June 2024 Pop Culture Diary

Welcome to this new idea of mine - a rebirth of my blogging/newsletter days. This is what I watched, listened to, read, and enjoyed in June.

INTRO

Once upon a time I had a blog called Unbreakable. For some reading this, you might have seen me post there back in the day. From 2014-2016 I tried to see if I could write a blog post about something every day. I made it for 1,001 days and retired, more than proving to myself that the answer was “yes”. I also, quite honestly, was burnt out and running out of things I could talk about. There’s only so much mileage I could get out of talking about upcoming Oreo flavors on a near weekly basis after all.

At work, I inherited a newsletter that would run semi-regularly (read: when I had time or remembered to do it) called wiip’s Up. What nominally started as my sharing film and television recommendations quickly became an excuse for me to talk about anything that came to mind. This included the YouTube channel Ordinary Sausage - still among the greatest creations of the century - and a scathing takedown of my own organs when I was felled by pancreatitis for a second time in less than 3 years. I loved writing it, but as work flowed in more, it fell by the wayside.

I have been in need of a creative outlet for myself. Something that will force me into better habits as a consumer of culture. This is both literal and figurative. For one, I need to actually watch more, eat more, and do more than sitting around in my apartment - though the siren song of air conditioning in 90+ degree heat the past few weeks has been tough to resist. Figuratively, I want to quit resting on surface level engagement and give the attention and care towards what I consume that it deserves.

“It was good!” isn’t the right reaction to have when you spend upwards of 20+ hours on a season of TV. Is it worth your time? Is there a reason you might like it? What didn’t work and what did? Will I go back for seconds? Thirds?

There are few things that give me as much joy in my life as 1) sharing things I enjoy with people and 2) having an excuse to engage with pop culture under the guise of “work”. This isn’t work - this is just for me. But if you have ever enjoyed my writing, are looking for things outside your typical algorithms, or are politely coming along for the ride just because we’re friends, welcome aboard.

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TV

• June allowed my wife Laura and I to finish Top Chef 21 in somewhat dubious fashion. Mindful not to spoil for those behind, many beyond us thought the editing of the season, and particularly the finale, was lacking. With the benefit of Gail Simmons’ interview on The Watch, I feel like charitably the best was made out of a bad situation. You need to make a finale that’s got some suspense. While the ultimate winner, who for the record was either my 1a or 1b favorite for the season, got some critiques, they were nitpicks. They were edited into dealbreakers. If they weren’t, this was a walk. Unlike live-action competitions, a runaway isn’t really an acceptable finish. A touch anti-climactic, but at least it seems there was unity over one aspect of the show: Kristen Kish was the perfect pick to replace Padma Lakshmi as host. She’s incredible from the jump.

• What’s the best Netflix sports doc series out there from Box to Box productions? Full of international talent and racing drama? That’s right! Tour de France: Unchained. My wife watched Season 1 in 2023 while in an office Fantasy Tour league and quickly turned around and watched a second time with me. We both were hooked immediately. Technically a team sport, the Tour documentary does a fantastic job highlighting the Tour long General Classification narrative while giving deserved flowers to Stage specialists. The addition of Tadej Pogacar - missing from S1, 2x Tour Champion, perhaps the best rider on Earth not employed by Visma-Lease a Bike - helped immensely to the story, as the Tour was again a head-to-head between Pogacar and defending champ Jonas Vingegaard. We’re a Wout van Aert household - he of impeccable hair and incredible vibes. I’d be curious to see if anyone beyond us found sprinter extraordinaire Jasper Philipsen to come off horribly as an egotist or dirty rider.

• We gave an earnest try to FX’s Clipped premiere, but I found myself bumping on the series from the start. The tone feels decently arch and strange. Perhaps this is in its own uncanny valley of reference for me - unlike Winning Time on HBO, I have watched most of these characters in real life as athletes for 20 years. The casting is outright distracting in spots - looking at you, “Blake Griffin” - though I did love seeing Sarunas Jackson (Good Trouble) as Matt Barnes, which is dead on. Maybe I will get back to this, but wasn’t calling for me.

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FILM

• Our watching of Tour de France: Unchained sparked a desire for me to put on Lance, the 2020 30 for 30 on Lance Armstrong by Marina Zenovich (Robin Williams: Come Inside My Mind). Two major takeaways:

1. Lance Armstrong is astonishingly, refreshingly candid and detailed about his history with doping. We’re not talking just admitting he was doping. We’re talking the specific history down to timelines, which drugs, how they were being used, etc. It’s a long watch - close to 3 hours in 2 parts - but it’s tough not to be wrapt by his candor and frank detail. That said!

2. Lance comes off as such a narcissist and general bad hang in the doc that it’s similarly refreshing in a roundabout way. Look, I would much rather an unvarnished portrait of the guy who weaponized his cancer diagnosis and history to deflect completely valid and reasonable accusations of doping for years than a toothless hagiography of a famed figure who refuses to explore the most interesting parts of themselves. For all the admission and freedom he seems to take from talking about this chapter, you also get him still furiously angry at Floyd Landis for… accurately identifying that Lance became an international superstar by doping. It’s a wild hang.

• I got bored this month and revisited The Founder with Michael Keaton, in part because there’s a few clips that play great on YouTube and in part because it’s such a weird movie. When Keaton gets a McDonald’s burger for the first time, there’s a jump cut that has stuck with me for about 8 years now. This is a movie that casts Laura Dern to do basically nothing - Academy Award Winning National Treasure Laura Dern! That said, if we’re being honest, I would also leave Laura Dern for Linda Cardellini. I don’t think the point of the movie was to make me desperately want a Big Mac, but I have been jonesing hard.

• The Lance doc lead us to watch Jason Heir’s The Fab Five from 2011 in a 30 for 30 rabbit hole. I remember this movie better than it actually is in real time, but that’s also my admittedly being unfair to the story. Not every 30 for 30 is OJ: Made in America in scope, budget, nor execution. That said, it is funny now to see a touch of the self mythologizing that Jalen Rose was putting in at the height of his rising star at ESPN. Look, he was in the NBA when I was born, so who am I to call bull? But he does have a clear desire to cement that legacy. In fairness, when he asks “who won the championship 3 years ago? 5 years ago?” I am like 50% certain I could answer it in real time to when he asked and 0% certain I could now, but I knew the starting 5 (and 6th man/Lakers GM Rob Pelinka) off the top of my head.

  Actually? 2008 was Kansas - that’s Mario Chalmers over Memphis. 2006 was Florida - Joakim Noah and Al Horford winning first of two titles in a row. (Looking it up) Good job brain!

•••••

MUSIC

• Inside sources are reporting that “It’s brat summer, bitch.” Before Charli XCX took over the world with her fantastic new record, “Von dutch” was already my most played song of the year to date. It’s so fun, so surprisingly reflective, and so catchy. Bad songs don’t go viral - there’s a reason why you hear “360”, “365”, “Guess”, and “the girl, so confusing” remix everywhere. I cannot recall the last time that I was having as much fun as this summer of Chappell Roan, Sabrina Carpenter, and Charli dropping hit after hit.

• Wasn’t really thinking when I saw Kendrick Lamar announce tickets for a Juneteenth concert at The Forum and said “...nah I’ll pass this go around.” I’ve seen Kendrick thrice previously, but I haven’t seen him dance on Drake’s grave to “Not Like Us” five times in a row. What a hero.

• If you see me around these days there’s a decent chance I am either thinking about, listening to, or wishing I was listening to “DEVIL IS A LIE” by Tommy Richman. It certainly took him long enough to drop the damn single, previewing it on TikTok for what seemed like 6 weeks. But alas, it’s my most played song of the month.

June 2024 Top 10:

1. DEVIL IS A LIE - Tommy Richman

2. the perfect pair - beabadoobee

3. 360 - Charli XCX

4. Amour Ex Machina - L’Imperatrice

5. Von dutch - Charli XCX

6. MILLION DOLLAR BABY - Tommy Richman

7. Mixed Bizness - Beck

8. Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa - Vampire Weekend

9. Not Like Us - Kendrick Lamar

10. Sympathy is a knife - Charli XCX

•••••

READING

• Early in the month I finished Dolly Alderton’s Good Material, a novel about a breakup of a stand-up comedian and his long-time girlfriend in the suburbs of London. I quite enjoyed Alderton’s writing, and found many parts of the book funny, but I couldn’t get over how much of a pill I found the main character Andy to be. While this is admittedly the point, it doesn’t mean I was enjoying myself being stuck with him. A perspective shift in the last stage of the book was, to me, the strongest part, and would have been welcome 50-100 pages sooner.

• At the recommendation of my boss, Howard, I read through Bill Carter’s Desperate Networks, detailing the state of network television in the early to mid 2000s. As a historical text, it was massively helpful in filling out the color for the shows that coded the beginning of my conscious interest in television as a medium and eventual career. As a reflection of the major names of the day - WOOF. Donald Trump looms large as The Apprentice took off, and Les Moonves is made out to be a maverick hero. Hindsight is wild.

• If you ever consider taking my opinions or thoughts seriously, please know that it took me until June 2024, two months shy of 30, to listen to both of Kitchen Confidential and Medium Raw by Anthony Bourdain. Where the hell have I been exactly? I don’t have anything new to say about either that isn’t singing the praises of Bourdain as an uber-captivating character. I will continue to regret not immersing myself in his work sooner for as long as it takes me to watch every episode of TV he ever made.

•••••

GRAB BAG

• Partially inspired by this exercise, I have been trying to cull down my neverending YouTube Watch Later list. The most fun I have had while doing so? Sterling K. Brown on Hot Ones. The amount of money I would give to just hang out with this dude for an hour over a beer.

• I loved The Big Picture drafting their dream Movie Studios. I know I will be stealing this idea as soon as I possibly can for a party game.

• I’m not quite sure how I got on “Hat Cam of Slow-Pitch Softball Shortstop” TikTok but I am not mad about it!

•••••

Thank You

Thanks for reading the first monthly Pop Culture diary in this new endeavor. Stay tuned for a monthly recap of things I liked this month. If you have any ideas, comments, suggestions, etc, please let me know - RCLenahan37@gmail.com

If you enjoyed this piece, send it to someone you think might enjoy. Sharing creative works is the entire point of this whole project, even if this request is admittedly self-serving. At least I save the sales pitch for the end!