Smathews

I’ve made it no secret that when it comes to writer Nathan Hill, I am a fan. His debut novel, The Nix, is in my top ten all-time favorite books. When I had the privilege of meeting Hill for the first time in 2016, I told him I’d read his 600+ page tome twice, to…

This is it, folks. Tom Hanks and I, although forever bonded by these 15 months we've spent together, are officially on a break. Well, until I see Asteroid City in the next couple of weeks. If you've been following along this whole time, thank you! If you haven't, you can find my old blogs here…

A wise woman once said, “Never write a series of blogs in which you promise to be done in 12 months because it will definitely take you 15.” That wise woman was the voice in my head as I saw my self-assigned deadline looming with 20 years’ worth of movies to go and a life…

Tom Hanks was recently quoted as saying he's made four "pretty good" films in his career.  Although said in jest, he also had me wondering—How would I have lived my life differently these past nine months, if he'd just told us what they were from the beginning? I plowed through far more than four this…

Have you ever wondered what it would be like in the 9th realm of Hell? I imagine the first order of business is being forced to watch the movie Punch Line on a loop, where Tom Hanks and Sally Field play struggling stand-up comics while being the least funny people on earth. The corny and…

Everyone's favorite everyman turns 65 this year, and Sarah is celebrating by watching all of his films in chronological order.

Back in May, I wrote this blog about my child's scoliosis diagnosis and the surgery that followed. Today, my 13 year old is here to give their own perspective along with some advice on how not to mis-gender someone and what to watch when you're in excruciating pain. The following was written on an iphone…

"So, you do have scoliosis; in fact, you have pretty severe scoliosis. Your scoliosis is the kind where we recommend surgery." I can still hear the medical resident's voice perfectly as he said these words to my child last summer. We had been shopping a month before at Donna's Dress Shop in Kansas City where…

Brace yourselves, a retrospective is coming. Last year, I wrote this piece describing what time had been like in our home after two months of "lock down." As it turns out, I'm home again although for a different reason. For the last month I've been on leave, taking care of my child who is recovering…

Let me just get this out of the way and say that crafting a blog right now is kinda hard. Who knows how different our world will be between this writing and when it's published. We witnessed a literal attack on our democracy just a few days ago. Hallowed halls were defaced and defiled, 5…