god loves his children

I have a strange obsession with this album:



I don't know what it is about it, but I can't hear it enough. When you listen to something at least twice a day all the way through, that's something special. I haven't done that since the first Gorillaz album, and haven't paid so much attention to details since I first heard Dark Side of the Moon. It's that good, go buy it.

I'm not looking forward to working on Halloween, but if tonight was any indication, it may be tolerable. I had fun tonight taking people from party to party, despite not being able to go myself. It's not usually like that, but tonight was for some reason. Maybe the passengers were just a little nicer than usual. But there was some insanity out and about tonight. Entire streets blocked off with people. DPS trying fruitlessly to get people to stop having fun (fuck DPS). The Row was a sight to see. People passed out in the streets, all in costumes. I even saw this fiesty Hispanic girl try to fight (like, fist-fight) this black guy. Awesome.

Just a quick post and I'm tired now. Happy Daylight Savings Time e'erybody.

Currently enjoying:

You know what I'm enjoying.

the best and worst day of my life

Last night should have been much more enjoyable than it was. Being a screenwriter, we get informed of certain events happening around the LA area that may not be common knowledge to non-screenwriters or perhaps non-cinema students at least. So a while back, I hear about Charlie Kaufman coming to speak at the Writer's Guild and needless to say, I am very excited. The man has won Oscars for Christ's sake. Five of us went to see him last night and it was incredible. You could really tell that this was the guy that wrote Adaptation, albeit his character was a bit exaggerated. Sure, the man was a bit awkward but he does a lot better job of covering it up in real life. Maybe it's because we don't get the voiceover in real life. Actually, that's exactly what it is. Anyway, we hear him talk, followed by a Q and A (including the stupidest question ever asked, by this man. Don't worry Daren, it's not you). Daren did have the balls to ask Charlie Kaufman about his next script (and he somehow incorporated the word "douchetwat" into his question, which really impressed Charlie I think). Charlie politely said that he could not talk about the script and that was that. Every other question got at least a fake answer, Daren gets a flat "No." So that part of the night was fun. And the part where he signed my notebook. Yes, the notebook that I do my screenwriting homework in is now signed by Charlie Kaufman. Is it going to help? I'd like to think it will.

The next 8 hours, however, were not fun. I had so much fucking work to do (paper due Wednesday, paper due the next morning along with a semi-finished comic book, and a paper due Monday) so I was already overwhelmed by this time. I hadn't started my 102 paper (the one due the next morning, which quickly turned into this morning, which quickly turned into "Fuck, it's due in 6 hours") and I did my best to shit out some quality work. I get about halfway done by 1:00 AM. I could have had a rough draft done by 2:00 if a certain person didn't get drunk for the first time ever and distract me. I couldn't miss that. Add to the fact that one of my breaks consisted of conversing with a fellow screenwriter over a few Heineken's, which I think actually helped my writing ability. But I finish up at about 5:00 this morning, and afterwards I have to work on the comic. I finish coloring one page, and I nearly collapse on the bed in defeat at about 6:00. I sleep until 10:30-ish, get up, do a quick proofread of my shitty paper, run to the library to print it off, hand the fucker in, and make it to my TO advisement in time. At least I got the classes I wanted for next semester. Except for my discussion. Instead of 10AM, it's at 9AM. Who wakes up at 9AM?!?

Currently enjoying:



Next ish: Fuck, I'm exhausted.

i am trying to break your heart

Fuck the White Sox. My dad is never gonna let me hear the end of it if they win it all. Fall Classic my ass, this is gonna be the worst World Series ever. Can you imagine if the Cardinals fight back and make it again? The two teams I hate the most (well it probably goes 1. Cardinals, 2. Yankees, 3. White Sox) in the World Series. And it's not like the Astros would be that much better. Talk about a ratings killer.

Went to Santa Barbara on Friday for The Mars Volta concert. I have to say, I was duly impressed. I've been listening to them a bit since I got here, but before that I had no exposure. I thought they were pretty cool, but they're a really sweet live band. John Frusciante from the Red Hot Chili Peppers played a song too, which was fucking amazing. Omar (lead guitarist of The Mars Volta) is a sight to see on stage as well. He's insane, as is Cedric the lead singer. He's got the craziest moves this side of Michael Jackson, I swear.

Overall, it's been a good weekend for music, what with the concert and a few of us stumbling upon a really sweet ass record store close to campus. Solsounds on the corner of Pico and Flower. Bought some really good shit there, which is all listed in the currently enjoying, except for one album I bought that wasn't all that great. You ever want to just go into a record store and pick something completely random and hope you found something gold? I tried that the other day. The CD isn't all that bad, but Moving Units are just a Franz Ferdinand knock-off. So a mediocre outcome for that experiment. The other two CDs though, pure gold. Buy them immediately. And I'm not getting paid (much) to say that.

Pretty damn good weekend for USC too. Now I've grown up an Irish fan for no real reason except for that my dad really likes them. No, he didn't go there, he just really likes them. No, it's not because he saw Rudy, he just really likes them. Goddammit, he just really likes them, okay? Enough with the third degree! But yeah, he likes them, so I liked them. Then I come to USC and discover that they're our arch-rivals. Irony! I got lucky though, because my annual bet with my dad (Cubs record v. White Sox record, $10) got erased as my dad had the balls to go double or nothing on the outcome of this Saturday's game. Now I admit, I forgot about the bet. But I was still preparing the noose during the last 3 minutes of that game. It was that scary. But of course, we pulled it out (we always do, we don't want any pregnancies now do we? That was in bad taste, I'm sorry). But now I don't owe my dad money. Good thing too, he totally would have sent some baseball-bat-carrying knee-bashers to collect too.

Oceanography field trip today. Went to Palos Verdes on a bus. Good story huh? Nah, it was pretty cool, I really like that class. Maybe it has something to do with my fascination with nature documentaries. I seriously contemplated buying the complete Jacques Cousteau collection the other day. I'm such a dork. Wait, no I'm not. You're a dork for not liking Jacques Cousteau. Dude, he inspired Steve Zissou. Yeah, the Steve Zissou. Oh, and there was some unexpected company on this field trip. Ask me about it, if you can't figure it out. And I want to learn how to surf. Now.

So now that I've enlightened you all with my skillz again, I'm off for another short sabbatical, at least until something interesting happens to me.

Currently enjoying:





An addendum: Watch Arrested Development because it's the funniest thing since Family Guy and we can't let Fox ruin yet another good thing. Mondays, 8/7 central. Seriously, watch one episode and you'll understand why everyone speaks so highly of it.

short and sweet

How bout them apples, bitch? Fuck the Yankees.

I get to go to an advanced screening of Shopgirl next Wednesday. I do love my major. Add that to my incredibly busy weekend consisting of 1.) Volta concert 2.) Oceanography field trip 3.) Work 4.) Finishing drawing like a million panels of my comic book. Oh, then I might go meet Charlie Kaufman on the 27th. Well, I'm not exactly sure if I'll meet him, but I get to go see him talk, and possibly meet him. I hope I can think of something more interesting to say than "Man, Adaptation was awesome, how'd you think of that shit?" because of course he'll say, "Didn't you watch the movie? That's how I came up with it. Dumbass."

checking out

So I saw American Beauty and took probably the easiest midterm ever created. We had *seven* short answer question about it, like "Give an example of planting and payoff that involves a line of dialogue" and "Describe the conflict (chase/escape) in a scene of dialogue." Now some of the terms may not be familiar to you, but we've been talking about this shit for *seven* weeks, so I knew what I was talking about. But to top it all off, the T.A. (Don, our teacher, is in Germany writing a mini-series. He said it's going to be similar to *Se7en* only with the Ten Commandments) said that Don told him we could work together, talk amongst ourselves if need be. Hell, he said if we really wanted we could take it home and turn it in next week. There was even a whole page of easy-ass extra credit. I do love my major.

So I was talking to Mr. Mark Bernachea last night, and I said "New blog is up," and he said something very interesting.

"I'm done with that fad."

That got me thinking. All I do on this thing is tell you people about mundane details about college life, and in all honesty, it's boring ass shit. So I've come to a decision. I'm not completely done, but I'm going to cut back. No more meaningless updates. I'll take a page out of Bernachea's book and save up a couple of good stories for a good post, but other than that I don't really see a point in continuing to tell you about my day, every day. I'll probably keep the recently seen movie section going, and maybe the music, but unless something really cool happens I'm probably not going to write anything. There's always the possibility that I get struck with inspiration, and of course then I'll do a post, but seriously, when have I ever been struck with inspiration?

So this is probably the last post for a while. I can't really think of anything in the upcoming weekend that would be remotely interesting, unless something cool happens at work. The Mars Volta concert is a week from Friday, so I imagine that will be the next thing I'll want to talk about. So good night, and good luck.

Oh yeah, say goodbye to your life, because this shit will consume you. If anyone gets the fourth one, let me know, because all signs point to LSD but no dice.




Are you smart enough to take the riddle challenge?

That's all.

dr. merkwurdichliebe

So I snuck into the Intro to Cinema class today, and they were watching Dr. Strangelove. This movie makes me appreciate Stanley Kubrick a whole lot more (especially after seeing Eyes Wide Shut). It's as if Jonathan Swift made a movie. Actually, there are Jonathan Swift references in it. Based on a book called Red Alert by Peter George, it's probably the most brilliant satire ever made in movie form. It's got that air of overly serious characters that just end up being caricatures of themselves. The overzealous general(s), the crazy scientist (with a Nazi right arm), the inept President (sound familiar?), all fighting to stop (or not) a nuclear holocaust. Of course, all of this takes place during the Cold War, so naturally we're attacking Russia. There's some genius one-sided dialogue between the President and the Russian Premier. And you thought our leader was bad. Every little detail about this movie is great, and there's tons of little stuff to notice to get you to watch it again. For a movie made in 1964, I was surprised at how many people I recognized in it. Peter Sellers (in more than one place) of course, the guy who played Taggart in Blazing Saddles, James Earl Jones in his big-screen debut, and Uncle Alonzo from Herbie Rides Again. It's so sad that I've seen but you know what? It was probably one of my favorite movies as a kid, and I still laugh at it when I see it. So it's not all that sad. It's just one of those shitty old live-action Disney movies like Escape to Witch Mountain and Chitty, Chitty, Bang, Bang. But Mary Poppins was fucking good, I don't care what anybody says.

Work fucking rocks. It's so easy and it's fun meeting lots of people in a short amount of time without having to be in a room full of awkward looking people holding a notecard with your interests on it (so you don't forget of course) while wearing a douche-y looking polo shirt and bad cologne. That was a poor (and probably inaccurate) description of speed dating in case you didn't know. I imagine that's what it's like, except for maybe the polo part, because our uniform shirt is a polo and I don't want to be associated with speed dating.

What the hell is the deal with movie trailers nowadays? Every single new trailer I see makes a movie look compelling and interesting, but if I watch an old trailer (of a movie I've never seen) I can tell if the movie is good or shitty. It's like trailer producers are in their prime right now, because the trailer for Everything is Illuminated made that fucker look funny, interesting, and just plain, old awesome, but then I saw it and some parts were funny and interesting, but for the most part it was just a little above average. Jesus Christ, even the trailer for Domino looks fucking sweet. The only trailer I've seen lately that I knew the movie would be a piece of rotting zombie flesh was the one for Flightplan. Jodie Foster needs to take a role where she doesn't have a kid. Panic Room was cool, but damn, get over it.

Is anyone else as excited as I am for the new Harry Potter? Has anyone in the history of the world asked a stupider question? Because you are excited for this movie. No, you are. Shut up and listen to me. You're fucking dying for this movie to come out, you understand me? You're not? Well, I have a friend in a Quidditch uniform with a Beater bat that says different. Got it? That's fucking right you got it. Now go watch the trailer 20 more times.

My Lost: Season One STILL isn't here. I've seen more of the new season now than I've seen of the old one, and that was not my intention when I ordered the DVD. I wanted to have it before the season premiere, and here we are, at the third week of the season and still no first season. Amazon screws yet another unsuspecting college student with a new credit card. Speaking of credit cards, mine is slowly running out of money. Thank god I have a job that pays 8.50 an hour. And for 8 of the 36 hours per two weeks I work, I'm getting paid 9.25 because it's the late shift. Fucking awesome.

For some reason I'm beginning to feel like I'm in a rut out here. I've been thinking of home a lot and what it's going to be like to be back. I'm almost afraid of what I'm going to hear back home. Just like right before we left for college and everyone always asked the same questions (Where you going to school?...University of...South Carolina?...Ohh, California...What's your major?...Really?...Good school for that...wak, wak, wak, wak) . So I imagine when I get back, it's going to be a bunch of a new set of questions. Can't wait for that. As for seeing everyone again, it's going to be a mixed bag I think. It'll be great to see everyone, but I don't want to get thrown into the same old drama. I've gotten so used to being at peace with everyone out here that I don't want to get back into the habit of making petty little arguments into huge fights. And I know that will happen, and if it's not me doing it, it will be somebody else. Not something I'm looking forward to.

But on the brighter side, school is going well, grade-wise. I got an 88 on my only midterm (and the class average was like 74), I haven't missed a question on the quizzes in my oceanography lab, I got B's on my last two papers (which I thought were shit), and I'm actually enjoying reading Shakespeare (well, Shakespeare Sparknotes at least). Ok, remember in high school when we would "bullshit" on in-class essays? Well, it seems like that "bullshitting" is what we're supposed to do in college. You take a quote and make some crazy-ass random argument that fits the quote you picked. Technically you're supposed to make the argument then pick the quote, but it's way easier my way. So my slacker, bullshit essays of the past are fast becoming what my college professors want. Good to know.

So in conclusion (never do this in a college paper), things are mediocre right now. They could definitely be better by a) me being intoxicated a little more often, b) me getting a little more attention from the ladies, or c) me being home. Ponder that till next time.

Currently enjoying:



Next ish: After this marathon, I don't know what to write about. I'm watching American Beauty tomorrow, so I'll tell you about that eventually. I'm gonna go watch the third episode of season two of Lost.

serenity now

I watched Firefly, the extremely short-lived Fox sci-fi show, and I loved it. A space western, kind of like what Star Wars wanted to be. Star Wars was too timeless to have a true western feel, but Firefly takes place in the not-so-distant future, after we terraformed a whole new solar system, creating a brand new, and much more expansive frontier where space pioneers could expand from planet to planet, every new world a new Wild West. But Fox, as usual, cancelled something that would turn out to have a considerably large cult following, followed by good DVD sales. So poor Fox missed out. I doubt they'll bring this one back like they did Family Guy, but fans don't need it. Joss Whedon (creator of many successful shows on the WB) shopped a script around and got to make Serenity. Same characters, same story (for the most part), and a whole lotta badassery. All the original actors from the show came back for it, and it pays off in full.

I don't want to go into detail and break down the whole movie for you, but I can say go see it. You definitely do not have to have seen the show to understand it. It may even be beneficial not to have seen it. Whedon's not afraid to kill people either, which I respect. This movie has one of the most heart-wrenching moments I've ever seen. After a whole lotta action, a narrow escape, and a funny line, you think it'll all gonna slow down for a bit, but then BAM! Shit hits the fan, and you lose it. Greatness.

So yeah, Serenity is quality. My first night of work is tonight from 11:00 pm to 3:00 am. It's gonna be a beast. USC has been giving us a fright today. Trailing for the entire first half? Not covering the spread? What the fuck man? But I don't blame you Leinart. We all know you're human. Well, part human, at least. 17.5 points was quite a bit to cover anyway. Technically, as I'm writing this, the game isn't over. It's 37-28 USC with 2:22 left to play. So theoretically it's possible for us to cover it, but that's stretching it. Hope everyone's having fun in Rockford for homecoming weekend. Have a couple drinks for me.

Currently enjoying:



Next ish: Work for the next four days. I don't foresee anything interesting.