Wal-Mart

From June 2003 - Wal-Mart's Social and Econimic Impact - Earlier this year, Fortune Magazine named Wal-Mart the nation's most admired company. It now has more revenue and more employees than any other U.S. company. Wal-Mart's growth over the last decade is unprecedented -- the company has gone from being a successful discount retailer to being a dominant force that no other retailer can ignore.

"In a four-part series for Morning Edition, NPR News explores the rise of Wal-Mart, examining the company's low-cost philosophy, its impact on more traditional mom-and-pop retailers and its growing pains as Wal-Mart fights lawsuits alleging it discriminates against women and resists paying overtime to its employees."

Musings

• Summarize the main criticisms of Wal-Mart made by the company's critics. Which ones, if any, do you think have any validity.
  
  
• Check out the Frontline documentary, "Is Wal-Mart Good for America?" Again, summarize the main criticisms of Wal-Mart made by the company's critics. Which ones, if any, do you think have any validity.
  
  
• Give us your impression of Wal-Mart or big-box stores generally, including the impact (good or bad) they may have had on your own community.
  

Sell, Sell, Sell

Here are three different Frontline documentaries from the public television station WBGH in Boston:

• Merchants of Cool - "They spend their days sifting through reams of market research data. They conduct endless surveys and focus groups. They comb the streets, the schools, and the malls, hot on the trail of the "next big thing" that will snare the attention of their prey--a market segment worth an estimated $150 billion a year. They spend their days sifting through reams of market research data. They conduct endless surveys and focus groups. They comb the streets, the schools, and the malls, hot on the trail of the "next big thing" that will snare the attention of their prey--a market segment worth an estimated $150 billion a year.
  
  
• The Persuaders (11/9/2004) - "Americans are swimming in a sea of messages. Each year, legions of ad people, copywriters, market researchers, pollsters, consultants, and even linguists—most of whom work for one of six giant companies—spend billions of dollars and millions of man-hours trying to determine how to persuade consumers what to buy, whom to trust, and what to think. Increasingly, these techniques are migrating to the high-stakes arena of politics, shaping policy and influencing how Americans choose their leaders. In "The Persuaders," FRONTLINE explores how the cultures of marketing and advertising have come to influence not only what Americans buy, but also how they view themselves and the world around them."
  
  
• The Secret History of the Credit Card - "It's one of the most wonderful times of the year for the banking industry's most lucrative business: credit cards. In the coming weeks, millions of Americans will reach into their wallets and use plastic to buy an estimated $100 billion in holiday gifts. But at what cost? In "Secret History of the Credit Card," FRONTLINE^® and The New York Times join forces to investigate an industry few Americans understand. In this one-hour report, correspondent Lowell Bergman uncovers the techniques used by the industry to earn record profits and get consumers to take on more debt."

Musings

• Summarize the main arguments for any one of these three documentaries. Which points do you find most or least compelling.
  
  
• Draw a connection between any of these documentaries and any material in any of these pages: Wal-Mart, Stuff, Malls, or Born to Buy.
  

Born to Buy

"Social economist Juliet Schor's new book is Born to Buy: The Commercialized Child and the New Consumer Culture. Schor says children as young as 18 months can recognize logos. Marketers capitalize on the influence of young minds on parents' wallets." Listen here (9/4/2004 - 6:56).

Also listen to Kim Masters's NPR piece, For Toddlers, a World Laden with Advertising (7/31/2006 - 8:14), or this series from CBS news, Hard Sell: Marketing to Kids.

Musings

• Compare any two of the pieces above. What essential points do they share? Which one do you most more persuasive?
  
  
• Describe a personal anecdote from your own life, as parent, child, student, or educator, that shows the power of advertising or shopping more generally on the lives of children.
  
  
• Check out the web site for the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood. What do you find here that may be of use to concerned parents or educators? Check out their links page to find other related sites that might be helpful, and explain why.
  
  
• Nearly everything about the Amish is fascinating, nothing more so than the undeniable visual beauty of their world, at least as captured in Bill Coleman's photographs. What do you feel makes Coleman's photographs of Amish children especially haunting ? Do you think there's connection here between the effect of the photographs and the special nature of the children's stuff?
  
  

Walden

"When I wrote the following pages, or rather the bulk of them, I lived alone, in the woods, a mile from any neighbor, in a house which I had built myself, on the shore of Walden Pond, in Concord, Massachusetts, and earned my living by the labor of my hands only. I lived there two years and two months. At present I am a sojourner in civilized life again." So begins Henry David Thoreau's Walden, or Life in the Woods--here from NPR's series, Present at the Creation.

Musings

• Discuss the audio report on Walden from the NPR series cited above, Present at the Creation. What do you find as the most compelling material for people (or consumers) today.
  
  
• Read any TWO of the following selection--from Ch. 1, sections a, b, c, d, or e, or Ch. 2 (starting with paragraph 15)--and in your own words, describe how it is you think this piece of writing has had such influence on Americans and others since its appearance in 1854.
  
  Here's a famous excerpt from section D:
  
  As with our colleges, so with a hundred "modern improvements"; there is an illusion about them; there is not always a positive advance. The devil goes on exacting compound interest to the last for his early share and numerous succeeding investments in them. Our inventions are wont to be pretty toys, which distract our attention from serious things. They are but improved means to an unimproved end, an end which it was already but too easy to arrive at; as railroads lead to Boston or New York. We are in great haste to construct a magnetic telegraph from Maine to Texas; but Maine and Texas, it may be, have nothing important to communicate. Either is in such a predicament as the man who was earnest to be introduced to a distinguished deaf woman, but when he was presented, and one end of her ear trumpet was put into his hand, had nothing to say. As if the main object were to talk fast and not to talk sensibly. We are eager to tunnel under the Atlantic and bring the Old World some weeks nearer to the New; but perchance the first news that will leak through into the broad, flapping American ear will be that the Princess Adelaide has the whooping cough. After all, the man whose horse trots a mile in a minute does not carry the most important messages; he is not an evangelist, nor does he come round eating locusts and wild honey. I doubt if Flying Childers ever carried a peck of corn to mill.
  
  
• The work of 20th-century British economist, E. F. Schumacher, might be seen as a modern-day application of Thoreau's thinking. Explain how this statement may (or may not) apply to Schumacher's essay Buddhist Economics.
  
  Here's a quote from the essay:
  
  
  
  While the materialist is mainly interested in goods, the Buddhist is mainly interested in liberation. But Buddhism is "The Middle Way" and therefore in no way antagonistic to physical well-being. It is not wealth that stands in the way of liberation but the attachment to wealth; not the enjoyment of pleasurable things but the craving for them. The keynote of Buddhist economics, therefore, is simplicity and non-violence. From an economist’s point of view, the marvel of the Buddhist way of life is the utter rationality of its pattern—amazingly small means leading to extraordinarily satisfactory results.
  
  For the modern economist this is very difficult to understand. He is used to measuring the "standard of living" by the amount of annual consumption, assuming all the time that a man who consumes more is "better off" than a man who consumes less. A Buddhist economist would consider this approach excessively irrational: since consumption is merely a means to human well-being, the aim should be to obtain the maximum of well-being with the minimum of consumption. Thus, if the purpose of clothing is a certain amount of temperature comfort and an attractive appearance, the task is to attain this purpose with the smallest possible effort, that is, with the smallest annual destruction of cloth and with the help of designs that involve the smallest possible input of toil. The less toil there is, the more time and strength is left for artistic creativity. It would be highly uneconomic, for instance, to go in for complicated tailoring, like the modern West, when a much more beautiful effect can be achieved by the skillful draping of uncut material. It would be the height of folly to make material so that it should wear out quickly and the height of barbarity to make anything ugly, shabby, or mean. What has just been said about clothing applies equally to all other human requirements. The ownership and the consumption of goods is a means to an end, and Buddhist economics is the systematic study of how to attain given ends with the minimum means.
  And here's a link to quotes from his influential little book, Small Is Beautiful.
  
  
• Explain how Adbusters.org seems to be influenced by Thoreau.
  
  

Malls

The Mall of America - "The Mall of America in Bloomington, Minn., turns ten years old [Aug 2002]. Host Madeleine Brand talks to author Ian Frazier about his surreal vision of the massive shopping center." You can read Frazier's Atlantic piece here.

Re-Creating the Mall Online (12-15-08) - "New companies are trying to replicate real-world shopping environments on the computer. Shopping at the new virtual 3-D mall is a little like shopping in Second Life and a little like the actual mall in Seattle."

Mall Makeover (5-20-07) - "Shopping malls are an icon of American pop culture, but they face extinction unless they modernize. Debbie Elliott visits a Washington, D.C., area mall that's getting a makeover for the 21st century."

Musings

• Compare any two of the three NPR pieces above.
  
  
• What's your response to David Segal's piece in New York Times, "Our Love Affair With Malls Is on the Rocks" (1-31-2009). Check out background piece on malls at Wikipedia.
  
  
• It seems that everyone has a mall story. What's yours? If you want, relate it to thus City X mood piece that also serves as a commentary on the place of the modern shopping mall in a “real, yet unnamed, city”: “Using a sound rich audio mosaic of observations and ruminations, all scored to Muzak, the universal mall experience comes to life, for better or for worse.” It was first broadcast (in a shortened form) on NPR’s Living on Earth (15:52) in November, 2004., and is also available in its original full length at the Third Coast Festival (22:32).
  
  

This I Believe

NPR describes its popular series, This I Believe, as "an international project engaging people in writing, sharing, and discussing the core values that guide their daily lives."

Singing: The Key To A Long Life (11/23/08) - British composer and activist Brian Eno talks about the joy of singing, a subject taken up as well by Eunice ("Make a Joyful Noise") and Paige ("Singing, My Anti-Drug"), both in written form only. More pieces on singing here.

Dancing All the Dances As Long As I Can - Best-selling author Robert Fulgrum expounds on his joy of dancing, a subject found in the written pieces, Dancing Is Dreaming with My Feet. More dancing pieces here.

Baking by Senses and Memories. (Morning Edition, 11/20/06 - 4:18) · “I believe baking is the best way for me to express love for my people in the present, and honor the people of my past, all in one batch.”

Walking Across the Grand Canyon (6/13/2008) - Radio producer Scott Carrier describes a walk in the desert with his son. From the This I Believe series comes two written pieces, I Believe in Walking and I Believe in Hiking.

Musings

• Not surprisingly, when it comes to core values and beliefs, people often focus on some of life's simplest things. Why do you think this is so? In your response make a reference to one or more of these NPR pieces, or, if you are adventuresome, listen to some more of these series here.
  
  
• Much of the pleasure from simple things often comes from following a prescribed regiment, a set of rules for doing something the right way. Describe your own pleasurable or enriching experience doing something simple that entails its own set of rules.
  
  
• The religious community known as the Shakers played an important role in pre-industrial American life. You can read about their Culture and Artifacts here @ Wikipedia, and a fascinating video @ YouTube. Today Shakers may be best known for a single (simple) song: Here's a slightly jazzed-up version of the classic Shaker hymn, Simple Gifts (on YouTube). The tune was also the basis of the John Williams piece performed at President Obama's inauguration. The song may be better known for its melody than its lyrics--the melody being incorporated into one of the most beloved of American symphonic composition's: Aaron Copeland's Appalachian Spring. Here's a brief analysis of the piece @ NPR emphasizing the work's simplicity (There's also a link to a full perfomance, under "hear the Music'), and below are the original lyrics, written in 1848. Your job here: Describe the lasting appeal of the artifacts or music or general sense of the Shaker world.
  

'Tis the gift to be simple, 'tis the gift to be free,
'Tis the gift to come down where you ought to be,

And when we find ourselves in the place just right,
'Twill be in the valley of love and delight.

When true simplicity is gain'd,
To bow and to bend we shan't be asham'd,

To turn, turn will be our delight,
Till by turning, turning we come round right.

Hand work

Woodworking - (Weekend Edition Sunday, 1/6/02 - 2:54) · "Essayist Tim Brookes experiences a flashback to his youth while working with a piece of fine wood."

Typewriter Lover. (All Things Considered, 9/22/98 - 3:46) · "Alex Van Oss introduces us to his family of five old typewriters. One was once owned by a Supreme Court Justice, another by the Christian Science Monitor, and a third - a hefty thing from Switzerland, once crashed through one of his desks."

Baking by Senses and Memories. (Morning Edition, 11/20/06 - 4:18) · “I believe baking is the best way for me to express love for my people in the present, and honor the people of my past, all in one batch.”

Musings

1. Here are three short pieces linked by a common concern: the value of doing work the old-fashioned way, that is, by hand. Describe one of the pieces in some detail while also commenting how you can relate to the piece on a personal level. If you have trouble listening to these or want to others instead, try listening to 3 other pieces from the Special Features page of "This I Believe." where you will find sections on basic ("hand") things like gardening, poetry, pets, letter-writing, coffee shops, sewing and knitting, walking in the woods, fishing, and so forth.
   
   
2. Describe a mechanical tool (that is, a tool that works without electricity or batteries) you have used, or perhaps still use. Do others still use this tool? Why? Why not? Don't overlook such simple tools as a pencil or a hammer or a cooking utensil.
   
   
3. Have a knack for comedy? If so you might want to take a different approach and describe some new, highfalutin tool (or gadget), mechanical or electronic, like the iPhone or iPod that, despite all the hype, you find vastly over-rated. (Here's Alison Bryce's brief, sardonic response to her boyfriend's iPhone.) Don't worry about a little exaggeration--it might help underscore your point. Here's a case in point: Rube Goldberg, the American cartoonist who died in 1970, has become something of a household word, or at least a common noun, for creating the concept of an overly complicated way of doing something simple--like a 15-step contraption to scratch one's back. Here are examples at RubeGoldberg.com, or, as one might imagine, plenty of new Ribe Goldberg contraptions on YouTube. Here's one for crushing Cadbury Cream Eggs.
   

Stuff

George Carlin's classic comedy routine, "A Place for My Stuff" (5:09) is satire at its best--outrageously funny while saying something serious about our behavior.

"The Story of Stuff" is also a video satire, by Annie Leonard--"a 20-minute, fast-paced, fact-filled look at the underside of our production and consumption patterns . . . . [that] exposes the connections between a huge number of environmental and social issues."

NPR commentator Daniel Schorr offers this short commentary (2:05) on Princess Diana and Mother Teresa ("Saint of the Gutter, Saint of the Media")--both of whom died the same week. What do you see as the connection between this commentary and the points made by Carlin and Thoreau?

The Nova web site portrays five families from the 1995 book, A Material: A Global Family Portrait, a book that posed families from around in the world standing in front of their houses with their possessions.

Here's the Website from John Freyer's 2002 project, All My Life for Sale.

Ellen Kushner’s WGBH program Sound and Spirit offers a wide-ranging, weekly musical tribute to a single theme. Here is the playlist for her show on stuff--click here to listen (59:00).

Musings

• Annie Leonard's video, "The Story of Stuff," is clearly a form of propaganda, although a form that some of us (at least those who sympathize with her larger point) may not especially object to. What do you feel makes her video so effective?
  
  
• Describe what you see as the most important connection between any two of these pieces.
  
  
• Use of these pieces as the basis for a story of STUFF in your own life.
  
  

The Amish

In his new book, Plain Secrets, Joe Mackall charts the tightly knit society of Ohio's Swartzentruber Amish (6/18/07 - 8:20). In this piece, Mackal discusses how he gained the trust of his Amish neighbor, and how "the community takes care of its own members even as it subverts their individuality, the plight of Amish women, and what it's really like to ride in a buggy." Here's an AP article, also at NPR, on an Amish newspaper. Also of interest is the unusual response of the Amish to the horrendous shooting at the Amish one-room West Nickel Mines School (10/2/2006). (4:39 - 10/2/07) Finally there's a good overview of Amish approach to modern technology at Wikipedia.

Musings

1. What do you find most surprising about you learned about the Amish way of life from any one or two of the four pieces cited above?
   
   
2. Nearly everything about the Amish is controversial, except perhaps the undeniable visual beauty of their world, at least as captured in Bill Coleman's photographs. Which photographs do you find especially appealing and why?
   
   
3. Here's an NPR piece on Amish teenagers (3-28-2009 - 12:28) and their unusual practice of Rumspringa. What lessons can we learn from this aspect of Amish life?
   
   
4. The Amish use all sorts of complex technologies; what they reject basically is something we take for granted (except during hurricane season)--that is, electricity. Still, when you think about it, as much as we depend on electricity, almost all of us have special times, activities and so forth (even something as simple as taking a walk) that does not require electricity or even batteries. Describe one such pleasurable experience or activity in your life that is free of electricity or batteries.
   

French Quarter

New Orleans's French Quarter is one of the most photographic and most recognizable landmarks in the United States, and, post-Katrina, remains the heart of the city. Yet how much do we actually know about this neighborhood? In this NPR piece (4/8/202 - 8:31), from the series, Present at the Creation, Renee Montagne provides a surprising overview of an area that is more Spanish than French, and maybe more American than Spanish.

Musings

• One outstanding characteristic of the French Quarter is that it is pedestrian friendly, and, as such, related to the contemporary movement for re-creating traditional neighborhoods, called New Urbanism. Describe a setting (urban or otherwise) in which you enjoy walking, people watching, or just spending time?
  
  
• The French Quarter is an entertainment area for tourists but also a neighborhood. What, in your opinion, are the chief characteristics of a good neighborhood?
  

Raising Cain

From "News & Notes (1/11/06 - 6:23) comes this discussion of boys and their problems, with child psychologist Michael Thompson, the host of the documentary Raising Cain.

Here's an older and longer NPR piece, Violence and the Emotional Life of Boys.

The PBS Website has material on the documentary, Raising Cain, including a message by its creator, Michael Thompson and a special section on raising boys with clips from the documentary.

Musings

• Gender differences represent a continual subject of controversy and fascination. What's your take on the general premise that boys have a particular set of problems to overcome in growing up?
  
  
• Behind many of the discussions of helping boys in schools, as a step in growing up generally, is the even larger issue of masculinity, and whether or not boys (and maybe men generally) need help in achieving masculinity or, some would argue, overcoming popular conceptions of masculinity. Here two related questions arise: Is the end result of education to narrow the differences between the genders, and do adult males have any special role to play in helping boys become men? What do you think?
  
  
• What does this general discussion of raising boys have to do with school violence and issue of bullying?
  

Bullying

Here is a commentary by Carlos Overstreet, a 15-year-old who has overcome the trauma of being bullied. You can also read an article by Overstreet, My Fight for Respect, in LA Youth magazine, and listen to a commentary on a report on bullying (4/25/2001 - 3:35) from the Journal of the American Medical Association. Finally, listen to this NPR report, Ganging Up on Bullying (10/2/2002 - 5:43), and check out some of the many links it has on the subject.

Musings

• Compare or contrast any two of the four selections from above in terms of what they have to say about bullying. Which selection seems to be most insightful to you? Why?
  
  
• Historically bullying is not considered a big deal, just a regular part of growing up. Do you agree this view? Why or why not?
  
  
• This academic article by Kimmel & Mahler, "Adolescent Masculinity, Homophobia, and Violence," (in PDF format) raises a number of important, but seldom discussed issues related to bullying and violence, including the assertion that masculinity is "the single greatest risk factor in school violence." What do you think they mean by this assertion?
  

Amazing Grace: William Wilberforce

This year marks the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade in Britain, an event that is the focus of the new movie Amazing Grace. The film tells the story through the career of just one key player in this effort, the British politician, William Wilberforce. Here are two film reviews, by John Powers (3/15/07 - 6:39) and Kenneth Turan (2/23/07 - 2:48).

Musings

• Powers's piece ends with speculation abut our own moral blindness today. What makes such speculation so difficult? Why is it so much easier to see the moral blindness in the past?
  
  
• On Talk of the Nation (2/22/2007 - 30:08), the film director's Michael Apted and Eric Metaxas, the author of Amazing Grace: William Wilberforce and the Heroic Campaign to End Slavery, discuss many of the contemporary parallels with Wilberforce's struggle, especially those that involve talking truth to power and going against entrenched interests. Which, if any, of these parallels do you see as valid?
  
  
• Here is a feature by Liane Hansen on John Newton's hymn, "Amazing Grace" (12/29/2002 - 10:39). What is the connection between the song and the abolition of the slave trade? Also see the brief entry at Wikipedia.
  

The 1950s

Here's a twist for AudioLinks101, a link to a video slideshow, Take Me Back to the Fifties.

Baby-boomers, now turning sixty, grew up in the 1950s, and this slideshow reveals some of the intense nostalgia some people have for the period.

Musings

1. What are some of the aspects of life in the 1950s that seem most attractive to the creator of the slideshow? What, if any aspects, seem attractive to you?
   
   
2. The St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture says that the 1950s "continues to be perceived as the ultra-American decade." (You can read the full article here, where this assertion is, in part, challenged.) Part of the assertion that the 1950s represent some sort of ultra-America has to do with the perceived conformity of the decade--a widely felt pressure for people to look and act "normal." Do you see any of these pressures in the slideshow? What are some of the negative aspects of such pressures? What's are some potential problems with too much concern with being normal?
   

James Dean

From All Things Considered (June 3, 2005) comes Bob Mondello's remembrance of James Dean, the actor who became an icon after making only three movies. Also from the same year (the 50th anniversary of Dean's death) comes this second piece by Steve Proffitt.

Musings

• Some, possibly even much, of Dean's appeal seems to be visual--capturing a certain look. Here's just one online gallery, the JamesDeanGallery.com, or, perhaps even more iconic, a collection of art posters. How does these images relate to traditional notions of masculinity, then or now?
  
  
• Dean is forever associated with the phrase "rebel without a cause." What does this phrase mean to you?
  
  
• In the film, Rebel Without a Cause, Dean's character, Jim Stark, occupies a difficult and increasingly dangerous relationship with the real guys, the "tough guys," of his high school. What role did seemingly strong guys play in your high school in deciding who or what was "cool"?
  

Frank McCourt and Other Teachers

"Long before he was a Pulitzer Prize-winning author, the late Frank McCourt was a teacher in the New York City schools. Relationships formed with 12,000 mostly teenaged students over 30 years form the basis for his new memoir, Teacher Man. McCourt tells Jacki Lyden about life in the classroom." Listen here, from All Things Considered (1/14/06 - 8:14)

Musings

1. How would you characterize McCourt's attitude towards teaching in his interview or reading the Prologue to his book, Teacher Man (available here)? Would such an attitude likely to make him a good or a bad teacher?
   
   
2. David Brown's retrospective piece (All Things Considered, 8/4/06) on the Kashmere High School soul band--dubbed the "greatest high school band ever"--reveals the value of audio files in delivering a wealth of information in compact form (in this case, 8:19 minutes). Much of the piece here is a touching interview with the 92-year-old master teacher, Conrad Johnson, someone who dared to break the mold—and that’s exactly what Johnson did with the Kashmere band, producing a full, commercial-sounding funk band when other high school bands were playing tired and timid semi-classical pops standards. In your own words, what made Johnson such an inspiring teacher?
   
   
3. Try reminiscing about a favorite teacher of your own, especially one as eccentric one like Conrad Johnson.
    
4. Identify the outstanding characteristics of any of the following teachers: math teacher George Nobl, Kimberly Oliver, the 2006 Teacher of the year (NPR interview, 6/5/06 - 6:31), a math teacher, Louis Leithold, music teacher Johanna Grussner, or Alix Black discussing her teacher-mom. Compare or contrast any two of these teachers.
    
5. Here's a list of films about educators from UAB and one from Amazon.com. Here's a list of books about great teachers, from Amazon's listmania: Very Special Teachers. Describe a noted teacher from one of these films or books.

Steven Spielberg

In 1984, the already popular American film director Steven Spielberg sat down for an interview with the BBC's Anthony Holden. Spielberg's dual position as immensely popular entertainer and a serious artist is apparent in how the BBC introduces this discussion: "Steven Spielberg's highly entertaining and suspense-packed films, have been criticized for a tendency towards escapism and sentimentality. However he is probably the most commercially successful film director of all time."

Five segments of the interview are available online:

• his father introducing him to the cosmos (4:43)
• ET and religious symbolism (3:23)
• Indiana Jones - fears and flaws (2:57)
• his sense of responsibility to his audience, Walt Disney and his forthcoming production of Peter Pan (2:45
• Gremlins and commercialisation (3:14)

Musings

• There is a form of film criticism (called auteur theory--the French word for "director") that looks at films as the personal statement of their directors. In these interviews Spielberg discusses a number of personal feelings (regarding wonder, childhood, fears, and so forth) that have clearly helped shape his films. Draw a connection on your own between one or more statements by Spielberg and one or more of his films. You can read more about Spielberg at Wikipedia.
  
  
• Auteur theory also impacts how we view two or more films by any director--that is, two different films as coming from a single creative source (the film's director). AllMovie.com defines directors as "Supervisors par excellence, . . . responsible for everything that goes before the camera including action and dialogue. The director . . . . is responsible for the function of the entire crew bringing about the desired results through technique and interpretation. Lighting, camera positions, sound and movement are all within the purviews of directorial dictums."
  
  Consider any two films by Spielberg as an expression of a single creative source. (Spielberg's filmography here.) Note that this response can involve contrast or difference as well as similarity, even on such a basic point as the movie being a commercial or critical success versus a commercial or critical failure.
  
  
• Consider two films by another director, and how they show something interesting if see see them as part of a single creative output. Here is a list of "great directors," and here a list of the five people nominated for an Oscar as "Best Director."
  

Favorite Films

This is Oscar season, a time when more folks discuss their favorite movies, usually what they consider the best films of the previous year. In this NPR piece, the co-directors of the surprise hit, Little Miss Sunshine, Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, join in with a list of their favorite DVDs (2/9/07 - 7:19).

Musings

• Little Miss Sunshine is itself a good example of a little-heralded film that people enjoy discovering for themselves and then recommending it to their friends--as compared to joining in with wide acclaim of well financed blockbuster like Dreamgirls. Discuss a favorite film of yours that you feel most of your friends have not seen or may not even have heard of.
  
  
• Look up reviews on any one of the films recommended by Dayton and Faris, and see how much agreement there is among the critics. The IMDb has long been the major repository of film information, although now there are many emerging hub sites collecting reviews like Metacritic.com.
  
  
• A personal favorite little-known film is Duel, a 1971, made-for-TV movie by then unknown director, Steven Spielberg. Reviews for such older films are much harder to find online, and are generally limited to the re-issue of the film on DVD.
  

Greatest High School Band Ever

David Brown's retrospective piece (All Things Considered, 8/4/06) on the Kashmere High School soul band--dubbed the "greatest high school band ever"--reveals the value of audio files in delivering a wealth of information in compact form (in this case, 8:19 minutes).

Musings

1. Much of the piece here is a touching interview with the now 92-year-old master teacher, Conrad Johnson, someone who dared to break the mold—and that’s exactly what Johnson did with the Kashmere band, producing a full, commercial-sounding funk band when other high school bands were playing tired and timid semi-classical pops standards. Try reminiscing about a favorite teacher, especially an eccentric one like Conrad Johnson.
   
   
2. Besides the audio in the piece, the NPR site has links to three Kashmere classics: “Super Bad,” “Do You Dig It, Man,” and a soul-drenched version of the Paul Desmond ultra-cool jazz classic (with the Dave Brubeck Quartet), “Take Five.” The NPR is a near-limitless well of materials and here is a page devoted to the original “Take Five,” on the Dave Brubeck album, Time Out. One possibility here is to contrast of the two versions--between the broad cultural categories of cool and hot, about which even tone-deaf students might have something interesting to contribute.
   
   
3. Another writing topic might focus on the ongoing debate over the value of music and arts educations generally in the schools, K-12, the subject of the 1995 film, Mr. Holland's Opus. In general the role of arts education in public schools has lessened with the emphasis on testing. How do you feel about this change, about the role of arts in high schools specifically?
   
   
4. What special qualities do any of these two teachers share that makes them special: math teacher George Nobl, Kimberly Oliver, the 2006 Teacher of the year (NPR interview, 6/5/06 - 6:31), a math teacher, Louis Leithold, music teacher Johanna Grussner, or Alix Black discussing her teacher-mom?
   
   
5. Here's a list of films about educators from UAB and one from Amazon.com. Here's a list of books about great teachers, from Amazon's listmania: Very Special Teachers. Describe a noted teacher from one of these films.
   

Home Grown

In this piece, Home Grown (Living On Earth - 8:13), environmentalist Bill McKibben describes a bet he made that he could live through a whole winter eating food grown only in his native Vermont. Also see McKibben's article on this same material: "A Grand Experiment," from Gourmet Magazine (July 2005).

Musings

• Use the MicKibben "bet" as an introduction to a broader discussion of the value of locally grown and locally produced goods in your own area. Such a discussion could describe foods that rely largely, if not entirely, on locally acquired ingredients.
  
  
• Not everyone will immediately think of music as a local product, but some of it surely is. Here's a piece by Cajun singer Michael Doucet on a favorite song.
  
  
• A related issue has to do with local and usually one-of-a-kind businesses, although admittedly they may be getting harder to find in some communities. At one time, every community had some local restaurants and specialty stores. McKibben is enamored of his native area (Vermont's Champlain Valley)--listen to this NPR interview (4/11/05 - 7:46) about his book Wandering Home. Describe a special, one-of-a-kind business or other location in your world?