Writing to Find Balance
Finding words in the wreckage of the emotional and physical maelstrom known as the flu.
Hello friends, sorry for my radio silence for the better part of two weeks. I was one of the, apparently, many people (in California specifically) who got hit by the flu and the fever that came with it effectively rotted my brain for a week. I rattled off so many drafts that just ended up feeling like slime, a bunch of bleh in word form. Fret not because we’re back.
Before we get into the thick of things, Kevin and I just wanted to say thanks to all of you for your patronage. It goes without saying that this blog is a passion project. We have a small readership but you guys are really active in terms of keeping up with all of our drops and a few of you have even been nice enough to, gasp, interact with us and respond to our work. We appreciate all of you, from the anonymous to the longtime-listener-first-time-caller types, that said…
Kevin and I would like to continue interacting with more of you, in addition to whatever stuff we always have lined up. Part of the ethos of our digital home here is sharing, so, in the spirit of sharing, we’d like to ask our readers — that’s you, if you forgot — to start sharing with us so we can begin doing mailbags. What will be in these mailbags, you ask?
Questions! Advice, inquiries on life, poor career choices, being too online. Could be helpful, could be a roast.
Art! Your favorite movies, music, books that you want us to look at and share our thoughts on.
Fashion! Ever wanted to know what two guys on the internet think about jackets they can’t afford? Now’s your chance.
Memes! Literally, you can send us memes. We’ll share them and our dumb responses to them.
You can send stuff to me on Twitter or Instagram. I’m not sure what Kevin prefers but he has both of those too. You can also just reply to our emails (I think) or just leave comments. This won’t happen overnight but I have faith that one day as you’re going about your day, you guys will have a burning sensation in your hearts that will signal to your brain, “You know what? I need to know what Kevin and Emilio think about this.”
“I have to write to find balance / This game of telephone massive, I do what I have to with the fragments.”
My partner and I tried season one of The White Lotus and could barely get past episode two. I hesitate to say it was bad, but I didn’t feel particularly pulled by anything. It felt like it fell into the literary trap that a lot of new TV finds itself in: relying on the viewer’s reaction to what’s on the screen rather than… just letting what’s on screen happen.
Minor spoilers for White Lotus season two ahead.
Season two starts, not necessarily with more action, but with a lot more sway. Rather than the slow world building of season one’s opener, the show cheekily throws the viewer into the deep end quite literally by teasing a dead body. Before we get any more insight into who, when, how, or why, the show’s eyes turn to the new season’s cast arriving via boat to our new destination: Italy.
I really like the cast they’ve assembled for this season. Jennifer Coolidge is a welcome recast, she’s always a great screen presence and her kind of on-the-nose comedy is a great contrast to the somewhat deadpan tone of HBO comedy. Michael Imperioli and Tom Hollander are also both great prestige castings to go along with newer names like Haley Lu Richardson and Will Sharpe. Aubrey Plaza, goes without saying, love her. Theo James might be the most handsome person that I feel nothing for but he plays this specific brand of rich douche pretty well.
The soundtrack for this season slaps. I like how they’ve evolved the theme from the first season but also, I really do like the music cues. They’re very extra, like a bad horror movie relying on creating tension through noise, but I think that same trope in this kind of dark comedy is effective. Also, old Italian music in any kind of visual medium slaps. I like scenes where the people onscreen are by the pool or near the beach and the background is adorned by birds or waves then suddenly you hear a whimsical piano or violin cut through the silence.
The scene where Greg and Tanya are driving the Vespa up the winding road is my exact brand of comedy. Lucia and Mia’s storyline seems destined to have a really sad twist in it and I’m already not looking forward to it. The resort manager’s story is also gonna be really sad, I feel like. Harper’s constant push-pull between being the real her (i.e. only speaks when feels necessary) and being fake nice is one of the best dynamics of the season.
Ralfy the Plug has been carrying the torch for the Stinc Team since the passing of his brother Drakeo the Ruler, releasing music what feels like every other week for the past year. Skateboard P is probably my favorite of his releases over that time; Ralfy’s rapping has the same kind of muscle as his Stinc Team compatriots but with his own special brand of coolness.
If you look at Ralfy’s Instagram, you’ll find a gold mine of fit pics. I don’t think a week has gone by where he didn’t post a photo dump. Similarly, if you watch any music videos for a Ralfy song, you’ll find that he has a unique talent for dancing, but not in the way that Offset comes from locking, but dancing in the very specific way that a guy who is really high dances. These movements are transposed into his raps.
On “Fasholy,” two bloodlines are connected. Drakeo was a frequent collaborator with Michigan stalwart Rio Da Yung OG, who is currently serving year three of a five year sentence on a gun charge. Rio also happens to be the brother of Louie Ray. Ralfy and Louie Ray’s link-up fosters a bond not just between two circles of rappers but also carrying on a strong tradition in good relations between California and Detroit rap music.
“Dynamic Duo” is probably the best work done by the Brothers Caldwell. The resemblance between the two both in voice and in face is uncanny but their rapping is worlds apart. Drakeo’s raps at their heart are verbal whips; on the other hand, Ralfy flexes so casually, it almost feels like he doesn’t care about the money. Hearing the two of them rap together is seeing two sides of the same coins, like seeing any other great pair of siblings at work: the Williams sisters, the Hardy Boyz, the Knowles sisters, the Steiners. We’ll never get another pair of rapping brothers like them.
[to the tone of Fooooool’s Gooooold] Quiiiiiiick Hiiiiiiits.
It was always going to be hard for Wizkid to follow up Made In Lagos but More Love, Less Ego is a sincere effort. It attempts to recreate the lush pop world of the former but without a lot of the same success. Where he is successful is that he has mastered his own sound: free, full of joy, full of love. “Money & Love” is one of the best singles of the year but the video for “Bad To Me” is great fun.
Speaking of being full of joy, though not sure about the love part, New York posterboy YL continued his run of mixtapes with the humorously named RRR: The Album. He, like Wizkid, has also mastered his sound but in a different way. YL’s raps are the most memorable filler (“Y’all went from ashy to flashy back to ashy”) but man does he have an ear for the beats. The samples on “Allergic to Broke” and “Gilbert Arenas” are beautiful.
I’m still not big on Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers but it’s a lot better than I remember from first listen. It is by no means my favorite Kendrick record but its peaks are really great. “Die Hard” is one of his better singles and “Rich Spirit” and “Silent Hill” are up there with some of the best parts of DAMN.
I still don’t get Midsommar. I think I just don’t get Ari Aster or his writing. It reeks of Letterboxd brain. Florence Pugh plays an insane person really well in this and, ironically, also in Don’t Worry Darling, another awful movie where she plays a person going insane.
I have no hard thoughts on it but Wednesday is the rare Netflix original worth the hype. It’s not groundbreaking — I mean, is anything Netflix ever — but Jenna Ortega performs a wonderful take on Wednesday Addams and pulls it off for the entire series. Seeing Gwendoline Christie play any character other than Brienne of Tarth is super jarring.
