eateggs

(The following is completely inappropriate and out of decorum. Please do not read it.)

we’re getting SCREWED on the SUB (our Student Union Building). Admittedly, the University is paying 9m of the 27m renovation costs, but even that number doesn’t seem fair, in terms of what the students are paying and what they get in return. If the students didn’t pay to renovate the SUB, sooner or later the University would have no choice other than to pay for renovation itself.

In a broad sense, the University gains as much from all of the renovation improvements as the students. Though it’s the students who will get to enjoy the much of the “improved” facilities, the university needs these improvements more than we do, in terms of recruitment. Having a beautiful, up-to-date H&PE center or a good looking Student Union Building is essential for recruitment. Every improvement to a student facility makes MSU a more attractive university for perspective students. It’s difficult to quantify– but if our SUB was an outdated dump, enrollment would drop. The ability of the President’s Office to get alumni support and millions of dollars of private donations is greatly enhanced by having good looking facilities available for the courting of donors. Gamble’s goal to collect $100m in private funding for MSU over the next five years is laudable–and certainly aided by the improvements that the students are funding.

But here’s where the students are getting screwed:
The H&PE complex is big, looks nice on the outside, but it going to feel awful empty for a few years until its filled with equipment to use. And, a big lobby with a fireplace? I’m sure it’ll look nice, but really– when was the last time you wanted to sit down by a fireplace after a hard work out? How many more students would have rather had a real climbing wall, instead?

And our Black Box Theatre? Folding chairs?

But it’s the SUB that really put me on this train of thought. I know that a lot of money dog-eared for the SUB was used to help complete the H&PE and Black Box on time– but the resulting cuts from the SUB were almost all STUDENT areas. The update to the Union Market is nice– but Auxilary Services controls most of that area. A few years ago UWyo significantly updated their student union building. They contracted their food vending out to private business which means 1) significant revenue generation in the form of rent 2) better (not to say healthier) food. Does anyone really LIKE the Union Market? It’s all mediocre food. We eat it because we’re student, we’re on campus all day, and we’re hungry.

But then glance at the blueprints and see how much expansion there is in kitchen space! It’s huge! Food service, again, wins big from this “renovation.” Students don’t benefit at all, really, from an additional 10,000 feet of kitchen space. But we’re helping pay for it. How much of the KITCHEN was truncated to help offset increasing construction costs?

And then … there’s The Procrastinator. First, they tried to cut the theater. And then, in a grand show of listening to student outcry, they relented. But, it wasn’t quite the same, way it? No, they removed the concessions stand–just placing wall where, previously, there had been counter space. When I talked to Tom, he indicated that the concessions stand was cut because the Films Chair didn’t want to deal with concessions. PI remembers it differently: the Films Chair didn’t really participate in that decision. It was Food Service that proposed eliminating the concessions stand. Talking to Tom, he said that he hoped traffic to the Procrastinator would help keep Avogadro’s open later. Yeah, it makes sense.

And there was something else missing, too, wasn’t there? Yeah– the projection booth had been removed to squeeze a few more seats in to the “theatre”. Patty tells me that the discussion of switching to digital lasted about 10 minutes during a three hour meeting. Someone suggested that the theatre could use digital projection–based on a standard that didn’t exist–and that was it. More seats!

Wait? Can that be right? Did they really remove the concessions stand and the PROJECTION BOOTH from what was once upon going to be a MOVIE THEATER?

What kind of MOVIE THEATER doesn’t have a concessions stand or projection booth? The kind that looks suspiciously-a-whole-lot-like a PRESENTATION ROOM? Oh, they were so magnanimous is listening to the student outcry to have the Procrastinator back.

But to hear Tom talk about the potential for other uses for the Procrastinator … a great venue of Gamble’s yearly address, a huge source of revenue in the summer for conferences that need a lecture auditorium? I recall that part of the conversation with Tom well. All these different groups want to use MSU’s facilities, but there’s no place with tiered seating , a good sound system, and a big projector. Frankly, I’m half surprised that they didn’t try to pull the screen, too– except for the fact that, inevitably, presenters would want to give power-point presentations on a beautiful 47′ screen.

Each of us is paying a LOT of money to fund this renovation. Students graduating this spring will have paid eight semesters worth of fees for the renovation, without getting to enjoy ANY of the benefits– aside from the nice looking wooden chairs in the Union Market.

It ALL smacks of LIES and perfidy!

Headed home for Thanksgiving … and a great cause for thanks-giving that is!

I’m looking forward to seeing family and friends. And … looking forward to getting away from MSU and Bozeman for a few days. And … strangely, looking forward to the LONG, snowy drive from here to there, and back again. It seems like a long time since I’ve been home…

Really, I nhts … get back ay. Some time to collect my thoughts … get back on the horse again, so to speak. I’ve rather been off it, these last few weeks. Yeah. Really off it.

And … I’m looking forward to a long and beautiful nap … with respect to the fact that it’s 5:19 am and we’re supposed to leave at 9:00 am. It’s ok– I’m doing important stuff. (See: burning CDs to update the music library in my car … what could be more important? Packing? psh … I’ll get to that soon enough.)

Wish me safe travels!

Paris, Je T’aime: Small Neighborhood Romances

(**** / *****)

Paris, Je T’aime is an experiment: a compilation of short films, each written and directed by a different director, with a common theme: Paris.

It’s rare for a film to maintain well crafted, consistent quality from opening shot to closing credits. For that film to be a collaboration of eighteen wildly varied directors–is at once mind-boggling and deeply impressive. Or, perhaps it’s not–given the experience and renown that each director brings to her or his respective short.

Montmarte. Relieved to find a parking spot, a man sits in his car and reflects, wistfully, “No one is single. Not one.” He watches. A laughing couple approaches and, in the mirror, walks away. A woman, visibly pregnant (and proud) walks towards us, then down the street, in the mirror.

Another woman walks toward us. Our gaze returns to the mirror and waits … She doesn’t appear. Out of the car, he finds her on the sidewalk, collapsed. A crowd gathers, offers prosaic advice, helps move her into the rear seat of his car.

He closes the door and sits in the passenger seat. She wakes, says “thank you.” She takes his hand, and they talk. They talk … nonsense, really. About the EMT course he took, or–her shoes–she’s had them since she was fourteen. He offers to drive her to her appointment. She protests, then accepts. The scene cuts to an idyllic street corner, as his car drives by.

Cut. The screen bursts–overflowing with a stunning panorama of Paris, dwarfed by the Sacre Coeur Basilica. We see a small title–“Quais de Seine. Gurider Chadra”–and the music changes. Three students sit on the riverfront. The Seine sparkles–a vibrant Hitchcock-esque rearscreen. They laugh, making light-hearted catcalls at the women who pass. One stops, sneers, flies them the birdie.

A young Muslim woman walks past, trips and falls. Leaving his friends, one rushes up to help her. He awkwardly tries to help her replace her hajib (head scarf), and they share a moment to themselves–and a bit of unexpected connection. Shot in intimate close-ups, her delicate features of her face fill the frame. Then, she continues on her way.

The scene changes. Another title appears. The story isn’t closed–there’s nothing fulfilled, consummated. But, as viewers, we feel we’ve been a part of something.

Paris is in a vein similar to that of the great transnational collaborations of the late 1960’s and early 70’s (vis., The Passenger, Blow-Up, James Bond). Too often, star-heavy movies flop under their own weight (viz., All The King’s Men, Red Dragon, The Good Shepherd). Paris has more than a dozen Academy Award nominees, but nevertheless holds its weight admirably.

Multi-lingual and panethnic, Paris soars on its diverse cast–a triumphant collaboration of international talent. Its directors come from four continents and twice again as many cultural traditions. Each director’s style is distinct–identifiable–yet consistent and flowing into Parisian mosaic, painted in broad strokes.

A brief sketch of the film’s contributing writer-directors is eye-popping: Tom Tykwer (Run Lola Run); Christopher Doyle (cinematographer for Hero, The Quiet American); Vincenzo Natali (Cube). Gus Van Saint (Good Will Hunting); Joel and Ethan Coen, Alfanso Cuaron (Y To Mama Tambien, Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban); Alexander Payne (About Schmidt, Sideways), as is its list of acting talent: Gerard Depardieu, Steve Buscemi, Emily Mortimer, Elijah Wood, and Maggie Gyllanhall, to name a few.

Amid so much critically acclaimed contributors, it might be easy to loose track of the film’s more obscure gems, like Isabel Coixet and Nobuhiro Suwa. But not so–each director’s contribution is integral to the flow and composition of Paris, lending it variety and levity.

Full of surprises and bursting with color, the film evokes a dramatically dreamlike quality–reminiscent of Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams.

And perhaps it’s that dream-like quality that allows the film to speak to us directly, leaving us with a feeling, rather than a verdict or reaction. Or, perhaps it’s the film’s exceptional humanity: its scenes and scenarios that, 4,900 miles physically displaced, we readily relate to.

More than the sum of its parts, Paris succeeds in conjuring Paris: beautiful, pastoral, foreign, familiar, haunting, meditative. Unpretentious, alternatively baffling and poignant, Paris is a joy to watch and leaves you hungry for more.

A PDF copy of this review is available at:
http://www.eateggs.com/files/parisjetaime_review.pdf

SNOWING!!! About FREAKING time. It’s only the 11th of November– and we’re already getting our second snow. And by “it’s only”, I mean we should have been buried waist-deep in snow for weeks already. But oh– it’s snowing. No– better! It’s BLIZZARDING! The storm arrived quite suddenly–beautiful day, sunshine, etc–and then CLOUDS and WIND and blowing leaves… and then SNOW FLAKES and wind and more snow flakes … mmm. Coming down in thick torrents. Thick, swirling, angry torrents of piling snow.

(Outside. A few minutes ago.)
Laugh with me: Bovard’s playing the piano … wearing just his towel. In fact, he’s been playing the piano, in just his towel, for about 45 minutes now. He woke up, as I take it, around, 3:00 pm and came upstairs, in his towel, to take a shower. Unfortunately, Ben was already in the bathroom– taking a shower. Then, just as Ben was getting out, Andrew comes home and decides that its time to clean the bathroom (hurray!). Bovard protested:

Andrew: “Ooh! I’m going to clean the bathroom now.”
Bovard: “No. Wait. Let me take a shower first. I’ve been waiting.”
Andrew: “Nope! I’m going to clean it now. If you want the bathroom clean, you’re going to have to wait.”
Bovard: “No! This is ridiculous. I’m wearing a towel. It’ll take me 5 minutes to shower.”
…
And then Andrew went into the bathroom and poured Comet all over everything.

Now, 45 minutes later, Bovard is still sitting at the piano, in his towel. Meanwhile, Andrew is in the bathroom, scrubbing off Comet, talking jovially to himself.

Ben: “Bovard, why are you sitting out here, wearing only a towel?”
Bovard: “Well, I was going to take a shower, but then Andrew decided to clean the bathroom.”

And it’s SNOWING! Goodbye, green lawn (so recently robbed of your leafy carpeting). Hello, white lawn. Goodbye blue Jeep. Hello, white mound of snow in a Jeep-like shape. Goodbye, last lingering leaves on the trees. The snow will pull you down. It will OWN you. And it will be GLORIOUS.

—

4:31 pm – Edit:
[Bovard gets up and leaves the room … after finishing ALL of the new, interesting videos on YouTube.]
Ben: “So are you going to give up, finally?”
Bovard: “NO! I’m not giving up. I’m going to take a shower!”
Andrew: “What?!”
Ben: “Oh, I just asked Bovard if he was going to go put some pants on.”
[Bovard makes a sandwich, in the kitchen, in his towel.]

4:35 pm
Ben: “So you’re finally done?”
Andrew: “Yeah. It’s so clean! It’s sparkling! No one use the bathroom!”
Ben: “Sweet. I need to take a crap.”
Bovard: “No!! What the HELL?!”
[Ben proceeds to take over the bathroom.]

Strangely, this afternoon I’ve felt rather … drunk? Sleep deprived? I can’t quite put my finger on it. Probably, I just need some food. I don’t usually skip meals but when I woke up this morning at 11:05 a.m. for my 11:00 a.m. class, there wasn’t much time for breakfast. And lunchtime … was spent in a flurry of propaganda activity (namely… printing and posting LIME GREEN (and other vibrant fluorescent colored) posters for Sunshine (in attention-grabbing grids of four. BAM! COLORS! Sans-Serif fonts! Bold statements! BOO-YA!). So I haven’t eaten anything today. Maybe it’s related.

Actually, Sunshine is a bit of an experiment– it’s a solid film, but didn’t receive much (if any) of a promotional campaign from Fox Searchlight Pictures. But I’m convinced that it’s a film that a lot of students at MSU would really enjoy. So the experiment is: can I promote the hell out of a film that no-one has heard of, and get a good turn-out at the Procrastinator? Only this weekend will tell…

This sunset tonight was mind blowing. I’ve seen skies equally filled with brilliant oranges and reds … but never a sky with so much texture in the clouds. It was radiant. Absolutely spectacular.

This evening brought another of life’s firsts: raking leaves off my lawn. Heck, it’s a first to HAVE leaves in the yard– growing up in the rural area surrounding Cheyenne didn’t privilege me to mounds and piles of leaves… wonderful, crunchy, colorful leaves. Piles of leaves that you can dive in to– without fear of hurting yourself. Unless you count the piles of tumble-weeds that would collect on the corral fence, that is…

So yeah. Seeing that the neighbor had left his leaf-rake out, I grabbed it and proceeded to pull back the brown-ing carpet of leaves to reveal a surprisingly still-green lawn.

And somehow, just that action of raking leaves … felt wonderfully wholesome. I can’t describe it. But tonight, I have another new definition of happiness: raking leaves off my lawn in the darkening light of a crisp November evening.