SMARCH NEWSLETTER, 2020 (Patreon)

Lousy smarch weather!

As I sit here with Covid-like symptoms yet the inability to be tested (for context, thread here) I'm working on an Onward column, but also finally wanted to give you things to check out. So here are some fun things to hopefully keep you occupied as we’re all housebound more or less. Because of that I also decided to put this newsletter up for all patrons, given the circumstances.

1. A movie

I love seeing anytime Josie and the Pussycats pops back up in the news or theaters. It’s one of those amazing movies that’s part time capsule, part cult movie, part just great movie with incredible songs. If you’ve never seen it, you owe it to yourself. The movie also inspired me to do something I RARELY DO and that’s do an interview with the directors (I don’t like interviews because I’m too nervous and bad at them. People who have interviewing skills amaze me).  

2. A tv

I wrote about the first season of Joe Pera Talks With You last year, but the second season is even better than the first. Instead of going bigger wand weirder, it’s almost pared itself down and become more comfortable with it’s subtleties. And ultimately it goes to the most emotional and thoughtful places. If it was released all as one film it would have been my favorites of the year, no questions asked. If you’ve never watched the series, now’s the time. Start at the beginning and stay with it

3. A book

I started reading Paul Hirsch’s “A Long Time Ago In A Cutting Room Far, Far Away” and am really enjoying it. To be clear, it’s not revelatory memoir-ing or evocative storytelling, it’s instead a great book that focuses on the nuts and bolts mechanics of editing and the power that comes from making the littlest and most tactful of choices.

4. A food

So I host DnD nights (Yes, I DM) and I love cooking for everyone, too. We have a mix of vegetarian and meat eaters. Sometimes I make different versions of things, but last session I tried a little experiment. I made a lasagna with IMPOSSIBLE meat. I also used other imitation sausages and bacon to make complex umami flavor, the same way I would with any ragu. The result was shockingly legit. People are, like, still talking about. It helps that I slow cooked that red sauce for like 24 hours (on and off). Whenever I talk about this stuff people ask for recipes and it’s hard because I’m going off knowledge base and eyeballing and adjusting for taste, so there’s no exacting approach there. So the best I can offer is that it was kinda like this but substitute a mix of browned and raw impossible burger, two links of field roast veg italian sausage (or better options if you can find) and griddled morning star farms fake bacon (then food processed into powder)

5. A song

What song makes you cry every time you hear it? I feel like it can change so much depending on where we are in life, but whenever I hear Julien Baker’s “Appointments” I just… It hits me so squarely. It’s hard… WHICH IS WHY I’M NOW MAKING YOU LISTEN TO IT FOR SOME REASON!?!?!? IM SORRRY. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdBu21i9aEE 

6. An observation

I first noticed this on Super Tuesday and you know what really struck me about the change of both 2016 and especially now? How little religion is discussed as the driving factors in voting. During the Bush years and the Neocon movement and the early Obama years, it was EVERYWHERE. Perhaps for obvious reasons. And now, it’s this thing that doesn’t come up, but for so many in older age groups it’s so interesting that it’s not discussed, because it’s still probably a huge part of what drives them? I genuinely don’t know and I’m not going to guess at why (but Trump probably has so much to do with it). It’s just a thing that’s really stark.

7. A thing on the internet

What’s the website that you have open every single day without fail that’s not work related or like email or social media? For me, it’s the new york times crossword. I do it everyday. It’s the thing that is so integral to how I operate and I just can’t imagine not having it open?

8. A game

In getting ready for Final Fantasy VII, I’ve been… playing Final Fantasy VII. Og version that is. I haven’t played in 20 years. And it’s amazing how much the mechanics of this game and turn based battle just feel “right” to me. Everything about the system feels natural and clear. It’s like riding a bike they say. But it’s just remarkable how much I think “this is what video games are” while so much of modern RPG systems feels like I’m just watching a bunch of pretty graphics and I have no connection to the strategies? Anyone else? Anyway, I’m in Mideel now and this game rules.

9. A memory

So. My father is an old hippy outdoorsy type. Long beard, long gray hair. He’s always loved hiking. I like it too, but have really had to cut back because I have an old knee injury that sometimes makes downhill’s hard (and causes my knee to swell up). But he used to take us all these grand trips where we roughed it through nature (meanwhile, my mom was the museum type). But one time in the summer after 7th grade, he took my brother and I to the Jungfrau region in switzerland and hike from town to town and staying hostels (for clarity, this was not a glamorous trip in terms of accommodation, but still one of the most beautiful weeks of my life). We had some extra stuff more than what we were carrying (so we wouldn’t have to do laundry every night) and would send the bags on the train to the next town as we did the hike to that town. It just cut down on weight. On one part of the trip, I forget where honestly, we start hiking and we just start seeing cowshit. And I mean EVERYWHERE. There is so much fucking cowshit. But what’s more bizarre is that after seeing cows everywhere all trip, there isn’t a cow to be seen. We’re hiking through 3 miles of cowshit and now cows. And it wasn’t just the smell that bothered, it was trying to avoid stepping in it. After a mile, we just got tired of avoiding it and so were like “fuck it” and stepped in the cowshit. Just right down in it. All the time. Almost every step. We just had to make ourselves be okay with it. After a few maddening hours, we finally got to a range higher than the cowshit and we were so happy and elated. Downright joyful. It was over. Then it starts snowing hard. Like really hard. We hit a high pass and get the news from local rangers “you can’t pass, it’s too dangerous. You have to turn back” And at that moment, we realized we would have to hike back through the 3 miles of cowshit again. You have never seen three angrier people in your lives. But worse, the snow has turned to rain at the lower elevation and it’s just getting everywhere and we are absolutely COVERED in shit and shit smell. And so angry. We get back to rego into the hostel and remember that we have NO CLEAN CLOTHES because we sent them on the train ahead. And I remember us all sitting there so angry, covered in shit and then my brother starts laughing. Like deliriously laughing. And making jokes. And then we all are. I might talk a lot about my brother, but his ability to make things funny will always be his best quality.

To that, I mentioned a short version of this story at his wedding.

10. A poem

As always, gonna end every newsletter with a poem.

The picture at the top of this newsletter is Gwendolyn Brooks. I’ll go straight to the poetry foundation to explain, “Gwendolyn Brooks is one of the most highly regarded, influential, and widely read poets of 20th-century American poetry. She was a much-honored poet, even in her lifetime, with the distinction of being the first Black author to win the Pulitzer Prize. She also was poetry consultant to the Library of Congress—the first Black woman to hold that position—and poet laureate of the State of Illinois. Many of Brooks’s works display a political consciousness, especially those from the 1960s and later, with several of her poems reflecting the civil rights activism of that period.” Theres’ so much I could say, but one of the things she was remarkable at was a certain kind of poem. But I’ll let you read it first. 

“We Real Cool”

The Pool Players.

Seven at the Golden Shovel.

We real cool. We

Left school. We

Lurk late. We

Strike straight. We

Sing sin. We

Thin gin. We

Jazz June. We

Die soon.

* * *

The kind of poem I’m talking about is the gut-punch poem. But the problem of the gut punch poem is you can’t anyone it’s coming. Every word, every set up, every bit of economy just comes to a point and hits you. I don’t mean to end this on a sad note, it’s really not about the sad. It’s just to always remember the power of words, and more importantly, the power of who is most affected by the powers that be. Please read more of her work.

<3HULK