Movies From Childhood: Xanadu

Thanks to a series of youtube posts from my little sister on facebook, I've been on an '80's kick lately. Allow me to share one of my favorite childhood memories: "Xanadu."

The nine muses of Greek mythology make an appearance in Venice, California in order to inspire a lackluster artist and a washed up clarinetist to create an oeuvre only conceivable in the early '80's: a roller disco with a touch of '40's class. Yep, I've seen this again recently and it is utterly terrible: incoherent concept, laughable screenplay, and the worst acting imaginable. The costuming, art direction, and dancing, however, are pretty interesting (kind of like an extended music video), and I'm sure this is why my sister Jen and I loved this so much. The fact that we revered this movie so much goes a long way towards explaining the crazy dance-aholics we are!

Good Teacher

When I got back to school after winter break, the first words out of one of my student's mouths were, "Ay Miss! I don't remember nothing!" Of course I laughed--great teaching, right?

This reminded me of a recent conversation I had when I was recently talking to a dear friend who I taught with in Prague. She reminded me of one of my favorite Prague memories. Rod, one of our colleagues, had finished the year teaching his students: they had had 3 hours of English a day for five days a week, September -June. On the second to the last day of class, the students and staff went on their annual year-end picnic. One girl gave Rod a note that read: "Thank you, Rod. I learned many. See you yesterday!"

Classic!

Great job on being rich!

My school district's website is celebrating 36 schools in our system that were received the Governor's Award for Educational Excellence. There were four high schools listed out of my district's 25, and I immediately noticed that they looked like the "rich schools": Langley High School, Madison High School, McLean High School, Oakton High School. So I read the criteria for the Governor's Award, which the district website lists:

"Schools must meet all state and federal benchmarks for at least two consecutive years and achieve goals for elementary reading, enrollment in Algebra 1 by grade 8, enrollment in college-level courses, high school graduation, attainment of advanced diplomas, increased attainment of career and industry certifications, and participation in the Virginia Preschool Initiatives" (http://commweb.fcps.edu/newsreleases/newsrelease.cfm?newsid=1335, accessed 1/20).

I decided to test my theory to see if these were indeed the richest schools in Fairfax County. The same helpful fcps.edu website lists profiles for all schools that include demographics, so I looked at the percentage of students on free and reduced lunch. Here's what I found: of the 25 high schools in Fairfax County, the only schools that have less than 10% of the student body receiving free and reduced lunch are:

1. Langley High School (1.46%)

2. Thomas Jefferson High School (1.73%--I can only assume this school wasn't eligible, as this is Fairfax County's vaunted magnet school, listed for many years by U.S. News and World Report as the top public school in the nation. Trust me, if reaching benchmarks, taking college level classes, graduating, and obtaining advanced diplomas are your benchmarks, this would be out of the park.)

3. Madison High School (6.72%)

4. Woodson High School (7.22%)

5. McLean High School (7.79%)

6. Oakton High School (8.97%)

First thoughts? What happened to you, Woodson? No seriously, it just made me think a lot about what we choose to celebrate in education. What is there to praise here? These schools teach the population of students most likely to be from wealthy, stable families. It's not so much that they did something great as that they did not screw up their head start. Our society wants to believe that good schools, good teachers, make a huge impact on the educational outcomes of our students. I am a teacher, work hard, and believe in what I do, so I want to believe this, too. And those things certainly matter and can make a significant impact. The ugly truth, and the reason why I decided to look up the statistics on free and reduced lunch in the first place, is that income remains the largest predictor of all.

Most Enjoyed Movies of the Decade

I've been enjoying reading various lists commemorating the end of the year and the decade: best movies of the decade, worst political flubs, what's in, what's out, etc. So I thought I'd make a list of my own, but seeing as this blog exists for my own entertainment and I therefore do not need to feign the discipline or impartiality of professional writers, I thought I'd dispense with that whole idea of "best" and just call my list "most enjoyed." I'm sure there was better cinema out there than some of my choices, but I either didn't see it because I wasn't interested, or I did see it, recognized it as good stuff, but for whatever reason didn't enjoy it as much as the movies listed below.

10. "Mad Hot Ballroom." This film was certainly flawed and even emotionally manipulative at times. What earns this a place on my list is not brilliance of film-making, but the subject matter itself: public school kids, many disadvantaged, learning to love ballroom dancing. It was a combination of two of my passions, what can I say?

9. "Zoolander." There are parts of this movie that make me laugh harder with each viewing: the entire WHAM! music/video sequence with male models culminating in a gas station explosion, the very idea of Owen Wilson and Ben Stiller as male models, the "MerMAN! MerMAN!" advertisement playing inopportunely in the mining town bar. . . . hilarious, for all its flaws.

8. "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?" George Clooney plays a hair-obsessed redneck on the run in the depression era south in a remake of the Odyssey. What's not to love?

7. "Spirited Away." Too often, filmmakers seem to forget what a visual medium they are working with. Not so with the animated "Spirited Away, " which was utterly bizarre and original. Most certainly NOT predictable, and most definitely beautiful.

6. "The Incredibles." This one was sheer enjoyment from start to finish. I loved the mysterious island with its super high-tech gadgetry, the interaction with Bob and his family and boss, but mostly how fun and imaginative it all was. My favorite moment occurs when Dash, the little boy with super-human speed, discovers that he can actually run across the water as he is being pursued by dangerous bad guys trying to kill him. The surprised delight on his face is priceless.

Dash Running

5. "Dark Knight." So I confess that I didn't totally enjoy this the first time I watched it--I was so tense, so terrified of the unpredictable horrors . The story-telling was so effective that even knowing that it was only a movie, I almost couldn't bear the suspense. And then the moral message was beautifully complex: does no a no-compromises approach always result in an escalation? Do the ends justify the means? How do good people become corrupt? Riveting, beautifully written, refreshingly unpredictable. And then there's the added bonus that Maggie Gyllenhall brought intelligence and believability to a role that Katie Holmes botched so severely in the first one.

4. "Up." Like "The Incredibles", had moments that were pure delight: Dug's collar vocalizing his thoughts, including the random interjection of "squirrel!", Kevin's uncanny imitation of crotchety Karl, Russell's lovable clumsiness. But then there was also the way it so tastefully and subtly treated topics as serious as childlessness, death, and divorce, somehow managing to be both real and retain its lightness.

3. "The Lord of the Rings" Trilogy. Super-long, virtually unwatchable in its stretched-out DVD format, nerdy to the extreme, but nevertheless a superhuman feat of film-making. Scene after scene I was gasping at the precision of detail not only in special effects and costuming, but even in atmosphere. Watching it made me think of the movie you'd dream of making as a ten-year old kid, before reality and cynicism had caught up with you: you'd want tens of thousands of disgustingly ugly villains engaging in elaborate battle sequences, mythical flying monsters, gigantic elephants, extended battle scenes of astounding athleticism, epic music, sweeping landscapes, and a beautiful cast. Somehow, Peter Jackson achieved the unimaginable and accomplished everything the ten year-old could dream.

2. "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon": again, a visual feast! I saw this movie when it first reached the mainstream theater without really knowing what to expect, and I still remember the audience's collective gasp of disbelief the first time Michelle Yeoh and Zhang Ziyi skimmed across the roofs. Aside from the compelling story-telling and the ground-breaking martial-arts sequences, there were breathtaking shots of the Gobi desert and Beijing's Forbidden City, and I reveled in the way the two female characters defied every stereotype while maintaining their very potent femininity. One of my favorite movies from any decade.

1. "Whale Rider": I loved this movie. Besides being visually breath-taking, it managed to walk the tight-rope between extremes: heart-wrenching without being sentimental or manipulative, questioning of tribal traditions while still holding them in profound respect, and mystical and even supernatural without being cartoonish. The scene towards the end of the movie when Pai actually RIDES A WHALE was one of the most delightful and moving surprises a movie has given me.