Hilarious ads from PopSecret popcorn. I think Brett Simon's are the best.
Stu goes on my list of heroes for using archaic words in his blog, the kind of words I was reprimanded for using in my creative writing class freshman year -- coruscating, paean, and prurient (well, that's more of an ee cummings word) were of note, and reminded me of my own use of coruscating, as well as lambent, lapidary, and even weald. Looking back on my work, that last one is rather painful to read, but I'm tempted to print out bits of The Reeler and wave it triumphantly in my professor's face and say, 'You told me not to use these in my poetry, and here's a real writer using them for his career!' Cheers to those of you out there who aren't afraid to use the English Language for all it's worth.
And I've now received not one, but two offers to go to the South by SouthWest film festival, which starts on March 10. One from Brian & James way back in January, and the other from Mike & Laura, my supervisors in the computing center. Laura's even got an extra pass that I wouldn't have to pay for, and offered that I could share her hotel room. Unfortunately, it would mean spending another $400 (that I don't have) for a plane ticket, and missing another week of school (for which my professors would likely hunt me down and shoot me). Oh, to have a real job that allows one to do such things...
27 February 2006
Weekend Happenings
Lindsay and Rachel have just broadened my 'stupid Flash animation' horizons with a new gem: The Ultimate Showdown. I feel I should probably include one from JSA in Scotland as well, for old times' sake (cheers to Pete for this one). :)
So this weekend was absoluetly crazy. Hell Week is like that. Of course it didn't help that someone (or lots of someones) did a particularly bad job at planning this time of the year -- what moron decided to schedule Plenary for not only the Sunday of Hell Week, but also the weekend before midterms?! I love our Traditions Mistresses and SGA, but my god, was that ever a bad idea. (Apologies to those of you who have no idea why this is significant. It's just more proof that Bryn Mawr is a cult -- we can say this stuff and it means something only to us.)
On the bright side, the Friday of Hell Week, was, as ever, the best day of the year, but for us seniors also the saddest, with the realization that we won't be doing all of this ever again. After a relatively quiet morning, the insanity started after I got off work at 4.30, visited confinement for a couple minutes, and then raced over to Goodhart to get ready for the freshmen performances. As usual, some were cute, some were funny, some were painful, and some just way too long (Radnor girls, we know you just want to uphold the traditional image of you getting drunk and high 24/7. But it's overkill to rap badly about it for ten minutes straight). And then there was the Pimp Strut. New rules this year, though: not only is there one Strut that wins, but there were supposed to be prizes for other categories, too: humor and creativity. One would think that means that there'd be three 'winners'. But while Jeannie, Caitlin, and Courtney won the overall vote for saying, in true smoldering Bryn Mawr style, 'Who Needs A Pimp?', yours truly (as part of an ensemble in true Shakespeare Troupe style) won the rest. I do feel that we shouldn't have won both (because didn't that defeat the point of trying to allow more struts to win?), but it's not every day that Shakespeare and His Tragic Heroines win a Pimp Strut, eh?
Here's Julie as Desdemona being smothered, Erina as Shakespeare (pantaloons, purple tights and all), Holly as the requisite Wench, and me as the dead Juliet (Lady MacBeth and Ophelia, brilliantly played by Maddie and Julia, are, at this point, yet to appear. Thanks to Karyn for taking pictures for me!)
After that, it was back to the dorm, where the seniors read bedtime stories to the frosh, before they ran around the dorm doing calisthenics in preparation for the Duck Pond Run on Saturday morning. It's usually around this point that the seniors start to realize that we really do like Bryn Mawr, and we really will miss it when we're gone, so bedtime stories can be hard to get through, but we did pretty well.
Me and Claire (freshman-year roomies!). Hard to believe that next year, we won't be here for this...
Thanks to Plenary, Hell Week activities have sort of dropped off for now. The only other exciting news of the weekend is that Lauren and I have finally started to discuss concrete ideas for the short film we've been dreaming about for months. Creative projects like that always seem so intimidating, but they're so much fun once you sit down to do serious work on them. God, if I can do this kind of stuff for the rest of my life, I'll be so happy! It won't end up anything like it (we're going for something more fun than risque), but our inspiration came from this short film by Pes.
And now, after all that, now I have to go write a paper for my Renaissance Lyric class, and try to get some sleep. It's not looking hopeful either way, but that's ok, spring break will be here soon...
So this weekend was absoluetly crazy. Hell Week is like that. Of course it didn't help that someone (or lots of someones) did a particularly bad job at planning this time of the year -- what moron decided to schedule Plenary for not only the Sunday of Hell Week, but also the weekend before midterms?! I love our Traditions Mistresses and SGA, but my god, was that ever a bad idea. (Apologies to those of you who have no idea why this is significant. It's just more proof that Bryn Mawr is a cult -- we can say this stuff and it means something only to us.)
On the bright side, the Friday of Hell Week, was, as ever, the best day of the year, but for us seniors also the saddest, with the realization that we won't be doing all of this ever again. After a relatively quiet morning, the insanity started after I got off work at 4.30, visited confinement for a couple minutes, and then raced over to Goodhart to get ready for the freshmen performances. As usual, some were cute, some were funny, some were painful, and some just way too long (Radnor girls, we know you just want to uphold the traditional image of you getting drunk and high 24/7. But it's overkill to rap badly about it for ten minutes straight). And then there was the Pimp Strut. New rules this year, though: not only is there one Strut that wins, but there were supposed to be prizes for other categories, too: humor and creativity. One would think that means that there'd be three 'winners'. But while Jeannie, Caitlin, and Courtney won the overall vote for saying, in true smoldering Bryn Mawr style, 'Who Needs A Pimp?', yours truly (as part of an ensemble in true Shakespeare Troupe style) won the rest. I do feel that we shouldn't have won both (because didn't that defeat the point of trying to allow more struts to win?), but it's not every day that Shakespeare and His Tragic Heroines win a Pimp Strut, eh?
Here's Julie as Desdemona being smothered, Erina as Shakespeare (pantaloons, purple tights and all), Holly as the requisite Wench, and me as the dead Juliet (Lady MacBeth and Ophelia, brilliantly played by Maddie and Julia, are, at this point, yet to appear. Thanks to Karyn for taking pictures for me!)After that, it was back to the dorm, where the seniors read bedtime stories to the frosh, before they ran around the dorm doing calisthenics in preparation for the Duck Pond Run on Saturday morning. It's usually around this point that the seniors start to realize that we really do like Bryn Mawr, and we really will miss it when we're gone, so bedtime stories can be hard to get through, but we did pretty well.
Me and Claire (freshman-year roomies!). Hard to believe that next year, we won't be here for this...Thanks to Plenary, Hell Week activities have sort of dropped off for now. The only other exciting news of the weekend is that Lauren and I have finally started to discuss concrete ideas for the short film we've been dreaming about for months. Creative projects like that always seem so intimidating, but they're so much fun once you sit down to do serious work on them. God, if I can do this kind of stuff for the rest of my life, I'll be so happy! It won't end up anything like it (we're going for something more fun than risque), but our inspiration came from this short film by Pes.
And now, after all that, now I have to go write a paper for my Renaissance Lyric class, and try to get some sleep. It's not looking hopeful either way, but that's ok, spring break will be here soon...
26 February 2006
Neil Gaiman Goodness
If I ever have the funds to have my own house built, I'd just about die to have something like this installed -- videos #4 and #10 especially. Discovery of this site courtesy of Neil Gaiman's blog.
Speaking of Mr. Gaiman, I've just finished reading the copy of Neverwhere that Jaimie pushed into my hands last week, saying 'Meg, you and I have to make a movie of this!' p.s. Jaim, it was a TV series in the UK way back in 1997. But we can still try! It was amazing, and I could just see it unfolding as a film as I read it. Kind of like Christopher Logue's War Music, but then Wolfgang Petersen made Troy, and that particular dream (and screenplay-in-progress) of mine was butchered before my eyes... Anyway, among other things, the last scene is a perfect way to end a film, and Croup & Vandemar are so delightfully morbid. Brilliant stuff.
Speaking of Mr. Gaiman, I've just finished reading the copy of Neverwhere that Jaimie pushed into my hands last week, saying 'Meg, you and I have to make a movie of this!' p.s. Jaim, it was a TV series in the UK way back in 1997. But we can still try! It was amazing, and I could just see it unfolding as a film as I read it. Kind of like Christopher Logue's War Music, but then Wolfgang Petersen made Troy, and that particular dream (and screenplay-in-progress) of mine was butchered before my eyes... Anyway, among other things, the last scene is a perfect way to end a film, and Croup & Vandemar are so delightfully morbid. Brilliant stuff.
21 February 2006
Typical Monday morning
Yesterday was, well, pleasantly odd, I suppose. I keep in touch with two friends (they're twins) who graduated from Bryn Mawr last spring, both English majors who are interested in film production. Natie lives at home in Tampa and is taking creative writing classes; Jenna is studying film at Full Sail in Winter Park -- and lives two blocks away from the indieWIRE offices! They filled me in on this fact last week after I told them all about Sundance, and I suggested that if she's interested, Jenna should go talk to Brian and J.D. and find out more about the company.
So I got up at 9.30 (not a normal occurrence on days when class is at 2.30) and bummed around online for an hour to try to find more contact info than just the office address (and hit a goldmine in finding about six blogs between the two of them, as well as a series of articles and press releases about the SF360 initiative) before giving in and just calling the office number, being slightly put off by the voicemail-staff-directory, and, finally, getting through to Brian!
And that was the oddest part -- a month after the fact, talking to someone I [sort of] got to know in three days, about a world and a profession I feel I know next to nothing about, and networking with him to expose someone else to that world. I enjoyed our chat, though; I do wish he and J.D. had been able to stay at Sundance for longer than they did, so that we all could have spent more time together. I just started reading more about SF360 last week, which he appreciated, especially when I admitted that I had no idea what the whole thing was about when it was announced at the SFFS/indieWIRE party at Sundance; all I knew was that indieWIRE is doing a website for them, I didn't realize what a big deal it actually is (in short, sf360.org, launching in early March, is a joint venture between the San Fransisco Film Festival and indieWIRE, covering news, photos, etc on Bay Area film & media. And p.s. indieWIRE is "the leading online publication dedicated to American and international film." Maybe I'm just being a star-struck college kid, but this is fucking awesome). Apparently they've just hired some sort of director for the project, who was the editor of the Arts Chronicle of San Francisco for ten years, so that's big news; and of course Brian's nervous about getting the site up and ready on time.
So...what an exhilarating way to start your morning! I emailed a bunch of web pages to Jenna for her to read up on this stuff, and who knows? Maybe there's some way that she can get involved. It's really fun to know someone who's just as interested in this sort of thing as I am, so that I can share all the cool news and information I find and then actually have a meaningful conversation about it...most people just want to hear about meeting celebrities. But by 11.00 I was feeling a great sense of accomplishment, having done probably the first bit of (at least semi-professional) networking on behalf of another person that I've ever done, and getting out of it a chat with someone I'm very fond of...and then I spent the next four hours working on my thesis.
Such is life at Bryn Mawr.
So I got up at 9.30 (not a normal occurrence on days when class is at 2.30) and bummed around online for an hour to try to find more contact info than just the office address (and hit a goldmine in finding about six blogs between the two of them, as well as a series of articles and press releases about the SF360 initiative) before giving in and just calling the office number, being slightly put off by the voicemail-staff-directory, and, finally, getting through to Brian!
And that was the oddest part -- a month after the fact, talking to someone I [sort of] got to know in three days, about a world and a profession I feel I know next to nothing about, and networking with him to expose someone else to that world. I enjoyed our chat, though; I do wish he and J.D. had been able to stay at Sundance for longer than they did, so that we all could have spent more time together. I just started reading more about SF360 last week, which he appreciated, especially when I admitted that I had no idea what the whole thing was about when it was announced at the SFFS/indieWIRE party at Sundance; all I knew was that indieWIRE is doing a website for them, I didn't realize what a big deal it actually is (in short, sf360.org, launching in early March, is a joint venture between the San Fransisco Film Festival and indieWIRE, covering news, photos, etc on Bay Area film & media. And p.s. indieWIRE is "the leading online publication dedicated to American and international film." Maybe I'm just being a star-struck college kid, but this is fucking awesome). Apparently they've just hired some sort of director for the project, who was the editor of the Arts Chronicle of San Francisco for ten years, so that's big news; and of course Brian's nervous about getting the site up and ready on time.
So...what an exhilarating way to start your morning! I emailed a bunch of web pages to Jenna for her to read up on this stuff, and who knows? Maybe there's some way that she can get involved. It's really fun to know someone who's just as interested in this sort of thing as I am, so that I can share all the cool news and information I find and then actually have a meaningful conversation about it...most people just want to hear about meeting celebrities. But by 11.00 I was feeling a great sense of accomplishment, having done probably the first bit of (at least semi-professional) networking on behalf of another person that I've ever done, and getting out of it a chat with someone I'm very fond of...and then I spent the next four hours working on my thesis.
Such is life at Bryn Mawr.
16 February 2006
it's gonna be a great day
Despite beginning at 7.30am, my day started out remarkably well. The English department search committee met for the second time this week (we're hiring a new mediaevalist) to discuss the four candidates who visited over the past three weeks in order to decide who to offer the position to. It's been fascinating to be part of the whole thing, and to get to work with my professors outside of class...and to know exactly what's happening in the department when the rest of the English majors probably have no friggin clue. :) But I did realize this morning just how lovely and brilliant these people are; as the Senior Reps, my friend Amy and I are the only students on the search committee, but they give us just as much influence and respect as everyone else on the committee, and they're actually interested in what we have to say. I sure picked the right department to spend four years with... Anyway, we actually did make a decision today (I wouldn't have been surprised if we hadn't, since three of the four candidates were so incredible...I wish we could hire two), and while I'm not really allowed to say anything yet, I do hope she accepts our offer.[above: English House. Yes, we have our own house. Admit it, you're jealous.]
As of 6.00pm on Tuesday, I've finally caught up on all the work I missed while I was in Utah at Sundance (except my thesis, but that's in a realm of its own), in spite of my total lack of focus, sleep, and general productivity over the past five or six days. It 's been hell, but worth it in exchange for being able to go to Sundance. Although sadly, the notice board in the campus center on Tuesday read, "Have a tolerable Valentine's Day," a message I feel was made woefully moot by the fact that all the sleep I got the previous night happened between 5.30 and 7.30am, I was in a search committee meeting from 8-10am, and then writing a paper for the rest of the day and heavily reprimanded for missing class to finish it. Still, it's an amusing V-Day greeting, one that belongs in the "you know you go to a women's college when..." category...
Other news:
There was a reception/information session today for the Bryn Mawr Summer Multimedia Development Institute, the internship I participated in last summer. I was talking with one of the guys from the career development office (did a video project for him during said internship) about Sundance, and it turns out that he knows the guy who shared the Jury Prize in Short Filmmaking (Adam Parrish King, for The Wraith of Cobble Hill; he won with Carter Smith's Bugcrush). Apparently they used to play baseball together. Small world.
And short films are finally being screened to the general public (although, of course, only in select cities): apparently Magnolia Pictures and Shorts International are teaming up to get this year's Oscar-nominated short films out to more people than just film junkies and insiders [it's an indieWIRE story]. It caught my eye because one of the nominees for Best Live Action Short Film is Sean Ellis and Lene Bausager's Cashback, starring Sean Biggerstaff (a.k.a. the oh-so-Scottish Oliver Wood from the Harry Potter films), Emilia Fox (Colin Firth's sister in the A&E Pride & Prejudice), and Shaun Evans (The Boys & Girl From County Clare, Being Julia). Just look at that cast -- how can you not be intrigued?
And one last thing: my brother has a gallery on deviantart, and there are photos here that I've never seen, and they're beautiful. I'd like to know why I didn't find out about it sooner. My favorites are the hand-tinted bags of lime, and the color photo of the reeds at the nature conservancy. The wallpapers are based on a story that his best friend is writing; the characters are based on their group of friends at Dickinson College. It's not bad, really, it needs some re-writes and some shortening and a thesaurus...but it turns out that there's a character based on me, and I beat the crap out of some self-important bastard with my set of brass knuckles...a characterization that I really rather like. Heh...I get brass knuckles...hot damn.
12 February 2006
Cordalene's Kissed Awake makes me happy. As does David Gray's new album, Life In Slow Motion. Completely different styles, but I can't stop listening to them.
The English-Scottish Ball last night at Swarthmore College (which I haven't been able to go to since freshman year) was quite fun, despite some of the odd and off-kilter (ha!) folks who tend to show up at these things. Fortunately, there were lots of us Mawrters there, too; the experienced ones of which got to show off our wicked highland skills during the ever-lovely Garry Strathspey. Profuse thanks to Anna for braving terrible driving conditions to get us there and back!
A little amusement for the evening, thanks in part to Marc for showing it in my playwriting class last term, and James for finding it online...
The English-Scottish Ball last night at Swarthmore College (which I haven't been able to go to since freshman year) was quite fun, despite some of the odd and off-kilter (ha!) folks who tend to show up at these things. Fortunately, there were lots of us Mawrters there, too; the experienced ones of which got to show off our wicked highland skills during the ever-lovely Garry Strathspey. Profuse thanks to Anna for braving terrible driving conditions to get us there and back!
A little amusement for the evening, thanks in part to Marc for showing it in my playwriting class last term, and James for finding it online...
11 February 2006
Snowfall: Shaken, not Stirred
It's finally snowing in Pennsylvania!
Christmas lights in Haffner, and Maddie, who loves snow.
Christmas lights in Haffner, and Maddie, who loves snow.
10 February 2006
[mostly] funkehhh
First of all, HAPPY 22nd TO CLAIRE!
Found out from Rachel a few days ago that the second season of Green Wing starts on March 31. Rachel will be downloading, and then it's party-time with her, Claire, and Lindsay. Funkehhhh.
And Simon Pegg (of Spaced and Shaun of the Dead) is married. Which is not so funkehh.
Oh well. Here's a little StringbergandHelium love for you.
Found out from Rachel a few days ago that the second season of Green Wing starts on March 31. Rachel will be downloading, and then it's party-time with her, Claire, and Lindsay. Funkehhhh.
And Simon Pegg (of Spaced and Shaun of the Dead) is married. Which is not so funkehh.
Oh well. Here's a little StringbergandHelium love for you.
I'm new at this game...
I've been reading enough engaging, credible film blogs since I got back from Sundance that I've been inspired to start my own. Ideally, it would be through a host like sixapart (they do Moveable Type...Hey Aaron... *wink to you indieWIRE folks*) but I figured that depite the tragic template choices, I'd try it out for free to see if I can keep up with it before spending money on it.
*****
I can't seem to come up with the proper words to express just how much I admire and respect Eugene Hernandez. Being the editor-in-chief (and cofounder, no less) of indieWIRE, he was running all over the place at Sundance to screenings, panels, press conferences, and the like, so I didn't get to know him...well, at all. James, who hired me for the festival, keeps sending me links to film sites and random 60s and 70s videos, so I'm quite pleased that I found Eugene's blog through my own searching, and despite its simplicity (or, partly because of it), it just blew me away. It was mostly the photos that did it. This guy is brilliant, truly brilliant.
Of course, James is wonderfully impressive in his own right. He and his (twin!)brother Jeff have their own film company, Back and Forth Films, and have had their work (mostly shorts) screened around the globe; The Tourist (their latest) has been published in Volume 2 of The Journal of Short Film. My only html-nerd criticism is that they need to get rid of the tables in their website source code and start using their CSS properly -- the JSF site is a gorgeous example. But despite that, James (well, all three of these guys) makes me wish I was about ten years older. Jump Cuts (his blog) is here.
I have yet to find any sort of webpage that Brian may have, but if there is one, I'm awfully interested in seeing it. Because frankly, Brian Brooks rocks.
*****
I can't seem to come up with the proper words to express just how much I admire and respect Eugene Hernandez. Being the editor-in-chief (and cofounder, no less) of indieWIRE, he was running all over the place at Sundance to screenings, panels, press conferences, and the like, so I didn't get to know him...well, at all. James, who hired me for the festival, keeps sending me links to film sites and random 60s and 70s videos, so I'm quite pleased that I found Eugene's blog through my own searching, and despite its simplicity (or, partly because of it), it just blew me away. It was mostly the photos that did it. This guy is brilliant, truly brilliant.
Of course, James is wonderfully impressive in his own right. He and his (twin!)brother Jeff have their own film company, Back and Forth Films, and have had their work (mostly shorts) screened around the globe; The Tourist (their latest) has been published in Volume 2 of The Journal of Short Film. My only html-nerd criticism is that they need to get rid of the tables in their website source code and start using their CSS properly -- the JSF site is a gorgeous example. But despite that, James (well, all three of these guys) makes me wish I was about ten years older. Jump Cuts (his blog) is here.
I have yet to find any sort of webpage that Brian may have, but if there is one, I'm awfully interested in seeing it. Because frankly, Brian Brooks rocks.
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