Happy Birthday, Mr. Prime Minister

Because Canada doesn't have presidents. Just a quick update on my birthday. I went out with my friends from VFS, and I had a great time. It's good to be so far away from home and still feel loved. Thanks to everyone who sent me well-wishes on staying alive for one more year. Anyway, here's an update of me as of right now. I can wash my hair as of tomorrow, which is good. But now I have to roll-up my sleeves and caress my "pipes" on occasion. Seriously. Here's a photo comparison of me from when I was clean-shaven and hair-oriented, to now, when I don't shave or even wash my hair. Oh how the mighty have fallen.

What's Goin' On

Hey gang. So, as most of you know, I'm at school for acting. But what exactly I'm doing may not be known quite as well. So, here's a brief rundown of what I'm doing in each of my classes.

Voice: Breathing work. A lot of the early stuff we're working on has to do with loosening the rib area and breathing into the back ribs, making the parts around the middle soft and relaxed. We're finding areas of the body and trying to vibrate them with our sound.

Singing: Similar to voice, with more relaxation (think rolling around on the floor, and letting everything go.) Of course no singing yet, as we work on breath work and a bit of moving from the core (right underneath the belly button). Also, the class is called "Integrated Voice for the Actor who Sings", so think of it as ingredients on a can of pineapple hams, where they list the ingredients in order of importance.

Movement: Just what it says, really. Last class we did some sort of interpretive-dance-type thing after we were skipping through a rock garden. Oh yeah.

Improv: This class rocks. Sure we get to play wacky games and laugh a lot, but there's more to it than that. Right now we're focusing on complementarity, which is thinking of what compliments what. There's no jokes or wit necessary, it's funny because of the choices the people make to compliment certain actions or shapes.

Audition Technique: Probably the most important class, as it deals with what will become most important to us actors: Getting a job. The teacher is tougher on use than some others, but it's much better to get it at school, than to audition and blow it, and be black-listed for months in this town. We basically get audition scripts that are about two pages, and record them, pick them apart, and then do it again with improvements. It's like medicine; you don't necessarily want to take it, but you'll feel much better when you do.

Camera: This is the reason I came to VFS. This gives us actors experience behind the camera and boom mike, as we record and edit short scenes. It's not an acting class, so we can cut-loose and ham it up if we want to. The important thing in this class is learning what shots look good, and how it all comes together in the editing room. Rawk.

Scene Study on Camera: Here we take short scenes from real movies and TV shows and pick them apart and perform them ourselves on camera. We think about things like who our characters are, where we are, out relationship with the other person, what has happened so far in the story, etc. Think of this like actors covering a scene, similar to how a band covers songs when they start out.

Acting: Here's the ticket. Lots of self-discovery and revelations happening here. Lots of emotions, and tears, and lots of things I think people didn't know was in them coming out. Also, one of the teachers is giving out weird little assignments to students. Mine is interesting: Don't cut my hair or shave. Good, no problem. It's easy to not do something. Plus it gives me an excuse to see how far my facial hair can go (secret: not very far.) But whatever, it's fun to just let go. Now the teacher added the clause that I can't wash my hair or fix it until she says so.

Anyway, lots more to say, but that's all the time I have now. I have to get up tomorrow morning and do it all again. I leave you with a picture of my haggard face, and I'll make sure to give an image update every now and again.

Look at These Photographs, Every Time I do They Makes me Laughs

Well, I'm all moved into my place. The first order of business here was to get new bed sheets. The ones that came with my KING-SIZED bed were PINK. Yeah, I made to sure to buy some more manly blue bed sheets, so it can impress all the ... nobody who's gonna see it. Oh well, it's more for my self-esteem than anything.

My roommate's pretty cool, a UBC student from Japan. The apartment is a one bedroom, I have the bedroom to myself, and he lives in the main room. It's a win-win accommodation. The city is damn loud and bright at night, but I can get used to it. It's also hot in my room, but my roomie says that'll change come wintertime. Anyway, here's some pics of the view from my bedroom window (that big dark glass building is the one that Angel flew out of in X-Men 3.) The last picture is the view from the main room.











School's a real joy. It's hard to get used to actually WANTING to go to school in the morning, but I'm sure I can adjust. I can't wait to actually start making flicks. It's going to be a lot of work, but the pay-off will be great.

Anyway, still liking it out here, but I do miss home. I hope everyone there is doing great, I'll see all of you again someday soon.