Travesty, Horror, Decadence, Excrement

Well hello my long lost chums! Since my last post in November I have turned eighteen, received two uni offers and one interview, had a lovely food-filled christmas and celebrated the start of 2014 with my Tanzania pals - one of whom I hadn't seen since our tearful goodbye at the airport a year and a half ago. So I've been busy! But I've also watched a shit load of films during this festive period and I'm going to share a few quotes from one of my favourites (if we're disregarding Elf, that is).

Mr Keating: Now let me dispel a few rumours before they fester into facts. Yes, I too attended Hell-ton and survived. And no, at that time I was not the mental giant you see before you.

Pitts: "Gather ye rosebuds while ye may, old time is still a flying. And this same flower that smiles today tomorrow will be dying." (To The Virgins To Make Much Of Time / Robert Herrick)

Mr Keating: [Looking at alumni] Because you see gentlemen, these boys are now fertilising daffodils.

Mr Keating: Medicine, law, business, engineering, these are all noble pursuits, and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for...That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.

McAllister: You take a big risk encouraging them to be artists John. When they realise they're not Rembrandts, Shakespeares or Mozarts, they'll hate you for it.
Mr Keating: We're not talking artists George, we're talking free thinkers.

Neil: [quoting Henry David Thoreau] "I went to the woods because I wanted to live deliberately. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life...To put to rout all that was not life; and not, when I had come to die, discover that I had not lived."

Mr Keating: A man is not very tired, he is exhausted. And don't use very sad, use...come on Mr Overstreet, you twerp
Overstreet: Morose?
Mr Keating: Exactly! Morose. Now, language was developed for one endeavour and that is - Mr Anderson? Come on, are you a man or an amoeba? Mr Perry?
Perry: To communicate
Mr Keating: No! Too woo women!

[Keating stands on his desk]
Mr Keating: Why do I stand up here? Anybody?
Dalton: To feel taller!
Mr Keating: No!
[Dings a bell with his foot]
Mr Keating: Thank you for playing, Mr Dalton. I stand upon my desk to remind myself that we must constantly look at things in a different way.

Mr Keating: Boys, you must strive to find your own voice. Because the longer you wait to begin, the less likely you are to find it at all.

Mr Keating: We're not laughing at you, we're laughing near you.

Mr Keating: Robert Frost said, "Two roads diverged in the wood and I, I took the one less travelled by, and that has made all the difference."

Mr Keating: There is a time for daring and a time for caution and a wise man understands which is called for.

I suppose I loved Dead Poets Society because it displays a rebellion against uniformed structures and shows the importance of creativity and free thinking, instead of regurgitating what others feed you. In regards to 2014, one of my goals is to express my opinion more often whenever I don't agree with something because too often I just act as a spectator without "contributing a verse". I feel that my confidence has grown hugely this past year with the different things I've done but I just need to push myself that little bit more to have my opinion heard and not wait to be asked for it. The film is actually really funny in parts too, Robin Williams plays his character so well.

P.s. totally in love with Charlie actually it's Nuwanda.

Poetry Corner: Neil Hilborn

I'm sure those of you with a tumblr will have seen a video of a bearded man in a plaid shirt passionately performing a spoken word piece entitled 'OCD'. I remember watching it and thinking "who is this man and why won't someone love me as much as he loves the subject of his poem?" Then I discovered Button Poetry and was opened up to the wonderful world of the spoken word, and of course this fine fellow named Neil Hilborn.

OCD Neil Hilborn - "I can't breathe because he only kisses her once. He doesn't care if it's perfect. I want her back so bad I leave the door unlocked."


One Colour Neil Hilborn and Renee Schminkey - "Do not confuse one story for all stories. Do not stare at a red dot and say 'the whole painting is just one colour.'"


Mating Habits Of A North American Hipster Neil Hilborn - "Observe how they keep their faces as relaxed as possible so as not to seem too invested in the activity at hand"

There isn't much that I can add to this other than professing my love for the above performances. The last is a slightly more satirical piece that is spot on, just to finish the post off. Go check out some more of Neil's work and the other fine artists on the Button Poetry youtube channel and the Button Poetry tumblr. It's well worth your time.

“But No Matter, The Road Is Life.”

So I finally watched On The Road. I read the novel last Summer and was pretty excited to hear that a film was in production, especially because it involved Kristen Stewart...little did I know about Garrett Hedlund at this point.

I actually am in love with him.

ISN'T HE PURRRRTY?!

Firstly, the film itself was a really good adaptation in my eyes; the beautiful cinematic photography of both the grand routes of the American highway to the crammed, sticky jazz bars of the late 1940's and the vintage soundtrack from Charlie Parker and Slim Gaillard that perfectly parallels the capricious attitudes of the characters both enhance the film's attraction. However, there isn't really a 'climactic' point that the film builds up to but, having read the novel, it was to be expected as it is more of a stream of consciousness as opposed to a typical storyline involving a culminating point. I thought that the director Walter Salles portrayed the sporadic changing of environments really well, showing the characters constantly being on the move, which was one of the reasons why I loved the novel so much; they wanted to see and do everything and were in love with the world.

Regarding the actors, this is where my love for Garrett Hedlund begins. I don't know what it is; possibly his dashing looks, possibly his bad boy image playing Dean Moriarty, or maybe the clothes of the era that I love so much enhanced my mahoosive crush on the actor. Je ne sais pas. What I am certain of is that he is darn handsome. Plus he quotes wonderful literature such as this:

"The only thing in life worth learning is humility. Shatter the ego, then dance through the perfect contradiction of life and death. It encourages you not to walk with your head down and your hands in your pockets and be closed off to life, but to be open and nonjudgmental and accessible to experience a lot of wonderful journeys within this short life of ours." - Ethan Hawke, Ash Wednesday

I know, it's odd to be ending a post based on a novel by Jack Kerouac with a quote from a completely different writer but it has the same, broad-minded attitude as many of the characters. Plus there wouldn't be enough time in the day to write out all the quotes I love from On The Road.

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