Captioned movie fans, we’ve updated DeafDC.com to contain links to two indispensable resources on the top right side of our homepage that DeafDC.com used over the past several years to manually update our captioned movie listings. We want you to have direct access to up-to-date movie captioning times and dates with accurate information.

What was once a large number of websites to track captioned movie times has been consolidated to two websites, Regal Movie Theaters and AMC Movie Theaters. If you haven’t already heard, Regal Movie Theaters bought Consolidated Movie Theaters back in January of this year. Consolidated Movie Theaters had approximately four movie theaters on our listing which are now listed on Regal’s captioned movie listings. If there are other captioned movie websites for the DC metro area, please let us know and we will add it to our list on the DeafDC.com homepage.

As always, DeafDC.com urges everyone to contact their nearest local movie theater and ask them to offer captioned movies, increase their offerings and captioned screens (most offer only one), distribute the latest Hollywood releases, and provide up-to-date and accurate captioned movie information on their marketing materials, advertisements, and websites.

It’s time to grab a flick…get some popcorn and enjoy the captioned movies!

Via a leak, I just got this announcement from Janet Bailey, president of Sign Language Associates (SLA):

Interpreters: 

I am writing to formally announce that SLA, VLI and GoAmerica have merged into one new full service company.  You may remember that in January of this year, GoAmerica acquired Verizon’s text and video relay products (under the IP-Relay brand) and then merged with Hands On VRS.  Now, as one larger company, our combined years of experience, our technical expertise and our strong relationships within the community position us to become #1 in community interpreting, #1 in text relay, and #2 in video relay.

Clearly, in the past few years, the way interpreting services are provided has changed in significant ways.  Deaf consumers face increased difficulty in getting interpreters for face-to-face communication needs; some communities throughout the country cannot locate local interpreters at all.  By coming together, we believe that we can improve support for interpreters and services for Deaf communities; as GoAmerica we can best position ourselves to respond to the changing landscape in the interpreting field. 

With this merger, we combine pioneering leadership, top-notch quality, and technical capability.  SLA and VLI provide expertise in community interpreting that will allow GoAmerica to strike a balance between VRS and community interpreting.  SLA and VLI managers have already begun working with GoAmerica managers and interpreters to improve working conditions for interpreters by offering an array of interpreting settings they can work in.  GoAmerica’s technical expertise allows SLA and VLI to develop nascent programs in remote video interpreting and CART services to meet the ever growing demands for communication access.

Finally, most relevant to developing interpreters and students, we will continue to establish programs for interpreter’s skill and career development across the gamut of our work.  Mentorship programs, coaching and certification readiness, ASL/Spanish language combinations, specialty interpreting proficiencies; these are all areas of endeavor that the combined capabilities of this new company allow us to further develop. The talent and energy of all of the good people who will now work together will mean GoAmerica becomes the premiere company for interpreters across the country.  In that way, and through the company’s array of other products and services, we believe that we will be the first choice of Deaf and Hard of Hearing consumers for all their communication needs.

You will hear more from us in coming weeks about exciting product and service developments.  Interpreters will see enhanced employment options as we develop our organization to take advantage of the best of all three organizations.  Please contact us if you have questions or if you’re interested in becoming part of our exciting team!

Unfortunately RFD cannot take us at this time, so we had to move to DPHH a half-block down 7th St. to Fado Irish Pub. Beer lovers, don’t fret, this place is just as crazy about their beer as RFD. Fado Irish Pub offers the complete slate of the popular Irish varieties. Haven’t been to Ireland before? Come check out what a $2 million effort to bring Ireland to Washington, DC looks like.

Join us for a belated celebration to honor America’s birthday at DPHH on Saturday, July 5th, the day after the 4th of July! It’s a great time to catch the Saturday night fever, something we haven’t done for years. DPHH was pushed back one day so DPHHers can enjoy the fireworks with their family and friends.

808 7th St NW
Washington, DC 20001

Nearest Metro: Gallery PI-Chinatown (Red, Green, Yellow Lines)

Join us for a belated celebration to honor America’s birthday at DPHH on Saturday, July 5th, the day after the 4th of July! It’s a great time to catch the Saturday night fever, something we haven’t done for years. DPHH was moved up pushed back one day so DPHHers can enjoy the fireworks with their family and friends.

It’s all beer all the time at Regional Food & Drink in Washington, DC, the location of the next DPHH. Not only does RFD boast 300 of the world’s finest bottled beers and the best selection of local brews, they are well known for their “Cuisine a la Bier”, where beer is included in the preparation of their recipes.

Happy Fourth of July! Enjoy the fireworks!

R.F.D. Washington
810 7th St. NW
Washington, DC 20001

Nearest Metro: Gallery PI-Chinatown (Red, Green, Yellow Lines)

All right, let me get this straight. First the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) told Oscar Pistorius that he was ineligible for the 2008 Summer Olympics… not because he’s a double amputee without a chance in hell of beating, much less competing against, “able-bodied” runners, but because he has an unfair advantage over them (the IAAF claimed, however, that their decision was not directed at Pistorius personally). Pistorius appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, and the Court ruled that the IAAF had not provided enough evidence that Pistorius’ Cheetah Flex Foot carbon fibre transtibial artificial limbs (or prostheses) gave him an advantage over able-bodied athletes.

So Pistorius, jubilant, competed recently in the paralympic Dutch Open and won the 100 and 400 meter races last Sunday. He came in at 47.92 in the 400 but needs to be under 45.55 to qualify for Beijing. He plans to participate in what FOX Sports calls an “able-bodied race” on July 2nd in Milan, Italy, another in Rome on July 11th, and another one in Lucerne, Switzerland five days later.

So far so good, right? Pistorius is at last making some headway toward qualifying for the Olympics. I personally hope that he not only qualifies, but eventually brings home the gold.

But let’s backtrack a few laps.

Pistorius’ prostheses, his J-shaped Cheetah blades, are apparently a wicked pair of running limbs. I’m neither an amputee nor a prosthetics engineer, so I can’t tell you much about the capabilities of a good prosthetic limb. And what’s more, I know even less about running in general (which is to say that I generally run only when chased). So please don’t expect me to weigh in heavily on either topic.

But I find it utterly fascinating that the “disabled” label used to describe Pistorius has remained constant through a mind-boggling variety of “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” situations–an issue that is probably overlooked because so much of the controversy surrounding Pistorius’ prostheses focuses on whether or not the blades are making him a little bit “too able.”

In almost every news article I have read on the guy, Pistorius is set up as a disabled person/runner. This is done directly using thorough (if not quite exhaustive) descriptions of his legs and through the use of the label “disabled” itself. If he is not immediately labeled “disabled” in one of the opening paragraphs, then it is noted (for example, in the FOX Sports story mentioned above) that he’s going to compete against “able-bodied” athletes, a statement that implies Pistorius is not a member of this group.

Now this alone isn’t what gets to me. After all, the whole thing isn’t that much different from cochlear implants. Put the implant on, and you can supposedly hear better. But take it off, and you’re the same deaf, hard-of-hearing, hearing-impaired, and/or disabled person (pick the label you like best) that you were before. The only difference is a question of degree. I’ve not yet heard of an implant model that enables a deaf or hard-of-hearing person to hear better than a fully hearing person.

Such is not the case, apparently, with Pistorius. Remember that it is being argued that he has an advantage. Maybe his prostheses make him lighter, give him more spring, more tilt, more whirl, whatever. I don’t know. The point is that some people seem to think that Pistorius’ prostheses makes him faster than flesh or blood legs and feet would make him (though again the Court of Arbitration for Sport has not yet seen compelling evidence for that claim).

No matter. My question here is if a prosthetic or otherwise “assistive” device propels a person over the line that divides “equal to” and “better than,” then why is that person still “disabled” even when he has the device on?

Let me reframe that. I’m profoundly deaf. Some people consider my deafness a disability (I don’t personally, but that’s beside the point). Fine. It’s arguable that the whole thrust behind the invention all of these “assistive” devices is the fact the world sees me as disabled in the first place—if it didn’t, why put so much effort into inventing something to “assist” me?

And so far as that goes, I can even see why a lot of people would still consider me to be disabled even with the implant on. After all, considering the technological capabilities of the cochlear implants currently on the market (I suppose this goes double for digital hearing aids), if I put the implant on, I probably wouldn’t now be able to hear “perfectly” or even “better than perfectly.” I might be able to hear “somewhat better” (though maybe not—the effectiveness of the implant varies from individual to individual, but that’s also beside the point), but “perfectly” or even “better than perfectly” does not enter the equation. At least not yet.

Keep that in mind: “At least not yet.” Because if assistive devices were all in a race against each other, the current capabilities of Pistorius’ prostheses are way ahead of the current capabilities of cochlear implants. Whether the argument that Pistorius has an advantage is correct or not, it will be a while before anyone can make that argument about an implant user. Pistorius’ prostheses are not making him “equal to” everyone else in the race (something implants still can’t do). They’re supposedly making him “better than” than everyone else.

And yet he’s still disabled. Do you notice how nobody has let go of that yet? With the prostheses on, with them off… with an advantage, without one… it’s all green eggs and ham in the media. Pistorius remains “disabled,” and everybody else remains “able-bodied.” Think about it. Why the need to hold onto this psychology? Why the need to continue to label someone disabled if he has now apparently been rendered better at something than an able-bodied person could ever hope to be?

The world at large seems to be making three simultaneous and contradictory statements. Statement One: “You are disabled without your prostheses.” Statement Two: “So long as your prostheses are not the equals of (take note of the phrase “the equals of”) flesh and blood limbs, you are also disabled, even when you have the prostheses on.” And finally, Statement Three: “When you make use of prostheses that are not only the equals of flesh and blood limbs, but in fact advantageous over flesh and blood limbs, you are nonetheless still disabled.” To see what kind of disturbing implications this type of thinking has in store for deaf people, replace “prostheses” with “cochlear implants” and “flesh and blood limbs” with “normal hearing ability.”

Someone will have to explain the justification of Statement Three, because I don’t get it. It seems to me that as the capabilities of assistive devices advance, the only disability that will really be left will be the inability to see beyond the device itself.

It was a breath of fresh air to read the anonymous Professor X’s essay in the June edition of Atlantic Monthly entitled “In the Basement of the Ivory Tower.”

In a nutshell, Prof. X debunks the notion that a college education is attainable for everyone, using his own experience teaching at both a community and private college. Of his (mostly nontraditional) students, he says, that “they lack the most-basic skills and have no sense of the volume of work required; that they are in some cases barely literate; that they are so bereft of schemata, so dispossessed of contexts in which to place newly acquired knowledge, that every bit of information simply raises more questions. They are not ready for high school, some of them, much less for college.”

It’s no wonder he decided to stay anonymous, though this is pure assumption on my part as to his reason(s).

Though I’ve only had the opportunity to teach undergraduates for three semesters, that’s enough time for me to be familiar with the double-bind many English teachers (and instructors in other subjects) find themselves in. On one hand, teachers feel responsible for guiding students as they develop critical thinking skills and reach the goals described in the course catalog. Many of us begin our semesters with a drop of idealism; it’s easy to hope your students will get just as excited about the material as you do. On the other hand, the day the semester starts, it’s quite clear which students even have the ability to reach those goals, much less be interested in them. Do we teach down to them, hoping that they’ll make leaps and bounds in fourteen weeks, or do we ignore them and adhere to our academic standard?

But the truth, at least as I perceive it, and as Professor X writes with a decidedly Marxist slant applied to academia, is that academic ability can be a crapshoot. I’d add that by the time a student reaches college age, the success of the student, more often than not, is already decided.

So much of it depends on the nature versus nurture equation. Are you able to study as the education establishment demands you do, and did you take advantage of that ability during your formative years? And then you add in the identity politics prevalent in whatever area of the country you came from. Did your family foster a healthy learning environment? Were they even able to, or did you have parents who needed to work double-shifts to make ends meet? Were you on your own?

Did you live in a good school district? If you did, was your instruction a good fit for you? What were the values in your community? Were you expected to sacrifice to help your family make ends meet or resist certain activities because that’s not what people in your neighborhood do? Or did you live in a family with a heavy emphasis on self-betterment and striving for a very hegemonic ideal of success?

All of Professor X’s points aside (of which he makes many — the article really is worth the read), what gave me relief was knowing that I wasn’t alone. Someone else noted the feelings of despair you take on when you teach students who really aren’t prepared to be in your class.

And, gol’dang it, it was nice to read this — for once! — about students who, I presume, aren’t products of deaf or mainstreaming programs and don’t struggle with any of the varying educational stereotypes we always find ourselves putting on deaf students. Suffice it to say, the development of cultural and academic literacy and critical thinking skills in the educational field really are universal issues that teachers, researchers, and parents everywhere worry about and continually aspire to improve:

Sending everyone under the sun to college is a noble initiative. Academia is all for it, naturally. Industry is all for it; some companies even help with tuition costs. Government is all for it; the truly needy have lots of opportunities for financial aid. The media applauds it—try to imagine someone speaking out against the idea. To oppose such a scheme of inclusion would be positively churlish. But one piece of the puzzle hasn’t been figured into the equation, to use the sort of phrase I encounter in the papers submitted by my English 101 students. The zeitgeist of academic possibility is a great inverted pyramid, and its rather sharp point is poking, uncomfortably, a spot just about midway between my shoulder blades.

Looking for “Fast Eddie” Felton in NoVa? Chances are, you’ll find him at the glamorous Continental Modern Pool Lounge in Rosslyn, VA. Land in vibrant hues and funky decor inspired by ’60s era nightclubs frequented by pool hustlers (or wannabes).

With nine billiard tables, you can come prove your mettle with friends. Not a pool shark? Try bar shuffleboard, the latest rage, or mellow out with a board game… anyone remember Connect Four?

A long bar sparkling with silver glitter offers up your standard bar fare. To cap it off, it’s only one block from the Rosslyn Metro and free parking is available at the North Moore Street Garage after 6 pm. And there will be no long lines at this DPHH!

June 6, 2008

Continental Modern Pool and Lounge
1911 N. Fort Myer Drive
Arlington, VA 22209

Nearest Metro: Rosslyn (Orange and Blue Lines)

During my senior year of high school, there were only a handful of students in my Latin III class. We’d banter and write stories - in Latin, of course - and do our studies while our teacher taught Latin I and II in another part of the classroom.

I got to know my classmates pretty well. And so it was a shock when one of my classmates - let’s call him Mike to protect his identity - showed up with a lightly slashed wrist. The cuts were not deep enough to draw blood, but deep enough to be noticeable. I asked him what happened; he made a glib comment about some accident or another, and I forgot about it.

Several days later, he showed up with a fresh set of cuts alongside both wrists. Not across the wrist, but down from his wrist toward his elbows. Again, the cuts weren’t deep, but they were made with some sharp instrument and the skin around the cuts were pink. Scabs had already covered the cuts where the skin had been broken.

I can’t remember if I asked about the new cuts, but I remember thinking that these cuts weren’t by accident but by design.

Mike was a cutter.

Over the following several days and weeks, new sets of cuts appeared on Mike’s arms. The cuts became deeper and deeper, drawing blood more and more. And yet he’d almost proudly show us the cuts on his forearms. I know I must’ve remarked on them, and so did our other classmates. Mike brushed away our concerns and comments, yet seemed to relish them.

One day, he showed up with cuts so deep that blood had been drawn along almost the entire length of his forearm from wrist to nearly his elbow. Scabs had just begun to cover most of the cuts, and the cuts that hadn’t yet been covered were red and gaping.

That was it. My sign language interpreter and I signed to each other - “What can we do?” “Maybe I could leave class and tell a counselor?” “Yes, yes, do that!” During a lull in class, my interpreter discreetly left the class. After a few minutes, she came back. “I told a counselor, and she’ll be here in a few minutes,” she signed quietly to me. Several minutes later, a counselor poked her head into the classroom, and asked Mike to come with her and to please bring his stuff with him.

For several days, he didn’t come back to school.

I felt horrible. I felt like I had instigated some crisis in his life. Was he still alive? Was he in a hospital with tubes running up his arm? Was he in a mental institution somewhere? I waited further news with bated breath and a good measure of trepidation.

One day, Mike was back in class. And he had a young girl - our age - by his side. I’d never met this girl before. She stayed by his side all day that day as he went to different classes at school. And he didn’t have any new sets of scars since that last, deep set of cuts - which by then were healing normally. We all didn’t speak about his absence, other than to greet him back. And from that point on, no new set of cuts again appeared on his wrists.

One day several weeks later, the counselor stopped the interpreter in the hall and thanked her for alerting her. As discreetly as she could, the counselor explained that Mike was having problems with his parents over a girl he liked, and cutting his wrists was a mix of relieving stress and a call for attention.

Flash forward twenty-two years (geez, has it been that long?). I recently got back in touch with Mike, and a couple days ago, I emailed him asking about the cutting. I explained that I was the one who reported him 22 years ago, and asked what had happened. He responded thanking me for my concern, and explained that he wasn’t suidical - just experimenting with different pain thresholds. He said the counselor was satisfied with that explanation and let him go.

I’m not too sure about that explanation, but I agree with Mike - he certainly wasn’t suidical. Whether he was just experimenting or not, it almost certainly was a call for attention and a way to alleviate his stress.

If you’re a cutter or if you suspect someone close to you is a cutter, here’s an excellent resource over at KidsHealth.org about cutting. It explains that cutting is a way of dealing with trouble, stress, or depression, and can become compulsive behavior. And it lists a few anecdotes as well as ways of getting help.

I’m glad my interpreter and I were courageous enough to get help for Mike. And I hope you can have the courage to do the same for yourself or others.

By Hilary Franklin

For me, the race has been over since February 12, 2008. That’s when I voted for Barack Obama. I had originally planned on voting for John Edwards, but then he dropped out. Since then, I have tried my hardest to ignore any news related to the “Road to the White House.” However, lately, that’s been harder and harder to do. When Hillary Clinton lost the North Carolina primary, but eked out a narrow win in Indiana, I just groaned.

Hillary Clinton has been talking about the importance of gaining the popular vote and trying to convince superdelegates to vote for her at the democratic national convention. Unlike regular delegates, superdelegates may vote for whichever candidate they want. She’s right about that—it is important to “woo” the superdelegates. But as the “race” goes on, she has begun resorting to playing the “race” card. In 1968, that might have worked. This is 2008. We have a white woman running against a black man to become the democrat party nominee for the general election race, to run against John McCain.

This is 2008. This is supposed to be 40 years after the civil rights movement. Race should NOT be an issue. The issues should be. And instead of talking about how to create a resolution between all parties involved in the Iraq situation, how to generate money for improvements in education, how to boost the economy to pull us out of this “not-a-recession” recession and plummeting housing market, what is Hillary doing?

Celebrating the fact that she has more of the “white” vote than Obama.

From a CNN Political Ticker blog , these are just a few of Hillary’s quotes:

Clinton cited an Associated Press poll ‘that found how Senator Obama’s support among working, hard-working Americans, white Americans, is weakening again, and how whites in both states who had not completed college were supporting me.’

‘These are the people you have to win if you’re a Democrat in sufficient numbers to actually win the election,’ she said. ‘Everybody knows that.’

and

‘I have a much broader base to build a winning coalition on.’

These quotes smack of desperation and borderline racism to me. And even though she has:

* less financial support (she has, so far, lent her own campaign approximately $11 million)
* fewer delegates (1,686 to Obama’s 1,842)
* fewer counted votes (13,621,683 to Obama’s 14,132,579 votes).
* and cannot mathematically win the nomination (Slate Delegate calculator),

she is still fighting tooth-and-nail to keep this going. While some may admire her for her tenacity and perseverance, others are calling urgently for her to drop out. I’m joining the ranks of those saying that it’s time for her to end this. We need a presidential nominee who is respectful and does not resort to racist comments in an attempt to look good. Even I would consider voting Republican if it meant preventing Hillary from moving back into 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Note: This was written prior to the West Virginia primary. However, the outcome of the primary does not affect the opinions put forth in the above blog.

Hilary Franklin is a politically incorrect writer. By day she masquerades as a technical writer in an educational research firm. She has come to the conclusion that everything she learned, she did indeed learn in kindergarten.

I’ve gone the semi-vegetarian route for this recipe…while I don’t fathom 100% giving up red meat, or any meat, for that matter, this recipe really does tempt me! Today we have a two-egg omelet served over Oz’s Beanilicious and garnished with cilantro along with Sriracha (Thai hot sauce). You could do this for breakfast…lunch…or dinner! For this, all you need is:

Oz’s Beanilicious
2 medium cloves garlic, chopped
1 can black beans, rinsed & drained
handful cilantro
1 tsp. olive oil
1-2 tsp. ground pepper, to taste
1 tsp. salt
2 “laps” of Sriracha
juice of 1-2 limes, to taste

2 eggs
1/2 cup soy milk
handful cilantro
3 mushrooms, diced
4 slices Smart Bacon, diced
2 slices Soy Cheese, diced
1 scallion, chopped
1 roma tomato, diced

To do the Beanilicious, take your beans, herd ‘em into a food processor, hit it with the garlic, salt and lime juice. While the beans are being processed, pour in the olive oil and add the cilantro. Taste the mixture–you should be able to taste a hint of everything–sometimes it may be a bit thick, in this case, add some lime water (literally, water and lime juice)–in 1/4 cup increments until a smooth consistency develops. Then, run the Sriracha 2 “laps” around the processor, and push that lever one more time. Beanilicious!

For the huevos, get out your favorite knife (I have a 9″santoku that I use for pretty much everything) and hit the mushrooms, Smart Bacon, Soy Cheese, scallion & tomato, set aside. A tip for dicing tomatoes–cut off the tip, and squeeze out the pulp–this will enable you to chop through the tomato without having it go all over your chopping board/counter. Heat up a griddle or frying pan, get everybody except the “cheese” and cilantro in and sauté 2-3 minutes.
Meanwhile, crack open the eggs, whisk with a fork in a bowl; add soy milk to fluff up the mixture (works just as good as real milk!). Add to the pan & season with salt/pepper to taste. You can even throw in some adobo if you like!

Once the eggs have firmed up, flip ‘er over and add the “cheese” on one half; fold. I cheat a little bit–instead of risking making a big mess and trying to act all Food Network-y by flipping an omelet, I halve the omelet and gently turn it over before adding the “cheese” and folding it :)

Plating: Pour some of that yummy Beanilicious , set up the omelet however you like atop the beans, garnish with cilantro and Sriracha, some cracked pepper…buen provecho!