Death Wears a Suit

As I've been rambling on about for the past, oh month or so? My company has been planning two major films. One was code-named Bookmark of Doom the other Death Wears a Suit. Filming was last Tuesday. But through a series of unfortunate events, plans got messed up and the actress I had planned to use for Marie couldn't come. So... piningforthefjords took over the part I was going to play, and I assumed the role of Marie. And this is the result. Enjoy!

EDIT: Mom tells me that when you watch it here, it stretches the video. So...if you want to see the non-stretchy version, go to the actual youtube page.

A Quote...

"I leave this rule for others
when I'm dead,
Be always sure you're right-
then go ahead."
~Davy Crockett, valiant defender of the Alamo.

Inkdeath

Inkdeath.... That widely anticipated sequel to a sequel. I have a variety of thoughts on it.

First off, the whole first half drove me insasne! All people were doing was sitting around in angst fretting over what to do and how do it. Either that, or they were sitting in angst trying to persuade others what to do and how to do it. Take for example Meggie. I liked Meggie in the other books. Now she's hit the moody teenager phase and doesn't want Mo to do anything. If my dad had to take a particularly dangerous police assignment, I would worry. I would pray. But I wouldn't try to convince him to not do it. I wouldn't just sit there in boring angst* brooding over it. It seems to me Meggie doesn't do anything useful the whole book except read a couple times for Fenoglio.

Now that the annoying part is over, the good.

As soon as people started moving and Mo agreed to summon the White Women, I started getting into it. That whole scene with the White Women surrounding them was incredible. I could see it clearly in my mind's eye.

Death demands that Mo write the words in the Adderhead's book.

The plot thickens.

And with that, Tasha Brainsample decided she rather liked the book after all but had to change her favorite character from Dustfinger to Violante. Either that or they're tied. Tasha's not sure yet.

Now she moves on to....she thinks City of Ember. She knows she needs to get on with reading her borrowed books from Erustan.**

*I love angst. Well-done angst that is. But I found Meggie's to be annoying.

**Thank you, mellon nin!!!

A Dream Within a Dream

Take this kiss upon the brow!
And, in parting from you now,
Thus much let me avow:
You are not wrong, who deem
That my days have been a dream;
Yet if hope has flown away
In a night, or in a day,
In a vision, or in none,
Is it therefore the less gone?
All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream.

I stand amid the roar
Of a surf-tormented shore,
And I hold within my hand
Grains of the golden sand-
How few! yet how they creep
Through my fingers to the deep,
While I weep-while I weep!
O God! can I not grasp
Them with a tighter clasp?
O God! can I not save
One from the pitiless wave?
Is all we see or seem
But a dream within a dream?
~Edgar Allen Poe

Audition Process~Twelve Guideposts

Miss Erin asked to hear more about my acting classes, so here we go.
This past session we studied the audition process, and how to be prepared for an audition. Not just memorizing a monologue, but finding a monologue that fits you and your type and being prepared for cold readings.
Question: Why is it I can act when I'm doing a play but can't do that in a reading?
Answer: You can. It's a matter of asking the right questions. Hence, the following guideposts.

1. Relationship: What is my relationship to the other character in the scene I'm about to do? Facts are never enough. How do you feel about this person?
2. Conflict: What are you fighting for? Who is interfering with you getting what you want? Find variety in fighting for your motivation.
3. The Moment Before: It's up to you to provide what comes before the scene. Not just thinking about it, but immersing yourself in the moment before in order to come into a scene fully in character and prepared.
4. Humor: Humor isn't just "being funny." Humor is an attitude with which we are able to face the serious things and life and get through each day.
5. Opposites: Whatever you decide as a motivation, the opposite is also true. (ie, in every human there exists love and hate, happy moods and sad moods, etc) Opposites develop conflict and therfore drama, and therefore interest.
6. Discoveries: Every scene is filled with things that happen for the first time. They can be about you, another character, or just about anything. Always ask yourself: What is new?
7. Communication and competition: Acting is a task of communication. It is not enough for an actor to feel if that feeling is not being communicated. All dramatic relationships are competitive, there's alot of resistance.
8. Importance: Plays are written about important moments in people's lives. An actor must look for something ususual going on. We don't go to see plays to see people living everyday humdrum lives.
9. Find the events: Ask yourself, "What happens in this scene? What are the changes?"
10. Place: It's up to the actor to create a place, which leads credibility to your acting.
11. Game Playing and role playing: Not insincere! For each situation we play a different role because it is a different genre. (ie, teacher student; friend friend; husband wife) Every relationship we have demands a different role. when we want to change, that creates conflict.
12. Mystery and secret: Finally, add to these what you don't know. For example, no matter how well we know another person, there are always things going on in his mind that we can't know. No matter how well we explain ourselves, there's always something hidden and unknown in us. Don't play the end before the end. Play what you dream or hope the end will be.

These guideposts come from a book called Audition, by Michael Shurtleff. He's a casting director in New York and wrote the book to help actors. I highly recommend it. It goes into the guideposts in more detail, as well as other topics of interest. There was ALOT of stuff in there that I hadn't known but completely made sense.

The Screwtape Letters

"Music and silence, how I detest them both. The melodies and silences of Heaven will be shouted down in the end. But I admit we are not yet loud enough, or anything like it. Research is in progress. Meanwhile you, disgusting little-

[Here the MS. breaks off and is resumed in a different hand.]

In the heat of composition I find that I have inadvertently allowed myself to assume the form of a large centipede."

This is a book that all C.S. Lewis fans should read. It's far different from any of his other books (at least, the ones I've read) The whole book is a series of letters from Screwtape, a senior demon, written to his nephew Wormwood who is a young tempter. Thoughout the book, Screwtape corrects his nephew's naive or misguided attempts to keep his Patient from Heaven. Shortly into the book, the Patient becomes a Christian. This is atrocious is Screwtape's eyes, but all it does is cause him to suggest different tactics to win the Patient over to "Our Father Below."

The only other thing I have to say is that I wish I could find the version read by John Cleese on sale somewhere...

You know you're a geek when...

I started writing this a few months ago, and it's grown since then...I suspect it will continue to grow. Crazy filmmaker version will come later.

You know you're a nerd when...
You think to yourself as you stir honey and cream into your tea, "This is a mixture. The cream and honey are not chemically uniting with the tea, hence this is a physical reaction only."
You look out the window and notice that a tree has excurrent branching as opposed to deliquisent.
You see a book by H.G. Wells and immediately think, "Hg is the symbol for the element mercury."
You enjoy balancing chemical equations.
You use the word “joy” in relation to balancing chemical equations.
You get annoyed when people use “your” for “you’re” and vice versa.
You get annoyed when people say “lol” and don’t actually laugh out loud.
You then tell said people to think of something more appropriate to say.
You then enjoy it when aforementioned people start using “limh” to please you.
You have a perpetual library fine for returning books late.

You know you're a geek when...
You and your friends debate whether Han really shot first.
You and your friends debate whether the Island actually moved.
You and your friends debate whether Jin is actually dead.
You own a cape.
You mourn the crash of Flight 815 and celebrate Frodo and Bilbo's birthday. (and to that effect, you know what day they are off the top of your head)
You sing Phantom of the Opera songs with fellow Phanatics ON THE PHONE…
You make “deals” with other friends about lending books.
You think that Monty Python and the Holy Grail is the greatest movie in the world.
You get defensive whenever someone tries to make you choose between Star Wars and Star Trek.
You get defensive whenever someone tries to make you choose between Middle Earth and Narnia.
No one ever “gets” your costumes.
Even when you explain that the stripes do *not* make skunk fur, they make Rogue hair.
You analyze Christine’s choice and understand her reasons and turmoil, but still want her to have chosen Erik instead.
You know who *Erik* is.
You know some useful Elvish things to say and actually say them in day to day conversation.

Yes....I am both a nerd and a geek, and proud of it!

Doom and Gloom is the Key Phrase Around Here

I really don't know what to say.

.

..

I have nothing to say, and yet everything to say.

...

....

Our country is doomed.

.....

......

I need a cup of tea. Or some chocolate. Reality has hit. Obama is our next president.

......

.......

I miss Ronald Reagan.

"Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction."

~

"A troubled and afflicted mankind looks to us, pleading for us to keep our rendezvous with destiny; that we will uphold the principles of self-reliance, self-discipline, morality, and, above all, responsible liberty for every individual that we will become that shining city on a hill."

~

"With regard to the freedom of the individual for choice with regard to abortion, there's one individual who's not being considered at all. That's the one who is being aborted. And I've noticed that everybody that is for abortion has already been born."

~

"Government is not the solution to our problem. Government is the problem."

~

"If a tax hike makes it to my desk, I'll veto it in less time than it takes Vanna White to turn the letters V-E-T-O!"

~

"The ten most dangerous words in the English language are 'Hi, I'm from the government, and I'm here to help.'"

~

"I hope we once again have reminded people that man is not free unless government is limited. There's a clear cause and effect here that is as neat and predictable as a law of physics: As government expands, liberty contracts."

~Ronald Reagan

Seeing Double?

Lots of random bits of information I'd like to impart because lately Cease Repining has been almost entirely lame... You can blame it on my acting classes and current projects. (Bookmark of Doom and Death Wears a Suit) There's been alot of work on both of these things. (headshots, mock auditions, and preparations for the showcase for the former; script editing, pre-vis photography, and induction of a new member of EJC on the latter)

But anyhoo....first off. You are not seeing double. We have another kitten.

Here's his story... For about a week, we had been seeing him every once in awhile at night. He'd meow and want food, so we'd feed him. We thought he was one of Mimi's wild cats. Because we'd always see him at night, Dad started calling his Nightcrawler. (X-Men fans? Anyone? Anyone?) So then a day came when our dogs were going nuts for no apparent reason. I went outside onto our porch and found him again almost freezing to death (slight exaggeration...maybe) because it was windy and cold that day. From that time on, we kept feeding him and bringing him into the house.

We know now that he is NOT one of Mimi's wild cats because he LOVES being petted and none of Mimi's cats will let anyone come near them. We figure someone dumped him.

That's the story of our pet life. Some....(what I wish to say should not be said in polite society) has always left his poor dogs or cats on the road or in a ditch to let them die. I hate it!! It makes me so mad that people would be so cruel and irresponsible. How hard is it to take them to Petco or an Animal Shelter? Ugh....

What's really nice is that now Charlie doesn't drive the older cats nuts. She has Nightcrawler to fight and play with. And believe me, they fight and play hard. It's funny; now all of our cats are in pairs. Rochilimea and Pseudomonis, (who are, incidentally siblings) Lucy and Figaro, and Charlie and Nightcrawler. (Slinker and Crawler, hee hee.)

Speaking of M. Night Crawler, (that's one of his other nicknames) I am mourning...for a sillyish reason.

Joaquin Phoenix is retiring from acting.

.....................................................................

I'm dead serious. I wish I wasn't. Apparently, the aquirance of his skills for playing Johnny Cash in Walk the Line inspired him to become a musician instead.

So, to start the mourning process, the other night I watched the Village which is one of my favorite movies. I SO want to do a spoof of that great scene where Ivy is holding out her hand and the creature almost gets her. That is SUCH a beautiful scene, yet still creepy. Ah well...maybe we'll have time to spoof it after principal photography of the two main projects.

***************

Final bit of news: Poll Results.

Is our country doomed?

Yes: 5 (55%)

No: 2 (22%)

*sigh* It depends on the election: 2 (22%)

I guess tonight we'll find out our fate.