Almost Christmas

Beginning to realize now that this is a crazy week for Sebastian. Between his birthday and Christmas he has been getting cards and/or gifts every day for a week now and it is not over.
He is bouncing off of the walls and can't calm down.

It's wearing us out.

Bette Davis

In working on Bette Davis today I came across this old article from Bright Lights Film Journal on Bette Davis.

I had read this before but came to it today as it coincides with some of what I am thinking about now about Davis's acting style and how that is read and received. The thing that bugs me about Mandelbaum's article is the auteurist bent and how, even though this is billed as an article about Davis, it is more about the male directors she worked with and which ones were better able to contain or utilize her and which ones she was able to force into obedience.

He writes:

Being a histrionic performer, Davis emphasizes polarities. The tendency to underline extreme emotions is both her greatest strength and greatest weakness. The actor creates the characterization, but the strong director creates the context, modulating the performance to harmonize with all other elements.

Not very enlightening then as all this does is to further spread the idea that Davis was a bitch and her best films are those in which a "real" man, the "strong" director, stepped in to "modulate the performance." Like Mankiewicz whose "pleasant" experience with Davis must be attributed to "his foolproof script" and ability not to let anyone "hog the spotlight."

Not like that "mouse' Goulding or Rapper: lacking the "muscularity" of Curtiz and being "not born to lead."

Annoying.

Ahhh

i have now officially finished grading. Everything is turned in.

All I have to do now is mail back a few things, send some emails, and I will be ready to get to my own work for a month.

In the Office

Sitting in the office trying to get some writing done as well as finish up grading and filling out forms.

Fun day.

Update

Well one set of grades is in and the other should be done tomorrow. I'm not looking forward to finishing these per se, but it will be good to get rid of them.
Then write, write, write.

Silly Face

Silly Face
Originally uploaded by HadleyOil.

And here is mister silly face. All the children had me take their photos so that they could see themselves.

Here is how Sebastian wants to see himself.

Here it comes

Party Room2
Originally uploaded by HadleyOil.

Here comes the cake. (Sorry for the tease as I see that I have no pictures of the actual cake.)

Full Swing

Party Table
Originally uploaded by HadleyOil.

Here is the party in full swing. Getting ready to have cake.

The Party

Party Room
Originally uploaded by HadleyOil.

Here is the first of a few pictures from Sebastian's 4th Birthday party today.

Here he is getting ready for the party.

TiVo This

The New York Times > Technology > A Noun? A Verb? TiVo Says It's Neither

I found this to be both an interesting and somewhat disturbing article.

That they would not want TiVo to go the way of Kleenex or Xerox surprised me at first since I am not an advertising person. On further reflection, however, I can see why they would not want their brand to become that synonymous with the product as it would effectively kill the brand identity. OK, that is their prerogative.

What I find disturbing is how this seems to fit with ever increasing policing of trademarks and brand identity. In thinking about the above, I came to wonder if Kleenex or Xerox were not just "lazy" in protecting their brands as the article somewhat implies. Rather, would this type of trademark protection not have been seen as out-of-place, inappropriate, and possibly ridiculous 50 or perhaps even 10 years ago?

I'm not sure what else to say about this, but it just appears as another example of the increasingly aggressive protection of trademarks that the current system allows. I wonder when it will get out of hand.

And yes, I realize I am not saying much about why I think this is a bad thing. Maybe for another post.

Finishing Up

Just finished with one of my last classes.

I was surprised that the class was actually liking the blogs. I felt as if they did not like them, but found out they did. I need to retool a little for next semester, but I am encouraged by what they did.

train

train
Originally uploaded by HadleyOil.

Today Sebastian and I went to a model train show. This is one of the trains we saw. Sebastian liked this train, it was fairly long and had four cabooses, and he liked this part of the set-up where the cricus was.

Rock

Rock
Originally uploaded by HadleyOil.

Yesterday we all drove up to NYC for the day. We spent the time walking up and down 5th Avenue, along with about 2 million other people, from Rockefeller Center to F.A.O. Schwartz.

Here we are in front of the tree.

Getting there

Almost done with the semester, although some new problems are presenting themselves.

I am looking forward to my teaching in the Spring, though it will be a little more hectic and a little less money, I will have more time to write which is part of what is important right now.

Killing Time

Waiting for class to start and just thought that I would post about how much I dislike Comcast. Have been without On-demand for over a month now and, yet, they do nothing unless I call and arrange for each step of the process.

Long Time

Wow,

It's been awhile since I've been in here.

What has been happening? We went to see out friends J & L in Providence for Thanksgiving which, apart from the horrible traffic, was quite a great trip. We saw old friends and made new ones which is great. S. had a load of fun with the children and did not want to leave. Neither did I.

Today we went to the "Peace around the World" festival at U Penn. Great fun, highly recommend it next year and beyond.