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swashbuckler332

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Monsters from the Id

In CinemaScope - The Modern Miracle You See Without Glasses

Created on 2003-01-08 15:40:55 (#845952), last updated 2009-11-12

7,783 comments received, 9,087 comments posted

Permanent Account

2,646 Journal Entries, 200 Tags, 115 Memories, 200+ ScrapBook Files, 0 Virtual Gifts, 92 Userpics

Basic Info

Name:	Joshua Gizelt
Birthdate:	1974-09-06
Location:	Flushing, New York, United States
Website:	MySpace

Contact:

Swashbuckler332@gmail.com
swashbuckler332@livejournal.com

Bio

"Film is truth, 24 times a second."
- Jean-Luc Godard

Brief Bio: I went to school for filmmaking, but life intervened and I ended up dropping out of college and getting a real job. I install and repair T-1s in Manhattan for Verizon. While working, I did make a few projects, but then I found that I was going to be laid off. Rather than be left without my job and without my benefits, I went on an educational leave of absence... that is I finished school; Verizon paid for it and I kept my benefits... and the Union won the arbitration case regarding the lay-offs, so now that I have my Bachelor's, I'm back to work. During the time that I was in school, I collaborated on a screenplay with my friend Ryan, who lives in Boston. We have just completed the third draft and I am getting ready to actually make the film.

As you will see from my interests, I'm really into movies and movie music. These are my two main passions in life, as you can see from the blog.

Friends and Family: My parents are divorced. I have a very close relationship with my mother but haven't spoken to my father in years. My mother remarried and I now have a half-brother named Zach who was born in 1992. I have a lot of friends dating back to high school. My philosophy in dealing with other people is quite simple: be honest and up front with them and you have a tendency to minimize drama. I'm not saying I live a completely drama-free life (that's impossible), but for the most part I keep my friendships pretty stable. On the other hand I don't meet women very often, so I don't date much... or ever, really. This is an aspect of my life I would like to change, but unfortunately I have no idea where to start. I hope to figure it out soon because I'm starting to really feel lonely.

Jobs: Before working for the phone company, I worked for four years at a Tower Records (the one in Massapequa). While this job is certainly the one that pays better and has better benefits, I would say that was the most fun I had at a job ever. I also worked for a while at a Roy Rogers. It was free-standing and the manager was a neat freak, so it was pretty clean. We never had vermin there. I pulled a brief stint at a Radio Shack once, too. That job was a pain because I had to ask everybody who came up to the register for their address and whatnot. That sucked. I'm glad they don't make their employees do that anymore.

Final note: I am a filmmaker, but I am also interested in a lot of the more theoretical elements of the cinema as well. Genre is one of my favorite topics, for example, as is postmodernism. I love to write, as is evidenced again by this blog.

I was born on September 6, 1974, but I really had no control over that (please don't bring up Astrology in my presence, ever). I've had my gall bladder removed on November 28, 2005. Bon voyage, I hope it finds the happiness it sought by leaving my body.

Nicknames: Swashbuckler (given me by some co-workers some years ago because I fenced in High School), Bacon Bits, Muffin Man, Yosho (obsolete).

MY BROTHER ZACH AND I
The day of his Bar Mitzvah, May 7, 2005

Primary Interests

Cinema: Both the artistic and technical aspects of films and film-making. My ambition in life is to make films. Favorite filmmakers include (alphabetically) Robert Altman, Ingmar Bergman, Joel and Ethan Coen, Francis Ford Coppola, Jean-Luc Godard, Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick, Akira Kurosawa, Sergio Leone, David Lynch, and Billy Wilder,. Favorite films (not by these filmmakers) include (alphabetically) Alien, Aliens, Almost Famous, Blade Runner, Boogie Nights, Chinatown, Die Hard, Drowning by Numbers, Ed Wood, La Femme Nikita, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, Ghostbusters, The Haunting (original version),The Hustler, Jackie Brown, Living In Oblivion, Liebestraum, The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Mountains of the Moon, My Name is Nobody, My Own Private Idaho, Snow Falling on Cedars, Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back,The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, Trading Places, The Usual Suspects and Waterland.

Film Music: The art and craft of film scoring is a subject I think is fascinating. I also believe that there is an amazing body of work out there that is unrecognized. Favorite composers include (alphabetically) John Barry, Bruce Broughton, Elmer Bernstein, Carter Burwell, Elliot Goldenthal, Jerry Goldsmith, Bernard Herrmann, Lee Holdridge, Jan A.P. Kaczmarek, Wojciech Kilar, Ennio Morricone, Thomas Newman, Miklós Rózsa, David Shire, Howard Shore, Alan Silvestri, Franz Waxman, John Williams, Debbie Wiseman. I dislike Hans Zimmer and his Media Ventures brood for the generic sound that they've brought to film scoring; I don't like James Horner for the same reason, although his effect on the industry has been less pronounced (though I like his older stuff).

Mix Making: I believe that making a mix is more than just putting a bunch of tracks that sound good together. I feel that programming is as important as selection, and in the case of my film music mixes, I often get into tightening up tracks for listening purposes. If you're interested, I have kept a list of the film music mixes here, or you can go straight to the journal entries through the use of the tag (which will show other mixes as well). Please note, however, that this is not a music-sharing blog. It is important to me, particularly with the genre of music I discuss here, that the money goes where it is supposed to go. If you see a release you're interested in on these pages, chances are I will have linked to where you can get it legally.

Myth: I am interested in man's need for myth. One finds patterns in storytelling, and I find it interesting that there are some ideas that resonate with many people because of these elements.

Music: While I have a specific interest in film music, I am just a music junkie in general, and I enjoy rock and roll, jazz, and some modern, romantic, classical, and baroque music as well. Favorites include Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Doors, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young and variations, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, U2, Alice in Chains, Iggy and the Stooges, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Charles Mingus, John Corigliano, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Lugwig Van Beethoven and Johann Sebastian Bach.

Reading: I am a voracious reader, mostly of science fiction; my favorite authors include Isaac Asimov, Orson Scott Card, Neil Gaiman, Frank Herbert and Timothy Zahn. I also enjoy reading science books, sometimes history and fantasy, if it is well-written.

Special mention must go to Douglas Adams, whose Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy redio shows and series were a major philosophical discovery for me. While that sounds really weird, the way that the universe is characterized by him felt so appropriate, so true, in a way religion never did. What I was responding to was his portrayal of the universe through the eyes of a "radical athiest," so even back at age nine when I first read these I was starting down that path of self-discovery.

Audiophile Technology: The better to hear you with, my dear.

Special Services Circuits: While I want to be a filmmaker, I have to pay the bills and so I install and repair Special Circuits (mostly T-1s) in Manhattan. Over time I have developed a genuine interest in how they work.

New York City: I've lived here all of my life, and it never ceases to fascinate me.

Food: I like tasty things. Favorites include pasta, chocolate and steak, but I like many things.

Furry Creatures: Great and small.

Myself with a
domesticated racoon.

Personal Beliefs

Okay, I'm going to state this up front so that there is no confusion. I am an atheist.

"I cannot see how a man of any large degree of humorous perception can ever be religious—except he purposely shut the eyes of his mind & keep them shut by force."
- Mark Twain

Now, I dislike the tendency that people have to equate atheism with nihilism. I am not an atheist because I am mad at the world. Quite the opposite, I love life. It has its bad moments, it can be frustrating, but there is great beauty to be found in nature, art and friendship, and I think my journal does reflect an ultimately positive approach to life. However, I do not see any god figure behind all of it. The concept of a god or gods makes more sense in terms of human psychology than it does what the world is like. It is simply a matter of Occam's Razor to me.