I know it’s only a few weeks after my post about our engagement photos, but now there are wedding photos. As previously stated, our photographer is amazing and decided to put together a slideshow of pictures, blending preparations and wedding and reception all together in what is really a wonderful portrait of a wonderful afternoon. Everything turned out exactly how we wanted it, and I couldn’t ask for a better representation than Sarah gave us.

The song is “True Love Will Find You in the End,” a Daniel Johnston song as covered by Mates of State. We chose it not only because, well, it fits us pretty well, but also because Mates of State was the first band Jonathan and I saw together, back in July 2010. We weren’t dating yet at that point, but I think it was already on both of our minds. Mates of State were touring their Crushes album that year, a collection of covers of which this is the last on the record. They’re all great, but I think this one will always hold a special place in our hearts. Especially now, of course!

(for the record, the children are not ours – we had our whole church, which is about half kids, out for the wedding)

I don’t post too much solely personal stuff around here, though I do let it seep in a lot when I’m talking about movies or music or whatever else. This is worth its own post, though. My boyfriend Jonathan and I are now engaged, but not for long – we’re getting married this Sunday. “When you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible,” right? (When Harry Met Sally… is one of the few romantic comedies we both actually like.)

I’ve never been very good with decisions. It’s part of my INTJ personality type, I know – we like to have all the options open and continue gathering data as long as possible. After all, we may find out a piece of data that totally changes what we think and affects that decision. Choosing schools, choosing places to live, choosing where to eat dinner, choosing what movie to rent – they’re all things that take me a long time and I second guess myself constantly.

Marrying Jonathan is the easiest decision I’ve ever made in my life. The idea of NOT being with him is just…unimaginable. Thankfully he feels the same way! Now Sunday can’t come fast enough.

Yesterday, our friend and photographer Sarah took us out for some engagement photos. In a parking garage. But it fits, because we’re both city people now, and the parks and fields she often shoots engagement photos in wouldn’t really fit us. Plus, this particular parking garage has really great mountain backdrops. She was able to find all the cool patches of light seeping through the edges of the garage. An unlikely location, perhaps, but I think it turned out beautifully.

Here are just a few of my favorite shots. Click here or on any of the images to see more at Sarah’s site.

End of March update:

New restaurants: Freebirds at USC. Cheating a bit because I’ve been to Freebirds, but the one in Austin, like four years ago. Like Chipotle on steroids. Brat’s Brothers in Studio City. A twist on the hot dog joints we tend to frequent, with lots of kinds of brats, from standard ones to crazy exotic ones like ostrich, duck, and alligator. The real star is the multitude of condiments, though – wasabi mustard was a big hit. Not particularly atmospheric, though. Barney’s Beanery in Santa Monica. Fairly standard sports bar, but I *love* sports bars. Some unique burgers, which were really good, and some of the best seasoned fries I’ve ever had. A touch pricey, perhaps, but it is Santa Monica. Kyoto Sushi 3 in Valencia, on well-guided advice from a friend. Relatively inexpensive, and very tasty.

New things cooked: Grilled lamb chops, except I don’t have a grill so I broiled it instead. Still very tasty. The marinade was really good. I might cook the lamb a bit longer next time. Paired it with frozen mixed veggies – which let me just say, why does everyone seem to think carrots are the most awesomest mixed veggies? There were way more carrots in there than peas, corn, or green beans, all of which I like WAY more than carrots. But I digress. All the other things I’ve either cooked before, even though it’s been a while (fried chicken tenders, fried pickles) or came from a pre-made meal (stir fry a couple of times, hashbrowns, sausage links).

Household: Did a major cleaning early in the month, which made me a lot happier with my space. Now to just keep it that way.

Reading: Yeah, not going so good. I’m kind of stalled out on the book I NEED to be reading (Down and Dirty Pictures, about the 1990s independent film movement), though when I jump into Game of Thrones I’m pretty captivated. I just have been devoting more time to writing and going out than to reading.

Credit Card: Well, I had one paid off in the sense that I moved the balance to a non-interest one. But then I had to get my car fixed and now it’s not paid off anymore. Baby steps.

Blogging: The Cinema 101 series is underway! Only a few posts in, but I have plenty of ideas for more – just got to get time to research and write them. Suggestions for topics you’re interested in are still welcome. The Godard series on Row Three is still on hold, because I need to finish Down and Dirty Pictures before starting on Brody’s Godard book. Other things on R3 are ramping up, though – we’re all kind of redoubling our efforts to keep content flowing there (which is where a lot of my writing and planning energy have been going), so be sure to check out what we’ve got going on. Screenshot quizzes are back, Netflix Instant Recommendations are ramping up, Movies We Watched is back and hopefully weekly now, and we have a new 3×5 review series that’s pretty awesome.

Mid-February update:

Eating out less often and more adventurously is going well. I went to Ratata in Westwood, Fair Oaks Burger in Altadena, Lotus Vegan and Pitfire Pizza in North Hollywood, and Pink’s, Groundwork Coffee and Roscoe’s Chicken and Waffles in Hollywood. And cooked at home a whole lot more. Didn’t get too adventurous yet on cooking new things, but I did do some cinnamon French toast, which I don’t think I’ve ever cooked on my own before. So I’m counting that. Hope to ramp that up in the next few months and try some new dinner things.

I’ve been focusing on dishes in the “being domestic” thing, and getting better. It’s just a question of getting in the habit of doing them immediately, especially since I’m often not home for several evenings in a row. I also did some major cleaning in the bathroom, so that’s good. The rest of the apartment…uh…work in progress. Reading more is happening, but not in substantial amounts. I am getting some reading in before bed and on most lunch breaks, though.

The rest of the stuff is in various stages, but I am working on most of it actively. So, yay!

Original Post

All in all, 2010 turned out to be a pretty good year for me. It started off really crappy, with the startup I worked for hitting financial trouble and having to lay everyone off. Lots of meals of rice and ramen for a few months, but I can’t really complain because I ended up getting a job offer from the University of Southern California within three months, working in my field as a writer/video editor. I started that job in June and it’s been a great experience, and being back in an academic environment (even though I’m in administrative operations, which is faculty/staff support rather than working with students) is perfect for me.

In September, I started dating Jonathan, so at long last both my professional and personal lives are far more on track than they’ve ever been before. Earlier this year, I started volunteering at Cinefamily, a repertory cinema in LA that I’ve been patronizing regularly since I moved out here, and that’s been extremely fulfilling. Getting this blog redesigned and posting a bit more regularly to it has also been fun, and only taking away a little bit, I promise, from my posting at Row Three, where I still do the majority of my film posting. Thanks to Row Three, I’ve been able to get press passes to a few film festivals and build relationships with some publicity reps out here, which have opened up lots more opportunities for film watching and reviewing than I’ve had in past years.

But I do still have a few goals for 2011, now that a bunch of the big things are taken care of – I’d like to focus on some smaller, more fun, and more domestic things.

1. Eat out less often, but more adventurously (fewer chains, more locally-owned places).
2. Cook something new at least once a month.
3. Get my apartment clean and keep it that way (specific goals of this – do dishes immediately and sort/fold clothes promptly).
4. Spend most of my lunch breaks reading instead of playing on the internet.
5. When faced with the choice to futz around online or read before going to bed, choose to read.
6. Go to at least one music festival.
7. Go to a film festival not based in Los Angeles.
8. Move out of the Valley (okay, this is a big one).
9. Start buying, conservatively, furniture and decor that actually match instead of the hodgepodge I have.
10. Pay off a credit card (this conflicts with several of the other things, I know…*sigh*).
11. Start a Cinema 101 series on my blog.
12. Do a Jean-Luc Godard series on Row Three, which includes reading Richard Brody’s Everything is Cinema: The Working Life of Jean-Luc Godard.
13. Explore LA off the beaten path, starting with the walks in this book.

Stricken, smitten, and afflicted, see him dying on the tree!
‘Tis the Christ by man rejected; yes, my soul, ’tis he, ’tis he!
‘Tis the long-expected Prophet, David’s son, yet David’s Lord;
by his Son God now has spoken: ’tis the true and faithful Word.

Tell me, ye who hear him groaning, was there ever grief like his?
Friends thro’ fear his cause disowning, foes insulting his distress;
many hands were raised to wound him, none would interpose to save;
but the deepest stroke that pierced him was the stroke that Justice gave.

Ye who think of sin but lightly nor suppose the evil great
here may view its nature rightly, here its guilt may estimate.
Mark the sacrifice appointed, see who bears the awful load;
’tis the Word, the Lord’s Anointed, Son of Man and Son of God.

Here we have a firm foundation, here the refuge of the lost;
Christ’s the Rock of our salvation, his the name of which we boast.
Lamb of God, for sinners wounded, sacrifice to cancel guilt!
None shall ever be confounded who on him their hope have built.

words – “Stricken, Smitten, and Afflicted” by Thomas Kelly (1804)
image – “The Raising of the Cross” by Rembrandt (c 1633)

Look, it’s not a scheduled series post! Didn’t know I could still do those, didja? I had to write this down, though, while I was thinking about it. A compulsion, you might say.

My friend Lis and I have a sort of ongoing casual conversation regarding our likes and dislikes of different media. We both love television and similar music, but she can take or leave film (while I obviously cannot) and I can take or leave theatre (which she loves with pretty much the same intensity that I love film). We went together to watch a play tonight, and though we ended up agreeing fairly well on what we liked and didn’t like about the individual play, I had a few sudden insights into my preference for film and hers for theatre that I hadn’t had before.

She’s really interested in acting and how actors convey emotion. She’s also a big fan of writing, so for her, a medium of the stage is very close to perfect. The stage highlights the work of writers and actors perhaps more than any other craft. (My dad would say lighting design, but he’s an engineer. Heh.) Plus, in live theatre, the actors are RIGHT THERE, providing an instant and visceral emotional connection. But even in film, she’s similarly more drawn to acting, script, and story than anything else.

If I ranked what’s most important to me in a film – in other words, what things are more or less likely to make me enjoy or fail to enjoy a film – it goes like this: 1) direction, 2) cinematography, 3) editing, 4) story, 5) script, 6) acting and probably 7) music and 8) other concerns like set design and costumes. In other words, I’d rather watch a film that looked gorgeous and had interesting editing and mise-en-scene but mediocre acting than one with great acting that’s shot in a hamfisted manner. There are exceptions, of course – there always are. But IN GENERAL.

During the play tonight what interested me the most was the set design – how you take a play with at least six or seven different places and depict them all in such a small area with a minimum of changes. Where do the actors come in, and where do they go when something else is commanding our attention? That’s fascinating to me. Manipulation of space. The stage is a great place to examine mise-en-scene, because that’s WHAT IT IS. And filmmakers that understand space are usually much more competent than those that don’t, but they also add editing and perspective. I enjoyed figuring out the set design and marveling when a new way to set it up is revealed, but I got bored very quickly looking at it from the same perspective all the time. I wanted to see what it would look like from a low-angle shot, or an oblique from behind those curtains at the side. When I say my number one most important thing is direction, that’s what I mean – how does the director manipulate the cinematic space and our view of it? Directing the actors is secondary, except insofaras the actors are part of the frame.

A great example of this was when Lis and I watched Doubt (the film) together. She liked it a lot more than I did, because the acting is so strong. And I recognized the strength of the acting, but I thought the direction was incredibly dull. And when the director tried to make it interesting (the canted shots depicting doubt), he was inconsistent and illogical, which threw me right out of the story. She came out thinking it was really powerful; I came out wondering who decided to let a playwright direct a film.

I can enjoy live theatre, no problem. And I love seeing musicals (and music) live – the immediacy of music affects me more strongly than the immediacy of actors. But it’ll never mean as much to me as film does, because it lacks the elements that most make me love film. Not that that’s bad – obviously Lis is the opposite, and that’s fine. I just feel better knowing that I can now verbalize my hesitation to rush out to the theatre with her, which matches her hesitation to rush out to the cinema with me. :)

Incidentally, there are plays that I don’t think would work as films, and not just because they’re talky and film would be boring. Into the Woods I can’t see as a film at all, because the staging is so perfect that trying to do almost any part of it without having the rest of the stage (and the inactive-yet-still-active portions of the story on it) visible would lessen the counterpoint and interconnectedness of Sondheim’s score. But it would be very awkward and stagy to film it that way. In that case, adapting it to film seems almost sure to flatten it rather than add depth. Maybe some brilliant filmmaker can prove me wrong, and I’d love to see one try. :) But again, exception to the rule.

Perhaps I am easily pleased, but I count today as one of the most convergently awesome days I’ve had lately. “Convergently” you say? Yes, for today marks a convergence of entertainment availability that makes me very happy.

1. The new season of The Guild starts today! You can see it on MSN Video, get it from the Zune Marketplace, or download it from the Xbox Live Marketplace (will download to your Xbox360). I watched it on my 360 this morning, and it looks sweet in HD. And of course, hilarious.

2. This week’s DLC for Rock Band includes three Killers tracks – “Mr. Brightside,” “Smile Like You Mean It” and another one I keep forgetting. (Guitar Hero: World Tour is getting three as well, but different ones, except for “Mr. Brightside.”)

3. We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed, the new album from Los Campesinos!, comes out today. It’s a limited run, so if you want to pick up a physical copy, I suggest you do it soon. And the physical copy comes with a DVD as well, so there’s that. (Amazon)

4. The Rosebuds are doing a show at the Echoplex tonight, and I won free tickets! I get to be on the guest list and everything. So that’s the most awesome of the awesome.

5. In less entertainmenty, but still awesome, news – I get PhotoShop CS3 at work. I only have PhotoShop 7 at home, so this is going to be great. Plus we decided to do a website project at work using WordPress, which I have a whole lot more experience with than just doing plain html/css. Not that I couldn’t have done it without WordPress, you understand. But this will be more fun.

I have a million things I should have done today, including research a paper, read Portrait of a Lady, watch Black Books with a friend, watch Jean-Luc Godard films for a paper, look for jobs, look for apartments, get off the couch, etc. (I did get laundry and dishes done, and watch a lot of Deep Space 9, but eh.)

Instead, I did this: The Frame. Which is now a repository for articles and longer-form reviews and such that I’ve written, mostly school stuff. I found the WordPress theme that underlies it a few days ago (here), and couldn’t wait to see what I could do with it, and after spending most of the day fiddling with the code and posting stuff (some of which was already there from earlier experiments), I’m now officially in love with it. IN LOVE. Definitely one of the best CMS/magazine-style WordPress themes I’ve found, and also easier to modify than most.

Now, that doesn’t mean I’m moving over there or anything like that; it’s got a completely different purpose to this blog. Some content might be doubled, but that’s it. I did just post up the paper I wrote for Critical Theory earlier this semester, dealing with last year’s unplanned pregnancy films. It’s currently my favorite paper I ever wrote. Largely because the professor told me it was excellent, and that tends to improve my reaction to my own writing.

Anyway, I don’t know how many things I’ll actually post over there, but as I said, as of right now I love it. I love it so much I sort of want to make other people join me and start some sort of film/literature article/review co-op site.

I’m safely back in Texas after a week at home and a week doing nothing (in the best possible way) in Minnesota; classes start back up tomorrow, and while I’m not really ready to start writing papers again, I realized yesterday that I won’t be in the newbie group anymore and I’ll get to meet some new people entering the program this year. So that should be fun. Trying to get the rest of my books at the bookstore tomorrow along with 10,000 other students probably won’t be, though. Ah, well.

Some of you may have gotten incoming links or trackbacks from jandysmeanderings.the-frame.com today; in case you did, don’t panic or change your links yet. I’m working on replacing the site that was at www.the-frame.com (which I hadn’t updated for like two years) with something a bit more up-to-date, but it may involve moving this blog–I was testing the exporting/importing function today. It may move to the jandysmeanderings subdomain, or I may just put it at the base www.the-frame.com URL. I’m still playing with my host and figuring out what’s going to work the best. Not to mention playing with WordPress themes to find something I can use as a CMS (as opposed to something that looks like a blog). I found one I like a lot, but trying to modify the code to let me center the whole layout–it’s left-justified now, which I think looks stupid–stymied me. Anyone conversant enough in CSS and PHP to help me fix it?

It’s always dangerous to advertise upcoming posts because I run the risk of not following through, but do expect June’s book and movie recap within the next day or two, and a rundown of what looks interesting on the fall TV schedule. Plus SYTYCD videos, and maybe some excerpts from the Australian Idol auditions. I’m not even kidding when I emphasize how different (and probably better) Australian Idol is going to be from American Idol this year–in the first audition episode, ALL of the contestants sent on to Sydney were singer-songwriter types; not a typical pop voice among them. I’ll get back into doing Music Mondays one of these weeks, but it may not be this week. I haven’t had time (or broadband access) to check out any new music lately; if I did Music Monday this week, it would probably be All Beatles All The Time, since I listened to them almost nonstop both on the way to St. Louis and on the way home.