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Well of course I’d like to chew the fat
Well of course I’d like to be like that
But everything just seems to be
To me, a simple fantasy
That all we do is work all day
And then have little time to play
Create, or even have some fun
This year there has been no sun
So why does everyone seem so able
To plod along and sink under the table
When all I want to do is relax and play
Each and every single day?

Disappointing and exclusive doc about video game jargon.

I had really high hopes about this doc before I saw it. I was excited. I thought it might be a bit like King of Kong. Perhaps I should have done more research before I watched it, but it just did nothing for me. Absolutely nothing. There’s just this lull in the middle where all the games they’ve been working on finally come out and then their reactions to the reviews. 

The only part I think I took notice of is about the personal lives of the guys and the dedication involved in making these games. They are literally in a gaming prison in their minds. One guy calls it a “concentration camp”. It’s like they have no choice. They are quite literally stuck making these games and can’t possibly do anything else. One guy says he would kill himself if he couldn’t finish making his game. And I really believed him when he said it. It almost made me jealous that I don’t have something so important in my life that I’d be willing to end it all. Another guy says “There were at least five times where I totally broke down and I just didn’t want to do it anymore. I couldn’t escape it any way, so I’d go and I’d go into the bath tub and I would turn on the hot water and I’d lay on my back and I’d wait until the water went cold. That was all I had.” About his colleague, Tommy, the same guy said that he’d be happy dying as long as he completed the game.

It’s all very sad and I completely can’t associate with it or empathise with it in anyway. 

I’ve been thinking a lot more about my ‘Riding In Cars With Boys’ project that’s been on the back burner, the idea of couples in cars. Some of my most memorable and joyous teenage years were spent in cars with boys.  It brought me back to Ed Templeton, youth and all the nostalgia it creates when I think back. It’s easy to almost get a sense of a youth you didn’t even experience just from looking at Ed’s photos. It’s that crazy, exciting time when you’re still working out how it all goes, what feels good and all with a grandiose sense of confidence. Sex and lust are a pretty big part of a lot of photographers’ work when it comes to teenagers. Ryan McGinley explores hedonism and the freedom of being young in such a refreshing way; in a way he and his friends were living at the time.

Ed Templeton

Ed Templeton

Ryan McGinley

Ryan McGinley

All photos from TinyVices.com

The mighty catfish sunk to the floor

It sunk so far it could go no more

And then one day it saw the light

Saw the light and decided to fight

It raised one whisker up from the sea bed

Raised it way, way above it’s head

It said “Hey world! I think it’s time

to step it up and take what’s mine!”

And sooner or later it was flying high

Flying high in the media industry up in the sky.

I saw Ruby Sparks last month and neglected to write about it until now. I had no idea what it was when I watched it, and no idea that I was watching a premiere a month in advance. None-the-less for some reason I neglected to say how I felt about it until now, mainly because I felt nothing much particularly of anything about it.

With Jonathon Dayton and Valerie Faris on board, it was bound to be a quirky, heart-felt story with plenty of wow moments, no? Well it was. But somehow I think it just lacked that je ne sais quoi. Paul Dano provides an amazing and unbeatable performance, and Zoe Kazan’s writing is pretty solid, but something didn’t feel right about the way it all sat. It felt overplayed and pretentious in parts; almost complacent. 

Either way, it’s a nice story, with very sweet parts and with all the quirk you’d expect.

This book has changed my life.

I would almost say it’s brought me back to myself and inspired me in a way I had forgotten existed. The stories are beautiful and glowing, yet sad and honest. Without a doubt my favourite must be Majesty. Sexual dreams about Prince William and the loss of a dog called Potato. She writes in a way I can only dream to and about things we all experience within our imaginations as well as in reality.

“The sun was collapsing with a glare that seemed prehistoric; I felt not only blinded but lost, or as if I had lost something. And again she appeared, the woman in the yellow bathrobe. This time she was in a little red car. She had not even put on her clothes; she was still wearing the robe. And she was yelling “Potato” so desperately that she was forgetting to stick her head out the window, she was yelling into the interior of the car uselessly, as if Potato were within her, like God.” - Miranda July.

Slogans for the Early 21st Century, Douglas Coupland, 2012 Courtesy of the Daniel Faria Gallery