stop driver, consider

Top 10 Films of 2011

2011-12-13T22:55:00.001-05:00

Top 10 Films of 2011
1. Drive (Dir. Nicolas Winding Refn)
2. The Tree of Life (Dir. Terrence Malick)
3. Certified Copy (Dir. Abbas Kiarostami)
4. The Skin I Live In (Dir. Pedro Almodóvar)
5. Weekend (Dir. Andrew Haigh)
6. We Need To Talk About Kevin (Dir. Lynne Ramsay)
7. Carnage (Dir. Roman Polanski)
8. Shame (Dir. Steve McQueen)
9. Take Shelter (Dir. Jeff Nichols)
10. Midnight in Paris (Dir. Woody Allen)

Best Male Performance of 2011
1. Brad Pitt - The Tree of Life
Runner Up: Michael Fassbender - Shame

Best Female Performance of 2011
1. Juliette Binoche - Certified Copy
Runner Up: Jessica Chastain - The Tree of Life

For a complete list of films I viewed in 2011, please go here.

(Disclaimer: This list is premature, of course, considering I have yet to view Mysteries of Lisbon and A Seperation, among others.)

i have found what you are like by e. e. cummings

2011-11-10T20:02:00.001-05:00

i have found what you are like the rain (Who feathers frightened fields with the superior dust-of-sleep. wields easily the pale club of the wind and swirled justly souls of flower strike the air in utterable coolness deeds of gren thrilling light with thinned newfragile yellows lurch and.press --in the woods which stutter and sing And the coolness of your smile is stirringofbirds between my arms;but i should rather than anything have(almost when hugeness will shut quietly)almost, your kiss

wildflower

the edge of glory

all we are is digs and kicks

may i feel said he - e. e. cummings

2011-11-06T16:03:00.003-05:00

may i feel said he
(i’ll squeal said she
just once said he)
it’s fun said she

(may i touch said he
how much said she
a lot said he)
why not said she

(let’s go said he
not too far said she
what’s too far said he
where you are said she)

may i stay said he
which way said she
like this said he
if you kiss said she

may i move said he
is it love said she)
if you’re willing said he
(but you’re killing said she

but it’s life said he
but your wife said she
now said he)
ow said she

(tiptop said he
don’t stop said she
oh no said he)
go slow said she

(cccome?said he
ummm said she)
you’re divine!said he
(you are Mine said she)

watching the ships roll in

2011-10-08T00:06:00.001-04:00

By me, inspired by The Kooks

What the fuck evennnnnnnnn.

Capelli come le piume

2011-09-22T19:24:00.000-04:00

Oh Agostino in all your burning glory of twenty candles, a whisper onthe tips of tongues, a legend a myth believed in and spoke of but running always
running,where did you go?

Agostino full of life smiles, rebel child you are still running, butyou always come
back, fulfilling false fables of father’s scorn, who is a thief anopportunist a
hypocrite, reject complain and run away with your struggle, wantsto gag
you but you are running always running.

Agostino the marvel, “Don’t leave home only to go back,” reducingcowardice with
help book schemes of inane preaching, only to irritate mystify offend, with
a scowl and scream and they still don’t understand, so scream scream on
and on.

Agostino the runaway with a smile on your face, fun loving misfit,youth personified
with hair like feathers and words like water, flowing swiftly from mouth to
ear as you ride ride ride, ride bikes in circles to take the easy way out, was
it the easy way out?

Oh Agostino with careless disdain, “Go to the movies. They are showingRed River,”
and sigh because they don’t understand never understand and sigh on your
bike, circling circling and falling down, dirt on your shirt on your pants on
your face, you laugh with rancid drunk stink only to disappear.

Agostino where have you gone? The lake side swimming paradise horrorplayground,

where are you, nothing left but the eyes of the children nothing but abike a shirt your shoes, in this accident depression jump into the water, whyhave you gone?

John William Waterhouse

2011-09-17T00:07:00.001-04:00

John William Waterhouse, Pre-Raphelite, sieres on "The Lady of Shalott" by Lord Alfred Tennyson

"I'm half sick of Shadows," said The Lady of Shalott

The Lady of Shalott Looking at Lancelot

The Lady of Shalott

Except from the poem:

Heard a carol, mournful, holy,
Chanted loudly, chanted lowly,
Till her blood was frozen slowly,
And her eyes were darkened wholly,
Turn'd to tower'd Camelot.
For ere she reach'd upon the tide
The first house by the water-side,
Singing in her song she died,
The Lady of Shalott.

Under tower and balcony,
By garden-wall and gallery,
A gleaming shape she floated by,
Dead-pale between the houses high,
Silent into Camelot.
Out upon the wharfs they came,
Knight and Burgher, Lord and Dame,
And around the prow they read her name,
The Lady of Shalott.

Who is this? And what is here?
And in the lighted palace near
Died the sound of royal cheer;
And they crossed themselves for fear,
All the Knights at Camelot;
But Lancelot mused a little space
He said, "She has a lovely face;
God in his mercy lend her grace,
The Lady of Shalott." Lord Alfred Tennyson

2011-08-25T00:32:00.001-04:00

"It was like the classic scene in the movies where one lover is on the train and one is on the platform and the train starts to pull away, and the lover on the platform begins to trot along and then jog and then sprint and then gives up altogether as the train speeds irrevocably off. Except in this case I was all the parts: I was the lover on the platform, I was the lover on the train. And I was also the train." Lorrie Moore

the unbearable lightness of being

2011-08-16T20:56:00.002-04:00

"A young woman in love with a man torn between his love for her and his incorrigible womanizing; one of his mistresses and her humbly faithful lover -- these are the two couples whose story is told in this masterful novel. In a world in which lives are shaped by irrevocable choices and by fortuitous events, a world in which everything occurs but once, existence seems to lose its substance, its weight. Hence, we feel "the unbearable lightness of being" not only as the consequence of our pristine actions but also in the public sphere, and the two inevitably intertwine." (Amazon.com)

Currently Reading: The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera, published 1984. Lightness and weight.

Quote:

"The heaviest of burdens crushes us, we sink beneath it, it pins us to the ground. But in love poetry of every age, the woman longs to be weighed down by the man's body. The heaviest of burdens is therefore simultaneously an image of life's most intense fulfillment. The heavier the burden, the closer our lives come to the earth, the more real and truthful they become. Conversely, the absolute absence of burden causes man to be lighter than air, to soar into heights, take leave of the earth and his earthly being, and become only half real, his movements as free as they are insignificant. What then shall we choose? Weight or lightness?"

2011-08-02T22:31:00.003-04:00

"I don’t want him to be happy. I want him to miss me. That is not really love; I suppose I understand that. But perhaps it is like a small girl who for one baffled and uncharmed instant realizes her rigid plastic doll is not a real baby—before she resumes her pretending again." Lorrie Moore

You did this. You brought this back.

Art History: Caravaggio

2011-05-02T18:34:00.000-04:00

I am currently working on my Art History II research paper. It is on Michelangelo Merisi, otherwise known as Caravaggio. I first learned of Caravaggio when I was studying in Florence, Italy, and the Uffizi Gallery had a exhibition of his work. He is an exceptional artist, one that I don't mind writing about for a class this semester. He abandoned all conventions preached by the Academy and brought his own sense of realism to the canvas; those washed up Mannerists had no idea what to do with him, and insisted he was the Antichrist of the art world. He exploited chiaroscuro to the point where a new term was coined, tenebrism, to explain the dramatic use of lights and darks and shadows. His works invite the viewer into the scene. He combined the classical with the contemporary. He influenced thousands of artists who would follow after him, most notably Peter Paul Rubens (though Rubens style would hardly let on to such an influence). There was even a movement (wittily dubbed Caravaggism) that swept throughout Italy, and even throughout the rest of Europe, in the early seventeenth century, where artists would adapt his unique style. Below is an example of the artistic canon expected of artists of Caravaggio's time, examples of Caravaggio's work, and the work of one of his dedicated followers.

The Libyan, Michelangelo (Mannerist)

Doubting Thomas, Caravaggio (Baroque)

The Calling of St. Matthew, Caravaggio (Baroque)

Conversion of St. Paul, Caravaggio (Baroque)

Judith beheading Holofernes, Caravaggio (Baroque)

Judith Beheading Holofernes, Artemisia Gentileschi (Baroque)

kiss of life - friendly fires

2011-04-14T13:16:00.000-04:00

Rub that line out of the sand
I can feel it closer
Closer than you'll ever be

Rub that line out of the sand
I know you think it's over
Staring out into the sea

Don't let it go
This could be so perfect
Don't let it go
If we hold onto it

Rub that line out of the sand
Right before the tide comes
And washes you away from me

College life after the jump.

the sea

the stars

the waves

the tide

Enter the Void dir. Gaspar Noé, 2009

2011-04-13T15:33:00.002-04:00

I haven't updated in a long time. I had this post saved as a draft, so here it is, finished and shiny and happy.

"Visionary filmmaker Gaspar Noé’s reputation as a provocateur and master technician is sure to be solidified by Enter the Void, a cinematically audacious exploration of the connected nature of sex, drugs, life, and death. Oscar’s a small-time drug dealer. One night he is caught in a police bust and shot. As he lies dying, his spirit, faithful to the promise he made his sister—that he would never abandon her—refuses to leave the world of the living. It wanders through the city, its visions growing ever more distorted and nightmarish. Past, present, and future merge in a hallucinatory maelstrom. Words cannot describe the visually rich and assaulting epic tale of death and its aftermath of memories and spiritual travel that unfolds. Through sheer cinematic wizardry, Noé has created the equivalent of a mind-bending trip. The graphic sexual and violent content is integral to the ideas in the film but may prove shocking to some. Like life and death, Enter the Void at your own risk." —Trevor Groth

Favorite Title Sequence of the Year goes to Enter the Void directed by Gaspar Noé.

I pay a lot of attention to title sequences. They are extremely important for setting up the overall mood of a film. You agree with me, I'm sure. There are tons and tons of websites out there dedicated entirely to title sequences. You can find a handful through google. I highly suggest you look into it.

Before I continue onto my explanation, I suggest you watch the video below to understand what I'm going to be gushing about. If you haven't seen Enter the Void then you probably won't have a full knowledge of the importance of the sequence to the movie. A simple way to fix this dilemma is to watch the movie!

"Hands down best credit scene of the year...Maybe best credit scene of the decade. One of the greatest in cinema history." Quentin Tarantino. (firstshowing.net)

The first time I watched Enter the Void, I was blown away by how visually stimulating the movie was. If you've seen the movie, I'm sure you will agree with me. From what I've read, there were many people who had a difficult time sitting through the entire thing, and I would say that is totally understandable considering the film is especially slow and trying at times. I think the only thing that really kept me interested was how Noé utilized cinematography to fill the gaps left by a regrettably flimsy plot line. I know I keep harping on this point, but you need to see the film to know what I'm talking about. Enter the Void is a beautiful example of avant-garde cinema. It might be slow, but the time it takes up is totally worth it, because the movie, as a finished product, is sure to blow your head clean off. Trust.

The title sequence was done by Tom Kan's studio. It is the perfect example of typography, so if you like type treatments and the sort, this is perfect for you. It was a very simple, but effective; by combining typography (a cultural phenomenon since the early 20th century) and pop culture references, the overall shock value increased. (watchthetitles.com)

What is most important is how visually gripping it is. It starts with a blast and it sort of holds you until it's over. Combined with the electronic club music, it is arguable that the entire 2 minute and 7 second sequence is actually rather nauseating. It flashes like a strobe light. The music reminds you of that horrible sound of a broken record, a terrible, grating noise. It's almost like Noé was using this as a way to point a finger at us, to say "This is you, this is what you condone." It stimulates, it repulses. It is perfect.

Bravo! That is all I can really say.

Some Other Incredible Title Sequences:
Se7en (anything by Fincher, really), The Dreamers, A Fistful of Dollars, Mad Men, Les Chansons D'Amour, Control, Dexter, Band of Brothers, The Pacific, Lolita, The Fall, Sweeney Todd, To Kill a Mocking Bird

Do you have any favorite Title Sequences?

Heartbeats (Les amours imaginaires) dir. Xavier Dolan, 2010

2011-02-07T14:55:00.001-05:00

"Part gleaming farce, part tough-minded exploration of the inherent insanity of love and desire, Les amours imaginaires is all the more remarkable given the young age of its author. (Few filmmakers this young would have attempted farce, never mind triumphed at it.) The film is also a startlingly mature and cohesive distillation of Dolan’s cinematic influences. If his debut channeled Eustache and Truffaut, Les amours imaginaires owes as much to vintage Almodóvar as it does to the French New Wave. And yet the film remains entirely personal and unique. Les amours imaginaires suggests Dolan is one of the finest young filmmakers to emerge in the last decade." — TIFF

Most Disappointing Film of the Year goes to Heartbeats (Les amours imgainaires), directed by Xavier Dolan. If you don't know Dolan's name, then you haven't been paying attention to the Festival circuit for the last two and a half years. Dolan was a child actor, staring in commercials for a chain pharmacy in Canada, as well as a number of random films. He also acted in the 2008 horror flick Martyrs, directed by Pascal Laugier, before deciding to embark on his first directorial pursuit. I Killed My Mother (J'ai tue ma mere) was released in 2009 and was a rather successful and startling first attempt. Dolan wrote, acted, directed, and partly produced the film, at only 20 years of age. The script was first written when he was 16 and it is said to be partially autobiographic. Some of the most notable awards for I Killed My Mother are the three the film secured at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival (C.I.C.A.E Award, Prix Regards Jeune, Directors' Fortnight). It also received an 8 minutes standing ovation after being shown at the Festival.

Why is this important? Well, I Killed My Mother gave Heartbeats very big shoes to fill. Heartbeats was in the Un Certain Regard category of the 2010 Cannes Film Festival, but wasn't nearly as successful as Dolan's first feature length. In fact, I've decided that it was the most disappointing film of 2010. You see, I feel in love with the rawness behind I Killed My Mother. Dolan showed an ability to accurately capture on paper the essence behind communication (or lack thereof ) and those fleetingly bare emotions of teen years. The script was startlingly true to real life and the pains of youth, but in a way that didn't ruin the message with heavy and unneeded dialogue. If there was nothing to be said, then nothing was said. The breaks in dialogue were refreshing. The visuals were obviously very immature, but I couldn't help but feel like this enhanced the film. The mistakes were reflective of his age and lack of professional training, but also true to the personal story being captured on screen.

Heartbeats was my most anticipated film of the year because I had been so impressed with I Killed My Mother. Sadly, Dolan's sophomore effort wasn't up to par. I would be lying if I said I didn't enjoy it, though. I am a sucker for pretentious and over exaggerated visuals, but it was the barely there content that turned me off. Dolan might have had something impressive if there was some sort of body to this two dimensional film. I felt that it fell flat in comparison with I Killed My Mother. But then again, who is comparing? The movie was as much stimulating as it was superficial. The soundtrack could have been better, though I did walk away singing Bang Bang. I think my biggest pet peeve (and don't read this next part if you don't want any vague spoilers) were the Van Sant-eqsue sex scenes. I remember watching an interview with Dolan where he exclaims his love for the sex scenes in Van Sant's My Own Private Idaho. Well, if there is any way to show you love, it's copying!

Okay, maybe I'm being harsh. It wasn't necessarily copying, but only an idiot would have missed the reference. I would be crazy to say that directors don't pull from other directors, especially influences, but this tribute was just plain bad. The neon colors made me borderline nauseous and it might have been better had these scenes had any relevance to the film at large.

Alright, before I give myself a heart attack, I might as well finish this up. Over all, I give this film a 7 out of 10. I might have shit on it, but there were definitely area's that I marveled at. And if I wasn't so hell bent on comparing it to Dolan's freshman attempt, then I might be a more pleasant reviewer. I'm still grinning like a nerd at Garrel's cameo in the last shot. It just makes me more excited for Lawrence Anyways. Fingers crossed!

knife - grizzly bear

2011-01-21T22:06:00.000-05:00

i want you to know
when i look in your eyes
with every blow
comes another lie

my first college days have been busy busy busy. move in was eventful. rain and snow always makes things more eventful. vickie and i have been haunting nicole's dorm, forcing friendship upon her roomates. tonight was a night of movies, cranapple, and a monologue on nihilism. what a fucking night. this weekend is going to be interesting.

america - allen ginsberg

2011-01-17T14:57:00.001-05:00

America I've given you all and now I'm nothing.
America two dollars and twenty-seven cents January 17, 1956.
I can't stand my own mind.
America when will we end the human war?
Go fuck yourself with your atom bomb
I don't feel good don't bother me.
I won't write my poem till I'm in my right mind.
America when will you be angelic?
When will you take off your clothes?
When will you look at yourself through the grave?
When will you be worthy of your million Trotskyites?
America why are your libraries full of tears?
America when will you send your eggs to India?
I'm sick of your insane demands.
When can I go into the supermarket and buy what I need with my good looks?
America after all it is you and I who are perfect not the next world.
Your machinery is too much for me.
You made me want to be a saint.
There must be some other way to settle this argument.
Burroughs is in Tangiers I don't think he'll come back it's sinister.
Are you being sinister or is this some form of practical joke?
I'm trying to come to the point.
I refuse to give up my obsession.
America stop pushing I know what I'm doing.
America the plum blossoms are falling.
I haven't read the newspapers for months, everyday somebody goes on trial for
murder.
America I feel sentimental about the Wobblies.
America I used to be a communist when I was a kid and I'm not sorry.
I smoke marijuana every chance I get.
I sit in my house for days on end and stare at the roses in the closet.
When I go to Chinatown I get drunk and never get laid.
My mind is made up there's going to be trouble.
You should have seen me reading Marx.
My psychoanalyst thinks I'm perfectly right.
I won't say the Lord's Prayer.
I have mystical visions and cosmic vibrations.
America I still haven't told you what you did to Uncle Max after he came over
from Russia.
I'm addressing you.
Are you going to let our emotional life be run by Time Magazine?
I'm obsessed by Time Magazine.
I read it every week.
Its cover stares at me every time I slink past the corner candystore.
I read it in the basement of the Berkeley Public Library.
It's always telling me about responsibility. Businessmen are serious. Movie
producers are serious. Everybody's serious but me.
It occurs to me that I am America.
I am talking to myself again.
Asia is rising against me.
I haven't got a chinaman's chance.
I'd better consider my national resources.
My national resources consist of two joints of marijuana millions of genitals
an unpublishable private literature that goes 1400 miles and hour and
twentyfivethousand mental institutions.
I say nothing about my prisons nor the millions of underpriviliged who live in
my flowerpots under the light of five hundred suns.
I have abolished the whorehouses of France, Tangiers is the next to go.
My ambition is to be President despite the fact that I'm a Catholic.
America how can I write a holy litany in your silly mood?
I will continue like Henry Ford my strophes are as individual as his
automobiles more so they're all different sexes
America I will sell you strophes $2500 apiece $500 down on your old strophe
America free Tom Mooney
America save the Spanish Loyalists
America Sacco & Vanzetti must not die
America I am the Scottsboro boys.
America when I was seven momma took me to Communist Cell meetings they
sold us garbanzos a handful per ticket a ticket costs a nickel and the
speeches were free everybody was angelic and sentimental about the
workers it was all so sincere you have no idea what a good thing the party
was in 1835 Scott Nearing was a grand old man a real mensch Mother
Bloor made me cry I once saw Israel Amter plain. Everybody must have
been a spy.
America you don're really want to go to war.
America it's them bad Russians.
Them Russians them Russians and them Chinamen. And them Russians.
The Russia wants to eat us alive. The Russia's power mad. She wants to take
our cars from out our garages.
Her wants to grab Chicago. Her needs a Red Reader's Digest. her wants our
auto plants in Siberia. Him big bureaucracy running our fillingstations.
That no good. Ugh. Him makes Indians learn read. Him need big black niggers.
Hah. Her make us all work sixteen hours a day. Help.
America this is quite serious.
America this is the impression I get from looking in the television set.
America is this correct?
I'd better get right down to the job.
It's true I don't want to join the Army or turn lathes in precision parts
factories, I'm nearsighted and psychopathic anyway.
America I'm putting my queer shoulder to the wheel.

I'm off to University tomorrow. Winter break went way too fast. Packing has been hellish, I assure you. I've been watching old family videos recently, via VCR. I miss everyone and how little things used to be. My Aunt recently gave my dad all of their old family videos, and we have to set up the projector and the projection screen to view them. That will be something for one of the weekends when I come home. I can't wait to see my Gram water skiing, circa 1959.

Above I posted my favorite poem by Allen Ginsberg. It kind of sums on the mood I've been in lately. Sigh sigh sigh.

I've decided that I've got to post more about movies. Why oh why am I such a slacker?

Oh, and here is some senseless networking. If you like quotes, follow my Twitter account. I post quotes as often as I possibly can. My sources are movies, books, and life. It is a fun way to keep my favorite quotes organized. I usually post as I watch/read/live. Enjoy you silly people.

Dogtooth (Kynodantas) dir. Giorgos Lanthimos, 2009

2011-01-11T00:04:00.002-05:00

"The father, the mother and their three kids live in a house at the outskirts of a city. There is a tall fence surrounding the house. The kids have never left the house. They are being educated, entertained, bored and exercised in the manner that their parents deem appropriate, without any influence from the outside world. They believe that the airplanes flying over are toys and that zombies are small yellow flowers. The only person allowed to enter the house is Christina. She works as a security guard at the father’s business. The father arranges her visits to the house in order to appease the sexual urges of the son. The whole family is fond of her, especially the eldest daughter. One day Christina gives her as a present of a headband that has stones that glow in the dark and asks for something in return." —Cannes Film Festival

Best Film of the Year goes to Dogtooth (Kynodantas), directed by Giorgos Lanthimos. It has been around for some time, but only officially released (though the release was limited) in the USA this year. It was a genius satire that not only provoked laughter, but also caused me to become genuinely scared at certain points, such as the murder of the deadly "cat" beast. The three unnamed children are stuck in infancy, and have been heavily influenced, to the point where true definitions of words escape them and airplanes are nothing more than play toys. Their world is a lie, a mystery, and savagely chaotic. But these college age children cannot be tied down for long. Even under the threat of odd, albeit harsh punishment, there are subtle forms of rebellion that awaken memories of adolescences. These children are just as curious as any other children, and their curiosity cannot be subdued, not even by a pair of lunatic parents.

Greece has submitted Dogtooth as its official selection to the Academy Awards for a possible nomination as Best Foreign Film. You can bet that I am rooting for it.

Awards of Note: Un Certain Regard - Cannes Film Festival, Film Critics Award - Dublin International Film Festival, Bronze Horse - Stockholm Film Festival

thoughts on this year in cinema

2011-01-08T16:36:00.003-05:00

I don't have many thoughts, admittedly. I didnt watch as many movies as I would have liked to. I focused mainly on watching the movies that were on my "To Watch" list, which consisted of anything and everything. I tend to watch the films from the previous year at the very end of the year or the very beginning of the new year. For example, it was in the middle of december that I finally saw The White Ribbon and A Prophet (thanks to the convenient On Demand channel Starz), and it was only today that I finally saw JLG's Film Socialisme.

I've decided to list some of the movies I saw in 2010 (which I will update occasionally when I remember something I missed) and then speak about a couple of my favorites in individual posts. Following those posts will be posts on the movies I missed from 2010 that I plan on seeing They aren't in chronolical order. I probably missed more than half. But these are the basics:

Le Souffle au Couer
Le temps qui reste
Antichrist
Mao's Last Dancer
Chatroom
The Social Network
Howl
Les amours imaginaires
Novo
The Army of Crime
Red Riding: 1980
Red Riding: 1974
The Fall
The Cobweb
Dogtooth
A Christmas Tale
Inception
Le premiere jour du reste de ta vie
Glorious 39
Wild Target
Peepli Live
Salt
Last Night
The Japanese Wife
An Unfinished Letter
Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolfe
A Prophet
The White Ribbon
True Grit
Toy Story 3
Avatar
The Last Airbender
Film Socialisme
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt 1
Never Let Me Go
Shutter Island
Nowhere Boy

What I missed that I probably shouldn't have missed:

I am Love
I'm Still Here
Black Swan (I've only seen half)
The America
Carlos
Fish Tank (This is on Starz On Demands, so I shall be seeing it soon)
Sweetgrass
Enter the Void
Poetry
Winters Bone
A Film Unfinished
Music from the Big House
Angelica
Blue Valentine
Cold Weather
Tiny Furniture
Somewhere
White Material
Everyone Else
Uncle Boonme Who Can Recall His Past Lives
The Illusionist
My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done?
Certified Copy

free way - kurt vile

2010-12-30T21:53:00.000-05:00

i've got a freeway in mind,
let go of my head,
walk down my line,
better be sure you'll be dead,
i got a trumpet,
i know where to dump it.

I found the adventure I was looking for. After a dinner with the lads and lasses, we went back to Steve's and began planning our road trip to Boston. It is going to be long and cold and reckless and smooth. Steph will be waiting for us after the long expanse of highway. It will be worth it. I hope Steve can get the van. I hope we run into trouble and bum it for days and days, singing and crying and loving our youth.

Let the adventure begin.

For now, I have to live through New Years. I have to live through vacation. And then there is nothing but the open road.

Making cd's for the trip. This is the best part. I'll post the list of songs when I have it finalized.

only someone running

america - simon & garfunkel

2010-12-13T20:09:00.000-05:00

"Kathy, I'm lost," I said, though I knew she was sleeping
I'm empty and aching and I don't know why
Counting the cars on the New Jersey Turnpike
They've all gone to look for America

I am missing the uncomfortable feelings of home. Where is the excitement of a new adventure? I'll find you in five days, I hope.

I recently volunteered for the River to River Film Festival that takes place in Florence, Italy every year. It was such a beautiful experience. Rahul Bose is a seriously talented actor. Here is the festival's website. Some of this year main attractions were Iti Mrinalini (dir. Aparna Sen), Peepli [Live] (dir. Anusha Rizwi), and I am (dir. Onir).

My finals started today. I had Iconography, which was easy enough. Tomorrow is my Italian oral, Culture of Food and Wine, and Living Italy. Sigh.

Pictures from my last weeks in Florence, Italy follow the jump.

thumbprints

cemetery smile

st. apollina

shadows

look alive, sunshine