My Dreadful Attention Span

In the process of writing this blog post I am also midway writing three other blog posts, that are kept in neighbouring tabs, so I can switch blog posts at any given moment if I get bored. A more reasonable person might think, but how can you stay on topic? 

Well Reasonable Person, let me tell you about my dreadful attention span.

If I don’t have multiple blog posts being written in the same time period, they may never get written, because I have inevitably abandoned them in writers block, procrastination and fear of creative expression (causing me to abandon this blog once more). But if I write them at the same time, switching between all of them in the same week or day, there’s a chance they will get done and I will take it less seriously, therefore allowing myself to have fun in the creative process. I think the more I feel like a weirdo while writing these posts, the more I write and the easier to read they are. Said I, Sam I am.

It’s actually become embarrassingly the same with my reading habits as well. Don’t get me wrong, I still love reading a lot. But I find I read more if I’m reading multiple books of different genres in the same time period…if that makes sense.

It’s not that I have all of the books opened up placed on my desk to try and literally read at the same time; that would be very impossible. But it’s more along the lines of having a 3 or 4 books in the process of being read at the same time. It’s great, at the moment I’m reading a book of short stories, a science fiction novel, a comedy fantasy novel and some poetry as well.  It’s nice not feeling stranded on a book that is suddenly slow or dry in content, as I try to complete it in frustration because I feel indebted to completion of this one book. Reading a chapter of another book to refresh my mind, makes it easier returning to the more difficult book again to read it with more patience. I highly recommend this, especially for those who aren’t big readers.

I’ve learnt that not only do I have a terribly short attention span with writing and reading, but with also watching YouTube videos, watching TV, watching movies (thank God for popcorn at the cinemas – my hands need to do something), completing physical exercise that isn’t in a team sport setting, listening to podcasts and playing video games (..does the Sims and Animal Crossing count?).

I’m terrible company to enjoy a TV show or movie with at home because I LOVE to talk all the way through it. I talk about what we’re watching mind you, but I’ve realised that I enjoy a show much more if I say my thoughts out loud, especially if there’s suspense building.

“Yep, it’s definitely her! She’s the murderer.”

“Why would he say that??? He’s gonna get killed.”

“Oh no, oh no, I don’t like this.”

“Ugh what a loser, that’s not how you speak to a lady!”

With a lot of:

“OhMyGod….OhMyGod….OhMyGod.”

And the occasional:

“OhF*ckOhF*ckOhF*ck.”

Yes, my film obsessed/film student brother LOVES watching movies with me. I can feel his steely gaze on me when I react too loudly to a scene or ask him a question about the director or an actor throughout a crucial scene, and I’ve learnt now that when he doesn’t reply he probably doesn’t hear me anyway. Not when he has the surround sound turned up to wall shakingly levels.

But I suppose the best thing to watch and talk over are the ultimate works of visual art, the cream of the crop, that are the trashy genre of reality TV. What gems of contestants and VERY REAL people are found for our viewing of this era of television. The ones who decide they now want to marry the love of their life of whom they are still yet to meet,  the ones who have realised that Grandma Shirl was a genius cook who did actually inspire them to be the best TV chef they could be (despite their nursing degree),  and of course the precious ones that started this TV madness: singers, God bless ’em. All chosen by Satan’s fallen angels themselves: television producers.

But hey, they manage to hold my attention for the length of an episode. One point to them. I suppose you could say my taste in the audio, visual arts definitely ain’t an intimidating one. It’s probably because most of my brain is preoccupied with obsessing over music, writing music and then very much so with the extremely un-visual art of writing. Yeah that’s write, I put words together.

What makes me like a film has a lot to do with the score and soundtrack of a film, which I realised only recently. So I loved Spike Lee’s BlacKkKlansman, Guillermo del Toro’s Shape of Water, Steven Spielberg’s  Indiana Jones (Theme plays in my head quite often. Takes me a while to realise when I proceed to hum it out loud), and of course George Lucas’ Star Wars. The music in all of these films add so much to the pacing and feel of the film, it isn’t just a filler component.

Unlike Marvel films where the score means absolutely nothing to the director. All of their films have the most boring, obnoxiously (also unnecessarily) loud pieces of orchestral music that adds nothing to the feel of the film or even to the plot or character development. Which means there are no themes we can associate with any of the main cast, and most importantly as an audience, it means that there’s nothing in the music that helps us understand the essence of the characters.

I think a film score can reveal more personal aspects of a character more so than dialogue at times. Because as an audience, we don’t have the opportunity to actually be in the actual presence of a character and get a feel of the effect they have on the environment around them. Because as humans we do have an awesome ability to read a person’s body language, facial expressions, while also getting a sense of their dynamic from how we interact with them, and are also able to read in-between the lines of their conversation to get a sense of what is really going on with them. So in my personal opinion, I think scores and soundtracks in films actually do play a significant role in conveying to the audience the nature of scenes and characters.

But that’s just me.

Haha wasn’t expecting that film rant. 

My brother has done a good job in brainwashing me. One point to him, one point to reality television, and zero points to me in writing this tangent filled post.

Damn my bloody scattered attention span.

 

Image Credit: 
https://mashable.com/2017/11/21/distracted-boyfriend-meme-backstory/#u93bYthYVOq3