10. The News Who Lettered Me
This is 10th of these quarterly newsletters and the first since I created a website to house them and distribute them properly exactly three months ago.
And on that day, I promised to adhere to that ‘quarterly’ thing instead of chronically letting it stretch into more of 30-40 cently, or even half-dollarly newsletter.
So, I dutifully procrastinated until yesterday, then raced to the segue store to restock my supply and launched into a list-making mania. Why? Because I said I would and if I were going to pretend that this newsletter’s esoteric new title scheme had any intended meaning whatsoever, it would be that my word is my Bond.
And speaking of adhesives…
1. Alien Tape – This double-stick stuff is to remarkably easy to remove, considering it has superhuman strength. Seriously, I think it’s what Peter Parker’s palms became. Though considering its alleged alien origin and ability to stick brick to brick, a more marvelously appropriate catchphrase would be ‘I am Grout’. I know, I know, I’m on a roll. Roll. Like the tape. OK enough. But let’s stick (heh) with the over-exaggerated space theme…
2. This Zero-G Chair – Does not actually float, but it is incredibly comfortable, and as a person who is ever on the run from the heavy weight of backpain, trust me, I know. Plus, it’s got a sunshade to protect your face while posing for Google Earth, and this Extra-Wide Version makes just the right around of room for this awesome Laptop Stand and a maximum of productive laziness. Or vice versa. And speaking of contradictions…
3. Finite and Infinite Games – Though the thoughts provoked by this philosophical treatise might arc towards infinity, the page count is quite extremely finite (Unlike Godel, Escher, Bach which I’ll rave about when I finally finish it 10 newsletters from now). This book was a frequently cited favorite by the brilliant folks in Tim Ferriss’ Tools of Titans, and I found it to be an incredibly powerful mechanism for some highly positive introspecting. And if you want a bit more infinity…
4. Ted Chiang – He’s got two incredible collections of short stories (Exhalation and The Story of Your Life and Others) the latter of which contains the short which spawned the spectacular movie Arrival. He’s a master of merging hard science, complex mathematical and linguistic theory (curse you Godel!) and deep philosophy with staggering creativity, all while remaining impressively accessible. Or if you prefer insanity…
5. Mind Game – I saw this bizarre movie at Benh Zeitlin’s WW Cinema, and experiencing it on the big screen was a bit like… like if that time I tried psilocybin HADN’T been horrible (yeah, yeah, I know, I did it wrong, go ahead, mush-splain it to me). But seriously after enduring this delightful brain-melter from Masaaki Yuasa you may feel like you need to have your skull examined. Probably a good idea. And while you’re at it, examine these too…
6. JEL Skulls – I was introduced to Louisiana local artist Jess Landry by designer extraordinaire Sydney Jones (who frankly deserves her own entire appreciation list), and now one of Jess’ cranial creations occupies an enormous place of honor in my home. Though Jess has stuck to her skeletal subject matter (as if adhered with Alien tape) her works are as diverse and creative as the minds they must once have contained. And so are her methods of creating them. She often uses pizza-cutters as paintbrushes to create slices of death so colorful that I’m gonna steer this list right back into headspace with…
7. Inside Out 2 – Pixar did it again (finally)! This movie duplicates the usefulness of the original in providing a language for viewers to better articulate and understand their feelings and emotions while adding some teen-oriented complexity well-suited to the social media era. And speaking of second servings that benefit mental health…
8. A Second Cell Phone – This might sound like an expensive hack, but hear me out, or rather, don’t, since the ‘phone’ with me at Barnes & Noble right now doesn’t have email or messaging or safari. Nope, this one is just for music and notes and a few other useful tools, so I can restrict using my infernal focus-sucker of a social-media phone to just a few hours a day. Which leaves more time to focus on me. Brutally.
9. Review Old Work – There’s this infuriating tendency of politicians and OK, probably all of us, to deny any previous statement that doesn’t look so great anymore. Sometimes this is scared dishonest posturing, but often I suspect we really do flush away any Pixar memory-balls that might make us question our own consistency, reliability or morality. Either way, this sucks because it prevents the analysis that improvement requires. The same is true for creatives. Instead of erecting a denial wall to keep the cancel culture mob from condemning us, we should be leading the charge to hunt down outdated aspects of our past selves and purge that cancer personally. If, while we’re at it, we improve our craft, technique, vocabulary etc. rock on! Needless to say, I’ve always been the best at this, which is why I’m not at all concerned about the imminent release of three movies based on scripts I wrote 10 years ago! Don’t worry, this won’t stop me from bragging about them next newsletter when I’ve got more info. Meanwhile, I’m exploring other people’s old work with…
10. Cross-Genre Adaptations – People complain that there are no new stories, and yeah, maybe that’s unfortunate, but the good news is, there are plenty of awesome old ones, and lots of fresh ways to reimagine them. I love musical cross-genre covers (Ben Folds’ Bitches Ain’t Shit, Disturbed’s Sound of Silence, the Ramin Djawadi’s Westworld soundtrack) but I’m an even bigger fan of odd cinematic re-imaginings. From Clueless, Cruel Intentions and O Brother Where Art Thou to Lion King, Forbidden Planet, West Side Story, and Ran all shaking up Shakespeare, these are kind of creative reboots I want to see. And write. I’m currently having a blast flipping gender and inverting genre while messing around with a masterpiece. Not only do these sorts of updates guarantee a sturdy narrative skeleton, but they also provide the opportunity to infuse some modern morality, and maybe even pass…
11. The Bechdel Test – Created by cartoonist Alison Bechdel, this sets an incredibly low threshold for gender representation in film. All a movie needs to pass is ONE conversation between two named female characters about something other than men. But an embarrassing number of movies (more than 90% of IMDb’s top 250) fail to hurtle this low bar. Obviously, some historical films set on battlefields or in men’s prisons can’t achieve this, but what excuse do The Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, and most of the first 10 Pixar movies have? Sex plays virtually no part in any of those films, so why are the roles nearer to 50/50? Or even 80/20. I’ve heard the argument that it’s just male writers ‘writing what they know’ but I can’t help but point out that as far as I know, none of those scribes were elves, Jedi or anthropomorphized fish either. I don’t think (most) writers are being deliberately discriminatory in their narrative focus. Of the first 20 screenplays I wrote, only 3 pass, and I still ready many scripts by female writers that fail the test as well. I think we’re inadvertently mirroring the paradigm that we’ve seen almost exclusively since birth. Which is why it’s so important that this self-perpetuating tendency be consciously curtailed. I’m not advising canceling classics because of their shortcomings. A work of art can be contemptible AND commendable, progressive AND problematic. It’s not a binary! And it’s important to view your own output, whether creative, social or political through the same critical lens, because even with the best intentions, we all sometimes…
12. Slip – You should go watch this spectacular short! Except that without the aide of a Ted Chiang style device you won’t be able to because it doesn’t exist. Yet. Which is a bummer, because I’ve seen a few of New Orleans filmmaker Lara Hill’s previous shorts and been impressed by how deftly she manages to be simultaneous irreverent and respectful, emotional and witty. And the script for her next venture provides a nuanced, fresh, and never-preachy look at trans identity while packing an impressive punch. So, head over to Seed & Spark and help her get it started! There’s only 7 days to go! And speaking of friends making awesome things…
13. Ziggy’s Arts Adventure – With the help of an astonishingly talented team, visionary puppet-junky Clay Achee has finally unleashed his musical alien creation on the world, or at least onto LPB in the form of an educational show for kids. I was as thrilled to make a guest appearance in Ziggy’s junkyard studio, as I will be mortified to see that episode later this year. I’ve just realized that aliens, educational children’s entertainment, or art could all have made for smoother segues into this shout out earlier in the list, but alas, I didn’t Review my Work. Shoulda listened to myself. On that note…
14. Podcasts – One whole newsletter ago, I shouted out the excellent Film Folklore podcast and since then I had the chance to chat with Dr. Ugo Ezema about all things film on his Last Zebra podcast. So if you haven’t overdosed on my ramblings already, go check it out. Or… two actor friends now host wonderful podcasts of their own, so go get philosophical on the Dean West Perspective or dive into dialects with multi-hyphenate talent Audrey Lecrone on her Unmuted Show. I guarantee that both of these contain zero percent me! Someone recently asked if I would consider hosting a podcast and don’t worry the answer is… Just publishing one of these lists every three months is challenge enough!
That concludes this trimester’s list of stuff. Hopefully you found some of these nuggets helpful, useful, inspiring and/or interesting. If so, please click around through the links, explore more, and let me know how it goes. And feel free to share this email with friends or direct them to sign up at my adorable little malnourished squarespace site: www.DavidXBush.com which is also the place where you can dig through past editions of this newsletter in a fun scavenger hunt for cancel-worthy quotes.
And of course, I’m always on the prowl for more exciting things to help distract me from writing, so if you’re excited about anything these days, please don’t hesitate to email me any time with recommendations, or just to update me on what you’ve been up to lately. I look forward to hearing from you soon. Until then…
Best wishes to all!
Cheers!
David