Bet you didn't know.

Just a number of interesting things that I bet you didn't know and will never need to know but just might be glad to know when you find yourself on a first-date and the conversation lulls to a painful halt and you've already asked her what her favorite fill-in-the-blank is.

A herd of cattle, a pack of wolves, even a pod of seals, you've heard of, but did you know that just about every assemblage of creatures has its own name? Some of them are freaking awesome and most of them are politically incorrect and discriminatory:

A shrewdness of apes, a prickle of porcupines (do porcupines ever hang out in groups? because that could make for a really negative encounter), a richness of martens, a business of ferrets, a BLOAT of hippopotamuses, a murder of crows, an exaltation of larks (what's so great about larks?), a crash of rhinoceroses, an UNKINDNESS of ravens (spoooky), a shiver of sharks, an intrusion of cockroaches, and a plague of locusts.

I bet sometime someone somewhere had terms for groups of certain types of people. It's best those terms aren't in use, but I can think of some pretty good ones. Like a malediction of mother-in-laws. A festering of lawyers. A warmth of grandmothers.

Ever heard of prosopagnosia? Yeah, neither had I. It's commonly referred to as face blindness and is a legit condition that impairs the brain's ability to recognize faces. And it's not simply having a hard time putting a face to a name; it makes it impossible for you to recognize the faces of close friends, family members, and sometimes even yourself. People with this condition have to use clothing, voices, or gait to recognize acquaintances. Don't believe me? Check out Harvard's research page on it or read Heather Seller's book.


Colors are interesting when it comes to languages. There are no words in the English language that rhyme with orange, purple, or silver. In Romanian not only are oranges called oranges, but tomatoes are called reds. In some Asian languages, blue and green are considered varying shades of the same color. In Italian and Russian, azure is a basic color and is distinguished from regular blue as habitually as English differentiates red and pink.


Thomas Jefferson, who did a lot of great things for this country, introduced french fries to the United States in 1802 when he served them at a White House dinner.


Peladophobia is the fear of bald people. (Sidenote: If you're going to throw this word around, be careful how you pronounce it. Pedophilia is something completely different and not a good conversation jump-starter. At all.)


NOW YOU KNOW.

pas cu pas.

Word of warning: scroll down to THE POINT if you're short on time and/or less interested in rambling.

The title of this post could also have been 'pas à pas', which means step by step, except in French. In both French and Romanian, pas means step, from the Latin, passus. Yes, Romanian is a Romance language (meaning it descended from Vulgar Latin--the language of ancient Rome, not that it's necessarily going to help you on a date. [Sidenote: it has]). In modern French, pas is used to negate a regular phrase. For example je vais (I go/I am going) or je ne vais pas (I don't go/I am not going). But why, you demand to know, is the word pas, which means step, used to say you're not doing something?

Well, it wasn't always so. You used to only have to use ne to negate phrases, like no in Spanish. But back in the day, to emphasize your point, you would add pas to the end of the example phrase (I am not going) to express the idea that not only are you not going, but you're not even going one step. And you could use other words for other verbs. Je ne mange mie--I'm not eating, not even a crumb. Je ne vois point--I don't see, not even a point. Well, eventually the other words were dropped and pas took control like a totalitarian dictator. See, more often than not in casual conversation you drop the ne and just use the pas (je veux pas)--which loses the original negation all together. (Thank you, Dr. Hurlbut.) Fascinating, huh? OK, maybe just to me.

The fact that you have to use both ne and pas to negate was always something for French 101 students to complain about--Two words? Why can't we just use NE? But if you think French negation is confusing, just try explaining to a student of English why the verb to do suddenly pops up when you negate in English: I see/I don't see.


OK, one more thing about pas and I swear I'll get on with why I'm writing today:
When I was an LDS missionary in Romania, I was stationed with a guy who had just arrived from the States. He was a go-getter and was constantly studying the language. One night we were knocking doors in an old, communist block apartment building which we often found ourselves doing. After knocking twice at a certain door, I started to move on when he stopped me and said, in Romanian, "Wait, I think I hear step-mothers."

THE POINT:

Yesterday I took a big step. Really, it was just a small step that felt like a big step, but life is made up of small steps...

I submitted my screenplay to the LDS Film Festival's feature-length screenplay competition. This means that three producers will read my script. Up to this point, only people who know me have read the script--people who seem to like me and maybe just like the script because they like me. Now three producers that don't know me and probably don't know anything about Alfred de Musset (the guy who wrote the French play that I adapted) will not only be reading it, but judging it. Here goes nothing.

I am also a little nervous because while the script does express certain LDS ideas, having been written and worked on by LDS individuals, it is not a Mormon film. And it maybe swears a couple times. Twice in English and twice in French, if I remember right. And it maybe deals with some more adult situations. Not adult as in adult films but adult as in intense and/or heavy situations. And so maybe it will be disqualified?

No matter what, it was a very rewarding experience just to print off the hundred pages that have taken up  much of the last eight months of my life to create, along with chunks of other people's lives. The girl at Kinko's probably thought I needed to be medicated.

What's the next step? Besides a few more revisions, I have an incredibly awesome friend who is doing an internship for a production company in LA that might be able to sneak it in front of her people. And another awesomely incredible friend that has a friend that has a friend that might be able to read it and might work for a very large production company in LA.

So, folks, let's get the ball rolling.

4.0

Did you know when a cat is lapping milk, it's tongue goes in and out of its mouth 4-5 times per second?

Ever get the feeling that something isn't quite right with Breast Cancer Awareness Month? What about all the other types of cancer? How much of the proceeds from all these pink sugar cookies, pink bandanas, and pink vehicles is going toward something useful? Read this article.

VAI DE MINE, this could have been me. I will never regret not going to law school.

Peter Weir's upcoming film The Way Back looks epic and awesome. You may know Weir from such movies as The Dead Poets' Society and The Truman Show. This is his first movie since Master and Commander back in 2003.

Besides the director and true story aspect, the film is also going to be awesome because it's starring, alongside Collin Farrell and Ed Harris, Dragoş Bucur. Never heard of him? That's because you don't watch enough Romanian movies. He's received numerous awards for his work in numerous award-winning Romanian films (The Death of Mr. Lazarescu, The Paper Will Be Blue, and Police, Adjective) and I can't wait to see how he does in an English-speaking role.

Am I in the women's locker--oh, nope. That's not a woman. That's a dude.

Last week I got paid to turn office supplies into weapons and armor for an office gone Lord of the Flies commercial. I love being on a film set.

I got cast in Born Yesterday at Hale Centre Theatre. The show opens on New Year's Eve.

bon iver.

Bon Iver - For Emma, For Ever Ago - A Take Away Show from La Blogotheque on Vimeo.

3.0

With the elections coming up next week, there was plenty to think about. You might want to skip the first few if you don't like politics.


What's the worst thing that could happen to you if you're running for governor in Illinois and trying to secure votes in multiple low-income districts? Ask Rich Whitney. As a result of a typo, or a sabotage according to some conspiracy theorists, his last name, Whitney, was misspelled as "Whitey" on early election ballots. Yep, Rich Whitey. And unfortunately for Rich, it appears as though the problem might not be fixed in time for Tuesday's elections.


You've never voted? Really? Well be warned, I do vote and it's probably not for the people you would vote for. Especially if you live in Alaska and are voting for Joe Miller.


Who's Joe Miller? (This is a little late in the game, but I'm only tweeting once a week.) Last week, Joe Miller, the Republican Senate candidate from Alaska, was asked about controlling immigration in a town hall meeting. He gave a typical response--recommending the fence-along-the-border method, but then cited East Germany as an effective model of border control. As in COMMUNIST East Germany. The BERLIN WALL East Germany. Complete lack of human rights and orders to shoot anyone trying to ESCAPE, East Germany. Maybe I'm just a little gun shy of the whole totalitarian dictatorship thing after living in Romania and interviewing victims of the communist regime, but really Joe? We have places like the former German Democratic Republic--they're called FEDERAL PRISONS.


Today at work I overheard a conversation (I was working in a cubicle, it was impossible not to overhear) about a wayward son who had strayed the path and voted for Obama...


...There was a brief period two years ago when my grandmother had a really hard time believing in me.


If I was in New York, I would go see Franz Xaver Messerschmidt's temporary exhibition at the Neue Galerie. His fascinating story goes a little like this: Around the time baroque was on its way out and neo-classical was the new black, Messerschmidt was at the top of his sculpting game and easily transitioning, even leading the transition, into the new movement. But he wasn't one of the popular kids in the Austrian Academy and when everyone was keeping things stoic, he started to put expression into the faces of his subjects. First smiles and grimaces, then yawns and stink-eyes. As a result, people thought he was crazy. Disenchanted he moved out of town and finished out his life creating all sorts of freaky faces that were way ahead of his time. And what happened to all those courtesan sculptures that mocked him and called him crazy? NO ONE CARES. If you are in New York before 10 January 2011, check out the original thriller FXM.

Why are we only symmetrical (OK, almost symmetrical) on the outside? And since we aren't symmetrical on the inside, how did we end up being almost symmetrical on the outside?

I like dressing up as a gothic for Halloween. I don't like being asked the next day, because I can't quite get that manliner off, if I'm supposed to be Adam Lambert or Evan Lysacek.


When I was a kid, my mom rationed out our Halloween candy for MONTHS. I distinctly remember gnawing through old black and orange taffy after Easter.


When I was a kid, my dad once took me and some friends on a trick-or-treating rampage all over Bountiful. We must have covered fifty miles of streets. After he dropped off my friends, he took me to the grocery store and bought me a bag full of candy bars to supplement my loot. I was the talk of the neighborhood. Until my brother Ben ratted me out--"You didn't get all that from trick-or-treating!" "Yes I did!" "No you didn't--Dad took you to the grocery store!" At this point in the conversation I made some attempt at a denial, but the shock if his uncanny perception was all over my face, screaming "How did you know?" "I know he did cause he did the same thing for me last year."

Besides "Thriller" and "Monster Mash", which are great, are there any other Halloween songs?

An older woman lived across the street from where I grew up. I was scared to death of her. I remember running through her front yard once on a dare--it was the bravest thing I had done up to that point in my life. We never trick-or-treated at her house because everyone knew that she covertly tucked ice into your trick-or-treat bag to ruin your candy. That house still makes me uneasy.


Plastic pumpkin face? A cauldron? Psssht. In my neighborhood, the only respectable trick-or-treat bag was a pillow case. Anything else was child's play.


Remember It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown?


Transylvania is absolutely the coolest place I have ever been on Halloween. First of all, it's Transylvania and it's awesome and it's beautiful in the fall. Second, huge flocks of crows fly through on their way south. I'm talking huge rivers of cawing birds soaring just above the apartment buildings. Third, on The Day of the Dead, everyone visits their family graves to clear away the weeds, leave gifts, and surround the tombs in candles. In Cluj-Napoca, the heart of Transylvania, the cemetery is on a hill over looking the city. That night, the hill was on fire with flickering candles. 


HAPPY HALLOWEEN.

if i had twitter 2.0.

Round two. I didn't have as much time to think this week because my funemployment has come to an end. For now. But here you have some random thoughts for the week:

On Sunday I ran into a guy that I was in a play (Shenandoah) with back when Rodgers Memorial Theater was Pages Lane Theater. The best line in that play? "If we don't try, then we don't do; and if we don't do, then why are we here?" AMEN.

An older gentleman, whom I respect very much, told me this week that if he had to go back and choose a career all over again, he would have gone with music.

The French are protesting. It's part of their culture. They've been doing it for centuries--even before 1789 when they gathered on a tennis court and decided they weren't going to roll over and take it anymore from the monarchy. And then stormed the Bastille. Right now they are striking because the government is threatening to pass a bill that would delay retirement two years. Swinging their unions into action, the protestors have blockaded fuel reserves, leaving one third of the nation's gas stations empty. And no one writes better, or more offensive protest signs. One particularly irreverent sign refers to Carla Bruni, the gorgeous Italian born French singer/supermodel-turned-first-lady: Hey Carla, we're like you--we're being screwed by the Chief of State.

Wislawa Szymborska, the Polish poet, said "I prefer the hell of chaos to the hell of order." I like you Wislawa.

What marks the difference between murder and assassination? Societal import?

There's a third circumstance which may be interpreted as me mumbling: talking on my cell phone. If I hold it in my right hand, or go hands-free with it against my shoulder, the person on the other end can't understand a thing. Add fatigue or apathy to the mix and there's no hope of intelligible conversation.

I can't picture myself ever getting to the point where I build, or even buy, a house.

Matt's house now has a Scentsy in it.

"If they're here, they should have to learn English." This phrase drives me up the wall for multiple reasons, but one in particular. Yes, I think people should put forth an effort to learn the language of whatever country they inhabit. And I think most people do try. However, "they", or sometimes "those people", usually refers to adults. Do you know how difficult it is for an adult to learn a second language? For four semesters I taught beginning French to college students. We had an hour of class every day in which I spoke almost entirely in French and they were forced to employ the basic French grammar and vocabulary they were learning. They had an hour of homework every night. They were required to attend French-speaking activities, watch French movies, and meet once a week outside of class to speak French with a classmate. We had oral and written exams every other week. We sampled French food and listened to French music. My classes were supervised by one of the top French language instructors in the country--the woman who had written our text book. All the best, most researched means of second language instruction were employed to help these bright, young minds learn French. Some of them, let's say half, did everything in their power to learn the language. Everyday I would encourage them, praise them for their progress--tell them they were doing great. You know what? I LIED. Their French was awful--ear-numbingly painful. Their comprehension was limited to theatrically expressive, slow speaking on my behalf. The few who succeeded in learning more than simple phrases were those who had previously learned another foreign language. If they can't do it, how can we expect an immigrant, day-laborer (who has no such language resources) to learn English in the United States? If we take a look back at our progenitors, most of us will find that learning English didn't kick in until the second generation.

You may have heard this before, but it is true: Women are most attractive when they are not trying to be.

The Tea Party movement doesn't sound like much of a party to me.

I hate hearing that people are worried about me. Not just because I would rather not have my life's circumstances be a subject of discussion, but because it shows a lack of confidence on their behalf for what I am doing with those circumstances.

Jersey Shore--nature or nurture?

I almost signed up for an EMT class this week. Why? I've always been interested in emergency medicine and being a paramedic or a firefighter really appeals to me. They are occupations with the coolness-adventure factor of river guiding on a slightly more mature scale.

I miss being a river guide. And I still miss Paris. And Romania. And AFRICA.

Around the 18th and 19th centuries, a soldier's desertion, sickness, or even death could be attributed to nostalgia. This was determined to be most common amongst Swiss mercenaries because of their longing for the beauty of the Swiss Alps. The opposite of nostalgia, or homesickness, was wanderlust, coined by the Germans, as the desire to be far from home. My great-grandfather, Fritz Seibold, attributed his young adult wanderings (which led him to meet my great-grandmother, Frieda) to wanderlust.

Compare the words overcome and undergo.

When I was in college I almost signed up for the marines. Not kidding. I was especially interested in the scholarship possibilities when I was thinking of going to law school. After talking to a recruiter on campus, I went into their office and took an aptitude test. They made me an offer and I went home to think about it. I mentioned it to my dad and his wigging out made me chicken out. Mostly because I had seen in the movies what happens to guys at boot camp who have last names like Dickamore.

At a birthday party last weekend, I had to wear a name tag with my last name on it. Several people l.o.l.-ed and two people couldn't stop laughing. For several minutes. It's been a while since I got such boisterous reactions.

Springing leaks, convulsing core, spreading joints, and tearing flesh--a full on body kamikaze. Thank the Almighty I never "get" to give birth.

Ben's a freaking DAD. The word precious makes me queezy but there is nothing more that than a newborn baby girl.

As I get older it's becoming increasingly possible that I will marry a girl who has already been married and may already have kids. I think I'm OK with that.

If there hadn't been a Cold War, we probably never would have put a man on the moon. The government had decided that lunar exploration was too risky and too expensive. In 1961, the Soviets gave us the finger by successfully put Major Yuri Gagarin into orbit. Two years prior, the Soviets had also been the first to land a man-made object on the moon. The pressure was on, but with a price tag of 11 billion dollars, Kennedy was still reluctant. It took the encouragement of his vice-president Lyndon B. Johnson to seal the deal with the phrase "To be second in space is to be second in everything". In September 1962, Kennedy made an epic speech to a filled stadium at Rice University in Houston, Texas (He spoke there because of the university's involvement in the space effort--hence the "Houston, we have a problem" line). He announced that we were going to the moon and closed his speech with this: "Many years ago the great British explorer George Mallory, who was to die on Mount Everest, was asked why did he want to climb it. He said, 'Because it is there.'Well, space is there, and we're going to climb it, and the moon and the planets are there, and new hopes for knowledge and peace are there. And, therefore, as we set sail we ask God's blessing on the most hazardous and dangerous and greatest adventure on which man has ever embarked." Billions of dollars, 400,000 people, and seven years later, Neil Armstrong made one giant leap for mankind.

The movie script is coming along. Largely thanks to the genius that is Joel Ackerman.

This guy is in town tonight.

And those are some filtered thoughts for the week.

i miss paris. they do stuff like this there.

Aloe Blacc | I Need A Dollar | A Take Away Show - Part 1 from La Blogotheque on Vimeo.

Aloe Blacc | A Take Away Show - Part 2 from La Blogotheque on Vimeo.

au cinéma.

I lost a little humanity this week. And this was just what I needed:

Who wants to bet that Carey Mulligan, who was nominated for an Oscar last year for "An Education", will be nominated again for "Never Let Me Go"?  Andrew Garfield and Keira Knightley were also brilliant. The characters and their tragic circumstances were amplified by the simplicity of the story.

It's in limited release and is only playing at the Broadway Centre Cinemas.

thoughts.

I don't tweet. I don't because I don't think anyone really cares about down to the second updates on what's running through my head. (Such as how would I explain the prepositions used in that last sentence to someone who doesn't speak English as a first language?)

But if I had been tweeting this week, it would have gone something like this:

Cancer sucks.

Did anyone expect Clint Eastwood--you've gotta ask yourself a question: "Do I feel lucky?" Well, do ya, punk?--would end up being such an awesome director?


Why do I keep talking to her when I should just shut up and say sorry?


I have no marketable skills.


What are all those 'funny' things we used to say every time we passed Northern X-Posure on the way to Salt Lake?


I think about Mark Zuckerberg and Harvard and brilliant dialogue every time I get on facebook now.


That's what Sean Hannity looks like? ...why can't he look either a) weasely and neurotic or b) like Rush Limbaugh?

Thomas S., do you ever get a break?

Hereafter looks lame. Seriously, Clint? Waiting until redbox...

There are two different types of people that call me Jeffy: People that knew me as a kid and people I want to punch in the face.

Ever wonder why your girlfriend doesn't think you match, but you think your clothing choice is fine? Most people are trichromatic (meaning they have three types of color receptors in their eyes). Some animals, like certain spiders, marsupials, birds, reptiles, and fish are tetrachromats (which means they have four receptors). As many as half of all women are retinal tetrachromats. While only women? Because you have to have two X chromosomes, blah, blah genetic stuff I don't understand. But SOME of these feminine retinal tetrachromats, have ENHANCED color discriminations. In other words, they are functional tetrachromats and see, or distinguish, more colors than you do. Like spiders. Lizards and piranhas. And other cold blooded things. Which is probably another reason why this can only happen in females.... ZING!

Is the popularity of baseball in Japan linked to postwar US investments?

I love my MacBook.

Why have I still not seen Politist, Adjectif?

Do I know anyone that would pay me to go live with a troop of Rroma (gypsies to all you non-p.c.-ers) for a few months? And thereby produce a wicked cool documentary about a people that no one accepts and no one understands... Did you know there's a Gypsy King in Sibiu, Romania where I lived for four and a half months?

Is darkness really just the absence of light? Is cold, then, just the absence of heat?

Roy Lichtenstein, you are a stud. 

I really want the misogynistic character in my screenplay to wear a t-shirt that says "This is what a FEMINIST looks like."

Matt took THIRTY-FIVE dress shirts to the dry-cleaners today. I am never paying rent again.

Would anyone fund a short film about a father who has lost his wife to cancer? If someone did fund it, would anyone watch it?

Unlike all the cool kids (i.e. BStone's friends) I only recently started listening to The National. Pick of the week is "Fake Empire".

For the love of all that's holy, please don't make another comment about your concerns for the YSA.


Can you imagine having sexually transmitted diseases on your list of workplace hazards? Between 2004 and 2008, the Los Angeles County Public Health Department logged 2,847 STD infections among 1,884 adult film performers. (yep, read it again, that's just over 1.5 per person) And because the actors get around so much, literally, a positive HIV test on one performer creates a scare that can shut the entire industry down for months.


Hereafter looks really good. I will not wait until redbox.

Can it really be considered art if you just paint a whole canvas blue? Yes Yves Klein, YES it can.

I am a mumbler. While I am working on not mumbling, I've figured out that I do it on two types of occasions: 1. I don't want to be talking (because I'm uncomfortable or embarrassed) or 2. I don't care (because I'm tired and/or lazy).

The word announcement looks better spelled anouncement.

Lady singing in the dairy section at Walmart, I heart you.

Yes, I do need these art supplies more than I need new brakes.

I miss Paris.

If I did utilize a social networking tool to express my every thought, there would be a lot more things I shouldn't have cast into cyberspace.

what have you been up to since august 5?

Well, if you are one of 33 Chilean miners, you've been TRAPPED in a MINE 700 meters below the surface. SINCE AUGUST 5th. And for the first 17 of those days, you survived on emergency food rations and had ZERO communication with the outside world. 

photo from news.com.au

What would you do to pass the time? Besides twice-daily prayer sessions, one miner reports that he runs 10km a day. Hats off to you, dude--the world is literally crashing in around you and yet you still manage to get in some cardio. After drilling three small shafts to deliver food and set up communication, rescuers are now getting close to completing a rescue shaft that might be successful in bringing the miners to the surface. Might. 


The shaft will only be big enough to rescue one at a time. A big concern is the order in which the miners will be brought to the surface, considering the shaft may implode during the process. According to a report from the Guardian, (that you can read here) "Last up will be those considered most capable of handling the anxiety of being left behind as their comrades disappear one by one." Can you imagine waiting in that line?


In other news, CONGRATS to Kim Jong-un who was announced this week as North Korea's next in line for the position of egomaniacal dictator! This means that North Korea, which has been keeping totalitarian power in the Kim family since 1948, is going to continue its legacy of world's most delusional state. And just in case you were worried, this recently released picture confirms that Jong-un will continue in his father's footsteps: Keeping North Korea cool and casual by always wearing pajamas. Everyday. Everywhere.

That's Jong-un looking smart in black while his father, Jong-il on the right, has chosen the safari khaki,
complete with stunna shades.  (photo from Christian Science Monitor)

But WAIT, you're thinking, HOLD the PHONE. What about KIM JONG-NAM, the eldest son? Shouldn't he be next in line? Unfortunately for him, fortunately for Jong-un, Jong-nam lost favor with his father when, back in 2001, he tried to sneak past Japanese customs using a forged Dominican Republic passport. Where was he headed? Well, where every oppressed son of an irrational dictator who is really just like all the other kids wants to go:

TOKYO DISNEY!

I wonder what gave him away--the fact that the name on the passport translated directly as "Fat Bear" or the fact that of all the nationalities to choose from, an Asian tried to pose as a Dominican?

that facebook movie.

I saw the Social Network late Saturday night and I will see it again before it's out of theaters.

My accolades:
It was filled with great performances (Jesse Eisenberg's character was SOLID, Andrew Garfield's was honest, Armie Hammer seamlessly played TWO separate characters, and wait, Justin Timberlake can act? see for yourself--PG13), clutch editing, wickedly skilled directing by David Fincher, and BRILLIANT dialogue. LOADS of brilliant dialogue. I venture to say that Aaron Sorkin, the screenwriter, is a genius and will win the Oscar for best adapted screenplay. It's very rare to find a film these days with that much dialogue and it's even more rare for it to be so engaging.

Plus, who doesn't love a movie based, even loosely, on a true story?

My [minor] complaints:
The obsession with the elitist clubs felt archaic and reminiscent of The Skulls. Sean Parker just happened to be across the street when the chimney came down? And the crazy girlfriend lighting the bed on fire might have been more at home in a Lindsay Lohan movie.

Though much smarter than most college movies, it falls into typical themes and is rated PG13 for sexual content, language, and drug and alcohol use.

Hey Grandma, I'm writing a movie.

Yep.

Earlier this year I thought, "If Matt Damon and Ben Affleck can do it--if Sylvester Freaking Stallone can do it--why can't I?" (side note: did you know that Stallone's real middle name is Gardenzio?)

So, I started writing a script about a river trip in Moab that takes a turn for the worst. Which creeped out a lot of my friends. But then I realized that filming on the river might be a little expensive, and something that could be done locally, with a lot less money, would be much easier to produce.

That's when I remembered a conversation I had with Irene while in Paris. This conversation either took place in my apartment or while riding in the metro, either way I'm sure there were pastries involved, but the point was that I told her I wanted to adapt Les Caprices de Marianne by Alfred de Musset into a screenplay. Sure, Jean Renoir had done it back in 1939, but that was a very loose adaptation and the resulting movie was only recently considered to be the third greatest achievement in cinematic history.

Third? Come on Renoir, get in the game.

Prior to my teacher recommending the play to me for my end of term project, I had never heard of it. I had never even heard of Musset, and I even mispronounced his name in front of my whole class (Hey BYU French Program, you really dropped the ball on that one, didn't ya?). My embarrassment drove me to FNAC where I waited in a really long line to buy a copy of the play. The more I read it and the more I worked on it, the more I loved it and the more I wanted to know about the guy who wrote it.

Long story short, I have been working on the screenplay now for several months. My first draft was finished in three weeks, spurred partially by a then-recent-break-up. This second draft, thanks to the help of awesome friends, is taking longer but getting better everyday. I love the story. The screenplay incorporates a lot of commentary about art, relationships, and love.

The goal is to get the film rolling this coming spring. While I had initially planned on doing an ultra-low budget film, I've realized that the story deserves a higher quality production. I also wrote it with the hope of playing one of the main characters, Damon-Stallone style.










Even Renoir played a leading role in his little movie, and he looked like this:

wow.

Stomacher - Untitled/Dark Divider from Sean Stiegemeier on Vimeo.

hindsight is 20/20

2009 was pretty friggin' rad. Just for my sake and sanity, I've decided to list a number of things I did this past year. Some were kind of a big deal, others were just awesome.

I graduated. While I allowed myself to get more and more distracted as I got closer to graduation, and my GPA suffered a bit as a result, I had a great time at BYU.

I finished my Honor's Thesis documentary. Honestly, I didn't think it was going to work out. But it did, and even better than I had hoped. It wasn't until I was sitting in my thesis defense that I realized how much thought I had put into the project. For every question they asked, I had an answer, and I passed without revisions.

Thanks to Hale Centre Theatre, I played a bad guy for the first time ever. Not just any bad guy, but a murderous pirate. And while I know it freaked some people out, I really enjoyed it. Even though I was basically the only one who didn't get to swim.

Thanks to some awesomely talented friends at BYU, I participated in four student film projects. "Spit" by Michael Van Orden, "Night at the Opera" with Joel Ackerman, "Lest We Forget" by Courtney Branning and Coryn Cope, and "Abe and Sasha's Movie Night" by Joseph Reidhead. Both cast and crew, these projects rocked. Watching the "Spit" premiere at the Scera was the first time I have ever seen myself on the big screen.

I participated in the Nauvoo Pageant and loved it all over again.

I gave the finger to law school and never felt better. And finally admitted to myself that I want to be an actor.

I moved to France and made it into an acting school.

I moved back.

I spent time in Provo, Nauvoo, Houston, Moab, Paris, Rome, London, and Woods Cross.

I took loads of pictures. So many that I don't have room on my computer for them, but I will be posting some shortly.

Thank you, 2009. You were good to me.

And on to 2010. Every year I have a motivating slogan that follows a similar theme. Past years' slogans have included:

Get valid for heaven in 2007.
Find a mate in 2008.
It's about time in 2009.

And now, announcing the theme for this year:

If not now, then when? 2010.

apologies

Uncertainty strikes the best of us. And whenever it hits home, I tend to distance myself a bit from the world and avoid questions that touch on what I am doing with my life. This includes being a little distant in internet communications...