Late Winter Media Diet: Brain Munchies

The Matchbook | 3.6.26

My brain eats a lot. That’s the truth of things.

It is like a teenager in more ways than it probably should be, the energy it possesses, the voracious appetite, the refusal to understand societal norms or weird rules that people put in place. I’ve a teenage brain, and as such I have to feed it. A lot.

Here’s a breakdown of the little munchies I’ve been popping in the toaster and then scarfing down whilst doing the hasf-fa-hosh-ahh-hosh to try to cool it down before my brain-mouth can handle it. Things I’ve read, watched, listened to, enjoyed, didn’t, and whatever else.

1. Train Dreams - I’m leading with this because, quite simply: Holy Shit. Yeah. Filmed in almost entirely natural light (and as a natural light photographer I appreciate this more than I can even express) and somehow it took the way I felt reading the novella and then exploded it visually and made it the most stunning, spectacular, breathtaking piece of art I’ve seen in a long, long time. This movie stayed with me, it hurt me, it soothed me, and it rearranged every idea of what is meaningful in an ordinary life. This film is perfect, the book it’s based on is perfect, and I am haunted by it. I will watch it again and again and again. Seriously, if you take nothing else from me, take this. Watch it. Now.

   

2. The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami - I’m of mixed feelings on this book, to be completely honest. One one hand it’s a pretty insightful indictment on the way our world is going, the terrifying possibility of an increasingly scary surveillance society, the frightening possibilities that open up when we allow AI to decide things Human beings should be deciding, and the dreadful inequalities that exist when small men are placed in charge of (in any capacity) women in vulnerable positions. It took awhile to read this one, and I would not call it a page turner but maybe a slow burner, but there were some beautiful passages, some illuminations on imprisonment and the struggle to release trauma. So yeah, kind of mixed on this, but overall, I Did like it.

   

3. Average Rob - Sarah and I, to shut our brains off and give them a bit of a break, watch some random YouTube videos when we eat lunch for a few minutes. We stumbled on a YouTube channel a week or so ago called Average Rob, run by a Belgian man and his brother, Arno (the kid). They are average Belgian dudes, who try to do extremely UN-average things, from extreme sports, to Olympic sports, to culinary jobs, to firefighting, to whatever else you can imagine. They are hilarious, they are endearing, and they are so bizarrely necessary right now because they are, above all things, unabashedly passionate and optimistic and hopeful. They just have fun, they are warm to everyone they meet, and they support one another through everything. A favorite video of theirs so far: They become Drag Queens for a day, shining a very bright light on an amazing community that really puts the ART in Heart. Yeah, I love these guys, and I’ll follow them from now on. On Met La Patate!

   

4. How To Get To Heaven From Belfast - I am not gonna say much about this, because I really don’t want to spoil it, take away from it, or anything else. It’s brilliant, it’s absolutely beautifully shot, it’s hilarious in a rare way, it’s got amazing female leads, it takes place all over the north west of Ireland and Northern Ireland, two of our favorite places on earth, and it’s just f’ing wonderful. If you liked Derry Girls, if you liked Bad Sisters, if you like amazing shows, this is the one for you. Stop waiting, go watch.

   

5. The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride - Written by a powerhouse author who wins all sorts of awards, this novel feels like a Great American Novel by a Great American Author, and while I haven’t finished it yet, I fully recommend it so far. Following a Jewish man living in an all-black neighborhood in Pennsylvania and it follows all those who really did live on the wide margins of “white” society in the 1930s and 40s. Again, won’t spoil much, but the prose is delicious, the peek into a part of the country, and history I didn’t know enough about is wonderful, and McBride’s voice is just so important. So far so great.

   

6. BONUS ONE! Perfect Peace, A Playlist - If you’re like me, and sometimes music with words really makes your brain wanna explode, this playlist is for you. It’s basically just two soundtracks added multiple times, but weirdly, if you put it on shuffle it just always sounds new. It’s peace in audio form, and it’s magical and I listen to it on repeat while I write, clean, think, puzzle, or just about anything else. It’s like a vagus nerve reset, and I’m f’ing HERE FOR IT.

   

There you have it folkeronis. Some fresh little media nuggets for you to crisp up in the air fryer of your mind. I hope you find something worth mentally imbibing on, I hope you dig this post, and I hope you share it if you do.

I love you all.

Be good.