Thursday, June 26, 2008

editors note: The management of Seemless Universe (a subsidiary of Frapulous Tranding, Incorporated) would like to apologize for the writer’s recent outbursts about troubled teens and his estimation of youth in general. His opinions are solely his own and do not express the views of Frapulous Tranding, Inc. We here at FraTrink believe all people are just little darlings no matter what their age or capacity for rational thought.

We feel confident Miller’s writing will continue to delight and amuse in the same fashion it has since its inception and in no way will be effected by his recent ordeal.

Thank you and God Bless

Lerner T. Squall
Assistant Junior Vice President
Frapulous Tranding, Incorporated



Todays Scores


Cubs 7
Orioles 4

children 3
A Big Stick 11

blank, vacant looks 14
America’s future 1

Holography 6
Argentine Tango dancers 7

words that rhyme with indifference 5
Sunshine 9

Babysitting 6
Teaching 2

Marvin Hamlisch 2
Prussians 6

assisting in the fabrication of removable prosthodontic appliances 3
Amherst College 7

theoretical physics 4
Tab Hunter 3

One Great Student 6,928,247,992
The rest of them 1

two ocean-going research vessels 6
Felix Mendelssohn 6

Stupidity 12
Reason 1

Watching your soul turn into a seven pound piece of coal in the matter of 30 hours 3
Extricating yourself in time 42

Colonial Rule 2
Rin Tin Tin's morning breath 8

bundt cake 6
Typing werds like
frapulous tranding on your keyboard and then having people you don’t even know read it 19

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

My (short) Life As a High School Teacher

OK I don't talk too much about what is going on in my real life much but here goes....
last month i got a position teaching high school video at a charter school here in mpls.
to make a long story short, yesterday was my first day.
Today was my last.
I will start by saying 1 in 6 of the students were great!.... interested in filmmaking and attentive. Also 1 in 6 were mildly interested. That leaves the 4 in 6 or (2/3) that were little blank faced troubled teens or attitude copping troubled teens that made the whole classroom experience a living hell. I knew it was trouble when after the first day my assignment for them became: Bring a Pen.
This baby-sitting part of the job I was not prepared for.
And to be honest I just may not have the skills or the patience for this type of work.
A person has to know their limitations.
But the biggest realization i had during this experience is that i have to get to work making films, not teaching.

Todays Scores

Kids 1
Miller 0

(added 2 hours later):
addendum
i just got back from having a couple beers with my friend Holster at a local watering hole. Sitting outside where we met a great couple in their 60's? and had wonderful conversation on many subjects - a very pleasant hour.
But being such a recent escapee, it might be biasing my opinion.



(added 8 hours later)
Addendum PART II
Some people have been asking me "What's the name of this school?"
I won't print that here - let's just it call it Teen Attica.

Friday, June 20, 2008

Todays Scores

Cubs 11
White Sox 7

Romeo 5
Henry Mancini 2

Radical Islamists 1
Fruity Pebbles 7

hammocks 12
Quicktime 3

Dancing With The Stars 1
shin splints 2

the corner of 38th & Bloomington 5
Caddyshack 12

Bell & Howell 11
Ferrante & Teicher 3

eating dinner on the porch 16
cable TV 0

rectangles that start with the letter B 5
waiting in the movie theater for a loud part so you can open your beer without being heard 7

The Number Five 2
vague intergalactic polar opposites 6

a minute from now 4
Norm Crosby 3

Films made in 1959 that Stanley Kubrick never saw 3
Times New Roman 9

E.B. White 5
Ferndogs 8

Argentine literature 5
Montreal 2

calendar years starting on a Wednesday other than 1727 3
Cannonball Adderley 5

having something on your body that could be described as “fungal” 3
party balloons 15

A Confederacy of Dunces 21
Pizza Hut 2

tiny miniature moose 5
inside jokes 7

Monday, June 16, 2008

more photos from the box

OK here's yet another photo i grabbed while I was back in Elgin. I have no idea who these folks are but it was sure a bright day as evidenced by the little girl blocking out the sun with her arm. And the shadows, of course.
I haven't been blogging too much of late as some of you may have noticed. I'm trying to get ready for some high school summer classes I'm teaching starting next week. Video production & animation. whoo boy. it's one thing to do it. quite another to teach.
I'd say I'll probably learn more than the kids but that wouldn't say much for my teaching skills so I won't.



I got an interesting phone call last weekend from Dean Stockwell. He called to tell me he had his friend Dennis Hopper over the night before and they were watching my film (
Uso Justo) and getting quite a kick out of it. Probably not as much of a kick as I got out of receiving his phone call but maybe.
Either way it was pretty nice of him to call and let me know this. Kinda made my day.

Monday, June 9, 2008

Wing Park, Elgin, IL.


Here's another shot culled from that box of photos back home. (Blogspot will only let you upload images 8mb or lower, which is a shame with this shot.) This looks like Wing Park on the west side of Elgin. I used to wade in this creek myself in the 60's. From the cars I'm guessing this is maybe the 30's? All the moms out there cooling their kids down. A nice shot of a much simpler time. Do yourself a favor and double click on the photo for a closer view.

Friday, June 6, 2008

Children's books are funny sometimes

ok so i buy old books and cut them up for all sorts of (artistic?) reasons.
one of those reasons is that a local restaurant owned by my good friend Kevin hired me to make their check presenters. I cut the pages out and just use the hardback cover for these. I also use the old school paper pouch/sleeve? that libraries had affixed inside the front cover - used to show when your book was due back, etc. These make perfect sleeves for the bill/credit card to slide in to.
Today I was working on some of these - perusing this children's book before i took the Exacto to it..and well, probably the less said the better here . . .