Here’s what’s making us happy this week.
A theme of this week is deliberate regression. We’re going—excuse me while I don my best Huey Lewis voice—back in tiiiime, to child-like wonder, honest delusion, and an era before hi-def digital graphics.
Drew Broussard is all about this dungeon-crawl version of Minesweeper. Be warned: it comes sans instructions, so “you kinda figure out what’s going on as you try (and fail, and fail, and fail).” But stay for the music, the patterns, and the 10/10 computer lab nostalgia.
On a similar wavelength, Calvin Kasulke recommends this retro version of the Weather Channel, which manages to remember the 90s and provide access to real, current info.
There’s also this version, if the former is “not retro enough” for your purposes.
McKayla Coyle got joy this week from the new season of The Rehearsal on HBO, helmed by the “actual genius” Nathan Fielder. And they include a petition to bring his kind of madness back the future: “We need more tiny babygirl-coded men to make silly absurdist art, please.”
Julia Hass amplifies another set of strange comedians. This week she attended a Simple Town show, and is now in thrall to this “specific and surprising and hilarious” New York-based quartet. Check out this Bodega Bit, for a sample of the gang’s pleasingly self-conscious comedy.
I, Brittany Allen, am also digging good-old-fashioned surprise. This week, I got to see a live teaser from a magic show performed by the illustrious Jonathan Levit, of the actual Magic Castle. I’m usually a cold-hearted skeptic, but it was pure delight to be part of a gasping group of how’d-he-do-thats. So yes, now I’m a believer. Magic! Recommend!
Dan Sheehan may not be going backwards—but where ever ever he’s going, he’s getting there fast. Our intrepid editor housed a pound of dark chocolate covered espresso beans yesterday and still feels “f*cking fantastic, like [he] could fight the sun.”
Should you too wish to war with the stars, aficionados of the legal drug recommend beans by Pando, an indie roaster out of Utah. But if you are broke, remember the beans needn’t be. You can pull a Dan on the cheap with ten packets of these bad boys from Trader Joe’s, and make straight for the stratosphere.
In final sensory news, I also experienced deep embodied joy at an ad hoc listening party for Gladney, a sixth generation New Orleans jazz musician. His epic single “Selenite” is out now in all platforms, and it’s really something—a sweeping, emotional, transporting suite of fusion music. I sat in a dark room and closed my eyes on first listen, and it felt like how I imagine a sound bath would. Listen and feel clean by the end.
Wishing you a weekend of awe and sugar, old comfort and and novel tonic.
