Welcome to Scribbled Loose!
A twice-weekly newsletter by writer, director, Alexx Simone Johnson exploring the sites of cultural meaning-making within the creative process. This project is rooted in the belief that the drafts we scribble and discard often hold the most truth, with the mission of probing the unfiltered exploration, discovery, and conviction fundamental to making the stuff that sticks.
What we do
Artist interviews were the catalyst, but there’s so much more.
Scribbled Loose traces the chaotic spirals of creative cognition and channels them into digestible, immersive conversation . From minutiae to meaning, these talks focus on process through the lens of life, world and system. Interrogative, precedent-defying creativity is forever essential, and here we believe in artistic practice as both unbound adventure and a vital form of resistance.
BUT we keep it loose over here in more ways than one.
Guess the film. Or get lost in what it means. Scribbled Loose: The GameShow https://www.youtube.com/@scribbledloose
Yes. We made a game show. It lives on youtube (primarily). Contestants submit their most provocative, original cultural claims about a movie’s deeper significance to them, filling in provided categories on theme, world, character, and plot. Me, co-hosts and special guests then try to identify the film behind these interpretations. It’s super fun.
Submission forms for new films are habitually released on the Scribbled Loose Instagram. If you see a film you’re a particular zealot about, give us all you got!
Paid Subscriber Benefits:
Artist Interviews – juicy in-depth conversations with artists (in progress!)
The Game Show – extra episodes of the game show (in progress!)
Movie Meditations – interior reflections on films, not reviews
Great Creations – a catalog of top-notch works of all forms made with heart, updated weekly or sometimes daily
Free Subscriber Benefits:
Tidbits – short-form musings on cultural compulsions and curiosities
Bonus releases – short fiction, behind-the-scenes glimpses, and process insights
The occasional paid subscriber post – select content made available for free
Whichever winding path you choose, you’re promised at least ONE of the two succulent reads per week.
Our most popular posts are here.
The Full Directory is here and over on YouTube you’ll find special video portraits of process, featuring artists I talk to here and beyond!
Keep up with me (Alexx), my films and other work here.
Why no movie reviews?
Although I talk about movies in most of my posts, what you won’t find here are any classically prosaic movie reviews, thus the genesis of our “trademark” Movie Meditation’s. As frequently flattening as I find movie reviews to be, the primary reason for this embodies the value system behind this entire project. I aim to foster an environment of considered “looseness,” where curiosity leads and the scribble is as meaningful as the statement. I care about how the abstract and personally specific interact with the world and vice versa. As such, I can’t say I’m interested in any closed-form film synthesis. As such, I defer to the Movie Meditation, a reflective, associative wandering through a film’s sticky undercurrents, rather than a verdict on its exterior form.
However, if you want to hear my occasional jotted down movie take you could follow me on Letterboxd.
Why pay to subscribe?
This newsletter is entirely reader-supported and entirely fueled by a dedication to unearthing deep creative truths by transforming dynamic conversation into quality reflection. I am a consciously ravenous film and media enjoyer, but I’m also a filmmaker. As such, I concern myself with the components of story but more importantly, with the components of life surrounding it. It’s what corporate entertainment media always seems to miss. The interviews they pump are gimmick-first, ravenously seeking what’s flashy and illustrative of the popular sweeping conclusions about said movie or project. The chance for meaningfully unfiltered reflections from creatives, whose processes are everything but conclusive, become washed of all their juicy nuggets of experience, personal doubt and conviction. It’s my mission to preserve those nuggets. How will I do that? By remaining a student. By protecting and cultivating my sense of curiosity about those precious gems that get made every day and also rarely if ever. The gems we lovingly consume and forget to honor for the treacherous, life-consuming journey they took us on. The same journey they took to create. Let us return to a value over spectacle mindset!
Subscribe to keep committed creative coverage alive and independent. In an era of AI slop and regurgitated media strategy, spend your hard earned $5 on a monthly promise for real discovery, deeper questions and richer answers from the artists who live and breathe their craft.
Emails stuck in the wrong tab?
On a Computer: Move the email newsletter to the Primary inbox by selecting the email and dragging it to the Primary tab.
On a Phone: Select the 3 dots at the very top of one of our emails and select Move To→ Primary
Stay up-to-date and find us on social
Once subscribed, every new post is sent directly to your inbox.
Follow us on Instagram and Youtube.
For a spam-free, ad-free reading experience, plus audio and community features, get the Substack app.
Join the community
For those who like reading between the lines and or writing in them, be part of a community of people who share your interests. Participate in the comments section, or support this work with a subscription.
To learn more about the tech platform that powers this publication, visit Substack.com.
