What if...algorithm-free reco list, no. 16?

Critter spotting and other post-moving delights

Hello!

It’s been a minute! I was largely absent for the latter hunk of the summer because I was drafting a new novel and then going on a separate side quest that involved rapidly learning what a book proposal entails. Also, I moved. It was just to a different neighborhood, but in LA that also means a new microclimate.

Overall, lots of existential agony/mania. But now I’m back and attempting to find new routines. 

So let the recos commence!

Kaos (Netflix)

After (consensually!) subjecting my partner to two episodes of The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, I suggested we pivot to Kaos. It has zero mention of “MomTok” but arguably a bunch of kindred DNA as it applies to the lengths people are willing to go to for higher power approval, and how those lengths play out interpersonally on Earth — and in the case of Kaos, on Mount Olympus as well. Going to stop myself here before I write a whole essay on worship and prophecy instead of finishing that aforementioned novel. All you need to know is that Kaos is basically Percy Jackson meets Baz Luhrman’s Romeo & Juliet meets Succession. 

Lizards

I love having a tiny backyard! We spent almost two years looking for a place that had private outside space without costing one million dollars per month, and I am so swoony about finally having it. This is earnest and corny, but I simply do not care! I love walking right outside and admiring the critters, especially the lizards and their scurrying bodies and their dedication to doing tiny sets of pushups. 

A nail dotting tool

As an extensive daily clack-clacker and lifelong nail-biter, I keep my nails very short. Lately though, I’ve been into using a dotting tool for fast and surprisingly easy—shall we call them…nail statements? If you’re looking for inspo, I really like this creator, who has short natural nails and sometimes includes an alt design for using your non-dominant hand.

This piece of art

Via the always delightful Syllabus

There’s Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension by Hanif Abdurraqib

Abdurraqib’s latest is a stunner. I cannot state enough how much you do not need to love, or even like, basketball to enjoy this. If you like thinking big thoughts and prose that reads like poetry and Ohio—whether as a real place or as an underdog concept, you will like this. The structure is also genius, divided into the four quarters of a basketball game, complete with timeouts and a ticking clock.

Estelle

I cannot get enough of this taxidermy puppet and her Adult Swim-esque meditation tapes. She also went on KCRW and gave an impassioned defense of nature-forward infrastructure, which is arguably in conversation with the next item on this list. 

Open Throat by Henry Hoke

It’s sub-200 pages and from the POV of a queer mountain lion. This is either for you or it’s not. I am merely the messenger.

Pseudo-Events

This is a term coined by media theorist Daniel J. Boorstin to talk about public-facing events designed specifically for media reproduction. A good example of this is a presidential debate or basically anything the Kardashians have ever done. It’s one of those theory things where once you see it, you start seeing it everywhere. Especially in America’s cursed little election cycle. I learned a lot more about pseudo-events in the latter half of this podcast, which I’ve been loving as well. 

Relevant place for me to paste this:

Couples Therapy (Showtime)

I’ve already evangelized this to at least 75 percent of people I interact with on a daily basis. But it’s beyond fascinating. The premise is simple: each season, we follow a handful of couples, only through what happens during their sessions with couples therapist Orna Guralnik. This is not a reality show in the way you might imagine. There are no confessionals. It’s not glitzy or flashy in that highly produced way so many of us have become accustomed to. Even Guralnik herself only gives a personal POV through sessions with her clinical advisor, Georgia (which are arguably even more interesting than the actual patient sessions). It’s a rich text, my favorite part of which is sitting with my own discomfort as the person I’d presumed to be the bigger villain in each couple is revealed to be no such thing.

This ASCII Art Collection

Obviously, it is not the only, largest, or most comprehensive collection. But this one’s infinite scroll and inability to easily search/filter is a feature, not a bug, as far as I’m concerned. 

The Casement Window Theory of community building

Elan Ullendorff’s newsletter is consistently great, but I especially loved this one about “befriending neighbors and beneighboring friends.” That being said, if any of y’all live in/around the Eastside of LA, please let me know by responding directly to this email! 

An important question from author Gretchen Felker-Martin

“Why else would you write, except to make your little jokes?” 

Via The Creative Independent

An evergreen reminder, but also something I need to repeat like a mantra as I tackle multiple projects that have me feeling like there’s a certain type of authorship and tone and rigor I should be stepping into. But nope, sorry! Gotta make my little jokes. 

This newsletter brought to you by:

• Chocolate sandwich cookies from a cursed trip to IKEA. Still devastated that the raspberry ones were not available.

• Found Coffee cold brew, a new entry to my personal pantheon.

• My brother, for helping lift a U-Haul’s worth of stuff up and down multiple stairs, multiple times.