Life's But a Walking Shadow, pt. 2

I just finished putting together this 7 min documentary on Suzuki training, after a late night in the editing lab on Monday that ended at 2 am. All in all, I'm pretty happy with the response I received after viewing this in video class the next day. For those who didn't feel like reading my somewhat longish blog about Suzuki, you can just watch this video instead!

Yesterday our guerrilla theatre club pulled off it's first mission, which was a 5 min freeze in the cafeteria (known as THE DOME to CSUSM students) during lunch hour. It went fairly well, though I'm hoping we can get more people next time around and do something a bit crazier. I put together this website, www.dagnabitproductions.com, to detail our shenanigans - have a look, if you please.

In other random news, it has been confirmed that I'm going to have the lead part in our piece for the dance show, and there's a good chance I'll be doing a solo/duet piece for my choir concert (possibly A Whole New World, fingers crossed.) This means extra practices for both classes.

I reiterate - life, bring it on.

Someone Stop Me Before I Break Myself

I'm not entirely sure how this happened, but as of yesterday, I'm now somehow part of a guerrilla theatre club on campus. This is on top of everything else I'm doing this semester, which includes three advanced digital art classes, a play, choir performances, the dance show, the web design internship, and my promotions job which I decided not to give up. I'm not sure to what extent I'll be working with this group (acting, video work, or a combination,) but the time commitment doesn't seem too taxing and I figured I'd give it a shot.

If you don't know what guerrilla theatre is, the following video is a good example (even if you do know what guerrilla theatre is, you should watch it anyway because it's hysterical.)

So I suppose I'll have more on this recent development of my life as it comes. Seems like it's going to be a lot of fun.



I must be out of my damned mind...

Zombies!!!

"Darkness falls across the land, the midnight hour is close at hand..."


Survivors gearing up for the onslaught.


Vince infected.


Team Alpha about lay the smackdown on the living dead.


You can never have enough guns for this type of thing.


I was eaten alive. It was most horrific.


"Maybe... this was a bad idea,
oh no..."


The inaugural Community of Christ Zombie Patrol training session draws to a very successful close.

Life's But a Walking Shadow

Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death.
Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury
Signifying nothing.

- Shakespeare

I wanted to find new experiences, and it seems this is one for the books. Now that the semester is in full swing, play rehearsals for Big Love have been happening at a regular, three day per week schedule. Our daily meets have been divided into two parts, beginning with an hour of Suzuki actor training, followed by two hours of actual play rehearsal.

Suzuki training is a method of martial arts for actors that was designed to help locate the center of the body; the idea is that, if all energy is being focused on the lower torso, the actor is free to step into his or her role without having to worry about what the rest of the body is doing. It's all about balance - becoming more comfortable with how you move and gaining an overall sense of control. Here's what Wiki has to say about it:

Suzuki’s methodology for approaching theatre and performance comes from understanding ancient Greek theatre and experiencing the Japanese performance styles of Noh and Kabuki, both of which emphasize strength in traditional values, discipline, and physical control. Where Tadashi Suzuki differs is in his eclecticism and search for performance means beyond what has already been exercised. He is a progressive director who has sought to redefine any traditional notions instilled in the realm of Japanese theatre and thus revitalize an art form.

His philosophies concerning the humanistic relationship between man and earth, one that defies spirituality in the traditional sense of the term, manifest in rigorous training practices that demand an extreme level of body control and physical exertion.

What that all means for us is a lot of stomping, posing, and balance exercises designed to really test the limits of our bodies. One aspect of the training includes having to memorize text from Shakespeare (above); during any of the large variety of exercises given, the instructor may call out "TEXT!" during whatever we're doing, prompting us to hold whatever physically taxing position we may find ourselves in and recite the text from memorization. The idea behind this is to be able to direct our attention away from the pain we're feeling, instead concentrating on something very specific.

For me, this means I'm consistently coming home sore and tired every night, which has also resulted in my sleeping pattern shifting more towards that of a normal person's pattern, rather than my old bedtime of 3 or 4 am.

We'd been told during our instruction that Suzuki training can aid not only acting, but all aspects of life in general; it teaches us how to walk, breath, have presence in social situations, and just live healthier in general. Only two weeks into the program, I've found myself putting the training to practical use. Yesterday I decided to warm up with a couple of the exercises before playing my daily DDR, and also see what might happen if I applied the Shakespeare text while playing. In short, this led to a highly increased concentration; in trying to remember the text, I found myself ignoring the pain brought on from the game and having much higher stamina. Not only was I able to play for much longer than I typically do, I was somehow able to do something miraculous / borderline impossible - I beat MAX 300.

I know most aren't accustomed to the individual stages of DDR, but if you've ever played Guitar Hero or Rock Band, or any music or simulation game for that matter, you'll know there's always that one impossible stage that everyone aspires to beat - for DDR, MAX 300 is it.

(note that the guy in the video is playing with a keyboard)

Pretty insane; it's a song I've tried at least once a day everyday for the last three months and have consistently failed somewhere around the half-way point - through the text, I was able to go from there to beating it seemingly overnight. I haven't mastered it, obviously, but I feel like playing DDR may actually be a good way for me to both memorize my play lines and improve at the game.


It's raining pretty hard out right now - there is something magical about tonight. I am excited by the prospect of going downstairs in an hour for martial arts practice during the rainstorm. I'm not sure why.

Facebook VIRUS

Well this thing is going around Facebook like the flu - how rapidly it's spread is really blowing my mind right now. Crazy social experiment, it is. After being tagged twice I figured I couldn't ignore it much longer, and since I bothered to take the time to participate in this silly exercise, it just means I have an excuse not to write a real blog post tonight.

Rules: Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it's because I want to know more about you.

(To do this, go to “notes” under tabs on your profile page, paste these instructions in the body of the note, type your 25 random things, tag 25 people (in the right hand corner of the app) then click publish.)

1. My full name is Matthew David Chewiwie, though I was originally going to be named David Matthew Chewiwie.

2. If I leave my water bottle behind when I leave the house, I flip out just as much as I would if it were my wallet, keys, or cellphone.

3. Macaroni with hot dogs cut up in it is probably my favorite meal - it's easy to make, and covers the essentials (meat, cheese, carbs)

4. I think that if there's a "gay gene", I inherited like a mutated, half-assed version of it - it got everything right except the part about liking men.

5. I've never seen the third Lord of the Rings movie - after Two Towers I had no interest in continuing. This is a sin my friends continually try but fail to correct.

6. When I was five years old and first rode Star Tours at Disneyland, my only thoughts were "I know I can't possibly be in space right now, but HOW IN THE @^%^#@$ ARE THEY DOING THIS?!". I've been entranced by Disney Imagineering ever since.

7. I don't drink, ever, for any reason.

8. I like to stare directly into a flashlight bulb with one eye for a few seconds, and then look at the world alternating between my two eyes so that the world appears in different colors, like tints on a computer monitor. This is probably why I should be wearing glasses.

9. The Disney character I relate most with is Quasimodo. Incidentally, "Out There" is my favorite Disney song to sing.

10. When Harry Potter 7 came out, me and a group of friends bought the audio book at the midnight release and read the whole book together as a group, straight through from beginning to end. About 15 people started, and only 3 or 4 of us (including myself) made it to the end. It took over 25 hours.

11. Even at her current age, I think Meryl Streep is hot.

12. I miss my community college because of the breakfast burritos. I used to skip class for those things.

13. I can ride pretty much any roller coaster with no effect, but spinning too fast on the teacup ride will make me vomit.

14. I want to someday work on a film which gains a cult following.

15. I would love to play Amos (Roxie's husband) in a production of Chicago. John C. Reilly is my inspiration.

16. Mystery Men is among my top 5 favorite movies, though I openly acknowledge that it's a bad movie.

17. Though I continue to dine there, I have never forgiven Chipotle for getting rid of free drinks for college students.

18. One time I saw a full-sized statue of the T-800 from the Terminator movies in a Hollywood memorabilia shop - if I ever suddenly become rich, the first thing I'm going to do, before anything else, is go buy it.

19. I don't necessarily believe in reincarnation, but I like to look at everyone I know and try to figure out which animal they were in their past life. For really beautiful people, I just assume they were people in their last life. I think I was some kind of bear.

20. I will keep buying Smash Mouth's CD's as long as they keep making them.

21. I want Smash Mouth to freaking break up already.

22. I have a fear of deadlines. As a result, I usually end up pretending they don't exist to alleviate this fear, which leads to procrastination and then a greater fear of deadlines. It's a vicious cycle.

23. I can't leave Ihop until they've played a Seal song over the speakers.

24. When I was little, I wanted to be an illusionist/escape artist as an adult. I was really into magic and would practice trick knots and picking locks to escape from my sister's toy chest.

25. I want an orchestral arrangement of the ending theme to Sonic the Hedgehog 2 to be played at my funeral.

Hope that was enjoyable. On a completely unrelated note, I just realized how excited I am for the movie Coraline.

I'm tired and sore from Suzuki training, so it's bedtime. I'll explain what Suzuki training is later.

Did You Hear?

After abandoning Brett on our upcoming documentary project (in favor of killing two birds with one stone by filming my documentary at the photography field trip this Saturday,) I was ganged up on by my friends in film class and was the subject of much ridicule and picking-ons for the rest of the class period.

The results of this are evident in this film, which was our second "here's a camera you have an hour an a half go make something!" project. I was happy to be the subject of on-camera ridicule if it meant absolving my misdeeds - that said, I think these people who wrote the script know me far too well.

Tidbits REDUX

What's Matt Chewiwie been up to? TIME TO FIND OUT!

- It seems that the karaoke bar, followed by Ihop or other late night shenanigans, has become the staple of our circle's Monday nights activities. Seeing as Mondays are the only nights I have off this semester, hanging out around a fire pit with my closest friends and singing to strangers seems like a good way to take a load off.

- I ventured out into Valley Center with Brett and CK this past Saturday night for a party at Sarah's house. I was happy that I was able to have a good time despite knowing hardly anyone there (without even clinging to the few people I did know.) Rock Band, burritos, Mario Kart, jam sessions, and jumping over a fire pit all happened (there was also some drunken silliness which I was able to avoid for the most part.) I met a few new friendly people, as well. Good times.

- Last week I officially applied for graduation from CSUSM for Fall semester - with that came the dawning realization that my academic career may soon be coming to an end (I never thought I'd see this day.) I'm now starting to seriously consider grad school... more on this later.

- In other WTF news, somewhere in the last week I began thinking about how many different adventures life has to offer, and how many of them I want to experience. I've now decided that, to start, I want to get back into rock climbing, bungee jump off a bridge, go tandem sky diving, and zip line across a canyon. I'm completely serious on all counts - I've actually been looking into pricing and availability for each of these activities. Also, I want to accomplish at least one of these before the year is done (preferably NOT rock climbing; I'm looking to try something new.) Anyone up for some adventure?

- Today I started Advanced Digital Art and got a sense of what the semester is going to be like with it's workshop/field-trip based structure. My first outing will be on Saturday to a wildlife reserve in San Juan Capistrano. Through this class I'll be revisiting my digital arts blog (which most people didn't even know I kept) to document my adventures - if that's your type of thing, you can follow me at www.fravit.net/digitalarts

- The other day, while wasting time between classes, I fell asleep on the couch in the editing lab while reading Watchmen. It's official - the lab is my new second home. Sorry theater, you've been replaced.



Ehh, that's enough for now. Just felt like a bit of writing before bed, and now you're a little bit more up to speed. More on life as it hits me.

Pop

Advanced film class was fun yesterday; rather than the expected "Here's the syllabus, read it, come back next week and we'll get started," instead we were partnered up, given cameras, and told to "come up with an idea for a short film, shoot it, edit it, and create a soundtrack. Have it finished and ready to show me in an hour and a half. Go." All in all a pretty interesting way to start a new class - here's the result:

Not bad, I think. There's a few continuity errors in there, but we didn't really have any time to reshoot - we literally finished with a minute to spare. I showed this to my sister and she freaked out, calling me the devil.

The first meet of vocal ensemble today was equally fun - nothing too crazy, but we did get to sing right away, and it seems exciting. Miraculously, looking at the schedules between choir, dance and the play, I don't think there's any conflicts as far as performances go. Additionally, homework seems pretty light for dance and choir, so right now it's looking like I'm going to be keeping all of my classes. My fate is not entirely sealed at the moment, as the prospect of just how busy I'm about to be is still scary as hell, but I'm ready for it.

Chocolate Milk

Well here I am, back in the video lab at CSUSM after a lengthy-ish winter break. After all that happened last semester, I realize how much I've missed this place, and how much it really became my home during the last four months of 2008. My first class session of the semester was for Global Modern Dance, which I just came from. No movement today, but it looks like I'll be waltzing in front of an audience for the end of semester dance show. Doesn't seem too scary yet, despite my suspicions of me being the only guy in this class being confirmed immediately upon arrival this morning. No matter, I remain excited at the prospect of trying something new.

While seemingly everyone was watching the inauguration ceremonies this morning, I was scrambling to buy a parking permit and a few minor school supplies and make it in time to my first class. I wasn't happy at the prospect of having to pay $250 for a parking permit - it's the same price they usually charge per semester, but the parking this semester has been severely limited due to them closing down one of the main lots for redevelopment, the benefits of which I'll never see during the course of my stay at this school. It disturbs me that at 9:30 am this morning the next best lot was already entirely full. I shudder to think where I may be parking should I arrive in the afternoon. How exactly I'm going to approach this parking situation for the rest of the semester remains to be seen.

When I arrived to the studio out of breath at 9:58 am, mere minutes before the start of class, I was greeted with a sign which read "Dance class will start at 11 am today. ASSIGNMENT: Watch the inauguration ceremonies." Well, great. So much for rushing. I was of course bitter because I would have loved to have been at home watching the spectacle in DC. Regardless, I sat down and pulled out my laptop and was able to watch some live streaming stuff on the CNN website, but by then I had missed most of it (though I was able to catch Bush's exit, as well as some of the weird inaugural luncheon, which creeped me out for reasons I can't explain.) Later, they uploaded the video of Obama's speech, which was just as chills-inducing as I was expecting.

So now I sit here writing, waiting for 3 pm to roll around for Advanced Video Production class, and waiting for some friendly faces to eventually show up at some point, as I know they're destined to do. I know at least two of my friends from performing arts share this class with me, which is an exciting prospect, indeed. I hope that some more ridiculous student films are in our near future.


I was thinking about chocolate milk the other day. I love chocolate milk - it goes good with most meals and generally just brightens my day when I drink it, even if only a little bit. I tend to drink mine a little watered down, though, using far less chocolate than most would. That's good for me, because that typically means that the syrup / Nesquik powder ends up lasting longer before I have to buy more. Not too long ago I found myself in exactly that predicament - nearing the end of the container, with only enough scoops left for maybe one or two glasses. Every time I reach that point I think to myself "Crap, where did it all go?"

When you buy new chocolate milk, that thought never occurs to you. Or at least to me. Well, not until the other day, that is. Usually, my only thoughts are "Chocolate milk. Yeah! Alright! This is gonna go great with my eggs / pizza / hot dog / ham sammich!" But the other day I went to make some and my thoughts were different. For whatever reason, I looked at the reasonably full container, the mounds of brown grain like sand dunes in a great, chocolately Sahara, and was able to appreciate the wonder of such of a sight. I thought to myself "This container isn't always going to be like this." I knew that, eventually, it too would reach the point where patches of yellow are visible on the bottom of the container, and you know that your chocolate milk drinking days are nearly over (even if only temporarily.)

Anyone who would claims that time is an illusion has clearly never had chocolate milk before. If they had, they'd know that things are finite - they have a beginning, a middle, and an end. Even something as simple as a can of Nesquik can hold such profound discoveries as this. You really have to enjoy every glass as if it's your last glass, because when you do finally reach that last glass, who knows if or when you'll have another? I mean, hell, what if the grocery store is closed, you know?

This is how I want to live my life - like drinking a big, tall, frosty glass of chocolate milk. At some point I'm going to run out, so I need to enjoy it as much as possible until then. I'm going to start by enjoying every literal glass of chocolate milk much more, from now on. I'm going to follow that up by waltzing in front of an audience. After that, who knows? Sky diving, perhaps? This world provides limitless possibilities.

Life, bring it on.

The Curious Case of Fate and Free Will

I finally got around to devoting the necessary three hours out of my life to seeing The Curious Case of Benjamin Button yesterday, and was pleasantly surprised with what I found. Since it's release, I've heard more than a few comparisons made between this movie and Forrest Gump - mainly because of the huge scope and nature of the two tales. Aside from the storytelling, strong performances, and outstanding visual effects, this movie struck me for an unexpected reason, and that is it's dealing with the topics of fate versus free will.

Anyone who knows me at all will know that this is one of those heavy philosophical topics I often enjoy pondering, regardless of how futile such exercises may be. It's just something that's always fascinated me. One of the reasons Forrest Gump ranks up there in top 5 movies list is because of its statement about the issue - the movie has Momma on one side of the equation, teaching him that he makes his own destiny, while Lieutenant Dan stresses that each one of our futures is set in stone (who contradicts his own beliefs in saying that Forrest had the ability to alter this by rescuing him from the jungle.) Forrest eventually decides that it's possible that both forces may be at work at the same time - like the feather, which slowly drifts through the air. There are things we know are true about that feather's flight - mainly that, at one point or another, it's going to land. But the course it takes, as well as where is lands, are affected by many variables, such as an obstacle, or sudden gust of wind from a passing car and whatnot. Some things will happen, others, we're not sure clear on.

With all that happening, the movie introduces us to Forrest by having that feather land on his foot, for him to pick up and stare at in wonder. I have to believe that, while Forrest may appear simple on the outside, he really does understand the true meaning of that feather, and wonders, "Why did it land on my foot?" What parts are fate? What parts are affected by other means? Just how fragile is the universe, anyway?


There's a great scene in Benjamin Button (and I'll try to keep this spoiler-free) where a character ultimately ends up getting seriously injured. Throughout the moments leading up to the accident, several smaller incidents are spelled out which, if any one of them had happened differently (ie: a woman didn't forget to leave her keys on the counter, a child didn't run across the street at one specific moment, a girl hadn't gotten in a fight with her boyfriend the night before, leading to her not forgetting to make a floral arrangement for someone running late to something, etc.), the seconds altered in the process would've been enough to prevent the accident from happening - an accident, as it turns out, that significantly affects the course of a characters life. As I stated to a friend during the movie, "this is chaos theory kind of stuff." I was giddy with excitement as the scene unfolded.

Run Lola Run is film which is built solely around this concept - that even the smallest change in our surroundings can greatly affect the outcome of any given situation. The film goes to the extreme in that we see the same situation rewind and play itself out 3 different times, but all with different outcomes. The whole thing is a study on chaos theory.


We had our own "Run Lola Run" moment the other night during a game of cops and robbers, where our initial group showed up just after someone in the area had been jumped, and just before the victim decided to call his friends and go after them. Had my friends arrived minutes earlier or later, they would've been tangled up in this gang fight, but luckily were able to evade any trouble, and we were all able to meet up for a fun game (which had an interesting conclusion, but that's a story for another time.) But that fact of the matter is that odds favored our accidental involvement in a gang fight, which probably would have not ended well. How much of that is luck? Some would argue that it isn't - that the universe has a plan, and it planned for us not to run into any danger.

Well for now, I'll take the Forrest Gump route and say that "I think both is happening at the same time." As for Benjamin Button, there's definitely a lot there to think about - fate, free will, what we do with our time given, how life needs to be looked at in reverse to understand it, and slew of other things I could write about for hours. On the topic of fate and free will, it doesn't really give a conclusive answer as to what it believes - maybe the book will paint a more clear picture. In the meantime, I recommend everyone get other there, see the film, and form your own opinions on the matter.