How 'Bout Them Cockles?
In which I share Part 1 of clammy tale from New Zealand. Plus, Lily Allen on repeat, and a peek at Taylor's new docuseries.
I spent beaucoup de time thinking about, talking about, and then finally working on something I published this week, and that something…was 49 seconds long.
I feel both proud and defeated, and I’ll explain why. But first, please watch it:
I’ve made Reels and TikToks before, to be sure. And I’ve labored over them, too. But none like this. None saw me writing a script, editing its mere 157 words, fact-checking it with sources in another timezone, then attempting to line it up in millisecond increments with video clips and live photos of an extraordinary landscape and experience, all before laboring over background music and volume levels and speeds and text layers and fonts…and…and…and…
No wonder people are making a killing doing this for a living!
I was a magazine journalism major at Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Communications back in the ’90s (!), not in the TRF department (that’d be “Television, Radio, and Film”). Never mind that the term “social media” hadn’t yet been uttered, let alone considered a career path, so I have spent the better part of the last 20+ years pursuing storytelling through the written word. Therefore, it’s been a bit of a challenge to wrap my approaching-Boomer-age brain around how to participate in this new media world we live in.
To be sure, while making this Reel was labor-intensive, it was also fun-ish — but it’s still not how I envisioned sharing the ‘Flight of the Cockle,’ a yarn I’ve been doggedly pursuing for going on six years now, and hence why I waited this long to share the footage from my trip last December.
I hoped a video clip would accompany a long-form article, as my preferred storytelling methods include crafting sharp metaphors and adding descriptive detail to scenes and dialogue. But despite various attempts to sell one — and a wide range of mostly positive feedback from all the editors I pitched, which is frustratingly reassuring, but also not helpful — I’ve yet to land an assignment that allows me to more effusively share something that I partly (and much to my chagrin) did in 49 seconds. How ’bout them cockles?
Perhaps the chicken needed to come before the egg? I can only hope that’s the case because there’s so much more to share. Like, why I feel so passionately about this paritcular story (clue here), and what it felt like for the clear, shallow waters of the Otago Harbor to fill my wellies at six in the morning, and how gratifying it was to sort shell after tiny shell from blue bins into net bags, and spend four and a half hours in the cab of a truck talking to a driver named Ronald whose job it is to transport these suckers on the reg. Mostly, how freaking cool and crazy it is that a wee little clam most people don’t think much about when tucking into a bowl of garlic-y vongole likely came all the way from the South Island of New Zealand to reach their mouths in about four days. And, yes, it’s also sustainable. (I KNOW, right?)
Still, this Reel is only the beginning. There will be four more videos in the series, so please, if you’re not already following me on Instagram, hop on over before the algorithm buries my efforts faster than its runtime. Apparently, I’m good at voiceover. (But my god, if you only knew how many takes I did!)
’Til then, what are you overthinking this week? And what was the last thing you spent a shit ton of time on that someone else may have been able to do in…49 seconds?
Bon week-end, mes amies. xx — Sara
Also overthinking this week…
…how long I need to wait for Black Friday sales to get even more Black Friday-y.
Clickable
Where have all the public benches gone? | The New York Times (gift link)
‘A descent into beige’ — what GLP1s mean for pleasure. | The Cut
Holy hell. The lengths people go to change their lives. | The Atlantic (gift link)
Watchable
“I wanted to overserve the fans,” Taylor Swift says of her intention behind the Eras Tour in the trailer for the 6-part docuseries about the record-breaking experience that just dropped. We are finally (finally!) going to get an inside look into the making of this epic undertaking, and learn the details of such things as what it was like inside that box she rode onto the stage in and her dizzying thought process on the acoustic set. Plus, backstage antics, texts from Travis, and so much more. As a Virgo who is decidedly on Team Summer, I never thought I’d be excited for December to arrive, but bring on the 12th!
On Repeat: Lily Allen’s ‘West End Girl’
If you haven’t gotten on the Lily Allen Revenge Album Train yet, what are you waiting for? I bought a ticket — by which I mean started listening on Spotify — the minute the album dropped without knowing much about the ride I was about to embark on. First of all, I didn’t realize how much I missed her voice until I heard it again. Second of all, DAMN GIRL! You spilled the tea! I don’t want to give too much away, because if you’re into synthy pop that hinges on spoken word with a side of sass, you should tuck in on your own terms. But the ‘West End Girl’ took a nod from Ms. ‘All Too Well’ and laid it all out in such a brilliantly catchy way from start to finish. Have you listened? Are you a fan?
Souvenir: Candy Land
I don’t know about your Mom, but mine is a Candy Crush fanatic. We’ll be watching a series or just hanging on the couch, and I’ll look over and she’s simultaneously fully enthralled in stacking gumdrops and clearing the path for lollies (or whatever it is Candy Crush involves). I am clearly not a devout player myself, but I do remember another ‘sweet’ game called Candy Land. (Surely she also remembers it since it came out in 1949. Sorry for outing your age-ish, Mom!) Anyway, who else always chose this colorful and quirky board game over Chutes and Ladders and Monopoly?
Sara, this absolutely cracked me up — the way you described crafting a 49-second reel like it was a NASA launch sequence. Script. Edits. Fact-checks. Milliseconds. Fonts. Emotional breakdown. Spiritual rebirth.
People truly do not understand the Olympic-level athleticism required to make social media look effortless.
But seriously, the reel was great. And you can totally see the long-form writer underneath it all, like a novelist trapped in TikTok jail. I’m convinced Part 1 is just the trailer you had to make before the universe finally lets you publish the full cockle saga.
Also, anyone who’s out in Otago Harbor at 6 a.m. with flooded wellies and a man named Ronald has earned the right to take as many takes as they damn well please.
Although I have a seafood allergy I enjoyed your 'Flight of the Cockle'. As for wasting a s*** load of time...I recently tried to figure out how to solve the Rubik's Cube conundrum so I could impress a younger family member and failed on all counts!
When did 'snakes' become 'chutes'? Currently overthinking my next vinyl album purchase...Taylor Swift or Taylor Momsen...??? As a Sagittarius I subscribe to Team December but secretly hope to be adopted by Team Summer.