Contact me - marensdasein@gmail.com
Days seem to be crawling by. I think I need to keep myself busier. Seems like a silly thing to say when I've got so many projects I should be working on. I've told myself and a few others that I'll produce a short form review series about my physical media collection highlighting some of my favorite pieces and what makes them interesting. They'd be minute long short videos uploaded to Youtube and Bluesky. Each covering an interesting piece of my physical media collection. I have a lot of interesting to talk about. A 1985 VHS release of Citizen Kane (which I'm fairly certain is the first homevideo release), A limited dvd edition of Memento where all the special features are hidden in an elaborate menu system themed around a psychological diagnostic questionaire, a limited edition 4k blu-ray set of E.T. packaged in a vintage lunchbox, my COMPLETE 4k Evil Dead collection featuring all 5 currently released movies, and the Ash Vs. Evil Dead tv series, assorted Criterion Collection releases including what might be my most expensive singe set: Godzilla the Showa Era a set of the first 15 Godzilla movies on bluray packaged in a book of essays with very attractive pop-art artwork, and of course plenty more.
There's also my novel. Currently with the working title Ember's Howl. I have a complete draft but it needs a lot of work. For a taste of what it'll be like read The Lycan's Confidant. Born out of a desire to tell a Werewolf story not focused around lycanthropy being a metaphor of repressed violence, but rather using it to explore themes of identity in a broadly relatable way while being grounded in my queer experiance. The hold up is mostly that it's quite frankly intimidating. It's already the largest piece of prose I've ever written at over 60,000 words, and with changes that need to be made it's going to get a lot longer. I expect by the time I feel it'll be ready to publish (which would probably mean it would still need a lot more editorial work) it'll probably be pretty close to 100,000 words. One of the things I need to fix is an insanely rushed ending; an unfortunate artifact of being initally drafted as a NANOWRIMO (National Novel Writing Month) project. I fully expect the final third of the novel will probably double in length. I've got a long road ahead of me for that novel, and I need to get used to taking small steps down it once again.
Also I need to write more film essays. I've got a few ideas. Notably a complete retrospective appreciation of the work of the Wachowski sisters. Easily my favorite contemporary filmmakers, Lana and Lilly Wachowski have had a stellar career of mostly poorly received films which haven't really been given their due. Sure, everyone loves The Matrix, but there should be a lot more love for their debut feature; an extreamly ahead of its time steamy lesbian crime thriller Bound. People have been reappraising their shockingly thought provoking and kinetic 2008 adaptation of Speed Racer, but no love for the wildly creative, charming and quintessentially feminine sci-fi fantasy Jupitar Ascending? And there's not much I need to say about the undue hate The Matrix Resurrections continues to get from people who just don't appreciate the artistic growth Lana Wachowski has undergone since the original Matrix Trilogy.
I've been spending a lot of time in my life looking to the future. Both in excitement due to HRT, and terror for the evolving political landscape. I need to make an effort to immerse myself in what I can do now; both to fulfill my own artistic yearnings and also do what little I can to nudge our political future into a shape that allows for a comfortable, fulfilling life myself and the people I care about. My life need not, and should not, be on hold until conditions improve. A lot is changing, but I don't live in the future I live in the present. I should act like it.
Contact me - marensdasein@gmail.com