The Weekly Croissant: Art Hoe Roundup

A Visit from The Goon Squad/ Ezra Klein Show / Medium Build / The Bridge (completed!)

Hello, Good Morning, Happy Sunday!

Writing to you from Durham, NC at a coffee shop called Yonder, which I would recommend FWIW.

Another month has passed us by and it is time for an ART HOE roundup. Here’s what I have been checking out lately:

Book: A Visit From the Good Squad by Jennifer Egan

Winner of the 2011 Pulitzer Prize this book has the rare combination of profound storytelling and a pace that makes it a page-turner. I’ve been enjoying it despite its portrayal of the music industry (lots of “real rock and roll is dead”/ coke-snorting off of bare asses of underage women, endless wealth, etc). However, I’m sure that it was more true to life for the time it portrays than it would be now.

Movie: Killers of the Flower Moon

OK I’ve been waiting months to give this hot take… I think this movie is bad. Why is it that the story isn’t told from the perspective of the family that is slowly being murdered? As it is, people keep dying and we don’t know enough about them to care on an emotional level. Also the inclusion of Jason and Sturgill is just silly and makes the whole thing feel like a “Fun Western Flick”, when it could be an opportunity to explore a multifaceted and fascinating true story of what happens when the privilege scale completely flips between two groups of people.

Music: Medium Build

I came across the new single “Crying Over U” by Medium Build this week, and it has been on repeat for me. This is how pop should be! The old stuff is kind of hit or miss IMO but I can’t wait to hear the new album.

Podcast: Ezra Klein Show

This Ezra Klein Show episode about deep reading was a real moment for me this week. Literary scholar Maryanne Wolf talks about the pathways that our brain builds to take in the amount of information we need for a digital reading era, and how those pathways are plastic, changeable and degradable, and different than those we use for deep, immersive reading. Uninterrupted focus is immeasurably important to get the full benefits of reading, which include critical thinking, deeper understanding, and forming new connections to events or situations in our own life. As we learn to better skim, to keep up with our fast-paced world, we become out of practice at immersive reading, and we have to train our brains to maintain that skill.

This is also (speaking of forming new connections in one’s own life), explaining to me why I hate the idea of discovering music on TikTok. TikTok is the epitome of a skimming mindset, and I would never want folks to encounter my music, or anyone elses’ music while in a brain-dead scroll. How can you get any meaning or nuance out of that? There’s a time and a place for TikTok, but for me that is a very different time and place than the one for listening to music.

Bonus read: I found this article from The New York Times about Gabriella Karefa-Johnson - about what it means to be a personal brand, and the give and take of working for a company versus working AS yourself when it comes to being political, etc. Also, a great hot take on DEI policies.

TV: The Bridge

I finished all four seasons of this Scandi noir thriller— this is NOT COZY. But damn, it’s good! Thanks to Zoe Guigueno for telling me about this one. I recommend the version in Swedish and Danish with subtitles cuz I’m an ART HOE.

OK, sorry that’s a lot! I got excited. This is what happens when my shows are only 2 hrs apart and I have time to sleep 8 hrs each night!

Have a great week!

Rachel