My final day of driving, and it couldn't come soon enough. It was interesting and even a bit fun, but waking up and driving 8 hours a day really takes its toll.
So today the day started in North East, Pennsylvania. Thats the actual town name BTW. North East. Yea odd. Anyway, it was an 8 hour drive on little 2 lane New England highways. These highways are cool because they wind through the hills and mountains, surrounded by forests and whatnot. This makes them really pretty.
The downside however, is that they are only 2 lane roads and if there is any construction or anything, they slow to a standstill. And that happened just before I crossed the border from New York to Connecticut. We came to a screeching halt, and I just sat on the road, moving in car length intervals for a good 45 minutes, maybe even an hour. After sitting there, and listening to a whole album, I was like, screw it. So I got off as soon as I could, and decided to attempt to find a detour around this construction.
Next thing I know, i'm driving pretty much randomly around this little town. So I just decided to head easterly, and try to find the highway again. Surprisingly, it worked out pretty well. I didn't get too lost and I feel like I found the freeway and got back on the road faster than I would have if I just stayed in the traffic.
Another part of this drive was the rain. It rained 7 out of the 8 hours I was on the road. I basically followed the rain from Chicago to Connecticut.
But finally, after 6 long days of driving, I made it to my grandmothers house in East Hartford, CT.
It is worth noting at this point, that my family is crazy. I arrive to the beginnings of what would be a flurry of chaos and excitement. Within minutes of my arrival, basically all of my family is at my grandmother's house, and we are grilling corn and steak, cooking lobsters in beer kegs (an interesting operation that involves mounting a modified keg on a propane burner, putting water in the keg, and dropping lobsters into it), and mounting all sorts of chaos. It was awesome.
Anyway, I'm gonna wrap up my last blog, with a “what I learned sort of thing”
1) Nebraska Sucks. Never go there. I'm never going back.
2) I do well at long drives. I sort of knew that before, as I've driven long distances before, but knowing that I was able to drive all the way across the country by myself is pretty cool.
3) I like blogging. I'm gonna keep doing it. Not as regularly, but I want to keep it up.
4) I'm feeling better and better about moving to Boston. I was a worried and a bit nervous, but having this extended amount of time to think made me more confident in my decision.
I will have an epilogue with all of the final tallies of mileage and MPG and stuff like that in a bit. I'm going to enjoy my time relaxing in CT first though.
Sunday, August 15, 2010
Saturday, August 14, 2010
Stefan's Shipping off to Boston: Day 5
Of course, the last night has to be the difficult one. Apparently I didn't book my hotel right last night. I don't know how it happened, but I had really crappy internet in the Chicago hotel, so it may be that, or I just might be an idiot. Anyway, so when I got to my hotel, there was no reservation, and they were really full, because apparently its tourist season in Erie. I'm also not exactly IN Erie, as all the hotels were super expensive, so I'm a bit north of Erie too.
Anyway, I'm in a small smoking room in this Super 8. It doesn't smell too bad, and I have all the fans on. I should be alright for just tonight, and then I'm going to bail early in the morning.
Well, lets start at the beginning then.
I stayed longer in Chicago that I have in other cities. This was because I went out to lunch with my friend Lana. We went to a cool little pizza place in a suburb of Chicago. It was tasty and fun.
Anyway, this caused me to leave Chicago pretty late, like 1pm. The drive today wasn't that long, distance-wise, under 500 miles, but it felt like forever. It was also oddly expensive. There were quite a few toll roads between Chicago and Pennsylvania. All of Ohio was one big toll road that cost me like 10 bucks. And then there was another one as I left Chicago. It was uncool. I also realize that that is backwards geographically.
Anyway, the entire drive it looked like it was going to rain, but it never did. Maybe I'll catch up to that storm front tomorrow.
There was also a giant ton of road construction on the drive today. I would estimate at least a third of it was construction, which is stressful because you have to watch your speed and the roads are all messed up and super annoying.
On a completely different note, I made an observation about truckers today. I feel I've passed several hundred of them on the road this trip, so I feel uniquely qualified to make this completely unscientific judgement.
One the back of nearly all of the trucks are advertisements for employment at whatever trucking company they are working for. Sometimes they will be little witty saying or something, but mainly they are just like, “You should work for x company, we will pay you.”
So I started thinking about this. Who are these ads targeting? It can't be people like me, who are on long road trips, because if you are driving across the country or something like that, you have something going on. People don't drive to look for a job. People who are on short trips probably aren’t looking for a job driving long distances.
So these must be for other trucks. But this would mean that truckers jump ship enough to warrant massive advertisement.
So now I have a mental picture of truckers as road-bound mercenaries, always looking for a better deal. This is how this scene plays out in my head:
Its an office, shot in black and while like old film noir. The Venetian Blinds cast horizontal shadows across the mahogany desk where the overweight boss is sitting, smoking a cigar and sipping a glass of scotch. He goes to put the scotch down, but his desk is covered with paper and files. He finally decides on the least important stack of papers, and sets down his glass, and leans back in his high-back leather chair. It is at this point that our trucker hero bursts into the room. He wears dark jeans, a leather jacket, a 3 day old beard, and a trucker hat pulled low.
“Hey boss-man,” he grunts
The boss nods, “Whadda want?”
“Alright Boss, here's the deal” [At this point he goes on and lists a bunch of things that annoy truckers. I really don't know what this would be, but probably lots of drives through Kansas or something like that.]
“Yea so?” The boss-man replies indignantly, he takes another long puff of his cigar, and lets the smoke hang over the small office.
“So I'm leaving. Got a new gig. Payin' me more.”
“The hell did you find a new job? You don't even know any other companies.”
“The back of another truck. It had a number, gave 'em a call. They're paying more.”
“You son-of-a-bitch. You know I can't compete with truck-back advertising.”
“Damn straight. I'll see you around.”
And with that, he pulls out a pack of cigarettes, puts one in his mouth. Grabs a pack of matches, lights his cigarettes with one, and tosses the match into the glass of scotch.
He then turns and walks out the door.
The boss, visibly angry, throws his cigar into the glass as well.
[And Scene]
Milage today was 467, and I haven't gotten gas yet today. So no MPG yet again.
The plan for tomorrow is to drive through upstate New York, then cut down through Massachusetts and then into Connecticut where my trip is done!
Anyway, I'm in a small smoking room in this Super 8. It doesn't smell too bad, and I have all the fans on. I should be alright for just tonight, and then I'm going to bail early in the morning.
Well, lets start at the beginning then.
I stayed longer in Chicago that I have in other cities. This was because I went out to lunch with my friend Lana. We went to a cool little pizza place in a suburb of Chicago. It was tasty and fun.
Anyway, this caused me to leave Chicago pretty late, like 1pm. The drive today wasn't that long, distance-wise, under 500 miles, but it felt like forever. It was also oddly expensive. There were quite a few toll roads between Chicago and Pennsylvania. All of Ohio was one big toll road that cost me like 10 bucks. And then there was another one as I left Chicago. It was uncool. I also realize that that is backwards geographically.
Anyway, the entire drive it looked like it was going to rain, but it never did. Maybe I'll catch up to that storm front tomorrow.
There was also a giant ton of road construction on the drive today. I would estimate at least a third of it was construction, which is stressful because you have to watch your speed and the roads are all messed up and super annoying.
On a completely different note, I made an observation about truckers today. I feel I've passed several hundred of them on the road this trip, so I feel uniquely qualified to make this completely unscientific judgement.
One the back of nearly all of the trucks are advertisements for employment at whatever trucking company they are working for. Sometimes they will be little witty saying or something, but mainly they are just like, “You should work for x company, we will pay you.”
So I started thinking about this. Who are these ads targeting? It can't be people like me, who are on long road trips, because if you are driving across the country or something like that, you have something going on. People don't drive to look for a job. People who are on short trips probably aren’t looking for a job driving long distances.
So these must be for other trucks. But this would mean that truckers jump ship enough to warrant massive advertisement.
So now I have a mental picture of truckers as road-bound mercenaries, always looking for a better deal. This is how this scene plays out in my head:
Its an office, shot in black and while like old film noir. The Venetian Blinds cast horizontal shadows across the mahogany desk where the overweight boss is sitting, smoking a cigar and sipping a glass of scotch. He goes to put the scotch down, but his desk is covered with paper and files. He finally decides on the least important stack of papers, and sets down his glass, and leans back in his high-back leather chair. It is at this point that our trucker hero bursts into the room. He wears dark jeans, a leather jacket, a 3 day old beard, and a trucker hat pulled low.
“Hey boss-man,” he grunts
The boss nods, “Whadda want?”
“Alright Boss, here's the deal” [At this point he goes on and lists a bunch of things that annoy truckers. I really don't know what this would be, but probably lots of drives through Kansas or something like that.]
“Yea so?” The boss-man replies indignantly, he takes another long puff of his cigar, and lets the smoke hang over the small office.
“So I'm leaving. Got a new gig. Payin' me more.”
“The hell did you find a new job? You don't even know any other companies.”
“The back of another truck. It had a number, gave 'em a call. They're paying more.”
“You son-of-a-bitch. You know I can't compete with truck-back advertising.”
“Damn straight. I'll see you around.”
And with that, he pulls out a pack of cigarettes, puts one in his mouth. Grabs a pack of matches, lights his cigarettes with one, and tosses the match into the glass of scotch.
He then turns and walks out the door.
The boss, visibly angry, throws his cigar into the glass as well.
[And Scene]
Milage today was 467, and I haven't gotten gas yet today. So no MPG yet again.
The plan for tomorrow is to drive through upstate New York, then cut down through Massachusetts and then into Connecticut where my trip is done!
Friday, August 13, 2010
Stefan's Shipping off to Boston: Day 4
So I'm a bit tired and its a bit late, so this is going to be a shorter entry than usual.
Today I drove through all of Iowa and most of Illinois. The drive itself wasn't too bad. I think I'm starting to get a hang of this, driving for 8 hours every day thing. I becomes less and less of a huge deal.
Iowa is probably about what you would expect it to be. Hilly and full of corn. However its also really flooded. There are some really bad areas full of half-submerged cars and flooded businesses. That was pretty sucky.
The other interesting thing was about 200 miles out of Chicago I hit a GIANT thunderstorm. It was actually really cool because I was basically chasing is for a while, so I could see all the lightning and stuff. Then I hit it and it was a pretty decent amount of rain for a while, but all of a sudden it started POURING. It was crazy. Like I couldn't see more than 20 feet in front of my hood. But I was eventually out of that and made it to Chicago ok.
After getting to my hotel and putting down all my stuff I went to go have dinner with my Aunt and Cousin. However they live on the other side of Chicago, so that was another hour of attempting to navigate the very confusing streets, highways and sub-highways that is suburban Chicago. But I got there ok, and had some quaility family time. It was nice to actually socialize with someone not over the internet.
Then I navigated backwards in the dark, and didn't get too lost at all!
Now its sleep time.
Milage today was another round of about 550.
I leave you with Youngblood Brass Band
Today I drove through all of Iowa and most of Illinois. The drive itself wasn't too bad. I think I'm starting to get a hang of this, driving for 8 hours every day thing. I becomes less and less of a huge deal.
Iowa is probably about what you would expect it to be. Hilly and full of corn. However its also really flooded. There are some really bad areas full of half-submerged cars and flooded businesses. That was pretty sucky.
The other interesting thing was about 200 miles out of Chicago I hit a GIANT thunderstorm. It was actually really cool because I was basically chasing is for a while, so I could see all the lightning and stuff. Then I hit it and it was a pretty decent amount of rain for a while, but all of a sudden it started POURING. It was crazy. Like I couldn't see more than 20 feet in front of my hood. But I was eventually out of that and made it to Chicago ok.
After getting to my hotel and putting down all my stuff I went to go have dinner with my Aunt and Cousin. However they live on the other side of Chicago, so that was another hour of attempting to navigate the very confusing streets, highways and sub-highways that is suburban Chicago. But I got there ok, and had some quaility family time. It was nice to actually socialize with someone not over the internet.
Then I navigated backwards in the dark, and didn't get too lost at all!
Now its sleep time.
Milage today was another round of about 550.
I leave you with Youngblood Brass Band
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Stefan's Shipping off to Boston: Day 3
First off, I dislike Nebraska. Its boring, and really hot.
But before anything else, I forgot some stuff from yesterday.
1) Denver has some really passive aggressive signs as you come out of the Rockies and into the Denver area. They are all aimed at truckers and say things like “You are NOT out of the mountains yet. There are still curves and steep grades ahead.” and “Don't relax yet. There are still hills.”
2) Lambda Alphians, if you are going to National Convention, (which I highly recommend) and you plan on driving, you could easily make it a really awesome trip. You could drive to Zion, which is a one day drive from Irvine. Then spend a day or so in Zion, because its awesome. Then drive to Arches like I did. Maybe stay in Moab and then continue on to Colorado Springs, which is a bit south of Denver. Just a suggestion if you were looking for a more extensive vacation.
The drive today was nothing exciting. The eastern part of Colorado is like a warning for Nebraska. Its kinda flat and boring, but nothing compared to Nebraska. Just so much corn and cows.
A few exceptionally weird things happened on the drive though.
First is the thing I tweeted about. Around noon I stopped in North Platte to grab some coffee, as I need to stay nice and caffeinated to drive for 8 hours. Just as I was about to pull into the Starbucks (yea I know, but its the only thing thats not gas station coffee.) I caught a flashing digital sign by a gas station about half a block down the road. It first flashed the price for gas, and normal things, but then it showed the gem; “The Best Looking Cashiers.” I was confused, scared and had an immediate flight or fight response. This turned into get coffee as fast as possible and get the hell out of North Platte.
I also got the dirtiest look I've ever gotten from a cop today! That was exciting.
So I was about 15 miles outside of Omaha on a 3 lane highway, going about 80 or so. (Speed limit was 75...) I'm in the far left lane, and I check my rear view and there is a Cop in a truck coming up fast behind be, lights blaring. I panic for a second, but realize that the middle red “I'm gonna pull you over” light wasn't on. Which is good. So I try to move to the left to let him by, but there is a huge big-rig in the next lane, completely blocking me in. I can't go anywhere. The cop then speeds up, tailgates me, and honks, before swerving into the breakdown lane and speeding by giving me the aforementioned dirty look. He was followed by another normal cop, who did not give me such a look. They speed off going at least 110, weaving through the bit of traffic.
About a minute later I see the two cops on the side of the road with another cop, who has pulled over a car. The cops however are gesturing wildly and sprinting back to their cars, which then hurriedly get in and speed off. I have no idea what they were after. But I didn't see them on the side of the road or anything agin. So that was pretty weird.
The one music related thing that I did today that is notable is I sort of re-discovered a really great Prog band called Frost*. I have one album by them, although they've apparently released a new one. But man they are great. Amazing keyboard/synth work, and the whole band is just insanely good. And they manage to make really complex and great music accessible and even catchy. Even if you aren’t into prog give this a listen.
Now for the numbers section of the blog!
Since I didn't have all of the info yesterday, lets recap.
Yesterday's mileage was 632 Miles. I used 19.55 gallons of gas, for a MPG total of 32.32. (I'm surprised that its that high, there were a lot of mountains and stuff.)
Today's Milage was 554. I used 15.25 gallons of gas, for a MPG total of 36.32. (Flat ground makes for better mileage!)
The plan tomorrow is to drive through Iowa and then into Chicago before dinner time.
I'm halfway there!
But before anything else, I forgot some stuff from yesterday.
1) Denver has some really passive aggressive signs as you come out of the Rockies and into the Denver area. They are all aimed at truckers and say things like “You are NOT out of the mountains yet. There are still curves and steep grades ahead.” and “Don't relax yet. There are still hills.”
2) Lambda Alphians, if you are going to National Convention, (which I highly recommend) and you plan on driving, you could easily make it a really awesome trip. You could drive to Zion, which is a one day drive from Irvine. Then spend a day or so in Zion, because its awesome. Then drive to Arches like I did. Maybe stay in Moab and then continue on to Colorado Springs, which is a bit south of Denver. Just a suggestion if you were looking for a more extensive vacation.
The drive today was nothing exciting. The eastern part of Colorado is like a warning for Nebraska. Its kinda flat and boring, but nothing compared to Nebraska. Just so much corn and cows.
A few exceptionally weird things happened on the drive though.
First is the thing I tweeted about. Around noon I stopped in North Platte to grab some coffee, as I need to stay nice and caffeinated to drive for 8 hours. Just as I was about to pull into the Starbucks (yea I know, but its the only thing thats not gas station coffee.) I caught a flashing digital sign by a gas station about half a block down the road. It first flashed the price for gas, and normal things, but then it showed the gem; “The Best Looking Cashiers.” I was confused, scared and had an immediate flight or fight response. This turned into get coffee as fast as possible and get the hell out of North Platte.
I also got the dirtiest look I've ever gotten from a cop today! That was exciting.
So I was about 15 miles outside of Omaha on a 3 lane highway, going about 80 or so. (Speed limit was 75...) I'm in the far left lane, and I check my rear view and there is a Cop in a truck coming up fast behind be, lights blaring. I panic for a second, but realize that the middle red “I'm gonna pull you over” light wasn't on. Which is good. So I try to move to the left to let him by, but there is a huge big-rig in the next lane, completely blocking me in. I can't go anywhere. The cop then speeds up, tailgates me, and honks, before swerving into the breakdown lane and speeding by giving me the aforementioned dirty look. He was followed by another normal cop, who did not give me such a look. They speed off going at least 110, weaving through the bit of traffic.
About a minute later I see the two cops on the side of the road with another cop, who has pulled over a car. The cops however are gesturing wildly and sprinting back to their cars, which then hurriedly get in and speed off. I have no idea what they were after. But I didn't see them on the side of the road or anything agin. So that was pretty weird.
The one music related thing that I did today that is notable is I sort of re-discovered a really great Prog band called Frost*. I have one album by them, although they've apparently released a new one. But man they are great. Amazing keyboard/synth work, and the whole band is just insanely good. And they manage to make really complex and great music accessible and even catchy. Even if you aren’t into prog give this a listen.
Now for the numbers section of the blog!
Since I didn't have all of the info yesterday, lets recap.
Yesterday's mileage was 632 Miles. I used 19.55 gallons of gas, for a MPG total of 32.32. (I'm surprised that its that high, there were a lot of mountains and stuff.)
Today's Milage was 554. I used 15.25 gallons of gas, for a MPG total of 36.32. (Flat ground makes for better mileage!)
The plan tomorrow is to drive through Iowa and then into Chicago before dinner time.
I'm halfway there!
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Stefan's Shipping off to Boston: Day 2
I'm in a major step upwards from the Motel 6 in the middle of nowhere, thatI was in last night. I booked the hotel last night using expedia or something, and it worked out really well. I thinkI'm gonna do this for the rest of the trip. Its a really odd hotel. Its got all the normal hotel-y type things, but it also has a full kitchen. Like full stove, full-size fridge and stuff. Weird.
I didn't listen to anything new or groundbreaking today, so I'm gonna talk about the actual trip, because it was much more exciting. The one actual cool music thing that happened was listening to Suburban Legend's “Bright Spring Morning” (the slow one, off Dance Like Nobody's Watching) while driving through the red hills of Utah. That was pretty awesome.
This drive was probably the best actual driving I've ever done. The routeis beautiful and the roads are fun to drive on. Lots ofnice curves and hills that keep it interesting rather than straight through the desert.
I also took Matt's advice and made a bit of a detour halfway th
Then I went over the Rockies themselves, which while pretty, my fully loaded car wasn't too happy with. Luckily I don't have any more giant mountain ranges, some smaller ones, yes, but no more Rockies.
Milage today was 632 miles. No MPG rating yet, as I haven't filled up on gas. Will report back tomorrow.
The plan for tomorrow is jogging northwards to Nebraska, and then a straight shot across to Omaha.
I didn't listen to anything new or groundbreaking today, so I'm gonna talk about the actual trip, because it was much more exciting. The one actual cool music thing that happened was listening to Suburban Legend's “Bright Spring Morning” (the slow one, off Dance Like Nobody's Watching) while driving through the red hills of Utah. That was pretty awesome.
This drive was probably the best actual driving I've ever done. The routeis beautiful and the roads are fun to drive on. Lots ofnice curves and hills that keep it interesting rather than straight through the desert.
rough Utah, and went to Arches National Park. That was a really great idea. Getting to Arches involves a southerly detour off I-70. Arches National Park is a really pretty park, that isn't to big, so it was great for me to just drive through and hi
ke a few short hikes. Actually I take that back, Arches is a large park, size wise, but the interesting parts are spread out in
a few pockets of really cool sandstone.
That was a really good way to break up the drive.
One of the more stunning parts of the this was the drive back. I decided to take a more scenic path back, so that I wasn't backtracking. This was an amazing drive. I followed a river northwards through a maze of sandstone canyons that
eventually opened up into a large hilly grassland.
From that I rejoined I-70 and took that into Colorado, where I got to drive through the Rocky Mountains. This was another g
From that I rejoined I-70 and took that into Colorado, where I got to drive through the Rocky Mountains. This was another g
reat ride, as it started out following the Colorado River through more canyons. But this was really cool, as the highway was basically a continous bridge that were built about 25 feet over the banks of the river and wound through the canyons. I wasn't able to take any pictures as it was curvy and fast, sorry.
Then I went over the Rockies themselves, which while pretty, my fully loaded car wasn't too happy with. Luckily I don't have any more giant mountain ranges, some smaller ones, yes, but no more Rockies.
Milage today was 632 miles. No MPG rating yet, as I haven't filled up on gas. Will report back tomorrow.
The plan for tomorrow is jogging northwards to Nebraska, and then a straight shot across to Omaha.
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Stefan's Shipping off to Boston: Day 1
So I'm writing this in a Motel 6 in Beaver, Utah. Beaver is a tiny little town that is lacking in charm, character, or anything else that makes a small town bearable. Just so you know I'm not messing around, I'm talking no stoplights small. Like I had Wendy's for dinner and going to have McDonald's for breakfast, because those are the only places to eat here.
Anyway, the first day of driving wasn't too bad. I got off to a bit of a slow start, but made good time to Vegas, where I ate lunch with Seth. We went to Burger Bar, on Allison's suggestion. It was very tasty. The burger was big and juicy, and the toppings were great. Would definite recommend it.
After lunch, it was another haul to the little town I am currently in. The drive so far hasn't been too bad. And its been helped by the large amount of good music I've been listening to.
Notable mentions for this leg are:
Black Mountain. They sound kind of like a proggy Led Zeppelin with a both a guy and girl singer. Its quite good.
I also listened to one of my more guilty pleasure type bands. This is a band called Boysetfire. They are like a hardcore-ish punk band. They are quite good, and all of their lyrics are politically charged which is fun.
The last notable band is one that Matt recommended to me, the Rumble Strips. They are really interesting, and I need to listen to them a few more times to get a handle on them, but they are good driving music at least.
So today I drove 514 miles, from LA to Vegas to the middle of Utah.
I also used 15.6 gallons of gas, so I got a 32.8 miles per gallon, all the way out here. Pretty good for my car.
The plan for tomorrow, is to drive basically straight east from here over to Denver, CO. This is another 500 some miles, so its gonna be another long day.
Anyway, the first day of driving wasn't too bad. I got off to a bit of a slow start, but made good time to Vegas, where I ate lunch with Seth. We went to Burger Bar, on Allison's suggestion. It was very tasty. The burger was big and juicy, and the toppings were great. Would definite recommend it.
After lunch, it was another haul to the little town I am currently in. The drive so far hasn't been too bad. And its been helped by the large amount of good music I've been listening to.
Notable mentions for this leg are:
Black Mountain. They sound kind of like a proggy Led Zeppelin with a both a guy and girl singer. Its quite good.
I also listened to one of my more guilty pleasure type bands. This is a band called Boysetfire. They are like a hardcore-ish punk band. They are quite good, and all of their lyrics are politically charged which is fun.
The last notable band is one that Matt recommended to me, the Rumble Strips. They are really interesting, and I need to listen to them a few more times to get a handle on them, but they are good driving music at least.
So today I drove 514 miles, from LA to Vegas to the middle of Utah.
I also used 15.6 gallons of gas, so I got a 32.8 miles per gallon, all the way out here. Pretty good for my car.
The plan for tomorrow, is to drive basically straight east from here over to Denver, CO. This is another 500 some miles, so its gonna be another long day.
Stefan's Shipping off to Boston: Day 0
So today was my last full day in California, and holy shit was I busy. I had to get everything ready for my early morning departure and I was going to meet basically all of the Irvine people at Olive Garden for Hannah's birthday dinner. This was my last chance to see everyone, and it was great. I had a lot of fun, and I'm really gonna miss all of the band people. Its going to be sad when basketball season rolls around and I'm not a part of the UCI Band.
If I didn't get to see you recently, I'm sorry. I wish I could have seen absolutely everyone, but thats how it goes.
To illustrate how busy I was today, here is part of my to-do list:
Get an oil change
Get gas,
Wash my car
Pack my car with the boxes that are packed
Finish the laundry
Pack my clothes
Prepare to pack my computer
Buy extra oil and coolant
Go to Target to buy a Cooler and Snacks.
Pack up the Wii
Print out the directions and assemble all of the assorted maps.
Put music on my ipod for the drive
There was more stuff to do, but I don't remember the rest of the list.
Music today, while I was preparing was a lot of Death Metal. Opeth, Amon Amarth and Eveulite all got heard today. Something about Death Metal makes me productive.
Anyway, the plan for tomorrow is:
Leave at 8am, and drive to Vegas. Have a lunch break in Vegas. Then continue on to a little town about an hour and a half north of Zion National Park in Utah. The town is called Beaver. The drive itself is a bit over 8 hours. I will post the mileage and all of that once I get there.
Now off to bed. Gotta start this trip off right..
If I didn't get to see you recently, I'm sorry. I wish I could have seen absolutely everyone, but thats how it goes.
To illustrate how busy I was today, here is part of my to-do list:
Get an oil change
Get gas,
Wash my car
Pack my car with the boxes that are packed
Finish the laundry
Pack my clothes
Prepare to pack my computer
Buy extra oil and coolant
Go to Target to buy a Cooler and Snacks.
Pack up the Wii
Print out the directions and assemble all of the assorted maps.
Put music on my ipod for the drive
There was more stuff to do, but I don't remember the rest of the list.
Music today, while I was preparing was a lot of Death Metal. Opeth, Amon Amarth and Eveulite all got heard today. Something about Death Metal makes me productive.
Anyway, the plan for tomorrow is:
Leave at 8am, and drive to Vegas. Have a lunch break in Vegas. Then continue on to a little town about an hour and a half north of Zion National Park in Utah. The town is called Beaver. The drive itself is a bit over 8 hours. I will post the mileage and all of that once I get there.
Now off to bed. Gotta start this trip off right..
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World Review
My first exposure to Scott Pilgrim was a trailer I saw on one of the video game blogs I frequent, (Kotaku). This was several months ago, so I had never head of the graphic novels or the characters. The trailer was intriguing, as was the subsequent breakdown of all of the pop culture references crammed into that minute and a half. I was intrigued, but not overly so. Anyway, time passed and the hype about Scott Pilgrim grew. So when I was given a chance to read the graphic novels, I jumped on it (thanks Allison!).
The Scott Pilgrim graphic novel series is an interesting thing. At its core it seems to be a simple love story. Boy meets girl, falls in love, must overcome obstacles to be with girl, and eventually succeeds. No surprises there. But the interesting part is how its wrapped in a generous helping of blatant metaphors, the actuality of fighting Ramona's ex-es, the pop-culture and Canadian references, and perhaps most importantly the complete non-existence of the 4th wall. This is a graphic novel about making graphic novels. The characters frequently reference the fact that there are still multiple chapters or books left in the series, and the book is almost mocking you for attempting to take its story seriously. It is an exercise in pushing us to suspend our disbelief and seeing how much we will actually buy into. Actually fighting the ex-es? Sure, we can take that at face value. Leveling up? Yea, thats just a metaphor for character development right? But its not. Thats the entire point of the book. These aspects exist simply to exist. It is a remarkably self-aware parody of the entire genre. And it even goes beyond other genre parody to the point where it understands that it is within the genre it is parodying, it becomes self-parody. After finishing the final book, one thought occurred to me. How the hell were they going to make this into a movie? How could you even attempt to do the types of things that were accomplished in the movie without making it flat and trite?
Another major concern of transforming the graphic novels into a workable movie was the casting choice. The decision to cast Michael Cera as the lead was a decision almost universally mocked. Would he take this interesting, brash, willfully-ignorant, asshole-ish character and turn him into the bumbling socially-award George Michael that seemed to befall every single other role that Cera portrays?
Luckily for the viewer, Cera's performance is great. His portrayal of Scott Pilgrim is spot on. No worries there. (Whew)
However the big issue was, how can all of the details I talked about earlier transform into a movie without it losing its entire soul? It would be easy to just take the core story of Scott Pilgrim and make a movie about that, but it would be defeating the point as the graphic novels were so much more than that. So what did they do?
They took the idea of self-parody and applied it to the movie. There I said it. Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World is a parody of every movie ever, AND itself. And its brilliant.
It is the Anti-Inception and gloriously so. Here's why; a common dissection of Inception is that it is a look at the way action movies are made. Large action set-pieces are delicately crafted and weaved together to create something believable for the person experiencing the movie. So much so that the individual doesn't even recognize that they are watching a movie. The word bandied around to describe this is immersion, although that seems to be technically incorrect.
But anyway, it seems like the creators of Scott Pilgrim saw all of this, and simply went, “Well, fuck that. Lets just throw things together. Fuck immersion. Fuck character introductions, fuck drawing the viewer in. Lets just made a goddamn movie.”
Then they went and smoked large amounts of weed, drank 4 cups of coffee and played Street Fighter for 12 hours straight. Then wrote a script.
You never forget you are watching a movie while sitting through Scott Pilgrim. The movie doesn't let you. But thats not the point. It makes you look at yourself and laugh and go, “Am I really going to let this level of disbelief slide?” And you don't. But thats what makes it funny. You are laughing at your inability to accept the actions of the characters. They don't care. They don't tell jokes. They just interact within this insane world they inhabit. You, the viewer, can't understand this world, and you don't want to. So you laugh, because why would vegans have physic powers? And why would ANYONE accept that as justification? But they do. Its fine. Thats just how it works. You don't need explanations. Scott Pilgrim doesn't need to have a training montage to show how he learns how to fight. He just does. You don't need to have an establishing shot to understand whats going on. You just need a quick cut to a black screen, or to another background. When two characters are having a conversation, you don't pay attention to the background, so why have it? Cut it out! Its gloriously minimalistic, all extraneous, artful pretenses are thrown out the window. Movies are about being entertained by the absurd. So Here is a giant pile of absurd. Be Entertained!
The Scott Pilgrim graphic novel series is an interesting thing. At its core it seems to be a simple love story. Boy meets girl, falls in love, must overcome obstacles to be with girl, and eventually succeeds. No surprises there. But the interesting part is how its wrapped in a generous helping of blatant metaphors, the actuality of fighting Ramona's ex-es, the pop-culture and Canadian references, and perhaps most importantly the complete non-existence of the 4th wall. This is a graphic novel about making graphic novels. The characters frequently reference the fact that there are still multiple chapters or books left in the series, and the book is almost mocking you for attempting to take its story seriously. It is an exercise in pushing us to suspend our disbelief and seeing how much we will actually buy into. Actually fighting the ex-es? Sure, we can take that at face value. Leveling up? Yea, thats just a metaphor for character development right? But its not. Thats the entire point of the book. These aspects exist simply to exist. It is a remarkably self-aware parody of the entire genre. And it even goes beyond other genre parody to the point where it understands that it is within the genre it is parodying, it becomes self-parody. After finishing the final book, one thought occurred to me. How the hell were they going to make this into a movie? How could you even attempt to do the types of things that were accomplished in the movie without making it flat and trite?
Another major concern of transforming the graphic novels into a workable movie was the casting choice. The decision to cast Michael Cera as the lead was a decision almost universally mocked. Would he take this interesting, brash, willfully-ignorant, asshole-ish character and turn him into the bumbling socially-award George Michael that seemed to befall every single other role that Cera portrays?
Luckily for the viewer, Cera's performance is great. His portrayal of Scott Pilgrim is spot on. No worries there. (Whew)
However the big issue was, how can all of the details I talked about earlier transform into a movie without it losing its entire soul? It would be easy to just take the core story of Scott Pilgrim and make a movie about that, but it would be defeating the point as the graphic novels were so much more than that. So what did they do?
They took the idea of self-parody and applied it to the movie. There I said it. Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World is a parody of every movie ever, AND itself. And its brilliant.
It is the Anti-Inception and gloriously so. Here's why; a common dissection of Inception is that it is a look at the way action movies are made. Large action set-pieces are delicately crafted and weaved together to create something believable for the person experiencing the movie. So much so that the individual doesn't even recognize that they are watching a movie. The word bandied around to describe this is immersion, although that seems to be technically incorrect.
But anyway, it seems like the creators of Scott Pilgrim saw all of this, and simply went, “Well, fuck that. Lets just throw things together. Fuck immersion. Fuck character introductions, fuck drawing the viewer in. Lets just made a goddamn movie.”
Then they went and smoked large amounts of weed, drank 4 cups of coffee and played Street Fighter for 12 hours straight. Then wrote a script.
You never forget you are watching a movie while sitting through Scott Pilgrim. The movie doesn't let you. But thats not the point. It makes you look at yourself and laugh and go, “Am I really going to let this level of disbelief slide?” And you don't. But thats what makes it funny. You are laughing at your inability to accept the actions of the characters. They don't care. They don't tell jokes. They just interact within this insane world they inhabit. You, the viewer, can't understand this world, and you don't want to. So you laugh, because why would vegans have physic powers? And why would ANYONE accept that as justification? But they do. Its fine. Thats just how it works. You don't need explanations. Scott Pilgrim doesn't need to have a training montage to show how he learns how to fight. He just does. You don't need to have an establishing shot to understand whats going on. You just need a quick cut to a black screen, or to another background. When two characters are having a conversation, you don't pay attention to the background, so why have it? Cut it out! Its gloriously minimalistic, all extraneous, artful pretenses are thrown out the window. Movies are about being entertained by the absurd. So Here is a giant pile of absurd. Be Entertained!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
