skylarwoodward

well, after over 10 years, my favorite band since college is going through it’s first major change to its core. members aaron tate and derek webb are heading off in their seperate ways as some of the newer members take a more prominent role along with cliff and danielle young.

truth be told, aaron has actually kinda been out of the loop for a while now and was actually kinda dissed on the last album as he wrote a bunch of songs for it, but the group went with some others new songwriters.

i’m psyched about derek’s entry into some solo work. one of his new songs, Wedding Dress is so transparent, honest, and real. it’s an aspect of the group or of derek that i’ve been missing on some of their more recent albums.

as i was exploring some of the changes going on in the Christian music scene i also noticed newcomer Stacie Orrico. she’s only sixteen, but has an amazing voice, a cool R&B/Hip-Hop grove, and she actually write or co-writes her own songs. her song Without Love was my first purchase from Apple’s new music service.

major props to my friend mary’s beau, Jody Gerut, who made his second major-league appearance yesterday. after a solid but quiet first day on the field, Jody racked in three hits, one RBI, two runs, and even made the defensive play-of-the-day with an catch at the center field wall to stop an early homer by the A’s.

this kid’s gonna be a star… and this… is SportsCenter.

this evening i was having dinner with an old friend and her husband… we talked for hours at home before, through, and after dinner, but I noticed afterwards that there is a certain point where conversation becomes effortless – and it’s wonderful. it’s as if that was the point to which dinner and small talk was working all along. you have your “hello”s, your “what did you do today?”s, the “how are things?”, and even the “so where do you think you’ll go next?” yet, all these are forced and deliberate questions that work to ease the awkwardnesses until you reach “cruise speak.”

i suppose many conversations never make it that far – and far fewer make it there without the assistance of wine. but when you do, it’s a wonderful thing. you can be assured you are not just talking to pass time, fill space or even to work through deep heartfelt issues, but because you are simply enjoying the company of those you are with. (mmmmm, feel the warm fuzzies…)

maybe because of spring, maybe because i’m tired of the orange, blue, and gray… i revamped the site with a green theme headlined by a picture i took in the Jardin Exotique in Monaco.

so i went over to Berkeley to see a film at the Pacific Film Archive this evening, but in the end had no idea that my car would come home partly disassembled.

what a bummer.

i was even thinking on the walk back to the car how i felt so at home on the Berkeley campus. not because of any cultural thing with which we usually associate the school, but just because of the feeling of the campus itself and it’s surroudings. it was like a cool combination of Penn and Duke with a little touch of Boston around the edges. it was interesting as I contrasted that to feeling to many numerous visits to Stanford’s campus where I’ve rarely felt at home. (maybe it is the pretentiousness of the surrounding area, Palo Alto.)

anyway, as I was completeing my cross of the Bay Bridge, I heard this strange noise coming from somwhere under the car. i pulled into the first gas station i saw and noticed the front under-body protector for my car was loosened and dragging on the grown. more inspection revealed it was clearly a deliberate work. so makes me wonder… did anyone rip off something from inside or under my car? you hear stories that Berkeley is notorious for crime – especially those involving automobiles.

kinda makes Berkeley not feel so much like home anymore…

well, originally i was going to write about the festival film i saw this evening, The Decay of Fiction – and i will, for a bit. i got there late, but it didn’t matter too much as this was one of those films that was more about visuals, mood, and art than about any particular story. if anything, it told the story of an old LA hotel which has been used for the filming of more than 1000 Hollywood films over the years, including one of my favorites, Laura.

as i was watching it, i tried to place among the other films i’ve seen over the past week and what really distinguished it was that it was true film art. you just watch the film and it is beautiful. the director speaks with the camera, not his characters and the framing, placement, angles… they are all fabulous, at least until you are distracted by the rapid “decay” of the narrative elements near the end. (but that’s part of the director’s goal during that part, i believe).

i also thought about how every movie i’ve seen thus far really reflects the director – at least in the cases where the directors have been available for comment; however, for Decay it is probably more true than for any other – and this is probably because Pat O’Niell (director) takes a more complete role (production, directing, editing) but also throws off (both deliberately and intuitively) the typical conventions of the film art medium in order to make it his own for expressing himself.

(i also just wanted to throw in that the presence the filmmakers at these screenings works so well to help us understand what they were trying to accomplish, and how they went about accomplishing it. it adds so much to the presentation that it kinda makes you wonder why you watched films any other way before. additionally, the film society runs every show so well, contributing so much value, you’ll wonder why any other time of the year you shell out the same amount for presentations by the ragtag Century and AMC folks.)

so enough about all that. i could say more, but i won’t. go see Decay of Fiction if you enjoy watching film as art and don’t mind the non-linear aspects. go see the film i saw last night, The Legend of Suriyothai if you are dying to peer into the dramas of dynastic royal Thai life or will watch any movie that Coppola puts his name behind.

Whale Rider is definately the best of fest so far. perhaps some of that has to do with the fact that it is an english-language film and some of the new zealand culture is easier for me to relate to, or that the girl playing the lead character is absolutely adorable and presents a captivating performace. but really i found the film to be quite remarkable – i might even place it my top 20 all-time after i’ve had more time to process it. if you can’t see now it at the SF film festival, see it when it comes this summer to a theater near you.

also, i’ve updated the list of films i will see at this year’s festival. 4 down – five, maybe more to go.

for those of you who wanna know, here are the shows i got tickets for for this year’s international film festival:

1) So Close – April 18 – 11:59pm
2) Man On The Train – April 19 – 1:15pm
3) Angela – April 19 – 6:30pm
4) Whale Rider – April 19 – 9pm
5) The Legend of Suriyothai – April 21 – 6pm
6) The Decay of Fiction – April 22 – 7pm
7) Extrano – April 30 – 7:15pm Owning Mahowny – May 1 – 5pm
9) Dopamine – May 1 – 7pm

this is the updated and definitive list. but i still may see others got suggestions? going to one of those above? leave a comment or let me know otherwise…

i managed to collect five easter eggs in the company free for all — no major prizes though, only candy: 6 strawberry Frootzies, 2 Tootsie rolls, and one package of Sweetarts.

as a bonus, the sun burst out just in time for the hunt. the band at lunch was not so bonus… ack!

today is Yahoo!’s annual Easter Eggstravaganza – actually i think this only the second annual such event, but nevertheless, my second Easter at Y!.

the fitness staff is hiding eggs all over campus – spreading pastel merriment despite what is a fairly heavy rain for Sunnyvale. i didn’t bring good hunt-for-eggs-in-the-rain shoes, but i still hope to catch a few chocolate or electronic surprises with some solid egg finds.

Yahooligans are everywhere painting eggs and engaging in “hippity-hop” races while their parents toil away at making the Internet more fun and safe for the online world. we’ve even got a band lined up for lunchtime entertainment… i wonder if the Easter bunny plans to make an appearance?

the “big kids” hunt starts in 20 minutes…