I am a nice guy.
And you know what they say about those types.
Saturday, August 20, 2011
Friday, August 19, 2011
Music, not so much the Talk
If I'm driving at night and my head's a mess, I like listening to NPR.
What can I say, classical music's rather soothing.
However, evidently Athens doesn't like NPR. 50% of what comes through Carla's stereo for NPR is static.
:sob:
What can I say, classical music's rather soothing.
However, evidently Athens doesn't like NPR. 50% of what comes through Carla's stereo for NPR is static.
:sob:
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Monday, August 15, 2011
Ah Yah, Buns and Thighs (and Calves)
And now I realize these first couple of weeks are gonna make me preee-ttyyy tired. Commuting to campus via bike is going to be something of challenge. But I feel it'll be a rewarding one. Hot and bothered as I was when I arrived at my first class this morning, it was totally worth it being able to streak down the road, passing all the cars that were backed up for the usual beginning-of-the-year/morning traffic rush. Can I get a "Hell yeah!"?
Thank you.
One of my classes this semester isn't technically a class, I feel. It's only a 1 hour credit and it's a Theatre major requirement, titled "Senior Seminar." Basically, it prepares seniors (as it's open only to students in their graduating year) for the "real world" of theatre work. Supposed to be constructing resumes, having mock interviews, hearing from people already working, etc. But honestly, I feel extremely out of place, even a bit awkward. Here are all my peers who study theatre because that's what they want to do, or something connected to the theatre, whereas I'm studying theatre simply because I enjoy it and have no real intentions of going immediately into the professional theatre field after graduation/preparing and saving money to move to New York or Los Angeles for theatre/film related jobs and such. Granted there's maybe one or two other students who intend to pursue something non-theatre related, but studying theatre and the arts along with whatever second major they're completing gives them some kind of boost that might help them in their jobs. Me, I'm planning to hopefully secure a job or do research while I nervously await results of dental school applications. The professor leading this seminar remarked on the reality that a few students in the class aren't going into the theatre field at all; she once had a student who was studying geology and wanted to go into that field. I honestly don't know whose direction is more polar to theatre: that kid's, or mine.
But our professor touched on an interesting point, and that it is perfectly ok to be diverging of this theatre-geared path. It really comes down to what we, as individuals, desire/need in our lives. Actually, we're supposed to write this manifesto of some kind, stating just that, what we need and absolutely can't do without. Once I write mine I'll probably post it here as a reminder to myself. For what, I'm not entirely sure yet.
On another unrelated note, I find it rather interesting and extremely frustrating and perhaps somewhat amusing how a single text message can knock me back on my ass when I thought I'd gotten up already. Le sigh.
Thank you.
One of my classes this semester isn't technically a class, I feel. It's only a 1 hour credit and it's a Theatre major requirement, titled "Senior Seminar." Basically, it prepares seniors (as it's open only to students in their graduating year) for the "real world" of theatre work. Supposed to be constructing resumes, having mock interviews, hearing from people already working, etc. But honestly, I feel extremely out of place, even a bit awkward. Here are all my peers who study theatre because that's what they want to do, or something connected to the theatre, whereas I'm studying theatre simply because I enjoy it and have no real intentions of going immediately into the professional theatre field after graduation/preparing and saving money to move to New York or Los Angeles for theatre/film related jobs and such. Granted there's maybe one or two other students who intend to pursue something non-theatre related, but studying theatre and the arts along with whatever second major they're completing gives them some kind of boost that might help them in their jobs. Me, I'm planning to hopefully secure a job or do research while I nervously await results of dental school applications. The professor leading this seminar remarked on the reality that a few students in the class aren't going into the theatre field at all; she once had a student who was studying geology and wanted to go into that field. I honestly don't know whose direction is more polar to theatre: that kid's, or mine.
But our professor touched on an interesting point, and that it is perfectly ok to be diverging of this theatre-geared path. It really comes down to what we, as individuals, desire/need in our lives. Actually, we're supposed to write this manifesto of some kind, stating just that, what we need and absolutely can't do without. Once I write mine I'll probably post it here as a reminder to myself. For what, I'm not entirely sure yet.
On another unrelated note, I find it rather interesting and extremely frustrating and perhaps somewhat amusing how a single text message can knock me back on my ass when I thought I'd gotten up already. Le sigh.
Sunday, August 14, 2011
Mid-paragraph numbering is the best.
Tomorrow marks my last, first day of the year as an undergrad. Eek! Time flies so fast. It's unfair. It's cruel. It's unusual.
It's a little stressful actually because, for some reason, I don't know why it got to this, but I feel extremely unprepared to begin this semester. My schedule is all wonky. I'm attempting to commute to campus via bike. Motorbike? I wish. More like bicycle. Yeah. Why? Because apparently, even though I swear I saved/registered for parking back in May for 2011-2012 campus parking permits, I didn't fucking get one so I got back on the wait list sometime in mid-July and I've been pushed farther and FARTHER back on the damn thing even though I'm technically a senior by year-time/hour count(?) so I said "FUCK IT I'M BIKING TO SCHOOL, BITCHES." However I'm trying to figure out how to combat 1) Stupid Georgia humidity 2) when it rains 3) when it gets freezing cold later 4) that stupid fucking hill right before my apartment complex. Biking to campus isn't that bad. It's coming home that'll be a pain in the ass. I'll have buns, quads, and calves of goddamn steel in a month or two if I can keep this up.
Anyways I figured at least for the heat and humidity I can pack and extra shirt and towel, no big deal. Plus once I re-establish what pathetic cardio I used to have I won't sweat so much and it'll make the commute a little better. Also: how much I carry. Weight's gonna be a factor when I bike to and from campus. I'll probably have to stop packing Leeroy. But that's ok, because I have Sebastian now! And if I need a computer, I'll just go to the student center or library etc. Lookit me, trying to be resourceful.
Then biking in the cold can also be tricky particularly because of the extra layers I'd be wearing. It constricts movement a lot. And it can also be a little sweaty, and sweating under a sweater+peacoat etc isn't pleasant.
...basically, I GUESS this means I'll have to buy one of the remaining, available parking permits that's on a rather inconvenient location (try the very edge of the campus) but hey, at least I'll have a method when the sky pisses rain or when it's freezing over.
Maybe I'll just print this out and tape it to my bike to remind myself the benefits of a bicycle commute. Hah!
Meanwhile, it's good to be back, if at least for dancing! Stoked to start going to practices and learning new shit. Hellz yeah. I'm also beginning to discover 3 hours of straight dancing is my limit (as of now). My energy really starts to flag by the last half hour or so. Fun stuff.
Last night, I went with the Athens Swing group to the Big Bad Voodoo Daddy concert. The publicist for the concert contacted a bunch of dance groups in Atlanta and Athens and offered free tickets to people who wanted to come out and dance at the event. What a deal! Funny thing is I first heard about this concert back in May or so and I was excited because 1)BBVD is a kick-ass swing band 2) I thought, "Man! How awesome would it be if at this concert people started getting up and dancing in the aisles! But too bad I don't really know anyone around well enough to go to this kind of concert and dance..." But lo and behold, people were assembling! And tickets were free! It was like 6 kinds of awesome. I don't even know what those 6 kinds are, but that's ok. The concert was great. BBVD was kind of hosted by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra which was cool too. Somewhere on that stage, my former violin teacher was playing. Nice.
With this being my last year and all, I'm also starting to get this fear that I haven't accomplished everything I wanted to do in college. Gonna put together a bucket list and hope everything gets done by the time I graduate. To be continued...
And lastly, this made me 'lol.
Monday, August 8, 2011
You shall be called Sebastian
And your ringtone shall be Nyan Cat.
Ah has a smart phone now (early birthday present). Oh boy. It's like I have all this power in my hands. And what do I do with it? Make nyan cat my ringtone of course. And "SPAAAAAAAACE" as my message notification sound. Nerdy much? Just a little.
I'm actually writing this post on a Blogger app! Neato.
Runnin' android by the way. So far, me likey.
Movie Madness .4
Earlier today I stumbled across something I probably shouldn't have seen. And it definitely wasn't meant to be seen either. And now I need a vent. This blog is not the place to do it.
So I'll try writing about something else to take my mind off of it. For now.
Watched a couple of Korean films recently, both similar in genre: I Saw the Devil (2010) and The Chaser (2008). I Saw the Devil is about a detective who goes on a hunt for revenge after his pregnant fiance is the most recent victim of a serial killer. He blurs the lines between moral right and wrong as he stalks this killer, blind with rage and hurt. Great film, I have to say. For me, revenge-stories are a guilty pleasure of sorts in terms of movie type. Gotta love antiheroes. The Chaser has a slightly similar scenario. A detective-turned-pimp must use his skills from his former job after several of his girls go missing. Spoiler alert (not really): it's a serial killer. But the interesting thing is, apparently this movie is loosely inspired by an actual Korean serial killer who killed prostitutes and such. Also, this movie features a hammer. Seriously, what is it about Korean killers and hammers? (Oldboy reference). Anyways, The Chaser is also a pretty good film. Had to say I enjoyed Devil more, but they're both worthy of a watch.
Browsing the netflix, and came across Strictly Ballroom (1992). Had to watch it. It's about a fella who dances competitively, but he detests the strict regulations of certain-steps-only dancing in the competition and wants to incorporate some of his own, flashy, crowd-pleaser steps. Of course, this gets him in trouble. He loses the first competition, his partner ditches him, and his coaches and friends are none too pleased. Then the story turns into an ugly duckling type of story when another dancer approaches him and asks to be his partner, and even wants to do his steps. This of course leads to some friction with the coaches and such, since the girl is a beginner. But apparently she's of some Spanish origin, because her entire family does the Paso Doble and the guy learns some kick ass Paso Doble from the girl's father.
My main irk about this movie? The actors and the set are in Australia. And whoa, are their accents thick. For the first 5-10 minutes of the movie, I could barely understand what anyone was saying. I think this has something to do with Baz Luhrmann directing. Now realized the chap's from Australia. He also did Romeo + Juliet and Moulin Rouge!, so I get a feeling of some dazzle-style, colors, music, art. Did a bit of research, and evidently these three films were his "red curtain trilogy," which was a reference to a certain style of film making. And his parents did ballroom competitions, which explains for the use of neat ballroom choreography in Strictly Ballroom and Moulin Rouge!, but I really don't remember Romeo+Juliet well enough to throw that in in terms of personal experience.
Speaking of ballroom films, I watched the original Shall We Dance? (1996), that is, the Japanese film. (Shall We "Dansu?" heh heh.) The Richard Gere-Jennifer Lopez version of the film is definitely nearly identical to the Japanese one, except for one thing: the culture difference, obviously. What I found really interesting about the Japanese film was how it opens with a brief narration on married couples and ballroom dance in Japan during that time. I don't know how it is now, but apparently in 1996, according to the narration, Japanese married couples weren't exactly the most PDA-type of people. So for couples to even consider ballroom dancing, where they'd be in close, seemingly-affectionate embraces in front of an audience to see, would be embarrassing. And then for either man or woman to dance with other partners: shameful.
No idea if that's actually true or not, but that's the theme they stuck with in making this film. They even showed the married couple sleeping in separate beds in this movie. Huh. Interesting. 1996 Japan? Go figure. The thing is, this Japanese social stigma associated with ballroom dancing at the time is a key difference that separates it from the 2004 Hollywood version of the same film. Ballroom dancing started out as an English sport, so it makes sense that it carried over and is perfectly acceptable in American society. But the 2004 story is set in America, while the Japanese one is set nearly a decade earlier. The time difference is a factor. The culture difference is a factor. I guess what I'm trying to say is, Mr. Sugiyama, the protagonist in the 1996 film, has a stronger conflict to deal with compared to the Richard Gere-character in the 2004 film. The potential for embarrassment is higher, the potential shameful consequences are higher, etc. And you just don't get that in the 2004 film. I think it's an interesting dynamic.
Then there's Harry Potter 7.2, as I'm calling it. Self explanatory if you're even vaguely familiar with the series. It's good, but I wouldn't call it epic. Who knows, maybe it's because I'm just not as big of a Harry Potter fan as some of my friends are. Sometimes I wish I was. I feel like I missed out on a big part of being a kid by not reading the Harry Potter books when I was little-er. Thanks mom, and all your spiels about "Harry Potter is about witches and magic and sorcery! It's un-Christian! You're not reading these books!" Yeah, well, if you'd stuck around long enough, you'd find out Harry is basically a Christ figure in the end. So suck on that!
Just kidding. But really, it was the summer before and the beginning of my senior year in high school before I finally caught up and read all 7 Harry Potter books. I started because that was the summer book 7 came out, and it was all hypey-hypey, so I figured "What the hell, might as well read 'em." And the rest is history, I suppose.
So I'll try writing about something else to take my mind off of it. For now.
Watched a couple of Korean films recently, both similar in genre: I Saw the Devil (2010) and The Chaser (2008). I Saw the Devil is about a detective who goes on a hunt for revenge after his pregnant fiance is the most recent victim of a serial killer. He blurs the lines between moral right and wrong as he stalks this killer, blind with rage and hurt. Great film, I have to say. For me, revenge-stories are a guilty pleasure of sorts in terms of movie type. Gotta love antiheroes. The Chaser has a slightly similar scenario. A detective-turned-pimp must use his skills from his former job after several of his girls go missing. Spoiler alert (not really): it's a serial killer. But the interesting thing is, apparently this movie is loosely inspired by an actual Korean serial killer who killed prostitutes and such. Also, this movie features a hammer. Seriously, what is it about Korean killers and hammers? (Oldboy reference). Anyways, The Chaser is also a pretty good film. Had to say I enjoyed Devil more, but they're both worthy of a watch.
Browsing the netflix, and came across Strictly Ballroom (1992). Had to watch it. It's about a fella who dances competitively, but he detests the strict regulations of certain-steps-only dancing in the competition and wants to incorporate some of his own, flashy, crowd-pleaser steps. Of course, this gets him in trouble. He loses the first competition, his partner ditches him, and his coaches and friends are none too pleased. Then the story turns into an ugly duckling type of story when another dancer approaches him and asks to be his partner, and even wants to do his steps. This of course leads to some friction with the coaches and such, since the girl is a beginner. But apparently she's of some Spanish origin, because her entire family does the Paso Doble and the guy learns some kick ass Paso Doble from the girl's father.
My main irk about this movie? The actors and the set are in Australia. And whoa, are their accents thick. For the first 5-10 minutes of the movie, I could barely understand what anyone was saying. I think this has something to do with Baz Luhrmann directing. Now realized the chap's from Australia. He also did Romeo + Juliet and Moulin Rouge!, so I get a feeling of some dazzle-style, colors, music, art. Did a bit of research, and evidently these three films were his "red curtain trilogy," which was a reference to a certain style of film making. And his parents did ballroom competitions, which explains for the use of neat ballroom choreography in Strictly Ballroom and Moulin Rouge!, but I really don't remember Romeo+Juliet well enough to throw that in in terms of personal experience.
Speaking of ballroom films, I watched the original Shall We Dance? (1996), that is, the Japanese film. (Shall We "Dansu?" heh heh.) The Richard Gere-Jennifer Lopez version of the film is definitely nearly identical to the Japanese one, except for one thing: the culture difference, obviously. What I found really interesting about the Japanese film was how it opens with a brief narration on married couples and ballroom dance in Japan during that time. I don't know how it is now, but apparently in 1996, according to the narration, Japanese married couples weren't exactly the most PDA-type of people. So for couples to even consider ballroom dancing, where they'd be in close, seemingly-affectionate embraces in front of an audience to see, would be embarrassing. And then for either man or woman to dance with other partners: shameful.
No idea if that's actually true or not, but that's the theme they stuck with in making this film. They even showed the married couple sleeping in separate beds in this movie. Huh. Interesting. 1996 Japan? Go figure. The thing is, this Japanese social stigma associated with ballroom dancing at the time is a key difference that separates it from the 2004 Hollywood version of the same film. Ballroom dancing started out as an English sport, so it makes sense that it carried over and is perfectly acceptable in American society. But the 2004 story is set in America, while the Japanese one is set nearly a decade earlier. The time difference is a factor. The culture difference is a factor. I guess what I'm trying to say is, Mr. Sugiyama, the protagonist in the 1996 film, has a stronger conflict to deal with compared to the Richard Gere-character in the 2004 film. The potential for embarrassment is higher, the potential shameful consequences are higher, etc. And you just don't get that in the 2004 film. I think it's an interesting dynamic.
Then there's Harry Potter 7.2, as I'm calling it. Self explanatory if you're even vaguely familiar with the series. It's good, but I wouldn't call it epic. Who knows, maybe it's because I'm just not as big of a Harry Potter fan as some of my friends are. Sometimes I wish I was. I feel like I missed out on a big part of being a kid by not reading the Harry Potter books when I was little-er. Thanks mom, and all your spiels about "Harry Potter is about witches and magic and sorcery! It's un-Christian! You're not reading these books!" Yeah, well, if you'd stuck around long enough, you'd find out Harry is basically a Christ figure in the end. So suck on that!
Just kidding. But really, it was the summer before and the beginning of my senior year in high school before I finally caught up and read all 7 Harry Potter books. I started because that was the summer book 7 came out, and it was all hypey-hypey, so I figured "What the hell, might as well read 'em." And the rest is history, I suppose.
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