TIME TO ESCAPE 🛸🌙🔮

A little bit of escapism, via the things I've been escaping with because...we all really need it. Sheesh!

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I was going to write some blah blah deep dive on Millennials as a voting block and as a culture but…I’m sorry: I just don't care. Not because I don’t think it’s a worthy subject but because, at a certain point of news and media consumption, you reach a limit and you hit a wall — and that’s what has happened with me. Self-care, as a consumer of media and as a writer about the media, is knowing when to unplug because I don’t think I can do another week of writing about the election after months and months and months of this, knowing that this weekend is undoubtedly going to cover some unholy subject that will require my staring into the sun. I’m going to avoid an earlier appointment with the eye gouger, thank you very much.

So why not do something different? Why not step in a different direction, to look at some literal counter programming? That’s exactly what we’re going to do: explore things that have been bringing me joy and or things that have been filling my cup these past days and weeks and months. Buckle in, for a longer-than-expected tour of quiet media, ways to connect with others (and yourself), and a few alt-self-care items to keep you sane.

Somebody, Somewhere

I am not above the influence and I have been hearing buzzes about HBO’s Somebody Somewhere, which I tried to watch (and was bored by) in 2022, upon its debut, but I started watching again as I was looking for a chicken noodle soup show and — in watching this interview (especially this moment) with the actor Jeff Hiller — I decided it was exactly what I needed to put in my bowl. And I was right! What I maybe missed in 2022, when my life was so full in Los Angeles, when I really didn’t have any (personal) problems, was that this is a profound story of being okay with being okay, to chill with what you have, wherever you are. Two years later — a two years that felt like some of the most existentially astray that I’ve ever felt — I can see the show for what it is, either because of aging just a little or because I’m officially out of a city and lifestyle where I have the potential to “change” the world, by being in a place that is the center of attention: it’s a show about mediocrity, which is something I struggle with coming to terms with. Not because I am mediocre (We all are!) but because I’ve spent my whole life striving, my whole life writing down goals and working toward them, only for very few to come true — but still I long.