Hi friends!
A lot to discuss this letter! Lots of gifting talk followed by the usual check ins.
We’re a week out from Christmas so there’s a lot of pressure to have already done your shopping. But I always find myself doing things last minute, usually because growing up we’d just go to the mall the week before Christmas and that’s when people used to actually get stuff. Also, give people gifts after Christmas. Who cares about the day of? There are 12 days and if you celebrate Kings Day then you do gifts on the 6th anyway. And also, who cares? Just give someone a gift because you were thinking about them! Or don’t! Most people don’t care about gifts and won’t care if you don’t give them something. No one is keeping a list and checking it twice (Did I mention we’re not doing “Santa is Real” with Lady B because I had a traumatic Santa-isn’t-real experience with my parents and now we have trust issues??) Anyway, let’s not wag the dog on the gift-front. No need to go to therapy about it all. Try to have fun. Let’s get to it!
The 2023 Gift Guide Gift Guide
Here are a few gift guides I love. Great places to start for ideas. Also just really entertaining to me for some reason.
Handpicked by Alex Steele
I’ve DM’d Claire & Erica (on their Geneva) and Caroline Moss (on IG) to ask directly for gift advice. The up-side to people being online professionally is that you can get professional advice online! Just ask!
A Gift Guide for Writers
My mini gift guide for writers/or keeping it cozy (and not stressful, even though writing is torture) all year long.
(*FYI, I joined the Bookshop.org affiliate program which means if you purchase through my link I may get a small commission.)
A Book of Poetry - See below for my hot take on Poetry
Save the Cat* - A great starting point for how to write a movie
Tea - I know, a zag to not rec coffee. But you can drink uncaffeinated tea for hours and hours, to keep you cozy while you write and you’re anything but cozy because writing is haaaaaaard.
Stationery - Writers like to write, especially easy things like cute letters to friends that they don’t have to stress about.
Donate to the Entertainment Community Fund. The strikes are over, but recovery from the impact is not. (This is my go-to gift for many people this year).
Best Easy Gifts!
Easy, last-minute, inexpensive general gifts for anyone:
Tony’s Chocolony & Maldon Salt (both come in large or cute/gifty packaging)
Kiehl’s Bar Soap - I love both scents
A Card - With a handwritten note! (A lot of ppl are getting this from me this year).
Bubbles, duh. PSA: Do not put sparkling wine in the fridge until you’re ready to drink it. Also, don’t wait to drink it. Put it in the fridge right away.
Donation to ECF or elsewhere of your choosing. Kottke has a great list on his guide which includes TranSanta which is also on Caroline Moss’s list. Who needs physical stuff anyway?!
Do you need help with a gift idea for someone? Let me help!
My Christmas List
My wish list, which is mostly just a shopping list/personal exercise because I buy my own christmas gifts. At least the main ones. Partner has been forbidden from giving me Christmas gifts (I get them for both of us) because of past disasters/misunderstandings of expectations. He still gets me things (cuuuuute) but it’s never theee gift.
This book about Jane Austen’s Wardrobe
Third wave Coffee (whole bean preferred, but we love it regardless)
A vitamix
Time
Energy
Patience
Guilt free solitude to watch tv or sit and look at my phone and waste said time
Fancy candles, preferably w floral notes.
Okay now on to our regularly scheduled newsletter…
What I Wrote
Pretty Little Wife - Outline is with Amazon (after a round with producers and studio). Now we wait for Amazon to give notes and send us to write the actual script, prob in new year.
Scarlet/Studio Feature - I am so happy with it! I don’t think it’s perfect but I love it and that’s usually my goal and when I know it’s ready to turn in — Work something until I love it. Love the characters, love the scene. Just have to have some fondness for it. If I don’t want to read the scene, no one else will. If I’m not in love with a character, no one else will be either. And I really love this entire draft. All of the new discoveries that came into place to make certain moments tracked or were earned, each was like a tiny little miracle. Producers are reading the rewrite. Honestly, a screenwriter never knows if their work will see the light of day, so that’s not the goal. The goal is to love it, and I do! In ways I have liked, but not loved it before. I’m so proud!
College Pilot - I turned it in to my writers group this weekend and get notes tomorrow. I’m sure they’ll eviscerate it. I’m counting on it. That’s their job. And then the real work begins… 6 months in. Yay! But like I said last Letter, I truly have never written anything quickly that’s turned out to be of lasting quality, so I’m feeling good about it. Step 1 of many but a big step. In some ways it’s me trying a lot of things/new things, but also it’s very very traditionally me in other ways. Excited to see what others think!
What I Watched
The Crown, S6 - Will share all my thoughts next Letter. Like Elizabeth Holmes, I too have sooo many thoughts.
Doctor Who 60th Anniversary Specials - Dr. Who is back in my life baby! Thanks Big Disney! These ladies have been crucial in helping me feel wired into the communal aspect that made being a Who fan (peak 2012) so special.
May December
Leave the World Behind
The Swan, The Rat Catcher, Poison (Wes Anderson/Roald Dahl Collection) - Really great! I remember hearing Netflix had acquired Dahl’s works and assuming this would mean a slew of terrible remakes in their understandable but boring attempt to launch their own franchise and one day themepark… but thank God they made some original content too…
How to Blow Up A Pipeline - So good but soooo tense. Had to pause a few times and take a breath. Excited to rewatch
Social Network (ReWatch) - Hot tip: if you, like me, can’t get past the opening date scene, skip it! It still cooks without it. Andrew Garfield is so cuuuute! As well as my first para-social boyfriend Joseph Manzella or Timmy from Jurassic Park who, btw, Fincher didn’t know was the kid in Jurassic Park until they were almost done shooting!)
Prometheus (RW) - Liked this so much more than I did when I saw it in theaters and had super high impossible expectations for it. I would just sit and watch the featurette of David 8 over and over. Damn 2012 was a good year.
Mindhunter (my comfort RW?!)
Probably some other stuff, but I can’t remember what it was…
Also watched and have mixed feelings about the Trailer for Alex Garland's new film Civil War. There’s not as much cold remove as there are usually in his films when there’s his grounded heightening of sci fi. This just feels like… real and political and possibly not very constructive… If you’re looking for escapism, don’t look here… And how you can’t really see your reflection unless you’re a few steps away from the mirror…That said, I like all of his stuff, so I’m gonna trust him (and keep my fingers crossed for a sci fi twist!).
Discovered DVD commentaries on Spotify so have been using my old post skills to cue them up in my headphones and line it up w picture on screen. Great for watching after baby goes to sleep.
What I Played
I’ve been playing more marimba! I wanted to learn a 4 mallet version of happy birthday on marimba. I figured out a 3 mallet version and considering it’s for a soon-to-be 3 year old she’s gonna love it.
Also working on a new solo to play for when people come over and are like “play something!” I figured Bach’s prelude in C will be good because it’s a marimba solo standard and not too challenging to learn but very complex and beautiful and probably won’t ever get old.
What I Wore
Some lewks!
And “My Uniform” or what I would wear every day if I had to wear the same thing every day.
Top: Hanes sweatshirt
Bottoms: Maeve by Anthropologie Navy corduroy pants
What I Bought
This awesome steam punk kettle
What I Li(n)ked
These cute spices from Diaspora co. - Partner’s doing some work with them and got us some for Christmas (because he doesn’t care about Christmas or saving Christmas gifts for Christmas day and that’s why he’s fired from giving me official Christmas gifts, because who cares? I CARE - but it’s still a really sweet gesture)
Adam Tan is a musician and kind of a marimba influencer? I feel very cool and geeky when I’m like ‘I like and follow this guy who makes videos of top ten mallets or solos.’ I’m not on tiktok but he is. MarimbaTok? DrumTok?
What I Can’t Stop Thinking About
Speaking of Poetry (see above) - we should all be consuming more. In an age where we only have time for short doses (Dare I say quick bites/RIP quiby), poetry is just sitting there waiting for us in all it’s spirited glory. A friend said this great thing a while back which was basically that even a year after her son was born, most of what she was reading was poetry because it’s all she had time and bandwidth for, emotionally, mentally, and literally — she’s a busy lawyer! I’ve read like 2 books in 2 years… maybe 3? Poetry is just there waiting for us to spend 60 seconds reading (or listening, see next paragraph) and then 2 weeks feeling transformed, super smart, artsy, and alive as a result. It’s a concentrated dose of the hit we get from experiencing something wonderful.
I know it sounds inaccessible and intimidating but it’s actually the opposite. It’s usually short, and doesn’t ask that much of us, certainly less than 10-60 hours. We can read poetry like we listen to music, without any context. It’s value is derived from what we take away from it not from what we bring to it. (It is subjective. It’s not like we need to know the poet’s biography before we begin. Those things are all ancilary content that enhance something after we’ve experienced it. Like me listening to House of R or The Big Picture after I see the show or movie.)
And like listening to music, a lot of poetry and people talking about talking about it is on Spotify! Like this hilarious one here and my all time fave here. Dammit, why wasn’t I born a rich white dandy in 1895?!
Okay everyone! Hope you’re doing all right out there. I’ll be back in the next couple weeks with some year end content.
Until next Letter,
K.
Um that Sense & Sensibility book of the screenplay looks AMAZING! And Dorothy Parker is always my go to favorite for poetry. Thanks for sharing all these recs!
I don't know where I read it, but there was this passage about how the world often insults the worth of art and poetry, and yet, when we are at our most vulnerable or at our highest peaks, it is art and poetry that we turn to to express and capture those moments for us. I've just gotten into Andrea Gibson, just snippets here and there, but their words have felt so important right now.