On reckless optimism
And a pop culture mystery that I'm counting on Sternal Journalists to solve
Est. Read Time: 5 minutes. Read Time brought to you once again by the Ashburton Energy + Hair Logistics Group, in association with the Bradley Hills Bureau of Corrections + Housing.
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Shows!
[Los Angeles, CA] The Hollywood Comedy. Saturday June 28
[Orange County] Durty Nelly’s Costa Mesa. Saturday July 12
[Edinburgh, Scotland] 100 Julian Sterns, Ranked By Hotness Alone. August 2-20.
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Hello Sternal Journalists,
Sad, bad things are happening in LA. I am trying to engage in the opposite of cautious optimism, reckless optimism. This is not to discount the tragedies that are occurring and the human rights that are being violated, but in my very narrow personal experience, I have found that I am able to be more productive and effective when I see the good that it is occurring. I am admitting that nothing indicates that things are trending better immediately, which is why this is reckless. But if it means keeping my head on straight while trying to be a good member of my community and then being disappointed when my optimism is proven foolish, I can handle that.
So here are three things making my recklessly optimistic:
The social media discourse. Again, this is not to discount the tragic videos I am also seeing on social media, but regarding the protests themselves, I am seeing a ton of rhetoric aimed at deescalating the protest narrative. I am going purely off vibes here, but I feel like a lot of IG story time is being spent reminding and documenting that L.A. is not a war-torn riot zone, and that the protests are overwhelmingly peaceful and just in service of protecting neighbors. I believe that, in the long run, this will make a difference.
The fact that L.A. Public Libraries are sharing Know Your Rights information. This is more of an all-the-time thing, but one can never appreciate too often that libraries exist. It sounds utopian. It is utopian. Libraries are not the hero we deserve, but they are the hero we need. And even at a time that can feel this polarized, they’re on the good side.
Old dude on the motorized skateboard. On Friday, I was stuck at a red light a traffic-jammed Beverly Boulevard. While the light was red, two people entered the crosswalk: a very cool old guy on a motorized skateboard, and an only slightly older woman with a walker. The man zipped across, but when he saw that the light was turning green and the woman was only halfway, he darted back to essentially direct traffic and make sure that none of the cars would go while she was still making her way across. He did it was a smile to both her and the cars that he was intentionally stopping. Nobody honked. Everybody worked together and was good. Now to be clear, I don’t think any of us drivers would have hit this woman with our car. But I’m sure, had he not been there, she would have been concerned. Whether or not she needed to be protected, he knew that she would benefit from knowing she was protected. And that was a beautiful thing to witness.
These three things: a bunch of social media addicts gently, but firmly making sure a narrative stays grounded in reality; a local institution publicly providing aid; one person going out of their way to make sure a stranger feels safe. They are not going to solve it all. Many bad things will still happen. But I believe they are reason to be optimistic, even if it is a little reckless.
Recommendations!
Yussef Dayes in Japan. YouTube Long Watch. I had never heard of British jazz drummer Yussef Dayes before stumbling upon this 45-minute concert doc due to an errant YouTube search. If you’re somebody who likes to have something soothing on in the background while working, you cannot go wrong with this. Half-outdoor Tiny Desk-style concert in front of Mount Fuji, half-No Reservations-esque music travel documentary; this is cool as hell.
Nocturnal Creatures. Short Story. Saïd Sayrafiezadeh is quickly becoming one of my favorite short fiction writers. A little while back, I read his New Yorker story Minimum Payment Due, based on the title alone (this is how I decide whether to read most short stories—I think it is marginally different from judging a book by its cover, but not by much). I was very into the almost romantic prose about a guy dealing with collections phone calls. Creatures is more of what Sayrafiezadeh is great at—portraying the life of somewhat grinding out a living as weirdly cool and kind of sexy. It is an exterminator love story. I should have just said that, huh?
The Protocol. Podcast. I binged this six-part New York Times podcast about the history of medical treatment for transgender young people over a couple bouts of cooking and cleaning this weekend. I learned a lot of context for a lot of debates I’ve heard and think it’s a worthwhile listen for anyone who ever wants to argue about or care about transgender young people.
The Residence. Television Show. I recommended this before, but I finished it today. It’s simple, funny, fun, and optimistic. Would love a season 2.
QUESTION! Question. This is not a recommendation, but since I know most Sternal Journalists are a bunch of pop culture sleuths, I had to toss this to you: a very inner circle Sternal Journalist had one of those tip-of-the-brain references that they cannot remember the source of. DO YOU KNOW a film or television show from the aughts or earlier that included a comedy trope of a hospitality worker being extremely unhelpful, and then when the protagonist asks to speak to a higher-up staff member, said unhelpful person simply switches a name tag or nameplate and voila lol it turns out, it turns out the unhelpful person has that job as well. Possible culprits include Monty Python, Fawlty Towers, EuroTrip, Friends, Home Improvement, Will & Grace. Sternal Journalists, do your stuff!
Alrighty folks, that’s all for this week!
Much love!
Julian!
P.S. Unrelated to all of this, I have been having to get off the 101 at Highland a lot recently and cannot stop wondering if the marketing teams for Megan 2.0 and Ballerina are embarrassed and upset that they put billboards with identical color schemes right next to each other. I guess if any of you work in marketing at Lionsgate or Universal, this is another pop culture mystery that you can solve.
