Thinking About Shopping With Amazon? Don't.

It's Christmastime, that time of year when everything is filled with cheer. Yule tide, egg nog, the works. And then there's online shopping.

I've had good and bad experiences buying things online. While you can snag some great deals on Disney Movie Club's website, if your credit card expires, they go ahead and mail you the current featured title "just in case you wanted it." Then you have to pay for shipping back on something you didn't even want. While you can get some great stuff and cheap prices on Amazon, the hassle of getting what you want isn't all it's cracked up to be.

I had a mediocre experience with Amazon a few months ago, when I ordered a LaCie hard drive which didn't work out of the box. I then realized it was only the FireWire 400 cable that came with the drive that didn't work, so it cost about as much to replace the wire as it would have to ship the hard drive back. Irritating, as I essentially paid for something twice, but I needed the drive then and there, so I didn't have time to wait. What's a guy to do?

About a week ago I ordered a significant chunk of my Christmas shopping from Amazon, because I found some great prices on stuff (More for less, right? Think again). The order was supposed to come Wednesday, now it's Friday, so I checked the tracking. Turns out UPS left the package outside someone's garage about 30 miles from here. I called Amazon, who was kind enough to "replace my order at no charge and upgrade my shipping to one day free shipping," which apparently still takes three days, as the order is now estimated to arrive Monday. Not only that, but the main item, The Sims 3, is now out of stock, so they can only replace part of my order. I wouldn't get Sims 3 until after Christmas, which doesn't really help. So I told them to just ship the rest of the order and refund the Sims. Now, I'm going to be buying the Sims at the store for $20 more than Amazon's price. So, someone in Pleasantdale got the copy I paid $30 for for free, while I'm having to drive to Best Buy to shell out $50 for something I already should have gotten. Business... ethics....

I only hope the rest of my order actually makes it to my house this time. But Merry Christmas to the person who got a bunch of free stuff, it's on me.

How to Make a Professional Sounding GarageBand Song with Just Your Mac

Setting out to write a song can seem like a daunting task when you're staring at a blank sheet of paper or a lone guitar.  Even Mac's DIY music program GarageBand can be overwhelming when you first approach it.  After much experience with the old MIDI program Metro in high school, I assumed for a long time that I needed a keyboard, a MIDI-to-USB converter, and a host of other materials before I could even begin using GarageBand.  This is all incorrect, as you can make a full song in GarageBand with nothing more than your computer keyboard, and your voice can embellish it further, even if you can't sing.

The first, most important thing to understand is your shortcuts.  This can save you hours in the long run simply by using the Command key instead of your mouse.  Here's some of the most effective shortcuts:

Option + Command + N = New Track  - choose "Real" to record live audio with your built in mic, choose "Instrumental" to use one of GB's preprogrammed sounds.

Shift + Command + K = Onscreen Keyboard - This is absolutely crucial to know if you plan on making music without a MIDI controller (which is completely possible, by all means - it's how I do it)

Command + Z = Undo.  Huge help.

Command + S = Save.  Also a huge help.

Your first goal is to lay down a drum track.  Pull up the loop browser with the Eye icon in the bottom left, choose one, and drag it in to the track.  Pay attention to the tempo associated with the loop.  If the loop is live audio, you'll have to mold your music to fit the track.  If it's MIDI, the loop will adjust itself to the tempo of your song.  You can extend your loop by clicking in the upper right hand corner of the loop you brought in, and looping it.  Get it?

Second, create a new instrument track, and pull up the Track Info with the encircled "i."  Pick a bass, and pull up your on-screen keyboard.  Hit Shift + Command + U to turn on the "Count In." Make sure your bass track is highlighted, and then hit R to record, then Shift + Command + K to bring up your keyboard.  I usually let the drums play for a minute to get ideas for a bass line.  Always remember you can just press Space to stop and Command + Z to get rid of something if you mess up.  Once you've laid your bass track, double click on it in the upper browser, and highlight all the notes in the bottom.  Turn "Enhance Timing" all the way up and select 1/4 note, if you played slow and steady, or 1/16 if you had lots of pops.  Remember, you'll have to play to the computer, it won't play to you.  This is called quantizing though, and it can make your timing sound much better.

Now, create another new instrument track and choose some synth sounds, layer them on top with the same process, and quantize them.  If a note seems out of place, you can double click on the bar in the browser and drag the notes up and down in the bottom screen until the chords sound right.  Now's your time to go back and edit your sounds.  You can add additional drum loops to get a fuller beat, and make sure to tweak all of your sounds in each track info's "Details," the small arrow underneath the instrument selection box.  Trial and error is the best way to find the sound you're looking for, but save often when you get a sound you like or you'll be going back over and over to retweak your sounds.  You can also just "Save Instrument" in a category to make things easier for next time.

Now come the vocals.  Assuming you know a little bit about music, select your project settings in the center, and change the key accordingly.  Now add a New Real Track, and go ahead and sing to it, no matter how bad.  Afterwards, just double click on it, and turn on the "Enhance Tuning" feature, and click "Limit to Key."  Add some reverb, chorus, slight distortion, and echo, and you should be golden!

Of course GarageBand has somewhat of a learning curve, as all programs do.  But with a little tweaking, you can have a Pro-quality song having used nothing but your Mac and it's built in iSight Microphone and GarageBand program!  Good luck!

Evolution of Fourthmeal

Americans are exposed to a wide range of ethnic diversity on a daily basis, and often in the form of the food we eat.  Pizza, fried rice, falafel, and tacos are just a few of the foods that have been adopted into mainstream American culture as representatives of various ethnicities from around the world.  Jeffery M. Pilcher traces the origins of the taco in his article “Was the Taco Invented in Southern California?” and analyzes how the food itself has changed due to migration across the border and throughout the country.  The people of Mexico who brought the taco to the United States adapted to their new culture and environment quite similarly to how the taco changed, and marketing strategies for Mexican food followed suit as well.

It is very important to understand that the emergence of the taco as a form of fast food in the United States was completely dependent on the fact that industrialization of society had opened opportunities for the mass production of ethnic identifiers, specifically in the form of various foods.  The article states that the concept of a taco had existed in Mexico for some time as a means of convenience for eating (much like a sandwich would be for European immigrants), but it was not assigned a name until it started appearing in indigenous Mexican cookbooks in the mid 1800’s.  Migration of Mexican immigrants to the United States allowed the taco to reach new audiences, in turn introducing other ethnicities to the product.  Much like McDonald’s is responsible for the globalization of the hamburger, industrialization allowed for the fast, efficient production of tacos (specifically the shells) due to improved technologies that allowed the shells to be cooked on a rack instead of individually by hand.  Even the identifiable “U” shape of a hard taco shell evolved as a product of industrialization.  Whereas older versions of tacos could have meant any form of meat on a tortilla, the U shape came about because the mechanized racks that the shells were fried on had been intentionally shaped that way.  This shape was devised to capitalize on convenience, as more tortillas could be fried faster and the shape allowed for quick filling, thus the “American” tacos we know today owe more to their own McDonaldization than they do to their Mexican heritage.

Just as important as the shape and development of the modern taco was the social process by which the taco was introduced to the rest of America after its original migration across the border.  Los Angeles and other areas of southern California had several urban, ethnically diverse areas of multiculturalism, but as time progressed and more Mexicans immigrated into the southwest, those areas became more densely Hispanic and less white, and white families moved to the suburban outskirts of the cities.  Several authentic Mexican eateries existed in the densely populated urban areas, while “taco shops” became more popular amongst the suburban white neighborhoods.  

The article explains that many of these taco shops allowed people of other cultures with adventurous tastes to try Mexican food while avoiding having to eat in an all Mexican-owned and staffed restaurant or having to worry about sanitation, as Mexican immigrants at the time were (and oftentimes still are) subject to that sort of prejudice.  The term “taco” even held less of a negative stigma than some more traditional Mexican words such as enchilada or tamale that would drive some white customers away.  It was the introduction of the taco to the outer white neighborhoods that caught on with a mass appeal and allowed the taco to become part of mainstream American culture.  The success of Taco Bell and its counterparts relied exclusively on marketing the idea of a romantic, fantastical Mexico to America, hence Taco Bell’s design of faux-adobe walls and reliance on a talking chihuahua to sell their product.  These marketing moves have probably done more damage to the image of Mexican-American immigrants than they have helped to introduce the culture, as many American children today are exposed to what “Mexican” means early on in life, and associate it with a fast food restaurant and a snack modified for the convenience of mass production rather than with the idea of a unique culture from a neighboring country, and this stereotype has only widened the culture gap as new imitators (“Welcome to Moe’s!”) attempt to cash in.

The emergence of the taco in American culture depended entirely on the tried-and-true formula of McDonaldization, in which an item’s production process is modified for efficiency and control.  What is now seen to many as a cultural icon and a corporate representative of Hispanic presence in the United States originally had humble beginnings in Mexico as a homemade snack that wasn’t even assigned a specific name.  The article “Was the Taco Invented in Southern California?” addresses not only the taco’s origins, but also how the surge in immigration, combined with the growing ideas of industrialization and capitalism, paved the way for the taco to become a household item in America.

The original article can be found here.

Bound By the Force: The Social Hierarchy of 'Star Wars'

  Film, as a medium, could be defined as a series of still images shown in succession in order to create the illusion of movement.  Its goal is often to use this manipulation of vision to relate a narrative story, but within any character-based narrative and the images and shots that comprise it will always be elements that convey a deeper meaning about relationships between people.  Science fiction and fantasy films are faced with the task of being able to transport viewers to other dimensions and mystical realms through the stimulation of the audience’s imagination, while at the same time relying on the viewer’s ability to make connections between our personal everyday observations and those we consciously or subconsciously see in a film.  Despite that the story is set in a completely fictional time and place, the narrative of George Lucas’s Star Wars saga is driven by characters confined to a social hierarchy deeply rooted in the  transitional American values of the 1950’s and 60’s, established onscreen through the film’s mise-en-scene.  Many elements of the Star Wars narrative represent a universe constructed around a conservative ideology, masked by more liberal themes of freedom from an evil oppressor and an unseen harmony binding all things, established as the Force.

Before further analysis of some of the deeper themes and meanings of the films, it is important to understand the political and social conditions that preceded the original release of Star Wars in 1977.  In ten years, America had witnessed the assassination of President Kennedy, the Watergate scandal and Nixon’s impeachment and resignation, the Vietnam war which many citizens were divided on and some saw as imperialistic, the Kent State shootings, and the rapidly growing feminist movement.  To say that the baby boomers had witnessed a loss of 

American innocence would be an understatement.  These rapid changes are very visible in Star Wars, personified in the form of Anakin Skywalker who later becomes Darth Vader through the sacrifice of his own personal good side in what he sees is an exchange for systematic control to end a universal conflict.  The original Star Wars film, later retitled A New Hope as the fourth episode in a six part saga, presented Vader as the ultimate villain, the absolute ruler clad in solid black armor who used the cosmic energy of the Force selfishly for his own dominion of the universe.  A New Hope mentions the Emperor only once through dialogue, and Vader’s immediate onscreen presence seems a much greater threat to the film’s heroes than a far off Emperor.  Numerous scenes in the film depict hundreds of stormtroopers marching single file, standing perfectly shoulder to shoulder within the Death Star.  This theme of a mechanized system of rank and file control draws visual parallels to images of Nazi occupation of Germany during World War II, but also resonates the bitter distrust towards politics of American government at the time.  In a way, although the war torn universe in A New Hope is a completely theatrical creation populated with stylized characters, the hidden analogies between the film’s worlds and our own nation’s past create a familiar but fictional setting.

Many of the human characters in A New Hope share a common speciesist attitude, ranking humans above all else and treating the film’s other species in an often condescending manner.  The film itself often adopts this ideology in its portrayal of various characters and its “suspiciously racist representation of aliens in an overly stereotypical fashion” (Kapell 163).  The first human settlement shown on the desert planet Tatooine reveals the home of the film’s blond-haired, blue-eyed hero, Luke Skywalker.  Small indigenous creatures called Jawas wearing brown hooded robes with beady eyes are selling their stolen droids to Luke and his Uncle Owen.  When one droid malfunctions, Owen grumbles loudly, “What are you trying to push on us?” in a very disdainful, almost racist manner.  Later, when Luke pulls into the spaceport of Mos Eisley, several Jawas approach and begin pawing at his landspeeder, while the droid C-3P0 comments, “I can’t abide those Jawas; disgusting creatures,” as Luke shoos them away.  Ironically, a few minutes later when Luke attempts to bring 3P0 and his other droid R2-D2 into the Mos Eisley Cantina, the human bartender tells them that they’ll have to wait outside because he doesn’t serve “their kind,” even though subsequent shots establish that the bar is populated with dozens of other species.  However, because 3P0 is programmed for etiquette and service for humans, he immediately agrees and submissively leaves the bar.  

At another point in the film, Luke is pursuing his droid R2-D2 when 3P0 warns of “several creatures approaching from the southeast.”  These “creatures” wear goggles, wrap themselves in strips of cloth and ride hairy mammoth-like animals established to be called Banthas.  Luke refers to them as “sandpeople,” because apparently, they are so ostentatiously less than human that it would be implausible to refer to them without using a speciesist term expressing his superiority to them.  After they attack Luke, a mysterious figure in a brown robe comes climbing over a hill, and the “sandpeople” quickly run away, obviously perceiving him as a threat.  The viewer is unaware who is clad in this brown robe, and tensions build as he approaches the unconscious Luke until a human hand emerges from the robes, and he unhoods himself to reveal a bearded old white man underneath.  Not surprisingly, the music swells into a mystical melody signifying that the danger is gone as our protagonist is now in the company of a fellow human.  The man reveals himself to be Obi-Wan Kenobi, and makes a comment about how they should leave before the “sandpeople” return.  The human residents of Tatooine have assigned a status of the “other” to this indigenous group, rooted deeply in the “western traditions of eugenics, racism, and justifications for discrimination here on Earth” (Kapell 164).

The “sandpeople” are not the only group assigned a status of the “other” in A New Hope.  The basic conflict between the Empire and the Rebels is based on a hatred of one group against another, justified by the Empire’s desire to control the galaxy and the Rebels’ mission to defend it.  The film’s opening scene depicts a group of stormtroopers boarding a small Rebel spacecraft, initiating a battle between the two sides.  Stephanie J. Wilhelm, in her article “Imperial

 Plastic, Republican Fiber,” notes that “the

 homogenized imperial oppression is represented by identical plastic body armor,” while the earthtones of the Rebels’ uniforms, in addition to their exposed hair and faces, identifies their army as the oppressed side, forced to fight in self-defense (182).  This opening scene encourages the viewer to identify and side with the Rebels, as their social blocking around the entrance to the ship allows the viewer to see their individual expressions and reactions of fear and nervousness, as opposed to the intruding troops whose faces are masked by their indistinguishable helmets.  The stormtroopers are led by Darth Vader, whose “visual presence as a mechanism, and the quantitative reports that he receives from his commanders, are meant to make him a visual manifestation of the rationalized military-industrial complex that Lucas and those of his generation opposed” (Williams 240).  Vader and his commanders, also dressed in solid black, provide a stark contrast to the blues and oranges of the Rebel uniforms or the organic browns and tans of a Jedi’s robes, but define the absolutism of the Empire’s rule when juxtaposed with the solid black and white armor of the stormtroopers.

The Empire’s superiority complex is spearheaded through Vader, who in The Empire Strikes Back, reveals himself to be Luke’s father, Anakin Skywalker.  The six-film Star Wars saga is a Classical Hollywood narrative in that it is focused around the temporal experiences of an individual character through a linear series of events, and the consequences of characters’ actions are responsible for driving the narrative.  As a young boy in The Phantom Menace, Anakin and his mother are slaves who have been gambled around, and through his connection to the Force he wins his own freedom in a race.  Although young Anakin is offended when he is referred to as a slave, he later ironically volunteers himself to be Emperor Palpatine’s unquestioning servant in Revenge of the Sith, and has no qualms about destroying other species or entire planets as Darth Vader.  His justification for embracing the Dark Side of the Force is to try to save his love interest Padme from dying in childbirth, influenced by his inability to save his mother from dying at the hands of the “sandpeople” in the previous film, Attack of the Clones.  By becoming a Sith, the religion of one who follows the Dark Side of the Force, he initiates the series of events that eventually cause Padme’s death and his own disfiguration and reliance on a mechanical body.  

Anakin’s overconfidence and desire to use the Force to shape his environment “shows the hubris of the desire for one individual to control the galaxy and the tragic state of the figure who dreams such dreams,” for “in order to exert such control, one must cease being human.  One becomes caught up in a machine of dominion, no matter how good one’s intentions are” (Williams 245-246).  Vader’s position as the all-powerful villain from  A New Hope begins to falter in The Empire Strikes Back, as established through a hologram conversation in which Vader unwillingly submits to the Emperor, and must face that the Emperor knows that the child he thought had died with Padme is still alive.  Anakin’s importance in all of this is that he is “the Chosen One,” the offspring of his mother and the Force itself.  His disposition destines him to have natural abilities, but it is the circumstances of politics, the limitations of the Jedi Order, and the influence of Palpatine which set the stage for his destruction.

The entire story of Star Wars is driven by characters who can use the Force, and their desire to control or duty to defend the rest of the galaxy, with Anakin at the pivotal center.  It is explained by Qui-Gon Jinn in The Phantom Menace that the Force is more present in some organisms than others, determined by the presence of a microscopic life form in one’s blood.  Obi-Wan Kenobi explains in A New Hope that the Force is at least somewhat present in all things and binds them together, and Yoda furthers this explanation in Empire by telling Luke, “Remember, a Jedi’s strength flows from the Force.”  However, Luke’s ability to use the Force in the Star Wars narrative is solely determined in that “the story links them directly to his parentage: a queen for a mother, and ‘the Chosen One’ as a father” (Kapell 167).   This representation of inherited leadership presents the conservative idea of a biological class system, in which an individual’s abilities are not determined by training or enlightenment, but simply by being born with the right genetic material.  

In his essay “Eugenics, Racism, and the Jedi Gene Pool,” Matthew Wilhelm Kapell points out that Plato held a similar philosophy in which he labeled people into classes of “gold, silver, brass and lead” and sorted them based on their importance and value (170).  He believed that it was necessary for the classes to remain segregated to prevent a destabilization of the system.  The gold class had the most important responsibility of leading and educating the other classes to do more menial tasks.  Of course, throughout history the leading classes of nobility and royalty have almost always believed themselves to be put in that position by a greater power rather than simply by chance.  Although the Jedi use their Force abilities to liberate those who do not have the same capabilities, the way that this plot device is used in the films presents a conservative ideology of destiny and biological superiority rather than a more liberal theme of enlightenment and achievement.

The representation of gender roles in the Star Wars films is even more contradictory than the religion versus science paradox.  Princess Leia is introduced in the first few scenes of A New Hope wearing a pure white gown with her hair in tightly wrapped buns on either side of her head.  She is the only female in the entire opening battle, and is the only Rebel with the courage to confront Vader without fear.  Both of the royal females, Leia and her mother Padme “satisfy the requirements for screen heroism. They are dedicated to larger ideals, physically courageous, skilled in combat, and athletic” (Simpson 115).  In this sense, Leia is an analogous image of the 1970’s feminist movement.  However bold Leia may be, she is ultimately treated by her master status as a female rather than by her ambition or resolve.  The first thing Luke notes about her is her physical appearance as a female, exclaiming, “Who is she?  She’s beautiful!”  She is simultaneously being held captive by male characters and being rescued by other male characters.  When Luke arrives in her detention cell, “she reposes languidly,” with her “rounded thighs and curves in contrast to the ninety degree angles of the technology around her” (Simpson 119).  Her first response, however, is to insult his masculinity, questioning, “Aren’t you a little short for a stormtrooper?”  Han presents an even more generic male attitude about Leia, discrediting her specifically because of her role as a female, and constantly referring to her as “princess” or “sweetheart.”  At the same time, Han is the “one character to challenge her authority but is converted to her cause due to her dedication” (Simpson 116).  Social blocking plays an important role Leia’s appearance, as she is consistently placed between Han and Luke, escalating tensions in the competition between the two for Leia’s affection, solely based on her inseparable identity as a female.  

As her character develops through The Empire Strikes Back, she begins abandoning her tough side for her more feminine side.  When Han is being taken away to be frozen in carbonite, he tells Chewbacca, “The princess - you have to take care of her now.”  He then kisses Leia, to which she responds with, “I love you.”  At this point Leia’s character has been subordinated

 from the no-nonsense stubborn freedom fighter to the position of the helpless girlfriend of the one male character who constantly attacks her status as a female.  Leia’s commitment to the Rebellion is compromised even further in the introduction of Return of the Jedi, when she has neglected her position in the greater galactic crisis for an intimate rescue of Han.  The abandonment of her cause for her personal life reveals the turnover of her character from a leader to a lover, signifying the suppression of her stronger side by her feelings for Han.  This transition is subsequently represented onscreen when she is captured by Jabba the Hutt and forced to wear a metal bikini, a striking contrast to her modest costuming in A New Hope.  Leia’s inability to separate her identity from her sexuality suggests an ironic connotation between the progression of the women’s rights movement and the image of the female body in American pop culture.  Leia’s determination is not sacrificed, as she is the character who eventually assassinates Jabba, but the incongruity of her doing so in a metal bikini induces a definite statement about gender roles and their evolution through the 20th century.

From a certain point of view, the Star Wars films could be simplified into nothing more than a science fiction adventure with aliens, blasters, and spaceships.  Further inspection may even reveal a complex narrative about the tragedy of an individual faced with the choice between family and loyalty, and the repercussions of the choices that individual must make between the two.  But Star Wars also makes some very unique statements about the world that we live in and how society can influence human nature and vice versa.  The Star Wars films, laden with characteristics of both conservative and liberal ideologies, essentially provides an account of how 20th century Americans viewed the rest of the world, whether through the fearful eyes of the Empire who need to control what they don’t understand in order to be at peace, or through the eyes of the Rebels who believe that peace can only be achieved at the sacrifice of control.  Star Wars may reflect multiple doctrines in its mise-en-scene, ranging from fear of the “other” to the subordination of females due to the presence of gender roles in our society, but the narrative it delivers offers the promise that hope can vanquish fear despite one’s place in our world’s unavoidable social hierarchy.

Works Cited

Kapell, Matthew Wilhelm.  “Eugenics, Racism, and the Jedi Gene Pool.”  Finding the Force of 

the Star Wars Franchise. Ed. Matthew Wilhelm Kapell. New York, NY: Peter Lange 

Books, 2006.  163-170.

Simpson, Philip L. “Thawing the Ice Princess.”  Finding the Force of the Star Wars Franchise. 

Ed. Matthew Wilhelm Kapell. New York, NY: Peter Lange Books, 2006. 115-134.

Wilhelm, Stephanie J.  “Imperial Plastic, Republican Fiber.”  Finding the Force of the Star Wars
Franchise. Ed. Matthew Wilhelm Kapell. New York, NY: Peter Lange Books, 2006. 

181-182.

Williams, Doug.  “Not So Long Ago and Far Away: Star Wars, Republics and Empires of 

Tomorrow.”  The Science Fiction Film Reader. Ed. Gregg Rickman. New York, NY: 

Proscenium Publishers, Inc., 2004. 229-247.

BOXGROVE

Spring Break, come and gone for another year.  It's amazing how quickly time passes as I get older.  Maybe school's flying by so quickly now because I took two years off.

Our film did great, at the show we didn't win any awards as far as Best Picture, Best Drama, anything like that, but we did win the Audience Choice Award and the AT&T CV Award.  The CV Award means that our movie has been posted in the videos section on all AT&T cell phones, giving us exposure to some 73 million people (should they choose to watch it).  The Audience Choice Award ganked us a spot at the Southern Regional Grand Finale at the end of March, so we're pretty excited.  Here's the film, BOXGROVE.

In other news, my longtime bud and drummer for life Jesy moved back from the middle of some Tennessee woods, so it's been all jam and a little bit of drinky-drink since he got back.  We've hit up some really cool housewarming parties over the past few weeks in addition to Jesy's birthday, where we kind of tested out the crowd as a potential audience for our band.  Max also helped me land a killer job at Johnny's Pizza on Sugarloaf, so it's felt great to be making money, music, and movies.  Life rules.

The Five Minute Film From Hell (That Turned Out Awesome)

Lumumba and I created a film for this year's 2009 CMF Student Film Festival entitled 'Boxgrove.'  CMF is the world's largest student film festival, starting at the school level and ascending to national, and you have 5 days to make a 5 minute film.  Melissa helped us come up with the premise (which I won't disclose here as to keep things fresh) during the week before CMF and had most of our locations and actors scouted out before shooting even started, which helped immensely once we began production.

We received our equipment Tuesday afternoon (the 20th), shot Tuesday night from 8 PM - Midnight.  That night was interesting, as the parking deck we had kept our car (and equipment) in closed at 11, so I was sprinting across Atlanta in my costume for that scene and got to the deck as the attendant was leaving in his own car.  Luckily, he waited for me to get my car and then I rushed back so we could finish the scene (our location closed at midnight).  That night I got home and edited the scene together on the Macbook Pro CMF let us borrow, and got to sleep around 6 AM.  

School the next day wasn't fun - we were up at 10 AM for Melissa's class at noon.  I worked on finalizing some of the music tracks (I already had prepared a little during the few days before CMF) and we had to shoot that night as that was our only chance to shoot with my cousin's fiancee, Adam.  It was 18 degrees that night and our main character's costume wasn't too warm, to say the least.  Anyway, we pulled through, at many points I was holding reflectors for the florescent lights we had set up and tossing Javier's jacket to him back and forth as soon as the shots began and ended.  We got done about 1 AM, and I stayed up all night (again) editing that scene - I had to figure out how to time the scenes right, as Adam's monologue had to sync up with certain images on screen, but many of the shots didn't last long enough to fill in that time, and the actions of his cigarette didn't match up right - but pulling a little from here and there and splitting clips up into multiple sections made it work.

Thursday our main actor wasn't available - so we couldn't really shoot anything.  I gave Mo (Lumumba) the Macbook Pro so he could do some visual effects on the scene we had shot the first day - I thought this would mean I could have a break, but I ended up staying up all night (again) finishing up the music tracks and recording our dialogue for the first scene, as well as writing the script for the following days.  That night Patrick, Steve and I recorded "Whalin'," the only live audio track for the film, and Pat mastered it later that night - it took about 4 hrs to record and get it sounding perfect.  I spent most of the rest of the night racking my brain trying to figure out how the first scene could segue into the second scene without getting boring.  I figured it out at about 5 AM.

Friday me and Mo talked my idea for the second scene over - He didn't like it, but didn't really have a better alternative.  After I pitched it to him really hard, he came around and said that it had grown on him.  We were supposed to shoot the first and last scenes that morning and then shoot the fourth scene that night, but Mo couldn't get in touch with Javier or something, so we didn't end up doing the first and last scenes.  Pushing it, but still manageable.  The fourth scene (shot on skateboards) went off pretty much without a hitch, aside from me taking a huge spill from filming one direction while riding another.  Luckily I felt the fall coming, so I tucked the camera under my body and did a few somersaults off the board.  It was rough, but the camera didn't take a scratch.  The BW kids did great in their scene, the acting isn't stiff at all - just what we wanted.  Again, I stayed up all night syncing audio and video for that scene.  Got to sleep maybe around 8 AM.

We were supposed to shoot at 11 AM Saturday, meaning that Mo and Javier were supposed to be at our place at 10 AM.  They didn't call us until 12 30, but by some twist of fate our actor for that day (Melissa's dad) had gotten tied up with work, so we ended up just shooting the scene in the afternoon.  This posed a problem in that we had one day left to finish our film, and had to climb a mountain to get our first and last shots.  The sun went down before we had a chance to even get out to the mountain, so we said screw it and decided to go up before sunrise, so we cold shoot as the sun was coming up and have the rest of the day to finish.  I didn't go to sleep that night, as the footage we had shot earlier needed some serious doctoring, and by the time I had put together the whole scene, I was actually LATE for meeting up with them to climb the mountain.  So I climbed on no sleep.

It was really freaking cold on the mountain.  Javier knows more than either me or Mo, and that's evident in the film, but he did great.  It took us about two hours in the dark to find the spot I had scouted out, but when we found it, the sun hadn't even reached the horizon yet.  It was literally glorious.  We shot about 20 minutes worth of footage (the scenes were 40 seconds total) which took about 4 hours to get that 20 minutes of footage (it's a long and tedious process).  Unfortunately some of the most beautiful shots weren't needed in our film, and were deleted when I turned the project in before I had a chance to save it to a DVD.  When we were done shooting, we went back to Mo's house (I passed out for about 30 minutes) and he edited the first and last scene (I had edited the rest).  At this point, they assumed they were done and revealed to me that they had made plans with another group of actors to shoot a second film that afternoon, "just for the fun of it."  Our film was nowhere near done.  Yes, the scenes were all shot, dialogue all recorded, and most of the music was synced.  BUT, each scene was cut as its own separate project, and there were still titles, credits, sound effects, transitions, and basically just making sure that the whole thing made sense.  I gave them a thorough bitching, after which I took Javier to the Marta station (we didn't need him anymore, and he was anxious) and he went off to shoot his film by himself.  I'm lucky Mo actually stayed and helped finish, because it took us until 11PM that night to get the whole thing together.  There was no possible way we could have done it Monday morning, as one of them had suggested we try.  I told them that there was no way in hell we had put all that effort into five minutes of film and we were just going to bail at the last second for some other idea they had.  There will be other festivals, other times.  You don't do it that way.

Anyway, once we put the final titles on and everything, it seemed done, and we showed it to some of Mo's family at like 11:30 PM, and I went home.  That night, I extracted the file to a .mov, and went to the CMF website to see if I had done everything right.  Well, CMF needs a .dv file, so I went back and tried to extract another one, and the Macbook Pro tells me it's out of room.  Would I like to delete some unnecessary files?  Sure, I say, and it deletes half the freakin project!!!!  I stayed up the rest of the night and took a one hour nap before school, and headed in to talk to the CMF guys before the madness hit.  Luckily, they were able to reconstruct most of what had gotten deleted, and it turned out that the .mov file was what they needed anyway due to the HD camera we had used, etc.  The CMF rep burned it to a DVD for me and we were done.  Whew.

Now, we've got a little less than three weeks until the festival at GSU, and my gut's been turning circles every minute of the day.  I can't WAIT to find out how we did.  The odds were stacked against us and there was almost some mutiny, but we pulled through with an amazing finished product.  Whether or not we win, I'm happy just to have a film that I had a (rather large) hand in making.  And compared to my first film, this looks like a blockbuster.  The finale will be at the Georgia State Rialto theater on February 19.  You can definitely expect to hear about it afterwards.

5 Artists I Recently Rediscovered

A few weeks ago I found myself scourging old hard drives looking for tunes for our Halloween party and came across some old gems: "Grimly Fiendish" by the Damned, "Ghost Town" by the Specials, and "Code Blue" by T.S.O.L.  While looking for more tunes online for the playlist, I came across other artists that I had left behind some time ago.  To be specific, when my Ford F-150 exploded and my 250-CD case and MP3 player were nothing but melted chunks of plastic.  At that point in time, I began anew and left the old bands behind me to pursue the more classic sounds of CSNY, the Doors, the Beatles, and Pink Floyd.  I was amazed at the spirit some of these bands possessed, but found myself frustrated and lost with the turns music had taken afterwards - Where did it go wrong?  How did the Ramones and the Clash evolve into Wham! and Boy George, and subsequently into Avenged Sevenfold and Panic! At the Disco?  Disillusioned with the current trend that emo "can rock too," I abandoned everything new and found shelter by going retroactive - the sounds of Aretha Franklin and Otis Redding held me over.  These funky artists led to my discovery of the Talking Heads, and I was delighted when I found the Pixies complete discography on emusic.com.  But there was still a hole somewhere.  I finally realized that the only way I could satiate my rock'n'roll desires was through the reacquisition of my former forgotten favorites.  After days filtering through mostly garbage on the 'net, I finally found my MacGuffin, my Rosetta Stone, my Crystal Skull; and I'll present it to you, my most adored non-existent audience, in the form of a fulfilling top five list, that I might emphasize again is not by any means an "All Time Artists" top five, but a "Recently Rediscovered By Me Artists" top five.  So here goes:

THE TOP 5 ARTISTS I RECENTLY REDISCOVERED:

5. MISFITS

For a long time (especially in high school), I assumed that if I were to try to listen to the Misfits, it just wouldn't work.  I hadn't given them a chance but I recognized that skull logo and of course knew the name.. but it seemed like one of those bands to me that "the punk kids only listen to because they're punk" and seeing as I wasn't a punk, I assumed that it wasn't for me.  For one, I didn't realize that their songs are about sci-fi B-movies 99% of the time, which definitely suits me.  The first track I tried was "Halloween" simply because I had seen it show up on Kazaa searches so much.  It was.. okay.  It wasn't until I gave Walk Among Us a listen that I found out what was so great about this band.. The fact that the band could put so much energy into something that only existed in a fictional universe was amazing to me, and no matter the quality of the recording, it was just such a cool concept with such awesome hooks in the melodies that I couldn't help but listen.  So it was a given (especially considering how many Misfits covers have been engrained in my mind through my former band "The Landmines") that I would come across this album again when arranging a playlist for the Halloween party.

4. BUZZCOCKS

I once had a girlfriend that turned me off to the Buzzcocks for a long time because she was so into them (solely for punk cred.).  It wasn't until I realized that she didn't actually even listen to them that I decided to give them a try.  I was familiar with The Vibrators and the U.K. Subs at the time, so the upbeat love-woes sound wasn't so out there when I first heard them.  What I wasn't expecting was their mastery of chord changes and the ability to throw in pop hooks to keep you listening. I've listened to some B-sides and some album filler tracks, but their compilation Singles Going Steady really takes the cake.  That album showcases their best-of, not in terms of what was popular, but in songwriting, playing, and what made singer Devoto's attitude so real.  As far as love goes, they hit the nail on the head.  A lot of bands filtered through when "re-discovering" my former tastes, but this band was too big for the sieve and stuck out like a sore thumb in my memory.

3. AGENT ORANGE

If The Buzzcocks sang about love, Agent Orange was defined by the absence of love.  I had first come across Agent Orange through a cover of their hit "Bloodstains" sung by The Offspring.  I was really into the Offspring's Smash in middle school and gorged out on all things Offspring when Napster first hit the net.  This was how I found "Bloodstains," and didn't even realize it was an Agent Orange song until I heard the original on Tony Hawks Pro Skater 4 at a friend's house.  Thus, further research put my late-high-school/early-college years behind the wheel of this fast paced, angst-driven California band, fueling my interest in both surf and punk at the same time.  Living In Darkness is their definitive album, with a sold blend of instrumental tunes, rebellious anthems, and 100% certified badass, even discrediting the entire concept of being punk in their track "Bored of You".  Naturally themes like "Too Young to Die" and the album namesake "Living in Darkness" came to mind when planning for a Halloween party.

2. X

There's something about California bands.  This one first entered my musical entourage when I heard the track "Adult Books" in a friend's car.  I couldn't quite make out all the words, but I knew it was kinky and I knew it was different, and that they were actually making a statement (something sadly devoid from modern music).  I did a Google Search for "adult books" and came up with quite a few scandalous links, but found what I was looking for.  A few days later I asked said friend if I could hear more "X" and he retorted that I probably didn't even know who the lead singer was.  Ugh, punk snobs.  Anyway, he wouldn't put it on, so I looked them up myself later and happened upon the tracks "Your Phone's Off the Hook (But You're Not)," "Sugarlight," "Los Angeles," and "White Girl."  Finding that these tracks were all from the same album, I got the Los Angeles/Wild Gift combo and listened to the ever-loving crap out of it.  Unfortunately, when it burned up in the truck fire it was a long while before I came across this album again.  Thank God I have it now (and you should too).

1. THE VENTURES

The Ventures seems the outcast of this group of bands, and I never really undiscovered them so that they could be rediscovered.  However, when my music melted I did lose a significant portion of my Ventures collection, and most of the rest of it resided in subsequent single track downloads of "Hawaii Five-O" and "Perfidia" from the iTunes store.  The Ventures poster in my living room kept the fire burning all this time so that I could finally find the awesomeness of "The Lonely Bull" and "Sukiyaki" once again.  The Ventures weren't my first surf band, but they're arguably the best.  Being a film and music guy, I had been drawn to the surf tunes present in Tarantino films like Pulp Fiction.  The ambiguous instrumental sound allowed for a song to tell a story in ways that many artists disregard.  I could imagine cowboys drinking in a saloon late at night to Link Wray's "Rumble" and a California gunslinger surfer dude rocking out to Dick Dale's "Miserlou."  And while these originals stand firm, and their composers are incredible in their own rights (Dale as the King of the Surf Guitar, Wray as the inventor of the power chord), neither had a backup band with the repertoire of The Ventures.  Many Ventures songs aren't even originals, but whether they're Herb Alpert covers or traditional folk songs done surf style, the Ventures nailed 'em.  In college my interest in the Ventures set me apart from many of my dorm-mates, and influenced everything from my songwriting and playing abilities to the way I carried myself and what I looked for in new music.  In my book the Ventures rank up there with the Beatles, the Pixies, and the Ramones, and it's a sad fact that most people under the age of 30 would draw a blank if they were mentioned in conversation.  If you're one of those sad, deprived little individuals, it's time to start a-listenin'.