Aw, how cute...

All of my students have read the student handbook and they've all heard my lecture about inappropriate subject matter at the beginning of the term yet I keep finding things like this when I clean my room. It's really amazing how the drug culture has become so important to so many of my students. This was on a transparency, presumably destined to become a silkscreen. It's actually kind of funny and subversive. It kind of reminds me of a bumper sticker I saw the other day that said something like, "the hippies wanted to change the world but all they do now is smoke pot and play frisbee golf". I think the Care Bears might as well get high all the time because, as a group, they have become culturally irrelevant.

4:20

At the beginning of every term I ask my students to please refrain from creating images that advertise or glorify drugs and every term I have to deal with students who missed or ignored my request. I try to be as open as possible to a student's self expression needs. Being drug related alone is not enough to disqualify a project. If a student were to create something that actually said something thoughtful about drugs or drug use, I think I'd be inclined to defend it. Unfortunately the only thing that the pieces I get are trying to say is, "I am a drug user". It makes me sad.

Year One Dance Video

I did this move a few years ago. It is posted on YouTube but they took the music off because I don't own the rights. I just want John Doe and Exene Cervenka to know that the making of this short film was not a commercial venture. If you like the song you should buy the album, "Wild Gift" by X.

Comment heard at Chana recently...

A couple of teachers at Chana were joking around, giving a student a hard time about something. The student responded by saying, " I hope blair witch happens to you guys!"

I have to say, it was one of the funniest non sequitur responses that I've heard in a long time.

Claymation

This is short film with a bunch of animation experiments we made in film class this term.

Wierd Questions

My apologies for the lack of posting lately. It has not been because of any lack of activity around here.
The other day a student asked me if I would use my credit card to purchase some piercing needles off of eBay for them. I was assured that I would be paid back. I declined.

Snow Day!

Auburn's elevation is about 1200 feet. It does snow sometimes but we rarely get enough to close the schools. Today was one of those rare days. I live well below that elevation so I had no clue that we would be closing until I was up in the thick of it. I had been at school for about forty five minutes when I got an email from my wife telling me that the school's auto-dialer had called informing me that school was closed. I didn't mind too much. I was happy to see Auburn covered in snow!