Paul Boag writes about the current trend of poster-like web pages. As always, one must design for the medium, and a designer cannot treat a web page like a poster. Nevertheless, poster design has a few lessons for web design: “Stop designing websites, start designing posters.”
Mark Riggan takes the same approach, but from a different direction: “6 Things Video Games Can Teach Us About Web Usability.”
In this interview, Matthew Curry talks about running the website for Wiltshire Farm Foods, which sells food mostly to consumers over 80 years old, online. Targeting this audience means addressing the most extreme instances of users’ needs and disabilities. Yes, it’s possible—it’s all about usability: “Q&A: Matthew Curry on selling to older folks online.”
This week we have started the process of recruiting a nanny to look after Munchkin when I go back to work in February. We’ll need someone 4 days a week live out who will be with him all day. Both my husband and I have interviewed many people through the course of our jobs but never for any position as important as this! I mean this person will be looking after the most important thing in our lives.
Would love to hear any tips from anyone who has experience of hiring a nanny or a childminder. What kind of questions give a good insight into the type of care they would give? Any warning signs to look out for?
Definitely appreciate any advice or comments!
Thanks in advance
It’s Her Thing: How a beautiful woman with a little something extra got that way — and why “straight” men are lining up to meet her
by Amy Sohn
New York’s Allanah Starr.
Allanah Starr is a pre-operative male-to-female transsexual, which means she looks like a woman from head to toe except for one very prominent thing. Like many other transsexuals, she works as an escort, and she also has a burgeoning adult-film career (Shemale Strokers #3 was her most recent) and a website, shemaleexotica.com, that gets more than 3,000 hits a day. She lives alone in midtown, in a dimly lit minimalist apartment, and has a framed poster of Warhol’s Marilyn above her plush red couch. She is also unbelievably hot. Her boobs put mine to shame — 36DD — and she has a tiny sculpted nose and wide eyes, all a result of the 30 surgeries she’s had in the past six years.
She looks like a contemporary Raquel Welch — so hyperfeminine she makes me feel plain. As she tells me her story in her soft voice, wearing a snug Alexander McQueen jacket that highlights her cleavage, her legs curled up under her on the couch, I find myself thinking that maybe these days, the ideal woman doesn’t have to be a woman at all.
Allanah, who says she’s in her mid-twenties, was born in Cuba and grew up in Miami as a shy, effeminate boy, more interested in girls’ clothing than boys’. “I always saw myself as a girl in a way. I would play with my sister’s toys, but I had to stop playing with them when my father came home.”
She came out at 15, became involved in a gay-and-lesbian youth group, started taking drama, and got more confident, winning a school contest for her drag performance of Julie Brown’s “The Homecoming Queen’s Got a Gun.” After high school, she attended a fashion college and began going to gay clubs at night. “I wasn’t going in drag,” she says, “but I was really androgynous — a lot of foundation that was the wrong color, mascara and lip gloss, my hair down to my shoulders. Most of the guys had no interest in me because I was so effeminate.”
Allanah Starr and Gia Darling who both Transsexuals at a night club.
But she was professionally driven and started dancing at clubs for money. “I was more interested in being shocking and bizarre than pretty,” Allanah says. When the club work started drying up, she got a job at tranny theme restaurant Lucky Cheng’s in Miami (in drag), where she met some transsexual waitresses. “I started thinking, When I get older, do I want to be a really effeminate old gay man, or do I want to be a girl and explore all these things that I always wanted to do?”
With help from a co-worker, she began taking hormones and getting electrolysis. She found a plastic surgeon and got a nose job, an ear pin, and breast implants. She assumed a female name, coming up with Allanah later, when she started doing porn.
Allanah Starr
Those first surgeries were funded by a friend, an older man she met at Lucky Cheng’s: “He was helping me out quite a bit. We didn’t have sex. He said he was impotent. Then Viagra came out and I stopped seeing him.” Eventually he disappeared and the restaurant closed down, so she turned to escorting. “I’d never had a regular job, and I just couldn’t see myself working somewhere for $10 an hour. It’s an expensive lifestyle,” she says.
She moved to New York four years ago to work for an agency, and now she works for herself. The men who like transsexuals are a diverse bunch, she says. Almost all are interested in the thing that makes Allanah so special. “A lot of them are submissive,” she says. Some guys are turned on by it, but “they can’t deal with touching it.”
“Are there a lot of guys like that?” I ask.
“Very few,” she says.
The most annoying thing about being a transsexual is that guys always want to dish with her about that annoying topic called What It All Means. “Of course they all think they’re gay. I avoid that conversation. I can’t deal with people who have issues.”
Part of the problem is, there’s no language yet to describe men who are drawn to trannies — or, as a friend of mine puts it, “transgressives.” My own guess is that they fall into four subcategories: closeted gay men who need the T & A so they don’t freak out about the ‘D‘; bisexual men who can get both needs met at the same time; porn-addicted men who need to keep crossing new boundaries to get aroused; and straight guys who nonetheless have a narcissistic attraction to the penis.
Graphic credit: Zohar Lazar.
Allanah’s sexuality is much more simple: She likes men and is okay with it. Though she’d like to be in a serious relationship, she doesn’t think it’s likely in the near future. For one thing, the guy would have to accept her work; for another, he’d have to accept his own attraction to her. For now she leads an independent lifestyle, doing movies to help with publicity and escorting to pay for her surgeries. “Surgery is kind of an obsession,” she says. “I’m totally addicted to altering my appearance, and I’m not really satisfied with anything. Transsexuals are very vain. Your whole life is your appearance.”
As for the surgical hole-y grail, she’s not sure. “There’s an assumption that a sex change is the final goal for everyone, and I don’t think it is,” she says. “If I do it, it’s going to be just for myself, not because I think it’s going to be a way of solving all the problems that I have now being pre-op.” And financially, as with any career, it helps to have a penis: In porn films, transsexuals start at about $1,000 to $1,500 per scene while women’s rates are about half that.
Still, sometimes she wishes she’d known more about her options earlier. “I think my life would have been different if I had started transitioning when I was younger and gotten a sex change. I could have had a regular career. And I probably would be able to find a serious relationship.” She pauses, and then we both grin, thinking the same thing. “I know,” she says. “I guess in New York, genetic women have a hard time finding relationships, too.”
This article first appeared in New York magazine. LINK
Timbaland talks about his new album ‘Shock Value 2′ and gives Miley Cyrus a BIG compliment- saying she’s right up there next to Justin Timberlake?? [we don't know about that]
I figured I’d post this because Battle studies is one of favorites to listen to right now.
John Mayer’s new album, the smart, sophisticated, and sweet ‘Battle Studies,’ has just been released. And no one is happier than Mayer himself. “I have no problem releasing it into the open and letting everybody have at it, poke the bear with sticks — and that’s the fun of it,” he told Popeater when we went to visit him at the Burbank, Calif., studio where he was rehearsing for an upcoming tour. Mayer, of course, is used to having every aspect of his life poked with a camera these days. He spoke with Popeater about why he can’t complain about that in song, how the whole music industry may one day be working for Taylor Swift and his epiphany moment with the new record.
His interview with Popeater.com is after the jump…
Congratulations on the album.
Thanks. I had my fun with those songs, so I’m happy to see them go out in the world and be consumed by others. The greatest times I have ever had making a record are driving home from the studio with the rough mix in the car. That’s my time with the record; it’s me getting to know the tunes. The more we rehearse these songs, the more I step into them as the performer, the less I want to hear them. When I get offstage, people go home and I’m still me, so I’ve had my fill of “Wow, look at what I can do” — probably for the rest of my life.
Isn’t that where other artists come in, though, having music to find and discover?
Totally, and I’m not sick of playing songs. I will have the time of my life playing these songs for people, watching them react and sharing them with them. But I’m not going to put it on in the car; I’ve never done that. I was in a restaurant about a week ago when ‘Vultures’ came on. I went, “Wow, I haven’t heard this song in, like, three years.”
So what’s on the travel pack right now, musically?
Pretty much my whole iTunes library, put it on shuffle; when you put 27 days of music on shuffle, it’s sort of fun. I’m trying to not take on any more pursuits than I already have taken on because I don’t have enough time in the day. When I go on tour, I think what I want to do is get in my room, set something up, some contraption, and work all night on some other thing. It just kills me every time. So I am going to put all my energy into playing, and unfortunately talking about playing, no more playing hotel-room ‘MacGyver,’ plugging things up and not going to bed. Recreational slumber is gonna be my new hobby. One of the worst feelings in the world is painful exhaustion; it’s a terrible, terrible feeling. So that’s what I’m gonna do: Get in my room, order room service, “That’s it, there’s nothing else to see here, please disperse.”
There’s a line I love in ‘Who Says’: “I don’t remember you looking any better/But then again, I don’t remember you.”
I know what the line means to me. I just think it’s sort of about laying it on a little thick with somebody when you first meet them, like meeting, greeting. That song is sort of the equivalent of the “back off and leave me alone” sort of song” without being a “back off and leave me alone” song, because when an artist does that I think they sort of show their hand a little too much. It becomes really defensive, and it’s not actually fun to listen to. There are two kinds of songs I don’t think have ever been successful, which is, “Why can’t you just leave me alone” in terms of the media and “Daddy, stop drinking.” Those two songs, I’ve never heard them work. Lindsay Lohan has a song, ‘Confessions of a Broken Heart (Daughter to Father).’ They all have the lyric, “Put the bottle down.” [But] it is an organic ideal that comes up in somebody who says, “I’m going to use my music to take back the power and say, ‘This is not for you, this is me. I am mine, I belong to me.’” And I just don’t think those are particularly good songs when they happen because they’re so self-indulgent, but there was something about ‘Who Says’ where I said, “Wow, this is that song for me personally.” But it’s not so literal that people are basically waiting for me to be done yapping about how hard I have it so they can get on to the next song.
Watch John Mayer’s ‘Who Says’ Video
I think that works for a lot of the record; it’s very personal as well. When you, meaning most artists, pull out the acoustic guitar, does it become confessional?
I don’t have any interest in writing something that’s not something that I feel and it’s gonna be a knot in my stomach unless I say it. It’s just always been my M.O. to try and explain something. I can explain something into the ground. I don’t think I would ever pick up an acoustic guitar and go to write a record and not try to find the ideas that are so planted in my heart because they’re real. I’m interested in the songs where I can go, “Yes, I got to explain that.” ‘Half of My Heart’ is lyrically one of the most fluorescent songs I’ve ever written. It’s basically all about indecisions, but it’s really about compassion to that idea of somebody going, “I don’t know which way I want to go. Don’t think I can do this much longer.” But it’s not sinister. I like approaching ideas that would otherwise be off-putting to people in a way that you sing it and play it in a very sweet way and they go, “I know what you’re saying. It happens to me.”
What songs are you most looking forward to seeing how people respond to them?
‘War of My Life’ is gonna be really interesting because I feel like that one just fuses into people’s life; it’s almost like a horoscope that’s designed to make everybody go, “Oh, my God, that’s freaky ’cause that’s my life.” It’s written in a way that’s like the most vague horoscope of all time because everybody feels like they’re in the war of their life, one way or another. ‘I’m excited about ‘Perfectly Lonely’ ’cause it sounds just like the record. That’s what’s cool about this record: Most of these songs we play them, they sound exactly like the record. I think fans like to see the elements of the songs they listen to so much on a record come to life onstage and be able to see the parts working and how it all goes together. That’s originally how music was designed to be, the sum being greater than the parts.
I was gonna say aren’t the parts always greater now, but there are a few singer-songwriters who’ve had success: Colbie Caillat — Taylor Swift is like that, too.
Taylor’s great. I don’t portend to know her all that well, but from what I know you can tell she’s fantastic. She’s sweet and she’s the complete package. I think if Taylor’s manager came down with the swine flu, Taylor could manage quite well for herself. If Taylor’s stylist came down with the swine flu, Taylor would put her own clothes on and be great. If Taylor’s PR rep were to have swine flu, Taylor would step right in there and do her own PR. If the marketing guy at the label had swine flu, she would just start making Web banners to send to people to put on their Web site, she’d just start charging ad money. She’s one of those artists that has such a grip on everything that we’re all gonna be working for her one day.
What do you take from the final version of your record?
I had a beautiful moment listening to this record; I’ll never forget it, and that’s probably the last time I’ll put it in to listen to it. I was in the pool in Palm Springs[, Calif.]; just burned the CD off what I had downloaded from mastering, pulled myself a margarita, jumped into a heated pool, stayed in there all night listening to the record twice and I went, “Wow, OK, it’s up to snuff.” I just care about up to snuff. I’ll let everyone else figure out what their favorite song is or did it go more this direction. But I just want to keep the general pedigree up to a certain point. And then we begin, not very long from now, having new ideas people haven’t heard yet.
I thought you were gonna let those gestate while you sleep.
Yeah, but you know what? People haven’t found a way to break into my brain yet, so I enjoy the solace of having a thought that no one else can see or hear. So I will probably start doing that in the next couple of weeks, going, “Wow, what would be the next idea I want to write?” But I won’t write it.
I asked my Uncle who has cycled round the world, a few questions about cycling.
Which country was the best for cycling in and why?
“Iran for hospitality – never felt so welcome in my life… and the dates from the city of Bam.
Italy for the food – Pomodoro tomotoes, Parmigiano-Reggiano and gnocchi.
Tibet for the scenery,
France for the roads.”
Which was the worst and why?
“Pakistan – nothing like having guns pointed at your head to encourage dislike of a country.
Albania – bad roads, scary people.
South China – fell off on an icy descent and smacked up my face.”
Do you like the law about compulsory helmets in New Zealand?
“Compulsory helmets… save lives.
Save one life and the law is worthwhile. In the UK the helmet excludes any tax so they are cheaper.
New Zealand should do the same (exclude GST) or subsidise helmets.
A helmet has saved my life twice… once when I was run over by a 4×4 and the other in a head own crash with a car.
Got my vote!”
Do you think bike lanes make it safer for biking?
“Anything that raises awareness of bicycles with other road users is a good thing.
So yes. In Netherlands if anyone hits a cyclist they are at fault. This law promotes awareness of cyclists… as does cycle lanes, so as long as they are on a safe part of the road and enforced like bus lanes (fines for motorcyclists and cars in the lane) this is a good thing.”
When Judd Apatow’s latest film, Funny People, was announced, many critics and audiences hailed it – even before they saw it – not only as an evolution of the filmmaker’s style, but a return to the kind of drama-laced comedy that flourished in the 1980s and early ’90s thanks to folks like Cameron Crowe and James L. Brooks. When it was released, the film more than satisfied those expectations, offering an unflinching but frequently hilarious portrait of an A-list comedian rediscovering himself, but there seemed to be a sense that audiences knew themselves less well than they felt like they knew the film’s main character, resulting in a less enthusiastic response than perhaps even they expected.
The film arrives on Blu-ray this week, offering what is indisputably the most complete and comprehensive look behind the scenes at a comedy ever produced, and offers audiences a second chance to check out Apatow’s most meaningful and resonant work to date. Cinematical got a chance to catch up with the writer-director via telephone to discuss the contents of the expansive, 2-Disc Collector’s Edition; in the second part of our chat, Apatow talks about precisely what made the movie so personal for him, and offers a few insights about its place in his growing body of work, and its potential influence on his future films (including a Harry Pottermovie, maybe?).
Cinematical: With or without talking to you at the time of the film’s release, people seemed to assume that this was a very personal film, I think because it was more serious than your previous work. Was it really personal, and if so in what way or why?
Judd Apatow: Well, I find that things can be very personal without pointing out to people what is taken directly from your life. If I do it right, it shouldn’t feel like I’m just talking about personal experiences that happened to me or people in my world. So it’s good that it doesn’t seem – that you can’t track it (laughs). But the ideas are very intimate and they relate to a lot that’s happened to me over the decades, but it’s all thrown into a blender to make it more amusing or dramatic. But yes, it does feel very personal, to the point of being embarrassing, but it’s because it’s how you feel about the world that’s out there. It’s kind of showing one’s pleasant side and one’s crazy voices; I’m just better at hiding them in a character that can act them out. You make a movie and think, ah, this is about other people, but slowly you realize it’s all about you. It’s also about everyone who’s involved in the collaboration, but it surprises you when it’s done how much is based on things that you’re struggling with.
Cinematical: Given the sort of line-o-rama process by which you work when shooting scenes, how do you decide what ends up in a film or works best for it?
Apatow: Every joke is meant to illuminate something, whether it’s how funny someone is or a piece of their back story or how they’re feeling on that particular night. So there’s literally no punchline that wasn’t in there that wasn’t debated for hours and hours, but how I like to shoot it is to shoot Adam or Seth doing half an hour of material, not obsessing about what I will use when we’re shooting, and then decide what fits best after. But when you keep it loose and the comedians are really in character, other things happen on stage that are surprising and they do fit into what you need. People do subconsciously start living the story, so Adam one day said, “hey, tonight I’m going to improvise something on the piano,” and he just sits down and sings this mad song. The audience doesn’t know that he’s sick, but in a way it’s a strange goodbye to his audience, and it’s really sad and filthy. I never could have written that in a million years, and Adam did it off the top of his head; and because it’s improvised, it’s sloppy and emotionally raw in a way that’s very truthful. He just went there, and that’s why I try to create some extra space for those moments to happen.
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Cinematical: How much is there a degree of sort of self-satirization in this film, whether you’re taking direct jabs at your or Adam’s movies? Or, even if it’s not in the movie, how much do you guys sort of rib one another about the movies you make?
Apatow: Every time you make a movie, it’s a risk. It’s easy to take for granted the work of comedians, but it’s insanely hard to make people laugh out loud and be really happy for an hour and a half straight. And sometimes you do it with the silliest thing in the world and sometimes you do it in a more thoughtful way or emotional way, but it’s hard as hell (laughs). How I looked at that aspect of the movie was that this character valued being on top more than the quality of his movies, so he tried to make decent movies, but his ego made him try to hit a home run every time out. That being said, while we were making the movie, we kept saying, “we’d make Mer-Man right now!” There’s a funny version of Mer-Man, there’s a funny version of Redo. And it genuinely made us laugh; even though we knew we were goofing on movies like that, we also thought, we could probably do a good one of these!
But one thing I appreciated from Adam was that he never said, “oh don’t do that – people will think you’re goofing on me.” The truth is, I’m not goofing on Adam because Adam has a ridiculously wide range of movies he’s made. He’s just covered so much ground. Some are incredibly silly, some are truly experimental art films, and his level of success is so high he’s just been amazing for a very long time, and I don’t think George Simmons would have tried most of what Adam has tried to do. Again, there’s a subtle difference there, so it’s easy for people to say, “oh, you’re goofing on your own movies,” but I really thought what was more interesting to me was what happens when a shallow person gets sick? He doesn’t want to be thoughtful, so his movies can’t be thoughtful; he’s not making introspective comedies. When he gets sick, he doesn’t tell anybody, he doesn’t know how to talk about it – he’s not that kind of person. He’s more like a Rodney Dangerfield kind of person; he’s telling jokes and being silly.
Cinematical: What I think is one of the things he and the film communicates is that comedy is a way for someone to conceal their true feelings, and ultimately a prison that keeps them from being able to express them.
Apatow: Sometimes it’s easier to hide when you’re that famous. It was strange when Michael Jackson died and there were so many similarities to how we were presenting this fictionalized comedy star in our movie and what was coming out about Michael Jackson. The opening conversation about our movie is Adam having a conversation with his doctor about sleep medication. And all of these images of this rich guy alone in this giant house, never feeling satisfied with the amount of affection he’s getting from the world – which is an enormous amount of affection. A lot of times people want to make you laugh not because they want to make you happy but because they want to know if you like them. Your laugh signals “you’re okay” – and that’s a tough way to live. I think a lot of us as we get older think, is there a healthy way to do what we’re doing? We didn’t start this [for our] mental health, but can we spin it at some point and be creative for normal positive reasons?
Cinematical: Having done this movie which was so much more personal and serious than your other films, do you feel inclined to continue going in that direction?
Apatow: I try to be very passionate about the movies I’m making. I can get passionate about something that’s ridiculous and absurd and silly in the same way I can be passionate about something that’s more intimate and thoughtful, but I just have to care about it. So I don’t know; as of right now, I’m trying not to think too much about what I’ll do next and see what strikes me, but every once and a while I think it would be great to do something really dumb next, really goofy, and just make people happy. Create a joy machine. But most of the time I think let’s do another really dark, melancholy movie about a different subject, and then I think, you know what? Maybe I need a longer rest (laughs). So I don’t know; I’ll just wait until someone needs a director for the 14th Harry Potter movie and hopefully I’ll be at the top of the list somewhere.
Cinematical: Do you have any idea what the next thing is going to be for you?
Apatow: I really don’t. I’ve never had two ideas in my head. I mean, my brain is completely blank. I covered a lot of ground with these last two movies, so I may need something to happen to me in life before I can write again. But I don’t know – then something hits you out of the blue and it could happen in an eighth of a second; oh, it’s that! And then you’re off to the races.
Cinematical: Whether they’re conscious or not, do you see ongoing or repeated themes emerging in or from your growing body of work?
Apatow: I don’t think about it consciously, but there are certain ideas that recur and then you start thinking to yourself, well, should I make sure that never happens in Cinematical: How much is there a degree of sort of self-satirization in this film, whether you’re taking direct jabs at your or Adam’s movies? Or, even if it’s not in the movie, how much do you guys sort of rib one another about the movies you make?
Apatow: Every time you make a movie, it’s a risk. It’s easy to take for granted the work of comedians, but it’s insanely hard to make people laugh out loud and be really happy for an hour and a half straight. And sometimes you do it with the silliest thing in the world and sometimes you do it in a more thoughtful way or emotional way, but it’s hard as hell (laughs). How I looked at that aspect of the movie was that this character valued being on top more than the quality of his movies, so he tried to make decent movies, but his ego made him try to hit a home run every time out. That being said, while we were making the movie, we kept saying, “we’d make Mer-Man right now!” There’s a funny version of Mer-Man, there’s a funny version of Redo. And it genuinely made us laugh; even though we knew we were goofing on movies like that, we also thought, we could probably do a good one of these!
But one thing I appreciated from Adam was that he never said, “oh don’t do that – people will think you’re goofing on me.” The truth is, I’m not goofing on Adam because Adam has a ridiculously wide range of movies he’s made. He’s just covered so much ground. Some are incredibly silly, some are truly experimental art films, and his level of success is so high he’s just been amazing for a very long time, and I don’t think George Simmons would have tried most of what Adam has tried to do. Again, there’s a subtle difference there, so it’s easy for people to say, “oh, you’re goofing on your own movies,” but I really thought what was more interesting to me was what happens when a shallow person gets sick? He doesn’t want to be thoughtful, so his movies can’t be thoughtful; he’s not making introspective comedies. When he gets sick, he doesn’t tell anybody, he doesn’t know how to talk about it – he’s not that kind of person. He’s more like a Rodney Dangerfield kind of person; he’s telling jokes and being silly.
Cinematical: What I think is one of the things he and the film communicates is that comedy is a way for someone to conceal their true feelings, and ultimately a prison that keeps them from being able to express them.
Apatow: Sometimes it’s easier to hide when you’re that famous. It was strange when Michael Jackson died and there were so many similarities to how we were presenting this fictionalized comedy star in our movie and what was coming out about Michael Jackson. The opening conversation about our movie is Adam having a conversation with his doctor about sleep medication. And all of these images of this rich guy alone in this giant house, never feeling satisfied with the amount of affection he’s getting from the world – which is an enormous amount of affection. A lot of times people want to make you laugh not because they want to make you happy but because they want to know if you like them. Your laugh signals “you’re okay” – and that’s a tough way to live. I think a lot of us as we get older think, is there a healthy way to do what we’re doing? We didn’t start this [for our] mental health, but can we spin it at some point and be creative for normal positive reasons?
Cinematical: Having done this movie which was so much more personal and serious than your other films, do you feel inclined to continue going in that direction?
Apatow: I try to be very passionate about the movies I’m making. I can get passionate about something that’s ridiculous and absurd and silly in the same way I can be passionate about something that’s more intimate and thoughtful, but I just have to care about it. So I don’t know; as of right now, I’m trying not to think too much about what I’ll do next and see what strikes me, but every once and a while I think it would be great to do something really dumb next, really goofy, and just make people happy. Create a joy machine. But most of the time I think let’s do another really dark, melancholy movie about a different subject, and then I think, you know what? Maybe I need a longer rest (laughs). So I don’t know; I’ll just wait until someone needs a director for the 14th Harry Potter movie and hopefully I’ll be at the top of the list somewhere.
Cinematical: Do you have any idea what the next thing is going to be for you?
Apatow: I really don’t. I’ve never had two ideas in my head. I mean, my brain is completely blank. I covered a lot of ground with these last two movies, so I may need something to happen to me in life before I can write again. But I don’t know – then something hits you out of the blue and it could happen in an eighth of a second; oh, it’s that! And then you’re off to the races.
Cinematical: Whether they’re conscious or not, do you see ongoing or repeated themes emerging in or from your growing body of work?
Apatow: I don’t think about it consciously, but there are certain ideas that recur and then you start thinking to yourself, well, should I make sure that never happens in one of my movies again? For instance, I like when sad people find a way to get happy, even if it’s only for a moment; should I avoid that now that I’ve noticed that in a bunch of my
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movies? That’s an interesting question for me as I walk around the house. I can see the stitching on the ball now more than anybody, and then you start thinking about new terrain, but you also don’t want to suddenly make a movie about Icelandic people just because no one expects you to do that. I would like always to write about things that matter to me and I understand, but I was reading this graduation speech that Larry Gelbart delivered at UCLA a few years ago and a big hunk of it was about writing about things you don’t know anything about and how ultimately it will still become a personal story. I usually go against that, but I thought, well, if Mr. Gelbart says that then maybe my philosophy is wrong.
Cinematical: What was the thing that you took away from this experience that was maybe different than your other movies?
Apatow: Well, it’s much more challenging to make a movie that’s meant to be more than just fantasy fulfillment. It is hopefully a big, funny, enjoyable experience but it’s also kind of an independent movie, you know; it’s a character study, and it is a different world when you’re trying to have that relationship with the audience. A lot of people got to the movies just to numb themselves out from whatever other difficult things life is presenting to them, and I’m exactly like that; when a girl broke up with me, the first thing I did was run to see What About Bob? But this is the first time for me where I tried to share a more complicated experience with people. And you get a larger array of reactions to it – some people, it completely knocks them out, other people, you can tell that they emotionally shut down from thinking about any of this, and the movie is hard for them to tolerate. And that’s the point of it: it’s supposed to stick with you for a while. That’s all I thought about when we were ending it, and I hope people talk about this for a while. I hope it’s something that stays on people’s minds.
New York’s Allanah Starr.
Allanah Starr and Gia Darling who both Transsexuals at a night club.
Allanah Starr
Graphic credit: Zohar Lazar.
Apatow: I try to be very passionate about the movies I’m making. I can get passionate about something that’s ridiculous and absurd and silly in the same way I can be passionate about something that’s more intimate and thoughtful, but I just have to care about it. So I don’t know; as of right now, I’m trying not to think too much about what I’ll do next and see what strikes me, but every once and a while I think it would be great to do something really dumb next, really goofy, and just make people happy. Create a joy machine. But most of the time I think let’s do another really dark, melancholy movie about a different subject, and then I think, you know what? Maybe I need a longer rest (laughs). So I don’t know; I’ll just wait until someone needs a director for the 14th Harry Potter movie and hopefully I’ll be at the top of the list somewhere.