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.