#20 - This Letter Is Mainly About The Cats Trailer (Sorry)
I'm late, I know I know. So let's get this out of the way...
VINAY'S REACTION TO THE CATS' TRAILER (OVER TIME)
1st viewing: I rarely dream anymore but it would seem nightmares manifest in the waking world.
2nd viewing: Nobody in this film needed the money. Nobody.
3rd viewing: Does this trailer compel you to take drugs or is it the result of taking them in the first place?
4th viewing: This is going to be an awkward sexual awakening for an entire generation of young people. It's the fox from Disney's Robin Hood all over again.
5th viewing: Memory is definitely an absolute tune though isn't it, stuck in my head for the rest of the day now.
6th viewing: I'm getting used to the aesthetic but could they not just have made them look a bit more like cats and a bit less like people?
7th viewing: Haha anyway this whole thing is f*cking stupid, time to get back to work.
10th viewing: Wait, why am I still watching it?
14th viewing: I mean. It could be quite fun? Maybe? If you didn't take it too seriously. Yeah. Like if you went a bit hammered with a few mates. Yeah.
26th viewing: The dancing will probably be really good won't it. That's not be sniffed at. Christmas release? God, yeah, be a nice fun thing to watch with the family. A little something for everyone. Bet it makes an absolute packet. Good for them you know. The world needs more joy it. And CGI fur is actually really hard to get right so from a technically standpoint at least it's -
Eventually:
*Very Eric Blair voice*...
Also being away for #CatsTrailerGate reminds me of how much I've come to use social media to stave off loneliness in this very solitary profession. I've never felt that loneliness so acutely when taking time out before because I've been in the cycle of delivering lots of drafts but because most of what I'm working on at the minute is early stage work, it's easy to let your mind drift and notice the silences. (Well the sirens and the screaming - it is still London after all).
Not that your mind drifting is all that bad, of course, and as a person, I really like spending time alone, more than you might expect if you know me, it just makes you really weird and you have to slightly guard against that, lest you develop and normalise a set of strange habits (remember my VR/exercise bike adventure? never again...)
My attempt to be a Normal Person was meeting two old friends and their babies (does one meet babies?) on Friday morning. I'm awkward at best around kids and I mostly try to avoid hanging around with them (does one hang around with babies?) but I've got to an age where I'll just never see most the people I know unless I get over that. And it was fine! Really, truly pleasant actually and a useful salve against the (mildly) apocalyptic world building I've been doing for this sci-fi show. Nothing makes it clearer that holding onto hope is a political act as looking at two babies whose ability to live in a habitable world will be entirely shaped by what we do in the next decade or so.
Elsewhere, I've finally finished watching The Expanse (aka Firefly's more serious younger sibling) and it was great! I think! Almost brutally propulsive in its storytelling which is the opposite of my instincts and there was a lot in it for me to learn from it. Characters that felt a little stocky to begin with start fill out nicely. I liked the politics. I liked the effortless diversity. I liked the nods to hard science. I loved the commitment to its space patois. It even made me shout "F*CKING HELL" more than once and isn't that what every writer wants to make happen for a viewer? I do wish there was a little more levity to it, if not only because whenever it was there it grounded a show that admirably tries to keep its eye on the big picture.
This has been a bit of a bitty newsletter, I know. A couple of things have happened this week that I can feel myself avoiding and it makes it hard to create a flow. Better next week. More honest. And on time too.
We began with cats, so let us end there too. Specifically with the smaller, more sociable of my two, Chill Cat. The last couple of days have found him on a one-kitty mission to purge that loneliness I spoke of from the residents of my estate by hanging around on the bench outside and basically begging for head pats, chin strokes, selfies, you name it. He's never quite been this...compelled...before and t's been quite a thing to behold. Perhaps he has an insatiable loneliness of his own to resolve?
Either way, I've spent a lot of time both looking out the window at strangers playing with my cat and posting pictures of these activities on Instagram, neither of which is acceptable.
Welcome to the no-hard-deadlines life, my friends. x
If you're new to Patelograms and like what you've read, you can subscribe by clicking here.
If you're an old hand, thanks as ever for taking the time.
VINAY'S REACTION TO THE CATS' TRAILER (OVER TIME)
1st viewing: I rarely dream anymore but it would seem nightmares manifest in the waking world.
2nd viewing: Nobody in this film needed the money. Nobody.
3rd viewing: Does this trailer compel you to take drugs or is it the result of taking them in the first place?
4th viewing: This is going to be an awkward sexual awakening for an entire generation of young people. It's the fox from Disney's Robin Hood all over again.
5th viewing: Memory is definitely an absolute tune though isn't it, stuck in my head for the rest of the day now.
6th viewing: I'm getting used to the aesthetic but could they not just have made them look a bit more like cats and a bit less like people?
7th viewing: Haha anyway this whole thing is f*cking stupid, time to get back to work.
14th viewing: I mean. It could be quite fun? Maybe? If you didn't take it too seriously. Yeah. Like if you went a bit hammered with a few mates. Yeah.
26th viewing: The dancing will probably be really good won't it. That's not be sniffed at. Christmas release? God, yeah, be a nice fun thing to watch with the family. A little something for everyone. Bet it makes an absolute packet. Good for them you know. The world needs more joy it. And CGI fur is actually really hard to get right so from a technically standpoint at least it's -
Eventually:
*Very Eric Blair voice*...
Not being on Twitter during this whole thing unfolding made me desperately sad. Don't get me wrong, my productivity has soared and I've kept my focus where I need it but those joy-horror moments have provided me with such brilliant laughs and unexpected camaraderie. To be part of a classic night on Twitter makes the whole thing (almost) worth it.“He gazed down at the tiny, furry faces. Seventy nine viewings it had taken him to learn what kind of genius was hidden behind Judi Dench effectively wearing her own skin. O cruel, needless misunderstanding! O stubborn, self-willed exile from the loving breast! Two gin-scented tears trickled down the sides of his nose. But it was all right, everything was all right, the struggle was finished. He had won the victory over himself. He loved Cats the Musical the Film”
Also being away for #CatsTrailerGate reminds me of how much I've come to use social media to stave off loneliness in this very solitary profession. I've never felt that loneliness so acutely when taking time out before because I've been in the cycle of delivering lots of drafts but because most of what I'm working on at the minute is early stage work, it's easy to let your mind drift and notice the silences. (Well the sirens and the screaming - it is still London after all).
Not that your mind drifting is all that bad, of course, and as a person, I really like spending time alone, more than you might expect if you know me, it just makes you really weird and you have to slightly guard against that, lest you develop and normalise a set of strange habits (remember my VR/exercise bike adventure? never again...)
My attempt to be a Normal Person was meeting two old friends and their babies (does one meet babies?) on Friday morning. I'm awkward at best around kids and I mostly try to avoid hanging around with them (does one hang around with babies?) but I've got to an age where I'll just never see most the people I know unless I get over that. And it was fine! Really, truly pleasant actually and a useful salve against the (mildly) apocalyptic world building I've been doing for this sci-fi show. Nothing makes it clearer that holding onto hope is a political act as looking at two babies whose ability to live in a habitable world will be entirely shaped by what we do in the next decade or so.
Elsewhere, I've finally finished watching The Expanse (aka Firefly's more serious younger sibling) and it was great! I think! Almost brutally propulsive in its storytelling which is the opposite of my instincts and there was a lot in it for me to learn from it. Characters that felt a little stocky to begin with start fill out nicely. I liked the politics. I liked the effortless diversity. I liked the nods to hard science. I loved the commitment to its space patois. It even made me shout "F*CKING HELL" more than once and isn't that what every writer wants to make happen for a viewer? I do wish there was a little more levity to it, if not only because whenever it was there it grounded a show that admirably tries to keep its eye on the big picture.
This has been a bit of a bitty newsletter, I know. A couple of things have happened this week that I can feel myself avoiding and it makes it hard to create a flow. Better next week. More honest. And on time too.
We began with cats, so let us end there too. Specifically with the smaller, more sociable of my two, Chill Cat. The last couple of days have found him on a one-kitty mission to purge that loneliness I spoke of from the residents of my estate by hanging around on the bench outside and basically begging for head pats, chin strokes, selfies, you name it. He's never quite been this...compelled...before and t's been quite a thing to behold. Perhaps he has an insatiable loneliness of his own to resolve?
Either way, I've spent a lot of time both looking out the window at strangers playing with my cat and posting pictures of these activities on Instagram, neither of which is acceptable.
Welcome to the no-hard-deadlines life, my friends. x
If you're new to Patelograms and like what you've read, you can subscribe by clicking here.
If you're an old hand, thanks as ever for taking the time.
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