A Comedy of Romance

Romance is a vital part of human life, a key to the human condition. Okay, don't go making any assumptions, because as of yet, personally I have absolutly no romance in my life.... like none.. but that aside. From time to time I enjoy the odd romantic comedy as I myself am a hopless romantic ( don't tell anyone) and as we've already established, I don't have any romance of my own...... which brings us to what I'm actually going to takl about.... Today I saw the best romantic comedy ever! Was it Music and Lyrics? or maybe um.... Norbit? no and most certainly not.

It was City Lights by the infamous Charlie Chaplin. Surprised? I was too! I thought he just did shorts, slapstick and the like. I wasn't really looking foreward to just goofy old fasioned antics, but it was a great film. The story was so touching; about a poor man, the Tramp, who falls in love with a blind flower girl. He is an awkward poor man. She thinks he is a rich man and he works hard to find a way to pay for her rent and hospital bills to get her eyes fixed, much to his own deficiet... After he gets out of prision he meets her at her shop, she has her sight and doesn't realize that the tramp is her benefacter. Only when she touches his hand does she realize that this poor disheveled tramp is the one she loves.... The whole film is broken up by Chaplins slapstick antics and still applicable humour..... That is just a really short synopsis... it really has quite a bit of depth, which is what surprised me about this film. The art of filmmaking was fully developed very early on. Yup, the best romantic comedy, and it was filmed in '31.
The appeal of the film was that if the Tramp could find love and do well in life than anyone could
. An awkward poor man can find love... And when these films came out, in the late 20's and early 30's, the burgeoning immigrant population really resounded with that notion... It gives all of us awkward single losers something to hope for.... sigh.....so yeah, that's the story, a great movie... which reminded me of my failings and sad state, but also gave me the hope of change someday.

Now that's what movies should do. The more classic films I see the more respect I have for them. They are way better than the stuff they are trying to pass off nowadays.. As I finish this post a gentle snow fall cover's the city, blanketing the streets and bays with white frosting. Obscuring the view... It's quite beautiful....

AHHHH.......Ew, Ew, Ew.....ahhh.....

Ahhhhh!!! Ahhh....... okay, I'm watching a show now on killer bees, they are so scary...... there was like a million of them, and they are super mean, and venomous..... and then there were like poisonous millipedes and black widow spiders..... I never, ever want to go to Arizona ever..... ever! so many creepy critters out there...... I hate normal bugs, let alone crazy ones that can kill you.... Eww.... ahhhh...... eww....... I mean, how creepy is that!?!? it's so creepy..... creepy creppy creepy!!!! They can feel your fear... They can even feel your fear!!!! they sense your heartbeats....how crazy is that. and they don't give up stinging you for a long time... even if you are dead.... wow.... seriously creepy stuff..... We used to have problems with hornets at work and that was scary enough, I can't imagine if they could kill you.....

anyways.... have a nice day.....

Andrew.

Lengthy Awesomeness

Hello world,

So, it's been a while, and for that I appologise. We had a busy week. We had a execise called the Instructor Shoot. A Director was brought in and our whole class cycled through the other departments for short script shoot. It was so cool. I found I was pretty good at a lot of stuff but I hated script supervisor and continuity. Basically I loved everything else. 1st, 2nd AssistanCamera, Assistant Director, Grip Gaffer.. even sound and art... I love this school!

Elsewhere in film land, I helped in a live music shoot with some of the TA's from school at the Plaza Club, although you can't tell anyone.. it's kind of on the hush hush.... but it was awesome! I was a gopher type, setting up tripods, carrying cables and whatnot. The footage that we shot might be used in a music video for Much Music. How cool is that! The bands playing were the Golden Dogs and Jets Overhead. We did the filming on the second band. Then we all went out to hang, it was a great time.

Even more elsewhere in film land...... We started our minidramas today, along with some quasi acting classes.... it was pretty rediculous... I like acting, and i'm pretty good at it.... not to brag or anything, but I am awesome! The improving was pretty intense, we had to become different people. it was really draining. I can now understand why actors are so weird.... And now I have some funny new catch phrases that'll follow me around for a while... kind of like LCBI.... I always have to have some sort of shtick...

I also saw the filming of the davinci's inquest movie... man movies are just so cool! so freaking cool....

What else is new.... oh yeah, the bank cancelled my bank card again, I guess I am still stealing my own money.... I've been taking out large amounts of money to transfer into my account here and my bank back home thought it looked fishey. So they called me up, and I was like, "oh yeah, that was me"... and they said oh okay. we're going to cancel your card and send you a new one.... is that not confusing? I mean, I understand why they called, and I'm glad for it. but why cancel my card after they knew it was me who took out my money? does that make sense to anyone? oh well, at least this time I have an account here and a credit card, so i won't starve or anything.... I'm also not quite so mad because there were two guys in school who had their accounts skimmed off.....

I'm watching "Are you smarter than a fifth grader"... and it is so rediculous.... this guy is so stupid........ he didn't get one question right, the only ones I didn't know were american history.... It's funny though. It's not quite as good as the office though, which I was watching before.... man I love the HR guy, he is so funny..... I can't get enough of him.....

Okay, I'm only going to talk about on more thing before the end of this little segment. I can't call myself a film student and not at least touch on the Oscars. I am not surprised that Scorsese won. It's about time, and everyone knew it.... Personally I'm not a huge fan, but whatever. This is not probably the movie he should have been nominated for, or won, but he had to win sometime.... from what I hear, he should have won for goodfellas.... I don't know..... I knew Helen Mirren would win, she was just on a role. And Forrest Whitaker won best actor... I really need to see those films so I can comment on them.... I'm sure they were great.... I was mad that Cars didn't win... whats so great about dancing peguins anyhow?!? Cars was so much better. The only other award that means anything was best doc, and of course Al Gore's film would win... I should really see that.... oh well, who's got the time? This year was rather lame for choices... not as bad as last year.... a lot of the films that are "great" and win' I really don't like at all.... oh well.... Like Crash?!?! I hated that film... It was so cheesy.... the one guy who wasn't rasict picked up a guy who was hitchiking, and then he's like, oh no he's got a gun! that's the only thing he can have!!!!! and then he burned his body and car? does that seem resonable? why wouldn't he just be like, I shot him cause I thought he was pulling a gun? or something a normal person would do? it was just so heavy handed, and as such I didn't think it deserved the oscar... but I have friends who swear by it... there's no accounting for taste is there.......

anyhow, I do digress.... so I'll just wrap this rediculously long blog entry for the day....

So peace out world,
Andrew

A bit of Crazy week

So It's been a while since I've really done any good posting. I don't know about you, but I hate it when blogs don't get updated very often... but that's maybe because I live vicariously through them.. just maybe... That being said, I will now update this blog! It has been a pretty awesome week here in the costal city. My brother Nate was down for his reading week break. It was a great time. During the days when I was at school Nate just hung out in the Vancouver Public Library, which I guess was fun for him... weird.. but that was only during the day. We did the whole west coast experience the rest of the time. We took the ferry over to the Island, saw the last bit of the Victoria Film Festival, we saw.... let me see... Beyond the Call, a documentary about some guys who do work in the third world. The other film was 2:37... it was not great, but whatever... The whole thing was cool though. We went to a concert, Sparklehorse... it was okay, it was a fun experience. and we rented about a zillion movies everything from the taxi driver to The puffy couch and Snakes on a plane to Derrida. good times...

I'd love to write more, and I have more to write, but I have an early call time in the morning... which means I have to be on set early. I only had two hours of sleep last night too... so ...yeah...

I'll write more soon. And just a hint of what my next entry will be about, more about our adventure and a rant about stupid people....
Andy

Oh roger... you are so right

You can't roller skate in a buffalo herd, but you can be happy if you've a mind to.

Think about it..

Tagged?

Okay, I was just reading Heather's blog, and aparently I have been "tagged" I guess I am supposed to tell 5 random things about myself... I think...

1.) I am the worlds biggest enigma (well... maybe in the top 10)..... for example... I'm shy and quiet, but I need to be around people. I'm awkward, and yet I'm not really awkward at all...I am a negative, slightly depressing person, but I am optimistic, and happy most of the time..... I am a non adventurous creature of habit, but occasionaly I pick up everything and move to a city where I know no one and go into a scholastic program in a crazy field.... I guess that's what one gets from a young norwiegan lutheran.... that and a love of coffee..

2.) I get injured quite frequently. It's my left handed bad luck..... yet is never bad enough to be cool or get me any sympathy.... let's see.... A hammer fell of a roof and hit me in the head, I have been hit full on in the chest by a flying, 160 pound sheep which subsequently knocked me flat on my back, I was crushed into a wall by a Cow, I was kicked in the knee by a cow, I was in a truck rollover not wearing a seatbelt..I had a slapshot hit my bear knee and it swelled up like a balloon.... I had my elbow hyper extended in football, and my chin endlessly hit by opponent's helmets.... My neck got hurt in both highschool while wrestling and wrestling at CLBI... the second of which I went to the hospital for..... So I've been through quite a bit when it comes to getting injured, and that's just what I can remember at the moment....

3.) I can write a solid Essay with no prep in one sitting the night before. I just write it out and hand 'er in... I just did it and got an A-. My best example of this is when I wrote a whole research essay in 6 hours when I was in the middle of the flu.. I think it was worth 50% of my mark and I got an 83. not bad... I refer to this skill as a good ability to BS... but that's just my terminology..

4.) Last summer I came 2nd in a popsicle ugh...... chugging?.... contest. I think we did four...... It hurt a lot! I've never had that much brain freeze.... ever.... I also came in second in a syrup chugging contest coincedently....ooh... alliteration..yeah...

5.) I have never been able to whistle... never will be..... but I can twidle my thumbs with the best of 'em. I practiced a lot during highschool....

So hopefully this is what has been expected of me in reguards to the tagging... I don't know if I should keep this tag thing going..... hmmm... I know beth will read this... so how about I tag her....

Anyhow, I've got to get some sleep, so I can do my sound edit, schematics, AD Scheduling and work on my first draft in the morning.

So remember! The important thing is to not be intimidated by all the stuff I know.
Andrew