TRAVEL DIARY

A weblog regularly updated by Jodi Rose.

Thursday, November 22, 2007

3:43 PM
Posted by jodi rose

I finally gave in to the lure of Facebook a few days ago, and I swear, my productivity has already dropped 25%. Which is dangerous as that pretty much takes me into negativeland. I'm sure there are intangible benefits, and it's fun to see what your far-off nearest and dearest are doing with their time (becoming vampires, throwing sheep and watching kangaroo wrestling, it seems). However much joy the momentary glimpse into life on a wall post brings, I am still highly in favour of the being-in-the-same-room having a cuppatea (or other beverage) and a good long conversation style of friendship, over the insta-click variety. Call me old-fashioned, call me Betty, just call me!

As it's difficult to arrange those intimate chats over vast distances and time zones, I have come to rely on communication of the electronic kind far too heavily. Which is why it brings me such joy to meet up with fellow english speaking writers every week at Gorki Park, and have the full spectrum of non-verbal eye rolling, nudging and falling into each other in addition to our extraordinarily witty banter. Seriously though, these people are amazingly open, inspiring and constructively-critical-when-necessary, and extremely talented writers! The feedback this week for my chapter-by-chapter outline of the bridge girl story was the same as always: 'Jodi, you're a fantastic writer. Focus. And you're a freak... Use it!!' Thanks guys ;)

So I'm still working on drawing that red line through the last five years, collecting up all my strengh and all my sweetness - oh hang on dammit I quoted Andrew Marvell already last week, didn't I - well then, ...harvesting.. no... hounding.. no.. rounding up... what is that word? ... ummmmm ... collecting? not quite but anyway; gathering together all my terrible angels and weaving them into a long coherent story. Instead of a series of short incoherent rants. Now I have moved my desk and can look at the window, gaze at the clouds and daydream, I'm sure I will be more productive. Really. It's an essential part of the process. Flocking sheep of thoughts into muster.

I had the most wonderful evening with Jasmine, working on lyrics together. Her songs are so beautiful, and it was such a treat to have the opportunity for a creative meshing. I only changed a few words here and there in the end, but working within the confines of rhythym, syllables and the meaning she wanted to convey was a fantastic experience. I can't wait to hear the final version, and am all keen to start writing more of my own streams of consciousness into lyrics.

And in other news, the bridge concent in Ljubljana is all set for xmas, Singing Bridges is featured in Alarm magazine next issue out soon, and I have almost finished rebranding myself into a creative networking phenomonen with Global Bridge Symphony 2.0.

More soon, time to ring the embassy then go meet Miriam at Program.