Thursday, March 31, 2005

Super Quick Update

Hey everyone, it's about one in the morning and I've been running STRAIGHT for 3 DAYS. I'm so tired. Perfect time to post, right? Right. So I'll make it quick to reassure you that I am not dead.

Okay, I'm doing EVERYTHING this week. Don't ask me why, but everything is happening in this ONE WEEK. SERIOUSLY. I'm doing everything I normally do, PLUS Campus Movie Fest, a competition where you have to plan, shoot and edit a 5 minute or less movie in FIVE DAYS, (I am Senior Producer and one of the lead roles), Evvy AD-walk to raise money for EVVY awards, all my shows, (speechless, ladies room, 2 episodes of gentleman's club), radio show, general conference, speechess voice overs, editing a 2-3 minute package for the ladies room, attending all my classes, shooting in every possible minute, OH MY GOSH I'M GOING TO EXPLODE. The point is, by monday I may be dead.

Just as a note though, we have an EXCELLENT shot at winning campus movie fest and having it shown in an IMAX theatre, AND win an Ipod shuffle. Our movie is coming out great. I will post a link to a low-res version when it is done. (By Saturday at Midnight).

Well that was a little longer than intended, but oh well, TTYL ;)

Thursday, March 24, 2005

Siiiingin' In The Rain!

Well, we were supposed to get 4-8" of snow, but (as I predicted) the ground is too warm from our recent spring-like weather, and it is all melting the moment it touches pavement.

Lemme see, on Tuesday I shot a one camera "iso" (isolated) shoot for Evvy Entertainment Marketing night. I think I did pretty well, considering that I was appoached to do it about 7 hours before I had to do it. It was a good time, and I have another shoot under my belt. I really need to update my resume and write down all of the things that I have done this year. I bet it would really make me feel good, because as I think about it, I have done a WHOLE BUNCH.

On Wednesday, I had a full day, as I had a 10am class, then lunch, then at 12:30pm I recorded voice-overs for the short 'Speechless' segments. Following that, I had my Intro to Media Production lecture class from 2pm-3:45pm. Then I had work for about an hour, after which I ran right over to the Bill Bordy Theatre (AKA The Vault) to help setup for a 6pm 2 camera Iso shoot for "Public Conversations" basically a forum night where students faculty and administration can talk about issues facing the college. The shoot went pretty well, but I didn't think I did that great on th camera because it was a little high on the tripod to be easy to operate. Usually you are given a remote control for the handle, which makes it easier to zoom and focus on the fly, but I thought I did pretty well.

After we wrapped that shoot at around 8pm, I got a quick dinner and headed over to the student union to audition for "Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy", which is a radio version that is going to be made on campus. I auditioned for Ford, Arthur, Marvin, Slartibartfest, Eddie, and Zaphod. I am really pysched that they are doing this because I love that show, and I want to be involved any way I can.

Well, I need to wrap it up, since it's about time for me to head to class. I'll try to update some more later!

P.S. I've heard rumors that I am being considered for a camera operator for the Evvys! We'll see what comes of it!

Tuesday, March 22, 2005

You Know, I could easily do Two Big Posts A Week

If I spent my time during Master Control Babysitting to update the blog. So that's what I'm going to try and do.

So what am I up too? Well, Sunday night I stayed up late writing a 5 minute informative speech on Geocaching and a five page rough draft of a research paper, both which were due monday. They both turned out pretty well.

I helped my friends in suite 724 make a really short film for the Digital Media Show which is coming right up. It was pretty fun--the concept was to create this illusion that their was someone coming into my room in the middle of the night, and I get really scared, but it turns out that the strange noises I'm hearing is just my room mate on the lower bunk... um... well, you get the idea. It's a pretty funny gag, but I don't know what we are going to do with it.

Today I only have one class, but I have to work and then edit a package for Good Morning Emerson for Thursday. I'd edit it tommorow, but I have voulenteered to be a camera operator for this shoot that we are doing from 4 to 10pm tommorow, so I don't have any time. Oh well.

I know that my posts aren't as good as they used to be. But that's also because I am no trying enough or spending enough time on them. I guess that's the way it is.

Well, GME is over, so I am going to go. I'll try to be better and write more later. Adios.

Saturday, March 19, 2005

Not Dead.... Yet.

Yeah, I just wanted to pop online and say that I am not dead yet. The reason I say "yet" is because I have about 10 pages of writing to do, and I am resisiting. I know if I just sat down and did it, I'd have it done by tonight. But I'm not going to do that, I bet.

Best,

Ezra

Tuesday, March 15, 2005

I'm Going to Go Insane

I'm sitting in Master Control again, on the third floor of the good 'ole Ansin building, masking sure that the friggin' channel airs the friggin programming.

I'm going to go crazy.

After having been out to quiet and peaceful Leeds, Utah, I've realized just how friggin' loud and noisy the humming of all this equipment. It's like this headache-inducing drone is out of control. Seriously, it's like something is squeezing around my spine tighter and tighter and tighter. Argh.

Anyway, I'm back in the grindstone. And I wonder, like I always do--is this really what I want to do with my life? I don't seem to be feeling very passionate, feeling pretty content to sit and watch TV with my friends instead of getting work done and making media of my own.

The thing that scares me is that even if I did not like it here, I bet I wouldn't leave, because I'm not a quitter, and to me that would be giving up. But I was thinking about it, and I don't know if I'm all that keen on moving out to LA and getting involved in that nonsense. Part of me wants to have a simple life, too. I don't need to make a lot of money, I could probably have a great time and be satisfied in life doing some job that earns me respect within my community, where I can help others. I dunno--try not to read into this to much, I just have verbal diarreha.

I'm watching Good Morning Emerson out of the corner of my eye, and it's really weird. As I watch, I feel like I'm watching actors. Arguably, all newsanchors are actors in a way, but even the guests are acting. It's as if they are behaving the way they've seen other guests behave on TV--speaking in the same tone, sitting the same way, answering the same questions. The anchors too! It's as if they are all emulating previous anchors on TV in an incestuous cyclical loop, feeding back into itself. Why can't people on TV be people? Why must we make them different, even superior? We are in America--you have the same opportunies, and you can be whoever you want... I just don't see why I would choose to behave like Dan Rather just because I'm on TV.

Nevermind. It's kinda a moot point anyway. That's probably one of the reasons that I am not so keen on television in the long run. It is "a vast wasteland" (Newton Minnow, to the National Association of Broadcasters on May 9, 1961).

I just had an issue with the Good Morning Emerson Re-Air at 9:30am. It didn't work, because it had routed powerpoint to the player again. It pisses me off. I try really hard, I'm here for a reason, to keep the program for getting screwed up and not airing. But the more times it screws up the less I'm sure people think of my abilities to moniter a couple of friggin' variables.

This day has started out pretty crappy.

Friday, March 11, 2005

Wednesday, March 02, 2005

By The Way

In case you are wondering, the preceeding post labelled "What Better Time?" It about 3.2 pages in Microsoft Word 2000 in Times New Roman 12 pt font. Word count: 1,773

Beat that! Hahaha!

What Better Time?

To make a lengthy blog entry than when you are procrastinating on a 4-6 page paper that is due tomorrow?

There is no better time.

That's the great thing about procrastination--when channeled properly, it can actually be a pretty good tool, because it makes those other things that you have been meaning to do seem so much more important all of a sudden.

Alright, lets get down to the nitty-gritty. What the heck have I been up to recently? Well, here goes:

On Sunday, Maxx H. my friend from Maine who is joining the Air Force, came down to Boston to spend a couple of days with me. I felt kinda bad because I'm not nearly cool enough and didn't have a lot of neat stuff to show him--but he seemed to have fun anyway. It was a great time, he went shopping and exploring while I was in class, which worked out really well.

But here's the cool thing. Maxx offered to take me out to dinner Monday night--at a really nice restaurant. With the help of Dan R. (The Civilized Man) we chose a nearby italian restaurant called "Via Matta" (I was going to put a link to their website, but I think it's a monstrousity of flash movies in a pitiful attempt to be 'hip' on the internet). Anyway, we had to get dressed up a little, and we walked to the restaurant. They checked our coats and asked us if we would "like to enjoy cocktails before the meal". Declining, we sat down and were treated to the menus, which were short, but interesting--but the waiter came over, who reminded me of Piglet from Winnie the Pooh, because he had a high voice, and seemed incredibly inteligent but gentle. Anyway, he recommended that we try the tasting menu.

Sixty-Five Dollars per person. We decided to get it.

It was a five course meal with (I totalled this up at the end) 19 different foods that we were able to sample. Before I get into a detailed explanation about the meal, let me say that this meal took TWO HOURS to complete... not because the quantity was overwhelming or the service was slow, but because we just had such a great time talking and eating this AMAZING italian food.

Now, the thing about this taster menu thing is that the chef gets to pick everything that you eat, (you tell them if you have any 'aversions' beforehand) so it's like a friggin' adventure, waiting to see what the next course will be. So they had some infused basil olive oil with fresh bread--which beat any restaurant I'd ever had. So we ate some of that until they brought us a plate with the pieces of bruchetta (spelling is wrong, I'm sure). We each had a small peice of each. One was a more traditional brushcetta, with tomatoes, olive oil, and real mozzarella cheese (apparently 'real' mozzerella cheese is made from buffalo milk.) and then two other types, one with a slice of parmasean cheese and orange beets, and another with some sort of medditeranean tuna stuff. All were fantastic.

And the waiter told us that this wasn't even technically the first course.

The first course was thinly sliced pork loin, (often times veal is used, but this chef feels that the pork works better) with a weird mayonassie/anchovie/caper/oil/vinager sauce and with some oiled greens on top... (I don't remember the name of the greens). It was like sensory overload for the tastebuds--after eating nothing but ketchup and hamburgers in the dining hall, such a complex flavor was so intense I almost misinterpreted the sensation as disgusting. But it was delicious--very intense, as you can imagine, but the pork was very tender and thin.

The second course was the pasta course. This was probably my favorite course, because it was soooo magnificent. There were three types of pasta, all made 'in house' (not from dried pasta). The first was an "ear pasta" shaped sort of like a tiny bowl (or an ear) with sweet fennel sausage, some sort of bitter herb (like swiss chard, but not) and a white cream sauce. The waiter served us as he described each dish, and he served us using a technique that was very interesting to watch--he took a spoon and a fork in one hand and pinched them together as if he was using chopsticks or something. And he would put a small scoop on everyone's plate, and go around, then putting a second scoop on everyone's plate--making sure it was completely even! It was kinda amusing. The next pasta was a ravioli--now these ravioli were probably 2.5 inches square, and we each got two. But served one at a time to each of us, mind you! The meat inside was venison, and it was in a more traditional red tomato sauce that was more sweet. The third pasta looked almost like wantons, but it was filled with something made from sweet butternut squash! It was such a delicious and interesting contrast from the other--I was so suprised to eat it!

Anyway, after that course, the waiter came over and started talking to us, and we learned that he had gone to Cornell University! Ivy League! I mean, I think that's pretty cool. He said he had done management for a long time, but when he got married and kids, he wanted a job where he could be home during the day. I tell you, our waiter was totally cool. At the end of the night we joked with him that his tip depended soley on whether he could whip the table cloth out from underneath all the dishes! He laughed and said that he never learned how to do that, but he knew the trick about how to get a cork out of a bottle with a napkin.

So the third course was fish. There were two types of fish, both cooked to perfection. One was a mediteranean version of a snapper, and it started with an O (they threw so many unique and interesting foods at us that night that I forgot a lot of them. Sorry) and the other was Salmon on a bed of leeks. That fish was amazing, I don't know what else to say.

Fourth was a cheese course, where we had three types of cheese--all were very exotic, italian cheeses, but I wasn't too fond of them. There was a blue cheese from goats milk, a soft cheese and some other hard cheese that I liked with the sugared alomonds. It was an interesting course.

Then we got about a 2 tablespoon serving of Passion Fruit Sorbet (Also called gelato) 'to cleanse the pallatte' before dessert. Let me tell you, that was the best non-dairy Ice based desert I've ever had, and it wasn't even the desseret. The three desserets that they brought out were pretty good, the cooked custard being the hands down winner, complete with fresh cranberries. It was delicious. There was also a really really light (almost tasteless at first) cake type thing and a very rich peice of chocolate pie (I don't say cake because the consistancy of the chocolate part reminded me of a brownie.)

But like I said, this is a meal I will never forget, and I still can't believe that Maxx paid for me to eat a $65 dollar meal. Dan had come along, by the way, and had said he would split the bill with Maxx. The total with tax and tip was about $240! What a once-in-a-lifetime (well, actually, I hope not) experience!

Alright, moving onto other and probably less monumental business--I tried out to be a host for the 24th annual Evvy Awards on Sunday, and I think I nailed it. I really hope I get a job as either a host or the person(s) who come out and warm up the audience before the show. I probably won't find out until the the end of march or something.

I've been doing a pretty good job keeping up with all my papers, excluding the one that I have due tommorow that I should be working on right now, and it should be interesting to see how these last 48 hours before I leave school to go to Utah for spring break turn out.

Anyway, I was messing around with a program called "Soundtrack" for Mac's, and in about 20 minutes I made this. It's not AMAZING, but I do really like the part where the drums come in about 30 seconds into the song. But lemme know what you think! I plan on working with that some more, and someday maybe I'll buy some space to make a nice website and post all my media creations... but not right now.

Let's see, what else is new? Oh, well, the suite that I we (J-Pizzle, Dan, Joe and I) are trying to get looks like it is going to work out. I can't WAIT until next year when I have a single within a suite that faces the Boston Common. It's gonna rock.

And here's some great news for all the Harrisonburg High School Alums that read my blog--The budget for the new TV Studio in the new Harrisonburg High School came through! Seth Stratford of the Tech Ed. department and I had put together a proposal with all the equipment that we need. ALL! They approved EVERTHING!

I'm really really really excited about this. This is a huge deal and a huge step forward for Harrisonburg. I'm really glad that Irene Reynolds is the Principal, because I think she has a great understanding of these sorts of things, and want's to make sure our kids have access to communications equipment--a huge field, so that they can discover if it's something that they really like!

By the way, for the tech nerds out there, heres a list of some of the coolest things that the studio is going to have: A souped up G5, 10 copies of Final Cut Pro HD, 5 Firestore FS-1's (devices for encoding in realtime from a camera into footage usable by FCP) and 3 Canon GL-1 cameras for the studio! It's going to friggin rock!

Well, I think that's a suitably lengthy post. I expect hordes of comments. There are some friggin' sweet things going all, both for Harrisonburgers and for me, so you should have something to say!

Until I post again! (which may or may not be in a couple of days)

More Will Come...

I'm really sorry, but I have all this paper to write tommorow, and I haven't even started it, so I just want to drop a quick line to let you know that I am going to post a BIG update in the near future (probably while on break) and tell you about Maxx's visit and my final projects and my most amazing meal ever.

So like I said, more later.

Ezra