While on the set of Red Harvest, I learned of a Hell House. Also commonly known as a judgment house or Doom House, it's a haunted house-style attraction typically run by fundamentalist Christian churches. These attractions are meant to depict the divine judgments that await unrepentant sinners and the torments of the damned in Hell.
Similarly disturbing was a film I saw at the cinema last week. Jesus Camp is a documentary about one faction of the evangelical Christian community who hold summer camps where children are trained to "take back America for Christ". With about one third of all Americans identifying themselves as evangelical, they make for a large voting block.
I went to a Pacers game the other night for class where we spent a quarter in the control room. While sitting there, a momentary lapse in my usual preoccupations had me thinking, man if I was here doing this when I was 14 years old I would be absoloutley besotted with happiness! Don't get me wrong, watching a live NBA game is fantastic. But unfortunately, the days of Magic (and Jordan) are over. And the NBA knows it and they are hurting.
My favourite class at Butler is directing the news. We produce a 30 minute newscast on Tuesdays and Thursdays which follows the same format as those on tv. We have some pretty good resources and we try to keep mistakes to a minimum. I made a video which you can watch below. I have edited the 30 minute program down to 8 minutes but even with that youprobably wont fnd it too exhiliraing. Anyways, you will see us in the control room with bits and pieces of the on air footage.
It's always good to learn of students who go on to big things after graduating. With Butler's 150 year history, I was sure to find such. And from research, I learned that James Warren "Jim" Jones is an alumnus - you know the founder of the People's Temple who led his disciples as they drank the cyanide-laced Cool Aid down in Jonestown, Guyana, resulting in history's largest mass murder/suicide with 914 corpses. Yes, it's quite a precedent.
I stood holding a hydrargyrum medium-arc iodide light at 11.30pm on the night of my birthday. Affected by delirium and a sensation of coldness, I laughed to myself - its funny where life takes you. And then I peered up at the light's beam and noted snowflakes falling. Short of the story is the shoot has wrapped and I will have my name credited in what I think will be a good little movie. Although I wont know till early next year when the editing process is complete.
The Bulldogs won their homecoming game. 3 wins for the season thus far which is more than they have won in the last 3 years combined. I voted for Poojan to be Homecoming King as it would have been a kick to see the crowning of a teetotalling Muslim from Kenya. Unfortunately, the honour went to a frat member. Here are some pics I snapped with a friends's long lens.
I was going for that "A Day in the Life of America" type shot. This kid lives with his parents and brothers at their farm which has a great number of animals and.... a corn maze. Yes, its a maze cut into corn fields. We were there shooting for Red Harvest.
Upon returning from West Virginia, I spent Friday to Sunday on the set of a friends movie. The production will be shot over six days and will culminate in a 15 minute horror flick entitled Red Harvest. Once completed it will be sent out to film festivals around the world and may even make its way to Sundance. It will be great to have my name credited in such a project. One of our locations was a farm as before I was compelled to take some photos of the landscape!
I was a bit concerned taking the bus ride into the mountains of West Virginia for a day of rafting in New River Gorge. Yet, while many speak in jest of "The Mountain State", leaving the plains of Indiana for more cragged terrain was a welcome change.
I had always wanted to do some white water rafting and the experience didn't dissapoint. The good thing about attending a private university is that they tend to subsidize student events such as this. And I must say that the times I have travelled with Butler students, I have found them to be great company. They're always full of joy and energy.
Here is a photo of a few of us. We are about to take a ride with the crazy bus driver into the gorge which was probably the most disconcerting element of the trip!
And here I am being an idiot doing my Nike-poster shot.
Indiana Pacers management has gone into damage control today as they hit national headlines with 4 of the team's players involved in your typical NBA-scallywag behaviour. The incident occurred early this morning out the front of a seedy strip club on the even-seedier eastside. 3 of the 4 players were found with handguns while one was hit by an "automobile with large rims" (suprise, suprise).
Coincidently, one of the girls at my work experience place spent a day with Stephen Jackson (one of the players involved) last week. We were editing the video today and there was a clip of Jackson saying "Ive been an angel off-court and it's going to stay that way". I think I heard that the company was in talks with ESPN to sell the clip. The only problem is, Emmis wants to keep their relationship with the Pacers.
It seems the ball club can not get over their dirty repuation. They did trade some of their cancer but it seems they didn't get it all. Last season they were involved in the nastiest of on-court (and in the stands) brawls in Detroit, in which Jackson played a big part. It was so bad they cancelled the game. For those of you who are interested I found the video of that fight and you can watch it below - you have to stick with it because it stops and starts but is definetely worth the watch. Unbelievabe!
I too am in damage control after getting a haircut today. I had held off the inevitable for quite sometime but it needed to be done. Actually, its not too bad. Certainly was a scary experience.
I am quite interested in Sororities - those female social, academic and philanthropic organisations found on many US campuses. Butler has nine houses with a variation of weird names ranging from The Almighty Aplha Chapter of Sigma Gamma Rho to The Gamma Chapter of Kappa Alpha Theta. From time to time I learn a little more about these places and feel that is only fair that I share the information with you. As I wrote in one of my very first blog entries, these stately-looking houses that align the main drag of campus (Hampton Drive) have long and honoured traditions. Infact, these traditions are considered so important that prospective members have to undertake a semester of studies about their chosen sorority and pass a test before being accepted as a sister.
There are a couple of things about sororities that interest me the most. While their male counterparts have wild parties in their fraternity houses, soriorities have 'no drinking' and 'no partying' rules, which has prompted me to nickname them sobrieties (yes, I know what you are thinking; how clever and witty of me). Now, while I generally object to the prohibition of alcohol, I think in this case it works well for the young lasses becasue it keeps their places looking really nice (as oppossed to the fraternities which often smell and look like the keg basement of a pub).
But what I learned the other day was of the sleeping arrangements at many of the campus' sororities. While fraternities gernerally have 2 or 3 guys crammed into a bedroom, the girls have only three bedrooms in total. These bedrooms are referred to as cold, neutral or hot, which describes the girls who sleep in them. Haha! No, just joking - the names refer to the rooms' temperature setting. Cold is exactly that, with windows kept open at all hours (or closed in the summer - but with the air-conditioning up). Hot is kept like a furnace and Neutral is, well, nuetral. So when you move in to the house, you have to declare what room you would like to reside in.
What's also cool about these bedrooms is that noise levels are kept under as tight control as their temperature. Girls are not permitted to bring anything into the room - not a clock, not a drink, not a towel - just themselves. One might ask how they wake up without a clock. Well let me tell you! There is a roster for each sister to take it in turns to be the person who gets up before everybody else in the morning and sit there with a list which details the time each girl would like to be awoken.
These bedroom rules are strictly enforced 24/7 which means that one can take a peaceful sleep in a darkened room, at a temperature of their choosing, anytime of the day. However, I think the watchman only does morning hours.
These large bedrooms are on the third floor. On the second floor are office-cum-dressing rooms which the girls share between 2 or 3. Second and third floors are off limits to males.
"Hey, isn't that your friend dancing up onstage with Franti?"
While on the set of Red Harvest, I learned of a Hell House. Also commonly known as a judgment house or Doom House, it's a haunted house-style attraction typically run by fundamentalist Christian churches. These attractions are meant to depict the divine judgments that await unrepentant sinners and the torments of the damned in Hell. 
I went to a Pacers game the other night for class where we spent a quarter in the control room. While sitting there, a momentary lapse in my usual preoccupations had me thinking, man if I was here doing this when I was 14 years old I would be absoloutley besotted with happiness! Don't get me wrong, watching a live NBA game is fantastic. But unfortunately, the days of Magic (and Jordan) are over. And the NBA knows it and they are hurting.
It's always good to learn of students who go on to big things after graduating. With Butler's 150 year history, I was sure to find such. And from research, I learned that James Warren "Jim" Jones is an alumnus - you know the founder of the People's Temple who led his disciples as they drank the cyanide-laced Cool Aid down in Jonestown, Guyana, resulting in history's largest mass murder/suicide with 914 corpses. Yes, it's quite a precedent.
I stood holding a hydrargyrum medium-arc iodide light at 11.30pm on the night of my birthday. Affected by delirium and a sensation of coldness, I laughed to myself - its funny where life takes you. And then I peered up at the light's beam and noted snowflakes falling. Short of the story is the shoot has wrapped and I will have my name credited in what I think will be a good little movie. Although I wont know till early next year when the editing process is complete.
Connersville, Indiana, USA
I was a bit concerned taking the bus ride into the mountains of West Virginia for a day of rafting in New River Gorge. Yet, while many speak in jest of "The Mountain State", leaving the plains of Indiana for more cragged terrain was a welcome change.
And here I am being an idiot doing my Nike-poster shot.
Indiana Pacers management has gone into damage control today as they hit national headlines with 4 of the team's players involved in your typical NBA-scallywag behaviour. The incident occurred early this morning out the front of a seedy strip club on the even-seedier eastside. 3 of the 4 players were found with handguns while one was hit by an "automobile with large rims" (suprise, suprise).
I am quite interested in Sororities - those female social, academic and philanthropic organisations found on many US campuses. Butler has nine houses with a variation of weird names ranging from The Almighty Aplha Chapter of Sigma Gamma Rho to The Gamma Chapter of Kappa Alpha Theta. From time to time I learn a little more about these places and feel that is only fair that I share the information with you. As I wrote in one of my very first blog entries, these stately-looking houses that align the main drag of campus (Hampton Drive) have long and honoured traditions. Infact, these traditions are considered so important that prospective members have to undertake a semester of studies about their chosen sorority and pass a test before being accepted as a sister.
