I'm not going to lie. The sprawling apartment complex I'm in is enough to intimidate me. Trying to remember where everything is and it all looks the same. It's nice and I've met some great people. My roommates all seem on the level, so that's an answer to prayer.
We drove into town this morning to get our room assignments, etc. It was cool seeing the Hollywood sign on the mountain as we drove down into the town. We arrived at the apartment complex, The Park at La Brea and, for the first time, got lost within the complex. Anyway, all is good and we found our respective apartments. I took some time getting moved in, thought my key wasn't working, turns out I'm silly and just wasn't pulling the door toward me hard enough as I turned the key. Whatever :-)
David, Ben, and I went to lunch with some Asbury alums at "In and Out Burger." It was quite tasty, but was the busiest place that I have ever seen. So busy, in fact, that I gave up trying to fight through crowds to get ketchup. It was a fun experience and the alum assure me that after a week or so I'll have a handle on the layout of the complex and the town. Let's hope they're right. Classes, shopping, food (although I plan to eat in) are all within walking distance, so that's nice.
Today was the Sabbath and it was a new experience for me to see so many Jews dressed up, some in their "robes," leaving the synagogues. Very neat.
One thing that is also pretty fun is seeing billboard after billboard for different movies. Super fun.
I plan on taking some pictures tomorrow of the neighborhood and my apartment. I'll post them on face book, so keep an eye out for them.
So far I'm batting 1000 on this current update thing. We'll see how long that lasts :-)
Saturday, January 9, 2010
Friday, January 8, 2010
L.A. Trip Day Three
We left Flagstaff, Arizona (where it was cold and there was a lot of snow) this morning and headed to the Southern Rim of the Grand Canyon. WOW! Absolutely breathtaking. I am freshly amazed at what a beautiful world it is and what a beautiful country it is that we live in.
After walking around the southern rim we had lunch and continued our journey to L.A. We stopped in Barstow, about 130 miles outside of L.A. and had dinner. Not a big fan of Barstow. Be that as it may...
We had a great day and I have enjoyed the scenery from New Mexico all the way through to Southern California. It's beautiful out here. We arrived at the hotel around 8:30 PM local time. David's dad, Bob, David, and I sat around the pool outside chit chatting and looking at the palm trees. That's right. I said palm trees!
Tomorrow we will begin our registration and move in at Los Angeles Film Studies Center.
Thanks again to all of you for your love, support, and prayers. Ya'll are the best and I will tr to be consistent with these blog updates :-)
-Eric
After walking around the southern rim we had lunch and continued our journey to L.A. We stopped in Barstow, about 130 miles outside of L.A. and had dinner. Not a big fan of Barstow. Be that as it may...
We had a great day and I have enjoyed the scenery from New Mexico all the way through to Southern California. It's beautiful out here. We arrived at the hotel around 8:30 PM local time. David's dad, Bob, David, and I sat around the pool outside chit chatting and looking at the palm trees. That's right. I said palm trees!
Tomorrow we will begin our registration and move in at Los Angeles Film Studies Center.
Thanks again to all of you for your love, support, and prayers. Ya'll are the best and I will tr to be consistent with these blog updates :-)
-Eric
Thursday, January 7, 2010
L.A. Trip Days One and Two
My goal is to keep this blog updated on a regular basis, but I'm not making any promises :-)
We left Kentucky on Wednesday morning, drove through Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, and arrived in Oklahoma City later that night. We got a decent nights sleep and headed out again Thursday morning. We drove through some more of Oklahoma, which isn't much to speak about from a visual stand point...although they had rest stops that stretched across the highway. Cool.
The thing that stood out to me about Oklahoma would have to be all the signs for different Cherokee products: handmade goods, etc. My initial thought was, "cool!" since I have a little trace of Cherokee in my family. Then I thought about it some more, called my brother to confirm my thought, and realized that the Cherokee people were, of course, not indigenous to Oklahoma. They are there now because that is where they were relocated when they were moved from their homeland. The Trail of Tears. Then I was more sobered by the history of the place I was driving through.
Then we went through a bit of Texas. Other than the "Biggest cross in this hemisphere: a spiritual experience you'll never forget" nothing was really any bigger in Texas. Oh well. I did see two signs that I particularly enjoyed: "Catholic Superstore" and the "Jesus Christ Is Lord (not a swear word) Travel Plaza."
Around Amarillo I was really digging on the landscape and really wanted to stop and shoot a western then and there, but everyone else wanted to keep going. Oh well again :-)
I fell in love with New Mexico. What an absolutely beautiful state. I wish I had been able to stop and take it all in. Maybe on the drive back? I was so taken with the breathtaking landscape and the beauty of the people there I was sad when we crossed into Arizona. I may have enjoyed the scenery there too, but the sun had set and all I could see were the cars around me and the white lines passing me by.
We are now at the hotel in Flagstaff, Arizona and have seen our first road signs for L.A. We're all getting pretty excited. We've driven a little over 1600 miles in two days and have several more to go. We plan to see the Grand Canyon tomorrow morning and then get into L.A. later in the evening.
I will try to keep you all posted on the events.
Thanks to all of you for your love, support, and prayers.
We left Kentucky on Wednesday morning, drove through Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, and arrived in Oklahoma City later that night. We got a decent nights sleep and headed out again Thursday morning. We drove through some more of Oklahoma, which isn't much to speak about from a visual stand point...although they had rest stops that stretched across the highway. Cool.
The thing that stood out to me about Oklahoma would have to be all the signs for different Cherokee products: handmade goods, etc. My initial thought was, "cool!" since I have a little trace of Cherokee in my family. Then I thought about it some more, called my brother to confirm my thought, and realized that the Cherokee people were, of course, not indigenous to Oklahoma. They are there now because that is where they were relocated when they were moved from their homeland. The Trail of Tears. Then I was more sobered by the history of the place I was driving through.
Then we went through a bit of Texas. Other than the "Biggest cross in this hemisphere: a spiritual experience you'll never forget" nothing was really any bigger in Texas. Oh well. I did see two signs that I particularly enjoyed: "Catholic Superstore" and the "Jesus Christ Is Lord (not a swear word) Travel Plaza."
Around Amarillo I was really digging on the landscape and really wanted to stop and shoot a western then and there, but everyone else wanted to keep going. Oh well again :-)
I fell in love with New Mexico. What an absolutely beautiful state. I wish I had been able to stop and take it all in. Maybe on the drive back? I was so taken with the breathtaking landscape and the beauty of the people there I was sad when we crossed into Arizona. I may have enjoyed the scenery there too, but the sun had set and all I could see were the cars around me and the white lines passing me by.
We are now at the hotel in Flagstaff, Arizona and have seen our first road signs for L.A. We're all getting pretty excited. We've driven a little over 1600 miles in two days and have several more to go. We plan to see the Grand Canyon tomorrow morning and then get into L.A. later in the evening.
I will try to keep you all posted on the events.
Thanks to all of you for your love, support, and prayers.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
A bit of randomness.
Okay. There's just a couple quick little things I need to get off my chest. First of all, Kanye West. I believe it's official, I even saw it online, he won the award for the biggest douche bag of the year. Rightly so. I read that he apologized to Taylor Swift. SO WHAT! Does he seriously think that an inadequate apology in his blog simply makes everything better? The damage was done. Had I been a Kanye West fan, with or without his feeble apology, I would no longer be one. Why do people in positions like that think they can be world class jerks and expect the public to accept it and believe their "Oh crap that's gonna hurt my PR" apologies? Beyonce? There's a class act. Her cool points went through the roof in my book. That's the kind of celebrities that I like to see...the ones who are comfortable with who they are and have no problems standing back so that someone else can have there moment in the spotlight.
Secondly, roughing the passer calls...I get that you have to protect the quarter back and what not, but in last night's game between New England and Buffalo it was ridiculous. Only one of them (no, this isn't my biased opinion as a Pat's fan) was maybe a half decent call, but one of them was totally ridiculous. I fear there will come a day when the NFL may resort to tucking flags into the players' pants so there will be no tackling and thus no risk of injury of any kind.
Alright, I'm done.
Secondly, roughing the passer calls...I get that you have to protect the quarter back and what not, but in last night's game between New England and Buffalo it was ridiculous. Only one of them (no, this isn't my biased opinion as a Pat's fan) was maybe a half decent call, but one of them was totally ridiculous. I fear there will come a day when the NFL may resort to tucking flags into the players' pants so there will be no tackling and thus no risk of injury of any kind.
Alright, I'm done.
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Just a brief thought
It's been a while since I've blogged since I'm not one of those people that can sit down and just write. I have to be inspired by something particular. Anyway, the other day I was driving through Lexington and saw a sign in front of a church that read "Church for people who like church."
I thought this was interesting and it gave me pause. Who exactly is this church trying to reach? I understand that there are churches who swing the pendulum to the side that is so "seeker friendly" that they water down their message and are ineffective. But sign like this makes me think that the pendulum may be swung the other way...to the being so afraid they'll compromise their message that they are unwilling to break away from any traditions and make an attempt to be a culturally relevant force (like the church should be). I make that last observation not on this one sign alone, but on others that the same church has had up, i.e. "We still sing Amazing Grace," and "Church the way it used to be."
At any rate, and in keeping with my original promise that this would be brief...I submit, for your approval, a thought: Of all the organizations in the world, isn't the church the one organization that exists primarily for the benefit of it's non-members and then, secondarily, it's members?
Just a thought.
I thought this was interesting and it gave me pause. Who exactly is this church trying to reach? I understand that there are churches who swing the pendulum to the side that is so "seeker friendly" that they water down their message and are ineffective. But sign like this makes me think that the pendulum may be swung the other way...to the being so afraid they'll compromise their message that they are unwilling to break away from any traditions and make an attempt to be a culturally relevant force (like the church should be). I make that last observation not on this one sign alone, but on others that the same church has had up, i.e. "We still sing Amazing Grace," and "Church the way it used to be."
At any rate, and in keeping with my original promise that this would be brief...I submit, for your approval, a thought: Of all the organizations in the world, isn't the church the one organization that exists primarily for the benefit of it's non-members and then, secondarily, it's members?
Just a thought.
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Terminator Salvation
I had the privilege to go out on a date with my wonderful wife last night. All our kids had ended up making plans to spend the night at friends' houses, so we had a night to ourselves. With no kids, what do you go see on the opening weekend of "Terminator Salvation?" Duh! And so we did. I would like to very briefly just share my opinion on the matter.
For starters, here's my two cents on the original movies: first one-classic, and because of that you allow your 2009 movie mindset to forgive some of the 1980 effects. Second one - my favorite of the three and still holds up fairly well today from an effects point of view. Third one- While there was one particularly cool chase scene somewhere near the beginning, this movie made it clear that the franchise (and Arnold) had possible run out of steam.
Fast forward a mere six years to a reboot. I'd have to do my homework to make sure the timetable matches up in the films, but six years doesn't seem like a very long time in the whole scheme of things. Rocky: 17 years, Rambo: 20 years, Diehard:12 years, and, of course, Batman: (counting the final Schumaker debacle) 8 years...if you count where the franchise really died (when Tim Burton stepped down) it was 13 years. My point being (the mediocre Batman Forever and the horrid Batman and Robin aside) there seems to have been quite a bit of downtime between the originals and the reboots.
My opinion on Terminator Salvation? Here it is: in one word, "okay." Christian Bale was great as usual, and McG placed himself on the map as an innovative director (at least in some areas), but the story itself was only okay. When I left Transformers a couple of summers ago I wanted to go right to Walmart and buy the toys to add to my collection. I left Terminator and thought, "Okay, I need to got o Walmart and pick up filters and coffee..." I didn't have that psyched up feeling when I left, which I usually do from an action movie that really gets my adrenaline or nostalgia going.
My biggest beef was that they gave away the biggest plot point in the trailers (and as such I'm giving nothing away here). The stranger that makes his way to the base of the resistance fighters is, in fact, part machine...a terminator. That was the only really big twist. I mean they try to make you think that John Connor is going to die, but we know that he can't. I wish they had left the fact that Sam Worthington's character was a terminator (of sorts) be kept hushed so it would have been a surprise when I saw the film.
Aside from that, the only other thing I wasn't sure about (other than some of the dialogue at the end) was the appearance of the T-800 that looked like a CGI Arnold. It took me out of it a bit. However, the acting is solid and the visuals are first rate and entertaining overall.
As much as I like Bale and thought that his little infamous tirade wouldn't effect me at all, I admit that I found myself wondering from time to time, "Is this the scene he blew his top? No, no...it's got to be this one."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zg9ooaozu-8
For starters, here's my two cents on the original movies: first one-classic, and because of that you allow your 2009 movie mindset to forgive some of the 1980 effects. Second one - my favorite of the three and still holds up fairly well today from an effects point of view. Third one- While there was one particularly cool chase scene somewhere near the beginning, this movie made it clear that the franchise (and Arnold) had possible run out of steam.
Fast forward a mere six years to a reboot. I'd have to do my homework to make sure the timetable matches up in the films, but six years doesn't seem like a very long time in the whole scheme of things. Rocky: 17 years, Rambo: 20 years, Diehard:12 years, and, of course, Batman: (counting the final Schumaker debacle) 8 years...if you count where the franchise really died (when Tim Burton stepped down) it was 13 years. My point being (the mediocre Batman Forever and the horrid Batman and Robin aside) there seems to have been quite a bit of downtime between the originals and the reboots.
My opinion on Terminator Salvation? Here it is: in one word, "okay." Christian Bale was great as usual, and McG placed himself on the map as an innovative director (at least in some areas), but the story itself was only okay. When I left Transformers a couple of summers ago I wanted to go right to Walmart and buy the toys to add to my collection. I left Terminator and thought, "Okay, I need to got o Walmart and pick up filters and coffee..." I didn't have that psyched up feeling when I left, which I usually do from an action movie that really gets my adrenaline or nostalgia going.
My biggest beef was that they gave away the biggest plot point in the trailers (and as such I'm giving nothing away here). The stranger that makes his way to the base of the resistance fighters is, in fact, part machine...a terminator. That was the only really big twist. I mean they try to make you think that John Connor is going to die, but we know that he can't. I wish they had left the fact that Sam Worthington's character was a terminator (of sorts) be kept hushed so it would have been a surprise when I saw the film.
Aside from that, the only other thing I wasn't sure about (other than some of the dialogue at the end) was the appearance of the T-800 that looked like a CGI Arnold. It took me out of it a bit. However, the acting is solid and the visuals are first rate and entertaining overall.
As much as I like Bale and thought that his little infamous tirade wouldn't effect me at all, I admit that I found myself wondering from time to time, "Is this the scene he blew his top? No, no...it's got to be this one."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zg9ooaozu-8
Friday, May 8, 2009
Just because
It's been a long time since I've done any sort of blogging, so I figured I'd take a few minutes and basically just ramble. For those of you that know me well and see me regularly, that'll come as no surprise.
So, what to blog about...I know! I saw two movies yesterday. X-Men Origins:Wolverine and Star Trek. I enjoyed both films. There were some things that I wish they had gone into more detail with in X-Men, but overall I found it fun to watch and very entertaining. I also learned (again) how hyper conservative www.pluggedinonline.com is with their reviews. I've found their sight to be a decent tool when trying to decided if I should take my kids to a certain movie or not, but over and over I'm seeing that there are some issues that they take and make into huge mountainous looking issues and then I see the film and am like, "What? Really? That's the 'sexuality?'" Based on the review of X-Men Origins my wife and I decided to preview it and found that the "sexuality" was actually very tame and had I not read the review previously I would have barely noticed it in the film. Very tasteful and non-offensive. I found it humorous since the review made it sound almost like "DON'T LET YOUR KIDS SEE THIS!" type thing.
You can check out the review that I'm referencing at:
http://www.pluggedinonline.com/movies/movies/a0004616.cfm
Star Trek. I got to see this one on opening night with some friends and had a great time. I'm not a Star Trek fan and have not followed the movies or the series or spin-offs (I've seen one or two of the films and now I have them all in my queue at Blockbuster Online) so I had no preconception of what to expect. I like J.J. Abrams, I like what he did with MI3, and I figured he'd do a good job with this. It was fantastic...a little heavy on the lens-flares, but still awesome. Fun, witty, entertaining, and from what I gathered, seemed to please many of the "Trekkies" in the audience. I will now go back and watch the old movies to further appreciate some of the humor. A friend of mine said that this new Star Trek movie "was everything 'The Phantom Menace' wished it could have been." I agree whole heartedly.
Just for fun...here's the review from the previously mentioned, pluggedinonline:
http://www.pluggedinonline.com/movies/movies/a0004627.cfm
Okay...what else? We had a good time a couple of weeks ago at the HighBrdige Film Festival where our film "The Love Doctor" won for best comedy. So, that was a good experience and we got to meet some neat people, including the president of Walden Media. Good times.
This summer I'll be working on finally getting our first short film, "Collide," edited and I'm excited about that. I'll be working as a production assistant (PA) on a larger independent film this summer and am looking forward to that. A good friend of mine and I will also be working on co-writing a script for Asbury that they will hopefully shoot in the spring and another friend of mine and I will be working on a script for a directed study that we will shoot in the fall.
Next spring I will be spending the semester in LA to complete my "Film Studies" degree and to do an internship which will hopefully turn into a job when I graduate. I'm excited about that as well. It'll be a bit of a rough time for the family as I will be gone for four months, but we all agree that it is only for a season and is what I'm supposed to be doing.
Anyway, not much else is coming to mind, so I'll end this pointless blog.
So, what to blog about...I know! I saw two movies yesterday. X-Men Origins:Wolverine and Star Trek. I enjoyed both films. There were some things that I wish they had gone into more detail with in X-Men, but overall I found it fun to watch and very entertaining. I also learned (again) how hyper conservative www.pluggedinonline.com is with their reviews. I've found their sight to be a decent tool when trying to decided if I should take my kids to a certain movie or not, but over and over I'm seeing that there are some issues that they take and make into huge mountainous looking issues and then I see the film and am like, "What? Really? That's the 'sexuality?'" Based on the review of X-Men Origins my wife and I decided to preview it and found that the "sexuality" was actually very tame and had I not read the review previously I would have barely noticed it in the film. Very tasteful and non-offensive. I found it humorous since the review made it sound almost like "DON'T LET YOUR KIDS SEE THIS!" type thing.
You can check out the review that I'm referencing at:
http://www.pluggedinonline.com/movies/movies/a0004616.cfm
Star Trek. I got to see this one on opening night with some friends and had a great time. I'm not a Star Trek fan and have not followed the movies or the series or spin-offs (I've seen one or two of the films and now I have them all in my queue at Blockbuster Online) so I had no preconception of what to expect. I like J.J. Abrams, I like what he did with MI3, and I figured he'd do a good job with this. It was fantastic...a little heavy on the lens-flares, but still awesome. Fun, witty, entertaining, and from what I gathered, seemed to please many of the "Trekkies" in the audience. I will now go back and watch the old movies to further appreciate some of the humor. A friend of mine said that this new Star Trek movie "was everything 'The Phantom Menace' wished it could have been." I agree whole heartedly.
Just for fun...here's the review from the previously mentioned, pluggedinonline:
http://www.pluggedinonline.com/movies/movies/a0004627.cfm
Okay...what else? We had a good time a couple of weeks ago at the HighBrdige Film Festival where our film "The Love Doctor" won for best comedy. So, that was a good experience and we got to meet some neat people, including the president of Walden Media. Good times.
This summer I'll be working on finally getting our first short film, "Collide," edited and I'm excited about that. I'll be working as a production assistant (PA) on a larger independent film this summer and am looking forward to that. A good friend of mine and I will also be working on co-writing a script for Asbury that they will hopefully shoot in the spring and another friend of mine and I will be working on a script for a directed study that we will shoot in the fall.
Next spring I will be spending the semester in LA to complete my "Film Studies" degree and to do an internship which will hopefully turn into a job when I graduate. I'm excited about that as well. It'll be a bit of a rough time for the family as I will be gone for four months, but we all agree that it is only for a season and is what I'm supposed to be doing.
Anyway, not much else is coming to mind, so I'll end this pointless blog.
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