non-required reading, age of average, daisy jones, perry mason, of course succession

Notes on the things I've been into (April) & NOTES

I’m sending an extra newsletter this week. I’m working on a longer essay, but wanted to send a few notes on things I’ve been enjoying. Maybe I’ll send a roundup like this more often.

Reading:

This past newsletter mentioned Babbit & Tell Me I’m An Artist, but here are a few more:

• Red-Headed Pilgrim by Kevin Maloney.

  • Wrapped this up in the Caribbean. It’s funny. It’s semi-autobiographical about a guy bouncing around some dumb jobs, trying to find his soul mate, and then having a kid. He works at a teddy bear factory, goes to dirtbag bars. If you like fast-paced irony, then this is a great book.

• Non-Required Reading from 2016

  • Remember those great American non-required reading books?

  • I always really liked those because they were great magazine stories, and I still get magazines (yes, to my house, in print).

  • They discontinued them a few years ago (not sure why) but I found this one from 2016 at the local Books-A-Million

  • I like anthologies because you have permission to skip around

  • That said, I’m not a huge fan of short story collections. I get too invested in the characters and then it ends

• The Age of Average by Alex Murrell (article)

  • Everything looks the same now. You can’t stop it. Every coffeeshop, every apartment complex, every Airbnb, every book, every Instagram face.

    

• Spoil or not to spoil? (article)

  • In the wake of that mighty Succession episode, Miles McNutt questions the very nature of spoilers

• Jami Attenberg’s Substack

  • I’m not a huge fan of her novels, but her Substack is a breath of creative fresh air. Especially because she lives in New Orleans, and I used to live in New Orleans, and I was just in New Orleans a few weeks ago

  • Her latest is called “Let’s Only Make Good Art” which is true, let’s do that

• Speaking of classics, should they be updated for modern sensibilities? (article)

Watching

• Finished Daisy Jones and The Six on Amazon. I didn’t read the book, but the show had a nice will-they-or-won’t-they affect, and it took some turns I didn’t expect. Like the singer getting sober early. And the two leads not quite catching up with each other. More thoughts here. What did you think?

• Perry Mason on HBO. I have some gripes about this show — but the main plot is very smart and twisty, the same as season 1. It’s like True Detective with an actual mystery and not as much gore.

• I talked to my Grandma this week and she was telling me about Gunsmoke. And Bonanza. Big fan. She also likes Perry Mason (the original).

• Succession on HBO. Lots of Succession discourse. I’ll just say before the “thing” happened, I was getting slightly frustrated by how the show seemed to be going in circles. This took care of it. Thoughts?

• Air the movie. I haven’t seen it yet. I want to, soon.

• I’m rewatching Seinfeld. The show is so much better now that our understanding of TV has evolved.

• Office Space (?). I rewatched this over the weekend. Yes, it’s the classic workplace comedy, complete with an epic printer destruction sequence. I was struck by a couple of things:

  • I used to have a commute! I don’t anymore. This is a gamechanger for a lot of my frustrations at work

  • Formal wear! It was crazy when Peter came into the office wearing a short-sleeve button up and sandals. Wild times. Thinking of the tech-bro culture of the mid-to-late 00s, this movie had an immediate impact on being more casual at work. Towards the end after Peter gets “promoted” he goes back to wearing a suit.

  • Simple apartment buildings. We still have basic apartments, but very few movies show *real-life* like this: big parking lots, non-descript apartment buildings, chain restaurants. That’s the way it is in the South at least.

---

Notes on Substack

I just published my first note on Substack Notes, and would love for you to join me there!

Notes is a new space on Substack for us to share links, short posts, quotes, photos, and more. I plan to use it for things that don’t fit in the newsletter, like work-in-progress and links like what is above. If you’re into Twitter, I can see this working out quite nicely. I’ll probably stay on Twitter for more of my growth-type content, but will probably move writing and culture content over here. I’ve also posted frequently on Medium, but will probably shift off of that platform too.

I like this and have some more thoughts coming this weekend.

---

Last Time

read classics? maybe, maybe not

Last Thing

• “By definition, it is not possible to everyone to be above the average.” — Jim Collins

• Enjoying the newsletter? Subscribe or share!

Keep going,

-Josh Spilker