I’ve never been in a war zone, but as a mother of three, I’ve pictured it. Any time I read a news story about a part of the world that’s exploded into violence, I imagine what it must be like for parents—especially those with small children—living through it. How do they explain what’s happening? How do they comfort their kids when they themselves are terrified? How do they shield their children not only from unthinkable atrocity but from fear itself?
Joseph Fasano’s poem “Words Whispered to a Child Under Siege” hits at the heart of those questions in a scenario that has played out countless times throughout human history. The poem’s narrator is a father trying to comfort his child while they hide from soldiers in their house, and the way he makes a game out of it highlights the lengths parents will go to help children feel safe, even when they objectively aren’t.
Fasano shared the poem on social media and it has been shared tens of thousands of time from different accounts. As one page warned, “Prepare your heart before reading.” It’s solid advice, though it’s hard to know how to prepare for it.
The poem reads:
No, we are not going to die.
The sounds you hear
knocking the windows and chipping the paint
from the ceiling, that is a game
the world is playing.
Our task is to crouch in the dark as long as we can
and count the beats of our own hearts.
Good. Like that. Lay your hand
on my heart and I’ll lay mine on yours.
Which one of us wins
is the one who loves the game the most
while it lasts.
Yes, it is going to last.
You can use your ear instead of your hand.
Here, on my heart.
Why is it beating faster? For you. That’s all.
I always wanted you to be born
and so did the world.
No, those aren’t a stranger’s bootsteps in the house.
Fasano wrote in Instagram, “I hope these words do what words can do sometimes.” They did, judging by the comment section:
“Gorgeously gut wrenching poem to read, and difficult to wrap our minds around the idea that this is and has been far too many people’s reality…I’ve been a fan of your poems for a while. You provide the perfect example I can show my students of how art and writing help us maintain our humanity ❤️“
“Thank you, Mr. Fasano. I have been walking around unable to make sense of anything that is happening in the world and I feel myself shutting down. Your words give voice to everything that I cannot find the words for. Thank you for your poetry. Thank you for sharing.”
“Thank you for this tender and horrifying poem at such a time as this. How necessary your words are.”
Poetry has a way of saying so much in so few words. Here we see a father’s translating his frightened heartbeat and tears of terror into love for his child. We see him calling upon the child’s mother as a way to comfort in an impossible situation. We see him blatantly lying—”You’re safe. Those aren’t bootsteps. Those aren’t flames,” all to keep his child from being afraid.
And the fact that this could be any father in any war zone in any place and time is a heartbreaking reminder of our shared humanity.
No matter the conflict or the rationale behind it, innocent people are the primary victims of war and children always pay the biggest price. When tensions and passions run high, we must remember this: Wars don’t break out between average citizens just trying to live their lives in peace. War is a fight between powers, with men in safe rooms ordering less powerful men to take up arms against their fellow human beings. Average citizens don’t want any part of these conflicts—they just want to take their kids to the park, talk about their days over family dinner and not worry about what games to play with their children if or when the bombs and boots start dropping.
You can find more of Joseph Fasano’s poetry on Instagram and X (formerly Twitter), and you can pre-order his book, “The Magic Words: Simple Poetry Prompts That Unlock the Creativity in Everyone,” here.
Fifth-grade teacher Emily E. Smith is not your ordinary teacher.
She founded The Hive Society — a classroom that’s all about inspiring children to learn more about their world … and themselves — by interacting with literature and current events. Students watch TED talks, read Rolling Stone, and analyze infographics. She even has a long-distance running club to encourage students to take care of their minds and bodies.
Smith is such an awesome teacher, in fact, that she recently received the 2015 Donald H. Graves Award for Excellence in the Teaching of Writing.
It had always been her dream to work with children in urban areas, so when Smith started teaching, she hit the ground running. She had her students making podcasts, and they had in-depth discussions about their readings on a cozy carpet.
But in her acceptance speech for her award, she made it clear that it took a turning point in her career before she really got it:
“Things changed for me the day when, during a classroom discussion, one of my kids bluntly told me I “couldn’t understand because I was a white lady.” I had to agree with him. I sat there and tried to speak openly about how I could never fully understand and went home and cried, because my children knew about white privilege before I did. The closest I could ever come was empathy.”
Smith knew that just acknowledging her white privilege wasn’t enough.
She wanted to move beyond just empathy and find a way to take some real action that would make a difference for her students.
She kept the same innovative and engaging teaching methods, but she totally revamped her curriculum to include works by people who looked like her students. She also carved out more time to discuss issues that her students were facing, such as xenophobia and racism.
And that effort? Absolutely worth it.
As she said in her acceptance speech:
“We studied the works of Sandra Cisneros, Pam Munoz Ryan, and Gary Soto, with the intertwined Spanish language and Latino culture — so fluent and deep in the memories of my kids that I saw light in their eyes I had never seen before.”
The changes Smith made in her classroom make a whole lot of sense. And they’re easy enough for teachers everywhere to make:
— They studied the work of historical Latino figures, with some of the original Spanish language included. Many children of color are growing up in bilingual households. In 2007, 55.4 million Americans 5 years of age and older spoke a language other than English at home.
— They analyzed the vision of America that great writers of color sought to create. And her students realized that our country still isn’t quite living up to its ideals. Despite progress toward racial equality with the end of laws that enforced slavery or segregation, we still have a long way to go. Black people still fare worse than white people when it comes to things like wealth, unfair arrests, and health.
— They read excerpts from contemporary writers of color, like Ta-Nehisi Coates who writes about race. Her students are reading and learning from a diverse group of writers. No small thing when they live in a society that overwhelmingly gives more attention to white male writers (and where the number of employees of color in the newspaper industry stagnates at a paltry 12%).
— They read about the Syrian crisis, and many students wrote about journeys across the border in their family history for class. The opportunity particularly struck one student; the assignment touched him so much that he cried. He never had a teacher honor the journey his family made. And he was proud of his heritage for the first time ever. “One child cried,” Smith shared, “and told me he never had a teacher who honored the journey his family took to the United States. He told me he was not ashamed anymore, but instead proud of the sacrifice his parents made for him.”
Opportunities like this will only increase as the number of children from immigrant families is steadily increasing. As of 2013, almost 17.4 million children under 18 have at least one immigrant parent.
Smith now identifies not just as an English teacher, but as a social justice teacher.
Smith’s successful shift in her teaching is an example for teachers everywhere, especially as our schools become increasingly ethnically and racially diverse. About 80% of American teachers are white. But as of last year, the majority of K-12 students in public schools are now children of color.
As America’s demographics change, we need to work on creating work that reflects the experiences that our students relate to. And a more diverse curriculum isn’t just important for students of color. It’s vital for everyone.
As Smith put it, “We, the teachers, are responsible for instilling empathy and understanding in the hearts of all kids. We are responsible for the future of this country.”
“The greater the artist, the greater the doubt. Perfect confidence is granted to the less talented as a consolation prize.” ― Robert Hughes
Great artists tend to live life swimming in a vast ocean of self-doubt. It’s that special blend of insecurity and perfectionism that fuels their desire to hone their craft and get better with each piece.
But that self-doubt can also be paralyzing and prevent potential artists from picking up the pen, paintbrush or guitar.
To encourage his mother to stick with her art, Reddit user Gaddafo shared a picture of his mother, Cindi Decker, a school teacher from Florida, holding a lovely painting she made of an egret.
“My mom painted this and said no one would like it. It’s her 2nd painting,” he wrote.
Then Reddit user Cacahahadoodoo asked the forum to take the post a step further. “Someone paint the photo of his mom holding her painting and repost it with the same title for extra extra karma,” they wrote.
Karma is a reward earned for posting popular content on the online forum.
Reddit user u/k__z jumped on the task and painted a picture of Decker holding her painting.
Then lillyofthenight took things a step further by painting a picture of herself holding a painting of u/k__z holding his painting of Decker holding her painting of an egret.
“Took a while and not perfect, but I painted the guy who painted the other guy’s mom,” she wrote.
Then seamusywray stepped in with his contribution and things started to get freaky. “I painted the girl who painted the guy who painted the other guy’s mom who painted an egret,” he wrote.
This kicked off a chain reaction that’s come to be known “paintception.”
Decker was shocked by the chain reaction and couldn’t believe she inspired so many people to paint.
“Even though people say, ‘You inspired me to paint,’ I don’t know that it was so much me. I really give credit to the first artist who painted,” she told the CBC. “You know, I’m not a painter. I’m just somebody who went out and did a little painting thing, so I got lucky to get caught up in all this fun craziness.”
The Killer director told British GQ that he hasn’t seen the 1999 film-turned-dorm room poster in 20 years. “And I don’t want to,” he said. When asked if he has an aversion to watching his own movies, Fincher replied, “No — yes. It’s like looking at your grade school pictures, or something. Yeah, I was there.”
Fincher isn’t interested in his old work, but he did discuss a film of his that never was, a sequel to World War Z. “Well, it was a little like The Last of Us. I’m glad that we didn’t do what we were doing, because The Last of Us has a lot more real estate to explore the same stuff. In our title sequence, we were going to use the little parasite… they used it in their title sequence, and in that wonderful opening with the Dick Cavett, David Frost-style talk show,” he said.
Uproxx‘s Mike Ryan calledThe Killer a “bloody, fun, gritty movie about an angry assassin.” If you love da Finchman, you’ll want to see it. The Killer plays in select theaters beginning October 27th before hitting Netflix on November 10th.
“The greater the artist, the greater the doubt. Perfect confidence is granted to the less talented as a consolation prize.” ― Robert Hughes
Great artists tend to live life swimming in a vast ocean of self-doubt. It’s that special blend of insecurity and perfectionism that fuels their desire to hone their craft and get better with each piece.
But that self-doubt can also be paralyzing and prevent potential artists from picking up the pen, paintbrush or guitar.
To encourage his mother to stick with her art, Reddit user Gaddafo shared a picture of his mother, Cindi Decker, a school teacher from Florida, holding a lovely painting she made of an egret.
“My mom painted this and said no one would like it. It’s her 2nd painting,” he wrote.
Then Reddit user Cacahahadoodoo asked the forum to take the post a step further. “Someone paint the photo of his mom holding her painting and repost it with the same title for extra extra karma,” they wrote.
Karma is a reward earned for posting popular content on the online forum.
Reddit user u/k__z jumped on the task and painted a picture of Decker holding her painting.
Then lillyofthenight took things a step further by painting a picture of herself holding a painting of u/k__z holding his painting of Decker holding her painting of an egret.
“Took a while and not perfect, but I painted the guy who painted the other guy’s mom,” she wrote.
Then seamusywray stepped in with his contribution and things started to get freaky. “I painted the girl who painted the guy who painted the other guy’s mom who painted an egret,” he wrote.
This kicked off a chain reaction that’s come to be known “paintception.”
Decker was shocked by the chain reaction and couldn’t believe she inspired so many people to paint.
“Even though people say, ‘You inspired me to paint,’ I don’t know that it was so much me. I really give credit to the first artist who painted,” she told the CBC. “You know, I’m not a painter. I’m just somebody who went out and did a little painting thing, so I got lucky to get caught up in all this fun craziness.”
Sage Pasch’s unique family situation has attracted a lot of attention recently. The 20-something mother of 2 shared a 6-second TikTok video on September 29 that has been viewed over 33 million times because it shows how hard it can be for young moms to be taken seriously.
In the video, the young-looking Pasch took her son Nick to the ER after he injured his leg at school. But when the family got to the hospital, the doctor couldn’t believe Pasch was his mother. “POV, we’re at the ER, and the doctor didn’t believe I was the parent,” she captioned the post.
Pasch and her fiancé , Luke Faircloth, adopted the teen in 2022 after his parents tragically died two years apart. “Nick was already spending so much time with us, so it made sense that we would continue raising him,” Pasch told Today.com.
The couple also has a 17-month-old daughter named Lilith.
Pasch says that people are often taken aback by her family when they are out in public. “Everybody gets a little confused because my fiancé and I are definitely younger to have a teenager,” she said. “It can be very frustrating.”
It may be hard for the young parents to be taken seriously, but their story has made a lot of people in a similar situation feel seen. “Omg, I feel this. I took my son to the ER, and they asked for the guardian. Yes, hi, that’s me,” Brittany wrote in the comments. “Meee with my teenager at a parent-teacher conference. They think I’m her older sister and say we need to talk with your parents,” KatMonroy added.
According to a new report from Billboard, Spotify is apparently going to be paying even less to smaller artists when it comes to streams next year. This is due to a plan to restructure the company’s royalty system and it “will de-monetize tracks that had previously received 0.5% of Spotify’s royalty pool.”
This comes with a new threshold of “minimal annual streams” that songs need to meet before they can even start receiving the minimum amount of royalties. Another change is that there will be “financial penalties” for labels and distributors when it comes to creating fraudulent streaming activity on songs.
Finally, there is a minimum play-time length for all non-music uploads, with examples listed as nature sounds or “white noise.”
So, how much exactly will Spotify be paying artists for 2024?
Right now, it is still unclear when it comes to the exact amount. The streaming platform has been suspected to only pay artists a few cents per stream. However, they reject this on their company website, pointing out that they just “distribute the net revenue,” without an exact number range.
“We’re always evaluating how we can best serve artists, and regularly discuss with partners ways to further platform integrity,” a Spotify spokesperson told Billboard about the changes. “We do not have any news to share at this time.”
Last night (October 24), pop hitmaker Olivia Rodrigo made an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live!. During the interview portion of the show, Rodrigo and Kimmel talked about how she and her family have adjusted to her rapid rise to pop stardom, having to tone down some of her lyrics, and an embarrassing mix-up following an appearance at the White House.
The first time Rodrigo appeared on Kimmel, she had just visited the White House, where she met President Joe Biden. She told Kimmel that Biden had gifted her a shoehorn. However, two years later, she revealed that the gift wasn’t actually what she thought it was.
“I thought that he gave me a shoehorn,” Rodrigo said. “He gave me a bag of like, President Biden goodies. Like M&Ms and stuff, and I was like ‘What is this weird thing?’ And I went on the air, and I was like ‘President Biden gave me a shoehorn, ha ha ha.’ And I went home and found out was an ice cream scoop. And I had lied to you.”
Kimmel assured Rodrigo that she didn’t actually lie, and then pulled out a picture of the ice cream scoop.
“It’s very obvious I don’t know what a shoehorn looks like,” Rodrigo said. “Does that look like a shoehorn at all?”
“It doesn’t even look like an ice cream scoop,” Kimmel said.
You can see the clip above and decide for yourself.
About three fourths of the way through this interview, Alexander Payne stops and asks, “Are you sure you have everything you need? Because this is pretty wide ranging.” And he’s right, there are a lot of topics covered because interviewing Alexander Payne is like talking to a nonstop cinema reference machine. Not like a Tarantino where his references more play as, “How could anyone possibly know that?,” but more references that make a person feel guilty for not knowing. And the last time I spoke to Payne, way back in 2013 for Nebraska, I do remember feeling guilty quite a bit. In a “Why can’t I easily engage with his references and examples?,” kind of way. Since 2013, I, like I suppose almost literally everyone, have seen more movies since I had then. And I walked away from this only feeling guilty I haven’t seen Billy Wilder’s Ace in the Hole (which I will correct soon).
When I spoke to Payne (which took place at his hotel on Manhattan’s Upper East Side), he poo-poo’d the notion that The Holdovers is back-to-basics after his last film, the high concept Downsizing, didn’t really hit with critics or audiences. He calls Downsizing the anomaly in his filmography, as all his other films, like The Holdovers now, are character studies. Which, he’s not wrong about that.
In The Holdovers, Payne, finally, re-teams with Paul Giamatti, 19 years after Sideways. Actually, Payne reveals (first off the record, then changes his mind) that Giamatti was supposed to star in Downsizing but he couldn’t get funding until Matt Damon was attached. Regardless, things worked out the way they were supposed to because Giamatti is just terrific here as Paul Hunham, a, let’s say, not very popular teacher at a northeastern private school who is staying behind during the winter break to look after the handful of students who have nowhere to go for one reason or another. Paul eventually forms a bond with a freewheeling teen, Angus (Dominic Sessa) and the two, yes, begin to learn more about themselves along the way. It’s truly a hangout movie in the best possible way.
When the interview starts, it starts off the record. Payne loves Paul Giamatti, but this segued into the rare occasions he had an actor on set he didn’t love working with, which for obvious reasons he doesn’t want to share with the world who those people are. So when we pick up the conversation has steered to how he’s worked with some of the biggest names out there and has, mostly, gotten lucky in that regard. Also, as mentioned, this ahead is pretty wide-ranging, but Payne gets into why his next film will be a Western, set in the 19th century in his home state of Nebraska, and he hopes to feature Giamatti again. When I asked who his Western influences were, he mentioned Sam Peckinpah and I now really do want to see an Alexander Payne Western influenced by Sam Peckinpah.
To transition on the record, it seems like you cast well and you don’t run into that very often.
I have not. No, and never in a major part. Of the big guys I’ve had, Nicholson was tremendous, Clooney was tremendous, Giamatti, Laura Dern, Reese Witherspoon, Stacy Keach – have always been tremendous. I’ve had bad luck only with a couple. On time, know their dialogue, there to deliver, there to discern what the director needs and find out what the movie’s about and do that. I’ve had really good luck.
We were talking about Downsizing, does The Holdovers come as a reaction to Downsizing? Because they feel like exact opposite movies.
Is The Holdovers a reaction to Downsizing?
Because Downsizing is such a concept and this is more character-driven.
I’ve done eight feature films, Downsizing is the anomaly. The other seven, sort of, are what you saying…
Right. So does this feel like a back-to-basics almost?
I don’t know about basics, but back to the stories that are just nice little human comedies that I’ve been trying to make from the get-go. Nice little human comedies.
Speaking of, why did it take so long for you and Paul Giamatti to get back together? Because you obviously work very well together and make very good movies.
I’m slow with screenplays. Were I at bat more often, I would’ve been working with Mr. Giamatti sooner. But he wasn’t right for The Descendants, wasn’t right for Nebraska. Off the record, we wrote Downsizing for him and can’t get financing to the tune of $65 million with him in the lead. So I took another fine actor, Matt Damon, but I did have Paul Giamatti in mind for Downsizing originally. Back on the record… or you can say that if you want that, that I had had Paul in mind originally for Downsizing. In as much as you see the great director’s careers, and John Ford and John Wayne and Kurosawa with Toshiro Mifune, Fellini and Marcello, when a director gets to have an alter ego. Giamatti feels like he would function that way well for me. He’s the perfect vessel of tone. Because he can do dramatic things comically and comic things seriously, and he’s just so watchable and lovable. He’s just an excellent vessel of tone.
And you’ve only used him twice.
Oh, you’ve got to start somewhere.
I read you want to make a Western next. Can he be in your Western?
Yeah.
So he is going to be in your Western?
I’ve got to write the fucker first! We have to write it first. But yes.
You mentioned John Ford, is that the kind of Western you want to make? Like The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance or The Searchers? Or is this something else?
I prefer… well, The Searchers is a great film. I’m not as high on Liberty Valance as others are. Sorry, I don’t want to get too granular. If you’re sort of asking, am I speaking about a traditional Western or what they call contemporary Western or something like that? No, I don’t really recognize contemporary Westerns as Westerns. I think Westerns are Westerns.
Well, I guess I’m asking who your influence would be for a Western?
In classical Westerns? Anthony Mann and Peckinpah.
Oh, interesting.
And William Wellman.
Like Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia? I guess what would be more contemporary.
Right. More Ride the High Country, which I think is a true masterpiece.
I don’t think of you and Peckinpah in the same sentence very often. That’s very interesting.
I like good Westerns!
I can imagine you like his movies, but I don’t think of your movies alongside his very often. They do feel like they’re very different tones. So that’d be really interesting for you to make a movie like he makes them.
No, it wouldn’t be like he makes them. I would make a movie like I make them!
Well, it’s still fascinating. I am very curious about this.
But then also, you have to throw in the ’70s Westerns. I don’t really like the term revisionist Western but throw in Little Big Man, throw in McCabe & Mrs. Miller.
So Altman, too…
Movies that show that the Western can be an infinitely malleable form. It would be late 19th century in the American West. Probably specifically Nebraska.
We discussed last time but I grew up somewhat close to that area, Kansas City…
Oh, that’s right. You’re our neighbor. You’re where we go for weekends away. Speaking of Robert Altman. Robert Altman and Walt Disney.
During the worst of the pandemic, I did a deeper dive into Altman. To the point, I’ve seen movies like HealtHnow.
What’d you think?
Of HealtH?
No, of his career arc.
Oh, I love him. But he’s fascinating, he makes some very weird movies sometimes.
Well, the cool thing about him is that, and the extremely admirable thing about him, is he just never stopped working. He didn’t care if each individual movie was going to be great or not, he just wanted to keep working. I mean, he often referred to himself or would compare himself more to a painter than a filmmaker.
Yeah, that early ’80s stretch is very strange.
He just wanted to keep making paintings.
Obviously, the first movie I ever saw of his was Popeye when I was a little kid.
Which is dreadful.
It’s tough…
I think it’s dreadful.
It was on cable when I was sick with COVID in early September. I tried watching it…
How did it hold up?
I find that movie interesting but I’m not sure his style of making movies was the best for Popeye.
I saw it when it came out. I saw the week it came out in 1980 or whatever that was. And I think my girlfriend and I at the time walked out of it, we just couldn’t take it. I saw it in Medellin, Colombia.
Wait, what?
Down in Colombia.
Wait, so you’re in the country of Colombia, and you’re like, “Let’s go see Popeye.”
Yeah, movie-crazy. So we went to go see Popeye at a mall down there in Medellin, and I think we walked out.
How did it go over with the rest of the crowd?
This is 40 years ago, man. I can’t remember.
When you write your autobiography, that’s where it starts, seeing Popeye in Colombia.
In Medellin, Columbia, yeah.
I think you were on stage at a film festival and you were talking about how there are certain movies that don’t get made anymore. And I think you mentioned Out of Africa and The English Patient…
Oh yeah. Oh, when I was at the Lumière Film Festival the other day. How’d you find that out?
I just thought those were two interesting movies to bring up. I mean, Ridley Scott has Napoleon coming up. That’s kind of an epic on the Out of Africa scale?
Well, yeah. And so that’s groovy, yes. But I do miss, in general, things being made that are, let’s say, adult dramas with visual scope being made.
Out of Africa obviously won Best Picture, but it made a lot of money, too.
Right. But when you have beautiful stars and beautiful places doing cool things, just romantically…
Is The English Patient doing cool things? He didn’t turn out too well in the end.
Yeah, but still the milieu is so beautiful.
It’s a very beautiful movie. So is Out of Africa.
The studios will spend a little dough on something which doesn’t have a whole lot of contrivance.
Both movies have nice shots of old airplanes flying, and I assume that costs a lot of money to do.
And beautiful music, and there’s very good traditional scores. John Barry on Out of Africa, this phenomenal score. I forget who did The English Patient. [Note: It’s Gabriel Yared, who won an Oscar for his efforts.]
John Barry does one of my favorite scores, The Black Hole.
The Black Hole? Is that a Disney movie?
It is.
And that’s a John Berry score?
I believe so, yeah.
Oh, very good.
It is very ominous. And didn’t he do a lot of James Bond movies?
He did the James Bond movies, right. And a lot of ’60s British films.
That I hadn’t seen, or at least hadn’t seen since I was a little kid.
Including Around the World in 80 Days?
Oh, man. Yes, I did not enjoy that movie.
The clunkers.
Oh gosh, there are some really bad Best Picture winners. And I know Spielberg loves it but The Greatest Show on Earth is not great…
Oh yeah, no.
Okay, but back to those kinds of movies, it does seem like streaming is making some movies like that.
Streaming will spend some dough on things. And in that same talk, I brought up how much I admired Pablo Larrain’s El Conde, which is kind of a critique of Latin American dictators, Pinoche in particular.
Right, he’s a vampire.
It’s so phenomenal that thing got made, and with the dough he had with which to make it. I mean, it’s really a phenomenal film. And I was just lamenting that, I mean, it’s a double-edged sword, because it’s so fantastic that Netflix paid for it … and then no one is seeing it theatrically. I’m not the first person to say that it’s a double-edged sword, because those films get made, but then they disappear quickly.
Well, that’s what I wanted to ask you. I mentioned when I was sick with COVID in the beginning of September and I just watched whatever was on cable. I saw Election three times that week. That movie still has a life because it’s on cable and we still get this shared experience. If Election was an Amazon movie only, I’m never going to just decide to watch it.
Allowing you to stumble across it.
Exactly.
I never thought that before, but I think that’s a really good point. [Starts writing a note] Yeah, I’m just making a note about how cable allows you to stumble upon things. And I wouldn’t call it a shared experience, because I think the only true shared experience is in an audience…
But it stays in the zeitgeist. I’m friends with someone who sold a movie to a streamer. And he’s told me he has second thoughts now because it never gets a run on, say TBS or whatever. Which it certainly would have. It’s just kind of gone.
Again, it’s a double-edged sword that these movies have a chance to get made, which they may not otherwise have had that chance, but then they’re quickly lost into the ethos.
And like a lot of your movies I think The Holdovers will stick around. If it’s on cable I’ll watch it every time.
You’d have to have Peacock though, at least in the near term. So it’s going to be theatrical only for a few weeks and it’s VOD. You pay 20 bucks to rent it, 25 bucks to own it. And then around January 1st it’ll be streaming on Peacock. Which I’ve never even seen.
Comcast owns both Focus Features and owns Peacock so that makes sense.
Correct. But I’m not going to pay extra for it, hopefully.
So that’s your pitch for people to get Peacock?
Yeah. But hopefully one day, I mean, we’re getting to the point they’re already talking about how can we bundle these different streamers together so that consumers like me don’t have to pay for this one and this one and this one and this one. Fucking bundle them for me.
So after the Dobbs Supreme Court decision, I went back and watched Citizen Ruth. Do you think about that movie?
Sadly. Look, I’m happy that it’s still relevant, sad for the reasons why. But when the Dobbs shenanigans came out in the middle of last year, Laura Dern and I fielded a bunch of calls from journalists. Most notably Washington Post did a piece on its sad relevance. Of course, I’m happy people are still watching the film.
That last scene where Laura Dern walks out and no one even notices her? I think about that a lot.
That movie was kind of inspired by Ace in the Hole. Billy Wilder’s Ace in the Hole.
Oh, you know what? I’ve never seen that…
Watch that today. I mean, that’s a really ferocious film. And I don’t know, we’re different filmmakers, if Citizen Ruth has the same ferocity that Wilder had in that film? He was able to leverage his success with Sunset Boulevard in doing anything he wanted to.
I have seen that obviously. So this is his direct follow-up to Sunset Boulevard?
Yeah. So Sunset Boulevard came out in ’50, and this one came out in ’51. So have a look and you’ll see the influence.
I think of the pool shot in Sunset Boulevard quite often…
Do you know how they got that shot? Mirror. They put a mirror on the bottom of the pool. So, next time we meet, try to angle for more time.
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Time always progresses, whether it be one day closer to when our taxes are due or one day closer to when our existence on Earth is over. The sun rises, it sets, and the moon appears. It progresses whether we’re ready for it or not. Sampha seems to understand that on his second album Lahai, his first body of work in six years and first since 2017’s Process.
However, for the London singer, accepting it is a more difficult task. Amid heartbreak and grief, it almost feels like Sampha hoped time would be courteous enough to wait for him, allow him to sort and recover from his feelings, and not be so fast to move on. The opening record on Lahai, “Stereo Color Cloud (Shaman’s Dream),” begins with a female voice that chants choppily, “I wish you, could, time / Time, missile, back, forward / I miss you, time, misuse / Time flies, life issues.” Though broken up and missing words, the message is still clear.
In “Jonathan L. Seagull,” Sampha poses a question that seems to be directed at this progression of time, among other things. “We’ve both dealt with loss and grief in separate ways / On the same track running at a different pace / Will I catch up or will you just race away someday?” Watching the world continue to spin as you work through grief or heartbreak can make the task of catching up insurmountable. The balance between the days where we fall behind and the ones we feel faster than the world keeps us on pace.
For someone who questioned so much in the face of loss, Sampha sings with hard-won clarity throughout the 14 songs on Lahai. He stands optimistic under blue skies and the bright sun, opposing pessimism under rain clouds with records that aim to be the light at the end of the tunnel for listeners who might be struggling with the latter. “Only” encapsulates Sampha’s existential questions well while also coming clean about the emotional damage that was incurred over time.
Sampha’s lyrics capture the swarm of uncertainties that lie in his head. Fluttering and erratic instruments are juxtaposed with Sampha’s soothing vocals as a way to show that peace can exist amid the whirlpool of the unknown as Sampha acknowledges the freedom to be him with love and protection from others on “Spirit 2.0.” Likewise, he conquers regression on “Can’t Go Back” as rapid drums and high hats dance in the background. There’s a mental and emotional fight at hand and Sampha excels at both telling, showing, and making us feel its existence.
Much of Lahai is inspired by Richard Bach’s 1970 book Jonathan Livingston Seagull. As Jonathan, a literal seagull, aims to discover more about the capabilities of their own body through their growing passion for flight and travel, Sampha seeks to accomplish the same level of self-discovery, growth, and more. In the book’s namesake track, he sings “Even though we’ve been through the same / Doesn’t always mean we feel the same / Doesn’t always mean we heal the same / You are not me and that’s okay” — a reminder that comparison is the thief of joy.
Lahai contemplates life, death, love, and the time to experience it all. Although the questions are neverending and the answers often don’t arrive as quickly as we’d like them to, there’s no fear in Sampha’s eyes. Instead, he runs head-on into and through the uncertainty that lies ahead of him. He’s now on the other side and proud of the progress he made.
Furthermore, Lahai is an enchanting display of growth and acceptance as a result of unfortunate events. Sampha’s sophomore album was created with the intention of capturing both the swarming winds and settled dust that occurs on the journey. Six years gives you plenty of time to figure things out, and with that time available for him to use, Sampha made the absolute best of it.
Lahai is out now via Young Recordings. Find out more information here.
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