Self-Prepared & Self-Streamed
Why would I ever pay to go see a movie when I can stream it for free? Why would I ever go to a restaurant when I can cook at home and not have to tip?
Movie theaters are incredible expensive and uncleanly. Restaurants are loud, dark and often unfriendly.
As a person who is often shy and socially awkward, I prefer to be in control of most things in life and cut out any possible curveballs. Netflix and Amazon have made my home a working movie theater with almost any film I could ever want. I have to imagine that filmmakers and actors are getting a cut of the money I spent with these companies so what is the big deal!?
I have also been watching a lot of Gordon Ramsey’s cooking classes on YouTube. I enjoy the ability to create dishes at my own pace and learn from my mistakes from a computer rather than having to send a dish back to an unfriendly waiter or waitress.
I recognize that this ease-of-use lifestyle has made me a bit of a shut in but times are tough these days. It is very hard on my wallet and my anxiety to go to a new place and have to learn the menu and ask questions in a loud space. I do admire people that can thrive in those environments, but I am not one. If it costs me 10 dollars to prepare my dinner versus 25 dollars plus tip…I’d much rather make my own dinner. Whenever I go to the theater, I typically spend 10-15 dollars on a movie ticket, plus 5-10 dollars on popcorn or snacks and that is if it’s not in 3D or a midnight showing.
I would like to support local restaurants and local cinemas but I feel as though the prices are too high. I have heard from friends that they have some type of regular deals where the more you go, the cheaper things get but life just seems too busy. Perhaps if I was an artist myself, or had more friends in the hospitality industry, I would feel more inclined to supporting these businesses, but for now, I enjoy spending my time in my own house that I know is clean, comfortable and reasonably priced.
- A Comfortable Citizen
I've had the same thoughts, many times!
ReplyDeleteStarting with a question is a smooth introduction to the stream of consciousness the reader is entering. Because the blog covers two intertwined topics, it would be helpful if this piece approached both subjects with more distinction. For example, I'd test how it reads if you split the anti-restaurant argument and the anti-theater argument into two sections. This may help smooth the experience so that the reader does not need to divide their attention through the entire article.
To be honest, I am the worst at this but make sure you always reread, and reread, your work before it is posted to make sure there aren’t any grammar or spelling mistakes. There is a spelling mistake in the second paragraph.
ReplyDeleteThere is a lot of great thoughts throughout this piece, but as RM Grey it would be helpful to split the two topics up. By doing so it gives you an opportunity to further explain each side and allow the reader to grasp their own thoughts before the next idea comes up.
If you did want to relate these two topics together, you could create a concluding paragraph that intertwines the two which would bring it all together.
Hi Fran!
ReplyDeleteYour writing provides a cool, and comfortable setting for the reader. Similar to what Delta said, I would go back and peruse through some of your writing.
I would definitely rephrase: "Movie theaters are incredible expensive and uncleanly. Restaurants are loud, dark and often unfriendly."
Providing the reader a sense of engagement and camaraderie with the author is so important. If you can think of ways to turn overall glum statements to incorporate witty zingers, you'll have absolute gold!
It’s funny how much in this class comes back to technology and the Web, even if your niches seem far away from it.
ReplyDeleteSo far you’ve created this mashup between food and film, and I was pretty sure the devil’s advocate assignment would tell us more, but I had no idea how. Then, suddenly, we have the answer: public spaces.
How do we get the increasingly reclusive generations to put down the phone and re-embrace the movie house, the restaurant, the communal individual experiences?
Suddenly, I’m interested. Suddenly, I can’t separate movies and maître-ds in my head. Suddenly, this is about parks and beaches and churches and plays, even if it’s still only about films and food.
Questions and solutions abound, and they are probably too easily reached and cliché. Better solutions await.
The devils advocate assignment reinforces my emphasis on “drafting” throughout the semester. Too often we think of another draft as something proofed for spelling errors. I use first drafts to get my initial thoughts on the page and expect a second draft to change and evolve and even inspire a third.
You wrote a few drafts on celluloid and charcuterie and that process alone gets us further. You know this as a filmmaker, especially as a documentary filmmaker, I would think. But filmmakers can also be Hitchcocks, holding fast to the storyboards.
Most courses teach us to get a writing assignment “correct” to communicate we understood a lesson. That’s an essential part of learning, but it ignores another essential benefit of writing, and that’s its ability to discover. If my assignments fill you with questions, that’s my intention. You must write further to answer them.
Even when you step away from writing, your mind continues to work on the problems you set down with your words. It’s a process a lot of people don’t take time to practice or benefit from.
Did this surprise you at all or are you already thinking about this “problem?” It could make a good op-ed to get your further noticed. I'm sure it's not the only way to think about these two worlds together either. I like when unrelated ideas come together in the individual. It’s what makes each of us unique.
Look at the variety of other answers in the class. Some made an argument that changed their mind. Others were swept away by their passions. These are steps in the argument process advancing within all of our beats.
Our best sentences and theses (ideas) emerge from the writing process if we write this way. Sometimes our own sentences surprise us. There’s an old writing lesson that says no tears (or laughter or surprise, etc.) in the writer; no tears (etc.) in the reader.
So draft, and then go back, and pull your best sentences from your rough process and start over with them. Don’t rush past what makes the writing process a process.
That’s the lesson this week. Well done.
Oh and I like "the Comfortable Citizen" too; the name of your troll.
ReplyDelete