So I'm sitting at my desk, reading my cracked out 10-minute scene (note: never write under the influence of dayquil). I hear some guy downstairs talking really effing loudly and i think, "Self. Keep reading, read louder than that loud ass dude who's having a convo with some other annoying dude. Do your thing."

So I keep reading. Enthusiastically as I can be between my coughing fits, and after I've had my non-ego stomped into smithereens during our horrific class earlier this evening.

I keep reading, and then I notice that the streetlamp is violently shaking outside my window. I think "Earthquakes, in New York? It's the Day after Tomorrow!" (well we did have a hail storm last night, so it's not that far outside the realm of possibilities.)

No. It wasn't an earthquake. Just some guy, shimmying about on the streetlamp right outside my window. And I mean eye-level with me. I make eye-contact and then he says, "Sounds good!"

And I ran out of the room, faster than anything you've ever seen. I leapt out of that chair with a "holy shit!"



I snuck back in later and closed the window curtains.


Also. Some fun quotes from today:

me: I wish I could become an invisible speck so that no one will call on me for the rest of class.
The Pillowman: I can do that!
*hugs me*
The Pillowman: See. Now no one can see you!
Me: Can you just do that for the rest of class? Thanks.

D: I don't even smoke, but I'll be damned if you don't take it up by the end of the semester.

My Nemesis: (with the saddest face of all time) I thought writing was supposed to be fun.
Me: Hell no. Why do you think all writers are alcoholics.

Welcome to the Night Shift.

I go through periods where I post a lot on here and post next to nothing. Probably because I still have no clue what I want this blog to actually be.

Let's just say that I'm sick. Sick as a dog. And of course, it's the weekend that Hayley's visiting. I spent 2/3s of today asleep and now I have to get up for...ice cream? Idk, something (read: everything) is open at new york at this hour. All I really want to do is watch a movie and sleep some more, though.

A lot of homework, I have the first scene of my full-length play due wednesday, the summary for my screenplay due thursday, 2 revised monologues to send it by tuesday, a revised 10 minute screenplay, and either an edited or entirely new 10-min play for the playwriting festival that's due tuesday.
Have I done any of this?

Hell No!

I want to go back to sleep.

Things I Have Learned Over the Weekend

1. People who laugh or talk in an absurdly loud manner during the middle of a serious movie (Read: Never Let Me Go), should be shot and strung up as a warning to all. It's embarrassing.

2. Must remember that in most places, you'd never hear the phrase "So my waterpolo coach..."

3. It's exciting to procrastinate. Especially when that procrastination involves a nap and then trolling through your itunes list and rediscovering music.

4. Cats like to eat power cords. Cats are also Satan's minions hiding behind cute and fluffy façades. Until they attack you during said nap.

5. Boardwalk Empire is fantastic. Bored to Death is also fantastic, and starts tonight. Weeds is tonight and is slightly less fantastic, but that's okay. My procrastination means a big fat NO to all 3. Boo.

Writing Concepts

Inspiration for 10 Min screenplay #1:




Orpheus myth


Inspiration for 10 Min Screenplay #2:
And what will you do with a girl, if she refuses to be alive?- Laura Marling




(all from color me katie
Agoraphobia: is a fear of being in places where help might not be
available. It usually involves fear of crowds, bridges, or of being
outside alone.



Inspiration for Full-length Play:








Inspiration for Full-length Screenplay:
this article
This scene in Generation Kill

This Ep of the Twilight Zone

this film

The cat that I'm taking care of for the next 2 weeks.


Tonight I have to:
write a 10 min screenplay
edit my 10 min play
watch House of Sand and Fog
Watch Mystic River
Reread Hamlet
Reread The Pillowman (for Tuesday)
Read a screenplay that I haven't even checked out yet.
and something else. I can't remember.

It's been an odd last few days. Between the tornado in Brooklyn, beginning house sitting, a run-in with Premium Rush, about a dozen different completely off-their-rockers men, an hour long subway wait and eventually getting back at 3 am... it's been strange to say the least.

I was up in Alphabet City last night for a rooftop party, which was excellent. you could see EVERYTHING from there.

An in accordance to true writer fashion, we did a reading of one of the 10 minute plays


Discussed the (delicious) beauty of vegan rasberry pie


and wished Happy Birthday to the kid who's actual birthday it was.

(and that was before everyone showed up)

The rest of the weekend will consist of me watching House of San and Fog and Mystic River for Monday's class, reading 2 plays for Tuesday, writing a 10 minute screenplay, and writing a 10 minute play (which I have to take in tomorrow to be read, egads)!

Oh,and don't forget...

I have an obsession with looking at pretty pictures of food. Specifically breakfast food. I'm not sure what this says about me, though I suspect it has something to do with being on a diet since I was 12 years old.


niotillfem

simplybreakfast
cannelle et vanille
prettyfoods

I also learned today that using those flavored dairy creamer-things as though they are milk is a bad idea.

5 Things I have Learned over the last 3 days

1. I need rainboots that don't smell like burning rubber.

2. The only people who party more than writers are lighting designers.

3. (This is a two-parter) Why do I write? To understand people. When I am unable to write I can feel the world slowly closing in on me. So I'm selfish. Am I any good at it? Yes, but not good enough. I am, however, very good at bullshitting last minute assignments and speed-reading.

4. I would sell my first born to see GATZ


5. I wish I was little bit taller
I wish I was a baller

Gotta Love Writers

I don't know what it is about writers. You get them together and they won't stop drinking, talking, eating food (singing Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake) until the wee hours of the morning.

The Second Years threw a party way far out in Brooklyn. After not making the Next to Normal Lottery and leaving Greg to the emotional wreckage that is the musical (love it, but am destroyed by it), I slowly got ready and headed over. Took a year and a half, but the view from their roof was fantastic.




We were up there, before getting kicked out by security and making our way (back) down to the apartment. Cue random singing, discussions about plays, analyzing our teachers and general revelry. Eventually we were back up on the roof, until 3 something and we decided to get our butts home. Which took forever. It helped that I walked another girl home to Alphabet City and then walked back to Greenwich Village por mi sola. When I finally got back (at quarter to 5) some guy was outside my window screaming about the beauty of shoulder blades and and beautiful girls with beautiful hair. Who knows, man.

I've also come to the conclusion that I am no longer 19 and 5 hours of sleep makes me feel like I've been beaten with a 2x4. But I could definitely be feeling worse. Much,much worse.

Dear Dudes of New York,
Stop telling me to smile, no I will not give you a hug, and the day Hell freezes over is the day I have a "good time" with you. Instead, I will do what I want. And that means seeing a musical and ignoring your creepy ass advances that have more to do with the fact that I'm walking alone and you want to feel like a He-Man rather than anything else.

PS I saw La Cage and was pleasantly surprised.

PSS More musicals this weekend, plus some random mixer-thing with the first and second DDW kids. I foresee all the firsts doing their thing. It's awesome that we're already this tight. I also have to come up with 2-3 ideas/plots for screenwriting (full length by Thanksgiving), figure out what I want to write about for playwriting (2 by the end of the term), read like 4 or 5 plays and write for an hour each day. HOW AWESOME IS THAT. I just need to remind myself that I AM writer, that I'm capable, that I got into this program for a damn good reasons... and that means I should take my own writing relatively seriously or at least have a bit of faith in it.

And now I'm going to go to sleep so that I can wake up early and do some homework.


k, goodnight. Let's kick it, old school.

Yeah, so this is my room...now. I still need to fix the curtains, get a light bulb and a chair for my desk. Then I'll be set!




And I filmed it for my mother, hence the blowing kisses. That's not for all y'all.


oh and


mine is a crochet'd blanket. though if i turn a wee bit then it's a pair of badass scissors. so that would be good.

*

Me: Michael, if I were a song, what would I sound like?
Brother: I don't know.
Me: Write me a song, then!
Brother: Okay.

He is a boy of few words, but he wrote me a song! I seriously cried like a baby when I heard it.

I still haven't done my reading, I'm freaking out about tomorrow, and I have an idea for a story that's just for me, no one else (so that I don't seem like the crazy person in my class).

BUT THE POINT IS... MY BROTHER IS A BAMF.

*Yes, I'm white-trashtacular and recorded that on my camera and then uploaded it. I couldn't link the vid otherwise.

The heat and humidity finally broke, my chair and desk were delivered, and I start school on Tuesday. I'm trying to come up with ideas as quickly as humanly possible, and I'm nervous about failing.

Tonight the Dramatic Writing MFA students are all meeting at a pub on the LES. So far they all seem wonderful. It's strange, it's like I've met all these people who think like I do and look at the world in a slightly altered version of my own. Our Dean's Welcome was actually inspiring, telling us that we have something to contribute to the world. It was everything that Santa Clara's Welcome wasn't.

I'm excited and nervous and hoping that I'm not a one-hit wonder and that I'll be able to think up some more ideas and finish something for once.

4 trailers and a song

If you were to ask me what song I find most inspirational, I would say


If you were to ask me what film I find most inspirational I wouldn't be able to choose, I'd probably say Days of Heaven.

Or Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

or Children of Men.

or finally, The Motorcycle Diaries

I went to my orientation yesterday.
It was... AWESOME. We have the woman who wrote Monsoon Wedding and she's scary and wonderful. We have lot so other people who are scary and wonderful as well. Nothing is quite as amazing as having a writer tell you about grad school and life because they make it sound so beautiful and snazzy.

Also, the people in my program are pretty awesome. Most are in TV and Film, there are only 4 or 5 of us in Playwriting (for now) but I'm not sure how things will change. I met a bunch of them, can only remember some of their names, but what can you do. There are only about 17 of us. One of the kids was in my undergrad, which is just ridiculous(ly awesome).

After orientation (which was supposed to end at 4) about 8 of us decided to go to MacDougal Street Ale House and sat around for 2 hours talking about playwriting, screenwriting, how awesome we think the teachers are... It's pretty awesome to explain why you love writing plays to someone who's only ever been a screenwriter and then have someone actually agree with you. To see your passion reflected in someone else's eyes is fantastic.

my bro's videos! he wrote the songs himself, so i'm a proud big sister.

"Other detectives have cases, Sherlock Holmes has adventures, and that's what matters."






This show is awesome, and Moriarty is Fabulous! (and so is everyone else)

After 15 minutes of internet sleuthery, I finally figured out the spoiler ending for Catfish.

The trailer makes the film look fantastic, obviously:


It's also received amazing reviews pretty much everywhere (including all throughout Sundance).

Herein lies the problem:

See that tagline?
I have a problem. When someone tells me not to do something, I just get the urge...It's like how I have to physically restrain myself every time I pass by a fire alarm (Note: I'm also a licensed Fire Guard for all film/theater establishments in the state of New York). Tangent aside, I had to figure out the ending. I HAD to. And whomever has been in charged with keeping the reporters, reviewers, et al hushed up over the twists and turns of the film- well, they're doing a good job. But if it's on the internet, there's a damn good chance I can find it. It's my Nancy Drew ways.



On another note, it's hot as blazes and I'm dying in my loft right now. I really don't feel like sleeping on the floor again. :/










...I bet you thought i was going to spoil you, right?
No way, Jose.

Who do you take me for?

OT: True Blood, why are you ending so soon!? At least I'll have Being Human, Dexter, and Boardwalk Empire to keep me occupied.

I think this is how I know whether or not I'm a hipster

Real MTV Ad-thing:
"I Just Want My Pants Back is a new MTV series to be directed by Doug Liman, the man who brought you Go, Swingers, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, and The Bourne Series and Central Casting is looking for you. We need people to be Extras who can portray Hipsters. If you are not sure if you can portray a hipster, answer these questions:

Do you own skinny jeans, old school chucks, cabbie hat, the 70’s vest, an ironic t shirt or hat*, a fitted sweater (n/a since I'm a girl), flannel shirt, or chunky lens-less glasses? Do you drink PBR, have an ironic mustache, have a blog that allows you to post pictures you took with your digital camera? Been called a hipster? Deny being a hipster, but own various wardrobe and sport an asymetrical hair style that is considered Non-Mainstream? Smoke Parliaments? Got any cool tattoos? Perhaps one of a star, maybe on your wrist or elbow? Own a vintage dress or have an awesome beard? Shooting the week of 8/30/2010 (Williamsburg)."

***
Things that I don't do are crossed out. Things that make me hipsterish are italicized. All photos are ripped from the headlines borrowed from Look at that Fucking Hipster. I am too lazy to take pictures of things that make me look like a hipster. I think I loser hipster points because of that.

* Does a HIPPIES EAT BABIES shirt count? It has a woodstock logo on the side.

THE REAL QUESTION IS: AM I A HIPSTER? DOES GOING TO NYU AUTOMATICALLY MAKE ME ONE?
Perhaps you need a case study: Today, I took my shoes off and stood in the Washington Square fountain. I was wearing jorts with my chunky black frame PRESCRIPTION glasses. As I stood in the fountain, letting the mist soothe my sunburned shoulders, I drank coconut juice that I had purchased for a ridiculous price (I need to keep my electrolytes in check). Do all these things, a hipster make? Or should I have been glowering like the sourpuss who sat across from me at the park. Her pointy toed shoes must have been cramping, and her large Anne of Green Gables hat did little to protect her from the jollity of a sunday afternoon in Downtown Manhattan. /case study

***
If you'd like to spend hours standing in the sun with sweaty mountain men and american apparel afficionados, go Here.

This Hipster announcement has been brought to you by the "I was popular in high school" people of MTV, who are apparently attempting to garner some hipster cred by pandering to the "I spend too much money to look this cheap" crowd living the neo-bohemian chic lifestyle. Not judging, I'm probably just as bad. And the fact that hipster fashion is now mainstream probably means that hipsters of ye olden days are dead (well, the subculture, not the people themselves).

Hipster Spiderman thanks you for your time,