You find a closet full of limbs.
The paternal unit is visiting this week (JFK assassination vacay in Dallas commence!), so I’ll probably be a lazy-ass blogger and post a bunch of photos.
Today’s photo is of our closet and what I discovered while cleaning over weekend.
This is how you know you’re dating an artist…or Patrick Bateman, as some of you were kind enough to point out.
This weekend I set out to do nothing and that is exactly what I achieved.
I laid in bed until 1 on both Saturday and Sunday, ate lunch with my Texas family and friends, took naps, watched Django Unchained at the dollar theater, strolled Town Lake, played bocce ball and had 100% non-work related conversations with my creative partner (Geoff).
Simple and sweet.
This weekend might not sound particularly noteworthy, but as I’ve gotten older, I’ve discovered that these common tasks are often difficult to achieve.
Going freelance has been both creatively fulfilling and mentally debilitating.
At times I’m afraid to stray away from the computer out of fear that I must be “creating” something or being “productive” at all times.
Even before I went freelance, I felt that I had to be “moving forward” every day, otherwise I’d stall.
I’d grow old, miss opportunity and wonder what the hell I did with my life.
Obviously this logic doesn’t bode well for life-work balance.
In (more…)
The other day, I posted on Hipstercrite’s Facebook page that I had just finished paying off my car, and in a several months, my credit cards too.
I’ve written about debt before; like many twenty-somethings, I’ve been strapped with school loans, credit card and car payments for most of my third decade.
When you’re facing debt, it’s often difficult to see the light at the end of the tunnel. In fact, many mornings you wake up in a cold sweat, suffocating from the heavy blanket of your finances.
I was raised by a fiscally conservative mother who always paid her bills on time. When she pushed me forth into the world that was the only advice she gave me. Fresh out of college, I landed a salaried position in Los Angeles and thought I was set. Boy, was I dumb!
My debt was established in several steps: 1.) I often used my credit card to go out to eat (I was very sad and lonely in LA and didn’t want to be at home) 2.) I foolishly put the down payment of my new car on a credit card and (more…)
I thought that once the film premiered, my creative juices would be flowing like an unbridled river out of every pore in my body.
Boy, was I wrong.
Since the film premiered over nineteen days ago, I’ve felt creatively adrift. Lost in a sea of cerebral noise.
Not only have I had difficulty constructing coherent sentences, the creative gauge has been running on fumes. For the first time in a great while I’ve had absolutely no interest in writing. I barely know what I’m feeling right now, so the ability to express thought, emotion and inspiration into words seems impossible. All the ideas and characters that playfully swim through my head have been snuffed by anxiety and fear. Though I try not to let it, reading the occasional “mixed review” of our film sends me into a spiral of self-doubt. I’d like to think I’m able to handle criticism, but it’s never easy.
Instead of enjoying a creative milestone that I never would have imagined achievable, I’ve been a cantankerous curmudgeon (more…)
It’s one week before SXSW starts and one week and one day before the premiere of our film Loves Her Gun.
I’m nervous and I’m excited and hopeful and fearful.
What if no one likes the film?
What if during the film, the audience collectively rises in a wave of anger, throws vegetables or dead animals they had been hiding in their purses and pockets at the screen and tackle me into the theater seats to ensure my broken arms never write again?
Like George McFly to Marty when he sheepishly explains why he can’t ask Lorraine out, “I don’t know if I could take that kind of a rejection.”
This movie is my density.
I’m scared shitless!
I’ve never experienced anything like this.
Will you still love me even if my dangling broken limbs are covered in tomato juice?
Over the next week, I’ll probably be posting a significant amount about the film since it will be taking up a good chunk of my life.
It’s a tough industry and every share and retweet about our film (more…)
Over a year and a half ago I switched from Blogger to WordPress, two-column template to magazine layout.
Moving to WordPress was the best decision I ever made for my blog (note to Blogger bloggers: my traffic doubled shortly after I switched to WordPress).
My initial drive to move to the magazine layout was that I was ambitiously planning on posting multiple times in a day. I wanted my blog to become an online zine of sorts, where one could find plenty of posts on Austin lifestyle, fashion, pop culture, etc.
Yeahhhh….that didn’t happen.
Blogging every day is hard. Blogging multiple times a day is really hard.
The zine idea I had was more appropriate for a team of writers and not one pseudo-writer who spends her days holed up on the couch in her sweatpants. I guess if I wanted to take Hipstercrite to that level, I could have, but I kind of just like blogging whatever the hell I want to whenever the hell I want to (i.e. don’t fix something if it ain’t broken).
So….with (more…)
a note for my sweetheart- throw up all you’d like
I don’t write about my boyfriend much anymore because it grosses some folks out. Understandably so- I don’t like reading sappy shit either.
Because of this, some dude I know named “Geoff” only comes up occasionally in my blog posts.
But it’s Valentine’s Day, dammit, and I’m going to talk about my lover.
Did the word “lover” just get under your skin there?
Because it most certainly got under mine and I wrote it. Yuk.
Geoff and I will not celebrate Valentine’s Day in any special way today. We will probably go out to eat later tonight which is something we do every night because he has an aversion to eating at home. We might take advantage of Gourmand’s $20 two sandwiches and a bottle of Boone’s Farm deal due to the delightful irony of it. And because we’re small town folk at heart.
We may do something special four days later since that day will be our anniversary. A trip to Enchanted Rock has been in the talks.
February (more…)
I need to meet more Jews.
I came to this conclusion last week after talking to a Jew.
They’re somewhat elusive here in Austin, so anytime I come across one it’s a big freakin’ deal.
Why is it such a big deal?
Because I’m Jewish.
Because when I come across another M.O.B. (Member of the Tribe- a phrase a fellow Jew shared with me), the world and my life finally make sense.
Let me be clear: like many religion-challenged Jews, I’m non-practicing.
My grandmother was raised in an Orthodox Jewish household. At a certain turning point she was like “fffff this shit” and turned her back on the religion. She raised my mother in the Whatever faith, who subsequently raised me similarly. Needless to say religion has never been the terrifying and guiding light in our lives. All my close family members call themselves “spiritual” and shoot the shit with God in their own ways.
Though we didn’t go to temple and because the faith ran down my mother’s bloodline, the Jewy-ness of my (more…)
You guys remember that movie I told you about? The one I co-wrote and co-produced and some of you were gracious enough to donate to so we could finish our post-production?
Well, it will be premiering under the Narrative Spotlights at the South by Southwest Film Festival this year!
I can’t believe that this idea born out of my late-night, heavy-breathing “Oh my God I’m going to DIE!” panic attacks is now a full-fledged movie premiering at one of my favorite film festivals.
We are beyond the Thunderdome excited. Like, I’m going to go bleach and feather my hair and put a chain-link dress on and find Mel Gibson and say, “Two men enter, one man leaves” excited.
The film was written in the summer of 2011, but the subject matter- gun culture- is all the more prevalent today. We couldn’t have imagined that the always important topic would (sadly) heat up again.
Since we shot the film, our lead actress Trieste Kelly Dunn was offered a reoccurring role on Alan Ball’s new TV show (more…)
Once in a while I tell secrets on my blog.
What the hell am I talking about? I have no secrets. I throw up every thought, feeling and experience like a kid on a roller coaster after gorging him or herself at The Golden Corral. You’re subjected to the constant diarrhea of my mental flow.
However, one time I did have a specific secrets post where I shared details about sunbathing nude on the rooftop of my former celebrity boss’ office and being called “carpetmuncher” as a child.
It’s been a few years since that post, so I’ve decided to add to the list:
-One time Jeremy Irons hit on me. At least I think he did. I’m assuming he thought I was someone else though. I was standing alone in the corner of a Toronto Film Festival party and he walked up, stuck out his hand and said, “Hiii, I’m Jerrrrrrremey” in his flirty English accent. Confused, I stuck out my hand quickly and said, “Hi, I’m Lauren” and then we stood there side-by-side in silence until I nervously walked away.
-I (more…)