June 30, 2008: Besson's "Angel-A" and a Coupla Kooks

My online English 101 begins today and, boy, am I anxious about it. I've never taught online before and I'm dubious about the whole endeavor (that is, online teaching generally). I'm going in with an open mind, however, and will give it my best shot. In many ways, doing this over the summer is a good idea--I won't have the distractions of other classes, and I can fuse work with recreation a little more easily. For instance, K, Ian and I are going up to Lake Coeur D'Alene later this week to spend July 4th with my brother Scott, his wife Carolyn, and their two kids Ryan and Katherine. I'm looking forward to their meeting Ian for the first time.

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Recently viewed: Angel-A, directed by Luc Besson. An amusing trifle by a French director who is hit and miss, in my opinion. It concerns a down and out scam artist who is saved by an angel--a six foot plus, platinum blonde, power-bodied angel, that is. Familiar territory, this, but it dares to go where It's a Wonderful Life could not. Capra for the French. Wim Wenders crossed with Jim Jarmusch. B.

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The Daily (more or less) Five: (1) Peter Pauper Press books. I always pick these up used and I'm not sure the press is even still operating. They're thin little editions of classic literature, usually stuff in the public domain: collections of poetry, excerpts from famous works, short pieces. They come with wonderful illustrations too, often woodcuts. (2) Benson Bubblers. Free drinking fountains located all over downtown Portland; apparently they got their start after a city father grew angry at the practice of charging working men more for water than for beer in the local taverns (or some such thing). (3) The voice of Jolie Holland. What a mesmerizing, lilting, enigmatic sound she makes; if Billie Holiday sang through the vocal chords of Peggy Seeger, this is how it might sound. (4) James Joyce's "Araby" from Dubliners. One of the finest short-stories ever written; a boy makes a romantic quest to a traveling bazaar to buy his lady love a trinket and learns a hard truth about the folly of vanity. Devastating. (5) (Guilty pleasure alert!) Wikipedia. Seriously, I could spend all day just surfing wikipedia; I know the pitfalls--the misinformation, the bad writing, the unreliability, the shoddy citing, the hearsay-mongering--but I'm healthily skeptical and a critical thinker. All one needs is a good BS detector.

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Here are a coupla kooks (K and Scout):

Bye,

JBF