Is 3D to Home TVs What Color was to Black and White?

3D TV was introduced at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on January 7-10, 2010.  Panasonic and Samsung both had TV's available.  Some 3D TV's are being produced which do not require special glasses to see the effects.

I saw a good movie today with lots of special effects.  The last few movies I have seen were in 3D and I really noticed the difference today.  I am waiting to see Avatar in 2D--I've seen it three times in 3D.

We will have to see how the technology develops and evolves.  Is the 3D TV good for all programming--even 2D programming?  Will we need multiple TV's and special glasses for some movies or events?

Books, Screen Plays, Movies--Amazing Transformations

Books are fascinating.  When they are transformed into movies it is amazing what has to be done to condense the book and turn it into more direct action and dialog.  The Harry Potter series of books by J.K. Rowling are full-length books.  The movies are abridged versions of the books that still carry the basic themes and plots.  I recently re-read Dan Brown's DaVinci Code and Angels and Demons, then saw the movies and saw the amazing transformations required to create the screenplay and the film version.  Today I finished listening to The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett.  I am looking at the 1934 film and am again struck by the transformations.  The book has 31 chapters and the film runs for 75 minutes.  That film set the stage for many sequels for which the screenplays were written directly, using the characters developed by Dashiell Hammett.

Turning a book into a screenplay would be a great exercise in creative writing for language students.

Quality Movies--Then and Now

I was asked to rank quality movies today from a broad selection of movies, many of which were classics from the 1940s and 1950s--usually available from Turner Classic Movies.  I was amazed at how many of the "classic" films I consider to be of better quality than newer films.

Avatar is a new movie with new technology and may be in a different category from The Bishop's Wife.  Both are high quality movies, though of very different genres.

Christmas Spirit--Opening to It and Keeping It Alive

Christmas Spirit comes from the heart.  It's always present and opening ourselves to it is sometimes a challenge.  The doors open in, so pushing out doesn't help.  Keeping it alive in our hearts is a similar process of surrendering to the loving that is always present.

Christmas time seems to be filled with the symbols that help us to remember to open our hearts.  Symbols are around all the time--babies, dogs, nature, and many other symbols.  At Christmas they seem to be everywhere we look.

Commercialism seems to run rampant during the season yet, underlying the commercialism is an underlying sense of peace and connectedness.  These days we need to pay attention with our hearts to stay in touch with that sense in spite of all the efforts to take us out of that place.

Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life is one of my family's favorites at Christmas time.  I also used the movie to teach English language learners in high school about much of the American culture and history covered in the movie.  The film shows how riches take different forms in our lives and the importance of paying attention to what is really important.

Movies, Culture, Language, Time, and New Perspectives, Tradition, Holidays

Movies provide amazing insights into time periods and cultures.  Movies in different languages offer perspectives that are otherwise invisible.  Turner Classic Movies provides a wealth of films that reflect some of the best America has had to offer.  As a teacher, I used the movie It's a Wonderful Life to introduce ideas about American culture--the great depression, World War II, small-town life, the evolution of industry.  The film is rich in all of these things.  Mr. Smith Goes to Washington offers English language learners a glimpse into the history of politics in the United States.

While fiction, many movies have become traditions and capture much of the culture of their times.  In my family, Thanksgiving (near the end of November) is the time for Miracle on 34th Street which begins with the Thanksgiving Day parade of Macy's department store in New York City.  We also watch White Christmas and Holiday Inn (two versions of the same movie), and are sure to see It's a Wonderful Life before Christmas.  Charles Dicken's A Christmas Carol is also part of our holiday fare.  I saw a delightful new version in "Real 3D" of Disney's A Christmas Carol with Jim Carey earlier this week.

When I was learning Italian, I lived in Italy as a graduate student for six months and went to lots of Italian re-runs.  As the audience laughed themselves silly, I was struggling to keep up with the folow of the words.  Before long my Italian improved and I laughed along with the rest of the audience.  Many of the Italian films and much of the Italian humor differed greatly from what I was used to in American films.  It was delightful to get to know the movies in Italian.  One title I remember was very different in Italian and in English.  I believe it was an Italian western.  The Italian title was Giu la testa (keep your head down).  The same movie's title in English was Duck, Stupid! later changed to Duck, You Sucker!

Recently, to bring back my French fluency, I began watching French films from Netflix.  One movie is entitled Une hirondelle . . . a fait du printemps (The Girl from the Spring).  The English title for the same movie is The Girl from Paris.  The French title is much more in keeping with the theme of the movie though the girl does come from Paris.  Another French movie I have recently watched and enjoyed was Priceless.  Again, the culture and humor of the film is very different from typical American movies.

Watching familiar DVD's in other languages is also a great way to bring fluency back.  Many DVD's have sound tracks and closed captions in multiple languages and it is a great way to review and refresh fluency by working with a combination of oral and written languages with viewing the DVD's.   Some of my favorites to watch in multiple languages are Dave, French Kiss, One Fine Day, and Groundhog Day.

Support for "Flying Outside the Box"--Lifting beyond the limits of gravity

In the 1960 movie, High Time, Bing Crosby (playing Harvey Howard, 51-year-old widower and stakehouse tycoon) goes to college.  The movie tracks his college career from arrival on campus for his freshman year through graduation.  Along the way he falls in love with Nicole Maurey (playing the French lecturer, Madame Gautier).  He affirms that he is locked into his past--family, career, etc. and could no more fall in love again "than he could fly."  (Of course he does fall in love again and she does with him.)  As the commencement speaker at his graduation, Bing demonstrates that he has changed his mind and has gone beyond his  pre-existing limits of thought and behavior--and declares his love. 

As much as I am an advocate for "out-of-the-box" thinking, I believe that there are times when I need to learn to "fly"--in much the way Bing does in this movie.  I was a paratrooper in the Army and loved the feeling of floating to earth under a parachute.  While that's not quite the same as flying, it does compel moving to a new perspective of thought.  "Tree-top level" is the moment when a paratrooper needs to relax and to get ready to land.  (My experiences were all "combat jumps" at about 1,200 feet above the ground rather than long free-fall jumps.)

Finding new ways to do things, using technology to help us to fly, all of these are important habits to cultivate, along with reflection and recognizing when we are "bumping our head against a glass ceiling."  It is important to develop strategies to move beyond these pre-existing limits. 

I enjoy watching High Time in the Fall to be reminded to lift off beyond the limits of gravity as I move into new projects and work.

". . . There's an 'app' for that."

I downloaded the free application (app) called "Bump" from the Apple iTunes Store this morning. Apple iTunes has been open for a little more than a year and "Bump" (as I remember) said that it was proud to be the billionth application available for download.

I have the iPod Touch (2nd Generation)  running the 3.0 operating system.  It can work with almost all of the apps available. I just purchased an external microphone for the iPod Touch, so now I can work with all of the apps that call for recording. I just can't take photos or work with the telephone features. To run on the Internet I need to be at a WiFi location.

Enough "tecky" stuff. Apple has done a great job and I can see more and more people getting great value from these products and apps. It was good timing, too, for the introduction of these things.

After downloading "Bump" to my PC and then synchronizing it to my iPod Touch, I downloaded a few more free apps and tested them out--along with their PC-based versions. There are some phenomenonal apps and I found myself investing most of the day in learning how to work the new apps and more expansive PC-based software. One of the best things I found was a new software for making movies of what you do on the PC. The name of the product is "Jing" and it is produced by TechSmith software (http://www.techsmith.com)--makers of SnagIt and several other terrific products I have used for years. I downloaded the free version of Jing and it will allow me to make a free, five-minute movie that I can post to websites, etc. This is just what I need for some presentations and webinars and podcasts I hope to be producing in the near future.

So, did I waste my time "playing" with some apps today? I probably did, though I also added to my personal creativity and found some new tools I needed to get my work done--when I get "down to work."