Retrospecticus: 2008

Entry 3:

The Year I Started Blogging

I started blogging because I finally had time to do it, really. I had been out of school for a little while, and felt like I needed an outlet for my creativity, and that I needed to start spending my time on the computer more effectively. Not to say precisely that blogging makes me a more efficient user, rather a more precise one.

Here's what I mean: blogging not only makes me occasionally focus my generation-Y hyperactivity and ADD into something concise and coherent. I feel that its making me a better writer most of all.

I'm currently in the process of abandoning this blog and switching to a more versatile WordPress powered blog format. Through all of this, I've re-learned my passion for web design that was pushed to the backburner when I started to get serious about film school. I feel like I've been able to transfer my sense of visual composition into an asset that will help me in career path.

In the past 80 or so posts I've become pretty happy with what I've managed to create, and am looking forward to the new year and new things to blog about. Trying to find what space I fit into is something that I'm learning more about everyday, and its been really enlightening to really start to get my feet wet with blogging.

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Retrospecticus: 2008

Entry 2:

The Year I Started Working

On the personal front, 2008 marks for me the year that I started to get my first professional jobs in the film industry. After leaving school, I initially found it difficult to market myself in the field that I had chosen, and a bad combination of location and scarcity of work led to ennui and a day job. I still have the day job, btw.

In January of this year I started getting work as a production assistant on commercials that were being shot in the Denver area. These were fulfilling, exciting gigs that really helped to re-vitalize me out of my early-20s boredom. I started hunting out work, and specifically people to work with, and have managed to make, in my opinion, some pretty tactful career moves.

The downside to all of this though is the failed / failing economy. I don't have any intention of leaving the Denver area for a few more years, and because of that I'm prevented from really making a push to work full time in the film industry. While there are a good deal of things shot in the state every year, the uncertainty factor really kills it. Therefore, I've chosen to stick with my guns and non-career day job.

I've recently begun to get jobs as a freelance editor, which I intend to explore more in the upcoming year. I'm a bit apprehensive about 2009 because I know that investors are scared, for good reason, and aren't going to be pumping money into the small scale operations that I relied on in 2008.

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Retrospecticus: 2008

As the calender year draws to a close, the tendency is to try and evaluate the past 12 months, quantifying them against unconscious expectations for the next dataset of dates to check off. Ok, that was a bit wordy. Pretty much, I'm trying to do some posts that will act as representations of the year for me, and since I've only been writing the blog since August, it's necessary to add some retroactive content over the upcoming days.

So here it goes:

Entry 1:

The Death of a Hero

The photo above was taken the morning of June 23, shortly after I heard that George Carlin was dead. I was really upset.

George Carlin represents a lot of things for me: standing up to authority, the usefulness of wit and sillyness in combination, and the importance of freedom of speech. Carlin managed to inject politics into his comedy without being strictly a political comedian, and managed to get his points across through the use of hyperbole and exaggeration better than any spoken word performer, ever.

He's been called the "comedian's comedian." Its hard to find a successful comedy writer or standup who is unable to recite the seven deadly words or can't produce minutes-long renditions of classic Carlin bits. His style and attention to detail and brilliantly preserved in all of his comedy albums and HBO specials, each of which have at least a few moments that would overcome anyone with raucous, uncontrollable laughter.

I was introduced to Geroge Carlin at the tender age of 8 and I think my mother has regretted it ever since. I was a bit a repeater when I was a kid: my parents learned quickly that most of the crazy-sounding things coming out of my mouth were either from the Simpsons or George Carlin, and that I wasn't actually possessed. They tended to take for granted the amount of tv I watched. I had taped all of the Carlin specials on HBO when they had a marathon of them once and had nearly worn out the tapes by the time I was out of high school. I have fond memories of doing Trigonometry & Algebra 2 homework every night to a rotating selection of different HBO specials. I prefered the ones from the late 70s and early 80s because he was a bit more laid back then and the humor was at it most goofy point. For some reason it was only way I ever managed to get math homework done. I've managed to collect a fair bit of Carlin ephemera which I intend to preserve and increase.

It's really sad to see a great artist die, but I have solace in the fact that he had such a long and celebrated career, sticking to his guns and doing his own thing for its entirety. Here are some links to get you started, if you're not already in the know.

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