What else could I write?
I don't have the right.
It’s been a hot minute since my last wee missive to you. I’m trying to be more consistent with this creative outlet of mine but life, uh, finds a way to get in the way as always. I find I either have a lot to say or nothing at all. These periods of plenty and prose parsimony are, for better or worse, tied inextricably to my mood and mental health. Should one keep talking even when one has nothing to say? I don’t think so. Still, I want to be more consistent. Consistency. That’s the key. It’s the reason I started seeing a therapist when I was around 23 or 24. I wanted, needed some consistency. It’s been almost a decade since. I’ll get there eventually…
Currently reading:
Rachel Syme interviews Bill Hader for The New Yorker in “Bill Hader Just Wants to Make Weird Things”
Yeah, you just have to put yourself out there. You just have to be really persistent and do shit jobs. I had nothing to fall back on. All my friends who I went to high school with all have degrees, and they’re all thriving, and I’m just, like, “I need to fucking bust my ass.” But I never got too discouraged. If anything, I got sidetracked. You would go, “Man, I haven’t made anything.” I’d see a great movie and go, “Oh, God, I’ve got to write. I have to do something.” I’d read a great book and say, “Oh, man, I’ve got to focus.”
Mike Fleming Jr. interviews Martin Scorsese for Deadline in “Martin Scorsese, Leonardo DiCaprio & Robert De Niro On How They Found The Emotional Handle For Their Cannes Epic ‘Killers Of The Flower Moon’”
I do think there has to be a concentrated effort to nurture an appreciation for films that that audience will go see in a theater as they grow. Which means the theaters also have to help us. The theaters say, “Well, we played a smaller indie film.” Everything has become pigeonholed. But what if that screen is in a place that is comfortable? Not a closet with a screen that is smaller than the one you have at home. That means a person will come out and go to that theater with a few friends and respond to that picture. And you never know. That person may come out and write a script or a novel that becomes a script that becomes a tent-pole film that’s going to make more theaters more money in the future. Because maybe, like Spielberg and me, we go see Jules and Jim, and he becomes friends with Truffaut and Fellini. Those films influenced him. I think we can create this experience with Killers of the Flower Moon in a theater for people who want to see this kind of picture.
Poverty, by America by Matthew Desmond
Why? Why all this American poverty? I've learn ed that this question requires a different approach. To understand the causes of poverty, we must look beyond the poor. Those of us living lives of privilege and plenty must examine ourselves. Are we - we the secure, the insured, the housed, the college educated, the protected, the lucky - connected to all this needless suffering?
Currently making and eating:
Currently listening to:
I suppose that’s all I have for you in this little edition of the newsletter. I hope it was enjoyable. More to come.
Best,
Rob
P.S. I’ve been walking more lately. It’s nice. Go out for a walk if you can.