A couple of editing projects

We were given about 24 hours to shoot and edit 2 films that captured a certain emotion within a person's head based on the opening scene of Apocalypse Now. There was probably a better way of explaining that, but enjoy.



Eliot Dewberry in 'Joy'




Me in 'Physical Pain'

21.

(If you can't stomach sentimentality, you might want to just skip this one.)

So... as of today, I have completed the first 21 years of my life, and I was hoping I could take a moment to thank all of the people who have been a part of them.

- my friends from Findlay
- my classmates at St. Al's
- all of the teammates and coaches from baseball, basketball, and football
- all the Titans I've known
- my teachers at St. John's
- the girls I knew while in high school
- my friends on the bluff
- my heroes in Sursum Corda
- my aunts and uncles and cousins
- my two favorite people in the world: Granny and Pawpaw
- and of course, my father, my mother, and Greg and Kevin
- everyone else who doesn't fit into a broad category of people I've known yet has had an impact on my life (e.g. Barbara, Marcy Kaptur's staff, Kirsten, LPI, etc.)

If it was all over today, I would be satisfied, and in fact, would consider myself overwhelmingly lucky to have experienced the love and companionship of such an interesting and wonderful group of people.

I listen to the wind,
To the wind of my soul.
Where I'll end up, well I think
Only God really knows.
I've sat upon the setting sun
But never, never never never
I never wanted water once
No, never, never, never.

I listen to my words but
They fall far below.
I let my music take me where
My heart wants to go.
I swam upon the devil's lake
But never, never never never
I'll never make the same mistake
No, never, never, never.

- Cat Stevens "The Wind"


The cake my host mother here in Germany Kirsten baked for me



In case I never thanked you, I want you to know it meant the world to me.
RM 1987-2005

The End of the Beginning

Where do I begin with this one?

I don't pretend to know everything (or even anything, to be honest) about how Loyola Marymount University establishes its drug policies. But after having been a part of the events of the last 72 or so hours here in the Deuce, I know enough to be able to say that something has to change.

Here's a little recap... Nick Stewart (star of my Cinematography Final) was laying in bed on Wednesday night, unable to sleep and very hungry because his host family had chosen not to feed him that particular evening. So he made a decision that changed the course of this semester for a lot of us: He rolled a joint and lit it up in his bedroom, confident that his host parents wouldn't smell it.

However, he woke up soon after to the sound of pounding on his door cutting through his headphones. It was his host father who had, in fact, smelled the weed, and had come to aggressively inform Nick it was "not okay." Regardless of what he said next, whether as Nick tells it, he said he wasn't going to tell the AIB, or as CJ in the office tells it, he said that he was, he did.

And Nick, being the honest guy that he is, admitted to it. So... Professor Howard Lavick was legally obligated to pass the information on to LMU whose policy is one of zero tolerance for any sort of drugs on study abroad programs. So on Friday, I got to see the best display of efficiency I have ever seen come out of LMU, and Nick was dragged away and put on an airplane for Los Angeles on Saturday morning.

Many many questions and problems with this scenario. I've been thinking and drinking on it for the past couple of days, and I am genuinely unhappy with a number of things:

First of all, it's important to get out of the way that Nick was an idiot. I do not deny that at all. As stated by numerous staff workers at the AIB, find a park, find an alley, but why, when you know you don't get along with your host family, would you blaze in your bedroom? But that's obvious. Let's go to the bigger issues here.

Loyola Marymount University... Whose side are you on? Where is the compassion and desire for justice that defines what I expect from a Jesuit school? Where is the university's responsibility to its students?

When Nick gets back, he will have an appeal, naturally, but even if he wins his appeal, he won't be coming back to Germany. Having forced him to fly home on his own dollar is already a thousand dollar penalty. To fly back is another thousand dollars, and while some Lions may be able to afford that, many cannot. And he can't enroll in classes in Westchester at this point in the semester. So he might as well have doused about $15 thousand in lighter fluid and burned it. At least that would have been entertaining.

And furthermore, what is up with this reefer madness in the judicial affairs office? Isn't marijuana just like a ticket in California these days? So many of my LMU friends have gotten caught with weed, and what happens to them? A tall glass of urine here and there for someone who's into that sort of thing to analyze, and Matt Smith never misses a class. How difficult would it be to do a trans-Atlantic appeal involving some letter writing or conference-calling, and finding a Deutsch man to examine Nick's liquid gold every now and then?

Here in the Deuce, it's actually legal to have 10 grams of weed on you.

Oh, and just for the record, apparently official judicial affairs policy is that students have to be 21 years old to drink in any country, but they are too afraid to try to enforce it. They're not interested in starting study abroad programs in Iran or Afghanistan.

So... to sum things up: Nick, it's sappy, but we're going to miss you. We'll be pouring out liquor for you all semester. I hope you find a way to put this all in perspective and find a little peace. Hopefully, this is how change starts.

War Photographer

To all my fellow anti-warriors...

We watched a documentary today in my last cinematography class about a man named James Nachtwey: a photographer who has held a camera at more tragedies than the cameramen and -women who cover the Green Bay Packers.

All unfunny/inappropriate sports reference/jokes aside, he is a truly admirable man and a new hero of mine, and both the doc and his photos (which can be found here at his website) are well worth a look.

Check out my final project for my Cinematography class below while you're here. As I told my class, I was going to do more of the song, but I ran out of drugs. ;-)

Cinematography Final Project

Get this video and more at MySpace.com

Amsterdam photos another time, friends.

Spain Preview

So I went to Spain over the weekend, spent about 3 days in Barcelona and 1 on the island of Ibiza. And it was a strange mixture of Heaven and Hell. Think compassionate Belarusians, Irish bachelorette parties, World Heritage Sites, beach massages, 2 for the price of 1 pints of beer with Eddie, missed flights, and sweltering subway stations, and you'll be on the right track.

Or being able to put my luggage anywhere except on my shoulder.

And not sleeping in a bed the whole time I was there.

Unfortunately, the battery of my camera died, and I can't find the charger since Anthony rearranged the room, but when I do, I'll give you the full exposé with photos. But in the meantime, here's another Mike Milestone for you taken by Anthony after I smuggled (actually, I'm pretty sure it's legal, but it's more fun to say I smuggled it) what was left of it back to Düsseldorf.