Resolutions 2011

- Pick up the guitar & harmonica again
- Write more
- Spend less time online (bad start)
- Get back into the habit of cooking good meals
- Believe in myself
- And just generally kick ass

inspiration #7

It is what you read when you don't have to that determines what you will be when you can't help it. 

Oscar Wilde

 Hi folks, I probably won't be posting as much as I have been in the past few months. I'm busy catching up with reading, with old friends, with life, and always downing a last glass of red wine (och, well, maybe I'll have another one after that). But stick around, have a seat, and I'll be back soon.

inspiration #6

Cathy was beautiful like Brigitte Bardot. Cathy always was there, but outside … Then, some years ago, she put a shotgun in her mouth and blew her head off.

N.B. Photo by Bruce Davidson.
Two "inspiration" posts in a row? Dear, dear.
Life is a bit hectic at the moment. But when things calm down, I'll try to start posting my own stuff again, I promise.

inspiration #5

The Tallest Man On Earth - A Field Of Birds from Yellow Bird Project on Vimeo.

This isn't only another song/stopmotion video posted in the "inspiration" series (ie things that inspire me!), it's also the theme song of the Yellow Bird Project, a Montreal-based nonprofit organisation which sells t-shirts designed by bands and singer-songwriters (Bon Iver, Bloc Party, The National, Little Boots, Metric, and many, many more). The money raised is then sent to charities directly chosen by the designer of the t-shirt. (The t-shirts are really cool by the way, I've got a couple and am really happy with them!).

Be indie with a conscience! ;]

Crossroads #1

Ça fait un p'tit moment que je n'ai rien posté sur mon autre blog. A vrai dire je n'ai plus tellement le temps de gérer deux blogs, d'écrire des "chroniques" de films, d'albums ou de bouquins, ou de faire des recherches sur des sujets qui m'intéressent. Pourtant l'envie d'écrire ne s'est pas dissipée: je me concentrerai donc sur ce blog-ci à partir de maintenant.

D'ailleurs c'est la première fois que j'écris une entrée de blog à proprement parler en français. Je suis plus ou moins passé au français sur Twitter et sur Facebook, et j'ai même écrit un nouveau texte en français sur ce blog-ci, chose que je n'avais pas faite depuis 2008. Me suis-je finalement réconcilié avec la langue de Molière ? Peut-être bien. Peut-être que c'est la fin d'une ère. Je n'ai plus besoin de m'opposer à la culture de ce pays pour tenter de définir mon identité. C'est une petite victoire! :)

Celle-ci arrive au moment même où j'apprends que mes parents ont décidé de rentrer en Irlande pour de bon - alors qu'ils avaient toujours dit qu'ils voudraient finir leurs jours en France. Avec mon petit frère déjà installé là-bas, je serais donc le seul à rester ici. Ce qui me fait un peu bizarre. Oh well! Life goes on.

A Much Needed Update

Man, I haven't posted to this blog in almost a year. That's a long time, even for me. This has been the busiest year of my life so far, but I have been writing. But not poems. I'm still working on that novel - the characters have come to life; the plot, which will still be evolving a lot in my mind, is clearer than it ever was. I even still have the motivation. I might even post an extract online sometime. We'll see.

Words

I love writing. There's just something about words that helps bring peace to my mind. Lately I haven't had as much time to write as I used to ; but when I take an effort and put the quill to the parchment, or rather my fingers to the keyboard, I am never disappointed. I am always rewarded in some way. Sometimes it's the cathartic release of bottled-up emotions or nostalgic memories that words provide me ; often it's the feeling that I have accomplished, manufactured or created something with my own hands, however humble that thing might be.
Usually I write poetry, mostly because I find it easier to concentrate on writing a small text, in rhyme, rather than page after page of prose. But I've always wanted to write a short story of some kind — I've just never had the patience to finish what I'd started. Recently I've tried working on a new idea, Clouds. We'll see how that goes. In my last post I included an extract of it. It's not great writing, and it doesn't make much sense on its own, but it's a draft of something I hope to build upon in the future. We'll see!