Marcel Marceau was a celebrated performer among the deaf people. Though he is not deaf but it has been said that he knows sign language and had deaf pupils study under him. For instance, Bernard Bragg according to a mini-biography of his on the official website of ASL Films.
There are several performers that are favoured by the deaf because they are very physical and deaf-friendly. Charlie Chaplin and Rowan Atkinson come to my mind. Rowan is widely known for playing in the role of Mr. Bean in several TV specials for BBC. The sequel to the first Mr. Bean movie, 'Mr. Bean's Holiday' is currently playing at the theatres in North America. It should also be noted that Mr. Bean rarely speaks. Instead, he's very physical. Charlie Chaplin was known for hiring deaf actors and actresses. In fact, a famous deaf painter helped Chaplin develop several techniques that were used in his silent movies. Some of you may know him as Granville Redmond. Here's the webpage where I got some of the facts on Redmond and Chaplin. Fascinating!
It was Chaplin who inspired Marcel Marceau to become an actor. Marcel Marceau is a tremendously talented performer and rarely performs with his voice. He is a very expressive mime performer, he has taught thousands of people over the years. He has been a huge influence over many especially in France where he was born in and lived in until his death. For a detailed webpage on the life of Marceau, click here. It's where I got some of the facts that I recently mentioned.
Here's a clip from the movie, 'Silent Movie' which was directed by Mel Brooks. Marcel Marceau made a short but memorable cameo appearance. At the end of the scene, he spoke.
"No!” he said.
Amy Cohen Efron made a wonderful vlog to honour the memory of Marceau. She shares a heart-warming experience that took place back in her teenage years. Click here to watch it.
Marcel Marceau, you will always be remembered by many people including the deaf communities around the world.
It's amazing what some people will publish in their magazines these days. As a Libertarian with some liberal and conservative tendencies, I am disgusted with Maclean's. It is a popular Canadian magazine, I used to read it years ago. This magazine is somewhere right-winged and often publishes articles bashing the Liberal party of both Federal and Provincial governments. I don't really have a preference when it comes to major news sources like CNN or FOX News. It varies for me; I like to get my news from a variety of websites and TV channels rather than just one channel. This way, it balances out and it's easier to spot the bias this way.
To read the cover story, 'How Bush became the new Saddam'.
I'm a little surprised that the people at Maclean's actually went ahead with the cover shown above. It's in bad taste. Even though I don't think George W. Bush is a great leader by any means. Is it really that easy to believe George W. Bush is a murderer? He is not a murderer to me, but a human being who is misguided whose mistakes has resulted in gravely consequences. Thousands of Americans soldiers sacrificed their lives fighting a lost cause. Tens of thousands of Iraqis lost their lives due to the near-daily terrorist attacks and car bombs in Iraq. They are still far from stabilizing the government of Iraq. It's not really my opinion of President Bush's leadership skills that matters here, it's about having class when it come to criticizing a politician. Especially when it come to comparing him to murderous dictators.
As expected, the magazine cover is now talked about over in the USA. Here it goes again, some Americans are taking the opportunity to trash us and call us all sort of names. What really bothers me is that quite a few Americans actually believe that we are "protected" by the USA. Just because we're their neighbours doesn't mean they are protecting us which they aren't.
We are very empathic to the Americans whether they want to believe it or not. People have forgotten everything but the tragedy that struck on 9/11. Do people truly remember what they all experienced on that day on a daily basis? What I remember the most about 9/11 is how all of us grieved together on a worldwide level and we did our best to offer a hand and hope to the people affected by the terrorist attacks. We even went with them to Afghanistan to fight the terrorists and the wicked government.
The sad truth is, the friendship between us didn't last. The politics got in the way. It was the war in Iraq that torn us apart. We didn't want to join them in the fight against the government of Iraq. We had our reasons. We were shunned and they turned their backs on us. I have never seen the people of America so divided over the war and all the politics associated with it.
Is it really worth destroying a friendship over a disagreement?
To me, it isn't worth it.
We're still their neighbours and we're always here to help them out when they need it. We hope for the same in return when we need the help.
I love America and I always will.
In this vlog, I decided to bring up a subject of something that occurred at a wedding ceremony a few weeks ago. It was a deaf couple's wedding; the bride is a good friend of mine. I've known her for many years. She is Polish and most of the family members at the wedding were Polish and many were born in Poland. In my city, they have a strong Polish community and many belong to the Roman Catholic Church.
This was my first wedding ceremony to attend where two deaf couples were getting married. I've been to several wedding ceremonies but they were all hearing. Regardless, it was a great experience and a lot of fun. A lot of deaf people attended the wedding ceremony and the reception.
The priest was Polish; he spoke in both Polish and English. The ASL interpreter was only able to interpret the spoken words that were in English. As much as I hate to say it, the priest was probably in his late 70s, maybe 80s. Now here's the real story.
I was somewhere taken back by what the priest brought up during the ceremony. Thankfully, I'm a very understanding person and I have a tendency to read people very well. The priest's intentions were obviously good and he was only trying to give the deaf people some hope. However, it's the timing that I felt wasn't appropriate.
He brought up the subject of cochlear implants.
Yes, believe it or not. He actually did bring it up during the ceremony. What I was surprised was to see the reactions from the deaf attendees. They weren't offended or angry. They looked perplexed and mumbled through the ceremony. It's nothing we haven't heard before but I certainly did not expect it at a wedding ceremony.
I haven't spoken to my friend about it, but I am pretty certain she and her husband were taken back but decided to brush it off and go on with the ceremony. It was for the best. If I was to get married, I would make sure to remind the priest to not bring up cochlear implants or subject focused on our deafness. It's not a subject I want to listen to on a day when I want to celebrate my love for a woman by marrying her.
Just my two cents.
If you have an opinion to share, feel free to share it by leaving a comment.
The folks at Mosdeux are at it again. They are currently producing a movie called, 'The Deaf Family'. Here's the synopsis that is featured on the official website.Anything that could go wrong inside The Deaf Family will go wrong! This light-hearted family sitcom about a dysfunctional deaf family going through trials and tribulations as each characters experiments with something new, only to realize that by being deaf and accepting one’s identity as a deaf person, they will be accepted by everyone (including hearing people).
The story is written by DJ Kurs who also wrote A Permanent Grave.
Source: 'The Deaf Family' - The Official Website
Chad Taylor and Wayne Betts Jr. are co-producing the film. Chad is directing the film; Wayne is the director of photography. Many of you are familiar with their earlier works including 'Resonare', 'Vital Signs', 'Till Domestic Violence Do Us Part'. They also co-founded Mosdeux, the production company.
Sean Berdy plays one of the characters in the movie, some of you may be familiar with him. He was in the first direct-to-video sequel to 'The Sandlots'. He also has a blog of his own. You can check it out here.
Lastly, here's the official trailer for the upcoming movie, 'The Deaf Family'.
Enjoy!
UPDATE II: Thank you for all the comments. As I expected, people all shared different opinions and I appreciated all of them very much. I'm glad to see how people here can agree to disagree.
For these who don’t condone what I did, I don't blame you. Sometimes I do things out of the blue.
As I said earlier, I did this to give everybody a voice without facing censorship or belittlement from me. Abusing readers is something I really resent watching and being unable to do something about it. Yes, there's not much we can do about it but that shouldn't stop us from speaking up.
It's for the best to close the comments section. No sense in re-igniting the fire here as people already have voiced their opinions. I'm pretty satisfied with the outcome.
For these who wish to speak to me, you can use Plugoo, which can be found on the sidebar. Or you can e-mail me, the address can be found at the top.
Everybody, have a great day.
UPDATE: The polls are now closed. Thank you for voting. The people have spoken.
Unsurprisingly, Mike McConnell of Kokonut Pundits is trying to make it all about himself. He's always trying to be the victim at the hands of the so-called Deaf militants. He's one of these people who gets into your face till you say something and then he will scream, 'Deaf Militant! Deaf Militant! Deaf Militant!' Now he's accusing Ben Moore of "personally slamming" him when all he said was that he and the others didn't care if Matt could speak or not. He only mentioned that somebody brought the subject up. Mike McConnell has done much, much worse than that on several occasions. Ben Moore was right, not many of us care about Matt Hamill using his voice.
The only reason why there may be a controversy surrounding Matt Hamill's use of his voice now is because he's trying his best to turn it into one. Nobody complained about the uses of his voice and not many are. He even ran some polls to gather the answers. Around 30% voted that it was unacceptable that Matt used his voice. What he doesn't know is that a large number of people deliberately voted no predicting that he will try to turn it into a controversy. I should know because I already spoke to several of the people who participated in the poll. The truth is, many of us don't care if he uses his voice or not. We don't appreciate being used like this. We shouldn't tolerate it when somebody tries to take advantage of our statuses to make a political statement.
The real irony is that he is barely hard of hearing, nowhere near to being deaf. No offense, but if someone is able to carry a conversation over the phone, that person is hardly qualified to "understand" our hardships. Yet he is trying to speak for the deaf community. Oh right, there are thirty million Americans with hearing loss. However, most of them aren't severe and many can go on with their lives without any barriers. So that number is being used rather loosely to justify his political statements.
He is the pot calling the kettle black. He is always going after people just because he doesn’t agree with them. He has a political agenda; all of us should have known that already. He is the deaf version of Dwight from the American version of 'The Office'. Nobody laughs with him, they laugh at his at his expense. One thing is for certain; he is unable to take any form of constructive criticism. Instead, He uses the 'ad homimen' or 'whiner' defenses all of the times but that doesn't stop him from hurling insults toward his readers and bloggers including me.
The reason why Kokonut Pundits is one of the least-liked bloggers around is because he chose to make it that way. It's not easy to carry on a discussion when he is taking jabs at you at every turn. To him, it's all a game. A very dirty game.
Now, here are some polls. It was just a matter of time before somebody did this. Now is the time for the deaf community to truly express themselves. Feel free to leave a comment.
