If You Build It, They Will Come.

Sunday, November 28, 2004

You know what's funny. If I considered myself anything politically, I'd consider myself a liberal. (Shocked? Didin't think so.) I find also that most conservatives like to argue. When they start though, I tend to just shut down. They'll attack John Kerry, Bill and Hilary Clinton, Michael Moore, and I'll just sit there and listen as opposed to trying to interfere. I was curious as to why that is, because if we don't educate these people, no one will. I sat there, pondering why I said nothing the last time this all came up. Last night, I think I figured it out.

It's hard to argue with a conservative. Not because they're right, or they have ANY point whatsoever, but because to argue the point at hand you have to explain so much. To argue about racial profiling, you first need to get them to understand that not every arab is a terrorist, then that not every arab hates America, then that not every terrorist is an arab, then that racial profiling is akin to how they labeled the jews during the holocaust, then that the holocaust really happened, then that the holocaust was bad, then how nazi germany happened (ironically spawned by the fear caused by a terrorist attack, when the country gave up its rights so that a man named Hitler could do all their thinking for them). It's like explaining the difference between digital cable and sattelite television to Aristotle. Sure, he may be a smart guy, but you've got a lot of catching up to do to even talk about the pros and cons of digital vs. satellite. You need to explain what television is, what electricity is, what a satellite is, the world isn't flat, what digital is, what pixelation is... etc.



The other reason it's hard to talk to a conservative is that they tend to argue with themselves. Not out loud, they might not even notice it. But they will say one thing and then say the opposite, and somehow believe both. For example, Michael Moore is bad because he "made up evidence and didn't check his sources before making a movie to try to change public opinion." But I say to them, "What about Bush making up evidence and not checking his sources before telling us about WMD's in Iraq so he could change public opinion for war?" Their response is that he didn't know any better. He thought they were there, and he did the right thing.



I can't argue with this type of mentality, and I can't imagine that these people ever really think about what it is that they are saying. So the reason I give in, is because essentially it's hopeless. There's nothing I can say to try to change their mind, because honestly, THEY don't even know where they stand. It's an infinate loop, and even if you were to prove them wrong on every single instance possible, they still wouldn't concede because they could just counter with "You're wrong." No proof, no arguement, no logic, just "you're wrong." And they would essentially bring on the stalemate, choosing not to hear anything you just said. It's like arguing with a six year old. There's really no point. The problem is though is that when you're the only liberal, it's like arguing with a six year old in a playground full of six year olds. You sit there and you say, "You know Johnny, you shouldn't hit Timmy because it's not nice, and you wouldn't like it if Timmy hit you, would you?" Johnny would then reply to me with, "You're a poopyhead" and he and his friends are convinced he won the arguement. There's no explaining it to them, you just have to wait for maturity to set in. Sadly it may never happen, and Johnny grows up to be the next Rush Limbaugh.

Once upon a time there was a man who owned a china shop in lower Manhattan. In his shop, he had thousands and thousands of dollars worth of fine china that his family had been collecting and working on with a lot of pride for over 200 years, filled with silver, gold, glass, porcelain, crystal and priceless vases. One day a man (who we'll call George) entered the shop looking for a job. The shop owner reluctantly hired George because he needed help to run his shop.

George was a lazy employee, not really understanding how much work it took to run the china shop. His only job was to find and kill spiders that nest in the china. One fateful day, George left the door to the shop open and a bumblebee wandered in. George was allergic to bees, as was his father. He remembered the time a bee tried to sting his dad, which would've put his father in the hospital. George tells the shopowner that there's a bee in the store. The shopowner tells George to leave it alone and it will not harm anyone. George says that if one bee is here, soon there will be hundreds of bees and it will make the store and the customers unsafe. The shopowner still says that George should leave the bee alone. George says that bees attract spiders, and therefore he needed to try to kill the bee. The shopowner still says that George should leave the bee alone. George says that bees are mean. The shopowner finally agrees to let George kill the bee, even though he's really supposed to be looking for spiders. The shopowner points out the bug spray hidden under the counter. George promised to use just a little bug spray, and the shopowner went back into his office. George went behind the counter to grab the bug spray, but saw the baseball bat the shopowner used to scare away shoplifters hidden behind the counter. George decided to grab the bat instead. He ran through the store like a maniac and swung at the bee. He missed the bee but managed to smash a priceless crystal wine glass set. Unaffected he swung at the bee again, smashing more china. George swung and swung missing the bee everytime, but eventually destroying all the china the mans family had worked so hard to collect over 200 years.

At long last, George swung and clobbered the bee. As he lifted his bat he saw that the bee was not a bee at all, but was instead a harmless tiny fly. A fly that could not sting anyone, nor had any intention to.

The shop owner came out from his office, horrified by what George had done. When the shopowner asked for an explanation, George declared the bee killing mission a wonderful success. The shopowner, shocked and awed by the mass destruction around him, asked George how he could consider the mess in the store a success. The reputation his store had for being the best china shop in the tri-state area was now gone, the shattered porcelain and glass made it too dangerous to even walk in the store, and 200 years worth of pride was gone in an instant, as was the hundreds of thousands of dollars it was worth.

George looked around and said "What are you complaining about? Nothing is broken, everything is fine! And your store is a safer place without that bee." He then set down the bat and left the store, leaving all the clean up and debt to the poor store owner.

Then, for some unknown reason, the store owner didn't fire George, who has yet to catch a spider.

Saturday, November 27, 2004

Thank you for flying Southwest,
you are now free to get off the plane and try again.

So I flew up to Sacremento for Thanksgiving. It was nice. I had a good time seeing family again.

I left my house at 6:30am, figuring that would give me enough time to make it through LA traffic on Thanksgiving, to get through a crowded LAX, and to finally reach the terminal and board a flight that was to depart at 10:20am. So I got in the car and headed toward LAX. I swear to you, I have never seen LA freeways so empty. There was no one on the 405, no traffic at all. There were a few cars every here and there, but otherwise it was vaccant. I got to LAX, parked my car, found a shuttle, got to a long line for security, which moved insanely fast for a long line. Got through security in a heartbeat, and made it to my terminal. Checking my watch, it was now 7:20am. Yeah, I had three hours to kill in the airport.

On my way back to Los Angeles though, we ran into a bit of a, shall we say, hiccup.

My plane was scheduled to depart at 7:10pm. I got to the terminal at about 5:50pm. So I was again early. We all board this plane, and it just sits there for like twenty minutes. Then suddenly everything shuts off. The lights, the engines, everything, and it's really quiet. Then everything comes back on. And then off again. Already my confidence in this airplane is kind of shot, and if you want a comfortable flight, you need to have that trust relationship with the giant metal machine that's about to fling you through the air at 400mph. The captain (who sounded mysteriously like the late Richard Nixon) comes on and says our energy gauge is broken and we're getting one from a different plane, it will just take a moment. A moment turned into another half hour when they decided that due to the fact they needed to shut all the power off again, we all need to deboard the plane, because of safety regulations. So we all get our stuff off the plane, and go back out to the gate. Then they ship in a new plane and we all get on that. It's now 8:45pm. I was supposed to be in LA by 8:30pm. We all board the new plane. I get the seat behind the left wing, but there's only about 50 of us on this flight so we all get to stretch out. It's nice and cozy. The plane departs, and about halfway through takeoff, while we are about 4000 feet up, there's this huge bang, the plane shakes, and there's sparks flying out of the left engine. It was at this point I considered the possibility that I was going to die in a plane crash. The sparks stopped, it seemed I was one of the only people who saw them. The plane keeps going. We don't seem to go much higher than 5000 feet, which isn't really that high in flight terms, but is very high in falling terms. The plane circles around slowly and goes back to Sacremento and lands. They tell us they heard a small pop and had some funny odor in the cockpit, and didn't feel it was safe to continue. I disagree with the small pop.

So we get off the plane again, and we get onto another plane heading to LA, already filled with other people. It's now 10:05pm. This plane is newer and shinier, and the captain kept apologizing to us, but saying we made the right choice in flying with Southwest. I got to sit next to a nice couple about my age from Orange County named Troy and Amanda, and they were expecting a baby in march. They were nice.

We landed at LAX at 11:10pm.

Being that it was Thanksgiving, I was thankful for the fact that we didn't all die on flight #2.

Monday, November 22, 2004

This seems so familiar. In fact I think I even wrote this exact same blog already. I hate this feeling. I just wish I knew the answers.

Sunday, November 21, 2004

Goodbye Yellow Brick Road

Chapter Five: Vegas Baby, Vegas

Now available for download at The Coughing Dog Pictures.

It's a big one, at a whopping almost nine minutes and just over 50Mb. Keep checking for new episodes.

Let me know what you think, leave a comment.

Saturday, November 20, 2004

Wow, did Michigan dodge a bullet or what? They lose to Ohio State, knocking them out of the Rose Bowl, but then Iowa beats Wisconsin knocking them back in. Thank you, BCS.

Wow, I guess a lot of people had a lot to say about why women aren't dumb.

They're not.


The NYFA films are up now.

Get them here. Below is a description of their lameness.

"Occupied" This is the first time we had playing with the 16mm cams, so you can see we had a lot of focus issues. No sound.

"Departure" Our first film on the Universal Backlots, shot on the Europe set. The actors names are Janine and James. They told me they always get paired up for the make out scenes. Again, no sound.

"Locked Out" I took a chance at shooting outside at night. Honestly I'm proud of this one coming out as good as it did. Shooting film outside at night is no easy feat. The lights in this one were blaring, they don't look it on here. It's not your computer, there again is no audio.

"Thunderstruck" Hey! Sound! Yeah, this is the first time we did anything with audio. Still 16mm black and white, now with music in the background. Laugh at me, people, it's what I'm here for. I apologize for the two shot on the couch, my DP must've been drunk.

"Photograph" This was my semester final. Again, no sync sound, (meaning all sound was added in post, none was recorded on site) no color, focus issues. Eh, I'm not apologizing for it. It could be better though.

Enjoy... if you dare. We're shooting digital and color and sync sound now, so the films should be less boring, plus I'd love to get a copy of Rochelle's film entitled "Take Your Hands Off My Cock" about an Old West rooster thief, and the one she shot today that I acted in. It was dramatic, I hope it comes out good. If I can, I'll get some of the ones I crewed for, they're pretty good.

jgp

Thursday, November 18, 2004

Outside it's America. It's raining America.

When people say that girls mature faster than guys, I think they only mean physically, as in 8th grade when all the girls are taller than the boys. Mentally, I don't think that is the case. Not that guys mature faster necessarily, but that mental or emotional maturity is more a product of your environment. For instance, there's the whiny spoiled Beverly Hills 28 year old rich girl who thinks it's the end of the world when her bathtub is the wrong color. Then there's the 10 year old boy with the drunk mother and the abusive father who is the only one looking out for his younger sister. That kid is more mature than the Beverly Hills girl. That kid is more mature than me.

Girls are dumb. I'm going to make a movie about how girls are dumb. Not like intellectually dumb, as in less intellegent, but as in girls don't make any sense.

Why don't you just say what you mean? That's kind of the purpose of language, to convey the thoughts in your mind to people observing from outside your consciousness. If your boyfriend asks if it's cool if they hang out with the guys instead of hanging out with you, and you don't want him to, why do you say yes? Inevitably, he will take that as yes, and then when he gets home, you're all mad at him because he hung out with the guys. Why must we try to read your mind?


Sunday, November 14, 2004

The American Civil War II: Red vs. Blue.

Eh, nothing really. I just wanted to say that that would be a cool subtitle for the next civil war.

The Goodbye Yellow Brick Road and NYFA films require Divx. Get it here.

Viva La Bam.

"You can't have a jeep in the Civil War! It don't make no sense!!"
-Don Vito

"We're from the future!!"
-Bam Margera

Internet Civility.
If you've ever happened to come across an internet message board, you'll understand that the above term is in fact an oxymoron. I have to ask people, why the anger? Why? Why not love.
If you want an example of what I mean go to IMDb and talk shit about Kevin Smith, Stanley Kubrick, "The Passion of the Christ" or "Fahrenheit 9/11."
A guy said that Stanley Kubrick should've directed a Teletubbies movie. His screenname was "I_Luv_Teletubbies" Here's someones response:
tubbs, i'll type this slow. GET. got that? good. A. can you hear me now? good. LIFE. i cannot put it any simpler than that. a grown man obsessed with the teletubbies looking to argue why they are great with anyone has too much time on their hands. it's a kids show with no meaning! NOOOOOOO MEEEEEEANING!!!! it doesn't mean anything! it's trying to appeal to kids! you COULD argue, that the fact that the show uses technology is sad because that's what it takes in this day and age to appeal to kids, OR the show writers use technology as a given, that in modern society it's like 'of course we'll put vaccuums and whatever into the world, because it might look dated, what we need is cutting edge!', and that would be sad because technology has infiltrated our psyche, kinda like subconsciously. BUT NOOOO! you think the director and writers and producers use lighting and sets and props to consciously reflect the state of the world and humanity and our future. subconscious and conscious. even the subconscious arguments are flimsy, but they look hard as rock when compared to the fact that the show is TRYING to be a masterpiece disguised as a kids show. you're an idiot! WHY wouldn't they try a different medium to get their point across instead of a kids show, where nobody would get the message because the viewers are all babies!? to sum up: there is no meaning, at least not a conscious effort to make one like you argue. you are an idiot. you need to get a life. and *beep* you for constantly pissing me off. *beep* YOU!
(The *beep*s were written in.)
First of all, I think it's hilarious that he says that anyone "looking to argue why they are great with anyone has too much time on their hands." And he replied with a really long argument.
Let's find another.
Tubbs you really shouldn't be calling other people idiot, since you are dumber than the average person, hence dumber than everybody else on this board. You don't have the credibility to call other people idiot.
Burn, dude. Burn.
DevilRez says:
Ahhh look, he still fails at originallity. YOU"RE ON A FREAKING MOVIE SITE moron, what the hell made you think YPU"D be the first? Dont get pissed just cause I called you post trite.
DevilRez is one of my favorite people. See I love getting on these boards and messing with people. DevilRez and I had a lengthy conversation in the past, I can't really remember about what, but he got seriously pissed. If you go to IMDb and see a dude named "PreciousRoy"... that's me.
People, be nice. Just because you can say shit without anyone knowing who you are, doesn't mean you should. I know the jocks in your freshmen gym classes would beat your nerdy, D&D, parents basement, Everquest lovin ass if you said this stuff to their face.
In other news, Michael Moore has announced that he's making "Fahrenheit 9/11 Part 2." Seriously, dude, I liked the first one. I own it, I saw it twice in theaters, but please man, don't be a dick. What is the point of bitching about Bush again? He can't get re-elected. I'm sure he'll botch things up even worse than he has already, but what happens if he doesn't? What happens if he saves the environment, and gets troops out of Iraq and they are all peaceful, and he like fixes the economy... and like monkeys fly from his ass, and like Santa gives us all ponies, and pigs fly and stuff. I mean, will he still make the movie? I mean the chances of Bush NOT royalling f-ing the country up is infinitesmal. What's the point of bitching about it more? Liberals are already informed enough to know most of what you portray in the film, and conservatives are too stubborn to even watch the movie. So, you're not changing anyones mind. You're making us all look bad. We know. You like the cash.
Sorry Michael. I know you mean well.
Ok, goodnight.

Saturday, November 13, 2004

Goodbye Yellow Brick Road

"Chapter Three: Kill Kansas Vol. 1"
&
"Chapter Four: Kill Kansas Vol. 2"

Now available for download at The Coughing Dog Pictures.


Let me know what you think, leave a comment.

Also, the spots for the NYFA films are up now, and the films should hopefully be there by monday. Keep checking.

Thursday, November 11, 2004

Umm... ok.

Wednesday, November 10, 2004

I've got all my NYFA films on a DVD and was about to put them online for all to "enjoy," when I realized that the DVD encoding was so jacked that it would be better to wait until I actually transfer the files. So, I'd say monday at the latest. Sorry if I told anyone they'd be up by tomorrow.

jgp

Monday, November 08, 2004

The chapter two video has been recompressed and rendered, so it doesn't look so terrible. If you got it and it was all jumpy and gross, it's better now.

Sunday, November 07, 2004

Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
"Chapter One: Lexington to Muncie"
&
"Chapter Two: Into the Breach, Dear Friends"

Now available for download at The Coughing Dog Pictures.

Let me know what you think, leave a comment.

Saturday, November 06, 2004

The dollar has hit an all time low. $1.2967 to the euro. One thing the Bush Administration has done right is the economy. The european economy.

Here's another funny story of democracy hard at work. He "showed up at a candidate forum dressed in camouflage and sunglasses."

Friday, November 05, 2004

I saw Sarah Michelle Gellar today. She was at Focus Features, the production company that did Eternal Sunshine. Their offices are one floor above our classes.

My film turned out pretty well. I'm editing tomorrow afternoon, I should hopefully have it all done by then. It's not due until next thursday though. Dave, on my crew, is stressed about his, but I think he's just generally stressed. I doubt he's happy unless he's miserable. His film looks good, but he's really unhappy with it. He decided to do a shoot with heavy make-up, a remote location in Santa Clarita, SAG actors, lots of wardrobe, hired a casting agent, got a producer, spent just about $1000 on the film, had release forms so he could play his film in film festivals, (a 16mm B&W silent student film), had over 100 shots, including some big fight scene, and a "Citizen Kane" type shot where I had to create the illusion that the camera went through a window pane, rented generators and a dolly for a running shot through the woods, hired an actor that lived three hours away, an actress that was under 18 that needed a supervisor... all with two days to shoot. Originally he wanted a big courtroom scene with extras as well. Apart from this, he's a perfectionist. He needs to reherse every scene at least three times, scenes that are really simple, so naturally his shoot went an extra day, when honestly it really didn't have to. He went through ten rolls of film, got all his footage back, and thinks it's all crap.

He wants to know if I want to work with him after school is done. I don't think so. I like the guy, he's fun to hang out with, but he's a little too intense for me. My film took eight hours to shoot, and took four rolls. Two actors, non union, no casting director, no producer, it cost $85 minus the cost of film. $5 for the camera, $10 for developing, $15 for copies, $25 for make-up, and $30 for pizza and wings for the cast and crew. No costumes, no dollies, no remote locations. Just simple. I'll agree it was less ambitious, but it really didn't have to be ambitious, it was a simple story I came up with in KZoo.

Oh well, I think I just needed to bitch a little.

"Last night the voice of the people was heard. I promise not to imitate it, out of respect for the mentally retarded." -Lewis Black

Wednesday, November 03, 2004

We're doomed, kids. I think that we as the American people have just justified terrorism in the eyes of the terrorists. I doubt we've ever been as unsafe as we are today.

Interesting that people in Kansas, Montana, and all these other states with nothing in them vote for Bush for fear of terrorism, but the terrorists most likely targets, New York, Washington DC, Los Angeles, Chicago, all voted for Kerry by a huge margin.

I had a little more faith in our country than this.

Tuesday, November 02, 2004

8:47pm PST
CNN says Bush is winning 197 to 188.
Fox News says Bush is winning 210 to 144.

Shocker.

EVERYONE WHO READS THIS BLOG: VOTE TODAY!

If you voted, leave your name on my comment section. If anyone's name is missing, I'm personally coming after you. I expect to see Jon, Rob, Lola, Johanna, Krissy, Jackie, Mom, Dad, Sarah, John, Marcy, AT LEAST. If you're a random person I don't know, leave your name, say you voted. If you're a friend or family member who reads my site and I don't know you read my site, leave a comment. Just put yourself in as anonymous, and leave your name. If you've already voted early or absentee, leave your name. I want to check this page tomorrow night and see at least 15 different people leaving comments. I'll give you a few days, as I know that not everyone looks at this page everyday. I don't care if you vote for George Bush, John Kerry, Ralph Nader, Al Gore, Barbara Streisand, Steven Spielberg, Homer Simpson, Brett Favre, Mike Ditka, Wayne Brady, Jason Mewes, or Joseph Parcell, just freakin' vote.

it's almost over
that's right, these political ads are almost over. soon, we will no longer have to hear about how prop 72 kicks grandma out of her house, or prop 37 makes it legal to eat children. no more kerry sucks because he is ugly, and bush sucks because he's stupid. we can all finally stop talking about this. not that i think talking about it is bad, but so many people have so many opinions that they take so personally that it's hard to talk about without offending someone. when someone says that saddam flew planes into new york from his hometown of baghdad, austrailia, it's hard not to slap them for being stupid.
latest polls (and polls can be wrong) show that if the election was right now as opposed to in a few short hours, kerry wins 298 to 231 (with NH and NM undecided). so barring any republican injustice that we all have seen they are capable of, hopefully we'll be swearing in president kerry in january.
or more likely, we could be doing the recount thing again. cross your fingers, kids. it could be a long november.

How are you supposed know if a girl likes you? I'm 24 and I've not yet figured this out.

Monday, November 01, 2004

Here's a short film that Krissy Boswell is in. She's the girl in the trenchcoat who dies in the beginning. It's from one of those 24 hour film shoot contests. She said it placed in the top ten out of 70-some entries.

Her one line was "small orgasmic sound." Listen for it.

jgp