Ten Hyperlink Gifts I Love for You for Christmas

1. The Enduring Allure of Isabelle Huppert

"The French actress consistently chooses roles that  are morally complex and sometimes hard to watch. And yet we can’t bring ourselves to look away".

Watch her work the camera, even here in this short video.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/30/t-magazine/isabelle-huppert-elle-movie-interview.html?_r=0 

2. "A Summer Holiday, Three Books and a Story"

Nearly 13K of you have read this story on KIPWORLD. 

What was so surprising about this short story is that I wrote it on a holiday. I start off talking abou the holiday itself, then move to reporting on three holiday reads. The last book report leads to the story of Jason and the West Side loft. Because this story seems so popular now, I am thinking of including it in the script for the feature film,"'Copacetica" (See Gift 4).

 http://kipworldblog.blogspot.com/…/summer-holiday-three-boo…

3.  Jeff Buckley performs Grace on The Late Show

Jeff Buckley performs the powerful title track to his album Grace on The Late Show in 1995. The singer-songwriter who died in tragic circumstances two years later.
His singing and playing was 'other-worldly, one-of-a-kind' back then and strangely, even more so today.

http://bbc.in/2gjOjoF

 

 

 

4. Swimming Pool Mélologue

 The brief (from BU Media's Erik Knudsen who was with us much to briefly) was thus: "Each participant gives a maximum 5 minute ONE SLIDE presentation about their research aspirations for the coming years". I chose Scene 1. from "Copacetica", a feature-length film that I am writing. A 'mélologue' is a spoken declamation with musical accompaniment or a soundscape, developed by the composer, Berlioz. I liked this idea. I have also been thinking a lot about Michael Haneke's use of lingering shots and stillness past the action or dialogue of a scene, so wanted to play a bit with that here. Rewriting the script directions, etc. for a narration definitely helped in refining the script itself. Hopefully, with funding, the project and film will develop with research on Generation Z and concepts of sexual identity, ambiguity and dissonance.

https://vimeo.com/146383598

5.  Anna Netrebko plays the title role in a glorious production live from New York's Met Opera

Live from the Met in New York, Puccini's first operatic triumph, Manon Lescaut, with Anna Netrebko in the title role as the irresistible courtesan and ultimately doomed heroine, and Marcelo Alvarez as her obsessive lover Des Grieux. And she really does sing the line, "Sola, perduta, abbandonata", which I frequently repeat to strangers when in Italy, as its one of the few things I can say in Italian.

 http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b084cpkl

6.  Styles of Good Sense” Ethics, Filmmaking and Scholarship

I finally attacked the subject of ethics in film-making for a chapter in The Routledge International Handbook on Narrative and Life History, recently published. Although quite a heavy topic (at least for me), it didn't stop me from including my usual amusing asides and tangential connections, as illustrated here. The Chapter even ends with a quote from Norma Desmond, thus the photo pictured here:

 NORMA DESMOND
(to newsreel camera)
 

You see, this is my life! It
always will be! Nothing else!
Just us, the cameras, and those
wonderful people out there in
the dark!
 

(Wilder et al., 1950)

https://www.academia.edu/15842613/_Styles_of_Good_Sense_Ethics_Filmmaking_and_Scholarship

7. Why do I love this? Google Home talking to Amazon Echo 

Google and Amazon have the two best voice-enabled virtual home assistants in Google Home and Amazon Echo. Each of them should be a great addition to your smart home project. You don’t need to buy both gadgets because they’re both able to pull off basically the same stunts. But if you do get both of them, you can make them talk to each other. That’s what one user did, and of course, there was a camera present.

http://bgr.com/2016/11/30/google-home-vs-amazon-echo/

8.  Centre for Imaginative Ethnography features BU Creative Writing for Academics Workshop 

I loved presenting this earlier this year and the good news is that a second one will be happening at Bournemouth University in the Spring (stay tuned here, on FB or Twitter for further info and updates).  The experiment for me was not to be too instructive, but allow people the space and time to quickly feel confident to experiment with their writing through various exercises. I was fond of saying that it wasn't a lot of ruminating or 'tree hugging', but rather immediately getting started by taking some risks. On the other hand, there was time to assimilate what was happening. We were fortunate in having people from as far away as upstate New York and Ireland at the first workshop. Really look forward to what happens the next time! Stayed tuned for details of a repeat workshop next Spring!

 http://imaginativeethnography.org/blog/academics-urged-to-flip-their-academic-writing/

9. A fjord is a fjord is a fjord. Wrong!

I booked a quick holiday away at the end of last summer, mostly to see Iceland which had captivated me in Sigar Ros' online adventure in a camper van around Route 1 for 24 hours. The booking included several stops in Norway first, to see 'Fjords'. I always though, "Seen a fjord, seen them all".
Coming into Geiranger one early morning, I looked at the ship's bow camera on my cabin TV to see a very potentially echanting place. I quickly went to a bow deck that was opened to passengers specifically for the anchoring in the harbor, but hardly anyone was on the deck with me. Just an incredible stillness and a quality of air that I haven't breathed in years. Then, of course, there was the view.

"Heaven on earth", I thought. Heaven on earth.

https://www.visitnorway.com/places-to-go/fjord-norway/the-geirangerfjord/

  10. Finally, a season-specific gift, especially for hipsters

If you’ve ever wondered what the very first family Christmas photo looked like, wonder no longer. Fresh off a Whole Foods shopping spree, Joseph is rocking his man bun and finest denim shirt, while Mary shows off her high cheek bones with her best duck face.

 It’s crazy to think that the Wisemen followed a star in the sky to find Jesus, rather than using Google Maps, but who are we to judge? 

https://www.modernnativity.com/products/modern-nativity-set

What creative people do. (For Patricia)

Richard as figure in painting "Cafe America" displayed in Paris

I came back from my solo painting exhibition in Paris early. Something had seemed wrong, out of sorts. Just before I left for Paris, I had seen Richard silently crossing the street in front of the taxi that I was in. He seemed so lost, so thin. He had ended our relationship about a year before, but we were still close, often saw each other from time to time. Then I got the phone call: Richard was in Pennsylvania hospital and probably had what we had all been whispering about, dreading, HIV as it was known initially. I hate hospitals. I hate the smell of them. I always say that it’s the shiny floors that get to me. But I went quickly to the hospital and found the floor that he was on.It was a private room with an anteroom where you washed with disinfectant. There were robes that you could put on too, but I didn’t bother. I had heard that some of the nurses refused to enter his room, but I went in anyway. Richard was asleep on the bed. So thin, so vulnerable, but peaceful. I stood and stared at him for quite a while. But what do creative people do when faced with unfathomable pain, unbelievable sorrow? I picked up the pencil and hospital menu from the bedside tray and drew his picture on it. I visited him every other day. Richard, just 25 years, died from Aids, four months later. Most of what I have done in my life since has been to make a mockery of his death.

I still have that sketch on a menu somewhere.  Even now, 30 years on, I dream of him often.

Chapter on Ethics in Film by Kip Jones published by Routledge

Kip Jones’ Chapter, “’Styles of Good Sense’ Ethics, Filmmaking and Scholarship” has recently been published in Routledge’s new volume, The Routledge International Handbook on Narrative and Life History.

 

Written by leading international scholars from the main contributing perspectives and disciplines, The Routledge International Handbook on Narrative and Life History seeks to capture the range and scope as well as the considerable complexity of the field of narrative study and life history work by situating these fields of study within the historical and contemporary context.

Relishing the chance to cite not only C.E. Scott from The Question of Ethics Nietzsche, Foucault, Heidegger, but also Norma Desmond from Sunset Strip, Jones said,” The Handbook was a welcomed chance, once and for all, to sort the subtleties of ethical considerations in arts-based research approaches such as film”.  Jones is joined in the Handbook‘s discussion on Ethics  by such luminaries as Arthur Frank, Laurel Richardson, Caroline Ellis, and Norman Denzin.

 

 

Jones’ Chapter is available on  Academia.edu and the Handbook is sold on Amazon.

A Personal Invitation from Kip Jones

I personally invite you to join me for the Gala Celebration of the 5^th Anniversary of the Premiere of RUFUS STONE.  The event will take place at the historic Shelley Theatre in Boscombe (Bournemouth) on the 7^th of November, from 3 p.m. until 5 p.m. as part of ESRC’s Festival of Social Science.

 

A special guest at the screening will be the actor Lin Blakley who played “Abigail” as an adult in RUFUS STONE, and who has lately been seen as Pam Coker, a major role, in EastEnders. 

 Harry Kershaw, who played young “Rufus”, will also try to join us if he can. He has been very busy since filming with us with roles in the West End and on film, and has a performance that very night. Fingers crossed.

Watching the film with theatre projection is a special treat, if you’ve never experienced it this way before. The Shelley is atmospheric and exciting as well. Mary Shelley watched performances from her deathbed through a window in the theatre that still exists today!

After the half hour screening, there will be short Q&A with the audience. Then, as Joni Mitchell penned it so well, “If you want me, I’ll be in the bar”.  We will retire to the renovated bar area for drinks and nibbles. It is here that you will have the chance to meet and chat with some of the representatives of educational, statutory and community organisations who have made an impact on their communities with their own screenings of RUFUS STONE over the past five years.

And this is in no way a swan song!  RUFUS STONE will then move on to the University of Tampere in Finland on the 25^th of November as the Keynote at their Social Psychology Conference.

It is important that you book soon for the Shelley, as places are limited.

The Event is FREE but you must Register at: https://rufusstonefilm.eventbrite.co.uk

Directions to the Shelley Theatre on the Eventbrite site.

 Watch the Trailer for RUFUS STONE: https://vimeo.com/43395306

From a scholar in Vienna: 

Thanks and looking forward to seeing you at the screening,

Kip