ATLANTA - Look, you’re on the Internet. You know that in the next 48 hours there’ll be Senate runoffs in Georgia and a GOP protest of the presidential election. These are both things I write about, things I did not have to write about when you were getting long posts from me. So there will be short updates until Thursday, when I’ll go back to revealing my soul.
My first idea for a “please stand by” post is a rundown of stuff I’ve been enjoying, the distractions that defragment my brain between articles. Today’s menu:
Red Letter Media, “WW84.” I have an iTunes playlist called “room-clearing music,” which I play at the end of a party when I want to communicate the need for people to leave. These videos are the audio-visual analog to that playlist: Nobody can understand why I want to watch men slightly older and more sarcastic than me talk about movies. But I do, and you should, too.
Chapo Trap House, “Girls on Film.” Another mauling of the year’s stupidest movie, but from a socialist perspective. Felix Biederman spends 99 percent of the episode in character as a Proud Feminist who pretends that every critique of the movie grows from intolerance and privilege.
Ornette Coleman, “Theme From a Symphony.” What the fuck is Shannon Jackson doing with his toms? This is the midpoint between free jazz and melodic jazz, which is all I listen to currently, but the percussion is so confusing that it seems to reset the song every few bars.
George Stewart, “Names on the Land.” A history of America from colonization to the conquest of the frontier, entirely focused on the names given to rivers, towns, counties etc, and why.
Donie O’Sullivan’s Trump voter interviews. Each more alienating than the last!