It's amazing what cleaning can do for my motivation. Whenever I feel like I'm getting lazy or wasting a lot of time, cleaning my apartment/room always seems to put me in the right frame of mind again. I guess it's just putting myself in the right state of mind--when my place is a mess, I feel like some of it carries over and affects my mental state. Thus, a clean apartment sort of clears the slate for me, freeing my mind on a small psychological level (it's also nice having a clean apartment to stretch out in...). I'm not the only one that feels this effect right?
I've dedicated this weekend to cleaning--and I mean more than just my apartment. I mentioned before I'm taking a break from poker to get other aspects of my life back on the right track. I'm by no means secure financially, but I should be OK for the next few weeks while I get myself situated. Unfortunately the 7-day detox fast has to be pushed back until at least next week, but that won't stop me from going grocery shopping at Harvest, Whole Foods or Trader Joes (all conveniently nearby) this weekend. Also going to try to cut down on my alcohol consumption...spent wayyy too much money on booze last weekend (though it was my bday).
On a happy note...I'm reading a LOT again. Probably the most I've read since Middle School, which doesn't say a lot about how much I read after...
Current reads/views include "Blood Meridian," "One Hundred Years of Solitude," a book of short stories and essays by Jorge Luis Borges (one of my all-time favorite writers), "Stop Making Sense" (Talking Heads doc by Demme) and "The Waking Life" if I can ever get it to work in my roommate's PS2...our only way of playing DVDs at the moment. It's SHIT for reliability. Also watched "Paprika" again recently..don't care what anyone says, I love that movie.
Finally have some movies I need to see in theaters too. Aside from the new HP movie, "Funny People" comes out soon, and I still need to see "The Hangover". Saw "500 Days of Summer" the other day...pretty good--I read the script while I was at my internship in LA, and I think it was executed about as well as it could have been for what the script was. Joseph Gordon Levitt--who I'm a fan of--was great, and Zooey Dechansel was cute and hatable at the same time, something I wasn't sure if she could pull off.
But nowww I'm getting critical and spouting off things that pop into my head, so I'll leave you with this:
Had a huge argument with my parents the other night about my future/our financial problems, which left me feeling pretty shitty and angry, but I still have a lot of hope for the next month and a half before me lease is up. No sense in getting upset about things I can't really control at the moment, so I might as well get the most out of the little I have right now. Got my movies, got my books, got my peeps, got Boston, got music, got Summer weather (finally...please stay!), got my running shoes, got my notebooks and my screenwriting software, and still got my ambitions (which reminds me, I just started working on a comic strip tentatively called "Mud"--still looking for an illustrator though cus my drawing skills are pretty poor)...hm quite a lot now that I look at it...
Definitely on a high cloud today...ah nothing like a little house-cleaning, yeah?
(NOTE: Once I get a few strips finished from the new comic, I'll post on this blog or another. I have several written, just looking for someone to draw...or maybe I'll try my hand...we'll see. Post the synopsis here eventually so check back soon!)
Showing posts with label movies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label movies. Show all posts
7/18/2009
7/09/2009
Free time
One of the biggest perks of this lifestyle I have at the moment is the free time that comes with it.
I have more time to watch movies, more times to read, more time to write. For the first time in a few months I've been taking advantage of my Netflix subscription.
Like any artist, it's necessary for a filmmaker to expose themselves to a wide range of work within their field. I believe the most original and beautiful work weaves inspiration from the collective library stored within the artist's mind, so in essence the more art one exposes themselves too, the greater the potential pool of material one can draw from to sew together a wholly new design.
The complex web of art is what perhaps draws me to film, where the overlap and global effect/affect is abundantly apparent. Already my own ideas and work owes the world to Gilliam, the Coens and Miyazaki, among numerous others. And beyond that lies the inspiration of Kafka, Borges, Matisse, Gauguin, Bob Dylan...
Thus, the importance of Netflix and the BPL to my continuing self-subjection to art in the hopes it will inspire and enhance my own work.
(read on only if you want to take the risk of being sufficiently bored by the conclusion)
Lately I've been interested in the minimal, which is interesting for me because I'm a self-proclaimed "hater" of realism. Yet I find myself drawn to the likes of Altman, Linklater and Jarmusch, among others. Perhaps it's my fascination with using subtlety to the greatest effect. I believe one of the most interesting aspects of film is not what you can show, but what you choose not to show...what sounds are not heard, what lines are not spoken. While the stage thrives in excess, film succeeds in restraint. This is true of acting, lighting, directing...and many other aspects. Of course, there are exceptions (and wonderful exceptions at that).
Personally, I find my interests lie with the clash of the fantastical, the "real" and the minimal. I grew up watching and reading fantasy and science fiction, utterly in awe of the amazing creations of the human mind that only exist on paper or the screen. Now, though, as I grow as a filmmaker and a person, I recognize the subtlety of the art of filmmaking, and I'm beginning to respect the works of those I mentioned above. Like my childhood awe at the inventions of Star Wars, my newly budding adult mind finds itself watching in wonderment the minimalistic violence of No Country for Old Men, the simple brooding of Before Sunrise and the amazing complexity with which Altman weaves seemingly endless and unconnected story-lines together in Nashville.
And now I find myself at the center, drawn to the magical realist works of Jorge Luis Borges and Gabriel Garcia Marquez and the similarly beautiful films of Terry Gilliam. Film is life, but life is just too boring to film, I find--but sprinkle in some magic and pull it back so that only the bones remain, and I believe there might just be something there worth watching...or at least something I'd want to make.
Anyway, here are some recent movies I've Netflixed I'd recommend watching to anyone still reading: "Bleu" from the Trois Couleurs trilogy by Krzystof Kieslowki, "The Fountain" by Darren Aronofsky, "Dancer in the Dark" by Lars Von Trier (reallllly want to see "Antichrist" btw), and "Jesus Son" by Allison MacLean. Enjoy!
I have more time to watch movies, more times to read, more time to write. For the first time in a few months I've been taking advantage of my Netflix subscription.
Like any artist, it's necessary for a filmmaker to expose themselves to a wide range of work within their field. I believe the most original and beautiful work weaves inspiration from the collective library stored within the artist's mind, so in essence the more art one exposes themselves too, the greater the potential pool of material one can draw from to sew together a wholly new design.
The complex web of art is what perhaps draws me to film, where the overlap and global effect/affect is abundantly apparent. Already my own ideas and work owes the world to Gilliam, the Coens and Miyazaki, among numerous others. And beyond that lies the inspiration of Kafka, Borges, Matisse, Gauguin, Bob Dylan...
Thus, the importance of Netflix and the BPL to my continuing self-subjection to art in the hopes it will inspire and enhance my own work.
(read on only if you want to take the risk of being sufficiently bored by the conclusion)
Lately I've been interested in the minimal, which is interesting for me because I'm a self-proclaimed "hater" of realism. Yet I find myself drawn to the likes of Altman, Linklater and Jarmusch, among others. Perhaps it's my fascination with using subtlety to the greatest effect. I believe one of the most interesting aspects of film is not what you can show, but what you choose not to show...what sounds are not heard, what lines are not spoken. While the stage thrives in excess, film succeeds in restraint. This is true of acting, lighting, directing...and many other aspects. Of course, there are exceptions (and wonderful exceptions at that).
Personally, I find my interests lie with the clash of the fantastical, the "real" and the minimal. I grew up watching and reading fantasy and science fiction, utterly in awe of the amazing creations of the human mind that only exist on paper or the screen. Now, though, as I grow as a filmmaker and a person, I recognize the subtlety of the art of filmmaking, and I'm beginning to respect the works of those I mentioned above. Like my childhood awe at the inventions of Star Wars, my newly budding adult mind finds itself watching in wonderment the minimalistic violence of No Country for Old Men, the simple brooding of Before Sunrise and the amazing complexity with which Altman weaves seemingly endless and unconnected story-lines together in Nashville.
And now I find myself at the center, drawn to the magical realist works of Jorge Luis Borges and Gabriel Garcia Marquez and the similarly beautiful films of Terry Gilliam. Film is life, but life is just too boring to film, I find--but sprinkle in some magic and pull it back so that only the bones remain, and I believe there might just be something there worth watching...or at least something I'd want to make.
Anyway, here are some recent movies I've Netflixed I'd recommend watching to anyone still reading: "Bleu" from the Trois Couleurs trilogy by Krzystof Kieslowki, "The Fountain" by Darren Aronofsky, "Dancer in the Dark" by Lars Von Trier (reallllly want to see "Antichrist" btw), and "Jesus Son" by Allison MacLean. Enjoy!
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