Love Me Tender

SMC Professor Jim Keeshen had told me on August 31, 2005: "Right now I'm just using them so that I can finish my film." He was referring to his employer, Santa Monica Community College District. The film he was finishing was "The Day of the Dead." As I have mentioned in previous blog postings, Professor Keeshen was head of the Academy of Entertainment and Technology when it opened and is currently a full-time faculty in the animation department. Keeshen had hired a number of professors to work on his "Day of the Dead" animated film, including, but not limited to Jan Nagel (marketing), Lea Milic (production), and Diana Coco-Russell (background artwork). I also found out last night that Keeshen also used SMC professor Dave Fontana to work on various projects for his company, Jim Keeshen Productions, Inc., including "The Day of the Dead." I will write more about this, but here's a quick screenshot confirming this fact.

In my blog entry, "My Life at Santa Monica College," I mentioned that SMC's first web pages announcing the newly created Academy of Entertainment and Technology urged us to "Click for the Money" but not to "step on my Blue Suede Shoes." The last line of the last page asked us if we had "seen Elvis around lately?" Well, I finally found him, memorialized in a Jim Keeshen animated project, which was allegedly funded by the taxpayers and SMC students. Is Keeshen loving us tender and loving us true, making our life complete and all our dreams fulfilled? Or, alternatively, is he once again using the school for his own self-serving interests at our expense? I think a picture speaks a thousand words, so I shall say nothing except to wish you all a Happy Chanukah and Merry Christmas.

May all our dreams come true.

Des Manttari,
Editor-in-Chief,
Phoenix Genesis

(c) 2005: Phoenix Genesis/MBS LP


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