saturday matinee - heroic journey edition

Boots and Glove explain the Monomyth!

saturday matinee

I'd get hate comments, if anyone besides a handful of people actually read blogger anymore.

sunday funny - back to school edition

For my wife, the teacher.

saturday matinee

Here's what Christianity ought to be, and rarely is.

whew

I'm glad no one ever did this to me when I delivered. I'm not sure what I would have done.

saturday matinee - relaxation edition

okay, so apparently this song has been declared the most relaxing song in the world:

Scientists discover most relaxing tune ever

Sound therapists and Manchester band Marconi Union compiled the song. Scientists played it to 40 women and found it to be more effective at helping them relax than songs by Enya, Mozart and Coldplay.

Weightless works by using specific rhythms, tones, frequencies and intervals to relax the listener. A continuous rhythm of 60 BPM causes the brainwaves and heart rate to synchronise with the rhythm: a process known as ‘entrainment’. Low underlying bass tones relax the listener and a low whooshing sound with a trance-like quality takes the listener into an even deeper state of calm.

Dr David Lewis, one of the UK’s leading stress specialists said: “‘Weightless’ induced the greatest relaxation – higher than any of the other music tested. Brain imaging studies have shown that music works at a very deep level within the brain, stimulating not only those regions responsible for processing sound but also ones associated with emotions.”

The study - commissioned by bubble bath and shower gel firm Radox Spa - found the song was even more relaxing than a massage, walk or cup of tea. So relaxing is the tune, apparently, that people are being Rex advised against listening to it while driving.

The top 10 most relaxing tunes were: 1. Marconi Union - Weightless 2. Airstream - Electra 3. DJ Shah - Mellomaniac (Chill Out Mix) 4. Enya - Watermark 5. Coldplay - Strawberry Swing 6. Barcelona - Please Don’t Go 7. All Saints - Pure Shores 8. AdelevSomeone Like You 9. Mozart - Canzonetta Sull’aria 10. Cafe Del Mar - We Can Fly

Or, if you'd rather, you can listen to ocean surf used in the video here instead.

quote for the day

"The darkest lie we tell ourselves: that we and our writing are not worth a bag of microwaved diapers. Listen, I don’t know how talented or skilled or capable you are. Hell, maybe you’re not that great. But nobody got better by feeling bad about it. You have one of two choices: you can be destructive to yourself or constructive. You can tear yourself down or find a way to build yourself up — and I don’t mean build yourself up with compliments but build yourself up with skills and abilities and the practice that gets you there. You suck? That thought sucks. Get better. Improve. Aim big. Give yourself the chance to fail — and then give yourself a chance to build steps from the corpses of your failure so you may climb higher every time. You don’t become a writer by feeling sad about your self-worth. The only sucking you need to do is to suck it up and do the work. Everything else is a consumptive distraction."

Chuck Wendig (via whatamidoingeven)


When I first started this blog, I'll admit I had dreams of someday writing for a living. I now know this probably isnt going to happen. No, that it is very, very unlikely. Oh, who am I kidding. But that's no reason to give up writing. Maybe that's why I keep this blog going, despite the fact that almost no one reads it. Practice, practice, practice.

thanks

Nine Eight* years since my first "real" post.


* Forgive me, I am an idiot

Finally...

...the internet has given me something really useful!

saturday matinee

This is such an awesome mash-up. Imagine if rappers started making children's songs, kinda the way mainstream authors are all writing children's books these days.

fyi

Hysterical Literature is a sort of portrait series by the artist Clayton Cubitt. It involves the mind/body split, female sexuality, history, and literature. It manages to be (probably) NSFW and yet, unless you know what's going on, absolutely safe for work. It's a lovely idea, one that I'm rather jealous of not having been even in the ballpark of, as this seems totally original, yet almost obvious at the same time.

No, strike that. It's not obvious at all. It is rather clever though.

I originally debated about how much information to give out about the "portraits". I thought that, at least with the first one, not knowing what exactly was going on would be best. I still think that.

When I was younger, I wanted to create photographs that moved. Not films, not videos to be presented on a television screen (for those were the choices at the time). Sadly, I could not do it. Now, at a time when I dont really do much photography, flat monitor, the animated GIF, and a different perspective on how we see imagery has all combined to make my youthful dream a mundane reality. These portraits are like those images I dreamed of, taken to an even higher plane.

They contain a battle between mind and body, of sorts. Of sorts.

Best of all, it's in my favorite medium, black and white.