27 Jun 2014

Pay It Forward 2014

Good Morning J

I am hoping that todays offering will receive at least five comments! Any less just makes my life too easy. What am I talking about I hear you cry?

Well, this morning I was catching up with a few crafty blogs and I came across Pay It Forward Art-making Project for 2014.  It’s a really great idea, and I have a few creative ideas in mind so the fact that you aren’t restricted to one media is perfect for me. So here are the rules:

I promise to make a small work of art for the first five people who comment on this post and say “YES, I want in”. A ‘like’ alone is not enough of a commitment, nor is a comment about thinking Pay It Forward is a great idea. You must in turn post this as your status update and make something for the first five who comment on your status. The rules are simple: – It has to be your work, made by you, and the recipient must receive it before 2014 ends. – It can be anything art-based: a drawing/illustration or a conceptual work of art, a photograph, a knitted item, cross-stitch, paper maché – or anything in between. I’m paying this forward thanks to Evalina Maria

First five, GO!


PS. It doesn’t matter if you aren’t an artist, try something out, google/ YouTube how to make stuff, step out of those boundaries.

P.P.S if you can't pay it forward that's ok, I would really like to, so don't forget to leave a message :)

26 Jun 2014

POEM: Air travel

Its been a while since I shared a poem with you, and so here goes nothing...

Just beyond your fingertips
the air swirls
and teases swooping up
and down like clouds of lead
free
to float away to nothingness
as hope evaporates.

Leaving an imprint where
it once sashayed
around and around and around
inhaling every breath of anticipation
of what
could
be.

Loss echoes and vibrates
on the ribcage
confusing messages
of hunger 
the totality of emptiness
in that second
hopeless.

Time passes
without acknowledgement
a moment
a lifetime
the sameness is the same
until hope
is regained.

24 Jun 2014

Tuesdays Titillation; podcasts, the princess bride & the inner workings of my mind.

So I recently discovered a new podcast on films to listen to, it is called True Bromance podcast and is hosted by two American men, I think. The format of the podcast is that they discuss general films they have seen, recommendations and comments, feedback from listeners. Then they discuss their top five films on a specific theme.

I like that they have their own separate lists and don’t just have a ‘team list’ and that they disagree with each other occasionally. I also like that they are in my age group and so their cultural references and language I can understand (without the use of google). I like that they don’t just focus on latest releases, that they cover all genres and are open to recommendations.

I don’t like that they keep mentioning how brilliant The Princess Bride is! Only because I haven’t seen it. I think if I watch it now, there might be the potential for disappointment, as they have built up its brilliance.

The latest podcast included a review on a French film called Heartbreaker, it was recommended by me, and I was pleased that one of them took the time to watch it.

Just briefly, it is about a man who breaks people’s hearts on purpose and is hired to do so, and ends up falling in love with his latest client. It sounds trite right? Well, its not and it’s worth a watch.

He (I’m not sure which one) rated it a 6/10 regardless of his criticisms and I am happy with this, because the film is a fun watch and you can’t help but smile. My rating after having seen it was an 8/10 largely due to being entertained and in retrospect I would rate it as a definite 7/10. IMDB rating system has it at 6.8/10, rotten tomatoes 6.7/10.

It is in French with subtitles but I would still recommend it, the reason being, I took my sister to see it with me, she hates reading and would never watch a foreign film. We were walking to our screen when she said to me is it a comedy, and I said yes a rom-com, when we sat down, I casually mentioned that it was a French film, and when the film started I leaned across to her and said “its subtitled”! She was horrified! The trailer…



However, when we left the screen, she was smiling and laughing and saying how great it was, and that’s because it is entertaining. Romain Duris is a great leading man and perfect for the character, he is handsome but not perfect, so accessible to such an array of women. The supporting cast are great and provide the main comedy moments, it is silly, and clichéd and predictable, but it is all of those things done well. What annoys me about a lot of rom-coms is that they are more romance than comedy and the comedy isn’t even funny. If a comedy film makes me laugh out loud quite literally then it instantly has me feeling positive about it, sadly this is rare.

I see my film assessment much like a TV series, there is an overarching storyline and small storylines resolved beginning to end throughout.

Come a little closer as I am about to show you how my brain analyses a film! No really, and all with the help of a lovely graph.

The overarching storyline equates to the Entertainment (score) below – a film can be cheesy, tacky, have the most ridiculous storyline but if it’s entertaining all those factors can be muted. The line below represents the average, so a movie might start off ok and then get better, peaking in the middle and then dropping to the finale. Obviously this isn’t always the case, but for the purposes of this explanation that is the example I am using.

Now, the small storylines (that on a TV series would happen in each week’s episode) equate to the scenes themselves and this can disturb the entertainment arc. This is shown below as the Specific Scenes score. The increments are in 15 minutes – so the first fifteen minutes might not be that exciting but as it moves through the film there might be great action or hilarious comedy moments and the ending may not be so great or just average. In other films (mainly sequels) the ending might be high where they want to tease you and build your excitement for the next film in the series. The Films rating is taken as an average of both average scores for entertainment and specific scenes combined.


In the few reviews I have written so far I haven’t subjected you to my mental graphs but maybe next time I will, you lucky lucky things! But for the time being this is what happens in my head before I tell you my rating.

4 Jun 2014

ISWG: Joining in can be hard

I have decided to participate in this month’s Insecure Writers Support Group and have written or attempted to write about how the arts/creative industries are very insecure places and a few reasons why I think this based on my own personal experiences.

At some time around the end of 2010 I stumbled upon the website of HitRECord, this is a collaborative production company set up by the actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt (who from this moment forward shall be referred to as Jo-Go), at the time he had recorded a short video where he spoke about the reasons for the project and what he hoped to achieve by it in both the short and long term.

Since then HitRecord.org has gone from strength to strength and you can see by how much in the clip below:


I didn’t contribute any records during my time on the site, and I didn't participate in the forums, and this was for two very different reasons; identifying with the arts and hypocrisy.

At the time, I wasn't writing and I hadn't begun blogging either, and I was still very much firmly rooted in the sciences and that mentality. Thinking back now I wonder if this was that pivotal moment, I didn't feel able to contribute to the project and eventually decided to explore craft related blogs and subsequently set up my own: Momuboocrea Island, it may have been the moment when I decided I wanted to play with the other kids but had no toys to share with them.

I didn't contribute. Don’t get me wrong, I did want to contribute, I just didn't feel able to at the time  and I was also annoyed by some of the attitudes I noticed in the community (purely my issue and not theirs).

So, back to 2010, and the main reason I didn't contribute was because I didn't feel that I had anything to contribute. I looked at the work of those who were contributing and at the time they were what I considered to be ‘proper’ arty people, those who had spent their lives drawing or dancing or singing or writing, these were the people who came out of the womb knowing that they wanted to create and in which medium they wanted to do that in. Or at least to me that was how it seemed and I felt like a fraud, just waiting for someone to say ‘You don’t belong here’.

This is something that contributes to insecurity issues and that feeling that you're an impostor. It is something that I have felt rather strongly since I have attempted to be a part of the writing community. I am aware that my apprehension could also have contributed to this in both cases too.

So in 2010 again, and although, Jo-Go’s updates were warm and welcoming, and forum messages/feedback to others was always very encouraging and supportive (for the most part) it still felt to me (as a non-artiste) to be very clicky and reminiscent of a first day in a new job in an industry you know nothing about, where you want to be involved but you have no resource bank to draw from or knowledge about what’s going on and I found this to be quite intimidating and I was crippled by it at that point in time.

Writer groups also have this dynamic, but as my confidence in my writing has grown I do feel more comfortable, but that feeling of being outside the window looking in is still there.

Where were we? Oh yes, 2010, and there was another aspect that made me apprehensive about contributing, and this was that the few animations, videos etc. that had been completed at that time were very much in a particular style. I don’t know if this is still the case but I am very much the type of person who is comfortable in mainstream design with original ideas and they seemed to have a very ‘art student’ style with kooky ideas. The end product was good but I knew then that I wouldn't be able to create something that would fit with this image that they had developed and I guess I quite before I started. Even in retrospect I know that had I been writing at that time, my stories or poetry would not be a good fit, and it’s a shame as I would have liked to have been involved.

This is also something that I have noticed when reading the works of writers in certain groups and especially in some of the flash fiction competitions, that they have a collective taste/style and I don’t feel that I can emulate that enough to fit in.

Now, a big reason that I wanted to be involved in HitRECord was because I believe that we are all equal, and all our ideas are worthy of being seen/heard, and I liked the idea of open creative resources. This idea appealed to me and still does. And a big reason as to why I want to be involved in writing groups is because I think there is so much knowledge and inspiration that can be shared and doesn't necessarily require my input in order for me to feel involved or to benefit/learn from it and I feel that now, 18 months on, I have something more to offer.

The second reason that I was put off HitRECord was to do with the forums, and some of the comments that were made to people who were using them, which I found to be unnecessary.

You see, I am sure that when Jo-Go founded the production company he was aware of his public image and his popularity at that time, and there is no doubt in my mind that he was the face of the organisation in order to raise awareness and to get people to contribute.

However, a few people would join and then post a message of mush about how much they loved Jo-Go and his work on the forum, and some of the existing members saw it as their duty to reprimand them and this I believe was wrong. These people may have come to the site because of Jo-Go but they may stay because of its ethos and because of their talents and what they could offer. I regularly saw a comment along the lines of ‘if you have come here just because you think it will get you close to Joe then you need to leave now as you are sorely mistaken’ although they said this rather more crudely. I think it was naive of them to say that and to their detriment, as how did they find out about the site originally? Oh what’s that? Through Jo-Go’s twitter feed? Fanclub? Etc. I hate hypocrisy.

Writers groups differ in this matter, generally speaking, and the writers always seem very supportive to one another, my only apprehension is that its all lip service and nothing more. I wish there was a forum or group where people provided constructive criticism or feedback that panders less to ego but supports and encourages instead. If you know of one that exists and accepts slightly cynical newbies then let me know!

What I am trying to say is that everyone has to start somewhere and whether it’s at 5 years old or 50 years old its value isn't any less. Share your ideas and don’t be intimidated by others. Don’t intimidate others. Remember that your ideas are as good as the next persons and opinions are individual and a negative comment shouldn't be taken as a personal vendetta against you. Turn all negativity around. Embrace the positive. But most importantly, write because it makes you happy and fake it till you make it! 

Challenge 39: Watch 50 stand up shows (DVD or LIVE)

So I have been keeping notes on all my challenges and updating as and when something happens to move towards that goal, this is the notes fo...