honeythatsok

It’s awards season and as usual I have a lot of feelings. I think it’s a pretty common observation that TV shows are currently in a “golden age” of entertainment, and movies have become “too safe” and there is the seemingly never-ending stream of remakes. On TV great stories are being adapted (Game of Thrones, Dexter), original and edgy stories being created and used as social commentary (Breaking Bad, Newsroom) and some shows are just plain fun, sexy and dirty (Californication, Girls). I’ve definitely had that impression for a while and few movies are able to really thrill me and make me long for the movie theater.

I have a few actors that I am still willing to sit through anything for and I will see their movies without questions. I love actors that just sparkle on the screen, who the camera loves in a way that make them seem out of this world beautiful. The classical actresses all had that; Audrey Hepburn, Rita Hayworth, Grace Kelly, Ingrid Bergman, Elizabeth Taylor. Watching them is like watching art and it goes beyond their acting ability. Somehow their personality, beauty and talent merge into this creation we call movie stars. Angelina Jolie remains my undefeated queen, but there are so many others I just love to watch, too.

But for all of that to happen there has to be solid characters first, and that starts with writing. I’ve spent my whole life being in love with and emulating awesome characters, and I don’t know if it is because I’m getting older (and more jaded. Pushing 30!) but I feel the really great characters are few and far between these days. Movies don’t grab a hold of me the way they used to. Remakes don’t do it for me. I am greedy and I want new stories with fresh, wonderful characters. I don’t want two dimensional super heroes and their girlfriends. I still want glamor and beauty, but more than anything I want truth. I watch movies because I want a two hour slice of the human condition. Which, of course, is endless.

I still haven’t given up on Hollywood. I still love to watch award shows like it was my high school reunion with people I actually like. And every year there is a couple of movies that surprise me, dazzle me, and take over my imagination. In no particular order my top three movies of 2012 were: Read More

My name is Joey. It’s short for Josephine and it’s the name I gave myself when I was fifteen. I live in Honolulu, which is an exercise in not taking paradise for granted and something I am working actively on. I thought this blog might help that. I have long blonde hair, which isn’t my real hair color. I have cool blue eyes, and for the longest time I wore deep brown contacts because I thought it fit me better. It’s hard to wear a lot of makeup with blue eyes, it tend to just make your eyes look small and beady. Warm colors blend better. That should tell you something about me. I’m not always comfortable in my own skin. I want to be, but then I don’t think I would really be me anymore.

I write stories. Or I used to write stories, but I want to be a person who writes stories again. I believe in stories. It’s what separates us from anything else – our ability to give life structure and meaning. The stories we tell ourselves shape the way we live our lives.

I tell people I grew up on American television and that’s why I speak English so well. In reality, it did a lot more than just give me a second language. Before TV, I loved books before I could read and I loved TV way before I could speak English. The stories were always with me. They are our universal language.

If I list the stories that truly spoke to me we will find some common ground. Recognition that you and me are not so different after all. Buffy the Vampire Slayer was my first love. Buffy Summers was my mentor on how to be a teenage girl in 1997. I had just turned 13. I still drawn to that horrible late-90’s, early 00’s fashion with neon jackets, tweed skirts and unflattering spaghetti camisoles. I took Tae Kwon Do classes and I was the only girl who could do a triple kick in the club. Being a feminist became second nature due to the alignment of all my experiences up to then; being born in gender equality Norway, my mom’s quiet strength and her endless support for me to follow my dreams, and the story of a teenage girl who is chosen to protect the world from evil.

I followed my dreams and traveled to five continents. I found the kind of love in another person that I only believed possible in stories. I, more or less, accidentally got schooled and, in my thirst for knowledge of the world we live in, achieved a masters degree in sustainable development. I got to spend almost four years in sunny Honolulu with the love of my life. And now I’m at a cross road. In two months I have to leave to peruse this thing called ‘financial security’ or in my case, stop living off my parents. It’s incredibly hard to be separated from the life you love so I thought I would make these last two months count, to have something to show for.

I’m going to write my first story.