writing as acting: john august
Tuesday February 16th 2010, 0:31
Filed under: Writing Tips, photos & stuff

Last fall I took a writing workshop with Daniel Wallace, a man who knows a thing or two about bringing books to the big screen. The film rights to Wallace’s novel, “Big Fish”, was purchased by Columbia Pictures. Steven Spielberg sat on the project for a while but it was Tim Burton who eventually directed Ewan McGregor in the starring role.

When Wallace started applauding the talents of the screenwriter who adapted the novel, John August (Corpse Bride, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory), I felt a little smug and did a knowing nod. I’ve followed August and his blog for a few years now and lately I find myself hanging onto his every word.


Author Daniel Wallace

Last week August blogged “in defense of fake tears”. It’s about writing as acting and about feeling your way through it all. “One basic goal of creative writing,” said August, “is to evoke a desired response.”

He said this too:

“Screenwriters are basically actors who do their work on the page rather than the stage. Both professions earn their keep by pretending things are much different than they are. Actors ignore the lights and cameras and missing walls. Writers ignore the missing everything, summoning locations and characters to enact scenes which they can later transcribe….Actors and writers are trying to create moments that feel true, despite being completely invented….Experiencing the moment is what writers do, too.” – John August

John August’s Blog
John August’s Twitter



guess who watched ‘whip it’
Wednesday February 03rd 2010, 2:03
Filed under: blogging, photos & stuff

Last month I put on a pair of roller skates for the first time in twenty years. It’s this whole Yes Man thing I’m trying. I loved it. I mean, I still think skating backward is nothing short of sorcery. But I’m really geared up for my next trip to the rink. And I desperately want to drag my sister along with me. Because that would just be the best date ever.



orson welles meets hg wells
Saturday December 05th 2009, 17:24
Filed under: blogging, photos & stuff

Orson Welles meets HG Wells and someone was there to broadcast it. (Please note the misspelling in the video title is not mine.)

HG is lovely. And asks Orson about the film he is making – Citizen Kane.

Orson Welles: “It’s a new sort of motion picture with a new method of presentation.”

HG Wells: “If I don’t misunderstand you completely I think there will be a lot of jolly good new noises in it.”

Delicious.



babooshka
Thursday November 19th 2009, 23:44
Filed under: blogging, photos & stuff

For some reason, every time I look at photos of Flynn and me from our EPIC ADVENTURE WEEKEND, I break out in BABOOSHKA and arabesque around the living room. “Babooshka…Babooshku…Babooshku…” See. Told you.

Babooshka Buffy Becca

Happy Birthday Bunny.

I love you.

B.
xx

p.s.
A squirrel took this photo.
I am dead serious.



how perfectly lovely. matthew macfadyen reads yeats. and other things.
Thursday November 19th 2009, 4:04
Filed under: blogging, photos & stuff

Before he became “The Darcy to End All Darcys” the ridiculously talented and RADA-trained Matthew Macfadyen contributed to the DVD ‘Essential Poems (To Fall In Love By)’.

A naughty little someone has posted his readings to YouTube.

I am very glad of it.

W.B. Yeats.
When You Are Old.
Read by Matthew Macfadyen.

William Carlos Williams.
This is Just to Say.
Read by Matthew Macfadyen.

William Shakespeare.
Sonnet 29.
Read by Matthew Macfadyen.

I close my eyes and sigh. What a voice.



her mother’s name was duckworth once. virginia woolf.
Tuesday November 10th 2009, 23:18
Filed under: blogging, photos & stuff

When I think of everything there is to know and learn, I get so excited my stomach hurts.

This evening Steph and I went for sushi but had profiteroles and petite fours instead. Then we watched The Hours and talked about Virginia Woolf and listened to the radio broadcast she did for the BBC in 1937. After that we looked through the photo album of Virginia’s father, Leslie Stephen, and wondered at paintings by her sister Vanessa.

We decided to read Mrs Dalloway together and then to buy “Afterwords: Letters on the Death of Virginia Woolf”, but only once. We reminisced about our time in Bloomsbury when we walked past the Tavistock Hotel every morning and every night and sat in Gordon Square just because our feet hurt and we could.

Julia Jackson Julia Duckworth Julia Stephen Virginia Woolf’s Mother

There are too many things I want to read and so much more I want to say but my stomach really does hurt from the profiteroles and I’m just flat out tired. The lady in the photo is Julia Jackson Duckworth Stephen, Virginia’s mother. Something about her reminds me of my own mother when she was young. I think it’s the eyes.



and now for something completely different
Tuesday October 27th 2009, 17:33
Filed under: blogging, photos & stuff

Flynn and Frog.

There’s really no way to take a photo with Flynn and not look like a squat little frog with Hitler-Hair (I’m not doing it on purpose, I swear.)

So here’s the thing: When feeling frog-like I’ve found it best to channel the Monty Python troupe and just act FaR TOo SilLY.

With that in mind, observe, fair readers, My Walk in Progress, through which I apply for funding from the Ministry itself. Please note: I can log eleven miles on my left leg alone.

Walk in Progress.  Ministry of Silly Walks.

Okay, not really. I just like alliteration.

And crossing my eyes.

Oh, and P.S.
Cleese will never die.

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autumn movement
Thursday October 15th 2009, 4:37
Filed under: blogging, photos & stuff

Fall

I cried over beautiful things knowing no beautiful thing lasts.

The field of cornflower yellow is a scarf at the neck of the copper
sunburned woman, the mother of the year, the taker of seeds.

The northwest wind comes and the yellow is torn full of holes,
new beautiful things come in the first spit of snow on the northwest wind,
and the old things go, not one lasts.

-Carl Sandburg



lazy mondays
Monday September 21st 2009, 22:54
Filed under: blogging, photos & stuff

The Euro and I fell into an Asian Food Coma this evening and slept for three hours. One of those really satisfying and comforting sleeps where everything is just right. Then we got up and ate Swiss chocolate and watched House and I gotta say…it was a good day.

Buffy Holt and her Hunnies

On Saturday we spent the day with Steph et al and I came home with dozens of photos of Dumplin…and these two. My Euro and My Chica. Steph and I both have the Nikon love going on and are all the time mugging for the camera. This is one of the few recent images I have of The Euro and me where he’s not pulling one of his creative character faces. Unfortunately, I look a bit like Droopy Dog. But there we are.

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on stillness. lack thereof. and elizabeth strout.
Monday September 14th 2009, 0:16
Filed under: books, photos & stuff

I’m exhausted. And my brain’s just not working right for me today. It wont sit still. I also keep tasting salt. I worry it’s some kind of aura, because that’s what it usually is. Every neurological episode I’ve ever had (my brain’s way faulty) has been proceeded by the inexplicable and lingering taste of salt or the smell of street-coffee. Weird but totally true. At the moment the only diagnostic tool at my disposal is to wash my mouth out with sugar and see if the savory still lingers. To this end I plan on eating tons of chocolate. Medicinal. See?

I also plan on watching whatever’s on television tonight. The Euro’s away interviewing a serial killer (don’t ask) and I don’t have the head for Chekhov or the eyeball dexterity for Dostoyevsky – I’m really into my Russians right now.

Elizabeth Strout talks Pulitzer

Last night I went to hear Elizabeth Strout speak. Of course, she won the Pulitzer this year, and I’ll go on about that later. But I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the incredible calming presence she seems to carry around with her. I’m not sure how to describe it, but the tone of her person is very much like the tone of her writing. If you’ve read her work that may make sense. Just a very lovely and unaffected woman. The only time I’ve felt still this week. It was a delight to hear her speak.