DeMizio's Journal

Uneventful week thus far. Registration

Uneventful week thus far.

Registration was on Saturday. I finally was able to clear up the last of my class problems today. My schedule is thus:

Monday 2:00-4:45 - Fiction Writing I, with Justin Cronin

Tuesday - 2:00-4:45 - The Catholic University - An Oxymoron?, with Brother Michael McGuiness
Tuesday - 6:15-9:00 - Fundamentals of Journalism, TBA

Wednesday - 2:00-4:45 - American Autobiography as Literature, with Dr. Kling
Wednesday - 6:15-9:00 - Mideval Literature, with Dr. Harty

Off Thursday

Off Friday

Yay! 4-day weekends! To all my friends who I've kept repeating this schedule too, I apoligize. I'm just excited; I have a couple of really AWESOME courses with some of the best professors on the faculty, including the president of the school. And four day weekends are cool as well :)

Other than that...finally saw one of the early run throughs of the play on Sunday. It looks pretty good. Some decent performances coming out, and the whole concept seems to be coming together cohesively. We open soon...like 3 weeks. (!)

WHEN I'M WITH YOU -A

WHEN I'M WITH YOU
-A Simple Plan
listen here
I’m taking my time
I'm trying to leave the memories of you behind
I'm gonna be fine
As soon as I get your picture right out of my mind
I wanna feel the way you make me feel
When I'm with you
I wanna be the only hand
You need to hold on to
But every time I call
You don't have time
I guess I'll never get to call you mine
You’re nothing at all
I know there’s a million reasons why I shouldn't call
With nothing to say
Could easily make this conversation last all day
Another lesson I didn't get to learn
You’re my obsession
I've got nowhere to turn
I wanna be the one you hold on to

This is scary. Friday: Masque

This is scary.

Friday: Masque Inductions -

Went very well. I was pissed at the beginning of the night because we didn't do them the way they went last year (meeting at a townhouse, etc.) but, suprisingly, they held true to the form that was last year.

My kid, Jen (now Stevie Lightboard-san,) had a great costume, collected a whole bunch of signatures on the back of her card, and had a great time. *sniff* I get all teary-eyed now thinking about it all. The only "disappointment" was her "disappointment" at not "winning" musical chairs...especially when she informed us that she had "dressed up" especially for the event.

I'm now trying to get a full Masque family tree together; if anyone in the masque has a complete tree, let me know (or even big pieces!)...I found out that the current Dean of Students was inducted when he was here, and I want to find out how far this goes back.

So, Congrats to the newest members of the Masque family, the "class of 2002."

Saturday: Sugar Ray Concert

I arrived at 6:00AM, not knowing what to expect. I left, 22 hours later, at 4AM Sunday Morning, having had the time of my life: I was a roadie, a runner, and a Production Assistant for 22hours.

IT WAS ALL HEAVY LIFTING in the beginning. We had to erect the stage first, and then erect the lighting trusses. Then Sugar Ray's stuff would have to be loaded in. I lifted things I never knew I could lift. I built platforms that Mark McGrath would later dance and sing on. It was a lot of fun. The stage was HUGE, and each section was made up of a 4x8 platform held up on scaffolding. Each piece had to be placed on individually to make up a stage that was like 120ft by 40ft (I think...)

Then, around 2pm, I was roped into what I had originally volunteered to do - runner for the band. I was led to the production office (the football office in the Hayman Center) and told to stay there. This part sucked; all the cool stuff was happening upstairs: lights being unloaded, stage being preset, etc. But I sat. I met Terry, who I later found out to be the production manager, and Dave, who was the tour manager. Dave was cool; quiet, but funny. He mainly did paperwork and acted concerned for the band. My first impression of Terry was different: he seemed to be a pompous ass - it was later confirmed. He had to be, however, as he was the one who had to get the stuff done: if he had to act condescending to get people in the right places, he would do it: it was his job, and I fault him not for it...even if he tended to be kind of an ass.

My job as runner was explained to me: I was supposed to sit there in the office until I was told to run for something: it didn't matter what. The crew could ask me for burgers, and I had to go. The crew could ask me to go to the mall and buy a shirt, and if it was approved, I'd have to. I WAS VOLUNTEERING. I didn't want to get into this kind of commitment (although, it was kind of cool, in retrospect)...when I signed up for the job, I figured one run, and I could go back to load in...but I would up making 4 runs.

My first run wound up being for Luke, the lighting guy. He needed
computer disks. I told him I had a bunch in my room, and I ran and got 5. Easy run; and he promised to show me the lighting board (a WholeHog II, if that means anything to anyone - its pretty damn big, complicated, expensive, and SHINY)

Second run was more complicated: I needed to look for a dry cleaners that would take laundry, and also find a laundromat to do one of the crewmember's laundry. Boring, but I got to go with a pretty cool administrator from the Multicultral Center...I can't remember her name now :(

Third run was a big run, for the band "A Simple Plan". They needed:

• Wood Screws


• 24 Duracell Ultra 9V Batteries


• toothpicks


• wood glue


• 6 Mini DV Tapes

It took me quite a while to find everything - but met an AWESOME freshman named Aileen, who lives in Katherines. Among other things, she taught me the easy way to get on the Boulevard. We eventually found it all, brought it back, and got to relax and eat dinner.

Final run for the night was for "Needle Nose Vice Grips" for one of the bus drivers to fix the engine. Back to the Home Depot from earlier, and back just in time for the concert to start. Nice.

The concert was awesome! A Simple Plan, who opened for Sugar Ray, were great! They may have actually been better than Sugar Ray. They're from Montreal, Canada, and play pop-punk-emo music (think Blink/Dashboard/Alkaline)... You can get their first album, "No Pads, No Helmets...Just Balls," HERE.

Sugar Ray played well...all of their hits. Mark McGrath was exceptionally off-key in their first song, but it got better as they went on, and had the entire room shaking by the end. Very cool, and free.

We then struck the stage until 4am, and if I ever lay a hand on another platform, it will be too damn soon. Those things are heavy. Congrats to the other members of the 22 hour club: Josh, Matt, and others who I forget.

For my troubles, I got 2 t-shirts (a La Salle "STAFF" Shirt for the event, and a Sugar Ray "I was the Crew" shirt), 2 backstage passes (La Salle's for the venue, and a satin sticker "WORKING" one for Sugar Ray.) and 2 guitar picks from Sugar Ray (one says Stan and one says Morgan) that I found on stage. Pretty cool...

Let me repeat about how cool A Simple Plan is! They really rocked: I got to meet them, and they seemed to really enjoy Philly for the first time.

So thats my weekend. Pretty standard really. I passed my Film as Art midterm with an 83. First words out of the professor's mouth were "How the hell did you do so well on my midterm?" (I made it to about 4 of the 20 classes in the past 6 weeks.) My fear of failing it dropped; the 84 gives me a B for the course so far!

From the same professor, I had an A- on my treatment for my film. I'll post the treatment here someday, but it basically is about an escaped mental patient and a man who looks like Steve McQueen trying to get to Canada. "Wildy Inventive" say Ebert and Roper at the movies...

More tomorrow.

This amuses me to no end. Yay.

Congrats to the Masque inductees

Congrats to the Masque inductees of 2002...the Stevie Lightboard Name lives!

I have to be up for 6am tomorrow, so am going to bed now. Spring Concert is tomorrow (Begin RA Encouragement) Come on out! Sugar Ray! (End RA Encouragement)

Pictures from the inductions (those that I can share, anyhow) coming soon (I have them on my comp; just need to make a page and upload it/censor what shouldn't be there)

There's something wrong with this

There's something wrong with this picture. See if you can figure out what it is.

I needed to stare at it for a good minute before I got it...you probably will need to as well.

You are the classic

You are the classic yellow squeeky toy.

Find your inner rubber ducky.

Not much else for today.

At approximately 10:14am, while listening to a lecture on evolution, I realized that my film as art midterm was this week, and quite possibly was going to be at 2pm this afternoon. I freaked out, went back to my room at the end of the class, and studied for 2 hours.

It's tomorrow, Thank God.

But I haven't yet started studying for it yet...fancy that. Going there now.

Ok, back. I think I know everything there is to know about film. Ha ha. Did you know that a director can create unity in theme through Character, Ideas, Emotion, Plot and Style? And that "Citizen Kane" is the greatest movie ever made because it showed what could be done by the medium? Well, I do now.

Another link for the night, an old favorite of mine supposedly from a college writing class.

You're loyal to your

You're loyal to your friends and family. You try not to let people know when you don't like them, because you try you best to treat everyone equally. You're not a leader, you tend to follow orders and respect those who tell you what to do. You're smart and a quick thinker. You take life as its handed to you, and try to make the best of it. You're constantly surrounded by friends and family, and you're a respectable person.

Back to La Salle. The room seemed to be cleaner than I left it (thank God.) Made the 115 mile trip up I-95 in about an hour and a half - a new record for me - Thank You EZPass!

I got back to La Salle, relatively early today, and it felt cool to seem people moving back in again all around me: like a mini freshman move in day. Surprisingly, a couple of people still aren't back (or are doing a damn good job of hiding tonight )

Anyhow, the summary of break was like this: I didn't go into Baltimore City. I went into DC and took an awesome picture of the White House (well, awesome, because it looks pretty good for the quality of the camera that I have and the effort that went into taking the photograph. This is it, for your viewing pleasure:

Other stuff during break: Saw "Crossroads" (YES, I KNOW. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have. I won't do it again. I promise. Grounded? Two weeks? Awww!) with Lauren. We had a good time; we weren't able to Peanut it like we wanted, but it was a good time anyhow. It's depressing as anything though; nothing really goes the way its supposed to - the summer road trip goes horribly wrong. (It helped a little that I didn't have to pay for it, I guess, being home and all.)

Actually, now that I think about it, the movie was pretty darn annoying. Dan Aykroyd tries to pull off a southern accent, and fails miserably (not that his role depends tremendously on his dialogue: "It's all right honey, I forgive you...now we have to just get you back home, and everything will be all right.)

The other intensly annoying thing about the movie was the random intermixed subplots that didn't go anywhere: the character of Kit, played by Zoe Saldana (I looked it up!) has an entire "pre-movie-life" that doesn't get explored that somehow STILL shapes her entire life - of course the only lead-in to this that the audience gets is what she directly states to the camera. The same is true of all of the characters: their backstories aren't adequately explored enough for anyone but the pre-teen audience that this movie is aimed at to gain feelings for them on their cross-country, "life-changing" journey. And that is what the film is aiming to be.

Yeah, that and Britney & Company butcher "I Love Rock & Roll" in a karaoke contest...

Actually, y'know what? I hated this movie. Some moments were outright laughable - when Britney writes poetry on the journey, it turns out to be the lyrics to her new "hit" song "I'm Not a Girl (Not Yet A Woman)" (which leads to the amusement at the end of the credits when the musical selections are displayed and Britney hasn't even written the damn song!)

Wait...why am I spending so much time on this stupid movie? I have no idea...

Oh well, I have about 10 chapters of a book to read for class at 10am tomorrow, and have friends to find who are hiding in the woodwork.

What is your meaning of

What is your meaning of life?

I guess it's better than being an Ice Cube.

Spring break is finally looking up: I have plans to meet a friend in DC on Thursday in front of the Smithsonian. I'm excited: I love DC - just walking around, and being there seems to always be a good time. I haven't had a chance to talk with my friend in quite a while; and I'm looking forward to that as well.

Tomorrow, I'm planning to go down to the Inner Harbor and just kind of hang out and take pictures, all tourist like, maybe go over to Fell's Point and do the shops. Maybe catch an IMAX movie at the science center. You know. Hang out. Rad.

The quotation at the top of the page is a reference to a paper I once did for a High School english class. It wasn't a really good paper, and the teacher who ran the class, Brother Tom Bondra - a Christian Brother who didn't take crap from anyone, tore it apart. I think I wound up with a C-, but the greatest comment that I've ever recieved from a professor graced the last page of my paper: circled was my concluding paragraph (included just to fill space, I believe) with the sentence in red alongside it:

It is the most dead-on of any writing criticism that I've ever recieved. It is my plan to become famous one day, write my autobiography, and title it that. My production company will be called "All of this is so vague as to be meaningless" Productions. I'm not sure that I want it on my tombstone, but you never know.

Thats it for today. Can't wait for the Inner Harbor tomorrow.

-matt

Currently listening to: Bruce Springsteen Greatest Hits

Home sweet home. Home sweet

Home sweet home.

Home sweet boring home.

Home sweet boring upredictable home.

Home sweet boring unpredictable comfortable home.

Why am I not on some beach somewhere soaking up rays during spring break? I haven't quite figured that out. I came home instead to catch up: on rest, on reading, on schoolwork, and on writing. As a result: I am bored out of my mind, and it's only the second day of break.

I've been talking to people online about break and coming home, specifically about how I feel like I lead two lives: the one at school, where it's in my hands and under my control, and then this other life at home, that I have little control over. I kinda miss my old life: being with friends and such. After high school, my friends and I informally broke up: we all went to different schools. I went to La Salle, in Philly, which seperated me by distance: as a resuly, my friends and I don't talk much at all. This sucks, because when I'm home, I miss them.

I miss them.

Even at school, I miss 'em...we had some great times: like the time I was driving on the wrong side of the road because it was snowing and almost killed matt, derek and myself...or just working at Hoyts together was always a blast...or hanging out at the Loch Raven Reservoir...*sigh*

Yeah, it happens to most groups of people I realize upon graduation (oops, "commencement") from high school. But it sucks. Having moved twice (from Roselle, NJ to Millville, NJ, and then from Millville, NJ, to Baltimore, MD) cheated me out of any of those childhood-long best friendships.

Oh well, things should get better this week: hopefully will meet up with some people and do some stuff that will be interesting. (I'm leaving it open-ended so as not to bog it down with expectations.

So, if you're reading this, and are a member of my present or past, and want to hang out while I'm home, give me a holler.

The beginning of a long week...but it won't be long enough when I return next week to La Salle.

-matt

Currently listening to: Weezer (1994), by Weezer