Winding Down

It is two weeks from finals, and while I should be getting work done, I find that it would be more productive to instead post to my blog about my various adventures in the past month.

In the last weeks, I have constantly been swept up by the USC life. My fraternity threw our biggest party of the semester, FESTIVUS, complete with professional DJs, security, and bartenders. For us privileged few who remember most of the evening, we can attest that a great time was had by all.

My schedule for next semester is fantastic. I got into a film class on the styles of Stanley Kubrick, which should be incredible, as he is one of my favorite directors. Next semester will also bring time for me to continue exploring my intended minor of Art History, so I am stoked for that as well.

THE PASCAL SIGN is shaping up great and getting ready for premiere. After this Sunday, I will have the final cut of the movie exported and ready to go at the premiere. It was received extremely well at its test screening, and I look forward to sharing it with you. If you haven't already, email pascalsigntickets@gmail.com for tickets.

I cannot wait to return to the 314, aka STL, aka The Lou, in just a few short weeks. While my time at college has been incredible, it has simultaneously resulted in me realizing how amazing a city St. Louis is. The caliber of culture and people in our fine home town is honestly unmatched, and I await with bated breath my triumphant homecoming.

See you soon,
Joe

October

Hey everybody,

It's been too long. But here's why:

OCTOBER IS AWESOME.

The first weekend of October, about twenty-five guys from my fraternity drove up to Sn Fran for the weekend. We went up to see USC play Stanford in Pallo Alto, and even though we lost, it was a great game. For the weekend, about a third of USC students journeyed north and took over NorCal (Northern California for the non-Cali vernaculars). It was a super fun weekend, and of course, I went to Haight Ashburry.

During the beginning of October I shot a short film for a freshmen film contest called "The Alfies" - it was a great time, and I look forward to seeing how we did in the final rounds. Hopefully I will post it soon.

I finally got around to going to The Hollywood Bowl to see LCD Soundsystem - what a show! We got pretty good seats and the performances and set up was awesome. Hopefully I will head back for another show soon.

Last Friday Obama spoke on campus, which was awesome, but it was impossible to get anywhere across campus all day.

This past weekend was invite, where each brother brings a date and we take a party bus to a fancy restaurant and bar. The theme was "SAMMY Goes South" and we went to an awesome Mexican bistro and patio bar. At midnight, I was surprised with a cake for my 19th B-DAY. A kick-ass start to the day, I continued to party hard and celebrate all the way through Sunday night.

Finally, last night I was initiated into the fraternity. I am now a full member of Sigma Alpha Mu.

I know this post was a bit scatterbrained, life has been super busy and I'm sort of all over the place.

Fight On!
Joe

PS. Tonight I get to meet Paul Thomas Anderson, director of Magnolia, my favorite move of all time!

The One Month Mark

I realize its been too long since I've posted on the blog, but college is college, so soak up this post while you can. I'm super busy, but loving every minute of it.

In about an hour I will be performing a rap with ten other members of my fraternity in front of 200+ sorority girls at their house. The point of such a ridiculous display of hip-hoppery (as you can see college English class is expanding my vocabulary) is to entice said sorority to attend homecoming with our fraternity. Basically, this means we have a sorority all to ourselves to party with on homecoming. Our chapter is under 50, theis is over 200 -- you do the math.

Pledging is going awesome. All the brothers are great and I'm loving getting to go everybody. Friday we are having our first big party this semester, themed "Cowboys and Indians" and it will be themed with a saloon style bar, teepees outside, cowboy hats and tumbleweeds. It should be a great time.

I am also working on the school TV network, Trojan Vision. I am an associate producer on a show called CU@USC every Tuesday night which is a live talk show that brings in guests from the David Hasselhof, to Wierd Al, to George Lucas. Last season we brought in Ron Jeremy, which is a little ridiculous. The experience is great, we hold ourselves to a professional standard, and everybody at the station is very cool.

Classes are going great. I absolutely love my Art History class, so much so in fact, that I may want to minor in art history if my major permits. For film class I just watched a 1970s Spanish Western Surrealsit film, El Topo, about a gunslinger who travels across a mystical land murdering the worlds greatest gunmen and their mythological palaces, delves into zen and redemption, and sprinkled with deformed humans, magic rabbits, and crazy monks. It was awesome.

One thing that immediately transitions from high school to college is a person's inability to wake up. Now, waking up at 8 or 9 seems early, I don't know how I ever got up at 6. I don't think I ever slept till noon in high school, but then again, I never really averaged a bed time of 4am or later on weekends before.

One thing I really miss about St. Louis is Pasta House salads. No lie, I would murder for one right now. But having a 24 hour subway by my dorm is pretty bomb.

So if anybody wants to mail me one, that'd be terrific.

Time to go, but feel free to shoot me an email, I'd love to hear from anybody.

Take care,

Joe

Week Dos

The Iliad is one of the most boring books ever written. Right now I am 100 pages in for the day, and need to read another 50 before I head out to what has been nicknamed "The Running of the Bitches". To explain -- today is the end of rush for sororities and all the potential pledges gather in the quad and are given envelops containing their bid. All at once they open them and begin to race toward their new houses, that is, if they get a bid. They are all wearing white dresses and heels, and frat guys line their entire 3/4 of a mile path jeering and cat calling them. I guess I left out, I'm in a fraternity now. Last night I received and accepted a bid from Sigma Alpha Mu, aka Sammy, and partied all night with my brothers and a plethora of college babes. Needless to say it was awesome.

I would definitely encourage any person entering college, at least if they are a dude, to rush -- it free, you meet tons of people, ad you'd be surprised how well you click with some of the houses. Even if you don't get a bid, its still awesome to try.

I have more to write about but little time to write it, so suffice to say I will post again soon.

Peace,
Joe

Making SCense of Things

As my first week at USC comes to a close, and the weekend is here to party, now seems as good a time as ever to start my college blog to let family, friends, sworn enemies, and however many illegitimate children I may have running around St. Louis (and even the world) know what I'm up to. I'm going to use this blog to sort of flesh out ideas and thoughts about college, update people on my life, entice you with a little humor and charm, and perhaps even entertain.

I am currently sitting in my dorm, on the bed, with the sun blinding me through the window. I would close the blinds, but my room doesn't seem to have the plastic stick to twist in order to do so. Housing says they will fix that, but for now I wake with the sunrise, only to force myself to go back to sleep. Other than that, my living situation is nothing straight of bomb. My suite area, which I share with five other dudes, is awesome - stove, couch, table - and our bathrooms are pretty nice. My room seems to be the only one so far covered in posters (Flaming Lips, Radiohead, Pink Floyd, Biggie Smalls, Its Always Sunny, Grand Theft Auto San Andreas, Clockwork Orange, and Star Wars). Hopefully some of the other guys will add a bit of color to.

Looking out my dorm I can hear the USC Band playing the addicting military march The Spirit of Troy (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pE9JyV0dZaQ), and I can see the too-good-to-be-true film school, the nicest building on campus.

A note on the film school - yesterday I had my first meeting with all my fellow filmmakers, and they showed us a video of legendary filmmakers, one after the other, talking about their time at USC, why its film school is the best, and why they will always remain Trojans for life. Steven Speilberg, Ron Howard, George Lucas, so many great men of the movies telling us that this was the only place to be was super inspiring, albeit a little intimidating. However, the networking I have made in the short time I have been here is incredible, and really these relationships is what the film school is all about.

I'm going to depart now, but first I will leave you with a few lessons of what I have learned thus far, but not in an educational sense.

-having a sushi bar in the floor of your dorm is the best thing that can happen to you
-don't hesitate when you meet somebody who you get along with to get their digits, even if you only chat for ten minutes. Text them later, get a meal, or go to a party with them. Everybody wants to meet people, especially in college, so be open.
-frat parties are awesome. It goes unsaid, but I'm saying it. Free "beverages" are very awesome.
-don't be afraid to talk to upperclassmen, they appreciate you not acting like a freshmen, and they will invite you to shit thats actually going on around campus
-on that note, most school organized social events for freshmen suck... forget about dances, mixers, movie nights... get invited to parties, find a few friends and explore campus, find where the action is and be a part of it
-talk to people, especially cute girls - if you have an awkward silence with someone in passing, or make eye contact, or are stuck on an elevator, spark up a conversation



Classes start Monday, so I will probably update next Friday as well. As you can tell, I'm loving college.

Fight On!
Joe