Conversations with The Nerd Guru: Dealing with Anxiety and Anger

ANGIE: Can you pinpoint where your social anxiety comes from.. if there is such a place?

MITCH: my social anxiety comes from me feeling like a freak.

ANGIE: That sounds simple enough. but it isn’t. at all.

MITCH: I see other people. normal people. couples in the mall, people walking along smiling. I see the disconnect between them and myself. I realize how impossibly hard it is for me to simply feel happy and I spiral.

ANGIE: hmm.. I just assume that everyone is secretly anxious and depressed and in denial about it. Is that worse?

MITCH: everyone has issues… doesn’t mean that people need to walk around looking blissful… fucking assholes

ANGIE: how do you feel about taking medication ?

MITCH: i have no issues with my medication when I am on it. When I am on the pills I can function… I’m not always happy but happiness is an option.

ANGIE: Do you go to therapy too?

MITCH: Therapy… is like a D&D group. It works great if you get a connection with the people involved… if there is no chemistry then it’s awkward and forced.

ANGIE: I have only ever had old jewish therapists who ask me about my mother incessantly. then I stop going to them.

ANGIE: I try so hard to understand everyone that I can’t even feel when I’m angry anymore.

MITCH: anger is addictive! chemically in your brain. even though it’s a negative emotion it feels good to act on it although you generally feel bad afterwards because you are coming down from a high… so hurting people due to anger…. there is a reason and people… hate groups, bigots… they are junkies. i know it seems weird but… it relieves me… these people have become addicted to hate and they keep returning to it because it makes them feel good and not because they necessarily believe it… it makes the world a little less bleak and a bit more rational in my eyes

ANGIE: That makes me feel more like a person.

MITCH: it is something that helps me… when I am getting angry constantly at a group… or when I see others(especially politcal) constantly digging at each other… I can understand it more because i understand them better… it’s not about hate it’s about lack of self control and an attempt to make yourself feel better…. and I think we all understand that.

Art Heap: Images of Longing by Jesse Treece

There’s Treasure Everywhere

Scraps

Phases

Everything Beautiful is Far Away

Untitled

Pathways

Artwork by Jesse Treece

Not Stand-up Comedy: Louis CK’s

“Ice Cream” (1992)

Starring his stand-up buddies Laura Kightlinger and Craig Anton, “Ice Cream” is a riff on Golden Era Hollywood films, and it’s the first short to net Louis C.K. a lot of attention. “Ice Cream” played at the Sundance Film Festival and the Museum of Modern Art in 1994. On getting into Sundance, Louis C.K. said, “I got really lucky. It was like the biggest deal of my life when I got that.” The movie was shown on TV in Europe and on US cable networks like IFC and Bravo and won C.K. the Grand Prize at Aspen Shortfest. Most importantly, however, is that C.K. included the movie as part of his submission to be a writer for Late Night with Conan O’Brien, which became his first big TV job. C.K. says the fact that he made his own films impressed O’Brien and then-headwriter Robert Smigel and, along with his reputation as a stand-up, was largely responsible for him getting the job.

(Taken from Splitsider)

Cinema Surreal: La Planète sauvage

Welcome to our very first Cinema Surreal! A new reoccurring segment featuring surreal shorts, trailers, animation, and found footage! We really hope that we can expose you to some hidden treasures!

René Laloux’s La Planète Sauvage (its title changed to Fantastic Planet for the U.S. release) paints an animated tale of humans kept as domesticated pets by an alien race of blue humanoid giants called Traags. While the story does not distinguish itself in the annals of science fiction, the imagination invested in the surreal backdrops, with its eerie creatures and landscapes, does.

The story takes place on the Traags’ planet Ygam, where we follow our narrator, an Om called Terr, from infancy to adulthood, when he escapes his subjugation and incites a revolt. As a French-Czech coproduction, this story had much resonance for its makers as an allegory of Czechoslovakia’s invasion by Russian troops in the late ’60s, and had to be completed in Paris due to political pressure.

The animation technique–moving paper cutouts across backgrounds–contributes to the overall feeling of other-worldliness. Fantastic Planet won the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival in 1973. In the USA it immediately drew comparisons to Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels and Planet of the Apes (both the 1968 film and Boule’s 1963 novel). Today, the film can be seen to prefigure much of the work of Hayao Miyazaki at Studio Ghibli (Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away) due to its palpable political and social concerns, cultivated imagination, and memorable animation techniques.

(Information taken from Amazon)

Enjoy!

Not Stand-Up Comedy: Louis C.K.’s “Ugly Revenge”

Another surrealist piece made in the early 90s starring Ron Lynch, JB Smoove, and Amy Poehler. It is a modern day western set in New York city. I still haven’t decided how I feel about it.

Top 5: Comedians before they were Comedians

1.) Ricky Gervais

2.) Maya Rudolph

3.) Conan O’brien

4.) Sarah Silverman

5.) Chris Rock

BONUS PICS ( I found too many good ones)

6.) Amy Schumer

7.) Louis C.K.

8.) Patton Oswalt

9.) Marc Maron

10.) Tina Fey

Art Heap: Point and Shoot

There’s Just no Privacy Anymore by Michael Hartford

http://society6.com/MichaelHarford/Theres-Just-No-Privacy-Anymore_Print

Surveillance by Tyler Hewitt

http://society6.com/TylerHewitt/surveillance-tn4_Print

Exposed Film on Fire by Rebecca Roe

http://society6.com/rebeccaroe/exposed-film-on-fire_Print

American Gun by Jesse Drexler

http://society6.com/jessedraxler/American-Gun_Print

Circle Heads 2 by Steven Quinn

http://society6.com/terra3/Circle-Heads-2_Print

Not Stand-up Comedy: Louis C.K.’s “Hello There”

“Hello There” starring Ron Lynch, is The first in a series of surrealist shorts C.K. made for Howie Mandel’s Showtime sketch comedy show. I saw it when I was a friendless junior high school student and had no idea where it came from, or how I might ever find it again, but I loved it. And I never forgot it.

14 years later, following a 4-day netflix marathon of Louie, I embarked on a brief but ravenous search for all things Louis C.K. and there it was. To this day, it is my favorite of all his short films.

-Angie

At 1:12, you can catch a young Louis walking by in a sweater and a pair of sunglasses. ENJOY!