Filmed Life

Test

2010-09-21T20:23:00.003-04:00

Lisa Simpson researching Golf.

Test

2010-09-13T18:34:00.001-04:00

Test Pattern...

Sugar

2009-05-31T16:37:00.003-04:00

Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden's Sugar is great viewing for the early part of the baseball season. Their titular hero works his way from a Dominican Republic baseball camp (which looks startlingly like a minimum security prison complete with armed guards at the gate) owned by the fictional Kansas City Capitals, into the American Minor League system and stalling in Bridgeport, Iowa where most of the film takes place.

The AA affiliate Bridgeport Swing provide housing for their foreign ballplayers in the homes of fans who provide a room and food while attempting to indoctrinate their wards into Midwestern American life.

The film's realistic look at the tribulations of a Dominican baseball player provides ample ammunition for social critique and the camera never strays far from our likable hero. This is a baseball film in the most pure sense as there are no easy victories and the measure of success can not be viewed in the short term but instead when looking at the end result. To paraphrase Ken Burns' documentary Baseball the greatest players are ones who are only successful thirty percent of the time.

Boden and Fleck's followup to Half Nelson, which explored the relationship between a crack addicted teacher and one of his students,continues with that films preoccupation of uncovering the more complicated facts of American life.

IMDB pages:

Sugar
Half Nelson
Baseball

The Frodo Franchise

2009-03-31T15:22:00.003-04:00

My review of Kristin Thompson's The Frodo Franchise is now up on the Film INT website.

Read it here.

The Mid-Majority

2008-11-01T11:56:00.002-04:00

A post of admittedly non film related news. Kyle Whelliston's the Mid-Majority is back up and running for the new college basketball season. Whelliston is a great sports writer, in fact a great writer period, and his insights are very useful for anyone who attended and followed sports at one of the schools that make up the 23 lower division conferences in college basketball. Throughout the year he'll post game reports, conference breakdowns, interviews, and the occasional travel essay.

Welcome back Kyle.

Man Push Cart (Rahmin Bahrani, 2005)

2008-10-21T11:41:00.003-04:00

I recently watched this film based on it being fervently recommended by Jim Emerson who runs the blog Scanners and is the editor for rogerebert.com.

He has written about it numerous times on his website after seeing it at the Toronto Film Festival a few years ago. Man Push Cart serves as an interesting counterpoint to most American films and invokes a spirit of "realism" in its portrayal of a struggling Middle Eastern immigrant trying to operate his own business in America.

Read more here, and here.

The Daily Show on "Real America" According to Sarah Palin

2008-10-21T11:38:00.002-04:00

Backstory:

David Sedaris on Undecided Voters

2008-10-21T11:34:00.002-04:00

In the latest issue of the New Yorker David Sedaris analyzes the history and personalities of undecided voters.

The money quote:

"I look at these people and can’t quite believe that [undecided voters] exist. Are they professional actors? I wonder. Or are they simply laymen who want a lot of attention?

To put them in perspective, I think of being on an airplane. The flight attendant comes down the aisle with her food cart and, eventually, parks it beside my seat. “Can I interest you in the chicken?” she asks. “Or would you prefer the platter of shit with bits of broken glass in it?”

To be undecided in this election is to pause for a moment and then ask how the chicken is cooked.

I mean, really, what’s to be confused about?"

New Scanners Widget

2008-10-14T07:44:00.000-04:00

See side panel, and enjoy.

Colbert Critiques Palin

2008-09-16T11:26:00.000-04:00

The Frodo Franchise

2008-07-11T08:07:00.001-04:00

My latest book review for Film INT.

Rotten Tomatoes Widget

2008-07-11T07:47:00.000-04:00

Movies at RT

You can find this on the sidebar as well.

My Country, My Country

2008-05-08T07:50:00.001-04:00

My latest review for Film INT is now up on www.filmint.nu

Read it here.

David Denby on the Coen Brothers

2008-02-21T07:59:00.000-05:00

Read it here.

National Treasure Book of Stephen Part 3

2008-01-18T09:26:00.000-05:00

See below for parts 1 and 2.

National Treasure Book of Stephen Part 2

2008-01-18T09:24:00.000-05:00

See Below for part 1.

National Treasure Portrait of Stephen Part I

2008-01-14T13:17:00.000-05:00

Thank God Stephen and Jon are back.

Return

2007-12-25T20:15:00.001-05:00

I have decided to return to the world of blogging. After a longer than expected hiatus. The real world called after I graduated but now I find myself with more free time and a renewed passion for media and the printed word.

More to come...

John Oliver on America's National Language

2007-07-17T15:16:00.000-04:00

From Then to Now

2007-07-17T15:08:00.000-04:00

David Denby has a great analysis of Knocked Up and other contemporary Hollywood Sex (Romantic) comedies.

Also see his review of Ratatouille for more great writing about film.

Full text of Denby's review here:

“There’s something about humans,” muses Remy (Patton Oswalt), the French country rat who is the hero of the animated gastronomic marvel “Ratatouille.” He goes on: “They taste. . . . They discover.” What Remy doesn’t say, though it’s implicit in his attitude, is that humans and rats are brothers under the fur: they alone, among all God’s creatures, eat everything. But Remy has his own version of the omnivore’s dilemma: he’s afflicted with a refined palate. Refusing the usual repast of garbage, he realizes that in order to eat well he needs to cook. “Ratatouille” starts out as a minor conceit about a rat who turns himself into a connoisseur, and becomes a gripping comic tale about the implacability of an artist. Washed into a sewer, Remy lands in Paris, and makes himself known to a young man, Linguini (Lou Romano), who has inherited a famous restaurant but cannot so much as crack an egg. Quietly, he rides under Linguini’s toque and pulls tufts of his hair, controlling his chopping and sauce-stirring techniques like a master puppeteer. A menacing challenge lies ahead: a visit from the annihilating restaurant critic Anton Ego (Peter O’Toole).

The animation gang at Pixar don’t settle for goosing old fairy tales and shining up media-weary jokes, as the DreamWorks folks do in the “Shrek” series. They create each movie afresh, and some of their productions, especially this one and “The Incredibles,” both written and directed by Brad Bird, have reached heights of invention, speed, and wit not seen in animation since the work done by Chuck Jones at Warner Bros. in the nineteen-forties. In “Ratatouille,” the level of moment-by-moment craftsmanship is a wonder. Keeping the space clear and coherent may seem an odd thing to praise in an animated film, but one of the marvellous things about “Ratatouille” is how well we come to understand the geography of the kitchen in which much of the movie takes place.

The point of view jumps to the top of cabinets and scampers beneath ovens and counters, but we always know where we are in relation to the rest of the kitchen and why it matters where Remy goes or doesn’t go. When he calls in his family and friends to help out in a crisis, the animals, who need to be sanitized, emerge from a dishwasher in a puff of steam and get assigned to their stations as sauciers, sous-chefs, and the like, where they crawl up ladles to the rims of soup tureens and send mushrooms cascading into a waiting boeuf en daube. Our knowledge of the kitchen makes the rapid-fire gags much funnier. Bird has turned disgust into a celebration of efficiency, and, on the fly, he offers the most detailed cooking lore and the most ardent celebration of the chef as artist since “Babette’s Feast.” Toques off to Mr. Bird. At a time when many Americans have so misunderstood the ethos of democracy that they hate being outclassed by anyone, when science is disdained as dangerous and expertise as élitism, this animation artist, working in a family medium, has made two brilliant movies that unequivocally champion excellence. “Ratatouille” suggests that some omnivores are better than others. There’s nothing to do but get over it.

If Only "Real" News Were This Insightful (Did Paris Hilton Really Get Into A Car?)

2007-06-18T15:39:00.000-04:00

Logic in Washington? Of Course Not.

2007-06-18T15:36:00.000-04:00

Summer Movies Part 1

2007-06-18T15:28:00.001-04:00

Recently the New Yorker published several stories relating the experiences of viewing and seeing summer movies by several artists, authors, and filmmakers. Here is a link to a list of all the articles from the New Yorker search engine.

Of particular interest is Dave Egger's article and the way it describes that nostalgic feeling we all know and remember from watching a film as a child.

"To the untrained eye, the ravines near Lake Michigan really did look a little like a Central American jungle. In August, with the Midwest’s tropical humidity and a little suspension of disbelief, those dense forests could pass for Nicaragua—at least enough for our purposes. We were twelve, thirteen years old, we had just seen “First Blood,” or “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” and we wanted to re-create the movie, or at least the spirit of it—of hunting and being hunted. Within hours of leaving the theatre, we would put on our fatigues (we called them “camos”), throw our weapons and accessories in our backpacks, get on our bikes, and ride down to the ravines by the beach...

When we played Commando—we were calling it that even before the movie appeared—the throwing stars were among the many crucial accoutrements brought to the abandoned bridge that spanned the ravine’s main gorge. There we hid our bikes and got outfitted in our various ways, doing our best heroes-strap-on-their-grenades-and-bandoliers montage. Among the six or seven of us, we all had the staple elements—Swiss Army knife, wrist rocket, eye black, as many bandannas as possible—so the equipment modifications and additions became key. I brought my homemade nunchaku (two long dowels tied together with a shoelace), wore the biking gloves I’d painted to look like Mel Gibson’s, and taped a steak knife to my leg. (I always liked to have some kind of knife taped to my calf.)

When everyone was ready, there would be the inevitable awkward pause when we realized, once again, that there was no clear objective to whatever we were about to do next. There were never teams or rules or objectives. Whenever someone would propose some structure—“Maybe there should be a flag or something that we try to capture?”—the idea would die a quick death. “Capture the flag?” would be the response. “That’s for homos!” And that would be the end of that. We would descend into the ravine and fend for ourselves, alternately hiding and pursuing, tackling and being tackled, all the while trying not to get stabbed by the throwing stars in our pockets and the knife strapped to our legs.

During those hours, the danger was real enough. The ravines were sixty feet deep, and the stream that ran below was cold and rocky. Injuries occurred, and people were punched, and, with each step farther away from our regular lives and into the worlds we’d seen on film, we felt more like ourselves. We didn’t think of those movies as escapist entertainments. The worlds they depicted didn’t seem foreign or unattainable. Setting traps and running with a knife between your teeth, diving into a pit and emerging from a river, camouflaged in mud—all of it seemed far more natural, more in synch with the adrenaline that was coursing through our adolescent bodies, than anything else in our pedestrian existence. We’d cobble together an identity—a shoulder pad from “The Road Warrior,” Rambo’s sorry old Army jacket—and go looking for moments of violence. It didn’t matter that our wars were poorly planned and lacked any exit strategy. It didn’t matter that the only real enemy, in the end, was us. We would see these movies and think, That’s my life. That’s the life I’m meant to lead."

City of God and Third World Film Theory

2007-01-07T12:23:00.000-05:00

One of the keys to understanding Third World Cinema is appreciating and interrogating why an individual film is made. The original scholars of Third Cinema stated that theirs was not a cinema meant to make the viewer feel at ease, but instead it should make them want to question and change the world. This is one of the many differences between Third World Cinema and Hollywood film. While either can be entertaining, the filmmakers from each set have different goals when making a film. Cinema that is produced in Brazil falls into the Third Cinema category, but it retains enough similarities to Hollywood as to not be completely off-putting to American spectators. Modern Brazilian cinema takes lessons from the notions of Third Cinema and its theory, but is evolving just like the cinema from every country. City of God (2002) has been by one the most successful Brazilian films of all time in the international marketplace grossing nearly twenty five million dollars worldwide, seven million of that in the its limited release in the United States. It was also a great success in Brazilian theatres bringing in over three million admissions. Third Cinema theory, and the way it applies to City of God as well as the ways this film moves away from these notions, can help us understand what has lead to its domestic and international appeal.

Third World film theory has been connected to the production practices of cinema in the Third World for many years. In Robert Stam’s section on Third Cinema in Film Theory: An Introduction, he discusses that the fact that it is important for Third World filmmakers to be revolutionary. The notion that films, and quality films at that, can be made in a Third World country such as Brazil is revolutionary to most Western viewers. Third Theory in the realm of Latin Cinema insists that films made in Latin American should be made by, and for, Latin American viewers. (Stam 95-96) While City of God was produced entirely in Brazil, and made by Brazilian filmmakers with a Brazilian cast, it lends itself very readily to a Western viewing audience.

Though Robert Stam and Louis Spence would argue that a Third World film need not have First World production values, City of God comes very close to these expectations at least to the point where it is not jarring for a Western audience to view the film. This fact no doubt led to the great success that City of God experienced in the United States and worldwide. In their article “Colonialism, Racism, and Representation: An Introduction” they state that audiences should never expect a film made in the Third World to adhere to the same production strategy that a Western film would. Sometimes it is impossible or inappropriate for a film from a country like Brazil to look like a Hollywood film, but this should not affect whether the audience perceives it as being well made or not. (Stam and Spence 891) The audience’s experiences of different styles of filmmaking that can be found in world cinema show that the Hollywood process of filmmaking is not the only way. However, the dominance of Hollywood film in the world marketplace makes it increasingly difficult for a film from Brazil to receive any serious commercial consideration in the United States or elsewhere. The obstacles were clearly great for this film to achieve any success in Brazil or anywhere else in the world. Hollywood films would still vie to push money away from City of God in its domestic theatres where American films and culture permeate daily life just like every other country.

Against all of these factors Fernando Meirelles and Katia Lund have constructed an extremely well made film that does not stray far from the norms of a Hollywood production. Though City of God is constructed more like an independent American film than a classically styled Hollywood production, the narrative never seeps into the realm of confusion. The film’s narrative is non-linear beginning at the film at the end of the story then flashing back and allowing the plot to work its way back to the beginning. This technique used to have a jarring effect in American films, but it has slowly become commonplace ever since it was popularized by Orson Welles in Citizen Kane (1941). The non-linear style of Braulio Mantovani’s script just seems to add to the polish of the film, making it a prime target for the average film viewer in the American art-house marketplace. City of God was also able to branch out and reach a larger audience than is typical for a foreign language film in America by appealing to Western sensibilities towards the crime-genre.

The protagonist of City of God, Rocket (Alexandre Rodrigues), is not a hero in the classical sense. He is a bookish boy who seems out of place in the impoverished crime stricken slums of Rio de Janeiro. Meirelles and Lund do an excellent job of creating audience sympathy for Rocket and turning him into our hero. He is the first person given an unobstructed line of dialogue in the film. Everything that happens before his introduction to the audience is very quick and messy. As the opening scene unfolds, Meirelles and Lund use quick cutting and snappy sound techniques to immediately pull the audience into the “exotic” world of Rio de Janeiro. The scene begins playfully enough as we witness the numerous characters try to chase down a chicken that has gotten away from them. To the rhythm of the tropical music we see many children and older chase after it as it moves through the alleyways and into the street. Even though the audience is not aware, we have been very subtly introduced to the antagonist Lil Ze (Leandro Fermino). This playful introduction is a stark contrast to the villain that we will come to fear and hate along with Rocket. Eventually the chicken makes its way to a main street and we are now shown Rocket walking along with someone else, he has a camera and is talking about how dangerous it is for him to be in this neighborhood right now. He states that if Lil Ze sees him, then he is dead. Of course at that moment Lil Ze and all of his followers come out of the alley in pursuit of the chicken all of them waving guns around to indicate their villainy and power. As Rocket is commanded to stop the chicken we notice a caravan of police men pulling into the street behind him. Rocket is now trapped in between Lil Ze’s gang and the police force. He pulls out his camera to take a picture, and we are suddenly taken back many years before hand to the moment he feels set all of these events into motion.

This elaborate and fun opening scene gives us everything we need to know about the principal characters of City of God. Lil Ze fancies himself as being playful and fun but is in fact ruthless and fickle. He just wants to prove to everyone how much power he has which is why he will not allow even a chicken to escape his control. Lil Ze also knows that he can control Rocket which is confirmed when Rocket tells his friend that how scared he is to be in this neighborhood because he believes that Lil Ze is angry at him. When Rocket is trying to retrieve the chicken for Lil Ze, he is once again the mediator between lawlessness and authority. This foreshadows the rest of the film where his actions continuously put him as the intermediary between the slums, and everyone else in Rio that has any type of power.

These narrative conventions become very straightforward especially by the time the audience has finished viewing the film. In a Hollywood sense City of God fulfills many of the requirements that a film must pass in an opening scene to set up the film for the audience. After Rocket’s flashback begins, the rest of the narrative is told in a fairly typical linear fashion except when Rocket will interrupt himself and change focus on his story. This motif is used with particular emphasis on the introduction of Knockout Ned (Seu Jorge). Rocket tells us that Ned is not important yet, but he will be. Sure enough Rocket is right as later on in the film we are told his story and made to appreciate his importance in the lives of the people of Rio. This motif gives the film a more leisurely feel and allows the viewer to feel at ease with what they are seeing on screen. The filmmaker’s political sentiments which wish to force the viewer to feel pain and sympathy for the characters and incidentally the real life people that inhabit these slums loses some of its weight because of this. In what seems like an attempt to branch out to a wider audience and make the film more pleasant to watch, Meirelles and Lund juxtapose playful scenes of their characters with other moments of brutal violence. The fact that they are willing to do this is opposed to the original idea of Third Cinema that it should agitate the viewers and be difficult to watch. Though Stam argues in Film Theory: An Introduction that Brazilian cinema will not “console or distract” (Stam 100) the viewer, but instead “prod the spectator to transform the world” (Stam 100). The filmmakers of City of God tread a fine line between Hollywood and Third World sensibilities by making their film in this fashion. Many scenes are difficult to watch and convey a clear political message while other moments make are inserted to make the film more enjoyable and coddle the viewers into a state of acceptance. Meirelles and Lund were able to reach an uncharacteristically large audience for a Brazilian film, but needed to use Western techniques to project their Third World message.

Brazil is a Third World country in terms of the definition provided by Robert Stam and Louise Spence:
“The definition of the ‘Third World’ flows logically out of this prior definition of colonialism, for the ‘Third World’ refers to the historical victims of this process—to the colonised, neo-colonised or de-colonised nations of the world whose economic and political structures have been shaped and deformed within the colonial process. (Stam and Spence 879)”
Meirelles and Lund may have benefited from the American mindset of Third World culture generating success for their film. They are able to blend a film that showcases an exotic locale, Rio de Janeiro, and insert moments that make it feel very much like an American crime film such as Bonnie and Clyde. Lil Ze is obsessed with becoming famous, he wants the world to know that he rules the slums, and he begins to like Rocket when he realizes that he has the ability to make Lil Ze famous. Bonnie and Clyde also crave celebrity; they travel around the country getting press for themselves by robbing banks and making daring escapes. Meirelles and Lund effectively take this notion of crime film, export it to Brazil and juxtapose Lil Ze’s brutal killings with gorgeous photography of Rocket and his friends on one of Rio’s famous beaches. An American viewer is likely to be fascinated by this exotic land that they know little about, but the filmmakers can effectively exploit that ignorance by usurping Rio de Janeiro’s postcard image, and expose the crime and poverty that permeates the city.

As Robert Stam points out in Tropical Multiculturalism, Brazil and America are very similar in terms of their historical formation. Brazil has always seemed very familiar and yet alien at the same time to Americans (Tropical Multiculturalism 1). That is a feeling that a viewer may have when watching City of God. The way the film is shot, written, and scored seems very familiar and strange at the same time. Weighing all of these factors, this film would have stood a very good chance of being a major success in the United States if it had and American cast and the language spoken was English instead of Portuguese. The language spoken and the alien nature of the subject material were probably the only factors that kept City of God from being a truly big hit in the United States. Because of its usage of crime film conventions, and westernized production sensibilities this film was able to reach a much larger audience than a typical Brazilian film. From its First World gaze, a Western audience is able to feel superior to the people that they are viewing onscreen. Notions of superiority are backed up when we see the people that inhabit the slums of Rio de Janeiro murdering each with intervention from a corrupt police force. The reinforcement of Western stereotypes about Third World citizens keeps City of God from being revolutionary in the sense that Third Cinema’s forefathers would have envisioned. Meirelles and Lund do not completely betray the philosophies of the films that set the precedent for Latin American and Third World filmmaking as City of God has moments that are specifically designed to make the viewer uneasy and agitated. It seems through this strategy that they furthering the legacy of Third Cinema by branching out to a more widespread Western audience by being quietly subversive. Meirelles and Lund’s divergence from Third Cinema conventions could just be the next step in its evolution.

Works Cited
Stam, Robert and Louise Spence. “Colonialism, Racism, and Representation: An Introduction.” Published in Film Theory and Criticism Sixth Edition. Braudy, Leo and Cohen, Marshall. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004.
Stam, Robert. Film Theory: An Introduction. Malden MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2000.
Stam, Robert. Tropical Multiculturalism: A Comparative History of Race in Brazilian Cinema and Culture. Durham: Duke University Press, 1997.

David Denby on Hollywood and Future Movies

2007-01-07T12:17:00.000-05:00

Article in the latest issue of the New Yorker.

Read it here.

Happy Holidays from Stewart-Colbert

2006-12-20T16:07:00.000-05:00

2 Part series of Stephen Colbert at the Harvard School of Politics.

2006-12-20T16:04:00.000-05:00

Great sendup of the Time Person of the Year issue from The Daily Show.

What has Andrew Sarris done with the Autuer Theory

2006-12-17T00:59:00.000-05:00

Andrew Sarris’ “Notes on the Autuer Theory in 1962” represents his attempt to show this theory from an English language viewpoint. He starts by saying that the Autuer Theory, as presented by Bazin and Truffaut, needs to be restated to take away their vagaries; “I believe there is a misunderstanding here about what the autuer theory actually claims, particularly since the theory itself is so vague at the present time.” (Sarris, 561) He also points out that Truffaut has gone to great lengths to elaborate that his theory was only meant for a given time and a given place. However Sarris seeks to update it and bring it into his view of contemporary cinema. Sarris is to freewheeling with other critics views, and too rigid with his own at times, to make this theory mold to his conception of what he thinks it should be.

At the beginning of the article Sarris seems unsure of himself and his thoughts. He states that there is no definition of the Autuer Theory in the English language as far as he knows. However, this is the point of his essay and why he thinks it is important is because he is attempting to stake his claim to the American perception of the Autuer Theory. As stated in the introduction, Truffaut’s claim that the Auteur theory was meant for a given time and a given place is not given much credence. He mentions this only in passing and says how he respects Truffaut’s notion, but Sarris then goes on to transport this idea from one time and place to another. While he was not as far removed from Truffaut’s formulation as we are, he is trying to bring it into an American context and attempting to change its meaning to justify his perception. Sarris says that the Autuer theory has changed the way that he views cinema, but he says that someone who was responsible for its creation, Bazin, did not really understand what it meant: “That three otherwise divergent critics like Bazin, Roud, and Cameron make essentially the same point about the autuer theory…I believe there is a misunderstanding about what the autuer theory actually claims,…” (561). This statement does not seem to pay the proper respect to the people that added to his appreciation of the Auteur Theory and suggests that he believes he can be the theory’s savior and properly explain it for once.

Another problem with Sarris’ argument of the Autuer theory is the rigidity with which he approaches this subject. Even though he states at the beginning that the Autuer Theory allows for exceptions from the director being the only possible Autuer in a film, he spends the rest of his time arguing which director’s can be considered Autuers. Sarris mentions Marlon Brando as a candidate in passing, and also points out how crew members on the technical side of filmmaking can be responsible for making a great film. But he never argues for the position of the actor in the Autuer Theory or that of a cinematographer, producer, or editor.

At one point Sarris states that, “An expert production crew could probably cover up for a chimpanzee in the director’s chair.” (563) This statement seems to be an oversight on Sarris’ part. The bulk of the article is arguing the championing of the director as the supreme creative force behind the making of the film. Sarris falls into his own trap at this point. He says that a pattern will be established after a given number of films about the status of that director as an Autuer. However, a bad director working with great actors and a skilled production crew could continue to make good films as long as he retained that crew. While it does appear likely that one would be able to differentiate a good director from a bad director after some time, it is not guaranteed. Therefore Sarris’ upcoming list of his twenty Autuers could be flawed.

In his list of directors that he considers to be Autuers, Sarris is ignoring part of his article. First of all there is no mention of any actors even being considered for this list, or any other crew member besides the director for that matter. Even though he says that there is room for exceptions to the director being the Autuer, he refuses to make these exceptions in his list. Therefore the possibility of a bad director populating his list exists. Even though Sarris steers the cautious course by only including directors that have a more established reputation, this reputation may not have come from their directing skills. Drawing upon the statement cited earlier, one of these directors could very well be a “chimpanzee.” He does not consider the fact, or at least does not present evidence to the contrary, that one of these directors could have had their faults covered up by an expert crew and skilled actors on numerous occasions.

Throughout his article, Sarris digs holes but never seems to fill them. The notion that a list can be formed of great directors is not completely faulty, but it deserves more discussion than he allows for. Sarris mentions that there could be more discussion on the topic by revealing that he has a supplementary list of two hundred other potential Autuers. But this topic is never engaged as he floats off to other ones. The notion of the Autuer theory is fine, but the way that Sarris argues it is very loose and he never really engages the reader into his meaning. Though he makes some good points about the nature of the Autuer Theory, he never truly explores it to the extent that one would expect. And while Sarris takes fault in other critics being very vague in their definitions of the Autuer Theory, he further devolves into this trap by staying very vague himself. “Notes on the Autuer Theory in 1962” seeks to enlighten the English speaking world as to what the Autuer Theory could be. But due to Sarris’ free floating ideas based on other critics thoughts, along with the rigidity of his own; the article never becomes convincing as to why the English speaking world should care.

You're Next

2006-12-12T20:46:00.000-05:00

“They’re already here, you’re next!” These are the frantic ravings of Dr. Miles Bennell (Kevin McCarthy) at the intended ending of Don Siegel’s Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956). This moment shows the overwhelming fear that has taken over Miles, and perhaps the paranoia that had overtaken the original story writer, Jack Finney, and Siegel as well. This film shows the American resistance to everything that is different, and our almost violent tendencies to retain the status-quo. Siegel builds a palpable sense of dread to carry along his viewers as he calls us to fight against subversion and to retain the white-male dominated, American way of life.

The film first suggests the idea of subversion early on during Miles’ first flashback. He talks about how everything looked normal in Santa Mira upon his return from the city; however he suggests that something was seriously wrong beneath the surface. Understanding the fear of what lies beneath the surface is the key to recognizing what makes this film so resonant. Everyone has the fear that their secrets will be found out by others. We also fear that we may not truly know our loved ones. This creates a fear of what cannot be seen, and a protective urge of what we do not want to be uncovered. However this fear of what lies beneath the surface is also alluring. Many people find it necessary to uncover other people’s secrets. This creates power from the knowledge that has been gained. But there is also the deeper satisfaction of uncovering the mystery that motivates people to dwell beneath the surface.

Miles is called back into town at the beginning of the film because so many people have been showing up to his practice to see him. But when he returns, everyone says that it was nothing important, and he need not worry about them. This is the beginning of Miles’ curiosity of what could be wrong with his town and it is the motivation to find out what has subverted his town. He can tell that something has infiltrated the town’s populace, and it becomes imperative that he uncovers what it is.

He can tell immediately that something has transformed the townspeople’s need for medical care, which directly undermines his place in society. As the typical male protagonist he is willing to fight to protect his place, which means upholding the economy that supports him, and protecting the woman he loves so he can have control over a family as well. This would reaffirm his place in the male order that dominates society. And the woman that he must protect is Becky Driscoll (Dana Wynter), who becomes the films female protagonist.

When Becky is first introduced at the Doctor’s office, she is not dressed in typical attire for a domesticated woman during the 1950’s. Her dress is quite revealing and she openly flirts with Miles as the two of them revel in the other’s sexual innuendo filled banter. Both Becky and Miles are recent divorcees and this is somewhat threatening to Miles. He realizes that Becky is a sexually liberated woman which gives her an unusual amount of power. While Miles is drawn to Becky’s beauty and sexuality, he is also threatened by it. This makes it imperative for him to bring her under his fold through matrimony as quick as possible. He needs her to be married to him in order for the patriarchal order to be restored in his life. His hold on power has already been subverted from him once by his first wife, and he must prevent that from happening again. However, the courtship of Becky is continually interrupted and eventually cut short by the invading alien duplicates.

These duplicates happen upon Santa Mira to begin their conquest. This small town represents any that you would find throughout the country. The notion that a small suburban town could be corrupted by outsiders was exceedingly frightening during the fifties and remains so today. A principal fear in the time that the film was made was that America was being subverted by communists and their spies. This fear spanned from the highest levels of government, all the way to the average family. America as a whole was afraid of losing its national identity, as were Miles and Becky. The alien duplicates offer them a simpler life, where they will not have to worry about work or feelings. They also offer a different form of reproduction that renders the differences between men and women obsolete. This strikes up fear in both Miles and Becky, as they want to experience emotions and be in love. However this life offered by the duplicates is appealing to some, who seem to thrive under it after they have been taken over. And it is perhaps indicative in Miles’ anger that he is attracted to the concept of this new way of life subconsciously. However his fear of losing his place of power in Santa Mira is too much for him. For the duplicates are offering a life where doctors are not needed, therefore taking his identity in terms of his personality, and in his work life.

By the end of the film, Miles has been thoroughly emasculated by losing his job, his position of power, and his potential wife to the alien duplicates. When Becky is finally overtaken by the aliens, it is because Miles leaves her alone for an instant. Becky is portrayed as being very weak, because she needs Miles to protect her from the duplicates. Siegel shows her as being weak and submissive, because the second that she is left alone, she is willingly overtaken by her duplicate because she cannot fight off sleep by herself. The only reason she makes it as far as she does without this happening is because she had Miles to protect her. This is an ongoing theme throughout the movie, from the time that he finds her duplicate and carries her down the stairs like a child, all the way to the end when he is trying everything he can to keep her awake. Miles never seems to have much of a problem staying awake. He is doing all he can to exert his power over the aliens, and to retain his place in society. When Becky is finally overtaken by the aliens he has lost his final position of power, that of the patriarch over a family. When he goes to kiss her and she does not respond, it is clear that he has lost his sexual power over her. This is the final emasculation, and it drives him to madness. The following moments show his complete impotency as he is trying to warn his fellow man about the danger that is going to subvert them as well. He is only saved in the end, by authority figures that still retain their power over their own families and towns.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers continues to be an effective film. The fears expressed by Miles and Becky during the film are still very prevalent today. Everyone has a fear of losing their identity; whether it is their personality, or their position as a person of power at home or in society. The film succeeds at evoking suspense from the impending doom of the characters, and of society as a whole. Siegel seemed more pessimistic than the studio by wanting to end the film with Miles’ final descent into madness, as he screams wildly at the passing cars on the highway. Siegel feared that the white male was already losing its grip of power over society. However, he was overruled by his supervisors to tack on the optimistic ending. This was so the producers could reassure themselves, and society as a whole, that nothing was about to change.

Did You Kill The Electric Car

2006-12-12T20:37:00.000-05:00

As I started backlogging some old writing for my blog I realized that I never posted this review that appeared in The Seahawk on November 2nd.

Take a look and check out the DVD.

The New Yorker on The Office

2006-12-07T09:40:00.000-05:00

Here is an interesting article from the most recent issue of The New Yorker. It talks about the British and American versions of The Office. It also brings in the notion that they were heavily influenced by the works of Samuel Beckett.

Redesigned Mid-Majority

2006-11-02T23:03:00.000-05:00

My good basketball friend Kyle Whelliston has redesigned The Mid-Majority website. It looks very nice.

He has added a lot of new features and posted his first essay of the new season.

In other news:

In between surgery TJ Carter was named as a pre-season All American selection by collegeinsider.com, along with Dominick Meija, Gary Neal, Loren Stokes, and Antoine Agudio.

And of course their is a pre-season article on GMU over at espn.com.

And finally Hofstra and GMU received votes in the pre-season coaches poll:

23 Creighton
25 Nevada
26 Gonzaga
27 Witchita State
29 Southern Illinois
33 Air Force
34 San Diego State
35 Hofstra
42 GMU
47 Winthrop
49 Bucknell
50 New Mexico State

Could this be the year of the mid-major again?

Running Down a Dream

2006-10-22T20:49:00.000-04:00

Arthur Penn’s 1967 film Bonnie and Clyde typifies what was to
become the modern American film throughout the late sixties into the
seventies. This film was heavily
influenced by the French New Wave movement; and its script even passed through
its most well known director, Francois Truffaut, before finally arriving in the
hands of Warren Beatty who decided to produce it. The film was a risky endeavor on all fronts
and was not a success on first release. But
it many ways this signaled what made it so triumphant in coming months and
years. This film took aim at old
fashioned sensibilities in terms of how sex, violence, and the traditional hero
were shown onscreen; and threw them aside to make way for a more modern
mindset.

The
film takes a look at the two populist heroes/robbers/murderers and shows them
in a sympathetic light. The audience
does not so much agree with what these characters are doing, but they are the
only ones that we follow throughout the film.
The film’s director, Arthur Penn, never leaves us alone with any other
character for long enough for us to align our sympathies with anyone else. The only authority figures that we are
allowed to become familiar with are a Texas Ranger and Ivan Moss, the father of
C.W. Moss. Both of them are made out to
be despicable and uncaring. Whereas Clyde
may shoot a police officer that is trying to kill him, he goes out of his way
to make sure a poor farmer gets to keep his money. The authority figures are basically
dehumanized due to how little we see them in the film, and because we identify
so much with Bonnie and Clyde, we see the police in the
same manner that they do. While seeing
the bad side of Clyde, in his murdering and burglary, we
also see how he cares for his brother and for Bonnie as well. This film puts forth a startling role
reversal, we are made to sympathize and identify with some brutal
criminals. The concept of the anti-hero
was much more startling at the films 1967 release, which is part of what
created so many adverse reactions to it.

Upon
its initial release, Bonnie and Clyde
was received with condemnation and derisive comments from the majority of the
critical world. This is exemplified by
Bosley Crowther in his review for The New York Times. To paraphrase, he states that the film is
despicable because of the juxtaposition of violence and humor that permeates
the film. He seems genuinely offended by
this and does not understand the point. Crowther
seems to believe that the film takes too light-hearted of an approach at times,
but also becomes too violent as well. He
believes no film should portray killers as fun loving cutups. This leads him to his point that he perceives
this film as being overly sentimental, and much too sympathetic towards these
criminals.

While
one can understand his concern over glamorizing criminals, it seems that Mr.
Crowther looked at this film in stubbornly close-minded manner. First of all he does not take the time to
analyze the narrative technique, nor the editing, or the way images are used on
the screen. He seems to have written his
review in a state of shock over what he had just seen as a crude blood fest,
and had not stopped to think about why the film made him feel so strongly
upset. Perhaps he was upset with the
narrative technique which made him spend nearly two hours with killers. Crowther did not enjoy his time with these
killers, but he should have remarked how the film defied narrative conventions
by aligning audience sympathy with the villains, instead of the heroes. This had been done before, most notably in
Alfred Hitchcock’s masterpiece Psycho. But usually any time spent with a villain
in a Classic Hollywood film makes them either seem inept, purely evil, or
crazy. And while the Barrow gang may
seem all of these things at some moments in the film, the script gives their
characters enough nuances for the audience to know that they are quite complex
characters; as are most people in real life.

Bosley
Crowther also seems to dislike the comedic aspects of the film, because it
makes their life of crime seem like fun and games. While a life of crime is not one that most
people envy, it should be noted that most criminals find aspects of their life
quite enjoyable or they would not continue to do it. If a life on the run robbing banks was not
fun, it seems that Bonnie and Clyde would have stopped
after their first job and gone back to living civilized lives. The point that this film makes is that a life
like theirs did offer an escape from their previously not so exciting
lives. Bonnie was a waitress, and Clyde
was her escape from her small town life.
In fact one of the ways Bonnie’s attraction for Clyde
is increased is when he is describing her daily life and her job with great accuracy. Clyde can see that she
is getting agitated with his description, mainly because it is hitting close to
home. She sees a life on the run as
excitement, which it most surely would be, and an escape from her predictable
life waiting tables in rural Texas.

Another
important aspect of the film is one that Mr. Crowther also takes issue with;
the juxtaposition of blood and humor. He
does not take the time to see how effectively the movie is written, directed,
and acted out in terms of how shocking some of this violence is after some very
light hearted moments. He does not
appreciate the filmmakers’ decision to do this, but it has obviously had a
strong effect on him. He thinks that the
film should be played as a straight tragedy, or perhaps it could have the
comedy without the bloodshed. But the film
lets it be known through this juxtaposition of comedic moments, violent ones,
that this story is tragic. The fact that
these people are having fun and forgetting about their troubles is quite
tragic. They do not understand the
severity of their actions, and at times they believe that maybe all they will
get away. This hope seems to be squashed
by Bonnie’s mother in a dreamlike scene where she is reunited with her
family. When the topic of marriage and
moving back home comes up, Mrs. Parker bluntly states that Bonnie will be dead
before she can ever move back home. This
scene is one of many that are masterfully shot.
The color scheme and mood of the setting has connotations of a dream,
this symbolizes the harsh reality that going back to her family is only a dream
now for Bonnie.

There
are many things to admire in Bonnie and Clyde. The film will affect you
very strongly, sometimes in a good way, and sometimes in a bad way. This shows the skill of Arthur Penn as a
filmmaker, and the strength of David Newman and Robert Benton’s
screenplay. While this film was not well
received upon its initial release, it was because they had never seen anything
like it before. Especially in terms of
what was coming out of Hollywood. The shock of the film comes from the violence
that permeates, and the poetic justice of its famous ending. The final moments are visual poetry that
leaves the audience stunned even though they know it is coming all along. Perhaps Bonnie and Clyde
were just as shocked when they met their end, and that would make this film a
cautionary tale. Hopefully that would
please Mr. Crowther.

New UNCW Basketball Blog

2006-10-22T20:45:00.000-04:00

More updates soon hopefully but for now...

New UNCW Basketball Blog via The Star News.

Also CAAinsider and the UNCW section of that blog.

Return

2006-09-12T23:00:00.000-04:00

Not sure if anyone is still regularly checking this page, if so I apologize. I will try to get back to updating this regularly with movie info, and then probably with UNCW basketball columns as well. (November can't come soon enough)

But in the meantime, I have started writing pereodically for The Seahawk again.
Here is my first story back, it is a Fall Movie Preview.

More to come...

Where for Art Thou Ebert?

2006-07-11T13:27:00.000-04:00

While Roger Ebert is Sick in the hospital recovering from emergency surgery. (BTW he is in stable condition and recovering nicely.) Head on over to his editor's, Jim Emerson, blog.

He has a new article about a story that appeared on slate.com that says that John Ford's The Searchers is the best worst movie ever made. He doesn't understand why it has been canonized as a film classic. Emerson finds fault in Stephen Metcalfs article. Which he responds to here mainly critiquing the way Metcalf dismisses film studies.

In part two of this article he decides that Metcalf doesn't understand the first thing about the study of film and basically rips him in a new one. Metcalf has the right to his own opinion about the film, but he demeans anyone who likes The Searchers as a film geek. And claims they like the film for reasons that make no sense at all. He seems to think that film geeks enjoy films that are poorly made, which apparently he thinks The Searchers is a poorly made film.

For someone who obviously knows so little about the study of film he can't even begin to explain himself.

""The Searchers," John Ford's epic 1956 Western, is a film geek's
paradise: It is preposterous in its plotting, spasmodic in its pacing,
unfunny in its hijinks, bipolar in its politics, alternately sodden and
convulsive in its acting, not to mention boring. Impossible to enjoy,
and yet not as obviously medicinal as, say, "The Spirit of the
Beehive," "The Searchers" segregates the initiated from the
uninitiated; and so it is widely considered, by the initiated, at
least, to be among the four or five best movies of all time. At his
maiden screening, a young Cahiers du Cinema critic named
Jean-Luc Godard wept, later adding, "How can I hate John Wayne … and
yet love him tenderly … in the last reel of 'The Searchers'?" Martin
Scorsese and Paul Schrader routinely name "The Searchers" as one of
their favorite films..."

We all know that Godard and Scorsese are "film geeks", but apparently they know very little about film. I guess Metcalf would know what someone who doesn't know anything about film looks like. But he is wrong on this count as Godard and Scorsese are two of the most revered directors in Modern Cinema. Godard was also a revered film critic, and Scorsese is one of the top film historians working in Hollywood.

Here is Metcalf's article.

But don't take the article too seriously. Because it is written about a film, which as we all know thanks to Metcalf, aren't worth studying.

Raises, You don't Need no Stinking Raises

2006-06-22T13:51:00.000-04:00

At least thats what the Republican controlled senate thinks. Yes after giving themselves a $3,300 a year raise Senate decided that that the poorest of the employed poor in this country don't deserve an extra $1 an hour. The Senate justified their raise by saying it was a cost-of-living increase. Apparently only rich people in Washington have to worry about cost of living, but poor people do not. There is absolutely no good justification for this. The federal minimum wage is at its lowest purchasing power in 55 years. Yes you could make the argument that increasing the minimum wage would also increase unemployment. But the people that are employed should actually be able to support themselves and their families. The people that have been elected to the senate are either evil, stupid, or completely oblivious. Maybe all three.

And the House isn't doing much better as they are attempting to block the renewal of the voting rights act.

This is just blatant hate and prejudice. No discussion. You cannot justify killing an act that actually allowed minorities to be allowed to vote.

God Bless America.

The Original, Updated.

2006-06-21T19:25:00.000-04:00

Here is a cool new Volkswagon commercial that gives a little CGI hip-hop makeover to the Classic Singin' in the Rain.

Is Superman Jesus?

2006-06-21T19:23:00.000-04:00

Jim Emerson has an interesting find in his Scanners Blog. He has found some interviews and a study that point to the story of Superman being very similar to the story of Jesus. Makes a lot of sense if you think about it. Then again it isn't too hard to see that Clark Kent's alias is a mythological creature. Well here is his blog entry.

And here is the study about Superman as Christ Figure.

On a Lighter Note

2006-06-14T21:11:00.000-04:00

Hilarious clip from a recent episode of the Colbert Report.

Stephen squares against Stone Philips in a competition to see who has the most Gravitas.

Why do They Give These People Publicity

2006-06-14T21:09:00.000-04:00

I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

If you don't know who these people are. They are a "church" based out of Kansas that believes that everything bad that happens to America is because we are being punished for allowing a gay lifestyle. Even though the US Senate is constantly debating whether to write an anti-gay marriage amendment into the constitution. Not really sure how that's accomadating. But regardless, these people are absolutely crazy. And I'm not sure how they are still alive.

Rolling Stone Investigative Article About 2004 Election

2006-06-05T15:19:00.000-04:00

Read it here.

All Memories are Traces of Tears: Wong Kar Wai's In the Mood for Love as Precursor to 2046

2006-06-05T11:20:00.001-04:00

Is Wong Kar Wai’s 2046 a sequel of In the Mood for Love? The answer to that question is as complicated as the lives of the characters in both of these films. 2046 is the hotel room that Maggie Cheung and Tony Leung’s characters pursue their affair in In the Mood for Love. That is the first connection to the later film. 2046 originally began as a story that altogether took place during that year, which is the end of the fifty year mark after China has regained control of Hong Kong. When China took back control of this province from Great Britain they promised that nothing would change in terms of Hong Kong’s westernized capitalistic tendencies for fifty years. That promise was mainly in terms of economic control and government policies; however such a promise stuck in Wong’s mind. However his ironic sense of humor allowed him to see how strange a promise of this sort was. He was intrigued by the notion of anything staying the same for a long period of time. These ideas were the original basis for the film 2046.[1]

However, as anyone that has studied or worked with him knows, Wong Kar Wai is notorious for changing the script on a day to day basis. Such was the case for In the Mood for Love as well as 2046. After the completion of Happy Together Wong had planned to complete another film before the handover of Hong Kong back to China. However when it became evident to him that he could not finish in time he announced that the turnover to China would also mark a new beginning in his career. 2046 was planned and put into pre-production before In the Mood for Love. However so were several other films which were called Summer in Beijing and A Story About Food. 2046 was the only one of these three films that was not abandoned. Wong however did push it aside to focus on In the Mood for Love.

The end result of both of these films is nearly unrecognizable from how they began. In the Mood for Love began as a fairly typical romantic melodrama. It was supposed to have been a straightforward love story between two people who had been betrayed by their spouses. It is evident through the months and months of shooting how much the film evolved during principal photography. Since Wong does not shoot from a pre-planned script it was never set in stone exactly how the film would work. Wong tends to operate on each days inspiration more than he does from a pre-ordained scenario. Through constant tweaking Wong made In the Mood for Love into a masterpiece about Chinese manners, self control, and unrequited love.[2]

Throughout In the Mood for Love many motifs are introduced and repeated throughout the film. This is the prototypical style of Wong Kar Wai. Actions, phrases, and musical cues are repeated many times throughout the film as if the characters are afraid they will forget them. Over and over again Mr. Chow (Tony Leung) and Su Li-Zhen (Maggie Cheung) tell each other that they will not be like their spouses. This comes up when the two of them figure out over dinner that their respective spouses are cheating on them with each other. Mr. Chow notices that Su Li-Zhen has the same purse that his wife has, and Su Li-Zhen notices that Mr. Chow has the same tie as her husband. The two of them decide that they will try to figure out how the love affair started, but they vow not to be like them. The effect of this on the audience can be jolting and confusing on first viewing of the film.

The first time that we see Mr. Chow and Su Li-Zhen talking to each other as if they were the others spouse, the audience is not sure of exactly what is happening. It starts out with Su Li-Zhen interrogating whom we think to be her husband, she asks him if he has a mistress, he says yes and she begins to cry. Then Wong reveals that she is actually talking to Mr. Chow. He consoles her, and they try again as Mr. Chow tries different responses so that Su Li-Zhen can be prepared if and when she actually confronts her husband. She eventually decides it will be too hard and gives up. These two characters will continue with their role playing “game” throughout the film. Through the use of editing, Wong makes it very difficult, particularly for a first time viewer, to figure out whether Mr. Chow and Su Li-Zhen are talking to each other. They may be themselves, or they may be playing another person at the time. Even when they inhabit other characters it seems to shift from time to time whether they are acting, or whether they are saying their true feelings.

Such is the case in the scene where the two of them are walking in an alley after eating dinner together. Mr. Chow starts talking softly to Su Li-Zhen and eventually takes her hand and suggests they spend the night together. At this point the audience is satisfied because they are acting as should be expected of them in a love story. However Su Li-Zhen begins to cry and once again states how hard it is on her to recreate their spouse’s infidelity. This is a perfect example of how this film moves away from what a viewer would expect in a typical love story. The audience expects a story about romance to unfold under a certain formula. And when that formula is not adhered to, it is very strange for any first time audience. However the way this film moves away from formula and denies expectations perfectly exemplifies the society that it represents. Wong never shows them consummating their relationship. There are parts of the film that one could read as hinting towards that idea; but it is never explicitly stated or shown. Instead the characters say over and over “We won’t be like them.” This seems like a trick that keeps them from thinking that they are doing something wrong. They feel they would lower themselves if they ever did make love to each other.[3]

This film is the perfect romantic byproduct of Chinese society. Throughout the film Su Li-Zhen and Mr. Chow are in constant fear of being seen together. They know that the will be looked down upon and several characters make reference to this during the film. Su Li-Zhen’s landlady tells her that she should not go out so much when her husband is out of town. In a very Chinese way she is saying that Su Li-Zhen should stop cheating on her husband. It is never stated whether she believes she is staying out with Mr. Chow, but that is beside the point. The fact is the cultural code, which is protected by the older generations is being violated by this younger beautiful woman. She is never explicitly accused of infidelity, because Chinese society relies on subtlety. This film also relies on subtlety to show the romance, or near romance, between Su Li-Zhen and Mr. Chow. We never see whether their relationship was consummated, but regardless of what happened; it left both of them unhappy.

Mr. Chow and Su Li-Zhen have secrets in In the Mood for Love. The audience is never quite sure of how many secrets they have. They could just be friends who enjoy spending time together but have never made love, yet they must still keep this secret because society will not allow them to be together, romantically or not. This secret consumes them both and leaves them unhappy. Su Li-Zhen cannot bring herself to leave her husband, even if he has mistreated her; and Mr. Chow cannot bring himself to tell Su Li-Zhen that he loves her. This is something that he will regret, and it will change him forever.

In 2046 Su Li-Zhen makes an appearance, but Mr. Chow is the focus. This film is a continuation but everything is different. Mr. Chow wishes everything could have stayed the same, yet he is totally different. He has become a womanizer and will not allow any woman to come close to him lest he be hurt again. The two films overlap and one could not exist without the other. Wong has continued the story of In the Mood for Love in the making of 2046. But instead of the characters being the same throughout the two films, the ending of In the Mood for Love has served as the catalyst for character development. Mr. Chow still longs for his love, but he has learned he can replace Su Li-Zhen with many one night stands and short term relationships where he hurts the woman just as he has been hurt in the past. These films are about the same person who has become very different.

Everything that occurred in In the Mood for Love has a profound effect on 2046. It begins by showing a hole in a futuristic world. This is the hole that people whisper their secrets into that they do not want other people to know. This story was told to Ping (Ping Lam Su) in the first film by Mr. Chow after his affair had begun with Su Li-Zhen. He knew that no one could know that they were spending so much time together, not even his closest friend. 2046 never answers what seems the popular underlying question of In the Mood for Love; which is whether or not Mr. Chow and Su Li-Zhen slept together. All we know for sure is that he loved her, and he is not sure whether she loved him back. We also know that whatever did, or did not, happen had a profound affect on the personality of Mr. Chow.

2046 also relies heavily on repetition just as In the Mood for Love did. Throughout the film Mr. Chow, or his literary adaptation of himself, tells people the story of the old days when people whispered their secrets into a hole and covered it with mud. Mr. Chow has become a writer who composes erotic stories for a Hong Kong newspaper. The main characters in these stories are all influenced by his life. In his story that is visualized at the beginning of the film and is also interspersed throughout, Tak (Takuya Kimura) is the focus. He is coming back from a place called 2046. In 2046 everything stays the same. However he states that no one knows whether this is true because he is the only person who has returned. Throughout the film we see this futuristic story along with its sequel, “2047”. The stories that Mr. Chow writes are all related to what is currently happening to him, or what has happened to him in the past. He yearns for a place and a time that he barely remembers; when he was happy with Su Li-Zhen. To him “2046” represents the time he spent with her. Mr. Chow wishes he could return and ponders whether “2046” was as happy as he remembers it. He knows he loved Su Li-Zhen, but he is not sure whether she loved him back. This thought is repeated throughout the film. The question of whether or not his love was reciprocated seems to be the more interesting relationship between the two films than the popular one of whether the two characters consummated their relationship.

The first time that Mr. Chow begins to ponder whether or not Su Li-Zhen loved him is near the beginning of the film when he sees the hotel room number 2046. This is the number of the hotel room that he and Su Li-Zhen spent so much time together writing stories. This is when the two of them were the happiest. He is trying to recreate some of that lost happiness by becoming a newspaper writer. However he writes stories that are drenched in sex, he could have never written these with Su Li-Zhen. These also show is frustration due to his unrequited love.
The most profound effect of In the Mood for Love on 2046 is the drastic change in the character of Mr. Chow. He looks, talks, walks, and acts different. He has grown a mustache that almost works as a disguise. He does not want anyone to see who he is. He no longer wants to be the person he was before. The old Mr. Chow was rejected and betrayed by women, and he could not stand up for himself. Now he is the one who rejects and betrays. He forms relationships with several different women in this film, but he only loves them if they do not love him back.
The core relationship of 2046 is between Mr. Chow and Bai Ling (Ziyi Zhang). He coolly pursues her until they sleep together. However, he does not want to show any romantic feelings towards her so he pays her money after they spend the night together. She is an escort, but is clearly hurt by the fact that he wants to pay her. As a game she says that she will give him the discount rate of 10 dollars. But the game to her is more about love than to Mr. Chow. Since Bai Ling loves him it turns Mr. Chow cold and dismissive towards her. When she questions him about whether he has been sleeping with other women, he tells her to mind her own business. He can easily dismiss a woman that loves him. Her love for him turns him away, just as he feels his love for Su Li-Zhen turned her away.

The next two relationships in the film are between two women who are unattainable for Mr. Chow for different reasons. He falls in love with Wang Jing Wen (Faye Wong) who is already in love with someone else. After pursuing her for some time he realizes that she is still in love with her Japanese boyfriend (Takuya Kimura again). This makes her an object of desire that he cannot resist, because he knows he cannot have her.[4] This is also the case with another Su Li-Zhen (Gong Li). She is a gambler with a mysterious past. She helps win back his gambling debt while only asking in return that he no longer gambles. Eventually he must leave her in Singapore to go back to Hong Kong, and he asks her to come with him. She rejects him, and he tells her that she must escape her past, and if she does that she should find him. Before leaving he kisses her passionately for a long time. This is the kiss the audience hoped for and never got during In the Mood for Love. Wong has introduced a new character with the same name to bring back Mr. Chow’s lost memories. At the end of 2046 Mr. Chow has moved closer to how his character behaved at the end of In the Mood for Love and further away from how he acted at the beginning of 2046. This is the key to the films as Su Li-Zhen has once again caused his character to change.

2046 reflects much more upon repeated viewings than it does at first. If the viewer is familiar with the history of the film and of the director himself, this film takes on a whole different meaning. Wong states in many interviews that he wants 2046 to be viewed as a separate film from In the Mood for Love; however he also states that the characters in 2046 are heavily influenced by their past.[5] 2046 had been in the planning stages for many years and it was repeatedly put on hold. He also told many people that he was shooting the film at the same time as In the Mood for Love. This seems to be one film that Wong could not escape. It was influenced by all of his films to date and it becomes the culmination of all his musings on love lost and regained, and how people change over time. From these films conventional beginnings they have transformed into shadows of their former selves, just as Mr. Chow does in between the two films.[6]

Wong Kar Wai changed very much over the years that he planned to make 2046 and In the Mood for Love. This becomes an ironic statement in terms of the place called 2046 where everything remains the same. Wong was intrigued by this perhaps because he knew from the beginning that this was impossible. The culmination of Wong Kar Wai’s work can be seen in 2046 where his musings on love lost and regained comes to their heartbreaking and meditative conclusions.

Bibliography
Blake, Nancy. (2003) “We Won’t Be Like Them: Repetition Compulsion in Wong Kar-wai’s In the Mood for Love” in “The Communication Review”
Lee, Nathan. (2005) ‘Elusive Objects of Desire’ in “Film Comment” (July/August), New York: The Film Society of Lincoln Center
Taubin, Amy. (2005) ‘The Long Goodbye’ in “Film Comment” (July/August), New York: The Film Society of Lincoln Center
Teo, Stephen. (2005) Wong Kar Wai, London: British Film Institute

[1] Taubin, Amy. (2005) ‘The Long Goodbye’ in “Film Comment” (July/August)
[2] Teo, Stephen. (2005) Wong Kar Wai
[3] Blake, Nancy. (2003) “We Won’t Be Like Them: Repetition Compulsion in Wong Kar-wai’s In the Mood for Love” in “The Communication Review”
[4] Lane, Nathan. (2005) ‘Elusive Objects of Desire’ in “Film Comment” (July/August)
[5] Teo, Stephen. (2005) Wong Kar Wai
[6] Taubin, Amy. (2005) ‘The Long Goodbye’

Waiting for Guffman and Kicking and Screaming: Humor Outside of the Mainstream

2006-05-04T12:10:00.000-04:00

The films of Noah Baumbach and Christopher Guest are instantly recognizable to anyone that has analyzed or closely watched any of their films. Noah Baumbach’s work is known for its witty dialogue, smart characters that are usually immature in some way, and characters who are trying to make a big transition in their lives but need to be nudged in the right direction. The work of Christopher Guest is characterized by light comedy that pokes fun at simple people who have simple pleasures. His films are shot in documentary style and many of the scenes are improvised. Both styles are very distinct and their films play out in ways that are typically not found in Hollywood films. The comedies of these two filmmakers can be seen as the antithesis of Hollywood comedy.

Kicking and Screaming was the debut film for Noah Baumbach in 1995 when Independent film was experiencing one of its periodic creative and commercial booms. This film hits very close to home with anyone that has gone to college and especially those that have experienced the period that these characters are going through, which is the transition from college to the real world. None of the characters in the film seem to be ready to make this jump and all of the main characters are very intelligent but very immature. This is indicated by the title which implies that the characters in the film must be taken into the real world, as if they were small children, kicking and screaming.

Throughout the film the male characters show that they are not prepared for life after college. The beginning of the film shows them at a graduation party where we learn about the core group of friends. There is Grover (Josh Hamilton) who has just broken up with his girlfriend Jane (Olivia d’Abo). Jane actually knows what she wants to do with her life, which is go to Prague and further her training in writing; this obviously bothers Grover. He assumed that the two of them were going to live together in Brooklyn after graduation. By the way Jane talks to him about her decision; it seems as if she has already brought this up to him. However he seems to have ignored her wishes and went on ahead with planning their lives himself. This is never explicitly stated in the film, but it seems as though Grover should not be so shocked that Jane is going to Prague. Instead of being happy for her, Grover picks a fight with her and they break up. This leads him to a summer of yearning while he spends time with his best friends: Max (Chris Eigeman), Skippy (Jason Wiles), and Otis (Carlos Jacott). The four of them spend much of their time at a bar run by Chet (Eric Stoltz).

Throughout the film, the four friends spend their time basically procrastinating, and they are afraid to make their entrance into life. All of them are unable to push themselves into the real world. None of them have any viable employment and none of them seem to be seeking it. Chet works as a bartender at their main hangout, but he is a permanent student who seems even less willing to let go of college than the other characters. At the graduation party he is mistaken for a faculty member because of his age. He quickly begins discussing previous graduation parties and rates which ones were the best. Otis tries to leave for graduate school, but as he is waiting at the airport he talks himself out of going. His exasperated friends leave hoping he will get on the plane, but he decides against it and comes home with them. The only one of the four friends in the movie that gets a job is Otis, but it is at a video store. And he even had to go back for a second interview to get that one.

As Emmanuel Levy says in his book Cinema of Outsiders, the film is “Written with dexterity (and financed for $1.3 Million), this satire examines the impact of changing times and shifting notions of work and friendship on bright, hopelessly neurotic youngsters.” This perfectly specifies the mood that permeates the entire film. The quartet of friends are obviously very intelligent; that is judging by their vocabulary and their conversations. Yet they do not behave in a very intelligent manner. They are unable to move on with their lives and find a stimulating job to apply their college training. They are neurotic because they don not see anything wrong with the way they are living. It seems to be perfectly fine to them to spend their days doing absolutely nothing. They behave as if they were older men who had just retired instead of as young men in the prime of their lives. They spend every night at a bar talking about college. During the day they sit around their house and do nothing. They may have academically prepared themselves for life after college, but they are in no way emotionally prepared for that transition.

Christopher Guest’s Waiting for Guffman tells the story of a small town in Missouri, called Blaine, holding their 150th anniversary of their accidental founding. To honor this momentous occasion the town is putting on a production to celebrate their town’s history. The director of this play is Corky St. Clair (Christopher Guest) who lives in an apartment decorated with his musical posters and with his wife that no one has ever met. The stars of the play are Ron and Shelia Albertson (Fred Willard and Catherine O’Hara) along with Dr. Allen Pearl (Eugene Levy). Rounding out the cast is local Dairy Queen worker, Libby Mae Brown (Parker Posey), Johnny Savage (Matt Keeslar), and Clifford Wooley (Lewis Arquette).

Waiting for Guffman is filmed in a documentary style. To go along with this many of the scenes were improvised during filming. This almost makes the film just as realistic as an actual documentary. Because if Guest achieves his goal of having each actor inhabit their character, they will be able to act spontaneously as the character just as a subject would in a documentary. In fact Christopher Guest popularized, if not created, a whole new genre of film known as the mockumentary. He began this style of filming with his “script” for This is Spinal Tap (Rob Reiner, 1984), which told the story of aging heavy metal rockers and the difficulties of putting on a show. Even though Spinal Tap was quite popular grossing over $5 Million on a tiny budget, Guest had great difficulty getting Waiting for Guffman made at all. “There would simply be no discussion with studios about this movie,” Guest recalled. “People have been under the misperception that, because Spinal Tap was a cult hit, it opened doors. It didn’t. The climate has changed: If you brought the Spinal Tap idea to studios today, they’d say, ‘Where’s the three-act script?”[1]

This is the type of film that could only be made in the independent world. Christopher Guest was already an established film and television actor long before Waiting for Guffman went into production. Nevertheless, he could not find anyone that was willing to fund an ingenious low budget project. These types of projects are always ones that tend to fall by the wayside in the film world. If it does not adhere to a strict pre-ordained formula, a studio does not want to touch it. They writing can not be too clever, or else the studio fears that the majority of the population would not be willing to sit through it. Unfortunately this trend in filmmaking tends to be escalating instead of dropping. The majority of films that hit the number one spot on the weekend Box Office Grosses Index are typically the films that require the smallest amount of thought to sit through. This is not an indictment of filmmaking as whole, but it is more of an indictment of studios who are too spineless to finance something that is actually intelligent and thought provoking instead of something that is trash that can help get through two hours of your day without thinking. There is a major problem within the studio system that existed in ten years ago, and it still exists today. This problem came into full view when it was evident who the frontrunners were for the Academy Awards for the year in film of 2005.

When the nominations were released for the award ceremony, analysts noticed something startling. The film that had made the most money as of the announcement was a film in the Best Documentary category, March of the Penguins (Luc Jacquet, 2005). Of the Best Picture nominations only one of them was not an independent film, Steven Spielberg’s Munich (2005). But even this film was a disappointment compared to typical Spielberg numbers. Munich, which cost $75 Million to produce, only grossed $47 Million. This is compared to the $234 Million that his War of the Worlds remake made earlier that summer, and the $77 Million that March of the Penguins raked in on its $8 Million budget. The highest grossing film that was nominated for Best Picture was Brokeback Mountain (Ang Lee, 2005). As of today that film has brought in $83 Million on a $14 Million budget, which puts it only $6 Million above March of the Penguins. However it took Oscar buzz to get it over that hump. Even after all of the dust had settled; none of the Best Picture Nominees had broken the $100 Million mark which indicates the modern blockbuster. Capote (Bennett Miller, 2005) only grossed $28 Million, some of the worst films of the year pulled in this amount of ticket sales on their opening weekend.

While most studio executives will argue that they are just catering to the audiences taste, this seems like the easy way out. Any Studio is willing to hedge their bets and go with a sequel or a remake of a popular movie than finance an intelligently written and poignant film about a group of college students trying to figure out their lives. Or they are willing to put into production the next video game adaptation for the big screen than to give an established comedic writer/actor a chance on a brilliant idea that gently pokes fun at middle America and the culture of celebrity. It is ironic that Guest would be able to make such a film with an insider perspective since all the cards would have been against him being a celebrity at all. This film could not see the light of day in the studio system which tends to be the only way to move up to the A-List in the celebrity world.

Waiting for Guffman and Kicking and Screaming are the complete antithesis of the types of films, particularly comedies, which are released by studios every weekend. While a typical Hollywood comedy is usually more of a broad comedy, an indie comedy is centered more on dialogue and character development. A Studio film will have its actors express the humor through falling down, bending their face, or trying to gross out the audience. An indie comedy will usually make you think, or at least pay attention to what is happening. That is not to say most indie comedies are boring or hard to follow, they just demand a little bit more from the audience.

Whenever a mainstream comedy dips into the world of satire it is usually cruel, demeaning, or perhaps just ignorant and unfunny. However indie comedies are typically much more gentle and understanding of their subjects. Emmanuel Levy states, “The small town amateurs in Waiting for Guffman cultivate their belief that their trifling musical tribute will go to Broadway. Like the fictional Spinal Tap, the troupe is clumsy in a charming way, echoing what Guest calls “a larger idea” than just this little group of people. The film “is not about offending hicks in the sticks, but seeing how its human nature to want to be a star.” Guest very gently ridicules the simple people that inhabit the town of Blaine, Missouri. However he never makes them out to be stupid and it is never cruel. He points out how humorous they act, but they are humorous and strange in a charming way. He uses this small town to illustrate what it is to be an American living in modern society.

The films of Christopher Guest and Noah Baumbach are hilarious, insightful, and poignant. These seem to the qualities that make a good comedy. Unfortunately these also seem to be the qualities that keep these types of films from being seen by a wide audience. These films are well made, but from a studios standpoint not appealing enough to a wide audience to deserve their support. This can be detrimental to the careers of filmmakers who want to make these kinds of films, but they can also be inspiring. A filmmaker knows that with just limited resources they can make something meaningful that could eventually find its audience. These films give comfort to the fact that you don not have to make a film that is formulaic and trite to get it made. However you have to be prepared to be patient to allow your film to grow and find its audience, and one day hopefully that audience will be able to walk into a multiplex to see these types of films.

Bibliography
Levy, Emmanuel. (1999) Cinema of Outsiders: The Rise of American Independent Film. New York: New York University Press.
[1] Levy, Emmanuel. (1999) Cinema of Outsiders: The Rise of American Independent Film. New York: New York University Press.

Steve Buscemi Shining in Indie Stardom

2006-04-06T23:00:00.000-04:00

When one thinks of a movie star the name Steve Buscemi is not the first to come to mind; unless you solely watch independent movies that is. Steve Buscemi, as well as many others, have catapulted themselves to stardom in the more specialized world of independent cinema. This is a whole different type of celebrity than that enjoyed by the likes of Brad Pitt and Julia Roberts. You will not see Buscemi on the cover of People magazine with latest gossip over his newest romance. There may only be a fleeting mention of him somewhere in the back with pictures on the set of one of his studio pictures. The constant overexposure that most stars have causes the general public to have a complete working knowledge of all the major players in Hollywood. The celebrities that get to the a-list subject themselves to constant gossip and speculation. Steve Buscemi has made himself into a star, but he is a much more specialized star. Anyone who is truly knowledgeable of independent film would easily recognize Buscemi on the street. The key difference seems to lie in the contrast between a movie star and a picture personality.

Actors like Steve Buscemi, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, and Parker Posey seem to completely inhabit the characters they play. Going back to the idea that these actors will not typically be featured in People but perhaps they will be featured in Film Comment or New York Magazine. A mainstream audience may recognize these actors for the smaller supporting parts they play in big budget movies but they would not be likely to have seen them in their starring roles. Steve Buscemi has become more of a mainstay in studio pictures in recent years but the fact remains that he is typically not the name marketed for these films. And he usually plays a small role that is more along the lines of a cameo. These cameos are typically more rewarding for people who have seen Buscemi in other films. They know that the personality of the brief character in this movie is very similar to the personality of his other characters.[1]

The line typically becomes blurred as to where the character ends and the person begins. This tends to be a problem with actors and the way they are perceived in public. Many people suppose that the people they play onscreen are the same as the real person. This is usually more of a tendency when people speak of Independent Stars. In the case of Buscemi he tends to play unbalanced somewhat creepy characters. The way he actually looks matches this. Therefore someone may expect him to be the lousy criminal that he played in Fargo. When thinking in terms of the picture personality the actor is usually thought to behave the same as the character’s that they play. This perhaps leads to the actor being typecast throughout their career. However, this also leads them to a type of stardom that is only enjoyed by actors in the indie film world.

But what is it that makes these actors different than mainstream stars? Perhaps it is the fact that they are appreciated in more “intellectual” terms than someone like Brad Pitt. As was stated earlier, a cameo or a small role in a studio movie by Buscemi or Posey will be appreciated by an entirely different audience in an entirely different way then would a cameo by Pitt or Roberts. The lines for these two types of stardom can overlap. If Pitt made a cameo in a film he would more than likely play a more glamorous character than someone like Buscemi. Pitt’s characters tend to be rugged ladies men while Buscemi’s tend to be seedy or creepy characters that seem unbalanced in some way. Most people assume that their actually personalities would be the same as the characters they play. Perhaps this is why someone like Brad Pitt becomes a huge celebrity while Buscemi plays small roles in big pictures and big roles in small pictures. The type of characters that actors play in films tends to be how the public associates these actors’ real personalities. And someone like Brad Pitt plays a more appealing character; to women and men because of his good lucks, charm, and heroic characters. This is the type of man another man would want to be and a woman would want to be with. Therefore they want to know everything about this person’s actual personal life. The general public wants to feel like they intimately know this person when they go to see their latest film. It seems to be very important to know intimate details about the biggest movie stars that you would not even know about your best friends. They want to know Pitt’s history, what he’s doing right now, and who he’s dating. It comes down to people wanting to know all these things so they can perhaps vicariously live the same glamorous life as these celebrities. On the other hand, the characters that Buscemi plays are typically not the type of person that would be considered ideal in real life. Therefore it is not as important to most people to know all the details of his personal life. More knowledgeable film goers may know more about him but they probably will not be able to tell you how much he paid for his house or who he may be cheating on whom with. This allows Buscemi to have a more personal life and to not worry about everything he does being picked apart by the public. But it also keeps him from being a big box office draw and drawing that 20 million dollar paycheck.

Two films starring Steve Buscemi that seem to whole heartedly embrace the world of independent film are In the Soup (1992, Alexander Rockwell) and Living in Oblivion (1995, Tom DiCillo). These films show, and their directors obviously know, how difficult it can be to get funding and to actually produce an independent film. In American Independent Cinema Geoff King sums up the industry of the independent world like this:

“Part of the romance of independent cinema is the notion of producing films at extremely low cost, outside or on the edges of the mainstream, free from dependence of the corporate oligarchy comprised by the major studio system. Successive generations of filmmakers, as well as critics and enthusiasts, have been inspired by tales of feature-length movies being made on tiny budgets, shot in spare time, financed on credit cards or funds scrambled together from other unlikely sources.”

Both of these films focus on an aspect of the difficulty of getting a film made. Even though these films make it seem outrageously difficult to get a film financed or to just complete a scene in a shot, it also makes it seem romantic and idealistic. And even though these films poke fun at the types of people who want to break into the independent film world, there is a soft underside to these films that makes you sympathize and root for these characters even when it seems like everything is going wrong.

Alexander Rockwell’s In the Soup tells the story of Aldolpho Rollo who is trying to raise money for a film based on the 500 page epic screenplay he has written. Aldolpho is played by Steve Buscemi and the person who attaches himself as the producer of his film is Joe played by Seymour Cassel. Joe is an eccentric criminal who has suddenly decided that he wants art to be a part of his life. Aldolpho is desperate for money at this point and he receives word from Joe that he would like to buy his screenplay because he had to put things he owned for sale so he could pay the rent. When Aldolpho shows up at Joe’s door he immediately sees what kind of character Joe is. He has a girlfriend half his age, loads of money lying around, 1000 dollars of which he immediately gives to Aldolpho, as well as firearms. Aldolpho is obviously taken aback by Joe’s behavior but as Aldolpho says, “Joe had his way of making you feel important, even though you knew he was taking you for a ride.” Joe is obviously off-balance but you still want to be around him anyway.[2]

At the beginning of the film Aldolpho states that he envisions the apartment building where he currently lives as being a tour bus stop one day. He just knows that one day people will be lining up to find out how Aldolpho Rollo got his start. He sees himself as an artist in the vein of Renoir even though Joe sees his work as being modeled after The Honeymooner’s. The difficulties never seem to end for Aldolpho from the start where a sleazy producer, played by Jim Jarmusch, is of no help to him till the end when Joe has sucked Aldolpho into his world and there seems to be no way that Aldolpho can escape. The existence of Joe, Aldolpho, and his movie become intertwined until the end. Rockwell paints a very quirky picture of what the trials and tribulations can be of someone who is an aspiring filmmaker. The film obviously exaggerates in most places but it does embrace the whole concept of funding a movie by any means possible.

Tom DiCillo’s Living in Oblivion is the story of Nick Reve who is the director of the movie within the movie. The film begins with Nick trying to get a big scene shot with his main actress Nicole who is played by Catherine Keener. We meet the films driver, Tom Jarmusch, the gaffer, the sound guy, the boom mike operator, as well as the Assistant Director Wanda, played by Danielle von Zernick, and the Director of Photography, played by Dermont Mulroney, and Chad Palomino who plays is the films egotistical Brad Pitt type star. Each character shows throughout the making of the movie that they have their own agenda and are more concerned about the movie being to their liking then they are about getting their jobs done. Wolf (Mulroney) sees himself as the true artist on the picture and seems to get annoyed when he gets orders from anybody else including Nick.

Throughout Living in Oblivion we see all the difficulties that can occur on any movie but especially an independent one. These problems range from the assistant camera operator going the wrong way on the focus ring to having a troublesome dwarf. In the first segment every time a take gets going something goes wrong. A boom mike comes into the shot, the shot goes out of focus, a car with a loud stereo drives by the building, the actresses forget their lines. The tension slowly builds up throughout the segment with each thing that goes wrong until we finally hear an incessant beeping. Nick slowly goes crazy trying to figure out where this noise is coming from until he finally wakes up and we realize it was a dream. In the second segment we see the egotistical Chad Palomino ruin every shot and interact very poorly with the crew. We can tell this actor is modeled after a Brad Pitt type actor by the way he carries himself. The film definitely takes shots at the types of actors who are studio movie stars but stays more sympathetic towards those who toil in the independent world. The final segment shows Nick trying to film a dream sequence that has a dwarf in it but he can not seem to explain why. Eventually they get the shot down and while the sound mixer is recording the ambient sound we see the fantasies of each person in the room. These fantasies culminate into Nick’s whose fantasizes about winning the award for best film ever made by a human being.

Steve Buscemi is the prototypical indie film star. His main passion lies in the independent world, not the studio film world. Even though he may take parts in big budget movies, the main purpose of that usually is just to get enough money to help finance an indie. It is a self sustaining cycle that many people in the world of independent film travel. The characters that he plays in these two films are either trying to get into that cycle or are trying their best to survive in the cycle. And the makers of these two films certainly know the world of independent film very well. Tom DiCillo drew from his many experiences and somewhat autobiographically made Living in Oblivion. Both of these films show how absurd this world of independent film can be and how strange the characters are in this world. But they obviously love what this world has to offer them just as Buscemi does.

Works Cited
King, Geoff. (2005) American Independent Cinema, Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Levy, Emmanuel. (1999) Cinema of Outsiders, New York and London: New York University Press.
Negra, Diane. (2005) ‘Queen of the Indies’ Parker Posey’s Niche Stardom and the Taste Cultures of Independent Film in C. Holmund and J. Wyatt (eds.) Contemporary American Independent Film, London and New York: Routledge.

[1] Negra, Diane. Queen of the Indies. Contemporary American Independent Film. (pgs. 72-5)
[2] Levy, Emmanuel. Cinema of Outsiders. (pgs. 111-12)

Film News, Film News, and More Film News

2006-04-06T22:53:00.000-04:00

Well. It turns out I'm published now. Isn't that something. Yes I have entered into the world of journalism and all of the integrity that comes with it. Here is my first article for The Seahawk, Which is a review of Inside Man. So be sure to pick that up at newstands on campus. There will only be a few more issues this Spring. And since our University is so underfunded, no more issues till August. Where my film criticism will come back with a vengence. And with other great articles.

And if you look above you will see that I have started posting my longer film essays again.

And if you are looking for something to do Friday night ACE is showing Brokeback Mountain on campus.

Speechless

2006-03-31T16:55:00.000-05:00

Unless you have been living under a rock that doesn't get ESPN you now know that GMU has beaten Witchita State for the 2nd time and beaten UConn to be the first true mid major team to advance to the Final Four. Sure other teams that are now midmajors have advanced to the Final Four or even won the title (like Indiana State and Texas Western and Charlotte) However this was before games were on national TV and there was such a huge disparity between athletic budgets. Things have changed since the 60's and the 70's but it appears that midmajordom has finally proven itself. Now it's only a matter of time before Delaware State advances. Look for Delaware State vs. Southern Final Four matchup in 2040. It should be a doozy.

Well our dirty little secret that we play some of the best basketball in the nation right here in Wilmington and Norfolk and Hempstead and Fairfax and so on and so forth has finally been uncovered by the national media. Hey we are better than one of the Final Four teams, and possibly others. How about that. Logically we are at least one of the top 3 teams in the country. How about that. Wish I could be in Indianapolis. But instead

CBS
6ish #3 Florida vs. #11 GMU
830ish #2 UCLA vs. #3 LSU
Saturday Evening.

Thank You Coach B

2006-03-28T20:52:00.000-05:00

Note: I sent this letter to Coach B due to the various rumors that he may be moving onto another school due to his visits to Ball State and Wright State this week.

Dear Coach Brownell,

Before I begin I would like to congratulate you on the tremendous season that you guided our team to this year. I felt priviledged to watch this team play from the very first exhibition team. Every player on this team tried harder to make the team win than any other group I have ever seen on any team. The only complaint I have about this season was the lack of out of conference home games, but that's another issue. I have never seen a team that was easier to cheer for and that relates directly to the coaching staff. The players on the court define the individual game but without a top notch coaching staff a team could not have the type of season that they had this year. I hope you will pass this letter on to Coach Jones as well. I want him to know how much we appreciated having him at this school. And I and the rest of the students wish him the best of luck in Kansas City.

The last couple of days there has been numerous stories about you interviewing at Ball State University and Wright State University. I understand that you have to do what is best for you and your family and I applaud the fact that the success you have had here is making numerous oppurtunities open up for you. That makes me and everyone here happy to know that your work is being appreciated all over the country. However I hope that you would like to stay here in Wilmington and help us continue to build a successful basketball program that you have helped push into its prime.

You know better than I, as a UNCW student from the Triangle Area, how beautiful and great of a community Wilmington is. And you of course know how great of an institution UNCW is. You have been the face of this schol in the national media as this school and the CAA has burst onto the national scene. As you have stated many times before the rest of the country is just figuring out what we already knew. That UNCW has a great basketball program that plays in a great conference. And if I can find some solace in the First Round loss to George Washington it is that George Mason is in the Final Four. I know that I would just be preaching to the choir if I pointed out that we have a better team than they do. This run to the Final Four is of course great news for George Mason but it is also great news for UNCW as well as the rest of the CAA. Their tournament success is going to have far reaching implications in terms of national exposure, recruiting, and of course how much money we receive which is the biggest handicap for a mid major school and a mid major conference.

I can only hope that you will be around in the future to see exactly how far this program can go and I would like nothing more than to have you be the face of this program in the future. Becuase you have helped bring this program into the limelight and you deserve credit for it in the future. You have helped the conference and the rest of the country see what great, hard working, and classy basketball we play here at UNCW.

I can only hope that everything is being done by the administration to help you understand how important you are to this school. And I know for a fact that the students here appreciate just as much as the students that you coach. No matter what your decision is or how the chips fall in the future, I would just like to thank you for helping me increase my love of basketball and giving the students so much to cheer for. Even when the team has not been successful they have been easy to cheer for because of how well coached they are and how they play. This of course must be heavily influenced by you and your work ethic. I can assure you that if you did leave my biggest heart break in my basketball consciousness would be that. I know most fans would be just as heartbroken as you and the rest of the UNCW community were when Drew Nicholas' shot dropped and when Beckham Wyrick's shot did not.

But once again I would like to thank on behalf of the UNCW students for everything you have done for this school so far. And hopefully you will be here to share our future success with us. (We need to show George Mason and the rest of the country next year just who is the best team in this conference.)

Sincerly,
Terry Hobgood

See for Yourself

2006-03-22T00:45:00.000-05:00

A-10's St. Josephs and Big 12's Nebraska know that Hofstra is for real.

MAAC's Manhattan and Big 12's Colorado know that ODU is for real.

They will play each other for the 3rd time tomorrow night at 7:00 on ESPN2 in NYC. (Not at The Garden but at Hofstra arena.)

Hofstra took the matchup in Norfolk easily and won the game in NYC on a buzzer beating 3. ODU is looking for revenge but Hofstra is still holding onto the 2nd longest home winning streak in the nation. This is turning into the biggest matchup for ODU besides VCU, and maybe GMU. So even though the bracket's are terrible making ODU and Hofstra meet in the round of 8 instead of the semi's or the championship, at least 1 will go. And we have a postseason matchup on national television between 2 conference opponents. Are you watching nation?

ACC's North Carolina and Big 10's Michigan State know that Mason is for real. They get a rematch with Witchita State in the Sweet 16. This time the game is on a "neutral" court in DC. All I know is that DC is a lot closer to Fairfax than it is to Witchita. At least 1 midmajor team will be in the Elite 8. Too bad they are meeting now, it would be interesting to have a shot at 3. Bradley plays Memphis so it could still be 2.

GMU's win helps UNCW. UNC winning would not have. Get that into your heads everybody. UNC would just have had another accomplishment to hang over our heads by winning. We are already deep enough under their shadow. GMU's wins help the CAA as whole. Credibilty, national exposure and $$$$$$$$$. UNCW gets a share of that money, this is a revenue sharing conference. Everyone gets a slice of the big payday that comes with getting to the tourney and the bigger one that comes with advancing. The conference is still getting a boost from our win over USC back in 2002. Mason has 2 wins this year plus we had 2 teams with bids. And we have the knowledge that we had GWU. We are better than Mason. We split regular season, they lost in the conference semi's after a poor quarterfinals showing. They had the marquee win, Hofstra and UNCW did not. Both teams needed the auto bid in the committee's eyes. UNCW dominated through every round and Hofstra beat Mason for the 2nd time in 10 days. Mason was the 3rd best team in this conference and they have proven themselves as one of the best 16 teams in the nation. If they win they will be one of the best 8 teams in the nation. Just remember we are better then them. They got the breaks in the tourney but we are better. They just got better results. We are better and they are on the cover of Sports Illustrated.

Patriots vs. Shockers RD. 2 Friday night let's say 7:30ish.

..........

2006-03-19T01:46:00.000-05:00

Still recovering. Can't make myself write about the game, or have the heart to do a season wrapup.

Congrats Mason. Take out the Heels tomorrow. Show them how we do things in the CAA.

Good job Hofstra. Take out St. Josephs in Philly.

Gary Williams remembered why he didn't scheduled midmajor teams. Because he got "embarassed" by Manhattan in College Park. ODU thanks you for the present. They get another senior day in Norfolk against Manhattan. If Hofstra and ODU both win they will meet in NYC for the round of 8 game.

Congrats to Bradley, Northwestern State, Witchita State, Montana, UW Milwaukee, and Bucknell (again).

Anything you would like to add Billy Packer?

I'm Trying

2006-03-16T01:10:00.000-05:00

I'll try to get back to more updates soon. And hopefully not as sporadic and short. But for now a few things to ponder.

UNCW's path to the Sweet 16 will most likely run through a top 15 team and the #1 team. And that's with a 9 seed.

ODU knocked off Colorado in Boulder pretty easily tonight in the first round of the NIT. Hofstra plays Nebraska in NYC tomorrow.

Some thoughts from Pat Forde on Best and Worst Case Scenarios for UNCW:

UNC Wilmington
Best case: Smart, experienced, skilled Seahawks handle George Washington, then finally get a shot at Duke. Two-time Colonial Athletic Association Defensive Player of the Year John Goldsberry does what almost no one else can do: limits fatigued J.J. Redick to nightmare shooting game and UNC-W has the upset. School isn't just called off for a day; they cancel the rest of the semester and go to the beach.

Worst case: GW gets on the offensive glass and in the paint at will off the dribble, exploiting its athletic advantage to beat UNC-W in the first round. Students unilaterally take the rest of the semester off and go to the beach.

BTW Joe Lunardi is picking us to beat GWU and then to lose to Duke. So hopefully we can make at least half of that come true.

Tune in tomorrow on CBS at 7:10. And then at 9:40 to hopefully find out who our opponent will be.

Interesting

2006-03-12T23:48:00.000-05:00

UNCW #9 vs. #8 George Washington? (#6 in the nation in the latest polls) And the game is in Greensboro. Top player for GWU is out. That adds to seed lowering. He better stay out. Or else that is complete crap to give us a 9 seed against a 26-2 team.

GMU #11 vs. #6 Michigan State. Not sure how Mason got in over Hofstra. But at least we got another in.

NIT

Hofstra and ODU in. Both with byes. ODU @ Colorado. Hofstra hosts Nebraska.

What a crazy night. More about all of this later. Including CAA tourney.

Lay Back and Relax

2006-03-07T10:44:00.000-05:00

We're in. More later.

More fun stuff on espn.com:

Recap and highlights.

And another article from one of my new favorite espn.com columnists Pat Forde.

Even though the Hofstra students that I met at the tournament were complete morons who don't deserve to be happy I still hope they get in as well as GMU. I know at least one of them will. Let's hope for both.

Thank you espn.com

2006-03-06T11:25:00.000-05:00

UNCW is in the finals. So is Hofstra. GMU is a lock for the tourney and out. I have a hard time believing the selection committee will give us 3 bids so we need to pull this out. Delaware really hurt our RPI.

But all is not lost. I get on espn.com this moring on the CAA is on the front page of the collge basketball webpage. They are saying we deserve 3. Let's Craig Littlepaige feels the same way.

Stories the on to Richmond:

Barea gets frustrated by Goldsberry again. Elbows him in the chin. Talks junk. Doesn't get tossed. He's not the Player of the Year for nothing.

Tony Skinn punches Loren Stokes below the belt (suprise, suprise). Skinn gone for next game on coaches orders instead of CAA or NCAA orders. I gain more respect for Jim Larranaga.

Espn.com

Thank you, thank you, thank you, Pat Forde:

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/story?columnist=forde_pat&id=2355875

And also a story about Skinn's cheap shot:

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=2355822

Also this from espn.com page 2:

"PHYS. ED.

Redick and Morrison will both be starring in NBA video games soon. John Goldsberry will not be. All he wants is to get back to where he was three years ago. This is his last chance.

Goldsberry is a gutty player on both ends of the floor. (AP Photo/Scott K. Brown)On Friday night, March 21, 2003, the 11th-seeded UNC Wilmington Seahawks faced sixth-seeded Maryland, the defending national champions, in an NCAA first-round game in Nashville. I was there to cover it -- it was my first NCAA Tournament. And Wilmington was expected to give the Terps a good challenge, led by their star perimeter scorer, Brett Blizzard.

Well, Wilmington gave Maryland more than that. But Blizzard wasn't the star. Freshman guard John Goldsberry, who averaged 4.9 points per game that season, had the night of his life. He took eight 3-point shots. And he sank every last one of them -- an NCAA Tournament record. Thanks in large part to him, with five seconds left in the game, Wilmington led by one, 73-72.

Maryland had the ball -- the Terps had to go the length of the court. Drew Nicholas received the inbounds pass, started flying up court, and at the buzzer threw up a one-legged prayer from about 30 feet away. The shot went in, a miracle that made Maryland a winner, and Goldsberry's performance a footnote.
"I've thought about that game so many times," says Goldsberry. "It seems like yesterday."

Unfortunately, Goldsberry and his Seahawks have never been able to get back to the Dance. But this year, they have a good chance. UNC Wilmington is 22-7, and its 15-3 record in the Colonial Athletic Association gave the Seahawks a share of the CAA regular-season title along with George Mason. The Seahawks got the top seed in the CAA tournament via tiebreaker, so they'll play a quarterfinal game Saturday afternoon vs. either Delaware or Drexel. And they should receive strong at-large consideration if they lose in the conference tournament.

Unlike three years ago, Goldsberry comes in as the star of this team. The 6-foot-3 senior is the Seahawks' second-leading scorer at 11.4 points per game, while also averaging 4.9 assists and 4.0 rebounds. He also was last season's CAA defensive player of the year and will likely retain that title this year.
Hey, College Hoops Fans...

Want to contribute to the College Hoops Report Card? Send your questions, and nominations for the subject categories, here.

"He doesn't wow you with his stats, but he's the toughest player I've ever coached," says UNC Wilmington coach Brad Brownell. "Floor burns, face burns, dislocated shoulders, beat-up ankles, bruised knees, broken fingers ... he plays every day like it's his last."

As a freshman, Goldsberry never dreamed that his first NCAA Tournament game might be his last. "I didn't know how hard it would be to get back," says Goldsberry. "It would mean a whole lot to get back there."
So if you're looking for an underdog to root for this Championship Week and beyond, then John Goldsberry just might be your man. He's already proven he can put on a good show in the Big Dance.
Maybe this time, he'll be the one to pull off a miracle."

Thank you once again.

#1

2006-02-28T22:28:00.000-05:00

Just look at that for awhile and think about all the things it means. It means that no one is better than you. It means that everyone wishes they were you. It means you are in cruise control for the 1st round of a tournament. It means that you don't have to lie in wait in a Coliseum all day just to watch your game. It means you are playing at noon.

That's right. UNCW, who was picked to finish 5th in the pre-season polls, has finished in a tie for 1st in the CAA with GMU. However UNCW gets the tiebreaker for the 1 seed after Hofstra defeated Drexel. UNCW accomplished this by defeating GSU on saturday behind a solid all around effort by the seniors and of course TJ Carter who had an off shooting night, but did have 2 electrifying dunks. UNCW struggled early but ended up with a 68-56 win over the CAA newcomers who were making their 1st trip to Trask.

So your Play in round pairings for Friday in Richmond are:

#8 Drexel vs. #9 Delaware Noon
#5 Northeastern vs. #12 JMU 2:30
#7 Towson vs. #10 GSU 6:00
#6 VCU vs. #11 William and Mary 8:30

Saturday Quarterfinals:

#1 UNCW vs. #8 Drexel/#9 Delaware Noon
#4 ODU vs. #5 Northeastern/ #12 JMU 2:30
#2 GMU vs. # 7 Towson/ #10 GSU 6:00
#3 Hofstra vs. #6 VCU/ #11 William and Mary 8:30

The semi's and the finals are on Sunday and Monday but the pairings are too undecided to delve into them now. Suffice to say that UNCW will beat somebody Monday night. (wink, wink)

In other CAA news this weeks polls had 3, count em, 3 CAA teams in the fold on the national stage:

31 GMU
37 UNCW
40 Hofstra

GMU and UNCW also made an appearnce in the AP poll but Hofstra did not.

In the latest RPI rankings yada yada yada:

24 GMU
37 UNCW
38 Hofstra
55 ODU
77 VCU
100 Northeastern

In the latest Mid Major Top 25 on collegeinsider.com:

3 GMU
5 UNCW
8 Hofstra
17 ODU
29 VCU
36 Northeastern

Also on collegeinsider.com there is a an article about at large bids for mid major conferences. Here is the part about the CAA where we are compared to the MVC (as I did in an earlier blog entry):

"I was overrun with emails from Missouri Valley Conference fans, making their case for multiple bids and claiming the crown of best mid-major conference. It’s difficult to argue either point, but I do think a case can be made for the Colonial Athletic Association. You can make a pretty compelling argument that the CAA deserves multiple bids to the dance as well.

Jim Larranaga (Head Coach, George Mason): Kyle, the CAA has earned respect the old fashion way...it wins games. Four teams from the CAA - George Mason, Hofstra, UNCW and Old Dominion have 20 wins already. We are the only league in the country with four teams recording 20 wins ore more as of Friday February 24th. The RPI for three teams is in the top 40. George Mason is 19, UNCW is 34, Hofstra is 38 and ODU is 57.

If the MVC deserves multiple bids so does the CAA. George Mason went to Wichita State, the MVC league leader, and won. In fact, the CAA went 6-2 in the Bracket Buster with the top four teams beating top teams from other conferences. The CAA has more talented players and teams than ever before. The only thing it doesn't have is an abundance of non-conference home games like many conferences ranked higher. If we did, it would drastically improve our non-conference RPI. If the CAA played as many home games as the MVC and better still had guarantee games that they didn't have to return, than the CAA's RPI would be considerably higher. There is no question that the MVC is a great league this year, and there is no doubt in my mind "The CAA" is just as good. Both leagues deserve multiple bids. It is that simple.

There is a lot of national support for the Valley to get multiple bids and at least one recent article made a case for George Mason to get into the dance, regardless of how things play out in the CAA tournament. Here are a few articles worth reading:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/21/sports/ncaabasketball/21valley.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/sports/stories.nsf/othersports/story/293BF4618574A7BF8625711C002241B1?OpenDocument

http://www.signonsandiego.com/sports/college_basketball/20060214-2332-bkc-georgemasonschances.html

Teams from both the CAA and the Valley could open some eyes in the coming weeks, but Cinderella isn’t relegated to just two conferences. A few people emailed, wanting to know how good Delaware State is. Last year’s MEAC tournament champion had a good showing in the NCAA tournament against Duke. This year they have dominated the conference regular season, losing just once. I turned to one of my fellow Mid-Major Top 25 voters for a scouting report."
-Kyle Macy for collegeinsider.com

That's all for now. Except that I must remind you to come out for the baseball tomorrow at 3:00 vs. Duke at Brooks Field. After that rest up until Saturday in Richmond. See you then.

Ahhh. #1. #1 seed. Automatic postseason berth. (Worst case scenario NIT.) #9 in latest bracketology. Basically a lock in the latest Bubble Watch. Life is good.

Shed a Tear

2006-02-25T11:56:00.000-05:00

More about all of this later as I need to write this and then head to Trask.

In case you didn't know UNCW defeated VCU on Thursday night in a big game in Richmond. TJ Carter of course led the way in scoring. And Mr. Goldsberry notched 5 assists putting him at 496 for his career. So if he reaches his average assist total today (4.8apg) Then he will have over 1,000 points and 500 assists for his career. I could think of no better way for his last game at Trask to end then by him reaching this plateau. I think they might as well have his jersey hanging up in the rafters beside Blizzard's before he does his postgame senior day speech.

Due to technical difficulties the game will not be on Time Warner Cable today. But it is being broadcast on several comcast channels throughout the country so they can see the magic that is Trask. But as always you can tune in to 980AM to listen or check out the live stats.

(sniff, sniff)

Oh I'm no good at senior days...

What Changes a Week Will Bring

2006-02-21T22:13:00.000-05:00

Well over the weekend VCU, ODU, and GMU played televised BracketBuster matchups. VCU had a 3 point win over Albany on ESPNU in Richmond. ODU blew out Marist on senior day in Norfolk. And most notably GMU went on the road and beat Witchita State in Witchita. This made GMU all but a lock for the NCAA tourney unless they lose the next 3 games against JMU, Hofstra and the quaterfinal matchup in the CAA tourney. That is the only way I can see them moving back onto the bubble. The interesting thing about this is that they are a lock for the NCAA tourney but not a lock for the 1st seed in the CAA tourney. If they lose to Hofstra on Thursday night in NYC and then beat JMU in Fairfax on senior day they could finish in a regular season championship tie with UNCW. The game in NYC is a tossup while the game in Fairfax should easily go to the Patriots. This takes us to the main bubble team in the conference...

The UNCW Seahawks are currently 20-7 overall and 13-3 in the CAA. They follow GMU (21-5, 14-2) by 1 game for first place in the CAA. In the latest bracketology on espn.com UNCW is figured to be a 10 seed as an at large. Lunardi gives GMU the conference title and a 7 seed to go along with it. Incidentally he has Witchita State as a 7 seed and he has the Seahawks facing off against them. GMU's matchup in his bracket is 10 seed Bucknell. Most bracket pundits figure UNCW to be in if they can snag at least a share of the regular season title and win at least 1 game in the CAA tourney. This makes Thursday's trip to Richmond to take on VCU very interesting for the Seahawks. If UNCW can beat VCU again, they did so by 20 earlier this season in Wilmington, and beat GSU on Saturday in Wilmington; they will finish 15-3. If GMU loses to Hofstra and beats JMU they will finish 15-3. If UNCW and GMU are the 1 and 2 seeds in the tournament their road to a matchup in the finals would go like this:

UNCW (Record vs. opponents in regular season 3-1)
Quarterfinals-Drexel (UNCW won both matchups)
Semis- Hofstra (Season Split)

GMU (Record vs. opponents in regular season 2-1)
Quarterfinals-Towson (GMU won only matchup in Fairfax)
Semis- ODU (Season Split)

Both teams could very easliy make it to the finals against these opponents. However these semifinal matchups would be basically a tossup. Don't be suprised if you see ODU vs. Hofstra in the tourney finals. And for that matter if ODU finishes 4th with VCU 5th. You could have one of the better quarterfinal matchups in the tourney's history by having a rematch of last years sold out tourney finals. And keep in mind the tourney is in Richmond and the Coliseium is a total of 2 blocks from VCU's campus. So the concept of this tournament being on a neutral court is quite laughable. But the fact that VCU will not get a bye really works against them and it would be quite a feat for them to make it to the finals even with homecourt advantage.

On to the rankings...

The big news is of course that GMU cracked the top 25 in the espn/usa today coaches poll making them the first CAA team to do so since Navy was #18 back in 1986. UNCW also received 3 votes putting them in a tie for 40th.

In the latest RPI rankings several teams remain in the top 100:

GMU 20
UNCW 38
Hofstra 47
ODU 52
VCU 69

And in the latest collegeinsider.com mid major top 25 several CAA teams are holding strong:

GMU 2
UNCW 7
Hofstra 10
ODU 19
VCU 24
Northeastern 42

Till next time...

GO SEAHAWKS!

Jarmusch and Genres

2006-02-20T21:56:00.000-05:00

Film genres help viewers form expectations for what it is they are watching. A genre is always made known to the viewer when they are watching the trailer for a film. This helps market the film to a certain demographic that is most likely to pay money to see this film. That is why a film must neatly fit into a given genre in order to be profitable to a mass audience. The word genre conjures the word generic, and that is just what most movies are. Some romantic comedies are better written than others, but the viewer still knows what to expect when they are told a movie is a romantic comedy. Fitting a movie into a genre helps the viewer feel safe in knowing what to expect. But what happens when a director does not make a film that fits cleanly into a given genre? This typically scares an audience and keeps them out of theatres; that is why most films that play with genre conventions are typically independent films. The work of Jim Jarmusch never fits neatly into a genre, and that is what makes his fans love him and makes others wary of his work. It is also why the typical multiplex would never, or rarely, play one of his films.

Stranger than Paradise is best described as a drama with bits of comedy packaged into a road movie. The bulk of the story involves a road trip to Cleveland and then to Florida. This helps put it into the road movie category. The film would most likely be put into the drama category at a video store but there are many elements of comedy in it, and anyone who enjoys a good comedy would enjoy this film. However it moves to slowly to be considered a comedy. Comedies almost need to take place like action movies, the jokes and gags need to fly at the viewer like bullets would.

Down by Law is at heart a comedy, but it once again doesn’t neatly fit into that category. First of all it is a black comedy which pushes it towards the drama section in a video store. Second of all there are quite a few serious moments in the film and it is another quiet and slow moving film. This takes it further away from the comedy genre as mentioned earlier. It is not a crime mystery because there are crimes that take place, but the viewer doesn’t witness the trials. The crimes are there to get the central characters together so they can escape. The escape and flight from justice give some moments of suspense but these are broken by comedy. So I would place this film into the comedy genre, even though this may not be the most mainstream category to put it in.

Mystery Train fits more into the drama category in my opinion, though it too has elements of comedy. It does not have as many comedy elements as it could have if Jarmusch had wanted it to be this way. The film focuses on character development and the everyday lives of its characters. Jarmusch captures small moments in these people’s lives and shows how they interact. These moments are not necessarily the most dramatic or funny times in these people’s lives. But they are the events that happened at these particular moments. The film is once again to slow and thoughtful to be considered a comedy.

Dead Man fits most neatly into the western genre. Western’s grew out of drama so obviously that is there as well. However Jarmusch could not make a conventional western. The film gets its plot moving around the fact that the main character needs a job. He is not a loner or a cowboy like a typical western “hero”. The film does however lead into the hero’s interactions with a Native American character. Native American’s are of course a big part of westerns, but usually they are caricatures of their true selves which is not the case here. This film fits most neatly into a genre of the four mentioned but it does not fit as neatly as a multiplex would think it should. Jarmusch shows his technique and mastery of filmmaking by playing with genres and forming his own new ones.

The Moment You Have All Been Waiting For

2006-02-20T21:52:00.000-05:00

Today I am going to start a new series of film essays. I admit this is a way for me to fiddle with these essays as most of them will be essays that I have to work on anyway. Therefore some may be a little thick with film studies terminology but I don't plan on venturing into some of the outlandish critical studies concepts that occupy some of my classes. So enjoy these essays, some will be rough drafts but what do you care. No professors read this, or do they?

Anyway enjoy the first essay on Jim Jarmusch which you can read above. It is about 4 of his films and how he steers away from generic conventions.

Enjoy...

UNCW Baptizes Deacons

2006-02-20T21:43:00.000-05:00

Since the last post UNCW's baseball team played twice more and this time they took both games in a row over Wake Forest. The Seahawks used strong hitting to counteract errors and at times subpar pitching to tally a 10-8 victory during the rain on Saturday and a 10-5 victory on a sunny cold Sunday. The victories moved the Seahawks to 5-1 on the young season.

UNCW now travels to Greenville this weekend for a 3 day tournament against Virginia Tech, East Carolina, and NC State. NC State is currently ranked as high as 18th in the nation in some baseball polls so this could be a big road weekend for the Hawks.

In other CAA news ODU currently stands at 1st in the league with a 7-1 mark. UNCW is 2nd at 5-1 and VCU is 3rd at 3-1. GSU stands in 4th at 2-2. Check the complete baseball standings for the rest.

Deacons Take Down Seahawks

2006-02-17T23:41:00.000-05:00

The Wake Forest Demon Deacons took down UNCW 9-7 on Friday on a beautiful at Brooks Field. The game was a tough loss for UNCW behind errors and subpar pitching. But hopefully we will pick it up to take the next 2. The loss drops UNCW to 3-1 on the young season.

The next game in the series is Saturday and Sunday at 2:00.

Safe at Last

2006-02-17T23:23:00.000-05:00

With UNCW's 77-68 victory of Hofstra on Wednesday night from a boisterous Trask Coliseum the Seahawks ensured a spot in the top 4 in the conference come Tourney time therefore giving them a bye from the play in round that will be held on the first Friday. The Hawks used a 11-0 run early in the 1st half to take the lead for good and held on to it with clutch shooting and hard nosed defense. Hofstra's Carlos Rivera turned his ankle early in the game and The Pride never seemed to recover. Even though Hofstra head coach Tom Pecora complained a little about the physical play, most of his hurt players were self inflicted. Aurimas Kieza ran into Loren Stokes in the 2nd half causing Kieza to go the sideline for stitches. But back to the actual game.

TJ Carter led the way for the Seahawks with 20. (Do I even have to type that anymore?) And Antoine Agudio led the way for Hofstra scoring a game high 26. Vlad Kuljanin answered the bell when he came off the bench hitting all 6 of his field goals and both of his FT's for a grand total of 14 points in 18 minutes. For complete game stats...

In other CAA news GMU defeated Drexel easily in Fairfax to retain 1st place in the conference at 14-2. UNCW remains a game back 13-3. UNCW reached 20 wins on Wednesday for just the 2nd time in school history in the regular season. This has been accomplished in the past several times with the help of the CAA and NCAA tourney's. But the only other time it has been done in the regular season is back in 2002-2003 in Brownell's first year as head coach. GMU also reached the 20th win mark for I believe the 7th time in school history, but don't quote me on that.

Current CAA Standings.

As we speak VCU has just dispatched with their American East foe Albany to kick off the Bracketbuster's. The game was broadcast on ESPNU so I'm sure upwards of 5 people saw it throughout the country. But national TV is national TV. So congrats to the VCU rams for kicking off the Bracketbuster right.

Tomorrow ODU hosts Marist at 4:00 on ESPN2. And in the primetime slot GMU travels to Witchita State at 8:00 on ESPN2.

The other CAA bracketbuster games are:

Rider @ Northeastern
JMU @ Longwood
Siena @ Hofstra
Vermont @ Drexel
Delaware @ Clevland State
GSU @ College of Charleston

In other NCAA news be sure to watch the marquee Bracketbuster matchup between Bucknell @ Northern Iowa at noon on ESPN2.

The next game for the Seahawks is @ VCU on Thursday at 7:30. The game will be broadcast on Channel 17 on Time Warner Cable and as always on 980 AM.

Fun Stuff on ESPN.com

2006-02-14T22:08:00.000-05:00

If you haven't seen the latest bracketology then you wouldn't know that UNCW is currently being picked to go as an at large bid with an 11 seed. The current opponent being placed as a 6 in the same region is a certain school that plays just a couple hours away up I-40 in a cavernous light blue hole filled with wine and cheese and perenially ungrateful fans. The Tar Heels of UNC. While this would be a fun matchup the odds of it being a 1st round game are pretty much zero. But still I like where your head is at Joe Lunardi. By the way GMU is currently placed as a 9th seed.

The Hawks are also in the bubble watch placed in the others with at large chance category along with GMU and Hofstra.

"NC Wilmington [19-7 (12-3), RPI: 45, SOS: 120] Worth mentioning if UNCW can win the CAA regular-season crown. RPI is dicey for a mid-major at-large. 9-6 road/neutral record helps, but two sub-150 losses don't.

George Mason [19-5 (13-2), RPI: 27, SOS: 81] GMU looking more and more like a legit at-large team, especially if the Patriots can hold off UNCW and Hofstra in the CAA. 4-5 vs RPI Top 100. Game at Wichita State could be an at-large play-in game.

Hofstra [18-4 (11-3), RPI: 56, SOS: 252] Probably not real likely with such a weak SOS, but Pride are one loss behind George Mason and could still snag the CAA crown; would the Committee show some mid-major Pride?"

And Kyle Whelliston had this to say about us in his latest blog entry:

"Top-five Tuesday

When I chat on ESPN.com or browse through my mailbag, the most common sentence-opening phrase is, "Where's the love for … " Don't get me wrong, I have love for all my mid-major brothers and sisters, but please keep in mind that part of my job is to simplify and distill a chaotic world of over 220 teams that play outside the power conferences. There's only so much love to go around.

That being said, there are definitely some teams that haven't received the column inches they've deserved here at The Mid Life, and it's time to correct that. They might play in the long second-place shadow of a league-leading team, or they may be just now starting to peak after a rough stretch. Or maybe they've simply dropped a couple of games at inopportune junctures, games that won't mean anything come tourney time. Here are the top five slept-on teams that may be best positioned to earn some national love in March...

1. UNC Wilmington (Colonial) -- The Seahawks earned some early headlines when they swept the Laramie, Wyo., pod of the BCA Invitational, but they fell off the radar when they lost three straight over Christmas to Charleston, East Carolina and Old Dominion. While that streak (and no BracketBusters participation) have likely killed the Seahawks' NCAA at-large chances, their seven wins in eight games have positioned them just one game behind George Mason for the league lead. While UNCW isn't that impressive shooting-wise, its defense is stifling, only allowing 58.9 points per game (58.2 in conference tilts), and its .874 points allowed per opponent's possession gives them the 10th-best defensive rating in the country. And like Butler, ball control is key: Despite UNCW's lackluster 42.7 percent field-goal percentage, the Seahawks lead the CAA in A/TO (1.2), turnover rate (18.6 percent percent) and assisted-basket percentage (62.2 percent)."

And about Hofstra:

"K-Dub's krazy fact of the day

Speaking of the Colonial, Tom Pecora's Hofstra squad is currently in third place, bubbling under at 11-3. In justifying my "sell" position, I've often pointed to the Pride's one glaring weakness: free throws. Hofstra is the worst team in the CAA at the line, with a 65.1 percent freebie percentage, which places them in the bottom 50 nationally.

But the scoreboard says Hofstra wins games: six in a row at the moment, and 18 overall. So the question has to be asked: how important is free-throw percentage, anyway?

Obviously, there are more important stats when it comes to winning basketball, the ones that have to do with shooting and rebounds and a team's ability to actually get to the line. Out of context, FT percent doesn't tell you much: the current upper echelon includes teams that win a lot of games (21-3 Gonzaga shoots 79.3 percent) as well as squads that don't (New Hampshire, 77.3 percent). Two of the top five in the category have losing records: 9-15 UNH and 10-11 St. Joseph's, putting a new twist on the term "charity stripe."

Yesterday we looked at what happens when you make more free throws than your opponent shoots (answer: an 80 percent chance of victory), but let's take it from a simpler perspective today. If you have a better percentage from the line than the other team, will you win?

Yes, but certainly not all the time. In 2005-06, teams that have outshot their opponents percentage-wise from the line have won at a .577 clip. The schools that sit atop the polls are the ones who have done it most often, stretching this particular statistical spectrum: Connecticut's done it 11 times so far, and have won every one of those games. Gonzaga is at 17-2 (21-3 overall), Villanova's 16-2 (20-2), and Memphis is 10-0 (22-2). Duke (23-1 overall), no strangers to the stripe late in ball games, are 18-1 when they enjoy a better free-throw percentage.

In Mid-Majorville, we have Birmingham-Southern at 9-2 (17-6 overall) when it shoots better from the line, which has helped them share the precipice of the Big South with Winthrop (which is 8-1). Delaware State also is 9-2 and it has risen to the top of the MEAC. In-game foul shooting supremacy is a good leading indicator among the four Missouri Valley teams that currently own 11-4 league records: Southern Illinois (9-3), Wichita State (13-5), Creighton (8-4) and Northern Iowa (13-1).

And of course, there are the oddballs -- each with their own reasons for not being able to win despite good foul shooting. St. Francis (Pa.) and Morehead State have been the better team from the line 14 times, but they're both 3-11 in those games -- in both cases, it's cold shooting from everywhere else on the floor that does them in. Eastern Illinois (least efficient offense in the OVC) is an even worse 3-12, and Dartmouth (Ivy-worst D) is 1-10.

Hofstra, for its part, has managed to outshoot the other guys at the stripe six times in 22 ball games; in those games, the Pride are undefeated. But when they find themselves in Richmond next month, engaged in a close win-or-go-home CAA playoff game, Pride fans should bite their nails and hope the other team doesn't foul them. Just remember the fact that they score on 52.9 percent of their possessions, the 29th-best floor percentage in the country … best to win it while the clock's running."
-Kyle Whelliston for ESPN.com

See you Wednesday at Trask.

Welcome to the CAA Georgia State

2006-02-14T21:45:00.000-05:00

The GSU Panthers were formally introduced to the UNCW Seahawks over the weeekend and I think the Hawks made a good impression with a 69-57 victory over the new foes during a Saturday matinee.

Leading the way for the Seahawks in scoring, get ready for a shocker, was TJ Carter who led all scorers with 21 points. Mitch Laue followed with 16 points and 5 boards in only 17 minutes of play. And John Goldsberry regained his shooting touch going 4-6 from the field for 11 points and 4 assists. Temi Soyebo took the assist category with 5. On the GSU side Herman Favors and Malcom Manier led their team with 13 points apiece.

An interesting side note, GSU coach Michael Perry is a member of the Richmond Athletic Hall of Fame. He was a 4 year standout for the old conference foe of UNCW before playing professionally and then coming back as an assistant leaving just as former UNCW coach Jerry Wainwright arrived. Perry took over the GSU program after legendary coach Lefty Dreisell stepped down after taking his 4th team to the big dance. Another interesting side note, Michael Perry is from my home town of Oxford NC.

In other CAA news GMU defeated Towson and Hofstra held of Northeastern to keep the top of the standings just as they were. GMU remains in 1st at 13-2. UNCW in 2nd at 12-3. And Hofstra in 3rd at 11-3. Here are the complete standings.

The big news as of now is that we take on Hofstra Wednesday night at 7 in Trask. In case you don't remember Hofstra took down UNCW by 6 earlier this year in NYC in an triple OT instant classic. This time I see the home team winning in the form of a close victory to keep UNCW within grasp of GMU. Loren Stokes and Antoine Agudio could be 2 of the best players in the league. But John Goldsberry and TJ Carter are right up there with them. And if Todd, Mitch, and Beckham can get it going inside this should be no sweat for UNCW. If they don't, the best guards will win. UNCW by 4.

The other marquee matchup is Drexel at GMU. Drexel has the ability to trip teams up. Just look at their near defeat of Duke, and their shoulda-won game against UCLA. But they can also lose games that they should never dream of losing. GMU is not a team that Drexel should beat, especially in Fairfax. GMU by double digits.

The Hofstra game will unfortunately not be on TV. So if you can't make it to Trask you can tune into 980 AM as always. Or failing that here is a link to the live stats.

Weekend Seahawk Baseball series was Definitely a UMES

2006-02-14T21:36:00.000-05:00

Over the weekend the Seahawk Baseball team took down Maryland-Eastern Shore in a 3 game series. It is not much use even discussing these 3 games, as UNCW completely annihilated the UMES Hawks and any hopes of going back to that horrid state with a W.

Here are the box scores from the weekend see for yourself they are just plain old ugly:

Game 1 (19-2)

Game 2 (18-0)

Game 3 (20-1)

The Seahawks remain at home this weekend for a 3 game series against the Wake Forest Demon Deacons. Wake is 1-1 currently and UNCW is of course 3-0. The game on Friday is at 3. And the Saturday and Sunday matchups are at 2.

In other CAA news UNCW sits in a tie for 1st with ODU at 3-0. In a tie for 3rd are VCU and William and Mary at 1-0. GMU and Hofstra are the only other 2 teams to start play so far, they both are 0-3. Here are the complete conference standings.

Blue Hens Feeling Blue Once Again

2006-02-10T23:14:00.000-05:00

The Delaware Blue Hens took yet another setback in Wilmington Thursday night falling to the Seahawks behind Beckham Wyrick's 16 points and 7 rebounds. UNCW took control of the game midway throught the first half with a 24-2 run. The Hawks took the game 70-54. A few things worth noting from the game are the fact that there were 28 fouls called on Delaware and 26 on UNCW. The officials decided at halftime that they would try to make the 2nd half as slow as possible. It worked as the final 20 minutes took around an hour and 10 minutes. The top scorers for both teams, TJ Carter and Harding Nana, were in foul trouble for most of the game. TJ finished with 7 points but did provide some electricity when sorely needed. And Harding Nana toiled his way to a quiet double-double, 14 points and 10 boards, in 27 minutes before foulding out.

In other CAA news GMU remains in first with their 12-2 league mark thanks to VCU squandering a 17 point lead in Richmond. The Seahawks remain in 2nd at 11-3 and Hofstra is a 1/2 game back at 10-3. Here are the current CAA standings.

That's all for now, more analysis tomorrow.

Just a Quickie

2006-02-08T21:01:00.000-05:00

OK folks quick news update for the CAA.

Bracket Buster Matchup's:

Albany @ VCU 7 on Friday Feb. 17th on ESPNU

Marist @ ODU 4 on Saturday Feb. 18th on ESPN2

GMU @ Witchita State 8 on Saturday Feb. 18th on ESPN2

Interesting CAA hoops blog post.

Here is the section from Greg Doyle's article on CBS sportsline about Hofstra:

"Hofstra: The Colonial has a good shot at bids for NC-Wilmington and George Mason, and while three bids is a reach, it's not out of the question. This is where Hofstra (16-4, 9-3; No. 58) comes into play. Old Dominion has a better RPI (No. 47), but Hofstra swept the Monarchs. The Pride sit third in what looks like a two-bid league, but if they finish off a season sweep at NC-Wilmington on Feb. 15 ... then beat George Mason on Feb. 23 ... and avoid a first-round loss in the CAA Tournament ... they'd be difficult for the selection committee to turn down."

And he mentions UNCW as one of Colorado's quality wins:

" Colorado: Any mock bracket that includes Colorado isn't a mock bracket at all. It's a joke bracket. Forget its record. The Buffaloes (15-4, 5-3; No. 48) aren't NCAA-worthy ... yet. Right now, Colorado's best wins are against three other bubble teams (NC-Wilmington, Nebraska, Oklahoma State). That's a resume in dire need of bold print -- and the Buffs will get two chances at that. Oklahoma visits on Feb. 15, Colorado plays at Kansas on March 1. Here's the deal, and it's the best (accurate) deal you're going to get, Colorado: Beat Oklahoma or Kansas, and win four of the other six games on your schedule. That's a 5-3 finish that would put Colorado at 20-7 entering the Big 12 Tournament. Win a game there -- against anyone -- and the Buffaloes are in."

And here is a clip of Hofstra's game winning shot over ODU. I know this is old news but I just found it.

And also compare and contrast to VCU gamewinner over Drexel.

Gotta love this league.

Another 8 Man Team

2006-02-07T20:49:00.000-05:00

The UNCW Seahawks took a setback on Saturday night as they were not able to close out the crucial matchup in Fairfax. After trailing most of the game. The Patriots of GMU were able to shut down UNCW late in the game to come away with a victory. TJ Carter led all scorers with 21 points. Mitch Laue tallied a double-double for the Hawks with 10 points and boards. Jai Lewis led the way for GMU with 19 points. (Even though a lot of those were handed to him by the officials, because apparently the opposing player is not allowed to impede his progress to the basket. Completely unacceptable. If you put a hand in his face you are getting a foul.) And on that same topic how does Isiah Hunter get a Technical foul late in ODU's loss to Richmond for flapping his jaw, and Jai Lewis does not. He seemed to be having very in depth discussions with Todd Hendley after every shot he made, with an assist from the ref, and I don't think he was complementing Todd on his haircut. The officiating seemed completely one sided to me, even though every Mason fan will say the same thing, just that it was one sided towards us. But enough of making excuses, when you come right down to it we still could have won the game. The victory came down to the team that executed at the end, GMU, and the team that loss was the one that panicked and settled for bad shots, UNCW. However, I really don't believe GMU would have been close at the end if it wasn't for the one sided officiating. I mean look at the boxscore, Mason scored 69 points, they shot 28 FT's. And very few of those came within the last minute when we were trying to send them to the line. On the other hand UNCW shot 75% at the line. The problem is we only shot 8.

In other CAA news JMU finally picked up their first conference victory last night against Delaware. So congrats to them.

With their win Saturday, GMU is now in first by themselves at 11-2. They are followed by UNCW at 10-3. Hofstra is a half game back in 3rd at 9-3. Here are the complete CAA standings.

In the latest RPI Rankings several teams remain in the top 100:

32 GMU
43 UNCW
47 ODU
59 Hofstra
64 VCU
96 Northeastern

In the latest national rankings GMU and Hofstra are receiving votes. GMU is as high as 33 in the Coaches Poll and Hofstra received votes in the AP poll putting them at 45th with Stanford and UW Milwaukee.

In the latest Mid Major Top 25 poll several teams remain up in the top 15:

6 GMU
10 Hofstra
12 UNCW
13 ODU
24 VCU
30 Northeastern

The Seahawks take on Delaware on Thursday at 7:00 in Trask. The game will be broadcast as always on 980 AM. Here is a link to the live stats.

PS. More about this later but the reigning CAA Regular season baseball champs, UNCW, start off their season on Friday with a 3 day weekend series against MD Eastern Shore. They play at 3 on Friday and at 2 on Saturday and Sunday. So come out to Brooks Field this weekend, after coming out to Trask on Thursday to watch the action.

Bracket Buster or Bust

2006-02-01T22:40:00.000-05:00

As most of you may know by now the Bracket Buster matchups have been announced for the weekend of Feb. 17th/18th. More analysis on this later but here are the TV matchups from the CAA. Channel designations will be announced on Feb. 7th:

GMU @ Witchita State
Albany @ VCU
Marist @ ODU

The other non-televised matchups from the CAA are:

GSU @ College of Charelston
Delaware @ Clevland State
Rider @ Northeastern
Vermont @ Drexel
Siena @ Hofstra

More talk on this later but reagardless see you at Trask Thursday at 7:00 for UNCW vs. Drexel.

Barea Ready for the NBA

2006-01-31T20:09:00.000-05:00

I am completely serious in that title. I have seen very players come into Trask that seem just as ready for the NBA as Barea. Sure you can look at the box score from the Seahawks 46-44 victory over Northeastern and be confused by this. Sure he shot 2-12 FG and 0-8 from 3 point land. But every player, including any star in the NBA has a bad shooting night, you have to look at potential and the style at which he plays his game. Shooting aside, you could have thought you were watching an NBA game. I saw numerous occasions where he miraculously went from the 3 point line to the basket without dribbling in supposedly 2 steps. Because of course the refs would have called travelling if it occured especially since they called it on his defender, John Goldsberry under the basket. Or maybe they knew that he was a future NBA player and that is the mentality that an NBA player has. And you can't penalize someone for that can you? And he had more turnovers than he did assists. Surely point guards in the NBA take good care of the ball and don't try too hard to make a fast pass or give the ball to someone who isn't looking. Or maybe I'm wrong, becuase NBA players usually have good control of their emotions and don't do something stupid during the game. I mean an NBA player wouldn't get tired of having his wristband on or get tired of the students that are heckling him and take said wristband and chuck it into the crowd. Oh wait did someone say Ron Artest who is an NBA star? Ok I guess he is ready.

But back to the game which was one of the ugliest and sweetest games I have witnessed in person. Both teams played hard nosed defense and hard horrendous shooting nights. The only thing that saved UNCW was the 16-4 adavantage we held in the offensive rebounding category and our 7 TO's compared to 19 for Northeastern. That along with some clutch FT's down the stretch from Daniel Fountain off the bench and of course the buzzer beating jumper by TJ Carter who is trying his best to go down in UNCW lore as one of the best clutch performers. After a memorable 28 points against GMU a week before hand he only put up 11, but we didn't need to many points when your opponent only scores 44. Not to mention that he logged a double-double by grabbing 12 rebounds to go along with his 11 points. Todd Hendley followed with 10 points, and Goldsberry dished out 7 assists with only 1 TO.

If you want to check out video of this last second shot click here and then click the link that says Northeastern @ UNCW.

In other CAA news a tiny bit of space has cleared up at the top of the standings with now just a 2 way tie between UNCW and GMU with a 9-2 league mark. There is a 2 way tie for 3rd between ODU and VCU who are now 8-3 in the conference. Hofstra stands alone in 5th at 7-3. Here are the complete CAA standings.

In the latest Mid Major Top 25 poll on collegeinsider.com several CAA teams remain on top of the Mid Major world:

8 GMU
11 UNCW
12 ODU
18 Hofstra
23 VCU
37 Drexel
40 Northeastern

In the latest associated press national poll GMU is ranked 45th receiving 1 vote to be ranked. They are tied with Stanford and Iona.

In the latest RPI rankings 5 teams remain in the top 100:

35 GMU
40 ODU
43 UNCW
58 VCU
69 Hofstra

Also in other UNCW news the Sehawks are mentioned in the latest bracketology on espn.com. Joe Lunardi has the Hawks as the 13th seed in Oakland region where he has Illinois as the #1. Lunardi has West Virginia facing off against us in the first round. This is very inconsequential information at this point but it is nice to see us listed on an NCAA bracket prediction hopefully we can make it come true. Also it is of interest that he has GMU and ODU on being just barely on the outside looking in. Did someone say 3 bids?

The next contest for UNCW is Drexel on Thursday at 7:00. The Seahawks have won the last 4 meetings and have only lost 2 games to the Dragons in the history of the series. Both of those came by 3 points or less in Philadelphia. There have been 4 overtime games in the 11 game series and UNCW has taken all of those matchups except 1. The last 3 games have been decided in the last minutes and this should be another good one. Everyone saw the headaches they gave Duke in Madison Square Garden and how they nearly beat UCLA. Not to mention their utter domination over ODU in the 1st matchup this year between those 2 teams. Last years game in Trask was won on a last second tip in by Halston Lane to give the Hawks a 1 point victory. The game will be broadcast on 980 AM. Here is a link to the live stats.

The other marquee matchups Thursday night are ODU vs. Hofstra from NYC and Towson vs. VCU in Richmond. Hofstra won the 1st matchup between the 2 teams in Norfolk but I don't see ODU dropping multiple games to anybody this year. Expect a big game from Alex Loughton some tight defense on Loren Stokes by Drew Williamson. ODU takes this one close.

VCU has been playing very well lately and Towson has not. Especially on the road (RE: their 32 point drubbing in Wilmington) I don't see Nick George getting outgunned by Gary Neal. And even if he does VCU has the supporting cast to pull out the win whereas Towson needs Neal to be a stud every night. VCU takes this one relatively easy.

As for our game, it will not be easy. Drexel is a tough team that tends to not go down easy. They are not doing as well as UNCW this year and UNCW has dominated this series. Don't expect things to change now. More than likely the Seahawks will build a nice lead and Drexel we pull back in and hang around just enough to make the crowd in Trask nervous. Hopefully we will leave happy with more than likely a single digit victory.

See you Thursday...

Last One

2006-01-28T11:53:00.000-05:00

If you can't come to the game tonight or listen to it on the radio here is a link to the live stats.

The Worst Pizza ever made

2006-01-28T11:31:00.000-05:00

If you would like to read a humorous writeup on the Bob Carpenter Center. Home of fellow CAA team Delaware Blue Hens. Check this out on midmajority.com. Thats enough free publicity for you Mr. Whelliston.

Free Publicity for ACE

2006-01-28T11:29:00.000-05:00

By the way Mr. Whelliston had this in his blog last week when he was previewing our matchup against GMU:

"Colonial: George Mason (13-4, 7-1) at UNC-Wilmington (13-6, 6-2) -- They don't wear black on the road anymore, but GMU walks the line. The only team in the CAA with any shot at building an at-large resume travels to Wilmington, a football-free school that's busily preparing for next week's homecoming (theme: "Home is where the Seahawk is"). Don't expect too many points: GMU has the most efficient defense in the league (86.7 points allowed per 100 possessions), and UNCW has the second-best mark in that category (88.1)."
-Kyle Whelliston for ESPN.com

So our homecoming theme got mentioned on espn.com. How about that.

Walking Through the Valley

2006-01-28T11:18:00.000-05:00

Here is an interesting story for all you fellow mid-major fans out there. Mid-Major guru Kyle Whelliston of midmajority.com has an great write up on the Missouri Valley Conference over at espn.com. You can read it here.

He also has interesting story on his blog on espn.com insider that talks about how the MVC could get 4 bids to the tourney. This is unheardof for any mid-major conference and while 3 is the most likely scenario for the nations oldest conference, 4 is a definite possibility.

"How the MVC can get four bids
posted: Tuesday, January 24, 2006
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- Barry Hinson had been beaming broadly, fielding press conference softballs about how his Missouri State squad had overcome Southern Illinois' defense and gutted out a big home win. But then that question came up.
You know, the one about bids.
"We have five teams within Nos. 1 through 29 in the RPI," Hinson said, his face becoming ashen, his hands trembling. "If there were five teams 30 or below in the ACC, the Pac-10, Big 12, Big East, they'd all go to the NCAA Tournament."
"I would go right now into a courtroom," Hinson said, slapping the table hard to punctuate syllables, his voice achieving the bellow of an expert lawyer. "I would say, 'Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I rest my case.' "If it's this way at the end of February, then we deserve four, maybe five bids to the NCAA Tournament. And I'm not speaking tonight for Missouri State, I'm speaking for the Missouri Valley Conference. I've been in this league for seven years. I can fight for everybody else as well."
Before you go and offer Hinson a retainer to defend your most recent speeding ticket, remember that the MVC season's only half-over. And at this moment, "this way" means no fewer than four teams at 7-2 -- it's just not mathematically likely that Northern Iowa, Wichita State, Southern Illinois and Creighton could enter the conference tourney in St. Louis with 78 percent winning percentages.
"I think you have to be a little bit cautious about drawing a conclusion that if you're the fifth-rated conference, then you should get five or four or three bids," said MVC commissioner Doug Elgin. "At the end of the day, it's going to be how your teams are measured against the other teams that don't win their conference tournaments, that are on the so-called 'bubble.' Who they've played, who they've beaten, and in what sequence."
But there's nothing like a good hot stove argument to warm up January Jaundice, before February Fever kicks in to form the foundation for March Madness. Like the web of scenarios that NFL fans fret over late in the regular season, here's a five-step plan for how a four-bid Valley can happen.
Separation. Since Missouri State's win over SIU last Thursday, the Bears have lost to Wichita State to dip their league record to 5-4. But they still maintain their conference lead in nearly every meaningful statistical category (offensive efficiency, free throws, 3-point field goal percentage, assist-to-turnover ratio and floor percentage). Thinking they're out of it for being two games behind would be premature.
But a second division is definitely forming in the league with those five teams that do not have at-large résumés and do not appear in any way qualified to steal the league title the old-fashioned way -- by sweeping the conference tourney. Bradley and Drake may be .500 teams, but the two ISU's (Indiana and Illinois) and Evansville are lagging behind with four conference wins between the three of them.
Beat each other up equally. All Valley teams have nine games remaining, and a 4BV would require that they beat the bottom teams and split their own toughies. Missouri State has the easiest road to March -- the Bears already have gone through the most rigorous stretch of their schedule, taken their inevitable losses, and have just three games remaining against the four other top teams. Northern Iowa and Wichita State have four, and Southern Illinois has five. Creighton has the toughest road, with six games left against the other elites.
But it's OK if they lose to each other, says the conference's commissioner.
"If our leaders lose to one another, they're not going to be penalized in the RPI," said Elgin. "That's the biggest difference between the Missouri Valley of today and the Missouri Valley five or six years ago."
But not too much separation. Nothing can ruin a conference's day like an RPI-dragger, and No. 222 Evansville is there to play spoiler for the teams trying to polish their digits. Indiana State and Illinois State are No. 157 and 176, respectively.
And the top teams can't lose to the lower teams.
"The bottom could fall out on some of our league leaders," said Elgin. "The one thing that can derail a team's ability to secure an at-large berth is to lose to low-RPI teams. That's what happened to Wichita State last year -- they started 15-1, and they lost seven of their last 10. We can't afford that kind of thing."
So it's imperative that the bottom teams split the games they have with each other to keep their own RPIs at relatively decent levels, then take their losses when the big boys come to town. Evansville, for example, has five of its last nine against the MVC's top tier, and it's in the Four-Bid Valley's best interest if it goes 2-2 in the other four games.
Get 20. Nothing impresses the Selection Committee like the number 20, and whichever teams get to 20 overall wins will have the inside track when it comes to bid time. Northern Iowa is at 17 now, and they're almost guaranteed to get there before the regular season ends.
Wichita (16-4) has five games against the lower division, and should get there before March as well. The only iffies here are 13-4 Creighton and 12-5 Mo-State, which both have anywhere between 10 and 12 chances to get the wins they need.
St. Louis status quo. Having four teams of this top five in the semifinal quartet -- and no surprises -- is perhaps the most crucial element to achieving a 4BV. The two finalists are virtually assured of bids, and it matters how the semifinals went down for the two losers.
So it's possible, but by no means a gimme. If the Valley does get four bids, or even a boring old three, then we'll spend the summer debating that other question. You know, the one about whether the MVC is a mid-major league or not.
"I've never cringed from that label," said Elgin. "I think that the label is pretty much on point. Mid-major doesn't have anything to do with level of play, it's about resources and television exposure."
But the coach of one of those current 7-2 teams is a bit more ambivalent.
"We don't care about the moniker," said Southern Illinois coach Chris Lowery. "Winning is what matters. I don't think other people call us mid-major, because they won't come to [SIU Arena] and play us. So whatever you call that, that's what you can call us."
-Kyle Whelliston for ESPN.com

Enjoy that free section from an espn insider article.

Once again see you at Trask at 7:00. Or hear me at Trask on 980 AM.

Seahawks Take Down (the) Duke(s)

2006-01-27T23:10:00.000-05:00

While it's not as impressive as taking down the #2 team in the country I'll take us beating the #280 team in the nation. Especially if it is a road game, even more so if it is a conference game. This win kept UNCW in a tie for 1st place in the CAA with ODU and GMU who also posted wins Thursday night. The Hawks posted 83-46 win behind John Goldsberry who surpassed Billy Donlon for the all time lead for UNCW in assists, as well as becoming 1 of 16 players in school history to score 1,000 points. He led all scorers with 18 points as well as posting 7 assists, 6 boards and 3 steals. Daniel Freeman and Ray Barbosa led JMU in scoring with 10 apiece. The Seahawks achieved this 37 point dismantling behind 50.8% shooting helped by a staggering 62.5% behind the arch. Not to mention 78.6% from the charity stripe.

Here is the Box Score.

UNCW now returns home to face off against Jose Juan Barea and the Northeastern Huskies. Barea is currently leading the nation in assists at 8.7 apg. This is on top of their CAA leading marks in FT% and RPG at 72.5% and 34.4 rpg respectively. It will be a true challenge shutting down Barea but I believe we are up to the task. We already shut down league leading scorer Gary Neal just over a week ago holding him 18 points below his average. I realize that Northeastern has played in some tough buildings, but I would like to see how they respond to a place as loud as Trask. It should be a good game and I will be shocked if we hold the Huskies below 65 points. I predict a hard fought win for UNCW with both teams in the 70's. I think TJ Carter and Todd Hendley with a little help from John Goldsberry will have enough firepower to answer everything Northeastern can throw at them. Plus JJ Barea is going to have to deal with defense from Wyrick, Goldsberry, and perhaps Soyebo should be more than he can handle. Hopefully his teamates won't step into his scoring role.

The other top games in the circuit today are ODU vs. GMU in Fairfax, and Hofstra vs. Drexel in Philly. Even though the home team usually wins where the top tier CAA teams are concerned I think Loren Stokes will be too much for Drexel to handle. I see Hofstra pulling out a close win at the Dak. But don't be suprised if Bruiser Flint's team is able to put the clamps down and pull out a win. As for the marquee matchup of the weekend, ODU vs. GMU, this should be a hard fought remix of the instant classic earlier this year in Norfolk. It should be another low scoring game but I don't see any Drew Williamson heroics this time around. GMU takes this game by 5.

In other CAA news the 3 way tie remains on top of the standing between UNCW, ODU, and GMU as they all posted wins on Thursday night. All 3 teams stand at 8-2 in the circuit. In a 2 way tie for 4th are VCU and Northeastern at 7-3. And right in the mix in 6th place is Hofstra at 6-3.

Compelete CAA standings.

It is quite amazing how good the league is this year there are only 4 teams that are not posing much of threat to anybody. GSU, W&M, JMU, and Delaware seem to be completely out of the picture. I don't think Towson will be able to push for the a top 4 seed in the tournament but they are not out of the picture as they stand at 5-5 which amazingly puts them in 8th place, yet only 3 games out of 1st place as we pass the halfway point of the conference schedule.

But for now let's focus on the business at hand at come out early to Trask for the 7:00 tip off. I plan on being there around an hour before hand, and maybe even before that. There is an oldtimers/alumni game at 3:30 if you would like to spend even more time at Trask. And if you can't come or couldn't get a ticket make sure to tune into 980 AM and cheer on from home. See you at Trask...

Movie Magic

2006-01-24T22:40:00.000-05:00

After getting way behind on my film reading, both in class and for recreation, I have finally caught up tonight and have found some interesting stuff mainly courtesy of rogerebert.com. First of all is the review for the latest Terrence Malick meditation The New World. I caught the film over the weekend and I think he has created another masterpiece. However, Malick is a love or hate director so if you didn't like his previous films you won't like this one either. But if you truly love film you should be able to apprectiate the style and the fact that it is different. Here is Roger's review.

Also of interest is reader response he has posted discussing the Paul Haggis film Crash. Ebert recently named it his top film of the year while other critics have named it the worst. While I think it is neither I think there are many interesting arguments to be had.

Here is his list of the Top Ten Films of 2005.

And here is his defense of the film responding to attacks.

As well as his original review.

Here is a Crash "hater" taking on Ebert once again.

I think that the critics who dislike the film should appreciate the type of dialogue the movie creates about racism in America. While they may have some valid criticism maybe they should save their worst movie of the year awards for films that don't try to make a difference that are just at heart mean spirited and bad. At least Crash strives for greatness, which is a word i would not attach to most films made today.

Back to the Numbers

2006-01-24T22:20:00.000-05:00

In the latest Mid Major Top 25 on collegeinsider.com the CAA once again holds strong with many teams hanging around in the top 25:

ODU 5
UNCW 12
GMU 14
Hofstra 19
VCU 28
Drexel 31
Northeastern 35
Towson 54

The same holds true in the latest RPI ratings:

ODU 37
GMU 39
UNCW 54
VCU 67
Hofstra 78

There have been some slight changes in the CAA standings after Drexel's victory over Towson last night in Philly. UNCW, GMU, and ODU remain in a 3 way tie for first at 7-2. In a 3 way tie for 4th at 6-3 are Drexel, VCU, and Northeastern. Hofstra follows in 7th as they stand at 5-3 in league play.

A quick reminder to tune into 980 AM Thursday at 7:00 to catch UNCW vs. JMU from Harrisonburg. A few other games of interest are Towson vs. Hofstra in NYC, and Drexel vs. ODU being played in Norfolk. The away team in each matchup won the first meeting earlier this season. The Towson victory over Hofstra in Baltimore woke up the league to know that this Towson team was for real. I highly doubt Towson will be able to take another victory from Hofstra, especially in NYC and with the way Loren Stokes has been playing lately. I suspect the same in the Drexel/ODU game. Once again the home team will hold serve as typically happens in marquee matchups in this league. ODU knows they need to bounce back from a tough home loss last week to Hofstra. And as for the UNCW/JMU game, I really can't see JMU stealing a win from us this year. They have not won a conference game yet, but they tend to spoil a top tier teams thunder every year and pull off an upset. If it is to come against us this would be their chance since this is the only time the 2 teams meet this year thanks to the conference expansion. Even though it is first place vs. last place the score won't show it. I predict UNCW will win ugly probably scoring somewhere in the 50's or low 60's. And I will be very suprised if any player gets over 15 points or if more than 2 players hit double figures. I see John Goldsberry breaking out of his scoring slump and a solid game for Todd Hendley. Hopefully we won't need heroics from TJ Carter as he has had trouble supplying them 2 games in a row.

More news to come...

Suburban Patriots Downed in Wilmington

2006-01-23T21:40:00.000-05:00

A hard fought game resulted in a nice victory for UNCW against the Patriots of GMU. TJ Carter lit up the scoreboard for the Hawks pouring in 28. Todd Hendley also put up 13 points basically all in the 2nd half due to foul trouble and turnover problems in the 1st. Great showing by the students and the rest of the crowd for that matter this is what Coach B had to say about it:

Students –

I wanted to say thank you for a great turnout last Thursday and Saturday at two big games for the Seahawks. Your energy and enthusiasm inside Trask and helped give our team a big lift. With your help we were able to stop Towson Thursday and get past George Mason Saturday to move into a first-place tie in the conference. The student section in all teal was a great sight. I encourage you to all wear your teal again this coming Saturday when we host a very good Northeastern team. It’ll be their first visit to Trask Coliseum, so I’m counting on you to show them why it’s the Toughest Place to Play in the CAA! Get your tickets for that game now at the University Union Information Desk. Thanks again for all your support. See you Saturday!

- Coach Brownell

Here is the Box Score.

The next test for the Seahawks is on Thursday at 7:00 versus the Dukes of JMU in Harrisonburg. JMU has not won a conference game as of yet but they are always a tough matchup for the Seahawks.

In other CAA news UNCW at 7-2 is in a 3 way tie for 1st with GMU and ODU. In a 2 way tie for 4th are VCU and Northeastern at 6-3. Hofstra, Drexel, and Towson are in a 3 way tie for 6th at 5-3. Here are the complete CAA standings.

More updates soon...

Tigers Have Been Put Down

2006-01-20T16:29:00.000-05:00

The Towson Tigers rode into Wilmington yesterday on a nice winning streak and carrying a lot of swagger, however they left with none of falling to UNCW by 32 points. Gary Neal would have been a complete and total non-factor if not for the refs sending him to the line every time a Seahawk defender entered a 5 foot radius around him. But there will be other times to complain about the officiating, the Seahawks didn't need them last night in a solid team effort. Mitch Laue led the way even though he only played 16 minutes he managed to pour in 13 points, dish out 3 assists and pull in 3 boards. John Goldsberry tallied another solid game with 11 points and 7 rebounds. Vladimir Kuljanin also chirped in with 10 points and 9 boards.

Tim Crossin was the only other player who managed to sneak into double figures for Towson. He scored 10 to go along with Gary Neal and his 10 points. Everything went pretty smoothly during the game as the Hawks jumped out to a big lead and never looked back. A great night aside from the shameful display of some students coming up with a wonderfully clever chant for Gary Neal. I guess i don't see shouting "rapist, rapist" over and over again as not being very clever or witty. It doesn't make him feel bad or get into his head, it just makes us and our team look bad. I don't think ESPN will be running to Trask with cameras if they think that our student section is just a low rent version of Maryland's.

For more useful information on the Towson game check this out.

But I do want to thank the majority of students for coming out the electricity was great and I expect to see everyone back Saturday at 2:00. We are playing the first place George Mason Patriots and the game is being televised on Fox Sports. There has been a lot of talk about the game including by Michael Litos over at CAA Hoops:

"A Defining Moment?

So I've always wondered, outside of the obivous, why I'm so attracted to mid major college basketball.I may have a huge lead into finding the answer, thanks to Gregg Doyel. In his weekend preview of top ten games, there is nary a mid major. Which is fine.What is more telling is that the #2 on his list is West Virginia/UCLA. My very first thought is: there is no reason for this game. Who cares about an inter-conference game against two middling major schools who happen to carry a name (UCLA) and some cachet (Pittsnogle)? Is this really what America wants to see?My choice is the battle for first place in the CAA between Mason and UNCW. Far more intrigue, and far more impactful on two teams' seasons. And most likely a better college basketball atmosphere.

The Slate

George Mason at UNCW: Mason's reward for a dominating win and first place in the standings (as if that matters right now)? A trip to the beach. And not one of those really good vacation kind of trips to the beach. This is where a short bench takes its toll, and Jim Larranaga understands the true ills of the Thursday/Saturday schedule. By the way, the benches in Trask are the same length as in every other home arena. It's a figure of speech. Look for Brad Brownell and Larranaga to engage in a LoveFest, each praising the other's team after The Dub's 61-57 victory. Neither will be lying."

In other CAA news as mentioned before GMU has claimed first place in the circuit stading at 7-1. ODU and UNCW are in a tie for 2nd at 6-2. Hofstra follows in 4th at 5-2. Consult this for complete CAA standings.

See you at Trask on Saturday at 2:00 or you should see me on Fox Sports or hear me on 980 AM.

Big Movie Weekend

2006-01-18T09:30:00.000-05:00

This weekend is a big one in great films coming to local multiplexes. As discussed in earlier entries Brokeback Mountain is raising eyebrows, fattening wallets, and winning awards. After taking home best Drama at the Golden Globes it will be coming to Wilmington on January 20th.

Not to be outdone New Line Cinema is dropping the latest Terrence Malick film in Theatres on the same day as Coling Farrell stars in The New World.

And also The End of the Spear is opening in Theatres this weekend. It is a fascinating story and the casting was done by the Wilmington based Fincannon agency. Click on the link in the title to find out more about the film.

So it will be a big weekend for independent film as 3 of them hit multiplexes.

And while you are at it you can still catch the Johnny Cash biopic Walk the Line which took home best picture in the Musical/Comedy category at the Golden Globes.

Back Home Again

2006-01-18T08:24:00.000-05:00

While I headed home over the weekend the Seahawks hit the road. After downing Drexel in Philly in OT; UNCW headed to Long Island on the outskirts of NYC to take the Hofstra pride to triple OT before falling by 5. After all this free basketball the road-weary Hawks return to the comforts of Trask Coliseium to take on Gary Neal, oh excuse me, the Towson Tigers.

The Thursday night matchup in the City of Brotherly Love was filled with stingy defense. Frank Elegar led all scorers with 15 and Vladimir Kuljanin paced the Seahawks with 14. As the series history goes UNCW usually builds a big lead against Drexel and then blows it in the final minutes only to pull out a dramatic victory, or every once in awhile a dramatic loss. This matchup was no different as the Seahawks squandered a nice lead to let Drexel send it into to OT. But in the end it was the poor FT shooting of Drexel in in the extra period matched with the good shooting of UNCW to pull out the victory.

For complete stats check the Box Score.

The Seahawks were obviously still sluggish from the excitement on Thursday night as they hit the floor in NYC on Saturday afternooon. Hofstra jumped out to a big lead early but UNCW grinded away and managed to send the game to OT. Whereas 1 OT or even 2 would be sufficent for most teams to pull out the win UNCW decided they would like to do it in the 3rd. But unfortunately Hofstra had other plans as Loren Stokes opened the 11th minute of free basketball with back to back 3's. This proved to be too much for the Hawks to overcome even with a late Techinical foul on Hofstra.

TJ Carter continued his game of setting careers highs as the team loses as he led all scorers with 31 points. This was the 3rd time this year that he has set a career high. The first time was against an unnamed team from Madison Wisconsin when he dropped in 19 only to allow UNCW to drop the road contest on a last second 3 by Kammron (I don't know how to spell Cameron or even Kameron) Taylor. He matched that total against ODU only to have the Monarchs go crazy in the 2nd half as they dropped everything from behind the arch to grind out the 5 point victory in Norfolk.

To see an impressively long play by play breakdown as well as complete stats from the Hofstra game consult this Box Score.

If you are a subscriber to espn.com insider and have the good sense to read midmajority.com's Kyle Whelliston's blog then you will have seen him mention our Hofstra game. It would have been nicer if it was a winning effort but, any publicity is good publicity:

• While this weekend's NBA triple-OT thriller between Boston and Philadelphia was given full narrative treatment on "SportsCenter," you may have missed the three-OT battle between UNC-Wilmington and Hofstra, won by the home-standing Pride 92-87. Jumpy junior guard Loren Stokes (who played 54 minutes) showed why Hofstra is a "buy" in the 2006-07 CAA futures market, as he scored six of his 30 in the third extra session.

I will wrap up this entry by saying that I will see all you faithful readers in Trask Coliseium Thursaday night as we take on The Towson Tigers at 7:00. The Tigers are led by Gary Neal and Lawrence Hamm. Neal averages 28 ppg to go along with 4rpg. And the big Hamm in the middle averages 17 ppg and 8rpg. Towson who has prennially been a league doormat in the CAA has stormed out to an early 4-2 mark putting them in a tie with Hofstra for 5th place. They have already won 3 more games than they did all of last season with their 8-7 mark. So make it out to Trask if you can and if not listen in on 980 AM in Wilmington.

In other league news:

ODU and GMU remain atop the league with 6-1 records. UNCW and Norhteastern are in a tie for 3rd at 5-2. And as mentioned before Hofstra and Towson are tied for 5th with 4-2 conference marks. Complete CAA Standings

In the latest Mid-Major Top 25 Several CAA teams reamin prominent:

ODU 4
GMU 14
Hofstra 15
UNCW 18
Drexel 30
VCU 31
Northeastern 38
Towson 58

And in the latest RPI rankings:

ODU 21
GMU 43
UNCW 64
VCU 66
Hofstra 93

Thats all the UNCW/CAA news for now. See you at Trask.

Quick Reminder

2006-01-11T22:26:00.000-05:00

In a battle for 1st place in the CAA tomorrow night UNCW takes on Drexel. Right now UNCW stands at 4-1 in league play (11-5 overall), Drexel is 3-1 in the circuit (9-6 overall). This is a huge week as they continue the battle for first place on Saturday afternoon against Hofstra.

Both games will be broadcast on 980 AM in Wilmington. The Drexel game at 7:30 and the Hofstra game at 4. The Hofstra game will also be on channel 17 in Wilmington.

Also the game between VCU and ODU in Norfolk will be on Fox Sports at noon on Saturday. So plenty of CAA hoops action this week.

And on Sunday don't forget to watch the Carolina Panthers take down the Chicago Bears in the Divisional Round of the NFL Playoffs on Fox at 4:30.

Go Seahawks and Go Panthers

Movie Update

2006-01-11T22:15:00.000-05:00

Brokeback Mountain will not be in Wilmington this week but I am holding faith that it will be here soon enough. I can't imagine theaters holding out on the payday that will certainly come when Brokeback arrives. This film is getting nominated for awards faster than it is being bashed by right wing "critics" who are convinced that the movie was only made to turn the nations heartland gay. And it has broken the Per-Theatre average for any film. It pulled in an average of $14,000 per screen a couple of weekends ago. So in conclusion no Brokeback this weekend in Wilmington, but hopefully next weekend or sometime soon.

In addition the new Terrence Malick film The New World is due out on Jan. 20th. I know this is coming to Mayfaire as they have had posters up for it for several months. If you enjoyed The Thin Red Line or one of his earlier efforts than you will be in for a treat. It has been said that the film is beatifully shot and contains a great story that sheds light on both sides of the story that occured at Jamestown when America was colonized by the British. Click on the link to view the trailer.

I'll Let My Coach Do the Talking

2006-01-10T17:28:00.000-05:00

With classes gearing up and the Seahawks Hoops Student Athletes hitting the road Coach B left the students a little love note this morning to let us know that he will be thinking about us while they are facing 2 tough road tests in Philadelphia and New York. UNCW takes on Drexel on Thursday and Hofstra on Saturday. You can view the latter on Channel 17 at 4:00 in the Wilmington area. If you didn't check your email or are not a student here is the email that he sent out this morning:

Students –

Welcome back to campus! Hope you all had a great holiday break and are ready for a great spring semester. Our players can’t wait to have your enthusiasm and energy back in Trask Coliseum for some key conference games coming up in the next two months. We return next Thursday (Jan. 19) when we host Towson at 7:00pm and again next Saturday (Jan. 21) when we host a big rival in George Mason at 2:00pm.

The game against the George Mason Patriots is a TV game with a special promotion called “Drown the Patriots in a Sea of Teal”. The Student Government Association will be giving away free teal t-shirts to the first 1000 students to enter the game, so I invite you to get there early. Don’t forget to pick-up your tickets at the University Union Information Desk starting 10 days prior to the game. Again, hope to see you in Trask this season and be sure to always Attend in Teal!

- Coach Brownell

So keep in mind to be sure you show up early for the GMU game if you want a free T-Shirt. And for that matter show up early for the Towson game to show your support. It should be fun.

More later...

CAA Mid Major Power Conference

2006-01-09T15:56:00.000-05:00

Well the new collegeinsider.com Mid Major Top 25 came out today and over half the teams in the 12 team conference were either in the top 25 or receiving votes. That is a tie with the Missouri Valley Conference, but the Colonial has 6 teams in the top 25 with 1 receiving votes whereas the MVC has 5 with 2 receiving votes.

Here is where the CAA teams placed in this weeks poll with last weeks ranking in parenthesis:

ODU 4 (7)
Hofstra 12 (17)
Drexel 16 (14)
UNCW 17 (16)
GMU 19
VCU 24 (24)
Northeastern 45

Also all these teams besides Northeastern remain in the top 100 in the latest RPI rankings:

ODU 24
GMU 42
VCU 60
UNCW 68
Drexel 79
Hofstra 98

I find these statistics interesting because most basketball pundits believe that the Missouri Valley Conference will get at least 3 bids to the NCAA tournament and that the Colonial will only get the 1 automatic bid.

Here is how the Missouri Valley fared in this weeks Mid Major Poll:

Norhern Iowa 2
Wichita State 6
Southern Illinois 11
Missouri State 13
Creighton 15
Indiana State 27
Bradley 42

And in the latest RPI rankings:

Northern Iowa 9
Missouri State 22
Southern Illinois 30
Creighton 48
Wichita State 52
Bradley 53

Now while these overall rankings are stronger keep in mind that the Missouri Valley is a smaller conference with 10 teams opposed to the CAA's 12. And yes top to bottom the Valley is tougher with their lowest team RPI being Illinois State at 185 whereas the lowest Colonial team is James Madison at 256. The problem is that the lower tier CAA teams are god awful in the 200's RPI and the MVC lower tier is all in the 100's making their conference RPI 7th in the nation and the CAA's 12. I think the top 7 teams in the CAA are quite comparable to the top 7 teams in the Valley. It would be interesting seeing some of these teams meet up in OOC play next year or maybe in the Bracket Buster weekend this year.

Thats enough analysis for now...

Manifest Destiny Pt. 2

2006-01-08T14:09:00.000-05:00

The Seahawks with some heroics by Taylor Lay defeated the Tribe of William and Mary once again last night. Taylor didn't dominate the stat line but he put up 10 points and 3 boards. But he accomplished all of this in just 13 minutes of playing time, most of it coming in the last 10 minutes of the ball game. This gave UNCW a huge lift off the bench. Todd Hendley had another solid game scoring 15 points and pulling in 4 rebounds. Goldsberry pulled dropped in 14 points of his own. He also had 2 assists, 8 rebounds and 6 (count em) 6 steals. Temi Soyebo also had a strong game putting up 10 points and assisting on 6 field goals.

Taylor Lay's points were so important because of when they occured. William and Mary had just completed a 11-0 run to make a 14 point game a 3 point contest. He then came down and hit a 3. On the other side he had a huge steal to seal the game. As well as a couple of big rebounds. In addition he hit his FT's down the stretch as did Goldsberry. The Seahawks got a big lift at the beginning of the game thanks to Beckham Wyrick he only scored 2 points, but pulled in 10 boards 6 of them offensive.

Box Score

In other CAA news the night contest was won by VCU on a last second shot by BA Walker giving the Rams a 2 point win against the first place Drexel Dragons. In the noon game I witnessed Northeastern blow a 16 point lead in Norfolk against ODU. This was my first glimpse of Jose Juan Barea and he lived up to his billing with a double-double. And not just a slight DD, he had 32 points and 10 assists. But it wasn't enough as ODU protected their home court and came away with the win.

Here is video of the last second shot by BA Walker, if you are better with computers than I am you may be able to get it to play, i sure couldn't.

The current CAA standings are as follows:

UNCW, ODU, and GMU are in a 3 way tie for first at 4-1. Hofstra and Drexel follow in a 2 way tie for 4th as with 3-1 records. VCU and Northeastern are in a 2 way tie for 6th at 3-2. Towson follows in 8th place at 2-2.

The next game for UNCW is Thursday at 7:30 as we take Drexel in Philadelphia. Both teams will be playing for first place so it should be a good one. Tune in to 980 AM to see how it goes down.

These Hens are Singing the Blues

2006-01-06T13:16:00.000-05:00

The Seahawks could not go on a 4 game losing streak. Todd Hendley and John Goldsberry made sure of that. UNCW made the shots when they needed them in their 13 point victory against the Blue Hens of Delaware last night. Can't get enough of those wonderful stat lines you say? Then my friends this is the box score for you. If you check closely you will see that Hendley poured 18, Goldsberry put in 16, and TJ Carter chimed in with 12 of his own. Harding Nana put in another great performance for Delaware getting a double-double with 14 points and 12 boards. But alas, you can't beat these Seahawks by yourself; unless your name is Dontaye Draper or Kammron Taylor. But I digress...

Last night was the first full slate of games for the CAA with GMU beating VCU on Fox Sports last night. The CAA Standings are now as follows:

Drexel remains in first at 3-0. They are followed by UNCW, ODU, GMU, and Northeastern who are in a 4 way tie for 2nd with a 3-1 conference record. Hofstra remains a half game back at 2-1 standing in 6th place.

The Seahawks get a full day off before coming home Saturday to face William and Mary at 4:00 on Fox Sports. Also at noon on the very same network you can watch ODU take on Jose Juan Barea and CAA newcomer Northeastern. Should be a good Saturday and don't forget the Carolina Panthers defeat the New York Giants at 1:00 on Sunday on Fox. Also Munich opens today in Wilmington so don't forget to see that.

See you on the other side...

They Keep Pumping them Out

2006-01-04T16:42:00.000-05:00

The Great Movies keep on coming this time of the year. I will very quickly recommend The Squid and the Whale and King Kong. Noah Baumbachs The Squid and the Whale is a wonderfully told story about a family going through a divorce. If you liked Wes Anderson's The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou this is half of the brains behind it. It is playing in art houses now and should be out on video in a mont or two.

As for Peter Jackson's King Kong, enough has been said about that by other people but it is quite an event and it completely blew me away. Very suprisingly you sympathize for basically every character in the film, and any director will tell that is very difficult to acheive.

See you at the movies...

Funny and Sad

2006-01-04T16:16:00.000-05:00

It is always interesting to see what type of debate an "important" film will create in the media. Two films seem to be taking all the fun right now particularly Munich and Brokeback Mountain.

Munich is getting criticized on so many fronts that it makes your head spin. It seems like the people who hate the film would know well enough to keep their mouths shut because any publicity is good publicity. It is being criticized for being too sympathetic to the Palestinians. Rg It is also being criticized for being too sympathetic of the Israelis. Which is it folks? I have not seen the film yet but from what I hear it is a brilliant piece of filmmaking on par with Spielberg's masterpiece Schindler's List. It opens in Wilmington on Friday and I plan on seeing it that day. There have been many interesting and infuriating articles written on this film here are some of the more interesting ones that also supply links to other articles.

Jim Emerson's Spy vs. Spy: The Morality of Munich

Roger Ebert's 2 Interviews of Steven Spielberg A Telephone Call with Spielberg
Spielberg Calls Back

Roger Ebert's review of Munich

On the subject of Brokeback Mountain the articles go from hilarious to frustrating to infuriating once again. Once again criticism comes from all sides of the spectrum and most of it isn't even worth worrying about. Here is one exceptionally funny piece from the New York Times written by Larry David. Cowboys are my Weakness

Once again Jim Emerson does a good job of shedding some light on the subject and opens good debate on the film while exposing the ridiculousness of worrying about whether or not it is gay, too gay, or not gay enough.

Who's Afraid of Riding Brokeback

The Heartbreak of Brokeback

Here is Roger Ebert's Review

No word on when Brokeback Mountain will open in Wilmington but it will most likely be Jan. 13th or 20th. Either way it should be fun watching homophobic men and women squirm in front of the movie poster.

I Thought the 3rd Time was the Charm

2006-01-04T13:36:00.000-05:00

The Monarchs of ODU sure don't like me or Brad Brownell too much. Last night they handed the Seahawks their 3rd straight loss dropping them to 9-5 (2-1). UNCW is in the midst of a 3 game road trip and the first 2 have gone poorly. This game was certainly a tale of 2 halves as ODU shot 29% in the first half and 55% in the second half. And it didn't help that they hit all 7 of their 3's in the 2nd half to hand the Seahawks a 5 point loss. For the game we outshot the Monarchs shooting 40% to their 38%. But once again a descrepency in the FT stat line as ODU shot 24 to our 9. So they shot 15 more FT's and won by 5. I will say no more. Check out the Box Score.

While you are there you may notice that TJ Carter tied his career high point total by dropping in 19 points. He previously set this career high in our 3 point loss to Wisconsin in Madison. So TJ please stop making your career high. It seems to be costing us games. Mitch Laue had another solid game putting in 12 points, 3 assists, 2 boards and a steal. John Goldsberry broke out of his shooting slump putting in 4-8 for 10 points. He also tallied 5 assists, 4 rebounds and a steal. The Monarchs were led by Brian Henderson who put in 17 points. Alex Loughton tallied a double-double scoring 10 and pulling in 11 boards.

UNCW now travels to Newark, Delaware to take on the Blue Hens of Delaware. The game will be played at 7:30 on 980 AM in Wilmington. The Blue Hens are not a very good team this year with the exception of workhorse Harding Nana who is averaging 19.8 ppg and 11.9 rpg. If Delaware were not 4-7 you would probably be hearing more about him.

In the latest CAA standings Drexel sits alone at the top of the league at 2-0. They are followed by UNCW, Northeastern, VCU, GMU, and ODU who are in a 5 way tie for 2nd place at 2-1. Hofstra and Towson follow in a tie for 7th.

In other CAA news several teams remain in the top 100 RPI even with the latest struggles:

36 ODU
59 GMU
65 Drexel
70 UNCW
73 Hofstra
81 VCU

Also if you happen to live in North Carolina or if you get CSN-MA you can watch the VCU vs. GMU matchup on Thursday night at 7:00. Thats Channel 47 for those of you in Wilmington.

And a reminder UNCW Seahawks vs. Delaware Blue Hens in the battle of the fictional birds at 7:30 on 980 AM in Wilmington.

Unhappy New Year

2006-01-03T14:04:00.000-05:00

Despite the fact that the Carolina Panthers clinched a playoff spot on Sunday by beating the Atlanta Falcons (again) this has not been a good sports week as far as I'm concerned. That didn't even go compleltely as planned. Tampa Bay beat New Orleans to clinch the NFC South so the Panthers road to the Superbowl will all be on the road.

But back to the bad news...

During my absence from Wilmington for Christmas break the Seahawks squandered a good chance at their 10th win of the season by dropping a 4 point contest to the College of Charleston Cougars. I didn't see the game but I did see the Box Score. And if you look at the stats for #11 Dontaye Draper you may notice that he dropped 33 points on my poor Seahawks in the friendly confines of Trask Coliseium. It is kind of hard to prepare for a player who is planning to drop the most points in his schools history. You may also notice that Charelston shot 79% in the 2nd half compared to 39% for UNCW. So I guess it isn't all bad that we only lost by 4 points.

So when I thought the worst was behind us I took a road trip to Greenville to see the Seahawks take on the Pirates of ECU on New Year's Eve. About 1 minute into the game I knew I had probably wasted my time as ECU was knocking down everything they threw in the general direction of the basket and UNCW was doing it's best to win a layup missing contest. It seemed like we panicked after giving up an early double digit lead but I credit ECU with doing a good job of grinding out the clock and never letting us get back to single digits. After getting down by 25 with 11 minutes to play we did do a good job and rallied to make it a 10 point deficit with about 2 minutes remaining. But ECU hit their free throws to pull out a 13 point upset. You could almost see our chances of an at large bid flying out the window as we pulled away from Minges Coliseuim that day as our record dropped to 9-4 when it could have easily been 11-2 or maybe even 12-1. If you want more info on this game consult your friendly neighborhood Box Score.

Now to make matters worse UNCW faces off against pre-season CAA favorites Old Dominion at 7:00 in Norfolk. ODU stands at 8-4 right now and #7 in the latest Mid-Major poll. The Seahawks dropped 3 spots in that same poll to #16. Now this doesn't seem too intimidating except that this is an absolute must win for the Seahawks as both teams are playing for first place. And the fact that Coach Brownell has never beaten the Monarchs as a head coach. Thats right not even in Brett Blizzard senior could we muster a win against Blaine Taylor's club even in Wilmington. So Brownell will try for his first win against ODU in 7 tries once again tonight. You can listen to the game on 980 AM in Wilmington. Here is a link to the live stats.

Here is how the CAA teams fared in the latest Mid-Major Poll.

7 ODU
14 Drexel
16 UNCW
17 Hofstra
24 VCU
29 GMU
35 Northeastern

In the latest CAA basketball standings UNCW and Drexel remain in first place at 2-0. A half game back in a 3 way tie for 3rd are GMU, VCU and Northeatern at 2-1. They are followed by Hofstra, ODU and Towson who are in a 3 way tie for 6th place at 1-1.

Thats all for now. I should have a game report tomorrow.

By the way those two recent losses have pushed UNCW's RPI down to 63. A win tonight would help. ODU's RPI is 45. This is a far cry from 2 weeks ago when we were 9-2 and in the top 20 RPI.

Santa Bring Me Some Noise

2005-12-21T15:45:00.000-05:00

Well despite the best efforts of the majority of the crowd to hide from the basketball players, the UNCW Seahawks defeated the Bulldogs of UNCA last night 68-50. I make the comment about hiding from the basketball players because that seems to be the only logical explanation for being completely quiet during a basketball game. Seriously, the people got more excited about the mini-basketballs they throw out during timeouts than they did for a big 3-pointer by John Goldsberry earlier in the game. I think they should change the banner in Trask from "Toughest Place to Play in the CAA" to "Toughest Place to Play in the CAA Excluding Christmas Break". I mean there must have been some sort of contest to see who could sit on their hands the longest. It's pretty bad when only ten people in the "Student" section will make any noise of the 1,200 people in that section. But I digress...

The performance by the Seahawks was much better than the performance by the fans. UNCW registered their 4th home blowout in as many home games picking up another 18 point victory. The game started slow with some lackluster shooting by the Hawks, and great offensive rebounding and stifling defense by Asheville. But eventually the boys in teal returned to form and slowly pulled away.

Todd Hendley led UNCW in scoring pouring in 18 points and grabbing 5 rebounds. Vladimir Kuljanin and Beckham Wyrick crashed the board for the Seahawks pulling in 6 apiece. They also posted double digits in scoring with 14 and 11 points respectively. And, big suprise, John Goldsberry led the way in assists with 7. He also put in 17 points while only playing 23 minutes. John David Gardner had some solid minutes scoring 3, pulling in 4 boards, and dishing out 3 assists. He also looked very good on defense by not allowing his man to get a second of daylight for open shots. He has a street style of play to his game that looks eeriely similar to Mr. All Conference himself, John Goldsberry. A sign of things to come?

Boxscore

Highlights

In other CAA news ODU followed up their impressive victory of DePaul by blowing an OT game at Richmond. VCU logged a Conference win over GSU. Nothing else too spectacular.

UNCW, Northeastern, and Drexel still lead the way with 2-0 CAA records. They are followed by VCU at 2-1. And then Hofstra, ODU, GMU, and Towson at 1-1.

Complete CAA Standings

UNCW has a week off before facing the Cougars of the College of Charleston on Dec. 27th at 7:oo in Trask. Charleston stands at 4-3 on the year and are coming off a loss at VCU.

Till next time

Merry Christmas

Happy Holidays

And most importanly GO SEAHAWKS.

Winning is the Best Remedy

2005-12-19T19:55:00.000-05:00

Well the Wisconsin hangover appears to not have affected the Seahawks too much as they handily dispatched Buzz Peterson and his Coastal Carolina team. UNCW jumped on the Chanticleers early and never let up. John Goldsberry led the way as usual with 17 points. Temi Soyebo had an impressive 8 assists. I was not able to come to the game but I saw that our prize recruit John David Gardner logged his first minutes for the Seahawks. From what I have heard he looked pretty good. He finished with only four points but apparently his defense was pretty effective. It will be interesting to see how he emerges in Conference play.

Story

Box Score

Highlights

In other CAA news ODU defeated former UNCW skipper's DePaul Blue Demons 87-43. That's right the deficit for DePaul was more than they scored. Very impressive win for ODU as they seem to have bounced back from that bad loss at Drexel last week.

Current CAA Standings

The Seahawks are holding steady in the RPI as they are #18 right now.

They also hold steady in the Mid-Major Top 25 coming in at #12 once again.

ODU 4
UNCW 12
Hofstra 20
Drexel 23
Northeastern 26
GMU 27
VCU 33

The next game is Tuesday night Dec. 20th versus UNC-Asheville at 7:00.

See you then.

Rodents and Ugly Turtles

2005-12-13T19:28:00.000-05:00

Ok.

Maybe Kammron Taylor will not burn for what he did to me and thousands of other people last night, but I'm still waiting for a written apology from him. Or at least a sincere heartfelt apology from the officiating crew included with the check that they received from the tax payers of the state of Wisconsin via the University of Wisconsin Madison's Athletic Department.

Now I usually don't crawl into the realm of conspicracy theory. But for your consideration:

March 22, 2003

Brett Blizzard's final game in a UNCW jersey. A hard fought "loss" to Maryland. Blizzard was double teamed and shut down the entire game but the Seahawks found a way to hold a 1 point lead with just a few seconds to play. Until Drew "Buzzkill" Nicholas decided that he would like to torment the fine people of Wilmington NC and by the grace of God dropped in a heavily guarded 3 to give the defending national champions a 2 point first-round victory. They would eventually fall in the Elite 8.

December 16, 2004

A Christmas Break game in Charleston SC in which the Seahawks led the ENTIRE game. Then with a 1 point lead and 5 seconds to play the exact same thing happened with slightly different rosters as Dontaye Draper hits a 3 as time expires to give College of Charelston a 2 point win. UNCW would go on to win 19 games this year and this loss most definitely gave the NIT selection comittee the excuse they needed to keep us out of the postseason. Even thought they took two teams who finished below us in the conference and did not advance as far in the conference postseason as we did. Conspiracy theory is in effect. By the way Dontaye Draper scored his only 3 points of the ball game as time expired.

December 12, 2005

Just as the student body at UNCW had changed enough to push the thoughts of that loss to Maryland out of their heads. And the remaining survivors had just completed reattaching their hearts that had so suddenly been ripped out. A certain Kammron "Buzzkill Jr." Taylor decided that UNCW is never to have a completely fulfilling season. The Seahawks continued their national exposure by staying at #12 in the latest collegeinsider.com Mid-Major Poll after being idle all last week. The Seahawks moved into the ESPN/Coaches Poll receiving 2 votes putting us at #46 in the nation. UNCW was ready to once again burst onto the national scene and all our wildest dreams were about to come true. But then a few refs got together and had a conversation that I believe would have gone something like this:

Ref #1: Hey guys don't you think it would be funny if we gave the heavily favored home team that never loses at home 18 times as many free throws as the hard fighting mid-major team.

Ref #2: That sounds great. I always wondered what that would be like. And not only that let's call some of those fouls on the mid-major team where the 17,000 people who cheering against them are even confused.

Ref #3: Hey guys this whistle is loud.

Now I know this sounds far-fetched but I am not kidding. Check out the box score.

Nothing on their is a mis-print because I listened to the whole thing. Except they should have put a few more players on the Wisconsin Badgers roster. I believe their names were Ted Hillary, Jim Burr, and Dan Chrisman. Apparently whoever typed up the box score thought they were the refs. I guess they misplaced their red and white jerseys and had to where some black and white ones instead and i guess since they were non-trad students no one really questioned it and assumed they were the officiating crew. I guess we should personally check their credentials.

But enough of the negatives.

TJ carter had a breakout performance putting up a career high 19 points. As well as 5 rebounds and 2 assists. John Goldsberry led the way with 5 assists. And Beckham Wyrick crashed the boards for the Hawks coming up with 7. Alando Tucker led the Badgers with 15 points.

I am very proud of our team. They fought so hard for 40 minutes and they deserved another 5 minutes to come home with that win. Our RPI jumped to #14 after the loss. But I have never felt so much pain over a "game" as i did when that 3 dropped for Taylor. The reprecussions for this school could be great. This loss instead of a win could keep us from receiving an at large bid to the big dance. But hopefully that won't be necessary as we can hopefully win the CAA tournament.

In other news we are tied for first in the conference with Drexel and Northeastern who all stand at 2-0 in conference play. A half game back are ODU, GMU, VCU, Towson, Georgia State, and Hofstra who are all 1-1. Complete Conference standings.

The Seahawks face Coastal Carolina next on Saturday at 7:00 in Trask. I will not be in attendance as I will be out of town visiting family. But every one get out there so we can get this loss behind us.

Enjoy the win Wisconsin. I hope it's sweet. Though not nearly as sweet for you as it is bitter for us here in Wilmington.

See Below

2005-12-13T15:39:00.000-05:00

You can go straight to hell Kammron Taylor.

More info when I'm not as seething mad.

Story.

American Idle

2005-12-08T14:25:00.000-05:00

I guess it pays to take the week off for exams. The Seahawks keep on going up in the rankings without doing anything. The latest RPI ratings have UNCW at #16. And the latest Sagarin ratings at USA Today have us at #26, one spot in front of Wisconsin who stand at #27. So it looks like Wisconsin are the one's who will need to pull an upset (wink wink) over a powerhouse UNCW team.

After some conference games last night we are now in a tie for first place in the CAA with Northeastern who improved to 2-0 in league play with a dominant 89-67 win over Towson. The stat line looked pretty good for Northeastern especially from star senior Jose Juan Barea. This guy nearly posted a triple-double on the Tigers putting up 27 points 11 assists and 7 rebounds. Northeastern is 6-1 overall along with ODU. That puts them a 1/2 game behind us overall as the Seahawks stand at 7-1.

ODU picked up their first conference win last night over GMU with a 3 by Drew Williamson as time ran out giving ODU the 54-53 win. It has been an exciting start to the CAA season and hopefully ODU won't be able to pull off any magic like that against us.

Here are the current CAA standings.

UNCW remains idle until Monday night when we travel to Madison to face off against the Wisconsin Badgers. Here is the link to the live stats for the game. Other than that you will have to depend on the AM 980 broadcast of the game, unless you plan on traveling to Madison which is highly recommended.

Talk to you soon.

You Better Recongnize

2005-12-05T19:03:00.000-05:00

Well folks it looks like the national spotlight is finally starting to fix itself on Wilmington. The new AP poll has UNCW in a tie with Buffaloe and Loyola MD for #46 in the nation. This puts us right behind ODU who is in a tie for #41 with Iowa State. They are #39 in the ESPN/Coaches Poll. Our next opponent is Wisconsin on Dec. 12th in Madison. They are #28 in the ESPN/Coaches Poll and #32 in the AP poll.

AP Top 25 and ESPN/Coaches Poll

And the CAA is moving on up once again in the latest collegeinsider.com mid-major top 25. There are several CAA teams in this weeks poll. UNCW jumps 7 spots to #12 this week.

ODU 2
UNCW 12
Hofstra 17
George Mason 24
Northeastern 27
Drexel 34
VCU 38

Mid-Major Top 25

Also on collegeinsider.com is this little tidbit written by their columnist John Stansberry.

Seahawks flying high again

"Hey, is anyone out there paying attention to the fantastic start that UNC Wilmington has gotten off to? The Seahawks went out to Laramie and won the season opening Black Coaches Association Invitational, beating Butler, host Wyoming and Northwestern en route to the title. They currently stand at 7-1.Head coach Brad Brownell looks poised to raise UNCW back to the lofty status the program attained back in 2001-02, when then coach Jerry Wainwright directed that edition of the Seahawks into the second round of the NCAA's, where they fell to eventual Final Four participant Indiana.Keep an eye on point guard John Goldsberry, the steady senior with the ability to knock down the three if he gets a look. His line against Butler shows what he's capable of: 21 points, seven rebounds and eight assists. The Colonial is looking that much tougher with UNCW playing this well."

Also for you students out there I'm sure you received this email from Coach Brownell today:

Students –

Great job yesterday! You once again helped make Trask Coliseum the Toughest Place to Play in the CAA! Because of you, the VCU Rams left Trask with their 10th straight loss in the building. The energy and excitement you provided yesterday was incredible and certainly gave us a lift. Good luck with your exams and have a great holiday. I hope to see you back in Trask later this season for more big games.

Go Seahawks!
-Coach Brownell

And if you are looking for a new wallpaper for your computer check these out. The Trask one is my favorite.

Well I'll keep you posted of any more news on our boys during our off week. And maybe I'll post some sort of update about some other sports. Who knows.

Rammed Once Again

2005-12-05T11:22:00.000-05:00

Sorry Coach Capel but the Rams are still having trouble in Trask. Yesterday afternoon the Seahawks put up an impressive showing against Virginia Commonwealth to improve to 7-1 on the year and 2-0 in Conference play. The loss drops VCU to 2-2 and they drop to 0-1 in CAA play. The first half was hard fought in close and Temi Soyebo's half ending lay up put UNCW up by 6. The Seahawks blew the game open in the second half with stifling defense and lights out shooting by John Goldsberry, and also Daniel Fountain coming off the bench. Todd Hendley led the way in scoring for UNCW with 14 points 9 rebounds and 2 steals. I can't even begin to describe how big of an acquisition he was for our team. And his addition has made him and Goldsberry one of the best frontcourt/backcourt teams in the Conference. And speak of the devil, Goldsberry followed up Hendley with 10 points, 5 assists, 2 boards and 2 steals. Temi Soyebo and TJ Carter also came up with 2 steals on the day.

Here is the Box Score.

Jeff Capel had only good things to say about our teams performance:

“UNCW plays hard, together and tough and that’s very evident in watching them play. I knew how good Todd Hendley was, and I’m one of John Goldsberry’s biggest fans. It’s the best team we’ve played so far this year."

Our own Coach Brownell said:

“I’m really proud of our kids. They had a lot of things going on including exams. I want to thank our crowd. They lifted our spirits and I think we got some energy that way.“We’ve increased the lead every time coming out in the second half. We had the home crowd giving us some positive feedback. On the road those are the demons you fight. Offensively in the first half we played too hard. At halftime I told them to relax. We executed well to get the ball in there but couldn’t finish and I credit that to Virginia Commonwealth. There’s a lot of mutual respect between the programs."

UNCW finished the game with a 20 point victory winning 60-40. The 40 points scored by VCU were the lowest in the history of their basketball program. This was UNCW's 4th straight victory and will give us confidence hitting the road to face off against Wisconsin in Madison on December 12th at 8:00 EST. Wisconsin was receiving votes in both national polls last week and will more than likely be in the top 25 when we meet up. Right now Wisconsin stands at 5-1 with their only loss coming at Wake Forest. One of those 5 wins was a 3 point nail biter against Old Dominion. Wisconsin is one of the toughest places to play in college basketball so this should be a nice indicator of the potential of our team this year, especially after coming off 8 days of rest.

In off the court news I do appreciate the enthusiasm shown by the fans yesterday but the is a certain line you don't cross. And walking over to the VCU locker room to get in their coaches face and talk to much trash is a little unacceptable. I want the fans to heckle but just stay in the student section when you do it. We don't need to become known for meanspirtedness and bad sportsmanship. Sportsmanship extends to the fans as well. Lets leave the idiotic heckling and the bad sportsmanship to Maryland students.

In other CAA news UNCW stands alone on top of the Conference at 7-1 (2-0 CAA). We are followed by Hofstra, George Mason, Towson, and Northeastern who are all 1-0 in conference play. Old Dominion and Northeastern are both 5-1 overall and Hofstra stands at 4-1. In RPI rankings we have 6 teams in the top 100:

Northeastern 14
UNCW 27
Hofstra 47
ODU 65
GMU 68
VCU 88

As off this post the new national polls and Mid Major polls have not been released yet. I will update that as soon as the info is available.

Happy exam week everybody.

Good Job Hawks.

This Must Stop

2005-12-02T15:55:00.000-05:00

Today's post is about one of my biggest pet peeves, and why I think it is ridiculous. This is something that has grated my nerves ever since I arrived in Wilmington in the Fall of 2003. It is the lack of interest that is shown by this student body by anything worth noting. Now I'm not saying that this includes the student body as a whole. But it probably applies to about 80% of the students here, and that is probably an improvement since my Freshman year. The example I will use to epitomize this case study is basketball.

When I was accepted to UNCW during the winter of my senior year of high school in Oxford NC. I started reflecting on how my sports allegiances would change. I had grown up a Duke fan, this was aided by the fact that Oxford is a mere 30 minute drive from Cameron Indoor Stadium. I had also had the priveledge to go many Duke basketball and (cough) football games when I was young. I had also attended basketball camp at Duke one year and felt a certain kinship to Coach K and his players.

Being the huge sports fan that I am, particularly college sports, and the tops among these is basketball. This mainly stems from the appreciation I had for the atmosphere and beauty of the game from attending several at Duke. As well as going to a few games at Chapel Hill, and watching countless others on TV. And as every college basketball fan knows, the epitome of sports competition is the conference tournament's and the NCAA tournament that are held during March. Furthermore I know of no true hoops fan who doesn't find themselves cheering for the plucky underdog to pull off that big win over a "power (aka money) conference". Also every true hoops fan knows that this is the only time of year that you can find every truly good team in the country playing on TV. The tournament underdog has been the name of many teams that it is hard to imagine they could have ever truly been an underdog. Why even Duke was an underdog in the 80's and early 90's when they knocked off perennial powers such as UNLV, who would not be from a "power" conference today, and Kentucky. And most recently Gonzaga has built on tournament success, most notably a trip to the Elite 8, to build a nationally recognized program that has become a top 25 and NCAA tournament staple. Even though Gonzaga resides in a non-power conference. They are a member of the West
Coast Conference. The WCC is one of the top mid-major conferences in the country, and they have been even before Gonzaga received national noteriety.

The WCC is definitely a force to be reckoned with, just ask the Tarheels who lost to WCC member Santa Clara last year. I seem to remember that same Tarheel team going on to win the national title. And strangely enough they seemed to have lost very badly to a (gasp) non "power/BCS/money" conference team or even a ranked team that ESPN hadn't bothered to spend time on. There are countless other examples of this in recent years so I will not begin to bore you with details and research. However I will add that Michigan State, who most basketball analysts are picking to finish this year either in the Final Four or perhaps even as national champions have already caught their beatdown from mid-major team in the form of a 20 point loss to the Rainbow Warriors of the University of Hawaii.

The recent history of college basketball has brought to us many teams that have snuck under the radar of national exposure and yet still managed to do damage in the tournament. The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, from the Horizon Conference, went to the Sweet 16 last year. Kent State, from the Mid-American Conference recently went to the Elite 8. Yet still many "big" hoops fans are willing to dismiss any team that isn't a household name as being inherently inferior to ones that are.

Here at UNCW we are in the spot light of ACC schools such as North Carolina, North Carolina State, Duke, and Wake Forest. And also to some extent in the spotlight of an Atlantic-10 team, Charlotte. UNC Charlotte recently escaped their curse of hyphenation by switching their schools official athletics name to Charlotte from UNC Charlotte. UNCW recently made some stride in that direction switching our name from University of North Carolina at Wilmington to University of North Carolina Wilmington. I say we should go all out and switch to Wilmington, as Charlotte did. This would help pull us out from under the shadow of Franklin Street and the rest of Chapel Hill. This is not to say we are not thankful for our academic relationship with the UNC system and it's 16 campuses, but as far as athletics go we no longer need to be under their shadow.

In recent years every college hoops analyst has talked about UNCW, particularly when all time great Brett Blizzard was crushing conference records here. Under his leadership we defeated USC in 2002 before going down in the final seconds to eventual national championship runnerup Indiana in the second round. The next year we completely out-played defending national champion Maryland when they hit a last second shot to knock us out of the tournament and end Brett Blizzard's college career. Maryland would go on to the Elite 8 that year. So logically UNCW could have done the same. Especially since we nearly defeated a team that did so and our best player was basically a non-factor.

So one could reasonably assume that the students that come to this institution have some sort of appreciation for this schools legacy. But sadly this is not the case. I receive no greater joy here than yelling and cheering on my Seahawks in the notorius student section at Trask Colisieum. And I receive no greater irritation than walking around campus and hearing students talking about the previous nights UNC or Duke victory. Or seeing said "students" walking around in college clothing of schools they decided not to go to, or they couldn't get in and either way they need to get that chip off their shoulders and stop adding to the inferiority complex that plagues this campus.

It seems like these students who claim to be big hoops fans would have some sort of appreciation of the great mid-major basketball that takes place on their campus. But this seems not to happen, they would rather watch UNC play on TV and vicariously sit in those student stands. Rather then go out and sit in the student stands, for free, and be up close and personal to some of the best basketball in the nation that takes place in the Colonial Athletic Association. And Trask is considered to be the toughest place to play in this conference by opposing coaches and players.

We play Virginia Commonwealth on Saturday with a 2:30 start. This is a great rivalry. The alltime series is tied at 14 all. UNCW has not lost to this team at Trask since 1996. The road team usually goes down in this series and lets get out there and make sure that happens this time.

And if you don't believe how good the CAA is just ask Dick Vitale.

Just ask our very own Coach Brownell.

"Question: Why is Trask such a difficult place to play?
Answer: I think over the years, any place that's had success and is difficult to play, the first factor is because you have good players. I think Trask also provides an intimate atmosphere where the fans are close to the court and the electricity on game night can often give our players an added boost of energy and enthusiasm, etc. "

"ESPN
Question: Is there any chance that we will ever get a game on ESPN from Trask? What has to happen for ESPN to come to Wilmington? I think VCU has had games on ESPN for the past few years and I also hear they are on again this year.
Answer: That is really out of our administration's hands and more of a CAA issue. Obviously, we'd love to have ESPN broadcast a game from Trask as I think it's one of the best college basketball environments in the country. But most of that is out of our hands and would have to be the result of the CAA office pushing for such a scenario. "

Or ask VCU coach Jeff Capel

"On playing in Trask Coliseum: “UNCW plays hard, they play tough and they are well coached. They have good players. That gets the crowd into it. The crowd wouldn’t be into the game if it was a bad program. The crowd has a passion for the program and the UNCW players give the crowd a reason to be into the games.”

I will never understand why students won't come out and support this program but then hypocritically want more programs to not support.

"Sigh..."

Go Seahawks.

See you at Trask

Manifest Destiny

2005-12-01T00:43:00.000-05:00

UNCW defeated The Tribe of William and Mary Wednesday to open up the conference season for both teams. The Seahawks improve to 6-1 (1-0 CAA), while The Tribe drop to 4-2 (0-1 CAA). No suprise in this part, John Goldsberry leads the way in scoring shooting perfect from the floor going 4-4 from 3pt range and picking up the other 3 points on the charity stripe. Goldsberry also finished with 4 assists and 5 boards. Todd Hendley and Temi Soyebo also posted double figures for the Hawks putting up 14 and 10 respectively. TJ Carter shared the assist prize with Goldsberry putting up 4 himself while Beckham Wyrick matched John in rebounds with 5. All in all we played very well shooting 52% to William and Mary's 44% mark. This is out of character of past Seahawk teams that usually don't shoot well on the road. Calvin Baker led the way for The Tribe with 12 points and 6 assists.

Here is the boxscore.

In other CAA news VCU posted a nice come from behind road win against Houston, and Hofstra did the same against St. Johns. It was nice to see a fellow CAA team take down a Big East opponent.

UNCW and Georgia State lead the way in the Conference rankings standing at 1-0. Northeastern and Old Dominion are 4-1. Georgia State, VCU, Hofstra, and James Madison are all 2-1.

Here are the complete conference standings.

And finally UNCW continues it's conference play finally coming home again to take on Virginia Commonwealth on Sunday at 2:30. This will be VCU's conference opener, and UNCW's home opener for conference play. As stated earlier UNCW is 6-1 (1-0 CAA) and VCU is 2-1. VCU was picked to finish 2nd in the pre-season conference poll while UNCW was picked to finish 5th. However in the last mid-major poll on collegeinsider.com UNCW was ranked 19th while VCU was receiving votes putting them at 36.

However, I forgot to mention that in the AP poll Old Dominon was 45th and Drexel was was in a tie for 54th. And in the ESPN/USA Today poll Old Dominion and VCU were in a tie for 50th.

See you Sunday VCU.

Go Hawks.