Hello dear readers,
Please excuse my dear Aunt Sally. – ahem I mean myself. As of recently I (Katie) had much wedding business and now that I’ve been hammered down as a Mrs. our regularly scheduled programing will pick up where I’ve left off. Thanks for sticking with us. For now, I’ll share one of my favorite photos from my wedding day.
My Little Pony Friendship is Magic Pony Princess Wedding Castle Playset
Greetings dear readers, I thought I might lighten the subject matter after Susan’s Punisher post. It’s Christmas time again and in my still fresh unemployed days I’ve done some Christmas shopping. My currently favorite person to shop for is my kindergarden age niece named Grace, who happens to also have her 5th birthday tomorrow – a doomsday birthday, very exciting. In my shopping in Toy R Us, Target, and BJs (I know a deal when I see it) I’ve been noticing an overwelming trend for little girls. Marriage toys. NOT JUST FOR HUMANS EVERYONE!
All I was looking for was a few my little ponies, simple. Some that maybe bake, some ponies with big long hair you can braid, some with scooters nothing crazy right? Apparently the hit series “My Little Pony Frendship is Magic” had a special recently where a princess (one ‘ve never see? I thought there was only that Celestia one) gets married to a handsome male pony with blue hair and slightly tired/sad eyes. EVERY PLAYSET AT TOYS R US WAS WEDDING THEMED. Pony bridesmaids, oversized princess pony bride, Pinkie Pie the wedding cake baker? I get the cute factor I really do, but I felt so limited to what kind of ponies a girl can play with. So I head over to the Disney Princess isle. Flanking the end of the isle is this. If tiny sized dollies aren’t your speed how about a larger “princess toddler wedding set“.
a triple princess playset of wedded bliss.
Now before you continue on reading and think I’m just some crotchety old maid, complaining because I haven’t nabbed myself a man you’re mistaken. I’m getting married in 4 months to this awesome blondie. I am marrying him because I whole heartedly know I want my life with him, to have kids, get old, see the world with just him. My issue here is that when you make marriage a game, it loses its seriousness (this applies to guns, by the way). It feels like a manufactured, plastic joke. That now ponies and toddlers can get in on. Later in the week when I headed into the disney store to see if they had any awesome special nuggets I found a variety of these dress up numbners that just sealed the deal for me.
With rampant divorce and folks up in arms against gay marriage I feel like I’m getting some mixed signals. Getting married isn’t about putting on a dress and kissing each other, but man Mattel would like me to think that. I was a kid in the late 80′s and early 90′s and have very little recollection of marriage themed toys. Also, with all the planning I’ve been doing I get the distinct feeling that weddings weren’t nearly this complicated or were a production of this size. I don’t know, maybe all this stuff is cute but I’m having a hard time seeing it. If you’re wondering what I ended up getting Grace I got her My Little Pony Scooter Friends and my fiance got her an archery set from the movie Brave.
Also because I KNOW you want to see it, heres my pintrest page for my own nuptials
So this trailer for a Punisher film was put out at San Diego Comicon in July this last year: Dirty Laundry
Shown to me a few weeks after by a friend from out of town it’s stayed on my mind for a good while now (but I sure didn’t get this blog article written in a timely manner). Violent and fun and potentially a new development in how individual interests work to get movies green-lit but still boringly disappointing on the lady front in the way my favorite genre movies generally are.
Set in a nowhere-ville that reads like a cross between Brooklyn, LA and Sudan with a lack of people on the streets making time of day either 4 in the morning or sometime post apocalypse, a man wakes up in a van and I think, “The Wrestler; what a great movie”. Who is this man steppin’ outta this van? It is Thomas Jane, star of the 2004 version of The Punisher.
So Punisher. Stumbling into this Marvel character’s comics as a kid made for me the introduction to SAT vocabulary word, “vigilante”. In my personal dictionary it is his black unitarded person that stands glowering next to the word’s definition.
Why the angry face? Punisher, aka Frank Castle’s family was murdered by mobsters. His need for revenge and justice in the wake of this tragedy, ends up being insatiable. Frank Castle becomes The Punisher, a justice dealing out killer that just wont quit. This being a backstory not at all uncommon in the comic book genre: Batman, Dick Grayson, Shi, Red Sonja, Spider Woman (I’m thinking if you find the right wiki this could be a very long list) Punisher, with no superpowers except for his super seriousness, is meant to be distinct from his fellow comic book compatriots with his willingness to kill. Punisher mets out an eye for an eye justice with no regrets. Lacking a rich double life, having no super-friends, no catchy badguys, and no saucy girl foils, this character failed to keep my interest as I can’t keep holding on. To what you got. When all you’ve got is hurt.
Regardless the character’s gotta look money to a lot of people as over the year there have already been 3 movies made with this character off the Marvel back lot. Hollywood is nothing if not chockablock with wanna be action heroes and wanna be megahits. Dirty Laundry, this latest Punisher effort was introduced to me as having been entirely paid for (or not paid for?) by the actor. This seems unique and noteworthy to me.
Thomas Jane is quoted as saying “I wanted to make a fan film for a character I’ve always loved and believed in – a love letter to Frank Castle & his fans…” (Dear Nightcrawler -long have I longed to wrastle with your blue fuzzy person…). Having never seen Tomas Jane’s first Punisher I Netflix instant viewed it. TJ’s first Punisher is not a good movie. It’s not TERRIBLE… its biggest flaw lies in it being rote: Frank Castle’s family is killed and he finds vengeance. Although this is not an uncommon storyline in movies that I’ve liked: Mad Max, Gladiator,Jean-Claude Van Damme’s Cyborg (like is maybe a strong word in this case), Beastmaster, Conan, The Crow, 2004′s Punisher doesn’t cover any new ground and with nowhere new to go this movie just never gets going.
Possibly this character really resonates with Mr. Jane, possibly he was inspired and felt he had more to say. More likely, I would think, in today’s movie market where nothing new is released, this trailer is a calculated move on the actors part to get himself and his people some blockbuster budget. As a girl subsisting in the edges of this entertainment industry I can super appreciate a person working the angles. There are multiple comicon video’s available of our guy loaning his star power (Hung? Does it have a following?) to artists and artistic interests. He also gets some word in on his own comic book enterprise Raw Studios and some plugs in on a weirder personal platform “God gave you feet and you’re meant to be connected to the ground…” Thomas Jane is a member of The Barefoot Society. Thomas Jane doesn’t wear shoes. To Comicon.
seriously
But back to, “a love letter to Frank Castle (Nightcrawler -why have you returned all my mail?) and his fans It was an incredible experience with everyone on the project throwing in their time just for the fun of it….”
Reeeeeeeaaaallly? How many people would a production like this take? How much time? How much editing? Who put the blur on all the license plates in post? All for free?
“It’s been a blast to be a part of from start to finish; we hope the friends of Frank enjoy watching it as much as we did making it.”
So right, we were watching…
Thomas Jane steps out of a van to do some laundry. He’s been waiting in his van all night just to get this shit done and if I can relate to this guy in no other way I get laundry. Facing up to the reality that is inner city laundry care, sometimes you just gotta get grim.
Right away we’re introduced to Bad Pimp riding in super wide in his pimp-mobile. This pimp has a name: Goldtooth.
That Goldtooth is a asshole is underscored by who he and his gang of wild-boys prey upon: Women (disposable prostitutes) and Children (a little lost schoolboy as cute as Pinocchio).
We meet Brandee Tucker, an actress with an IMDB page who does a very real and believable performance as a girl scrambling for cover, terrified off her ass but credited only as “the girl”, and her prostitute compatriots who go completely uncredited. Goldtooth drives up with his gang in a foul but horny mood. Poor lady bird Brandee. Rapidy rape raped.
His foul mood not entirely spent Goldtooth moves on to wrong place at the wrong time schoolboy Deshawn. Deshawn is unlucky enough to have those screenplay type parents who let confessed drunks be their kid’s bodyguards,
or let beautiful robot ladies pick up their babies while they just… look away… briefly…
Deshawn’s guardians in Punisherland are so lost as to have their kid dressing in the super boughie clothing, walkin’ the streets with the neon arrows pointing at him , loud speakers screaming, “Kick me! No no! Kick me!” Do you know where you live?
The stage is set with the players, it’s well established pimp is an nonredeemable dick. Hand it to the pretty cinematography, the directing and the timing you do get a nice sick feeling like you’ve actually been through something heinous. Here the narration lets us miserably wallow watching Goldtooth evil bastard live large and in charge while our main character loads his washer and wanders into a cameo by favorite character actor Ron Pearlmen.
I used to really love the Nam vet character -I think because they alway read to me as parodies of my dad. The Vietnam Vets have been replaced, inevitably I guess, by our people coming back from the sands. So apparently at some point in the past Beast had gone Restrepo on the evil powers that reign in this hood and his efforts ended him up jaded in a wheelchair. He warns our hero, “You do this thing -you’ll end up like me. And nothing will change” and I mean honestly, this bastard and company took out Hellboy? What chance does Mr. Jane and his dryer sheets got ?
So Frank grabs some whiskey for the road and we get our payoff grand guinol, as our bad ass hero uses a bottle of Jack to bring the pimp down. So wonderful. The blood in this is like icing. Suddenly the whole short is a big, wonderful, cupcake. Num.
The reason I used to want to watch the Walking Dead (I heard season 3 gets better? I don’t know -life is so short to recommit to disappointing sitcoms) the reason I continue to read Invincibles; I WANT to see what a hand punching through a head artfully rendered looks like.
Please. Show me again.
One more time for the ladies.
Indulge me with a Dirty Laundry recap:
Delicious.
Mr. Castle pulls away in his van but not before leaving Deshawn a black t-shirt. A very swollen, very pregnant moment that delivers as soon as our man drives away. Oh its a Punisher T-shirt. Who was that not masked man? Oh yeah. That guy.
So what are we left with. Dirty Laundry has a new look. I love love love post production filters (or what do I know it could be during production filters), the writers seem to have gotten smarter in knowing what we’ve already seen, certainly it follows the unwritten sequel rules: stronger, harder, longer, more extremes in violence and delivery. I found myself excited and certainly feeling the “Fuck yeah!” enthusiasm they were aiming for and anticipating a follow up as satisfying as The Road Warrior, when the Mad Max franchise, done with it’s characters back story gets up to some memorable fun with a Gyro-copter, Wez and a feral boy.
Whether the actor bankrolled or miraculously produced this effort for zero dollars I find the project commendable either way. Will the 3 million hits generate enough fan power to move movie making movers and shakers into making a movie? Would that in itself be a harbinger for something new? I’m remembering back to when Sean Young dressed as The Catwoman to try to get cast in that part in a Batman flick. I guess it didn’t work, got her labeled as crazy and she wears shoes. Possibly all she really needed was a gang of people to make a trailer with her in it? For free?
Now why, why why among all the stuff that is awesome do I still gotta climb on a soapbox to argue for change in the helpless dumb girl motifs?
I know beating up on prostitutes is an easy go to. Prostitutes lowly state and subject of abuse have made them convenient vehicles to showcase the nobility of characters like John Wayne in Stagecoach, Vic Mackey in The Shield, Jet Li in Kiss of the Dragon or hey -Melanie and Belle Watling in Gone with the Wind, just to name a few. Writers demonstrate their character’s humanity by showing their willingness to overlook a sex workers lowly state in life and *gasp* treat them like human beings.
That this is movie code for character and heroism says a lot for societies total acceptance of judging a person who has sex under pretenses you don’t agree with. Come on hypocrisy. We all have sex, and -lets be truthful now, in any relationship we all, on occasion, are takin’ it for the team. That society still has self righteously justified scorn for the people in this world who have worked it out to trade those services for dollars and cents instead of limiting themselves to fornicating within the confines of a loving relationship or marital contract shows how far humanity still needs to grow up.
Prostitution has always been around. It will always be around. I have a brothel defying police busts and going strong two floors below my studio. No all prostitutes don’t look like Julia Roberts but regardless of looks or class the ability to sell oneself for dollars and cents does give a girl a social mobility. Cindefuckingrella. The erudite among us might consider a read into this incredible book The Murder of Helen Jewett where the author explores the facts, social moors and repercussions around a prostitute murdered in turn of the century New York (Look! Maybe it’s gonna be a movie…!) Or maybe a picture can be worth more than that books thousand billion words and we should consider the days of the Wiemar republic when Kathe Kolowitz and company were starving to death…
but Otto Dix immortalized prostitutes that were maybe not the cutest but look undeniably well fed.
Could we maybe not keep pounding out prostitutes as helpless victims but instead prostitutes, bad ass ladies that risk serial killers, societal stigma and your self righteous scorn to do what it takes and get the job done? Think of the ladies of Unforgiven. Who really had the character and loyalty in Big Whiskey? Our prudish distaste for this kind of heroism gets Judith kicked out of the Bible?
arterial spray
That’s gratitude for you.
And then the staple antagonist. Certainly I’ve seen Taxi Driver‘s heinous character “the pimp”. Read Malcom X, read Ice Cold’s Pimp (Did you know that this is the man from whence all the rap star names were begat from?), read Sapphire’s opening for Pimp in which she describes her one time encounter with a pimp. I know these people exist in real life but as a girl with a brain I cant help but feel like pimpin’ oughta be a profession that goes extinct.
Regardless of whether or not you can get behind the practice of hooking the question I find my female self really begging to ask the Dirty Laundry ladies is this; God love you, do what you want but what the hell does hanging out with GoldTooth angry rapist and company doing for your business? Y’all are pretty ladies: ditch the cutoffs, get a nice dress and head for the hotel bars? Hang out in places people can hear you scream? When the only answer for all the females portrayed’s behavior seems to be *shrug*, “Women are dumb” how can I, as a female audience member, not be super annoyed?
Our protagonist providing our just raped prostitute a lighter for a Goldtooth trial by fire? Pfft -Why didn’t these chicks figure out a way to burning bed this asshole a billion years before?!
Okay Thomas Jane. Make your movie. But please do something do a little something different with the girls.
I heard the other day where they approached Anjelina Jolie to be an Bond girl and she responded with “call me when you want me to play Bond”. I really, really hope this story is true. A lady Bond who sleeps with all those self important spies, cuts off their heads with her pen laser, saves the codes from whatever country America is currently scared of and then runs off to make out with Judi Dench. If anyone can get a trailer made for free I’d think Anji could. Play that for the next San Diego Comicon .
Excelsior.
As I’m sure you noticed this blog has been all quiet on the writing front. Mostly my own fault, the last two months of the show I was on was all consuming and sort of hellish. I’ve been officially off the clock for nearly two weeks and I think I’ve already gotten all my slacking out of my system (though I woke up at 10:30 AM today, for shame!). I have game plan I am going to implement to avoid becoming a lump just hoping my next gig will come blowing my way, when I’ve got a good groove with that I’ll do a write up on it. The upside to all of this spare time is I have been hittin’ the movie theaters hard (well, hard for me).
Two weeks ago I checked out Wreck It Ralph, it became a pretty surprising hit at the box office as well as being critically well received. I went into the film kind of expecting to be overwhelmed with pop culture gaming references and to be pulled in and out several game environments. I also under estimated this little candy girl character which is a little underplayed in the trailers. I was so pleasantly surprised how controlled the chaos could have been and that the character of Ralph wasn’t just easily and simply flipped to reach his goal, recognition.
The movie starts out as the anniversary of Ralph’s game, Fix It Felix JR. Felix is having a party at his house to celebrate with all the little stout people that live in the apartment that Ralph tries to wreck. Ralph ‘crashes’ the party because it his game and anniversary as well. Ralph is challenged to bring back a medal that he has earned himself and maybe then he could live in the penthouse rather than the dump. Ralph flees the game and the adventure begins. He hops over to a Call of Duty, first person shooter game. That ends badly and launches him into the main environment of the movie and game called Sugar Rush based on Mario Kart 64. Ralph comes across a wanna be racer/glitch name Vanelope Von Schweetz and becomes a reluctant ally to her. – Enough spoilers though. I loved this movie because of the character development and hilarious interplay with the environments (uh hello Mentos + Diet Coke Volcano!?) My best hope for coming Disney features is that they continue this quality of feature films instead of falling back on formulaic story lines. Ralph at the end has this great monologe about loving himself and knowing who he really is, that actually made me cry a little.
I could go on about the art and animation direction but that is really worth seeing in person, there was a seamless blend of styles for the movements and sounds of the other 8 bit games as well as the more modern and complex designs. Every time the little inhabitants of the apartment building walked, sipped a drink, screamed in fear – I died with laughter. I finish with the Bad Guy Anon mantra.
“I’m a bad guy, and that’s good. I will never be good, and that’s not bad. There’s no one I’d rather be than me. “
Hotel Transylvania
by guest blogger Emmett Goodman
During our adventures in the Ottawa International Animation Festival, we caught an early presentation of Sony Animation’s Hotel Transylvania. Even better was the news of director Genndy Tartakovsky showing up in person. Considering that this was one of the most commercial screenings in the festival, it wasn’t surprising that it had the tightest security, removing all attendees’ cell phones, iphones, ipads, itc…I mean etc.
Hotel Transylvania is Genndy Tartakovsky’s feature debut. Genndy is undoubtedly one of the most successful directors and creators to enter the world of animated television. His first series, Dexter’s Laboratory, was one of the first series amidst a new wave of creator-driven shows for Hanna-Barbera (just before it became known as Cartoon Network). Its HB/UPA influenced design and action/quiet/action pacing not only displayed Genndy’s singular vision, but brought Cartoon Network on board with Nickelodeon’s reawakening of creator-driven animation. In 2001, Genndy unleashed Samurai Jack, which incorporates both the trademarks of Dexter with influences ranging from kung-fu movies to Anime and various traditions of fine art. In the years since, Genndy has directed the first adaptations of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, directed commercials, storyboarded features, and even managed a third TV series, Sym-Bionic Titan (which met an untimely ending). Now, he has made a leap into feature animation, something which shouldn’t surprise too many.
While Genndy’s own style of animation owes a lot to Hanna-Barbera and UPA, Hotel Transylvania owes more to Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and other Looney Tunes cartoons. There is something about the character design and staging that owes a lot to Chuck Jones’ cartoons. Murray the Mummy looks like he could have been a design from one of Jones’s 1950s cartoons. The characters look more like they would from a drawing than from rigged 3D models. This is effectively driven home during the end credits, when we see all the characters animated in Genndy’s 2D style. Genndy makes a frequent point of saying that animation should be pushing reality, rather than trying to replicate reality. That point is made very clearly here.
One of my criticisms of the movie is how much talking there is. This is ironic, because one of Genndy’s trademarks (and something I admire him for) is limiting dialog in favor of action. Indeed, there are episodes of Samurai Jack and Dexter that have little to no dialog at all. And even though Hotel Transylvania makes plenty of use of pantomime and visual humor, I just think there was too much dialog in places where it wasn’t necessary. Part of this probably comes from most of the cast being comedians, and comedians are often skilled at ad-libbing. Indeed, several of the actors here are alumni of Saturday Night Live (like Sandler): Andy Samberg (Jonathan the human); David Spade (The Invisible Man); Molly Shannon (Wanda Werewolf); Jon Lovitz (Quasimodo); and several others with smaller roles. And even on that note, most of their characters don’t have enough dialog to shine any comedic ability (I shine this critique on Molly Shannon’s underuse here).
Still that doesn’t mean there’s some bad acting in there. Fran Drescher’s performance as Frankenstein’s wife is seamless. And Steve Buscemi, whose acting abilities have been well documented, does a fine job as Wayne the Werewolf.
In many ways, the movie is more of a marriage between Genndy Tartakovsky and Adam Sandler’s own movies. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, since many of our generation have grown up to both worlds. Sandler’s Dracula has quite a few resemblances to Sandler himself, particularly the egg-shaped head and subversive sing-a-longs (the latter adding a nice combination of humor and heart). Steve Buscemi’s appearance can also be seen as a connection to Sandler’s movies, as Buscemi is one of Happy Madison’s regulars (his appearance in The Wedding Singer being a personal favorite of the author). Unlike Happy Madison movies, Genndy’s direction keeps the movie focused on the story and less on the strange occurrences and abnormalities that get in the lead characters’ way (mostly just for kicks).
As far as the festival screening, it was certainly a nice ice-breaker to all the “serious” independent films that make up the lion’s share of Ottawa screenings.
http://horrorfeminista.com/2012/10/09/pitch-perfect-gets-it-right/
Never am I a jet setter. And then fate and confusion line me up for all these crazy trips…
I’m currently in a plane –you can jet set in coach seating. Short legs have few advantages but one good one is that cramped spaces can still afford me a luxurious sprawl. I’m heading for The International Animation Festival in Ottawa, Canada which I’ve gone to for many a year and find to be the best thing ever.
The Ottawa Animation Festival is inspiring not only in the awesome film-making you see but in the plethora of mediocre films you sit through that spur the voices in your head to say things like, “WTF? I could make something at least as good as that…” This inner dialogue may not be nice, true or likely but outside your head the festival gets it right in celebrating the discipline and artistry of the filmmakers that get it done. A perfect combination of watching films, meeting filmmakers, and partying down. Go animators.
After Canada, then Scotland -not that I ever meant to go. I have this shaky, tenuous relationship (maybe it’s a shaky tenuous, acquaintance) with a very talented fellow who happened to go to my high school. Little did I know about the guy back in the day -he played trumpet in the band, was very good, he also played in the Youth Symphony. I played violin only because my parents made me so I couldn’t really relate at the time to his loving what he did and glorying in it. This fellow is currently putting together the orchestrations,playing keyboards and leading the symphony and band with Mr. George Michael on his European Symphonic tour.
Ladies and Gentlemen Mister Henry Hey!
This is a reason to go to a land I know so little about? Yes. It’ll be fun to see what they sell in their supermarkets AND it’ll be galvanizing to see someone who knew who they were and didn’t doubt it even in mediums that were less than ideal (oh high school –why do you try to be important?)
There’s nothing that’ll ever happen for the rest of our lives that’s more important then what’s going on right here right now in high school by these lockers.
We hear a lot that art is imitate and innovate; I would suggest that success in any field, art or otherwise, is standing next to someone that gets it done, figuring out what they do and setting about doing it yourself.
Possibly when it’s over Mr. Hey will suffer me a hug. Excelsior.
Next stop, Las Vegas, Nevada. When I filled out my passport card to say where I was going I put “Canada, UK and Las Vegas”. Passport guy scoffed, scribbling out my final destination, “Vegas isn’t a foreign country…” I knew that…
Vegas is the decided meeting ground for Grant Morisson’s Morissoncon. Renowned comic book author and inventor of the term “chaos magic” Morrison put me through an unnerving moment (psychotic break) on the subway several years ago while I was reading his graphic novels “The Invisibles”. Although providing me with huge insight into what will unhinge me: bald dude gang leader of a trannie/witches/lesbian/homeless boy gang, handcuffed and being tortured by evil bug people who take breaks in the back to make out with their hot apostles, mixed thoroughly with unpaid internships and the Q train – guess that’ll do it, I’m still kinda foggy on the writers message or purpose.
Looks straightforward enough…
Unfortunately Morrison’s work defies my geek method of clarification; whenever I read or watch things that get me confused I venture to the online annals of Google or Wikipedia to get things straight. Either Morrison or his followers seem to have rewritten all of his pages with misleading nonsense. I did discover online however, that the guy is hosting his own con. Having for years known the total fail it is trying to gain audience to any of the guest speakers lineups at Comicon I will now do what I suspect the real fanatics do and go fiend at the source.
I predict I will be the only girl there not with her boyfriend. If I do find another solo girl there she is so my new bff or at least I’ll try to gather her first and last for Facebook friend purposes. Linked In? I’m so connected…
Morrsioncon opens with a “mind blowing spoken word event”. Probably not gonna provide my sought after clarity but I guess I’m all right with that –my mind could use to be blown.
So yeah, Ottawa, an old friend and some mind expansion. Getting outside the usual; bathrooms in the UK alone have me operating way outside my comfort zone. Trail blazing in the grey matter. Go Get ‘em Girl.
Freelancing at the Productive—How Coworking Makes Me Work
by guest blogger Kathleen Scheiner
I’ve been freelance full-time since 2008, and the thing that’s been hardest in all the time is summoning up the motivation to work. I have a huge orange desk that I’ve been carting around for years. I’ve moved it from coast to coast, and various computers and printers have rested on it, but not much work ever gets done there. My desk at home has become more like an entertainment center, especially as technology improves. Now I’m able to watch movies and such whereas before I could only look up mysterious diseases that I was sure I might have.
When I let my whimsy go and look up whatever catches my interest or watch it on the Internet, I call it going down the rabbit hole because I can easily lose hours that way and I’m not quite sure how. I’m sure this lost time comes in handy later with my creative processes, but it does not help when I need to work and make money in order to support my creative lifestyle. Sometimes you just have to sit down and get some work done.
In the past and sometimes even now, I’m finally able to focus at the eleventh hour and get things done, but I don’t like all that rush at the last minute. It’s too easy for something to go wrong, and one thing I believe in is doing a good job—it’s the Taurus in me. In 2009 and 2010, I found that my most productive places, strangely enough, were the library, the subway, and when I was babysitting. I just knew those places worked; I didn’t put two and two together until now, realizing that I work best when people are around me, watching me, and though they don’t know it, holding me accountable.
I first heard about coworking studios in 2010, and I thought it was a brilliant idea: paying for a place to work along the lines of a gym membership. The first coworking studio I joined was Paragraph, which is geared toward writers. I really liked the idea of being part of a community of writers and that’s what made me sign up. It reminded me of literary salons, like the Bloomsbury Group, and I wanted to be part of that. At Paragraph, the main work area is a quiet room, where there’s no talking, no noise allowed whatsoever. When I interviewed with Joy, one of the Paragraph’s founders, she said that quiet was an important part of the studio and that once there had even been a note in the comment box about somebody coughing too loud. I thought Paragraph would be a perfect fit for me, but I could never get quite comfortable with it. When I went into the quiet room, I held my breath while I poked through the warren of cubicles, trying to find an empty one, afraid that I would disturb somebody. In theory, it was a fine idea, like practices I’ve heard about at Yaddo, where if you meet a writer on a path and you don’t want to talk, you’re supposed to avert your eyes to show you’re thinking. Unfortunately, I don’t work that way. I seem to create best in a slightly chaotic environment.
I gave the Productive a weeklong trial when I was deciding what coworking studio I wanted to work at next. The main reason I was attracted to the Productive was for the computers I could use (I hate humping my laptop back and forth) and they were set up with dual monitors. I write, but the main bulk of my freelance work is editing and proofreading. I need to work with multiple tabs and documents as I fact-check, create style sheets, or compare texts, and having two monitors where I can shuffle between tasks has been a godsend. I don’t know how publishing stumps along without this convenience, and after editing with two monitors, I find it very difficult to go back to one.
Another thing I like about the Productive is its open workspace, which keeps me on task and promotes camaraderie. The Productive is open to all types of workers—from animators to social media start-ups to publishing professionals like me—and I’m bound to find out things I’ve never heard about before by doing a little eavesdropping. If I need to totally focus on my work, I plug in nature sounds on my iPod and get to it. I sit at an open table with two monitors and my back is completely exposed. Once I’m at the Productive, I feel I’ve got a responsibility to get my work done—no dilly-dallying about on TMZ or other time-wasting sites. Besides, other workers might see me, and then what would they think?
Since going freelance, I realize that I am a social creature. Even if it’s just saying “hello” to someone, I get more out of that than I do from my cats at home. At the Productive, there are regular workers who show up every day, and I have become used to seeing their smiling faces and knowing their favorite places to sit. If I need to take a break from my work, I can talk to a live person, which is more interaction than I get at home. Also, if I’m getting flak from a client or a contact has said or e-mailed something that I’ve misinterpreted, I can bounce ideas off of others and get good feedback rather than slowly driving myself crazy.
Almost everybody at the Productive is freelance and struggles with the same issues—working out contracts, dealing with clients who lowball a project, and so on. But because of that, there’s a lot of great advice that a beginning freelancer can pick up on. There has been some mentoring going on at the studio between newer freelancers and the more experienced pros about how to deal with common freelancing problems. I’ve also started talking to some of the people at the Productive about collaborating on projects together. This reminds me of Andy Warhol’s Factory or office, to which creative people were invited or gravitated toward, where they made movies or magazines or art. I’m happy to have finally found a situation like this; it’s one of the reasons I moved to New York in the first place.
Kathleen Scheiner is a freelance writer, editor, and proofreader, who lives in Brooklyn with her sister. She specializes in horror, sci-fi, fantasy, graphic novels and runs the blog Horrorfeminista. Her work has appeared in Publishers Weekly, Dance International, The Arts Cure, Penny Blood, L’Ecran Fantastique, and Toxic.
My only piece of art by Tissa David, a cel from ‘A Soldiers Tale’ by R.O. Blechman.
Two weeks ago I had the pleasure of checking out the Scribble Junkies Festival of Drawn Animation hosted by Bill Plympton and Pat Smith. It was a second annual screening celebrating drawn films as well as the different applications and approach. The screening was hosted at the School of Visual Arts theater on 23rd street and the turnout was pretty good. The event started off with two films by the recently passed titan of animation, Tissa David. Richard O’Connor of Ace & Son briefly spoke before the films and was heartfelt. She is truly a loss to the craft and art of animation and filmmaking.
A background oil painting by Hisko Hulsing for ‘Junkyard’
Billed as the star of the show was the North American premiere of Hisko Hulsing‘s latest short ‘Junk Yard‘. It was truly a feast for the eyes and ears. Hulsing blended live action reference with the most lucious dystopian oil landscapes and signature character design that keeps all his films looking like his own. It’s also worth mentioning the musical arrangement that was also done by the director himself. 7 years worth of effort produced a real 17 minute gem. I look forward to seeing the film again in two weeks at Ottawa to better get my head around the characters and story. Check out Hulsing’s full coverage of the making of the film.
A little news to add to the calendar Susan and I will be the Ottawa International Animation festival from Sept 19-23rd. I’m driving up with a neatly packed car full of animation talent and smiling faces. Also this year my effort to be more “Go Get ‘em” will reach max capacity. I think I’ll even paint my nails for it. Also as labor day has just past and the school season gets back into the full swing I’m happy to say ASIFA East will be back in business. We’ll be kicking off our season with our annual Open Screening – a great event for novice and pro animators a like. This is your venue to see rare films and works in progress truly not to be missed. Hope to see you there. Lastly, keep your eyes peeled for a finished up ‘Productive: Anijam!’ Susan has been polishing and cleaning it up for everyone’s viewing pleasure so when that bun is ready to come out of the oven, we’ll be sure to shout it from the rooftops.
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