I am taking a Rudiments of Music class at Penn State. Here is my assignment:

In Reflection Paper No. 1, you are to reflect upon your experiences with music prior to beginning this course—as listener, as participant—and what part music plays in your life.

When I was about 5, my relatives liked to ask me what my favorite song was. It amused them to hear me say “La Isla Bonita” by Madonna. I am not sure why my family found that so funny. Today I like to think it is because I didn’t name a children’s song, and because I was addicted to MTV (in its early years).  Though I never pursued music professionally, it would play a large part in my life.

Starting at the age of 6, I participated in choir all the way through high school. Initially, I just liked singing and it wasn’t until the age of 8 that I realized I had a talent for it. In third grade every recess I “competed” in a singing competition on the playground judged by one of my girlfriends. I won every single day performing popular Disney tunes. The only day I lost was when I decided to try something “edgy” and sang “Under The Sea” with an awful Jamaican accent.

A few weeks before starting high school, I spontaneously decided to audition for a performing arts magnet high school slightly further away from home. I couldn’t play the piano and I couldn’t read sheet music, but I still showed up to the audition with a music book from Les Miserables and attempted to follow the music while mimicking how Patti LuPone sounded on the CD. I was incredibly nervous, screwed up the timing at the end of the segment and concluded my performance by sighing defeatedly. All this was caught on video and given to me as a gift from my teacher years later.

Despite a mortifying performance, the instructors must have seen potential in me because I was accepted to the school. Thus began a four-year immersion into the world of musical theater, jazz choir, chamber choir, acting and dancing. This was also around the time I began discovering music by Enigma, Cirque Du Soleil, Weezer, Green Day, Nirvana, Nine Inch Nails and Andrew Lloyd Webber. I didn’t really care who was making the music, or how different it sounded as long as it moved me, and music has always moved me profoundly, sometimes to the point of tears. This was the time of typical teenage angst, and I would spend nights falling asleep with my headphones on.

After graduating from the academy, I drifted away from dreams of being a musical theater actress. I realized that though I love singing with all my heart, I lacked the passion required to live the life of a struggling artist. I sing from inspiration, not on demand. Over the years I fell in love with film and filmmaking is where I stayed. Now I enjoy the luxury of returning to my voice lessons, taking up the piano (it’s only been a few weeks now), and getting to choose this class to fulfill a requirement at Penn State. I am hoping a combination of these three learning tools will aid me in my next goal. I want to write songs for my film and video projects. I have a musical episode planned for the second season of a web series I co-created. I am currently “writing” all the songs and will be playing the love interest. I will feel accomplished if I can at least write down the main melody to my tunes on sheet music by December!

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Gondry=genius.

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Very productive weekend! Held rehearsals for ./shutdown episode 4 as well as took a trip to Los Angeles. I got fitted for a corset with Simone. Then I got to visit my talented friend, Café Noir, aka Michael Jones Everett.

Michelle+Café. Reverse MySpace picture? Mirror behind us!

Café’s new 50s retro lamp hanging by Bondage-looking chain.

He showed me some of his latest visual effects work such as the new Resident Evil trailer (titles) and Wall-E. Pretty sweet. It was a busy weekend, but fun. I ended it by staying home and watching Firefly on DVD with David, Cris and Ben from the ./shutdown crew. We also played some Guitar Hero and watched some not-for-children Anime DVDs if you know what I mean. It was mostly comical though.

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King of Kong=AWESOME!
Almost brought a tear to my eye. Bless you, Seth Gordon.

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Is it not a cinematic masterpiece? I just watched portions of the DVD as research for some homages I plan to make (again) in ./shutdown. I’m shooting some episode 3 scenes tomorrow, and I needed to review to make sure I had certain parts down pat. Okay, better get to bed. I’ll only be getting 5 hours of sleep before the shoot. Normally, that’s enough to be thankful for. However, we’re shooting entirely outdoors tomorrow, with extras. It will be pretty taxing, so I am off to bed!

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At the DivX sponsored L.A. premiere of her latest film, Election Day, documentary filmmaker, Katy Chevigny chats with us about coordinating the complicated one-day shoot for the movie. She also discusses the Media That Matters Film Festival which screens around the country through her organization, Arts Engine. Check out the Arts Engine channel on Stage6 to see the Media That Matters standout short film, Garbage Dreams which won the Sustainability Award.

Election Day - Los Angeles Premiere (Stage6 - DivX SD)
Election Day - Los Angeles Premiere (Stage6 - DivX HD)

Shot and edited by Michelle Osorio
Stage6 Crew: Ben Cote and Matthias Ankli

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Here’s my review of Rocky Balboa, written, directed and starring Sylvester Stallone. First let me say… wow! Like many people, I was incredulous when hearing the rumor that a new Rocky movie was in the making. That’s like going back to Star Wars and screwing with things so that Greedo shoots at Han first, or making a third Godfather. Oh wait…

In all seriousness, I am impressed. The story is simple, Rocky is charming and the dialogue is sincere and funny. The best part of the entire movie is the presentation of the big fight. The camerawork, the edits, the sound is all like a real HBO fight. The commentators, the announcer and the referee are all men I recognize from HBO fights. Later, the style changes and you really feel like you’re in that zone when you’re really under pressure. Here it was a fight where the characters are getting pummeled, but you know the feeling if you’ve ever performed live theater, or tested in martial arts.

The movie was sweet, honest and then exciting and most of all… inspiring! In fact, I am doing something unheard of! I am skipping a night of World of Warcraft with David and coworkers so that I can do some writing. Gotta live the dream. Thanks for the inspiration, Rocky. I got heart, too!

Rocky Balboa box office results from Box Office Mojo:

Domestic Total: $53,642,534
Production Budget: $24 million
In Release: 15 days / 2.1 weeks

P.S. - Sly is set to write and direct Poe, about Edgar Allen, of course. What comes after that? According to IMDB, he’s also in pre-production for… Rambo IV: Pearl of the Cobra. I’m dubious to say the least, but Sly is penning it and I have yet to be disappointed by his screenwriting skills.

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Hmm… Okay. This was all we could think of as a Christmas Day movie for my mom, my little cousin, my grandma and myself. It was actually pretty cute and amusing. It wasn’t even really bad, although I almost fell asleep at times. I like Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson was adorable. There was a little Brokeback Mountain reference and the best part was a cameo by a certain actor of Chapelle Show fame. Carla Gugino was in it too and she is hot.

[end review]

As for zee holiday, it was pleasant. I bought my mother a silver iPod Nano, David bought me a Cowon A2 30GB Video Player and I bought him a 20″ Dell Flatscreen monitor. Good Christmas.

Last Friday, Nancy H. and Kevin W. from work went Christmas Caroling with me at Scripps Mercy Hospital. Actually, it wasn’t as impromptu as it sounds. I actually sent an email out to all of DivX asking for volunteers to help cheer up patients who have to spend their holiday in the hospital. Unfortunately, a band of three is all we could manage. However with 4 extensive rehearsals, we got pretty far. We managed to have harmony or guitar accompaniment (I can only go as far as open chords) for every song.

It was a great experience. Jed, a hospital visitor who was there to see his parents, took some pictures of us. Nancy is getting me his card so I can email him tomorrow and ask for a copy. At that time, I will post more about our Christmas Caroling adventure!

Happy Belated Holidays!

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Okay, this is the second movie in a row I did not want to see, but went anyway because David and Marley were going. Once again, I was pleasantly surprised. Not only was The Pursuit of Happiness a touching, charming and clever movie, but now I have a newfound respect for Will Smith. I think the chemistry between him and his real-life son, Jayden (playing his son in the movie) really helped the emotions come across as sincere. The movie is really intense to me and probably alot of other people who grew up raised by single parents. I found myself rooting hard for the good guy, even though I know how this story ends (read this article about Chris Gardner, whom this story is based on). I high recomment this movie.

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Watch the second 300 trailer with 1080 lines of resolution.

If your computer can’t handle the heat, you can view the 720p version (for faster loading). Double-click in the window once the video is playing to watch it full-screen.

Both videos require the FREE DivX Web Player.

Don’t forget. If you join Stage6, add me as a friend. I live by the thing, since I work at DivX. So I’ll probably accept your request within a day or two. You can upload your own high definition video files to Stage6, too.

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