The Skeleton Twins, a pesto rice bowl, and a piece of very excellent news
Hello my favorite people, and Happy March!
First off: I have a piece of very excellent news. Which was the whole point of The Laramie Report, right? To bring you excellent news about me.
Greasy Heart is going to Cannes. It’s been accepted to the Short Film Corner, which means my writing partner and I are officially invited to attend the festival. We can see all the movies and traipse around the parties and hobnob with producers? is I guess what you’re supposed to do at Cannes. Also, people can stop by the Short Film Corner and watch our movie if they are so inclined.
I’m stoked. This is exactly the motivation I needed to finish a draft of the new script.
Which brings me back to… The point of The Laramie Report. The point isn’t just to bring you good news. (Let’s be honest, good news doesn’t show up every month.) The point is for me to hold myself accountable, semi-publicly.
Last month I copped out. I almost let you in on my goal—which was to write a shitty first draft by the end of February—but then I panicked and thought, what if i don't do it??
Of course I didn’t do it. Somewhere around February 4th, I realized it wasn't doable. Not for me.
What is doable is a page a day.
At the moment I'm working full time, but I’m getting up at 7am every morning and writing for an hour before I go into the office. I can usually manage a page. The trick is not to diddle. It’s so tempting to diddle around and tweak the ten or fifteen or twenty pages I’ve got. But no, no diddling. The trick is to move forward. Just write the next page and try not to judge and get to the end of that shitty first draft.
Keep. Moving. Forward. is the goal for March.
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This month in minimalism: One honest + one hilarious take on the Japanese-minimalist-decluttering-movement, Alas, I Will Never Actually De-Clutter My House + How To Get Rid of Clutter And Live Abundantly. Is this the wrong moment for me to endorse argan oil? I’ve been using my little bottle of the stuff to both cleanse and moisturize my face, and feeling—YOU NAILED ME, MALLORY—very smug about it.
This month in movies: The Skeleton Twins (rentable on iTunes, Amazon, and elsewhere) is maybe not perfect—a few too many plot points? more flashback than we needed?—but the performances from Kristen Wiig and especially Bill Hader are terrific. Funny and grounded and vulnerable. That's my jam. The scene where they lip-sync to Jefferson Starship is the best scene I’ve seen in a long while.
This month in print: I devoured two books of short stories, Lorrie Moore’s Bark and Tenth of December by George Saunders. Both writers have deeply odd ways of looking at the world, and they use such jaunty, unexpected combinations of words. A much-needed antidote to the cliché.
This month in tacos, which, let’s be real, is just turning into a segment about Great Things I Ate: Sqirl. I’ve been to Sqirl three times now, and I’ve ordered the pesto rice bowl, with poached egg and pickled radish and Meyer lemon zest, every time, IT IS SO GOOD. If you eat meatstuffs, be sure to add a side of bacon and/or homemade sausage. The baked items are also delish (take a cookie to go! they always have a few gluten-free options). But be warned: This place gets crowded. Late lunch on a weekday is the best time to go. Or get there by 10am on the weekend, before the line snakes around the block.
--
xoxo,
Laramie
p.s. Pls feel free to reply directly, with rants/raves/requests/recommends of any kind.
First off: I have a piece of very excellent news. Which was the whole point of The Laramie Report, right? To bring you excellent news about me.
Greasy Heart is going to Cannes. It’s been accepted to the Short Film Corner, which means my writing partner and I are officially invited to attend the festival. We can see all the movies and traipse around the parties and hobnob with producers? is I guess what you’re supposed to do at Cannes. Also, people can stop by the Short Film Corner and watch our movie if they are so inclined.
I’m stoked. This is exactly the motivation I needed to finish a draft of the new script.
Which brings me back to… The point of The Laramie Report. The point isn’t just to bring you good news. (Let’s be honest, good news doesn’t show up every month.) The point is for me to hold myself accountable, semi-publicly.
Last month I copped out. I almost let you in on my goal—which was to write a shitty first draft by the end of February—but then I panicked and thought, what if i don't do it??
Of course I didn’t do it. Somewhere around February 4th, I realized it wasn't doable. Not for me.
What is doable is a page a day.
At the moment I'm working full time, but I’m getting up at 7am every morning and writing for an hour before I go into the office. I can usually manage a page. The trick is not to diddle. It’s so tempting to diddle around and tweak the ten or fifteen or twenty pages I’ve got. But no, no diddling. The trick is to move forward. Just write the next page and try not to judge and get to the end of that shitty first draft.
Keep. Moving. Forward. is the goal for March.
--
This month in minimalism: One honest + one hilarious take on the Japanese-minimalist-decluttering-movement, Alas, I Will Never Actually De-Clutter My House + How To Get Rid of Clutter And Live Abundantly. Is this the wrong moment for me to endorse argan oil? I’ve been using my little bottle of the stuff to both cleanse and moisturize my face, and feeling—YOU NAILED ME, MALLORY—very smug about it.
This month in movies: The Skeleton Twins (rentable on iTunes, Amazon, and elsewhere) is maybe not perfect—a few too many plot points? more flashback than we needed?—but the performances from Kristen Wiig and especially Bill Hader are terrific. Funny and grounded and vulnerable. That's my jam. The scene where they lip-sync to Jefferson Starship is the best scene I’ve seen in a long while.
This month in print: I devoured two books of short stories, Lorrie Moore’s Bark and Tenth of December by George Saunders. Both writers have deeply odd ways of looking at the world, and they use such jaunty, unexpected combinations of words. A much-needed antidote to the cliché.
This month in tacos, which, let’s be real, is just turning into a segment about Great Things I Ate: Sqirl. I’ve been to Sqirl three times now, and I’ve ordered the pesto rice bowl, with poached egg and pickled radish and Meyer lemon zest, every time, IT IS SO GOOD. If you eat meatstuffs, be sure to add a side of bacon and/or homemade sausage. The baked items are also delish (take a cookie to go! they always have a few gluten-free options). But be warned: This place gets crowded. Late lunch on a weekday is the best time to go. Or get there by 10am on the weekend, before the line snakes around the block.
--
xoxo,
Laramie
p.s. Pls feel free to reply directly, with rants/raves/requests/recommends of any kind.
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