Sunday, January 14, 2018

Dear Mom, the book was different, is all.

Dear Mom,

Here's something I've been thinking about: you know how people get up in arms when a movie doesn't 100% match the book?  I used to be that way.  When I went to a movie of a book, all I wanted to see was the book on screen.  The exact story brought to life before my eyes.

But a friend of mine posted something this week about someone doing a Harry Potter mini-series that actually tells the story of the books.  And I thought, "The films did tell the story of the books. Maybe just not exactly." And that got me thinking that I don't think films of books should just be the book.  Cuz...that's why we have the book.  Also, and perhaps most importantly, there are things in a book that don't, nay can't translate to film.  Though writing and filmmaking certainly have similarities, they are two different forms of storytelling.  It's like telling two different artists to draw a tree and then getting mad because they don't look exactly the same.

I don't know.  I think I just want to make more space for book-movies to be their own thing that happens to be based on a book, rather than expecting it to be the book.  Because if we've learned nothing else, it's that if you expect a movie to be a book, you'll be disappointed every time.  Just go into the movie maybe being excited to see how a particular director or producer or actor interpreted the story and the messages it shares. 

No one gets mad at people who reinterpret Shakespeare.  That's the beauty of art, I think.  Using a story to communicate a message means that things will be different from person to person.

Anyway.  I'm just rambling about this, but it's something I wanted to write down and hopefully remember.  I'm currently reading "A Wrinkle In Time" and I know there are some high expectations for the film, but I'm going to approach it from a place of being familiar with the story in the book so I can compare it to the story in the film and see where the differences are and be surprised and delighted by things that were brought out in the film that maybe the story missed and vice versa. 

I'll let you know what I think.

Love you,

Greg

Friday, January 5, 2018

Dear Mom, I'm resolving to resolve.

Dear Mom,

It's 2018.  I'm riding the wave of societal good intentions and I've set some goals for myself for the year.  They are:

1 - Do something creative each morning right when I wake up - even if it's only for a couple of minutes.  Whether that's writing in my journal, coloring in a coloring book, practicing a song, reading a script, just something to start the day with some creative juices.

2 - Learn a song on the guitar every month.  I know a couple of chords, but find motivation fleeting and elusive.  This will give me something to work toward.

3 - Go on an Artist's Date every week.  I got this from a book called The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron.  The idea is to do something with just you and your inner artist once a week to foster that part of yourself.  Being that I am a career artist, I think it's pretty important to keep that part of me well-fed.  Artist dates can be anything from making pottery to seeing a movie to a simple walk on the beach.  For me, it's one more dose of deliberate creativity.

4 - Most relevant to this post, I want to publish something online every week.  That helps with the motivation factor.  It'll keep me in the process of creating things.  So, you'll probably be hearing from me a lot more, though not necessarily every week.  I have some plans for some videos and maybe an art project or two that I want to put out there.  Writing to you is an easy way to create something and put it out in the world, though, so you'll be getting lots of letters.

The theme of my year, as you may be able to tell, is creativity.  I want creativity and creation to be a bigger part of my life.

I also have plans to make goals for each month because it seems that yearly resolutions or goals are easy to put aside after a time, but having a reset every month, I think, will make achieving those goals more realistic.  I don't have the whole year planned out, but January is focusing on physical health:

1 - Only drink water.  (I fudge on this one a little with post-workout protein drinks on occasion)

2 - Plant-based diet.  AKA I'm going vegan for the month.  (I've fudged on this one a tad, too.  But only because part of my motivation for going plant-based is to reduce waste and I had some leftover chicken broth I needed to use)

3 - No added sugar (the protein drinks, again, sort of fudge this one).  Which basically just means no treats.  I eat too much candy, dessert, pastries, cake etc.  I'll probably go back to eating them, cuz, duh, but I just need a reset for a minute.

3 - Exercise at least once a day, six days a week.  I got a job at Flywheel a few months ago - it's an indoor cycling studio - and one of the perks is free classes at a number of different gyms, so I figure I might as well take advantage of that as much as I can while I can.  I get a MUCH better workout when I take a class than when I'm trying to do stuff on my own.

4 - Intermittent fasting.  This is supposed to help train your body to burn fat better.  I tried it a couple of months ago and didn't really notice a huge difference, but want to try it out in combination with everything else and see what I see.

We're on day five, and I'm still feeling pretty motivated with all of this stuff.  I know it seems like a lot, but it's almost helpful for me in a way.  Having so many goals to keep up with helps me to keep up with them all.

Anyway.

Love ya,

Greg