All Amanda Can Jet

Nashville Finale: Oh my God

Fri, 24 May 2013 12:44:41 -0400

I wrote about Nashville and the finale over at Pajiba.

brookehatfield: rachael-maddux: Flannery O’Connor bought this...

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 20:22:31 -0400

rachael-maddux:

Flannery O’Connor bought this Hotpoint refrigerator in 1956 after she sold the TV rights to “The Life You Save May Be Your Own.” Apparently she was not very into the eventual adaptation. But her food was cold.

from a letter o’connor wrote on dec. 10, 1956:

I have just learned via one of those gossip columns that the story I sold for a TV play is going to be put on in the spring and that a tap-dancer by the name of Gene Kelly is going to make his tellyvision debut in it. The punishment always fits the crime.

from a letter on dec. 28, 1956, re: “The Life You Save”:

I think it’s channel 5 and people tell me you can’t get it very good here, so I hope you will absolutely be in front of your set this time at the correct hour, as I must have some representative there to give Kelly a good leer every now and then for me. …It will probably be appropriate to smoke a corncob pipe while watching this.

from a letter on March 3, 1957:

Thanks so much for the TV paper about brother [Gene] Kelly. Having now witnessed his performance, I must say that I am not overcome by his acting powers. We don’t have a television but Sister, in town, does, so we went to see the play. Now I am doubly glad we don’t have one.

from “the habit of being,” a dynamite book of o’connor’s letter that is just as entertaining a read as any of her fiction.

"Besides selling banner displays and short ads that play before its videos, Vice offers its..."

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 14:46:32 -0400

“Besides selling banner displays and short ads that play before its videos, Vice offers its advertisers the option of funding an entire project in exchange for being listed as co-creator and having editorial input. Advertisers can pay for a single video, or, for a higher price—one to five million dollars for twelve episodes, according to Vice—they can pay for an entire series, on a topic that dovetails with the company’s image. (The North Face, the outdoors company, recently sponsored a series called “Far Out,” in which Vice staffers visit people living in “the most remote places on Earth.”)”

- The Vice Guide to the World

When I drove around the country for 10 weeks in 2011, it was during a road trip sponsored by Ford and Visa, almost two years before “native advertising” was printed in seemingly every other media story you were reading this week. The credit card company didn’t ask me to do a single thing during the project; Ford asked that we make a video inside an enormous production facility on the fringes of Chicago that, as reporters, we would have been prohibited from visiting. We were guided by minders to specific areas of the plant but we were never told what we were or were not allowed to shoot. Ford did not approve our final video or our final story.

A few weeks later, Ford asked us to contact a dealer in, as I recall, the Carolinas to set up another shoot. When I called the dealer and left a voicemail, he didn’t return my call. I took that as a sign that I was off the hook. I didn’t hear another word from Ford for the rest of the trip, even after I attempted to bake cookies on the engine block of their loaner vehicle while driving the Natchez Trace Parkway (failure) or after I warmed up some Pop Tarts on the engine block the morning of the final Space Shuttle launch (success). In multiple published photos, Stephen Greenwood, the videographer who was on the road with me, was standing on top of the vehicle, which is probably not in line with the stated marketing goals of the company. And yet, my phone didn’t ring.

Meanwhile, because we had the financial backing of two sponsors and, at this point, complete editorial freedom, we decided to do stories about a nascent art colony in small-town Kentucky, a community-minded T-shirt shop in New Orleans, the rebuilding of a tornado-ravaged town in Missouri, the weirdness of Marfa, Texas and a “spaceport” in the New Mexico desert. I also called South of the Border the country’s biggest tourist trap and pointed out that “lazy Mexican” is not an appropriate theme for a highway rest stop, a point with which some AOL readers took considerable umbrage.

In a post-mortem of the 10-week project, a business-side manager who helped broker the sales package recognized that we did a fantastic job hitting our deliverables, which were, both in his mind and on paper, a set amount of traffic from both viral clicks and placements on the front of AOL.com. Because of our story selection and execution, we hit the goals in five weeks, not the allotted 10, and I thought that was something worth bragging about. He disagreed: Couldn’t we get the same amount of clicks without sending people out on the road to create this kind of original content?

(via paulbrady)

marklisanti: I went to SXSW and wrote about it. And now it’s...

Tue, 12 Mar 2013 21:04:27 -0400

marklisanti:

I went to SXSW and wrote about it. And now it’s time to nap, probably forever.

Three Days in Austin, a SXSW diary - Grantland

Important.

I wrote about my love of astronomy, movies and men over at...

Tue, 12 Mar 2013 13:32:15 -0400

I wrote about my love of astronomy, movies and men over at Pajiba.

condenasttraveler: How to Travel Like a Billionaire | The...

Mon, 11 Mar 2013 14:24:52 -0400

condenasttraveler:

How to Travel Like a Billionaire | The two-mile sandbar at David Copperfield’s Musha Cay, in the Bahamas, appears for just a few hours a day.

"You tried to change didn’t you? closed your mouth more tried to be softer prettier less volatile,..."

Thu, 07 Mar 2013 20:51:28 -0500

“You tried to change didn’t you?
closed your mouth more
tried to be softer
prettier
less volatile, less awake
but even when sleeping you could feel
him travelling away from you in his dreams
so what did you want to do love
split his head open?
you can’t make homes out of human beings
someone should have already told you that
and if he wants to leave
then let him leave
you are terrifying
and strange and beautiful
something not everyone knows how to love.”

- “For Women Who Are Difficult to Love,” Warsan Shire (via thatkindofwoman)

Recent Writings Roundup

Sat, 02 Mar 2013 00:29:03 -0500

Here’s the latest round up of recent writings I’ve had published.

This past month I started writing for Movies.com, Fandango and have another potential gig or two in the works. I still am not making what could be called a “living” from writing, which feels impossible given how much I write.

The Problem with Movie Nostalgia for Movies.com

The Problems with Obsessions: The X-Files and Boys for Pajiba

Stoker review for Pajiba

Beautiful Creatures review for Pajiba

Coming of Age gallery for Fandango

People Kissing in the Rain for Fandango

Girl’s Guide to Heartbreak: Learning to Forgive Ourselves and Others for Pajiba

I like when they say “dolphinately” on Kroll Show.

"You may not agree with a woman, but to criticize her appearance — as opposed to her ideas or actions..."

Mon, 28 Jan 2013 01:21:19 -0500

“You may not agree with a woman, but to criticize her appearance — as opposed to her ideas or actions — isn’t doing anyone any favors, least of all you. Insulting a woman’s looks when they have nothing to do with the issue at hand implies a lack of comprehension on your part, an inability to engage in high-level thinking. You may think she’s ugly, but everyone else thinks you’re an idiot.”

- Hillary Clinton (via meggannn)

Sundance, lingering morning questioning.

Tue, 22 Jan 2013 10:24:15 -0500

Sundance, lingering morning questioning.

Photo

Sat, 19 Jan 2013 16:56:49 -0500

The Felt Leaning: the discrepancy between the writer we are and the writer we want to be only widens as we improve

Fri, 18 Jan 2013 19:54:18 -0500

The Felt Leaning: the discrepancy between the writer we are and the writer we want to be only widens as we improve:

thefeltleaning:

The dissatisfactions we often feel toward older work, not to mention the frustrations we often feel toward what we’re writing now as well as the anxieties we feel toward what we may do next, put me in mind of the old joke about the Jew who’s shipwrecked on a desert island. Twenty years later,…

Lessons will be repeated until they are learned.

The Year in Review

Wed, 09 Jan 2013 23:50:48 -0500

January

Attended the Sundance Film Festival as Press, yet again.

February

Traveled to the Grand Canyon.

March

Interviewed Tim and Eric for “Tim and Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie”

Styled an ASICS America AD

As well as styled a Pentax commercial.

And styled and did Production Design for a Humane Society ad.

April

Went to New York for five days with John, to visit friends. Saw the short film I production designed and did wardrobe for at the TriBeCa Film Festival.

May

Styled a Nike “Alpha” commercial.

June

Film.com was officially acquired by MTV and I was demoted from Lead Editor to writer.

July

Traveled to Vegas with Cate, Christy and Abigail.

Traveled to Medford, Oregon with Abigail and Christy.

Began writing indie film reviews and a weekly column for Pajiba.

Made my first and hopefully only TMZ appearance.

August

Visited PIXAR headquarters for the Finding Nemo 3D junket.

Wrote a series for NPR’s Turnstyle News on female directors, myself included.

September

Traveled to San Francisco to see my friends Kelsey and Erica.

Edited the tumblr for, and assisted my friend Lacey Chabert with her 30 in 30.

Visited Yosemite with Abigail.

Screened “Destruction Party” at the Twain Harte Film Fest!

Traveled to Las Vegas for Lacey’s 30th Birthday.

October

Did the wardrobe styling for Cricket Wireless’ “Speed Dating Luchadores” ad.

Traveled to Portland with Abigail and Christy.

Was quoted in a national ad campaign and New York Times half-page ad for “Smashed.”

November

Ate Lunch with Keira Knightley

Assistant Wardrobe and Production Design/Art Dept for “Sex and Marriage” Webseries

Held my grandmother’s hand as she passed.

December

Traveled to St. Maarten for HuffingtonPost Travel

Interviewed Rosemarie DeWitt for Interview Magazine

Assistant Wardrobe for a FIVE KNIVES music video for “VIVE LE ROI”

Featured in the national ad campaign and commercials for “Promised Land”

Went camping in Malibu for New Year’s.

I Interviewed Rosemarie DeWitt for Interview Magazine, which is...

Thu, 27 Dec 2012 13:57:44 -0500

I Interviewed Rosemarie DeWitt for Interview Magazine, which is a new outlet for me. Very excited.

I also wrote about movies and my love life, 10 Terrible Techniques for Falling in Love over at Pajiba.

Proud of both of them.

In St. Martin, if you don’t answer their flirting in English, they try again all over again in...

Fri, 14 Dec 2012 11:56:28 -0500

In St. Martin, if you don’t answer their flirting in English, they try again all over again in French.

Recent writings

Sat, 01 Dec 2012 03:05:29 -0500

On two opposite ends of the scale, in terms of tone and also in terms of personal importance, here’s my two most recently medium-length articles.

I recently ate lunch with Keira Knightley and lived to talk about it. We both ate. I ate mine and then I ate her lunch as well. No, not really. I wasn’t expecting to like her as much as I did, and I think there’s a certain magic in being surprised by people. I hope to overcome people’s expectations of me in the same way.

And, on the other end of things, my dearly loved and best-friend of a grandmother, who suffered from Alzheimer’s and dementia, passed away gently this week as myself and two of my younger sisters held her hands. I wrote about her passing, because it was important to remember.

hic-blog-est-meus: “A remarkable collaborator, and she’s a...

Thu, 29 Nov 2012 17:20:24 -0500

hic-blog-est-meus:

“A remarkable collaborator, and she’s a shiksa goddess and a trapeze artist, all of that. She can fix the truck. Expert on the African violet and all that. She’s outta this world. I don’t know what to say. I’m a lucky man. She has a remarkable imagination. And that’s the nation where I live. She’s bold, inventive and fearless. That’s who you wanna go in the woods with, right? Somebody who finishes your sentences for you.”

—Tom Waits describing his wife, Kathleen Brennan

Today on the Fox lot

Fri, 09 Nov 2012 19:47:08 -0500

I went to a noon screening which doesn’t happen often. On the Fox lot, sailed in, found parking and saw Jake Johnson’s parking spot from New Girl. Then when I got off the elevator the first person I run into is Jason Segel. I try not to smile at him but my face is making that weird face you make when you see someone you don’t know, and he smiles and says hello to me and I sing out a hello right back at him and keep on moving.

I wandered through a set since the theater was directly on the other side of where they’d been filming, past the insanely long boom, small crowd of extras and Seth Green. I see more parking spots, the names of shows I’d love to work on someday emblazoned on them. RESERVED FOR: and then not my name on there. I did see Liz Meriweather’s parking spot and Hart Hanson’s, but no Mindy Kaling.

It’s good to be somewhere like that. Reminds you of things you want and how you can’t forget, not even for a day or two.

I reviewed Skyfall for Pajiba. I really liked it. “For...

Fri, 09 Nov 2012 12:57:06 -0500

I reviewed Skyfall for Pajiba. I really liked it.

“For Bond there is no future, there is no past, there is only the present moment, turning into another present moment, on and on forever. This informs so many of Bond’s actions and excuses him from the moral quandaries the rest of us face on a daily basis. But Bond’s slowing down. As a character he is aging, and perhaps the film itself is a commentary on the societal notion of Bond, in this day and age of larger concerns, perhaps Bond is frivolous, unnecessary.”

Recent Writing

Tue, 06 Nov 2012 16:41:52 -0500

I’m bad at linking to everything I write since I end up posting things at Film.com and Pajiba every week, but here’s what I’ve written lately.

Pajiba review of the sordidly bad The Details. I didn’t want to dislike it, but it made me.

Film.com review of the lovely and moving A Royal Affair. Alicia Vikander for president!

Pajiba Voter’s Guide for Movies about Hot Button Issues. One movie per issue and bonus clip of Mark Wahlberg talking to a fake plastic plant.