lawofsyllogism

OH MY GOD, JEEZ GUYS WHATEVER, DEATHLY HOLLOWS ROCKED.

I mean. Yeah, stuff happened that I would've liked not to, and stuff that I wanted to happen didn't, but I spent like half of the book laughing my (confused, sleep-deprived) ass off. $37 is totally worth that many "OH MAN WHAT DID _____ JUST SAY"s and shocked guffaws.

A little bit of watery-eyedness after certain deaths, I'll admit, and Harry's final journey into the woods kinda got to me, yanno? But mostly things were just really funny, possibly even in a way that suggests Rowling was trying to be funny. Gasp, shock.

But seriously:

The house-elves of Hogwarts swarmed into the entrance hall, screaming and waving carving knives

THE END

My current method of dealing with Harry Potter spoilers is to pretty much believe anything. Even stuff that probably isn't true, or is heavily distorted. I want to breeze through the book when the time comes instead of working myself up over nothing, but I remember the last two releases*. For Order of the Phoenix I valiantly resisted all spoilers but it was like pure torture, and for Half-Blood Prince I read spoilers but refused to believe any of them, which just made me frustrated and anxious. But believing everything totally removes my ability to filter and process information in a logical fashion. It's the Luna Lovegood approach to fandom. I like it.

I guess I could read the first few chapters online if I really wanted to, but the midnight release is Second Christmas to me now. Yanno. LOGICALLY you know there's nothing really magical going on, and your presents are all nice things but just things and once you've got them it's... over. So really the best part is that anticipation, and the togetherness. If I could, I'd stretch the next four days out for four weeks.

* I did go to the Goblet of Fire release, but all of the spoilers I remember hearing for that wound up being total lies. Fandom was not the well-oiled machine it is now, dudes.

the cynic sect: the maddening thing about this
the cynic sect: is that the newscast
the cynic sect: is like not even a big deal
the cynic sect: and is barely even shown
the cynic sect: like it's all: over jorge's shoulder on in the background or you just hear it.
the cynic sect: or*
the cynic sect: but it has to be shot and editing
the cynic sect: edited
the cynic sect: augh
the cynic sect: so I can burn it to dvd
the cynic sect: and play it while we're filming the first scene.
the cynic sect: and we have to shoot most of the film in roughly chronological order
the cynic sect: because once somebody's shooting clothes get fake blood on them
the cynic sect: that's it, there's fake blood on them for the rest of the time we're shooting.
the cynic sect: you see my dillemma here.
Cogg453: i like ducks
Cogg453: and you already sound like the burnt out director

Re: yesterday's post and the zombie invasion in general, haha, I think the whole thing was awesome. I actually didn't know about it until I'd read a few people's posts, and like some other folks out there in LJ-land, a few of them had me going "aaaaahuhh!" a little bit, on the inside.

BUT: I sense the oncoming apocalypse three times a week or more. That is... not a joke. It's part of my social anxiety disorder. So reading posts by people who are all "gosh that is just not funny! I was really worried! Everyone should have made it clear they were joking, thereby ruining the actual joke!" does not inspire a lot of sympathy from me. WELCOME TO MY WORLD.

What it really makes me want to do is spin a moderately illegal modern-day recreation of the War of the Worlds radio broadcast, actually. Broadcast signal intrusion plus zombies. I'm trying to imagine how I would explain my incarceration to my fellow inmates shortly thereafter. If I interrupted the signal during the '08 presidential debates, you think I could argue it as political commentary?

Oh, my particular post about zombies was laughable mostly because I make reference to a "film crew," which implies both that the script is done enough for us to have started filming and also that this production will have anything approaching a "film crew." Lord almighty. I was watching the director's commentary for The Hills Have Eyes the other day, and Wes Craven was laughing about how he only had twelve people on his crew out in the desert. And that his budget was only $250,000. Suck my imaginary dick, Wes. At this rate my "film crew" is going to be sircharlie & I running in frantic circles next to the camera, a handful of talent that's never been sober in front of a camera before, and half a dozen people who think that we can forego practical effects for "editing."

I mean. I look upon each and every person thus far involved in the zombie movie with infinite affection, and I have faith in a lot of them to be both creative and surprisingly reliable, but if this gets off the ground it's going to be a bumpy ride. The most charitable pay-off will be brief YouTube fame, with a potential niche market in local teens who never got the chance to experience the magic of Letchworth*, since it's about to be renovated into condos.

Letchworth being a psychiatric facility open from the 1930's until 1996. It was a significant step up from hurling the mentally unstable in prisons, but like pretty much every other attempt at corralling society's unwanteds into one spot and paying people to look after them, it didn't work so hot. Because no one can accept that all of these places fostered abuse and neglect, locals have a tendency to greatly exaggerate and severely distort the real problems. Letchworth is swamped in mismatched urban legends and unfounded superstition... Which pretty much makes it the most awesome thing ever for bored kids looking to scare the pants off themselves. Literally.



( Visits to Letchworth. 35 Photographs. )
Hello, Dave! indeed. Also at Letchworth: a lot of porn and graffiti about 420, poorly-rendered pentagrams, someone misspelling the word "retarded," and a lot of things about death.

Oh, and kittens!

COVER THEIR MOUTHS W/ ANYTHING ON HAND

NOT SURE IF COUGHING BLOOD SPREADS IT BUT IS SLIPPED IN A POOL MY FUCKING SCRIPTWRITER LEFT AND IT WAS NASTY

GOD HE'S BANGING ARO)UND IN THE LITTLE CHAIR HIS GIRLFIEND TIED HIM TO

HOW THE UFCK DOES OUR FILMING LOCATION GET WRIELESS?

I am probably the last person on the planet to actually watch this, but it is so awesome I cannot stop playing it over and over again. ATE OPPONENTS BRAINS, AND INVENTED COCAINE. That's lyrical genius, right there. God bless you, Brad Neely.

Some of you may vaguely recall my last trip through Camp Bluefields about a year ago. It's a shooting range that was built during World War I but was abandoned after three years, because whoever designed it? Was retarded, and all the soldiers had to shoot directly into the sun during sunset, so they kept overshooting and bullets were landing in Grand View (the hamlet between Nyack and Piermont along the Hudson). Anyway, now it's primarily a right of passage for kids living in Central Nyack, and the place is covered in graffiti and fake Satanic symbols. Awesome.

So naturally it's the perfect filming location for a zombie short. We're actually working on a script, which is more progress than I've ever made before on my dream of actually making a zombie movie, so I took my partners in crime up a week or two ago to get a feel for the place.


Actually, Zim (long-haired chap on the right) was the one who took us up-- I had told Jorge about the tunnels, and then Zim had told Jorge about "the Nike airbase" that he had been to one time when he was drunk. I've been to the Nike airbase, it's boring, so I was like, "I think we're talking about the same thing, but fine: lead the way." And he did know a shorter way of getting there, which almost redeemed him in my eyes. But he spent the whole car ride yapping about Satanic rituals. Whatever, I love Rocklanders.

( Four more. )

( Finished painting from a few weeks ago. )

I am going to be twenty this Saturday! I'm healthier and harder working than I was a year ago, but also a lot less interesting. I'm beginning to accept that no one will ever be as impressed with me as I want them to be.

Here's a poem.

( Report on Human Beings, by Michael Goldman )

Oh, and I got accepted at SVA for the Fall Semester, so I can friggin' finally get back to the city. I didn't earn any merit scholarships this time, though... There's a Restoration Hardware a few blocks from the dorm I'm hoping to stay in, christ willing I can, I dunno, transfer from my store to theirs.

Or money could just appear in my pockets. That'd work for me, too.

Haha, on our final run only two really made it up into the air, and only the one I filmed made it up high enough that we never saw it again. Mine and one other guy's managed to sort of... get up to the tree-line, but then kinda dejectedly floated back down, and inevitably tore up when we tried to rescue them from the wind. Sigh.

At least mine didn't start smoking.

( Photographs. )



( One more. )

I totally gave up going into the city with Jamaal & Cedric today so I could paint, but as soon as I came to a decision about it all my tentative inspiration left me. So instead I finished some of the fanart that's been sitting around on my hard drive for a few months.

People keep talking about how sad they're gonna be when Deathly Hallows comes out this summer. That the fandom will be irrevocably changed, that huge amounts of fanfiction will become solidly AU, that future fanfiction may even be hobbled by any loose-end-tying Rowling does in her epilogue (if she has an epilogue-- my theory as it stands thus far is that killing Voldemort won't be the climactic event, but rather having to stop Snape from filling the abrupt power vacuum, and then because Harry's not specifically equipped by fate to kill Snape? he dies, and that's the end).

But for serious, I just want this series to be done with. I feel like it's a measuring stick for my adolescent development, and I'm going to be twenty in a month for god's sake, so I need it to wrap up already. Jeez.


Meanwhile, I took that "Everything" quiz that's been going around? And it told me I'm a working class Socialist, and an emotionally-dependent extrovert. Um, okay.

Funny story about the model below: between sets, he had a hysterically in-depth conversation on his cell about STDs, and whether or not men are susceptible to the same ones females are, and whether so-and-so has STDs but hasn't realized it yet. While, like, naked in a room full of strangers. It takes a very special kind of personality to model at community colleges, guys.

Although I am relating this anecdote to the vastness of the Internet via LiveJournal, so who am I to judge.


Look at me learning to suck less at painting! The problem with learning to draw the human form accurately-- and I can claim to do that with a reasonably straight face now-- is that trying to render it in a medium you suck at will... kind of make you want to stab your own eyes out. Apparently. In my experience.

The next pose won't involve geometric shapes, which is good, because models don't actually interact very realistically with the art department's giant white blocks. The conspicuous rectangle hiding Raphael's nether regions from view really was there, I did not spontaneously develop a sense of propriety or something.

( Naked people and non-naked people. )

Speaking of the Armory Show, I took some hasty video clips to prove I was there to my Contemporary Art in New York prof, which you can take a gander at here. There was some okay stuff, and a lot of unimpressive stuff, and a few things that really were just hysterically bad. The best I saw was Martha Colburn's animated short, Destiny Manifesto, and Wim Botha's Generic self-portrait as an inflammatory word, which is much cooler in person. The worst I have strategically blocked from my conscious mind.

Augh, I have sculpture class in like an hour, why. It's a good thing I get along with all of the other students, because I'm beginning to suspect that the prof wishes I would die, or at least stop coming to class. IT MUST BE MY CHARMING PERSONALITY.

Girls are cute. The real one is in my Art in New York class and wants absolutely nothing to do with my shenanigans.

( Sketch dump, and one boring acrylic painting. )

Poll #929552
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 27

Is it... possible to sprain your tongue?

Regardless: Ow.

In honor of scrambling out of a period of self-pity and confused outrage, and also not having to go to Spanish class because of snow, and also-- oh yeah-- Valentine's Day, I am making an Awesome List of Things That Are Awesome post today. The only theme is Things That Are Awesome, which will hopefully make y'all feel awesome, or more awesome, depending on how your day is going. Please feel free to share Awesome Things of your own with me.

Exciting Destinations!
Liliane, Bi-Dyke. I cannot explain in words how comforting this comic is to me. Leanne Franson is my hero.
The New York Neo-Futurists. This is the kinder, friendlier, more fun version of futurism's fascist roots.
Stupid Porn. What it sounds like.
Hel Looks, featuring hysterically earnest Finnish hipsters.
The Box O' Truth. This man shoots things to find out what will happen.
The Gallery of Regrettable Food, making me appreciate toaster waffles every blessed day.
The Transexual Man! This is not-a-joke porn. But it is AWESOME. Buck is not necessarily my hero but he does have my undying affection and respect.

Right-click & Save
Blue Oyster Cult - I'm Burning For You.mp3, Oingo Boingo - Wild Sex (In The Working Class).mp3, Scissor Sisters - I Can't Decide.mp3, Willie Nelson - Cowboys Are Secretly, Frequently (Fond of Each Other).mp3, Hedwig & The Angry Inch - The Origin of Love.mp3



( Kate's second excursion into spontaneous incidents of a revealing nature. )

( Washington DC, January 27th 2007. )
There were a lot of people there. A lot. So many that the designated marching route failed, because after ten minutes of inching along at snail pace the protesters simply ignored the barricades and took over both sides of the street.

There were washed-out hippies and dried-up veterans, and vets of both Afghanistan and Iraq. There were Republicans, and members of the Green Party, and the usual Socialist turn-out. There were pro-Life Catholics and gay pride groups. Mothers with babies in strollers and people pushing the elderly in wheelchairs. There were children who had lost parents, and parents who had lost children, to the 3,000 and rising.

Not that Congress is likely to pay much attention. Not that I was particularly surprised when the whole thing was relegated to page 21 of the New York Times. And, y'know, not that Bush took much notice of us at all, if any, even though he was in DC at the time. But we were there, over a hundred thousand of us, and that's gotta count for something.

Is anyone else going to DC tomorrow? Sarah and I are going down with 96 other people on two buses arranged for by the Fellowship of Reconciliation, but they have 7 open slots so if anyone in the Rockland area can make it to Spring Valley by 5:30 AM tomorrow morning with $45, you would be welcomed heartily into the bosom of our giant aging-hippie lovefest.

I kind of wish that was an exaggeration, but aside from the two twittering 11-year-olds tagging along with their mom, everyone coming with us clearly remembers the Vietnam War. Not that remembering Vietnam isn't important, it is, we do have to learn from history, but Iraq is not Vietnam and continually comparing the two might be hurting our argument. I don't think I'm ever going to actually bring that up to any of them, though, because it is possible that they might kill me. So, anyway, Sarah and I are going to rock out with old folks tomorrow. Hopefully none of them will break a hip while we're marching.

Poll #914563
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 21

Mark's 12x16 protest sign should read:

?

Current potential Democratic Presidential Candidates: a black dude, a lady, and a Mexican guy. And Dennis Kucinich.

... Here's hoping they can transform into a giant conglomerate robot in time for the primaries!

My family all spontaneously had a cold together, and now that they're on the mend I'm coming down with it. Orange juice, how could you fail me? If someone on my flist wanted to, like, make chicken soup, and videotape themselves eating the chicken soup, and then upload that video to YouTube, thus allowing me to absorb the healing powers of chicken soup through the vastness of space and time and also logic, it would be much appreciated. Ka-choo.

Lest you think that sickness has rendered me totally boring and self-centered (or more so than usual, I guess), hey, who remembers that meme I so ill-advisedly took part in... some weeks before Halloween? Like, three months ago. Jeez. Well. I'M FINALLY GETTING AROUND TO IT. Sorry about the humongous wait, fordanglia! If you could see the two aborted attempts at drawing knitted!Jesus that came before this, you would understand a fraction of my torment. I don't even really remember why knitted Jesus seemed like such a good idea in the first place. My head is full of goo.


I still have your address floating around somewhere, so I'll be sending the physically tangible version + your retarded gloves up to Saskatchewan shortly! inevitable_doom, la_fono, monklike and kimonkey7, keep your peepers peeled in the next few weeks.


( +1 creepy Dexter icon, +3 goony CSI icons. )

( CSI, Dexter & Supernatural (kinda-sorta) fanart, and two cheap portraits. )

Auhg, my cold is making my blood-pressure sky-rocket, which means of course that my ears are making funny noises now. Of COURSE.

Hello from Cleveland, which is, you know, the third level of Hell or something like that, but I stumbled across this den of glass-blowers and now I TOTALLY WANT TO HANG OUT WITH (drunken) GLASS-BLOWERS ALL OF THE TIME. Seriously, glass-blowing, it's awesome.

Meanwhile, my camera is busted. It happened while I was trying to photograph the entire corpse of a dead pig, which it has managed before, so I can't begin to image what it was objecting to. Maybe the fact that it is, like, four years old and has lived through many of my more rambunctious adventures. My Christmas present-- a new phone to replace my pre-LCD-screen Motorola circa 2001-- boasts a "camera" as one of its many astounding features, but camera phones are a disgrace to human achievement and I refuse to use it. So now I'm in the market for a new digital camera. Uh, any recommendations?

( Dumb. )