Steve GannIntroduction - Beyond This Horizon
November 1st 2006 03:12
Beyond This Horizon looks at our personal choices and how they can effect others as well as orselves. The idea is to look at life choices with a view to openness to change - to choose our paths to the future.
We make choices based on assumptions. We assume that the sun will rise. We assume that planet Earth is OK. We make assumptions about our health, our directions and the way we communicate with others.
The question I would ask is: Can we make change an ally? Can we make choices based on needs beyond our own?
What I would like to do is to write a personal perspective on choices and expose my ideas and experiences to others. I would also canvas readers for their personal stories and experiences so that that there can be a wider pool of responses than just my own perspectives and ideas.
What I would hope to happen is that I would start a theme each week and the following week post a new theme/idea along with the responses/discussions generated by the previous week.
First a personal introduction.
The Undiscovered Talent or
Tapping the Elusive Vein of Success
Overview
The First Lesson
The first lesson was firmly established before I was a teenager. A friend of my Dad's used to travel around the country with a 16 mm projector and show films to people in remote locations. The old Bell and Howell projector. This was back in the 50's and I was a young sprout before the days of TV (Yes Virginia there was a time before television graced this land of ours and we DID find ways to entertain ourselves.) Anyway Alec used to set up his projector in our lounge room and show the movies before he took them on the road. One of them was the old version of Captain's Courageous with Spencer Tracy and Freddy Barthomollew. Spence got his first Oscar for that one. Then there was another old black and white film I remember with crystal clarity. It was about this little Italian kid, who had a donkey (Pepito?). The kid has a friend who sneaks a sick pet cat into an altar where the presence of St Frances of Assissi was celebrated. The cat recovers and when the donkey becomes sick, the kid is determined to ask for the intercession of the saint to get him well. Of course there is no way to get the donkey into the abbey through the normal access. So begins a journey based on pure determination from the local church, up through the various echelons until with the papal blessing, the way is made clear for the donkey to be taken in. The film ends as the donkey goes into the crypt. There are all sorts of parallels drawn and little episodes explored along the way.
If I were to see this film today, would I hold it in such high esteem? I don't know. But as a young kid I was completely engrossed. And I still remember the title in 24 pt BOLD TYPE: Never Take No For an Answer! So I never did. Despite what the experts told me. Despite all the rejection. Despite all the hope, the hype and exasperation, I have always followed what I believe to be my path and this itself has helped supply my motivation and point of view.
Life is an adventure! L’aventure. L’aventure.
Audace! Audace! Toujour audace. Attack! Attack! Always attack.
Full speed ahead and damn the torpedoes!
Life is a ruin for the faint hearted.
Better a foolish victory than a wise defeat.
Give me Liberty or Give me Death ( But Liberty is preferable!)
Faint heart never won fair lady.
Carpe diem. Seize the day!
Never give up the ship.
No sir, I have not yet begun to fight.
These have been the anthems I have followed. Have they made me a good writer? No, not really -- but they have given me the fuel to persevere. They have demonstrated some slight meaning to the concept of word power -- how the word can move us at various times, rescue us and give us the lift we need to keep going. So that was the first lesson which sharpened a weapon for my armoury. Be determined. Persevere. Never give up. Never give up. Never give up while there is breath in your body.
The Early Years
From school I went into teacher training at Claremont Teachers’ College. By this stage I had already been bitten by the theatre bug, although was still unsure of what my direction would be. After teaching for a year I went into radio and then into theatre where I picked up the odd small role.
Theatre
Theatre is a demanding mistress. It has been said that it is the palace of broken dreams with some justification. The plays of Tenessee Williams, would provide a ring of truth to that idea.
When I started in theatre, there was no path to follow to develop as a playwright or poet. This was expected to be a part time avocation which was taken out in my spare time and given a bit of polish and then stored away again as life demanded a focus on other things.
My experience in the early years included small parts, touring for schools and being proficient enough in the back stage area so as to get the odd job as stage manager or later as a stage director.
Later I began to try my wings as a writer. I started writing scripts for film but nothing serious came of it. I decided I needed the discipline of reading that comes with completing a degree, in Drama. I read a lot of plays and began to shape my own characters beginning to find my own voice as a writer. It was during this time that my poetry began to flow.
Entering the IT Arena
In the early eighties I fell into the IT industry. This came partly from my interest in Sci-Fi, which I was writing at the time and partly from the technology being used to create CGI and motion control camera work. What happened however was that for the next fifteen odd years I became deeply embedded in the IT industry with training and with introduction of new products and technology.
About nine years ago I made a decision to get more serious about my writing. I set myself targets and began to write plays, screenplays, TV scripts and poetry. Along the way I also decided that I wanted to get back into teaching and share my enthusiasm and what I have learnt about theatre, the English language and poetry with students in the class room.
I believe that theatre, poetry and English expression fall far behind both in the class-room and in the outside world where sport and conflict distract us, hold us back from these areas which are so vital for a well rounded development in our young people.
So where am I now
So where am I now? What have I done? Where are my marks of success? No plays performed. No scripts produced. A number have been written and there has been the odd interest stirred. It gets frustrating sometimes, but you just got to keep knocking -- knocking on doors and if that doesn't work, try the window. What I have discovered is that I have a gift for writing. I can communicate with feeling. Well it's a start. Now all I need is a producer who loves my stuff, has a lot of tenacity and balls of steel.
Come on there's gotta be someone out there who is willing to give it a whirl. Anybody listening, hello-- ooo.
My web site includes synopses and examples of my poetry: http://www.eccentrix.com/members/johnhalllast Enjoy!
We make choices based on assumptions. We assume that the sun will rise. We assume that planet Earth is OK. We make assumptions about our health, our directions and the way we communicate with others.
The question I would ask is: Can we make change an ally? Can we make choices based on needs beyond our own?
What I would like to do is to write a personal perspective on choices and expose my ideas and experiences to others. I would also canvas readers for their personal stories and experiences so that that there can be a wider pool of responses than just my own perspectives and ideas.
What I would hope to happen is that I would start a theme each week and the following week post a new theme/idea along with the responses/discussions generated by the previous week.
First a personal introduction.
The Undiscovered Talent or
Tapping the Elusive Vein of Success
Overview
The First Lesson
The first lesson was firmly established before I was a teenager. A friend of my Dad's used to travel around the country with a 16 mm projector and show films to people in remote locations. The old Bell and Howell projector. This was back in the 50's and I was a young sprout before the days of TV (Yes Virginia there was a time before television graced this land of ours and we DID find ways to entertain ourselves.) Anyway Alec used to set up his projector in our lounge room and show the movies before he took them on the road. One of them was the old version of Captain's Courageous with Spencer Tracy and Freddy Barthomollew. Spence got his first Oscar for that one. Then there was another old black and white film I remember with crystal clarity. It was about this little Italian kid, who had a donkey (Pepito?). The kid has a friend who sneaks a sick pet cat into an altar where the presence of St Frances of Assissi was celebrated. The cat recovers and when the donkey becomes sick, the kid is determined to ask for the intercession of the saint to get him well. Of course there is no way to get the donkey into the abbey through the normal access. So begins a journey based on pure determination from the local church, up through the various echelons until with the papal blessing, the way is made clear for the donkey to be taken in. The film ends as the donkey goes into the crypt. There are all sorts of parallels drawn and little episodes explored along the way.
If I were to see this film today, would I hold it in such high esteem? I don't know. But as a young kid I was completely engrossed. And I still remember the title in 24 pt BOLD TYPE: Never Take No For an Answer! So I never did. Despite what the experts told me. Despite all the rejection. Despite all the hope, the hype and exasperation, I have always followed what I believe to be my path and this itself has helped supply my motivation and point of view.
Life is an adventure! L’aventure. L’aventure.
Audace! Audace! Toujour audace. Attack! Attack! Always attack.
Full speed ahead and damn the torpedoes!
Life is a ruin for the faint hearted.
Better a foolish victory than a wise defeat.
Give me Liberty or Give me Death ( But Liberty is preferable!)
Faint heart never won fair lady.
Carpe diem. Seize the day!
Never give up the ship.
No sir, I have not yet begun to fight.
These have been the anthems I have followed. Have they made me a good writer? No, not really -- but they have given me the fuel to persevere. They have demonstrated some slight meaning to the concept of word power -- how the word can move us at various times, rescue us and give us the lift we need to keep going. So that was the first lesson which sharpened a weapon for my armoury. Be determined. Persevere. Never give up. Never give up. Never give up while there is breath in your body.
The Early Years
From school I went into teacher training at Claremont Teachers’ College. By this stage I had already been bitten by the theatre bug, although was still unsure of what my direction would be. After teaching for a year I went into radio and then into theatre where I picked up the odd small role.
Theatre
Theatre is a demanding mistress. It has been said that it is the palace of broken dreams with some justification. The plays of Tenessee Williams, would provide a ring of truth to that idea.
When I started in theatre, there was no path to follow to develop as a playwright or poet. This was expected to be a part time avocation which was taken out in my spare time and given a bit of polish and then stored away again as life demanded a focus on other things.
My experience in the early years included small parts, touring for schools and being proficient enough in the back stage area so as to get the odd job as stage manager or later as a stage director.
Later I began to try my wings as a writer. I started writing scripts for film but nothing serious came of it. I decided I needed the discipline of reading that comes with completing a degree, in Drama. I read a lot of plays and began to shape my own characters beginning to find my own voice as a writer. It was during this time that my poetry began to flow.
Entering the IT Arena
In the early eighties I fell into the IT industry. This came partly from my interest in Sci-Fi, which I was writing at the time and partly from the technology being used to create CGI and motion control camera work. What happened however was that for the next fifteen odd years I became deeply embedded in the IT industry with training and with introduction of new products and technology.
About nine years ago I made a decision to get more serious about my writing. I set myself targets and began to write plays, screenplays, TV scripts and poetry. Along the way I also decided that I wanted to get back into teaching and share my enthusiasm and what I have learnt about theatre, the English language and poetry with students in the class room.
I believe that theatre, poetry and English expression fall far behind both in the class-room and in the outside world where sport and conflict distract us, hold us back from these areas which are so vital for a well rounded development in our young people.
So where am I now
So where am I now? What have I done? Where are my marks of success? No plays performed. No scripts produced. A number have been written and there has been the odd interest stirred. It gets frustrating sometimes, but you just got to keep knocking -- knocking on doors and if that doesn't work, try the window. What I have discovered is that I have a gift for writing. I can communicate with feeling. Well it's a start. Now all I need is a producer who loves my stuff, has a lot of tenacity and balls of steel.
Come on there's gotta be someone out there who is willing to give it a whirl. Anybody listening, hello-- ooo.
My web site includes synopses and examples of my poetry: http://www.eccentrix.com/members/johnhalllast Enjoy!
John Hall at Large
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