the friedorange years

First off, no photos today because I had an exam and I am tired.

Now, why is it so hot? I don't know. My CPU was also running at 75º C about two hours ago. I'm one of those people who don't ever do anything with their computer, like, I have never installed cooling systems or done those cool LED things or had LAN parties or whatever. Ehehehhe. It's quite weird I don't think I have actually played a computer game (like properly) since I was 12. I don't know why.

Anyway, so boring post today. Yeah ahahah. Well, I spent two hours vacuuming the inside of my computer after I got home at like six thirty. And I'm just starting my cramming now. So, umm... not too good I must say.

However, the PHIL exam went ok. I felt comfortable writing the essays and left with about 40 minutes to go. I was sitting next to this cool Elam girl who was all weird and funky and 'whaaat the hell'. Hard to describe, but I'm sure you know what I mean, you just know those fine art s students when you walk past one, their look is really defined (I have nothing against them I mean this as a compliment). As opposed to arts students who are not really standardised. Well, no, fine arts students aren't standardised either, but they are standardised in their uniqueness, whereas arts students are just like, the bulk of the population. Sort of. Then again I guess commerce students are like the bulk of the population too. Ahhh I don't know. Maybe everyone looks the same and I have it all mixed up.

I should really go study. I did not cook dinner tonight. I ate a bag of chips at eight, and now I have to really do some work otherwise tomorrow could be a deadly experience.

Thanks to Steve's recommendation I am listening to some Alanis Morrisette and yeah, she does have a really cool voice and her songs have really good lyrics. They're really rooted in something, unlike a lot of lyrics out there today, which are vague. While her lyrics are not specific, they're 'about something', and you can actually relate to them even if the actual contents don't apply to you.

Take care, all the KFC for everyone's exams. May the Colonel be with you.

Welcome to the Blockhead's Guide To Cramming. Tomorrow I have my PHIL 212 exam. Yes. Let us document the journey of the night-before-the-exam-errrrr.


8:00-4:00
Do something you enjoy.


5:42
Realise one has to do something for the next day's exam.


6:00-8:00
Eat prawns and chicken drumsticks kindly donated by cool neighbours.


8:45
Get ready to begin the cramming session.


9:30
Turn left to find the dimming lights.


9:48
Find one's mind bogged down by information overload. Do a blog entry.


9:49
Publish blog entry.


Any time in the foreseeable future.
Sleep.

Ok, so first off there is no way I can keep up with the photos and everything. Firstly because I don't think I was ever a real 'phototototoe' person, and secondly because I will run out of things to take photos of.

Dinner tonight was instant noodles, and that is not worthy of photo-representation. But ehh, look, it's stolen a spot on the blog page! Grrrr.


Now onto what actually happened. Leavers' Concert. Awesome.

The thing is, there's nothing remarkable about the music. I wouldn't say the singing was good at all (for some of the bands), and the school groups were okay, I guess. It was weird listening to Steven talk. Apparently he talks like me. But the main part is, he sounds like a teacher. This was the first time I had ever heard an orchestra leader refer to the rest of the orchestra as 'the kids'. Hehe.

The best part was seeing everyone after 'long-time-no-see-lah' and sneaking chocolate onto the supper table. Or not. I don't know, it was just good, in a surreal way. Because I never had my goodo Leavers' Concert, this is sort of 90% of the way there. I didn't get the baby photo but I heard the music and ate some of the food. So it was all good.

The 44th Calibre --> New Song, ahh cool. I like the intro, the verse and the bridge. I couldn't really hear the chorus properly. It was also nice hearing Grey again, the first ever song from D-D-D-Drop D. Adam moves now, yeah, cool.

Steven Shyu's band. Wow, he plays bass. And that German exchange student guy is really into it. They can rock, I'm telling ya, just that they were playing covers.

And that ADD, they've improved heaps. Nice solo. That was pretty good singing for someone who was filling in.

I DID do more studying today. Infinitely more than yesterday. But not enough though. Looking forward to a lower GPA, but also to the holidays and everything else that will take place.

Should really sleep now. Cya. Yeah, there will be more Home Alone episodes, just, I'm tired tonight. Take care.

So for some reason blogger isn't letting me upload photos tonight. So I'll blog as if there were photos, and add them tomorrow. Ahh ok, I've added 'em.

I did no study today.

I know, I feel bad, but I guess I will just have to do more tomorrow.

Mother called this evening, and I talked to Father. They are researching good hospitals and doctors and are planning the next move. Everything is good there, but it is still really hot. It's supposed to be winter but it's hotter than it is in NZ. Arrrgh argh argh argh argh Crabby Patty.

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Today I woke up and went for a run and took out the rubbish and did the laundry and swept the front driveway and the garden. I went to Macleans to get tickets for Leavers' Concert. But by far the most prominent thing today was the foodness.



Fellow Blockheads, this is an archetypal lunch. It represents the ultimate in a balanced diet. Turkey-avocado-alfalfa-mayonnaise-rolls. As you can see I did not include fish. Therefore it is advisable to eat in the sun in order to get the maximum vitamin intake. Hence the meal is set up in a sun room. If you do not have a sun room you must eat outside. Unless you are eating fish too. Then you are permitted to eat indoors. Don't forget sunscreen too. Flourescent lights are deadly. They screw up the auto white balance things on cameras.

A balanced diet is not only about food consumption but the intake of intellectual information. In front are the four periodicals you need to survive idiocy. Time Magazine, for their short, witty and completely superficial articles. The Property Press, because alliteration is cool. The Eastern Courier, because the title font is in red, not blue like The Times. And the Herald's Time Out, because bad movie reviews are the staple diets of depressed movie-goers everwhere. And since you too, are a depressed movie-goer, you must, Anakin, read Time Out.

It is so peculiarly typical and interesting how Macleans continues to plug their students like crazy. Not that they shouldn't but, we get Chris Neels in two consecutive days of the local papers with articles on the same thing. Not that it isn't a good achievement, it's awesome, go Chris, but it's just funny to see how schools love latching publicity onto outstanding students.

I forgot to include tissue paper in the photo above, so here you go:


That's always important, hygiene.


The white bap also feels self important and deserves some attention. Smile.


For dinner I made black pepper beef with capsicums. And an egg. I cooked enough for two days' worth so I can have a 'Mr Microwave Day' soon. Mr Microwave, yes sir.

This is a plate of grapes I had. I didn't want to study so I ate these while I watched the latest Supernatural episode.

I went for a walk after dinner and found the beach to be smelly because it was rubbish day. However, the stench made me realise how lucky I was to not be living in a rubbish dump.

We recently sold our house on Hattaway, and the new folks have ripped away the trademark orange flowers. B'gah! I think they built a new fence too.

:o/

Good thing Lychee captured the spirit of the house. Can't wait to get back to editing after exams are over.

After a few minutes of introspective soul searching, I walked home in the shadow of Day 2.

Hiya. So I am trying hard to get used to managing the house myself. I cleaned the showerbox and then sat on the computer and wasted 2 hours on MSN and watching the Simpsons special of Inside the Actors Studio.

Left is me, waiting for the bus and contemplating stuff. I am thinking about the month home alone ahead and all the lost memories of childhood. This was around 15 minutes after my Mum left for the airport. Most curiously, I had no urge to trash the house, hold a party, eat junk food or smash the windows.

I started cooking at 8 PM, so this was a late dinner for me. So anyway, I am starting a Blockhead's Guide series. Watch out for the Nincompoop, Dunderhead, Pinhead and Ignoramus sequels.

The Blockhead's Guide to Cooking Potstickers

My instructions are brief because I am too lazy and I don't know how to explain things well. But since we're all blockheads, looking at photos should be alright.



Oil (sunflower in this case), a bag of frozen potstickers and a pan. Lay them out on the table, then think of something and start laughing.

Sit around and watch some TV. Walk into the dining room and start eating.

Yes that is water. Yes the thing in the middle is a left over vege plate from last night. The absence/absense (?) of nice fresh green veges from this meal isn't good. But I want to cook properly tomorrow. Tonight was the first meal unsupervised by Mum, and I am truly grateful that the house is still standing.

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You see, some people are all theory and no action. But if you truly want to be an active feminist, you don't need to go out and protest. That's just all talk. No, if you want to do your part, fight traditional gender roles. That's right, do some cooking [if you're a guy]. But... even better, go one step further and wear an apron.




As we pan down we discover that I am not wearing just any apron, but a fake Hello Kitty copy, not a cat but a mouse version, with a front title worthy of the Annual Cringe Award: Sweetheart.

This is the only apron we have. So I had no choice. Otherwise I suppose I would've chosen a more manly apron. Or at least a baby blue mouse instead of a hot pink one. With a bow tie thing on her ear. Whaaaat the hell.

With the help of cheap Taiwanese after-market aprons, we, together, can fight the patriarchy.

Take care.

;o)

New email:

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FINALISTS FOR 2005 FLYING FIVES FILM AWARDS

"A world where deafness is the nom and hearing is a disability, eight girls one snow flake and skiing that is out there, the baby sitter who might be a witch, and the marionette obsessed with creating a perfect circle. Storylines from the fifteen films which are the finalists in this year’s Flying Fives International Film Competition."

The awards will be presented, Saturday Night 5 November, at an invite only screening to be held at Nelson’s State Cinema 6.

"I liked the over-all sense of humanity in this year’s selection. I got the feeling that people cared about people. I think that at times filmmakers can, in a self-conscious effort to put 'art' on the screen, forget the people. This wasn’t so in this group of films. It was a pleasure to be watching and re-watching them," said Supreme Panel Judge, New Zealand filmmaker Barry Barclay.

The finalists in no particular order are:
Friends No More, Ben Young & Daniel McKenna, Wellington.
Brian & Jessica's Wedding, Chris White, Auckland.
Rolly Dial's Defining Moment, Mike Hallett & Jim Flewitt, Auckland.
Early Journeys of Ballus Tadpolleus, John Russell, Nelson.
Epilogue, Dennis Liu, Auckland.
Ananab, Dean Hewison, Rupert Teynolds-McLean, Paddy Kennedy, Francesca Carney, Wellington.
Just Following Orders, Mark Taylor, Christchurch.
Land of the Deaf, Paul Wolffram, Wellington.
Be Thankful, Jared van Berkel and Kathryn van Berkel, Rangiora.
Dreams of Life, David Kvart, Sweden.
Bride To Be, Katharine J McGill, Wellington.
Auto-ma-ton, Jason Howden, Wellington.
The Yoga Room, Ruth Dudding, Gisbourne.
Once upon a time, Lou-Darcie Lewis, Nelson.
A Perfect Circle, Rhyce Barker, Invercargill.

"We have some really talented people making films who like the idea of the Fives and we thank everyone who entered for their support. Next year the format will feature two sections. A New Zealand theme and open section," said John Bullock.

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:o)

So ehh, is this kind of surreal. A film I completed exactly one year ago is a finalist here. It feels good, but it also feels wacked because I don't particularly like my Epilogue film that much anymore. Each film is a frozen snapshot of that particular moment in time, and once you move on down the line that moment becomes 'false'. No, it's not false, it's real and genuine in standing as a representation of that time, it's just, I would never see myself making a movie like that or writing a script like that or putting that kind of philosophy in a film ever again. But I'm not complaining though, I'm glad people are seeing this movie, because there's a message to it, unlike some of my other movies (yes, some of them don't have a point and I just point the camera at random places and edit the movie with parrot commands).

This sort of occurs for actors as well, I think. Films usually have at least a few weeks or months of post-production after the shoot is over, so when a film opens an actor is seeing himself/herself from possibly a year back. An extreme example is the Lord of the Rings trilogy... they were still doing interviews and promotional press junkets for something they shot 4-5 years ago and doing that every year until the third film was released. It would have been so weiiird. The best parallel for us is, imagine someone congratulating you now on an assignment you did in third form. That's how far back it is for those guys, really. "Well done, A+, kiddo!" That's kind of how I feel with Epilogue, but just not that extreme. Having said that I'm really grateful that there are these festivals/screening opportunities all around New Zealand, so thanks heaps, Flying Fives.

Anyways thanks to Patrick, Ajita, my Mum and everyone else for their support while we made the film, it was good fun.

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Mum left this morning. Joy is having her Honours recital today. Good luck!

:o/

I locked all the doors, I have the keys so I won't be locked out. Haha, that will be funny, or not really. What shall I eat for dinner tonight? I don't know, I know I'll get home at around 5:30 so there'll be no time to chop stuff up, so I might just go with the frozen 'potstickers'. I swear I will not eat KFC until I finish my 109 exam.

Buh bye, take care.

Been listening to their new album. Well, it's not that new, but it's 2005. The Weight Is A Gift. It's good. I'm glad I rediscovered indie music.

We have so many flowers it's not funny. Well, it kind of is, if you find flowers funny. But anyway, the point is there are a lot of them. And I'm kind of tired, despite having done only an hour of studying so far.

Bye.

No Boston Legal tonight. I forgot and turned the TV on to find Jack Johnson live on C4. He writes good songs, but he's so quiet and relaxed on stage, that he's really more interesting as a recording artist than a live concert artist.

I'm listening to Beethoven's Violin and Piano Sonatas now. I could cry. Really, I could. I'm not, but I really could. My mum is so cool, she taught me how to cook those spicy Korean noodles today. Suddenly your perspective changes, when you realise hey, exams don't matter, life skills are way more useful. Not the subject, that was honestly shit. I wish we had played more games in that class.

Anyway so I was thinking, it'd be awesome to be a First Year student three years in a row. Like, to know everything I've learnt this year, but just go through second year as if it was my first year. So you go through O-Week and all that, finding your way around Uni, being lost and everything, BUT other than that knowing everything you knew. But then again, that's just because First Year has been amazing, who knows, Second Year might just be freakishly better. Not sure how that is possible (I believe it is possible and very likely to be the case), but maybe they'll open up an all new food court with McDonalds, Wendy's, KFC, Burger King and the oh-so-rebellious Subway. That'll put Queen Street out of business and they'll have to relocate all the luxury clothing shops such as Billabong and Mississippi and Kathmandu up so they're integrated into the campus. Even cars will have to drive up into campus just to be engulfed in the shop smell. Queen Street would be no more. Or it could just be a really long cricket pitch. You would bowl, then by the time it got to the batsman, it'd be rolling on the ground. Or we could get giants to play there. That'd work.

I really am having dental problems. I just had a root canal filling but what is going on with my other teeth? I know I have sensitive teeth so I use Sensodyne, which has helped immensely. In fact the problem totally went away after I started using Sensodyne, but then one day, after about two months of a low-to-no candy diet I had one piece of chocolate. Then the problem came back again. So I think I will just try to never eat confectionery again. Although that is hard considering how much I love Starbursts, especially the beautiful advertisements, especially the one involving a watermelon.

Why does classical-romantic music move me so? I don't know, after a day of Fall Out Boy, which was really energising, this just seems so calming.

They say the longer your posts the more 'free' you are. That is kind of true. Actually at any moment I could be studying instead of blogging or listening to music [exclusively] but I don't think I'm going to do more tonight.

Tomorrow's job/prep-work: Gardening.

Good night, sleep well, take care, blah blah blah, I mean it. I must have said 'take care' in almost every post but it's what's important, taking care of *schtuff* quote unquote so, really, take care.

:o|

Went into Uni today. It was great. I did a lot of study and felt really productive. I've now close analysysed (ehh...) and taken notes on three quarters of the play. I also rewatched Adaptation and did the notes on that.

I also got Mckee's Story out of Howick library for a re-read. I won't be able to read it in detail, but I'll browse through the 'Image Systems' chapter again and check out the Chinatown case studies/examples.

Rikky gave me a rundown of Cricket Philosophy 101 today, and I am proud to say I actually know how the game works now. All that's left for me to do is pick up a racquet, head out to the cricket courts and score some goals. I think I'm most suited to playing point guard, due to my quick reflexes and great agility. Soon enough I will bring the World Welterweight championship belt to New Zealand.

Summer is on the rebound. It is going to be awesome, the holidays AND first semester. And Summer School too. Enrolments will open on November 1st. Ehh... that's good, I'll be free after that day. I do have my Film Studies exam on the 10th but I have a 8-9 day period before then so it should be alright.

Eating. Bye. Enjoy your meal. If you are eating. If you aren't, enjoy whatever it is that you're doing now.

Today's meal, above. This was ok, but I put in way too much sauce. At least I'm learning. The cool thing is I'm full.

I did close analysis and notes for a third of Cloud Nine today. I really like this play, it's hilarious and complex and richly layered.

I'm currently doing a practise essay for PHIL 212.

A new song I also quite like is Bloc Party's Blue Light (Engineers 'Anti-Gravity' Mix). Yes, it is on The O.C. Mix 5, and yes, it is attached to a significant moment in the third season of the television show. But it also happens to be a good song. What else have I been listening to lately? Still more Fall Out Boy, but also returning to some modern classics such as Radiohead, Audioslave and Weezer, thanks to Steve. Now thing is, Chris Cornell, his voice has certainly improved. Soundgarden - his voice was powerful, it always is, but in the new Audioslave record, he is less nasally and more gentle. Be Yourself really has a cop-out solo, but the rest of the song is beautiful.

Desperate Housewives ehh. Yeah. Buh bye.

The Youth Group cover of Alphaville's "Forever Young" is really good. It's completely different from the original, in a good way. The vocals are more relaxed and the single-coil guitar sound adds a lot to the agelessness of the song.

:o)

[spoiler alert]

Now, Harry Potter... Ok, I thought it was great, but the 'awesome action-packed stuff' really started quite late in the book. It was good, but there wasn't the 'integrated pay-off' like in Goblet of Fire. Dumbledore dying was a good creative decision, but I don't like the replay of the 'I was right but no one believed me' scenario. That tends to be alright once, but not a second time round. Also, I didn't care much for the Ginny-Harry pairing, or for that matter their melodramatic 'break-up' at the end of the book. Luna Lovegood is cool and funny in the parts of the book she's in, too bad she was introduced so late in the series and has such a small part. All Ron and Hermione do is oggle at each other. Also, the absence of Hermione or other female characters from the central action of the book bothered me: it seemed a bit patriarchal. The other thing too, is that Slughorn mentioned Harry's likeness to Lily many times in class, so I was hoping for something about her past to play a bigger part in the book. That's not a big loss though. Overall I really enjoyed it, but I just wish there had been less waiting and less dramatic irony and a less abrupt ending to the book. Rowling's writing is great because her resolutions are very short, but in this book it was long in the wrong way. Dumbledore's funeral dragged for too long, when what I really wanted was more set-ups for the next book - things to evoke curiosity. So far the only thing has been 'R.A.B', who I am guessing is Sirius' deceased brother. More along the lines of, say, things or messages Dumbledore would've left Harry.

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Studying today went fairly well. I read up on 'definitions of art' for PHIL 212, wrote out basic notes and transformed them into a practise essay. Two topics sort of down, two more to go for PHIL 212. So probably 50% done for that paper, and I think around 30% done for ENGLISH 109. I didn't manage to get much done on Cloud Nine in terms of notes, but I did do a bit of brainstorming and planning for my big 50% prepared essay and some browsing of critical opinions on Cloud Nine.

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Tonight's dinner was the undeniable stir-fried Satay chicken and onions again. So emerges my first novice cooking tip:

Use Satay as a safety net.

Three more days of education before I'm released into the wild. I hope I don't burn the house down or do something stupid.

Good night, take care.

Tonight I learnt baked salmon and some really salty things. I don't know what they are, but they're green and very tasty. Probably not too healthy. Mum's leaving on Thursday. It'll be the first time that I'll be home alone in a long time. The last time was three years ago, I think. Inverted sentence orders, not so good. Makes reading more difficult.

I did studied for the 'immorality in the value of art' topic for PHIL 212 today. Mmm, it went alright. I did a lot of work and understood it, but I don't think I was very interested.

Lost season two: Brilliant. I was going to save watching these episodes until after exams, but I find that they're a great incentive. Study for an hour or two, watch an episode. The twists just keep on coming. Some really phenomenal stuff here. I can honestly say this is better than season one, which is refreshing to see in a show. Now there's a three week break from ABC.

:o|

Harry Potter 6: I'm up to chapter 26, and it's really starting to pick up the pace with the main plotline. Rowling's doing this really late in the book but it's good so I'm not complaining. I'm a bit disappointed there isn't more of Luna Lovegood though, she's a cool character.

New Goblet of Fire stills, tv spots and behind the scenes footage have arrived. They're good. Snippets reveal the dialogue in this movie to be more naturalistic than in the last three films, which I will be looking forward to.

I think I will go do a practise essay for PHIL now. Tomorrow's topic: Cloud Nine.

Blood bank! I seriously think I am getting weaker and weaker with every one of these doner sessions. They seem more and more scary and claustrophobic. Suddenly the Maidment doesn't look so cozy. Easy listening radio stations.

'Freshman'. Yeah, we aren't in the states. But then if I had written 'First Year' it would've been the same. Semester Two (class-wise) is over. I said this yesterday but it's just incredible, I cannot wait until next semester, Uni is so much fun, and not just the lunch breaks, the people or the place but the actual lecture and tutorials.

Today's study report: Watched Forgotten Silver again and took notes. Beginning my second read of Cloud Nine and taking notes too. Now, should I do any study for philosophy? I think I should do a bit. Just so I don't fail it.

Got my second ENGLISH 109 essay back. Marker's comments were good, it's a great paper. Anyway, I got an A-, she said it was a pretty good essay but that my 'feminist reduction' may have limited my reading of Williams' text (A Streetcar Named Desire). Mmmm, I think I have been reading too many texts in a feminist kind of way. I'm not a feminist, but I've recently just been talking about the patriarchy in all my essays by default. Which isn't exactly a bad thing, but I think I need to be careful otherwise I'll neglect other aspects of any film/play. But I think I do want to take that Women Studies paper next year though, I think it's in second semester.

Time to take a break from studies and do something. I'm not trying to be vague, but I seriously haven't decided what I'm about to do yet. I'll decide after I post this. One thing, Harry Potter is hitting overdrive, I'm finally up to the last seven chapters and the main plot line is coming back. Chapter 23 was amazingly good in terms of pay-off, I'm surprised it came so early. But it definitely was a great chapter with a lot of warmth and humanity.

Night. Have fun with your studying. There are some people I might not bump into for a long time unless chance throws in a milkshake, so do take care and go eat stuff during summer break. Buy some pearl tea, exercise, keep healthy, buy some new clothes and throw skateboards around. All the best.

Today we had a 'careers' talk thing, and a guest speaker, Reina Webster, a New Zealand filmmaker who recently came back from NYU after studying for a Masters of Fine Arts in Film there. It was a really enlightening session, and Webster seems really down to earth, passionate and most of all, human. Some things from the Q and A session:

She reconfirmed my view that film school is damn expensive. Unless you are insanely rich it is financial suicide. But then again if you really work hard I'm sure you could get scholarships, but nowhere near what's going to cover tuition and living costs.

You can only get good at making movies by making movies.

Inspiration for great films come from life, not other books, films, plays or stories.

Persistence.

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Webster's thesis short film was also screened. I had seen The Little Things before in this year's NZFF Homegrown: Works on Film selection, and I must say I liked it more the second time. While I didn't connect with everything in the film, the story it was telling was genuine and really universal. The production values were also good, I thought.

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Tomorrow, last day of the semester. Argh, I wish I could go back and do first year again. Why is Uni so short? It's amazing. Damn fun. Only 3 years in my BA, and the semester's about to end. Second year... awesome. It's so good but it happens so fast.

Night. The new episode of The Office is sub par. It really is. I did my study for Chinatown today. It went really well. Cloud Nine is hilarious. I'm confused about who the characters are, but that's part of the text's charm. Take care.

Ahhh, so I finished the season. It was good. But a couple of things:

Charlie finding the heroin. Ok, I knew they were going to do this, but c'mon, this is cheap and un-Lost-ristic. It undermined the brilliant Charlie 'Moth' episode. It really was a beautiful episode, the moth episode.

The French lady's 'schizophrenia' was a cop-out. But ahhh well, it makes sense. Also Charlie calling her names was insensitive. And kind of funny. "You're pathetic!" Right.

It was also a nice touch for Hurley (Hugo) to be reading the Spanish comic book. And also in a previous episode where you saw him on TV in a living room in Korea in a flashback sequence.

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Now, I'm pretty sure I'm in a study mood now. I really feel like studying for English. Too bad I don't feel like studying for philosophy. But English is really interesting and motivating. This is good.

But I am tired so I will go to bed. Take care, night.

Finished reading this. Great read: funny, bizarre, absurd and really confusing. Must read it again now.

Had the last ENGLISH 109 lecture and tutorial today. They were really good. It's a really good paper, I've enjoyed much of the lectures/tutorials. Now I'll have to start studying. Um. The good thing is, I don't care about my PHIL 212 mark anymore. I learned a lot in the lectures and they were really good. But screw my mark for that, I'm just gonna study for English and Film Studies instead of that subject.

Time to finish the first season of Lost. Bye.

I'm reading this now, I have to finish it by tomorrow otherwise I'm screwed. Ahhh!! But it's pretty funny and a good read so far.

Speaking of clouds, yeah, I wanted to say, there is a funny shaped cloud hanging over my house right now. It looks like a hippo.

Bye.

Death Cab's I Will Follow You Into The Dark is really good. Desperate Housewives was good. New Zealand Idol was ok, I don't usually watch it, I just saw the last half hour because I mis-timed Desperate Housewives.

Burned a copy of Lychee chapters one and two for Ajita to spot off for the music. Studying plan totally failed today, I ended up spending the entire day playing with the Lychee footage. Anyway, tomorrow is Uni and a new day. Hahah!

Night, take care.

Dinner for tonight was fried noodles/fried cake thing. Dunno what it is in english, but I put in too much salt. At least I'm learning though, this is good for me. Especially since I hardly cook. Today I also changed the bedsheets and did more laundry. Tomorrow my mum will show me how to take care of the [incredibly and exhaustingly large] garden - trimming, watering, sweeping and planting. About a week or two ago my Dad had a stroke and got rushed to hospital. Now he's making [a lot of] progress and fighting the speech impediment, doing really well. But my mum needs to go back to Taiwan [I can't because I have exams] so I'll have to be home alone for a while, maybe a month or two, which means, growing up. And when I do go back to Taiwan, it means... having to read Chinese. It is my Achilles heel (not that I have only one weakness but if there was one in which you could go 'hahahahah gotcha' in it'd be my Chinese reading and writing ability). So while my mum is gone I have yet another holiday task, which is learning to say and recognise the following words/phrases in Chinese:

"Rice."
"Noodles."
"Pearl Tea."

"Beef Soup."
"Dumplings."
"Toilets, where?"
"Soft drink."
"Air con! Hot! Hot! Air con!"

"Can I have one pair of underwear please?"

"My chinese not good, you speak english?"
"I speak no Hokkien/Fujian/Minnanhua, sorry."

"I have no political affiliation please don't attack me, PLEASE let me go, I'm a tourist and I just like pearl tea."

Armed with that knowledge I should be able to survive. I hope.

:o/

Desperate Housewives... now! Cya!

:o)

Today I made satay (yes satay again) onions and fish slab slices, baked garlic fish pieces and coleslaw (yes coleslaw again, because it's easy and it doesn't get less tasty as it gets colder).

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Trying to start studying but I've just realised Philosophy of the Arts is really good at killing creativity. It's really interesting to go to the lectures and think about this stuff, but it's crappy writing essays about it (unlike films/plays). It's because every essay I read on the topic of PHIL of ARTS seems obnoxious. And most of them are. So I think I am really just gonna drop my PHIL major, it is fun to make one think, but just not that fun to get a major/minor in, for me anyway. There are so many theorists talking about the value of art and how one can measure it and whether it is objective or subjective and whether it is intrinsically linked to a work's aesthetic features or completely independent of them and blah and blah and blah. It is totally useless. If one was to just make a piece of art, they would know. And that would be enough. You just don't need to talk, you just need to do. And I think philosophy is good, but there is nothing that one person's great argument can do for another person. You can say it's a great argument but so what? You've proven you're a very capable essay-writer or researcher or logicist or whatever, or that your theory is really good, but what, is that just going to change someone else's way of life? I'm sure that's not the point, but if that's not the point, then what is? A person doesn't just change their lifestyle and their values because your philosophy is pretty good. They don't live their life to their own philosophies either. Maybe they try, but in the end you just do what you want. And most of the time, what you want, that desire, it's just not rational. But it's very real and it deserves so much more time and effort and hard work and attention, than any discussion on how everyone should live. I'm not anti-philosophy, because I think it's good for people to talk about their life, their goals, their place in their world, their own self-centred-ness and other peoples' existence and sometimes ask, "Why? What's up with all this?" But in the end we'll all know what this means, and trust me, when that happens no words will be necessary.

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Doing some editing for Lychee now. I was going to start on part three, but right now I'm recutting some bits of part two to make it more balanced. I was listening to Billy Gilman, and this kid (well, he was a kid) is a good singer. I'm not one for country music, but he's got a great voice. I wonder what he's up to these days.

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You know what I've been thinking? Sometimes you hear people who have Ph.D's talk about how much of a loss it is for someone NOT to 'know' something. Kind of like, if someone doesn't get a Bachelor degree and they aren't exposed to that 'more complexy way of thinking' and structuring thoughts into structurally good arguments and that kind of thing, they're missing out on some part of life. You might think this is funny or you don't think this, but someone you know must think this. Or maybe you do. It's really inbuilt in many of us, middle to upper middle class kids and families. It's like, two people can be having an argument, and one person is losing, so he says, "I've got a Ph.D, shut the fuck up." End of discussion.

Now that's just stupid. Being smarter never, ever equates to living. If you think so, you're mistaken. Being smarter is a means to an end not an end in itself. If somehow getting to level 100 on the scale of intelligence or scoring high on an IQ test makes your life more worth living then that's it really, you're totally fucked. Being smart does nothing. It's worth nothing. No one is going to care about it past your exams. Why do schools make kids compete? Why do we compete? Kids keep charging and charging and charging and charging. And one day they will find themselves 40 years old with all their competitors gone. No one wants to compete anymore, there's no fun in it at all. You can have a nicer car than that guy. So what? He's really happy. No matter how much money you have, that guy is still happy. Are you happy?

One guy could be an idiot but if he's enjoying his life and he's a good person then what the hell is wrong? You could be smarter than that idiot but if it isn't getting you closer to what you want then it's all empty. He's feeling so much and living, and all this education might not do a thing. We could be setting the first 15 years of our lives up just to please someone, that someone else, then when there's no one left to please and impress we find the gun and pull the trigger. So please, some things just don't matter, don't try to make them seem important and significant. A lot of things that seem important just aren't. Do what you feel like doing and it'll all be fine.

I'm off, cya, take care.

After weeks (or was it just one week?) of busking hiatus, we were back in Howick. Awesome day. We didn't practise for the whole week but we played great. Bach was tight, the money was good, and the weather was happy.

Fall Out Boy. Whaaaaat. Funny lyrics and nice drumming.

:o)

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Urrrgh Lost had lapsed into a few episodes of not so goodness. But then the Michael and Boone episodes came along and blew everything out of the water. They were very good. Now only if FOX would go off their 'sports break' and continue the great new season of The O.C. and continue Reunion. Ahhh...

Today I started my cooking programme. It's going ok. Veges of the day:

Carrots
Cabbage
Broccoli

And chicken. Chicken isn't a vegetable, but it's food. Mmm.... chicken...

Hi. Went to this yesterday. We played well, I screwed up quite a lot but we got through and played better as the movements went on.

:o)

The pieces were so cool! Well, some of them. There was one in which they played dinnerware, it was themed and humourous and well-acted and performed. There was a 'war' one in which two identical-ish ensembles played against each other to much noise and un-hearable-ness until the French narrator jumped off the balcony. The concept was quite funny but you just couldn't hear a lot of the instruments and parts anyway. There was one based on the Peanuts comic strip which was really spastically acted and crazy, it was good. There was one with three clarinets playing roughly the same thing (I think) in different tempi and keys or something, which eventually hurt most of the listeners' ears. There was an awesome percussionist. It was really cool.

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Why Monkey Why! It is on repeat on my computer now, damn it is so happy, upbeat and energetic. The spontaneity of the shouts/claps and the back up vocals make this song really down to earth and real.

Ok, cya!

And yeah, I don't like The Times or Courier. I mean I understand how community 'free news' is supposed to be showcasing local people doing successful things, but sometimes a lot of those articles are so badly written and conceived that they show the underlying bi-culturalism of some peoples' thinking. They put on stupid headings for their articles like 'Asians targeted by crime', and actually go on to say that 'Asians look like they have more money and are perceived by burglars to have more assets so are more likely to be targets.' Then they proceed to talk about how there are not enough Asian policemen. That will more likely fuel Asian-targeted crime than actually help make the situation better. The article combines two issues, one about the economic-image of the Asian population (and they fail to talk about why this may be the case), the other about Asian-language speaking police officers to cater for the rise of the Asian population. Not that all reporting should have an agenda, but at least think of the repercussions of what you write and aim to do good. If they're gonna put that, maybe they should have included the contacts to the local Police authorities so Asians could sign up. Or to local ESOL centres so Asians who can't speak english can learn one of the main languages of this country. Journalists have the power to get to a lot of people so it's their responsibility to not put out trash. Even if it's a free paper and comes out like every day. To be honest I'd rather have less artcles which are good than a lot which are fluffy.

Yay! Got my essay back for PHIL 212 (Philosophy of the Arts). I got a B-, yeah. And no, it wasn't a sloppy 'on the day' job. I actually did the required readings, did my essay plan and finished it a week before the due date. So this is how/why I got my first B-: (according to my tutor and me)

- Instead of talking about historicist definitions of art exclusively, I proposed my own definition of art and said that the historicist definition was a derivative version of the one I am coming up with now.
- I assumed that the reader knew what each of the popular definition forms for the definition of art was so I did not summarise them briefly. Bad move for me, and I agree I should have done that. Although I only had 2000 words which is not a lot of time (time?) to be introducing a new concept (as opposed to just critically examining existing ones). But then again, that's my mistake for even attempting to do that in a 2000 word Stage II essay.
- I based my definition of art on the fact that the definition of art is a completely human concept that grows out of a very specific relationship between a person and an artefact, and that therefore many (not all) historicist, institutional and cluster definitions can be traced back to this one. I didn't explain exactly what that 'relationship' is (but neither did Gaut explain which conditions would be in his cluster concept). I merely presented it as a possible format (like Gaut). The tutor took it as if I forgot to give it to him and left it out of my essay, whereas I was consciously saying that I didn't know what it was anyway. Ahh well.

In conclusion next time I will stick to talking about existing concepts instead of making up my own one. It takes too much work to explain and I'm not literate enough to explain it fully without damn holes. But still, B-?

:o/

He could've given me a B+ or something. After all it was nicely structured and obviously ambitious. I was provoked to engage in independent thought! Isn't that philosophy is about? Nah, it's just about arguing and how good you are at it. Then you apply those really good arguing techniques to many different topics and swim in your private sea of A+. I'll take this as a sign to not continue philosophy as a minor. Eeek!

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Oh and it was worth 40%, roffle woffle woffle woffle. But there's plussage. Yay!

:o)

Heya! Ok so yesterday we had the screenings. 'Twas good, some good films, some bad films and some awe-ful (yes awe-ful) films. The spirit of student filmmaking was in the air and it was good fun. Favourite films from the night: (no particular order)

A Call From The Night
Good For a Girl
Couch
The Unknown
Sharp Objects
Life Accelerated

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Tonight was the awards thing. The award is a real cool plastic 'wave tombstone thing', called a 'stud-y' or 'study'. Yeah. Maybe you've already read this from Henry's blog but...

We won Best Music Video and Best DOP/Lighting (this was just hilarious, never in a million years did we expect this or even think about lighting consciously when we filmed it). We were also nominated for Best Art Direction and Best Director. It was cool.

Except I experienced for the first time how hard it was to speak articulately and not look stupid on the stage. Firstly, the presenter guy, Steven Gray, scared me. He was really enthused and really hyped up and I was really nervous. So I think I just looked unhappy and not spirited at all when I went up for the first award. The second time was a bit better, at least I sort of talked about how we did the lighting, BUT I forgot to thank the sun, which was the most important thing I should've said. Doh-ness. Sorry Henry. It was really appropriate, but the way I said the sentence before made me totally 'lamed' and basically set myself up for a 'bomb' sentence. So I just shut up and got off the stage as quickly as I could.

Anyway later these people making a documentary interviewed me, but again I was idiotic.

"What inspired the video?"
"Um, I dunno, I just, yeah, I like music and, um... *voice becomes inaudible*"

"How did you get to know the guys from the band?"
"They were from my school, um, that school, form seven, person, yes [more words that don't connect follow as Dennis stutters until the cute reporter girl turns around to talk to someone else]"

*Reporter Girl turns back to continue interview*

"You're also nominated for Best Director, what do you think your chances are?"
"Uh, uh, uh, I liked the other films, I don't remember uh, I quite liked that documentary uh, I forgot what it was called but, but, but..."

*a minute later*

"Ok, um, you can take your mike off now... yeah, just remove it... no... yeah... no, just pull it off, there's no clip. Yeah, hand it to me."

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Then this Asian guy came up and interviewed me for this random website thing called SkyKiwi.com, and again I was a bad interviewee. Cos he wanted me to speak in mandarin and I couldn't explain any of the film concepts in mandarin.

In conclusion that's what happens when you have no experience at these awards things. Or when you're me and really just, not good in these situations.

It was really good though, the second time I'd attended something film related that I was involved in in public. The other time was last year, that Media Studies screening night for Year 12 short films.

Thanks AUSA, AUSM and everyone who's making movies. Congrats to everyone who made a movie and entered. Watching some of these shorts again tonight, I enjoyed them a lot more. Thanks FFoF you guys are cool, trusting a complete noob. Why Monkey Why will be fun to make. Thanks everyone who supports us and helped and was there and are here now and will be here later and...

:o)

Sitting here in the Level 3 computer pods (why do I call 'em that? It's like they're organic living eggs or something). Big Lebowski, funny, funny movie. But not in a normal comedy kind of way. I mean, it is definitely a comedy. But the film wasn't holding up a sign saying, 'This is a comedy.' It sort of had it's own story and it's own funny characters and just went a few places then came home again. So that's what's good about it.

Funniest bits (for me anyway):

- Dude getting Donnie's ashes in his face.
- The two brilliant dream sequences - films should have more of these, they're really great fun, I don't know why they are really popular in cartoons but not in live action films. Sure, there are dream sequences, but they're usually nightmares or stuff segments which foreshadow what's going to happen later. I'm talking about just plain fun dream sequences. Highlights of these sequences were the music and the 'Red Scissors Men'. Truly hilarious.
- Walter's determined annoyingness in every single scene he's in.
- Buscemi's expression right after he bowls.

Aimee Mann is in this movie. Haha, as a nihilist. Um, so is Hoffman. John Turturro - that's two movies he's in that I saw today (the other one is Do the Right Thing).

15 Minutes of Fame tonight, looking forward to seeing some short films. But right now I am hungry and will go and eat. Take care.

I've been listening to the new Fall Out Boy album. It's good.

Lost - yeaaa it's getting scary now. Although they are having the second 'Jack' episode but they still haven't done a Shannon/Boone or Michael episode. I'm more curious about those guys... or even Hurley. Not that Jack isn't interesting, he's cool, but his thing is almost always usually sad.

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Not enough sleep. One thing, I might be doing summer school. Not full on, just one paper, all coursework and just creative writing. Yeah. Since I'm basically doing creative writing during the holidays anyway I may as well get credited for it. So instead of having three and a half months of holidays I'll have two and a half months of holidays and one month of part time learning. Yeaa, not too bad, should be cool.

Buh bye, night. Take care.

Copy and pasted from my reading response because I'd be pretty much typing out the same thing anyway. Anyway this is a really cool movie.

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Adaptation is a film which at first glance deals with the theme of male sexual anxiety, but I think the most fascinating aspect of the film is the way in which the ambiguity and mystery of who Charlie Kaufman is in real life is revealed. This is done through the self-referential and self-reflexive way the story is told and particularly through the characterisation of both Donald and Charlie.

Donald is very interesting because he does everything Charlie rejects as a writer – he ascribes to ‘formula’ by using characters of multiple personalities, guns and car chases, yet the paradox is that Donald and Charlie are the representations on screen for Kaufman’s ‘multiple personalities’ in the script for Adaptation. Kaufman shares his first name with the Charlie character, who is the protagonist of the film, so most people would probably associate the real Kaufman with the Charlie character and treat Donald as a completely fictional creation. However, I think Kaufman is as much Donald as he is Charlie.

There are several parts of the film in which Donald interacts with other supposedly real characters, such as Susan Orlean. While these scenes may be fabricated, if they were true (this is quite plausible, after all, it is hard to believe Kaufman never met Orlean), then it would make sense to assume that Kaufman would’ve met and talk to many people in his ‘Donald’ state.

Another way of looking at it is that Donald is the suppressed but always existent part of Donald’s personality that only comes out in his writing. This is shown in the second half of the film, in which Charlie goes through rapid development. With the help of Donald, he comes to understand that one doesn’t have to care about what others think of them. He overcomes this obstacle and finds the courage to kiss Amelia and tell her that he loves her, something he wasn’t able to do at the beginning of the film. Charlie has changed and overcome anxiety, his future full of hope. In this respect, the film is totally Donald-sian.

But there are also distinctly ‘Charlie’ elements to the film. It is littered with what McKee considers bad techniques – the constant use of voice-over and the implementation of the crocodile and the car crash as Deux Ex Machina’s. This ending is also just another fantasy of the Kaufman the screenwriter. Just as Alice the Waitress and Susan Orlean were recreated in Charlie’s sexual fantasies, Kaufman has weaved an inspiring but completely fictional journey of transformation for himself in Adaptation. In this sense, the Kaufman who has written this screenplay is the Charlie from the beginning of the film – the one who avoids confrontation with people by re-creating them as fictional characters, like the Laroche and Orlean are, in the second half of the film.

So in one way, the ending could be viewed as the defeat of Kaufman, in that unlike his character in the film, he has not weaned off using fiction as a form of escape. After all, Charlie never does find an ending to his screenplay – an ending about himself on the verge of finding an ending is a really a ‘non-ending’ ending in itself.

But on the other hand, and ultimately, Kaufman has succeeded in proving his point, using his own life as a case study. After all, Charlie does say, “What if a writer is attempting to create a story where people don’t change…more like a reflection of the real world?” Kaufman has created a story in which people do change, to show that in the real world, people, like him for example, don’t change.

Ahhhhhh... long movie. Ok, mixed feelings about this movie. It's a good movie. Let's settle that first. But it's really long. It's probably not the longest movie ever made, but you can't exactly call this 'lightweight' either. No one is gonna say, "Nah dude, 3 hours 47 minutes? That's nothing." There are basically three 'time-frames' this movie is set in.

1) Noodles as a kid/young teen.
2) Noodles as an adult.
3) Noodles as an old man.

To be honest I only really liked the kids section of the film. I felt that was the most touching and engrossing section to watch. Patsy and Cockeye were basically dumped characters as adults. I mean, this was obviously a very ambitious film. Set design, landscapes, wow-o-meter - incredible. Now Gangs of New York, which I didn't like much anyway, has nothing on this movie, overall. But it was more focussed. This movie is expansive and paints with broad strokes, but it missed... a lot... of... the intimate stuff. That 'small' stuff. Believe me, the acting was a top knotch (notch? knoche? knock?) effort, but the characters were just so close and so far away from 'being in the zone'.

As for the interpretation of the ending: I don't know, people are going on about all the numerous ways this film could be read. With Mulholland Drive, there is pretty much only one way to read the film (I'm not talking about critical readings, cos there's an unlimited supply of those, I'm talking about what happens in the film, literally).

With OUaTiA, there are two ways the plot works on a literal level. One is basically that the story is not told linearly and that everything happened. One is that all the 'old man Noodles' scenes never happened and that Noodles got high from the opium and hallucinated the entire future. In that case his hallucination is an awesome composer, concocting a brilliant version of Yesterday.

One of these interpretations is stupid, the other is not. But both sort of work, one just needs to be 'twisted'.

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Adaptation: Aha! I'll write on this film later. It's a work of defeated genius that is totally awesome. I'll explain the message I got from it in the next post.

Gtg, eating. Cya!

So, now we know the plane was going from somewhere in Australia (did the guy say Sydney or Melbourne? I forgot) to Los Angeles. Now who is that creepy Ethan guy from the island? Hmm... the plot thickens. Muahahahaha!

I've started choosing my papers for next year. Turns out, I can actually major or minor in Music in a BA. I don't think I'd want to double major in it with film though, because most of the music papers offered in the BA are theoretical. So I might do a minor in it. Now what really bugs me is why one can do either a major and a minor or a double major, but not or a double major and a minor or a major and a double minor. Because I've really structured my degree so that I can get a minor in both Philosophy and Music. But no, I have to only choose one of them for my degree (apparently). Urgh...

Editing part two of Lychee now.

This movie was pretty boring. It was nicely shot and the acting was pretty good, but even for a 108 minute film (which shouldn't be 'slow'), it felt way longer. So now I know how to make time go slower -watch a boring movie.

However, it wasn't all bad. There were some really nice concepts in there, and it connected with me on a number of levels. But it was just too unbalanced and it lacked action. The editing was also kind of confusing. I hope 2046 clears some of the stuff up.

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Woah, new Harry Potter TV spots and posters galore. Awesome. I wonder what's going to happen to the kid actors after Harry Potter's over. How does it feel to do seven (possibly) of the world's biggest productions in the world, in a row while you're a teen, then when you're like 20 years old having tens of millions of dollars in the bank, finding yourself type-cast to the bone? I'm sure they'll probably do other films or be in plays or whatever, but it's like, how do you come down, from being the title character in Harry Potter? I can't really think of any franchise or movie series that could be bigger than this one. It's like living in a vacuum (but not exactly a vacuum). It looks like they'll make all seven of the books, I mean, at this rate, they'll be done by 2009 or 2010.

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I just received my examination timetable and my exams pretty much go from hard-to-easy. Ahh cool. I think I'll start studying next week.

I'm hungry. These entries aren't particularly poetic eh? Yeah. Afternoon tea.

AHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAH! This movie was so funny! Hmm, it's not my favourite Tim Burton film, but it's still really good! This is quite a good movie for any aspiring filmmaker to see, because there really is a bit of Ed Wood in all of us. Now that I think of it, I am the type of person who would [if forced by circumstances] do one take for everything. Maybe I should do a 'one take' film, using the first take of everything no matter what happens. That'd be a good experiment in rehearsing.

It's also pretty cool that I'm watching this film now, right after listening to the horror lecture this week, as one of the film's main characters is Bela Lugosi. Must see Plan 9 From Outer Space now... and Glen or Glenda too...

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Finished Meaning of Life. It was ok. Some bits were actually quite good, it was just quite uneven overall. Also saw the Sawyer episode for Lost. Ok, he's a pretty cool character but not as cool as I was expecting. His backstory episode is also one of the only ones which does not end up in the the plane departing from Australia back to [America]. We don't know if it's the States, but it's implied. Which would not explain why the Korean couple are going from Australia to the US, but it doesn't really matter, it's not a plot hole, the guy's probably on a business trip or something. Except why is Charlie going to the US? Isn't he Irish or something? Yeah, I better stop asking these questions and just watch. In time the show will explain itself.

Rockstar INXS - I never, ever watched this show till tonight. I preferred Marty but I thought JD was also pretty good.

Tired now, bed, bye. Take care.

Got a phone call from someone saying Only the Hopeful was nominated for something for the 15 Minutes of Fame thing held by AUSA. Coolies. Screening of all entries (maybe not all? I'm not sure) are on Tuesday night next week at the Classic, starting at around 7:30 pm, with people getting there by 7. Everyone's welcome to come and see the stuff Uni students from both the UoA and AUT have been making outside of their classes.

Today's film lecture was pretty good - it showed us how deeply-layered the horror genre was. I've almost forgotten everything from Scream. Must check that out some time, after I see:

Ed Wood
Once Upon a Time in America
The Deer Hunter
In the Mood for Love
Requiem for a Dream

It's quite hard, the balance between going to Uni, doing music related stuff, trying to edit Lychee, watching television shows and watching movies. But it's good though, always having stuff to do. I'll see how I handle holidays this year, maybe I'll be really productive or maybe I'll just slack off after the first few weeks or days. Um.

Time for yet another Lost episode.

I've been doing this bit by bit and the first part of Lychee is done. Sort of. ADR stuff's been added and most of the cuts are in the right place. I think I'll start editing part two tomorrow.

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Psycho as a horror movie? I can understand it from the 'ghost' point of view - for example people thinking the mother character was the ghost, but it's not really a horror film? Ok, maybe those sequences of people walking around the old house not knowing where the killer was hiding were sort of horrifical (horrific?), but everything else was like a thriller.

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I returned that Mamet book, but got out another book - Impro by Johnstone. Apparently one of those key improvisation books. That's the focus for me now anyway - acting related stuff. For the holidays I've got a different focus this year.

Last year I focussed a lot on sound (I learnt a lot but I haven't moved onto recording good diegetic sound yet) and general directing things. But this year I really want to focus on:

Acting (directing actors, performance)
Film Music (the process of scoring and the workflow - what happens when, in what stage of the production)
Lighting/Blocking (learn about the different kinds of lights and also really planning shoots well)
Storyboarding (trying to do more than stick figures)

Ok, maybe that's a bit much. No way I can do all that, but at least the first two things definitely.

In the summer holidays I plan to learn the following:

Piano,
Chinese,
Japanese.
Drums.
To draw stuff.
All the names of the rugby teams and their star players and secret tactics,
All the names of the cricket teams and their star players and secret tactics,
The Smooth Criminal dance routine,

and

The backside-ollie-pop-shuvit-kickflip-360-butterflip.

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Exhaustion is pretty tiring. Hahahaha... I wonder why the Harry Potter movies have this golden rule about ONLY casting British actors/actresses. Not that it sucks, but there are a lot of pretty cool people from other countries too. Ahh well.

I have a Homer head Rubik's cube my sister gave me for my birthday. They came out with a Bart's head too. Which is quite cool. They also have a Hello Kitty one. Wait I think I've talked about this before. Anyways, I think they are quite cool, I should get another one some time.

Yeah, exhaustion. Night, bye. Take care.

Hmm, there aren't many scholarships for Arts students are there? It's wacked. Engineering and Science and stuff have so many, damn. Ahh well.

I didn't get as much done/watched as I had wanted to today. I saw part two of the two 'Lock down' episodes of Prison Break, and the Charlie episode of Lost. It was really, really good. So far my 2nd fave episode ending after the Locke episode. Dominic Monaghan really has acting chops, but it didn't really show when he was a hobbit.

Saw the first 20 minutes of The Meaning of Life. So far it's just been this grandly choreographed but not really funny piece of work. I mean, it's entertaining in some way, but it's not really hilarious or anything. Let's see if the film picks up it's pace later.

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Grain Waves. Good. Honey Mustard is the tastiest flavour. In the ENGLISH 109 tutorial we had to have a group debate thing. Urrgh, I never did debating at Macleans, but it was actually pretty good. I mean, no one really knew how to debate properly, but the points made were quite interesting and furthered our understanding of the text and provided a platform for good discussion. I'm probably being sort of vague here, maybe, but anyway it was pretty good.

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I finished reading that David Mamet On Directing book. It's pretty good. It's really short and simple and straightforward, but he makes some good points. Like about how everything should be uninflected and an actor should do what is necessary in the most simple way possible. For example if someone's doing something mundane and ordinary they shouldn't try to do it 'in character'. Sort of like, character is revealed by what they do, not how they do what they do. So it's sort of like a scene where the boy walks into this room and asks his mum for a candy bar. So this weirdo actor does this silly walk thing and makes the kid limp in and stumble and tremble as he asks his mum in a really high pitched 'I'm scared of being rejected' kind of voice. Well, that doesn't reveal character (according to Mamet). Well, it does reveal character, in it's own kind of way. But it's like painting a house with a felt-tip pen.

What Mamet says (I think, I could have gotten this wrong) is that the kid's character is revealed by the fact that he goes in to ask his mum for a candy bar. We know from this he likes candy. If we have a scene prior to this in which we see the boy ask his mum for a glass of water and she yells 'No' and then gets a broom and starts wacking him on the head, then we also know that the boy really has a strong desire for the candy bar and has a lot of courage for doing this. We don't know why he wants it or what's propelling him exactly, but that's what we want to find out. So the boy's courage and immediate goal (to get a candy bar) is revealed. We don't know what his through-line is, but we know getting the candy bar will be part of that through-line. On this scope, limping, stumbling and trembling don't really contribute to the through-line at all, it's an excess of self-indulgent acting that doesn't do anything [much] to the character or the narrative. So says Mamet. I don't agree with everything but it's a good read and ed-ucational.

Time for bed, bye. Night. Take care.

:o)

I was tabbing Rikky's song after dinner, it's really catchy.

BainChouD Soutaa MujhaY Soutta Na Millaaaaaaaaa....

Yeah, been listening to Jim Dale reading Harry Potter 6. I'd never really tried audiobooks but seriously, they are the rad. Jim Dale reads at a really comfortable tempo. His voice is also not annoying to listen to for long hours and he excels at playing the different characters. These books make your bus trip sooo fun, and in some ways it's actually better than reading. Reading and listening to books both have their different flavours. Not that you can taste them. Eating books. Now that'd be something.

BainChouD Soutaa Soutta Na Milla..ahhh....

Uhh... The Office (US) season two. I dunno, it's really not that funny now, I'm not sure why. Some of it is ok but sometimes it just goes over the line and it ends up not being funny.

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I just noticed heaps (not all) of the Lost episodes start with a shot of someone opening their eye. Yee ha, cool. Ok maybe everyone knew that already but, I quite like that. Ok.

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Saw Psycho and Fargo today. Thought both of them were pretty cool films.

:o)

Time for bed, bye. Take care.

BainChouD MaaChouD BainChouD MaaChouD....

And the plot thickens for Desperate Housewives... and I did nothing but watch stuff today. It was good though, to 'get more in my system'. Haha, apparently Kevin Smith thinks Magnolia sucks (big time). Cinema is pretty surrealist these days, but it's always been one of those 100% no-zero mediums. That means, there are rules to filmmaking. But as long as you purposefully break them and explicitly state that you are doing it for a good reason, it is fine. I guess that's true for other mediums too, but it's actually being embraced in film medium. You can make anything you want and everyone can say it's a piece of crap but it's an art film and as long as you've succeeded in doing what you've intended, it's a good film. Even if you intended it to be a bad film.

:o)

Everyone has different objectives and ways of tackling this, but I guess in the end you just make what makes you happy. Or what makes other people happy. Or what makes you grow as a person or whatever. Art as therapy. Maybe. There are a multitude of reasons why people make films and I guess we won't ever really know whether there is a good film or not, especially in this post-structuralist world. But what every person does know is what they like and what they don't like. And if you like a film, then that's all it needs. You've spent 1-2-3 hours of your time watching something and you enjoyed those few hours. Someone else didn't, it's their loss, I guess. Not that someone should try to enjoy something they just didn't enjoy. You can't really choose to do that. You can try to convince yourself you like something, but it's not really gonna happen. Nor is it your fault if you don't like something. It's not really the filmmaker's fault either. It's just something that happens.

That must be so vague. What I wrote. This kind of stuff is always vague though. Yeah.

Bed, night.

Today I went into the city and handed in my assignment for ENGLISH 109.

I bought the Magnolia DVD, finally! Watched the special features. The documentary was OK, I mean, some of it was enlightening, but there was a lot of random screwed footage. I'd have liked more cast interviews, they really only interviewed Julianne Moore extensively, while everyone else got in like one or two words. Some people like John C. Reilly, Melora Walters and Tom Cruise weren't really interviewed at all. Mmm. It just didn't seem well planned at all. For a movie of this length and scale, you'd think there would be more bts-footage. Ahh well. However I saw the film again and yeah, my liking of it hasn't really changed. I'm leaning more towards Punch-Drunk Love though, partly because I tend to like shorter films and less characters. But go PT! Yeah!

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Saw Groundhog Day again because my mum was watching it. She loved it. It's really one of those movies that manages to be deep without actually being deep. It's really quite a simple movie but what it says is profound.

Time to throw out old batteries for the collection. Cya!