The Tory Party

Cloverfield

Re

Com

Mended.

Required viewing for anyone interested in film technique. I don’t mean film technique. That makes it sound prissy. What I mean is, how what the camera does affects how the viewer feels. That one.

I left the theater reasonably satisfied. But the images stayed with me so that… no, that sounds prissy, too. What I mean is, THIS MOVIE HAUNTS MY BRAIN. The “you are there” feel of it totally worked, and improves with time. The beefs I had with the suspension of disbelief, the limits of human endurance, leaps of logic DO NOT MATTER.

I saw it. I would see it again in the theater. That is saying a lot.

Anything else would spoil it. I went in not knowing more than the trailer, and so should you. The feeling of hurtling blind into the unknown is half the fun.

On Scarcity of Dietary Minerals

“Potassium makes calcium look like sodium!” - T. Hoke, January 18, 2008

In My Roo-oo-oom…

My love interest got me a Webcam! When I took this photo to demonstrate the awesomeness of his gift, I experienced an unexpected snapshot of my living space:

• 1. Pearl Jam poster, circa 1992 — now half as old as I am
• 2. Rosary prop from film that I must now keep forever because there’s no proper way to part with it. Also have aspergillum and liturgical stole. Anyone need to do some sprinklin’?
• 3. USMC mink blanket from Korea? Not real mink. But real red and gold OO-RAH
• 4. “Beware of Dog” sign ironic
• 5. Nude painting from life drawing class I must now keep forever because there’s no proper way to part with it. Model has bizarre story about encountering a couple of teens defacing one that had somehow been discarded from the same class in which this one was made
• 6. Models of sets idling until portfolio day
• 7. River Run Film Festival 2006 refrigerator magnet
• 8. ALDI pit stick classy
• 9. Vintage Mickey Mouse coffee mug gift from art department partner in crime
• 10. Paint-By-Numbers Otter completed by Dad Hoke and described as one of the hardest things he’s ever had to do
• 11. Tiny table from love interest’s parents, from India by way of Bahrain. Must ask what it is for. At the moment I use it to put my iPod on so I don’t lose it
• 12. “Mari Muerta” wardrobe to be returned to the actress Friday, a full two months after shooting. Double classy

Since this photo I’ve since started… kinda… redecorating. Not with new acquisitions, because I’m about to graduate and anything that comes up the stairs just has to go back down in six months. But tidying and organizing, because I am totally almost thirty.

But the Pearl Jam poster stays.

The Morning After

Day-old sushi, just a little crunchy from waiting in the fridge, has a certain magic, like the morning-after pizza of my youth, brittle and tasting of cardboard because it got reheated still in the box. Not as tasty as the fresh version, perhaps, but still plenty so, and double joy because it says:

Last night, you were fancy.

Set Strike

I made a set out of cardboard. Long story.

But many spoke of fantasizing about busting through the wall.

Yesterday was the last day of shooting.

Click to play the outcome: