creativityaday

[creativityaday]

Rude (Cover) - Walk Off the Earth 

I love these guys. I posted their Somebody that I Used to Know video ages ago when that came out. These guys have never failed to put out an entertaining video to accompany their sick covers. Seriously though, I respect these guys because it's not about gimmicky videos. They start with solid music and the video comes next. It's fun, it's entertaining, and it's solid music. A+ Work!

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Bang Bang (Acoustic) - Jessie J 

So this little gem has been circulating the interwebs lately. I love it when you see a musician perform something out of their studio and they still rock it! (Or in this case, friggin' blow it out of the water. No offense to Nicki Minaj or Ariana Grande). 

I love this track for many reasons. For starters, I just love acoustic covers, especially those when the artist takes their own spin on it. What I particularly love about this cover in particular is that it stays true to the original, but yet Jessie J really embraces the fact that she's only performing with one guitar, and she alters her performance accordingly. 

The second is that you can see the love of performance. She's sitting down, a well known trap for performers because it can easily take the energy away from the performance; however, she rocks it. There's so much life in her performance, but it never exceeds the acoustic setting, which is also really cool.

Finally, it's just all around well done. Seriously, watch this video, it's worth your time! 

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Such cool stuff! Wow this post is going to be two pronged. They both revolve around my life working in Art Department in Film. The first thing I want to express is how awesome thrifting is! I found this guy in an antique store! Though I'm pretty sure it was printed very recently, the book still has a really cool look to it. (And the contents are actually Our Town, Skin of Our Teeth, and The Matchmaker. Pretty Nifty) There are all sorts of little treasures in thrifting! Despite it taking way longer to sift through everything and often going to multiple stores to find that one thing that you want, it's totally worth it! I wouldn't've been exposed to this experience if it weren't for having to go out to buy things for various productions. 

The other thing is that while taking this picture, I realized how much I had learned just from being in the film industry. I found myself adjusting the lighting and adding a bounce (a small white notepad). I knew how to get the desired effect of having the book pop out from the background by selecting a different focal length on my zoom lens. (Yup I'm shooting on a standard Canon Rebel T3 kit.) I'm having such a grand old time right now and I couldn't be happier. As silly as it sounds this book does quite effectively sum up how my life has been developing after two and a half months of post-grad life as well as giving a pretty clear indication as to what direction in which I'm going! #artdepartment

I'm so happy and I can't wait to see where I go next! Happy hump day everyone! 

[creativityaday]

High - Young Rising Sons

What a cool group! I heard this song on the radio the other day and I was immediately jamming out! A very solid group that has a good sound. A solid jam for a summer day. They just came out with an EP a few days ago and it's all really solid! Give it a listen! 

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The Drift - Blackmill

I was wandering around in a upscale handmade furniture store the other day in West Hollywood and they had this music playing. They had all these signs posted saying no photographs, which made me be extra careful about just pulling my phone out and doing random stuff on it. However, when I heard this song I knew I needed to pull out my phone and Shazam it because of how awesome it was! So I crept my hand into my pocket and surreptitiously released my phone from the pocket prison of my shorts. I felt like such a rebel for pulling out my phone and making it seem as though I was taking a picture! BUT HAH! I WASN'T! I was just recording the title of the song! 

Anyways, enough with the silly hoity-toity-ness. This isn't really going to make it on to my Summer Jams list just because it's a little too heavy for the general vibe of my list, but it's a really cool track to chill out to. The whole album is awesome so you should definitely check them out! 

[creativityaday]

Best (Not So) Hidden Brands

I was reading an article today, and something in it made me stop and think about what the last four years have meant to me. The article was titled "Don't Send Your Kid to the Ivy League." My first reaction was, "Well that's preposterous. I went to a proper New England Prep School and an Ivy League was always the goal!" I didn't end up going to an Ivy League, and I am glad I didn't. But of course, I still always held Ivy League Schools in high regard especially since many of my friends from my high school did go to Ivy League Schools. 

The article brought up a number of interesting points, but one unassuming phrase nestled amongst a larger point stuck out to me the most: "brand-name graduate schools." 

Woah Woah Woah.

Hold up.

Rewind.

Brand Name

Our schools are a fuckin' brand. WHY DID NOBODY TELL ME THIS?! But no, I've always known this. Every school is a brand and they have a branded education that they try to sell you against other school's branded educations... Duh. I don't know... Thinking about my education is a product is so weird, but that's really what schools are aren't they? It's all a big business, it just so happens that their business involves billions of dollars and millions of adulthoods and futures. But that's just a small side effect, no? 

Now, I don't mean to be getting too negative and jaded about the schooling system, so I'm going to try to end on the best note possible. Ultimately, I received a great education, but it wasn't solely because of the school I went to. I could've gone to UMASS, USC, or Harvard and I still would have gotten a great education. It would have been a very different education and I would probably be geared to be doing something completely different in life had I gone anywhere else but USC. HOWEVER, what made my college education great was the fact that I carved my own path with the resources I was given. And believe me I improvised and combined my resources in ways that I wasn't even sure would work. To give you an idea, I got a degree in Theatre (a degree that was geared towards acting, mind you) and now I'm going into Film Production for Art Department as well as Assistant Directing all because I knew vaguely what I wanted and I had the willingness to go out and get it. 

It's not about where you are, it's what you make of it :)

[creativityaday]

Fire is awesome! 

Yesterday, as I was cleaning and packing, my roommate, who was also doing the same as our lease runs out pretty soon, decided to light some incense. We didn't have anything good to use to catch the ash so he ended up using a wine glass. Me being good ol' destructive ol' me decided to light the incense from the middle. As it burned it became too weak so we had to plop the pieces into the inside of the wine glass. What happened next was super cool. Smoke from incense holds its shape a little bit better than normal smoke from paper, so as the smoke filled the wine glass it overflowed with a super interesting shape. These are a couple of photos from that adventure.

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Why Trust is Important

Another one of those really cool things. Very awesome that these two have such trust that they forget themselves in each other. This video drew out a strong reaction from me just because it was so relevant to everything I've done. I've always been involved in performing arts, and trust has always been an integral part of it. Especially when I used to be more involved as a performer. I needed to trust my cast on stage to have my back if anything were to go wrong, trust my partner when I was dancing, trust my conductor when I was playing piano... It's sometimes hard to believe that performance is still a thing we do in that it's so terrifying to be in front of tons of people doing whatever it is we do, and then to compound it with so many other moving parts, I'm surprised we don't just call it quits and hide backstage in the safety of the darkness. Then I think about it more, the moving parts that freak me out because they are out of my control, are also the things that build me up when I need support. My cast, my partner, my conductor... I rehearse and I grow to depend on these people to be there and have my back when I need it most. That's the coolest thing about performing. Anyways, that's my two cents. Watch this video. It's amazing.

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Duet - Glen Keane

This video has been circulating the interwebs a little bit. Such a cool little short. Great animation and a nice little story. Really cool stuff.

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And on this night, I saw more stars than I ever thought possible...

This is a post that's long overdue. (As are most of my posts, but y'know what, I'm trying here.) A little while ago, 2 weeks give or take, I wrapped production on a graduate thesis film for some USC folks. The last two days were shot in the desert in Lucerne Valley in California. Unsurprisingly, it was hot and a test of our willpower as a crew. We pulled through and on the last day of shooting, after we had wrapped most of our equipment out, the crew sat down to have some beers and pizza. That night, I saw more stars than I ever thought possible.

It was a magical experience. I've always been a city rat, and so light pollution always prevented me from seeing as clear of a night sky as the one I saw that night. (I now know what the song Twinkle Twinkle Little Star is all about...) But seriously, it was so cool. The best part was that I don't have perfect eyesight, and so for the stars that were either weaker or farther away, I wouldn't be able to see them at first, but when my eyes stayed still for a little bit and they were allowed to focus, I would keep noticing more and more stars. 

Of course, then someone pulled out a phone and pulled up an app to find constellations and little by little we turned our attention away from the stars to talk about horoscopes and whatever else film kids do to relax after a job well done. But those stars have earned a permanent place in my memories.

That's all for today. I'm also trying a quick little 7 day challenge where I try to challenge myself to post something every single day as the name of this blog suggests. I'm keeping track on a little piece of tape next to my computer, so let's see how well this works! Woo! 

[creativityaday]

Motivation

Get your drinks from the lobby and strap in to your cushy velvet seats because this is a two act post! 

Act I: Pity Party for How Hard it is to Self-Motivate!

I hope you enjoyed the theatre metaphor. It's what happens when you're a theatre grad, I guess. Also, another thing that might happen to a theatre grad at least before they find some sort of job is #funemployment! As fun as it sounds, it's actually a lot of fun. Sure, there are daiquiri days and internet days when I just stay online and look at tattoos. But there are also times when you have to get it together and work. And that shit is hard.

In my little over a month of funemployment, I've discovered that it's extremely easy to fall back and just say, I'll do it tomorrow. It's easy to just spend 3 or 4 hours on the internet giving yourself excuses. "Oh, I'm eating food, I can't write anyways." "Oh there's this great YouTube video that I've watched 50 times, but YouTube is recommending me to watch it again." Then before you know it, the sun's gone down and I can count on one hand the number of things I've accomplished today. 

And to be quite frank. I'm embarrassed with myself. I told myself that by the end of May I would have a working first draft of my short written and so far I've gotten barely over half way... (Granted it's turned into, what looks to be, a 30 page short, which I'm going to have to seriously edit down, but hey it'll a first draft.) I've also started another sketch that I told myself I'd bang out in 48 hours. Here it is, over a week, and I still haven't finished it. 

Though people warned me that I was going to have a hard road ahead of me, I never expected it to be quite this hard... 

**INTERMISSION**

Go ahead. Get some more drinks. Use the bathroom. Do what you gotta do. I'm not here to judge.

...

And we're back!

Act II: A Lesson in Motivation & Discipline

Today, with a little help from a couple friends. I found my key to motivation. Now, my problem is that I find it easy to just fall into doing nothing if I'm left to myself. However, what I realized today was that I just need people around to force me to do things. 

How did I realize this? Well, I recently reconnected with a friend who has now become a fitness trainer at an alternative fitness lab. He invited me out tonight and I thought why not? (To not feel awkward I also brought a friend) Also to preface this, I'm not a big fan of going to the gym. I don't motivate myself enough to go on my own and plus I hate the gym anyways so that's another excuse. I do workout on my own occasionally, but that's always the first thing out of my schedule if I feel as though I have to make time for other commitments. 

Well today, even though I had considered canceling earlier, I went (in part due to the fact that I had already roped a friend into going with me and she wouldn't've known anyone there without me. So long story short, despite reservations, I went. 

When I got there, it was crazy. There was a huge group of people and we all warmed up together and then split of into groups to do various types of workouts. My friend and I elected to do the more challenging circuit workout. Great choice, but now that I'm sitting I highly doubt I'll be able to summon the strength to get back up again. Anyways, the environment there was really encouraging. There were tons of people going through the same workout as me, as well as trainers who were running around correcting form and encouraging us to push ourselves. Not only that, but they encouraged us to learn each others names to encourage each other. 

That was what really got me. Getting use to encourage each other. It's really like you have a whole team rooting for you to push yourself just that little bit. Of course, I struggled through really finishing each of the exercises, but that's what happens when you run around on set and call that exercise. I need something with more structure and, more importantly, people. 

This will definitely influence how I try to get work done in the future. Perhaps the notion of co-working in the sense that I find people to work with and we just work. The danger in that is finding people with whom you just hang out. But! Maybe laying down the notion of co-working is enough to get me and whoever it is I'll be co-working with to work together and not just chat and be silly. 

So that's my lesson of the day. Self-motivation. Find what you need to motivate, and that may be something other than the self. Be it schedules or calendars or people or rewards. Figure out what gets you to hunker down and work and do it! 

[creativityaday]

Put the Gun Down - ZZ Ward

SummerJams #7

Such an awesome track! I was put on to ZZ Ward by good ol' Spotify Discover, so props to them. Such a cool artist and I love her voice! Great addition to the summer jams list! 

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Love You When I'm Drunk - MIKA

SummerJams #6

MIKA is always a solid choice when you're looking for some upbeat, fun tunes. This is also another track from last summer, but I'm bringing it back because it's just so fun. Great sound! 

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I Love Summertime Cool Kids - Titus Jones

Summer Jams #5

Another really solid track from another really solid mashup artist. A great addition to the playlist! This is kind of a jam from last summer, but the vibe's the same and it's awesome! 

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On the Subject of Gay Marriage

Don't worry, I'm not going to be too offensive. I'm just offering a "what if" situation and you can take that how you will. I was watching a youtube video earlier of the Australian TV show called Insight and on the episode I was watching, they talked about gay marriage. Something in their discussion stopped me and made me wonder though. What if religious texts were dynamic, living, breathing things? What I mean by this is not if the books suddenly gained sentience, but rather, what if they were updated with the changing culture and climate of the world? 

I've been thinking about that because whenever asked whether or not the various religious texts specifically say that marriage between a man and a man is prohibited, generally the answer ends up being, after a lively discussion as to how to interpret the specific words in each text, that homosexuality wasn't a thing back then that needed to be addressed. I wonder, what would happen if it were updated as needed? 

It runs huge risks either way of how people could change the bible, and perhaps then it wouldn't be written by God, but in my opinion wouldn't it be nice to not have the argument where one group throws out that homosexuality is wrong because of their loose interpretation, and another group fires back with the fact that it's just as wrong for anyone to wear threads of two different kinds, or get tattoos, or even has sex before marriage? That's all.

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LX74Bg8xPcE

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Wake All the Timber Up (Kap Slap Bootleg) - Kap Slap

Summer Jams #4! Another mashup! Really really cool stuff. It puts together some Timeflies, some Kesha, some Avicii as well as well as some other stuff. Sounds great. Good stuff! 

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Popular Song (feat. Ariana Grande) - MIKA

Summer Jams 3! Great stuff here. I know I'm late to the party, but it's a great song! It's fun and light, so perfect for summer! I never liked Ariana Grande before, but this song makes her impossible not to like. Also if you haven't yet, check out the music video. Really great stuff here as well! 

Music Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmcdLOjGVzw