Once A Ram

Two Concerts, Two Weekends

I have two pretty enjoyable weekends on the horizon. After about a month of staying local, I am heading back to NY this weekend. Saturday is the homecoming event day at Fordham and I am seeing Titus Andronicus that night.

The following weekend, Mike is coming here and after helping in the Autism Speaks walk we are going to see The Tallest Man On Earth (musician, not some weird side show act at the local carnival) play in Philly.

As for this weekend? Well I saw Penrose play at the docks today, got to play some video games, bought a new shirt and am hoping to tryout my dual screen setup for the games tomorrow. Not bad.

May 22nd, 2010

I remember when today seemed like the most distant point that existed in the future. But like anything, you are left sitting here, the date being at hand or over, reflecting on all the times you imagined it so long ago.

I'm doing my best to hold it together. I'd love nothing more than to just spend time with the people that matter and have made my college experience, but that is not a choice I get to make - for better or worse.

College. Well, that went by fast. And in that fashion, the next stage of my life begins immediately. No time to dwell, no time to reflect. Chop, chop - you're in the real world now.

Oh, god.

My, how far we have traveled.

In about 12 hours my name will be getting called. I will be trying to balance my internal social anxiety of being announced like that, being in front of that many people, remember which hand to grab with and which hand to shake with, and most importantly - trying not to fall.

It is a little disorganized, this graduation. Not the ceremony, or the preparations. The informing. All we know is the general area to be at and that we should be there by 9:30. We know almost nothing else about processing, if there is a way to submit a phonetic spelling of our names, how long it is going to take, etc. I think Fordham has this down to a science, but for the students (who hopefully never do this enough to get used to the process) it is a bit strange.

There is a lot I have been thinking about, been saying, been looking back on. The fact of the matter is - I am tired, tomorrow will be one of the more emotionally draining days I will/have gone through - the roller coaster of excitement, anxiety, embarrassment, fear, joy, celebration, sadness, and love I will run through in the next 24 hours will be enough to require a full week of emotional recovery. Unfortunately (buy fortunately) I start working at 9 am, Monday.

Without further adieu, I present to you - the class of 2010!

Prep Work

Today's picture is the physical representation of the prep work for my last major assignment as an undergrad. After a series of email back and forth with a classmate and several our searching through Ebscohost, I finally found my topic. Several hours later, I have my sources read, highlighted, and outlined.

Now, it is time for bed. Alarm is set for 9 am to transform this outline into a presentation. Later this week, that presentation will be transformed into essay form, making up my final paper for the course and for my college career.

I wonder if it is ever apparent to the teacher or students in the class that the assignment they're hearing about, the topic I am presenting on, was only decided upon less than a day ago, and that a decent percentage of the work was done that morning? I hope not. I believe I do my best work in these crisis situations and that when all is said and done, the final product comes across as if it had been done over time and well in advance.

Last assignments

There is a lot of bittersweet happening. I always imagined what it would be like to not be in school anymore - to not have anymore homework, tests, assignments, papers, etc. In all of those daydreams I never contemplated the other half of that. This other half is the being in the working world, being grown up, and such. So with this week comes much bittersweet endings. Currently I am in the middle of my last paper as a college undergrad. This is the last paper I will ever do here at Fordham. I never minded papers, but with the weather, and the wear of the semester hitting hard, I am ready to be done. At the same time, handing this assignment in marks the last assignment I will hand in here, leaving only two finals between me and graduation.

Jeez, Ferris, I get it.

I Love Spring Weekend

The spring week shirts boasting that logo are everywhere right now. Every spring weekend they print a few thousand of these shirts and toss them out at various Spring Weekend-related events. This was the first Spring Weekend where I got a shirt and it's a good one to get. I just happened to catch, of all of the ones they threw out, the color and size that I wanted. Excellent.

This was a great spring weekend. Last year, with TPBA, I had an incredible time. We played to the bigges crowd we ever had and will play for. It was incredible intense to perform in front of that many people, to be a memory of that Spring Weekend to so many, so sing for and sing with so many.

This year, after a year without a show, we out of the blue were offered a spring weekend show. Maybe it was the time off, maybe it was the new line-up, I'm not sure. Maybe it's just that it is hard to recall feelings to the degree they existed in their unique moment, but right now I would say I had more fun and felt more 'right' this past weekend than last year. Our set was followed by an incredible set by Penrose, who played again the next day. I recently was told that they estimated 3,500 people were in attendance for their set on Saturday. I can't even conceive what it must have looked like and felt like for them. And they deserve it.

That was the first spring weekend show I truly enjoyed (no thanks to MGMT), having followed and exhausting but amazing night. Sunday was pretty low key, but it was so, in a good way.

And now, with only days, or hours, left to give to this school I look at my Spring Weekend shirt, my only souvenir from my 4 years here, and have say once again, despite the bitching I might have about Fordham as a school, it has been and continues to be a place of incredible memories.

There are only 18 days until we graduate. That's 18 more chances to have an incredible day here. I hope to capitalize on every one.

Planning is hard!

I don't know if the people who work out the details of the Spring Weekend shows have to deal with this, but planning a concert event has been a real strain. Before I got the event approved by the school I had 5-7 bands interested in playing. 4 Days before the event, now, and I can't seem to lock down more than 3. I have messaged more people and gotten more no's than I ever thought I would.

This past Thursday we received a request to play at a bar 24 hours later. We said yes, we had no prep time, and we managed to play an 11 song set without any real problems. These bands I am asking have had anywhere from 4 days to 2 weeks to prepare and still can't seem to find the time to do so. And most of these guys are all Fordham Students. I don't get it. We have a band member who does not even go here and we still manage to be more together than all of these other dudes. I get that several bands had other conflicts and had to say no because of those reasons, but several others just felt they did not have the time to prepare.

It's not like you have to pick a weekend to practice. Every one of you go here, and it couldn't take more than 2 hours to rehearse 30 minutes of material.

I know I am ranting. I just am frustrated at the responses I have gotten. Hopefully we are able to pull this event off. The last thing we need is for our Go! trip to lose money on this event.

For something that was born out of wanting to give everyone a good time, this concert has become nothing more than a chore. Hopefully as the week progresses that all changes.



(These pictures are of my backyard at 2 am this morning. I know it's hard to see, but if you click them you get the idea of what it looked like. The party lasted until 4:15am or so, having started at noon. It's a disaster now.)

Worth the money?

Every year it seems like Fordham waits to long or does not budget enough for a good act at spring weekend. This, our senior year, they managed to book MGMT. This is the most time relevant band they have booked in my time here. In the past we have had Yellowcard, Ghostface Killa, and Guster. MGMT is the closest thing they have gotten to booking a band that students are currently listening to, a band currently big.

To say that Penrose blew them away in presence, talent, and interaction with the crowd would be an understatement. This is a shame for the school because it does not bode well for them putting in the effort trying to book a 'current' band in the future. That being said, it is unfair to compare a 'band' to the musical talent of Penrose. I think it is safe to say they have a lock on opening Spring Weekend as long as Danny goes here. It is also safe to say that I'd make the trip to see them each time as well.

My voice may have been sore, my back and neck may have been strained, but I just couldnt help myself from shouting, singing, and dancing around to them. It's amazing for guys who are so young in the music scene to command the stage so well, and incredibly cool to be close friends with all of them.

(Picture today is of my backyard. Some of the guys in the apartment complex transformed out backyard into a beach/pool. The rager than ensued started around 12:30pm and at 1:45 am it is still happening. So impressed.)

Here they come

The lasts. I know for a while now there have probably been lasts. Last snow storm in college. Last midterm, etc. But over the next few weeks there will be a lot more. Last Friday of classes followed by the last of the rest of those days. Last day of classes, ever. Last assignment due. Last final. As well as last city adventure, last day on eddies, last band practice, last concert I'll ever play.

This was triggered by a friend of mine posting on her Facebook about her last day of classes being tomorrow. It'd be funny if it did nothing but rain for the next two weeks. I remember the first two weeks we came here it did nothing but rain. Talk about making it difficult to adjust to a new lifestyle.

I am trying to stay positive, though. Alex and I have decided to cancel our cross-country adventure due to financial reasons. It was becoming impractical and definitely either requires more time to plan or more money, or both. But other things are looking up. I am excited about the possbilities that lie ahead. I am pretty much open to anything right now. I have not explored job options too much, but I am considering other avenues as well. There is a Teach English program for one month in China that sounds like an amazing opportunity as well as several interesting positions through Americorp. All of these options have me very optimistic about life-after-graduation.

The near future is looking bright as well. Things are kicking into high gear for our Go! Mississippi fundraising and interest looks high for our t-shirts. Hopefully if we can generate half of that interest in our concert that I am responsible for we will be on our way in terms of covering the cost of our travel. I could not be more excited for the trip. It was definitely a decision made in haste, and with little foresight. Two months later and I could not be happier about making this choice. I am so grateful for the people I have gotten to meet through it and still have not totally grasped the idea that in 6 weeks I will be flying to Mississippi to work at at kids summer camp for a week. I just hope I have enough time to take pictures of everything.

In summary, the future looks bright. Yes there are one thousand lasts coming up, but there is so many firsts to follow them. I just have to make sure that the time between then and now is not wasted, even if it's just spending time with people here doing absolutely nothing but being with each other.

Hard Drive

It's sad to think that at 22 I am already struggling with memory. I have really vivid memories of thing that go back a long way, but there are times when I am just in shock of how easily I forget things, things I have done, things I was supposed to do, etc. It's scary to enter a room and not remember why you were headed there, or come to realize you don't remember being apart of something you were actually there for.

Luckily, we have photos. You might not always have a camera on hand for every important moment, but for the ones you do, it's really nice. I have take a whole slew of pictures of the past four years and it's nice to be able to physically page through the years here.

New Blog!

No, I don't mean new entry. I have created a new blog here. I am not abandoning this blog. I just felt that separating my 'Fordham Moments' entries from my regular blogging made sense. I don't intend to slow down on this site, although posts other than my BREADCRUMBS may be more rare. I will do my best to keep up with both.

Thanks for reading!

A Cathartic Experience

I am going to put a decent amount of thought, as well as be looking for input from friends, into making my Fordham Moments list that will eventually become the driving force of my blog updates over the next six weeks. I think something like this can be viewed as sad or too much for people as it forces them to face the reality of our culminating college years. For me, while it can be those things, it is also a really great experience. It is leading me to page through, in my brain, all of the things that have happened over the past 4 years of my life and really dwell on them, write about them, etc. I am looking forward to it.

Tomorrow I have a screening in the city followed by a retreat for my GO trip. I won't be able to post once I go on the retreat, so my post will be early tomorrow.

A Sense of Pride

Back in 2008 The Coen Brothers released a movie titled Burn After Reading. It was rumored they would be using one or two locations on my college campus to brief scenes. They were shooting during a break when no one would be around. I have seen the movie more than once and don't recognize any place in it. Whether they changed their minds about the scene shot, or if it was even shot there at all, is unclear. But since then Fordham has become a bit popular for films.

That same year, a movie production studio was in talks with Fordham to use our radio station studios to film a movie staring Uma Thurma who was to play a talk show host. The deal fell through, but it was cool enough that it could have happened.

Over the past year, 3 movies have had scenes shot on our campus. Last spring a Michael Dougles movie, rumored to be called 'Solitary Man' was being filmed on campus. The movie co-stars Jenna Fischer, Susan Sarandon, Jesse Eisenberg, and Danny Devito. It was unclear if all of these actors were at Fordham during the filming, but today a trailer and some photos were released. I know countless movies are filmed in the New York area every year and having spend the past 4 years in this city, there are many places I have come to recognize. Nonetheless, seeing my school campus in a trailer has a totally different sensation. I am not pro-Fordham (which is not to say I am anti-, just not passionate about it), but it still feels oddly cool to have a connection to it, watching those scenes.

In the fall, Oliver Stone shot a few scenes on our campus as well for his new film, Wall Street 2, also staring Michael Douglas. Part of me wonders whether Douglas suggested the campus as a site to shoot after being on it for his other movie. The international trailer was released about 6-7 weeks ago, and while it is a brief scene, there is a quick clip from our campus featured in this trailer as well.

Finally, in the winter of this year a single scene was shot on the steps of Keating. This building is beautiful to look at, and it is no wonder that it is the point of focus for a location when shooting on the campus. I am fuzzy on the details about this movie, but I do remember the scene was about the main character, who was a graduate of Fordham, who was using it as his location to announce his candidacy for some governmental office. I am going to ask around to see if anyone remembers who the actor was, or any further details about this one.

I am not sure if this is a recent upswing in movie studios' interest with the campus or if this has been happening in the past, but it is pretty cool to be around for it. I hope another one happens before I leave. Maybe I will actually get to be an extra in it.

(pictured: the first volume of a graphic novel series I just started. It is pretty good stuff)

Why The Big Pause?

I don't know what is better: those jokes that are so silly they sound like they originated on a popsicle stick or when you witness someone missing it.

Tonight my roommate performed in Fordham's Got Talent. He played In Your Atmosphere by John Mayer and did a damn good job. Really love the guitar work for that song. But, as in typical fashion, to start it off he told the crowd a joke first. He has actually told this joke before, but it's funny every time, and you laugh when everyone else who hasn't heard it laughs at the punch line.

But, after the laughter calmed and he prepared to start playing, I overheard a girl behind me say 'It's because he is a polar bear, get it, the paws?' which was followed by silence before that 'ohhh' you have heard before. This is a very simple joke, and one that really only works when it is told, and not read. But I have faith that anyone who is reading this is capable of understanding the punch line. Which is why, knowing someone did not catch the point of the joke made it even better.

Does anyone remember any of those popsicle style jokes? Here is one for you:

What did the lawyer name his daughter?

(answer below the picture)

Answer:

Sue

(Today's picture is of the church down the street from my apartment. There is something interesting about a church which is supposed to be a place of community and coming together being surrounded by barbed wire. I understand why it might be there, but the image still plays as ironic)

To Clarify

Despite how it may look - I do in fact go to school in New York City and not some ski town.

another celebration

a little while ago i celebrated my 100th blog post, and today I have reached another blogging landmark. today is the 100th post for my breadcrumb project. back in july i decided to start making a post once a day of a picture that in some way related to the days events whether it was something i had done, somewhere i had been, something i had seen, etc. Today marks the 100th 'breadcrumb'.
Recently I realized that I would be coming up on this post and decided to figure out both when it would be, and to see some of my past posts by starting from the beginning and looking through them. I realized that somehow the quarterly posts all, by chance, happened to be noteworthy pictures or events.

Breadcrumb #25 - Picture of the photograph of my grandparents framed in my house

Breadcrumb #50 - Philadelphia Eagles home opener

Breadcrumb #75 - Where The Wild Things Are midnight release photo

Picture 100 then was pressured because after realizing these pictures happened to coincide with those posts I thought about what I could have as my 100th picture while still wanting to not plan it out. Ultimately I decided not to plan it and see what I came across today. I took and am posting this picture because while it may seem mundane it has significance. This captures the final roster for my final semester at Fordham. Having registered this morning, I felt like it made sense to use this as my 100th image. How did we get to be choosing our final 4 or 5 (or less if you are that ahead) classes of our college careers already?

fordham is popular

well at least to hollywood. or maybe not even so. for those who don't know - oliver stone's Wall Street 2 starting Shia and Michael Douglas is wrapping its filming on Fordham's campus tomorrow and has been here all weekend.

At first I thought to myself - wasn't it just 6 months ago that another movie was filming on Fordham's campus for a few days? Is this just a great place to shoot 'esteemed lecture' scenes? But wait, wasn't Michael Douglas in the one shot here last year?

Maybe he really liked something about Keating Hall and passed along some set photos to Oliver and co. and that's the real reason they are here. Not sure, still cool though.

Also - walked past a bunch of the crew and some extras when coming back to the Bronx tonight over by Ohare. Realized that if I were Warren I would have bumped into someone important, either in the crew or one of the main actors, totally by accident, and something would have come out of it that would result in no less than a 30 minute story about such an encounter (one you'd assume to be exaggerated if you didn't know Warren better). But alas all i got was this picture to verify this filming taking place here.

a one, a two, a one-weeeyuuuu

mike bought a tamborine today. now that song is stuck in my head. no complaints here.

a brief update from the weekend - my aunt came this weekend as did alex. band practice friday went much better than last time and in general went really well - i was less concerned and actually having a blast. got to the city a few times - saw the Milkmaid at the MET got two delicious meals (Virgils - BBQ, Becco - Italian). Always can count on eating well when my aunt visits. Had my first test of the semester in clinical and it was...well it was not what i would have expected from a multiple choice exam but im sticking with the 'get 'em next time' motto.

moving on...
A website I read and have probably referenced on here before is called SlashFilm (www.slashfilm.com). It is a movie blog site that is mainly movie news about new scripts, actors signing onto projects, updates on movies being filmed, etc. Every so often the site will post in movie related subjects but not in news format. Yesterday site moderator Peter Sciretta prompted 'What is your favorite scene from a movie?' Now if you know me you know that favorite is too final and too difficult for me to pick and the best i can do for even favorite movie is give you a few hyopthetical 'top 5' picks - always leaving a few slots open for whatever I can currently name. Peter's favorite scene from a movie: Tiny Dancer - Almost Famous. (if you think to yourself - that's not a scene it's a song - then you havent seen the movie to know what I mean). I have to admit - classic scene and one of my favorite movies from Fordham.

So I thought a bit about this, and while it hasn't been more than an hour since I read the prompt (I am behind on my slashfilm reading) I can at least offer a few others that were mentioned in the comments or that came to mind -

Where is my mind - Fight Club closing scene
End monologue - American history X
Climax - The Fountain
the world series - one flew
final scene - eternal sunshine
lunch with ma - requiem for a dream

I am sure I have forgotten some favorites of mine. I am going to think about this tomorrow and maybe add in some others next time I post but I wanted to throw this out there - for you few who read my blog - what scenes do you recall best - that leave you as shocked or as comforted or as crushed as you have ever felt while watching a movie - which ones are most imprinted in your minds - ones you can recall all the words or the ones you stop what you are doing every time to watch? (even if it's the rain kiss from the notebook, that's ok - wrong, but ok)

Picture today is of a tree right around the Subway (restaurant not transportation) on Fordham Road after Bathgate. This street from bathgate to which ever street has the light down by the metro and library entrance for Fordham's campus is lined with trees but somehow this tree seems to have lost a piece of itself.

free is the way to be

fordham's new director of whatever, a blonde in her mid twenties was all sorts of energtic today explaining in a very forceful manner that the free food we all showed up for prior to the soccer game would continue throughout the season if, and only if people actually stayed for the game. as a further attempt to make sure of this they had a free raffle to win a gift card to the restaurant donating the food/providing the food (not sure if it was pure free or if fordham just took a loss) and a gift card to the book store. the winners wouldnt be announced till half - so at worst they got people to stay that long.

it worked - there was probably 400 people in the stands for this game. i was impressed - and heres to another week of free food. lets hope this continues for awhile because it means one meal a week will be both free and prepared and that huge.