Modern Day Renaissance Man

  2011.
 It's been almost 6 years since cinematic genius and hairstyle master David Lynch last released a feature film. "Inland Empire" is about a woman in trouble. I could tell you more, but that's all Lynch would want me to say.
 No, really. 
 The film represented two firsts for the acclaimed director; the first time he had a film breach the three hour mark, and the first time he shot an entire feature on digital video, afterwards stating that he will never again shoot on film. Despite many people not knowing exactly what the film was about ( and I include before viewing AND after), Lynch decided to promote it, and especially Laura Dern's fantastic performance, in his own inimitable way.  While traffic slowed to a crawl and people stopped and stared, Lynch hung around Sunset Boulevard with a large banner bearing the slogan:
"Without Cheese, there would be no INLAND EMPIRE" 
Right......
....Oh, also present was eh, ahem, a live cow. 
I'm sure it was like a scene from one of the great man's films.
It was NOT the first time Lynch had displayed his wacky sense of humour and/or (?) erratic and odd behaviour. None of it anti-social of course. Just a bit odd. 


And I think that's great. Lynch is a man who is not afraid to take chances and risks. He actually just does whatever he wants, in order to express himself. And it's very refreshing to see a figure in the world of cinema do that. To not worry about media scrutiny, or how they look, or what they should do to appeal to the masses. I think Lynch's creativity and passion for expression even at the simplest level really is epitomised by his comic strip " The Angriest Dog in the World" which was published every day by the LA Reader from 1983 to 1992. The cartoon has to be one of the simplest ever devised. It consists of 3 identical frames. The 4th frame is the same except it is now nighttime The only things that change are the speech bubbles from a couple inside the house, usually in the form of a non-sequitur or an aphorism or adage.  Their nonsensical palaver is heard every minute of every day by their dog, who is chained to a post. He is a very angry dog. Here is an example

The Dog who is so angry he cannot move. He cannot eat. He cannot sleep. He can just barely growl. Bound so tightly with tension and anger, he approaches the state of rigor mortis

I think it is genius in it's simplicity!


Lynch relationship with music in his movies has always been a cornerstone of his film-making style, and in almost of all of his films there is a strength behind the music, or a piece of music. For an artist who doesn't reside only in the world of cinema, the next logical step ( if someone can ever use the word logically and David Lynch together) was to create an album. 
And so David Lynch's latest venture to express himself is his debut album "Crazy Clown Time", which was released just last month. The really decent opening track, entitled "Pinky's Dream"  has some really odd, minimal and seemingly dull lyrics ( the word Pinky is heard over 40 times in a 4 minute song!) but somehow they work. Thankfully Karen O ( you'll hear in trailers for Fincher's upcoming little film) has a great voice, so I don't mind listening to her sing about Pinky so singularly and effusively. Lynch's voice probably wouldn't be as quite as pleasant, which is fair enough. Perhaps he understands this himself, which is why when he sings on tracks it's usually through a vocoder or modified by some sort of modulator. Or maybe he just wants it to sound different. Bear in mind, however, that if someone ever uses the word "different" to describe something to do with David Lynch, they are understating. Just like Lynch himself does when describing his own works.
 You just have to experience them to get them. And if you do get it, you're one of the lucky few. 


And if you don't get it, it's ok... Just always remember, that Cheese is made from Milk. 

After Ballymun, the road continues..

"If anyone had felt minded to hand out a prize for the most enthusiastically received picture, Ballymun Lullaby would have been a hands-down winner" - The Irish Times ( relating to The Jameson Dublin International Film Festival, Feb)

   "Heartwarming" - Film Ireland

    "Wonderful" - Newstalk

It's great to see all of the above written about a film. 

Even better when you know the guy who made it.

For two years in college, I had the great honour to have Frank Berry, the director of Ballymun Lullaby, as my film production tutor. 

For different people, success in film obviously has different meanings. Some people may say fame. Some people may say riches. As a matter of fact,  I say the fundamental success for a filmmaker, is actually making a film. And whatever happens after it's made, is beyond control. Sure,.. There are other goals to achieve, other kinds of successes, and they can be achieved at any time, at any age. Ya just need a little luck, a little more talent, and a lot  more work.

You have to start somewhere. 

And so you start small. You use your da's cheap camera and you make your first 5 minute film with your friends as actors and your grandad as a mean-looking extra. Everyone gets exhausted, but sheer enthusiasm ( the kind only a child can have) sees everyone through. 

    After a while,you go to film school and you make short films, with actors looking for a break. People looking to make a splash in the industry just the same as you do. People working hard to achieve it.

   You'll get exhausted. And You'll NEED enthusiasm. The kind only a child can have. And a filmmaker. 

 You'll have to work hard.  If you get knocked back, if YOU don't like your film, you have to pick yourself up, dust yourself down, and say " Next time, I'll be better". 

 You have to learn. 

And over time, your films change. In quality, in content and in hundreds of other ways. 

But there is one thing that never changes.

 Nothing can describe the feeling of seeing your film up there on screen for the first time. 

After the days, weeks or even months of hard work are done, when you see all the ideas and creativity actually coming to life on the screen, you realise why it's so worth it. It's such a thrill to create something; to know that without you, it doesn't exist. And it's the same feeling no matter if you're a 13 year old kid or if you're a 23 year old graduate. 

Or even if you're an 81 ( Yes, Eighty One!! ) year old Clint Eastwood.  

 Without the filmmaker, there is no film. And therefore film in itself, is the great success of the filmmaker. 

And, as the old adage goes, success breeds success. With each film made, anything can happen. Family screenings in the living room turn into festival screenings around the world.... Cinema screenings around the world..... walks on red carpets..... and most importantly, opportunity to make more films. More successes.  

Each one bigger and better than the last. 

As a person looking to achieve success in the film industry at some stage in my life, It's so encouraging to see Frank, a person I admire and respect, achieving these things with his documentary feature "Ballymun Lullaby". It's won awards,the most important of which was the prestigious Directors Finders Series 2011, which is facilitated by the Screen Directors Guild of Ireland in conjunction with the Directors Guild of America, and designed to help filmmakers achieve distribution in the United States of America. So it's kind of a big deal!

It's also appeared in festivals worldwide, from the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival to the New York City Documentary Festival, and from 16th December it's going to be screening in both the IFI in Temple Bar and Cineworld, right in the centre of Dublin. In fact after the 7pm screening on the 16th of Dec in the IFI, the man himself will be there for a Q & A. 

I'm definitely going to be in the audience that night, and I strongly encourage anyone else with an interest in film and storytelling to follow suit. It's great to see an Irish film making waves in the industry, and I can't stress how purely inspirational it is to see a mentor being the man responsible for it.  

Something like this is exactly what I want to be responsible for someday too. 

Rather than write anything about the film itself,  I'll just include a link to the trailer. It tells you all you really need to know about what the film is. 

 I can't watch it without smiling. 

More info here...
http://www.ballymunlullabythefilm.com/

2011........

BA in Film Production and Film & TV screenwriting..... check

Make short film and get it shown worldwide........ check

Start Production on other Projects..... check

Planning to move to London..... check

Actually moving to London..... x





Get part-time job back........ check

Feeling the sweet allure of easy money........ check

Having the craic with said money ....... check

Friends moving on to bigger and better things ........ check

Motivation to work on projects.......... x

Projects lined up for 2012........... x




Time to get the finger out ? ......... CHECK



 I gotta get the fuck out of here!


In 6 months, it will be June. Loads of time to save money.

I used to love Ashbourne, but being here now is like living in a small cloud of fear.

Where to go next??
Decisions, decisions, decisions..

Pussy in work...

Get away from me!!

In a bid to receive some momentary relief from the cauldron of pressure that is the Red Bar, I made myself a cappuccino and went out the back to sit and drink it in peace. I sat in the smoking shelter and began to brood on the days events, paying little attention to the marriott cat, who ambled slowly over looking for attention, like cats do.
As I sat thinking of the American girl on table 50 (oof madonn'), why exactly Jeremy Clarkson was on the news, and how shit this caffeine was, I was interrupted by the cat, pawing at my balls. Actually sticking it's paw through the rungs of the bench and pawing me in the testicles. As you can imagine, I almost hit the roof. The cat ran away, job done.
 Technically, I guess that's rape.
But I guess I can't complain too much.... it's not everyday a man can say he gets some pussy in work eh???
 Most action I've had this week.

Get real

How do ya know when someone has an iphone?
They tell you.

Ok it's an old joke, and not as relevant now because loads of people have them, but it's one I still manage a snide chuckle at. Especially when someone's Ipod battery dies a few hours after leaving the house. Or when someone's Ipod breaks for absolutely no reason. Or when someone tries repeatedly to get on the internet, strain and anger evident on their face, only to eventually realise their valiant efforts have been in vain due to lack of signal...
 Eh, HELLO!? If you can't go on the internet, DO something else.

Man, the internet at my finger tips is one thing I can really do without. When I'm out and about, do I really want to be checking my Facebook updates every 5 minutes?? If I have a spare minute to myself, do I really want the first thing that comes into my head to be to do with online social networking!!?? I'm on these sites enough when I'm at home, I don't want them following me like a bad habit when I'm away from a computer... I'd say for students and young people of my generation, Facebook is the ultimate bastion of procrastination.
 BORING
 And here, Do I really need an app that tells me how long it's gonna take my beer to get to a certain temperature after I put it in the fridge???

Iphones have great features no doubt. The camera on it is pretty cool, the best a mobile phone has probably. But if taking photos was my thing I'd just buy a whopper camera, for probably the same price. Obviously, they have great memory and can store lots of information. Gotta compensate for a 10 hour lifespan eh?
They also have really cool language features. Like for instance, you can speak English into the phone and then it converts it to Spanish or French or whatever and plays what you said back for someone to listen to in their native language. That's a really cool feature.. but down the line is the likes of that just gonna make people lazy? Why bother learning something new when my phone will do it for me?

I'll make no bones about my phone..it is OLD. What's the average life of a phone?? I dunno, but my phone is 5 years old. And in phone years, that's vintage son. It also resembles an incomplete sculpture by a 1st year art student and has broken apart half a hundred times. BUT... it has never stopped working.

Along the evolutionary line of phones, it came just after the brick era and it can therefore fit in my pocket easily. It phones people and can text people. For fuck sake, it even had a camera ( it also add a light, a back cover, and a few superfluous appendages that have not lasted the test of time). All casualties of war.
My phone is but a simple tool.
It's something I can live without for a few hours too.

A wise old..... teenager!?

He looked like this at one stage

..just not as colourful

My dad TP is a very wise man. A free thinker, a man whose sage-like wisdom ( which is far too mind-blowing to go into great detail in this medium, though I am giving you a snippet) would, in another place and another time, surely have led to him to great eminence. 


Perhaps as a village elder. 


Perhaps the only reason he is not is because of his recent admission that he still basically a teenager.


 Well maybe not the only reason... I have seen his vast record collection, and shudder when I think of what exactly he was doing back in the 70's when listening to albums like "Tone Float" by The Organisation... I hadn't heard of them either, but their music is MENTAL. This record collection actually lends him an eminence of sorts, at least among myself and some of my friends, but that's for another post, another day..


He is also the only person I know called TP. 


But back to this admission of being a teenager. So picture this. The whole family are at the dinner table, and it went something like this. Mum called TP " a big child" for whatever reason ( of which there are many). TP shrugged. 
"I'm glad"
You're what??...
Now get ready for some TP lyricism, for the man has a way with words. What he said won't have as much weight attached to it in this format, but I'm trying my best here. I'm only the messenger. Maybe you had to be there, but anyway...

" I'm glad I'm still basically a teenager. I'll always be. Most men are...., and most women aren't...

 ( dramatic pause, as my sister and mum actually started listening)

 Most women never were. They were born as adults, and have always thought as adults, always wanting to do the sensible and right things. And because of that they haven't had as fulfilling and enjoyable a childhood as most boys."

And he went back to his dinner as we all looked on. 

Deep, poignant stuff eh???


When I grow up I want to be a teenager like my dad.
He is 57. 

Ooooooooohhhnly in Dreams

He knows what I'm talking about

I toyed with writing this post in an elaborate fashion, with rambling passages about fantastical dreams and sleep-time flights of fantasy involving fame, success, yachts, money, football, and Kelly Brook ( all separately of course... though come to think of it, some combinations would work... use your imagination, it's what dreaming is for)

 If you don't have an imagination, you don't have dreams. That's not to say if you have a great imagination ( I like to imagine I do), you can only dream about really cool or random and strange surreal things. You may dream of things that are completely normal, like having a beard or walking a dog or falling ( just before you wake up - I'm sure you know how it feels like)

Or you may have a dream like this...

Last night I dreamt it was a snowy Christmas. I was in a warm living room. Beautiful Christmas Tree by the fire. Everything basked in an orange warm glow.
 I was giving a friend a present for Christmas and I watched as she unwrapped it.

 And unwrapped it...

 And unwrapped it...

 ..Her eyes lit up. It was a roll from Spar. A baguette, packed to the gills and wrapped in plastic.
 She looked at me with a " How did you know!?" expression. I nonchalantly smiled back like Pierce Brosnan.
 The parent's said it was a very cute and funny present. I was basked in glory.
Admittedly, the roll did look amazing.

And then I woke up.

Ridiculous and bizarre. I hope I have a better dream tonight.