This past weekend we began principal photography on my web series, Gemma & The Bear! It was so exciting to finally arrive at the moment where the project crossed over from being completely theoretical to becoming a reality. Our cast and crew were amazing . . .
I'm trying to figure out how to do better. What can I do EVERY DAY to stop racism in our country? That's what I want to figure out. That's the question I keep coming back to. . . . I think we need an action plan - things we can and will do to stop racism every day.
Last week, after dropping my tearful toddler off at school ("I want to stay with you!"), our wonderful super came to fix our leaky faucet and, in the process, our faucet totally broke to the point of being unusable. Minutes later, the phone rang - it was the parking garage where we keep our car letting me know that the garage had caught on fire(!) and they didn't know when they'd be able to get the cars out.
I was washing dishes and all of a sudden, I had the idea for the next thing I want to write. I'm in the middle of working really hard on my web series so I've been making notes as the idea fleshes itself out without really giving it any kind of concerted push. Anyway, while the new idea has been percolating independently, I keep finding myself coming back to the excellent film Safety Not Guaranteed which I watched streaming on Netflix. Here's the summary:
A team of journalists are dispatched to find out who's behind a classified advertisement seeking a companion for time travel, with payment on return. After tracking down their oddball prey, the team has to decide how best to approach their subject.
Even before it related (structurally) to my new idea, I'd come back to this film with some frequency. The performances are great and charming, the writing is really good and the film manages to do this magical thing where it really keeps you guessing right up 'till the end (which is the thing I want to figure out how to do for my new story) and, as I've mentioned it to friends, almost no one I know has seen it. So: watch this movie!
Here's the trailer. (Wordpress won't let me embed video, alas. That link takes you to YouTube)
ALSO . . .
A few days ago, still thinking about Safety Not Guaranteed, this delightful list floated through my Facebook feed. I was a bit chagrined not to see Safety Not Guaranteed on it, but also glad to have more great movies to check out.
AND FINALLY . . .
My friend David's very excellent movie Next Year Jerusalem is recently also available to watch on Netflix. I wrote about his movie a while ago when it had its theatrical release and the thing I'd add, based on a recent conversation with him, is that the title seems to throw people off - they think it's just for/about Jewish people/issues and that isn't the case. This is really a movie about the human condition and it is gently and beautifully done. So check this one out too.
A strange thing happened the other day.
I am in DANGER of missing these three excellent shows all of which feature talented humans who I know personally and really want to support with both my dollars and my warm body sending them good vibes from the audience.
I have a personal code of conduct for how and what I will post on social media. My main rule is: nothing negative. If I don't have something nice to say, I don't say it . . .
That's what I said - "This is everything!" - about two-thirds of the way through watching this Daily Show segment the other night. I don't usually post things like this because I see them flying all around the various social media platforms, so I figure, you've seen 'em. But I haven't seen this posted anywhere and I really do think it's exceptional.
When I was in 6th grade, one of the other home-room teachers gave current events pop-quizzes all the time. The way to be prepared for these quizzes was to read the inside of the front page of the New York Times where there is a brief summary of the major news stories of the day. That wasn't my teacher so I didn't really come to appreciate this amazing cliffs-notes of news 'till much later, but appreciate it I did.
Let's not mince words. Here is the chocolate you should be eating:
To be clear, I'm not a mantra person - I'm not even a yoga person - but this year has been rough and I find that I've inadvertently developed some mantras that seem to be helping me through.
Did you know that Patience and Fortitude are the names of the lions who adorn the entrance to the main branch of the New York Public Library? I learned that from . . .
For the past few days, I've been casting about trying to figure out what I'd write about in my next (read: this) blog post. When I became a Neo-Futurist and had to produce roughly 3-5 new short plays a week, through trial and error I came into the following process . . .
Although I am loathe to admit it, since Sunday I've been embroiled in a bit of an internal struggle . . .
Ya know. Like the Diana Ross song. I won't be wearing that outfit, though . . .
I was in the car this morning when StoryCorps came on. It's on every Friday morning on WNYC and it just about always makes me cry. Today was no exception.
Here's StoryCorps' synopsis of today's piece:
In 2009, Alex Landau was a student at Community College of Denver. After a traffic stop one night, he was severely beaten by Denver Police officers.
It's been a fun week for me on the internet!
Kate O'Phalen, who is an actress and blogger, asked me to contribute to a post she was writing about being an Actor and a Mother.
There is no way to change the "snooze" duration on an iPhone!
Seriously!