Moon

Well, I just watched the film "Moon," and have some very mixed feelings about it, so I'm gonna write a review here. For those who don't know, Moon came out this year, stars Sam Rockwell and Kevin Spacey, and is the directoral debut of David Bowie's son, Duncan Jones. It tells the story of Sam Bell, the lone resident of a lunar mining colony who is finishing up his 3 year contract. After 3 years of complete isolation from humanity, Sam begins hallucinating and has an accident while gathering samples to send back to Earth.

It's very difficult to not give spoilers, but I'll try. The reason for my difficulty assessing Moon is that its greatest strength is also its greatest weakness: Moon quotes nearly every great scifi film ever made. Alien, Blade Runner, and 2001 resonate strongly throughout this film, which is the mark of an intelligent and tasteful filmmaker. However, the plot delves into the same questions that were asked by Blade Runner 27 years ago, but does not shed any new light on where we have progressed since then. The beginning and middle of the film are masterfully crafted; it subtly creates tension (thanks largely to the unbelievable job that Sam Rockwell does in this film, I never knew he could act so well) and is intriguing. However, once the cat is out of the bag and the big "twist" is revealed, the film just trudges along in a predictable path to its conclusion. The film does feature a different take on the interaction between man and AI within the film; I think this is one of the few times in film history that the computer isn't the bad guy. The cinematography is gorgeous and the music is by Clint Mansell (Requiem for a Dream, The Fountain).

So, do I recommend the film? Absolutely. I'm definitely too picky about my scifi, but at the same time the conclusion of the film felt very empty. The questions that the film raises are not only left unanswered, they are unacknowledged. I don't mind when a film raises questions and in the end they can't be answered, but Moon's plot diverges from those issues and does not address them. The deeper issues are lost; at the conclusion the plot controls the film rather than the themes, and this diverged from the feel of the beginning and the middle. All in all, 4 out of 5 stars, and I'm looking forward to the next film from this director.

Just what the world needs right now

Whenever I don't want to do work, I watch movie trailers. Boy oh boy did I find a movie trailer this time. The movie is called Bitch Slap. After watching the trailer I have no idea what the movie is about. All I know is, I want to watch it.

I would like to point out a few parts of Apple's summary.
a) one of them might not be human
b) the movie runs backwards, like Memento
c) "the fate of the world hangs in the balance"

What kind of movie is this!? It comes out January 8 and I insist that the Men's team sees this.

A Dowist Perspective

So the term is over and for a few of us (sorry non-Carleton folks), winter break has started.

First, a few updates:

I think where I left off last was when the men’s team Tasted the Rainbow on Halloween. I said I was gonna write a whole post on it. But now I feel as if too late. I could probably write a whole novel on the night, although not from my perspective, which is missing completely… I’ll just say this: We started at 8 and I don’t remember anything after 9:45pm. 12 shots in an hour and a half is NOT a good idea, but hell I knew what I was getting into. We went through the rainbow, then did primary colors, then did our favorites. Allegedly, people were trying to make me drink water as early as 10:30 and I was two people I don’t know tried to take me home and put me to bed. I also know that I woke up at 5am in Davis 304 (Sjoberg’s current room) not knowing where I was, how I got there, or what was going on. I also felt great. But that is because of the massive purging that occurred around midnight…

So clearly the rainbow was a success.

On the last day of classes we had a flippy cup swim party at Dow. It started out with just the swim team, and then a jewgressive when through my house because of one of my housemates (the swimmers challenged them to a few rounds of flippy cup), and then all hell broke loose. The place blew up. It reminded me of that one party we had in the winter of last year in Stadium when the hall director came. Not only was it packed to the brink insider, there were probably about 100 people outside. The RAs kept wandering outside asking people, “Does anyone know who lives here?!” And supposedly the hall director came and was ignored by everyone she talked to. Security eventually came at 12:47 exactly and shut it all down. If you want to hear really funny stories, talk to Alfredo about this evening - you won't be disappointed.

Finals came and went. They sucked. Much of my time was spent on papers. But to give myself a pick me up in the middle of writing them, I would watch the video that Nonberg acted in for his friend’s project. Nonberg, your zombie walk made me laugh out loud so hard that some girl in the library asked me to keep it down or move to the 4^th floor. I recommend everyone watches it. It was so good that Mia and I thought we’d send it to btin.

Overall, I’d say this was my worst term at Carleton. But I won’t bore you about that. It mostly was because of my classes - very hard they were. But I think the fact that I had the best term of my life in the spring made this one seem worse than it really was. I do think that the living situation played a part as well. Living with swimmers is just so much easier. I think its the fact that everyone is on the same page and all. I’m very much looking forward to the break though, which is going to be much different than winter breaks past, mostly because of the difference in the training trip.

For those of you that don’t know, the team is doing something different in terms of winter break training this year.

Starting Monday of next week, the whole team (I think except for one or two people) is meeting back at Carleton to train. We are going to train twice a day for a week. Practices are 8-10 or 10-12 and 2-4 or 4-6. Morning practices are lift/swim (four days a week for sprinter and 2 days a week for distance) or all swim, and the swim is mostly technique based (filming, experimental stuff, etc). Afternoons are, as Andy put it to me one day when we were teaching SwimFit, “We are really gonna hammer you guys.”

OH! And practices are all gendered, which will be a fairly new experience for the team. It should be fun, since we don’t get that opportunity much during the normal season. But it also will be weird because we probably won’t see the women’s team during meals either, because we are cooking our own meals in the floor kitchens (because Bone Ape Tit isn’t open during the break).

So yeah, we are cooking our own meals. And because our room/board over the Northfield part of the training trip is covered by some fund from the Athletic Dept, we don’t have to pay for our food. The original plan was to have us buy all of our food and then give the business office receipts. Turns out, they are just gonna put the money ($22 a day!!!) directly in our checking accounts. And if we don’t spend it all, we get to keep it… Obviously, this part is awesome because I’m a thrifty/stingy asshole. We had a good chuckle about how if Jared was here, he’d be eating PB sandwhiches for the whole trip.

We also are going to go a Macalester Invite on the 5^th of Dec, which I’m glad about, because I have not been doing so well at meets this year and I want another opportunity before January.

Then we head to Puerto Rico! Group flight, which should be awesomely chaotic. In PR, we are practicing from 6-8 and then 3-5 and we gotta drive to the pool. The hotel we are staying at is a different one from when the team went before. This one doesn’t have kitchenetts – only a microwave and a minifridge (which should be interesting). But we do get like an amazing continental breakfast (with like omelets and stuff).

Then we all head back to campus and train like hell for 3 or 4 days until the 18^th, when we all go home for the rest of the break. Andy said those three days are gonna be the hardest of the whole time.

Should be a pretty cool time!

We’ll that’s all I really gotta say. I’ll leave ya with this.

Fall Term: A Reflection

Holy shit, I haven't posted in forever. I've sat down to start to write several times, but most of those times I was a little closer to Pluto than I should have been and ended up just listening to music and playing Mario Kart.
This is the laziest term I've ever had, and quite frankly I can't repeat it. I've set a new standard of laziness for myself, but at the same time I very much enjoyed Fall 2009. The defining factor of this term was Hill House. Although my Hill House triple cannot compare to the size and epicness of Stadium 110, Hill House as a whole has proven to be as historical and adventure-worthy as Stadium. Filled with winding staircases, hidden closets, ping pong tables, abandoned drum sets, and the ghetto Cave of Wonders (the room that controls who gets cable tv and internet), we took full advantage of every aspect of Hill House. Beer pong in the basement is perhaps my fondest memory, even though one night we were shut down at 11 and I cussed out the RA (oops). However, said RA was not the Hill House RA, who is by far the coolest RA I have ever had ("You guys shouldn't smoke on the porch. But if you do smoke on the porch, smoke on the right side"). The 3rd floor fire escape was also an oft-visited location, typically by Granger and I. Hill House has one of the best groups of people anywhere at Carleton. While Andrew, Ken, and I are the people you probably know, the presence of Granger, Aaron, Darian, and Sam made "quiet" nights in Hill House fairly raucous.
In Stadium, much of our time was dominated by COD4, Little Big Planet, and TA. This year, our room has a Wii, and we play Mario Kart nearly constantly (I'm the best). We also play lots of Laser Hockey (which some of you experienced during Alumni Weekend). I beat Metroid Prime 3 in the first 2 weeks, and I've been working on beating Resident Evil 4 for the last few weeks.
In terms of music, I've been listening to a lot of new stuff that I'm pretty confident you guys will enjoy. On the electronic scene, I've been listening to Crystal Castles, The Knife, Digitalism, Nosaj Thing, and of course, lots of Aphex Twin. I've found a lot of good hip hop in the past months, and would suggest that you all check out Buck 65, a Canadian artist who has been called the Tom Waits of hip hop (intrigued yet?). Get his album, "This Right Here is Buck 65" first because it's a good intro, mostly because his early albums sound like they were recorded in a basement... which they were. Also, check out the new Tech N9ne album, K.O.D., because it's awesome (Tech featuring Three 6 Mafia and rapping backwards=awesome). I've really gotten into Brother Ali recently as well, plus Cunninlynguists and Sage Francis. I saw Atmosphere live in Wichita over the summer, which was disappointingly uncrowded but one of the best shows I've ever been to. Minneapolis has the best hip hop scene of any city in the US. Period.
The main sad news from this term is the passing of Beelzebub, aka Mephistopheles. He was an excellent companion, be it morning, afternoon, or night, Monday or Sunday, and it didn't matter if it was just him and me or if there was a big group of people. Beelzebub was loved by all who knew him, and will be sorely missed. One day a new companion will be found, and it is my hope that you will all meet him someday.
So now I'm living in Davis 104 with Mering, KEG, and 2 international students over break. We dragged the TV and Wii with us, so Andrew is playing Mario Kart while I'm writing. We cooked brats outside and had some brews, so all in all this "Thanksgiving at Carleton" thing is going pretty well.
Nonberg, Elliot, Ted, Tim, and Toto: I miss you guys a lot. This place just isn't the same without you, and I've enjoyed reading your post-grad posts. I haven't been doing my job to keep the blog alive, but I'm going to try harder.

Rick Frazel: Fall From Grace

You guys voted for it, so I'm going to make it....well a trailer that is. With winter break coming up I think I may be able to whip something up. Should be fun

Also,

Let me leave you with this. Above is a picture of our rainbow night with none other than soco. Yeah that's right, Southern Comfort. We not only tasted the rainbow, we expanded the color spectrum.

I've been moved to write.

It's been a while since I last wrote. I wish I could say that I've been extremely busy and unable to find the minutes to do a quick blog post, but in reality that's just not true. I'd be lying to you... and I wouldn't lie to my friends.

Anyway, what's moved me to write this post is the latest story involving Chad Ochocinco, the Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver. Beloved Chad was fined $20,000 by the NFL for jokingly flashing a one dollar bill at a referee when a play that involved Chad himself was being reviewed. Clearly, the idea of the stunt was to pretend to bribe the official. Also, rather clearly, he was kidding.

I recognize the sanctity of sports, and their rules, and all that. I also realize that gambling, betting, bribing, etc should not be tolerated by the NFL or any other professional sports league because of the obvious implications. But let's be honest here, the guy was very clearly joking. The league hates him - he's been fined for plenty of other things before. But he's just a dude that wants to have fun, and all of his previous stunts (and there have been many) are all in an attempt to lighten things up a little bit. I mean really, the man officially changed his last name to "Ochocinco".

In other news, I'm finally up in Minneapolis in my new digs. Through a stroke of luck I got a fully furnished one bedroom apartment in the southern part of Uptown for pretty cheap. I'd put up pics but I can't find the cable for my camera. So anyway, I'm living by myself and trying to find a job. The job search hasn't been the most fruitful but I've been keeping myself entertained. I usually run by Lake Calhoun each afternoon and every time I do I realize that despite being funemployed I really do enjoy this city because that lake is gorgeous.

Beyond running, I've been playing a lot of Bouncing Balls on Facebook, going to a local coffee shop, etc. I've chilled with Liz and Caitlin and Anna some - Liz and her housemates had a party last night from which I now sit here recovering (don't dangle your prepositions). We spent the whole night playing Cornhole/Bags in the basement - pretty good fun.

Since I lack a job, I'm headed home from Nov. 25 until Jan. 5 (yes, I doing winter break and I no longer go to Carleton). This is an attempt to preserve both finances and sanity. While I've been decently entertained and not too bored, sitting in my apartment in December without a job and no real prospects (since nobody hires in December) is not my idea of fun. If any of you east coasters want to find a cheap way to chill during this period, I'd be up for it.

That's all folks.

Maddie the Baby doesn't want a public option

Congressmen Shadegg (R-AZ 3rd) brings his staffer's baby onto the House floor to tell the Congress what she thinks about health care reform. She has an incredibly precocious, well-formed opinion.



Is it just me or is she actually trying to keep congressman Shadegg from speaking into the microphone?

I wonder how she'll feel fifteen years from now when she learns she debated health care on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives when she was 7 months old. I think I'd feel a little bit humbled and incredibly weirded out.

Taste The Rainbow: The Story

The biggest problem I have had with film school is that I don't get to write a lot, or for that matter read very much. So please excuse me if my writing seems sub-par.


When I got the text that said: "FYI Gentleman. Some of us are tasting the rainbow this weekend.", I could not help but question how many of those people participating actually knew the true history of Tasting the Rainbow. Well, that is what I am about to relate to you.

The origins of the rainbow date back in 2005 at the start of "The Flock's" freshman year. With no one of legal age to purchase alcohol for us, Tim, Elliot, Ted, and myself were forced to ask upon Will aka "The Shepard" to buy for us. With no idea what we liked we decided to try out everything. We had a "we have gold in our bodies" evening consisting of gold schlager and cider; a rum evening, and a couple other failed experiments. Then one evening, as if receiving a signal from a higher power, we decided as a group to get two flavors of Schmirnoff Vodka; our choice, one citrus and one orange. We never looked back, and for that matter probably generated enough revenue for Firehouse workers to put six kids through college.

The first time the nectar hit our lips we knew we had found something great. Vodka that you could mix with almost anything and it would taste good. So, what to do with our new found discovery? At first we played with the basics like mixing the flavored vodka with soda, juice, etc..then we got creative. Strawberry Sunday toppings fanta with lemonade powder, you name it, we mixed it.

Every weekend not only brought a chance for us to try new flavors, but make new drinks as well. Eventually, our flavored vodka palette seemed to have reached a climax. Over the next three years what began as two bottles a weekend slowly trickled to virtually no bottles. Many of us took a respite from the flavorful sensations we once championed.

Then in true Stadium 110 fashion, an older "Flock" decided to push the limits. As we all sat around our obnoxiously big living room the old gang decided to reminisce about the good old days. I remember Tim saying "Man when we were freshman we used to drink two bottles a weekend". All of a sudden, all our heads seemed to think as one. Why not buy as many flavors as possible and have one last hurrah to the liquor that had once made our nights magical. Thus, the first taste the rainbow was born.

That faithful night as the entire flock and some new members sat around the table in our Zubaz we knew we were about to embark upon a special journey. 20 minutes into the adventure, I, as was in my typical fashion, sneaked away to make room for the other flavors. As the rainbow began to fade, we knew we had to share our adventure with the world. As we "journeyed" from Stadium to the swim town house, the 7 or 8 of us knew we had accomplished more in that hour than most people achieved their whole time in college.

I don't need to go into details about the rest of the evening; mostly because I don't remember much of what happened. What I do know is we made that party better, we made Carleton better, we made Stadium 110 brighter in the constellation of great landmarks on campus, we started what will soon become a grand tradition.

My biggest problem with the real world...or at least DC

When I graduated from college, I assumed my heavy partying days were over. I am happy to admit that I was wrong. However, going out is a completely different experience.

The first time I drank with the graduate students was at Maryland's Oktoberfest. What a day. We got there at around 1pm and left at 8:30pm. It was for sure a day that rivaled Rotblatt...and maybe even spring concert(That is Nick Gazel and Will Kruesi passed out my freshman year). Upon entering the festival, which takes place on Maryland's fairgrounds near Baltimore, you are given 10 chips. Each chip corresponds to a small beer. Additional chips are a buck apiece. I was for sure expecting a mug that could hold a pint, but I figured I could manage.
The best part about this place was that every beer I drank was way better than PBR and bud light. And they were all about 9%+. There was one beer that was 21%! It was ridiculous. So as the day progressed, everyone got pretty drunk. The live music they had playing was called "The Reagan Years" and they played all the best songs from the 80's. It totally brought me back to freshman year and our endless playing of Journey and Duran Duran. I was happy.
Throughout the day, there were several contests. The first one was the biggest beer belly contest. It was funny, but kind of sad. It wasn't sad because it was encouraging obesity. It was sad because there were really really attractive women dressed up in slutty outfits that had to act like they wanted to sleep with the contestants.

Guess what, that guy is the contest winner. His belly was very round. Other contests they had were the "carry your wife contest" where the winner won his wife's weight in beer and the Miss Oktoberfest contest. Let me expand on the latter. Winning this contest would not be a good thing. Though I suppose it does parallel girls dressing up slutty for halloween. Anyway, the winner was determined by who could eat a German sausage sexiest. WTF. No one managed to deepthroat the sausage, and every woman ended up taking a bite out of it, which of course ruined any chance of me enjoying it. One girl did eat it out of another girls top though. By the way, every time I write "girl" I mean middle aged woman. Overall, the day was awesome.

I realize that I haven't gotten to the bulk of this post, namely, my biggest problem with the real world. The above story had nothing to do with it. My biggest problem is going into DC. I live right by the metro station, so I can easily invite people over to my place, pregame a bit, and then walk to the metro. It takes me about 30 minutes to get into the city. BUT, there is still a big problem with life after college. At Carleton, we loved getting drunk at around 8:30 and going out at 9:30...that is, if the party didn't come to us. I have found that in the real world, you don't really want to be at a bar when people are sober. Thus, I end up arriving in DC at around 11pm and leaving at 3am, which is when the last train leaves DC. I get back to my house at 3:30am. So that's my biggest problem...which isn't all that bad. I definitely like living close to a big city, especially when that city is DC and there are lots of young people. On Halloween, I went to bed at 6am. What a night.
Now that I've mentioned going to the bar, let me give Mark, Alfie, and BK something to which they can look forward. Whenever we went to the bar at Carleton, we went with our friends and only talked to people we knew. Completely different story now. Especially when I go out with my friends from high school who are always ALWAYS looking to get laid. Good for them though, right? When I go out with them, the night isn't fun until they're talking to girls. Which brings me to another point I would like to make about life outside the bubble. Girls outside the bubble don't consider guys that hit on them to be creepy or sketchy. It's so...normal! On occasion, girls try to pick up me and my friends! That part is a little strange. The pick up tends to go like this:

Girl: (bumps into Me) Oops, sorry, did I spill your drink?
Me: Whoa! Oh, no, that was close though.
Girl: I'm Angela and this is my friend Sarah.

Damn they're smooth! I'm still with Liz and all (she is actually coming to see me tomorrow), but I do enjoy the conversation.

Well, there's nothing else I can think to write right now. Life is awesome out here. Everyone should live in DC. Actually I thought of something. A few weeks ago I saw Kevin Nealon and Russell Peters perform live at Maryland. The ticket costs me $5. It was hilarious.

On a musical note, you all should check out Lil' Wayne's newest mixtape "No Ceilings." You can easily download it off the internet. Lil Wayne basically takes the music from rap songs that really suck but have a good beat (like wasted and ice cream paintjob).
Also, I heard a band the other day called M83. Now, I'm sure Ted has already heard of them, but they're pretty good. Definitely no Passion Pit, but still good. I recommend "Kim and Jessie" and "We own the Sky."

Do You Guys Still Organize Your Life By Weeks? or WTF: It's 8th week

Well I think its time for a good ol Carleton update.

Let's start with one of our most common threads: swimming. Bottom line - its goin well. We are well into our 2nd three-week cycle. So its been a bit more intense, except for Halloween practice, which made me miss the class of 2009 quite a bit. We turned in our forms for winter housing last week, which made me realize how close winter break really is. We are on campus from November 29th to the 7th of December then off to Puerto Rico for a week and then again for about 4 days. Pete is already planning some pranks that he wants to pull on the basketball team. And Joe is planning the party we are gonna have the last night. Are any of you gonna be in the area?

Most of the freshmen boys have acclimated well. Some of them are still a little awkward/shy, but I think its just their personality. We got one with humor similar to Casey, a few hardscore partiers (for their grade), a spacecase/"baller", and some funny dudes. They good people. Its kind of weird because it makes me think of when some of you guys were Juniors and I was a Freshman. And then also when you guys were freshman and Free-Ho and Will were Juniors. I think the college social system is prone to Juniors being more willing to better befriend freshman as opposed to sophomores and freshman. But its just a hypothesis.

So Dan Deacon came to campus this past Thursday. I actually started exploring his stuff a few weeks ago and I like it for the most part. But I like most electronic/techno stuff. I'm not as good as talking about music as Ted, Tim and Bk are. But I know what I like. I didn't stay long because of morning practice, but I'm glad I went because he is a really good performer. He likes to get the whole audience involved, which I always appreciate as a concert goer. Plus he's a legit name (a rarity for Carleton). I will, however, admit that I was kinda annoyed with some of the audience members. There are quite a bit of pretentious muisc snobs are Carleton.

So H1N1 has hit Carleton by storm. I remeber last year joking about it a bit, but it's kind of crazy how its affecting our year. Professors are more lenient about attendence and students now have a better excuse to feed professors when telling them why they aren't gonna go to class. One of my professors is pretty paranoid because she doesn't want her kids getting sick. And actually Andy is pretty crazy about it too. He frequently reminds us to wash our hands and he has been telling us to shun members of the team who are sick and to stay as far away from them as possible. He got sick this week though with like a fever of 104! As far as numbers go, According to Carleton's H1N1 Influenza Website,

"Simply put, the College is experiencing nearly double the amount in the number of reported influenza-like illnesses (ILIs) this week compared to last. So far, we’ve had 114 new cases reported this week alone, compared to 65 cases reported last week."

When it gets cold out, its going to be even worse... Winter is gonna be crazy in terms of sickness.

Last night we also tasted the rainbow... but I'm too lazy right now, so I'll update on that later.