I'm writing a final of final exams in about three hours but I just had to write this blog before it escaped my memory. I had the radio on the whole night as I was studying and I've just heard that my people are in the streets blocking major downtown arteries with persistent protest. The Tamils of Toronto are urging the Canadian government to negotiate a ceasefire in Sri Lanka. If you don't know the history of what's going on in my country then all you need to know is that there is a twenty-five year long ongoing civil war taking place between two groups of people (Tamil and Sinhalese) because of the degradational caste system that operated in the past. Two and a half decades ago the Tamils declared war for a separate state. I approved of their goals, but I didn't approve of their means. Child soldiers and suicide bombers are not the way to go, guys. Just last month they hijacked jets and nearly crashed one into the house where I grew up, the same house my grandmother still lives in, and the same one I'll be going back to this year.
I feel like I should be out there in the streets today with my people. However, I have an exam to write but I urge them to stay there. I have other plans for peace. If the ceasefire is not executed soon enough, I'll have to take a stand using all 132 bits of my IQ. Maybe I can provide support from a different direction, a documentary or an editorial piece should suffice. Something to shed light to the ignorant, especially the Tamils in the city.
The Tamil Tigers have been cornered after two and a half decades. Their final stand is underway as I type this. I personally want freedom for the Tamils (I am one so of course) However, their brilliant idea of using human shields for protection in their last days will only work for so long. The LTTE leader has disappeared into nowhere for the last couple of months. The Sri Lankan government is not too bright either what with the earlier reports of their merciless slaughter of innocent civilians. All I know is if a ceasefire is agreed upon, then the world's most ruthless terrorist group will gain more space and time to regroup and reload for the next round of battle. The protest in the streets of Toronto may not be a wise option because of its potential to prolong an already long war, but I can tell all the Tamils in the city that their heart is in the right place. If the LTTE are destroyed and their supports disbanded, who will step up in their place to continue? So who do I want to win? If the war ends, no more slaughter, if the war goes on, freedom for the tamils. As you can see I'm in a bit of a predicament here, but I have an exam to write.
-BLOG OUT-
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Josef Scissorhands
I had my savage and free curly hair skillfully removed from my scalp today. My barber is a private one located in Flemingdon Park, I won't reveal his whereabouts because we both live in Flemingdon Park.
Issue number one, my hair is an entity on its own. It is highly malleable and susceptible to the slightest shift in wind, I mean it. I can make Jheri curls out of it, I can make an unpermed afro out of it, or I can gel it and style it (which works for a limited time only). Two summers ago I was growing three dreadlocks and my barber back then Jake, a Jamaican man, was shocked when he found out I was growing these locks of dead hair, but also that I wasn't in the slightest bit Black. I give my respects to all my barbers, who do more work than I paid for every time. My current barber Josef tells me that sweeping my curls on the floor is more work than cutting them off my head. Jake wanted to frame a before/after shot of me in his shop, but we never got around to that because I haven't been back since...his prices went up to like twenty-three bucks a cut.
Josef I find is a very lonely man. He's an aging Italian and lives a simple existence in a fifteenth floor apartment over-looking one of Canada's worst projects. He has a bumpy relationship with his teenage daughter and his prized possessions comprise of a glass vase on a green felt cloth and his seventeen-inch television. Other than that I haven't seen anything that he can take pride in owning. No family pictures, no fancy drapes, no imported dinner plates, no Nike's, no suits, no Ikea upholstery, etc. This man is a model human being to me, living the life that Karl Marx himself advocated in the Communist Manifesto. He is free of the bourgeoisie grasp and exists in a world beyond what we live. His main sources of income are barbering/hairstyling and clearly some other occupation that allows him to keep and maintain such a delightful dwelling. I know the man doesn't know I'm writing about him though I'm sure he'd approve, but he does a damn good job of cutting my hair. For all I know he's affiliated with the Canadian mafia and I'm in someone's crosshairs right now. Don't be surprised if you don't see anymore blogs from me.
-BLOG OUT-...forever?
Issue number one, my hair is an entity on its own. It is highly malleable and susceptible to the slightest shift in wind, I mean it. I can make Jheri curls out of it, I can make an unpermed afro out of it, or I can gel it and style it (which works for a limited time only). Two summers ago I was growing three dreadlocks and my barber back then Jake, a Jamaican man, was shocked when he found out I was growing these locks of dead hair, but also that I wasn't in the slightest bit Black. I give my respects to all my barbers, who do more work than I paid for every time. My current barber Josef tells me that sweeping my curls on the floor is more work than cutting them off my head. Jake wanted to frame a before/after shot of me in his shop, but we never got around to that because I haven't been back since...his prices went up to like twenty-three bucks a cut.
Josef I find is a very lonely man. He's an aging Italian and lives a simple existence in a fifteenth floor apartment over-looking one of Canada's worst projects. He has a bumpy relationship with his teenage daughter and his prized possessions comprise of a glass vase on a green felt cloth and his seventeen-inch television. Other than that I haven't seen anything that he can take pride in owning. No family pictures, no fancy drapes, no imported dinner plates, no Nike's, no suits, no Ikea upholstery, etc. This man is a model human being to me, living the life that Karl Marx himself advocated in the Communist Manifesto. He is free of the bourgeoisie grasp and exists in a world beyond what we live. His main sources of income are barbering/hairstyling and clearly some other occupation that allows him to keep and maintain such a delightful dwelling. I know the man doesn't know I'm writing about him though I'm sure he'd approve, but he does a damn good job of cutting my hair. For all I know he's affiliated with the Canadian mafia and I'm in someone's crosshairs right now. Don't be surprised if you don't see anymore blogs from me.
-BLOG OUT-...forever?
Monday, April 20, 2009
Hourglassed
I'm on a time limit here. One more exam in a week and a half to study for, plus an eye exam at the optometrist, and my training modules which have to be completed within a time limit. Too much pressure going on and I'm thinking about a girl. Truthfully I have no time for women, they waste my time. I have too many goals prioritized for myself to be bothered with a relationship, it can wait until after I come back from New Zealand. I don't have any plans to start a family until I'm like thirty-five. Sure girls will come and go but I'm going to do my best to ignore them all. A relationship is too much work; it means jealousy, anxiety, fear, inadequacy, and all the bad shit. I'm sure many of you reading this disagree, but not me, because these are what happen to me when I'm in a relationship. It's funny there are so many relationships going on around me and my boys are pressuring me into one. I don't know why you're all so concerned with being alone. I've been in four relationships and though they were all great, I found myself being very unproductive. My life became stagnant and I felt like I was stuck in one spot while everyone else was moving on. Since my last relationship I've done so many things since then that have put me on the map as an amateur photographer and production assistant on a real set. I even have a kajiji ad in front of me that I'm about to call for a volunteer photography colloborative position that will help me build my portfolio. Productivity feels good. The reason I'm writing this blog is because one of my close boys just broke up with his girl, my cousin is in a bumpy relationship with her boyfriend, and there is no room in my life right now for another one. For me (maybe not for you, relationships are a distraction). Since my boy split up with his girl (after nearly four years), he wrote a track on top of a recycled beat that sounds phenomenal and I think it's his best work yet. I'm too young to be worried about a girl. After all, we all do have a time limit.
-BLOG OUT-
-BLOG OUT-
Monday, April 13, 2009
The World I've Created
I find myself thinking more and more about my new script daily, which is irregular since I tend to let go of fresh ideas within days. This one has stuck with me for a couple of weeks now and I feel my characters and plot screaming to me from inside my head to let them out. I feel more ideas coming to me about the story and character development and I've decided to write them down in as much detail as possible.
Furthermore I have yet to finish my next stop motion animation, which has been 3/4 done since last month. I can't wait to post that fucker on facebook and see how many views I get. I find films with multi-layered scripts that are well written (The Dark Knight, The Shawshank Redemption, Knocked Up) all deserve more credit for their emphasis on story over special effects and cocky protagonists that smoke heavy flavoured cigars and hold child-sized guns in one arm. I am inspired by these ingenious writers and their writings. Marc told me to watch more cop dramas to help me get into the mood of the genre I'm dealing with before I elaborate further. I rented Cop Land, Gone in Sixty Seconds, and Traitor. I found most of all that the whole story bloomed from my interest in the binaries of cop/gang life which came from shows like The Wire and films like American Gangster.
Today I saw plenty of my Garneau peeps after much time. Six of us at inside a pizza pizza and I suggested we create a comedy about what serial killers do in their spare time. We openly brainstormed and came up with some wicked scenarios and cheap shooting suggestions. A video like this on youtube would earn us easily a few hundred thousand views and a four to five-star rating. Overall, I pray we don't lose track of it like we have with so many ideas in the past.
-BLOG DONE-
Furthermore I have yet to finish my next stop motion animation, which has been 3/4 done since last month. I can't wait to post that fucker on facebook and see how many views I get. I find films with multi-layered scripts that are well written (The Dark Knight, The Shawshank Redemption, Knocked Up) all deserve more credit for their emphasis on story over special effects and cocky protagonists that smoke heavy flavoured cigars and hold child-sized guns in one arm. I am inspired by these ingenious writers and their writings. Marc told me to watch more cop dramas to help me get into the mood of the genre I'm dealing with before I elaborate further. I rented Cop Land, Gone in Sixty Seconds, and Traitor. I found most of all that the whole story bloomed from my interest in the binaries of cop/gang life which came from shows like The Wire and films like American Gangster.
Today I saw plenty of my Garneau peeps after much time. Six of us at inside a pizza pizza and I suggested we create a comedy about what serial killers do in their spare time. We openly brainstormed and came up with some wicked scenarios and cheap shooting suggestions. A video like this on youtube would earn us easily a few hundred thousand views and a four to five-star rating. Overall, I pray we don't lose track of it like we have with so many ideas in the past.
-BLOG DONE-
Friday, April 10, 2009
2 Blog
I'm done with another exam! Completion is a good feeling. I went to Subway to eat after my exam last night and I ended up having an hour-long conversation with the server dude there who I'd been talking to casually for some time on previous visits. He's really a good guy and he gives me discounts like crazy, but this time I had to find out what a twenty-seven year old like him was doing working at a Subway restaurant.
"I go to Seneca to study international business and I also work at another bookstore," says he.
Wow, didn't see that one coming. Not to mention, at the age of eighteen he started working for a marketing company in India that promoted a new technology of speakers; this technology is called Sonodyne (I've never heard of it), but apparently the Sydney and London opera houses use this speaker system and they are huge assets when it comes to selling the product to a new client. He also sold a product called a smartboard (look it up on google) which allows you to project a computer image onto a screen, then control the screen on the computer with a touch interface on the actual screen. It's sick.
By the way this is the subway on the yonge-eglinton corner, just by Dunfield ave. The dude in that store that works nights is a good dude. I also know Wendy at FitforLife(a little east of Subway by the Mcdonalds), she's a cool Vietnamese lady who gives me a bunch of discounts daily on healthy food. It's funny that I can't recommend any of these people to you because although I know their names, they don't know mine.
-BLOG DONE-
"I go to Seneca to study international business and I also work at another bookstore," says he.
Wow, didn't see that one coming. Not to mention, at the age of eighteen he started working for a marketing company in India that promoted a new technology of speakers; this technology is called Sonodyne (I've never heard of it), but apparently the Sydney and London opera houses use this speaker system and they are huge assets when it comes to selling the product to a new client. He also sold a product called a smartboard (look it up on google) which allows you to project a computer image onto a screen, then control the screen on the computer with a touch interface on the actual screen. It's sick.
By the way this is the subway on the yonge-eglinton corner, just by Dunfield ave. The dude in that store that works nights is a good dude. I also know Wendy at FitforLife(a little east of Subway by the Mcdonalds), she's a cool Vietnamese lady who gives me a bunch of discounts daily on healthy food. It's funny that I can't recommend any of these people to you because although I know their names, they don't know mine.
-BLOG DONE-
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Blog Zero
Not only is this my first blog, but I've conveniently started it in the same week I've decided to write my first script. There were so many times past where I wanted to start writing, and I have, except my scripts were puny unsatisfying pieces of literature that only I could understand. I work at Blockbuster and I told one of my regulars (who is also a good friend of mine)...(who is also a successful director and writer) about my decision to write a feature-length script. Prior to this conversation I had written a two page single-spaced detailed synopsis (or what I thought was one) alongside some quotes that came to my head during the thinking process as well as how I'd want some scenes to be played out.
So continuing on, I told my regular about this (Marc) and he tells me to my misfortune that I have to write a treatment, then a synopsis which he says can be LONGER than the script. So I don't tell him but in my head I'm like wtf Marc, I thought I had it all down when I wrote that two page synopsis. But you know what, even though it's standard procedure to write with structure and planning like Marc showed me I think it will benefit me in the long run.
The script is something I plan on filming when I have the proper crew, equipment, and money. It's a cop drama about injustice and fallibility and bias in the justice system. Trust me it's a good idea, well at least I like to think so.
Kudos to my readers, I'll be back with updates. My second last exam is in thirteen hours and this is what I'm doing at five in the morning.
-BLOG OVER-
So continuing on, I told my regular about this (Marc) and he tells me to my misfortune that I have to write a treatment, then a synopsis which he says can be LONGER than the script. So I don't tell him but in my head I'm like wtf Marc, I thought I had it all down when I wrote that two page synopsis. But you know what, even though it's standard procedure to write with structure and planning like Marc showed me I think it will benefit me in the long run.
The script is something I plan on filming when I have the proper crew, equipment, and money. It's a cop drama about injustice and fallibility and bias in the justice system. Trust me it's a good idea, well at least I like to think so.
Kudos to my readers, I'll be back with updates. My second last exam is in thirteen hours and this is what I'm doing at five in the morning.
-BLOG OVER-
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