Another in the series of postcards that Sara is sending to her students. But unlike them, I got a bunch of “Super Spelling” stickers because she can’t use them with her students. They’re on the back.
She thinks my spelling is super. I know that my spelling is super due to my knowing how to properly use spell check.
While Andrew Droz Palermo’s work as a cinematographer for A Ghost Story should be celebrated, the same cannot be said of the directing skills on display in One and Two which is a movie so boring that I couldn’t even find anything to hate about it.* This is a film that shouldn’t be bothered with as the unexplained stuff is never explained, or even hinted at,** the time period is unclear for much of the film, and the ending doesn’t give any clues about the future. The only possible reason to watch this film is to see what Kiernan Shipka and Timothée Chalamet make of their roles.***
Cost: $3.99 via Google Play
Where watched: at home
*I don’t remember the last time I’ve been so bored by a movie.
**We know the kids have powers, we know their father fears these powers, we don’t know where the powers come from, what causes the father to fear, how or if the mother’s illness is connected to the powers, or how that massive wall got built.
***Chalamet gets to emote a lot, which I think he enjoys. Shipka brings her ability to puzzle through and push against things. I quite like this vibe, which was present when she played Sally Draper in Mad Men and I’m curious if this is her thing, or if she does other things in other roles. Perhaps I will check out the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina.
May 2022. This is a post from the beginning of the pandemic. It’s been sitting in my draft folder for more than two years now. I am publishing it without revising, so please excuse its first-draft form.
When I had my full-time job, I sat down at my desk at eight a.m., had a half hour lunch around noon, and then closed everything down at 4:30. There was a half hour commute each way, I ate dinner, and most nights sat back down at my desk at home at 6:30 and worked on my W-9 work for two hours.
Right now I have no commute, I sit down at eight am, have been gardening for 30 minutes at 10:00, sit down for an hour lunch at noon or 12:30, and work until five pm. That’s not even eight hours!
So why am I so tired?
I’ve given this a good twenty minutes worth of thought and here’s what I’ve come up with. I’m totally focused for the hours I work at home, in a way that I wasn’t at work.
At work there were people to talk to, mindless meeting to attend, errands to run. Plus, most of my work was stuff I didn’t have to think much about for long periods of time. Writing the weekly checks? Took focus, but not much brain power. Number checking an annotated document? Took focus, but not brain power. Copyediting did take brain power, but that was a smaller segment of my week.
Right now I’m creating all sorts of new neural pathways around everything. Even 3SMReviews, where I have a good routine down for making posts, I am also spending my time writing content for fun lists, and learning how to up my newsletter game which takes reading, taking notes, and thinking.
There’s not really anyone to chat with at home though Matt and I do exchange words throughout the day.
I’m immersed in this new world I am creating and that, I think, is taking a lot out of me.
What to do?
I think first of all, I will rotate around what starts the day. I’ve been shortchanging the writing part of my day (the writing part that is not writing movie reviews, or writing a new copyediting service I’m providing) and I think whatever ended the day the previous day will start the day the next day.
Today I ran out of steam before I could work on the current novel. That means tomorrow my 8 am task will be that.
I also might start going for a bike ride around 3pm. That’s always been a low energy point to my day and I’d like to get out and get some sun on my face. I also miss biking. Though not the same commute up and down Interstate.
So a rotation of job duties, gardening at 10, an hour lunch and a 3pm bike outing.
Might that help?
We shall see.
Men, Women & Children continues to prove that I love Jason Reitman when paired with Diablo Cody’s writing, and not so much any other time.* Which is not to say I didn’t enjoy watching this film; I spent my time trying to figure out why this was such a bad movie.** This movie is populated with actors I adore*** yet it was a terrible, terrible film.
Cost: free via Hoopla, the library’s lesser streaming service. 13 Going on 30 is on there now. Watch that instead.
Where watched: at home
*Juno I love. Young Adult I love. Tully I adore (and why haven’t you watched it yet?) Up in the Air left me cold. Granted, I still need to see Thank You for Smoking, Labor Day, and The Front Runner to have a clear picture, but so far non-Cody-written films aren’t winning.
**My verdict: it might be a book-to-movie problem. It’s certainly a too-many-characters problem. With about ten character arcs, people get flattened to one personality point. Because the movie is about sex and the internet, every single character interaction save one couple has to do with sex. Ansel Elgort and Kaitlyn Dever were my two favorite characters because their interactions had nuance. (And they had nothing to do with sex.) As someone who is interested in depictions of sex in film and books, this was fascinating. Update! I read the first section of the book on which the film was based to see if the characters were more well rounded. They were not and the dialogue was wooden. This was not a book-to-movie-problem, the story wins in no formats. (Though maybe interpretive dance?)
***Rosemarie DeWitt! Judy Greer! Emma Thompson! Jennifer Garner! Kaitlyn Dever! Serious Adam Sandler!
Writer, producer, and director Jason Reitman felt so much of the acting in this movie was based on reactions to texts, chats, and photos that using dummy screens with no text would not suffice. The production team had to create very realistic-looking versions of popular websites, all on their own tightly controlled software, with which the actors and actresses could interact in real time. According to Reitman, they spent “the same amount of budget on creating the digital world as we did creating the physical one. People know what Facebook looks like better than they do a hotel lobby, you stare at it all day, so it had to be convincing.”
I did think this was one aspect that the movie did well.
May 2022. This is a post from the beginning of the pandemic. It’s been sitting in my draft folder for more than two years now. I am publishing it without revising, so please excuse its first-draft form.
The work rhythm felt good today. I took a break at 10 and dug out some of the worm bin.
Matt and his family are finishing up their trivia game. It’s fun to hear the questions and contribute when I can.
Cleaning today on my 10-minute breaks was also awesome. The vent hood over the stove has not been so clean in years.
I still am loving this social isolation. Loving it!
Matt introduced me to Azul today. I really enjoyed the tactile sensations that came along with this game. The tiles were very soothing to the touch. The game was fun too.
Matt didn’t come of age during the Bieber era, so hair hanging in his eyes is not his favorite thing. Enter the whale spout.
The front-of-head-pony is cute on two-year-olds and forty-somethings!
May 2022. This is a post from the beginning of the pandemic. It’s been sitting in my draft folder for more than two years now. I am publishing it without revising, so please excuse its first-draft form.
It’s Saturday and I had an unproductive Friday. I managed two hours of Keen Eye work, I dug two rows for potatoes, and listened to a 1.5 hour resume/cover letter workshop (which was great) and then I retreated to the couch for the rest of the day.
I love that, given all the time in the world I have over packed my schedule. Part of the problem is my many interests. I’ve got an 8-hour day with just the five things I want to concentrate on during my unemployment. That doesn’t include cooking, gardening, phoning, errand running.
I’m going to shift some things around (applying for copyediting jobs now goes under office manager/unemployment work time) and reduce some other things (the writing and editing of novels). I’m also going to try and get outside for gardening around the noon hour, rather than after work in the evening.
Today I’m going to finish up mask making and hem the dish towels I cut down to make the masks and then put away my sewing stuff. I think that clutter is defeating me.
And I’m going to do my best to both cook AND rest this weekend.
Fingers crossed.
Twenty years later, Christopher Nolan’s Memento is just as good as it was in theaters.* Aside from the puzzle-piece nature of the film, Guy Pearce, Carrie-Anne Moss, and Joe Pantoliano are the reason this film is still so good.** It was also made just in the nick of time as devices were on the horizon that would have eliminated the need for the tattoos and the Polaroids.
Cost: free via Kanopy the library’s streaming service
Where watched: at home
*I remembered the backward format and the spitting-in-the-drink scene and not much else. I think this has to do with so much of my brain being taken up with trying to piece together the story.
**Whereas Following had so-so acting, Nolan gets three people who are perfect for their roles.
The book that Leonard’s wife is reading, which begins, “Two years have gone by since I finished the long story.”, is Claudius the God by Robert Graves.
William Oldroyd’s Lady Macbeth is a great opportunity for Florence Pugh to dazzle you with her acting, and for Ari Wegner to dazzle you with his cinematography. It was one of those movies where early on I didn’t go for a plot turn,* and thus didn’t believe the rest of the movie was possible. It was also fairly unpleasant subject matter** which made for a tedious viewing experience punctuated with great sweeping views of the English landscape.
Unless watching for Florence Pugh’s acting.
Cost: Free via Kanopy, the library streaming service
Where watched: at home.
*And worse, the turn in plot had me asking, “Did a man direct this film?” He did, as it turned out, but a woman wrote it.
**To be fair, they gave me fair warning with the title. It’s not like Mr. Macbeth was a cheery cruise ship director-type. And I read a synopsis of the 1865 novella the movie is based on,*** and this seems to be a much briefer portrait.
***Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District by Nikolai Leskov.
iFeatures is a joint collaboration between the BBC and the BFI. Every year, they produce three feature films for £350,000 as a springboard for first-time directors. Lady Macbeth (2016) was chosen out of over 300 applicants.
It looks like Oldroyd hasn’t directed anything since, which is too bad. I would be willing to watch something else he directed.
