick thoughts on #mooclib

by paul bond

| Syndicated
March 18, 2013

Today was day 1 of the OCLC Research and University of Pennsylvania “MOOCs and Libraries: Massive Opportunity or Overwhelming Challenge?” event. There was a lot of Coursera love emanating from the stage. Sometimes it felt like an infomercial. EdX had … Continue reading →
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Reading The Message

by paul bond

| Syndicated
March 17, 2013

This week in the Songwriting course we looked at rhymes and rhyme schemes and how they can be used to convey meaning in a song. So what if we look at the classic Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five track, … Continue reading →
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Detour

by paul bond

| Syndicated
March 13, 2013

Detour makes a nice little intro into film noir. All the basic ingredients are there: the femme fatale, the dark shadows, the flashbacks, the voice over narration, the out of control circumstances leading to certain doom… Except the circumstances are … Continue reading →
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Freudian alphabet

by paul bond

| Syndicated
March 10, 2013

The Freudian alphabet assignment is kinda interesting. What do the suggestions say about the person doing the searching? Or do they say anything at all? The assignment says to use “I hate” so I took an opposite track. The first … Continue reading →
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Song analysis

by paul bond

| Syndicated
March 9, 2013

I thought it might be interesting to try to apply some of the ideas from the songwriting course to some songs outside of the selected listening list. For example, if we look at the classic song of my youth, War … Continue reading →
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Lives in a dream

by paul bond

| Syndicated
March 4, 2013

Strange how a little comment can make you see something that’s been there forever in a new light. I’ve known all these Beatles songs since I was a little kid. And even though I never analyze lyrics, and mostly tend … Continue reading →
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Stay the course

by paul bond

| Syndicated
March 2, 2013

I signed up for a Berklee/Coursera songwriting course by Pat Pattison, mainly because I’m trying to figure out how to make music. That, and because it’s free. But it also gives me an opportunity to examine a so-called “xMOOC” first … Continue reading →
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The Set-Up: Round two

by paul bond

| Syndicated
February 24, 2013

Last week I blogged a bit about the film version of The Set-Up, so I thought I should take the time to read the book. The book and the film have similarities and differences, which Jefferson Hunter detailed far better than … Continue reading →
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Ventriloquism for dummies

by paul bond

| Syndicated
February 24, 2013

I thought the Animated Movie Trading Cards assignment was an awesome idea. I had the idea to do this earlier, when I saw the Movie Trading Cards assignment, because Michael Branson Smith’s Dirty Dozen GIFs would have been a natural fit. But … Continue reading →
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Further FAWMing

by paul bond

| Syndicated
February 23, 2013

A few days ago Grant Potter tweeted something about Lee Marvin’s Irish Ballads which I naturally had to investigate further. Artist Cris Shapan had photoshopped together a collection of classic imaginary LPs. I was likewise fascinated by the album Lee Marvin’s … Continue reading →
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Crime rhyme

by paul bond

| Syndicated
February 18, 2013

Robert Wise’s The Set-Up is probably the only noir boxing film based on a poem. It’s a story about a fixed boxing match, starring legendary tough guy Robert Ryan as the fighter who’s supposed to take the dive. His manager, thinking … Continue reading →
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The addictive power of feedback

by paul bond

| Syndicated
February 14, 2013

They all asked about you Down on the FAWM The cows asked, the pigs asked, the horses asked too. (Barrère) Down on the Farm Somewhere in the Twitter stream about #ds106 there was a mention of The RPM Challenge: “write … Continue reading →
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Happy Valentine’s Day, America!

by paul bond

| Syndicated
February 14, 2013

I couldn’t think of a good line to go with the Valentine’s Day Caption Challenge, but I did have a pack of Valentine cards from Captain America. I found them in the clearance cart in a grocery store about a … Continue reading →
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Information Literacy Journal Club

by paul bond

| Syndicated
February 2, 2013

A few weeks ago we had the initial meeting of the Information Literacy Journal Club. I was unable to participate in any real fashion, as it took place during a busy time of day in my time zone, but I … Continue reading →
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True crime

by paul bond

| Syndicated
February 2, 2013

Last semester I played along with Jim Groom’s hardboiled detective fiction course at UMW. After all the fun we had with that course, we’re looking at exploring crime reporting in America from colonial era execution sermons through classic true crime (In … Continue reading →
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EngCompMOOC

by paul bond

| Syndicated
February 2, 2013

Karen Head is blogging about a freshman composition MOOC that she is developing with a few other team members. Like myself, and no doubt many others, she’s skeptical that Comp 101 could work as a MOOC, but she’s brave enough … Continue reading →
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Mutant muppet party puppets

by paul bond

| Syndicated
December 27, 2012

I had an idea to combine Muppet GIFs and Rock ‘n Roll GIFs by working with the awesome Sequestered in Muppets video, but I couldn’t do justice to the original. So instead I used the mutant muppet party puppets from The Coup’s … Continue reading →
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Ozzy ’70

by paul bond

| Syndicated
December 24, 2012

I saw the rock ‘n roll GIF assignment and thought I’d give it a shot. Inspired by BeShort’s rendition of Girl Talk and remembering a video of Black Sabbath doing War Pigs way back in 1970, I thought I would try making … Continue reading →
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