Thousands video

I had to take this off of both Youtube and Facebook, so I'm leavin it here. Deal.

two rivers

I see two rivers rolling down
the canyon valley walls
each billowing with silver curls
over rocks and waterfalls
I stand flat-footed, firm aloft
deciding which to brave
knowing the snaking length I choose
will be my teacher, change my ways

My single raft
contrived of tweed and twine and amber glue
remains an unscathed shiny vessel
waiting to be used
The morning sun is glistening
all twinkles in the rivers' tongue,
and time is scarce to idle
there's a river must be run.

So raising up my earthbound boat
I scurry to the shore,
a bank that rests between both rivers
which do I ignore?
Swiveling my head between
the dancing water troughs
it's time to choose a river now
I've minutes to set off.

The safer of the rivers, calmly eddied beckons me
with sweet soft spinning whirlpools
in clean water churning quietly.
The other of the two erupts
in rushing vats of white,
a monster pounding past me
turning quickly out of sight.

The dangerous and risky
or the safe and steady side?
which river to commit myself to
which river should I ride?

BSGYG

B russels
S prouts
G ive
Y ou
G as

Initial Resolutions

For the new year, here's some things I'd like to have accomplished by the end of 2010:

1 - traverse the face of Everest from a helicopter via snowboard

2 - mountain bike the Great Wall of China

3 - learn to kayak

4 - jump off Havasu Falls*

5 - swim the length of the pacific ocean with an ability to deep-sea dive and look at the octupus and/or ride the backs of whales

6 - circumnavigate the world solo in a one-man dinghy with nothing but a bag of rice, beans, beef jerky, and 20 rolls of film with a camera on top.

7 - backpack the Pacific Crest trail from north to south

8 - free-climb the tallest tree in the northeastern Russian

9 - ride a pterodactylesque dinocreature while careening vertically down the walls of hanging mountains in the sky

10 - get more acting jobs

11 - learn to leap 300 yards at a time and cross the US doing so **

12 - get an iPhone.

This is only an initial list. I'll update accordingly.

*I had multiple dreams after our Grand Canyon trip about leaping from the watery tongue of Havasu Falls into the blue green water below
**also a dream. and a cool one.

Rah Rah RAvatar: the List

So, a little behind the times (everyone else saw it opening night at the Arclight and such places) I finally got to behold the event that is Avatar last night, at the El Dorado Hills Regal Cinemas, a ridiculous place, with Hillary Daniel John Candice and Amanda.

So here's my list of thoughts, comments, observations:

#1: People! Wise UP! Do not cut in line else I shall call you OUT and embarrass you in front of your friends. NO cutting. If peeps be waitin' patiently for Avatars n' shit, you don' cut no sneak no shimmy dat ass any closer dan de designated spot-in-cue that you done got assigned while waitin' to buy yor ticket. For SEERS, yo. noneadat.

#2: 3D glasses. I like to call it the Healing Curve, or our ability to adapt quickly to physical environmental changes that we know we're gonna have to put up with for the next 3 hours. (See Also: Burning in Hell for Eternity, and my theory debunking the myth that it is actually an effective form of punishment.)

#3: Movie Theaters are not libraries. You can talk in them before the movie starts. Be mindful of children, but if you have a dirty joke to tell to your friends don't let the old people in the adjacent row with their "SHHHH'S!!" deter you from your mission of utilizing those precious moments before the movie starts to make a scene.

#4: Radvatar. First of all, why are 20-ft blue cat people so sexy? Even Sigourney's hot. Didn't see that one coming. Second, the flying scenes will literally lose you. It's one thing to be in a forest with illuminated petals spotted by raindrops, but flying through the air on a red and yellow pterodactyl never felt so gosh-darned good as it did last night, especially when you're in love with the cat woman on her dinosaur next to you.
Honestly, I'm finally sold on the 3D thing and the CGI thing. Afters years of angst and gagging over the terrible calamity that is CGI to replace puppetry in films, last night I found myself never once having a moment of "that's FAKE." Obviously it's fake, but in it's fakeness it never looks fake! Other films exhibit their CGI like its so cool, and you're like dude the intro to Warcraft II was cooler (see also: Harry Potter movies Suck and/or Star Wars I-III is like eating too much Costco cake). Since I have no f-ing clue how they made this movie, I also have no f-ing clue how they could make this movie any better...I think the critics would agree, and that's why they try to harp on the storyline - because that's the only aspect of the film that they know the slightest bit enough about to discuss. Everything else is so brand spanking new,
and it sells like snowcones in the Sahara.

#5: Indigenous peoples fighting machines with bows and arrows DOESN'T WORK

#6: Moviehopping: yes, it is still a possible and very plausible way to spend the rest of your Saturday night. But I have no idea how people can sit through 5-7 hours of movies. I mean, 2 1/2 hours is aplenty for this boy. I suffer from something called Having Energy, and sitting in 2 or 3 movies at a time is more exhausting than a day of rafting.

#7: And finally, if you are going to get a McDonald's Sundae for $1.09 afterwards, make sure you don't ask someone else to put the peanuts on top while you're driving. You might regret it the next morning.

That is all
FAREWELL

waiting for christmas dinner

drop in!


rouge folds


a vagina


some old maps



battlemech skirmishes





moist


she's plucked


portraiture

my Drunk Poem

on the subject of crescendos, what do you do when the note is too high, the beer too strong and the company too critical? I'll tell you - look for the ONE person in the place who's pointing at you with their eyes raised up in passion and then SING with them! Because if a gathering of angels really did appear above your head, nobody could come close from detracting you from the goal at hand - to Come sail Away for christmas. Seriously. ask josh flasher.
Twas the night before Christmas
and all through the house
everyone went to sleep
except for the migsy.
With presents to wrap and no solid desire
to make them look pretty tonight
he wanders between the state
of wake and tired, maybe too sleepy
to put up a fight.
Poems after drinking are rarely successful,
especially this little gem of a square tune
but if you can take something from this ol' diddy
know that Christmas will be over
before too soon.
Which makes me sad,
which is maybe why
I'm putting wrapping off until morningtime.

that's it. offifically.

And by the way, I have more to say but for now sufficed be you shall. Let's see how this goes - merry christmas 2009. :-) and happy hanukkuh.

Mikie.

just quickly

since there's no one else to say it to at 3:16 in the morning but a blog:
Goodnight.
I love you.


Mikie

ah the crescendo of what the hell

forgive me, I'm drinking. Alone mind you. Disclaimer: None of this is personal so please don't take it so. For Zeus's sake, and my own.

It's a fine rainy night in los Angeles, 3 days before Christmas. I'm a clambake in my house, I dragged the bedspread and pillows into my living room to set up camp so long as Jason is out of town - which is lasting I guess till just before new years.
At some point I have to make the trek up north but this freaking season has my senses all screwed up. I mean, it's Christmastime and apparently there's no place like Los Angeles. Why? I have no clue - like the headless chicken that I prove to be here, running around the city virtually on my own looking for fun and not really accomplishing much but a hike and some walks through the epic shopping centers that adorn Hollywood and Pasadena. It's lovely, but in the end I am sitting on my fancy bedspread, in my fancy apartment that smells like apples toasting myself with glass of wine I kid you not.

I'm wondering if I am the only one who enjoys George Clooney's character more pre-infatuation stage in Up in the Air. he was interesting when he wasn't obsessed with whatsherbutt. Right? I mean, he gives you hope that people can live outside of the doomness of falling in love. Because love is just that - Doom. You either never get what you want, or you kid yourself into thinking you've gotten exactly what you want until you realize that you have nothing and spend the night drinking and convincing your inner-gut that It is wrong and needs to stop feeling that way.
I read something today about the origin of love, written by Aristophanes, that basically said this: all humans want is to be literally sewn and molded back together with one another, and we spend the whole of our lives in this critical pain striving to do so. Well what more truth is there than that! I mean, how many journals can you fill as a kid before you realize all you're doing is venting about how love isn't working out for you. Then you head into college and after, spending the majority of your time working your butt off to avoid the fact that you are ultimately alone and doomed to never really love. How many people actually get it, this whole love thing? Or are they all just compromising and expecting.
I don't know. It's been an odd couple weeks for me. But I am trying to drive my energies towards the right things. I have this burning inside of me that is literally murder and I know that it is Love and the insane lacking that I feel.. It hurts, even right now it's painful. I can sit here, and my freaking brain causes my body pain for lack of love. What IS that! Why can't I convince myself that I have an overwhelming plethura of love, and fill that empty gap with sheer delight? Is it only physical? do I just need the physical fulfillment to douse this scathing flickering flame inside my stomach? Bull crap. I'd give my right nut for physicality all the time but who can have that? who can actually live in an only physical state and still succeed as a human in the social world?

Well, maybe that's what Aristophanes was talking about when he said that the human beings, when conjoined, were becoming greater than the gods themselves. Because they are in the perfect state, a state we can only pretend to achieve by intertwining our bodies and pulling eachother as close as is impossible. But never fully divulging. Never achieving that melted state of serenity that we originally once were.

This makes so much sense. If you believe in Adam, maybe those two were just post-split. And God was Zeus' son whom he said, "hey, watch these guys and make sure they don't do anything stupid". (Which they did thanks to SNAKE!)

Ok. I digress. The point is, love is as passing as a good book. you sit down and read it in spurts. By the time you're in the middle, nothing else exists outside of that book. All you want to do is read more and more of it! So you quicken through the pages, get swept away by the alternative universe, discover the climax and finish the ending! and if the book is good enough you're left wanting more and wait unsatisfied for the next installment.

Only, what if there isn't a next installment? What if that was it, and you've had your fun and that's all you get..

Now THAT's love

Anyway, goodnight

Mikie

Things I really need, Christmastime or not

coffee maker
toaster
iPhone
camera (dad's old one w/ batteries?) or iflip
flip-flops
little garbage basket
trader joe's stuff
snowboard pass
a job, please

back from Texas
I've been up since 4:15am again. for like 4 days in a row.
Last night it was drizzling, and I got pretty wet. I spent 12 hours shooting a very fun 365 with some cast members of TLK yesterday. I never did see the Grand Canyon, but I flew over it twice. I did see the Alamo, and to this day get a little icky feeling inside when people are too patriotic. I spent some time strolling through the Riverwalk in downtown San Antonio. I ate barbecued chicken, mashed potatoes, some lemon alcoholic thing and key lime pie. I rode the tram through the terminals at the Dallas airport (my favorite) and had some wonderful help getting my luggage to the gate..

There's a sear to the quietness that a new memory brings, a quick burn each time it flies through. Echoed from far it comes swinging through your thoughts, violently wiping away practicality, for just a moment, and then is gone into nothing..leaving you a tarnished wreck of emotional desire
I am addicted to the newness of not knowing
It's like a sport with no teams, me volunteering
as expert player and fool
swinging the bat wherever I see an opportunity

dew

I've been up since 4:45. This morning the sun rose pink over the whispy clouds and mountains of Santa Clarita. There I sat, in a school bus, circling the studios' parking lots for a good shot. No lines, two stranger actors, my face and the bright sun.
Tomorrow morning I'll drag a black bag of wardrobe clothes and toiletries through the airport security, where I will remove my shoes and unbuckle my belt. The plane will lift off and my eyes will watch the buildings shrink to squares beneath me. Then I'll press my nose against the plastic to barely see the Grand Canyon. Then I'll sit back in my seat, wait, and smile.
Because it feels so good to risk it all. That's where love sprouts; it's the passion in spur of moments. With pants tucked and shoes tied, I'll leave the house in the morning to dance with the whisps of new morning's dew.

so much love fills my heart

see you in Texas

Words fo' Pictures, yo

Here's some pictures that I haven't taken lately:

enthusiastically pumping fist into a camera, for Budweiser

hundreds of miles of sunset and silhouettes

USC screening room watching tomatoes hit Dan Beckner

midnight, sopping wet, alone, urinating on flowers

Public Storage gate closing just after stepping through it

singing Christmas Carols where James Dean died

Jock Jams Dance Party 2009 in a cramped sedan

stars against orange and purple horizon

sitting in a fake high school hallway

brainstorming a lesbian porn script

Beer server knowing "only 2%" of the beers

train station ceiling beams

stacking little Lunchables sandwiches

city lights like a sparkling Christmas Tree

discussing a two-story KFC over Hoegaardens

oh soft brown towel

running a nude blitzkrieg into the ocean (raaaaahhh!)

almost-empty jug of Sangria

the heavily-perfumed inside of a Mexican Greyhound Bus

empty river camp after dark

grey cold water of late summer between river canyon walls

car not starting at a gas station 'til it smokes

backpacking through the streets of Sacramento

singing across a lake at night

Cinderella's glowing castle

hot pastrami sandwiches and beer

life-size toy soldiers dancing in unison

Richard II crying to the walls of his dungeon cell

Moisture Heat-seeking Venemous Throbbing Python of Love

shattered wine glass and paper towels

Plumber knocking on bedroom door while fast asleep

scummy shower filled dirty water

naked, crouched, scrubbing shower

shiny clean white shower

dancing to Michael Jackson with the cast of The Big Bang Theory

distant Rocky mountains covered in snow

at a pew in Catholic cathedral, looking into Mary's eyes

snow-capped mountains over Pasadena

Minoo, Gil, Dani, Shane, Ryan, Deanna, Dean, amazing.

walking around Paramount Studios lost

soaking wet in tent on the set of Bones

tossing vacuum filter into the air to clean it

smacking vacuum filter on the cement to clean it

car not starting in the rain

unemployment application papers everywhere

Phillipines dancing with colours

young girl pulling fire alarm

slaying eight-eyed spider demon with a rocket

the anticipation and not-knowing

the comfort of being surrounded by thousands of people

That's all for now - chances are there'll be a part 2, 3 and 4

here's a cheesy quote I just made up. MEMORIZE IT

A picture may be worth a 1000 words
but finite in colour and imagery
while one word only, conjuring a thought,
can tap the mind into Infinity

-Migs

Rain

before the silver mountains wet with rain
while in it's standing o'er the boulevard
a green and golden palm sways silently.
The sounds of automobiles hum below,
and low-above the black clowds smother full
what far white Sun this cold December gets.
A line is drawn from eyes to windowsill
across the empty boulevard and then
hitting upon the palm the gaze extends
to farther mountains buried in sky.
All trickled with the spotted dark of trees
and hazy rain like fog blocking the view
the mountain lies groaning in age and waits.

A shadow casts over the desert palm.

The small sun flickers, quickly, then goes out.

A hush falls fast over the concrete streets
And silence precedes nothing but a storm..

Behind the buildings builds a rainy gust
that bellows from the stomach of the storm
with moans of winter's agony it shakes
and fills with leaves and drenching water drops.
Then like a valve brimming to overflow
the dark sky rattles menacingly so,
Then with a crack she opens up her mouth
and spitting, bubbling, sends her fury down!
In sudden downpour carried by the earth
a heavy rain begins to swell the air.
The palm raises its green and whispy shields
as great round drops begin to beat with force
upon her sturdy, pole-like countenance.
And in a rush like silence in the night,
the mountain disappears behind a veil
of sideways glass now falling from the sky.

Behind the windowpane the eyeline blurs
into the flurry of a million silver pebbles.