The Reel Life of Josh

I knew this day would arrive, but I never thought it would actually come.  -- I’ve said this a lot lately.  Although everyone points out, it’s not an end, but rather a beginning, one would be remiss to not acknowledge that it is really an end.  It’s an end of something important.  A monumental life stage.  College is really the time when you develop who you are.  You make friends that will be with you for the rest of your life.  You grow and adapt and change and learn.

Each step of the way makes it harder and harder to leave.  Ending classes is a RELIEF, but you realize that it’s all over.  You have fulfilled all of your requirements.  You have no more classes to sign up for.  Your exploration here is finished.

You say GOODBYE to your professors -- mainly the ones that have really aided and influenced you.  You sneak out of the half-hearted goodbyes for the most part.  Some are hard to say goodbye to though.  Some of mine have become close friends or even like family to me.

You become NOSTALGIC all the time about very specific actions.  You realize that “this may be the last time I walk back to my apartment passing the lacrosse field on this side during the day with a backpack on”.  Every moment with friends is HEIGHTENED.  Being alone is not an option.  But every second you feel the clock ticking closer to the end.  It’s a weighty feeling, but it gives meaning to every instant.

You meet new friends.  People that you haven’t seen in years or ones that you haven’t interacted with suddenly become important.  Especially during Senior Week.  You give up friends from other classes and concentrate on a COLLECTIVE experience of seniors on the precipice of a life change.  It’s a week of total immersion.  You forget that days exist.  You DISTRACT yourself from your own existence.  It’s a week based wholly in interactions with others.  There is no more artifice of having to be someone else.  You meet people as your established self, rather than the contents without content that you enter Hopkins with.  On top of that, you have no reason to pretend to be someone else or waste time talking to people you have no interest in.  You become selective in your friendships, which are always better with quality over quantity.

The time between end of classes and graduation is an entirely new venture.  You make lasting memories in this short period of a few weeks. It is almost impossible to describe how free from time you are in that PRESENT, but how locked into time you feel because of the FUTURE.  It becomes a set number of seconds, minutes, and hours that flow, rather than days that pass as usual.

You RESIST.  You hate this push toward graduation and try to stop it -- to stop time -- but you can’t.  You want to stay in this LIMBO forever.

You resist your parents.  And with the best intentions and with love.  You are torn between the people that love you absolutely and have given you so much -- and those who have been your lifeblood for your time away from the former group.  Family becomes FOREIGN and OUT OF CONTEXT in this environment.

You graduate.  It should feel like an event, but it doesn’t.  It feels SURREAL.  It feels like it never happened.  It feels like too much happened without you knowing.  It feels like SLEEPWALKING.  -- Up on stage, it’s all a blur.  They rush you to do so many things.  Walk now! Shake hands! Look this way! Shake another hand! Walk down the steps! Get your photo taken! Make sure you never trip! Make sure you keep your hat and stoll!  Did anyone cheer? Did they say my name correctly? — It happened but all together.  From the outside, I’m sure it happened in sequence, but from my angle, it was all at once.  A fated assembly line.  A metaphor of constant forward motion through time.  When it’s all over, you get your $200,000 receipt -- which is the size of one of those fake cardboard checks -- and you all collectively gather.

The proceeding days are like a SUPERNOVA.  Everyone gathers together so closely.  A CLUSTER so tight nothing can stop it.  And then it RELEASES.  And people SCATTER.  It happens in waves.  The first wave is the easiest to experience and the hardest to comprehend -- the former point being directly related to the latter.  You expect them to come back in the fall again.  It still hasn’t set in yet.  It all happens so QUICKLY though.  In high school, you have the summer to ween yourself off of your friends, your experiences, your life, your home.  Two days after graduation, people had vanished.  And now memories stand where they once were.  I walked past an apartment where 3 of my friends USED TO live.  The blinds were pulled and I could see inside.  I felt what it was to be myself in that moment.  It was UNEASY.  A place isn’t the same without the people who were there when you constructed it.

You remove THINGS from your life.  By things I mean physical objects.  You move out.  I’ve learned that I have way too much STUFF.  I can’t possibly live like this.  I’m going to simplify.  Little furniture.  Less clothing.  Fewer things.  Although, I found myself in that scene from The Jerk where I kept telling myself I needed this or that.

My roommate refuses to pack things.  It makes him too sad.  He tries to distract me when I pack.  He tries to distract himself when I pack.  Each day there is less and less out in the open.  Most of it is in boxes.  But you soon realize that STUFF doesn’t make a PLACE.  Although you attach significance to these items.  A friend of ours took our end tables and my dresser among other things. And as they left the apartment, I felt like they were robbing me.  RECOGNITION and RECALL of events are triggered strongly as you watch things leave your life.  I think you try to re-store those moments in your brain. You can’t afford to let the cognitive triggers for these events in your life disappear with the material objects.  But I remember thinking about silly things when they left.  Like how I kept certain items on top of my dresser.  Or how I organized my clothes within it.  Why I remember these things, I will not know.

You put on a HAPPY face.  And I don’t mean this pejoratively.  You genuinely enjoy the moments you experience, but there is an undercurrent of nervous excitement.  There is so much in store, but you can’t forget what has passed.  What is being LEFT.  What is LEAVING.

I’ve never established myself so firmly in a location that I wouldn’t be coming back to.  I’ve never really had to leave HOME yet.  It has always been a base.  And it will always be there unless my parents decide otherwise.  But this is NEW.  I won’t live in Baltimore again.  At least not for a while.  And if I do, all of my reference points will be different.

I’ve never felt older than I feel right now.  I understand I’m not that OLD yet.  But I have never really felt my age like this before.  Age was about getting older before.  The MOMENTUM was good.  It was getting me to a certain point.  Now age becomes a deterrent.  Maybe if I wasn’t so zealous to grow older when I was a child, time would be moving slower.  I don’t feel old enough to be a college graduate.  Before I got here, I would watch television and see COLLEGE aged people and think that I don’t look like them.  Now I still have the same reaction.  Maybe television adds years to the face, but I just don’t see myself like I see them.  I have a fear that people will look at me next year in grad school and think that I’m lost walking into MFA classes.  I look at grad students now in real life and don’t think I am anything like them.  I need a pipe or something distinguishing.

At least in this whole process, I’ve FELT something.  That’s the best you can hope for in any situation.  Faulkner closes Wild Palms (a.k.a. If I Forget Thee, Jerusalem) by saying “Between grief and nothing, I will take grief.”  I am not depressed, although this may inspire depression upon a reader.  I am happy to have experienced this all.  Everything.  It can’t last forever, but deadlines are a godsend, for they give meaning to time and meaning to experience.  When we unpack these memories sometime in the future, we won’t have what we did before, but WE will still have each other and ourselves and a place.  I can’t truly imagine a world beyond the present, but I can only hope it’s half as good as the recent past.

***

I’m very thankful for every experience that comes my way.  Good or Bad. And this blog has been one of them.  Saying goodbye to it is hard to do.  But I want to thank anyone who has read it over the past few years.  Or those who have ever read anything that I’ve written.  I hope that I have been entertaining or interesting or at least a non-regrettable waste of time.  No matter where you are headed in life, I am glad we crossed paths.

Signing off:Josh

This is the first part in a two part final entry on this blog.  This one is on the lighter side.  Part two is more of an existential rumination and final goodbye so if you aren’t into that sort of thing, feel free to skip part two, although I strongly encourage you to read it if you are in the mood to think deeply.

Here is one more set of lists for you:

Things you want to forget about college:

1. Exams (and useless recall information)

2. The cost

3. The downtime

4. People you don’t like

5. Communal bathrooms

6. Frat parties

7. Old relationships

8. Times with nobody to shack up with

9. Awkwardness (occurring at various stages along the way)

10. Embarrassing moments (occasionally those that take place when drinking)

Things you will forget about college:

1. Exams (and useless recall information)

2. The downtime

3. Awkwardness

4. Daily routines

5. Building names

6. Those fringe people (not the ones you like or hate)

7. Minutiae of many events

8. The times when you were too inebriated

9. Classes you took

10. GRADES you got

Things you will remember about college:

1. Friends

2. Moments of inspiration and enlightenment

3. Great professors

4. Growing and maturing as a person

5. Learning from your mistakes

6. Learning about responsibility

7. The convenience of having everything you need at your fingertips

8. Popular songs

9. The last few weeks before graduation

10. Graduation

Memories are funny things, but they never come back quite the way they went in.  If I don’t forget a thing, for better or for worse, I’ll take it.

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If you are interested, and in the Twitterverse, my roommate and I are moving out to California for grad school in the fall.  As part of the journey, we have formed a Twitter account and you can follow us along the way.  Its named after our joint artistic venture, DOS ANGELES.  So follow us: @dos_angeles

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To be continued….

this blog is kind of different.  these are scanned in pages from a book of [bad] essays i am writing.  the titles right now is “things and thoughts I once had and then lost while writing them down but regained focus at the end”.  I thought these pages describe my state of mind right now as I leave Hopkins and as you all leave high school.  So read away and enjoy.

I’m in a similar situation as you.

I’m looking at schools – graduate schools – and deciding what to do.  It’s a crazy experience.  Going into college it wasn’t this strange.  Part of it is that when going into college, everyone is at the same point of their lives. Seemingly everyone goes to college nowadays.  Graduate school is different.  But back to similarities.

By the main lobby of CalArts. Was asked if the background was real. It is. As real as southern California can be at least.

Application recipes:

How to choose where to apply

Ingredients:

• Guidebook
• Internet access
• Email address

First, look at programs you are interested in.  SEE ALSO ones that you are not aware of.  Pick which ones you like.  Choose a location that you want to live in.  Next, do a lot of research and ask professors about programs.  Finally, disregard rankings.

How to get through the application process

Ingredients:

• Time
• Computer
• Pen and Paper
• Coffee
• Snacks
• Movies
• Trusted Friend/Parent
• Attention to detail

First, make sure you figure out how to manage your time correctly.  After mixing hard work and thought, let your application sit for a few days.  During this time, be sure to find ways to relax.  Next, go back and make some revisions.  When you are satisfied, send the application in and wait.  For best results, have someone read through your application materials.

How make your decision

Ingredients:

• Acceptance packages
• Moral support
• Guide books
• Professors/Teachers/Guidance counselors

Step one would be to find out where you got in.  Next, let your favorites rise to the top.  Compare those by looking at location, size, class style, field of study, professors, financial aid packages, etc.  One the perfect mixture is found, select that school.  Once finished, apply school’s sticker to rear window of car.

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Luckily for me, I didn’t have a huge decision to make.  I applied to 3 schools.  I got into one.  My theory was to apply to the 3 schools I really want to go to and apply again next year if I didn’t get in.  I got into CalArts though which is a huge feat.  It was a program I almost didn’t apply to.  But after researching it more and more, I fell in love with it.  The program fits my ideology and style really well and I’m happy to have gotten in.

I wasn’t 100% so I went to visit though.  I met the professors and realized how different grad school is than undergrad.  You are hand selected by the faculty at a place like CalArts.  The facilities there were very nice and the school is just a cool place to be.

Grad school is a huge step.  It’s terrifying and exciting.  Going to a part of the country in which I have no contacts or context is a daunting thing to think about.  Moving out there and starting anew adds to it.  But the thought of a new adventure is thrilling.  The new memories I can create, the new people and things I will be exposed to, and even turning my world on its head will all enrich my life.

So here’s the deal. Over the past few days, the Hopkins Interactive team has been publishing common blogs. These are entries that clearly show the diverse nature of Hopkins students by comparing and contrasting their experiences and feelings about the school. Here’s my take:

Get to Know JHU_Josh:

1. Birthplace and current hometown: b. New York, NY, hometown. Park Ridge, NJ

2. Major(s)/Minor(s): Film and Media Studies

3. When I grow up I want to… be a filmmaker

4. Favorite place to eat in Baltimore Golden West Cafe

5. Favorite spot on the Homewood campus Gilman Atrium

6. Favorite TV show: Arrested Development

7. Favorite color: Blue

8. Favorite sports team: NY Jets

My Hopkins Experience:

1. When did you know Hopkins was right for you? I sort of knew when I visited for the first time after the summer before my senior year of high school. It was never really on the radar before that, but I left campus feeling like it was a good place to go. I learned more and more about the school and the city and thought “Hey, this is a nice place.” And from there I haven’t regretted my decision.

2. What is one thing that would surprise your friends/family about Hopkins? Johns has an “s” on it. Some seem to still miss that even after 4 years. Also, that it has a film program (and one that I love so dearly).

3. If you were the University President, what is the first thing you would do or change? Lower tuition. But after that, I’d like to have a real student union. We have places like that now, but no real centrally located building that students can hang out at 24/7.

4. If you could go back and choose your college again, would you pick Hopkins? Why? I would. I’ve written a lot about this in the past, but it’s really prepared me for what I want to do. Not only through classes, but the incredible talent around me constantly pushes me to do better. And the professors are invested in their students completely.

5. What was your perception about Hopkins before enrolling and how has it changed since then? It hasn’t changed much. I thought it was going to be a little more intense than it is, but that’s about it. Be prepared to work hard, but if you do that, you’ll be fine. Also, the city of Baltimore is a lot cooler than I thought coming in.

6. What is/was your favorite class? It’s hard to pick one. I’d probably say Intro to Social Psychology is one of my favorites. I love learning why people do what they do. Also, I love all of my film production classes.

7. Describe your funniest memory or experience at Hopkins: I’ve had a bunch of funny moments, but I can’t recall them off the top of my head. A lot of them are just my roommate and I goofing around. One is probably with my friends last year when we went to hang out at place on campus that we always go that doesn’t really have a name so we called it “The Spot”. My friend Carlos was out with his parents to dinner but his phone was broken so my buddy Greg called Carlos’ dad and told him when he gets back to “meet us at The Spot” in the sketchiest way ever, concluding his sentence with “He knows where it is”.

8. How would your college experience be different if you hadn’t chosen Hopkins? It probably wouldn’t have been much different really. College is what you make of it. I would have met different people and been drawn toward different things maybe.

9. What has your greatest contribution been during your time at Hopkins, or what do you hope to accomplish before graduation? Heavy question. Modesty prevents me from thinking about this question fully. I hope that I have taken advantage of every resource and opportunity. I hope my professors think I’ve done so. I think my contributions as Co-Director of the Johns Hopkins Film Society have revitalized film culture here a bit (or at least started to) after a long term lull and financial issues within the organization. I think bigger things are in the future post-grad though so I’ll wait to contribute to my Hopkins legacy.

10. What advice would you give to a high school senior choosing their college? Find someplace that fits you. Find someplace that you can see yourself for four years. You can’t make a bad choice if you think that way. Don’t go on reputation or numbers. It’s all about the experience you’ll have at the school.

This blog is a combination of my lack of something to say and an homage to High Fidelity, which I just scrolled past on TV. Just go with it.

Top Five Buildings
5 – Hodson
4 – Levering
3 – Shriver
2 – Bloomberg
1 – Gilman

Top Five Hidden Spots to Hang Out

My apartment. Another good place to hang out or study.

5 – Gazebo in the Sculpture Garden
4 – WJHU (if your friend has a radio show)
3 – Bloomberg Observatory
2 – President’s Garden
1 – (Cannot reveal for fear of outsiders finding it)

Top Five People to Avoid
5 – Loud talkers in MSE
4 – Drunken Frat guys
3 – The “Shush” Lady (she’s nice, but usually you’d see her for the wrong reason)
2 – Baltimore City Police
1 – There is always one person in each year that will fill this slot.

Top Five Ways to Get in Trouble as a Freshman
5 – Thinking too little
4 – Thinking too much
3 – Underage drinking
2 – Steal food from CharMar
1 – Loud party in your dorm

Top Five Ways to Embarrass Yourself
5 – Learning you have weird habits that your college friends don’t have, but were normal at home
4 – Slipping on the marble steps
3 – Dropping a tray of food at FFC
2 – Have an awkward conversation with someone you “pre-Facebook Friended” before coming to school
1 – “Walk of Shame” after a themed party

Top Five “Old White Guy” Professors

You'll have to look around real hard to find this place

5 – J.C. Walker
4 – Robert Kargon
3 – Mel Kohn
2 – Andrew Cherlin
1 – John Mann

Top Five Things About Hopkins that Make Me Feel Old
5 – Getting invited to Young Alumni Weekend
4 – Knowing what Gilman Hall used to be like
3 – Knowing what “Think Theta” on the billboard in the Gilman Tunnel is actually about
2 – Never having Mason Hall as an admissions building on my college visit
1 – Remembering Berts, the T Mobile store, and the stationary store on St. Paul + the Records and Tape Traders where Maxie’s/7Eleven is

(Disclaimer:  This quickly turned into a sort of partly Postmodern essay-blog)

Feel with me, not for me, as I’m sure some of you are experiencing this with high school right now.

My days are numbered.

I feel like I’m in a bad action movie (or MacGruber sketch) with the time bomb ticking down.  Only it is more like a MacGruber sketch because I get distracted for a quick second, and it’s all over.

When I was a freshman, everything was the best thing ever.  Now everything is the last thing ever.  With less than 11 weeks until graduation, I’m constantly grabbing to hold on to the days prior.

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there is nothing that I want to do more than stay:

I love Baltimore.  It is possibly the best city I’ve ever been to.  The people, the music, the neighborhoods, the art, the charm.

Hopkins is home.  I notice differences in my routines from year to year.  This year, especially, any differences are apparent because I’m living in the same apartment.  Let me be concrete for a minute.  I walk home from class/work/everything by passing through Homewood Field.  Last year I walked on one side of the field, this year, I inexplicably have switched.  These are the kinds of things I won’t have next year.  I won’t have that comfort level either.  After four years of really getting to know the place that I live, I have to start over again.

The people are here now and I know them here always.  First, I want to say something about my professors.  I will miss  them deeply.  Not all of them, but most of them.  They (thinking of particulars in my head, but not naming names) have really made an impact on my life, and I cannot  even begin to describe how indebted I am to them for my future successes and development as an artist.  Now I can say this: My friends will scatter across the world and redistribute themselves among society.  Some going to grad school, some getting jobs, some moving back home.  I know I’ll keep in touch with some, but it get hard.  Think of all the high school friends I keep in touch with – not many. :: like Oscar Wilde said “I always like to know everything about my new friends, and nothing about my old ones ::  So it scares me a little bit that they won’t be at my fingertips for real, human social interaction.  I will always associate being here with those people and expect them to be here upon my return.  It’s hard thinking about losing touch with these wonderful friends.

I don’t want to be an adult yet.

there is nothing I want to do more than leave:

The wait is killing me.  Walking around here when you are reminded that you have to leave can be pretty depressing as you could imagine.

Life awaits me.  It’s scary, but it’s exciting.  I get to do something new and something interesting next year.  Move to a new place, meet new people.

I’ve had this experience, now it’s on to the next.  There is nothing left here for me anymore.

I don’t know how some people stick around this place for years after they graduate.  Sure I have friends that will still go here. But ::  Let me tell you this – I’d rather die first than watch everyone die around me.

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Next year, my future is uncertain.  But I’m on my way and there is no stopping that.

In lieu of ending on a fatalistic note, I’ll end with a hopeful eye.  This is one of my Dance for the Camera films that was just awarded Best Cinematography at the American College Dance Festival.

Spotlight from Joshua Gleason on Vimeo.

Living with a roommate is an eye opening experience. Being around your best friend all the time can be a burden but also has its benefits. There are things I never would have experienced without my roommate. Here are some of them:

1) Foods -- I was exposed to Clementines and Spam (both of which I hated, but can now hate them with due reason). I was also forced to switch to Strawberry jelly instead of my usual Grape for the past few months.

My roommate and I at the bus stop during Snowpocalypse

2) Expenses -- My roommate is possibly the cheapest person on the planet. And I’m not somebody who likes to spend money. But I have learned to become even thriftier. His Costco card and our penchant for thrift store shopping have kept costs down.

3) Cleanliness -- I learned that if you never clean and your roommate never cleans, things get dirty.

4) Video games can be social – I’m not a huge video game person, but I do like playing sports games and have since high school. Since then, it has always been a solitary experience, but having my roommate play Madden with me adds a new dynamic to the game. It also makes you feel some sympathy for the other person when you are beating them (and hopefully visa versa) rather than when I play my brother at home and reel no remorse.

5) 90s references – This is something pretty specific to my roommate situation. My roommate and I love to make pop culture references, especially from the 90s. It’s rare that you could go a day without a sing along involving something in the vein of “Two Princes” or “Follow You Down”. (I hope people reading this know what I’m talking about. Otherwise I’m really starting to date myself. But I don’t want to be like adults who explain things to me that I was alive for – like when people say, “Oh, you don’t even remember what cassettes were like.” Rant over) Without my roommate, how would I constantly remind myself of these things?

6) Vitamins – I now take vitamins daily because my roommate is constantly sick.

7) Diet – Having a roommate around makes you realize what you eat, when you eat, and how much you eat. With someone there to judge you for your 3 AM UniMini run for a Chicken Parm, you may think twice. Try and open that fridge in the middle of the night too without waking him up. It’s tough.

8) Fighting isn’t always a bad thing – My roommate and I have lived together for 3 years now. And we lived down the hall from one another freshman year. We’re bound to get under each other’s skin. And living together only makes it worse. We tend to bicker a lot, but at the end of the day, we can still laugh and have a good time.

I think living with a roommate is a great learning experience. It teaches you a great deal about how to deal with others and about yourself. One day soon, I’m hoping to be in a place of my own, but for now, I’m happy where I am.

Here’s to hoping you enjoy your roommate experience like I have.

So this blog doesn’t really have anything to do with Hopkins.  But it’s the most interesting thing that’s happened to me in a while.

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I was recently invited by my friend Clare to go to the Sundance Film Festival.  Her dad works in the film exhibition business and has gone for many years now.  She, herself, has gone for seven years.  It was an amazing experience and I’ll try and rehash the best I can.

Wednesday:

Woke up at 9:30 AM to finish packing.  Left for BWI at 11 with my friend Alexandra who also came on the trip.  Parked at the Long Term Parking Lot and took a long bus ride to the Southwest terminal.  Check our bags.  Got food at California Tortilla (not recommended).  Waited at the terminal for a while.  Learned the day before that my joint Hopkins/MICA class would be meeting the Monday of my trip since MICA starts a week earlier, so I’d miss the first class.  Had to do work for that on the plane.  Took a really relaxing (and seemingly short) 5 hour trip to Salt Lake City.  A shuttle picked us up and dropped us off at our condo in Park City – the Sunflower.  Caught up for a bit with Clare (after not seeing her for 6 months since she was in Florence for the semester).  Met her dad.  Walked a few blocks to the grocery store and made dinner at the condo.  Made a game plan for the week.

Thursday:

Walked around Park City.  Saw what’s on Main Street.  Took a peek inside Sundance HQ.  Got some free stuff (the first of many days of swag).  Got our ticket package.  (Alexandra thought she saw Elijah Wood at HQ, but that was never confirmed by anyone else.)  Took the Shuttle Loop around and saw where all the theaters are.  Visited New Frontiers – a set of buildings with art installations inside.  The things there included The Arcade Fire’s ‘Wilderness Downtown’ interactive music video, James Franco’s “Three’s Company: The Drama”, an interactive game that ran throughout Park City all week called “Pandemic”, and a room upstairs with a sandbox and interactive bugs made of light that you can play with (harder to explain than I thought).  Also, had a Robert Redford sighting there.  Went to a really nice dinner with the whole gang and Clare’s dad’s friend.

Friday:

FIRST MOVIE DAY!  Get up super early to get waitlist tickets for a film called The Nine Muses.  Not worth it really – an interesting experimental feature, but not a good 9 AM movie.  Then Alexandra and I took a trip to Eccles – the main Sundance theater – to see Martha Marcy May Marlene which we both really liked.  After that, we took some time to go get food and head back to Eccles for Miranda July’s The Future – one of my favorites of the festival.  After the movie, we came back for dinner and I waited as the girls got ready for us to go to the Fox Searchlight party.  Clare worked as an intern at Searchlight the past two summers and pulled some strings to get us in there.  Here was our big celebrity sighting (most of the others were at Q&A’s done after each film with the cast/crew/director).  We saw Ed Helms, Paul Giamatti, Anne Heche, Elizabeth Banks, Danny McBride, Rashida Jones, Amy Ryan, and Miguel Arteta (I may be forgetting some.).  We walked back in the snow – yes it snows a lot in Utah.

Saturday:

Another early morning with a 9 AM show at Eccles.  This time it’s Win Win – another festival favorite coming to a theater near you soon.  The afternoon included Like Crazy, which went on to win the Grand Jury Prize at the festival (an inexplicable feat for something we found so mediocre).  But the day ended well with Azazel Jacobs’ Terri.  We spent the night in catching our breath.

Sunday:

The day started at 9AM with My Idiot Brother.  Got to see Paul Rudd, Zooey Deschanel, and Elizabeth Banks (again) in person.  We got free sushi for lunch.  Later that day we went to the Shorts II Program.  We saw some interesting films including one called Sexting starring Julia Stiles that was awful and another called Brick Novax Pt. 1 and 2 which went on to win the Best Shorts Prize.  With a mixup on the guest list at the IFC party (for which we were on the list but the guy at the door did not see us, but it was later confirmed by Alexandra who worked for IFC last summer and talked to her boss about it), we went for a walk around Main Street.  We stopped in at the Brownstar Insurance building – a mock insurance company set up to promote the film Cedar Rapids.  We made a pit stop at the condo to sadly watch the Jets lose in the AFC Championship game, but then it was back out to Main Street for a midnight screening of Septien – a strange film, but I kind of liked it.  We knew the DP and Editor of the film so we said hi afterwards and caught up.  We passed out shortly after arriving back home.

Monday:

Cedar Rapids kicked off the new week at 9 AM – not one of my favorites.  With no tickets to films, and nothing really worth waiting around for in the afternoon we took a break from movies for a bit.  Early in the afternoon, we played around in the snow up in the mountains.  We (meaning Clare’s dad) were invited to the San Francisco Film Society party.  Note to all: make connections that get you into these types of events.  Free booze and lots of swag at all the parties.  Afterwards, we were brought to the Sundance Channel party where we got to rub shoulders (literally, it was kind of a small place) with lots of TV and distribution execs.  Although it’s hard to tell who they were and who were just normal people like us.  After we left there (with the best swag bag of our trip), we headed to one more movie.  We saw Perfect Sense which was not a good choice.  The only benefit to going was that we made friends with this woman who was waiting on line with us who friended me on Vimeo the following day after taking my business card (Yes, I made business cards for the trip).

Tuesday:

Our last movie day.  We got up very early to get on the waitlist for The Details which was a pretty good start to the day.  In the afternoon we made our way to Vampire – a movie that you can’t unsee, even if you wish you could.  Margin Call was up at 9 PM, which was good for what we saw of it.  Unfortunately, due to poor planning, we couldn’t stay for the end since we had to run to the midnight screening of my most highly anticipated film, Submarine.  Luckily it didn’t disappoint (except for the fact that the director, Richard Ayoade, was not there for a Q&A after).  And after a long day of 4 films, we finally set off for our last night at the condo.

Wednesday:

We woke up early again in a concerted, panicked frenzy as we tried to finish packing and getting ready simultaneously.  The shuttle to the airport arrived, and we hopped in.  We watched the snowy mountains pass us by until we got back into Salt Lake City.  We were lucky enough to get off the ground in time for our flight to stay on track, but a huge storm rolled into Baltimore.  We landed safely and headed to my car (which I had warned the others is not so great in snow).  After a 2 hour ride – that usually takes 20 mins – and getting stuck several times in the snow, we finally made it home, into warmth and rest.

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One of the best things about Sundance is how small it feels.  You see the same people all over the city during the week – even though 50,000 people descend on Park City.  It’s just a really great atmosphere to see films in.  Another nice thing is that you go in with no preconceived notions about films, for the most part.  You see things based on the director or cast or minimal buzz, but most of the films you know little to nothing about.  It’s a rare opportunity to see a movie like that.  The other great thing is the amount of films you get to see.  We saw 15 movies in 5 days of screenings.  You start to lose track of what you’ve seen and even where you are.  Sometimes I would forget what theater I was in or what time of day it was.  Being in a dark theater for that long was totally immersive and allowed a unique viewing experience.

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I changed my mind a little though while writing this.  For those of you who have stuck this out, it is about Hopkins. I would have never been afforded this opportunity had I not come to Hopkins.  I would have never met Clare.  And that would be a terrible shame (although she means more to me than just a fun trip to Sundance).  I would have never met Alexandra.  Or any of my friends, some who couldn’t come this year, but went last year.  And without any of these friends, I wouldn’t be who I am or where I am today.

PS – I think this is my longest blog post ever.  So sorry to any readers who feel put off by this.  I will be returning to more concise entries soon.

We all know what we want to accomplish in life.  We all have hopes, dreams, goals.  Fairly recently, the idea of a Bucket List has become a way to neatly set out our goals an accomplish them.  But rather than tell you what I want to accomplish – which at this point might just make me depressed or frantic to try and complete it in the next few months – I decided I’d give you a more universal Hopkins Anti-Bucket List.

Anti-Bucket List – The things you should try to not do in your four years here.

1. Die
2. Get pregnant
3. Fail out Gain the Freshmen 15
4. Skip class for a full week
5. Take classes only in one area
6. Try to actually join the 30 groups you sign up for at the SAC Fair
7. Wait until you have no underwear left to do laundry
8. Have a hangover the day before an exam
9. Make a name for yourself as the person who sleeps around
10. Make a name for yourself as the person who has a very strange characteristic (Crazy Legs, Duct Tape Girl, Awkward Jeremy)
11. Eat at the FFC every day
12. Pet an animal at the petting zoo during Spring Fair
13. Become addicted to caffeine (or anything really)
14. Spend your rent money in one weekend on food and drink at Spring Fair
15. Become obsessed with getting perfect grades
16. Set off the fire alarm while cooking in Charles Commons (harder than it seems)
17. Take a 400 level class in a subject you have never studied before
18. Take 20+ credits
19. Take a Friday morning class
20. Slip on the marble after snow/rain
21. Get hit by a biker
22. Make eye contact with the evil squirrels
23. Use up your dining dollars within the first month as a freshman
24. Have $500 dining dollars left the last week of classes as a sophomore
25. Doing almost anything you see college students do in the movies or on TV

What is on your Anti-Bucket List?