Joyful Noise #1
/Sundays are for off-topic posts.
In this series I’ll mention some of the little things that have been bringing me joy recently. Now, the fact of the matter is, I’m a pretty light touch in the joy department. It doesn’t take much to make me happy, and my tastes lean towards the unsophisticated. I won’t be recommending my favorite scotch here, for example. Or what cigars I’m smoking these days. I’m not smoking any cigars and my favorite scotch is no scotch.
Here’s some stuff I’ve been enjoying:
Podcast Episode
Reply All tells all sorts of stories. Technically the stories are supposed to be about the internet, but pretty much anything is about the internet if you try hard enough.
Here’s the description of this episode:
A man in California is haunted by the memory of a pop song from his youth. He can remember the lyrics and the melody. But the song itself has vanished, completely scrubbed from the internet.
It sounds like an unambitious episode of Black Mirror, but it’s a true story. And one of the main “characters” in the tale is Christian Lee Hutson, whose song, Northsiders, was my favorite depressing song from last year.
I found the story really fascinating. I listen to almost all podcasts on 2x speed, but for the first time in my life I slowed it down to normal so it would last longer. The episode is self-contained. You don’t have to be a regular Reply All listener to follow it. Here it is.
Youtube Video
I bet there’s a decent sized overlap between fans of magic and fans of special effects (practical effects, not CGI). So there’s a good chance you might enjoy this compilation of special effects genius, Tom Savini on Late Night With David Letterman from the 1980s.
Reading Material
The only subscription I have to any physical media is to Archie Jumbo Comics. I can’t really say for certain why. It has never once made me laugh or even crack a smile, but for some reason I have great affection for it. The stories are all just disconnected nonsense, and a a lot of them are reprinted from 20 or 40 years ago so they seem out of place in the current day (Archie can’t find his Walkman!) but I still get a weird kick out of it. I like that Betty and Veronica are rivals but also best friends. I like that Archie is constantly on the search for pussy. I like that Jughead’s primary character trait is that he likes hamburgers. The writers thought that would be enough to sustain a character for decades. And apparently it was.
And I like that the monthly digest always has a direct connection to the time of year. Archie is always getting ready for school or halloween or spring break or whatever. Once a month, when I get the issue, I use that as my reminder to make sure to sit down and schedule out some seasonal/time-specific activities in the coming weeks. (I’ve mentioned why I think this is valuable in this post, How to Slow Time).
But mainly I just like how dumb it is. Here is a page from an issue a couple months ago.
It’s not part of a larger story. There’s no purpose to it. It’s just a page of Archie in different jackets. Huh? It’s like some sort of wholesome anti-comedy. It makes me happy.