Watch the trailer in HD – and after you do that read my friend Sameer’s thoughts on the movie and the genre it falls into.

Last night Sameer Barkawi finally published a few of the photos he shot during our Scranton Photo Walk last month. He’s got a few gems in this set.

Oh, and in case you missed them, here are mine.

Sameer, Chris, Eliza and I were the only people to show up for the Photo walk. This didn’t surprise me considering the fact that it wasn’t until Friday that Sameer and I actively went out to Flickr groups, Facebook, Craig’s List, and a few other places on the Web to promote the Photo walk. That isn’t to say that anyone would have showed up if we had publicized this thing for months – we’re talking about Scranton here. I have hope that one day, perhaps more than a few years into the future, Scranton will really take off on these types of social gatherings. Perhaps we’ll try again in fairer weather (since it did end up raining a little) and see how that goes.

The Photo walk itself was pretty ok. It wasn’t too cold, but it did start to rain. We took that opportunity to grab a beer at Judge & Jury. I think a really warm summer evening might be better for photos of Scranton since lights on buildings, signs, and cars passing by really add some romance to photos. You can see this from our Carbondale Photo walk at night. Or perhaps by adding a specific topic to the Photo walk (as someone suggested) like trains, automobiles, lights, signs, buildings, windows, etc.

All-in-all I had a good time, though shorter than I’d have liked, walking around Scranton shooting photos and I’m looking forward to doing it again. Perhaps in Scranton, or another neighboring city, borough, village, or area – but perhaps when the weather is a bit more suitable and predictable.

Photos of Scranton, PA

Although I took around 200 photos, deleted well over 120 before importing them, I’ve only selected 16 or so to share. Here they are. Click on the thumbnails to get a larger view of the full photograph.

I’m happy with the outcome of the walk. Looking forward to the next one.

Photo: My friend Sameer on a Photo walk of sorts in Carbondale, PA.

Something I’ve wanted to do for some time was to have a Photo walk in Scranton, PA. I would like to have one in Carbondale some time in the near future, but I think we’ll get more support in the Scranton area – and that is where my friend Sameer and I happen to be heading anyway.

What is a Photo walk?

Here is the actual definition from Photowalk.org:

“A Photo Walk is a an opportunity to develop your “photographic eye” by sharing the same opportunities as others. No special equipment is required and there is no need to share the pictures you take with others (though this is probably a good idea).

… …

To participate in a walk, you just need to arrive at the start point at the date and time given with a camera.

After a walk participants are encouraged to share their pictures and discuss their experiences.”

Pretty simple right? Just show up with your camera in tow (doesn’t matter if you only have your cell phone or you have the best professional digital camera available). And, if you feel like it, you can jump online and share your photos with the group.

When/Where?

We’re going to meet at the intersection of Linden Street and Adams Avenue by the statute at 2:30pm on Sunday March 8th. We’ll have a set route that we’ll be walking but we’re completely up for suggestions if there is anywhere in the city you’d like to shoot. We’re hoping for good weather but if that doesn’t happen our backup plan will be to do it anyway and get wet.

How to share photos/experiences?

If you upload your photos to your own personal Web site, or to a photo-sharing site like Flickr or Facebook, you can tag your photos with “ScrantonPhotoWalk”. You can do the same for your blog posts. If you do not know how to do that, you can just paste the URL to your photos and/or blog posts into the comments of this post below.

Who are Colin and Sameer?

You can read about me on my about page if you’d like further information. However, Sameer and I are just two guys that like to go shoot photos and we thought this time we’d see if anyone would like ot keep us company. If you’d like to tag along, we’d love to have you.

Follow us on Twitter: I’m cdevroe and Sameer is SameerBarkawi.

Sameer Barkawi, friend and film-student (oh, and actor), has written his thoughts on the movie after seeing it opening night. He compares the movie to 1994′s Forrest Gump, in a rather bad way. I loved Forrest Gump, btw. Oddly, he didn’t enjoy Brad Pitt’s performance even though he’s been nominated for a few awards because of it.

I would still like to see the film, but I trust Sameer’s judgement – and so I may wait until the DVD is released and I get to see it for free.

Source: Movie Review: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

City Hall – Carbondale, PA

Last night my friend Sameer Barkawi, mentioned here a few times, and I wanted to take our cameras for a spin around our hometown of Carbondale, Pennsylvania. He recently picked up a Nikon D90 and I was using Eliza’s Canon Digital Rebel XTi.

I put a few of the photos that I took up on Flickr in a set.

My friend Sameer. At the midnight premier for The Dark Knight.

“Would I recommend this film? I think so. It’s not a strong recommendation, though. Consider it an appetizer for the wonderful bounty that rests in months to come this summer.”

I think my recommendation to see Iron Man would be a little stronger than Sameer’s, only because there isn’t enough to complain about Iron Man to recommend not seeing it.  In other words, I’d leave it up to you whether or not you wanted to see Iron Man.  It isn’t a must-see, in my opinion, but if you see it you probably won’t be disappointed.

“Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark is excellent. I laughed out loud way more than I thought I would. I think if you put Downey in any movie as a quick-witted, pompous billionaire, you’d be entertained to some degree.”

Robert Downey, Jr. is great in Iron Man.  In fact, I don’t recall seeing a performance by RD, Jr. that I haven’t liked.  There are moments when the smell of cheese was a bit thick in the air, but – this is a Marvel Comic movie.

To sum up my thoughts on Iron Man: After watching it I didn’t immediately want to rush out and buy the DVD.  I will probably watch it again, simply to be sure I didn’t miss any of the dazzling special effects, but I’m in no rush.  I am, however, looking forward to the next installment (which I am sure there will be one) because we won’t have to worry about the Iron Man setup.

Source: Movie Review: Iron Man.

Sameer Barkawi, actor

My good friend Sameer Barkawi, who has been writing on TUG.n a little lately, has wrapped up shooting on what will be his movie debut.

Sameer plays a homeless man. When Sameer came to visit us last month his hair was getting really long (not too much of a surprise if you know Sameer) and he said that he was “playing a bum” in an upcoming film project at school. Little did we know how awesome he’d look as a homeless person (pictured).

“I just made my first film debut. Two consecutive days of eight hour shoots, and the film is done. Thanks to the director, Brian Miller, for giving the role of the homeless painter. Also, thanks to Ross, Brianne, and everyone else responsible for making the shoot fun, even when I wasn’t doing anything. The shoot was just more reason as to why I’m a film major.”

Congratulations my friend.

More photos are available on his Web site.

Source: My Movie Debut « Unfiltered Sarcasm.

“1. Donate bone marrow. 2. Drink 2 gallons of milk in a single sitting. 3. Become an attack dog chew toy. 4. Host amateur acting workshops in your own home. 5. Join the Polar Bear Club.”

I guess he didn’t like it.

(Source: Movie Review: 10,000 B.C. on The uber geeks)

Mason reckoned that most people sitting in this room were far too nervous to do even light reading. Anyone waiting in this room was probably in trouble for something.

Staring at the neatly stacked magazines led Mason’s mind to the neatly stacked books on the corner of Mrs. Jenzi’s desk in fifth-grade. Each book stacked according to size and thickness. Mrs. Jenzi’s stack of books consisted of the normal teacher’s aides for various fifth-grade subjects, a roll book, and a small pamphlet on the top for the U.S. Army.

One day while in class Mason asked Mrs. Jenzi about the pamphlet. She explained to the class that her youngest son David had joined the Army and she had everyone explain what they’d like to be when they grew up. When it came time for Mason to explain his future-dreams he simply said: “An artist” and sat down quickly.

When Mason was four years old his grandmother had given him a set of colored pencils and a pack of paper that….

“Private Mason Thurman?” – a voice said suddenly, interrupting Mason’s thoughts, and rather loudly considering that he was the only person in the room.

Mason stood up immediately, clicked his heels: “Yes, sir!”.

“Captain Jenzi will see you now.” said the Private who was probably even younger than Mason. He had a small stack of papers, probably only three or four individual sheets, in his hand. He constantly took the paper that was on the bottom and put it on top, visibly nervous about something.

“Private?” said the man holding the door. Mason was shook from his day-dreaming and walked into the cigar-smoke filled room. The room had a table with a map on it with a hot cup of coffee and an ash-tray with a smoldering cigar in it holding the map to the table. Captain Jenzi sat behind his desk quickly skimming a stack of papers with Mason’s photo clipped to them.

“Private Mason Thurman please have a seat.” The Captain’s voice was fairly welcoming. It reminded him of Mrs. Jenzi’s warm and welcoming voice on the first day of school.

“Do you know why you are here Private?” he asked without ever looking up at Mason. “Yes I believe I do sir.” Mason said while he was clearing his throat and sitting down.

The Captain slowly lifted up his head, which remained slightly tilted, looked Mason straight in the eye for what seemed like an hour. “Are you okay son?”. “Yes, sir I’m fine thank you.”. “Good.”

“It says here in my report that you had some trouble during a mission yesterday, is that true?”. his voice started to become more serious and less welcome as he spoke and quickly went back to skimming the report in front of him.

Mason remained silent, unsure of exactly how to begin to answer the question.

“Is that true Private?” the Captain asked in a loud voice now looking directly at Mason, waiting for an answer.

“Yes, sir. I just. Yes, sir.” Mason truly didn’t know what the Captain wanted to hear so he just kept his answer simple.

“It says here that you, under the direction of your CO, ummm, Jefferson, refused to shoot a few Indians that had recently had a run-in with a few of our men. Is this accurate?” the Captain spoke fairly quickly as if he wanted to move on.

“Yes, sir.”

“Why is that? Why did you refuse a direct order?”

“I, I guess I didn’t want to shoot anyone that was unarmed. I thought maybe they should be brought to a trial or someth…”

“Private listen to me closely.” said the Captain as he leaned over his desk getting as close to Mason as their current positions in the room would allow. “You have to get your head out of your little dream world when you are on a mission. These Indians that we’re dealing with are God-less, and would have no problem taking that silly haircut that you have there right off the top of your head. Do you understand that? Do you understand that many of these Indians will never, ever, have a gun in their hand but that they are much more dangerous with their arrows and knives than you probably ever will be with your rifle. Do you understand?”

“Yes, sir.”

“No you’re a good kid and a good soldier. I can understand that violence doesn’t come naturally to most people but for your own safety you are going to need to get tough.” — the Captain stopped speaking to catch his breath. He sat back in his chair visibly working out a plan in his head.

The phone rang.

“Captain Jenzi” answered the Captain on the second ring. “Then go get him and bring him back here. And if he won’t come. Make him come. And if you can’t make him. Get rid of him.” he was almost yelling into the phone as if he was speaking to someone that couldn’t hear. “Actually, I’ve got just the man to help you out. Where are you?” — there was a short pause while the Captain was writing something on a small empty sheet of paper. “Okay, give my guy 15-minutes to join up with you. Then be sure to do what needs to be done. Thank you.” he said, hanging up the phone.

“Ok, Mason. Now is your chance to prove me right. I am going to set you up inside of a new group of men. A clean slate. I want you to be a man, get tough, and do what needs to be done. Can you do that?”

“Yes, sir!”

“There is an old Indian chief, who fought against Custer’s army of all things, who needs to be taken into custody no matter what. Do you smoke or chew?”

“I’ve tried chew a few times but….”

“Here take this. I rarely chew tobacco and this might go along way with your new men. Shows you to be a real man. Here, take this note to your new CO and he will put you on a mission that is leaving in just a few minutes. Private O’Malley here will drive you down to the rally-point. That is all.” — the Captain stood up and left the room so fast that Private Mason barely had time to stand up and salute him on his way out.

“Let’s go, I have to get back here for our next meeting.” — said Private O’Malley.

“I really hate chew, so what am I supposed to do with this?” asked Mason.

“Pretend. Let’s go.”

They drove down the road which was in the center of several small Army buildings. Some were barracks for the men, others were wash-houses and mess-halls. It wasn’t long before they were approaching a group of about 40 men who were waiting for pickup. All of them standing around, barely talking, watching their breathe in front of their face. It was already fairly dark. The sun had gone down pretty quickly today as the day’s were progressively getting shorter and shorter.

“This is you. I’ll drop you off here. Actually, give me that note. I have to see your CO about something anyways. Good luck Private.”

Mason left the Jeep without saying anything. He slowly walked into the group of men and immediately spotted a kid that was really nervous. Mason thought this might be the kid’s first mission. He figured he’d position himself next to him because anyone would look tougher than this kid. Mason popped some chew into his mouth, which began to water immediately, and slowly walked over and sat down next to the nervous kid.

A few minutes past and Mason was already getting cold. Just then he heard the sound of the approaching trucks, their lights just beginning to break the night sky over the hill.

The story continues: Sitting Bull (A short story).

[tags]short story, sameer barkawi, writing[/tags]