First Real Week of School

The buzz word is: Soil. Yeah, soil is my life now. Thanks UTK. I've been living the dream over on the Ag campus, and I have to say it's completely bizarre. Bizarre to the point that when I see girls more like me I end up practically stalking them--safety in numbers, you know. The other half of my time is spent hiking up the Hill which is equally lovely. Park>bus>Ag>bus>Hill>bus>Ag>bus...all day, every day. I have to say, at least the men on the Ag campus know they aren't cool; I think if I see another man wearing chino shorts, loafers and a pastel colored shirt when I'm on main campus I'm liable to throw soil at him.

Post Sunflower Field Excursion

I searched for hours for the sunflower field only to find that they had already bloomed and were gone. I was expecting that they had already bloomed but not that they would leave so quickly. I still got some satisfaction from at least finding the field because it was no easy task, at least not for me.

Sunflower Field

I have located it and I am going tomorrow :)

Photo Collections

Yesterday I decided it had been much too long since I had watched a French film. They are, after all, one of the main reasons I love cinema. Since I hadn't watched one in awhile, I was unsure where to turn to so I turned to Agnes Varda. In Prague, I met two French men that I ended up going for tea with and talking a little about the French New Wave since we didn't have much else in common. I mentioned the filmmakers that I liked and they mentioned theirs and I asked, "Well, what about Agnes Varda?" Blank stares. What a shame! I don't like to be a film snob but if you're going to say you like French New Wave then you very well must know who she is. She practically inspired the whole thing that led men like Godard and Truffaut to churn out films at the rate of Hollywood productions. She is also the only woman in the movement which solicits my respect for obvious reasons...Anyway, I watched her CinePhotoVarda yesterday.

The entire film is composed of photographs (with the exception of some moving images in the first and second vignette of the film). At first I thought, "what a drag" an hour and a half of still images being flashed before me, but it was much more than that. Varda makes us explore our relationship with the still images by arranging them in ways that give them life and meaning. If only I could be half as brilliant as her or give half as much thought to the objects I surround myself with.

The film reminded me that last Spring I spent quite a few days rummaging through photo bins at thrift stores in search for film that had been left undeveloped. My plan was to develop the unknown film (scary as that may be) and to see what shows up on them. I have 2 rolls of film sitting in my closet that I searched for like a mad person for 3 days. I think I'll make a point to develop them sometime this week, and if anything good shows up, post them on here. I wouldn't mind going out and looking for some more as well. Hopefully the second hand stores have been able to recover from me since last Spring.

Last Day in Prague

I had a really lovely day today. I revisited the Castle in the morning and then ate lunch on the Vltava river with Denise, a woman from the workshop that is still around. I walked around Charles' Bridge numerous times and ducked into some tacky souvenir shops (everything was deplorable). Afterwards, I saw my directing teacher and we ate cheap snacks in the park and got tea. I took some evening pictures over the river and of Old Town square before dipping into a small jazz cafe for dinner.

Jazz Cafe

I especially liked walking by the statue on my way back and seeing groups of people about my age sitting around it. The weather was perfect for it.