"That means that I am either a narcissist or its really good"
New (old) Julian Pod feature dropped!
Est. Read Time: 2 minutes (plus optional hour watch or listen!). Read Time brought to you once again by the Ashburton Energy + Hair Logistics Group, in association with the Bradley Hills Bureau of Corrections + Housing.
New to the SternJourn? You’re getting this email because you subscribed or asked me to add you! It’s a place where Julian (me) talks about comedy, writing, productivity, and whatever the hell else he wants. Check out the best of 2022, 2021, or 2020!
SHOWS:
The Hollywood Comedy. April 20th at 7:30pm.
Comedians from the Future. May 2nd, Near Me Comedy! (I got comps galore!)
Comedy Loft (DC). May 28th. featuring for the great Sam Salem.
Pizza Party @ The Crow. June 24th. Tickets to come! Westside, free parking!
Hellooo Sternal Journalists,
Due to a variety of foreseen and unforeseen circumstances (taxes, whoops!), it will be brief today. I will not yet get into the line by line study of just how amazing of a song Maino ft. T-Pain’s “All the Above” is as I promised last week. Excited to be back in a “breaking promises” era of the Sternal Journal. That means some absolute gold is around the corner.
However, I just discovered that a podcast I was on last year came out (also last year! I somehow missed it).
The show, Sam Taha’s Conundrum, is a comedian chat show but with an angle on anxiety and specifically OCD. The host is the very funny Sam Taha, who also has OCD, and is a GREAT interviewer. We get into the nitty gritty of various rituals and conundrums (drinking, checking locks, two years of panic attacks before flying), and also how I’ve more recently found quite a bit of zen I don’t know if I ever thought I’d achieve.
It is to date probably my favorite and/or the most thoughtful conversation I’ve had about anxiety on a mic. I re-listened all the way through and that means that I am either a narcissist or its really good.
You can listen here:
or watch here:
Alright, that’s all. If you’re soooo pissed I didn’t write something amazing this week, there is at least one great article below in the recommendations, I promise!
Recommendations!
Monkey Man. Film. I saw this with Slumberfest Chris and I liked it more than he did, but we both thought it was a fun romp. Definitely leans into the John Wick-iness and was interesting to read after about the irl Indian politics being heavily alluded to. Also the first half hour captures the chaos of starting a job in the service industry better than any movie I’ve seen. DISCLOSURE: I had a movie pour of Josh Cabernet from the Grove AMC McGuffin’s bar, so take this with a grain of salt.
Park Chan-wook Gets the Picture He Wants. Article. I read half of this morning while solo dining at Canter’s, the historic Jewish deli in my neighborhood. It’s Jia Tolentino in the field casually deploying the word “avuncular” and juxtaposing the very serious work of Park (Oldboy, lots of other stuff I haven’t seen) directing a serious and complex drama about loyalty and the cost of war with the various snacks being munched on by members of production. She is one of the greats and I’m excited to finish it.
Do Political Yard Signs Actually Do Anything? Podcast ep. Here I am recommending Search Engine again, but this episode provides a clear answer to one of those questions that I think we all let sit in the back of our mind, cumulatively wasting months of our lives over time. For that alone, I believe it is worth a listen.
“Ghana Must Go: A Bag with Baggage.” Article. This article by one of the other great podcasters of our time, Avery Trufelman, is about an item that falls into the category of “I never knew I wondered about that ubiquitous thing, but now that it’s been brought to my attention, I am astounded by the story and general wildness!”
Much love! Thank you for reading!
Julian
Normally, I use this area to say that you can upgrade to paid if you’re rich. I hugely appreciate those of you who have, but nobody should ever feel pressured to! AAAAALSO though, if you’re the type to hit a like or leave a comment and you just haven’t thought of doing it on the SternJourn yet, come on in! Lemme know if you listen to the pod or hate the recs! All engagement unfortunately is good engagement. But if you do not have time, get outta here and don’t worry about it! I’ll see ya next week!