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Sep. 6th, 2023 10:08 pmFelt kind of lonely last night. It happens. I sat with it for a bit, and realized that I'm not alone, there's a lot of people out there who also feel lonely.
It's difficult making new friends. There's lots of Meetup groups, but I feel overwhelmed by them. And my weekend outing with Wales - made me feel lonelier than expected.
This too shall pass. I hope.
The advice I found online about handling lonliness was:
Support Tips for Everyday Loneliness
Basically it pushes counseling or talking therapy - which has never really worked well for me.
I did however like some of the information within it - such as the bits on social media, which have a tendency sometimes to make me feel more lonely instead of less.
I sometimes feel lonely when I am overwhelmed by human information – the news, social media, TV, negative gossip etc. – I feel so separate and different to most people.
And..
Seeing photos of others at events, or socialising with friends and family, might make us feel like we’re the only one who’s feeling lonely. Being able to access so many people’s lives can sometimes feel overwhelming.
It’s sometimes hard to stop comparing ourselves to others. But remember that things aren’t always what they seem from the outside. We don’t know how other people feel when they’re alone. Or what’s going on for them outside of their social media feed.
This was a UK site, obviously due to two things: one it offered a Welsh Translation (which I found endearing, being part Welsh) and it had links to UK communities.
I found another site last night - but I can't find it now. This happens to me a lot. I find things on the internet - and they disappear. It's very odd.
**
Apparently Rotten Tomatoes isn't as Reliable as People Thought? - It's been Rigged
I discovered this via a Tweet or Xit by Steven DeKnight on Xitter, who despises Rotten Tomatoes and the critics on it for that reason. Publicists are paying them off.
In a recent interview, Quentin Tarantino, whose next film is reportedly called The Movie Critic, admitted that he no longer reads critics’ work. “Today, I don’t know anyone,” he said (in a translation of his remarks, first published in French). “I’m told, ‘Manohla Dargis, she’s excellent.’ But when I ask what are the three movies she loved and the three she hated in the last few years, no one can answer me. Because they don’t care!”
This is probably because Rotten Tomatoes — with help from Yelp, Goodreads, and countless other review aggregators — has desensitized us to the opinions of individual critics. Once upon a time, Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert turned the no-budget documentary Hoop Dreams into a phenomenon using only their thumbs. But critical power like that has been replaced by the collective voice of the masses. A third of U.S. adults say they check Rotten Tomatoes before going to the multiplex, and while movie ads used to tout the blurbage of Jeffrey Lyons and Peter Travers, now they’re more likely to boast that a film has been “Certified Fresh.”
To filmmakers across the taste spectrum, Rotten Tomatoes is a scourge. Martin Scorsese says it reduces the director “to a content manufacturer and the viewer to an unadventurous consumer.” Brett Ratner has called it “the destruction of our business.” But insiders acknowledge that it has become a crucial arbiter. Publicists say their jobs revolve around the site. “In the last ten years,” says one, “it’s become much more important as so many of the most trusted critics have retired without replacements.” Studios are so scared of what the Tomatometer might say that some work with a company called Screen Engine/ASI, which attempts to forecast scores. (“According to the studios, the predictions are very close,” says another publicist. I’ll refer to these informers, who asked for anonymity to speak candidly, as Publicists Nos. 1 and 2.) An indie-distribution executive says, “I put in our original business plan that we should not do films that score less than 80. Rotten Tomatoes is the only public stamp of approval that says, ‘This is of immense quality, and all critics agree.’”
I admittedly have given up on critics of late. We have too much content - they can't possibly see it all, so they review whatever they feel like, and it's usually just about them or they are paid to do review it in a positive manner. I discovered "the pay for positive reviews" racket when I published a book. Kirkus Reviews? You pay them for reviews. Same with everyone else.
They are paid by the publishers and writers.
It's difficult making new friends. There's lots of Meetup groups, but I feel overwhelmed by them. And my weekend outing with Wales - made me feel lonelier than expected.
This too shall pass. I hope.
The advice I found online about handling lonliness was:
Support Tips for Everyday Loneliness
Basically it pushes counseling or talking therapy - which has never really worked well for me.
I did however like some of the information within it - such as the bits on social media, which have a tendency sometimes to make me feel more lonely instead of less.
I sometimes feel lonely when I am overwhelmed by human information – the news, social media, TV, negative gossip etc. – I feel so separate and different to most people.
And..
Seeing photos of others at events, or socialising with friends and family, might make us feel like we’re the only one who’s feeling lonely. Being able to access so many people’s lives can sometimes feel overwhelming.
It’s sometimes hard to stop comparing ourselves to others. But remember that things aren’t always what they seem from the outside. We don’t know how other people feel when they’re alone. Or what’s going on for them outside of their social media feed.
This was a UK site, obviously due to two things: one it offered a Welsh Translation (which I found endearing, being part Welsh) and it had links to UK communities.
I found another site last night - but I can't find it now. This happens to me a lot. I find things on the internet - and they disappear. It's very odd.
**
Apparently Rotten Tomatoes isn't as Reliable as People Thought? - It's been Rigged
I discovered this via a Tweet or Xit by Steven DeKnight on Xitter, who despises Rotten Tomatoes and the critics on it for that reason. Publicists are paying them off.
In a recent interview, Quentin Tarantino, whose next film is reportedly called The Movie Critic, admitted that he no longer reads critics’ work. “Today, I don’t know anyone,” he said (in a translation of his remarks, first published in French). “I’m told, ‘Manohla Dargis, she’s excellent.’ But when I ask what are the three movies she loved and the three she hated in the last few years, no one can answer me. Because they don’t care!”
This is probably because Rotten Tomatoes — with help from Yelp, Goodreads, and countless other review aggregators — has desensitized us to the opinions of individual critics. Once upon a time, Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert turned the no-budget documentary Hoop Dreams into a phenomenon using only their thumbs. But critical power like that has been replaced by the collective voice of the masses. A third of U.S. adults say they check Rotten Tomatoes before going to the multiplex, and while movie ads used to tout the blurbage of Jeffrey Lyons and Peter Travers, now they’re more likely to boast that a film has been “Certified Fresh.”
To filmmakers across the taste spectrum, Rotten Tomatoes is a scourge. Martin Scorsese says it reduces the director “to a content manufacturer and the viewer to an unadventurous consumer.” Brett Ratner has called it “the destruction of our business.” But insiders acknowledge that it has become a crucial arbiter. Publicists say their jobs revolve around the site. “In the last ten years,” says one, “it’s become much more important as so many of the most trusted critics have retired without replacements.” Studios are so scared of what the Tomatometer might say that some work with a company called Screen Engine/ASI, which attempts to forecast scores. (“According to the studios, the predictions are very close,” says another publicist. I’ll refer to these informers, who asked for anonymity to speak candidly, as Publicists Nos. 1 and 2.) An indie-distribution executive says, “I put in our original business plan that we should not do films that score less than 80. Rotten Tomatoes is the only public stamp of approval that says, ‘This is of immense quality, and all critics agree.’”
I admittedly have given up on critics of late. We have too much content - they can't possibly see it all, so they review whatever they feel like, and it's usually just about them or they are paid to do review it in a positive manner. I discovered "the pay for positive reviews" racket when I published a book. Kirkus Reviews? You pay them for reviews. Same with everyone else.
They are paid by the publishers and writers.