Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Video Project

A few weeks ago we got an assignment in my Video Storytelling class to shoot a video about life in San Francisco. Our original concept didn't go over so well when the group presented (I was 34,000 feet above ground on my way home for Scott & Kristen's wedding) so the decision was made to re-concept and re-shoot. While I was away the team did the filming and some editing. To make it up to them for not being around, I put together a reimagination-ing of our vidoes in 90, 60 and 30 second cuts. Although it wasn't presented in class I figured I'd share it here, because I did all of the video and audio editing in and I want someone to "ooh" and "ahh" or tell me why I suck and how to be better. Anyway, without further rambling, here's my 30 second clip.

Concept: Healthy living as a runner passes through some of the unique areas of San Francisco.


Monday, July 27, 2009

Rock Girls Are Hot

First off, you should already know that.

I meant to post this a few weeks ago but got busy with school. Funny thing about the universe though, it's actually because of school that I'm posting it now.

I was working on an assignment - selling the Harley Davidson Sportster 883 to women.
Which got me thinking about Harley Davidson - black leather, bad ass, rock and roll. Which brought me back to this video (Note: the captions are mostly wrong and whoever added them has zero command of the English language, so just ignore them)



Point made.

I Have Never Been Prouder to be a Mets fan

I was in Las Vegas, pre-gaming in my soon to be married friend Scott's suite watching SportsCenter when I saw the single greatest thing ever as a Met fan (or at least until someone throws a no-hitter).

Fernando Tatis hit a HR in the 8th inning of the game and the Home Run Apple didn't rise. Now, it's been a fairly miserable season, - any Mets fan can tell you that, with the team being crippled by injuries and poor defense even that weekend it looked clear that the season would be a disappointment - but for the Apple, our one true signature to not appear, that was just the lowest of the low. And then something beautiful happened.

The fans booed.
Not regular booing either, NY booing. The kind that will make you second guess if you were the spawn of Satan or just killed a puppy in front of people.

And after they booed, 40,000 plus started chanting "Apple, Apple, Apple!" And when that didn't get results they grew louder, chanting "We Want Apple!" *clap*clap*clappity clap*

I sat in the suite, drink in hand, watching the video on ESPN. I'm not sure how much they had to turn up the background sound so that you could hear the crowd, but my guess is not much*. My friends and all I sat back and laughed. When the 8th inning ended, the Apple finally rose - and Citi Field went bazonkers. Again you could hear the crowd and the finely edited video packaged showed a few fans bowing, a la Wayne's World's "we're not worthy" bit.

I told my friends at that moment - I've never been prouder to be a Mets fan.



*I attended opening day at Shea Stadium 3 years ago. The Mets played the Philies. This is the year after almost making the World Series and just after the summer when Philies SS Jimmy Rollins declared them the team to beat. The Mets were down when Rollins made a crucial error and the Mets took the lead. To show our appreciation the 55,000 and more who crammed into Shea on Opening Day chanted "Jimmy Rollins" throughout the rest of the inning. When I got home that night I tuned into the rebroadcast of the game. We (the crowd) was so loud that you could hear the chant loud and clear during points of announcer silience. So that's the basis of my estimation.

Sunday, July 19, 2009

How big's your engine?

A friend of mine who is also in advertising and I were talking about this commercial after I commented that there is no substitute for a rock chick. It dates back to a time when anyone who drove a Prius would be called names other than "environmentally conscious". Fast cars and rock n' roll - I miss that.



Suck it Ken, you hybrid driving pansy.

My apology to the Gay Community

I don't like strip clubs. I'm not a fan of strippers. I have my reasons, but I'll just say that it's the lack of commitment to one value set or another - either you are or you aren't - that bothers me about the profession. Anyway, not important.

Many of my friends do not share my view, which is fine, and as most bachelor parties do, my friend's involved a trip to a strip club. Side Note: Even in Vegas, don't go to a strip club on a Sunday night. The B squad is in.

I'm not one to pull a Mike and flake out on my friends, so I planned to just suck it up for the night and go hang out with my friends. We got to the strip club, I don't know, around midnight maybe midnight-30 and it wasn't very full. We sit down not too far from the "stage" and are descended upon by 4 or 5 girls. Fortunately one was taking drink orders and I decided to keep the vodka flowing for the rest of the night. Additionally, I had something else going in my favor - my look. I wasn't the happy to be there guy, Scott had that taken care of - boom, girl goes to him. I wasn't the shy, nervous looking guy, poor Tim never had a minute alone - boom boom boom let me her ya say way oh, girl goes to him. I wasn't the "he's cute and if I wasn't a stripper and he wasn't paying to see me take my clothes off, I think I'd ask for his number" guy, Brandon's your man for that - boom girl goes to him, possibly questioning her career choice as she does.

That gave me a few minutes to hang out and talk to Scott's brother Graig and enjoy my drink. However, I knew that it was only a matter of time before I was no longer safe. Either a new shift would start, or one of the other parties would stop tipping well or I'd accidentally look like I was interested. I needed a long term plan.

Eventually the time came. She asked me to scoot over and I did, because my mommy raised me to be a gentleman, even to strippers and told me that she'd take good care of me tonight. I had this idea in the back of my head and decided to just go with it.

"Thanks, I really appreciate the attention...but I'm gay."

She pulled a 3 point turn and tried to pass it off like she was talking about Scott but after I told her he was doing alright for now she was gone.

And not a single stripper came and talked to me for the rest of the night. It was wonderful. I got to keep my eyes wandering when a decent looking girl passed by, and I got to enjoy drinking and talking with my friends.

My cover worked a little too well, in that I had to keep the lie up so during a conversation with some guys nearby I had to decline accepting an offer to get up close and friendly with a girl, due to my faux homosexuality, which resulted in the guy we were talking to commenting that if I "liked white guys" I should email him when I got back to San Francisco because he had some friends.

Needless to say, will not be emailing him.

But my idea worked out better than I had hoped and I actually had an enjoyable night. In typical fashion of course, my friend's presented me with an 'It's Okay to be Gay' card the following night at the Hard Rock Cafe after requesting The Village People's classic "YMCA". Gotta love friend's like that.

Sorry got a little sidetracked. Anyway, to the heart of the matter. I, honestly and do sincerely apologize to the gay and lesbian community for pretending to be such just to avoid prolonged contact with strippers. I mean no harm nor disrespect and it is my hope that you will accept my heartfelt apology... and also allow me to continue to pretend to be gay in these situations. As a token of thanks, I will continue to support musical theater, the right to gay marriage and will not judge the homosexual experimentation of college frat boys.

Thank you.

Bite


My friends and I took in a show while in Vegas - I'd say when in Rome but the show was at the Stratosphere, not Caesar's Palace so when in Seattle would be more like it, except that it would ruin the whole concept of the quote because when in Seattle buy an umbrella ella ella and drink coffee. Anyway, the show we went to see was called "Bite". It was billed as a rock n' roll inspired musical show about Vampires but I'm fairly certain that my friend Scott stopped after reading "Topless Revue" and decided that this is what we should see.

The topless aspect being nothing more than a gimmick, I'm sure many of my friends left the show rather unsatisfied or just flat out disappointed. Note: The usage of the phrase "flat out" was not meant to indicate that the performers were flat chested, it was merely a hilarious coincidence in my writing which I feel is better left and overtly explained rather than changed for clarity.

The show itself had a simple premise - Vampire Lord fell in love with a girl, she died or disappeared (didn't really understand how that worked but whatever) and he can't find her. So every night he parties with his coven of (topless) vampire girls and invites people to come join them, in the hopes that he'll find her some day, convert her (apparently mama vampire lord doesn't approve of shiksas) and make her his queen. Like I said - simple premise. The show was executed like Billy Joel's Broadway musical "Movin' Out", namely, in that there was no spoken dialogue, and the story was told through the music. Also to be interpreted as - at least we can hire good looking performers and not have to worry about whether or not they can actually act.

But the music was where this show shined - a classic rock setlist that included maybe tops 2 songs I didn't recognize. Here are some of the hits:

Welcome to the Jungle - cliched start but whatever
Sympathy for the Devil - the GNR cover
Girl You Really Got Me - Van Halen edition
Hot For Teacher
Cold As Ice
Hot Blooded
Rock and Roll Fantasy
Come Sail Away
Moondance
You Shook Me (All Night Long)
Living After Midnight - outro

And plenty more that I can't remember at this time but distinctly remember getting excited about and quietly singing along to. In addition to the rock awesome soundtrack you had some of the Vegas standards - dancing girls, two rings performers (you know, hang from a ring, sping around the ceiling, grab a partner and spin her too?) and a woman who did similiar tricks from some fabric hanging from the ceiling. I know that there are fancy artist terms for these things, but I have no idea what they are. Additionally, not all of the tracks were just pipped into the theater off of a great mix CD. Several were sung by a member of the cast including a great scene performing "Moondance" as the Vampire Lord tried to court his beloved. Imagine that. Of all the nights for us to show up at the show, he finally finds her when we were there. Amazing, wonder what the odds are on that.

So I enjoyed the show immensely, partially due to a curly haired brunette rock Vampire chick named Pain. What can I say - everyone's got a type.

Viva las wifi

Last weekend I headed out to Vegas for my friends Scott and Kristen's bachelor/bachelorrette party weekend. Obviously I am under strict rules and am unable to discuss much of what happened throughout the trip, however, there are some issues that are fair game.

Namely - how the hell can Las Vegas hotels not offer free wifi? They tried to charge $15 a day, just so I could connect to the internet and get my work done. Are you shitting me? If they are willing to comp food and rooms and other ammenities to people to get them to stay and gamble, who's the genius that thought asking for $15 to get the internet in your room was a solid way to endear yourself to guests?

A jackass, that's who.

I got free wifi in my hotel room at the Red Roof Inn up in Cortlandt, New York when I went for my sister's graduation. I could set my fantasy baseball lineups and even check out porn, all for free in a like $40 a night hotel room (of course for graduation weekend they were charging $100 a night but a pig in a dress is still a pig - or Sarah Palin, I don't remember how that joke goes.)

Can't we all just agree that nowadays wifi is like air - it's all around us and anyone who tries to charge you for it is a Spaceball?

Thursday, July 9, 2009

Wedursday: The worst day of the week

I've started to adjust to my new schedule, figured out (for the most part) which trains and buses I need to get to and from school, and what time I need to leave my apartment so that I make it to the train station on time. But what I don't think I'll be able to adjust to is the new worst day of the week - Wedursday, aptly named because Wednesday and Thursday will blend together.

Traditional Wednesday I have the morning and part of the afternoon to myself. My only class for the day is from 7pm to 10pm. However, thanks to the lovely California transit system, my only train option is at 4:58. Okay fine, I have to leave really early to get to my class on time. However, then when class gets out I need to make it back to the train station to catch the 10:40pm train. That train drops me back off at around midnight (as I learned last night). By the time I walk home it's around a quarter after midnight and it would be nice to eat something considering my last meal was likely around 3pm the day before. Then I can get to sleep so that I can wake up at 7am and make it back to the train station to catch the train and bus combo to make it to my 10am class on time. After that, I have 6 hours to kill until my final class at 7pm. Again, unfortunately California public transits schedule prevents me from returning home, because I would have about 50-70 minutes before I would have to get back on the train again, then take the bus back to school. Not worth it.

Those factors have led me to the creation of Wedursday, the worst day of the week. It encompasses the afternoon portion on, of traditional Wednesday with all of traditional Thursday to bring me a hybrid concoction of pain and tiredness. It's a horrible day. If I can survive I do have Friday through Monday off where I can catch up on sleep, but I have to make it there first.

Fortunately, I just need to make it through the quarter, 9 more weeks. Or win enough money in Vegas this weekend to be able to still pay my rent in Sunnyvale and move up to San Francisco.

Monday, July 6, 2009

First day of school - I'm oriented!

Orientation was only about an hour and I don't have class on Mondays, so not too much to talk about. But I couldn't ignore my first day of school so here are things I learned:
  • My commute is pretty long and very boring. Definitely need to pack a water bottle and some snacks
  • As long as I make 13.25 roundtrips per month, it's financially worth it to get the Caltrain monthly pass
  • Same with the Muni monthly pass, but I need to make 13.75 roundtrips
  • Miss a class 3 times, you fail. Checked my wedding schedule, missing two classes once and one class twice. Whew.
  • There is an elective class on games - so will be taking that
  • Copywriters no longer take photography. Kind of bummed because it would have been nice to learn, but at the same point that just saved me around $900 by not having to buy a digital SLR camera
  • There's a get together for us new 1st quarter students at a bar near the school on Friday, but I'll have to miss it (flying to Vegas)
  • Everyone at school seems really nice, and I think we were all a tad bit nervous
  • There's a lot to look forward to

Sunday, July 5, 2009

Back to school

I couldn't find the clip from Billy Madison where Adam Sandler is singing his "Back to School" song while waiting for the bus, so we'll all have to make due with my backup plan - the opening number from Grease 2 (yes, that's the best I could do).


Anyway, I have orientation tomorrow morning at 11am. I have been waiting excitedly for a while for this. My excitement took a few weeks off when I was back in NY taking care of/looking after my mom, but once she started visibly doing better my excitement came back. Then I got back here to California and I've just been so busy the last few days I couldn't really be excited. Now, I need to go to sleep (because I don't have a place in San Francisco so the commute is going to be long and start early) and I'm all excited and not ready for bed.

I got my schedule last week and I have no class on Mondays or Fridays, which I'm really happy for because it works out well with this summer's Bachelor Party, Wedding, Bachelor Party, Wedding travel schedule. I'm taking 4 classes, each one meets once a week for three hours. I'm a bit weary of that. I only took 1, maybe 2 classes that met once a week in college and they usually had the most work associated with them. But, since I don't have much else going on I don't think I'll need to worry too much about the workload. Besides, at least I know I'll use this stuff in real life, unlike pre-calc.

So I'm all ready to go. I copied down the train and bus times I need to get to school, I picked out my first day outfit already and made sure everything was nice and clean, I made myself a new ringtone (not school related but I thought I'd share anyway) and I set my alarm for the morning. Yup, I'm all ready to go back to school again.

Here I go. Weeeeeeeeeeeee!

Soundtrack: 4th of July

This is by no means definitive. No one should ever try to impose their musical tastes on someone else, just like politics or religion. This is how I see America's Birthday in the songs around us.

Born in the U.S.A. - Bruce Springsteen: Despite the countless times it's been misinterpreted, had it's meaning ignored by some idiot who didn't listen beyond the chorus (*cough* 1980's Republicans *cough*), or maybe because of those facts it's always been a "must play" because it doesn't pull any punches and isn't a propaganda song like you'd think based on the name. It's real America, like Bruce.

Pink Houses and Small Town - John Melloncamp (Cougar optional): I grew up in the suburbs, somewhere outside of New York City that some jerks (Long Islanders) still call "upstate" where you could both feel like you lived in a small town with all those down home values everyone's always saying NYers don't have, and also feel like you were in an up and coming area. These songs are for when you want to escape the latter and reflect on the simpler things.

Jack and Diane - John Melloncamp: Isn't this the American dream?

Fortunate Son - Creedence Clearwater Revival: Another song that isn't about how great things are going for people. It's about everyone else.

American Girl - Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers: Of course now I'm guilty of exactly what I pointed out with "Born in the U.S.A.". This song is really about a freshman girl who killed herself in Florida... but, all of that gets over looked because of the title and this scene from Scrubs where my crush on Dr. Elliot Reid/Sarah Chalke hit new heights.


American Woman - The Guess Who/Lenny Kravitz: The original Guess Who version is awesome, but they're Canadian so I'm not sure I can include them here. I love the guitar riffs that Lenny Kravitz added in his cover. Either way, it's a great song saluting one of this country's greatest natural resources.

Surfin' U.S.A. - The Beach Boys: Just a light hearted, fun, song about having fun in America.

Keep on rockin' in the Free World - Neil Young: I'm not sure how to describe it. It's socially conscious, depressing and sad if you think about it "there's one more kid who'll never go to school, never get to fall in love, never get to be cool", but I've always taken the chorus to be hopeful. Maybe that's the wrong way to look at it, with all of the world's problems that rock is the way to go, but to me it makes sense.

America, Fuck Yeah! - Matt Parker and Trey Stone (?): It has to be on the list for a simple reason - it's the core of patriotism. Everyone who loves America, someplace deep inside holds onto something about this country that makes them excited, makes them happy, that gives them a reason to stand up and cheer and scream "FUCK YEAH!" whether it's baseball, hot dogs, apple pie, Starbuck, internet porn or whatever.

The Star Spangled Banner - Jimi Hendrix/Whitney Houston/Marvin Gaye/an anonymous youngster from your hometown: We have a great national anthem. Watch an Olympic event that we suck and listen when someone else's flag gets raised. There's always something off about someone else's anthem. Hendrix made ours rock harder than anyone else's could ever dream. If it wasn't our national anthem and you heard it, you'd wonder where he came up with those great licks. Whitney sang with pitch perfect precision to give it timelessness. Marvin gave it soul and had everyone grooving along. And everytime you see a child step up to the mic and blow you away, they add their innocence to it. Not bad for a song a guy wrote on a boat almost 200 years ago.

Saturday, July 4, 2009

Quick thoughts about my family

I survived just about a full month at home with my family. It wasn't always easy. Okay, so maybe if my mom wasn't heavily sedated and unconscious for a week and a half I wouldn't have made it, but that point is we all came out of it for the better. My mom is doing better and hopefully realizes that she needs to make some changes to how she's taking care of herself; my sister possibly learned to loosen up a little bit and be a little bit nicer to people when she's in charge and me well I developed a love for the show NCIS, thanks to my mom and sister.

Between the three of us we watch a lot of crime/murder/police - drama/mystery/comedy shows. We've got our bases covered with all branches and specialties from street level detectives (Law&Order, Homicide, Monk), forensics and anthropology (CSI and Bones), interrogation and people reading (the Closer, Lie to Me), psychics and photographic memory (the Mentalist and Psych) and just about everything in between. While I was looking after my mom one afternoon she fell asleep (thanks to the meds) and left me sitting on the bed watching the story of the Zodiac.

We're sort of a weird family like that, but I think that each of us is siliently hoping that we are within the close proximity to a crime so that we can spring into action and solve it - like a bad NBC TV show. So you've been forwarned; if you're going to commit a crime of any kind you best do it far away from me and my family. Or else we'll investigate, tie you to the evidence, establish a solid motive and even write the prosecutions opening arguements before they put you away.

Oh, and don't try any of that "mommy never loved me" or twinkie defense bullshit. We've seen it all before.

A month on the road...

I'm back in California and woke up this morning in a combination of familiar and strange surroundings. I remembered some things and had completely forgotten others. I remembered where I left Scott and Kristen's wedding invitation, and the Congratulations card I was going to send my godson when I got back from New York but completely forgot about the Twix bar I had left in the cupboard or the piles of things I had left in my room in my haste to catch a flight back home.

Getting reacquainted with my surroundings today has had good moments - I rediscovered how great it is to watch TV in HD on a large flat screen, or how smooth Dani rides; and not so good moments - digging my way through a month's worth of mail, the difference between the stock of my fridge and my moms, not to mention planning for school, which starts on Monday, and the realization that I have a bunch of crap in my room/apartment that I have no idea how to get rid of.

Oh well. I'll remember what I was doing/going to do before I left for NY in a few days. Of course by that time I'll be on my way to Vegas. Eh, what are you gonna do.