Box of Bunnies

As you may or may not know, I’ve felt empty for the past few years. Just with my unsuccessful semesters at college, my poor attempts at keeping a job, spots of loneliness, and generally just seeing that I am a lot further behind most of my friends. And it was depressing, I was upset by that for a while, but then I learned to accept it. We are all unique and individual people, nothing is cement for anybody, it just isn’t. And all the emotions I’ve felt, and was sad about, they don’t bother me anymore. I accept it, I have enough motivation that I will get to my goal in the long run. I will achieve.

I guess I should fill you in. Yesterday I got an email saying my payment plan for next semester has changed, and I thought it would be the math class that was dropped because I registered for the next one, and since I didn’t pass it this semester I can’t take the other. Which, really, really sucks that I didn’t pass it. I worked my ass off for that fucking class, but it was my test grades. I did great on every homework assignment, but I think I only passed two tests, out of the five.

Anyways, so I get the email, and I figure they just drop the math class, thinking that’s not a big deal. So I go home and make sure that’s what they did. They did drop the math class, as well as the other three. I am now officially kicked out of Austin Community College until Spring 2011. Wow. And this is because I’ve been on all of the levels of probation, academic warning, academic slap on the wrist, and now, academic suspension.  I am pretty sure this is because I had to pass two of my four classes and maintain a semester GPA of 2.0. I got a 1.67. So I didn’t cut it. The thing is, I wasn’t really expecting this, but I knew that this was a possibility. I’ve been thinking about it and if it did go this way, so I’m not surprised. I’m mostly pissed off about not having a film club anymore, which I was really goddamn looking forward to.

Now I’m getting some stuff together with some friends to REALLY focus on making shorts and films and stuff. I’m going to be getting a job to keep me fed and clothed and roofed, but more than ever this has given me the spark to never give up on the thing I am most passionate about – making films. The IDEA of filmmaking gets me hard. Everything about it, but of course you all know that.

So this has definitely made me realize that I need to focus on films. More than ever. And you know, im my three-year college career, the closest I ever got to taking a class that was specific to my degree was Intro to Communications 1301, which is about Radio and Television. Not film. At all. So I have taught myself more than Academia has, and I don’t give a fuck about government, history or math. I could care less about the state constitution and how it is affecting us everyday. The only two classes I liked this semester were English comp and intro to sociology. PURELY because of the professors that taught them. I did get knowledge out of both classes that I could use, English for scriptwriting, obviously, and I could apply sociology to character development.

So yeah, this is me now. Living free. And it really does feel fucking great to know this. Most people would be really pissed off, or worry about the future. I’m not. I am perfectly content with this, and I know that I am in charge of my future. Don’t need a degree to make films. One of the most important things is networking, and I’ve got a small group of people I’ve met over the years that are as passionate about film as me, and this is the type of thing that gets films made, a passionate mix of actors and techs.

EDIT: And I know a few of my friends are going to be pissed off at this decision (it is a decision, I could go and fight it or go to a different school), but these are the people that have gotten exactly what they expected to out of their Academic career, so they don’t have the same idea. I mean yeah, of course I believe in ‘don’t ever give up’. I believe in it so hard I’m going to take it to my grave. College is not for everyone. Lets face it, I graduated in 2007, and I have 21 credits to my name. I’ve gotten nowhere, I say it’s time to go my own path now.  Here’s to new found awareness or some shit.

Like I said, start working on getting projects shot and edited, and put them somewhere for you guys to enjoy them. Also going to be looking for a job, but in the meantime, it’s December 19th, that means its Christmas, so let it be clear, I’m on a goddamn vacation.

I don’t like the new Tumblr iPhone layout.

I’ve been living the past few weeks feeling strange. I couldn’t quite place what it was or what it meant. After searching, and more sleepless nights,I figured out that all my problems are caused by Tumblr. Don’t get me wrong,it’s sweet, but I need a change. It just isn’t doing it for me. I enjoy the ‘follower’ feature, and the dashboard. It’s really cool to keep up with my faves like this. But I can’t stand anything else. Reblogging ridiculous. If I wanted to do things Twittery, I’d go to my Twitter. Why can’t I just comment? The theme choices are bad. I actually don’t mean to be like this, but I’m going to tell you that I’m probably going to move to Wordpress soon. Thoughts?

Children of the Sandwich,

Have you ever just not had to sleep? Recently I’ve gone back into my insomniatic(?) ways. I’m not sure how it started, probably because of my logical obsession to Fallout: New Vegas. It’s been like this maybe for a week and a half, but it’s getting worse. Not worse that I’m pissed about it, I think I just need to readjust it so that I can to be awake on Monday’s and Wednesdays so I can go to class. I’ve always had so much more energy at night, and I think thats because I worked graveyard shift at HEB. Screwed me forever! I don’t mind it, I just have to tweak it a little. I will probably start sleeping during the days…maybe this will ruin my social life? No, no it won’t. I don’t have one, really.

One thing that is on my mind is…well a whole lot of things. But I don’t have time to go into detail! I must continue watching weeks. 

Thoughts or comments? Add them below!?

Sheepies,

I told you it was coming, and a little later than promised, but that’s because I didn’t think I could accurately review it after the first show. To the point.

I have been a fan of Conan O’Brien since he was on Late Night, and when he finally got the Tonight Show(which has been his dream since childhood), I was really stoked, as well as the rest of the world. I don’t need to go into detail about how he ended up only hosting for 7 months, everyone has their own opinions (but mine is the correct one). It’s been a long year waiting for his return to television, along with me missing his national tour, but he finally aired his first Conan.

I have to say that I’m upset that Weinberg is no longer the leader of the band, and I’m not too sure how Jimmy Vivino(?) is. He doesn’t seem to have any interactions with Conan, which is what the appeal was with Max. La Bamba is back, which is great. I also would like to add that I love that Andy Richter is back on the couch. I thought it was a little wierd him standing at the podium on Tonight, and only occasionally being on camera, so it’s a great throwback to Late Night. I think the show has a nice mix of Late Night and Tonight Show, which is a plus. I loved the set of The Tonight Show, I thought it was super classy. 

About the actual show now. The cold open, I have to say, was really very good. I was reading what some people said about the show, and how it wasn’t…perfect, or ‘normal Conan’. He is on a brand new show, on a brand new network, it’s going to take him a little bit to get the feel of it, but I really don’t think they are missing anything right now. I wasn’t a huge fan of Rogen when he came on, but one of my favorite things about Conan is the way he interacts and plays off of the guests. Some of them are just…incredible. I don’t know if any of you remember but he used to bring in a occasionally, I’m not sure what his name was but he was the short, kind of young, animal trainer. He was INSANE, and every single time he was on it was just so hilarious to see Conan interact off of him. But that’s what I mean, he’s just so good at it. I thought tonights second guest (Charlene Yi), was really awkward, but it was great with Conan.

I think that all three episodes have flowed really well, and the amount of energy that Conan had on Monday was so great to see. You could tell he had such an adrenaline rush the entire show. You can tell that he really loves doing television.  He won’t have a show on Friday nights, but I say go for it. You deserve a 3 day weekend.

My laptop is about to die, so I’m going to post the rest later.

Followers…

So I know I haven’t put anything up in a really long time…I’m the worlds biggest liar…well maybe not, but I do feel bad. I HAVE TO APPEAL TO MY LOVERS! Anyways, I CAN promise you that my next video will be either after Monday, or later Monday night, and the reason for this is…I have to write about Conan’s new show (obviously). It’s just been a long wait since he left The Tonight Show. It started off with rumors of him going into retirement, going back to Late Night, just a bunch of crap. And then he went on the tour (Illegally Prohibited from Being Funny on Television Tour) which I was so pissed that I couldn’t get to go see. Early on, I think in February or something, he signed with TBS. While some people were skeptical about him going to basic cable, I was stoked! He has a lot more freedom to do the kinds of things he did on Late Night, and it will be his OWN show and all that, so I was always pretty excited. George Lopez was gunning for him the from the beginning, he always wanted Conan on TBS, and people were saying by doing that, Conan is doing what Jay did to him, but that wasn’t the case at all. Lopez was for it, so I can’t be upset with the final decision. 

I wanted to at least make this blog about something, not just an announcement of what to expect, and so I am putting some videos from throughout his career as a talk show host below. I do want to say though, that I am upset that Max will NOT be joining on as the leader of the band, so I want to put some stuff about Max too. Andy Richter will be on the show, which is awesome.  I really cannot wait for Monday night. 

 Last two show are his last Tonight and his zeroth Conan…it will make sense. What are your guys’ thoughts on all of it?

• Question: Yes it is our granny...hahaha. joint blog! - bettysaid
• Answer:

  haha, she is craycray

Minions, I just wanted to say real quick just to hang on for just a little bit. I will be putting some stuff up this week. I know I’ve been behind. These past few weeks have been really busy and stressful for me, but I have a little more time, and I will tend to this terrible blog, I promise.

What to expect: A comprehensive comparison of traveling by railroad and flying.

At least one YouTube pick, there are a few I’ve had my nose on (?), and I want you guys to see them.

Also, i will probably put up some heavier stuff. I was just in Tennessee for my grandfathers funeral, so I am going to write about the whole thing, and maybe put it up here.

On another note, the traffic for Canned Sandwich is slowly but surely rising, and with it, I need to be more proactive in it.

And a review of some mysterious film. (and my thoughts on the office and its current season).

Thanks guys…expect an update soon.

Have you ever gone into, or watched a movie knowing you would not like it, after the movie, it turns out that you actually did enjoy it? I wouldn’t say that it happens a lot, but sometimes I find myself in this situation. I don’t mean that it has to be the best picture or anything like that. There were just things you liked about. Hell, it could even be a shit movie. But there were things you liked about it. Or it IS best picture, but you really thought it would suck. Point is, movies I thought I’d hate but ended up liking them is what this is about. There are tons of movies out there that I don’t want to see, for a multitude of reasons, which I won’t detail because everyone understands where I’m coming from. I’m critical of films, I’m picky. I like the good shit(subjective). Sometimes though, I like a bad movie (The Room).  Anyways, a film I was surprised by was Iron Man 2. Don’t get me wrong, I loved the first one, my favorite part being Robert Downey Jr, and the dialogue. Also, Pepper Potts. So, when I found out a sequel was coming out, I was pretty stoked. Until I saw the trailers. It seemed to me that the movie had the Hollywood treatment. If you don’t know what I mean, compare Transformers One and Two(although the first was very much HW, but the sequel was worse. I still wanted to see Iron Man 2, I knew it was gonna be stupid and overly written, the usual. As I got out of the theater, I realized there was really only one thing I had to complain about and that was the scene <SPOILERS> where Iron Man and War Machine had fought, at the party. </SPOILERS> (Pretty sure I didn’t need the spoiler warning. Who HASN’T seen it? Answer below. It seemed like it was just thrown in there like a Pam and Jim baby. Seriously though, I liked the movie a lot. Not saying it’s an award winner, or it’s spectacular. It was just a fun movie, and that has a lot to do with Robert’s acting style and the dialogue. I also really had fun with Mickey Rourke. It was awesome seeing him as Whiplash. I recommend it if you haven’t seen it. It’s a fun movie. Maybe one of my tons of fans will send me a copy…. 

On another note, if you like what you are reading, keep on doing so. The average viewing time for this specific blog is 9 minutes and 16 seconds gathered from the statistics of 46 people, so keep it up! 

And I’m also sorry that I’m not a lengthy blogger, in given time I will be. I just need tons of money first.

—My first Fan Mail!

Hey devoted fans, I’m just giving you a heads up at the impending doom of this wonderful blog. If you look below, you’ll see my newest post, which has me rambling on about some sleep problems I have, and then my YouTube pick of the week. I’m going to start doing this once a week (hence, the name, idiot). For this, I will select my a video that has got the most of my attention, and I will write about it. It could be funny, serious, stupid, or just plain dumb. Who knows? You won’t know IF YOU DON’T CHECK IT OUT! You’re asking yourself, ‘why would I be interested in it if it could be stupid, or dumb?’ Well, a number of reasons. First, you like me. Second, you love me, thirdly, I think you might enjoy it. If you don’t, you don’t, but you can tell me why if you wish. Actually, you can do whatever you want. I don’t care(I do). Seriously, I think McDonald’s should GIVE its slogan to YouTube, because I’m Lovin’ It. I look the videos to the channels I subscribe to, random videos, word of mouth, so on and so forth.  It’s something to be excited about! 

Also, I will NOT just be putting up film reviews, I want to kind of expand what I post on here even more. I still want the focus of this blog to be film-related, but I want you guys to know about certain things I feel about, you know whatever. However, I will probably never post anything political, not to not debate about it, but because…I don’t care. In fact you can expect something from me explaining exactly why I’m so apathetic on politics, how it just isn’t my thing.

 If you guys are game , I want to do another weekly column on reader selected topics. which means YOU pick what I write about, and hopefully it goes well because I’m really interested in things like that. I may not always have time to update my blog as often as I’d like because I’m really so busy with work right now(nope). Seriously though, I’ll try to get to it on a routine basis. I think I’m going to a a certain day for everything, such as Friday for YouTube picks, Tuesday for reader chosen material, and so on. But I’m not concrete on that yet. 

I’m also going to completely re-write my SOCIAL NETWORK review, and I’ll try to get it up for you guys this weekend. I’m not going to delete it though, because I want to be able to look back at it in like 2 years and tell myself how terrible it was and how big of an asshole I am.

I know you love me,

(I just know it!)

Unsigned. Anonymous. Oscar.

I’ve got a bone to pick with you, Sleep. You’re a backstabber. You act like my friend one moment, and then you turn around and bite me in the ass. I’m trying to hang out with you, man. But I don’t know what your problem is. Why can’t we just get along? 

What I mean by this, my millions of followers(No, that’s not correct. Let me fix this).

What I mean by this, my billions of followers is: Why is it that when I get 2 hours of sleep one night, and I am so tired that I go to sleep before midnight the day after,  I automatically wake up sometime after 2am? I mean seriously, I was so tired…I actually went to sleep at a decent hour this time…but here I am, awake. And I thought it was actually like 7 or 8…so I started doing morning things. and then I realized…It was 3:30 when I woke up? What …is….that? I seriously don’t understand it. I think though, it might be because I’m so used to sleeping after 3 or 4 that I’m just used to this. Anyways, I’ll fix it later, when I’m dead. 

Enough about sleeping, on to the YouTube Pick of the Week.

I am going to post a video by DaxFlame. DaxFlame is a YouTuber that I discovered at the beginning of last year. A friend showed one of his videos to me, and I fell in love. He is just this really awkward like 15 or 16 year old kid making videos about the funniest shit ever, mostly though he did videos talking head style about something that he did at school, or how he pranked his mom and it was really funny, et cetera. He had a lot of subscribers and video views, and was really kind of popular. People started to speculate though that he was fake, and at first I was like, no, he couldn’t be, he seems to genuine. Seriously, this guy is hilarious. Well, as it turns out, he most likely is (according to Encyclopedia Dramatica and when he was at YouTube Live in 2008, he was interviewing LisaNova, I think, and there was a very brief moment where he slipped out of character. Anyways, I think I actually like him more now because he is playing this great character. He had been making videos as Bernice Jauch III, and his character was this really socially awkward kid, and he plays it believably, and it just works for him. I mean he had been dpoing this character for about, I guess two years, and that’s a really long time to portray somebody you’re not on videos like that, so it’s pretty difficult. Anyways his most recent video is called How the Wheast was One.

Check it out(I don’t know how to embed YouTube videos in the Post section, rather than the Video part.)

It seems that the ‘elephant’ is no longer an elephant. More like, something much less signficant. I remember the first time I watched Wall Street, and I was ultimately disinterested. Mind you, I wasn’t always a film person. I didn’t care about the story, the content, I didn’t really like older movies, so on. The acting was great, but at that time, it wasn’t enough to reel me in. I just didn’t like it. A few years later, I go back and watch it again, and I fucking love it. I still don’t really care about the story, not really a ‘numbers’ guy, or business for that matter. Anyways, its a film I really enjoy. When I learned about the upcoming sequel, I was half interested, half skeptical. I remained a skeptic even after watching all of the trailers. It just didn’t seem that much different from its predecessor. But I still had hopes in it.

 My hopes and dreams were crushed with this pitiful attempt at a Wall Street sequel. Sure, it had Gordon Gekko, opened with him getting out of jail, it was about Wall Street…To me, those are the only similarities. Micheal Douglas did very well, and Shia wasn’t terrible. So, it wasn’t about acting, really. It was about this movie being nothing compared to the original. Gordon Gekko was NOT Gordon Gekko, he played an almost entirely different part. But that isn’t Douglas’s fault, it’s the writers fault, and Oliver Stone’s. It just seemed like a whole new movie. And that is NOT a good thing. The story was everywhere! They literally crammed 4 or 5 plots into a 2 1/2 hour movie…And Lord have mercy…did it drag on. It seemed like it was never going to end…It was too busy following mediocre plot points, random pointless scenes…I mean they didn’t even introduce Gekko until 40 or so minutes it(besides the very first scene). You could have changed the name Gordon Gekko to something completely different, and it would probably have interested me more. You could have cut his role out completely, and just leave it to Shia and Josh Brolin’s character to do the rest…Brolin could have been cut out and it would have been better…Just so many things they did with the story that were so WRONG, and they just stuffed them in there. I think, though, that the reason why it was storied out was because one of the writer’s came from Television, so he did to Wall Street what happens to so many TV shows…change it completely. I also want to talk about the sountrack. It was…can you guess it? Terrible. It did not fit with the content at all. It felt like a wanna be indie film because of the music. Also, the editing was bad. There is a scene where Shia and Carey [Mulligan] are in the car driving somewhere, and Rosario Dawson’s character calls Jake More(Shia) and when he answers, this little tiny bubble with Dawson comes from the middle of the back seat, and it gets bigger until its the equivelent of Shia’s face…and it’s just in the middle of Shia and Carey, it seems VERY out of place. As if the editor just found that new transition on his editing software and said…”Yeah, why the hell not! Looks great”. And when the call is over, the bubble gets smaller and when it finally is so small it’s no longer there, there is this popping noise, and it is so fucking wierd…Anyways, talking about editing some more…They used these ‘digital’ transitions, I’m guessing to clarify to the views that this sequel takes place 23 years later. It seems out of place…that is was just put there, and it doesn’t work. I mean, I can agree with stuff like that sometimes, but when it’s overdone, and doesn’t belong, it doesn’t make well. It made it seem cheaper. The dialogue also…holy crap was it unoriginal. One thing I love about the original Wall Street is that there were some terrific lines in it…”When I get a hold of the son of a bitch who leaked this, I’m gonna tear his eyeballs out and I’m gonna suck his fucking skull.” It just felt very…wall street(in terms of the actual location, not the film)…and Money Never Sleeps just didn’t deliver…It’s a shame really. I REALLY wanted to like it…But I was a skeptic going in.  I guess that’s what happens to unnesecary sequels 2 decades later…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7upG01-XWbY

Here is my part two which so many of you have been waiting for for so long. I’m going to conclude the evening, and leave off with a review of The Social Network.

After the film ended, Harry came back out and brought Aaron, Jessie, and Armie back to the stage. They mentioned being stuffed because they ate at a barbecue restaurant instead of watching the movie with us. The Q&A itself was only about 25-30 minutes, and it started off with Harry asking questions. He had questions about what it was to work with David Fincher, and how it was to portray the characters for Armie and Jessie. I can’t recall every question because I’ve got a terrible memory, life is the pits. Anyways, one person in the audience asked how it was to be working on a movie about Facebook, and how surreal it was for them to go home after the shoot every day and get on it. Aaron was really the only one who answered, and he said he had known nothing of Facebook prior to shooting, so he got an account strictly for that, and closed it the very last day. I don’t believe our other two famous people answered this. One guy asked Jessie how much he actually new about programming, before he got to answer, Aaron and Jessie both said they knew literally nothing about it. Aaron had said there were some scenes he wrote he absolutely had no idea what they meant, the audience chuckled. The questions never really got to off the surface, but the last one was a good once because Aaron had gone into account that they were never given permission to shoot on Harvard property, so Fincher had one dead spot where he needed light for a scene, but couldn’t hang any lights, so he hired a mime who uses a lot of light for his act, and later just digitally erased him, big laugh.
I would have taken pictures of the Q&A itself, but we had to put our phones in our car. Everyone who entered the auditorium was searched prior to entering, it was kind of crazy.

I guess I should do something of a review now, I owe it to my people…after all this time…

Anyways, the film was fucking great. It was very well coordinated, and snapped like the last piece of a puzzle. I would have to say, my favorite bits of it were the dialogue and scoring. The dialogue was perfect, and was in many ways, very realistic to how young people converse. The acting was great. I have to hand it to Jessie Eisenberg, my first film I loved him in was The Squid and the Whale. Indie piece, real quirky and frankly, kind of deep. Excellent cast. Anyways, I liked Zombieland a lot, also. Jessie has got the ‘socially inferior’ down perfectly, which is a great complement. He is really improving, and in my opinion he is going to be one of the top players at the rate he’s going. The supporting actors were also very believable; it all just worked.If this sucks…let me know..Thoughts? comments?