Blog

December 28 2017, 21:45

Blogging v2018.0

I remember when blogging was something people did to express themselves without worrying too much about quality. It was a daily thing, a quick thing, something informal and loose. It wasn't a big deal to throw up a blog post. Everyone was doing it. This was before Twitter and before we had the Internet on our phones. Dare I say, before we had out attention spans blasted into smithereens.

Well, I'd like to claim some of that back. That feeling of freedom, that spoken quality of written voice. If I have to edit and rewrite and shape every blog post as if it is essay, it becomes a chore. That's why the habit doesn't stick. I have too much else I'd rather be doing. But I lose something in not blogging at all. There is energy in thinking something through as you type, like a first draft.

Perhaps I could go back to blog posts as first draft thoughts and creative nuggets. If it's not fun, I won't do it. I can edit the hell out of my stories, but I need somewhere to write freely that's not Twitter, but is still public. The public part is important. There's energy in public writing. At the same time, I need to let go of the critical voices in my head that hate having loose words and incomplete thoughts in the public domain.

I want to get better at accepting that I will get things wrong, that my opinions will be wrong, that I will make grammatical errors and that is okay. It's good to be able to change my mind in public. So much of what we see and read in the news is people with fixed viewpoints not listening to each other. Fuck that. There is a better way.

December 08 2017, 21:14

It Follows (2014)

I avoided watching It Follows because the idea was so unsettling. Like most unpleasant things avoided, the reality was nothing like as bad as I imagined. It’s actually genius — a really great film. Not flawless, but an impressive mix of original ideas embedded in an extended homage to John Carpenter’s Halloween.

The characters are all on the cusp of adulthood, with the adults barely a presence in the film at all. Jay, the lead character, has sex with her new boyfriend and finds out he has passed on to her a curse that she can only get rid of by having sex with someone else. Once you have it, a dead person that only you can see is always walking towards you, every hour of every day. The shape-shifting, visible only to the cursed, but physically very real zombie people are all frightening in different ways. They are all ages, shapes and sizes, but always clearly dead, and often gross in some way.

The cinematography is wonderful, with lots of slow tracking shots, wide-angle views of urban and suburban Detroit, and spaces left for the viewer to look into. You are always searching to see where the It is going to come lumbering from next. The soundtrack is inspired by John Carpenter’s synth scores and serves the mood perfectly, changing gear as the story moves from the brooding, despairing wait for It to turn up, to the horror of trying to escape It when it eventually does.

Who knew a single zombie walking very slowly could be so scary?

December 07 2017, 14:23

Winter

Winter is when I want to retreat to my burrow. The garden becomes inhospitable, but often beautiful to look at from indoors. Simple things please me when it is cold outside. A cup of hot tea is, in winter, sustaining in a way it isn’t at any other time of year. To be in the warm and look out at the cold and wet is a pleasure. So, I will make a burrow where and when I can.

December 07 2017, 14:01

Mindfulness

Mindfulness is a way of exercising your ability to pay attention: when you can focus on something, the critical thoughts quieten down.

– Ruby Wax, Frazzled