sff 2010

too pink

okay, so those tennies are way too pink, "crazy-lady" pink. i've ordered them in a more subdued grey and soft pink palette, and i ordered black/white, which aligns w/ my "uniform" and its theme (black shirt and jeans). so but i'm hopeful about the new color schemes. and you. are relieved.

updating on "update" (& more)

so the film is moving along. i am working a lot of ideas at once, and i'm finding that mode quite pleasurable (i usually do). considering some narrative voiceover, which i've only done once (in proposition 1984), but v-e-r-y little of it. i prefer to let the SUPERMASSIVE audio tracks (featuring BLISSED OUT FATALISTS; still hoping to get rights) and the images (the updates themselves + minimal text + animation if i can afford it) explore the matter(s).

i am inspired by my new devotion to comfortable shoes. i know. why is this new? at 46? i am going to evade an answer because it's not a little embarrassing. suffice it to say that i have been undergoing a variety of soulhappymaking life changes, and comfy shoes has been on that list; now it is actualizing. i found that despite what i'd been led to believe, Saucony actually does still make its original design; its' not all MegaNet or VitaVerve or whatever-the-f*ck new tech that wants so badly to suck you in. nope, these Saucony originals (in pink and orange -- let's not kid about my mid-life crisis, shall we?) are lifechangingly good. i am reminded of a time when i was super fit and did not care one bit about the fashion angle; i was into being fit. of course, i was a bit too much into it and took it WAY too far (blah blah ... eating disorders ... blah), but so. the bod was good. happy. now, i have a mind that can manage the body better than before.

so but the most recent development is that Ondi Timoner, director of DIG! and We Live in Public, has agreed to do an update for the film. documentarians helping documentarians. awesome. so grateful :)

not much more to add, just now. details may be forthcoming as things develop. please do consider sending me a video status update; it's not too late! (i am including an example of one i did last year, just in case you're still not sure what i mean). come on!

drafting STATUS UPDATE

self-help, swirly effects, & the magical universe

hi, my name is bonnie, and i read self-help books. the first one i ever read was a gift to me from my (then) boyfriend (now, husband). he saw in me a sadness and a struggle, and he was particularly keen to help me quit smoking. i will never forget how sweetly and delicately he would present me with newspaper articles he'd clipped from the PHYSICAL NEWSPAPER, and but i can't help but think here of the romanticle mix-tape concept and lament that we now simply "send a link," which loses the artifactual heft of The Thing, carefully mixed, carefully clipped. and but just as delicate was the copy of the book he handed me, with its crispitty yellow pages. it was The Power of Your Subconscious Mind, by Joseph Murphy. and it helped; today, with my studies in rhetoric, i suppose i should be terribly embarrassed by this assertion, but i am not. still, that i am writing about it must mean something ...

but so i looked to find a link to PYSM, and quickly found one to the current Amazon.com purchase page. but ... oh my. regrettably, inexplicably, the cover art has moved on. now a plain blue with bold yellow lettering, it has devolved from its originally striking and kitschy series of concentric circles ... analogous to the "swirly wheel" effect often accompanied by the low-toned voiceover, "you are getting v-e-r-y sleeeepy," that we see in old films, episodes of The Twilight Zone, or Hitchcock's (then groundbreakingly overlain w/ graphicky effects -- think Spirograph, by Hasbro) "suspense thriller!" Vertigo. there are many good trailers, but this one is sort of achingly goofy:



Vertigo 1958 Alfred Hitchcock Start Shortfilms via Noolmusic.com


and then there is the more classic hypno-wheel in this widely-circulated trailer:



i prefer the more elemental hypno-wheel, such as this one provided by djhooligon:



so but a Google Images search finally got me to the original cover for Murphy's book. above (@ right) is the image i grabbed, a very small version. later, i found a larger one (you might look if you want to get the full, swirly effect) at the amazon.com page for the original bantam version. i could tell you about the book, how it helped change my life (it did), but at this point i have exhausted my original interest in writing about it, satisfied to have arrived safely [back] to my sense of disorientation-as-emergence via this/these most simplistic of hypnotic tool(s). and i see that instead of writing much about self-help books, i am ensnared in a vortex of concern for how it looks. i do that.

croxall. mla09. yes.

so i can ID pretty well w/ brian croxall, despite having tenure (long story). but so the point of this post is to help promote croxall and his argument and maybe also to say, "say there, see? ... i am hip-ly aware of what's going on and whatnot" ... and but so mla09 is all about his "absent presence," and while, like croxall, i chose to miss mla09 for lamentable reasons (with which i will not besmear you), i am glad i didn't have to miss his paper. neither do you. enjoy.

dear blog,

hi. i'm sorry i've neglected you. i miss you. and i tire of the sound of my voice, constrained within the edges of a tiny text box. i miss your wide open spaces.

anyhow, i'm good ... heading back to work on my projects. teaching has demanded everything of me, but i am facing some "free" time. i am back on the book, composing a webtext, and preparing a short film (hint: see video). i'll tell you more about it as i go. promise.

" ... crippled in the use of myself ..."

"I began to see myself as crippled in the use of myself [...]. My breathing was inhibited, my voice and posture were wrecked, something was seriously wrong with my imagination--it was becoming difficult actually to get ideas. How could this have happened when the state had spent so much money educating me?" -- Keith Johnstone from Impro: Improvisation and the Theatre.

C.R.A.P. design principles

a while back, i had a lovely link to a teaching resource on the C.R.A.P. design principles as asserted by Williams and Tollett. that link is no longer active, but thankfully Presentationzen has a lovely page. i'm linking it both here, and below (under "tech, text, and design") but wanted to call attention to it in a brief post (said post also acting as a nudge to start posting again).

badge of honor

it's worth it. again. see?