Welcome to Hella Immaculate, I love you.
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This week on my podcast, I talked to Edgar Blackmon, the funniest part of that show “Alone Together” and the writer of one of the best live sketches I’ve ever seen. In the clip above—a bonus from the extended episode—Edgar shakes me back to the reality that just because Drake meant a lot to me in my 20s doesn’t mean he has to be my #1 forever.
I mean, duh. I don’t know why Permanent Favorite Taste exists as an ideal in my mind.
Maybe it’s an addict-y sort of extremism: I need a definite, concrete solution to life. I need it right now, and I need it to last forever. Why not transfer that desperation to art?
Looking back, though, it’s fun to see goofy tastes I thought were The Answer to Everything Forever.
Some highlights:
3rd Wave Christian Ska
Entry: 8th grade
Exit: Not fully out of my system ‘til junior year of high school. Okay, senior year.
The Damage: listening to bands like the Insyderz, O.C. Supertones, Squad Five-O, and Five Iron Frenzy; starting a band, naming it Chozen, and not holding a single practice
Death Cab for Cutie
Entry: 11th grade
Exit: Junior year of college
The Damage: thinking it a pinnacle of literary achievement that Ben Gibbard wrote lyrics in complete sentences; romanticizing my breakup from my H.S. girlfriend
Chipotle
Entry: Junior/senior year of high school
Exit: Never fully left, but cooled to “just another place to get lunch” in the past few years (I’m 36)
The Damage: starting a “Chipotle Is the Shit” Facebook group in college; the closest I’ve come to making a food thing my personality; using it as a location for MULTIPLE first dates in my 20s
My Morning Jacket
Entry: Sophomore year of college (2003)
Exit: Still bangs but dormant since 2009
The Damage: not too bad actually; starting a roots rock phase that led me to The Band; subjecting current best friend/former girlfriend to them to the point where when I played the new album (Z) in my car for her years after we dated and asked her how she liked it, she said, “I need to admit something. I never liked My Morning Jacket that much.”
Drake
Entry: 2009
Exit: Strong singles from the past few years kept my superfandom on life support up until its last big gasp, “Nonstop” in 2018
The Damage: quoting lyrics in the only breakup I’ve had based on a betrayal (“I need someone I leave through the front door with/ ‘Cause we don’t wanna hide no more”); terrorizing the streets of Chicago scream-alonging lyrics on bike rides; imagining shitty hookups in my 20s were part of a glamorous lifestyle
Pete Holmes
Entry: 2011
Exit: 2014
The Damage: the reason I started standup; the depth of my then-fandom being my now-greatest taste-related embarrassment; establishing an artist archetype I’m terrified of becoming (un-self-aware narcissist not smart or curious enough to speak on the spiritual subjects he chatters about endlessly to avoid sitting with his own fear, discomfort, and dissatisfaction); hate-watching the entire first season of “Crashing” (could make a podcast with a You Made It Weird number of episodes about the ways that show was false and disgusting)
I don’t know what my current version of this is. I do think I’ve tended to pick up longer lasting tastes as I age. But a spotless taste resume is no fun. I hope I always retain the ability to go gaga over some straight-up Supertones-level garbage.
THIS IS MY PODCAST, THIS IS YOUR AFTERLIFE
My guest: Comedian/actor Edgar Blackmon, whose IMDB looks like this (I had to have Popstar in this screenshot):
We covered: reincarnation onto other planets as remedial as Earth, hell as a birthday party filled with haters, almost giving up on his L.A. dream, a utopia of a Beyonce/Jay-Z concert at Soldier Field
Extended version on Patreon: “Space Gardening with Edgar Blackmon”
THEY’RE JUST, LIKE, MY SUGGESTIONS, MAN
Find a vaccine appointment if you’re eligible in Illinois by checking out this giant COVID-19 Vaccine Signup Info spreadsheet. I started refreshing websites in earnest this week with the spreadsheet’s guidance on places and times to check.
Even more helpful? The Vaccine Volunteers IL and Chicago Vaccine Angels orgs who went searching on my behalf. The Angels even found me a next-day appointment! I couldn’t get to the Chicago suburbs for it, but THEN I found an accessible appointment AND was able to pass on my original one in the Chicago Vaccine Hunters Facebook group (the only good use I’ve found for FB in… 3 years? 5? ever?). I hope any of these resources help you! And non-Chicago/Illinois folks, I’m sorry they’re so local.
Read this story about Adam Toledo, the 13-year-old boy Chicago police killed this week. You probably know I’m for abolition of the police and prison industrial complex. If you are too and wanna talk about how we can learn/do more, let’s talk. If you aren’t, let’s definitely talk. I’m not trying to be a dickhead to anybody. I just feel like I’ve had my eyes opened this past year, and I’d love to continue learning and sharing what I’ve learned.
Donate to Morris Home in Philly, “the only residential recovery program in the country to offer comprehensive services specifically for the transgender community.”
I donated $15. Go to this page, click the button to “Choose a program for your donation,” and select just “Morris Home” from the drop-down menu (it’s long with a couple fake-outs, but the main “Morris Home” option is near the middle-bottom of the menu). Reply with what you donate, and I’ll report our total next week.
Celebrate! Last week, we donated $10 to Red Canary Song to support Asian sex workers in the wake of the Atlanta shooting.
Got a response to something here? Reply or comment, and I’ll hit you back.
MAY I PLAY YOU A SOUND?
This is not the Drake diss Edgar and I discuss in the clip above. It’s an even better Pusha T song.
People freaked out over his last album, Daytona. At 7 songs, it was all-killer-no-filler. It was the best of that summer 2018 slate of Kanye-produced albums.
But I never fully cracked it to reveal all its wonders.
I took another stab last week on a rainy walk to pick up hummus and baklava, and man, it opened right up for me with “If You Know You Know.” When Pusha T is on, it’s like watching a basketball highlight reel. Here, he starts that way before you’ve even got your second earbud in.
Best line:
A rapper turned trapper can't morph into us
But a trapper turned rapper can morph into Puff
I wish I could say I felt that from experience as a trapper/rapper, but I’ll settle for vicarious thrills.
“In my 20s” is not an excuse,
DM
that's art, fam