Hold the Phone!

I have a bunch of things I could write about, and because I probably won't have a chance to blog again until next Saturday, I will try to briefly cover everything.

This was a pretty crazy week including things like hipster shows in a renovated church and a 70s mafia fire hall, long musical group numbers, a Mexican dinner late at night, and a canceled religious retreat. After this dramatic week, I just have to say, "Thank God for the weekend!"

Of course, because musical and track have taken over my life, I'm spending most of the weekend getting caught up on "Chad" projects with a little Saturday Night Live mixed in. And no matter what happens, at 8:00pm tomorrow, I will be sitting in front of my television watching the Oscars.


I've been working with my friends to create a Summer To-Do List (it will be here before you know it). One of the items involves the drive-ins. However, I realized a sad fact recently. There's really no movies that I'm excited to see this summer. Every single film is a sequel or comic book movie.


That being said, I finally got to read a great GQ article by Mark Harris today. "The Day the Movies Died" talks about the decline of the movie industry and the lack of original movies (Top Gun 2 is coming into existence). Inception - an actual non-adaptation and non-sequel movie - has caused a stir. Hopefully things will start shaping up.

I am excited for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II and Super Eight. So, I'll find something to watch at the drive-ins.


Speaking of sequels, I guess I'll end with the big news of the evening...
Spy Kids 4!

That's right! The world is not ready. Embarrassing as it is, Spy Kids made me want to go into filmmaking. I was obsessed with the movie as an eight-year-old. When I watched a Behind the Scenes Feature on ABC Family one Saturday morning, I realized for the first time that movies weren't real. I fell in love with images of the backlot and bam! Magic.


Spy Kids 2 was pretty good too (although strange). The third one was stupid. I actually can't say that I'm stoked for this new one. Jessica Alba is involved. Although she may be pretty, I'm not a fan because all of her movies are dumb. Robert Rodriguez should be trustworthy.

Spy Kids 4 will either allow me to relive my childhood or destroy it. The movie industry may be in trouble after all.

Friends are cool.

Yesterday was one of those days where I couldn't bring myself to do anything productive. It was a long week. On Friday night, I partied it up in celebration of Christina's and Ian's birthday. I have cool friends.

Saturday contained the falling action as I read, aimlessly searched the internet, ran, headed to the Corner Coffee Shop, and hung out in Altoona. I attempted to get some work done today.

I'm not even sure if I'm fully recovered from last weekend. Alaina and I had a lot of fun exploring Pittsburgh. First, we headed to AMC Theaters to watch The King's Speech. It was a great middle-of-the day movie. The cast was particularly awesome. I loved watching Helena Bonham Carter in an actual serious role, and Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush deserve Oscars. Overall, it was a great movie. Although, I'm not sure I'll be in a hurry to watch it again. The Social Network remains my favorite of the year.


In between films we headed to Ikea which is the equivalent of Disneyland. I walked through the store in utter awe. I look forward to the day when I can travel to Ikea with a real purpose - like furnishing my house.


As night settled in, we headed to an extremely creepy theater to see Blue Valentine. Blue Valentine really wasn't depressing like I thought it would be, it was just sort of unhappy - not in a bad way. The movie was painfully, yet beautifully real. We watched the two characters falling out of love interwoven with the story how they fell in love. Some parts of the movie were so real and private that it was hard to watch. However, I felt like I walked away with something - a really important message about life. Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams were great as expected. The best part of the movie was the ending - the climaxes of the falling-in-love story and the-falling-out-of-love story met in the middle. The cuts were heartbreaking and devastating.


Finally, Alaina and I ended the night by dining at Mallorca (the Cheesecake Factory was overflowing). We made friends with the hostess and ate a delicious Spanish dinner.

Mallorca!

March is already approaching. It kind of scares me. Focusing on college has made this year fly by. I'm having a blast, and I have a lot of things I want to accomplish before the fall. I guess I would have to say that I've settled into a kind of peace or contentment with whatever happens. It feels weird typing this, but I just feel a sense of hope lingering in the distance.

Alaina, Christina, and I discussed Radiohead over the weekend. I never really got into them, but Alaina was right. This one is good.

Tough Yet True Love

Track conditioning has started right when musical is heating up. The school year has reached that limbo period when winter activities blend with spring activities in order to create a month without sleep.

In the midst of the excitement, I hope to still find time to blog on the weekends. Tonight, I am staying up late in order to accomplish a few things - one of which is quite daring.

I am currently uploading a photo album of embarrassing Ryan pictures to Facebook. You see, as much as I love Adam and Ryan, they've been acting like two gossiping bitter old women lately. In addition, Ryan has initiated a number of small attacks on me throughout the year. I've warned him countless times that I was going to get my revenge.

The day has come. Although really, I don't believe in revenge, and I don't see this action as such. In reality, I simply find the pictures hilarious and believe that they need to be shared with the world. It's about time everyone met the real, not-so-innocent Ryan.

I'm sorry Ryan, but it had to be done. You will gain more fans in the long run thanks to this. And although we often fight and lunge at each others' throats, we will always love each other. I might actually miss you in college... just a little bit.

In other parts of the world, Alaina and I had a wonderful Pittsburgh trip on Saturday. I'm looking forward to another fun weekend because our good friend Christina is coming to Johnstown from Philadelphia. Her birthday is tomorrow. Happy birthday EM! We're in for an extravaganza.

I'll write about that as well as Pittsburgh soon.

One last thing, thank you to Alaina for introducing me to this song.

Wake Up!

The second semester at Bishop McCort High School began a week ago. For the first time in five months, I didn't spend the start of my day in Acting class. Instead I'm designing fliers in Microsoft Word. It feels like some sort of strange torture.

Luckily, I still see Adam Voegthly everyday. Yes Adam, I am once again writing about you on the Internet without your permission. I know. You're going to cut me.


The Voeghtly Show is still lingering in everyone's mind. I finally have some footage from the final episode. Maybe I'll just watch this video before I go to school everyday.

Forever Voeghtly: The Final Episode from Chad King on Vimeo.

My Best Friend

So the waiting game is over. Last Friday, I received an email from the Chapman Cross Country coach. She wanted to congratulate me on my acceptance to Chapman University. She didn't realize that she was letting the news slip before I received the official notification.

My package came in the mail on Tuesday. Getting accepted to both LMU and Chapman means that I'm most likely headed to school somewhere in California. Unfortunately in the midst of my excitement, Alaina and I finally had to face the unspeakable truth: we're going to be separated.

Alaina and I are best friends, but we're also so much more than that. After a few hours of crying and math homework at Starbucks, I can't say that we have anything figured out. But I know that things will play out the way they're supposed to.

I'm super excited for our Valentine adventure this weekend. Instead of wasting money on dumb gifts, we're headed to Pittsburgh (and the surrounding area) on Saturday to see Blue Valentine, The King's Speech, trek through Ikea, and possibly dine at The Cheesecake Factory.

Pancakes and John Hughes

I hesitate to do this because it's sort of a blogging cliche, but I'm going to write about food.

I woke up early with Tyler and Addison this morning because we had to serve at the 8:00am mass. Afterward, we made the best pancakes ever!

Months ago, I had the urge to make homemade pancakes. So I printed out a recipe for Cracker Barrel pancakes, but it was resigned to the recipe cupboard after no one got around to actually making the pancakes.

That changed yesterday when Ryan was searching for a recipe and unearthed the pancakes once again.

What I thought would be a 30 minute deal turned into a multi-hour adventure due to my own stupidity. I can't believe I'm going to admit this, but I somehow managed to misread the recipe and formed the impression that I could substitute buttermilk for butter. Wrong.

But that didn't stop us from starting over.

Round two went much better. We added chocolate chips, and the results were delicious.

The recipe is really simple. So the next day you're feeling cozy, enjoy!

Cracker Barrel Buttermilk Pancakes Recipe

While making pancakes, a watched a documentary on TV called Don't You Forget About Me. It was about these kids trying to find John Hughes since he vanished from the world.

Many people who were interviewed talked about the decline of teenage movies. It's kind of true. I love John's films and the characters that he created. A good, relatable movie about high school is rare these days. The world needs a new Ferris Bueller.

The Waiting Game

You're waiting for a train. A train that will take you far away. You know where you hope this train will take you, but you can't be sure. But it doesn't matter. How can it not matter to you where this train will take you?

I excitedly drove home from school the other day, parked in front of my house, jumped out of the car, and headed to the mailbox. The lid was open a little bit. My heart jumped. Something large must be inside the mailbox - something like a college acceptance letter. I darted up the steps and threw open the mailbox to reveal... two small postcards.

I'm playing the waiting game. My letter from Chapman still hasn't arrived. Really, I'm more relaxed than I thought I would be. I've reached the point where I'll be comfortable with whatever happens. Still, any time my thoughts drift in school, I find they drift to that mysterious letter that is floating around somewhere in the world at this very moment.

It's sort of a strange feeling. But I know that other people are experiencing the same thing. We may not know each other, but we are all united by the waiting.


I'm excited for the weekend. Alaina and I are having a movie night this evening. And the Super Bowl is on Sunday.

I have a confession. I live in the heart of Steeler Country, and I haven't watched one football game all year. I don't know what it is - there are just many other things that I'd rather do than watch football.


However, I'll watch the Super Bowl because it is somewhat exciting. Plus, there's always the commercials.

I Miss the Sun

First of all, do I sound like a girl? Back in the day, whenever someone called the house, and I answered the phone, they always thought I was my mom. I hated it.

Then the magic of puberty happened and my voice changed. However, people still think that I'm my mom on the phone. Usually the person on the other end will say, "Mrs. King?" When I tell them I'm actually a man (well getting there), they burst into a fit of apology.


Except the lady who called the other night... she wanted to talk to Ryan about the Discovery Kids magazines he subscribes to. She thought I was his mom. When I explained that I was actually his brother, there was a short pause. And then she started to crack up with giggling! Ugh.

Short update on my life: I was accepted to Loyola Marymount University - my backup California school. So that's exciting. And my notification letter from Chapman is in the mail. Good or bad? The anticipation is killing me.


Oh, there's no school yet again today. Ice storm. By the time I graduate from high school, I'll have to leave for college the next day. At least we finished midterms yesterday.

I might actually try to do something today - maybe read. But I'm actually in a "I don't know what to do with myself period." So I might have a mini movie marathon. Catfish came from Netflix today.


I'm also on this Baz Luhrmann kick. I finally watched Moulin Rouge the other night, and I surprisingly really liked it.


Finally, here's a bit of movie magic. I always thought the elevator scene in Romeo + Juliet was super sexy. Now laugh as you watch how they did it.