Thursday, January 26, 2012

Photographic Update

I've been going through my archive of photos these past few days, to analyse what I took, edit and upload some photos. So here are my latest. A few are a bit 'past their prime', and you'll see why, but I like them, so I put them up anyway or they never will be.

















The Perks of being a Wallflower.


This is truly an amazing book. Since my post about my reading list here, the book The Perks of being a Wallflower has arrived through post. I read it. I loved it.

Picture from here


First of all, a Wallflower, as defined in the book, is someone who sees things, who notices stuff. As I get it, these are people who understand.

"You see things. You keep quiet about them. And you understand."

The book is a series of letters that the protagonist, Charlie, writes to a 'friend' whose identity we do not know. Charlie has his way of seeing things. He's shy, unpopular and by convention, weird. In the book, we see Charlie make friends, grow, experience things and go through some rough patches.


Picture from here


Picture from here


What I love most is Charlie's intent quest on making people happy. It is not a good thing. He screws up, but he gets to learn why. Most of all, the reader learns why.

"It's great that you can listen and be a shoulder to someone, but what about when someone doesn't need a shoulder. What if they need the arms or something like that? You can't just sit there and put everybody's lives ahead of yours and thing it counts as love. You just can't. You have to do things."

What I also like a lot in this book is that Charlie mentions all these extra books that his teacher, Bill, gives him to read. These are: To Kill a Mocking Bird, This Side of Paradise, Peter Pan, The Great Gatsby, Separate Peace, The Catcher in the Rye, On The Road, Naked Lunch, Walden, The Stranger and The Fountainhead.

They're in the order in which Charlie read them, too. Yes, I'm so busy that procrastination is at it's best. Bill also gives him a list of movies to see. Which, of course, I've looked up the names of: The Graduate, Harold & Maude, My Life As A Dog, Dead poets Society and The Unbelievable Truth. I really want to read those books, and watch those movies. When I have time. Which I don't. Right now.

I have also put together a playlist of the mix Charlie makes. This mix was part of the 2 sided mix tape he gives Patrick (a friend) as  part of a Christmas Present.

Asleep by The Smiths
Vapour Trail by Ride
Scarborough Fair by Simon and Garfunkel
A Whiter Shade of pale
Time of No Reply by Nick Drake
Dear Prudence by The Beatles
Gyspy by Suzanne Vega
Nights in White Satin by The Moody Blues
Daydream by Smashing Pumpkins
Dusk by Genesis
MLK by U2
Blackbird by The Beatles
Landslide by Fleetwood Mac

"And finally...

Asleep by The Smiths (again!)"

That's all about the book. I really suggest that people read it. It's good.

Anyway, coincidentally, they are doing a movie adaptation of this book. It is being directed by Stephen Chbosky, the author himself. I'm a bit wary, as with any adaptation of any book really, but still looking forward to seeing it. I just hope they do the book justice. There isn't even a trailer yet. I won't even put up the movie poster or anything. I really like reading books first, and then watching the movie adaptations. It leaves you free to make up your own version of how things look. 

That's all folks. :)
x

Friday, January 20, 2012

That's sick. Love-sick.

Call me a girl (which I am, actually), but one of my favourite things to do when I've had a particularly stressful day, is put on one of those soppy romantic films. Actually, my best friend got me into this habit. My idea of a good film really is of the likes of Lord of the Rings, Pirates of the Caribbean, Alice in Wonderland, Hot Fuzz (Damn good Film. One of my friends had suggested this some four years ago.) and Indiana Jones.

However, I will today give you a list of some of my favourites from the Romance/ Romantic Comedy Genres.


Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

  • Joel: I can't see anything that I don't like about you.
  • Clementine: But you will! But you will. You know, you will think of things. And I'll get bored with you and feel trapped because that's what happens with me.
  • Joel: Okay.
  • Clementine: Okay.


500 Days of Summer
I'm kind of in love with the male protagonist. Those eyes.
"To die by your side is such a heavenly way to die" - The Smiths

50 First Dates


Love and Other Drugs
"You meet a thousand people, then you meet that one person and your life is changed."

No Strings Attached
!!ashtonkutcherrr! HAHA.

Love Actually
Haha this is so whimsical and sweet.




Walk to Remember

DIE Leukaemia, DIE. :(

Beauty and the Beast
Yes, heck yes. :)

















And I leave you with that heck of a toothy smile. *bares teeth* :D


Thursday, January 19, 2012

A Weekend Playlist

I have put together a small playlist for this weekend. The creation of this playlist reflects things which went on this week, including stuff and songs I found randomly, read or rediscovered. :)

The Daily Mail- Radiohead
Shelter- The xx
Bohemian Like You- Dandy Warhols
New Shoes- Paolo Nutini
Tubular Bells- Mike Oldfield
Somebody That I Used To Know- Gotye (feat. Kimbra) I know I linked this some months ago, 
but only now people are actually listening to it. 
Psychobabble- Alan Parsons Project
How To disappear Completely- Radiohead
Otherside- Red Hot Chilli Peppers
Dakota- Stereophonics
We Never Change- Coldplay
Folding Stars- Biffy Clyro
Heartbeats- Jose Gonzalez

Here's a link to the YouTube playlist. :)





Ways to Stay Creative

I came across this through StumbleUpon a while ago and I loved it. It's called 'Ways to stay Creative'. Actually, since I'm doing a credit on Creativity myself, I think I will also do my own list of ways to practice creativity. For now though, I'll leave you with this, as I have an assignment due next week and I'm a bit behind. Oops.

Taken from here

Bookish Updates

I've been buying quite a few books lately, so I thought that telling you about what it is I'm reading at the moment would be a good idea. Books I buy are generally all in English, something that I do wish will change this year. My 1st language is actually Maltese, and I'd really like to find good books in this language.

Photo from here

Anyway, on with the books. First and foremost is possibly the most important book of the year.

Art and Visual Perception: A Psychology of the Creative Eye
by Rudolf Arnheim

This book is amazing. The author goes through various elements of perception; shape, form, line, balance and analyses the psychological part of vision and how the eye sees. It's not only words, he gives examples, and some of the points you will come across are really something.

Design as Art
by Bruno Munari

Bruno Munari was an Italian Artist/Designer. In this book he covers a lot of different things, including the 'Useless Machines' he used to make, symbols, the use of language, the form of objects we use and the design with its relation to art. Reading this book is a challenge to how we are commonly taught to see and think about things.

Photo from here


The Fashion Photography Course
by Eliot Siegel

The Language of Things: Understanding a World of Desirable Objects
by Deyan Sudjic

The Perks of Being a Wallflower
by Stephen Chbosky

"So, this is my life. And I want you to know that I am both happy and sad and I'm still trying to figure out how that could be." 

This seems like a really good book. It does have quite some positive reviews on Amazon as a matter of fact. I just bought it, hope it gets here soon. Haha.

The Hitchhiker's guide to the Galaxy
by Douglas Adams

No, haven't read it yet. Seems aaah-mazing though:

"Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the Western Spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun. Orbiting this at a distance of roughly ninety-two million miles is an utterly insignificant little blue-green planet whose ape-descended life forms are so amazingly primitive that they still thing digital watches are a pretty neat idea."

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Music update



Awesomely mellow song. Give it some time, it turns out real nice. :)

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...