Author: Jandy Page 1 of 5

Randomosity

On July 3, 2006

Warning: This post is going to be random. I feel like writing, because I haven’t for a while, but I really don’t have anything substantial to say. End of disclaimer.

Back from Florida. And I didn’t get a sunburn this year! Maybe the first time ever. My coworker has been teasing me for weeks about using sunscreen, so there was no way I was going to come home burned. Granted, I’m not hugely tanned, either, but then I don’t tan well. I got a little, so I’m happy.

Back to work. Well, since I’m leaving in a month (!), my main responsibility right now is training someone else to do my job. Since I’ve been working with her for like three weeks now, and my job isn’t hard, she’s largely got it and is doing it. So, I’m filling time catching up some requests from other banks, stuff like that. It’s just sort of weird, not doing the the work that I’ve been doing since I started.

And tomorrow, off. But what the heck is going on with Fair St. Louis this year? No airshow? NO FREAKIN’ AIRSHOW? The hell? We go to the fair EVERY YEAR to get a funnel cake, see the air shows, and watch the fireworks. And I was especially looking forward to it because I won’t be here for the St. Louis County Fair and Air Show this September. Grumble. I’m boycotting Fair St. Louis.

So, with my long-proclaimed disdain for reality shows, guess what my summer TV lineup looks like? So You Think You Can Dance, Treasure Hunters, America’s Got Talent, and reruns of Who’s Line Is It Anyway? and What Not to Wear (the BBC versions, natch). Heh. But I can’t help it if TV stations don’t run real shows in the summer, can I? I suppose I could concentrate on catching up on Gilmore Girls so I can watch the new season this fall…I’m only five seasons behind. I even DVR’d Tuesday Night Book Club, but I watched the first ten minutes and deleted it. It was crap. SYTYCD, though, is not quite up to American Idol-level interest, but it’s getting close. I don’t know that much about dancing, and I have trouble enjoying contemporary dance because it just looks dumb to me, but the ballroom stuff and the hip-hop stuff is great fun to watch.

I’ve noticed something about me and hip-hop (/rap/r&b). I don’t like listening to it. Can hardly stand it sometimes. But I really like some of the hip-hop-style dancing. And I also often find that I like rap songs when they’re used in movies and commercials and stuff like that. Here’s my new theory. Rap is harsh and feels like it’s born from pain…like krump, it’s a lashing out in frustration, in anger. It feels heavy and intense. So when it’s put in a context like that, like the use of “Jesus Walks” in Jarhead, or “Lose Yourself” in 8 Mile, it fits. It raises the intensity. And later, when I hear the same song out of context, I’m reminded of that intensity, that unleashing of harsh feeling, and it’s meaningful in some way. But when I hear a rap song on the radio first, with no context, it feels overwrought and just seems noisy. I don’t know if that makes sense at all, but I’ve been thinking about why I do like rap songs that I first heard in a movie so much more than ones that I first heard on the radio.

Aw, no more grad students on Treasure Hunters. So, since they dropped out, does that mean there’s no elimination this round? Oh, no, the Browns are back. Okay. Hee…the Hanlons are worried. That’s because you suck only slightly less than the Browns! Heh. But I’m sad for the grad students. She tried so hard to keep going, and the other two worked so hard to carry her. Yay, more Ask.com product placement. Normally I’m not against product placement at all, but this show is a bit overboard. You know all the contestants are thinking, damn, I wish they’d let me use Google. And can I just say how disappointed I am in the Fogels? Come on, preacher man, quit being a jerk. Honestly. Okay, I’m done now. Nobody but me is watching this anyway.

Vacation

By Jandy

On June 25, 2006

In Books and Reading, Personal

I love being on vacation. I want to do it all the time. But then I might get bored of it.

Good drive down to Florida this year. We did a couple of hours Friday night after I got off work, and then the rest on Saturday. I ended up driving most of Saturday, because Dad was reading. Yep, that’s right. My Dad, the man who rarely reads more than a magazine every now and again, is now almost halfway through Catch-22. I recommended it to him after I read it and loved it last year, and we finally decided that this trip was the time he should read it. To be honest, I was completely prepared for him to give up, but he’s really enjoying it. Mom pointed out to me that he really does enjoy reading when he’s got time and doesn’t feel like he should be doing something more productive, which is really right. I’m just really glad he’s liking it. And I finally convinced Mom that Reading Lolita in Tehran isn’t really about Lolita and that she might like it and not get corrupted by the presence of Lolita. And she is liking it! So far my book recommendations this trip have really panned out nicely.

Meanwhile, I read an entire Agatha Christie mystery today. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. I’ve read a lot of Christie novels before, but not this one…and I saw it written up on a few “best of” sort of lists recently, so I thought I’d check it out. Really great detective novel. Agatha Christie is such good vacation reading…light, easy, fun, and makes you think only in an enjoyable “solve the mystery” sort of way. So now I only have seven books left to read on the trip. Yeah, I way overdo it. Always have.

I haven’t been down to Pensacola Beach since Hurricane Ivan devastated the place two years ago. My parents were down last year, so I’d heard about it, but even now it’s still pretty bad. The beach is completely flat in most places, no sand dunes. About half of the condos are still out of commission, and the road is in the process of being completely redone. Construction equipment everywhere, and piles of sand and debris that have been sifted out of one another. I’ve seen it after hurricanes before, but never like this. And this is two years later! Dad’s amazed that it’s taking so long to get stuff fixed…I’m speculating that some of the labor force has been siphoned off to New Orleans, but who knows. Maybe the condo owners are just still arguing with the insurance companies.

The condos we used to rent aren’t opened back up yet. The ones we’re in are pretty nice, but there’s no pool or tennis courts. But there’s a great balcony overlooking the Gulf, and I get to sleep in where the TV is, which is fine with me. ;) And I’ve just discovered that there’s a wireless internet connection (obviously!). Although I probably would’ve gotten more reading done had I not discovered that I can use the internet. Oh well.

The Aesthetic of the Moment

By Jandy

On June 21, 2006

In Film

To ponder: The majority of independent film as an aesthetic of the “moment.” A series of memorable moments more than a cohesive whole. Opposed to mainstream film, in which every moment must serve the main point of the movie, whether it be plot, humor, or action. Generalizations, of course. Needs more thought. (This has been brought to you by Things I Think About While Driving Into Work.)

May Reading/Watching Recap

By Jandy

On June 16, 2006

In Books and Reading, Film, Reviews

Including my reactions to Rize, Brokeback Mountain, Capote, Downfall, The Canterbury Tales, and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, among other things.

48 Hour Film Festival, cont.

By Jandy

On June 15, 2006

In Film

That was another great theatre-going experience to mark down in my book. The Tivoli was PACKED OUT. I got there just before seven (when the show was supposed to start, but it didn’t get started until 7:15), and there were people lined up outside, not able to get in because it was sold out. Wow. All to watch a bunch of ten-to-fifteen-minute-long shorts that amateur filmmakers wrote, shot, and edited in one weekend. Of course, given that they were all made here, each filmmaker probably only had to get twenty or so of his friends to show up to fill up the place. Still. It was great to see that kind of support for the filmmaking community. In total, 48 teams set out on the project, and 40 of them completed their films on time (the rest are shown, but not in competition). Those films were split up between four, I think, different screenings. Each audience member got a ballot to vote for their three favorite films in the grouping, and the votes will be counted and a “best of” will screen next Thursday. I sort of want to go, but I probably won’t. Especially since I didn’t get a ticket while I was there tonight, and it’s probably sold out already.

The films were of varying quality, of course. Each one was a different genre–drawn by the team out of a hat at the beginning of the project. Each team had to include a specific character (a bank manager), a specific prop (a shopping bag), and a specific line of dialogue (“Is that all I am to you?”) in their film. Some of them came up with really interesting twists on that…like the team whose bank manager worked at a sperm bank. Most of the films had interesting storylines. The downfall of the less impressive films, I think, was sound. Sound is hard, yo. Which is why I always hated working with sound, and why I chose to emulate silent film in my biggest film project in school. ;)

What was really great, though, was how much the audience was into it. Again, partly because they were watching their films, or their friends’ films, on a big screen in a big theatre, with a big audience, which is cool in and of itself. But everyone pretty much enjoyed all the films. There was more laughter and applause and hoots and hollers than I’ve ever heard at a theatre. That made it even more enjoyable. I just looked at the website for the project (www.48hourfilm.com), hoping to find a list of film titles to jog my memory, but they don’t have them listed yet. They do have last year’s listed, so hopefully after the screenings and competition are complete, they will.

Overall, great experience. Thanks, MK, for letting me know about it. (She doesn’t even read this, but what the hey.) I will definitely be looking out for this sort of thing in the future. Actually, I imagine they have more stuff like this in Austin than they do here. Will have to check that out.