EPISODE 443: TUPAC SHAKUR WINDU
Bookstore Time Machines, Saints that Look Amayyyzing and Kanye Jesus
POP CULTURE SPIRIT WOW
So it’s a quick one this week, as I’m wayyyy behind on a deadline and flying home from Boston tomorrow.
A quick story/thought: I spent yesterday wandering around a book store I love in Cambridge. Why I love it, in a nutshell:
That’s a review of a book on sale by one of the staff, who clearly should also be writing books herself.
The bookstores in Cambridge are sort of like time machines for me. I wander around, remembering the things that were important to me back when I lived in Cambridge and was poking around these places more regularly: Chaucer, literary criticism, the Old Testament. I make detailed lists of books that I should buy in those areas; sometimes I walk away with an armload or a Kindle-full.
And most of them I end up forgetting about once I get home. In fact there’s a Stephen Greenblatt book about Shakespeare that’s been glaring at me for two years now wondering if I’m ever going to take it off the shelf.
In the moment I feel sort of sad about that. Walking through the stores are like rediscovering branches of my life that stopped growing at different points. And there’s maybe a little stalk of green pushing out here and there, just waiting for some time in the light. Didn’t we almost have it all, Whitney sings.
I want us to. In fact the hilarious thing is, I still believe we could, if I would just knuckle down and push through. And based on past experience, probably I always will.
THREE TWEETS
When Soviet Espionage Just Keeps Creeping into Other Things:
When the Creators of the Most Talked About TV Show of recent years finally Break Their Silence about their Problematic Final Season:
Btw, the entire thread on this is outstanding. They talk about a lot of things in a way I have not heard them do before.
When Star Wars Fans Feel a New Film Coming:
Love that catch. The shot of Luke in Ben’s tent has such a strange framing. Now we know why. #RianJohnson4vr
CLICK
On Friday the Catholic Church celebrated All Saints’ Day. Often that ends up looking like a feast for a lot of old white people, which is neither accurate nor very satisfying.
But this week I stumbled upon the work of Gracie Morbitzer, an artist who has painted a series of portraits of the saints as modern people. The painting above is Our Lady of Guadalupe. Here’s her Joan of Arc:
And her Juan Diego:
Here’s Gracie explaining the series:
I wanted these paintings to appeal to the modern generations to help show them that the church really is more diverse than many think it to be—and also, more importantly, that it is made up of humans just like them. When people realize that these amazing figures throughout history came from the same backgrounds and situations as they have, and maybe even look like them, they will realize that they themselves can strive to find the saints as role models for their everyday lives. Traditional icons are unrealistic, and the people appear old, unemotional, usually white, and two dimensional. This outdated image, I think, is part of what turns people away from the church in the modern day.
Preach it, Gracie. I love her work so much.
READ
Speaking of the Church: You know how Big Data is hacking our lives to sell to advertisers? Well, isn’t it about time the Church got in on the action?
They’ve got the perfect vehicle: Your rosary.
Also, for Halloween L.A. Magazine did this piece about two L.A. screenwriters who bought a house and then discovered the backyard was full of cat corpses. It is a crazy but also totally believable L.A. story.
WATCH
And speaking of crazy but believable L.A. stories, this SNL sketch about an L.A. coffeehouse got cut for time. It’s not clear to me the audience really got it. But it is so L.A.
And this sketch is also really worth staying with. It goes places.
LISTEN
Last week Kanye West released his new album, Jesus is King, to a chorus of “Huh” and “oh Kanye”s.
But someone I know recommended the song Water, and you know, I really liked it. Super mellow. Great around the house music. So I pass it on to you.
(I also loved Selah, which is very Kanye and has lyrics about Jesus Christ doing the laundry.)
Vulture did a piece last week trying to figure out what the title The Rise of Skywalker means. Seems like the consensus choice is that Skywalker is going to become the new umbrella term for Force users (and maybe their friends?), something that undermines the whole we good/you bad construct. Luke thought about killing his nephew, Kylo Ben cares about Rey and Poe Dameron fights for the Resistance when clearly he is bad bad bad. Everything is way blurry, therefore Skywalker.
But enough people are talking about that idea that it seems like it’s probably not that. So I don’t know, maybe it’s about Ben finally embracing his heritage (but in a good way)? Or maybe he’s announcing the new 50 story high-rise he’s building on Mustafar.
“Trust your feelings, at the Rise. Amazing lava river views, waterfall. Cells start at 5 billion credits. Available now.”
In other news, I just finished reading the novelization Revenge of the Sith – I am nothing if not predictable, dear readers.
And I have to say, if you cannot think about the prequels without tasting just a little bit of bile in your mouth, you should check this novel out. It makes so much more sense of the relationships than the films do, and offers a pretty compelling indictment of the Jedi call to continually suppress your emotions.
How you like my balance now, my Masters?
The book also made me wonder if the last movie would have been a lot better if Anakin went full Vader more like halfway through. In the novel he is so much more interesting once he stops with all the ‘But the Jedi!/But Palpatine!/But Padme!’
Think Kylo freaking out and smashing his helmet to pieces in Last Jedi. or Vader killing everyone at the end of Rogue One. Tell me the prequels wouldn’t be better with a lot of that.
Also: This is a true story because I just found it on the Internet: George Lucas originally wanted Tupac Shakur to play Mace Windu. It could have been amazing.
It was dark in Boston before 5pm tonight. Having spent so long in Los Angeles I want to hate that, except it seemed to only add to the atmosphere of the community here. In the dark we huddle close and look to each other for warmth and solace.
You bring the blankets. I’ll make sure there’s wood on the fire.
See you next week.