Halloween in Brampton

So, around 3 pm on Friday I decided I’d go with Lizz and Serge to the party in Brampton. I stressed a lot though, cuz I really hate costume parties. I always have the hardest time coming up with a costume and you don’t want to be the only one at a party who ISN’T dressed up, sooo stressful.

But it worked out. It was one of those – what’s in my closet that can pass as a costume – outfits. A cross between a can-can dancer, early 1920’s style, and (thanks to Lizz’s mom) a neon twist thrown in.

Lizz and Serge were dressed as a nerd couple. Sam was Marie Antoinette. And Dave was all dressed up as an Indian woman, in full-sari.

Superhero pose (ish):

America’s Next Top.. something:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Remember the Days?

Do you remember the days when we liked LC better than Kristin?

Or when we thought Lo was being beaten by her family? (lol)

And I was horribly in love with Trey?

They put on fund-raising benefits and seemed to be really well put-together kids?

And Christina’s horribly embarrassing birthday audition on Broadway?

Or laughing so hard when little Morgan held her unacceptance letter in her hand while talking about how she only applied to that school?

Those hungover Sundays after late nights at Jupiter Room, lying motionless on Laura’s couch with the pilot light off (oops!).

I’m feeling nostalgic for the original Laguna.

After watching this, you may be too:

Zaphod’s in Ottawa

Dancing it up with Laura and Kike.

An “A” for Alex

Yeah that’s right. I just got back my first film assignment. The still photo sequence. It should be still posted in the archives under September.

I got an A! So happy. My prof said some of the photos had “beautiful composition” “stunning depth” “intense silhouettes” and “again smashing composition and color-use”. Woot.

Also on a slightly less proud side note.. we watched Pretty Woman in Film Art today. I mean seriously? It was entertaining and the perfect end to the day.. but I can’t wait to hear what Suzie has to say about the theory of the film.

Also I think I’m going to start knocking out film students in class. A couple of them were driving me completely insane in Film 1010 this morning. The comments flying out of these kids’ mouths! I mean… everything from “Dude, you’re awesome.” to bullshit like “I found a lot of symbolism in your film. In how you moved from the images of stop signs to the water from the fountain flowing, as if Life itself cannot be stopped, it continues to flow.” (are you dying yet?) and finally the class ended with an incredibly astute observation “You’re seriously genius.” GENIUS?? Are you fucking kidding me? I tend to think that, like myself, the majority of the population would reserve the use of the term “genius” for things that really do cross the boundary into the “life-changing” or “history-making”. But apparently not, perhaps to some people, putting one foot in front of the other constitutes being “GENIUS”.

This shit depresses me.

TV on the Radio Pics

I’m finally putting these up from the show on October 13th in Montreal @ Le National. There are a few videos as well.

They opened with this amazing version of Ambulance. The videos aren’t great quality and they’re short.. but they’re still cool.

Here’s a bit of Wolf Like Me (I adore this one cuz of the little guitarist bouncing around):

Warhol @ AGO

Did someone say FREE BUTTONS??

omg.

So yes, TODAY (that would be Sunday) I made yet another trek to the AGO. It was rainy and cold, but today was the last day of the Andy Warhol Supernova: Stars, Death and Disaster 1962-1964 exhibition. It was one of the events to choose from for a FACS 1400 assignment. In pure Alexandra-style, I left it to the VERY last day possible. What a way to play!

It was cool in the way that it was the first time I’d seen actual Warhol originals hanging on a wall infront of me. I saw the 16 Jackies. The Elizabeth Taylor – Cleopatra silkscreens. One of my favourites was one called Miriam Davidson. There were a bunch of his films as well. From Empire (8 hours of filming the Empire State Building) and Sleep (5 hours of a man sleeping) to Couch (random moments filmed by whoever wanted to turn on the camera left in front of the couch in the Factory) and Screen Tests (everyone from Lou Reed and Bob Dylan to Nico and Edie filmed for 3 minutes trying not to blink). The last one was my favourite. I’ve got to say I wasn’t impressed with the design of the exhibit. The layout wasn’t all it could have been. It felt tight, trying to pack all there was to show into two small rooms with low ceilings. Ick.

One of the things I really liked about the Montreal Museum of Fine Art was the space. The ceilings were bright and there were a lot of skylights. Even in the basement where we found 1 or 2 Basquiat, it still felt like you were in a bright warehouse.

Anyways, I’ve got to write up a report on the exhibit for Thursday. Should be easy…. you know!

Ooh Vietnam War Doc!

Last Wednesday I trooped on down to the Cinematheque at the AGO (Art Gallery of Ontario) for a screening of this little Oscar-winning documentary: Hearts and Minds.

It was being shown as part of a set of Vietnam War films and I have to go to an “Alternative Venue Screening” for Film 1010 and this was the one that caught my interest. (I’d just bought Apocalypse Now at the beginning of school.. I think I’m on this Vietnam thing)

Not knowing exactly where I was going, aware only that it was the St-Patrick stop on the TTC, and a few blocks in some direction on some road. (I’d checked it all out online, just didn’t write any of it down and half an hour into bussing and subway-ing it had slipped my mind – oh the joy of daydreaming! you know what I’m talking about Julia hehe)

I leave York at 7:45 and the showing is at 8:45. I get super nervous cause I realize TIME is passing much more quickly then DISTANCE! I maintain that once underground space and time detach and things get real messed. Uh huh.

I get out of the subway at 8:40 and start rushing in whatever direction seems right. That ain’t quite true.. I saw a strange sign pointing the direction to the AGO. But still… it’s dark, my film is starting and yikes. But I get there all fine and once inside it’s just as hard to find the Cinematheque. The entire building is undergoing a Frank Gehry-designed transformation. I get to the ticket desk and they hand me a ticket (turns out it’s free.. I mean.. huzzzah! that’s awesome!) I get inside and quickly realize that I’m the only person in there under the age of 50 and female. The entire film I was kind of nervous these men had been in Vietnam and shit was going to go down any second!

Don’t worry, nothing did.

But the documentary was amazing. It had tons and tons of archival footage filmed on the ground over there. There was a clip of these young American soldiers shooting randomly over a wall and talking to the camera whenever they had a chance. There’s gunfire everywhere and they’re just shoving their guns over the top and shooting, keeping their heads down below. It was just so chaotic and uncoordinated, it really hit home that these were just young guys swiped from inner-cities or suburbs and thrown into this completely foreign situation and told they were at war. I think about my culture shock in Kenya, and having to deal with that when you’re constantly under the threat of attack just blows my mind!

Anyways, it’s really well done. If you get the chance you should rent it. It’s cleverly powerful, but really informative if you don’t know much about the war.

It’s hard not to draw parallels between Vietnam and Iraq when you hear Pentagon officials asking military leaders questions like “With 206,000 additional troops, how much longer do you anticipate Americans to be in Vietnam” and then getting answers like “We have no estimates.” “Six months? A year? Two years?” and they still couldn’t say. That was already after something like 4 years of being at war. This Pentagon official says he asked the general if he could say that the Viet Cong attacks were losing strength and motivation, and the general responded that they hadn’t, if anything, they gotten stronger.

Iraq seems like a complete deja vu after Vietnam.

You have to see it.

Lost Photos

Here are two photos I never ended up putting in my post about Coney Island.. but which I still thought were cool enough to just post on their own.

And this one is of the beach during a heatwave in the 1950’s:

Montreal Video

Metro Ride with the girls

I Warned You Stephen