Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Chris Cousino and I am the new Arts Editor this fall. I'm also a junior studying film and English.
So that's me in one column. Well, I hope not all of me, because then I'd have to be one boring guy. And who knows, maybe I am a bore. But I'd like to hope to not. I have these dreams of one day being a director, screenwriter, producer, actor extraordinaire (maybe I got some weird Welles thing going on,). But, "to be in that business, you gotta have some 'umph!,' so said a professor I met at NYU this past summer. "If you don't, then you will be film professor."
"Umph!" What does it take to have it? Are you born with it? Is it something you learn? Can I buy audio tapes that teach the secret to "Umph?" Or is it more ethereal, like, maybe it comes from the Force or God or something. Who knows? But I do know that when I pass in life some 80 years from now, I'd love to look back and say, "Man, at times, I had 'umph."'
To get there, I think I have a fun and simple solution. Every January, my father and I sit down and write on three-by-five cards what we want to do in the next year. Then we go out in the world and try to complete our ideas. At the year's end, we reconvene and see where we end up. This summer, I was lucky enough to participate in the New England Literature Program (item number one on this year's card). There, inspired by my father's cards, I came up with my solution that will hopefully lead me to say that I had "umph."
I call it, "the lifegoals of christopher clayton cousino." Here goes:
- I want to always love my family and cherish their splendor, of faults and wonder, their humanness - I am them and they are me.
- I want to create a family of my own when I am (can) wholly (give) myself.
- I want to hike through forests and mountains with my six-year-old boy and show him beauty and an appreciation of nature.
- I want to enjoy, enjoy, enjoy.
- I want to travel around the entire world ... everywhere baby.
- I want to climb the towers of Zimbabwe, walk the desert pyramids of Egypt, safari in the Heart of Darkness, back pack through Europe, pilgrimage the Holy Land, walk the Great Wall, climb the Himalayas, surf the Great Barrier, float in the Tsongas, volcano flow in Hawaii, swim with the sea turtles of the Galapagos, experience Macchu Piccu, sail Cape Horn, smell snow in Alaska and then, America.
- I want to find my spirituality again. What is God? Is he (or she) God, Jesus Christ, the Buddha, the Wind, the Earth, Samantha Ganey, my father and mother, a friend, me?
- I want to make "good" movies (right now, a landscaper film, an intelligent teen romance and a big budget, live-action "Johnny Quest" with Russell Crowe starring as Race Bannon).
- I want to write a novel.
- I want to edit an indie film magazine in some big city so I can define if my criteria goes by "how much a movie sucks."
- I want to own a comfortable home without lots of grandeur that has both a room plastered wall to wall with movie posters and a bathroom with a picture of Janet Leigh hanging across from the toilet.
- I want to learn to fly.
- I want to understand the word "magic" through the eyes of the teacher/poet Erica Freeman.
- I wish I could learn the Force and become a Jedi.
- I want to always jump on large piles of sand or dirt.
- I want to be in my 60s and still watch "Scooby Doo."
- I want to take my mom to the Academy Awards.
- I once hoped to be Peter Pan and fly off to Never-neverland and play with Indians and fight pirates all day - now I hope never to lose the 10-year-old boy that some people see inside of me.
- I want to make love on the bow of a sailboat somewhere in the ocean, floating off into that eternal place, "off in the horizon."
- I want to sing in a Shura rock band with the name Dr. No and the Spectres.
- I want to learn guitar so I can sit up into the creeping night and play James Taylor and Simon and Garfunkel songs.
- I never want to quell the urge to run in a cornfield. "Dooowhit," my dad would say.
I want to be Christopher Clayton Cousino. So, that's what I want to do in the next 80 years. But forget about me. I wanna hear your lifegoals. Write 'em down, shout 'em out and fly.
- Christopher Cousino is hanging with the Little Kid. You can reach him on email at ccousino@umich.edu
09-16-99
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