Gone a while. Be back soon.
1 comment | August 1st, 2008
Stratego: Wedding edition
Anxiety Level: 
Nothing like organizing a seating arrangement to rehash who gets along with who. It all seems simple enough. You have an 8 foot table and you sit four people on each side. Woe to the person who walks into this nonsense with such a cheery disposition.
Add comment | July 8th, 2008
Congratulations on your wedding! (From the genetic disease program)
Anxiety Level:
Yesterday I go down to the courthouse to let the law know my intentions towards this little lady. Nothing much of interest except the lines are filled with the exact type of person you see at the Wallmart returns counter. Oh, and I think two gay couples got married while I was there (Go Cal). The truly bizarre thing however, is the booklet shown above that was included in our paperwork. Since this whole adventure started, I’ve received pamphlets on all sorts of things that I will probably never deal with, but it really throws me that ‘THE MAN’ would be giving out info on planned parenting & Gonorrhea. Not that I’m not thankful, but I think the book may be a tad out of date. Just look at the pictures inside. (more…)
1 comment | July 4th, 2008
Paying for a wedding
Anxiety Level:
Much to my surprise, our glorious leader’s financial ‘boost’ was not enough to completely pay for the entire wedding. I think old Shub is barely gonna help us with the faux-metalic plastic utensilry. After some thought I decided that since politics wouldn’t foot the bill, I would just resort to science. You are looking at one of the newest victim subjects, of a case study by California Clinical Trials. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I’ve become a guinea pig for love. While I can’t say much about the study itself, I can assure you it had absolutely nothing to do with sex (Thanks allot loveline). I just finished the study a week ago and received the check today. All I had to do was stay overnight once and let them rub Vaseline all over my hair. The trial now being over and the convulsions generally subsiding, I can get back to wandering around downtown and buying scores of paper plates. Now maybe we can go all out and get a DJ, instead of asking my cousin with the audio system in the garage that smells like weed at all times of day.
1 comment | July 1st, 2008
My life with a cameraphone - Part 2
The year is now 2007(ish[ism]) and I’ve left Berkeley, I’m now back in Lynwood and apparently still quite obsessed with bizarre signage. At the same time, I’m working my BA in Film and managed to wrangle myself a highly prestigious position as a local substitute teacher. My new obsession? Elementary kids bad grammar and just bad writing. I go over, read their work, give them a bit of support and then ’snap snap’ on my cameraphone. I also seem to be more conscious of having the camera on me all the time and snap a couple of once in a lifetime ‘Impressionistic’ photos. Oh, I also got far too drunk and threatened to take some theater usher to court while snapping pictures of him in my stupor. (more…)
Add comment | June 12th, 2008
My life with a cameraphone - Part 1
I love digital cameras. I try to keep one with me at all times, but obviously sometimes it just doesn’t happen. Conversely, I ALWAYS have my phone with me. I cannot function socially if ‘function socially’ isn’t checked off daily on my todo list. Now, the phone has a camera, but I use it sparingly, usually when I need to record information or my regular camera is nowhere to be found. Although I generally save these photos and never return to them, I recently went through them and found many of them to be a far better reflection of my day to day life than the usual digital photos. Ladies & Gentlemen, won’t you follow me on the first part of a two part series…No? Come on it’ll take just a little while…No seriously there’s only like 10 photos…Nah, not allot of writing at all…Ok, cool. (more…)
Add comment | June 10th, 2008
10 Reasons why Tijuana is the greatest place for a daylong vacation
On a recent search for Papel Picado through this city of our Aunt Jane, I realized what a great place Tijuana actually is. No! I’m not being factitious! Here’s a list of 10 reasons why you should make a visit to Zebra-Donkey town. (more…)
2 comments | June 5th, 2008
Wedding invites are out
So the wedding invitations went out this weekend. I did most of the designing and Rachel did much of the photography. As you can see we went a little bit untraditional. We wanted to make the whole thing allot more personal and at the same time show a bit of cultural nostalgia. I think we managed to get exactly what we wanted. Considering what we we’re expecting to pay, $40 at OfficeMax was very very affordable. (more…)
1 comment | May 27th, 2008
Indy enters the atomic age
Went to a midnight screening of the (hopefully) final Indiana Jones film last night & came out very pleased. If you can manage to view it simply expecting another chapter in the life of Indiana Jones, you will not be disappointed. All the tension, drama and comedy are all there as if the last 20 year lag never happened.
The beginning of the story takes on a nice darker tone, alluding to the new moral ambiguities of the Atomic age where the good guys & bad guys are not so clear cut. You get the feeling that the world is sort of leaving Indy behind. Also, the usual imagery of crucifixes & religious idols is replaced by mushroom clouds & space ships. We also see a clearly older Indy. Unlike Rambo, Spielberg tries to realistically portray Indy as a fairly fit older adventurer. While he does swing and fight like you would expect Indy to do, the more Keatonesque action is left to the new kid Shia LaBeouf. Unfortunately most of these musings on aging and a changing world get lost in the action of the second half of the film.
About the only major qualm with the movie would be the ridiculous amounts of CG. I feel that Spielberg has always shown an excellent sense of balance between real special effects & computer generated ones. Take Jurassic Park for example. Unfortunately this Indy seems a bit more visually Lucas than Spielberg. Much of the action seems muddled, blurry or clearly green-screened. It all has that Star Wars luster to it. Which, while still enjoyable, adds an indoor “studio” atmosphere to the entire film. All in all, if you go in expecting Indy, Indy is what you’ll get. Keep an eye out for the subtle E.T. reference in the beginning.
Add comment | May 22nd, 2008
Sitting next to two Cholas at the Polynesian Assembly
Originally, this was going to be a couple of updates to my substitute Twitter, but it seemed to merit a bit more attention than that. Yesterday (Friday) I covered a small sized Spanish class for a period. As the high school has a considerable portion of Samoan and other Polynesian students, every year they have a Polynesian dance assembly. My kids wanted to go, so we went. I sat the kids down, and we waited quietly for the show to start. All except the two Cholas who sat next to me and loudly opined about anything and everything during the show. Here are the jewels I plucked from my ethnographic adventure. I apologize for my likely horrible Spanish spelling and the lack of translation. I really think all the humor is lost when translated. (more…)
Add comment | May 10th, 2008
Sounding a conical wind instrument by self activaction
This past April, much to my joy and excitement, Direction was screened at the PFA in Berkeley. After the showing and Q&A, I was approached by Michael Guillen to answer a couple questions and talk a bit about the process of making the film. Apparently this qualifies as an Interview. Definitely a first. You can read my arrogance at his film blog, The Evening Class.
Add comment | May 10th, 2008
