I seem to be writing here less and less, which runs somewhat counter to
this interesting article on the ol' "Forum/chat room problem" and how it relates to Facebook vs Twitter vs Blogs. What's funny, is I
want to be writing here more and more...partly out of inspiration by the quality of
this blog.
Once thing that definitely has me wanting to get back on the blog-o-horse-o is that when I used this more regularly, it was pretty much
all I used. For example, when I was in London and taking some neat pictures with my digital camera then I knew there were only really two possibilities for sharing - printing a copy for my photo albums and tossing it up on el bloggo for friends and family.
But of course I eventually got into Facebook and, a whiles after that, Handful has led to my reviving the
Twitter account I originally put down as quickly as I picked it up and even a brief dabbling with the utterly forgettable
Dailybooth. I don't much care for feeling redundant when I want to post a link-or-picture on Facebook for pals and then the same link-or-picture on Twitter for some other friends plus Handful fans and then OH YEAH DIDN'T I USED TO DO ALL THIS ON MY DANG BLOG, WHICH I LINK TO ON THE ABOUT PAGE FOR HANDFULOFMINUTES.COM?
Also? It kind of makes me feel
young again to be using this sucker as if it's a brand new toy - so apparently my threshold for nostalgia is about three years. NOW. It's tempting to be all "anyways guys, get ready for the exciting retro-nipple-clamping future past of blogging to begin....
soon". But that is
The Shittiest Thing with blogs and so I am going to follow up this "Oh hey I like my blog again (and apparently I have made peace with that word)" stream of gobbledefuck with something akin to what I hope to be putting up here on a semi-regular basis again!
WHAT HAS BEEN DONE/WHAT IS GOING TO BE DONE
I am often struggling with the desire between what I know is sensible & rewarding (waiting until you
have done something worth talking about, then talking about it) and what is very exciting & sugar-high gratifying but also potentially unwise (talking about what I'm
gonna do). If I was a perfect man then I'd stick entirely to the former...but, surprisingly, it would seem that I am not a perfect man.
So here is what is going in with me in the former:
The sci-fi project for which many glamorous folk donated money to earlier in the year has had it's series outline finished, it's pilot filmed and the first cut of the editing on that pilot also finished. Wheels continue to turn and I hope to have more to report before year's end.
Handful proceeds apace and, I'm told by some, continues to improve. "Introducing Shawn MacLean" has been generally well received. I'm wondering if it'd not be a bit much to try and do something special for the fast approaching fiftieth episode, given that I already did something special for
the one year anniversary episode AND I have something diabolical planned for a year end special. Better to let it pass with quiet dignity, I think...
The feature script I started in June during my writing sabbatical has been picked up again. With 36 pages of script and a 99% finished outline, I
might make my goal of finishing the sucker before year's end. What's that? I didn't write about the sabbatical at the time? Well basically, my pal Joe and I were fortunate enough to be able to borrow a cottage where we could Get Away From It All to just focus on makin' things which we were having a hell of a time makin' during out regular routines in the city.
From this was birthed the slightly-less-than-halfway written feature script, spawned by almost two years of tossing notes in a bucket labelled "try to do a new take on post-apocalyptic-film"...and many, many improvised "Introducing Shawn MacLean" audio clips. It was grand and I'd love to do it again next year.
Organization of all the crap I'm juggling has gotten better since I nabbed a beautiful beast of a magnetic dry-wipe board and stuck it on my wall. I can't believe it took me this long since University to get another organizer, given that my last one repeatedly saved my bacon while I was earning my degree. This has led to my plotting out basically everything I'm doing for the rest of the year, which produced the alarming sensation that that time had already passed.
It's an annoying choice to have to make, but given that the time is going to pass anyways...I'd rather choose to feel a bit like I'm pressing the fast-forward button on my life and have accomplishments to look back on then to kind of drag my heels and stretch out my perception of time passing but then have a very disappointing life to look back on.
Now,
the latter:
Going to Russia to Wade Through the Ruins of the Soviet Empire is an idea that has seized me by the sensitive bits rather firmly over the past year. I think I may even have gotten a pair of pals interested. This is something that will take a lot of prep and probably won't happen until I'm thirty, but dangit I want an adventure and I want to do more than look at
crazy old ruins on the Internet. I'd like to think that if I lived twenty years after the fall of the Roman Empire that I'd want to go crawl through that, as well.
It's something I'd definitely want to film and document, but there'd be good reason to try and work out some contacts before arriving. I don't believe that Russia is filled with nothing but starving pseudo-serfs and fat, violent mobsters...but I am also hardly under the impression that I could just show up with a bunch of AV equipment, some cash and a smile.
The Handful End of the Year Special: I can't tell you anything except that the "Introducing Shawn MacLean" bits I've started tacking on the end of episodes are, in fact, building to this. Also, if all goes according to plan, it should go up on Sunday, December 27th.
But for now: I gotta go do exciting things like laundry. I shall return (promptly)!
I also had had a makeup student that my roommate hooked me up with. It was pretty funny whenever she worked on me as I sort of went into my default "Doctor or Dentist Mode" where I close my eyes, shut up and just let them get on with it. Twice she said "You can open now", meaning my eyes as she'd have finished my eyelids, and I opened my mouth first!
I took some photos through the celebratory martini I made myself after we finished shooting and I rather like the effect! (One part Amaretto to two parts Creme de Cocoa, by the way).
Today, feeling a bit cracked out since I'd been up late the night before and my treacherous body insisted I wake up at A QUARTER TO FIVE, I checked out TCAF. I was pretty pleased! It was the first webcomic/comic thing I've been to since London and I'm not entirely sure why - I'll have to make more of an effort in the future. Aside from picking up a couple of prints, one of Ryan's shirts (it only took me six years BEST BUD EVER) and Joey's new book, I had the unexpected surprise of finding out that Paul Pope (AKA my absolute favorite comic book artist) was going to be there for a signing!
I lucked out again by grabbing the last available copy (at TCAF) of his art book and then I got in the line up before it became unbearable. He was a very pleasant, totally affable fellow and he did my up this little number (Eloy is my favorite character from my favorite work of his. Favorite).
He told me an interesting story about how he lived in Toronto for a short time in the same manner as Eloy - inside a refitted grain silo. Between our short fanchat and what I've read so far in the art book, which reveals him to be far more thoughtful and literate than his comic writing (that is saying something), I consider my expectations met and exceeded. You can't ask for much more then that!
I think this part is what I really like. Unlike everything else I've painted, this one had no reference picture. One evening I just felt a bit possessed - so I decided to exorcise the feeling by madly dabbing paint.
Despite a million things to do indoors and revolving around the Big Projects I have assigned myself, I made a point of getting out for a while to not only get carrots but take a fucking relaxing stroll, dammit.
Passing by the back end of the AGO I thought about how this park would be "my park" for the coming warm weather, much the same as Kensington and Trinty-Bellwood parks were "mine" during the glorious five and a half months I took off working last year. Well, glorious but for the poverty and stress over said poverty near the end of that time, let's not coat such recent memories with nostalgia just yet!
The market was bustling with the usual weekend traffic and though most everyone still has coats on, a lot are being undone at least partially. It's funny what a short walk I have to take from the edge of Toronto's MoneyTowne (where I now live) back to Bohemiaville, beside which I lived for the lion's share of last year. I like it, though, I think I'd really be a bit bothered if I couldn't easily visit all the little shops and spots I got to know in 2008.
After treating myself to a book with a title that seized my heart (the first three chapters, read upon getting home, have me convinced it was a good choice) from a store I've always wished I could support more...I went by Kensington Park. The pigeons were out and, nearby, I found evidence that the street artists had also been up to their business.
Yes, that is a birdhouse!
I realize, of course, that any twat with enough cash on hand to buy a special edition DVD can get his own business cards.
Nonetheless, it made me feel like a Real Man to be that twat! I got'em from Moo.com if anyone is interested and yes, I was a little pleased/bothered to learn that it was cheaper for me to get nicer cards from a company in London then at the supposed bastion of the man with few dollars and a need to print - Kinkos.
I cannot explain this canoe, can you?
Oh look, Hipster detrius....
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