The Year in Summary
I have begun to realize that there will always be another picture that I want to put on the blog. Like how can I end the blog without this picture from Milan?
or this one from Sweden?
But there is also this saying, this little adage that I try to live by: Always keep ‘em wanting more. Generally I remember this just after people begin walking out of the theater and in to the parking garage. Around the time they realize they parked their car in 4A (not 4B!) I remember: Always keep ‘em wanting more! And I hastily say, to the remaining audience: Thank you so much for coming, have a good night.
But I myself hate to be left. And I want the leaving to be my idea, if something absolutely must end. Or, if I am to be informed that the end is nigh, I prefer to be given a parting gift, something that I can open when I get home, something memorializes everything that ever was.
So this is my gift to you, working with with our designated medium, the bloggy substance, shaping it with the tools at hand, Google image search. It is my year in summary.
CLICK HERE
All Good Things Must Come To An End – Brandon Blog Lucky # 7
As Brandon and I sit on this gloomy New Years Eve Saturday, we received the nicest surprise in the mail…in true "Ms. Miranda" form a letter, with pom poms and rainbow yarn I might add, that sparked both of our day asking if we would like to do one more blog. Well Bran and I thought about it and he came up with a different idea…see sometimes when we are bored we sit together and write rhyming poems and read them aloud to one another and laugh to pass the time….crazy I know but we are not your normal Mother and Son duo! He wrote one very early on in the blog about one of his favorite places San Francisco, so we thought we would end on a poem….or two! The first one he wrote for his school art contest (misspelling and all) and the second we collaborated on about this wonderful experience he has had with Me and You and Everyone We Know……….
I Wonder Why…
Riming poem by Brandon Ratcliff
I wonder why clocks go tick?
And why minutes are so quick?
What makes the hands on it move?
And why does it have a tick tock groove?
I wonder why the sea is blue?
And how come sea cows don’t go moooooooo?
The animals down there are so cool.
I wish I had them in my pool.
I wonder why people cut down our pretty trees?
And why my mom makes me eat yucky peas!
You know these are really mean things to do
I wish Scooby Doo could give me a tricky clue.
I wonder why the night sky is so bright with stars?
And do aleins really live on the planet Mars?
I want to discover this so bad it makes me want to cry!
All these things and a hole lot more make my brain say
I wonder why?
All Good Things Must Come To An End
Brandon & Tonni Ratcliff
I got a call from his Manager one day….
"Read these sides… it is so Brandon I must say"
We laughed our asses off and then his brain went to work like a fighter
and me, I just thought… "kudos to this wonderful writer!"
I auditioned a lot for the part
I tried really hard right from the start!
I was so happy when we got the call
My mom even got me a Scooby Doo toy from the mall!!!
A whole lot of talk was out about this work
Would people say "that Mom is a jerk!!!"
I thought "Fuck it.. this is what kids say everyday"
And people please… they say a lot worse when they are out to play!
We had a lot of fun on the set
and after we finished the movie I got a new pet!
I knew Ms. Miranda when I was 5 and 6 now I’m 7
I hope I still know her when I am 11!
Well, with all of that said
none of this has gone to his head
I teach him that acting is just serious pretend
but most importantly….when all good things must come to an end.
We want to thank EVERYONE who supported this film and the actors and to the true star…someone who has become very dear to us.
Thanks for taking the time to get to know us.
WE LOVE YOU MIRANDA!
143 & HAPPY NEW YEAR
Brandon and Tonni Ratcliff
Brandon Blog #6
Oh my God, Ms. Miranda I was so shocked at your pumpkins!!!! Ya know we haven’t talked in a long time. Well I have been so busy with my new school and friends and I even have friends in like 4th and 5th grade and I did some more acting work on 2 like half movies. (Tonni’s explanantion: Short films). Thats why I kindof haven’t done the blog in a long time. And guess what…me and Ms. JoNelle got to work together again and she was my Mom again ahahaa can you believe that?!!! Two times being my pretend Mom, now that is just a little crazy! But this time we were in Chicago. And ya know what… I really miss you. I wonder what you have been doing. Well you know I am going to Carpenter now since I moved to Studio City and my tonsils and adenoids are really good now after my surgery. And ooooooohhhhhhh guess what I am like sooo into now…Pokemon! I have like over 200 Pokemon cards. I am into Science too. I am buying like a lot of Sciencey type books and I am in the Science Adventure Class afterschool.
So Ms. Miranda I can see what you did on Halloween but you didn’t say if you dressed up and wore a costume. You wanna know what I was?….. I was Beast Boy from Teen Titans and I was all green even my hair. Maybe when my mom gets her pictures I will send you one ok I actually told my mom there are lots of pictures I want you to see ok. We did a lot of fun stuff for Halloween time on Saturday we went to the Hollywood cementary for Day of The Dead and you will not believe what happened….This lady recognized me from the movie and I even had a skeleton face painted on and my hair was green and it was really dark outside,but I think my curly hair was a give away. She told my mom that she saw the movie 2 times and it was very healing. Thats pretty weird huh, but my mom said people feel different things when they see movies. I told her that I worked really hard on the movie and it was fun because on my breaks I got to play and sometimes you even played with me and I liked being an actor. She told me that was really nice and she thought you were a nice and really good Director.
Well, I am going to let you go and do my homework so my Mom will let me play my Pokemon game on my Gameboy later ok I hope that you are having fun everyday.
143 Brandon
Happy Halloween
This weekend I had a pumpkin carving party.
Mine is the second one from the left.
What if my blog was like this all the time, full of fun things I had done with my friends and family. Many blogs are like this and they are fascinating. One of my favorites is the Reyes Family Blog http://reyesblog.dabu.com/. I don’t know them personally, but have grown to feel as though I do. Here’s an entry from Danny Reyes, right after he moved to Tampa in August.
"I’m pretty much settled in although I have a couple of boxes left that I still need to unpack. Today I went to Bank of America and set up a new account as there isn’t a Navy Federal Credit Union anywhere in the Tampa Bay area. Bank of America gave me a lot of good deals though including a rewards credit card with no monthly fee so I’ll definitely be using that a lot for buying plane tickets. Last saturday I joined the local gym. I’m so sore as I haven’t worked out in ages. Hoping I’ll get back into it here. I’ve set up my car insurance but have not gone to the motor vehicle place yet. I’ll probably go tomorrow to get my car registered here. The timing couldn’t be perfect because the law is pretty laxed here with regards to your automobile. There is no safety inspection or emissions test (which would have been due for me if I was still in VA). You only put a license plate on the rear. Doesn’t seem to be a restriction on Tint (probably because of the heat)."
Ok, that one was less interesting, but the Reyes Family has some nice pictures, like this one of Chelsea:
and today this was posted:
October 31, 2005
Auntie Nena’s 75th Birthday Coming Up
Auntie Nena is turning 75 on February 28, 2006. Rey started a website that talks about how we can help her come to the states around that time.
Comments (0)
I am very impressed by this website whose sole purpose is getting the cousins to chip in the bring Auntie Nena out from the Phillipines. Rey scanned Auntie Nena’s letter, and she is very explicit about wanting the cousins to pay for her visit. I appreciate that kind of not beating around the bush. I think anyone can actually donate to this cause, they have pay pal set up. In any case, I admire this family. Next week I am visiting my family in Berkeley and I am going to be proactive like the Reyes. I will also be giving some presentations while I am in town, so if you live in the Bay Area you should definitely come. I will be doing many things for the first time. If you don’t live in the Bay Area, but you live in Milan, Rome, Madrid, Thessoloniki, Stockholm or Oslo, then perhaps we will cross paths later in the month. mj
November 9, 7:30-9:00pm
MJ gives a presentation called "Ten True Things" hosted by The Art, Technology, and Culture Colloquium of UC Berkeley’s Center for New Media
Note new location:
UC Berkeley Art Museum Theater
2621 Durant Avenue (enter at Durant or through garden on Bancroft)
Seating is limited. Free tickets (one per person) will be available at the Durant Gate entrance starting at 6pm. Theater Doors will open at 7:10pm.
http://www.ieor.berkeley.edu/~goldberg/lecs/
November 10 & 12, 7:30pm
MJ gives a presentation at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Screening Room
701 Mission Street @ 3rd, San Francisco
www.YBCA.org or 415.978.ARTS $8 regular, $5 seniors & students, $5 YBCA Member
MJ goes to Europe November 14-26
Milan and Rome, Italy 14-16
Madrid, Spain 16-19
Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía
Thessoloniki, Greece 19-21
Thessaloniki International Film Festival
Stockholm, Sweden 21-24
Stockholm International Film Festival
Oslo, Norway 24-27
Oslo International Film Festival
Astrup Fearnley Museet For Moderne Kunst
October 11th: The DVD comes out
This illustration above does not look like the actual DVD cover. It is
a place-holder, on account of the fact that I don’t like to look at the
actual DVD cover because, unlike the movie, it does not reflect my
soul. I know it is not unusual for the director to have no
participation in the DVD cover design, but I have these personal
standards that, as it turns out, are totally unrelated to the way this
business works. Luckily the folks at IFC and Sony have agreed to let me
re-design the cover for the next batch of DVDs. In fact, it is going to
be a complete do-over, with different (director-approved) extras on the
disc as well. I am very relieved because I lost many hours of sleep
over the whole thing, especially the tag-line on the back cover: The
person you’ve been waiting to find is waiting to be found. I would lay
in bed at night wondering who had come up with this line and how it had
ended up on something that was mine. No offense to the person at Sony
who thought it up, there is nothing bad about it in and of itself. But
for me it is like wearing someone else’s hair on my head. Oh Sony
Tag-line Writer, you probably have no idea how much I would have loved
to talk to you and your friend in graphic design. If you two are
reading this now then please contact me through
secretary@mirandajuly.com. I promise we won’t talk about the tag-line or
the cover design, because that’s water under the bridge, but maybe we
can talk about our hopes and dreams for an industry where great care is
given to every step of the process.
I should perhaps emphasize that this new DVD will not be made until the first hundred thousand DVDs are sold. Which sounds like kind of a lot to me. So don’t think: "Well, I’ll let those other people buy the first hundred thousand, I’ll just wait for the next batch." Because if you are reading this right now then you are the core constituency, you are the 100 thousand. This is not nearly as important as, say, voting, but it utilizes similar muscles. By the time elections roll around your sense that you can make a difference will be strong and ready to go make that difference.
It Was Romance
When I landed in Paris I was pale and quiet, ready to be put on a helicopter to Deauville that I had good reason to believe would crash. But they said the plans had changed, we were now going by car. And thus, I am alive and well, having survived only a metaphorical helicopter crash. The internal helicopter crash of the soul, from which I am reborn every morning. On the drive to the Deauville film festival we passed many beautiful fields of wheat that looked exactly like these doors on the bathroom in the Paris airport.
I am wearing a necklace made of felt balls by my friend Jennifer Johnson.
The Deauville film festival is an odd event,
in that only American movies are played. Who comes to this festival?
The french people who aren’t tired of Americans, who make all the
American actors feel like JLo, even lil’ ones like me. I signed many,
many autographs for people who mostly did not know who I was exactly,
having not yet seen the movie, nonetheless, they timed this coastal
vacation with the festival and they’ll be damned if they don’t come
home with every page of their program autographed. My sense of self is
somewhat ambient to begin with, so I nearly vaporized when I realized
that the picture of me I was signing was taken just a few minutes
before. This young man had a portable photo printer.
After this I walked into a tent where the official photo call happened. This is a group of about 100 photographers who all take photos at once, shouting out "Miranda!" to get me to look in to their specific lens. I knew about this from Cannes. But one thing I had never figured out was this other thing they yelled: "The sign! The sign! Make the sign!" What was the sign? Did they mean the ))<>((? But how do you make that sign? How was I to indicate poop going back and forth forever? And then suddenly it hit me: Wave. I tentatively put my hand in the air and the 100 photographers roared in gratitude.
Here you can see one of my very first waves, before I got good at it. It looks a bit like I injured my hand and am holding it above my heart to prevent blood loss. Later I wondered if perhaps there is some unwritten code about waving, like maybe the really classy stars don’t wave, but the US Weekly stars who court the press do wave, and in waving kind of pledge their life to the paparazzi. Maybe I had unwittingly crossed some sort of line. This is the kind of thing one worries about while doing a press tour alone in a foreign country, and then when one rejoins one’s actual life, surrounded by friends and sleep and normal food, one wonders if one wasn’t high to have be thinking about such things.
In Paris I spent most of my day off sorting through tiny old pieces of lace in a junk shop. I finally narrowed it down to the four best pieces. I went back to my hotel room and sewed them together with the free hotel sewing kit. This collar is in honor of all the expensive Viktor and Rolf clothes that I will never be able to afford.
I swear this is the last picture of me in this blog.
In this entry I was supposed to re-take the photograph of the MK2 theater that I took in the summer, but now with my movie poster adorning the front of the theater. But my movie poster wasn’t there, I think it was too early, or perhaps there were budgetary reasons. Instead here is a picture of the movie poster behind the receptionist at the MK2 offices.
There was also this movie poster hanging in the offices, and it reminded me of the summer when this movie came out, I think I was about 14. My parents had traded houses with someone on the opposite coast, the east coast. I walked around alone in this east coast town and thought about A ROOM WITH A VIEW and thought and thought and thought about LOVE. With this movie the idea of romance had swept in to my mind like a storm, and I just stumbled around, feeling romantic, eating cheap ice cream. This feeling has not gone away, I have just become more diligent in my stumbling, I now stumble for a living. After the french premiere of my movie I flew to the New York premiere of my boyfriend’s movie. Exhausted, unclean, bewildered, happy to be by his side. Totally Chambre avec Vue.
ONE LAST THING,
before I go to France:
Just a moment ago I was walking to my house holding these new shoes in my hand,
when I looked down at my front step and saw this: 
What does it mean? We don’t get to know. Even if it means nothing, we don’t get to know for sure that it means nothing. We just have to go forward in time.
Ok. I’m just going to say it. Tomorrow, as soon as I get to Paris, I am put on a helicopter that will take me to Deauville. Helicopters are sometimes called grasshoppers (I just checked on google to be sure, they are.) Large dead grasshopper on my porch, grasshopper shoes that fit me exactly. I don’t want to die. It would be just too maudlin and coincidental to foretell my own death in a blog. In any case, I figure I’m safer if just I announce it, upping the coincidenciality. Oh lord, I just realized that the title of the blog is ONE LAST THING. As if it were my last blog ever. But under that it clearly says: "before I go to France." Oh, I know it is all so funny and quirky, but what if I really am afraid? What if I go through life with this fairly high level of anxiety all the time? Wouldn’t that be a laugh riot. All right my dears, I’ll save it for the next the movie. Wrong format for this kind of self-analysis, it just looks tacky. All for now.
I AM RUNNING OFF TO PARIS FOR THE FRENCH PREMIERE,
but I wanted to let you know that I will be at the IFC Theater in NY on September 15th, answering questions after the two evening shows. If you were there opening weekend and have follow-up questions, now is the time. I can also tell you how it went in Paris, like a live blog.
Oh, there is so much I want to write about here, but I have not left enough time. I will just leave you with one picture from last week to make you curious. I am the one on the left. Details and explanations to follow. Hint: it didn’t happen on Earth. Hint 2: it wasn’t my idea. Hint 3: Everyone got hurt but no one minded.
An Event!
Oh man, look, me and the writer Salman Rushdie will be having an evening next month! When this was confirmed I rushed right out and bought one of his books, The Satanic Verses. There are lots and lots of terrific books that I haven’t read so it isn’t personal that I haven’t read his. So far I am only on page 4; I would be further along if I hadn’t gotten caught up in making a Salman Rushdie Badge, based on his author photo. In any case, now I have this badge I can wear while I read the book.
A Paris Review Evening at The New York Public Library
Salman Rushdie, The Art of Fiction Interview subject, Issue #174;
Author, Shalimar the Clown
Miranda July, Contributor, The Paris Review Book of People with Problems;
Director, Me and You and Everyone We Know
Philip Gourevitch, Editor, The Paris Review
7:00 PM
NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
The Celeste Bartos Forum
Fifth Avenue & 42nd Street
For Tickets: Visit www.smarttix.com or call 212-868-4444.
For more information visit www.nypl.org/live .
I AM JUST, LOVE, SOFTNESS, MADNESS.
Don’t think I don’t know that there are rumors that I am slacking off on my blog. Just because there is no comments section anymore doesn’t mean I can’t hear you. I think of it less as slacking off and more as getting back to work, because theoretically I am this multi-media artist who is toiling furiously in all the mediums of the world at all times. Also, you know, there are other movies and other blogs now. What about Junebug and Thumbsucker and Broken Flowers? In some theaters these movies will replace Me and You, and that is just life. That is like the seasons, like fruit and harvests and mating. Of course in some countries the movie is just coming out, or won’t come out for many months, and I instruct these foreign newcomers to go back to the beginning of the blog in April and read through. It would be bad for you to begin with this entry about slacking off, that is not the right spirit at all. In fact the movie opens this weekend in the UK and I was just there. Among other things, I did a project with The Gaurdian wherein you can email people from Manchester to ask their opinion of the movie: http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/gallery/0,8542,1551623,00.html
I know one of the participants and she said she has gotten many emails already, here is one she forwarded:
Clement
Hello, my name is Clement I live in France in a small town next to Paris. I have got a big house. I have got two sisters they are friendly. My teachers want me to ask you some questions on the movi: "Me and you and everyone we know."
This my questions:
Did you like this movi?
Did the action are good?
Did the actor were good?
Thank-you for your participation! 
Clement
[Here is an extract of the poem we wrote together in english class today]
I am just, love, softness and madness.
She reveal melancholy ordinary madness and monotonous.
Amazing that they wrote this poem before they saw the movie. So you see, the fruits are only just beginning to ripen in other parts of the world, we can chase spring all the way to Japan, where the movie opens in March of 2006. Clement can see the movie in Paris when it opens next month, premiering here:
Marc-Antoine of MK2 took this picture, after picking me up from the
hotel on the back of his motorcycle. I have never ridden on the back of
a motorcycle before because I heard it was a good way to get yourself
killed. But what could I do? Right before we took off he said: Lean the
right way or we’ll crash. We rode by the Eiffel Tower, I looked up,
there it was, just like in the comic books. I gave in to the
experience. He said next month the Une Aventure sign will be replaced
by a Me and You sign. I will take another picture then, so you can see.
Also you will notice that the trees in the picture will be fall colors,
and this will remind you of what I said about the seasons, harvests,
mating. I will also be older, even though Christine will always be the
same age. Both things are true: everything changes, but ))<>((
forever. And on that note I will gently gesture towards the T Shirt
that is now available:
Here I am, modeling the shirt, one hand on hip, like a model, saying: Cut off my head! My hair is too dirty!
Brandon Blog #5
Ms. Miranda,
This weekend I was going through my boxes of books, because we moved last week. But I was looking at my seek and find books like you know… Where’s Waldo and my find Scooby Doo and find Spider Man books. On the pages they have a lot of stuff and you have to find the characters. And it made me think of you and what had you been doing. I asked my Mom and she said that you have been traveling all around the world and that maybe another blog would be good when I felt like it. Then I thought I wish you could do a book like those. If you could go to each city and stand in a lot of people and take a picture and have people find you. Now that would be cool huh! My mom really liked the Japan pictures she really wants to go there. She used to teach a classroom of Japanese kids in my old Montessori school in Highland Park and she learned a lot about Japan from the parents. She said that would be her dream city. She likes the fashion and stuff. Oh and you know what???? We couldn’t believe all the dots! Christine sure would have a lot of wishes in that store huh Ms. Miranda?!!!
Well since I know what you have been doing let me tell you and everybody else who reads this what I have been doing. Well, like I said we moved. I live in Studio City now and I really like it here. I have been going to summer camp called Camp NoHo and I have had a lot of fun. We go on a lot of trips and do a lot of fun stuff. I have made a lot of friends. On Friday I went to a sleeppver at the camp and we made Smores and Oh my god it was so delicious! The only thing that was a little embarrasing one of the counselors saw a picture of the movie poster on the internet and saw me and was asking a lot of questions. I said yes I am a actor,but I am just a normal kid too. Sometimes I get a little shy about that part of me. Oh and I have been watching a lot of TV and playing video games, but my mom said it is time to get my brain back in gear so I have been listening to a lot of Jazz and reading a lot of chapter books. I like Junie B. Jones, but my mom ordered some Flat Stanley books for me, but the best my mom got the new Harry Potter book and we read it every night. It is soooo good! On the crazy parts I get so excited and jump up and down on my bed! On Saturday I went to see Charlie and The Chocolate Factory and we saw the preview for the next Harry Potter movie and me and Mom were sooo excited. We always try to kind of dress alike for Halloween and Mom wants me to dress up like Harry so she can dress up like Hermoine. She really likes the Harry Potter Stories and world and she begged and begged me but I told her I am not sure yet. We just love Halloween.
Let’s see what else Oh this weekend in Richmond all of my family in Virginia went to see the movie and trust me I have a huge family!!! My Papa Fred just loved it and he said not just because I was in it. He said he liked how he had to listen with his ears and not just watch with his eyes to really enjoy the movie. He thought that me and Miles really looked like brothers,and thought you did a good a job picking all the actors. And he said my new nickname he is gonna call me is Night Warrior. He said he thought you were really smart too Ms Miranda. He said anyone who writes, directs and acts all together in one thing has a lot of smarts and good sense. He said he hopes I stick to acting because he thought I am a good little actor! But oh my god of course he just had to bring up the kissing part and do you know what I told him? I said “For the love of God Papa Fred you just hush your little mouth about that part!” He laughed at me! He always likes to tease me about stuff.
Oh and I can’t believe I haven’t brought this up before…Ms Mirandaaaaa last week I lost another tooth! That makes #6 and I got $7 from the Tooth Fairy for it. I spent it wisely at Target, I bought 2 packs of Pokemon cards. My other teeth are finally starting to come in and I so happy. My mom doesn’t have to cut up all of my food like a baby anymore, and I can eat chicken drumsticks again.
So Ms. Miranda I hope you are happy going to all of these cool places. I hope you are having a lot of happy memories. When I grow up I am going to travel to a lot of places like you. I told my mom I think maybe I want to go to college in a lot of cities and countries, that way I can learn about a lot in different places. She said that would be cool. I can’t wait to go to college and have my own car. But I tell you, I am not looking forward to writing papers with like a 1000 words. I am not going to be happy about that!
Oh and you know what Ms. Miranda, I have another question for you.. how have you been doing with the questions? Are you remembering what I said to just take a deep breath and focus on the last time you saw it and when we were filming it? Oh yeah and be confident. My mom always tells me when you are confident and feel good about yourself nothing else matters oh and maybe you can use the rule that she makes me say all the time… demand and expect excellence out of yourself in everything that you do,not perfection but excellence. Sometimes oh my god she makes me soo mad with that one but I do feel better when I try to be excellent and I do better work after she makes me say it out loud She always says (mocking mom) “Brandon what is our rule?” Then she makes me say it out loud then she says “Now let’s rock and roll, focus and do the right thing”. So maybe that will help you ok.
Well I hope you are having a lot of fun Ms. Miranda and I am so glad that people are still liking the movie. Oh and Ms. Miranda guess where I am going this Saturdayyyyyyyy….Pizza Buono!!!! My dad is coming and me and mom want to take him there for dinner ohh I just can’t wait! Oh yeah and 1 more question I was wondering if you miss your house? I know you don’t have pets but if you have plants or something or need to have your grass watered you can just call me ya know, I know how to do that kind of stuff and that is what friends and neighbors do ya know, I learned that from TV. I water the plants at my house for chores and stuff so even though I am 7 I know how to do it ok. I even know how to cook in the microwave!
Well, I am taking a break from Camp today so I am going to go and watch Scooby Doo and play with the Scooby Doo Gang action figures. Not the ones you saw on the set, I got new ones, but I still have the old mystery machine you saw. I hope you are having a lot of fun on your trip.
Talk to you soon
143
Brandon
FRESHLY1, FRESHLY2, FRESHLY3
1. First the plane took off. They show it on the screen now,
did you know that? You see the runway, the arrows sliding under, faster and
faster, the shaking, the noise, then suddenly: the sky, the clouds.
You’re watching the it on the screen from the pilot’s POV
and you’re thinking, If we crash it’s all going to be televised on that screen,
the ground hurtling towards us. And this is some comfort, that it will be real
like a reality show, not real like really happening.
2. I was invited to Japan by Skip City’s digital festival. Skip City is not a real city,
but it has some of the things one looks for in a city: a planetarium, a movie
theater, people dressed up like cartoon characters, children’s orchestras
playing Copa Cabana, and Hinokio, the robot that longs to be a real boy. One of
my hosts in Skip City was a young woman named Yumiko. Here is a poem she gave
me before I left:
2. One day we came back to the hotel and discovered that the
whole town (Urawa) was having a festival of its own. A real festival, not a
digital one. Everyone was walking around in kimonos and buying the Japanese
equivalent of cotton candy and hot dogs. We stood in long lines for things that
turned out to be a real native taste.
The goldfish scene in the movie went over well in Japan.
Girls told me they cried, men called it profound. I was finally getting the
reaction I wanted. At the festival in Urawa I watched children reverently
choose goldfish from shallow trays, which reminded me of all those traditional
Japanese koi paintings that you see.
And it suddenly dawned on me: Japan is an island! These are
fish-loving people! My goldfish was like Old Yeller here. From then on I began
to have great hope for the movie in Japan. I tried to find other themes like
the goldfish thing, but mostly they were forced. Nonetheless, Me and You won
the top prize at the Skip City digital festival, sharing it with Brothers, the
Danish film by Susanne Bier.
3. While we were at Skip City there was a giant earthquake.
I am so afraid of earthquakes that earlier that same day I had been secretly
worrying about them. So when it really happened it was like a dream,
telephone wires swinging back and forth, cars bouncing up and down. It was long
like slow motion. But for the rest of the day I was exhilarated because it had
really happened and I had survived. Everyone else did too.
4. Then we went to Tokyo. The first thing I did in there was
re-enact the earthquake.
There wasn’t an earthquake in Tokyo, but there was a
typhoon. It was hard to get a clear picture of what this typhoon would be like.
I had a long talk with the concierge about it, that went something like this:
Can you tell me a little bit about what to expect from the
typhoon?
What?
The typhoon. (I make a swirling motion with my hand.)
Oh yes. I heard about that. (Concierge glances at her
computer. I hope she is checking for the latest safety precautions but realize
that she is just distracted, looking at her email.)
But so. Do you have any tips?
Bring an umbrella.
The typhoon turned out to be no big deal. In Portland we
don’t call it that.
5. The next day it was sunny and clear. We went to a little
park with a pretty mural.
I made a movie about a bird.
And then, embarrassingly, I discovered I wasn’t the only
artist in the park; two men were taking pictures of shadows on paper. I sneaked
a look at the papers and they were all quotes in english from American
actresses.
6. Christine would really love Japan because it is filled
with dots. They have dot stickers that you just can’t find in the homeland.
And it goes deeper than that, if you begin to look, as she
would, you find them everywhere.
7. On the last day we went to a shrine. People from all over
the world had written little prayers on pieces of wood.
8. Then flight home, same as (1) above, but in reverse, and
much, much more tired. On Saturday I leave for Paris and London. But right now
my two bare feet are on the wooden floor under my desk in L. A.
Do you have one of these?
It’s the soundtrack album, this is what the cover looks like. And on the
inside I wrote my thoughts and feelings about getting to work with the composer
Mike Andrews. My roommate freshman year of
college was named Jennifer Maerz. She was a journalism student and now she’s a
journalist and here are her thoughts and feelings about the soundtrack.
Tomorrow I go to Japan, where I have never been. The movie is in a festival
called Skip City. I’ll take pictures to show you when I get back. If you live in Japan then
see you tomorrow.
Impossible, yet possible.
Young Brandon Ratcliff (Robby) and I had a conversation the other week, some of which played on Weekend America last weekend. He basically gave me advice on how to function in the world as a human being: listen to audio clip.
And on July 7th I will have another conversation, this one with George Saunders, the wonderful writer. This will take place at 7pm at The Hammer Museum in Los Angeles. You could make it a full MJ evening by following this with Me and You at the Arc Light. Yes, it opens at this gigantic multiplex this weekend,
and in San Francisco and Berkeley,
and in Portland and Seattle,
in Boston,
in Washington D.C, our nation’s capitol,
in Brooklyn,
and in lots of other places. And as it turns out, I have to be in all these places at the same time. I have to psychically lift up the movie and carry it in to the hearts of every single audience member. And I have to wear a different outfit at each place because if you keep wearing the same thing people think you aren’t successful. I don’t mind doing this impossible thing, because I love the movie and it is a small price to pay to get it inside of people. But just imagine when it is released all over the world! I will have to be in many different countries at the same time, night after night, always wearing the traditional native costume of that country, so I don’t offend anyone. I’ll really be worn out then. But still, totally worth it. See you there!
Brandon Blog #4
Hello Ms. Miranda and people all around the world, even though it is late my mom said I could stay up late to write because I just felt like talking tonight.
This has been a busy Monday and Tuesday. It started off I stayed home all day to rest since I knew I was going to be up past my bedtime on Monday. I got undressed from my boxers and my wife beater and relaxed in my bathtub for awhile. I took three toys in the bathtub too so I wouldn’t be bored. And I had lots of fun in the bathtub but I was thinking about if a lot of people were going to come to see the movie. Then I got dressed in my suit and I made my mom laugh because I told her when I saw myself in the mirror "I ooze fashion!" She laughed so hard she said she felt like she was going to pee in her pants. Then before the movie my mom took me to McDonalds, the one on Sunset and I had my favorite meal… Cheeseburger plain Happy Meal with only the top bun. I hate the bottom bun! And I had ice cream. But oh my God the funniest thing happened… this man sitting next to us lifted up his butt and farted real loud out in public! Ahhaha! Me and my mom held our laughs in so hard, and she kept whispering "Brandon do not laugh!" ahaha! I cannot believe really he farted out loud in public!
Then, when I got to the place where the movie was showing in Hollywood I took lots of pictures and answered questions. There were soooooo many people at the theater and every time I see the movie I love it! And on Tuesday it was my 6th time seeing it. Out in public hehehe I am just kidding! It’s weird seeing myself, well seeing myself in a movie. Sometimes I think I sound nasally. The movie is so funny to me. Ms. Miranda is a weird and hilarious writer, and she wrote about love. I wonder sometimes why she wrote a weird love movie, I cannot believe 2 girls kissed, besides… me and Nancy Herrington only had to kiss for a little bit, but Natasha and Najarra had to kiss for a long time, I just CANNOT believe that, but my mom said girls can kiss girls and boys can kiss boys.
Oh yeah and the CD it has good music. But #12 is the best, I like to sing to it, but my mom’s favorite is #6. I want to be a big Director like Ms. Miranda when I grow up. I already have my own Spiderman Video Camera that I got for Christmas and I made a movie with my dogs. I wanted to take my movie to school to show it but my mom said a bad word when she was cooking our big Christmas dinner and I was dancing so nasty in front of the camera. Sometimes I get a little crazy and go cuckoo, so I couldn’t take it.
Well I had a great time seeing the movie and seeing all the other actors from the movie, especially Ms. Jo Nelle! I hadn’t seen her in sooo long and she likes to talk about Fairly Odd Parents with me, now I can’t believe, I just can’t believe she knows about the cartoons on Nickelodeon! It was good seeing Ms. Miranda again too, I feel like she understands my brain. But I wish that Miles was there! Oh and it was so much fun seeing people who helped Ms. Miranda make the movie, I hadn’t seen them in a long time like Ms. Christie and Ms. Sherry oh and Ms. Gina.. I cannot believe she had a little baby! My Mom went crazy over the baby video.
And ohhhhhh my god at the party there was a belly dancer, and she was shaking her little hips. I could not stop laughing. But I tried it when I got home and my mom was screaming and laughing. My mom is so crazy sometimes!
Well I was about to finish this, but my mom was drinking a bottle of water and I read it and it said "Choose Your Adventure, feel like a Movie Star, Live like a Rock Star!" sometimes I kind of want to live like that when I get to be like 16 or something or maybe 18 or older.
Oh and I am hoping lots of people come to the movie on Friday, and everybody that I know in Highland Park in Chicago where I used to live before I moved to LA is going to see it there on Friday too, like 20 people I know there. I am going to see it here again too, that is going to be my 7th time but I already have the whole movie memorized! ahaha GOOD NIGHT LITTLE FREAKS! AHAHAHA.
143 (Love)
Brandon
Hello New York
People! You are a force! Almost every single show at the IFC Center in NY was sold out this last weekend. You broke all kinds of records for
caring. You bought tickets and stayed to hear my Q+A after the show and generally behaved in a way that said: I am a curious and passionate
person. Indeed many of you came up to me after the screenings and told me about the amazing
projects you are working on, or showed me pictures of your kids, or did
something else to gently indicate that my movie was just a tiny part of your
incredible life. And I’m very proud to be a part of it, just as you will always
be the people that allowed my first movie to
be seen by thousands more. But I have ruined the story, this should really come at the end,
after I have forced you to suffer through each moment leading up to it.
First of all, Me and You opened the IFC Center,
so I got to hang around and witness it all coming togethr.
Like when I went to the bathroom there
would be a large yellow drill just sitting on the counter, and I would think: in just an hour there
will be real people in this bathroom who might not know what to make of the power tools, should I tell someone that this is here? But I just trusted that
someone was on it, and yes, later in the night
I went again and the counter was demure and
pristine. I was allowed to go in the projection booth and see my movie playing on actual film:
This
is a boring movie unless you spent years trying to the point where the thing spins and the light goes through it and makes the moving colors on the screen. In
which case this movie is like a skateboarding movie where you are at the edge of your seat because the tricks seem so terrifying impossible.
And posters for the movie
were wheat-pasted all over town. At first I took photographs of them
every time I saw them, as if they
were my children, but after awhile I realized that the whole point is that they were EVERYWHERE.
A couple days before the big opening we had a wonderful little premiere. The
IFC Center has a restaurant in it, and that night all the waiters wore ))<>(( shirts:
Here they
are having a meeting. I sensed that they
perhaps did not know what ))<>(( meant.
On opening day all the reviews of the movie came out and were
delivered to my hotel room. Shall I say a few words about reviews? What words
shall I use? What graceful thing can a first-time director say to the public on the topic of reviews? Eh? What’s
that you say? Nothing?? Ah, then
nothing nothing it is. After reading the reviews me and my boyfriend took a walk in central park and ate the best popsicles in the world. And we watched the professional drawers and painters draw and paint. This
one is of a woman who had paid for her portrait. He had just gotten started:
And this man just did landscapes and still-lifes:
And then evening drew near
and I went to the theater
and watched the people buy tickets and come
in. It was clear that many of these people had
innocently chosen this movie because it FIT IN TO THEIR
SCHEDULE or because they had SEEN AN AD or
because a FRIEND A WANTED TO
GO AND HAD DRAGGED THEM ALONG. I stared
nervously at these people and decided that now
was a terrific time to finally LET GO.
And then, well I stole that
part for the beginning. I let go and it worked
out ok because I fell in to many many many hands. We had the highest number of hands-per-theatre in the country. Just one theater, but so many hands.
And then I flew home to LA to do it all over again. Please come to Nu Art this weekend, I’ll be there too.
ONE VERY ABOUT-TO-BE-EXPOSED-FEELING YOUNG WOMAN TOUCHES ON THE TOPIC OF “NESTLING”
Sometimes it is fun to play that game "What were you doing at this time last
year?" At this time last year I was getting ready to shoot the movie, we would
begin shooting it in just about three weeks. We were busy picking the paint for
Christine’s room and the exact sticker to go on Andrew’s window. I had saved ads
from Sav-On and Rite-Aide for weeks and when my friend Susan said Let’s hang
out, I said Ok! But do you mind if we cut out hundreds of pictures of
household appliances while we talk?
Susan Ploetz cutting out pictures for Sylvie’s" scrapbook"
I enlisted other friends too, like Sean Tejeratchi, who designed my cd and video
covers when we were both living in Portland. Now he was in charge of all the
graphics for the movie. There are more graphics than one realizes, including
things like this:
Sean made the test paper and wrote the graffiti. But sadly this desk never made
it in to the movie.
On the day we shot the museum scenes I remember glancing down at one of the
captions for the art work and then laughing out loud:
As the shoot went on we all began to notice that Sean was taking every
opportunity to work possums in to the movie graphics. Like in one scene a
student holds a bottle of juice:
The label Sean made to replace the Odwalla label.
A rumor began to circulate on the set that Sean had in fact tamed a baby
possum and was living with it. Emily (assistant art director) confirmed
this, she had dropped something by his house and witnessed the animal running
around on a homemade habitrail which spanned his apartment. (Oh – Sean just
called as I was typing this! I told him I was writing about him and he requested
that I use the phrase "he has an air of…" ) One day, right before Sundance, I
went over to his house in a mad panic, we had to design the poster for the
movie immediately. We had been working feverishly for about an hour, when
suddenly Sean turned to me. "Do you want to meet Chumpy?" he asked.
Chumpy is hard not to love. He has an air of forgiveness about him. Like he
might forgive us all for all the things we don’t do well enough. Does Chumpy
care about the poster? No. Chumpy doesn’t even care if the movie does well. What
he wants is a dark, safe place to nestle. And I can really relate to that.
Writing on Air
When I walked in to my room just now my dress was kneeling like this and that’s
how I knew that it really is time to rest, even my dress is exhausted. Me and my
dress must regain our strength before the big premiere! Every day I wonder: will
people come to the IFC Center in NY on the 17th, 18th, and 19th? And will they come to the NuArt in LA and Century
Centre in Chicago on the 24th, 25th, 26th? If all these shows sell out all weekend then people in the
rest of the country have a fighting chance of seeing the movie. I think to
myself: how hard could that be? But then I realize that I really only know about
20 people in each city, and I think of all those seats and I get nervous and
wonder how expensive is it to hire a plane to fly over the cities that says: See
Me and You and Everyone We Know! Or could I just walk around and yell it loudly,
but that might be alienating. For now I have decided to lay the challenge at
your feet. Perhaps you know someone who flies one of those skywriter planes for
a living. Or, alternately, maybe you can tell your friends to go. In any case,
each day I think about this for at least a little while. I imagine all the seats
and hold my breath for a moment and then carry on with my
day.
Sometimes it is a comfort to think about things that aren’t the
movie. For example, Cloverfield Press. These friends, they said they were going to start a publishing company and then
they really did it, and the books are small and real and lovely. Thrillingly
they published a little book of mine, it is just one story called The Boy
From Lam Kien.
You
can order it now and have it sent to you when it comes out, June 24th, the same day
that a certain movie comes out in LA. In fact, I will be reading a story aloud
at Skylight Books at 7:30 and then running over to the NuArt to do the q+a for
the 7:30 movie. Also, have you visited Learning to Love You More? It is my
collaboration with the artist Harrell Fletcher and with you. We just put up a
new assignment, #47: Re-enact a scene from a movie that made someone else
cry. You can be the first one do it. I will obviously be checking LTLYM every
other second to see if anyone has done that assignment, in the same way that I
avidly read the comments on this blog. Basically I am either thinking about the
empty seats, checking LTLYM or checking the comments. Or making toast with
almond butter and jam. Those three things pretty much triangulate my existence.
Sometimes I have to think about my friend Dena getting married and what will her
dress look like. And also I worry about my parents and hope they are happy. And
sometimes I think about my brother and his wife and how they are having a baby
and will it be a girl or a boy. And then I check the comments section and then
sometimes I have to spend up to twenty minutes at a time resigning myself to
aging. And then I have to think about love for awhile. And then I check
websites and think about the empty seats and then I sleep.
Code Bravo
I was putting lotion on my hands when I got the phone call. It was Holly Becker, my producer at IFC calling from Cannes: We won everything! We won the Prix du Jury for critics week, we won the young audience award, we won the very young audience award, and we won THE CAMERA D’OR!!!! I didn’t even think we’d get into Cannes!
I was shouting and jumping around but even as I shouted I was becoming part of the IM force. Not the Mission Impossible from the movies, but the original series that I watched as a child with my brother. I had prepared my whole life for an Impossible Mission and finally finally it looked like one was imminent. Would I have to go (back) to France? What about my press day here in Seattle? What about the panel I was supposed to be on the next day, presented by the Seattle Film Festival, "A Conversation With Miranda July?" how would this conversation happen without me? They would have to channel me like in a seance. And so began a long day of fixating on things that that were easier to consider than WINNING THE CAMERA D’OR.
A few minutes later I got a call from Saudia from IFC: Get in a cab right now and go to the airport. Now.
Yes. This is exactly the kind of thing I am prepared to do in every moment but it has never been asked of me. And as if I had somehow known that I would have to pack quickly, I had really spread my things out all over the hotel room, it was like I lived there. My greatest joy may have been this packing, throwing things in the suitcase madly. Freezing to consider the micro-demabrasion kit that had come free in a gift bag from the Seattle film fest. I opened it up, there were different sizes and shapes of foam applicators. Me and my friends would have so much fun destroying our faces with this kit. But it just wouldn’t fit. And even if it did, I would probably have to leave it in France to make room for the CAMERA D’OR. I threw the micro-dermabrasion kit it across the room, and in this way began to make room for everything to come.
I would have to fly from Seattle to Portland to Frankfurt to Nice, where a car would take me to Cannes. I would arrive 2 hours before the awards ceremony began, enough time to choose a dress and be made respectable. At one point it looked as though I would in fact arrive during the festival, and have to just wear what I was wearing, ie, jeans and a tee-shirt. My friends said It’s ok! It’ll be punk! But I was relieved to get these extra 2 hours. I had punked my way through so many things, I wanted the dress.
Just as I went through security at the Seattle Airport a security alert went off. A guard called CODE BRAVO! into a megaphone and everyone froze and men with guns ran around shouting CODE BRAVO! and then the guard said SCREENING RESUME and it was all over. I, in the throws of profound narcissism, decided that what they actually mean was: BRAVO! It was the beginning the ceremony that would be completed in the Palais in Cannes.
I walked around the airport and called friends and family and the people who made the movie with me and we laughed and cried, thinking of how hard we had worked, the days of doubts and crippling frustration, the trying the trying the trying to make it good. And with these people I began to feel real joy at the recognition.
Then I sat down to read Eightball, which I had bought the day before. But before I got through the first page, the man sitting next to me said: Excuse me, would you mind reading the first three pages of my manuscript? It’s about to be published and I just wanted to get an outsider’s take on it.
Now this seemed very odd indeed. Did he know who I was? No, of course not. I took the pages and dutifully read them. It was called Hike Your own Hike.
It was about how we are chained to jobs that are slowly killing us and how we need to quit those jobs and live our dreams, hike our own hike, both metaphorically and literally. I gave the pages back and told him they were really inspiring and encouraging. Then he asked me about myself and where I was going and I told him I was a director, going to receive this award etc. And he said: Wait a sec. You already are hiking your own hike. And I had to admit I was. So this book doesn’t apply to you, he said, holding the pages in his lap. I said that it was still good to be reminded, there were a lot pressures, etc. But I could feel that the climate of the conversation had changed.
As the tiny plane landed, the stewardess called out all the gates for our connecting flights. The last flight was mine: Frankfurt, gate D14. And then the she said, over the PA: Can I come with you? No one will notice I’m gone. And everyone laughed. But I was in such a heightened state that I became overwhelmed with the feeling that I was saying goodbye to regular life, the kind of life that most people could relate to. And that the hike your own hike guy and the stewardess were like the Greek chorus, warning and advising me, telling me to take note, that the universe doesn’t often swirl this way. I know this is all very grandiose, but if one doesn’t feel grandiose on such a day, then when?
Then I flew to Frankfurt, then Nice, then I was in Cannes again. From this point on it all becomes a blur. I had a terrible time choosing a dress at Dior, I suddenly became the desperately precise person who had made the movie, I wanted everything to be just so, to reflect every sensation I had ever felt. At the last moment they found just such a dress. It was blue.
Getting my hair done was also problematic because my hair was incredibly dirty. I kept saying that I had just washed it that morning, but finally I had to admit that this had been 15 hours ago and I had been on three planes. We decided to go for the messy look.
Then we drove to the Palais. In the car I met Vimukthi Jayasundara, who I had just been told I would share the prize with. It was nice to not be alone in this. We quickly grilled each other about what we planned to say on-stage, about each other’s movies (his is called The Forsaken Land, he’s Sri Lanken, he’s 27.) Meanwhile, outside the window:
The woman’s voice is Holly Becker.
And then I was waiting to go up the red carpet:
The woman to my right is urging me to not begin walking, as the photographers are not done photographing the stars.
And then walking up the carpet:
And very quickly Vimukthi and I heard our names and we walked up to the podium. The prize was given by Abbas Kiarostami, the head of the jury, and, oddly enough, Milla Jovavich. When I was 12 I deeply wanted a subscription to Seventeen magazine, but I was too embarrassed to ask for this because I knew my father would frown upon it. I was torn between wanting it and wanting to prove that I was not a silly, materialistic girl. Eventually I got the subscription and Milla was on the cover of the first issue. So you can imagine my surprise, to see it was she, ushering me in to this new world. Maybe she will always be the gatekeeper for each new world I enter.
Afterwards there were various things that happened, most of them related to press. And then there was a party with fireworks. And then I walked back to the hotel, barefoot with my shoes in my hands. Earlier in the evening my award had been dropped off at the hotel (The Gray D’Albion), because it was very heavy. When I asked the concierge for the award he lead me in to the vault, where they had put it for safekeeping.
At the end of this movie the man is summoning a security guard to escort me to my room with the prize. They were so reverent, they completed the ceremony that began with Code Bravo. In the room they had laid out a tray of of tiny cakes, roses, and champagne. Then, in the morning, they presented me with their own award, a certificate with my name on it and a mysterious box. In the cab on the way back to the airport (less than 24 hours after my arrival) I opened the box. Inside was a tiny pine tree.
Brandon’s Blog #3 (with an preface by Tonni, Brandon’s mother.)
He is under the weather right now (suffering from
a cold & cough/environmental asthma), same symptoms when he got sick on the
set… so as you can see (it is a little after 3 am) and he could not sleep;That
is what started all of this email. Truly us being up and just having talks about
Scooby Doo, Pokemon Cards, SpongeBob and Ms. Miranda winning & his favorite
part of the movie and he wanted to write. (Miranda you should feel so lucky to
be grouped in with the above stated bunch. they are his life at
the present moment along with dinosaurs and dolphins)…so hence here we are…
(and you have to remember we always just let him pretty much express himself so
I hope this doesn’t offend anyone)
"Ms. Miranda, I am so happy you are winning all of these prizes! Do you remember when I told in Utah what my favorite part was? (imagine a big sneaky toothless grin with sick & sleepy eyes) You know the part… {and I not really saying it mom I am just like being an actor saying it ok mom}… you know the… we have a lifetime together you fucker part… well that is still my favorite part ahaha ohh oh my god that part was so funny to me! Oh yeah and the macaroni! MACARONI…AHHAHAHA (cough, cough,cough) oh my god that was like so funny! You were like so good at that part, I can’t wait to see it again to see that part, it makes me laugh so hard. I am up so late, it is like 3 in the morning! Even though I am sick I am so lucky!… my mom is letting me watch cartoon network adult swim and the Flintstones are in court with a judge and all the older like 70ish cartoon people it is so funny [mom halts his thoughts to give understanding: He is really into the late 70's right now, I know really weird, not quite understanding it myself, but he loves the Scooby Doo & the "Daphne" style clothing & musical guests that were on the cartoon]. Well I am gonna go and watch it now ok. Oh yeah I almost forgot my school carnival was this weekend, my whole school turned into a big carnival and we had real rides… and my dad came and guess what.. I rode the big Octopus ride all by myself! It was really high like by the trees and spinning me all around, it was so fun!
Well 143. Remember that means I love you. 1 for the letter I because it only has 1 letter, 4 for love because of 4 letters of the alphabet make up that word and you know you has only 3 letters so…
143 Ms. Miranda. Maybe I will see you like next month or something my mom said we can see the movie again when it comes here in June, ohhh I can’t wait to see my favorite part [me giving a look hoping/urging that he won't say it again].
From a very awake Brandon as transcribed by a very tired Tonni
