The Antique Junk Shop

        

I wrote this poem as a teenager, it was somewhat inspired by 'From beyond the grave' an old Amicus portmanteau horror movie starring Peter Cushing. I drew the old man who runs the shop and owns the cat based on Peter Cushing. You can find the poem on my WattPad adolescent poetry page and as a small montage movie on YouTube.

Elegant Living with Richard's Things

I drew a series of sketches illustrating my song 'Richard's Things,' several years ago now, while having a day off from work waiting for the gas man to arrive. I have used some of my sketches for other purposes including the teapot for the Star Heart Cafe, the girl drinking tea for my WattPad Channel and the girl reading for my bookmarks and the 'My life in books' project. Six of the sketches are also a series of notecards from ALF Creations and the whole montage of sketches that make up the video for 'Richard's Things' can still be viewed on my YouTube channel.

On the ice

When I was at a book supplier's day a few years ago, as part of my library work, I was introduced to the concept of 'thinking like a dandelion', regarding approaches to the internet and social media. With this in mind I have tried to 'spread myself' about a bit both in the virtual and the real world. Part of this approach has meant some of my videos are on YouTube and Vimeo. I wanted to share my 'On the Ice' video from Vimeo, but YouTube won out again. You can find my Vimeo videos here.

Poe and Poetry on YouTube

I find there are wonderful short films and animation on YouTube produced by independent film makers and also gems from earlier in the twentieth century. I continue to use my AmiloFinn channel to create playlists of these works of art. As well as my 'At the piano' playlist you might also enjoy 'Poe's Tales'  and 'Illustrated Poems'.

'Poe's Tales' includes modern animations of Annabel Lee, Masque of the red death, The oval portrait and Eldorado and modern short films of Ligeia, The tell tale heart, The black cat and the Raven. There are also older films such as Vincent Price reading 'The pit and the pendulum' and a 1928 silent film version of 'The Fall of the house of Usher'.

Among the wonderful items collected in the 'Illustrated Poems' playlist are

Night by William Blake
Goblin Market by Christina Rossetti
The Listeners by Walter de la Mare
The stolen child by WB Yeats
The Hollow Men by TS Eliot
Crow by Ted Hughes
Death and Co by Sylvia Plath

You can find the poetry play list here

Making friends with YouTube

I've been wondering what to do about my old YouTube account for a while, I've been adding videos to it, on and off, since 2008. It's been a bit hit and miss over the years, but I thought, on the whole, it's worth keeping. My teenage daughter's very keen on YouTube, too keen probably, but I felt there is more I could be getting out of the service so I decided to adopt a new strategy.

I had a few videos I wanted to upload, a couple of old animations, a more recent montage of old ALF pictures and an idea for a new video. I uploaded my old videos and thought I would have a go at the new idea.

The new idea is The Antique Junk Shop, which is a montage of new pictures I have drawn, inspired by one of my poems and accompanied by one of my songs. The new video has been created using the new Movie Maker, I preferred the old one, but have a new computer, so now have the new Movie Maker as well, I'm still quite pleased with the result. After uploading my videos, I thought more deeply about what to do.

My old YouTube account has always been for uploading my 'ALF Pictures' videos, it's its raison d'etre, but I wanted somewhere I could go to search what other people are doing and keep track of that rather than somewhere I go to upload my own efforts. So I came up with the idea of having two accounts.

My old account, LornaJHart, is still for uploading my videos, when I feel the need, I think of it as my 'experimental' account. My new accout, Amilo Finn, is where I am mostly going to collect playlists of other people's videos that I find inspiring, I think of it as my 'inspirational' account. To keep them linked AmiloFinn has subscribed to LornaJHart and vice versa.

While I was at it I also added The Antique Junk Shop to my Vimeo channel. The LornaJHart channel and my Vimeo channel are listed on the side links of my blog and the new AmiloFinn YouTube channel is here. I have 'fave ' playlists on both my YouTube accounts which I hope people will enjoy.

Kaleidoscope Girl

Like my 'Versatility' greetings cards, the Kaleidoscope Girl movie also uses designs originally from my WebFlower web graphics project. The kaleidoscope girl now also has her own set of greetings cards.

Rainbow Ballet

Rainbow Ballet is based on one of my earliest animations, Ballet Class, which has been on my LornaJHart YouTube channel since 2008. It is set to a song I wrote in the early nineties called Jazz. I recently updated some of the images from Rainbow Ballet to use at the start of a new ALF Creations compilation film, Showcase, which is available on the AmiloFinn Vimeo WebPage. Below is a picture of my original rainbow ballerinas from my Webflowers Webgraphic project.

Lorna's Songs on 8Tracks

Something I have been meaning to do for ages is to put eight of the best songs I have written on the 8Track Internet music channel. I have finally done that, you can find them here at http://8tracks.com/amilofinn/lorna-s-songs . I hope you enjoy them, a little more about the tracks is written below.

'For what I am' was written after my first experience of work, trying to do a job I found particularly difficult.

'Stargazing' was my attempt at a space song. Sitting by the window and looking out at the night time sky was as far as I got.

'Island of Happiness' was inspired by a magazine article which recommended that the search for constant happiness was futile and we would do better to appreciate the islands of happiness we are fortunate to encounter along our way.

'Alive at last' was written after a dismal relationship break up. It was used in about 2005 at a friend's baptist church baptism.

'Jazz' is about a popular, beautiful college acquaintance I was particularly envious of.

'That far away look' is about a particularly romantic evening I enjoyed with my soon to be husband.

'Scorpio Eyes' is a mysterious astrologically inspired song.

'I can see you' was written when I was seventeen. It is about the scary business of falling in love for the first time.

Videos for these songs can be found on the LornaJHart YouTube channel.

Through the seasons features 'For what I am'

The Planets features 'Stargazing'

In the cafe features 'Island of Happiness'

On the ice features 'Alive at last'

Rainbow Ballet features 'Jazz'

The Tudors features 'That far away look'

Halloween Party 2 features 'Scorpio Eyes'

Another day, another place features 'I can see you' as well as 'Waiting for me'

Richard's Things

'Richard's Things' was inspired by the title of a book by Frederic Raphael. I have an old ex-library copy of the book, but find it quite a difficult read. I really enjoyed drawing the sketches for my accompanying video. They were mostly produced in one day, a day off from work spent indoors waiting for the gas man.