Brooke, my Motivational Speaker

I got to catch up with my friend, Brooke, today when I decided to give her a ring during the kid's nap time. It was great to finally talk to her. I knew that she was back in NY and really busy pursuing her dreams, but I didn't know all the details. So here you go: she's currently interning for Bust my favorite magazine, she is producing her own comedy shows around the city and in Jersey, she doing art shows presenting her handmade light boxes, and she's back bartending and waiting at a NYC night spot. I really admire her tenacity, she never gives up and will always be an amazingly talented, unique individual. She keeps herself super busy, which is very motivational.

Even with all the things she has going on she kept talking about what my next steps should be with my photography. I wasn't in a rut quite yet, but I could see myself getting there. But now after our talk I feel more self-confident and have new motivation to stay positive as I pursue my photography and my teaching aspirations. Brooke and I are very similar in our work ethic and dedication and I just have to remember that everyday. Miss and Love you Brooke, break a leg!

Film Critiques

I like reliable film critiques, websites or magazines that you can rely on to tell their straight-up opinion. Sure sometimes you don't necessarily agree with them, but they give good smart points to back up their opinion. I once wanted to write film reviews, how awesome would that career be?!! I could watch and then write about films for a living. I never had great confidence in my writing abilities to follow that dream. This blog gives me a chance to express my opinions about great films, to bad a great film hasn't come around in a bit, but when it does you'll be the first to find out about it. Currently my favorite website for film critiques is rottentomatoes.com. It tells you flat out the percentage the film gets out of 100%, then if you scroll down the page it gives you the opinions of all the critics who chimed in to come to the decision. It's been pretty right on so far. Sometimes I go there before I rent a movie or watch one On Demand. I always read a good review and bad review from the critics, so I hear both sides of the story. Another site I enjoy is aintitcoolnews.com, the only downside to this site is you need to wait to watch the movie before reading the reviews, since most of them contain spoilers. It's a good read, so give it a chance. I also enjoy reading film synopsis's and reviews in magazines, like Entertainment and Bust. Since I may not be pursuing this line of work anymore, these are the kind of of film related hobbies I will continue to love an d crave. These easily will fill that void for me for a while, this and actually watching the films and film trailers will help too.

Joy of a Mag

I am going to steal one from Jason this time and write about the joy of reading magazines. Mags rock the his'ouse. They've served as great creative tools in my past and present. I find clippings for collages, paintings, hair or fashion ideas. I also love to read mags. Some favs are Bust, Ready Made, Filmmaker, Entertainment, and Interview.

When I worked at Barnes and Noble one of the best perks was that when mags went out of date employees could take them home after the cover was torn off, for counting purposes. I would take every mag that I had any interest in. Man, if I still had that privilege I would snag all the food mags too, since I love to find new recipes now. I've considered getting a part-time job at a Barnes to receive those perks again and to be in the cozy and intellectual environment. So instead of getting them free I now have a few subscriptions to sustain the addiction.