So I've always wondered, when famous people are quoted, where do those quotes come from? Like when we say Napoleon said 'A throne is just a bench covered in velvet' did he just say that to someone who then wrote it down? Or was it part of a big speech about park furniture, and it that way are we taking his quote out of context?
I don't know about you guys (and I also don't know how much I have been affected by sound-bite culture, excessive television consumption and Twitter) but when I think creatively, I think in one of two ways:
1. A stream of dialogue
2. Series of very small, very direct sentences
This is an example of a stream of dialogue that comes into my brain:
1: Do you ever think about what the subject of sad love songs think?
2: There's no such thing as a sad love song.
1: Are you a moron? All love songs are sad!
2: There may be songs about lost love but isn't it better to have loved and...?
1: If you finish that sentence, I swear you are going over that wall.
2: It's a fact!
1: It's a cliché. A cliché that people in love repeat over and over to stop sad people complaining and tainting their happiness.
2: Not my fault you're sour.
This is an example of some random sentences:
She was the sensible daughter of a reputable man.
I will take this secret to my grave, because I do not know the people we were well enough anymore to ask their permission to share it.
(never said any of this was good, just putting it out there)
These are two very annoying ways of thinking because no writing, a quote or a song lyric or a poem or a line for a book can (or should) exist without a context. It makes the words hollow and weak and futile.
I am only telling you this because, I think, we live in world where people are constantly trying to create those quotes and quotable moments. And I don't know whether to embrace it or try to change myself.
Or I could give up?
Wednesday, 16 December 2009
Sunday, 29 November 2009
Music In The Noughties
Okay, so I lied. This is a new blog only two days after the last but not my epic Japan post. It's coming, I promise! I did find the notebook so that is a start. No, I wantedto talk a little bit about music.
So, since we are nearing the end of the Noughties, we can expect a lot of magazines/television shows/blogs to attempt to give an overview of one aspect of life during the decade (politics in the Noughties, film in the Noughties, bread in the Noughties etc.). The first one I have come across was in The Observer Music Monthly talking about music (obviously).
Now, I'm not going to complain about their Top 50 Albums list, however different mine would have looked, but do want to talk a little bit about Miranda Sawyer's piece about how music of the last decade can be described as dislocated.
It's not difficult to see what she means - for the first time since the inception of rock 'n' roll, there is no one overarching theme to describe the decade - no hippies, no punks, no new romantics. Instead, we've all split off into our own little factions and music is selling less (not only because of the Internet and piracy) but also because the appeal is much diluted. In the past, you were either making mainstream music or you weren't. Now, you only have to go on iTunes to see just how many genres exist in our new modern world.
This has created a new culture, too, of the rejection of labels. No one would ever say 'I'm a punk.' or even 'I like RnB.' In fact, if you ask most people about their music taste you will get an answer somewhere in the region of 'I like everything' or 'a little bit of everything'. And often this is true - music is no longer judged by how close it is to the music you normally like but by it's own merits. I think this is a good thing.
I cannot profess to understand how it felt to be a music fan in earlier decades, but now I can honestly say that I love being a music fan right now. Not only are there new ways of experiencing this music but also less reliance on alternative press and the radio to dictact the music I like or even get to hear. I get my music from the Internet, from recommendations from friends, from articles I read in a variety of sources. The freedom this gives us allows us to discard those old, restrictive terms to define our musical taste and lets us explore more music than has ever been availible to us.
Not only new music, but old music has opened up to us. We are the first generation with a rich history of music behind us, which no one is afraid or ashamed to dip into. We also are the first generation whose parents have instilled musical tastes onto us. Our parents were the rebels, the punks who listened to something different and that gives us a different cultural relationship with them than they ever had with their post-war parents. We can share their tastes, enjoy it as much as they do and appreciate music not just from our time. Again, this gives us a wider spectrum of music to dip into and enjoy, and I think also makes us better and more accepting people.
But here, again, music can divide us as it unites us. We all have a seperate music tastes, built up of completely different bands and singers, and plug into it alone. We wander around with iPods in our ears, living in our own little music-induced world. But thisdoes not mean music does not still have the power to bring us together - #musicmonday, sharing Spotify playlists, YouTube genres (like Trock or Wrock) and the power of blogs, to name a few, are just a few ways music can unite us as much as it divides us. Not only that, but technology will never diminish the power live music has over our opinions and tastes.
So even if music is disolated this decade, I would take that any day over being forcedto conform to tight genres, to be limited in musical history, to have to let go of the new ways technology makes music availible. Maybe we are disolated in everything but music will always be the strongest, uniting force known to humanity.
So, since we are nearing the end of the Noughties, we can expect a lot of magazines/television shows/blogs to attempt to give an overview of one aspect of life during the decade (politics in the Noughties, film in the Noughties, bread in the Noughties etc.). The first one I have come across was in The Observer Music Monthly talking about music (obviously).
Now, I'm not going to complain about their Top 50 Albums list, however different mine would have looked, but do want to talk a little bit about Miranda Sawyer's piece about how music of the last decade can be described as dislocated.
It's not difficult to see what she means - for the first time since the inception of rock 'n' roll, there is no one overarching theme to describe the decade - no hippies, no punks, no new romantics. Instead, we've all split off into our own little factions and music is selling less (not only because of the Internet and piracy) but also because the appeal is much diluted. In the past, you were either making mainstream music or you weren't. Now, you only have to go on iTunes to see just how many genres exist in our new modern world.
This has created a new culture, too, of the rejection of labels. No one would ever say 'I'm a punk.' or even 'I like RnB.' In fact, if you ask most people about their music taste you will get an answer somewhere in the region of 'I like everything' or 'a little bit of everything'. And often this is true - music is no longer judged by how close it is to the music you normally like but by it's own merits. I think this is a good thing.
I cannot profess to understand how it felt to be a music fan in earlier decades, but now I can honestly say that I love being a music fan right now. Not only are there new ways of experiencing this music but also less reliance on alternative press and the radio to dictact the music I like or even get to hear. I get my music from the Internet, from recommendations from friends, from articles I read in a variety of sources. The freedom this gives us allows us to discard those old, restrictive terms to define our musical taste and lets us explore more music than has ever been availible to us.
Not only new music, but old music has opened up to us. We are the first generation with a rich history of music behind us, which no one is afraid or ashamed to dip into. We also are the first generation whose parents have instilled musical tastes onto us. Our parents were the rebels, the punks who listened to something different and that gives us a different cultural relationship with them than they ever had with their post-war parents. We can share their tastes, enjoy it as much as they do and appreciate music not just from our time. Again, this gives us a wider spectrum of music to dip into and enjoy, and I think also makes us better and more accepting people.
But here, again, music can divide us as it unites us. We all have a seperate music tastes, built up of completely different bands and singers, and plug into it alone. We wander around with iPods in our ears, living in our own little music-induced world. But thisdoes not mean music does not still have the power to bring us together - #musicmonday, sharing Spotify playlists, YouTube genres (like Trock or Wrock) and the power of blogs, to name a few, are just a few ways music can unite us as much as it divides us. Not only that, but technology will never diminish the power live music has over our opinions and tastes.
So even if music is disolated this decade, I would take that any day over being forcedto conform to tight genres, to be limited in musical history, to have to let go of the new ways technology makes music availible. Maybe we are disolated in everything but music will always be the strongest, uniting force known to humanity.
Friday, 27 November 2009
Thanksgiving
Despite being English and this being the day AFTER thanksgiving, I am going to give you a list of the (top) fifty things I'n thankful for. In no particular order.
1. Johnny Durham t-shirts
2. Orange Wednesday
3. Mark Kermode and Simon Mayo Radio Show and Podcast
4. Gay characters on daytime/primetime
5. All my awesome YouTube subscriptions
6. The fact that no one (as yet and this is not an invitation) has stolen my username on any website I have tried to join
7. Awesome charities (but mainly Envision)
8. Musically inclined parents
9. My free trip to Japan
10. Great friends
11. M&S 2-for-1 offers on smoked salmon
12. A good education
13. Attractive celebrities
14. NaNoWriMo and the people that run it
15. Harry Potter and affiliated products
16. My MacBook
17. My cat
18. The awesome people who designed the awesome things I have decorated my wall with
19. Student discounts
20. Live music
21. My Hello Kitty bottle of water with boobs (and the existence of such boob water)
22. 4od and iPlayer
23. Twitter and the people who use it properly
24. Free software
25. Independant record shops
26. Muji stationary
27. Moleskin notebooks
28. Investigative journalism
29. My impending ability to vote
30. The fact that I have never had a story good enough to send into FML
31. PostSecret Sundays
32. Wikipedia and it's committed editors
33. Spell Check
34. Homework extensions
35. Ikea furniture
36. York Notes Advanced
37. The Peanuts cartoons
38. Amazon quick delivery
39. An unflooded home
40. Electricity
41. Friends re-runs
42. Free periods
43. Charity book shops
44. YumBoxes
45. New Overground trains
46. My lovely bed
47. Google Maps
48. My mum's secret Cherry Drop stash
49. Cheap box-sets
50. Firefox
So, there you have it. Top fifty things I am thankful for. Next blog WILL be my belated Japan Tweets, just as soon as I find the notebook I wrote them in...
xXx
1. Johnny Durham t-shirts
2. Orange Wednesday
3. Mark Kermode and Simon Mayo Radio Show and Podcast
4. Gay characters on daytime/primetime
5. All my awesome YouTube subscriptions
6. The fact that no one (as yet and this is not an invitation) has stolen my username on any website I have tried to join
7. Awesome charities (but mainly Envision)
8. Musically inclined parents
9. My free trip to Japan
10. Great friends
11. M&S 2-for-1 offers on smoked salmon
12. A good education
13. Attractive celebrities
14. NaNoWriMo and the people that run it
15. Harry Potter and affiliated products
16. My MacBook
17. My cat
18. The awesome people who designed the awesome things I have decorated my wall with
19. Student discounts
20. Live music
21. My Hello Kitty bottle of water with boobs (and the existence of such boob water)
22. 4od and iPlayer
23. Twitter and the people who use it properly
24. Free software
25. Independant record shops
26. Muji stationary
27. Moleskin notebooks
28. Investigative journalism
29. My impending ability to vote
30. The fact that I have never had a story good enough to send into FML
31. PostSecret Sundays
32. Wikipedia and it's committed editors
33. Spell Check
34. Homework extensions
35. Ikea furniture
36. York Notes Advanced
37. The Peanuts cartoons
38. Amazon quick delivery
39. An unflooded home
40. Electricity
41. Friends re-runs
42. Free periods
43. Charity book shops
44. YumBoxes
45. New Overground trains
46. My lovely bed
47. Google Maps
48. My mum's secret Cherry Drop stash
49. Cheap box-sets
50. Firefox
So, there you have it. Top fifty things I am thankful for. Next blog WILL be my belated Japan Tweets, just as soon as I find the notebook I wrote them in...
xXx
Friday, 16 October 2009
A Letter To My NaNoWriMo Protagonist
Dear Julian,
So, this is weird. You've been in my head for a long time - fully formed and raring to go. And I've been keeping you in, just waiting for the next month to start. But you're here now (almost), it's almost time to let you out so I thought I'd say hi. I know you're ready, and I can only hope I am too. I do not want to let you down or the story I know you have in you by, I don't know, losing the plot as it were (that was a bad joke, get used to them, they'll be following you around for all of November).
Because other than knowing you and your brother and a few ideas about general happenings, I have no idea how this is going to go; who you're going to meet, what food you want to eat, if you'll cry or even if you'll get out of this alive. Sorry, that makes it seem like you are completely in my hands but really, it's the other way round. I need you to let me know what you want, where you go, who you love and whether this ends well for you. Because until I meet you on November first, I am just as clueless about your life as I am about my own.
Because then, when I pick up my MacBook for what I'm sure will be the hundredth time that day, open TextEdit and make the document, I will finally get inside your head and understand you. And I'm so excited to finally meet you. I just know you'll be one of the best I ever write, best I ever meet even, because you are already three dimensional up here in my mind before you've even got a plot or friends to interact with. So you must be pretty charismatic.
The reason I love NaNoWriMo so much is because this month, your life and my life will merge and even the times I'm not with you, I'll still be thinking about you. It'll be a little bit like you're my husband, only it'll only last thirty days and you only exist in words. I hope we have a good time regardless of whether we win. We're in this together and it'll only work if we get on. So try not to be over complicated or do things out of character I then have to delete or get lost in a plot hole I have to work you out of. Just be yourself - no pressure. But let me know if I'm going wrong. Yell or scream or just hit a dead end. Anything.
I know you can't reply. I mean, you can but it'll really just be me and so... you can't. And also, if you were real and got this you'd be thinking you'd lost your mind. But just so you know, it's really helped me to write to you. I feel like it's really beginning and I'm nervous because, unlike last time, I know what I'm getting into; and I just want it to be as intense and wonderful as last year. So it's important to me that you're on my side in making this work.
I hope you're excited about this like I am. Japan means I won't be able to plan the way I want to, or might have done. And it also means the first chapter of your great American escapade will be tainted with jet-lag and the smell of a days worth of travel. But it'll be good - I promise! Or at least, I promise I believe that it will be.
So, by the end of the first of November I'll have given you a road-map, a car and a lot of emotional baggage. What we do with it is up to you.
Lots of love and lots of luck,
Grace
Your Writer
PS. I write much better when it's fiction. Promise!
If you want to know more about Julian or my novel, just comment or @ me. Or you can wait til it's over.
So, this is weird. You've been in my head for a long time - fully formed and raring to go. And I've been keeping you in, just waiting for the next month to start. But you're here now (almost), it's almost time to let you out so I thought I'd say hi. I know you're ready, and I can only hope I am too. I do not want to let you down or the story I know you have in you by, I don't know, losing the plot as it were (that was a bad joke, get used to them, they'll be following you around for all of November).
Because other than knowing you and your brother and a few ideas about general happenings, I have no idea how this is going to go; who you're going to meet, what food you want to eat, if you'll cry or even if you'll get out of this alive. Sorry, that makes it seem like you are completely in my hands but really, it's the other way round. I need you to let me know what you want, where you go, who you love and whether this ends well for you. Because until I meet you on November first, I am just as clueless about your life as I am about my own.
Because then, when I pick up my MacBook for what I'm sure will be the hundredth time that day, open TextEdit and make the document, I will finally get inside your head and understand you. And I'm so excited to finally meet you. I just know you'll be one of the best I ever write, best I ever meet even, because you are already three dimensional up here in my mind before you've even got a plot or friends to interact with. So you must be pretty charismatic.
The reason I love NaNoWriMo so much is because this month, your life and my life will merge and even the times I'm not with you, I'll still be thinking about you. It'll be a little bit like you're my husband, only it'll only last thirty days and you only exist in words. I hope we have a good time regardless of whether we win. We're in this together and it'll only work if we get on. So try not to be over complicated or do things out of character I then have to delete or get lost in a plot hole I have to work you out of. Just be yourself - no pressure. But let me know if I'm going wrong. Yell or scream or just hit a dead end. Anything.
I know you can't reply. I mean, you can but it'll really just be me and so... you can't. And also, if you were real and got this you'd be thinking you'd lost your mind. But just so you know, it's really helped me to write to you. I feel like it's really beginning and I'm nervous because, unlike last time, I know what I'm getting into; and I just want it to be as intense and wonderful as last year. So it's important to me that you're on my side in making this work.
I hope you're excited about this like I am. Japan means I won't be able to plan the way I want to, or might have done. And it also means the first chapter of your great American escapade will be tainted with jet-lag and the smell of a days worth of travel. But it'll be good - I promise! Or at least, I promise I believe that it will be.
So, by the end of the first of November I'll have given you a road-map, a car and a lot of emotional baggage. What we do with it is up to you.
Lots of love and lots of luck,
Grace
Your Writer
PS. I write much better when it's fiction. Promise!
If you want to know more about Julian or my novel, just comment or @ me. Or you can wait til it's over.
Thursday, 8 October 2009
My Father and Books
Sorry it's been so long since I've blogged - sometimes I'm in the place and sometimes I'm not!
Felt like a lot of significant things have changed over the last year and a couple of things have crept up on me which are serious wake-up calls to just how close I am to being a fully functional human being.
The first is, obviously, UCAS. UCAS is not only scary because of the ever present possibility of me not getting in anywhere and having to take an enforced gap year, but because of all the other things that go along with applying to university. This time next year (hopefully) I will be living alone - and more scary than plans for university are plans for money, travel, things I need to bring, things I need to buy, general skills I can see I am lacking...
But that's not even the scariest thing. More recently, the relationship with my parents has changed slightly. I am an only child, meaning in general I have no choice but be relatively close to my parents. We live in a small but perfectly formed flat, but as with all families, we tend to trip over each other as much as we sit in mutual contentment.
I think the scariest thing is how, gradually, the relationship I have (and I'm going to be specific about my dad not because I love him more but simply he reads more and listens to music) with my dad has been more equal. This month I have reccommeneded my dad two books: 'The Mysteries of Pittsburgh' by Michael Chabon and 'Paper Towns' by John Green. And he's liked them both.
This may seem ridiculously small a moment to, after weeks of silence, warrant a blog post. And it's not like it's the first time my dad has valued my opinion or taking my advice over art or media of some description. But it feels a little bit like, after years of my parents essentially saturating me in culture and art that has influenced my tastes, opinions and, possibly, career ideas, I can start to pay them back.
The things my parents have opened my eyes to are some of the most valued parts of my life. Writers like Raymond Carver or Douglas Coupland, art like Peter Blake or Richard Hamilton, films like Heathers or The Royal Tenenbaums. It's not as though I never would have found these things on my own, but it means an awful lot to me that these things have come with my parents, and I can discuss them with them. It has formed a huge part of my relationship.
And now, it seems, my life has started to break away from theirs. Now I am becoming an individual person, who has interests outside of those of my parents and specifically my daily use of the Internet to find things, I can start to find gems of my own (like the two books mentioned to name but a few) and give these experiences back to my parents.
Turning this relationship into more of an exchange than a hierarchy (not that we were really ever like that, I had them wrapped around my finger) is the next stage of our relationship. We won't be living together, we won't share day to day experiences and so it is comforting to know that a relationship of cultural exchange will still exist, stronger than ever, which means we can stay close wherever I end up. I want my own life - but it's important that as many people as possible from this life can fit into that. My parents have already found their place, and that is as scary as it is heartening.
I am aware this has been happening gradually over some time - but it is just this week it hs truly hit me the implications. This time next year, whatever happens with UCAS, I'll be an adult. And being treated like one won't be a luxury but a way of life.
Incidently, if I would reccommend them to my dad I would reccommend them to anyone! You should read both/either because they truly are thoughtful, simply tales of haunting stories with characters that are both interesting and who ring true. Very different but equally wonderful.
Felt like a lot of significant things have changed over the last year and a couple of things have crept up on me which are serious wake-up calls to just how close I am to being a fully functional human being.
The first is, obviously, UCAS. UCAS is not only scary because of the ever present possibility of me not getting in anywhere and having to take an enforced gap year, but because of all the other things that go along with applying to university. This time next year (hopefully) I will be living alone - and more scary than plans for university are plans for money, travel, things I need to bring, things I need to buy, general skills I can see I am lacking...
But that's not even the scariest thing. More recently, the relationship with my parents has changed slightly. I am an only child, meaning in general I have no choice but be relatively close to my parents. We live in a small but perfectly formed flat, but as with all families, we tend to trip over each other as much as we sit in mutual contentment.
I think the scariest thing is how, gradually, the relationship I have (and I'm going to be specific about my dad not because I love him more but simply he reads more and listens to music) with my dad has been more equal. This month I have reccommeneded my dad two books: 'The Mysteries of Pittsburgh' by Michael Chabon and 'Paper Towns' by John Green. And he's liked them both.
This may seem ridiculously small a moment to, after weeks of silence, warrant a blog post. And it's not like it's the first time my dad has valued my opinion or taking my advice over art or media of some description. But it feels a little bit like, after years of my parents essentially saturating me in culture and art that has influenced my tastes, opinions and, possibly, career ideas, I can start to pay them back.
The things my parents have opened my eyes to are some of the most valued parts of my life. Writers like Raymond Carver or Douglas Coupland, art like Peter Blake or Richard Hamilton, films like Heathers or The Royal Tenenbaums. It's not as though I never would have found these things on my own, but it means an awful lot to me that these things have come with my parents, and I can discuss them with them. It has formed a huge part of my relationship.
And now, it seems, my life has started to break away from theirs. Now I am becoming an individual person, who has interests outside of those of my parents and specifically my daily use of the Internet to find things, I can start to find gems of my own (like the two books mentioned to name but a few) and give these experiences back to my parents.
Turning this relationship into more of an exchange than a hierarchy (not that we were really ever like that, I had them wrapped around my finger) is the next stage of our relationship. We won't be living together, we won't share day to day experiences and so it is comforting to know that a relationship of cultural exchange will still exist, stronger than ever, which means we can stay close wherever I end up. I want my own life - but it's important that as many people as possible from this life can fit into that. My parents have already found their place, and that is as scary as it is heartening.
I am aware this has been happening gradually over some time - but it is just this week it hs truly hit me the implications. This time next year, whatever happens with UCAS, I'll be an adult. And being treated like one won't be a luxury but a way of life.
Incidently, if I would reccommend them to my dad I would reccommend them to anyone! You should read both/either because they truly are thoughtful, simply tales of haunting stories with characters that are both interesting and who ring true. Very different but equally wonderful.
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