Monday, May 30, 2005
Like Hemmingway, only sober, poor, and remarkably homebodyish.
Many of you who know me, know that I like to write. This blog is just one side of that. I used to enjoy writing short stories, poems, and essays on a regular basis. But, as time marches on, I seem to run out of the precious extra hours that I once used to write.
A lot of the appeal of writing comes from my love for story telling. I am very interested in story telling, and the messages and values we encode in our stories. This is why I can, and have, in the same month read Alice in Wonderland and Guns, Germs, and Steel. My love for writing has mysteriously avoided modern fiction, however. For a person who loves books as much as I do, I couldn’t tell you jack-squat about who is hot now in publishing. I still haven’t even opened the cover of The DaVinci Code. If I am going to invest time in a book, give me a classic. Or nonfiction. Or classic nonfiction. Heck, I have even begun to enjoy Shakespeare.
As I may have mentioned once before, my dream job, which is always changing, always has involved writing. Journalism, novelist, research, anthropological book writer… always writing was involved. A few years ago I started writing a fantasy adventure novel for my nephew. I haven’t given any of it to him, and it is far from finished. As a matter of fact, I have completely restarted it three times, and am currently thinking about doing so once again. Each time it becomes better, but each time I lose a little zeal for the project.
You see, I have a billion ideas for stories and movie plots. But like the high school kid who already has a band name, logo, and first album cover designed, but hasn’t yet bothered to learn an instrument… I too have faltered in taking writing seriously. Even this blog has changed in form many times from day one. Don’t believe me? Go back and read random entries from the first four months.
What I do want to do is share with you all some of my ideas. Write and let me know what you think of them, maybe I will finally start one of these projects;
1) The one I am writing for my nephew is a blend of good old high fantasy and Asian mysticism. I wanted each chapter to be as a serial entry, and I wanted to have a lot of colorful characters that I could bring in and out of the story. I don’t have a pervasive plot, but instead a lot of small adventures. I wanted to be able to write about Jin Te (my protagonist) for years. The problem is that my first draft was too much like Lord of the Rings, and then I realized I had subconsciously stolen many ideas from the Dragonball manga. So, my newest permutation of the story involves Jin as a runaway from a "corrupt" orphanage who is really the son of a king, who was betrayed by his most loyal advisor (the current king).
2) I wanted to write my own version of a heavy-handed moral children’s story. My idea is this; I wanted to write a story about a Gentile boy who was not so wealthy, and was picked on by wealthier boys (including, but not exclusive to, local Jewish boys). On one day, a young boy shows him the grave of a political revolutionary, and the story’s hero decides that seeing this dead body would be a great way to make him popular with the other boys. So he goes and rounds up a small posse of children and leads them to the grave, relaying the tale of the criminal they are about to see dead. When they arrive, the grave is empty, and all of the boys slowly depart and sling insults at the boy. But one visitor arrives to console the boy…
3) Another children’s book I wanted to write is about a little vampire who grows up in a castle. He is never allowed to leave the castle, or be awake during the day. From the castle at night, the world seems unpopulated and dull. But He finds a book about vampires, and starts to wonder if he really is one. His family continues to reassure him that he (and they) are vampires… but he doesn’t have any powers, and they don’t suck blood, and so on. In the end, the boy will find out that he is free to decide what he is, and he is not a vampire, and he runs off into the sun, finding out that the world around his castle is vibrant and full of people during the day.
4) My biggest thrill would be to adapt the Brautigan novel The Hawkline Monster for the big screen. I think this would be a great movie. It could go so many ways, and all of it would be magical and humorous, as well as filled with small nuggets of meaning.
5) My biggest challenge would be to adapt Spartacus into a new story involving slaves in America. I thought it would be great to have a story about one slave that leads a small revolt and begins sacking plantations in the south, trying to get to a boat to escape America (or a similar vehicle to reach the north). The main struggle in the story would be the fight for my Spartacus to keep the slaves from mob mentality; the question would be "are we fighting for freedom or are we fighting for revenge." Some of the slaves would want to slaughter the white men, others would want to set up shop and establish a mini society on a plantation, and yet others would say just leave. The sub plot would be about how the Southerners would be trying to spin the story out of history, trying to save face and get the slaves back dead or alive. Ultimately, the slaves would be betrayed, and their last fight would be epic, and force a change in the makeup of the south’s leadership, but yet they would fail to find freedom. There are so many themes that you could establish here…
6) For my pure adventure story, I want to do a then and now story based on something that actually happened in inter-testamental times. I want to retell the story of the Jewish Temple being sacked, and the brazen sacrificing of a pig on the altar. But in the chaos and bloodshed, I want one man to escape to the desert. And in his bitterness and madness, I want him to become a folk-legend, a sort of violent Jewish Robin Hood. The "Now" part of the story will revolve around an anthropologist who starts to find clues to the truth behind the man, and he will discover that there is a cultish tribe (with some priceless religious artifacts in tow and so on). The main protagonist is the latest in the long line of firstborn sons to be heir to the vengeance and mission of the original Jew. That mission would be one of murder and revenge. I sort of want to have the story focus on redemption, and about finally burying the hatchet… But I also want this to take place during World War 2 (or perhaps a fictional, more modern war), and have the tribe learn about the new evil in the world, and help the Axis to defeat them at a pivotal desert battle. I haven’t though much about the resolution of this one (as you can see), but the parts that happen "Then" are quite vivid, and violent, in my mind. The appeal to me is about a pure Old Testament Judaism being practiced in secret in modern times, and how it contrasts to the Christian message that rules these modern eras. And, of course, it would focus on the role of religion in a society, and how it tends to evolve.
7) My horror story would be about people who are born with a defect that allows them to hear ranges lower than humans normally do. They therefore hear the moans of the planet, and many of them go mad from the seemingly otherworldliness of the sounds. I want the protagonist here to be a woman that is injured, then surgery saves her hearing, but damning her to this new horrible ability. The story would center around a support group that is the only one in the nation for people like this, and how the madness of the group can be contagious to others. There would be a voiced message to the woman, and she will have to choose if she is really hearing the beyond, or if she is merely experiencing audio that she has not been designed/evolved to encode and decode. Wrestling with the choice will bring her to the door of madness, and I have yet to decide if I want her to be hearing the beyond (ala Contact) or if her superstition is unfounded (my preferred message). I want it to be about how we rely too much on our perceptions, and how we tend to deal with things that occur in life that we cannot easily explain away or categorize.
There you go. If you steal my ideas and write your own book or movie, at least have the decency to send me a copy and thank me. : ) What do you all think, should I work on any of these any further? Want to see what I have done so far on the last version of the story for my nephew? Email me and let me know.
Horns up.
A lot of the appeal of writing comes from my love for story telling. I am very interested in story telling, and the messages and values we encode in our stories. This is why I can, and have, in the same month read Alice in Wonderland and Guns, Germs, and Steel. My love for writing has mysteriously avoided modern fiction, however. For a person who loves books as much as I do, I couldn’t tell you jack-squat about who is hot now in publishing. I still haven’t even opened the cover of The DaVinci Code. If I am going to invest time in a book, give me a classic. Or nonfiction. Or classic nonfiction. Heck, I have even begun to enjoy Shakespeare.
As I may have mentioned once before, my dream job, which is always changing, always has involved writing. Journalism, novelist, research, anthropological book writer… always writing was involved. A few years ago I started writing a fantasy adventure novel for my nephew. I haven’t given any of it to him, and it is far from finished. As a matter of fact, I have completely restarted it three times, and am currently thinking about doing so once again. Each time it becomes better, but each time I lose a little zeal for the project.
You see, I have a billion ideas for stories and movie plots. But like the high school kid who already has a band name, logo, and first album cover designed, but hasn’t yet bothered to learn an instrument… I too have faltered in taking writing seriously. Even this blog has changed in form many times from day one. Don’t believe me? Go back and read random entries from the first four months.
What I do want to do is share with you all some of my ideas. Write and let me know what you think of them, maybe I will finally start one of these projects;
1) The one I am writing for my nephew is a blend of good old high fantasy and Asian mysticism. I wanted each chapter to be as a serial entry, and I wanted to have a lot of colorful characters that I could bring in and out of the story. I don’t have a pervasive plot, but instead a lot of small adventures. I wanted to be able to write about Jin Te (my protagonist) for years. The problem is that my first draft was too much like Lord of the Rings, and then I realized I had subconsciously stolen many ideas from the Dragonball manga. So, my newest permutation of the story involves Jin as a runaway from a "corrupt" orphanage who is really the son of a king, who was betrayed by his most loyal advisor (the current king).
2) I wanted to write my own version of a heavy-handed moral children’s story. My idea is this; I wanted to write a story about a Gentile boy who was not so wealthy, and was picked on by wealthier boys (including, but not exclusive to, local Jewish boys). On one day, a young boy shows him the grave of a political revolutionary, and the story’s hero decides that seeing this dead body would be a great way to make him popular with the other boys. So he goes and rounds up a small posse of children and leads them to the grave, relaying the tale of the criminal they are about to see dead. When they arrive, the grave is empty, and all of the boys slowly depart and sling insults at the boy. But one visitor arrives to console the boy…
3) Another children’s book I wanted to write is about a little vampire who grows up in a castle. He is never allowed to leave the castle, or be awake during the day. From the castle at night, the world seems unpopulated and dull. But He finds a book about vampires, and starts to wonder if he really is one. His family continues to reassure him that he (and they) are vampires… but he doesn’t have any powers, and they don’t suck blood, and so on. In the end, the boy will find out that he is free to decide what he is, and he is not a vampire, and he runs off into the sun, finding out that the world around his castle is vibrant and full of people during the day.
4) My biggest thrill would be to adapt the Brautigan novel The Hawkline Monster for the big screen. I think this would be a great movie. It could go so many ways, and all of it would be magical and humorous, as well as filled with small nuggets of meaning.
5) My biggest challenge would be to adapt Spartacus into a new story involving slaves in America. I thought it would be great to have a story about one slave that leads a small revolt and begins sacking plantations in the south, trying to get to a boat to escape America (or a similar vehicle to reach the north). The main struggle in the story would be the fight for my Spartacus to keep the slaves from mob mentality; the question would be "are we fighting for freedom or are we fighting for revenge." Some of the slaves would want to slaughter the white men, others would want to set up shop and establish a mini society on a plantation, and yet others would say just leave. The sub plot would be about how the Southerners would be trying to spin the story out of history, trying to save face and get the slaves back dead or alive. Ultimately, the slaves would be betrayed, and their last fight would be epic, and force a change in the makeup of the south’s leadership, but yet they would fail to find freedom. There are so many themes that you could establish here…
6) For my pure adventure story, I want to do a then and now story based on something that actually happened in inter-testamental times. I want to retell the story of the Jewish Temple being sacked, and the brazen sacrificing of a pig on the altar. But in the chaos and bloodshed, I want one man to escape to the desert. And in his bitterness and madness, I want him to become a folk-legend, a sort of violent Jewish Robin Hood. The "Now" part of the story will revolve around an anthropologist who starts to find clues to the truth behind the man, and he will discover that there is a cultish tribe (with some priceless religious artifacts in tow and so on). The main protagonist is the latest in the long line of firstborn sons to be heir to the vengeance and mission of the original Jew. That mission would be one of murder and revenge. I sort of want to have the story focus on redemption, and about finally burying the hatchet… But I also want this to take place during World War 2 (or perhaps a fictional, more modern war), and have the tribe learn about the new evil in the world, and help the Axis to defeat them at a pivotal desert battle. I haven’t though much about the resolution of this one (as you can see), but the parts that happen "Then" are quite vivid, and violent, in my mind. The appeal to me is about a pure Old Testament Judaism being practiced in secret in modern times, and how it contrasts to the Christian message that rules these modern eras. And, of course, it would focus on the role of religion in a society, and how it tends to evolve.
7) My horror story would be about people who are born with a defect that allows them to hear ranges lower than humans normally do. They therefore hear the moans of the planet, and many of them go mad from the seemingly otherworldliness of the sounds. I want the protagonist here to be a woman that is injured, then surgery saves her hearing, but damning her to this new horrible ability. The story would center around a support group that is the only one in the nation for people like this, and how the madness of the group can be contagious to others. There would be a voiced message to the woman, and she will have to choose if she is really hearing the beyond, or if she is merely experiencing audio that she has not been designed/evolved to encode and decode. Wrestling with the choice will bring her to the door of madness, and I have yet to decide if I want her to be hearing the beyond (ala Contact) or if her superstition is unfounded (my preferred message). I want it to be about how we rely too much on our perceptions, and how we tend to deal with things that occur in life that we cannot easily explain away or categorize.
There you go. If you steal my ideas and write your own book or movie, at least have the decency to send me a copy and thank me. : ) What do you all think, should I work on any of these any further? Want to see what I have done so far on the last version of the story for my nephew? Email me and let me know.
Horns up.
Thursday, May 26, 2005
Roald Dahl is full of crap. This is the Hammond Candy Factory in Denver. No magic squirrels, no little orange men, and no chocolate river. Is it raining, is it snowing, is a hurricane a blowing...?
I took a picture of a space peanut... I mean, meteorite for Scott. This slammed into the mountains near the gold mine. In the 1800's they cared very little about anything but the big five minerals (gold being the cheif one). They destroyed so much natural beauty and anthropological treasures. Fossils, minerals, and meteors all were trash when gold was king... yet somehow, a few managed to remain.
I toured a gold mine in Idaho Springs. What a miserable life it would have been back then, but so thrilling. You know why there were no extreme sports back then? Because day-to-day life was extreme enough. Just ask muckers, double jackers, and prospectors.
The Front Range Bandit calls it quits (for now)
Well, vacation is over. 7 nights, 4 beds (trying to break Troy's record), 2 good friends, a brewery, a gondola, a candy factory, 2 gold mines, a lot of miles vertical and horizontal, and several meals later, I am back in Iowa. It was a great vacation, I may talk more about it in detail someday in the future.
One of the things that struck me most of all about the trip was how at home I always feel in Colorado. It is my turf. I have all of these memories tied to seemingly banal areas of town. I remember emotions I felt, fun I had, places I went to pout, and so on. To me, the northern Denver area is home.
Returning to Iowa is hard, but in many ways, it is home too. I am a product of southwest Iowa and all that such a life entails. I started here, moved to Sterling, and returned to CB before I even started school. I know a little about hunting and fishing and farming, I have a sort of backwards country life philosophy deep in my heart, and a healthy appreciation for food and friends. There is a politeness to strangers that Iowa teaches, and growing up here gives you permission to use bad grammar, listen to the occasional hillbilly song, and to be overweight without public shame.
Iowa, and more specifically CB, always remind me that I haven't done anything with my life yet. I have accomplished nothing yet. CB is where you come back to when you strike out. It is the dugout for lovable losers, has-beens, and wanna-bes. We couldn't get out. But by that same coin, there is a far less judgmental air here. In Colorado, I was constantly self-conscious of my weight, clothes, income, and so on. Accomplishments mean a lot less in my Colorado, because there are always hundreds of people who have done better than you in less time and with more flair. Colorado is a place where you can really feel isolated. In Iowa, the opposite problem occurs... you have a lot of compatriots, but none of them push you to better yourself.
But I want more for me than Iowa. I love Iowa, but I love Colorado more. My brother and I often talk about this, and I think my friend Alicia even said it once herself... that we don't really enjoy being from CB, but we get very mad when someone else talks bad about it. I could live here my whole life and it wouldn't crush me, but I will always be daydreaming of Colorado and the beautiful mountains.
Or is it Japan that I want to move to...?
Horns up.
One of the things that struck me most of all about the trip was how at home I always feel in Colorado. It is my turf. I have all of these memories tied to seemingly banal areas of town. I remember emotions I felt, fun I had, places I went to pout, and so on. To me, the northern Denver area is home.
Returning to Iowa is hard, but in many ways, it is home too. I am a product of southwest Iowa and all that such a life entails. I started here, moved to Sterling, and returned to CB before I even started school. I know a little about hunting and fishing and farming, I have a sort of backwards country life philosophy deep in my heart, and a healthy appreciation for food and friends. There is a politeness to strangers that Iowa teaches, and growing up here gives you permission to use bad grammar, listen to the occasional hillbilly song, and to be overweight without public shame.
Iowa, and more specifically CB, always remind me that I haven't done anything with my life yet. I have accomplished nothing yet. CB is where you come back to when you strike out. It is the dugout for lovable losers, has-beens, and wanna-bes. We couldn't get out. But by that same coin, there is a far less judgmental air here. In Colorado, I was constantly self-conscious of my weight, clothes, income, and so on. Accomplishments mean a lot less in my Colorado, because there are always hundreds of people who have done better than you in less time and with more flair. Colorado is a place where you can really feel isolated. In Iowa, the opposite problem occurs... you have a lot of compatriots, but none of them push you to better yourself.
But I want more for me than Iowa. I love Iowa, but I love Colorado more. My brother and I often talk about this, and I think my friend Alicia even said it once herself... that we don't really enjoy being from CB, but we get very mad when someone else talks bad about it. I could live here my whole life and it wouldn't crush me, but I will always be daydreaming of Colorado and the beautiful mountains.
Or is it Japan that I want to move to...?
Horns up.
Tuesday, May 24, 2005
And here is the wall of fame. I'd like to say I tasted each one, but I had to save some mystique for next time.
Here are some of the giant hoppers/kettles that they use to cook the rice used as the base of Coors beer. And inside one of them is a giant Doug MacKenzie.
Suckin' the Silver Bullet
Had yet another great day on my Colorado vacation. We slept in, which was so very nice, and then drove to Golden to visit the Coors Brewery. The brewery tour was awesome, and we got to see a lot of cool things. Best of all was all of the product tasting! I got to drink Coors Original that was "kegged" within 24 hours before my visit, kept at optimal temperature, and never left the brewery. It was so good!
Then at the end of the tour, all of the guests were entitled to three 12 ounce glasses of any combination of the Coors product line. Killian's Red, Keystone, Molson, Coors, Coors Light, Zima... you name it. I had Hard Green Apple Zima XXX and Black Cherry Zima XXX, then gave up because I was getting tipsy. My wife was going to drive, but after just 6 ounces of Orange Zima XXX she was a little tipsy herself... so we sat around waiting for the buzz to die, and shopped at the gift shop. How did we end up buying so much stuff...?
Later that day I saw a very disturbing sight, which had less to do with Colorado and more to do with the wandering mind. You know how Burger King had the huge inflatable Spongebobs and Shreks atop their buildings? Well, now they have Darth Vader. But, here is a word of caution to Burger King district managers... do not under inflate these. Seeing a limp Darth Vader bent forwards over the awning of a Burger King looks a lot like a giant flaccid black penis swinging back and forth in the wind... doesn't exactly make me want to order a "Whopper."
More later! Horns up!
Then at the end of the tour, all of the guests were entitled to three 12 ounce glasses of any combination of the Coors product line. Killian's Red, Keystone, Molson, Coors, Coors Light, Zima... you name it. I had Hard Green Apple Zima XXX and Black Cherry Zima XXX, then gave up because I was getting tipsy. My wife was going to drive, but after just 6 ounces of Orange Zima XXX she was a little tipsy herself... so we sat around waiting for the buzz to die, and shopped at the gift shop. How did we end up buying so much stuff...?
Later that day I saw a very disturbing sight, which had less to do with Colorado and more to do with the wandering mind. You know how Burger King had the huge inflatable Spongebobs and Shreks atop their buildings? Well, now they have Darth Vader. But, here is a word of caution to Burger King district managers... do not under inflate these. Seeing a limp Darth Vader bent forwards over the awning of a Burger King looks a lot like a giant flaccid black penis swinging back and forth in the wind... doesn't exactly make me want to order a "Whopper."
More later! Horns up!
Sunday, May 22, 2005
What I am learning in Colorado
Friday night I learned something very important...
Wood-fired pizza + olive oil and bread + sangria + lower oxygen than I am used to + interactive whitewater/rowing rafting game + interactive boxing game = puking
Dave and Busters is pretty much always a waste of time. It is an overpriced adult arcade-slash-bar where most of the games are interactive (meaning you have to move). The rowing game was totally fun, but man was it tiring. And the boxing game was sooo sweet! You actually put on gloves and box the opponent. But soon after I was sick... VERY sick. I spent the next half hour in the bathroom... wow. I drove 8 hours to throw up from playing video games too hard. LOL.
Anyway, the mountains are beautiful, and I will post some pictures in a moment. Wish you were here!
Horns up.
Wood-fired pizza + olive oil and bread + sangria + lower oxygen than I am used to + interactive whitewater/rowing rafting game + interactive boxing game = puking
Dave and Busters is pretty much always a waste of time. It is an overpriced adult arcade-slash-bar where most of the games are interactive (meaning you have to move). The rowing game was totally fun, but man was it tiring. And the boxing game was sooo sweet! You actually put on gloves and box the opponent. But soon after I was sick... VERY sick. I spent the next half hour in the bathroom... wow. I drove 8 hours to throw up from playing video games too hard. LOL.
Anyway, the mountains are beautiful, and I will post some pictures in a moment. Wish you were here!
Horns up.
Friday, May 20, 2005
Here is me and Yuri san. I will miss her very much, she was a very good friend. Have fun in Japan Yuri, and enjoy seeing your family! :)
Wednesday, May 18, 2005
Somewhere between sacred silence and sleep... disorder, disorder, disorder.
Man am I a wreck. Finals ended and my summer is off to a shotgun start. I have worked every day, some days working at both of my jobs, and in the "off" time I have been tending to family stuff or getting prepared for our trip to Colorado (starts the 19th... I'll be blogging from the road). I haven't been able to depressurize from school, nor have I been able to take care of some business I have had to take care of. My work schedule is in flux, and that adds to the sense of chaos. Both of my jobs seem to be scheduling a week or two ahead.
The one thing I have managed to do that is good was see my friend Yuri for probably the last time ever. She was a student here at IWCC, but is returning home to Japan in June. I will really miss her, and although I have only seen her 2 or 3 times this semester, I was quite attached to her. I will post a picture of us soon.
Another area of disorder is my weight. I am right back where I was last March. Last summer I started losing some weight and really feeling better about myself. My motivation, to be honest, was an increased amount of time that I was spending with P. and S. last year. They are both so beautiful, I felt like a toad around them. So, I didn't want to be the fat guy with two hot girls... LOL. But seriously, this is how I thought. Plus I was pretty active, playing a lot of tennis and golf... which I hope to get a chance to do again this summer.
That extended into my rush to get fit for Creighton once I found out I was admitted. I didn't want to be the old, fat guy in class. And I lost a lot of weight and was feeling very good. I had some muscle tone (well, for me), and was down to 210. Then finals hit, then the holidays, then a long lazy semester, and finals, and here we are, back at 230.
230 is about 15 pounds past the point where I disgust myself. I am pretty down about it and don't know what to do. My biggest two problems are that I just love to eat (it makes me happy), and I have no one to buddy up with for weight loss and exercise. Plus, having the schedule that I have make sit hard to get into a routine... but I am going to try my hardest once we are back from CO.
And, to close this downer of an entry, I have been having a bit of the post-semester blues. When I wake up in the morning, and don;t work the day shift that day, I feel pretty lost. I have lost my purpose. I don;t have class, no tests to study for, and no hope for the socializing that I get from school. Its like I woke up in a new place, minus all of my new friends and responsibilities. It was hard enough to adjust to this after I left NCC, and now I feel the same old blues already from CU, and it is only summer break! :(
Well, I am sure things will turn around once I get some order in place. Be on the lookout for some road blogging in the next week, maybe some great pix from Colorado, which is home in my heart.
Horns up!
The one thing I have managed to do that is good was see my friend Yuri for probably the last time ever. She was a student here at IWCC, but is returning home to Japan in June. I will really miss her, and although I have only seen her 2 or 3 times this semester, I was quite attached to her. I will post a picture of us soon.
Another area of disorder is my weight. I am right back where I was last March. Last summer I started losing some weight and really feeling better about myself. My motivation, to be honest, was an increased amount of time that I was spending with P. and S. last year. They are both so beautiful, I felt like a toad around them. So, I didn't want to be the fat guy with two hot girls... LOL. But seriously, this is how I thought. Plus I was pretty active, playing a lot of tennis and golf... which I hope to get a chance to do again this summer.
That extended into my rush to get fit for Creighton once I found out I was admitted. I didn't want to be the old, fat guy in class. And I lost a lot of weight and was feeling very good. I had some muscle tone (well, for me), and was down to 210. Then finals hit, then the holidays, then a long lazy semester, and finals, and here we are, back at 230.
230 is about 15 pounds past the point where I disgust myself. I am pretty down about it and don't know what to do. My biggest two problems are that I just love to eat (it makes me happy), and I have no one to buddy up with for weight loss and exercise. Plus, having the schedule that I have make sit hard to get into a routine... but I am going to try my hardest once we are back from CO.
And, to close this downer of an entry, I have been having a bit of the post-semester blues. When I wake up in the morning, and don;t work the day shift that day, I feel pretty lost. I have lost my purpose. I don;t have class, no tests to study for, and no hope for the socializing that I get from school. Its like I woke up in a new place, minus all of my new friends and responsibilities. It was hard enough to adjust to this after I left NCC, and now I feel the same old blues already from CU, and it is only summer break! :(
Well, I am sure things will turn around once I get some order in place. Be on the lookout for some road blogging in the next week, maybe some great pix from Colorado, which is home in my heart.
Horns up!
Saturday, May 07, 2005
Time to defend Hitch
Hello! I was reading one of my favorite blogs today and was incited to comment on Alfred Hitchcock. Actually, I am being called on to defend his honor a bit.
The blog I speak of is the project of a very nice woman who is watching the Top 100 movies of all time, and writing reviews. It is a great site, you should blogmark it. Anyway, she recently reviewed three of my favorite movies... Blade Runner, Yojimbo, and the Hitchcock thriller Strangers on a Train. (I instantly fell in love with her... any lady who is a movie buff, and that would sit through Kurosawa is pretty much my dream girl).
Her site also offered a link to a salon.com article which criticizes Hitch and the endings of his movies in a rather snarky way. I immediately searched the net and found similar anti-Hitch sentiments, even a few anti-Hitch websites. I was shocked! While the accusations are founded, I sort of feel the need to defend the honor of a true artist.
1. When discussing the merits and history of Hitchcock, you are not allowed to bring up The Birds. Ever. It is his worst movie, and is probably on the "worst ever"list of Hollywood in general. It was obviously a pet project of his own, with meaning that never quite translated to the rest of us. It was his Barry Lyndon or Amistaad (except those were good, just boring).
2. Does Hitch use hokey endings? Well, yes. But they weren't as hokey as they seem now. With a great director like Hitch, by the time the ending comes around his message has been sent... so what is left is to just wrap things up for Joe Cinema to feel some closure. The message of Strangers was that the idle comments (such as desiring to kill someone) we make are actually very ugly when they manifest into real actions. Hitch had made this point, and was just trying to end yet another pointless "found the real killer, chase him down" scene. The merry-go-round scene was wacky, but it was also dreamlike (which helped reinforce the movie's themes of reality vs. fiction)... and for a movie that featured a psychic girl we shouldn't cast too many stones.
3. Is Hitch wrongly deified in the pantheon of Hollywood? Nope. Did he have some shortcomings? Yeah. Looking back, he did seem to underplay acting in favor of set pieces and camera-work. But that was his craft. Acting and cinematography aren't mutually exclusive (see The Third Man, for instance), but Hitch chose to take the focus off of actors and actresses and their often self-righteous "craft." It was no surprise that William H. Macy (who is undeniably a great actor) has a bad taste in his mouth for Hitch; Hitch would have hated working with him and actors like him. Hitch had an ego, and wanted the story to be the star of the show, which indirectly made him the star.
4. Were Hitch's films marred by a lack of realism? Not really, when you consider that in Hitch's movies, he was trying to establish two things; that a simple misunderstanding/chain of unrelated events can lead to a horrible situation, and that the "wrong man" can and does get blamed/involved in awful situations. Hitch got off on seeing how people react to situations furthest from their mind... an attack by nature(The Birds), accusations by the community(Shadow of a Doubt), spy plot (North By Northwest), murder plot (Rear Window), and so on. Hitch's movies did three things: establish a premise, drop in innocent bystanders, and watch how they react. The unrealistic elements of the movies were excusably done, as if Hitch himself was a puppetmaster God testing his subjects (think about the Bible's Job... or The Truman Show).
Hitchcock's movies aren't perfect, but they were done to the extent that they were able to be done, and to the high standards of a mastermind. If Hitch was happy, then they must have been fully developed in his eyes. He may have even been aware of the B-movie like qualities of each "flaw," hoping to disarm the viewer, forcing them to look closer for the true message. He is in no way wrongly beloved and honored in Hollywood. Rather, he paved the way for future directors to knowingly approach a plot/screenplay that has some holes, and yet make it sing.
Horns up.
The blog I speak of is the project of a very nice woman who is watching the Top 100 movies of all time, and writing reviews. It is a great site, you should blogmark it. Anyway, she recently reviewed three of my favorite movies... Blade Runner, Yojimbo, and the Hitchcock thriller Strangers on a Train. (I instantly fell in love with her... any lady who is a movie buff, and that would sit through Kurosawa is pretty much my dream girl).
Her site also offered a link to a salon.com article which criticizes Hitch and the endings of his movies in a rather snarky way. I immediately searched the net and found similar anti-Hitch sentiments, even a few anti-Hitch websites. I was shocked! While the accusations are founded, I sort of feel the need to defend the honor of a true artist.
1. When discussing the merits and history of Hitchcock, you are not allowed to bring up The Birds. Ever. It is his worst movie, and is probably on the "worst ever"list of Hollywood in general. It was obviously a pet project of his own, with meaning that never quite translated to the rest of us. It was his Barry Lyndon or Amistaad (except those were good, just boring).
2. Does Hitch use hokey endings? Well, yes. But they weren't as hokey as they seem now. With a great director like Hitch, by the time the ending comes around his message has been sent... so what is left is to just wrap things up for Joe Cinema to feel some closure. The message of Strangers was that the idle comments (such as desiring to kill someone) we make are actually very ugly when they manifest into real actions. Hitch had made this point, and was just trying to end yet another pointless "found the real killer, chase him down" scene. The merry-go-round scene was wacky, but it was also dreamlike (which helped reinforce the movie's themes of reality vs. fiction)... and for a movie that featured a psychic girl we shouldn't cast too many stones.
3. Is Hitch wrongly deified in the pantheon of Hollywood? Nope. Did he have some shortcomings? Yeah. Looking back, he did seem to underplay acting in favor of set pieces and camera-work. But that was his craft. Acting and cinematography aren't mutually exclusive (see The Third Man, for instance), but Hitch chose to take the focus off of actors and actresses and their often self-righteous "craft." It was no surprise that William H. Macy (who is undeniably a great actor) has a bad taste in his mouth for Hitch; Hitch would have hated working with him and actors like him. Hitch had an ego, and wanted the story to be the star of the show, which indirectly made him the star.
4. Were Hitch's films marred by a lack of realism? Not really, when you consider that in Hitch's movies, he was trying to establish two things; that a simple misunderstanding/chain of unrelated events can lead to a horrible situation, and that the "wrong man" can and does get blamed/involved in awful situations. Hitch got off on seeing how people react to situations furthest from their mind... an attack by nature(The Birds), accusations by the community(Shadow of a Doubt), spy plot (North By Northwest), murder plot (Rear Window), and so on. Hitch's movies did three things: establish a premise, drop in innocent bystanders, and watch how they react. The unrealistic elements of the movies were excusably done, as if Hitch himself was a puppetmaster God testing his subjects (think about the Bible's Job... or The Truman Show).
Hitchcock's movies aren't perfect, but they were done to the extent that they were able to be done, and to the high standards of a mastermind. If Hitch was happy, then they must have been fully developed in his eyes. He may have even been aware of the B-movie like qualities of each "flaw," hoping to disarm the viewer, forcing them to look closer for the true message. He is in no way wrongly beloved and honored in Hollywood. Rather, he paved the way for future directors to knowingly approach a plot/screenplay that has some holes, and yet make it sing.
Horns up.
Thursday, May 05, 2005
A busy summer ahead, part one
I have a lot of work to do in the next week... finals coming up, 5 of them in all. But I can;t help looking forward to a summer with no classes... I have piles of books, games, movies to read, play, and watch. Not to mention I have a lot of Japanese to study, a spare bedroom that needs cleaned pretty bad, and a lot of mountain biking, running, sit ups that need done.Here is part one of my to do list.
Games to Play:
1. finish Final Fantasy 7 (I am just starting the last part... fighting Sephiroth)
2. Metal Gear Solid 3
3. Kingdom Hearts
4. Disgaea
5. Star Ocean
6. God of War
7. Final Fantasy 8, 9, X, and X-2
Anime movies to watch:
1. Finish .hack//sign
2. Inuyasha: The Castle Beyond the Looking Glass
3. Cowboy Bebop series
4. Samurai Champloo vol. 2
5. Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence
6. GITS: Stand Alone Complex series
7. The Big O Season 2
8. Castle in the Sky
9. Super Milk Chan vol. 4
Movies to watch:
1. Kagemusha
2. Throne of Blood
3. Shadow of a Doubt
4. Spartacus
5. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
6. 2LDK
7. Big Fish
8. Onibaba
9. Kwaidan
10. Red Beard
11. Ikiru
12. The Twilight Samurai
13. Aragami
14. The Princess Blade
Dang! And that isn't including the good movies I have that I have been meaning to watch again! I am too overwhelemed to list the books and manga this time... I will update you on my progress later. Maybe I will sneak some DVD time while I study for finals...
Horn's up.
Games to Play:
1. finish Final Fantasy 7 (I am just starting the last part... fighting Sephiroth)
2. Metal Gear Solid 3
3. Kingdom Hearts
4. Disgaea
5. Star Ocean
6. God of War
7. Final Fantasy 8, 9, X, and X-2
Anime movies to watch:
1. Finish .hack//sign
2. Inuyasha: The Castle Beyond the Looking Glass
3. Cowboy Bebop series
4. Samurai Champloo vol. 2
5. Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence
6. GITS: Stand Alone Complex series
7. The Big O Season 2
8. Castle in the Sky
9. Super Milk Chan vol. 4
Movies to watch:
1. Kagemusha
2. Throne of Blood
3. Shadow of a Doubt
4. Spartacus
5. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
6. 2LDK
7. Big Fish
8. Onibaba
9. Kwaidan
10. Red Beard
11. Ikiru
12. The Twilight Samurai
13. Aragami
14. The Princess Blade
Dang! And that isn't including the good movies I have that I have been meaning to watch again! I am too overwhelemed to list the books and manga this time... I will update you on my progress later. Maybe I will sneak some DVD time while I study for finals...
Horn's up.
Sunday, May 01, 2005
Feelin' a little "blissfully" today...
(reference to Modest Mouse if you want to uncover the hidden meaning of the title, BTW)
My friend P.W. let me go home from work early, which was nice, because I was in a funk. But now that I am home, I am depressed and lonely. I am the only one here, I tried to call a couple friends (but no answer), and the last thing I want to do is study. But guess what the thing I need to do worst is? Study.
I am freaking out about the next 2 weeks. I have a huge test tomorrow in a class I am not doing well in (Physiology), plus finals are coming soon. I also recently had to take a 0 on a 20 point quiz, and furthermore, I got a 32 out of 50 on yet another test that I felt that I had a great handle on the material. Add to this the fact that the weather has been gloomy, I haven't been feeling well, and that I will all but lost three very good friends for good now that their last semester is over... and you have one little gloomy gus.
Needless to say, the old ego is taking a beating. I honestly think that Pharmacy School is a little beyond me, and that is a hard thing to admit to. I am passing, don't get me wrong, and I am most definitely not quitting. I even think I will be a great pharmacist... but the classwork is crushing me. I have finally hit the ceiling on my mental ability I think.
I am used to excelling, and being smart. And I have learned a TON of stuff this semester, even found a lot of it personally interesting. Yet I am constantly below class average and in the last two weeks, close to the bottom. And this depresses me.
I know that I shouldn't put a lot of stock in my grades, but they are such an easy way to gauge academic progress. When I was in the ministry, I used to get upset when a church's success was measured by the number of attendees, or by the number of baptisms. I hate when, in social situations, people measure personal accomplishment and success by how much they own or make. Yet, in school, I like to measure my worth by the grading scale.
The worst of it is that the grading scale actually is relatively accurate when sizing you up to others. And "A" doesn't really mean anything, but if the class average is 3.8 and you have a 2.8, it is safe to say you are not as good of a student as the average class member. And this hurts my pride.
I have struggled a lot in the last 15 years, trying to find my place in society, deal with crazy life events, and to better myself through education. And until this year, I was very happy with my progress. Even when I was not getting into pharmacy school, I was satisfied with my accomplishments (although at the time they seemed futile).
So anyway, I am having a bad day. And I have 14 more bad days before I can try to recuperate. So if you see me, just try to give me a smile, okay? Until then, its time to start studying crap that probably won't be on the test anyway.
Horns up.........
*sigh*
PS - At least Scott cheered me up today (unknowingly). He's always good for a bunch of laughs.
My friend P.W. let me go home from work early, which was nice, because I was in a funk. But now that I am home, I am depressed and lonely. I am the only one here, I tried to call a couple friends (but no answer), and the last thing I want to do is study. But guess what the thing I need to do worst is? Study.
I am freaking out about the next 2 weeks. I have a huge test tomorrow in a class I am not doing well in (Physiology), plus finals are coming soon. I also recently had to take a 0 on a 20 point quiz, and furthermore, I got a 32 out of 50 on yet another test that I felt that I had a great handle on the material. Add to this the fact that the weather has been gloomy, I haven't been feeling well, and that I will all but lost three very good friends for good now that their last semester is over... and you have one little gloomy gus.
Needless to say, the old ego is taking a beating. I honestly think that Pharmacy School is a little beyond me, and that is a hard thing to admit to. I am passing, don't get me wrong, and I am most definitely not quitting. I even think I will be a great pharmacist... but the classwork is crushing me. I have finally hit the ceiling on my mental ability I think.
I am used to excelling, and being smart. And I have learned a TON of stuff this semester, even found a lot of it personally interesting. Yet I am constantly below class average and in the last two weeks, close to the bottom. And this depresses me.
I know that I shouldn't put a lot of stock in my grades, but they are such an easy way to gauge academic progress. When I was in the ministry, I used to get upset when a church's success was measured by the number of attendees, or by the number of baptisms. I hate when, in social situations, people measure personal accomplishment and success by how much they own or make. Yet, in school, I like to measure my worth by the grading scale.
The worst of it is that the grading scale actually is relatively accurate when sizing you up to others. And "A" doesn't really mean anything, but if the class average is 3.8 and you have a 2.8, it is safe to say you are not as good of a student as the average class member. And this hurts my pride.
I have struggled a lot in the last 15 years, trying to find my place in society, deal with crazy life events, and to better myself through education. And until this year, I was very happy with my progress. Even when I was not getting into pharmacy school, I was satisfied with my accomplishments (although at the time they seemed futile).
So anyway, I am having a bad day. And I have 14 more bad days before I can try to recuperate. So if you see me, just try to give me a smile, okay? Until then, its time to start studying crap that probably won't be on the test anyway.
Horns up.........
*sigh*
PS - At least Scott cheered me up today (unknowingly). He's always good for a bunch of laughs.