Dribbling to Uncle Drew and Pestering to Brandi Carlile
Ways to piggyback passion when you're tired
Est. Read Time: 6 minutes. Read Time brought to you once again by the Ashburton Energy + Hair Logistics Group, in association with the Bradley Hills Bureau of Corrections.
Note: I incorrectly copy-pasted the read time last week. It was actually only a little 6 minutes, not 45 as I accidentally stated. If you were turned off by the length, feel free to return here!
UPCOMING SHOWS:
Can’t Even Comedy @ Mama Shelter. Tuesday 6/28 7pm.
Flappers. Friday 7/15 7:30pm. Tickets to come!
Edinburgh Fringe. August!
Hi Sternal Journalists,
In 2018, I went to see a film called Uncle Drew with my friend Joe. It was the MoviePass gilded age when you would go spend two hours in a movie theater as a bit, and that’s what we were doing.
Uncle Drew was a basketball movie based on a Pepsi Max commercial. Although it was very silly and certainly didn’t need to be made, it was better than expected with performances from Lil Rel Howrey and Tiffany Haddish both a year out of being propelled to fame by Get Out and Girls Trip respectively, as well as Shaq, Nick Kroll and, of course, Kyrie Irving as Uncle Drew.
But none of that is why I remember the Uncle Drew experience. I remember it so vividly because, in this sparsely attended weekday afternoon screening, one of the very few other moviegoers that day brought his own basketball.
And none of us will ever know whether he had just come from a pick-up game or perhaps was headed to a practice. But it really felt like he brought his basketball with him that day for the express purpose of bringing it to see Uncle Drew, because it wound up being heavily involved in our cinematic experience.
Whenever anyone played basketball on screen—DUH-duh-duh-DUH-duh-duh-DUH-duh-duh-DUH-duh-duh-DUH-duh-duh—he would dribble along. And at first, we were like “What the hell? Is this guy going to be dribbling the whole movie?” But soon enough, it was exciting! I looked forward to the 4-D surround-sound dribbling. It kind of made the movie for me.
It reminded me that, even the things we engage with as a bit, or have pre-judged and written off, are very worthy of not just joy but passion to other people.
And I was thinking about the man who has gone down in the oral history of Joe and I’s friendship as The Uncle Drew Dude on Friday night. Kristen and I went to see Brandi Carlile at The Greek. It was an awful day for the one big obvious reason, and there was question as to whether a fun concert-going time should be had at all.
I was exhausted for reasons national and personal and really not sure if I was going to connect with the experience in the slightest, whether it was the “right” thing to do or not. In the end, we figured Carlile being a woman, a mother, a benevolent roustabout of sorts, and all-around stellar thinker and processor-of-emotions, the concert would more likely than not be as cathartic and communal an experience as one could hope for.
In the end, it was probably the best concert I’ve ever been to. Potential tie with the 2 Chainz concert my friend Winston took me to five years ago which was the same weekend as the BET awards so there were tons of incredible guests, but I still think this one wins. If you know me, you know how big that is.
She played recent hits, she played old hits, she covered Space Oddity, Creep, and Somewhere Over the Rainbow. She was runnin’ all over the place, riffing with a packed stadium, clearly having the time of her life, and still weaving in moments to talk about what had happened that morning, how it was affecting women all over the country, and how important it was that we were together and that we could be there for each other.
And that emphasis on community, which came later in the show, was so crazy—so serendipitous—because we were sitting next to this older couple. I specifically was sitting next to the more talkative and excited of the women. When we got there, I had a big-ass cup of wine because that’s how you give you a bottle of wine at The Greek, and she insisted on moving her seltzer from our shared cupholder.
I said “No, it’s okay,” she said, “No, I insist,” I tried to keep holding my wine for about ten minutes but when I needed to put it down to clap for the opener, she said “AH! SEE? I TOLJA!” And we laughed. And at one point, I asked if they’d seen Brandy before.
She said, “Ah, yeah, quite a bit.” Then regaled me with tales of seeing her for the first time 23 years ago at Lilith Fair, and catching her at a high school with 75 people in it in Alaska, and even meeting her a couple times before the real fame hit.
Then when the band took the stage, she would nudge me and whisper how the guitar player is married to Brandi’s sister, and they all live on this compound, and here’s who’s officially in the band versus just hired by the band, the drummer’s new! etc. I learned more about Brandi Carlile during that one concert than in the roughly five years I’ve considered myself a big fan.
And as these potentially annoying interruptions turned into the fabric of the experience, I realized—holy shit—this is the exact same spirit as The Uncle Drew Dude! A super-fan whose passion was going to amplify my passion as long as I let it.
At some points, I started to nudge her. When the Space Oddity cover started, I leaned in and said, “You know she’s gonna rip it on the chorus.” My neighbor chuckled and said “Oh-hoh yeah!” (She did in fact rip it on the chorus.)
And when Brandi, during a particular interlude trying to uplift us despite the events of the day, encouraged everyone to turn to their neighbors and know that there were good people around us, my row-mate and I already knew that. And that was, in a really bad time, really good.
All of this is to say: most of us have been forced to get pretty adept at mentally powering through times that indirectly and directly threaten our lives and the lives of our loved ones, local and global. This is another time that people are powering through and grasping at what to do.
And we’re so bombarded with ways to react, suggestions for how to feel, and implications that we haven’t even considered some of the feelings we’re supposed to be having, that’s it’s almost meta—we’re bombarded even with acknowledgments that we’re being bombarded.
So the only thing I could think of worth adding to the chorus (a happier type of bombardment) is to open yourself up to Uncle Drew Dudes and Brandi Carlile Ladies.
Life’s too scary and in need of solutions to write off any piece of art you’re engaging with. If you’re watching or reading or listening to something that you know is bringing you no joy and you’re still gonna spend your time on it? Find someone who can dribble you into appreciation.
And if you are looking to engage with some solutions, don’t just scroll through every Instagram story and news article about how to help. Pick a person who you think of as knowledgable and who you look to for solutions in times like these and dive into what they’ve shared. Let them be the one showering you with information, rather than the internet writ large. You can ask them about it too, but be careful not to burden someone with extra emotional work right now.
It’s easy to tune out by numbing ourselves with entertainment, and to get trapped in an endless scroll of ways to help, so my focus this week is going to be on engaging with people and not just let my brain run around the internet. If I hear dribbling, or somebody talking my ear off about what they care about, I’m going to try to follow it now more than ever.
Recommendations
Stay Gentle. Song. Come on, after that, you know I’m gonna recommend one of Brandi’s songs. This was a particularly moving song to hear on Friday.
The Bear. Television Show. I’m four episodes into this Hulu dramedy about a Chicago beef joint, and I love the restaurant chaos of it all, even despite….
“At Last, A Chicago Show for People Who Are Not From Chicago And Have Never Stepped Foot There.” Article. ….this article by legendary and incredibly accurate TV hot-taker Ashley Ray. She blasts it for its Chicago inaccuracy, and I love the takedown of it. I just… as someone who has barely set foot in Chicago… barely notice any of the Chicago-ness. It feels like it could take place in a lot of places, which for a show that is wearing its Chicago on its marketing sleeve, I get is not okay. So maybe I’ll change my mind. For now, I’m enjoying that I enjoy both the show and its takedown piece..
Get Involved Locally. Activity. I say this sort of whenever there’s a big-ass tragedy, but I strongly believe that seeking out a cause to engage with and getting consistently involved is the best way to fight most big problems, as they are all connected. I purposely didn’t share any opportunities to help or donate or get involved here because I really want to try to break the cycle of link-numbness. That being said, I’m available. If you want to find a way to get involved in national or hyper-local issues, I’ll talk to you for 15 minutes, do some Googling, and we will find what you’re looking for.
Now, here’s the Uncle Drew poster:
Sending all of the love to you and your squad,
Julian
P.S. I spend anywhere between two and twelve hours a week on the Sternal Journal. If you enjoy receiving it (and are RICH) consider becoming a paying subscriber. For just a few bucks a month, you can provide me with a bit more time to come up with fun topics, poems, and interviews; and you with probably fewer typos.