New Horizons

New Horizons
David Gray

Weight on my shoulders
but I’m walking so tall
out into the new horizon
wonder in everything
no matter how great or small
howlin' like the midnight
howlin' like the midnight sun
and this ain't no pale reflection
this is the real thing
new horizon
new horizon within

And your heart ain't yours to control
no matter how tight the reigns
love will find it's own direction
a time to reap, a time to sow
and many a time to cry in vain
but now the time to celebrate
the glory of this imperfection
same thing that's scrawled across the stars
is written under our skin
new horizon
new horizon within

Things come too easy, I get suspicious
things come too slow, I get bored
if it don't work out I get superstitious
but if it does, oh my word

So I’m gathering all the remnants of beauty
from this wilderness in spin
and now I’m gonna light my own flame
'cause I’m charged with the radiance of the dawn
that's been so long breaking
now there ain't nowhere
there ain't nowhere I won't write your name
there's a time to search for understanding
sometime you just gotta sing
new horizon
new horizon within

Baby there's no need to get precious
when you know that everything must change
complacency, it can be so vicious
turn this love into a cage

Same thing that's scrawled across the stars
is written under our skin
new horizon
new horizon within


-----
This is one song that has gotten me through difficult times. Especially when I was coming to grips with a thing as amazingly painful as love:

And your heart ain't yours to control
no matter how tight the reigns
love will find it's own direction

Find the new horizon within. :-) It's there ... I promise.

My Wis-quiz-dom.

Your wise quote is: "Be kind to unkind people,
they probably need it the most" by
Ashleigh Brilliant.
You try to look beyond apperance, try to give
people second chances and are probably very
kind. Understanding is your biggest personality
trait, and thoose you can see through should be
grateful. If they aren't already. You detest
narrow minded people, because they can't see
what's really there. Facades is not your thing
and you strive to always be who you really are.


What wise quote fits you?(pics) UPDATED
brought to you by Quizilla

In Top Form

For those doubters who believed the band's last great album would be Before These Crowded Streets, I give you Stand Up, their new studio album. Go and check out the new video for their first single, "American Baby." It's fucking great! And really fucking American! Red states and Blue states!

I've been working at Sony for a week now (only three days total), but I really love it. Now if only Chilis would get me a training schedule, dammit!

Exclusive First Look!

As a special treat to my devoted fans (riiiiight - Ed.), I thought it would be appropriate that I post the exclusive first viewing of my second Directing the Camera project on this blog. The project itself is not meant to reflect the final product, but instead serve as a test run for potential camera setups and movements when I actually go into production on DinerTalk.

The scene itself is the second scene from the color-sync project I am shooting later this summer, DinerTalk. The role of me will be played by ... me. And the role of Bill will be played by ... Bill.

I hope you enjoy the clip!

DinerTalk Test Scene
(please Right-click and Save As ...)

At the Beginning With You

At the Beginning With You
Donna Lewis and Richard Marx

We were strangers, starting out on a journey
Never dreaming, what we'd have to go through
Now here we are, I'm suddenly standing
At the beginning with you

No one told me, I was going to find you
Unexpected, what you did to my heart
When I lost hope
You were there to remind me
This is the start

* And life is a road and I wanna keep goin'
Love is a river I wanna keep flowin'
Life is a road now and forever wonderful journey
I'll be there when the world stops turning
I'll be there when the storm is through
In the end I want to be standing
At the beginning with you

We were strangers, on a crazy adventure
Never dreaming, how our dreams would come true
Now here we stand, unafraid of the future
At the beginning with you

[Repeat *]

Knew there was somebody somewhere
I need love in the dark
Now I know my dream will live on
I've been waiting so long
Nothing is going to tear us apart

[Repeat *]

Life is a road and I wanna keep goin'
Love is a river I wanna keep flowin'
Starting out on a journey

[Repeat *]

In the end I want to be standing
At the beginning
With you


-------------------------------------

I Love You, John! :-)

-------------------------------------

Speaking of Chris Reeve

These images were just put online yesterday and I'm stunned by how much Routh resembles Reeve in the Clark Kent getup. Down to the posture. It's eerie, really.

A Truly Great Man

"After considerable thought and discussion with friends, including a number of politicians who were fans of Superman, I decided that because the character is a hero for the entire world, nationalism was not an issue. When Lois Lane asks Superman, "Who are you?" he replies, "A friend." That makes him, above all else, a symbol of hope. In the face of adversity, hope often comes in the form of a friend who reaches out to us. I thought about other aspects of the American way and the basic rights of pluralistic societies: equal opportunity, equal rights, tolerance, free speech, and fair play. For centuries wars have been fought in defense of those rights. In countries where they never existed or were taken away, millions of people have risked their lives to escape. Most of them left with only a few possessions and the hope of not being turned away by a free society.

To say that I believed in Superman is quite an understatement. Of course I knew it was only a movie, but it seemed to me that the values embodied by Superman on the screen should be the values that prevail in the real world."

- Christopher Reeve, Nothing Is Impossible

Training at Chilis

Well, today was interesting. I had my first session at Chilis - the video session, where we watch the horribly produced, atrociously directed training videos and fill out all of our paperwork. In the course of the evening, I discovered that not only will I be one of the few employees that have had any experience working at a Chilis before, but I'll be trained by several people who have been working at Chilis since ... January. That's right, despite my 6 months at Chili's Too @ Arundel Mills, I am going to be trained by people who learned the craft of serving at Chilis only 2 and a half months ago.

If it weren't for the fact that I had already realized the company seems to be doing everything backwards with this restaurant, I'd have thought this made no sense. I think one of the most surprising things was that, during the videos, the trainer laughed and said that the videos were funnier "the second time around." It strikes me as odd because I would have expected my trainer to have seen the tapes several times - but then I realize again that these people, trainers included, have only worked for Chilis for 2 and a half months.



*Sigh*



At any rate, I'm eligible for health coverage immediately! The plans are not great, and I have no selection whatsoever, but that should change after a year. While I can't wait to start actually working at Chilis (the environment is just fantastic, everyone is so friendly), I'm really looking forward to Tuesday, when I start with Sony Pictures Classics. It's gonna be awesome.

---------------------------

What I'm Reading: The Odyssey by Homer, The Magical World of Harry Potter by David Colbert
What I'm Watching: Futurama (Season 3), Star Trek: First Contact

Sadly ...

I've discovered, to my dismay, that I can't sit out on our balcony and use my laptop during these unbelievably nice spring days. This is not because of my fear of heights (which is really an irrational fear of falling from great heights), as it seems that my sitting on the balcony doesn't disturb me nearly as much as my standing on it; no, instead it seems that the reason I can't sit out there and type away at a screenplay or random blog entry is because there's just waaaaay too much glare on the screen. It was so bad, I couldn't even make out the outline of Superman (my background is an awesome Alex Ross image from the ComicCon a few years back). It's really a shame, because I have one of those really nice round padded folding chairs and it's really nice outside. The best I can hope to achieve is to go out with a notebook and pencil. Of course, that leaves me at the mercy of the atrocious winds we suffer here.

C'est la vie ...

Literary Thoughts

On occasion it has occurred to me, while reading some of my favorite books, that there are passages with so much depth and meaning to them that I ought to share them with others. I usually forget at that point that I have a blog with which to share these wonderous pieces of literary delight. But now, reading Homer's The Odyssey, with the laptop in front of me, I have found an allegory for one of life's most important lessons:

"My word, how mortals take the gods to task!
All their afflictions come from us, we hear,
And what of their own failings? Greed and folly
double the suffering in the lot of man.
See how Aigísthos, for his double portion,
stole Agamémnon's wife and killed the soldier
on his homecoming day. And yet Aigísthos
knew that his own doom lay in this. We gods
had warned him, sent down Hermês Argeiphontês,
our most observant courier, to say:
'Don't kill the man, don't touch his wife,
or face a reckoning with Orestês
the day he comes of age and wants his patrimony.'
Friendly advice - but would Aigísthos take it?
now he has paid the reckoning in full."

The Greek poets were fantastic in their ability to take so many lessons one learns about life and turn them into warning stories. "You reap what you sow," becomes the lesson here. We can blame none but ourselves for the foolish things we do, and always does the swift hand of vengeance or justice come striking back when we allow our darker side to show - following the selfish desires leads to an end that we may not foresee, but cannot avoid.

To borrow a phrase that someone in my Art and Public Policy class used last semester: "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice." How true this is.

P.S. 2K Hits

By the way, thanks all for keeping your eyes on my site and coming back again and again. I know there's more than just the three regular posters (Kate, Jamie and Thurman) - those guys aren't hitting refresh 10 times a day!

While I'm surprised that others might find the mundane details of my day-to-day (or rather day-to-week) existence any bit interesting, I'm glad that someone out there is enjoying my writings enough to come back from time-to-time. Please feel free to post comments, even if you feel compelled to stay silent.

When the Sun Shines Upon You ...

... the entire world looks brighter.

Today I had my odd meeting with the co-presidents of Sony Pictures. An hour to get to their offices and two minute meetings with each, after which I was sent off. The good news is that I have the job and will probably start next week.

And I have the job at Chilis and start training on Friday. Go me. I fucking rule.

Fortune smiles upon me.

I am Listening to: John Williams - Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith

Update

Just as an update to last night's post:

Chilis called today. They're bringing me in to meet the manager (whom I've already met twice). One can only assume that this means I'll be starting work with them shortly. That would be nice. So, Chilis and Sony. Very interesting. I'll keep you *posted* about all that.

And So ...

For those who might stop by semi-routinely to see what I'm up to, I am sorry that I haven't posted anything in over ten days. I really have no excuse except that when it came time to put something to word, I haven't been able to think of anything worth writing about.

So I've spent like 8 or 9 months trying to get Chilis to hire me. They dicked around with me for a while; now they tell me that they're going to hire me "within the month." Fine. Whatever.

While they were playing games over there, I applied for several internships for the summer: Dreamworks SKG, New Line Cinema, 20th Century Fox and Sony Pictures Entertainment. Within a week of applying, I received a call from Sony. I had an interview on Thursday where, essentially, they offered me the job (one of two available). On Monday I'm meeting with the co-presidents.

I think they might have looked at my dad's resume by accident. A fucking Chilis restaurant won't hire me, but Sony Pictures sought to bring me in and just offer me a job?





You'll have to give me a moment; I'm still trying to determine if I'm in reality. I cannot believe that it was that easy ... I thought it would have been a bitch and a half to get that job. As a matter of fact, now that I think of it - maybe I heard them wrong. Maybe they didn't offer me the job ... maybe they were just seeing if I would take the job. Maybe I'm having the real interview on Monday. Or maybe it's not really Sony, but I went into the wrong office. Honestly, why would I be meeting with the co-presidents of Sony Pictures? That makes no sense. I'm just going to be an intern. I think someone might be fucking with me.

Or maybe they just liked the layout of my resume and they think I'd make a nifty employee.

Whatever the case, if they're offering the job, I'm taking it. Lord knows that if directing feature films for some odd reason doesn't pan out as a career, I'd much rather be working at Sony Pictures than Chilis Jersey City. Besides, the Sony building is really cool.