The Calm Before

These last days have been pretty uneventful. It’s been a mix of sitting around planning to accomplish things while not doing them, and watching Parks and Recreation while eating ice cream. Watching Parks and Rec has done me a favour though. It has given me the perfect quote. If only in Australia we did yearbook quotes, cause this line muttered by Chris Pratt, might of been mine. “My life is a giant mess, and I love it”.

I’ve put my iTunes on shuffle an hour or two ago. I haven’t been able to find an album that I really wanted to listen to, so I changed things up. It’s been strange listening to songs I have had on my iPod for ages, but had never listened to them. I guess that’s what happens when you download every Elton John album.

This time next week I will be preparing to leave Australia for a month. Something I have been preparing for so long has finally arrived, and the next week will go so slow. I think that’s why I’ve been so un-motivated the last two days. I’m so close to being on holidays, but I’m not yet. And since I feel this whole year has been leading up to this, I just need to finish this, to move on. Now I’m 100% super excited to be going away, but I think once I get back it will start a new chapter for me. Graduating at the end of November last year started this new chapter, and my holiday will close it. So I’ve decided to regard the last nine months as the “Dodgy Holiday”. My dodgy holiday will continue, just in different ways.

The Heart’s Desire

I feel lost in the direction of my life. The word lost is an overstatement, but right now I don’t really care enough to find a word closer to the emotion. It’s like, I see where I want to be in ten years, sort of, but don’t know how to get there. Thinking about me being twenty-nine is pretty strange. Unfortunately for me there is no guide book or how to for dummies to be a successful journalist slash internet personality slash lovable personality that may make his way onto television. A few years back I was struggling with what I wanted to do for the rest of my life (still am), but I decided I wanted to work in the surroundings of pop culture, so I decided I wanted to be an entertainment journalist, whether it be in print or on screen, or both. Somehow I’ve always found it hard telling people this, and now I think it might be because I don’t want to lock myself down into one thing.

The other day I watched a live show Donald Glover did called “Weirdo” on Youtube. For those of you who don’t know, Glover started out on the witting staff at “30 Rock” the year he graduated from NYU. In 2009 he became more well known for his work as a cast member on “Community”, until he left to focus on his musical career where he performs under stage name Childish Gambino. So after eight years in the spotlight Glover has done acting, stand-up, and made a music name for himself. That’s what I call not getting locked down.

Most people who know me now days wouldn’t know that I took acting classes between grades 2-7, and was also in a few of my high school musicals. Throughout all of this, I never considered acting as a career. For the most part this is due to me not being a serious person. Now looking back, whenever I wasn’t being serious, was when I was enjoying myself the most. During acting classes I was given a small plot and given time to prepare something to perform for two or three minutes. More times than not, little planning was done, so an act would be created as it went, which I preferred.

The death of Robin Williams got me thinking about acting, and to a greater extent, comedy more. Is there anything better than being able to make people laugh? More so, I feel someones laughter means they enjoy hearing you speak. I can’t think of anything better than that.

Similar to how Josh Thomas has titled his show “Please Like Me”, I feel this runs true for me. Although they may need to change it to Please Love Me. Not that I’m looking for love, but I feel that you can like someone without really enjoying their company.

So anyway tomorrow I will try harder to do something in the life of Jayden. I plan to put a vlog on Youtube just to talk about everything Pop Culture, but I always feel like I’m trying too hard when I film myself. Like if you were to hear me speak about certain events in real life, they would be told in a different way. I guess it’s because you can’t edit in real life.

When I started writing down my thoughts here, I was listening to “The Kids Don’t Stand A Chance” by Vampire Weekend, which lead to Simon & Garfunkel’s Bridge Over Troubled Water album, which has now rolled into Poses by Rufus Wainwright. it was all pretty low key music in terms of tempo and sound, that is when you take “Cecilia” out of the mix, but I wanted want to do that. And now Wainwright’s lush production is getting a bit to much, so I’m going to cut him off and put on Survivor Gabon. So that ends my little stream of consciousness writing for the night, and after it all, I still haven’t found what I’m looking for (nice U2 reference), but i didn’t think I would in a hour of putting down my thoughts.

Dorothy’s Dream

MGM’S 1939 adaption of The Wizard of Oz is one of the all time classics. A film that can be enjoyed by children and adults alike, is as well received now as it was seventy five years ago. It’s astonishing that Dorothy walking into Munchkin land gives the same response, of excitement and thrill from the audience, as when Harry walks into the magical Great Hall at Hogwarts, and Oz was made a long time before anybody ever uttered the letters “CGI”.

From all my research into the making of The Wizard of Oz, I’ve never been able the find the answer I’ve been looking for, and that is why in the film was Oz changed to part of a dream Dorothy had after getting knocked out, unlike in the books by L. Frank Baum, where Oz is a real place that Dorothy eventually returns to.

iTunes Top 100

I always find it hard to discuss what music I like because it can be quite varied. Now I’m not saying my music tastes are that disperse, or that I’m “sa indie” for having a mix of Kanye, John Mayer, The Beatles, and Taylor Swift in my most played, but at they end of the day it is quite a mix of artists. So I thought I share my top one-hundred most played on iTunes, as it is a peek into what I listen to most, and also as these songs kind of form a collection of the sounds coming out of bedroom over the last two years.

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Richard Linklater’s Boyhood

If you’re my age you might not of heard of Richard Linklater. Or maybe you do. Or maybe you’ve seen his must commercially successful films “School of Rock” but had no idea about the man behind it. Well anyway, Linklater has been busy for for the past 12 years putting a film together about a boy growing up. I myself was hooked at an instant, but others I’ve talked to about the film, weren’t as convinced. Either way check out the trailer below, which features “Hero” from the Indie Rock band Family of the Year.

Something To Fear

Last week I was asked who I was flying with for my overseas trip, that is now only a month away. I knew where this was heading straight off the bat. I answered saying not with Malaysia Airlines. I the added by saying all planes are safe, which isn’t entirely true, but you have to think this way.

On my first overseas trip to Bali, when I was nine, we went to a restaurant which I think was called Bali Aussie. This trip took place between the two bombings in Bali. At the restaurant all the staff wore black t-shirts, with a quote in white lettering on the back. This being a effective colour scheme caught my eye. The quote was: “A life lived in fear, is a life half lived”. Which is absolutely true, and was powerful knowing what the country and other tourists had been through a few years earlier.

So as many terrible things happen in the sky, and unfortunately they may continue to happen, I will continue to fly on planes.

We Find Ourselves

I think I’ve finally got a plan. While everyone in year 12 had everything set, I was never so sure on how things were going to unfold. I had a clear vision of the future, but wasn’t sure how I would get there. I’m currently enrolled in a one year Tafe course that I’ve deferred from but I’ve now decided to re-apply for University next year. I feel like my plans for next year have been on my mind for a while now, and it doesn’t help when everyone is constantly asking what will happen. So here is the plan for next year. Go to Melbourne Uni, studying Bachelor of Art, majoring in Screen and Cultural Studies, and maybe studying Media and Communication as a minor. So thats that.

Survivor Seasons 1-8 Thoughts

Over the past six months I have been re-watching the first eight seasons of Survivor. Many consider these seasons to be part of the glory days, when the show was at its peek of popularity. I wanted to put some thoughts together about certain aspects of the show, and its evolution, so here it is.

BORNEO
The Pagong tribe was a mess from the start. All over the place. Even though Gretchen was a great leader, she didn’t have much of a team to lead. B.B. wouldn’t listen to anyone. Ramona was sick, or just wouldn’t eat the food, and couldn’t do much. Gervase thought he could win the whole game by playing cards with people. Jenna was crazy, and Colleen and Greg were always going off on island dating adventures. No wonder they messed up the merge vote.

People may complain about Borneo from a production point of view, but the challenges were good for a show with a summer budget in the first year of the millennium. Yeah, simple, but at least it wasn’t swimming for puzzle pieces every week. And some of these challenges set the basis for what the show would become over the next four years.

Dr. Sean was smarter than you think. The alphabet strategy meant that he would vote for all of the Pagong tribe, before having to write a former Tagi’s name down.

What if moment: Pagong don’t lose the Immunity before merge, and goes in 6-4.

Player that should return: Richard

AUSTRALIA
This is still to this day on the shows best casts. Even the first two to go, Debb and Kel, were memorable.

It only made me hate the Kucha’s more whenever they brought up how they would of been in power if Mike didn’t fall into the fire, but there was a 50-50 chance Ogakor might of won, and I sense Mike would of been voted out anyway if it had to come to it.

Can we all take a moment to think about the moment Colby dumped Jerri on her ass in the reward challenge. And can we just remember how funny the guy was. All they say is five immunities in a row, or how he had a great bod(as Jerri put it), but he was always cracking me up. Hersey bar. Ha!

What if moment: Kimmi didn’t reveal Jeff got a vote at their first tribal.

Players that should return: Jeff and Alicia.

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