So, with this recession business, clawing at the ankles of the city's economy, I woke up this morning to see Bloomberg trying to explain to a disgruntled and scoffing local coverage the state had cut a lot of the city's funding and it looks like the first of the six thousand job cut will be teachers.
"6,400 teachers and 300 classroom aides...
and to close 50 senior centers, 16 day care centers and perhaps 10 libraries."
-New York Times
I have to say I'm awfully upset. It's these types of organizations that keep communities together, to a degree that most people either don't care or even bother to acknowledge sometimes. Regardless of who Bloomberg is pining the blame on at the moment, I think this is a crucially important time for anyone who has the opportunity of being inspired by their elders, their teachers, or their libraries, to visit those places. Hel1! The weather's getting nicer.
I also would like to draw attention to my most recent documentary, which so coincidentally has to do with a local Chelsea community center, called the Hudson Guild. I, along with help from my friend Caleb Foss, captured two dress rehearsals by the center's community theater company. For months the company has been assembling a production of the classic Wagner opera, "The Ring" (Der Rings Des Nibelungen). If you're not familiar, "The Ring" is a four day opera (you might have heard the song "Ride of the Valkyries" in Apocalypse Now).
I was commissioned by Jim Furlong and the Hudson Guild to produce a small promotional documentary about the production, for potential investors. It was an amazing opportunity for a couple reasons. I'd worked for Jim as an assistant in high school and was familiar with his theater productions. First, being a production assistant and then later acting in a production of "Alice In Wonderland". Also, because Jim's company had put a tremendous production. It does very well to break the mold of community theater as something bold and ambitious.
Very shortly I'll be posting the final cut here and on youtube. It'll be called, "Among Giants" and runs about 7 min.
IN THE VERY MEANTIME...
I just recently had a birthday, and my girlfriend recently discovered a white hair in my mane (thanks Sophomore Year). It was a little shocking having felt her truly pluck it out of my head. It was a part of me. My first WHITE hair. I didn't really think I'd react the way I did, but there it was. It was coarse and tired. Silver, almost. It caught the light, and strongly. A strand of my brown hair could easily get lost in the cracks, but this thing could only be lost on a windy day. Which is why Jenny and I wedged it shut into her pocket mirror.
Also, my Sophomore Year closed very well. The Sophomore Screening went over splendidly with an awesome night of killer flicks by a talented class. Looking forward to the Junior screening.
Oh, and as my birthday just passed, I ended up getting myself a couple treasures. I bought Killer's Kiss and Paths of Glory for cheap off of Oldies.com. And at Barnes and Nobles, I got Bicycle Thieves by Vittorio De Sica... and yes I got the tricked out Criterion version with the essays (c'mon! i'm like a total dork!)
And as an educational expense, I ended up getting Looney Tunes Gold Collection Vol 2. It was an educational expense because I needed to nab the segment "What's Opera, Doc?" for my Hudson Guild documentary... (you'll have to wait and see).
Well... I guess I'll leave you with a solid 'goodbye'. I just caught Con Air on TV for a couple of seconds and came right to that part where the prisoners were trying to take off with the plane in that weird scrap yard, while Nicholas (don't belong in action movies) Cage is searching for insulin. Eventually he runs into some Columbian cartel with a private jet and Nick Cage beats the hell out of a few of them, but a few of them are still in the plane when he leaves. So, the cartels end up taking off with the plane, and fail when John Cussak screws up their take-off by dropping a crane on the tail of the plane. When the plane crashes into a gasoline pump, the last living guy crawls out of the wreckage and John Malkovich (as Cyrus "The Virus") walks over to him and says something like "...nice try."
"Cyrus, Please!" he says.
Malkovich takes the cigarette from Swamp Thing's mouth.
"Cy--"
"--onara," he says as he flicks the cigarette into the lake of gas.
Adios,
John Morgan
P.S.
Keep on the lookout. I'll be posting a few new videos once I get back home from school. Just a few fine cuts here and there and I'll get em online as soon as possible.
I the meantime, if you haven't checked out my more recent doc, be sure to check "MORGAN AVE" which I featured at the Sophomore screening, along with "Killer's Kiss"
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