Hahvahd!

I GOT INTO HARVARD's MFA IN ACTING!

So excited. Can't deal. I still have to think about things and blahblah but for today I'm just happy. And the love and support from home is ridiculous.

Thanks, almal.

Know what they say: 

HAHVAHD MAKES YOU SMAHDAH.

Ketchup.

My bloggage has been reasonably unreliable lately. So, this post is just to catch up where I'm at:

I graduated, I was in a play ('The View'), I'm following the Oscars like De Niro follows the Eagles in my new favourite film ('Silver Linings Playbook') and I don't care what you say about it, AND I am currently living in New York City.

Just for two months. But like, proper living here. It's crazy. And it's amazing. And clearly. Taking away my. Ability to. Write long sentences.

But jokes aside, I'm loving it.

A lot of people have asked me to keep them updated on what's happening here because I'm auditioning for a bunch of schools which I won't divulge too much about. Basically, my MFA in Acting at The Actors Studio / Juilliard / A.C.T / A.R.T / BrownTrinity.

So here I will post random shit and bizarre NYC things and information about my auditions. Mainly for my family. But if you're not family, that's cool, too. Sort of. Just don't judge. Or do. Whatever. NYC.

In the meantime, I'd like you to meet The Cleaning Woman. She's pretty cranky, but she got me through the 'prescreening' video audition round at Juilliard:

My auditions are all in the next four weeks. Pray for me, please.

Ella x

Thinking Outside the BOX.

It is an experiment. It is long and you should listen to it properly or not at all.

I read a play called 'Box' today by Edward Albee. The entire piece is a voice over. On stage is a box. That is all. The voice comments on the human predicament and, in consequence, the effects of art. And the box. Which I thought would be quite interesting stuff to contemplate in the wake of the Zuma-Murray Spear/Smear saga.

Short&Sweet

My friend Maggie took me to a film festival event called Short&Sweet last week and literally every film that was shown was fantastic. All in very different ways. But good film making/story-telling/animation and even acting all-round.

Here are three completely different films from the festival:

SPIDER: Get your heart-rate up in 9 minutes.

LOGORAMA: A nice comment on today's logo-maniac society... especially the big M.

FAMILY PORTRAIT: An artistic expression of a family dynamic.

(Full Version of FAMILY PORTRAIT)

Another Wordboner Hit

Share the love...

Take two for the team...

Zapiro earned himself a lawsuit for the first rape metaphor cartoon. Mad props for stickin' it to the man and coming out with the necessary second cartoon despite it all.

Stop motion devotion.

I was looking for something special for someone special (the kind of special thing you have to find online because it's the only way to send someone something special when that someone is 5979miles away). This is what I found and I liked it so much that not only do I wish to inspire my someone but I wish to do that for you, too.

Enjoy:

Chalk Pipe

Robin Rhode. Thanks to Kat ten Velthuis for introducing me to this artist. Jack of all arts. The creation of his pieces is a performance that people can come and watch (call it 'performance art' if you will). The piece is then photographed and video'd and sold as artworks in a gallery at another point in time. I think that's pretty dope.

Check it out xxx

Girl, Interrupted.

I watched Girl, Interrupted again recently.

I'm in constant conflict with myself over which Angie film is my favourite and why and every time I watch one of the good ones, I can't believe how brilliant she is. Her first scene in the film is a moment of acting genius (in my opinion). She layers so many different emotions and they burst out of her one after the other in a way that makes such sense but that is so unique of Angie's Lisa.

I implore everyone in the world who is more concerned with the tabloids' 'Brangelina' and their 'orphanage' to watch films of hers like these and then ask yourself why all that superfluous crap about whether or not the couple is happy and what Jennifer Aniston has to say about it really matters at all. Art is art is art is art. No one goes around cursing, picking sides and debating over the trumpery of Picaso, Chekhov or Hans Zimmer's personal lives. So this is my plea for everyone to let Angelina be and watch her films. That's all.

Black Swan.

I have been hesitant to write this post. Not so much hesitant as I've been overwhelmed at the idea. But I feel inspired to write and I feel inspired by her and I feel strongly about this film. So, I'm going to do it. For all that feeling in me.

I'll start with the ending. As the credits ominously, slowly flashed their way on and off the bright white screen with the music all gone but for the cruel clapping applause from what felt like the audience I was sitting in, I felt the most overwhelming sense of defeat.... submergence... speechlessness... that has ever flooded my soul. And it was purely induced by the brilliance of the art that is my passion. Film.

I can't possibly do her justice - Natalie Portman - or even him - Vincent Cassel - or the director  - Darren Aronoffsky (who I suspected had directed 'Requiem for a Dream' and later found out had, indeed, done so). I was even mighty impressed by and even relieved at the transformation and hatching that came from  Mila Kunis (who also played the kid in Gia). When asked about the notorious film, Black Swan, I will always try to describe my utmost respect for and disbelief at the performance that Natalie Portman gives. Having rigorously trained for up to a year to be a convincing prima ballerina and having managed to keep up being a phenomenal, well-tuned,  "perfect" (there's a wonderful play on different conceptions of perfection in art in the film) actress, she pulls off a role that I think could easily have been played boring, rigid, anal and, as the plot unfolds, over-sexual. But not for Natalie. No. Natalie became something I've never seen before. In any actor. Sorry, Angelina.

So far, the only negativity I've heard with regards to this masterpiece of a film has been from ballerinas and their teachers, claiming that it "mis-portrays the world of Ballet and ballet companies", it is "clearly" made by someone who "hasn't researched the life of ballerinas enough", and that it is a gross "stereotype" based on the drugs, sex, and psychology of "American dance companies".

Well, firstly, it is a story set in America, it is a story about a ballerina who experiences situations of drugs, sex and psychopathic, lunatic craziness, AND our ballerina is a member of a dance company. Boom.

Secondly, I doubt the aforementioned critic-ballerinas have researched into the world of film-making, story-telling and interpretation for film. Perhaps the director's intention was to comment on the 'stereotype' of American dance companies and that the negative lumpy bits therein are the exact parts he had hoped to highlight (perhaps even directly aimed at these critic-ballerinas). I don't know Darren and I don't know ballet. But I do believe that this film is something horrific and terrific and fantastic and just plain brilliant and that it deserves the credit that I feel it has earned itself.

Hey, that's just me. NOT. I've seen a good 20 facebook status's about this film - all positive. And I haven't even reached the thousand-friends mark yet.

Over-and-out.