I hate not having seasons

I had a very sad realization this weekend. This may be the first year in my entire life to have missed seeing snow in the winter. There is still a chance that I will see snow when I go to Detroit and Omaha in the month of March. I kind of think of March as spring, but I don't know if that's technically correct. When does spring begin exactly?

Wikipedia states, "Astronomically, some Western countries consider spring to begin with the vernal equinox (around March 20 in the Northern Hemisphere, and September 23 in the Southern Hemisphere), and ends with the summer solstice (around June 21 in the Northern Hemisphere and December 21 in the Southern Hemisphere). Such conventions are by no means universal, however. In Chinese astronomy, for example, the vernal equinox instead marks the middle of spring, which begins around the time of Lichun (around February 4). In the Irish Calendar it is counted as the whole months of February, March and April. In meteorology, it is (also by convention) instead counted as the whole months of March, April, and May in the Northern Hemisphere and September, October, and November in the Southern Hemisphere."

Because of my penchant for astronomy, I will choose to adhere to the vernal equinox for the measurement of this personal life landmark. So if I see snow by March 19 by 11:59:59 pm, I will continue my life-long seasonal tradition. If not, I will be sad. If there is no snow at all during those visits, I will have gone an entire year without seeing its beauty. I can't even think about that possibility. Cross your fingers for me.

Sir Tony

Well, it has been a week since I last posted, so I am feeling the pressure to update. I need to keep up my endurance. But what can I write about? That is the question...

There are two exciting things that are coming to my mind at the moment. The first is that Marianne Faithfull is playing at the House of Blues in Anaheim at the end of May. I am very excited and I must go.

The second is that Anthony Hopkins was a guest last night in the class that I work for at USC. He came to class with his new film, Slipstream, a film that he wrote, directed and appears in. I didn't watch the whole film, so I won't comment on it, other than saying it is very strange. Accompanying him were the Italian cinematographer, Dante Spinotti, and editor Michael Miller. The photo I included is one I took of Hopkins and Spinotti during the Q & A. Tony was an interesting and gracious guest, as well as Miller and Spinotti. I am also proud to say that Miller, editor of such great films as Miller's Crossing, Blood Simple, Raising Arizona and Ghost World (among others), helped my friend Dave and I on the New York Times crossword.

Problem-free philosophy

So today I saw a bumper sticker that said "With Jesus." Next to that was "Con Jesus" (Spanish for "With Jesus"). Underneath that was "Hakuna Matata," accompanied by a picture of a lion's head. Let me make it clear that this was all on one bumper sticker, not separate ones.

I was going to ask what interpretations you may have as to the exact meaning of this sticker, but just as I am writing this I realize that maybe it's meant to be taken all together, like, "with Jesus you'll have no worries." Like if you accept him, you're free sailing. As I just wrote that last sentence I realized there isn't much sense to that explanation either. Does someone have a better or more reasonable explanation for this? Am I missing something? Not that I minded the sticker. In fact, I liked it better than those ever-present (in L.A.) "Jesus is God, Read the Bible/ Jesus es Dios, Lea la Biblia" bumper stickers. It's much more upbeat, less forceful. The lion head visual was also a nice touch.

It reminded me of my favorite scene/deleted scenes in Talladega Nights when Cal (John C. Reilly) is telling everyone at the dinner table how he likes to picture Jesus -- "I like to think of Jesus as an ice dancer, dressed in an all-white jumpsuit, and doing an interpretive dance of my life" and "I like to think of Jesus like with giant eagles wings, and singin' lead vocals for Lynyrd Skynyrd with like an angel band and I'm in the front row and I'm hammered drunk! " and "I like to think of Jesus as a mischievous badger"..."in a tuxedo shirt"...

So maybe from now on I will picture Jesus singing "Hakuna Matata," doing a little barefoot dance, his long, white beard swaying in the soft jungle breeze. He has a wooden staff to use in the performance -- Charlie Chaplin style -- and behind Him are his little jungle friends, like a warthog and a lemur, singing backup, harmonizing as they trot along the dirt paths following Him with a spring in their step. With a Jesus like that in the world, there really would be no worries.

Upcoming cinematic events in LA

There are a lot of them. Here are some of them for the remainder of February:

2/17 ASC Open House with Oscar and ASC-nominated cinematographers. Open to the public 11-4. 782 N. Orange Dr. in Hollywood

2/21 Cinematographer Allen Daviau in person following screenings of Amblin' (Spielberg's debut short film) and Fearless directed by Peter Weir @ UCLA 7:30

2/21 and 2/22 Documentaries Jonestown and Deliver Us From Evil at New Beverly 7:30, 9:15

2/22 Half Nelson @ Arclight 8 pm. Followed by Q & A with director/co-writer Ryan Fleck, co-writer Anna Boden, and producers Jamie Patricof and Lynette Howell

2/23 Cinematographer Michael Ballhaus in person following a screening of Goodfellas @ UCLA 7:30

2/23 Oscar shorts at Egyptian Theatre (Spielberg theatre) 7:30 and 10 pm

2/24 Oscar nominated editors discussion at Egyptian Theatre. Open to public and free. 10 am. This usually fills up fast, I've heard.

2/24 Docuday. From 10 am to midnight Oscar nominated documentaries (short and feature) are screening @ Writer's Guild (135 S. Doheny Dr., Beverly Hills) -- for schedule go here and scroll down to Docuday.

2/24 Oscar nominated art directors/production designers at Egyptian Theatre. Open to public and free. 2:30

2/24 Oscar shorts @ Egyptian 4 pm.

2/28 Oscar shorts @ Egyptian 4 pm.

2/28 An evening with Isabella Rossellini @ UCLA 7:30. Screening of The Chicken directed by Roberto Rossellini (part of a larger retrospective on Rossellini that I did not include on here), My Dad is 100 Years Old directed by Guy Maddin and Stromboli directed by Rossellini

* I would really like to try to go to the Oscar nominated editors event at the Egyptian and the Oscar shorts. So let me know if you're interested in those in particular. Can't go to Half Nelson because of Thursday night screenings.

Mark your calendars...

Rainn Wilson (aka Dwight Schrute) and Arcade Fire are the guests for SNL Feb. 24th. Exciting.

Barack in L.A.

Barack Obama will be in L.A. Feb. 20th at the Rancho Cienega Sports Complex. Details from BarackObama.com below:

WHEN: Tuesday, February 20th -- Gates open at 2 PM
WHERE: 5001 Rodeo Road, Los Angeles, CA 90016
DETAILS: Please do not bring any bags or signs. Also, please limit personal items. This event will take place RAIN or SHINE.
NOTE: Parking is free and available.

Unfortunately I have multicam 1-5 on Tuesday so I will be unable to make it. Luckily I literally walked into a rally at USC just before he started to speak a few months ago. For all of you who haven't seen or heard him live and are free on Tuesday -- it's worth it.

I believe when I saw him he started his speech with the infamous words of Nelly, "Whew, it's getting hot in here." Luckily (or unluckily, depending on how you see it) he stopped there, but he did proceed to take his jacket off.

Interesting things I learned today...

1. Neither Antony nor Cleopatra were very attractive, contrary to public opinion.
2. Al Franken is running for Senator in Minnesota.

R.I.P. Phoebe

My cat Phoebe died today. She was loved and she will be missed.

Welcome!

This rocket is a symbol of the official kick-off of this project. I'm writing project because I don't really like the word blog. I am going to try to get this off the ground, but we'll see...

I feel like this might be a fun little experiment and something new and kind of exciting. And it has been a great way for me to avoid doing my work tonight, and will probably continue to divert my attention in the future.

Just as a sort of disclaimer, this does seem kind of narcissistic and I don't even really like the worldwide web. I have even more distaste for our culture's increasing trend towards public confession/sharing/exhibitionism/reality television media circus. However, I am all for self-expression, art, photos, writing and sharing with friends and family. Also I've been trying to be better about keeping in touch with people, so this might help. It's also nice that it's a democratizing medium, where anyone's voice can be heard, even if what you have to say is very boring. And it's good to get more in the habit of writing. Anyway, this pro and con thing could go back and forth, but I'm trying to commit here. So, no more disclaimers for me. What I write may be boring, pointless, or sound pretentious, but I'm going to try to do it anyway. I welcome all comments, critiques, sarcasm, encouragement and gifts.