Hey everyone, it’s Jack/Noodle here with a very special post. I decided today instead of a regular post where I deep dive or relate sparks to autism, I celebrate one year, or one trip around the sun of this blog. To celebrate I thought I’d share some of my art and behind the scenes and thank yous to people i haven’t openly thanked but feel like they’re so important to me.
(Me and my besties getting a sweet treat to celebrate)
I began this blog October 2023, with the intention of sharing my love of Sparks and connecting it to me understanding my autism and its hopeful diagnosis. Growing up, I’ve always ventured far to share my point of view and often had people ignore me because I was too different. I chose a blog over a video format because I have days where physical speech is overwhelming as I know what to say but it’s an ocean of words. Some days I want to say so much but my stomach aches trying to make sense of everything, so when I write I feel a lot better.
Behind the scenes, I’ve been juggling this blog between my studies and my family life, which means often times I can’t do everything I want to. But I’m ever so grateful for everyone who has been reading, whether this is your first time here, you are an on and off reader, or you’ve read every post I’ve made here. Another thing about behind the scenes that I never openly shared is that, during my period as a writer here I have made so many amazing friends whilst being here. I may not have met most of them but I’m ever so grateful when I get to share the internet space and air with these people, so many are also so creative and talented and others are so kind and so friendly. I don’t usually name people on this blog as I’d love to respect people’s privacy but I want to say a huge thanks to my best friends Jenna and Ethan who have been here for a long time, I met Ethan at the start of this year, but we met online and I’m so grateful they support me and at ungodly hours often send me supportive messages and listen to me infodump. Jenna I’ve always known and she was so happy when I began a blog, she has been using my writings as a device to learn how to write and structure essays.
(Behind the scenes, me and my friends…yes that’s a joke)
I get a lot of people asking me numerous questions and curious at the workings of this machine I’ve created, so I’m going to answer a few here today.
1. How Do You Get Your Ideas?
When I get ideas I’m usually listening to way too much sparks and I also want to share my understanding of autism and relate it to fellow neurodivergent people’s experiences and my own experiences. I also get ideas from suggestions I’ve had such as my deep dive into I married myself came from when I asked the official Facebook group what songs they felt reflected asexuality.
2. What is the Process? (From idea to final posting)
So I begin by discussing with a friend a concept I have and then I begin writing it out here or I need to listen to the song or album a few times, I then try and add images that relate to my discussion. I don’t usually do alot of research or notes for this blog as I feel the best ideas are best served poured fresh and not watered down and copying someone else’s thoughts.
3. What are your ideas for the future?
In the near future, there is an album deep dive in collaboration with a few people as a celebration of said album, in the far future I am graduating as an illustrator and then I’ll be trying to do more posts here to help me in generation in making art for sending to possible clients or workspaces. I’m planning to do more workshops too as they’re a lot of fun.
4. Favourite Sparks Song/Album?
I absolutely love the song Upstairs from the album Whomp that Sucker as it’s so fast paced and I love dancing to it, it also has a very beautiful red and blue pattern in my head, almost similar a disco scene from an 80s movie. My favourite album is either No.1 in Heaven or Angst because both of them hold alot of memories and joy for me. I personally hate the song Instant Weight Loss as it weighs down the angst album (despite being about someone loosing weight) and I heard from a friend that it’s possibly about Georgio Moroder.
5. Do you have other music recommendations? (Similar to sparks)
Absolutely! I am more than ready to give you guys some music to enjoy. Bands similar to sparks are: XTC, Roxy Music (they were in the same building as them when they were recording Kimono in my House), They Might Be Giants, Oingo Boingo, Scissor Sisters and Pet Shop Boys.
(Ron art I did a while back)
That is all I have time to write about today, thank you so much everyone for reading and supporting this blog. I am going to keep running this until my legs ache and I can’t stand up anymore, so please stick around as this blog will only keep getting updated. Once again, I have been Noodle/Jack, you have been a reader. Please feel free to drop your feedback in comment sections and join me in celebrating with some pasta and cheese.
I really enjoy your postings, Jack.
ReplyDelete