I've always felt torn about Miranda July. On the one hand, when I was in college, I saw Me and You and Everyone We Know and didn't like it. It felt too irony-laden and hipster-ish and generally unreal. Then I saw her short film, Are You The Favorite Person Of Anybody? which was creative and funny and a little sad. Then I read her book of short stories, No One Belongs Here More Than You. Half of the stories fell flat in that clever, post-modern way that I have trouble relating to. Yet, half of them were really moving and wonderful.
Then I forgot about her for a while, until I recently browsed through Learning to Love You More, a book of assignments she and another artist gave to the general public, via this website. The results are posted on the website, and subsequently, were put into a book.
The assignments are so, so, so great:
1. Recreate a poster you had as a teenager
2. Photograph a scar and write about it.
3. Take a picture of your parents kissing
4. Write the phone call you wish you could have.
5. Make the saddest song.
Tonight I decided to complete Assignment #32: "Draw a scene from a movie that you made you cry."
I drew a scene from an admittedly cheesy movie, Riding in Cars with Boys. Whenever it's on television, I end up watching the whole thing. The last scene of the movie, where Drew Barrymore's father picks her up and they drive home, listening to the Everly Brothers, always makes me cry.
I looked at the picture before I read anything and knew it was Riding in Cars with Boys. Whenever I see it now I think of you. Great scene to draw.
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