Knick Knacks (December 2023)
Things I've Saved Just For You
Knick Knacks is a monthly newsletter where I recommend things to my audience that are outside the bounds of movies and television shows. Recommendations typically include videos, music, social media accounts, podcasts, YouTube channels, and books. If you’re interested, you can subscribe to this Substack to get it delivered to your inbox.
Greetings, everyone!
It’s the 29th already.
This time last year, I had a toddler who spent a week in the hospital with a rare, strange illness, I was still working terrible hours that had an effect on my hormones that I’m still untwisting, and I was so stressed out that I triggered a dormant virus in my body and suffered the agony of facial singles. I crawled across the finish line in 2022.
This year has been different. It hasn’t been without its challenges. In my house, we had job losses, childcare adjustments, new debt, on top of the consummate amount of normal family-of-6 stress. But we’ve also come out ahead this year, I think. My wife went back to school and is now an EMT. I joined a writers guild. My wife and I went and got our first tattoos together. I went back and began a sleeve I’m very excited about. Our kids keep growing and maturing and saying really funny shit. We bought some new furniture that we really needed.
In spite of, and sometimes in direct response to, the obstacles we’ve encountered this year, we’ve been able to embrace living our lives and being who we are. We tried new things, dropped old things, made adjustments, became better, and tried to make the absolute best of what was within our sphere of influence. The work isn’t finished, some hard roads lie ahead, but anything that provides the ability to cultivate a shared vision of the future is a positive step.
I once saw a meme that said “when life gives you lemons, squeeze the lemon juice directly into your own eyeballs and yell ‘is that all you’ve got, motherfucker?’ ". I thought it was funny, and a little over the top, but its message stuck with me, oddly. Things happen to you, and sometimes you can’t do anything about it except respond. Your response can be juvenile and hasty, or it can be calm and confident. It’s all in the response. Some Disney adults might prefer “hakuna matata”, but I prefer the lemons.
As is the purpose of this newsletter, I’ve compiled a few things that I’ve been enjoying lately, things that weren’t covered in my film and television podcast, and I’m recommending that you give them a look, because they’re great.
Listen
“Run Away to Mars” (Strings Version) - by TALK
I’ve recommended this song in the past, but that was before this newsletter became what it is today. Not only do I love this song already, there’s a recently released version with string instruments added and it’s even better than the original song. This is now my favorite version.
“Resentment” - by Kesha feat. Sturgill Simpson, Brian Wilson & Wrabel
I haven’t had much of an opinion on Kesha as an artist, I was not within her demo of hard-partying ladies on club night, or so I thought, so she has been largely off my radar other than the occasional encounter whenever my wife drove us anywhere back before we were married.
A few years went by, lawsuits and sexual assault allegations against Dr. Luke were leveled (I think that particular dispute is now resolved, as of this month), and one day Spotify threw this song at me. And it’s beautiful.
It’s a really, really beautiful song about a toxic emotion, resentment, something Kesha refers to as more complex than hate or anger. It’s a very stripped-down song, a ballad, and nothing like her early hit songs, which is a plus for me. She’s a talented songwriter and a lovely singer and this is a new favorite of mine. It’s one of those songs that makes you feel like you disappear into it.
Watch
“Who Killed Cinema?” - Patrick H. Willems (YouTube)
I’ve recommended Patrick’s channel as a whole on previous editions of this letter, but this recent video of his is a special one.
Structured and executed as a murder mystery, complete with suspects, evidence, motives, and noir-ish intrigue, Patrick lays out the cultural and commercial factors that have led the entertainment business to its current state.
Not only was I entertained by this video, I think it’s accurate, well-researched, well-constructed, and hopeful. You want to understand why movies, television, streaming, and the internet are the way they are? Watch this video and be impressed, damn you.
Read
“The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring” by J.R.R. Tolkien
That right, folks, I did the thing!
I’ve owned this copy of the Lord of the Rings for 20 years, someone bought it for me as a gift, and I tried to read it as a young teen, and I just could not get through it. It was no easier to read as an adult, except that I have more discipline now and a greater appreciation for the lore.
Fellowship is every bit as magical as the film’s adaptation reflected. If you’ve read it, you know that it reads how you might expect: like a book written a hundred years ago. I’m coming at it from having heard the film adaptation's script dozens of times, having transcribed it by hand at one point, and knowing the story well. The adaptation improves on the text, but so much of it is already here, just as it was. Tolkien was leagues ahead of his time with this story.
I’m not going to recommend it, though, because I only recommend the book to people who haven’t seen the film, in order to avoid unfair comparison by seeing a film adaptation first, but since nearly every living soul has seen the films, I can’t recommend this old, long book to those people. They’ll be bored. But for anyone who hasn’t seen them yet, maybe. If that’s you, you’re either living under a rock or you’re under the age of 20. Under a rock people, you have a shot.
“First-Gen Social Media Users Have Nowhere to Go” by Jason Parham (Wired)
I thought this was a cool article about the decline of social media, the exodus of Millennials from social networks, and the decentralization of the Internet. You can read important, insightful stuff on the Internet, still, not just in books, you just have to pick the right things. This is one of those things.
“Only the Dead” by Jack Carr
Book 6 of the Terminal List series sees James Reece up against a secret cabal of elites who are plotting to incite nuclear war between nations in a bid to enable other nations to succeed in dictatorial land grabs. Once again, this is a political thriller bordering on science fiction at times, but it’s doing what it came here to do: revenge wish fulfillment and alpha male vicariousness.
I think these books are losing some substance as we go, but they remain interesting to me overall and to be fair to them, this is really the first series of this kind that I’ve read, so this may very well be the genre and this may very well be much better than the genre typically has been. I’m grading them against stories that I find surprising and interesting and fun, and sometimes these are just fun, and that’s ok too.
I’m learning I don’t have much in common with Jack Carr as a person, but as a creator, I support and envy his self-made lifestyle and respect him as a writer and voice for his community.
As always. my podcast, The HooperCast Movie Hour, is where we talk about film, television, filmmaking, storytelling, and also life. I think you’ll enjoy it. Today, actually, I released an episode where I list my favorite films from 2003, with 20 years of hindsight. You should check it out.
As for my other essays, you can find it all right here, along with previous Knick Knacks newsletters. This month, I enjoyed the beginning of the sabbatical I wrote about in my previous essay. I’m hibernating for the winter.
Thanks so much for reading and I’ll see you next month!