Why’s it All So Surreal?

I like movies and TV shows that earn your trust and make you believe what is, by definition, contrived.

Yes, all movies and tv shows are contrived.

When you finally get your gif to upload coreectly - GIF - Imgur — obviously

As I tell my writing students when they resist a good plot point in their work because they fear it will come off as artificial:

What you really fear is that it will seem contrived.

Meaning every writer’s, or liar’s, job is to massage a moment to the point where it seems perfectly believable for the person in the moment they’re in.

This has worked for me as a writer, and as a college professor, for most of my adult life.

But what do you do when the actual events in the world seem too ludicrous to be true in the reality you’ve lived in for all of your life?

And what effect will that have on you and all others falling under the dreaded monicker of content creators (Note: Ugh, I hate that term, it preemptively makes us all sound like we’re A.I. assembly-line worker bees, which I suppose is the point) going forward?

Is there no action a person or character takes that could be deemed too outlandish? Will there be no plot point out of the bounds of logic?

No Rules GIFs - Find & Share on GIPHY — NO RULES

Can an American POTUS publicly attack the sitting Pope – the leader of approximately 1.3 billion Catholics – as “a tool of the radical left,” “weak on crime,” and “disgraceful” as he simultaneously posts a picture of himself as Jesus healing the sick to millions of his followers on social media?

What about a U.S. Secretary of Defense holding a worship service at the Pentagon (Note: Normally we could stop there) where he quotes what professes to be a bible verse from Ezekiel 25:17 that is actually A SPEECH WRITTEN BY director-screenwriter Quentin Tarantino to mimic a bible verse delivered by a fictional hitman played by Samuel L. Jackson in the 1994 breakout hit, Pulp Fiction???

Pulp Fiction GIFs | Tenor — You gotta be kidding me

The answers are being rewritten even as I write, and every time one awakes to another bizarre rant from [Fill in the world “leader” (ahem) of your choice].

This week I went to an actual movie theatre to see The Drama, a sort of oddball mélange of rom-com, pathos, suspense and cross-cutting frenzy fueled by the star power of Zendaya and Robert Pattinson.

Zendaya & Robert Pattinson On How They Built Their Chemistry For 'The Drama' — Criminally attractive people

Playing a Gen Z meet-cute couple about to be married and thus subject to a few nervous drunken nights with friends, the film essentially poses the bizarre question: What would Mr. Pattinson’s character do if this fantasy gal he was in love with, nee Zendaya’s character, admitted that she almost did a school shooting when she was a teenager?

She DID NOT DO IT, mind you. She just thought about it and planned a little of it until logic and goodwill won her over.

Yes, it’s concerning, but… would it cause you as Mr. Pattinson (Note: You wish!) to melt down to the point where you __________, or prompt more than a few friends or co-workers to advise you to call the police and have her arrested for something she never did years ago?

Hot Robert Pattinson GIFs | PS Celebrity — Really Robby?

Call me crazy, but I had some issue with that.

On the other hand, I didn’t grow up with school shooting drills or in a time when being gunned en masse in junior high school was a possibility. (Note: The worst it got for me was being jabbed by several long sharp knitting needles going up the stairs to class by several very tough girls in school that I avoided at all costs).

As for the students I sent to see The Drama, some agreed with me but many didn’t at all have an issue with it. Nor, obviously, did, Z or RPatz, who signed on to do the script. Nor did many filmgoers, as $110 million worldwide at the box-office proves.

Or does it?

Review: "The Drama" is a Nightmare to Watch and Even Worse to Describe - Blog - The Film Experience — Box office don’t lie!

Maybe it was simply RPatz & Z they wanted to see. And who could blame them? They seem cooler and hotter than any one of us will ever be in whatever they do onscreen, which is part of what makes them movie stars in the first place.

Not every TV show has to be as believable as the E.R. workers in The Pitt, or create as convincing of an earned alternate reality the innies and outies are given in Severance.

Why everyone is telling you to watch The Pitt — Why am I only talking about handsome Robbys?!?

And certainly we don’t require everything to be as smart, dense and grounded in the actual politics of its day as Oppenheimer. The well-reviewed and well-attended response to the campy and luxuriously contrived Barbie, which went on to create that beloved Barbenheimer effect in the summer of 2023 is evidence of that.

A quaint time three years ago when there was something for everyone.

Not the current, creeping, heat-seeking reality of almost everything for just a few.

Charlie and Emma’s Wedding Video (From “The Drama”)

10.19.25

by notesfromachair

No Kings

Nearly 7 million people showed up to the No Kings rallies on Saturday to protest Trump administration policies and to stand up for freedom of speech and against fascism in America.

I was one of them.

Just me and Lady Lib, busy on a Saturday

Oh, no applause, please. I had to do something – if, for nothing else, my psychological well-being.

Though in actuality, it was much more than that. When donating money, calling and writing your representatives, and challenging strangers at the supermarket or at a random dinner party – all of which I do frequently (Note: And the latter two as recently as last week) – are not enough, it helps to get off your lazy, whiny, doom-scrolling ass, take to the streets and be counted.

In truth, it’s the least you can do for your nearly 250 year-old country, an experiment in democracy that was never expected to succeed.

As cynical as I am, it amazed me to hear the current Speaker of the House of Representatives publicly call this demonstration of freedom a “Hate America Rally.”

Demonstration and Dissent are the literal means by which our Democracy was founded. #TheThreeDs

Or as one of many hundreds of truly clever signs at the rally I attended in L.A. at Roxbury Park noted: “ NO KINGS – Our Founding Fathers Demanded It.”

The majority of the 2600 #NoKings rallies were in the United States but some extended worldwide – through almost all of Europe, as well as to Japan, Costa Rica and, of course, our neighbors, Canada and Mexico. (Note: Whatever they’re thinking, just quadruple it for me).

I attended with my sister, one of my favorite people in the world.

One of my other favorites, my husband, was down for the count after dental surgery but urged me to go as I planned instead of staying home with him because he thought it would brighten me up.

Also, I don’t know how much fun it would be post-surgery to have someone next to you simultaneously doom scrolling and cursing at the television while watching news coverage on MSNBC, so it could’ve been a bit of self-preservation.

Nevertheless, he was correct as usual.

I have long believed our political situation in the T—p Era is not the Dems vs. the Repubs or progressive vs. conservative. Rather, it so obviously seems to be democracy vs. fascism; multi-culturalism vs. white supremacy; Christian nationalism vs. everyone else

And on Saturday it was reconfirmed to me thousands of times over that I have by far not been the only person to feel this way.

Several thousand or more surrounded me and my sister, carrying signs and placards, chatting us up or chanting through bullhorns or to passersby variations of much the same thing.

Not only that, the pithy original slogan I had thought up to put on my own sign (Note: Had I thought to buy the posterboard and marker ahead of time) – “THIS QUEEN SAYS NO KINGS” – was literally being held high in the air by another queen right behind us.

Old people, young people, middle-aged people and people of the kind of indeterminate age you can only encounter in Los Angeles. They were all there. Wealthy, middle-class and I venture to say the not much money class. Millionaires and those on fixed incomes.

How do I know?

Well, see, contrary to popular belief, here in L.A. we do speak to each other. A really well-off woman shared with us a story of marrying a very wealthy guy decades ago when she was “younger and 20 pounds lighter” who was in real estate. Said guy took her to an industry event, introduced her to T—p and, as she put it, “he felt me up all over. He was disgusting even then!”

Of course, she didn’t just volunteer out of nowhere. She only came out with it when I shared that my sister and I were from his hometown in Queens.

Then there was the 80 plus year old smiley senior woman who several times drove her car around the block so she could honk in support of us protesters. Later on in the day she walked by on foot brandishing a ticket a policeman gave her for “cruising” in her car, and lamented about how she would pay it on a fixed income from a social security check of $748 per month she wasn’t even sure she was getting.

I wish that I’d had more than $23 bucks in my wallet or thought to say something encouraging before she moved on and found comfort somewhere else. Which she certainly did, given the crowd, the people and the “vibe.” (Note: #Bitchin’).

Speaking of comfort, you haven’t lived until you’ve stood at a curb holding a sign and received that many hundreds of wide smiles and waves from people in passing cars, that many extended and staccato car horns of support (Note: Sooo many different tones!, and found yourself met with more thumbs up and nods of approval than you have ever received in…well, your entire life.)

My favorite came from a handsome cop in an official Los Angeles police cruiser who tipped his hat slightly and nodded in approval of what we were all doing. I took it to mean, even though I’m in uniform, I still believe in democracy.

As did those in Mercedes, BMWs, Teslas, Toyotas, Hondas, Chryslers, Ford Trucks, Jeeps, VWs and various non-descript mini-vans and falling apart Kias.

In fact, the only negative reaction came from two different women in two different Porsches an hour apart. One gave a thumbs down and the other gave us the finger.