23 Comments
User's avatar
Michelle Bergamo's avatar

I relate to all of this. I have so many thoughts...

One of my recent projects took place in 1988 and it was so fun to revisit those times and also, write using the totally tubular slang. At times a sadness, too, though...a yearning to go back to those hand-in-hand, outdoor, simple times playing with childhood friends.

Technology has stolen from us. I'll also add that COVID did, too. At least for me. Too much time isolating, working from home, avoiding other people. Connection is what so many of us long for. And through art, what magic.

It took me a very long time to realize that not being afraid isn't it...and doing it anyway is... I still struggle. I've never been seen as a rebel. But my inner voice is getting louder. Maybe I'm a rebel-in-training.

I love your honesty and authenticity! Thanks for sharing.

Expand full comment
Jennifer Esposito's avatar

And yes you are a rebel in training 😎😂

Expand full comment
Michelle Bergamo's avatar

💪🏼

Expand full comment
Millie Price's avatar

Finally got to sit in peace and watch Fresh Kills. I loved it! We need more of these stories, the honesty, the love, absolutely brilliant. I'm working on my craft to bring a little more of this to the world, but yes, I fill the futility everyday. Thanks for inspiring us to keep moving. Can't wait to see what's next.

Expand full comment
Jennifer Esposito's avatar

Must keep moving- always and in ALL WAYS!!

Expand full comment
Cris's avatar
Apr 9Edited

Ah yes, staying outside until we were forced to come home for dinner! Begging to go out and play with friends! Now playing outside is an afterthought, if at all, to screens. It feels like our generation (X) is the last one to know what growing up free was really like. Lately that word has taken on a much more loaded meaning for all of us. Which leads me to your incredible movie, which I finally carved time to watch very late at night, alone, as family slept. It hit on so many levels. Rose is the epitome of current conditions. Trapped in a sort of limbo, tied down to family, daily life, obligations, but wanting nothing more than to run free (there’s that word again). Her internalized pain, anesthetized existence, going through the motions, it was suffocating to watch, and brilliantly done. I have so much to write about this movie, I may do it in a separate post. I also loved how you gave very little screen time to the villains, didn’t try to analyze their reasons for being, and let them be a sideline to the women. Apologies for the long comment, but kudos to you on this movie, it has sparked something in me.

Expand full comment
Jennifer Esposito's avatar

This made my day. Thank you so very much. I absolute love when people see what I was aiming for in the film. And I couldn’t agree more Rose is NOW- for so many of us!

Expand full comment
Denise DeBratto's avatar

Yes these words were taken right out of my mouth… I was thinking that as I was watching the movie for the third time!

Expand full comment
Arynetta's avatar

…and the wisdom of the call to “keep showing up.”

Expand full comment
Arynetta's avatar

My friend and I (me: millennial/genx “cusper” born in 1980, she: genx 1978), were just talking about feeling bad for these younger generations. We got to explore life and talk about the living of it. It’s just how it was. We were in the streets (suburban streets, country streets, shopping mall food court streets, but streets nonetheless)!

We weren’t “experiencing” everything through a screen and then someone else’s opinion of what it’s supposed to be. We were down and dirty in it. Who knew that experience would be a relic of the past.

Expand full comment
Jennifer Esposito's avatar

Yesssss. I don’t know how anyone grows up in this insanity

Expand full comment
Amy's avatar

I love this so much. I relate to it all. Yay! Recipe too! ❤️ onward.

Expand full comment
Jennifer Esposito's avatar

🙌🙌🙌

Expand full comment
Amanda's avatar

Love this and the bonus recipe! There’s so much beauty in the simplicity. I too am grateful for being a kid during that timeframe.

Expand full comment
Jennifer Esposito's avatar

You’re welcome! Enjoy!

Expand full comment
Cat Yezbak's avatar

Remember how endless summers felt?! (Also, meet me at the corner. Bring your bike.)

Expand full comment
Jennifer Esposito's avatar

Yessssssssssssssss bring your bike with the banana seat and the tassels!

Expand full comment
Cat Yezbak's avatar

You know it!

Expand full comment
Tamara Foster's avatar

You once again nailed it on the head! It is up to us to CREATE the life we want. It always strikes me how a system (technology) born out of a need to connect with people all over the globe has gotten to a place where it instead separates and isolates us. Tragic but not irreparable

Expand full comment
Jennifer Esposito's avatar

Beyond separate. We’ve become even disconnected to ourselves. We must fix this first there and stop looking outward

Expand full comment
Tamara Foster's avatar

Yes indeed!

Expand full comment
User's avatar
Comment deleted
Apr 8
Comment deleted
Expand full comment
Jennifer Esposito's avatar

Right! We need to have a weekend retreat to Nostalgia !

Expand full comment
Denise DeBratto's avatar

Absolutely !

Expand full comment