#thanks for letting me gush about my country (mostly food lmao we all love food) it wa snice

[vonlipvig]

As the no. 1 argentumblr user, any tips for someone visiting argentina for the first time?

Love your blog btw

i think i'm nowhere near the top of argentumblr users, but i'm incredibly flattered to be top dog in your heart 💙

and yes, of course, lemme give you some tips! (warning: most of them will probably be food based lmao)

ok, i wouldn't be a good argentine if my first instruction wasn't GO TRY SOME DULCE DE LECHE. seriously, it's the rite of passage, you need to try this sweet caramel-like treat. you can buy it in pots to eat with a spoon if you're feeling extra hedonistic, but if not you can find it in almost every single pastry and cake here, it's a classic.

kinda tied to that last one, you should definitely try an alfajor (especially an alfajor de dulce de leche!). it's kinda like a cookie sandwich type of deal, usually with DDL as the filling.

speaking of food, be aware that your eating habits will probably have a bit of a change of schedule (if you're not latino, that is). we argentines have dinner very late (by usamerican standards), anywhere between 8:30 to 10 or even later. that's why you'll find that most restaurants are open till late at night, usually past midnight on weekends!

'but if i don't have dinner at 6pm i'm gonna starve!' NO because at 5-6pm you'll be having the MERIENDA. that's like an 'afternoon tea' kind of meal, usually involving a coffee or some beverage of your choice and a little something to eat, like pastries, cake, or even grilled sandwiches if you're in the mood for something savory. cafés are booming during those hours, so def something you need to experience if it's not what you're used to in your culture!

enough about eating, and more about travelling. no idea where you're planning to go, but there's something beautiful to see everywhere you go in this country. from the incredible waterfalls of iguazú near the border with paraguay and brazil, to my favorite part of the country, the gorgeous landscapes of the south (snowy peaks during winter, the most breathtaking views during summer), to the bustling city of buenos aires, there's always something to see or do!

buenos aires is an amazing city, and definitely one that never sleeps--literally! if you're into nightlife, be aware that people here don't go to the clubs until about 1-2am (you pregame at someone's house, or at a bar, of course!), and don't leave before 6, 7, even 8am!

just have fun! maybe try to learn a little bit of spanish, if you don't know the language? don't worry if you're not perfect, or even good: just throw in some 'messi's in there and everyone will want to adopt you and make you feel at home!

hope i've tempted you to come and visit, son todos bienvenidos!

[pendragonness]

If anyone wants a novel-length recap on my (limited) adventures at the Sundance Film Festival... (I’ll throw in some photos to keep it interesting)

I am. so exhausted. I was exhausted after the first three days, and it never really calmed down. Between working all day, and a couple late night/early morning shifts, then having to commute back to the town with my hotel, and back in the morning, I never got more than 4 hrs of sleep a night and sometimes less. And the only actual meal I usually ate was a rushed breakfast from the hotel, then my food was just snacking on granola bars or half a bagel, and that was the day. I’m fucking beat.

But I did see 14 films, so, there’s that! The first night of the festival I went to I Don’t Feel At Home in This World Anymore, because a) there were only a few films showing and it sounded the most decent, and b) it stars Elijah Wood so I thought he might be there. He was. I saw Elijah Wood in person. It was unexpected and alarming and delightful. I also got to ask the director a question during the Q&A and made kind of a mess of the question bc Elijah Wood was being forced to hear me speak and that freaked me out, but

lmao little did I know what the next night was gonna be

So like a month ago when I made the post about having learned that Max Riemelt had a film showing at Sundance and was like, ‘does that mean he’ll be there, pls, etc etc..’ I was totally bullshitting myself. He wasn’t actually supposed to be there, guys. I wasn’t prepared for that. I wasn’t prepared to accidentally sit in the row in front of him, four seats to the side. I wasn’t. prepared.

I was talking to my friend and looked across the room and stopped midsentence bc

And I stared, a lot. So much. The ‘friend’ I’d made definitely wasn’t understanding my lack of focus on her and didn’t really care that I was having a crisis about Max Riemelt being approx. 8 feet away from me for the night. He was on his own, seated next to the director and producer, and just idly looked around and flexed his jaw constantly??? A couple times someone in the crew would talk to him and he’d be all laughs and smiles and omf. There was a moment where I was definitely gawking again - so overwhelming, guys - and he turned around and caught my gaze immediately and kind of gave that look like when you think someone’s said something but you didn’t quite hear it? which made me jump basically and look away bc I’d been caught, but we definitely made glancing-eye-contact a few more awful times and I was just so not chill. During the film (Berlin Syndrome; fantastic, btw) I was still not chill and kept casually glancing to my slight right, going from watching Max Riemelt on screen to watching Max Riemelt watch Max Riemelt on screen. aheruhgf. It was delightful. 

And then, right as the climax was building in the last 5 minutes of the film - it froze. Just stopped. The audience gasped, I looked over and Max had his hands over his eyes lmao. But it stayed frozen, the house lights came up...and then it played - having skipped ahead to the middle of the final climax. Then froze again, and I saw Max mouth “what the fuck” then just stare up at the lights akjehrujf. And then he and the director walked off, presumably to talk to tech people, and the film skipped to show us the end. So they cut it off, and we had the Q&A, which was very sympathetic (Max commented about being so upset he was shaking at the fuck up) but also fun, Teresa Palmer was really cheery and talkative and Max was pretty funny and damn cute (he was re-enacting the musical score at one point, that was something, omg) and there were good questions and discussion - altho the freaking director pointed at me for my question and then the producer said things were working again, and we were going to finish the film so I never got to have my moment but ok. 

(literally every venue intentionally creates the WORST FUCKING LIGHTING FOR PHOTOS)

And then at the end of the film, because apparently Teresa and Max aren’t important enough to need the security barrier like everyone else I saw, they were all just chilling in their seats as the audience walked out, so I got to walk past Max and had about half a second to realize I could talk to him if I wanted (it’s kind of acknowledged as common courtesy to leave the talent alone at screenings, or just give them a little space, so I had kept quiet in my 5 min of freaking out before the film started. altho now of course I wish I’d just had the balls to say something simple. I wanted to bring up Freier Fall so freakin badly but like. how would that have worked lmao.), but was that okay?? what to say? all I could think about was trying NOT to gush some ‘I LOVE YOU SO MUCH’ shit, so naturally that’s all I could think to say ajeryiuehf and then panicked because I had zero time, so I just garbled out some sort of “thank you so much, that was a beautiful film, thanks” and the director nodded and smiled but Max just stared and nodded and said “thank you” and I stumbled away before I could go super red in the face or god knows what because I was stressed and so fucking overwhelmed. Honestly seeing Max in real-life-person overwhelmed me more than anyone else I saw, and I saw a fair few people, somehow. I think I’ve decided it’s something to do with him being a foreign actor? Like, he’s supposed to always be in Europe, not somewhere where I could encounter him. Not my first fucking year at Sundance. And then the fact he actually made eye contact with me a few times and vaguely spoke at me......lmao what the fu c k

And then the next night I went to the premiere screening of the #1 film I had wanted to see at Sundance, Wind River. That screening went like it was supposed to, and I got to ask Taylor Sheridan about setting the film in Wyoming and such and the answers were wonderful and there was fantastic discussion and it was a fucking wonderful film and I tried so hard to see it more than once but my fucking work schedule made that impossible, whatever, I’ll wait 9 months or however long it takes. 

One of the stand-outs of that night though (other than Gil Birmingham being there, which also super delighted me) was when Jeremy Renner was asked to explain how he approached and portrayed the emotions his character has to do deal with, and in answering the (fairly average) question, he choked up and had to step away from the mic for a second to pull himself together. Everything he said in his answers to questions was just really emotional, interesting stuff, and that response was especially overwhelming. The film knocked the breath out of me, but the Q&A made sure I didn’t catch it back. That was amazing.

So I knew the rest of the festival had to just be downhill, and technically it was, but I still enjoyed everything. The next best film was probably Call Me By Your Name, which I had planned on seeing a couple weeks ago, largely because I can be superficial and dumb and queer Armie Hammer in Italy sounded majorly appealing. I was torn between two different screenings, because I couldn’t go to the premiere since that was one of my two night shifts - and then a really awful snow storm was coming in, so my boss told anyone who had to drive a distance that they could leave early. She tried to let me leave super early into the shift, and I felt bad that they were going to be really short staffed on such a late, busy night (we were hosting the premiere of some awful film about The Grateful Dead and the band was going to be there) and I didn’t know what I’d do with so much freaking spare time anyway, so I said I’d be okay and I’d stay. And two hours later I realized I fucking. could have actually gone to the premiere of Call Me By Your Name. I think it’s the only film (that I wasn’t working) I went to see that wasn’t the fucking premiere. And I cannot let that go. whatever.

also shout out to Casey Affleck for not being at Sundance and therefore I missed seeing what would definitely have been a better film (A Ghost Story was definitely Not Good) and was deprived of seeing Keanu Reeves in person because I thought I’d get to see Casey and that was a waste!! gdi.

Those were honestly the ‘important’ parts of the fest for me. My body hurts like hell from standing mostly stationary for 7-10 hrs a day every day for the past 7 days, my health and skin are awful because my eating habits mostly didn’t exist and weren’t good when they did, I could sleep for 3 days if I was allowed to, and I don’t feel at all interested in shit here, but I still can’t believe I had that experience. I do plan to apply next year, even though after the first two days I wasn’t sure I could actually handle that, and the amount of hours I worked really did interfere with seeing some films and that irritates me, but we’ll see. 

I also came to the realization that hearing other ‘filmmakers’ my age-ish talk about films and the industry and their beliefs and goals and shit really stresses me out + annoys the hell out of me. Most of them come across as really pretentious and fucking miserable and I despise it all pretty quick. Or I feel like I’m totally lost and talentless and there’s no hope for me. But it’s the actors I get most excited about, that excite me the most (other than Taylor Sheridan - he gave me fresh life, I swear). It’s hearing how the actors work and understanding how they approach their work, and imagining what it’d be like to work with them and see my writing or vision or whatever become real through them that excites me. I found myself ditching films I wanted to see for the sake of going to premieres to see actors I really like. Which is definitely not the purest approach to filmmaking, but whatever... It was just an epiphany I had, I guess. Not sure where that’s gonna go.

The festival did also help me re-focus about filmmaking too. I’ve fallen way too into routine here, with the country club and the unending monotony of my weekly schedule. I finally feel like I CAN start to write the scripts I’ve been wanting to start for months. I’m actually excited to start job hunting. I don’t feel as nervous at the prospect of moving, if that happens. And - really great - I’m mentally reset about a lot of things lately i.e. The Work Guy. I literally don’t care at all now, am not interested or bothered by anything. I am totally refreshed and have my regular priorities back.

I’ve come away from Sundance feeling predictably ‘inspired’ and totally exhausted and wanting to always gawk at real-life-person Max Riemelt and always hear Jeremy Renner talk about life (he seems so lovely, wtf) but also mentally and emotionally reset and I hope those are all good things