Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in Michael's LiveJournal:

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Wednesday, June 4th, 2008
11:38 am	Home... for the last time? I honestly don't know what I'm doing in this one. So, I totes just graduated last week, and I'm still too stunned to really reflect on it. I'm gonna miss that place. Like, a lot. That brings be to Miami, where I'm lounging around the house with puffy cheeks after having been robbed of my wisdom teeth. I haven't really been out much over the past week, but that has more to do with my inability to drive than it does anything else. Also, I've gotten so used to being on a campus where I can just walk over and visit friends spontaneously, and making plans just feels weird to me. Necessary evils, folks! I leave for Argentina at the end of the month. I will likely grace Miami with my presence on the way back, but otherwise I will likely be moving to New York in the fall. I don't really have a plan, or even a job. It's a challenge, I guess. I will surely be at once scared and excited. More on that later. Also, I'm thinking about putting to rest this LJ – as soon as October comes around, all of my picture hosting will go down the drain, and I'll be writing with a different purpose/audience in mind. The LJ interface is rather bulky, and I know a fair amount of HTML, so I'm guessing Blogspot might be my next stop. To conclude, my wonderfully ridic "Latin American Film" final, starring my roomie: 2 comments | Leave a comment!
Monday, May 5th, 2008
1:25 am	Last Paper I'm working on my last Yale paper (in English, at least). If it weren't already bad enough that it was due last Friday, I have been sleeping in the library and getting little to no work done. I still have 4 pages to go, and all I can think is: "second-semester senior." David just sent in his thesis, which is actually pretty close to a million pages. Also, some exciting things: 1) A couple of nominations. Doubtful wins, but I could potentially tote a flag around graduation. And boy do I love flags! 2) The Yale Art Gallery will be funding me for a few months as I head back to Buenos Aires to independently study/make digital art. I am still kind of speechless, two days later. I feel somehow validated in the choices I've made over the past year. Thinking back to 2004, I think I can honestly say I have no real regrets. And just for the record – because I know it might not always seem this way in my LiveJournal – I really don't take these things for granted. 4 comments | Leave a comment!
Thursday, May 1st, 2008
10:00 pm	And now for something completely different... I've been taking a poetry seminar (I know, totally ran-doh). Here's some stuff. My personal favorite is the last one. ( Poems ) 7 comments | Leave a comment!
Friday, April 18th, 2008
12:15 pm	My First Review Check it out HERE! The final paragraph really brings it home: "As the film progresses and unravels the tenants’ intertwining lives, the split-screen and masterful juxtaposition of scenes create mystery and drama. The individual scenes are shot beautifully and impressive if shown independently. While the simultaneous presentation of scenes occasionally detracts from an individual scene’s effectiveness, the film overall succeeds in balancing the scenes’ moods and visual impact to create a highly dramatic and aesthetic result. Mystery, romance, drama, edgy cinematography and superb acting, “Everyone Who Has Ever Lived Here” shows true vision and talent." Excited!!! 1 comment | Leave a comment!
Sunday, April 13th, 2008
7:57 pm	A Bad Dream? So, you know those dreams where you're on stage in the middle of a play, and you don't know the lines? I had one of those today. In my dream, I am asked to speak on a panel at a conference, and I am not told where the conference is. In an effort to not be late, I accidentally mismatch white ankle-socks with black suit and flamboyant button-up. I waltz over to WLH (somehow I came up with the idea that it would be in a classroom there) and there isn't a single person in sight. Oops? I find a program on the floor – the panel is in Woolsey. Um, that's a big room. And it seats 2400 or something nuts like that. This is Woolsey Hall. ( There's a point to all this ) 2 comments | Leave a comment!
Friday, April 4th, 2008
7:12 pm	Thesis Film Update It's almost done! For real this time. After three weeks spent locked in a computer lab, sleeping in the library next door, sleep-deprived and overnourished, "Everyone Who Has Ever Lived Here" is finally taking form. I could have been spending two glorious weeks of Spring Break in some exotic location (or, you know, back home in Miami – as much as I love New Haven, let's be honest: I could have been tanning!). But unfortunately, as much as I'm gonna hate to, I have to graduate (I've been telling myself: the first step is admitting it). (Watch the Hi-Qual version HERE.) ( Filmmaking 101 ) 5 comments | Leave a comment!
Wednesday, March 26th, 2008
4:26 pm	Spice Girls I saw the Spice Girls. Front row. That is all. ( MISSION ACCOMPLISHED ) 7 comments | Leave a comment!
Monday, March 3rd, 2008
9:45 pm	oh man oh man oh man A quick update! We basically finished shooting (after the longest, most stressful day of recording EVERRR), am currently trying to plow through all of the work I let pile up over the course of the semester. (Well, it's less of a 'plow' and more of a 'slow drag.') Am running on little to no sleep, missing my bed, letting my room clutter, wishing I were a faster writer, pulling my second all-nighter in a row (is it my fault? ugh, probably), looking like a mess... but somehow it's a pretty good time (when you're not having a heart attack). (I love Ms. Needlman) 2 comments | Leave a comment!
Wednesday, February 6th, 2008
4:10 pm	Making a Movie This whole filmmaking thing is exhausting business, and it's quite possibly harder than anything I've ever done. You know, once upon a time, I was a mouse-injecting, cell-splicing pre-med. And now I spend my nights obsessing over whether those curtains are going to look funky with that couch. I went from Fruit Fly (omg, am I actually making a drosophila joke?) to Queer Eye. I mean, it didn't happen overnight, but there was a long period of time during which I decided to hold off on film in order to pursue medicine. But gradually, in between running gels and spinning down test tubes full of cellular gunk, I found myself arranging film treatments and sketching badly-drawn wire-frame storyboards. Somewhere along the way, I grew a pair, became a film major, and started writing a script. I had no clue how I was going to produce it, I had never directed a narrative film before, and all I had was a crazy idea. My story begins in London... ( Everyone Who Has Ever Lived Here ) 4 comments | Leave a comment!
Thursday, January 3rd, 2008
6:04 pm	¡Saludos Desde México! So, I sorta bought a ticket to México. It's basically my last opportunity to travel before graduating (yeah, there's spring break, but I can't imagine I'll have much time while editing "Lived Here"), and México just seemed like the right destination. Besides, it's closer to Miami than New Haven! This post comes to you from a dark callejon where an internet café happens to be located. I'll post more pictures when I get back to the States (in a week or so), but for now: ( México ) And stay tuned as I wig out trying to finish my thesis film! 2 comments | Leave a comment!
Tuesday, December 11th, 2007
6:36 am	I am procrastinating. It wouldn't be finals period if I weren't writing in my LiveJournal, which I seem to have avoided for the greater part of the semester (I'm getting back into it, though, I promise). As my penultimate semester at Yale wraps up, I feel way too close to the end of May, when Mother Yale will violently cut the umbilical cord and release me into a larger, less-supportive pond, forcing me to find some second-rate gig as a PA, unpaid intern, or some sort of live-in house boy. All, I fear, will leave me a frustrated filmmaker – which, to the rest of the world, simply means that I'm frustrated. As much as I'm in love with this place, I feel like I'll end up appreciating it a hundred times more come April. I'll trade American Collegiate Gothic for pre-gentrified New York roachnest, dining hall food for on-the-run pizza and canned beans (kudos if you get the triple-meaning, considering my recent course-list), and late-night intellectual banter for taxi-cab confessionals. Storyboard by G. Needlman – yes, you read that correctly. But while I'm still here, I might as well go out with a bang. "Lived Here" is going quasi-smoothly, minus one actor. We have our first confirmed actress, whom I'll post about sometime in the near future – O. Horton, Stanford alum and all-around amazing talent. Performed a selection from "Seagull" at the New York auditions, left us drop-jawed. Still waiting to hear from the others, and one left to contact. Ugh, okay. The sun is starting to rise (I took a nap, which turned into sleep, which means my circadian rhythm is more like an irregular pitter-patter), and I need to start devoting more time to my paper on Saul Bass' opening title sequences in three Hitch films – Psycho, North by Northwest, and Vertigo. You can already see the effects of my early-morning bobble-head kicking in! :) 21 comments | Leave a comment!
Monday, December 3rd, 2007
4:33 pm	I'm Alive! Whew, some much-needed down time. Time for an update. From the beginning: ( An Update! ) 3 comments | Leave a comment!
Tuesday, October 30th, 2007
3:14 am	Posts A-comin' Okay, so I will post soon about: 1) Amazing pre-Halloween partying with Susy and the gang. 2) My first paid gig working on video design for Baal at the School of Drama. 3) Starting the pre-production of my thesis film. (Shoot me an e-mail if you wanna get involved!) Leave a comment!
Saturday, September 8th, 2007
2:42 am	Okay, I finally figured out how to start my article...     "El macho latino es solamente macho para las mujeres," said Carola, pausing to draw in the white of her cigarette. "No para nosotras."     She was 6'3", platinum blonde, matching eyebrows. She was usually pretty good at blowing smoke rings, but the wine had been too much, and instead the smoke was brimming over the corners of her mouth.     She put out the cigarette on a wooden table, leaving ashes in the scratches. 6 comments | Leave a comment!
Sunday, August 5th, 2007
5:25 am	Buenos Aires, a Not-Quite-Summary I'm horrible at updating while abroad. However, I seem to have signed up to jump out of a plane today, and this may or may not be the last time you hear from me. So consider this a pending farewell. ( Buenos Aires ) Okay, off to bed. That's all for now... Wish me luck! Maybe I'll post again if I land in one piece. (Oh, heck, just check for Facebook activity...) (UPDATE: Bad weather, had to reschedule. Damn.) 4 comments | Leave a comment!
Thursday, June 28th, 2007
2:32 am	I'm Bad at Updating 15 comments | Leave a comment!
Thursday, May 10th, 2007
5:25 am	Almost Done... Another year blogging for pre-frosh is over, and I now come to document the beginning of my summer. Before that begins, however, I have one more final left. The other day, I submitted (late, as per usual) two finals, both of which I had a pretty good time writing: one on the film Shortbus, and another on Beloved. The one I'm trying to wrap up now is on Japanese horror and American remakes, like The Ring. I was actually a huge nuisance doing research for that paper, screaming in the middle of WHC as other people were writing their finals... That'll mark the end of my exams, but it doesn't mean I'm done by any means. I, uhhh... forgot that senior proposals were due, meaning I have to write a treatment for my thesis film, "Everyone Who Has Ever Lived Here," very soon. Like, now. All I really have is the crappy first paragraph of the short story I'm adapting:      It was in the morning that he liked to unshelve his 1950 Olivetti. Had you lived next door, you would have heard it: two fingers, one after the other, with the regularity of clockwork. His day began as soon as the first typebar struck the platen. But the days had become shorter, and it was never long before his hands went stiff. Well, everything's outlined, actually. I just need to give it some sort of organic I-don't-know-what. And make it not as boring as it sounds. Anyhow, I come back to Miami on the 14th and leave for Argentina on the 21st, where I'll be scripting this bad boy, filming a docu on Yale's dollar, and hopefully having a bit of fun on the side. If you're in the MIA, drop me a line. But for now, I'm just procrastinating by writing here. For shame. Later... Oh, and just so I'm not picture-less, my room: 4 comments | Leave a comment!
Tuesday, April 24th, 2007
3:56 pm	Michael and his Mac: A Love Story I know this has been a rather hot topic of discussion lately. Are you bringing sexy Mac? Are you PC or un-PC? Today, I offer my professional opinion, all of which should be taken as cold, hard fact. But rather than compare specs, I'm going to take the unconventional approach to the centuries-old question: Mac or PC? God matriculates to Yale... on his Mac! He says He's "hella excited" (no pun inteded) to be a part of 2011! ( Warning: More Hilary Duff Below ) 5 comments | Leave a comment!
Friday, March 23rd, 2007
4:18 pm	London Wrap-Up It is becoming more and more apparent to me why I chose the right Spring Break destination. I can't believe I'm about to leave tomorrow, and it has been so much fun. This has all been so perfect. Here's just a slice of what went down: Yes, that is Hilary Duff. ( London Wrap-Up ) 10 comments | Leave a comment!
Saturday, March 10th, 2007
2:28 pm	Greetings from London! Greetings from London! No, not London, Mpumalanga... London, ENGLAND! The land of fish and chips, the Queen, and propah accents... But before I tell you how awesome this place is (even though I've only been here for a day), let me tell you how my last week went down: The paper I submitted just before I hopped on the train to NY. My professor definitely e-mailed me back shortly after about the title... ( Pre-London ) 5 comments | Leave a comment!