Blair and the Big Blue World

I haven't written here in a while because I, Blair W. Martin, have been busy. During the twelve weeks that I've been away I have traveled for a journalism conference, started my first job, fallen out of friendship with somebody that I once held dear, started running again, consumed ice cream on a nightly basis, lost a loved one, and experienced a million of memorable moments in between. I've always had a complex relationship with the summertime simply because the season lacks the buzziness that excites me during the other nine months of the year. Summer is slow, shimmery, deliberate. It's pacing gives people time to really sit with themselves and I think that I've always felt a bit warily about that. Time to sit means time to think and time to think means time to worry---and I have a history of always taking advantage of that time.  In the past, summer has always gone a similar way: I'd get let out of school, excited about all of the time that lay ahead of me, o...

Marc Webb’s 500 days of summer starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel was incredibly popular when it was released in 2009. One of the most memorable scenes from the film happens at the end  when protagonist Tom goes to a party at his ex’s apartment with hopes that his expectations will finally align with his reality. Audiences watched with intrigue and later on horror as the two scenes on the screen that represent what Tom thinks is going to happen and what actually does diverge further and further away from each other. As the two scenes unfold themselves to the thunderous tone of a Regina Spektor Song, it becomes increasingly obvious that Tom can imagine and expect this alternate reality with as much clarity as he wants to, but will still be forced to live in the real one where he doesn’t have the charm, doesn’t have the job, and doesn’t have the girl at the of the day. This scene garnered acclaim from audiences and critics alike because it portrayed a universal exper...

Lately I've been ruminating about why I write, because I do it a lot. Every night I write one good thing about my day and answer a question from a journal that I've been working in for about 5 five years now. Every week I write a journal entry in a series that I started one Saturday morning in September back in 2016 that I call my '! per weeks.' I write screenplays, I write short stories, I write essays. I write I write I write---and I'm proud of it. There is a large portion of my heart that is dedicated to storytelling and all of the joy that it can bring and a large portion of my brain that's dedicated to dreaming about becoming a storyteller. So the cheap answer to the question that I've raised for myself would be that I write because I want to pursue it professionally, but I know that it's a lot more complex than that. During a sunny week in September 2014, I was tasked with a special assignment. It was the first week of fifth grade and my teacher ha...

I'd probably faint and/or cry the second they used those little cleaning wipes to prepare me for the needle. Then, after being nursed back to health with a juice box and slightly sedated with something serious but sensible (try saying those last seven words five times fast...), I'd hop back on my chair and finalize my design. The idea of getting a tattoo freaks me out because tattoos are forever and  the thought of anything that I do being final is genuinely terrifying, So I wouldn't even bother trying to come up with a design of something special or even relatively important. No, I'd get something silly enough for it not to be taken too seriously but respectable enough for it to not make me look like a total idiot. A bee...a semi circle...a fried egg...the letter w...a qr code that sends you to the YouTube video of Beyoncé's 2009 Grammy performance...a rubber ducky. Nothing is really off limits as long is it fits the aforementioned requirements. I'd want the ta...

Like the grand Moira Rose once said, "My favorite season? Oh it's awards!" I could write an entire think piece about why I adore these programs---and I probrably will someday. But for now, I will leave you with some of my reactions from tonight's wonderful ceremony.  1. Daniel Kayuula would like to fank oh so many people #lethimspeak.  2. Currently manifesting an Emily in Paris win.  3. Catharine O'Hara singing along to her play out music...yes. 4. I'd like to have a harsh word with whoever dressed Tina Fey and Amy Poehler.  5. Norman Lear's rainbow heart tie brings me sweet sweet joy.  6. Jason Sudeikis looks LOVELY in his little tie dye sweatshirt.  7. EMMA CORRINNNNNN!!! I'm obsessed with her little clown outfit. 8. The mispronunciation of Soul---couldn't possibly discuss. John Baptiste's pastel suite on the other hand... 9. Sterling K Brown and his shiny blue counterpart...also yes.  10. Ramy Youseff's BEANIE!!!  11. JASON SUDEIKIS winn...

 I've always really really loved valentines day. When I was little I would struggle to fall asleep the night before because I'd be thinking about the carefully labeled candies that I'd get to pass out in class the next day and become overwhelmed by the amount of premature enthusiasm that I'd feel. As time has gone by that enthusiasm hasn't waned. Many of my cherished memories have happened on this day: a meticulously planned middle school class party, a cafeteria fight my freshman year, the discovery of one of my favorite role models...The list goes on and on---it actually doesn't, I couldn't think of anymore great valentine's day based memories but I simply do not have the energy nor the interest to rewrite that section. This year is different, that sort of goes without saying at this point. We're in a pandemic, the sky is green, badabada bing. In my 16 year history of valentines day I've never felt bad about not actually having a valentine. My ...

 From 2015-2018 my Netflix recommended queue had a resident nuisance. I would scroll searching for my newest television endeavor, rolling my eyes whenever my finger absentmindedly tapped on the program entitled  Freaks and Geeks . From the outside the show looked like something that I would adore. It had gritty looking 20 year olds playing teenagers and plot points that dove into situations that I had no reason to relate to and no ability to truly comprehend. However watching the pilot one afternoon in 2016 I quickly came to the conclusion that the show was "boring as hell"---my diary entry from that day. So from then on I avoided it and vowed to never waste another set of 44 minutes of my time on it again. I kept that vow close to my heart for 5 years until I broke it yesterday by re-watching the pilot and, surprisingly, falling in love wi th it.  I've watched 10 episodes the show in the past 24 hours and I'd be watching it right now if it weren't for my crippl...

Hello Hello Hello!  It's been a hot minute. One of my goals for this fine new year is to write on this blog biweekly. I cannot promise that it'll all be good writing, I can actually assure all 5 of you that're reading this that the majority of it will not be. But I'm a big believer in the whole "practice makes perfect" thing so I think that by hurling 26 balls in the air a few of them are bound to make it in the net. We shall see we shall see. Today, I offer you thirty-one statements.  Mint chocolate chip ice-cream is crappy.  Knowing how to jump rope is not an essential skill.  I am obsessed with the idea of doing karaoke but I probably would be too chicken to step up to them mic.  People always give me planners for my birthday because I’m “organized” but they end up just sitting in my closet so maybe I’m just wasteful.  Standup comedy is one of the best forms of storytelling---when done well.  My favorite characters from HBO’s Girls are all of the b...

SO! September didn't exist this year. I mean it did, and it was actually a really great month but I didn't do a collection on it. SO, It doesn't exist here on this blog. Today I'm here to talk about October.October October October. It was a month. It was a set of 31 days that I was alive for. That I know for sure. A Lot of good things happened but crap stuff fell into my lap too, as crap is known to do. So now I'm going to go over all of the good and the crap with you---I am SO sorry for that rhyme, I'm turning myself into the authorities ASAP.  7 things that I did  1) Went to the movies for the first time in seven months  2) Started (and stopped) going to the gym.Woops.  3) Survived my first month of driving without getting in a car accident  4) Interviewed 14 of my friends for a birthday video  5) Fell in love with the Sunrise Trilogy  6) Read poetry with my friends in a cemetery  7) Saw a 15 minute Trump parade while eating mac and cheese pizza...

 My relationship with math has always been a turbulent one full of chicken scratch notes, bad assessments, and sometimes (most of the time) some kind of redemption arc. This year has been no different, it's been heightened honestly, with everything that's going on. Last night I spent five (5) hours studying for a test that I had today and it was annoying, and frustrating, and honestly kind of exhausting. But the test wasn't.So. 

  Complaining is America’s underrated pastime. It is an easy enough thing to do:  you find something that is dissatisfactory to you in your environment, figure out how to vocalize your complaint in a way that makes you seem insightful, observant, and just the right amount of sassy and finally, find somebody who is  willing to listen. Bibbity bobbity boo. However not all complaints are the same, and not all people complain with the same intentions. There is a difference between somebody voicing their dissatisfaction with the unfair treatment of people working in the textile industry and some chick being annoyed about how cold it is in her chemistry class. And yet, they are both connected at their cores as being something so instinctually human that it is often trivialized. Picture this: two men are standing outside waiting for something neutral---let’s say a porter potty, and they have been in line long enough for their silence to be awkward. Man #1 looks up at the sky an...

The other day I was messing around Pinterest (as you do) and felt a massive urge to renovate my life in some sort of long lasting but not super tangible way (as you do) so I decided to redo my  spotify playlist covers. I'm very particular about my playlists. I've the same 9 for 3 years and they're all poorly titled and horribly curated. I love them dearly. But I knew that it was time for a change so I dedicated my Sunday afternoon (+ night) to vamping them up. Here are the results!  me, listening to my new playlists 

Olivia C is my movie buddy, my Virgo buddy, and my 'let me sit in your car and screech for 20 minutes before school buddy'. I love her dearly. Here's a Q&A I did with her today! BM:You're being forced to immigrate to a country tonight @ 9 pm where are you going?   OC:  Switzerland maybe? Because they have like, rights for women. There's nice equality there. Or I would go to France, for obvious reasons. I know people in France.  BM: Yeah our Pen Pals.  OC: Nope they're from... BM+OC: Italy! OC: We still write letters...I'm kinda in love with him.   BM: If you were to name your baby boy after one of the colors of the rainbow which one would you choose?  OC: Blue.Yep.  BM: Not like aqua...or teal?  OC: That's not on the rainbow, I'm talkin' ROYGBV! BM: I mean you could dive into hues.  OC: Red is kinda cute.  BM: ...No it's not.  OC: You asked ME!  BM:  Yeah yeah yeah.  BM: Do you believe that fate determin...