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 →

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 →

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 →

  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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →