Algorithm-Free Reco List, No. 32

Apocalypse spending, two perfect movies, etc.

Here is my latest collection of things I can’t stop thinking about!

If you have things you can’t stop thinking about, please tell me about them (or reach out about doing a guest edition)!

Spotted just down the street from a cursed “Spencer Pratt for Mayor” yard sign, in case you were wondering about the many multitudes of Northeast LA.

Original Mamba Fruit Chews

I prefer hard candy for oral fixation fidgeting (feel ridiculous attempting to describe this compulsion, but surely I’m not alone). However, hard candy is so loud to unwrap, and chances are high that if I’m in need of a tiny treat to put in my mouth, I’m probably in a public setting where I’m supposed to be still and quiet. I hate gum. Mambas are my current fave because they taste a lot like Hi-Chews but have a quieter unwrapping experience.

Interior Motives

Do you miss Room Raiders (MTV 2003-09)? Do you love or even moderately like GeoGuessr? Are you even a little bit judgmental? DO I EVER HAVE THE YOUTUBE CHANNEL FOR YOU. The premise of Interior Motives is simple: a host and two guests look at photos of someone’s bedroom (plus usually their fridge) and try to guess their gender, sexuality, age, and location. I’m not even a YouTube person, but I watched a few minutes and the next thing I knew I was three hours deep trying to figure out what a blurry photo of someone’s condiments said about their dating life. Can’t get enough.

“There is no cultural production without financial support.” by Anna Brones

This is about art, money, and Mason Currey’s Making Art and Making a Living. It’s also about broken systems and impossible dilemmas and this was my favorite bit:

The more that I circle these questions, the more awful that the state of the world feels, the more I think to myself you might as well be an artist. Even amongst my friends who have what I call “real adult jobs” there are struggles, whether it’s because base costs have gotten so exorbitantly expensive or because an actual comfortable paycheck often comes with significant corporate burnout.

Everything feels precarious right now. Might as well be making art.

The new Chaz Dean billboard

photo courtesy of Reed, as I unfortunately do not encounter Chaz on my commute lately

Continued evidence that people who say “LA doesn’t have seasons” are liars. Spring has so clearly sprung! Also, here’s a quick intro to the lore if you are like, “Um, who?”

“One Sun Only” by Camille Bordas

This is my available-to-read-online story reco of the month! It’s the titular one from Bordas’ new collection and is about a father who analyzes his son’s drawings to see how he’s handling the death of his grandfather, among other things. Runner-up was “Most Die Young,” from the same collection, also published in The New Yorker.

Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie (2025)

I recommend reading nothing about this movie before seeing it, and be prepared to want to read everything you can find about it after because if you’re anything like the members of my household, you will want a full behind-the-scenes documentary about the production. All I will say is that it’s a smart, silly comedy about friendship and aging. Oh, and you know those alignment charts? Imagine the “white male comedians who make documentary-adjacent media about loneliness” one—if Nathan Fielder is lawful evil and John Wilson is true neutral, the guys from this movie are chaotic good.

This packing advice

Will be trying! Shoutout Cristina Ashbaugh.

Hoppers (2026)

About damn time Pixar made a film about ecoterrorism! This is basically How to Blow Up a Pipeline (2022) for kids. Again, it is indeed still a children’s movie made by a massive corporation, so temper your expectations accordingly. But still. The casting is excellent, there are some genuinely creepy/funny/unhinged moments, and if you’ve been looking for a good little cry about the wonder of nature, you’ll probably find it here.

The concept of “Apocalypse Spending”

I’m a big fan of leo aquino’s newsletter, Queer & Trans Wealth, and I especially enjoyed this description of “Apocalypse Spending:”

As the name suggests, most of the time, apocalypse spending happens when we feel panic and doom about the world around us. Sometimes, we stock up on resources — dry food, canned goods, fridge cigarettes (ICYMI: this is Gen Z slang for Diet Coke, and it’s been really tickling me lately). Sometimes, we say “Fuck it” and spend hedonistically for fear of missing out on the simple pleasures that we love.

I liked it even more when explored this concept, and embracing that “fuck it” when it came to daring to believe in a better future, specifically through the lens of hope:

When we think about emotional spending, we tend to think of the emotions that get a bad rap — shame, guilt, fear, panic, and envy, to name a few. I would argue that, because emotional spending begets very real consequences, we often dismiss emotional spending that comes out of hope, inspiration, courage, and faith – especially faith in our creative pursuits and in others.

You can read the whole thing here.

This advice from Martha Graham to Agnes DeMille

Really good stuff, received via text message from my friend Meg Flores while I was bitching about being in the mucky middle, among other things.

This newsletter brought to you by:

• Watching my cat stand on his hind legs to look out the window.

• GEICO, which is the insurance provider of the person who totalled my parked car a few weeks ago. Everyone involved has been very kind and mostly helpful and I’m in a big “grateful for humanity” moment about something that “should” have been an administrative nightmare.

• Making a no-frills quesadilla like I’m babysitting an eight-year-old but the eight-year-old is me.