I have completed the impossible.
I am a recognizable customer at my favourite Starbucks – officially. In a city with a population in the millions, my barista was able to not only place me, but comment that “I wasn’t wearing my hat today”.
And I didn’t think I wore it that often.
Obviously, the ‘one cup of coffee a week’ rule was thrown out the window a while ago. This was brought into play when I realized how much I enjoy sitting down in the shop – the one connected to the bookstore – with a cup of coffee and writing. There’s just something about being surrounded by words and novels that helps the creative juices start flowing.
Something that I need – I’ve gotta pump out two second chapters and finish a first chapter tonight in order to meet any semblance of a deadline for my fictionpress stories. But I’m excited. This is the first time that I’ve had so much inspiration to not only create a setting and characters, but also a story. And with my chapter a week plan, these stories will hopefully be complete by the end of the year.
And that will be something worth feeling proud about.
In other news, I attended alice in wonderland today. I didn’t have extremely high expectations (as I find that movies with this much hype generally fall flat), but I did intend to enjoy myself. What I didn’t foretell was leaving the theatre feeling incomplete about the storyline. The scenes by themselves were fantastic – visually, the movie was stunning, costumes and settings alike. But there was just something missing.
It reminded me of the essay I spent all night working on Thursday night – the thought was there, the intention, the feeling. The writer knew what they were trying to achieve, they just couldn’t figure out the right way to do it. But in all honesty, I thought that Tim Burton would be able to provide more completion.
The film felt like it was a movie using Alice in Wonderland as an excuse to tell another story. It was too much of an ‘epic’ (a very formulaic epic) to be Alice in Wonderland – the very attraction to Alice is the amount of detail and unexpected happenstance invested in whimsical wonderland. There was very little of that charm, that nonsense, in this movie. Too many plot devices were used that had no value either to the plot or to the emotional feel of the story. They were just devices, creating a plot. The plot and the characters were two separate entities, working beside one another, but not together. Altogether, it didn’t work. Individual scenes were fine. The actors were fine. The setting was fine. But the movie was a letdown.
Oh well. I’m not sure it was worth the fifteen dollars to see it in theatres, but it wasn’t a complete waste.
I give it a 70%. I’ve seen worse, I’ve seen better.
For now, I’ll just enjoy my coffee and get back to writing.
(The guy who recognized me ended his shift – I feel comfortably anonymous again in my bad habits.)
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Tottering Thoughts
The Anonymous Aspect
Posted in General Commentary, Movie Review, tagged Alice in Wonderland, Fictionpress, Johnny Depp, Starbucks, Tim Burton, Writing on March 20, 2010| Leave a Comment »
I have completed the impossible.
I am a recognizable customer at my favourite Starbucks – officially. In a city with a population in the millions, my barista was able to not only place me, but comment that “I wasn’t wearing my hat today”.
And I didn’t think I wore it that often.
Obviously, the ‘one cup of coffee a week’ rule was thrown out the window a while ago. This was brought into play when I realized how much I enjoy sitting down in the shop – the one connected to the bookstore – with a cup of coffee and writing. There’s just something about being surrounded by words and novels that helps the creative juices start flowing.
Something that I need – I’ve gotta pump out two second chapters and finish a first chapter tonight in order to meet any semblance of a deadline for my fictionpress stories. But I’m excited. This is the first time that I’ve had so much inspiration to not only create a setting and characters, but also a story. And with my chapter a week plan, these stories will hopefully be complete by the end of the year.
And that will be something worth feeling proud about.
It reminded me of the essay I spent all night working on Thursday night – the thought was there, the intention, the feeling. The writer knew what they were trying to achieve, they just couldn’t figure out the right way to do it. But in all honesty, I thought that Tim Burton would be able to provide more completion.
The film felt like it was a movie using Alice in Wonderland as an excuse to tell another story. It was too much of an ‘epic’ (a very formulaic epic) to be Alice in Wonderland – the very attraction to Alice is the amount of detail and unexpected happenstance invested in whimsical wonderland. There was very little of that charm, that nonsense, in this movie. Too many plot devices were used that had no value either to the plot or to the emotional feel of the story. They were just devices, creating a plot. The plot and the characters were two separate entities, working beside one another, but not together. Altogether, it didn’t work. Individual scenes were fine. The actors were fine. The setting was fine. But the movie was a letdown.
Oh well. I’m not sure it was worth the fifteen dollars to see it in theatres, but it wasn’t a complete waste.
I give it a 70%. I’ve seen worse, I’ve seen better.
For now, I’ll just enjoy my coffee and get back to writing.
(The guy who recognized me ended his shift – I feel comfortably anonymous again in my bad habits.)
Read Full Post »