Close Read: Muscial Clips Selections

Below is a list of musical clips to choose from for this week's close read essay. Additionally, you'll find ten new clips to consider. Choose only one to write about.

• "America" from West Side Story (1961)
  
• "Elephant Love Medley" from Moulin Rouge! (2001)
•  "Good Morning" from Singin' in the Rain (1952)
• "I Dreamed a Dream" from Les Misérables (2012)
• "I Want to Hold Your Hand" from Across the Universe (2007)
  
• "Mein Herr" from Cabaret (1972)
  
• "My Man" from Funny Girl (1968)
• "Summer Nights" from Grease (1978)
• "The Man That Got Away" from A Star is Born (1954)
• "We Both Reached for the Gun" from Chicago (2002)

 Also:

• "A Little Priest" from Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007)
• "Agony" from Into the Woods (2014)
• "Drifting Slowly" from Once (2007)
• "Easy to be Hard" from Hair (1979)
• "Gaston" from Beauty and the Beast (1991)
• "I Can Hear the Bells" from Hairspray (2007)
• "I Will Always Love You" from The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (1982)
• "If I Loved You" from Carousel (1956)
• "Le Jazz Hot" from Victor Victoria (1982)
• "Rainbow High" from Evita (1996)
• "Suddenly Seymour" from Little Shop of Horrors (1986)
• "Whatever Lola Wants" from Damn Yankees (1958)

Reflection 5: Black and White Movies—On Colorblind Casting

Colorblind casting is the practice of ignoring the traditional race of a fictional character and, instead, casting an actor of another ethnicity. And depending on who you ask, it either robs actors of certain races of opportunities to work, or it opens the doors to more work for a variety of actors of various races. For much of Hollywood's history, colorblind casting has been a non-issue. Typically, if a film called for a character of color, producers would simply cast a white actor to play black, Asian, Latino, or whatever else was called for. This practice, eventually called "whitewashing," lead to many offensive stereotypes in the movie industry. In the 21st century, actors of color have seen their roles dramatically rise, but charges of whitewashing still exist—just witness the recent controversies over Emma Stone playing a half-Asian woman in Aloha or the casting  of mostly white actors in Egyptian-set Exodus: Gods and Kings. Do you believe an actor's race should be a consideration in casting? How would you feel, for example, about a black James Bond? What about an Asian Batman?

• "Fans Petition to Have Scarlett Johansson Removed as Star of Ghost in the Shell Movie" (IGN)
• "Michael B. Jordan Slams Haters Who Don’t Want a Black Human Torch" (HollywoodLife)
• "Pierce Brosnan Backs First Black James Bond" (Guardian)
• "Whitewashing was One of Hollywood's Worst Habits, so Why is It Still Happening?" (Huffington Post)
• "Rooney Mara as Pan's Tiger Lily: A Look at the Controversy" (Entertainment Weekly)
• "When is Color-Blind Casting Okay and When is it Not?" (Movieline)

Requirements:

• Must be in MLA Style
• Must be one page in length
• Include a works cited page
  

Due: We 10.14

Week 10: It Happened One Night (1934)

Week 10: It Happened One Night (1934)
Mo 10.12/We 10.14
Read: “The 8 Evil Forms of AI that Gave Robots a Bad Name” (Popular Mechanics), “A (Very) Brief History of Artificial Intelligence” (AITopics)
Class: Reading discussion; Presentations. Writers workshop

Upcoming:

Week 11: The Hurt Locker (2008)
Mo 10.19/We 10.21
Class: Reading discussion; Presentations; Lecture—“The Most Common Grammatical Errors—And How to Avoid Them” Due: INFOGRAPHIC (BRING 2 COPIES)

Week 9: Gilda (1946)

Week 9: Gilda (1946)
Mo 10.5/We 10.7
Read: eR—“Infographics: Separating the Great from the Mediocre” (The Next Web), “What Makes a Great Infographic?” (DashBurst), “70 Best Infographics on the Web” (Creative Bloq), “You Suck at Infographics” (Wired)
Class: CLOSE READ; Reading discussion; Presentations; Lecture—“All About Infographics”
Due: REFLECTION 5

Upcoming:

Week 10:
It Happened One Night (1934)
Mo 10.12/We 10.14
Read: “The 8 Evil Forms of AI that Gave Robots a Bad Name” (Popular Mechanics), “A (Very) Brief History of Artificial Intelligence” (AITopics)
Class: Reading discussion; Presentations. Writers workshop
Due: INFOGRAPHIC (BRING 2 COPIES)

Movie News 10.7.15

• Will Smith on his Suicide Squad co-star: "I’ve never actually met Jared Leto ... He was all in on the Joker" (/Film)
• Batman v Superman viral marketing campaign goes live with Fortune profile of Lex Luthor (io9) 
• Magnolia Pictures pushing for the first-ever transgender nomination for two of its actresses (Entertainment Weekly)
•  Hollywood's gender gap in two charts (Time)
• Matt Damon's Martian blasts off at the box office with $55 million opening (TheWrap)
• Trailer of the week: Jennifer Lawrence in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Pt II (YouTube)

Week 8: Dreamgirls (2006)

Week 8: Dreamgirls (2006)
Tu 10.6/Th 10.8
Read: eR—“Summer Nights” from Grease (1978), "Elephant Love Medley" from Moulin Rouge! (2001), “We Both Reached for the Gun” from Chicago (2002), "I Want to Hold Your Hand" from Across the Universe (2007), “I Dreamed a Dream” from Les Misérables (2012)
Class: CLOSE READ; Reading discussion; Presentations; Lecture—“Close Reads: A How-To” Due: REFLECTION 4

Upcoming:

Week 9: Gilda (1946)
Mo 10.5/We 10.7
Read: eR—“Infographics: Separating the Great from the Mediocre” (The Next Web), “What Makes a Great Infographic?” (DashBurst), “70 Best Infographics on the Web” (Creative Bloq), “You Suck at Infographics” (Wired)
Class: Reading discussion; Presentations; Lecture—“All About Infographics”
Due: REFLECTION 5

Movie News 10.3.15

• Marvel smiles on Ronda Rousey's campaign to play Captain Marvel (Entertainment Weekly)
• Four more Transformers movies planned (Dark Horizons)
• Netflix streaming coming to Virgin America (Los Angeles Times)
• Report: Daniel Craig re-ups for two more James Bond films (Daily Mirror)
• $96,000: What Princess Leia's "slave bikini" sells at auction for (Entertainment Weekly)
• Trailer of the week: Natalie Dormer in The Forest (YouTube)