It has been a slow month creatively, as is expected with February. I’ve neglected my goal of one intentional blog a month this month, but I have an excuse. I got the flu and then I had surgery, so I have been braindead and dormant for the last few weeks. Plus, winter in New York is hell and I want to burn my jacket. I want to never wear a jacket again. A jacket is the worst thing ever invented and it ruins every outfit I wear. The only reason most of my outfits look good is because showing off my collar bones gives the illusion of “high fashion” despite most of my clothes being from the bins. The city is starting to thaw, thankfully. Yesterday I sent my roommates a text: “it feels like mid July today.” It was 45 degrees.
Instead of an essay or a story, I am just going to list some of the things that have happened to me recently as well as some of the media I’ve consumed in February. Next month I will return with something more structured and creative, but this is all I can manage right now.
I got a septoplasty and turbinate reduction.
Last week I had surgery for the first time. I was really scared, not as much of the surgery, but more so of the anesthesia. I was scared the anesthesia would feel like doing acid or ayahuasca or something. That’s how they make it seem in the movies. It really wasn’t that bad, I would even say it felt borderline good. The OR nurses played me Charli XCX as the anesthisiologist pumped me full of benzos and then suddenly I was asleep. When I woke up, there was a nurse telling me to uncross my legs (something I do out of habit).
For the first 5 days my nose was being held together by two plastic rods and was full of blood and snot. Imagine your nose is full of blood and snot and you aren’t allowed to blow it and you have to sleep sitting up and it hurts really bad like you’re being killed. That is what I was dealing with for a bit, but it is a little better now. I just have to keep cleaning crusted blood from the inside of my nostrils for the next 3 months :))))
Grieving what it felt like to feel warm.
It’s coldddddddd.
But also summer was so hot I just wanted it to be cold then.
I hate wearing a jacket (as mentioned before).
It’s dark.
Everyone is depressed.
Sunday Family Dinner
Since the beginning of the year, my friends and I have been hosting family dinners on Sunday every week. Each week someone new cooks and when it was my turn to cook I opted to buy everyone pizza (which is the same price as ingredients btw). My friends are much better cooks than I am.
RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 17
I have been watching drag race with my girls every week. It feels like sports for gay people because everyone gathers at the bar and cheers when their favorite one wins. I like Onya Nerve and Lexi Love the most.
Not to be that “one friend that’s too woke” but it’s nice to be in community with other queer people, even if it is to watch reality tv.
Celebrated Chinese New Year
My beautiful and talented friend Yden made everyone a dinner for Chinese New Year. We all wore red and it was cute.
Mourning David Lynch
I’d like to write something more meaningful about it, but haven’t been able to yet. He meant a lot to me and his passing marked a shift in something…not sure what yet. I rewatched Inland Empire in theaters a few days before he died, it felt spiritual and now I know why.
Celebrated valentines day with my boyfriend Matt.
Our second valentines together. We had dinner in Clinton Hill and then went to Singers.
I watched Godard’s A Woman is a Woman at Film Forum
Sorry but I like French New Wave. Sue me!!!!
Actually, I have watched 43 movies this year (as of Feb 26th). My goal is to watch 300 movies this year. Here are some of my favorites I’ve watched in 2025 so far:
Stolen Kisses (1968) dir. Francois Truffaut
Daughters of Darkness (1971) dir. Harry Kumel
Three Bewildered People in the Night (1987) dir. Greg Araki
Hard Truths (2024) dir. Mike Leigh
Crossing Delancey (1988) dir. Joan Micklin Silver
The Beast (2023) dir. Bertrand Bonello
Cecil B. Demented (2000) dir. John Waters
Ticket of No Return (1979) dir. Ulrike Ottinger
A Woman is a Woman (1961) dir. Jean-Luc Godard
Safe (1995) dir. Todd Haynes
I have been doing more stand up comedy (pre-surgery).
I have to be honest…it’s not my favorite artistic medium, but it is one of the only ways to get a job in film or tv right now and I want to be a staff writer on a tv show so badddddd.
I have a bit I’m doing right now about how I am scared to lowball people on facebook marketplace. The joke is that I would rather get shot (with a gun) than ever offer to pay less for something. I’m so scared of bargaining that I would literally rather pay more for an item. That $50 Ikea tv stand that witnessed the finale of The Sopranos in real time, how about I give you $70 for it and I’ll leave a tip too.
Another bit I’m doing is about how I just started taking PrEP thanks to my new gay doctor. The punchline is how the one side effect he forgot to tell me about (besides the kidney damage and bone density stuff), was how the specter of Judy Garland starts appearing in your room at night once you start your dose. It’s a little hack but the Brooklyn alt comedy scene seems to like it.
Ok, I think that is all. Next month I will work on an essay or story or something with more structure.
Here are some pictures that are relevant to the stuff I wrote about:
<3 Love,
Mitchell
I hate the cold, too! I haven't seen any of those movies - I must be an Englishman!
The Substack idea was born around a meal. Perhaps more gatherings would lead to a better world and less reality tv!
Miss you Mitch!!