Author: briancollapsing

it’s strange to me that in late october i already have to plan for next semester’s classes, but i guess if you have 60 thousand students to register you have to get things taken care of with plenty of time for processing. so it turns out that i already have my schedule for the spring mapped out, assuming i get all the sessions i’m looking at. 20 units won’t be fun though. ugh. why do i have to take so many classes to be a business major, so many that i can’t even do a minor without having to take one semester of overloaded classes?

what a dumb thing to complain about, i know. even with that many classes, though, i might end up not starting until 2pm two days out of the week, with no classes before 10am all week. that i can definitely deal with.

obviously i am the king of all that is interesting today. maybe some new cds will show up today or tomorrow, and i can repeatedly listen to and subsequently discuss them instead of talking about scheduling spring classes. let’s all hope.

today turned out pretty well. i procured the key component of my costume for next weekend’s big halloween costume party spectacular, which excites me. wait til you see pictures of this business.

and this evening, my pal dominic showed us his finally completed short film. it turned out really well, and i liked it. you can order your own copy if you want, straight from him. it’s called rapid eye movement and it’s pretty cool for a 12 minute amateur filmmaking project. i was proud to be a part of it as well as watch it (yes, i’m the one on the right through the peephole. i’m a movie star!)

he also made us all waffles afterwards. some of them were “pumpkin spice” waffles. yum yum yum. dominic gets thumbs up for waffles and movies tonight. and . . . hooch?

i’m sorry, but i just thought it was hilarious.

tonight (saturday night), mike’s parents took us out to dinner. mmm, good food. and it was them, his sister, he and i, dom and dustin. fun times to go along with the good food. no movie tonight though, ending my very movie weekend. although i’ve been thinking about waking life all day and how much i liked it.

the uncontested quote of the day, today, though (which may not necessarily be as funny written down, but must be preserved somehow for my own memories):

(while the table is on the topic of how dog food is edible by humans) dominic: “you know, like in turner and hooch; with tom hanks and . . . . hooch.”

oh man, that had me going.

before a few of the more independent films i’ve seen lately, i’ve caught a trailer for this strange, dreamy, animated-but-not-cartoon movie called waking life. it looked really interesting and i wanted to check it out pretty badly.

well, it came out today in limited release (only one theatre in the whole los angeles area, as far as i know), and my roommate and i went to see it. i wasn’t sure how the story was going to work based on the trailer, so i wasn’t sure what to expect besides something new and cool. now i’m going to try to tell you what i ended up getting in my little review for waking life:

the first and most accurate thing i can tell you about this movie would be a jaw-dropped and eyes-widened “wow”. this could very well be the best movie i’ve seen in over a year. maybe that’s not saying much, and i know that’s not saying enough, but none of the adjectives i know quite reach the level of enthusiasm i have for this film right after seeing it. i can say, though, that this movie did everything for me i could have wanted a film to do. it’s beautiful (and oddly but wonderfully animated, so that it’s not just fun to watch, it’s simply fun to be looking at), it’s inspiring, it’s thought-provoking, it’s funny, it’s moving, it has a bit of mystery about it, it’s incredibly smart, it’s well-written (and well-read, judging by the abundant references) . . . it’s just amazing. i can’t say enough about this movie. nor can i tell you enough to do whatever you must to get a chance to see this movie. visit your friend in the city as an excuse to find a theater that’s showing it. drive the extra hour. 9 dollars for this film, to me, was nothing. i would have paid twenty.

i’m going to stop raving so i don’t scare you off, but i just had to recommend this so that the joy of this film may reach as many as possible. maybe then, more things this perfect will be made.

oh, and as a bonus — as if i wasn’t satisfied enough with the experience — there were free mini-posters and six free promotional postcards with movie scenes on them to take home as souveneirs. i got all six cards and two posters (an extra for roommate mike who had missed them), so now i have to put them up as a shrine.

and at the moment i’m sitting here, writing this, in a weird sort of post-movie contentment that only happens once in a great while, not sure what to do with myself and this positive energy. maybe i’ll just listen to good music and reflect. if i were you, i’d check out that trailer i linked above, and hunt down this movie if you can.

how long until it makes dvd, do you think?

if you’re looking for a hilarious and endlessly rewatchable comedy in serendipity, you’d be disappointed. if you’re looking for a farfetched but cute movie with some very offbeat, funny moments, jeremy piven at probably the funniest i’ve ever seen him, and kate beckinsale as the prettiest and most charming female lead i’ve ever seen (my opinion here is tainted by my crush on her as of the start of the movie last night), then you’d like serendipity. and you can’t go too wrong with john cusack, can you. of course you can’t. he and jeremy piven, together, always have me rolling and this was no different. could have done without molly shannon (but can’t i always), and eugene levy was pretty odd in this film, but overall i enjoyed the film. there, i’ve said it.

time for a new song of the week.

i won’t be shy or ashamed. i like pop-punk music if it has something good to offer me. there are a lot of bands that sound an awful lot alike, and that i’m not a fan of. it also seems that whenever one band starts to achieve a moderate level of success, about 5 doppelganger bands rise up to try to get a piece of the action. that i don’t like either. however, i also don’t have a problem admitting that a fun, catchy brand of punk can really get into my brain sometimes and make me feel like rocking. maybe that makes me less indie, but hey, at least i get to check out a bunch of high school girls in baby tees at concerts. . . i jest.

so without embarrassment, i offer up what i think is a good heavy pop-punk band, finch, as song of the week. we saw them open for rx bandits in august, and i just now got around to checking out their stuff. maybe they don’t write the deepest or most poetic songs in the world, but i still think they’re fun to listen to (for now). so the song of the week is letters to you. be careful, it’s been in my head for days already.

i don’t know how i forgot to mention this yesterday, because you don’t see a guy get hit by a car every day, but guess what i saw on the way home from school yesterday?

actually, it went like this. i was walking toward jefferson (the street that borders the north edge of campus) homeward bound, and talking to my friend spencer whom i was walking with. i hear this crumple-thump type sound, and jerk my head over toward it’s source, just in time to see a guy roll down the side of a car’s hood on to the ground next to the car, on the side closer to us. his bike had hit the side, apparently, and was sliding down and leaning on the passenger’s side door now. spencer ran closer and i caught up a second later, to see if he was okay. but the guy just got up, grabbed his bike and walked dazedly the rest of the way across the street, where the car had driven ahead a little and pulled over to get out of traffic. it was pretty bizarre. the guy replied to spencer’s question with a shocked, “uhh, i guess so . . .” because as far as anyone could tell, he didn’t have a scratch on him. another bystander said something like, “dude, you’re made of fucking titanium!” which was sort of funny. everything seemed okay so we just kept walking home. it was really bizarre.

tonight i’m going to see serendipity because i’m a sucker for john cusack, and i just have to hope it’s not as bad as some people think. i’ll have to keep my fingers crossed. i haven’t seen a good, convincing, likeable romantic comedy (well, i mean as far as they can be convincing and likeable, like my two favorites, grosse pointe blank and reality bites) in a really long time. i’ll submit my opinion tomorrow.

so, shiner‘s going on tour again, but sadly not stopping in the southern california area again, much to my dismay. i still can’t hate them though, they’re just such a good band. sigh… maybe in december they’ll finally make it around this way. a boy can hope.

but instead, i’m going to try my little experiment again. when they played in chicago back in july or june or something, i made a public request that someone get me a shiner shirt at the show, which they would of course be repaid for in whatever manner they wished as soon as possible. i had a couple of responses which sadly just didn’t come through at the last minute. it was a nice thought though, and i’d like to see it work this time around, if possible. i know there are multiple regular readers of this page that are also the types who might be going to one of their shows in the next month or so. so here’s the deal: if you’re going to go to any stop of this tour, and would be willing to pick me up a shiner shirt (size medium, whichever design you think looks best) on my absolutely impeccable credit, please email me. i’m very good at getting people their money because i hate owing things. don’t be scared, be a helpful indie rock buddy. thanks to all potential replies.

so how was that show you went to last night brian? was the stereo any good? well let me tell you about it — yes, they were. a decent band called noise ratchet opened with some pretty good stuff, then this band rufio that i was pretty ambivalent toward. they were just fast pop-punk, sort of homegrown or something like that. nothing i’m really into. the stereo, despite the singer’s confession of not being in top vocal form after overexerting the night before, was a lot of fun. if you don’t know the music, it’s pretty poppy, straightforward rock and roll. lots of songs about heartache and so on. but it’s good clean fun to listen to and i for one had a blast. it was free and everything. i was singing along and having a good time, and after jaime (singer/songwriter/founding member) played one of the newer, mp3-only-so-far songs, he said “this one goes out to that guy right there because he knew the words to this song. you rock, man”. that guy was me. we also talked to him for a little bit after the show near the merchandise booth i was sadly too broke to buy from, and he was super friendly. he just talked and talked to us like we were his buddies already. very nice guy. so check them out if they’re coming near you for a good time and to support a really dedicated and amiable rock band. now i must hurry to class.

work and class, not much to speak of today. that is, so far. tonight the stereo is playing a free show on campus at the little coffee house venue place, and since i’ve never seen the stereo live and i like them a lot, i’m looking forward to that. for some reason it seems like the radio station here is very together this year and actually doing a good job of putting on events that interest me. the free part helps too. so that’s where i’ll be starting at 7:30, in case you were gonna come looking.

last night i was studying at my desk for my visual culture midterm and my roommate answers the door and says, “brian, you have a visitor” and a girl comes down the hall into the doorway of my bedroom. she looks sort of familiar, but i don’t know who she is. she says something about being in my finance class and asks if the exam is open book. i ask, what class she’s talking about again, because the finance midterm was last week. i thought she’d made a mistake. then she says fine arts so i understand it this time, and i say, oh, no, i don’t think the exam is open book. by the way, how did you know i lived here?

apparently she had stopped by briefly one night when our door was open to admire our living room lighting (we have a disco ball and some other chill stuff going on for kicking back), and remembered that i lived there, and that i was the same person in her class, and even knew my name as i found out later (i introduced myself and found out her name while she was here, but my roommate said she asked for me by name when he answered the door). so i’m left wondering in this situation. should i be flattered or afraid? i said hi to her in class today — i hope that wasn’t a dangerous move.

it just seems strange because afterwards i recalled vaguely the night i semi-met her and a couple of her friends when they stopped in, but would never have recognized her or remembered her name without this current reminder of that night. so i wonder how often this happens, where i’m on the forgetful end of an introduction or situation, and there’s someone out there that definitely knows my name and maybe more, someone i’m totally unaware of. i’m positive there’s a substantial number in the other direction, people i remember but don’t know who i am, because i feel somewhat forgettable in most situations. one would assume though that it works both ways and there have to be all these mysterious people out there who know what i’m up to, that i don’t have a clue about. i wonder if any of them are watching right now?… haha.

oh, also, before i forget: the unrivaled quote of the day, from my classmate steve during our short break during marketing today. spencer brought up the movie in the company of men and said something about a deaf girl, and steve says, “was her name helen?” followed shortly after by, “i think helen keller is an urban legend. seriously, how can you be deaf and blind?”

yes, he was kidding, but yes, it was still hilarious.