014 #blogjune 2020 - Looking BACK

014 #blogjune 2020

 "As you get older, the questions come down to about two or three. How long? And what do I do with the time I've got left?"
- David Bowie


Song of the Blog:
"Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?
Caught in a landslide, no escape from reality
Open your eyes, look up to the skies and see
I'm just a poor boy, I need no sympathy
Because I'm easy come, easy go, little high, little low
Any way the wind blows doesn't really matter to me, to me"
 - Queen

What am I? A writer? A poet? An illustrator? A cartoonist? A graphic designer? A photographer? All of the above?
Was Leonardo Da Vinci too random, when he sketched, painted and or invented? Do you need to focus on one thing to make it work? Is my focus too weak, too scattered… am I wasting time creating a daily blog for 30 days? Is sharing 'caring'?

We are now at the hump of 2020. Things this year seem even more unreal than previous time. Like it is part of some fantasy show we all live in. At the same time, I am at the hump of #blogjune… Halfway… Each day there has been an episode of 'The eRiQ Blog show'. So far, I have created 14 episodes. When promoted on certain groups, one of these blogs might get an average of 40+ views. Is it really worth it, within the bigger picture of life? Should I continue blogging? Or is it because my content is just too weak. Maybe it is time to topple this blog like some disgraced statue… or to take them off the internet like some show or publication that's too offensive for delicate souls?

I know, I have read the articles online… The ones that tell you: "The web is full of information. You need to produce literally the best pieces of content that can effectively engage your audience. Otherwise, you’ll get lost in the deep sea of content out there."  And… "Stories that resonate with people most are usually the ones where the storyteller is honest and open about their passion and challenges." - Yet, sometimes I feel like I am inside some story that doesn't seem to resonate at all... as if we are all in the middle of some global 'Jurassic Park' surrounded by dinosaurs out to get us.

So far, this month  I have created two weeks worth of looking at comics - having delved into the world of my personal pop-culture, picking pictures from my younger years. Looking back at the times of being a 'poor' boy, growing up in the 80s, dealing with puberty, divorce and the fear of nuclear war. Am I fishing for sympathy? I am adding photos of my older self, the older 'wiser' me - reflecting… going back down that long road of 50+ years… Nothing comes easy. There have been highs and lows along the way. As a creator, one continuously questions oneself; what is the point of it all? Of course, it would be nice to reach a larger audience…  Because most creators do create something that they want to share; with friends, family or the world. With modern ways, online, the potential is there to reach anyone. Yet these days people get bombarded throughout the day with a plethora of content and any message gets diluted by algorithms that favour advertised content within this torrent of mildly mediocre memes and a landslide of questionable quizzes. I will let YOU the reader, decide.

Here are the links to the first week of blogs - in case you 'missed' them :)

010 #blogjune - In space, no one can hear you scream.

“Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is enemy action” ― Ian Fleming 

 
My first idea for a blog, was to write about my favourite painting "THE SCREAM" - Then I thought about doing it about ALIENS (the movies)... (( don't worry - I will get to those two in later blogs)) but when I started to type the title, the number 007 gave me another idea... so, .... Cue the Bond theme music.

It always bothered me that it had the Bond 007 logo on the front!

Oh... and I am talking about the OLD Bonds ... and even more so the Roger Moore era. That was my Bond time. I was about 10 years old when I saw my first one at the cinema, The Spy Who Loved Me and I sure loved the spy movies back! I asked and asked my mum to get the famous Lotus Esprit car, the underwater model and to this day it still sits on a shelf in my house.  Along with the space shuttle from Moonraker (1979). It was actually the first movie to feature the modern space shuttle. In those early teenage years was a such big space nerd (I still have a recording of the actual launch of the first shuttle in 1981 on a tape somewhere!). Moonraker came out as a reaction to the success of Star Wars, it bumped "For Your Eyes Only" into the 12th Bond movie to be released. For me this became the ultimate Bond. My first ever solo movie, because really I wanted to see it before we went on our big family holiday to the USA that summer. I liked it SO much I even decorated my journal with it. On the American trip I even bought one of the comics based on the movie.

 

Bond and Beyond. 
To this day a corner of my work area is dedicated to James Bond, with books, posters and die-cast models.
People always like to argue about who the best Bond was, most of them would say, the original: Sean Connery.  For me, Timothy Dalton didn't quite hit the spot and Pierce Brosnan was okay, yet kinda forgettable, The more recent Daniel Craig outings have certainly been entertaining, but my heart will always belong to the spy of the 70s and 80s, with the humour and gadgets and of course who can forget the baddies like JAWS (Richard Kiel). 

What will the future bond be like, will we get a black Bond, a female Bond? A black female Bond? Or is the whole Bond genre something we should just leave behind, to enjoy for what it was. Do we really need physical spies in the field, when basically our devices are doing the job.  

Some days it is just nice to read an old comic book with a strong black coffee (shaken not stirred)!