Hey guys, I've been missing for a long while. It's been kind of chaotic, and a little more than crazy in my world. I promise that those of you who actually read this will see more posts coming. I'll probably start posting at least once a week when August rolls around. Updates on me:
I'm in a great relationship, my ex is out of my life, the friends which have repeatedly stabbed me in the back seem to have left, and my heart feels better. I am slowly healing form the events of my past and I hope that you can forgive me, as my readers, for not being more active on the blog. I'm thinking of posting original comedy skits on here, but I do think I might stick to writing scripts for music videos the way songs should have been visually represented. I mean, sersely? Some songs just have horrible, horrible videos. Let's face it, we could do with some new insights.
Hugs, light and love.
TAC
Saturday, July 20, 2013
Thursday, December 1, 2011
Not a music video
This isn't a music video of any sort, whether for the videographically disinclined or not. I wrote this for my Performance of Literature Class. I performed it today. Enjoy!
Please Take Me Home by Crystal Angevine
Please Take Me Home by Crystal Angevine
The winter air is rather sharp, ripping at my nose and throat every time I breathe in. I glance at my phone. 5:30. Someone should be to the school soon to pick me up. Living thirty minutes away from school after six years of being able to walk home has left me bitter.
My good friends know I’m currently homeless, but they don’t know I wait over an hour after everyone else has left, outside in the middle of January, before I get to go back to the dingy cheap hotel room with my parents, nephew and two cats. I’m too proud to tell them. It’s been two weeks of this, going into the third. You’d think I would get over myself and ask for some companionship. But no. Go pride go!
No one except my close friends, my teachers and the school administration knows I have no home. I feel weird enough answering questions about whether we have found a house, let alone support the conversation if my friends decided they had to sit with me. Hell, not like anyone would guess my overall situation anyway. Might as well keep this on the DL.
Intro:
There is a certain comfort in going home after a long day at school or work and knowing that, even though the windows are a wee bit drafty and the heater sounds like an airliner taking off every five minutes, you have all the creature comforts we humans adore: warmth, our own beds, all the food and music we can devour, family. Sure, we say home is where the heart is. But a house… a roof above us in cold winter months and searing summer days is one of the many comforts we often for granted. Think of a homeless person you’ve seen. Ninety percent of us just pictured raggedy, unkempt men in sleeping bags on O street who, we assume, brought this on themselves in some way or another. However, there are actually people who have been upstanding renters, paying their rent on time, whose landlords don’t pay their mortgages. Those people had no hand in their own fates, and just this knowledge challenges the stereotypes we so often see, as exhibited in Please Take Me Home by Crystal Angevine.
I’m staring at my phone, killing battery. After all, I’m a teenager. I live and die by this thing. My heart is invested in words upon a screen. I can’t really move my fingers right now anyway, since my gloves got shoved unceremoniously into some box waiting in storage to be unpacked when we find a house. I’ll work on my homework when I can feel my fingers again, not on this frigid bench I reside.
“Crystal? What are you still doing here?” The voice startles me, and belongs to Ms. James, my guidance counselor and one of the most helpful people in this entire mistake.
I stammer more than a little in my response. “Uh… I am waiting for my ride. Mom didn’t get off work until a little while ago.”
“But it’s freezing out here,” she says. “Why are you waiting outside?”
“It’s not that cold. I mean, sure a polar bear’s gonads are liable to fall off in this chill, but I’ve got a good coat.” I smile at her reassuringly.
“Are you out here late every afternoon?” she inquires. I shake my head vigorously. “Crystal?”
“What?” I smile innocently.
“Are you out here late every afternoon?”
“Only sometimes.” A fallacy. Please don’t pick that up on your super counselor fallacy radar or whatever. Please.
“You can always hang out in the counseling office and do work or something. I’m here late eveyr night for student council anyway,” Ms. James offers. My mom pulls into the parking lot and glides to a stop smoothly before us.
As I stand, I offer reassurance, “Thank you for the offer, but I probably won’t need it after today. Thanks, though! Have a good night!”
Five minutes later, Mom asks, “Were you waiting outside for long?”
“No. I just got out there. I was working with teachers.” Another lie. I don’t want people to worry where it isn’t due. They have bigger and sometimes better things to worry about than a wayward kid.
“You still have a lot of homework?”
“Yeah. I haven’t gotten very far on catching up. But Ms. Mitchell said I got a 98 on that paper. She seemed kind of surprised I got it in just in time,” I comment.
“Not many kids would be so forthcoming with their problems and still be prompt in turning in assignments. A lot of them would just use it to slack off,” Mom says.
“Yeah well, they’re stupid and I don’t like them.”
Mom grins at me. I stare blankly out at the countryside on the road leading out of town. Darkened, dingy hotel room floor for a bed. I can dig this. At least it’s a roof.
It’s kind of humorous a bit that no one knows. I was missing for a week and a half and people asked. I just told them that something came up in the family. Nothing big. No one died at least, so I can at least say that the days were not total losses.
The next day at school, Mrs. Estrada, my theater mentor, Mr. Kaiser, the technical director, and two student assistant directors for the play I am stage managing and acting in pull me into an office.
Mrs. Estrada, my mentor, leans forward with her elbows on her desk. I stand in front of her and the other three awkwardly, unsure of what to do with myself. “Crystal, we need to know if we need to find someone else to do your job, since you haven’t been here.”
“I’m sorry? You know why I haven’t been able to be here,” I respond. I think I know where this is going.
Mr. Kaiser pipes up from his perch on the spare seat in the sparse room. “I can’t have a stage manager that isn’t around, Crystal.” His voice is harsh. I glance at the two students—both of whom are younger than me—and then back at the man.
“I can still be stage manager. I just had other stuff to attend to.”
“Well, it’s not good enough. You have to be there. Whatever that stuff might be,” Mrs. Estrada barks. “Or we’ll have to replace you.”
My eyes narrow as my temper flares up. “Well, excuse me if I’ve only been homeless for three weeks in the last month. Sorry for the inconvenience that places on you. However, you knew well before this, Mrs. Estrada, that I would not be at rehearsals. It was your job to tell Mr. Kaiser that I would not be able to be here for several rehearsals. You failed.” I look back at the students in the room and feel extreme disgruntlement. I hadn’t wanted any of my peers to know. Now, everyone in the play would know. “Now, if you excuse me, I have a play I have to get back to. Thank you for your concern.” I turn and walk out, not looking back. Fifteen minutes later when the show hit intermission in rehearsal, Mr. Kaiser pulls me aside.
“Crystal, I’m sorry about that in there. I didn’t know your situation. What happened?” he asks.
“We paid our landlord, our landlord didn’t pay the mortgage. The court told us we had to get out because we couldn’t prove we weren’t related to him. It’s no big deal really. I wish that the student directors hadn’t been in there, though,” I reply meekly.
“I would never have guessed you had no home. I thought you were just ditching practice,” Mr. Kaiser says. “I’m sorry for the misunderstanding.”
“It’s not your fault. You would have never known without me telling you expressly. I didn’t want anyone to know. Just goes to show that books sometimes have deceptive covers.”
*please note the title has no real tie with anyone taking me home LOL*
Monday, October 31, 2011
Car Crash by Matt Nathanson
Today's script follows the lyrics and music of this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJ3i6nFW64s
I recommend watching/listening to it; the words and music kind of drift off at weird places in the script, so just know that as you read, the music isn't one hundred percent the main attraction. This is simply a story based around the words of the song. Enjoy!
Atop one of the tallest cliffs, a long, frightened female figure stands. At first, from a distance, she appears merely a dot, a smudge at the top of the cliff. The camera zooms, centering on her, the wind blowing her longer brown hair off of her left shoulder and out to the right-- the stereotypical lonely-female-on-cliff-above-sea look. A young male, maybe a year older than the girl, stands in a wetsuit just behind her.
The girl wears an identical wetsuit, her short, obese frame looking natural, despite the severe chills racking her body. She looks down, terrified of what she's about to do.
Alicia: I can't believe I'm doing this! I can't do this. No. (Starts to retreat away from cliff. She is stopped by Logan, gangly and barely older brother of the girl. They are close, and care deeply about each other, being each others' best friends.)
Logan: Alicia, come on! It'll be okay!
Alicia: I... I can't. Not after that.... (Terror paralyzes Alicia, cue Car Crash by Matt Nathanson)
Logan: Hey... hey... remember? "I'm wide awake and so alive... ringing like a bell...." (Alicia nods and takes a deep breath, eyes closing, as the scene fades to a park shelter in a light spring rain. Alicia is singing into a tree branch 'microphone'. She grabs Logan's hands in her spare hand, pulling him out into the rain with her. He resists slightly, but dashes out with her.)
Alicia: (continued singing to Logan) Tell me this is paradise. And not some place I fell. 'Cause I keep on falling down. (Takes his hands and starts to spin) I wanna feel a car crash. I wanna feel a capsize. I wanna feel the bomb drop, the earth stop til I'm satisfied. I wanna feel a car crash, I wanna let go (Lets go of Logan's hands and they both fall, Logan laughing) and know I'll be alright, alright.
The two lay there for a while during the instrumental. Logan glances at Alicia. Music cuts.
Logan: Hey sis... you want to go on an adventure?
Alicia: (Staring at the gray sky above her as the camera is hovering above them) Sure. Where to?
Logan: I wanna jump off a cliff.
Alicia: (rolls onto her stomach and props herself up) Wait. What kind of cliff? Like a bottomless-pit cliff or what?
Logan: (Casually) Like one over a river. There's a rafting company that'll take you out there and they'll let you jump. Keep you safe and everything.
Alicia: I... I don't know, Logan. It sounds kind of dangerous.
Logan: Worse that'll happen is someone jumps in to bring you back up. They're trained to do that, you know.
Alicia: Will we be wearing life jackets?
Logan: (thoughtfully) They wouldn't let you in without one. Besides, your big brother wouldn't let anything happen to you.
Alicia: (Smiles) Let's do it.
Cut forward to the cliff. No wind this time. Sun is out. Logan and Alicia on top of the cliff. Both have donned wetsuits and life jackets.
Logan: Are you ready?
Alicia: Hell yes! (grins mischievously)
Logan: I'll go first. The guide is waiting down there. I'll see ya then (smiles and sticks his tongue out at her. He takes a deep breath and steps with both feet off the rock. Alicia watches nervously as he hits the water and surfaces. He lets out a shriek of exhilaration and Alicia smiles.) Yeehaw! Your turn!
Alicia prepares herself to take the jump, closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. She steps with one foot at first, intending to bring the other in line with it and let herself jump that way. Her water shoe gets caught. The camera precedes her fall, capturing her from below as the following ensues. Her arms fly forward, and she swings head first into the crags she was trying to clear. Her shoe comes loose, and screaming, she free falls headfirst into the water. The camera shifts to the faces of Logan and the guide, which display looks of horror.
Guide: Stay here. I need you to hold the rope tight and keep the boat from drifting off. (Logan swallows and nods weakly and the guide dives into the water)
Logan: (beside himself and visibly freaking out) Come on, Alicia...
The camera pans across the water, capturing Logan in the boat, looking anxiously into the water between him and the camera. He is watching the area where the guide went down. Moments pass and neither the guide nor Alicia surface. Finally, the guide surfaces for air empty-handed. Logan's boat leaps up from a heavy jolt from below.
The camera snaps to Alicia, under water and panicking, quickly losing strength and air, trapped underneath the boat. The harder she hits the boat without finding a way out, the more panicked she gets and the less air she has. The guide swims in, grabbing her from behind as she goes limp and thrusts her above the surface. Her life jacket keeps her above water now.
Logan: Alicia! (Alicia doesn't answer, not even sputtering, the guide hoists himself into the raft from the opposite side so as not to tip the boat.)
Guide: Logan, grab the shoulders of her vest. We need to push her down and lug her into the raft. On the count of three, you push her down so her chin touches the water at each number. On three, use the buoyancy to bring her into the raft. Ready? (Logan grasps the shoulders on the vest and nods, panic filling his face now.) I'm going to stay over here and count to three so we don't tip the boat. Okay? 1... (Dunk) 2... (dunk) 3!
During the above monologue, the guide is pulling out a mask from his bag on the other side of the boat, and assembling it. Logan does as he's told and Alicia is in the boat. The guide unbuckles her vest as Logan frets and the guide begins CPR, placing the mask over Alicia's mouth to allow him to give her air. The camera pulls up above them as the guide begins compressions and Logan looks sickly. The screen fades to the opening scene on the cliff with the overcast skies. Alicia's eyes open as Logan's voice fades in.
Logan: You'll be fine. I promise.
Alicia: I can't!
Logan: (tips her chin up to look at him and song resumes.) "Push me til I have to fly. I've shed my skin, my scars. Take me deep out past the lights where nothing dims these stars." (Looks off of cliff at the guide below them, watchful) "Nothing dims these stars."
The chorus goes on once without anyone moving or talking. "I wanna feel a car crash
I wanna feel a capsize
I wanna feel the bomb drop, the earth stop
'Til I'm satisfied
I wanna feel a car crash
'Cause I'm dyin' on the inside
I wanna let go and know
That I'll be alright, alright
So right. It's all wrong. I'm wide awake and so alive."
Alicia: (mouthing words) "I wanna feel a car crash, I wanna feel a capsize. I wanna feel the bomb drop, the earth stop til I'm satisfied. I wanna feel a car crash cuz I'm dying on the inside. I wanna let go and know it'll be alright..." (Smiles.) Alright. (Music pauses. She jumps. The camera stays above, anxiety building after she hits the water. Finally, she surfaces in slow motion and she gives a cheer.)
The scene closes with grins and laughter as Logan jumps off the cliff and he and his sister congratulate each other. Fades out.
I hope you guys enjoyed it. LEAVE FEEDBACK PLEASE!
I recommend watching/listening to it; the words and music kind of drift off at weird places in the script, so just know that as you read, the music isn't one hundred percent the main attraction. This is simply a story based around the words of the song. Enjoy!
Car Crash (song by Matt Nathanson)
Camera pans across a frothy river. There are craggy, rigid cliffs along one side.Atop one of the tallest cliffs, a long, frightened female figure stands. At first, from a distance, she appears merely a dot, a smudge at the top of the cliff. The camera zooms, centering on her, the wind blowing her longer brown hair off of her left shoulder and out to the right-- the stereotypical lonely-female-on-cliff-above-sea look. A young male, maybe a year older than the girl, stands in a wetsuit just behind her.
The girl wears an identical wetsuit, her short, obese frame looking natural, despite the severe chills racking her body. She looks down, terrified of what she's about to do.
Alicia: I can't believe I'm doing this! I can't do this. No. (Starts to retreat away from cliff. She is stopped by Logan, gangly and barely older brother of the girl. They are close, and care deeply about each other, being each others' best friends.)
Logan: Alicia, come on! It'll be okay!
Alicia: I... I can't. Not after that.... (Terror paralyzes Alicia, cue Car Crash by Matt Nathanson)
Logan: Hey... hey... remember? "I'm wide awake and so alive... ringing like a bell...." (Alicia nods and takes a deep breath, eyes closing, as the scene fades to a park shelter in a light spring rain. Alicia is singing into a tree branch 'microphone'. She grabs Logan's hands in her spare hand, pulling him out into the rain with her. He resists slightly, but dashes out with her.)
Alicia: (continued singing to Logan) Tell me this is paradise. And not some place I fell. 'Cause I keep on falling down. (Takes his hands and starts to spin) I wanna feel a car crash. I wanna feel a capsize. I wanna feel the bomb drop, the earth stop til I'm satisfied. I wanna feel a car crash, I wanna let go (Lets go of Logan's hands and they both fall, Logan laughing) and know I'll be alright, alright.
The two lay there for a while during the instrumental. Logan glances at Alicia. Music cuts.
Logan: Hey sis... you want to go on an adventure?
Alicia: (Staring at the gray sky above her as the camera is hovering above them) Sure. Where to?
Logan: I wanna jump off a cliff.
Alicia: (rolls onto her stomach and props herself up) Wait. What kind of cliff? Like a bottomless-pit cliff or what?
Logan: (Casually) Like one over a river. There's a rafting company that'll take you out there and they'll let you jump. Keep you safe and everything.
Alicia: I... I don't know, Logan. It sounds kind of dangerous.
Logan: Worse that'll happen is someone jumps in to bring you back up. They're trained to do that, you know.
Alicia: Will we be wearing life jackets?
Logan: (thoughtfully) They wouldn't let you in without one. Besides, your big brother wouldn't let anything happen to you.
Alicia: (Smiles) Let's do it.
Cut forward to the cliff. No wind this time. Sun is out. Logan and Alicia on top of the cliff. Both have donned wetsuits and life jackets.
Logan: Are you ready?
Alicia: Hell yes! (grins mischievously)
Logan: I'll go first. The guide is waiting down there. I'll see ya then (smiles and sticks his tongue out at her. He takes a deep breath and steps with both feet off the rock. Alicia watches nervously as he hits the water and surfaces. He lets out a shriek of exhilaration and Alicia smiles.) Yeehaw! Your turn!
Alicia prepares herself to take the jump, closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. She steps with one foot at first, intending to bring the other in line with it and let herself jump that way. Her water shoe gets caught. The camera precedes her fall, capturing her from below as the following ensues. Her arms fly forward, and she swings head first into the crags she was trying to clear. Her shoe comes loose, and screaming, she free falls headfirst into the water. The camera shifts to the faces of Logan and the guide, which display looks of horror.
Guide: Stay here. I need you to hold the rope tight and keep the boat from drifting off. (Logan swallows and nods weakly and the guide dives into the water)
Logan: (beside himself and visibly freaking out) Come on, Alicia...
The camera pans across the water, capturing Logan in the boat, looking anxiously into the water between him and the camera. He is watching the area where the guide went down. Moments pass and neither the guide nor Alicia surface. Finally, the guide surfaces for air empty-handed. Logan's boat leaps up from a heavy jolt from below.
The camera snaps to Alicia, under water and panicking, quickly losing strength and air, trapped underneath the boat. The harder she hits the boat without finding a way out, the more panicked she gets and the less air she has. The guide swims in, grabbing her from behind as she goes limp and thrusts her above the surface. Her life jacket keeps her above water now.
Logan: Alicia! (Alicia doesn't answer, not even sputtering, the guide hoists himself into the raft from the opposite side so as not to tip the boat.)
Guide: Logan, grab the shoulders of her vest. We need to push her down and lug her into the raft. On the count of three, you push her down so her chin touches the water at each number. On three, use the buoyancy to bring her into the raft. Ready? (Logan grasps the shoulders on the vest and nods, panic filling his face now.) I'm going to stay over here and count to three so we don't tip the boat. Okay? 1... (Dunk) 2... (dunk) 3!
During the above monologue, the guide is pulling out a mask from his bag on the other side of the boat, and assembling it. Logan does as he's told and Alicia is in the boat. The guide unbuckles her vest as Logan frets and the guide begins CPR, placing the mask over Alicia's mouth to allow him to give her air. The camera pulls up above them as the guide begins compressions and Logan looks sickly. The screen fades to the opening scene on the cliff with the overcast skies. Alicia's eyes open as Logan's voice fades in.
Logan: You'll be fine. I promise.
Alicia: I can't!
Logan: (tips her chin up to look at him and song resumes.) "Push me til I have to fly. I've shed my skin, my scars. Take me deep out past the lights where nothing dims these stars." (Looks off of cliff at the guide below them, watchful) "Nothing dims these stars."
The chorus goes on once without anyone moving or talking. "I wanna feel a car crash
I wanna feel a capsize
I wanna feel the bomb drop, the earth stop
'Til I'm satisfied
I wanna feel a car crash
'Cause I'm dyin' on the inside
I wanna let go and know
That I'll be alright, alright
So right. It's all wrong. I'm wide awake and so alive."
Alicia: (mouthing words) "I wanna feel a car crash, I wanna feel a capsize. I wanna feel the bomb drop, the earth stop til I'm satisfied. I wanna feel a car crash cuz I'm dying on the inside. I wanna let go and know it'll be alright..." (Smiles.) Alright. (Music pauses. She jumps. The camera stays above, anxiety building after she hits the water. Finally, she surfaces in slow motion and she gives a cheer.)
The scene closes with grins and laughter as Logan jumps off the cliff and he and his sister congratulate each other. Fades out.
I hope you guys enjoyed it. LEAVE FEEDBACK PLEASE!
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Howdy Pardner
Originally, I only signed up for this account in order to follow and comment on one of my friends' blogs. I had no intention of doing anything with it. I even didn't care.
However, I was walking to a class this morning and decided to give it a try. I'm not much of a blogger, or diary-writer, or anything really. I'm seriously just your plain Jane, next-door neighbor that you probably never see or hear from because I don't like to be a bad nuisance or burden on anyone.
Here's the plan: Listen to a song. Write a story or film script based, however loosely, off said song, and then post it on here. Chances are, I will be collaborating and/or posting with a friend on this, in which case I will be sure to give credit where credit is due.
I hope you enjoy this. It's mostly just a place to put writing for the world to see. :) Never let creativity die. Without it, one never knows where one will be in the future when one is down on one's luck (wow, that got wordy fast).
I appreciate constructive feedback on things; however, even editors must keep in mind that edits are merely SUGGESTIONS and may or may not be followed. Usually, my personal writing will tend to be a compromise of how I want to see the work and how the audience reacts.
Thanks for your time!
Crystal
However, I was walking to a class this morning and decided to give it a try. I'm not much of a blogger, or diary-writer, or anything really. I'm seriously just your plain Jane, next-door neighbor that you probably never see or hear from because I don't like to be a bad nuisance or burden on anyone.
Here's the plan: Listen to a song. Write a story or film script based, however loosely, off said song, and then post it on here. Chances are, I will be collaborating and/or posting with a friend on this, in which case I will be sure to give credit where credit is due.
I hope you enjoy this. It's mostly just a place to put writing for the world to see. :) Never let creativity die. Without it, one never knows where one will be in the future when one is down on one's luck (wow, that got wordy fast).
I appreciate constructive feedback on things; however, even editors must keep in mind that edits are merely SUGGESTIONS and may or may not be followed. Usually, my personal writing will tend to be a compromise of how I want to see the work and how the audience reacts.
Thanks for your time!
Crystal
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