My first graduate paper in eight years is in the can – I handed in my essay on Ladies of the Mob today. I had to take out one of my arguments to bring it down to the required length, but it was probably my weakest material in the essay, so I didn’t mind. In perfect form, I worked on it until the last possible moment, making sure everything was correctly formatted. It’s the first paper I’ve ever written in Chicago style, and although I’ve edited a ton of Chicago papers, putting one together myself proved painstaking. Just a lesson to format as I go, a lesson I learned in my time as an undergrad but forgot in the intervening years. In class we talked a bit about sound and watched the 1931 version of Frankenstein, which I’d never seen.

I’ve found myself copping to forgetting a lot of things lately. Certain topics will come up in class, but I won’t launch in to an argument because it’s been years since I was last given a forum to talk passionately about those topics. Something I’d forgotten about school is the comfy quilt it wraps you in, the way it convinces you that these things you find interesting have a merit that needs defending. It can be hard to find that merit outside academia. The structure and requirements of an academic program are in place to breed ideas, and ideas keep me passionate. They keep my pilot light lit.

Samantha and I had dinner with Ren and Mel tonight. We were originally aiming for Barque Smokehouse on Roncesvalles, but they were booked solid, so we drove over to Electric Mud on Queen. Toronto has an endless supply of restaurants. Eating at every one has already proved impossible. The food was barbecue fare, and we had a good time on the patio. Ren and Mel are moving out of their place soon. I’d like to see it one more time before they take off. It’s meant a lot to me at different points over the last decade or so.

Amazing how many things seem to be ending, and starting, and coming back around, all at once.

I paid a visit to Mel at Lebel and Crowe today and my hair is now shorter and looking sharp. Did some reading before Film Materials and Processes and then had the class. For most of the three hours, we had to contend with a group of engineering students who were running a purple VW Beetle around the quad and yelling at people to get out of the way. Some kind of charity thing for Sick Kids. Good on them, though it was distracting at times.

After looking at a bunch of pictures of damaged film, inspecting some strips, and learning about different gauges and materials, we were given our film for the splicing assignment, one 35mm strip and one 16mm stripe each. My 35mm strip is a film of Eisenhower delivering a speech. We were also given a brief tutorial on tape splicing. Next week we’ll learn to work with cement. I’d wager it’s about an hour’s worth of work altogether.

Finally.