Independant Film

I love independant films (as I may have mentioned before). Here are a couple great ones I've seen from the new Netflix downloads section.

Living In Oblivion - Steve Buscemi plays a director of an extremely low budget movie where everything keeps going wrong on set. Very funny.
One Last Thing - A 'make a wish' kid wishes to spend a weekend with a super-model rather than go fishing with a football star.
Conversations with Other Women - Helena Bonham Carter and Aaron Eckhart meet each other at a wedding, the story unfolds in a very interesting way. The film is shot with a split screen the whole time. Cool dual camera work, but it doesnt add much to the movie.

The New York Times

I really want to subscribe to the New York Times, but I have several factors disuading me at the moment. 1) No steady job. I'm still a college student buying day old bread and meat thats about to expire. 2) What do you do with all those papers afterwards? 3) Do I really want the New York Times, or do I just want to be that guy who subscribes to the NYTimes? 4) Would I actually want to read it everyday? 5) Would I have time to read it everyday? 6) What if someone takes my paper in the mornings? that would suck. 7) Am I really ready for this kind of commitment? A twelve week subscription would be longer than any relationship with a lady friend I've had. (maybe thats because I insist on refering to them as 'lady friends')

I just bought last monday's paper, and it was awesome. I enjoyed reading it. I read it while waiting for some laundry at the corner laundromat. So actually, I'm not sure if I actually greatly enjoyed reading the paper, or just found it more interesting than watching my clothes get dry. I'd love to have more of a connection to NYC, and to be more in the know of all the happenings. I just dont know if I'd read it every day. Maybe I'll just subscribe for a week. I wouldnt want to move too quickly, or be too forward.

A guy younger than me just won a job with the Boston Symphony. He hasn't even finished school yet. I'm sure there were guys there with many years of experience playing in major orchestras. And they lost out to a kid.
What lessons can be drawn from this? Theres hope for newbies. Anything can happen. But more appropriately, it doesnt matter how many years of experience or how much education you have, you're still likely to get beat by some 22 year old phenom.

coming next week!

Every show on NBC seems to end with a sneak preview for next week's episode. This tantilizing little nugget of tv-porn eludes me entirely. I don't understand the attraction. If I am planning on seeing next week's show, I'll see it. If I miss it, whatever, I'll catch a re-run. If I don't plan on seeing next weeks show, I don't need that 30 second clip of what I'm not going to see. I don't wan't any misconceptions of what might happen in the next show, I'll watch the plot unfold as it happens. I don't want the mozzerella sticks, I'll just have the pasta with the grilled chicken. I've actually been shushed during one of these previews. I felt like I was being shushed during the coca-cola commercial before the trailers at a movie theater.
There is too much comic book influence in entertainment today. Action driven plot is so boring. I want to see unconventional characters. I want to hear interesting dialogue. I want an uncontrived storyline.
I saw Heroes tonight again for some reason. Its just too boring. There are no thoughtfully developed characters in this show, just archetypes. They have no distinguishing personality traits. They just co-exist in a baseless plot outline. The dialogue is boring, and the plot moves at a snail's pace. How do people put up with this? How are people so enthralled with the teaser at the end that they watch again the next week? Coming next week, something might actually happen!

Soldier

There's an old Kurt Russell film called "Soldier." In it, Kurt plays an stoic warrior, bred from birth to be an unaffectable killer. As badass as he was, he was replaced by a new genetically enhanced breed of soldiers hopped up on roids and meth. Kurt's kind was eventually killed and discarded on a trash planet.
This weekend I heard a professor speak about making today's standard difficult repertoire the new intermediate repertoire. And then he talked about how his young students are doing the kind of stuff I'm working on now. He calls it "pushing our craft forward." I feel so disillusioned right now. Disabused, dissappointed, disenthralled, disentranced, and shattered. Well not quite shattered, more cracked than shattered. I can't seem to shake this lingering thought: "How am I supposed to get a job if these people are going to be my competition?" I figure I have about 3 years to get the job I want before these kids will be ready for the job market. If it takes longer than that, I'm probably to have to find a new line of work.