Miranda: Me, You and Everyone We Know Need to Be Twittering

This is a guest post by my husband, photographer and designer Geoffrey Ellis. For other guest posts, hit the "guest post" tag.

I mailed a handwritten letter to Miranda July the other day. She is a film maker, writer, artist who I have a fondness for. Something about her style is very cool to me. I can't remember the last time I wrote a letter and put it in the mail, and I have never written to a celebrity. Ever. But I needed to tell her something and couldn't find an email on her site. So, I got out my pen and paper and 15 minutes later, it was in the hands of the post office.

My letter was a short plea for Miranda to sign up for Twitter. Mainly because I think she would be really good at it. I love the way she writes in small bursts with short quotes. I would love to get a sub-140 character tweet from her in the vein of her "Dear Sophie, everything I have is yours. Except my boyfriend. Love, Miranda July". Wouldn't that be great? Miranda and Twitter would be as good a combination as peanut butter and chocolate.

I'm not just being selfish here. I think Twitter would help Miranda too.

People who don't use Twitter don't realize that it opens up a communication line between people who may never have a chance to meet. It offers a way to take a look inside someone else's life. It feels intimate and even though I don't know some of the people I follow, I feel like I am getting a personal note from them. (It's not stalking. I know it's not just me who gets their tweets, and they chose what to share, so don't go there).

I already follow Ira Glass, Joel McHale (who hasn't twittered yet but wish would. Maybe my next letter?), and Diablo Cody - who is endlessly entertaining and at times totally crass. And, sometimes when she gets going... well, never mind. Just follow her if you can handle it.

Ms. Cody has mastered Twitter the most of the bunch. Not just to entertain me and nearly 3,500 other followers, but how to use it to her benefit. Lately she has been Twittering from the set of her new movie. Lots of behind the scenes, who was doing what, who was wearing what in a scene, how she was going to do her own stunt. "I made it. But the scream you will see on film is real." So now, when the movie comes out, I feel invested. I feel like I was behind the scenes too. It's like the DVD version - before the movie comes out - in 140 characters or less easily woven into my day. Or like when you see a band live, and they play a new song. Then the song comes out on their next album and you are like, "Hey, I saw them play that song before it was even out!"

My point is, Twitter has a huge potential to be more than posts about what people had for dinner or what airport line they are in. It can be used for entertainment as well. I'm careful who I follow, because you can have too much of a good thing, but if someone has the talent to write something awesome I'd like to follow them. (I just hope poets don't discover Twitter. I really don't need haikus in my life.)

So here is my short plea to Miranda via the title of her own book: "No One Belongs Here More Than You".