EPISODE 450: They're Calling You moeZ
Colonoscopies are for Christmas, and so is Cats?
POP CULTURE SPIRIT WOW
What a week. I had my first colonoscopy. This was in all seriousness my first text after I came out of it.
Verdict: Propofol is for real, y’all. (And I am for it.)
Two days later, the Democrats came to LMU for a debate, and I got to write about it for America. Takeaways: Amy Klobuchar is playing at a whole different level and Joe Biden off camera is like a powered down C-3PO.
The day after that, Episode IX came out. I was really really happy with the reflections about Star Wars I posted from my friends beforehand; if you haven’t had a chance to check them out, I really recommend it. So many wonderful (and short!) reflections on the intersections between Star Wars and their lives.
My standing rule has been not to newsletter about Star Wars until at least a week after it’s come out. If you’re on my Twitter feed you have some sense of what I’ve been thinking so far, but honestly with Star Wars movies the first viewing is always so fraught with my own expectations and anxieties I never fully experience the film. I’ve got a piece to write about it, so I’m going back tomorrow and we’ll see what comes.
Here’s the only thing I’ll share and it is not a spoiler in any way:
This guy really moved me and I would watch a whole movie just about him.
The movie version of Cats also came out, and I had no intention of watching it, but my God the tweets….
Seriously thinking about doing it in a double feature with Rise, even though the very idea of sitting in a theater and watching those horrifying human cats is well and truly making my skin crawl.
What a weird year, where it turns out the thing I really want to be a part of is a freakishly terrifying experience of humans dressed as cats.
I don’t know if this tweet can fully make sense if you’re not here, but God is it true.
Hanukkah just started and Christmas is in a few days. And so I thought I’d send out links to a couple little things that have been gifts for me the last few weeks.
AN ARTICLE: The New York Times talks to 8 recently fired reporters from across the country about a story they wish they could keep covering. A beautiful ode to local journalism.
People felt comfortable reaching out to me saying, “Hey, my playground is gone at my park. Can you figure out what’s going on for me?” I’d text or call the parks director. It is being a messenger, getting a quick answer for a quick question and building rapport with your community.
A THREAD: These responses to the question of what readers learned in therapy offers so much wisdom and also so much affirmation of things you and I know and yet might not believe. Like:
We are not alone!
A PODCAST EPISODE: Invisibilia, The End of Empathy.
So here’s the premise: The host of this podcast interviews a guy who had been a member of Incel – men who feel they’ve been rejected by women and are angry about it, sometimes violent – but left the group. Then she asks someone applying to work for Invisibilia to cut her audio to get her take on things, and that young woman uses the opportunity to call her out for showing empathy for this man while forgetting the woman he had harassed and traumatized.
A fascinating listen. It left me wondering a lot about whether journalism is really doing its job if it isn’t always keeping alive the voices and experiences of the marginalized. If a story about white supremacists or ICE agents or Incel doesn’t turn to the others that have been affected by them, is it really fair and accurate?
A CHRISTMAS PARTY AID: Are you worried about dealing with certain questions from your family and friends the next few days? Do you know the Gilmore Girls? If so, this is for you.
A CHRISTMAS WARNING: If you get a Ring camera for Christmas, you should really take it back. (The company may very well be giving your data to the police and also maybe people in the Ukraine?)
A CHRISTMAS ALBUM: Sia’s Everyday is Christmas has been out for a couple years, but it’s really speaking to me this year. It’s all original stuff, which almost never works for Christmas albums, but she really pulls it off. Snowman, Sunshine and Snowflake all are great places to start.
(Also, just realizing, there’s some fun videos from the album, too. For example:
Or:
A CHRISTMAS STAR WARS GIFT: For the fan that has everything else.
I choose Theranos with new friend Teen Yoda that Rey fights with her Ochre Blade versus Moonsquisher.
AND FINALLY, A CHRISTMAS TWEET that makes me realize sometimes we really do overthink what people need from a Christmas gift.
Whatever your favorite version of the holidays is, eating Chinese food by yourself while walking the wonderfully deserted streets of Fill in The Blank or surrounded by family and blankets and Nativity sets, I hope you have the very best of times.
Thanks for continuing to be part of this and for all the things you do out there in your own patch of the universe. I feel like Star Wars keeps reminding me that hope is not a feeling but a choice to keep putting goodness out into the world. And I’m glad we do it together.
I’ll be back next week for Skywalker and some end of the year round up, and then off for a couple weeks. See you then!
That’s the great Katie Cook. Find more of her stuff here.