in case you haven't heard,

i am fucking done with this quarter. for the most part it had its way with, pummelled and humiliated me. it has stripped me of all dignity and an already unremarkable social life. this has been my last winter quarter EVER as an undergraduate--spring is on her way and things can only get better. at least that's what i'd like to believe.

this week has been comprised of me writing millions of papers, as usual. in true tony fashion, all the while i have been preoccupied with thoughts such as, "what will i do after graduation?"

or "should the theme of our apartment-warming party be 'sci-fi/b-movie' or 'everyone-dress-up-like-food' or 'hall and oates'?"

or "what color is an albuquerque sky?" or

"why is it that i've been awake for 36 hours and still am not tired?"
"why must i waste my time reading blogs?"
"is that donut still good?"



but now i can ponder these pressing matters without worrying about school. it's an odd feeling, being free. i am so used to being buried in books and lectures and papers that now when there's none of that i have no idea what to do with myself.


we hit the road in 6 days, 4 hours and 26 minutes--which reminds me, i need to get my hands on a van and some cash.

stay tuned for the "what's in your bag" post! it's all the rage in flickr-land.

paz

after three nights in jail,



i head north from toyovale,
switch to 285 in pecos, head up to red bluff.
my walk's real steady and my eyes are real cold,
but i feel like i'm all of sixteen years old,
lost in a travelodge with the television on with the sound down,
i don't feel so tough

old issues of sunset magazine to read,
sleep for 12 hours,
and dream about home.

i have no place to go so i drive up to new mexico,
fix my eyes in the rear view when i cross the stateline.
and i panic i guess, although it's quite late
i take the first exit to 128,
i am coming back to midlind,
and i hope you don't mind.

polaroids of the two of us scattered on the passenger's seat,
i drive slowly,
and evenly,
and i dream about home.

-jd


"the bluest eyes in texas

are haunting me tonight." the most beautiful english-language word combination i've heard in a long time. simply gorgeous. chloe sevigny singing it in a smoke-filled texas dive bar gives me the fucking shivers.

the weekend was spent editing my short film for ed class. initially i wasn't sure it would work out; i had to return julius' ibook this morning and the quality of the compressed video was shit. i ended up transferring the film back to mini dv tape, which saved the day. on top of that i wasn't sure how the film would be received not necessarily by the class and professor, but by the people in my group. if someone with whom i had a project was making a film for our group and i hadn't seen it yet i would likewise be skeptical, understandably so. anyway i hooked my camera to the tv, gave a little 30 second blurb and hit play. fast forward 14 minutes.

applause.



at the end of class dr. allen asked me if i edit professionally. i would not mind doing that. throughout the day i'd run into people from class and they'd shoot compliments and praises my way. it's great hearing all of that and having the ego fed, however i think that's somewhat unfair--it's always the documentary filmmaker who is awarded, never the people who are actually in it. the editing is not that difficult, especially on imovie which is ridiculously user friendly. hats off to davey g.

in 102 we watched the beginning of boys don't cry. hence the title of the post.

after class i went to an end-of-the-quarter potluck thing for work.



then i slept for a long time. later on matt, mike and i went to subway. i wasn't hungry, but whenever i walk into that place the smell of fresh bread and the we're-so-healthy-eat-fresh marketing overwhelms me.


on a side note, i think i am in love.

hey, kids, it's time for yet another

highlight reel composed of the boring things tony has done during the week. these are hand-picked episodes, people. nothing but the best for my readers. speaking of readership, i think i'm at a stable 3. yet that does not matter. if reading my blog is a meaningful experience for you, then i am happy. on to the highlights.

i went to my friends brian and carol's gallery opening and ate domestic cheese and drank mike's iced-tea-misty-breeze concoction. there were plenty of dressed-up folks yet i was wearing my panama ringer with the holes in the shoulder. there was much mingling and cheese-eating and photo-admiring. i felt like i was in a wes anderson movie--at the loquasto international film festival, or the heaven and hell cotillion.

i missed one class on wednesday to participate in an experiment at the public policy lab. they gave me 10 dollars for my time.

i drove with aleyda to dominguez high in paramount to interview david for my film. on the 10 east i followed a mark iv big yellow school bus, and kids were throwing trash out of the windows at whatever car happened to be next to them. they were trying to get the trash into people's cars through open windows. finally they hit a man in the head through the moonroof. the man turned quickly to glare at them then rear-ended the van in front of him. only in los angeles.


i went with robin from class to valencia to film another teacher interview. it was a beautiful day and we beat the friday traffic. we had mexican food for lunch. the driver's side rear-view mirror of robin's saturn is attached to the car with duct tape. that is street-cred.


at cacao kylie played nick cave's murder ballads. quite possibly the darkest album i've ever listened to. morbidly elegant. i love it. if i knew how to make coffee and wasn't in school i wouldn't mind working at cacao. doing so would undoubtedly compliment my warped sleeping schedule and give me complete control of the musical atmosphere. if i were working on that night i'd put on lee hazlewood's cowboy in sweden.

speaking of cowboys, i shall close with a spring break update:

austin, here we come.

i am itching

to get out of this town. i am tired of going to the same restaurants and seeing the same faces and driving the same freeways and walking the same boulevards and doing whatever it is i do under the same abysmal los angeles sky.

don't get me wrong, i love this city like no other yet that alone does not diminish my desire to throw a toothbrush, pair of jeans, the ipod and cameras into my bag, head to the gas station to fill up the tank, grab some cokes and smokes and just drive.



not everyone seems as excited about texas and getting outta dodge as i am.

this saddens me, you see.

i am tempted to post a message on craigslist asking strangers to hop in the damn car. or bus. or train. or plane.

i love big cities. but every now and again they seem to shrink significantly and consequently make you claustrophobic.


would you come to sunol with me? i hear it is lovely this time of year. we can drink some coffee at the gas station and feed carrots to the horses.

time travel

is fucking crazy. tonight i watched primer and the director's cut of donnie darko at the new beverly with matt and mike. they raised their prices by a dollar, but i'd pay 6 bucks for two flicks anyday. two very good flicks, mind you. the director's cut of donnie darko goes to greater lengths than the original does to explain everything. the music placement is also different. "the killing moon," to me at least, is essential to the opening scene when donnie rides his bike; nevertheless it plays at a lyrically-opportune point in the film. check it out.

between movies we went across the street to get chinese food.


chinese food makes mike happy.


yikes.

"sometimes i doubt your commitment to Sparkle Motion!"

today was by far

one of the best wednesday's i've had in a while.

**before you proceed, loyal reader, be informed that there are three posts before this one that you probably have not seen yet, since i published all 4 of these posts together. check them out if you'd like**

as i was saying, today was one of the best wednesday's i've had in a while. i skipped my first two classes--you know what, i deserved those extra hours of sleep. i've been working my ass off this quarter, and i've actually been really good about going to class. fortunately, when i miss class on monday's and wednesdays, normally i just miss a film. no problem, i can just cinefile it. i like how cinefile is a verb in my vocabulary.

i realize why this year i've been making it to class way more than i did last year. last year most of my friends lived in my building, and this year i live somewhere else. i.e., last year there was so much more screwing around and consequent staying up all night. maybe that also explains why i get so much more work done this year. the moral of the story? that friends suck and that they bring you down. screw 'em.

i made it to sociology of the family at 4pm, my last class of the day. today we watched when women kill. who knew canadian men and women could be so violent. they are such nice people, except when they steal your passports from your van in the parking lot of the brothel where you are staying the night.


oh, vancouver. you have left us broken men. nay, boys.

after class terri anderson told me to stop smoking, smoking is bad, etc etc. "really bad," she said. but not in a mean, smoking-makes-you-a-bad-person way, but rather in a genuinely concerned tone. she is a cool gal, one of the few professors who shows interest in their students as human beings. actually, she is one of the few professors who makes themselves vulnerable by showing their human side. not many do that; most of them hide behind their degrees to such a great extent that they forget that they are normal human beings. what makes her so approachable? i think it's her big, neon-green plastic-framed sunglasses. by the end of the quarter i will try to provide you with a photograph.

after class i picked up matt and drove to amoeba in the rain to see antony and the johnsons. the only song of his i heard is from the golden apples compilation, put together by none other than devendra banhart himself. freak folk. so good. and scary. antony is another artist of note on secretly canadian. the first one that has come to my attention being jans lekman. although i am/have been broken in terms of the cash, i picked up a few cds as i am stupidly accustomed to doing. believe it or not, when you buy good records you are combatting bad music. one thing i want that they didn't have was the les breastfeeders album. but they did have party of one's caught the blast for 4.99. so what if the album as a whole kinda blows--its saving grace is "baby doll," not to be confused with devo's equally-great track.

in the arclight parking lot as we were leaving, a girl asks me and matt,
"do you like indie movies?"
"we like films in general," i reply.
then she hands us a flier for invisible children, which is showing at cinespace next wednesday. i wouldn't exactly call invisible children an indie film; in some ways it is, i suppose. anyway if anyone would like to watch it, let me know--i might watch it again.

amoeba bike racks

afterwards we picked up akanksha and went to the apple pan. another restaurant cindy and tracey have been telling me to go to for quite a while. i didn't get our server's name, but he is this super cool elderly man. straight out of a 50s diner and/or mom and pop drug store, white uniform and all. he opened our soda cans for us and added up our bill--including tax--by hand right in front of us.

steakburger. so good.

as ice cube so succinctly yet eloquently once put it, "today was a good day."

last night i went home

to have dinner with my family. i went straight to my parents' house from inglewood high, where some classmates and i were going to interview a teacher for a film that i am putting together. we arrive, and guess what, the teacher isn't there, even though last friday we agreed that we would meet tuesday.

this is why i hate group projects; i'm not calling certain people in my group unrealiable (well, maybe in an indirect, roundabout way i am), but she really should have confirmed the date with the teacher, since she's the one who knows him. not just one day, but two days have i gone to inglewood high to film the interview with this teacher. the second time is more excusable, since the date was actually agreed upon. however last friday i assumed that we had an appointment with the teacher, but apparently we didn't.

this is why i hate group projects. particularly large group projects.

after dinner julius and i played a crapload of double dash. good times.