— छह हज़ार एक सौ ग्यारह —
An interesting, new, and slightly uncomfortable experience for me this morning, even though I knew from the start that something of the sort was always a possibility because the film is so new, and so far, so narrowly seen: I received an email from a member of the crew for the film
49 to 51, asking for edits in two different paragraphs.
The email was very polite and even complimentary of my review, but I still had kind of mixed feelings about it. None of it had anything to do with anything critical I said about it—the kind of thing that had Shobhit anxiously saying to me "Just be careful"—but rather about being sensitive to the subject matter in one instance, and avoiding spoilers in the other.
I'll start what this person clearly regarded as a spoiler in the final paragraph. In my review as first written, I noted that the title,
49 to 51, was a lighthearted inside joke between Pooja and her late brother, Raj. That's all I said about it; I did not say
what the inside joke was. But, considering it does not change the quality of the review overall, I did go ahead and rephrase it, saying the title is
a reference to something a bit more lighthearted, a lovely detail revealed very near the end of the film. I even edited another detail in that very same, final paragraph, which the crew person who sent the email did not ask for, but it occurred to me that I did also arguably give too much detail about the final shot of the film as well, and it would be better experienced if I made that reference a bit more vague as well.
This is a bit of a more nuanced example, but I do feel compelled to note that I'm kind of over how much people obsess over avoiding spoilers. If you want no details at all about a movie before you see it, you simply should not read any reviews before seeing it. The person who left a comment on my review of
You Can See Everything asked that I put "Spoiler Alert" at the top of the piece, which in that case I have not done; she ended by saying "It matters," which I found a bit grating.
It matters? Does this person have any idea the massive amount of stunning shit in that movie that I did
not reveal? Plus, it's still a movie. It doesn't matter
that much.
That said, the subject of
49 to 51 is of a far more sensitive nature, and has far greater justifications to claims of mattering. And I should stress that this email was very respectful. That said, the person offered to get on the phone and "suggest wording for the sentences around it," and I wasn't having
that. I did take the suggestions for making edits, and I did make them; but I can't be letting people tell me how I should write about movies, particularly movies they themselves worked on. That's something I would consider straight up unethical, though I was softer about it in my brief reply, in which I let her knew that I did make edits to the paragraphs to which she referred: I said I would not be comfortbale with it and would consider it to be in an ethical gray area considering my writing, which is still also true.
The person had legitimate concerns about what I was sharing about the film, but a) it's been publicly presented and that makes it fair game for whatever I want to say about it, technically, the delicate dance regarding any degrees of separation from acquaintance with the filmmakers nowtishtanding; and b) I still think it's far better for me to make edits on my own terms and in my own voice. The choice still needs to be mine, and not a compromise of my writing. (I did make a compromise in terms of details revealed, which is a different thing.) The person seemed otherwise to really appreciate what I had to say about the film anyway.
I did note in my blog post the day after attending the screening that it was pretty likely people involved in the film would see my review, it's so new and so few people have published reactions to it. This just illustrates how right I was. I suppose the exchange could have been far more uncomfortable than it was, so I'm grateful for that. It was still a new, and kind of odd, experience.
— छह हज़ार एक सौ ग्यारह —
— छह हज़ार एक सौ ग्यारह —
As for last night, Shobhit met me at work while out getting his steps in, and he walked home with me. We stopped at QFC on the way home and bought eggs and pasta that were all on sale, which kind of made it an errand run more than anything.
We kind of had a lot more to cover together than usual, though, starting with our latest of endless calls to Aetna to get the status of claims that are listed as either denied or "waiting for more information," though both say the latter in the details on the Aetna website. The concern is that one is for just above $50,000 and the other is for just above $58,000. They keep telling us this will update once they get the right information; Harborview Medical Center has told us they've sent it to them four times.
I actually got a voicemail today while I was at work, from the very same woman we spoke to yesterday—a significant step up from all of our experience thus far, actually, as no one else has proactively followed up with me. That said, the message now is something along the lines of the itemized bill they received from Harborview not being correct and it needing to be resubmitted (yet again??) and that it will take another 3-4 weeks to process. Jesus Christ.
There was a bit of a chaotic moment because TPS, which Shobhit works for, onboarded a new Executive Director, and Shobhit needed to take a Zoom call with her. I was on hold with the agent at Aetna at the time, on speaker as usual so Shobhit and I could both talk to her, but now he was on this other call. And the Aetna agent got back on the call right when Shobhit got on his Zoom, a frustration which was compounded by my therefore needing to move to the bedroom so I could hear her, while the pot of leftover sambjar on the stove also started to boil over. Fun!
Anyway, once those calls were done, I logged into my work Dayforce site so we could go through my Open Enrollment together. We took my laptop over to the common area in the West Building so we could print out the Spousal Surcharge Affidavit form, which he is taking to TPS today to get signed so I can prove my spouse does not have access to health benefits at his job and therefore the surcharge for him to be on my insurance gets waived.
After that, things settled a bit: we watched three episodes of season 3 of
Silo on Apple TV. I was going to go to Steamworks after work today but I decided to postpone it until next month; we still have two episodes left of
Silo and we'll watch those tonight, before my one-month subscription expires tomorrow—when, incidentally, I will leave work early and drive to Olympia, have dinner with Dad and Sherri and then go with them to a Bee Geese cover band concert. I'm really looking forward to that. I told Karen about it over our Zoom lunch yesterday and she really cracked up.
We watched one episode of
Curb Your Enthusiasm before I went to bed and it was hilarious.
— छह हज़ार एक सौ ग्यारह —
[posted 12:43pm]
