Sunday, September 26, 2010

Blogging Hiatus (kind of)...

It looks like Ken Russell won the blog poll for my next director retrospective. I have loaded up the Netflix queue with Russell films, and I will begin viewing those shortly. However, when I actually post stuff will be sporadic at best. In fact, I have decided use this retrospective -- and the breadth of Russell's oeuvre -- as a way to get out of doing a second Italian horror-themed blogathon. For those of you that don't know, I am an educator; actually, I think of myself as more of a social worker considering the the type of students I felt a vocational calling to help ten years ago. I've worked with at-risk teenagers for at least five years now, in various arenas, but specifically in an options high school that is associated with a local community college where the students -- mostly teen moms, expelled students from public high schools, marginalized teens, or former gang members (and sometimes just super smart and ambitious students who think the public school system works too slowly for them) -- take a term's worth of classes in three weeks.

I mention all of this because I am in the midst of wrapping up my masters degree in education (I'm writing a research project and two work samples right now), and I'm teaching classes at night. So, I'm essentially working from 9am to 7:30pm. Needless to say I am tired, and I am going to anticipate being tired for a long while. Sadly this will come at the expense of the Italian horror blogathon (but I plan on doing it again next year) and some more recent movies I wanted to go see (I still have a slew of 2010 movies to catch up with); so, expect a lot of content when I'm on winter break (sometime in mid December) and random content until that time. There will be plenty of horror-themed content out there for you all to get your fix. I will continue writing blurbs for the Wonders in the Dark horror countdown, and it sounds like Bill of the wonderful The Kind of Face You Hate is returning with his great October series on horror literature (with the great theme name of The Kind of Face You SLASH).

So there ya have it. I will try my hardest* to continue posting brief thoughts on "Boardwalk Empire", and like I said, I'll get to work on the Ken Russell movies when I have time, but the plan is to step away from multiple posts during the week for my own sanity (and my wife's). See ya when I see ya.

*Not to be a Debbie Downer, but the school I teach at just started the school year off on the absolutely worst possible note: three students -- ages 16, 18, and 18 -- were standing on a sidewalk waiting for a bus outside of our school when a driver who was under the influence veered two lanes over and jumped the curb instantly killing one of the students, injuring another so badly that she died later that night in the hospital, and critically injuring the other one. I was the first teacher on the scene, and I noticed right away that the critically injured student was one of mine; three of my other students saw the entire thing happen, and I know what I saw...so I can't even imagine how they're dealing with what they saw. We're a close-knit school community (only about a 120 students total), and we're all extremely shaken-up by all of this. So, even though film and television is a positive and cathartic distraction for me right now, I think you can understand why I feel so ambivalent towards posting content: On one hand it helps to watch, read, and discuss about other stuff; on the other hand it just doesn't seem to matter at the moment.

7 comments

  1. I'm terribly sorry to hear about your students, Kevin. My condolences.

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  2. Damn, that's really quite shocking and tragic, Kevin. But I'm glad you told us, about that and your work which is fascinating, and look forward to your writing in the future, come what may.

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  3. Thanks, guys. I really appreciate it.

    There's something to be said about distractions...and movies can be the best kind. I just finished the first episode of the newest season of "The Office". I don't know if it was particularly good or not, but I laughed my ass off the entire episode. I think I just wanted something to laugh at.

    Although when Micheal's nephew talked about how his favorite movies were CITIZEN KANE and BOONDOCK SAINTS I was in tears. That's a line that I hear a lot with the young learners in my class. They're intelligent, and a lot of them are artistic...so they've seen CITIZEN KANE or movies like that and recognize how good it is...but then they'll tell me that something like BOONDOCK SAINTS (a film that has totally usurped SCARFACE as the movie of choice for teenagers) is also one of the best movies they've ever seen. Just brilliant. Plus he was driving a Honda CRX in the episode. Great attention to detail.

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  4. Very sorry to hear about that, Kevin, that sounds terrible. Your work does sound fascinating, though, and more than that: essential, important. It's great to hear about someone in education who really cares about the kinds of kids too often dismissed as unteachable.

    Looking forward to more of your writing, whenever you're able to write again.

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  5. That is a terrible tragedy for you and your students to have to experience. I'm sorry.

    Take your time, and we'll still be here when you return.

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  6. Kevin - I have no new words, but can only echo what others have already commented here. We'll all await your return in your own time; in the meantime, go do what you need to do.

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  7. Kevin, as a fellow teacher I grieve with you, and can certainly imagine the horror of arriving and scene, and finding one of these students to be your own. It's an unconscionable occurance, and it does do far more than dampen the opening of the school year.

    You really have your plate full, and I commend you on your amazing resilience. I saw your long comments on education at WitD and knew you are one guy who is doing all he can for the kids and for education.

    The blogging can wait. Really.

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