So going along with my recent Beatles kick... here is a guy playing "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" on a ukulele. He doesn't really get into it much until like 2 or 3 minutes into the video. I would start at two minutes I think.
I also just really like this. "Open your mouth and say words." A good statement I would say.
I had my last final this morning which went as well as it could have I guess considering that I have missed the last like seven weeks of class. I just went over the powerpoints my professor did. There is also a paper I had to write for the final, so I'm hoping that they will balance each other out if it didn't go well... but I think I'm fine. Now just one more photo class to sit through (which is really unnecessary. But I like photography.)
So, I really love a lot of the music video segments in Help! but this one is especially lovely from the colors, composition, position of the Beatles and so on. I also really like the man playing the flute, who was apparently one of George's friends... I think. I remember my dad telling me something along those lines. I'm trying really hard to push through and finish my last few things for finals (I have two exams and a paper left...) but I am having a hard time. I packed up a bunch of my things to store with Christine, she is being super awesome and letting me leave a bunch of things at her home while I am at the castle. We finished with deliberations today... so seven weeks later I am done with the jury. It was really hard to give the verdict which I was not expecting, but while it was being read I just wanted to sob. I didn't cry though. But it was hard not to. After I went to the Omni Parker Hotel with some other jury members to get drinks at the bar there, The Last Harrah. They served me without carding me which was lovely because I could participate. I got a espresso martini in the end. One of the jurors, Leslie (an architect) was a little tipsy... on the drunk side of things and had a hair appointment on Boylston and had about an hour to kill so I took her home with me. We chatted about life and such. I really do like her. It was a strange but good chain of events. After she left Rita, Molly and I went to Maggiano's to have a last little roommate date. It was very tasty and a good night out. Katie and Amy came by and we watched a movie and snuggled around. And now... I am pretending to be working. I am going home this Wednesday and am very excited to be back in Colorado for a while.
I went to the most wonderful exhibition at the MFA today for my photography class. It was a show of Harry Callahan's prints. I chose the on up there to write about. I also had to sketch it as part of the assignment (we had a worksheet.) He has other things as well, colors prints, double exposures, textures, and interesting landscapes. I really really like his work. It was a wonderful place to spend time.
Also, on the way out I stumbled across a "contemporary" exhibition that featured artworks of bands... album covers by a certain photographer, great prints of artists by another. I only got to look at it briefly due to the fact that I was on my way to the T with two people from my class but it was a good thing to see. Especially the Richard Avedon Beatles prints.
Last night I went to Films From the Margin's screening of Andrei Tarkovsky's The Mirror. It was very beautifully shot, there were several scenes that resonate with me. Also. I've just registered for classes at the castle next semester. I am taking:
Intercultural Communication Topics in Literature: European Literature History of Photography History of Western Art: Modern
So that should be lovely because I am basically just studying art. [and Intercultural Communication encourages traveling and relates topics in class to our adventures.] I'm really quite satisfied. That said, I do have a lot of "cleaning house" to do. I've been thinking about my final photography assignment and think that I would like to do a series of people undressing. I need ten prints and have the next 3 and a half weeks to accomplish it. So basically... I should be doing that now. I'm just trying to get everything else in order in the meantime. There is also the issue of finding models. I think I would like one boy and one girl at least. Rita has offered to do it which is fantastic. She is quite a nice little one. I think I want to just show the torso... but I may play with that as time goes on. I also was considering a series of lamps, or something to do with lamps. I've been drawing them lately for whatever reason. I think it started because I am gaining a fascination of light. Cinematography is basically good lighting and composition. I would like to take a drawing class, as I may have mentioned, because that also looks at the way light is falling on objects among other things. It is something that is overlooked, but once you start thinking about it light is really amazing and lovely. We like certain times of the day because of light and it can play tricks and make things beautiful or interesting or sinister. The other day I came out of the T and saw light dripping down a building. Finally, there are two exhibits in New York that I really want to attend: one and two. I think a day trip, if nothing else, is in order.
I got mugs for my roommates for Chirstmas this year... Christine is the giraffe, Rita is the elephant and Molly is the Zebra. I got the monkey. Also, here are two versions of Yeasayer's "Wait for the Summer" which I have been listening to compulsively lately. I just got back from Thanksgiving break (it was very good) and have to read a bunch (including Perfume: The Story of a Murderer... which is really very good, as is the movie. I need to find my copy (of the book) and need to get a copy (of the movie) now that I think of it) so I will keep this concise.
Also... there are some good ones in here by Chema Madoz. I had a crazy film shoot filled weekend. We shot for like 17 hours or something on Saturday. And then a few hours on Friday and Sunday. I really loved my DP though (I was 1st AC), we have been talking about shooting a BFA together... and there has been talk of shooting it in Tibet (!) We'll see though. I have soooo much to do. Especially photography wise... night photography. Hopefully I will get it all in with jury duty (so sad I have to go again on Monday, but what can you do). Also, I submitted my application for Prague today, fingers crossed! I've had "A Day in the Life" stuck in my head. I really rather like this video. The kid falling with the gun is something K and I were talking about a bit back. I've also been listening to quite a bit of Radiohead lately.
Here are two photographs from a photographer named Phillip Toledano. He has a few different projects, themes and books. His most recent is called phone sex and documents the people who are phone sex operators in their own homes. I really rather like the photo down there. Also, there is many a great image of Brigitte Bardot.
I was reading about punks for my deviance class while listening to this and it made me visualize a scene for a movie. This song would be playing at a punk party and everything would be slowed down. I can visualize it very well and I imagine punk scenes from the punk kids I used to hang around with a little bit. I think it would be interesting to make a movie encapsulating the punk world of the kids in the valley. It is strange to think about at the same time. We watched the beginning of this film Jubilee in my film class:
"Jubilee is a 1977 cult film directed by Derek Jarman. It stars Jenny Runacre, Ian Charleson, and a host of proto-Goths and punk rockers. In Jubilee, Queen Elizabeth I is transported forward in time by the occultist John Dee through the spirit guide Ariel (a character from Shakespeare's The Tempest. Queen Elizabeth arrives in the shattered Britain of the 1970s. Queen Elizabeth II is dead, killed in an arbitrary mugging, and Elizabeth I moves through the social and physical decay of the city observing the activities of a group of sporadic nihilists called Amyl Nitrate (Jordan), Bod (Jenny Runacre), Chaos (Hermine Demoriane), Crabs (Nell Campbell), and Mad (Toyah Willcox). The film is heavily influenced by the 1970s punk aesthetic in its style and presentation. Shot in grainy colour it is largely plotless, episodic, untidy, confrontational, often incoherent and noisily anti-establishment and anti-royalty (Buckingham Palace has become a recording studio run by a seedy music producer named Borgia Ginz). Numerous punk icons appear in the film including Jordan (the Malcolm McLaren protege), Toyah Willcox, Nell Campbell (Little Nell), Adam Ant, Hermine Demoriane and Wayne County. It features performances by Wayne County and Adam and the Ants. There are also cameo appearances by The Slits and Siouxsie and the Banshees. The film was scored by Brian Eno.
There is this part where Mad, the orange haired one says: "Don't like your house? Burn it down! Don't like your street? Demolish it!" or something along those lines.
So I ended up being an owl for Halloween. I will have more to say later... in the meantime here are some good links my dad sent me: Something to watch, something to be amused by, somewhere I want to go.
So I just got back from the first shooting day of my Film Two. It went okay... we are on schedule which is good. It was raining which made things interesting and more difficult and wet, but I think we got most of what we needed. I really love being the DP and looking through the lens and taking shots and running the camera and such. Its also nice to have people to take care of you somewhat. So after all is said and done... I love DPing just like everyone said I would... I just want to see how it comes out. I'm still not totally confident in my abilities, I'm still learning a bunch and need to learn more about lighting. But I felt like I was as prepared as I could be. Overall I just love being so close to that camera. Our shot list is all kinds of crazy because my director is kinda all over the place... but we are getting it done. Tomorrow we are meeting at 7am to do it all over again, and once we wrap I will have successfully DPed my first film. We only shot a roll and a half today so I'm hoping we can keep it to 3 or 4 rolls or something in between. Then we can sell the rest and not have to spend hundreds of dollars on film (as great as it is). We had 3 rolls allotted to us and 3 that we bought from Kodak (for 300 dollars)... so... if we shoot 3, ideal. If we shoot 4 still good. I'm going to go look through my camera assistant handbook (aka BIBLE) and try to shoot the rest of the roll for photography. My life is cameras, cameras, cameras lately. But I like it. Also... really want to see this: in addition to Where the Wild Things are.
My film two shoot is tomorrow, so naturally I am taking advantage of all the equipment being stored in my room and making lovin photobooth pics with the camera and the film. I love the smell of the camera box. It has the mag/film smell of a camera and I just love it. I really do enjoy just touching and setting up these cameras. I really hope that the shoot goes well despite the promise of rain tomorrow. I want this to look beautiful. I'm still unsure of my DP abilities but I am excited to finally shoot. I met with my camera team the other night and went over everything which made me look forward to actually using the camera... which made me excited to start shooting. I have this cute little freshmen on my camera team who I am teaching. I don't know if I am going to let him load a mag or not yet... but I will adopt him. I just got recruited for four different film twos as an AC but have to choose two which is going to be hard since I know everyone. I am also on the FPS camera team though its my first time with a digital camera, I think we are shooting on a Phantom. I am going to a Phantom camera workshop at Boston Camera regardless I think. I guess I am back in the full swing of "film shoot season." I have a shoot every weekend into December at least. I have so much photography to do this week. I hope I can get it all in. We have two more rolls to shoot and develop plus two contact sheets and five prints due next Thursday and I am on set all weekend. I guess I will just get film set photos. I have one print done though:
So I just remember this picture of me and Anna. She looks like my kid.I love little Anna. She is hilarious and sweet. In addition to looking just like me, she reminds me of little Hanna.
So I got a bunch of new postcard sets the other day. The first were a little batch of "Farmer's Market" postcards. They look a bit like: There are other veggies as well like peas, radishes, carrots, tomatoes, lettuce, onions, radishes, turnips and squash.
I also got a box of 100 Star Wars Comic postcards. This is what a stack of 100 postcards looks like: They are all different types of artwork which is interesting and some are rather amusing. This one says "Last Issue" and Lando Calrissian is smoking and smiling his face off. I'm going to have to post some good ones I have received one of these days. Many will be from Janine. In fact, there is one of the Hotel Colorado sitting next to me now: This is a good one I got in Maine that is also sitting next to me:
I'm trying to decide what to be for Halloween. Either a dinosaur or an owl. Here is how I would do each...
DINO: Get a sweatshirt... sew spikes down the back, wear leggings with a tail. Kinda like this:
OWL: Get a sweatshirt... sew eyes, beak and ears on the top, wings under the arms... make a "feather like" skirt.I like them both, but may do the dino this year and the owl next. Hmm, we'll just have to see how it goes.
