Year: 2024

As far as handmade Mother’s Day gifts go, this might be the sweetest idea ever.

To celebrate mom’s first Mother’s Day ever, a newborn named Olivia and her Golden Retriever Lady created a painting using blackberries for “ink.”

A video posted to their TikTok account @ladyandtheblues shows dad grinding up the blackberries in a granite mortar before dipping Olivia’s tiny hand and Lady’s paw into the bowl and pressing them onto paper.

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He then embellished the image with hand painted flowers, along with artfully writing Olivia and Lady’s name.

He even dressed the two in perfectly matching purple outfits. Nice one dad.

As for the inspiration behind the blackberry ink, credit apparently belongs to Olivia, who gave dad the idea “when she stained her dress” eating them.

Still, folks in the comments section rightfully praised dad for this amazingly thoughtful and creative gift.

“This is the best and cutest Mother’s day gift,” one viewer wrote.

“The way I would cry,” wrote another.

Watch for yourself. As the caption suggests, it is “berry cute indeed.”

@ladyandtheblues Berry cute, yes🥹🫐? Olivia gave me this idea when she stained her dress eating blackberries🐶💜👶🏻 #babyanddog #mothersdaygift #sisters #dogsofttiktok ♬ Somewhere only we know cover – Sofía

The overwhelmingly positive response to this video show not that simple, yet sentimental gifts can make a huge impact—particularly for new moms who might want a memento of this fresh chapter.

And this idea is so easy to customize. Instead of blackberries, you could use a fruit ink or non toxic pain in mom’s favorite color, or buy jewelry with both baby and pup’s birthstones in it. Even a nicely framed photo is a nice touch.

But please, if you can, arrange matching outfits for the day. Cause how freaking adorable is that?

There’s a distinct accent that American actors and broadcasters used in the early days of radio and in pre-World War II movies. It’s most obvious in old newsreel footage where the announcer speaks in a high-pitched tone, omits his “Rs” at the end of words, and sounds like a New Yorker who just returned from a summer holiday with the British royal family.

This speaking style is also heard in the speeches of Franklin D. Roosevelt and just about any performance by Orson Welles. But today, this accent is all but nonexistent, prompting the question: Did Americans speak differently before the advent of television?

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The video below, “Why Do People in Old Movies Talk Weird?,” reveals the secret of this distinct inflection known as the Mid-Atlantic accent and why it was so prominent in early 20th-century American media.

This article originally appeared on 09.06.17

Everyone gets antsy about their jobs sometimes.

Maybe you notice you’re less motivated than usual. Maybe you acknowledge that you’re no longer going the extra mile, and you’re not quite sure why. Maybe professionalism is a term you’ve long since forgotten.

For many of us, the struggle can be so, so real. That’s why Willie Muse wrote these all-too-relatable comics for College Humor, illustrated by Karina Farek.

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These six funny comics perfectly illustrate what a typical first day at your job looks like versus the 101st day:

1. Who doesn’t look at at least one viral video a day?

2. You suddenly find the time to fit in a breakfast sandwich.

3. You go from wanting your boss’s approval to hating his or her guts.

4. All the details that were once so important become nuisances.

5. Your (lack of) motivation can take you from hero to zero — quick!

6. And you most certainly DO NOT want to end up like this.

Let’s be real: These comics are funny, but they also aren’t ideal.

In a perfect world, we’d all have jobs that still look and feel like Day 1 on Day 101. And one of the only ways to get there is to intentionally strive for a life that’s full of work-life balance. We really do have the power to not let things play out like this.

What can we do?

At a most basic level, we can make sure we’re getting enough sleep, eating well, and doing at least a little exercise. We also shouldn’t underestimate the benefits of detaching from computer screens and smartphones every once in a while. Plus, we can also minimize our stress levels by not multitasking and instead concentrating on one task at time.

The most overlooked advice for maintaining a healthy work-life balance is to actually take time off.

Disconnect from your daily work routine. Make a conscious effort to recharge.

Perhaps if we dedicate more time to enjoying life outside of work, there’s more of a chance that we’ll be on Day 1 for months, feeling grateful for our jobs rather than impatiently waiting for the clock to strike 5. Let’s get to it!

This article originally appeared on 10.25.16

“OK Boomer” is a catchphrase that has come to perfectly encapsulate the generational divide in modern American politics. It has also led to some moments of pure comedy gold.

But it turns out that one of the great all-time standup comedic minds was literally decades ahead of the game when it came to dragging Boomers for selfish, hypocritical, and entitled behavior. In his 1996 stand up special “Back in Town” George Carlin devoted a glorious two minutes and twenty-seven seconds to putting Boomers in their place.

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“A lot of these cultural crimes I’m complaining about can be blamed on the Baby Boomers,” Carlin says, beginning what would become a now legendary rant.

“I’m getting tired of hearing about Boomers,” Carlin continues. “Whiny, narcissistic, self-indulgent people with a simple philosophy: ‘GIMME IT, IT’S MINE!’ ‘GIMME THAT, IT’S MINE!’ These people were given everything. Everything was handed to them. And they took it all: sex, drugs, and rock and roll, and they stayed loaded for 20 years and had a free ride.”

“But now they’re staring down the barrel of middle-age burnout, and they don’t like it. So they’ve turned self-righteous. They want to make things harder on younger people. They tell ’em, abstain from sex, say no to drugs; as for the rock and roll, they sold that for television commercials a long time ago…so they could buy pasta machines and Stairmasters and soybean futures.”

Or, as one person on Reddit commented on Carlin’s video: “My feeling about baby-boomers is that they were one of the first generations to really adulate and idolize the idea of youth, and youth empowerment but when they themselves reach senior ages their own ideas were working against them so they changed to demonizing youth.”

But Carlin wasn’t done there. He says the Boomers have not only become hypocrites, they turned their own generational shift into cutthroat, corporate catchphrases that guilt and shame others who don’t comport to their world view.

“You know something? They are cold, bloodless people,” Carlin says.

“These people went from ‘Do Your Own Thing’ to ‘Just Say No.’ They went from ‘Love is All You Need’ to ‘Whoever Winds Up With the Most Toys, Wins.’ And they went from cocaine to Rogaine.”

Carlin’s bit concludes in epic fashion with an all-encompassing take down that applies to, well, literally everyone. But the next time you hear a Boomer ridiculing young people or defending their own legacy, just show them this clip and remind them that Boomer criticism is something that transcends age, gender or race. Heck, even if you’re from the Boomer generation, this clip is just too good to not enjoy and share.

This article originally appeared on 02.20.20

It’s hard to keep your home clean when you have a child, but when you have four, unless you have a live-in maid, it’s completely impossible. There is no dishwasher fast enough to keep up with the dishes in the sink and no magical point where all four children have it together enough to put their toys away.

The problem is that if you take your eyes off the prize and let a day go by without cleaning up, you’re practically drowning in chaos.

TikTok user and stay-at-home mom Bri James (aka @themessymama4) did the unthinkable and let her home go four days without tidying up and shared the incredible mess with everyone on TikTok.

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“I know I’m going to get roasted,” she says in the clip, “but … this is what happens when two really lazy adults have four kids and don’t clean up after themselves.”

The clip shows cutlery on the floor, empty packets everywhere, dishes piled a mile-high in the sink, and clothes and toys strewn everywhere. The house looks like the parents went away on a permanent vacation and left their kids to fend for themselves.

The video was praised by a lot of parents who are tired of seeing mommy influencers with spotless homes and children in matching linen outfits. Finally, there was a mom on TikTok they could relate to.

“I’d MUCH rather see you clean your realistic house than watch another blonde clean an already clean countertop,” Meghan Sanders wrote.

TikTokker Its_not_that_serious put things in perfect perspective. “Dude, at the end of the day all of their fingers and toes are attached and feeling safe and loved you’re doing fine. Someday the house will be clean,” they wrote.

“Having children is mentally and physically exhausting and you don’t always have the energy to clean every day,” Rose added.

But not everyone appreciated Bri’s slice of reality. Some people thought that her messiness was borderline neglectful and that she was setting a terrible example for her children.

“Set a good example for your kids. Make them help,” carleebocciaa wrote.

“Without children = fine, your choice. With children (especially small ones) = completely unacceptable,” ACZOgirly wrote.

Shortly after posting her first video, Bri got to work on the impossible task of cleaning up the entire house. Noticeably absent from the job were her spouse and four children. She appears to clean the entire place by herself.

She showed her cleaning prowess through a series of fast-motion videos.

@themessymama4

my butt does not look flattering in these Walmart lounge pants 🤦🏼‍♀️😅

Finally, at 9:30 p.m., Bri was done with most of the job, although she still had a bit of vacuuming to do and there were still some dishes in the sink. At the end of the job, she was exhausted. But she got the job done and that’s all that matters. It’s OK to let your house fall into disarray from time to time but eventually, you have to take care of business.

@themessymama4

I’m going to bed now. 🤣🥱😴

We’ll give TikTokker Sannon Martin the final word on this story because she hits the nail on the head. “Your home is exactly like mine,” she wrote. “Some days it’s a wreck and some days it looks amazing. That’s life. You’re doing great!”

This article originally appeared on 03.05.22

Have you ever witnessed something in nature that inexplicably made you cry? You think you’re good—just happily enjoying some beauty or wonder of some sort—and then all of a sudden, out of nowhere, the tears just start flowing.

A viral video of a young woman from Oklahoma having that experience while seeing the ocean in person for the first time has people saying, “Yep. I get it.”

At first, the woman just laughs out loud when she sees the ocean. “There’s no ending! There’s no ending!” she exclaims as she walks down the boardwalk toward the shore. Then, as she steps onto the beach, she has to pause and and put her hands on her knees, clearly overcome with emotion.

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“Damn,” she says, wiping away tears. When the man she’s with wraps his arms around her, she sobs.

If you know, you know. And looking at people’s comments, a lot of people understand her emotional reaction to witnessing the awesomeness of the ocean for the first time.

@genacamp80

I’m glad I captured this moment. ❤️

♬ original sound – Gena Camp

People reacted to the video on Reddit with their own stories of overwhelming awe at the natural world:

“The first time I saw the ocean was a big deal for me too. We drove all day, got there in the dark, and my wife, daughter, and myself stood in silence for a good five minutes in awe. The ocean is the only thing that’s ever given me a religious experience.” – Automaticwriting

“I was coming home from a business trip and was miserable after a long winter travel day. When I got to the hotel there was a dude out front that looked like he was on drugs. Mouth slightly open. Staring up at the sky and kind of circling. I asked if he was OK. He told me he had never seen snow before. It made my day. I hung with him for a bit to soak it in.” – tinsinpindelton

“This is how I reacted during totality of the eclipse! I was surprised because I was looking up at it and then… suddenly I was crying?? lol” – alison_bee

“Such a beautiful reaction. You can never understand the powerful connection we have to nature until you have finally seen something you have always wanted to see in person…you should hear my kid talk about the Sequoias…” – Unique-Pastenger

“As someone who has never lived more than 1.5 hrs from the ocean, I felt the same way when I saw the sand dunes in Tunisia, awe inspiring.” – IronicINFJustices

“I remember going into the Rocky Mountains for the first time a few years ago. We made it to a peak and I looked out into the continental divide and just cried. I’d never seen something that made me feel so small.” – Choco_tooth

People also shared how the ocean still affects them, even when they see it frequently.

“I’ve lived within 2 hours of the ocean my entire life. I can’t fathom what it must be like to see it for the time. To feel it. To smell it. I kinda feel that way every time I go to the shore.” – timothypjr

“I cry when it’s been a long time and I see it again. It’s a powerful thing. It’s so deeply a part of us, our heritage, our survival. I could smell this video.” – -Disagreeable-

“I’ve seen the ocean hundreds of times and i still act this way lol” – diogenessexychicken

“I live right on the ocean and this is my reaction everyday. 🏖❤️” – NoCauliflower1474

There’s something awe-inspiring about the ocean—its immense power and deep mysteries, the diversity of life it contains, the way it connects us to other lands across vast distances, the continuous rhythm of the tides, the sound of the waves breaking on the shore, the soothing blues, grays and greens it reflects. Perhaps there is something primal within us that it speaks to. Maybe it hits us the way a sky full of stars does, making us feel tiny in the grand scheme and putting our lives into perspective.

Whatever it is, when we see someone else profoundly affected by it, so many of us can honestly say, “Yes, I feel that too.” Awe may hit us at different times and be inspired by different things, but the experience of it truly unites us all.

If there’s one thing Uproxx knows best, it’s the importance of being on the dancefloor at once-in-a-lifetime curated events. As per my own submission in the Spring Travel Hot List, “music is the universal force that connects us all.” And if there was any event this spring season that got the memo, it was Texas Eclipse Festival.

The festival welcomed an astounding 35,000 attendees  for its sold-out celestial event in Burnet. Placed within the path of totality, festival founder Mitch Morales and global promoter Disco Donnie executed an event where creativity, music, art, space, and technology converged in one massive celebration. It was essentially the ultimate Burning Man meets Art Basel meets SXSW meets TED Talks destination festival of the year, and possibly even the decade.

Except that…

No professionally curated event can best Mother Nature.

While social media has run rampant over the past couple of weeks with far-fetched rumors, over-exaggerations, and conspiracies as to why the festival abruptly canceled its final day, if you took the time to look into the detrimental weather forecast you’d (mostly) understand. While the days leading up to the festival and even the first three days of the event boasted beautiful Texan sunshine, Monday night’s forecast was bleak.

Thankfully, Texas Eclipse gave attendees the option to stay onsite for the afternoon or leave at their leisure to witness the solar eclipse before the storm arrived. As far as I could tell “Cancelled!” was much more a way to get people’s attention and have them take the forecast seriously. That said, I decided to get offsite — hiking nearby until I found a secluded area surrounded by wildflowers to fully bask in the solar eclipse’s transformational energy.

By later that evening, most attendees were offsite, and while it was upsetting for everyone involved to cancel the final day’s programming, the golf ball-sized hail, thunderous lighting strikes, and flooding on the grounds later that evening and early Tuesday morning should be enough to convince the “FYRE FEST II” skeptics that it was the right call.

(For information on pro-rated refunds, click here.)

With that elephant in the room at least partially dealt with, I want to focus on the three days of the festival that did happen. I’ve been to dozens of music festivals around the world and the celestial art concepts, musical programming, and learning experiences offered by Texas Eclipse are certainly deserving of praise. While the weather and perhaps even some of the overall contingency planning is up for debate, from my vantage Texas Eclipse Festival was one of the best events I’ve ever been to.

Here’s what worked:

Stage Conceptualization

One aspect that immediately jumped out at me was the impressive conceptualization of each stage. While I knew that there would be seven stages, Texas Eclipse took it a step further and curated seven different music environments — each soundtracked by artists whose global sounds matched the energy of that particular space. Paul Oakenfold and Desert Hearts flew us through techno soundscapes on the Sky Stage; Big Gigantic and The Disco Biscuits jammed in a league of their own on the Lone Stage Stage; Subtronics and Zeds Dead revealed low-end soundscapes and illuminating dubstep on the Eclipse Stage; Vincent Antone and Equanimous vibrated connective global beats on the Earth Stage; Distinct Motive and Ashez kept us in awe of their visceral bass on the Moon Stage; and Re:birth Festival hosted its global deep techno collab on the Ether Stage.

But it wasn’t just the artists that made these stages work but rather the art design surrounding each environment. Paired with zero sound overlap among the stages, each stage provided a perfect musical oasis to get lost in.

Nova Sky Stories Stunning Drone Show

One night before the eclipse, there was also a spectacular drone show that kept us in awe of the sky on Sunday night. Nova Sky Stories designed and flew three drone shows between the Eclipse and Lone Star Stage and it was a sight to behold. While the use of drones in sky shows is gaining mainstream appeal, Nova Sky Stories exceeded any preconceived expectations, illustrating for viewers a celestial story full of intergalactic happenings. Flying thousands of drones to mimic an eclipse occurring, spaceships shooting off into space, and spinning planets is truly an art unto itself — one that Texas Eclipse elevated both literally and metaphorically.

Transformational Learning

Aside from the music, Texas Eclipse was home to inspiring conversations and innovative learning. While Reveille Peak Ranch lit up with infectious beats at night, the property hosted some exceptional thought leaders and experts from around the world during the day time, including Paul Stamets, Allyson and Alex Grey, Dr. Andrew Weil, astronauts Brendan Hall and Nicole Stott, BIOTA Institute Director and Chief Scientist Dr. Bruce Damer, international yoga and meditation teacher Hannah Muse, to name a few.

These workshops and inspiring open conversations not only offered a fresh lens on current topics surrounding plant medicine, AI, space technology, and mindful movement, but also cool, shaded areas to retreat to during the day. There was even a Kendama workshop that brought dozens of amateur and skilled players together for a mid-day meetup on the dusty grounds. Unless you’ve been living under a rock, kendama is the newest “flow toy” in the festival community, although it has been around for centuries in Japan. I’ve never seen so many people (including myself) walking around with a kendama to play and practice with at a festival.

With so much happening at all hours, I was fortunate enough to listen in on Andrew Weil’s speech on how eclipses affect consciousness.

“Eclipses make people do and say weird things,” Weil said. “The government doesn’t want you to look up during an eclipse. Eclipses can be threatening to anyone in power because it’s out of the ordinary and makes people question their own consciousness and reality. There are some countries and cultures that bar their windows to prevent their citizens from observing the sky during an eclipse because of this very reason. It can also provoke incredible shifts of thinking and action for those who witness one for days, weeks, and months after.”

Inspired Artwork

When picking out a property to host Texas Eclipse, founder Mitch Morales wanted to ensure it was in the path of totality while also offering enough space to foster a psychedelic playground.

“I wanted to make sure that the location was perfect for this type of event,” Morales said. “[Reveille Peak Ranch] is an incredible property. It spans over 1,300 acres, 60 miles of hiking trails, and elevated hilltops for optimal viewing of the eclipse.”

What’s impressive about this feat is that only 200 acres were dedicated to the campgrounds, leaving 1,100 acres for the seven sound “environments” and additional art programming. Almost every nook and cranny of the festival grounds boasted some sort of art installation, immersive experience, or renegade stage. From Meow Wolf’s “Gone Fishing” activation, Gregg Fleishman’s Sky Portal X sculpture, the Multiversal Dome that featured the artistic work of VJ Android Jones and innovative teams Chimera.art and Microdose VR, to the various glow-in-the-dark and LED art installations lining the walking paths to the stages and within the vending areas, Texas Eclipse filled up Reveille Peak Ranch with effervescent and psychedelic eye candy.

Even synesthetic artist Sarah Kraning — who was supposed to live paint during the totality of the eclipse on Monday — found the beauty in shaping her art to the ebb and flow of the festival’s abrupt cancelation on Monday morning and found solace within the quietness of Texas Hill Country.

“We sourced a private location on Monday morning, a family friend’s ranch in Florence, TX just 20 minutes away from the festival grounds,” she told me later about her painting session. “I did not know what to expect…leading up to totality. Wildlife was really loud and the spot was full of bird calls. When it became totality, it became quiet pretty suddenly and then all that was left was crickets chirping. My painting actually illustrates a timeline of painting the sounds 30 minutes before totality and 15 minutes after totality. During totality, the painting doesn’t have a lot of color due to the lack of sound that was experienced and observed during totality. Right after totality, there was an eruption of sound as the birds and other animals saw the sun again, so it was very colorful for me right away. I didn’t expect it to be so intense.”

Fans can snag one of the only 1,000 high-quality prints of Kraning’s eclipse painting by making a donation of $125 or more to Re:wild. With a global network of more than 500 partners in 86 countries, Re:wild is driving the conservation of 450 million acres of wild places, protecting thousands of species, and equipping our Earth’s Guardians to be effective stewards of our shared home. To donate and receive a print, click here.

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While Texas Eclipse may not have been perfect, mostly due to Mother Nature’s spoiler role, the festival offered a global reunion for curious learners, dancefloor gurus, and wisdom sharers to one of the world’s only locations to witness this celestial phenomena in totality. It was truly special to witness — even with the hiccups.

SEE MORE TEXAS ECLIPSE PHOTOS BELOW:

Baby Reindeer might be Netflix‘s latest hit, but the chilling story behind the show has inspired other people to speak out about their own harrowing stalking experiences, including Miranda Cosgrove.

In 2020, the iCarly star revealed that four years prior, she had been stalked by a man who later set himself on fire and took his life in front of her home. Cosgrove recalled the story to Whitney Cummings, and now, she revealed even more about the scary situation.

Cosgrove, who stars in Netflix’s rom-com Mother of the Bride, told Bustle that the incident still affects her. “That’s another reason why I go back and forth to my parents’ house so much,” she said. “I just don’t feel super safe in that house. For two years after it happened, I wouldn’t really stay there. Then I got into a relationship and because that person was there with me, I was less scared. But I don’t really like being there on my own that much.”

Cosgrove’s stalker had been frequenting the actress’ house, and even shot at a woman who resembled her. Cosgrove met the survivor at an event years later. “This girl came up to me, and she was like, ‘I didn’t know if I should tell you this here or how to say this, but I’m actually the girl that was at your house that got shot at.’ She seemed like she processes things in a similar way that I do,” Cosgrove said. “She said she’d just gone through a breakup the night before and was going to her friend’s house because she was so distraught. When they brought her into the Hollywood Police Station to ask what he looked like and how it all happened, the detectives were like, ‘Start from the very beginning. What happened?’ And she was like, ‘Well, he broke up with me last night,’ and she started telling them all about her breakup.”

Even though Cosgrove enjoyed Baby Reindeer, she said she could never retell her trauma on a show in the way that Richard Gadd does. “I feel like if that were me, having to go back through your most terrible experiences and then try to act them [out], that’d be so hard,” she confessed.

Meanwhile, the real-life “Martha” from Baby Reindeer insists that the Netflix series is not accurate. “He is lying, and they [Netflix] are lying,” Fiona Harvey told Piers Morgan. “They have billed it as a true story, so has he, and it’s not. It’s blatantly not.”

Both Baby Reindeer and Mother of thee Bride are streaming on Netflix. Chose wisely.

(Via People)

The hustle is real in the video for Coi Leray‘s new synthpop single, “Lemon Cars.” While Coi is primarily known as a rapper, she’s been known to dabble in other genres, and that’s exactly what she does for this sympathetic review of a strip club employee’s nightly struggles. The title appears to be a reference to the protagonist’s tendency to get so inebriated that she mixes up the terms “lemon drop” and “fancy cars.” The character is so caught up in the hustle, that she loses track of time and her sense of self, but knows that living in a blur risks eventually hitting a wall.

The video gives Coi another chance to show off her growing pole dance skills as she embodies the burnt-out protagonist, going from the club’s stage to its bar and back to keep herself from feeling the exhaustion of the paper chase. On her Twitter account (not “X,” be serious), Coi elaborated on the song’s pro-stripper philosphy.

“I know strippers who own houses , businesses, real deal boss ass bitches get money bitches,” she wrote. “some with degrees and some without ! But I know the hustle speaks for itself every time . Come correct when you speaking on strippers . Tuh! Keep doing you ladies!”

You can watch Coi Leray’s “Lemon Cars” above.

Chris Pine is winning. He says as much when talking about the fact that his labor of love – Poolman – is getting a theatrical release with a premiere at the historic Vista Theater in LA and playing at the Angelika in New York.

The film is a winding neo-noir about a daffy disheveled pool cleaner obsessed with preserving the history of LA. If you look back on all of Pine’s many magazine covers and blockbuster turns where he’s always smiling, confident, and put together, this might seem like his biggest challenge. If you check out his much-celebrated chill style in pictures of him running errands to LA book stores or listen to him talk about the film, the subject of feeling alone, or frustrated by the way LA (and the world, in general) is rapidly losing some of its beauty and charm, though, it becomes clear that this is Chris Pine’s most personal project.

Poolman is, at its heart, something born from Pine’s desire to tell a story about lonely people in a version of LA he grew up around. A city that can give and take so much when it comes to dream fulfillment. That all of that is nestled inside of a screwball comedy is an interesting choice for the star who is also making his writing and directorial debut here. Does it work? I think so and Pine seems really happy with the end result and the fact that he was able to step away from his day job and do something that pushed on the boundaries of structure in a way that’s interesting to him. He’s also aware that some critics haven’t loved it, but his description of the film as a “wavelength” film that might not appeal to everyone speaks to a healthy view on such a subjective thing.

We discuss all of that, at length, with Pine. From the soul of this project to what he wants to bring to possibly his last go as Captain Kirk in Star Trek, the vulnerability of being the only one accountable for a film, and the poetry he sees in artfully created things.

There’s a beautiful moment in the movie with you and Stephen Tobolowsky that I don’t want to ruin, but your character talks about loneliness a little bit. It really made me think about the idea of feeling alone when you’re in a room full of people. I know this was sort of a pandemic baby, timing wise. How did the loneliness of that era come through in this character and the script?

It really had less to do with the pandemic. I would say the pandemic, contextually, was the impetus to do it because personally, I was going through some difficult moments in my life. I had to process a lot, I think it was then, compounded with the isolation of the pandemic.

The idea of the aloneness was my own. I’ve felt alone a lot of my life and outside of the cool class. And the great irony of my life is that I’m hired to play these guys that are sometimes the epitome of cool, when I don’t feel that way at all. So I wanted to make a film, ultimately, that really, at its heart, is a story about trauma and resolving trauma. But instead of going at it directly, I asked myself, “Well, what would it look like if you went completely in the opposite direction and not in a dramedy way, but go so far as to make a screwball comedy, “What would that look like? Can those two tones hold one another?” And I don’t know if I was totally successful, but that was the aim of it, really.

And a lot of people comment on the Stephen thing and the moment, and I think it’s because it’s the first time in the film that I let anybody actually listen to one another. The film is very much about my experience growing up, where it just felt loud and non-relational. And the moment in the film is when two people, the antagonist and the protagonist, find themselves in a place where they’re like two eight-year-olds on a playground apologizing to one another. Anyway, that felt good to me.

In terms of telling this meandering story… which I say that in a good way. I’m a big fan of films like The Long Goodbye. But the idea of telling a story in that way, with a searching kind of film, was the goal, “I want to tell a story like that,” or was it more that it fit this character?

I’ve very rarely had an opportunity to push the boundaries of failure. To really push the boundaries of, I’m going to just do what I want to do. I’m going to explore my instinct. And in exploring my instinct, all that is good is what delights me and what in my inside says yes. And if that means having a scene about three people talking about the whys and wherefores of an uncooked Japanese dinner, because it made me happy, then that’s what I’m going to do.

We spent a lot of time analyzing structure and we went through many permutations of it and it just, frankly, bored me. So I would rather sacrifice structure and what should happen at the midpoint for… Yeah, what I say about this is, you can come for the story, but you’re going to stay for the characters and it’s like a wavelength film. You either get on board and like it or you don’t and you like these characters and want to hang out or you don’t. And there was no conscious trying. It was simply following my giggle.

I’m curious about the aspect of his character where he’s so committed to preservation, history. Why was that a key pillar for him?

Because I talk about that all the time. Even driving here today, I was looking at some of the buildings that we’re building on, I don’t know, you name it, Santa Monica. Aesthetically, I find them… I am more in love with an LA… I romanticize a pre-war LA that’s the old Spanish homes and the Art Deco, the beautiful Art Deco stuff. Some wonderful buildings made in the mid-century, but they’re few and far between. The days when we had a trolley car system all over LA, traversing it you could get from the San Gabriel Mountains to the beach in 30 minutes.

I feel like we make things now that are disposable, that are made for pure function without any eye toward beauty. As if to make sustainable housing – which I’m all about and housing people – but because it’s made for people that can’t afford it, it should be made in the cheapest way humanly possible? Buildings that we look at every day, driving by, and we’re going to have to look at for the next 75 years, it breaks my heart.

I was at a museum over the weekend and I was thinking to myself about the disposability of things and… what will be in a museum for us in a hundred years? Nothing. It’s all digital, cheap plastic and gone.

Yeah! Exactly. You know what I think about this is that we are moving towards, especially with… I feel like the end game of this march of technology is to make things easy for everyone all the time. So that we’ll become some sort of Stellan Skarsgård in Dune sitting in a vat of oil, like everything’s fed into us and we just move things with our eyes. I think there’s a beauty in things that are difficult, craft that is difficult, and things that take time.

We’ll never have artisans anymore that will want to spend the time, nor will we pay them, to build the old subway terminal building downtown that’s now whatever the hell it is. There was an artisan that built something in the corner, a beautiful piece of stone masonry that no one would ever see, and yet someone paid for that guy to do it because, simply, it was beautiful. I find that deeply poetic and tragic that we don’t do that anymore.

Obviously, reviews have been a little mixed.

(Laughs) That’s generous, but I appreciate that.

Listen, it hit me. I’m on the wavelength.

Oh, good. Well, far out. I like that.

There’s only so much you can control with something like this, especially once it’s out the door. But that you were able to make this statement, that you were able to put this out there, is that enough? Or is it a disappointment if it’s not fully absorbed and heard?

Well, it’s a really good question. I think it gets to really the nut of what I’ve been experiencing the past year. I think the deep vulnerability of… There’s one thing being hired as an actor, and I’ve been inured to shitty reviews as any actor has over the years, and what you look like and the quippy bullshit the critics throw out there. You just get used to it and it’s fine. It’s all good. And also, you can hide behind the director, the writer, the editor, the release pattern, fucking the music.

Not this time.

This is about as close as it gets to being a standup comedian, walking up on stage and being right there looking at people. So I’m not going to sit here and lie to you and say, it’s like water off a duck’s back. No, it sucks. And the delight that critics took in tearing this film apart was… And thankfully, I haven’t read anything, thank God, but I’ve had enough of an idea of what’s been going on.

That made me sad. But man, I tell you, the growth, it’s the best thing that ever happened to me. Oddly. It’s the best thing that ever happened to me. Better, in fact, I think of people who were patting my back because I can still sit here and say, “I watched the film over and over again, and it absolutely tickles me to no end.” It hasn’t taken away from the joy of it. There’s hurt in it, and there’s some deeper messages in it that I think are important that people don’t want to pay attention to, and that’s their prerogative. But I have my premiere tomorrow night at the Vista, and I’m going to have a party.

With Star Trek, if you get the chance again, how excited are you to grow that character? Play him at this space in your life. As more of a grownup?

So fun, so stoked. I love that character so much, and I love that world and quite honestly, I love the people that I’m playing with. I love my friends. I think we would have a blast. I think we’d have such a blast. So much has changed in… Oh my God, 17 years. So much has changed.

That’s a hard one.

Yeah, tell me about it. I don’t want to talk about it either. We’ll just scoot right past that. I think it’d be a lot of fun. And as I’ve said, I think there’s a journey with this group of people and this… They’ve said that it’s the last one that they’re making as we’re aging out, this cast. It’s a pity that they’re saying it’s the last one. Because I think there are a lot of great stories to tell.

And also, on a scale that is more manageable in appeal. Look, we always try to get to the Marvel numbers of making a billion dollars, and we never did because Star Trek is its own beast. It’s like Poolman, you either get it or you don’t. So why don’t we just make it for the people that get it and like, go on with it?

‘Poolman’ is playing in limited release. Check local listings.