Notes from the Post-it Wall | Week of August 20, 2023
I should've been a plumber. At least then being covered in shit feels productive.
The Throwing Muse
Here’s what’s wrong with Eric and Marie: Eric is a twenty-eight-year-old writer. He’s alright at it and lives off of it when it pays well, which is most of the time, and he’s made a comfortable space for he and Marie in their marriage in the world. But as of the past two months, and for no particular reason, Eric has the unfortunate luck to be experiencing what writers sometimes call a "block," which some claim does not really exist and others claim can be all but deadly. This is Eric’s problem.
Hey, Do You Watch "Robot Chicken"?
To do that kind of a joke could be considered totally appropriate to some or absolutely unforgivable, depending on the perspective.
The Long Road to the Trump Presidency and Where We Go From Here
On the ListServ (a prehistoric version of Faceborg and Twitter) you find a thread espousing the new GOP-driven “Contract with America.” Users with fake names espousing the “Taking Back Our Streets Act” and the “Personal Responsibility Act” and conspiracy theories about then President Bill Clinton and his “manly” First Lady.
“Who pays attention to this shit?” you ask after perusing the thread for three hours. The irony is lost on you.
Now Playing: Light and Echoes from a Dark Room
Back in college I took a film class. This wasn’t about how to make movies, but how to appreciate them as an art form and as visual literature. It was a dope course. We watched Clerks.
This academic pursuit like most required writing papers. Fortunately, it was only one.
Herr Professor needed to know you understood what concepts had been conveyed. So you could choose to apply these critical reasonings to either: a scene from a film of your choosing watched out of class or a music video.
Anxiety is the thing that’s ripped our country apart. It has divided us, caused us to fear and hate those who think and live differently than us, and even caused us to hate those who only slightly disagree with us. It has led to panic and overreaction. And I worry that American Anxiety is only going to exacerbate the social and political divide in this country to the point that there is no coming back.