Week of Fun shit

Busy as usual, although I've had a lot of fun the past week.

as a warning, this next part might be boring if you aren't into Frank Zappa. You might wanna skip ahead if you don't want to hear about the concert I just went to in excruciating detail.

Wednesday, Greg and I drove down to Providence to see the Zappa Plays Zappa concert. I mentioned it last post and I can truly say it was the single most impressive display of music I've ever experienced in my life. Having been born too late to see Frank perform, watching his son, Dweezil, and three of the original band members perform a incredibly long list of his material. It probably helped that the three original performers- Steve Vai, Terry Bozzio, and Napoleon Murphy Brock- were probably some of the most charismatic and talented players Zappa toured with, but the younger talent recruited for the tour was spot on as well. Each musician was featured prominently at different points during the show, just as Frank used to do with his band mates.

Napoleon, despite being old and balding (and maybe a little fat), was still dancing around like a maniac during the entire show like he did in his 20s. Bozzio didn't seem to be in top form and was showing his age a little bit more, but he still wowed everyone with his 60+ piece drum kit, and even performed Punky's Whips. Vai was Vai. Not a whole lot needs to be said as he is still the greatest modern rock guitar player of our time. He had plenty of jaw-dropping shit to keep the audience screaming at the top of their lungs. Dweezil tore it up unbelievably. He must have practiced a whole hell of a lot as his performance of Black Napkins was absolutely perfect. The entire band was on top of its game, really, with the "kids" playing all of their parts perfectly and looking like they were having the greatest time ever doing so. I think it was great that I got to see this show so late in the tour as the band has been playing together now for months and has had a chance to really get the material under their belt. Even if they had a year to practice that monstrous volume of ultra-dense music (they didn't), there's no way they could possibly have had it entirely "down" when the tour started. I can imagine they weren't quite so proficient for the first couple shows back during the summer.

What really made this show so incredible, though, was that they did everything a hardcore Zappa fan could hope for. So much of the best material was covered from all different eras of Zappa's career, and every time I was thinking "it'd be cool if they did X song," 10 minutes later they would break into it. There was even some audience participation like Frank used to do. Something that also impressed me was the way they took some songs and modernized them, putting their own spin on them. I'm the Slime was the best example as it's still a wonderfully pertinent song that sounded as if it was written as recently as this year. They heavied it up, making it sound borderline metal. It almost felt more appropriate for the subject matter than the original scoring did.

Finally, possibly the most impressive aspect of the show was how they played for over 3 and a half hours without a single real break. There were breaks that were sort of worked in for individual musicians over the course of the show, but there wasn't an intermission. The longest we went without hearing music once the show began was the 2 minutes between when everyone left the stage before coming back on for a very long encore. The whole thing was extremely unpretentious and was nothing but a pure display of ultra high-quality musicianship. I think Frank would have been proud and most certainly approved at his son's handling of the music.

The crowd was interesting, as it was composed mainly of people my parents' age with a smattering of 30-somethings. I found there to be very few people my age in the crowd. I liked how there was a large handful of young kids present with their parents (I saw a few that couldn't have been over 8 or 9, no kidding). It was also great to see that these young kids were dancing their asses off, having the time of their lives. It's reassuring to know that there are parents that are wise enough to bring their children to such a great concert and helping to make sure that the music of Frank Zappa is still finding new audiences.

Sorry if that was a bit of shameless rant, but I do have just under 100 hours of Zappa on my computer (yes, that's over 4 straight days of MP3s) so I guess I'm what some might call a bit of a fanatic. Seeing this show has been an incredible culmination of the last 4 years of my life spent avidly collecting and listening to Frank's music, all of which has been incredibly rewarding to wade through and begin to understand.

So moving on, Eric came to visit this weekend from Colorado. He's never seen Boston (or the east coast for that matter), so it was fun to show a complete New England virgin around. I never fully realized how much there is to do and see here when it's all new to you, as I've slowly built up knowledge of the city over the last 4 years. Friday we went out to some bars, eventually meeting up with a group of Starbucks girls to celebrate some birthdays. Saturday night was the Belgian Beer Festival which was amazing. I have some pics that I'll get up on Flickr eventually. There were over 200 beers to choose from and you just walked around with your little sample cup moving from table to table. I tried lots of beer that night and it was a great reminder of my time spent in Brussels. The wonderful benefit of drinking such good beer is the fact that you don't get any sort of hangover the next day. Today, I showed him the Garment District's awesome $1.50 per pound clothing pit. We watched the Colts/Broncos game this evening before Eric had to leave to catch his plane.

So now I'm left with a project to finish tomorrow morning and a midterm to study for (which I'm definitely not feeling confident about) that I gotta take tomorrow night. Thursday I need to present a long presentation to the class about anything Argentinian of my choosing. So far, I've put zero minutes into this, and am feeling more than a bit of apprehension about the whole thing. I'm hoping it doesn't turn into a train wreck for me. Unlike the test that I ended up getting an A on unexpectedly, I can't bullshit when I have to stand up in front of the class and talk. I also can't whip out my dictionary when I need it to look up that key word I'm missing either. Ack.

Yeah. So I'm gonna just try to get through these next two days and then we'll see what happens after that. Mmkay?

Hahahaha

So that Spanish test I thought I was going to bomb.... got an A on it. Hahahahahaha. What a joke. Strange part is, I dreamed I got an A on it a couple nights ago. Still, I can't believe this is supposed to be a 600 level class.

Pulling Out the Flannel Sheets and Long Underwear

The word of the day is vituperative. It has nothing to do with my post, but I just discovered it and think it's a fantastic word.

Things are moving along rather smoothly yet hectically if that makes any sense. I've been up to my neck in work lately as I probably mentioned in my last post, but I've been staying on top of things pretty well and actually maintaining a good schedule (something I've generally been crap at).

I had guests this weekend who ended up being exceptionally self-sufficient, making my life a whole lot easier, especially with all the crap I've had to get done lately. Sunday, Marliese came in to shoot some scenes for my movie which went really well except for a semi-large setback that I found out about today. Unfortunately, because some knob was too stingy to spring for decent mini-DV tapes, the heads on the camera were clogged and therefore about 1/3 of my footage from my Thursday and Sunday shoots drops out intermittently, rendering large chunks of video totally unusable. There's really no way of knowing this is happening whilst shooting, save for rewinding and checking every second of tape immediately after recording it. This is completely unfeasible, however, as it would practically double the amount of time spent shooting.

Needless to say, I created a "small disturbance" in the Avid lab with copious screaming and swearing. My teacher offered his sympathies as he claims "he's been there," although this did little to soothe my frayed nerves. The entire scene I shot with Marliese is now completely useless and needs to be redone, and a small (but easily re-shot) scene with my roommate, Gordon, needs to be done-over. Time is short, however, as much of my lost footage was shot outdoors and the weather is getting damn cold, damn quick. Otherwise, shooting has been going great. Everybody involved has been doing a really good job which will make post-production much easier.

I am also working on an audio project for my other class which is almost done. I like the way it's shaping up. I'll post it on youtube or something next week when it's finished.

Despite working my ass off, I'm still indulging in some of the finer things in life. Wednesday night I will finally get to experience Zappa Play Zappa. I'm banking that it'll be one of the most incredible shows I've ever been to. Not only will I get to hear Zappa's music performed live (and done correctly) and in an amazing venue, I will also get to see Steve Vai and Terry Bozzio in concert. Also, Eric will be in from Colorado on Friday to visit and go to the Belgian Beer Festival the following day. We traveled to Belgium together this year during Spring Break, so it'll be appropriate to be reunited for such a capital occasion.

I guess that's about it. I've been extremely absorbed with my work and personal life so I've barely been keeping up with current events, which I regret. I am vaguely aware that apocalypse slinks ever nearer with international order slowly crumbling away as a result of a new era of nuclear proliferation, genocide, horny congressmen, dwindling oil reserves (despite drops in gas prices), racist popes, global climate change, and the general clusterfuckery that is world politics, but haven't had much time to read up on details. Also, I'd like to be following the election race more closely, but it's been tough. I hate rooting for Democrats, but when you're stuck with a one-or-the-other scenario, that crowd always seems to be slightly less sociopathic. As the general cycle of politics go, isn't it about time for a Democratic House anyway? My sense of logic tells me it's a waste of time hoping for a better tomorrow by way of elected officials, but you gotta hope for something, right?

"I look to the future because that's where I'm going to spend the rest of my life." -George Burns

Seeming insurmountability

I took the time today to actually plot out everything I need to get done in the next 2 or so weeks and it has turned out to be rather absurd. It's actually to the point where I wonder if I'll be able to do everything I need to.

I think it's a fun challenge though. I've definitely never had this much on my plate before, including even the time towards the end of my Spain program when I was bitching and complaining about having to write 5 papers in 3 weeks or whatever it was. That ended up being okay, because it was just papers, and ultimately it depended on me sitting down, ignoring all the other distractions and just writing them. I eventually did so and everything turned out fine.

Things will probably turn out fine this time as well, but there are a lot more factors in play here that are beyond my control at this point in time. The 20+ hours of Starbucks I have this week can definitely be considered an unavoidable hindrance, for example. Additionally, I now have guests staying over both this coming weekend and the following one. I should have had more foresight when agreeing to have them come, but I didn't, so oh well. I've come to the conclusion that maintaining positive personal relationships with people should be just as high on the agenda as getting my school shit done. At least that's how I've half-assedly justified it. Also out of my hands is how much the success of my projects depends on other peoples' schedules and their being able to contribute. Even if I'm working my ass off, if my friends and classmates flake on me, my shit won't get done.

On a related note, I've decided to put the absolute bare minimum amount of effort into my Spanish class (in other words, doing exactly what I have been so far). I have a midterm on Friday but I don't plan on spending much more than an hour studying for it (so far I've put zero time into this course outside of the classroom). I'm aiming for a C for a final grade, which I'm pretty confident I can pull off with said amount of effort. If I manage anything better it'll be because of luck or because the professor decided to go easy on me. I only need a C for it to count towards my Spanish minor. I'm not totally sure if I actually need the class to graduate otherwise. My mindset is that if I aim low, I won't be disappointed or get worked up after I don't take enough time to study and do shitty on my tests. I have too much other junk to deal with that is worth getting worked up over already. I'm pleased with this decision.

So anyway, I ought not to be writing in my journal as I have to re-write my voice-over for my audio project. I was just informed a rough edit is due next Monday which means -in my teacher's own words- the whole project needs to be 90% done. Oops. Gotta get on that.

North Korea is a Crazy Place

North Korea has been in the news lately, those fiesty commies. I found this site that has some pretty interesting pictures of the isolated nation. Some of it is very creepy. Check it out. Oh, and read the captions to get the full effect. Translated from Russian

The Present and The Future

Bit of an update on my life.

Still recovering from mono, I guess. I feel a lot better. My spleen barely seems to act up at all these days, so I'm taking that as a sign that my liver is probably getting better too. My blood test from a couple weeks back said I was getting better but still had a little ways to go. I have another test next Wednesday and I'm pretty sure things will be back to normal by then, although with my luck my liver will have exploded by then. The reason I'm tired these days is because I don't sleep enough, not because of virus.

I really really miss beer.

This semester is ridiculous, but mostly in a good way. My Digital Editing class is turning out to be about as demanding as I expected (strenuously), but it's still been a bit of shock while everything is getting thrown in my face. We only meet once a week for 4 hours, so naturally we have 3 times as much stuff to do outside of class. TV Production is the one where I'm just making a movie. This only meets once a week as well, but the teacher only holds class for about 2 hours. Needless to say, I'm learning a lot about self-scheduling and time management this Fall, something I've never been particularly stellar at. On top of those two monsters I have 20+ hours a week at the Bux and my Spanish Seminar class which is a huge snore but is about to get much tougher when the Prof finally starts assigning real work. All it's been so far is extremely difficult 18th and 19th century Argentine literature, which I haven't bothered to waste my time on since we go over it all in class anyway.

Anyway, despite having a mind-boggling amount to do, I'm really happy to be doing it all. This is definitely shaping up to be my favorite semester academically at this school. It'll be nice to finish up on a sweeter note.

I've been giving a lot more serious consideration to moving to England after I graduate. There's lots of good reasons to do it, and especially so soon after I finish with school. The plan would basically be to hang around MA for a year saving up as much cash as possible while applying for a 2-year work visa in the UK. I'd get over and try to get my feet on the ground with the intentions of working for either the BBC or iTV (preferably the former). If things are looking pretty good approaching the 2 year mark, I'd probably start to seek citizenship. Dual-citizenship would be ideal, although the U.S. gov't can be pretty crotchety about that. Still, I hear it's not impossible to get. If everything goes sour or I just straight up don't like where I'm at I can always head back to the U.S. after my visa is up and start again from the ground up.

I've come to the conclusion that I wanna try to do something ambitious with the education I've been lucky enough to have, and to do so I'm pretty much forced to move to a major city. Although I've never been to LA, everything I've heard about it tells me it's one of the last places on earth I'd like to live. I already know I'm not into NYC, although it's a lot more of a palatable idea than LA. Then there is London. Also not my number one favorite place in the world, but it does have its upsides; namely, the BBC is based out of it. The BBC is a company I've admired since I first learned of its existence and it also happens to be friggen gigantic. They have positions in absolutely every possible area of television and beyond. I feel like as a major media corporation, the BBC still has a formidable semblance of moral integrity, something almost every major American network has been unapologetically shedding for the last 15+ years (or never pretending to have in the first place). As a result, it seems like a great company to aspire to work for. It's well established, would offer a fairly secure job environment, and wouldn't make me feel like I'm selling my soul to make a living. It is, of course, an insanely competitive company to get a job at, but I don't think it's impossible for me to get my foot in. Also, some of my professors know former students that work there and in other spots in London in media, so I can get some hookups right off the bat.

I could stay in Boston and probably get by alright doing things I enjoy, but why not aim high off the bat? It's the best time in my life to make a huge step, and if things go badly, I won't be falling very far. Trying to do something like this when I'm 30 would be a much bigger risk and a much bigger set of hurdles to overcome. If I am back in 2 years where I started, I know I won't be totally up shit creek as I've already formulated about 5 different backup plans (some more desirable than others) on how to put food in my mouth.

It's a lot to think about, especially while I'm just trying to get through the semester, but I think it's a good direction to head in.