Best Day Ever

This was the best day I have ever had!

Too bad Criminal Law and Criminology both have papers due tomorrow...

But despite that, I'm still glad that I spent the day the way I did instead of doing homework. No regrets. I'll take an F on a paper; there will be others to write. But days like this one come once in a million years.

The Dark Knight

So after months and months of counting down to The Dark Knight, I finally saw it (twice) and I didn't write about it in my blog. Don't worry, I'll fix that now.

When I see a new movie, even if my first impression is that it is really good, I'm always afraid to say "It's one of the best movies I've ever seen". I like to allow a little time to let the movie sink in before I say it's one of my favorite movies, because I have some self-imposed rules on what it means to have a movie be one of my favorites. It has to be a movie that I can watch over and over without getting sick of it, but there has to be new things that I discover each time that make me love it again. The movie has to stay with me in some way, and it has to be memorable, and original. Having said that, let me say this: The Dark Knight is one of my favorite movies ever. And not only is it a new personal favorite, I honestly think that it is one of the best made films I have ever seen in any genre.

Batman has always been my favorite superhero since I was a kid. I never read any of the comic books, but I grew up on the 1989 Tim Burton Batman, as well as Batman Returns, Batman the Animated Series, The Mask of the Phantasm, and to a lesser extent Batman Forever (but even at the tender age of 7 when that movie came out, I could tell it was kind of crappy). After Batman and Robin I feared that a good Batman movie would never be made again, however Batman Begins proved that in the right hands Batman could still be awesome.

What I loved about The Dark Knight was that it tapped into the most interesting aspects of Batman. He's not some everyday guy who happened upon super powers and fights supervillains. Batman is a self made hero who chooses to be what he is. He is incredibly disciplined and powerful because he worked hard to get that way, it didn't happen by a freak accident. He is a real guy, and the Nolan Batman movies ground that real person in a real world. No missle-laden penguins, no fugly Batmobile or mind-reading television sets (a la Batman Forever), and no evil ice-hockey teams. Everything about this Batman is real (or at least plausible), right down to the equipment that he uses and the vehicles he drives. And speaking of real, I am so glad that there is finally a superhero movie with a villain who is actually terrifying. There were scenes in this movie where I was literally scared and uneasy because of what The Joker was doing. He's a homicidal maniac hired by the mob who is not afraid to kill; in fact he enjoys it. The anarachy and just plain evil that The Joker stood for is one of the most frightening things I've experienced in a movie in a long, long time. And the relationship that develops between Batman and The Joker is so incredibly well done in this movie. It's refreshing to see something that deep and psychologically complex in a summer blockbuster, much less a superhero movie.

I haven't even touched on the brilliant special-effects or the amazing action scenes. I'll just say that I was ecstatic to see a director in Hollywood who was willing to actually do the stunts in-camera rather than just rely on CGI. Computer effects are great, but I feel that they should be used as little as possible. I haven't even gotten to Harvey Dent and his transformation into Two Face. I haven't gotten into the side story dealing with Maroni and the rest of the mob still trying to hold on to Gotham City. I haven't gotten to Jim Gordon who I think is one of the absolute best characters in this movie. Gary Oldman does a great job bringing this guy to life, and making him a valuable part of Gotham City instead of just an old man who flips on the Bat-signal every time there's trouble. There is so much that is good in this movie that I can't talk about everything. However, one thing that I do want to mention is the very last line of the movie: it is absolute perfection. I got chills both times I saw it. It was surprisingly powerful and completely satisfying. This movie reaffirms my love of the Batman. It makes me feel like a kid again when I would rush home to see the Batman cartoon on TV even though I'd seen the episode dozens of times already. Thank you Christopher Nolan for getting it right.

If you haven't seen it yet, go to the theater as soon as possible. If you already have seen it, do yourself a favor and go see it again, because a movie this good only comes around once in a blue moon, so enjoy it on the big screen while you can.

So now that I've finally seen The Dark Knight, what do I have to look forward to? Don't worry, there's only 99 days until Quantum of Solace opens on November 7.

As of this writing, there are only 172 hours and 46 minutes until The Dark Knight midnight premiere which I will be going to.
This has been the only thing I've had to look forward to for months (yeah, my life is pretty boring), so I'm praying that it's good. And based on what I've seen of it so far, it's shaping up to be the best movie of the year.

The Incredible Hulk

I gotta say, so far this batch of summer movies has been surprising. I was surprised at just how great Iron Man, and Kung Fu Panda were, and I enjoyed Get Smart a lot. I just saw The Incredible Hulk tonight and it wasn't bad. I'm not a big Hulk fan, but this was a good movie. Kind of predictable, but good none the less. This was also the first superhero movie were I was more interested in the human side of the character rather than the superhero part. Maybe that's because of Edward Norton, or maybe it's because the Hulk just isn't that interesting, but either way I was pleasantly surprised.



16 days!

Wow, it's been awhile

I don't really feel like writing much so here's a quick update:

-Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was pretty crappy. I could go on for hours about why it was so disappointing, but I don't have enough time to write about it now. If you'd like to know my real and unabridged opinion, just ask.

-Kung Fu Panda was surprisingly awesome.

-Lightning struck a tree in my backyard. As a result, two TVs stopped working, our home computer was kinda fried, and the cable and internet was knocked out for some time. However, the good news is that it forced my parents to finally buy a new TV to replace the one that they've had for 32 years. Hooray for new technology!

-Work has gotten a lot better. The first week I hated it and was thinking of quitting, but now that I've gotten to know more of the people, and since the hours are less intense, I don't really mind it. I still hate the half hour drive, but all in all it's not bad.

-36 days until The Dark Knight.

Summer Begins

I just wanted to make it clear that I did not see Speed Racer. At least not yet. Instead, the last movie I saw was Prince Caspian. I'm not really a huge Narnia fan (based on the movies at least, I haven't read the books). The movie was good but the company was much better.

I'm glad this week has been so good, because summer had started off pretty slow. I was so bored the entire first week because I had nothing to do. Everybody was busy, and I was just hanging around at home doing nothing. Then I went to the Friend Mixer/sleepover which was a lot of fun. I love that group of people. Then on Sunday, me and Stephanie made a fire in the backyard and we sat out there and talked until 1:30 in the morning. It felt good, because I have really felt disconnected from the family lately. Nobody ever really talks about anything serious, it's just all surface stuff. It's hard getting anything out of most of them, and for the most part none of them ever try too hard to find out what's new in my life beyond the regular "How was school?" I rarely have any good conversations with them. But me and Stephanie have talked a lot this week and it has made me feel a lot better.
Also I've gotten to finally hang out with my friends from home. It sucked because we got together once for a little bit, and then I didn't see them for more than a week. I didn't get to hang out with the whole group, but it was great getting together with Deanna and Maureen the past few days (no offense to Jacob or Sarah, but I do go to school with them so seeing them wasn't too big of a deal lol). I haven't really talked to them in awhile, and it's been fun talking with Deanna about theater stuff. I missed that.
What is with this week and great conversations?! lol Sunday= Stephanie, Monday= Molly, Tuesday=Stephanie again, Wednesday=Deanna and Maureen. I hope this keeps up.

I started work today which I'm kind of excited about. I'm working on the running crew for STAGES (they are doing Thoroughly Modern Millie), and it's going to be interesting. My job is basically working with 5 other people to manuever massive set pieces through the cramped and crowded scene shop area as quickly as possible. Seriously, these units are a good 20 feet tall; they just barely miss scraping the ceiling. The first day was kind of awkward and everyone was pretty quiet because we had just met each other, but they seem like cool people so I'm looking forward to working with them throughout the summer.
It just feels weird. I know it's only my first day, and I am thankful for getting a theatre job like this, but when I think about doing these scene shifts 8 times a week for the next month, I kinda cry a little on the inside. I'm worried that it's going to get real old, real fast. But even though it's almost a 45 minute drive, it gives me an excuse to hang around Kirkwood which I'm excited about :)

Also, I bought an X-Box 360 last week! It's pretty much amazing. Call of Duty 4 is honestly one of the best experiences I've had with any kind of entertainment. Think of the most intense moments from Black Hawk Down, and that's what the game feels and looks like. The title should really just be Fucking Awesome, because that's what it is.

It's only $8, right?....

I feel like I should be ashamed of myself. I just paid $8.25 to see Harold and Kumar: Escape from Guantanamo Bay. Just off the top of my head I can think of 5 much better things to do with that money:
-Donate it to a charity
-Give it to the homeless
-Buy someone a gift
-Buy some food
-Save if for Speed Racer
I also feel like I should be ashamed that I actually want to see Speed Racer and will probably spend another $8.25 on that movie.

Apparently I don't update this blog as frequently as my loyal readers would like, so I thought I'd make a post today.

I have one final left: Stats. I really don't even care about that class anymore, so it feels like I don't have any finals left lol. I'll study a little, but I'm not gonna panic about it. I set a new record for myself this past week. Starting Sunday night around 11:00 p.m. I started writing my 10 page Hist and Lit II paper. By 5:00 p.m. Tuesday afternoon I had finished that paper as well as put together a 15 page Musical Theatre paper. I've never written 2 papers simultaneously before, and I think that that is an accomplishment, folks. On top of that, I took a Latin final which was rough, but I am done with Latin forever and that makes me happy.

I've also found a new hobby: Making light plots. I spent about 7 hours doing one for Stage Lighting last night and I honestly never got bored.

I also found out that I got the Scene Shop internship! I am seriously excited about that, and I can't wait to work with Ron again. Plus, I also got that job at STAGES for the summer! It'll be a long summer (working 6 days a week), but at least I won't be sitting around wasting time.

Lastly, summer movie season has started! Iron Man was awesome, and I was very surprised at how good it was. Speaking of awesome, the new Dark Knight trailer = badass. 72 days. 72 looong days.

If Latin wasn't already dead I would probably kill it myself. I am so damn sick of taking Latin classes but that's all going to end in a week. I have a presentation to give tomorrow, and I have the rest of a translation to finish tonight, and after that it's just the final and I'm done.

I also have two huge papers to write by Tuesday, and a light plot to do by Thursday. The light plot I'm not worried about, but the papers are gonna be rough. I'm trying to at least start them early, but so far that hasn't really worked out since I've been spending most of my time lately doing homework for the stupid LSP requirements (I'm looking at you Stats and Latin). However, I'm really excited for next semester. I'm taking Basic Costuming, Scene Design, Criminology, Criminal Law, and hopefully Acting II. This will be the first semester where I'm only taking classes that I want to take. No LSP crap! And if I get the Scene Shop Internship, that would make it the best semester yet.

Also I found out today that I might have a summer job at STAGES, which sounds awesome.

80 days....

Life is good

Opening night of See How They Run was awesome! There were no mistakes, and we had a pretty good size audience. We've performed it twice now, and both nights have gone really well. The weekend shows are supposed to be nearing sold-out which I'm happy about because I think with a huge audience it's going to be even funnier. Plus, I don't think I've ever played to a completely sold-out house before, so hopefully this show will break that.

For the entire semester I've been looking forward to Ron's show. When I got cast in it I was ecstatic, and now that it's performance week I am really excited. Even though I have 2 rather big projects due on Friday and very little time left with which to do them, I don't care. My motto for the week has been "I don't want to do homework. It's performance week and I'm going to enjoy it." That's gonna bite me in the ass tomorrow night when I'll probably be pulling an all-nighter, but I don't care: It's performance week.

I cannot wait for Friday and Saturday! Most everybody I know is coming to see the show this weekend. Matthew and Stephanie are coming up on Friday to see it, as are Deanna, Matt, and Maureen!! I am seriously freakin' pumped for that! Then on Saturday a lot of my Truman friends are attending along with my mom and dad. And though I'll be disappointed when the show is over, I'm really excited for the cast parties! This is going to be the best weekend I've had in a long, long, long time.

And my previous countdown was a little off. It is now 93 days until The Dark Knight.

Well I'm runnin' down the road...

So within the past few months I've discovered that I love running. I don't know why, cause it seems a little boring, but I just love it. And the best part is that I'm starting to get better at it. I can now consistently run about 7/10 of a mile at a moderate pace before I start to get tired, and I can sprint for about 3/10 of a mile before I need to stop.
I sound like such a meat-headed tool, but I really do love working out. lol

Now you can know exactly what I'm thinking

I have a blog!! I have never done one of these before, but my good friend Emily encouraged/inspired me to get with the times, so here I am!

I think this might get boring for all of you readers after awhile because I don't really have much to talk about. Rehearsals for See How They Run are going really well! I am so excited to perform it, I think it's going to turn out really awesome. Other than that, life is pretty average for the most part. Still the same ol' same ol'. I am really getting tired of school and all of this homework. I have a crap ton to do in the next month and I honestly don't know if I will be able to get it done. I feel like giving up right now because I am so exhausted from worrying about class and homework. This would be why I started a blog right now lol! I like procrastinating. Alot.

On a better note, I count only 99 days left until The Dark Knight.