Movie Review

On Sunday I saw Across the Universe, the new musical built around 34 Beatles songs which chronicles the sixties.

The film by Julie Taymor (I also loved Frida, her film about Frida Kahlo) is a marvel! The cast is young, and does a marvelous job recreating these Beatles songs, by itself a very challenging task--you don't want the music to pale in comparison to the original versions.

Using the Beatles' music in movies is nothing new. The band itself did it a few times times, nicely in A Hard Days Night (1964), and horribly in Help (1965).

The challenge in making such a movie, is that the director and cast are working with material which, to people of a certain age, is holy text. How badly can it go? Just rent the 1978 film version Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, possibly the worst musical ever made.

This film works. The love story fits the music, and the music fits the sixties. It has some nice touches--it introduces characters associated with Beatles songs (Maxwell, Rita, Sexy Sadie) and gives you lines from other songs (when I'm 64), and you expect the movie to move into those songs, but it surprises you, and doesn't.

I had a few problems with the film--parodic characters who seem to be versions of Ken Kesey, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and Bill Graham come across as cleaned-up, Hollywood versions of those characters. At times the Vietnam violence seems a bit too stylized, too metaphorical. the ending was a bit too happy considering how the sixties ended. Still, these are minor quibbles given the ambitious task this director undertook, and the overall pleasure I felt watching the film.

Midterm Grades

I'm taking a break from posting online reviews for the next ten days or so. This is because I am assigning midterm grades for the blog. Each student will receive a grade based on number of entries, amount of writing, quality of writing, quality of research and consistency.

So far, the first six blogs I reviewed were better than I expected--all grades in the A to B range.

No dunce caps awarded so far!

Back from Carolina

Just finished spending a few days at a conference at East Carolina University. Interestingly enough, one of the English department faculty members at this university is a submariner like me! It's a small world.

Looking at the blogs.

Cassi's blog on coaching--particularly coaching volleyball--is good, but no posts in the last 9 days is hurting her totals.

Brandon's blog has NO POSTS!

Stephanie's blog on international animal rescue has wonderful posts, but only 9 so far.

Trent's sports marketing blog is very interesting. His latest post on Tony Dungy was very good.

Some More History

While researching about Rickover and his management methods (at least one Chief of Naval Operations, or CNO described Rickover as a practitioner of the "terrorist school of management") I discovered a wealth of information in the form of extracts from oral histories conducted with retired admirals by the naval institute (USNI).

The picture today is of retired admiral Frank Bowman, Admiral Donald's predecessor as director of Naval Reactors.

Here is the full list, and the dates they held the position:

Admiral H.G. Rickover: 1949-1982

Admiral Kinnaird McKee: 1982-1988

Admiral Bruce DeMars: 1988-1996

Admiral Frank Bowman: 1996-2004

Admiral Kirkland Donald: 2004-present

To the blogs:

Lee's blog has ten posts so far, covering GM, including the strike and contract settlement. His most recent post has a nice take on the debate over CAFE standards.

Jillian's has twelve posts on the influence of the media on youth, and one troubling trend recently--the number of young people electing plastic surgery.

To the Present!

Of course Navy Nuclear Propulsion soldiers on. Admiral Kirkland Donald, pictured here, has served as its director since 2004.

To the blogs.

Jessie's blog has 14 posts, though a few are a bit short. She is doing really interesting work, looking at Spork Culture, and chronicling her own diet and nutrition efforts.

Another blogger conducting an experiment is Derry. Only six entries so far, but I like his experiment which is to see if the "average" sports fan could have much luck picking against the spread. Online gambling is Derry's research subject.

Maribeth's subject is the negative effect the media has on women's body image. She has 15 detailed and interesting posts to date. Great work!

A Rickover Medal, and Some Blogs

Here is an interesting collector's medal that was listed on E-Bay!

Today's blog comments:

Harris has an interesting blog on soccer. His latest post, on the financial surrounding the latest World Cup in Germany is very well done. It also has some visual interest. At nine entries, it appears Harris is just outside of the normal posting range (you should have had 10-15 posts by the end of last week). However, His nine posts were done on just three separate days--that's not the type of regular consistent blogging practice I'm looking for.

Lucas' blog on the NBA developmental league and the new Fort Wayne team the Mad Ants is very interesting. He's made a link to the new team president's blog, and he has made eleven posts so far. Good work. I like his post on the history of the guy they selected to manage the team.

Conor's blog has a really interesting subject--he is investigating the relationship between blogs and the mainstream media. Unfortunately, he only has four posts so far, and none in the past two weeks.