Month: January 2020

Media Diary (January 2020)

Some things I’ve experienced lately, in no particular order, and not necessarily only recent stuff:

Parasite (Movie): Fantastic

The Outsider (TV): Super creepy, and I’m anxious to see where it goes

WeCrashed: The Rise and Fall of WeWork (Podcast): Surreal to listen to as I walk into WeWork in the morning

The Lighthouse (Movie): Just as balls-out insane as I needed it to be

Star Trek: Picard (TV): So far, so good, and respect for naming his dog “Number One”

Chasing Cosby (Podcast): Man, what a disgusting creep

The Squid and The Whale (Movie): Had never seen this, and loved it

Doctor Who (TV): This season is really kicking it up a notch

The Topical (Podcast): Great new satirical news podcast from The Onion

Nightcrawler (Movie): Didn’t have any expectations, and was pretty riveted

Curb Your Enthusiasm (TV): All hail King David

The A24 Podcast (Uh, Podcast): I’m all about these conversations between filmmakers

Frances Ha (Movie): Part of my mini-Noah Baumbach fest (pretty good)

Dracula (TV): Super over-the-top in a good way

Eyes Wide Shut (Movie): Hadn’t watched it in years, still amazing #fidelio

Sex, Explained (TV): Interesting brief overviews across a number of reproductive topics

What Did Jack Do? (Short Movie): David Lynch is an American treasure

Shrill (TV): Enjoyed the first season, just starting the second

Killer Inside: The Mind of Aaron Hernandez (TV): Such a sad story

I also dabbled in a few episodes of The Circle (entertainingly terrible) and The Goop Lab (fewer things shoved up vaginas than I expected 🤷)

See You Around

A while back I posted about my (then) social media setup. It’s been a bit, and the winds of change keep blowing, so here’s an update on where you can find me most of the time in 2020 (aside from subscribing for free to House of Kyle, of course 😘)…

Twitter: Always and forever, my one true favorite.

Spotify: My playlist output has slowed a bit, but I enjoy it tremendously overall.

Instagram: It’s grown a little exhausting in terms of people falling into the same endless influencer-y content patterns, but (despite the ownership) it’s overall still interesting, and there are real gems from time to time.

TikTok: As an embarrassing old man, I haven’t yet posted any content, but I’ve loved watching young people make goofy, creative, uncomfortable and unexpected videos. I fully endorse a return to the weird Internet of my youth.

Medium: I cross-post a lot of my blog content here, and read a ton of great pieces from others every day.

Tumblr: I was pleasantly surprised to see Automattic come to the rescue, and have been having a great time using it for House of Kyle Jr.

Facebook: I continue to despise this garbage fire of a service, but I still want to view my wife’s infrequent posts, and am reluctant to cut ties with a handful of people that (frustratingly) don’t use anything else. I’ve basically settled into a pattern where I cross-post Instagram stories and leave other content pieces up for a day or so before wiping the slate clean again. Shudder.

Stay In

“What can you do about it?”

“Don’t worry, it’s part of God’s plan.”

“Focus on the things that you can control.”

As someone that goes to church and agonizes over current events (and their intersection with the church), I often hear statements like the ones above when trying to discuss challenging topics.

Don’t get me wrong, aside from the deeply-problematic MAGA portion of the evangelical base, there are indeed packets of engaged, concerned people, but they tend to stay relatively silent, only speaking in private groups, and for the most part unwilling to do too much public boat rocking.

The overall message to those expressing concerns is to pat them on the head and remind them that God’s in the driver’s seat. While this goal of reducing stress among individuals and tension between church members is commendable and generally fine advice, it not only leads people to pay less attention (at the worst possible time!), but also doesn’t explore the possibility that God’s plan might actually be to shine a light on sinful behavior, and use dissenting voices as a force for positive change.

Not only that, but the ability to “check out” of current events is something that many people don’t have the luxury of doing.

As we prepare to celebrate MLK day (and the stances he took that caused deep discomfort in his time), I sincerely pray that we double down on having hard conversations, stay more informed, curious and engaged than ever, and trust that God’s love for the marginalized is unending.