Doubts and Interviews

I just got finished with the second interview for the College-to-Hire program from API Systems, Inc.  It is an interview supposed to be an hour.  It actually lasted 29 minutes.  I believe that that is because the “D” word came up on my lips.  Doubts came up when I answered the question, “why Computer Science.”  I said, “although I had a few doubts, Computer Science has been a good fit for me.”  Then, he asked, “so what doubts did you have?”  Then I had to answer truthfully.

Yes, I have had doubts.  I had doubts when my group software project never was completely finished and when math was apart of programming in Computer Graphics.  Both circumstances tested my commitment to Computer Science and image of myself as a programmer.  However, they also helped me see some weaknesses and its up to me to improve myself in these areas by self-projects.

I also said, “these are some of the doubts that I been having” instead of had or have had.  It seems that the doubts never go away.  However, I keep pressing on.  Even though I do have doubts, I still qualified for several entry-level positions.  So I keep applying and sending thank you notes to interviewers.  Each interview is preparation for the next.

Meet @dontkawai

Name: Kawai

Birthdate: March 11

Nickname(if applicable): K., K-bug, Annie, Ally (laughs)

Personal Bio: Mother of two amazing little boys 3 and 6 years of age, I help plan fundraising galas for nonprofit charitable organizations. I became a fan fiction writer on a whim and it basically took off from there.  Started off as a Southern Vampire Mysteries fan and quickly became a TrueBlood fan.  I am a klutz who loves to cook…and eat. Basically, I’m a lot like my rp character on twitter- bruises and all.  Just without the wings or…*sad face* Ferrari Enzo.

What brought you to Twitter? When was that?: As stated earlier, I write fanfics, specifically a Bill Compton one in my “Family” series.  Started communicating with a fellow writer, @smeykunz and we quickly became friends.  She told me about Twitter and I became curious and joined in February of this year (few days after Valentine’s day- *Sigh*).  Thought it was the dumbest thing in the planet to be honest.  All I did was update my status for a few days…LAME!  Told Shan this and she finally explained it to me…I have to follow people.  LMAO

How did you choose your @ name?: My sign on for my fanfiction is dontkawai, so I kept it for simplicity reasons.  And let’s face it- I’m not that creative.

Why is Bill your Vamp?: I always thought of him as someone who truly wanted to be a good individual whether it was in his human existence or his undead one.  I don’t particularly care to see him end up with Sookie but I would like to see him with someone good that he can be himself with.

On a side note, I hate it when people paint Bill out to be the most horrible person ever for lying to Sookie about the real reason why he came to BonTemps.  He obviously loved/ loves her, just screwed up by not telling her the truth.  He’d die for her without hesitation which says something about his character both on the show and in the books.  Just sayin.

On the flip side: Saint Bill…*Gagging*  Not a big fan of that either.

Favorite Bill book/show quote: Book-“I have no intention of stopping”  /Show- “Uh oh”  and “I have Frescas”- I like the funny ones.

Favorite Bill photo: Um, smirking one. Pick one…it’s all good.

Favorite character from the books/show aside from Bill: Eric- 6’4, Viking warrior, very naughty with a quick wit- nuff said.

Favorite @VampireBill moment: Anytime he takes a shower or tells a story. Um, when he says, “Good evening, Miss Kawai” *Laughs* Yeah, I’m a dork.

What would you like to see happen on Twitter in the off season?: For one thing, I’d like Twitter to work consistently.  Other than that, I’d like all of the rp’ers both original and TB/Book to expand on their characters outside the box that is the show while remaining true to their persona.  For those who know me, HUGE fan of alternate reality.

Who is your favorite @ character? (other than Bill of course): I like so many of them it’s hard to really say.   If I tweet with you consistently I basically like you.  There is one character that I will always look to see what their tweets are when I sign on though… *blushing* Erm…no comment.

Jason Maling - The Vorticist

One of the most interesting and underground artists in Melbourne is Jason Maling. His three year project The Vorticist is so secretive that you need to be part of the experience to understand it fully.
Lala invited Katerina Kokkinos-Kennedy to interview Jason Maling, a Melbourne based live artist currently presenting The Vorticist, a three-year durational appointment-based project at the Abbotsford Convent.

Katerina: I know that you are a visual artist, an object maker, and a performance – maker. Can you tell me a little about how your practice has evolved?
Jason: I trained as a painter and became interested in the rituals that surround the production of images. Things turned very quickly into process work. That’s how I got into performance making, by creating rules. After putting myself through these situations for some time it evolved into not only showing the outcome but also the process, as a performance. I then started asking other people to do it and removing myself altogether. The rule structures became more elaborate and two fold. It was theatrical in the sense that the process had an audience and the work was presenting a certain narrative, but it was internally written, the experience was constructed for the people engaged within the system of rules. I was interested in creating experiences where you as a player could go through something and indirectly present something else.

Katerina: So from what I understand, you began by making these rules for yourself as an artist. So what was the shift that made you want to start putting other people through your paces?
Jason: I became a variable in the system and I was curious about what other variables would produce. It was always based around objects structuring the action, and images or text being an outcome. I would cut and reuse fragments of stories and reorganise them with simple devices like musical chairs. These resulting elements might cause something else to be thrown, spoken or drawn.
I always come back to drawing and this is where the problem is with talking about it as one thing or another, it really is just composition, I use what ever is necessary within the bounds of the questions being asked by the work. It might be an image, object, text or movement, or a tension created through some combination.
I construct projects as drawings. I visualise how people operate within systems, a type of fluid composition. I think of these compositions as networks of phase spaces and brackets, which are negotiated by choices made internally. Although there is also the consideration of how that system is perceived exteriorly.
Katerina: Are you saying that you became more interested in how other people would approach a task that you had set?
Jason: Yes, more interested. I find myself rather dull. It has become increasingly the case that I am not interested in making content, in coming up with meaning that is generated by me, it is about finding a structure which causes it to emerge in relation to a variety of elements.
Katerina: What you describe is similar to Anne Bogart’s compositional work. Her actors are given a structure, a list of elements and from that list they have to make a work. Sometimes they are given half an hour or three days. She understands that duress can produce startling results. She borrowed this concept from a choreographer but it is a kind of structured playground concept like the one you speak of.
Jason: Absolutely. For a long time I have explored, (and this is how The Vorticist project evolved) the idea of the tool. In terms of an object both metaphorically and physically, you can’t fake a tool, it is built to do something and its live application is its test. You can go out and test your tool to see if it works and if it breaks or causes something unforseen to happen you go back to refining it.
The relationship between the studio-process, the composition or structuring process is considered very much around the notion of a tool. Quite literally some of the projects have been sets of tools. One project, Splint, specifically evolved from the question, what would happen if you equip a group of people with a boundary-defining tool? If you give people a tool that through its use implies multiple frameworks of play, you don’t need to have rules. You are providing a type of hardware that generates the software.

Katerina: What are the rules for The Vorticist?
Jason: In relation to The Vorticist, the question of why you are making an appointment is a crucial first question. An appointee summed it up very well the other day. He came via a teaser ad I had placed in the Melbourne Times. The ad had been running for a couple of months and strangely he was the only person to come via that hook. He explained to me his sense of what was going on. He said, “You don’t need me do you? You don’t need me to be here and I don’t think you want anything from me”. I said, ‘No, not really,’ and he said, “Well I don’t really need anything from you either and I don’t need to be here either. Well, that creates quite an interesting space doesn’t it, we are both here now so what could this mean?”

Katerina: A kind of contract?
Jason: Yes. It annoys me when I go to the theatre with the expectation of seeing something ‘meaningful’; it’s almost as if the transaction of meaning has been defined already. Rather than being established through the process of what is going to be done. The Vorticist project grew out of a response to this question. What right do I have as an artist to take something from the studio and reveal it or present it as meaningful without it being negotiated through a process? With this project it was a little like saying – ‘Well these are the questions I have – how do they relate to what you have?’

Katerina: It’s alchemical too isn’t it, because everybody brings something and between the two of you, you have to negotiate the meaning.
Jason: Yes it’s grown quite organically from what began as a very simple studio invitation based on how people responded to the tools. The question that kept coming up was how could I create a set of spaces that someone could pass through, in a similar way to the experience of going to the theatre or a gallery. We often already know the title of the show, the artist, the type of space and whether or not it is art. We have boxed the experience three or four times before we get there. We are very ready for it but in a prescribed way.

Katerina: We might also be obliged to like it.
Jason: Absolutely. So one of the questions in The Vorticist project is how can you create a series of gateways to try not to let people do that. To try awfully hard to suggest to them that they let it go. Don’t try to find out before acting. With The Vorticist, someone may get a recommendation from a friend who says nothing and then go to a website with a set of suggestively meaningless questions. This is probably the only information they will have before making an appointment. In the same way that in going to the theatre we have possibly gained something before getting there, in this case I am trying to create a process by which we lose something. You have emptied yourself. Hopefully. So that when you enter the Vorticist’s office it’s a bit like “I don’t know why you’re here – you don’t know why you’re here – ok, lets see what happens”.

Katerina: You do realise it’s become a secret society don’t you? I know a few people who have been to The Vorticist and we’ve never talked about the content of our experiences.
Jason: Even though the notes are public?

Katerina: Yes, but they are anonymous. People want to maintain something about their individual experience, the particularity of it. Friends will say, ‘I went – Thankyou,’ and then there’s this knowing look.
Jason: Yeah it seems to function like that. I am a huge fan of those objects or mysteries that exist in history like for example the Voynich manuscript. They seem to have a scale to them. You can sit on the side of a belief where the thing represents something specific and meaningful and clearly understood. Or it can be completely playful, ridiculous, poetic. The nature of the thing allows both points on the scale and we can move between them. It intrigues me that The Vorticist for some people is a very defined type of experience and for others it was an experience to play within.

The rest of the interview is available here as a PDF download with some censoring to protect the Vorticist and his process.

vorticist-katerina interview final

Intermezzo

Housekeeping

Ends up that running a weekly feature takes time and effort. It’s well worth it, of course, but I need a break — and help. From you. The search for insight and understanding in unlikely places takes the most time. So if you know anyone, including yourself, who is passionate about books and eager to celebrate sentences, characters, novels, authors, and literary experience in general, tell them, urge them, command them to contact me at jkneilson@yahoo.com. We’re all evangelists in a worthy cause. Speak up, for crying out loud. Thank you, and long live Sancho Panza!

Home, a book recommendation

By Pulitzer Prize-winning author Marilynne Robinson, Home is a story about Jack Boughton’s return to Gilead, Iowa after a 20-year absence. His father Robert Boughton is a dying widower who is cared for by Jack’s 38-year old sister Glory Boughton. Through her eyes, through her hopes, sorrows, and disappointments, the story of Jack’s homecoming is told. A lost and scoundrel soul, Jack returns to Gilead with a carefully guarded plan to set his life aright. His stay is fraught with anxiety and tenderness, vulnerability and hope — always hope, especially by those who love him most and can be profoundly hurt by him. Countless scenes are so deeply moving that one stops in sheer amazement, as when Robert Boughton, eager to spend time with Glory, falls asleep at the table with his fork in hand, or when Jack gracefully plays the piano for his father’s enjoyment. Robinson is a master at evoking the reader’s deepest layers of experience, as well as making the presence of the past (excuse the expression) palpable in such everyday objects as shirts and lampshades. Home is a marvel, a gorgeous achievement, and is well worth your time. Savor Gilead first, otherwise a rich dimension of meaning will be lost, or as Robinson unforgettably writes in Gilead, you will miss “the great taut skeins of light suspended between them.”

Did you know?

Friends and family celebrating a fine achievement

Between the Lines averages about 350 visits per week. While this is nothing to sniff at, your kindly host is greedy as Gekko and wants more, a lot more, so please share the blog with anyone and everyone. Even better, list me on your blogroll (Mark Sarvas, chop, chop!), and who knows, I just might return the favor.

WordPress site metrics allows me to track search terms used by incoming traffic. Little did I know that when I captioned an image thusly, “Zaniest threesome ever,” I unwittingly spun a web to snag this tasty little morsel, “how to prepare wife for a threesome,” which is funny because it’s funny but vexing, too, because it’s hardly the kind of traffic I so richly deserve. Or is it?

Joyce Carol Oates and Harold Bloom politely declined to go Between the Lines. Don DeLillo, not so much. But in his defense, I did mis-spell his name with a lowercase “l.” Accidents happen.

Spooning the City electorate

San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom still hasn’t responded to me. Which is commendable in a way, because he’s got more important things to do than to discuss ideas.

On the Horizon

Next feature will cross Monday, November 16.

David Mitchell’s feature will go live on Monday, December 14 at 12:01 a.m. To prepare, read Cloud Atlas, a wonderfully inventive novel, which was shortlisted for the 2004 Booker Prize. If you fear it’s too large an undertaking, shame on you, but somewhat pardonable, so read Black Swan Green instead.

Bait Spot Interview: Jeffrey

CP: Hey Jeff. Thanks so much for following Bait an Oscar on Twitter. Have you been using your account and why do you think so many people are addicted to this thing?

JEFF: Hey Chris! Well, I pretty much made my account in an effort to support the contest and I never had intentions of using it for any purpose other than just following it. I played around with Twitter a bit and I’m not even sure why it’s become so addictive, but then again I don’t use MySpace or Facebook either sooo perhaps I’m just the perplexing one.

CP: You’ve written some very good baits in the past, “Owner of a Lonely Heart” is probably the one that stands out the most to me. Since the contest has been basically put on hiatus for the longest time now, do you think your writing style has improved or changed completely?

JEFF: It definitely has changed, I’ll say that much. I had an English teacher last year who pretty much flat-out told me my writing sucked and I ended up despising her for a long time. Well needless to say, I did get a perfect score on the writing section of the SAT and a 5 on the AP exam correlating to the particular course she taught, so I shouldn’t care what she thinks BUT, my writing did sort of morph into a style that was more appealing to her simply so I could do well in the class. And I ended up thinking it was a bit more mature and original, so I’ve stuck with it since. It’s still not too concise (which has been a constant piece of constructive criticism I’ve tended to ignore), but I think it’s easier to trademark my writing as a result.

CP: This may sound pretty silly but did it ever bother you when people would wonder why most of your baits had a lot of Asian influence? Do you think in a way you were representing a group that usually never get to be involved in high-profile films unless it’s a martial arts movie or something like “Memoirs of a Geisha”?

JEFF: It was a bit bothersome, firstly because I had gone from being praised for publishing baits that kind of transcended the “safe” and “predictable” boundaries of the contest to being criticised for being one note and, ironically, predictable. Secondly, it’s particularly frustrating when some people even tried to argue that each bait was too similar to the last. Even though one was set in 1990s North Korea (quite mysterious in its own right), another in war-torn Vietnam (with a majority of the cast being white), another in feudal Japan, and then the last I attempted was modern-day Hokkaido. All of these places have very distinct cultural nuances but I think it might have been simply lost on a few because I realise that not everyone is as interested I am in Asia. It’s not a coincidence that after getting panned for “Hokkaido” I went a little more mainstream. I think eventually with a new contest I might surprise people with a bit of Asian flair though. I will get an Asian woman a BAO trophy, I promise you that.

CP: Whenever you’re writing baits, what kind of inspiration do you use to help push your work? I know for me, music is probably what gives me a vision of what I want to write about. Is there a particular thing that you use as a muse for your writing?

JEFF: One of the reasons I’ve had my periods of inconsistencies is because I really don’t have an inspiration or a muse. A lot of the times I’ve written baits just as vehicles, but I’ve also written baits because in the spur of the moment, the idea came to me and I just NEEDED to at least try it (baits like Revenant Dreams, Chasing the Storm, and Big Brother fall into this category). In some rare occasions I choose to adapt something I’ve read or seen on stage (this is not my strong suit), but usually I’ll read a story online that I get really interested in and feel the urge to try it out as a bait, often changing it to my liking so that it’s more cinematic (Owner of a Lonely Hearts and The Shadows in the Night are two examples). Well… the five I named are my most successful, so I hopefully will keep drawing ideas like that.

CP: What ideas are you currently working on at the moment. Is it hard to think of stuff when people aren’t posting posters and plot outlines that pretty much give you an idea of what the  competition may be. Do you even care about the competition or is it all in good fun?

JEFF: Honestly, I love that the competition is silent. I feel like a lot of the time, people might decide that they love a bait by the poster or the hype and it becomes hard to beat on that principle alone. Likewise, some people hype up their baits a little TOO much and it fails, hard. This evens the playing field a bit. I don’t want to say that I don’t “care” about the competition, since I’m competitive by nature and still would like some wins and bragging rights, but pre-BAO apocalypse I did win both Bait of the Month and Best Author, so I will no longer feel like a failure every time I lose. A new contest will likely invoke new goals, though . I’ve been working on two baits, one a dark (and stylistic) bait about an extradition gone wrong and the other a comedy that I’m probably not going to finish. I really like the idea that I have for the comedy, though. My comedies have been relatively successful in the previous contest so I’m using that as my motivation.

CP: For years we’ve seen baits continuously use Jake Gyllenhaal, Ryan Gosling, and Natalie Portman. Which actors do you believe should be the new breed of BAO staples. Is there a particular actor/actress you’d love to see when an Oscar this year or maybe in the future?

JEFF: I can’t wait for Carey Mulligan to win Best Actress. I’m so confident that she can do it, and I am fully anticipating every British teenager/young woman in a bait to be played by her. Just like every obese African-American will be played by Gabourey Sidibe. Both kind of fall nicely into the niches I’ve mentioned. I think we can also look forward to the use of Christoph Waltz, who has gone from unknown to immensely popular. So long as people use these three uniquely, I won’t have a problem with it.

CP: Final question…IMO 2009 has been a very very VERY weak year for movies. I mean c’mon. Which films are you predicting to score much acclaim come nomination time and which others do you believe will underwhelm most people?

JEFF: It’s hard to say which will underwhelm. I know I am not lining up to see movies like A Single Man or Up in the Air, though the latter might have to do with my George Clooney indifference. Once Precious, Invictus, and The Last Station come out, I think we’ll have ourselves a real race. The one movie I think people are underestimating is definitely The Last Station. If it makes a big enough splash, I think it’ll evolve into a tsunami.

James Somerton Interview Coming Next…

Talking About Orchard Street

photo by Julian Voloj

Maya and Gonzalo Escobar create Talking about Orchard Street, a multi-sensory interactive installation that explores the generational transmission of Jewish life through dialog.  The father-daughter duo traveled from Chicago to New Haven to conduct interviews with former members and friends of Orchard Street Shul and to record locals’ stories of growing up in New Haven during the 1920s and 30s. These stories of everyday life include tales of flirting on the front steps of the shul, eating herring and kichel, speaking Jewish, finding first jobs, going on first dates, learning bar mitzvah portions, and hearing (or having) loud conversations in the women’s section.  In Talking about Orchard Street, visitors are invited to sit in comfortable armchairs, sample herring and kichel, listen to excerpts from interviews and engage in dialog with each other.

click here for more information about the Orchard Street Shul Artist Cultural Heritage Project

Fridays of Sword & Sorceress 24: an interview wth Teresa Howard

This Friday’s interview, ladies and gentlemen, is with Teresa Howard. Read and enjoy!

Tell us about yourself.

I am an avid fan of Fantasy and Science Fiction.  I enjoy reading, writing, and attending conventions.  While many of my stories are about the magical Nellari people, I have also written modern fantasy, children’s stories, and science fiction.  By day, I am a technology coordinator and computer lab instructor at a local elementary school in Birmingham, Alabama.
How did you get into writing?

I was a story teller as a child and entertained friends by creating imaginary worlds.   I always dreamed of being a writer.  As an adult I was encouraged by a friend to pursue that dream.  I took Ann Crispin’s writers workshop at Dragon*con in Atlanta and became part of the DC2K Writer’s group.

Why write fantasy?

I write what I love to read.

What is the worst mistake a writer can make?

The worst mistake a writer can make is not to write the stories that are trying to get out.   If you wait, you may lose them.   If you wait too long the stories may stop coming.

Tell us about your Sword & Sorceress 24 story.

Nellandra’s Keeper is set in the magical Nellari Homeland.  The main character struggles with fulfilling her family’s expectations and her own destiny.
Can you share an excerpt (a paragraph or two)?

Recalling the purpose of my mission, I delivered my message. “Grandmother has been calling for you. You’re late and if you don’t hurry back, everyone’s feast meal will be cold before we’re dressed.”

I watched embarrassment color her cheeks.

“Oh! I’d forgotten the time. I’d better hurry. Thanks, Galley!” She jumped to her feet and hurried away at a graceful sprint, heedless of the tangle of bushes that I had carefully maneuvered through.

Smiling to myself, I watched her retreating figure. That’s Nellandra, brains, beauty, grace, but not a smack of magic in her bones. I ran after her, sure that she would need my assistance before long.
Pick any one book to recommend. Other than Sword & Sorceress.

Robert Jordan’s – Wheel of Time series