Sunday night…
ttocsland
February 20th, 2005
Current Mood:mellow
Current Music:AuraChime and rain
Hellboy is on the TV in the other room. Alicia likes the big red guy.
We nibbled Boboli Pizza and watched the awesome chase sequence in Matrix II.
Blue lies nearby, all happy with the new doggy bed Alicia picked up at the Target earlier.

It’s been a bit of a rough week, I have to say. Not that I should complain, but I’m really not expressing my feelings well about the Amigo being broken. It’s so surreal. I keep getting to be able to chip away at the numbness, and feel – sad. mad. lonely.
Was mad when I realized that the lovely LAPD did even LESS than I thought after showing up to ‘take a report’ on a hit and run. The paper they gave me was info on how to call a number to get the amount that a copy costs, then the address where to write for a copy – note: all requests must be accompanied by the proper amount or they will be disregarded. I found this out when Alicia called me one day to as me what the report number was, for the insurance peeps. Ah, dealing with administrative practices while being dicked around by procedural bureaucracy!!! Yay!!!
Was sad when I kept poking my head out to make sure the windows were up – no amigo. Felt a bit lonely recalling the fun places I’ve tripped to with the Amigo – Declan and I were comparing the oft challenging realization that ‘hey – I’m gonna have to turn around sooner or later to get out of this rutted dirt/mud path to nowhere…’

Ah. I’m also finding my predicament hilarious in that my personal role as a motor enthusiast leaves me without a grip on what to do next. Obviously the Ferrari F430 will kick a Boxster’s ass all over the autobahn, while the new Hummer H3 (based on GM’s new small pickup truck chassis) offers the more petite and nimble footprint of a true offroader. Um, sadly the selections available to me in a price range that might be doable are less, shall we say – exotic? Though I hear Korea is lovely in the nuclear winter! Alicia’s been great, but she’s not interested in the pursuit of the perfect car for a delusional scottie! So I point and click and watch the road and the parking lots… something will happen, obviously. Wish I knew what it will be, or what the limits should be, or where I should be looking. Ugh.

It’s been raining pretty hard last few days – hard enough that alicia was awoken once, and fairly concerned a few times. We were driving about in the Jetta and I had a few moments of standing water crossings where I would have loved the amigo’s clearance.

The rain. I love listening to it.
I love the way it makes cars look as they drove by this morning – we were seated outside of TK http://www.jinkys.com/ on Ventura.

I saw an intriguing short live action film on Friday with T-dog – one of, oh, 5 thousand films I saw that day. ‘All things in this country must’ I believe was the name. It had a snip of dialogue that went kinda like “it’s such a small sky for so much rain to fall from’.
Terry’s a filmmaker. He wanted to get some idea of what people are doing out there that is getting attention, along with an idea of where the money’s coming from.

Here was my Friday, starting about 10 am –
Short Docs:
“Autism Is a World” – stunning bit of work. Truly makes you stop and rethink what you presume. She may look and act retarded, but she spelled intelligence correctly the first time, and I can’t do that even though I worked in intel for 4 years!!!
“The Children of Leningradsky” – wow. so heavy and depressing and makes me realize I’m living in paradise compared to some in the world.
“Hardwood” – touching family story of how much a father can impact a child’s life – both by being there and being absent.
“Mighty Times: The Children’s March” – the winner. You read it here first. Um, wow. Birmingham Alabama has some horrid past to deal with, and this documentary is stunningly done – both from the story and from the production points of view.
“Sister Rose’s Passion” – Terry almost threw things at the screen, but I understand his anger. Honestly was stunned by the minor fact that the Catholics, until 1965 or so, had a touch of the anti-Semite in them, what with their official school books describing Jews as ‘children of satan’. Uh, wow.

Short Animation:
“Birthday Boy” – um, nice. nothing to write home about though.
“Gopher Broke” – Hilarious madcap adventure!!!
“Guard Dog” – ever wonder what your dog is barking about?
“Lorenzo” – a dance with the devil, and a cat’s life is explained
“Ryan” – the winner. um. wow. I’d have loved to hear what HST would have said about it. Great visuals, wonderful story. Compelling to watch.

Short Live Action:
“Everything in This Country Must” – Irish story, nicely shot, good characters.
“Little Terrorist” – brief look at how people can be humane and asinine at the same time.
“7:35 in the Morning ( 7:35 de la Mañana)” – if not the winner, it should be. SEE THIS FILM!!!! Too much fun.
“Two Cars, One Night” – perfect short. you connect for a moment, has a nice clean aftertaste.
“Wasp” – a bit painful, frankly. Terry calls it a character study, so that’s what it was.

See these films. Rent them. Download them illegally. Beg for your professor to find and show them. They are good.

Did I tell you I’m in two classes at Santa Monica College? Journo 1 – what is news? on monday nights, and Broadcasting 3A – announcing and production on thursdays. Weeee…. It’s exciting to be learning again. to be in that space, in that environment. It’s good. As alicia expressed, last Monday was truly great, and truly horrible from an emotional level. I had a great class, really think the concept of learning about journalism will allow me to pursue journalism correctly, as opposed to the sad attempt I did at automedia. the prof described the pieces of the puzzle, and I was able to (fairly) quickly deduce how to put them together. Yeah!!! Getting home was a bit of a letdown, in comparison. Glad we were able to help out Sarah a bit, and by doing so my truck got crunched not on valentines day, but the next day, at least to me. Is that a silver lining I see there?

Tuesday I did my SCACO gig and enjoyed – I dig working with Earl.

Thursday I headed out in the rain and got to school on time – picked up a parking pass, was strolling about and ran into our friend Alisa!! That happens to me when I’m on campuses – freaks me out. We chatted and snacked before our classes. She’s there on Monday, Tues and Thurs nights – so Alicia will be able to hang out with her, as will I. She’s great people and we certainly have done a poor job of visiting with her and the Bart. But we get to make up for it over the next few months – Yay!!!

Friday was movies, and Sat was uneventful. Sunday we brunched and Targeted and Petco’d and groceried and bobalied. Live as we know it.

Ciao,

:+S+:
w^w:Aurachime
http://library.wasqua.com/2004/lily_ousia/seasons/200402/index.html