Block
Friday April 4, 2025
It’s hard to claim writer’s block when you’re pumping out tens of thousands of words each week, but it’s a funny feeling I get when I stare at this blank Substack page.
I’ve always envisioned memory like a very large pool being fed by an unnaturally large river. There just isn’t enough space for all that memory water coming in, so that new, cold water goes down to the bottom while the warm water that’s been in there longest keeps on rising to the top until it’s forced over the edge and out of recollection.
That’s a bit how this feels. I’ve put so many words to page, I don’t have any left to use when I look at this thing. I can’t switch to fun words, I only have serious words.
Yet again, I’ve taken this thing right up to the deadline, and it feels like work. That kinda sucks. Let’s get unclogging.
One Hollywood: What We Do In The Shadows, Hulu
This show’s a spin-off of the eponymous movie that put Taika Waititi on the map. Honestly, I thought the movie was dumb and Waititi and Jemaine Clement were annoying as hell in it. They’re both much better behind the camera and letting Matt Berry, Natasia Demetriou, and Kayvan Novak be the ancient vampires living in modern day Staten Island.
It’s been my lunch watch and I actually laugh out loud watching it, which is often the first noise I make of the day, startling Goose.
One Song: “Only Time” by Enya
This song and the Sarah McLachlan neglected animals theme song are a couple of the nastiest little ear worms you’ll ever meet. Maybe it’s in an ad or something but "whocansaywheretheroadgoooooes” has gotten stuck in my head like 15 times this week and I have no idea why. So now you have to deal with it.
One Book: “John Adams” by David McCullough
I’ve been reading this book for a fucking month and a half. It’s interesting, but at this point it’s really just a war of attrition. I’m 650 pages in and the Adams presidency just started. I have another 500 or so pages to go according to Kindle.
I didn’t know how impactful Adams was in Europe during the Revolution, serving as a lead diplomat in France, the Netherlands, and England during the war. You always hear about Ben Franklin doing work in France, but what’s often glossed over is that he was mostly getting wine drunk, spreading syphilis, and drinking from the teat of the aristocracy. He would have been guillotined in a heartbeat if he lived to the French Revolution.
Adams, though, is an often overlooked Founding Father, but he was pretty cool. Famously hated party politics, had to be physically restrained from fighting on the frontlines in Boston and New York, and flirted with poverty his entire life despite being a significant landowner because he refused to live in debt, unlike Thomas Jefferson who wracked up obscene amounts of debt during his life to nurture his vanity.
One Person: Valerie the Weiner Dog
Does this look like the face of a dog that survived 18 months in the Australian bush before making it home? Turns out, on a continent where virtually all of the flora and fauna can kill you, the most dangerous game of all was an 8-pound flesh slinky.
That’s a good place to stop. Have a great weekend everybody.