Dos mil seis. Pensamientos y Recuerdos

So here we are. Five months from the real world and at the brink of the beginning of a new year. I always think about time during the new year and how I don't really feel any different at 12:01am on a new year than I did at 11:59pm of the year before. But oh wells. Here's the greats:

Concerts:

1. Madonna, Confessions Tour: Bitch appeared from within a diamond encrusted disco ball and went on to throw the greatest disco party I've ever witnessed. Because you know...I frequent them.
2. Justin Timberlake, FutureSex Club Tour: HMA [that's Hottest Man Alive], destroyed Avalon with his new album and killer moves. Seeing a warehouse full of 20-somethings chanting "Cry Me a River" has never been so amazing.
3. Regina Spektor, Fidelity Tour: Cute, funny, and surprisingly foul-mouthed and melancholic, Regina made the whole crowd fall in love with her, and that moment came for me when she busted out the disco ball during "Us".
4. Shakira, Oral Fixation Tour: I was afraid that Shaki would sing mostly in English, but this 2 1/2 hour show was heavy on the latin, soft on the anglo; and for that I was thankful. A simple show that dazzled simply with the music and the fans' passionate love for this amazing woman. There were a million great moments, but I'd have to say it was a toss up between "Inevitable" and "Hips Don't Lie."
5. The Killers, Sam's Town tour: The funny mustachioed moment of zen: Brandon Flowers leading the army at his feet in the "I got soul but I'm not a soldier" chant. Brilliant.
6. Rufus Wainwright at Carnegie Hall: Gayest affair ever. But oh so worth it.
   

Best of the Rest:

• Saegloppur [sp?] during Sigur ros
• Dear Mr. President during Pink
• Stormy Weather @ Carnegie Hall, Martha Wainwright
• We are all in this together during Ben Lee
• What goes around comes around during Justin
• Laura during Scissor Sisters
• Accidental Babies during Damien Rice

Films:

1. Volver: Best film I've seen all year in a really crappy year for movies. But this was not my fav. by default. Its Almodovar, telling a simple, colorful story with such power and confidence that blooms through every frame of his camera
2. V for Vendetta: Visually, it was beautiful. Storywise, it was complicated yet thought-provoking. This felt like an apology for the crapfest that were the Matrix sequels. Apology accepted.
3. Little Miss Sunshine: This crowd-pleaser s so good that it still managed to be amazing even when I took Liam to an almost empty theater in NYC to watch it.
4. 2001, A Space Odyssey: So sew me I had never seen it until now. I still fucking loved it.
   
5. Borat: Naked wrestling has never been so horrifying. Yet it's great that it took sharp-eyed British comedian to show Americans some truths we 'foreigners' have known since forever.
6. The Queen: Possibly the funniest movie i saw this year. Can't really explain why.
7. Shortbus: Sex doesn't always need to lead to death, and this film finally showed that.
8. Dave Chappelle's Block Party: Seeing Erykah Badu's fro getting blown away by unstoppable winds as never misses a beat was special enough, but seeing Mr. Chappelle talking to people and being his crazy self was even better.
   
9. I still need to see a few that I think might have made my list. Dreamgirls, Pan's Labyrinth, The Good German, The Departed, etc. I saw barely any movies this year.
   

Biggest Disappointment: Pirates of the Caribbean 2. Ugh...just...ugh.

Fav. Music of the year:

1. FutureSex/LoveSounds -> I can't stop listening to this CD. All the small interludes that follow a few songs border on transendental.
2. Begin to Hope -> Regina Spektor is so cute and so catchy and so honest and funny.
   
3. Crosses -> Jose Gonzales was my fav. discovery. Just listen to Heartbeats once. Just once.
4. He Poos Clouds -> I love him because he references the Legend of Zelda.
5. 9 -> Damien Rice bests O
6. I also discovered Joni Mitchell, Nina Simone, and Jeff Buckley. And now I wish I could go back in time and pretend I've known them my whole life.

Favorite TV of the Year:
Two thousand six was probably one of the greatest TV years that I can remember. So many quality shows pretty much sealed my future desires. And it doesn't stop now as I am watching right now the pilot for Heroes, late, but whatever, that's how I roll.

• 24, Day 5: Bauer's best day by far. Also the saddest, as Edgar's death warranted the silent beep-dong. I CANNOT wait for season 6, as 24 is probably the best party show ever created.
• LOST: from Ana Lucia's and Libby's shocking, SHOCKING deaths, to the fucking amazing season finale, this show keeps getting better and better. No matter what some stupid people who criticize its slow pace say.
• Scrubs: I have never felt more in tune or related more closely to the themes, characters, storylines and moments of a show more than Scrubs. Go figure, but it's true. I could watch the DVDs for days on end. This season was just as good as the rest, and I was increadibly happy to learn it wasn't the last.
• Grey's Anatomy: I started watching this show the day after the famous SuperBowl Ep. A day later I bought Season 1 at Best Buy. Another two days later I was hooked. Not a perfect show, but for one, it has made me cry more than once, and they fucking killed off the annoying Denny. And Sandra Oh kicks all kinds of ass.
• Nip/Tuck: Season 2 was absolutely amazing. Season 3 was a one note train wreck that held me in but felt bland once it was over. Season 4 was a return to what made the show great, the Troy/McNamara relations.
  
• The Office: Better, MUCH better than the British version in my opinion, as the US version has been given a chance to grow and spread its wings with more developed and interesting ensemble cast of characters. As nice as the Pam and Jim thing is, I look forward to learning more of Dwight and "monkey".
• Ugly Betty: Not better than the original, but still absolutely over the top fantastic. And gay Justin needs more screentime.

And finally the absolutely best show on television:

• Battlestar Galactica: No other show has gotten as good as this with each episode. From the awesome "Downloaded", to the greatest season finale i have ever seen on a serialized one hour show, BG had the guts to jump one year in time, and then develop and examine the circumstances of such a feat. I love Science Fiction as much as the next guy, but usually it's a big screen affair. Not so with this show. The moment when the Battlestar dropped into Caprica's atmosphere then warped back might have been the most exhilirating moment on TV during all of 2006.
  

Greatest moments o' '06:

• Wiiiiii! -> I got a Wii, and so far everyone who touches it falls in love with the quirky games and new style of gaming. Plus I got Tasia to play videogames. And she hates videogames. And my mom pwned me at Wii Sports.
• Twin Peaks -> I fell in looove with San Fran, and the best moment came watching the sun set by Twin Peaks, overlooking the entire Bay Area. Minutes later, it hailed. I kid you not. Of course now Liam and I are going to San Fran together after graduation. I cannot wait.
• July 6th 2006 -> Let's see: My sister was in Boston visiting me. Liam came back after 6 months apart. Madonna rocked our worlds. Pretty great day. The next day i bought a Mac.
• Macbook Pro -> Windows who.
• Turning 21 -> Huge house party with some awesome friends. Followed by a whole week of being drunk. Good thing I've stopped doing that.
• Spring Break with Danny -> first person I ever met at BU and we've already spent two spring breaks together. He'll be writing the movie I'll be making about our trip to Cali.
• The Vegas -> It was a hectic week with my family, but I got to see the Beatles LOVE show which was simply astouding.
• Rhinoceros -> everything about that experience with Liam was pretty interesting, and the final product was pretty worth it too.
• Ayy there's so much. 2006 was pretty fucking great i have to say. It had its ups and its downs but in all honesty what year doesn't? I'm sure 2007 will be just as interesting
  

Volvi

DO NOT WATCH IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN 'VOLVER'!!!!

This was one of the best moments in Almodovar's new, rather low-key but still fantastic film, Volver. Everyone has said it's amazing and yea it really is. Not in the "Todo Sobre mi Madre" crazy story amazing, or "Mala Educacion" crazy noir fantastic, but in its own, demure, beautfiul characterization of women and the superstitions that surround both life and death in a small community. Penelope Cruz does a wonderful job crying her way through the whole thing, but it works, and finally people will be able to see her as the true actress that she is, and not the ditzy hot latina that appeared in Vanilla Sky. Here we get the Penelope from "...Mother" and "La Celestina", the secret weapon most of Latin America has been privy to for more than 10 years. Anyways, please go see this film, and if you don't like it immediately, give it time, as its images and themes will linger in your head for days.

Wiiiiiiiiiiiiii

And so my Wii, WiiO was born, on Nov. 27th, 2006.

After following the rumors online, I drove 45 minutes out to Harrisburg, PA in hopes of scoring a Wii. There was already a line when I got there at 8:30am, so I grabbed Electra, and sat down next to the nerds. Actually, there were much fewer nerds than I thought there would be. In front of me was an elderly woman who was there for HER HUSBAND! Not her son! Her husband was going to some football game so she was braving the cold for his Wii. Ah what someone will do for his/her man's Wii. In front of her was a woman making the line for her friend! And she was elderly too! Man people are nice!
In front of both these lovely women were the true geeks. They had all these stats about how many Wiis Best Buy had and shit. Noone belived them.
The line in front of me.The line behind me.

After half an hour and and thirty pages of Electra, a lovely Best Buy manager walked out to greet those in line. Behind him, another Best Buy guy...this one in a blue shirt carrying some sort of banner. He placed it on the ground next to the line. It read:
"We have 41 Wiis this morning"
Wii indeed! And the nerds were right! And only an hour more to go!The Best Buy peeps.

Well to make this long story short: Waited for an hour, finished Electra, was #15 in line, got a Wii, an SD card, no extra controller, drove home. I didn't open it because I was leaving PA and wanted to wait to be in Boston, but once I did, oh man!

The Wii is freaking great. A lot of my friends have stopped by to make a Mii... And Zelda might be the greatest game ever made. I'm only 15 hours in, but at hour 10, the thing blew my mind unlike a game has in recent memory....maybe Half Life 2 come close.

And now: Bob playing Wii




Tomorrow, he and Liz are trying to score one, as I try to find another remote for some multiplayer Wii Sports.

Wii Fun.....NOT!

Yup. Sold out everywhere. Now I'm just tired.

Wiivolution

There are around 50 people camped out at Best Buy right now. I'm not camping out. I can't bring myself to do it. So tomorrow morning, Bob and I will cab it to the suburbs to try and score a pair of Wii's and Zeldas. Will we make it? I dunno. There's a total of 120 Wiis in two stores, and we're banking on the suburbs not being as hardcore as the city kids. We'll see.

Historia tras... "burbujas de amor"

burbujas de amor
Originally uploaded by Oscalito.

I found this in Las Vegas, this summer when I was visiting with my Family. If I remember correctly, this is in the ceiling of the main lobby in The Mirage, one of my favorite hotels [if only for the spectacular Beatles LOVE Cirque du Soleil Show]. It is a massive collection of colorful blown glass hanging from the ceiling like a beautiful coral inviting you into the sea. To me it looks like the lovechild of a coral and a jellyfish colony. Thoughts?

Historia tras... "abandón"

abandón, originally uploaded by Oscalito.

After a call from Liam, telling me to go outside and look at the sunset, I grabbed my camera and went to see what I could capture from the sidewalk. Unfortunately, not much.

Disappointed, I turned back into the Pretoria courtyard, and noticed the nice, subtle lighting coming in and hitting the bike rack. I snapped a few pics, but nothing was really good.

That was until I turned around and found this abandoned cycle, scraping the ground with its last glimmers of life. Fall? Death? Abandonment?
I don't know what I saw, but I liked it.

I had a lot of trouble cropping it. as I wanted to focus on the pedals and the clash with the ground, but wanted to highlight that everything else seemed to be in pristine collection. I decided to upload this version because after evaluating them all, this was the one that appealed to me the most.

I dunno, thoughts?

De Dior

Classy.

This sort of short form production is the type I want to be involved with in the future. Beautiful, sexy, eye-catching, seductive; Nina Simone's words caress Charlize just like those golden silk sheets do. I would watch this for hours.

Historia tras... "Gotas"

Gotas, originally uploaded by Oscalito.

Oh the joys of a fast shutter and an external flash unit. Out of pure curiosity, I attached my brand spanking new Sigma EF-500 DG ST to my trusty Canon Rebel XT and went scouring through my kitchen for some subjects. Remembering a little snippet of Prof. Southwick's discussion on flash photography, I decided to give stop motion a try. With a pitcher full of coke [cola - the soft drink, not Cocaine, the crazy new power drink] I began pouring and clicking. Liam helped out for sure, and in a few minutes this beauty had been exposed. A little work on Aperture [desaturation, cropping, etc], I had this photograph.

De un millon de cosas

There are a million and one things that I want to talk about but at the moment lack a million minutes to speak of them. So I will write a one sentence thought about each and every one of them:

• Shortbus-> Beautiful movie everyone should see. Sex is something normal that we all have and when we do we usually do not end up in a bath of blood. Ok that was two sentences...now three.
• John Cameron Mitchell-> I met him after the preview for Shortbus and we talked about his house in Puerto Rico and how he should take Shortbus there. Mission hunt down JCM in Puerto Rico begins in T-minus 2 months.
• Babel-> A haunting movie that is technically impressive, and story-wise, rather disturbing. Quite a thought-provoking film. At first i didn't like it, but i cannot stop thinking about it!
• Alejandro Gonzalez Iñarrítu-> I met him at BU during my directing class and after the Babel screening. He has a very different view of the world and his passion for film and music just oozes from his pores. He signed my Amores Perros DVD but was too flustered by a critical Babel fan to offer me a job. Next time i guess.
• Regina Spektor @ Avalon -> This Russian beauty has stolen my heart with her delicate charm, quirky humor, and original music. She held back and did not sing my favorite song [Somedays] but dazzeled the sold out crowd with a repertoire or gorgeous music. Best moment? A disco-ball lit "US".
• Kubrick's Lolita -> Latest in my film study course, a tale of forbidden love...or is it forbidden lust? I really did not know what to expect with this one, it turned into a paranoid suspense thriller in its second half, with hints of comedic darkness throughout. The one thing I learned, is that Peter Sellers is a genious...I know I am the last person on earth to realize this.
• John Huston's Wise Blood -> a weird retelling of Oedipus the King, in which the main character is blinds himself as a result of looking for a better way to tell the truth, as opposed to searching for a certain truth. I might have to watch this one again.
• The Killer's Sam's Town -> I am still trying to fall for this CD, but songs like Exiltude and Why Do I Keep on Counting are making it that much easier.
• Scissor Sister's Tah Dah -> I am ashamed to say that I have yet to listen to it. And the concert is two weeks away! Ah.
• Photography-> Check out my last three pics on Flickr. I am on this one-pic-every-few-days kick in hopes that they will attract more individual attention and comments. So far, it's working! Also, I ruined my motion hw for Basic Photo, so I need to reshoot, hopefully tomorrow. We'll see.

Is that it for now? Let me know.

De Spartacus

Well hello original LOTR battle scenes.
Expanding on space, story, action, story and even length, Spartacus looks like Kubrick was freed from any creative chains that might have held him back in his previous films. Not that he needed to break free in the others, but this one provided a canvas to truly experiment with his actors and his environment.

I liked the movie a lot. The action was entertaining and the ending was unexpected. But then this is to be expected from Kubrick. Happiness does not seem to be his staple.

A few things did bother me. Namely the soft focus used to shoot Jean Simmons, Varinia. this technique was used to make her seem more beautiful than she already is, but to me, it was rather distracting to go from one cut of Spartacus in sharp focus, to the next of Varinia in this dream-like state...and then back again. While it did make her seem beautiful and dreamy, in my world, imperfections add to the true beauty, and Jean Simmons did not look like an imperfection sort of lady, so the soft-focus was unnecessary.

The acting was another interesting thing int he movie. Kubrick's actors are truly his own. They don't seem to be performing via their own accord, but by the Kubrickian strings that the director deems necessary to get the 'right' performance from his puppets. It definitely works, but in a way that is familiar when you know what to look for. Kirk Douglas and Jean Simmons are fantastic as the doomed couple, and Lawrence Olivier is unseemly menacing as the evil Crassus.

Personally, the greatest moment came in the last half, as the gladiators battled the Romans. For fifteen minutes, the Romans walked into battle as the picture perfect image of a war nation, organized and ready for battle. They had perfect formations that came from all sides of the battlefield, slowly marching towards the gladiators. And the most astounding thing was the scope of the production...thousands of actors dressed in Roman garb marching in unison, no cgi to be had at all. While LOTR looked amazing as well, their sense of scope was created through computers, and I am not saying it was a bad thing at all, but seeing what Kubrick accomplished with Spartacus is truly impressive.
Anyways, after all the formal marching, it took a few seconds for the gladiators to send torched lumbers rolling down the hills and have those brave Roman soldiers running cowardly for their lives...all thousands of them.

Spartacus ended a few minutes later, tragically as all Kubrick films deem to find an end. Man's destiny is inescapable and we are born with an innate urge to both run from and complete our destiny; which is what happens to Spartacus. He ends as an example, a martyr, a hero, a husband and bound in wood...just like he begun.

Mis Classes

This semester, I am taking 5 classes, overloading one more time. It was a little rough doing this last semester, but it turned out fine, so I decided to give it another go before my years in an educational institution come to an end. After a month or so in classes, I've realized how interesting and productive they've been. I'm taking the following:

JO305: Intro to Basic Photography:
I am a self-taught photographer. I got my Digital Rebel XT as a Three King's present, and ever since then, I have pretty much worked alone in learning how to use it and how to take good photographs. I took what I knew from motion picture film and applied it to still photography and the results have been pretty good I believe; especially for having no previous training or help. As time went on, my desire and curiosity grew, so I decided to learn the basics of photography in this class. I only had my digital Canon, so I had to somehow get a hold of a 35mm SLR and a bunch of equipment. I managed to buy a Canon Rebel G on Ebay for $40, which can use the lenses that I have for my Digital Canon, so that was pretty sweet. My dad bought me a 50mm f/1.8 EF lens, a flash, film, paper, etc. Now I'm all set. I had my first assignment, a portrait in shadow and direct sunlight, and I think overall it went well.

The first time I developed film was a mess, but the shots I needed weren't ruined. I, however, thought I could do better, so I re shot and developed that roll. Both times my developing was a mess. I was unable to correctly unspool the film onto the metal spool, so I got some blotches on some shots and some ruined/undeveloped negatives. Overall, what I needed was not ruined. When I was making prints, I ended up wasting around 30-40 sheets of paper, just because I needed to get the exposures JUST right. When Liam told me about getting absolute whites and absolute blacks in my prints, I knew I had to work on them until I got it right. Eventually I did, but after a lot of trial and error. Liam said that it took him a long time to get prints to look good, and he thought mine looked good, so that was encouraging. He didn't have the background in film that I do, so I can see how I picked up on things a little faster. Still, no cakewalk.

FT 5-something: Directing:
This class I love. Half of it is full of COM Directors, and the other half is full of CFA Acting/Theater majors. As directors, we get to write our own scene, and eventually direct it with the actors. We get to cast, rehearse, edit, and work on the project all semester long, and I am really excited about it. I wrote a draft of my scene on Friday, and Liam read it over and gave me some criticisms, so I took his advice and rewrote another scene that he thought was much better. I will write about that later on.

FT 5-something: Kubrick:
Ah the works of Stanley Kubrick is also a great class. It's a little trying just because we spend 4 1/2 hours sitting and either watching a movie or talking about it, but I think Kubrick is one of the greatest American directors, and his movies are truly watchable, as opposed to some other things we watch in other Film Study classes. We've seen Killer's Kiss, The Killing, and Paths of Glory... The best one so far has to be the Killing, if not jut for the last few seconds.

CL305: The Drama of Greek Myth into Film:
This class is really interesting. We are studying the effect of Greek Mythology and Drama on modern day film. So far we've only seen Pasolini's Edipo Re, which was a great mind trip, but we've seen clips from a bunch of other movies, both old and new. The professor is really dynamic and it's not unlikely to have him bellowing Homer's text in relation to the images we had seen seconds prior. Plus he got me reading Plato, Homer, Nietzsche, and Sophocles. And this week we're watching the best film I saw this summer: Chinatown.

FT5-something: Experimental Production for the Small Screen:

Now in this class, we are working for AMP'D Mobile and creating a series of digital shorts for their cell phone download service. The shorts are fictional and dynamic in nature, and have to tell a narrative story. Oh and we're filming the whole thing with their cell phones. Yup, each person in the class got a cell phone to play around with for the whole semester. This class is definitely the oddest one of the bunch, but fascinating at the same time. We're doing something that is as topical as can be, and while different than my original vision of the class, it is still exciting, new and more importantly, different.

So those are my wonderful classes. More to come soon.

Bienvenido.

Welcome to a new start.

It has been my desire for a good time now to create a new blog. To move away from the last one and document my development through the times ahead. My desire is to document classes, art, writings, workings, chats, movies, shows, etc. that I have been a part of, that I have witnessed, or desire to witness. This will be a place where I can vent, be a scatterbrain, develop, brainstorm, organize, analyse, discuss, and examine my ideas and observations about life and the things that surround me.

I will be posting pictures, documents, scripts, quotes, dialogues, videos, observations in the hopes of getting some feedback and ideas.

Asi que dejemos toda esta baba y pongamonos a trabajar.