Ride On

At the 2011 Tour of Utah in SLC

King of the Zombies

King of the Zombies [1941], dir. Jean Yarbrough



This deserves a watch.

Download the film for free at archive.org.

Your Life as a Mormon Woman is an Exploitative Horror Film

Okay. That's not true. The title is just an attention-grabbing lie. But there's this funny parallel I found between the latest issue of the the nonprofit LDS publication Segullah and the poster for the 2008 film adaptation of Scott Smith's horror novel, The Ruins.

Now, I kinda doubt the Segullah team had any idea this happened, but I think it is pretty awesome. Particularly since the latest issue of "writings by Latter-Day Saint women" is titled "Tetherings" and discusses issues of how we "forge and sever ties with people." An interesting topic; the articles could be worth reading.

The Ruins is also kind of about forging and severing (mostly severing), but instead of ties with people, it is more interested in cutting gross invasive evil out of your body. Perhaps the cutting in this example of exploitative soft-core torture-porn, where evil resides in remote Mexico (a logical place given America's well-reasoned fear of immigrants), is examining how we forge and sever ties with people, nature, and foreigners. "Get away from nature! it kills you!" "Get away from Mexico! it kills you!" Hmmm. It seems The Ruins is much more dire than Segullah. Didn't see that one coming. Unless the underlying message of this issue of Segullah is, "Get away from being an LDS woman! it kills you!" Based on Segullah's mission statement and from reading their blog, my guess is that isn't the message. But the visual parallel between these very contrasting media is very funny.

I'll have to pick up a copy of the new Segullah issue and put it next to my copy of Smith's book, which I'm gearing up to read sometime this summer.

When Students Have Cameras

So, my Basic Media Tools film class is finished, and I'm so relieved, because it took up so much time. But it was fun sometimes and allowed us to do ridiculous projects. Like make a swede of Inception [2010]. Four of us shot the film together, and then each of us had to do our own edit, which is a cool idea if you think about it. Well, I thought I'd highlight Duncan Rawlings' edit of the film, which I quite enjoyed. This is the product of our term labors, which tells you something about who they let into film school these days.

Dear Utah Legislature,

My vote has been cast.

Censored For Your Protection

Did I buy this shirt? Yes, I did.

Did I wear it on campus? Yes, I did.

Golden Arch

Alot on the Internet

Alot seen here.

*Thanks, Kylie, for the heads up.