Friday: Leaving Boone

Ken arrived last night after spending most of the week in Spruce Pine. We will post his adventures when we get back to Maryland. My course work with Dr. Considine is over for the week, but I have four projects (two documentary screenings/analyses, one book review and the major case study) to complete by the end of the semester. As long as I keep to the schedule, I'll be fine! I have enjoyed the course and have enjoyed working with my group. We plan to keep in touch over the semester. Perhaps I will consider taking the summer class next year, which is called "Democracy, Diversity and the Media" and will have 5 instructors from the field of media literacy. I will have to convince Odyssey to pay the tuition!
We are going to have breakfast in the university cafeteria (Ken spend the night in the dorm), visit the university bookstore, pack the camper, turn in my key and linens and head out toward Maryland.
This is a gem of a university. It seems to have state-of-the art facilities--library, computer resources, science facilities, faculty, etc. There is lots of construction going on and the campus has been alive with workshops, institutes and sports camps. There has been an interesting mixture of adolescent athletes and continuing education teachers on campus. People are friendly and helpful. I have enjoyed my stay here and have been stimulated by the work we have done this week. I have a wealth of materials to digest over the next few months, but I know that I will not look at media--especially film and TV--in the same way. And I definitely plan to watch the YouTube/CNN Democratic debates on Monday night!

Major Case Study topic

Only have a few minutes until class, but my proposed case study for my major project is "Learning Issues and Differences Portrayed in Film and Television." My film titles (so far) are "Stanley and Iris (1990), "Little Man Tate" (1991), "In Her Shoes" (2005) and "La Ceremonie" (1995). I have also found several made for TV movies, mostly from the 1980's, dealing with dyslexia. I have an appointment with Dr. Considine tomorrow morning to get his approval of my topic.
Have to run.
More later, I hope.

More about Media Literacy

I am waiting for Marti to return from the Fitness Center so we can go to breakfast. If I finish this post before she gets back, I will go to breakfast without her.
Our working group consists of 4 other women; Marti from Georgetown Day, Stuart, a librarian from Key School in Annapolis, Suzi from an elementary school in Boca Raton, Florida and Ren, a college professor from the University of Rochester in NY. We all seem pretty compatible and we are all staying in the same dorm, so it makes getting together pretty easy. Last night we watched "Lost Weekend" in a viewing room in the university library. Another tough movie to watch. Both "Lost Weekend" (1945) and "Leaving Las Vegas" (1995) have to do with alcoholism, but with very different outcomes. Our job now is to compare and contrast the films, looking at attitudes and influences of the time period each movie was made, collect critical reviews, etc. On Thursday we make a group presentation of our findings.
The other assignments involve watching documentaries about various themes in film and other media--family, violence, gender, sex, addiction, etc. I have selected "DreamWorlds" (how images in popular culture--namely music videos--influence those who watch them) and "The Celluloid Closet" (a documentary showing the "changing face of cinema sexuality from cruel stereotypes to covert love to the activist triumphs of the 1990's"). We have to analyze these documentaries in two papers, each due by the end of the summer. Our final project is a case study on one of the themes (similar to the alcohol addiction project). I am still deciding my topic, although I have several ideas. I will let you know as my ideas evolve.
Ken called last night. He was in a campground just off the Blue Ridge Parkway. He had spent the day at Penland, including a visit with Cynthia Bringle, a fairly renowned potter.

Appalachian State and Media Literacy

Saturday was a busy day for both of us. Ken's workshop started at 8:30 AM, so he spent the day with about 30 potters and Mark Hewitt. He took some photos which I will have to post when we get home. I spent the day checking out the campus, getting registered, finding my dorm room, walking about 2 miles to a Staples to purchase an ethernet cable (there is no wireless access in the dorm) and re-reading Harry Potter, book 6 (so I will be ready for Book 7). In the evening the pottery workshop participants had dinner at the Daniel Boone Inn and I was invited along. Following dinner, the entire group went to a local potter's studio and gallery for wine and dessert. Very nice.
We decided not to return to the campground, which hadn't been very nice, and Ken slept in the dorm room.
Sunday morning, Ken returned to his workshop and I unloaded my things from the camper into the dorm room. I also did a load of laundry. My suitemate and friend, Marti Weston, arrived during the morning. Marti is the Lower School Technology Coordinator at Georgetown Day School in Washington, DC, and we have known each other a long time. She is also taking the Media Literacy class here at Appalachian U. We got Marti situated and grabbed a quick lunch. Our class began at 1 PM.
I have forgotten (or didn't allow myself to think) about the demands of a graduate level course. There is a tremendous amount of work for this course, and most of the work is done after this week in Boone. When I get back to Hampstead, I have 2 papers due before the end of the summer and a large final project due at the end of the semester (Dec. 4) plus two drafts of the final project due in the interim. I will give details later but it involves screening films, analyzing them, reading critical reviews and writing case studies about the influence of film on viewers. Last night our group watched Leaving Las Vegas (a tough film to watch) and have to discuss how it handles alcoholism. There are 5 of us in our group. We are also to watch Lost Weekend and compare the two films. This is a class project and due on Thursday. We also have a lot of reading: articles, reviews, and information about media literacy. I will only have time for quick posts, it looks like.
This morning I am off to breakfast, and then to get a photo id so I can have access to the library. Class starts at 10 this morning, but in the meantime I have a lot of reading to do in preparation. Life as a grad student!
Ken is in Spruce Pine and hopes to visit Penland. More about his travels when he gets back.
Sorry about the lack of photos. I hope the links help. Read the movie reviews instead!

Day 4 continued: Arrival in Boone

As we left the Hirsts, we stopped at the Mud Dabber's Pottery on the way back to Brevard. We met John and his assistants and Ken talked shop. Mud Dabber's offers classes (there was a raku class in progress) and sells a number of various potters' works on a percentage basis. We met a young potter named Jason (recently married) who had started at Mud Dabber's as an apprentice. John showed it around the studios, shops, glazing area and kiln rooms.
We left Brevard--there was a traffic backup on I-26 but once we headed east on I-40 the traffic diminished, the sky cleared and we were on our way. We left the Interstate at Morganton (home of Senator Sam Erwin) and headed toward Lenoir and Blowing Rock. We drove up into the mountains, through Blowing Rock and into Boone, arriving at the Flintlock Campground in Boone around 7 PM. Boone is a happening place this weekend since the Highland Games are taking place. We hear bagpipes at the campground and have sighted men in kilts in town! We drove to the university to check out the location of Ken's workshop and met Eric (the workshop organizer) and Mark Hewitt the potter who will be presenting tomorrow's workshop. Both seemed very personable and friendly. Mark was throwing some large shapes in preparation for his workshop. He makes very large wood-fired salt pots. Ken will give some thoughts about the workshop on tomorrow's post.
We checked out the campus, had dinner at a local pub and headed back to the campground. We have to get an early start in the morning; Ken's workshop starts at 8:30. I will see if I can register and check in with Dr. Considine.
Even though this campground advertises wireless Internet access, there is no access at the site; I was sitting in the campground office until the office closed. Now I am sitting on a bench outside the office. I will see if I can load the pictures and post this blog before my battery runs down.
I have photos of the girls (with Grammie and Grandma) and of Ken's visit to the pottery.

Day 4: Feedrock and on to Boone

Today is cool and overcast. After a fabulous breakfast (blueberry muffins, scrambled eggs and bacon, real Georgia grits, as well as toast, English muffins and homemade blueberry jam from Shiloh), we are planning the day. Martha is watching a princess video, Jim has gone off to the worksite and Matt and Ken are going to work on the camper. When Ken put the camper on the truck, he forgot to put the boards in the truck bed first, so the top of the camper is resting on the roof of the cab of the truck. Ken is afraid that the camper is rubbing the finish off the truck roof, causing serious damage, so he will raise the camper on it's jacks and put some boards under it to raise it off the truck. He and Matt have taken it down to the house site where there is some more level ground. Everything up here is built on giant boulders and nothing is very level.
Photos are of Jim and Kathy's garage and workshop (under construction), a neighboring house with it's "stone lawn" complete with lawn chairs (no, that's not a snow drift) and my attempt at capturing last night's sunset on my digital camera.
I will continue this post later today when Ken and I get to Boone and Appalachian State University.

Day 3: Brevard and Feedrock Road

We got on the road fairly early on Thursday morning after a restful night at the Woodsmoke Campground. We entered North Carolina with a clear view of the mountains--beautiful vistas and a cool dry day! We stopped at the North Carolina Visitors' Center and Ken picked up enough brochures to keep him busy for a month! We drove around Ashville and on to Brevard, following Jim's detailed instructions (with commentary!) The Sherwood Forest development, where Jim and Kathy are staying while Jim builds their house, is located about 10 miles (3 or 4 miles as the crow flies) from the town center of Brevard in the "hills." The road follows French Broad and twists and turns up the mountains, including a hairpin turn! The houses are built on giant rocks the form the basis of these mountains. The views across the mountains are spectacular, especially at sunset.
We visited Jim at the worksite of their future home, where he and Kathy have built a garage and workshop, then went back to the house for lunch. After lunch, Kathy and I took a wonderful walk along the numerous trails that criss cross the terrain around the homes. The rhododendron is just past prime (it peaked on the 4th of July) but still beautiful.
Matt and Paula and the girls arrived around 6 PM, tired after a 10 hour drive, but happy to see Grandma and Grandpa Hirst and Grammie and Granddad Hankins. Kathy prepared a wonderful dinner and we watched the sun set over the mountains in the northwest. We visited long into the night and went to sleep in the cool mountain air.
The photos speak for themselves.