defrosting

After an intense bout of seemingly endless bout of writer's block, the words are finally flowing. If they continue to flow like this, then the amazing Alex Giles and I will be embarking upon a potentially very exciting creative journey. More details soon.

Current inspirations in picture form:

The amazing "Pumpkin Soup" video, plus: kids' TV production design, portable houses, helium balloons, colour, colour, colour, bright lighting, rose coloured glasses, fringes, big buttons.

Sweet treats, hundreds and thousands, colourful cones, fairy floss, sherbet, neopolitan stripes, melted chocolate, serviettes in block primary colours, candy hearts.

Perth beaches, bright blue skies, vintage swimsuits, parasols with polka dots and stripes and zig zags, perfectly white sand, limestone walls, pink sea shells.


And I already fear that I have said too much.
xx

summing up the last two weeks

future anxieties

Last night I dreamt about a bureaucratic error. I dreamt that I received a letter and learned the truth in no uncertain terms; my high school certificate had never been "authorised" and it was time for me to go back and repeat yr 12. So I jumped into a bus and moved to Albany (the only place that still offered the 2003 curriculum), ready to sit through another year of nikita krushchev and endoplasmic reticulum and il faut que je, whilst all my peers headed into the future without me.

Yup, so my anxieties are pretty clearly expressed there. In three weeks time this Masters will be all behind me - and so too will 18 years of study and 6 years of university life. I haven't enrolled in anything else for next year. I don't have a job yet. I don't know what lies in wait for me. It's a little terrifying. If I may use a very respectable analogy, I feel just like Rory Gilmore circa season seven! I've never been more clear about what I want to do, and so I have never felt more scared about the alternate (im)possibilities.

So, as I often do in times of stress + anxiety, I have decided to make a list.

THINGS I CAN DO WITH MY TIME TO ENSURE A SUMMER OF LOVE
(AKA "how to avoid a breakdown if my unemployment lasts longer than expected")

- finish my showreel and my website (marketing the self = enjoyable?)
- perfect my collection of film, show, life ideas so i have them all ready to go in the event of a producer magically appearing and asking "WHAT YOU GOT!?"
- make sure my short film is absolutely perfect and amazing (basically still at uni thus far...)
- consume the pile of unread books that has slowly built up in my bedroom
- work my way through my newly acquired 100 Pies and Tarts book, yussss
- visit the beach on a daily basis
- cycle all the way to beach if at all possible
- return to the piano, learn some cracking new tunes
- maybe pick up the guitar too, why the hell not
- get krunk with my original gangstas, aka tbone, clion, jtat, mozi, sash et al
- travel to: busselton
- travel to: norway, france, spain, portugal, poland, brazil, peru, mexico, nyc, & cambodia
- get a full body massage
- attend heaps of boho sleepovers
- host heaps of sleepovers. also: barbeques, picnics, dinner parties and pool parties
- learn to sew
- learn to surf (lancellin surf camp anyone?)
- learn to sleep for more than six hours at a time
- maybe write some more reviews
- maybe try and get some more stuff published
- maybe write some more prose fiction
- cure my recently aquired caffeine addiction through a welcome return to chai lattes
- radically change my hair and perhaps also get my ears pierced?!
- watch: madmen, the wire, united states of tara, the sopranos (WHAT ELSE?)
- try tackling that 1001 movies list
- go on an unplanned 'photo-taking expedition'
- contemplate the varying places where i might want to consider living for a little while
- eat lots of extravagant breakfasts feat. hollandaise sauce and/or fresh strawberries
- get into scrapbooking. i'm not joking.
- try to train and complete a triathlon; even just a small one, even just on my own
- sort out my messy filing system! important!
- basically spend heaps of time with all the people that i am missing right now, as well as all the people who i have already spent excessive time with this year, but would like to spend more time with, outside of a working context.


OK so... pls offer me more suggestions!!1
These glimpses of holiday delight are pretty much saving me from depression right now.

Lotsa love
xxxxx magda

screen academy love fest dot com

HELLO blogword, it's been a little while! My guess is that you require some suitable reason to excuse this shamefully prolongued absence and luckily I have one big one, and an aspect of it is pictured below. See:

Pretty? YES, i like to think so.

So, in the last few months I have worked on six different film sets, I have directed one and written three, I have produced over like 80 pages of television script and I have discovered a new love (it is called: "production design"). Am I showing off? Perhaps a little, but mainly I would like to address a much larger issue. Yes, I now have to face the very real fear that I may be becoming one of those swarmpy, pretentious, satisfied WAAPA types that I used to love to hate. (NOTE I actually study at WASA, but no body knows what that is, do they?)

Further evidence:
* I constantly ache to discuss past projects, present projects and future projects (boredom city, population: me & whoever i'm conversing with at the time).
* I have a nonstop screenplay running in my head at almost all times (either that or a live radio interview, feat. me, upon my first oscar nomination).
* I pretty much love my 25+ weekly contact hrs, and would not be adverse to staying the night at uni if required (though I guess that might just be as a result of my already existing love for sleepovers?).
* I am always tired, and there is never enough time for anything, because there is just so much that I want to do (I MISS MY FRIENDS SO MUCH).

So, in many ways, I hate this. I can still remember talking to Caro in Jan, as we drove from Heron's Nest into the bustling Busselton CBD, and being all: "WAAPA isn't even that great, what's it's problem?!" and "those crazy OCD WAAPA types are nut jobs, their lives must suck LOL" etc. (and I guess I made some ^strong points^!). Then again, though, it is kind of amazing. As with so many things that I initially fear, it has ended up being a great decision - it turns out that I love the endless string of challenges, the fun people, and the concentrated creativity. And I just wanted to get that down before I changed my mind, as I am so wont to do.

(though this doesn't in any way change the fact that i am excited beyond all BELIEF about my 2 upcoming non-contact weeks.)

xx magda

ps i will update more from now on OK

"eggciting"

Guys this last long weekend was so great! I thought I would use it to party hard, and I did a little, but truth be told I mainly spent it getting "into the spirit" of Easter!

My favourite event of easter is almost always the EASTER SATURDAY BASKET BUILDING MARATHON. And I feel compelled to share a little about that with you now. For, despite all my spirtual anxieties, this is one (albeit loosely) Church-based tradition that I truly cannot get enough of.

First you lovingly decorate your basket, with freshly plucked flower and herbs, and ribbons and toy chickens and sometimes with glitter. Next, you select one piece of every food you intend to eat on Easter Sunday, and perhaps you also eat some of it. Then you take your basket, now filled with chocolate, sausage and cupcakes (the only important foods), down to the Polish church for a quick blessing. There is no mass! It only takes five minutes! You can go out for lunch afterwards! Amazing!

Look at us just going for it:


WACKY FACT: this year two baskets actually went missing! A jealous basket maker destroys their competition? A crazed Pole gets lost in amongst all the sausages and mistakenly takes someone else's? Or a lonely Australian watches with envy as these ethnics celebrate, and feels compelled to get in on the action by way of some "accidental thievery"? Who will ever know?

And here am I, the proud owner of the best-looking basket in towne:



Love to all,
x magda

summer farewell

I haven't posted in a while, and that this is not for lack of inspiration so much as the exact opposite - too much inspiration, too much happening, argh argh argh! I don't really even have the time to craft an eloquent post today but for the sake of positing something, ANYTHING, i thought i would just upload some images (lomo, again). These were all taken agggges ago, not during the summer, but right before it, around the fringes of warmth. You can see that in the grey skies and empty beaches. It's the kinda weather that is right around the corner for us now.

As usual, I am sad to see summer go, because I love her warm embrace and her bright yellow light. But, on the other hand, I'm getting quietly excited about boots and umbrellas and gloves and scarves. And, in many ways, I farewelled summer the moment I stepped back into study. Study always feels to me like the antithesis of summer, for in my mind it is necessarily accompanied by wet-edged library books and lots and lots of tea. Besides, there is nothing sweeter than to look out of a window and see a university under rain clouds. It works, somehow.






Happy Autumn everyone!
x magda

our national day

I'm not really a fan of Invasion Day, flag capes and crowded foreshores, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a fan of our personal Australia Day tradition: disgusting sausages, the last 10 songs in the Hottest 100, and casual pool times feat. the occasional "inflated dolphin race." This year I decided to take polaroid snaps because a) i do not use my polaroid camera enough to warrant my possesion of it (it is pretty special) and b) it is difficult to photograph an annual tradition without inane repetition year in, year out.

As you can see above, I prob need to acquire some sort of better pen for scanning purposes (and also a better scanner, now that I mention it...).

x magda

NYE, past & present

It's been nearly a year since these photos were taken, but hey I only recently acquired a scanner, and I'm currently going hogwild with it. These ones are taken with the lovely red holga that ben purchased for me last Christmas.

I love love love the beauty of film; that you have to wait several weeks before you can see a photo, and that by then you've forgotten that you ever even took it. I also love lomography a little more with every roll I have developed. Most of the time only about half is even worth looking at (which can be pretty damn disheartening), but those photos that do work out always feel so rich in life and atmosphere. EXAMPLE: the below photos for me perfectly capture the heady spirit of last year's new year's eve. I feel drunk just looking at them, but maybe that's just me.

More on that crazy night.
More on lomography.



In other news, I'm really struggling to design a pinwheel logo for this page. Everything I make ends up looking like a swastika - please don't judge me while I experiment. Consider swastikas in hinduism?

x magda

a very wacky christmas

Well there's no doubt about it, this season truly has been a silly one, in the woz-woz house and beyond. Here are some images that to me represent the most memorable moments of christmas08:

TOP LEFT: work christmas party, tom & anna. i love this image because i think it captures the Anna/Tom dynamic so perfectly; Anna is hysterical, and Tom is quietly bemused.
TOP CENTRE: magda's desk, being crafty. this yr i decided to make some of my own Christmas cards. Most of them were awful, but the best thing about the whole experience was just that feeling of being absolutely saturated in cliched christmas 'elements.' I'd be at that desk for hours, and then emerge with glasses covered in glitter and hands covered in tiny little snowflake cut-outs.
TOP RIGHT: family wigilia, my sister kokulka. Being classically Polish, my family celebrates Christmas on the eve before the day, and we open the presents as soon as the first star becomes visible in the sky (Venus does not count).
MIDDLE LEFT: secret santa potluck, ro's shitty santa gift. My "friendship group" (as they have been dubbed by anna) celebrated Christmas with a delicious potluck dinner and two sets of gifts. There was the traditional secret santa, plus the additional "shitty santa." The requirements of the latter were three-fold: 1) that it not cost more than $2, 2) that it be humorous, and 3) that it be shit. The pictured gift went from Abby to Ro.
MIDDLE CENTRE: santa @ myer, tom, louisa, jono & magda. Our work Chirstmas lunch carried on into the night, with a crazy trip through King's Park in Arnold's rather crowded car, a stopover at the oak & ivy, and a skip through the late night shopping crowds of Perth's CBD.
MIDDLE RIGHT: gingerbread house failure, by magda & koko. Our dad thought it might be a cute idea to buy as this gingerbread house from IKEA - but of course, classic ikea, you had to build it yourself. The whole thing was a disaster from the start: i burned my finger on boiling sugar syrup, the icing was a drippy mess, our mother's decorative suggestions were not desirable (marshmellows as "snow") and by christmas morning the whole structure had collapsed anyway.
BOTTOM LEFT: secret santa potluck, vintage jenny. Here a very cute Jenny is holding part of Moriarty's contribution to the potluck. I brought a Greek salad, while Jenny brought a tiramisu which i ridiculed but really enjoyed in the end. Other highlights included: a delicious frittata from Sasha, and scrumptious chickpea soup-thing from Caro.
BOTTOM CENTRE: christmas lunch, desserts by magda. This year I was in charge of the desserts, yay! I delivered: berry choc cupcakes with alternating decorations (fondant christmas cut-outs for aesthetics vs. classic chocolate icing for taste), a baked lemon cheescake AND rasberry macademia 'blondies.'
BOTTOM RIGHT: family wigilia, kaku + hat. This is my grandfather, just chillaxin during the gift-giving proceedings. It was my mum's idea that every family member be forced to wear a hat. I think he pretty much enjoyed it.

FINALLY
I would like to share a postcard that we received from the boys down the road. The tiny cynical part of me thinks that maybe this was just drunken humour, but the greater part of me believes this was beautiful neighbourly christmas spirit. Boys, I may never actually meet you, but I appreciate the thought (and the photo, hoody hoo!).

(So I just told my mum I was posting this and she agreed, "it is the highlight of the year." I think maybe she meant "christmas," and not "year," but it's pretty hard to tell.)

down south!

a couple of weeks ago i went away down south with my gentleman-friend "ben." now that life is full of pre-christmas frenzy on both the work and home fronts, and i'm suffering from that old conundrum of "too much stuff argh! too little time argh!", i find it soothing to return to the memories of this trip.

i understand that my conception of "the country" is extremely limited. i realise that my experience of "the country" extends only as far as the tourist trail. my vision of small town life eerily echoes the representation of pearl bay in seachange. i have had the privilege of staying only in charming, log-fired cottages - never in an actual farm house or (arrgh arrgh no!) a caravan! further, what i mean when i say "country" is "south-western wa" where big trees reach upwards and crowd the sky and it's all about idyllic clear water. i'm not actually referring to dusty shacks in the middle of the nullabor, or large cattle droving plains as featured in that "quintessentially australian film," australia.

nonetheless though, i like to think there's a core of something... real? in amongst all that mediated experience. whenever i begin to doubt that, i like to remember the story of our good friend mary-rose from denmark, who went away to ireland for three months and did not even bother to lock her front door. "what's going to happen?" i remember her asking, "there's no one around here that i don't know and trust!" the moment she said these words, i drafted a mental plan to move to denmark after i finished uni. i was going to buy a little forest-surrounded "studio," despite the fact that i actually did not really know what a "studio" was (i was 10 at the time, and it sounded so romantic; all paint and books and magazines and pillar candles dripping thick wax over their holders).

times have changed since then, but every time i return to the country, i remember this feeling of dreamy idealism. for me then, being down south is not so much a matter of "time stopping," as it has so often been described, but of time compacting. i remember the delicate feel of every past country moment; staring out over rocks towards the horizon, sitting on wooden verandahs feeding bread crumbs to enthusiastic blue wrens, lying on my back to watch as tall karri trees sway perilously in the wind, listening to pounding didgeridoo music as we coast down scenic roads (my dad describes this music as "exhilarating" and insists on it for all longer drives). and at the same time, there's a feeling of inifinite possibility, of everything that the country has yet to offer me. it's a return to that feeling of a potential country future; i basically can't go down south without remembering my past vision of a forest studio and yearning for it anew, albeit in a modified form.

x magda

---

so, despite the fact that i said i probably would not post my own stuff, i'm going to post a couple of the pictures i took down south. they are nothing special, and probably evoke more within me than they could in anyone else - but still, i'm happy with the use of focus.

"birds: the essence of country?"
(click to enlarge)