Algorithm-Free Reco List, No. 22
an elite bug spray, a perfect comedy, a good old-fashioned roasting, etc.
Hello!
Not even going to attempt something uplifting here. Things are grim. You know it. I know it. We all know it.
So here’s some ideas/stuff/media that helped bolster my will to carry on:
The Gutter (2024)
Haven’t laughed this hard at a movie in years. The entire cast crushes, the jokes do not stop, and it has an energy I’d compare to Detroiters mixed with Dodgeball, but less annoying. You can watch the trailer here and the whole thing on Hulu.
“Appointment Reading”
applied the concept of appointment viewing—which is usually talking about television, e.g. The Super Bowl or Lost in the early aughts—to reading as a means to build a different relationship with art beyond consumption. He says, “Giving an artist your appointment viewing designation is about beginning to recognize talent and potential even if you don’t always like every end product.” Picaridin
This is the mosquito repellant ingredient. Forget DEET. Forget citronella oil or eucalyptus or whatever is in the “natural” ones. If you live somewhere with mosquitos, which is basically everywhere, you gotta get something with Picaridin. The brand I’m currently using has 20% Picaridin and has never failed me. I even took the TSA-friendly size to mosquito-infested, 86% humidity Georgia and did not get a single bite. If this is going to give me cancer one day, I don’t want to know about it at this point! I’m allergic to mosquitos and it’s a small price to pay to not spend the summer hooked up to a constant drip of allergy meds.
The New Yorker bullying James Frey
Borderline pornographic! In case you forgot, James Frey is that guy who wrote a fake addiction memoir, then was busted/shamed by Oprah after she chose it for her bookclub. He’s also proudly gone on record about using AI to write his books. So leave it to Katy Waldman to do a bit of a deep dive on his “new cancelled-guy sex novel.” It also serves as a great sampling of Frey’s whole thing. (I will admit though, I am sad I didn’t get to hear Carole Radziwill read whatever she read at his book launch.)
“Wandering Position” by Yukinori Yanagi
Japanese artist Yukinori Yanagi would set up a barrier, release a single ant, then trace its path. More here and video here.
“On making art in a world that profits off our time”
This Creative Independent interview with writer Alejandro Heredia is excellent from start to finish, but my favorite bit was this one:
“I asked my students, what would your life look like if, instead of being on social media and reading the news every day and engaging with that all the time, what if you turned off your phone a couple days a week and used that time to volunteer somewhere locally? How would your relationship to yourself and your relationship to this responsibility that you have for collective engagement be different at the speed of a human life? This is always what I go back to. I am interested in living at the speed of a single human life, and anything that demands that I move at the speed of an influencer, at the speed of being everywhere all the time, that’s just not for me. I can’t do it.”
Printing stuff at the library
My home printer (a black & white Brother, one of those models that’s supposed to be super reliable) has been cursed by a witch. We’re talking fully nonfunctional for a solid year now. This week, I gave up trying to wrestle with it and went to the library, where the printer worked perfectly, my holds were ready for pickup, and I got to chit chat with a stranger.
This guy’s dedication to getting underwater footage of his cat in the bath
Something about this entire situation—and it’s an ongoing saga—really tickles me. Everyone involved seems to be having a great time, there is no real “point,” and yet I am deeply inspired to maintain a similar flavor of curiosity and devotion in the way I move through the world.
This newsletter brought to you by:
My incredibly talented friend Dan Ferro who contributed two original paintings for this newsletter!
The reinstatement of a weekly screen free day, which I struggled through harder than I’d care to admit. There’s always next Saturday.
Trader Joe’s Trail Mix Crackers.
love this, discovered lots of great new things, perhaps the most important thing I learned though is that you can be allergic to mosquitos
Also allergic to mosquitos so this issue really speaks to me personally