Wednesday 24 July 2013

I have a dream

To whoever is reading this,

I am nothing, yet I am everything. I'm just a number in the system, yet I matter. I matter because I have a voice and so do you. Alone our voices may be whispers, but together our voices create a song. A song of freedom. A song that should be sang loudly and with pride. We are something if only our voices travel together across the distance. As long as we take a stand.

You see, I have this dream. A vision. I see the world not as the fucked-up place it is now. I see opportunities. I see the world as it should be.
I dream, therefore I am.
I breathe, therefore I exist.
I have hope, therefore I can make a change.

But a change can't be made alone. One drop in the ocean does not cause a giant wave. I dream that if we stand together and let ourselves be heard, we can make the difference.

Love should not be war. Society should not decide for anyone who they can or can't love. We should not hold on to ideals created far before our time and portray it as truth. There is no truth. We all follow our own truth anyway.
Love should not be a matter of what is right or wrong. The only thing that should matter is the desire to go home, because that is where the person who gets your heart racing awaits you. Regardless of gender. Regardless of anything as long as that person unleashes feelings that are so strong, you feel like you'd die if they wouldn't be around you.
Love is love.
A kiss is a kiss.
Love should not be restricted by laws enforced by those who look but cannot see.
Hate should not be the guide. Tolerance should be.

Dark times have taken hold of us. The light at the end of the tunnel flickers and fades. We try to save ourselves by believing what we've been told but we forget that we can't survive on our own with empty words alone.
We're not powerless, even though it might feel that way. We should not be silenced. We should raise our voices. For acceptance. For tolerance. For hope.

The moment hope dies, so will we. Love and hope are stronger than fear and death. I have a dream that there will come a day when we can all accept our differences. The differences that make us unique. I dream that we no longer use violence to convince others of our right. I have a dream that we can live together in harmony and find peace in both our hearts and minds.

It might be silly, but these are my dreams.

Monday 22 July 2013

The Art of Imagining Things

I'm writing this while I'm pretty much confined to my bed. Fever is a bitch, but you were probably aware of that already. This does bring me the great opportunity to write another blog about, well, writing.

I am currently in the process of writing a new story. A long story. I aim this to be the first story of 100,000+ words that I will finish. I have the whole outline ready (no spoilers!) and I can genuinely say that I am very excited to finish this. It's a story that is important to me as it contains parts of me that I did not yet understand and whilst writing, I am discovering more about myself. Which is a good thing. Nobody likes the identity crisis you have to go through in your twenties. Or during the rest of your life for that matter.

There was a time when I did not write much. Which was weird considering the fact that I wrote ever since I was about 9 years old. I still have those notebooks and whenever I feel like reading something cringe-worthy, I will dig them up. Writing has always been a way for me to express my emotions when I felt like I could not express them by telling people in their faces. Believe it or not, but I've always been quite shy and during my childhood, I never really had the chance to learn how to express my feelings, except on paper.

I used to only write poems and lyrics but I've moved on to writing stories. I've always loved reading books and getting lost into worlds far beyond my own imagination. I think stories are amazing gifts we should cherish, because they are not just there for our entertainment. Stories can change you. Stories can open your eyes and make you see things differently. We can be anything in stories. We can do anything.

I do not consider myself a really good writer. I think I am decent but the more I write, the more I learn. I hope that one day I will get the chance to write something that will touch people's hearts and change them in the same way stories by other writers have changed me. Together, our imagination can make the world a better place.


Wednesday 17 July 2013

Outtake 1

I have recently finished a new project called Chasing the Sun. Because I had written more than I could put in the actual book, I figured I could publish some things on the blog over the coming few weeks. So yeah. Hope you'll enjoy!

Darling,
Please tell me why
all beautiful things
have come to die?

I remember us,
The way we used to be.
You were my everything.
You were the other part of me.

I see the birds have taken flight
It's getting late.
It will be cold tonight.
Let me know when you'll arrive.

I see your picture on the wall.
Back in happy days.
A smile could say a thousand words.
But now it says nothing at all.

I close my eyes.
An ill wind blows and I shiver.
Forgotten are the petty lies.
I wish we could start over again.

It's true what they say,
You don't know what you had until it's gone.
And I held your hand

when you whispered you couldn't go on.

Saturday 6 July 2013

Hate


This was filmed on a subway, right after the Gay Pride Parade in New York. These two men made homophobic comments and then used violence to attempt to take the phone away of the woman who was filming. These men must be found. Hate should not be tolerated.

Monday 1 July 2013

In sleep he sang to me...



A couple of years ago I suddenly developed this very strange obsession for the Phantom of the Opera. I watched the film on tv during Christmas and I fell in love. Mainly with Gerard Butler because he was super sexy even with a deformed face. The accent...oh the accent...*swoon*.

Anyways, I never really got why I loved it so much. I wasn't into that gothic/alternative scene in which the Phantom was insanely cool. I read the book, the original one by Gaston Leroux, and I fell in love with the story even more. Aside from the fact that Christine is a total bitch for picking Raoul even though the Phantom is in reality kinda creepy (Edward Cullen, eat your heart out!), I was still amazed by the character. The novel is so much different from the musical version and even though I love the musical, I think the novel is insanely powerful and provides such a great understanding of what the character really is about. The phantom actually has a name. Erik. Also, Leroux insisted that the story is real. It really happened. Even though that is questionable, it does add to the myth.

There are a couple of quotes from the novel I really liked:

“If I am the phantom, it is because man's hatred has made me so. If I am to be saved it is because your love redeems me.”   
“Erik: Are you very tired?
Christine: Oh, tonight I gave you my soul, and I am dead.
Erik: Your soul is a beautiful thing, child. No emperor received so fair a gift. The angels wept to-night.”   
“He had a heart that could have held the entire empire of the world; and, in the end, he had to content himself with a cellar.”  
If you can, make sure to read the book. The storyline is much better than that of the musical. However, Gerard can always sing to me in his Scottish accent...


Unfortunately, as with all good things, some people felt the need to ruin it a little. Some dude decided to write a sequel called The Phantom of Manhattan. The author of that book says Leroux got his facts wrong (err...he wrote the original story...) and set his story in New York. If you want to know what this story is about and I can't imagine you do, check Wikipedia.
Andrew Loyd Webber also decided a sequel was a great idea, but it did not receive the expected success.

For me the Phantom is still who he is supposed to be no matter how many sequels and prequels are out there. A tortured soul who is desperate for love. The story is dark and haunting and beautiful and I find that after all this time I still love it very much. Plus, who could possibly resist Gerard Butler? But that is another story hehe.


The first Phantom on film. Somehow he doesn't wet my panties...