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Look over to the right hand column. See the Quick Snaps section? That’s for Instagram photos. It used to be only pictures from my own feed would show up there. Not any more. If you’re an Instagram user and you feel so inclined make a comment on one of your own photos and include hashtag #kvncsy. If you have a public stream it will show up over there. Try it, it’s magic! That is all.
A few weeks after I got home to Montana my friend Vincent Ma told me about his short film project. He’s an NYU film student I met years ago on another short film project here in Montana. Now he’s living in Helena and has been boxing at the club in Eagle’s Lounge and thought it would make the perfect setting for his thesis project.
He introduced me to local soon-to-be-pro boxer Ariel Beck, who he was considering for the lead. She had never acted for a camera before so the three of us worked on screen tests. She was serious and eager and after a few hours workshop we we’re both agreeing that she would be great.
I was able to meet with her one more time, along with another Helena boxer, Duran Caferro Jr., for another performance coaching workshop before filming began. It was entirely fun, energizing and exciting work.
The shoot is all done now, here is the article from Sunday’s paper about it all. There is even a brief mention of the acting coach. Hey, that’s me!
Check out Vincent’s Vimeo page for great footage from recent fights.
Some interesting answers to the question “What facts about the United States do foreigners not believe until they come to America?” The economics of food was a popular response:
Fruit and vegetable prices, compared to fast food prices:
A bag of grapes: $6
A box of strawberries: $7
1lb tomatoes: $3McChicken: $1
Big Mac : $1 ( I think. I don’t go to McDonalds though)HOW DOES THAT EVEN WORK?
At the same time, there are things that you wouldn’t associate with first-world countries:
Religious fanaticism
It is hard to believe that a first-world country has non-progressive ideologies, especially that hurt women (the vaginal probes and other abortion related woes). Not only that, the belief in Earth’s age, talking snake etc. Being from India, it is even harder for me to understand this. I expected US to be more progressive. It is not as crazy as back in India but still something that I think is enough to be detrimental to the progress.
Others are pleasantly surprised:
Many Indians are very surprised to find out that there are large numbers of Americans who actually love their parents and siblings and wives and children and have normal, healthy relationships with them. Our media has them convinced that all Americans are very self-centered people who throw their kids out of their homes after high school, don’t care for their parents, and divorce their spouses. And, I swear, it is literally true that many Indians do not believe that this is not true until they have been to the US and seen examples of good healthy family relationships themselves. I have had heated arguments with people who’ve never been to the US, but can give lectures on how screwed up family values in the US are.
But we could also use some improvement:
There actually is an accepted piece of clothing called a ‘wife-beater’.
Read this very interesting article on how paper is used in prisons. Or just read this quote:
Books have practical purposes as well, used to “prop up one end of the mats we sleep on,” wrote T.H. He had seen books “torn up and mistreated,” but was excited to find a complete GED test book and assess his 12th-grade knowledge. He wrote, “I’m a high school graduate but I lost a lot of knowledge and going through the test book has been very rewarding!” Ironically, the GED manual contained chemistry lessons on explosives, giving T.H. the idea “for making gunpowder or fireworks as a chemistry experiment and an educational learning experience.
“Small explosives can be made with household items if a person had the right ingredients and knowledge,” he wrote. “I’m guessing that’s probably illegal because it sounds like fun.”
That last part got me thinking. That does sound fun and it’s not illegal! So in honor of Independence day coming up: Small explosives can be made with household items ALSO homemade smoke bombs AND (this is my favorite) homemade rockets!
Now in an extended edition from the space nerds at r/space. They add more ships and a tiny human for scale which is great. But they also organize the projects by country, unpleasantly reminding me of the nationalism these space programs are meant to inspire. But look! How cool!
