Cleaning my desk has shown me I'm a ludicrous pack-rat. I found nubs of pencils and dirty paperclips and a fountain pen whose reservoir had burst -- when I opened it, some dripped onto my leg and I now have a black spot just above my knee -- and a nice layer of dust. But I can see my workspace, again.
But what this leads to is Brendan's penchant for taking things he finds that have been discarded and fixing them. Making them useful, again. I'm not sure what this means as a metaphor in the story, because so far none of that is happening, but it makes sense for him. And I think it comes from me not having bought a new piece of furniture in years.
My workspace is a card table set up next to a drawing table I've had for more than half my life. Not a real desk with drawers, and certainly not solid or completely stable. Next to it is a TV dinner table where I pile all kinds of books and papers and other shit.
An uncle of mine told me, back when I was just into my 20s, that I was always going to be a student. Nothing more. I took offense...but he was right. The thing is, it's not an offensive thing to be. I haven't closed myself off to new information or experiences...just whined a lot, but still went with it.
As I wandered along, I shifted from art to directing movies to writing screenplays to writing books. I haven't had much financial or critical success from any of it, but I feel like what I'm doing needs to be done, for me and the characters who come to me...and for all my bitching, I can't imagine not doing it.
I picked up my car from the shop, today (clutch linkage needed replacing) and stopped at a Wegman's grocery store to have lunch (NOT a good idea; it made me ill) and as I was buying some groceries for the week, I heard Imagine Dragons' It's Time...
...and this song is so tied to The Alice '65 in my head, I was imaging scenes from it. Like it was a movie. It's the song that first gave me the feel for the story. The chirpy little background chords. The vaguely dark lyrics. The build and the meaning of it. If I wasn't still a student, I think I'd have missed that. It would have been just a nice song...and not become Adam's theme, to me.
Like the Johnston's Banks of Claudy is Brendan's...and his pack-rattiness is part and parcel of that...
But what this leads to is Brendan's penchant for taking things he finds that have been discarded and fixing them. Making them useful, again. I'm not sure what this means as a metaphor in the story, because so far none of that is happening, but it makes sense for him. And I think it comes from me not having bought a new piece of furniture in years.
My workspace is a card table set up next to a drawing table I've had for more than half my life. Not a real desk with drawers, and certainly not solid or completely stable. Next to it is a TV dinner table where I pile all kinds of books and papers and other shit.
An uncle of mine told me, back when I was just into my 20s, that I was always going to be a student. Nothing more. I took offense...but he was right. The thing is, it's not an offensive thing to be. I haven't closed myself off to new information or experiences...just whined a lot, but still went with it.
As I wandered along, I shifted from art to directing movies to writing screenplays to writing books. I haven't had much financial or critical success from any of it, but I feel like what I'm doing needs to be done, for me and the characters who come to me...and for all my bitching, I can't imagine not doing it.
I picked up my car from the shop, today (clutch linkage needed replacing) and stopped at a Wegman's grocery store to have lunch (NOT a good idea; it made me ill) and as I was buying some groceries for the week, I heard Imagine Dragons' It's Time...
Like the Johnston's Banks of Claudy is Brendan's...and his pack-rattiness is part and parcel of that...
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