February 26, 2008 "It's Almost Like I'm Doing Something With My Life..Almost."

Man, I swear I had something important to say. Wait, check that, something to fill the space on your browser if you were unlucky enough to stumble on-in the immortal words of Billy Mack-this "festering turd of a (site)." Props to those that picked up that reference.

Okay, what's new in Austin? Well, my commitment to activities outside of swimming is at a post-Harvard high so yes, you may congratulate me. Although, no, I have not given up my mid-day nap. Somethings are just non-negotiable. But moving on, the Encore Meet is just as much work as I thought it would be and that is more than a lot. Thank gosh we have a group of 8 of us working on it because it is by far too much for any one person to do. My heart and respect goes out to event planners. Your job is somewhere between my own private hell and purgatory. Thank you for your work, there's no way I could do this full-time. That said, this meet is going to be so much fun I'm giddy.

On another note, special thank you to Billy Gray for his insistance that I listen to Vampire Weekend. I am taken aback, as I haven't fallen this hard for a new band in quite some time. "Kickass" is not a term I just throw around, and "Ridiculously Kickass and Sweet" is, well, some go their whole lives without hearing those words from my mouth. But dang man, these guys are fresh, smart, talented and complex. Highly recommend picking up their album. Billy, if only your reviews made as much sense as your musical recommendations.

In the swimming portion of things I'm currently struggling with the taper-syndrome where your body goes into complete shock because it doesn't know what to do with itself after having such comparitively little expenditure everyday. I have no doubt that next week will be great though. Okay, maybe I can remember what I was actually going to put tomorrow. Hope all is well!

February 22, 2008 "Billy Gray Review of the Week"

This week Billy tries something completely new: he uses words 98% of the population will only understand 50% of the time to critique a movie no one will go see. Well, that last part is only 50% true, as he does review Juno in addition to a Romanian movie. I hope you enjoy, the man has a gift...

Following in the wake of Knocked Up, that other pregnancy movie, two newish releases have been riding different waves of hype: Juno (to Oprah, blockbuster status, the Oscars) and the Romanian 4 Months, Three Weeks and Two Days (to the Palm d’Or, Film Comment dissections and sustained runs at Los Angeles and New York arthouse showcases).

The former tells the story of quirkily named, sixteen year old Juno (Ellen Page), who discovers she is pregnant after a tryst with Bleeker (Michael Cera). Antics ensue as she befriends the uber-yuppie couple (played by Jennifer Garner and a creepy Jason Bateman) that wishes to adopt her unborn child.

Juno has been lauded for its “freshness” and its convincing hipster dialogue. But I found the “hip,” “young” dialogue strained and cloying and off-the-mark. Despite an ever-widening gulf between me and my teen years, I am virtually certain that the adolescent parlance on display in the film resonates with few of its teenage viewers. Slightly less offensive but nearly as irksome is the incessant use of folksy alternative guitar-strumming throughout. There is nothing wrong with this kind of music, but it is best enjoyed in moderation and makes for a dull soundtrack when there are no alternatives to be heard.

The (strangely unheralded) strength of the film to me was its quiet moments, particularly those involving Jennifer Garner, who, frankly, stole the show from Page. Garner’s reaction to Juno telling her character she’s lucky not to be the pregnant one is priceless, as is the scene in the mall when she desperately wishes to feel the baby kick. I wish there had been more of these scenes. There were plenty of opportunities for their inclusion: the scene in which Juno reveals to her parents that she is pregnant is one of them. Instead, it struck me as false and oddly truncated. Also disappointing and unrealistic is the lack of focus on the torment and unease that a pregnant sixteen-year old would undoubtedly feel at the hands of high-school peers. Juno has enough bright moments to make it a worthwhile rental, but is wholly undeserving of its praise (especially that egregious Best Picture nomination) and media-dubbed “importance.”

Veering in the opposite direction of Juno is Christian Mungiu’s 4 Months…. It has no soundtrack or cheeseburger telephone to promote. The dialogue eschews showiness and is often purposefully banal. And the film itself is alternately bleached and murky. Most strikingly though, it does not revolve around an accidental pregnancy’s coming to fruition, but rather its agonizingly deliberated termination. As Otilia, Anamaria Marinca is in nearly every frame of the movie as she loyally aids her friend Gabita Laura Vasiliu in obtaining an illegal abortion in Ceausescu’s Romania. She is phenomenal. In one sustained shot we see her at a dinner party, surrounded by inane conversation, with an agonized, shell-shocked expression as she ponders the fate of her friend, and her own choices, after leaving Gabita alone in a seedy hotel room.

While strenuously unsympathetic and apolitical (it could easily fuel the fires of both sides of the abortion debate), 4 Months does not treat its characters or milieu with kid’s gloves. Dr. Bebe, the abortionist, is a monster. Gabita is not particularly bright. And the communist society portrayed within is overwhelmingly bleak, with everything (from cigarettes to sex to abortion) is commoditized in a brutal barter economy. Despite an ambiguous ending that would never have passed muster with the Juno test audiences, 4 Month’s nonetheless stays with the viewer far longer than its Hollywood counterpart.

February 19, 2008 "I'm Coming Slow But Speeding..."

Hey team, I know I promised a full report on the Missouri Meet when I got back so here you are my good friends. Do you want the made for prime time response or how it actually went? What's that? I'm talking to myself anyway so it doesn't matter? Okay, well in that case I'll just let something flow out.

It's funny when you have, by most standards, a good performance but don't come away with that feeling of satisfaction associated with said outcome. If someone would have told me the times I went as goals for the weekend I would have thought, wow, that'd be awesome. I broke an important barrier to me (1:50 in the 200 free) and with the exception of the 50 free (which I can't take seriously anyway) was solid across the board. Still, the feeling at the end of the day was the realization that I have come a long way...and yet have so far to go. Don't worry, I do vividly remember that it was only a year ago that I was sitting with my surgically repaired elbow, a horse that is wondering if he will be put down or allowed to run again. But now I'm in the final race and I need to be better than ever.

The good thing is that I am incapable of keeping anything in the forefront of my mind for longer than, well, let's just say I've already forgotten what I wrote in the previous two paragraphs. I do know, however, that the feeling I came away with this weekend will stay with me for the next four months in some deep recess of my thoughts. The same thing happened after my surgery so this, all in all, is a good thing in that I feel more dedicated than ever. The weird thing is that I usually scoff at words like I've just put up here, as they do border on the unbelievable or are at least suspect of someone trying to make a buck selling his inspirational story. Luckily I'm not quite yet raking in the advertising dollars on this site, so we're in the clear.

In other news it's taper time around Austin and all of a sudden the world seems brighter and the songs of the birds that much more colorful. We're going to rest the next two weeks and yup, yup, Gus, Gus is happy. We're having a ridiculous crew turn out for our meet in Austin so there will be unbelievable racing across the board. I can't tell you how much I enjoy swimming against Peirsol, Phelps and all the other world's bests. This is going to be a blast for me.

February 13, 2008 "The Dreaded Double Post!"

Oh my dear lord I did it. I posted twice in two days. They're ice skating in hell and the Red Sox have won the World Series...oh wait. Anyway, I have just learned the identity of the fourth reader of this cursed site and thought that in honor of him/her (I always protect the secrecy of my readers, like Cerry Tromwell...wait, that's too obvious: T. Cromwell) I will update again today.

Okay, so the Swim Meet we are putting on here in Austin. "Kick" and "Ass" are two words that come to mind. Anyone that has been to a swim meet knows that they are boring. It's just a fact. Too much downtime, not enough excitement and absolutely no catering to fans. Enter the Encore Swim Spectacular Sunday, March 9th from 3-5pm at the Texas Swimming Center in Austin, TX. 2 hours of short course meters swimming featuring a ridiculous roster (as if our 4 world record holders based here in Austin weren't enough, we added even more world record holders, american record holders and olympic medalists). How is it different? It's catered to the fans: short races, no downtime and, most importantly, entertainment (videos on our new scoreboard, live band, raffles to come down on deck, grudge matches, etc.). Oh, and the prize money will be donated to an incredible group called Swim With Inspiration and Motivation, that helps out kids who can't afford to swim, don't have access to a pool or people that care enough about them to give them rides get exactly what they normally wouldn't: a chance. The whole thing is ridiculously cool and, if you can't tell, I'm thrilled to be involved with it. Info and ticket sales are available at: WWW.ENCORESWIM.COM

Alright, and despite accusations from someone (who shall, again, go unnamed) that I have hit a musical rut...I have been listening to a lot of good stuff lately: Jack Johnson's New CD, Kate Nash's New CD, The Yeah, Yeah, Yeah's, Frank Sinatra (not new, but certainly never old), Some new Daft Punk and (dare I admit) Kanye West. The "Current Album" refers to some hits that my friend and I listened to when he visited. Oh, the trips down memory lane.

Alright, wish me luck in Missouri and I will check in when I get back.

February 12, 2008 "Time to Update More Than Once/Week...Maybe?"

Neglected, tossed aside, left out to pasture, woo'ed by empty promises and then let down. That must be the sentiments of you loyal four readers. Mom, dad, Andy and random guy...I am sorry. What literary witticisms await you in this installment? Absolutely none! Haven't you read my prior entries? They're equally terrible.

Anyway, training is going well. I'm making progress one day at a time, yadayadayada. Gosh, I must admit I'm pretty sick of giving that ridiculously politically correct response. The fact that it's moderately true makes me even more nauseous. Why can't training be more exciting and juicy? Maybe that's why swimmers seem so boring on TV, it's tough to make an activity as monotonous as ours seem dramatic to fans. Or maybe it's because we all become incredibly boring as a result of doing it our whole lives? Everyone that knows me personally, please don't answer that question.

In other news...very excited about the Missouri Grand Prix this weekend. I might not be able to update until after the meet so wanted to point you all to results: www.timedfinals.com Haha, okay fine. You can also find live results by CLICKING HERE

Also want to take some time to write you all about the charity event we're putting on here in Austin....but that deserves more time than I can give right now. Dare I do two posts in two days? That hasn't been going on since June of '07 (Gasp).

February 5, 2008 "Back in the Game Baby!"

Wow, that was a trip: LSAT done. It really wasn't that bad but then again, I didn't take it extraordinarily seriously either. In the end I think I did right about where I was averaging going into it. We'll see what happens.

In other news, with the LSAT out of the way I now have more time to do things that had been on the backburner for some time. I plan on writing a lot more features for swimnetwork.com, which is the new website for TimedFinals.com. We should be relaunching very soon and I am more than excited about it.

Also, and what I am really excited about, is a charity project that all the Texas guys are putting together. I will have a lot more on that in the very near future, but I am certainly staying busy making sure it goes off well.

I should have some more time to get you guys some quality entries, and why not start off today? We are reinstating the Billy Gray Review of the week. We're in for a special treat this time as he sounds off on There Will Be Blood. I'll keep my comments to myself at this point, but I think you will all enjoy what Billy has to say:

“Family Man”

In There Will Be Blood, Paul Thomas Anderson transposes his preferred themes of avarice and dysfunction onto the California desert during the early 20th Century. While not technically Anderson’s first period piece (a write-up in the current New Yorker argues that Boogie Nights, his electrifying look at the San Fernando Valley porn industry of the 70’s and 80’s, remains his finest film), it is surely the most self-consciously epic and refined. And despite verging on overambitious, it is hugely engrossing upon first viewing and likely to lodge itself in the mind of the viewer long after that initial thrill wears off. It is the rare movie in which all the elements come together both forcefully and seamlessly. The acting, particularly Daniel Day-Lewis’, is volcanic, but saved by the tremendous scope of the film from being overbearing. Johnny Greenwood’s mesmerizing score complements the action onscreen rather than intrudes upon it. The lush camerawork and exacting production detail recall Days of Heaven and the movie itself could qualify as a continuation of that Terrence Malick classic, detailing what happens after the pastoral idyll is corrupted by men and machine.

Anderson traces the rise to fortune (and, in a nutty epilogue, subsequent drunken decline) of Texas oilman Daniel Plainview (Day-Lewis). With his son, H.W. (Dillon Freasier) in tow, Plainview traverses the expansive and largely undeveloped California landscape (stunningly rendered by Robert Elswit’s cinematography) convincing various townspeople to sell him land for drilling. During one of these stops, he is visited by Paul Sunday (Paul Dano) who tips him off about the oil bubbling beneath the surface of his own hometown. Upon Plainview’s arrival in town, the plot kicks into high gear, introducing an adversary in Paul’s brother, Eli Sunday (also played by Dano). Eli is an evangelical minister and self-professed faith healer whose surface spirituality is at odds with Plainview’s transparent (and his own, thinly veiled) greed.

This conflict is the American binary of pious self-improvement and blind capitalist ambition made manifest. Only here, the piety is fraudulent and, were it ever pure, fully tainted by the prospect of oil riches. Daniel and Eli are both duplicitous salesman, with more in common than they would ever like to admit. This is not a story of good versus evil; all intentions are muddled. Even the normally solid family structure is compromised. As in his earlier works, the family Anderson depicts here is a surrogate one. Plainview masquerades as H.W.’s father, using him as a “sweet face to buy land,” after the real father, a fellow driller, is killed in a well. A stranger appears on the scene, claiming to be Plainview’s half-brother, an dubious assertion from the start whose fraudulence is quickly exposed. We first see Plainview in a dark abyss; neither he nor his many adversaries ever emerge from it to see the light..

Manhola Dargis, in the Times, interpreted the movie as a metaphor for George W. Bush: a rich, Texan oilman who will stop at nothing, including blood, to get his way. She might be onto something: “I want to rule and never, ever explain myself,” says Plainview. But perhaps the contemporary contextualization is a narrow one. There Will Be Blood is a timeless American fable in which the drive to succeed often lays waist to those individuals and institutions both behind the wheel and trying to slam on the brakes.

January 28, 2008

Hey team, just wanted to let you know that I am still alive. I am actually not that stressed about the LSAT this weekend, though maybe I should be. I haven't studied as much as I would like and things still keep coming up that get in the way, guess that's the problem with working three jobs. Still, I know it will be okay in the end...if I study. Yikes.

After waiting for six months I was able to squeeze in There Will Be Blood this last week and liked it, although I'll admit I was a little disappointed. It was still an incredible film, but Magnolia (one of the Director PT Anderson's other films) ranks amongst my Top 10 ever so the expectations were high. Regardless, at the very least the movie confirmed that Daniel Day-Lewis is the greatest actor alive as he was nothing less than phenomenal.

Only story worth sharing is that I found out two things about sunburns yesterday: 1.) It is possible to get a burn on one side of your body and 2.) It is possible to get one while studying. I took a 3 hour test outside without moving...and lo and behold I have a burn on the right side of my face. Good thing I already had no pride in my appearance. I will check in after this Saturday's test. Wish me luck!

January 21, 2008 "Falling Apart"

Not to sound arrogant, but I am amazed by what I did in college. I say that because now is the first time since college that I have been even close to busy and still, it in no way compare to what I used to do. I suppose that means my priorities are straight: when you are focusing on training you need to treat your body right (sleep, etc.) but I can't help but feel a little lazy when I abide by those rules. It's a constant struggle: should I feel guilty for taking that 2 hour nap during the day. I'll let someone else be the judge.

Regardless, I will try and keep updating in the next two weeks but I really need to focus on swimming and studying for the LSAT. I am moderately worried about that test as, it turns out, how I do is important to my future. Again, this is nothing that intimidating but I need to take it seriously and put in the time. Wish me luck in finding the balance!

January 13, 2008 "Wow"

Hey team, just got back from "The Classic at SMU" late last night and had a blast. We showed up Friday night beat down from both training and the drive up and yet the Texas Pro's managed some pretty good swims. I was 1:35.1 in the 200 free and 47.6 in the 100 back. For how bad I felt I was pretty proud of those as they were a struggle to get through.

I would like to share one really cool moment from the weekend with you all, however. Saturday I switched events with my teammate Craig Chapman as he was getting screwed (500 free/200 fly double). I took the 500 and gave him the 200 back (not exactly a "present" as I'm not sure which one is harder to be honest). But anyway, I was pretty nervous before the 500 as the Pro's had not lost a single event up to that point and there were some really good swimmers in my heat, Eric Nilsson from Northwestern in particular. I knew that with my start and turns I would be out first to the 100, but tried to make it as smooth as possible. I also knew that I had to be in front of my competitors with a 100 to go because they were more distance-oriented and I was not going to run anyone down. I made a move at 300 and ended up feeling really good. Final time: 4:16.86, breaking the old meet and pool record of 4:19.

The time is something I was (and am) really proud of, as I think it is a reflection of how hard I've trained. But the best part about that swim was what happened after. At SMU they only have a seven lane pool so you have to warm down in their outdoor pool. It was pitch black outside and cold enough to shiver the water off my body, seeing hints of my breath with each exhale in the crisp air on the 50 yard walk over. Then I came up to the warmdown pool and it was stunning: a warm and Caribbean blue-lighted pool came up out of nowhere. One of my favorite songs of all time is "Nightswimming" by R.E.M. I am pretty self-conscious of trying to be too poetic on here but swimming outside-in complete silence and darkness-with seemingly the whole world to myself made me think of a line in the song:

Nightswimming deserves a quiet night
I'm not sure all these people understand
It's not like years ago,
The fear of getting caught,
The recklessness of water.
They cannot see me naked
These things, they go away
Replaced by everyday

Honestly, there is not a much better feeling in this world then when you've exceeded your own expectations and then get a moment like I had where I was able to just soak it up for five minutes in solitude. That effect is amplified by a 100 in water too, and I think the song really captures that special feeling, and how you will never be able to recreate it. I will always remember that moment for the rest of my life.

January 10, 200...8 "I Suck"

Okay, well that was weird writing an "8" there. That also reminds me that I have been less than diligent about updating lately: sorry. Regardless, I'm back in the swing of things here in Austin and feeling pretty good. We had a couple of really hard weeks of training but luckily there is a meet in Dallas this weekend that will break it up a little bit. We didn't really rest for it but from what I've been told it's an exciting enough meet that it gets you going fast no matter how you feel. The meet is called "The Classic at SMU" and features 8 man teams from SMU, ASU, USC and Northwestern. I can't wait, as it gets us Pro's (Peirsol, Hansen, Crocker, Rogers, Chapman, Weber-Gale, Shanteau) a chance to get in a team atmosphere (which, although we have a better sense of team than most post-graduates it's still nothing like representing your college). Get to do some relays again, which is always fun.

Here's the link to where you can find results and video:

YOU CAN FIND LINKS TO RESULTS AND VIDEO HERE

It was tough as always to get back into a routine after being home for a week but I feel settled in and just really excited for the rest of the season. It ocurred to me one morning when I slept through my alarm how much I actually want to get better, as I could not believe (in retrospect) how upset I was to show up late and tell Eddie my stupid mistake. It happens to everyone, and I no matter how hard I try I will never be perfect. Still, trying to get as close to possible to that unreachable goal is what this is all about right? Wish me luck over the weekend and I will update after.

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