Saturday 27 February 2010

Back in AB

And so it goes, back in Alberta, again. One of my best friends went to Vancouver today from Toronto for her reading week, and I didn't get the chance to go out to Victoria, or even see all of my friends in Vancouver; was not ready to leave! Back to the same old... hole myself up in my room on my computer and leave the house to go to the gym. What an existence. Even one more week of this will drive me crazy.

My American passport arrived so I can up and go to the States now with ease, but I have a pending second interview with the Toronto Blue Jays so I'm holding out for that. It would just be for the season, so until beginning of October, and that is something I should accept if offered. It's not like I would have to actually live in Toronto for so long, and I'm sure it would be fun enough. I've enjoyed my promotions jobs in the past. Not sure what sort of chance I have of getting the position, but still worth it to put up with Edmonton for an extra week or so and not commit to moving anywhere before knowing if I got the position and should be driving to Toronto.

On a lighter note, although I did filming during the Olympics which impeded me from taking as many photos as I otherwise would have, I still got a nice album's worth. It can be viewed in the following link as a Public Facebook Album. Of course, if we're friends on Facebook then it will just show up as normally viewing it.

Canada did awesome today in the Olympics. Would have been so awesome to go out again. I haven't gotten trashed like that since going out with the Rugby girls in Leeds! Seems I can still indeed take a full pitcher and a couple extra drinks on the side and still be somewhat comprehensible.

I will archive the footage from the Olympics soon and figure out how I'm going to piece it together. I only got about 2.5 hours of footage -far short of the seven hours of tape I bought, but I still caught some decent stuff. Shame I don't have anything more complex than iMovie, but I'll make it work and can always make something more advanced in the future.

Currently being a sap and listening to Adam Lambert to a bit of an excess.

Confused.

Wednesday 24 February 2010

On my way out the door

Vancouver has been absolutely amazing. I definitely needed a few more days to fit everything in, but it was still fantastic. I had forgotten how much I liked living here and don't fancy going back home...

The city has been insane, here is my super awesome video which witnesses the madness:

Granville and Robson at night in Van City

Flying home at noon unfortunately. Will post more, perhaps a photo essay or something, once back. Doing that may be second priority, though, to getting to the gym ASAP upon return!

Wednesday 17 February 2010

Off to Vancouver!!

Watching Canada play Norway and leaving for the airport in 45min, yay!

I will have NO sleep this week; will be totally crazy. Curling in the morning then staying in Van for the day so that I can get to the transport hub in North Van on time to get to my Whistler event in the early morning hours of Thursday.

Eeeeeeeee! haha

In preparation, I went skiing yesterday and made a video of it. Training; I will be competing as a top Canadian athlete in 2014 :P

Skiing Video

Woo, Canada FINALLY scores! Iginla

Ok, closing my computer, will post once I'm there :)

Monday 15 February 2010

Skating

I had a lovely afternoon skating at Hawrelak Park in Edmonton today. I made a small video from it which I have posted to Youtube:

Skating video

I quite enjoy the video myself. I wanted to focus on the family atmosphere of the place, and the beauty of children learning to skate. I myself was brought to Hawrelak as a child and I remember trying to learn to skate on figure skates... it wasn't until I was allowed to get hockey skates that I really learned to skate properly: something about how figure skates have heals, it made it difficult for me to push off properly and really get good pace and strides.

I also just bought an Olympic Biathlon ticket! It wasn't incredibly expensive (hardly the $22,000 being asked for men's half-pipe snowboard on Cypress!), and I'm really excited! This way I can go up to the town of Whistler. Unless people have event tickets, they are not allowed up to Whistler over the course of the games. I really wanted to go to see what it's like up there, and just for the experience, so this is great! I have to leave where I'm staying at around 5am, but still worth it; and I can catch up on sleep on the way there. This will make for some great filming! I will have to miss the Our Lady Peace concert to go, but I've seen them three times before anyhow and there's other concerts to go the remaining days I'm there!

Also, I e-mailed the Olympic press people and they said video cameras are allowed in the venues as long as the footage isn't for commercial use. That's perfect! Footage from the curling event in Richmond will really add to the documentary :)

Sunday 14 February 2010

Megavideo claims I watched 72 min when I didn't even make it through half an episode of the Guardian. Probably because I skipped little pieces toward the beginning trying to find my spot from last night. Unfair. Now I have 54min to fill before I can watch again.

An astute person may note that I could perhaps do something productive with my time, or go to sleep since it is 1am, but neither of those options have occurred to me.

I did edit a couple more photos from NY though. Since I only have iPhoto and don't have any advanced photo software, I would love to do more complex things with the photos, but right now it's the best I can do. I would really love to fool around with colour on b&w. Fading can work o.k. in some of my shots since I took photos of signs, and the surroundings turn grey much quicker than the object, but it's still not quite the effect I want.

Oh, and while the first photo uploads, I am going to mention that I am to make a website. I am debating between evarcohen.com and evacohen.net. I think to have a .com would be great since it's the basic end of a website url, but I don't like it as much with my middle initial in there. When I get out of bed to go downstairs to grab my credit card from my wallet is when I will make the decision. That may not be until the morning.

Hm, and while the second photo uploads, I'll explain that I am hoping I can get two photos side-by-side. I chose the first photo to be aligned on the left, and the second one on the right, but formatting-wise, it will probably just pile them atop one another just lined up differently. I guess I shall see. It will be annoying to upload the photos again if this doesn't work... Perhaps someone can teach me some new html to align it myself? :) I taught myself basic html in high school, but that was quite some time ago, and never had a need to use it since.

Uch, well, obviously you are reading this after the post is done, and you will see that I have failed in the photo alignment. Annoying.




Anyway, I loved this when I came upon it while wandering around downtown NY. Huge ad for the Watchmen. The first is the edit, the second the original. Which do you like better? You can click on the photos and they will open into full size; I think the colour shows up better in the full size. Same for two posts ago with the first NY photo.

I saw a preview for the film called Kick Ass or something tonight when I went to see From Paris with Love (I felt like I would go deaf from all the gun fire, and John Travolta played a crazy mother f*****!), and it looks funny, but definitely an idea stolen from the Watchmen. I wonder if there will be any rights infringement claims?

Friday 12 February 2010

Beautiful

This Youtube video appeared on my FB newsfeed posted by a lovely actress named Ali Tataryn in Winnipeg.

I watched its entirety and it is beautiful. Just wanted to share. It's a cover on guitar done by a tremendously talented young boy. A lovely piece to just absorb before bed.


'Night

Cords Up

I have gathered together everything I need for my camera: all the different kind of cords, chargers, extra tapes, accessories... haha it's exciting just to see it all sitting there together in anticipation of filming!

I bought curling tickets today so will be going on Wednesday with my aunt :)

Aaaand going to Our Lady Peace with Mai in Richmond! The first time I saw them was in GM place in Van in grade 11. Coming full circle :P

More later.

Thursday 11 February 2010

Swimming

I'm sort of swimming in interviews right now. I bombed one yesterday with the Edmonton Journal, but I didn't want it anyway, and I don't think it was my fault. The woman calls me up and is like "my daughter is about to have surgery, but she's going to be ok," and then is clearly distracted and uninterested the entire time she is speaking to me. But yeah, I accepted the interview, but really, wouldn't have wanted to have been stuck here until the end of August.

Also have been contacted for two interviews for NY jobs. Keeping my fingers crossed for those. One of them thinks I'm based out of Pittsburgh since I put that on my resume so that I have an American address. It's promising though. I'm sure once I'm actually there I will find work. In any event, as I said, fingers crossed as both are phone interviews tomorrow.

The Blue Jays promotions interview isn't until the 18 or 19th, and I don't want to go to Toronto, but if for some reason it gets offered to me and I don't find anything in NY, I would take it -since it's only temporary for the upcoming baseball season.

Had thought of going skating tonight for the first time in forever, but had to stay in for a handyman in the house and now it's almost 9pm, the place is far away... and will just wait until the weekend and skate during the daytime; that will be far more enjoyable.

I have the TV on in front of me, but its on mute. It's just kind of humourous to watch how bad the Oilers are.

Still addicted to Simon Baker :)

Three men have graced my laptop background: Robert Pattinson, Hugh Laurie, and now Simon Baker. Pretty exclusive company. And none of them North American either, now that I think of it -but all pretending to be.

SO excited for Vancouver!! Can't wait to film. Also want to take still shots but placed my camera somewhere in my bags when I left Winnipeg and haven't come across it yet :S Haven't exactly unpacked either, but at least I recall stuffing it somewhere instead of practically putting it in a handbag or something.

In anticipation for NY, have been looking back at my photos from the summer, and edited one last night:



I love the huge Wicked ad. I saw it in London last year with Eva B and it was fantastical. I would most definitely see it again.

Oh, and the title of this post is totally a metaphor. Although that was completely obvious come the first sentence where I said I am "swimming" in interviews, really, I never swim -anymore. Nothing against it though.

Tuesday 9 February 2010

Although

Even though I spend hours of time wasted doing not a lot of anything in particular on the internet, I still don't really feel like putting in a huge effort when it comes to writing a blog post. I could make it all snazzy and attach photos; maybe in a future post come the near future.

I have discovered Simon Barker in The Guardian after watching him in The Mentalist and looking up his past credits. I think I'm done episode 6 now, of 66. That should keep me busy for a little while. It's fun to find a new series to watch obsessively :P

I'm going to Vancouver for the Olympics to film a documentary with a friend of mine from high school. I'm really excited. I am thinking up all sorts of idea for things to film in the city for b-roll, and what should be done for the main content. All I have to edit on is iMovie, but really, that's all that is needed a lot of the time; things done on Final Cut can often be over-produced: colour correction, too noticeable and active of cuts.

I have an interview with The Edmonton Journal tomorrow to work there over the summer. I had sent in an e-mail to freelance for them and heard back this evening for a paid internship position. I'll muse it over. It would mean a delayed move to NY, but probably worth it to get some experience in CanWest, even if I have been trying to get away from print. It's much better than getting hired for an actual job in print and then needing to quit come the few months down the line when I would want to move on.

As well, I have found a topic to write about for a novel. I can work on that once the post-production is complete for the Vancouver stuff :)

I missed House this evening from going to the gym, so off to watch it now on surfthechannel.

Sunday 7 February 2010

Recent articling

I have written on Feferman before for campus activism, but this article on the front page of the Vancouver Jewish Independent this week is of a different sort.

The Wandering Jew is Feferman's documentary about his trip to India, and the JI Article covers my conversation with him regarding the documentary, along with Feferman's impromptu trip to Haiti following the earthquake.

In March I will have at least one more travel article appearing from my files of travel material I collected last year while in the UK and a Ryan Air flight away from another (usually stressful and sleepless) adventure.

I've turned down several writing offers lately, and am focusing on deciding what I really want to do. I am continuing to freelance here and there to help pay the bills, but I do not want to be a beat reporter. The experience at the Winnipeg Free Press (clips) was good, but I will not be seeking a full-time job at a daily, or a paper of any run.

Currently at the Etown homebase sending off hundreds of online applications, and by around April will move to the eastern U.S.; just have to take care of such lovely things as: the bars behind my teeth to hold them in place after having braces (for the second time) weren't strong enough, so I need to be here for several weeks for retainers to push them back and put stronger bars in. Hurrah.

Perhaps I'll film something while here for fun. And even perhaps I will get inspired to actually write a novel, but I don't have high hopes.

By the way, if you want to help with the bills ;) and have an interesting Jewish story you would like to see in a newspaper, give me a holler, and I will pitch it to my flagship paper, the JI.

Have you ever noticed that the toes on your feet actually look quite mutant-y if you sit and pay attention to them, and how the bones connect to your foot, and are just sort of useless as it is almost impossible to individually move each toe?

New Moon

Here is the FB post-seeing-it conversation:

Eva Cohen FINALLY saw New Moon =) !!!

Thurs at 21:56 · ·
Eva Bach
Eva Bach
I am so proud of you! Thoughts?
Thurs at 22:07 ·
Eva Cohen
Eva Cohen
It stayed a lot more true to the novel than I was lead to believe it would. It had about as many lines right out of the text at Twilight did. Also, I read that they told Taylor Lautner he would not be hired back for New Moon if he didn't buff up, but something should have been done about Pattinson. At least a waxing of the chest... the novel repeatedly describes his body as though it is chiseled stone, like a Greek god -but his shirtless scene was unfortunately laughable :(
Thurs at 22:11 ·
Kimberley Hopkins Risling
Kimberley Hopkins Risling
pure cheese. those lines, read in your mind, don't sound as bad. Out loud - cringe worthy. I am ashamed.
Thurs at 22:18 ·
Eva Cohen
Eva Cohen
Since I don't mind staring at Robert Pattinson as he struggles over words to come out in a North American accent, I didn't really suffer, but those "you are my life" kind of lines are a hard thing to bring off the page and make vocal without sounding a bit lame, agreed.

I can't figure out how to fix the html so as to make the rest of this post have normal paragraph spacing, but in any event: I was looking forward to the film for months and then no one in Winnipeg would see it with me *shakes fist*. Looking forward to Eclipse now. I'm definitely one of those "stupid" Twilight fans, but I'm ok with that. Listening to the soundtrack on repeat now. Although I had downloaded it before the movie was released, I didn't warm up to it until after seeing the film.