Ready for Spring: March 17-23

My daughter had her first unassisted seconds of riding a bike today, and the mixed feelings of pride and regret in her growing up all too quickly are a pretty good metaphor for the nature of much of what's been happening this week. I saw a movie – meant for grownups! with my wife! in a theater! after having a great cocktail! – one night and then followed it up the next day with Family Movie Night. I finished a book that explained the seemingly-crumbling world around me in terms that made all this now to much for us both depressingly inevitable and comfortingly rational. I saw a cardinal dart by my window as signs of spring are starting to pop up here and there, and I had to find my kid's gloves two days later because it was 39 degrees out and he wouldn't stop riding his new bike around our driveway. And finally I have a new project I'm kicking around and it makes me want to read and listen and research and dive deep and write, and it fills me with a certainty that I don't really have the time or energy to do it.

I've been here before, and I'd like to think I've learned something by now as to how to handle it all, but I've also learned that I haven't really figured it out and that it's going to be a bumpy ride. Spring, and perhaps some movement forward for myself, will come in time, I trust.

Movies
Black Bag, directed by Steven Soderberg (2025): This was my first movie for adults in the theater in years - probably since my daughter was born at least. I'm not counting Star Wars or comic book movies in this, as I think I snuck out to one or two of those solo, but this was a full on date night movie and I really loved it. It's tempting to simply say "they don't make 'em like this anymore," so I won't, but it is certainly a throwback in many ways. It was 90 well honed minutes with nothing extraneous - just great work by Soderberg and fun performances out ofCate Blanchett and Michael Fassbender, in particular. There's a Goodfellas-esque tracking shot to open the movie and great shoutout to Fredo getting shot on the lake in The Godfather II (and a great shot of garlic getting thinly sliced á la Clemenza in The Godfather). If pressed, I would say that there's an undercurrent here that likens the world of international intelligence (MI6 in this case or the CIA) to the Mafia, though I'll need another viewing or two to really think this angle through.

Little Giants, directed by Duwayne Dunham (1994): This Family Movie Night was well received by my kids, and I was surprised by just how cartoonish much of the action is. It's basically a live action Looney Tunes cartoon with human outlines left in the ground after a kid gets run over and farts that make people swoon and run away. When I talked about this after the movie, my daughter quickly reminded me that Bugs Bunny came on at the start of the movie (when the Warner Brothers logo was shown).

Books
Family Romance, Jean Strouse (finished): I liked Strouse's writing on Sargent's paintings and enjoyed some of the snarkier asides by the likes of Henry James and his ilk that sneak into the narrative, but I couldn't help feeling like this was all a side plot in one of Trollope's Palliser novels.

American Nations, Colin Woodard (finished): Woodard's argument is so compelling that it makes me start to doubt it after all. Anything that fits so neatly must be over-simplified or over-stated, right? I'm wondering if my own cynicsim is the real problem here, so I think I'm going to take this at face value for now. It explains so much of what has happened in recent history that I'm both infuriated that we're still fighting the same battles and somewhat comforted that at least what's happening makes some sense in this ethno-historic context. It makes me want to finally read Rick Perlstein's three volume history of American conservatism that looks at Goldwater, Nixon, and Reagan next, but I don't think I can really do that to myself. I've owned them for years and started the first one enough times to already know that Goldwater had a legendary mailing list but I've never read it closely enough to fully understand how that mailing list really translated into power and votes.

First, I'll try to finish off Atkinson's The British Are Coming and then maybe I'll mix in some Perlstein with some Greil Marcus (whose prose I can never really understand but I think I'm going to tilt at that windmill once more) and either some Dark Tower or Wheel of Time to balance it out.

Articles and Episodes
The History of Rock Music in 500 Songs, "Son of a Preacher Man" and Part 1 of Song 176 - "Sympathy for the Devil": I had some time in the car this week going back and forth to a bike shop, and I used it to dive back into Andrew Hickey's incredible podcast. I tackled the (relatively) short Dusty Springfield episode and then dove into the first of four parts on the Stone's "Sympathy." These are minutely observed and beautifully researched pieces on everything (and I do mean everything) that went into the making of these songs. The best tidbit I learned in this one was that Jagger asked Tina Turner for lessons on her dance moves (and possibly had a brief fling with her) while Ike & Tina Turner toured with the Stones in '65 or so.

Top Chef - S22:E01 and S22:E02: I didn't even realize this was back until the second episode was airing. We caught up quickly and it seems like the food is pretty impressive so far - though I haven't really figured out the personalities of the chefs yet. It felt good to dig in once again.

"Could We Store Our Data in DNA" by Matthew Hutson (The New Yorker):

"A zettabyte is a trillion gigabytes. That’s a lot—but, according to one estimate, humanity will produce a hundred and eighty zettabytes of digital data this year."

The Beatles: Get Back - Part 1, Days 1-7: We watched this mostly to show my son the moment when "Hey Jude" appears to get written and the way that "Get Back" seems to magically coalesce. He was underwhelmed, and my daughter distressed that they wouldn't listen to George. I, this time through, couldn't get past the agendas of those around them. It must have truly been exhausting to be a Beatle.

A museum show on Wes Anderson's sets and props is opening in France (New York Times): I love Anderson's movies from the music to the casting to the design choices to the writing. I'm bummed to see this show will only go up in France and then in London. Shout out to my lovely wife for finding this one and sharing it with me.

Music
Phish 201 Mix: Still playing my buddy Andy's mix and it's been delightfully overwhelming.

Blonde on Blonde, Bob Dylan: After playing all the Beatles albums I threw this one on the record player for myself and I found myself wondering more and more about the shift from rock and roll to more "art music" for lack of a better term that happened when the Beatles stopped touring and, in a different way, when Dylan had the motorcycle accident and started playing with The Band. I want to liken the shift to what happened in jazz as hard bop came along and displaced swing, moving the locus of excitement from the stage to the studio in some ways and inviting listeners to pay closer attention to carefully crafted recordings. It's an idea I want to tease out further and try to get down on paper in some way when I have the time and space.

I also found myself really enjoying a great little stretch of music on XM's Outlaw Country channel that played "What's Up" by 4 Non-Blondes (ignore the dreadlocks and focus on the slide guitar in the background), followed by "Badlands" by Bruce Springsteen and finally Charlie Crockett's "Jamestown Ferry". This channel has become my go to choice in recent months, mostly because of the range of music they play.