Two days ago, I had the feeling like a storm was coming. A storm of illness. Sure enough, yesterday morning, I awoke and sure enough, I was sick. I woke up at 4:00 AM with a sneezing fit and my throat feeling as if I swallowed a knife. Yesterday I made a trip to the doctor and he informed me that it's just allergies. First of all, I felt really sick, and if I'm spending 30 bucks and 45 minutes in the lobby, I'd better have something far worse than allergies. I literally spent 45 minutes in the lobby, and saw three people come in after me be taken back right away. It was like that Seinfeld episode where Eileen goes into the restaurant and they have to wait and watch other people come in and be seated right away. So, I was finally taken into the room and the doctor came in and I'm not kidding that it took him literally five minuites to come up with my diagnoses. He checked me over really quickly and could tell within just 5 minutes. Well, he gave me samples, a nose spray and sent me home. Last night, my coughing got out of hand and so dad let me take some of his hydrocodone and that relaxed me a lot. But I started feeling really hot. I took my temp and it said 102. It freaked me out. I layed in the chair for a while, watching TV. I forgot to mention that dad is sicker than I am. We looked like Xavier and the other guy in The Spanish Apartment after the scene where the girl breaks up with Xavier and the other guy finds out he has a kid. We both sat on the couch out of it. We watched this really great movie called , "The Greatest Show On Earth." It was so good! It's about a circus, and the people invovled in bringing the show to life. Dad really enjoyed the clown sequences. One of the clowns was Emmet Kelly, a really famous clown who invented the stlyle of "the tramp." One of the other clowns dad regarded seeing at clown camp. He said they gave this guy $1,000 a day to lecture. Last night, I went into the night with shivers under three layers of covers. Cold sweat really creeps me out. In a way, I wouldn't want the high fever and cold sweats without the hallucinations. I decided not to go into work or school today. That may have been a bad decision, but while only feeling a little better, I still didn't feel well enough to get out of the house. So, I sat inside and watched TV on the LCD flatscreen. Towards the afternoon, I searched for cheap tickets to Universal Studios and MGM studios (changed to Disney Hollywood Studios as of 01/01/008) and really found some great deals. I'm dying to take Amy there. Ebay has some great deals as well. Too bad we aren't eligible for a time share presentation. If we could, two tickets would equal $20. It would be funny acting like a married couple just to get cheap tickets. One of us could act interested, and the other on not, and we could get into an argument with the time share salesman, and make it looks like the marriage is about to end. And the salesman might just even throw in a free week in a time share on them. Tomorrow, I'm hoping to feel A LOT better. I definitely want to get out and do something when I get back home. Staying inside really has been getting me down. I guess just a sense of claustrophobia. I'm surprised I haven't been spying on the neighbors like Jimmy Stewart in "Rear Window." OH! Also, John Ford's western epic "The Searches" is playing at Emory next Wednesday. I cannot wait to see this. Also, Dan mentioned that we might put on "A Dolls House" in the fall, which is awesome for two reasons: 1) It's a great play! 2) Dan hasn't mentioned a word yet about the fall lineup. Everyone is dying to know. Tony and I are lobbying for 2 plays. Picasso in the Lapin Agile in the fall, and Glengarry Glenn Ross in the Summer. It would be so much fun doing Glengarry. Well, I cannot say anything else, because Bill Maher is on!!!

Here's the rendering I painted for my design class. The play is "The Tempest" and the issue was what "the island" was to us. After seeing Antonioni's "L' Aventura" I was blown away at how gorgeous the cinematography was and all the shots near or on the mountain were really beautiful. So, I took the idea of the island as one big mountain the characters are stranded on and cannot get off. Next is modeling, which I am REALLY excited about. I'll take a picture of my model when I get that finished as well.

I cannot say anymore due to a Western Civ test in the morning. And I really haven't studied. Scratch that.... I haven't studied at all, but a couple of hours the night before helped me get a B on the last test, so maybe it will work again. One of the essay choices, which I will more than likey go with, is "Who is Socrates?" It's actually the harder question, because it's so vague. I guess that's the whole point - to see how much detail we can explain. Well, I'm off to study Ancient Rome. YAY! I love Ancient Rome! It's so cool. Violence, sex, corruption and betrayal. It's like a good dream Speaking of dreams, they're calling my name tonight.

I'll throw this in really quick: I bought the Taxi Driver two disk special edition today for $10. I'm so excited! By the way, I received a 95 on my prospectus. Here is his actual comment: "Lovely idea, should be great. My only concern is it might be a bit too big for a 7-10 pager. Go ahead and proceed but understand you may need to scale back the scope of the project at some point." I can understand what he means. I'm not writing a book, just a college paper. No need to get over my head. I am really excited about writing it though.

Okay, enough Will. Time to study.

Here's the "trailer" for the short we worked on. It's actually just the last part of the short.

My prospectus for Brit Lit.

My paper regards “Endgame” and the “Theatre of the Absurd” transitioning, progressing and evolving into a new innovative extremity known as “Cinema of Cruelty.” The paper will state that Samuel Beckett’s “Endgame” with the aid of scholarly criticisms have become a springboard of inspiration for a new generation of modern absurdist writers and furthering into a new form of medium. Themes branching from “Endgame” include absurdism, existentialism, and nihilism. In specific, David Cronenberg and David Lynch have stood out amongst other writers in their field, incorporating these ideologies into writing, and transitioning them into moving images.

First, I will look into the world of David Cronenberg and connect the parallels in his film Videodrome with “Endgame.” I will do so by 1) establishing through structural anti-progression of story, 2) constant stagnation where the option of suicide is apparent, 3) but also examine the existential characterization breakdown of philosophical and literal claustrophobia.

Second, I will piece together the puzzle of “Endgame” and David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive. I will do so by 1) comparing the styles of both writers in how they shift away from contemporary standards and bring forth an anti-narrative form of storytelling. Lynch isolates himself from Hollywood, and Beckett retreats from Broadway. Beckett and Lynch also use the idea of alienating the audience to prove a sense of purpose in keeping the audience aware of their reason for watching. I will also show how both writers rely heavily on components of surrealism through imagery, dialogue and characterization.

Thus, my conclusion will present the reiterated significance of Samuel Beckett in modern storytelling. It is interesting how Beckett’s renegade thoughts and obscure ideas can motivate others to continue onward, keeping the spirit of Beckett and “Endgame” alive as technology progresses. Beckett, himself experimented with the art of film, which creates a whole new argument that he supported the visual medium.I chose this topic to write about, because I find Beckett’s style of thinking fascinating. It’s completely utter organized chaos. At first, it lacks clarity, but instead of the necessary coherency through dialogue, the text itself is analyzed as a whole. And it is a weird coincidence, because film is the same way. The sheer conventions of reality are broken, and a new world is created.

First, I want to show off the painting my extremely talented girlfriend made for me. I'm so happy that she paints. She truly has a gift for the canvas, and it makes me proud of her. I always get excited when she writes a new story or merely comes up with a new idea. I know I brag about her a lot, but I just feel like I cannot say that I love her too much. She's given me so much that it's hard to reciporate the same affection I receive. I try. I do know that honestly, she's the most fascinating person in my life.


As you can probably tell, before Florida, I got burned while watching Amy play tennis. And yes, watching my girl (who might I add is VERY good at the game) play tennis was worth every burn. Not to mention I got to peel my skin off and put it over my face like in Silence of the Lambs. Just kidding... I think...


I took this picture right outside the house in Florida. This is the location where Amy swore she saw a snake. I looked and looked, but if it was there, it's not there anymore. Perhaps she may have snuck it in her luggage when we left. If so, I'm sure Sha-naynay has eaten it.



Here is a shot of the roof and the beautiful trees and branches hanging and clinging to the roof. I just thought it looked pretty and wanted to take a picture. I'm a follige freak.



Here is ma mere. Just kidding. It's my mother. Ma Mere knows who she is. Wink! Here, my mother looks like a free spirit with her arms wide open. I do believe I gave her a hug after this was taken.


Ahhh, the Doogster and myself. I wanted at least one picture of me and Doogie to bring home and show off in this blog. His tongue sticking out really makes the picture worth while.


Okay, this was really cool to take. I was sitting in the terminal waiting for my delayed flight and noticed through the glass window, I could see the sun setting through the window on the opposite side. I was so happy and so I took a picture. I'm also listening to "Where is My Mind" from the Pixies and this picture reminds me of the final scene in Fight Club where the two characters look out the window and it shows the sun and the buildings collapsing. If you look hard enough you can tell what is the reflection and what is really outside. I kind of like the fact that you can't tell the difference. That's really philosophical to the extent that you don't know what's real and not.


It was HARD to take this picture.


Here's a shot from a LONG distance.


Today, I went to pick up food for Ma and myself and the weather was getting bad again. I went into the restaurant - it was raining badly, I came out - the sun was shining brightly. And thus produced a beautiful rainbow. I saw it and had to take a picture. It's a nice comparrision to how I opened this post with the sun shining in Amy's painting to the rainbow.

THIS IS REALLY FUNNY!!!!

It's really nice down here in Melbourne. From the minute I got off the plane, I could feel the warm air of Florida. It's the kind of feeling when you know you're someplace else. The heat seeps through and warms the body temperature from the frozen heart of the cold. Nanoo, Drew and myself went to downtown Melbourne within an hour since my plane landed and while Drew was getting a haircut, Nanoo and I walked down by the harbor, which was really nice! Birds flew overhead and circled around, returning to their original positions. The atmosphere seemed quite tranquil. It gave me ideas for movies. Something philosophical. Something Godardesc. Something about life in an atmospherical sense.

I have bought four books since I've been here. Delta Venus by Annis Nin, The Impossible Man by some man (ironic), and Hollywood by Gore Vidal. Mom promised to buy Drew and myself one movie each as a present. Drew picked out The Darjeeling Limited and I had planned on buying Slipstream, but none of the stores around here carry the film. So, I am planning on purchasing The John-Luc Godard early set. Isn't that weird, since I was thinking about him earlier. It's only 30 dollars, which is 10 more than what Drew's cost, so maybe she won't fuss too much. Besides, she gave me her American Express card. She also bought me new shoes. I always told myself that I'd never buy the Vans slip on shoes, but I found a pair that is solid black, with nothing else on them. I thought that I could come up with a neat design and paint it on the black shoes.

We're about to head out and celebrate my mom's 50th birthday. She told us not to get her anything, but Drew and I (actually just me, but I wanted to include my brother) surprised her with Reba season 1 and2, because she loves that show. She spent so much money on the two of us this week, so I wanted to give something back. I'll write more when I get home tonight.

I'm SOOOOOOO sory for not updating like I said I would. I've been a bad boy, and I know what happens to bad boys - I've seen Salo. Haha. Oh God. Way to open with a bad punchline, Will. Anyways, so I'm leaving for Florida tomorrow afternoon and I'm really excited. I plan on doing a lot of nothing if my plan-orienting mother hasn't made an itinerary for the week. Today, my curiosity brought me to a used bookstore in Atlanta. I bought a book of poetry by Samuel Taylor Coleridge for my brother Drew. You see, Drew had a bad spill of I guess you would say it's like insomnia. He couldn't sleep at night. Well, Coleridge couldn't sleep at nights, so he wrote poetry long nights without sleep. He then experimented with opium, which lead him down a hard path of addiction. We read Coleridge in my British Literature class and I really took a liking after reading a play called "Christabel", which I made a slight connection to Ingmar Bergman's "Persona." I bought along with the book of Coleridge, a book called "Confessions of an English Opium-Eater." This is my favorite book that I read in Brit Lit. It's really neat how De Quincey tackles into pre-Freudian ideas on the unconscious and how it relates to reality. In his story, De Quincey eats opium and then falls into this surrealistic dream where he wonders through the streets of London, befriends a prostitute named Anne, and I'll let you read the rest. It gets a lot weirder, like this:

"Creeping along the sides of the walls, you perceived a staircase; and upon it, growing his way upwards, was Piranesi himself: follow the stairs a little further, and you perceive it come to a sudden abrupt termination, without any balustrade, and allowing no step onwards to him who had reached the extremity, except into the depths below."

"I sometimes seemed to have lived for 70 or 100 years in one night; nay sometimes had feelings of representative of a millennium passed in that time, or however, of a duration far beyond the limits of any human experience."

It's so cool that he's getting into lucid dreaming before anyone even coined that phrase. This is 19th century literature giving psychological perspective, which is later discussed heavily by those of Freud and Jung. So, not only is De Quincey getting into psychology, but he's also laying the ground for many surrealists who use dream interpretation as a form of art.

On that note, here are some pictures from "Crimes of the Heart."

This wasn't in the play, I just took it and think it looks really cool.

By the way, The Sounds is one of the greatest bands I've heard in a long time! "Painted by Numbers" and "Ego" are my favorite songs! I drove to Atlanta with this on full blast. I felt really cool. It's like the badass rock and beat sound of The Kills mixed with the catchy melody of Head Automatica. I think this album will be playing on my Ipod while waiting for the arriving airplane to fly to Florida. That sentence was fucked up. Alliteration: 2 t's, two a's, and "to fly to Florida." That just sounds horrid! Oh well, The Sounds will make me feel better about my misspelling. Did you catch that?

Well, I have four screenplays to work on and eight books to read. I think my plans for vacation have been set. I just want to sit out on the front porch with a cup of coffee and breathe that nice Florida air. And watch movies with Drew. My second painting is for Drew. It's of a typewriter over three color panels with roaches and labeled "Naked Lunch." It's not as good as my first painting for my beloved girlfriend Amelia Laney. I'm not going to discuss the details of that painting, because it's still a surprise for me madre Amelia. But here is Drew's painting. I'm iffy about how it turned out. I'm just not going to talk about it and maybe I'll forget how badly it turned out. I didn't want to put it here, but I took the time in taking the picture, so I guess I'd better. And I promised someone that I was uploading it to this blog. So, here it is.

I will do my best to keep updating while on vacation in Florida. Good night all!!!