Welcome back to Brianna’s Digest, a now-monthly (but maybe I’ll go back to bi-weekly; who knows!) recap on various areas of interest on my pop culture radar, and beyond. I’m still running a 30% off discount on paid subscriptions for this Substack — which gets you access to this column — through the end of the month, next Thursday. Run, don’t walk, to BriZigs LLC!
I haven’t really felt like writing lately, so getting myself to do another one of these was maybe the hardest thing that I’ve ever done in my life and no one else has ever endured like I have. It’s been a little less than a month since I posted the last Digest, after which I was off from work and freelance writing for a week. I don’t know if any of you also write and feel similarly, but taking these kinds of breaks never really helps me. They always feel like something I desperately need but they never really end up refreshing or rejuvenating me like I think they will, but instead make me too accustomed to doing nothing, and then it becomes even more difficult for me to get back into the swing of things.
The break also included a very brief beach trip with to Wildwood, when it felt like I needed to unwind in the ocean waters (it was too cold to go in, actually) and be away from my laptop even longer — but then again, that might’ve made me even lazier and more comfortable doing nothing, and even harder for me to throw myself back into the writing current. Ultimately, I’m pulled back in because I start getting too anxious about not writing enough, and failing and being unsuccessful and falling behind, and dying. Of course, once I’m back in, I just want to take another break.
Cinema
I’ve watched a lot of movies since the last Digest, but I want to talk a little about horror. A good amount of my recent movie-going life has been spent looking for the next horror film that will scare me, something that I have increasingly felt like might no longer exist. I love horror because I love being spooked, but my issue arises from a combination of: I’ve already watched a lot of the best and scariest horror movies of all time, and I’ve been watching horror movies for so long that I am mostly worn down and immune to their tricks. At this point, only very specific things will scare me: very specific images, very specific moods, very specific subject matters. These days, I know a movie has done it’s job when I am anxious to leave my bed and go to the bathroom in the middle of the night after watching. Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Creepy was a great recent example of this, and while it didn’t totally torment me I was sufficiently unnerved by Teruyuki Kagawa’s performance as Mr. Nishino, and whose face I did have pop unwantedly into my mind as I darted to the toilet at 2am.
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