EPISODE 635: COULD SOMEBODY PLEASE GET RUDOLPH A BOOSTER?

The New Yorker sure picked a bad week to try and shank Jeremy Strong.

Dec 13, 2021

Jim does a Star War Holiday Special @ObsKenobs

So why is it that the act of simply traveling to a different place for a few days would cause your mind to erase pretty much everything on your weekly schedule? It makes no sense. And yet somehow while I was on the road last week I forgot not only to write the newsletter but to follow through on other tasks that are also required of me literally every week.

In addition to being mortified by this--sorry, everybody!--I am fascinated by it. Does my brain equate travel with vacation? (Honestly I’d be a little proud of it if that’s the case, even if the fact is I wrote more last week than I normally do. You fight for your R&R, grey matter!) Or is there just something about leaving where I am that feels like a disruption in continuity, like I’ve somehow left my universe? Pop culture riff, are multiverse stories in part not about paths not taken but about how different it feels being in different places that all exist at the same time on the same planet–or maybe, how different we become? Is Spider-Man: No Way Home, which comes out next week, really a story about what happens when you travel?

Idle thoughts shooting through my brain this week….

A few weeks ago my nephew let me know that birds are not real.

This was…news to me?

Turns out, it’s a thing—and thankfully, not as in, “Actually, the Democrats have a long history of using pizza parlors for really terrible things” but more like, “Gen Z is just not having it with your dumb conspiracy theories, old people.”

The Birds Aren’t Real brigade have taken the idea to some wild places—like protesting outside Twitter because its mascot is a bird, or burning a St. Louis Cardinals’ flag at the St. Louis Arch. And I have to say, I just love them for it. We live in an era of outrage; and even when it seems warranted, there’s just so much of it everywhere that its impact is lost. Honestly I’m exhausted by just the thought of outrage even when I agree with the cause. I’ve long thought the best protest today would be taking over a city block or a city building and turning it into a dance party. Don’t tell me what you reject, or condemn some group. Give me a taste of the world you want or the world as you think it could be.

Here’s another version of that:

Not getting vaccinated or a booster with a new variant in the air is crazy. So is not wearing masks. But you know what’s a lot more effective than saying that over and over? Making a fun music video with kicky hooks and an upbeat vibe about getting a booster.

I also just want to believe that putting something positive into the universe makes a difference, that it changes the world for the better in some way. No gesture, tweet or choice stands entirely on its own, either; there’s always the chance it will give other people ideas as to things they could do, or just that it’s possible to do. Birds Aren’t Real is a great example of this; no one could have imagined it, and yet now that it’s out there making us laugh don’t tell me we won’t be seeing more crazy fun ideas like it.

Addendum: Maybe at Christmas instead of trying to find the right gift for everyone I should be trying to find things that are weird or hilarious?

Or maybe I’m just saying that to try and justify some really weird gifts I bought this year? God I hope they’re not a disaster.

Ultima | #вʟм @UltimaShadowX

Hawkeye is a funny ass show, I swear.

The last couple weeks of had me dipping into a lot of pop culture. Quick hits:

Hawkeye: New Marvel show about Hawkeye and his new apprentice at Christmas time, and four episodes in I’m going to say it’s the best show Marvel has done since Netflix. Great characters, real stakes, lots of fun. If you’ve been waiting for Marvel to do a show that is not just a set up for some movie to come in fifteen years, this is it.

The Wheel of Time: Amazon high fantasy series about a witch looking for the next great savior of the universe, and ends up finding four contenders. The look can get a little schlocky at times—the main monsters look like they escaped from an episode of Buffy—but the way Rosamund Pike, who plays the witch, is so cool.) If you like The Witcher, this is worth a look.

The Chair: This Netflix six part series starring Sandra Oh as the first female chair of a tiny Ivy English department kind of blew by me in the fall. When I finally sat down to watch it, I really couldn’t stop. Everyone involved is just outstanding, and the premise, which is how fear and outrage end up destroying pretty much everything, is really insightfully played. In its own quiet way it’s actually one of the most satisfying shows I’ve seen the whole year.

Tick…Tick…Boom!: Netflix movie musical starring Andrew Garfield as Jonathan Larson, the creator of Rent, before he wrote Rent. Garfield is absolutely fantastic as this endlessly hopeful artist desperate for a break. Some really great music, too. (I also think it’s impossible to watch without crying at least once, and yes I consider that a plus.)

West Side Story: Steven Spielberg reshooting one of the greatest movie musicals of all time seemed, um, a little self-indulgent? Turns out it’s thrilling, incredibly kinetic and with a point of view on the subject material and setting that is really interesting.

Plus it stars 2021 It Girl Ariana DeBose as Anita, who is SO good. (She was also the school teacher in Schmigadoon!)

Succession: Season 3 is over. At this point I don’t know if I hate watch it or hate myself for watching it. The last two episodes had some very very satisfying conversations.

But as always, the show finds a way to end by having the abusive father abuse his children all over again. And so yeah, I’m back to hating myself.

Last week the diocese of Marquette, Michigan announced it would refuse the sacraments to anyone who was transgender, or living in a same-sex relationship—and this includes the anointing of the sick (unless they’re dying, then it’s cool).

I don’t know which GIF better captures my reaction. This:

Or this:

I want to be shocked, but honestly it seems like the next step in a whole bunch of different horrible things some of the American bishops have been pushing for some time. The fact that these policies are announced in a document called “Created in the Image and Likeness of God” is particularly wow.

In truth, the existence and experiences of queer people show us that God is so much bigger than the Church ever believed. Sorry, white guy from Michigan, but God is also a black lesbian from the West Indies, a drag queen from the Philippines and a trans man living in Soho. Don’t be scared, it’s actually a lot of fun. (Or do be scared, I guess, but also, deal with it.)

Undoubtedly some of the priests in Marquette who will be asked to treat queer people in this way are queer themselves. Here’s praying for a day when some of them and the religious sisters and brothers who work in the diocese will find some way to share their own experiences and understanding, that queer people are God’s beloved, fabulous and holy in their own right.

Until then maybe queer Catholics living in Marquette need a church liturgy version of this.

THREE TWEETS FOR ADVENT