Soodhalter’s Informagoriam

In the past few weeks, I have been writing some new posts for the Temple news blogs. One was on a controversy and garnered two really long winded comments about how I am ignorant. Anyhow, I thought I should point out that I am still writing for them.

Did you see that movie March of the Penguins a few years ago? It was absolutely stunning. The narration talents of Morgan Freeman are unsurpassed. That man could narrate a hand held video of me taking the garbage to the curb, and the film would win an Oscar in the best live-action short category.

Last night, PBS ran a special on the making of March of the Penguins. This making-of documentary was quite enlightening, and the astute narration of…you guessed it…Morgan Freeman really put that last layer of cheese on the lasagna. The program took the viewer on a journey from the initial conception of the penguin idea, through its metamorphosis, and finally to the actual production.

This documentary was, on the whole, quite interesting; but I was shocked to hear that at its conception, the idea for some penguin-related entertainment bore little resemblance to the final product. Apparently, the idea was initially excreted from a television executive’s mouth. At that time, executives had become drunk on the profits of the popular CSI and Law and Order franchises. There was high demand for new incarnations of these excellent programs. One of the more outlandish ideas proffered was for a CSI spin-off set in Antarctica. CSI: Antarctica would revolve mostly around the lives of the local penguin population and the unique penguin justice system. The show would be billed as employing the world’s first all-penguin cast.

Once the proposal was green-lit, writers were hired to start laying out the structure of the of the show and to write a pilot. The plot would revolve around a rash of unexplained penguin disappearances. At first, the prime suspect would be a disgruntled penguin postal worker, but he would be cleared with the help of DNA evidence. Eventually, the end of the show would have a Law-and-Orderesque swerve when the forensic tests on some hair would reveal that a local polar bear was responsible for the disappearances and that the bear was a serial eater of penguins.

Once the script was fully fleshed out, the pilot went into production. Anticipating a hit, executives commissioned the development of five more scripts. This is where CSI: Antarctica hit its first snag. The plots described in the five new episode scripts were almost verbatim the same as that of the pilot script. The only discernible difference was that in the first episode, the culprit was a shark, in the second episode the culprit was a whale, and in the other three episodes, a seemingly friendly seal was eating the penguins.

It was at that point that a local scientist was brought in as a consultant. She made the observation that penguins are actually birds, not an indigenous population of small people in tuxedos. The scientist further explained that penguins do not have a justice system; and on the whole, do not lead fascinating or diverse lifestyles, making it difficult to produce a episodic crime drama revolving around a penguin population. Thus CSI: Antarctica was aborted. However, millions of dollars had been spent on putting together a pilot. Network executives were loath to let that money go to waste.

Hence, March of the Penguins was born.

I have all sorts of pictures at which you people might like to have a gander. Now, without further ado, here are the photographs.

2007 - Hyper Holiday: Efficient Socialization Amid Frantic Studying Pays off in the End

I would first like to present the pictures from my winter break time in Texas. I had a few adventures; unfortunately, my trip was cut short because I had to study for one of my graduate school exams. I am happy to report that I passed this exam, which means Temple will keep paying me to pack my brain full of math knowledge.

The Sprealzings Pull the Old Switch-a-roo: Kirk Goes to D.C. Again

Next in our parade of galleries, I have a nice collection of pictures from my visit to Washington, D.C. After I took my exam, I booked it out of Philadelphia and made my way to our nations capital. Waiting for me in D.C. were a bunch of transplanted New Orleanians. The Sprealzings and Little Daddy J were ready for some action, and I did not disappoint. Here is a collection of photographs, recorded on etched silver plates, of the visit.

Groping Rocky, Eating Cheesesteaks, and Speaking English: Joey Jo Jo and Angela Come to Town

Soon after I returned from D.C., spring semester was under way. However, the cavalcade of feisty characters was not about to end. Jose and Angela made an appearance mid-first-week for some job interviewing and tour related fun. While Jose talked to some people about some business, Angela and I toured the city. We ended up atop City Hall. It was glorious. How glorious? Well, have a look.

Lukes Third Birthday - Slide Film for Photography Class

This last album contains older pictures. When Cousin Luke had a birthday celebration a few years back, I took pictures with two different cameras. I used my digital camera for many pictures, but I took special pictures on three rolls of slide film for a photography class in which I was enrolled at the time. With Temple’s excellent computing facilities, I finally have access to good slide scanning equipment. I retrieved the slides over winter break and scanned them last week. Feast your eyes on the artistic goodness.

Well, that is all the photos I have to offer at this time. Check back soon, as I should have further updates in the coming weeks.