Welcome, Friends!
Who am I? What am I doing here?
Welcome to Seven Thoughts! A weekly(ish) newsletter by me, Sam Fichtner, a professional scribbler for Film & TV. I’ve worked in Hollywood everywhere from micro-budget shorts to nine-figure studio features. I grew up doing my homework backstage at my mother’s off-broadway shows. I moved to LA dreaming of joining that colossal dream-factory of screenplays and cameras. Ten years ago, I may have delayed hopping onto film sets after my move to L.A so I could throw myself into the restaurant world, but through it all I’ve kept writing (scripts aplenty, yes) but every bit as much in this very format to my friends: newsletters about film, about basketball, food, maps, ranked lists, and so much more. Often, this has been solely for my own enjoyment. Even more often, it’s been done with a characteristic lack of brevity.
If you’ve known me even tangentially at all this past decade, in all likelihood at some point I’ve written you one of these such missives. Maybe you remember Mik Cooper’s and my initial iteration of the website “Sort of Satisfactory,” and the blogging we did back in 2016. Maybe your email happened to pop up in one of my newsletters: a few thousand words on the NBA Playoffs here…a few thousand more on a Hitchcock Symposium there. Maybe you’ve never read my writing at all! If so, welcome. Now this is for everyone. Honestly, more than anything over the last decade: being terminally online has shaped how I’ve absorbed culture. That’s why we’re here.
So why start this now? Call it a 2024 resolution. Hell, many of you suggested I do this long ago. I probably should have. Better late than never, right?
(Oh! But mostly because Jules said it would be swell. That’s a reason to do anything.)
What is ‘The Seven Thoughts’?
About once a week I’ll plan deliver, straight to your email, the latest in musings, criticism, and context about the pop culture of the moment. Much of it will be about cinema, but also some television, sports, and far beyond. I’ll include the writing I’ve read recently that I’ve found captivating. I’ll talk about the restaurants I’ve found irresistible (or reprehensible). Some posts will be planned long in advance. Many will be spur of the moment, in some fever dream heat of agony, perplexity, or majesty.
But the conceit will remain: every post will give you 7 THINGS. Those seven topics might be related. They all might be different. Some of the seven could be 5,000 words or more. Others could be as little as 5. My plan is to break down each of these weekly newsletters into one of three categories:
Features: When I’ll go extremely long on a given subject. It might be subdivided into seven categories, it might be accompanied by six addendums. But this will be my opportunity to go long on a given subject.
Rundowns: I’ll use this as an umbrella for any and all list-making. It could be running down Oscar history. It could be about the neighborhood bistros in Paris best for stumbling into. Anything. Any taxonomies. Any histories. That’ll be a Rundown™, baby. And not the Dwayne Johnson kind.
Roundups: The sampler platter of newsletters. The choose-your-own-adventure of your inbox. The Antipasto of Spotify, Twitter, Eater and everything in between. If I’ve watched something that doesn’t quite summon a feature, but deserves hearty recommendation? Look out for it in one of these.
Who knows what it will grow into? Maybe some visuals. Maybe some podcasts. Interviews? Discussion Threads? Manifestos?? In the immortal words of my hero Sam Shakusky: “Who’s to say?” I vow to keep myself honest with giving you a big swath of different kinds of writing and recommendations, to do so relatively frequently, and to make this as interesting as possible for chiefly myself and I suppose all of you as well.
What I’ve done to start (as a way of building up some backlog) is upload my last three Best of the Year columns (2021, 2022, & 2023). Later this week I’ll do a first cultural Roundup, and prepare for some mammoth sized Oscar Rundowns throughout this month leading up to the ceremony on Sunday March 10th. More details to come…
Why is it called The Seven Thoughts
For those that have known me a long time, Seven Thoughts was the first thing I ever wrote to be shown in front of others. So it sorta kinda only feels right.
(And for Betsy. Always.)
-SF
Might SEVEN also have significance from when your Uncle thought it would be fun to screen the David Fincher classic at your 5th bday party?
As one who’s been on the receiving end of all your essays, it’s about damn time. I
couldn’t be happier to be on the maiden voyage of SEVEN THOUGHTS. Nobody on earth is more deserving of this platform, but go easy on the Heat and Nolan rants to start.