College: I've been to a ridiculous number of colleges and never fit in anywhere: when I was younger I was far too naive (and the film students were seriously pretentious) and when I was older I was the only one married, and then I was the only one married and with a kid. :-) The funny thing is that I used to be very, very under-educated in comparison to my peer group (based on number of movies seen) and now I've swung the other way and nobody's seen the movies I have. <3 <3 But I try not to be a jerk about it. (Although my girlfriend gave me a Seattle International Film Festival membership for our anniversary, and she said that my peculiar taste in films is one of the things she loves about me. I guess it all works out. It's just peculiar.)
Elementary/Middle School: When I was in 8th grade I was in a rocket competition: the idea was that we had to pack a raw egg in such a way that it was both light and durable, send it up in a model rocket and then have it come down unbroken. We called our rocket The Dying Dutchman, because we could never get the fins to stay on reliably. On the day of the competition it was /seriously/ windy, and we ended up winning (against university level physics students, no less) because we got lucky: our launch was in the one window of time all day that didn't have any wind, so it came up and down again no problem. (the fins even stayed on). Everyone else's just kind of went up so far, the wind caught the fins and it crashed. It was super fun. In the early stages we got to drop eggs from the top of the stairwell. I think the space blanket was what provided the optimal amount of padding vs. lightness.
Ha! Congratulations. I remember soda bottle rocket competitions (just our class) in tech/shop, and a second egg drop/protection competition in physics. Thing was, we didn't really learn aerodynamics or impact cushioning ahead of time, so we just sort of winged it (heh).
And as for your college tale, I think many of us who congregate in fandom are sadly used to not fitting in anywhere, for whatever reasons. You definitely have my sympathy! That's cool that you've ended up surpassing your peers, though. What sort of peculiar films do you like? Or is it more a peculiar combination?
I'm going to be seeing Sunflower in the next couple of months. Haven't heard of the rest of them. That makes me sad; in my college days (she said, as if they were oh so long ago), I used to be pretty up on the indie/foreign films as they showed up on the movie theater listings.
It doesn't hurt that there are about four indie movie theaters within walking distance of my apartment, I expect. :-) My favorite is a little wee one with a tin ceiling and old plush seats and red velvet drapes: I think I've seen every one of those movies there except for 'Naughty Girls' which I saw at the film festival last year. :-) (Another great one from the film fest was 'Poltergay.) My favorite one of the ones I listed was probably The Taste of Tea: largely because of the little girl character, who is followed around by a giant version of herself that no one else can see. It's a really cute and yet utterly surreal family film. Sunflower was fabulous - I hope you enjoy it. <3
There's a fantastic theater in Brookline, MA I used to love going to when I was at school, the Coolidge Corner Theater, also a restored theater with plush seats, curtains and a high Art Deco painted ceiling. When 2001: A Space Odyssey was re-released, they kept in the intermission, with the curtain closing over the screen and everything. ♥
I bet I would've latched right the hell onto you in an alternate universe where we met in college. XD My first semester in college, I befriended the chubby 40-year-old lady with two kids. She became my best school friend and we always arranged our schedules so we had at least two classes together every semester until she graduated and I left.
I've been to a ridiculous number of colleges and never fit in anywhere: when I was younger I was far too naive (and the film students were seriously pretentious) and when I was older I was the only one married, and then I was the only one married and with a kid. :-) The funny thing is that I used to be very, very under-educated in comparison to my peer group (based on number of movies seen) and now I've swung the other way and nobody's seen the movies I have. <3 <3 But I try not to be a jerk about it. (Although my girlfriend gave me a Seattle International Film Festival membership for our anniversary, and she said that my peculiar taste in films is one of the things she loves about me. I guess it all works out. It's just peculiar.)
Elementary/Middle School:
When I was in 8th grade I was in a rocket competition: the idea was that we had to pack a raw egg in such a way that it was both light and durable, send it up in a model rocket and then have it come down unbroken. We called our rocket The Dying Dutchman, because we could never get the fins to stay on reliably.
On the day of the competition it was /seriously/ windy, and we ended up winning (against university level physics students, no less) because we got lucky: our launch was in the one window of time all day that didn't have any wind, so it came up and down again no problem. (the fins even stayed on). Everyone else's just kind of went up so far, the wind caught the fins and it crashed.
It was super fun. In the early stages we got to drop eggs from the top of the stairwell. I think the space blanket was what provided the optimal amount of padding vs. lightness.
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And as for your college tale, I think many of us who congregate in fandom are sadly used to not fitting in anywhere, for whatever reasons. You definitely have my sympathy! That's cool that you've ended up surpassing your peers, though. What sort of peculiar films do you like? Or is it more a peculiar combination?
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My favorite one of the ones I listed was probably The Taste of Tea: largely because of the little girl character, who is followed around by a giant version of herself that no one else can see. It's a really cute and yet utterly surreal family film.
Sunflower was fabulous - I hope you enjoy it. <3
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There's a fantastic theater in Brookline, MA I used to love going to when I was at school, the Coolidge Corner Theater, also a restored theater with plush seats, curtains and a high Art Deco painted ceiling. When 2001: A Space Odyssey was re-released, they kept in the intermission, with the curtain closing over the screen and everything. ♥
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