Liner Notes (November 27th, 2020)
Happy day after Thanksgiving. This week’s post-food-indulgence has thoughts on the upcoming strange holiday season, thoughts on the new celebrity and TikTok culture that I know absolutely nothing about because I’m old, and some thoughts on music and entertainment I enjoyed this week. The holiday movie watching has begun. You’ve been warned. As always, there’s also a playlist of ten songs I loved this week, and this week’s supporter Q&A post can be found here.
Four Things
I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday yesterday. It’s a bizarre year in general, but I think I feel it the most around the holidays because those have always been staples for me in how I define a year. The ebb and flow of a calendar are anchored with the various holidays in how I see the year as a whole. Everything being thrown out of whack is just an odd feeling that’s hard to comprehend. I am missing being able to spend time with family and friends and even miss the stressful part of trying to schedule everything together with all the various people. More than anything, I want to be able to hang out at our friends’ house, sit around a Christmas tree, drink good drinks, wear ugly sweaters, make the same jokes we have for years, and be in the company of others. I’m an introvert at heart, but in the way that I need to recharge by myself, and I miss just being able to do things with people. Sigh. Well, time to start ordering Christmas presents and preparing to decorate the condo.
Our merchandise provider is having a big sale for Black Friday. All Chorus and AbsolutePunk merch is on sale, and there are some really good deals on the t-shirts. If you’re looking to upgrade your work from home gear, now’s a good time. My low-key favorite item in the shop are the magnets.
I read this profile of the new celebrity class (read: TikTok stars) in The Atlantic, and have never felt more old. I had a few random thoughts come to me as this entire article is something I’ve thought about almost every day since I read it. First, I don’t know any of these people; I am that isolated from that world and that portion of celebrity culture. It would be like me talking about Mark Hoppus in 1998, and my mom looking at me like my brain is coming out of my ears. Second, my career and early success was based on the internet. Being able to reach people and have them interested in things I said or what I was writing about was pretty much the core of AbsolutePunk. That early internet, where most of it was text and a few images, worked well for what I’m comfortable with. I like to write; I like being behind the scenes in that sense. The new internet, with all the TikTok, and YouTube, and Instagram Reels, all based around video and being in front of the camera and having your personality, or ugh, brand, out there in that way, would have never been something I think I would have found appealing. Maybe growing up in that culture would have made it something I would aspire to do, but, I don’t know. When I started, the internet still had a vibe of counter culture, or at least it was mostly a bunch of nerds. Now so much of it is the culture. One thing I know for sure is that I do not like being on video, and I would never want to be putting content out in that fashion. I’ve shared a lot of myself over the years in my writing (even did some podcasting), but the idea of videos, or filming the parties and things I was doing in my life for content, makes my skin crawl. It’s fascinating for me because of how removed I feel from the new internet even though it’s been such a massive part of my life for so long. So, yeah, I completely recommend that piece in The Atlantic, especially if you’re my age, because it’s like looking into a world you didn’t even know existed and being able to see the through lines from our childhoods to the present.
I wrote up a quick update on some ad changes that will be rolling out for the last portion of the year. They’re not fun at all, but it’s an attempt to capture some of the lost revenue from this year and see if we can keep the entire year from being a wash. I once again am suggesting membership as the best way to view the website and forums.
In Case You Missed It
Music Thoughts
I spent most of this week gearing up for our annual “end of the year” lists. I started by putting together a list of my favorite things from the over 350 different albums I listened to this year. I think I whittled the first group down to about 60 and have now put together a pretty good idea of what my top 30 will look like. The top ten is still in flux, and I’m struggling with my top three. There are a couple of albums that I listened to, far and away, more than any others this year. But then there’s a couple that I consider the best even if they didn’t make it into my rotation quite as often. So I’m fighting those two battles to see what ends up taking the crown. Either way, I’m happy with how it’s turning out. I’ll be building that post and preparing it for release, like we do each year, in early January.
Hmm, well, the little cat has now jumped into my lap as I am writing. She is making this very difficult as she demands head pets by throwing her head into my hands as I type. Cool, cool, cool.
While preparing for my best-of list, I spent a lot of time this week listening to stuff that kind of went under-appreciated by me when it came out. The stuff I remember liking but didn’t end up listening to as much as the months past. A big one was the latest album from The Weeknd. There’s some great stuff there, and it stayed in heavy rotation all week.
Also spent a lot of this week with all the Phoebe Bridgers content. From Punisher, to the Copycat Killer EP, to her holiday tunes, to the cover of “Iris.” Seeing all her Grammy nominations this week brought a smile to my face; watching her career grow, bloom, and become what it now feels like a small connection to all of the music I’ve grown up loving and listening to.
I haven’t listened to or watched the new Taylor Swift performance/documentary thing, but I think I’ll do that at some point soon. I like hearing about all the behind the scenes stuff in the songwriting process.
Entertainment Thoughts
If you’ve been following this newsletter for a while, you know the time has come for all of my Holiday rom-com love to begin its march through the next month. We’re going to start with the delightful Happiest Season, which is so full of cast members that I adore it might as well be “Jason Holiday Rom-Com Fan Fiction.” It played a little like Meet the Parents, and my only complaint is that I think there should have been a bit of time spent on Harper realizing her mistake, even if we, the audience, knew the ending before we even hit play.
Holidate was a passable little Netflix movie. It felt like they were trying a tad too hard to squeeze in their MA rating. Overall, not bad, not great, but watchable.
Somehow, I had never seen Michael Clayton, I don’t know how this had escaped me when it came out in like 2007, but it did. That oversight has been rectified, and the film is fantastic.
This week was spent watching the entire first season of His Dark Materials, and it gets a full two thumbs up from me. A well-done fantasy story that feels perfect for this time of the year. Talking polar bears? Sure, why not! We’re going to wait until the entire next season has aired before diving into that, but both Hannah and I were pretty big fans of this. I am not sure what we’re going to start next week, but there seem to be a few options on the table.
I’m about halfway through the epic Fall of Giants and am still enjoying being immersed in this historical fiction. It’s scratching the exact itch I was searching for.
Random and Personal Stuff
I’m going to try and relax some this weekend; take it easy and slow. Eat some leftovers. Read some of my book. Sit by the fire. You know, do old people shit.
Ten Songs
Here are ten songs that I listened to and loved this week. Some may be new, some may be old, but they all found their way into my life during the past seven days.
Phoebe Bridgers - If We Make It Through December
Taylor Swift - My Tears Ricochet (Long Pond)
The Weeknd - Escape from LA
Niall Horan - Arms of a Stranger
Bleachers - 45
Ralph - Hard Candy Christmas
Fall Out Boy - Hold Me Tight or Don’t
Selena Gomez - Cut You Off
Broken Glowsticks - Funeral Song
Bayside - The New Flesh
This playlist is available on Spotify and Apple Music.
Community Watch
The trending and popular threads in our community this week include:
The most liked post in our forums last week was this one by Matt in the “Phoebe Bridgers - Punisher (June 19, 2020)” thread.
Stay safe out there.
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Previous editions of Liner Notes can be found here.