So, yesterday I didn’t do anything of consequence so I didn’t post.  Boring in general.

Today, I skipped film class in the morning because I really didn’t want to go.  Sleeping sounded like a better idea.  But then I woke up and went in for Theatre.  Upon arrival, I found a crowd of people surrounding a crazy man who was preaching fire and brimstone.  So I decided to watch.  He was saying that gays were going to hell, so naturally this made the homosexuals in the crowd angry.  It was all very entertaining.

Then, after this, I was accosted by man claiming to have a survey.  I agreed to do it, because I had some time.  He asked me a few questions, I answered.  Then he proceeded to start arguing with me about my answers.  This is a religious debate of course.  So, I spent one hour talking to this person about why I don’t really believe in God.  I respect others’ opinions, but they should respect mine.  Anyway, I left after an hour.  My friend informed me later that after I walked away, they said a prayer for me.  That made me laugh.  So I got a laugh out of the whole thing.

Then I drove over to Miami University.  My friend is a philosophy major there, and so I go over every once in a while.  Apparently Miami did not have a Philosophy Club, so he started it.  So, tonight I decided to join in.  It was pretty lame, mainly because there was a low turn-out.  But still fun.  I also managed to pick up a little of a certain green psychotropic substance.

Then I came home, ate some pizza, and began watching Atom Egoyan’s film, ADORATION.  I was blown away by this amazing film.  It is very much like the masterpieces THE SWEET HEREAFTER and IN THE BEDROOM.  IN THE BEDROOM is a film by one of my favorite directors, Todd Field.  They are so amazing.  They are quietly observant of their characters.  We just sort of watching, drifting in and out of their lives, learning how they’re related.  A lot of people find them boring.  I find them brilliant, touching, and moving.  I’d take that a million fucking times over Transformers or GI Joe.  That’s not to say I don’t enjoy indulging in some fun.  I do, very much.  ZOMBIELAND rox my sox.  And I <3 THE DARK KNIGHT.  But these films are beautiful.

So after that, I used some of the aforementioned substance, and now I’m watching ALMOST FAMOUS and writing this.

I will conclude with Roger Ebert’s words from this review of ADORATION:

“Atom Egoyan is fascinated by the way life coils back on itself. He uses coincidences and chance meetings not as plot devices but as illustrations of the ways we are linked across generations and national boundaries. His characters are often not completely connected to where they find themselves, and bring along personal, sometimes secret associations. These often reflect much larger realities in the outer world.”

I forgot to write in the journal last night, partially because it is not a habit after only a couple days, but also because I was busy.  What was I doing, you might ask.  Probably not actually, but I’ll tell you anyway.  I was watching Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo and writing my film analysis paper on it.  I had to watch it several times actually, studying various scenes and whatnot.  So, that consumed a lot of my day.  You see, when you do 5 minutes of work and then check your email and the “news” for 5 minutes, and then you repeat continuously, you end up with six hours of a twelve hour day devoted to internet surfing.  But, you know, that’s fine.  So, in actuality, yesterday was probably only half spent working on the Vertigo paper.  The title of that paper, by the way, is “Confessions of a British Auteur” and ended up around seven pages.

So, onto today.  I woke up at approximately 7:30 in the AM, which was not the desired wake-up time.  FYI, the desired wake-up time was 8:00 in the AM, which would have maximized sleep with minimal harm to me.  Therefore, upon waking up one half-hour early, I determined it would be good to go into school one half-hour early as well.  I figured the extra one half-hour had to go somewhere.  This, however, was not, at all, a good idea.  Here is what leaving one half-hour early does for a commuter student: the traffic in the middle of town is extraordinarily greater at 8AM than it is at 8:30AM.  Another problem.  Once you arrive at school with twenty-six extra minutes, you realize there is nothing to d at 8:24 in the AM for twenty-six minutes.  So you’re kind of bored.  That’s the best I can do on that story, I dunno.

Anyway, in film class we watched Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing.  Alright, so let’s set a couple things straight.  I have nothing against Spike Lee.  I loved Malcolm X and I very much liked 25^th Hour and Inside Man.  The dude has some talent.  But he’s a royal jackass.  Honestly, the man has some issues.  I won’t go into that.  Whatever.  Lars von Trier is one of my favorite directors, but he’s an asshole.  Still a great director.  And we won’t even get into Roman Polanski.  So, back to Spike Lee.  The man’s a dick, but he has some talent.  Do The Right Thing came out the same year as Driving Miss Daisy, which would go on to win the Academy Award for Best Picture.  At that time, a lot of people in Hollywood were championing Do the Right Thing for Best Picture.  It didn’t get a nomination, Spike Lee was pissed, and he was really pissed when Driving Miss Daisy won.  But, honestly, I don’t really like the movie that much.  It is a good film, don’t get me wrong.  But it is not a great film, nor a film that I would really want to watch again.  I actually liked Driving Miss Daisy more.

Then I went and sat in the hall for an hour and a half as usual, on the laptop.  Ate an apple.  Then I sat in Theatre 214 (that’s theatre in western culture).  That was generally boring, then I hurried out of there, went home, and promptly took a nap.  Despite the fact that I considered sleep to be a waste of time (I mean think about it – at least one third of your entire life you did ABSOLUTELY NOTHING) I still enjoy it.  I enjoy it a lot, actually, to the point that I will waste time of my day sleeping.  Then I woke up.  And at this moment, I’ve spent about five minutes thinking about what I did after that.  I can’t really remember what I did in the evening.  All of it is a blur for some reason, but I swear to God, I did something.  Well, at any rate, somehow I ended up here.

That pretty much concludes it for today.  Tomorrow, I have no idea what I am doing (this is usually the case).  No school for me, so who knows what will happen.

“I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.” – Bill Cosby

Today is my second journal entry.  I’ll probably just talk about what I did today.

I woke up semi-late, around eleven o’clock.  Took a shower and then worked on a few things.  At 3:00 I meant someone who was auditioning for my next film.  We talked for quite a while and did the audition.  After that I got some Chipotle and came home.  I have a paper due Monday, analyzing a Hitchcock film.  The film I chose was “Vertigo,” in my opinion his best film alongside “North by Northwest” and “Rope.”  So, I watched that today, which takes a little longer because I take notes along the way.  I’ll have to re-watch it tomorrow before I write the paper.

I also re-watched the original (i.e. the not shitty one) “Halloween” directed by John Carpenter, who would later go on to remake “The Thing.”  I’ve seen it many times, but re-watching, this time on Blu-ray, I’ve discovered a new found appreciation for this film.  It really is a masterful work of art.  It invented (along with Texas Chainsaw and Black Christmas) the slasher genre, which has lately been peppered with such gems as the Prom Night remake, or the Friday the 13^th remake.  And of course, when I say “gems” I actually mean “flaming dogshit.”  There was one remake of this year that I actually did enjoy, and I actually thought improved a little on the original.  Perhaps that’s because the original director was involved with the production of the remake.  That film is “The Last House on the Left,” originally directed by Wes Craven, who would later go on to make the horror classic masterpieces of “Nightmare on Elm Street” and “Scream.”  Wes Craven’s film essentially invented the slasher genre, along with “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” and “Black Christmas” (both of which suffered horrible reakes).  At any rate, the remake of Last House was actually an improvement in some ways.  There was a ticking clock inserted to make the plot move faster, and the actual conflict arises a lot more quickly.

Anyway, that’s pretty much it for today.

Off to bed!

"To love and be loved is to feel the sun from both sides." --David Viscott

Today marks my first foray into the Journal department.  I don’t normally keep a journal; I’m far too unorganized to do such a thing.  But, then again, my idea of a journal was always this handwritten notebook that you had under your pillow.  I never considered the possibilities of an online journal, though I suppose a (we)blog is pretty much the exact same.  This journal entry may lack direction.  The first time you try to do something new usually doesn’t bode very well (just ask all the girls that got pregnant their first time “rocking the cashbah”).

Not sure what the best way to go with this is.  So I’m going to go into one of my general musings of the day.

As I mention in my profile, I find it somewhat depressing that people seem doomed to repeat their mistakes over and over.  Lessons are rarely ever learned, at least not on a grand scale.  I think in the end it’s probably inherent in human nature that we tend to respond the way we do.  It probably isn’t that depressing, ultimately.  If we can’t do anything about it – if, as a society, we respond almost as a reflex – in that case, it isn’t entirely depressing.  There is nothing we can do to better this situation, at least not if it’s in our nature.

Another general musing.  I don’t consider myself religious at all.  I’m not an atheist, I’m more ambivalent about it.  So I describe myself as agnostic and leave it at that.  However, there is this interconnectedness with my religious beliefs and beliefs about death.  It seems to me the most depressing thing you can think about is that death is the end.  You die and that’s it.  Nothing else.  No more pain, joy, suffering, loss, excitement, fear, just nothing.  What does that mean?  You die and there’s nothing.  I cannot even fathom nothing.  It’s not fathomable because in our reality, there is no such thing as “nothing.”  There is always something.

So, if you think about this obviously depressing subject, you think about how to make it not-depressing.  How do you make death not depressing?  You make people believe there is an even better place beyond death.  Bam.  Death is no longer depressing, because there is something beyond it.  Reincarnation essentially accomplishes the same goal.  So, in the end, it makes me think that religion is just too perfect – it seems crafted to give people hope and keep the world in order.  Though, unfortunately, the countless Religion wars proved that to be a failure.

This is not to say I think religions are ridiculous.  I do not think that.  The above is just my position on religion.  I’m open to all beliefs, but I can’t betray the way I really feel or think.

On a completely different note, it would appear The Third Man is getting a remake, starring Tobey Maguire and Leonardo DiCaprio.  Outrage doesn’t begin to express what this is.  Some films are not meant to be touched.  Do you really want to remake The Godfather?  Do you want to remake Casablanca?  No matter what you do, it will be worse.  Don’t get me wrong – I love me some Tobey and Leo.  Tobey Maguire is an understated actor, namely due to him prominently being linked to Spider Man.  But his work in films such as The Ice Storm, The Cider House Rules, Pleasantville, Seabiscuit, and Joyride for anybody that ever saw that film, are amazing.  And Leonardo DiCaprio is a wonderful actor, undoubtedly.   But, c’mon, you don’t fuck with a classic.  You just don’t.

Well, that pretty much sums it up for today.