Harrowing adventures and A papers

After almost being plowed over by a renegade tow truck on Broad Street last night, leaping Crouching Tiger/Hidden dragon style to save my life, landing on my side on the concrete and rolling out of it without a scratch, with a burst of adrenaline powerful enough to get me back on my feet and try to to chase the tow truck (got the company name and license number)...I am so happy to be alive today and to right now officially begin Thanksgiving Break!

Sore and cranky all day, I kicked ass on some of the more daunting moving to Pittsburgh logistics, I got some packing done for my trip to Detroit and even finished all my homework before class tonight! Class was odd -- we were discussing humor and no one seemed very enthused except for myself, my classmate Tim and my incredible professor, Dr. Hodges. I don't like always being the one of only two people who engages in any kind of discussion. Halfway through class I'm burned out and I don't want to talk anymore even though I still have more to say. I'd love it if it were just a handful of us at a coffee shop.

Got my Son of Mr. Green Jeans paper back tonight...another A! Another fabulous, stressfully earned but wonderfully rewarding A! Comments this time included not only "brilliant analysis and structure" but "I'd like to send this to Moore." Holy shit! That scares me! Having my work on Moore's short story sent to him for rebuttal, refute, denial, condemnation? But what about praise, you say? There's that possibility too.

I do think I am decent academic writer because I like to play with my material. I try to have fun with even the most serious theories and opaque rhetorical demands. I write like I speak, I keep my tone upbeat, I joke, I kid, I get snarky. Sometimes I even understand what I'm writing about! Sometimes, I'm in love with my writing. Sometimes, my writing kills me.

For class tonight, we had to read a few excerpts from Robin Hemley's new book Do Over and a couple pieces from his fantastic series called Dispatches from Manila. Dr. Hodges even shared a piece of hers on roaches, and it was a really fun, thoughtful, deep and visceral read. They've inspired me. These A's inspire me. They remind me to push through the block, the worry, the stress, the anguish of a really sucky 2009 and click away on the keyboard or scribble my thoughts on any piece of paper I can find. They remind to write, just write. That's right.

Son of Mr. Green Jeans

After 2 weeks hanging with my dear friend, the gorgeous and talented Figg and the procrastination that comes far too naturally for me, I finally got around to writing my paper on - GASP - the day it was DUE! Now, this really is a first for me. No guff. Sometimes I'll wait until the weekend, or perhaps even the night before, but never on the day I'm supposed to hand it in, spell-checked, revised, edited, with sources and a clever title.

Struggling with last nights wine remnants and a fuzzy head, I trashed what I'd already written about Brad K. Youngkin's short story The Speed of Memory (of which my memory speed had slowed to a snails pace) and while in the most refreshing shower of my life I had the epiphany moment. Forget what I'd already written. It was only three sentences of crap anyway. Start fresh. Shower fresh.

I thought about structure, white space, demarcation. I thought about finding a hook, a gimmick. I thought about how I'm too emotionally close to Youngkin's story to do it justice. I mean, this story is fucking incredible. It's often too hard to write about the things you love. So, write about what you like, I guess.

And I really like Dinty W. Moore's Son of Mr. Green Jeans. His structure is unique. Alphabetical entries on fathers, fatherhood, being a son, perceptions of the perfect father, parents, animals, humans, traits, xenogenesis. Small bites, sections that all speak to an abstract notion of "father." Self-reflective, but not entirely memoir. Sometimes reads like journalism or like entries in a dictionary or encylopedia. Looks kind of like that too. So, I stole his structure. Made my own headers using the same ALL CAPS style. Same page breaks, demarcation and white space. Nonlinear. Threaded and woven. Analytical and of course, chock full of the anti-academic rhetorical wit I am wildly famous for.

And tonight I turned it in! I'm hoping it wins as much praise for its succinct use of style and prose as my first paper for the class, though I do feel it might be a little analytically thin. No matter, I rocked it out in about 4 hours with 2 hours to spare before class and I feel great about it.

Now...if I could just have these breaks in terms of writing my dissertation, editing my documentary, finding the love of my life...etc.

But this will all come to me when I move to Pittsburgh. Next month!

Waking up is hard to do

I thought I would wake up today with a great sense of relief and closure, but I pretty much feel the same as I've felt the last few weeks. Depressed. Tired. Lethargic. Sad.

Why today? Well, yesterday, Nov. 9th, is the day/date that one year ago Christian moved out of my house, ending the 5+ year relationship debacle we'd been mulling around in. So today really isn't just an arbitrary date I assigned to say "I am going to feel better today;" no, today marks the first day of the beginning of my first year of life without being sucked dry by him. However, the suckitude continued with the relationships I formed with 2 other notable characters in this drama. And if you know me, you know who they are and you know that they too, are somewhere in Gonesville.

So, why do I still feel so poopy? Lots of shit flying around, I guess. Instead of wallowing in it, I am going to slowly but surely clean this fucking mess up.

What does that entail? Starting small and with what I know I can accomplish today. For instance, getting my homework done and being prepared for my very awesome nonfiction class. Next, finishing up my little demo packet for Pittsburgh. Then, packing and getting prepared for my Wednesday trip. And boom, signing a lease that marks my new lease on life.

I'll return to RVA knowing that in less than 2 months I will not only be living alone in a new city, I will have made a decision by myself and for myself, with no nasty cling-ons to drag me down anymore, or ever again.

I guess I actually DO feel pretty good today! Hah!

Semester update

I've forgotten how to blog! It's been far too long. But these rusty digits are back in action as the transitions of my personal and professional life unfold before my very tired eyes.

I want to brag about this semester. Dr. B. is running a sweet solo show as the only prof for the usually team taught Newscasting/VCU InSight content producing and on-set anchoring class. When once it was 2 profs, plus an instructor for TV Studio Production PLUS the added bonus of yours truly as graduate teaching assistant, our team of 4 faculty/producers is down to just Dr. B and I. Promoted to Senior Editor and Instructor of the 466 Production class in January, it was me and Dr. B and Prof Lysak and it was tough then, though quality nonetheless. Now it's us, just me and Dr. B, the lonely two gunslingers in an always challenging terrain of software mishaps, crazy deadlines and learning curves. Next show tapes 11/18 and airs 11/20.

This semester is student-produced news gold! How they shine! It's a dream team in the newsroom and a super competent team in the studio, despite any green-ness or inexperience. Everyone seems to just work so well together. We completed our third show last week and it is quite likely the tightest, most polished show I've worked on in my 5 semesters at various positions on the VCU InSight team. I too am becoming a more efficient and thoughtful editor of the full show. I assemble all the packages, VO's, VO/SOT's, OSI's and all the on-set anchor materials and I put the show together. I make the graphics, lower thirds and cut the video for the VO's and VO/SOT's. It's a 28:00 show and takes me about 20 hours to cut together for air once all the computer crashes, editorial changes and snafu's are put to bed. And I have 48 hours from studio taping to the time it better be over at WCVW or I get surly emails from the station!

And my documentary class is blowing me away. Today was our first day devoted to post-production meetings in the large edit bay. The footage so far is excellent, though some of the interviews they've presented have some visual issues I think we can mostly fix in post. B-Roll and Actualities are stellar. There's four groups doing four very different pieces. There's a doc on graffiti and street artists in Richmond, one on the lifestyle and performances of Drag Queens, one on the controversial VCU Pep Band and the last is on social networking and the military. While the angles might need to be sharpened, I have no doubt from what I viewed tonight that their stories will develop into compelling and captivating narratives, complete with beautiful footage, visuals, graphics and sound. I'm so looking forward to next week to see how these pieces progress. Doc due date 12/08. And they're required to submit to festivals or some kind of competition. I'm hoping for a CTA.

Never Going Home?

Somehow, I missed my flight home to Richmond by 20 minutes today.  No other flights until tomorrow morning.  So, good thing Dana picked up her phone and she and Rob swung around to pick me back up.  I have one last night in Denver, which we will spend eating homemade pasta sauce and meatballs, baked eggplant, wine, and some mindless television, which does NOT include tonight's all new Saturday Night Live...which airs at 10:30 pm, which is very very strange to me.  I'm excited to see little Billy Buddy, Neil Patrick Harris, rock out what I predict will be a fantastic episode. 

We had a fantastic week, even though they both had to work a lot.  That allowed me to sleep in and have plenty of down time to relax at the house, take me time try to kick the tuberculosis I somehow contracted from Kelly and to spend quality time with their awesome cats.  I want to steal Helmut from Dana -- her hot and sexy and super talkative Minx with his bobbed tail and chubby belly.  

I had some powerful and interesting interactions with the men in my life this week.  All of them, on some level.  I also drank copious amounts of alcohol, which I believe facilitated some of my more interesting encounters.  I found Lucky Pennies all over the place, and I have to admit, I want to keep a lucky penny in each of my pockets from this day forward.  I DID NOT have a lucky penny on my persons today -- which may have contributed to missing my flight!  See?  That shit is true.  

And while Monday begins the last semester of courses I will likely have to take as a PhD student at VCU, I am really totally over being a student.   A huge part of me wants to drop out and just get a job at a fucking coffee shop.  Or just move to L.A. and get a job as a PA on any indie set or feature film.  I am not too proud to do that just because I'm educated and talented.

But...I'm sure once it all starts back up, I'll feel my way back into this path that I've chosen.  

And my attitude will certainly improve once I head back to the gym at a regular basis and continue sculpting this rockin' body I've got!  And hopefully, this semester will be full of fun visitors to Richmond and some surprises along the way.

For now, I've got two videos on deadline, a syllabis to write, a day full of meetings on Monday, my first day of classes, an appointment with the Apple store to fix my broken $2000 Mac Book Pro and another InSight to edit for PBS.  That's this week.  

Do I really want to even go home?  Or can I just stay at Dana's, eat good food and pet her cats for the rest of my life?

Denver Days

Hanging with Dana and Rob in Denver has been a blast so far despite coming down with a nasty sore throat and cold. When I got up at 4 am to catch my plane and felt the razor blades in my throat, I knew what was coming. But I've essentially overdosed on Nyquil and DayQuil so that I too can enjoy all that Denver has to offer...which is A LOT! D and R have a great place downtown, close to a bunch of great bars and restaurants. D and I had breakfast at an awesome joint called Snooze and then headed to the mall so I could buy some undies...which somehow I forgot to pack! Later, the 3 of us happy-hour bar hopped, then met up with Rob's sister at BOWL-ERO for dollar bowling! I did really well, even though I haven't bowled since I lived in Detroit. First game, 124, then I nailed 151 on the last two games! I even bowled a turkey!

But...responsibility rears its ugly head as the new semester is right around the corner. Already flurried with work and school related emails and deadlines for video projects loom in the very near future. I have to re-invent my FCP program -- stat!

For now...I'm going to thoroughly enjoy these last few days of freedom, surrounded by huge mountains and lots of love from of my dearest and loveliest of friends. This has been a magical and profoundly life changing break and I'm never looking back.