Tuesday, November 29, 2005

The Two Worlds Meet



Butte La Rose (or as I call them, Brooke, Cooper and Reed) is/are playing in Lafayette on Dec. 21. For all of you in Louisiana, this is your chance to win my undying love and affection. I know you have been craving it, so here's your "in". They're definitely in the "Y'allternative" vein I'm digging these days, so if you like good music, go check them out. If they suck it up, I never liked them.

Monday, November 21, 2005

Why I Heart L.A.

Ok, so now that I'm officially moving, I'm getting all sappy and nostalgic about my adopted home of L.A. I really know that no matter what I do, I'll always come back here for at least a little bit of time. Whether it's from the writing thing or just to leech off of Brooke as part of her entourage, this place will always feel comfortable.

Not that it started out that way, mind you. I'll tell that story soon, but let's just say that moving to L.A. is like getting hazed by the worst fraternity imaginable. Once you get through the hazing, though, you are definitely a part of it all. Nobody's actually from here, so they have to develop a way to separate the wheat from the chaff.

Anyway, this week's highlights are why I love L.A. Thursday we got to see Harry Potter thanks to my friend Amy's job. She works at the Children's Hospital here and a group named Reel Angels was able to get a preview screening even before the midnight showing. They work to bring movies that are currently in the theatre to kids who can't leave the hospital. I'm a total HP Nerd (among other types of nerd), so we got a big kick out of watching it.

Saturday, we had a wedding shower for my roommate and his fiance. It was down in a part of L.A. called Los Feliz, which is a few miles closer to the ocean than our apt. in Sierra Madre. This closeness means that even though L.A. had a random November heat wave (getting up to the 90s), we just had the windows open and the breeze made it the perfect climate for partying down. Even though Baton Rouge doesn't exactly get a winter either, I just can't get over the weather here.

Sunday I went to go see Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. It was an ok flick, but a big part of it was making fun of L.A. Until you actually live here, you don't get how much the movie/TV industry completely rags on L.A. It's like seeing this whole other level beneath the surface. Although L.A. really does have everything (except chik-fil-a), you can tell how bitter many people are that they have to live here and fight traffic and put up with celebrity buttholes on every corner. This makes for some very sarcastic humor, which is the best kind!

And last but not least, if it were not for L.A. I would have missed out on Matisyahu! This may not be for everyone, but a Jewish Reggae singer is too awesome to resist for me. Check him out, a lot of his stuff is very spiritual and is actually done well. I have the Live at Stubb's album and have listened to it non-stop this week.

Oh Los Angeles, how I will miss thee!

Thursday, November 17, 2005

LA and L.A. Coincidence? I think not.

So, I think I've mentioned it before, but there is a random group of Louisianans and Louisiana-affiliates (such as myself) out here and L.A. and one of the great outcroppings of that wonderful meeting of the minds is the band Butte La Rose. (I do not mean to imply in that last sentence that I have anything to do with their inception, just mentioning that there's a random Louisiana crew out here who let me tag along with them at times).

I've mentioned them before, but they didn't have a name then, I think. Well, go check out their myspace page HERE. I really dig them and maybe we can get them to come to BR one day and play some music for us!

Wednesday, November 16, 2005

Good Things Come to Those Who Wait

Also, long posts come from those who slack.

Ok, I've got a lot to do, which is of course the perfect time to escape to blog land and write write write things that will neither get me good grades nor further my career. Ah, the gentle tap-tapping of keyboard self-sabotage, is anything sweeter? ;) So, here's the brief update:

1. I'm back in California, and it's nice to be home. Brooke and I caught Shopgirl last night and it was very good, and of course the midnight showing of Harry Potter is Thursday night, so a bunch of us are hitting that. For a person like me, who loves movies of all type, L.A. has certainly been the place to be. I will miss going to little movies like this, especially at a place like the Arclight . L.A. is just one of the few places that doesn't make me feel stupid for loving movies as much as I do, and it's always a good feeling for your habits to be appreciated by other addicts!

2. Things to get done for school: First, I'm still editing my mini-documentary, which turned out to focus more on Pascagoula and its recovery from Katrina than I had expected. I'd really like it to be great, so I'm taking my time with it (this is what all great procrastinators say, don't believe any of us). Second, I'll have to write a 15-20 page paper on the whole process as well. That's actually the easy part, sad to say. Third, I have a distance class-by-tape that I slacked on and am nowing paying the price of half-days in the library. Once I have finished listening to ten weeks worth of tapes, I can then write my paper and take two tests on the material. YAY!

3. Things to get done so I won't starve in the future: A big part of what I did at my old job was editing dissertations. I actually enjoyed it a lot and have the opportunity to continue doing that more as a freelance person. I can even do this from Baton Rouge, which would be NICE, as I could then have at least one source of income lined up before I move. I have to do a sample of my work and turn it in, though, which has become yet another thing to procrastinate on.

Although it's on the hush hush, a friend of mine has asked me to help him on a project that I'm pretty excited about. I've got an idea of how to make the project very good, but we're all still in the very "vague" phase of things and it's hard to steal time from the above list to really concentrate fully on this, too. It could lead to a life of actually writing for a living though, and that's really the dream. I've come to realize that it's pretty much my only skill (other than the bowstaff, of course), and I should really spend a lot more time honing this craft and trying to make it work for me (rather than just blogging about it!)

4. (I number things so I don't go completely off track, which is always a possibility.) In the vein of trying to turn writing into an actual job, I went to the Screenwriting Expo this past weekend and loved it. Although the writer isn't exactly revered in Hollywood, this is what I'd really love to do. I went to a lot of workshops that were a bit over my head, but very helpful nonetheless, and heard Joss Whedon and William Goldman (imdb them, if you don't know they're work) and was really inspired just to create something, anything that affect people.

5. I get to move back to Baton Rouge and start working with the Ring again. I guess I've spent 2 1/2 years learning things at seminary for this specific goal, so this is working out well :) The Ring and Baton Rouge are definitely my sources of community and pretty much no matter what I do, they will be a part of me. I know that God really has a plan for the Ring as it moves into maturity, and I feel very priveleged to be able to help out there where I can.

Ok, so them's the facts. I'll be a better blogger. I swear. Really. Now that I've listed the myriad responsibilities on my plate, I better get to work. (And by get to work, I mean find another way to procrastinate!)