Andrew sure knows how to treat a guy right. Already, he's taken me to two excellent restaurants (with national reputations), shared with me some excellent locally-brewed beer, and brought me to hear possibly the most excellent symphony performance I've ever heard in my life. Now what am I supposed to do for the rest of the week?
More of the same, suckers!
With my final sign-out yesterday afternoon, I'm now no longer an emplyee of the art museum. That completes my longest-running job to date at 19 months.
I have to say, leaving work like that is one of the wierdest things I've ever experienced in the way of goodbyes. It's all these people who know varying amounts about your personal life, who are in one sense your comerades, but they may not all be considered friends. Yet, my experience was that I held such an affinity for them, it was hard to hold back from hugging everyone as I said goodbye.
Then there's the banter. I had one co-worker, as she left, say, "I'm going to miss you Andy! I hope your program turns out fantastic for you!" My response was "Thanks. I hope so too."
That got my boss laughing. But what else could I say on the spot like that? I'm telling you, awkward.
Anyway, that leads me to my next point: I was offered a position with Teach For America! I leave June 7 for North Carolina, where I'll most likely end up with a job teaching middle-school or high-school math.
It's pretty intense. They tell me I need a car and a computer, neither of which I have at this moment. I'm also going to need a place to live by mid-August. All of which I'm going to be paying for without getting a paycheck until mid- or late-September. Yowza!
Of course, the teaching itself sounds super intense. Mark Bielecki's bro, Joe, who's teaching in San Jose right now tells me that he knew of a few different people who left the program really early-on. I figure I'll be able to hack it just fine, as long as no students pull a knife on me or anything. *knock on wood*
Until all that begins, though, I've got my trip for the next four weeks. I leave tonight for Cleveland, then after a week-and-a-half there, it's to Ventura, then to Mexico and back, and finally back to Tacoma again. All said, the trip hits four weeks almost to the hour.
I feel like that's the best way, though. I'm glad I'm leaving so quickly. I think I would just feel awkward being around here for the next month-plus.
Anyway, I'll be sure to update as much as I can while I'm gone. I realize that there are very few people who actually read my site, and goodness knows I have to update to keep them coming. Sorry for all the lapses, folks.
Shut yer pie-hole Bussmann, here I am.
I should get this out right now: I've never actually read Sin City. Not one graphic novel. This was partially on purpose. A couple of times, I tried to read one of them, but I couldn't get past the coarse, ugly art and the overwhelming monologuing. Then, last year when I heard about the coming film, I decided that I would go to this movie without having read the comics; see the story the same as any non-geek would.
I saw a few of the trailers/commercials for the film, and I started getting seriously excited. The look of the movie was insanely cool - the black and white with splashes of color here and there. The list of actors was awesome, a great ensemble cast. And I knew, since Frank Miller himself was involved closely in the project, it was going to be taken very seriously. That last part was key to me. Often times, writers and directors take what they think of as 'sensationalist' characters and stories and try to create a sensation of a movie out of them. Daredevil is the prime example: a horrible movie, even though the past few years have seen some of the most incredible writing in comics in its pages.
With Sin City, however, it seemed that the movie was not going to be chewed up by the hollywood machine, and that was a big deal for me.
In the end, I think the movie truly did stick to it's roots. And even though I've never actually read the graphic novels, I can safely say that for two reasons: the script, and the cinematography.
The Dialogue:
Before going into the theater, I knew that the script remained almost perfectly true to the comic. As in, there were scenes that played out word-for-word what Miller wrote in the comic. This was highly unique to this film. Usually, for adapted screenplays, the original story is retold in different words on the screen. This is due to consideration of what works onscreen versus on the page of a book.
But this higlights exactly one of my frustrations about movie adaptations of comics: that too much change is often made in the name of 'what works' onscreen. The problem as I see it, is that, unlike books, comics use images to tell stories, so there should only need to be a minimal amount of change done to the script in order to tell the story as it was originally intended.
The Cinematography:
Now, knowing that the movie script was almost a one-to-one transfer from the comic, I was able to consider how the dialogue fit into the pace of the film itself. In any given scene, I watched as the camera would seamlessly move from shot to shot, with the dialogue following in unison. What was amazing about the composition of shots, was that they moved as the dialogue moved.
An example: Clive Owen stands on a ledge outside Brittany Murphy's apartment (check out the clip titled 'Stop'). They talk, then he leaps from the edge. Watch as he drops, and listen to how the narration fits into the shots. A shot is set, it stays static while a person talks, then changes as new person is talking, or as a new thought is narrated. Basically, what Miller and Rodruigez have done is taken the exact frames of the comic, and stuck transitions in between. It's a crazy, awesome technique that literally translates the comic onto the screen.
The Contextual Argument:
It is due to this serious treatment of the original stories that Sin City triumphs. What we get when we go to the theatre is a look at the raw story as told by Miller, almost as though we could consider it a literary work and discuss things like Miller's use of color and symbol.
Last week, I watched the DVD release of Once Upon a Time in the West, the ultimate spaghetti western by Sergio Leone. Featured on the DVD was an exclusive commentary track with analysis of the film by various film scholars, discussing influences, plot analysis, and symbols in the film. In the same way, scholars will easily be able to look at Sin City years from now, and consider the thoughts and techniques of Frank Miller. Why does the young prostitute have blue eyes? What comparisons can be made between the two characters who had their genitals attacked in some way?
Sin City onscreen offers us a great wealth of questions to consider, just as it did in the comic. In fact, with the movie as such a literal translation of the comic, we will certainly be able to open the pages of one of these graphic novels and find the exact symbols and questions as we saw in the film.
And that's truly the beauty of Sin City. As a film it allows us an open window into the serious consideration of comics as literary masterpieces. Hopefully, this movie will convice more than a few people that comics are no longer for children. That they are rich with emotion, symbol, and meaning, and that their open pages are ready for open minds.
To pick up where I left off, I think my interview went well, though I suppose I'll know for sure in about two weeks.
I did end up giving my lesson on collisions, and I think it went well since I was able to teach something that even the recruiters didn't know. Others taught us how to identify parts of a tree, tell the difference between healthy and unhealthy foods, and describe the slope of a line.
My one-on-one interview seemed succesful as well. It went the full time alloted, and at the end we picked up a casual conversation about running. Can't ask for much more than that, I guess.
Next on my table: making the most of my job while I'm still at it.
As the first step in this endeavor, I'll be joining some fellow workmates to go see Sin City tomorrow night. I'm extremely excited about it, and definitely plan on giving my own review in the context of how awesome comic books are. Be prepared for Professor Andy's discourse, coming soon.
Until then . .