Build Your Wings on the Way Down

The other day I found myself on a rooftop in downtown Los Angeles around sunset, the towering buildings distorting infinitely in each other's windowpanes.

Usually when people find themselves somewhere, it's a clichéd turn of phrase, a matter of convenience. But I had tagged along with a writer to do some videography for the magazine and she had arranged to meet the actress at a bar, which ended up being a bit too noisy for video. And that's how I found myself on a rooftop a couple of blocks down, watching the sun peep past the arrangement of monoliths we affectionately call a city.

I've only been working at this magazine for a couple of weeks, and already I've come face to face with a steady series of unfamiliar situations. Little things like video interviews and photographing for other people, where it's not so much fear that plagues me but the feeling of being extremely ill-equipped. 

Then as I was cleaning out my bookmarks yesterday, I found Neil Gaiman's 2011 New Year's Wish tucked between a Gregorian chant cover of "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" and an art school project involving planting trees in a circle so that they would grow into a natural hut. 

I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes.

Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You're doing things you've never done before, and more importantly, you're Doing Something. 

So that's my wish for you, and all of us, and my wish for myself. Make New Mistakes. Make glorious, amazing mistakes. Make mistakes nobody's ever made before. Don't freeze, don't stop, don't worry that it isn't good enough, or it isn't perfect, whatever it is: art, or love, or work or family or life. 

Whatever it is you're scared of doing, Do it. 

Make your mistakes, next year and forever.

I've made plenty of mistakes this week - a fresh batch of memories that rush blood to my cheeks and make my feet twitch looking for a cave to run into and hide in. But this quote expresses the gratitude for opportunity and the understanding of what these mistakes really mean that keep pushing me forward into the path of new mistakes. Make mistakes, fake it 'til you make it - whatever you call it, I'm excited about this summer. I think it's going to be a good one.

Build Your Wings on the Way Down

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Just popping in while waiting for my room check for a quick hello. It's my last morning in Reims this year, and this city would like me to remember it for what it is - hence the downpour. Ah, yearlong winter. It seems I go from one extreme to another.

Later this afternoon I'll take the train to Paris. By Monday I'll be in Los Angeles again. I try to imagine what the sun will feel like, but can't. It's a bit like All Summer in a Day.

You think I'm being melodramatic. Sadly, no.

Looking forward to seeing family and friends, having other people cook for me, reuniting with my lizard Sims (those awful baby names have been waiting a long time), an internship doing what I love, food diversity (where do I even begin - I will gorge myself on Chinese, Korean, Mexican, Indian food...the list goes on and on and so will my waistline), everything being open until midnight because capitalism!

In the meantime, there's still this luggage to haul home through the rain and a movie to finish editing. And Paris!

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My Grades Suffer for Art...and Other Romantic Notions

I spent the past few days making a portfolio instead of studying.

Good thing I'm a fast reader. Retaining the information, on the other hand... We'll see come Monday.

You can check it out here!

Now I really must study. Where was I? Oh yes, Almond and Verba's three types of political culture. These guys have pretty interesting names. My Sims are taking note.

My Grades Suffer for Art...and Other Romantic Notions

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A Somber Study in Toast Mastication

More photos from yesterday. I call this series A Somber Study in Toast Mastication.

But in all honesty, it's that my friend was trying to figure out how to record video on my camera. She hadn't quite gotten to the focus part of things yet either. There I was, trying to enjoy my Speculoos and toast on a rainy morning in my dad's comfy old sweater, but I kept hearing this:

Katherine, how do you rec-CLICK it keeps taking pict-CLICK I can't find the but-CLICK

And lo, art was brought into this world.

A Somber Study in Toast Mastication

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Don't Cry, Sky

French weather can be so unpredictable at times - here I am referring to the months from January to December - but today's was the best kind of chaotic. It started out dreary, the sky crying fat tears that splattered against my windows. Don't cry, sky - you cry, I cry.

The Petit Cinema team came over to work on the miniatures. Progress! We finished the forest and were able to film a scene. Seeing the forest come together really lifted our spirits. Now there's all this cotton in my bed - pardon me, clouds. There are clouds in my bed. 

By the time everyone left, the sun was out in full force. It turned out to be one of those nighttime sunshine kind of days. This moment is what I learned the definition of oxymoron in third grade for.

Don't Cry, Sky

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