class prep

My summer class ended yesterday :( They were such a great group. We met 5 days a week for 6 weeks I'm going to miss seeing them. The final was a little rough for some of them, but the final grades came out okay (I turned them in last night.) They said some really nice things on their way out of class :)

I have something closely resembling a syllabus for my Weimar seminar, woo! The bibliography is so overwhelming I ended up borrowing a bunch of articles from the syllabus when I took the class at Williams. We'll see how it goes.

Today I went to the library to gather books for regular and electronic reserves. I'm way past the deadline for fall semester so I felt nervous about just submitting it electronically and ending up in the library's queue (they need the books by Wednesday.) Although I know that profs are late all the time I'm still too neurotic. The (older, male) librarian was surprised and amused that I was pulling the books myself. When I asked if I could put things on reserve he said "for who?". Yes, I still look like a graduate student :)

I really love the idea of electronic reserves. They do the scanning for me! I really hope once I see the scans I'm still just as excited. There are still a few things that I'm just putting on regular(?) manual(?) plain old book reserves because I want them to look at the pictures in color.

My modern class is coming along as well. I'm about half-way through reworking the syllabus of the guy who taught the class before me. It helps to have a place to start.

Now I just need to put together a lecture for the Modern class and some sort of opening remarks for the Weimar seminar. (Oh and everything for my UMD freshman connections class, but that doesn't start for a week and a half so I'm not there yet.)

German film nights!

I have four films I need to watch this week in preparation for my Weimar seminar. Anyone want to come and join?

I'm free every night starting tonight (Saturday) through next Thursday. I'll probably try to see 1-2 in a sitting. If you'd like to join leave a comment with what you'd like to see and when you're free. All are German films with English subtitles.

Metropolis
1927
Director, Fritz Lang
124 minutes
über-famous story about the modern future where the rich live in the shiny city and the workers live underground
science fiction 1927 style, worth it for the sets and costumes alone

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
1920
Director, Robert Wiene
72 minutes
an expressionist film, meaning the sets are crazy (as are some of the characters)
compelling story about "a deranged hypnotist who spreads death through the countryside form a ramshackle traveling carnival"

M
1931
Director, Fritz Lang
110 minutes
an early film with sound (Fritz Lang's first)
the first movie with a serial killer this is a crime drama about neighborhood looking for a man who is murdering children, great performance by Peter Lorre as the killer

Nosferatu
1922
Director, F.W. Murnau
This is the vampire movie. It's the earliest surviving film based on Bram Stoker's Dracula and is the source for almost every vampire-film trope you can think of. Some of it was shot in the Carpathians.
Hella creepy.