conspicuous consumption

volume 8/1

Welcome to a new weekly-ish column in which I tell you what I’ve been consuming: books, movies, tv, albums, songs, food, games, etc. I love writing about this stuff and hopefully you will love finding some new distractions.

WATCHING:

For the most part, I am watching baseball in the summer. If not the Yankees then the Mets and if not the Mets then there’s the MLB channel where I can see various teams but they always seem to be showing the Phillies.

This summer is different, however, as we have the Olympics going on. I’ve been watching live as I live a very sleepless life and events have been starting at 3am. I also have Peacock so I’ve been watching what is the Olympic equivalent of NFL RedZone and getting dizzy trying to keep my eyes on four events at once. My favorite events are predictably all the gymnastics, but I also love the swimming and diving. And nerdy pommel horse guy (Steve Nedoroscik) is my man of the hour.

READING:

Not only am I getting back into reading, but I am utilizing my local library for this particular reading binge. I have a stack of books here waiting to be read, books I bought from authors I know. But I haven’t really been able to get my hooks in any of them. I knew what was missing, thought. I had almost forgotten about my summer tradition of rereading books from my childhood. So off to the library, where I stepped into a pit of nostalgia in the children’s room (and I felt the need to explain my childless presence in that room) and had waves of melancholy embrace me as I walked the aisles, remembering my childhood days roaming the stacks for hours. I found some of those same titles I read and loved as a kid, eventually settling on “Half Magic,” a staple of my young summers.

As I was skimming through Facebook, I came upon my friend Bruce’s post where he had a picture of this book.

I was immediately intrigued because, Long Island. I did a quick google search, read a few reviews, and put it on hold at my library.

A book I’ve been reading for a while, in bits and pieces, is

Luke O'Neil

’s A Creature Wanting Form. It’s a collection of stories from one of the most brilliant writers of this generation. The stories can be heavy and profound, distressing and emotional. I savor this collection. I take it in small bites, because too much may leave me aching.

LISTENING:

I am going to have to be selective with the listening section because I listen to so much new and new-to-me music that it might get overwhelming. Every week I will post a graphic of what I’ve been streaming, then talk about that. Like:

I got an itch to listen to fuzzy sounding music and when I reached out to twitter for suggestions, I received hundreds. Bands like Yuck, LVL UP, and Stove joined the playlist with bands I was already familiar with and make for a great listen. I used a broad definition of “fuzz” as to me it is more of a vibe than a sound.

Playlist on Apple
Playlist on Spotify

I also listened to Indigo de Souza for the first time and was kind of blown away by both the music and how I had some ridiculous preconceived notion about what the music would sound like. I was pleasantly surprised.

I listened to new music from Macseal, Oso Oso, Ogbert the Nerd, Sinai Vessel, just to name a few artists who put out new tunes this week. But my joy of joys with regards to new songs is that Foxing - a favorite of mine - released a new song and announced a new album in September. The song was overwhelmingly emotional and beautiful; I cried not just at the beauty of “Greyhound” but at the wonders of hearing and being a fan of a band at their absolute peak.

Listening note: I started listening to my music on Apple Music, and downgraded my Spotify subscription to free. The sound quality is a hundred times better on Apple, and I’m enjoying the user experience. I do not miss Spotify, nor the guilt I felt every time I used it because my money and time was going to a greedy man heading a greedy company that doesn’t give a shit about the musicians that make Spotify profitable. However, I know tons of people use Spotify so I will include those links as well as Apple when I link songs/playlists.

Going to keep it simple this week as I’m still trying to figure out the best format for this column, and what to put here. If you have any suggestions/complaints, throw them my way. This may work, this may not. We’ll see.