Hello darkness

You want to talk a bout a crazy week, talk about my week. Well, to be honest it wasn’t so much crazy as it was busy. The first week back from spring beak is always a little hectic I suppose, but this week seemed to be abnormally difficult. Hopefully, next week will not be as bad. Still, I had a few good moments here and there. I saw the Graduate for the first time in my life, the film with Dustan Hoffman. I personally liked it a lot, and now I can understand a lot of the satirical references in the Simpson’s that pertain to this film, I.E. getting on the back of a bus, playing The Sound of Silence, etc…

So I think I’m going to just give you a run-down of the music I listened to this week, which, wasn’t a whole lot. Mostly I repeated Jets to Brazil’s “Orange Rhyming Dictionary” and Radiohead’s “Amnesiac”.

I’ll talk to you soon!

-Brock

Don't I Hold You

We missed a weekday! Oh well, I've been feeling unmotivated and lathargic. That also means I haven't done any further work on the story. Perhaps that will all change with the delivery of my brand new acoustic guitar. I should get that today or tomorrow.

I've also forgot to list the past week's albums! Last week I actually listened to the complete Braid discography!! Want a nice, sad song? Wheat - Don't I Hold You.
Albums:
Jeff Buckley - Sketches For My Sweetheart the Drunk
The Casket Lottery - Survival Is For Cowards

Kiss and make up

First and foremost, yesterday's post by yours truly, Looser was supposed to have a funny picture to go with it. However, because of some hiccup in the code, the picture failed to post, and the edit feature on that post bombed out. I don’t know what happened, but this is my formal apology for that atrocity of a red X that you see below.

Man Gabe, great commentary on the Oscars! Kathy Bates cracks me up... I personally didn't watch the Oscars, yet it wasn't because of a personal stance or anything. Rather, I forgot that they were on. That's pretty sad, when an aspiring movie director neglects the biggest awards show in film. Nevertheless, the second I found out that I had missed out on the Oscars I jetted online to check out who the winners and losers were. No surprise regarding Nicole Kidman and her best actress award. While I will denote that her performance as Virginia Wolf in The Hours was pretty good, it's probably not her best moment. Let's face it; this was a make-up Oscar for last year when she lost to Halle Berry.
I really can't say too much else aside from the fact that I'm disappointed John C. Riley lost. Not surprised, I expected him to loose, but that doesn't make the fact any less disappointing. Still, maybe his being nominated will raise awareness among the public of his prolific career and skills. Word to the wise for the new "hip" Oscar judges: Next year I want to see Philip Seymour Hoffman get nominated for his sure to be amazing performance in Cold Mountain. Right on.

Today I'm off for my first real cinema class. No mishaps like last time, I'm in it for sure now. Currently I'm debating on what to make of my summer semester in college. I'll probably pick up the first two classes that will factor into my choice of profession: Screenwriting and Photography. Hoo boy...

Back on the Attack

Hello! I'm back from my brief vacation in Flagstaff. It was fun and relaxing. I was able to write more material on The Study of Leonard Hughes thanks to the flowing sound of Oak Creek and the relaxing setting of the La Quinta courtyard. Unfortunately it wasn't as much as I'd like to have written, but I had other things to do as well. That included a quick trip to Sedona and snowboarding at AZ Snowbowl on Sunday. We also caught a movie on Saturday night, A View From the Top. It was a decent and fun movie. Funny as well.

I got back in time Sunday night for the 75th Annual Academy Awards. I watched the entire thing! I can't remember the last time I did that. One of the main reasons for that was it actually finished on time!! Kudos to the Academy and Gil Cates for setting a time limit of 45 seconds for speeches! The Oscars actually finished a couple minutes after it was scheduled to end. Last year it ended, something like an hour and a half after! Boo to Adrien Brody for feeling he was worth more than 45 seconds, which also suggests he was more important than the other winners who used 45 seconds or less. I'd have to say, though, that the Academy surprised me with some of their selections. Just a few, though. It wasn't surprising to see Chicago as the big winner, however, as it was the big buzz movie. The biggest surprise was the award for Best Song, which went to Eminem. Do you think the Academy chose that song because they truly felt it was the Best Song, over established song writers U2 and Paul Simon? Do you? Keep in mind the Academy is mostly made up of members that are seniors. My personal opinion of that selection, was that the Academy was trying to display an apparent open mindedness and sense of "hipness" by that selection.

Overall, the award show was watchable and entertaining. One thing that bothered me was that piece the Academy did, with bits from past winners, on how winning an Oscar has affected them. Some of them were a little too emphatic that an Oscar made such a huge impact on them. Perhaps it does financially, since winners are "hot commodities" in the industry. It was like a campaign commercial, validating the importance of the awards. Cheers to Kathy Bates, who in her piece said "Here's his ass (the Oscar statue's) and here's my lips." She then proceeded to kiss the ass of the Oscar statue. At least she can admit to what the Oscars really boil down to. But, like I said, the Academy is made up of members, mostly senior, that are in or have been in the film industry for years. It still comes down to their personal opinions. If actors/directors/writers, etc. don't feel their career is validated without an Oscar, they're in the business for the wrong reasons. The Academy Awards aren't much different than the Grammys and other award shows, which are mostly influenced by popularity and politics.

Looser

So today was the first day back to school after Spring Break. It was kind of a mixed feeling: on one hand I really looked forward to getting back into the swing of things, and on the other hand I enjoyed being lazy and incoherent. However, it all turned out well, and my Spring Break was fairly productive. One of the things I did on Spring Break was write a short story, the first non-science fiction story that I finished on my own accord. I encountered a few writing difficulties here and there, mainly on Friday last week when a horrible case of writer's block prevailed throughout the day. Thankfully, by the end of the night, the writer's block cleared up and I got back to writing the story, more motivated then ever. That night I finished it, and now all I have to do is edit it and clean the paragraphs up a bit!

What is this story about you say? Well, it's about a man...and to be more specific it's about a looser. This looser of a person is crushed by a romantic mishap that slowly ate away at his being for the course of a few months. Distraught and saddened by loosing the girl of his dreams to another man, he finds solace in attending the concert of his favorite band of all time. This is where my take on the story picks up as we find the man moping about around the concert venue, only to run into his personal idol - the lead singer of his favorite band. The two talk over his problems and find a kind of kindred spirit in one another as they both share similar circumstances in their life. So what? Big deal you say... we've heard the story about the romantic looser a million times over. The big kicker comes in the end of the story, an ironic (and fairly unsatisfying) twist leaves the reader feeling sad and in hysterics at the same time. Well, that is to say, I can only hope it will leave the reader feeling that way. Whenever I write down a story or a concept for a story and share it with someone else, their reaction is usually completely different from my own reaction to the story...so what may seem funny and tragic to me will probably just seem stupid to everyone else. For that matter, it's really not a lover's lament story, it's a commentary on the strange relationship between an artist and his/her fan.

I'm going to try and submit the story to some publications or something, however, I have no idealistic expectations of it being accepted and published. In fact, chances are it'll get shot down and by the end of April I'll have a stack of rejection slips that reach the ceiling of the house. Yet, since I really enjoyed writing the story, I'll probably post it on the blog at one point or another, just so you can read it. I'm sort of proud of it, in my own minor way.

Oh yes, and I need to think of a title for it. So far I’ve got a couple of ideas:

• Venue


• Willow and I


• Smoke Stack


• The New Pollution


I suppose in order to understand a few of those title ideas you’d have to read the story. Soon enough, soon enough…

Last week I listened to a lot of Beck's Sea Change as well as Zwan. I'm not a big fan of Zwan's CD, Mary, Star of the Sea, but I'm trying to get revved up to see Billy Corgan and his new crew in concert come April.

Friday, March 21, 2003

Shreddin'
My wife and I are going up to Flagstaff this weekend for a bit of relaxation, and hopefully some shreddin'. That would be on the snowboard. Hopefully the serene, relaxing conditions will spark motivation and creativity for The Study of Leonard Hughes. I need to get going on that.
Here are some direct links to download the Animatrix trailers:
320x213
480x320
720x480
You're welcome!

Tall, pink and fuzzy

Once again, I put off watching The Joy Luck Club. To be perfectly honest, I'm in a good mood today, and I don't want to ruin that. So as a result, I'm abstaining from watching The Joy Luck Club. Why do I have to watch it? School project...it has nothing to do with personal interest. Maybe part of the reason why I'm not watching it is because I don't feel like doing work on Spring Break.

No prob on the tips Gabe! The nice Flag atmosphere might give you some help in writing the story. Sweet guitar! This reminds me folks, I still owe Gabe some money for that guitar. Payday comes soon, payday comes soon...
After I pay Gabe off I may go out to a guitar store and buy some other things, particularly an amp. However, I really really want to buy a guitar strap, particularly a pink fuzzy one. It'll be horrible looking, but that's why I'm buying it! Nah, common sense will probably hit me at the last moment and I'll buy a strap that isn't so...lively.

Seagull

Thanks for the tips, Brock! I need to start carrying a notebook and pen around. I'm trying to write it at work because I actually have the time there. However, the atmosphere is probably not the best for writing a creative story. In fact, it's probably having a negative affect. I have a notebook with a few pages of song lyrics that I mostly wrote while on vacation. If that's what I need to do, write while on vacation, I'll have it done in a few years! No, I should be able to do more if I try writing in different situations. I may have a good start this weekend. I'll be going up to Flagstaff for a brief vacation. Perhaps I can get started there.

Well, thanks to Brock purchasing my guitar, I was able to purchase a nice acoustic guitar on Ebay. I didn't want to spend a ton of money on one. The Seagull brand was highly recommended to me for it's excellent quality, yet low prices. I had the opportunity to play one yesterday and I was very impressed! Now hopefully in a year or less, I can get a Gibson SG Standard.

I know three kinds of Karate...

Jujitsu, Aikido, and regular Karate... Let's talk about Hard Eight (aka: Sydney) for a second...

Now, first and foremost, aside from Punch Drunk Love, Hard Eight is easily the Paul Thomas Anderson film with the most loveable characters, in my opinion at least.
I'd been meaning to watch this movie for quite a while after Gabe let me borrow it, but I finally got around to watching it from start to finish today. Aside from an interesting and unique story, I really liked the characters in the film, mostly because of the great relationship between Sydney and John, the two gamblers. Of course, the ironic twist of Sydney, the surrogate father, being the killer behind John's real father is what really sold me on this movie. Aside from that I've been pretty mellow today, however, I am nearly done with The Catcher in the Rye.

I've also been thinking about Gabe's story, and I started flipping around in a few of my books for various strategies to help cope with writer's block. I don't mind starting the story out or anything, but I figured that maybe Gabe might like to see a few of my favorite moves that I use to cope with writer's block. Heck, maybe other people will get a kick out of this stuff too:

• Find the place that best suits your writing: In other words, maybe you write best in front of a blaring TV with the vacuum cleaner whooshing and the phone ringing off the hook. As a writer, I often find that my worst material comes about when I'm sitting there in dead, quiet silence. With a slow atmosphere comes slow thoughts, and I need lots of loud, disturbing, shattering noise in order for my thinking to be in check with my writing.



• Ignore the Internal Editor: The Internal Editor is the dude who walks around in your mind telling you "this sentence sucks!" or "That's one heck of a crappy way to start out your paragraph there...” Ignore the little dork, just sit down and write what comes into your mind. Later on you can go back, read your work over, and then make changes where you see fit. Once, I had to write a paper for Communications class, and I was dreading it like there was no tomorrow. I just didn't want to write the paper, even though I had gotten excited about the assignment and even gone so far as to attempt writing it several times. The problem was that I would sit down to write the paper and then I'd get to think, "No that’s stupid. The teacher is going to see right through that corny sentence." Eventually, because of the deadline, I had to just write the paper if I wanted to at least get points for turning the essay in on time. Surprisingly, I did pretty well on the essay and the teacher liked it. The point is, ignore the Internal Editor, this is some of the best advice I've come across in any strategy book I've ever read.



• Do everything but write: Often, when I'm trying to write something out and I need to get thinking about how the story or essay is going to go, I do everything but write the paper. I listen to music, I walk around, I watch TV, but while doing these things I think about writing the essay and how it's going to start out, how it will develop and how it will end. Then, when I have stuff I like, I sit down and write some of it, and then I go off and do something else while I start to think about the next part I'm going to write. It can be confining for me to just sit down and expect myself to churn out 5'000 words in the blink of an eye. Unless you have a flash of inspiration, you can't even churn out 800 that way. It bothered me to no end when I found out that I couldn't sit down and write out a whole book or paper in one sitting; I had reasoned "If the great writers portrayed in film and TV can pull that off, so can I!"
  
  I can't...
  

Writer's block sucks, I've encountered it plently of times, and I hate it. You'll overcome it though, I know it.

Day by day, I replay . . .

The Catcher in the Rye! What a coincidence that Brock was listening to Moving Mountains when the beginning lyric of Optimist Honor Roll is "Day by day, I replay The Catcher in the Rye." It must've been subliminal.

I've just started work on the story for the new blog The Study of Leonard Hughes and I've already encountered writer's block. Damn! I may need Brock to start it out. I also need to change the site a little. It changes colors but some of the colors are too psychedelic. I'm trying to get rid of that without blowing up the template. So, if you want a preview, you can check it out here.

There, There, in my Chair, chair

So it seems I neglected to blog yesterday... bad Brock.

Currently, I only know how to play this one power chord on the guitar, and I don't play it very well. Nevertheless, that single chord gets practiced often, and I now have a new activity to keep me occupied on this spring break. So far I've just spent time sitting in my chair, either strumming that guitar or reading The Catcher in the Rye.

Good news did come in the form of Radiohead however, when I found out that their new single would be the primal, electric, There, There. Huzzah!

-Brock

Brock Rock

Yesterday Brock acquired a sunburst Fender Mexican Strat from yours truly. It is his first guitar, and hopefully, not his last. So, congratulations to Brock on moving one step closer to rockstardom!

Yes, the Sci-Fi story blog is almost ready. It just needs a few tweaks. It will be slow since it is a story-in-process. So, we'll let you know when we post to it. Each post could be a few paragraphs, or a few pages! You'll never know and neither will we!

Albums listened to last week:
Briad - Frame and Canvas Hmm, Brock and I are on the same page!
Braid - Age of Octeen
The Appleseed Cast - Mare Vitalis

Oscar winnin' Super-Force

Well, I think it's easy to say that the greatest snub to happen at the Oscars this year isn't the complete lack of Punch-Drunk Love support, but rather the fact that Gabe didn't get the bleacher seat. Of course, it goes without saying that I'll take Gabe along to the awards if I ever get nominated. I think usually a nominated director takes his or her spouse along, but I'll have to bring Gabe. However, maybe we'll both go on accord of our talent as a writer/director/actor super-force...

So the new blog is coming along pretty well, but we haven't made any posts yet. The second it's ready I'm sure Gabe will want to let you all know, but we're still working on it. We've picked out a cool format for the blog actually, one that works well with the concept that this will be a story blog. Gabe even has a little headliner picked out for the blog that gives the reader the run-down on the story's background. It's gonna be great.

This week I was listening to Braid's Frame and Canvas frequently, as a matter of fact I'm listening to it right now while I write this post. The Casket Lottery's Moving Mountains was also in heavy rotation, "Saw you laugh it off..."

I'll pop in tomorrow or something, see you guys and gals then!

Bleacher Seat Snub

Despite my incredible performance as a pontential red carpet attendee, I was snubbed out of a bleacher seat. Yes, I received the letter from the Academy yesterday. They received several thousand requests and I was not choosen. Well, there's always next year and the years after that. However, perhaps I can get in to the actual ceremony in the years to come! What!? Who!? How!? Brock is going to school to be a director. So, there's always that chance he gets nominateed for one of his future masterpiece movies. He couldn't forget about his partner in Blog, could he? No, of course not. In fact, this fall I will be taking an acting class. If all goes well, maybe I'll be in a movie someday, even in one of Brock's! And with my best actor nomination . . . OK, I'm just crazy now.

Rumble in the Valley of the Sun

Actually, it's not done by the same creators...so it's kind of a rip off of the same concept, except with the small difference of Fidel Castro being the game's mascot.

The other day while I was reading silently I could have sworn the ground slightly rumbled. I think it was Gabe testing out his new back speakers.

Yes, Gabe and I have been discussing the idea behind this new blog idea, which is basically a story. The story is completely Gabe's idea, and I'm excited he's including me in this, because it's a cool concept that deals heavily with human behavior. I won't say too much, but it should be interesting to read...

Boomin'

Brock, that sounds like my kind of Island! Is that game a spinoff of The Sims?

I've installed all the speakers, minus the tweaters, in my car and I received the Sony CD player yesterday. I didn't realize that the receiver is one of those which the whole face flips down to insert/eject CDs. I'm fine with that but my wife started giving me a hard time about how it will be inconvenient. So I say "at least our stereo system will be boomin'." Yes, people, I'll be driving around soon in my boomin' system.

I've been discussing with Brock the premise for my Blog Story idea. It will most likely be a short Sci-Fi story.

El Presidente

Well here I am, waiting for my ride to pick me up. I just finished my psych mid-term and I have a little free time on my hands before I finally get out of here, so I thought I'd spend that time bloggin'. Gabe, that would be awesome if you got to see Jet Li at the Oscars! Here's to hoping for that coveted bleacher seat!

So lately I've been transfixed upon the game Tropico, a strategy based game in which you get to choose the persona of a dictator of your choice, and then use that dictator to rule the tiny island of Tropico. Crazy things can happen, and you can become either a dictator or a savior to your little society (which, can often grow into a very large society). Ironically, you get your choice to turn your government into a communist or capitalist nation, and all of the drawbacks and advantages that go with such political systems becomes your burden for the duration of the game.

Currently, I'm Lou Bega, the hot jazz lovin' dictator who womanizes and and encourages the frequent and irresonsible use of booze. Lemme tell you folks, Lou runs a very strange little island... In addition to having large and gawdy cathedrals scattered all over the place, Lou has more then one Cabaret. Nightclubs pervade the landscape and often are situated right next to hospitals and immigration services. The gigantic sports arena Lou has built allows for heavy drinking to take place and also carries the reputation of being rowdy during a friendly (but loosing) sports match. Because of all of the horrible, horrible vices that Lou leaves unchecked, Tropico is full of crime and social upheval. So to combat this I've built a tremendous, special Ops trained military force that relies solely upon the use of force to quiet down rebellion and illicit activities. It's a thriving economy baby!!

The icing on the cake however, is Lou's repeated ability to win election after election. He's been running Tropico for nearly 30 years, despite facing numerous opponents who question his ethical and intillectual capacity. How does he maintain such a firm grip upon his kingdom you ask? Simple! Assasination after assasination...if it can walk, talk and complain about El Presidente's standards, then it deserves to be taken down. My elite military force never questions my demands, and they always get the best results. Let's say that Fred Sanchez complains about my city's lack of a college or other higher learning institutes, what do I do? Let's just say that Mr. Sanchez isn't coming home for dinner tonight... And hey, if all else fails, I just capture and put away my political opponent on my forebodding off-shore prison, lock, stock and throw away the key. Besides, the prisoners never escape because they know my general will hunt them down like the dogs they are if they even attempt something like that.

Ok, back to reality...yeesh.

Hero

"Mock-up Billy Corgan!" Ha, that is hilarious! He looks kind of sick in that picture. I hope he isn't, or everyone will be hating Brock!

Brock and I happen to be fans of Jet Li. Our friend and Jet Li Fan Extraoridanaire, Alex, will no doubt be pleased to learn of his new movie Hero. It's currently nominated for Best Foreign Language Film. Unfortunatley, it may not come out here until November. It looks promising. By the way, I still haven't got a bleacher seat notice. I hope I really get one now, as Jet Li may be there.

The Jealous Sound-Mixing

Any normal band would have cracked under the pressure of tepid acoustics and bad sound mixing...but as Gabe aptly pointed out, The Fire Theft was no such group. I really liked hearing the songs they offered up on the internet, Sinatra, It's Over and Chain, but the new songs sounded really good too. I especially enjoyed the group's encore song, which was fast, catchy and very angry sounding. They put on a good show and it's clear that the SDRE fanbase is out in full force to support this new band. Most impressive though was that they that didn't suck...they could have pulled off a half-hearted effort and still touted around the Sunny Day history to reach their fame. They could have created a few good songs to back up a group of so-so other songs. But they didn't do anything of the kind, all of their songs rocked. They were everything I expected them to be, and more.

Maybe it's just me, but The Jealous Sound's lead singer looks kind of like a mock-up Billy Corgan...especially with the whole pale, bald headed thing he's got going on. A couple of their songs did sound all-right, I'll have to look into them one time. After I get off my Fire Theft bender.

Blazing Inferno

The Fire Theft performed last night in Tempe at the Bash On Ash. Brock and I attended with an Italian friend of ours, Marco. We came in a little after 8:00 p.m. to the music of The Jealous Sound. They warmed up the crowd with their blend of emo and punk with a tinge of pop. They were good but I'd have to listen to more of their music to know if they would join my CD collection.

First of all, I will warn you that there are some bad puns in the following sentences. I just couldn't resist. What began as a slow, but steady, burning fire - The Fire Theft culminated it into a blazing inferno. Despite some bad sound mixing and acoustics, as pointed out ferverently by our friend Marco, The Fire Theft turned out song after song of brilliant, musical craftmanship. It's difficult not to compare them with Sunny Day Real Estate, as the singer/guitarist and drummer came from the ashes of SDRE, but they are different enough not to be the same. Perhaps their name refers to the theft of the burning musical energy that originally came from SDRE. William Goldsmith provided some relentless, yet intricate drumming, while Jeremy Enigk belted out those haunting vocals and mesmerizing guitar parts. Jeremy and Will have played together for quite sometime, so it's not surprising to see them energetic and "in tune" with each other. The current guitarist and bassist seemed out of place and a bit distant. Perhaps they just need some time. Besides, I don't even know if The Fire Theft's bassist is a permanent fixture yet, since Nate Mendel rejoined them for recording and may (or already have) join them for a brief stint on tour. I'm much too excited for their album!!