in the city of angels
so i moved to los angeles. as is to be expected, it was a long and complicated process, no part of which i ever had the energy or desire to immortalize by blogging about it. but i'm here.
it's been about two and a half months now, and i'm finally starting to feel a little like i've got my life in order. i supposedly have a job coming up at the beginning of next month, but i don't know many specifics about it, so it's all very much in the air. hopefully i will write semi-regularly about my first real forays into film industry employment.
what's currently on my mind: two nights ago my roommate james and i hosted a dinner party at our apartment, which turned into festive merrymaking as the night wore on. there were less than ten people, and no one was being overtly obnoxious or anything, but eventually my manager (who lives directly below me) decided that we were being too loud and called me five times to tell us to cool it. i know we were being a little disturbing and that he was well within his rights to hold us to the apartment rules, but it was also a friday night and we were not being unruly in any way; we were simply being as loud as ten people in a room will inevitably be. each time we tried to be quieter, but it eventually became clear that the only solution to the problem would be to send everyone home.
the next day i felt pretty bad about it and went downstairs to apologize, but he was still pretty visibly upset about it. i hate being on bad terms with people, especially people who hold some sort of authority over me. to make matters somewhat worse, i've actually gotten along really well with my manager so far and i think he's a really nice guy. he just has vastly different standards for noise disturbance than i'm used to (and i'll be the first to admit that it's a direct result of having lived in a college town for the last four years).
in any case, it's had me a little bummed out this whole weekend, and it has more or less indirectly spurred my first real bout of homesickness and nostalgia. what would have been a really fun and enjoyable night in austin became incredibly stressful in la. i miss what battlehouse used to be. i miss all of our friends, and i miss being the place where people always came to hang out. i realize that my current apartment will never be that, and in fact i would be surprised if james and i ever hosted another party here again. it's just the way it has to be.
i think things will start to feel better when i'm working. but for the moment, i'm just sort of left to sit around and dwell on the now somewhat strained relationship we have with the management and the next 9.5 months (if not more) of running an excruciatingly grown-up household.
monday, august 17th, 2009 at 3:17 am • permalink • comment
so at least my elbow isn't broken.
the last couple of days in clear lake have been pretty productive.
first, an update on my injury issues. i had my appointment with the ortho doctor yesterday and he confirmed that my shoulder was progressing well towards healing itself, albeit slightly slower than we were hoping. i'm allowed to lose the brace contraption but i'm supposed to continue wearing a simple sling for at least another week and then wean myself off of it. it's at least partially good news. he also took a look at my elbow (which has been pretty sore) but was able to rule out any fractures there, so that's also good. i have an appointment with my old friend the spine surgeon tomorrow so we can see if i've managed to do any damage to my back.
plans for my move are starting to be solidified, and it's pretty exciting and scary at the same time. i have a definite move date of june 5th, though i'll most likely make a trip out there a week or so in advance to try to get an apartment lease signed. i'm doing a lot of looking online, but there's only so much you can do before you have to actually just look at the places.
wednesday, april 22nd, 2009 at 3:59 am • permalink • comment
my body fails me, once again
so i'm back in houston to get my shoulder re-examined to determine if it's okay to stop wearing this comical cyborg brace i've been wearing for the last month. hopefully tomorrow the news will be that it's time to let my arm out of prison and start physical therapy. fingers crossed.
unfortunately, my back has started to give me problems as well. when i was hit by the wave, i felt my back crack and heard something pop, but when i found out i'd fractured my humerus, i just assumed that's what i had heard. recently though, i've had occasional sharp pain in the exact area that i felt it pop when i got hit, and according to my mom i'm displaying symptoms of a fractured vertebra (more specifically, spondylolysis). this is completely separate from my earlier back problem, which was much lower and a problem with the discs, not the bones. the long-term treatment for both is basically the same: lots and lots of core strengthening and stabilization. i just really, really hope this doesn't turn out to be a big problem because i don't know how much more dealing with my back i can take.
in other news, plans for moving to la are beginning to take a little more shape - i've done some housing research but the only thing i've really found is that i can't afford anything, no matter where i go. mom seems mostly on board with the early move, so hopefully she'll have some good ideas and advice for how to make it as cheap and painless as possible. it's going to be very emotionally stressful, though.
now, back to more marathoning of original star trek in preparation for the new movie, which is going to be awesome.
monday, april 20th, 2009 at 1:31 am • permalink • comment
moving to l.a.
the biggest decision facing me at the moment is basically what to do with the next few months of my life. i've always known i would be kicked out of battlehouse in august, and the plan was always to move to l.a. at that time. unfortunately, not much of the plan leading there has come to fruition. instead of graduating and finding a full time job to save money for the move, i graduated and found the economy in shambles. instead of spending my free time working on here-and-there film gigs, i spent my free time fracturing my left shoulder and being unable to use it for at least a month. i'm not unhappy per se, it's just that i spend a great deal of my days sitting around waiting for whatever's next. and i'm starting to get restless. more than anything, i just want to feel the kind of direction i felt when i was working hard to graduate early.
so i've really started seriously considering moving at the beginning of the summer instead of in august, say first week in june. it would certainly be a change of pace, and hopefully one that could give me back some enthusiasm and drive. to be honest, i've been feeling very blasé about my career choices recently, though i can't say how much of it is due to my current stagnation and the hurdle i now face of actually getting up and doing it. i just get this feeling that i won't really be able to sort through the bigger questions until i get out to los angeles.
there are other incentives, too. several friends - zach, ellen, and leif, probably others - will be spending the summer out there as well, so it would be nice to have people i can call to hang out with while i'm making the transition. summer is a very busy season for film (i think?), so i might have a better chance at a decent job right off the bat. somewhat selfishly, i'd like to be in socal during comic-con in july to give myself a shot at being able to go.
the only thing really holding me back is that i don't want to forfeit my last summer in austin with some of my best friends. the old adage of there never being enough time is going to be true no matter when i move, but it just feels bad skipping out on some people that i've really started to get close to recently. although in some ways i've felt more distant from a lot of people recently, too, so maybe this is the time to go. i'm just very good at talking myself in circles.
one thing is for sure - i have to decide soon and start making plans. if i do move out early, it's less than two months away and i haven't planned anything.
thursday, april 9th, 2009 at 5:40 pm • permalink • comment
25 things meme
so, i finally caved.
01. my decision to fill this out was the result of a long internal struggle between my hatred of catchy internet memes and my undying need to be accepted by the webweb and its patrons.
02. i have never eaten a mcdonald's hamburger.
03. i had a surgery to remove part of a disc in my back two summers ago, at which time my surgeon told me that i was the youngest person he (someone who has operated on at least one us supreme court justice) had ever seen with my particular problem in his career. guess i'm just that lucky.
04. my current career goals are to become a director of photography/cinematographer and to have christian bale yell at me at least once.
05. if that doesn't work out, i want to go back to school for computational linguistics, which is quite possibly the only subject as nerdy as me.
06. i worry all the time that i've picked a career not based on what it is i really want to do with my life but on what will be the most difficult and make the best story when i'm old.
07. i'm an ardent and vocal believer in the flexibility of language, but don't think that means i don't notice every single one of your spelling and grammar mistakes.
08. my mother has diagnosed me with ehlers-danlos syndrome as the cause of my aforementioned back problems, as well as myriad other bodily oddities. i have huge hands and feet.
09. i am a recovering picky eater. i pretty much don't like vegetables, and i didn't eat meat until the sixth grade, which to this day has some strange implications for my diet, such as: i only like cheese pizza. despite this, i love to cook.
10. i love movies and watch way more of them than i should, but i tend to only remember about 5% of what happened in them a week later. i have a terrible recall for story.
11. i don't really have my own "thing"; instead, i somewhat unconsciously mimic the interesting or unique personality traits of the people i'm around. that is, until i realize how pathetic that makes me.
12. i feel like i could do pretty well as a contestant on "jeopardy!".
13. my friends are starting to get married and i wonder if i'll ever find love.
14. the chair i'm sitting in just snapped in half.
15. i love languages. i have, at one point or another, thought i could teach myself russian, irish, latin, and sindarin elvish. wrong on all counts.
16. as a kid, i couldn't sleep without sucking my thumb. to get me out of the habit, my parents would paint my thumbnails with hot pepper sauce, but i was so determined that i just sucked it all off despite how painful it was.
17. my biggest fear is that i'm unknowingly an insufferable, annoying person and that everyone secretly hates me. inversely, i don't think my friends know just how much i like them.
18. no one makes me laugh harder than kat overland.
19. i could probably have been a concert pianist if i'd cared at all when i was little. now i'm old and it's too late.
20. five dollars to anyone who can explain to me why my hundreds of books are carefully organized by author's last name yet there is literally not one square foot of my floor not covered in junk.
21. people always assume i'm a much better reader than i am. it takes me forever to finish anything.
22. i've never had a pet, unless you count the time i got to take the class gerbil home for spring break.
23. i keep telling people i'm excited about moving to los angeles, but inside i'm terrified and not sure it's really the right thing.
24. i have fairly severe acid reflux problems. i take zantac like candy and usually have to tote around a bottle of tums with me. whenever i forget it, especially when sleeping away from home, i am completely miserable.
25. due to my obsessive compulsive personality traits, this has taken me several hours to type, as i have to re-read the entire list every time i add a new item.
wednesday, february 4th, 2009 at 2:38 am • permalink • comment
cave without a name
as promised, photos of the cave we filmed in two weeks ago:
our fearless dp explains the shot.
the cave's large back room.
brian inspects the camera.
saturday, january 24th, 2009 at 9:17 pm • permalink • 1 comment
happy 2009!
well, i graduated and all went well, so henceforth shall i be flung into the cold grip of adulthood.
the last couple days have been simultaneously fun, uncertain, exhausting, exciting, and depressing, but i suppose it's a little bit silly to expect manageable emotions when i'm about to enter a profession that considers 6pm-6am normal acceptable work hours. i've been working (volunteering) on a relatively high-budget graduate thesis film as a loader and occasional 2nd ac, and the first week has had far more good moments than bad, so i'm thankful for that. last night, we filmed in a cave! in fact, i'll probably put up a photo or two from the shoot.
i'm currently avoiding the many guests in my house, feeling like a depressed antisocial, but in reality i've had quite a good day, marred only by one unfortunate realization. avee and tk got back into town, and the three of us took a field trip to spec's liquor (where i bought a bottle of wine for my mom's birthday) and then grabbed a late lunch. i spent most of the rest of the day having a good conversation with zach about life, careers, friends, etc. it's always really nice to speak openly and honestly to someone who understands exactly the pressures and difficulties of what i want to do with my life. bonus awesomeness: robby and chris from ex-terminators, who i e-mailed some time ago, both responded to me today! it's great to hear from them, and encouraging as far as keeping up contacts with people out in la.
as for the unfortunate realization, let's just say that it's always disappointing to give certain people the benefit of the doubt, even repeatedly, and to be bluntly reminded that they never do anything to merit it.
tuesday, january 13th, 2009 at 12:59 am • permalink • comment
two weeks to go...
it's getting really close. i now have only three more class days left in my entire school career.
of course now that the daunting task of making a life for myself is nearly upon me i've started to be less and less sure of everything. not that i've been having real second thoughts about career choices or anything, but now that i actually have to do it...
one thing i've really been thinking about is whether i've sold myself short on choosing to focus on cinematography. i really do enjoy the photography aspect of filmmaking a lot, but i'm not sure at what point it became my sole focus, or whether i consciously picked it. there are still aspects of directing that i really like, but i've stayed away from them because everyone going into film wants to be a director and i think subconsciously i figured i would have a better shot at being successful in a less ambitious role. thus, selling myself short. that's not to say that cinematographers can't go on to be directors, but it's uncommon.
another concern i've been having is with my back condition and the amount of physical labor that goes into a set production job. it would probably be better for my health to stick to something like producing or post-production (and the frustrating thing is that i really feel like i could enjoy those jobs, too). i can already tell that my back has gotten worse again since my surgery, and it's been less than a year and a half. i honestly don't know if i can spend the next 40+ years of my life carrying heavy things around a set.
finally, i've been a lot more apprehensive about the job market recently. i've tried e-mailing both of my l.a.-based supervisors (from hancock and ex-terminators) dropping the fact that i'll be graduating soon and looking for work, and i haven't heard back from either of them. on top of that, i feel like i've been hearing from more and more people who go out to l.a. and can't make it, eventually coming back defeated and broke. the economy is pretty tanked, and i really won't be in the best financial situation upon graduating, so i'm already at a disadvantage for going out there. i'll be battling school loan repayments, high cost of living, and intermittent employment at best. i really need to buckle down and spend the next six months getting as financially stable as possible.
i feel like i've generally been pretty good about taking life in stride and adapting to new opportunities that come my way. i can't really think of anything that i've really wanted and not managed to get for myself (in the achievement sense, not the material goods sense), so i just have to keep reminding myself that it will all work out.
(i realize i never posted anything about my trip to dallas and the texas state fair, but i think it will just have to stay that way.)
thursday, november 20th, 2008 at 4:11 pm • permalink • 1 comment
a tale of two cities, part i
things have been pretty busy the last two weekends with back-to-back trips out of austin for ut football games. the first was to colorado - denver and boulder to be exact - and the second was to dallas for the red river shootout against oklahoma.
i've been to colorado only once before, for a boy scout camping trip when i was 11. that was obviously out in the wilderness, so i had never seen any of the big cities. we (four of us - me, tk, arun, and matt) flew into denver on friday afternoon and i was immediately impressed with the architecture of the airport - the white roof is designed to evoke the peaks of the rocky mountains. the weather was a little bit gloomy but it felt awesome having just come out of hot, hot austin. we rented our car, checked into our hotel, and headed for the oldest restaurant in denver, the buckhorn exchange. they're famous for their buffalo steaks, but they had way more than that. as we waited for our table, we got to order drinks and enjoy some live folk music played by one guy and his autoharp. the whole experience was incredibly relaxing and enjoyable, and by the end of the night i had dropped $80 and tried rattlesnake, elk, and buffalo all for the first time. the dinner was topped off with the buckhorn's famous dutch apple pie a la mode with cinnamon rum sauce. there's no way to describe it other than to say it was a spiritual event - the four of us agreed that it was not only the best dessert, but flat out the best food any of us had ever eaten in our lives. no exaggeration. we ended up ordering three.
after dinner, we set out in search of a place for a drink or two. i have to say i was consistently impressed with how clean and apparently affluent denver seemed to be - every building looked well-kept and interestingly designed. we came upon a bar/club right near coors field called the tavern, which, ironically enough, did not serve coors but did have shiner (a texas beer). i really enjoyed it - the dj who was spinning that night was really good and the weather was perfect for being up on the open-air roof patio. the other guys seemed to complain the whole time, but i suspect that's because they were making really lame advances on colorado girls the entire night and being repeatedly shot down. i managed to have a great time despite their negativity and my not drinking (designated driver!).
saturday we made our way out to boulder and had lunch at a local campus establishment called the sink, which was also very good. we were heckled by quite a few cu fans passing by on the street, but most of it was pretty friendly. another group of friends had rented a cabin up in the mountains for the weekend, so we went to hang out up there for a few hours and it was gorgeous. the drive was fantastic (as long as you were paying attention to the scenery and not matt's complaining about the slow car in front of us) and the cabin itself was situated right on a babbling, rocky river like something out of a bottled water commercial. the only sounds were that of nature, despite being a stone's throw from the road and two neighboring cabins on either side.
the game itself couldn't have been better - our seats turned out to be directly behind the band, so i got to spend a lot of time talking to old friends. i do have to fight off the occasional nostalgia for lhb, but in general i haven't had any problem enjoying the games just as well or better as i did my freshman and sophomore years. we ended up winning pretty soundly and met up with the other group of guys to hit the town. we headed for pearl street, which had been touted as boulder's closest equivalent to sixth street in austin; it was nothing like sixth but we found a couple different bars to hang out and get harassed by buffaloes fans in. the next morning we were up before the sun and on our way to an 8 a.m. flight back home. all in all, exhausting but totally worth it.
this turned out to be a bit longer than i was hoping, so i'll leave the dallas trip for another time.
monday, october 13th, 2008 at 7:27 pm • permalink • comment
things that are ridiculous: domino's pizza tracker
i was feeling pretty lazy tonight, and i figured, "hey, i'm a college student. i don't eat nearly enough pizza." so i decided to go ahead and order some, and because i like to avoid phones whenever possible i ordered online at dominos.com. that's when i found this:
tracking a package being shipped from hong kong is one thing. tracking my pizza from the domino's ten blocks away? that's pushing it. it even gives you the names of the people making and delivering your pizza! tonight i was taken care of by greggory and richard (the "delivery expert").
after some googling, i found that domino's claims that its tracking system is accurate within 40 seconds and is already implemented in all of their stores.
some things just make me wonder.
(oh, and if you were curious: the apparent cook time for a domino's pizza is six minutes.)
tuesday, september 30th, 2008 at 4:43 am • permalink • comment
© 2001-2008 andrew c. ewert.
|
navigation
• home
• about
• rss 2.0 feed 
about
this part-blog, part-phlog is an unreliably updated account of my adventures and misadventures. it has no real cohesive theme, but i'm apt at any moment to digress into rants on language, politics, film, and technology, or anything else that interests me at the time. for more about me and this blog, click here.
currently...
• reading: the big u - neal stephenson
• watching: veronica mars season 1
• listening: black holes and revelations - muse
me, elsewhere
• visual portfolio
• the instant ancestors project
• flickr
latest entries
• in the city of angels
• so at least my elbow isn't bro...
• my body fails me, once again
• moving to l.a.
• 25 things meme
• cave without a name
• happy 2009!
• two weeks to go...
• a tale of two cities, part i
• things that are ridiculous: do...
recommended reading
• alex in samoa
• engadget
• homesick texan
• iambic pentameter
• let's try this again...
• spaceflight now
• zax off-world colony
hilarity
• cake wrecks
• fail blog
• people of walmart
• xkcd
archive
|
