a little (re)direction

Hello all!

I just wanted to come up for air during this crazy post-final, pre-graduation time to tell you all (all 4-10 of you...and the one Alaskan, whoever you are) how grateful I am for your readership. You made me a blogger! It's been pretty cool. I just wanted to let you know, that though this blog's life is coming to an end, my other, personal blog is still very much alive. I love her, I hope you will too. Take a look, if ya feel like it...

secretsforstrangers

Finally, an honest answer

A chat with A.J. Jacobs:

A few weeks ago, one of my favorite writers at Esquire took time to answer some questions for me about a hilarious article he wrote called "I Think You're Fat," about a new movement called Radical Honesy. Here's a little insight into the behind-the-scenes of the piece:

Where did the idea for this article come from?

I was researching a book about living by the rules of the Bible, and I did a search on honesty. And up popped an article about a guy running for Congress in Virginia who refused to lie. It was (Brad) Blanton. The more research I did on Blanton, the more interested I became. 

What was the hardest part about trying to be totally honest to everyone around you?

I'm a homebody, so it was hard to tell people that no, honestly, I'd prefer to stay home than have lunch with them. People seemed insulted by that. 

When it came to writing the piece, how did you try to give an honest and accurate portrayal of Blanton? 

I was lucky because his quotes speak for himself. He says such outrageous things. That doesn't happen too often, sadly. But I relied a lot on his quotes, and on his gestures, like picking his nose and spitting. 

Was there anything you left out that you wish you hadn't?

The article was written in a hurry, and I asked for help transcribing the interview tapes from an Esquire intern (we only had female interns at the time). Which was humiliating in its own right, because he said so many offensive things. And then, to make matters worse, the intern reported that I forgot to turn off the tape recorder while taking a pee. Three times. She had to listen to me go to the bathroom. I thought it was a funny honest moment, so I put it in the article, but it was cut for space. 

How many drafts did you go through? 

We usually go through two or three drafts at Esquire. This article didn't change too much from the original, I think. 

Were there conflicts about what should go in and what should be left out?

I do remember I had a genuine conflict with my editor about my section on how the world is moving toward radical honesty with everyone exposing their lives on Facebook, etc. He wanted to take it out. I wanted to keep it. We compromised by having him write "Bullshit -- Ed." at the end of the section

find a complete Case Study here

One, Two, TRI times the fun! 3

One of the movies getting a lot of buzz at Tribeca is Steven Soderbergh's The Girlfriend Experience. I first heard about it from this little snip on New York Magazine titled, "Porn Stars Gone Legit". Great title, no?
It reminded me about this blog I used to read called Confessions of a College Callgirl, which chronicled the life and mind of, well, a College Callgirl. She was sometimes vulgar, sometimes insightful and many times bared her soul to her readers. An eloquent writer, she gained quite a following documenting her adventures in Callhood, searching for answers as to how it became her life, and struggling to leave it behind. Now she's a writer for a paper somewhere (and veyr anonymous). I guess Soderbergh caught wind of her-- it seems obvious that she was a source of inspiration.
The star of the film is an actual Porn Star-turned-serious-actress, Sasha Grey, who, judging from reviews, gives a surprisingly good performance (insert joke here).

I'm excited to check it out.

One, Two, TRI times the fun! 2

Tribeca is also hosting a slew of free movie screenings to go with the ongoing talks this week. "The Tribeca Drive-In," They're calling it. I love this festival! I would go to these, but FINALS MESS EVERYTHING UP.

Click here to check out more screenings and to download a free invitation.

I was looking through Tribeca's site and watched a few trailers of some the festival's movies. This one looks fun

One, Two, TRI times the fun!

            Courtesy of Tribeca film festival, I guess.

The Tribeca Film festival kicked off this week with 80 new feature length films playing in theatres all around downtown. I'm lucky to have some lucky friends who have vip passes for screenings and talks, so I'm hoping to tag along to a few of those.

What's really awesome, though, is this year the festival is holding a series of free events all about independent filmmaking and screenwriting for the NYC community. Today, there's this:

PLANET EARTH IN MOVIE FORM!

I'm a big, big fan of Discovery Channel's Planet Earth series (in HD thankyouverymuch). I spent a whole winter break engrossed in moments of the Shallow Seas and Mountains and Great Plains never before seen by human eyes. From what I'm told, Disney decided to take the groundbreaking footage and make a family film out of it, naturally. We'll see if this actually works. I mean, are there going to be voiceovers for the animals? Creepy. James Earl Jones is narrating, which should be fun. I hope I don't keep thinking of him as Mufasa or Darth Vader--that would just kill the mood.

tip from tom

A few days ago, the incredibly talented Tom Chiarella (pronounced KEY-uh-rella) graciously spent nearly an hour on the phone to talk to me about his work. He's one of the writers at Esquire that I've loved to read ever since I was a 17-year-old sneaking issues from the mailbox to my bedroom. 

Chiarella does a lot of great profiles on movie stars-- like Charlize Theron, Halle Berry, and, most recently, Ben Affleck-- which can be tough when you might be dealing with notsogreat subjects. So, for inspiration, before meeting a subject, he reads a book that is somehow related to them. Before meeting Charlize for lunch, he read Out of Africa (because he knew she was from South Africa). Before Halle, Invisible Man (because Berry and Baldwin are both black, i guess). The point is, he reads these amazing classics and then goes in with a brilliant voice already in his head. That way no matter how much THEY suck, his words won't suffer for it.

I want to try this out, but maybe expand it...I don't know if I'll be meeting up with so many movie stars any time soon.