TRAPPED – A SHORT FILM BY STEPHEN NELSON

A short film shot and edited in 1 day. This is what happens when a young man is locked in doors with a dislocated toe and has nowhere to go.

Ok so after being in the house for close to one week with the only time I’ve been outside being my trip to the doctor’s, yesterday was when I totally lost my cool with just sitting around doing nothing wasting hours away just watching TV or browsing the internet or occasionally reading a book.

I am a film maker dammit and so what better way to make better use of my spare time, force sick leave time, than to make a short film.

The moment I got the idea it stuck with me and wouldn’t let me go. And so I got to thinking about how I could shoot a shortfilm with no actors, lights, costumes, a proper camera or at least a DSLR or no money.

I decided to go the experimental route or go with the experimental aesthetic to arrive at what I was seeing and hearing in my head. I wrote down a couple of ideas, threw most of them out and just started

shooting random cars driving by my house,
strangers walking on my streets and
kid who gets spanked by another kid who I think is his brother 2:11

I am pleased with myself. I need to do more of this; making films and or movies when I have the time and the budget and the legs to do it. What do you think of my film?

PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT BELOW (I am not shouting 🙂

What I’ve been up to lately…

 

Since my last post (haven’t bothered to check when) some good and bad things have happened to me. And there they are, in no particular order of importance.

1. I got a new haircut ( Didn’t take pictures of my last haircut) and trimmed my beard

I hate being bored or be left doing the same over and over again. So every so often I like to change things up in my life and includes growing a beard after getting tired of my babby-bottom-smooth look or shaving it all off and going for a quazi Buddhist monk look.

Off topic: Some studies have shown that growing a beard shields your face, at least some part of it, from UV rays (I’m assuming these UV rays are bad for men alone).

And the reason I don’t take many photos of me looking scruffy is because most of the time I know I don’t look good but I do it all the same just for the fun of it. It’s different from what I’m used to and that’s all that matters. But by limiting the amount of photographic evidence of my grooming misfires, I also limit the number of  what-the-fuck-where-you-thinking moments when I’m going through my photos as an old man.

2. Got a new crush…Well not exactly a crush but read on

First of I don’t know if calling my feelings for her a crush is appropriate. I’m too old for one , I think. At 28 I know what I want and what I don’t want. Yes, I do 🙂

Crushes are for pre-pubescent and pubescent kids (with their accompanying scent) who don’t know what to call what they’re feeling for this girl or boy in particular. Why her, why does she make my stomach grumble even though I just ate? Why does my heartbeat go funny anytime I see him?

Some people say that at thirty you’re decided on which course to take in life. You become set in your ways, until you make a cozy bed for yourself with the earthworms and bugs in your casket. I feel this at 28 so I know exactly what I’m feeling for her.

I told her that I liked her when I should have told her I am in love. But I think I made the right decision of revealing dial number six on the scale of feelings since I told her this over the phone.

I hate talking about weighty issues that should be talked about in person, on the phone. And my friends it doesn’t get any weightier than this believe me.

But the good thing is the ice is broken. Part of the chill of starting up conversations has dissipated. And this I like a lot so we’ll see how things progress.

3. Tackling my stutter head on

I have spent so much of my life shackled and paralyzed by my stutter. And so for the past couple of weeks I have decided to finally face it head on like a fearless bull fighter or a drunk Liverpudlian facing this same bull.

Stuttering has shaped my life for better or worse.

For better because, it’s  shaped and molded me into one hell of a tough bastard. At least inside. Outside I’m still a wimp. But don’t test me 😉

For worse because it’s retarded, or more accurately I’ve allowed it to retard my growth from boyhood to manhood. Proper manhood.

So what I’ve been doing is paying closer attention to my speech and not neglect it like I’ve always done and only kick myself for failing to work on my fluency when I start stuttering badly in some tense situation or other.

 

PS: I apologize if you were expecting me to have climbed Everest, gotten married, had a son , speed-read my way through 300 books, cycled around Ghana or learned tap dancing or Alkayida or accomplished some other great feat.

I live a boring life.

But it’s mine 😉

 

– Steve.

Brother Triple K – A poem

When I look at you I don’t see white
When I look at me I don’t see black
Not because I’m colour blind…Well sort of
I see another human being that I share my fears
Frustrations, anger and excitement with
I see you

Whereas you want to bash in my head
With the nearest biggest rock you can find
Or watch me hang
Whereas you want to see the inside of my head
The whites of my brain, red of my blood,
Veins intertwined with skull bone and scalp hair
Or watch me wriggling then turn limp with eyes
Bulging, and my tongue sticking out as my last “Fuck You”

I just want to hug you
My brother
My Triple K brother.

-Stephen Nelson.

Mutombo da poet – I for talk ft M3nsa

_Steve (follow me on twitter @song_1985)

Alone But not Lonely

 

I don’t have a girlfriend. I don’t have many friends. But do you see me moping around acting like a homesick boarding school teenager? No!

For some strange reason I enjoy being alone and by myself most of the time. Strange because man has evolved into a social being with all the responsibilities and rights that come with such an evolution. This involves among other things making friends, keeping the good ones, cutting off the bad ones etc. Alas this evolution left me behind.

By myself I feel less fidgety and nervous. I don’t get that feeling that a thousand pairs of eyes are on me scrutinizing my every move – from nose picking to sneezing. I get to think better when I’m alone too. I doubt any kind of productive thinking can occur with the whole world watching, and God forbid reading your thoughts as they form in that little coconut of yours.

Most of the things I think about are about efficiency in my day-to-day dealings with the world. When to wake up, what to do right out of bed and more importantly what time I allocate to these things, until I hit the bed late at night. Thinking is one thing, doing is quite another. So then I ask myself why think at all if I don’t get any of these things done, and done right? Well, I can’t help myself. I don’t see myself doing any other important thing in my leisure time other than think. I’m  no Gandhi or Einstein but I’m a thinker, of sorts. Give me an isolated room atop a mountain anywhere in the world, that’s not too cold and I might end up coming up with a solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict, global hunger and poverty, AIDS and understanding those aliens we call women. Hell, I’ll even cool the planet if you throw in twelve dozen chilled six-pack beers.

Back to the girlfriend issue. The last one I had dumped me (I never get to do the dumping) in 2008 because she wants more out of life than I could give her, money-wise. That’s it. She didn’t leave because I was a lousy lover in and out of bed, or because I did really bad things like chewing with my mouth open.

That whole experience left me really fucked up. Should I have just manned up and forget the bitch and move on? If I could I would have. I happen to be the sensitive kind so matters of the heart do matter to me.

But lately I’ve found that I’ve become more interested again. I’ve started looking around but I still haven’t found any suitable mates ( Jezzus I sound like David Attenborough talking about Orangutan breeding habits). So in the mean time it’s just me and my thinking sessions and my lubricants 😉

_Steve (@song_1985)

 

Been Thinking ’bout …

 

1. Letting go and experiencing life from an new perspective

2. Letting in positive energy and exuding that same energy

3. Ass kissing

4. Hustling forwards and backwards

5. Why I chew toothpicks after they’ve outlived their usefulness

6. Why I chew my Wriggley’s PK chewing gum till it has outlived its usefulness and it is at one with the taste of my mouth.

7. About nerves and why we never master them whiles sober

8. About charisma and alpha male archetypes

9. Self censorship and not giving a fuck. And about the fine line that exist between them

10. Building a self-sustaining empire.

 

_Steve (@song_1985)

Wiz Kid- Don’t Dull

Kid’s got me hooked on Nija pop these days.
[dUkE]

Video_Perola-Omboio

This Angolan girl not only has a magnificent voice but has the face to match. A true African beauty that will melt the coldest of hearts with just a wink and her vocal dexterity. Enjoy.

dUkE_

Pidgeonholing African Music

African Vegetable players

One comment made by one ignorant critic in the article below really annoyed me. ‘African music should have at least one vegetable-based instrument in it’.

Fucking nonsense.

It’s like saying that white music should have at least one Male lead vocalist screaming like a bitch in it.

Absolute rubbish.

Let me throw this question out there since I suspect there might be more of such stupid comments flying around.

Is ‘white’ music the only music allowed to evolve through experimentation and fusion?

>>>>>>>>>>–READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE–<<<<<<<<<<

Trip through Flickr

Photos courtesy of Flickr