Friday, March 12, 2010

Back to Reality

I'm back settled in Michigan. It's consistently in the 50s here now, and I'm afraid of being premature and jinxing our good fortune, but I think somebody found old man winter and finally put one through his heart. I'm sure of this because yesterday I drove around with the windows down and the Apples In Stereo playing, and everything felt really good and right.


Coming back from Los Angeles to Minnesota I met a guy named Duncan on the flight and we talked for hours about everything from writing to library senior programming, and the xenophobic nature of mankind. Usually during flights I plug into my headphones and disappear either in a book or into writing until I fall asleep, but this time, when the snack cart came around I took of my headphones and the conversation started up about how clean my handwriting is. It was a welcome change of pace.

I was in Minnesota long enough to get a beer and watch an episode of the Office on the bar's television before I hopped a terrifying little puddle jumper up over the great lakes and then back home.

Now it's back to school, and work, and generally just biding my time for another 38 days until graduation is at last upon us.

Yesterday was errand day. I took care of some library stuff, got a haircut (one that will be good, eventually, but that I look in the mirror at and think "you're not bad, but I'm not happy..") and had lunch with my mom.

I'm also starting to prep for this event much in the vein of NaNoWriMo called Script Frenzy. Over the course of April the goal is to write a hundred page script (Movie, TV, Comic, Stage, whatever). Because I'm going to be in the midst of finals insanity, my friend Duke and I are collaborating on a new idea. I'll be blogging the progress of that over the course of April as well as Graduation stuff.

Other than that I've not been up to a whole lot. Wrote two songs over break (the first new songs I've written in 3 years). For a while there I was worried that this was the end of my song writing days. If I ever get around to recording them, I'll post them, if not then you'll have to come out to Homegrown open mic in Lansing to hear them.

Now I'm stuck at home cleaning my room and watching movies, and thinking about how I'd rather be reading comics.

Wednesday, March 03, 2010

Documentarians, Europeans, and the Job Hunt

A post from the city of angels.


Tonight Kate dragged (read "invited") me to the International Documentary Association's Networking Party. This one is timed to coincide with the Oscars (which is Sunday). While there we met Anders and Torstein Nybo, members of the Norwegian production company that made the Oscar nominated documentary Burma VJ, a film about the Burmese Monk uprising in 2007. And let me just say that Norwegians are great people. Very polite, and talkative, and more than willing to buy the next round (which is great when you're a broke library student hobnobbing with the heavily alcoholic filmmakers). But beyond that Documentary Filmmakers are all great people. They remind me of more talkative librarians in some ways. Very conscious of social justice and full of dreams of the good they want to do with their films, and it was very refreshing in comparison to much of Los Angeles.

Time in LA has been great so far. A lot of hiking the trails and the area in and around West Hollywood, and Burbank today. On Friday Kate and a former roommate of Ben's, Sappy, drove down to the area just north of San Diego and did wine tasting at 3 different wineries and topped the evening off with a stop at Stone Brewery.

The other major thrust of this trip out has been job hunting. Now more than ever I'm sure that I want to get out this way, even if it's only for a small amount of time. I've been firing off job applications at anything with a decent pay check and a location in the city. From more traditional library jobs, to a publishing company sales representative position, to a film company's production assistant. Like I said. Anything.

Now to go watch Lost. More to come, and pictures soon.