November 7, 2021: I continue to be nomadic and off my fan mail game (though schlepping around a pile of photos, a glue stick, scissors, and my favorite pen, for postcard purposes), which will hopefully settle back in once I'm finally home for a spurt in January. But today I got to revel in the euphoric energy of the NYC Marathon and realized I had a perfectly appropriate photo to send to Mira Nair, who I went to see speak at this year's New York Film Festival (pictured above, with Nair flanked by Jhumpa Lahiri and Sarita Chourhury; Ed Lachman is off camera to the right), hoping to give her a fangirl moment that's now en route in the mail. It felt like a buoying sign that I literally won a raffle (the first of my life!) to get to see her live. And that she thoroughly exceeded my expectations - which were high - of intelligence and charm. This was even more astounding than it might be otherwise as a friend of mine relayed that she called my stills from "Beasts" some of the best BTS photos she'd ever seen, displaying a real understanding of a director and their vision, a wild thing I've been carrying around in my emotional pockets for nearly a decade now. Cheerleaders and enthusiasts are, basically, everything, particularly when you realize they're truly discerning - the marathon's a good lesson in that, should you need one.