The Allure of the Days of Analog

I miss the days before tech took over our lives. I know I only got to experience the tail end of that time, but I keep running the thought experiment in my head. 

What really started it was when streamers decided that they were just gonna remove their own movies and television shows from their platforms, and just not release completed projects. (Justice for Batgirl!) That got me interested in building up my DVD collection, and now I've got a Google Doc two pages long of suggested titles I wish I had the disposable income to purchase every single one of. A lot of them from the Criterion Collection. It also had me rediscovering network tv, and actually watching it as it airs, or at least the magic of the DVR if I missed the original airtime. 

But it's also things like picking up an issue of a magazine, watching the news on tv. And when I'm finding articles online, I go directly to publication's sites and not just scrolling Twitter and looking at links the people I follow share. I'm also trying to read more books, but that's been a separate battle. 

It's missing the water cooler, where no one was watching things on their own schedule and we were all participating in a lot of the same conversations about it. And just flicking channels and catching a movie or watching a marathon all day while you do chores or work. The simpler times. 

So, while the studios still won't come to reality and give the WGA and SAG-AFTRA what they want and need, I will keep looking at the way I watch art and read about it. 

journal, thoughts

My Style Crisis is Never Ending

It's been about a year since I first noticed my inability to buy new pieces for my wardrobe. At the time I didn't worry about it because all I was really wearing day in and day out were jeans and a t-shirt. Working on a cold and dusty soundstage all day didn't really want to wear things I cared about getting filthy. But, doing that for over a year has really ruined my personal style.

I don't know what it is anymore. I go into stores and nothing grabs me. I try things on and they don't feel right. I try to put an outfit together with I have and inevitably go back to the staples in my closet. 

One thing I haven't brought myself to do is a closet purge. Just get rid of the stuff I don't really wear anymore. I could probably take them to H&M and take advantage of their clothes recycling program and get my good human points for the day. Also, I think there's some sort of discount you can use at the store if you bring in your clothes, so that's a plus.

My hope with the purge is that I can figure out my personal style and figure out what I have that fits it and I can get rid of what doesn't. It's just, I have this fear that if I do it, it won't solve my problem of actually buying clothes. I go and try things on and they don't feel right, and I don't know how to work past it that's not just continuing to try things on, and it's really ruining my enjoyment of shopping.

I could shop like no other. I used to be able to spend hours at the mall, just browsing and trying things on. My mom and sister are not shoppers. They are more in and out of the store kind of people, so the fact that I'm becoming more and more like that is annoying. 

Obviously, one of the other things hampering the actual purchasing is money. Building a whole new wardrobe is expensive, so whenever I do figure things out, I won't be rebuilding all in one go. It'll be spread out over time. I take donations. Kidding, of course.

Can the Sabrina the Teenage Witch opening credits be my life? That always looked like fun!

journal

They Could've Just Made a Whole New Mermaid Movie

I do not like the Disney live action remakes. The only one that really added to the original and felt like there was true artistic merit in its creation was Kenneth Branagh's Cinderella. The others have largely been overstuffed retreads of the original films, with what they added not bring anything interesting to the table, ultimately giving us movies with no life. And while The Little Mermaid is a retread, it has life and it's fun. But, the details they added to flesh out the story, while they worked, I thought they were too interesting for this movie. Ultimately, I wished they scrapped The Little Mermaid and just made a brand new mermaid movie.

The new details that were added were little allusions to Prince Eric being someone who washed up on shore as a baby and taken in by the King and Queen, the death of Ariel's mother at the hand of a human, and the history of animosity between the surface world and under the sea. That could be the basis of a really interesting fantasy movie, and you can still keep the Ariel and Eric star-crossed lovers thing to add in some romance. Romeo & Juliet, but with a mermaid!

And honestly, that makes me hate these live action remakes even more. They had the seeds of a new story buried inside the shell of something they had done before. Disney can make original movies, but it seems like they're just too scared of them not making money so they're pumping out surefire box office hits, and sacrificing quality art in the process.

cinema, thoughts

Readjusting My Sleeping Pattern is Going Great (Sarcastically)

 For the last couple years, my start time for work has been 5:30-6:00 am, for 10-12 hour days. Yeah. So that has altered my sleep cycle. I started going to be at 8:30-9:00 pm so my brain can turn off at night since sometimes it takes a while to do that. But now, I am currently out of work, and I can finally have the sleep schedule of a normal person. 

The hard part is actually making that adjustment. My first plan of attack was to stay up as late as I can to force my body to not wake up automatically at 4:30 am. It did not work. I just got even less sleep. That sucked. It was like morning the of the living dead when I would wake up. Compounded by me not being immediately active like I usually would be that early in the morning. Not even doing my morning routine as normal would get rid of the tired feeling that made my limbs feel like lead. Cause I’m not leaving my place before sunrise unless I have to because, one: safety first, and two: nothing is really open for me to go. So I just lay in bed, which makes it worse. At midday, once I shake off the dead, I go walk for an hour in the park. Get some outdoors and fresh air, see some nature. Sometimes I'm too tired to walk for the full hour I force myself to and just find a bench. It's not exercise, but it's still outdoors, so I'll take it.

It also didn't help that the first two weeks of trying to do this, it's been raining. Now, a light drizzle where you can still be comfortably outside. No, it'd been afternoons of down pouring rain. Soaked to your socks, umbrella pretty much only keeping your head dry, rain. Great weather to venture into the outdoors in. 

In my third week of unemployment, I think I've recalibrated. I'm now waking up at about 8:00 am and going to be at 11, and I feel normal. If I had this sleep schedule during the broadcast television season, I could have watched all those shows live instead of playing never ending catch up like I'm doing now. (P.S. #paywriters) The sun is out, the weather isn't unbearably hot yet, and I am going out into the world like a functioning human.

journal

I Hate Writing Cover Letters

 What is the point of cover letters in applying for jobs anymore? What am I going to write that is going to be substantially different than the hundreds of others that the hiring manager or robots are reading? 

I'm a hard worker who shows up every day and works hard. I am very well organized and a great multitasker. I have a lot of experience with [insert skill here]. I know how to use Microsoft Office and Google Suites. I look forward to being part of your team and learning from everyone. 

Obviously you fluff it up, and maybe tell a personal anecdote. But, unless you're asking for something specific to be written, it feels like you'd be getting variations on a theme.

There's also the issue that I hate writing about myself. I can give thoughts and opinions on stuff, which I hope I've demonstrated throughout this blog. Give me movies, television, music, whatever, I will talk about it. But puffing myself and my skills up I just can't do. It feels weird and gross and blegh. Because I am all these things. But how do you write that without sounding like everybody else?

Normally at the end of something like this there's an answer, but I don't have an answer for this. So, yeah. I'm just gonna do my best and grin and bear it.

journal

I'm So Over Filter Face

Filter face needs to stop. 

I don't think I need to explain filter face because every time I've dropped this descriptor to people, they understand, but I think I'll do it anyway. Filter face is when a person gets work done to make it look they're in an Instagram filter. If you need a visual aid, just go watch most reality shows, and you'll be able to spot it. I would recommend Love Island, for reference. 

What I keep imagining is what happens to your face as you age with all of that work done to it. Faces are supposed to change as you age, not stay frozen at 25. Age gives you character, and that makes me think of character actors. Actors who show up in supporting roles and steal the show because they don't look as glamorous of the leads. And how strange would it be to see those glamorous leads who've had work done in a period piece? That's not very historically accurate. 

Now this isn't to diminish plastic surgery as a specialty, because there are countless examples of plastic surgery being used to save and/or better lives. There's a story my dad tells about a company picnic years ago where the 19 year-old assistant got hit by a car and was left with a huge gash on her face, and at the ER, he told the doctors there to get a plastic surgeon to sew up her face so she wouldn't have a nasty scar. 

I just think we are losing the "unconventional" beauty with all these cosmetic procedures taking over the images we see every day. 

thoughts

With Streaming in Chaos, I'm Gonna Check Out Broadcast Network Television

Streaming is in chaos. Shows are getting canceled and disappearing, and all of it for tax write offs, so sustainable business model this is not. It feels like in the next couple years, all of the streaming stuff is gonna collapse, I'm looking at the older modes of movies and television. Mainly, watching movies in theaters and buying DVDs, and network television.

The network sitcom is making a comeback, spearheaded by Abbott Elementary. I also love American Auto and Grand Crew. And because Night Court is back, I'm gonna start that and the original series. I've also heard nothing but good things about Home Economics. So I've got comedies lined up. It's the dramas that are gonna be interesting finds. I don't really know what's happening with that, so suggestions would be much appreciated. Though I did see a trailer for the new Milo Ventimiglia show, The Company You Keep, coming soon, and that looks very fun, so I'll probably tune into that.

I know people don't really care about network television anymore. It was cable, then premium cable, and now streaming where all the "quality" television is. But, as we've seen with Abbott, if you make a quality show, people will show up for it. And networks should learn from that success and put the effort in. Linear television doesn't have to die, life just needs to be put into it, on both the networks' and the audiences' parts.

the telly

I'm Officially (Mostly) Moved In

I finally got my studio apartment! And now that the lease on my old place is over, I feel like I am finally officially moved in. Mostly.

I've got my new Purple mattress that I spent $1100 on and a new bed frame that looks like it could be paired with my favorite American Girl Doll, Kit Kittredge. And thanks to that new bed, I got a new comforter and sheets, new bed new vibes. I've got all my clothes and knick knacks mostly sorted. I've got my Wi-Fi and my television hooked up. Now I just need... pretty much everything else. 

I need a real dresser now that I have the space for one, as well as a nightstand for the same reason. Hopefully I can get a tiny little love seat, that I should have enough space for. And more money for me to spend. Oh joy. But these are things I can hopefully keep for a while and take to the next place whenever that is. I am also on Venmo.

journal

The Best Movies I Watched in 2022

Now that theaters came fully back this year, I wanted to make the most of it and see as many movies on a big screen that I could. I also wanted to make a point of seeing as much non-blockbuster fare on a big screen as possible. I also started a Letterboxd account in May, so some of the films I caught up on early in the year aren’t on my Letterboxd diary, but they do appear here for a more complete picture of my movie watching experience.

Here are the best movies I watched this year.

Read more »

cinema, lists

Nothing Like Being Sick Your Entire Christmas Break

My lovely Christmas break from work this year was for 10 days, and it should have been glorious. I needed those 17 days, including weekends. 17 days to relax and chill, go see movies, shopping, and not have to have a 5 am alarm to start my day. I did not get that. For all but 4 of those days, I had every symptom of the common cold you could imagine. Thankfully it was not covid, so my streak lives. But 13 days of being sick when I should have been experiencing the holiday joy.

I started out with a sore throat, something I do not handle well since I had strep throat 6 times in kindergarten, and 12 times total in my childhood. For me it always feels like my throat is closing on me, so I have to hold my hand to the base of my neck so I still feel like I can breathe. So I hate having sore throats. Then the chest congestion started and I was hacking it up for about two days. And regular old stuffy noses started, too. I started taking whatever over the counter drugs I could. As a new symptom popped up, a new drug was introduced. First it was cough drops and sudafed, then it was robitussin and mucinex. Finally after about 5 days of being medicated to the gills, the day after Christmas I decided to go 24 hours with meds and detox, see what my symptoms were after that. I was left with a nasal congestion and post nasal drip. Gross. After that it was standard cold stuff, runny nose, cough, and ear hurts, and that lasted until Monday. Real fun times. 

Sorry for the TMI, but it sucked to have your time off of work, at the holidays, and spend the majority of it sick, and I needed to vent. Here's to a better start to a year than my end of one.

journal