Empty Nester – Extraordinaire

Posts Tagged ‘movies’

Everything? Really? [part 3]

Acker, Kerry. Everything You Need to Know About The Goth Scene. New York: The Rosen Publishing Group, 2000.

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Continued from Part 1 and Part 2.

Chapter 4/Gothic Fashion: Fashion is an important aspect of Goth culture.  Just as many other people in the world, Goths use fashion, hairstyle, and makeup to express themselves.  Lady Gaga certainly does and I’m not sure anyone would accuse her of being Goth. 🙂 

While there are some styles that tend to identify someone as Goth, I know many goths who were little other than jeans and black t-shirts.  I’m personally most comfortable in long skirts and t-shirts.  The husband is most comfortable in a complete outfit, styled head to toe, in a manner that will make him stand out.  He’s known for it.  Neither Jordan or Alek really embrace the fashion of the culture.  Jordan does wear primarily black tshirts and jeans, but I can’t tell you that is a conscious decision or for any reason other than it’s what he likes. Alek wears bright colors – basketball shorts and tshirts, or dress shirts and khakis.  Ravynn and Whisper like pretty clothes in any color.  They do like a lot of black, but they’re little girls so pink and baby blue show up in their choices a lot.  As far as we’re concerned, I believe that whatever in us determines our fashion choices, its’ the same thing that draws us to the Goth culture.  Maybe. It’s just a theory.

Acker lists several items common to Goth fashion:

• Black or dark-colored velvet skirts, dresses, and vests
• Doc Martens or combat boots
• White poet’s shirts
• Rubber, leather, or vinyl gear
• Corsets
• Pagan or Christian jewelry
• Buckles, pointy shoes, and ripped fishnets

I see so much more than that, but it’s not a bad list.  It’s also not bad [although slightly obvious] tha black is the color of choice for goth-minded folks.  You’ll notice, though, that Eric isn’t afraid of a splash [or more] of color in his outfits.  The author also spends a lot of time discussing the ways that MANY Goths wear their hair or the MANY kids of jewelry MANY of them wear.  Really, some experiment with hairstyles and some wear a lot of jewelry. 

Chapter 5/Gothic Music, Literature, and Film: The main part of the book conclude with lists of popular music, literature, and film.  The book is 12 years old, so none of these are current lists. I suggest you Google up the lists or just ask. 

There is more to be learned from just talking to people than from reading. While the book doesn’t offer wrong information, the way some of it is presented is misleading.

 

Muddling

I married an actor.  I’ve spent time on stage, but out of no great desire to perform.  I mostly stepped in when a friend needed help.  My kids have all had stage time in ballet performances.  Ravynn and Whipser especially have taken to acting. We’ve been very fortunate with the opportunities they’ve had to be on camera.

Early this spring, I had the unique experience of joining Whisper on a shoot.  I’ve been on set with her, but only when were were both working as extras [Beverly Lane, Lightning in a Bottle].  This was my first opportunity, despite her growing resume of roles, to be “stage mom” and to just enjoy the experience of watching her act. 

Her first role was as an extra, the Cheerleader Zombie, in the film Beverly Lane from Arsonist Productions.  She enjoyed wearing the zombie makeup and especially enjoyed her scene with her dad, Level-Nine Zombie Killer, Rick Ashley. She was patient and upbeat on set and has nothing but praise for the experience.  It didn’t hurt that someone referred to her as a movie star.  🙂  It was also really nice to enjoy the experience with most of the rest of the family.  Eric played a zombie killer while Whisper, Ravynn, Alek, and I were zombies. 

This film definitely infected her with the acting bug.  You don’t see her in the trailer, but that’s her dad in the spiked helmet 🙂

During the filming of Beverly Lane, Whisper and Eric were able to work closely with Ms. Kate Chaplin of Karmic Courage Productions who was working on a short film and needed a little girl. On their website, Kate describes the movie as, “A dark comedy about a baby girl born during the STAR WARS boom in 1977 who shares a similar name to a certain Jedi Princess that wasn’t allowed to wear underwear.”  Eric was in this film as well.  Jordan and Ravynn worked as extras. 

You can see her in this trailer [right around 45 seconds, but you should watch the whole thing]. 

Not long after that project, Eric took on a lead role in the movie Lightning in a Bottle.  When they needed some extras for a ghost scene , Whisper and I stepped in.  Ravynn plays a maenad and Alek worked as a PA.  You can spot Ravynn and Eric in this trailer.

Ravynn had a lot of fun and left us all wishing that we could be maenads – despite their nasty lunchtime preferences.

Not long ago, we were honored to attend the premier of this movie at the Paramount Theatre here in Anderson.  I was incredibly impressed with this film.  I’ve seen a lot of independant film and this ranks near the top in quality.  Treat yourself to a copy of the DVD.

Her most recent project was filming a music video for the artist Thomasina‘s song “Muddle in the Mud”.  She played the singer as a young girl. Yes, she’s in prison, but as the director explained to her, it’s a symbolic prison built by expectations society might have on you and how you don’t quite ‘measure up’. 

I was amazed by her professional attitude and her ability to be ‘on’ when needed. Off camera, she was sweet and charming and made friends with everyone.

Thank you all for making ‘on screen’ a good experience after the trauma of Wife Swap.  I’ll share more of that experience later.

Babies, the movie trailer

I cannot tell you how excited I am for this movie.

Watch the trailer; it will touch your heart.  I’ll certainly post about it again with more information.

I find a ton of really cool offers and information at BzzAgent; I’m registered there as ‘monstermommy’.

~sheila

we were zombie

I’ve been away from posting for awhile [and feeling incredibly guilty about that].  Spring is always a very busy time for our family and leaves little time for extras.  These past few weeks, though, Eric has been working on a movie with a local director.  When a call went out for zombie extras, the rest of us couldn’t wait to be involved.

In Beverly Lane, Eric plays a redneck zombie killer who shows up to help a small office full of people deal with the Zombie Apocalypse.

Goofing off between scenes.

Alek and I were labeled as Featured Zombies and spent an extra few days on the set causing mayhem. Oh, and goofing off between scenes.

We’re coming to get your braiiiiiiiiiiiiiins!

The movie was also covered in the local paper this morning. The article “Zombies Take Over Local Scrap Yard,” features photos of Eric and of Ravynn and Whisper.  Sadly, I can’t figure out how to copy them out from the website [because they want us to buy them]…

Now that filming is done, I’m back to website re-creation.  Writing product description copy makes my head hurt.  More on that later 🙂

~sheila

Movies in the Dark

Today has been a busy day. A very busy day.

While I was able to sleep in some [and planned to do it], I slept much too long and had to rush to get Alek to dance class on time.  He’s a drop-and-go kid, so after the quick drive over, I ran back home. I should have gone straight to the sewing studio and got to work, but I planned on a relaxing late afternoon. So I sat down and watched a couple episodes of a cartoon I really dislike with the other kids.  Before I knew it, it was time to head back to pick him up. Woops!

It should have been another quick trip over and back, but I think Alek stopped to talk to every last person in the building before coming out to the car.  His social nature isn’t usually a problem to our schedule, but I didn’t work that many extra minutes into the morning.  Back home and it was time to wake up Eric for another drive back to the dance studio. Somewhere in the hour that I was at home, I started to wonder about myself.  Aren’t Saturdays supposed to be quiet?

Maybe they are, but today we were helpers.  The studio where the kids take classes had scheduled a cleaning day for the props and costumes room.  Ravynn’s teacher had asked me on Tuesday to come and help out and I talked Eric into joining me.  Alek, because he is moving on up in the class hierarchy, decided he should go and help too. Besides, there was the promise of picking up discarded loot.

The session was scheduled from 1-4.  We arrived about 20 minutes early and worked hard. My phone rang a couple times while the kids checked in from home, but it was early.  When we stopped long enough for a rest and to gather our finds into a neat bundle that was out of the way, I checked my phone for the time – almost 5!  So we said our goodbyes and headed home.  Within the next few days, I’ll try to photograph some of the wonderful items we picked up.  Eric will use them in his paintings and I’ll use them in one-of-a-kind fashion designs.  Alek even got some fun things for himself.

When I got  home, I realized that three of us hadn’t had lunch yet and it was time for dinner.

I kind of copped out on cooking for the kids and made fish planks, a box of microwave noodles with cheese sauce, and canned peas.  I desperately need to go to the grocery, so I had to get creative for Eric and I.  I sat down with my BH&G cookbook and started flipping through pages, determined to make the first thing I had all the ingredients for.  It could have gone bad. Luckily, this cookbook starts with an appetizer section.  I was overjoyed to find out I could make Coconut Shrimp -and- that they were easy and low-fat.  Ravynn and I went to work while the fish baked. I really like cooking with her and it appears she likes cooking with her mama too.

After dinner, we sat down to watch a documentary from the History channel about death masks. I was amazed by how interested the kids were, but also happy that it led to some interesting conversations about President Lincoln, Napoleon, and John Dillinger.  Just another reminder that MY KIDS ARE AWESOME!  After that, the boys asked for a movie, so we had them pick – Zombies Anonymous was their choice.  It was a decent movie, but nothing I’ll watch everyday.  I liked the angle they took on the zombie/human relationship.

The boys retreated to their room for another movie while the girls asked if they could stay up. Sure, but we need to turn off all the lights so it’s spooky 🙂  Agreed. Someone chose the movie P2, which stars the movie-making kid from American Beauty.  Whisper zonked on the sofa about half an hour in, but Ravynn is loving this movie.  She’s our little night owl and is very proud of that fact. This movie is much better, but has had one or two questionable scenes/events.  I can forgive them; it’s tying together pretty well.  We’ll see how it ends.

Despite the fact that I’ve accomplished nothing, it’s been a really good day.  I hope for more just like it in the future.

~sheila