Something New (This Week)
A critic writes a novel, a new phone game, the end of a great podcast, and more.
Hello, and happy end of March/maybe beginning of spring. The past week or two has been full of thoughts and ideas and reading and listening and watching. I hope it fulfilled you as much as it did me. Here are some things that I spent time with.
A new book
I bought and finished my first new book of the year, Vinson Cunningham’s Great Expectations, a coming-of-age-ish story of a New York man who happens into a job as a fundraiser for a certain Illinois senator that would make a successful run for president in 2008 (named ‘the Candidate’). This is mostly my first entry into Cunningham’s work, save for some recent theater criticism in recent New Yorker’s that I read out of unrelated curiosity, and this being his first book, its everyone’s first Cunningam, in a way. The book is filled with observations and wonderfully specific descriptions, and a relatable (for me, and likely many millennials) protagonist. I really appreciated the read, and the places it took me, and the versions of storytelling and criticism and poetry it provided, but I can’t say that I fully loved the experience of reading it. I wasn’t pulled into the narrative. Maybe you would be, and I think anyone should give it a try.
A new phone game
I read a piece by Stephen Totilo of Game File, a substack about the gaming industry, that minutely detailed the newest “most popular mobile game”: MonopolyGO. For no real reason, I decided to give it a download, and see what the fuss might be about. Turns out, the fuss is about a glossy, well functioning game with a recognizable format and name, that requires zero agency or critical thought. I played it for probably 90 minutes over the course of a couple days, and quickly grew tired of clicking the one button available to me. But if you’re a CandyCrush-er, this might be for you!
A new record
I wrote about its coming last week, and Waxahatchee’s Tiger’s Blood did not disappoint me after all my research and catalog listening. I’ll save my thoughts for a potential longer post, but I can easily say it’s my favorite record I’ve heard this year, and dare I say it might be my favorite Waxahatchee record of all time. Dare I?
A new movie
I saw Drive Away Dolls (2024) on a whim last week, and I was disappointed. Made by first-time non-brother-duo director Ethan Coen, the film is a very effort-filled, empty calorie romp. A gay roadtrip mobster comedy, it is filled with Coen-brothers features that one can recognize, but they all feel lacking, and the entire thing has no joie de vivre. It felt dead on arrival. I could, however, see it being a decent throw-it-on-with-friends selection, if the timing and inebriation are right, or if you really love the lead actors (Margaret Qualley, Geraldine Viswanathan), who both, unfortunately, are given flat characters and flatter character arcs. Ok, I gotta get off this negative train.
An ending podcast
60 Songs That Explain the 90’s, a podcast that expanded to 120 songs, has completed its run, and has come to an end. This week, I listened to the final episode, as well as the “what did we miss” episode, and I have to admit that I will certainly miss this four year old project. Born out of the pandemic, and maybe a self-admittedly desire to escape the present, host and creator Rob Harvilla has explored and shared so much about his life, and the music that soundtracked it, in the 1990’s, which was also my first decade in this life. I learned so much about music and the people that make it, but I learned way more about Rob, about growing up in the midwest (a thing I, too, did), and about writing and sharing stories, which I think Rob is particularly great at. I’m glad to have this huge archive of episodes to return to, to learn, re-learn, or just reminisce about the wonderful things we made in the past, and were fortunate enough to record.
A still-going podcast
This week’s regular episode of Popcast covered two things: the new Justin Timberlake record (a bad collection of songs, a fun discussion of it and the possibly better sonic directions Timberlake could take moving forward), and a really thoughtful and incisive conversation with Joshunda Sanders, who wrote a great piece about the Janet Jackson Superbowl incident with Timberlake back in 2004. I loved listening to Sanders talk about what she thought and wrote back then, how it was received, and how she thinks about it now. Highly recommended.
That’s it for this week. Thanks, as always, for reading. It’s very sunny outside, and it’s almost warm, too. Things are changing, as they always do, and these coming changes excite me. I’m thankful for it. What are you thankful for, today?
TTFN,
Bobby