Oscar Nominated Shorts- Animatoin

Saw the Oscar Nominated Shorts- Animation tonight. There were maybe 6 shorts, ranging from 6 minutes to 30 minutes (almost all were under 10). The first was called French Roast, in it a stereotypical Frenchman drinks coffee at a cafe. He refuses a beggar's hand and discovers he's lost his wallet, so he keeps on ordering coffee to delay having to pay. An old woman comes in and gives the beggar a lot of money and the Frenchman contemplates pickpocketing her. Chaos ensues. This was really just a silly story. Very fun.

The second short was really really good. It was from Spain and produced in part by Anotonio Banderas. An old woman gets into a tug of war between the grim reaper and an E.R. doctor. Death becomes so frustrated that the lady keeps on coming back to life via AED's that he chases her through the hospital.

I think the next one was Wallace and Gromit: Between Loaf and Death or something like that. It was 30 minutes long and developed a real plot. I didn't think it had quite the originality of the Wallace and Gromit movies Sophie and I watched at Nana and Papa's house, but that's nostalgia for you.

An American short by Disney-Pixar starring a sultry cloud and his loyal stork friend was pretty fun, and in the words of the woman behind me "very kid friendly."

A Canadian short was rather silly and probably my least favorite, it was placed on disfunctional train packed with aristocrats and lunatics.

I forgot to mention a German short called Old Grimmy's tales or something like that. This was the funniest because it was spot on with its humor. A grandma tells her terrified grandson her version of Sleeping Beauty, starring her, the elderly, decrepit fairy with a knee problem.

last short was interesting, called "Logorama." It was an adult-oriented thing (think South Park except way drier) and there were hundreds of references to brand names. For instance, the main characters were some Michelin men (cops). The landscape, the cars, the pedestrians, all the houses, everything was a culture reference. This movie was French, and most of the brands were American-- is that a jab?

This is the kind of thing that makes Cornell Cinema really really worthwhile. Unfortunately, students composed a minority of the audience. So while we each pay a certain amount for Cornell Cinema, I don't think that's the problem; we simply aren't taking advantage of it. I mean, everyone pays for Running Club, Photo Society and every other club (though much less for each of those than Cornell Cinema). This showing, along with the other Oscar Nominated Shorts- Live Action, the Andy Warhol thing, The Quay Brothers, guest speakers, Black Maria film fest... those are the things that people really miss out on! You could see Inglorious Basterds or even Exploding Girl or City of God pretty much anywhere (and you can always download that stuff and watch it on your computer or on a projector), but these unique festivals and guest speakers are truly special, and are not things you can see just anywhere. I don't think we need to reduce Cornell's student funding, but it should be a priority to make the whole thing sustainable. To do that, I think better advertising is needed.

Chicken and the Egg

About rock climbing. Today, I FINALLY got a hard problem. It was only worth 80 pts, but I'm proud of being able to do that. I also conquered two medium problems that I sometimes have problems with. My final accomplishment today was throwing down like 4 moves on a crack. I guess I was tired from yesterday though, because when Kamil and I were top-roping, I really could not reach up and get those holds. I ended up scratching my left hand up and not really doing the route.

Pros for climbing: it's a discipline. it takes patience. you need tolerance for pain. you can translate it outside. you can hang from cracks. you can have specific goals, like boulder problems and routes. outdoorsy people are usually really cool and laid back.

Negatives for climbing: it can be really frustrating when you repeatedly try a problem, and each time you get further and further away from your goal. height and flexibility are a problem for me. i hate sliding off a hold because it's greasy-- absolutely annoying. feet death-- laura.

So dad really did write that poem!! I like it a lot. I decided today that some day, dad and I will travel around the world together, via sailing, biking, hiking, whatever it takes. I think that would be the tops. I think dad deserves a partner; I don't want him to do it alone. I want in on those memories. It won't be next year or the one after that because I need to make some money, but within the next 10 years for sure. before he gets to 60. maybe in 6 years.

I felt a bit inadequate at our C.H.I. MacCormick meeting today, like I had nothing to contribute. What we decided: drop math from our tutoring (we would need to meet more often with the kids for math to be time-effective), hopefully buy a book that we can all read and discuss together, talk to Bev to see if we can get a group of kids from Charlie or Delta units to come Every time. this week (I won't be there), we're planning on playing them a rap song and asking them to write down a story explaining what the rap song is about. I think Carlo picked something by Fabolous.

lastly, I was feeling really down this morning. facebook makes it more tough, because things on the newsfeed come up that really aren't good for the psyche-- but in reality it's just people talking to each other. i guess i just don't like the transparency. sleeping helps.

i saw something kind of interesting in the Sun this morning: did language shape the brain or did the shape of the brain dictate the formation of language? it would be really cool to study the physical contours of the brain.

What is this...poem business?

I took one of Eric's glasses from the dishwasher and filled it with OJ from the corner store. I put my lips to the edge of the glass, which was warm, and drank a sip. The temperature difference between the glass and the OJ was surprising.

Yesterday, I found a poem by William Wordsworth in one of my school books: Uncommon Ground edited by William Cronon. The poem was a tribute to the Simplon pass in the Alps, the same bitch that dad and I toiled on for many an hour. That was the longest climb I've ever done-- 26 miles (or was it kilometers) long, and when we got to the top there was a lodge with some good food and a giant statue of a falcon looking over the valley. Dad went up that same pass last summer, it's in Switzerland. When I sent him that poem, he sent me something back:

Up ahead, ten miles
and 2000 feet
down below, switzerland
up ahead, a more enterprising cyclist
waiting once again
for a tiring companion
down below, a camp site and some sausages,
up ahead, italy
down below, it doesn't matter
life is not a poem

did he write that??

Another pretty great thing happened this weekend, down at the Bookery. I saw one of my former substitute teachers read from a novel she's been writing for years! I can't really remember which class she substitute-taught in, but her name is Mrs. Dutt and she always seemed really shy. She remembered me though, by initials. She thought my name was Richard Sharpe or something like that. After talking to her, I called her up tonight (she gave me her card) to ask her just a few questions: what made you sign up for this reading; what are your plans for this novel; why is this kind of reading important for the community? I'll post the article I'm writing for the Sun soon. As I walked out, another lady commented that she saw my camera, and that she just gave her AE-1 away to a college student. Good luck indeed!

The purpose of this blog

This blog will be less personal. I may use everyday events as jump-off points for theory, but I really want to put my thoughts down on paper. Stuff learned in Alice Fulton's Poetry class, dreams, topics that really stick in my mind, opinions on events of our time, etc.

Dad once said that the side he most often takes is that of the skeptic.

My first thought is of things happening the way they should be, or 'if it is meant to be, then it will happen.' My main take on that is that there is no fate (fatalists look both ways before crossing the street), and the things that you get are obviously 'meant to be.' So how do you get the things you get? You want them to a point where you need them to happen. You can always find a way; you may need to ask a friend for a phone number, you may need to download something online or look something up on a forum, you may need to brainstorm, you may need to re-evaluate. For things that involve someone else other than yourself, you need patience and compromise. Unfortunately, patience is not one thing that I have. Compromise is a way of seeing things from multiple perspectives, and getting that done, that's all there is to it. Get what you need; get what you want-- they're the same.

BANFF

Just got back from watching the Banff Mountain Film Festival with Teresa. I think both she and I enjoyed it. Personally, I was terrified of the prospect (phwooph, this didn't happen) of having to cheer, as my name (ticket) emerged from the raffle box, a winner.

Back to the point. I almost cried with joy and excitement at the opening credits, watching superfit guys and girls vaulting off rocks to cling into almost invisible holds, mountain bikers zooming and zagging through trees and stalling off banisters built twenty feet off the ground. One image I'll never forget was at the 2003 Film Fest, where you follow a mountain biker from behind, and he rides right off a cliff, bunny hops into the void, then busts out a parachute and some ill moves mid-air til ground. Never forgetting that one.

The movies here were, as always, inspiring and hair-raising. The first was a mountain biking one, pure adrenaline. Then there was a skiing video from Japan, some dudes ripping through powder 50 feet deep. A cracked out dude and some other guy he dragged along climbed a melting waterfall in Canada. The long film was about this Brit who cycled a tandem bicycle, picking up random people on the way, from northern alaska to the tip of Argentina. Took him more than two years, and he picked up some pretty great characters, gold prospectors, free thinkers, a South American cycling club, a 70 year old ex-rocket scientist with leukemia and a heart disfunction named Ernie (those two are going across the states next summer, for Ernie), some beach babes, a couple general enthusiasts. the last video of the first half was less adventurous but more important: a meditation on global climate change, taking its perspective from some bird population that lives on cliffs in Canada.

The second half of the festival was equally as sick. There was an extreme unicycle thing, which I didn't much like. My favorite might have been a movie about free solo climbing, starring some kid named Alex (who dropped out of college at 19, stole the family mini-van and started climbing every day) who free solo'd up some epic climbs, one in Utah and also Half Dome in Yosemite. The cracks he was in were insane, so small, and he made it look effortless. He would have his fingers in cracks and his feet basically planted on the vertical wall. There was a kayak-combo-solar power'd oven movie set in East Africa and Madagascar. An award winning film about free riding / free flying, where some dudes attached parachutes to their backs and skipped down Mont Blanc on skiis. Very artistic, pretty sweet. The last film was about some goofball nordic skiiers doing spins and jumping out of the woods.

Anyways, so much of the footage was so ridiculously beautiful. The films were inspiring because of their beauty, but also because I know that I have the ability (mental and physical talent) to accomplish a lot of what those guys were doing. I have a real problem committing myself to one sport, but I want to get really good at rock climbing. I probably can't ever free solo Half Dome, but I want to do well in Moab this spring break.

The other realization was that it was so nice to share this film festival with someone else. Most of the best memories one ever has are shared, there's someone beside them. There are some transcendental experiences that happen when you're alone, say running on snowmobile trails in finland, but the ones you can share may definitively be the best and most important of all.