DeMizio's Journal

More and more.

Yeah...so its been a long, been a long, been a long, been a long week.

Not much new. I am doing lighthing (DOH!) for "And Then There Were None..." Hooray for master electrician. High hopes for this one: a nice, simple, elegant light plot that beautifies the set. My hope is for a simple, easy to light set, that will allow less creativity and more opportunity to create a look that screams "damn, thats lit well."

Of course its Tom, and its Me, so who knows what the end result will be.

The new Collegian web site should go up tomorrow at some time at this address: http://www.lasalle.edu/students/orgs/collegian/

Its my design: relying on function more than flash and pizazz. I'm finding more and more in my life that thats what I'm looking for - less hype, and flash, and whoomp, and pretension, and more genunie humanity, beauty, simplicity. I like that direction - I tend not to be a dramatic person by nature, but am thrust into dramatic situations by my associations with others. Let the articles speak for themselves (or in the case of Young Playwrights, choosing the Dunleavy Room over the theater because of the spatial intimacy and lack of theatrical pretension present in the space: perhaps even a theater in the round setup? Bring people into the work, let the work speak for itself...simplicity, simplicity, simplicity.)

Life, is good. Rehire/No Rehire letters come out Friday for Community Development...I have no doubt that I'll be rehired. The question of where is answered in March. An annoying prospect depending on the decision and proximity to housing lottery.

I'm finding I actually have time to read for pleasure this semester. I'm working through another old Tom Clancy novel presenly (Patriot Games, I think...the title eludes me currently) and also simultanesouly, some of W. D. Ehrhart Vietnam works - he gave a presentation in the Honors program freshman year, and the biography is fascinating...accounts of his coming back and rejection of the war and life in the counterculture.

So thats about it. Life goes on, and on and on...

Surprise

"It's a great thing to realize you still have the ability to surprise yourself. Makes you wonder what else you can do that you've forgotten about..."

I auditioned for what I'm calling the first time in my life today - there were like 2 other times that I've done it, during elementary school, but I don't count them.

I surprised myself by just doing it. I didn't think that I would have the courage/balls/confidence to do it, but it went. 2 Monologues from "Ten Little Indians."

Apparently, I got called back - I haven't seen the list yet, but will confirm it tomorrow...

Even if I hadn't/didn't get called back, I'm still amazed I did it. Exctiting...techie to actor.

As Days go by...

A long week. A long COLD week.

Tuesday night was spent in WWW land...I'm working up an electronic version of the Collegian, and Wednesday was their first issue. It has a new site design (more functional, emphasis on content) and will eventually contain everything the print edition has (sans some small stuff that doesn't convert well to HTML.) I'm excited; its something that has been lacking on La Salle's site for a LONG time.

Wednesday was a tough day. 3 2 hour classes are tough. We watched "The Discrete Charm of the Bourgeoisie" in Film Criticism class - a film that just annoyed me. We're studying reality by watching films that bend and shape perceptions of reality. I felt like THE FILM WOULDN'T END.

Example story line: a rich couple hires the local Bishop to be their gardener - he just happens to come to their door looking for work. He, of course, is treated well, and is invited to ALL of their dinner parties (dinner parties are a recurring device...) So. One day, an old woman comes to the house looking for a priest, because a man is dying and needs Extreme Unction. The priest goes. When they arrive at the barn where the old man is dying, the lady stops to say, "I have something to tell you Father. I have always hated Jesus Christ." (out of nowhere, extremely strange moment #1.) The priest goes in, asking the woman to come back later and they can talk about her hatred. The old man confesses that he killed two people many years ago. The people he killed are the priest's parents. The priest forgives the man, then as he walks out, shoots him with a loaded shotgun that just happens to be sitting by the door. (strange moment #2)

Intersperse that with some weird dream sequences, the rich people walking down a road motif, and lots of wine, martinis, port, and other liquor and you have "Discrete Charm..."

So that soured all of Wednesday. Shakespeare felt like it wouldn't end. Gothic Lit just felt like every word Prof. Millard was going over my head.

Thursday was better; finally had class with Cronin again, and we watched another "surrealist" film in Film Criticism - "An Andalusian Dog"...this one too defies commentary, beginning with shots of a man sharpening an old razor, and then drawing it across the open eye of a young girl.

Le sigh.

Cronin offered three great quotes from class today, which I leave you with:

• "I'm not going to have a sex change to accomplish this goal."


• "The female carries my line. Proud time for a hominid."


• "I think it's important we scandalize the other people in this building, so please come dressed as artists..." (class is in College Hall; the school of Business Administration is located there, arguably the nicest and most affluent building on campus.

Another Quiz

What's your... (street) sign?
brought to you by Quizilla

Weekend

Saturday was quiet; spent most of the day sleeping in and then playing PlayStation into the night. Still trying to beat Grand Theft Auto 3...

Sunday I woke up at 8:30 to head to the Chirstning in north New Jersey. The trip went well - the Turnpike was empty, and I amazed myself by remembering how to navigate through NE Philadelphia to get to the PA Turnpike. Made it to my grandmother's at 10:30, had a bagel, met my aunt Lynne's boyfriend (who has done a lot of theater over the years, which was interesting...) and just kind of hung out until we left at 11:45.

We got to the church, St. Stanislaus (a little Polish church on the corner in an ethnic neighborhood, where my uncle and aunt had gotten married) during 12noon mass; the Christening was scheduled for one. My mother, and great aunts stood in the cold vestibule listening to the Mass...their cantor's voice was indescribable: not in a good way, but in this funny, nasal way that I just couldn't place and almost laughed at.

The baptism was beautifully done. A priest who has been close to my grandmother for a long time, Fr. Ed, did the service. Matthew (my cousin and now Godson) put on a couple of pounds since I had last seen him, and, amazingly, got a lot cuter. He did well, cooing and smiling through it all.

The reception went a lot better than I had hoped. I don't know my Aunt Laura's family very well, but was introduced all around. My Uncle's family, the side I'm related to, camped out on the porch in the back to watch the Eagles game. I left about 4:30 and got back to campus about 6:30.

I expected fires and riots when I made it back to campus; at the very least, I expected the dorms to be in disarray. However, Philadelphia handled the loss really well...sigh, it was so close before that 92-yard interception...

King's Dream was the best of the three years that I've been to. It started, of course, when I got word that the lights in the theater weren't working. I was up in the catwalks ten minutes before the keynote. The speaker was excellent and held our attention. The breakout sessions were good, but needed more time to get into more depth. I attended a really thought-provoking one presented by Dr. Oppliger about race relations in the media...we really needed more time for that one, we barely were able to discuss three brief sitcom clips. Dinner was fantastic, one of the best meals that La Salle could whip up.

I spent tonight reading for tomorrow, and getting psyched for the rest of the week. I'm trying to make it a goal to get to bed earlier than I did last semester, so thats where I'm heading now. Last night I made it until 11PM - tonight, I wasn't as lucky.

Mystery of Poe Toaster Continues...

I always knew...

I always knew that if I were around long enough that I would wind up the punchline at an Improv show...

Apparently it happened last night: apparently, because I wasn't there. I decided earlier, not having anyone to go down with, to stay back at the dorms and just have a quiet evening of playing Playstation and hanging out with whoever else stayed back. It was a good night; and interesting to hear about it when people got back...Anyone have a tape? (thanks, Julie, btw, for putting my name in.)

Anyhow, Friday went well. The Collegian meeting was good, although I didn't have a lot of answers to people's questions. It was a lot of my promising to do the best I can to get this new site online. The other editors seem optimistic; I'm optimistic as well, and hopefully we'll go live next week sometime.

Other than that, this weekend has been shaping up to be extremely quiet. I've slept a lot. Tomorrow I become Godfather for my cousin, Matt. It means a drive to north Jersey, but he's cute and it'll be a fun time, so its all worth it.

Film Criticism

I just read the first two articles for my film criticism class and I have no idea what they're talking about.

Something about neorealism, but beyond that...

and there's a quiz tomorrow.

Oh well.

Wednesday is my longest day - class from 11-1, 2-4:45, and 6:15-9:00. We watched one whole movie today ("The Bicycle Thieves,") bits of another ("The Crucible") and read the prologue to Shakespeare's "Taming of the Shrew." All of these classes are gonna be awesome: its another semester of incredible professors who know, but more importantly love, their subjects and love teaching them to students.

The community meeting went incredibly smoothly tonight, despite the lack of an icebreaker (saved for times sake; there wasn't enough floor diversity, that is, lots were absent, to make it worthwhile in my opinion.) We're going to try and get a trip going to see Conan O'Brien as a community - an awesome undertaking.

Other than that, just a busy Wednesday.

currently listening to: "Afternoons & Coffeespoons" - Crash Test Dummies.