Dear Sweetcheeks,
Things can get so complicated. Do they have to be? I wonder.
Even just living an adult existence requires such level of complication. Passwords for various websites. Gone are the days of buying a donut and giving someone cash, and getting your change, and moving on with your day.
Now, there is CashApp, and Venmo, and cards, and all these options are supposed to make life easier but they make life feel—to me—like an overwhelming barrage of stimulus, and I’m walking through a maze, wondering why it is so complicated to get from here to there, or accomplish one simple task, because I should just be able to teleport and magnetically attract whatever it is I want. I guess I feel like I should have servants to do things for me. Not human servants, but robot servants. And what would that help? Isn’t the crux of life in doing your own laundry and washing your own dishes? Isn’t that how we stay humble and real?
I don’t know. I am rambling. It is my birthday. I thought I lost the podcast recording for You Hurt My Feelings, and I was ready to stop writing and podcasting altogether, because I’m tired. How long is my computer going to last before these recordings take up too much memory and data and I have to figure out a way to transport the data onto a separate drive? And I don’t have a tech guy for that. I know women can do tech, and I love them for it. I just really like tech guys because it renew my faith in the male species. If I have a problem, a guy can fix it. We all win and can celebrate and dance how useful men still are.
Things in life just keep getting weirder and stranger and also sometimes monotonous, and I feel the reverberations of human existence more palpably than I used to. I am wildly grateful for small things, and at the same time, I feel the challenge and pain and transformation of the climates we live within—environmental, social, political.
So many things hurt my feelings, but the hurt comes out in little ways.
Talking about film is a window in to help us talk about ourselves, see ourselves, and see others with fresh eyes. We can definitely feel the aura and energy of the filmmaker, and the mechanics of their worldview through the story they create. That is why I am trying to focus on filmmakers with a worldview that is worthy of my time, because there is a lot of junk, and junk doesn’t keep my attention. There is also a lot of beauty, and a lot of it is covered up and hard to find and we need to gold-seekers and gold-knowers so we can choose wisely what we want to experience and consume. The movies and the television one watches are like a diet; we want our diet to be healthy and sustainable so we can participate in life honestly and stay inspired to add value to our small worlds.
You can hear more about Nicole Holofcener’s 2023 film You Hurt My Feelings on the podcast with links below. What I will add here, in writing, is that this film gives me comfort. The characters are people who are relatively fortunate, and living the life we all want. These characters have stable careers, healthy relationships, and they’re nice to others. I like knowing there are people like this in the world—people whose goals aren’t to hurt anyone, or cut anyone down. These are not people seeking revenge, or using their own hurts to hurt other people or dominate anyone. There’s nothing nefarious here. Instead, these characters try to create and help other people, and love their neighbors. They mess up and they try again. If they argue, they make up. This kind of movie—so well done—makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside. Thank you, Ms. Holofcener THE WINNING FILMMAKER OF MY HEART for that.
Nicole Holofcener’s work makes me so darn happy. Get thee to a streaming service to watch it (BUT this film is kind of hard to get your hands on. I don’t know why. That hurts my feelings).
Hugs,
Ms. Wonderful
(who is Ms. Birthday Lady today AND that also makes me Ms. Autumn Equinox, too)
LISTEN LISTEN LISTEN!
Podcast on Spotify
Podcast on Apple
YOU BETTER SUBSCRIBE, you little heartbreaker.
Or watch the PODCAST/VIDEOCAST on YouTube…and see actor and artist Gene Foschini’s secret battles with the technological underworld. It’s fierce and feminine, and for a long period of this VIDEO, you will only see G.F.’s glowing glasses and forehead on the screen!
(We like our podcast videos RAW AND REAL and unpolished, professor. That’s how you know the real deals in this U.S. of A.)
DID YOU TELL YOUR FRIENDS YET ABOUT THIS BLOG?
DO IT FOR MY BIRTHDAY, jellyfish.