E*Dat

I have been comissioned to illustrate a pice of work in an indie magasine
the pice of poetry is:

The Starlings Are Massing

Still before the gloaming
As the light is gently palling
The sky is a-falling
The sky is a-falling
I find her in the rushes
Where softly she’s been calling
The sky is a-falling
The sky is a-falling
Looking up above
I see them blackly flashing
The starlings are massing
The starlings are massing
Out across the fen
Their cloud is darkly passing
The starlings are massing
The starlings are massing
And I clutch my baby’s hand
‘Say don’t you feel how life is passing
‘neath this ever-falling sky
When the starlings are a-massing?’

James Steel

I have been thinking of possible ideas, an all encompassing vortex is what comes to mind. I will scan the sketches which I have done, I have also been trying stuff with photography and shadows.

So nearly a month later and the signs of starvation have started to show on the face of my poor unloved blog.
With so much to report in, I have no idea where to start… perhaps my new found love for peanut butter and jam slightly toasted sandwiches which, I believe is the perfect balance of sweet and savoury contained within two pieces of thin asda value white bread. Or I could talk about my rediscovery of reading fiction, a small thing but still having a great weight on my well-being and my understanding of myself. I could talk about my understanding of Der Steppenwolf by Herman Hesse and my research of its misunderstanding according to different culture’s views on philosophy. For example the notion of a human being consisting of a horde of fragments of different souls is in complete contradiction of Judeo-Christian theologies but based on Buddhist philosophies. Although Hesse was disconcerted by his western reader’s misinterpretation. He shouldn’t have been surprised with his initial demographic’s reaction since all understanding comes from experience and that experience is based on the culture where the experiences occur.
This leads me onto something else, which has been floating around in the depths of my metaphorical mind (I like alliteration a lot) is the comparison of different sections on England. I was talking to someone the other day, I was saying that I was missing my hometown. She asked me what I missed about it, to which I explained to her, I missed the hustle and bustle of London, the impolite-ness of the inhabitants of said metropolis. However I did explain my appreciation of the friendly-ness of Nottingham’s inhabitants. She was surprised about this, since she had been in the same position as me, but visa versa. She missed the friendly-ness of the people in her hometown of Manchester but still appreciated the lack of comparative friendly-ness. This whole idea is something I think I want to explore in the form of video documentary. I think it will be entirely budgetary feasible and available since there are such a wide mixture of people from different parts of England to interview.
Another idea is to do a short film on a fictional man ordering a Russian mail order bride, the idea is still up and in the air as I try and work out the structure of this story. But one this is definite, the protagonist is going to read the small print of a Swedish mail order bride website and be surprised at the fact that you need to assemble them yourself. (Ha) http://www.thai-professional.com/ladies.htm
(WFT)

While on the subject of relationships, I started playing secondlife but thoroughly hated it. No matter how hard I tried, I could not get my avatar to look like how I saw myself, I found the controls awkward and the user interface uncomfortable. I also did not really get it. I started thinking about the possible reasons for starting a ‘second life’ and the only ones were for starting again because one messed up their own life or they did not like it so much that they wanted one where they could control their own circumstance.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/nov/13/second-life-divorce
Anyway, I dropped second life after finding a lot of the people unwelcoming to ‘Newbs’, rude and the constant bombardment of advertising, unsuccessfully trying to convince me to purchase non existing products, only existing in Second Life.
I tried something different, vSide. In this virtual work, I found the controls easier and the people more friendly, within one minute I had people talking to me and adding me as their ‘friends’. I maintained conversation with an individual called ‘smokie-jovony’ she asked me to be her vBoyfriend, this kinda worried me but in the spirit of research, I accepted. I find this whole exercise very bizarre, but ‘living’ in this world, with such strong laws and the ability so have a reset button and become someone else, rather comforting. Yet still incredibly bizarre.

Something else in the pipe line is work experience for channel 4. Hopefully, I will be successful with it. But so far I have been promised a week placement in early February. Which might interfere with my studies but I think when an opportunity like such comes along, one should jump on it.

One more thing, I’ve started planning production of My poker short, I have a location, a Thames-side apartment on the south bank and have a smoke machine available, what I do need to do is sort out some kind of cast and finalise the script.