Tuesday, June 30, 2009

I dedicate this to Allen


After a day of typing documentary transcripts*, I decided to spend my afternoon in Central Park. Explosions in the Sky was supposed to play a concert - that was sold out. However, it was an outdoor show, so I figured I would be able to hear.

At four, I walked the 20 blocks down to 59th and 8th, the entrance into Central Park. After meandering around for about twenty minutes, it started to rain. By the time I found shelter, I was drenched head to toe. I had to ring out my hair and shirt. When the rain stopped, I went back on my voyage to find the concert. Finally, an massive line of attractive hipsters* pointed me straight to the show. Yet, right when I found the perfect seat (a rock) it started to rain again. I retreated back to my safe zone, passing adorable couples with umbrella's all along the way. Girls clung to boys, snuggling into their chests. Boys clung to girls, burying themselves in their girlfriends sides in order to receive a head massage. Common themes, I kid you not. And there I stood, all alone, soaking wet. I didn't even have my rain boots to make things better (I told you they were a great purchase). Okay, thats enough bitterness for today.

I waited out the storm with some writing and some reading. I headed down to the concert and listened to some mediocre band for an hour. It was getting late and I was getting cold so I decided to get home. I spent the next 45 minutes wandering around the park due to my decision to take a "short cut." When I finally made it out, I was on 81st and Central Park West (which is the same as 8th) - 22 blocks from the D train. I began my trek, which wasn't that bad at all seeing that there were a lot of the pretty buildings and museums on that side of town.

At 64th, the white man turned to a red hand. When I stopped at the corner, all traffic noise paused for a second and there I heard it - wallowy guitar and a lot of cymbal - it was Explosions! I b-lined back into the park, following the music so I wouldn't get lost. When I hit the baseball field the sound was perfect, so I sat down and listened, completely wet, completely cold, and completely happy.

Less-Than-Three You, Monique
Listening to: a British accent

Footnotes*
1. I met the other intern today. Her name is Michelle. She is from Oklahoma. And, she blows my mind. She is that girl - the girl who is continuously confident. Michelle is the type of girl who doesn't 'expect' boys to buy her things but more so 'assumes' they will. She is pretty, yes, but there is something more that I can't quite put my finger on. She wears knee socks and floral dresses, and speaks loud and clear. It's all very bizarre. I'm curious if I'll actually get to know her; I don't think I will.

2. According to Monique, attractive hipsters are mainly male. They wear fitted jeans, simple t-shirts and zipper hoodies. They could have soccer bodies if they did something other than play an instrument. In order to keep their minds fresh, attractive hipsters often frequent coffee shops, trendy concerts in the park, and little known poetry events. The difference between an attractive hipster and a regular hipster is that Monique plans to obtain one someday. Not only are they adorable, but they are easy to maintain, seeing that they can survive on coffee and cigarettes alone.

Monday, June 29, 2009

Sleepless in the city that never sleeps

So, I have officially spent my first 24 hours in New York. My flight left Phoenix at 6am Sunday, which meant I left the house at 4am... my usual bed time these days. So, I chose not to sleep. After dealing with a clusterfuck at the baggage check-in counter and talking my way through an epic security line, I made it to my gate just in time to board. I slept terribly on the plane and arrived in New York around 2pm east coast time. After I grabbed my bag, I met my maternal aunt Bia, whom I have not seen since I was 5, and we parted for the city. Two hours on the subway and we finally made it to my cousins place in the Bronx. (P.S. if you want to go to Manhattan, fly La Guardia, not JFK. Lesson learned.)

My aunt, whom I quickly realized was a terribly flighty lady, is absolutely adorible. She has the personality of my mom in some bizarre ways. What's more is she looks nothing like my mom... none of her sibblings do. It must be a Creole thing.

Anyway, we headed back to the house where I immediately passed out. After my three hour nap, my cousin and his boyfriend arrived. He is hilarious and terribly social... I felt right at home. 20 minutes after his arrival, he ran out the door to get booze. Sunday night became Margarita Night - I was down for that.

The next morning, I got up for work. I had a hard time sleeping; thoughts of what my next month would be like kept going through my head. But, I made it to work after two subway transfers and 2 blocks of walking. The building I work in consists of [literally] a tiny golden door with the street address on the side. You walk in to a small room with 3 elevators and a security guard at a desk. I made my way up to the 21st floor, amazed to find a beautiful lofted office area with an epic view of the city.

I work for three older gentlemen that make documentaries and I spent most of my day transcribing interviews and reading articles on American Cinematographer in my spare time. I grabbed a quick lunch at the restaurant downstairs with the lunch stipend I get (I'm pathetically excited about this, my dears).

After work, I was on the verge of passing out so I grabbed a coffee and headed to 49th and 9th. On my way over, a man said "I love you" and held out his hand full of change (I don't buy love so I smiled politely and kept moving). Another man said "God bless you. You are so cute." I smiled once again, and his friend yelled "He's 45" as I continued to make my way to the shop. Once there, I met up with my aunt, cousin and his adorable friend Diego. Diego is another actor and dancer, and we chatted about his problematic weekend at auditions for a bit. Diego left and we joined another one of my cousins friends at the Hudson to kayak. Yes, I kayaked, and I didn't even fall in! I'll put up an actual pic of us kayaking later... but for now, you can look at the random woman I snapped.


We went to dinner at this beautiful hole-in-the-wall Thai place called "Room Service." Diego and Brandon, my cousins boyfriend, joined us and we spent the night talking about conspiracy theories and fashion. The food was great and the atmosphere was amazing - silver walls, slick black tables and metal chairs filled the room. They had a massive crystal chandelier caged inside of a glass box in the middle of the room, and old framed mirrors were mounted to the ceiling. I definitely approve of the sexy lighting this place had. If you are ever in NY, check it out.

Now I'm back at my cousin's, about to watch "The Darjeeling Limited" and make these ridiculous hair covered headphones with Brandon. This weekend I'm off to Vermont with Alex and Christy... I could definitely get used to this.

Less-Than-Three You, Monique
Listening to: New York ambience

Odds and Ends

I'm about three and a half hours into what will certainly be a slow and boring day. There is nothing going on in the office, nothing to research, and my supervisor isn't here. I have a slow day of Internet browsing ahead of me. 

Yesterday I worked my first shoot. While I can't say what the shoot was for, I will say that it was a very fun experience. It was a small shoot, I was one of five interns serving as PAs working alongside the professional crew and I was the only woman on set. It took about two or three hours into the day before someone finally said the words that I expected to have heard much earlier. As the wee PAs huddled in the area of the room most out of the way of the Big Boy's footsteps, I caught the 1st AC giving us all a once over. "So, you're all looking to get into the industry?" We nodded, he continued. "Get out. Chose another profession while you still can. The industry is dying, I wouldn't want to be trying to break in at this time." This comment, while a little brash, isn't really rude. The guy saying it was not unfriendly. It's the most honest and most common advice given to anyone in my position and I was surprised it hadn't come up sooner in my intern experience. 

My LA summer is just about half over, which is really depressing. I like it here, but I worry we're all getting too cozy and aren't exploring the city enough. While my internship experience is half over, Mo's is just starting and I can't wait for her to blog her ass off about New York and whatever shinanigans she experiences. Meanwhile, I'll be here. In the office. Reading digg and trying not to fall asleep on this slow, slow day. 

Bye kids,
Sarah

Listening to: The really awful noise the printer has started to make behind me. 

Saturday, June 27, 2009

And Away We Go...

I leave for New York on Sunday. I'm just about packed; I just need to get a few last minute things in order and then I'm off.

In the mean time, I saw "Away We Go." It was absolutely beautiful - it felt real. You should check it out.



Less-Than-Three You <3 Monique
Listening to: "Forgetting Sarah Marshall"

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Independence

I left Tucson on Saturday and headed home to Scottsdale. My mom wanted to see me before I left for New York, so here I am, trapped in this nonsensical place til Sunday. My mom leaves for North Carolina tomorrow morning, so I figured this would be the perfect time to complete my roadtrip to LA to visit the BFAers. Wednesday to Saturday in LA, Sunday to August in NY... sounds good right?

I have all the means of doing this trip... funding, a car, time and directions. The opposition? My mother. She doesn't want me to do it. "Think about the mileage, the waste of money... I'm uncomfortable with this." So what do I do? I'm 20 years old, I pay for my schooling and I'm pretty responsible all in all. But I'm not fully independent. What happens if I go to LA anyway? Are the consequences of still being in the nest worth it?

This makes me wish that I was fully independent. Financially, that is. A simple job would take care of that, right? What's harder is that I realize that this is just the beginning of the problem. What am I going to do in the future? We are entering an unstable industry where jobs come and go more frequently than lovers; how the hell am I going to be financially independent then? Now that's a sad realization. So if we don't reach a level of success in this industry that guarantees us a form of stability - a regular influx of projects - what the fuck are we to do?

Our friend Allen has been out of film school for a year now and he finally has a comfortable job with benefits at Starbucks. He loves it, but his concerns come in the idea that he just spent four years studying something that he currently isn't utilizing simply due to the need for stability. He needs to go to LA. He needs to find work. He needs to show his talent. But he needs to pay bills, too. You can't argue with that.

I guess the only thing we can do is decide what we need to do and do our best. I need to go to LA (now) and I need to work in film (later). All that's left is the action.

Less-Than-Three You, Monique
Listening To: a mix of Spoon and my brother, Ryan, spinning DnB.

Monday, June 22, 2009

Chicks in Flicks

Cinematical put up an article last a week about about Girls on Film and why wanting more interesting female protagonists isn't just a feminist ploy for equality. The main gist of the article is that wanting to see some variety in the types of woman portrayed in film is not any different from other minorities wanting to see themselves represented on screen. I remember talking with George and Katie over some fried food at Deny's late one night last semester about the lack of female characters in both the junior and senior films last year. Even now as I write my senior project I made the decision for my character to be male without really considering it. The story could be exactly the same with a girl, why did I automatically make him a guy? While I don't think that all female protagonists go the way of Jezebel's breakdown of women in romantic comedies, it did get me thinking about the number of movies with female protagonists that aren't labeled 'chick flicks'. Personally what annoys me most is the fact that most the female-lead movies that aren't chick flicks are the movies specifically about female protagonists overcoming sexual adversity and that there is little to no middle ground. I'd like to see a strong and interesting female character in a movie that's not about how she is strong and interesting despite being a woman. 

EDIT 6/24: It's not a list of non-chick flicks with female protagonists, but it's close enough: a list of seven non-click flicks by female directors. I'm a little bummed out that American Psycho isn't on there. It did get a mention, though. 

Saturday, June 20, 2009

Money

One of the biggest questions that any student filmmaker, or any independent filmmaker is constantly asked is how much they spent on their films. Among the short, indie film circuit, it's always fun to watch a film and play the "I could have made that in $___" game. At Playhouse West last week, we watched a 25 minute film that cost over $30,000. They shot on the same HD camera that I shot my Junior thesis project on, and when asked what they spent their money on they took the time to list all of the ways they saved money on set. Which left us all asking each other afterwards "so...where did their 30 grand go?" 

As I continue to work on my screenplay and begin pre-production, I realize how much writing your own work allows for you to project your estimated budget from the get-go. I always assumed I would hate the writing process, but I'm currently really enjoying it. Mostly because I know how much I am in control of in the start. Things like locations, number of pages to shoot in each location, number of characters, number of costume changes, all dictate how much money I'll be spending in the fall. 

I am currently, well, broke. After not working last semester, I am currently living in an expensive city waiting for my scholarship check to come in and meanwhile leaning a little to hard on my parents (Thank you!) while having no money to save for the project. I scout the internet for grants to apply for, confirmed that I'll have a job in the fall (which will be a help, but by no means a bountiful fund), and I consider my lowest options such as maxing out a credit card, cuddle-only prostitution, and starting up a business on Venice Beach selling tye-dyed shit. 

In terms of this project, I know where the money will be going. To camera rental, underwater equipment rentals, possible location fees, and a small amount of set decoration. And craft services, but that is unavoidable. Done. There it is. Is it too early to start looking to marry for money? 

Bye kids,
Sarah

Listening to: Tymps (The Sick in the Head Song) - Fiona Apple

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Good Food, Good Music, Good People

Alex came back to Tucson last night. In his honor, Nick threw a small dinner party with the promise of good food, good music and good people. I arrived promptly at 7:30 carrying homemade cupcakes that I baked with love (in your honor, Sarah). The boys made a beautiful meal including two types of pasta, garlic bread and lots of cheap wine. We spent the night eating and dancing and talking - it was absolutely beautiful. Alex gave me the LA updates which made me realize exactly how much I miss everyone out there. The night ended with him promising to take me to Vermont for the weekend when we're in New York together. We're gonna watch the fireflies on his porch so I can get some film inspiration. All in all, Nick's promise came through. It was a lovely little night.

Less-Than-Three You <3 Monique
Listening To: Closer - Kings of Leon

Update Fail


I feel like there have been so many things to blog about that have been passing me by without the opportunity to write about them. I don't think I have the mental energy to do it now, I've been bizarrely exhausted the past few days despite getting a ton of sleep. I'll do a brief recap of the weekend now, with a promise of more to come later. 

Katie and I decided to explore Hollywood on Friday night, which would probably remain the biggest activity mistake that we make this summer. It was, in a word, skeezy. Like if you were in Times Square but instead of it being 100% tourists it was 35% tourists 25% local people dressed like cheap whores and 40% tourists dressed like cheap whores. We got the 'thrill' of walking through a group of paparazzi on the way back to the car and the parking lot attendant told us that they pretty much stake out the lot starting at 11 pm and that we missed Paris Hilton by two nights. I wouldn't say we 'missed' her. Seeing the hand and foot prints in front of the Chinese Theatre was pretty awesome, but next time I know to go on a Wednesday morning to see them and not a Friday night. Now we've learned: West Hollywood where the rest of the BFA gang is living  = cool, North Hollywood = I thought was pretty cool until Alex's car was broken into there, Hollywood proper = skeezy as fuck. 

On Saturday we went to see some short films at the Playhouse West Film Festival where Pennies to the Dollar, Alex and John's Junior Thesis Project, was playing. It was great seeing a piece I had worked on playing in front of an audience that knew nothing about any of us, which is very different from any audience our work has had in the past. It played very well, with strong audience reactions at the right moments. After we went to Shin, an all you can eat Korean BBQ place, and ate a ridiculous amount of meat to celebrate the film fest and the fact that it was Alex's last night in town. I think that copious amounts of meat was an appropriate send-off for him, and I'ma miss the little bugger. 

On Sunday, John, Alisha, Katie, Melissa, Adam and I went back to Disneyland. I have to say, after growing up going to the much more overwhelming Disney World, I'm a total Disneyland fan. My boss asked me Monday after I told him that we had been to Disneyland two weekends in a row if we at least went on mushrooms for one of the times. I told him no, we were sober, we just love Disneyland. I got another fortune from Esmerelda, and it was much more optimistic but did not sound like me at all, so I will not post it. 

The internship has continued to be fun and my activities there, while simple, have gotten pretty varied. I'll give a more comprehensive post about it later since I've actually accumulated a numerous amount of amusing stories that it's enough that they deserve their own post or two. The re-writing of my senior project is going well, even though if it's more in my head than on paper, I'm starting to figure out a story that I'm happy with. Melissa has agreed to be my camera operator and kind of a Co-DP which I am very happy about, and so far she and Allen (my AD) are the only crew I have, which is fine because it's hard to ask people to commit to a project with no shooting dates. I think my plan for today (a day off from work) is to go walk to the beach and try to write down some of my script ideas before doing laundry and food shopping which are both painfully overdue. 

Bye kids (for now),
Sarah

Listening to: Vicky Christina Barcelona (and half watching it, too) 

Monday, June 15, 2009

48hrs and AD-ing

This'll be a bit long... its been a long weekend.

48hr shoot:
I spent my weekend helping Tom and George with their 48 hr shoot. If you aren't familiar with the concept, here it is: several teams have exactly 48hrs to write, shoot and edit a film. There are usually some stipulations (in this case, we had to spoof a film), and, if you get your film in on time, you are up to win approximately $750 dollars. The movie we drew to spoof was "Jaws."

Friday night, we sat down and watched the film. We wrote the script and did most of the pre-production work. Our version of "Jaws" was about a boy (Jaws) who couldn't take the hint that no one wanted him around at parties. The hosts of the party (Quinn, Brody and Hooper) took it upon themsevles to scare the boy away so that their party could survive. It ends with Quinn (played by VLo) killing Josh/Jaws (played by Box) with a bat. Magic.

Anyway, the next morning (after 2 hours of sleep) we woke up and bought props, built some equipment and began shooting. The shoot was fairly easy and mostly fun... minus the fact that I cannot drive a truck due to my size and the fact that I'm a shitty, unexperienced driver in general. I even got to smack one of our actors, Mike, in the face *giggle*. Mentally, the event was a trip. We were all exhausted and hopped up on several substences (beer, coffee, 5hr energy drinks, cigarettes, etc) in order to stay awake. (PS, out of all of those things, the only one that woke me up was beer... go figure). By 10pm, the boys set up shop in my room and started editing. I seized this opportunity to go play with our neigbors, Nick, Winn and Mike. When I got back, they were still working so the three of us spent the next 10 hours sleeping and editing and talking. They managed to get a working cut done around 4:30 (the film was due at 6:24) and were going to export a safe copy before they sent it into Color, but for some reason (probably dillusion) they didnt. By 6, they were ready to export. The problem? The computer was running so extremely slow by that point that the export didn't finish in time. Yes. We had a hilarious, completed and professional fim, yet were unable to turn it in because of the effing export.

They are still going to submit a copy just to screen and will submit the film into First Friday, so perhaps they'll make a little dough. All in all, the experience was worth it. The process was emtertaining and the film experience was useful.

AD-ing:
This morning I went in to interview with my professor for the AD job. The way it is going to work is two fold: 1. if she is able to get the funding, she will fly out my 'mentor' to be the 1st AD and either me or another girl to be 2nd AD. Because he is DGA, he cannot technically get the 1st AD credit, so the 2nd will get the credit. 2. If she isn't able to get funding, either me or this other girl will take on the role of 1st AD and we will work with the 'mentor' in order to be prepared. If I don't end up AD-ing, I'll be working with the Producer or the Art Director. In the mean time, I'm still working on the logistics of the film. Currently, I am looking up flight and catering information.

Overall, I feel that the meeting went well. However, I could definately feel the scrutiny and pressure of the whole thing. I've worked with this 'mentor' before and he is usually very helpful and sweet - very much a teacher. But, because we were discussing an actual job, he was much more harsh and scrutinizing. There is absolutely no problem with that, it merely reminds me that, in the real world of filmmaking, there is serious responsibility. It's hard work, actual work. There is no room for laziness or error for that matter. Student films are difficult sometimes, yes, but they are nothing in comparison to what's really out there.

After realizing this and hearing exactly what work I would be doing as an AD (which is mainly paperwork and set organization), I felt the need to prove myself. This, my dears, is a good step. Usually I would be terrified, thinking that if I actually got the job, I would fuck up in two seconds. But this time, I feel ready. I'm ready for the challenge and I'm ready to handle whatever shit may come up. That feeling is not only a necessity in order to work in film, but it is beautiful on its own.

That's all I got for you this time, loves.

Less-Than-Three You <3 Monique
Listening to: my stomache growl and my eyes droop from exhaustion (yes, drooping eyes do make a noise)

Thursday, June 11, 2009

Dick Director Buys Getty Villa, Trashes Art, Moves In

Indie director Alexander Marcel Hulsey moved into the Getty Villa this Thursday. When questioned how he planned on incorporating the museum's artifacts into his interior design he responded "Gotta use somethin' to keep the new fireplace goin'". 

(Bye Kids,
Sarah)


Wednesday, June 10, 2009

tehehe!!

I received this email today in regards to Internship One:

"Hi Monique -- would you be interested in being the first AD on the shoot?
you would be mentored by *** *** -- pls let me know if you are avail fri am or
next week for a ten minute interview with him and me to discuss further!
thanks -- and for all of your great work on this so far"

I'm on top of the effing world.

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

These Days

Here is the thing to keep in mind with any new internship: you have to go into it thinking that the best case scenario is that it's a resume boost and anything else is just an added surprise perk. Don't get me wrong, I'm enjoying my time here, but if I had gone into this expecting to do real work I would have been sorely disappointed. Instead, it's exactly as I've expected. I answer phones, do small tasks, I have one summer long task to work on updating online reels for the company's database, and I mainly spend my day cruising the internet. People are nice and relatively chill, I got a free Sprinkles cupcake today (Schwing!), and I've been told that later in the summer I'll get to be on set once I've "gotten my feet wet" in the office. It's not like I currently have nothing to do in the office because people are being snobby, or untrusting, or mean, there just straight up isn't anything going on for me to do right now. But the company is cool, the work they put out is awesome, and people have been friendly so I can't really complain.

The settling-in portion of the summer has pretty much ended, we no longer feel the need to try to go out and be exciting every spare moment of our days and are spending less money in the process. We've mellowed out to meals at home, nights watching Mad Men, walks to/on the beach, and visits with the rest of the LA BFA Intern crew. 

I've been spending a lot of time brainstorming my project for this upcoming fall. I think I'm scrapping the story I had originally gone with for something that keeps the same visuals and themes but has a story that feels more like the work I want to make and is much less depressing. I have NO desire to be the film student with the over-emotional melodrama piece of crap in her portfolio. Nope nope nope. 

Bye kids,
Sarah

Listening to: The sound of typing and paper shuffling.

The Closet

I officially booked my tickets for New York. I'm leaving for New York on June 28th and am returning on August 1st. I'm living with my cousin Joel whom happens to be gay (I promise this detail is necessary for the story... watch).

It will be my first time traveling to New York by plane, so my mom told me to ask Joel to pick me up at the airport. I sent him an email asking, but he hasn't gotten back to me. So my mom took it upon herself to ask her sister Bia why her son wasn't getting back to me. Bia explained that Joel is beginning to feel a little uncomfortable by the whole situation because of his sexuality. My mother quickly explained that I have absolutely no problem with that and she forwarded me the email so I knew what was up. When I saw the message, my immediate instinct was to email this to her: "Tell Joel I'm bisexual." Why did I send it? Partially to make Joel feel better, and partially because I knew my mom would be freaked out. The result? Within 1 minute of sending the email, my phone rang. It's my mom. I answer, "Hello?" She responded, completely void of a need for a greeting, "Are you serious?" 1 minute after...hah! When I quickly calmed her nerves by telling her, "yes, I'm joking," she replied by telling me that she has already deleted the email and has deleted her trash bin as well... just to make sure that no one would find the incriminating information.

Now, let me reassure you, my dear readers, that my mom has no problem with homosexuals - she has many gay friends and family members and she loves them all. The problem? She doesn't want her only daughter to be because then she's have to picture me scissoring my girlfriend whilst not bearing her grand kids. *Did I use the word 'whilst' correctly? Meh, I love it anyway*

So that's my diddy. I find it amusing... I hope you did too.

Less-Than-Three You, Monique
Listening To: Muse

Sunday, June 7, 2009

Prophecies from The Happiest Place on Earth

Gladly I find that you have a very strong will of your own, and will make your own fortune and know how to keep it. You have a desire to destroy things, especially in your young days. You have a shrewd, clever mind, and will succeed in the end with anything you undertake. Your love affairs will be of short duration, which may be caused by others. Money will always come to you, but by your own efforts. Keep in the open air and take lots of exercise. 
- Esmeralda 

After a tiring day at Disneyland, ending of course with Space Mountain and a trip to the candy store, we each put a quarter into the delightfully cheesy Esmeralda Fortune Teller machine. Apparently one of my lucky numbers is 9 and please note the above.

Bye kids,
Sarah

Saturday, June 6, 2009

Late nights and long talks

So, I've given up on the job search. It's not that I'm necessarily tired of it, it's just that I've put in so many applications, have heard back from no one, and I only plan on being here (in Tucson) for three more weeks. Yes. Three weeks til New York.

My laptop finally exploded. After four long years, it has died. And, although I'm sad that I have to walk 15 minutes in Arizona heat in order to use the library computer, at least I can try to talk my parents into buying me a MacBook Pro by fall. We'll see about that.

Internship One is going well. My professor is pleased with my work. Although I'm happy to be here working for her and hanging with friends, I'm finally excited about New York. In three weeks I'll be on a plane heading for something brilliant, something new. I think I'm (almost) ready for that.

In the mean time? Late nights and long talks. These two things are a staple in the Sarah/Monique household, and even if some of the usual participants are gone, the event is still occurring.

On Tuesday, our neighbor and classmate, Nick, threw a party for his new roomate Winn. Several of us showed up and spent most of the night drinking and talking about death and religion. When the hosts decided it was finally time for bed, me, Tom (yes Sarah, he is awesome!) and George (as regular an installment as Katie) stayed up until the sun rose watching the Suicide Girl's First Tour and talking about venn diagrams...sorta.

On Thursday, I headed over to Nick's in order to loose five dollars in a poker game (hey, it's a waste of money but it is always fun). Once again, we all stayed up til 4 talking about government, revolution and how to actually make changes in this world. Our dear Winn ended his brilliant argument by saying the best start to change is throwing an informative kegger - I may or may not agree.

And Friday, after a long dinner spent talking about film and tattoo's with Tom, George and my pal Rachael, I headed over to the Loft where I submitted my junior film "(Don't) Stop." It did surprisingly well. When the 3 minute gong lit up, a few people didn't even notice. Finally a few boys in the back started booing, but only during the rape scenes. When the sex came on, they started hooting and hollering. The entire film played, and, although it didn't win the big $200.00 pot, I'm still proud. Afterwards, my household and Nick's household merged to attend a pool party, and when it died down, we went back to Nick's for (you guessed it) another late night filled with long talks about writing, film and God knows what else.

All I can say after a pretty entertaining week is that I hope this momentum keeps going.

less than three you <3 Monique
listening to: the sounds of the ILC

Friday, June 5, 2009

I don't watch your show, but thanks for the burrito.

I guess that I only associate interesting things that happen to me in a city with me getting food, but oh well. After a surprisingly easy drive home from The Internship (the first drive home without my GPS, no less) I arrive on my street to find it filled with grip trucks and security men. As I walk down the block from where I parked to my abode I peak inside the trucks and see some 5ks, 10ks, and some huge Rosco carts. Fun fun fun. As I get closer to my house I see that the crew seems to be set up in the back lot of a store, directly across the street from my place, and that the catering truck is right in front of the house. I decide against bothering anyone to ask about the shoot, but as I am about to put my key into the gate I hear a voice behind me ask, "Excuse me, Miss? Are you hungry?" And since, yes, I am always hungry, I have a short chat with the caterer who offers me some burritos and chips and tells me that it's a shoot for Nip/Tuck. Thanks for the burrito, Nip/Tuck. 

I keep thinking about the East Coast stereotypes associated with California, especially Los Angeles. Coming from a New York Family and growing up in Boston, I'd been lead to believe that LA never quite grew out of the whole Valley Girl thing, and I'm quite happy to discover that it has. The worst thing about LA so far is the traffic, and I miss being in a city with good public transportation, but the whole walking-distance-from-beach thing makes up for a lot. The weirdest thing that I've noticed so far is the that the sky at night never gets dark, it just sort of becomes a weird grey-ish brown from the city lights reflecting off of either some serious clouds or some serious smog. The more I think about it, I don't know why I worried so much about 'adapting to a new city' before coming out here. The hardest part of a new city is usually finding the friends and a nice cluster of mine are conveniently out here, so what was the worry? Maybe I expected something more foreign, which LA certainly isn't. There are Taco Bells and Targets to go to on lunch breaks just like any other American city I've ever existed in. 

In addition to free food I also came home to some emails from an academic advisor because due to some apparent lack of communication she thought that I was taking 9 less units than I actually am this summer/fall. It was a kind reminder that this summer living is certainly temporary, and no matter how much I want to relax and enjoy being here there is a certain layer of anxiety about the fall that keeps trying to surface. 

Bye kids,
Sarah

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Sarah writing about cupcakes, go figure...


How I get to know a city, apparently.

Hi Kids,

So me and Katie (me and Mo's third musketeer)'s place is officially wireless routed so we are no longer sharing one ethernet cable - which was a situation non-conducive to blogging. After driving to LA on Saturday, moving into our place Sunday, and working at my internship Monday and Tuesday, today was my first real day to sleep in and chill and see where they day takes me. The weather here has been on the cool side, staying the 60s and 70s, mostly cloudy during the day but brightening up in late afternoon. Since today was chilly and rainy, the day took me to cupcakes. Katie and I convinced Adam and Alex to join us in our quest for Sprinkles, the popular LA based cupcake bakery. After battling traffic and the boys' skepticism we found our Sprinkles, waited on the line out the door, purchased our cupcakes, and happily food-gasmed. I am often wary of cupcake bakeries after being disappointed by Magnolia's in Manhattan and other such places, but in this case I approve. 

After the first few days of spending way too much money Katie and I realized that if we kept dining out for every meal we'd have to switch to an all ramen-noodle diet very quickly so now we're trying to balance out our money spending endeavors. I'd say most of our spending, while ridiculous, has been worth it: i.e. the two rides on the West Coaster Roller Coaster on the Santa Monica Pier was totally worth the five bucks. I don't want to talk about how much money I'm going to spend on gas this summer, it's a bummer. 

I have a lot of jumbled thoughts about the internship, where we're living, and what we've been doing but I'll save those thoughts for a few more days. For now I'm happy, mostly relaxed but not completely, and trying to work on my script for the fall. And I miss Mo. 

Bye Kids,
Sarah

Listening to: Age of Consent - New Order 

Monday, June 1, 2009

Dr. Hayes tells me to dip my toe in the river of knowledge

It's Monday morning. Sarah is gone. J-Ty (our old roomate) is gone forever. Tom (our new roomate) is all moved in.

Here is the recap of my life so far without Sarah:
1. I'm still job hunting - I'm sure the people at Coffee Exchange think I'm crazy due to a car alarm incident... I don't want to talk about it.
2. I played some pool.
3. I saw "Hunger" (see it! They have this redicoulous long take that must last about 7 mintutes. Not only is it a long take, but it is a stable two-shot where the characters are in shadow with highlights outlining their bodies. It works... yes!).
4. I went to a party and learned how to salsa dance. For being half black, you would think I would know how to dance better.
5. I saw "Terminator Salvation" (meh, not bad).

I spent the morning working on Internship 1. Right now, I'm trying to find housing, casting information, catering and secure a location for this short my professor is shooting in late July. We are shooting in this small town in upstate NY. I've made so many calls, I'm pretty sure every local business knows my name - now that's a strange feeling.

As far as my senior film goes, I got an idea and some crew. I want to shoot this really bitter sweet love story that deals with fantasy and reality. My junior film partner and I talked about shooting a story like this last semester, but it didn't end up happening - I'll let you readers wonder what bizzare flick we made instead. The overall point of the piece? No matter how hard you try and what you expect, some things are just not meant to work out the way you intend. That was the overall theme of my last semester, what with all of the pitfalls of my junior film.

I'm running into this problem whilst trying to write. I don't relate to my characters. For one thing, I've never had a longtermer and for another, I'm not a man. How do writers accurately write the opposite sex, another social class, etc? If we only write what we know, then is my perception of others enough to make my script work... Bueller? Bueller?

Meh, this is long enough for today. I'll try to make these more concise, entertaining and fluid in the future. Yes? Okay!

Less-Than-Three You <3 Monique
Listening to: "Kings of Leon" Radio on Pandora