Philo-buster

Kc Daugirdas - film composer - 2011 reel of recent works

2011-04-04T00:02:00.003-05:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xek5ayY4r6k

Sedaris - Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk - just not that funny!

2011-01-07T19:46:00.000-06:00

I heard about this newest Sedaris piece on the Daily Show, and downloaded the audio book for a long trip.

Sedaris told Stewart on screen about "the squirrel and the chipmunk who ran out of things to talk about." Stewart and the audience laughed, and so did I; it was a chuckle-worthy premise.

However, Sedaris runs out of things to talk about as well. The novelty of animals acting like humans wears off pretty quick, and what's left is a series of dark, sometimes downright unpleasant stories. This book is certainly not suited for kids.

When I read "Me Talk Pretty One Day", I was laughing out loud at every sentence. Turns out that humans and their cultures are a much richer source of humor than critters.

Jesus Christ Superstar!

2008-04-03T23:59:00.004-05:00

If you've got the means, you should come check out Jesus Christ Superstar this weekend at the Virginia Theatre in Champaign. I'm an apostle and it's a pretty sweet production. I know people in shows always like to talk up whatever event they're a part of regardless of its quality, so I'll just say, "you will find something to enjoy at this show."

Check out our sweet smoke effects and lights! And my heavy stage makeup! :)

Triplets of Belleville

2008-02-10T19:11:00.000-06:00

Lots has happened since my last post, but writing a paragraph about a movie is way easier than writing about everything that has happened.

My mom brought home the DVD of Triplets of Belleville, a French animated flick from 2003. Imagine the French doing Spirited Away, and you've got a pretty accurate picture of this movie. It's about a Tour de France competitor and his grandma, who live a one-track life of bicycle training until the young man gets kidnapped by some mafiosos for silly, nefarious purposes.

The whole thing is visually weird, surreal, full of caricatures. The French characters have absurd French noses. When the action moves to America, the Americans are absurdly fat and constantly overeating. Such caricatures, no doubt, are part of the reason critics, sadly, have praised this movie so much. Ah, the French, they can poke fun at their own noses, and also at American gluttony. For me, it was over the top.

Spirited Away was visually splendid and imaginative, with an equally engaging story. This flick didn't have much of a story, and the visuals were highly exaggerated but otherwise not very creative. Maybe I just despise French things, who knows.

TeaParty07 Predictions

2007-11-25T20:52:00.000-06:00

Some thoughts on the upcoming "Ron Paul Tea Party" (December 16th):

-Already over 20,000 subscribers (11/25).

-It'll be interesting to see whether it's going to keep losing steam (decelerating) as it is doing now, or whether there'll be a spike or at least an acceleration upwards in the days leading up to the deadline.

-Since Ron Paul supporters haven't disappointed me yet, I'm going to throw my weight behind the idea that we'll see a pretty strong upward trend as it gets close to detonation time. The campaign is putting a bit of a damper on things, however, with its plea for IMMEDIATE donations and its warnings that we cannot "afford to wait for bursts of press activity.

-I think people will donate now, to please Mr. Money Bydlak at the campaign, and they will still donate again come money bomb time. I feel like the supporters still have a lot left in them. This fight is not nearly over.

-As for the numbers: If we see some sexy polling numbers in the next 2 weeks (like a 10% in N.H., 10% Nevada, and maybe a few 7% national poll results), I think people will money bomb the HELL out of December 16th to a level that will blow people's minds. Like, maybe the graph will show something exciting like 35,000 subscribers, but the event itself will drop an even more boggling 7 MIL into the campaign's coffers. Optimistic? Sure. But realistic, considering how passionate supporters are.

-The snowball is accelerating down the mountain. The question is: "can we fix global warming so that it won't melt before it gets to the bottom?"

Hooray for Webcams. And Ron Paul

2007-11-06T22:52:00.000-06:00

Check out the Daily Kos debate about Ron Paul's fundraising, and on the man's candidacy in general.

On being a "Ron Paul Shill", the 5th of November, and more

2007-11-05T13:35:00.000-06:00

As I watch Ron Paul's fundraising ticker go through the roof today, the 5th of November, I'm searching for the media's reaction. Here's one article (from the National Ledger) that I felt inclined to vocally disagree with, being the Ron Paul Shill (or SpamBot, take your pick) that I am.

Ron Paul: Cash is King, On Pace for a $2M Day, But Will it Matter?

Here's what I wrote to Mr. Jackson, the article's author:

I would disagree with you that he's bad on television and in speeches. I would certainly agree with you that in general we've grown used to Obama-rhetoric as the model of what it means to be a good speech giver. But "audacity of hope" is nice, but boy is it unspecific. Have you watched the democratic debates? Have you heard Hillary attempt to give answers that will alienate her from no one? Would you call those "good answers?" Is she "good on TV?" The "rabid" and "wild-eyed" supporters that WE are, we actually prefer simple talk." Simple talk with a dose of historical awareness, two tablespoons of directness, a pinch of politeness, and a generous heapful of courage. That's all Ron Paul provides, and for many people, it's the best thing they see.

The author also believes that Ron Paul "won't crack 2.4 million" by the end of today. Hah. The mediaman has just become the Ron Paul fundraising analyst. Sir, I think I'm a bigger Ron Paul stat whore that you, so leave the projections to me. :-P It's currently 1:46 PM, and the day's total from 00:00 (midnight, 11/5) is above $2033K. We're 14 hours into this bomb raid, boys. Typically, Ron's donations pick up in the afternoon hours, all the way until 7 or 8 PM at least.

A lot of the RP SpamBots excitedly dropped their payloads last night at midnight, so we probably won't see the same proportional acceleration towards the evening, but it's going to move along at a healthy pace. I'm guessing, by 12:00 AM tonight CST there will be 3.5 to 4.0 mil. Which would easily be the biggest one day fundraising total for the primary cycle.

12 Army Captains: Bring back the draft, or leave Iraq ASAP

2007-10-16T21:18:00.000-05:00

I have been asked some tough questions regarding my support for Ron Paul. The toughest of these is regarding the Iraq conflict. Ron Paul's "just come home" message sounds great, but people ask me, "How can we let the country fall into total chaos? What will happen when we leave?"

I don't have a good answer, because there is no good answer in Iraq. I can't promise them that Iraq will begin calmly moving towards order and functional government when we pull out.

The Real Iraq We Knew

Increasingly, military people have come out against the war. In this article from the Washington Post, 12 Army captains flatly state that we should get out now.

From the article:

U.S. forces, responsible for too many objectives and too much "battle space," are vulnerable targets. The sad inevitability of a protracted draw-down is further escalation of attacks -- on U.S. troops, civilian leaders and advisory teams. They would also no doubt get caught in the crossfire of the imminent Iraqi civil war.

Cheney in 1994: AGAINST an Iraq invasion

2007-08-17T12:57:00.001-05:00

It seems that Cheney was a lot smarter 14 years ago, or at least a lot more honest.

---------

On a related note, here's what one of our generals makes of the situation in Iraq, and what the recent 400-person-killing insurgent bomb means for US "stabilizing efforts":

Attack that killed over 400 might 'unite Iraqis,' general says

:) :(

Bleeding Guns

2007-08-01T16:05:00.000-05:00

U.S. cannot account for 190,000 guns in Iraq

From the article:
"US commanders often accuse foreign powers such as Iran of supplying arms to illegal militias fighting in Iraq, but the report shows they cannot fully account for the hundreds thousands of weapons they brought in themselves."

RawStory is a great news source, btw -- my dad got me into it :)

Congressman Ron Paul for President 2008

2007-07-13T10:49:00.000-05:00

Yeah, I'm coming out and saying it.

I can't wait to say it any longer on this humble Blog: The guy is a godsend. He is SO dedicated to the Constitutional principles of this country and he speaks like a founding father. Watch this video from the Congressional debate about the troop surge in Iraq. Ron Paul lays out everything I believe to be true about America's duties to itself and America's role in the world.

Christian Fundamentalists disrupt Hindu morning prayer at the US Senate

2007-07-12T16:48:00.000-05:00

Crazy fundamentalists. Boy, yeah, that Hindu man is WICKED. Wicked wicked.

Hurray for a real journalist! (she refuses to cover Paris Hilton)

2007-06-30T18:36:00.000-05:00

I give a lot of credit to this woman, Mika Brzezinski*. Her producer and her cohosts expect her to kick off the newscast with a Paris Hilton clip. She refuses, on camera, and (unsuccessfully) tries to light the story on fire. Eventually, she feeds the sheet of paper into a paper shredder. You go girl!

Finally, a journalist with some inner strength!

--------
* Mika is the daughter of Zbigniew Brzezinski, former national security adviser to Carter. He's widely known for his reasoned foreign policy insights, and also for giving hope to all of us awkwardly-named citizens.

I came across INSURGENCY , a soon-to-be-released computer game that lets you fight insurgents in the middle east. The visuals look GREAT. That being said, do we really need this? Far too many kids (some of them now soldiers) have already fallen in love with warfare and the terrorism narrative thanks to Counterstrike.

What's YOUR "News IQ" ?

2007-06-29T16:18:00.000-05:00

http://pewresearch.org/newsiq/

It's a quick quiz about current events. At the end, you get to make demographic comparisons: How'd I do compared to other men? People age 18-35? High school grads? Kinda cool.

Pew research has more statistics than a person would ever want to know. For stats whores like me, it's great! ;)

----------

On an unrelated note, I found this iPhone video review from the new york times. I didn't know the ny times were doing much video, but this was a high-quality, entertaining clip, well-suited for the web. The print-era dinosaur! New York Times! Making web videos! I must say, I'm surprised and impressed.

Ron Paul: an interesting legal/moral issue

2007-06-26T19:55:00.000-05:00

Watch this debate featuring Ron Paul (GOP Presidential candidate) and FOX News anchor Neil Cavuto. It has to do with the IRS and income tax, which Paul wants to eventually abolish from government (we didn't have it before 1913).

This is such an interesting debate. On the one hand, Cavuto makes a plausible point... What if everyone stopped paying taxes? The country would come to a standstill. I wouldn't have known how to answer that question. But Paul's answer is the answer that I didn't see: If everyone stopped paying, then politicians would start paying attention and change things.

I wonder how the government did get on without income tax back before 1913...

This guy is me! except better!

2007-06-10T16:24:00.000-05:00

This guy is from a Latvian A cappella boyband called Cosmos. This is all stuff that I do, except way better. I was so relieved to find my clone out there in the performing world.

Google listening in via your PC microphone? No, thanks.

2007-06-05T17:14:00.000-05:00

This scared me.

Google developing eavesdropping software

Google is developing a way to use your PC microphone to find out what TV show is on air in your room. The company's reason for doing this? If you're watching a basketball game on TV, Google can serve you better by identifying this viewing habit and then providing basketball-related advertisements in your browser.

When Google's suite of online applications and services first emerged, I was incredibly excited. How convenient! How revolutionary! But I'm starting to worry about what can happen if all this data gets into the wrong hands. Companies like Google forge ahead with new services so quickly that I wonder whether they have worked out all the security issues.

I'm having similar second thoughts about Facebook.

Rereading 1984 this summer.

Affirmative action along economic lines! Brilliant!

2007-05-27T19:31:00.000-05:00

Heyyy... long time no post. sorry.

I came across this article in the New York Times today:

Elite Colleges Open New Doors to Low Income Youths.

Apparently, in the "last few years", elite colleges have been noticing that they barely have any students from the bottom income quartile! So now, they are starting to offer grants to low income students, AND are

"[...] recruiting them and taking their socioeconomic background — defined by family income, parents’ education and occupation level — into account when making admissions decisions."

This trailblazing new admissions philosophy was prompted by recent research that has cast doubt on the leveling power of traditional affirmative action admissions policies. Apparently, schools have been winding up with a lot more upper class minority students than lower class minority students.

DUH DUH DUH DUH DUH Where's Carlos Mencia when you need him DUH DUH DUH....

I can't stand it when a serious publication writes about a blatantly obvious point (that race-based affirmative action helps black people, not poor people) as if it's some sort of staggering new conclusion, brought about only by years of research.

You should name the monkey scooter!

2007-03-06T15:49:00.000-06:00

So Scooter Libby got a guilty verdict. Prison sentence to follow. On almost the same day, Cheney's health problems make the news (blood clot in the leg). If Cheney resigns for health reasons, we'll know the real reason -- he's feeling the fallout from the Libby perjury trial.

And speaking of Scooter, here's a clip for your enjoyment :)

Snow Day!!

2007-02-14T19:15:00.000-06:00

So school was canceled at U of I yesterday and today. Two days off! That's not a bad school week:

Sunday-Monday-Saturday-Sunday-Monday-Friday-Saturday

This is a car in our alley. The wind was causing crazy drifts everywhere. Most snow I've seen in years!

Happy V-Day to all -- If you don't have a date, don't sweat it. This is just Darwin's way of reminding you that if you don't find a mate, your genes will not be passed on. No biggie!

Billy Joel -- Tuning Up a Broken-Down Legend

2007-02-05T18:05:00.000-06:00

Did anyone else hear Billy Joel singing the national anthem during the superbowl?

I've spent close to 200 hours with Xtension Chords studio work, and its made me very aware of the pitch correction in music. Pitch correction (AutoTune is one brand name of software, but i'll use the general term) is an algorithm that analyzes the sound coming from a microphone, figures out which pitch you're singing, and if you're not right on a note it will drag your pitch up or down to the nearest neighboring "official" pitch. If you need an extreme example, listen to "Believe" by Cher, and listen to her voice. It sounds "synthy" because it has an extreme amount of pitch correction applied to it.

Listen to Billy Joel sing (actual singing starts at 1:00 into the clip, so FF). Keep pitch correction in mind. First phrase: "Oh say can you SEEEeeE": Can you hear how he overshot "see" and Autotune pulled his pitch up to the next note up (the wrong pitch)? I all could think about while listening was autotune, autotune, autotune, JESUS BILLY JOEL SOUNDS LIKE A ROBOT.

The superbowl shouldn't have hired him. No one should hire him, and if they do, they should let him sing with his real voice and see if people will like it.

Winter 2006 Book/Movie Review

2006-12-27T21:11:00.000-06:00

Some thoughts about the books/movies that I've consumed lately:

Eragon - Christopher Paolini

My brother got me into this series. The author was 15 when he began writing Eragon, the first novel. It's a Lord of the Rings-esque fantasy trilogy, centered around a young farm boy who becomes a Dragon Rider. I found it more palatable than LOTR. Simpler. A good read.

Eldest - Christopher Paolini

Of course, I had to keep plugging right along. Eldest is the second book, and Paolini gets to (ahem) spread his wings with this one (it's nearly twice as long as the first). I liked it better -- The storytelling seems more effortless, and as the conflicts broaden in scope one can't help but get excited to see how the fates of the characters will intertwine. I like the way Paolini treats the development of Eragon. He has natural gifts, but they don't blossom into an instant mega-warrior who owns everyone. He's a Luke Skywalker-type.

Paolini also decides to throw in a bunch of not-so-subtle anti-religious subtexts into the books... If you are bothered by arguments favoring reason over belief, you might be offended. Overall, the Eragon books talk about a fair number of ethical issues, which give them greater value.

Eragon (the film)

Piece of shit. Don't bother seeing it, ESPECIALLY if you haven't yet read the book are thinking about doing so. It's hopelessly compressed, disemboweled and stitched back together, with crappy dialogue, bad cinematography, and a total lack of flow as a story.

Babel (film)

This movie came out without much fanfare, but it deserves to be seen. It unfolds uniquely, following three almost completely separate stories about people who don't listen to one another and the unfortunate consequences thereof. The film's title is a metaphor for this misunderstanding. The characters are at the center, and they are good ones -- real and complex. Brad Pitt is the big name actor, but all the roles are perfectly acted. I smell Oscars.

Charlotte's Web (film)

If you have little cousins, go see it with them. You'll both enjoy the irresistible cuteness of the little pig Wilbur. As an adult, don't bother, unless maybe you have a GF who loves irresistibly cute piglets. The reviews that I've read all give big props to Dakota Fanning, who plays the little girl Fern. She annoyed me -- the actress is so used to playing drama and horror roles, I don't think she knows how to strip away her Hollywood blockbuster demeanor and act like a simple, little farm girl. Too affected.

Xtension Chords on BOCA 2007!

2006-11-10T12:12:00.000-06:00

The list of songs on the upcoming 2007 BOCA (Best of College Acappella) compilation album has just been announced, and track #2 is going to be The U. of Illinois Xtension Chords - "Just The Girl".

!!!!

I have to admit, it makes me feel pretty darn good that my first effort at recording/producing an Xchords track was chosen for BOCA. And track 2 is a good place to be -- A LOT of people are going to hear us. We all deserve credit for this puppy though -- Brian Thoman threw down a killer solo, and all the parts from Ryan's powerful, precise bass singing to Ed's balls out high A's made this track work. And Bill Hare is really good at mixing. Sorry, that was my moment of gloating... now back to work on the rest of the album :)

Annoyed at I-Tunes

2006-10-23T01:14:00.000-05:00

Is anyone else slightly pissed at Apple for releasing a buggy-ass version of I-Tunes? I'm getting wierd artificacts and skips even when simply viewing a webpage in firefox with a few other apps running. After all this talk about how "Apple products never crash"...

- I'm giving DMB's "Crash" album a good hard listen. I used to love this band, and all three of their great albums -- Under the table, crash, and before these crowded streets. Then they just sucked for a while, and I forgot about them. I've brought out those old albums again in the past few years, and am giving them a fresh listen. The reason I love listening to this "vintage" dave now is that there is so much subtlety and complexity to the musicianship and production those albums. The grooves are constantly fresh, and constantly tight. So tonight, it's "Crash" -- .. the album which I've most neglected thus far.

- Finished mixing on the first track from the next Xtension Chords CD. It sounds real nice. I'm having various thoughts about whether or not I could do this for a living (music production, recording). And I always come away with the thought that, yes, maybe i could, but I gotta get out of a cappella. I gotta get into stuff like Steve Lillywhite did on those DMB albums. The a cappella CD project is cool, just trying not to burn out on it.

Putting things in perspective

2006-09-22T19:18:00.000-05:00

I found the work of Julian Beever when I received a chain email with a few of his images. I immediately looked him up to learn more. The bottle in the photo above was drawn with chalk on a two-dimensional surface (the sidewalk). INSANE. I wonder what he does before starting to draw -- does he really have such an uncanny mastery of perspective, that he can achieve such a convincing 3-D effect without prior sketches and computer-aided stretching?

Check out more of his stuff here.

Chapter 1: Ma' House

2006-08-03T19:38:00.000-05:00

It's been about a month now that I've been all moved out of my '05-'06 apartment and all moved into my palazzo.

Perhaps palazzo isn't the right word... maybe chateau?

I was lucky enough to know the previous tenants, so they let me move in early, before the end of their lease. Good guys. The place has been treating me well.

The persian rug is courtesy of my parents. It's a pretty ratty rug as persian rugs go (we've used it in our family living room for a LONG time), but it's still WAY better than what I deserve to have in my college room right now. Thanks Ma, thanks Pa.

Twin monitors on the desk are barely visible -- one of them glows rapture-white in this shitty cellphone shot, the other one is caught between the twin rapture points of the window and the first monitor. Each monitor is connected to its own PC (you'll read all about that in Chapter 3: "Xtension Chords in collaboration with st00ts st00dios, Inc"). The keyboard is new and awesome, but maybe i'll talk more about that when I actually have something created to show you.

The plywood in the bottom left corner is another hint of what's to come in Ch. 3....

The bed is old, mattresses hopelessly worn in, headboard ugly, and the whole rig is somehow incredibly comfortable.

Yes, that is indeed an accordion next to the bed.

Let's head downstairs!

The Living Room -- As of yet un-decked-out.

The D-room -- Care to dine with me? Join me in the D-room! Pour yourself a drink!

The K-hole: Care to make me dinner so we can dine? Please, step into the the K-hole! Make sure you wash the dishes -- no dishwasher here.

The future good times headquarters of Chambana.

(Stalker Challenge! Can YOU figure out where I live from the pictures presented here? Winner gets a copy of my fall semester class schedule!)

Perhaps you meant...

2006-07-17T00:10:00.000-05:00

Those chapter entries will soon come, I promise!! But here's a distraction in the meantime. I was looking at various dictionary sites for the word "escalate".. ever since I told Jamie that she was using the wrong word to describe "the escalating (growing) rip in her skirt". I was trying to find an authoritative source that would prove to her that it's not standard usage to use "escalate" when describing a physical increase in an object... Why should I even care? Good question.. I just felt like disagreeing with her on this point :)

Anyway, here's what I found at dictionary.net....

"
No entries found for "escalate"

We have not found any entries on our dictionary databases for the word you entered. Perhaps you are looking for one of the following instead?

escalade

"

PS. Anybody know of a dictionarywiki?

2006-07-12T00:24:00.000-05:00

Welcome to the

"Table of Contents"

!

Keep reading, and you'll soon find a list of all the things i want to share with you about myself!!! Yup, this is the Table of Contents for blog entries to come. Except you can't just flip the page to Chapter 1 whenever you want. I have to write something. Yeah, that's right. I decide when you flip the page in this publication. bitch.

Ch. 1. Ma' house!
Ch. 2. My pimp-mobil-a-car
Ch. 3: Xtension Chords in collaboration with st00ts st00dios, Inc.
Ch.4: Wildcardwildcardwhat'sitgonnabewhat'sitgonnabe

That's all for today folks, stay tuned for frequent chapter updates! :)

How could we have been so nerdy?

2006-06-26T01:00:00.003-05:00

I just came back from wiki-surfing! This is what I saw:

Damn, they don't make magazine background gradients like they USED to!

I was meandering through some biographies of the world's wealthiest people and came across good ol' Bill Billy Gates here. The fact that Bill Gates was once this nerdy is no great surprise, but Time Magazine... how could Time Magazine have been this nerdy?

Jesus, it was only 20 years ago, but that magazine cover looks like an anthropological artifact.

I found these Wikis of extremely wealthy people interesting, both for the astounding facts they contained and for the amusing personalities of the writers of the articles. Warren Buffet is portrayed to be so classically American -- he filed his first income tax return at 13 - deducted his bike as a work expense. Bill Gates, on the other hand, seems a bit sickly -- like he took advantage of a fledgling, confused industry (computing) and weaseled around into just the right places to succeed. Mmm, slantastic.

Nonetheless, they are interesting accounts to read, to think about, to talk about. Warren Buffet seems like he could be the protagonist in an Ayn Rand novel. Though Ayn Rand probably wouldn't approve of the 39 billion Buffet just recently announced he would donate to charity, with most of that going to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Wikipedia has been expanding in all directions so damn fast that now it's kind of an awkward teenager. It is one hell of a creature though.

:)

(more on various personal developments soon!)

I almost died tonight

2006-06-05T23:06:00.001-05:00

That's no shock title, I seriously almost died tonight. My dad and I were driving home on I-294 from Buffalo Grove (where we were checking out a '98 Camry XLE for sale) when I noticed a huge white square object sitting in our lane 20 yards in front of us. Washing machine? Piece of posterboard standing on edge? Hard to say.

I blurted "watch out!" to my dad, and he reacted -- we swerved sharply out of the way. SCREEEWWEEEERRSHHHHHREEECH! Next thing I know we're sliding across lanes of traffic, skidding in wild arcs back and forth on the highway as cars pass us going 80 MPH on either side. At that point my brain understood two things:

1. The sea of headlights and taillights, if observed at night from an erratically spinning vantage point, is pretty psychedelic.
2. My car has a lot of momentum right now. So do the cars that are probably going to hit me. And that truck that's staring me right in the face as it approaches us helpless spinning saps... it's got PLENTY of momentum.

At that moment I was fully prepared for the possibility of getting severely messed up by this truck. I was waiting for the impact.

We ended up near the outer shoulder and gathered our wits enough to move off the road. The two cops sitting 40 yds ahead on traffic duty didn't react in the slightest, either to the big white thing in the middle of the highway, or the fact that a car just spun the hell out and was now sitting on the shoulder. We didn't really care, though; we just sat in our car and breathed deep and listened to our frantically pumping hearts slow down a bit.

My dad claims that the car oversteered... I think he just got startled and jerked the wheel way too hard. In any case, we still haven't found a good used car for me to drive around. If you got something, email me.

The Poop That Looked Delicious

2006-06-02T14:39:00.000-05:00

Yeah, that's right, that's a shock title for today's entry. Now keep reading.

It all started back a few weeks before Acappellapalooza when I was working long into the nights in three and five hour spurts on that friggin' Xchords movie in my room. I was eating poorly and infrequently, and ended up losing a bunch of weight and getting frequent hunger pains.

Everything subsided for a time, but then finals came and I found myself working 12 straight hours no break on a paper in the library. Got some hunger pangs then, too.

They didn't go away after that -- been feeling them more or less continuously for the past month -- so of course my slightly paranoid doctor parents started suspecting an ulcer. I've been taking stomach-healing prescription drugs like crazy for the past 2 1/2 weeks.

Hold on, I've almost reached the poop part of the story!

So today I did some X-rays and they made me swallow this chalky, white drink (Barium) which apparently illuminates the shape of whatever it passes on the xray (hence the usefulness -- by seeing the negative space within the stomach, you can basically see the stomach itself). The doc said she didn't see any ulcer, so it could be inflammation from other causes.

And then I pooped, and it was pure, pure white. I paused for a moment above it, in reverence -- it looked so innocent, like a Dunkin Donuts powdered sugar pastry or something. It looked delicous.

DaVinci Code -- Meh at Best

2006-05-21T18:20:00.000-05:00

If you've read the book, there's no point in seeing the movie. If you have not read the book, go spend your $7.50 on a copy of the book, read it, and then don't see the movie.

Dan Brown's DaVinci Code was a cliffhanger, a pageturner, and can't-put-it-down-er. I distinctly remember thinking, "Wow, this book reads just like a movie." Turns out that when you try to turn an eight-hour experience that reads like a movie into a two-hour movie that... uh.. watches like a movie, you run into some problems.

For me, one of the most pleasurable parts of the book was seeing the puzzle come together. Though it's basically impossible to discover the solution yourself before the characters do, at least you get the chance to think about it. You can even STOP READING (imagine that!) and try your hand at decoding an anagram. In the film, however, each riddle is solved in a jiffy:

So dark the con of man.... hmmm.... maybe it's an anagram...'nads'...no... 'scone'...nope... I GOT IT! 'MADONNA ON THE ROCKS!'"

There are so many puzzles and plot points to cover, and so little time, that each conflict has to be resolved almost immediately. The result is a disappointing lack of suspense.

Screen minutes were obviously at a premium, but Ron Howard still found time to bombard us with graphic violence. Why spend so many minutes zooming in on Silas (the albino monk) mortifying himself with whips and barbs, as blood oozes down his thigh? Or Fache beating the air traffic controller, then kicking him repeatedly while he's on the floor... why not one threatening shove, and then move on to the next plot point?

The scene that reveals the Teacher's identity deserves specific mention for being one of the Greatest Heavy-Handed Moments in Narrative Cinema. The camera is fixed on Teabing's butler, who is clearly having a conversation with the Teacher, saying things like, "we got 'em good, boss" etc etc. The teacher is never on camera, and you can't hear him responding to anything the butler says. Then, as the butler lays poisoned and dying, the camera desperately tries to create suspense by slowly panning up from the Teacher's feet to his face, to reveal that he is none other than Teabing. The whole scene is in wierd slow-shutter, the angles are amateurish. I found myself wishing it would all be over soon, for Ron Howard's sake.

As far as the religious content goes, I really got tired of the sign of the cross juxtaposed with brutal violence over and over again. Ok, I get it -- Silas is devoted to Opus Dei and he's also crazy. Now stop it. If you need to kill time, give Tom Hanks some more unnatural-sounding lines or something. Stop alienating your audience.

The movie I walked out of and the movie I walked into

2006-05-12T19:44:00.000-05:00

United 93 is "not a good date movie", I had been told. Nonetheless, one night Jamie and I found ourselves on a date at the Savoy 16, romantically sharing a gigantor-size popcorn bucket, sitting in those awkward theater chairs that kinda recline but only if you're applying steady pressure on them with your torso, watching Hollywood trivia and waiting for "the September 11th movie" to begin.

The film opens with the five hijackers quietly murmuring Arabic prayers in their hotel rooms. I hoped for subtitles -- they might have shed some light on what was going through the minds of these men. There were none, however; either the film wasn't concerned with giving depth to its characters, or maybe subtitles are considered "desecration" of the Qu'ran.

The scene moves to the airport, where more characters are introduced. The camera work is jerky and gives the appearance of being unmotivated -- As I watched, I felt like a regular airport traveler, just looking around. It flashes from one average Joe talking on his cell phone to another guy reading the paper. Occasionally it shows a terrorist trying to be nonchalant as he nervously bides his time.

From the very first scene, I couldn't help thinking about the film's inevitable, tragic conclusion. By the time the passengers were boarding the plane, I was overcome by this feeling. OK, I thought. I've spent a good 20 minutes here, essentially watching a giant ticking time bomb. So what's next? I'll watch another hour or so, thinking about how all these people are going to die, and then they'll die.

That thought did not appeal to me. What would be the point? And so we got up and left. It was the first movie I've ever left early because of its content. I wasn't learning anything or gaining some new perspective, and I certainly wasn't getting any entertainment value from the film.

And so we walked right out, and right into Thank You for Smoking next door. We missed the first 10 minutes or so, but still got a big kick out of this movie.

It's the story of a smooth-talking tobacco lobbyist who is constantly in the spotlight and under fire, and who consistently utters his most brilliant (and chuckle-worthy) lines when trying to explain the moral justification of his job to his young, admiring son.

Every criminal deserves a fair trial and a lawyer, right? Well, I'm like the lawyer for Big Tobacco!

There's plenty of fun here -- the movie is almost entirely tongue-in-cheek, and plenty witty. It's certainly a better date movie than that other one.

Xtension Chords at ICCA

2006-03-26T21:09:00.000-06:00

I just got home from spring break. This year, we had to haul ass around the country to get ready for ICCA competition in Madison on Saturday. Driving around in the XRV was enjoyable, though we felt a bit rushed. It was a lot of driving.

I got sick with a massive fever and sore throat on the second day, and it didn't go away for about 3 days. It was mostly annoying because I couldn't project my voice enough to talk to anyone we met on the road.

I got healthy enough in time for ICCA. This was the semi-final round -- the winner would be moving on to New York. As we stood on stage along with all the other groups, awaiting the verdict, we were feeling satisfied with our performance. As we went unmentioned in one category and then another, (arrangement - Other Guys, choreo - A Cub Bella, Solo - Dicks and Janes, 3rd place - Rip Chords... 2nd place - A Cub Bella... ), we started getting nervous. This competition wasn't our 'everything', but we wanted to do well.

First place was announced (The Other Guys), and we left the stage, disappointed. The judge sheets didn't shed much light on the verdict -- apparently, we were just not well-liked by the judges, for some reason or another.

Several judges did strange things -- one rated our energy and stage presence 7 out of 10. Another wrote "Choreo -- why?" next to 'Friend Like Me'.

Some of their comments were understandable. Our tone quality, blend, and intonation are not perfect, and I certainly don't expect them to be rated perfectly. But as we prepared to drink the disappointment away at the Nitty Gritty, we still found ourselves wondering, "Not even 3rd place -- why?"

2006-02-25T20:31:00.000-06:00

It’s 2006.

Have you ever looked into the future and just tried out some future dates in your head, to get a feel for how weird they ring:

“This is a 2015 Chardonnay from California, it was a very good year.”

It sounds so bizarre. I instinctively imagine any date more than a few years in the future as some crazy trekkied-out space age. I remember when I thought about 2006 that way. And now, here I am. Of course, the technology has gotten better; in some ways I think I would get really frustrated living in 1996, coming from 2006. Slow internet. Extremely limited cell phone use/network. Virtually no peer-to-peer, blogging, social-networking, or sharing of art that we now have happening over the web. No friggin Ipods.

But I can't help feeling, as I sit here in 2006, that in many ways the world is really the damn same as it was in 1996, and quite likely it was just as damn same in 1986 and 1926 and 1574. People have been getting by, and they continue to get by. When you strip away the superficial gloss - the longer life span, the better tech, the marrying for love, the free society, maybe we’re just the same as we used to be.

WHAT HAPPENED INSIDE MY LIFE

2006-02-15T20:13:00.000-06:00

I switched majors again. I'm still in the School of Music, so this switch isn't quite as radical as the previous one. Nonetheless, it's another change, this time to music education. I think, purely as a degree, a music ed. degree will serve me better. If I chose to make this big, risky jump to music, I might as well have some padding.

Once I have a teaching certificate, I can at the very least get a decent job, and it's not too difficult to get certified in other subjects, as well. With K-12 certification, that leaves a lot of job opportunities. This isn't to say that I'm going to end up as a HS choir director (though that's basically what they are teaching me to do). It is something that I wouldn't mind doing, though, and something that could position me for further musical endeavors.

And so I did a lot of thinking at the beginning of this semester.... It's 3 years into the future... you've graduated college, took a LOT of years to do it... you've got a composition diploma...Great, you are now armed with the completely unmarketable skill of composing avant-garde sonic brain-fuck music that any normal person would probably cringe hearing.

I'm serious in my assessment of the University faculty's music here. I'm not being bitter because they didn't accept me at first and told me I was "unsophisticated" (you can read about that one in the archives). Being completely impartial, I can tell you that the music is not pleasant-sounding. It is not inspiring. It is not evocative. It is a sin against the Music Gods, because it represses all considerations of what one is supposed to feel, think, imagine when hearing music. These professors are interested in music purely as a philosophical, academic exercise. It's all numbers and matrices and pitch classes to them. Sure, they have concerts for an audience occasionally, though the audience is composed of primarily other university composition teachers, and their students, who are graded on the number of "new music" shows they attend.

But I've said enough unsubstantiated things... go listen to their stuff. Click on any one of the faculty members' name at the left of the page. Many of them have sound clips in that sidebar. What do you think of it? I decided that this was not the kind of aesthetic that I would want guiding my compositional development, but you are free to think differently.

GREECE (Part 3 of a 3-part Series)

2006-01-13T19:37:00.000-06:00

The photo above is from Santorini, taken in the evening. It gives a pretty good idea of a typical town on the island (if you've seen one, you've pretty much seen them all) -- A lot of small, white buildings (which almost hurt to look at in broad daylight) and steeply descending terrain. I guess the three-car garages must be hidden underground or something.

The beach at Naxos -- beautiful by virtue of its monotony. Swimming here feels like bathing in God's swimming pool. I went butt naked -- I figured God would think I was more of a badass if I went sans fig leaves. I have eaten of the tree of knowledge and I still have no shame. The water was cold, and the beach was filled with coppery naked old people. These folks had even less shame than I; I think even God may have winced seeing the old man doing calisthenics with the waves lapping at his ankles and his nutsack lapping at his knees.

This castle was built by the Venetians on Naxos several centuries ago when they controlled the Greek islands. Several nearby islands are visible from its windows. Now, it is a museum, as well as a performing space. We spent an evening there listening to traditional Greek music as the sun set, and were warned that we could not leave until the audience finished several hundred shots of various Greek liqueurs laid out before us. The music was good -- mostly performed by a fiddle accompanied by a lute. Also interesting was a burly, red-faced shepherd from the island who played a whiny, bagpipe-type instrument -- the diaphragm was made from the complete hide of one of his goats.

Rascal Flatts Concert (12/3) -- Review

2005-12-07T18:36:00.000-06:00

This group writes some great songs, and singer Gary Levox performs them with such unbelievable skill, that I had to see the Rascal Flatts live.

Keith Anderson and Blake Shelton (two acts that I had never heard of) were the openers. Their acts consisted of pretty standard rock grooves with overlaid country vocals, the occasional attempt at a guitar solo (more on that later), and too many shoutouts to the audience.

Performer: D'you folks like beer??
Audience: Yea! Wooo! Beer! Woo!

Performer: All the redneck girls in the audience, make some noise!
Chicago suburban chicks with cowgirl hats: *SCREAM* YEAAH!!!

ad nauseam. It annoys me when performers ask the audience to "make some noise" too often and too early in the concert. Let your music and your performance inspire the noisemaking. Overall though, the opening acts sufficed; they did what opening acts are supposed to do -- Inspire eventual cries of "Get off the stage! Let's hear some Rascal Flatts!"

The Rascal Flatts sounded great. Their harmonies were amazingly tight, considering the guys were busy playing instruments while singing. Gary sang well -- You could tell that he was a bit fatigued, though, and he let the crowd sing quite a bit.

When the Flatts weren't playing their standard radio songs, they pulled out some interesting stuff that revealed a lot about them to me. The violin player had a giant improvizatory solo number that could have been a sideshow act for Yngwie Malmsteen (a 1980s shred guitarist). It was amazing, but I couldn't help but think how out of place it was at a country music concert. There were several other jam numbers that sounded like YES songs, too. It became really clear to me that these musicians are not finding enough of an outlet in the tightly structured, ultra clean radio singles of the Rascal Flatts.

And yet, it is a bit of a precarious balance... too many 80s hair band jams, and a large body of fans get alienated. Not enough jamming, and the musicians will be unfulfilled.

Don't believe me about this 80s phenomenon? Then you won't believe this encore:

"Pour Some Sugar on Me, You Give Love a Bad Name, Born in the USA" MEDLEY.

I was amazed at how overtly they were pushing their audience towards classic rock. Def Leppard, Bon Jovi, Bruce Springsteen -- I mean, damn. I definitely enjoyed it, but I can just imagine some chump in the front row with acid-washed ambercrombie jeans and a cowboy hat having an identity crisis.

"B-b-b-but this isn't country... am I supposed to like this music or not? Someone please tell me how I'm supposed to react!!!"

I never thought I'd say this, but country music is quietly filling the space left by the disappearance of rock 'n' roll. Yes, you heard me - Country is turning into classic rock.

And it's not just the Rascal Flatts -- the opening acts were trying the same stuff. So many of their songs had the design and instrumentation of regular rock songs, with nothing but a cowboy hat and a southern twang to differentiate them. Once you start regularly using overdriven guitars with screaming 10 second sustains, it's not long before the "country" label becomes little more than a semantic distinction.

And speaking of cowboy hats... I was amused how Gary Levox gently put one on his head for about 15 seconds (taking care not to ruin his gelled hair), and then threw it out into the crowd. A nice, symbolic gesture. Next assignment -- kiss a baby in front of the camera.

GREECE 2005 (continued)

2005-11-30T18:16:00.000-06:00

One of the exports of Naxos is marble. This marble quarry seemed like a piece of abstract mega-art, carved out of the side of the mountain.

This is an unfinished statue that has been laying near another marble quarry on Naxos since the 7th century BC. It is about 35 feet long, and apparently it cracked while it was being carved. The sculptor just left it and no one has bothered to move it since. We see so many sculptures from the golden age of Greece, but how often do we get to see failed attempts? To me, this sculpture was more interesting than many of the finished ones.

And here is one of my favorite shots of the famed Santorini sunset. The colors never get as fiery and wild as they do in more polluted atmospheres; sunsets here are more subdued, but very peaceful. One can see vauge, misty outlines of neighboring islands in the distance, the calm sea below, and the Santorini "skyline" hugging the cliffs. It feels like a Greek myth.

GREEK ISLANDS, SUMMER 2005

2005-11-15T14:00:00.000-06:00

Just a few shots from the beautiful Greek isles from this summer. The two seascapes are from Santorini, a small volcanic island most famous for its sunsets and its wine (there is almost no rainfall, I learned; the grape vines get nearly all of their water from the nightly dew).

The interior mountain landscape is on Naxos, a larger, more functional island. I know what you're thinking -- is that a "functional" road? Indeed, we drove around for hours on roads like this one, snaking back and forth between mountains, without really going very far as the crow flies. It was beautiful, though, and thrilling (God bless my dad and his nads of steel for navigating our teeny stickshift 6-person "minibus" through this landscape).

I say "functional" because Naxos is actually capable of sustaining itself without tourism -- the inhabitants even recently voted down a planned airport on the island to curb the tourist influx.

(My family and I visited Greece this summer -- These photos are from our digi album, taken by various family members.)

2005-11-09T22:37:00.000-06:00

Briefly about my current goings on:

- I had my audition/interview for the School Of Music at UIUC this past friday. The audition (voice) went well... but the interview with the chair of the composition department was a bit of a slap in the face. The guy looked through my three compositions for a total of 30 seconds, and told me that my music was unsophisticated. Should my portfolio be placed alongside those of last year's applicants, I would probably not get admitted, he told me. He was looking for something more "modern" (ie. experimental, not tonal).

So, right now my future at this school is completely up in the air. There is a "bachelor's of arts in music" degree which is my fall-back option -- I may very well end up doing that, with an emphasis in composition.

- Xtension Chords have a concert this weekend, Nov. 12th. It's called XFEST, and it's a fest because we're bringing in the creme de la creme of a cappella groups from all over the midwest. Visit the website for more details.

- I have not done laundry for a very long time. The situation is bad.

2005-10-17T14:19:00.000-05:00

Leaves

The greenery bathing in the summer sun
has tanned itself a gentle autumn brown
and the leaves descend contented
having seen the sights on high
the smooth fall breeze it eases slowly
it gives way, lets them fall to rest.

I watch, through the window, waiting,
seeing them gather and grow in number upon the grass,
soon the rusty snow of autumn is a carpet on my lawn.
The leaves, they sleep, unsuspecting, nothing do they know of my intent.
I step outside, rake in hand, the cool crisp air rushes in as I breathe,
I am the shepherd. With a swift stroke the slumbering ones are tossed
they awake, disoriented, they are flying! only to tumble back down
in a jumbled heap. Deftly maneuvering the rake I bring them in
from far and wide, until the haphazard mound grows to a mountain
of leaves upon leaves, a mighty brown fortress of foliage.
Not another one dares to descend from above,
lest it share the fate of its fallen brothers.

A deep breath, the rake tossed to the ground, beside me lying.
step, step, step, pump, pump, pump, pump
the leaf pile I am eyeing
my feet race thump thump and jump!
I am flying!

This is something I wrote a while back for an English class in high school. It was supposed to follow this odd, antiquated poetic form, called a "bob and wheel", or "box and whisker" or something of the sort. It goes with the season. Enjoy!

2005-09-28T14:48:00.000-05:00

Kiss My Grits, Katrita

Sorry about the erratic blog updates, but I came across this photograph, and I'm just going to let it stand for itself. Alright, I think it's brilliant.

Reprinted here with(out) permission from The Washington Times (which I found through a wonderful newpaper front page database at Newseum.org).

2005-09-26T18:56:00.000-05:00

The Books -- A musical group ahead of its time

My last update was about a mediocre album. This one is about a group that I am fairly nuts about. They're called the Books. This is the cover of their latest studio release, Lost and Safe (2005). Does the cover look like a piece of shit? Yes. All of their album covers have an ironic crappiness to them that is reminiscent of David Shrigley's art.

But the music... is unlike anything you're likely to have heard before. Basically, the songs are built from dozens of snippets of audio from random sources. Taped conversations, old radio broadcasts, samples of various sounds... they are all pieced together and overlaid with some vocals, guitars, and other instruments. All in all, you could call it "collage" music.

And, as you begin to listen, it hardly sounds like music (this is especially true for their older releases, such as Lemon of Pink). It is bewildering, as your ear struggles to make sense of what it is hearing. It takes a while to acclimatize, but eventually you stop searching for the meaning of the songs (how does this all fit together? what does it mean?) and settle into a cozy spot right on the surface - you just soak in the sound and marvel at the super-crisp production.

It's just about the most postmodern listening experience possible. And though I can't pinpoint where any of the source material came from, each sound byte conjures up vague images. It stimulates (maybe I should even say emulates) my stream of consciousness so much that I find it damn hard to focus on anything else while listening to the songs.

Anyway, they're one of my favorite groups currently, and I recommend them for anyone who really wants to stretch his or her musical mind. Check them out online at their thoroughly unnavigable website.

Of course, it's always more of a joy to listen through some high quality stereo speakers (I highly recommend these, and there are online outlets that beat the manufacturer's price by $80+.

2005-09-02T09:48:00.000-05:00

Jason Mraz: Mr. A-Z -- 1.5 stars/ 5

To those of you who paid money for this album, my condolences. I grabbed from the ol' BitTorrent, and am in the process of deleting it. Here's why:

1. NO energy. The mood of the entire album is wierdly subdued. Choruses don't have that that rockin' sing-a-long feeling. The single "wordplay" has the big radio sound, but it feels as if it's done that way just for the purpose of getting the song on the radio. No real power behind it. Can't really blame the performers -- there isn't that much emotive weight in a song about how good you are at making puns.

2. I'm tired of wordplay. The mraz formula is gibba-gibba-gibberish-and-really-fa-fa-fast-lyrics that end on a WORD that also makes se-se-se-sense in the next lyrical la-la-line which ends with another WORD that also makes sense in the next la-la-la-RALF **

Someone should tell Mraz that sometimes less is more. I read all of his lyrics, and most of it is the most prosaic, un-poetic stuff I've seen in a while. I just don't buy his lyrics, as hard as Mraz tries to legitimize them with his vocal elaborations and scatty melismas.

3. Bad sexual references. For someone who proclaims himself to be so artful with words, I'd expect more graceful, less braggy, lyrics about making love. Here's a Mraz lyric from "forecast": "

Well I can taste, I can taste, I can taste, I can taste you all over my face"

The album is littered with this stuff, as if he needs to announce to the world, "Yeah, that's right, I'm getting ass now cuz I'm famous."

Then, there's this one from "Clockwatching", in which Mraz sings about finishing early:

Who knew I'd come/cum so fast.
Well so what if a two pump chump can't last.
I finally made it to three, and I foreclose a five minute, fantasy.

Chuckle. Sorry Jason, even you can't make premature ejaculation seem cool. Don't try.

4. Ineffective dabblings in other genres. "Geek in the Pink" tries for hip-hop. "Curiousity" throws in an ambient operatic voice track near the end. "Bella Luna" and "O. Lover" both start latin, and then phase it out as the song develops.

Sorry, but his fo-fo-formula-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la for wr-wr-wr-wr-wr-wr-wr-wr-wri-ting songs is stale.

2005-09-01T15:12:00.000-05:00

It's now been a while since I've written. There were moments in these past weeks where I've thought to myself, "I should write about this in my blog." But I never got the chance to really sit down and write something good. And after a few busy days, that thought you once had is no longer so fresh in your mind. And you feel wrong about writing about it, when it's not even a strong impression in your mind anymore.

So now, to talk about the freshest of experiences in one's mind, to talk about the present... I'm a week into school. I'm a music major. Came to Urbana, and realized as soon as I stepped onto this campus that I can't do this philosophy major bullshit anymore. I needed to switch to music. I'm the director of the Xtension Chords, and I'm struggling to pump out music I can be proud of as fast as the group is gobbling it up. In short, I'm taking 12 hours of coursework, which is nothing (especially when music classes hardly even seem like school anyway). But I'm still feeling like I could use a few more hours in the day. Living a life of quality is time consuming, and right now is the first time in a very long time that I feel myself really trying to live a life of quality. I'm trying to create quality work! Kinda sadly, for me it's something I haven't always done.

I went to the bars for the first time last night, and it was just as it was 5 months ago, when I last went. Just plain dumb, drunken funhaving in a sensually irritating setting. I guess it's kinda comforting that some things will always stay the same, just gives that reassuring anchor to my life *sniffle sniffle, then (fondly) : "I love them ol' campus bars!"

2005-08-08T20:55:00.000-05:00

The image directly to the left is an example of walking a fine line between science and shock-value entertainment. This weekend I went to see "Body Worlds 2" at the Great Lakes Science Center while visiting Cleveland. Body Worlds 1 is showing at Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry.

Basically, it's a display of real preserved human bodies in various "creative" poses, with various layers of tissue removed so visitors can see the inner workings of the human anatomy up close and in person.

This particular dude (from Body Worlds 1) is carrying his own skin in one arm.

The exhibit is definitely worth seeing. Seeing the musculature, the organs, the circulatory system (JUST the circulatory system with no tissue!) of real people is a biology lesson unlike any other.

But, a part of me cringed during the entire two hours I spent at the exhibit. Each body is posed -- kicking a soccer ball, doing yoga, skateboarding, etc. And the poor guy who died of cancer probably never touched a skateboard in his life. And here's his body, skinned, gutted, twisted upside down into some skate trick pose, on display for thousands to peek into his butthole to see the intestinal tract. It's the gimmick that bothered me -- the expectation of visitors to have an aesthetic appreciation for real bodies of once living people, contorted and cut up. Marketing this as a "creative" and "artistic" exhibit seemed wrong.

But it goes to show that people will swallow anything if you present it in the right context. Put these figures in a SCIENCE museum, and people come in droves. But if I were to dim the lights and stand behind the bodies in a hockey mask, just start rolling the camera and you've got a horror film.

I personally ignored the "art" of the exhibit and focused on the anatomy. I did feel a sense of awe, but it was because I saw what an intricate and well-designed machine the human body really is. Check the exhibit out -- it's worth it.

2005-07-21T16:07:00.000-05:00

Watching kids' shows as an adult (or even near adult) is wierd. When there's nothing to do in those oh so boring early afternoons, check out what PBS is showing. And, like, seriously watch an entire episode from beginning to end.

I just watched this show called ZOOM (http://pbskids.org/zoom/) today. and it was really strange. The entire cast of the show is kids.... but if my lil tyke was basing his behavior on what he saw in this show, there's a chance he could turn out a bit strange.

Two of the girls have smiles so giant and forced that after about 10 seconds i start wondering how much pain they're in.

Don't get me wrong.. it's not a bad show, I actually rather enjoyed it.

There are kids of every possible ethnicity... goodbye are the days of "the cast is 4 white boys and girls and 1 black kid! yay, now the minorities will be happy!". Oh no, now we've got -- just to name a few -- Claudio, Estuardo, Francesco, Kaleigh, Keiko, Lynese, Maya, Pablo, and... Shingying!

Shingying!

I guess it's a good step, but I won't be happy until one of the characters on a kids' show is named KESTUTIS, bitches. Then, I'll finally feel like all minorities are included. ;)

Oh, and there's one kid who has to be gay... watch it, and see if you can figure out which one I'm talking about.

Not a bad thing necessarily... I guess a child's never too young to learn that in life, there are tops and there are bottoms.

;)

2005-07-17T16:47:00.000-05:00

Ok, so here I am. At home, sitting by my PC, listening to Medesky Martin & Wood tease the limitations of sound, in the midst of cleaning my room. Ain't nothing like a good deep houseclean to really kill a good chunk of otherwise meaningless time!

I am currently in a meaningless time chunk, having quit the NY Film Academy 6-week summer program I was in. I stayed in NY for a total of 8 days, attended three full days (9-6) of classes, and by the time I had walked the short distance back to my dorm @ NYU on that third day, I had that feeling. I started searching the policies on early withdrawal and refunds online.

Luckily, I got the full tuition (a big chunk of cash) all back from the NYFA. A day and a half later I was on an airplane to Detroit, on my way to Camp Dainava. What was that feeling, you ask, that made me decide so abruptly and assertively to leave after only a week, and probably fuck over the members of my small group who were counting on me for the first film?

The thought of spending the next six weeks (almost exclusively) with the 16 kids of my class was quite depressing to me. I quickly saw that this program allowed little time for anything else besides itself. Weekends would be spent scouting locations, pre-prod. stuff, and shooting our films. Weeknights would be spent writing, setting up storyboards, brainstorming. And the kids were all so foreign, so scattered throughout manhattan (and who knows elsewhere), so on completely different pages socially, that it didn't take a genius to predict that few friendships would be forming here. And for me, the work was not rewarding enough to offset the social difficulties. I just didn't see this as my life's work.

And that's all for today, folks! Tune in next time for less wordy and more interesting reports!

2005-07-15T16:37:00.000-05:00

Well guys, I did some thinking... People actually commented to my first post, which to me was surprising. I can't be responsible for these poor people being bored -- my concience won't let me do it. And that book review stuff, my friends, would be reeel boring for people who don't care about the books. So, I'm switching formats yet again, and just writing about whatever the hell I want. Now if you're bored by that, well then I'm sorry, you're just gonna have to leave.

;)

And who knows, maybe i'll put up the reviews on a separate page, just for kicks... never know, someone could pass by who would be quite interested... can't deny them, now can I?

2005-06-22T15:07:00.000-05:00

Just for kicks, I've been writing about books/movies that i've consumed, and also some other random stuff. The masses have begged to see what I've written, so i'll be periodically tossing y'all a crumb. What's that you say? -- "dude, i don't think anyone even knew you were writing this stuff." Well, maybe YOU didn't know. I can't help if some people are out of touch with the mainstream.

Feel free to comment on anything that strikes your fancy ;)