Pay it Forward is a movie about a boy who comes up with a dead simple idea and it takes on a life of its own. Just imagine. You do a favour that really helps someone and tell him or her not to pay it back, but pay it forward to three other people, who in turn, each pay it forward to three more – and on and on into a global outpouring of kindness and decency. Kevin Spacey’s pitch of the assignment to his junior high class goes …
“You’re stuck right here in the 7th grade but not forever because one day you’ll be free. (Class cheers). What if on that day you’re free you haven’t prepared. You’re not ready. And you look around you and you don’t like what the world is. So what if the world is just a big disappointment? Student answers; “We’re screwed”. Unless. Unless you take the things that you don’t like about this world and you flip them upside down, right on their arse.
And you can start that today. This is your assignment. Think of an idea to change our world – and put it into ACTION! What’s wrong? Students answer; “It’s so weird”. “Crazy”. “Hard”. Teacher says; How about possible? It’s possible. The realm of possibility exists where? In each of you. Here (points to head).”
Reposted from 2011, before social media ramped up the problem.
“Rather than child proofing the world, we need to world proof our children”
Todd Sampson panelist on Gruen Transfer statement referring to kids exposure to sexualised bill board images and mass media. See also, Phillips Adams article ‘Bad Times Stories’.
July 7, 2011 - Draw On
“Drawing and visual media were his pain-relievers of choice … a response to conditions of disconnection and isolation.” (From book pictured). Tim Burton is the creator/director of Batman; The Corpse Bride; Nightmare at Christmas; Alice in Wonderland and more. “In spite of claims that he was an inarticulate youth who felt alienated from his neighbourhood environment, Burton’s point of view has always been humorous and high spirited. Burton made much of his disaffected youth as muse for his early work.
Burton has endeavoured to come up with new models for the beautiful. Skeletons, severed heads, and bodies and eyes that are stitched and pierced are recurring emblems whose twofold effect is to skewer conformist attitudes and affirm alternative ways of life. Disfiguring the body (not his, the characters) allows Burton to deliver metaphors of social dysfunction and psychological disintegration with sensual wit. In the end, creativity is the saving grace of Tim Burton’s heroes. Their example of imaginative activity, as a response to conditions of disconnection and isolation, is the overarching message of Burton’s work.”
(Words from ‘Tim Burton The Exhibition’ book).
Movie, ‘9’ a by Tim Burton. A story of difference. Of what (and those) society often discards (like people who have things deemed ‘wrong with them’) in the pursuit of greater things. A visual feast. The characters and their inventions, determination and friendship are toasty, toasty warm.
Modern Poet .
“The saviour of modern poetry … this guy Eminem has created a sense of what is possible. He has sent a voltage around a generation.” Seamus Heaney. Guy Adams writes, “He has done this not just through his subversive attitude but also his verbal energy…. A decade ago, Mathers – an angry young man from the wrong side of Detroit – decided to bleach his hair, adopt the alter ego Slim Shady and transform the landscape of popular music. In six years, from 1999 to 2005, he recorded five extraordinary albums that sold nearly 50 million copies and gave the city of Motown a new chapter in its musical history.
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“I’m not afraid, to take a stand.
Everybody, come take my hand.
We’ll walk this road together, through the storm, whatever weather.
Just lettin’ you know that you’re not alone.
Holler if you feel like you’ve been down the same road.
And I just can’t keep livin’ this way, so starting today.
I’m breaking out of this cage …”
Eminem
