I got chastised over the weekend by my mother in law for not keeping up with this blog. I know I have been bad. Not to make excuses or anything but I have tried...nothing has been coming out of me lately. Everything I write seems to be blah. Classic writers block. All the greats get it right? The worst was when I would get this in college and a paper was due the next morning. I was a pacer and a huge procrastinator but somehow I always got it in on time. I guess having a deadline made the difference. Here, who is watching me but my lovely mother in law? If I got paid for doing this, well that would be a different story now wouldn't it? If I was a paid writer, writers block wouldn't exist in my vocabulary. But seriously, I need to pick up the pace here and instead of spending all of my time on social media hypocritically chastising George R. R. Martin for taking so long to finish his series, "The Song of Ice and Fire" I should just complain about it here. Seriously dude, what are you waiting for? We are all getting a little tired of your coy games. Shut up and write.
What is going on in my life? Well, I'm working weird hours (yawn), I hurt my back (boo), its almost summer (yay!) and I'm reading some crappy books. Well, that's not entirely true. I read a few really good ones lately mixed in with a lot of crappy ones. The problem these days is that everyone and their uncle thinks they can be a writer.I can't even go into a bookstore without seeing some B-list celebrity's face on the cover of a book. Makes me want to vomit. I miss the days when writers were a bohemian booze drinking, depression riddled, broke sorry bunch of supremely talented people who lived for writing a beautiful sentence. The art is fading and that makes me extremely sad. Of course you can still find great talent out there but you have to wade through the Chelsea Handlers and Snookie's of the world to find them. I go to my local library every week in hopes of finding a gem and it happens so rarely that when it does, it makes my day. Speaking of great books and boozy, brilliant writers....
I watched the latest film version of "The Great Gatsby" recently. This is the one that came out last year starring my Hollywood boyfriend, Leonardo DiCaprio. I was curious and hesitant; Curious because it was directed by Baz Luhrman who also directed the film version of "Romeo and Juliet" that I based my college thesis on and hesitant because no other attempt at making this book into a movie has been successful. My college thesis was based on the idea that Shakespeare would have approved of a modernized version of one of his classics and I wanted to see if the same route was taken with the Fitzgerald classic. The answer is yes and no. The costumes and most of the scenery was straight out of the book but the music was modern. Before I go any further, I will say that I enjoyed the movie. It has its flaws which I will mention of course but I thought that it captured the essence of the story better than expected. I think "Gatsby" has been so hard to put successfully to screen because it is such a layered, complex novel. When I was in my 20s I had big dreams of being a writer; I even lived the life of the authors I idolized - working a night job so I could write during the day, drinking, smoking cigarettes and hanging out with other artistic types after work talking about the meaning of life until we were too drunk to stand. I remember one specific night, I had a very spirited discussion with a fellow waiter/published poet whose favorite book was "Gatsby." I loved being able to talk to someone who had such a love and passion for literature that I do. We talked about not only how finely wrought the novel is, but about how it touches on a myriad of human emotions and circumstances. It is about excess, greed, self indulgence, want, loneliness, longing, hope, love, etc. Each character is deeply flawed and not necessarily likeable but that's what I love about it. So often I read novels where the characters are so one dimensional and caricatures of what humans are really like so I love it when a novel shows people the way they really are: flawed, troubled, sensitive.I thought the movie cast the right actors to portray this. I totally believed in Daisy and Gatsby being layered, complex and deeply flawed souls. The feel of the movie was right on - the excess of the jazz era, the over abundance of wealth and luxury and everyone drinking to forget that none of it makes them happy. Pretty relevant to today except that today we hide behind social media, smart phones and other kooky electronic gadgets. The message will always remain pertinent: we can have everything but feel we have nothing. What I didn't love about he movie was that it often felt frantic which was perhaps the point but I would have liked it dialed it down a notch or two. And even though I adore Leo, I hated the way he said certain words and phrases. In the novel, Gatsby is always calling Nick (the narrator) "old sport." When Leo did this in the movie, it sounded just plain stupid. You may think I am nitpicking here but I dare you to watch it and not feel the same.
That is all for now...here's hoping it won't be another 3 months before I write again. If you don't see anything here by June, know that I am back to ranting on social media about George R. R. Martin's laziness
What is going on in my life? Well, I'm working weird hours (yawn), I hurt my back (boo), its almost summer (yay!) and I'm reading some crappy books. Well, that's not entirely true. I read a few really good ones lately mixed in with a lot of crappy ones. The problem these days is that everyone and their uncle thinks they can be a writer.I can't even go into a bookstore without seeing some B-list celebrity's face on the cover of a book. Makes me want to vomit. I miss the days when writers were a bohemian booze drinking, depression riddled, broke sorry bunch of supremely talented people who lived for writing a beautiful sentence. The art is fading and that makes me extremely sad. Of course you can still find great talent out there but you have to wade through the Chelsea Handlers and Snookie's of the world to find them. I go to my local library every week in hopes of finding a gem and it happens so rarely that when it does, it makes my day. Speaking of great books and boozy, brilliant writers....
I watched the latest film version of "The Great Gatsby" recently. This is the one that came out last year starring my Hollywood boyfriend, Leonardo DiCaprio. I was curious and hesitant; Curious because it was directed by Baz Luhrman who also directed the film version of "Romeo and Juliet" that I based my college thesis on and hesitant because no other attempt at making this book into a movie has been successful. My college thesis was based on the idea that Shakespeare would have approved of a modernized version of one of his classics and I wanted to see if the same route was taken with the Fitzgerald classic. The answer is yes and no. The costumes and most of the scenery was straight out of the book but the music was modern. Before I go any further, I will say that I enjoyed the movie. It has its flaws which I will mention of course but I thought that it captured the essence of the story better than expected. I think "Gatsby" has been so hard to put successfully to screen because it is such a layered, complex novel. When I was in my 20s I had big dreams of being a writer; I even lived the life of the authors I idolized - working a night job so I could write during the day, drinking, smoking cigarettes and hanging out with other artistic types after work talking about the meaning of life until we were too drunk to stand. I remember one specific night, I had a very spirited discussion with a fellow waiter/published poet whose favorite book was "Gatsby." I loved being able to talk to someone who had such a love and passion for literature that I do. We talked about not only how finely wrought the novel is, but about how it touches on a myriad of human emotions and circumstances. It is about excess, greed, self indulgence, want, loneliness, longing, hope, love, etc. Each character is deeply flawed and not necessarily likeable but that's what I love about it. So often I read novels where the characters are so one dimensional and caricatures of what humans are really like so I love it when a novel shows people the way they really are: flawed, troubled, sensitive.I thought the movie cast the right actors to portray this. I totally believed in Daisy and Gatsby being layered, complex and deeply flawed souls. The feel of the movie was right on - the excess of the jazz era, the over abundance of wealth and luxury and everyone drinking to forget that none of it makes them happy. Pretty relevant to today except that today we hide behind social media, smart phones and other kooky electronic gadgets. The message will always remain pertinent: we can have everything but feel we have nothing. What I didn't love about he movie was that it often felt frantic which was perhaps the point but I would have liked it dialed it down a notch or two. And even though I adore Leo, I hated the way he said certain words and phrases. In the novel, Gatsby is always calling Nick (the narrator) "old sport." When Leo did this in the movie, it sounded just plain stupid. You may think I am nitpicking here but I dare you to watch it and not feel the same.
That is all for now...here's hoping it won't be another 3 months before I write again. If you don't see anything here by June, know that I am back to ranting on social media about George R. R. Martin's laziness
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