postal service tickets for the
postal service tickets for the brooklyn show are on sale!
$12 for April the 18th. WOOHOO!
http://www.ticketweb.com/user/?region=nyc&query=schedule&venue=northsix1
« February 2003 | Main | April 2003 »
March 31, 2003
March 30, 2003
As of 8:00 I was
As of 8:00 I was done with Hail to the Thief for now... listened to the album straight through twice and skipped around on the album a lot... that was about 6 straight hours of listening to Radiohead... whoa...
Topped it all off with Dashboard Confessional.... AGH! Someone stop me... hahaha, actually... don't... this song is funny...
as for now i'm gonna hear the saddest songs and sit alone and wonder... how you're making out...
as for me I wish that i was anywhere, with anyone, MAKING OUT!
your hair it's everywhere...
AGH! MAKE ME STOP! hahaha, I'm done... gotta go... yeah....
8:00 I think I'm done
8:00 I think I'm done with Hail to the Thief for now... listened to the album straight through twice and skipped around on the album a lot... that was about 6 straight hours of listening to Radiohead... whoa...
I'm listening to Dashboard Confessional now.... AGH! Someone stop me... hahaha, actually... don't... this song is funny...
as for now i'm gonna hear the saddest songs and sit alone and wonder... how you're making out...
as for me I wish that i was anywhere, with anyone, MAKING OUT!
your hair it's everywhere...
AGH! MAKE ME STOP! hahaha, I'm done... gotta go... yeah....
I've been listening to the
I've been listening to the new album for 4+ hours straight now... still going strong...
Just finished my first time
Just finished my first time through the new album. Booyah! It's great.
I FINALLY GOT ALL 14
I FINALLY GOT ALL 14 TRACKS!
Took forever and 5 of them are 128 kbps as opposed to the 192 the rest are encoded at, but they'll do for now...
I've listened to all the songs at least once now and they're great. I'm starting from the beginning and listening to them in order now...
My favorites right now...
2+2=5
Backdrifts
There There
I Will
The new Radiohead album: "Hail
The new Radiohead album: "Hail to the Thief" was leaked today a couple months before it's supposed to come out... I'm downloading right now...
We're bigger than U. S. Steel!
I just finished watching "The Godfather Part II". WHOA! Just like I said about the first one, this movie is incredible. It picks up right where the last one left off without missing a single beat. The acting is just as fantastic, especially with the addition of the legendary Lee Strasberg, and everything about the film works perfectly. I actually like this one better than the first, mostly because of Robert DeNiro and the film's narrative structure is also more interesting than the first.
I noticed lots of similarities to the French film I saw in class on Wednesday, "Menilmontant," the editing is really similar in its use of dissolves. Copolla also uses this method in "Apocalypse Now" a lot. The first two in the series are two of the best films ever and for anybody out there who reads this who hasn't seen them, watch them!
The Godfather, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and Do The Right Thing were all playing in theaters this weekend. I missed them all... damn!
*yawn*
goodnight.
March 29, 2003
Risin Up, Back on the Street
My Current Playlist on WinAmp...
1. Dashboard Confessional - Screaming Infidelities
2. Enrique Iglesias - Hero
3. LFO - Summergirls
4. Survivor - Eye of the Tiger
5. Sixpence None the Richer - Kiss Me
6. Men Without Hats - Safety Dance
7. J Lo - Jenny From the Block
I kid you not...
After watching The Godfather yesterday
After watching The Godfather yesterday I decided that I think it's better than Apocalypse Now so here's my new top ten list which might be a lot different than the one from two posts ago since that list was made awhile back.
It's still kept to one per director...
The Passion of Joan of Arc
Band of Outsiders
8 1/2
George Washington
2001: A Space Odyssey
Raging Bull
The Godfather
In The Mood for Love
Jules and Jim
Chinatown
the ones that almost made it:
McCabe and Mrs. Miller
The Thin Red Line
Five Easy Pieces
Blue Velvet
Aguirre the Wrath of God
Annie Hall
High and Low
Citizen Kane
Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance
The General
I think I'm going to go watch a movie now while I wait for everyone to wake up so we can finish the Godfather trilogy... I think I'm going to watch Chinatown. Bye.
Leave the gun, take the cannoli
I just watched "The Godfather" and that movie is so incredible. Gordon Willis' cinematography is brilliant, the acting is top notch, the story is incredibly engrossing, and of course the music is just so classic. Everything about the movie is great. We were planning on watching part two tomorrow and three on Sunday, but most likely we'll watch both two and three tomorrow. I'd like to just go watch them right now, but Ian has to go to sleep since he needs to wake up early tomorrow.
I watched some documentaries today in a class of mine. Two to be exact. They were both under 30 minutes. The first one was a film by French director Luis Bunuel. It was called "Land Without Bread" and was really absurd and purposely so. I enjoyed it although it was depressing. The second one was a Brazilian documentary called "Isle of Flowers" and it basically traces a tomato's journey from farm to store to home to garbage to dump. Ultimately it presents the poor living on the Isle of Flowers (a large island used as a dump) and how they get by picking food out of the garbage after farmers have picked out whatever they can for their pigs. Incredibly depressing film that was presented in a way that I've never seen, very clever, funny, and pretty powerful as well.
Back to the Godfather: Whoa! I love that movie. One odd thing though... every time I see Diane Keaton I keep associating her with her character in "Annie Hall" and not as Kay Corleone...
Robert Duvall is cool. I was surprised I didn't continually think "Col. Kilgore" every time I saw him. That's good I guess, his Tom character is really good, although not as good as Kilgore...
All right, I'm done. I can't wait for tomorrow!
March 28, 2003
YUCK YUCK YUCK YUCK YUCK
"the people I knew who loved movies, some of whom aspired to make them, loved them seriously. And to not know the so-called classics would have been unthinkable. How could you love literature and not know Mark Twain or Shakespeare? That's the difference between Tarantino and the people who want to be Tarantino. Quentin Tarantino was grounded in the past, but many of the people who aspire to his success know only him and Fincher."
-Curtis Hanson
I don't like Quentin Tarantino and it pains me to include positive things about him in my journal, but Hanson is right about him...
A couple months ago, one of my film professors told our class about a survey a writer at the Boston Globe was conducting. He was polling film students from various schools about what they thought the 10 greatest films of all time were and he was comparing it to the traditional canon of "great films."
I participated in the survey which polled students from filmmaking and cinema studies departments at NYU, Harvard, MIT, Wesleyan, and USC. I was looking for the list I submitted and couldn't find it, but here's what I think it was... I'm sure it's not exactly the same, but it's close...
The Passion of Joan of Arc
Jules and Jim
8 1/2
The Thin Red Line
George Washington
2001: A Space Odyssey
Raging Bull
Apocalypse Now (I limited it to one per director... that's why you won't see the Godfather on here...)
In The Mood for Love or Chungking Express... I forget (I know I put one Wong Kar Wai film on it...)
(The above I'm sure of, the last one I'm not... I'll just name a bunch and I'm sure it will be in their somewhere)
Chinatown
McCabe and Mrs. Miller
Five Easy Pieces
Dancer in the Dark
Blue Velvet
Aguirre The Wrath of God
Annie Hall
The Seven Samurai
Citizen Kane
Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance
The General
anyway... I found the article online at http://www.boston.com/globe/magazine/2003/0323/coverstory.htm and here's what the top ten the writer compiled from the survey is...
brace yourself...
1.Pulp Fiction (1994)
2 The Godfather (1972)
3 Fight Club (1999)
4 Run Lola Run (1998)
5 Amelie (2001)
6 12 Monkeys (1995) and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998)
7 The Big Lebowski (1998)
8 Memento (2000)
9 Boogie Nights (1997) and Magnolia (1999)
10 The Matrix (1999)
H O L Y S H I T
GAG
BARF
hahaha...
...
Okay, maybe I'm just a film snob who needs to get over himself, but I actually found this list to be mildly depressing... But, you don't even have to be a film snob to know that a 10 greatest of all time list that only features two foreign films and only one film from before 1995 is utterly ridiculous.
Of course, having met a whole slew of film students during my stay here at NYU I guess I should've known, but I was holding out hope that not all film students were like the people I had met. I was wrong...
Don't get me wrong, I like most of the movies that are on that list, actually I enjoy all of them to varying degrees... but 10 greatest ever?
Ugh...
Enough ranting, but film students suck.
Wow a long day. I
Wow a long day.
I woke up today at 9, then 9:30, then 10:00...
Hung out in Times Square until around 6pm with some friends, one who's visiting from Seattle.
Afterwards, I took a nap then went out to get pizza with Lee and Claire.
We ate at Famous Ben's Pizza, it was just all right...
Got back around 9 or 10, not sure... I think 9...
Talked for a long time. Helped Lee with something on her computer. Played videogames.
It's 1:30 and now I'm here.
My day was actually really packed with stuff, but I'm way too lazy to type it all, that's why this entry is so short. That's odd considering this was one of my more busy days here in New York City, but I'm just too tired. I have class tomorrow from 10 to 5. Ugh. I hate Fridays.
Bye
March 27, 2003
So tonight they showed Sigur
So tonight they showed Sigur Ros on last call with Carson Daly, but part way into their song, they cut away to news about the war. Wtf...
March 26, 2003
This one's long, it's split up into sections using this ---> ******************************
"A person who works with his hands is a laborer. A person who works with his hands and his mind is a craftsman. But a person who works with his hands, mind and his heart is an artist."
- Louis Nizer
(A quote I read over and over again while waiting for my advisor meeting which began half an hour late)
******************************
I woke up this morning and had a meeting with my advisor about my schedule next year. Fun stuff. Next year is going to rock, I already can't wait to begin sophomore year. No joke. I don't think I'm going to be able to take the David Lynch/Adam Egoyan class, but oh well.
******************************
Today was weird weather wise. The first time I left the building it was too hot so I took off my sweat shirt immediately and stuffed it in my backpack. The second time I left the building I went out in just a T-shirt, but it was raining. I immediately reached into my bag and pulled out the sweat shirt and walked to class. I just can't seem to get it right today.
******************************
Yesterday, I got a new camera. It's a Holga 120S and it was $15. It's a toy camera actually that lots of professional photographers enjoy using because it's so exceptionally bad that it's actually kind of good. There are light leaks all over the camera and everything is plastic. Even the lens. It's medium format so I was really confused when loading the film and getting out was even more frustrating. It's my first time using film of this size so it'll be interesting to see how the prints come out. Yay for cheap cameras.
******************************
The title and track listing of the new Radiohead album was announced on Monday. I can't wait.
Speaking of Radiohead, this was also recently announced:
"We've got a plan. We need your help. We're looking for moving pictures. Can you make moving pictures? Time is short. This is what you have to do.
1. Take one of the live MP3's of a Radiohead track.
2. Make some moving pictures to it (can be anything: live action, animation, graphics etc).
3. Make it at least 10 seconds and at most a song's length (although we prefer shorter).
OR... Have you already made a short film that would benefit from an airing?
Send your work to Radiohead at:
The Picture Gallery
w.a.s.te
PO box 322
Oxford
by Monday 8th May 2003
Formats Required:
For short films / whole songs : VHS (PAL) (You will be contacted if we require higher quality masters)
For shorter animations, graphics: Quicktime (720 x 576 pixels) CODEC: Motion JPEG B (High Quality)
Please enclose with it your name and e-mail address/telephone number."
I'm all over this one. All my other projects are going to go on hold and I'm going to see if I can actually produce something of quality this time. I'm waking up early to shoot footage at various anti-war protests around Manhattan tomorrow to see what I can piece together...
A problem is that I think lots of people will be making antiwar videos so maybe I'll do something else unless if I can get some really good footage.
******************************
Today in my Language of Film class we watched a silent French experimental film called "Menilmontant." It was really really really cool. Odd narrative structure, if one at all, but the editing was incredible. I also realized that my video (notice how I hesitate to call my own work a "film"... hahaha) about Francis was edited a lot like this. I guess I was influenced by people who were heavily influenced by Dimitri Kirsanoff (the director).
We also discussed Spike Lee's documentary "4 Little Girls," which got me thinking about an interesting topic involving the ethics of documentary filmmaking. A documentary is supposed to present a real life event and it's expected to do it in a manner that's unbiased and fair, if it displays a heavy bias it's called propaganda. A dilemma occurs in the fact that when shooting a documentary the dp (directory of photography or the cameraman) is choosing what to shoot, how to frame it, the angle, etc. All things that effect how you look at something and how it's perceived. From a low angle a person might seem sinister while that same person from a regular straight forward shot might seem relatively benign. Lighting, the music playing in the background, and even whether it's shot in color of black and white can greatly effect the way the audience views something.
Another problem occurs in the fact that as soon as a razor blade touches the film decisions of what to include and what not to include are being made. The process of making it into some sort of coherent narrative and presenting it to a person also takes away from the ability of the viewer to decide things on their own. A film is something you sit down in front of and it passes by at it's own pace, not one that you dictate so you have to catch things as they go by. It's not like the evidence is all layed out in front of you and you can explore it on your own terms and come to conclusions, instead someone has sifted through it for you and decided what you will and will not see. How long you'll see things, and in what order.
In the process of making a documentary film so many people have touched the evidence that it's really hard to say that the work is unbiased. The biggest joke is when a film like "Bowling for Columbine" is called a documentary. Don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of Michael Moore, but his films are more propaganda then they are documentary. At least in my definition of a documentary, I'm sure many would disagree. The only reason I enjoy his work is that at least he's fighting on the right (that would be the left, hahaha, I'm so funny... sigh...) side.
Anyway, where am I going with all this? I don't know, but it'd be an interesting essay topic sometime in the future if ever the need arises. I would write more, but I still have a lot of other stuff to write so you can just deal with the above and hopefully it makes some sense...
******************************
My homework for my Writing the Essay class is to write a Manifesto about my artistic process. I'm thinking mine will be like the one Lar Von Trier and his buddies wrote for their Dogme95 movement.
http://www.dogme95.dk if you're at all interested. I personally think it's a neat way of filmmaking and would like to try it someday even if they do seem to take themselves a little too seriously, but at least they believe in what they're doing.
******************************
I'm listening to The Velvet Underground & Nico which is a really great album. It's even cooler to be living in New York City and listening to it at the place where it all went down. Lou Reed was a really cool dude back then, I'm not a big fan of Nico though...
Heroin is a really really intense song...
******************************
Update on my study abroad status: I think I'm going to either Paris or London spring of Junior year. I can't wait. Living in Europe is going to be the coolest thing.
******************************
Today, someone left a reply to one of my posts and accused me of being a nerd and not being able to appreciate the movie "Chicago" which apparantly was "awesome." Sure it was followed by a smiley face, but it's still annoying when people accuse me of not being able to enjoy stuff life that. I have a different idea of what's entertaining, what might seem too artsy and slow paced to someone else is bliss for myself. I own "I'm Gonna Git You Sucka" and "The Sandlot" I can enjoy movies that are just entertaining. What bothers me is when a piece of fluff like "Chicago" takes attention away from important works of art like "The Pianist."
The reason I wanted "The Pianist" to win the acadamy award for best picture wasn't because the awards are important or carry any artistic value. It's because it would get people to go see the movie. When I like a work of art I always want others to see it too, I was hoping that "The Pianist" might be able to garner a larger audience with a win on Sunday night, but no luck. Oh well. I haven't seen "Chicago" so I can't really criticize it, but there's enough good art in the world that I won't get to see all of it in my lifetime so it's not likely I'll find an excuse to see "Chicago" anytime soon.
I could write much more on the topic of why I come across as a film snob and why my position is justified, but it's not likely to change anybody's mind since it's all a matter of taste anyway and it's not worth my time to try. Maybe I'll be really bored and annoyed someday and I'll write more about it...
******************************
I watched Rushmore a couple days ago. It's a really clever movie. Great writing, great music. I never get tired of it.
******************************
I think I'm done... let me think...
******************************
Yep. Good bye everybody.
I finished the book "The
I finished the book "The French New Wave: An Artistic School" today. It was pretty interesting just because the French New Wave (Or should I say "Nouvelle Vague") is my favorite film movement. Although the content was interesting, the book was way too short (only 140 pages) so it was really only able to cover it all very generally. More information about the politics of the various filmmakers would be more interesting, but what I realized was that 1968 was the year of most interest and the New Wave was over well before that.
I think I'm going to go try to find a good book about Jean Luc Godard now and try to get some Chomsky read too from a book I have. I'm a bit lacking when it comes to knowledge involving foreign affairs (possibly not lacking compared to the average U.S. Citizen, but still not as in the know as much as I'd like to be) and other important real world issues which get lost amongst my various interests involving film, it's probably a good idea to keep in touch with the real world too so I'm going to let none other than Noam Chomsky enlighten me.
For now I think I'm going to read Aristotle's Poetics, I was supposed to read it last semester, never did, and it's really short. I can probably get through it in a couple days. Werd.
March 25, 2003
Hope
"Hope is the passion for what is possible."
-Soren Kierkegaard
" ...hope, as opposed to cynicism and despair, is the sole precondition for new and better experiences. Realism demands pessimism but hope demands that we take a dim view of the present because we hold a bright view of the future; and hope arouses as nothing else can arouse ... a passion for the possible."
-William Sloane Coffin
Here's how the quotes came up...
blim8183: stuff like this makes me lose hope in humanity (this is in reference to a disturbing live journal entry)
stillbornherring: a philosopher once said hope is the passion for what is possible
stillbornherring: so you've got to start reading things that turn you on
blim8183: like playboy?
stillbornherring: make you passionate
stillbornherring: haha, if you like being passionate alone, sure
blim8183: hahaha
blim8183: i'll pass on that one
I stumbled across both those quotes as I was looking for who had said it. One of them is ripping the other off... Kierkegaard was way way before Coffin though so it looks like he wins.
Once again...
3/25/03 - U.S. F-16 jet in friendly fire incident
and how many innocent Iraqis were killed by accident...?
March 24, 2003
Photos from February 15th, I have a lot more, these ones are my favorites...
This is good for a
This is good for a little, no, a BIG laugh. It might solve all the problems in the world too... you go Philippe!
What a weird day for
What a weird day for the Oscars. Michael Moore, Eminem, and Roman Polanski became oscar winners all on the same day... crazy... Adrian Brody too, woohoo for him. He rocks. Woohoo to Miyazaki for Spirited away as well. Sure they still suck and gave the best Picture award to Chicago, but at least they pretended to show some balls this year around... Anyway, this is all the space that I'm going to devote to the Acadamy Awards. I'll write more about it when I win one some day. Peace.
March 23, 2003
Some of the headlines on
Some of the headlines on Yahoo.com:
Patriot missile downs UK fighter jet (That's a U.S. Patriot Missile)
'Friendly fire' said to kill UK TV reporter
U.S. soldier held for grenade attack
If they can't even keep from killing their own side, it makes you wonder how good of a job they're doing avoiding the deaths of innocent Iraqis...
from a recent conversation with
from a recent conversation with
stillbornherring: ive had dreams about riots for the past few weeks
stillbornherring: im not kidding
blim8183: i can't even remember mine lately
stillbornherring: my girlfriend says I muttered "smash the state" in my sleep
stillbornherring: Im scared
blim8183: HAHAHAHA
stillbornherring: dont laugh
stillbornherring: i worked hard to be that single-minded
Hurray, Kumudha has a live
Hurray, Kumudha has a live journal! It's
So here's my day. Checked out the protests in Washington Square Park. It was huge. I was just passing by because Leonard and I were taking his sister (who's in town until tomorrow) to a really good pizza place, Lombardi's to be exact. Yum. I had a whole small pizza to myself and finished it too. Afterwards, I had a pint of strawberry ice cream to top it all off. How disgusting, but it was worth it.
Didn't do much else today.
There's a walkout on Monday, I think, I'll be sure to take part in that although I'm not even in class at the time.
Oh yeah, the weather today was incredible. I actually went out today in shorts.
I went to Hollywood Video three times today to try to rent the first DVD of Six Feet Under and it was out every time. It's due back today and I even checked around 10pm and it still hadn't come in. Whoever has that DVD is a jerk.
A link a friend of mine,
Woohoo!
March 21, 2003
WHOA! I just got back
WHOA! I just got back from Radio City Music Hall! WHOA!
So I was sitting in row DD which I thought was the 4th row. Turns out that in the center aisle there's no AA and BB consists of just a couple chairs on the ends. So I was pretty much sitting in what was the 2nd row! WHOA! There was a special section that was in the orchestra pit type area, but that doesn't count. I was sitting in a gigantic venue in the middle in the 2nd row. WHOA! I only bought the tickets a couple days ago. MUHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! KICK ASS!
Anyway, the opening band, The Album Leaf (i think that's their name) were awesome. They were from San Diego and might be one of the few good things to ever come out of that state (kind of like Pavement). Their music was Sigur Rosesque, but a bit more fast paced and upbeat. I liked it a lot.
After their 30 minute set I sat around and waited for another half an hour as they set up the equipment then Sigur Ros came on stage. They rocked. Yes, they actually did. On some of the songs they were really rocking it. It was awesome. Especially when they played track 8 off of ( ), WHOA! That was the highlight at the last show of theirs that I went to and once again it was for this one too. I was freaking out because they didn't play it and walked off the stage, but they ended up playing it for the encore. PHEW! Yeah... so... they were incredible.
This was the most amazing music going experience of my life. I'm not sure if seeing Radiohead when they tour sometime soon would even top it... hmmm...
So the show was great and the band is awesome. Also, their cellist is really hot... not just because she plays the cello, she just is. She's hot. What more can I say? (I first noticed this when I saw them at the Carson Daly show, today my suspicions were confirmed)
Okay, time for a little rant now.
I can't stand the people who show up at the concert because it's the hip place. They heard some indie hipster down in a cafe in SoHo listening to it on his apple powerbook laptop and figured it was the hip thing to be listening too. They buy the tickets get dressed up really nicely, find a hot date skip the opening band and show up one or two songs into Sigur Ros' set. Throughout the set they get up, get a drink, sit down, get up, go pee, sit down, talk to their date, etc. Then they leave before the show is even over. At least they were seen their which is good for some scene points, but Wtf!? Some people make me sick. I'm not just whining either about a small group of people. A LOT of people were doing this and it was really really really distracting.
Okay, now a funny moment.
During the second to last song the band members were one by one exiting the stage until just the guy on the keyboard was left playing a pretty little piece which went on for awhile. Some guy in the back yelled "YeeEAAAAAHHHH!" People were annoyed. A little later he did it again. This time you heard about 30 people in various parts of the venue go SHHHHHH! Then a little later, he does it again! This time some person on the other side of the venue yells "SHUTTUP!" and everyone breaks out into laughter as the guy in the band keeps on playing. Good times.
So to sum up the night. It was awesome. Sigur Ros is amazing.
Oh wait, another stupid person.
Some guy behind me says "Sigur Ros is the greatest live band ever. They sound exactly like they do on the album." Okay, first of all. You don't go to see a band live to hear them play their stuff exactly like they do on their album, at least I don;t. Second, they don't play their songs just like they do on the album. Hmph.
Rock on.
"SONIC YOUTH AND WILCO PLAY
"SONIC YOUTH AND WILCO PLAY CENTRAL PARK Sonic Youth and Wilco will team up for a special concert in New York City's Central Park on THURSDAY, JUNE 26th. Tickets for the show at Rumsey Playfield go on-sale on TUESDAY, MARCH 25th."
Doh!
March 20, 2003
Starting yesterday and finishing today
Starting yesterday and finishing today I read all two years worth of Achewood comic strips that are archived on the website
http://www.achewood.com I was inspired by my suitemate James who did the same and boy was it worth it... very funny stuff...
Oh, just a random tidbit...
Oh, just a random tidbit... another painting I saw yesterday that I forgot to mention was Ben Shahn's The Passion of Sacco and Vanzetti which is really great. I don't know how I forgot that one...
First Stage of U.S.-Iraq Ground
First Stage of U.S.-Iraq Ground War Opens
By DAVID CRARY, Associated Press Writer
"To the cheers of U.S. infantrymen, the first stage of the ground war opened Thursday with American howitzers and multiple launch rocket systems firing at Iraqi troops.
The U.S. 3rd Infantry Division's artillery opened fire hours after an American airstrike started the hostilities. Maj. Gen. Bufourd Blount, the division commander, had said the artillery barrage would signal the first phase of the ground war against Iraq .
White light glowed in the sky as dozens of artillery shells were fired. Infantrymen who were between the howitzers and the Iraqi border cheered as the shells screamed overhead."
I don't understand what they're cheering about... how creepy...
You are artistic, a bit
You are artistic, a bit whimsical, and less iconic
than the train on the other side of the Park.
Others may see you as an odd conglomeration of
new and old-fashioned ideas, but you realize
that's part of your charm.
Which New York City subway line are you?
brought to you by Quizilla
March 19, 2003
wOOH! As I already wrote,
wOOH! As I already wrote, I got four free tickets to the daily show today. Yay.
Afterwards, I went to the Whitney museum which is where Edward Hopper's wife sent all his work after he died. They have an incredible collection of American Art. The Hopper's were great of course. I love his paintings because he's got such a cinematic way of looking at and framing the world. Had he been a cinematographer he would've been amazing. One of his paintings that I'd seen before, but never really thought much of caught my eye this time around. It's called... doh... I forget, Railroad something... it reminded me of a shot from McCabe and Mrs. Miller, just composition wise. Of course, they also had Early Sunday Morning there this is a great painting.
They had some other really cool stuff there including paintings by Joseph Stella, Jackson Pollack, Reginald Marsh, Thomas Hart Benton, Andy Warhol, Mark Rothko, and George Sheerer (I think that's his name... the precisionist guy) (How's that for name dropping?) Anyway... they had a good collection of photographs by Larry Clark's buddy, Ryan McGinley. He did lots of interesting stuff with depth of focus and came out with some good portraits of his friends.
Before finally making my way home, I stopped by the photo place and picked up my pictures. There were 8 or so photos that I really like. I'll try to scan them and post them sometime...
It's only 4:23... I should work on my video about James...
Woohoo, I got tickets to
Woohoo, I got tickets to go see the Daily Show on April 29th!
Don't wake me I plan on sleeping in...
Ate french fries today (how unpatriotic of me...) and me, Ian, Claire and Kumudha bought some chocolate cake to eat just because.
Watched TV and talked a lot. Went to Food Emporium for the 4th day in a row. Didn't get enough sleep. I'm sleeping in tomorrow...
Sigur Ros tickets, booyah.
I watched The Pavement documentary today that's on the DVD... it wasn't very good. Lots of cool footage, especially of their last show, but it really seemed to lack in any real content... especially on info regarding their breakup.
Done. Bye.
March 18, 2003
So the final stage of
So the final stage of Ben's recovery is complete I think... erased folders full of photos and folders full of emails... a bit drastic you say? You should've seen me in the room freaking out over all this then maybe you'd understand...
Wow, today was a really
Wow, today was a really busy day.
I saw Sigur Ros on the Carson Daly show today, it was pretty cool. I was sitting in the fifth row, they're so awesome. Tom Sizemore was the guest and he was really creepy... sure he's cool in movies and stuff, but he kept talking about how he liked "girls" not even women, but "girls." Ewww...
The episode airs on Wednesday the 26th, I was sitting on the left side, 5th row, cream sweatshirt on. You'll see me. I went with Claire and Kumudha. Although we had to sit in line forever, Sigur Ros' performance was worth it.
Afterwards we got pretzels from one of those stands on the sidewalks since none of us had ever done that before. We were waiting for the Gyro guy to show up, but apparently he doesn't show up until 8ish and it was 7... we wandered around inside fye for awhile then got our Gyros. Mmmm... Afterwards we went to Food Emporium, got ice cream and came back.
Upon getting some rest we watched a couple movies and Kate joined us. We watched "Welcome to the Dollhouse" which I enjoyed in a very awkward way and I finally saw "Office Space." Believe it or not, of the four people there, three of us had never seen "Office Space." Me, Kumudha, and Kate had all never seen it. Kate and I watched it, but Kumudha fell asleep so she might be the only person left from our generation to have never seen the movie. I thought it was pretty funny, but just not as funny as everyone says it is... maybe I was just expecting too much...
Claire and I also got the photos today:
That's all of us, (from the left) Me, Leonard, James, and Francis
That's all of us, (from the left) Me, Leonard, James, and Francis
That's us jumping
That's us jumping (the same jump)
That's us looking cool on our cellular telephones
That's us still looking cool on our cellular telephones
Us Kimchi Squatting and observing a box of Special K with Red Berry cereal
Um... that's me and Leonard... yeah...
Us walking and looking cool... or at least trying to...
Wow, the flash makes me and James look really pale in most of those...
Thank you to Claire and Kate for the photos!
AGGGGGHHHH!!! I just got 4th
AGGGGGHHHH!!! I just got 4th row center tickets to see Sigur Ros!!!!!!!!!!!!
I keep getting the feeling I'm reading the seating chart wrong, but I've checked it like 10 times now.
I've heard that sometimes they release extra tickets right before a show so I thought I'd check. I checked for the cheapest ones first, but then I thought, what the heck. I checked for the most expensive and it said row DD, which is the 4th row, seat 413 i think, which is in the middle. AGH! I freaked and bought it immediately. THen I checked again and they had one in row BB slightly off center. AGH! But I already have a ticket, but to anyone out there who doesn't and wants one now might be a good time to grab one. I hope I'm not misreading anything... hahaha
March 17, 2003
It's getting hot in here!
The weather outside is so nice today. Feels like a Seattle summer.
I'm going to see Sigur Ros today on the Carson Daly show! Woohoo!
March 16, 2003
Is Cinema Mortal?
I just watched the documentary Lumiere et compagnie which was really interesting.
It was about the original movie camera that the Lumiere Brothers had invented. The camera was restored and they got 40 directors from around the world to make short films with it. The films had to be 52 seconds long, no synchronized sound, and they only got three takes.
Some of them were kind of lame, but even those were interesting just because of the incredibly look that you get from the camera.
My favorite one was by David Lynch, not just because I like him a lot, but because it actually was the best one. Although he wasn't allowed to make cuts he figured out ways to get around that and the results are ingenious. I'm going to copy that short onto my computer, maybe I'll compress it and post it sometime...
All right, I'm off to bed again...
Busy Day
Today I woke up at 3.
I showered.
Went to get some pizza with some of my friends. The first place we went was closed so we ended up having to walk like 20 blocks to the next place.
The place we ended up at was a pizza place called Lombardi's which is supposed to have some of the best pizza in the universe. I had a small Clam Pizza all to myself. The clam pizza is supposed to be their best. It sounds pretty gross, but it was really really good.
After eating, I went grocery shopping again and got some strawberries. Came back to my room, watched Amelie with some people just to start off break in a good mood. Afterwards we watched Discovery Channel for a really long time. I ate a pint of Coney Island ice cream. Mmmm...
After we got tired of watching animals Leonard and I started working on our "fort" in our room. Our room now kicks ass. We took a page out of Calvin and Hobbes and named it "G.R.O.S.S." (Get Rid Of Slimy girlS). Yep, we're cool.
I don't have the pictures of us dressed up in suits yet... I'll try to post them tomorrow... All right, not much else to say. Seeya.
March 15, 2003
Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
Busy day today.
After finishing up classes I came back to my room.
After that Leonard got the bright idea of trying his suit on. Eventually I too had my suit on, and James and Francis followed suit (pardon the pun (wait... no don't, it's kinda funny)).
We all had our suits on and were looking pretty slick so we decided to go out. Where did we go you ask? To the supermarket. I had to do some shopping so I'd have stuff to eat over break. Shopping was fun and Claire took lots of photos of us along the way.
What I bought:
Vanilla Silk (soy milk)
Special K Red Berry
Yoohoo!
Strawberry Ice Cream (I'm going to try to exercise more restraint this time though)
Bread
Orange Juice
Awkward moments:
1. I shoved Leonard right as the crosswalk signal said walk and quickly ran away. This resulted in him chasing me. A black guy chasing an asian guy isn't well recieved on the streets of New York. Worse yet, he yells "Somebody stop him!" as if I'd stolen his wallet or something. As he said that I saw a guy next to me look at me and I thought he was going to lunge on me or something so I started running even faster. Eventually, Leonard and I just started cracking up and it was all good. We'd gotten some exercise and along the way scared the hell out of some pedestrians.
2. There was a wedding cake inside the grocery store that Leonard and I were taking photos in front of. Some people walked by and gave us funny looks...
3. We were taking photos of the four of us jumping down the staircases in Union Square and Claire's camera wasn't working correctly. I jokingly yelled at her for being "unproffesional," but I was pretty "angry" about it and really yelled. Other people thought I was serious and I was at the recieving end of a lot of dirty looks. Hahaha.
4. Almost got ran over by a really big cart with stuff that needs to be stocked as I was celebrating the fact that I had found the Special K with Red Berrys cereal.
It was a fun day. We rearranged our room too and it's really cool now. Threw out lots of crap.
Photos from tonight's adventures will hopefully be up tomorrow. I'll post some of them in my live journal.
Pizza day tomorrow. Might be going to Staten Island this time.
March 14, 2003
A Nice way to start my break...
Sonic Youth Website:
"Sonic Youth will perform April 12 at Anthology Film Archives in New York City as a memorial tribute to Stan Brakhage, one of America's great film artists and visionary film pioneers, who died on March 9. This concert will be a benefit to assist in the coverage of his medical expenses. This will be an intimate, predominantly instrumental "chamber concert", with an assortment of Brakhage films screened during the performance."
Kick ass! Hopefully I can get tickets.
I could spend 3 dollars and 63 cents...
A couple weeks ago I was talking with a friend about how the kids at Whitman college in Walla Walla, Washington were so spoiled because Death Cab for Cutie was playing at their school. Turns out Wilco is doing a special show for NYU students here in NY, hahahaha... Yep... we're a bunch of spoiled bastards...
Anyw