Sunday, May 17, 2009

Have you ever heard of lucid dreaming?

Hi, I'm back with the promised update.

A couple weekends ago I participated in New Zealand's "48 hour Film Competition." I was on team Africa From Russia which consisted of various friends and acquaintances; most are in the film production program at the Uni. We received the following information at 8:00 pm on Friday evening and had to write, shoot, edit, and hand in the 2-7 minute long film by Sunday at 5:00 pm.

Genre: Horror
Character: Alex Puddle, who is an exaggerator
Line of Dialogue: "It doesn't fit."
Prop: A Rock

My role was writer/initial idea guy. We had a group meeting for a couple of hours where we discussed what scares us and what type of horror movie we were interested in making. We all agreed on an atmospheric, ambiguous horror. Then my teammate Zanna and I worked until around 4:30 in the morning on a script involving bad dreams, lucid dreaming, Scotch on the rocks, Peanuts references, and murder. Over the next couple of days the rest of the team shot the script. I was able to see it at one of the competition screenings last Wednesday. It looked pretty polished, had a great soundtrack (supplied by my bro, Dead Luke/Varlot Tarsod), and confused the audience to no end. But that was to be expected. I'm pretty much a snob.

Here's an exceprt:

YAEL (V/O)

Your turn. I’ve told you my deepest, darkest dream—now I want to know yours.

STEVE (V/O)

Mine?

YAEL (V/O)

(Playfully)

Yeah, what kind of monsters did you have to conquer?

STEVE (V/O)

It’s a short one. I’m on a hotel balcony, I don’t know where. I’m smoking a cigarette and I’ve got blood all over my face. But for some reason I know it’s not my blood. A man walks by below me and I feel like I know him, but I’m not sure if I should wave. Usually I do.



I've run into my first real snags in the novel recently. There is a ton of revision and rewriting ahead of me, which I'm not super excited about, but the themes of the story are developing nicely. The characters are all slippery and weird, which is exactly what I want.

Other things I've been rocking recently:
Matt Chandler - Emily turned me on to him. Some pretty amazing preaching, honest and authentic and damn funny.
All The Real Girls - David Gordon Green nailed the slippery nature of volatile relationships in the midst of growing up
The Aleph - Jorge Luis Borges is suffocating me with his circular library of texts and time
Licorice Tea - The sweet after-taste spin-kicks my tongue into full-on party mode (think Spud MacKenzie in my mouth!)
Open House - A story about stealing drugs during home-tours I just cranked out on Saturday. Another excerpt:

It was supposed to be the crowning achievement in our “parade of homes” extravaganza that was more circus than parade. We were the carnies slithering through the crowds marking the idiots for exploitation while copping quick feels on their nubile teenage daughters. At least that’s what I imagined.

We could only travel in groups of two, even though there were more of us. Two was a manageable number, a couple. I was with Terry, who I think cooked P in an old railroad car he had gutted and hauled up a hill somewhere. But maybe not. He sure acted like he cooked P, and he had this wheezing laugh that reminded me of squeezing the wooden bellows when I was a child.



News of Awesomeness:
I just found out that my application to be a TA next semester was approved. I will be leading two classes of 20 students each in discussions of all things creative writing. It is a 252 course, so the work load will be intense, but I can't wait!

Hang tough, friends!

Thursday, May 7, 2009

For my sister...

Yes, I know I've been bad. Really, really bad. But you have to understand that I'm pretty much writing a constant stream of words as it is, not to mention all the words I have to put back in my head. So cut me some slack. Or don't. Just quit sending the swine flu over here in retribution.

Here are some glimpses from my life the last month:

1. Village Hall Dance.

I went with my friends Zak and Janie up to Zak's hometown for a weekend. It was a family friend's 21st birthday, which is a pretty big deal in NZ, so we attended what was essentially a barn dance in a village hall. There was fiddle music, the chicken dance, traditional dances, and a bunch of homeschoolers, so it felt like being back in Wisconsin!


2. Mordor


During our Easter break I went on a 3-day hike with my Canadian friend Brodie. We decided since we were in LOTR ground zero, that it would be fitting to hike through Mordor. It was the right choice. We trekked through a beautiful, at times alien, landscape that seemed to completely change ever couple of miles. Our bodies were sore, but we had a great time. Brodie even found spots for text messaging. Ahh nature.



Since we had a lot of time together, I was able to learn some new facts about Brodie. My favorite Brodie fact: he was once ejected from a WWF event. Apparently he really didn't like one of the wrestlers, so he threw his Big Gulp soda at him as he taunted the crowd, hitting him right in the face. This did not please the wrestler too much and he came into the crowd, grabbed Brodie by the shoulders, shook him a whole bunch, and then tore his favorite Canuck's shirt right down the middle. Brodie was promptly ejected from the arena. This is the type of story I wish I could tell my grandkids some day.

3. Writing

I think I'm going a little crazy. I have to have the first draft of my novel finished by June 28th. The date looms in the distance like a huge Texan storm cloud.

4. Reading
The Rifles - William T Vollmann
The Savage Detectives - Roberto Bolano
We Love Glenda So Much - Julio Cortazar
Less Than Zero - Bret Easton Ellis
The Inner Life - Thomas a Kempis
Lost in a Book - Victor Nell

5. Music
Lots of Elvis
Arcade Fire - Neon Bible
Okkervil River - The Stage Names
Kiss - Very Best Of
Lots of 50's love songs and girl groups
Dead Luke - The Black Plague in Mono

Most Recently: An awesome mix cd from Emily

6. Friends
How we hang out: Team Fortress 2 at a 16 person LAN party, dancing at Boogie Wonderland (complete with disco balls and light up dance floor), LOST, poetry readings, Indian Food, Film, Gossip Girl, Shakespearean play starring Ethan Hawke

This weekend: 48Hour Film Festival (I am a writer for a competing team)

More to come...