Favorite Things This Week 4/23 - Excess

I have an unhealthy obsession with jeans. I have more pairs than days in the week and for some reason, I am unable to resist buying new pairs. Jeans are a weird clothing item to covet, because most people go through life only owning and wearing a few pairs at a time. They’re durable, functional, flexible, and for the large part, pretty interchangeable. And yet I keep collecting new pairs as if I’m preparing for Canadian Tuxedo’s to come back in style. 

It's probably not a great use of resources or closet space, but when I think about it, everyone has one thing they purchase or own or collect in excess. Sneakerhead culture is flourishing right now, as is skincare addiction, that urges Tim Chalamet-aspirants to line their bathroom cupboards with hyaluronic acids. These collections don't stem from necessity; they stem from compulsion. There isn't really anything telling us to furiously accumulate these goods other than persuasive marketing and the addictive force of dopamine spurts. While there is a small sector of minimalism-enthusiasts preaching in one corner of the Internet, the excess and status-symbols of the pre-recession bubble have largely returned. Excess appears to be more than a personal defect but a structural necessity driven both biologically and culturally.

This week, I focused on structural and institutional norms that have allowed for rampant excesses of power, money, content, goods, and behaviors. It seems fitting that in the days where Kanye West proved too much of a good thing is dangerous that our gluttony and overindulgence should be put into the spotlight and our attention turned to how we've let our institutions overextend and feed our need for more.

Netflix and Shill [The Ringer] - Netflix's global domination is beyond a question of a doubt, so we're left to wrangle with what the output is and what that means for the larger movie watching culture. Sean Fennessey has previously asked what the first great Netflix movie will look like, but he changes his tune to ask does that even matter anymore. With the ability to buy up projects they find appealing and act as a safety valve for studios that deem a project to risky, Netflix has accumulated a wealth of content that blurs the lines between entertainment and space-fillers. As Fennessey notes of one particular film, Kodachrome, it "is emblematic of the morass of Netflix movie offerings. Neither comedy nor drama, neither special nor terrible, neither quotable nor truly forgettable, it is the embodiment of so much we consume in 2018; it’s just sort of … there. In theory, this makes for a convenient experience and a low-stakes bet. There’s no $17 ticket, no $6 popcorn, no parking structure, no babysitter, no emotional gamble, no accessibility issues at all." 

Cupholders are Everywhere [The Atlantic] - Having worked on automotive marketing, I have some experience looking at consumers datasets in order to better understand what features influence a shoppers decision. Apparently, that now includes cupholders. This trend may seem frivolous, but the added amenities of a car's interior become all the more important as self-driving cars become more accessible and we start to consider automotives as a leisure space instead of just a transportation conduit.

Avicii and EDM's Promise of Post-Recession Excess [Vulture] - Art, and particularly music, is an instructive bellwether of our times. Music encapsulates the relative mood of an era by combining so many sensorial elements and establishing a collective mantra for a generation. EDM music's epic synth stabs and vapid, temporal lyrics hint at the release felt by millions of Recession-affected youths, looking to grasp onto one moment of free expression of drug-induced euphoria. No one captured this excess better than Avicii, who soundtracked so many nights in the early 2010s. His death last Friday spoke volumes about the time in which he was relevant, where people struggled with their lack of opportunity, and how far we've come and changed since then.

The Hardest Job in the World [The Atlantic] - Donald Trump is woefully incompetent, but John Dickerson's article gives some context to that incompetence. The presidency is hard, which is not groundbreaking, but delves into some of the historical decisions that have gotten us to this point and underscores where the presidency gained too much power. Beyond the exorbitant responsibility placed on the shoulders of the Commander in Chief, the press, the public, and the Congress have come to expect different things from the President, all of which even the most gifted and skilled politician comes at woefully unprepared. These changes wouldn't save an morally bankrupt administration like the one we have, but it may represent a roadmap for future presidents to succeed.

Not Necessarily Thor: One Mets Ace Is Not Like the Other [The New York Times] - So much is made of preparation and routine in sports these days. Advances in medicine, dieting, and physical conditioning has allowed for athletes to play longer, perform better, and generally dazzle the viewing public in ways previously unimaginable. With all the added attention paid to the pre- and post- game schedules of these athletes, it's sometimes comforting to see a player succeed by eschewing the norms. Jacob DeGrom of the New York Mets made to the Majors, and is now thriving, on a diet of too much McDonald's. Everyone has to have their own routine, and DeGrom is definitely proving it on his own terms.

Song of the Week - "All Wordz Are Made Up" by The Voidz - Julian Casablancas is a king of excess. Too many feelings. Too many drinks. Too many nights out. If Avicii is the sound of the post-recession struggle, Casablancas and his seminal band, The Strokes, represents the glory and debauchery of the pre-recession party scene in New York. Though he's struggled to recapture the sound that propelled him to the top, he has remained relevant through weird interviews, weird collaborations, and weird side projects. The Voidz are one of the latter, and "All the Wordz Are Made Up" is a boisterous, dissonant, clanging melange of synths and modulated vocals that cranks up all the braggadocio that made The Strokes so important.