I write in lists of six.

[saysixanythings]

Say Six Surreal Shows to Awaken your Inner Dreamer

Let’s take a moment to hang our logical thinking cap and dive right in, fully-dressed, to six surreal shows that can awaken your inner dreamer.

1. The Greatest Showman

There are musicals. And then there’s The Greatest Showman. It’s a creation born from sound intertwined with sight, from fears intertwined with courage, from self-doubt intertwined with greatness. Slowly, it nudges the dreamer in you who doubts himself, who is ashamed of himself, who feels out of place in a very expectant and judging society, to wake up and face your fears with courage. 

Director: Michael Gracey | Writers (Screenplay): Jenny Bicks, Bill Condon | Lead/s: Hugh Jackman, Michelle Williams, Zac Efron | Year: 2017 | Country: USA

2. Hang the DJ

This show is for the dreamer who has resigned himself to loneliness, the one who craves romantic love right down to his bone, but who has also been countlessly frustrated with what life brings him way. In the sea of dreariness and dreadfulness that is Black Mirror, we can find one or two episodes that leave us bubbling with forgotten emotions-- that is, hope and happiness amidst all bleakness.

Director: Timothy Van Patten | Writer: Charlie Brooker | Lead/s: Georgina Campbell, Joe Cole, Gina Bramhill | Year: 2017 | Country: UK

3. The Great Gatsby

I attribute much of The Great Gatsby’s film success to Fitzgerald’s articulacy. Many writers can arrange words together to narrate a story. But few have the gift of stringing words together to create worlds you feel are literally seeing, to speak of insights that strike you so deep, you’d have to pause reading for a moment.

It awakens the dreamer in your that thrives on excitement. The clash of loud sounds and colors could be a bit excessive, but I suppose that was a deliberate illustration of the excessive, selfish lifestyle of the characters. The ending cautions with you a moral, though. At what price are you buying your satisfactions?

Director: Baz Luhrmann | Writers (Screenplay): Baz Kurhman, Craig Pearce | Lead/s: Leonardo DiCaprio, Carey Mulligan, Joel Edgerton | Year: 2013 | Country: Australia/USA

4. La Canción del Mar (Song of the Sea)

When my older brother first recommended this animated movie to me, I was still naive to the potential of colored lines and shapes to constrict my throat. Sure, Disney and Pixar have created numerous tear-jerking movies, but there was a different feel to them compared to this movie.

It awakens the dreamer in your that belies in mythologies, that there are greater forces that live among us, quietly guiding our lives. It’s easy to be cynical when you live in the concrete jungle of cities. But when you are quiet in the midst of an untamed forest, or atop a boat in the middle of the bubbling sea, you can hear a whisper saying that there are greater things around us that move our world that we are yet to understand.

Director: Tomm Moore | Writer/s:  Tomm Moore, Will Collins | Lead/s: David Rawle, Brendan Gleeson, Lisa Hannigan | Year: 2014 | Country: Ireland, Denmark, Belgium, Luxembourg, France

5. Jeux D’Enfants (Love Me if You Dare)

Similar to Hang the DJ, it awakens the dreamer in you that believes love has no rhyme and reason. Your decisions can treacherously tear you apart, but somehow, you will find your way back in each others’ arm. The world’s worst war is minute compared to your battles within yourselves and each other, but it doesn’t matter. The rush, the euphoria you feel when you gaze in each others’ eyes trumps it all. Everything else can, and will be forgotten.

Spoiler: You don’t get a clear logical answer in the end. But I think that’s what makes this movie all the more magical. And heart-wrenching.

Director/Writer: Yann Samuell | Lead/s: Guillaume Canet, Marion Cotillard | Year: 2003 | Country: France

6. Dagitab (Sparks)

What happens when a middle-aged husband and wife are situated in the brink of separation? Dagitab narrates the struggles of two university professors who are torn between blandness and excitement, comfort and the unknown. The strikingly real shots of life contrasted against bizarre situations stirs the dreamer who has a penchant for the dangerous.

Like The Great Gatsby, it cautions you in your pursuance of what excites you. It doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t. There are great lessons to be made from great mistakes. 

Director/Writer: Giancarlo Abrahan V | Lead/s: Eula Valdez, Nonie Buencamino & Martin del Rosario | Year: 2014 | Country: Philippines

These shows deliberately stretch and compress time. They are created through artificial props and stages that are manicured to the smallest details. They are far, far, far away from the realities of life. 

Maybe in one aspect, they could all be a manifestation of greed, or even an avenue for escapism. But for others, a clip worth one to two hours is what drives them harder to escape rigidity, challenge status quo, and become better than who they are yesterday.

After all, who ever became great just by following everyone else?

[saysixanythings]

Say six blogs that helped change how I dealt with my wardrobe.

When I was younger, I used to be terribly envious of the enormous walk-in closets I saw in those chick flick Hollywood movies. Hell, I even followed the book series Confessions of a Shopaholic enviously because of just how much she loved fashion, and of course, how much clothes she had. Nevermind her staggering credit debt, the variety and expanse of her wardrobe was a must.

But when I started moving residences multiple times over a span of a few years, I started to realize just how much I owned. I no longer had the privilege of two huge cabinets spanning almost an entire wall of my bedroom to house my impulsively owned items that I could easily forget. Instead, I had to go through all of my items twice to four times a year and stuff them in anything that can carry. Packing and unpacking became overwhelming.

I started to see the light at the end of the emotional distressing tunnel when I started dating someone who had less than forty pang-alis clothes. When disbelief turned into awe and inspiration, I started my Google search journey to living with less items. 

It turns out, it’s a trend increasingly popular in America. It had multiple keywords: KonMari, decluttering, minimalist, simple living, capsule wardrobe. After more than two years of aspiring to this, I can’t say I’ve reached my ultimate goal yet. Mostly because I don’t know what that is yet really. But, I did drastically reduce my clothing items and curb my unnecessary buying sprees. 

So, here are top six blogs that helped change how I dealt with my wardrobe.

1. Into-Mind

This was the first, the blog that launched a thousand hours into feasibly reducing clothing. Skipping the lengthy philosophy ramblings on why and how minimalism is important, it delves down to a concrete method on HOW to live with less clothes: a workbook!

It features a ten-step workbook on how to create a capsule wardrobe. As a beginner, it helped to have baby steps that are well articulated and explained. It’s perfect if you’re planning to have a wardrobe overhaul.

2.  Un-fancy

If you found the ten-step workbook tedious, Un-fancy offers an alternative: a planner. 

You can download (or copy) her planner right from her website. It even has an example to get you started. She also has an Instagram account which features her capsules.

3. Aja Edmond

Now here’s that blog that has all that ramblings on the minimalist philosophy. I say ramblings, but truthfully, these are the phrases I cling to when I need to answer why am I even doing this? And I’ve had of time with that question.

This is one of my recent finds. As I was mindlessly passing time on Pinterest to assuage my shopping thirst, I came across a pin which led me to her blog. And to my surprise, I landed on a deep site.

I love this blog because the writer seems to be well-read. Her insights are backed by philosophies and other theories I came across with in college. It’s a little intimidating because it clearly anchors possessions with designing your life. 

But I love her thoughts and insights. Her morning musings series are my favorite. There are other sections like entrepreneurship and brand strategy too. This is the blog that I would definitely subscribe to and even come back to multiple times in a month to explore archives.

4. Becoming Minimalist

Now here’s a blog run by a male. Unlike the first two blogs, this one talks about reducing not just clothes, but all around the house too.

It has the married-life-and-kids perspective, so a number of the articles are irrelevant to my present. But it does provide the running-the-household perspective which I like because I live in a studio-type.

To be honest, I don’t really subscribe to this blog. But this website keeps popping out its articles at me when I do searches or pins. So it does have good content on simple living.

5. Be More with Less

If the other blogs’ styles aren’t working for you, here’s another approach by Be More with Less: Project 333. 

Basically, you do this intense paring down of your closet. For three months you can only have 333 items in your closet. I didn’t do the project mostly because by the time I came across this, I had less than 300 items from all the moving around. I just read a number of the articles.

But I can imagine this would be incredibly helpful to those who have a staggeringly huge closet that has barely experienced being stripped off childhood clothes, unworn hand-me-downs, unwanted gifts, dilapidated clothing, etc.

If you’re into sharing and learning from others’ experiences, it has a community you can check out. She features a couple of the people who use the #project333 hashtag.

6. The Blissful Mind

So after a while into the reduction drive, I started to realize that my clothes are a manifestation of my mindset. I attribute this mostly to Maria Kondo’s book, but this is one of the blogs that say the similar thing in more relatable and bite-sized text.  

It’s a nice blog that covers the lifestyle aspect of owning. For the list of blogs about clothes, click here.