Genre ~ Buddy Film,
Character ~ Brian or Brianna Merryweather, Lab Technician,
Prop~ Picture Frame,
Line of dialogue~ “For crying out loud!”
Three cars, four actor’s, eight crew.
I am loving this interview!
One of my favorite movies is a recent version of Cinderella, Ever After with Drew Barrymore. I have lots of favorite movies and dislike that question, “What’s your favorite movie?” There are too many for too many reasons.
Why Ever After? Because it’s just a kick ass version of Cinderella. I do remember my first with Lesley Ann Warren. In black and white of course. Cinderella or Danielle in Ever After, no matter what happens, no matter how bad it gets, no matter who tries to beat her down, she remembers who she is and how great she is. And at a point when she could have had her stepmother and sister thrown out of the country, or worse, she takes a lighter approach. If you want to call it lighter? Cinderella ask’s that they show her stepmother the same courtesy that she had bestowed on her. Off to the work camp! 🙂
But that’s not what I’m writing about. After the Prince has fallen in love with the “Comtesse Nicole de Lancret”, Cinderella. He says to her in the ruins, “I used to think that if I cared about anything I’d have to care about everything and I’d go stark raving mad.”
I remember sitting in my little apartment in Raytown, MO. It had to be 1981 or 82? Watching Philip Glass, “Koyaanisqatsi” and weeping when the image of an older man appears on the screen. He appeared to be homeless. I couldn’t stop crying. It was as if the value of every living being was all of a sudden on my shoulders.
I was trying to wrap my head around all this emotion and level of mean today. Maybe I was looking for a distraction? I was thinking about the number 9. A friend was into numerology a few years back and did my numbers. I only remembered 9. It may have been because that’s all she did at the time.
I recently created my 4th Twitter account. One is for some work that I’m doing so it’s not really my account. One is @4212Olive. The address of the house that my Dad grew up in and the house that holds or held many of the stories of his youth that I heard in my youth. There also where my Uncle, Aunt and of course Grandparents. Stories that I still hear 50 plus years later. Then I realized, 4+2+1+2=9. I know!!
O.k., Google search for numerology. Get your free reading, from a guy in Beaverton, OR? Near where I used to live. Sure! Then I got about 5 follow up email asking if I wanted more. Which was fine. That’s how he makes money. I kind of wish that was something I could just throw money at for fun right now. But I don’t think it fits into the budget of my unemployed status.
My life path is 9, of course. expression is 5, soul urge is 8. Here are few random sentences from the reading.
9 – You probably feel responsible for keeping up the morality or spirit of mankind in some way, or even responsible for their very souls. You are very aware of feeling as insignificant as a grain of sand in the Universe and believe that materialism, prejudice and lust just don’t matter in the long run. Often the number 9 faces a unique challenge at some point in his or her life that seems to be a test of faith. Usually this incident takes the form of a devastating personal loss, disease or some sort of tragedy. This triggers a period of time that lasts a few years that is often called the “dark night of the soul.” It is usually during this period of your life that you find the extreme courage and strength to become what is called a wounded healer. Your life may seem too tough to handle at times which makes you vulnerable to finding substitutes for the family unit.
5 – As your independence is so important to you, you thrive best in creative occupations that allow you a great deal of travel. You have an eye for design and appreciate the good things in life. In fact, you may spend a lot of your time trying to figure out how to get these things without having to work too hard. You very much believe that a person is defined by what he does and not what he wants to do so any business or project that you start will be very much branded with your personal flair. You are terrified of being stuck in one place or having your free spirit suffocated by labels and possessiveness. For this reason many of you feel quite suffocated in relationships or are unable to hold down a day job for any length of time. The last thing that could ever be said of you is that you are closed-minded. However, sometimes your permissiveness leads to relationships with odd or unstable individuals.
8 – Often your devotion to keeping the free exchange of money flowing costs you dearly personally either through overwork or thanklessness from others. The highest expression of your soul urge number is when you are at the top of the food chain and dispensing goodies down to those who work for you or love you. You are blessed with the tools that come in hand with being a great leader – foresight, analytical abilities and a great understanding of human nature. Your ability to sell ice to an Eskimo comes from a truly grounded and practical understanding of the wants and needs of humans. You are very astute when it comes to choosing partners and employees. You always assign people to roles that best suit their talents and resources and so that all benefit from your grand plans.
What does this all mean? I have no idea. But it does feel familiar.
I don’t know what I think about these types of things. They often seem to have some element of truth to them. Myer’s Briggs, Now, Discover Your Strength all of these random tests have truth to them, because they do describe parts of me.
But then I also believe a bit in that concept of predestination. That for the most part your life path is carved out for you. You may do things along the way that temporarily take you down another path. But ultimately you end up where you end up. You think you know what you want or where you want to be, but some one or some other force steps in front of you.
So I’m a bit stuck, but not really…#9, #5, #8. What’s next?
Ever After also says what I have believed forEver, you just never know. So maybe a little more care in what you say to and about others.
So I’m going through boxes, closets and drawers to purge the unwanted, unused and ignored. As I do this I am, as suspected, running across things that I new were there, just didn’t know exactly were.
Like the very, very short story of Mowana-Winky. It’s on hotel paper from the Inn of Chicago. I don’t remember the conference, but know I was there. It was back in 1993 or 1994, cross my heart! Somewhere around there, anyway. And if some of you reading this, read my blog regularly. You will see a pattern or theme that runs through my life.
Maybe this will be this year’s National Novel Writing Month project.
Mowana-Winky lived in the jungle, with not a care in the world. Life was very simple. Nothing controlled Mowana-Winky. A day would begin with a stretch. Since no real duties go with the days events, hunger is the only guideline to action. Unless of course… it’s raining. The rain cleans and refreshes. Mowana-Winky liked rain. It was assurance that things were normal. And, time to laze away. The one aspect of Mowana-Winky’s life that was of the utmost importance was – the ocean. Being in the water calmed and put Mawana-Winky at ease. Water is a life force, a source of all potential. What was it about the water that drew Mowana-Winky? Something deep in the soul, in the unconscious. A mystery but a comfort.
There were about 25 at Souk on Tuesday, to talk about the recent perceived misstep by the city to get some help “refreshing” the cities website. Designers, agencies, associations, writers, theatre and a guy from the city! I was very glad he was there. But not the person or persons we wanted for the conversation. And while disappointed the invited city officials who invited the design community to enter a contest to win the honor of changing the way Portlandonline.com looks, couldn’t make it. I wasn’t surprised.
As a community, we have before us a unique opportunity. That with the right wit, savvy and controlled passion we can generate and create great change. Just because this strikes at the core of what we do and how we survive, does not mean that in one quickly pulled together meeting we would be ready and prepared to educate those that we deem in desperate need of education.
I’m not a web designer or developer. But I’ve found jobs for a few here and there. With this statement from the letter alone;
The fact that the contest winner or winners will receive one year of recognition on every page of the over 140,000 City web pages and all the additional web traffic that will generate in search engine optimization and brand recognition for the winner is a highly valuable commodity. PortlandOnline receives about 2.5 million hits per month.
It seems, (an assumption on my part) that they might not truly understand SEO and how that may or may not translate to measurable ROI for the “contest” winner. Yes, 2.5 million is a lot. But who is behind those 2.5 million hits? What percentage is thinking, while I’m looking for that carpool info or affordable housing, I’ll check out the design and maybe have the team that did this do a site for me.
Actually, if I had the cash and a business that I needed a site for, I wouldn’t be interested in someone who does work for the city or government. Unless I was a city or government. I’d go to sites that I liked or had similar concept and product and approach them. Now they might be the agency who “refreshed” the cities site. But PortlandOnline is not where I would go to find talent.
A contest is what my classmates did in art school to get their design up on a billboard in Kansas City. Actually, that had a cash prize with it as well. Point is, it was a “student” contest.
Some great stuff came from this roundtable last night. Someone who wasn’t there at the meeting Tweeted, that we shouldn’t care. I disagree, I think we should. So I said, “who cares? We should all care, it’s principle. No one’s work should be procured via contest.” They responded back, “I’d say you shouldn’t speak for others. if a pro, student, amateur wants to do the #portlandonline site they are free to (do it free). I disagree. I like the idea of a larger conversation that has engaged many who are speaking together.
I kind of blew it off. But now I’m a bit annoyed and confused by the statement, “I shouldn’t speak for others”? Well, “I” wasn’t really speaking for others, I was indirectly conveying the tone of the dialogue I thought I heard that we had earlier in the evening. I’m not going to sit back and let the talent that I know have their work devalued because someone doesn’t understand the value of it. I don’t understand that kind of thinking? Or how there is a difference in “speaking out”? They were using the hashtag #portlandonline so had to have been following the conversation? Should I not care? Should only they speak and not me or anyone else? Still confused…
I don’t claim to know anything or have the answers. But to take any talent, designer, architect, barista, factory worker, engineer and make light of what they do by asking them to participate in a contest?
Grabbing a comment from the Rick Turoczy's blog,
“To borrow a point from @Mattg (on Twitter), you don’t see the city asking for volunteers to fill in pot holes, do you? Would that be acceptable to you?”
To me? No, but then I shouldn’t speak for other’s. I’ll be quiet now. Maybe.
What is it about the water that I am so drawn to it? I don’t think probably more or less than most maybe. What is it?
I often find myself thinking how peaceful it is under the water. I love sounds, but there is nothing like the sound that is underwater. It’s suspended; it’s void and blank. There is a heavy feel to it. Yet it is calming, natural and mysterious. I think a lot about how to be on the water.
If it were possible to be in the water, I’d do it in a heartbeat. Not in like the “Incredible Mr Limpet” way, just in somehow.
Being in or around the water you didn’t think about what was going on in your world or the world for that matter. You had to pay attention to the water and what you were doing in it. You have to pay attention, be present. You have to balance and measure your breathing.
It is total escape. It is the avoidance of everything else around you.
It wraps your body in a gentle hug of a cool touch that sometimes turned warm depending on the time of the year and how large a body of water you were in. It would allow you to float, lay back and relax. Dive and let all of the air out of your lungs to listen, listen to nothing. You do have to employee a certain amount of attention. Keeping in mind where you are, the depth and where the surface is. Because no matter how hard you try to float, you might loose your buoyancy. If below, at some point, you have to surface to breathe air.
Since moving to Portland in 1997 and realizing that you can live on the water. I think about it all the time. Some days it feels like if I don’t my life will somehow be short, or cheated of what it is suppose to be. Some days it feels like I want that more than anything.
Back in 2002 or 2003 I read an article that claimed it was water, not oil that was the major cause of war in the Middle East. I don’t have the original article that was in the NY Times. But I did find this at, leinsdorf.com I don’t know who this is, but he has a post that speaks to this very topic. And there is this post.
But I digress and this makes me very unhappy. They have taken my oasis, my retreat and made it a struggle amongst people.
Breath …. Breath
Okay, back to my original thoughts.
Water – Chinese
Water – Molecule
I kind’a like that! Seems kinda floaty! Thank you Wikipedia!
I think it can be said that I like water, pools, lakes, oceans and rivers. That said, my one fear is drowning. For that very reason you won’t find me white water rafting. And not every time but occasionally crossing over a bridge I think about what I would do on the way down if the bridge collapsed in an effort to not drown? If I survived the impact should I leave the windows up or open them? I’m sure I can find that online.
I grew up in Missouri. The largest body of water was a lake. Two actually. Both about 20 minutes away. I now live in Portland. I cross the Willamette River almost every day. I can sit at Island Café and the water is inches below me. I can sit at my friend Mel’s and look down on the river. If I head west on 26, I’m 84.2 miles from the Pacific Ocean.
I don’t drive that 84.2 miles as often as I would like. But I know it’s there, it’s a pretty quick drive. After I saw the ocean for the first time when I was 16, I think from that point that water would have a different meaning for me. I think it made me a bit restless and tentative. I think back now an realize that I drove by or around those two lakes in Missouri more than I thought to be near water.
There is something solitary about it. I’m not saying that I’m seeking solitude. I am fine with it, if it’s on the water.
What do you think about this?
Too short? Not specific enough? Ok, what about this?
(disclaimer: just finished second version, checking for errors)
Several years ago in my crazy head popped, Knod Knowingly and the Land of Neverbodies. Yeah, that was it. What am I going to do with that? Like everything else, sit on it for several years and talk about writing the story of Knod Knowingly.
Last November a couple of friends signed up for National Write a Novel Month. You attempt to write a novel of 50,000 words in 30 days. I was unemployed, had TONS of time, when would be a better time? Well as confessed to in an earlier post on my blog, I was about 40,000 words short. But it was further than I’ve ever gotten before. And about 5,000 more words that my two friends who said yeah, join us it will be great! We can get together and have writing nights! (insert cricket sound here) I love ya anyway!!
I was a little disappointed that I didn’t stick to the plan of 1,666 words a day. But I think that I have, as one friend said, a good framework for the story.
And on the Science Channel this week I heard something that may have given me the extra element that I was looking for. Only it isn’t going to be what you might think as you read through the some excerpts to set the scene. I’m hoping with this post that I can get back on track with this new information and hit that 50,000 words before this November (sooner I hope), so that I can start fresh this year.
“Knod Knowingly was the first grandchild of his Father’s parents. This afforded him some luxuries that later in life he would think weren’t worth their emotional weight.
Knod was born on the 27th day of November 1900, in the smallest of the three hospitals near the coast. He was named after his Uncle Knute who had narcolepsy. Knod’s family lived life a bit on the whimsical side. In the 1788 (give or take) when his ancestor’s boarded a small boat with about a100 other’s for the United States, their excitement about the possibilities were in check. They were realistic to what their fate might be. Sameness in a new land or true position and purpose in a place they make their own. On their way to the United States in the boat they were on got just a bit off course. They found themselves, as the sun rose one morning heading right for what looked like a small island. It came into view in time to stop before there was any damage to the boat, but not soon enough to stop if from grounding.”
When I decided to have the Knowingly’s be on an island I went to Google in search of just that. The idea is that Knod’s Great-great-grandparents, with several other families board a boat for America in the late 1700’s to early 1800’s. A storm throws them off course and the boat is grounded on an island. It’s not the “perfect storm”, just one bad enough to throw them off course in the night.
Google maps, Ireland then zoom out. See those dots near the bottom toward the right side of the box? Just west of Portugal. Flores Island. What they soon realized was that they could build shelter and homes faster than getting the boat sea worthy again.
The Island of Flores was discovered in 1450 by Diogo de Teive and his son Joao de Teive. But since this is my story, this group of people discovered it by accident and grounding. They scoured the island while hoping for rescue and found no human live. A few of the men after their expedition around the small island to look for life or help, they returned to the site of the wreck to begin repair on the boat. It was a beautiful island so repairing the boat was a slow process. Not just because it was beautiful sunny and tropical. In order to repair the boat, tree’s and to be cut and planed, etc. And this took time. It was decided since they were the first and no body had ever lived here they named the island Neverbody.
What they didn’t know, because it was deep in the heart of the island, that there was human life.
Now this, for me is a recent development because of that Science Channel show. On the isle of Flores The Mystery of the Human Hobbit, It was the most striking scientific discovery of last year. An entirely new species of mini-human found on an island in Indonesia. Is the hobbit a new species that transforms our view of evolution, or is it simply a very small, modern human being?
Yeah, no I’m not trying to channel Tolkien. Maybe I should read Tolkien so that I don’t cross hairs, mix stories or mythology? I did see some of the movie. So I am most certainly doomed to some similarities. All the more reason to read Tolkien so I can be ever so careful to stay away from it! Damn!
The idea of hobbits is very appealing in a weird way. Not for what they represent, but for another layer in the story. What is driving me is the relationship that Knod has with his family, in particular his Great-Grandmother and how he continues to question and explore, but never really find answers.
I had some friends read it back in December. Thank you! I don’t think they were just being nice? So it gave me a boost to continue. But how…? I don’t know if I add more to the middle or keep going moving forward? Well I guess I have that hobbit think now that can sort of fill in the middle? I certainly have more time to write now that I’m not a slave to Twitter and Facebook! Crazy things!! 139 hours and counting. I might login tomorrow and see what’s up. It’s been a week.
Here’s another excerpt to share.
excerpt; the uncurious adventures of knod knowingly ©
The Uncurious Adventures of Knod Knowingly by Jennifer M. Green is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
I’m still sorting out my thoughts on this. Collaboration is hard. But it seems that people love to talk about it. I’m also thinking about this great post on author Bob Sutton’s, “sir we don’t actually do what we propose we just propose it.”
Ground Hog Day the movie, have you seen it? This is the best way I can think to describe the dialogue and conversation about the topic of creative industry in Portland. Each conversation starts at the same spot and get’s one word further each year. This is at least year 9.
Why are we still JUST talking about creative industry in Portland? Agendas? Strategy? Value proposition? Egos? Mixed messages? Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, YES!
If done right, creativity can be very glamorous. So the fascination is so compelling you could charge admission. But who really has been successful with creative? Think about it. I’m not going to say.
I don’t say mainly because it would be my opinion and my perception of the product.
Part of the problem, I think, is that the creative process never stops. So you are never really done. So how can you put it into a functioning, organized organization or association? And how can you let one person manage that? What is their agenda?
In the last two weeks I’ve been to two separate events, in the creative space, topic being communication and collaboration.
The most interesting thing for me was the Oregon Arts Summit, the Art of Collaboration. There were about 300 people there. I knew 5 people. Which seems odd to me, only because I’ve been involved in the arts and creative industry in Portland for more than 10 years. Who was this audience?
What was very clear to me is that people communicate an idea of collaboration but no one really knows how to implement it. They let their fears or take over. Or they don’t think outside of their immediate reach. They limit their resources. Or let the lack of resources dictate what is possible. Maybe if there were a LinkedIn for interests and causes. Then you could actually see your true network of resources to enrich your program, organization or company. They seem so stifled by what they don’t have, the big gap of what ever it is that makes them a real success that they can’t see past it. They can’t see past, we don’t have enough money, we don’t have enough time…we don’t, we don’t, we don’t. I’m reminded of my “I think I can” talk with my little friend Sophia.
I’m sure I will come back to this topic again.