Maybe you can drive my car.

I guess you could say it's been an odd weekend for me. Well, maybe it's been normal for me... Today I got up at 12:30, finally catching up on my much needed rest. Boring. Then I sat around... watching a few episodes of Macgyver. Now that's just freaking awesome. After that was grocery shopping, then lunch at about 4:30-5ish... Then I went to watch Die Hard by myself, and then I went to the Bar to watch my Stamp's slaughter the Ticats 37-9 or something like that. It was awesome... I love football. So anyways... I have spent my whole day doing things by myself that one would normaly do with other people.... it's kind of weird. and now I'm at school waiting for Chris so we can get some work done.... I think every work day should start at 10:30.

Man, this sure is a rambly story... That seems to be this blog's new format... I'm just to lazy to have any real structure. Or maybe I'm a structuralist rebel...without a cause.... yeah, that's pretty cool...

One day I was walking home, like I do every day now; I was walking through the crosswalk onto the bridge and car came really close to hitting me, an unnervingly common occourance here in Vancouver, so I thought nothing of it. I continued onto the bridge, on my way home. Down below, was the car that had almost hit me. The old man inside was yelling and carrying on, but I couldn't hear him so I just kind of shrug'd at him with a smile on my face.... apparently that ticked him off because he opened his door and yelled louder and more vulger obscenities at me. I shrug'd again and couldn't help but laugh out loud. Then he gave me the finger and sped away... I can't believe how rediculous people get when they drive; when they have 1500 pound automobiles to back them up. Apparently one isn't allowed to use a crosswalk... I bet if I sped right by him when he was in a crosswalk he'd have even more swearing for me... I don't know... people are stupid.. Oh and yesterday when I was walking home some dumbass ran through a red light going like 80k's. Maybe I'm just becoming a really angry jaded person (heh, becoming....) , but I was really mad... like really.... Someone with no reguard for life, or law. If I was not paying attention to him, I would have been killed, or someone else could have been. Probably stoned or drunk anyhow, so it wasn't his fault... I hate people sometimes...

This is turning into the stupid people I hate rant, so I might at well make it a full list.

Bums. They are really starting to piss me off. Always getting up in your face. Asking for money. Being creepy, smelly and a pian in the ass. All of my charitable nature is gone. I have no good will towards the homeless. They have beat it out of me. It's not even that I don't like help those less fortunate, it's just that the only help they want is money. Money for drugs and booze and smokes. I don't have enough money for myself thanks, let alone paying for your vices! Oh it pisses me off. and they have the gaul to get upset when you say no! I'm telling you, these homeless people better watch out. I'm pretty much ready to call the cops on any and all bums who give me shit. I have had it...

So yeah. Traffic and homeless people. My two biggest beefs with this city at the moment. The traffic itself isn't so bad, it's when it relates to pedestrians, they don't care about them. which is scary. even in the IGA parking lot I've almost been hit like 5-6 times... I think I'm going to carry a bunch off rocks in my bag, so I can fight back. Kidding! ... sort of.....

anyhow.. enough complaining for now....

peace.

Weirdy

Hey world, So here I am sitting at the University of Calgary in a random copmuter lab, blending in with the locals.... they have no cule I don't even go here... why? how? what's going on? All good questions. But the story is boring and long winded. And no one really cares anyhow so whatever.

Amy and Jer got married this weekend and My Dad is turning 50, so there are family milestones all over the place. I was glad that I could take a week off to come out here to enjoy both celebrations.

anyhow... I gotta go... this is a weird post.... peace

mhmhmmmmm...nnnm.mgm....nha.........ga...

Okay.... I'm really tired. We are now going into our 3rd night of shooting. I hate nights....... Plus, shooting has been not going well. We lost a scene as a result of setting of fire alarms, and we are like 10% over our film allocation. So yeah, all our instructor hate us.... last night we had 4 of them on set..... I am so stressed out and tired I can hardly handle myself..... Only 4 more days..... sigh....

help me.

All something and no something make Andrew something something....

Whoa hey, It's been too long since I've posted anything on this here blog. I've been super busy working, that's why.... that doesn't sound like me does it. well... it's the truth, so there. For the first part of the earlier I was 1st assistant cameraing..camering...being the 1st assistant camera for a short called Ethnic Girl. That was all well and good and then we moved on to the second round, where I am now the Assistant Director on a film called Gray Matter..... I wonder why all my titles have the word assistant in them... it's rather demeaning. I mean, come on, my job is important! Can't I get a little respect? Oh well, atleast the jobs themselves are cool, even if they don't have the most flattering titles. So yeah, I've been up to my armpits in paper work and phone calls for the last week, and that's hard to do. Even as I write this, I'm sitting in our production office, working on casting. Still no rest for the wicked... oooohhh well. So that's an update on school. basically, it's all work. Good times.

So short little update today, as I'm tired, and I'm on a stupid mac with a lame keyboard, so it's kind of hard to type.... Maybe next post I will get more philosophical... but today it's just complaining about work.... what fun...

Oh, and I get to go back to Alberta on the 15th of June, as it is the weekend Amy and Jer are getting married. I was glad I could get that weekend free so I could sneak off to that. It should be a grand time.

So much for whatnot; back to throwing stones.

Once

I have just seen a preview for my favorite movie of all time. Well, I can't be sure, but it looks promising. It's called Once. I was sitting in Fifth avenue cinema the other day, for those of you not from Vancouver, it's our more artsy theater, and a preview came up, and wow! I mean.... Wow.... I don't think I've ever been drawn in by a preview. It was so evocative. The music, the faux doc cinematography. I was enthralled.... and I'm just going to say, I don't often get this gushy over much... it's a little lame... sorry.... Yeah, so it's like a indie, music, romance movie thing. can you get a better combination? It kind of makes me think of the movie The Puffy Chair, another recent sundance film which you should see. Once comes out in Canada for limited release here on the 18th and I assume out on DVD in the future for those without sweet art theaters.

So, before you do anything else, go to this Website and check it out. Again, I'm calling it; this will be an awesome, awesome movie.

- So much for whatnot, back to throwing stones.

Oh the Humanity!

The other day I was just thinking about the Hindenburg; which is terribly random now that I think about it. Anyhow, I was thinking about the announcer on the video, the terror and sadness in his voice. It haunts me as being the most sincere reportage that I have ever heard. It has just kind of stuck with me since I first saw it, since like age 10ish. The irony of it all is that, 70 years ago, 3 days ago at 7:25 was the date that the hindenbug crashed. Kind of weird that it was on my mind the day before....

weird huh?

Great bands and the fans that love them.

I am a bit of a music snob. You know, the kind that likes a band till it's played on the radio and then everyone and their dog say they like it, That's when I start to dislike that band. It is ruined to me. I just can't like music that the general public likes, I'm elitist, I know, but hey, it's how I roll.
You know, bands like Death Cab for Cutie, Modest Mouse, Sufjan Stevens, The White Stripes, Interpol and just recently Matt Pond PA. I liked all of them before they were popular. (sorry, that's my elitist streak) I would like to say however, that I am becoming better continuing to like music after it becomes popular, because lets face it, if it's good, it'll get popular eventually. I would also like to note that it is TV that makes all the cool bands popular. Mainly because it's cheap to license and it's just as good as expensive music. Just a little trivia for you. Jerks, stealing all my music.

So, now, to the point of the post. I wanted to point you guys in the direction of some new great bands. I will break this down into 3 different segments. Bands you've never heard of, Bands you may have heard of (and need to listen too), and Bands you need to get back into ( and if you haven't heard of them, foreshame)

Bands you've probably never heard of- (if you have, good on ya)

Band the first. - The Lonely Forest - This band out of Anacortes WA, is a sweet piano band. I first saw them in Seattle at Bumbershoot. I think it was my favorite show in the whole festival. And it was a pretty big festival. Anyways, check them out, you won't be disappointed. "Are you afraid of the world" is a great song.

Band the second - The Golden Dogs - This was the opening act when I was helping do a video shoot for Jets Overhead, another fairly solid band. I just thought their sound was pretty good, the songs Runnoutaluck and Nineteen eighty five are pretty darn catchy.

Band the third - The Wrens - watch the "She sends kisses" video - My friend Graham introduced me the this band a couple years back. I woke up to them every morning on my CD player for at least 2 months. They are pretty catchy.

Band the fourth - The Weakerthans - The Reasons - best song ever! Good 'ol Canadian band out of Winnipeg. They have become much more popular as of late. I don't know what superlatives I can use. None really good that I can think of. They are just good is all.

Band the fifth - The Honorary Title - I like bridges... I like tunnels.... and they have a song 'bout both. what's not to love?


Bands you may have heard of

numero 1 - Matt Pond PA - Myspace-scroll down and watch the so much trouble video .What can I say, they are just so freaking good. I almost can't stand it sometimes. You have to listen I was rather turned off when I heard them playing in the GAP one day, but what can you do, I just love them too much to dislike them for that reason.

numero 2 - Page France - the main website is broke, weird..... but they are nice, soft, girlie folk. Hence me liking them. It makes me wistful when I listen to them.

numero 3 - Patrick Park - What can I say.... I'd say I like it, but... I kind of say that about every band that I like..... so yeah..... he's good....um... yeah........

numero 4 - Corb Lund - Albertan country band. I;m generally not a fan of country, but this band is awesome. it's more like, folk rock country. good country. as opposed to pop country, which sucks (mostly). check them out, they are like my heros.

numero 5 - Carbon Leaf - a good celtic folk rock band. kind of like great big sea, only a million times better. Although, I did like great big sea live.

numero 6 - Built to Spill - myspace - An oldie but a goldie. Such a good band, highly underrated. listen to them, love them.

Bands you need to get back into (yeah, if you haven't heard of them... wow... that would just be too weird...)

1! - Yusuf Islam - The artist previously known as Cats Stevens - The greatest folk musician of all time, bar none. listen to him, bask in the greatness. BASK!

2! - The Tragically Hip - I am a pretty big fan. They are sometimes kind of hit or miss, but they are truly good, pure, Canadian sound. Listen to the new disc, "World Container"

3! System of a Down - lonely day - good song... Crazy turkish guys. They are a bit heavy and kind of angry sometimes. But their lyrics are though provoking, as if that mattered, and they actually have musical tune to their songs, despite the fact that they are heavy rock. So I like it. It is good. It's a good time during a sign-a-long, take my word for it.

4! Neil Young - need I say more.... that's a rhetorical question.... cause the answer is no.....

5! Terry Jacks - okay, this is a bit of a stretch. He was a singer in the 70's. Vancouver native. I like him, check him out.

Wow, this post got really out of hand. I was originally planning to just post the first two bands. wow. Get me talking about music and see what happens. This is by far not a full list of music I like; It's just good music that popped into my head while I was writing this..... so if you check these guys out, you'll be listening to some great music. Feel free to suggest some great bands of your own, although, if they suck, I'll make fun of you.....

so much for whatnot; back to throwing stones.....

Make love, Not War

(WARNING POLITICAL DIATRIBING)

Some of you may know that I don't have a great deal of respect for the NDP party of Canada. But their leader, Jack Layton was being the most ignorant person person ever. It was regarding the war in Afghanistan. This is a really hot button issue in Canada recently, but not anywhere near the environment... oh god, we're all going to burn to death.... (note sarcasm.... I still think it's funny that only 20 years ago we were all going to die from global cooling..... and then the hole in the ozone layer...which fixed itself.. what will kill us next? Global normalcy? but alas I do digress)

So Jack is demanding that we withdraw from the war immediately. No troops whatsoever. Canada should just provide "support" and "aid". Those are fairly vague terms for one. You know, building hospitals, schools, giving out food. All those "nice" things. It did not seem to matter that our soldiers are only fighting when they were attacked. It's not like we walked into the country, and started opening fire on civilians, there are people with guns shooting at our boys over there. It is my understanding that one of the most volatile areas is where we are building a road. that's development, and could be quite peaceful, and yet it keeps getting attacked.... and what would happen if there was no defense for those road builders? would the NDP be ready to send those workers to their death? Take responsibility for it? Or are the aggressors just all of a sudden going to be nice? Stop putting land mines around? Let the new women doctors keep their jobs? Not take back over the government and split it back into war lording factions? That somehow seems unlikely....

Canada in general doesn't even seem to be sure if we want to be in this war. There are some that say that we should just leave the world alone. stop sticking our nose where it doesn't belong. Fore shame! I think it's exactly what we should be doing. Helping those less fortunate. we could have just let the World War run its course. Both of them... No one attacked Canada.. why should we have cared?.... True, It has taken a long time for us come to try and help, but at least we are trying now. And truth be told, we should do more, in more places. Africa for one, there are horrible things going on there, and we do nothing.... and have done nothing. The Congo, Darfur, Rawanda... should we just leave them to their own devices? Let the warlords kill, just because it's their way? That's stupid. We have a duty to try and help those who can't help themselves.

Truth be told, we can't win this war... since it's not really a war. We aren't conquering it. That would be much easier. We just have to stay till the country is stable enough in it's own government. That could be quite a while. But I think it's a better option than just leaving the country to go back to the way it was... Then we'll leave and it won't be perfect, but even if it helps a little, I think it's worth a shot....

Just a thought.

And now, the News...

Sweet new bridge deal over Highway 1

I begin today's blog posting with a profuse apology. It has been almost a full month since my last post; far too long. I will not be so lax in the future I assure you. Although, I do believe that my readers will dwindle now the the university crowd is done for the year. Now all those people will be working at jobs and generally be too busy to read this. But it's therapeutic for me, and that's the main thing.

Okay, now with that out of the way, we can move on. So I just had a two week break from school just recently. Technically it was supposed to be one, but when Michael's house burnt down, and I had some documentary stuff to do, I decided to go home early. oh yeah, Mike's house burned down... It was a little scary. He's okay and everything, but the lady that lived downstairs was killed. So we are not sure what's going to happen now. The the main thing is he's safe and still as ornery as ever.

The next week I went back to my old haunt, Saskatoon. Now that was a good time. Coffeeing non stop, seeing the old faces.... watching Hot Fuzz, now that was a good time. Really funny movie.... no one wanted to see it, they were all like "who's ever heard of that movie" and " ah that's going to be lame" and "remember silent hill?" But I finally convinced people to go. And I showed them! it was great! So there!!! Yeah, other then that, we just hung out... played tennis.... pool.... fun times....

Yeah, so then I drove to Viking with Nathan's crap and then drove back to Vancouver on Sunday morning... which was good. There was snow, construction and even a van going the wrong way on the Transcanada in Langley. That woke me right up. So yeah, I got here at like 2:30 in the morning. Since I've been back I haven't really had much time to get my life back in order. last night I got home at quarter after ten and tonight It was 11ish. Now bear in mind that that's not all school, some is H&R Block and tonight I spent a couple of hours at Chris's place watching the hockey game. Canucks got to pick up the pace...

That's the play by play of life.

So much for whatnot; back to throwing stones..

No rest for the wicked...

Today was a tough day... Full of work and other hardships. I call it, The Thursday of Doom!!!!... Our first item of the day was the script selection. I was not chosen... which, I'm not going to lie, pissed me off.... I think the main reason I didn't get picked is because of the class voting... but that's just a guess, I have a debrief next week some time... So yeah... that kind of put me in a bitter disposition... but the day trudged on....

Next we had two consecutive tests... Producing and ADing, they weren't hard at all though, and only took about 10 or 15 minutes to do both. But it sounds hard to have two tests in a row.... right?

As you may recall I had a large cinematography earlier, and today was the day we received the results of said test. It was a tense time... no one was sure whether on not they would be able to move on in the DoP training..... and guess what? I got the highest mark in the class! Yeah, I was just as surprised as everyone else. Yup, 93%... I wasn't even sure I'd get the 85 required... That was a good part o' the day....

Then we got our directing test back. I was pretty nervous about this one too. I felt frazzled and unprepared when I was writing it.. so I was pretty sure I didn't do well... like the last directing test, where I got like 68 or something.... and low and behold I received a 90%! I guess I'm just on a roll.... so as of now all our testing is complete, now we just need some marks back.... but these latest test help my average out quite a bit.... I guess I do have one more test.... hopefully I do okay... I'm sure I will.....

Then we decided to go see a film after this hectic day.. you know to relax, let off some steam.... So on our way to the theatre we sort of witnessed a robbery. We walked out of the Sears onto Robson, hearing a woman screaming off in the distance... which oddly enough is not completely uncommon.... crazy people and the like... so yeah, we walked out onto the street when I heard the lady yell stop thief and a guy ran off... followed by some helpful bystander trying to stop him... I don't really know what it was about or anything.... they were all the way down the street... so it's not like I was a witness or anything... if that's what you're thinking.... cause you were.... anyhow.... yeah, so we walked down to the theatre on Granville street when I noticed a somewhat familiar face. Yeah, I know you're sick and tired of hearing about all the famous people I see, but, um..... I still like talking about it?..... yeah sure....... okay, who was it? It was Nardwaur! Who? Nardwaur the Human Serviette...... yeah... you still probably don't know.... he's like a comedian with Much Music.... and he's on The New Music sometimes.... yeah, I don't know, he's not that funny or anything.... he looks funny though....

so yeah... good times.....

and the movie was okay. It was the lookout. The coolest thing about it was that it was filmed in Manitoba. Isn't that cool?! I thought it was cool. There was a part where they sped up the film though, which is never cool... they sped it up in post, not production so it just looked cheesy... like when cars are going slow and they speed it up to look like they are going really fast. It just doesn't work.... never has, never will....

That's it for today... it was long, it was hard... and now it's over... We still ahve a boat load of work however... but it's not all on one day. So peace out world. I got a test in the morrow and I should get some sleep.

Andrew
and that's the kind of day it's been here on thursday, April the 5th