Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Zach Braff Music Interview
This is one of the many reasons I love zb. How many of us have the Garden State soundtrack?
Monday, August 25, 2008
Uganda Video
A friend that I met in Uganda at God Cares school in Kampala made an amazing video that you need to watch. We met this team from Oaks Christian High School at the God Cares and had a great time working with them. Tyler Rumph made this video, and it is absolutely superb quality. It's about 35 minutes, so watch it when you've got some time, but I swear, it's worth it. Enjoy:
Uganda from Tyler Rumph on Vimeo.
Uganda from Tyler Rumph on Vimeo.
Saturday, June 7, 2008
Monday, May 5, 2008
This Is Home
So rad that they made it on the Prince Caspian soundtrack! Anyone else want to go to the show in September at the sleeptrain ampitheatre? They're playing with Jars of Clay too! Rock on.
Friday, May 2, 2008
Land of Ire
At my favorite coffeshop\bookstore\cafe in Prague, "The Globe", ready to finally write about my adventures to Ireland and if time permits, The Netherlands.
Ahhhhhh yesss. Ireland! Hopefully I can remember all the best parts about this trip. I've wanted to go to Ireland for years for some reason, and I was never really quite sure why. I guess I thought I might run into Bono there, or perhaps I could run and frolic with leprechauns on rolling green hills and play the flute, or perhaps it was just the accent. I don't know. I had this trip planned for a few months, and was really excited about it, getting a great deal on a flight through Ryan air. My buddy Tom was the only one to join me on the trip, and you can see a lot of our pictures on Facebook.
The first thing I noticed about Ireland is that they speak ENGLISH! Now when you've been living and traveling throughout countries that don't speak English as their first language for a while, you get used to it after a while. But once you go to a place that speaks English, it is such a relief! So many people told me that it wouldn't matter, I would still have a hard time understanding the people with the thick Irish accents. I really thought this was a joke, but seriously, it's TRUE! There are some Irish that speak so fast and slur so many words, I have no idea what they are talking about. I felt a little rude saying "what?" so many times, but better that than pretending I know what they are saying, when really I am clueless. It's also interesting how some people have different accents around the country, and how they sound similar, yet different, just like American accents. Another crazy first impression was noticing that people were driving on the wrong side of the road! It would have been much stranger to actually drive a car in Ireland, or even to be a passenger in one, but still, being on a bus and other public transit was strange enough. Crossing the street was always funny too, because naturally one from the states would look left first, but its the other way around in Ireland! So to solve this problem, I just looked left, right, left, right, left...etc. as I crossed the street. Sometimes you can't be too careful. (Just kidding, people!)
We flew into Dublin and found our hostel, which was near one of the main train stations and the Guinness Storehouse. My first "Yup, I'm in Ireland" moment, was when we were on our shuttle from the airport to the city center, and U2 comes on over the radio. Luckily, I'm a big U2 fan, so I thought this was pretty cool.
Of course it was raining (this seems to be a trend on my travels) when we arrived at our Hostel. Tom and I met up with this girl Fiona, who is Irish and lives in Dublin going to the famous Trinity College. (I met her in Berlin). It was strange seeing someone from one of my other trips in a completely new setting. We met Fiona at Trinity college, and she gave us a little tour of the school (where the Book of Kells is held). She then took us to what she described as an "old man bar" where I got my first Guinness. I'm still warming up to Beer, but I can tell that I will enjoy Guinness in the future. Very different kind of beer with a very unique and recognizable taste. Fiona then took us down some of the main streets in downtown Dublin, showing us where the movie "Once" was filmed and even some of the exact places where Glen Hansard plays guitar on the street in the movie. Pretty awesome stuff!
We decided to try saving some money by making our own food instead of going out, which led us to Fiona's apartment where we made French toast! So delicious especially when you haven't had something like that in a long time. After dinner we had a few drinks, specifically some creamy Bailey's! Now this is the way Alcohol should be! I can understand why that little drink is so dang expensive! It's like dessert! After we had our fill of Bailey's, Fiona showed us some of the nightlife in downtown Dublin. We checked out a few really cool pubs and even one club that we didn't stay in for too long. We were in this really cool, muli-level bar in downtown Dublin drinking Mojito's (which I now know I do NOT like) and listening to this live cover band when I look up and suddenly realize the band is playing "Vertigo" by U2. Geez guys, way to enforce the stereotype! I didn't think Bono was going to get this much love from the Irish since I had talked to multiple Irish people before the trip who said they thought he was quite a hack. Apparently all Irish people don't agree!
The next day, we decided (after some great advice from the guy behind the desk at our hostel) that we were going to cancel our day we had planned to stay in Cork and take two days in Galway. The train ride the next day to Galway was everything I was hoping it would be: lush, green fields and rolling hills, farmlands full of sheep and cattle and everything else you would expect from an Irish countryside. It was fantastic. This was the Ireland I came to see! I think it was that train ride when I realized that some of my favorite moments in Europe have been just relaxing on a train staring out the window listening to music. Trains are by far the best way to travel.
Galway was incredible. A mini, less crowded, country-ish version of Dublin, Galway is a place you definitely need to check out if you ever visit the city. You can walk everywhere, never needing to take public transit. Our hostel was in an amazing location, literally right in the middle of the city in the main square. One of the first things that I witnessed in Galway was a full on fight between two guys. One of them was homeless and the other was drunk. Not a good combo. What was especially interesting about this fight was that it happened right on the main street in Galway, and right next to where four cops just happened to be hanging out. 2 seconds after the first punch was thrown, the drunk guy was thrown to the ground and handcuffed. Ireland sure was living up to the hype! Beautiful country side! U2! Drunk Irish guys fighting! Where are the lucky charms???
I forgot to mention that on the plane ride over, I happened to sit next to this girl Brie, from the States, who had been studying in Galway and was getting ready to fly back home. She had a Rick Steve's (famous travel-book author) Ireland book that she said she didn't need anymore, which she gave me for free! Pretty sweet stuff!
Using the Rick Steve's book to find the main sights and attractions around Galway, Tom and I walked around and found a great place to eat lunch, visited a few churches, walked out to the bay and enjoyed seeing the ocean for the first time in months, and just did the whole touristy thing. We decided that we wanted to take a bus tour the next day, which was probably the best decision made all trip. I also got a haircut in Galway, which was an easier process than getting one in Prague would be. Trying to explain to a barber in Czech how I want my hair cut probably wouldn't go over so well. I'd rather take my chances with someone who speaks English with a crazy accent.
Our bus took us to various little villages and random castles, sights and other ruins. (Definitely check out the pictures of these on my Facebook.) The two highlights of the trip were easily the Cliffs of Moher and the walking tour through some old farmland. The Cliffs of Moher were these enormous 650 foot cliffs right on the edge of the ocean. These easily looked like something right out of Lord of the Rings. They were also INCREDIBLY windy, the kind of wind that makes it hard to even walk, but makes for some fun times. These cliffs were some of the most amazing and breathtaking sights I have ever seen. I wish we would have had more than an hour there since I easily could have just sat and looked out at the view all day.
When we got back to Dublin, we mainly just walked around the city and saw some more of the mains sights. (A really cool old jail that housed the people who started the 1916 uprising, The Book of Kells, which is an ancient copy of the Bible in Latin, and some amazing outdoor gardens.)That night, we decided to go on a "Music Pub Crawl" which turned out to be one of the best decisions of the entire trip. The pub crawl started in one of the main pubs downtown, with two traditional irish musicians (one girl who played the fiddle, and one guy who played the guitar), who played amazing Irish music for us. Not only would they play, but they would sing along, teach the audience how to sing with them, and even give people the chance to sing on their own. The duo took our crowd of about 30 around to three different pubs for about 3 hours total, and played some amazing music for us. It was really cool hearing them talk about the history of the of the jigs and what not. This was traditional Irish culture at its finest. I have some you tube videos of their performance, which I'll post whenever I get around to uploading them.
Surprisingly, the last thing we did in Dublin, was see a movie. I know, I know, we were traveling how could we have wasted our time and money on something we could have done anywhere!? Well, we were super tired, and it was getting late, and we didn't have the money or the energy to go out to a pub and drink, so there we were, at the movie theater buying tickets for the flick, "In Bruges". I talked about this a little in my last blog, but this was a good movie! And it applied to us extremely well, since it was about 2 guys traveling, specifically to Bruges, Belgium. I ended up going to Belgium two days later, which was pretty weird, but really cool. Go see this movie for the matinee price when your bored sometime.
That about sums up my time in Ireland, and I loved every second of it! I hope someday I can go back in the summer when it is much warmer, but according to some of the locals, you never know quite when that will be.
I'm enjoying my last week in Prague, just walking around the city and doing some reading. This might be the most relaxing weekend I've ever had before finals. Gotta love study abroad! Alright well I'm going to write about my last trip, The Netherlands, at some other point.
Keep rockin' and rollin'!
Ahhhhhh yesss. Ireland! Hopefully I can remember all the best parts about this trip. I've wanted to go to Ireland for years for some reason, and I was never really quite sure why. I guess I thought I might run into Bono there, or perhaps I could run and frolic with leprechauns on rolling green hills and play the flute, or perhaps it was just the accent. I don't know. I had this trip planned for a few months, and was really excited about it, getting a great deal on a flight through Ryan air. My buddy Tom was the only one to join me on the trip, and you can see a lot of our pictures on Facebook.
The first thing I noticed about Ireland is that they speak ENGLISH! Now when you've been living and traveling throughout countries that don't speak English as their first language for a while, you get used to it after a while. But once you go to a place that speaks English, it is such a relief! So many people told me that it wouldn't matter, I would still have a hard time understanding the people with the thick Irish accents. I really thought this was a joke, but seriously, it's TRUE! There are some Irish that speak so fast and slur so many words, I have no idea what they are talking about. I felt a little rude saying "what?" so many times, but better that than pretending I know what they are saying, when really I am clueless. It's also interesting how some people have different accents around the country, and how they sound similar, yet different, just like American accents. Another crazy first impression was noticing that people were driving on the wrong side of the road! It would have been much stranger to actually drive a car in Ireland, or even to be a passenger in one, but still, being on a bus and other public transit was strange enough. Crossing the street was always funny too, because naturally one from the states would look left first, but its the other way around in Ireland! So to solve this problem, I just looked left, right, left, right, left...etc. as I crossed the street. Sometimes you can't be too careful. (Just kidding, people!)
We flew into Dublin and found our hostel, which was near one of the main train stations and the Guinness Storehouse. My first "Yup, I'm in Ireland" moment, was when we were on our shuttle from the airport to the city center, and U2 comes on over the radio. Luckily, I'm a big U2 fan, so I thought this was pretty cool.
Of course it was raining (this seems to be a trend on my travels) when we arrived at our Hostel. Tom and I met up with this girl Fiona, who is Irish and lives in Dublin going to the famous Trinity College. (I met her in Berlin). It was strange seeing someone from one of my other trips in a completely new setting. We met Fiona at Trinity college, and she gave us a little tour of the school (where the Book of Kells is held). She then took us to what she described as an "old man bar" where I got my first Guinness. I'm still warming up to Beer, but I can tell that I will enjoy Guinness in the future. Very different kind of beer with a very unique and recognizable taste. Fiona then took us down some of the main streets in downtown Dublin, showing us where the movie "Once" was filmed and even some of the exact places where Glen Hansard plays guitar on the street in the movie. Pretty awesome stuff!
We decided to try saving some money by making our own food instead of going out, which led us to Fiona's apartment where we made French toast! So delicious especially when you haven't had something like that in a long time. After dinner we had a few drinks, specifically some creamy Bailey's! Now this is the way Alcohol should be! I can understand why that little drink is so dang expensive! It's like dessert! After we had our fill of Bailey's, Fiona showed us some of the nightlife in downtown Dublin. We checked out a few really cool pubs and even one club that we didn't stay in for too long. We were in this really cool, muli-level bar in downtown Dublin drinking Mojito's (which I now know I do NOT like) and listening to this live cover band when I look up and suddenly realize the band is playing "Vertigo" by U2. Geez guys, way to enforce the stereotype! I didn't think Bono was going to get this much love from the Irish since I had talked to multiple Irish people before the trip who said they thought he was quite a hack. Apparently all Irish people don't agree!
The next day, we decided (after some great advice from the guy behind the desk at our hostel) that we were going to cancel our day we had planned to stay in Cork and take two days in Galway. The train ride the next day to Galway was everything I was hoping it would be: lush, green fields and rolling hills, farmlands full of sheep and cattle and everything else you would expect from an Irish countryside. It was fantastic. This was the Ireland I came to see! I think it was that train ride when I realized that some of my favorite moments in Europe have been just relaxing on a train staring out the window listening to music. Trains are by far the best way to travel.
Galway was incredible. A mini, less crowded, country-ish version of Dublin, Galway is a place you definitely need to check out if you ever visit the city. You can walk everywhere, never needing to take public transit. Our hostel was in an amazing location, literally right in the middle of the city in the main square. One of the first things that I witnessed in Galway was a full on fight between two guys. One of them was homeless and the other was drunk. Not a good combo. What was especially interesting about this fight was that it happened right on the main street in Galway, and right next to where four cops just happened to be hanging out. 2 seconds after the first punch was thrown, the drunk guy was thrown to the ground and handcuffed. Ireland sure was living up to the hype! Beautiful country side! U2! Drunk Irish guys fighting! Where are the lucky charms???
I forgot to mention that on the plane ride over, I happened to sit next to this girl Brie, from the States, who had been studying in Galway and was getting ready to fly back home. She had a Rick Steve's (famous travel-book author) Ireland book that she said she didn't need anymore, which she gave me for free! Pretty sweet stuff!
Using the Rick Steve's book to find the main sights and attractions around Galway, Tom and I walked around and found a great place to eat lunch, visited a few churches, walked out to the bay and enjoyed seeing the ocean for the first time in months, and just did the whole touristy thing. We decided that we wanted to take a bus tour the next day, which was probably the best decision made all trip. I also got a haircut in Galway, which was an easier process than getting one in Prague would be. Trying to explain to a barber in Czech how I want my hair cut probably wouldn't go over so well. I'd rather take my chances with someone who speaks English with a crazy accent.
Our bus took us to various little villages and random castles, sights and other ruins. (Definitely check out the pictures of these on my Facebook.) The two highlights of the trip were easily the Cliffs of Moher and the walking tour through some old farmland. The Cliffs of Moher were these enormous 650 foot cliffs right on the edge of the ocean. These easily looked like something right out of Lord of the Rings. They were also INCREDIBLY windy, the kind of wind that makes it hard to even walk, but makes for some fun times. These cliffs were some of the most amazing and breathtaking sights I have ever seen. I wish we would have had more than an hour there since I easily could have just sat and looked out at the view all day.
When we got back to Dublin, we mainly just walked around the city and saw some more of the mains sights. (A really cool old jail that housed the people who started the 1916 uprising, The Book of Kells, which is an ancient copy of the Bible in Latin, and some amazing outdoor gardens.)That night, we decided to go on a "Music Pub Crawl" which turned out to be one of the best decisions of the entire trip. The pub crawl started in one of the main pubs downtown, with two traditional irish musicians (one girl who played the fiddle, and one guy who played the guitar), who played amazing Irish music for us. Not only would they play, but they would sing along, teach the audience how to sing with them, and even give people the chance to sing on their own. The duo took our crowd of about 30 around to three different pubs for about 3 hours total, and played some amazing music for us. It was really cool hearing them talk about the history of the of the jigs and what not. This was traditional Irish culture at its finest. I have some you tube videos of their performance, which I'll post whenever I get around to uploading them.
Surprisingly, the last thing we did in Dublin, was see a movie. I know, I know, we were traveling how could we have wasted our time and money on something we could have done anywhere!? Well, we were super tired, and it was getting late, and we didn't have the money or the energy to go out to a pub and drink, so there we were, at the movie theater buying tickets for the flick, "In Bruges". I talked about this a little in my last blog, but this was a good movie! And it applied to us extremely well, since it was about 2 guys traveling, specifically to Bruges, Belgium. I ended up going to Belgium two days later, which was pretty weird, but really cool. Go see this movie for the matinee price when your bored sometime.
That about sums up my time in Ireland, and I loved every second of it! I hope someday I can go back in the summer when it is much warmer, but according to some of the locals, you never know quite when that will be.
I'm enjoying my last week in Prague, just walking around the city and doing some reading. This might be the most relaxing weekend I've ever had before finals. Gotta love study abroad! Alright well I'm going to write about my last trip, The Netherlands, at some other point.
Keep rockin' and rollin'!
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
16 Days and counting
A glass of coca cola, a few chocolate chip cookies, an empty apartment and Radiohead playing in the background. I'm ready to write this baby!
Most importantly, here are the pictures from Brussels, Maastricht and Amsterdam. There aren't many pictures with me in them, they are mostly pictures of sights and what not, but I still think they are pretty cool. Check them out:
Set I: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2057588&l=c66ad&id=29904207
Set II: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2057591&l=8406a&id=29904207
I just spent the past few hours catching up on things back home. Movies, sports, news. I feel pretty refreshed, having been out of the loop for a little while doing so much traveling. Some thoughts:
Movies:
I am extrmeley excited for the new movies coming out this summer. I thought last year was amazing, but I seriously think this year could top even last year. Here are some of the movies I am super stoked about:
-Indiana Jones IV! How can you not be excited for this? I mean seriously. Spielberg, Lucas and Harrison Ford all working on the same picture? This can't go wrong. I read that they went through about 22 different scripts before they decided on the one that they wanted to use. And Cate Blanchett and Shia Labeouf joining the cast? I am there opening night!
-The Dark Knight If I saw nothing but Indiana Jones and this movie all summer, I would be okay with that. The cast for this movie is absolutely incredible. Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and of course, Heath Ledger. Christopher Nolan is one of my favorite Directors working today which gets me even more excited for this. I thought Batman Begins was amazing, and was so much more than a "comic book movie". I think this one will be even better, and would not be surprised if Heath Ledger got an oscar nod for his performance. Seriously, I think people are going to be blown away by it. I think I'll have to see this one on DVD unfortunately, but that's okay, since I'll be in AFRICA when it comes out!
-WALL-E With the exception of "Cars", Pixar really doesn't fail. This looks like another strong hit from Pixar. Is there any studio out there that pumps out great movies on a more consistent basis? Finding Nemo, Monster's Inc, and Ratatouille especially were all amazing movies. I think Wall-E is going to continue the trend.
-Tropic Thunder This is probably the only one on this list you haven't heard of. Ben Stiller Directing and starring might make some people groan, but please, watch the trailer first before you bash it. It also has Jack Black and Robert Downey Jr. playing a white guy who gets an operation to become a black guy! This movies looks downright hilarious and I think will be the funniest Stiller movie since Zoolander. This comes out at the end of the summer, and I'm betting it's really going to surprise a lot of people. Apparently, Stiller has been working on this movie for about 10 years, on and off, so he's put a lot of time into the script.
-Prince Caspian- Any story that C.S. Lewis writes turns to gold instantly in my mind. I think the first Narnia movie was actually very well done and told the story extremely well. I'm really looking forward as to how they are going to tackle the sequel and some of the remaining movies in the series. This is an epic saga and has some of the best symbolism out of all the "fantasy" movies being made today.
Other movies I'm excited about:
-Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark? Looks legit to me.)
-Get Smart (Steve Carell in a spy-action-comedy? I'm in!)
-The Incredible Hulk (Edward Norton is going to make this franchise so legit it's not even funny. And Liv Tyler is one of the most beautiful and talented actresses out there. I think she's underrated and needs to start doing more serious roles. Watch "Reign Over Me" for a good performance by her, Adam Sandler and Don Cheadle.)
-Speed Racer- Now, I'm not super excited about this, but the main reason I'll go see it is because of the Director's: The Wachowski Brothers. These guys created my favorite movie of all time, The Matrix, so I will now forever watch whatever films they create. And so far, I don't think they have messed up too bad.
Some films I have watched recently that I thoroughly enjoyed:
When I was in Dublin, I saw In Bruges with Colin Farrell, Brandon Gleeson and Ralph Fiennes. I had heard that this movie was suprisngly good, but I had my doubts, going in. I mean Colin Farrell? Really? But, I have to hand it to him, he actually was pretty good in this little dramatic comedy. Check this movie out, it's well written and kind of goes along the same theme as "Snatch" although not British and not as crazy. Made me think, made me laugh.
Yesterday I watched Gone Baby Gone Directed by Jannifer Garner's Husband and starring Casey Affleck, Morgan Freeman and Ed Harris. I wanted to see this movie for a few reasons. One, I wanted to see Jennifer Garner's Husband (I refuse to acknowledge him as "Ben Affleck" solely because he stole Jennifer from me, but that's a whole 'nother story) direct his first movie. Also, the cast was pretty strong and I had heard great things about the film. This is a great movie, with a great script. This is one of those "thinker" films that you probably are going to need to go back and watch again so you can catch everything.
Other than that, all I've seen are some of the new Scrubs episodes (pretty good) and the new Lost episode (one of the best of the season).
Sports:
Since I don't follow baseball, this is usually a pretty lame part of the year for me, except for...THE NBA PLAYOFFS! Which somehow, I seem to miss a huge chunk of every year. From what I've seen online, this was one of the most anticipated playoffs in the last 15 years. I was happy to see the Maverick's get knocked out, but sad to see the Sun's go. I really want Steve Nash (my favorite NBA player) to get a ring before he retires, be it doesn't look like its going to happen. I'm not happy to see the Lakers doing so well, but you have to hand it to Kobe and the whole franchise, they know how to keep the team good. I think a Lakers/Celtics Finals would be epic, just like the old days of Bird and Magic battling it out. Of course the Spurs are still around in the playoffs, and I think it would be amazing to watch the Lakers and Spurs in a series, which looks like it is going to happen. That's really all my thoughts on the playoffs so far, and I think I'm goin to root for the Celtics, just because I think KG, Ray Allen and Paul Pierce all need a ring. They play their butts off everynight and have been for years, its really their time to win. If only they didn't have an incompetent coach in Doc Rivers. But hey, he can't be that bad if they won 66 games in the regular season...
News:
The only thing I'm really following in the News right now is the election coverage. How about these primaries eh? Things are just getting a little ridiculous. I just want Hilary out of this race. It's terrible. She would have been gone if she had beat Obama by anything less than 10 points. What did she beat him by? 10 points exactly! It's like this is scripted! I mean this is good writing! So now the battle continues. My roommate Jared had an idea that I'm sure many people have thought of, but I thought was pretty smart: Why doesn't Obama run independent? (Obviously only if he doesn't get the Democratic nomination.) He's perfect for it! A black man who is talking about change? Who better to run on the independent ticket! You want good "writing"? Ron Paul should run with Obama on the independent ticket and they would come back to beat McCain and Clinton in the general election this fall! That would be incredible! The thing that really makes me angry is that this whole thing might come down the Super Delegates. Basically, the way the system is set up, the popular vote really doesn't matter that much. It's like the deomcratic people humors the people of the U.S. by letting them vote, then at the end, they say "Okay we'll take your guys' vote's into consideration, but in the end, our "super" votes have more of a say and we'll be choosing the candidate that is more "electable!" What kind of corrupt crap is that? This system is terrible! We already had one candidate (Al Gore) get the most amount of popular votes and lose an election! If this happens again with Obama (who would easily destroy McCain in the general election in my opinion) there should be riots in the streets. Just my two cents. Go Obama. Yes We Can!
Okay, down off of my soap box.
Onto another completely differnet subject. I discovered a project that Zach Braff is starting up with artist Jay Clifford. Just watch the video:
Zach Braff Making the Video
I would really love to do this with people when I get back if anyone is interested. Let me know. I think this sounds really fun and is a really cool idea for a music video. If you don't know who this guy is, check him out and his band Jump! Little Children, who are quite good, by the way.
I can't believe I've written this much and still haven't talked about Ireland or The Netherlands. I really ramble don't I? Oh well. I'll save that blog for later, or else this play would be about 26 pages long.
I come home in 16 days! So crazy to think about home. The first thing I want to do when I arrive on May 16th at about 8:30pm? I'm going to straight to In-n-out. It needs to be done. Until then, I have a surprise-birthday-toga-party to attend tomorrow (could that be more "college"?), a Prague film to finish with Jared, 4 more classes to attend, and a massive cleaning project of our Apartment to start. My parents, who just arrive in Europe today in Munich, will be in Prague on tuesday, and I plan on going out to eat with them every day while they are here. I'm tired of eating all my meals off of my George Foreman grill!
Okay, this has been suuuuper long, but I need to get out and go enjoy Prague! Actually, for those of you who know him, I'm about to go and have dinner with Charlie Hunt! How crazy is that?
On the flip side...
Most importantly, here are the pictures from Brussels, Maastricht and Amsterdam. There aren't many pictures with me in them, they are mostly pictures of sights and what not, but I still think they are pretty cool. Check them out:
Set I: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2057588&l=c66ad&id=29904207
Set II: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2057591&l=8406a&id=29904207
I just spent the past few hours catching up on things back home. Movies, sports, news. I feel pretty refreshed, having been out of the loop for a little while doing so much traveling. Some thoughts:
Movies:
I am extrmeley excited for the new movies coming out this summer. I thought last year was amazing, but I seriously think this year could top even last year. Here are some of the movies I am super stoked about:
-Indiana Jones IV! How can you not be excited for this? I mean seriously. Spielberg, Lucas and Harrison Ford all working on the same picture? This can't go wrong. I read that they went through about 22 different scripts before they decided on the one that they wanted to use. And Cate Blanchett and Shia Labeouf joining the cast? I am there opening night!
-The Dark Knight If I saw nothing but Indiana Jones and this movie all summer, I would be okay with that. The cast for this movie is absolutely incredible. Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and of course, Heath Ledger. Christopher Nolan is one of my favorite Directors working today which gets me even more excited for this. I thought Batman Begins was amazing, and was so much more than a "comic book movie". I think this one will be even better, and would not be surprised if Heath Ledger got an oscar nod for his performance. Seriously, I think people are going to be blown away by it. I think I'll have to see this one on DVD unfortunately, but that's okay, since I'll be in AFRICA when it comes out!
-WALL-E With the exception of "Cars", Pixar really doesn't fail. This looks like another strong hit from Pixar. Is there any studio out there that pumps out great movies on a more consistent basis? Finding Nemo, Monster's Inc, and Ratatouille especially were all amazing movies. I think Wall-E is going to continue the trend.
-Tropic Thunder This is probably the only one on this list you haven't heard of. Ben Stiller Directing and starring might make some people groan, but please, watch the trailer first before you bash it. It also has Jack Black and Robert Downey Jr. playing a white guy who gets an operation to become a black guy! This movies looks downright hilarious and I think will be the funniest Stiller movie since Zoolander. This comes out at the end of the summer, and I'm betting it's really going to surprise a lot of people. Apparently, Stiller has been working on this movie for about 10 years, on and off, so he's put a lot of time into the script.
-Prince Caspian- Any story that C.S. Lewis writes turns to gold instantly in my mind. I think the first Narnia movie was actually very well done and told the story extremely well. I'm really looking forward as to how they are going to tackle the sequel and some of the remaining movies in the series. This is an epic saga and has some of the best symbolism out of all the "fantasy" movies being made today.
Other movies I'm excited about:
-Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark? Looks legit to me.)
-Get Smart (Steve Carell in a spy-action-comedy? I'm in!)
-The Incredible Hulk (Edward Norton is going to make this franchise so legit it's not even funny. And Liv Tyler is one of the most beautiful and talented actresses out there. I think she's underrated and needs to start doing more serious roles. Watch "Reign Over Me" for a good performance by her, Adam Sandler and Don Cheadle.)
-Speed Racer- Now, I'm not super excited about this, but the main reason I'll go see it is because of the Director's: The Wachowski Brothers. These guys created my favorite movie of all time, The Matrix, so I will now forever watch whatever films they create. And so far, I don't think they have messed up too bad.
Some films I have watched recently that I thoroughly enjoyed:
When I was in Dublin, I saw In Bruges with Colin Farrell, Brandon Gleeson and Ralph Fiennes. I had heard that this movie was suprisngly good, but I had my doubts, going in. I mean Colin Farrell? Really? But, I have to hand it to him, he actually was pretty good in this little dramatic comedy. Check this movie out, it's well written and kind of goes along the same theme as "Snatch" although not British and not as crazy. Made me think, made me laugh.
Yesterday I watched Gone Baby Gone Directed by Jannifer Garner's Husband and starring Casey Affleck, Morgan Freeman and Ed Harris. I wanted to see this movie for a few reasons. One, I wanted to see Jennifer Garner's Husband (I refuse to acknowledge him as "Ben Affleck" solely because he stole Jennifer from me, but that's a whole 'nother story) direct his first movie. Also, the cast was pretty strong and I had heard great things about the film. This is a great movie, with a great script. This is one of those "thinker" films that you probably are going to need to go back and watch again so you can catch everything.
Other than that, all I've seen are some of the new Scrubs episodes (pretty good) and the new Lost episode (one of the best of the season).
Sports:
Since I don't follow baseball, this is usually a pretty lame part of the year for me, except for...THE NBA PLAYOFFS! Which somehow, I seem to miss a huge chunk of every year. From what I've seen online, this was one of the most anticipated playoffs in the last 15 years. I was happy to see the Maverick's get knocked out, but sad to see the Sun's go. I really want Steve Nash (my favorite NBA player) to get a ring before he retires, be it doesn't look like its going to happen. I'm not happy to see the Lakers doing so well, but you have to hand it to Kobe and the whole franchise, they know how to keep the team good. I think a Lakers/Celtics Finals would be epic, just like the old days of Bird and Magic battling it out. Of course the Spurs are still around in the playoffs, and I think it would be amazing to watch the Lakers and Spurs in a series, which looks like it is going to happen. That's really all my thoughts on the playoffs so far, and I think I'm goin to root for the Celtics, just because I think KG, Ray Allen and Paul Pierce all need a ring. They play their butts off everynight and have been for years, its really their time to win. If only they didn't have an incompetent coach in Doc Rivers. But hey, he can't be that bad if they won 66 games in the regular season...
News:
The only thing I'm really following in the News right now is the election coverage. How about these primaries eh? Things are just getting a little ridiculous. I just want Hilary out of this race. It's terrible. She would have been gone if she had beat Obama by anything less than 10 points. What did she beat him by? 10 points exactly! It's like this is scripted! I mean this is good writing! So now the battle continues. My roommate Jared had an idea that I'm sure many people have thought of, but I thought was pretty smart: Why doesn't Obama run independent? (Obviously only if he doesn't get the Democratic nomination.) He's perfect for it! A black man who is talking about change? Who better to run on the independent ticket! You want good "writing"? Ron Paul should run with Obama on the independent ticket and they would come back to beat McCain and Clinton in the general election this fall! That would be incredible! The thing that really makes me angry is that this whole thing might come down the Super Delegates. Basically, the way the system is set up, the popular vote really doesn't matter that much. It's like the deomcratic people humors the people of the U.S. by letting them vote, then at the end, they say "Okay we'll take your guys' vote's into consideration, but in the end, our "super" votes have more of a say and we'll be choosing the candidate that is more "electable!" What kind of corrupt crap is that? This system is terrible! We already had one candidate (Al Gore) get the most amount of popular votes and lose an election! If this happens again with Obama (who would easily destroy McCain in the general election in my opinion) there should be riots in the streets. Just my two cents. Go Obama. Yes We Can!
Okay, down off of my soap box.
Onto another completely differnet subject. I discovered a project that Zach Braff is starting up with artist Jay Clifford. Just watch the video:
Zach Braff Making the Video
I would really love to do this with people when I get back if anyone is interested. Let me know. I think this sounds really fun and is a really cool idea for a music video. If you don't know who this guy is, check him out and his band Jump! Little Children, who are quite good, by the way.
I can't believe I've written this much and still haven't talked about Ireland or The Netherlands. I really ramble don't I? Oh well. I'll save that blog for later, or else this play would be about 26 pages long.
I come home in 16 days! So crazy to think about home. The first thing I want to do when I arrive on May 16th at about 8:30pm? I'm going to straight to In-n-out. It needs to be done. Until then, I have a surprise-birthday-toga-party to attend tomorrow (could that be more "college"?), a Prague film to finish with Jared, 4 more classes to attend, and a massive cleaning project of our Apartment to start. My parents, who just arrive in Europe today in Munich, will be in Prague on tuesday, and I plan on going out to eat with them every day while they are here. I'm tired of eating all my meals off of my George Foreman grill!
Okay, this has been suuuuper long, but I need to get out and go enjoy Prague! Actually, for those of you who know him, I'm about to go and have dinner with Charlie Hunt! How crazy is that?
On the flip side...
Monday, April 28, 2008
in this life
Here's what I wrote as my plane back from Amsterdam was landing. (I wrote this on one of those handy barf bags they give you on the plane, since I wasn't allowed to stand up and retrieve my journal out of my backpack. I tell you this, because I find it humorous...)
This wasn't entirely my idea, I must give some credit to my roommate Jared, but here's what I wrote:
"Imagine all of your greatest fears and worries about who you will become in the future. All the things you never want to be. The things you never want to do. Close your eyes. Visualize what this would practically look like. Live it. Now, pretend you have some kind of second chance to go back to today, to right now, and start all over again. Would you? How would you start living differntly? What things would you start doing? Stop doing?"
Random thought: Shouldn't everyone have some kind of list of things they absolutely must do before they die? I know some people have those "life-goals" list, but this is a little different. These are things that I think can be extremely general, or even very common (i.e. get married, have kids, travel, etc.) but I think the list should still be made. Maybe this is because I'm just one of those people that writes down lots of to do lists and uses lots of sticky notes, or maybe its just because I want to get the most out of life. I dunno. The thing is, maybe this list isn't necessary. Maybe those things that we absoulutely have to do, are already inside of us. I guess I just like putting things down in writing. (As I write this in my blog...thank you Captain Obvious!)I think I'm going to start thinking of these things and writing them down, maybe even posting some of them here. I think that could be quite entertaining. I think having a list like that in a place where you can see it everyday would be quite inspiring and encouraging. Call me cheesy, but seriously, looking ahead to achieving certain goals will probably motivate you more to actually get to them. Ugh, I sound like one of those lame inspirational posters you see in high school or something.
Here's what I wrote on the other side of the barf bag:
"Why aren't more people honest with themselves? If you aren't happy with yourself, do something! Don't just sit there waiting for change, waiting for someone else to come along and fix the problem! Address the problem. Not with alcohol. Not with drugs. Instant pleasure is not the answer. If you aren't happy with your life, with who you are, why? How is fixing that not your top priority? What, or who, is holding you back? Usually, it's only ourselves. Do what you were meant to do. What is that you ask? I don't know. Find what it is that makes you feel complete. Without this you aren't fulfilling your purpose on earth. Find what makes you come alive! And head towards that! Now!"
on that note: peace amigos. more to come about ireland and the netherlands.
This wasn't entirely my idea, I must give some credit to my roommate Jared, but here's what I wrote:
"Imagine all of your greatest fears and worries about who you will become in the future. All the things you never want to be. The things you never want to do. Close your eyes. Visualize what this would practically look like. Live it. Now, pretend you have some kind of second chance to go back to today, to right now, and start all over again. Would you? How would you start living differntly? What things would you start doing? Stop doing?"
Random thought: Shouldn't everyone have some kind of list of things they absolutely must do before they die? I know some people have those "life-goals" list, but this is a little different. These are things that I think can be extremely general, or even very common (i.e. get married, have kids, travel, etc.) but I think the list should still be made. Maybe this is because I'm just one of those people that writes down lots of to do lists and uses lots of sticky notes, or maybe its just because I want to get the most out of life. I dunno. The thing is, maybe this list isn't necessary. Maybe those things that we absoulutely have to do, are already inside of us. I guess I just like putting things down in writing. (As I write this in my blog...thank you Captain Obvious!)I think I'm going to start thinking of these things and writing them down, maybe even posting some of them here. I think that could be quite entertaining. I think having a list like that in a place where you can see it everyday would be quite inspiring and encouraging. Call me cheesy, but seriously, looking ahead to achieving certain goals will probably motivate you more to actually get to them. Ugh, I sound like one of those lame inspirational posters you see in high school or something.
Here's what I wrote on the other side of the barf bag:
"Why aren't more people honest with themselves? If you aren't happy with yourself, do something! Don't just sit there waiting for change, waiting for someone else to come along and fix the problem! Address the problem. Not with alcohol. Not with drugs. Instant pleasure is not the answer. If you aren't happy with your life, with who you are, why? How is fixing that not your top priority? What, or who, is holding you back? Usually, it's only ourselves. Do what you were meant to do. What is that you ask? I don't know. Find what it is that makes you feel complete. Without this you aren't fulfilling your purpose on earth. Find what makes you come alive! And head towards that! Now!"
on that note: peace amigos. more to come about ireland and the netherlands.
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