Watched Iconoclasts with Fiona Apple and Quentin Tarantino this week. I love how they talked about being artists and where inspiration comes from, a kind of 'God Antenna' (see above).
And I've just read in Katherine Mansfield's Letters:
November 1920
What you quote from Van Gogh is very fine.
["...Nevertheless I find in my work a certain reverberation of what fascinated me. I know that Nature told me something, that she spoke to me, and that I took down her message in shorthand. Perhaps my transcript contains words that are undecipherable; belike there are faults and omission in it too, - still it may possess something that the wood, the beach or the figures said."]
... Tchehov felt just like that.
...I don't believe there are any short cuts to Art. Victory is the reward of battle just exactly as it is in Life. And the more one knows of one's soldiers the better chance one has. That's not an absolutely true analogy tho'. The thing is more subtle.
But what I do believe with my whole soul is that one's outlook is the climate in which one's art either thrives or doesn't grow. I am dead certain that there is no separating Art and Life. And no artist can afford to leave out Life. If we mean to work we must go straight to Life for our nourishment. There's no substitute. But I am violent on this subjick. I must leave it.
I think with both art and life: neither can be pushed. And this is what Fiona and Quentin were discussing. If it's not all there and filling you up, then there's no use in trying to create something... from nothing. I believe also with life it's just cruel to yourself, and the natural state of things, to pressure yourself to do something when you don't feel called, compelled or inspired to do so. If it's a 'should do' then you most likely shouldn't. Or, as I've similarly heard: If in doubt... don't.
I typically have been a thinker, ruminator, cogitator, (agitator!)... i.e. worrier. Going through a list of shoulds in my head concerning the 'best' to do for the future. Of course the future doesn't exist. One only has 'now' and one ought to sense the now and how one is feeling now, because that is what will guide one in the 'future'. If you stick with that you can't go wrong.
So, this is the God Antenna of which the Apple and the Tarantino speak. You sense what's happening with you at each moment and when inspiration or interest comes, it comes. No use erecting voluminous satellite dishes just to find something. Stick with where you're at this moment and it will come to you.
*sits*
*crickets chirp*
so... *sits listening to crickets*
P.S. I meant to put this on my other blog, but seeing as I've put it here I'll leave it. I've been wanting to bring this blog back to its former eclecticness anyway. Also... can't think of anything else I'm interested in writing about at the moment. (at least these means I'm walking the walk, or the talk, or the blog, or whatever...!)
With the ubiquity of this meme at the moment it is no surprise that I've been tagged twice. By The (ever so delightful) Man at the Pub and the always charming Ariel. I believe this means if I want to do 16 answers at any stage I am not only allowed to but actually encouraged to do so.
So here's the meme - with minor adjustments (rebel that I am).
Eight things I'm passionate about: Nature (birds, animals, flora, oceans, rivers, clouds, sunsets, moon, etc... you get the picture)
Ideas and epiphanies
Thinking and creating
Laughing and relaxing
Health and wellbeing
Words and reading
Learning
Time alone
Eight things I want to do before I die:
Complete this meme
Lots more travelling
Find (and maybe even hang onto) a soul mate
Read more
Create more
Be happier with myself and life
Live in the countryside
Live in different places in the world
Eight things I say often:
hi hey thanks what's up (and no, not like in 'wassup' combined with some kind of funky ghetto gesticulation) okay oops bizarre wow
(And yes, this can actually entail an entire conversation....)
Eight books I've read recently:
The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger (thanks Davey) (recommended)
A Simone de Beauviour biography
Something like An Interview with Marilyn: about private talks with her by some guy with the name Weatherbee or something (sorry but I threw it away after, as I wanted to lighten the moving load - helped quite a bit, being a small, lightweight paperback and all...)
Political Ideologies
The Voice of Knowledge by Miguel Ruiz
The Shark Net by Robert Drewe
A couple of books by Kathy Reichs which were recently loaned to me but they're not particularly good (that show Bones is loosely based on them, and her; not particularly good either... although that David guy from Angel is easy on the eyes...)
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini (also recommended)
Eight (16 actually) songs I could listen to over and over:
Beauty Queen; also Leather - Tori Amos
Had a Dad - Jane's Addiction (best at full volume)
All or Nothing at All - originally by Sinatra I think but I like Vince Jone's version (although I seem to have lost the cd), [he sung A Song for You live on Kate Ceberano & Friends years ago and it brought me to tears - swoon-worthy stuff]
Change (in the house of flies) - Deftones
Seasons- Chris Cornell... "sleeping with a full moon blanket, seven feathers for my head" "...could you crawl into my world and take me worlds away" Really beautiful and just makes you want to pick up an acoustic and strum away by a campfire or something (no, not like Kum By Ya!)
Pretty much everything off Reading Writing & Arithmetic - The Sundays
Drown- Smashing Pumpkins so hypnotic and romantic... yes, all eight minutes and seventeen seconds of it, including a minute or two of the best feedback you'll ever hear! (ignore the amateur images in this vid. I'm just glad I found one with the original song on it.)
On the Bound - Fiona Apple dark funky sounds and her growling "you're all I need..."
Extraordinary Machine, so beautifully old fashioned yet unique, "be kind to me, or treat me mean, I'll make the most of it I'm an extraordinary machine"; also with exquisitely old fashioned sounds and lyrics is Waltz (better than fine) - both Fiona Apple "If you don't have a date, Celebrate, Go out and sit on the lawn and do nothing, 'Cause it's just what you must do and Nobody does it anymore..."
Hallelujah - Jeff Buckley... could be the White Pages, he'd still make me swoon
Down Boy - Yeah Yeah Yeahs (also the theatrics of Rockers to Swallow... she's a bomb that girl)
Let Me Drown - Soundgarden
Burn - The Cure from The Crow soundtrack. This song really has one of my favourite intro's.
Eight albums that trigger memories:
You know how some periods and experiences in your life seem to have a soundtrack? Well, I thought I'd add this section to the meme because while thinking of songs for the above I realised I like a lot of albums partly due to the memories they evoke. Plus, I shall be interested to read other bloggers' answers to this too.
The Lion and the Cobra - Sinead O'Connor. Recalls both happy times and dark. Loved Jackie.
Reading Writing and Arithmetic - The Sundays. How can you have sad memories with this album? Sweet, sweet, sweet.
Singles (soundtrack) - various. Two of the songs above (Chris Cornell & Pumpkins) are from this album. I never saw the movie, which apparently is crap, but recall my friends absolutely desperate for the album to come out in 1992 - and rightly so too. All the tunes on it by Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam (two of their best), Soundgarden and the above choices are well worn on my CD.
The Real Thing - Faith No More. Well, memories... but hazy. Perhaps just more of a general 'vibe' for this one... [UPDATE: Have just recalled that this cassette and The Church's Of Skins and Hearts were accidentally daubed in multi-colours of paint... also recalled that I had to ask "Am I crying?" quite often as my cheeks felt wet... Does this clarify at all?]
Gish - Smashing Pumpkins. Evokes the same period as Singles. Not that I have the album anymore as it was a copy on cassette. Must purchase it though as I loved their early stuff (Siamese Dream was also played to death).
Mezcal Head - Swervedriver. Also distorted recall here...
Lost Souls - Doves. Were a few make-out sessions to this one (actually, *ahem* to a few of these albums, but I don't, you know, want to be repetitive or anything).
The Stone Roses - The Stone Roses. Dark and hazy memories here. The album saw me through some melancholy days (actually months). Bloody awesome album though. Another one I should find again (where do these lost CDs go to? The Land of Odd Socks??).
Eight movies I've watched close to eight times:
Well, the first couple would be easily eight times (I was very young and obviously less easily bored) but the latter ones only a few viewings.
Ferris Bueller's Day Off - Know most of the dialogue to this one. ie. "Wake up and smell the coffee Mrs Bueller. It's a fools paradise out there. He is just leading you down the primrose path..."
Dogs in Space - Watched this one to feed my perving habit re Michael Hutchence. It also had the added benefit of discouraging me from trying smack... or adrenalin. I even have the album on vinyl (how else would I be able to impress other bloggers with my knowledge of the band Thrush and the C*nts?). Healthy (or unhealthy...!) dialogue recall for this one too: "That's not a girl. I've seen girls before, and they don't look like that!" Oh, and it introduced me to fairy toast... and 'a dog named Laika'.
The first two of The Bourne Trilogy (I don't own them or anything but seem to have watched them an awful lot and never tire of them - I do own Franke Potente's other flick, Run Lola Run however... hmm, that's completely irrelevant isn't it. Oh well.)
Breakfast at Tiffany's... Charade... Roman Holiday... (yes, I've liked Audrey Hepburn since a wee lass - will also watch most of Kate Hepburn's flicks - not that they're related or anything... oh dear, irrelevant again)
Kill Bill I & II. Mostly the first one but have seen the second a few times too.
Finding Nemo. I saw it twice at the movies and have probably seen it once or twice since. Such a cheering film. "Just keep swimming, just keep swimming..."
Note: Could have added Flashdance from numerous viewings in my youth, but I only watched the dance scenes over and over... fortunately the dialogue didn't do it for me.
I'll admit I understand about having different personalities or aspects of oneself...
Tori Amos is in the country touring her latest album American Doll Posse. She explained to Robbie that the posse is a group of characters she uses to show all the sides of herself.
"This is about, to me, performance art. They have their own stories and they have their own songs. And they have their own life. They're different people."
While Tori does play all her live shows as herself, each night she begins with an opening set performed by one of the other women.
So who was invited on stage to open the first show of the Australia tour?
"Santa, she's a tart. Husband loves her. Santa's a party."
Ugh. Some of the tv I've seen lately has been depressing. And I'm not just speaking of Howard's latest approach of winning votes through sympathy. Anyone else noticed his hangdog, woe-is-me expression since the end of APEC (or is he just missing his mates)? I think he's attempting to look less aggressive. Before he was looking frustrated, and now he's just looking subdued and sad. It could work for him... but I think it's too late. [UPDATE: Actually, today he's all grins - trying to look like he's got everyone's support in the party after their 'meeting'. Costello etc all grinning their fake plastic smiles too. Just as nauseating really, if not more so.]
Anyway, I mean to give politics a break and talk about other drivel instead.
I seem to be punishing myself lately. I watched some of Idol on Sunday, not a show I've followed since the first series. Don't get me wrong, a few of the singers were really good and I am pleased for them when they do well. I say to the telly, 'Good on you, well done' like a right twit. (You see, this is why I find myself amusing.)
But the real pain was to have someone choose a bloody awesome song - Awright! About time! - and have the judges say they haven't heard of it and that the girl ought to choose songs people have heard of. The song was by The Gossip (Standing in the Way of Control) who apparently do it quite well live. And the girl's voice was fine, she did ok; but she couldn't get near the original [audio link].
Then they all get excited by a Justin Timberlake song that I may have heard possibly once. I thought it sounded none too flash. Another time a girl did a song which was apparently by Fergie that I had never - thank God - ever heard. Apparently that was a good choice too. And yet Regina Spektor was considered too out there. Honestly, I felt very mainstream when I bought her latest from JBhifi a while back. Of course, the girl who did the Spektor song wrecked it. Oh, and it turns out the girl who chose the awesome Gossip number to cover was the first to get booted.
Yes, yes, I know. What do I expect watching these shows. I really am just torturing myself.
But I really copped a beauty last night when I - Lord only knows why - watched NCIS (I think that's what it was, all those shows look the same to me; I never usually watch any of them). It was just horrifically bad. Apparently it is written by children for children (I guess the same audience as Idol). All the characters where in fact behaving like children.
If this show is accurate, then people solving serious crimes giggle and make faces at each other the majority of their working day. Not a comforting thought. (Although, if you look at Bush it is easy to believe that the US is in fact run by children.)
And I don't mean to be cruel to kids here.
Also disappointing was Californication the other night. I saw the first episode and watched most of this third one.* It left me pretty cold.
I like that it's a show doing something different. I liked Entourage for the same reason. I think it's good for a show to have characters, including a main character, that aren't likable. Jeremy Piven in Entourage for example; you love to hate him and when I used to watch that show he did that character very well. I think David Duchovny's character's agent might be trying to be a bit like Piven actually. But I think I'd rather see Piven spanking a lass's bare behind, he'd manage more humour.
Anyway, it's fine to have unlikeable characters; that's more realistic. But the other night they were trying to get the audience to sympathise with DD's character. Worse still was this was badly done through the use of soppy music while DD watches his pretty ex and his daughter frolic on the beach. Hair blowing in the breeze, child happily playing with a puppy. I was too busy rolling my eyes to care whether or not this was 'real' or a daydream with it's sepia lens action happening. Yes, have a shitty male character who we love to hate, but don't try and make us feel for him. Not unless you're going to do the show seriously which, if that's their intention they are failing miserably.
Anyhoo, there may be hope yet. My inner child is looking forward to The Bionic Woman coming soon. It will probably be shite of course, but it might be good. I watched the original and never really got attached to any of the characters but I loved the idea - and I'm that juvenile I still do! As a bonus, it was easy to play pretend games of The Bionic Woman cause to be really super fast all you had to do was run in slow motion and make a fake sh-ki-ke-ke-ke-ke-ker kinda noise - and of course, flick your hair around a lot.
* In part because I hadn't realised that the little girl from The Nanny was the one riding Duchovny and punching him in the face during sex (thanks Edward).
When this song came out I was fourteen and loved it, loved the vid too. I can recall them discussing the making of it on Countdown Revolution. (But good grief, what does the 80's hair look like now?! I never even noticed back then...)
Anyway, last night I casually strolled into a frock shop and was assaulted by a hideous cover of it playing. Horrors! The indecency! (Mind you, BP's is likely a cover for all I know.)
Worse still, I look around and see I am surrounded by my 12 year old self's wardrobe! My discomfort expands as I comprehend that the majority of customers are only wee lasses themselves.
I'm not at all happy about today's fashions. Firstly they make me feel old (and whinging about them is making me feel even older!). Second, are they MAD thinking I will happily wear the same clothes I wore WHEN I WAS 12!!!?
Well, I tut-tutted my way out of there, and a few other more respectable stores too. Tsk, ballooning layering and leggings indeed. Why would I want to look 12 again? I just don't understand... *mutter mutter*
Well, at least Big Pig never had trouble deciding what to wear...
Was reminded of this song the other day. As I don't own it but felt like hearing it again, I'll just be a bit self-indulgent and listen to it here. Enjoy it or ignore it as you wish!
(Deftones - 'Change, in the house of flies' btw.)
It's probably better listening sans vid really... But if your weekend is looking anything like the above, well then bloody good on ya!
P.S. I really must get into downloading music. Does anyone know the best site for this? There's so many songs I want but can't be buggered buying the whole album. I really must get tech-savvy and all... remember, I'm an old dear... (well, I do have an i-river... it's not like I'm hefting about a 80's-relic boom-box or anything... well... not often anyway...).
I must admit, I was in rather a foul and dark mood yesterday.
And, as I do when in such moods, I pull out ye olde Soundgarden (in this case BadMotorFinger - yes, I am old) and crank it so it feels the drums and bass are playing within my chest cavity and my ears squeal the remainder of the day.
I’m not usually so insulting to my neighbours, but really, you can’t listen to Soundgarden quietly.*
Anyway, Chris Cornell’s vocal emoting is hard to surpass (if only I could be a guy and sing like him! instead of my own soft and timid Tori Amos-type trillings).I must say, however, I do miss the days when he looked like this in vids.
It was of great assistance to my mood to hear Rusty Cage and Slaves & Bulldozers, but let’s face it, Jesus Christ Pose only ever sounds good when you’re driving.
Unfortunately, it was exceedingly more enjoyable in my last car, a sporty little turbo-charged coupe. It's no longer the same in my current (late model, reliable, but very much lacking in personality) sedan.
I have recently been considering going back to something with a bit more style.Some pizzazz.
What I’d really like (but would most likely feel too nauseated by the price to actually go ahead and purchase) is a Nissan 350 Z.Silver with the racing-yellow leather interior and sporty little gearstick.Mmmm.
Or, if I was going to be a good girl and consider the environment – yet maintain a shitload of style – I would go the new Honda SHS.
Oh.Yeah.Baby.Sheez purrty.
To stick with the motor theme, it was actually worth watching some (note: some) of the V8s today.(They’re usually too dull to watch any.)It was wet, and slippery as fack** and they were sliding every which direction.Really, that’s the only car racing worth watching, when there are just as many cars off the track as on; and there’s mud, water and bits of extraordinarily expensive car parts flying everywhere.Without that they’re just the ‘go rounds’ and about as lively as watching golf (or the grass grow… but that’s about the same thing).
Now, what I do watch is MotoGP (which is on tonight).Bikes are exiting cause the guys aren’t sitting inside something and racing, they’re sitting on something (enormously powerful and sexy-sounding) and leaning at very scary angles doing insane speeds.I only watch the GP however, cause the GP has Valentino (Vale) Rossi.
He’s entertaining even when he’s not on the bike.
I also like to keep an eye on our young Aussie boy, Casey Stoner.I feel quite maternal about him.The naughty lad used to have a habit of coming off his bike a bit too often (personally, for me, once would be too often. How his mother must worry!). But now he’s in the GP, and winning cause not only is he rather talented, but this year he’s got an extremely powerful Ducati.Good boy!
UPDATE: Stoner came third, but even better: Chris Vermulen (the other Aussie) came first! Hoorah! He appears to be the nicest guy in GP so this made me very happy. Rossi: at least three errors. (Fack - shall we blame the rain and tyres?)
*Although, when I saw them at the end of a too big Big Day Out they were massively loud. It was so painful I ended up retreating to the back before my organs exploded. And I found I kept on walking. (I stopped feeling a wuss about this when I heard that metal guy from Triple J walked out on them too, same reason - and he'd have toughened metal ears!)
**How MotoGP racer Valentino Rossi (mischievous little Italian boy) says ‘fuck’.Oh, he’s just so cute.
