It's my birthday

and I'll blog if I want to

steppin up!

What up bizzitches? Iggy rappin at you from the WC holla!

I got another Hollywood job yesterday!

This one might prove a little more helpful than the Dogmatic job. I'm an assistant to a producer who's got several movie projects lined up. Yes, MOVIE projects. Instead of working on commercials I'm headed straight to the big time!

No, it's not paid. And no, I'm not going to do anything other than fetch things, organize files and otherwise be his bitch.

And unfortunately I'm busy most of the week with school, so I can only work Mondays.

But hey it's a step! If I can get in good with this guy, he might help me out with other things! Maybe someday he'll even help me produce a movie of my own!

Funny story: I went up for the interview and got a little bit lost/confused. I thought I was heading for an office, but there were only apartment buildings on the whole block. Turns out the whole production company runs out of a random apartment...

I dig that though. It doesn't have to be a big high-class building, when it's all about making the movies. You gotta start somewhere!

P.S. Here's the last movie he produced: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0419749/

woah

It's September 11th.

The terrible day seems so far behind us, doesn't it?

we still need those extras

There's a seminar at a certain top-flight university this weekend. It's about making a career in entertainment, starting from the bottom as an intern or assistant. I saw the listing on Craigslist the other day... it was in between "Wanna be a HIGH-END HOLLYWOOD HAIR STYLIST?" and "(21+) Extras Needed for Adult Film".

I followed up on the seminar and discovered that it's a one-day event, or to put it another way, eight and a half hours of lectures from the VP of some production company. At the end of the day you get a sheet of paper with phone numbers on it, and a listing of companies with job openings in their bottom rung. The cost? $75.

I guess I shouldn't have been surprised by this. Hollywood has made an empire out of packaging and repackaging the same worthless stuff every year. Ironically the same place I found the seminar listed-- Craigslist-- I can also find job openings galore, as well as the phone numbers and email addresses I need to contact in order to apply.

So why would I pay $75 for the same information? Well... yeah I wouldn't.

I'm just gonna keep waiting for something from Craigslist to pan out.

since there's nothing going on with the quest...

I had a bad dream last night. :(

Actually, most of my dreams tend to be really intense and strongly emotional. Some of the time this happens in a good way-- more often than not, though, it's bad. Bizarre huh? I'm sure part of it is because I'm an intense person. Another part is just the nature of dreams. I think dreams are the place where we sort out the tougher webs of thought that tangle up in our heads.

So tell me what this means:

I'm driving my car up a long flight of stairs. For some reason this was a major road-- there are many cars in front of me and a traffic light sits at the top of the stairs. Flashy neon signs are all around me. The light turns red ahead of me, and the cars in front screech to a halt. I'm forced to stop halfway up the steps.

As I'm sitting there I notice the incline is getting steeper. The steps are becoming taller and taller, by now reaching about a foot in height. The light turns green-- the car in front of me speeds ahead-- but I'm gunning the gas and I can't make it any farther up the stairs. It's still growing steeper. I'm starting to panic as I slide backwards. The slope is nearly vertical by this point.

In the reality of the moment, I truly believe I am going to die.

Then suddenly I'm out of the car, and in a crowded room under one of the neon signs lining the staircase. But there's no time to enjoy my sudden freedom.

A crazed man is brandishing a pencil and stabbing people with it.

Another person hands me a garrotte-- I don't know why this is happening-- and tells me to go strangle the killer. I'm terrified so I head around behind him and pass the garrotte off to another man who's got him in a headlock.

That's when the killer breaks free, stabbing the Good Samaritan in the side of the neck with the pencil. He sees me and sprints straight for me. I can't describe how petrified I felt at this moment-- I'm running in circles around a tiny room as a crazed killer chases me, while a full crowd of people watch impassively.

Warning-- this crazy yarn is about to get graphic.

Somehow a pencil got into my hand, and I decide it's time to "kill or be killed". I turn around and shove the pencil up THROUGH the man's face. The tip stabs through the roof of his mouth and explodes out straight up, right between his eyes.

The crowd bursts into wild applause as the killer seems to lose all aggression and becomes normal. That's right-- he just got a pencil through the face and he's not dead. But now the crisis is averted, as he has become a regular citizen with no malicious intent.

You know how people say they wake up "in a cold sweat"? I've never woken up like that-- but I have woken up in a very, very warm sweat. Yeah, that's how I woke up last night. Right after that little episode.

Again, it's hard to communicate the intense emotions I felt while all the craziness was going on... but trust me, it was very real to me at the moment. And this is actually not an uncommon thing for me. I usually dream like this.

After lying awake for a couple seconds of confusion, my first normal thought was: "WOOOOOOOOOOOW that was intense."

Followed closely by "I wonder if I can put that in a movie?"

you can't fight in here-- this is the war room!

I think I've come up with a new concept for a movie-- one that seems to have a lot more promise than the first screenplay I wrote! Exciting stuff, it is. I'm still not too sure on the details so I won't get into it here. You can kill a story by trying to tell it before it's written.

Let's just say it's a mind-f#!&.

Here's another item of interest for me. I just bought this:

It was the best purchase of my life. I am absolutely in love with these movies, and I'm just in awe of Stanley Kubrick. Within the past year he's grown to become my favorite director.

If you can't see the titles, here's what came with it:
Lolita
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
2001: A Space Odyssey
A Clockwork Orange
Barry Lyndon
The Shining
Full Metal Jacket
Eyes Wide Shut
(plus a documentary about Kubrick's life)

The only ones I haven't watched yet are Lolita and Eyes Wide Shut-- the other six are unqualified masterpieces.

Honestly, if you've never seen a Kubrick film, you really owe it to yourself to watch one. In reality you should probably see all of them. I will let you borrow one or more if you ask nicely-- maybe I'll even watch them with you. :)

Seriously, this guy is unparalleled when it comes to making movies. The sheer craft and technique he used. Not to mention the great stories and characters. Pure genius. (And I don't use that word lightly!)

My favorite film of his is Paths of Glory, which sadly wasn't included in the boxed set, but I went out and bought it anyway. What an incredible film.

I noticed I've thrown around a lot of hyperbole in this entry. Well I don't care. I'm still blown away.

These are the kinds of movies I wish I was good enough to make.

optimism

I just saw the American Jesus
He's huddled up against an old oil drum under the I-10 at Crenshaw
Blowing through a dirty harmonica
and dreaming