Last weekend, I was running on a beach. Just a few days ago, I slipped on the ice in my driveway. It’s been a bi-polar kind of a week, is what I’m saying, which means it’s time for another round up of unconnected thoughts I want to share with you but am lacking the ability to contain in just one essay.1 And, so, some bullet points:
This week, I was introduced to the idea of “comfort creators”2 and feel like I’ll never be clean again.
As you know Bob, I am a fan of the Iditarod,3 which kicks off on March 6. While I enjoy the race for its own sake,4 I always want a musher or two to root for. This year, my musher is Apayauq Reitan. She’s on my fantasy musing team and everything.
FWIW: I would like Cherry Jones to play me in the movie. Jessica Chastain and Andrew Garfield5 are both very, very good in The Eyes of Tammy Faye.6 The award nominations confirm it. However, the best performance is from Cherry Jones and she should get more love than she has gotten. I always feel that way about Jones, mind, but know that I am more than correct this time.
Inventing Anna is absolutely addictive and very nearly sticks the landing. However, it is much better if you view it as mostly fictional, rather than a true retelling of Anna Sorokin’s story.7 The Shondaland team worked hard to give full story arcs to all of the characters and I understand the impulse behind this. Real life, however, doesn’t work that way. Our story arcs are messy and never really end until we’re dead (and some go on beyond that). The same is true for Hulu’s The Dropout. The creators are working hard to build a complete story for Elizabeth Holmes, which is admirable, yet the result is emotionally true rather than actually true.
The podcast “According to Need” just won the DuPont Columbia award, which it 100% deserves. It also deserves a listen if you are at all interested in how we house those who don’t have houses. The story is by turns frustrating and heart-warming — and Oakland’s system is no better or worst than any other community’s system. We’re not prepared to grapple with this problem, y’all, and the problem is never going to go away until we see it for what it is.
I don’t know that I needed another take on the Bikram story8 but the documentary on Netflix is perfectly adequate. Not much new is revealed here but there is some footage we hadn’t see yet so … whatever. There is a one interview that made me want to punch my TV.9 Jakob Schanzer, a former Bikram franchisee, goes on about how all of the accusations about his guru hurt him (Jakob) because Bikram was like a father to him and seriously? Miss me with that. Schanzer’s opinion of the man was forced to change and, yes, that’s hard. And yet it seems Schnazer still has plenty of blame in his heart for the women who were assaulted because they dared say something about it? I just … read the room, my dude.
So what are you enjoying10 right now? Lemme know:
The abbreviation for this would be RUoUTIWtSwYbALtAtCiJOE. Which will never catch on, I know. I’ll keep workshopping it.
Having said that, the podcast I heard it in was very, very good and prompted me to think about mothers, burnout, and cocktails.
because I am a fan of dogs and competitions where men and women are on even footing
new episodes of the Iditapod are always my first listen for two weeks in March
I can’t think about Garfield without also thinking about Tick, Tick, BOOM, which is a movie that mirrors the life of any writer, not just composers and lyricists. I’m currently figuring about if I should just give up on the book proposal I’ve been in love with for, like, two years, and move on with my life. Publishing is a very dumb business and I hate it. But.
This movie is also very, very good just in general. It’s not for everyone, mind, but it is very much for me.
The original story is here and is worth the time to read.
This is also true for the stories of Anna Sorokin and Elizabeth Holmes and Pamela Anderson and the Uber guy but this seems to be where we are as a culture. Why look at a new story (like, say, the one I keep trying to pitch about a fascinating women) when we can keep re-hashing the stories we’ve already told?
I might be bitter.
Which I didn’t do because I’m all mature and shit
(for relative values of “enjoy”)
I am late to the party as always, but in case there are stragglers in my wake, I feel compelled to share that as a result of a 2-season binge weekend, TED LASSO is my favorite television show in the history of television. Completely unexpected, and utterly delightful.