Episode 114: Happy Thoughts
POP CULTURE SPIRIT WOW
Between the last time we spoke and today, a lot of crazy stuff has happened in the U.S. election. Bonkers-rip my eyes out and scream forever because what is this reality crazy. And I’m not even talking about the clowns.
(Seriously, you can tell how crazy things are here right now by the fact that weirdos dressed as clowns scaring people all over the U.S., U.K. and Australia still only makes it to about page fifteen in the current annals of insanity.)
I’m not going to go into any of the details of our current plight, mostly because I think it’s all kind of driving us all crazy ourselves. It’s like we’ve locked ourselves into a sensory deprivation chamber, and the one thing being piped in is CNN’s election coverage. Even in a normal year, that would not be good. And this is not that.
And yet I think most of the time we feel like we absolutely have to keep watching, either because it's just so insane, we want to know what will happen next; or because we're afraid of where this is all going. There's definitely a car wreck happening; we're just not sure, are we're driving by it, or are we in it?
We do not have to keep watching all of this. We shouldn't. Or at least not all the time. We have to claw back our happiness. This much offal can only make us sick.
(Yeah, that was a poop/entrails pun. That's what it's come to, people.)
If I lived in New England instead of Groundhog Dayland I would fill this newsletter with pictures of fall leaves. What is it about autumn? Living things are literally dying all around us, and yet it's by far the most beautiful season, the time of year that most calls us to stop and appreciate the world around us, to appreciate that we are alive.
Crisp winds, the crackle and aroma of wood burning in fireplaces, the explosion of leaves. It's the season that breaks all the bad spells.
It reminds me of this interview I did with a Jesuit astrophysicist George Coyne, where he started talking about the incredible fertility of the universe. Did you know, when a star is dying it starts spewing out basic, building block elements -- hydrogen, nitrogen, carbon -- that the universe will use to make new stars? (And also life.) Our sun is actually the result of three generations of that cycle -- star forms, star lives, star dies and emits building blocks; new star forms, star lives, dies and emits building blocks; Sun forms. New life.
Autumn is like that. A time of dying, and yet in these final weeks and months it gives us so much to help us live. ++ Speaking of things that can help us live: about a year ago I got introduced to the cartoons of Jim Benton. Benton is by trade a children's book writer, but he also does very funny cartoons for adults. His last book, "Dog Butts and Love. And Stuff Like That. And Cats" (how 'bout that title?) was nominated for an Eisner, the comic book industry's highest award. And the cartoons were so great I forced myself to only read a couple every day so it could last longer.
Choice selections:
My personal favorite:
In the sitcom version of Star Wars you know there's a beheadening every week.
Benton has a new book coming out next week. It's super cheap, and if the last book is any indication it will look great on an iPad. Highly recommend it.
He's also on Tumblr:
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Speaking of visual art, the latest issue of Kahlil is up. It includes this page, which seems to me to capture the essence of family life during the teenage years:
(For those of you just coming to the newsletter, "Kahlil" is a moving and gorgeous web comic that imagines what would happen if Superman had come to Pakistan instead of the United States. A couple newsletters ago I got to talk to creator Kumail Rivzi about it. Check it out.) ++ My Pop Culture Wow This Week To live in Los Angeles is at some point to make a home in your car. And it's not an unwelcome home most of the time. When people visit they always comment about the traffic, but living here you quickly develop coping mechanisms. Like satellite radio. Or bourbon (not while driving, of course). Or books on tape.
Me, I listen to podcasts. Marc Maron's WTF for honest conversations about life and comedy. Reply All for great stories about how we're all living and surviving in an online internet age. Imaginary Worlds for short pieces about the scifi and fantasy stories and tropes I love. Song Exploder, to hear musicians talk about how they made one of their songs. Here's the Thing with Alec Baldwin for really smart conversations with interesting people. (Alec Baldwin is a fantastic interviewer.) NPR's Planet Money, for short smart pieces on economic stuff. And of course, This American Life.
This week I found a new favorite: Heavyweight. Its tagline: "A podcast about journeying back to the moment when everything went wrong." Host Jonathan Goldstein talks to people who have something that's been weighing them down from their past. And he tries to help them resolve it.
So in the first episode he talks his 80 year old father Buzz into traveling to Florida to try and reconcile with the older brother he's long estranged from. In the second episode he goes with his friend Gregor to see Gregor's former friend Moby -- yes, that Moby -- to try and get back a CD collection that Gregor lent him long ago which led to some of Moby's biggest songs.
The episodes are often funny and just so damn relatable. Who doesn't have stuff like this they wish they could get out of their system? I would love to visit one of the people who was awful to me in school, just to find out what it was all about. It doesn't seem to matter how old you get, you never stop wondering about the bad stuff from your past, and whether it wasn't somehow really your fault.
Check out Heavyweight. It's cathartic. Also, it has a cool visual.
++ LINKS ++
Some great videos out right now. Like the new Rogue One Trailer, which reveals in addition to everything else this is a father/daughter movie, and that it’s about having hope in dark times. (Preach it, sister.)
Or Anna Kendrick trying to convince Ben Affleck to let her be in Batman during a press interview for "The Accountant". Affleck plays up the Sad Affleck image he gained after Batman vs. Superman. It goes in weird and hilarious directions. Anna Kendrick, people. She makes me laugh.
The only election related thing that I will post is this sketch from SNL about Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway on her day off. I post it because Kate McKinnon is joy.
Look after yourself this week. Don't be seduced by the newest "urgent updates" of the news. The real world is right there in front of you, waiting to get frozen yogurt. And you are worth it.
(You thought she was gone for good, didn't you.)