On Thursday, I really didn't want to go to my classes. They felt even longer than normal (which is pretty bad, because they're both studio classes, which last 3 hours), but I guess that's what happens when you spend the day in anticipation. In Grand Rapids, there's this thing called the Urban Institute for the Contemporary Arts, and they have this really small theater where they play international and idie films. It's really cool. So anyway, a while back, I saw on their website that they're going to show Sukiyaki Western Django. It's a japanese spaghetti western, but it's filmed in English and Quentin Tarantino makes a cameo. It's a little hard to understand the dialogue, because all the actors (except Tarantino, of course) are Japanese and speaking the English dialogue themselves. Time got away from me until I looked up the movie again and found out that the last showing was Thursday at 7. I'm so glad I caught that on Wednesday or I would have missed it. I went with one of my roommates, it was pretty good. Reminded me a bit of Reservoir dogs in both the amount and color of the blood. There's also some wacky humor, too.
Also that night, there was a massive event scheduled in an attempt to break a world record. It was a shot at the world's largest zombie walk. When I got back from the movie, one of my other roommates and a bunch of her friends were over getting ready. They invited me with them, so I put on some simple makeup around my eye (it was actually just acrylic paint) and went with them. It was awesome. We got there a little late, so we were near the back of the horde. I loved it, there was fake blood smeared on buildings and store windows. Huge puddles of it were dried into the cement. They didn't block off any roads, so the cars had a hard time getting through because we were in the middle of the street. There were photographers everywhere and a couple news crews at Rosa Parks Circle, the epicenter of the takeover. There were some really awesome zombies. There was an Abe Lincoln zombie, and an undead Waldo, he was popular with the photographers, and several people as zombie businessmen. The old record was a little over 1,300. Our OFFICIAL count was over 3,000 zombies, but they didn't get everyone's signature, and some of the signature sheets didn't get turned in. The rough estimate for the ACTUAL turnout was more like 4,000+!!!
My roommate, Kristi got some attention:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/b-mer/2988876461/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/itsonlyjustme/2992622382/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/passingobsessions/2987847923/
Kristi's friend Katie. The fake scabs on her neck itched, so when she picked at it, she grossed a couple people out and made a kid cry XD
http://www.flickr.com/photos/emjs/2988695306/
Kristi's boyfriend. He was probably done up the best out of our group:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jenniferbruce/2988639854/
Instead of working on homework, or cleaning my room, I wasted the day. I started reading Nana more than a year ago, but stopped for whatever reason around chapter 5 or something despite the fact that I though it was good. Today, I decided on a whim to see if I could pick up where I left off. It's 3:00 in the morning, and I'm on chapter 31. I don't think my sappy heart can take much more of this, it's too intense. I think it may be affecting me more than a manga series should, since there are absolutely no parallels with my life whatsoever, but I don't think I can bring myself to stop reading it. I've almost cried, or felt like crying, more times than I care to remember. It's too intense.
Is anyone else getting caught up in the same way with Nana? It's scary. But it's so. Damn. GOOD.
Wow. Just... wow. I'm in my first semester at Kendall College of Art & Design, and I now know that you can't fully appreciate the amount of work art students have to go through until you actually ARE one. Drawing homework takes 2-3 hours, and my projects for my other two studio classes are on adobe illustrator, so it takes forever (especially since I have no mouse OR tablet, and I'm a slow worker). It may sound like I'm complaining, but I'm not. I don't have to be told to know that freshmen have no right to. Actually, I enjoy the work I do, I just don't have enough hours in the day because I'm such a slow worker.
Anyway, I'm home for the weekend, and I went and visited my high school today. Two of my teachers said it looked like I lost weight, which is weird because of the whole "freshman 15" thing. But I'm not totally surprised. The school and my apartment are in the city (Grand Rapids), so I walk to school, and I make the effort to take the stairs (except when going up to the 5th-7th floors, going down, I take the stairs regardless). I also have to grocery shop and cook for myself, so that nutrition class I took senior year really paid off.
I haven't been on here all summer, I apologize. But since there probably isn't anyone reading this, I guess it doesn't make much of a difference. If I find I have some free time, which is unlikely (NOTE: see title), I'll scan in some sketches and actually post some artwork. Granted, I'm a very serious student, so I haven't drawn anime in a looong time. I mean LONG. Not since probably 2007 long. This is all because senior year is all about prepping for college, so I focused on fundamentals and exploring different styles and mediums. I'll never give up anime though. I don't think I could if I wanted to. It's so ingrained into me, whatever style I attempt, if I'm doing any sort of cartooning or illustration, traces of my anime roots will probably seep through in some way.
On another anime related note: I recently went on a shoujo binge and read Hana Kimi and Hana Yori Dango. In August I read Othello, which I highly recommend. It was excellent. The art is top notch and Nana is my hero. I haven't been able to watch any of it yet, but my roommate's boyfriend lent me Blue Gender. We have similar taste in the way of sci-fi and related genres, so I trust him when he said I'd probably like it.
So I graduated this past Sunday. It's still weird that such a huge part of my life is over now. I'll get used to it. Right now I'm focusing on dance. We're perfroming at the opening of a new ampitheater in town. It's VERY small. I mean tiny. And it'll be hot and all of the dances we will be performing are relatively fast. But there will be a tent over the stage. Actually, I don't even think you can call it a stage. It's just a flat area of brick that we're putting a small dance floor on top of so we don't seriously injure ourselves or destroy our tap shoes.
In addition to the tent, though, the river is a few yards away, and there will be a breeze, so we hopefully won't get too hot. Not like in the studio before Jer got one of those AC units that fit in a window (which was only a couple days ago). I'm excited for it, but I can't find the scrunchi for one of the costumes we have to wear. I hope I don't get into trouble for it. I'm not looking forward to wearing the costume for my solo. It's only about a gazillion layers and I get hot in it without the help of the weather, thankyouverymuch. The only other costume is light and much more comfortable.
Well, that's certainly enough rambling on about something no one really cares about. The main reason I haven't updated is because I was focusing on school so I could get it all over with and taken care of.
Last Friday was a good day. I came home from school, and ta-da! My ELLEGARDEN cd was waiting for me in the mail! I've been listening to it all week ^__^ They're so awesome, especially since most of their songs are in English (there are three that ...
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