spazeboy

Last night, I attended the premiere of Patrice Hamilton’s first feature film, Exposure, which got a little exposure for itself in the Hartford Courant:

Hamilton, an assistant professor of English and communications at Tunxis Community College in Farmington, has been writing small, character-driven short stories for about a decade now. She combined several of them to create her first feature film, “Exposure.”

“I think it’s interesting, the way we’re all differently affected by the same circumstances,” she says. “Some of the characters in my film are standing still, living half-realized lives. A lot of us do that. We have to move on or a part of us dies inside.”

Patrice Hamilton is a great teacher, great writer (including recommendation letters), and great director. If those facts aren’t enough to convince you to seek out this film and watch it, then how about the fact that it was filmed in Connecticut?

The Connecticut feel, however, is real: When a UConn game is on, everybody tunes in and dresses themselves, and even some stuffed toys, in Husky regalia. A blue Courant delivery tube is seen, as is the paper. Peaceful residential streets are dotted with white colonials, set well apart, with plenty of lawn space. (It was shot on the street Hamilton lives on, Hillside Avenue in Southington.) The cops seen in the film are real Southington police officers.

“We only had a budget of $110,000, so using real cops saved us money,” she says. “We didn’t have to buy our own uniforms.”

(Other familiar local locations are the Tunxis library, Tops IGA supermarket in Southington, Quinn’s Tavern in Southington and Donut World in Plainville.)

I assume that “some stuffed toys” is the family-friendly version of “blow-up doll” as seen in this prior post.

I really enjoyed the story in its screenplay form, but last night Exposure came to life. It was the result of hard work and cooperation by many people, a lot of them members of the Tunxis community. As soon as I hear about where the film will be screening next, or where you can get it on DVD, I will post details here.

I’m about halfway through David Weinberger’s book, Everything is Miscellaneous, and love the way it is helping me re-evaluate the way I think about order and hierarchy in the digital world versus the physical world. And though I’ve read as much in one week for my new courses at Wesleyan than I had done in a month at Tunxis (seemingly, anyway), the fact that I keep making time to read Everything is Miscellaneous — for pleasure, not homework — should tell you something about the quality of the book.

It’s great.

It’s also a constant reminder of my New Media class, and specifically the principle of modularity. In chapter 5, Weinberger briefly describes how Wikipedia articles are assembled on request, digitally constructed out of data residing on multiple different computers pulled together and displayed in a uniform and readable format. When you special-order a Whopper at Burger King, all the ingredients are in the same kitchen. Ask the manager where all the Whopper fixins are, and he or she can not only tell you, but show you. But when Weinberger asked the chief technical officer of the Wikipedia organization to tell him where the information that comprises the entry on “elephant” is stored, his answer was “god only knows. On the disk somewheres.”

And it doesn’t matter where it’s stored, because it doesn’t have to fit on a shelf, inside a locker, or anywhere. It also doesn’t matter how many people want to read it at the same time, because the information is digital (another principle of New Media) we don’t have to look over each other’s shoulders to simultaneously read the wikipedia entry about elephants.

Whoa. Is it any wonder that I find to be just as fascinating as my school work? So why doesn’t Wesleyan teach a New Media class? I’d love to transfer those New Media credits over from Tunxis.

Today I attended the Tunxis Foundation’s monthly board meeting — my last as a student representative — and headed over to Tunxis for what they’re calling “College Day.” It’s a new tradition to go with the new campus buildings, and allows the incoming students to meet some of the staff and faculty, as well as get familiar with the college and hopefully diminish some of those first-day jitters.

But I hate calling it “College Day” and hope that from now on it’s called “Tunxis Day.” “College Day” is too general and non-descript in my opinion. “Tunxis Day” is just right, making it all about Tunxis and hopefully inspiring some school pride in the new class of incoming students.

I’m just as proud to be a student at Wesleyan as I am to be a Tunxis alum.

A friend and former Student Government Association President Nathan Kirschbaum addressed the new students and their families at “Tunxis Day” today, and I just happened to have my camcorder running.

As many longtime readers know, I graduated from Tunxis Community College this past Spring and am an incoming transfer student at Wesleyan University this Fall. If Tunxis were a four-year school, I’d be continuing my education there. It’s a great school, and as with so many Community Colleges, is terribly underrated. Anyway, after graduating from Tunxis, my options were to take my Associate’s Degree and get to work, or continue my education elsewhere.

That choice was easy. I had already waited long enough to start college (5 years — yikes!), so I decided to continue my education elsewhere. As a resident of New Britain, CCSU was a top contender for my post-Tunxis plans. It’s so close to my house that I could go to class on my bike. CCSU is probably a very good school, but for me it would have been the path of least resistance.

Still, I really hadn’t given much thought to applying elsewhere. It was TParty (of LamontBlog fame) first suggested that I apply to Wesleyan, prompting an exploratory post:

The practical side of me says that I should just apply to CCSU. I’ll surely be accepted, and I can ride my bike over for classes (theoretically, but with a book bag that will never happen in practice). I’ll save myself a veritable shitload of money.

The go-for-it side of me says that I should apply to Wesleyan. I’ll be taking a chance, but I’ve got a lot of life experience that many other transfer applicants probably won’t have.

I firmly believe that I can get a quality education at either institution.

After that post, a current Wesleyan student contacted me, encouraging me to apply. Then a professor did the same. Not long after, I learned that another friend of mine, Matt Browner-Hamlin went to Wesleyan.

The people at Wesleyan are the reason that I chose to accept their offer of admission. Every person that I know who goes to or graduated from Wesleyan is the kind of person I strive to be. Am I up to it?

Well, I certainly hope so.

Now that I’m a graduate of Tunxis Community College, it’s time to post a reminder on how to order a brick for the Walk of Honor. The proceeds fund scholarships for Tunxis students–which is as good a cause as any–and because the bricks will be installed where the new building is being constructed, you will be a part of the new campus with a donation of as low as $50.

Click on the brick below to download the PDF order form, which you can print and mail to the Tunxis Alumni Association at P.O. Box 481, Bristol, CT 06011-0481

“Become part of the new campus with the purchase of an engraved brick to be placed along the new building’s walkway.” Order Now!

Here are the specs of the bricks:

• Three lines of text
• 13 characters (letters, numbers, or spaces) per line
• Normal brick size (OK, I don’t actually know how big the bricks will be, but I’m guessing they’ll be normal brick size, maybe a little bigger)

There are a few things that you need to know before you order a brick. One is that “reasonable consideration will be given to all orders received,” but that the Tunxis Alumni Association will “reserve the right to refuse brick orders,” in which case a full refund will be issued. Another is that the bricks will be ordered in lots of 25. After 25 orders come in (from all sources, not just Spazeboy.net), they will be sent to the engravers. A third is that the bricks will be placed randomly. The final thing to note is that the Alumni Association of Tunxis Community College is a federally recognized non-profit organization. It has 501 (c)(3) tax-exempt status from the IRS, so all donations to the Association are tax deductible.

Because I posted scans of my acceptance letters to Wesleyan University and Trinity College, I thought it would be interesting to post this letter that I received from Governor Rell yesterday imploring me to stay in Connecticut now that I’ve got a college education:

I think it’s a good idea to encourage Connecticut’s college graduates to stay in the state, and I hope that these letters from the governor are convincing.