Thinking About: Change in Hollywood, Hollywood’s “New Generation”, Solving Immigration, The Neurology of “Stuck”

— When we will start seeing meaningful change in Hollywood and the kinds of movies that get made thanks to #metoo, and #timesup

 

— If the likes of Jordan Peele, Saorsie Ronan, Greta Gerwig, Lupita Nyongo Emily V. Gordon and Kumail Nanjiani form a kind of "next Generation" of movie makers and cinematic movers and shakers. 

 

— Immigration will begin to seem like a solvable problem if we fund the system of enforcement and processing adequately. You don't get Cadillac results with Pino parts under the hood. 

— What does being "stuck" creatively actually mean? Like neurologically speaking? 

Thinking About: The Oscars, The Weekend, Activism and Time, Creative Slumps

— Will tonight's Oscar winners make a real difference with regards to #MeToo, #TimesUp and Hollywood in general as a regressive, culturally stuck place to work and make art?

 

— Are there different conceptions of "the weekend" in other parts of the world? 

 

— Where do hardworking people who also do political and social activism find the time? 

 

— Is difficulty in doing the thing you are best at part of a the game or what they call in sports, a slump? 

 

 

How “Planes, Trains and Automobiles” redefined Thanksgiving: My piece in Salon

Images.duckduckgo

 

If the road trip is among our most American movie format genres, "Planes, Trains and Automobiles" allows itself almost none of its gifts: the road here doesn't lead to freedom but vulnerability, Del and Neal don't chose the journey but it instead holds them captive. If Thanksgiving is among not only our most American holidays but also our most deliberate — the whole country travels to a designated place for a traditional meal at a designated time — "Planes, Trains and Automobiles" is rather a story about chance, about a friendship born when two people hiding inside their skin are brought out of it by being stranded with one another.

Read the rest in Salon

Thought of the Day: Annie Dillard on Writing, Giving and Ashes

"“One of the few things I know about writing is this: spend it all, shoot it, play it, lose it, all, right away, every time. Do not hoard what seems good for a later place in the book, or for another book; give it, give it all, give it now. The impulse to save something good for a better place later is the signal to spend it now. Something more will arise for later, something better. These things fill from behind, from beneath, like well water. Similarly, the impulse to keep to yourself what you have learned is not only shameful, it is destructive. Anything you do not give freely and abundantly becomes lost to you. You open your safe and find ashes.”

 

Annie Dillard (via The Writers Almanac