Winter break

Is over.

Here is a video I assembled that represents such a time.




I have been using this Vado HD mini-camera (?) lately.   The school loaned out to me as part of a poorly managed promotion/ contest (whatever) and strangely has not asked for it back.  I've shot quite a bit with it, and become a little bit better at capturing/ predicting "moments", or just spying on people looking at porn on their iPhones on the subway. Among other things.

It is, as most of you know, a new year. I have resolutions and am sticking to them (at least the ones I remembered).  My room has seen some practical improvements, like my new blue sunlight-obscuring curtains, and a padded computer chair. For the past year and a half I used a plastic folding chair. No wonder I've been having lower back pain.
I am looking for another bookshelf to tie the room together. Any suggestions?
I am also buying more frozen vegetables, on the advice of my mother, who believes frozen vegetables are actually often more nutritious than fresh ones.  Today I bought pizza dough and pizza sauce too. Tiny, domestic victories.


In academic news, I dropped Narrative because I was getting bad vibes from the pre-class emails and don't really feel like killing myself for a movie.  I'm taking Experimental Animation instead, which is an exciting prospect.  I have plans of making my wilderness/prison break film in the summer. For fun.
I'm also taking a fiction class, a Melville class, and an International cinema class. All have met expectations, for now. We get to watch Syndromes and a Century and Spirit of the Beehive and some other crap I haven't seen, which feels useful. 


The addition of Netflix instant to my life is a plus.
I am also trying to be more honest and learn guitar. 

Here is another video I filmed.



High hopes and optimism 2010.

sandiego and new york shitty

(Note: This post was supposed to come a week or so ago. For posterity's sake I'll put it up unedited)

Back in New York city!

(just me and my girl in the citay)

It's been a really nice almost-week here, and I've gotten the chance to relax and settle down with some cold hard venting, a Christmas party, Super Mario Galaxy, book-buying, Edamame Hummus, and pickup bball.




I saw this guy on the subway. He played a decent version of "All Along the Watchtower", after getting off to a particularly shaky start. What a microphone rig though! All into an amp in his backpack. In addition to witnessing this, I also: watched/ate/waved my face in pretty snow that fell like ripped cotton, pulled my hamstring slipping on ice, ate samosas, and saw former roomate Michael Brink and Bjork on the street within the same 24 hours. NEW YORK SITY!

No, in all seriousness, it's been a positive couple of days, but I am scared crapless by the amount of shit in front of me and the inevitable stress and anxiety that creating work tends to bring. I wish stuff would come easy sometimes. I wish that I could intuitively crank out 10 pages a day or set my mind on an idea that I could follow through on, or even have fun FINISHING something. Unfortunately, the masochist in me not only knows this isn't going to happen, but is silently preparing myself for the struggle to come, rather than finding ways of making things more manageable. SIGH



I just want to go back here for a little while. Just a little while.








Winter Break was quite fun.



God why are some Blink-182 songs so sad? I've really fallen in love with this band, in the utmost, completely unironic sincerity, over the last six months. They really provide some genuine insight into the joys and failures of young love, as well as singing about Sombreros and Star Wars. They're far less immature and crass than their image suggests, and as I was never really into/ allowed to listen to them as a kid, there's not an excess of nostalgia in my appreciation; these albums are very good and complete on their own, even to a 20 year old kid in an era long after pop punk mattered.



This one, the last song off Dude Ranch, is particularly sobering.

Blink-182 - "I'm Sorry"

"Don't bide your time
'cause it is almost over
and I know you're down
I'll see you around

And I know it hurts
but you're just getting older
and I know you'll win
you'll do it once again"

BLAKES THEORIES OF THE WORLD

1. Thinking complicates things.

2. Everyone needs to chill out a little bit.

3. Optimism breeds disappointment.

4. Pessimism breeds surprises.

5. But it's good to be optimistic because life is too big and weird for pessimism.





Hello, I am in New York, does anybody want to go see the J.M.W. Turner exhibit at the MET? He is the artist of the painting at the top of this page. Also this one.

ALL TO MYSELF

Roomate Michael Brink is in BERLIN until A WEEK FROM NOW!!!!




On a business school/ hoe "Spitzerin" trip.


Whatever.


A room all to myself!!!!!

Man.




Whoo.



Ahh.

I guess that means I'll sit around alone and watch these horror movies I've been putting off and eat a lot of nutella.




PS did anybody see that crazy Minnesota/ Indiana game? Wowzers.

Previous

Isn't it kind of funny and strange how
when you browse someone's facebook pictures
like, all of their pictures
and instead of going to the NEXT
(or just clicking on the image)
you click PREVIOUS
and go to their oldest image
and then keep going left
it goes old to new....

It's kind of like that person's existence on facebook, (a defined [albeit constantly growing] section of someone's life), is this bendable, circular strip, documented for the most part by pictures or series of pictures. A cycle where I can just move in between, with one click, the beginning and the end of the part of someone's life. And if I wanted to, I could track this life in any direction I wanted, whether it be from the beginning or, like most people, starting at the end (most current section) and working backwards.

This PIECE, a complete, defined, and somewhat digitally tangible piece of life. This piece of someone's complete existence, the piece that you know.

It's an interesting way to think about someone. How much of our perceptions are based on people, or the people we can identify, within this chunk of time? How much of our perceptions on individuals are based off of what we think of individuals in the pictures/settings/company/circumstances we see in this span of time?

That person's entire existence, for that period of time, sort of wrapped up so cleanly in this cycle of pictures is a little frightening in its simplicity and yet almost equally liberating. We don't have to judge people any further back than the end of their online "birth"; we can base entire relationships and complete perceptions on these "lifespans". No need to worry about what we can't see or trace.

Try going to a few people on Facebook and cycling between their most recent pictures and their oldest pictures. A lot of people won't be drastically different or whatever, but it's still amazing to just freely bend and scan these personalities, these images, these TIMES, at just a finger click. I bet if you do this for a minute or two you will find some fascinating things. Who is the "most" changed in that period? How did the style of pictures or the treatment of content change over this course of time?


Maybe? I don't know.

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In completely unrelated but amazing other news,


http://lukecompany.ytmnd.com/