September 2024 Pop Culture Diary

Featuring: Brian Jordan Alvarez, Vince McMahon, Steve Martin, Mitski, Vulfpeck, Adrianne Lenker, SE Boyd, and more

INTRO

After an eventful summer of travel and running around like a chicken sans-head, it feels like life is settling back into form in September. I am back in better habits, feel like my schedule makes sense, and have had incredible luck with pop culture swinging into form.

This is the home stretch for those who like me view culture through the admittedly-unhealthy year-end-list prism. Now it’s time for Oscar contenders, Album of the Year candidates, and chances to make best-of rankings in a few weeks time.

This month we have a lot to discuss. As always, if you enjoy this diary please share with someone you think would enjoy it as well. Nothing makes me happier than sharing what makes me happy and hopefully giving some joy to you as well.

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TV

• Allow me to say again that Industry is the biggest, boldest show on TV and absolutely nailed the landing on its most daring season yet. I am writing this the morning after the S3 finale and the first 6 things in my brain today are questions on the various lingering questions and set-ups for the upcoming 4th season. If I have to wait until 2026, I may die.

• I love English Teacher so much. I am struggling to think of the last time a new comedy was this funny from the jump, but I have found myself doubled over laughing multiple times an episode from the first scene of the Pilot. Brian Jordan Alvarez and co. have developed a capital-S Special show. If only they would get a 20-episode order instead of their current, far too short, 8 for season one.

• There’s been a recent, completely valid desire for TV to move closer to what we once had - fewer one-off event series, and more ongoing series with characters we love and want to spend time with. Only Murders in the Building is such a treasure - a warm blanket that just makes me smile even as people keep dying at alarming rates around our main characters. They picked up a near-immediate Season 5 renewal, to which I ask: why not just order Season 6 while we’re at it?

• I’ve been a WWE fan since I was a kid, so I watched all of Mr. McMahon on Netflix this week when it finally released. The fact this documentary series exists is a miracle - it paints a terrible picture of it’s titular character with WWE’s complete involvement and licensed footage - even if it’s not revolutionary to those in the know. Vince McMahon is, and has been, a bad person for decades. The difference this time is he’s actually facing consequences for his actions. Not a moment too soon.

• By total coincidence, I also watched the Who Killed WCW? Doc-series as well, and I think I liked it more than the McMahon one, only in as much as I didn’t know the details here as well as I did my lived experience with McMahon. I am a bad wrestling fan in that I am more compelled by behind-the-scenes business over on-screen story. This is a series for me - it’s largely about corporate power struggles killing a multi-million-dollar operation.

•••••

FILM

• I was very excited for Saturday Night despite some mixed reviews when it played on the festival circuit. I enjoyed it, but didn’t think it was as special as I was hoping. There’s a lot of great young talent in the film, but the whole thing is manic to the point it gets occasionally incomprehensible. Uncut Gems was a pressure cooker but you understood the stakes. Saturday Night is exhausting. My favorite part of the film was Cooper Hoffman using an exact mannerism of his dad to Gabriel LaBelle - I am all in on both these guys.

• The Wild Robot was absolutely charming, if a little light on story. If you’ve watched basically any kid’s movie you know the plot here after 10 minutes, but the art and performance here elevate it to something worth seeking out in theaters. This is closer to a Spider-Verse style animation and everything feels so considered and personalized - a welcome change from some otherwise rote 3D-CGI fare from the last decade.

•••••

MUSIC

• Mitski is in my inner circle of most favored artists in any medium - I got to see her this past weekend for a 5th time and second on her current tour at the Hollywood Bowl. Her willingness and ability to transform - hearing her play the raw, indie cuts from Bury Me at Makeout Creek along her polished, lyrical, folksy The Land is Inhospitable is astonishingly beautiful - are incredible, and her stage show more considered than almost any other. New music and a new tour could not come soon enough - I say, knowing this was the close of an over year long journey. I just love her.

• My brothers came into town to catch two nights of Vulfpeck at the Palladium here in LA this month, surprised to learn at the show that this wasn’t a live album recording, but a live recording of a brand new album. They’re a fun, dancy live act that has a very enthusiastic fanbase - I just wanted to add the new songs I liked to my Spotify library dammit!

• Grace Spelman has long been one of my favorite content creators, certainly when it comes to her excellent music taste. I subscribed to her Grace Spelman Music Project on Substack immediately, wanting to get her playlist recommendations for myself. She’s got a better hit rate for songs ending up in my Spotify Library than the algorithm itself. Absolutely worth taking a look!

• Release day of Jamie XX’s “In Waves” was a holiday in our home, and not just because it was perfectly timed to be a birthday gift to my wife. This is such a fun, dance heavy album. Between In Waves and Brat, what a fantastic year for electronic dance music. I have a feeling this will enter a kind of eternal rotation for me as background music to my life, slowly climbing my all-time most listened to albums.

• There’s a very real chance Adrianne Lenker’s “Bright Future” will end up being the best album I listen to in 2024. This is so raw and so moving - it’s recorded live-to-tape which gives an irresistible humanity to every song. As a card carrying member of the Sad Girl Music Appreciation Society, we’re absolutely blessed this year.

• Doechii, I owe you an apology, I did not realize you were this fantastic. Alligator Bites Never Heal is a varied project that leans closer to traditional boom-bap rap that I can’t help but adore. “Denial Is A River” and “Nissan Altima” have already entered regular rotation for me since my first plays.

• I have wanted to see Green Day in concert since I was an angsty 10 year old listening to American Idiot. I finally caught them at SoFi Stadium this month and have come away thinking I am done with football-stadium shows. SoFi is a partially-open-air venue, and as such some of the music bled into the night sky. I couldn’t understand a word of the music I didn’t have memorized. It cost me $125 to park in general parking - one hundred and twenty-five fucking American dollars - when my tickets were only slightly more on purchase. None of this was Green Day’s fault, I think, but didn’t quite scratch the emo itch for me.

•••••

READING

• With the caveat that my employer, wiip, is actively developing The Lemon for TV, I finally read the book largely in two sittings this month and loved it so deeply. Largely inspired by the passing of Anthony Bourdain with an absolute pitch-black twist, this is not just an extremely engrossing, easy read - it’s also razor sharp with detail and laugh out loud hilarious. Could not be any higher on this.

• As if I didn’t already love Bowen Yang, his profile in the New Yorker was remarkably candid and revealing - talking about his struggles with fame and identity, as well as a childhood being sent to a conversion program. He’s a special talent and person.

• The squeal of joy I let out realizing Rolling Stone released a list of the Top 100 TV Episodes of All-Time. I adore any and all list content, but knowing TV historian Alan Sepinwall was involved here - he of TV the Book fame - led me to respect the outlook as legitimate canonization and not a piece meant to generate negative reactions only. It’s equally impressive to debate the episodes selected for each show - namely a relatively bold choice for The Sopranos - and the high rankings for modern classics like “Teddy Perkins” from Atlanta.

•••••

GRAB BAG

• I love Foolish Baseball and found myself totally buying the argument that baseball was largely the only sport that doesn’t benefit from the modern push to widescreen, ultra-HD presentation. Bailey is such a clever creator.

• As both a Secret Base super-fan and sports-stats-obsessive, I land as a direct bullseye for this project that corrects the borderline-idiotic way NFL passer rating is calculated and reconsiders all of NFL history to find the best passing performance ever - surprise, turns out it’s owned by Lamar Jackson.

• Earlier in 2024 I started using TickTick to help me stay on top of my work and personal life. That has now spiraled out to TickTick acting as an extension of my brain in all aspects of life, but it has made for a much, much more organized life. 100/10 recommendation.