A Little Bit About ...

JANIS JOPLIN

Raised in Port Arthur, an oil refinery town, that was "more louisiana than texas", Janis forged an identity out of the harsh Texas dust, the books of Jack Kerouac and the records of old blues-belters like Bessie Smith and Odetta. Her radical notions of purpose and freedom had nothing to do with what was expected from a girl from the Golden Triangle.

A non-conformist in a Republican conservative town, Janis suffered bitterly because she didnt fit in. She tried college, bragging she had attended four different institutions of higher learning, toyed with marriage, sang in a few Austin nightclubs, and auditioned for - but was rejected as a singer with the 13th floor elevators - but none of this seemed to satisfy her.

She was a closet intellectual who voraciously devoured books, although when caught in the act by an interviewer, insisted that he keep her secret vice to himself. She was also an accomplished visual artist. "I was raised in Texas, man, and i was an artist", she once saidI had all these ideas and feelings that i'd pick up in books, and my father would talk to me a out, and i'd make up poems. And man, i was the only one i'd ever met. There weren't any others." Seth Joplin, Janis' father, echoed those sentiments in an interview shortly after her death. "There were no people she could relate with, talk to ....she was one of the first revolutionary youth" in spite of this, it was also true that Janis ran with a group of people who were united in their sense of alienation and their love of the arts.

Being a maverick and an outcast contributed to her sense of pain and disclosation, but was also one of the key ingredients of her extraordinary success. However, she did find a kindred spirit in Texas expatriate and San Francisco impresario Chet Helms, whom she met in Austin while she was singing at a club. Helms convinced her one particularly tedious night in the winter of 1963 to hitchhike with him to San Francisco, a 50-hour road trip which landed Janis smack in the middle of the burgeoning Beat scene.

Janis did not make the sojourn to the West Coast so set off the first flares of revolution. "I started out in the world to be a beatnik, i wanted to do what felt right to me." She said. "I didn't want to to be an executive or a teacher just because i could do it, i didnt want to be something just to make money, i wanted to be something because it felt right to me".

After a false start, and an unfortunate run-in with amphetamines, Janis returned to Port Arthur to restore her equilibrum, and re-enrolled in college, and for a time even gave up singing. But the siren call of freedom and possibility lured her to San Francisco once again, and by the summer of 1966 she was back. This time Chet Helms introduced her to the members of Big brother and the Holding Company, the house band at the San Francisco's Avalon Ballroom, where he worked as the manager. While never having sung rock nd roll before, she introduced this free-from-psychedelic outfit to ehr brand of the blues. Together they fused together the two genres creating one of the foundations of what would later be called The San Francisco Sound.

Janis moved in with the band, and after rehearsing for afternoons on end, the band started gigging locally and developed what would become a formidable reputation that even extended as far as Chicago. The band was invited for a four week residency at the Mother Blues club in Old Town, where they were offered an unheard of $1000 per week. During their stormy tenure in the windy city, the band was offered a recording contract with the upstart Mainstream Records. IN between shows, they recorded a few cuts, with the promise of reconbening in Los Angeles to finish the record.

But before the record was even released, the band cam to national prominence after they played at 1967's Monterey International Pop Festival. They were only scheduled to perform a single afternoon show, but the reaction was so overwhelming and contract differences had prevented their being filmed, so the promoters quickly stuck them on the bill for an evening show. By the time Janis' little sling back pumps hit the back stage area , the jungle drums were beating and the myth was set into motion. Bob Dylan's manager Albert Grossman signed them on the spot.

MORE TO COME GUYS, MORE TO COME ....

Sleep and me and us and you

Is there an point in sleeping?
yes ... and .... no.
Yes : That is because you need sleep to be awake, funnily enough. It gives you energy for the day in front of you, and stops you from having relapses and entering the world of illusions, you start to wonder what you are seeing is real. So you NEED sleep, yes but still is there a point.

No : everybody sleeps, you wouldnt have guessed it would you. Even the people that say that you must live every minute to the fullest. so for people like that, do you really find sleep neccesary.

I like night time, its a time to reflect on everything. Without having the worry about other people, for a change. If you're up while the people that you're thinking about are asleep it gives you a sense of ease to know that they are somewhere else, in their dreams. Happy. Happy, no matter what has been happening in their woken state. I like knowing that. I'm not tired. Why should i be, i dont deserve to sleep.

CHRISTMAS!

So its Christmas day, and tomorrow all of the hustle and bustle of getting ready for christmas will be suddenly .... over, just like that. Not that i've been particularly stressed about christmas or anything, just in general. I went to sleep about 3 this morning, not through excitement just because of the fact that i wasnt tired ... fair do's. But i wanted to spend the first minutes of christmas morning with one of the loves of my live's (mrs) Alecia Moore. So i watched her dvd going past 12 so i could remember of spending christmas with her. a little bit anyway. in some spiritual connection over space and time. great.

Then i woke up this morning and decided to watch a film ... and what better time to watch a legendary film than on chrismas morning ... Titanic. yay! well i havent watched the dvd since i bought it so ... i thought i should. It was fun watching it, well not "fun" it was sad and all that but yaya! ....

Spoke to someone on the phone for a little while in the morning, and after that phonecall i cried. I dont think i've ever cried on Christmas day before now.

Walked down with Neil, Mum and Jet to see Nan and Grandad in the afternoon and they all seemed happy so thats good news. I text that person who i spoke on the phone with and it made me feel a bit better, but still.

Then in the evening i went on the internet, watched Beaches (again! lol) watched "The Return Of Courtney Love" again lol on more 4 ... and then watched the OC and then went to sleepybyes about 3 again.

People are coming round for tea tomorrow afternoon, i'll most likely become a recluse all of that time. but hey ho. what can i do. xx

Me, Myself and Books ....

I have officially decided that i love books. I may not read them a quarter as much as half of the people i know but i love the inspiration that i get from them. Seen as i am an absolute film fanatic most of some of the great books i've found through films, and dont think that the films that i am talking about are just the ones that have been made from the books, some of them are .. yes but an another example is from films like "the good girl" which introduced me to "the catcher in the rye" which is one of my favourite books now.
My favourite author, Nicholas Sparks, was discovered by me from watching one of my favourite films, A walk to remember. So thanks to films i found him.
As much as i love the books that i read, it is the authors that particularly get my attention because of the fact that they have this power to create something that is so unique and flawless. that nobody has ever seen or heard of before. The characters are so intense and dominant without doing anything, becuase they are there but they at the same time arent there. It's genius. I like to watch on the special features of some Dvd's if the author is talking because that is the truly inspiring thing, hearing them talk about something that only they, in their minds, know everything about. No matter how many people claim to know the books and characters inside out, only the people that created these characters know them.

Sandy B Filmies!

Hangmen (1987)

Religion, Inc. (1989)

Who Shot Patakango? (1989)

Who Do I Gotta Kill? (1992)

(x) When the Party's Over (1992)

Love Potion No. 9 (1992)

(x) The Vanishing (1993)

The Thing Called Love (1993)

(x) Demolition Man (1993)

Fire on the Amazon (1993)

Wrestling Ernest Hemingway (1993)

(x) Speed (1994)

(x) While You Were Sleeping (1995)

(x) The Net (1995)

Two If by Sea (1996)

(x) A Time to Kill (1996)

In Love and War (1996)

(x) Speed 2: Cruise Control (1997)

(x) Hope Floats (1998)

Making Sandwiches (1998) (short subject) (also director)

(x) Practical Magic (1998)

The Prince of Egypt (1998) (voice)

(x) Forces of Nature (1999)

(x) Gun Shy (2000)

(x) 28 Days (2000)

Famous (2000)

(x) Miss Congeniality (2000)

Murder by Numbers (2002)

(x) Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood (2002)

(x) Two Weeks Notice (2002)

(x) Crash (2004)

Loverboy (2005)

(x) Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous (2005)

The Lake House (2006)

Infamous (2006)

Fave Authors ....

Nicholas Sparks
Gregory Maguire
J.D Salinger
Jeffrey Eugenides
Annie Proulx
Anthony Thornton
J.K. Rowling
L.Frank Baum
Chuck Palahnuik

Some Fave Films of mine! ! ! !

(Not in any order, apart from number 1)

1. Miss Congeniality
2. Almost Famous
3. Bridget Jones's Diary
4. The Butterfly Effect
5. Donnie Darko
6. The Sisterhood of the traveling pants
7. The Virgin Suicides
8. Girl, Interrupted
9. Cruel Intentions
10. Eternal Sunshine of the spotless mind
11. Lords of Dogtown
12. The Good Girl
13. Forrest Gump
14. Moulin Rouge
15. Kill Bill's
16. Harry Potter's
17. POTC's
18. Charlie's Angels
19. Notting Hill
20. 50 first dates
21. Saved!
22. United states of leland
23. Shawshank redemption
24. Elektra
25. Cheaper By The Dozen
26. The Beach
27. Secret Window
28. A Lot Like love
29. White oleander
30. Monster
31. Sleeping with the enemy
32. Thumbsucker
33. Closer
34. A home at the end of the world
35. Mean Girls
36. A walk to remember
37. The Notebook
38. Blue Crush
39. Wicker Park
40. Princess diaries
41. Thirteen
42. Coyote Ugly
43. walk the line
44. Camp
45. Brokeback mountain
46. Garden State
47. Napoleon Dynamite
48. Fight Club
49. Ghost World
50. 28 days