It’s been a crazy semester, packed full of projects and the like, and I’ve done my best to detail the best of them on my portfolio.

Over the summer I had some pretty major things going on, from my trip to Poland to the New Hampshire follow-up project I participated in, which were great projects.

I started the semester off performing in a poetry slam.  I came in 3rd place (out of 3 performers), but received very positive feedback.  Next I tackled a short film idea that’d been running around my head for a while, and made some good headway with it.  No plans for filming or even redrafting the script yet, but hopefully eventually; it was just nice to get into a project like that again after being out of it for a while.

Outside of school I rarely have spare time, but I found myself perusing Instructables pretty often, and entered their Halloween contest.  I didn’t win that one, but I did win 3rd place for their pocket-sized contest with my fork-knife-spoon piece from last year.  I wore the prize t-shirt last night :).

After that the workload picked up, and the projects got more serious.  At the end of the Spring there is an annual all-school-show where each department displays their best work.  One of my majors has a Fall show they put on as well, to showcase their department and the variety of work it produces.  Much of this is performance-related work (music, theater, dance, sound, light shows), and I was asked to be the stage manager for this year’s show.  It’s called the SIM Big Show, and it was a pretty huge event, with over 200 people in attendance.  In addition to stage managing, my music video from last year played in one of the video screening rooms, and I had a piece I called Practical Nature in one of the galleries in school.

Following that was the final show for my Food & Art class, the only requirements being that we make food to serve the audience and we make a piece to display in the show that had something to do with both food and art.  Mine had some more complex messages to it, and though simple, I was satisfied with it.

Lastly – and perhaps obviously, judging by the trend in my work so far – was my woodworking final.  All Sculpture majors are required to take a woodworking 101 class called Projects in Wood.  More artistic than last year’s Joinery, we made an experimental carving, another box – simpler than the ones from Joinery – and the final was an “interpretive box,” which I’ll detail more in its post.

Winter Break has been great; I went home for about a week for a period of total removal from everything school- and work-related, hanging out at home for Christmas and much time with no obligations, and it was wonderful.  Now I’m back in Boston, tackling some personal and home projects I’d set aside during the semester, and preparing for the semester to come.

Up ahead: casting & moldmaking with plaster, kinetic art, beat research (studying and making music and hip-hop beats), and hopefully being a TA for the Projects in Wood class I just completed.

Aside from that, I’m continuing working at Henry Bear’s Park toy store and as an usher for the Blue Man Group during vacation periods.  With the new year I feel more methodical about my approach to projects, and life, which I’m hoping will help ease the next semester, bringing less stress and a bit more time for relaxing between things, be they projects or simply moments in a day.

Hoping each of you are well,
and wishing all happy holidays,
Blake

I’ve moved back to VT. For the holidays, but also for the foreseeable future. It’s vacation, then working, saving up, and if all goes as planned, film school starting in the Fall. I’ve taken a two-year detour from what was really my dream, and I’m back on track. So that’s good.

Before I left, I got to check out a MAKE IT! fair and was pretty impressed. I’d wanted to go last year in Vancouver but looked up the vendors that had websites and was pretty turned off. This year I just took the plunge and am sure glad I did. From Cocoa Nymph (awesome chocolates) to Thyrza Segal’s Plantscapes to Daughters of Bastards Warrior Wear (awesome chain mail jewelry, no website, sorry) there was plenty of awesome stuff to check out and to gawk at. Catalyst Reaction had some cool leather stuff and I picked up some great Christmas cards from Hug + Kiss Designs.

Other than that, not much else to report. T-day in Seattle with the bro, a week in NYC with an old friend, then getting settled in here, ready for Christmas, watching the last of my funds slip away.

Moved onto Season 2 of Fringe and giving Leverage a second chance. Finished Dexter Season 4 last night. I’m still traumatized. Fantastic show…they don’t pull any punches. Hoping to start in on Supernatural Season 2 soon. Being Human was a no-go for me; the emo vampire dude was waaay over the top annoying, I couldn’t even look at him. Watched Slither and Gremlins recently. Both were awesome. Definitely to-purchase. Great fun. Excited about Chuck’s Season 3 and Burn Notice’s continuation in January too. Workin’ away at my to-watch lists…

I’ve been on a pretty major Star Wars kick lately. Partly nostalgia (I found my first screenplay – a Star Wars fanfilm, almost 70 pages!), partly reading Death Troopers (fun!) and partly finally getting around to watching Star Wars Clone Wars from Cartoon Network. Pretty awesome series, I’m having a blast. You know it’s good when it gets you excited about watching the prequels. Yea. That’s serious.

Listening to lots of industrial and gothic, generally dark stuff lately…Rammstein mostly but Imperative Reaction, Assemblage 23, Zombie Girl a bit, I:Scintilla, Heimataerde, Icon of Coil and Birthday Massacre. Got Nightwish’s Dark Passion Play on in the background right now. Never a baddie :P. Awesome album.

Hope all’s well with everybody reading. And everybody not reading. And no I didn’t get you presents. Have great holidays! :)

Now, I haven’t read the book in years, but I’ll do my best to remember… The plot was different from the book, but it needed to be; there wouldn’t have been enough story or development to adapt it straight from book to screen. So some changes were made. The monsters though were great, just how I remembered them, and Max, while obviously a child actor’s version of Max, was pretty darn close to what I remember from the books. Maybe a little more sad or angry than I’d expected, but then again, changes needed to be made for the film.

When it comes down to it, it wasn’t exactly what I’d expected, but it hit the spot. It’s a mature look at what it means to be a kid, and sure, the emotion’s shared and loved by everyone, but it’s damn good to be reminded every now and then. Basically I went in for a reminder of childhood, of imagination and innocence, and I got teary enough times to be satisfied that the movie was doing its job. I remember sitting in my room playing with Legos for hours and hours, building bigger and bigger castles, ninja fortresses, even a cowboy ghost town at one point. Oh yea… and the pirate ships…oh, did I love my pirates. There was no reason not to play, no reason not to explore and imagine and create things, and I feel that’s something I’ve lost a bit of now, growing up. Things need to be justified, planned, organized. Sometimes I think we all need to take a few steps back, chill, and let the wild rumpus start.

Official release date is November 25, so head out to the theaters then and git yer butt in gear for some fun!

The Eclipse

I haven’t seen a cross between a pretty serious drama and a jumpy horror film before, so in that respect this was cool to watch. Also, horror’s usually a living-room deal for me, so the audience reactions were fun, even if the scares weren’t too serious. Just some jump moments, and I suppose the heavier, slower-paced, serious drama bits and the somewhat-quirky comedic bits made the scary jumps more jumpy. What first drew me to this was hearing Aidan Quinn in the cast list, ‘I haven’t seen him in anything for ages,’ I thought, so I went along for the ride. He, along with the rest of cast (male lead, Ciarán Hinds, and female lead, Iben Hjejle) gave good performances in what’s essentially an entertainment piece that dabbles in emotion and fear, loss, grief and a bit of humor. Another film about life (adding to the day’s previous movies), this ended on a good note, a realistic one I thought, better than the usual romantic fare we get in mainstream cinema. Final word(s): good stuff :D.

Links:

VIFF Listing
IMDB

Been attending VIFF today, saw two films so far and thought I’d share my..thoughts.

The Anchorage

As far as a barebones indie first feature film effort goes, not bad. As far as an engaging, energetic, complex or intriguing film – visually or story-wise – not so much. Given the fact their goal was to make ‘something you wouldn’t normally see in Hollywood theaters’, it was alright. They said in a Q&A afterward, responding to a question about the acting we’re used to as being very expressive of emotion all the time, ‘but you don’t always express emotion, do you?’ More interesting than the questions were the answers, their seemingly interested-in-their-art while disinterested-if-you-didn’t-understand-it attitudes made for somewhat amusing back-and-forths between the filmmakers and the audience. There was a time when I’d have enjoyed this more, just not my type of movie really anymore.

Links:

VIFF Listing

Cooking History

This was a bit more my style: European history – specifically war stories – told by military cooks from Germany, Russia, Czechoslovakia, Serbia, Algiers, Croatia and France. It was interesting and sadistically amusing to see the contrast between these jovial cooks and their stories about the brutalities of war and watch their methods of killing and slaughtering animals (yes, multiple times) and preparing meals. A constant awareness is kept, however, of each of these people’s struggles during and after the wars. They’re very human, very worn and experienced, very real. Ultimately a portrait of people in war, food and moving on, it’s entertaining, touching, humorous, honest and pretty solid.

Links:

VIFF Listing
Film Website

There’s another coming up tonight, so I’ll letcha know about that ‘un too at some point. It’s an Irish thriller-romance…so yea, I’m lookin’ forward to it :P.

Link: Leaving A CG Blood Trail

EDIT: Eh, it’s fun. Nevermind some of the iffy effects and the not-new hero story. Decent fun.

Via io9.