Long time...

…no blog. A lot has happened in my busy life since I last wrote anything here. Ed Wood winnings (awesome), shooting 480 (awesome), working 475 scenes (exciting but nerve-wracking), apartment searching (stressful), job-searching (ALSO stressful), some serious problems at home (not cool…I wish I could do something, but I’m here in LA), shenanigans with the opposite sex (a roller-coaster as always).

I’m not sure what of this is worth writing about. It’s all been interesting, and I actually feel like I’ve grown a lot in the last month. I’m starting to feel like I’m actually ready to finish college and begin adulthood at some point.

Not that I’m sick of college…yet. College is still a blast, and I’m still going to finish up my minor during my senior year, and learn as much as I can. But lately the idea of branching out into the “real world” doesn’t appear half as daunting as it used to.

Something that has been on my mind…In my 475 class, “Directing Actors” one thing we focus on is how every character in every well-written screenplay has a “spine;” i.e. their one driving wish for the whole script, or for their life. Our BOOK for the class at least claims that in most cases a character’s spine stays steady for the course of their life.

I was wondering, what is MY spine? What is MY one driving wish in life?

I think my spine is that I want to be needed by those I care about. I want to make a difference and be important to other people. I want them to care about me like I care about them. And this is definitely reflected in the sort of films and stories I write. Brian and I were talking a while ago about this, and he concluded that everything he comes up with is, at its core, about dual identities. In my case, everything I come up with is usually about the PURSUIT of love, or belonging to someone (even if the character never achieves this goal).

Anyway, enough musings for now…movie reviews!

Saw “Annie Hall” for the first time, and HATED it. I was SO disappointed. It was boring as hell! How did this beat out “Star Wars” for best picture in 1977? I haven’t seen much Woody Allen, but on a whole I’ve found him bland, whiny, and unfunny. I was hoping “Annie Hall,” considered by many to be Allen’s masterpiece, would prove me wrong, but it didn’t. I will admit, however, that the film WAS comforting in that it was nice to see a character that was far more of a loser than I am. If Woody Allen can score a chick, ANY of us guys can. Right? (kidding…kinda…)

Also, the destruction of “Arrested Development” has left a gap in my longing for good television comedy, but I’ve finally found a pretty nice substitute in the American version of “The Office” (no, I haven’t seen the British version, so I can’t compare).

What I like about “The Office” is that it is, of course, very funny. But one thing that it does better than “Arrested Development” is that it is very, very TRUE. You believe and feel for the characters in “The Office” far more than you did for the characters in “Arrested Development” (this is not to say that AD wasn’t a work of sheer genius).

Anyways, one thing I always love about TV shows is figuring out which character I relate to most on the show (with “South Park” for example, I am TOTALLY Butters hands DOWN).

Anyways, I figured that on “The Office” I would actually be the most like Michael Scott, because though I always mean well, I can often be very clueless (granted, I don’t think I am quite as obnoxious as Michael). Plus, some people have told me my exuberance reminds them slightly of Steve Carrell at times.

To verify my suspicions, I leaped quickly to the Internet, the greatest time-waster ever invented. I googled for a couple “Which Office Character Are You?” quizzes, and was startled to find that, on both of them, I am “actually” Jim Halpert! I guess this works pretty well too…I do like pranks, I tend to go with the flow, and I nourish secret crushes on female friends of mine for far longer than I ought to.

Sigh…