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wednesday, december 31, 2003
i'm rather dead, running on half mast and after a day of skiing, but i wanted to wish the merriest of warm happy good years to the lot of you beautiful people. happy 2004!
suddenly i was @ 11:21 pm
tuesday, december 30, 2003
well, it's official all light and joy has gone out of my life and the winter holidays are nearly spent. my dearest cousin is gone now and it is not yet 6 am. what a time of it we had! what a time i have had over the past week. so many tales to tell, so many funny things to relate... but perhaps... later... when i am rested. i think i am going to lie down. i was going to jump into work, but now, at the end of all things i'm thinking... no. not really.so! until later today or whenever (whichever comes first): check this out it maketh me laugh heartily.
other things to discuss
k to the t's visit
lotr madness day
the doonies, jackedup etc.
suddenly i was @ 07:24 am
friday, december 26, 2003
i haven't much time just this moment to say much (and have i stuff to say!) i just feel horrid about not wishing a merry holiday as i am apt to do most years.i'll be back with holiday reports. my cousin is in town visiting now and i should tend to her, not my blog!
things to report:
holiday open house
mary's house
hunter at lisa's
peace.
suddenly i was @ 12:29 pm
wednesday, december 24, 2003
it's not sunday, but she writes anyway! i have started up my script again and just had to share. i made my one boy drunk, which is humorous. it's making me nervous.a sample:
KIP
I can walk, thank you.
Kip pushes Felix away and tries to walk. He ungraceful fumbles over to the wall of a building where he catches himself.
KIP
Or perhaps not…
FELIX
Kip, come on.
KIP
Ah me…
Kip very slowly slides down the wall and collapses to the ground.
har har, believe it or not this happened to me freshman.
p.s. was felix in situation, not kip and was in elevator. the r.a. came in and i had to let go of my roommate (who was trashed).
ra: is she all right?
me: yes.
ra: what's wrong with her?
roommate, face plastered to the elevator wall, starts sliding down to the floor.
me: the flu.
that was the first weekend. she puked all over me. that's how we became fast friends.
ha! all of this makes me smile.
a. kip is such the stalwart you'd think he'd be able to handle his drink.
b. now that he's drunk with no inhibition, he can say anything i need him too! goodbye difficult suggestion, hello being totally obvious!
aaaaww. this scene is cute. i have many too cute scenes. i mean, really. the "squee" factor is through the roof on one or two, but whatever. this one makes me smile especially. i love drunk kip.
look at me fly! kip is leaving the story for a while and at the rate i'm going i can't wait to get out of here!
GLEEEEEEEE! young love. i'm really excited for the upcoming chapters of this tale because i can really draw upon my own said m.c. experiences to bring felix to life.
oh my god. i am actually pleased with what i have written. well shite me a brick /me being obscene.
WHOA that was a first for this blog and came out of nowhere. bless my pardon.
... wanders off for food.
ok. it's been another hour or so and am steadily moving forward. i think i shall type up one more scene then have done with it. i was into the last one (though i feel as though it is yet another one of my "reiterate" scenes, but whatever). so much so the phone rang and i all but soiled myself.
suddenly i was @ 01:48 pm
saturday, december 20, 2003
if you're looking for the rotk review, scroll down to the previous entry!every once and a while, you have one of those moment s when you sincerely hope you are not being captured on some sort of hidden camera.
i was singing "mabel" (a tune of my own creation, using the tune cold play's "yellow" but substituting the principle colour for the name of my cat, "it was all... mabel...") while unpacking my suitcase, when who should run in, but bruce my 6 pound poodle pixie dog.
with my fist full of underwear i said quite loudly, "look, it's bruce heaven, underwears!" (bruce has an underwear fetish) i then shook my underwear hand and proceeded to emit a high pitched, "weeee!"
it was about then i thought, " i hope no one is watching me just now."
this moment, right up there with singing the doors' "touch me" whilst wearing only a towel dress and not considering the probable suggestive undertones of doing so, a week ago, will go towards my "greatest moments: top 10" album.
suddenly i was @ 03:10 am
thursday, december 18, 2003
whew. so that was a bit of a dramatic pause leading up to my review of rotk. sorry, i normally like to talk immediately after seeing something, but i was on the last foot before death last night and couldn't bear the thought of typing some ten page review. i was so far gone, today i didn't get up until 3.30 and baby... it felt wonderful!anyhow. rotk. i'm going to talk about it. if you haven't seen it, don't read if you don't want to be spoiled.
this.
is long.
i think it is safe to say my review of this film here is unfair as i have an uncanny ability, on a first viewing, to always compare these films to the novels. after a multiple screening, i can begin to look at it as a film, but first and foremost i tend to see them as adaptations. sigh, but whatever, initial thoughts are initial thoughts, no matter what they are!
first thought before we delve:
pippin, hooray, joy, joy, joy.
now we begin.
like with ttt, i feel in watching rotk i am watching an incompleat film in ways. it's not as severe as ttt, but still integral elements seem to be absent (i will try to cite examples later, but also note, i really ought to see this film twice, it's so overwhelming... sometimes things i think are missing really aren't so much as i just didn't note them the first round). the film is cut on action, like ttt, there is no breathing space- ever. we move from one high emotion and action scene to the next. which isn't necessarily bad, just not my preference as it makes for an exhaustive viewing. i like to have moments to breathe and consider all i have seen rather than being pushed into another high octane scene before i can think on what i have just seen previously.
nice decisions
i very much enjoyed the opening of the film. i can't really say why, i just enjoyed it, thought it was a novel idea to show so much of gollum's character. it wasn't called for, but worked nicely and made me feel even worse for him. he never had a chance with the ring, he fell to it immediately. the murder scene was particularly frightening.
for whatever reason, i really enjoyed arwen and elrond's conversation this go around. i liked her hands going cold as mortality began to creep into her being. i also tried my best to not imagine the scene as one from some lesson teaching lifetime film.
just goes to show, daddys will always be daddys and daughters will always be daughters.
yes i really liked the introduction of the effects of mortality with the evenstar.
i liked frodo's hallucination/vision/dream/telepathic moment of galadriel in his drugged up shelob state.
weird decisions
denethor (suddenly, a new contender defeats elrond in the "father of the year" competition, which the host of the last homely house won without contest last year in ttt when he had his heart to heart [death!] chat with his daughter) without palanír? i mean, i guess his character works without it, but i found it odd since in the novels the palanír played such a big part in causing the steward's madness. denethor was driven insane because he saw visions of his defeat then coupled with the "deaths" of his sons. also, his having a palanír created a connection between he and pippin, because both had looked into the seeing stones and were sensitive to the fact.
does anyone else think denethor's appearance was based on goya's saturn (that body is a metaphor for faramir) the food eating scene fortified my belief in this.
p.s. this dude is supposed to be royal? who taught him table manners?
i thought it was sad when gandalf kicked pippin during his pledging fidelity to gondor scene. it is such a dramatic moment for pippin's character for it is the first time thinks "beyond the box" as it were and proves he isn't just a silly hobbit, but a very caring youngling who is out to prove himself and repay debts of love and loyalty. when gandalf intercedes and kicks him the emotional intensity is lost and the moment is gone before it was given a chance to play out (though, it was humorous, but there are times for humor and there are times for fleshing out characters).
the way frodo left sam behind. i don't rightly know what i have to say about the scene, other than it was very strange and i thought sam pummeling gollum was a bit out of character.
crit stuff
i loved merry when he was with pippin taking palanír and soon thereafter for it is the closest to how i imagine meriadoc being in my head. more stalwart, though still young and sweet. he's a more serious hobbit than pippin. yet, in rotk his character as a whole seemed uneven. i don't think it's any fault of monaghan's or anything, i think it's in the writing (i should also mention it was probably about 3 am when i started thinking this, i really ought to see this film again). merry doesn't know if he supposed to be the more serious hobbit or another silly pippin so he varies back and forth uncomfortably.
for instance, i loved the éowyn and merry sword sequence, it was very sweet and funny and brought their parallel plights to light (they both want to fight and serve those they love but "can't") but at the same time, merry seemed very out of character, bouncing around like a 2 year old which is more or less pippin's m.o.
that little parenthetical statement up there brought up a point i considered last night. the film really doesn't play up the relationship between merry and théoden, which is why merry wants to fight in the first place.
har. also, i realize there is a lot of sword gripping in these films, i have come to terms with this and have accepted the fact, but at the same time i do still have that inner art school trained pervert deep within me who can't escape the connotative symbolism of the sword (diana, you may enjoy this).
in this regard i thought i would pass out from humorous glee during the merry éowyn and the little sword scene. oh the double entendre. it's not very big, not very sharp, can't work with a blunt sword!
me: i can't breathe!
i think i may actually have blacked out when éomer said, "it's not the strength of his heart i doubt, but the length of his... arm."
me: AAAH!
poor little merry not being "man enough" for battle.
then of course this scene had to be closely tailed by the one with elrond presenting aragorn with anduril. oh god... that long pan of the sword.
me: well, i guess he isn't impotent anymore.
which might explain his violent reunion kiss with arwen. that was a sound effect kiss, "mmmwarmf." i know he was full of boiling passion for her and could hardly wait to be with her and so kissed her with these feelings, but really, did he have to take off her nose and part of her ear in the process?
p.s. that is how i attack donuts.
p.p.s. my friend casey claims the real reason for the "mmmwarmf," is aragorn was secretly attracted to legolas who looked much prettier than arwen. they did share quite the quiet moment there, didn't they?
big gripe
did anyone else feel the death of the witch king (or as i just called him, "the witch cream") was wholly anticlimactic? it was one scene i had been waiting and waiting to see and everything building up to it was great.
wk: hiss... no man can kill me.
me: yes.
e: i am no man.
me: YES.
e: i am a woman.
me: YES
e: stab!
me: oh my god!
wk: ppthtp.
me: uh- erk. that's it?
to the best of my recollection, i thought his death was a big deal- something like he let up a scream which was heard all through out the land and everyone knew something big had happened, though not everyone knew exactly what.
p.s. still want to have a million of éowyn's babies.
continuity issues
no mention of saruman? at all? ok, i can accept he didn't get the wheel and i never have felt sad about losing the scouring of the shire, but goodness. hello. we have to tie up all lose ends.
arwen going away. it was a strange moment in ttt which became stranger still in rotk when it was realized she had to be back with her father. she turns and leaves the troupe, yet no one stops her?
elf escort: lady arwen...
arwen gallops into the distance
elf escort: don't... go... oh well.
faramir and éowyn, the behind closed doors love affair. what the heavens? a. i was crying on the inside i didn't get to see them fall in love as they are two of my favourite characters and b. when we last saw them both were near death. éowyn on pelennor fields, faramir toasty in the tombs then suddenly! they are well and standing oh so close to each other. join me in my chorus of, "whatever." i guess they have been relegated to the realm of "extended material."
also in this vein is merry. what was he even doing at the battle before the black gates? last we saw him he was also near death having battled the witch king, then suddenly a day later he's back on the war scene? he helped fell the witch king of angmar, king of the nazgül, but wait- there's more!
again, whatever.
WHOA. did merry ever swear himself to théoden and rohan? poor merry, the indistinguishable hobbit even in matters of great importance. i guess he joins éowyn and faramir on the sidelines until rotkex.
the position change with merry and pippin.
pippin: i will take care of you.
it was a little forced but lovely. had merry's character been consistent pippin wouldn't even have had to say that line out loud.
why did sam ask for the ring early on? i liked it better (in the novel) when he started asking about it after he had had it, it made more sense. he had tasted its temptations and so was beginning to be drawn to it.
the helm's deep elves. we brought them there, we should mention them again. surely they didn't just bamf into thin air?
rosie cotton. now, i have always been a fan of rosie, really, i like her and think the actor who plays her is gorgeous, but sam's relationship with her never has made much sense. his love for her is paled by his devotion to frodo. i'm not here to sit around and ponder the sexual orientation or undertones of the relationship between sam and frodo. i don't care about such things. i just happen to think there is some truth in the matter that the relationship of frodo and sam is much stronger than the one between rosie and sam. frodo and sam share a love which is so intimate, it surpasses any conventional labels or sexual implications. this said, i don't quite believe sam is so in love with rosie. i was excited in fotr, when a concerted effort was made to bring rosie and sam together and solidify his infatuation for her in the minds of the audience.
yet, such efforts were in vain because the budding relationship was forgotten for the next two films really. if they wanted to include sam's love for rosie, they just should have had him mention her once or twice along the journey.
in rivendell: if only rosie could see this!
on the road somewhere: i was just thinking about rosie cotton. i wonder what she is doing.
such mention would make it evident all the while he was away, sam's mind was ever on rosie (ala aragorn with arwen).
then again, sam's sudden mention of her is true to the book, so what can you do? she does pop out of no where.
p.s. why didn't sam kiss frodo's hands? i was looking forward to it.
p.p.s. just looking at sean astin makes me want to cry. when no one else brings a tear to mine eye, he does.
p.p.p.s. i loved sam's reunion with rosie. i loved the other hobbits raising their eyebrows and laughing. i take it sam mmmwarmfed rosie (ala aragorn).
random things:
wouldn't it be so boring to have one of those fire posts on top of one of the mountains? what would you do with your time? i take it those things didn't light up very often.
weren't the fire lights going all ready as pippin and gandalf rode for minas tirith in the novel?
did anyone else want to smash that new orc thing our attentions were supposed to follow? he looked like quasimodo.
gandalf with a staff going matrix on denethor. i laughed.
whatever happened to that "we shall see the shire again" scene?
at the end, pippin is still the best dressed hobbit ever.
things i lurved (mostly pippin obsession).
pippin. he was in this film. i can't complain.
oh my god, pippin saved faramir. long had i wondered, since there was no beregond- who would pippin save, because surely he wouldn't be denied his greatest moment.
i mean, i guess pippin always saved faramir, but the film took a step further and literally threw pippin into the frying pan with the young captain.
i'm still trying to figure the logistics of it all, how did pippin move faramir? but still, i loved it. it was my fondest wish come true.
p.s. pippin names his son faramir!
p.p.s. pippin sang!
so i loved how pippin was the one who caught the bouquet at sam's wedding. was that diamond he was standing next to perhaps? i have to see the film again solely to look at her again.
really. i am totally serious about this.
i liked the palantír scene. compleatly different from what i imagined, but just, oh just lovely. creepy as all get out.
friend casey and i were depressed we didn't get to see the ball chucked from the tower though.
casey: please let it look like a bowling ball!
i loved the ending. all of it. i was on compleat pins and needles for the whole crack of doom bit and my heart audibly broke in two when sam began to carry frodo up the hill.
the great havens was also different from the grey havens of my mind, but still, just lovely. there was not a dry eye in the house. when the boat faded to white there was a weird reflex burst of laughter from the audience as i think everyone was really crying and was shocked by it (it was also 4 am at this point).
on the whole (oh my god, i am reaching the end of this crit!) i liked it. it still didn't totally envelope me in wonder as fotr did, but is pretty spectacular none the less. fotr is been my favourite installment, which is weird, because it is my least favourite novel of the lot, but its cinematic pacing is more to my liking and the film feels entirely cohesive to itself making for a more sensitive movie. i felt fotr was the compleat in its theatrical release and that its extended version wasn't so much of a must as it was a treat. with ttt and now rotk, i feel i have to see the extended version to get the full movie.
still. it's been an adventure. the past three winters have been defined by my running to see the new lord of the rings film. i can't believe it's over really and find myself thinking how strange it is there will be no lotr next year. what a game it was though, right? what an absolute game. it was so much fun and i am sad to see it come to a close.
thank you so much lotr movies, you were, too good for words.
suddenly i was @ 12:06 am
wednesday, december 17, 2003
ok. i have only had one hour of sleep. i have spent all day inside planes and have been in three separate airports, yet i made it to my 12.01 am showing of rotk.
suddenly i was @ 05:42 am
tuesday, december 16, 2003
i'm home and i am seeing rotk tonight! woot!
mabel the cat is purring on my lap.
suddenly i was @ 07:57 pm
someone call me please! wake me up!
i just wanted to bid fare thee well, officially, to my fall 2003 semester. it was by far one of the best school semesters i have ever had in my entire life. i will miss every aspect of it and wish i could do it all over again.
fall was seen out on the 15th with me removing papagena the guppy to a new temporary home and going to the book store and reading children's books aloud with my friend. i read "eloise" and "the polar express," both of which were very meaningful to me because my mother always used to read eloise to me and my dad polar express. the latter moved my friend and i to tears!
i also had one last conversation with my friend jenjen, my official last social moment of fall 2003.
thank you so much dear semester! may spring 2004 be even better but not so much so it breaks my heart to see it all go in the end.
love you everyone in this city, this semester! wait for me and i'll be back.
suddenly i was @ 05:08 am
samples:
does your chewing gum lose its flavor overnight?
uptown girl
denise
midnight train to georgia
download such songs if you can!
but what i really want to know- so who's going to help me make an arwen and aragorn music video using the song, "uptown girl"?
uptown girl
she’s been living in her uptown world
i bet she never had a back street guy
i bet her mama never told her why
i’m gonna try for an uptown girl
she’s been living in her white bread world
as long as anyone with hot blood can
and now she’s looking for a downtown man
that’s what i am
and when she knows what
she wants from her time
and when she wakes up
and makes up her mind
she’ll see i’m not so tough
just because
i’m in love with an uptown girl
you know i’ve seen her in her uptown world
she’s getting tired of her high class toys
and all her presents from her uptown boys
she’s got a choice
uptown girl
you know i can’t afford to buy her pearls
but maybe someday when my ship comes in
she’ll understand what kind of guy i’ve been
and then i’ll win
and when she’s walking
she’s looking so fine
and when she’s talking
she’ll say that she’s mine
she’ll say i’m not so tough
just because
i’m in love with an uptown girl
she’s been living in her white bread world
as long as anyone with hot blood can
and now she’s looking for a downtown man
that’s what i am
uptown girl
she’s my uptown girl
you know i’m in love
with an uptown girl
my uptown girl
don’t you know i’m in love
with an uptown girl
my uptown girl
don’t you know i’m in love
with an uptown girl
my uptown girl
p.s. still determined to write about evening before night is over.
suddenly i was @ 12:46 am
monday, december 15, 2003
so how's this for fate?in brief.
so i ran out of my one class (natural hist. illustration which actually met in class today) to return my camera for my postponed voice actor project and as i was running to the other school building i was thinking, "wouldn't it be neat if i ran into the said m.c.?" because he had said he had class monday. then i berated myself for obsessing. "don't think about it!" i said to myself, "too many other things to do. what is, is what is. let fate decide if i run into him or not, otherwise- just let it go."
i totally agreed with myself and so entered the building and trotted up to the elevator. it came and everyone piled on i was on the last people to nip inside.
then i hear this "hey."
and wouldn't you know it?
can you guess who was in back of me?
the said m.c.
i was so shocked i didn't even have time to respond. "hey!" i said and "heading to class?" then his floor came and we said bye.
but really- my school has three permanent buildings all around the city, it was after the 9 o'clock class starting hour and i had just thought on the possibilty of running into him. as i said, how's that for fate? i thanked fate after i got off the elevator.
"thank you fate!"
though, just hours later, i was walking along the sidewalk thinking, "must find peter..." (my voice actor) when who should i run into? but peter! and i didn't ask fate to decide that meeting at all... so perhaps my meetings with people have nothing to do with fate as much as they have to do some with strange mental psychic ability of mine.
whatever, woot!
i'm going mad with business. today was my last class, sigh, it's all over! i'll return to this thought before the night's up, but i just had to share my little event quickly, because this isn't just my blog anymore it's the m.c. sighting log.
lord...
suddenly i was @ 02:26 pm
sunday, december 14, 2003
what an interesting and lovely day! it started out with my waking up way late at about 1. which normally isn't so bad but when you have to go x-mas shopping, mailing, wrapping, actor calling, cleaning and card writing all before 3, it is.
so with that one hour under my belt, off to the mag mile i was and it was there i swiftly entered into the seventh level of hell. friends, i now know the true meaning of terror: i went into the american girl place store.
now, i'm sure a good lot of you know the american doll series (if not- comment, i'll school you) but how many of you have heard of or braved the store thereof? the store was packed more solid the ca's 405 in the worst traffic. one couldn't artfully dodge through the bodies either because they were all knee high girls clutching dolls and as desperate as i might have been to escape the horror, i was not about to plow down some innocent little girl living her life's dream.
wall to wall bodies. you couldn't flinch your elbow without touching someone. it was awful, especially with it being the holiday season when in michigan ave shoppers become blood thirsty and wild and are apt to punch you in the face if you get in their way (see this blog, december 2002). i went into the store because i wanted to purchase the angelina ballerina doll for my friend rachel. i absolutely had to get the doll today because rachel and old roommate tammy were throwing a private holiday shindig wherein we were all going to exchange gifts. i also had to give my aunt a gift and had not yet purchased one.
in american girl it is a very strange universe. they have a beautique section where your doll can sit in a barber chair with a smock and have a make over, there is a theatre, a tea room... oh my god.
needless to say, i was so terrified i had to escape without purchase and run to the santuary of borders, where i found the angelina doll and a book for my aunt. of course then, the borders line went around the whole store and i had to wait in it for ages and while doing so noted my watch chime upon the three o'clock hour.
SPITE!
i ran home called aunt and told her i was leaving to her house. i then spent the next while wrapping my new gifts and packing for my excursion.
next stop: aunt's house.
the moment i stepped off the bus it began to snow. by the time i made it to my aunt's i was covered with frost. we headed out together soon thereafter to a small tree lot. after surveying the available pine members, my aunt and i were attracted to a perky little 6 ft fir mounted on the sidewalk. my aunt was intrigued by its unusual deep blue green colour. the slightly creepy (norman bates?) attendent told us it had been sprayed with a fire retardant and then colour enhanced. my aunt was turned off by this notion and we perused further. still we kept returning to the perky fir. we took to calling it hairspray because its branches were so, well, perky. ah, but naming it was the kiss of death. once you've named a tree, there's no going home without it (same with puppies). we purchased hairspray endured the attendent singing "carol of the bells" and trying to ask a seemingly uninterested female on a date and then schleped home.
we lit the tree and then decided to "let the branches fall out" until tomorrow read: too lazy to decorate and it was also past 6 and i said i would be to my holiday shindig at 5.30!
so out into the snow i was! -but not before planning to go back to my aunt's place in the am tomorrow (today now) to finish tree and organize fish sitting details as papagena is to live with aunt for a stint whilst i am away.
as i was walking, being covered with a fresh and thicker coat of snow, i called my voice actors- well two of them, the matts. i love those guys! such nice people. the one matt i very much enjoy as i've worked with him before. i was on the phone with him a good long while and while talking to him became conviced i was lost because i could not see through the snow to save my life.
situation with voiceactors:
i don't think it is going to happen.
peter- i haven't talked to, for all i know he is still ill.
matt1- is on the mend and can work tomorrow evening maybe, but asked for monday
matt2- can't work monday or sunday evening as mother is coming in town.
me: well crap.
i think i shall wait till next semester, it is just cruel imposing this upon these outstanding lads.
anyhow. i made it to the shindig place. it was a small party only tammy (old roommate), josh (her boyfriend i edit his novel), rachel (first friend here) and vanida. first thing after discarding my snow laden coat, we sat down and exchanged gifts. there was a little tree and rachel and tammy had hung stockings for everyone along the wall.
the gift exchange was fun. i couldn't believe it! rachel and josh gave me a new discman! i nearly fainted. i broke mine in sept. and ever since have been using an old old one of my little sister's which is huge and has stickers all over it. the one my friends gave me however... whew... it's high class! and lovely... it's navy blue.
the real kick of the evening though is i bought tammy "milo and otis" (read: greatest film ever). freshman year (when we lived together) we had a huge thing for this movie. i had been trying to give it to her for years, but for the longest while it was out of print. just recently though, it was rereleased. still, it was hard to find as tammy needed a vhs copy. whatever. i special ordered it and it just barely made it to my po box on time.
at the party i opened my card from tammy. the first line reads, "this really takes me back to freshman year!" i look to her and say, "ditto for mine!"
then we opened our gifts. tammy pulls out "milo and otis" and open her gift to me... and guess what?
she gave me "milo and otis."
on dvd though.
we laughed so hard! josh and rachel knew it was going to happen, but can you believe it? we got a great picture of us laughing. great minds think alike! tammy also gave me some new sweats and my stocking had socks and some candy inside of it.
rachel screamed when she saw her doll and attacked me with a hug (another good picture).
there were actually many twin gifts, the milo and otis movies, my discman and tammy gave rachel a matching boombox radio and then rachel and i both gave josh the same gift certicates to the same book store. we took yet another picture of all of this.
then dinner came (we had salad and pasta) and we all watched "pirates of the caribbean." all four of the girls were on the couch under blankets. josh took a picture and i think we looked like the mother alien in alien, but with four heads. anyhow, about the movie, i still have no real intense lurve vibes for the film (let's face it, they can't all be "milo and otis") but it is still fun to watch and i got in some good one liners.
will turner: i'm sorry. black smith hands, they're rough.
me as elizabeth: oh i like it rough.
we also had a good laugh when the father tells elizabeth, "he's a blacksmith" and she responds, "no, he's a pirate!" rachel was muttering about the father, "and so, he's ok with this? she says he's a pirate and the father is like, 'ok.'" when suddenly tammy says loudly, "well, he's not a doctor, but he'll do!" which made me laugh, but i laughed even harder when i found out it was actually a quote from tammy's parents about josh.
oh boy!
i think everything was made even funnier (ie rachel's grandmother burps) as i consumed large amounts of black and white m&m's throughout the course of the evening. did you know they are all black and white now?
after the film was over, vanida and rachel had to leave for "work parties." i stayed behind a tick, went through the newest edited chapters of josh's work with josh and then even saw a snippet of e. wood's hosting on snl. then, since tammy had to pack, i left. josh walked me to the train station and i was off again on the train.
all in all, it was very, very wonderful indeed. tammy is off to vegas for a trip, then home, rachel to australia... sigh. very nice last few days- stemming from thursday, which i am still riding high on.
finally made the push into the holiday spirit i guess. it's here and there is snow and friends all around! how lovely and dear.
happiest of holiday seasons most dear friends!
p.s. more for my memory that anyone's interest: another example on thursday of levels of comfort with teachers, before i chased after the said m.c., the teacher jim started to play the charlie brown theme over the speaker system and i danced with him and another student. it was fab.
suddenly i was @ 02:33 am
friday, december 12, 2003
sigh. i am still living vicariously off my last entry.such.
a good moment.
today was my last day of acting class. god, am i going to miss it. today we had some amazing performances. peter (my voiceactor for gene) gave this absolutely mind blowing scene. it was very dramatic, which is very unlike his work and moved the whole class. he literally nearly made me cry and my teacher confessed to me afterward, "peter's almost made me cry."
i didn't get to record my voice actors today though because matt1 (who will be brinker) came to class looking like death warmed over as he was really sick. he did his scene (most excellent, am still convinced he has the best voice ever) and then left. then peter started dying as the day went on (had a few... runny nose incidents...) matt2 was fine, having just recovered from his illness of choice.
so now i have to do it on sunday which makes me feel so bad! making these guys work the weekend after the end of it all. i feel like such a heel. i wonder if these guys think i am an idiot?
but back to my acting class... yes. i just wanted to hug everyone and tell everyone to stay in touch. we were all such a close group and such things are so rare in classes. really tight, i don't know what i'm going to do without that presence in my life. miss it, i suppose.
also, a girl shanna in the class is giving me a copy of her sound piece for me to storyboard.
joyous rapture.
storyboards to do:
phineas one
papageno papagena duet
shanna and friends
suddenly i was @ 05:13 pm
thursday, december 11, 2003
oh my god, oh my god! oh my god!i am so excitable. i am flying! i'm smiling everywhere and running down the street. i am in the best mood.
so. last night i went to bed at 5.30 am. i woke up at 8, went to class, had animation crit (more on all this later - message from future it is now later, am going to write). the crit went fine. last night at 4 am i had yet another animation crisis when my transferred 30 frame, mal synced, crooked frame computer file decided to let me know it was roughly 2 gigs in size and would not fit on any disk available to me. in the end i had to compress it into a highly disappointingly tiny quicktime movie and was bitter. crit went well- no one said much, because i swear to god everyone has seen it 700 hundred times as i enter my third year of work on it. whatever.
i love animation crits. i show up, slightly late and there is this one guy milling about the door.
laisan: do we have class today?
me: we should- it's final crit.
we were the first people to show. we turned on the class lights and waited. eventually someone else came in, followed by my teacher and another student, brooke.
brooke brought an amazing cornucopia of food: chocolate pretzels, butter bars, rice krispy treats... and my teacher brought donuts and bagels (oh! shoot i forgot i have a donut in my bag). i sat by my phineas voice talent for tomorrow. he is so fabulous, i just adore him.
hmm. tomorrow i have to take my voice actors out for dinner i think.
after crit i found out the student animation fest was tonight, i wanted to go- but it was at 6 (class lets out at 4) and i knew if i went home i would fall asleep, so i opted to stay and putz around school for two more hours (because let's face it, what would i be doing otherwise?) my friend joanne eventually came back to the class room and we listened to olaf bär and "oliver!" together until the anointed hour and then we proceeded to the film fest.
now.
for the fun.
this is so shameful and embarrassing to write, but i am anyhow! i had been telling my friend joanne how i was only going to be about until 7 at the latest, because i was feeling fatigued and surely could not cope with the stresses of a full fledged film fest at this particular time. she agreed with me as she too had had a long and laborious 5 am night.
so i am sitting there watching bodies mill in when, who should come in? oh my god! no one else but the said m.c.! i literally gasped out loud. i believe i even went so far as to say, "oh my god!" (my catch phrase mantra of the evening) in a hushed about tone and i nearly spontaneously burst into flame (or tears, still not quite sure which).
it is an opportune moment, i think, now to say, the said m.c. has evolved in status from "mini" to "major" (note, same initials) and that my interest is, though still quite founded in its roots is not entirely research-based in nature. read: i think i am a moron.
m.c. sat just down the way. i kept thinking, i should say something! - because i had been berating myself all week long that i hadn't said one word all semester and was afraid my last ever fleeting encounter would be when i walked past as m.c. sat in discussion with my animation teacher. i was really jazzed at this point in my theatre chair. i kept leaning over to my friends and going to say something, but since they know nothing of said m.c. i would instead break down into a laugh, causing them to think i was actually experiencing severe mental break from being on 3 hours of sleep, i'm sure. also certain probably scared friend's guest from japan (though we did bond over nyago wallet). still, when could i do it? we all were in the middle of a screening.
so i sad back and watched (the films) and waited.
also learned said m.c. plays electric mandolin.
what's an electric mandolin?
talk of animation fest here:
actually the festival was great. the animation shows are known for their "live music upon request" for the films which have no soundtracks (yet), which means, my teacher with a bunch of instruments and the other teacher and a few choice students with a microphone.
for this screening we had: a saw and bow, electric mandolin, a casio keyboard, irish flute, a recorder type flute and a sitar.
the improv singing, baby crying, bird tweets and dialogue from there on was strictly a bonus.
it was all so delightfully fun to watch.
next spring, chickadees. mine will be in the fest this spring- with a soundtrack of my own!
finally, the break i had been waiting for arose. technical difficulties. i made up my mind. i should also add i am only so forward when i am on 3 hours of sleep.
i scooted up from my chair and shot down the aisle and kneeled on the floor by m.c.'s chair.
a dialogue, by me.
me: hey ---- . (insert name there)
mc: hey.
me: i thought it was you down here. i just had to come down during this little reprieve in the action and tell you, since i have no sense of decency or privacy, when you gave chris [animation teacher -ed.] your script, i saw and i read it all the way through.
mc: really? couldn't have taken very long, it's pretty light material.
me: oh, i loved it! it's so great.
mc: aw thanks.
me: really, it was a lot of fun to read, i laughed right out loud with it.
mc: thanks, no- yours was great too, did you finish?
me: no, no. it just... kept getting longer.
mc: well, better to have more than less.
me: yes. we'll see... it's a miniseries now.
mc: ah.
mc: well, i just had to tell what i thought. it was great, i was talking to jolan and he was saying he wished he could have finished yours and i laughed and said, "i did!"
mc laughs
the lights started to dim then, so i stood up to creep back to my seat and in a prime theatre whisper voice, capped off my venture by saying: yes i think yours was everyone's favourite script in the class!
i'm not lying there either, that was really true, not just me being moron.
mc: thanks.
i then zipped to my chair. check that, zoomed- no, flew, no BAMFED to my chair, where i really let loose and laughed and hid my face and felt my heart beat thus solidifying any forming theory in my friends' minds about my state of coherency.
joanne: what are you laughing at?
i could only cover my face, which i was sure was glowing for it at least felt very warm and assure her i would tell her later.
though at this point, i don't think i can tell anyone because it's too embarrassing and stupid! i hope everyone is laughing at me now. i am such a moron!
but wait! there's more!
eventually my friends left, but i decided to stick out the fest because i had to ask my teacher questions about me building his website over the winter holiday and about the bfa show.
random anecdote:
i love it when you are comfortable enough with teachers to yell all sorts of things in a darkling theatre.
(chris= animation teacher, jim= other animation teacher, vivian= peer friend)
in another moment of technical difficulty (the film is on fire!) i took to singing, "touch me" by the doors. chris picked up on this, but couldn't hear me (i wasn't too loud) and thought i was saying i wanted to die and began to improv a tune.
chris: i thought someone said they wanted die?
vivian: ---- did! (that blank is my real name- ed.)
me: i did not!
chris: ---- wants to die?
vivian: ---- says she's dead.
me: i am not.
jim: ----, why aren't you showing your film?
me: (crying noise) it's not finished, my mantra, it's not finished.
mind you, we are in all corners of the theatre and it is pitch black. i love it!
this is a long entry... but we're building up to the climax.
but wait! there's more!
the fest finally ended with me clocking in my 13th hour spent in the school building today. i asked my teacher my questions (email him about the site, yes, be in the bfa film show) when i saw with my eye, m.c. leaving.
without thinking (but with saying goodbye) i literally, in a jumbled mess, scrambled to my chair snatched up my coat, bag and film and juggling threw everything on and about my shoulders as i ran (literally, ran) into the hall, trotted down the way to the elevator where said m.c. was waiting.
me in head: oh my god oh my god oh my god.
i composed myself and walked to the elevator.
then, in a stunt which surprised even me, i struck up "dialogue, by me, part 2." i can't even remember what i prattled on about. i said it was a delightful evening though i was quite tired as it was my 13th hour at school and i had seen many of the pieces before, some just this morning during crit. said m.c. asked about seeing them twice. blah. then we both got on the elevator.
me: now, you're a secret animation person! i had no idea! what do you do?
mc: traditional, drawing. you?
me: same! of course, it's the best type.
then! the elevator hit the ground floor and we got out. i found out said m.c. is t.a.ing with chris (SPITE! not my class however) next semester and plans on showing his work at the spring fest as well.
then we went outside, i asked which way said m.c. was going, it was the same as mine. i asked if said m.c. wrote his material. yes. what was it about? a bar and a church, much dark humor. was it text based then? with voice actors? yes. he does some himself.
mc: i learned pretty early i don't like working with other people really.*
*which is maybe why he never talks to anyone? never talks in screenwriting and even at fest he didn't talk really and sat alone until two people slipped in late and sat next to him.
me: self contained?
mc: yeah.
me: i know, i also like to have my control over things.
brief discussion on animation.
mc: it's just so labor intensive-
me: oh yes...
mc: as i'm sure you know.
me: do i ever.
then the said m.c. started going down into the underground. we said goodbye and i said i really wanted to see his work so i would look out for him- m.c. said the same. for despite any m.c. i have about the said m.c., it is always good to know people with good work!
after i had passed the train entrance, i then rounded off into a chorus of "oh my god"s and literally sped down the street, jumping and skipping and trying to contain my excitement.
this semester for me is now officially over. i still have two classes left, but yes. have accomplished biggest task ever imagined and am so deliriously happy.
p.s. favourite piece of show: new kid's, has cycle of a baby birthing a baby all set to the fifth dimensions, "age of aquarius."
suddenly i was @ 11:33 pm
suddenly i was @ 02:07 am
wednesday, december 10, 2003
oh my eye.just realized have said m.c.'s email address and telephone number.
thank god for class contact sheets.
note: am not going to do anything with new found but always had information. just nice to know it's there.
back to cleaning out inbox.
suddenly i was @ 11:16 pm
woke up, got out of bed, dragged a comb across my head.
then i walked and returned "my" film for MY film (they called this morning) turned, walked to michigan ave. walked down the mag mile, purchased cousbian's birthday present and sonja-from-germany's holiday gift (it was buy one get one free! i would say what i bought, but now have sneaking suspicion cousbian may read this...). then walked home. dropped off gifts picked up all 800 library books i had checked out. walked to kinkos, copied all appropriate dickensian moments i had marked in oliver twist and great expectations, then walked to library, returned books (20 cent fine! after having my dickens book all semester i miss the due date by a day, alas). then i walked to columbia college and returned books checked out from their library.
inhale.
then i turned around and walked all the way back home. stopped in wallgreens and bought festive paper wrappings.
check this out.
500 million yards of gold, blue and silver ribbon
starry shiny roll of wrapping paper
800 feet of blue tissue paper
total: 6.40
i love things on sale!
then of course i bought a book of stamps to mail festive cards which, in a moment of brilliance last year, i bought in the after season bargain days and doubled my total- whatever.
then i walked to borders and purchased (with my new no minimum balance bank account) hanna, josh and ana's (who gave me "finding nemo" yesterday!) holiday tokens and... hee hee! with the last bills of my miramax internship happy holidayed myself my own copy of "psycho" (norman!!!) and the novel "a cider house rules" (since i started it in my dickensian madness and still hadn't finished it when i returned it today).
note: the book was only 4 cents less than the movie.
and now i am home! madness! i started walking at 1 and now it is 5. my legs are sore. i wonder how many miles it was? quite a few i think.
one more thing, when i was looking at the incredibly pricy cider house book, i noticed they also had the screenplay for sale (yes, father, irving did write the script) and in a fit of curiousity i picked it up and read the introduction. he spent 14 years on the screen play! and i have to finish my dickensian one in a month and a half?
swoon.
also, i haven't seen the film, but tobey maguire strikes me as the perfect homer wells. his face is perfect. whoever plays doctor larch though... that famous dude whose name i should know... doens't look like the larch of my mind.
who's melony?
anyhow. now i am to wrap wrap and be festive. joy.
oh! and actually put together my cursed crap final for my crit tomorrow. whatever.
suddenly i was @ 04:47 pm
tuesday, december 9, 2003
so my friend betsy twisted my arm and helped me make a live journal but i don't know... i love my blog. i can't imagine posting... say... m.c. stories all over such a community based place. still i have one. now i can comment without being anonymous i suppose. and, ho ho! my avatar is of the artful dodger.things about today:
i woke up.
there was lots of fog.
i went to close out bank account with intent to purchase holiday gifts but instead just removed minimum balance level (oh joy, may still keep cool designer checks)
picked up film
using brilliant sixth sense found animation teacher. still am in crisis, but he says not to worry.
turned in norman bates paper took hitchcock final.
i swear to god, my teacher is going to think i am the biggest norman fan ever. our final consisted of four questions, from which we were to choose two to which respond. the first question was about the famous "gaze" (go to art school friends!) which a feminist had used to create her levels of gazing.
the gaze is always instigated by a male (active) and subjected onto a female (passive). there is erotic gazing, wherein the male gazer desires to possess the female as a sexual object (libido) and then there is
identification gazing wherein the gazer constructs his concept of recognition in his gaze (ego). whatever.
anyhow, we had to consider these two gazes as compared with one hitchcock film. thank god i did nothing but talk about the psycho-sexual stages in my norman paper because i knew voyeurism was the result of abnormal pyschosexual development and was able to rattle on about it forever! not only that but i chose "psycho" to talk about just so i could barf up all i had learned about norman in the past week.
then the next question was something about afflicted problematic males in hitchcock films and we had to discuss their issues- choosing two characters. i chose jeffries in "rear window" and scottie in "vertigo" and discussed again, voyeurism and what it implies and- YES!! the oedipal complex. am so glad read chapters on little hans now. then i focussed on the men's inherent misogny, scottie's castration anxiety and melancholia and jeffrie's impotence and phobia of committment as related to the o.c. then! since i covered the neurotic males, i decided to tap into the one neurotic male who slipped into full blown psychosis and talked about... guess who? norman bates!
when i wrote his name for the third and final time, i put an asterix by "bates" and at the bottom of the page wrote, "because i can't get enough of him."
lord.
after class i went and scanned things. cannot wait to update st.o with new and realish art.
also saw animation teacher talking with said m.c. and very briefly considered calling out, "hello!" but then realized, what if i did and animation teacher suddenly remembered to give said m.c. my most latest message?
"by the way __, this lass here read the script you left for me and wanted to let you know..."
yeah. right.
so i ran away but not before my heart nearly burst out of my eye balls.
then i took a nap... called lydia... blah... waited.
and my individual screenwriting meeting!
whatever!
my t.a. liked it.
ta: well, i don't have a whole bunch to say about this- and that's a good thing.
he thought it was really solid and that i was one of two people he felt confident with when it came to writing (who's the other person? perhaps said m.c.?). liked the story... just said to finish it really. oh, and that my writing was very prosiac. that looks wrong. very prose-like i mean.
then my teacher talked. he said it was ambitious and this and that and that i should finish it. then i said, "i have your class again next semester!" and he said, "oh! well you have to finish this over break then. bring it to me the first day of class."
me: !
curses. this break is going to be filled with so much work!
then he says the moment class starts i have to set aside this piece and begin a new one. "if you left here with two full scripts, it would really say something about your writing chops." true, true. i really don't want to leave my other script though, i love the land it's in, but he's right...
he also said i have to go to a new era, or should go, to show my variety or whatever.
my plan is still to do the hollywood intern. diana! guess what? i want to name the main character after you. i really have to think of this story fast however. i want it very simple (since my dickensian one was so hard- was, here i am in past tense all ready- IS so hard) ala "swingers." short. sweet. whatever. i want to base characters on the people i worked with, but don't know if that will be all right or not. anyway i have to think think THINK about it.
then i came home.
ate dinner.
realized the film i picked up IS NOT MINE.
jesus! my animation final is cursed. i have someone else's stuff, the place screwed up. i hope to god my film is still there.
and yeah. that's where we are now. got a livejournal... yeah.
suddenly i was @ 11:52 pm
can't see anything, not even the window for the glass.
i hit my head because the glass is doublpaned. there is a window which the water splashes on from inside the habitat and then 6 inches infront of that a devilishly clean pane rests. very deceiving, very... hard.
anyhow, i would like to state now that action is a perfect metaphor for my feeling now.
my animation doesn't sync with its sound.
my animation doesn't sync with its sound.
my animation doesn't sync with its sound.
my animation doesn't sync with its sound.
dear god, my animation doesn't sync with its sound. it did before, but something has become screwed in my transfer and now i don't know what to do. i should have only 3.51 minutes of transferred footage, yet i have 5 minutes. where's the extra 1.10 coming from? i need this for final crit. i was in such shock about this situation of mine, i literally couldn't speak and just stared at the product till tears silently came. what am i going to do?
as i said,
me: i can't see anything? where's his ey-
bonk.
suddenly i was @ 12:44 am
monday, december 8, 2003
i am in the best mood today. really truly. i had my natural history illustration class, which has little to nothing to do with my gleeness, in fact i should admit the class had become a bit of a chore... i can't stand drawing birds... but i digress! my friend jenjen is in the class and she is so awesome! i do nothing but laugh all class long with her. today was no different. we also talk, incessantly, none stop. today we covered such topics as:
high school traumas, depression
friends with issues
disney's robin hood: dude, he's a fox!
songs about monks
long ago and far away, does anyone else remember this show?
mini crushes, mine and hers and the research i have compiled
her apathetic moment in highschool chemistry class wherein she stapled a piece of string cheese to her final exam and turned it in. ho ho!
it was just great. i have so much fun talking with her. today i brought her a legolas bookmark (because my pippin one's tassle suffered major distress last week and so i had to buy another bookmark with a leaf bead to replace it- inhale- so i bought a legolas one [with leaf bead] and since she likes legolas i gave the bookmark part [plus my tattered tassle and old leaf bead] to her) and in return she bought me cheetos (aka the way TO MY HEART). oh it was just so much fun! my face hurts from laughing and that is such a wonderful feeling.
blah, my stomach is sort of woozy today and i am trying to figure if that is from the old cheese or the old bagel i put the old cheese on in an effort to clean out my fridge before break, which i ate for lunch which is making me sick.
note: is not possibly cheetos.
glee!
tomorrow is my sad happy day.
sad because i have my hitchcock final and have to turn in my norman bates paper (clocked in at 11 pages, go me.)
happy because it is also the day of my screenwriting individual meeting! WOO! they can say it sucks on ice and i still would be so happy! i can't wait for that class to start up again next semester (underlying meanings: secretly hopes to run in m.c. zoot!)
off to edit, edit, edit animation.
trala!
random celebrity notes:
r.i.p. mister. john lennon
happy birthday mister dominic monaghan
notes to self: really have to start watching what i write, sometimes i make no sense here because i don't think as i type.
suddenly i was @ 05:09 pm
sunday, december 7, 2003
well, this is the first non-script sunday in a long while. i sort of miss it. this sunday instead is norman bates sunday. that is right. i am writing my long winded essay on norman bates and feel now the intense need to complain about it.i shudder.
the first line of my essay: Once upon a time, clear up on a hill, just over the way and out of sight there was a house.
and while i'm sharing, what do people think of this line from my script, i think it is the weirdest one ever, but i remember it took a good while to get.
kip: No it’s not just that, the Captain has become so lax with him lately. Why, he’s become down-right soft on him. I mean, if Tobey’s store in commerce pulled in any more push, I shouldn’t wonder if the Captain wouldn’t let the great dolt steal Miss Sophie right out from under our noses! What a ream flash pull that would be for him.
who talks like that? no one but kip i should think.
back to norman... oh god... the gein part! gein is a infamous serial killer from who norman bates is based. spite, spite, spite! this is going to take forever to edit (and not just because i keep wandering back her eevery five seconds) because it's written terribly- nooooooo!
someone please sign on to im, i am so bored.
holy shitake. this essay makes no sense. i best sign out of this, we could be reaching a red-light crisis.
suddenly i was @ 03:00 pm
thursday, december 4, 2003
me on mini crush safari.
so i was in the transfer room with an animation peer when my animation teacher walks in and throws a script down onto a chair.
teacher: look another script!
i looked at it and recognized some character names.
me: is that 's? (insert m.c. name there)
slobber, slobber, glee, glee (thoughts from head at time)
i proceed to tell the now infamous, "i really, really, love your writing" story to teacher and peer who laugh as i admit to being a compleat moron, most of the time and that m.c. must truly think thus as his response was an awkward. ".... all right."
teacher leaves the room. peer tells me amazing things which are good to know when one is studying one's self as if on wild safari.
i put on my safari hat and khakis. she's a beaut', mate!
amazing thing number 1. m.c. is young grad student. 80's child. score! i love the 80's. i'm an 80's child.
amazing thing number 2. m.c. is t.a. for animation I class. so that's what he was doing in there. what i wouldn't give to devolve back to animation I!
amazing thing number 3. m.c. is real nice and funny. wouldn't know it, never talks in screenwriting class.
teacher returns and i learn more about m.c. script.
me: hmm.
once back in the animation room i saw my teacher had put the script on a desk. since i had nothing better to do, i wandered over to it (cast a quick glance over my shoulders) and read it. i mean, i had read most of it in screenwriting class, but i got to finish it this round.
it is still really funny.
i told my animation teacher i read it and he was impressed as it was a fast read. then-
here's the coup de gras
- walking out of the class with my teacher at the end of the day i tell him, "oh, if you see _, tell him i still really, really love his writing!"
i then, in a fit of embarassment, proceeded to throw myself down a flight of stairs clutching my head uttering the phrase, "squeeeeeeeeb."
things that make me a loser.
4. my personal m.c. isn't even about the person i don't think, as beyond my one embarrassing in-class phrase, i have never said anything to him. i think i more or less have a crush on his writing and acting abilities (and his voice- thanks diana).
3. still, all this safari fact gathering made me very squeeful.
2. the fact i was doing any safari fact gathering in the first place.
and number one...
1. that i am writing all this down in my blog.
where's that norman paper of mine?!? must be to work.
p.s. thanks for the words viv! right back at ya!
suddenly i was @ 06:50 pm
i don't even know why i am writing here. i just needed a mental break.
antony the fish has not yet passed on.
found notes from mini crush from screenwriting about script class in folder just now. i laugh at old days when i was so young and silly.
i have also just realized next week is my LAST WEEK of the semester. sweet holy god. this friday i have three scenes to perform for acting class... yeah... like those are going to be any good at all- hoi.
i bury my face in my hands. be over! be over!
suddenly i was @ 01:47 am
wednesday, december 3, 2003
124 pages.
that's what she capped off at for the semester, my script the bane of the blog reader's existance as it is all i ever talk about. 124 pages. woot! go me! though the last 19 pages i feel are really just a bit of fluff and i don't care for them especially the last scene wherein i was supposed to have figured where the character kip was to be sent, but i really hadn't so i just glistened about the topic and had another character tell kip, "the details of this arrangement but will do so after dinner in the concealed about privacy of my study."
that's me talking there folks.
uh, dude kip- you're going away, but i don't know where so you two go to "the study" whilst i think.
whatever.
god! words cannot express my feelings o' lurve for that class. really, i love it so much. i was so excited to go to last night i was practically on pins and needles. i can't remember the last time i was so excited about a class (check that: shakespeare class last year, but the is really much more double plus so about the matter). even last night when we had to show up at hour early (at 5) and stayed till practically 11 at night (normally out at 9).
amazing facts: i think my mini crush still exists despite all my efforts to make it- well, not exist. only slightly though. i decided my mini crush was not worth indulging a week or two ago when i saw the said m.c. in the animation room and he didn't acknowledge me (all animators acknowledge the other animators, we're too few not to). but anyhow, i think there is residualness because i get the same feelings of "squee" as i did that most embarrassing day in class ("i really, really love your writing") but i think it's only for m.c.'s voice. is that possible? because otherwise... uh, no. a good voice though. anyhow, i was married to mini crush in no less than 3 scripts which was exciting to my juvenile mind.
i have also decided to record these mini crush feelings and apply them to my script. i have one character (felix) who has a not so mini crush and earlier in the week i had been trying to think what it felt like, having a crush especially when one is shy and does nothing about it. then i realized it wasn't too hard a quandry because dur- that's me. so i'm watching myself. it's like i'm on wild safari. i'll let said mini crush continue for research purposes.
me in class: squee!
me in head: in...ter...est...ing.
i can't believe i typed that out.
back to my class. i love it so much, i really don't know if i can wait all the way until nex tuesday to go.
highlight moment of all class:
we were reading a script which is about a little biracial girl whose family and environment is charged with racial bigotries. in one scene the little girl's friend hear's her own parents calling the little girl a "mulatto." the friend goes up to her parents and asks what the word means.
the line was "what's a mulatto?" and our teacher, who's this big guy, reads the line. suddenly out of left field this great guy named jolan answers. "it's like a mixture."
the class stops and begins to laugh. jolan looks around. "what? it is. it's like a-" someone sitting next to him leans over and points to the line in the script. jolan: oooooh, oh my god. someone else in class: yes, and we are all totally following along! teacher: yes, it's officially the end of the term now. jolan: this has a been a long day guys.
it was so funny. i can't even tell you. i couldn't stop laughing for the rest of the evening.
my fish antony is in the process of dying. i don't know if i should remove him from the water to put him out of his misery or what. poor thing. i wish death would find him more swiftly.
ha! you know, i was searching for information on trade schools or shipping trades in the 1900's the other day and guess what google pulled up as one of the first finds? my blog. great. just goes to show i am the only person out there thinking of such things.
wait. lie. according to my referrers search string list people have found my sites with the following phrases, "pictures of war ships in the 1900's" and "problems in early 1900 tenements."
sigh, not here guys, but if i find them, i'll share!
eip has been doing so well search wise lately. last month it had 50 or more on the nose hits (people searching with "ernil i pheriannath").
all right. i have to go. the only reason i am really even typing here is because i finally have to start my norman bates paper and i really don't want to, blah.
suddenly i was @ 01:16 pm
monday, december 1, 2003
sigh. i was in a good mood but now i am in a most decidedly peeved one, the reasons for my mood swing however i will conceal about my person because they do not needed to be shared with anyone else other than my own bitter, bitter self.i guess my days of riding high on my most excellent critique are over. that critique last tuesday really pumped me.
me on tuesday: gleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-
wednesday: -eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-
thursday: -eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-
friday: -eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-
saturday: -eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-
sunday: -eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-
monday: ee. ahem.
though for most of those days i sounded like grandmother willow and e.t.'s love child gone wrong is if sounded like anything at all.
note: i LOVE third watch. my favourite characters are sullivan and davis. i love them! i even get urges to make a fanlisting for them because yes, i swear, i have a life. also like yokis. please tell me there's someone else out there who likes this show. if there is, write me.
my trip to the east coast was lovely. absolutely. i stayed in the same place i did last year, a little inn right on the docks. unfortunately, my voice which was rapidly disappearing tuesday and wednesday absolutely died on thursday. i was voiceless. then the bug moved to my lungs on friday and for that day and saturday i spent the entire day coughing violently. today i have range again- at least the lower register, though i'm getting afraid because everyone is telling me it is too long to have voice problems, a whole week.
p.s. bosco in this scene is nice as well. they have such fabizzle defined characters.
i got really scared because my friend jenjen in class today said once she lost her voice terribly and afterward she permanently lost her higher register. what if i can never squee again?
anyhow back to my trip. yes. it was much fun. i was trying very hard to absorb everything i possible could as i am never out east and since i have set my script there- well! it was like living in my own scene for a little bit. i walked along little light sandy beaches where sand grasses grew and the wind blew. there were tiny shells and horsecrabs on the shore. i walked along tiny docks and listened to bird and boats on the water. the sky was gray and warm and when the sun set it set in those muted hues which are only possilble in the sea air.
will smith on biography. i love will smith.
the dinner was nice. i had the holiday dinner with my grandmother's husband's family. everyone is so very nice. there was one old lady, i'm not sure of her relation... but her name is pat and she is absolutely amazing! she's 98 but only sometimes walks about with a cane. i met her last year, yet she remembered all there was about me in detail! she remembered all we had talked about, animation, film, work and then she told me she expected to see my name in lights! which made me happy. i want to be like her when i'm 98.
i also played with two little girls, ellie and anyata- both 4 (anyata i guess officially would be my step cousin or something). the lot of us went on a walk and i played by chasing them. by the time of the walk i was voiceless so i did everything via body gesture and the girls would squeal and run away, but since i made a peep no one could figure out what they were having so much fun with, until finally they saw me making faces and everyone laughed.
one of my grandma's husband's sons (rob) is getting married so we looked at an old church on the walk. it's a nice place, tiny and old, old, old. there was a graveyard in the front of it and some of the graves dated back to the 1600's. anyata and ellie sat in two grave basins and morbid as it was it was cute because they thought they were bath tubs.
i took pictures.
the next day i went out with rob his brother ross and ... my dad's cousin (the only other relation of mine besides my grandma) and walked inthe state park, which consisted of a pine forest and a beach.
it was very nice.
i then came home and edited like a mad chicken. my script has been given the comb over and currently clocks in at 105 pages. not too bad, though frightening as the bulk of it is really the "first act" of the story which means unless much is drastically cut i a. have a miniseries b. 4 hour movie.
whatever.
tonight i should be editing still but am in such a foul mood cannot be bothered just yet. i am at a bit of a stump up place however. i need my one character, kip to "go away" but cannot think on how to do it. originally i wanted to send him "over seas" to go to school or something, but as i have moved the time and place and set it in the u.s. inthe early 1900's to send him overseas would mean to send him to europe as wwI was beginning to brew... which so is not going to work.
so what to do?
options which have been suggested and what i think of them.
a. trade school.
sounds good, no? this is my idea, but i really don't know anything about trade schools. i need to send kip away somewhere where he is going to learn much about shipping and trading so when he comes back he is savvy enough to be highly successful.
b. to war!!
i don't want to send kip to war, but it has been suggested. i don't think it fulfills his character's wants or desires (he wants to "make it") and is cliche in a way i don't want to be. i don't want him coming back "changed" as in by war, rather, i want him to come home changed as in he has grown up and is much ambitious.
c. merchant marines
something i know even less about but sounds interesting, was suggested by classmate. the merchant marine lived a much more daring life in the early 1900's and had to brave storms and evade war issues as they helped established the booming trade industry. it would be adventurous (good for kip) and he would learn much (good) but then... i need to research before i can write (bah.)
i don't know any thoughts?
like anyone is still reading this.
what else? today i was convinced my teachered wanted to see me killed. we went to the museum and were permitted in the research area, which was amazing. you know when you're watching those one programs and the show the guy in the museum basement who pulls out a shelf and it is filled with dead animals? yeah. that's where we were, the bird section. we also got to see the vat where animal skeletons are boiled and cleaned (there was an elephant skull going) and found out for delicate skeletons a different process is used... a tissue eating beetle.
yes, they had a whole room dedicated to these beetle colonies. there were six or so large aquariums teaming with the little black things and also in the tanks were carcasses which the beetles were "cleaning." a coyote head in one... bits of a bird in another... it was awesome. i also was one of the few people who wasn't wretching from the horrific odor. go me.
anyhow when we sallied on the draw our dead birds my teacher came over to jenjen and i and told us if we could not sing in class today. HORROR. granted we do sing and talk all class long but we work. i think by the end of the day when she discovered we do actually talk all class long though... sigh. we left to "go to the restroom" (read:wander about aimlessly because neither of us want to work) and when we came back she made a point to tell us, "so quiet in here without you."
she used to like me, but now i think she thinks i'm special education. she didn't once comment on my piece either, which, all truth be told, sucked ice, but whatever. it's not a good sign.
yawn. anyhow. i have to eat dinner now, go back to my script. it's all due tomorrow then i have to start on my CRISIS NORMAN BATES paper for next week. god! end semester, end!
p.s. happy birthday fiona and diana.
p.p.s. if anyone out there is so inclined, email me. i am bored and lonely.
p.p.p.s. message from 2am. script crap. what else? i'm reading it aloud and listening to myself, gone is the glee, back is the suckitude.
suddenly i was @ 11:28 pm