I *Will* Watch the Movie
The Tin Drum Diaries, part 7
Oh hi there! I wanted to stop in and say hello, because it’s been a long time. The next time you hear from me, I’ll talk about the 1979 film The Tin Drum, but I haven’t seen it yet, so I’m not going to talk about it just now. Instead, here, in no particular order, are some other things we need to catch up on.
First: I’d like to share that this project has inadvertently solved a lifelong mystery for me. Like on those what’s your family tree series where as Scott Bakula is looking up his genealogy it also ends up solving a centuries-old genealogical mystery about a Greek emperor? Like that. So anyway, as I was looking around on the Internet for information on the movie, some algorithm suggested that if I’m interested in this movie, perhaps I would also enjoy a 1981 Hungarian movie called Mephisto.
So here’s the thing. My lifelong mystery is, what was the movie poster that hung in Woodstock Video, where my father would take me after preschool every day, and where after I’d picked out my video from the children’s room at the front, I’d venture out into the rest of the store, and there was this serious, frowning clown with white face makeup who’d stare down at me. I spent most of my life assuming it was Tim Curry as It, but when the It remake came out a couple years ago, I realized no, my nightmare clown was more minimalist, less flashy and clowny, possibly not actually intended to be scary, maybe foreign.
And now, my friends, thirty-two years later, I’m pleased to introduce to you: The stuff of my nightmares!
Will I watch Mephisto, too?…. You know what, probably! Maybe I’ll get my mom to weigh in, too, this seems up her alley.
Many of my Breaking Drums have been a little disappointing (don’t you hate that? When you’re in a mediocre-reading rut? Life’s too short). But I do have to unreservedly recommend All the Light We Cannot See, which is beautiful and moving and just incredible. Everyone read it.
Also, here are some other non-book art that’s been making me happy recently: podcasts How Did This Get Made and Las Culturistas; TV shows The Other Two and Search Party; and Review (also TV), which is the funniest and most insane TV show I’ve ever seen.
Here’s a possibly sanctimonious moment, which I try to avoid, but I’m feeling like getting into it a little today:
Happy beginnings-of-a-return-to-normal-life to all those who practice. What I want to say about that is just, be cool to everyone, please. Don’t give people a hard time if they’re being more cautious than you, or if they’re being less cautious than you but still within the parameters of CDC guidelines; don’t be a brat about things you still can’t do yet or if anyone you know isn’t comfortable doing it yet. Be patient with people as they try to deal with life and transition out of this weird-ass year, many of them with loss and isolation and all kinds of fucked up new things to carry around with them.
Tend to your own garden. Give people space. Other people’s struggles and bodies and anxieties are none of your business — that’s always true, actually. “It’s great to see you again” is all people really need to be saying to each other right now.
What’s that? You want a Sex and the City update? Thank you so much for asking! Charlotte is converting to Judaism, and is being a pain in the ass about it (SURPRISE).
