Listening To:  At Last by Etta James

Okay, as I mentioned in the last post, January has hit the ground running.  I started my new job this week and it was a wee bit more complicated than I thought it would be.  I’m reviewing films for an online magazine (I will link to them as they start to go up).  Of course I  enjoy going to screenings and giving my opinion (if only one could walk the treadmill while watching new films).  What I didn’t know was that I would need to enter the articles onto the site’s server and format them with photos and videos.  Ever heard of SEO?  That’s what I’m talking about, bitches!

Okay – I do this stuff with my blog, but let me tell you, for-profit websites are a heck of a lot different than using WordPress.  Sure, learning WordPress takes some time, but really, a nine-year-old could do it.  I spent seven hours yesterday trying to get one of my reviews properly formatted and it’s still not there.   Pictures have to be a certain size, placed a specific way depending on whether or not they’re vertical or horizontal, there are tag words, meta words, meta keywords to add, code to embed and don’t get me started on uploading video.

Well, the good news is that I’m learning all this stuff and certainly it will come in handy as I add more content to the web.  And a BIG thanks to RioGirl for getting me the gig (you seriously rock)!

So while I finish typing all my 1′s and 0′s that will magically turn into a movie review of Underworld: Awakening, take a gander at my students’ drawings of carnivorous plants (that’s right, Venus Flytraps!).

Listening To:  Little Black Submarines by Black Keys

Okay, I was hoping for changes this year.  Didn’t think they would happen so fast.  Today I got offered a new job (details of which I will share when it’s official).  Right after I hung up, my phone rang again.  It was a current employer telling me a job I currently have is coming to an end.  Spooky that those two calls happened within minutes of each other.    Earlier this week my manager sent me an email that he’s moving into producing and out of management.  That’s three major changes this WEEK.  I know it’s the beginning of January and a lot of people resolve to make changes at the beginning of the new year, but still – didn’t see these things coming.

I want to be a well-paid screenwriter.  I want to make feature films.  BUT last week, I decided to open myself up to the universe for other types of writing work.  And it seems to be coming. I’m going to forego writing the clone pilot and start working on my book.  I’m excited.  I’m scared.  I’m willing to work hard.  I’m ready.

I’m making a film with gifted 3rd-5th graders called Psychotic Stabbing Nerds.  We had the table read yesterday.  Considering half the students forgot to take their scripts home with them to learn their lines, I’m not sure how smoothly it will go.  But it should be exciting (or harrowing) to see it all come together.

Learn your lines, darn it!

AND I’m going to be teaching another class where we’ll make a movie.  This time it will be about an historical event.  One of the suggestions from the school was the British burning down the white house.  !!!!!!  If you know me, you know my love for Dolley Madison and the war of 1812.  I finally get to make a movie about it!  GO DOLLEY!

So.  Things are changing.  Things are good.  I’m hoping they get even better for us all.

Listening To:  Soundtrack from Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross

http://www.srgdesign.com/

So the new year is upon us.  Thank god.  I’m hoping there’s excitement, adventure, money and travel in 2012, as there were few of those things for me in 2011.  This morning in Richard Simmons’ class, he asked us to make a list of everything we accomplished in the past year.  After a cynical groan, I decided I would make that list and share it with you.

FalloutGirl’s Accomplishments in 2011 (in no particular order)

I wrote a play called Ring Around The Collar that was produced in Arizona.  And I got paid.  Okay, only $35, but still…

I’ve learned enough about iMovie to edit the first episode of my web show called She Blinded Me W Science.

I’ve written four Bar Mitzvah video scripts and they all turned out great.

I helped 3rd and 4th graders write screenplays that culminated in a hilarious live show.

Wore a feather in my hair.

Listened to the audio version of Frankenstein while sewing a Mary Shelly costume.

Attended my cousin’s wedding in Kentucky.

Interviewed geneticists at UCLA.

Blogged 68 times.

Made new friends.

Learned how to hold a boom microphone.

Worked with exotic animals like a Chinese Water Dragon and a Boa Constrictor.

I inspired over a hundred kids to create their own post-modern Mona Lisa.

Love the hands...

Who will you meet in 2012?  What will you accomplish?  Many wonderful things, I hope!

Happy New Year from FalloutGirl:)

Listening To:  Gold on the Ceiling by The Black Keys

I’ve been iPadded.  Willingly, I should point out.  For so long I’ve been wondering what the heck I would do with an iPad given I already own a Macbook and an iPhone.  But lugging my laptop around to the schools to for teaching became cumbersome and DING!  I knew I must get an iPad for teaching.

This machine is beautiful.  It’s shiny, black and sleek.  The screen is gorgeous.  I totally understand Bjork’s Biophilia app in a whole new way.  Look:

 

This is from a movie about Bjork's DNA.

I think this is supposed to be one of her cells.

Even da Vinci would be impressed!

FalloutGirl hearts Atomic Fart!

So, I’ve been sitting with my laptop, iPhone and iPad all surrounding me.  My life has officially gone virtual.  I now exist through these devices.  I think the singularity has happened.  I will now keep these machines within my robotic arm’s reach.  Merry Christmas to all avatars everywhere!

Listening To:  Ricky Gervais Podcasts with Stephen Merchant and Karl Pilkington

Just finished the annual Thanksgiving trip to Solvang to see my mother.  It went quickly, even the drive seemed quicker than usual.  When I checked in at the hotel, I saw her.  She looked sleepy.  She had mentioned on the phone she had been getting headaches as of late – really bad headaches.  Today was no different.  Dinner was scheduled for 4:30pm at Root 246 (owned by the Chumash Indians) and then we were to gamble at the casino (also owned by the Chumash Indians).  But the headache was complicating things.  I’m flexible – you have to be in my family – so I was up for whatever she was up for.  Somehow though, I knew  that the smoke-filled air and ring-a-ding-ding-ding of the casino would alleviate her headache.  Seriously.  She loves to play the slots.

I’m not much different in that I like to gamble as well.  Craps is my game, but they don’t allow dice games on reservations, so I’m content with Black Jack.  After eating a pile of food the size of my head (I can hear Richard Simmons’ voice, taunting me about my carb addiction) we went to the casino and I settled in at a Black Jack table.  I was up at first, then – as always – my pile of chips started to dwindle.  I decided to walk the casino and see what my mother was up to.  She was steadily losing her hundred dollars into a machine that quibbled odd sounds.  What that a gunshot?  Or a tiger roar?  Too bad Steve Jobs couldn’t have added some creative thinking to  slot machine software.  iSlot, anyone?   (Damn, if there isn’t an app for that)  As predicted, Mother’s headache was a mere twinkle in her hippocampus and she was raring to go.  ”LET’S PLAY POKER!” she exclaimed.

By poker, she meant real, card-holding Texas Hold’em.  I know how to play, but I tend not to enjoy it because only about one in 20 or so hands is a good one and I feel compelled to play the bad ones.  It takes a lot of discipline to fold those other 19 hands.  But hell, I have semi-good self restraint and I decided to try my luck.

I won a couple hands and felt encouraged by this.   But then I found myself in a unique, if not uncomfortable, position.  After losing quite a few chips to my MOTHER, I bought more but promptly lost those.  Some how, my mother was up.  Way up.  A man at the table looked at her and said, “She’s got the kill button?”  Yes, sir.  She in fact had the kill button.

This chip means you've won two in a row.

Another round and the only two players left in the game were Mother and me.  I was not discouraged, however.  I finally had a fairly good hand (two pairs) and – to stay in the game against the kill-button-queen, I had to go “all in”.  Shouldn’t be too much of a problem.  Then the river card arrived, at which my mother shouted, “I’ll raise ya!”  And threw down six chips.

I couldn’t help but bemoan a loud, “MOM!  I have no more chips!”  The entire table looked at us, making the connection.  I dropped my head into my hands.  That’s right, folks.  Despite me going all in, my mother raised me.  Which is a fantastic metaphor for how she “raised me” in life.   Then we flipped over our hands to reveal my two pairs and…her flush.  And that’s the last time I play poker against my mother.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Listening To:  Leave My Body by Florence and the Machine

So my cousin FringeBoy got married!  So darn happy for him.  His wife is lovely and fun and I’m thrilled they found each other.  The wedding was in Lexington, Kentucky.  Beside watching Justified on FX (which is mostly shot in the San Fernando Valley) and knowing it’s home to the Kentucky Derby, I knew very little about this great state.  So I was excited to visit for the first time.

The nuptial venue was the Keeneland Mansion.  Keeneland is known for thoroughbred horse racing and auctions.  It was a very large property and finding the “mansion” at night – despite it’s imposing name – took some detective work.  Not even the Keeneland grounds people knew where it was.  Was the mansion real or a myth?  Finally, we located it.

Built in 1825, I was thrilled to wander through the house, looking for any sign of 19th century life.  This.  Was. Bliss.  There were portraits of the former owners of the house, but each painting looked suspiciously like a paint by number.

Paint by number??? Gilbert Sullivan himself painted me!

(As a side note, one thing I noticed about Kentucky in general is that there are horse paintings, statues and well, horses, everywhere you go)

On a perpetual mission to interact with ghosts, I asked anyone I could find if the mansion was haunted.  One wedding guest, a sixth-grader, was eager to explore the cemetery behind the house.  And so was I.  NICE!

It was quite dark in the cemetery, so reading grave stones wasn’t an option.  But dark is good for ghosts, right?  I have an iPhone app called “Ghost Radar“.  It’s a radar screen that “detects” phantasmic orbs.

In addition to showing you the placement of the orbs, it voices words the ghosts are saying.  ”Dark.  Death.  Mother.”  You get the picture.  So as the group of us (we’d collected some other curious paranormal investigators along the way) headed toward the cemetery, my Ghost Radar said, “Africa.”  The sixth-grader seemed stunned and excited by this.  He pointed to a small building and said, “The old slave quarters are right there!”

With this one word (Africa), the kid was IN, hook, line and sinker.  He listened to the words and held my iPhone looking for floating orbs.  I was playing it real, like I believed it, too.  Pretend is always more fun.

In addition to the Ghost Radar, I also have an app called Ghost Capture.  This allows you to add ghostly images to your photos.  Take a look at some of the tag-along ghosts we found at the wedding:

FalloutGirl with BrideGirl and...spooky 19th century lady?

The 19th century woman off to the right could certainly be the lady of the house.

IndependenceGirl with FringeBoy and dark man lurking...

This one had IndependenceGirl going at first.  I almost got away with it until she saw the next one.

Okay, so a civil war soldier was pushing it too far.  But it sure was fun looking for  ghosts and “finding” them.

Oh yeah, the wedding was fun, too!

Listening To:  Another World by Chemical Brothers

I taught my Post Modern Mona Lisa class again today.  If you didn’t see the last time I posted about my class, it’s part of the Leonardo Da Vinci curriculum.  I show the kids other people’s interpretation of the Mona Lisa and have them create their own.  My students are in 3rd-5th grade.  Here’s some of the fantastic art from today:

I just love the use of color in this one.

Very post-apocolypitc, just my style. I love the arrow pointing to "some random person"

This is my personal favorite. Just beautiful.

I love the duality in this interpretation of Mona Lisa. Especially the use of the question marks.

Love the humor in this one! Uh, that is supposed to be funny, right?

Fabulous nose and dirigible! (It's not often I get to say dirigible)

This one is full of soul. Enigmatic as Mona's smile.

Also fascinating use of proportion and color.

Listening To:  When Saints Go Machine

So I’ve noticed a growing trend amongst middle school girls – they have collectively decided to attach “feathers” to their hair. It’s fun.  It’s rebellious.  I had to get one.

Okay, so I know it’s juvenile.  A minor step up from a glow in the dark Hello Kitty ring.  But these feathers now dominate the scalps of little girls all over Los Angeles and no one so much has squawked about it.  At least no one my age.

I was at Forever 21 on the Santa Monica Promenade when I saw two girls, approximately 13. I asked, “Excuse me, do you ladies know what those feathers are called that the girls are putting in their hair?”  They look at me like I’m a dolt. “Hair feathers.”  One girl says as she’s comparing shockingly cheap metal earrings most likely made by slave children in China.    ”And,” I continued, “where do you get these hair feathers?”  Without making eye contact, the other girl says, “The hair salon.  They’re semi-permenant.”  With that she took her friend’s hand and walked away.  The hair salon!  Hmmm…

When I was in Trader Joe’s getting that frozen Mandarin Orange Chicken for my dinner, I noticed a Fantastic Sam’s next door.  I wandered in.  The decidedly un-hip lady at the reception desk asks if she can help me.  Just as I ask if they have hair feathers, I see a hand-written sign on the wall that says, “We have hair feathers.”  Fantastic, Sam!

She pulls out a box of about 3 feathered-hair ornaments.  I’m not crazy about any of them.  She says they’ve been chemically treated so you can wash them, flat iron them – anything you normally do to your hair.  Okay, let’s pull the trigger.  Five minutes and $35 later (I know you can get them cheaper) FalloutGirl flew out of the salon with her very own hair feather.

I taught a science class on Thursday and all the little girls said, “nice feather!”  One skeptical girl asked if it was “real” or just a “clip on.”  Oh, it’s real I assured her!  ”Real” meaning it was “clamped” onto a piece of my hair.

Here you can see the tiny band and the crimping tool used to clamp it onto a tiny section of hair.

So how long will I keep it?  Maybe a week or two. I’m certain to get bored of it.  Unless it grows into an addiction and I start getting more and more feathers until I cluck like Thanksgiving turkey.

Like you could ever compete with these fab feathers, FalloutGirl!

Um, maybe not.  But I like my feather just the same.  However, I am suddenly craving sunflower seeds…

Listening To: We Are All Made of Stars by Moby                    

A lot is in the hopper. I’ve started writing my pilot.  I’ve decided to create a web show.  And I’m writing a book.  I guess it’s good to be inspired?

First, the TV pilot about clones.  No title yet. Just disparate characters coming together because the tie that binds them is the tie that may get them killed. Dystopic and violent, it’s about young people searching for their identity.   I’m confident that readers and (hopefully) viewers will relate to it.  But will they want to relate?  Personally, I feel that in order to find peace, humanity must embrace its own violent nature.  Sort of the way monks are encouraged to familiarize themselves with death and dead things to become comfortable with death.  Some Trappist monks spend their days building coffins.  Others make flutes out of human tibias.  Death is not denied, instead it is familiarized.  Easier said than done, of course and I am struggling with this as well as I search for my own identity.  Ultimately, identity is about how one lives.  Not your genes or your looks or your wealth/poverty.  We are defined by action.  We are made of stars.  This is going to be one fascinating journey!

The web show – this is going to be SO MUCH FUN!  Though currently untitled as well, each webisode will be me exploring the convergence of science and art to encourage young people (especially teen girls) to combine the two. Through interviews, experiments and visits to museums, science labs and artistic venues, I will constantly explore how science and art are connected and show how one inspires the other.  The first webisode is set to be shot at the spider pavilion at the Natural History museum.  Did I mention my arachnophobia?

Having second thoughts already...

The non-fiction book is going to be fun as well.  I don’t want to give the premise away quite yet but evolutionary development will be repackaged into something useful and exciting.

LOVE THIS!

So I guess I’d better get crackin’!

Listening To:  Night Call by Kavinsky feat. Lovefoxxx  

I’m starting a new class with the gifted kids – I’m teaching them how to research an historical figure then how to write and perform a monologue as that person. FALLOUT GIRL IS SUPER EXCITED!  Most of you know the biopic is my métier.  This is going to be sooooo fun!

To jumpstart the classes, I participated in the school’s “family night” where myself and a few other teachers addressed the synthesis of science and art.  (What’s more fun that that?)  We dressed up as people from history who were able to accomplish this – Leonardo da Vinci, Mary Shelly, Isaac Newton and M.C. Escher – and performed monologues.  Who did I play?  Not Mary Shelly.

I played Maurits Cornelis Escher.  Yes, a man.  My first time in drag and it was interesting.  Do you know Escher?  Many of you had his posters on your wall in college.  I remember looking at his artwork when I was younger and needing to stop due to the raging headache that ensued.  Can’t say I’m a fan, but it’s hard to hate on optical illusions.

The above drawing is called Relativity.  It has inspired many movie sets including Inception, Labyrinth and Tomb Raider.  Despite being a lousy student (I think Escher was dyslexic) and receiving no formal math training, Escher used mathematical principals in his drawings to create “impossible structures” that seemed to be going up and down at the same time.

Here’s Escher’s self-portrait:

Here’s my self-portrait of me as M.C. Esher:

Ladies, ladies, control yourself!  Yes, I know the threads and the beard really get you going, but please…

I watched a documentary on the artist and it said that Escher (who was Dutch) had a wife named Jetta, but she eventually left him because of his OCD focus on his work.  ”Always black and white,” she exclaimed.  ”I can’t take it any more!” Once I heard that, I knew my costume had to play with the black and white of his artwork.  The night before the “show” I was planning to construct an impossible staircase that appeared to go up and down at the same time out of my hat, but the teacher playing Mary Shelly called and asked if I could make her a period gown out of some curtains.  I abandoned the impossible hat and (barely) made an empire dress for Ms. Shelley while I listened to a podcast of her novelFrankenstein or the Modern Prometheus while I sewed.   If only Mary could have imagined this night!  Perhaps she did?

The family night was a success.  The kids had fun and seemed to be looking forward to my class next week.  I’m looking forward to it, too!*

* I will not be teaching the class in drag.