Good morning. Hello. How are you? #1094
Friends doing stuff, ChatGPT prefs, hyphens, Directing Taylor videos, skipping soap opera shit, Dig! 20th anniversary
Good morning! Hello friends. How’s tricks? Things are awesome here. Well, except Emma is sick. Or she was yesterday. I hope she is feeling better today. We will see when she wakes up in a bit. No school for Jane today, but work for me, which means we are in our battle of wills to see whether she can get me to ignore work and pay attention to her. She lost round one, and now she is drawing a picture. If things work out marvelously, you may get this picture by the end of this GMHHAY. Never say never.
I am listening to Jaako Eino Kalevi, an album called Chaos Magic, I have no idea why it’s in my queue, but it is marvelous continental synth pop and I highly recommend it if you are a fan of synth pop.
Oh friend plug time. Speaking of synth pop, I believe today is the day Freezepop is playing at Man Ray for their record release party. If you are in Boston, you should go. I am sad to be missing it. But we will be back soon.
Also congratulations to my dear friend Katy Rose, and her compatriots, the lovely Mark and Kaki for their award as a semifinalist in the James Beard Awards as Outstanding Restaurant for their west Texas BBQ joint Convenience West. I mean how freakin awesome is that. I am so proud of them.
Cool friends doing cool friends shit.
Oh shit I thought I had no appointments today but I was wrong. I have PT at 11 and I have a tax meeting at 2. ugh. Taxes. I have to do so many taxes this year I think I am responsible for…. six returns, two batches of 1099s and four batches of K-1s? Awesome. No problem.
Tim wrote me yesterday and told me that you can, in fact, save preferences in ChatGPT, in the mobile app, at least: it is in the settings. This is freakin hilarious because I was under the impression that you couldn’t save settings in ChatGPT because I asked ChatGPT if you could save preferences and it told me you could not. So, I guess that is points against ChatGPT right there.
Another friend wrote in to ask about hyphens, and to clarify, what I was referring to is the use of hyphens to make compound words, such as “10 year-old child.” That one, especially, always got me. And you do not use a hyphen when combining words together when the first word ends in -ly, such as “my constantly abused elbow”. Far more words need hyphens than people realize, and I used to be terrible at it, and I am not a grammar snob or anything, but I more often than not find myself legitimately confused when reading writing that doesn’t have enough hyphens. I am trying to get better.
Now someday I will hopefully conquer the semi-colon before I die. I used one this week, I think I did it right. Did you notice?
So apparently Sundance is doing this thing for its 40th anniversary where it’s picking some very Sundancy films and re-showing them, one per decade or something? Not quite sure. I had been seeing some headlines about it, but then my friend Kestrin posted that one of the films is Dig!, the documentary about the Dandy Warhols and the Brian Jonestown Massacre. Except unlike the other films selected, Dig! is actually showing a new, extended cut, since this is the film’s 20th anniversary. (Here is an excellent interview in Deadline with the creators of the film). And this cut — either the new stuff or the whole cut, unclear — is narrated by the amazing Joel Gion, tamborine player and life and soul of the Brian Jonestown Massacre. Recently re-watched Dig! and was dismayed to see there was no re-release, but apparently it’s all happening now. And I am so excited! Man, what a great film. Always brings back memories. We were so into those bands back then.
“Hi we’re the Dandy Warhols it’s good to be rocking first thing in the morning.”
Relatedly, this is a good time to plug one of my favorite works of writing, A List of Topics that Ran Through My Head Last Night While Watching the Dandy Warhols. I just re-read it. It holds up.
So I had this epiphany last night, as Jane made me watch the fifth Taylor Swift video during Daddy-Jane-Dance-Party. It is a theory. An epiphany of a theory. You know how Kevin Feige kind of ruins every MCU film now with all of his mandates for easter eggs and tie-ins to other films and whatnot, so all the plots are kind of discombobulated and you’re never sure exactly why anything is happening, and sometimes entire shows turn out to be just plot linking to other shit (ahem Secret Wars)? And how the directors are kind of annoyed by it but also don’t say too much about it because they don’t want to piss off papa Kevin?
Anyway, I was wondering if that is what it’s like to direct a Taylor Swift music video. All the management mandates for easter eggs and secret messages and whatnot. Like… does it get annoying for the directors? Is that why she directs all her own videos now? No, she directs all her own videos because she wants to be a director so bad. I admire she is giving thought to her long term career. But I’m not sure directing is for her. Her ultra-comelling, universal, sneaky style that just gets into you works great in the world of pop but I’m not sure it will work in film. But I digress.
That’s it, that’s the whole theory. I bet directing a Taylor Swift video is like directing an MCU film.
Emma and I are watching For All Mankind and it is good but it is getting too soap-opery, and I hear it’s going to get more soap-opery, so we made an agreement that we would just start fast-forwarding through the soap-opera shit. It is working pretty well, except apparently I have a lower tolerance for soap-opera shit than Emma does and I fast-forwarded through a scene she wanted to watch, so now she is the keeper of the remote and high arbiter of what constitutes soap opera shit.
This also solves our problem with After Midnight, since if we skip 20 minutes of characters pointlessly arguing or making unrealistic poor decisions, there is time to watch all of After Midnight. Works out great.
The cineaste in me finds this appalling, but you know what? I think he’s wrong. I do not owe anyone sitting through bad art, and indeed, this makes it more likely I will put up with it to get to the good art and actually watch your show.
And hey it worked out. Jane finished her drawing. Let’s take a quick picture of it and stick it in this GMHHAY somewhere.
Todays Media of the Day is “Red” by Treble Charger because 1) It came on in my truck two days ago and like every time that song comes on randomly, I said “shit yes!” and turned it up, 2) I was just re-reading that Dandy Warhols essay I wrote and there is a bit about Treble Charger in there, so it is a sign. Easy to forget about this song. But then it comes back. You’re welcome.
Okay Jane is back and I need to do more work. Until tomorrow!
Very disappointed in the gratuitous soap opera slamming today.