It feels trite to be starting this during a 50-day (and still counting, there’s no reason to think we’re out of any woods) quarantine. But this isn’t going to help me with anything rona-related. I'm not suffering much from cabin fever. Most of the outside time I require is walking with headphones, and I still do that fairly safely. I miss restaurants, tho*.
I’m not certain what this is going to be about. Sorry, but it's going to take some time to figure out.
I considered giving myself a writing challenge and seeing if I can swing it. I'll explain more.
I thought of doing something about food or cooking but I dunno, everyone is. That bummed me out. I thought I was the unique snowflake that baked bread. Now everyone is doing it, so fuck baking bread. That's a healthy outlook.
THE RIGHTNOW
Community coming to Netflix has sent me into a spiral. First I binged seasons 1-3. Then I hate-watched season 4. And, predictably, I've found it harder and harder to watch season 5.
The spiral isn't about the binge. I've also, at the same time, been checking out, researching, following Dan Harmon.
I am truly perplexed on whether or not he's a role model of sorts. In his thinking, not really in action. He was accused of sexual misconduct; then he offered probably the only heartfelt and dignified apology in Hollywood. He's been called difficult; he's an artist and encourages others to be artists in the way in which they can create art. He's very open about his flaws and mental health issues. Harmon changes his mind and says so, which I appreciate. He's also narcissistic and self-involved. See? Not sure.
Harmon has created the Story Circle, a kind of formula or guiding principle for storytelling. I want to give it a shot, maybe with a story that's been kicking around my head for the past 12 years. CLIFFHANGER!
UNKNOWN MORTAL ORCHESTRA
I think music is the art form that most makes me feel like I could never, ever do what these people do. To wit, Unknown Mortal Orchestra. I couldn't stop listening to IC-01 Hanoi in all its weird, no-track-like-the-next glory. I cannot stop playing Necessary Evil whenever I go walking. I will likely play it on repeat a few times right now when I go to my local park, the underrated Alsos Ilision, and read.
CONSPICUOUS MEDIA CONSUMPTION
Would-Be Allen
The only good things about A rainy day in New York
Chet Baker
the mom
the fact that it made me think I can also write a movie
Seriously, this movie is only explainable as a Woody-sanctioned parody of Woody Allen films. Otherwise, it's inexplicably trite. The dialogue is so sophomoric I expected canned laughter.
IT’S IN THE TITLE
DEVS, Alex Garland's newest thing, is phenomenal. Without giving too much away, it's on the absolutely right side of head-scratching, mind-bending existential sci-fi thriller genre, without being explicitly a genre piece. Nick Offerman is, of course, a gold-hued marvel in this and everything else he does.
It got me thinking about whether determinism actually matters to the human experience. Say cause and effect is the ultimate rule of the (uni)verse. Does that mean that you don't have free will, that everything has already been caused? Perhaps. Without fundamental technology to make that a part of your lived experience as a human, today, does it matter? I'd argue it really doesn't. In precisely the same way that it doesn't matter if there is a God, if you can't know if they exist. Yes, God is gender- neutral. Get over it.
*This thought just entered my mind. I questioned writing "tho" instead of though, and then I realized that though is a PREPOSTEROUS WAY TO SPELL THAT WORD. The English language has plenty of examples but come on. "Though" is up there with "queue".
The title of this newsletter and post is a constant feeling I have, a mix of impostor syndrome and nostalgia. The most toxic of impulses, according to John Hodgman.