Media Log, April

Nathan Fielder, CIA coverups, Lorde's comeback

This is definitely unconsciously borrowed from fellow Best Fit writer and friend Cassidy Sollazzo, whose Consumption Logs over at Who Invited Her? are always insightful and fun. I wanted a way to talk about the minor details of my life, what I’ve read and seen and watched, and maybe it’ll evolve to include some other thoughts, if I keep up with it. Anyway, here’s what happened in April.

Books

April 2: Mrs. Lilienblum’s Cloud Factory, Iddo Gefen: A smart little family story about an Israeli inventor, who, after being discovered at the bottom of a sand pit, has come up with a way to turn sand into clouds. The whole world — along with a sly Jewish investor with the perfect name of Ben Gould — watch as the family develops the tech, leading to an intense showcase.

April 7: Girl on Girl: How Pop Culture Turned a Generation of Women Against Themselves, Sophie Gilbert: I reviewed this for PopMatters, but the short answer is that The Atlantic writer’s book of essays about 90s and early aughts misogyny is both entertaining and terrifying. I was born in 2000, so I was only privy to a little of the nefarious tabloids and headlines that irked women around this time. The book was far-reaching and totally insightful, and her commentary, like always, is sharp.

April 9: Love In Exile, Shon Faye: Sort of the Gen Z answer to Carrie Bradshaw and Dolly Alderton (even though I just found out Faye is actually one year older than Alderton), Love In Exile is a delightful book of essays seeking love politically and personally. The chapter on mothers, where she begins immensely grateful for her inability to be one, is a standout.

April 14: Mỹ Documents, Kevin Nguyen: I really couldn’t put down Kevin Nguyen’s latest novel, a propulsive and very funny near-future scenario where Vietnamese Americans are forced into detention camps after seven terrorist attacks in a row threaten the country. It alternates between Ursula, a journalist, who relies on her half-sister Jen’s messages from camp, subsequently advancing her investigative career (they have two male siblings, but the writers are far more interesting). Satirical and really devastating, and I also really enjoyed our conversation over at OurCulture.

April 17: Project Mind Control: Sidney Gottlieb, the CIA, and the Tragedy of MKULTRA, John Lisle: I’m currently writing a novel about, partly, secret schemes that the United States government funds. I knew that the CIA had covered some stuff up before, but I am not a history buff and needed someone else to tell me what had happened. This extensive account by historian Jon Lisle goes deep into Gottlieb’s handling of MKULTRA, a branch of the CIA that mistakenly thought the Soviet Union was developing mind control technology, and sought to do the same, through torture and deeply unscientific methods. Really fascinating.

April 22: The Sleepers, Matthew Gasda: The debut novel from hotshot playwright (Doomers, Dimes Square) is mostly conversations between Dan, an aging PhD candidate, Mariko, his actress girlfriend, and Akari, her cinematographer sister. Awkward, intense, and very human.

April 29: Taipei, Tao Lin: It took a while to get into my first novel by Tao Lin. It’s surprisingly ahead of its time and I loved the cold and descriptive narration of events, how Lin’s sentences flowed even when the characters ingested nothing but drugs.

Music

“What Was That,” Lorde: Not the Second Coming of Melodrama that others have said, but still a great song. I wish the chorus went 30% harder to match her vocals.

SABLE, fABLE, Bon Iver: Astoundingly gorgeous. I listened to this album four times every day for a week.

A Complicated Woman, Self Esteem: Irritatingly disappointing after waiting four years for a follow-up. Trades all the grit and honesty for eyeroll feminist sloganeering.

“Psychoboost,” Jane Remover & Danny Brown: Her fans are irritating on Twitter, but I can’t deny this song totally rips. This song is a must-listen on the treadmill, where I once ran at a speed of 7.8 mph for its entire runtime.

POP TOO, Marina Satti: The Eurovision alum expands her bombastic and dizzying approach to pop music. Think Greek ROSALÍA.

“Headphones On,” Addison Rae: Of course.

“Vicious,” McCabe: Some gorgeous neo-soul from a rising star. Viciously addictive.

Articles

Becca Rothfeld succinctly summarizing everything I felt about Andrew Long Chu for her new essay collection, Authority. (Washington Post)

Grace Byron’s New Yorker debut about Trump’s effort to dehumanize and humiliate trans people. (The New Yorker)

Alex Skopic’s rebuttal of a complaint that ‘white male writers’ are now endangered. (Current Affairs)

Laura Snapes shows it’s okay to engage critically with your favorite artists by panning Self Esteem’s A Complicated Woman following her perfect score of Prioritise Pleasure. (Pitchfork)

Matthew Gasda on San Francisco’s AI takeover. (UnHerd)

Coleman Spilde on the wacky way the media is treating the smash of Sinners. (Salon)

Martin Dolan on Andrew Lipstein’s Something Rotten, but also, his “definitive body of work on straight, white, millennial dudehood.” (The Point)

TV Shows

30 Rock: I’m watching this for the first time and I’m in awe of how funny it is. I just finished “Me want food.”

Girls: I finished my third rewatch with my friend, who was new to the show, and I made her wait for the last two episodes to watch them together. I get angry at anyone who doesn’t like this ending — I genuinely think it’s perfect. Loreen’s speech at the end, Hannah talking with that girl… so moving.

Hacks: I always laugh out loud at Hacks, and this season has really interesting ideas with how Ava wants a more art-focused comedy style while Deborah wants to appeal to moms, but it’s unbearable how they keep shoehorning Kayla into every scene. Meg Stalter’s character was refreshing and fun the first season, but now as they try to out-wacky her, it just feels so stale. Side note: I think Hannah Einbeinder is great, so I watched her standup comedy special Everything Must Go last year, and I was surprised to find out it was terrible. Her comedic timing in Hacks is just totally gone, and I might have laughed once.

The Rehearsal: There’s not really much else to say other than that no one is doing television as brilliant as this.

Survivor 48: Terrible.

RuPaul’s Drag Race: Glad Onya won, but what a slow finale. The last maybe five episodes have felt so inessential, probably due to a lackluster cast. Started out strong but really tapered out.

Movies

Chicago: I started my movie musical journey earlier this year with Hairspray, which might now be my favorite film ever made, so it’ll be extraordinarily hard to top. I liked the music and performances much more than Rent.

Conclave: I fell asleep.