by Brett Warner
It’s a brand new year, and if you’re anything like me – young, broke, and sitting on a dust-gathering fine arts degree – you’re probably thinking: okay, this is the year I start/finish my (insert writing project here). A lot of us have them – those nest egg ideas, gestating deep in our brains, waiting for just the exact perfect moment to materialize in some quantifiable, word-countable form. Sure, there’s a lot of reasons not to write nowadays: we’re job hunting/working, seeing somebody, going back to school, finally getting into Lost on DVD, etc. Nevertheless, 2011 is as good a year as any to finally take that secretly amazing television pilot idea (The West Wing meets George Washington’s first term in office), Star Trek fan novel, or earth-shattering poetry collection out of the realm of “maybe someday” and into the nitty, gritty real world.
Every writer works and thinks differently, but just about every professional will tell you that writing successfully is work – damn hard work, usually, and needs to be approached as such. In the spirit of aggressively engaging your long put-off writing projects, I’ve compiled a list of five off the wall methods that have helped me over the past few years. A few standards, one or two drastic measures – these not-fucking-around variety techniques have pulled me out of many a blinking cursor bind and, who knows, might help others do the same.
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by Nicole Powers
“I’d love it if the government functioned properly.”
– Shepard Fairey
Having been harassed and arrested by agents of the United States’ government as he perpetrated his graffiti art from coast to coast, Shepard Fairy has since earned the respect and gratitude of an American president. Using the visual vocabulary of popular revolution, the humble DIY poster and sticker maker-cum-revered gallery and populist street artist used his graphic skill to transform Barack Obama from a presidential hopeful to a visionary icon.
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by Daniel Robert Epstein
It has been a long journey for Darren Aronofsky and his film, The Fountain. This venture has been over six years long but film fans can rejoice because The Fountain is finally being released. It is one of the most emotional and moving films (not just science fiction) I have ever seen. The Fountain is confusing at first but soon you are deeply involved in Tom [played by Hugh Jackman], the scientist/conquistador/space traveler’s journey to find his what he considers his soul.
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by Alex Dueben
“She really was a manifestation of my inner thoughts”
– Jen Wang
Jen Wang first surfaced crafting short comics that appeared online and in the Flight anthologies, but her debut graphic novel Koko Be Good is the first work of hers that most people will have encountered. It’s a beautifully illustrated book that centers around three characters, each of whom is tackling, in their own way, what it means to be “good.”
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by Nicole Powers
“It’s an absolutely fucking crazy story.”
– Jaimie D’Cruz
Exit Through the Gift Shop is a film that defies explanation, and one’s ability to suspend disbelief. Indeed the plot would be utterly ridiculous, if it weren’t for the fact that it’s true.
It started out life as a simple documentary about street art as seen through the lens of Thierry Guetta, a French national living in Los Angeles. Thanks to a family connection, and his infectious and perpetuity ebullient personality, Guetta gained unparalleled access to the major players in the scene, who are a notoriously secretive and hard to track down bunch by necessity due to the predominantly illicit nature of their work. Guetta’s extreme enthusiasm for the form, and his zealous pursuit of its practitioners, ultimately led him to the scene’s holy grail, Banksy, an elusive British street art superstar.
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by Jensen
Hey guys! Super easy tutorial this week for a string covered bulletin board. This is a really inexpensive and a nice way to show off cards, postcards, notes, whatevz. I almost feel silly making a tutorial for this, since all you do is wrap a fuck ton of string around a frame, but I’m doing it anyway!
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by Jensen
I don’t know about you, but I tend to get really cheesy around Christmas time. Homemade, messy and campy crafts are high on my list of favorite things this season. Today we are doing an ornament project. These are great for kids, or just a fun thing to do for broke couples celebrating their first Christmas together :].
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