The Golden Army

For HellBoy II. The last night Jack was here on Sunday to help us get our mind off the inevitable goodbyes we rented HellBoy II and it was GOOD! I ate it up like chocolate mousse! The sets were surreal and later after the movie ended, I watched the special features which included the director Guillermo del Toro commentaries about the set designs. The troll market was so detailed, that the art dept even created a troll language that was use throughout the movie. Also he explained where he got his ideas from such as the numerous pipes reminded him of a place in Japan and the color schemes that they used. I know myself when it comes to my films, I am very picky about how my sets look. Ironically while I use what I have, my sets generally are very bare and tidy unlike my real life. Anyways if you haven't seen it, what the hell are you waiting for? The movie also introduced a new character name Johann Krauss an ectoplasmic medium (gas) who embodied the spirit of Germany post WWII. I also loved the tooth fairies which were not the sweet pretty ones we grew up leaving our tooth under our pillows but more like gnats that had a gang mentality and loved to gobble up teeth on living victims then gorging their flesh and bones! As for Abe Sapien character, I didn't really see how he contributed to the team of "freaks." But according to wikipedia his powers are

Abe Sapien is an amphibian who can survive underwater, an excellent gun marksman, and a formidable hand-to-hand combatant. He has extremely high intelligence and in film roles is adept at telepathy and psychometry.

Uh ok, didn't do much for me for this movie but hopefully the next one will make him a little more fierce and with a backbone! I never like superheroes who act timid. I really enjoyed the character Death (as seen in the 2nd pix). I thought whoever thought up of the character's look did a phenomenal job! Placing the eyes on his wings, having him talk in a cryptic manner, really this movie blew me away. I had seen Hellboy I and not overly impressed but now I can't wait to see the next movie!

I also saw BEOWULF the animation. I had heard of the story all my life but not being a fan of old English and poetry I never knew what it was about or the history behind this story. Basically its about a guy name Beowulf who is from Sweden and comes to Denmark to save a kingdom from a monster called Grendal who has been terrorizing and murdering people in the mead hall. I will admit at times the story moves painfully slow. I found myself looking up and down from the movie to my sidekick playing spider solitaire. But still nonetheless, it was very eye catching at times and real life. I later watched the special features on this dvd as well and learned that they used motion captured technology to create 3-dimensional characters.

Designers at Imageworks generated new animation tools for facial, body, and cloth design especially for the movie, and elements of keyframe animation were incorporated into the movie to capture the facial expressions of the actors and actresses.[7]

It was amazing to watch the behind the scenes and how they added weights to the props to give it real feeling to the actors. I also thought it was smart of the director Robert Zemeckis to have all the cast members dress up in the costumes and make-up as their 3-D characters would look like and take their pictures so they could have a copy in their dressing room. To help them visualize how they would look. They also used small scaled models of different sets to help the actors get an idea of where they should be standing or what direction they should be looking at. It was neat to watch and made me wonder how this technology could be applied to use deafies using ASL? I am glad I know finally know the story of Beowulf. While I do not desire to see the film again, I do appreciate the film production and they made it relatable in a way that I could understand and appreciate the story. Rather than it becoming like the Iliad, boring, dry and torturous to read!

Good news, my co-worker and her gf will take my turtles, yay! I really was hoping they would as now I know they will be in good hands. Plus this way I can maybe visit them and see what they look like as they grow up. I am just relieved that I found them a good home. She will let me know tmw if they can get the turtles this weekend or next?

This weekend I am working Fri and Sat for an event at media services. It will rake in an additional few hundred which will help me during the winter break when I am off from work. I will be off for x-mas and NYE and return the 2nd week of Jan. This is good because the break will allow me to get my thesis started, visit family, rest, work on lesson plans etc, etc but I am sure by the end of the break I will be ready to return to my beloved NYC. Without Jack being there, I get bored quickly. Not to say that my family is boring because they sure as hell aren't but all of my things are here, my life is here.

Friday night I will arrive to dphh pretty late but luckily King will snap photos of the earlier crowd and I will snap photos of the later crowd. She and I as well as McCaul work well together. I bombarded him with a list of possible bars for 2009 line up, I am curious to see which one he picks? I am glad I became the photographer for dphh, it keeps me behind a camera and makes me feel productive.

I should be grading commentaries but reading 45 commentaries on the same chapter gets old quick. I am seriously thinking of doing an online discussion for 2nd semester so that way it becomes more interactive with the students comparing their opinions rather than just writing a 2 page commentary to me and me writing notes to them directly. I plan to make it a weekly online discussion so some will be from JOURNEY INTO THE DEAF WORLD, and others from articles or online websites. I also plan to increase the mandatory 1 deaf culture event to 2. I think they can handle it. Its so interesting how after each semester of teaching I find myself modifying my course to make it better and more beneficial to my students as well as myself. I really love my job as a professor and it makes me feel good to expose my students to the deaf-world even if they choose not to be a part of it. I hope I instill a cultural view over a pathological view (deafies are broken and need to be fixed). And lastly I hope I change their views on ASL and that its not something that can be learned in a matter of hours. That its not broken English or iconic only. That it is a real language, with its own rules and syntax.