Dead

Sometimes this blog has a way of getting shot dead. I often forget why I have this blog in the first place. I know my first post is some kind of a manifesto, plus another post which is more Alice-related, but ideas have a way of evolving and I'm sure this blog has turned into some other kind of monster by now.

In my previous post I blindly praised Rango without getting into the meaty specifics and justification of its genius. This is due partly because I'm going through personal motivational issues and also partly because I can't find my notes I wrote in a frenzy at the time of planning that post, and to top that the notes are incomplete (I figured I would just improvise the unwritten parts). I also have notes lying around for a review of Sucker Punch and the general descent of Zack Snyder.

For anyone interested, the second part of the Rango review involved discussions on 4th-wall, Greek chorus, homage, cameo appearances, narrative structure, humour, symbolism and metaphor. And that was just for the story, character designs also play a strong part, and in the case of this movie, they related heavily with homage and cameos. The 'homage' aspect was going to take up the bulk of the discussion, as I was going to do a comparison review with the movie Shiki-Jitsu ("Ritual") directed by Anno Hideaki. They are two very different movies, but they share a fundamental similarity on the significant choices of actors and especially who those actors are portraying.

I guess with a bit of research one could come to their own conclusion with what I was planning to go on about. I know my friend Peter was going to do a review, as he mentioned that it's the first non-Pixar 3D animated major motion-picture that he has really enjoyed, but I guess he's busy right now.

With that out of the way, I can plan my next step in the evolution of this blog. I want to try out some creative exercises. I often think it would be fun to challenge myself - just as an exercise - in making improvements in failed ideas and stories. I've been currently reading some fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm, and although they were recorded in another time, probably more spoken than written, I could imagine handing one of those to a University-level creative-writing lecturer as an assignment and getting it back with red scribbles crossing out entire sentences, if not paragraphs. Brothers Grimm stories have become popular again recently, what with the new version of Sleeping Beauty coming out this year featuring Emily "Babydoll" Browning in the lead role. I get the impression that the original texts are more like starting points, ready to be revised and expanded upon, much like what Disney has been doing time and time again, only they can't seem to bare the morbidity and the occasionally absurd bloody violence.

I would also find it interesting as an exercise to try and adapt a story from unconventional sources. Things like abstract non-story video games (Tetris, for example); a piece of instrumental music, or a song/poem with vague lyrics; a photograph or a painting; a joke or anti-joke; a piece of food; an alarm clock, maybe. I'm just trailing off here, listing things in my immediate view, but it's about thinking laterally.

I've always wanted to be a part of a blogging community (a blogosphere?) who operate as a kind of online writing-workshop for stuff like this. I could search for one, but I'm not very fond of random people who post on the Internet, who mostly end up pissing me off. I'd rather do it with a group of friends who have similar interests and who I know can construct a logical argument. But this is hard to organise, I may as well just remain the ever-persistent one-man-band.

I think the real reason for having this blog at all is because I think about things too much, and after a while without any articulation, my head begins to hurt.