Here's the thing: I'm thinking about making 2015 a more... honest year.
By that I mean, what am I interested in?
The obvious answers are: Writing, art, films which make you think, books which also make you think, good food - preferably not out of a box or bag or out of a box/bag with under five ingredients listed on it and/or where I know at least 99% of the things in it, video games, travel, and music.
The less obvious answers are: Equality, feminism, legitimate social justice, free speech (and the responsibilities thereof), MOGAI rights, and in general all manner of things which necessitate the need of a sign which simply reads 'Sorry for the inconvenience. We're trying to change the world.'
Smaller components of this whole long list of mine are:
Sign up for Figment
Because it's always nice to be around writers, and it might be kind of cool to serialize a story or two there. I think a lot of what's tripping me up is the fact that there's the expectation that when people are artists, they must see themselves in a certain way or their voices are less valid.
I'm slowly realizing that this is not the case.
Whether you see yourself as some grand gatekeeper, some wild and wrathful thing channeling raw energy into something contained and beautiful in its quiet ferocity, or simply as someone who's doing the best they can with the talent they possess and if someone connects with that, well that's a wonderful thing, the fact remains that you are an artist. No amount of internal or external force will change that simple fact.
And that's a freeing thing to realize because it allows you to act like you yourself would act, rather than wasting time being concerned with how the world will see you. Not that this gives you free rein to saw whatever you want with no consequence, far from it, but it does give you a much higher chance of being able to stand behind whatever stance you take on the important issues of the time.
That digressed a bit, but the point remains the same: Artists matter. Artist communities matter.
Art in General
Speaking of the art world, I recently found out about a contemporary Chinese artist by the name of Ai Weiwei - the man who filled a huge hall in London's Tate Modern with 100,000,000 tiny handmade, hand-painted porcelain sunflower seeds:
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and spearheaded the effort to record the names of the 5,212 children killed in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, making a recording of the names (with a run time of 3 hours and 41 minutes) as well as straightening out 150 tons of steel rebar retrieved from the collapsed schools (which many blame for the deaths as the construction was shoddy and the buildings crushed those who were sheltering in them during the quake), and placing it together in the shape of a rolling landscape.
I've decided that I like him. Quite a bit.
It also means that I'm once again finding myself interested in art and artists and the fact that while art causes nothing to happen, it gives form to the wildest and most deeply felt human emotions whether they be love, hate, grief, or a simple contentment. That is why art matters - it causes nothing to happen but rather it is a way of happening - a single snapshot taken in a single second of a hectic day of a long week of a rough month of an impossible year.
Netflix and Independent Film
As is 'I have Netflix and will also be making an effort to watch more independent film'. Because we also have a Roku.
As a general rule, I like documentaries. I also like independent and foreign horror films. Netflix has a lot of these, as well as... well just about everything else.
This is a clear and present danger to my sleep schedule.
Travel
While there's precious little I can do right now aside from research and language acquisition, I can always plan.
A little while back, I had an idea: Travel with a companion. Before you begin, I want you to have an email account and YouTube account that you can both access. Save up and buy two good-quality cameras (like Go Pro), and two journals, one for each of you. Travel as light as you can but always have these things when possible. Make videos of places you go (that's what the YouTube channel's for). Write them down if you want, or save the journals for what I like to call the 'Traveler Who Waited ' stage.
This stage starts with you both going your separate ways. But not for that long, really. Say you were both in Paris when you decided it would be a good time to do this. You both agree to meet up at a cafe you both love in, say, three months. Then you both go somewhere else. Or possibly several somewheres else. And you film and vlog and write in your journal (you can also opt to keep an online blog you can both post to if you're more inclined to do that) and when you meet up again after those three months have passed, you swap stories and catch up and from then on, the cycle will just keep going on and on until it ends.
Alternately, you can set a rough time (say, a week in May) and then film snippets of the place/text the other person clues/place something at the stop you'll be that your companion will be sure to notice (e.g. a glitter jar on a fence post) and meet up that way.
I'm not sure why but I'm sort of in love with this idea. It's like a trip around the world with your best friend/partner/whatever but there's also some time spent alone in the heart of your favourite places and the occasional Sherlock Holmes-esque detective work, ending with that sense of 'we're time-travelers but we never meet in the right order' that, for me, always comes up when you're sitting in a cafe and going through your journals together.
Anyway.
All of this comes after an... interesting talk with Mom and... I don't know, I feel a little better, strangely enough. I think I'll take that and run with it for as long as I can, seeing as I have things I would dearly love to see done.
For right now though, I might just sleep.
Bye for now, everyone~ Bye for now ^w^
