mattjay503212's Xanga

PEACE XANGA

Tue, 14 Aug 2007 09:11:09 GMT

All good things come to an end. For the past two years this little Xanga page has been my journal, sharing thoughts, perspectives, films, clothes and my life lol. I was feelin that it was time for a change, a new look... so I'm moving!

If you know me you know I hate the idea that goodbyes are permanent, pathetically enough, even with shit as small as my blog lol. So maybe think of this as a test...who knows, maybe I'll come back to Xanga eventually. There are things I like about it that I will miss (I have yet to find another blog site with the "Currently Listening/Watching/Reading" feature)... But for now its time to venture into new blogger territory haha.

I'm keepin this page for memories sake, but for now you'll be able to find me at my new online home:

http://www.mattjay.blogspot.com

Peace!

HAHA I LOVE IT.

Tue, 14 Aug 2007 02:11:38 GMT

Where can I cop!?

ROCKET

Sun, 12 Aug 2007 21:58:20 GMT

Currently Listening: "When The Rain Begins To Fall (Live Drum)" - LTJ Xperience Featuring Joe Bataan
From The Album: Cafe Apertivo

Tried this new restaurant called Rocket on east Burnside for my mom's birthday...hellaaaaa cool spot....great view of downtown from across the river!

Keenan hasn't taken a serious photo in years lol.

Happy Birthday Ma!

Half & Half cafe. If there was an image that captured the Portland lifestyle, this is it.

Clyde Common.

MAGGIE Q

Fri, 10 Aug 2007 04:46:34 GMT

ARG UPDATES

Thu, 09 Aug 2007 06:41:09 GMT

Keenan & Kevin reunited.

Bishops.

Mohawk. Sorta.

Insane amount of wasabi lol...

Anomally himself. And his "birthday roll" hahaha...

Lawz Spoken in the home studio.

Asshole cops...

We watched them pull these two guys over, walk over to them with their chests all puffed out and their hard faces, make them wait for eons in their car while they called for backup for no reason, then made them sit on the street while they searched their car top to bottom obviously for stuff they shouldn't have...when they came up with nothing, they had their car towed anyway. You could see on their faces and how they talked to these guys, they were SO condesending it was disgusting.

BIG First Thursday this month! There was a huge block party right in our hood, 5th & Couch. Was soooooooo much fun, seriously every First Thursday needs to be like this from now on.

At Just Be's show. The homie Dice on the lower left there with the hat.

Bo!

The legendary Ricky Powell came and displayed his photography at Upper Playground for UP's 1st anniversary in Portland!

Chuck D + Keen J

L to R: KRS One, Jean Michel Basquiat, Slick Rick & Rev Run, Beastie Boys, Rakim.

Director Gary Huswit screened his new film "Helvetica" at Wieden & Kennedy. "Helvetica" is a documentary about the typeface known as Helvetica, it's history and origins, impact on typography and marketing, as well as the type designers who love and loath it. It was really a great film, such a fascinating topic, and extremely well orchestrated. If you get a chance to check it out, I definetly reccomend it!

The homie Eric Johnson from W&K introduces Gary Huswit.

A couple hours after the "Helvetica" screening, Ricky Powell came to W&K for an exclusive slideshow presentation! It was really fun, Ricky is such a character hahaha he definetly told some interesting stories to coincide with his photos. I got to meet the man afterward, and get an autographed postcard with a photo of Flava Flav and Biz Markie!

Hanging out with Ricky after the slideshow.

My favorite street in Portland.

I thought this old Ford was kinda rad.

Colton.

Keenan, Cam, Nick and myself feasting at Bay 13.

Cam, Tony & Laura...on the set of Laura's film "Portlandia".

Sushiville on 23rd. Tony is hungry.

The almighty Portland sky.

Leddy + Tony.

I love traintracks...

The boys.

--------------------------

Now for just a couple of blurbs.

As many of you all know, my favorite film of all time (only recently rivaled by "LA HAINE" but more on that next post) is "Before Sunrise". The film made me a very big fan of Julie Delpy, and she recently just directed and starred in a new film of her own called "2 Days In Paris". Me and Cam tried to go see it when it played at the Tribeca Film Festival in NYC a few months ago, but the line was SO huge that we couldn't get in. I was extremely dissapointed because I'm really excited to see this film. Sigh. But anyway, theres a great interview with Julie over at Comingsoon.net about the film so I just wanted to tell you all to check it out. There's links to the trailer as well, so peep:

http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=23099

--------------------------

Alllllsooooooooo....pops just put up a fantastic new blog over at his Honeyee, talking about many of the recent things that have been going down in the PDX...Including his interview with Gus Van Sant in the new issue of Tokion magazine, and Ricky Powell's visit to our fair city. Check it!

http://blog.honeyee.com/johnjay/

--------------------------

And finally:

MATT JAY'S COMPREHENSIVE LIST OF LIKES

Tue, 07 Aug 2007 10:26:26 GMT

Did my dislikes a few months ago...now for some stuff that I enjoy!

- My friends
- Filmmaking and all its aspects
- World travel
- Sunshine
- Going to movies on their opening night
- Going to movies with a packed audience
- International cinema
- Independent cinema
- Tokyo, Japan
- Portland, Oregon
- Summer in the Northwest
- Backyard barbeques in the summer
- Neighborhood block parties
- Shopping
- Keeping a dream journal
- Reading about dreams/dream analyzation
- Long car rides/road trips
- Getting stuck in traffic
- Art gallery hopping
- Ice cold Dr.Pepper
- Brand new shit
- Exclusive/rare/limited shit
- Thinking/reflecting in the shower
- Listening to music while looking out the window of a moving car
- Good conversation
- Architecture
- Interior design
- Progressive politics
- Social justice
- The Criterion Collection
- Going to the record store not looking for anything particular, but planning to leave with a bag full of music
- Beaches
- Black and white photography
- Evolving style
- Well made clothes
- Clothes with subtle details
- Bold graphics
- Reminiscing with friends
- Reading in the sun
- Nigiri (salmon) sushi
- Taking photos
- Spending hours in the bookstore (not library) finding good books
- Clear mind (sobriety)
- Dressing up for big occasions
- Watching Pride fights
- Walking along the waterfront
- Playing my music loud
- Writing down/recording my thoughts
- Expressing my opinions
- Working and making my own money
- Smartfood white cheddar popcorn
- Women with sophisticated style
- Women that are passionate about social-political issues
- DJ Premier beats
- Sunsets
- Penne Arribiata
- Scenic views
- Mac laptops
- Magazines
- Laughing to tears
- Graffiti
- Sleeping in
- Going to the park
- Toasted bagels
- Acoustic guitar music
- Hanging out with my family
- Dim Sum
- Exploring and getting lost in new places
- Days with no commitments to do anything
- Going out to dinner
- Meeting like-minded people
- Sitting on my roof
- Celebrating (anything!)
- Collecting stuff

ohhh and so much more.... =D

BURNSIDE Premiere Recap

Mon, 06 Aug 2007 04:28:08 GMT

My apologies for the slow updating...doesn't feel right, especially after something so big like the BURNSIDE premiere last week. I've been feeling kind of lazy when it comes to blogging lately.

But anyways, as most of you know the world premiere of myself and Cameron's film BURNSIDE premiered on Friday, July 27th and played at the Hollywood Theatre that entire weekend. What can I really say...it was an incredible evening. Now that I have had some time to reflect on it all, I would say that it will go down as one of the best nights of my life. At least one of the most memorable. That entire week leading up to Friday was such a whirlwind of surprises and excitement, with basically one new media blurb coming out everyday. First it was the Willamette Weekly, then The Oregonian, then the Portland Mercury review, then the KBOO radio story...and it all just came to a head on the night of the premiere.

Myself, Cam and Simon rolled to the theatre early to test the DVD and make sure everything was in order. When we got there, we discovered that the theatre's DVD players couldn't play our dual-layer burned DVD...we tried all the DVD players they had to no avail. By this point, some people were already waiting outside the theatre to buy tickets so we started to freak out a little. We had tested our DVD on Cam's XBOX 360 earlier, so we were sure it would work on that...so we called up Carter who was already on his way to the theatre with Lindsay, and made him go back to the house to get the XBOX. We specifically told him not to forget all the cords and a controller, but when he finally arrived at the theatre after what felt like hours he had forgotten the controller!! So we couldnt control the menu to play the movie. Now at this point, me and Cam had been cooped up in the theatre control room so we hadn't gotten a chance to look outside...once we did though, we saw a MASSIVE crowd of people all waiting to get in. My heart started pounding and I think the both of us were admittingly pretty nervous. Matter of fact, I'll just say it, I was a wreck LOL. At least thats the way I felt inside. But we shook each other, pep talked and tried to psyche ourselves up until we had reminded ourselves that everything was cool.

What we ended up having to do was just play a version of the film we had actually burned a couple days earlier on a single layer disc...the only real noticable difference was a couple missing music cues, which I still felt uneasy about showing, but at that point we had no choice. When we got it all figured out, it was already 7:15 pm, fifteen minutes after the film was supposed to have already started... people had already started filing in and the theatre was filling up. But it wasnt until we went outside that we realized....there was STILL a whole line of people trying to get in, AND it was down the block! And it was solely that moment there that probably secured the evening as one of the best nights ever for me. The feeling...of seeing that THAT many people were interested in and chose to come out and pay money to see a piece of art that YOU created with your bare hands...is indescribable. It was the most surreal feeling ever, something we totally didn't expect. A totally overwhelming sight.

Of course amongst the crowd, many of our friends and family came out to support and its always great to see all the familiar faces especially since a lot of them have been supporting us for so long. Once everyone was seated, me and Cam got up to give our opening speech and then took our seats in the back to start the show. Through out the entire film my heart pounded in my chest so hard that it actually ached. But totally in a good way, I was nervous but so excited that all that work finally had an audience.

The film ended with applause all around, and we were happy it was well recieved for what it was. Despite having evolved creatively and artistically so much since we made it, BURNSIDE is a significant piece for us, and we all worked hard on it so the response felt nice. The theatre capacity was about 400 seats and we were nearly sold out!

After the film, it was off to the afterparty at Wieden & Kennedy. The drive through Portland, back over the river was especially nice that night...all the stress and worry and anxiousness lifted as the Northwest night air blew on our faces, our music blasting. We got to W&K, ate, drank and relaxed with close friends, family and cast members...watched a slide show chronicling the past 10 years of Thunderball Productions, and enjoyed W&K's own Desmond on the 1s and 2s. A great, chill way to wind down from all the excitement earlier.

Me and Cam also attended the Saturday and Sunday showings, and were very surprised and pleased with the turn out on both days! We thought we wouldn't have a problem getting a good amount of people to come on opening night, but we had been predicting that the two following shows would show a significant drop in attendees. We were totally prepared to be the only two people in the theatre on Sunday hahaha. But much to our surprise there were roughly 50 people that showed up to both of the weekend screenings!

So all in all, the release of BURNSIDE was tremendously succesful, to an extent that we never would have imagined. Thank you so much to everyone involved in the project and everyone that came out to support us... it was three unforgettable days for me.

One extremely dissapointing thing though is that we didn't get NEARLY as much photo and video coverage of the events as we wanted to...I'm just going to post the photos I have, although Cam and other people have more, so maybe I'll post those later as well. Also, all the photos of the afterparty that my dad took came out really blurry and out of focus for some reason...so my apologies for that in advance. But anyways, check it out (click to enlarge!):

Catering menu for the afterparty.

TWO newspapers that we were in!

Psyching ourselves up by bumping our premiere night anthem, "Grammy Family" hahaha...

The Hollywood Theatre!

AHH!! Up on the marquee...

Theatrical poster...

Inside the projection room...

The crowd as they started filling the theatre...

Siobhan, Sean, Laurie and me chillin at the afterparty...

Mr. Beyl and BURNSIDE director of photography Mark Vetanen...

Two W&K employees (forget their names, sorry guys!), Chaucer, Ivy and Tamika...

Desmond!

Props to our caterers for the great grub!

Drew, Cam and the grand return of Edlen!

Out on the deck...

Cam & Simon's mamas!

Keenan (in a really fresh sweater, peep those zippers) hangin with his friends on the deck...

Myself, Laura, Siobhan, Sean, Laurie...

Eeek...

Ben Anderson and Chaucer...

Family!

Cam'ron in all his glory.

Desmond once again...

Nick Wolf, me and Cam! Sorry but gotta talk about clothes...Cam in velvet blazer, and tux shirt...don't know the makes, me in Buona Giornatta jacket, Paper Denim & Cloth...

2nd night of the BURNSIDE screenings! Went out to dinner first at Cha Taqueira...

Matt Edlen's family recently moved into an incredible new apartment in the Merriweather East building in the South Waterfront district....so we went go check it out!

View from the apartment...peep the moonlight reflecting off the river....amazing

Enjoying the evening from the deck...

AH don't look down!

The stash.

Greaaaat kitchen.

Damn that update took forever and I still got a ton more photos from the past week, and more to say...but for now I'm out!

LA HAINE

Sun, 05 Aug 2007 09:57:22 GMT

Oh. My. Gooooddddddddddddd...

BURNSIDE Review In Portland Mercury!!!

Fri, 27 Jul 2007 08:36:12 GMT

Today the Portland Mercury came out (coolest and most respected paper in the city), and they reviewed BURNSIDE!

How did it go? Well, it was ok...but have a look for yourself:

Its not a totally negative review, but its not positive either, its realistic. They pointed out some strong points and also the weak ones. I MIGHT have been a little salty about it if it werent all true. The good thing is that its nothing we don't already know. We didn't need a reviewer to point out our areas of improvement, these are all things we've known for a long time now. BURNSIDE is now over one year old, its the first time we've ever spent this much time between creation and release of a project. And in addition to that, this is the period in our careers that we are probably evolving at the most rapid pace. Made fresh out of our first and second years into film school, BURNSIDE showcases already outdated abilities and creative way of thought. And not that we're Oscar-worthy now by any means lol but my point is that we've grown already and we recognize that. We've always respected the Mercury's reviews on movies in the past, and that remains when its our own film in the spotlight. Truthfully, I'm just extremely excited to have even been reviewed in the Mercury! That's an honor. The best thing about it all for me and Cam is that we now officially "exist" in Portland. We have our foot in the door of the city's consciousness, and that feels great.

Its all just keeps snowballing...and it climaxes tomorrow night!!

BURNSIDE Mentioned In Willamette Weekly!

Thu, 26 Jul 2007 07:32:15 GMT

This week has been crazy...

Another newspaper mention today, this time in the Willamette Weekly! A small blurb, but its damn cool that we got called "local gents" hahaha...check it out online here:

http://www.wweek.com/calendar/3337/screen/