From the Road – Part 3

by Matt | Jun 24, 2005 | Personal

Ok, so I’ve only been able to post once a day. True, I did say there would be a variable torrent of posts, but I’m a busy guy, what can I say. It’s been nothing short of nuts here for the past few days. Today is mostly production work followed by the Prelim Show tonight. Tonight is the night that the judges narrow the field of 130+ contestants down to 12 (or 15 I can’t remember). We’re there to capture all the action.

On a more personal level, I’ve been running and gunning for 5 days now. I’ve been there every night to take pictures of every event. I’ve been shooting quite a bit (read: everything) and I’ll be shooting more tonight. The show itself is actually kind of cool. It’s a larger production than the official Miss USA show. In the past, this same production has won Emmys for various things, something the bigger pageants haven’t managed to do. It’s seriously a huge, million dollar production and it’s interesting to see that sort of thing in motion.

Oh the other hand, I hate pageants. I think the concept is weak and the purposed benefit for non-winning contestants is a pile of crap. Allegedly the contestants are bonding in friendship and learning things like “public speaking”, “confidence” and “emotional strength”. Yeah. Ok. And what does walking around in bathing suits teach them? Balance?

I don’t know either.

The whole thing doesn’t make any sense to me. I don’t really know if it’s supposed to. I don’t look good in a swim suit, I don’t give a crap about building confidence, and I’m not a brain dead, vain sort of person. I guess I’m not qualified to judge.

Anyway. At the moment I’m printing buttons from orders we’ve taken. I hate making buttons.

I’ll TRY and post more later, there’s a few funny moments from this week I could entertain you with.

Out.

From the Road – Part 2

by Matt | Jun 21, 2005 | Personal

Oh yeah, the rest of it all…

Durring my drive I almost killed a variety of wildlife. An armadillo, two actually, a racoon and some sort of praire-dog thingy. The one I couldn’t understand was the racoon. It was wet, and running across the road in the middle of a very dry area. Whatever pool it was relaxing it, it almost got killed going back to it. Sad. You’re relaxing in a hot tub beside a desert oasis and this Kia thing comes barreling towards you at about 70. You spill your margaritta and poop your little racoon pants as you scramble back to your hole. What a life.

Speaking of wildlife, coming through San Antonio you’d think the Spurs were happy or something. Well, I suppose they are. I wasn’t there but I can only imagine what Boston looked like durring the series. San Antonio is comparable this week. Minus the 80 year desperation of course. Thought I doubt there aren’t too many hispanic people in Boston with 8ft window decals proudly displaying their team’s logo. I doubt there are too many hispanic people in Boston. Of course, I haven’t been to Jamaica Plains lately. That was probably mean. As Jason would say, that’s my “one for the day”.

I’ve also got to mention Batman. It was pretty bad ass. I enjoyed it completely. I was very inpressed by what Christopher Nolan was able to do with the series. I was also interested to find out that David Goyer, the screen writer, is also penning film versions of The Flash and Ghostrider. Ghostrider is apparently going to be played by Nicholas Cage, who I watched in Nation Treasure (on DVD) this afternoon. So that’s some 7 degrees bullshit right there.

Back to Batman. Some reviews I’ve read had knocked it for being less than action packed. I can’t imagine what movie they were watching. If you want more action than what that movie had you probably need to evaluate your state of mind. They were begining an entire franchise. I think it’s ok to have some semblence of a story. Or maybe that’s not what they were expecting from a Batman movie. They probably liked Batman and Robin too.

Regardless, I enjoyed it. Michael Caine and Liam Neeson were great, Christian Bale was tolerable even though I still hate him from what he did to Hamlet and Katie Holmes was a bit of a surprise, I didn’t even realize she was in the movie. She’s didn’t do a particularly good job, and she looked constipated for most of the movie, but I suppose thats thanks to Tom.

Fucking Tom Cruise. Just has to go around infecting more people with his Scientology crap. I still can’t believe that “free you mind” bull got declared a religion. And popping the question on top of the Effel Towel? Come on. Talk about corney. I thought they had like a waiting line in Paris for that stuff.

I tell you what Tom, you promise me War of the World won’t suck and I’ll stop making fun of you for being the corniest sonofabitch on the planet.

Also. Who’s excited about Land of the Dead. Me! Me! Zombie movies pwn.

Lastly, in what is quite possibly the best part of my days this week, I think I need to mention my Police escourt. The fine officers here in Laredo have basically a presidential motorcade setup for transporting the Miss Texas contestants and staff, including myself. Forming a column, protected on both sides by motorcycle offices and at either end by cruisers, we drive through the city, through red lights, stop signs, traffic, etc. I’ve never driven through a city behind a SWAT team before, and I have to say, it’s a rather interesting experience.

Anyway, today was pretty borring. No major events going on. I’ve watched about 5 movies. Gotta love HBO. They bring me such wonderful things like Black Hawk Down and that horrific Jason movie where he’s forzen in space. Talk about contrast. Besides that I’ve been stuck on a PC without a video card, sound card or speakers. So, what else can a guy do except play a little Civ 3 to pass the time. The most addicting game ever. And one that doesn’t require any of the aformentioned hardware. Ah the simple things.

I miss Lauren. I wish she could be here, or I could be home, either one. I’m not picky. Thankfully I don’t have to do this travel thing all the time. I don’t think I could take it.

Matt out.