"Busy like a bee, actually. Bee-like"

For the last couple of months I've been blogging less and less. Actually that's not entirely true, as I'm blogging for Filmhoek.nl as well. But I've been blogging here less and less. It's not something I want to give up, because here I can write anything I want and talk about anything I can think of. And I love doing it. So I'm not gonna stop, I'm just saying that it's gonna happen like twice a month instead of three to four times a month.

In case you'd like to know why I've been so busy:
If you're a Dutchie by any chance (or you understand Dutch) you can always keep up with my latest movie reviews on www.filmhoek.nl (we're also on facebook and twitter) as well as the blogs I write for them. The cool thing about this is that I get to go to press viewings, which I absolutely LOVE! Lately we've also started a site for television news, for which I'll also be blogging and hopefully reviewing some of my favorite shows as well.

When I'm not writing for them, I'll be writing (three to four times a year) for the Dutch magazine Integrand - a magazine for students to prepare them for the business world out there. Here I won't just write reviews but sometimes I'll simply be writing articles about a theme/topic related to the issue.

Lately I've also been very busy tweeting. Not just my own tweets (though you can find me @Aivy88 if you like), but also for a movie website that focuses on teens who are either interested in movies or interested in making them theirselves. We share movie reviews from these inspired teens as well as background information about a movie that we feel deserves some extra attention. I'm kinda proud because I advised (more like stalked, but hey... it's me) them to do the same for Joss Whedon's Much Ado About Nothing which just hit the theatres over here (YAY). I also just started tweeting again for this Film Festival which starts in the beginning of April and I can't wait for it! The only non-movie related tweets are the ones I do for my job.

Then there's the political party I'm a member of. As the elections are coming up in two months we are working on some pretty nice activities, while there are also a lot of new rules and new board members. So I'm pretty busy with figuring all of that out as well ;-).

Busy like a bee

Time flies when you're having fun. And also when you're working a lot ;-). I just had my two week holiday, while volunteering for the Dutch Film Festival. It's always so much fun; writing and interviewing people, seeing it all in print. We have a great team every year and I hope to be a part of many more to come. After the festival we had the first PINK! (the youth party for the animals) activity this season (organised by me I mean) en then I went right back to work that evening. Night shifts! For some reason I just couldn't get the rythym back so it was a lot of tired days and not enough sleep. But with colleagues like mine I made it through, haha. 

Next to my paid job and working for PINK! I was also lucky enough to see La vie d'Adèle for the website I'm writing for: Filmhoek.nl. I don't even know if I've mentioned it before, but I write movie reviews and blogs for this website and I'm so very proud of it. We haven't even been online for a year and it's such a fast growing website. We try to get the latest news first - in Holland that is - and I'm glad to be able to write again about my passion. Watching the winner of Cannes during the press viewing and putting my thoughts down about it, I remembered how much I love it. I don't know how many readers of my blog can read/understand Dutch, but if you're interested you can find it here ;-)

Of course I'm also busy with the new series season. Because of the film festival I wasn't able to keep up, but I'm almost back on track with all the shows I watch. Arrow, Revenge and Once Upon a Time are all so great. But I really would love to mention two new shows I'm watching: The Crazy Ones, with one of my favorite actresses of all time: Sarah Michelle Gellar. Her chemistry with Robin Williams is truly amazing and I really enjoy watching it. It's great to have our 'Buffy' on tv again! The other show is Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. It's Joss's new show, which he created with brother Jed and Jed's wife Maurissa. I've only seen two episodes so far and I have to say that I'm not quite sure what I think of it... The dialogue is good, but it just feels a little messy. I'm always a fan of the 'nerds/geeks/computer wizzes/genius' in his shows, but now there are three of them. So I'm hoping the next episodes will be better. It might just be me though... I'm not a fan of shows with guns and military and of course that's exactly what you get with agents :P.

One other thing I'm currently very busy with is the preperations for HalloWhedon 5. Only nine days away!!!!! GAAAAAAAH I'm so excited, I can't think straight :P. I'm trying to find costumes, find out what else I need to bring and mostly: UBEREXCITED (and sometimes even emotional) about seeing my friends again. I haven't seen them in a year and it's gonna be a weekend full of hugs, parties and amazing fun :D :D :D. 

The Dutch Film Festival

Just a quick heads-up. Starting Monday I will be writing for the daily newspaper of the Dutch Film Festival (Nederlands Film Festival or NFF). For two weeks I will be living, breathing and sweating in an attic with a talented group of people interviewing actors, directors, writing articles and enjoying the wonderfulness of Utrecht being the centre of Dutch movies. This also means that I probably won't have time to write a blog. I will try to give an update in about a week about my wonderful experiences this year, but I might be too busy with work or simply taking the festival in myself and watching way too many movies ;-).

Because I could never just have a short blog, here's a little bit more info about the festival in case anyone is interested:
http://www.filmfestival.nl/profs_en

I have several movies I really want to see (actually, way too many). Just to name a few:
- Peter Greenway's Goltzius & the Pelican Company
- Aaron Douglas Johnston's  9/11 A Love Story
- The Ballet Masters
- Farmer Jack
- Facing Animals
- Hemel
- Boeren Burgers Buitenlui (this and the two previous ones are both on animal farming I believe)
- Crane Spotting
- Her Majesty
- Dark Blood
- Jackie 
- Deal
- The Hidden Man
- Deep Shit

And a couple of family movies:
- Cool Kids Don't Cry
- Fidgety Bram
- Kauwboy
- My Adventures by V. Schwrm
- Taking Chances

Movies I can already recommend:
- My Life on Planet B
- Matthew's Laws
- The Girl and Death
- Nono, the Zigzag Kid
- Short: Amstel
- ONS: Bowy is Inside

What I really like about it this year, is that the promo for the festival was made with the audience. They made the first live Twitter movie Under Control/Onder Controle and the promo/trailer for the festival is made from that event. It's in Dutch, but I think you can catch the drift ;-). Enjoy!

It's gonna be awesome!!!!