In October, the world lost the humorist Larry Sloan, best known for creating Mad Libs. In this popular kids’ game, one volunteer asks the players to fill in the parts of speech in a story. Only the volunteer doing the asking knows the story, and the players’ random nouns and adjectives make for some ridiculous…
Category: Art & Entertainment
Caption Success Story with Game Show
Recently, many people in the signing community have pushed hard for more captioning on internet video — from Netflix to YouTube, Amazon to Hulu; and I want to share with you a success story! When a friend tipped me off to a Kickstarter campaign for a web series of shows about a fantastical arcade where…
From Sesame Street to Self-Discovery
Ninety-five percent of deaf children have hearing parents. What does that mean? It means that many of us are used to being the only deaf person in the family, in the community, or in school unless we are at a deaf school. It means that our family is our first introduction to the ways that…
Way to Represent!
Countless deaf people tuned in last night to watch the finale of Celebrity Apprentice for one reason: to find out if Marlee Matlin won. Ah, Marlee. If she and the deaf community declared on Facebook that they were in a relationship, the status update would read, “and it’s complicated.” On one hand, she is our…
Why I Almost Didn’t Sign The Dailykos Petition
Thu Dec 02, 2010 at 12:14:12 PM PST I was reluctant to sign the Dailykos petition in support of Netflix and asking the FCC to reign in Comcast’s abuse of corporate power. Why was I reluctant to do so? Because of the history of Netflix’s hostile business practices towards the deaf community, in refusing to caption streaming videos. Dana…
Black Sand
Caution: some plot spoilers ahead. Don’t read if you plan on watching Black Sand! Each item in Mark Wood’s ever-expanding repertoire of ASL films is better than the last. However, he continues to stick with his tried-and-true formula for making crowd-pleasing suspenseful thrillers. As in “Wrong Game” and “Legend of the Mountain Man,” Wood’s films…
Stuff Deaf People Like #1: Feeling Up Car Door Handles
This new series attempts to address an age-old mystery: Listing stuff deaf people like. A mix of science, art, and foolhardiness. Idea taken from Stuff White People Like, which is hilarious and far funnier than I could ever hope to be. Next time you go for a drive in the neighboorhood with a deaf person, observe him…
YouTube Video: Deafhood the Journey
Check out this gem of stop-motion animation by Paul Ososki: I’ve never seen anything like this before: a video where ASL, as used by the story narrator, becomes a deuteragonist in a two-and-a-half-dimensional animated setting. The video’s message is clear. ASL is what enables the character to scale the various obstacles in his path. Taking…
D-PAN Releases “Beautiful” by Christina Aguilera in ASL
Anyone remember that ASL music video from last year, “Waiting on the World to Change”? D-PAN has done it again with Christina Aguilera’s “Beautiful.” According to their website, D-PAN (Deaf Performing Artists Network), based in Detroit, “exists to bridge the existing gaps between the deaf/hard of hearing community, the entertainment industry, and the public at large.” After watching…