One of my regular webstops is the blog of one “Ashley Blue” (real name Oriana Small), porn actress, artist, and barer of mind, body and soul. Ashley/Oriana is a remarkably unremarkable-looking woman whose work apparently includes the kind of porn where girls pretend (one hopes) to be forced to choke and gag and cry. Etc.
Her blog is brilliant, and addictive; nothing more than a simple selection of (more…)
Hearing an artist I respect referred to as “talented” makes me want to scream. Most of the time, that person’s achievements have more to do with hard work than any accidental, inborn attribute. Talent is great; it just doesn’t really deserve praise until someone does something with it.
Anyone who knows me knows that I don’t tend to hold back when criticizing something, especially movies. Hyperbolic derision is usually followed by gleeful deconstruction, trying to parse out how something that sucked so bad got made (and released). Lately, tho, I’ve tried to put a damper on that behavior, or at least restrict it to chatter among close friends. Why?
First, I’ve learned the hard way that (more…)
I became a musician mostly out of being such a fan of music. Music moved me — really moved me — and when I discovered and cultivated a facility for making it, it was clear what I should do with my life.
And over the decade or so of seriously pursuing a career in music, something happened: (more…)
On a related note (to “the others,” below), the fact that the entire filmmaking process is so unavoidably collaborative means that it also introduces another requirement into the process, especially in the earlier stages. And it is a requirement not for the feint of heart: Patience. Because dealing with Other People means dealing with other lives, other schedules, other biorhythms…other definitions of what “soon” means, or what constitutes a “day” or “week.” And of course,
“A watched pot never boils.”
Right. But this isn’t (more…)
As a big fan of early Grant Lee Buffalo, I was recently surprised and delighted to stumble upon Pistol Star, the work of GLB’s bassist/producer Paul Kimble. What a find! Apparently lasting only long enough for one CD (released in ’04), the band has apparently dissolved, and I am unable to find anything regarding what Mr. Kimble is up to these days. Hopefully something; the CD has some real gems on it, most notably the title cut Crawl, fortunately one of the four cuts available for a listen on their not-yet-defunct myspace page (the “official” band site is dead).
There is always something inexplicably heartbreaking to me about (more…)
One of the best things about filmmaking is that it is necessarily collaborative. Try as you might, it is (practically) impossible to make a movie by yourself…even if you write, direct, produce, etc. If you’re an animator — and, {cough, cough} a control freak — the temptation is certainly there; no actors, no crew, just you, your brain, and a computer. It’s strange. Trust me; I’ve tried it. (I wound up re-working the basic idea into a much leaner version and shooting it live action, a far more rewarding experience).
Without the fuel of other people’s input, the tendency is to (more…)
I wrote about my brush with others sharing my (unusual) last name some time ago. Since then, I’ve encountered a handful of other Bornias via the intertubes, and it’s been interesting.
Recently, I finally started paying attention to my Facebook account (rather than just using it as a lurking passkey). Part of what convinced me was (more…)
From late 2005 through late 2007, I maintained — pretty faithfully — a blog. Equal parts writing practice, reflection, and (least interestingly, I’m afraid) ranting, it turned out that forcing myself to write something regularly helped me get to the point that taking on journalism-type writing gigs these days feels like no big deal. I get letters printed in newspapers. I entered a short story in a little contest, and it won. With writing, as with most things, practice definitely makes…better. Another thing that happened, oddly, was (more…)
