First-Year Student Journals : David : Profile

Profile

Major: Radio-Television-Film

Hometown: Houston, Texas

High school: Cy-Fair High School

Facts about your family: My parents are divorced. My mom lives with my 17-year-old sister, Anna, in Houston. My dad lives in Midland, Texas.

Why did you choose to attend The University of Texas at Austin?
Good school, good distance from home. I didn’t want to go to USC because I hate L.A.

What do you want to do when you graduate from the university? Something with film.

If you could choose one personal object to represent you (something that you brought to campus with you), what would that object be?
My vinyl first pressing of Bob Dylan’s album “Blonde on Blonde.”

If you had to choose one thing about yourself to share with the university’s Web audience, what would it be?
I’m a huge critic of everything, making me not a very sociable person.

Who are your heroes?
Bob Dylan, Bill Maher, Charlie Chaplin, Stanley Kubrick, Allen
Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Jean-Luc Godard, John Lennon, Joe Strummer, Elvis Costello, Percy Bysshe Shelley, John Keats, Lester Bangs, Thomas Friedman, Albert Camus, James Joyce, Tom Waits, Lou Reed, Albert Einstein and Jesus H. Christ.

If you could travel to one spot anywhere in the world, where would you want to visit?
Jerusalem, Rome or St. Petersburg.

What are your current favorite books? What books would you recommend to someone you just met?
I haven’t read many books lately, but my favorite books are “The
Stranger” and “The Rebel” by Albert Camus, “A Tale of Two Cities” by
Charles Dickens, “A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man” by James
Joyce, “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald, “From Beirut to Jerusalem” by Thomas Freedman, “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sleep” by Philip K. Dick and “Behind the Shades” by Clinton Heylin. I am tackling Leo Tolstoy’s “War and Peace.” Give me a few years to finish that one.

What pushes your buttons? What are your pet peeves?
RTF majors whose favorite movie is “Fight Club.” Brian de Palma’s version of “Scarface.” Leonard Maltin and Richard Roeper. Jester residents who live on the third floor yet take the elevator up and down. The unpassionate. The sound of hundreds of flip-flop-wearing college kids walking to class. Anything with the word “frat” or “sorority” near it. Really big and loud automobiles. Pride in anything but yourself. Trucker hats. Cell phones. The Drag and vintage clothing stores. And on a smaller scale, wearing UT clothing at UT.

What music are you listening to currently?
The Velvet Underground’s “White Light/White Head” and “Loaded,” Bob Dylan’s “Blood on the Tracks” and “Nashville Skyline,” Will Oldham’s “I See a Darkness” and “Masters of Everyone,” Neutral Milk Hotel’s “The Aeroplane Over the Sea,” Tom Waits’ “Swordfishtrombones,” The Clash’s “Sandinista!,” Stevie Wonder’s “Songs in the Key of Life,” The Kinks’ “Village Green Preservation Society,” Simon and Garfunkel’s “Bookends,” Television’s “Marquee Moon,” Van Morrison’s “Moondance,” Kraftwerk’s “Trans-Europe Express,” Elvis Costello’s “My Aim is True,” The MC5’s “Kick out the Jams,” and everything classical, including but not limited to Chopin, Debussy, Dvorak, Gershwin, Shostakovich, Strauss, Tchaikovsky and Vivaldi.

Favorite colors?
Black, brown and blue

Favorite Web sites?
Roger Ebert because I respect his opinions on film, and his “Great Movies” section really opened me up to a new world of cinema. Pitchfork Media because they are so brutal and honest with their reviews. CNN because, although biased, the stories are usually short and allow you to get a general idea before you go to more sources for information. IMDb and All Movie Guide, both really great movie information sites. The Onion for its brutal humor and hatred of everything emo. Bill Maher for his controversial stance on everything. Criterion Collection for being the best thing that ever happened to home movies.

Favorite foods?
Cereal, particularly Cinnamon Toast Crunch.

All-time favorite movies?
There are many so I’ll list some of my favorite directors and what I
feel is their best work.

Jim Abrahams: “Airplane!”
Woody Allen: “Manhattan”
Robert Altman: “Nashville”
Wes Anderson: “Rushmore”
Michelangelo Antonioni: “L’Avventura”
Remy Belvaux: “Man Bites Dog”
Ingmar Bergman: “Wild Strawberries”
Bernardo Bertolucci: “The Conformist”
Mel Brooks: “Young Frankenstein”
Luis Bunuel: “The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie”
Tim Burton: “Edward Scissorhands” and “The Nightmare before Christmas”
Marcel Carne: “Children of Paradise”
Charlie Chaplin: “City Lights”
Jean Cocteau: “Orpheus”
Coen Brothers: “The Hudsucker Proxy”
Francis Ford Coppola: “Apocalypse Now” and “The Godfather I and II”
Cameron Crowe: “Almost Famous” and “Say Anything”
Victorio De Sica: “Umberto D”
Carl Theodore Dreyer: “The Passion of Joan of Ark”
Sergei Eisenstein: “Battleship Potemkin”
Farrelley Brothers: “Dumb and Dumber”
Federico Fellini: “La Dolce Vita” and “8 1/2”
Milos Forman: “One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest”
Stephen Frears: “High Fidelity”
Terry Gilliam: “Brazil”
Jean-Luc Godard: “Band of Outsiders” and “Alphaville”
David Gordon Green: “George Washington”
D.W. Griffith: “Intolerance”
Howard Hawks: “Scarface”
Werner Herzog: “Fitzcarraldo”
Alfred Hitchcock: “Vertigo” and “Notorious”
John Hughes: “Planes, Trains, and Automobiles”
Spike Jonze: “Adaptation”
Lloyd Kaufman: “The Toxic Avenger”
Wong Kar-Wai: “Chungking Express”
Abbas Kiarostami: "The Wind Will Carry Us"
Krzysztof Kieslowski: “Trois Couleurs” Trilogy
Stanley Kubrick: “2001: A Space Odyssey” and “Paths of Glory”
Akira Kurosawa: “Ikiru” and “Rashomon”
Fritz Lang: “Metropolis”
David Lean: “Lawrence of Arabia”
Spike Lee: “Do the Right Thing”
Sergio Leone: “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly”
George Lucas: the “Star Wars” Saga
Terrence Malick: “Days of Heaven”
Jean Pierre Melville: “Bob le Flambeur”
F.W. Murnau: “Nosferatu”
Brian De Palma: “Carrie”
Roman Polanski: “Chinatown”
D.A. Pennebaker: “Don't Look Back”
Sam Raimi: “Evil Dead 2”
Satyajit Ray: “Pather Panchali”
Godfrey Reggio: “Koyaanisqatsi”
Rob Reiner: “This is Spinal Tap”
Ivan Reitman: “Ghostbusters”
Jean Renoir: “Grand Illusion”
George A. Romero: “Night of the Living Dead”
Don Siegel: “Invasion of the Body Snatchers”
Martin Scorsese: “The Last Temptation of Christ” and “Taxi Driver”
Ridley Scott: “Blade Runner”
Steven Speilberg: “A.I.”
Quentin Tarantino: “Pulp Fiction”
Andrei Tarkovsky: “Solaris”
Guiseppe Tornatore: “Cinema Paradiso”
Francios Truffaut: “The 400 Blows”
Orson Welles: “Citizen Kane”
Peter Weir: “Picnic at Hanging Rock”
Robert Wiene: “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari”
Ed Wood: “Plan 9 from Outer Space”

Favorite artists?
All the filmmakers listed above, sans Lloyd Kaufman. I don’t know
much about art, but I like Andy Warhol (I really want to see his
movies “Vinyl” and “Empire”), Salvador Dali and Vincent Van Gogh.

Favorite academic subjects? What are you interested in studying in the future?
I love my playwriting class and astronomy. I can’t wait to take History of Film, Narrative Strategies for Screenwriting and Playwriting II.

Favorite spot on campus?
The media library at the Undergraduate Library. I spent more than 70 hours there over the summer. Every day after class I was there watching a film.

Favorite places to go in Austin? Favorite things to do in Austin?
Film-wise, Dobie Landmark Theatre is good. I used to go to River Oaks Landmark Theater and the Angelika every week in Houston. It is like having a piece of home with you five minutes away. I like the Paramount Theater and Alamo Drafthouse because they sometimes show good classics and fun flicks. I Love Video and Vulcan are great movie rental shops. There is an abundance of music venues in Austin. None are really great, and most bands that flow through are horrible, but often good stuff does come by. But my favorite thing to do is walk around downtown and campus on a weekday night, when few people are out, especially around the State Capitol and all the dark alleys down past Fourth Street.

Favorite free-time activities?
Watching and making films. Screenwriting and playwriting. Reading.
Going hunting for classic vinyl albums. Playing a mean harmonica and saxophone.



	David \| Profile \| Reflections \| Journal 1 2 Home
	Profile Major: Radio-Television-Film Hometown: Houston, Texas High school: Cy-Fair High School Facts about your family: My parents are divorced. My mom lives with my 17-year-old sister, Anna, in Houston. My dad lives in Midland, Texas. Why did you choose to attend The University of Texas at Austin? Good school, good distance from home. I didn’t want to go to USC because I hate L.A. What do you want to do when you graduate from the university? Something with film. If you could choose one personal object to represent you (something that you brought to campus with you), what would that object be? My vinyl first pressing of Bob Dylan’s album “Blonde on Blonde.” If you had to choose one thing about yourself to share with the university’s Web audience, what would it be? I’m a huge critic of everything, making me not a very sociable person. Who are your heroes? Bob Dylan, Bill Maher, Charlie Chaplin, Stanley Kubrick, Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Jean-Luc Godard, John Lennon, Joe Strummer, Elvis Costello, Percy Bysshe Shelley, John Keats, Lester Bangs, Thomas Friedman, Albert Camus, James Joyce, Tom Waits, Lou Reed, Albert Einstein and Jesus H. Christ. If you could travel to one spot anywhere in the world, where would you want to visit? Jerusalem, Rome or St. Petersburg. What are your current favorite books? What books would you recommend to someone you just met? I haven’t read many books lately, but my favorite books are “The Stranger” and “The Rebel” by Albert Camus, “A Tale of Two Cities” by Charles Dickens, “A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man” by James Joyce, “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald, “From Beirut to Jerusalem” by Thomas Freedman, “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sleep” by Philip K. Dick and “Behind the Shades” by Clinton Heylin. I am tackling Leo Tolstoy’s “War and Peace.” Give me a few years to finish that one. What pushes your buttons? What are your pet peeves? RTF majors whose favorite movie is “Fight Club.” Brian de Palma’s version of “Scarface.” Leonard Maltin and Richard Roeper. Jester residents who live on the third floor yet take the elevator up and down. The unpassionate. The sound of hundreds of flip-flop-wearing college kids walking to class. Anything with the word “frat” or “sorority” near it. Really big and loud automobiles. Pride in anything but yourself. Trucker hats. Cell phones. The Drag and vintage clothing stores. And on a smaller scale, wearing UT clothing at UT. What music are you listening to currently? The Velvet Underground’s “White Light/White Head” and “Loaded,” Bob Dylan’s “Blood on the Tracks” and “Nashville Skyline,” Will Oldham’s “I See a Darkness” and “Masters of Everyone,” Neutral Milk Hotel’s “The Aeroplane Over the Sea,” Tom Waits’ “Swordfishtrombones,” The Clash’s “Sandinista!,” Stevie Wonder’s “Songs in the Key of Life,” The Kinks’ “Village Green Preservation Society,” Simon and Garfunkel’s “Bookends,” Television’s “Marquee Moon,” Van Morrison’s “Moondance,” Kraftwerk’s “Trans-Europe Express,” Elvis Costello’s “My Aim is True,” The MC5’s “Kick out the Jams,” and everything classical, including but not limited to Chopin, Debussy, Dvorak, Gershwin, Shostakovich, Strauss, Tchaikovsky and Vivaldi. Favorite colors? Black, brown and blue Favorite Web sites? Roger Ebert because I respect his opinions on film, and his “Great Movies” section really opened me up to a new world of cinema. Pitchfork Media because they are so brutal and honest with their reviews. CNN because, although biased, the stories are usually short and allow you to get a general idea before you go to more sources for information. IMDb and All Movie Guide, both really great movie information sites. The Onion for its brutal humor and hatred of everything emo. Bill Maher for his controversial stance on everything. Criterion Collection for being the best thing that ever happened to home movies. Favorite foods? Cereal, particularly Cinnamon Toast Crunch. All-time favorite movies? There are many so I’ll list some of my favorite directors and what I feel is their best work. Jim Abrahams: “Airplane!” Woody Allen: “Manhattan” Robert Altman: “Nashville” Wes Anderson: “Rushmore” Michelangelo Antonioni: “L’Avventura” Remy Belvaux: “Man Bites Dog” Ingmar Bergman: “Wild Strawberries” Bernardo Bertolucci: “The Conformist” Mel Brooks: “Young Frankenstein” Luis Bunuel: “The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie” Tim Burton: “Edward Scissorhands” and “The Nightmare before Christmas” Marcel Carne: “Children of Paradise” Charlie Chaplin: “City Lights” Jean Cocteau: “Orpheus” Coen Brothers: “The Hudsucker Proxy” Francis Ford Coppola: “Apocalypse Now” and “The Godfather I and II” Cameron Crowe: “Almost Famous” and “Say Anything” Victorio De Sica: “Umberto D” Carl Theodore Dreyer: “The Passion of Joan of Ark” Sergei Eisenstein: “Battleship Potemkin” Farrelley Brothers: “Dumb and Dumber” Federico Fellini: “La Dolce Vita” and “8 1/2” Milos Forman: “One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest” Stephen Frears: “High Fidelity” Terry Gilliam: “Brazil” Jean-Luc Godard: “Band of Outsiders” and “Alphaville” David Gordon Green: “George Washington” D.W. Griffith: “Intolerance” Howard Hawks: “Scarface” Werner Herzog: “Fitzcarraldo” Alfred Hitchcock: “Vertigo” and “Notorious” John Hughes: “Planes, Trains, and Automobiles” Spike Jonze: “Adaptation” Lloyd Kaufman: “The Toxic Avenger” Wong Kar-Wai: “Chungking Express” Abbas Kiarostami: "The Wind Will Carry Us" Krzysztof Kieslowski: “Trois Couleurs” Trilogy Stanley Kubrick: “2001: A Space Odyssey” and “Paths of Glory” Akira Kurosawa: “Ikiru” and “Rashomon” Fritz Lang: “Metropolis” David Lean: “Lawrence of Arabia” Spike Lee: “Do the Right Thing” Sergio Leone: “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly” George Lucas: the “Star Wars” Saga Terrence Malick: “Days of Heaven” Jean Pierre Melville: “Bob le Flambeur” F.W. Murnau: “Nosferatu” Brian De Palma: “Carrie” Roman Polanski: “Chinatown” D.A. Pennebaker: “Don't Look Back” Sam Raimi: “Evil Dead 2” Satyajit Ray: “Pather Panchali” Godfrey Reggio: “Koyaanisqatsi” Rob Reiner: “This is Spinal Tap” Ivan Reitman: “Ghostbusters” Jean Renoir: “Grand Illusion” George A. Romero: “Night of the Living Dead” Don Siegel: “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” Martin Scorsese: “The Last Temptation of Christ” and “Taxi Driver” Ridley Scott: “Blade Runner” Steven Speilberg: “A.I.” Quentin Tarantino: “Pulp Fiction” Andrei Tarkovsky: “Solaris” Guiseppe Tornatore: “Cinema Paradiso” Francios Truffaut: “The 400 Blows” Orson Welles: “Citizen Kane” Peter Weir: “Picnic at Hanging Rock” Robert Wiene: “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” Ed Wood: “Plan 9 from Outer Space” Favorite artists? All the filmmakers listed above, sans Lloyd Kaufman. I don’t know much about art, but I like Andy Warhol (I really want to see his movies “Vinyl” and “Empire”), Salvador Dali and Vincent Van Gogh. Favorite academic subjects? What are you interested in studying in the future? I love my playwriting class and astronomy. I can’t wait to take History of Film, Narrative Strategies for Screenwriting and Playwriting II. Favorite spot on campus? The media library at the Undergraduate Library. I spent more than 70 hours there over the summer. Every day after class I was there watching a film. Favorite places to go in Austin? Favorite things to do in Austin? Film-wise, Dobie Landmark Theatre is good. I used to go to River Oaks Landmark Theater and the Angelika every week in Houston. It is like having a piece of home with you five minutes away. I like the Paramount Theater and Alamo Drafthouse because they sometimes show good classics and fun flicks. I Love Video and Vulcan are great movie rental shops. There is an abundance of music venues in Austin. None are really great, and most bands that flow through are horrible, but often good stuff does come by. But my favorite thing to do is walk around downtown and campus on a weekday night, when few people are out, especially around the State Capitol and all the dark alleys down past Fourth Street. Favorite free-time activities? Watching and making films. Screenwriting and playwriting. Reading. Going hunting for classic vinyl albums. Playing a mean harmonica and saxophone.