up on the up series

friends,
one of the things that i don’t do is tell you what to do. i don’t tell you that your breath is too garlicky on certain days (it is) or that you post too many pictures of gimmicky knick-knacks captioned only with “WANT!!!” I don’t tell you that, while your posts about clipping your toenails are enthralling, they should not be written entirely in the title field because some people (not me of course) could find that to be obnoxious.

i don’t tell you these things so that on the rare instance that i do tell you something, you will take me seriously. and now is one of those times. watch (if you have not already done so) the up series. a wikinopsis:

The Up Series is a series of 7 documentary films that have followed the lives of fourteen British children since 1964, when they were seven years old. Every seven years, the director, Michael Apted, films new material from as many of the fourteen as he can get to participate.

it might not be all happy, it might not follow a hollywood script, it may even be boring in parts, but it is the drama of human life—presented in a way that no other work of art can. and trust me, this is a work of art.

for maximum effect, watch the whole series in marathon fashion over the course of a weekend. rent it from netflix, buy it from amazon, violate its copyright, or borrow it from me. watch it with a loved one. it will be worth it.