fiftyfiftyme 2012

Well things seem to be speeding along with my #fiftyfiftyme challenge, at least as far as the film side of things goes. So far i've watched 10 films this year that i'd never seen before- i'm off to London for work tomorrow so I don't think i'm going to be able to keep up the high intensity movie viewing i've been doing for the last nine days, but maybe that's a good thing- I don't want to run out of films to watch too soon!

Films for my 52 films challenge

The new listings for films at The Poly have just been put online and i've got some to put in my diary to help me meet my film a week at the cinema challenge.

First up:
The Deep Blue Sea 9-10th Jan
Tyrannosaur 16-17th Jan
Another Earth 23-24th Jan
The Cabinet of Dr Caligari 28th Jan
Black Pond 30-31st Jan
A Separation 6-7th Feb
Snowtown 13-14 Feb
The First Grader 20-21st Feb
Wreckers 27-28 Feb
Shame 5-6th March
Sound it out  12-13th March
Carnage 26-27th March

Other films out this year that I know I want to see:


The Avengers
The Dark Knight Rises
The Hunger Games (? I think I do)
Muppets movie
The Hobbit

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#52films and #fiftyfiftyme

Last year my friend (the very talented Jeanette Leech) watched a film a week at the cinema, something that has inspired me to up my game and see if I can do the same. I watched a lot more films over the last year at the cinema than I have done in a long while, thanks to the fact that i've spent a lot of time volunteering at The Poly, which shows a new film pretty much each week, and I even found myself at the 'mainstream' cinema once when my friends made me go to watch Harry Potter. By challenging myself to watch a film a week i'm going to be forced into watching some films that I perhaps might not have chosen to see (next week my only real option is The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo at The Phoenix because i'm not sure I can force myself to watch The Iron Lady (anti-Thatch feelings die hard)) but I hope this encourages me to watch things I might otherwise miss and I certainly hope it means I see every single film that's shown at The Poly this year.

Unfortunately due to bad timing i'm going to miss watching Waltz with Bashir and Restrepo at The Poly- both of which are showing as part of an exhibition of photos by Guy Martin- a photojournalist based in Falmouth who was seriously injured in an attack in Libya in which 2 other photographers died last year. Instead of watching films in Falmouth I shall be in London attending a 2 day training course in Social Media and then hanging around for a couple of days to visit some exhibitions and see friends.

So...the first film in my #52films...Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, watched at Odeon Weston-super-Mare on New Years Day. I'm not good at writing reviews so my Twitter review will have to do:

Sherlock: Odeon WsM Screen 3 large popcorn very uncomfy seat slow-mo explosions Robert D-J in drag naked national treasure 1-1-2012 #52films

I'm also attempting to read 50 new books in 2012 as part of the #fiftyfiftyme challenge- 50 new books and 50 new films read/watched in 2012. I've joined the fiftyfiftyme group on Goodreads and will be interested to see how far I get with this. Last year I read 41 books that I recorded on Goodreads, this year i'm hoping to make it to 50. Ending last year and starting this year reading the Game of Thrones might put me at a disadvantage but i'm enjoying it so far.

Still here

A very quick update to say i'm still here- just got back from a very enjoyable two days at the Poly Xmas Bazaar, where I dusted off some Spooky Doll face brooches, hung up the vintage aprons, and pinned out my Dirty Hankies. As well as selling my wares again, for the first time in over a year, I had a great time meeting fellow stall holders and shoppers. The whole of the Poly was buzzing with crafty types as all the gallery spaces were filled with stalls thanks to Lulubees Handmade Faire being on for the last four days too.

I've left my pocketful of business cards downstairs while I cuddle up under the covers with the cat, but I shall be posting links to all the talented people I met just as soon as I thaw out again.

Mainly i'm posting this because I gave my cards out to lots of people and it reminded me I really need to sort out my website (not online at the moment) and update this blog...do say hello if we met this weekend!

Another year without my birthday twin

It's been too long since I was able to share a birthday with my special birthday twin Miss_Jen. She died very soon after I started blogging here and each year around our birthday and her death day I find myself looking back and reading what I wrote at the time. Once again I realise that I was trying so hard to keep my personal and professional life separate, whilst this catastrophic event had happened in my life I barely mentioned it in this blog. Elsewhere on the internet I shared more, but here I felt like I had to keep things moving along nicely. I'd set this blog up to represent Made by Milla, the artsy crafty business i'd been running (?) and I used livejournal as a place to rant and spill my guts out. Now i'm using a million and one places on the internet to share a billion different sides to me, but I think if you add them all together you pretty much get the whole picture.

I have another special birthday twin. She is a roller girl. She is super tough and super sweet and lives with a million cats, she's pretty much my oldest friend- we met each other on our birthday when I was turning 18 and she was turning 19. Or was it 19 and 20? Either way we've known each other for 20 years give or take a year. Us September 11th girls have to stick together.

Master Milla

Today I discovered I was a Master. I found out just after noon, when my friend Eugenia handed me a print out with the word PASS on it. My year of study has culminated in me being elevated to the same ranks as Yoda, or is having an MA not the same thing as being a Jedi?

It was my sister who first asked me if Yoda had done an MA to become Master Yoda, and I told her to ask her son who would set the record straight. I then told her that if I passed she would be forced to call me Master Camilla at all times, in the seven hours since she found out she has pretty much failed to do this. Sisters huh?!

I am in a very weird state at the moment, not really being able to take it in that all that fundraising I did, all the reading and writing and putting on exhibitions, all the lack of blogging, it's all been worth it because I now am the proud owner of an MA in Curatorial Practice. When I was younger I was convinced i'd do a PhD, now i'm pretty certain I won't ever do that- the academic writing for this MA nearly broke me at times, and the option I picked wasn't even that academic. If an institution does want to fund me to spend years looking at artists and doodling about knitting then i'd be more than happy to take them up on the offer, however i'm not sure that happens very often.

So...back to the real world. I am hoping to stay in Cornwall for a while and have been applying for jobs that I hope will fit in with the work I do at The Poly and at Here and Now. I filled in my first job application form in 8 years earlier in the week and got invited for an interview today. Fingers crossed that the interview goes well next week and I might re-enter the world of paid work soon. 

It's over!

My prolonged absence from the world of blogging may finally be coming to an end as i've just finished my MA in Curatorial Practice. Well...when I say finished there's still the final show to go, but all the written work has been handed in and my display is mounted on the wall. I am pleased with my display, not so pleased with my final project, and at the moment and waiting to find out how I did. The examiners are in this week and I think i'll find out if i've passed by the end of next week. Either way I am impressed that I have DONE an MA, I may not have got the distinction I was once aiming for, I may not even pass, but I have completed the hardest thing i've ever done and i'm proud of that. I'm cross with myself for not doing as well with my MA project as I could have, a combination of factors, most of them being me, meant that I found it very hard to get my project finished to my satisfaction, and in the end I turned in something I wasn't that happy with. But...it's over now and we shall wait and see what the result is.

In the meantime i'm working at The Poly, in Falmouth as a volunteer on the box office, which is something I love (rather strangely) and i'm curating shows here in the gallery space. At the moment there's an exhibition on by local artist Melanie Young- lovely colourful paintings with layers of gold leaf and scratched in details. Lovely stuff to sit and look at while i'm selling tickets to French films.

Next week is the MA show at Uni and i'll finally get a chance to see what all the other students have been up to with their time!