Heaven holds a place for those who pray

Kelly's classes for Fall Quarter 2009:

1) CLASSICS 42 - Cinema and the Ancient World (5 units)
"Use of popular culture and cinema to introduce students to ancient Greek and/or Roman culture; focus at discretion of instructor."
Basically this course consists of watching movies about Ancient Rome (Gladiator, Spartacus, Ben-Hur, random episodes of Star Trek, Monty Python, etc) and analyzing how the Romans are portrayed in each. So far I have written a critique of the casting in Gladiator, for which I spent hours thinking in great detail about Joaquin Phoenix's eyes and Russell Crowe's nose. Quite a fun class, I would say. Also, one of the required textbooks is a book called These Were The Romans, by G.I.F. Tingay and J. Badcock, whose names I find unfortunate.

2) ASTRONOMY 4 - Black Holes and Cosmic Catastrophes (4 units)
"Essentially nonmathematical course for general UCLA students that discusses black holes and related cosmic catastrophes. White dwarfs, neutron stars, and black holes are compact objects formed in violent events that terminate lives of stars and are associated with some of most energetic and explosive phenomena in astronomy: planetary nebulae and novae (white dwarfs), supernovae, pulsars, galactic X-ray sources, and gamma ray bursts. Supermassive black holes form in nucleus of young galaxies, and gravitational accretion of matter onto black holes powers most energetic objects in universe -- quasars. Universe was born in ultimate cosmic explosion -- Big Bang -- that may have derived its energy from quantum mechanical vacuum."
Lies, all of it. Essentially nonmathematical my ass. I've not seen the professor write a single letter on the blackboard, only numbers numbers numbers. Neither have I seen head nor tail of a supermassive black hole, or a white dwarf, or a galactic X-ray source, or any other truly exciting thing mentioned in that deceptive course descriptor. Only stupid things like velocity, acceleration, rate of gravity, joules, mass, and other physical terms that usually set off alarm bells in my head. I was even more disappointed when I discovered that the implied (I thought) reference to Muse in the course title was in fact completely accidental. I hope I pass.

3) INFORMATION STUDIES 19 - Type History -Hands On! (1 unit)
"Curious about history of type faces? Ever wonder when and where fonts we use were designed? Introduction to basic history of letters from chisel, pen, and brush through pixel and desktop. Focus on hands-on experience of learning to print letterpress in shop in Broad Center. Students learn basics of handsetting, composing, putting form together on press, printing, and distributing type. Each student picks font, researches its history, and creates type specimen sheet for that font that becomes part of permanent type book for shop. Goal is to recognize basic features of type styles and understand their relation to history of print technology."
Best class ever. It's held in the art center, which is a real fancy futuristic looking building on the other side of campus, and we go into this tiny little room filled with shelf after shelf of tiny letters in hundreds of different fonts. Then we learn how to use the printing press to print type. Super cool. The professor is this woman, Johanna Drucker, who has her own printing press back home in Virginia and has been in the print industry for decades. She has really kooky grey hair and reminds me vaguely of Professor Trelawney, but much nicer. It's wonderful.

4) CHEMISTRY 19 - Chemistry and Art (1 unit)
"How chemistry has been important in process of making art from ancient times to present. Lectures and discussion together with student reports on murals in Los Angeles, sculpture in UCLA sculpture garden, and making of a few simple pigments."
Only been to one lesson so far, which consisted of our professor, an OBM (of the classic OBM mold - genial, cheerful, very long-winded), pointing his x-ray gun machine at our jewellery and telling us what chemical compounds our necklaces and rings were made of. Sadly mine were all from Urban Outfitters and Accessorise so that didn't come to much.

5) ENGLISH 19 - Great American Movies, 1967 - 1974 (1 unit)
"Weekly discussion of one important American movie from what was known as New Hollywood (1967-74), analyzing both its internal dynamics and its place in cultural transformations of period. Students screen films before class, and do some brief supplementary readings. Films include The Graduate (1967), In the Heat of the Night (1967), Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), Bonnie and Clyde (1967), Midnight Cowboy (1969), The Long Goodbye (1973), The Godfather (1972), The Godfather: Part II (1974), The Conversation (1974), and Chinatown (1974)."
Besides the presence of the inevitable obnoxious not-half-as-clever-as-he-acts film brat that invariably populates this kind of course, I'm enjoying this a lot. Today, for example, I think I contributed some excellent (if I say so myself) insights during the Graduate discussion. Eat that, film brat. Dustin Hoffman has won more of my admiration, and Simon and Garfunkel have weaselled themselves into my head all day for the nth time. And the best thing about these 3 1-unit classes is there's no exam! Just show up once and week and talk, and that's all. Beautiful.