POP CULTURE SPIRIT WOW
Okay I definitely do fear bacteria, let’s not be crazy. But I love this video in all the ways, starting with the fact that Stanley Kubrick clearly scored it and the only way to explain that is to realize that Jack Nicholson is just out of frame doing something truly horrible.
Seriously, is it me or is the baby eating a finger near the end? And in the opening isn’t he sitting on (and eating dirt from) a burial mound? And how did he end up in that river all by himself? Are his parents okay or is the dog his mother now?
Well hello! How are you? How is the Spirit of Your Pop Culture Wow?
Are you consuming any good content?
Why do we say that? No one consumes a book. You might devour it, yes. But that’s to say you loved it. Consumed is like the stories you hear of worms that take a thousand years to digest things. It’s something that tappens in the small intestine. Devouring is 100% desire + esophagus.
I’ve dipped my toe into a bunch of different things myself lately. The Bad Batch, which is a Star Wars: Clone Wars spinoff on Disney+, seemed like it was just going to try and repeat Clones glory, but no, it’s actually a story about what life is like as the Empire first begins, which we haven’t seen before. It has that zesty Star Wars spirit mixed with this growing sense of horror that Revenge of the Sith could never quite land.
(Let’s be honest: the Emperor doesn’t make you feel horrified, he makes you wonder whether one of those pop up Halloween stores has just opened in your neighborhood.)
Also checked out the new season of Shrill, which is that Aidy Bryant show about a plus sized journalist who is trying to thrive in a world of stupid people. It’s such a good show.
I’m pretty sure I’ve posted this before, but it bears repeating. I must have watched this scene a hundred times in the first months of the pandemic. I don’t know why. It just really spoke to me.
Shrill is one of those shows that I think most people sleep on. It’s low budget, it’s unassuming. But it’s also just super good in ways that always seem to sneak up on me.
So yeah. Pop culture.
And now, Wow:
In other news, I don’t know that I’ve mentioned here that I’m supposed to be moving to Australia. It’s something that’s been up in the air for years, and it had just about been worked out it when the pandemic descended.
During the height of our pandemic every three months I would say to my friends, Looks like it’ll be another three months and try to set my own expectations accordingly. Then it would happen again.
For a while that surprised no one, including me. But these days everyone always seems puzzled when I tell them this. Isn’t Australia, like having Broadway shows and other Lots of People Sitting Near Each Other-type events?
And the answer is yes, they are. They’ve done really, really well pandemic-wise. I’m not sure there’s a single case in the whole country right now. But that’s because they locked the borders down hard and have kept them so. And when a case has popped up, even a single case, they’ll shut down a whole city.
Last week I talked on an immigration lawyer over there to try and figure out where I am and see whether there’s any more clarity to be had these days. It turns out it’s going to be at least 7-8 more months. Which is a whole other kind of wow, although also maybe a bit of a “phew”, in that if they said COME TODAY, I would be like, I.barely.know.how.to.talk.to.people, 404.error.error.eror.r.
So it’s strange days here, lots of sweet and sour kind of mixed together, and sometimes it tastes real good that way, and sometimes it’s like that water slide of life has amped up the amount of water they’re pumping in and the degree of the descent. To which I can only say:
I don’t know if you’ve seen or heard of Another Round? It’s this Danish film starring Mads Mikkelsen about a teacher who has fallen on hard times, and decides with his peers at the school to begin an experiment of controlled day drinking to see if that doesn’t make them happier and more open to the world. It’s kind of great, and pays off some really wonderful ways. (It also won an Oscar last month.)
The star, who was also the star of Hannibal and has been in a hundred other things, did an interview with Vulture before the Oscars. And it’s really wide ranging, about acting and life.
Check this out:
My approach to what I do in my job — and it might even be the approach to my life — is that everything I do is the most important thing I do. Whether it’s a play or the next film. It is the most important thing. I know it’s not going to be the most important thing, and it might not be close to being the best, but I have to make it the most important thing. That means I will be ambitious with my job and not with my career. That’s a very big difference, because if I’m ambitious with my career, everything I do now is just stepping-stones leading to something — a goal I might never reach, and so everything will be disappointing. But if I make everything important, then eventually it will become a career. Big or small, we don’t know. But at least everything was important.
A life lesson in there, methinks.
The newsletter's a little thin this week, and also late. Sorry about that. I was finishing it late last night and nodded off! I am so old, you guys.
On Sunday I’m driving across the country to see my family. I have no idea what to expect (other than probably disaster, because that is a thing that I am good at). I’m sort of intrigued by the whole idea of it, though, and I’m hoping it will be a great adventure.
Given the travel, I’m going to take the week off from the newsletter.
In the meantime, I leave with you this.
New things you can do with your Snuggie:
And finally:
See you in two weeks!