Who's The Boss?
welcome to Sundae Matinee, a sprinkling of sweet stuff
Since the age of nine I have had a boss. A person (sometimes an actual MONSTER) that points at me, tells me what to do, where to be and how to do things. This was the way for thirty-one years until April 2024. It was in the blessed month of April that I enacted the GRAND FANTASTICAL ESCAPE leaving behind seventeen years of corporate drudgery and thirty-one years of being told what to do.
Over my past thirty-one trips around the sun I have experienced bosses in all shapes, sizes and demeanor. Some of them left scars that run deep (Did I ever tell you about the time one of them called me a Golden Retriever?). While others have helped mold me into the amazing person that I am today (Do you know how important it is to tell your employees thanks?). No matter what, one thing rings true for each and every boss: IT WAS NOT ME. In every situation over the past thirty-one years there has always been someone calling the shots, running the show and peering over my shoulder.
Which brings me to this very important FACT:
It is perfectly OK that I am still figuring out how to be my own boss.
There truly was an emotional and mental high after I quit. I threw myself head first into working on all sorts of things for MovieJawn that I never quite had the time for: connecting with the staff, marketing/advertising, creating a structure. I soon found that I was working harder, longer hours and was busier than I have ever been before. This truly made for a hilarious turn of events.
Months leading up to taking the big leap I had spent many sessions with my therapist fretting (I am a waorrier after all). My biggest fear was that after I quit, I would simply do: NOTHING. For whatever reason that nagging little voice in my head kept projecting this specific vision into my skull: Me slumped on the sofa in sweatpants, eating cheese curls, using the sofa as my napkin for the orange dust while I watched Turner Classic Movies all day.
Well. Here I am once again proving that nagging little voice in my head wrong. As I approach one year of the escape, I have accomplished many grand feats. I may not have this whole “being my own boss” thing figured out quite yet, but I am working on it. I am learning that it is OK to change the course based on whatever I am facing, whether that be mentally, emotionally or simply due to my plate being too full. I have also found the importance of saying NO in an effort to wrangle my time. Things may be placed on the back burner for a more opportune moment. However, above all, I am in control. ME. I am calling the shots and if I don’t like the way things are going, I have the power to change that. I decide what I work on and when I work on it.
I am the boss.
Remember my list of dreams of schemes?
As mentioned above, it has almost been a year since I enacted the escape. And now that I have knocked a few things off the above list, it is time to start homing in on what’s next which brings me to CINEMA CHURCH.
This is an extremely lofty goal and like most it starts with a dream, so here it goes…
I envision a sanctuary made for cinephiles. A blessed space in which film goers of all ages could visit, pay their respects and assemble for cinematic worship. Within the walls, patrons may gather to witness a miracle on the silver screen while enjoying a cup of damn fine coffee, the best treats, sweets and elixirs.
With the help of my followers and friends, I hope to create a cinematic congregation that may come together to not just praise their love of motion pictures but also offer opportunities to learn. Which brings me to Sunday School services.
You have to start small and more importantly you gotta start somewhere…
As you may be aware I have a podcast, Cinematic Crypt - listen here or wherever you snag fine movie pods. Each episode, I (under the guise of Batzina - one of my many personas) travel six feet under to pry open a coffin of one of my favorite Hollywood corpses to perform a post watch examination of one their forgotten films. I invite my listeners into the crypt where I dissect my findings. Occasionally, I drop in at the morgue of my favorite village Doctor, Dr. Ashley Jane Carruthers and we slice open a character corpse. This often leads to a rousing conversation filled with quips and talks of specters, seances and poisons.
Coincidentally, my most recent series of the Cinematic Crypt is a focus on: PREACHER CREATURES. Sermons! Prophecies! And Blasphemous heresy! That will have you saying holy moly, that damn preacher is a creature! In celebration of this theme, the crypt has been transformed into a cinematic place of worship to dissect celluloid preachers that may appear to follow the good book but O-M-G they will not be going to a good place.
Now it is quite possible that I have been drinking my own kool-aid here, but instead I prefer to look at it as “seeing the light”. To put it simply: I found my ultimate purpose and that is to educate. I feel driven and compelled to spread the good word of the CINEMA CHURCH that I want to create and what better way to do so then to start with a traveling Sunday School.
THIS SUMMER! I will embark on hosting Sunday School at various nearby movie palaces - local to start. My podcast will help support my teachings. I will schedule in person meet-ups locally with those interested and conduct a Sunday School after the viewing of a classic film at a nearby coffee shop. More to come on this, as it is simply a brainstorm… but I truly think there will be an interest here. Eventually, who knows, Sunday School could go virtual and I could even hold a session in which someone from afar may join. All of this will be in support of ultimately funding the purchase of a physical CINEMA CHURCH in which cinema devotees may come to view the most spectacular films from the comfort of a pew, learn about the grand history of movies and heck, even teach some cinema etiquette. Want to help me with my dream? Write to me here.
This week I am proud of… three things.
Our Winter 2024 issue of MovieJawn has sold out! This was done in record time and absolutely thrills me. I can’t wait to share what we have cooking for the Spring 2025 issue. Your kids are gonna love it!
The interview I conducted with Philly Film Society and Christina Acevedo of Girls Like Horror about the Valentine’s Day event that MovieJawn is co-hosting next week. It was a lot of fun coming up with these questions and even if you can’t make the event it makes for a good read. Find it here.
The creation of the MovieJawn donation button. One of my goals for MovieJawn in 2025 is to find ways to pay our writers. Starting in January, we have placed a donation button at the bottom of each and every staff article. In January we had five different people send in a donation to various staff writers. In February we already have six! donations that have been made. I feel this is off to a great start and it thrills to me have the readers recognizing our staff’s efforts.
This week I recommend… bringing your landline phone into the FUTURE!
With the help of science! I am able to transform this exquisite Snoopy phone that served my family for years as the primary means of telephonic communication throughout my childhood and teenage life into a serviceable tool of today for my laboratory.
By procuring this magic ingredient here, you too may not only chat but converse in style. You’re welcome.
Happy you are here.
xx.
goodbye.
Congratulations on an almost year of freedom, you have spread your wings!