holiday greetings

My mom writes an annual holiday letter to friends and family each year, and I always like to approve it beforehand in case she writes something horrible about me and I have to ask for a retraction. I like my section this year, but I feel bad for my dad because my mom ratted him out and now all our extended family will know he reads geeky computer magazines. and now you know too. Here it is.


"Someone actually had to tell me that this was the month of December the other day while I was writing a check out for October. When you live in an area where there are no visible season changes, you really can’t rely on the weather or the crispness in the air to remind you the holidays are quickly approaching. Come to think of it, the only way to confirm which holiday is approaching is to take a trip to the mall to see which decorations are hanging from the ceiling. Oh yeah, the other give away is the multitude of cheddar cheese popcorn tins that magically appear in the break room at work.

This year has been an interesting one for Matt because it was his “crunch” time when he had to decide what his career will be. After meeting with his guidance counselor and weighing all his strong points, he finally came to the decision to become a zoologist. In fact, he liked the idea so much that he decided to go into film instead. He’s not exactly sure what he wants to do in film, but you can bet it won’t have anything to do with math, even though he’s doing surprisingly well in the subject. So…maybe he’ll really become a math major? “HA-HA-HA-HO-HO-HO!”

Sarah, on the other hand is having a huge “freak out.” She is now a senior at USC. I know…I know what you’re thinking. They sucked at the football game against UCLA. Hope you didn’t bet any money on that game! Enough said about that, back to Sarah. She’s, how shall I say, apprehensive about leaving her safe little “school cocoon” world and entering the real one instead. I say, “Pishaw!” What better place for a new graphic designer to get a job doing movie posters and trailers than in LA? Her plans are to work for a year or two, then go back to school for her masters degree. Then after she gets her masters, she could go to Emily Posts finishing school for girls and learn to whip out gourmet vegetarian meals and thread a needle. “HA-HA-HA-HO-HO-HO-!”

Rick is doing well, but sometimes I worry about him. You know those weird, never seen before magazines that come in the mail around the holidays? Well, one arrived the other day entitled, “The Almost Geek Magazine.” It had page after fun filled page of computer type gadgets. Sad to say, he grinned bigger than the Cheshire Cat from Alice In Wonderland and went away with it tucked under his arm. I saw it again in the bathroom reading rack where it still remains today. He’s still at JBL and this year, will be taking Matt to his annual company Christmas party. Last year Sarah went with him, so I guess next year will be my turn again. “HA-HA-HA-HO-HO-HO-!”

As for me, well I guess the most exciting thing that happened other than going back to Jersey after a thirteen year absence to see my nephew get married, was starting my own group of fearless writing warriors. What started out to be just three is now a whopping gang of seven. We meet once a week and push ourselves to finish our works of art. And who knows, maybe next year you’ll be getting a personally signed novel from me instead of a letter. “HA-HA-HA-HO-HO-HO-!”

It never hurts to dream or try something new. Focusing on a career, stepping out into the world, dreaming of geek gadgets or having a story become a novel could all become a reality.

“Happy holidays to all and the best of New Year’s.”

one flew east, one flew west

As an art major, your finals are all usually a week before everyone else's. And they're not usually written exams, but large final projects. This is good and bad. You get done early and have a longer winter break, but then the week when everyone is relaxed before finals, you are freaking out because you have 50 projects due. This week was no exception. On Tuesday, my video project was due. I decided to do an interactive video website about poetry. I was really nervous about my critique because I wasn't sure the project had come out how I wanted it, but I ended up getting really great compliments from people in the class.

On Thursday we had a scary portfolio review. I worked my ass off to put together and self-bind this portfolio book. I had to cut out like, 100 pages with an xacto knife and I cut my fingers at least 5 times, but it was worth to have a nice looking portfolio. The review part was frightening. We had to meet with 3 industry professionals who would basically tear apart the work we'd done. The first two people I met with were pretty cool. The first was Buff Monster, a street/grafitti artist in LA. I had known his work, but these underground artists generally tend to remain anonymous so you never really know what they look like, so to be able to meet him was pretty cool. The second guys were the art directors from EA Games. They gave me a lot of good advice and told me that it seems like I've found a good niche with the film print advertising and motion graphics. The 3rd guy however, formerly of Chiat/Day and now the art director at Tribal Advertising, was kinda mean to me. he told me that "I wouldn't get a job as a designer" and that he thought everyone else at the table was better than me. Which is ok to think or say off to the side, but he said it right in front of everyone so it was embarassing. but I think that design is so subjective that i'll still find a place where my work fits in and I'm going to try my best to improve.


One of Buff Monster's paintings


Friday morning we had our big Grammy presentation at CBS. From what I could tell, it went really well. I think we all presented different styles and they have a lot to choose from. I don't think they'll choose my design because there were so many really good ones, but it was still a good experience. They gave us tator tots and coffee again, which is always delicious. I think tator tots just taste better at CBS. Such an amazing feeling to have a whole semester-long project done!

Finally, last night I went to the senior photography exhibit. I had a lot of friends showing work and they had a few performances pieces throughout the night. I don't go to galleries very often so I didn't know that you were supposed to look nice. I was wearing grungy jeans and a tshirt and stuck out...in a bad way. The night ended with sushi and Fiori ice cream in Little Tokyo.

saving turkies and replacing them with cake

First and foremost, happy thanksgiving to everyone! I'm kind of torn when it comes to thanksgiving. I like having a few days off school and sleeping 11 hours in one night (which was the case last night and let me just say, it was amazing). And I like eating my tofu turkey and gaining 5 pounds in one weekend. But on the other hand, my house is usually filled with football games all weekend ranging from college to pro (don't get me wrong, I love watching usc games, but as a girl I feel there's only so many back to back football games I can take before wanting to go screaming for the hills.) Right now, all the males in my family and my brother's friends are in the front room playing some new war video game with the surround sound on full blast, so the house is punctuated with sounds of explosions, war cries, and the boys yelling at the tv screen.

Tomorrow I get to escape and hang out with some friends I haven't seen in at least half a year, which will be wonderful. It's nice to have friends who you don't speak to for ages and then you hang out with them and it's as if you saw them yesterday. And just when I thought everyone alive had seen Borat already, I found someone who hasn't so I don't have to go alone now. hooray.

My mom found this cake at the grocery and felt compelled to buy it. Why? Who knows...but now we have a cake shaped and decorated like a turkey. So ridiculous.







Did anyone see that bush officially pardoned a turkey at the white house? I wonder if that turkey was later made into thanksgiving dinner anyway.

One fish, two fish...

My household has recently purchased 2 beta fish. Their names reflect my family's love for the irish film Waking Ned Divine. One fish is named Ned Divine and the other is named Michael O'Sullivan. The tradition of our fish having both first and last names began with the fish Richard Parker, may he rest in peace. We put them in two separate bowls, but they're right next to each other so they have someone to stare at all day. I think they'd probably eat each other if they were in the same bowl. There've been a lot of animals around lately. My mom started putting food out for a stray neighborhood cat and now when I come home to visit, 5 or 6 cats congregate by our front door, begging for food.

My semester is winding down, thank god. I am so burned out at this point, winter break can't get here fast enough. I finished my grammy ad design, which is a huge load off. The presentation is coming up on December 1st, but before that is Thanksgiving break. I've never really enjoyed thanksgiving except for the time off of school. I don't eat turkey and I don't like how much weight I gain during the break. The break will be spent filming for my video project due the day we get back to school (why do teachers do that?) Jessica's coming to CA and a few other friends, so it'll be nice to get together with them. I just found out the other day that my video teacher literally lives in a cave. I guess it's for a performance art piece, but he's decided to live in a cave for like a year. He told us stories of the rats that he caught in the cave and the difficulties of regulating the temperature. And I'm not kidding. No wonder people think artists are weirdos. We are. I wonder if this is where my future will lead...if I ever mention to any of you that I'm planning on going to live and commune with bears in the forest or something, please snap me back into reality.




I sprained my thumb last night at the Penny Dreadful wrap party. Fingers are the worst things to sprain because you use them so much. I'm looking into getting a thumb splint. Oh yes, I worked on a film this week. My friend Dave was doing his thesis film and so matt and i helped out a bit by basically being PA set slaves, but it turned out to be really fun. I made a lot of new friends. My jobs included throwing dust around for special effect, guarding the front gate to make sure a peacock didn't escape and get hit by a car (b/c I'm assuming that peacocks are expensive to replace), and being a stand-in for the actors when the lighting people were setting up the shots. The still photos look amazing, I'll try to post some here next time. It all was very professional. Wrap parties are always fun, and last night was too, despite the sprained thumb and the drinking way too much alcohol.

Halloweens of yesteryear

I promised pictures of Halloween, so here they are!


My dad, my brother, and I eating pumpkin flavored ice cream and getting balloon animals at the Halloween parade in Half Moon Bay


Matt apparently really liked clowns. And making weird faces.


I wasn't kidding when I said we had competitions for who grew the largest pumpkin. That year's winner was Tom Borchard and his pumpkin weighed 544 pounds.


These photos will remain forever as blackmail. Although I kind of look like a retard as well. My brother and I dressed up as very sexy hula dancers for the parade.


I love carving pumpkins! I think we had facepaint on to make us look like mice, but who can really tell?


One of my favorite years, we dressed up as bumble bees and my dad was a clown-fly swatter hybrid. Good times.


HALLOWEEN IS AMAZING!!

this is halloween

Halloween time is here at last!! Halloween is by far my favorite holiday. I also love Christmas because there are lights everywhere and presents, but the combination of the weather in LA being warm still (no snow) and the religious implications of the holiday make it only my second favorite to Halloween. The holiday began as a Celtic tradition called Samhain, signifying the end of summer and the beginning of cold, dark winter, often associated with human death. Celts believed that on the night before the new year, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred. On the night of October 31, they celebrated Samhain, when it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth. During the celebration, the Celts wore costumes, typically consisting of animal heads and skins, and attempted to tell each other's fortunes. When the celebration was over, they re-lit their hearth fires, which they had extinguished earlier that evening, from the sacred bonfire to help protect them during the coming winter.

By A.D. 43, Romans had conquered the majority of Celtic territory. In the course of the four hundred years that they ruled the Celtic lands, two festivals of Roman origin were combined with the traditional Celtic celebration of Samhain.
The first was Feralia, a day in late October when the Romans traditionally commemorated the passing of the dead. The second was a day to honor Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees. The symbol of Pomona is the apple and the incorporation of this celebration into Samhain probably explains the tradition of "bobbing" for apples that is practiced today on Halloween.

By the 800s, the influence of Christianity had spread into Celtic lands. In the seventh century, Pope Boniface IV designated November 1 All Saints' Day, a time to honor saints and martyrs. It is widely believed today that the pope was attempting to replace the Celtic festival of the dead with a related, but church-sanctioned holiday. The celebration was also called All-hallows or All-hallowmas (from Middle English Alholowmesse meaning All Saints' Day) and the night before it, the night of Samhain, began to be called All-hallows Eve and, eventually, Halloween. Even later, in A.D. 1000, the church would make November 2 All Souls' Day, a day to honor the dead. It was celebrated similarly to Samhain, with big bonfires, parades, and dressing up in costumes as saints, angels, and devils. Together, the three celebrations, the eve of All Saints', All Saints', and All Souls', were called Hallowmas.

Isnt that awesome!? I have the best memories of Halloween growing up. We lived in a small coastal town in Northern CA that was HUGE on pumpkins. Pumpkins everywhere. As far as the eye could see...pumpkins. We would always carve them, roast the seeds, and go to the annual pumpkin festival every year, where they would serve pumpkin flavored ice cream and dress up in costumes for the big parade. I'll post some pictures a little later from that.

This year hasn't felt a ton like halloween yet, but I did go to Universal Studio's Haunted Halloween last night with a bunch of ADPi girls. I had a great time, despite having only gotten 4 hours of sleep the night before and struggling through 2 midterms! We took public transportation, which is the best place for people-watching. I always want to take pictures of people I see, but I don't think a lot of them would like that. The park was pretty fun. It was a nice combination of scary and not scary. It's a comfort to know that the "ghouls" aren't allowed to touch people, although they did spray some mysterious liquid on me that I'm hoping was water. yikes.

The best part though was when we were waiting for the train home and a bum came up to talk to us. He targeted Erin and told her hoq pretty her hair was and then continued to stroke her hair. Super scary! He eventually went away but the expression on her face was priceless.

5 moods/5 songs

I know this originated with Kris’ challenge to Adrianne and Connor, but it seemed so interesting to me that it triggered me to think about 5 songs that correspond to different moods for me. Oh, I just noticed that Connor challenged me so I have a valid reason for this list now. Hooray!

Contemplative/Solemn/Tranquil: “It’s Ok to Think About Ending” by Earlimart. Every time I need to de-stress from studying or whatever is worrying me at school, I’ll go buy a cup of coffee from Trojan Grounds, tune into my ipod, and listen to this song as I walk around campus and think things through. It’s especially representative if I’ve been recently disappointed for some reason. I could see myself crying into my pillow and listening to this song…not that I have ever cried into my pillow. Ask my roommate if you don’t believe me.
*A close second in this category is “The World Spins Madly On” by the Weepies. I love this song! It sounds somewhat folksy and is perfect for a quiet walk around campus. It has a very simple guitar and vocals but acts as a very good song for centering yourself and to remind you that time keeps going and things usually aren’t as bad as they seem. I highly recommend it.

Romantic: “Communication” by The Cardigans. I don’t mean that this song makes me feel romantic really, but I think it’s the most accurate portrayal of how I’ve been feeling about everything in that area lately. It’s technically not a mood. The song is about getting close to people but not really being able to connect in any meaningful way and not knowing what to do about it, so you just disconnect from the whole thing and it turns into nothing. I can relate to that idea a lot. Plus, I just really like the song overall. It could really fit under the contemplative mood section also.
*A close second in this category is “The Sound of Settling” by Death Cab for Cutie. I really didn’t want to like this band for a long time, but this song totally got to me. I love the lyrics “I’ll sit and wonder of every love that could have been, if only I had thought of something charming to say.” So true.

Energetic: “Fell in Love with a Girl” by the White Stripes. Ever since this song came out, its extremely fast paced tempo always increases my energy and makes me want to shout along. I love Jack White’s voice in this song. Plus, the music video was made entirely in animating legos. I’ll usually play this when I’m at the gym…which is practically never. Connor had the best one with “Mr. Blue Sky.” That’s the most frenetic song ever, but I guess Fell in Love with a Girl is my pick for this category.

Creative/Artistic: “After Hours” by Rilo Kiley. This song is so cute. Most Rilo Kiley songs are wonderful, but this one is just so bubbly. It’s all about sunshine and dancing. It’s actually about keeping the sunshine out and retreating from the world in your room, but it’s so damn upbeat. It is a perfect song to listen to when spending hours in the dreary printmaking lab or when I’ve reached my 5th hour of film editing and I really need a pick-me-up or inspiration. I generally relate best and take special notice to songs that are used in tv shows or movie trailers, and After Hours was just used in the trailer for Michel Gondry’s new film the Science of Sleep.

Confident: “Superhero” by Jane’s Addiction. This song is the theme song from the show Entourage, which probably accounts for why it’s a great accompaniment for confidence. The song is about wanting to be a superhero and its loud guitar solo and almost shouting lyrics throughout make me feel happy when I listen to it. Plus I love the “ Oh yeah…” section at the end. I can just see this song playing while riding with friends around Hollywood (prob because that’s what they were doing in the title sequence for Entourage. I’m such a copycat)

It’s really difficult to narrow down songs for each mood. There are so many that I think apply to each category, these are just the first ones that popped into my head. I also think that if I had my own personal theme song that would play when I walked around it would have to be “There She Goes” by The La’s.

Russian narrative

I've been somewhat absorbed lately with this identity film project that I'm working on for class. It's all about my russian heritage and my connection/disconnect to it. I wrote a narrative from the perspective of my great-grandmother from what I've heard about her life that I'm going to have as a voiceover. I think it's a pretty cool story. What do you think?

I was only sixteen when I came to America. I can still remember standing in that long line on the dreariest day ever. It was only early morning, but the heavy rain made everything look gray and later than it really was. After a few hours of standing in that line, all the people began to look gray and expressionless as well. But we stood there just the same, waiting our turn and hoping that we wouldn't be the next person to be turned away. Away from our hopes and dreams. This was the day we were to leave Russia for good and start our new life in America.

Not all of us would be boarding the big ship. The Russian soldiers who strolled up and down the long line saw to that. Their job was to weed out the weak ones; the ones not fit to go.

I began to cry and started to miss my mother and father already. Would I ever see them and all my brothers and sisters again? But I was the oldest and so it was up to me to make a new start in a strange new land. I can remember crying more loudly and the woman standing behind me poking me.

"Stop that silly crying girl! Do you want them to draw a big white "X" on the back on your coat? Show them that you're strong!" She pulled a small white apron out of her over stuffed purse and gave it to me to wipe away my tears. The soldiers came and marked a big white "X" on the woman’s back, then promptly led her away. I never saw her again, but still had the white apron she so kindly gave me. I often thought of her and the kindness and advice she gave me.

The sight of Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty was bigger than I could have imagined, and the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. I can still remember coming off the ship and the first moment I stepped on American soil. Oh, to be free at last! Who of us knew what would happen to us next?

After all the paperwork was finalized, I found myself being whisked off with a group of strangers. We were to share a very small apartment together. Those were the loneliest days of my life.

I soon found a job as a waitress in a busy restaurant on Hauser St. in N.Y.C. I wore that white apron given to me by the kind woman. Before long, I started to recognize some of the people. They had become like family to me. The usual supper crowd would filter in, most for a taste of old Russia. Some blini, kishka, or perhaps a bowl of borsch. There was one particular man who would come every day and order his usual bowl of borsch. He always had a twinkle in his eye; his large unkempt handle bar mustache covering the half hidden smile. There was mischief in this one. He wouldn't have anyone else take his order except for me. Maybe it was because I was the only one who could understand him? He only spoke in Russian. Oh sure, he knew how to speak English, and was fluent in several other languages as well. I later found out that he didn't want to let on that he could speak a variety of languages so that he could always sit at the tables I waited on.
I would take his order, and as I turned to place his request to the cook, he would reach over and pull my apron string, unraveling my white apron. I would watch it drop in slow motion gracefully to the floor. Then he would get up from his table, walk over to the apron, pick it up and hand it back to me. He never said very much, but repeated the same routine over and over every day.

One day, he pulled my apron string and it fell to the floor as usual. And as always, he got up from his table and walked over to the apron. But this time, it was different. He picked it up and walked over to me, but he knelt down on one knee and took my hand. He looked up at me with tears in his eyes. "Will you marry me Julie and be my wife?" There was total silence in the noisy, over crowded restaurant as the patrons waited for my answer. I said "yes." I figured he would bother me forever pulling at my apron strings until I said yes, and so I did.

Suddenly the whole place turned into a big party. Most of the patrons were Russian, one was even a famous ballet dancer. She danced in celebration for us. Accordions and balalaikas appeared from nowhere and we danced all night long.
We were married a few weeks later. He was a good man; a hardworking man and our love grew day by day. He built us a house with his own hands in N.J. and it still stands there today, with echoes of happiness. And so my Sarah, my great grand daughter, I pass my white apron on to you. May it always remind you of the kind spirit that it was given to me and may you wear it in good health. And who knows, perhaps one day they'll be a man with a twinkle in his eye and mischief in his blood for you.

A photograph is a secret about a secret. The more you tell the less you know.

Now into the 5th week of school and this semester is flying. I started out wanting to get more involved because I was worried about being bored this year with a lot of my friends gone. But I think I may have overextended myself and gotten too involved. I joined a bunch of stuff at once. I recently joined Trojan Vision, the university news station. I write interview questions for The Cutting Edge, a show that screens student films and then interviews the filmmakers. Some of the films really suck, which makes it more fun because we get to screen them beforehand and mock them incessantly. The people seem to be pretty nice. They do a lot of group outings, like this past Friday we went to a Dodger game. Had to sit in the stratosphere section and spent 45 minutes walking around the parking lot looking for our car afterward, but once I got over my fear of sitting that high up, I had a nice time. 3 people got kicked out for throwing things over the railing. I'm trying to get more involved in AIGA, the graphic design club on campus. I toyed with the idea of having an officer position, but with everything being the way it is, I think it'd be a committment I couldn't take on. I don't want to be so busy that I can't do thing with friends or go out on a weekend if I want to. And I've still got all the sorority things going on and all my classes, so it's turned into a fairly busy semester...which is exactly what I wanted. I'm getting a better idea of how my classes are going to be this semester.

Senior Seminar-We spent the first 3 weeks doing presentations about our own work. I had technical difficulties and half my stuff didn't show up in the powerpoint, but it worked out ok. The class split into 2 classes, basically designers and fine artists, and we've begun to go over everything we need to know in order to graduate and get a job. Last week, the whole class was devoted to resume development, so I think I should be a little better prepared to graduate.

Special Projects for Design- We're working for CBS in this class. We're doing the ad campaign for the Monday Night comedy lineup and also for the Grammy Awards. i would greatly appreciate ANY insight into the grammies. Who's going to win? What's the general feel of it? I havent actually watched the awards for a few years so I'm kinda clueless. I'm mainly freaking out about the comedy stuff though. I have a hell of a time designing for comedy. Dramas are so much easier. With comedy, you have to be funny, but in a way that's very quickly understood and not stupid. I'm drawing a blank so far.

Advertising Media and Analysis- blandest subject matter ever. I have to pump myself full of caffeine before each class to avoid falling asleep and snoring.

Art Theory- generally fun. It's the advanced art theory class here and I'm with mainly all art majors. There's a fair share of dense reading and critiques, but our teacher is kind of eccentric and interesting to listen to.

Digital Video- I like this class a lot. The teacher does tend to show us too many hours of "art films" which I dislike a lot. You can only watch so much Matthew Barney so many times, and once we hit The Karen Carpenter Story acted out entirely with barbie dolls, I knew we'd gone too far. And the class meets in the basement computer lab where it's dark and cozy and I tend to get sleepy. But the assignments we have are really helpful. Right now, I'm working on an "identity video" project. We had to pick something about ourselves and create a 5-10 minute video project. I decided to do it about my Russian heritage and my disconnect to it. I'm thinking of having it in the style of a nostalgic, slow piece and I'd like to do it in the style of a film title sequence. Think "To Kill a Mockingbird" with its retrospect of childhood objects and humming or this http://www.d-kitchen.com/nw/nw_911.html except with more balalaika music.

Other than school, I went to the football game, which has basically turned into an angry mob of students pushing and trampling each other to get into the stadium. The school oversold student seats by 4,000 seats so everyone was panicking. After being squished up against people in line for 2 hours, my friend actually had a panic attack and we decided to leave the line. We waited til the crowd died down and went in, but I don't think I'll be going back to any games if it continues like that. I think i'd rather watch the game from the comfort of my living room than to risk being trambled and then get squished into the student seating area that didn't actually have seats so we all had to stand to watch the 4 hour game. Booo USC football and your money-making schemes.

And yay, this movie is finally coming out! Diane Arbus is one of my absolute favorite photographers, so I'll definintely be seeing this. The poster is really well designed too.

Learning from Los Angeles

I always like hearing accounts of Los Angeles in ways I haven't thought about the city before. Here is a snippet from my latest art theory reading assignment by Dave Hickey:

"So, for the artist or the citizen living and working in it, Los Angeles becomes less a drama than a casting call, less a novel than a telephone book, less a text than a dictionary; it is less a place, in fact, than a network of intersecting mythological journeys, or less a deployment of communal plazzas than a confluence of intersecting "strips." It is a world in which space unfolds irrationally in a sequence of vistas, after the manner of the romantic garden, or Ed Rusha's Every Building on the Sunset Strip. By comparison, you can conceive Manhatten, hold it in your head, read it like a book-a paginated codex. Los Angeles is inconceivable in this manner. Further, there is so little real past here, and so much fraudulent "high" concept, that that characteristic, deep, tilting, shifting space becomes the emblem of what is "real."

10 things

I've been meaning for a few days to update this thing with stories from my trip to New Jersey, but everytime I thought about sitting down and writing about it, the venture seemed too daunting. So instead, I'm going to post this thing I'm writing for my digital video assignment because it's already written and all I have to do is copy and paste. Our next film project for the upcoming weeks is a personal identity project. It's a 5-10 minute video about some element of our identity. So in preparation, our teacher wants us to write a list of 10 things about our identity that will help us define who we are to ourselves and pick a subject for our piece. It can be anything from personal (a coveted object, a phobia, dynamic with a parent) to broader social categories (gender, race, religion, etc.) Here's the list of 8 of the 10 I just typed up tonight. It will probably change before it's finished and I have no idea which of these things to base my project around...suggestions are welcome, but here it is:




1. Russian heritage: I want to feel connected to this culture and be able to relate to my relatives, but I’m a 3rd generation Russian who is completely American. How do you connect to a culture you haven’t experienced? My great grandmother came to America from Russia, where she lived as a gypsy. She inspired an appreciation for mysticism and fun in my family that I think is still there generations later.

2. Vegetarian: I’ve been one for 6 1/2 years. Treating creatures with respect and living in harmony with nature has been very important to me. I was brought up with a belief in the interconnectedness of all things, and to me this decision just felt right.

3. Phobias:

• Heights. I get really debilitating vertigo when climbing open staircases. My earliest memories of being afraid of heights was when my family visited a windmill and you could climb to the top. I didn’t want to and neither did my mom.

• Butterflies. I went to a butterfly atrium when I was 3 and there were all these super large butterflies and they landed and got tangled up in my hair. I got so freaked out that I ran out of the atrium as fast as I could.

• Animatronics/Puppets. I watched a kid’s video when I was little and it had a scene with a purple hippo puppet that got stuck in a tree and was going to fall and crush these little children. Every since I saw that, all animatronic or puppet animals that talk freak me out beyond believe.

4. Ballerina: I started dancing ballet when I was 3 years old. It wasn’t really dancing, it was mainly hopping ungracefully over alligator ponds that our teacher drew on the floor in chalk. I continued to do ballet up until I was 16 years old. It played a large role in my life and still plays a role in how I behave and try to carry myself.

5. Sorority: I joined a sorority my sophomore year of college. It was never in a million years something that I thought would fit my lifestyle as an art student, but I joined because my freshman year was uneventful and I knew people who had fun in sororities. I’ve made many friends and found just one more outlet in college where I can explore my identity.

6. Observer: I’ve always thought of myself within society as the quiet observer of people and situations around me. I’ve always been on the quieter side and I like to see the beauty in the world around me without really interacting or disturbing it. I got into photography as a way to channel what I saw around me into something artistic.

7. Daughter/Sister: I’m extremely close to all members of my immediate family. My mom is literally my best friend, and my brother and I are so close in age that we get along really well. I take after my dad because he’s very patient and rational. My older sister passed away when she was just a baby from SIDS, which affected my parents very strongly but I also think it brought the family closer together. It really says something about my parents that they could come through the loss of a child and still be the amazing parents that they are today.

8. Los Angeles: My relationship with the city has taken many forms. When I was younger, I couldn’t wait to move away from LA. Growing up in a desert suburb on the outskirts made me feel like there was nothing but fake people and hot weather. Moving away meant freedom, adulthood and independence. When I hit college and moved into the heart of the city, I discovered my love for all the quirky places in the city and proximity to my family. Now that I’m interested in entertainment graphic design, it looks like I’ll be with the city for a while longer.

What happened to my life?

I'm back at USC now for sorority recruitment school, the two week period that I go into a cave where everything else in my life is halted. So far, I've been here for 4 days, 13 hours a day. Last year, it was the most exhausting process and by the end of the 3 weeks, my voice had completely disappeared and I had come down with a horrible cold. What a great way to start the semester. This year, I am here the same amount of hours, if not more, but it's less physically exhausting because I'm on a purely organizational team so I don't learn any of the bouncing, singing stuff. I miss my life though. I was having such a wonderful summer hanging out with so many cool people, and it is like the rug has been pulled out from under me. It's like entering an alternate universe where I don't even recognize my life as my own, but as soon as recruitment stuff is over, life returns to normal and hopefully all the friendships I made during the summer will still be around.

So I'll be here at the house all day, every day from now until the 21st, but somehow I have to find time to move into my apartment, meet my new roommates, and go to first week's classes. Then on the 22nd, I'm taking the red eye flight to new jersey for my cousin's wedding. It's a crazy crazy time, but please do call my cell phone and remind me that there is a world outside this cave...because I'm starting to doubt it.

transition to fall

I'll go through these manic periods where I'll write a blog entry every day for a week, and then I'll go for a month without one. Anyway, I knew that after last night, things would start settling down. It's time for me to switch into school mode. Last night, a bunch of people brig knew from usc, afi, and high school went to Saddle Ranch for her goodbye party. It turned out to be a really fun night. I decided that I love adios motherfuckers. They are delicious. They came in basically a pitcher-sized glass and were bright blue. They had vodka, white rum, gin, and some other blue liquor and were sooooo good! You don't taste a bit of the alcohol, which is good because more and more I realize that I don't enjoy the tonic drinks. Because you don't taste the alcohol, it knocks you on your ass. Brigitte and I split 2 big pitchers of it. It always makes me nervous to blend people from too many friend groups, but this time everyone seemed to get along really well. Probably thanks to the qualities of the adios motherfuckers. Do you ever have certain events that happen though, even little ones, that you wish you could reverse time and change the outcome so much that you just obsess over the event for days afterwards? I don't know if that makes any sense. Basically, I looked like a total idiot in front of someone I really wish I hadn't and I haven't been able to stop thinking about it. Maybe it's because everything is up in the air.

Perhaps taking my mind off it will help because now it's time to think about school. I always feel like I'm a different person from semester to semester. It probably has a lot to do with the people I surround myself with. This is my last week before I go back for fall semester and I have a huge list of things to get done. It's pretty daunting. The first week back, I've got to live on someone's floor because my apartment's move-in day isnt until the 16th. I'll be homeless. It's going to be strange being back in that environment because I've spent so much time this summer hanging out with Brigitte and older film people, it's going to be strange to not have them around. But hopefully organizing my life and doing rush stuff 12 hours a day will help me snap back into the mindframe that I have to be in. I hope that everyone has a wonderful end to summer and I've enjoyed spending time with you all.

But at midnight on August 18th, this is where I'll be!

If you're going to San Francisco...

I had a very Rory Gilmore moment at my internship the other day. Most of you probably don't watch the Gilmore girls and now you think I'm lame, but let me explain. Rory took an internship at a really prestigious newspaper and the boss sits her down to tell her how she's doing and he completely rips her apart. And because she thinks shes been doing so well, it makes her question her pursuit of journalism as a profession. Mine wasn't nearly like that. But i did have a talk with one of my bosses last week. He talked about productivity and how it's important to be a strong asset to a company. I freaked out thinking that he meant that I was a slow worker and just a technician rather than an asset. I barely slept at all that night thinking about it. But then I went in this week and everyone was super nice and liked my work, so the way I figure it is that he just wanted to pass on his wisdom about the business and wasn't meaning I was doing things the wrong way. He wanted me to take something away from the internship and learn something about the graphic design community. I hope...

I went to USC for only the 3rd time this summer. I visited with Megan and Ashley and we watched episodes of House. We went to El Cholo for dinner. They have the most delicious green corn tamales ever! Unfortunately, they're only offered may-october. Cruel cruel world. The downside was that we got stuck in the corner booth in the back of the restaurant and our waiter completely forgot about us. Ashley had to flag down any bus boys who passed our table. I'm going to miss Megan a lot this year. It solidified the fact that I've got to live with 4 complete strangers very soon. I'm crossing my fingers that at least the girl in my room is nice and easy to live with. I hope to go back one more time before summer is over.



Last night, Brigitte and I went to a BBQ at one of her AFI friend's house in Echo Park. I really like that area because it doesn't seem to follow a grid as much. There aren't any disgusting tract homes that all look exactly the same. We actually passed this awesome bright teal apartment complex with purple trim and I thought about how cool it would be to live there. It felt very much like summer. We bbqed outside, had music, I took my shoes off and had a beer (which I think I might actually be starting to enjoy. gasp!). I think the best part was that it was 80% boys so I met some very cool people. And I ran into some people I already knew who I wanted to see again. Most everyone was a film student from either USC or AFI, or both, so I got lost in the film lingo most of the time and just kinda stared at whoever was talking like I understood what they meant when they were talking about budgets or the difference between a unit production manager and a production coordinator and their salaries. I like film people though. They're mostly outgoing and interesting people, as opposed to a lot of the fine arts people I've met who tend to be a little off their rockers. Who knows...maybe I am too.

Going to Northern California tomorrow...will post some pictures of that when I get back.

I had a funny dream and you were wearing funny shoes

So I bought tickets way back in like March or April for the summer concert of Belle and Sebastian at the Hollywood Bowl and I almost forgot about it until about a week ago. But it finally arrived and was as awesome as I expected. In fact, it exceeded my expectations because The Shins were the opening band. My love for the shins started when Brigitte introduced them to me a few years ago. I saw them in concert, but it was before I had really learned their songs, and it's never as fun seeing a band if you don't know their music by heart. Brigitte and I got there early because we were in the area already. We decided to park at the zoo, and shuttle there. We bought some delicious snacks and a $2 bottle of wine and had a picnic while waiting for Connor, Scott, and the gang to arrive. They got stuck in really bad traffic and made us miss half of the Shins set, but thanks to Connor running as fast as he could from their car parked miles away, we were able to get in and catch most of my favorite songs. Belle and Sebastian were so amazing. They were backed by the LA Philharmonic, which at times I felt overpowered Stuart's vocals but on the whole blended nicely with their music. I think my favorite part of the night was when a group of boisterous fans jumped up on stage and broke out into dance. The security guards were running around trying to catch them and push them off the stage, but Stuart shouted "No! Let them dance" in his cute Scottish accent. Yet more proof that Scottish boys are the best and I will one day, God willing, marry one. On the way back on the bus, we had to stand because there was no sitting room and I got really nauseous because I was facing backwards. But all was well in the end and I drove home listening to the Belle and Sebastian/Shins mix I burned earlier that morning.




*Picture cleverly stolen from Connor's blog because none of my pictures came out as good.

Good times, noodle salad

4th of July turned out to be very relaxing, but nothing all that new. We've fallen into the tradition of going to Fillmore down the 126 on the way to Ventura (the one place where you can legally buy fireworks). The 4th of July is like my family's Thanksgiving. I gain so much weight from the cookies, noodle salad, sandwiches, fruit salad, and Pink Panther shaped ice cream bars that I ate. Brigitte came with us. We bummed around for a few hours, reading trashy celebrity gossip magazines and David Sedaris articles in the New Yorker. I always like to go to Fillmore because it's the nicest little community. Everyone has picnics out on the football field and waits for the fireworks. The fireworks show was nice, although I didn't take any pictures. The PA system there is horrible. They played the Star Spangled Banner, which was completely garbled so I just plugged in my Ipod and had my own little fireworks soundtrack, none of the songs being patriotic. I'm itching to go on a road trip. My favorite place to roadtrip is San Francisco or to Berkeley so if anyone feels like they'd be up for it, let me know.

Also, at my internship, I've been working on my very first movie teaser poster. It's for a horror movie called Midnight Hour about Bloody Mary. Yes, it will probably be a really weird movie, but who cares...because I get to design it and entirely from scratch! I hope it actually gets used somewhere. This is it in an unfinished state. I also have rediscovered my love for the Arrested Development title designs at the beginning of the show. They are amazing and fit with the show perfectly.

Both images below are Copyright Sarah kamlet 2006

We wish you a Merry Christmas

I had the strangest and most disturbing dream last night. I dreamt that I woke up in an ICU in a hospital and I had suffered a massive injury that had put me into a coma. So I wake up out of this coma to learn that all the people around me are strangers, but they're actually my family. My family now (mom, dad, and matt) were just figments of the coma and everything in my life with them had been made up while I was in this coma. And then I had to start living with this new "real" family and I didn't like them at all and all I wanted to do was to go back into the coma world. Weird, huh?

Yesterday, Brigitte and I went to Buffalo Exchange, which is a used clothing store on La Brea. We parked out at a meter on the street and I got a fucking parking ticket! Came out of the store 20 minutes later to realize that I now owe $65 dollars to the police. Fuck Fuck Fuck. The sign was covered in stickers so we didn't realize we couldn't park there, so we took pictures of the sign. I'm considering contesting it but I'm not sure if it's worth spending my entire day at the courthouse or whether I should just forget about it and fork over the money. At least my car didn't get towed. To end the day though we went to Farmer's Market, which is by far one of my favorite places in LA. I can see myself living and working around there. The Ant Farm, my dream entertainment design firm, is right there and I love going to Farmer's Market to people watch. People watching is a great pastime, until they catch you looking at them from across the market and give you a dirty look. I'd bring my camera sometime if I didn't feel so awkward about taking random people's pictures.

Going to see Belle and Sebastian at the Hollywood Bowl on Thursday. I just discovered that The Shins are going to be playing also. Two of my favorite bands! I can't wait.

I'll post pics tomorrow after 4th of July celebrations. I will have probably gained 5 pounds. And as is tradition in my family, we always take a moment on the 4th of July to think about Christmas and vice versa. So here's to Christmas...it can't come fast enough

Hollywood Bowl

One way I can tell that summer is here (and yes, I know it's already July) is that Hollywood Bowl season has begun. I can do every other summery activity (swimming, running through sprinklers, eating watermelon, bike riding, slip n'sliding) and still not feel like it's officially here. But today it is because I went to the Hollywood Bowl last night. My family and I went to see the pre-4th of July fireworks show. The first half of the concert was really enjoyable, with the LA Philharmonic playing songs that were patriotic but we didn't have to sit through any versions of Greatest American Hero. I'm still very bitter about not being able to be the symbols banger when we sang that for 6th grade graduation. I would've been so good too. They played things like the theme of Star Trek and Magnificent Seven and Fanfare for the Common Man. The second half was filled with Kenny Loggins, but I figured I had to sit through him to get to the fireworks. He sang Home for the Holidays and some other crooner songs before singing Footloose, whereupon some crazy man sitting next to me jumped up from his seat and proceeded to dance like one of those mechanical toy puppies you see outside toy stores that wind up and do backflips. Another man close by threw his 2 young children on his back and ran up and down the aisles in time with the beat and his poor kids were hanging on for dear life. I survived Kenny Loggins though and the fireworks portion was beautiful. I'm entranced by all things shiny or sparkly. The visiting conducter was hilarious, which was surprising because I always expect conducters to be very serious with absolutely no sense of humor.

My mom and brother got totally smashed off wine and my mom sang Footloose out the window at the top of her lungs the whole way home. A fitting end to a good night.






This is actually from the other night when Keara, Brigitte, and I went out for drinks. Some old guy came over to offer to buy Brigitte a drink, but Keara and I got no such offer. I guess we are chopped liver.

Wind Fisherman

Now that it's summer I update this thing less often than I do when I'm at school running around busy. This week has been pretty busy too. I've discovered the many states of tired. First, you're just kind of run down and dragging. Then you get this second wind of delirium and giddyness. Then, finally, you get so tired that you get physically nauseous and it doesn't go away until you pass out in your bed from exhaustion and sleep for the next 20 hours. My state of sleepiness was produced by helping out as the still photographer on the AFI film shoot of The Wind Fisherman. When Brigitte told me about it, I had no idea what it was or what to expect. Turns out we were filming at this remote desert location out past Saugus, way down a isolated dirt road and it was soooo hot! The temperature was over 100 degress everyday and the sun was scorching. Luckily I walked away without a sunburn because I kept slathering on pounds of SPF 45 sunblock. It was also supposed to take place in the windiest town ever, so they brought in these 10 foot fans to blow around and kick up the dust in our eyes so we all left with a coat of dust on us. Despite all the annoyances about the weather, I ended up having an amazing time. I met so many creative, talented people who worked their asses off to get the production to come together. I was happy that my only job was to go around snapping pictures, especially when I saw the art department carrying heavy sets around all day. I got to make a slideshow too which will show up on the Wind Fisherman myspace page.

Last night, we got to have a mini-wrap party at the Dave's house (the producer) which was really fun. It's so nice to hang out with film people. They're generally so passionate about what they do, which is something I can relate to. It made me realize even more that film design is where I want to be. I'm a little jealous actually because film people have such a community. I don't really get the sense of that with design. To a smaller extent, yes, but it's not like you go and hang out and have wrap parties with design people when you finish a project. Maybe that will change as I get more into the business. I was so exhausted after last night that I slept until 1pm today. Now that I'm rested, I'm going to the Hollywood Bowl tonight to see the fireworks. And unfortunately, to listen to Kenny Logins accompany the fireworks, which is going to suck because I don't like him at all, but I think just being in the ambience, having a few glasses of wine, and looking out at the fireworks over the hills will overrule any torture at having to hear The Danger Zone.

My favorite flavor, cherry red

I love my internship. So after the trip to the liquor store, I was assigned the job of coming up with a "coat of arms" type thing for the label of this winery. The owner of the winery's history is very important to him, so I got to be a complete stalker and research him on the internet. Turns out he was in the military, was born in mexico, his father was heavily involved with satellite television, and he's invested in Catholicism because he helped found all these missionaries. For the coat of arms, I went with the catholicism thing but tried to downplay it so it wouldnt offend any potential buyers of the wine. I added in lilies because they are the Christian symbol for the virgin mary but are also just pretty decorative accents. I'm happy with the way it came out.




Blue variation



Red variation


Other than internship things, I came down with a miserable cold that I caught from my mom. So now I have a sore throat that I'm sure is not strep throat because I got checked at the doctor's today. A lot of friends are in town this week. Tomorrow, Lexi, Matt and I are going to a concert..but I'm not sure who is playing or where it is. I think it's more fun sometimes to not know what's going on and just hope for the best. Then near the end of the week, Tasha's sister, Shilpa's, graduating from high school and is having a margarita evening and also a celebration dinner. The bonus is that we get to dress up in the traditional Indian outfit. I got to pick mine out (actually one of the only ones that fit because tasha and I are nowhere near the same size) and I'm so excited to wear it. Crossing my fingers that I'm not sick throughout all of it.

Topanga Days

My long awaited internship began this past Tuesday so I've been there twice. I was very nervous because I had never done an internship before, especially in a small firm where I would be the only intern and if I screw up, it would be more noticeable. I didn't really know what to expect when I got there. The first thing I realized was that I was overdressed. They all go in jeans and sweats and pretty much anything I'd wear to class. I'm relieved because I hate dressing up and if I'm going to be there all day, it's nice to be comfortable. There are actually only 4 people working there and all of them are very nice. My first day, they started me out creating title treatments for some movie posters they're working on. I don't think any of them will be used, but it was pretty cool to do. They're working on the Stargate dvd packaging so I got to cut out a picture that'll go on the cover. I also answer phones and mail packages...woohoo. We're also doing a label for a new winery, so we took a field trip on Thursday to a liquor store to check out the labels. I'm starting to relax a little bit although I am still nervous that I'm going to screw up. The two owners, Daryll and Tami, are married. I wonder if they worked together first before getting married or if they got married and then started the company. Maybe I'll ask when I get more comfortable. I'll write more about the internship a little later. I think it's a good start in the business though and working here will hopefully although me to get an internship at somewhere like The Cimarron Group, Digital Kitchen, or Yu + Co.

Yesterday, as is tradition, my family and I went to Topanga Days, the most awesome hippie country fair you could imagine. It's up in the hills of Topanga Canyon and you have to make a huge trek up this giant hill, but once you get there it's like the 1960s never left. They have lots of booths full of homemade crafts, all these local venders selling food, various bands, and lots and lots of weed. You see the oddest people too. This visit included a guy wearing jeans and a white sparkly cape, another woman was dressed in a fairy outfit, and tons of tie-dye everywhere. I bought a really pretty necklace and also a giant smoothie. They served it in a football cup and I thought it would be smaller than it was, but they poured the entire contents of the blender into the cup and I knew I was in trouble. It was delicious though. It turned out to be a very relaxing, fun day to just be outside and enjoy the California scenery.


An aerial view of the festivities


Me with my way-too-large smoothie


My brother, me, and my mom

Summer afternoon...the two most beautiful words in the English language

Being home for the summer is a strange mix of things. It took me a good 3 days to pack up my overwhelming amount of stuff in the apartment and bring it home. The last days of school left me with hardly any food because I wanted it to dwindle away. I lived on thai food take out and my always delicious fall-back dinner of frozen tator tots and lumpy chocolate pudding. I now have the unpleasant task of going through all the bins dumped in the living room, figuring what I'll need for the summer, consolidating everything, and sending the rest of it to storage. I was sad to leave school, but I'm generally happy where I am so when I leave school Im sad but then I'm immediately happy to be home. Usually I'm just here overnight once every few weeks, but now I'm here for the whole summer stretch which is sort of nice. My family has been great. I'll start my internship on the 23rd, so since coming home I've had ultimate freedom and laziness. Generally I hate to just sit around daily with no purpose. It makes me feel ineffectual and a waste of air.

When I came home, my brother was working on a movie for his mythology class so I offered to help out with that. It gave me a chance to actually sit down and hammer out all the frustrations I've been having with Final Cut Pro, but I think I've come out of it knowing a lot. I learned how to add titles, cut down audio tracks, and all the basics of editing. I just started working on the beginnings of my long talked about, but not yet realized 'tv show credits' which will feature a made-up tv show and all my friends as the actors. I want to do one for my portfolio because I would give my right leg to eventually create real tv show credits. How cool would that be? To create an intro that would run before a tv show every week and thousands of people would see. For my mother's day, since I am totally broke, I'm designing a book cover for my mom based on a story she wrote called "Gypsy Blood." It's a pretty cheap gift, but I think it'll be something that she likes and it saves me from going into debt.

I'm trying to finish this book I'm reading called "The Historian." It's about a historian who gets sucked into a mystery surrounding the legend of Dracula and it takes him all over Eastern Europe. They throw in a lot of historical facts about Dracula. It's pretty interesting as far as fun reads go. I didn't want anything too heavy for the beginning of summer time, but next up on my list is Lolita, then Capote's In Cold Blood, and hopefully David Sedaris' Naked after that.

I've also just started up on what will hopefully be a regular gym routine. I want to be completely in shape by the end of summer because the stress of finals and being a lazy blob at home this week have turned me into something resembling this guy.

Baby, you can drive my car

So the most incredible and unbelievable thing happened to me and I was in a state of shock so I couldn't even write about it for a few days. I got a car!! Now I knew this day was coming, but I didn't foresee it to be any time in the near future when I landed the internship in North Hollywood. I had the option of taking the bus 2 hours each way the days of my internship OR get a car. I decided on looking around for a really cheap used car. Something that could just get me back and forth and that I could replace in a few years when I start making money. I foolishly (or luckily, depending on how you look at it) sent my parents out to test the waters of used cars because I was at school. And they call me up to report that...wait for it...they got me a car and were driving it off the lot that very minute!! I thought my parents had gone insane. Not only was it a car, but it was a brand new 2006 Hyundai Elantra. I told them that they were insane and that I didn't deserve a new car. I've done nothing to deserve it and since I'm making $0 right now just interning, I have no way of paying for it until I graduate. I would be quite content with making a car out of a cardboard box and running it around town like the Flinestones, I told them. But the more they talked the more they convinced me that it made a lot of sense. For one, this car is super reliable and safe. It's got front and side air bags and has received 5 stars on crash test ratings. Also, its about the same price that a used Toyota or Honda would be because we got a really good deal. So if I got a used toyota, it would have a lot more miles on it than this new car. Because it's new, it's less likely to break down as much within the first few years and I should be able to keep it for the next decade rather than trading it in, allowing me to save money in the longrun. It gets something like 28 or 30 miles to the gallon too which is important. I got to pick the color, so I chose a nice cherry red color. It's not so bright red that I'll get stopped by every cop, but it's bright enough to be visible on the road. So I'm in a state of shock that I own a car. But as long as my parents agree to let me help pay for it once I graduate and start making money on my own and budgeting, I think I can accept it. Here are some pictures of my baby. All cars need a name, so I need to come up with one for my car. so if anyone has any suggestions, post a comment.



This is one showing the actual color. I could only chose between this, teal, and beige. The teal was gross and the beige reminds of an old person car. I wanted mine to have some personality.

Art Final Exam: Given one box of crayons and 3 pieces of paper, recreate the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel

I'm approaching what will probably be my easiest finals week yet. I only have one written test, in The World of Visual Effects, and she already sent us all the possible questions so all I have to do is memorize what I want to write and I've got it made. Although she is a nazi with her grading so we'll see.

Though things are winding down now, the last few weeks have been fairly packed with end of the year activities. We had our Senior Sendoff invite, fountain run, and all my art projects were due. I was covered in ink for a good 2 weeks from printmaking and seriously considered turning the corner of the printmaking studio into my makeshift bedroom so that I could just hop out of bed and start rolling ink. The idea sounded feasible until I realized I would probably die from the mineral spirits fumes. For our final project, I did three drypoint etchings of scenes from the fairy tales Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland, and Rapunzel based off the illustrations of Arthur Rackham. It kinda sucked and I had to come up with some BS artsy reason for doing it. I wish I was talented in more areas of art. They make you take all these fundamental out of your emphasis courses which I inevitably fail to excel in. One girl did this really interesting piece on destiny and how the small decisions we make everyday drastically change our lives. She was saying how she moved to the US from Japan and had to choose where to move and what to major in. I think if I had chosen to go to Carnegie Mellon my life would be pretty different and I would have never met any of the people I've met in college.

Yesterday, I was in Valencia for the night so my family decided to go on a super long 6 hour drive through the Los Angeles national forest. We got up at 7am, drove to this mountain lodge/restaurant my parents like to go to because it reminds them of Colorado, and then drove all the way through the mountains which spit us out in Santa Paula. There's so much open space back there that I didn't even realize was there. I took many pictures. And I think my brother is morphing into a cowboy.



My mom and I after about 6 hours in the car. If you're wondering what we're doing, we're making noise with our soda bottles to accompany the music we were listening to.


The view right around Ojai. It was a little foggy but the scenary is incredible.


Could be a poster for Brokeback Mountain 2. I tease.


And as soon I get home for summer I'll be dyeing my hair this color! The girl, not McDreamy.

Who loves the sun?

It's been rainy all day, but the one reason I don't mind rainy days is that you are expected to look like crap. On sunny, warm days everybody's out riding bikes or lounging on campus and the girls all look like they've put in the time to throw on a skirt and do their hair, so when I go waddling through campus in my sweats, it's pretty apparent that I just don't care. On rainy days, it's totally normal for someone to throw their hair up in a bun, not do makeup, and wear big clunky boots. I relish rainy days.

I'm about ready for this year to end, but I know I'm going to miss it when it's gone. About half my friends are seniors and they'll be gone next year. I'm trying not to think about having to live with random roommates next year, seeing as my college existence could take a horrible turn if I get stuck with a mean roommate. I think Megan has pretty much decided on University of Michigan for law school...it's going to be so weird not having her around since we've lived together for 2 years. But junior year is done in about 3 weeks and I couldn't be in more need of a brain time-out.

I had an interview yesterday for a summer internship and it went really well! I'm pretty sure I got it, they said they want me to come work there this summer, I just have to call for details next week, but I'm always a little hesitant to say it's a sure thing after the fiasco that happened with Sony last year. This place is a small design firm specializing in entertainment design and they said that as an intern, I'd pretty much be a junior designer. I wouldn't be stuck filing and getting coffee as much as other internships, instead I'd actually get to be involved with the creative process and have imput with my own ideas. Basically, it's the perfect situation. The place is in North Hollywood on the top floor of an old theater building. Since I dont want to move around like 20 times and I want to save money, I'll be living at home for the summer and commuting there, which will probably be a pain, but I think it'll be totally worth it. AND I think I'm getting a used car, so I won't have to be that pathetic girl who always needs a ride somewhere or she can't go. Yay for mobility! It's nice to see things coming together the way I wanted them to.

It's nice to see the directions all my friends are going in also. Everyone is doing completely different things, but they're all wonderful. A special congrats to Brigitte who got into Columbia University and to Kris (though I don't think he reads this) who got into Teach for America. Those are both amazing achievements and I'm so happy for both of you.

Troy

I'll write about my New York trip when I have a little more time and am fully caught up with all my homework, but in the mean time I thought I'd post this poem that my brother wrote for his mythology class. I think it is amazing and he is super talented. I can barely rhyme two sentences let alone a whole poem that keeps to the story of Troy. Good job little brother.


Poem of Troy
By
Matt Kamlet

Listen to a story, centuries old,
Of Hector, Achilles, and the city of Gold.
It began when young Paris took Helen with lust,
And Helen had left Menelaus in the dust.
Together the lovers departed for Troy,
With Sparta behind them, long lives they’d enjoy.
Menelaus came home and said, “Where’s my Wife?!”
“With the young Prince of Troy? Then I shall take his life!”
So he went to his brother, the wide-ruling king,
Agamemnon the selfish, who began recruiting.
Then he gathered the lords of the kingdoms of Greece,
Said to leave home behind and to take to the seas.
The warriors landed, and based on the beach,
And the outer defenses of Troy had been breached.
But soon after this, Greece committed a sin,
Against Apollo, and his priest, by stealing his kin.
For nine days Apollo cast plague on the Greeks,
Making them angry and making them weak.
Agamemnon was then forced to give up his prize,
But then he did something unjust and unwise.
He insulted Achilles, with muscles of steel,
With immortality, except for the heel.
He did so by taking Achilles’ prize,
Condemning the Greeks to a certain demise.
Achilles decided to retire from war,
Until Agamemnon would beg for his sword.
It soon seemed as though he had made a mistake,
For the city of Troy was not easy to take.
For Zeus had deceived the wide-ruling king,
By igniting an offense through an unholy dream.
On the fields of Troy, the two armies would meet,
The horse-taming Trojans, and the bronze-wielding Greeks.
Over Helen, Menelaus and Paris would fight,
But when Paris was down, his body took flight.
Aphrodite had saved him, from the violence below,
To repay him the choice he had made long ago.




The Trojans and Greeks looked up in the air,
Then they looked at each other, and charged, then and there!
Hector went back to tell Paris to fight,
With his warrior brothers, because it was right.
Then Hector saw his wife start to cry,
Kissing her and his baby, he told them goodbye.
Meanwhile, the wide-ruling king felt defeat,
And he proceeded to kiss Achilles’ feet.
“We are heading home!” bared Achilles’ lips,
“Unless the defender of Troy brings fire to my ships.”
The fire ignited on Achilles’ friend,
The defender of Troy had just sealed his end.
Around the city, the two soldiers ran,
Until Hector decided to fight, man to man.
Hector asked for an honorable end,
And Achilles said, “There are no pacts between lions and men.”
Achilles killed Hector, but unsatisfied yet,
He dragged the slain Trojan by his Chariot.
Then the old king of Troy went to beg for his son,
To recover his body from the deed that was done.
Then, reflecting the late Hector’s death,
Achilles had soon drawn his own last breath.
Sad, how a man of such strength and appeal,
Could be sent down to Hades by an arrow to the heel.
Then death came to Troy from an unusual force,
From the tricks of Odysseus, in the form of a Horse.
The once golden city met its eternal home,
But would later return, in the form of Rome.

Linger on the sidewalk where the neon signs are pretty

The thing that I never thought could happen on a mac happened. My hard drive crashed and burned! Basically, it started making this very scary whirring noise so I shut the computer down and then it didn't want to restart. After calling my dad and begging him to come pick me up and drive me to the apple store, I talked the apple "genius bar" guy who actually knew exactly what was wrong before I even finished telling him the symptoms but he was super nice and talked me through everything. He ran some tests and then broke the bad news that my hard drive was completely dead. He recommended not sending it to apple because he said that would cost me about $900. He told us how to get a new hard drive and install it ourselves. Apparently, the harddrives of laptops are all the same, you can get a generic "laptop" hard drive and use it in any computer you have. I also learned this is all my fault because I dropped my computer about a year ago and the damage I guess has been affecting the computer all this time. LUCKILY i backed up my entire hard drive at the end of February, so all my design work, documents, pictures, songs up to that point are saved, but I did lose everything that I have done in the last 4 weeks. It's not a whole lot of work, but it is some that I now get to recreate from scratch. My visual effects paper that was supposed to be due today was lost and I have to rewrite 8 pages...but it definitely could be worse. Sooo, long story short I bought a larger hard drive and now my computer is up and running but I still have to find the time to go back and install ALL my programs and move over my files. The lesson of this story is: back up your computer every day or you'll regret it.

I'm rushing to get all my homework out of the way before Wednesday because I'm going to New York to visit Jess and New Haven to visit Lexi this week!! Ahh! It's my first time taking a big trip by myself so I'm a little nervous and also very excited. Here are some things I hope to do there, but I'll update with pictures when I get back to see if I actually squeezed all these things in:

1) go see Avenue Q on Broadway
2) go to MOMA, museum of modern art
3) check out Central Park...I know it's super huge, so I'd probably only see a corner of it
4) have real New York pizza and go to a cafe that the beat writers hung out at in Greenwich Village
5) maybe check out one of those beautiful cathedrals in the city
6) see all the places Jess has been talking about forever: China Beer, Josies, etc. and meet all the NYU friends
7) go to Rice to Riches...a rice pudding place. I dont know why but I really want to go here
8) drive or walk through Times Square
9) buy a tshirt at Yale
10) make an appointment with the art department at Yale and tour (i've always been interested in it for grad school)

Let me know before Thursday if you know of any other places I must see that I'm forgetting

back to school, back to school, to prove to dad that I'm not a fool

Being back at school sucks! Spring break was like being suspended in a nice bubble, where all I had to think about was what kind of cream cheese I wanted to put on my bagel in the morning. But that bubble has definitely been popped. I came back to a monday full of classes and then on my way back from printmaking it started pouring rain and I got completely soaked. I had 2 design critiques since yesterday and I have a large research paper on the ethical issues surrounding pop art, kitsch, and artistic appropriation due tomorrow so I've been researching in the library for the past 3 hours. Oh, and to make it worse, the art library is in a basement and some junior high kids decided it would be hilarious to stand at the glass sunroof, bang on it with their shoe to get my attention (and some other students), and moon all of us!

The good news is that I heard back from one of the places I applied for an internship and the guy wants me to call him to discuss so I am going to call him tomorrow afternoon. I'm very nervous because I hate interviews and I especially hate talking on the phone. The company is called Greenlight Designs, a smaller entertainment design company located in North Hollywood. Hopefully all will go well.

The other good news I discovered as I was preparing for my advisement this week is that I actually will have enough credits to graduate in the spring like everyone else! For the past year I thought I would have to graduate in fall 2007, but I accidentally screwed up and added an extra class I don't need to take, so now I get to graduate on time! It's both great and scary. I was counting on having that extra summer to get things together and maybe travel a little bit, but I guess since a few of my friends are graduating in a matter of months from now, I should just shut up. It's still somewhat scary though.

i have an sorority invite on april 21st. boo for finding a date...again.

Ya'll can't walk no line

Spring is coming to a close, sadly. This week has been a mix of total relaxation and fun day trips. I spent a big chunk of the time sitting around in my pajamas like I wanted to, watching hours upon hours of tv shows like "What Not to Wear." I really want to be on that show. If I got chosen, I would just hid all my nice clothes, let them trash my bad clothes, and then get $5,000 to buy new clothes in new york. People have probably tried that before, they can probably see right through it. Other than watching tv and movies and sleeping a lot, I met up with some friends who were in town. Tasha, Jessica and I met up at Starbucks to "study" and work on homework, but I only got a paragraph written on my paper. I hate how we got assigned homework due right after the break. I thought it wouldn't be a big deal because I wasn't going on any big road trips and I didn't have much planned for the week so I thought it would be no problem to crank out 2 papers and graphic design homework, but I was wrong. Once you slip into the laziness of Spring Break, you really don't want to work...even if you have the time to do it. So now I'll be stuck scrambling to finish everything. I applied to about a billion internships for summer, mainly at entertainment design firms in Hollywood, so I'm just crossing my fingers hoping to hear from at least one of them. I think I could be perfectly happy to just have a fun summer off without working, interning, or studying, but I think at this age I have to get an internship or else fall behind the competitive market. Sigh, growing up sucks.

I went to Carpinteria one afternoon and had pizza at my favorite pizza place and got to hang out at the beach. My favorite time to go to the beach is in the evening around sunset, sometime other than summer when there aren't a lot of people there. I've never actually had a bonfire, but that's something I'd like to do at some point with friends. I'd also like to plan a camping trip at the beach, but I'm not sure who'd be interested in that. I also went to California Adventure and met up with Ashley and Sola and we froze to death because it was so windy, but we did eat caramel apples...my favorite food. I drank the largest margarita I've ever seen at Red Lobster and made lots of espresso drinks with the espresso machine I got for my birthday. I didn't go to a single movie the entire week. I also didn't work on any motion graphics projects that I wanted to start...I suck. I head back to school tomorrow morning, but hopefully I've gotten enough of my sanity back to finish off this semester.

They're calling me 007, aren't they?

I'm back after a pretty lengthy absence from updating this thing. This week is the last week before spring break, but I think the fates are against me. This week is crawling by. I came down with a pretty nasty case of the flu. I really should have gotten a flu shot earlier in the year...it's come back to bite me in the ass. So I couldn't sleep the night before my Visual Effects midterm because I had chills/fever. That went away after a day or so but because I had no appetite yesterday I didn't eat as much as I should have. This morning I actually passed out! And hit my head and megan had to run and get me stuff with sugar in it. So...overall, not so good of a week. On the plus side, I think I aced my midterm and found out that I'm getting an A- in my printmaking class when I thought I was getting a C. And in two days I will be watching movies at home.

I caved in and bought the Grey's Anatomy season 1 dvd and have been watching it non-stop. I actually finished the season in about 3 days. I probably have more productive things I could be doing, but the show is so entertaining. It makes me wish I had gone to med school instead of art school. But I don't like blood and guts and would probably pass out if I had to do surgery.

In a few weeks I'll be in New York and New Haven and seeing Avenue Q on Broadway. I can't wait! I'll be spending spring break planning the other things I want to do there, so if you know of any cool places to check out, let me know.

Home Before Midnight

I'm procrastinating big time. I worked most of the day on homework and I have to go work on my printmaking project that's due this Wednesday. One thing I've been working on today was the homework for my advertising design class. I think this has been my favorite advertising class because it actually deals with design rather than stupid statistics and analyzing target audiences. Our teacher gave us all different movie titles from B movies like "Die Screaming Marianne" and "Women of the Saloon Brothel" and who could forget "God's little acre." I lucked out though and got assigned the title "Home Before Midnight." From there, we were told to go home and come up with what genre our movie would be and then come up with a short story about what happens in the movie. For mine, I decided it would be a seduction thriller and that it would be about a young man who has a really nice life. He's got a really great, sweet girlfriend, a good job and a nice apartment. Then one day he meets this other woman and he's drawn into having an affair with her. She gets a little crazy and starts poisoning his mind and persuades him to murder his wife. Something happens where he comes to his senses and reconciles with the girlfriend and in the end the other woman attacks them in their home and somehow ends up getting killed. Think a mix of "Match Point" and "Fatal Attraction."

Next we had to come up with a few logo designs in black and white to go along with our movie and eventually we're going to do a few versions of a movie poster. It's a cool process. This is what I came up with for a few of the 10 logos I did.


Rocking the futura font. I pretty much ripped this one straight from "Million Dollar Baby" but I don't care.


I used a simple serif font because if you look at the Match Point and What Lies Beneath posters, they are really simple like this.


I wanted to test out a calm logo with the "i" at the end turning into a candle with the flame having just been blown out. I hope it looks like that.


This is a typical horror movie typeface with a gradiant and edgy dropshadow.


I was going for a creepy effect to resemble something like rust or hanging moss. I don't know...it's hard to pull off in black and white.

i wish i knew how to quit you

Every once in a while, someone comes a long who is so good at art and computer graphics that it makes me feel like the work I've been doing the last 2 years resembles kindergarten fingerpaintings. I attended this photoshop workshop yesterday put on by this usc student, Marie Lu, who does amazingly detailed digital paintings. She showed us step by step how to do hair and eyes, but I think I would never be able to come up with the things she does. But in a way it's kind of inspired me to start working a little harder on a few of my outside projects. Here are a few of the pieces she did.









Anyway, I went to BJs last night with a bunch of people for a late birthday celebration, and despite the rain, it was a lot of fun. I always get nervous when I'm the person planning something like that because I'm worried that since people don't know each other at all, they might not get along or you'll get the horrible awkwardness. But everyone seemed to get along really well and it was nice to see. We had a little bit of trouble with the waiter but it worked out in the end and we got 2 free pizookies out of it. Even though I did spaz out, turn around at the wrong moment, and got smacked in the head by the pizookie tray that the guy was bringing over. My hand eye coordination has been miserable lately. I smacked my head on the plate, spilled a drink all over myself when I was trying to take a sip, and then was trying to pay the guy at a drive through window and instead of giving him the money I hit my arm on the doorframe and dropped the money all over the ground. I'm getting sloppy in my old age.

Oh I also stabbed myself in the finger while working on printmaking. I hate that class. It seems like such a dead art to me. I could be off learning how to edit video or working on some graphic design thing that will actually apply to my major, and instead I'm stuck here carving out patterns in linoleum blocks. Tonight I'm going to see Brokeback Mountain with my dad and brother which I've already seen but am excited to see again. Especially after seeing all the mock trailers made for it like "Brokeback to the Future."