Going to Hungary!

I turn 31 on July 31st. I’ve waited my whole life for this lucky birthday. And it looks like I’ll be celebrating it in Hungary!


Dear Kristine,

Congratulations! You have been selected for the
International Artists’ Residency/Seminar to be held in
Budapest, Hungary. Your residency date will be
between Tuesday, JULY 15 - Thursday, AUGUST 7;

We had 328 applications.

Please let us know whether you ACCEPT or DO NOT
ACCEPT to participate, otherwise we will choose an
other artist for your space. If you accept this
invitation send us the nonrefundable $100 for booking
your place by Wednesday, April 5, 2008.

Your residency will be at Budapest, VI. Jokai
ter 9. 1061. Each participant will provide a
lecture/seminar about their work that usually run
30-45 minutes. Closing exhibition will be arranged.

Please send us your travel arrangements,
residency fee $1,450.00 (EURO$990), and signed waiver
to HMC, 2503 Costa Mesa Drive, Dallas, TX 75228, by
Friday, April 25, 2008. I need to wire transfer the
residency fees to our host by April 28th. I will
leave for Hungary on May 3rd, so all of above time
table is crucial.

Thank you for your interest in participating in
the Hungarian Multicultural Center’s competition. If
you
have any questions please do not hesitate to contact
us by e-mail.

Best regards,

Don Juan DeMileage

We've entered the glorious phase of MATX 603 where we spend 3 weeks on Don Juan/Don Giovanni - opera, history, intertextuality. I've watched half of the Met opera version and we're required to watch a non-operatic version/adaptation of Don Juan by Thursday. So I thought -- why not Don Juan DeMarco? EASY.

Not so. I left school and thought I'd hit Movie Gallery before my 7 pm workout. Had an hour to kill. Movie Gallery came up dry. So I rushed to Target - since I had to buy cat food. Not at Target. I called Xian up -- where's the nearest Blockbuster and Best Buy? I zoom over to the Blockbuster in CaryTown. Nothing. So I figure a jaunt to Short Pump/Best Buy is an quick drive on 64. Then I get lost in Mansionville and go 15 miles out into nowhere. Finally, I find a 64 connection and get back in the right direction. Get to Best Buy, about to pee my pants. AND THEY DON'T FUCKING HAVE THE MOVIE EITHER! Apparently it is only available new on DVD as a double disc with the Astronaut's Wife (barf!) and all 3 local stores are out of stock. CHEESE AND RICE! I call Xian to check in...he looks online and finds my Don Juan.

Where? Oh, about a mile and a half from my house at the local video store - The Video Fan. Nestled in the Fan (such a great neighborhood) and only on VHS. So Figg and I are going totally RETRO tonight as we watch the beauty and splendor of obsolete format for our high-end multimedia Ph.D program. 50 miles of driving, a missed workout date and gas at $3.24 a gallon. Whatever it takes, I guess. Damn you Don Juan! Cuckolded again!

Too Much of One Thing...

Today I played kindergarten PhD fun with my classmate Jesse and her mom Martha.
Jesse and I are shooting a 16mm stop-motion animation film with characters/puppets made out of paper, glue and a lot of luck! We're using magnet pieces and brad/hinges for movement and placement of our characters.

The set-up: Jesse's uncle was friends with this guy named Cyril Winter. Cyril Winter liked to think of himself as Buddy Holly and spent $1000 of his own money to record a single with a B-side. The song "Too Much of One Thing" is the result. It's probably one of the worst songs in the world. Poor Cyril tries to hit all the high notes like Buddy Holly, but falls flat there and everywhere else.

Our mission: To make the long-lost music video of Cyril Winter. We're not making fun of Cyril, on the contrary, we're celebrating whatever it is that makes a person create -- even if the outcome is subpar and comical. Cyril's efforts on this song -- his dreams to make it big, his spirit, his enthusiasm -- this is what we wish to capture.

So we're making these puppets, and I've never made paper puppets before. Jesse and I met at her mom's house, about a half hour outside of Richmond, and got right to work. She's making the doctor, who Cyril visits in the lyrics. Doctor tells him to find some LOVE. The Doctor has a moving arm and will hit Cyril on the knee with a medical hammer. I'm making the love interest, who blows Cyril off. I've named her Hedda Handsome. She has a huge head and freakish hands. Martha started on Cyril, but because he's our main character, we need many bodies and heads with facial expressions for him.

I'm likening the puppets for this project to the early South Park material where they actually used paper for their animation. And I think the Black and White 16mm film will capture the aesthetic of the 1950's Buddy Holly era perfectly.

Tommorrow, we work on finishing up our Cyril puppets and on to making his band. Then we have 4 scenes to create where poor Cyril has, of course, too much of one thing, and none of another. Such as "Large stack of pancakes, small cup of syrup" and "Huge pockets, small change". Get it? If anyone wants to hear the song, I'll email you the MP3.