If you’re in perpetual search for the next great horror movie, it’s more than likely that “Sinister” caught your eye.  It is Directed/Written by Scott Derrickson who brought us “The Exorcism of Emily Rose”. Not bad, but also had a hand in the remake of “The Day the Earth Stood Still”.

The story begins with an eerie and effective slice of a murder film, which is suppose to be enough to hold us over through slow scene setting and some character exploration… it is. Sinister’s Star, Ethan Hawk, who plays a True Crime Author in search of his next big story, is a mixture of clichés and good acting that makes the protagonist's passage passable. It keeps the pace from being too torturous at spots. James Ranson’s goofy Deputy character steals the show though after a bumpy start.  The film pieces (and music) within the movie that depicts the haunting deaths of families past are where the movie really sinks its teeth in. Sadly, it doesn’t follow through on much else, except (to the movie’s credit), on delivering on a dark albeit predictable ending.

The downer is that the other bits that were intended to scare and unnerve seem to be out of place or are otherwise excess. Spoiler free, vague examples: While it’s possible living at the site of a murder could exacerbate a young man’s night terrors, it’s hard to get behind the way it’s used in the plot. The box scene was a perfect example. The bush scene was a little better. What of the ghost children parading behind out protagonist? Excess. It’s not like the movie couldn’t tie symbols together, just look at the scorpion, snake and dog. If anything, the movie felt loose and was slow because it was sloppy, not because it was building tension or atmosphere. 


That being said, there are many parts that were really great horror, but because of that inconsistency, I rate it a 7.2/10. It’s good and better than a lot of the horror movies out there but isn’t amongst the best.

- Josh

Remember the last time you really had fun? What did you do? Cut a rug on the dance floor? Go for an impromptu swim via cannon ball? Ins't the degree to which you had fun proportionate to how self conscious you were?

Being creative has a high likelihood in resulting in fun. That is if you can quiet the critical voices in your head long enough to lose yourself in a project.  In this case, take a lesson from kids: explore something new, eyes wide and with excitement, as though this next project will be a blast. There's a reason why kids can approach creative activities like that... And it's because the critical voices haven't yet found home in their minds. Simply thinking about how you would approach something if you were a kid has shown to make a positive impact on creativity. That's because a kid gets permission to explore, to be new at something, to enjoy themselves - Adults rarely do. Somewhere along the way, someone says "you don't dance great", "your art is silly", "your voice isn't suited for singing", "if you haven't read as a kid, you can never be a writer", "if you're not great at something or if you can't make money off of it, then it isn't worth it"

Not true!

All those creative avenues and more are activities through which  you can find happiness, meaning, self esteem, balance, and a sense of belonging, but only if you can have fun with it.

Here are a few things to watch out for:

• Studies suggest that critical remarks aimed at creativity often times inhibit it. This is true especially if the criticism comes from close social support (like a partner). Keep in mind that much of that criticism comes from unfair comparison between your work and the professional work of others. As well from the mindset that things have to be done to eventually make money or meet some standard. In contrast, the viewpoint outlined here is that you are doing something that is meaningful to you and makes you feel good. Forget money and standards for now! Suggestion here is to have a discussion about viewpoints with your social support network. You can also build capacity of that network by adding people with the same interests as well.

• Monitor your own inner dialogue. If you're feeling resistant to a creative project, stop and ask yourself why? Does it seem daunting? why? Often times what seemed to be a good idea to begin with seems silly halfway in. Why is that? Instead of abandoning the project, how can you inject some more fun into it? How do you let go? You may find it helpful to track beliefs about yourself that really obstruct creativity. Often times, you'll find that there's a theme to obstructive thoughts. Identifying it decreases its power over you.

• When brainstorming and getting into creativity, think about things you enjoyed in the past. Take a look at the ideas for getting creative below and use it as a springboard to find something you like. Don't like anything? That could be your mind throwing up a blockade. Challenge your thoughts by getting into something anyways. Do something all the way through and evaluate based on how you felt doing it and not your appraisal of the end product's worth. 

• Set a goal and congratulate yourself when you've accomplished it. Knowing that creative ventures have a significant positive impact, set aside time for yourself to create (kind of like how you would for the gym, yoga, or a movie... That kind of thing). Just think about all that time spent Facebooking or on Reddit or the like (There's some free time you can designate as creativity time). Scheduling a time in can be helpful. Start small. You may find 15 mins over three days is easier to pull off than 45 mins on one day. Don't forget to evaluate your mood throughout.

Need some ideas to Start you off? How about these:


1. Scrap booking

2. Cooking (Use spices you haven't used before. Try things outside the recipe where you can. Dress your product up a little.

3. Painting (On different mediums and with different mediums)

4. Writing ( Write a short story, a poem, micro or flash fiction. Google for more!)

5. Design a Mandala (Don't know what it is? Google " how to draw a mandala". Click on the first link.)

6. Do some sowing or knitting 

7. Play around with an instrument ( Belt out the chorus to a favourite song, change the tone, embellish wherever you like. Make up some words to the rhythm of another tune)

8. Rearrange the room for a new look

9. Revisit items awaiting summer yard sales to see if you can use pieces or change them to make something different. 

10. Make up a dance, or add moves to a dance you already know. 

11. Get some clay and make something. Make a decoration. 

12. The next time you run, mix it up by going off your running trail. Add some random exercises. Create a fun new routine. 

13. Drawing ( on paper or make a stencil to decorate a wall)


You don't have to show anyone what you've been up to on the creative front. Your creative experiment can be just for you: a gift to your health. Happy creating!

- Josh

This music artist's sound, of YouTube fame, was introduced to me over the week end by a friend. The vibe is one you'll find yourself moving your head to as Jenkees does in the clips. The degree alone to which he gets into his music is inspiring... And the songs! They've been triggering creative thought in my mind since. Take a listen:

Where does your mind take you when you listen to it? If you don't know, listen again. This time, close your eyes and let go.

 "...That place, I don't have a map for it. So sometimes, when I turn on the camera, we don't go there. But I'm going to try and go there today"

Here's another one:

If that inspires you and you want to hear more, head over to his website here:

www.ronaldjenkees.com

He has a wonderful outlook on sharing his creative work and seems to have a great philosophy on music creativity. Worth seeing is his YouTube channel to take a look at where he comes from and where he is today. 

Youtube Channel Here

Jenkees is a self-taught musician. He sells his tracks on his personal website and offers license at a price.

- Josh

Ray Bradbury was quoted as once having said:

“If you stuff yourself full of poems, essays, plays, stories, novels, films, comic strips, magazines, music, you automatically explode every morning like Old Faithful. I have never had a dry spell in my life, mainly because I feed myself well, to the point of bursting. I wake early and hear my morning voices leaping around in my head like jumping beans. I get out of bed to trap them before they escape.”

I won’t get into what it is you should be feeding your creativity, because that’s a whole other future post and discussion. I’ll say that Bradbury above seems to cover everything, but other famous creative types would encourage a diet for your creativity based on media of substance (see H.R. Giger’s Frequently Asked Questions section on his website and scroll down to the letter addressed “Dear Aspiring Artist” under “When Should fans contact Giger’s agent” for an example). Shelve that for now…

But isn’t the title to this article misleading then?  No. That’s because the answer to the title question is yes. You have been feeding you’re creativity with all the things Ray mentioned above.

The part that’s worth highlighting in the paragraph is about the “waking up early to catch the beans” bit.  Because your Old faithful’s been producing. It just needs to be tapped.  Getting to the point where you feel like you can “Leap” out of bed to catch the jumping beans takes some practice and confidence. Trapping them too takes some skill. All the same, the morning voices are there, if you spend the time to listen to them.

Have you been creative today?
How can you be creative?

- Josh

“Creativity is essentially a lonely art. An even lonelier struggle. To some a blessing. To others a curse. It is in reality the ability to reach inside yourself and drag forth from your very soul an idea.” ~Lou Dorfsman

The most important and hardest part is then bringing it to life...

Movie Shorts can be so accessible, eh? Easily  watched on Youtube or Vimeo and won’t demand an hours worth of your attention. But as compact as they are, it doesn’t mean that they aren’t always easy to digest. That they’re more likely to be consumed means a great potential for deep impact.

Here, director Christopher Kezelos makes a wonderfully stylistic piece of creativity that reminds of Tim Burton and strangely too ‘The Prestige’. Perhaps it’s because of the attention to detail and thoughtful message  despite the characters not even having said a word. A great piece of stop motion work! Christopher also made the short, “Zero” which shares the theme of birth and has that emotional undertone. You can find it by Clicking HERE.

As per the Youtube channel, "The Maker has screened at over 60 festivals and won 11 awards."

To support the short above, Follow the link HERE to The Maker website and Shop.

- Josh 

    

For fun, I made a video of the Halloween Party invitation for my Halloween party this year. The first bit is an overview of the actual invitation and then there is a run through of how I made it with suggestions to how it can be improved or changed. You are welcomed to use the invitations as your own. Post ideas for other interesting halloween invitations in the comments below.

- Josh

Well, what you’d end up with would be something like the PC/Mac game “The Binding of Isaac”.

It’s a dark and unforgiving adventure that has the main character running the abomination infested labyrinths beneath his house to escape his crazed mother. Take a look:

Ok, so that was a little weird. Game footage looks pretty good though. Here's the story set up:

The game takes pages right from Zelda handbook, with a reminiscent top down viewpoint, hidden doors ready to be bombed and more than one boss or monster that reminds me of baddies from “A Link to the past.” Find the Pin boss fight and tell me it doesn’t remind you of the lanmola one in the Zelda SNES classic. 

It’s a great throwback and excellent skeleton off which to pin this grim gaming experience. While it has no continues (meaning you start over each time you run out of life), It’s got enough diversity with it’s random dungeon generation – bosses, items and baddies included – that’ll keep you coming back for more.

That being said, the game’s probably darker than some would like.  I mean, your main weapon is the tears your character’s crying… That’s how frightened and disturbed he is! Watch the videos above again to decide if you could stand the sometimes exceptionally gruesome experience.

Good? Good. Now head over to Steam to purchase it. It’s worth the money.

Steam Link HERE

The Binding of Isaac is a 2011 Steam release by Edmund McMillen and Florian Himsl (with a great soundtrack by Danny Baranowsky (associated with Super Meat Boy)).


- Josh


FYI - Pin and Lanmola Comparison:
Link for Pin details HERE via Wiki 
Link for Lanmola details HERE via Zelda Dungeon.net