It’s been a crazy semester, packed full of projects and the like, and I’ve done my best to detail the best of them on my portfolio.

Over the summer I had some pretty major things going on, from my trip to Poland to the New Hampshire follow-up project I participated in, which were great projects.

I started the semester off performing in a poetry slam.  I came in 3rd place (out of 3 performers), but received very positive feedback.  Next I tackled a short film idea that’d been running around my head for a while, and made some good headway with it.  No plans for filming or even redrafting the script yet, but hopefully eventually; it was just nice to get into a project like that again after being out of it for a while.

Outside of school I rarely have spare time, but I found myself perusing Instructables pretty often, and entered their Halloween contest.  I didn’t win that one, but I did win 3rd place for their pocket-sized contest with my fork-knife-spoon piece from last year.  I wore the prize t-shirt last night :).

After that the workload picked up, and the projects got more serious.  At the end of the Spring there is an annual all-school-show where each department displays their best work.  One of my majors has a Fall show they put on as well, to showcase their department and the variety of work it produces.  Much of this is performance-related work (music, theater, dance, sound, light shows), and I was asked to be the stage manager for this year’s show.  It’s called the SIM Big Show, and it was a pretty huge event, with over 200 people in attendance.  In addition to stage managing, my music video from last year played in one of the video screening rooms, and I had a piece I called Practical Nature in one of the galleries in school.

Following that was the final show for my Food & Art class, the only requirements being that we make food to serve the audience and we make a piece to display in the show that had something to do with both food and art.  Mine had some more complex messages to it, and though simple, I was satisfied with it.

Lastly – and perhaps obviously, judging by the trend in my work so far – was my woodworking final.  All Sculpture majors are required to take a woodworking 101 class called Projects in Wood.  More artistic than last year’s Joinery, we made an experimental carving, another box – simpler than the ones from Joinery – and the final was an “interpretive box,” which I’ll detail more in its post.

Winter Break has been great; I went home for about a week for a period of total removal from everything school- and work-related, hanging out at home for Christmas and much time with no obligations, and it was wonderful.  Now I’m back in Boston, tackling some personal and home projects I’d set aside during the semester, and preparing for the semester to come.

Up ahead: casting & moldmaking with plaster, kinetic art, beat research (studying and making music and hip-hop beats), and hopefully being a TA for the Projects in Wood class I just completed.

Aside from that, I’m continuing working at Henry Bear’s Park toy store and as an usher for the Blue Man Group during vacation periods.  With the new year I feel more methodical about my approach to projects, and life, which I’m hoping will help ease the next semester, bringing less stress and a bit more time for relaxing between things, be they projects or simply moments in a day.

Hoping each of you are well,
and wishing all happy holidays,
Blake

I’ve moved back to VT. For the holidays, but also for the foreseeable future. It’s vacation, then working, saving up, and if all goes as planned, film school starting in the Fall. I’ve taken a two-year detour from what was really my dream, and I’m back on track. So that’s good.

Before I left, I got to check out a MAKE IT! fair and was pretty impressed. I’d wanted to go last year in Vancouver but looked up the vendors that had websites and was pretty turned off. This year I just took the plunge and am sure glad I did. From Cocoa Nymph (awesome chocolates) to Thyrza Segal’s Plantscapes to Daughters of Bastards Warrior Wear (awesome chain mail jewelry, no website, sorry) there was plenty of awesome stuff to check out and to gawk at. Catalyst Reaction had some cool leather stuff and I picked up some great Christmas cards from Hug + Kiss Designs.

Other than that, not much else to report. T-day in Seattle with the bro, a week in NYC with an old friend, then getting settled in here, ready for Christmas, watching the last of my funds slip away.

Moved onto Season 2 of Fringe and giving Leverage a second chance. Finished Dexter Season 4 last night. I’m still traumatized. Fantastic show…they don’t pull any punches. Hoping to start in on Supernatural Season 2 soon. Being Human was a no-go for me; the emo vampire dude was waaay over the top annoying, I couldn’t even look at him. Watched Slither and Gremlins recently. Both were awesome. Definitely to-purchase. Great fun. Excited about Chuck’s Season 3 and Burn Notice’s continuation in January too. Workin’ away at my to-watch lists…

I’ve been on a pretty major Star Wars kick lately. Partly nostalgia (I found my first screenplay – a Star Wars fanfilm, almost 70 pages!), partly reading Death Troopers (fun!) and partly finally getting around to watching Star Wars Clone Wars from Cartoon Network. Pretty awesome series, I’m having a blast. You know it’s good when it gets you excited about watching the prequels. Yea. That’s serious.

Listening to lots of industrial and gothic, generally dark stuff lately…Rammstein mostly but Imperative Reaction, Assemblage 23, Zombie Girl a bit, I:Scintilla, Heimataerde, Icon of Coil and Birthday Massacre. Got Nightwish’s Dark Passion Play on in the background right now. Never a baddie :P. Awesome album.

Hope all’s well with everybody reading. And everybody not reading. And no I didn’t get you presents. Have great holidays! :)

Smitten: [link]
Fear: [link]
I’m Me Again and it’s All Because of You: [link]

First up…my new demo reel is online! Finally, I can share the last few week’s (and June’s) work with people. Also, after watching that [link], check out my new portfolio site here.

Also…in other newses….I’ve got a few new poems up at DA (my profile’s linked to from the portfolio site, but I wanted to give ‘em a shout-out on here too). They’re posted below with links to the DA pages.

It’s You

I keep sitting and thinking,
getting lost in daydreams of you.
My heart skips and jumps, clinking,
feels fragile as glass, sticky like glue.

It shudders with fear, closed and cold,
shedding its own tears of self-imposed
solitude, emptiness, will I be alone when I’m old?
But you send me smiles through wires like electric hoses.

I’m showered, bathing in your love,
I’m warm and safe cuddling your heart,
your smiles mystify what I’m afraid of
and glorify Cupid’s fateful dart.

I’m shivering in the grey city tonight,
but your giggle comes across the airwaves,
makes the fire in my heart re-ignite,
and I revel in a chance to see your face.

Link: http://runeshai.deviantart.com/art/Reminders-141881842

Life

I’m filling my head with punk-rock tunes,
ingesting the lyrics like revolution fumes,
talking about progress, changes, unity,
while I’m caught in everyday reality.

Stuck in my thoughts, lost in my head,
one of these days I’m gonna end up dead,
ghost heart and soul, a tired old ghoul,
drenched in depression, a sober old fool.

My life is my choice, as the days come along,
I better start living soon, and stop writing stupid songs.
I keep getting lost in my mind, floating into space,
maybe I’ve got what’s wrong with the human race.

Life won’t wait, they sang,
It’s your choice, songs rang,
but I can’t stop worrying,
I can’t fight off the fear.

Without you I’m lost in myself, aimless,
without them I’m lost in the world, gameless,
I’m tired of fighting, hoping and pretending,
this feels like a trick question that’s never-ending.

So I’ll retreat to my songs of meaningful days,
waste time away in the sun’s faded rays,
I’ll wish upon stars that I figure myself out,
and avoid life until my time trickles out.

Life is like a quest, but without a grail,
a goal I once had, I feel I failed,
but the days keep moving, the sun rises and sets,
so I guess I’ll do the same, and give it my best.

Link: http://runeshai.deviantart.com/art/Life-142037871

I’ve been playing a lot more with rhyming recently in my writing. Mostly inspired by a good friend’s writing, who’s super-talented at applicable rhyming in poetry (as opposed to non-applicable rhyming, which is what I’m good at :P), and read me a new piece recently. I’ve always admired good writing that rhymes, because for me, it takes much more thought and effort to get not only the thoughts into the right words, but to arrange those words lyrically and have them match a pattern, that can be pretty tough. So it’s nice when I get a rhyming piece out there that I still like a day or two after writing it (I almost always allow a ‘cooling period’ after which I re-read my stuff, then decide if it’s worth showing to anybody). Of course, sometimes I’ll throw a rhyme in to fit the mood if not necessarily the feeling I’m trying to convey, to move the piece along and get me into a new rhyme that might afford a better opportunity to express whatever it is I’m trying to express.

Anyway….rambling…I’m content with the pieces above, they’re linked, and my new demo reel’s online (yay!) so check all that out and let me know what you think (of any of it) :P.

Now, I haven’t read the book in years, but I’ll do my best to remember… The plot was different from the book, but it needed to be; there wouldn’t have been enough story or development to adapt it straight from book to screen. So some changes were made. The monsters though were great, just how I remembered them, and Max, while obviously a child actor’s version of Max, was pretty darn close to what I remember from the books. Maybe a little more sad or angry than I’d expected, but then again, changes needed to be made for the film.

When it comes down to it, it wasn’t exactly what I’d expected, but it hit the spot. It’s a mature look at what it means to be a kid, and sure, the emotion’s shared and loved by everyone, but it’s damn good to be reminded every now and then. Basically I went in for a reminder of childhood, of imagination and innocence, and I got teary enough times to be satisfied that the movie was doing its job. I remember sitting in my room playing with Legos for hours and hours, building bigger and bigger castles, ninja fortresses, even a cowboy ghost town at one point. Oh yea… and the pirate ships…oh, did I love my pirates. There was no reason not to play, no reason not to explore and imagine and create things, and I feel that’s something I’ve lost a bit of now, growing up. Things need to be justified, planned, organized. Sometimes I think we all need to take a few steps back, chill, and let the wild rumpus start.

Rebuilding…commence!

It’s raining.
Surprise, surprise.
I’m acutely unaware
        of a hand to hold,
        another body’s warmth.
Everything I see
        reminds me of her:
        the flower I wish I’d given,
        the grass I want to pad her happy footsteps,
        the forest bench and ocean air I wish I could share
                with her.
But somehow I’m reminded of you.
Yonder bench is overgrown,
        bright pink flowers wrapping their coils
                ’round its faded seat,
        perhaps reminders of its happy memories,
                a guarded relic,
                preserved,
                protected,
        and here I sit enclosed
                trees protect and hide me while I watch,
                        a solemn predator
                        after lonely prey.
Life goes on:
        tiny flies scurry in the breeze,
        grasses wave and dance,
        leaves whisper their endless tunes.
Still… I’m reminded somehow of you.
But I don’t miss you…
        I miss what I gave you…
        wish I could give it again…
        or just have it…
        or see it…
Oh, rebuilding…commence!
It’s raining.
I must walk home.
Maybe I’ll be cleansed.

also viewable @ DA.

Recent events and reminiscing and reflecting on life and the people in (and out of) it, I’ve been fascinated with the role of integrity and the limits or ranges it has in daily life. And the demand it places on people, and the image or attitude it seems to imply, often regardless of its usage. More though, more than anything else, I’m surprised at the difficulty to maintain it to the level I feel the need to, and the trickiness in applying it to everyday life when convention and practicality demand otherwise.

Look at me all high and mighty. Eh… 20 years old afford some reflection. As does any birthday, really. And any other day, in my mind. Anyway.. I read the following caption and sort of let recent thoughts surface a bit.

I will settle down. Have children. Keep copies of Reader’s Digest in the bathroom. Watch golf. Mow the yard. Remain emotionally distant from our kids. Go to church. Wear a polo shirt tucked into khaki shorts. Write checks at the grocery store. Become a vacant shell of a person who’s only joy is meatloaf dinners. Basically I’m ready to mature as person by quietly dying inside.

Regardless of convention, I’m sticking with Faintheart and Katie Melua for my foreseeable future. On the good side though, I’ve got some hope, according to Milla Jovovich: “Nerdy guys are always the cool ones in the end.”

Via The Superficial. And again.

Now then, I’ve been getting out a lot more recently, I’ve taken to daily walks down to the waterside, picking different sitting-and-watching-spots each time I go to the park by my house. It’s about 6 blocks away, down the hill and across the streets, and I go when the sun is almost setting, to soak in the last few rays and feel the breeze on my cheeks, to breathe the fresher air and remind myself that there are other people living and moving around me, no matter how I shut myself up in my apartment room.

On these walks, I bring a book – Dune, for you curious types, and I’m almost done with it…a review should follow, but that simple mention is not a promise – and a notebook for recording ideas and thoughts, describing the sun and the mountains, the waves that lap the rock-cement seawall, or for remembering the old couple who wander down the path at sunset. I’ve begun writing much more, much like I used to, endeavoring to rediscover that spark I had before, the endless flow of ideas and thoughts that formed themselves into words, phrases, the lyrics of my mind that came pouring out like fresh, cold milk, coating and soothing and solidifying into a sweet cream… letting me understand their substance and intent.

And even now, inspired by a podcast series from the Open University (hurrah! for open learning initiatives) on creative writing, I’ve decided to link said podcast and some new writing of my own.

Podcast

Since I’ve already mentioned it, I’ll get it out of the way. The podcast is entitled Creative Writing, a description of its accompanying course can be found here, and a description from iTunes of the podcast is provided below.

The tracks on this album offer an invaluable insight into a wide range of techniques and practices surrounding Creative Writing. Writers as diverse as Alan Ayckbourn, Ian MacMillan and Tanika Gupta talk openly about their approaches and attitudes to all aspects of writing from original concept to final drafts and productions. Writing for stage, print, television and radio is discussed in engaging and articulate detail.

News/Writing

I’ve been taking walks and writing of late, and sometimes, if a day or two after writing it, I still like a piece, I’ll add it to my DeviantArt account. But since that blog isn’t linked to anything, I figured I’d let people know through here. The first poem is called Cold & Battled, and can be read here. The second is shorter, more fantastical, and needs a bit of help, but can be read in the meantime here. There’s another short piece in my ‘scraps’ section there, so look for that as well if you’re interested.

In his lock-step schedule, he sets aside daily “Michelle time.” And last weekend, he fulfilled a promise to her. They got all gussied up and flew to New York, took a limo to dinner and a Broadway show, then flew home. Date night, just the two of them. Michelle and Barack. And their security detail.

As far as the comment about it being a “staging of matrimonial contentment,” I don’t care; it’s the image, the message of being happy, making time for romance and emotion and letting go of the routine and the job for a moment with your better half. Someone who’s clearly got solid good intentions in public and private office is setting an example for married couples all over at the same time, “and a man who can do that can plan my castle onslaught any day!”

via New York Times