Friday, December 17, 2010

The Dublin Days Are Over

Hello everyone. Tomorrow I get on a plane and head back to the States. I can't believe my semester abroad is over!

Last weekend I worked very hard to finish my script. I felt my brain slowly shutting down from the creative overload, but I powered through it to write an 80-page screenplay. I handed it in this past Monday to Colin. It was like having weight lifted off my shoulders. I'll probably still work on it on and off for the next few years until somehow I can get it made.

Sunday I decided to be social and went out with my roommates Hannah and Erica along with some other friends to a Christmas festivals near the docks in Dublin. It was a little warm, but eventually it got cold when dark came.


This area was like a whole new side of Dublin we never saw.


The festival was so pretty. It had mostly German booths, like sausages, candy, cakes, as well as gift shops and little bars that sold mulled wine. It reminded me of the little market in Bryant Park next to the skating rink during the holidays. There were so many sweets I wanted to eat! I ended up snacking on some small cakes my friends got and a candy apple.



Unfortunately I didn't stay long because it was getting cold and I needed to finish my script. So Erica, Hannah, and I took a bus back to Griffith. It was my first time taking the Dublin bus!

First Dublin double decker bus ride!
 Monday was really exciting. We had to go to Tisch to print out our scripts as well as our treatments, step outlines, synopsis, and character analysis. Colin didn't come in cause he lives 2 hours away, so Susanne collected everything to mail to him. Free at last! Well, sort of. I still had an Irish Cinema essay to write, but I took a break.

Monday night was our 'Tischmas' Party, where we all gathered in a room to celebrate Christmas and the end of the semester. We had had our final Secret Santa exchange too. We put our presents in a big black bag and Sourabh gave them all out, and we guessed who our Secret Santa was. Erica was my Secret Santa, and I was Kasey's. Erica had given me some very cute presents. Love her!



Me and Erica, with David the Rabbit.
Present time!

Tuesday night was the screening of the music videos, hosted by Hot Press Magazine. The production students finally got to show everyone, including their band, the music videos they worked so hard on. They came out really well! Everyone did a really great job, and all the videos were well-received. The pictures from the event are here.

:)
Photo courtesy of Hot Press
The night ended well for me. Colin took some of us out to a hotel bar next door and bought us wine while we sat chatting about films. The hotel was owned by U2 and they served us little cheeses and bread. Fancy and pretentious much, I know.

Wednesday was the the reading of the Screenwriting class' screenplays. Tisch hired five professional actors to come in and read 10 pages of our scripts. We were all super nervous for this. My script was read third. I felt a little embarrassed, but the actors were really great. Colin put up a photo for each story on the projector. I guess I never really talked about my script in terms of story. Right now, my script is about a single mother of three living the perfect life until one of her daughters leaves and things start to go wrong.

After the reading Susanne took us out to dinner to a fancy wine bar. I had the best steak ever there. I also tried some mulled wine, which is seasonal, and it was the most delicious wine I ever tasted. And I'm not really a fan of wine.

It's kind of sad that the semester in Dublin is over. I finished my essay Wednesday night, which marked my last academic responsibility here. Yesterday we all met for the last time in Tisch to do evaluations for the program, and the Susanne played the movie Once for us. It was really good, plus the music was also good and it was fun recognizing all the streets in Dublin. I spent most of the night packing everything. I'm pretty much done. My suitcases are stuff though, I hope they aren't overweight!

I'll probably do one more post after this one, and then that's about it for my Ireland blog. Hopefully I'll start another one because I really do blogging and I'm kind of over LiveJournal.

Cheers!

Saturday, December 11, 2010

Last Week In Dublin!

Hello everyone! Today is the 11th, which means 7 days until I go home. It feels like I've been in Dublin for a long time, and yet the semester went by so fast. I'm trying to get my screenplay revised by Monday, but it's so much more work than I though, especially since I draft was 50 pages short >.< I'm growing tired and restless of writing. The draft is due Monday, along with all the short documents, by 11 am. Once that is done I have to start my Irish Cinema paper.

Last week was the final week of classes. I had one last theater review to hand in for Irish Drama and a group presentation. I was in a group with two of my roommates and we did our presentation on the play Disco Pigs. We also has a guest speaker, the writer of Freefall, a play we saw the week before.

The last day of screenwriting was Wednesday. Colin gave a talk about producers and how to make it in the industry. Our final movie screening was It's A Wonderful Life. Half of us were crying at the end; that movie has the happiest ending ever. Colin took us out for drinks afterward.

Irish Cinema ended on Thursday. We watched the film Adam & Paul bought two drug users spending a day in Dublin trying to get their next fix. Afterwards the director of the film came in the talk to us.

Since then I've been trying to revise my script.

Our group is doing a Secret Santa. Tuesday and Thursday we had to give gifts under 2 euro along with a clue. My Secret Santa got me socks and some cute cellphone charms. Our final exchange is on Monday at our "Tischmas" Party. Even though there's no classes next week, we have the music video screenings and our script readings. Plus paper writing.

Good luck to those with finals!

Friday, December 3, 2010

Janelle Monáe @ Tripod - 12/1/10

Hello everyone! Now that it's December there's only 2 weeks left in the semester, which is 16 days! I can't believe it!

Since last Friday it has been snowing in Dublin. That's right:snowing. Normally it doesn't snow in Dublin, and if it does it's flurries that don't stick to the ground. And that doesn't come until January. But now it's been snowing heavily on and off for almost a week. Usually it rains a lot on and off, but now the rain has turned to snow. Since the Irish aren't quite used to these harsh conditions, transportation has slowed or been canceled. Also, the streets haven't been plowed and the sidewalks haven't been shoveled. The snow froze so I'm practically skating to class. And for some reason the Irish (especially the kids) like to throw snowballs at random people. I haven't been attacked yet, but most of my friends have.

Snowy view from my window
Last night I went to see Janelle Monáe at the Tripod. I found out that her Dec 19th Dublin show was changed to Dec 1st because she'll be in the States touring with Prince. When I read in Hot Press last week that she is playing the 1st I quickly bought a ticket as soon as I got home.

For those of you who don't know, Janelle is an R&B/Soul/Funk singer. She's highly influenced by Prince and James Brown. She always wears tuxedo-like outfits and rocks a pompadour. Her album, The ArchAndriod is a concept album about an andriod in the future.

The doors opened at 7:30 PM. I walked through snowy weather from Tisch to Tripod. Tripod is a medium-sized venue. When I got there I was so impatient for the show to start. People waited at the bar for the doors to the floor to open. A girl approached me and we started talking about how much we loved Janelle, and we kinda stuck together for the rest of the show because we were both by ourselves. When the doors opened we went straight to the front. Great spots.

The opening act was Brian Deady, a singer from Cork who had a great soul/funk sound. He only had his bassist with him, plus his MacBook to play the beats. He was pretty good, I liked him. First concert I've been to where I was able to dance and not worry about mosh pits and crowd surfers.

Brian Deady

Janelle went on after 9 PM. I was so pumped. One of her band members came up to introduce her, and then all her band members came on stage. They started out with "Dance or Die", and Janelle made an entrance with her two backup dancers. I screamed my head off when I saw her.




Janelle is such an amazing performer. I screamed at the top of my lungs for her. She's so cute too. It was my birthday so her band came out with a cake for her and we all sang "Happy Birthday" to her. She then performed "Tightrope" and got really emotional. She's also a great dancer too. I took some videos of her on my camera.



The best part was her performance of "Come Alive." She had everyone sing with her, then jumped right in the crowd. I was so close to her!

"Come Alive" was her last song before she ended her set. However, we weren't ready to let her go just yet. We screamed and clapped and cheered for an encore, and sure enough she came back! She was so happy and grateful. While she didn't sing two of my favorite songs ("Many Moons" and "Violet Stars Happy Hunting!") her show was so great. I'm glad I finally got to see her.


Here's the (low quality) videos I took. You can see Janelle in all her awesomeness.
"Sincerely, Jane": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WraEy-2lf74
"Cold War": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_uSd7CIe1w
"Tightrope": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nq1llGThVVY
"Come Alive": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DiY5y3nSjI

Now, off to finishing that screenplay.