Sunday, February 08, 2009

Out of the habit

Remember how I planned to just do one item per post? Yeah, that's not working so well.

1. VIDEO

a small clip of my current video project...





2. WRITING

Brief summary of what's been happening over on the writing blog:

I'm working with an editor on my novel, Riff.

I'm taking a fiction seminar, so I'm trying to get started on my first short story of the semester.


3. DRAWING

I'm taking a drawing class this semester, so I'm excited to learn a lot of new techniques. We follow a blog here. I have lots of new toys now including charcoal, a hard-cover drawing book, a two-foot drawing book, and more. I will show off some drawings once I actually...draw something.


4. EVENT PLANNING

I recently finished up my first event of the semester: Junebug. This event was unique for me because usually artists will breeze in and out of town without me getting a chance to get to know them. Mr. O'Neal, the writer/actor of a series of one-man theatrical performances, was here all week doing workshops on campus, so I got to talk with him numerous times, have dinner with him and his wife, take them to and from the airport, usher them around campus. That was fun. I wish I could do this will all my events.



Gaelic Storm is the event I'm working on right now. Other events which I merely attended include Sailesh, Ross Copperman, and Chester Bay. Outside of CAB, I also saw our English professors jam out some Buddy Holly tunes.
For more photos, please click here and here.


5. ENGLISH CLUB

The first Speak! (open mic night) of the semester was amazing. It was the same night as Junebug, but thankfully in the same building, so I had to run up and down the stairs all night, juggling the two events. This is the first time we went all the way to 10:00. It was purely guitarists/singers, which is fine. Maybe we'll mix it up for next time.

We're also considering doing another Literacy and Lyrics, which is something we did freshman year: a book drive with live bands. I'm looking forward to that. I've been asking around for bands that will play for free.


6. MUSIC

Things I've been listening to:
Looking for Alaska performed by Hank Green
Absence of Christmas by Charlie McDonnell
All She Wrote by Ross Copperman
Boston by Augustana (did I mention they're our spring concert?)


7. Rant about textbooks

So, our textbooks are rentals, which makes us unique. However, budget cuts are making us cut our # of books in half, maybe getting rid of the system altogether. But what they've proposed is to just order one book per class. The article I read said that they've "heard stories" of people having more than one book per class, as though it's some kind of ghost story. I ALWAYS have more than one book: I'm an English major. We read novels. They suggest that some books will be ordered but others "really should be for sale in the bookstore." Now, you know they mean novels. You know as well as I do they'd keep renting the science and math textbooks and make us buy novels. Why should English majors have to buy 12 novels when the science majors get their books for free? Way to spit on the English majors, guys. Thanks a lot.

Now, really I can't care that much because I'm graduating in May, but I still feel English majors have the same rights to the rest of the school even if all this school is known for is science majors and recreational management.


8. Rant about Life on Mars

I know, I talk about this too much, but the two episodes that came after the hiatus on ABC are doing something very weird to the show. Suddenly, Gene has a daughter? Okay, maybe I can handle that, but what's with the conspiracy? In the original show, the scary voice on the other end of the phone was Frank Morgan, but we still didn't know if he was real or if he was part of his mind or the voice of the doctors or what. In this American version, there's a point of view shift where we see things Sam doesn't. We see that the person on the phone is someone within their 1973 world and not someone from 2008. Are they going to change the truth about what really happened to Sam? This is getting kind of contrived. Sam Tyler should always be in every scene because if we see something outside of his perspective, then we KNOW that this is not taking place inside his head. The whole point of the show is to make you wonder whether it's real or imagined. That's why there's that scene where Annie says that as soon as she walks out that door and Sam can no longer see her, poof, she's gone.

9. My favorite recent YouTube videos...

















No comments: