"What is commonest, cheapest, nearest, easiest, is Me,
Me going in for my chances, spending for vast returns,
Adorning myself to bestow myself on the first that will take me,
Not asking the sky to come down to my good will,
Scattering it freely forever."
-Walt Whitman, Song of Myself (14)
I have attained a new personal project. Probably something that will come to reality in the next year or so. But I've gotten pretty stoked on camping. With the success of our second ESL camping trip, plus talking with some amazing people about trips around the Gulf Islands, I've decided to start a collection of one-man camping gear, a touring bike, and some good places to travel to and hunker down for a night or two or three. This last trip has sort of renewed a love for the stars, for bonfires, for picking through rockpools for the most bizarre of sea creatures. A trip to Grandma's Beach on Salt Spring garnered an absolutely amazing array of sea life, just wading up to the knees. Rock crabs, pipe fish, fan worms, baby rock fish (cutest!!), shrimp, brittle stars, star fish, moon jellies and, what I believed to be, a sort of miscellaneous cnidarian.
I think, a lot of the time, we have a tendency to disregard how attached other people can be to things. Things being... well, anything. Music, movies, moments in time. These iotas of importance in an individuals life. How can one person put down another's love for opera or rap, Leo Tolstoy or George R. R. Martin? I had a really hard time in middle school when in my top ten 'Everything I Will Ever Love Ever' list included things like Lord of the Rings, frogs, writing fantasy novels and science fiction. Lord of the Rings was a turning point, reaffirming filmmaking as my star to shoot for, the first film that I noticed cinematography specifically. I was appalled when people would declare to me that it's lame, or they weren't going to watch it because everyone else has seen it, it's too mainstream. That kind of thing still gets my goat occasionally. Mostly when it comes to film. It's important to keep in mind, the reason our arts scene and culture is so diverse, is that people are individuals - don't knock it til you try it - and it takes all kinds.
I heard about a weird, morally reprehensible thing on CBC the other morning. I guess some kids (and, I guess, parents) have decided it's a good idea for picked-on youth to get plastic surgery as a means to deter bullying. Now, I'm all for the control of violence and depression in youth - I'm all for giving every kid the ability to stand up for themselves, but this really upset me. It comes back to the "we live in a society that tells us 'don't get raped', instead of 'don't rape'". Here, the message seems to be, 'boys don't like you because you don't have DD breasts? Let's fix that," or, "Don't look like a Hollywood starlett? Being picked on for your (insert any extraneous non-Barbie-like feature here)? We'll fix that right up and make you look like Jocelyn Wildenstein before you've even hit puberty! Huzzah!" This is a step in the wrong direction for youth. Accepting who you are, and who others are is a much more important (and less invasive) way of dealing with bullying, kids feeling out of place, and building a supportive community in which youth are raised. Kids need to have thicker skins, parents need to be there for when they need support, and as a society, we can't be advocating changing yourself just to 'fit in'. Be yourself, you exist, you're a thing!
Me going in for my chances, spending for vast returns,
Adorning myself to bestow myself on the first that will take me,
Not asking the sky to come down to my good will,
Scattering it freely forever."
-Walt Whitman, Song of Myself (14)
I have attained a new personal project. Probably something that will come to reality in the next year or so. But I've gotten pretty stoked on camping. With the success of our second ESL camping trip, plus talking with some amazing people about trips around the Gulf Islands, I've decided to start a collection of one-man camping gear, a touring bike, and some good places to travel to and hunker down for a night or two or three. This last trip has sort of renewed a love for the stars, for bonfires, for picking through rockpools for the most bizarre of sea creatures. A trip to Grandma's Beach on Salt Spring garnered an absolutely amazing array of sea life, just wading up to the knees. Rock crabs, pipe fish, fan worms, baby rock fish (cutest!!), shrimp, brittle stars, star fish, moon jellies and, what I believed to be, a sort of miscellaneous cnidarian.
I think, a lot of the time, we have a tendency to disregard how attached other people can be to things. Things being... well, anything. Music, movies, moments in time. These iotas of importance in an individuals life. How can one person put down another's love for opera or rap, Leo Tolstoy or George R. R. Martin? I had a really hard time in middle school when in my top ten 'Everything I Will Ever Love Ever' list included things like Lord of the Rings, frogs, writing fantasy novels and science fiction. Lord of the Rings was a turning point, reaffirming filmmaking as my star to shoot for, the first film that I noticed cinematography specifically. I was appalled when people would declare to me that it's lame, or they weren't going to watch it because everyone else has seen it, it's too mainstream. That kind of thing still gets my goat occasionally. Mostly when it comes to film. It's important to keep in mind, the reason our arts scene and culture is so diverse, is that people are individuals - don't knock it til you try it - and it takes all kinds.I heard about a weird, morally reprehensible thing on CBC the other morning. I guess some kids (and, I guess, parents) have decided it's a good idea for picked-on youth to get plastic surgery as a means to deter bullying. Now, I'm all for the control of violence and depression in youth - I'm all for giving every kid the ability to stand up for themselves, but this really upset me. It comes back to the "we live in a society that tells us 'don't get raped', instead of 'don't rape'". Here, the message seems to be, 'boys don't like you because you don't have DD breasts? Let's fix that," or, "Don't look like a Hollywood starlett? Being picked on for your (insert any extraneous non-Barbie-like feature here)? We'll fix that right up and make you look like Jocelyn Wildenstein before you've even hit puberty! Huzzah!" This is a step in the wrong direction for youth. Accepting who you are, and who others are is a much more important (and less invasive) way of dealing with bullying, kids feeling out of place, and building a supportive community in which youth are raised. Kids need to have thicker skins, parents need to be there for when they need support, and as a society, we can't be advocating changing yourself just to 'fit in'. Be yourself, you exist, you're a thing!
I've recently been able to start harvesting some potatoes. Those have come with some hard lessons. My first batch came out small and scarred (but still good), and some web and book research has told me how to avoid those problems. The second hill I dug up was nicer, smooth skinned and more plentiful. I had a bit of an aphid outbreak on my broccoli, but was able to deter them with soap and water treatments, as well as some help from the local ladybug population. I can pull a handful of beans every few days, which is fantastic. I've got a wicked pumpkin well on it's way to being the most show-y thing in my garden. It's about nine inches in diameter and still expanding!
In light of my fifth (yeesh) year at university about to begin, I have started thinking a little more critically about my current and future roles in filmmaking. What kind of films I want to make - and who to make them for (the later, perhaps the most important question of them all). Despite my family egging me on because of my 'youth', I do feel ancient. Every misstep I make feels like a devastating waste of breath - when really, it just takes me down another path; other opportunities, new scenery. I keep getting sucked in to the idea that this industry is incredibly 'cut-throat'. But, the fact of the matter is - it's only cut-throat so long as I play it that way. So long as I believe that every one else will cut me down to get to the top, and I need to do the same - I wont be a happy camper, and I'll be in the wrong state of mind. I think the key for me now is to find a group of people that I really enjoy working with. Filmmaking need not become my ball-and-chain, because I love it - and I always have loved it. Needless to say, I'm rather excited for this next year. I've started picking up a crew member here and there as my script sort of festers at a single page plus a thousand sticky-notes, but y'know... that's how it goes. I'm sure I'll keep that information forthcoming as ideas start forming cohesive bits of narrative. Currently it's colours, character names and snippets of songs. We've got a long way to go yet, but it's going to be great.
Wonderfully enough, I was able to finagle a biology course in with my film courses this fall. Intro to ecology. I'm pretty amped on this for numerous reasons: I love biology, I love animals and behaviors and plants and science. Also, I like having a hard science mixed in with my largely malleable arts courses. While I do appreciate the arts, it's a field of emotion, opinion and the abstract. In a larger sense, there is no right or wrong answer in the arts. The sciences, however, provide me with some much needed concrete-ness. Some fact, some good old fashioned book learning. Quite frankly, it's my grounding in reality, my ground in the importance (or unimportance) of what I do, it's my snap back to the larger picture. Plus! It's a chance to meet some new people. Can't pass up a sweet opportunity like that!
I go on holiday in 17 days. Cannot wait. Yeeeeeeeesh.
I hope everyone had a great, Pride-filled weekend!
Things to chiggity-check:
In light of my fifth (yeesh) year at university about to begin, I have started thinking a little more critically about my current and future roles in filmmaking. What kind of films I want to make - and who to make them for (the later, perhaps the most important question of them all). Despite my family egging me on because of my 'youth', I do feel ancient. Every misstep I make feels like a devastating waste of breath - when really, it just takes me down another path; other opportunities, new scenery. I keep getting sucked in to the idea that this industry is incredibly 'cut-throat'. But, the fact of the matter is - it's only cut-throat so long as I play it that way. So long as I believe that every one else will cut me down to get to the top, and I need to do the same - I wont be a happy camper, and I'll be in the wrong state of mind. I think the key for me now is to find a group of people that I really enjoy working with. Filmmaking need not become my ball-and-chain, because I love it - and I always have loved it. Needless to say, I'm rather excited for this next year. I've started picking up a crew member here and there as my script sort of festers at a single page plus a thousand sticky-notes, but y'know... that's how it goes. I'm sure I'll keep that information forthcoming as ideas start forming cohesive bits of narrative. Currently it's colours, character names and snippets of songs. We've got a long way to go yet, but it's going to be great.Wonderfully enough, I was able to finagle a biology course in with my film courses this fall. Intro to ecology. I'm pretty amped on this for numerous reasons: I love biology, I love animals and behaviors and plants and science. Also, I like having a hard science mixed in with my largely malleable arts courses. While I do appreciate the arts, it's a field of emotion, opinion and the abstract. In a larger sense, there is no right or wrong answer in the arts. The sciences, however, provide me with some much needed concrete-ness. Some fact, some good old fashioned book learning. Quite frankly, it's my grounding in reality, my ground in the importance (or unimportance) of what I do, it's my snap back to the larger picture. Plus! It's a chance to meet some new people. Can't pass up a sweet opportunity like that!
I go on holiday in 17 days. Cannot wait. Yeeeeeeeesh.
I hope everyone had a great, Pride-filled weekend!
Things to chiggity-check:
New (to me) music: Alex Turner, Patrick Wolf
A blog to look at because of reasons.
A refreshing dose of 'get your head out of the sand, here's what feminism actually is all about'.
What's all this about 70mm? A nice explanation of 70mm and it's uses via the Paul Thomas Anderson resource, Cigarettes and Red Vines.
Adorable best friend beasts!
A neat little resource that maps distances. I've been using it to calculate how far I run (not very far) every week. A little more accurate than Google maps. Pretty handy business.
(Hhhhi Nathan)
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