About me...
Jul 22 2023
I'm making my first entry here a sort of "about me" section, like when kids start a diary sometimes they start off by describing themselves.
My name is Tommy, but I also go by zombie, either in lowercase or all-capitals. My birthday is July 16, 2002; I'm 21 years old, a Cancer sun, Libra moon, and Aries rising. I like films, shows, and music. I'm going to list some of those now, in order of how much they presently influence my brain...
- Stranger Things v_v
- Jason Schwartzman (+ Wes Anderson) movies - Rushmore, Asteroid City, Fantastic Mr. Fox
- New Wave music - Talking Heads(!!), Naked Eyes, The Smiths, & more
- Other 80s/ish music - Judas Priest, Journey, Wham!, etc
- Other music - Daft Punk and DJO >>>
- Horror movies - Reanimator, Attack the Block, Saw
- Other movies like Little Miss Sunshine, The Banshees of Inisherin, and the Spider-Verse trilogy(!!)
- Succession, which used to be my favorite show ever but has kind of disappeared from my head since it ended... O_o
I really enjoy analyzing characters and themes and etc from all these sources and more. Outside of media, I like radioactive stuff, old web stuff, 70s/80s and other decades stuff, robot stuff, writing stuff, drawing stuff, and cute animals. I love anteaters. Look at this:
Moving on... I am mostly from South Florida, but I'm going to school elsewhere. I'm an Illustration major but I'd change majors/concentration if I could. I don't know if I'd end up enjoying being a writing or film major either, though, because (as I've realized over and over again...) I just don't enjoy school. I recently figured out that I'm like the opposite of Max Fischer from Rushmore, in the sense that he loves school, he's fantastic at making the most of it, but is bad at getting good grades. I hate school and am terrible at getting anything out of it whatsoever, except for good grades. Oh well.
I want to work in films or television. Ideally writing for them, but also I really think I'd enjoy working in almost any part of it. Sometimes I feel an overpowering desire to work in a costuming department even though I know nothing about costuming, except that I enjoy reading about it and trying to figure out/organize characters' outfits from TV. Of course everything is going on strike right now (as it should) and A.I. is becoming a major issue so who knows if there's any future in any of this or in anything at all!
I don't mean to sound very grim, I try not to be super nihilistic just because it's tiring and bleh. Anyway, I'm going to be seeing Moonrise Kingdom with some friends over Discord in half an hour or so. ^_^ Not sure exactly where to end this so I'll just end it now!
zombie
Opportunities are evil!!!
Jul 27 2023
Today I spoke with my uncle about a project I've been invited to work on for his friend. I've already been working on it but now we're far enough along that I'm meeting his friend over Zoom or some other kind of phone call to talk about what to do next.
Basically his friend is making a short film about his acting teacher who was very loved by his students and community, who battled with and eventually passed away from cancer (HEAVY SUBJECT). My uncle has done some music in the past and he knows that I'm into music and that I sometimes write my own (incredibly simple) songs on piano, probably because my mom talks about it to him 'cause lord knows I don't really talk about it much to anyone. So he asked me if I'd be interested in trying my hand at scoring this film.
Of course I'm super grateful for the opportunity and flattered to be offered it in the first place, and I don't want to sound like I'm not. But this is scary!!!! I'm terrible at getting back to people quickly, getting things done quickly, getting things /done/... and I'm not a professional in ANYTHING, least of all MUSIC. If it were an illustration or maybe even a writing job* I might be a little more comfortable because I've been doing those kinds of assignments and projects in school for a while. But everything about this is very new and incredibly intimidating, not to mention the heavy subject it revolves around. Also, I am infamous (within my own head, at least) for generally preferring to Not do things. So a part of me really thinks, when it comes to all this... I'd rather Not!
But I know I shouldn't think and definitely shouldn't operate that way... and I know it's not high stakes. My uncle - who I should mention is very encouraging and chill, and everytime we actually actively talk about the subject I am immediately much more relaxed about it - explained it to me as just something to try, even a 'class' of sorts where, even if it doesn't go anywhere, I'm just learning how this sort of thing might work and how /I/ might work within it. So I will try to keep that in mind and not tear myself up at the concept of somehow making a fool of myself. And I need to get better at being responsive and active re: this project (and also re: everything ever) so I don't need to keep feeling like an asshole for leaving people hanging, and an /idiot/ for constantly letting opportunities and time pass me by and/or for casually sabotaging them.
Unrelated happenings & ideas
- They installed solar panels today(?!). It took the whole day and was the loudest thing you ever heard, and a significant amount of the panels (and, during construciton, the noise) are right on top of my room. The dogs were off the shits. And of course we had piano today... sorry Ms. Susan u_u
- My friends and I watched Moonrise Kingdom over Discord and it went great. It was such a sweet movie, and the parts I and my friend Pascal really enjoyed made me think of Fantastic Mr. Fox, which Pascal had never seen, so I said - "Pascal you /need/ to see Fantastic Mr. Fox... I would watch Fantastic Mr. Fox /right now./ And everyone else was like... should we... could we...? And then we did. The Wes Anderson double feature ended some time around 4 in the morning I believe. Ash Fox always makes me cry.
- Last night I looked around at different NeoCities pages with Andrew over stream (and Aliya but she was playing a video game so idk if she was watching). I got a lot of inspiration for what I would want to do with my own site if I knew/learned how to code it. I was going to list some ideas here but I think I should put them somewhere else... in a nutshell I think a fake business design would be fun, kind of old webby but also (of course) kind of 70s/80s office-like. Similar to the promotional stuff for DECIDE. NailBattery INC or something like that.
Alright well I think that's enough.