you say we have turned, like the enemies you've earned...
"And so once again
My dear Johnny my dear friend
And so once again you are fighting us all
And when I ask you why
You raise your sticks and cry, and I fall
Oh, my friend
How did you come
To trade the fiddle for the drum
You say I have turned
Like the enemies you've earned
But I can remember
All the good things you are
And so I ask you please
Can I help you find the peace and the star
Oh, my friend
What time is this
To trade the handshake for the fist
And so once again
Oh, America my friend
And so once again
You are fighting us all
And when we ask you why
You raise your sticks and cry and we fall
Oh, my friend
How did you come
To trade the fiddle for the drum
You say we have turned
Like the enemies you've earned
But we can remember
All the good things you are
And so we ask you please
Can we help you find the peace and the star
Oh my friend
We have all come
To fear the beating of your drum"
-Joni Mitchell
That song makes me cry sometimes.
So on Saturday I woke up at 4:30 in the morning to catch a bus to take me and a bunch of other student activists to D.C. in a huge anti-war protest on the National Mall in Washington. Five hours in the bus to get there, four hours in the bus coming home, and all for a little over three hour's total time in the nation's capital. But it was worth it. 100,000 people can't be wrong! All sorts of people were there from all over the country; children, students, adults, seniors and vets, from Vermont to Tennessee to California, all these people were there to show their support for peace. Even celebrities were there; Jane Fonda, Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, Susan Sarandon, and the Rev. Jesse Jackson to name a few. Everybody had anti-war or pro-peace signs out, and the atmosphere was just all very positive. In spite of that, the fact that all these people felt the need to demonstrate like this was a very very saddening thought. There was a small group of counter-protesters, of course. One of them had probably the most evil sign I have ever read in my entire life: "Money for bombs, not for welfare." I'll give you a second to let that sink in before I go on.
.
.
.
In other news, things are slowly coming to fruition for my Color Sync production this semester. I am slowly forming a crew, and already have about five outside people, which is pretty good considering I am shooting my film over spring break and there won't be many people in New York City. This week I am meeting with various people to discuss my script and get opinions on what's working, what's not working, etc. Yesterday, I officially got myself a Director of Photography. (The Director of Photography, or DP, or Cinematographer, is basically the cameraman, and is charge of lighting the scene, working the camera, and knowing all the technical details of what it takes to make the desired image come out.) My roommate Fred had actually originally found him on YouTube, but then he came to show his work to my class and eventually after a bit of email tag and him enjoying my script, I finally had someone to man the camera. The next big hurdles are to find actors and a shooting location. If anyone knows of any apartments in New York City that I could possibly shoot in, please let me know.
And while I'm on the subject of movies, last Friday I went and saw Letters From Iwo Jima. It was very good (albeit very gorey), but had emotional parts to it, and overall made me feel very angry and anti-war. It was a little cheesy and literal a lot of the time, however. So, having now seen all of the films nominated for the Best Picture Oscar, I have made my decision on what movie I want to win...
Best Picture: The Departed (Hands down the best; I have not been so engaged by a movie since then)
My dear Johnny my dear friend
And so once again you are fighting us all
And when I ask you why
You raise your sticks and cry, and I fall
Oh, my friend
How did you come
To trade the fiddle for the drum
You say I have turned
Like the enemies you've earned
But I can remember
All the good things you are
And so I ask you please
Can I help you find the peace and the star
Oh, my friend
What time is this
To trade the handshake for the fist
And so once again
Oh, America my friend
And so once again
You are fighting us all
And when we ask you why
You raise your sticks and cry and we fall
Oh, my friend
How did you come
To trade the fiddle for the drum
You say we have turned
Like the enemies you've earned
But we can remember
All the good things you are
And so we ask you please
Can we help you find the peace and the star
Oh my friend
We have all come
To fear the beating of your drum"
-Joni Mitchell
That song makes me cry sometimes.
So on Saturday I woke up at 4:30 in the morning to catch a bus to take me and a bunch of other student activists to D.C. in a huge anti-war protest on the National Mall in Washington. Five hours in the bus to get there, four hours in the bus coming home, and all for a little over three hour's total time in the nation's capital. But it was worth it. 100,000 people can't be wrong! All sorts of people were there from all over the country; children, students, adults, seniors and vets, from Vermont to Tennessee to California, all these people were there to show their support for peace. Even celebrities were there; Jane Fonda, Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, Susan Sarandon, and the Rev. Jesse Jackson to name a few. Everybody had anti-war or pro-peace signs out, and the atmosphere was just all very positive. In spite of that, the fact that all these people felt the need to demonstrate like this was a very very saddening thought. There was a small group of counter-protesters, of course. One of them had probably the most evil sign I have ever read in my entire life: "Money for bombs, not for welfare." I'll give you a second to let that sink in before I go on.
.
.
.
In other news, things are slowly coming to fruition for my Color Sync production this semester. I am slowly forming a crew, and already have about five outside people, which is pretty good considering I am shooting my film over spring break and there won't be many people in New York City. This week I am meeting with various people to discuss my script and get opinions on what's working, what's not working, etc. Yesterday, I officially got myself a Director of Photography. (The Director of Photography, or DP, or Cinematographer, is basically the cameraman, and is charge of lighting the scene, working the camera, and knowing all the technical details of what it takes to make the desired image come out.) My roommate Fred had actually originally found him on YouTube, but then he came to show his work to my class and eventually after a bit of email tag and him enjoying my script, I finally had someone to man the camera. The next big hurdles are to find actors and a shooting location. If anyone knows of any apartments in New York City that I could possibly shoot in, please let me know.
And while I'm on the subject of movies, last Friday I went and saw Letters From Iwo Jima. It was very good (albeit very gorey), but had emotional parts to it, and overall made me feel very angry and anti-war. It was a little cheesy and literal a lot of the time, however. So, having now seen all of the films nominated for the Best Picture Oscar, I have made my decision on what movie I want to win...
Best Picture: The Departed (Hands down the best; I have not been so engaged by a movie since then)