Capoeira Teaching Blog

Most of my posts from now on will primarily be on my other blog, which relates to my experiences in teaching capoeira. If the RSS feed works, I'll do that. If not, I'll try and copy a link to any recent posts here.

Capoeira: An Assistant Instructor's Perspective


--D

A Little Story

This will be well-edited to protect people, of course.

A group of friends and I were working on a project outside at their house, and for some reason, a couple of people started talking about names that work for boys and girls.  Then one of the people, a mother of one of my friends, just chimes in with "I give all my miscarries unisex names because I never know if they are a boy or a girl."

...

"I always like to pretend what they'd be like as a boy or a girl."

Honest to god, my only reaction was to say out loud, "Yeah, that's...um...yeah."

I was waiting for a moment for that woman to say something completely off the wall and there you go.  That kind of killed the mood for me that afternoon.  I was fine with the rain, but jesus.

--D

Even more pictures from "Boxes"

I might have been lazy and double posted some.  Call me on it, please.

-D

Beard dream

It's not easy for some people to remember all of what they dream.  Usually it's easier to remember important snippets of information or just a general description of the events, glossing over the weird shit that makes the dream ever more charming.  

I thought I'd bullet the various dream situations I've had recently.  My dreams have become more vivid and easier to remember since graduation, so the lack of stuff on my mind must be the cause of these images.

• One dream involved the actors I was in company with freshman year of college meeting up at some sort of reunion/concert that happened to be a reality show.  I don't watch those shows, so this one was fucking weird.
• Last night, before I woke up, I dreamt I had a beard that was thick from sideburn to sideburn.  It was short, not all Alan Moore long, but it was quite thick.  
• Another involved some sort of cowboy-like riding of a whale.

That's about it really.  I hope to begin lucid dreaming someday, which should be fun.  I want to explore Arcadia!

--D

More Pictures from the set of "Boxes"

"Boxes"

So here I am, slightly sore and a little bit rested after a 7 hour night shoot for the short film "Boxes." All my stuff is done, so I don't have to come in for night two, but I thought I'd blog the experience for my particular section.


"Boxes" involved five shoppers fighting over the contents of a series of boxes in a small store. There's the cashier, played by my good friend, Robert Linden.

Here he is getting some food in the break room and being a badass behind the counter in between shots.  He had to be there most of the night, from 7pm to roughly 2-3am.  Lucky bastard, all he had to do was sit around and look cool.

Shopper 1 (Stan) and Shopper 2 (Simone) were finishing up their scene together, which is the first kill. It involved a pretty gunshot to the head of Stan, who is playing a blind man.  Here's video of the shot itself (keep track of a chunk of gore).

Next came my interaction with Simone's character, who I stab in the back with a nice little knife (it's in the first picture).

Here's the awesome effects guy attaching the blade to her back.

At midnight, both Stan and Simone had to take off, and it was good that they both finished their parts right at the stroke of.  Next came the fight between Shopper Four (Jamie/James) and myself. Here's before the carnage.

We shot a few wide-angle master shots of the fight, sans blood/injuries of course.  Those came with the sub-masters we shot once we ran through the fight for the camera a couple of times.  James was really wailing on my back during the tackle, which got some worried questions from the crew, combined with a bit of "that was cool" subtext.  Here's the fight rehearsal we had on Tuesday to give you an idea of what we were up to.

Slowly, but surely, we got through the fight one section at a time.  The make-up effects were brutal-looking and this fight was pretty damn fun to film.

We finished all of my stuff (and everything for the night) an hour early, so it was time for all of us to head home.  Frankly, this was both tiring as fuck and fun as hell.  I've uploaded some other photos of the shoot to my Tumblr account, so check those out.  

Once I get a copy of the short, I'll be sure to post it here.  Time for a late breakfast.

--D

Yeah, Tumblr

That place isn't posting the entirety of my blog entries and is cutting them off early. Since this entry should be up on there soon, here's a link to this blog.


Longer entries shall come later. Gonna go do some fighting, thrice in one afternoon! I feel so chivalrous.


--D

Tumblr!

http://davidvick.tumblr.com

My posts here should start importing over to that address in an hour or so. It's nice, feels like I'm Web 2.0 or some shit.


--D

Something, AGAIN!

It's too damn boring in this computer lab. It's an easy job, but man I'd rather be doing something like walking around or whatever. Least the people here are chill as fuck and nice. Better than being one of those Desk Assistants in the dorms.

Speaking of dorms, I was reading my D&D Monster Manual 3rd Edition on the shitter today and I remembered about the two groups I had a chance to play D&D with. I was DM for one of them (a really shitty DM) that got carried away with power. That fucking game sounded like an episode of the Power Rangers. And by all intents and purposes, it could have been. And it would have been better written than any of them. Except for the Green Ranger Saga; that shit was baller.

I ran a PC in the other one. That shit was fun because these guys knew what the fuck was up and were pretty cool. The DM was a tricksy hobbitses though. He kept setting up traps for us in this tower with 5-7 levels of bullshit, but at least the ending of that session was killer since we faced off against a skeleton army. That situation seems daunting when you're a few beers in and just going with the game.

It would be nice to get back to that shit, maybe try out the 4th edition stuff with some Shacknews fellers at QuakeCon. That is, if we aren't blasted drunk.


Tommy was the best,

--D

Blog Entry Number... Something

Fuck it all if I even attempt to update this blog regularly. I think it's about time I try to write for myself instead of thinking about who is reading this damn thing.

That whole mentality started when I sent a link to one of my old ones to this monstrous whale of a woman who just was the epitome of smugness. Yes, you buy clothes that complement your figure. Too bad your figure complements a buffet.

I sent this bitch a link to my blog a while ago and she's all "This blog is pretty self-centered."

...

NO SHIT.

That's like her giving me a sandwich and me saying, "Oh this has items in between bread." Not a likely situation in her case, but it's an example.

Yet, due to my gullibility and eagerness to please people, I followed her advice. Enough of that though, I'm writing this blog exclusively for myself, which is how it should be. The "epiphany" posts will be few and far between now, so expect more of my natural charm, wit, and raunchiness to come through in spades.

Regards,

--D


P.S. Oh and check this shit out when the website works. It's a fun game. www.brokenpicturetelephone.com

Boredom at the Computer Lab

So things have become ever so stressful after graduation, which was to be expected I guess. The whole situation right now with the economy has left me scrambling to find a decent job other than here in the computer lab. While Capoeira and the stage combat class keep me motivated and hopeful, I remain determined to find a decent job while I continue the film and theater life I have laid out for myself.

I've had one audition this past weekend and another is lined up for this next one, so I'm excited for them. The grad school application is about 60% done, and I should be able to get part of it in by Friday. The rest of it involves the Grad School department of the whole university and the GRE test (which I can't afford now)... so I guess I'm screwed in that matter. Well, looks like I'll have to wait to take grad school next year.

That's it for now.

--David