Featured Photos


I do love pinterest.  As a lifelong collector of postcards I have in the past had rooms with walls covered with random photos and postcards, so for me pinterest is a fabulous site which lets me share my walls and see other people! 

I also adore the fact that they can be organised in theme related boards. 

So in adiition to the lists of creative people on this site, I am also gradually pinning some images by my favourite phtographers (many listed here too).

http://pinterest.com/brummieblerd/photos-by-my-favourite-photographer-friends/


 

Random Insomniac Limerick

I can't sleep.

I had to write an extended bio for my shorty award profile, a thing I only completed because I couldn't get to sleep.

Since my chances of winning a shorty are zero, and I hate writing bios, I wrote a limerick instead:

There once was a girl from Great Barr
Whose ambitions extended quite far
Films were her dream
And crazy she seemed
With creations quite strange and bizarre.

Unfortunately there is no poetry award!

In case you're curious so far I have voted for Lizzie Bennet Diaries in webseries (I still love you Awkward Black Girl - please don't hate me!  Issa Rae you'll get my actress vote) and failed to nominate Socially Awkward Darcy in the fandom category because she doesn't have a twitter. Feel free to comment if you can find a way around this.

I do like to rock an obsession!

To sleep, perchance to stare at my ceiling.

Oh and if you're bored you can nominate me by clicking the box below:

Nominate

Getting My Creative Juices Flowing

Happy January

As I said last year I shall be refocusing this blog on creative projects and creative people. I'll still talk about films I've seen but more in depth thoughts will move to the new film-centric blog with my fabulous friend Laura Bradshaw.  The first What Have You Done To Deserve This post is now up here.


I shall me adding some musings on the Oscar nominations and some films I've seen lately.  I have been working my way through the nominated films, and I can't be outright confident about any of the nominees, so far I think this is the most fun I've had watching the Oscar nominated films for a while.  Silver Linings Playbook had me giggling from start to finish, Brave's Merida had me thinking about my own princessy little sister more than once, and Tarantino's Django Unchained more than makes up for N-bombs and gratutitous violence with witty banter and some serious A-grade hammy acting (his own being the only low point).  Looking forward to the downers next with plans to see Zero Dark Thirty, Les Miserables (well the clue is in the name) and Lincoln.  Thank god I've already seen the marvellous Amour or February could be pretty bleak!

Back to my own filmmaking projects:

I will hopefully be working with a very talented playwright to adapt her one woman show into a film and I've recently read a script for a short film about the perils of not believing in magic.  I am hopefully going to get production moving on that very soon.

I also have a planned script of my own, I have been working on.  For a sneak peek at some of my inspiration I've been using Pinterest as an ideas board.

I've been pretty motivated already, and was helped along by watching the TED talk below given by Alex Day talking here about how he came to become a unique chart sucess and make his Forever Yours music video.  Take care folks and post your own projects below for sharing.  As always my stream of consciousness is also followable on twitter where I am @shegeekbham.

2012: It's The End Of The Year As We Know It...

We "survived" the most anticlimatic Mayan apocalypse that wasn't, and if I'm honest, it’s been a mixed bag of a year, which means I shall be looking forward to 2013 all the more.

I have a few projects on the go as always, but want to concentrate on my filmmaking and film writing. To that end a friend and I will be starting a new blog: What Have You Done To Deserve This, which will be more film centric than this blog and less rambly too. I’ll link to our first posts here but once we’re up and flying I’ll probably just post them at the side. As for the filmmaking, that will stay here on my creative projects site and I will be cleaning it up, featuring more people and generally blogging better.

So here’s a summary of some of my personal highlights

Favourite Films

I’ve had a few disappointments, Take This Waltz being notable for high expectations but not quite delivering as a whole in spite of a decent premise and some truly wonderful casting and acting.  Mainly that I just haven’t managed to see some films, Berberian Sound Studio and Beasts of the Southern Wild, to name a couple.

That said I’ve also had some real delights, Amour, Sightseers, The Cabin In the Woods, Ted, the Dark Knight Rises, Skyfall and Paranorman all tickled my fancy in different ways.  My unbeatable film of the year for sheer combination of elements, wit, humour, cinematography and again fantastic casting and performances, you cannot fault The Avengers for unadulterated delight and leaving you wanting more.

                                

Personal achievement of the year

Pointless.  They asked me about Oscar winning film directors.  God bless you Michel Hazavanicius and your incredibly difficult to pronounce name.

Social media Joy

This was one of my favourite tweets this month.

This will probably be my favourite retweet ever.

Favourite video:  

So hard to pick one Lizzie Bennet Diaries episode, but this one shows just how much thought has gone to the whole adaptation. 

Fab of the year: Project For Awesome 

No people has more espoused my ideals than the VlogBrothers.  I love what they do and how they do it, Decrease Suck, Increase Awesome.  What better ethos is there? They educate, speculate, write, sing and inspire and they raise money for charity to make the world a better place.  Don’t Forget To Be Awesome in 2013 people.

Creative Times: If Only I Could Teleport

The Wedding Scene from Don Giovanni

Hello noble  readers.

This weekend I am going to a wedding which promises to be a superlative couple of days amongst some fantastic friends.  That said, being fond of performance and pop culture I have to say this weekend is one of those times I wish I could teleport or clone myself to magically indulge in some serious cross UK, cross cultural activity.  So for your delectation my futuristic fantasy of what 24^th – 25^th November would hold.

Saturday:
I’d take in the Celebrity Couples conference at the university of  Southampton – hopefully catching the sessions on The Romantic Myth of Kate and Spence or Antonio Banderas and Melanie Griffith: From Latin Lover and Hollywood Bad Girl to Loyal Husband and Aging Female Star .

Unfortunately in order to catch the vows in sunny Manchester*, I will have to miss Watching the Throne: Beyonce and Jay-Z: Managing Celebrity Authenticity in the Blogosphere by a Salford based media lecturer, Dr Kirsty Fairclough.

Ah yes, if I had the power of instantaneous travel, after the food, speeches and first dance at the  Magnificent Manchester Wedding, I could take a breather and merely mosey across to Nottingham for my second viewing of the current Opera North run of Don Giovanni featuring a crazy wedding and an even crazier gatecrasher, and the best “appeasing a jealous boyfriend”  scene I have ever witnessed.

Then back to raucous antics in Manchester for the end of the wedding and possibly a hangover to end all hangovers.

Sunday:

What better way to ease my hangover than by catching up with friends over breakfast lunch and in a blink I could either return to my home turf at The Drum to take in a film. Since there is a Q&A with   Express Punjab a documentary about drugs in Pakistan that would be one option, or I could take full advantage of sci-fantasy transport methods and head even further south.

My second afternoon filmy choice would be attending the brand spanking new Underwire film festival  addressing why women “can’t” make featurefilms, with Dreams of A Life director Carol Morley and (I’m trying to be sooo cool about this and failing) my new twitter follower Hannah McGill, lists amongst a magnificent cv being former Artistic Director of the Edinburgh Film Festival.

After that I could Stealth Salvatore across time and space indulge in some mulled cider at the German Market and a brat-best (they could never be called wurst!) and finish off the night listening to the dulcet tones of Terri Walker back at The Drum . 

Alas without the aid of a tardis, this weekend will remain a fantasy and perhaps that’s for the best, after all friends and family are pretty special in themselves.

*the blogger accepts no responsibility for the accuracy of this statement or choking fits suffered by readers.

Creative Gifts: Christmas is coming

As Christmas approaches I would like to suggest gifts of books written by people I know: for your consideration I present:

By Andy Murray: Into The Unknown; The Fantastic Life of Nigel Kneale – for Sci Fi fans

By Leeanne Stoddart: Unrealistic Expectations – for poetry fans

By David Kirby: Lab Coats In Hollywood – for Sci Fi/Science nerds
Es

Bringing The Random: Secret Geek Mission

So I mentioned in July that I had been busy in June, one of the things was recording a tv show which will be shown tomorrow night - Thursday 18 October, 2012 at 5:15pm on BBC1.

Can you guess what it is yet?!

The Link for the show on iplayer will be added on Friday.
Edited: oops a little late - it's live until 24th October. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01nht97

Creative Times: October Fests

Hello Readers,

It's your sporadic blogger here (guess who re-watched Clueless recently!)

A couple of things you should be checking out this month:

Online: All Animated. animators community  I started following them on facebook this week and already been introduced to this little gem:


Birmingham - Afrovibes festival at The Drum.  It was a fabulous success last time and features international dance, theatre and music.  It's also touring around.

It's worth just popping down for the photos on display in the cafe by South African Artist Tyler Dolan : Here's his website and the festival website

Also it's October, so it's Black History Month and there are fabulous events accross Birmingham.  I am planning on heading to the mac on Sunday with photographer Vanley Burke.  You can follow the Birminum trail featuring places from the photographs in his exhibition charting Birmingham immigrant communities.

Anyone else excited about the new lady in charge of the London Film Festival, Claire Stewart?  just me - can't be!  I probably won't make the festival, but this piece on shorts programmer Phil Ilson has me seeing if I can rework my schedule.

Also perpetual PlanetEsther fave, Cornerhouse is merging with the Library Theatre and recently announced it's new name.  I am not quite used to it yet, but as long as it has the same ethos, I suspect I will have no problem making it my occasional Home.

Happy October folks!

Creative Times: A trip worth taking

On Wednesday night, I attended the launch of the Abandon Normal Devices in Manchester. Having navigated several of the opening night venues and walked a great deal of Manchester I reached a stumbling block, literally, at the Salutation Pub, where burger in hand I took the kind of slow motion fall that would have made even Buster Keaton stare in awe. As it was, I dismissed the concerns of friends and strangers and thought about puns for my blog!

A trip down memory lane



As a veteran since the very first festival in Liverpool, I wouldn’t let a mere grazed knee stand in the way of my enjoying the feast of international artists and activities that the Abandon Normal Devices Festival has to offer. I have left the North west, but something about this festival draws me back every year to partake in a whimsical look at digital art and quirky ideas allowed to develop and flourish.



The Saturday night, headline act, Trixxie Carr, follows in the footsteps of All About Evil 2010’s interactive horror drag show which I blogged about here. It’s a welcome return to the festival for the San Francisco performer challenging the very concept of a traditionally male led drag performance!



Falling into the unknown



Of course the hook of the festival is the new, unique and different. The idea of artists curating different spaces, whilst not new, continues to have an infinite number of permutations. The transformed spaces here are caravans, a travelling mobile republic which includes a broadcasting booth and a gastronomic smelling experience where you create your own spice combinations using a futuristic machine straight out of HG Wells.



Truly unqiue and bizarre is the The Master/Slave Invigilation system which is something that has to be experienced to be believed. Moving between sites you are taken on a tour of the AND exhibitions by a artist Jeremy Bailey who is based at a remote venue (downstairs in Cornerhouse) and offers a idiosyncratic insight into the shows through a digital ipad screen mounted on a mute robot “slave”. Visually intriguing, it turns out that I actually knew the first robot I encountered but the experience obscures their identity presenting a curious androgynous form with digital imagery.

http://www.andfestival.org.uk/events/masterslave-invigilator-system/



Finding new ways to present film is always a challenge, so the ambitious Empire Drive In, an open air (YES in Manchester!) cinema showing retro classics befitting the post apocalyptic space. Robocop has gone, but Mad Max 2 Beyond The Thunderdome is still to come, although probably sold out by now.



The programme is a lovely snapshot of stories rarely told and experimentation of method and contains films I will be actively seeking out, in particular a film about Manchester genius Alan Turing father of the internet, which of course makes such an innovative festival possible.



This year may be its last in the current form, so whilst you have the chance, Cornerhouse is once again inviting you to come out and play and I hope you fall hard for it like I did! The spectacle continues until Sun 2 September at various venues across Manchester and the mobile republic will also be on a limited tour. See http://www.andfestival.org.uk/ for more details.



My Favourite Fictional Women - Diana Trent

When I was younger, I decided that as a young adult I wanted to be Lynda Day, as a professional - Shiela Sabbatini and to grow old disgracefully in the mould of Diana Trent. Feisty, fierce and with hints of a wicked past, she had all her marbles in tact (firing on all cylinders in fact) and wit and humour in abundance. Today at my place of work some young kids perpared food for some elderly residential home residents and some of our staff. I was sat next to Lily, a whip smart former bus conductor from Sierra Leone by way of Liverpool. As a Sierra Leonean descendant, and former Liverpool resident, we had loads to talk about and got on like a house on fire and she got me thinking about Waiting For God and how my final years may play out. I hope she has as much fun as Diane Trent - and Tom for that matter - seemed to have, in spite of facing patronising relatives and institutional incompetence. Whilst I am a fan of the institution of marriage in the right circumstances, this clip is a golden nugget of Diana Trent always makes me wet myself! (nothing like incontinence to form a bit of solidarity with the elderly)