A Moonlighting English Teacher

11/04/2022

Poetry reading and mashup from Dead Poets Society - “Oh Me! Oh Life!” by Walt Whitman

06/02/2022

07/07/2021

A great film-literature crossover! Check out my new video that explores the unique Southern Gothic style and odd flavor of redemption that is characteristic of author Flannery O'Connor in the 2017 film Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.

https://youtu.be/dV8pdO8VDnw

19/05/2021

Making this video was such a cool experience -- animating a poem by the amazing Michael Stalcup, with incredible background music created by Gersom Dekoning ("Dekoningtan"). Check it out on my channel! https://youtu.be/_Y4Gmw5eEqQ

22/04/2021

This one was super fun to make! It brings together Into the Wild, one of my favorite films, and one of my favorite Wendell Berry essays on community.
https://youtu.be/Vlz3BmiJr6I

25/03/2021

Another World Literature-inspired video! It digs into some of the ethical questions related to travel and tourism explored in Che Guevara's memoir The Motorcycle Diaries. https://youtu.be/ZcUySo_7aNY

06/03/2021

“Because philosophy arises from awe, a philosopher is bound in his way to be a lover of myths and poetic fables. Poets and philosophers are alike in being big with wonder.” ~ St. Thomas Aquinas

18/02/2021

Check out an animated reading from my favorite poem, Alfred, Lord Tennyson's In Memoriam. In the wake of 2020, I find it to be a fitting meditation on what it's like to have hope in dark times.
https://youtu.be/iUR_Mew69N4
#2020

02/02/2021

More Wendell Berry love on my YouTube channel! Check out an animated analysis of an Ekphrastic poem inspired by a wonderful William Blake painting - https://youtu.be/ymtrjG2RZY0

13/01/2021

Check out my new film analysis video essay on Nolan's Tenet, which presents its basic themes and meaning as being understood through the dichotomy of control vs. love. https://youtu.be/A-9NylsHAUo

28/12/2020

From a wonderful artists' manifesto from Over the Rhine called "Betting on the Muse."

11/12/2020

Always the favorite in my World Literature class, even after seven years! Check out my new video on The Book Thief - https://youtu.be/y8IU3tzg6mA

05/12/2020

New video! A deep dive into some Christmas-related symbolic patterns in this sweet little children's film. https://youtu.be/CnmzJl4T0E4

22/11/2020

Check out this amazing Sabbath poem by Wendell Berry, animated and read in my new video - https://youtu.be/J0R9OId31wI

15/11/2020

“Sometimes reality is too complex. Stories give it form.” – Jean Luc Godard

08/11/2020

Miyazaki's My Neighbor Totoro vs. Disney's Peter Pan -- which movie centered on childhood and growing up does it better? 4th video is up! https://youtu.be/6jpHHM01aCo

30/10/2020

From "O Sapientia" by Malcolm Guite

21/10/2020

This is what happens when a poetry nerd listens to way too much Hamilton...New video out now! https://youtu.be/VqBtzjhFo54

08/10/2020

“A good book can teach you about the world and about yourself. You learn more than how to read better; you also learn more about life. You become wiser…in the sense that you are more deeply aware of the great and enduring truths of human life.” – Mortimer J. Adler

01/10/2020

Check out my new video, which presents an analysis of the film 1917! https://youtu.be/fhEuE9lP6lU

22/09/2020

"To read is to fly: It is to soar to a point of vantage which gives a view over wide terrains of history, human variety, ideas, shared experience and the fruits of many inquiries." ~ AC Grayling

20/09/2020

20/09/2020

Make sure you check our my new video! https://youtu.be/PLmnuvKBb3c

20/09/2020

Moon, worn thin to the width of a quill,
In the dawn clouds flying,
How good to go, light into light, and still
Giving light, dying.
~"Moon's Ending" by Sara Teasdale