You're on my bad list today, Wendy Mortimer.

So I had a really bad day the other day. It was a busy weekend, straight through. I had my show twice, and all of the time that I wasn't in the show, I was either working on homework or filming for this T-Com student who's film I'm in. Saturday I had to show up at 5:45 for the play, (for fight call - there's a lot of combat in the play, so fight call is kind of early) and I didn't get out until 11 because a guy came to judicate the play. Once I got out, I was at Pita Pit from 12 midnight until 6:30 am. trying to film scenes for this T-Com student's project (we were only supposed to film from 1am to 2 or 3am. All this said, I had absolutely no time to put any work or research into my scene for Acting 3. So I came into class on Monday, tired as a dog and without much preparation other than having read the play and thought about the character a little bit. And my acting teacher, Wendy, pretty much ripped me a new one. She told me that if I came into a professional rehearsal like that, I'd be fired. She asked me, "you're never going to bring this kind of work again, are you?" "No ma'am," I replied. She pretty much stopped giving me notes and was only working with my partner. And the worst part was, I was making choices about the character, and she was confusing my acting choices as lethargy. It was just a bad, bad day. But fuck Wendy Mortimer, in the last scenes we did, my partner was having a bad day, so she just left the class, and Wendy sympathized with her. She let us go Friday instead of Wednesday that week. But here, I got completely reamed out. What if I had just left the class 'cause I wasn't feeling well? What, should I have just asked to go on Friday instead? WHAT THE FUCK WENDY, COME ON!!!!!

Topdog, Underdog

So, Jet Li vs. Jackie Chan. I am writing about this topic because I have been a Jet Li fan for a long time and so many people say that Jackie Chan is better. It irritates me every time (especially when they argue with me), so I am going to get to the bottom of this vicious falsehood. People seem to like Jackie Chan for two reasons: He is funny and he does clever stunts (and all of his own stunts.) Jet Li is not funny (in his movies) and he does not do as many clever stunts (or all of his own stunts.) So, let's establish that Jet Li and Jackie Chan have two different styles. But what are they? What category are the two of them compared in, in which we can determine who is better? Jet Li and Jackie Chan are both martial art superstars. What does it mean to be a martial art superstar? Let's take the first half of the title. Martial art. It would seem to me that to be a martial art superstar, you must be excellent at and have a masterful understanding of martial arts. Let's look first at Jet Li. He was the national wushu champion in China for several years. He trained in many actual forms of Chinese wushu from the age of 8 and on. Since he was named the champion in China, I think we can give him the title of master. How about Jackie Chan? Jackie Chan trained in the Peking Opera School... Opera?! What does that have to do with martial arts? Basically, Jackie Chan learned how to jump around and do alot of acrobatic stuff associated with performance. He learned how to look like he was fighting. And this is very apparent in his movies to anyone with a knowledge of martial arts. The things he does are flat-out fake. The only thing that people find interesting about his fighting is all the stunts. Maybe part of the problem is that no one knows anything about martial arts, so when they watch him fight, they are willing to accept what he puts out. Jet Li, on the other hand, is a beautiful martial artist. Every movie he is in, he carefully thinks about and chooses what fighting styles (both externally and internally) best represent his character. His fights are a beauty to watch because he doesn't have to lean on a lot of stunts. He is also not funny. Let's face it - neither Jet Li nor Jackie Chan are very good actors. But Jackie Chan plays the same goofy character in every movie - and that is Jackie Chan. Jet Li plays a serious guy in alot of his films, but especially lately he's started to put more acting into his work. All in all, if you want to see a guy jumping off walls and through car windows, why don't you go rent a Tony Jaa film? He does all of that (I might add even better than Jackie Chan) but with some brutal martial arts as well. But if you want to see a true master of the art of combat work and create art, go watch some Jet Li. It'll do your soul good.

Yummus

I had some pretzel chips and hummus from Noyer last night. I had never tried hummus until this summer - it just sounded like one of those things that I couldn't possibly like. But this summer, a couple of my friends got me out to a hookah bar and I tried some. This was top-of-the-line Mediterranean hummus, with warm pita tortilla-like stuff, and it was so good - I couldn't get enough. I hadn't had any since then, and I saw it in Noyer last night and had to have some. I'd been avoiding getting it because we have a friend that talks about hummus aaaaaall the time, and now we just call him hummus. I knew if I got anymore that I'd have to admit that I actually like hummus. But who has to know? Please, don't tell them. I've also never smoked before, until that hookah. I guess it's still not exactly smoking, but it's the closest I've been. At first it was kind of fun, but when my head started spinning, I was kind of weirded out. And after a while, my throat started to get sore and I had to stop. I also had some coffee, but I'm as much of a wimp when it comes to coffee as I am with smoking. I had to pour like 6 packets of sweetener and some cream in there, and it was a pretty small mug. All in all, I'd like to go to a hookah bar again, so I can experience some things (like smoking and coffee) to a tamer degree - except for the hummus.... That, I will experience in full.