Category: Uncategorized

My two TV News class projects so far… from December’s end-of-semester show:

and from my class’s February 6th show:

Courtesy my mother, courtesy the LSU Daily Reveille: She explained that it’s an ad from some condominium developer who was recently un-invited to be an LSU sponsor due to some feather-ruffling ads the developer placed. (More details, anyone? I couldn’t find anything online.)

I cannot attest to the historical accuracy of previous ads.

UPDATE: It’s an Animal House quote. I stand corrected.

And ashamed.

Decorations:

 

 
 

And Fun:

 

 

Right, so:

Went to Chicago to finish editing a video of the Adobe onAIR bus tour, a.k.a. Geeks On A Bus, which played at the end of the day 2 keynote at Adobe’s MAX conference. It was entertaining to see something I’d worked on on giant screens in front of thousands of people, even if most of them were more interested in getting to lunch.

 

Went to a Renaissance Faire to celebrate Doug’s birthday. Dressed up in ridiculous outfits, ate turkey legs, watched jousting, and learned that at renaissance fair(e)s it’s perfectly acceptable for strangers to make admiring comments about other strangers’ breasts.

It only took about a year of grumbling over my design, longer of Bryan grumbling over my rotting-from-the-inside blogging software, and finally a really good reason to have working comments…

It’s still non-functioning and/or non-finished in several places, but I’ve found that I’m more and more ok with “good enough” these days ; )

I’ve posted my first entry over at Earth & Sky, which was kind enough to invite me to blog with them. The post is about an Encyclopaedia Brittanica video from 1954 that imagines how aliens would describe human beings and their culture—it’s good kitsch that I think raises some interesting questions about science then and now.

Congratulations to Leslie and Bryan, finally absolved from living in sin.

Here are some of my photos—Matt‘s the one who got all the good stuff, seeing as he’s the professional and all.

At the joint bachelor/ette party, playing with the remote-controlled helicopter Bryan won earlier in the day at Dave & Buster’s:

The bridesmaids’ brunch:

Leslie and Amy at the post-rehearsal-dinner gathering:

   

The invitations, table decorations, the bride’s dress, and all the flowers (yes, all the flowers) were all handmade by the Leslie and her mother:

And everything was lovely.

I know I’m, oh, two or three years behind on this, but I just got a Netflix subscription. I think I’ve finally found a rival for my internet addiction: a steady stream of movies delivered to my front door.

The first dozen or so movies I’ve put in my queue are all documentaries. There have been some nice thematic convergences—Searching for the Wrong-Eyed Jesus and Jesus Camp were my first two.

Wrong-Eyed Jesus is a brooding, lyrical study of the South, seen through the aviator-clad eyes of an alt-country musician in a rusty, borrowed Impala. Swamps, drunken locals, and the most deranged-muppet-looking little old lady Christian radio host you’ll ever see are just a few reasons to see this movie.

Jesus Camp picks up with the Pentecostals, this time in the Midwest, who give disturbingly earnest explanations for how to properly education your children for service in God’s army, what to expect from the coming rapture, and why non-charismatics have such boring church services. There’s also a priceless bit in the deleted scenes in which Ted Haggard gets a bit too up close and personal with a steadicam.

I didn’t agree with all of the directors’ choices—the Air America Radio segments criticizing the religious right seems less like “balance” and more like heavy-handed editorial—but the intimacy with which they capture the unapologetic zealotry of both children and adults alike makes Jesus Camp compelling no matter where on the political/religious spectrum you may pitch your tent, revival or otherwise.

I then made a cinematic return to the south and its concomitant weirdness at the Alamo Drafthouse this past weekend, where I saw two of the Rural Route Film Fest’s shorts programs.

The highlight was “Muskrat Lovely,” a documentary about a small Maryland town’s joint “Miss Outdoors” pageant and muskrat skinning contest. It invites immediate comparisons to Christopher Guest’s mockumentaries but has not the slightest hint of ridicule or mean-spiritedness. All you should need to know in order to want to see it is that one of the teenage contestants, after the opening dance and business attire segments, skins a muskrat onstage for the talent competition.

I was of course highly entertained the next day to see campaign posters for the Luling, Texas, Watermelon Thump’s “Thump Queen” while in town to sample the Luling City Market barbecue. I haven’t been to the Thump, held every year in June, but judging by the early campaigning and the amount of permanently watermelon-adorned objects scattered around town (including oil derricks), it’s quite the event. Sadly, my UT thesis supervisor beat me to the punch with his doc “Spit Farther!” (a seed-spitting contest is also part of the festivities).

A fond farewell to the man who, if not the spiritual father, was the spiritual crazy uncle of my blogging efforts. If I could believe that anyone would wake up after death in faraway worlds peopled with strange yet highly literate aliens, I’d believe it of him. I hope he enjoys himself there, because he will be sorely missed here.