1

since i been gone:

becky and i went to washington d.c. and philadelphia, where she interviewed for grad schools while i saw many cultured things, including the very cool jefferson memorial, ran the steps at the philadelphia museum, and enjoyed a cheesesteak with emily [who inspired me a year ago to start writing this thing] and got meet her very cool new little boy and talk with her husband, who's really a great guy; saw the barenaked ladies from the second row and loved every minute of it, standing next to beej and his wife [almost two years ago to the day, we were in the same place cheering for r.e.m.]; enjoyed one of the most delicious thankgiving feasts ever with my sister and kirk and his wife; went on a very fast trip down to burbank then up to boise and back to slc all in two days for a rather weird little documentary, but learned that southwest airlines doesn't have assigned seating but does have the friendlist attendants i have ever met; surprisingly had the funding pulled for the movie i had spent the last two months producing and worked through the mess that followed; was let down with 'the pursuit of happyness' but really enjoyed 'rocky 6'; enjoyed a brown Christmas in minnesota [the first in 50 years] where i got hooked on 'mah jong' and had an absolute blast playing tennis on my brother's wii; got digital canon rebel; watched 'primer' and 'shrek 2' and was again reminded how amazingly awesome both of those movies are; took a trip to the mall of america and finally visited the hard rock cafe in minneapolis; indulged in a bit of my childhood and bought a 3rd printing of 'teenage mutant ninja turtles' #1 off of ebay; and even got to go to a moorhead spuds hockey game [and they whalloped the other guys];

trying to 'save up' old postings isn't really the best way to do things. so now you're all caught up.

in one year, i wrote 164 posts; a little less than one every two days, and never more than one per day. and some of those were actually kind of interesting.
thank you for reading.
comments are always apprecaited.
here's to another year, and hopefully 200 posts [or at least one in each month!]

one more thing i swore i'd never enjoy

as far back as i can remember, i've never liked country music. i'm not entirely sure where that notion came from, but by sixth grade i was sure country was about the worst music ever. no, i had never really listened to it, but i didn't like it.
in recent years, i've met some nice and charming ladies, midwest farmer's daughters, and even my current roommate, who have helped me to see that country music could actually be kind of fun.

over the past few months, my sister has been spending time with a nice boy who is a very good country dancer. they go out on saturday nights and have a wonderful time, and a few weeks ago invited me to go with them. it was really an unfortunate experience on my part, as i got there in a rather sour mood and after learning some basic steps, did not feel like dancing. it wasn't one of my brighter moments.
but i wanted to go back and try it again, when i was in better spirits.

becky said she and her nice boy would make dinner, i called a nice girl and she was excited, and suddenly i had a rad saturday evening planned. looking at my closet that afternoon, i knew the cowboy hat was a must, but instead of a 'country' shirt [which i don't even own], i had a thought. i called kristin and said but two words: 'shiny shirt'.

well, not only can she sing along in the car, her wardrobe came through in spades. her shiny shirt gave mine a run for the money, and her mom and i got a bit of a fashion show highlighting the other amazing thift store finds she has.

becky and her nice boy have been dancing for a while, so they gave us a quick lesson on the country cha-cha or something: we watched a 'how to country dance' video and ended up dancing into the wall without learning much anyway.
but no worries, they give lessons at the center if you get there early [admission is less, too].
i did musical theatre for five years in school and was pretty good at singing, but usually ended up in the back for the dance numbers [my brother has fared much better at dancing on stage]. college wasn't much better for me: i took social dance and passed the tests only because my partners would often quietly count the tempo for me; tap dance was really rather fun, but i also got my worst grade at byu there.
the lessons given at the... what kind of a place was this, anyway? ...community center? ...were very helpful, and by the end, kristin and i were looking pretty good--we could even do a couple of dips.

yes, we danced the night away.
we hung around becky and brady [he's a nice boy], because i easily forget steps, moves, and anything related to dancing, and he was happy remind me what i learned fifteen minutes before. there were times when i would look over and see him throwing my sister around in seemingly-precarious fashion, yet she always landed safe and sound. ...which is not to say that i always did the same; i was dancing with becky for her to show me something new and accidentally dropped her on her back. hooray for tough sisters.
had you come that night and seen us, you'd have thought we'd been coming there for weeks--it's easy to learn and a blast when you do. kristin is one of those hyper-social people who knows at least five people wherever she goes, and we got to give her friends a couple of pointers. that was a confidence booster.
being out there on the dance floor with my sister was a rad little experience. as close as we are, we don't do a whole lot of active social outings together, particularly in the dating scene. seeing her out there, dancing it up and getting thrown around, laughing and line dancing [by the way, this wasn't your easy-to-do byu line dance], was something we'd never really done before and was a blast.
and i want to go back.

of dumplings and curry

in the summer of 2003, i went up to preston idaho and worked on a goofy little movie called 'napoleon dynamite'.
in the summer of 2004, 'napoleon dynamite' was the crazy surprise hit of the summer and i'm sometimes in bafflement even to this day.
in the summer of 2005, a lot of the 'nappy d' crowd got together in the beautiful [and rainy] forests of oregon to make a movie called 'the sasquatch dumpling gang'.
in the winter of 2006, 'sdg' played at the slamdance film festival in park city, but i didn't find out until it was too late. i heard mixed reviews about it.
in the winter of 2007, 'sdg' played at the lds film festival in orem, ut, and i saw it.
it was better than i feared it would be.

in the middle of december of last year [i.e. last month], we had a reunion of film friends from byu, and i had a fun chat with stacey snider. we decided we should get together sometime and do whatever people do when they get together. on this particular evening, that included a movie staring a guy who is now a mac and a some bigfoot poo. we then added thai food and a game of mah-jong, for good measure.

it's always an interesting experience, seeing a movie that you worked on, because we shot it out of order and context, the actors are the same guys you have dinner with, and all those names in the credits are your friends.
i liked the parts of the script that i had read, and i thought i could see where they were going with the script; it was very much akin to 'nappy d', but if anyone was allowed to follow that, this group was. but i felt that the casting for 'gavin', the lead kid, was inaccurate; instead of an awkward kid with glasses and a crew cut, they got a teen hearthrob. i'd never heard of him, but kohl, my friend and hotel roommate, told me that if you google his name, you get a lot of sites devoted to him. i have no reason to doubt that, as everywhere we went, groups of teenage girls would gather, just hoping to get a glimpse of jeremy sumpter. this casting decision yielded different results than what i, as the camera loader, invisioned for the movie. couple that with the difficulties we had in meeting our daily schedules and i was feeling worried for this script that held potential.

it's a fine movie. it won't sweep the nation by storm, but i think it could do well in theaters and make its money back. the 'rashomon' structure works nicely, showing different branches of the story develop, and so adding dimension to the movie. justin long, now famous as the 'mac', was a joy to watch on set, and that charisma holds on the screen. he plays a 30-year old white trash neighbor, and balances the line dividing character and caricature with ease. his energy and enthusiasm carry the movie.
i was surprised at the other character that stood out to me: sophie. in a movie of six main characters, five guys play distinct varieties of nerds, freaks, and geeks. yet sophie, 'the girl', manages to avoid any exageration or hyperbole, and instead deveops a nice girl who we believe is real; she is not the drop-dead attractive girl who likes the nerds only because the script tells her to, nor is she bland and one-dimensional. delicately played by addie land, she fits like a welcome breath of fresh air amidst all the skewed boys around her. she was quiet on set, but stood out on screen without being distracting.
somehow, the whole thing worked. despite being contrary to my presupositions, gavin's character fit into the fictional world of clackanomah, oregon, although it may be that the world fit around gavin.

the provo-orem area is ripe with thai places, but my personal favorite is the thai ruby, just south of byu. and while i am trying to branch out and try new things, i really couldn't see any reason to not get the green cury yet again. and the conversation was as exhuberant as the food, if food can be called exhuberant; stacey and i told stories of world travel, swapped elephant stories, and discussed the structural and thematic elements of 'the office'.

comfortably full, as thai food often does to one, we went back to the house and i taught the peoples how to play the ancient chinese game of mah-jong. i really do love this game, and, after a few rounds and a little help translating the chinese characters, i had a made three more fans who could differentiate between a 'chow' and a 'pung'.

a few 'office' psa's and we called it a pretty awesome night.

the hard rock fridate

orlando, new york, philadelphia, seoul, osaka, bangkok, minneapolis; it sounds like a collection of 'global underground' cds. i've been to hard rock cafes all over, but never to the slc. so what a better way to throw down the new year's dating gauntlet, right? i called a nice girl and she agreed to go on a date with me, and when i found out that there was an organ-accompanied showing of buster keaton's 'go west' at 'the organ loft' in salt lake, well, that finalized the requirements for a wonderful night. [incidentally, this was the same girl who went to see keaton's 'college' with me a few months ago; but she was very happy to go--hooray for cultured people].

racing north on I-15, we sang along to countless random songs, and all the while i was impressed with kristin's knowledge of music that i thought was obscure. i've said it before, if you can sing along with me, you are a step above the crowd. mark and erin were in the back, not singing along. but they're 'dating', so i don't know what official couples do.
despite having the address for the venue, i had a hard time finding the place ['the organ loft' is a little tiny building that is tucked away on a small street and looks like a non-descript bar from the outside], so we were a few minutes late. walking in, we saw a room like a small community center with chairs set up on the floor. and, since we were ten minutes late, we pulled up some chairs in the back, putting us far enough under the second floor mezzanine that we could only see the screen by slouching in our chairs similar to that of a very bored seventh-grader. then, to add confusingness to it all, up on the screen was not buster keaton but charlie chaplin. now, i know chaplin is the more famous of the three great silent comedians [can you even name the third?], but in the general concensus of cinephiles, keaton is the master. and i most certainly agree with that.

i suspected that maybe this was just a short we were watching, and after it had gone on long enough that i began to wonder otherwise, it ended, and they introduced the night's feature, buster keaton's 'go west'.
seeing any buster keaton movie with a live accompaniment is a treat, but this was the weakest of all that i have seen. the plot followed the standard structure of the down and out but lovable hero trying his darnedest to fit into a culture not his own, all in a effort to win the girl; nearly every movie of his is the same, tried and true, and beloved by the fans. what was missing, however, was the unbelievable physicality that leaves us not just amazed that he did it, but that he survived the fall, train, bull, house collapse, bridge collapse, car collision, etc.

the slchrc, apart from being a little tricky to find, was the emptiest i have seen just about any hard rock cafe. this proved advantageous as the evening went on.

our waitress was hip and told us about the coolest memorabilia to be found throughout the establishment, the ok go 'treadmill' video played, much to our pleasure, and the food was quite good. when the girls were asking for take-home boxes, the restaurant had cleared out enough that we were told we could stand on the tables to take pictures if we'd like [and i was quite happy that my sister had agreed to loan me her camera]. so we did. we stood on tables. and chairs. kristin and erin were dressed almost identically, so we got a picture of that. mark and i posed as best we could in front of the wall of 'kiss' artifacts. we saw madonna's pointy-braziere thing. kristin and i made muppet faces. we got our cool waitress to join us for a picture in front of a bust of elton john. and then danced in the booth. kristin is a much better dancer than i. at least, she can keep a straight face longer than me.

the evening ended with the four of us back at our place, sharing favorite videos off youtube, including the charlie brown Christmas special set to outkast's 'hey ya', live performances by k.t. tunstall, the white stripes' 'denial twist', and the family guy's parody of a-ha's classic 'take on me' video.

some nights, you just can't go wrong.

on 'kill bill'

a few days ago, alyssa left a comment on 'all these things that i've seen part II'. it was quite interesting, and my reply got so long that i decided to put it up front, instead of buried in the archives.
so there you go.

Alyssa Rock said...
This comment is deeply buried in your blog so I doubt you'll ever see it, but I just wanted to offer my empathy on Kill Bill. I had to watch both Kill Bills for my "Intro to Graduate Study" class at the University of Kansas. My prof thought it was a brilliant example of post-modernism. And yes I agree with him that they're quite brilliant from a post-modern perspective. For one, they're so packed full of references to popular culture and Asian camp that it would take many, many days to annotate all of the other films that Tarantino references in this one. And yes, Kill Bill 2 is much better than 1 in my opinion.

That being said, I strongly regret having seen them. I watched them unedited and they were pretty difficult to stomach. It's being required to watch films like that which made me leave my PhD program. I don't mind violence if it has some sort of transcendant purpose. But Kill Bill just felt *so* post-modern it was just self-indulgent. Anyhow... thought I would offer some validation for ya.
3:59 PM


-->jeff * said...
first off, i do browse older postings to see what comments do get left. of course, i can't help but wonder if you'll see this reply....

tarantino is perhaps the film critic's poster child for the post-modern film of the last 20 years ['annie hall' is a great example of inter-textuality from 30 years ago, by the way], and i think he has become overly conscious of that trait, though perhaps not to the self-destructive extent that shaymalan did with his own style.
talking with darl larson shortly after the movie came out [and long before i had seen it], he commented on the massive amounts of nods and homages to the kung fu movies and obscure asian films [and i'm sure darl has seen more of them than anyone else i know, even dean].

yet referencing your vast personal knowledge of film does not make your movie a masterpiece. perhaps if i could recognize what godzilla movie that sunrise shot was from i might get a few of the movie's winks and nudges. i've read before, in reference to adaptations [particularly comic book to movie adaptations] that a movie should stand on it's own; if i have to have read a fair amount of the 'fantastic four' canon to appreciate the movie, then the movie cannot stand on it's own and is therefore not a good adaptation.

all that being said, i don't think that knowing those references would make me appreciate the movie more [knowing that uma's yellow jumpsuit is a nod to bruce lee hasn't done a lot for me], although if i had seen hundreds of kung fu movies, i would most likely have developed a taste for it and therefore enjoy the movie more on the basis of a love for the genre.

i do not think, however, that the majority of movie-goers did not like the movie because they recognized motiffs from 'tokyo showdown.' rather, i think they reveled in the obscene amounts of gore. as several friends told me, 'yeah, but it's so over the top it's hardly even real'. perhaps, but if a movie is finding its strength on absurd shock, that's not much a of movie, even if it is 'done well'.

now, there is the argument that perhaps the film maker was making a commentary on how extreme violence has become in our society [i've heard that a few times in regard to 'natural born killers']. ok, though i again would be surprised if even 'most' of the audience left thinking that society was too violent and that they needed to make a change [if that were their train of thought, they probably wouldn't buy the dvd when it came out].
so then the argument becomes a kind of 'caveat emptor', placing the responsibility on the viewer, saying that we, as viewers, need to be educated and aware of what we watch, not sitting back for a rollercoaster, but keeping our minds awake and considering what the director is saying.
and if the intended audience was for darl or dean, i would concede to that.
but it's not. tarantino is a film maker for the masses [although the bergman/renoir crowd likes him, too; the circles are not mutually exclusive], and that carries responsibility [no, he is not the culprit, just the topic at the moment]. true, guns can be used well with responsibility, but that does not mean they should be given to the careless or the youthful.

i didn't think 'kill bill vol.1' was a very good movie, and that it gleaned its power from extreme shock violence. surprisingly to even me, i quite enjoyed 'vol.2'. but that's for another post.
4:09 PM

wake up (it's 2007)

Christmas is really my thing.
new year's, not so much.
i don't have anything against it, but i'm not one who looks forward to the party and all that jazz.
however, i have made a couple of changes that make me cooler for the new year.

first and foremost, i now have a gmail account, after repeated insistance by my sister that i sign up so that we can chat on g-chat.
i've been feeling the need for a new email address for a while, anyway; when i got back from my mission six years ago, signing up with yahoo as 'macavity_0' seemed pretty cool--a nice reference to t.s. elliot.
but now, well, it seems a little sophomoric, not to mention confusing on a couple of levels. so i often give out 'goose@byu.net', which ends up in my yahoo account anyway.

the chance to get a new account was a fresh idea--and becky pointed out that it's cool to just use your name with a gmail account anyway. i was planning on just doing 'jg@gmail' and leaving it at that.

after several rejected tries, i was beginning to wish i had signed up with google a few years ago, when they were still new-ish, and there were still choices available.
'jg@gmail' was too short.
so was 'goose@gmail'--it has to be at least six characters.
'jeffgustafson', 'jeff.gustafson', 'jeffreygustafson', 'jeffrey.gustafson', 'j.gustafson', 'jeffreyg', 'jeffrey.g'--all were taken. ....and i really liked that last one.

but, like most e-mail services, gmail offers you possible suggestions based on your crushed hopes. for example, 'gustajeff' was available.
but my favorites were 'gustafsonmeister' and 'gustanator'.
now, i've always held google in the image that they were 'cool', leading the e-world pack.
and i think that still stands, which makes the '-meister' and '-nator' suffixes so baffling; those were barely cool in 1992 anyway....

after much frustration [and giving up once, until i got another sisterly-invite to gmail], i finally came upon a name that i liked and was actually not taken:

'gustafson' isn't as difficult to spell as a polish name, but it's always been a little frustrating to give, because i usually have to spell it out for someone and then tell them how to say it [but without any great stories like 'bytheway']. after over two decades of this, i finally realized the perfect trick to pronouncing my surname:
'it's like a 'gust of wind', but a 'gust of sun'.
that works like a charm.

and so that's what i chose: gustofsun@gmail.


i've also been introduced to the quintessential chinese pastime, mah jong. reportedly quite popular with old jewish women, i'm adding myself to the ranks. friends of mine bought identical sets for one another for Christmas, and after having me and becky over to play, i was hooked. they offered to sell me their extra set on an installment plan [$5 down already], so i now have my own very nice mah jong set [complete with very poorly translated instructions]. i know the rules well enough to play a game, although we find ourself wondering about certain aspects everytime we play. so we make up our own rules and press on.

if you're interested in learning to play, stop by my house sometime. i'll be happy to teach you.

maybe i should have chosen itslikeagustofwindbutagustofsun@gmail.

today is the longest day of my life

the following takes place between 7:00 a.m. and 1:53 a.m.

7:01- we're starting season 4 of 24, with the plan to watch the entire season nonstop today. sounded like a fun idea when we suggested it a few months ago--now i'm wondering how it's going to feel watching a full season of tv in one day. a couple of years ago, a roommate and i watched the full 'lord of the rings' in one day; it was fun to see the whole story, but after 12+ hours we finished 'return of the king' feeling kind of fried and saying i would never do that again. the difference here is that we get a full plot structure and cliffhanger every 42 minutes, making it easier to keep our interest sustained.
so here we go.

10:09 a.m.-
one episode down: we're 1/24 the way there.
two episodes down: we're 1/12 the way there.
three episodes down: we're 1/8 the way there.
four episodes down: we're 1/6 the way there.
and thus ends disc 1.
it's a little odd being that it's just me and mark watching, as we normally have 6-10 people here, but we still cheer [such as when jack pulled out his man-purse and yell at the tv. we still haven't see a handful of regular characters and we're already making predictions about who will turn out bad, who will get fired, and whatnot.
my only complaint now is that i'm out of eggs and i wanted to make some breakfast.
i'm still working on that.

jack's kill count: 2
and one gas station held up.

11:39 a.m. 'man, jeff, what are we doing?'
so asks mark as we're 25% done. he's on his second can of diet coke, i've had two donuts, and a friend of mine told me how to get into her house to get some eggs. we've finally found out what the threat is for this season, discovered a traitor, and still haven't seen a few of our favorite characters [while enjoying new ones]. i'm doing alright. we've been at this for almost five hours; it's a weird feeling to think how much longer we'll be here, depending on how many breaks we take. some friends invited me to temple square tonight for the lights--i'd like to go, and depending how i'm feeling around 4:00, i may take the offer. but that would really set us back.
unlike 'lord of the rings', 24 moves fast enough that it doesn't feel like a long time; that makes a major difference in our endurance.

why are we doing this? because we can, mostly. just like standing in line for superbowl tickets for long hours, there's something fun about this sort of crazy scheme. wild keggers aren't our style and i've done the toga party thing- ironman 24 is one more item to cross off the list.

jack's kill count: 15 [yeah, that was a good episode]

and marks swoons as jack and audrey hold hands.
so do i.

5:18 p.m.
oooh, we're halfway there....'
two papa john's pizzas and a load of laundry and we're still going.
somedays on set, as we sit down to lunch, i find myself thinking, 'if we were done now, this would have been a good day.' that's kind of how i'm feeling now. but we're just crossing the halfway mark. when we did 'the lord of the rings', the whole thing took about 12 hours; compared to that, i'm feeling just fine.
being that we have seen every other season of 24, we know the structure of a 'day' and what sort of incidents 'have' to happen, and so it's been fun calling out what will happen and then seeing it fulfilled. and yet it's new enough that it keeps us involved. 'same same but different', as they say in thailand.
so far the season has been fine; nothing amazing, but keeping the status quo of what we expect from the greatest show on tv.

we went out and tossed a football around for a while to keep ourselves moving. i jammed my pinkie. it hurts.

jack's kill count: 20

8:11 p.m.
coolness note: i've worked with and talked with the guy who guest d.p.ed three of the episodes this seasons.

starting disc 5 out of 6; we're starting to get a little numb to the whole thing not paying full attention, talking some during the 'slower' parts, but still getting excited. and the last episode just reminded us once again that, yes, 24 will do anything. that being said, this season hasn't been as 'intense' as 2 and 3 were--i don't think as many people will gasp watching it. that being said, we haven't gotten to the infamous 'chinese embasy' episode yet.
now that we are on the second-to-last disc, the end is appearing on the horizon and i think we will make it. actually, i've never doubted that we would finish this [and what a goal, right?] still, it's nice to get near the finish.

i've been icing my pinkie and the swelling has gone down, i'm debating if i should go for a slice of cold pizza or some thanksgiving pie, and i never did get those eggs. [actually, i got one, but it was hardboiled.]

jack's kill count: 38 [we're hoping to get to 50 by the end of the 'day']

11:05 p.m.
i've been having to prod mark every so often, but he just declared that he's going to make it.
and now we start the sixth and final disc, the anchor leg, the home stretch. mark's eating a bowl of orange rock star float and egg nog ice cream, i'm contemplating a can of apple beer [bottles are so much better], and we're both getting a little numb; the last episode was the best one of the season so far, one that we probably would have been on the edge of our seats; instead, we were somewhere in the 'pretty interested' category.
when we had five episodes left, it felt like we were close to the end--only five left. when mark described it as a drive to las vegas, that kind of sent my head for a trip.

it's looking like we will finish shortly after 2:00 a.m. really pretty good time, all things considered. and my pinkie is still sore, but the swelling has gone down.

jack's kill count: 42
chloe: 1

12:30 a.m.
we're down to the final two. 'cowboy hats help you stay awake' states mark, and it seems to be working for him. on the other hand, he's getting kind of weird, now trying to play a broom like a guitar to keep himself entertained.
all this is now is running down the clock. we should be all excited about the final climax; instead, we can barely remember what happened even an episode ago. in fact, every 'hour' [42 minutes without commercials] is feeling longer and longer. they used to fly by, but now i look at the dvd timer, thinking we're near the end and find that it's only 13 minutes into the show. kind of too bad, too, as this is some of the best work around right now, and we are so over-saturated that we can't appreciate it.
maybe the hardest part is the psychological perception of time--whether it's because we've been sitting here for more hours than i honestly want to admit or because we're sucked into the world of the show, but it feels like it's 4:30 a.m. or later [and it's been feeling like that for a while].
we're detatched from the show. it's mostly just running down the clock.
and the powerful 'ticking' sound of the clock is starting to get annoying.

did you ever see 'they shoot horses, don't they?', about the marathon dance competitions?

1:53 a.m.
we did it. 24 should not be watched like that, but we did it.
i don't regret doing it, but i can't recommend it to anyone.
and now we're going to sleep.

jack's kill count: 43

editor's note

dear readers,

i deeply and sincerely regret the current and prolonged famines of this publication. i know that some of you very much enjoyed the daily postings that came since the blog's inception this year and generally continued throughout much of the summer.
when a reading base has been established, it is the duty of the publisher to see that deadlines are met and that a certain degree of respect and responsibility is shown to those who matter. recently, our staff has become exceedingly busy with other matters-- sadly, none of which involve any degree of notable interpersonal female relations.
sudden changes in daily structure can have rippling effects, and a lack of time management skills can quickly erode seemingly extranneous activities.

certainly, this takes a mental toll on all of here, including our writing and editing departments [which is to say nothing for h.r., who seem to be have hit the hardest of anyone]. our r&d staff, however, has been working around the clock, compiling weeks worth of material that we feel is not only interesting but also up to the standards our readers have come to expect from sheep go to heaven. several dates have been set for press time, only to have other priorities arrise that have sent our publishing department into near-tantrums, pulling our their hair and yelling about 'the suffocation of the artist'.

after many long nights with third party-mediation, we have decided to begin publishing backlogued commentaries, insights, opinions, reviews, emotings, and rantings just as soon as they pass by my desk.
as readers, i encourage you to check the recent archives from time to time, as we will be publishing these articles under the date which they occured, beginning with october 20, 2006, and continuing until we reach this posting.

we hope you continue to enjoy our work here, and i welome your comments at anytime.
thank you, and be excellent to each other.

jeff gustafson
editor-in-chief
sheep go to heaven

a closer look...

never in my life have i seen a movie that has left me with more to say while still not knowing if i the movie was worth seeing or to be avoided, yet that is exactly how i felt watching 'american beauty'.
i was in japan when it was released and winning all the oscars, so i didn't hear a lot about it for a while. in fact, i didn't know much, other than it was best picture, kevin spacey won for it, as did the great conrad hall, and that when i mentioned i wanted to see it, a friend of mine who is less scrutinous about movies than i am, said 'no, you don't want to see it; it's not a good movie.'

it was on tbs one night, and that's what the dvr is for.

but before i get into the complicated matter, let me rave about that which there is no debate: conrad hall is truly amazing. arguably the most talented and respected cinematographer in cinema history, i have often wondered how a movie that's about a suburban family would be so expertly photographed. as i write this, i notice a sort of personal irony, as his work in 'searching for bobby fischer' is one of my four most beautifully shot movies, and that work is enhanced by the movie's outwardly mundane story of a little boy playing chess. just a michelangelo reportedly was told that nothing good could be carved from the oddly-shaped block of marble that would produce 'david', constraints of our working environment often push us to excellence beyond what seems to be possible. in 'american beauty', nearly every scene, from start to finish, is wrapped in light and shadow in a way that does not distractingly draw attention to itself, but strengthens the whole of which it is a part. gymnasiums, living rooms, front yards and bedrooms, corportate offices and fast food drive-thrus, the back alley outside of a dinner party, all look like works of art created without effort, as if they were always beautiful but no one took time to notice them until the camera came. visually, suburban disfunctionality has never held more artistry.

that's the easy part.
but what about the movie itself?

watching it, i kept thinking to myself, 'turn it off.' it was unhappy, with no admirable characters. everyone seemed to be destroying their lives, often willingly and without any notable remorse. yes, there is a form of storytelling known as 'naturalism', based upon the supposition that a portrayal and exposure of evil will cause the viewer to inspect their own lives and erradicate the similar traits in their own lives. but the question should soon follow, 'does it work' and 'how much is too much?' has 'in the company of men' made us kinder to those around? did 'salo' solve all of the world's problems? is your family better now that you've seen 'american beauty'? this is a question for the individual, but from my observations on society, i do not subscribe to the theory of naturalism. one of 1999's other 'best actor' noms, richard farnsworth in 'the straight story', was more inspiring to change [and yes, i am aware of the ironic and tragic choices me made a few months later].

throughout much of the movie, i was asking myself what the director was trying to show. was i being encouraged to throw off the chains of corporate america, throw my anger in my boss's face, and buy a corvette? will i also 'rule' then? or was lester's [kevin spacey] irresponsibility of working at the fast food joint a morality lesson of what not to do? certainly, he seemed happy then. his wife, his daughter, her stalker-turned boyfriend, angela, the real estate king, none of them seemed to hold more than an ounce of decency. and we were here to watch almost everything.
i didn't really like being there.

everything was coming to a horrifying collision, with bad choices reacting with misunderstandings and indifference for responsibility. then, in the last 15 minutes, angela's confession to lester changed everything. everything.
suddenly, our protagonist's became clear again. in a manner very true to life, a quick realization can cause the illusionary phantoms of sin and tempation to disappear and we can see reality once again in clarity. the muddled gray lies disolve into bold contrast, and the wrong path and its consequences are exposed without glamor.
the lies and mists that he had been following were gone, and he saw again what was real, what was important, and what was actually happiness. and the movie had the strength and the boldness to say that 'family' is matters most.

in the fashion of a david lean epic, this should have been the intermission of the movie. there should have been another two hours of movie, or an 'american beauty vol. 2'. instead, the story gives us a tinge of hope then irreparably ends the story, and timidly bows out with a mediocre monologue.

yes, lester's closing monologue leaves us with a certain amount of hope and perhaps even resolution to appreciate what we have, but for all the gradiose skill of the movie, the story ends because no one knows how to tell the next half. we are very good at showing humanity decending to the depths of hell as we understand them; we can show misery, sorrow, pain, and agony very well and very honestly. but to show the redemption of a marriage is a story that hollywood genuinely does not know how to tell.

'american beauty' is about family, and the core of the family is lester and his wife. there are several movies about the fall and redemption of parent and child, or between siblings, but any story that primarily deals with boy+girl either ends with them getting together or them starting together and falling apart. no one knows how to tell the story of creating a strong and happy marriage. countless sports movies have told the stories of starting at the bottom and reaching the top, and we never seem to grow tired of them [and that's a good thing], thus showing that an interesting story does not have to glean conflict solely from denegration.
to my knowledge, the only movie that has successfully addressed this is 1927's 'sunrise'. 'jerry maguire' attempted but found he didn't really know what to say in the end.

would i recommend 'american beauty', or would i watch it again?
the technique and artistry of the movie are quite amazing, and there are websites that bring all sorts of insights [i didn't know that 'american beauty' was the kind of scentless rose displayed throughout the movie], and the movie has a good lesson at the end. but it was a lesson i already knew, and the filth and mess to wade through to get there is not worth it.

she's so refined...

it's fun to go on a fun date.
an evening with buster keaton helps.

i must say, part of me was sad when neither jack nor aaron nor mark could come along with us, but if things go well, it can be fun to be just the two of you.
byu was doing a 'silent film night', something i had never heard of before but which seemed to be regular occurance; i suppose it's possible that things have changed since i was at school two years ago, but not likely. i bought two tickets to the gala--buster keaton's 'college' in the dejong concert hall, with live accompaniment--and regretted not getting a byu friend to buy them for me at the student price. meh.

wanting to have fun, i called kristin and suggested we dress up for the outing; i wore one of my shiny silver shirts and a black hat. i really do wish men wore hats again. her mom opened the door and invited me in. i seem to end up talking girls' moms a lot more than dads, for various reasons. while i've been in the dating scene for a while and really don't get nervous, i can't help but wondering about those few moments while the girl is getting ready. is her mom looking at me, wondering 'so this is the guy taking out my daughter?' is it some secret interview, asking subtle questions to judge my character in five minutes? in reality, i think she's being friendly and hospitable. but that doesn't make for good blog-pondering.

i'd never really talked with kristin outside of f.h.e. and church, but anyone who can go through my ipod and sing along with the songs wins with me. i'm really not sure why, if you can sing along, you've got my first vote.

the event itself was great. while i believe all movies should be seen in a crowded theater, comedies are especially enhanced by the populated environment. the organist was a different guy that i'd seen at previous silent movie events, but still did a very good job. we were encouraged to clap, cheer, boo, hiss, and have a gay old time, and we did. before the movie was a sing-a-long to old timey tunes like 'my bonnie lies over the ocean'. it was also the first time i'd heard humans sing 'daisy'.

'the general' may always be the great buster keaton movie, although 'sherlock jr.' gives it a run for the money, yet 'college' lived up to everything i had promised. the plot is tried and true, the nice but downtrodden hero is ignored by the girl for the jerk she hangs around only because she can't see anyone else, yet with determination he wins her in the end. all good and well, what makes a keaton movie is the physical stunts, leaving you not only asking 'how did he do that?' but also 'how did he survive that?' that these were made 80 years ago, obviously long before any sort of cg effects, and also before modern safety and padding had been devised [the high jumpers in the movie's track team landed on a pile hay]. along with the rest of theater, we booed, cheered, stood up and applauded, and laughed until it hurt.

with the evening still relatively young afterward, we went off to what has become one of my favorite places in town, 'the happy sumo'. yes, their standard plates of sushi are four times what you can pay for in downtown tokyo, but that's not why one frequents this trendy restaurant. far and away, the tastiest [and most economical] items are the rolls--a full page of different styles, augmented with everything from crab to avacado to spicy sauce to those nasty fish eggs are available. we opted to sit at the bar, because there was less of a wait, plus we got to hang out with the sushi chefs [and i found that having a pretty girl as you date helps with the service].
stories, jokes, and a couple plates of good sushi, coupled with a great cultured movie and a fun girl makes for a great date.

howling at the moon [sha-la-la]

sometimes i just want to scream

when i was driving home last night, realizing that it was halloween and i wanted to call someone and say it was cool and fun and then realizing that i had no one to call

or because i need to become much better at managing my time because i feel like i am spending all my time working on this movie yet seem to get so little done and wonder if i am making any progress or only circles

because my life feels like a poorly mounted lens, in that no matter what i do, i cannot find the focus

for my sister, who is one of the neatest people i have ever known and is hanging out with an equally neat boy and doesn't know what to do with this new possibility

and maybe i just want to scream because i wonder if anyone would hear me?

and now for something completely different

i'm on my way to salt lake to work because... because that's what i do; i go to salt lake to work.
just coming over the crest of the point of the mountain, my sister calls me.
'brother, president hinckley is coming to the devotional today! are you coming?'

at that moment, the main focus of my thoughts had been along the lines of wondering if 101.9 was going to play my request of 'gray matter' by oingo boingo before i got to kirk's.
i told becky i'd be there. hearing the prophet is worth putting off work for a few hours.
i called kirk and said i'd get there later.
the mariott center was 30 minutes away.
i had 20.

talking on your cell phone while driving down the freeway is something i do quite often, and texting is more often than i would like to admit [although the T9 function certainly helps things out]. but i had a 'conversation' with a friend, trying to find out where the seats were available.
my guardian angel must have been watching over me, because not only did i text safely, i made it to the mariott center without hitting a single red light for the entire way.
things like that don't 'just happen'.

i found becky, dressed in her purple kimono, sitting near the top, behind the podium. but at least we got seats.

president hinckley said that because it was halloween, it was cause for something a little different, and which point laughter spread through the arena; we laughed, too, though not really knowing why. i later found out that he revealed he was wearing a pumpkin-speckled tie.
it was also different because, instead of a standard 'talk', he shared ten or so short stories or moments from his life. on the surface, several of the stories didn't really seem to mean much. and that i found fascinating, as i wondered what he saw in his experiences that i did not. why did he find that story worth telling to thousands of college students?
it left me with something think about, and i think there was great wisdom in that.

at the late night picture show

it's halloween, we've got a messy activity planned, and the clubhouse is booked. so what do you do? you push back your couches and lay down a tarp.

the activity was suggested by a good friend who is always putting a motor on something or blowing up something else. i let him handle the activity, and tonight was a success. we made ice cream sundaes in others' mouths. from 2-3 feet up.
it was a sort of relay race, to see which team could get a scoop of ice cream, chocolate syrup, whipped cream [the non-dairy aerosol kind], and sprinkles into the mouth of the person lying below in front of you. it was a mess. and yet, these are the reasons why i love fhe.
i was surprised at how well the whole thing went in our nice little house, which was a tad too little for the activity: 1. with help, everything cleaned up with no residual messes. 2. chocolate syrup does not sting when it lands in your eye.

but because we are the cool fhe group, we did something extra for the holiday; we went to go see 'the nightmare before Christmas' in 3-D at the towne centre cinemark. now, yes, coordinating money for 25 tickets with a bit of a headache, as the ward payed for half, i got the tickets and people payed me back--and it was a little stressful standing outside the theater with five tickets leftover. yet, in some miraculous fashion, when i counted the money i had, i had more than half, thereby covering the cost of the five tickets from those who didn't show up. that was really cool.

'nightmare' has one of my favorite movies since that night in high school when i came home from play practice absolutely exausted and threw in the soundtrack [which i had bought for some whatever reason]. i've seen it many times [and laugh at the 'bunny!' line everytime], but seeing it in the third dimension is really a new experience. because those barren trees and pumpkins are now sitting six inches in front of your face, it [naturally] pulls you into the world and helps you to look around more. i saw details and touches that i had never noticed before. seeing our jolly old bishop and his wife in those goofy 3-D glasses alone made it worthwhile.

later that evening i was bent over my desk, reading with my head propped against my hand. a sprinkle fell out.

today is the day before tomorrow

'i predict homsar will be 'pedro', and strong sad will be that dude from the cure or boy george. the cheat...maybe an oompa loompa'. 'strong sad is always the emo rocker and homsar is usually the off-beat movie hero and we are running out of short icons for the cheat.

that's from my friend tyler in oregon, whom i met while working on 'the sasquatch dumpling gang' a few years ago. we bonded by mutual love for 'homestarrunner'. he once stated that his favorite day of the year is the day the homestar halloween cartoon comes out: the monday before all hallow's eve.
it is perhaps the biggest cartoon of the site, and seeing what everyone is wearing is probably the most fun of all; some costumes are immediately recognizable and induce instantaneous laughter, while others are so obscure that i'm grateful for things like the wikipedia and its off-shoots.

life is better when you have things to look forward to, be they big or small.

and i have to say, tyler's predictions are pretty good...

#150: do sheep go to heaven?

here i sit, listening to 'pet sounds' for the second time around [although that's not saying much; it's only about 36 minutes long], pushing myself to write.

i've like sariah for two and half years, and i've known that she hasn't 'liked' me for two and half years. and so i've 'broken up' with her several times, determining to leave her out of my life and move on. of course, that's kind of hard when she doesn't know that and so keeps calling one of her good friends to hang out.
and then the cycle repeats.
a while ago i decided that i really needed to just say 'goodbye' for good.

i walked her to her door tonight and gave her a birthday present [two days ago]. my feelings haven't changed, and neither have hers. so it's really not working out as friends.
and i said goodbye.
our last hug wasn't even anything special.
maybe that's a good thing.

so, thank you to all of you who have cheered me on over the years, telling me to never give up, and being a very encouraging group of cheerleaders. persistance has worked for jack. but not for me.

i've been planning this for a while, and even looking forward to it, to having a clean ending; but i didn't think it would hurt this much.

in closing, please enjoy this:

all these things that i've seen, part 2

kill bill vol.1 [2003]- i remember seeing quentin tarantino at the mtv movie awards [where 'nappy d' beat 'kill bill' for best movie] as he accepted some award. he was up there with a couple of girls, cheering and yelling and possibly sauced, looking like the leader of a frat house--possessing some talent and leadership skills, but leading and inspiring a lower class.
it felt like that person made 'kill bill'.
vol. 1, anyway.
those of you who know my cinematic history know that 'pulp fiction' is a notable movie for me, and so i was quite excited to see 'kill bill' when they were on tnt.
i haven't seen vol.2 yet, but vol.1 was rather disappointing. 'lacking' may be a better term.
lacking the immensely catchy dialogue of 'pulp fiction', missing the quick intensity of 'reservior dogs', and a general absence of very cool music from a man who once stated that the combination of music and movies is about as raw, visceral experience as you can get.
i've heard that vol.2 is better, especially for those who like 'story' over cool action, but no one can go through byu's film program without a good dose of hong kong kung fu [thank you, darl], and this wasn't even that. kung fu is fun because we get to watch spectacular feats of physicality that leave us in awe--no editing, just a wide shot that lets us watch and know that that's that. the fight scenes in the movie are more eisenstein than bazin [learn your film history], and so less exciting.
the animated scene missed me, the conversation in the sushi bar with hanzo was dull, and i wondered if the black and white was solely a stylistic choice, or if it was easier to sneak past the censors ratings board that way.
it had some good and cool shots peppered throughout, and i liked the brief moment of music entering the o-ren night club [as well as the 'vonage' music] and the silhouetted fights in the blue room. but that's about it.
i heard it said of tim burton's 'mars attacks' that, in the attempt to satire bad alien movies, he ended up with a bad alien movie. tarantino's homage to old kung fu movies bows a little too deeply.

the conversation [1974]- every so often, a director has two movies up for 'best picture'; soderbergh did it in 2000 for 'traffic' and 'erin brockovich', and francis ford coppola did it in 1974 [how a person can even put out two movies in a year seems difficult enough; that they can both be considered among the five best of that year is beyond me]. 'the conversation' lost to 'the godfather part 2', but that doesn't say much about 'the conversation'--i'm hard pressed to think of anything that could beat 'godfather 2'.
'the conversation' stars gene hackman as a surveillance expert [the best, to be precise]. it follows him working through a recorded conversation, him piecing together the bits that he recorded, slowly realizing why he was hired and what his work may lead to. the movie is quintessential 70's cinema, from the use of zooms to the stark, bleak world the story creates, culminating in an ending that is laced with negativity [as well as a very young harrison ford].
technically and even craftsmanshiply, the movie makes no flaws. yet having no faults does not necessarily mean a movie has heart or soul.
worth seeing, but not a must see.

braveheart [1995]- big, long, grand historical epic with really cool blue face-paint. a darn good movie with a story derived from a very long epic poem and little else about a time where records are sketchy at best, mr. gibson does a wonderful job in fulfilling the tricky task of running things both in front of and behind the camera. the movie connects to us despite a few large barriers [set close to a millennium before our time, it is a foreign world about a people we know very little of] largely because the hero is an everyman who arises to greatness out of necessity. in one scene he is talking with a friend [who will later play 'hagrid', if i'm not mistaken], saying that his dream is to be a farmer with his family, but they have this problem to deal with a the moment. the average person achieving great things by choosing the right resonates with all of us.
i think we're also partial to scottish accents.

mr. smith goes to washington [1939]- now this is an american classic. and that's claude raines as senator paine! jefferson smith's [great name, isn't it?] genuine excitement and love for washington d.c. and all that it stands for is inspirational nearly 70 years later. it certainly inspired me to look at the capitol of our nation from a new point of view that is both more energetic and hallowed.
an interesting aspect of films is that they are inherently time capsules--snapshots of their time. in that light, mr. smith is fascinating. it is easy to look back to former days, when life was simpler and people were better [i would occasionally get these stories when i carried groceries for the older customers at sunmart]. if washington held a disgusting and corrupt world in 1939, what is it like now? did this and other criticisms help cleanse our national nervous system, or have things continued to decay? the spirit of jefferson smith lives on today, it seems. as has been written here before on sheep go to heaven, we are living in a nation where faith in our current government is polarized and wavering, while we still resolutely believe in the american government. we need a jefferson smith, an everyman who believes in america with all his heart and will stand up against the cancer of washington d.c. that's pretty much jack bauer.
like the poor, power corruption and all it's accompanying vices will always be with us, but pushing against it is to fight the good fight. mr. smith is not a pessimistic movie--not at all. it leaves us with hope and a resolution to stand a little taller.

to have and have not [1944]- they don't make them like they used to.
that's not a bad thing; there are plenty of really good and really great movies still being made, but that doesn't mean that they supercede the old ones. they don't make them like this anymore because they can't. it just doesn't work.
lauren bacall was nineteen when she asked the great humphrey bogart if he knew how to whistle. the french admired howard hawks because just about everything he touched was great. hawks said he just did what he liked, and if he didn't like it, he'd do something else. he must have liked bacall, because she's great in this, with a quasi-bad girl look that get just about anything she wants. bogart is the rough and tough blue-collar worker with the heart of gold, strong enough to take not only underground thugs and dangerous missions, but the even rougher exterior of bacall. [listen for her as the witch of the waste in howl's moving castle, one of the rare instances where the english over-dub is better than the original language]
foggy harbors, gunshots in the dark, a crooked police squad, and one of the best hollywood couples [who could totally take on pitt and jolie]--make this one on your watch list.

the philadelphia story [1940]- grant. stewart. hepburn. they could be reading the phone book and it'd be interesting. [hmmm; stop and consider that for a moment--that really could be interesting. if i had the clout of steven soderbergh, i'd try something like that....] i'd seen this once before, when i was still a neophyte cinephile, renting the video shortly after i'd seen the a.f.i top 100. i didn't think much of it then, but i do now.
the philadelphia story is a classic example of golden hollywood screwballism and witty dialogue. the story bounds deftly from character to character, giving ample material to three silver legends. similar to ocean's 11 [and 12], it seems that they enjoyed working together and really having fun with the work. stewart is his slightly sarcastic and straight man, grant is the smooth-talking charmer who can return hepburn's wit and fire without breaking a sweat, and hepburn, well, i'm starting to warm up to her brash attitude and at times find myself really enjoying her. and, unlike a lot of movies that leave you guessing who will end up with who, only to make a choice that doesn't quite work, the ending choice is really the only option they had, although i didn't see it until the end.
it's a classic folks.

ninotchka [1939]- i'd never seen a gretta garbo movie before, which was a severe fault in my cinema culturability. and so, i can't compare it in the compendium [e.g. this is the movie where 'garbo laughs', if i'm not mistaken, but that doesn't mean much to me]. i will forego any rantings about how much i loved the movie in favor of some samples:
ninotchka: we don't have men like you in my country.
leon: thank you.
ninotchka: that is why i believe in the future of my country.
* * *
leon: don't you like me just a little bit?
ninotchka: your general appearance is not distasteful.
* * *
ninotchka: the last mass trials were a great success. there are going to be fewer but better russians.
* * *
leon: a russian! i love russians! comrade, i've been fascinated by your five-year plan for the last fifteen years.
* * *
ninotchka: what have you done for mankind?
leon: not so much for mankind... for womankind, my record isn't quite so bleak.
* * *
ninotchka: i should hate to see our country endangered by my underwear.

the most wonderful time of the year

i love jacket weather.

i like wearing my long-sleeve shirts, my hoodies and the leather jacket that tim gave me a few years ago.
i like the crispness in the air, the colors of the leaves, and the occasional smell of those same leaves buring.

i think some of this comes from the fact that i generally enjoyed school, and the associated memories of the whole thing amplify the fondnessity of the feelings.

perhaps it's because i like the night time, and so i enjoy the shorter days and the magic of the evening.
or because minnesota is so beautiful in autumn.

i do prefer being cold to being hot, and i december is my favorite month, which is just around the corner....

or maybe i just like fall.

tales of a 2nd a.c.

i think that if i know i'm only on a job where i have to get up at 5:something in the a. for a couple of days, i don't mind it as much.

today was day 4 of 4 on series of d.i. spots i've been working on with the Church. we're shooting up in salt lake and much of the crew lives in that general direction, leaving just me and our b-camera operator with the equipment van at the provo studio.
on some adoption commercials last year i got comfortable just driving this big 12-passenger van up, down, and around i-15. *i've never been much for big cars--i drive a sweet little honda; before that, my bronco II ['the max'] was rather stumpy and fit into just about anywhere. and in high school, i was rather tall and dating a rather short girl; she loved big station wagons, and my dream car has always been a vw bug. pickup trucks and my dad's lumina ['the executor'] are nightmares* now we are not only driving the big ol' van [with not a lot in it], but towing behind us an even bigger ol' camera trailer, which is heartily packed.

i let the other guy drive for the first day and a half, then realized that, a) i would never learn to tow a trailer if i didn't ever tow a trailer [makes sense] and i would like to be able to do that, and b) while it isn't in any way technically part of the job description, this is guy older and has driven this beast far too many times, and it would make me a better camera assistant if i would drive to and from everyday so he could get some rest. oh, and c) driving gives me more psychological control over the radio, and i like the 101.9 morning show.

on the way home that first day with me at the wheel, he gave me some pointers on how not cause major accidents, rode rage, and how to be polite, and i was quite grateful for that. i was even more grateful that the traffic seemed to thin out at crucial junctures, namely anywhere that i had to turn this elongated monstrosity.
and while i can now rule this beast like my own personal falcor, determining whether a car is far enough behind me that i can safely change lanes still gives me a headache.

we've been in a different place each day: an old elementary school in sugarhouse, a farm [that was really, really cold in the morning {and never, ever eat two mcgriddles- it's a horrible feeling}], the salt lake city library [very cool place], and a d.i. furniture factory [carrying two cameras through there: interesting].

the first day was really a lot of fun, as it seemed like just about everybody i knew was on the crew [we had two large 18K hmi lights on cranes to shine into the school gym, which necessitates more grips and electrics] and having a loader is a nice change i am still getting used to. slowly but surely, i am climbing the ladder.... she's pretty cool and turned out to be a lot more 'green' than i originally thought, and even flashed her first roll on day three at the library--loaders come in two ways: those who have flashed a roll, and those who will flash a roll.
our b-camera [the one i'm working with] came up with some lens and focus issues at the end of the day, and the closest camera we could get for the next morning was byu's.
it was interesting seeing that trusty camera that i had shot so many projects with once again; after two years of using professional equipment, the cougar sr-2 looks pretty beat up. i was kind of expecting that.

a fair amount of day 2 was spent freezing in the morning on that cold, cold farm, talking with one of the electric guys about how cool the wikipedia is.
b-camera broke off to go do some 'quick' 2nd unit shots and finish up the day. instead, we waited for about an hour, i got sick and had to toss aside any embarassment and ask the location lady for a ride to the closest gas station, and we finished our day running across the field to get a shot of the sunset.
a day in the life.....

the salt lake library is really cool and was a fun day, except for that time when we were shooting an interview and i was kneeling next to the 2nd director [there were two directors, which was kind of weird] and my phone [which was turned to 'silent'] suddenly took a picture of the inside of my pants and made the shutter-click sound. it did it again when i moved to take it out and turn it off. i highly doubt it caused any sound issues, but he glared at me and i felt like a lamer.
we got breakfast burritos this morning, which were much better than the mcgriddles.
the library is covered in banners delcaring 'library of the year', and i wondered if it was for the city, state, or union; it's a national award, i found out. as we were wrapping for the day, there was a nice book sale going on, and i picked up nice hardcover copies of 'the da vinci code' and 'dune' for $5. can't be that with a stick. i was also eyeing similar copies of 'Jesus the Christ' and president hinckley's biography, but they were both taken before i could get to them. blast.

friday was just another day, keeping the cameras free from the dust of a furniture factory, getting high off the fumes and wearing face masks. it got a little long near the end, but it's always nice to be working with good people.
it's getting fun driving that beast of a van and trailer.

and paychecks. it's really nice to not have to worry about that.

my best foot flowered

i thought today would be a very long and painful day.
i've recently sat through numberless hours of countless auditions for our own movie in a position where i actually had some say in the matter. so when i got a call from a friend at cosmic, asking me to come in and run a camera for 12 hours of auditions, i was contemplating where my threshold of sanity would fall; even when people care about my opinions i'm climbing the walls after five hours.
and on top of all that, i didn't get much sleep last night.

me+little video camera+white limbo cyc = my day.
i brought a book on lighting to read.

instead of a stuffy agency, it was a rather cool and laid back dude from a local ad agency who was cool to talk with as i ate whatever food i felt comfortable eating out of their fridge and chatting with the colorist guy during the breaks between auditions.
[was that a coherent sentence? trying breaking it down into subject, verb, object and circling the topic]

the auditions were for a....what did he call them? a micro-site?
for their holiday campaign, staples is making 20 little websites that you can go to and just play around--no advertising at all. the two that this company is doing are:

1- a sort of 'mad libs' Christmas letter. i remember the 'fargo forum' did a similar thing several years ago, where you fill the blanks of whatever template you like, be it the 'perfect family' or 'dysfunctional family'. this site will feature a 'church lady'-esque character telling you the secrets of writing [and embelishing] that perfect letter.

2- remember 'a Christmas story' and 'flick', the weiner kid who licks the flagpole? imagine a site where you can have a kid with his tongue stuck to a flagpole sing you any of twenty Christmas carol selections [and have a secret code that will get you aaron neville's greatest hits]. genius stuff, i tell ye.

thus, the first six hours of auditions were ladies and dudes in dresses and other creative apparel [how do you spell that?] reciting a monologue that was rather funny. personally, i thought i could have done it better myself. and so i did. i auditioned and didn't make the callback list.
meh.

the second half of the day was in some ways more interesting. first off, people [from both sessions] started thinking i was someone of importance, because they would ask me questions, and after a few rounds of this i began knowing enough to answer. this must have worked well for the real guy, because i ended up running the auditions, even to the point of giving these kids direction during their performances.
and speaking of which, seeing kids ages 8-13 singing 'jingle bells' whilst holding their tongues can run the whole gamut of interest, from pitifully dull [some kids just don't have it, despite what their mom's may think] to genuinely and incredibly funny [some kids do have it, especially the one who brought in a broomstick to act as the flagpole, doing an entire monologue, or the kid who mimed the pole actually coming out of the ground and falling on him].

good people to work for, i read the entertainment weekly article on this new 'borat' movie while waiting for the dvds to burn, and made it home in time to see the final few episodes of season 3 of 24 [and yes, that had us gasping on the edge of our seats, understanding what phil meant when he said he wasn't sure if we were ready for it--in 24, they will do anything].

triskaidekaphobia

it occurred to me today that it was indeed friday the 13th, and in october, no less.
and yet i had nothing planned for this evening. and frankly, i was ok with that.
i've had so much to do for the past few weeks that a night off is a very welcome event. getting the five postings that i've had partially written for almost two weeks was at the top of the list.
i came home from the happy sumo [possibly my new favoritest restaurant in provo] and mark told me that some friends were meeting here to go watch a movie in a graveyard. [jill certainly has her style, that's for sure] it's good to be social, and i want to become more of a person who goes out with the group and does the fun things, but i really, really wanted a nice evening to get the inner zen of jeff alligned with my chi.

people showed up, old friends and new, and eventually the urgings of the group combined with my previously stated intentions of being a more active group member and i went. we grabbed mark's new laptop and 'wait until dark', the quintessential utah valley scary movie.
all the way down to spanish fork i was scanning the radio stations, deciding that if it's friday the 13th, someone ought to be playing oingo boingo. taking matters into my own hands, i made close to a dozen calls in an attempt to make a request; i've never had a station be so constantly busy...

the graveyard idea was fine; nine of us, huddled together around a tree, trying to stay warm under blankets and unzipped sleeping bags, with the subtitles turned on because the computer's speakers didn't carry very far.

i have a funny tendancy about watching movies; if it's a movie like.... um... 'bill and ted', i'm all for the talking and joking and the group movie mentality. but in movies that require any sort of careful attention to plot detail, i sometimes get inwardly frustrated when people talk, joke, or generally don't pay attention. i guess i want them to enjoy the movie instead of enjoying themselves. restated, i really enjoy seeing people really enjoy a good movie, and so when i see that chance lost, it bothers me.

when the computer's battery died, we packed up and went home. to be honest, i didn't think we'd get that far before getting booted out of the cemetary, but apart from a pickup that drove through the place and didn't care that we were there, we didn't see nobody.

on the way home, i continued to hope and pray for some boingo, but all i got were queen and david bowie and more busy signals. as we pulled in to the neighborhood 'dancing with myself' came on, which gets an honorable mention since it has dancing zombies in the video.

and now they're all downstairs, finishing the movie while i sit here and type, listening to oingo boingo's 'grey matter'.

i'll go down and join them.