A Bet
The most exciting news I have to report is about a little wager my friend and I made over the weekend. Everyone mark your calendars for the weekend of August 21st. That will be the date of the End of Summer Ultimate Dance Party Dance Dance Bieber Celebration Fest. The reason?
Well, prior to a Saturday night viewing of the classic surfer documentary, Point Break, my buddy proposed that we make a little wager. He bet me one keg party that I wouldn’t grow my hair out for the summer to look like Bieber. The stipulations for the bet are that 1) I get one haircut this week to provide a solid base – it must be a trim and cannot be a thorough butchering. 2) Prior to the night of the party I must dye my hair with 24 hour dye to make it brown. 3) The quality of the beer purchased will correlate with how much like Bieber I look like at the end of the summer. If it is a close resemblance I will get a keg of GOOSE ISLAND!, if I merely look like the fat guy from The Hangover it will be High Life (To be fair, however, High Life is an amazing product, and the fat guy from the Hangover is awesome.) I’m getting my haircut this Thursday and then it’s game on. I’m expecting things to get ugly mid-July.
My Ideas Suck...More Than I Originally Thought
So a couple weeks ago I had to pitch an idea for my final video project in my video essay elective. My original intent was to make an essay about childhood expectations vs. twentysomething reality. I was going to interview a bunch of my friends and then combine it with images of Chicago. I didn’t think it was a great idea, but I wasn’t prepared for what my teacher would say.
To go back a bit, the teacher of this class hates me. It’s not my imagination or hyperbole, because I have been asked after class why he doesn’t like me. No idea. But it was proved one day when we were in class and we were discussing a movie we had to watch. This movie sucks. The guy has made other movies that are really good, but this was a 2.5 hour documentary about him trying to get a date. Give me 1.5 and I’ll accept it, but 2.5 hours… No, thanks.
Well, I didn’t hold back on my opinion and launched into a diatribe about how it was whiney and narcissistic and that it bored me to death. Halfway through my thoughts my professor slammed his fists on the desk and goes, “NO! He is a great man and a great thinker! I totally disagree with you!”
I was in total shock… I had never seen a professor throw a tantrum before, so the experience was new to me. I kind of stared at him in shock. Then he was like: “You’re totally exaggerating.” To which I responded, “Yes.” Then he calmed down and went into this long speech about how smart people can make movies about how they can’t get dates because they write well enough to “make it matter.” (This detail will come up later.)
At that point I knew he didn’t care for me, but I pay for his class… And I’m going to say what I want in class discussions.
Well, there weren’t any more incidents until this final project pitch when we were going around the room telling our ideas. He was mean to a couple other people before he got to me. One girl he called “chicken” and the other girl he just told her that “no one would care” about her idea.
When it got to me I started talking about my idea. I said something like, “I’m planning on doing this story about Chicago and talking about reality vs. expectation. I’ve had a little trouble with my interviews, I don’t think they’re working, but I’ll try more people.”
At this point he looks at me and is like, “It sounds like a really boring idea. You’re pursuit of your writing dream is haphazard – why didn’t you go to New York? And your friends sound boring. That idea won’t work.”
I was just kind of like: “Uhhhh…”
He continued to talk about the only way of making it work was to make myself “emblematic of my generation” in the video. …So, all I had to do is make myself a social icon in order to make this 5 minute essay that no one would ever see for a grad school class that talks about a genre no one cares about work… …? So I fire back with, “Well, isn’t it my job to make it interesting? It’s my job to make the writing good enough for people to care.” (Uh-Oh! Referencing his own shit!) He brushed it off, however, and was just like, “Whatever. Next!”
So I’m boring and have boring friends and in order to make a good video I have to become a cultural and social icon for my generation.
…I’ll take a B in his class.
Shout-Outs
- First shout-out goes to my two friends from Notre Dame who got married a couple weeks ago. They looked awesomely happy together and had the best wedding I’ve ever been to. Highlights include a night at the Backer, a new dance created to Lady Gaga’s “Alejandro”, and a ND-Georgia Tech flashback shotgun on the top of my buddy’s car. I love my college friends.
- Second shout out goes to my STL crew has been up to visit 3 times in the past 5 weeks. They have provided much needed dance party relief from weeks mired in school, Nana and my other job. They taught me about “Bulletproof”, “Ridin’ Solo”, and the power of chugging a drink, slamming it on the table and yelling “Done! Too Easy!”
- I also have to give a shout to all my friends at the Nana. I’ve been getting 30ish hours a week, which is great for my pocketbook, but has murdered my social life. If it weren’t for the fun people there I probably would have strangled myself with an overpriced cardigan.
I think that’s it. I’ll work on Bieber Bet Updates and my roommate’s cat’s ability to construct simple and complex sentences.
Oh! If anyone wants to check out my video essay stuff you can check one of my vids out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yh_ozS-x
The video actually sucks, but the music in it is awesome. That score is by far the highlight of my work in that class.
No comments:
Post a Comment