August Recap
What’s New?
Every time I start writing these, I feel like there’s nothing new to report, but that’s not quite true.
I launched a program for Silver Lake Reading Club to work through The Artist’s Way. I’ve been circling the program for years now. I think I first heard about it in college; it was required reading for one of the other programs, but it really came to a head this year. I couldn’t escape it; everywhere I looked, someone was on TikTok documenting their journey on The Artist’s Way. I don’t think you can live in Los Angeles for over a decade without having someone tell you how Julia Cameron’s book changed their life. It’s made them so much more productive, creative, better, etc. It is the cure for all of your problems. I don’t know how much I buy into all that, but my algorithms wore me down, and I thought, Why don’t I bring Silver Lake Reading Club with me?
There are close to 50 of us tackling the 12-week course, and I know that if I weren’t the leader of this program, I would have bailed already. I don’t know if I’m vibing with it, but I don’t think that’s the point. I think the friction might be a good thing, or at least that’s what I’m telling myself as I muscle through. Exercise isn’t supposed to be easy, right?
What I Got Done:
Most of August was spent putting together Silver Lake Reading Club’s The Artist’s Way program, which I am very proud of, but it meant that my brain or my time was tapped out before I could do any work on my book. That’s the story I’m telling myself right now. The truth might be that I am a bit overwhelmed. The story is in the thorny, wild beginnings. The ideas are tangled, the path forward isn’t clear, and my inertia is all going in the wrong direction. I haven’t made much headway, other than writing a few brain dump outlines and making a stack of notecards scribbled over with a mess of potential story beats and witty chapter titles that only I find funny.
It’s daunting, and I haven’t been able to get things going on my own. I started The Artist’s Way in hopes that it would fix this for me, that it would give me the energy to get the ball rolling up the hill, but I think part of me started the program to push off writing this book. I’ll get to it once I finish the program, in 12 weeks, that will be the perfect time to start, that will be when I have all the tools in place to do this. I might not be a prolific writer, but I am a grade-A procrastinator.
To try to overcome my own worst instincts, I signed up for a UCLA Extension course. I haven’t been able to hold myself accountable on my own, but the threat of a failing grade should kick my ass into gear. That’s the plan, at least. I’ll report back.
I’ve also been considering grad school because, if you didn’t know, the job that pays my bills is in film production. Every month, I tell myself, “This will be the month that things turn around, that we all bounce back,” but that month hasn’t come yet, and I’ve started the very scary process of considering a transition. I’m in the very early stages of thinking about it, but I hope that this extension course will give me some clarity on whether doing school again is right for me.
What I Read:
August was not a heavy reading month for me. I was still in a reading hangover from The Knight and the Moth. I think I picked up and started half a dozen books before I settled on Fang Fiction by Kate Stayman-London. Kate visited SLRC earlier this year and was a delight. Her book is an easy little rom-com that asks, What if your favorite vampire franchise wasn’t fiction, and you were the only one who could save your favorite heroes? After that, my hold for Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks came through from the Los Angeles Public Library. I don’t remember exactly why this book from 2001 caught my attention, but I think it appeared on my TikTok FYP, and the cover was cool, so I put it on hold and forgot about it. I wasn’t expecting anything when I picked up the book, but I was bewitched immediately. It was strangely prescient. It is a novel about a village in 1666 that is struck by the Plague, and could have been easily written as an on-the-nose commentary on the COVID-19 pandemic, except it was written 20 years ago. I need it to be a limited series starring an unnamed English actress as Anna, Florence Pugh as Elinor, and Richard Madden as Michael. Please help me manifest this.
Current Read:
The Compound by Aisling Rawle
This book is described as Love Island meets Lord of the Flies, and I immediately needed to read it.
In The Compound, a group of beautiful singles are sent to a mansion in the middle of a desert for a Big Brother/Love Island-style reality show where they must pair off and complete challenges to win rewards. There is an undercurrent of wrongness that runs through this book; it made me think a little of “The Most Dangerous Game,” but I was really struck by the connection to the short story “The Garden of Time” that was the dress code for the 2024 Met Gala. It is about a Count and Countess who live in a beautiful villa surrounded by a high wall and a vast plain. In their garden, beautiful flowers grow that, when picked, roll back time, pushing back the angry mob that is trying to get to them.
“The plain surrounded the house on all sides, its drab emptiness emphasising the seclusion and mellowed magnificence of the villa.” —The Garden of Time
“Toward the back of the compound, the grass and vegetation bloomed, and an irrigation system spat lazy drizzles of water, the light casting rainbows through the droplets, a casual sort of beauty that contrasted almost garishly with the monotonous plains that lay beyond.” —The Compound
There is something dangerous in the desert that surrounds the compound; there is something wrong, and I can’t wait to figure out what it is.
What I’m Watching:
TV/Streaming
I’m adding streaming here because I watch a lot of movies, even if I don’t get to the theater as much as I want to.
The Summer I Turned Pretty - Amazon Prime - I have let myself be consumed by this show. I live for Wednesdays. I love watching reaction videos on TikTok and writing a stream of consciousness note on my phone because I don’t want to annoy my friends with 800 messages as I react to each episode. Obviously #TeamConrad, but really, I’m team get Jerry off my screen and straight to jail. I am an abolitionist, but I will make an exception for this embodiment of a Cybertruck with blue eyes.
Unknown Number: The High School Catfish - Netflix - if you think you have a toxic parent, watch this documentary. Also, as someone who had a cellphone stalker, I didn’t really understand why they didn’t block the phone number. Well done, and everyone is talking about it, so watch it.
KPop Demon Hunters - Netflix - I was resistant to this movie; I just thought it was a kid’s movie. I am here to eat my words. This movie has crack in it, and I am hooked. I cannot stop listening to the soundtrack. I laughed. I cried. I get goosebumps anytime the music starts. The derpy tiger is everything. It is pure joy. It is playing on repeat forever.
Was A-List Worth It? Yes
Barely.
I only made it to the theater twice in August, but that math works out. It’s not the best use of my subscription, but I came out in the black at the end of the month. I wanted to see a lot more movies this month and reserved quite a few tickets, but I caught a summer cold because 2025 is the year that I will be sick, so I watched most of my movies from my couch.
Weapons was great, the hype is real. It was just a well-done movie, top to bottom. The Roses, on the other hand, was just fine. Benedict and Olivia, along with the whole cast, were delightful, and watching them for 2 hours was a fun time, but that’s about all. The story left a lot to be desired. Glad it was an A-List movie, and I didn’t pay for the ticket.
Miscellany:
August ended with a musical bang. A new Taylor Swift album (and engagement!) was announced, Sabrina Carpenter released Man’s Best Friend, and Hayley Williams dropped my latest obsession, Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party. It is an embarrassment of riches.
Questions? Comments? Concerns?
Have you gone to grad school? Is considering grad school a canon event for any overachieving firstborn daughter in her mid-thirties? Am I a stereotype?