The Iron Horse

Went to The Silent Film Festival at The Castro Theatre with Ronald Chase who is my film teacher and Isaiah DuFort. Last night the festival showed "The Iron Horse," which is a 1924 movie by John Ford about building the Transcontinental Railroad.

John Ford is famous for his Westerns. There was a musician there who played the Wurlitzer organ throughout the whole show. It was electifying! This is what it must have been like when people first went to the movies. It was really cool. And the popcorn is the best.

Also, Robert Illes was able to help me find out the Kubrick book. The book is called Film Technique and Acting by Pudovkin. I can't wait to look at it.

Stanley Kubrick

Yesterday, at the Apple Store in Santa Monica, a friend of my mom’s struck up a conversation with Joe Turkel who played the hotel bartender in Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining.”

When it came out that I am a huge fan of Stanley Kubrick’s films, my mom’s friend called me. Mr. Turkel talked to me and told me that there was a particular book that was Stanley Kubrick’s "bible" about film, that HE CARRIED IT EVERYWHERE. What I heard Mr. Turkel say (I was driving with my mom) was “Tudotain on Film” and that’s what I wrote down. He said it was a Russian filmmaker. But, I can't find that name anywhere.

There is a Dotan who is a filmmaker at NYU, but I think he is too young for Stanley Kubrick to have studied him. I did find Sergei Eisenstein. Can anyone help me with this?

Thanks!

A Painting Day

My understanding of painting is to make it look very Operatic. What I mean by that is that if you paint a Pastorale, the way to make it interesting is to use colors that draw the viewer in. The 3-dimensional perspective is that you are looking at one hill from another hill while the sun is going down behind you.

This is a painting I did today from my mind. I haven't put a name on it yet. But what I'm trying to do is make the hills look like gods and goddesses drenched in golden sunlight.

The reason that I haven't been on the blog lately is because this past week, I was in a meditation retreat. The retreat to me helps you to know that the reason why everything in this world is so powerful is because it is you. You are the eyes. Like I said in my profile, I see the world through my own eyes. I want to just take it in, like art, like air, like love touching love.

I'll put up some pictures of my friends from the retreat in the next blog post.

Who was that guy who apologized to BP?

This is one of the worst Histories in the world. It's like when the Asteroids hit the Earth and killed the dinosaurs. Only, this time, instead of the Sky going dark, it's the Earth going dark.

Here is my haiku about it.

frauds make world better?

with oily lies that ruin

sea and air and life

Texting, Tarot, Flu, Faust

I did the Tarot cards this morning. (They are Pagan and Roma's mostly are pagans, too. I know this because they have the Tarot cards. They have the crystal ball. They can read your palms.) One of the things I've learned from them is that if you want something so badly, you have take a path that will lead you to the thing you want the most. That's how you get there. The sign in the picture doesn't tell you where I want to go yet, but I think it makes a point.

Also, I'm sorry I haven't been on the blog. I had the flu and have been really sick for a week.

Tonight is a very special night. I'm going to see the Opera "Faust" by Gounod. I believe he was a German composer. I don't know a lot about him yet. But, I will let you know what I learn.

Mission District San Francisco

I spent the afternoon with my cousin, Tay. We walked all over the Mission District in San Francisco. There are all these totally cool murals in that part of town.

I was really happy to see a public telephone, too. There aren't always so many public telephones around here anymore.

Tree House Down

Today, mom and I tried to take the treehouse down. I can't fit in it anymore. It's nothing but like a fallen antique in our back yard.

Well, the last two weeks have been so swamped with school work and getting my film (The Math Test) done that I haven't been able to write. I think that I haven't been able to mostly...well, sometimes when school is almost over, you start to crash. You're forced to keep going because you have to get all this work in. But, for your body, school is over.

But all the while, I have learned so much about History that I am totally inspired to become my own artist in life. I did my history paper on T.E. Lawrence and Lawrence of Arabia. I think what's great about that story was that he thought he was helping the Arabs to fight for freedom. He thought he was going to leave them to freedom, but what happened was that the tribes were fighting over each other even though he was able to get them to work together to defeat the Turks. Even though they were with him, fighting the Turks, they were still at each others' throats.

And then the Sykes-Picot Agreement (the British and the French) divided up the Middle East. Of course, Prince Feisal shouldn't have gone along with it, but he thought he needed the English to create a united Arab nation. He was a man ahead of his time. Way way ahead...cause now it isn't even close to happening. Seems like Prince Feisal can see past our future.