Saturday Morning Cartoons #104
Wet Fraught American Summer
Good morning, fam!
Hope you all had a good week.
After a long weekend and short week, I have no idea what day it is which means this may or may not be going out on Saturday morning.
Now that most schools are out, it’s also the unofficial start to summer which is nuts because #globalwarming and all of torrential downpours are telling us otherwise. If half of your friends are also teachers, then you might want to ease them into party mode.
While I go step outside and soak up a little…rain(?), check out this week’s recs.
Listen for that final bell, toss those papers into the air, and let’s get into it.
Here’s what I have for you this morning:
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara is easily the hardest book I've ever read and it covers just about every trigger warning you could think of but in such a beautifully-written way. It's a coming of age story about friendship, love, loss, and so many other topics that we all face. Ready for a light-hearted palate cleanser if you have any recs. (★★★★•)
Now that summer’s here, it’s officially Alamo Season. To kick things off, we saw Fall Guy and it’s exactly what you’d expect: a love letter to stunt people everywhere. Awesome action, meh story. (★★★••)
Bob and I finally finished Tokyo Vice Season 2 and I hope they pull a Succession and end it there. It was two seasons of crime, drama, intrigue, and some bomb acting across the board. No need to overstay its welcome, though. (★★★★•)
Thanks to a huge sale, I finally downloaded Hi-Fi Rush for PS5 and gave it a try. It’s basically Jet Set Radio meets Guitar Hero. All of your character’s attacks fall on the beat of the music, which is kinda cool. We’ll see if it gets a little too repetitive. (★★★••)
While scrolling through podcasts, I rediscovered Search Engine and listened to this episode and this follow up episode on how to survive the media apocalypse. A lot of really interesting insight into both legacy media and how Google/AI is changing the internet as we know it. (★★★★★)
Thanks to a last-minute invite, me and a few buddies saw MJ the Musical at the Fox and I’ll be honest - there were definitely mixed feelings. The music itself and the performances were out of this world, but it definitely felt a teeny bit propaganda-y. The show reminded me if a really insightful book titled Monsters: A Fan’s Dilemma that address monstrous men and their art. (★★★••)
I was at Quarrelsome Coffee (shocker) and tried their new Ayele Fulasa Ethiopian Blend. It was…chocolatey and…a little smoky? I think? I’m still getting used to talking about coffee like wine 😂 (★★★••)
While checking out, I stumbled across these Mid-Day Squares at Whole Foods and the snack gods have smiled down upon me. These bars are gluten free, dairy free, soy free, and have way less sugar than other bars, so you know I’m already ordering the sample pack online. (★★★★•)
I’ve been thinking a lot about Succession recently which is funny considering I stumbled across this long list of things that Brian Cox hates. I kinda want to make my own list now. First up? Any show that isn’t Succession 😉 (★★★★•)
Welp, it's that time. For yesterday’s Fumbling Forward book update, I shared how it feels to FINALLY deliver the first draft of my book (on Monday 😁). Subscribe and check it out here!
You made it to the end! As a bonus, I’ll leave you with this.
Cheers,
Billy