Once again, the updates feel few and far between in this column. While I recognize that I came out of the gate swinging initially, the past few months have been met with more of mixed results. I apologize and cannot guarantee that this will change anytime soon. However, I do think there’s still some part of me that’s self-conscious about publishing any significant writing when there isn’t much to say. For whatever reason, I’ve felt that way about November and, whatever fodder I had lined up for different essays on here, I lumped into How I Live Now over on The Memory Tourist. It’s the unfortunate irony of feeling like it’s the final encapsulation of ideas that I haven’t covered elsewhere.
Something to consider at the moment is that I am working on my final entries for 2025, specifically what I have designated, “The Snapshot Series.” For the past few years, I’ve chosen different topics to explore at length by mixing personal anecdotes with what I felt they symbolically represented to me in the past year. So far, I’ve written two essays, and I’d argue that they’re among the most sanctimonious material I’ve written all year. I am worried that they are overlong and so hyper-specific that the only person who cares about the detail is me. Even so, I find that expansion to be essential to understanding how I felt over the past 12 months.
I do worry on some level that it’s also a sign of me turning more into a political writer when I don’t wish to be recognized as such. My area of interest has always been media, such as pop culture stuff, and I don’t ever want to act like I have answers. However, I do think there have been multiple breaking points lately that have made me feel the need to get personal. I am still offended by the demolition of The East Wing and the handling of Charlie Kirk’s passing. I am upset by how the internet has reshaped American discourse and civility into a digital battleground of half-baked, reused ideas stolen from somebody else. As another one of my essays on A.I. will explore, I am not exactly above toying with the technology, though I am in the camp that would be fine if it were taken away. I’m realizing that a lot of my behaviors can stem from impulsivity, and the curiosity of what image can be created with the right words does fascinate me as someone who doesn’t have the skill to make significant artistry. I would never substitute it for anything valuable, but it does fulfill the grand what-if that I also get from shitposters who masterfully mix words together to reinvent the sentence. We know it’s artifice, but chopped and screwed stuff can still be fun.
Other topics as of now include an essay on the work of Tim Robinson, who has been the real figure of interest this year for me. I’ve watched almost every significant series he worked on, and I think he embodies a unique American pathos that speaks to the current identity of the country. I know that’s pretentious, but there has to be a reason that his humor lands as often as it does. Everything else, including my annual New Year’s Eve story, will be announced at a later date.
If there’s anything else to really address, it’s that we’re coming off the weekend after Thanksgiving. Part of me has been grappling with the idea that maybe I am being too harsh on holidays, or it’s expressing a side of me that’s too antisocial, but I have felt like Christmas isn’t as exciting for me because there’s something obligatory about it. You have to be at a certain place. The lore is always about meeting deadlines, hanging around family, and experiencing the miracles that compensate for the rest of the year. While I think it’s unfair to lob Thanksgiving into that, it’s easy to see it as another holiday of planning and ignoring any greater meaning other than people need to be somewhere at a certain time.
Though it has been a nice year overall. We watched the Macy’s Parade, and my major takeaway is that you could tell that NBC had some serious budget cuts. It’s not necessarily obvious if you have it on in the background, but the setup felt less grandiose this time around. You had the core anchors, but there was no order to anything, and most of the color commentary was reduced to simple this and that’s. Nobody was stopping by for five minutes. Most of the later floats were rushed through to meet the cutoff time. So much felt… cramped, and I’m not entirely sure what to make with that.
Because of how my family is set up, we celebrated twice (maybe another reason that I get holiday burnout?), so it’s been a lot of ham and mashed potatoes. A lot of washing dishes and listening to gift list suggestions for December. That isn’t the worst thing in the world, but there’s still something exhausting about washing dishes for an hour after a festive day because everything got used. By the time you’re done, even having Stranger Things on for light amusement seems a little much. In short, the recent episodes are fine, but I guess I’m also not watching with as much scrutiny as most people. To me, it’s working as a pastiche which, in itself, reminds me of how season one came out during 2016 and was one of the last major phenomena of the Obama administration. What a strange thing to realize.
We also went out and saw Wicked: For Good, which was met with divided reviews. I’m starting to think that I projected too much onto the film because I felt that everyone in it looked exhausted and mostly doing obligatory work. After all, they needed to fulfill the contract. Act II has long been the lesser section of the story, and I think the additional exhaustion of a major production running almost five hours and featuring endless 11 o’clock numbers really wears people out. When I watch it, I don’t get the innovation that Jon M. Chu usually gives me. I felt that Ariana Grande was tired, which is fine. The film was intentionally somber, but I don’t know that the artistry did enough to elevate it into an artful kind of moodiness. That may be why I suggest this isn’t the worst movie musical that I’ve seen, but it may be the one I feel least motivated to revisit. There’s too much that doesn’t feel spontaneous to make up for its weaknesses.
I have also been watching a ton of volleyball, specifically in the Big West division. Every year during Thanksgiving week, they do their tournament to determine who gets to have the NCAA bid. What makes this especially exciting is that this is the one year that Hawaii missed the mark despite being one of the most elite in the division. I was also shocked to learn that Long Beach was as hot of a team as they wound up being given the turnaround and that most of the big stars had graduated the year before. We also lost a star player to UCLA, which I am publicly annoyed b,y but sincerely happy for her, especially if it leads to better prospects in her future.
So right now we wait and see how the tournament is going to play out. With Cal Poly representing the Big West, I am hoping that they pull through. We’re in a rough spot where a triumph is mostly found in getting to the second round. We tend to get that way in baseball from time to time, but women’s volleyball is one of those dicey sports that we’re not always top-class in. It’s a real “happy to be nominated” vibe sometimes.
Before getting off the topic, I want to mention that men’s volleyball coach Alan Knipe is retiring this month, and I will be sad to see him go. The past few years have been an interesting transition from an older class of Long Beach coaching to something new. This was most true with men’s basketball, where I realized the coach, Dan Monson, had been there since I was in high school. Knipe, by comparison, was there even earlier than that. I think these two are phenomenal representations of athletic excellence, and I’m curious to see what the next group does.
In what may actually be my biggest reason for wanting to write this, I also saw the Marty Supreme blimp from my backyard. I would later learn that Timothee Chalamet had designed it as a joke with A24, but at the time of discovery, I had no idea what it was. In Southern California, we have had orange blimps around a few times, most notably with Conan O’Brien’s TBS talk show. This one had the slogan “Dream Big” written on it. The upside is that it’s the one film this month that I am beyond the moon excited to see. The fact that it’s also a movie thing that I can get excited about also helped.
So I’m out in the backyard just enjoying my Saturday. As I wander the field, I look up and see this blimp flying my direction. I’m slowly piecing things together as I pull out my phone and try to zoom in. I, thankfully, got a good enough picture to distinguish what it was, though nothing of the side with the film’s actual name. I tell you, there’s nothing like discovering you’re part of a rare, likely never-happening-again piece of marketing for something that you’re passionate about. I like The Safdies, and this feels like a big deal. It’s goofy, but it’s a great way to go beyond the typical billboard nonsense and leave your mark. I’m surprised they had the budget for it, but I’m glad they did.
Still, it’s insane to be able to say I was able to see the Marty Supreme blimp from my backyard. I’m not sure where it was going, but it looked shoreline. As far as I can tell, many more were seeing it around the state, and I’m happy to see that I’m not the only one who geeked out. Anyway, if I wasn’t sold before, now’s as good a time as any.
To close up, I will address another thing that I have been doing as the year wraps up. I have been trying to listen to as many “gap” albums as possible to make a cohesive “Best of the Year” list. I will never be an expert, and my tastes are very selective about what I discover at that moment. However, I have tried to consider the bigger classics from time to time. At the moment, I need to check out The Last Dinner Party and Geese, who have been piquing my interest for a while.
Though if there’s one record that I want to plug that almost everyone with two ears has, it’s Rosalia’s “Lux.” I had heard the single she did with Björk and Yves Tumor when it first came out and was blown away by its operatic production. I was worried the style would be too gimmicky and not reflective of the full-throated masterpiece. Instead, I put it on and was immediately impressed with everything she was doing. Despite not being fluent in most languages she sang in (yes, there were many), she had this way of evoking her range of ideas in ways that compelled me to lean in, hearing the vocals blend in with the orchestration and present a richer, fuller emotion than what the general Top 40 has.
I have yet to really get to the heart of what this album is about, but it’s quickly becoming a favorite, and I’m looking forward to more revisits. As someone who sometimes needs motivation to make ambitious art, Rosalia has made that nudge to suggest that everything could turn out great if you take personal risks. Obviously, I think she’s doing it much more successfully, but that may be doing myself a disservice.
I’m also currently on a Beatles kick. There’s not much to this story other than I finally listened to “The White Album” proper last week, and it’s an amazingly dense record that keeps challenging your sensibilities. As someone who believes that every great artist needs to make one project that’s self-indulgent and speaks to their personal sensibilities, it’s the record that gives them that personality. They’ve always been a silly group that takes risks, but this one really makes you see the potential to branch out and make some truly esoteric wonderment. I know that I’m not bringing anything new to this conversation, but you forget that The Beatles are that great because you hear the expression enough that it loses meaning. It’s going to be weird when the next generation doesn’t have any surviving members around. It will really be the end of an era that I think will signify a new type of mythology around classic rock. I am not looking forward to that day.
Finally, I don’t know what it is about Skrillex’s “F*ck You, Skrillex, You Think Ur Andy Warhol But Ur Not” that appeals to me, but it works as this psychotic dance album. I haven’t been in love with rage music as of late – see Jane Remover – but there’s something about the spontaneity and humor on display that makes me eager to see if it fits into rotation like other pulsating dance records like Denzel Curry’s “King of the Mischievous South Vol. 2” that I just keep returning to. I may also like it because it’s oddly a throwback record packed to the gills with collaborations, while also feeling like a concept record for the end of his career. I’ve never really liked dubstep, but given my admiration for hyperpop, I’m trying to appreciate the crossover, especially when Dylan Brady is in the mix.
Other than that, I am looking forward to Spotify Wrapped even though I fear it’s probably going to be another lazy, controversial A.I.-generated mess again. It’s something that I am maybe a bit too obsessed with sometimes, especially as I have tried to adventure into different corners of the music sphere. At the moment, I am choosing to believe that three who will show up on there for sure are: Daniel Pemberton, Tom Waits, and Neil Diamond. I’m aware that Spotify’s unfortunate counting thing is on tracks played and not minutes, so it may make artists I love come up short, such as possibly Ethel Cain. I may have listened to “Perverts” more than a lot of the records, but the runtimes of the average track are much, much longer and thus take up modest space.
So yeah, I look forward to wherever that takes us.
For now, that’s where I end things. I hope to be back sooner than later to reflect on where the Christmas season is taking me. In general, I am trying to get in the mood, though I recognize the difficulty in escaping biases against Christmas music and the general sense that a lot of the mood and atmosphere is forced on people instead of coming naturally. Given that I heard from my sister of someone taking their child out of school on Halloween because of its pagan roots, it does get annoying that everyone’s just forced to put up with Christmas or be considered a miserable sport. I’m not wishing to say you can or can’t celebrate Halloween, but try and be sensible if you thin
k one is not for you. Also, moderation is key, and I think America hasn’t had moderation on this thing since August. I’ll tolerate “Christmas in July” because at least it’s more understated.
And with that, I’ll say goodbye. I’m sorry for running long and compensating for the lack of time on here. I promise to have more essays up sooner than later. I am at an odd point where I’m not sure what I want to write on The Memory Tourist, so there might be more of a push to do spontaneous pieces on here. Whatever they may be, you’ll have to wait and see. For now, it’s time to see what this month has in store. Maybe I’ll write up something on Ben Platt. That could be fun.
So until next time. Hope all’s well and I’ll see ya when I see ya.
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