Baraka in Still-Life

Ever seen the movie Baraka? This blogger taught it as the culminating film of the senior English cinematography unit at Montrose HS. After examining 3 or 4 other films, students watched Baraka twice, without interruption or explanation from the teacher (hard as it was for the teacher not to insert his critical commentary). Then, for their final exam, they had to answer a single question: "What is Baraka?" Watch the film -- you'll see why that simple question isn't so simple.

If your local Movie Guy doesn't carry this fine film, then perhaps you'll enjoy a free amateur still-life version on your very own computer. The Madville Times violates its dedication to South Dakota news and commentary to point out something really, really cool: Blogger's latest toy, Blogger Play. It's a live streaming display of photos being uploaded to Blogger. The result: an oddly captivating sequence of photos from all over the world. Blogger Play includes an info link at the lower right that allows you to view the blog articles and links associated with the pictures, but if you like the Baraka experience, leave the captions off and enjoy the snapshots of humanity that stream by.

Smut alert: the nice folks at Blogger note that while they apply their anti-smut technology to the stream, the occasional nasty picture may sneak into the mix, so you run the site on your work computer at your own peril. For what it's worth, though, Mrs. Madville Times and I viewed Blogger Play for a few minutes just now and saw nothing we couldn't show our young 'un. (Madville Times Jr. particularly enjoyed the baby photos.) We also learned from Guillermo in Buenos Aires that "¡No somos dignos!" is the Spanish version of Wayne and Garth's cry, "We're not worthy!"

O.K., Blogger Play doesn't call for that level of self-abasement. But it sure is fun. Enjoy!