and I ended up wondering three things: what angle into the ocean would you have to look if you wanted to be staring directly at Honolulu (given the curvature of the Earth, and you're standing at Ecola State Park), how many times in an average lifetime does the line from your heart to the center of the Earth hit someone else on the other side, and in The Thomas Crown Affair, how does he fold the painting into his briefcase without cracking what looks like a solid wooden frame?
If you can help me with any of those, uh, great. In fact, Bang Away!
If you can't, then you're down-to-earth enough to come to my house on New Year's Eve for a party. Yes, you. Anyone who reads this blog is invited, and so is anyone who doesn't read the blog who you like. Please, feel free to say "Hey, did you see Ken's blog post about his New Years' Party", and then point out that they're invited even though I didn't actually get to talk to the celebrant in question.
So, details: party will start between six and seven, allowing for movie/s and other undecided entertainment. (The strippers will be in the garage--they've already been practicing their dance with the power tools. Ladies, the Crown Prince of England is scheduled to arrive somewhere around eight.) We will feed you. As for the actual moment of glory when we finally, finally arrive in our graduation year: you decide. Last year, at Patrick's, we had little "edible bubble" bottles, where you could eat the bubbles... or chug the bottleful of gross banana-resembling soapy crud.
Someone did.
We will not have those.
As to whether or not it will be a sleepover, the jury's still out. Parental feedback sounds like it's a go, but we might have to pull an after-prom and send the guys or girls to someone else's house for the night.
[[UPDATE: Dave sacrificed his warm family New Year's at the beach so that the guys can again sleep at his house. So it's girls here, guys there. He also offered to turn it into Brinker's B&B again and feed us in the morning--it's gotten good reviews before, so unless there are objections...]]
Yeah, I realize that the details aren't very detailed yet. I'm working on it. But if you have tentative approval (or denial) for all or part of the evening, tell me somehow... text, call, im, e-mail, post a reply, send me flowers or cookies or narcotics, I don't really care. In fact, if you just show up and I didn't know you were coming, I can handle that too. But this is a party you can be proud of attending, so posting a comment would make you look really cool. I'd know.
postscript: for Christmas, I got a huge chunk of bituminous and a personal letter from Santa, who's mad that Shakeer bore the brunt of my bad driving karma. Sorry, man. Drown your sorrows in Martinelli's with us on Friday.
post-postscript: if I have met you, you're invited.
Tuesday, December 28, 2004
Monday, December 27, 2004
I'm glad I'm not a Christmas tree
On the way home from Pioneer tonight, I was startled to see that they have already begun dismantling that really pretty tree they had set up in the square for the holidays. Two of those massive Genie all-terrain lifts were up in the air, and guys with chainsaws were pruning off all of the limbs. That was kind of depressing!
If I were a tree I'd want to be an ugly tree. That way people wouldn't cut me down and put me in a square and then hack off all my limbs, throw me away, and forget about me after some random pretty holiday was done. They'd just look at me, go "oh, what an ugly tree!" and then cut me down and turn me into a beautiful cabinet. Or possibly a lot of toothpicks.
Oooh pretty metaphor. Discuss!
Postscript: Oh wow hey I was pretty tired last night. Um. Toothpicks are cool? Yeah. I'm a gonna try to find some more stupid websites for you guys. Lah dee dah.
If I were a tree I'd want to be an ugly tree. That way people wouldn't cut me down and put me in a square and then hack off all my limbs, throw me away, and forget about me after some random pretty holiday was done. They'd just look at me, go "oh, what an ugly tree!" and then cut me down and turn me into a beautiful cabinet. Or possibly a lot of toothpicks.
Oooh pretty metaphor. Discuss!
Postscript: Oh wow hey I was pretty tired last night. Um. Toothpicks are cool? Yeah. I'm a gonna try to find some more stupid websites for you guys. Lah dee dah.
Friday, December 24, 2004
Merry Christmas.....Eve
Hey all,
A big Merry Christmas to all of you. Life would blow without you.
Wow...that was irreverant. Seriously, you all rock my world day after day, and I don't know how I'd get by without you. Yep...it's Christmas...it's okay to be cheesy.
For those who are interested/have time, a bunch of us (well, okay, just me, Rachel, Doug, Spencer, and Beth Fagan as of now) are going to The Cathedral (which is somewhere downtown) for their Midnight Mass. If you would like to come along...hey, fantastic! Just get there early. And dress up. It's Christmas, why not.
If not, a big Merry Christmas to all and I look forward to seeing you guys in a few days.
Oh, and hey...be sure to post all the cool stuff you got. Because...behind all the trees and the decorations, the eggnog and the ham, the family gatherings and the church services...it is pretty cool to get a buncha new stuff.
"I wish you a hopeful christmas
I wish you a brave new year
All anguish pain and sadness
Leave your heart and let your road be clear"
-Emerson, Lake, & Palmer ("I Believe in Father Christmas")
"And so this is Christmas
I hope you have fun
The near and the dear one
The old and the young"
-John Lennon ("Happy Christmas")
Oh, and I don't mean to be...flippant, I suppose. If you don't celebrate Christmas, Happy Holidays! Or at the very least, I hope you're having an awesome break. Despite college apps lingering over my head, I know I am.
A big Merry Christmas to all of you. Life would blow without you.
Wow...that was irreverant. Seriously, you all rock my world day after day, and I don't know how I'd get by without you. Yep...it's Christmas...it's okay to be cheesy.
For those who are interested/have time, a bunch of us (well, okay, just me, Rachel, Doug, Spencer, and Beth Fagan as of now) are going to The Cathedral (which is somewhere downtown) for their Midnight Mass. If you would like to come along...hey, fantastic! Just get there early. And dress up. It's Christmas, why not.
If not, a big Merry Christmas to all and I look forward to seeing you guys in a few days.
Oh, and hey...be sure to post all the cool stuff you got. Because...behind all the trees and the decorations, the eggnog and the ham, the family gatherings and the church services...it is pretty cool to get a buncha new stuff.
"I wish you a hopeful christmas
I wish you a brave new year
All anguish pain and sadness
Leave your heart and let your road be clear"
-Emerson, Lake, & Palmer ("I Believe in Father Christmas")
"And so this is Christmas
I hope you have fun
The near and the dear one
The old and the young"
-John Lennon ("Happy Christmas")
Oh, and I don't mean to be...flippant, I suppose. If you don't celebrate Christmas, Happy Holidays! Or at the very least, I hope you're having an awesome break. Despite college apps lingering over my head, I know I am.
Wednesday, December 22, 2004
Bang Away!
First of all, I'd like to give a Bang Away! to J.B. for being South Bend Bound and a Bang Away! for turning 18 (in the same weekend) but no Bang Away! for being too selfless to post about either. To those who have yet to be accepted to that special school (myself included), keep banging away on those apps and keep those chins up.
When I just wrote 'that special school', it occured to me how much applying to college is like asking a girl out (OK, no firsthand experience, but I've seen a lot of TV.)
SAT or ACT scores- Superficiality.
Recommendations- What the girl has heard about you. Reputation.
Classes- Are you smart, funny, and interesting or are you Schultz?
Grades- Social skills.
Activities- (Pretty much the same) Will she be able to wear your extra jersey to games (and will people actually know who that is)? Do you save stray kittens?
Essay- How you ask her out.
OK, that was lame, but you get the point. And the college accepts or rejects you based on its desirablity to other guys. The really hot school has lots of great guys asking her out, so she can get really choosy. State schools are whores. Anyway, if we had a quality control filter, this wouldn't pass, but I'm gonna post it because of the dearth (Bang Away! Sophomore vocab...wow I almost wrote Bang Away! Mrs. Harwood and that would've been so wrong) of recent posts.
post script
I think the last several days have confirmed my theory about our blog. We don't post when we have "free time" as Jeff and Cory mistakenly believe. We post when we don't have free time but are procrastinating. And then the rest of us, who are also procrastinating, see those posts and comment on them about how much we also are procrastinating. Its a beautiful thing.
post script
Bang Away! is the new catchphrase for words of encouragement, shouts of excitement, and fond, emphatic farewells. It is usually accompanied by a high five. Use it.
post post post script
I wish Cory was here. Or the yellow lady.
post post post post script
Bang Away Skylar!
When I just wrote 'that special school', it occured to me how much applying to college is like asking a girl out (OK, no firsthand experience, but I've seen a lot of TV.)
SAT or ACT scores- Superficiality.
Recommendations- What the girl has heard about you. Reputation.
Classes- Are you smart, funny, and interesting or are you Schultz?
Grades- Social skills.
Activities- (Pretty much the same) Will she be able to wear your extra jersey to games (and will people actually know who that is)? Do you save stray kittens?
Essay- How you ask her out.
OK, that was lame, but you get the point. And the college accepts or rejects you based on its desirablity to other guys. The really hot school has lots of great guys asking her out, so she can get really choosy. State schools are whores. Anyway, if we had a quality control filter, this wouldn't pass, but I'm gonna post it because of the dearth (Bang Away! Sophomore vocab...wow I almost wrote Bang Away! Mrs. Harwood and that would've been so wrong) of recent posts.
post script
I think the last several days have confirmed my theory about our blog. We don't post when we have "free time" as Jeff and Cory mistakenly believe. We post when we don't have free time but are procrastinating. And then the rest of us, who are also procrastinating, see those posts and comment on them about how much we also are procrastinating. Its a beautiful thing.
post script
Bang Away! is the new catchphrase for words of encouragement, shouts of excitement, and fond, emphatic farewells. It is usually accompanied by a high five. Use it.
post post post script
I wish Cory was here. Or the yellow lady.
post post post post script
Bang Away Skylar!
Sunday, December 19, 2004
Un long dimanche de fiançailles (A Very Long Engagement)
For years now, I've said there are two types of films that do very little for me. One is a war film. The other is a foreign film. And so what did I decide to head out to see tonight? What movie have I been looking forward to immensely since seeing the trailer two and a half months ago? A foreign film that deals largely with war.
It attracted me for two reasons, both of which it delivered on. First, the imagery. It is simply an incredibly beautiful film to look at. I didn't think any film for awhile would top "The Passion of the Christ" in terms of cinematic beauty, but man...this did it. Every single frame was a work of art.
Second...this is really a qualification for making a good war movie...it uses war as a backdrop to tell a different story. In this case, the main story was this woman (Audrey Tautou) waiting for her fiance, the man she's loved all her life, to return. He might be dead, he might be alive...but she is determined to find she is alive, despite all evidence contradictory. And her actions should never be surprising...the audience should never wonder why she doesn't give up. They tell you right off the bat..."If Manech was dead, Mathilde would know."
But that isn't the only story. The unexpected aspect of this film is that it also tells numerous stories within the larger stories. They're not subplots exactly, because they still function within the larger story, and the way in which they are worked in is simply wonderful. And each actor brings with him or her EVERYTHING in that character. There's a rule that supporting actors are usually instructed to follow, which is to pretend the story is about them. They have to figure out the story from their perspective and use that as a guideline for their character's actions, moods, anything. This film should be shown as the pinacle of that.
Director Jean-Pierre Jeunet took a lotta risks with this film. He was disqualified from festivals and awards, and received a large amount of criticism from fans, for using Warner Brothers (a.k.a. America) money to help finance the picture. But it simply wouldn't be possible any other way. The sheer scope of the story, the costume design, the war scenes, Paris...none of it would have been possible.
There is very little about this film that is bad. In fact, I can think of nothing. If anything, I'm not good enough for it. And that's pretty much because I can't speak a word of French. As gorgeous and mind-blowing as this film was, I felt I only caught like a third of it.
This is the first year ever in which I actually care about the foreign films. With "The House of Flying Daggers" having just been released this week, "The Motorcycle Diaries" increasingly being a film I gotta see, and "The Sea Inside" taking its good sweet time getting here, I'm actually looking forward to that category at the Oscars. Oh, and "Hero" was incredible, though technically that was a 2003 film (though it wasn't released in the U.S. 'til this last August).
It attracted me for two reasons, both of which it delivered on. First, the imagery. It is simply an incredibly beautiful film to look at. I didn't think any film for awhile would top "The Passion of the Christ" in terms of cinematic beauty, but man...this did it. Every single frame was a work of art.
Second...this is really a qualification for making a good war movie...it uses war as a backdrop to tell a different story. In this case, the main story was this woman (Audrey Tautou) waiting for her fiance, the man she's loved all her life, to return. He might be dead, he might be alive...but she is determined to find she is alive, despite all evidence contradictory. And her actions should never be surprising...the audience should never wonder why she doesn't give up. They tell you right off the bat..."If Manech was dead, Mathilde would know."
But that isn't the only story. The unexpected aspect of this film is that it also tells numerous stories within the larger stories. They're not subplots exactly, because they still function within the larger story, and the way in which they are worked in is simply wonderful. And each actor brings with him or her EVERYTHING in that character. There's a rule that supporting actors are usually instructed to follow, which is to pretend the story is about them. They have to figure out the story from their perspective and use that as a guideline for their character's actions, moods, anything. This film should be shown as the pinacle of that.
Director Jean-Pierre Jeunet took a lotta risks with this film. He was disqualified from festivals and awards, and received a large amount of criticism from fans, for using Warner Brothers (a.k.a. America) money to help finance the picture. But it simply wouldn't be possible any other way. The sheer scope of the story, the costume design, the war scenes, Paris...none of it would have been possible.
There is very little about this film that is bad. In fact, I can think of nothing. If anything, I'm not good enough for it. And that's pretty much because I can't speak a word of French. As gorgeous and mind-blowing as this film was, I felt I only caught like a third of it.
This is the first year ever in which I actually care about the foreign films. With "The House of Flying Daggers" having just been released this week, "The Motorcycle Diaries" increasingly being a film I gotta see, and "The Sea Inside" taking its good sweet time getting here, I'm actually looking forward to that category at the Oscars. Oh, and "Hero" was incredible, though technically that was a 2003 film (though it wasn't released in the U.S. 'til this last August).
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