digital porch
Bonsai Cutting / Alex Ram / 2024
Hey.
I had this grand idea that after I put the Boy Prince done for sleepy time I’d pour myself a glass of wine and ease into an epic set of thoughts (probably about technology). But guess what? I put the kid down, haven’t touched the wine, and if I close my eyes right now I’d probably be asleep on the couch until morning.
Which is all to say, no big thoughts this week. And c’mon, don’t we all need a break from my big thoughts sometimes?
Don’t we all just want to start our Fridays with a little piece and quiet and not the hoarse ranting of an middle aged old man screaming at the youngin’s from safety of his digital porch?
Don’t we?
Great. Just great.
No worries though, you know I’ll be baaaaaack.
things we’re doing
Look, I know it’s been quiet in these parts in terms of actual The Racket-oriented content, but this is about to change. Here’s what’s coming down the pipe:
My interview w/ Preeti Vangani
Kristina Ten’s interview w/ Leigh Lucas
Sarah Cadorette’s interview w/ Lauren C. Johnson
And, what am both very excited about and surprisingly nervous about:
A LIVE RACKET SHOW in May ft. a bunch of writers with new books
So, if you were sitting around your house, kneading your hands, waiting for new content from The Racket, well, your long nightmare is coming to an end.
Wee.
things other people are doing
The West Facade by Lauren C. Johnson is OUT
Lauren C. Johnson is the Interview Editor for The Racket and a good friend of mine, but with those caveats aside, I am very excited her debut novel, The West Facade (Santa Fe Writers Project), is now in the world. Johnson is a fantastic writer and world builder (I am still massively in love with this piece Alligators we published on the website a million years ago) and a story about two French statue who come to life in the shadow of Notre Dame is so very, very her. The upcoming reading series will feature LCJ, but don’t wait for that—buy this book now, enjoy this book now, spread the word on this book, uhhhhh, now.
Again, buy this book.
in the middle
In The Distance / Hernan Diaz
I’m creeping closer and closer to the end of this book and frankly, I’m bummed it’s coming to a conclusion. The story of Hakan—The Hawk—and his looping journey into the stark middle of America never fails to surprise me with both the horrors of this cruel time and the quiet kindnesses that tempered them. Great, great stuff.
Die My Love, d. Lynne Ramsey
I thought about doing a double feature of Die My Love and If I Had Legs I’d Kick You to really hammer down on films about women cracking under the dual anvils of society’s unwavering want of them and its total disregard. I’m glad I didn’t because even with a solid amount of space between the two, I couldn’t help comparing these oft times brutal looks at mental spirals. I hate review by comparison (“It wasn’t as good as…”) but again, even with distance, I couldn’t help thinking that Die My Love just wasn’t as fine-tuned in exercise in misery as If I Had Legs was. That Die My Love felt like a college project starring a mega-star, and If I Had Legs felt like the concept of punishment condensed into 2 hours of celluloid. I couldn’t help think that Jennifer Lawrence was fantastic in her portrayal of the postpartum mental state, a truly unhinged, at times shocking performance that immediately makes me wish she’d been in a hundred more movies in the last five years, but that Rose Byrne somehow took the persona she’s created for herself and inverted it into an incredibly awful and incredible performance. I’m doing it again. And I don’t want to. A film’s merits aren’t based on any other film, and Die My Love when pared away stands on its own, imperfectly, but well worth the watch regardless. Recommended.
Is This Thing On?, d. Bradley Cooper
I give credit to Bradley Cooper a) for playing a character named Balls in this film and b) for stretching in new directions on every swing he takes as a director. That said this film is light to the point of inconsequential. Will Arnett is good enough but his stand-up isn’t every close enough to funny to make me think that anyone would ever book him. Equally confusing is the choice to make Laura Dern’s character a former … professional volleyball player. Not that I don’t believe it, just that in a movie that isn’t about professional volleyball it feels almost like a joke. I kept bumping on it throughout the film and when there’s so little to hold on to in a movie, repeated bumps really jostle you out of the viewing experience. Solid meh.
The Master, d. Paul Thomas Anderson
For so long this has been my least favorite PTA movie. I saw it once in the theater and found it long and heavy and without any hint of redemption. On second viewing, I found it long and heavy and without any of redemption and it was absolutely perfect. Not a note played badly. Joaquin Phoenix is a Top 10 actor for me and this, perhaps, his greatest performance. Freddy Quill is aggressively hard to spend time with, but somehow you just want to keep being in the room with him. As high a recommendation as can be given.
This morning Beau asked to play “race car” noises, which as it turns out are very easily found on any music streaming service, especially because after four to five seconds of the high-pitch keen of a F1 racing vehicle booming out of my speakers, I felt ready to pop my ear drums to make it stop. Anyways.
we like songs
This batch of songs makes me feel like the culture circle has looped around to the bedroom, garage rock of my mid-20s in San Francisco. Finally.
Second single from King Tuff has me feeling like I time traveled back to Valencia Street circa 2009. I like it.
Cut From A Different Cloth / Chet Sound
It’s like Kurt Vile found himself a drum machine and the guitar solo from Growing Pains.
On Our Own Time / Winston Hightower
I would listen to this in a pee-smelling basement underneath a clothing store and I’d be happy about it.
Slip into the synthy haze of this song. It feels cold and mildly unfriendly, but also, nice.
It’s a song that feels stretched in the wrong directions but at no cost to how great it is.
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All of the song, we, uh, like, right here.
Alright.
Alright.
Alright.
N
Huzzah!! May can't come soon enough! Haha.