I woke up this morning to find this trailer had come my way via e-mail or Twitter or something like that. I watched it. I was ... horrified? Would that be the right word? Let me preface this by saying that I do enjoy the occasional GOOD Nicholas Cage film. And when I say occasional, I mean OCCASIONAL! ... Which is rare in this day and age. Yes, I enjoyed The Rock. And Face/Off. And the National Treasure flicks. And Matchstick Men. But otherwise, of late, his film choices or roles have been ... type-casted, perhaps? Maybe it's just me, but that's how it seems. This flick, needless to say, looks like a BAD Nicholas Cage film. It looks like he isn't even trying, really. I mean, from what I've heard, he is kickin' in Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call - New Orleans and Kick-Ass, but this ... *sigh* And have you read the plot on the IMDB page for this flick?
A sorcerer leaves his workshop in the hands of his apprentice, who gets into trouble when the broomstick he's tasked to do his chores for him somehow develops a mind of its own.
SERIOUSLY?!?! That's the plot for the sequence from the Fantasia movies! That is SO not the plot that I gather from the trailer, despite the fact that it's the teaser trailer. I don't see any FREAKIN' broomsticks! Nor do I see any broomsticks caning Nicholas Cage for choosing this role! *sigh* Maybe it'll be "Good." MAYBE. I'm leaning towards "No way." So, here's the trailer, courtesy of Film School Rejects. I don't know whether or not to say enjoy, but ... enjoy?
Sorry for the deal, friends and readers. Busy times, late nights, rehearsals, class work, you get the idea. So, on with the post!
The Weekend Past:
Friday was a very fun and enjoyable day, to say the least. I got up early and made my way into NYC via a Shortline bus to meet up with one of my good DB friends, Allyson. We had nothing short of a stellar day in the city, hitting up first The Met (checked out a Greek and Roman art exhibit, a Vermeer traveling exhibit, and the Temple of Dendur), followed by MoMA (checked out the Tim Burton exhibit, which was fantastic, an exhibit on album art and music videos called Looking At Music, and a permanent exhibit with, well, modern art), the Apple Store on 5th Avenue, Rockefeller Center, and Magnolia Bakery for a quick treat. This is more or less featured in my latest vlog.
We parted ways around 4 when we made our way back to our respective buses and our respective places of residence. The evening brought dinner out with the immediate family, my uncle and his family, and my grandparents.
Saturday contained a haircut and dinner out on Long Island with my other grandma. That was really it. But I did stop by my dojo in town to say hi to my sensei and see how his art gallery opening was going. You can check out some of his photos here, if you're so inclined.
Sunday was mostly the trip back up to college with Sam, Jim, Lorraine, and Hannah, 3 of whom made the trek back on Wednesday. The trip went smoothly, despite a spot of traffic as we got closer to college. And it was a tad bit cramped. Oh well. And I made it back with enough time in the afternoon and evening to finish up an assignment for my Journalism class and catch about 2 or so hours of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 25th Anniversary Concert, which was pretty sweet. And, of course, there was plenty of chatting with one of my new good DB friends, Danielle.
Mid-Week:
Let's see ... Monday was mostly class, down time, a new episode of House, and more rehearsal. We're nearing the end of things, both class-wise and play-wise. Set building is this weekend, tech week is next week, and we open next Friday. I have a feeling things will be all ready by then.
Tuesday brought an attempted rally to bring Colbert to campus next semester. It was kinda fail. Only 4 to 5 people max showed up, including myself. :P I left about 45 minutes in to take care of some shopping for a toy drive thing I volunteered for and for my Dailybooth Secret Santa. Class later went well. And rehearsal went well, too. But I need to check my lines and blocking. To be safe and all.
Wednesday was all business, minus my Cinema class. Overall, this semester, I feel that, while the class has been interesting, I really haven't ... LEARNED much, I guess. Maybe next course ... Back to business! My group members and I got a bunch more of our English project filmed! Now all we need is the meatiest part, another 3 small parts, and little vignettes of sorts. The project should be up after all the editing is done this weekend. Hope to see it up on Monday or Tuesday. And the evening brought a Beyond Coal end-of-the-semester party and a Film Club meeting during which we discussed plans for next semester, watched one of our member's recent projects, and watched the opening montage from Up. Watching the montage after having seen the movie already ... brought crocodile tears to my eyes. And that was followed by rehearsal, which was fantastic tonight, filled with a few HILARIOUS moments that I didn't expect. To sum it up: pants and trays. That is all.
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Alright. Regular posts should resume this weekend, provided that I have the time to do them. Now ... to hopefully do a spot of work and mail my DB Secret Santa package before class. TTYL!
P.S. If you want to ask me questions (anonymously if you would prefer), I have a Formspring, so either check the box in the sidebar or visit here.
Okay. Not much has happened really. But for the sake of recaps, here ya go.
Tuesday, I spent roughly 7 or so hours editing my 4th Cinema project. Super 8. Yeah. Tedious, but hopefully worth it in the end. I came back, heated up some eggplant from home, slightly burning/scorching a small bit on each thumb. Oh well. The rest of the evening consisted of shooting (or trying to shoot) a PSA that I wrote for the Beyond Coal campaign, taking care of the stage in the dining hall for the play, and catching up with web friends and such.
Wednesday was a shortened Cinema class and a trip home with Sam, Jim, and Lorraine. Pleasant times and good people. The family welcomed me back ... except for Thing 1. :P And the welcome back dinner was quite good. :)
And finally "Kill the Natives with Infected Blankets" Day ... I mean ... Happy Thanksgiving! Watching the parade was nice as always, but some of the performances this year were ... eh. The afternoon brought a trip to the main spot for big family gatherings, which is a very nice place to go to. The little ones were very fun to hang out with, despite some of their light switch antics. And it was nice to catch up with everyone older than me. All in all, it was a good time and I didn't turn into Creosote, thankfully.
Well, readers and followers and all, I hope you have a happy Thanksgiving and I wish all the best to you and yours.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I need a spot of sleep for my fun-filled day in NYC tomorrow. Night, all!
Whirlwind weekend recap! Let’s dive right in, shall we?
Friday brought nothing major to start. I took care of some radio station business in the early morning and picked up a package I received. That package? A mix CD from my friend Colleen, filled with fantastic indie tracks! And I ended up making a new video for my channel in which I discussed the CD and my passing 250 subscribers.
The evening brought me to a singer-songwriter showdown at the Undergrounds. There were 10 performers, 3 or 4 of whom I quite enjoyed and who made it onto the finals the next night. The first performer was Eliana Rampage Framm, a keyboard player. I hadn’t heard of her before, but she blew me away. If I were to pick a current artist who she is most similar to, I’d go with either Regina Spektor or Amanda Palmer. Seriously. She’s that good. The second performer was Dylan Campbell, a guitarist who has a fantastic indie sound. The third performer was Matt Camussi, a guitarist and a member of the campus comedy troupe, The Pappy Parker Players. He kept forgetting the lyrics to his Beatles cover and his original song, but he kept the audience attentive with self-deprecating humor and such. Eli, Matt, and Dylan were the top 3 on Friday, moving on to the finals on Saturday.
After the gig, I left with two friends, Greg and Dave, who I met up with there, but not before talking to Dylan about getting some airtime at the station. I migrated with Greg, Dave, Shaina, Sarah, and a few of their other friends to one of their dorm rooms, across the way from my place. Eli joined us and we all proceeded to chill and talk for the next hour and a half or so. Good times. I made my way back to my place and caught up with a few web friends and some web stuff for another 2 hours. And I turned in WAY past my bedtime. But it was the weekend, so all was good.
Saturday was a lazy day. I woke up late (for me, anyway) and grabbed some nosh from the pancake brunch in an adjacent dorm after filling up my wallet. Good stuff, not that there’s anything wrong with the dining hall food. The rest of the afternoon consisted of long AIM and MSN sessions with mostly web friends and a bit of Beatles Rock Band (which I hadn’t played in weeks!) with Tom from upstairs.
The finals of the showdown on Saturday were … interesting, for lack of a better word. Eli went on first and she did a fantastic job, but not quite as good as on Friday. She didn’t take it so well, to say the least. The guy who came in first walked on stage and stripped to his skivvies. … Yeah. Don’t ask. Matt and Dylan also did quite well, but Dylan came in 4th and Matt tied for 5th/6th, I think. Apart from the performances, I ended up winning a Post-It pad collection for telling a blonde joke and an iPod Nano in a raffle. I spent about the same amount of time as I did the previous night with Eli, her boyfriend, and a few of her friends. We all did our best to get her out of her rut, and I think that we somewhat succeeded. Once again, I hit the hay around the same time on Saturday as I did on Friday.
Sunday flew by. Over the last few days, I had assembled a shortlist of stuff I wanted to play on the show, in addition to the interview with Dylan. I ended up playing most of it. The interview with Dylan went quite well, which I was pleased with, and he enjoyed himself, which I was also pleased with. The rest of the day comprised of an Op-Ed meeting, an activist training meeting, and lounging around, chatting with web friends on AIM, MSN, and TokBox. And now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll grab some much needed sleep.
But before I go, here’s Vampire Weekend’s latest single, “Cousins”. It’s kickin’, it’s addictive; Listen to it!
Okay, so nothing special happened on Tuesday, except for the discussion of acid/psychedelic rock in Music and the end and discussion of I Am Legend in English. And rehearsal went pretty smoothly.
Wednesday brought video type stuff. My idea for my last project in Cinema (which I've already shot and will be editing once I get the film back) was critiqued and it's kinda hard for me to shoot any more film, so I'll be scratching and coloring the film. Meh. It's an experimental/avant garde course. It works. And my group started filming our video project for English. It's going to be SOOOOO good! Rehearsal went well, too, despite two cast members being absent.
Today was alright. I tabled a bit for the film club, learned about art/prog rock in Music, and we discussed vampires versus zombies in the book and the film version of I Am Legend, along with a possible cast if another adaptation was made, one that was truer to the story. Two potential cast choices: Paul Giamatti as Ben Cortman and ... gosh darn it, I don't remember who we thought of to be Robert Neville. Someone suggested Jeff Bridges, actually. The Dude as Neville. Nice! And we filmed another bit for the project after class had let out. The rest of the evening consisted of another BC group meeting, dinner, Countdown, a kickin' episode of Fringe, and good episodes of Daily Show and Colbert.
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So ... that's really all I have. Umm ... so ... in anticipation of the release *fanboys* of Twilight: New Moon tomorrow, it's time for ... A TWILIGHT RANT!
I know that they're fictional characters and such ... but ... C'MON!
To Edward and kin: Vamps aren't supposed to be so emo and dramatic and such! They're supposed to strike fear into the hearts of their victims! Ever heard of Nosferatu? He was fuggin' creepy! You're creepy! ... But that's because of how you ACT. not how you LOOK and ACT.
To Bella: You seem so 1 dimensional! "Oh, I love you, Edward." "Oh, Edward, I still love you and I'm pining for you even though you said that you're leaving me." "Oh, Edward, let's get married and have babies, despite all of that previous business." "Oh, Edward, turn me into one of you so I can survive a horrible birthing process." SHUT IT, Bella! I've seen better from Hayden Christiansen!
To Jacob and kin: Since when are werewolves so buff and such? Have you seen The Wolfman? Or Teen Wolf?
To all fans: I hate to say this, but QUIT OBSESSING OVER THE BOOKS AND THE CHARACTERS! Yes, I was and still am a Harry Potter fan, but that's because the books and the characters were well-written! Your books are ... well ... drivel.
That is all.
(Note: The author of the rant has not read the books or seen the movies. And he has no plans too.)
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Better not forget those two pictures! I took these the first on Tuesday and the second today.
And here's a great short I found the other day! Enjoy!
