This week’s round up of some cool shit I’ve read and think you might also enjoy.
‘You’ve never seen The Beatles like this before’: Peter Jackson on his epic Get Back docuseries
This feature/interview sure makes the upcoming Peter Jackson Beatles series sound phenomenal. I found this line interesting:
For any self-respecting Beatles nut, this must surely count as one of the final mop-top Holy Grails…
I suppose Paul and Ringo could still write exhaustive tell-alls of the 1960s. (Or perhaps they’ve already written them and are just waiting for the proper moment to release them.) But that statement is both correct and sobering: this could be the final piece of original work from the Beatles we ever receive. Which is amazing since they broke up 51 years ago.
Life never lived up to what Anthony Bourdain wanted it to be
Drew Magary on the new Anthony Bourdain movie? Yes, please.
The Great American Reboot
This is a couple weeks old. It is already beginning to feel outdated. After a month or two of admittedly cautious loosening of Covid protection measures, it’s beginning to feel – at least to those of us who take this pandemic seriously – like we may have jumped the gun. Or rather than we’ve been let down by a huge chunk of our country who are idiots.
T.M. Shine visited Las Vegas on Memorial Day. I thought this observation was especially brilliant.
One thing I think we have all realized as the debates have raged over the pandemic — mask or no mask, to be vaccinated or not — is that we value our opinions more than both our lives and the lives of others.
A-fucking-men.
How America Fractured Into Four Parts
Finally, there may be no better documenter of modern America’s politics than George Packer. In this long essay, an excerpt from his latest book, he suggests that we have been split into four different perspectives. There are flaws in his arguments, but I think he’s pretty close to the truth.
In Free America, the winners are the makers, and the losers are the takers who want to drag the rest down in perpetual dependency on a smothering government. In Smart America, the winners are the credentialed meritocrats, and the losers are the poorly educated who want to resist inevitable progress. In Real America, the winners are the hardworking folk of the white Christian heartland, and the losers are treacherous elites and contaminating others who want to destroy the country. In Just America, the winners are the marginalized groups, and the losers are the dominant groups that want to go on dominating.