For writers, bookshops are a double-edged sword. On the one hand, you were probably first inspired to have writing ambitions somewhere in a bookshop, surrounded by the wonder of words; On the other hand, bookshops and the books in them can be the greatest obstacle to writing that was ever conceived.
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Like most people, I didn’t even know they were making a new X-Men movie until I heard some buzz online and saw the first character shots. It all looked harmless enough. Then I saw the first trailer in the cinemas, and that got my attention. But what sold me on seeing this film was that Mathew Vaughn was directing it. I’m glad I did, because out of nowhere, the man has given us one of the best comic-book movies ever.
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Creativity is a balancing act, but it is also a show of strength, so size matters. This balance, this contest of strengths requires an opposite, a counterpoint, and that counterpoint can be found in fear. It goes by other names as well, some choose to call it resistance, or procrastination, and sometimes writer’s block, but at the core they are all a variation on fear. What is feared and the degree of it varies, but it is this fear that must be balanced out and defeated for creativity to triumph.
I‘ve done this before and will do it again, this probing of my thoughts to put into words why I must redesign by website. As a site grows in size and complexity, redesigning it, and more specifically re-engineering it beyond the aesthetics, becomes a bigger challenge. So convoluted has my particular challenge seemed, that I have been considering this redesign for over two years now. As with all personal and important projects, it has always taken a back-seat to more important things.
From the first moment I decided to have my own website, my plans for it were grand. This should come as no surprise to anyone who knows me a bit; All my plans are grand. Every time, I scaled down my ideas to achieve a finished product in some reasonable time, or simply because I had to have a site, to show a client or share with someone.
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Of all the stories of supernatural heroes in the Marvel Comics universe, that of Thor, the God of thunder, is unique in that it was not an outright invention. Norse mythology was interpreted and integrated into the modern world in clever and campy ways to create an entertaining and larger than life character. That was the other thing about Thor; While Marvel made its name on the backs of teenage-angst and utterly human and flawed heroes, the God of thunder, while flawed, was larger than life even in the world of the comic books. That balance between human and God was always a tricky balance to handle, which the comic books started off dealing with using the old secret-identity trope, but they later discarded that in favour of making Thor a complex character in his own right.
Director Kenneth Branagh’s Thor sticks with that decision to explore Thor more thoroughly, but also tips its hat to the original ideas of the God of Thunder having to learn a few things by being human. The movie achieves that balance, not just in the character, but in its entirety, leaving you with an experience that is both enjoyably human and intensely mythic.
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People watching is a common pastime; As a social species, it is instinctive. If you’re a writer, however, it can be the difference between flat featureless prose, and descriptions people can fall in love with. Being a keen observer of people gives you insights into human behaviour which are invaluable, whether you are a writer of fiction fleshing out a believable character, or a non-fiction writer trying to explain in a relatable manner. The best places to observe people have probably always been the bazaars and marketplaces, the ports and public squares, anywhere where people gather to carry out the essential realities of life: commerce, travel, relaxation; Anywhere they are unaware and not self-conscious. This is why airports are a fertile ground to observe a variety of people, and so are malls.
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As Source Code begins, a train is pulling into Chicago. Captain Colter Stevens (Jake Gyllenhaal) wakes up leaning against the train window with the landscape rushing by. Disoriented, he tries to recognise the woman sitting across from him and talking to him as if they are friends. The last he remembers, he was flying a helicopter in Afghanistan. All around, people are going about their routine commute and the woman talking to him (Michelle Monaghan) insists on calling him Sean. He excuses himself and heads for the toilet. He checks his wallet, which does indeed belong to Sean Fentress, a history teacher who looks nothing like him. Yet when he gathers the courage to peep into the mirror over the sink, the face of Sean Fentress stares back at him.
Stevens is soon violently removed from his railway surroundings and finds himself strapped into a seat in a dark claustrophobic capsule with mechanisms, dials, and a lone display screen glowing with the image of a woman in a military uniform (Vera Farmiga). She knows his name, his real name, and she is his only connection to the world he remembers. She must help him make sense of it all, remind him of his mission and get him to go back into that simulation of 8 minutes on a train, the source code, and find what they are desperately looking for.
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