Monday, April 11, 2011

Listening ideas for 11 April 2011

The History of Rome
The Milvian Bridge
On October 28, 312 AD Constantine and Maxentius fought a battle at Rome's doorstep for control of the Western Empire.
(review, feed)

The Tolkien Professor
WC Faerie Course, Session 12
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Part 1, in which we discuss happy endings and relatively jolly green giants.
(review, feed)

Mighty Movie Podcast
Cinefantastique Spotlight: SOURCE CODE
Those Who Fail to Stop an Exploding Train are Doomed to Blow Up Again: Jake Gyllenhaal is a reluctant time-traveller in SOURCE CODE. Marty McFly only had to be sure his mom ‘n’ dad fell in love. Colter Stevens (Jake Gyllenhaal) has to keep a bomb from killing a trainful of Chicago commuters, identify the bomber, foil his plan for detonating a dirty bomb in the heart of the city, connect with a pretty passenger (Michelle Monaghan), and do it all within the same eight minutes that a secret military time travel program called SOURCE CODE permits him. In his sophomore effort, director Duncan Jones explores the same theme of a man alone and at the mercy of shadowy machinations that was explored in his rightly-praised debut effort, MOON. Has the director expanded his palette, or is SOURCE CODE just an action film with a lot of flatscreens and flashing lights in the background? Come join Steve Biodrowski, Lawrence French, and Dan Persons as they discuss the outcome.
(review, feed)

Beyond the Book
Arab Spring Update
As popular uprisings have spread across the Middle East and North Africa, media pundits have credited Twitter and Facebook. But one Egyptian-born journalist based in New York says the acclaim for social media is misplaced, even though she admits to a Twitter addiction herself.“It was a revolution of courage, rather than a revolution of Twitter or Facebook,” says Mona Eltahawy. “Social media connected real-life activists with online activists, and with ordinary Egyptians whose only exposure to politics came through Facebook and through tweets that they read. And through that connection, [Twitter] brought people out on the ground. But it was a tool. It was a weapon.”
(review, feed)