Movies in 2026 102

 

Footprints, (Jaromil Jires, 1960)

Well, my break from Czech New Wave didn't take long. This afternoon I took a break after lunch and watched Jaromil Jires's 1960 short film, Footprints. This film definitely had a different feel than The Hall of Lost Footsteps, the other Jires's short from 1960 that I watched the other day. The Hall of Lost Footprints was more of a warning for the future, in the shadow of nuclear proliferation and the recent memory of the Holocaust, whereas Footprints possessed a more tangible central narrative that followed an event in a Czech village during World War II (although, to be fair, every lesson from the past is really a lesson about the future. I really need to take greater advantage of all the shorts that the Criterion Channel provides.

Movies in 2026 101

 

Alien, (Ridley Scott, 1979)

I took a break from Czech New Wave last night and we watched Ridley Scott's 1979 film Alien, the one that began a never-ending franchise (one in which even Scott revisited decades later). The inspiration was an odd one. After a gym trip yesterday I popped into Shaw's and saw the ABC book A is for Alien in the grocery store's tiny magazine/book section. Of course, I had to purchase it (I think this has belated birthday gift for my son written all over it). Anyway, Janet and I read it and it inspired her to go back and watch the original, which led to me digging out my massive Alien boxed set (I think I also have a copy of Alien vs Predator somewhere). I suspect we'll be watching all of them. I think the original Alien holds up really well, certainly better than Star Wars. A couple of the special effects now look a little clumsy, but I also had to remind myself that the film is almost fifty years old (which made me feel even older than I already feel).

This is really the sort of writing that I should devote myself to during my retirement. The fact that this exists is both pretty funny but also subversive and more than a little perverse, but at least it's not that woman reading "children's books" that are thinly veiled and cringe-worthy wink-wink porn that YouTube thinks I should watch.

7

 I've now officially entered the last four weeks of my four-plus decade teaching career. I keep waiting for the nostalgia and bittersweet feelings to emerge. Mainly, I just want it over. Part of it is my own personality. As anyone who knows me will testify, I brood over things, but once I make a decision then the decision is made. I brooded over retiring for a couple years, and then, for several reasons, decided to retire, and after that there was no true regret, just a desire to get on to retirement and a different lifestyle. I'm still grinding away, including throwing my early morning Monday class out for not doing any work - and considering doing the same thing that night in my Fascism class. Maybe I'm just grouchy, but I guess I'm also just refusing to quit trying to teach these lunkheads something.

Thanks for Saskatchewan Roughriders quarterback and Grey Cup champion Trevor Harris for loaning me his number 7 this week. It was hard to not feel happy for him winning the Grey Cup last year as a starting quarterback (he had been on two Grey Cup winning teams in the past as a backup QB) because his career is a classic CFL story. Harris was born in Waldo, Ohio, and played his college ball at Division II Edinboro. And then his odyssey began, which began with not being drafted by an NFL team. He signed with the NFL Jackson Jaguars, but was then cut after the preseason. He then signed with the Arizona Rattlers of the Arena Football League and then the Hartford Colonials of the United Football League the next year. In 2011 he signed with the NFL Buffalo Bills, but for labor reasons (not the only time in his career) his contract was rescinded after, literally, a day and a half. After that he signed with the Sacramento Mountain Lions, although the league folded before he could get into a game. Later in 2011 he signed with the AFL's Orlando Predators, but the entire roster was let go (another labor problem) and replaced with, well, replacement players. Finally, in 2012, he turned his attention northward to the far superior (as all right-thinking individuals know) Canadian Football League (and this was usually interrupted with Harris getting into the dynamics of the team having an older and established veteran QB who was on his last legs), and played for the Toronto Argonauts, Ottawa Redblacks, Edmonton Eskimos/Elks (and, of course, this would be the time when Edmonton would change team names), Montreal Alouettes, and finally the Saskatchewan Roughriders. Hopefully, we'll see him play this summer as part of July's Trip of Excellence. 

Movies in 2026 100

 

The Fireman's Ball, (Milos Forman, 1967)

And yet another jewel from the Czech New Wave, Milos Forman's 1967 classic, The Fireman's Ball. Told through the lens of the most poorly-organized party of all time, Forman is clearly commenting on how things were actually running under communist control in Czechoslovakia. It's funny and disturbing at the same time. Recommended.

Movies in 2026 99

 

The Hall of Lost Footsteps, (Jaromil Jires, 1960)

Eventually I'll run through the Criterion Channel's Czech New Wave collection, at least until I give them yet another watch. One of the many things I love about the Criterion Channel is their supply of short films, often early efforts from aspiring filmmakers, which most of us would never have the opportunity to see otherwise. I particularly loved this early effort from Jires (and for some reason, maybe not o strange, I'm always drawn to works that came out the year I was born), The Hall of Lost Footsteps. It deals with the Holocaust and the threat of nuclear holocaust, and is very powerful. 

I just snapped this picture, one of the last shots in the film, because I thought it was so beautiful and also so evocative.

The Hidden Manuscript

 Which is not to be confused with The Secret History. Here's a not particularly exciting picture of a pile of books (all Shahnameh-related) that keep me company in my little loft office. Now, if you look closer, you can make out a poorly stacked pile of papers. That's half of my Epics manuscript. Long ago I stopped referring to it as my book (someday, inshallah, I will be able to refer to it as my book) and started simply calling it my manuscript. While I would prefer that it's published someday, obviously, in other ways the key is that I set out to write it - and I wrote it. My goal is to have to have it completely finished (as much as a book, uh, manuscript, is ever finished) by my last day of this last semester. Being able to turn my head and see the stack, growing larger week by week, gives me resolution to keep pushing grinding away.

I'm putting the final gloss on the entire manuscript. That's half of it, so you can get a sense of how big it will end up. 

Movies in 2026 98

 

Loves of a Blonde, (Milos Forman, 1965)

I mentioned that it was strange that I had never watched Jasny's All My Good Countrymen before. Last night I watched a film that I would have sworn that I had watched - and which the Criterion Channel assured me that I had - but of which I had absolutely no memory at all. I don't know how one would reach sixty-six years of age without ever having seen Milos Forman's Loves of a Blonde, but, again, I'm from Indiana, and thus poorly educated. It tells the story of Andula (played by Jana Brejchova, in her first role), a young Czech woman working in a pretty desultory Soviet-era factory. The entire story takes place within one week, from the dream of an exciting love that might get her out of her little village to the inevitable heartbreak. I'm not a huge Milos Forman fan, but I liked this a lot, and it's definitely recommended.

Movies in 2026 97

 

All My Good Countrymen, (Vojtech Jasny, 1969)

Several of the Czech New Wave films I've watched recently are ones that I had first viewed a few years ago. The other night I watched a film that I had somehow never seen before: Vojtech Jasny's wonderful and bittersweet 1969 film All My Good Countrymen. It's set in a small Czechoslovakian village, which passes from the joy of pushing out the Nazis (with the assistance of the Soviet Union) to the dehumanization and sadness of Communist rule. There are so many characters who pass in and out of focus, several of them dying, all of them disillusioned. It's sort of like a Gogol novel, except much, much more emotionally gutting. Highly recommended.

At Least 1007

 My wonderful friend and former student Ines sent me this picture, which she snapped outside the shawarma stand across the street from the University of Jordan in Amman. The first stop on the Jordan trip was always a walk down the hill to the little stand. I'm sure I've posted this picture before, but I love it so much. Even considering the chaos engulfing the region, I wish I were sitting there right now.

The thing that is amazing about that picture is that guy is clearly at least a thousand years old, and since that picture was taken at least seven years ago, it means that ancient dude is (if my limited Hoosier math will back me up) at least 1007. That said, I could walk then, so I had that going for me.

 

8

 Four weeks of the regular semester left. My students were alternately joyously engaged or sullenly disengaged this week. I have one class that is so much better than my other three that I'm tempted to manipulate my schedule so that they're the last college class I actually walk out of (it will make it seem slightly less certain that I've wasted the last forty years). The talk of me giving a going away speech, which would turn into the Gary Scudder Symposium, has reared its ugly head again. I'm honored, but the only thing I hate more than public speaking is being the center of attention, so I need to be even more deliberate in my no (although I've been pretty deliberate so far). 

Thanks to Zach Collaros for loaning me his number 8 for the Countdown. Collaros is a favorite of mine, not simply because he currently plays for my beloved Winnipeg Blue Bombers (they are one of my four favorite CFL teams), but also because he played college ball at the University of Cincinnati (where I attended graduate school). He was born in Steubenville, Ohio, and after his career with the UC Bearcats he went undrafted by the NFL. Callaros was on the practice squad of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for one year, but after that he's spent more than a dozen year north of the border. Along the way he's played for the Toronto Argonauts, Hamilton Tiger-Cats, Saskatchewan Roughriders, and Winnipeg Blue Bombers. Along the way he's won three Grey Cups, one as a backup for the Double Blues and two as a starter for the Bombers (he also lost three straight Grey Cups after the initial success - to be fair, two of them were last second heartbreakers, and in the third he was hurt in the game). While in college he roomed with the Kelce brothers, which means he essentially is dating Taylor Swift.

Movies in 2026 96

 

Gunbuster: The Movie (Hideaki Anno and Shoichi Masuo, 2006)

And from the sublime to the ridiculous. After collapsing at my friend Kevin's apartment, my usual Thursday night habit so that I can enjoy the Breakfast of Excellence on Friday morning, I wasn't quite tired enough to drop off nor was I awake enough to tackle a serious film (all Thursday night/Friday morning movies are Criterion Channel streams on my phone). So, I took a Criterion flyer and watched Hideaki Anno and Shoichi Masuo's Gunbuster: The Movie. Just as last year I tackled a bunch of books that I normally wouldn't bother with, I'm trying to broaden my cinematic field of view this year (as you might have guessed, it's already pretty wide). I'm not normally an anime viewer, but I figured I'd give it a shot. It's a hard film to judge, mainly because it's a condensed hour and a half version of a six episode series.  A lot of the action felt too much like a Transformers reboot, and thus I was just waiting it out. At the same time, there was an interesting side plot about how the teenage girls blasting into space to try and save the earth ended up aging at a different rate than their friends and loved ones left behind, and it made me wonder if that's actually played up more in the series, which could have ended up being fairly interesting. Anyway, as I am wont to say, watching it didn't do me any harm.

Movies in 2026 95

 

The Shop on Main Street, (Jan Kadar and Elmar Klos,1965)

I definitely went down the Czech New Wave rabbit hole, which I had warned that I would (also keeping in mind that I've already seen all these movies). A couple days ago I watched Jan Kadar and Elmar Klos's The Shop on Main Street again. I think this is the darkest of the Czech New Wave films I've seen so far, although it has some light and sweet moments. It focuses on the time during World War II when the Slovaks were Nazi supporters. In this way it sort of reminded me of Kobayashi's The Human Condition, and the desire of artists inside a country to not let the past slip away. Jozef Kroner plays Antonin "Tono" Brtko, who is given control over Rozalia Lautmannova's (beautifully played by Ida Kaminska) small button shop as part of the Nazi Aryanization program. Despite Tono's efforts to avoid doing harm, the system itself makes it impossible. As the Jews are being taken away, Tono tries one last time to save Razalia, but is unable, and in the end he cannot accept his role, although limited, in a regime committing such horrible atrocities. A brilliant film, and one that I can't recommend too highly.

Movies in 2026 94

 

Closely Watched Trains, (Jiri Menzel, 1966)

Last night in my Images of Fascism class I showed my students one of my favorite movies: Jiri Menzel's 1966 film Closely Watched Trains. It was the decidedly deserving recipient of an Academy Award for Best Foreign Film, and is based on a Bohumil Hrabel novella. Milos (Vaclav Neckar) and Hubicka (Josef Somr) do most of the work at a sleepy train depot in Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia, and get involved with a plot to blow up an ammunition train, although the younger, and dreadfully inexperienced and clumsy Milos, spends most of his time hoping to get laid. Mainly I wanted my students to think about the notion that anybody can be a hero, no matter how unlikely, which seems like a perfect lead-in to Timothy Snyder's On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century, which we're starting next week. This film is required viewing.

9

 So, shit is getting real, as I've now passed into single digits. After leaving campus last night I'm left with only 9 days left wherein I have to be on campus (again, not counting Finals Week). Speaking of Finals Week, I remember my senior year at Franklin College. The tradition was that if you were a graduating senior, and you were happy with your grade, you had the option of not taking a class final. I was satisfied with my four classes, having locked in my normal 3.75 (my students are always amazed that I never actually pulled off a 4.0 even once in my college career - I try to convey to them that graduate schools are also looking for people who actually left their dorm rooms and did stuff)) so I decided to not take my finals (I think there was an off-chance that I could have pushed the B up to an A, but it didn't seem worth my time). As I approach my last Finals Week I'm tempted to give all my students that option. My fraternity voted to make me go home for the week, arguing that me hanging around during Finals Week without anything to do was a menace (which, doubtless, it would have been).

Thanks to Jon Ryan for loaning me his #9 for the Countdown. I thought I should finally include a kicker in the Countdown, although, obviously, Ryan is far more than simply some random kicker. He was actually born in Regina, Saskatchewan, including playing for the University of Regina Rams, although he spent most of his career in the NFL. Ryan was the punter for the Seattle Seahawks for ten seasons, including winning a Super Bowl with them. He also kicked for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, Edmonton Elks, Hamilton Tiger-Cats, and his hometown Saskatchewan Roughriders. He's a member of the Saskatchewan Sports Hall of Fame (and he's the first Saskatchewan player to win a Super Bowl). While playing for the University of Regina he caught a 109 yard TD pass - and he's the part-owner of two summer college league baseball teams - so he seems like a pretty cool guy.

Movies in 2026 93

 

Daisies, (Vera Chytilova, 1966)

Since we're in the middle of a three week run of 1960s Czechoslovakian films in my Images of Fascism class I guess it's not too surprising that I've ended up taking the opportunity to revisit other films in a very rich Criterion Channel collection. Last night I re-watched Vera Chytilova's 1966 Czechoslovakian New Wave classic, Daisies. It's a surreal and anarchic commentary on perceived women's roles and bourgeois expectations. Mainly, it's Marie I (Jitka Cerhova) and Marie II (Ivana Karbanova) running amuck and causing destruction. I liked it a lot more on this second viewing. Recommended.

10

 And another week down, only five weeks to go. My students were immeasurably dense this week, staggeringly dense, even factoring in that it was the week after spring break they were breath-takingly dense. It would be great to finish out my long career with great, engaged students (to be fair, I do have a few really good kids this semester), but in other ways finishing with under-prepared and unengaged students is making this transition easier. It's frustrating because I'm teaching two sections of my Journey to the West class, which I originally created because I thought learning about Sun Wukong would be of natural interest to the gamer kids and also support their professional interests, and two classes on Fascism, because, well, duh. Sadly, the majority of the students seem pretty disinterested in both topics, the former leaves me sad, the latter leaves me frightened.

Thanks to CFL Hall of Famer Bernie Faloney for the use of his number 10 in the Countdown this week. Faloney was born in Carnegie, Pennsylvania, and eventually starred at Maryland. In 1953 he led Maryland to a share of the national championship and finished fourth in the Heisman balloting. He was drafted in the first round as the 11th pick by the San Francisco 49ers, but they viewed him as a defensive back and an backup quarterback - and only offered him $9000. Edmonton (at the time the Eskimos) told him he could compete for the starting quarterback job - and they offered him $12,500 (it's so odd to read about these early stories where CFL teams outbid NFL teams for players) - so Faloney headed north. He helped Edmonton win the Grey Cup, but then returned home but then returned home to serve his military duties. After two years, he returned to the CFL, this time signing with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, for whom he became a legend (one of the roads next to the Tim Hortons Field is name after him), leading the Tiger-Cats to two Grey Cup wins.

Movies in 2026 92

 

Stagecoach, (John Ford, 1939)

Whenever I ask questions like, "Who is the greatest American director?" - and my long-time friends will tell you that I ask questions like that much too often (although, truthfully, can you ask question like that too often?) - for some reason I never promote John Ford as an answer. Obviously, he would be a completely legitimate answer. If you just wrote down the list of his truly great films he would naturally compete with any other American filmmaker. The other night I re-watched his 1939 breakout film Stagecoach - which also launched the career of John Wayne - and reshaped the American perception of the Western. It's currently in a Criterion Channel collection on movies with great stunts, which I don't normally think of when I think of Stagecoach (simply because there are so many other things to love about the film), but it does have great stunts. It's odd to think that Wayne received second billing, with Claire Trevor receiving top billing - she is very good, and for some reason I always forget that she later received an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in Key Largo. And speaking of Academy Awards, Thomas Mitchell received one for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Doc Boone. The film itself did not receive an Academy Award for Best Picture, because it was 1939 and that's the legendary year where all the films were all-time classics (unlike this past year, where you had a bunch of pretty good films which will seem like strange choices when people look back in a decade). Clearly, watching Stagecoach is essential.

And a star is born. Here's your first scene of John Wayne in Stagecoach, as he waves down the stagecoach - an iconic scene. Wayne had been in movies before, but this is where his true stardom began. Yes, life is pretty dreadful right now as we pass into an authoritarian nightmare and turn our back on every promise that we ever made as a nation, but I guess there's still John Wayne starring in John Ford films to give us some fleeting joy. In the foreground you can see Mollie's ears, as she carries on her nightly duties of sitting on my lap while I watch movies on the  Criterion Channel.

A Single Volume Ramayana - And a Bit too Much Excitement

 You know, there are moments when I have to admit to a ever so slightly nerdy moments. Generally, I accuse many of my friends (for instance, Cyndi) of being much bigger nerds than me (well, Janet gets a pretty consistent accusation), but, maybe I may have an ever so insignificant, almost unmeasurably small, degree of nerd in me. No one should be so excited about the arrival of a thousand page version of the Ramayana. To be fair, I do love the Ramayana, but the arrival of a single volume is huge for my Epics project. I have been able to tie my research and writing to single editions of the Iliad (Robert Fitzgerald), the Aeneid (Robert Fagles), the Shahnameh (Dick Davis), and Journey to the West (Anthony Yu, although Yu's classic is four volumes - he did create his single volume The Monkey and the Monk, which I use every year). All of these are easy to track down and inexpensive to acquire. The outlier was always the Ramayana. There simply wasn't a single volume that featured the original text from the Indian poet Valmiki. There are several much shorter retellings, but I wanted my readers to experience the original text, and not a modern retelling. So, I tied my writing to Robert Goldman's massive Critical Edition, which is extraordinary, but something that would be hard to find unless you had access to a library at a research university. So, the arrival of The Ramayana of Valmiki: the Complete English Translation from Robert Goldman and Sally J. Sutherland Goldman is a godsend. I have my single, affordable edition that I can tie to my research (although lining things up to my original citations from the Critical Edition, and factoring in new translations, is a late challenge to my work) solves a big problem. Beyond everything else, I was simply way too excited to have the book arrive, and provide me yet another opportunity to delve into the Indian classic.

Robert Goldman, who is a major scholar but also a very nice guy, told me about the publication of the single volume Ramayana (which somehow I had missed). It's still a tome, obviously, but here it is next to the seven volume Critical Edition of the Ramayana from which it is culled. 

Earthquake Museum

 And how did I never post anything about the Earthquake Museum? I've talked about the famous Lisbon earthquake of 1755 many times in various classes over the years, most recently in my Nature of Evil class in the fall. It inspired a poem from Voltaire., and, for that matter, Candide and his crew witness the earthquake in the novel Candide. Some philosophers propose that it was to philosophers of the 18th century what the Holocaust was to philosophers of the 20th century. That is, they are not claiming that the two events are close in regards to loss of life, obviously, but rather that they provided an existential threat to a worldview. That is, they were both events that thinkers had to address, in that you simply couldn't ignore them. The 18th century was dominated by the Enlightenment and the emphasis on reason, and the random nature of the earthquake, killing tens of thousands who were all in Church on All Saints Day, certainly spoke to the absence of God in daily life. I had wanted to visit it for a while, but in this particular case I was hoping, unrealistically, of leading one last student trip before my legs gave out entirely. Sadly, I had a heart scare (which turned out to be overrated), and I had to cancel the trip before it ever got off the ground. When you visit Lisbon a trip to the Earthquake Museum is definitely worth your time.

The museum does a pretty good job building the anticipation. Plus, well, it's a popular tourist stop, and they move you along pretty quickly.

It's pretty high tech jazzy, although this reminded me of the movie Tron.

There's a fair bit of scientific learning and quizzes. 

You get a sense of what Lisbon looked like pre-quake. The woman in the background is part of a sophisticated video of people walking in and out of the scene.

The high point of the experience is sitting in pews in a church as the earthquake hits, the jarring ride begins, which is synced up with the video.

And a Different Afternoon in Portugal

 This was just popped up on my phone as a memory the other day, and I captured it. It's from the Spain/Portugal student trip that I led with my great friend Mike and Kelly. We were just walking up the hill in Sintra, and we seemed awfully happy. Maybe it just jumped out at me because I was doing something as radical as walking without pain. Also, the weather looks awfully nice for late November.

Sadly, Janet and I couldn't retrace these steps on our trip to Sintra because of all the wildfires in the area.

Afternoons in Coimbra

 Maybe this is just because it's another Vermont day where the temperature isn't interested in climbing out of the 20s, but I was just sitting here thinking about Portugal. This is the first year in several that I won't be making a trip to my beloved Portugal. I was tempted to make one last dive into my PD funds and present a paper in Lisbon, but in the end it seemed much better to keep up the momentum of my Epics book (my goal is to get it finished - granted, books are not finished until they're published - by my last day at Champlain, so that I can go into the summer with a freedom I haven't had in a while). Plus, well, I figured that Champlain needs the money. Anyway, I found myself scrolling through some pictures, and it's amazing to me that I still have stories from last summer's trip that I haven't told (although this is a pretty common occurrence for me, as I have dozens if not hundreds of posts queued up to be written). I was thinking that I liked my time in Coimbra quite a bit, and would definitely like to go back. Here are a couple pictures that I snapped at a little restaurant when I was killing time waiting to get into the famous library. It's just a sandwich on a side street, but I wish I were there right now.

I'm always taking pictures of menus and coasters, although not as much as I should, just as reference points.

It was just a simple lunch, but it just screams Portugal.

Movies in 2026 91

 

Blue Velvet, (David Lynch, 1986)

In honor of the 40th anniversary of my personal boycott of the Academy Awards, I thought I'd revisit (again) the film that started it all, David Lynch's 1985 masterpiece Blue Velvet (that is, the fact that the film wasn't nominated for Best Picture led me to take an oath never to watch the Oscars again - a promise I've kept for four decades). I don't know what needs to be said about this film, one that I consider a top five selection. What struck me last night was how many iconic, unforgettable scenes there are in, including the scenes that you'd actually like to forget. As I've long opined, there were movies before Blue Velvet, and after Blue Velvet - just as their was TV before Twin Peaks, and TV after Twin Peaks. The other thing that I thought about last night was that I used to show his film during my adjunct days at Franklin College in the late 1980s, before I headed south to Atlanta for my first full-time gig at DeKalb (soon to be Georgia Perimeter) College. Not only did my students like the film and as part of a discussion sort out the deeper symbolism - but they also sat there and didn't crumble, start crying, or run out of the room. That is, they acted liked university students tackling difficult material. In my Nature of Evil class in the fall semester I showed Lee Tamahori's 1994 film Once Were Warriors, which is a film I've shown in several classes over a twenty year period at Champlain. It's a difficult and often brutal film, but it's also one of the most decorated films in New Zealand history - and for a reason. It gets at profound issues of misogyny and poverty and racism and a painful colonial legacy. In this last fall semester my students competed with each other, in an almost performative fashion, to see who could run out of the room more often. It was a pathetic performance, especially since I had actually given them something I abhor, a series of trigger warnings. What the students don't understand is that all this concern about their feelings and emotional health is not actually about their feelings and their emotional health. Rather, it's a decades long process by corporate America to make them more compliant consumers, and, as we're sadly seeing right now, more compliant in their submission to authoritarianism. Film, more than any other medium, is fueled by an emotional intensity and immediacy, and when we warn the viewers of unpleasant things that are going to happen we're doing incredible harm to the films. The director made a decision to tell their story a certain way, and I'm playing a role in destroying that vision when I warn the students about unpleasant aspects in the way the artist pursued their craft. But, again, it's more than simply tampering with the artistic integrity of an artist. When we dilute the message we're telling the students that they can't deal with unpleasant or complicated or ambiguous scenarios, and it is currently gutting education. Heaven forbid, I'd hate to think the mass faintings that a showing of Blue Velvet would inspire. When you grows up glued to your phone, your used to answers that are presented simply and definitively and entertainingly and comfortably. Unfortunately, life is not like that. Trump may be a unique cult figure, but he's not entirely an outlier. He presents simplistic and entertaining answers to complex and unpleasant problems, and when we decided to stop challenging our students, to make them uncomfortable, we laid the groundwork for the nightmare we're living through right now. Obviously, Blue Velvet is required viewing. Thanks for coming to my TedTalk.

Movies in 2026 90

 

Kiss of the Spider Woman, (Hector Babenco, 1985)

I don't remember the last time I saw Hector Babenco's 1985 film Kiss of the Spider Woman, but it was probably shortly about it came out. We were living in Cincinnati then, and it was before my son was born, so it's not out of the question that we actually saw it in a theater, but I don't remember that. So, it might have been an old school visit to a video store. I have this vague memory of their being a little video store up in the neighborhood around the University of Cincinnati, but who knows (and why I even remember that, having thought about it in decades, is already entering into the realm of the supernatural). Maybe I'll ask my friend Dave if he remembers said video store. Anyway, the movie is awfully good, although in some ways the performances of William Hurt (who won his Oscar for his role as Molina), Raul Julia, and Sonia Braga outshine the movie itself. It seems that I am watching too many films set in authoritarian states at the moment, which is probably telling of the state of America right now. Definitely recommended.

Movies in 2026 89

 

A Report on the Party and the Guests, (Jan Nemec, 1966)

I suspect I was grousing about my students earlier because of my students criminal inability to understand Jan Nemec's brilliant 1966 film A Report on the Party and the Guests the other night. Not surprisingly, this is another film that the Criterion Channel was kind enough to introduce to me. It's also a great fit for my Images of Fascism class. A Report on the Party and the Guests is a surreal allegory on how Communism spread in Czechoslovakia, both both from the perspective of the Party and also from those who who complied, some by force but also way too many much more casually or easily. My students inability to see parallels to today's nightmare American political scene was very discouraging, and also very telling. I will be showing it again on Thursday night, so the generation has one more chance to redeem itself. Highly recommended, the film, not my students.

Movies in 2026 88

 

Archer, (Adam Reed, 2009-2023)

When Janet and I got together, I suppose I brought many things to her life, hopefully some of them were good and made it worth her while to take me in off the street. Of course, for every thoughtful discussion of Proust or Pessoa or Mann, there's also CFL games and Cincinnati chili and Archer. Actually, Archer may be my best contribution to our relationship, and it remains our go-to choice on those nights when you're not quite ready to go to bed to read and a bit too tired to jump into a foreign film. And, of course, how do you even manage to get through the day without the strategic use of "Phrasing!"

11

 My spring break, my final spring break, has come and gone, and now I'm entering the final six weeks of the semester, the final six weeks of my teaching career. I still don't feel too sad or bittersweet about my impending retirement, although Chuck's gift of the Alan Page jersey yesterday was a reminder of how much I'll miss some of my friends and colleagues. There are several factors which seem to tamping down my sad feelings, some of which I've already discussed, but I also have to admit that if my students were better at this point in Champlain's history I'm sure I'd feel more remorse. 

Thanks to CFL Hall of Famer Ken Ploen for loaning me his number 11 for the countdown. Ploen was born in Lost Nation, Iowa, before starring at the University of Iowa, and leading them to a Rose Bowl win. After graduating, he was drafted in the 19th round (back when the NFL draft had many more round than it does now) by the Cleveland Browns. The Browns wanted him to play defensive back instead of quarterback (he played both at Iowa), so he took up on an offer from new Winnipeg Blue Bombers coach Bud Grant to head north of the border. Grant told him that Ploen was free to play QB for the Blue Bombers. It turned out to be a good decision, as Ploen led Winnipeg to six Grey Cups, winning four of them. A road near the stadium is named after him, which I'll check out this summer on July's trip.

Movies in 2026 87

 

Neighboring Sounds, (Kleber Mendonca Filho, 2012)

And now I've gone down a Kleber Mendonca Filho rabbit hole (thanks, as always, to the Criterion Channel for introducing me to new directors). The other night I watched Neighboring Sounds. It probably wasn't fair to watch this film after watching Bacurau, not because Neighboring Sounds isn't a good movie, because it certainly is, but mainly because Bacurau is so outsized in its scope, and general weirdness. Neighboring Sounds shares Bacurau's sense of quiet, although quieter, existential dread. It's set in a quiet residential neighborhood, run by a patriarch who is not who he seems, and featuring a brand new security company, who are also not who they seem to be. Definitely recommended.   

88

 Don't worry, I haven't decided to stay at Champlain, and in the process push the countdown back up to 88 days (although, oddly, I think some of my friends - and even a few students - would push for that decision). Instead, this is an unexpected - and remarkably thoughtful - retirement from my friend Chuck. We have a similar schedule on Mondays and Thursdays in the morning, so we often take the opportunity to gab. He met me yesterday with a wrapped present, and inside was this absolutely amazing Alan Page jersey. As Chuck has known forever - although I don't know how it ever became part of the discussion - Alan Page is my all-time favorite football player. Page is the first defensive player to win MVP honors, and that was in an age before sacks were an official stat, so you can just imagine how dominant he had to be without a counting stat to justify his case. He's also a member of the NFL Hall of Fame. Maybe more impressively, he also graduated from Notre Dame, and eventually law school, and served on the Minnesota Supreme Court for years. It's amazing how few people know his story - and it's shameful that the NFL doesn't promote him more when talking about the game.

And it's even autographed, so this is over the top nice of Chuck. Of course, as my friend MK pointed out, this also means I can never wash it. I guess this also means that I have to start rooting for the Vikings again (although misery lays in that path).

Movies in 2026 86

 

perfectly a strangeness, (Alison McAlpine, 2024)

In the same collection the introduced me to Kleber Mendonca Filho, I found  Alison McAlpine's wonderful fifteen-minute film, perfectly a strangeness. It's an Oscar nominated documentary that follows three donkeys as the walk around an observatory hidden away in the Chilean desert. Absolutely delightful. And I love this screen during the final credits: "starring Palomo and Ruperto and Palaye." It reminds you how insignificant humans are in the big picture.

Writing and Why Beppe Was Right

 I've been reading quite a bit of Italian literature recently, which may be part of an unconscious transition to our upcoming life in Italy.  One of the novels I read was Beppe Fenoglio's A Private Affair, which I liked quite a bit. In the introduction I felt a definite sense of communion with Fenoglio's comment on his writing: "I write for a great many reasons . . . but certainly not for fun." I'm in the process of putting final gloss on my Epics manuscript, and am also sending around proposals to publishers, with my goal to have the entire five-hundred page tome finished (obviously, it will be altered and amended when/if I find a publisher) by the time I teach my last class at Champlain. That will give me the summer to begin to transition to other projects, get back to the gym, and start packing. Beppe's words jumped out at me because I really don't like writing, I mean, I do and I don't. Like most writers, researching and pursuing mad flights of fancy is a ton of fun, but grinding your way through endless revisions is pretty tortuous. Having said all that, I do like it now in a way that I thought that I never would - and this is helping me get my mind around the thought of retirement, because I can now imagine a different and meaningful world when I'm no longer teaching. Still, groan, Beppe is spot on. It's exhausting and lonely and it completely eats away at your self-esteem. Groan.

Movies in 2026 85

 

Bacurau, (Kleber Mendonca Filho and Juliano Dornelles, 2019)

Once again, the Criterion Channel delivers. Tucked away in a collection dedicated to Academy Award nominated films and directors, I found three films by Kleber Mendonca Filho. I watched the 2019 film Bacurau (which Mendonca co-directed with Juliano Dornelles). Somehow, once again I blame my criminally limited Hoosier education, I had never seen the film nor heard of the director. Shameful. I described the film, which I loved, as one part Gabriel Garcia Marquez and one part Hostel and one part John Carpenter.  It was riveting, at times funny and endearing and frightening, and also subversive as well. It's set in the small town of Bacurau in the backwaters of Brazil, and the strange series of events that occur after the death of Carmelita, the town's matriarch. There are wonderful performances from Barbara Colen (as Teresa, Carmelita's granddaughter, who was supposed to be back to the village for the funeral), Thomas Aquino (as Pacote, Teresa's ex-lover and a leader in the village), and Silvero Pereria (as Lunga, a local revolutionary) - along with Sonia Braga (as Domingas, a local doctor, who, when she's not drinking, is very friendly) and Udo Keir (as Michael, in a very villainous role, even by Udo Keir standards). It's very much a commentary on colonialism, but also on the Brazilian politicians who happily support it for a price. Highly recommended.

The Boy at 38

 As if I needed more bookmarks to emphasize my age, I experienced another one the night - although in this case it was a joyous one. On Thursday Janet and I took my son and his wife Ali out to celebrate his 38th birthday. On his card I thanked him for giving me my all-time favorite day, but also another 13,878 days that made me almost as happy. I am so proud of the man he's become, compassionate and responsible.

The only downside to the evening was ordering Cincinnati Chili at the Langdon Street Tavern. They got the pasta part right, but clearly didn't get the rest of the memo in regards to the unique spices. However, my Mom made chili the same way for years, it was the go-to meal for Monday night to fuel watching Monday Night Football.

Movies in 2026 84

 

How to Shoot a Ghost, (Charlie Kaufman, 2025)

One of the many, many beautiful things about the Criterion Channel is that you never know what you're going to stumble across. Yes, there's the huge collection of Bergman and Ozu and Fellini films which are always there for the viewing, but then there are the monthly collections that come and go (or which are the ones, like Japanese film noir, that so popular that they don't leave), and you are introduced to new directors and genres and films all the time. Last night I watched Charlie Kaufman's 2025 short feature, How to Shoot a Ghost, which featured Jessie Buckley and Josef Akiki as spirits wandering aimlessly throughout Athens. I tend to like Kaufman more as a screenwriter than as a director, and this was no exception, although I did like the film and would definitely recommend it. When I drop dead I hope that I get to haunt someplace interesting - maybe if I can spend the rest of eternity spectrally roaming around Lisbon I might actually learn the language.

Bookmarks

 One of my (many) peculiarities is my willingness (joy) at using literally anything as a bookmark. Janet is much more likely to gather up free bookmarks at bookstores (like the motherlode we picked up yesterday afternoon at Bear Pond Bookstore in Montpelier), whereas I'll make use of just about anything; favorites would include: foreign currency, tickets to get into the Taj Mahal, plane tickets, etc. Yesterday I was putting a final gloss on my Ramayana chapter when the following restaurant receipt fell out of my copy of the Ayodhyakanda. I suppose, as I fast approach a major bookmark, that is my retirement, it would make sense that I found it oddly moving. An Indian epic definitely deserved an Indian receipt.

That's from the March 2020 trip to India, which will forever be known as the COVID trip, when the college irresponsibly sent us off on an international flight as the COVID pandemic was hitting (mainly because the administration wouldn't take my advice to cancel the trip and reimburse the money to the students; instead, they wanted me to cancel it, be the bad guy, and not give any money back).

The receipt was from late in the week, as we made our way back from Rajasthan to Delhi. I couldn't remember where we had stopped, although when I sent this picture to my friend and co-conspirator Steve, and he remembered the restaurant. The outside does look familiar.

Movies in 2026 83

 

Tiny Furniture, (Lena Dunham, 2010)

And here's another film which sat in my queue forever - and, for that matter, I think actually, back in the day, arrived as a Netflix DVD before being returned unwatched: Lena Dunham's 2010 film Tiny Furniture. It stars Lena Dunham his mother Laurie Simmons, and her sister Grace Dunham (with the latter two playing, appropriately enough, her mother and sister). It's often compared to an early Woody Allen movie, with the appropriate wink at the audience when one of the characters, Jed (Alex Karpovsky), is continually reading Without Feathers. I liked it a lot, although I wonder if the explosion of praise might have been a bit overdone, and partially related to her writing and directing it at the precocious age of twenty-four. Still, I shouldn't downplay it simply because she never topped it later. 

Movies in 2026 82

 

Variety Lights, (Alberto Lattuada & Federico Fellini, 1951)

The other night we finally watched a film that had sat in my Criterion Channel queue for way to long: Variety Lights. It's a 1951 move that was co-directed by Federico Fellini and Alberto Lattuada. I think it first entered the queue because I was in a Fallini mood, but then we finally watched it when we made the Alberto Lattuada connection. We had just watched Lattuada's Mafioso, which has become a cabin favorite. Variety Lights is the first film where Fellini received directorial credit, so there must have been a solid relationship between him and Lattuada, who was already a well-known filmmaker. It feels very much like a Fellini film, with that related joy and sadness that somehow always work out so beautifully together in his work. Plus, it co-stars Giulietta Masina (his wife), who also later starred in La Strada and Nights of Cabiria. Definitely recommended. 

Movies in 2026 81

 

Haxan, Benjamin Christensen, 1922)

My computer is, as is its wont, deciding to be weird and inefficient, which is keeping me from downloading/uploading pictures this morning. I guess this is what happens when you turn your laptop off and on to give it a break, and in the process it forgets how to do anything. All of this is by way of saying that I won't be able to post any movie posters (maybe I'll sort it out and come back and amend these posts). I will sometimes show clips from Benjamin Christensen's 1922 Swedish film Haxen, and I did so the other day in my COR 303 class. Not surprisingly, this led to me watching the entire film yet again, and thus it has made its way onto the blog. Haxen, which means "Witch," is one part documentary and one part horror film, and it adds up to a very rich cinematic experience. It's also amazing how clean the print is, both the one which seems to live eternally at the Criterion Channel and the one you can find on YouTube. Recommended.

Movies in 2026 80

 

Safety Last!, (Fred Newmeyer and Sam Taylor, 1923)

After Bleeder and Re-Wind maybe it made sense that I needed a Harold Lloyd recalibration, although I had already been working through a series of his films on the Criterion Channel already. Last night I watched Lloyd's classic Safety Last!, which also starred Mildred Davis (as The Girl), Bill Strother (as The Pal, Limpy Bill), and Noah Young (as The Law). Mildred Davis often co-starred with Lloyd, and eventually the two of them married. Safety Last! features some classic Harold Lloyd bits, including that classic scene of him hanging from a clock that is the natural result of any image search. Recommended.

July CFL Excellence

 The second CFL Trip of Excellence is becoming a reality. My cousin Nick and I are meeting in Hamilton in June for a Tiger-Cats game (he's already reserved the rooms, and now we're just waiting for the single game tickets to go on sale for I purchase a couple of nice seats on the 55 yard line). This will be followed up by the long-discussed Winnipeg Blue Bombers and Saskatchewan Roughriders doubleheader in July. The plane tickets have been purchased - flying into Winnipeg and flying out of Regina (in between we're renting a car for the long drive in between) - and the rooms have been reserved. Again, we're just waiting for the individual game tickets to go on sale. Kevin and I will be attending both games, and Cyndi is joining us for the first part of the trip. In doing so, CB will join the inner circle of true CFL fans who have attended games with me at more than one CFL stadium (joining Kevin, Andy, and Sandy). After that trip, the only outlier in my quest to have visited every CFL stadium will be Victoria and to a BC Lions home game. I guess that will have to wait until the summer of 2027 when/if I'm back for a visit.

Movies in 2026 79

 

Re-Wind, (Hiyasasu Sato, 1988)

As part of the same VHS Forever collection featured on the Criterion Channel this month I also watched Hisayasu Sato's 1998 film Re-Wind. Over the years I've heard of Sato films, but I never got around to watching one. OK, now I have, so I guess I don't have to watch another one. He's one of those guerilla film makers that I'm glad, on one level, who exist and are out pushing the boundaries of cinema and not making films for the Marvel Universe or the Hallmark Channel. At the same time, an hour of watching Re-Wind's sex and violence left me bored and disinterested. As I was watching it, I kept thinking that the emotionally stunted Lenny from Bleeder would have loved this movie. 

Movies in 2026 78

 

Bleeder, (Nicolas Winding Refn, 1999)

One of the advantages of recording films watched (as with last year's recording of books read) is that you get a sense of not only the number, but always the diversity of films watched (books read). I always tend to think that I fall into the trap of only reading certain books, but when you record them you realize that you read a broader variety than you think (although, as I discussed last year, part of the process was also forcing myself out of my comfort zone). I was less worried about this when it came to films, as I knew that I've traditionally gone pretty far afield in watching movies. Being a long-time fan of the Criterion Collection and the Criterion Channel has definitely broadened my knowledge of and appreciation for international and independent cinema. With that in mind, the other night I watched a Danish film, Nicolas Winding Refn's Bleeder. It's a pretty bleak film, as compared, I suppose, to all of those slapstick Danish romantic comedies (which may actually be a thing - I'm waiting for the rotating Criterion Channel collection). The film focuses on Leo (Kim Brodnia) and Lenny (a pre-star Mads Mikkelsen) and the unhappy women in their lives, Louise (Rikke Louise Andersson), who is carrying Leo's baby, and Lea (Liv Corfixen), no doubt soon to be unhappy as film-obsessed Lenny's potential girlfriend. Zlarko Buric, as Kitjo, the owner of the video store where Lenny works, is also very good. It's definitely recommended, but it's pretty grim. 

Movies in 2026 77

 

Steamboat Bill, Jr., (Charles Reisner, 1928)

And I'm taking advantage of the Criterion Channel to watch another silent movie, in this case Buster Keaton's Steamboat Bill, Jr. The second half of the film, during a huge storm, features some of the most iconic Keaton moments. 

Movies in 2026 76

 

Still Life, (Jia Zhangke, 2006)

This week in my Images of Fascism class I had the opportunity to show Jia Zhangke's masterful 2006 film Still Life. I was honest in telling my students, in fact I include it on the handout, that Jia Zhangke is my favorite contemporary filmmaker. I suspect I've talked enough about this film over the years that it's not necessary to give a lot of background, but, of course, I will anyway. It focuses on Han Sanming (played by Han Sanming) and Shen Hong (played by Zhao Tao, Jia Zhangke's longtime muse) who arrive at the village of Fengjie, both looking for lost spouses. The actual town of Fengjie was being actually largely flooded by the Three Gorges Dam project, and the destruction is being captured in real time. Jia Zhangke is telling a beautiful and heart-wrenching story, but he's also subtly critiqueing the state of life in China (which is what I asked the students to focus on). It is an extraordinary film, maybe my favorite film of the 21st century, and definitely required viewing.