Spring Fever?: May 19-25

It feels like I was just dipping my toe into a few new things this week, but in general life remains the same. Starting a few books, watching a few things, not really investing too deeply in any one of them yet, I definitely feel like I'm looking for something more at the moment – something of meaning, something to get excited about, something to connect to. I'm trying to fight the Adult Male Loneliness thing, but I'm losing that fight, and I'm hoping the summer will give me the space to get a little more active on that front. I've been both bored and busy, which is a frustrating combo. I don't know – maybe it's just spring fever? a mid-life crisis? No matter what, it's weighing on me.

Books

• The Shining by Stephen King (started): My Stephen King reading project has been interesting in unexpected ways so far. As I read, I'm forced to remember my younger self reading them for the first time, and I find myself not just reacting to the text but reacting to my previous reactions (or lack thereof). I clearly missed a lot of subtext and even a lot of the more overt elements of these books back then, and I feel like I'm reading my own naiveté as much as I'm reading the text this time around. It's like "Tintern Abbey" without the little sister.
  
  Now that I know a little more, I'm stuck wondering how much of King's alcoholism informs The Shining, and I'm not sure that it improves the experience for me. The rage that is so clearly present in Jack Torrance also makes me think back to Rage, and the noose that is the biographical reading lens slips more securely around my neck. Instead, though, I want to think some more about how the supernatural element that marks King's novels (as opposed to the more "natural" horror and suspense of his work as Bachman so far) is a bit slippery in this text. So far, the supernatural has been the horrific in Carrie and 'Salem's Lot, but here it's placed in little Danny and it will ultimately be his salvation while the horror that is to come is foregrounded in "cabin fever" and alcoholism. This will change, but so far it's an interesting deviation from King's former, highly successful pattern. I'm looking forward to seeing how those paths come back together.
• Miracles and Wonder: The Historical Mystery of Jesus by Elaine Pagels (started): I first found Pagel's work through her great book The Origin of Satan, which looked at how The Adversary of the Bible became the great bogeyman of all Christendom. From there followed her her path back to her fascinating The Gnostic Gospels, and I dipped a toe in the Nag Hammadi texts for a while. Now, as we find ourselves to be regular church-goers these days, her look at the historical context of the Gospels and of Jesus' life is particularly welcome in my life. I've always taken a somewhat rationalist's approach to the Bible, even as a kid going through years of Catholic schooling, and I sometimes struggle with the distance between the certainties espoused by the Reverend and the doubts that I harbor – and now this book is allowing me to get a bit closer to those statements of faith that I have rather emptily repeated lately. To have it confirmed that the Gospels repeat the tropes of biographies of other great ancient leaders and to hear it reinforced that the writers of these books, who didn't know Jesus directly, never expected their words to be to necessarily be taken as "gospel truth" is both relieving and freeing. I've been particularly interested in her reading of Mark and how some of the more challenging moments get smoothed over in Matthew and Luke.
  
  I still have a ways to go with this book, but I'm trying to take it slowly and absorbing as much as I can. More to come.

Music

• Revolver by The Beatles: My son's Beatles obsession grows and grows, and we spent all of our car time this past weekend listening to the "Top 100" songs on the Beatles channel on XM. This morning, he asked for Revolver over breakfast, and his joy at hearing "Yellow Submarine" or rocking out to "Got To Get You Into My Life" is only matched by mine at seeing him turn to me upon hearing a sitar and hearing him knowingly say: "This is a George song."

• Middle Aged Dad Jam Band: I love Ken Marino, and I don't know if I've ever laughed harder than I have at his work as Ron Donald in Party Down. Something about his earnestness as he goes through his inevitable meltdown just really hits me right. Since COVID, he's been fronting Middle Aged Dad Jam Band, and while I'm linking to "Jackie Wilson Said" it's worth pointing out that his Billy Joel covers are incredible. He's a weirdly talented man.

Articles & Episodes

• A Jim Butcher profile in the New York Times: I've struggled to get into Butcher's Dresden Files series, but I suspect that's been more my fault than the books'. This profile makes me want to give it another shot.
  
• New Bacteria Have Been Discovered on a Chinese Space Station (Wired): This is some Michael Crichton shit.
  
• "Midnight Picnic" - Taskmaster S19:E4: Greg Davies has only just caught on to the fact that Jason Mantzoukas is an agent of psychotic chaos - and while that act begins to tire on shows like The League or Brooklyn 99, I find it a bottomless well of enjoyment in this scenario. I have also found Rosie Ramsay to be quite funny, and I continue to really enjoy this season.

• Grant Horvat tries to beat Scottie Scheffler: Another major player in the YouTube golf world, Grant Horvat is both absurdly likable and incredibly talented with an smooth swing that I would kill for. In this series, he tries to beat the best of the best by starting with a 5 stroke lead. I've seen this video described as changing the trajectory of Scheffler's career as he comes off as genuine and approachable throughout his round with Horvat. It surely doesn't speak well of the PGA that it's biggest star somehow comes off as so distant or aloof from his fans that it takes a YouTuber to help him to greater commercial success, but it sure speaks well of Horvat.