clever peasant pharmacy

20 Years after the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Accident:

http://todayspictures.slate.com/inmotion/essay_chernobyl/

All fifteen of the Wis-Kino Madison 150 films are now available free online at:

http://www.wis-kino.com/madison150

First off, does anyone know how to turn off the automatic emails that get sent out by Friendster for EVERY SINGLE NEW POST on my blog? I do apologize for that, folks.

#1 - [unknown title]
Some shots were quite lovely (tree blossoms, twilight through windows, reflections in a windshield). Other shots were annoyingly jerky, and unfortunately, the film overall did not flow well.

#2 - [unknown title]
One person’s experience of conception, pregnancy and birth, interspersed among a great deal of vintage and found footage. Mainly humorous, with an anti-amniocentesis ("human quality control") bit.

#3 - "Straight Boys"
Some good acting, especially by the two hot guys at the center of the plot. OK, so the definitely-gay undergrad falls for his roommate, who is seemingly-straight and has a girlfriend. But WHY, after they kiss and admit that they love each other, do they immediately feel as if they have "broken up" rather than gotten together? This climactic moment somewhat inexplicably acts as a spell-breaker rather than a charm.

#4 - "Mona Lisa"
The plot was very similar to "Dad & Me" (see yesterday’s post), but the overall quality (acting, setting, cinematography, sound quality) was higher. Son feels trapped by his fairly helpless mother, and is about to escape for the night, but finds that blood is thicker than water. For the third time, the title does not convey significant meaning.

#5 - "Kitchen"
The filmmaker, who’s done sound engineering for years, created a song from common kitchen noises, and a music video to match. One of a series that he plans to release as a DVD/CD. Enjoyable.

#6 - "Monster Team"
The first live action episode in an animated series. Along the lines of "adult swim." Not really my thing, but funny at times.

#7 - "Status Quo"
A man finds that the world starts "skipping" around him, like a broken record (do kids these days even know what that means?).  Ends in a "Through the Looking Glass"-esque manner.

#8 - "Scream At Me"
First-rate acting and cinematography, especially considering it was the filmmaker’s first piece.  Would have liked some more character development, especially after the protagonist made it out of the hood, to solidify the contrast between his new and old life.

A great variety of film types and genres!

"Dad & Me" (Donn Kennedy)
Not all recovered memories are bad.  I’m a sucker for tales of redemption.  Could have benefited from better sound quality on the voice-over and a more convincing portrayal of the angry father.  I also had a hard time buying into the initial premise that Alzheimer’s sufferers sometimes create false memories, since I’d never heard this before.  I believe Kennedy said this was his first film - very impressive - and he usually does music videos.

"Basketball" (Anne Morningstar)
Strong hand-drawn animation - again, I think Morningstar said this was her first such film - alas, the script wasn’t nearly as powerful.  It took several hundred drawings to make this one minute film; yikes!

"Ornithology" (Caroline Kastelic)
I was most impressed by the cinematography of this stop-action film (mostly claymation).  There wasn’t a clear motive behind the horror aspect, though I’m strangely glad that it didn’t come across as a heavy-handed message against animal experimentation, because it would have lost its charm.

"Split" (Doug Roland, Jackson Myers)
I was actually surprised by the ending.  I thought it would come down to a choice for the protagonist between a) letting his girlfriend take the fall, and b) turning himself in as a deserter.  Instead, the filmmakers posed a choice between a) escaping with his girlfriend as an armed fugitive, and b) letting his girlfriend take the fall.  If the protagonist did, indeed, let his girlfriend take the fall, then it seems he valued escaping more than he valued his girlfriend, and so maybe he’s more of an anti-hero.  I think the filmmakers should have done more to bring closure to the father’s part of the story.

"Skin Tone" (Eric Gerber)
The landscape and bird shots were lovely in black and white; the blood and scab shots were very difficult to watch and not all that interesting in black and white.  I didn’t find a strong thread to tie it all together.

"Plastic Fangs" (Andrew Rosas)
Could have gone in so many different directions, but none of the potential stories really went anywhere.  Almost all of the footage appeared to be vintage 1970s/1980s (Halloween costumes, cars, etc.); if it was all contemporary, I would be awestruck.  Did he weave old and new footage together?  The title doesn’t really sum things up or evoke a theme for me.

"The Road that Takes You There is the Road that Leads You Back" (Michele Isaac)
Captivating and mysterious play of light and shadow.  I want to know how this was shot!  Again, the title doesn’t help all that much to tie things together, but the music/sound was a lovely match.

"Passed" (Luke Kalteux)
Good story (is the premise factual?).  I enjoyed the acting of the man playing the prisoner more than the other characters, though the sound quality needed to be higher in order to catch some of his lines.  Poses some good moral dilemmas - is one person’s life worth more than another’s?  Who decides?  The ending scene of the wife at her husband’s funeral needed to be more obvious.

My housemate Jill Hopke and I found out this week that our short film was selected for inclusion in the Madison Sesquicentennial program - yay!  If you’re in the Madison area, we’d like to invite you to stop by one of the following screenings:

Saturday 3/25  7:00pm+
–Hypatia Housing Co-op, 102 East Gorham Street (entrance on Pinckney Street)
–We’ll show our 10-minute film + housemate Zsuzsi Nagy’s 5-minute film, multiple times
–Refreshments provided

Sunday 4/9  1-3pm *and* 4-6pm
–Monona Terrace Convention Center, Lecture Hall Theater
–Both screenings will include all eight short films selected for the Madison 150 program
–http://www.cityofmadison.com/planning/150/
–http://www.wis-kino.com/madison150

Our film is called "A Sense of Place: A Social History of 102 East Gorham Street."  It’s a brief chronicle of those who have lived in the 150-year-old building where I now live (including a two-time Madison mayor, a director of the UW-Madison School of Music, fraternity members, nursing home residents, and members of three housing co-ops).

I had been loving this winter, with its lack of snow/ice and more warm days than average.  My husband had been sick for a while, and snoring at night, but I figured that couldn’t last much longer.  Then he was diagnosed with cancer (diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, to be exact), at the age of 34.

I’m not all "poor me" or "how could this happen?" or anything.  Shitty things happen to young people, and good people, all the time.  My brother, for example, was diagnosed with cancer four years ago, at the age of 35.  One of my old bandmates fell while visiting a construction site, and became a paraplegic in his 20’s.

While I would normally be in a funk around this time of year (having run out of my stored-up sunlight), I am now in a downright foul mood.  Everything and everyone annoys me.  In fact, you could call me a Bitch On Wheels.  Just warnin’ ya.

They told us on the first day of grad school orientation that we should forget about trying to get a job in Madison.  But, um, I moved back to Madison from California because I had a crazy dream that this is where I wanted to live for the rest of my life.

Now that dream has come true.  That’s right, folks, I have managed, through blood, sweat, tears, and luck, to land myself a freakin’ librarian position at the UW-Madison.  Not only that, but it’s permanent, and full-time.  The Holy Grail!!!

My new job is at Wendt Library (where I currently work), as a Marketing Coordinator, and liaison to three departments in the College of Engineering.  I welcome any and all suggestions from y’all.  While I have some marketing background from my former life in non-profit management, I’m trying to get up to speed ASAP.

Thanks for all of your encouragement, and for those of you still on the job hunt, remember: the impossible takes a little longer.  I have faith in you.

I successfully pulled off the 7.5 hour interview on December 13th, and I’ve been waiting ever since to hear back from the search committee.  I’ve experienced a wide array of emotions about the potential result, to the detriment of my day-to-day productivity at work.

In other news, I finally did something I’ve been wanting to do for a while: calculated the average known lifespans of my ancestors.  The average lifespan of women (n=25) is 78.2, or 79.7 without including the shortest lifespan.  The average lifespan of men (n=27) is 70.7, or 71.8 without including the shortest lifespan.  Fun fun!

Wow, so this is what it’s like.  It isn’t as if absolutely everybody’s falling all over themselves to assure me that I’m a shoo-in for the job, but yeah, I do have an incredible advantage.  And some people have been very sweet and encouraging.  Which isn’t to say that the interview/presentation process is any less stressful.  Oh, and what the heck am I supposed to talk about with my co-workers ALL DAY LONG?  I just don’t have that many questions left about the job and workplace after three months.  Anyway, wish me luck!

Caught Pupy (inexplicably pronounced poo-pee) Costello’s last standing gig at the Crystal Corner last night, and a good time was had by all.  Good showing by area librarians and librarians-to-be!

The son (Charles) of my two favorite teachers from crappy old D.C. Everest High School (LeeAnn and Ron Hughes) sat in on guitar for a song.  My bestest old friend George used to baby-sit Charlie.  Small world.