Creative endeavours, pretentious and otherwise.

The_West_Wind · 23-10-06 04:20:54

I am many things.

I've been reading fortunes since I was 12. I work mainly with tarot cards, but if anything happens during a reading, consider it a bonus.
I write. Mostly fantasy and Sci-fi, but like the majority of all writers, I never published anything.
I am a fighter. I cant not tell you much more about that or otherwise I will give too much of myself away.
I am an actor, we go on stage with our new show in a few weeks.
I practice magic (slight of hand is a favourite).

Cate: I used to work for a Bookbinder. Its an ok job as long as you dont stuff up regularly.

dyslexius · 23-10-06 04:35:05

blissed wrote:

...I do telepathic drawing.

Now I see why blissed is always so blissed-out. To be able to draw expressively with such economical use of a few simple pen-lines is quite magical.

--dyslexius (telepathic facial likeness or not, it's expressive!!!)

dyslexius · 23-10-06 04:51:00

Journeyfan wrote:

Still I don't believe that it is a pre-requisite to play an instrument to be able to appreciate and love music...

Huh, are you kidding!?! Not only is it not a prerequisite, but with some folks, a technical understanding of music can even get in the way! It's the syndrome: "You can't do that. It's not supposed to go that way!"

or, somethin'
--dyslexius

blissed · 23-10-06 04:53:39

dyslexius wrote:

blissed wrote:
...I do telepathic drawing.
Now I see why blissed is always so blissed-out. To be able to draw expressively with such economical use of a few simple pen-lines is quite magical.
--dyslexius (telepathic facial likeness or not, it's expressive!!!)

Hey thanks dyslexius

I like your pimp hat, it suits you

.

dyslexius · 23-10-06 04:58:00

blissed wrote:

I like your pimp hat, it suits you

. . . ( . . . how in hell did he know that . . . ) . . .

blissed · 23-10-06 05:09:32

Amazing isn't it!! I'm not drawing any of your embarressing secrets tho, ( and now with a short email exchange we've come to an understanding ££$$$) their safe

.

Last edited by blissed (23-10-06 05:09:51)

The_West_Wind · 23-10-06 06:08:02

Can I kiss arse and have one done too.

Let's see how far your telepathy can reach.

The_Elfman · 23-10-06 13:41:00

Journeyfan wrote:

Still I don't believe that it is a pre-requisite to play an instrument to be able to appreciate and love music .... I suppose I could always take up singing again, although after all these years, I don't know if I would have the courage (or the voice!) anymore.

Step into my office JF. If you are interested in doing pantomime or musicals again I can point you in the direction of some groups in Leeds that would love to have you. Email me if you fancy it.

Elfman.

blissed · 23-10-06 15:00:20

West wind your having a laugh arn't you? you don't normally dress like that just to sit in front of a computer!!! you live in Australia, your not a Mexican bandit!! The moustache is real tho, it suits you. I don't know what anyone else thinks, but I think you look cute

.

Last edited by blissed (23-10-06 18:37:14)

The_Elfman · 23-10-06 15:36:32

The_West_Wind wrote:

I am an actor, we go on stage with our new show in a few weeks.

Break a leg. What are you doing?

Elfman

The_Elfman · 23-10-06 16:04:19

dyslexius wrote:

Elf, I could easily withstand hearing more about this:
The_Elfman wrote:
Acting has progressed to directing and writing for the stage...
So, please, if you feel comfortable elaborating...
--dyslexius

Thanks dyslexius. Last year I wrote, directed and appeared a one act murder mystery for one of the drama groups I work with. The play was set in a rehearsal room where a theatrical company where rehearsing Hamlet. Though I say so myself it was very well received. Later last year I directed and appeared in a production of Pratchett's "Wyrd Sisters" which again went very well. My main passion in theatre is Shakespeare and I am currently putting a company of my own together for a production of Tweltfth Night which I plan to tour around the City playing mostly open air venues next June. I have a couple of other plays I am writing on the back burner because I am far too busy at the moment rehearsing and learning two plays that go on within two weeks of each other, Ayckburn's Family Circles and Cinderella.

By the way dyslexius I haven't commented on your music yet because I am currently in an emotional place where I cannot listen to music. It has such a profound effect on me that the results can be quite catastrophic. I have however downloaded them and I promise I will listen to them when my emotional equiibrium has stabilised. I admire and envy your musical creativity enourmously. I am a singer/guitarist who has been known to get up in the occassional open mike night but I have never had the ability to compose anything of any merit. I salute you.

Elfman

dyslexius · 24-10-06 00:00:34

The_Elfman wrote:

Last year I wrote, directed and appeared a one act murder mystery for one of the drama groups I work with. The play was set in a rehearsal room where a theatrical company where rehearsing Hamlet...

Way cool. I've always been intrigued by that premise: the play-within-a-play, and I'm glad it was well-received (probably not as glad as you are!). Was your character in the outer play or the inner (the Hamlet)? You're into Shakespeare (how strange for an Englishman) so I wonder: How do you feel about updates (as we say here in the wild west)? Are you into modern settings or do you prefer to hold to the period-piece approach (I suppose explorations of things Elizabethan are no more exhausted than anything else). I'm somewhat conflicted about this. There's always some dissonance in me when that Shakespearean language is transported to the departure lounge of JKF airport (etc, ad infinitum), but I do lean toward playing with it a little (well, a lot!). I got off but good on Peter Sellars' productions of Mozart's da Ponti operas (and drove all the way to New York state, 900 miles, to catch the trilogy).

The_Elfman wrote:

...By the way dyslexius I haven't commented on your music yet because...

Hey, not to worry -- it's gratifying just knowing you've gone to the trouble of downloading my music. By putting up that elaborate post on this thread I was of course looking for reactions and I always expect (and usually receive!) more critical than laudatory responses (that bit about the freejazz album I released on my own label, admittedly, involved sending promos to 'zines that specialize in niche musical styles, therefore I expected to be lauded, as I'd already had the confidence that, within that little niche, what Jack and I did was, well, fabulous).

The "review" by our own Burlesque was extraordinarily valuable to me and I intend to react to it sometime soon. Observations about my music by people from a general/eclectic population like this forum are ultimately far more important to me than those from geeky 'zines.

Break a leg, unless the other one's already broken...

--dyslexius (who, btw, has also done theatre sound (yikes, what an experience!))

The_West_Wind · 24-10-06 00:34:37

The_Elfman wrote:

The_West_Wind wrote:
I am an actor, we go on stage with our new show in a few weeks.
Break a leg. What are you doing?
Elfman

Guys and Dolls

The_West_Wind · 24-10-06 00:47:40

blissed wrote:

West wind your having a laugh arn't you? you don't normally dress like that just to sit in front of a computer!!! you live in Australia, your not a Mexican bandit!! The moustache is real tho, it suits you. I don't know what anyone else thinks, but I think you look cute
http://img73.imageshack.us/img73/358/westwindko3.gif

.

I just wanted to give you a bit of a challenge. If it was easy it wouldnt be a challenge, eh?

You're pretty spot on with the description. I lived in Melbourne for about three years, which effectively makes me a Mexican, in Australia.

Viva Lucha Libre!

dyslexius · 24-10-06 04:24:14

Right here... Get your free ringtones, right here...

I wrote:

...I have a pair of Tibetan Prayer Cymbals (like tiny nipple-gongs, maybe two inches in diameter).

They look exactly like this:

( ...which I guess means mine are not authentic :)

I just now recorded their sounds, and put them up here as a sort of demonstration (caution, scratchy voice of dyslexius also appears). I thought, well, since I have their natural sounds, let's have some fun. So I made a ringtone (or, whatever) out of it. This might work better to download the ringtone.

--dyslexius

blissed · 24-10-06 05:39:20

Thats a really nice sound. I like your accent too if thats you talking. The cymbals have a really long decay time much longer than I would have thought. applying a little compression, just enough to extend that and stay natural sounding means you could add some acoustic guitar or picking and or harmonics and that would sound lovely. Now I expect you too get to it and do that If you did you'd have yourself a soundtrack to an IFM preview. you'd need to add drums but don't whack the snare just lightly hit the rim and add a some smooth bass guitar. Have it ready by tomorrow please. Sounds like you can record pretty competently, you should do some more acoustic instruments.

nihpuad · 24-10-06 06:01:57

The_West_Wind wrote:

Guys and Dolls

Cool! One of my favorite musicals. What part are you playing?

I was actually in the chorus for a production of that (I was the one who's always drunk, and interrupts the sermon leading up to "Sit Down, You're Rockin' the Boat"). I had no actual talent, of course, but at the time I was teaching in a high school so small they didn't have enough kids to fill out the cast... so the recruited from faculty, recent graduates, and the community. It was a lot of fun... y'all are very lucky the only tape I have is analog, or I'd put it up on YouTube and inflict it on you!

nihpuad · 24-10-06 06:04:14

dyslexius wrote:

Right here... Get your free ringtones, right here...
I wrote:
...I have a pair of Tibetan Prayer Cymbals (like tiny nipple-gongs, maybe two inches in diameter).
They look exactly like this:...

You could join TWW in Guys and Dolls: "If I were a [Tibetan prayer cymbal], I'd go 'ding, dong, ding, dong, ding'!"

dyslexius · 24-10-06 08:14:35

blissed wrote:

Thats a really nice sound. I like your accent too if thats you talking.

Yes, isn't it great how lovely a hunk of brass can sound, and, afaik, I was the only person in the room, so the accent must've been mine.

blissed wrote:

The cymbals have a really long decay time much longer than I would have thought. applying a little compression, just enough to extend that...

You might not have listened to the "ringtone" I made from those same sounds. For that I did compress it a bit plus I did some pitch shifting. I also turned one of the wave backwards to get a decrescendo-crescendo that ended suddenly on the attack. So check out the ringtone, and feel free to load up your cellphone with it!!!!!!

blissed wrote:

...you could add some acoustic guitar or picking and or harmonics and that would sound lovely. Now I expect you too get to it and do that :) ...you'd need to add drums but don't whack the snare just lightly hit the rim and add a some smooth bass guitar. Have it ready by tomorrow please. Sounds like you can record pretty competently, you should do some more acoustic instruments.

Oh boy, that's quite a challenge -- we'll see :)

--dyslexius

dyslexius · 24-10-06 08:57:15

The_West_Wind wrote:

...I write. Mostly fantasy and Sci-fi, but like the majority of all writers, I never published anything.

How agonizing would it be for writers in our midst, like you TWW, and like Nowaysis, to field a request by some naïve bloke, like me, to run a paragraph or two past us? ...Maybe an opening page. Ah -- here's a little game I just envisioned: Present an opening page or paragraph, without telling us whether you've gone any further with it. We're left with a mystery. You'd never be expected to tell us what follows, if anything. It could be incomplete. It might be something you're blocked on, and have not yet won the struggle to go on. It might also be from a complete work. Whatever. Fun? Heresy?

--dyslexius

Last edited by dyslexius (24-10-06 11:05:25)

Nowaysis · 24-10-06 11:49:42

Well there's a challenge I never could resist. Having people actually ask to see my writing is so rare, I usually just procrastrinate and stall out of pure fear of the unknown. But now, thanks to the anonymity of the internets(sic), I can pretend that nothing I do matters anyway, so I will go in search of something English, so all of you can read it, and not just Burlesques, since I know he'd just make fun of me, and tell the rest of you lies about what I wrote.

And regarding your previous very thoughtful post:

dyslexius wrote:

Nowaysis wrote:
As for pretentions, I have them up to here, and then some...
May I respectfully suggest otherwise? I'll bet you think of writers like Strindberg, Faulkner, et al, as models, rather than being their very reincarnation. I think that any successful artist, before finding a unique voice, creates "in the style of..." If you feel you have not yet found your voice, why not go ahead, even ever so consciously, writing in the style of your heroes? Maybe just a page or two with no intention of it fitting it into anything larger, but do this every day. Many artists have observed that their own new voice emerges from this kind of mundane routine seemingly on its own.
This observation intrigued me:
Nowaysis wrote:
...I seem to somewhere have picked up the notion that it is more "legitimate" for poetry to be completely self absorbed and blatantly autobiographical than prose.
That school of thought might be tied to some particular historical period, but I know nothing of it. I think many of history's most powerful works of art are autobiographical (of course, nowadays we're not supposed to do this if we wish to be thought of as post-modern... (dyslexius lets go of nose now)). I think "blatantly" is the key word. I'd say be as autobiographical as you damn well please, whether in poetry or in prose, just be clever about it.
My t'pence, however naïve...
--dyslexius

On the first point you are porobably right. I think I chose the term "reincarnated" simply for its inherent power. I wanted to convey exactly how great a writer I feel like at times. That said, I've never actually had any real rolemodels as far as style goes. I equally revere Huxley and Faulkner, for example, for the quality of their content, despite their literary styles being almost exact opposites (precise, at times almost scientific prose, meticulously crafted with clear intent, versus meandering stream of consciousness and almost dreamlike descriptions of atmosphere, mood, and light, notably)

But perhaps that is why I'm still searching more or less blindly for my own voice, because that is one of my main concerns. I can never seem to stick to one voice, one style of prose for any longer period of time. It all depends on my state of mind and type and level of energy (intense, explosive, deliberating, meditating) when I start writing, and deliberately reproducing a specific state of mind and type and level of energy on another day seems nigh impossible, if I may say so myself.

As regards the autobiographical nature of my works, I have somewhat more come to terms with it lately, as well as become better at inventing stories (or a least ideas for stories). I no longer give a rat's furry little ass if my latest piece of romantic postmodern poetry says nothing about anything but myself. It is quite obviously what I can write, and someone who doesn't know me might see something completely different in it than I do, and certainly won't make all the obvious connections to very specific people, places and events I always do.

And now... off to find something read worthy.

Last edited by Nowaysis (24-10-06 11:51:53)

dyslexius · 24-10-06 12:01:06

Nowaysis wrote:

Well there's a challenge I never could resist...
And now... off to find something read worthy.

That looks suspiciously like a promise, hooray!
I'm gonna hold you to it

--dyslexius

Nowaysis · 24-10-06 12:41:02

Oh fudge!

The_West_Wind · 24-10-06 13:20:53

Ok, Dyslexius. I'll post a bit of writing on a new thread.

Lets do this.

dyslexius · 24-10-06 13:27:27

The_West_Wind wrote:

Ok, Dyslexius. I'll post a bit of writing on a new thread.
Lets do this.

I just saw it:

http://www.ifeelmyself.com/forum/viewto … 932#p11932

Capital! -- Now I'll have to go back and read.
( or, perhaps I'll post one of my poems first :)

--dyslexius

Last edited by dyslexius (24-10-06 13:34:54)

#26 23-10-06 04:20:54

Re: Creative endeavours, pretentious and otherwise.

#27 23-10-06 04:35:05

Re: Creative endeavours, pretentious and otherwise.

#28 23-10-06 04:51:00

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#29 23-10-06 04:53:39

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#30 23-10-06 04:58:00

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#31 23-10-06 05:09:32

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#32 23-10-06 06:08:02

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#33 23-10-06 13:41:00

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#34 23-10-06 15:00:20

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#35 23-10-06 15:36:32

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#36 23-10-06 16:04:19

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#37 24-10-06 00:00:34

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#38 24-10-06 00:34:37

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#39 24-10-06 00:47:40

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#40 24-10-06 04:24:14

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#41 24-10-06 05:39:20

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#42 24-10-06 06:01:57

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#43 24-10-06 06:04:14

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#44 24-10-06 08:14:35

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#45 24-10-06 08:57:15

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#46 24-10-06 11:49:42

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#47 24-10-06 12:01:06

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#48 24-10-06 12:41:02

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#49 24-10-06 13:20:53

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#50 24-10-06 13:27:27

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