When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one Matt to dissolve the newsletter bands which have connected him with his “audience,” and to assume among the powers of Substack, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of the Algorithm and of the Algorithm’s God entitle him, a decent respect to the opinions of self-indulgent newslettering requires that he should declare the causes which impel him to the pivot…
Oh. Ahem, sorry.
Been watching A LOT of the Ken Burn’s American Revolution doc.1
Suffice to say, I’m back! And doing things a bit differently!
Sneakily or not, after a fully checked-out summer and a fairly bleak fall, this late November has gestated some rich and engaging culture. So much has cropped up in the last few weeks that it has had me wanting to actually text people to talk about it all.
But then I thought, wait, Matt, you hate texting. And this is exactly why you started the newsletter.
So without further ado, here is:
A VERITABLE FEAST OF CULTURE!
ART-BUNDANCE!
A CULTURE-COPIA!
THANKFUL FOR MEDIA!
GOBBLE-GOBBLING UP CONTENT!
An actionable account of the best of ulture right now from the purview of A Matt-azine’s editors.
Kill 15 Minutes at Work Watching
MILES TELLER MAKE PIZZA
Love this guy. Don’t necessarily love this web series. Still, he’s the right combination of douchey and white-guy dorky that, to me, coalesces into earnestly, watchably charming. Look at Da’vine Joy Randolph kind of just tolerate him. It delights me.
Also, Teller wanted to be a cooking show host like Emeril as a kid. I mean, is this man not my spirit animal? Also also, dig the outfit.
Go Bar-downski Ferda With
THE LETTERKENNY GAY HOCKEY SHOW
Okay, it’s actually called Heated Rivalry and apprently it’s based off a book series in the same vein of that weird Y.A.-ish, gay-shipping fan-fiction as Red, White and Royal Blue that self-espousing bisexual female authors seem to love to both write and consume. But! The guy producing the T.V. adaptation is a Letterkenny alum!
Starts streaming the day after Thanksgiving. Watch it with your mom or straight brother!
Bask in the Hazy, Artsy Glow of
THE 35MM PRINT OF PETER HUJAR’S DAY
It’s wild to me that this is the movie that has stayed with me the most this fall. The Ira Sachs movie that’s art-directed to the hilt in ‘70s period detail that is basically just 76 minutes of Ben Wishaw as photographer Hujar monologuing for a warm, receptive Rebecca Hall as writer Linda Rosenkratz. Wishaw nails this baritone lilt that transfixes you to his storytelling, and you get to just settle in and soak up the mind and life of an artist for a little over an hour. It is a gift.
Camp out on
THE MISS UNIVERSE CORRUPTION CONTROVERSY
First, an executive cursed out Miss Mexico on camera at a pre-event ceremony and a few girls walked out with her. Then that guy got fired. But then the camera cut to him like three times last night. Then two judges resigned, one on the basis that a secret judging panel was actually calling the shots (and picking their friends to advance in the rounds). And, then poor Miss Jamaica fell off the damn stage. (Including the video, only because it’s been confirmed she’s okay.2 ) And then I learned Miss Paraguay’s boyfriend was a judge. And then Miss Mexico won after all.
Stream the three-hour long train wreck on Peacock.
Let Me Tell You About
THE SAMPLE SALE AT WORK
If we catch each other in person over the next couple weeks, ask me about how sample sale day plays out at the corporate offices of a multi-brand luxury retailer. It is just so fucking fun. An electric craze permeates the entire office. You can hear the rustle of paper shopping bags as people return to their desks with their hauls, and people start CLAPPING for each other for scoring heavily discounted [redacted brand] handbags or [redacted brand] boots. Women emerge from the cordoned-off area of an abandoned floor where the sale’s happening shiny from stress-sweat with a mania in their eyes, both regretful and ecstatic as their coworkers yell, “Show us! Show us!” Everyone LOVES a deal.3
Be a Dad and Watch
KEN BURNS’ THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION
New York was a British loyalist stronghold and the battle of Long Island was likely Washington’s biggest failure! They didn’t teach that in Hamilton! (Did they?) Watching a Ken Burns documentary with its yelling-at-you narration by Peter Coyote and words and pictures playing under that narration requires your undivided attention. It rewards you for it, too. You can’t passively listen/watch how everything unfolded at Concorde and Lexington. You’ve got to lock in. When you do—maybe this is only me—you find yourself going “Holy shit! Wow!” a good amount of the time. The series is mostly a more-detailed version of your 8th Grade History class, but mainlining two hours of it a night is a fantastic exercise in remedying your phone-addled brain. I’m also obsessed with naming all the famous voice actors doing readings of historical letters. Paul Giamatti as John Adams is my bid for next year’s Best Actor Emmy.
Transcend Language and Music and Listen to
LUX BY ROSALÍA
I picked up the (crystal clear) vinyl for V and it’s been spinning in our house nonstop. Hot tip: The liner notes of the record include English translations of everything, and having a live-in Spanish partner is great for providing cultural context around some of the songs. (Perla is like an elegant way of saying fuck boy).
Eat More
BUTTERNUT SQUASH
I’ve been either descending into or staving off the dark depths of a bout of Seasonal Affective Disorder by streaming old eps of The Barefoot Contessa. (All depends on your perspective.) Damn, does that lady love a butternut squash—she tells you every time she cooks it, which is often across the 28(!) seasons of the show.
Her enthusiasm for the gourd has spurred my own. I’ve been chipping away at the last of this season’s CSA haul by roasting the hell out of butternut squash with lots of sage (and salt). It’s been a salve and the preferred orange on my plate over the sweet potato.
Revisit
KILL BILL: THE WHOLE BLOODY AFFAIR
Tickets have been secured for the four-hour (with intermission) re-release of both Kill Bill: Volumes 1 and 2 in 70 mm4. I never saw those movies in theatre—they were strictly a DVD affair for me—and I’m so pumped to seem them stitched together as Tarantino intended. Let’s goooo.
Revive
LYCHEE MARTINIS
First, in September, I took my brother to Blue Ribbon Sushi for his birthday dinner and had my first lychee martini in about 12 years. Then, a couple weeks ago, we went to Congee Village, an NYC institution, for a birthday. The star of the night (after the birthday boy): Lychee martinis. Stupid sweet, but floral and fun, I’m all for this cocktail to usurp the espresso martini, which no one needs to be drinking after 3pm.
Have Your Sunday Morning Bagel as You DVR Your Way Through Last Night’s
SNL, WHICH IS MAYBE!? ON AN A LITTLE BIT? OF AN UPSWING?!
Marcello Hernandez’s Sebastian Maniscaoloclslsccgasdg sketch made me laugh! And I’m talking about it a week later. That’s the biggest indicator of an SNL bit’s success: if I remember a week later. With Melissa McCarthy poised to host when we’re back from Thanksgiving break on December 5th, the show seems to be on a bit of a run.
That’s all for now. Maybe I’ll be back again in a week. Maybe I won’t. Who can ever say.
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Much to V’s chagrin who has been patiently waiting to polish off the last episodes of Squid Game: The Challenge.
Someone falling off a stage—which, you know, happens more often than you think—always takes me back to this:
I’m not saying I also did not get in on the craze. I, too, spent too much on [redacted brand] sneakers and was congratulated for it by my teammates. I am obsessed.
SUCH a big fan of movies using these old formats. We saw The Brutalist last year in 70mm and same with One Battle After Another. Big beautiful pictures, baby.
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