The Nuns are Dead.

This means I may actually have a life again. In fact, too much of a life as school is just about over as well. I'll be graduated and... then what?

Absence makes the heart...

Dear Blog-ur-bators,

I'm sorry I haven't posted in a while, but suddenly the opera I'm costuming is upon me and until it relinquishes its hold like a nun to the guillotine, I won't have much to say here. I do have pictures from the last play I costumed, finally, and those will be showcased on here shortly. Be patient.

Miss and love you all, I'm sure.

Petey

Definitely NOT a Scam

I got this via Facebook back in January and have wanted to post it for a while now, to share with you how my fortune has changed. I have to point out that I'm super lucky to be the first random U.S.-born person Mr. Dabrah looked up on Facebook for this incredible offer of fraud, and I'll try not to let all that money go to my head when I'm swimming in dough. I'll still remember you, readers, all the little people out there.

Now, I know he said to keep it TOP SECRET, but nobody reads this blog anyway, and you guys who do won't tell anyone, will you? I didn't think so. This goes for you too, Chinese internet troller who likes to post links to HOT ASIAN PORN! in the comments of my blog posts. Keep it on the down-low.

And finally, now that I'm filthy rich, Obama should definitely not be in the White House. Suck it all you poor people!

January 30 at 2:43pm
Hello Peter Terry,

I am sorry to contact you unannounced through this medium. I am Mr. Benjamin T. Dabrah, a banker here in Ghana . I write you this proposal in good faith hoping that I will rely on you . In 2006, one Mr. Daniel Terry who has same surname as yours and who has your country in his file as his place of origin, made a fixed deposit for 36 calendar months, valued at $18,400,000.00 with my bank. I was his account officer before I rose to the position of Manager Director now. The maturity date for this deposit contract was 16th of January 2009. Unfortunately, while on a business trip ,he died in a deadly earthquake that occurred on May 12, 2008 in Sichuan province of China which killed at least 68,000 people.

Since the last quarter of 2009 until today,the management of Barclay's bank have been finding a means to reach him so as ascertain if he will want to roll over the Deposit or have the contract sum withdraw .Since September 2009,when I discovered that this will happen , I learn t of his death ,so I have tried to think up a procedure to preserve this fund and use the proceed for charity .

Some directors here been trying to find out from me the information about this account and the owner, but I have kept it closed because, I know that if they become aware that Mr Daniel is now late, they will corner the funds for themselves. Therefore, I am seeking your co-operation to present you as the one to benefit from his fund at his death since you have the same name, so that my bank head quarters will pay the funds to you. I have done enough inside bank arrangement and only have to put in your details into the information network in the bank computers and reflect you as his next of kin.

I am not a greedy person, so I am suggesting we share the funds equal, 50/50% to both parties My share will assist me to start a charity organization to help the poor and also own a company which has been my dream.

Let me know your mind on this and please do treat this information as TOP SECRET. We shall go over the details once I receive your urgent response strictly through my personal email address, benjamindabrah@gmail.com Have a nice day,and may GOD bless you.


Anticipating your communication.


Mr. Benjamin Dabrah
benjamindabrah@gmail.com

If I Could Travel Through Time...

I'd probably go see this.

Okay, it's nerd-gasmic. But probably only to me. It's also a little gay. And you wonder why I'm bitter I didn't get to attend the Torchwood/Doctor Who panels at Comic Con. Sigh.

Something Horrific This Way Comes...

And all for the low, low price of Indie.

Salt Lake City will soon be hopping up on zombies, blood, and all sorts of torture-porn. That's right, move over Sundance with all your arty films in which death must be meaningful and poignant. No, we're talking about a new festival for the independent filmmaker that (theoretically) is debuting this October:

The Salty Film Horror Festival



Now technically this festival is open to horror and sci-fi submissions, and from the sound of it, favoring the independent artist (read: staggering differences in quality of submissions). But then, that's what makes it fun, isn't it? I love Sundance but it gets extremely pretentious, and listening to d-bags in enormous fur coats argue over whether the movie made sense or not and let's go because there's just enough time to down a $200 bottle of wine before we have dinner reservations followed by some celebrity-studded party...

Well its time to get back to basics. And you can't get more basic than horror films. I've discoursed on horror films before, because they hold a special place in my heart. And truthfully, a grassroots (a term I loathe by the way, as its thrown around like so much germinating seed that I'm surprised every artistic industry isn't buried in a tangle of un-mown lawn) horror film festival in the land of the Mo's seems like a fantastic idea. There is no doubt that you'll see some of the worst cinematic attempts, and one can hope, a gem or two. Regardless, it is exciting to see some more cultural opportunities arise in our conservative state. It's a cause for celebration, for me at least, and will definitely be an enjoyable experience for anyone who likes independent films and people getting mutilated.

One of the exciting features is that they'll have many categories of entry, but tentatively two different 72-hour filmmaking contests within the festival, in which you'll get three days to create a horror film to be shown. At present they are scheduled early April and in August of this year. If you're at all interested it promises to be a fun opportunity and fairly inexpensive opportunity.

I know this will be of interest to a few of you that read this blog, and I encourage everyone to consider either a) submitting -you have several months and can submit all the way up until mid-September, for a rather nominal fee; or b) putting it on their calendar to attend and support, lest the festival die in its first year attempt. Check out their site and enjoy.

On a couple of horrifying side notes...

1. If you were hoping for a chance to run for the title of Miss Salty Horror ("the face of the Salty Horror Film Festival"), the ship has sailed. But maybe next year.

2. In another epic horror event, I attended the 70's Japanese fantasy-horror film House at the Tower theater this weekend. In an incredible display of blue-screening, soft focus, green-eyed cats and flowing scarves, this movie was an incredible and amusing experience. It runs until Thursday, so you have very little time to see it, but I highly recommend a viewing. My compadre Brady indicated that this was the first screening of the film since it's initial release, and I'm proud to have been privy to it.

So naturally I was bothered by some woman (one of the six of us in the screening) who complained rather loudly how little sense the film made. It still irritates me now, because whatever else you may say about death-by-mattress and travel-via-refrigerator, the movie was hardly incoherent. In fact it made plenty of sense with its visual if weak story line of girls vacationing at their spooky Aunt's home. Some people just have no taste. And if her palette found this incomprehensible, I can only imagine what other, more avant garde films might do to her digestion.

Here's a teaser in case you're hoping for a fear too beautiful to resist...

Silence for my Headspace

Is it possible to live tending to only the things you enjoy without the constructs other people placed upon you? On one hand, the automatic answer is an emphatic "no." No matter what you choose to pursue in your life there are always other people to keep happy, deals to make and compromises to strike. You take the good with the bad, and hope the good ultimately outweighs the other.

But another part of me whispers that's not true, not really. This idea is propagated because everyone else has been subjugated to this mentality, and if you look away from it, you're ridiculed as foolish and a n'ere-do-well spending their time unwisely. It is plausible to think outside the box and do whatever the hell you want, whatever makes you happy.

I feel this may be true too. Don't we limit ourselves? Isn't our potential usually capped by our own mental frailties? But what is most frightening to me is what that course of action embraces as a philosophy. If I turn my back on the system that we deem necessary, that means I feel it is beyond hope, even as a framework to build within. And if that's true, then all the individuals tied to it are simply extensions of that ideological prison. And hence, my motives become purely selfish, uninterested in providing something meaningful to anyone except myself. And that provides all sorts of conundrums, theoretically speaking. From the introduction of my actions being in a vacuum to existential questions like defining oneself without external parameters to measure by.

It's a mess. The plain fact is that I'm exhausted listening to others tell me how my life ought to be unfolding; family, teachers, friends, mentors, bosses, corporations, and media... all of it letting me know whether I'm wasting my time and on track for failure. Basically that's the crux of it, this Sunday afternoon. How are you?

Chainsaw Warrior Victorious

As promised, here's a picture we took of Julie's triumphant hour.



This end-game photo shows exactly how it went down, too. Exactly. Note the rest of us cowering and perishing to her evil 4,5, or 6 whims.