Compound Stories Part I

I'm absolutely loving the compound. However, I'm not so sure I'm cut out for the amount of creatures that seem to cohabitate with us. Mice. Spiders. HUGE SPIDERS THE SIZE OF SILVER DOLLARS! Some of which were poisonous. Roaches that are so big my cat probably wouldn't even mess with them if he had been there at the time. And snakes. Yes, snakes.

Yesterday afternoon, I went down the outside steps to get something out of my car. In a matter of 20 seconds, a three and a half foot long snake managed to stretch itself across the second to last step. When I turned around to go back up the steps, I about had a heart attack. It took me about 15 seconds to react, and one I did I grabbed my stuff and ran down onto the street. I stood in my new spot for a few seconds, trying to figure out what to do. I sure as hell wasn't touching that thing. I didn't have my cell phone on me. So I yelled for Joe, in hopes that he'd hear me, which he did. Turns out it was a gopher snake.

After the snake was caught and moved, Emily was nice enough to tell me of the snake incident she had when she first moved in. She went to open the upstairs cabinet under the sink, and a snake jumped out at her! A. SNAKE. UNDER. THE. SINK. Yikes.

I was going to post photos of the different types of spiders I've encountered, but those of you that know me know full well that I'm terrified of spiders. I couldn't even look at the list of google images that I pulled up.

Compound Series Part II

Moving is going to be crazy. I've got most of my stuff sorted, but I can't even pack before the day I move. There's no place to stack the boxes in my apartment, everything is so cramped. And there's no place to put anything in the new basement apartment yet, becase we're still painting and remodeling.

I've just come from the gym, and am watching Deadwood while I wait for my hair to dry. I'll admit it. I'm a bit of a history buff, and a friend of mine introduced me to this show last night. I love the mix of fact and fiction. It's very well written, and the production quality is good as well. It's an HBO series. After watching the first two episodes with Nate last night, I promptly went out today and rented two more DVD's.

Tomorrow I'm picking out paint, new carpet and meeting my two new roomates, David and Chad. It should be an interesting day.

Friday our sink disposal broke. Par usuale, we couldn't get ahold of the landlord or apartment manager. So it remained broken, with water standing in the sink, for twenty-four hours. Once we got past the twenty-four hour mark, mold began growing. It filled the disposal and began creeping up into the sink. By the time Sunday hit, it looked like it was going to take over our entire kitchen. Of course, nobody was about to touch it. So Kat and I stood in the kitchen and poured Comet on it, since we didn't have any straight bleach, and it was the only cleaning product in our kitchen that contained bleach. It killed it. But then we were left with a mucky mess of Comet and food-crud in the sink.

Finally, the maitenance man came. This morning. As I was about to leave. He's been working on the disposal since 10:00am.

I've been re-reading Sacred Journey and Hey Nostradamus!

It seems like I've been getting news of engagements, bridal showers and weddings almost on a weekly basis for several months now. What's with kids my age getting married? At this rate, Elizabeth really will be my only close friend left without a husband or baby attached to the hip. It's ironic, really. When I was sixteenish, everyone in the small, church oriented social circle I moved in was always joking about how I'd be the first to get married, at some insanely young age.

Ha.

I smiled and nodded, but honestly never really believed it.

Not sure what the point of that ramble was. Anyway. The disposal is now fixed and the maitnenance man has left. Now it's my turn to leave and go immerse myself in plaster and patch my new bedroom walls. I'm kind of getting into this renovation thing.

Compound Series Part I

Recent KCRW Performances

The Decemberists
One of my all-time favorites. All of their albums are equally amazing, however, my first choice is Her Majesty. Their music has an eclectic sound and the lyrics are extremely metaphorical and story-like. They are one of the bands I've listened to constantly through this last year and a half of limbo. This radio performance definitely doesn't do them justice. I have seen them live several times, and they put on a truly stellar show.

M83
This album (and pretty much all of their music) is perfect to edit to. One of my late-night favorites, especially when combined with a good drink and some solitude. I've listened to them on countless nights when I've been shut up alone in editing bays.

Aimee Mann
All of Aimee Mann's albums were on constant rotation through January and Febuary this year. She has a multitude of songs that resonate with where I am and have been in life. I've covered several of her songs at open mic. That's how much I like her.

Maria Taylor
You might know Maria Taylor from Azure Ray. This is her solo album, and if you like Azure Ray, you'll probably like this too. I really like her voice and her melancholy tone.

Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings
Very soulful, bluesy music. A little too upbeat for me to listen to on a regular basis, but still very good.

Kings of Convenience
This band definitely reminds me of a very emotional and difficult but somehow still amazingly beautiful period in my life. I had heard of them before my trip to San Diego last year, but Kings of Convenience and Travis will always be the bands that remind me of that trip.

So, I was about to post my pictures and sound clips from Over The Rhine. While I had the finder window open, I hit apple + z, by accident. The last thing I'd done was copy the pictures from my camera to that folder. GONE. All of them. I deleted them from my camera last night. SHIT. If anyone knows of a way to recover them, PLEASE e-mail me.

Okay, I know this really isn't a huge deal, but I almost had a heart attack.

I was screwing around on google and typed in my name, out of curiosity. MY FILMS WERE IN THE FIRST THREE RESULTS! Not just my name, but my name associated with the films I've worked on recently. Someone actually deemed the projects I've worked on worthy of blogging. I am officially a filmmaker.

Goole Results

Film Reviews- My directing credit is listed. I also edited As If It Were Nothing.

APU News Release- This was printed in the paper, as well as an interview I did.

Stoopid Heroes Shoot



















*I know some of the pictures aren't the greatest, but we didn't have a photographer on set, and obviously I was a little busy to mess with decent photos.

**I just can't resist pointing this out. Phil Boland didn't think I was a student worthy of his time. Now, let's see. Which one of us shows up on a google search? Which one of us is actually making films, instead of talking shit? Yeah, that's what I thought.

Um, Modest Mouse just played as background music for KTLA channel 5 news. It wasn't even their newest album. That was very weird.

There's plenty to blog about right now. But I really don't feel like it. I also have three papers due tomorrow. But I really don't feel like doing them.

Today was the last time I had to attend the class from hell (otherwise known as Directing). Unfortunately, I didn't get the satisfaction of actually attending the last class. My jerk-ass professor left before the exam period, when we were supposed to drop of projects. Even despite that, I thought I'd be a lot more excited about being done with his class. But I'm not.

The only thing I'm excited about is being done and having some time away from the computer and papers, so that my poor hands can recuperate and I can sleep. My veins are bulging and one of my wrists is even bruising from the strain of having written so many papers lately. I can hardly make a fist. And lets not even talk about the bags under my eyes. Yuck.

I do have some pretty decent pictures from the Over The Rhine show, as well as a few sound clips. I'll post them soon; but no promises on a specific time period. Just soon.

UGH. I really hate mornings.