There is More to Italy Than Art

This past January, I went to Rome with St. John's University and for some crazy reason I agreed to film the trip and make a promotional recruitment video so Freshmen would be interested in going. After editing for seventeen days, going through six hours of videotape and hundreds of pictures, this is the final product:



This is my favorite piece that I put together to date. Past documentaries that I've done were pretty crappy, but I love the pacing and the flow of this video. I hope you enjoy it as well!

Favorite Disney Songs

So I just finished a paper I wrote describing a place that means a lot to me. And not to sound like a cliche, I wrote about my recent trip to Walt Disney World. No, it wasn't like "zomg disney is the best place ever!!", I actually realized a lot about myself and how much my childhood means to me and whatnot. But anyway, something else that I did that I thought was really cool was that I put in a few lyrics between paragraphs to help the flow. It worked out much better than I thought it would. So now I'm in a Disney mood, and I'm gonna share a few of my favorite songs in no particular order.

Hunchback of Notre Dame: Out There
I recently watched this movie and never realized how amazing this movie is, especially this song.


Beauty and the Beast: Be Our Guest
My favorite song when I was a kid. Now that I'm old enough to understand the lyrics, I love it even more.


Aladdin: Prince Ali
When I was a kid, my brother and I would jump on my bed dancing to this song. A lot of fun.


Pocahontas: If I Never Knew You
I used to only have the version that plays on the credits, which I hated. When Chess told me that there is a version with Judy Kuhn and Mel Gibson, I had to find it. And I absolutely love it.


Beauty and the Beast: Beauty and the Beast
I'm considering using this as a wedding song or something because it is so wonderful. Don't judge.


Hercules: I Won't Say I'm in Love
Always been a favorite. Relevant to many relationships in my life.


Hunchback of Notre Dame: Topsy Turvy
This song is so much fun. I would love to experience Topsy Turvy day.


Little Mermaid: Kiss the Girl
I never liked this movie that much (especially this world in Kingdom Hearts), but this is a classic song.


Pocahontas: Colors of the Wind
Beautiful song.


Nightmare Before Christmas: This is Halloween
One of the best orchestrated songs in the entire Disney franchise in my opinion.


Lion King: Circle of Life
Amazing song. I've used this in at least three video projects.


That's all I can think of for now. Enjoy!

No Deal.

So, the other night, I was in my room and I heard arguing in the living room. Thankfully, it wasn't violent or angry arguing that existed during my childhood. Instead, it was bickering between my mom and her boyfriend, Tom, over what show to watch. Tom does not watch TV that much while my mom likes her educational New York shows in addition to the reality show guilty pleasures like many other Americans. That night, she was trying to convince Tom to watch Deal or No Deal?, because she thought he'd like the issues with proportions and taking chances. But he would not have any of that; he didn't want to lose any IQ points that day. Somehow, she won and I heard Howie Mandel's disgusting voice throughout the house. I proceeded to make my music louder.

For those of you who have never heard of Deal or No Deal, it is a show featured on NBC that presents female models holding briefcases with a unknown amount of money in each case. The contestant has to choose and eliminate cases in order to get the largest amount of money awarded on the show, usually one million dollars. The contestant chooses cases in order to get rid of low amount, basically anything under $1000 (which is a lot of money in my book) and trying to keep large amounts of money in the game. Depending on the amount that the contestant chooses, the banker presents an amount of money, usually a substantial amount. The contestant has the choice to take the amount of money the banker presents, then and there; or to stay in the game with the possibility to win more money or lose more money--Deal or No Deal?

This game show is a complete waste of time to me. This is the worst dragged out game--it can take fifteen minutes between commercials and Howie Mandel talking incessantly for the contestant to open one case. To me, this game show is not based on intellect or anything; the casting crew chooses Americans that act crazy when they win, as if this is MTV's Real World. My sister told me that in order to compete, you have to send in a video of yourself and what you would do if you won. The crazier you act, the greater chance you have to play. For example, I watched an episode that took place in Africa for some reason, but featured Africans playing on the drums which was cool. The contestant was this dumb blonde bimbo who paraded around the stage, flailing her arms the entire time. The best part about this girl is that the case she reserved on the side had a penny in it, and the first case she knocked out had a million. Epic fail. But it gets better--in Africa they decided to incorportate "Fear Factor" into the game and if she ate bugs or something, the banker would give her an extra ten thousand dollars. I found this disgusting, because it showed the Americans are willing to do anything to get money. Absolutely anything.

So, whenever I see this show on, I get angry. Partly because part of me wants to watch it and see how ridiculous the contestants act. Therefore, I get angry because I want to watch this dumb show and if the contestant loses when I see it.

CLICK HERE TO PLAY DEAL OR NO DEAL! This game only takes five minutes. Somehow, they stretch it out to an hour and a half.

She Knows Her Way Back Home

So a week ago, I got an email saying that Big D and the Kids Table were playing in the city. I had to get tickets because last time I wanted to see them I had to leave before they started playing to go to work. Epic fail. But not this time. This time I was going to see Big D and the Kids Table for the fourth time and have an amazing time.

After school, I drove to the ferry with everything that I thought I needed: money, the ticket, phone, iPod, and car keys. I got to the venue about an hour early so that gave me some time to walk around and enjoy the city and its people. At 7, I go back to The Fillmore at Irving Plaza and the line starts to go in. I start to search my pockets and lo and behold, I lost the ticket. I flipped out. Long story short, I had to buy another ticket, spending over $60 to just get in the building. But later on, I realized that it was completley worth it.

Unfortunately, they were the opening act for English Beat and Bad Manners, so their set was going to be short. The best show I went to was at Starland Ballroom, Dec. 2007, because Big D played almost a 2-hour show. I can't wait to go to that kind of show again. However, their set was amazing. Here are some of the songs they played:

Steady Riot: Amazing song. "My life consists of words, a good riff, and a beat. Music, a steady riot in my soul. It's always in me."


Fly Away: "The quality of friends is something you should contemplate."


Little Bitch: Song that I fell in love with while dancing to it.


Shining On: "Well I guess I'm single now. Imagine that. ... But I can't help from smiling when that damn sun's shining down on me."


Hell on Earth: Amazing lyrics. "Cultivate and kill, it's our great legacy."


Strictly Rude: (My most favorite song, ever.) This version's dubbed but it's better than people's crappy live versions. "We pop no style. We're strictly rude."
Click here, I couldn't embed it.


The One: "I know you wanna love her for the rest of your life, but this woman her intentions ain't right. Tell me brothers, am I right? That woman is trouble, you gotta wake up."


Noise Complaint: "And then my favorite song it goes yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah!"


So it was an amazing show. Not a lot of people were there for Big D, but that just meant that there was more room to dance. And I danced the night away.

Bad Manners was next, and they were good. It was good ska dancing music, but it all sounded the same. The reason that I love Big D so much is that they're ska, but every song is different and has amazing lyrics. The English Beat played for like 2 hours. They were alright, but I spent the time getting a shirt with the few dollars that I had left after buying another ticket, and talking to Dave McWane, the lead singer. I think he is an amazing lyricist, has an amazing voice, and talented melodica player. So he was hanging out by the merchandise and I told him how I paid for two tickets, but he said that it was awesome that I came, as did the bassist Steve when I talked to him before the show. I asked him to sign my ticket, and this has now become my prized possession.



See, Dave is on the right. Then I'm on the left. I think it captures me perfectly. Regardless, I made absolutely sure that I did not lose this ticket too. Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to ask him to take a picture with my on my phone. Oh well. Next time.

I learned a few things tonight. I learned that I definitely need to be more careful in planning, like wearing jeans with buttons so tickets don't fall out of my pockets, not to get so upset when I mess up (things happen, but they usually work out), and to not dwell on something I did wrong (like not jumping at the opportunity to get a picture with Dave). I had a great time. Great's an understatement, but I'm too tired to get a better synonym. I've been awake for 19 hours. Goodnight.

movies i've seen in 2009

So keeping with my major, I've decided that one of my New Year's Resolutions would be to watch more movies, both for entertainment and to observe direction and whatnot. I've done pretty well so far, here are the movies I've seen. Spoiler alert, I'll be summarizing/giving my analysis.

Slumdog Millionaire:
My Dad and I were going to the movies before I went to Rome and I wanted to see The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, but my Dad was insistent on seeing Slumdog Millionaire so I just went with it, even though I've never heard of the film. We go to the movies, and the movie immediately opens with a close-up of the main character getting tortured. Pretty interesting. The movie develops to show the main character, Jamal, in a game show in India, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? They explain why the main character is getting tortured because he won the game show, with questions that an ordinary waiter should not know the answers to. The game show hosts are insistent that he cheated, when he insists that he did not. After the torturing, the authorities decide that they want to see his side of the story, so they play the DVD of the show to see how he knew the answers. But as the questions go on, Jamal shows through stories that the only reason that he knew the answers was because of some event that happened in his long and arduous history of growing up in a world of war, conflict, and heartbreak. A wonderful story, excellently executed through juxtaposition in addition to both sadness and humor ends in the overplayed ending of everyone believing the underdog and him winning the show and the love of his life. But even though I usually hate those kind of endings, I give it 8/10. Also, the credits show that it was based off a book, so of course I went and got it, originally published as q&a and written by Vikas Swarup. I liked the book a lot, especially because he did things differently than the movie which made both versions unique. I highly recommend both mediums.

Mall Cop:
Blech. Some shots were filmed well. Little dialouge was executed well. Humor was hardly present. Mostly, it was a story that has been done a million times before but was also surrounded with bad humor and bad acting. 2/10.

The Wrestler:
Again, another movie that my Dad was insistent on seeing that I was apathetic about. So we went, and we arrived to the movies as the opening credits were shown with audio from the main character, Randy "The Ram" 's successful wrestling career. And I was mad because I like to watch the previews and the opening credits, but whatever. We got there just in time to see that Darren Aronofsky directed this film, therefore I was very excited to see it. Immediately, I was able to see some really unique and interesting choices for direction. For example, the majority of the film is shot from behind Mickey Rourke (Randy), with the cameraman walking and making the camera somewhat shaky. Normally, shakiness bothers me but that really made you feel like you were part of the film and right behind Randy. Also, these shots would have very little cutaways, if any. Even though long shots sometimes make the pacing longer causing boredom, it really connected the audience with the main character who was going through so much hardship with his career in wrestling, his health, his crush on a stripper, and his disintegrating relationship with his daughter. The acting was superb, especially from Randy's daughter, who was completely believable in both scenes where she started to connect with her father who was absent for her entire life, and then later on when he abandoned her yet again and she was forced to cut him out of her life completely. Rourke was impeccable, and I really felt pity for his character and the heartbreaking life he lived. My only severe problem was with the ending, because it was a completely open ending. I was confused when the lights started to turn on. Basically, every question and dilemma that was brought up in the film was left unresolved. That was most likely the feeling that the director wanted, to show that the main character's life is just like a never-ending story, even if he died (which is one of the possibilites). I appreciated that kind of ending, but it still annoyed me. Anyway, highly recommened unless you're one of the people who cannot stand open endings. 7.5/10

Gran Torino:
I have been looking forward to seeing this movie since I saw the preview in Slumdog Millionaire. And I was not disappointed. I didn't like Million Dollar Baby when I saw it in 2004, but maybe that was because I did not really have a passion for movies like I do now. But now I can appreciate Clint Eastwood's choices for direction and acting. His relentless humor (basically, every other sentence he said had me laughing hysterically) towards every character never got tiresome, and the underlying plot of him trying to find peace with himself made me reflect and wonder if I have peace with myself. The main plot of this stubborn American that is surrounded by foreigners and gangs grew into surprising and saddening twists that reminded me that the world we live in is filled with people that only want to cause destruction. But there are still people that wish to do good: in this case, that person is Clint Eastwood, even though he was established as a man who had no qualms with killing the enemy in war and protecting what was his by any means necessary. Eastwood turns out to be the martyr in order for the innocent citizens to live in peace, making the ending complete but saddening. Superb film, highly recommended. 9/10