Easter

Easter.

Not exactly my favorite holiday, given my distain for organized religion. Though my heathan attitude doesn't quite compare to my good friend's who expressed his thanks for Easter in this manner:

a sweet four-day weekend. Thank Christ for dying and being resurrected as a bunny.

Even so, this Easter was a bit more drab than usual. The city of Rochester is dressed in its Easter Sunday best: bits of black, crusty snow still cling desperately to the boulevards; the grass is brown and adorned with all the soggy paper and dog shit that's been hiding under the mamoth snowbanks that accumulated during the winter months; the gutters are clogged with garbage and suspicious brown sludge; and not a single daffodil or crocus can be found. That's not quite what people had in mind when they concocted the traditions of easter egg hunts on the lawn and outfits of pale purple, yellow and pink. Then again, those traditions were likley devised by people living in much warmer climes.

So, what did I do with my Easter? No honey-roasted easter ham. No hot-cross buns. No chocolate bunnies. Instead, I worked on my blasted paper and graded my students papers. On a happier note, the papers I've marked so far suggest that my students have made considerable improvement since the beginning of the semester. I've yet to find a student who did worse on this second paper than s/he did on the first paper. And most students show remarkable improvement. Some of their papers presented down-right unusual ideas and original insight. Many actually took my advise and went out on a limb by proposing slightly daring titles or attention-grabbing first lines. Others made remarkablly effective use of punctuation and seemed to focus on not just what they were saying but how they were saying it. Some students provided very detailed analysis of particular scenes or shots from the film. Sounds great, right? Well, other papers are still chock full of grammatical errors. Some still failed to incorporate a single bit of convincing evidence. Some presented thesis statements that are completely un-arguable. And all sixteen students chose to write about the same film: The Exorcist. In all fairness, I must take full responsibility for that last point of criticism. The timing of the assignment meant that The Exorcist was the most likely choice. I don't mind, really, as they have plenty of interesting things to say about the film. It just means that by the time I start reading the last paper it will be pretty hard for the author to write anything that will surprise me.

Also, I figured out how to transfer the clips I'll need for my conference paper. I was concerned that would prove impossible as I only have DVD copies of the films I'll be using and the conference only supports VHS formating. Ridiculous, really, given that this is one of the largest annual conferences for cinema and media studies scholars. One would think that media scholars would recognize the need to be a bit more tech-diverse. Ah well. I did manage to get the short clips transfered onto VHS and all's well. Now I just have to be careful I don't erase the videos while transporting them across various airport security lines. Perhaps I'll bring two copies just in case. I also have to make sure all my student visa information is neat and tidy. I would hate to be denied entry either as I enter the United Kingdom or, perhaps even worse, as I return to Rochester! I wouldn't worry about the visa issue at all if it weren't for the ominous refrain of one ISO staff member: "they're much more strict now. Make sure you've got all your documents in order." I swear I heard the woman say that no less than five times when I stopped by to pick up my travel authorization letter on Friday.