July 5, 2021

I got in a mini fight with my husband last night. I had told a friend I'd go with her to see fireworks, and I wanted husband to come with us. Husband's resting state is not wanting to do anything that isn't working, writing, exercising, sleeping, or watching sports. Pretty cliché except for writing. Thank god for that. Or as Blindboy would say, "thank dog." I got upset because I can envision a life where I'm married to someone who actually wants to hang out with me. That's how I phrased it too. Anyways, in we go on the emotional freight. I told him a little later that I wished I had won him over with excitement and positivity rather than sadness, guilt, and negativity. He let me try again. I told him that holidays exist to remind us to seek out and share joy with other people. Doing the same thing day after day is more comfortable, efficient, and productive probably, but it doesn't include mixing it up, taking any small risks, or giving yourself the opportunity to express those high highs. He agreed to go with me. He always agrees, but I end up feeling rejected for having to convince him. 

My friend dropped out so it was just me and my husband. We went anyway, after all that conversation. We climbed to the top of the Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook. We had to go up the Culver City Stairs which are 0.18 miles straight up. At the top, we sat on the stone steps carved into the top of the hill, like bleachers overlooking the city. It was full of people. We drank cans of beer. There were fireworks everywhere. We looked down on them as people launched them from their homes and from parking lots. It looked like London in the Blitz. It was amazing. It was embarrassing how much it proved my point. Just be willing to go somewhere and try something new. It might end up being something great. 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Amy Brown Carver (@amybrowncarver)

July 4, 2021

Sitting around thinking about doing another season of The Host. I pay for it, might as well. Three people have now asked me about it and expressed interest in doing more. I've been waiting for a new idea, a new twist on it, but it might be worth just going back to the original idea: unconnected calls about emotional/relational conflicts with a sci-fi or supernatural overlay. I could incorporate Brent Forrester's sketch structure: premise, escalation, escalation, twist. Have people prepare one or two pitches answering the following questions: 1) who is the character, 2) what's one thing that's surprising about the character or that makes them complex, 3) what is the character's emotional/relationship conflict, 4) what is the character's sci-fi or supernatural conflict, 5) how does the Host respond? Fuck, that would be easy enough, and probably fruitful. Have people meet to pitch - it could be over zoom. Give notes, ideas. Go away to write. Come back with first drafts. Have a table read. Go away to rewrite. Boom. Finished. Record. The enemy of churning out stuff -- and by churning out stuff improving -- seems to be the time/energy required to make whatever it is. 

I've kind of talked myself into it. I will ignore the feeling until I have time. Or until I just send out the email on impulse. Anyways. I'm gathered here today to finally write my Female Trouble Mlog. 

Mlog Time! 

FEMALE TROUBLE

1974

Directed by: John Waters

Written by: John Waters

Watched: 6/23/21

I just read the Wikipedia summary and really enjoyed it. Basically, a ne’er-do-well and superficial high school student, Dawn Davenport, gets pregnant and drops out. She does crime, beats her daughter, and values beauty overall. She’s hooked up with a beauty salon where the owners think that crime and beauty are the same and turn Dawn into a model. She gets acid thrown on her face and chops off someone’s hand. She does a one-woman show where she shoots a gun into the crowd. She’s sentenced to death. She thanks her fans before being electrocuted in the electric chair. That star she always wanted to be. 

This was a very chaotic movie. And Divine is wonderful. Mink Stole as the daughter is also pretty great and unsettling. It would be interesting to watch this movie as a double feature with Neon Demon. The power of beauty, the intoxication of beauty, the subjectivity of beauty. How we worship it and how it can be like one of those old mad gods. I’m giving it three stars because it was amazing in its bizarreness and equally off-putting, so it cancels out. 

Rating: ★★★

July 2, 2021

Went to the beach, the aquarium, the beach again, the zoo. The zoo is like an alien jail. It's so weird that there are animals like that. Alive and sentient and unlike us. At the aquarium, there was a tank of colorful fish, and at the back there was a man in a diver suit cleaning. An exciting and charismatic animal if I've ever seen one. 

Took my brothers and their wives out to dinner at Musso and Frank's. The food was amazing, the atmosphere was dark and cosy. Everybody nearly fell asleep. It was nice. I'd like to have the money and the reason to go there regularly. Our Tuesday spot, something like that. 

I've been in the sun so much that my lip is about to break out in a fever sore. I'm trying to head that off by making sure my lips don't get so dry again. But we'll see. I might look real ugly going back into the office next week. 

My grey cat is so good. I still need to write about Female Trouble and Jodorowsky's Dune, but that will have to come later.