-
Artist
Almost Famous
Episodes
-
Artist
Episode 10: Soundtracks
-
Released
2022
-
Genre
Scores build tension, set tone, and convey emotion
In this special edition episode, we focus exclusively on the music of movies. The soundtrack. The score.
We love this quote from Underground Press:
As music can tell the story and explain the plot, filmmakers use it very carefully to build the tone and mood of a film. Also, music is used to expose feelings of characters, actions, tensions, and even horror. Music can create a convincing atmosphere for the situation and can turn a good film into a great one.
– Ronald Ross
After this episode, we hope you’ll stop saying you’re going to watch a movie, and start saying that you’re going to listen to a movie. 🙂
-
Artist
Episode 9: Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure
-
Released
1989
-
Genre
Party on, dudes!
Travel back to 1988 with Bill and . . . Carla, as we have a MOST excellent adventure together taking about another favorite movie that talks about school. When two disengaged high school students, Theodore Logan and William S. Preston, Esquire, are faced a failing grade in history class, they have just one option left – to do one kick-ass final project. But they know nothing about history. Just when they are about to give up hope and wallowing in despair at the Circle K, they are visited by a surprise guest from the future. And with the help of a handy phone booth as their vehicle, they travel through time, kidnapping historical figures along they way as they try to save their history grade.
Will Bill and Ted pass their history final? Is this movie the single greatest example of experiential learning ever made? How does time traveling in a phone booth compare to travel in a DeLorean? Is Missy the hot stepmom, just an excuse for Oedipal humor? Are Bill and Ted dumb or just totally bored? How did Jane Wiedlin from the GoGos get cast as Joan of Arc? We will discuss these essential questions and so much more. You won’t want to miss this episode! It will be most excellent!
-
Artist
The Karate Kid
-
Released
1984
-
Genre
He taught him the secret to Karate lies in the mind and heart. Not in the hands.
This month, Bill and Carla talk Karate Kid, the iconic 1984 movie staring Ralph Macchio as the young Karate student of Mr. Miyagi played by Pat Morita. We discuss the relationship between master teacher and student apprentice, the Dojo as school for life, bad fashion, and the many filming locations of the film. If you are a fan of the fan-fiction series, Cobra Kai, we have you covered, and we talk more about William Zabka and Elizabeth Shue. Bill also interviews his friend, Jesse Lubinsky, who is a major fan of the movie who tells us his story of meeting the cast. Wax on, Wax off!
-
Artist
Stand and Deliver
-
Released
1988
-
Genre
At a tough school, someone had to take a stand...and someone did. Together, one teacher and one class proved to America they could...Stand and Deliver.
It’s our first episode of the 2021-22 season. We’re talking about Stand and Deliver, the true story of high school teacher Jaime Escalante who finds himself teaching math in East LA. He finds a group of students who find his less-than conventional teaching methods to be inspiring and he takes them all the was to AP Calculus. When they all successfully pass the AP Exam, their scores are challenged because of their ethnic surnames and they are forced to retake the exam with only one day to prepare. No spoiler here. but they did make a movie about it, so . . . The Real Life Escalante once said that this movie was “90% truth and 10% drama.” Both Edward James Olmos (Escalante) and Lou Diamond Phillips (Angel Guzman) received Academy Award Nominations for their performances.
In this episode we talk about systemic racism, the dubious value of AP Courses, “Cholo” Culture, inner city schools, and the questionable role of “teacher as hero.”
-
Artist
Election
-
Released
1999
-
Genre
Reading, Writing, Revenge.
We’re back! After our pandemic hiatus, it felt great to be back in the studio to record Episode Six.
Coming off of one of the craziest elections seasons in American history, we made the obvious choice. Election was released in 1999 and starred Matthew Broderick as Jim McAllister, a high school civics teacher, and Reese Witherspoon as Tracy Flick, an overachieving student running unopposed for school president. If only Mr. McAllister hadn’t despised Tracy Flick so much, things might have turned out differently. But instead we experience a high school election season like none other.
If you are already missing the election of 2020, then dive into Election and then listen as we explore high school elections, morals, ethics and so much more!
-
Artist
Rushmore
-
Released
Feb. 19, 1999
-
Genre
Love. Expulsion. Revolution.
If there is one thing Max Fischer loves, it’s his prep school Rushmore. “I guess you’ve just gotta find something you love to do and then… do it for the rest of your life. For me, it’s going to Rushmore.”Although he is the king of extracurriculars, has the ear of the administration, and befriends a wealthy industrialist parent, Herman Blume, Max is on Sudden Death Academic Probation. According to his headmaster, “Too many extracurriculars, Max, and not enough studying.” When Max falls for first grade teacher, Rosemary Cross, and becomes embroiled with a love triangle with Cross and Blume, his beloved Rushmore is threatened. Join Carla and Bill as we talk about Wes Anderson’s film, Rushmore.
Special Guest, L+D Co-Founder, Greg Bamford, joins us this month.
-
Artist
Mean Girls
-
Released
May 2004
-
Genre
Welcome to Girl World!
If you ever went to school – so basically everyone – you knew a pack of Mean Girls. Gretchen Wieners, Karen Smith and the ultimate Queen Bee, Regina George, rule the school. They wear pink on Wednesdays and are SO Fetch. When homeschooled Cady Heron moves from Africa to the Chicago suburbs, she becomes “mainschooled” and becomes entangled with the Plastics – both alluring and repellant all at the same time. This 2004 film, written by Tina Fey, was an instant classic and now a Broadway Show.
Join Carla and Bill as they talk about this school movie and all the mean-ness that girls can bring. It’s about status. One day you are on top and the next day you are a social outcast. It’s girl world and anything can happen.
Listen on Wednesday. Wear Pink.
You can sit with us!
-
Artist
Remember the Titans
-
Released
September 15, 2000
-
Genre
"History is written by the winners." "You're a Hall-of-Famer in my book!"
Based (oh, so very loosely) on the real events of the T.C Williams high school football team in Alexandria, Virginia during 1971 as the school is integrated. Black and white football players are forced to play together AND get to know each other as human beings. This is a story about leadership through change and also about how school is often a place where students experience huge social change. Denzel Washington stars as the hard-ass Coach Boone. Ryan Gosling, in his early, awkward days, can’t be missed. If you ever had a coach who taught you about much more than just “the game” then take a couple of hours to watch this movie (free now on Disney +) and then join us as we talk about it. Because that is what we do; we talk about movies that talk about schools.
Our guest this month is our friend Issac Vaughn, the Senior VP of business operations at Zenefits, Trustee emeritus at Hillbrook School, and a terrific storyteller. Issac shares his stories of playing football at Lincoln High School in San Francisco before he became the first (and last) African American QB at Santa Clara University. You’ll want to hear the full B-sides interview later this month!
Side note: Lots of people talk about the soundtrack of this movie. You can listen to it here on Spotify. Thank us later.
-
Artist
Dead Poets Society
-
Released
June 9, 1989
-
Genre
Carpe Diem! Seize the Day, Boys!
If you are a teacher today, there is probably a small part of you that wanted to be as inspiring and passionate as John Keating. And if you were a student – ever – you probably yearned for a teacher who stood on desks, encouraged you to rip pages out of the text book, and enticed you to read poetry in dark caves. Join Bill and Carla for a walk through Dead Poets Society as we discuss these and many other questions:
- Was John Keating responsible for the death of Neil Perry?
- Was he a “progressive” educator?
- Is there such a thing as “pedagogical charisma”?
- How is it that nobody ever smells the cigarette smoke in the dorm rooms?
- Is standing on desks an essential quality for inspiring teachers?
Not everybody loved this movie, including Roger Ebert who wrote “Dead Poets Society” is a collection of pious platitudes masquerading as a courageous stand in favor of something: doing your own thing, I think.” You can read his full review of the movie here. Kevin Dettmar, English Professor at Pomona College, composed an inspired hate letter to the movie in the Atlantic Monthly in 2014 writing, “I’ve never hated a film quite the way I hate Dead Poets Society.”
What do you think about the film? Take a watch, then tune in as we discuss the good, bad, ugly and ridiculous of Dead Poets Society in Episode 02!
And. . . be sure to watch the SNL parody, Farewell, Mr. Bunting, if you have an extra few minutes. Gruesome but hilarious.
1 2