"Sin City"

I just want to say thanks to the anonymous poster for his/her comments on my journalism post.

Now I can move on to something else. I recently caught a screen shot of the Robert Rodriguez/Frank Miller 2005 project "Sin City." It popped up in the most recent issue of Premier (I think Keanu is on the cover) and I discussed the possibilities with my friend Joe, who is a huge comic book fan and is probably the guy that got me hooked on reading the original comics in the first place. Since I've been collected the trade-paperbacks (because I generally don't have the patience to wait for each individual comic to come out and would rather read the giant story arcs as a whole). This may or may not be more expensive, but I would rather have the collection rather than multitudes of smaller comic books laying around. Besides, the TPBs are easier to shelf.

I love the Sin City books. It's that ultimate merging of noir and writing that got me into movies and books and writing. The art is phenominal -- Miller writes, illustrates (proper terminology, Joe?) and inks the entire series. The black inkyness of the page just oozes bad-ass, when Marv is standing in the middle of a giant rainstorm and the city lights glisten off his shoulders. The book is dark (both aethestically and mentally), violent -- probably a Tarantino wet-dream.

And to find out that Rodriguez is directing (or should I say co-directing) the film version of the series makes me ecstatic. The anticipation is killing me and I can almost claim right now that "Sin City" is going to be the best comic book-to-film adaptation out there. Screw Batman, Superman and even Spider-Man. No one is taking the feel and look of a comic book more seriously and allowing the series to speak for itself in the film. The monochromatic shots are in the movie with just the subtle colorations, originally established in Miller's books. The Yellow Bastard is really Yellow.

No film has ever made me this excited. And then I saw the trailer.

As Joe (and anyone that reads Joe's blog comments) knows that I LOVE the trailer. I'm a big fan of trailers, but this one is like taking the whole stack of Sin City TPBs and flipping through them getting a glimpse at the overall storyline and quick snapshots, which is a fabulous concept just proving that Rodriguez has painstakingly produced one of the most anticipated movies of 2005 and a film that's already my No. 1 pick for the year.

Cheers to Rodriguez and MIller.

ATTN: Journalistic Freedoms in Danger

this is a conversation I had with a friend concerning the board of trustees and or administration trying to gain some sort of control over the content within a student publication, which is funded through school money and internal advertising revenue. The school is Lake Land College, Mattoon, Ill., and the paper is called "Navigator." If anyone reads this, pass it along. We need a grassroots movement, high-tech style.

[quote] Jacobian says:
hey, i talked to [name withheld] at the end of the semester..he said the board o' trustees was considering some kind of policy change regarding the navigator...heard anything about that?
...
I like feeding the ducks says:
no, I haven't. That's scary
Jacobian says:
[name withheld]said he thought he'd read in the [mattoon journal-gazette] something about prohibiting 'vulgarities' or something...but that the board had tabled the issue pending legal advise
Jacobian says:
i thought that was kinda bizarre timing ... since the [Navigator] been pretty timid so far this year
I like feeding the ducks says:
yeah, no kidding

I like feeding the ducks says:
sound's like [name withheld . 2] should get an attorney the specializes in media law ... I think Eastern has one that probably works pro bono.
Jacobian says:
there's that james tidwell guy his specialty is journalism law
I like feeding the ducks says:
yeah... thats him

Jacobian says:
id like to think its just some kind of intimidation...cant imagine what would happen if the board actually formed any kind of policy regulating content in any way..
I like feeding the ducks says:
no kidding
Jacobian says:
im sure somebody would let every first amendment group know about it by the next morning
...
Jacobian says:
i mean, it'd have to be in the board book if it came up at the meeting (which it was, though not specifically)
Jacobian says:
navigator as action item would have to send off alarms to [name withheld .2] , right?
I like feeding the ducks says:
i would think
Jacobian says:
it would be logical. the only way [name withheld .2] wouldn't know about it would be if they didnt tell her...but that would have to get around..i hope its not her doing..i think more of her than that
I like feeding the ducks says:
me too
...

I like feeding the ducks says:
I think anyone that is still a student or otherwise have a vested interest in happenings on LLC campus should get involved if the issue affects them, regardless of personal bias or past experiences.
Jacobian says:
i have my doubts about anyone being able to rally the student body
Jacobian says:
unless there were free pizza
I like feeding the ducks says:
yeah... food gratis usually pulls in extra people

Jacobian says:
what do you think the whole thing is? indirect intimidation or..with the intent to do it?
I like feeding the ducks says:
probably, knowing the board they're just gonna try and do it. They wanted to do it a long time ago, when [an aquaintance of mine] and I first started. Maybe before that. But it's always been the intent of the trustees and administration to grasp some managerial control over the paper.
I like feeding the ducks says:
but the LLC big wigs have often tried dictating content
...
I like feeding the ducks says:
nothing really controversial? We may have made a few comments in general about the student body and administration, but nothing gratuitous... I'd have to go back through the older papers and look through
Jacobian says:
what kind of pressures did they put on you?
Jacobian says:
how did that totalitarian attitude manifest?
I like feeding the ducks says:
the budget i think. Since they technically have say over how the Lighthouse/Navigator could spend money, they believe they should have say over content
I like feeding the ducks says:
LLC does sign the paychecks
Jacobian says:
is that why [name withheld] was knew so well that the admis would have to lessen all student life budgets equally to get at the student publication's budget?
Jacobian says:
-was
I like feeding the ducks says:
i think so
I like feeding the ducks says:
otherwise, it would single out the paper

Jacobian says:
i haven't kept up on the governors state u. case...have you? maybe this has something to do with it.
I like feeding the ducks says:
I don't know... despite reading about the politics of Illinois almost everyday, I don't think I've read anything about it
Jacobian says:
at gsu..some mid-level admin shut down the paper and locked the editors out when she demanded prior review..cut off payments to their printing service..so a plethora of first amendment orgs sued on the editors behalf..the ill atty general sided with the university..its in some federal district that includes several states..the court ruled in favor of the students..but of course the university
Jacobian says:
has appealed..thats the last i knew..back in april i think
I like feeding the ducks says:
oh yeah... no, i haven't heard anything since then...
Jacobian says:
i intend to find out everything i can next week
Jacobian says:
i have to say.. *if* there's anything there...but it wouldn't suprise either one of us if its exactly what we don't want to be
I like feeding the ducks says:
no kidding [/quote]


are they covering their butts or are they looking for a way to slip in some control clause? The Board of Trustees is looking at inserting language into their policy that would protect them from legal liabilities incurred by possible actions by the student publications. Is it a way for them to exert some sort of pre-press control over a newspaper that's supposed to be ran by the students.

[quote]Published on Wednesday, December 15, 2004 10:04 AM CST
Lake Land board ponders changes
By HERB MEEKER, Staff Writer
MATTOON -- The Lake Land College Board of Trustees on Monday night considered student publication First Amendment Rights in comparison to legal responsibilities of the college board to ensure student journalists do not go too far with freedom of expression.
...
The board was asked to take action on a change in policy regarding the Navigator, Lake Land's student newspaper, and its staff's First Amendment rights. One change in the policy would be: The College newspaper staff must, therefore, avoid libel, obscenity, and material that legally invades a person's right to privacy. The action would delete a section of the policy banning certain actions by the Navigator staff: indecency, undocumented allegations, plagiarism, attacks on personal integrity, harassment and innuendo.

Board Trustee Doris Reynolds questioned eliminating those words, claiming that such actions should be specifically restricted.

"I just want to make sure the board is protected, and the students know what the board expects," Reynolds said before a vote was taken on the motion to approve the changes.

The board learned that the changes were recommended for ensuring student exercise of freedom of expression and press freedom as protected by both state and federal law, especially the First Amendment. College administrators contacted Mike Easton of the Student Press Law Center to make sure the policy changes conformed to legal terminology recognized by the courts in order to protect the college and the staff from lawsuits. Easton was described as an "expert in the field" of student First Amendment law.

...
[/quote]

this Mike Easton is supposed to be with the Student Press Law Center, here is the address:

Student Press Law Center
1101 Wilson Blvd., Suite 1100
Arlington, VA 22209-2211 USA




Important links
* The Navigator's Web site
* Lake Land College's Web site
* the agenda with change in board policy of Navigator on Action Item list
* a Mattoon Journal-Gazette article on the LLC Board of Trustees agenda
* Student Press Law Center

Jacob J. DeVore contributed to this blog

hockey, warm weather, journalism

For those of you living in Illinois, and particularly the east central part, I (among the other denizens of this region) have been experiencing unseasonably warm weather -- temperatures that I'm sure would make many on the east-south coasts a little jealous. I think at last check the temp reached something like 63 or 64. Which means: I don't have to wear a coat, it's damn near short pants weather, I can wash my car without the doors freezing, and it's just an all-around good time of the year to have 60+ weather. A News-Gazette article on the weather recently.

(Update) I'll think I will go wash my car, because now I don't have to worry about the doors freezing on me. I love warm, winter weather. I only wish I had the cash to go skiing in the next few days. There's nothing like plunging down a snow-covered hill, in 40+ weather, and the sun shining brightly. Skiing in bluejeans, T-shirt, and gloves is the best feeling in the world. Let's just hope that you're good enought that you don't fall into some snow. That would suck.

On a sadder note, I'm going to a wedding tomorrow of a good friend who I have known for awhile (and even adopted her as a little sister). The actual wedding is the sad part, it's the fact that I'm going alone, which always depresses me. I've only been to one other wedding alone and that sucks. Weddings are the reason that Richard Simmons got fat, lost weight, and went the way of Elton John and Liberacci.

(Update) Wedding was a good time. Ceremony went a little longer than anticipated, but it was good. There were no "are you done yet?"s. Did talk to some friends that I haven't seen in a long time. On a side note, I was wanting to go visit my friend Misty who lives in Charleston and in taking the wrong road, I inadverntently gone out of my way by about 30 minutes. There is this little town south of Decatur on U.S. 51 called Assumption. Mental note to self: Assumption would be a great name for a town in an Old West movie or book. But I (didn't) see much of the country because it was night and foggy. Blah. But the side-trip took quicker than I expected and I made it to Charleston right on time. Yah.

Even sadder, for those of us that are fans of hockey, we no longer have a season -- you can stick a fork in it, it's done. As far as the NHL, that's a league thats over-cooked, it's burning away in the oven. Don't expect professional hockey to ever be the same. Look at the way a lockout hurt baseball. If it hadn't been for the McGuire-Sosa homerun race, baseball wouldn't be where it is today. But don't get me started on Sosa, that will only anger this Cubs fan who is probably going to find another team to start rooting for. Too many crybabies and whine-for-me attitudes. Bunch of primadonnas. Because of the hockey lockout there are plenty of smaller independent leagues and college games that are getting some much needed notoriety.

(Update) No update, the world of professional hockey (at least the NHL) sucks. Sorry for such a downer.

My goal of one day being a freelance journalist, where I get paid for belching forth series of eposidic, and stream-of-concious rants, isn't any closer than what it was a year ago. Oh well. I never expected to get paid for writing, so I guess my hope isn't completely lost.

(Update) I'm applying for some grants in the hopes that I make some decent side cash. While the competition is high and usually you have to pay to enter these contests for poetry and fiction and such, if I did get something published through them then that would be one more feather in my cap. Besides I'm making enough money now that I can maybe afford to enter one or two every couple of months. In the mean time, I plan on trying to get on with a Web site that either caters to my warped sense of logic or begin regularly contributing to other Web sites. Maybe
Well, I gotta go back to