Frayed Branches

An Approach to Time   Time; there’s never enough of it. No matter how much I feel like I can get done in a single day, I end up proving myself wrong day after day, expecting more of myself than twenty-four hours could ever allow. Maybe it’s the need to be satiated by what other people create while also creating myself that makes it so difficult for me to register the importance of time until it’s already spilled through my fingers. Or maybe it’s the need to contribute to the world outside of busywork projects and every little idea that pops into my head. I want to do it all, to the point where a priorities list just becomes a list of everything I haven’t achieved yet. But I am missing the one resource necessary to get all of it done, to break through that forsaken catalog of ideas and one by one start crossing off accomplishments. I am missing time.   It’s not about ambition, or anything having to do with remembrance. It’s just how many opportunities I can see before me, a wor...

A Short, Disorganized Essay About Ideas   Where do you get ideas from? That’s the biggest hurdle one has to overcome as a creator who is struggling to find out just what they want to create. You may want to write, to paint, to make a film, but you can do none of it without an idea of what you want to make it about . The substance of what you create is just as important as the medium by which you create it. So, the only question left is: Where do you get ideas from? The answer is simple, yet complex at the same time. Part of it stems from personal experience, while a lot of it stems from seemingly nowhere at all. I’d love to tell you that ideas grow on trees, that you can just pick and choose which ones to pursue and be done with it. But that’s not really how ideas work when you’re trying to create something. It’s all about the personal, natural journey to that idea. It’s rarely something you can force onto yourself.   For example, I couldn’t tell you where my ideas come from b...

Movie Monday: 1917   Sometimes it isn’t about the story, but the way you tell it. Film as a medium offers a platform of uniqueness in that the visual medium its tales are presented through can be told in various ways. This all has to do with the script, story direction, acting, and many other important aspects of creating in the visual field. Cinematography, however, can also be a make-or-break aspect of a movie, especially if said movie retreads ideas that have been seen in media time and again. Sam Mendes’ 2019 film 1917 is one of those films, taking place during World War I and establishing a race-against-time plot in order to stop a British attack against enemy German forces that recent intel has determined will be met with major artillery and will lead to countless lives lost. Two soldiers in the British army—William Schofield and Thomas Blake—are tasked with taking this new information to the front lines in order to halt the attack before it can begin, thus saving the lives o...

A Quick Rambling Update   This is going to be a very short blogpost, as I had no real ideas as to what I wanted to write today. So, instead of something useful, I’ll give anyone who cares a quick update on what I’ve been doing. First off, there’s going to be a couple of new projects coming in late June/early July. No actual written works or anything like that, but a couple of things that I hope everyone will enjoy. This will include some writing, some critiquing, and some sort of podcasting as well (albeit in a bit of a different style if everything goes according to plan). I feel like there’s only so much someone can do when their whole shtick is putting out a new piece of writing every couple of months, and that the best way to combat what on the outside looks like a slow schedule is to expand as much as possible. If you thought three blogposts a week was a lot, you haven’t seen anything yet!   I’m also hoping to have something else—“Project Wonderland”—finished by the end o...

Movie Monday: The Firm   It’s rare that one watches a legal thriller film that manages to present a complex story in a simplistic manner, while also juggling the intricacies of legality within the plot of the work. It’s also a feat just to make such a story entertaining and digestible for the everyman audience. Sydney Pollack’s 1993 film The Firm manages to do this, presenting an interesting story about corruption that manages to stay captivating the whole way through. Based on the John Grisham novel of the same name, The Firm stars Tom Cruise as Harvard Law graduate Mitch McDeere, following his time at Bendini, Lambert & Locke, a law firm located in Memphis, Tennessee. Mitch and his wife Abby relocate, granted luxurious furnishings by the firm that help them lead a simple, happy life outside of Mitch’s work. Things take a turn, however, when Mitch discovers some previous members of the firm’s team had mysteriously died. His independent investigation leads him to discover corru...

Keeping the Rhythm of Your Work   That’s what working on independent projects is all about. Whether you’re someone who’s working a full-time job with a family at home or you’re a crazy person who’s relegated themselves to their solo work, you always need a rhythm for your free time if you want to get something done. And by that I don’t mean a daily schedule so rigid that even one bad day could annihilate all progress on a project. Nor do I mean creating a work plan so relaxed that you’ll go days on end without doing anything before pouring in five hours of creative juices in a single day. If you want to create something in your free time—be that a novel, a film script, an art project, building something, or even an unclassifiable outsider project—you have to work on it every day. The best way I’ve found to go about this is by planning a certain amount to accomplish each day (and, if you’re like me and have too much going on at the same time, to do this with every project you have ...

When Can We Eat Together Again?   And I’m not talking about the grace period we’re in right now. While stores, restaurants, and other places across the country begin to re-open for business, our sense of normalcy will start to return. Despite obvious restrictions, there’s still the fact that, sooner or later this summer, the United States will return to normal. At least, as close to normal as we can get. In about two months’ time, you’ll be able to dine-in at your favorite local restaurant again with friends and family. You’ll be able to step into a movie theater and munch on popcorn while watching the latest Disney flick. You might even get the chance to stand in line for a midnight release of a new video game (well, if in the digital age anyone still does that anymore). Things are going to start feeling like they’ve returned to the way they were before COVID-19 swept through every corner of the world. Warning signs may still be there, and people may still promote or practice soci...

Movie Monday: The Seventh Seal There are very few films one could label as masterful in the way they portray their thematic elements. In particular, films that ascribe themselves to darker themes have the potential of getting lost in their own self-wallowing, creating hopelessness without any tact. A film that wants to engage in a less-than-happy story should do so, but it also has to be able to present itself with tact. A classic of Swedish cinema that manages to tackle dark themes well is Ingmar Bergman’s 1957 film The Seventh Seal . A dark fantasy set in the 14 th century, The Seventh Seal chronicles a journey of faith for a knight, Antonius Block, who has returned to plague-riddled Sweden after participating in the Crusades. Disenchanted with the world and accompanied only by his pessimistic squire, Jöns, Block’s return to his home country is also marred by the presence of Death himself. Death has come to take Block away, a fate Block refuses to accept given his holy beliefs and a...